Song of Solomon, chapter 2. Song of Solomon, chapter 2. There's a statement here that's
repeated twice, and I'm taking the title for the message from
verse 10 and verse 13. Look at verse 10. My beloved
spake, and this is our beloved Savior. He speaks, and when He
speaks where the word of the King is, there's power. My beloved
Savior spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, talking about
the bride of Christ, the shepherd and the bride, the bridegroom
and the bride. Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away. Come away with me. Come away
with me to my house, to my place. And again, he says in the last
part of verse 13, arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. I love what he says in verse
16. We'll look at this next week. Someone said this is the happiest
verse in all the word. My beloved is mine, and I am
his. He feeds among the lilies. My
beloved is mine, and I am his. I'm his. I'm all his. Fake me,
I'm yours. So I'm going to use that for
a title. Rise up, my love, my fair one. and come away. This is the effectual, irresistible
call of God, isn't it? When he says, rise up, that's
what happens. You had the quickened who were
dead. When he says, rise up, my fair one, we are made beautiful
in his righteousness. And when he says, come away,
come away with me, we'll come. This is that sweet and precious
call of the gospel to the Lord's elect. It's a personal call. He knows his sheep by name, we
read a moment ago. It's a powerful call and most
effectual. When he calls, we answer. His
sheep will answer. His sheep hear his voice. They
love his voice. And the sheep do follow the good
shepherd who laid down his life for us. Now, you think of that. It's just an amazing, the amazing
love of God, that He would come to where we are, take our humanity
to Himself, take our sin upon Himself, bearing our sin in His
own body, and dying under the wrath and judgment of God for
us. That's love, isn't it? Love,
amazing love. By His grace, believers continue
in this love affair with the Lord Jesus Christ, we're never
weary of hearing about our beloved Lord, our beloved Savior, Redeemer. Being, as Paul says in Ephesians
1, we are accepted in the Beloved, the Beloved the Lord Jesus Christ.
I like what it says in Psalm of Solomon chapter 3 verse 4,
I found him whom my soul loveth and I held him and would not
let him go. I've got a death grip by faith
on the Lord Jesus Christ and will not let him go. Like Jacob
of old, you remember, wrestled, the angel of the Lord wrestled
with Jacob and Jacob wrestled. Jacob said, I will not let you
go until you bless me. The believer in Christ by God-given
faith has laid hold on the Lord Jesus Christ, laid hold of eternal
life. And the believer is determined
to continue in the faith, to die in the faith, loving the
Lord Jesus Christ, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ until he comes
back for us. You remember The Word of God
describes those believers in Hebrews chapter 11, these all
died in faith. Not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and
embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims
in this earth. Song of Solomon chapter 2, look
at verse 8. The voice of my beloved, the
voice of my beloved, it doesn't say period, exclamation
mark. You see that? I just now noticed
that. I've read this all day today.
First time I've seen it. The voice of my beloved, exclamation
mark. Boy, I want to hear the voice
of my beloved. How do we hear the voice of the beloved, our
beloved? Well, we hear his voice in the
word, don't we? Behold, he cometh, he cometh
leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, my beloved is
like the young deer, quickly, swiftly coming to our aid. Believers are eager, eager to
hear the voice of our beloved Lord, His word, His truth, His
gospel. I was reading one of the Psalms
the other day, it said, His word runneth swiftly. His word runneth
swiftly. we are told to be swift to hear
and slow to speak. The voice of my beloved, the church and believers, the
church of the firstborn and believers redeemed by the blood of Christ
readily recognize the voice of the Lord because he's given us
ears to hear. As he speaks to us through his
word, through the preaching of the gospel by the power of God
the Holy Spirit, We hear his voice, we hear his word, he's
tuned our ear, he's given us life, and therefore we do follow
him. We do follow the voice of our
good shepherd. Our good shepherd. We know the
voice of a stranger too. We won't follow a strange voice.
