The Song of Solomon is an allegory.
It's about the love that Jesus Christ has
for His bride, His church.
That's us.
There are some today who claim
it's nothing more than a love
a man has for a woman,
but as Spurgeon and Robert Murray McCheyne argued,
those guys are not even saved.
You know, this has become so beautiful.
In chapter 2 verse 2,
this is how God sees you, believer.
"As the lily among thorns,
so is my love among the daughters."
As one beautiful lily among thorns,
that is how Jesus looks at you.
That is how God looks at the person
who trusts in His Son.
And then in verse 3,
"As the apple tree
among the trees of the wood,
so is my beloved among the sons.
I sat down under his shadow,
and with great delight
and his fruit was sweet to my taste."
The picture here
is you're walking through the woods
on a hot day.
It's sweaty, it's not a fine climate,
it's stuffy.
And you walk under a tree,
and you get that refreshing shade.
That is what it is like when you come
into Jesus Christ.
When you stop working;
when you come under His tree
of His salvation; the shade of Christ
and His finished work on that cross.
And we can taste His fruit.
We can eat of Christ and know Him.
But let me ask you this.
You see, I can show you
a photograph of an apple tree
on a hot day.
You're walking through the woods.
You're so hot and sweaty.
You're really burdened.
And I can say,
hey, look at this photograph
of this apple tree over there
with all the shade.
That's no good.
It's not going to shade you,
just showing you a picture of it.
It's no good just hearing these truths.
And I could say,
look at that tree over there
from a distance.
Look at the shade under there.
It's no use me telling you these things
if you do not go and sit under its shade.
And taste of its fruit.
It's no use you hearing these truths
time and time again,
precept upon precept,
line upon line,
if you don't go to Christ.
You always stand back.
You must feed upon Him.
Now, if we go on.
Verse 4
"He brought me to the banqueting house,
and His banner over me was love."
I mean look at this.
Jesus Christ brings us to Him.
To eat with us, to dine with us,
to know Him.
And His banner over us is love.
His desire is towards me, it says,
in this book.
All Christ's thoughts towards you, the believer,
are good.
Everything He puts in your life
is because He loves you.
The other week when I was at
Brother Leiter's church,
I nearly preached on this text.
"He brought me to the banqueting house
and His banner over me was love."
And I just stood there for half an hour
or forty minutes,
and all I could say was,
He brought me to His banqueting house,
and His banner over me was love.
And I decided not to preach the sermon on it
in the end, because
the whole sermon, I'd have
probably just repeated it.
You know, He brought me to His
banqueting house,
and His banner over me was love.
He brought me to His banqueting house,
and His banner over me was love.
And then verse 8, look at this,
this is one of my favorite texts
in all the Bible.
"The voice of my beloved,
behold."
When the Bible says "behold,"
it's wise to underline that truth.
What is the Holy Spirit
through the inspired spokesman here showing you?
He's saying hold on to this.
Hold on to this with your
eyes and mind and your heart.
Make sure you see this.
"The voice of my beloved,
behold, he cometh leaping
upon the mountains,
skipping upon the hills."
If you're lost today,
you want to come to Christ?
He's not there with arms folded,
waiting, with an angry look.
If you rise up to follow Him,
behold, He cometh leaping across
the mountains to you.
The idea is Christ running over the hills
skipping with His arms wide open to you.
If you're a believer struggling,
and you have a coldness now of Christ;
you've lost that freshness.
What do you normally try to do?
You try and work yourself back
into His presence, don't you?
Well, I must stay a little bit out of His favor
a bit longer because I've sinned.
So I don't deserve to be put
straight back into His presence.
Like you really deserve to be
in His presence in the first place,
based on your own efforts.
But this is what Christ says.
Behold, He comes running to us.
Leaping to us.
This is salvation.
Jesus told the parable of the prodigal son.
If you say I will arise,
I will go to my Father,
I will be as one of the hired servants.
Again, God doesn't stand there.
It says when he saw him a great way off,
he ran to him.
That is what He does to you.
It says in Isaiah,
as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
How much does Jesus Christ long
for the day, believer,
when you will be with Him?
As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride...
The picture there is the bridegroom
is waiting for the wedding.
He longs for that day when his bride
will be truly his and they will have that first kiss.
And belong.
When God thinks of the day
that you will come to Him,
that is how He thinks, believer.
That is how much He loves you
and desires You to come to Him.
And then verse 10,
"My beloved spake and said unto me,
'rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away.'"
I think it says, "my darling,"
in the New American Standard.
This is how intimate Jesus loves you.
One of the signs of conversion is praying.
Not just corporate prayer,
but wanting to be alone with God.
And look how much Jesus Christ
longs for you to be alone with Him.
He says, 'rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away.'
Come to Me. Come to Me.
Come away with Me.
And look, verse 11,
"For lo, the winter is past
and the rain is over and gone,
the flowers appear on the earth,
and the time of singing,
the birds come."
The picture here is that life has come.
And you know that.
You know when you have your dry seasons,
you go to Christ,
and what happens?
You are flooded with life.
He that believeth on Me,
out of his heart will flow trickles
of living water.
That's not what it says is it?
Will flow rivers of living water.
We go over to chapter 4:7.
"Thou art all fair, my love,
there is no spot in thee."
Christ sees you, believer, as perfect.
If you're lost this morning,
do you not long for God to see you as this?
Well, you must come to Christ.
From the moment you do,
this is how God will see you.
There is no spot in you.
Perfect.