Those who say that salvation depends upon you, that's a strange
voice. We don't follow that. We follow
the voice of the good shepherd who says that salvation's of
the Lord. Says there, behold, he cometh, he cometh leaping upon a mountain, skipping upon
the hills. Again, this is symbolic language. He cometh leaping upon a mountain,
skipping upon the hills like a young deer swiftly and quickly
moving toward his love toward his church. Believers declare
to others to hear the voice of the Lord, but we can't make them
hear. We tell others to hear the voice of the Lord, but we
can't make them hear. Behold, we say the Lord is coming
back. Be ready to meet the Lord in
the hour you think not. The Son of Man cometh. The Lord
Himself shall descend from heaven, and He shall say, Arise, my love,
my fair one, and come away. And we'll be caught up to meet
the Lord, ever to be with the Lord. He said, Comfort one another
with these words. Old Testament saints look forward
to the first coming of the Lord. Simeon was in the temple waiting
for the consolation of the Lord. Remember Luke chapter 2, waiting
for the Messiah. And the Lord promised him that
he would not die until he'd seen the Lord's Christ. And when they
brought the 40-day-old baby there in the temple, when they brought
that babe to do after the custom of the law, Simeon picked up
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, looked in his face at that little
baby and said, Lord, I'm ready to die. My eyes have seen thy
salvation. That's when a person's ready
to die, when they've seen the Lord, when they've seen the Savior. who's altogether lovely. We know
Abraham rejoiced to see his day and was glad. Our Lord said,
had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for Moses wrote
about me. And then, in the fullness of
time, the Lord Jesus Christ did come. God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law. John identified him as, behold,
the Lamb of God. that takes away our sin. He took
our sins and our sorrows. He made them his very own. He
bore that burden to Calvary and suffered there alone, forsaken
of his disciples, forsaken of his apostles, and even forsaken
of God. Remember he said, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? made sin for us. God can't look
upon sin. The Lord Jesus came as our substitute. He came cheerfully, with great
delight, to sacrifice himself for us. It says there in John
10, what we read a moment ago, our Lord said, no man takes my
life from me. Remember? I have power to lay
it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received in my father. The Lord Jesus
Christ willingly, voluntarily laid down his life for us, became
obedient unto death, even the depth of the cross. He appeared
once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice,
not of blood of bulls and goats, by the sacrifice of himself.
And He came to take our sin away because He loved us. He loved
us and washed us from our sin in His own blood. He came with
great speed, as it says in verse 9, like a young deer, just running
and leaping and quickly and swiftly, leaping over mountains of difficulty
that stood in the way of our salvation. What were the mountains
of difficulty that stood in the way of our salvation? How about
the mountain of sin? Sin, very hard to put away. The
blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin. The Lord Jesus
Christ took away that mountain of sin, made atonement for that
mountain of sin. Leaping over the mountains of
difficulty that stood in the way of our salvation. Sin, how
about the broken law of God? had to be honored, had to be
satisfied. Well, He's redeemed us from the curse of the law
being made a curse for us. God defended justice had to be
satisfied in every precept and every penalty. The Lord Jesus
Christ did that for us. Didn't He magnify the law of
God and made it honorable? Isaiah 42, that He might be a
just God and Savior. Isaiah 45, that He might be just
and the justifier of them which believe in Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ coming, leaping, skipping over the hills and mountains
of difficulty. And then he comes to his elect. Nothing could prevent him from
coming to ransom his bride to accomplish her deliverance. And
then he comes to his elect personally. He comes with great power. He
comes with great compassion. He comes with so great salvation. When the elect of God hear the
word of God, when it's blessed of God, we hear it not as it
is the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God that
effectively works in God's people. We hear the word, not in word
only, but in power, don't we? Power of God, the Holy Spirit.
That's how God speaks to his word, through his word to his
people, from his word. Our Lord Jesus Christ overcomes
a mountain of sin in us, the hills of unbelief within us,
and causes us to love and trust and to submit to him. We only
love him because he first loved us. He overcame all our sin,
not only that mountain of sin that all of God's elect have
committed against Him, but He comes to us personally in that
personal mountain of sin, and He overcomes our unbelief. our rebellion, and he gives us
love to the Lord Jesus Christ. Behold, he cometh. He's on his
way. He's on his way. Remember Revelation
chapter 1. Behold, he cometh. He cometh.
He's coming back for us, isn't he? Look at verse 9, Song of
Solomon chapter 2 verse 9. My beloved is like this. What's
he like? Well, he's like this. He's like
this young deer that moves swiftly and quickly toward his elect,
toward his bride, toward his love. And behold, he standeth
behind our wall. Notice it's our wall. And he
looketh forth at the windows, showing himself or flourishing
himself through the lattice, through the lattice. Behold,
he standeth behind our wall. Our sin nature, our depraved
flesh, is like a thick wall of separation. Remember Isaiah 59,
it said, our sins have separated us from God, between you and
your God. But even that wall of sin doesn't
hinder the Lord from coming to us quickly and swiftly in mercy,
in grace, in love, in our time of need. When he comes to us,
it's a time of love that God has determined from all eternity
to cross our path with the gospel and quicken us with his word.
Thank God he does not leave us in despair and in doubt. When
we put up a wall of resistance, he breaks through. He breaks
down that wall, showing himself through the windows of his word
and through the lattice of his gospel. Showing himself, as a
marginal reading says, flourishing. Flourishing, he's the flourishing
savior. He's the flourishing redeemer.
You see that on the word showing himself? Flourishing, everything
he does, he causes it to flourish. Each glimpse we get of Christ
is heartwarming. Every slightest view of Christ
cheers the fainting heart. The smallest manifestation of
his grace causes us to rejoice in him. When He's gracious to
us, when He reveals Himself unto us, He's hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Remember those
two men that walked on the road to Emmaus, and the risen Lord
drew near to them, and after the Lord preached the gospel
to them, you remember what they said one to another? Didn't our
heart burn within us when the Lord opened the word of truth
unto us? And that's what happens when
the gospel is preached. But even in our views of Him
are but partial and imperfect. For now we see through a glass
dimly, darkly, don't we? But one day very soon we'll see
Him face to face. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face to see and know.
Remember from Revelation 22 this should be familiar to you. There
shall be no more sea, no more curse, no more death, no more
pain, no more sorrow. But the throne of the Lord God
and of the Lamb and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall
see His face, and His name shall be in their forehead." Face to
face with Christ my Savior. Face to face to see and know.
But now we see through a glass darkly, don't we? Apostle Paul
says that in 1 Corinthians 13. But then he says, Face to face,
now I know in part, but then shall I know even also as I am
known. Face to face with Christ my Savior,
to behold His lovely face. Boy, that'd be glory for me.
How about you? To see Him face to face. That's
what happens when we die, when a believer dies, to be absent
from the bodies, to be present with the Lord. Now look at verse
10. Psalm of Solomon chapter 2 verse
10, my beloved he spake and said, rise up my love, rise up my fair
one, rise up and come away, come away. He says that again down
here in the last part of verse 13, arise my love, my fair one,
and come away. Now, that's what happens when
he quickens us in regenerating grace. You have to quicken who
were dead. But also in that resurrection
morning, he's going to say the same thing. Arise, my love, my
fair one, and come away. We're going to have a new body
like unto his glorious body to enjoy him forever and ever and
ever. My beloved spake unto me, and
he said, this is that personal, powerful, irresistible call of
his grace in the gospel when he quickens us with the word
of truth, with that incorruptible seed of the word of truth being
begotten of God. What grace to us that the Lord
of glory would call us to himself in such a tender, merciful, loving
way. He says, everyone that's laboring
and heavy laden, come unto me. He says, I'll give you rest.
He calls us out of darkness into his marvelous light. My beloved
Savior, my beloved Redeemer, he says to his church, come here. Come here, rise up, my love,
my fair one, and come away. Christ's love for his church
is beyond what words can fully express. Aren't they his love
to us? How do you express that infinite,
eternal love to those who are so unlovely? I mean, Christ died
for the ungodly in due time when we were yet without strength.
Christ died for the ungodly. The Apostle Paul penned these
words by inspiration of God, that Christ might dwell in your
hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may
be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth,
the length, the depth, and height of his love, to know the love
of Christ with passive knowledge that you might be filled with
the fullness of God. That's tremendous, isn't it?
He loved the church and gave himself for it. Here in his love,
not that we love God, but he loved us. And he sent his son
to be the sacrifice for our sin. I don't care too much for that
song that they sing a lot of times, oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love him. Now, we do
love him. but not like we should. But I
do like that song that sings about how much He loves us. I
want to sing about how much He loves us. Here in His love, not
that we loved God, but that He loved us. And He gave Himself
for our sin. Notice carefully the description
the Lord gives of His church. My love, my fair one. Look right across the page in
chapter 4 verse 7. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in you, no sin,
no blemish. He presents us holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in his sight. We are perfect through his beauty,
through his righteousness. The Lord has the most tender
and affectionate regard for her, his bride, to show what confidence
we should, that should teach us what confidence we should
have in Him, for His love toward His elect never changes. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. And Paul, when he talks about
that love of God in Romans chapter 8, he describes and he mentions
a lot of things, height or depth or any other creature. can separate
us from the love of God which is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 11, 12, and
13. For lo, he said, the winter is
past. We're going through that right
now, aren't we? Naturally speaking, the winter's about gone, although
it's still hanging on, isn't it? Cold out there tonight. For lo, the winter is past. And
the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. Springtime's coming. The time
of singing of the birds. I walked out on the back porch
right before we came over this evening, and I could hear the
birds singing. I could hear the birds out there
singing. And they always do that in the spring, don't they? They're
glad to see the springtime come. And the voice of the turtle dove,
the turtle is the turtle dove, is heard in our land. And the
fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vine with the tender
grapes, the tender grape give a good smell. And then again