Verse 9
"Thou has ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse."
I think in the New American Standard
it says "my heart beats faster."
"Thou has ravished my heart
with one of thine eyes.
With one look of thine eyes.
With one chain of thy neck."
When you pray to God,
when you spend time alone with God,
the heart of God beats faster.
You ravish His heart.
You know, when I first got saved,
I heard a song with this.
Using this verse,
"Thou has ravished my heart."
And I used to get it the wrong way around.
I used to think this was us speaking to God.
Because I used to think,
well, surely God can't love us this much.
As if we could love God more
than He loves us.
Some of these texts here are
just unbelievable.
I mean, it says, in Zephaniah 3:17.
In fact, quickly turn there,
and we'll finish up.
I want you to see it in the text
in case anyone hasn't.
Ok, Zephaniah 3:17 says,
"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty.
He will save."
Notice that.
"He will rejoice over thee with joy."
He's talking about you, believer.
God will rejoice over you with joy.
"He will rest in His love..."
and look at this,
unbelievable.
"He will joy over thee with singing."
Did you know God sings about you?
I read this text - the first time I noticed that,
I read it several times
because again, I was thinking,
this is just too much.
This is too much. Surely.
You know like those times we
sing about God and we're lifted up.
We're just lifted up in praise to God,
and we rejoice as we're singing about Him.
That's how He sings about us.
Because He's not look at our righteousness.
You know, God's in heaven today.
This is what this text is saying.
And He's singing from heaven.
Brandon loves Me, this I know.
Laura loves Me, this I know.
James loves Me, this I know.
I can't put all your names in there.
But insert yourself if you're a believer.
For My Jesus tells Me so.
Little ones to Him belong.
They are weak, but I am strong.
In fact, just one more text,
and then we're done.
If we go to Genesis 2.
I want to just leave you with one last thought.
Basically all of the Scripture
is about the person of Jesus Christ.
These are they which speak of Me, He said.
It's all about Him.
Now, I did a full sermon on this chapter
at Kirksville last week.
You can pick it up on the Internet.
You see the Sabbath here.
What's that a picture of?
It's a picture of the rest of salvation
in Jesus Christ.
And there's one after another.
The water in the ground here
is a picture of Jesus watering our hearts.
And of course, verse 18,
"And the Lord God said,
'it is not good that man should be alone.'"
What's that a picture of?
Ultimately, the second Man.
Jesus Christ on the cross.
He has been in the bosom of God the Father
for all eternity.
It is not good that He be alone.
But look at this.
Verse 22.
"And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from the man
made He a woman,
and brought her unto the man."
Now, notice, all that the Father giveth Me,
will come to Me.
God brings the woman to the man.
What's this a picture of?
Ultimately, the second Adam, Jesus Christ
and His bride is the woman, which is us.
"And Adam said, 'this is now bone of my bone
and flesh of my flesh.
She shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man.'"
Again, this ultimately is a picture of Christ.
It's all about Christ.
This is how God sees the believer.
He says this is now bone of My bone
and flesh of My flesh.
You are of Me.
And look at this, verse 24.
"Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother
and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall become one flesh."
What's this a picture of?
God the Father
Jesus leaving the Father in Heaven.
Coming to His wife - that's us.
And He cleaves to us.
We become one flesh.
Some of you are thinking
you're allegorizing too much.
But let me show you how Paul
interpreted this verse.
You don't have to turn there,
but I'll turn quickly to Ephesians 5:31-32.
Paul quotes it, he says,
"For this cause, shall a man leave
his father and mother,
and shall be joined unto his wife,
and they too shall become one flesh."
What's Paul's interpretation of this verse?
"This is a great mystery.
But I speak concerning Christ and the church."
It's all about Christ.
You see, so often in Genesis,
it's turned into so much of
a dispute over creation, evolution,
and things like that.
It's turned into an academic paper,
and we miss Christ in there.
Or there are many great sermons
preached on marriage from this verse,
and there's nothing wrong with that,
but Christ is what you must look for in Scripture.
Because, as the disciples were on the
Emmaus Road,
why did their hearts burn within them?
Because Christ was telling them
from the Scriptures, about
not eschatology or Calvinism,
good things,
but about Himself.
Now just this last verse in Genesis 2.
"And they were both naked,
the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed."
Now this verse meant nothing to me
for so long.
I didn't get it all.
"And they were both naked,
the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed."
What's this all about?
But you see, it was before I realized
everything is about Christ.
Who is the man here a picture of?
Christ.
Who's his wife here a picture of?
Us, the believers.
And they were both naked,
the man and his wife,
Christ and His bride,
and were not ashamed.
All my sin.
Every wicked thought I have ever had
is naked and open before God.
And He is not ashamed
to dwell with me?
And I am not ashamed to be with Him.
So, we'll close in prayer.
Father,
we thank You, Lord, for Your love.
Oh Lord, I pray You would take these words,
and use them, Lord, for Your saints.
Just to be elevated in the love of You.
For anyone struggling,
for anyone who does not know You, Lord,
I pray, Lord, they would see now,
behold, You cometh leaping across
the mountains.
They would see that You are
altogether lovely.
You have paid it all on that cross.
Oh, regenerate Your people
by Your Spirit.
You are in this place, Lord.
And I know it, Father.
I know it, Lord.
We pray, Lord,
that You would reveal Yourself
to people now.
You who is mighty to save,
as we just read there in Zephaniah,
Father,
we pray that You would save.
We praise You,
in Jesus' name,
Amen.