he says, arise my love, my fair one, come away. You see the picture
he paints there of the cold, hard, dark winter being passing
away, and the coming of the spring, and the budding of the flowers,
and the trees, and it's life coming forth. That's what happens
when God regenerates us and makes us new creatures in Christ. The
winter has passed, and life has come. Everything we see now,
flowers do bloom, the flowers of His grace. The time of singing,
we sing of his love to us. Before conversion, before regeneration,
it's all darkness, lifeless, cold, barren, fruitless, like
the cold, long, dreary winter nights. By nature, we're without
God, without Christ, and without hope. Only by the grace of God
is the winter past, and the rain and storm clouds are gone because
our sins have been put away and the Lord has made us new creatures
in Christ. He's imputed to us an everlasting
righteousness that he has established for us. Look at verse 12, the
flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing, we sing
unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins. We sing that
new song of redemption, how he washed us from our sin in his
own blood. The voice of a turtle dove is
heard in the land. In the salvation of a sinner,
God's grace causes life to bud forth like the spring season. Who but Christ can make spring
to bud forth as we see right now? How does that happen? It happens because God brings
it to pass. Flowers begin to bloom and the trees begin to
bud. We see the flowers of His love. They send forth the sweet
fragrance of the salvation of the Lord. The time of the singing
of the birds, He puts a new song in our mouth. He even prays unto
our God. You remember Psalm 40, He brought
me up also out of a horrible pit. out of my reclay. He set my feet upon a rock. He
established my goings. He put a new song in my mouth,
even praising to our God. Many shall see it in fear and
shall trust in the Lord. He tunes us up. He makes us new
creatures in Christ. The voice of a turtle dove is
heard in the land. The dove or the turtle dove or
the dove is a symbol, an emblem of what? God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit
convicts us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, what
we are, of righteousness, what we need, of judgment, what we
deserve, and what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. The dove,
the bird, the dove has a unique sound unlike any other bird. Do you know of another bird that
sounds like a dove? when that dove is mourning, mourning.
They have a distinct sound, don't they? The gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ has a distinct, unique sound. His sheep hear
it. He's tuned our ears to hear that. We hear the sound of His glory
alone, His blood alone, His grace alone that redeems us. You know the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He
became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich.
The flowers appear in the earth, verse 12, the flower of his grace. The singing of the gospel, he's
tuned our heart to sing his praises and the Holy Spirit has revealed
the Lord Jesus Christ unto us. In closing, verse 13, the fig
tree puts forth her green figs. In the springtime, when God causes
the tree to bloom and to set on fruit, and the vines with
the tender grapes give a good smell, a good smell, and then
he says, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Believers
are called, remember from Isaiah 63, believers are called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, The fig tree put
forth the green figs. This is not like the fig leaf
of Adam's hiding in the garden. It's the green fig of his sovereign
grace, the fruit of his salvation. It is God which worketh in you
both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He causes that
fruit of his spirit to bloom in our heart the spirit of love,
joy, peace, and long-suffering. The vine with tender grapes give
a good smell. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the true vine. We are the branches. Without
Him, we can do nothing. That fig tree and the figs are
not going to put out any fruit in and of itself. It has to be
vitally connected to the tree, the vine. And that's what believers
are vitally joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only as we're
vitally connected to the true vine do we have capacity to bear
the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, and peace. That
is what is satisfying unto God. It's the fruit of His Spirit.
What is the fruit of our sin? It's nothing but stink. Nothing
but stink. But the fruit of his grace is
a sweet smell, even unto God. It's a sweet-smelling savor unto
God. Without Christ, we are cloud
without water, trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots. You remember from Jude chapter 1? I had to look that
up. Twice dead, plucked up by the roots. The book of Jude,
chapter one, verse 12. You see, without Christ, it's
impossible to please God. We must have the Lord Jesus Christ. Without him, no salvation. Without faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, it's impossible to please God. And then the Lord says again
to us, just in case you missed it, He says again, arise my love. This is the voice of the bridegroom
saying to the bride, my love, my fair one, come with me. Come with me. Come home with
me. What a blessing to meditate upon the Lord has chosen us unto
salvation from the beginning. He took upon Himself our humanity. died under the judgment of our
sin to redeem us. He suffered the just for the
unjust that he might bring us unto God. You remember we studied
in Hebrews 2.9 about the captain of our salvation is doing what?
Bringing many sons unto glory. He calls us out of darkness into
his marvelous light. He commands the light to shine.
And then he makes us new creatures in Christ. The voice of my beloved, behold,
he cometh. Come, Lord Jesus. Come, Lord
Jesus.