Song of Solomon

Verse one, the Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Because of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is his ointment poured forth.

Therefore do the virgins love thee. Draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into his chambers, we will be glad and rejoice in thee.

We will remember thy love more than wine, the upright love thee. Verse seven, tell me, O thou whom I so loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon? For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. Verse by Cnard, sendeth forth the smell thereof.

Now chapter two, verse one. I am the rose of Sharon, that is the autumn crocus, the lily of the valley. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.

As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

Verse eight, the voice of my beloved behold it cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved is like a roe or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our wall.

He looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear in the earth, and the time of the singing of birds is come.

Now look over again, please, to chapter four. Verse twelve, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Verse sixteen, awake, O north wind, and come thou south.

Blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. Now over again to chapter seven, and verse ten.

I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me. Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field. Let us lodge in the villages.

Verse five of chapter eight, for a final reading. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? And the Lord will add his blessing, we know. This lovely book, the song the Kings tell us, this is the only one that we have left on record for us.

Those who know suggest to us that he wrote the Song of Solomon when he was a young man, as he made a little progress in Christian experience. In middle age he wrote the Ecclesiastes, where we learn the reasonings of man under the sun, how man looks at things. And when he sums it all up, he says, all is vanity, and vexation of spirit.

That's what my brother's been trying to tell us. There's nothing else matters but living for God. This book that gives us to the book of Proverbs, he wrote when he was quite an old man, he had learned much.

And as you go through the book of Proverbs, you get definite instruction for every circumstance, the individual, problems that rise, and who doesn't have them. You read carefully through the Proverbs. Our brother mentioned the other day about going to some of these godless people around us for counsel.

Brethren, it's all here. God's book has the answer to every circumstance in life. And you may have lifted some commentaries that would suggest something about a third party in this book, but I like to look at it very, very simply as a beautiful illustration of a spiritual relationship between our Lord Jesus and his bride, of which you and I form a part.

You see, all that claim to be translations of this book are not translations. Be careful of them, by the way. You test them.

There's much published in our day that will not stand the test of the word of God. But as I look at the song, I see something of an advancement, progress in Christian experience. And if I can get this little thought over to your heart today, friend, as we come to the end of our conference sessions, that God is looking for some progress in my life and in your life.

You know the tragedy? Believers that are interested in making spiritual progress are in the minority. Now that's a sad, sad situation. Because, you see, he begins by saying this, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, thy love is better than wine.

That is, there's no love that's beyond the love of Christ. In fact, the whole key of this book is verse 7 of chapter 8. Listen to those lovely words. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.

And God is trying to emphasize here the idea of nearness to the person of Christ. Tell me, dear brother, dear sister, are you enjoying that relationship of nearness to the blessed Christ that gave us all upon the cross in order that you might be saved? Or are you living a life that's marked by carelessness, just drifting with a vast throng, enjoying so much of this world, and there's only one little sphere, one little corner in your experience for this blessed man? Do you see the idea of nearness? Nearness is necessary for worship. It's absolutely impossible to worship our blessed Lord Jesus unless I'm enjoying him day by day.

You see, that's what Mr. Hunter so ably has presented to us, that the most important part of a believer's life is his private life, not his public life. Those times when we can just sit near and enjoy his presence, that's the secret of worship. I could take you to Numbers chapter 4, and God is telling us now, bring the tribe of Levi near.

You remember he, a way back in the book of Exodus, when God delivered them from the bondage of Egypt, God says, I want the firstborn. The firstborn is mine. Now God says, bring the tribe of Levi near.

Later he chose the family of Aaron. But you see, nearness to Christ is necessary for service. And oh, how many of us would have to acknowledge there have been times in our service when it's been just marked by flesh.

So much, that's what Mr. Oliver told us about. Perhaps our worst enemy of all, we hear the world, the flesh, the devil. I would say the flesh, the world, the devil.

Nearness. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. He says, thy love is better than wine.

Then he says, draw me. We will run after thee. You see, there's the possibility of so many influences.

Sometime I'm going to try and speak a little word on the barrenness of a busy life, based on these words, mine own vineyard. The end of verse 6, have I not kept. You see, we can get so busy, but God is trying to draw us close to himself that we may afresh grasp the glorious preciousness of that blessed one whom our souls adore.

He says, tell me, verse 8 now, tell me, O thou fairest among women, where the shepherd feeds the flock, the footsteps of the flock. Now very quickly, I want to show you what I would call bridal relationships in some of these verses. Verse 12 of chapter 1, he says, while the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

Oh, what a place of communion this is, sitting at his table, just like Mary, sitting at his feet. When's the last time you got alone with God, and shut the door? Oh, you say, you don't know how busy I am, and all the occupation that I'm involved with, and the many many diversified interests in my life. Oh dear brethren, we cannot survive spiritually without taking time to sit at his table, now I said take time.

You'll never find it. Times when I was away from home, and I would get home, and my wife would have a whole list of things needs to be done, and I would just love to at times get into the room and shut the door. Somebody said to me, you've got an empty nest now, you'll be suffering from the empty nest syndrome.

Oh no, really that's what we wanted at the start. But you see, God wants us to know something of spending time in his presence, just listening to his voice, hearing his word, communing with him. Sitting at his table, he says, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.

Look again in verse three of chapter two, he speaks about the rules of Sharon, the lily of the valley, and that blessed one replies, the bride says, as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. Tell me, what do you think of Christ today? Listen, unless you think more of him today than the day you were brought to know him as savior, there's something wrong, there's something wrong. He says, I sat down under his shadow with great delight.

Now it's not sitting at his table, but it's under his shadow. I see influence here. Remember Peter? Peter says, the Lord had called him, you know, and Peter says, I go fishing.

Nothing wrong with that. Ah, but Peter took his brethren with him. They're all so low, and they tore around like it's no wonder they caught nothing.

Now, I don't know what side of the ship they were fishing on, but when the Lord came to them, he said, put the net on the right side of the fish, of the ship. Whether it was the right or the left, I don't know, but it's the side where the fish were. And God blessed him when he was now in fellowship with God.

But you see, Peter's influence carried others with him. Do you know the power of influence is one of the most valuable? I was going to say things. It's not a thing.

It's one of the most powerful influences that you and I can have is to influence others. Peter carried his brethren away. You remember Abraham? He went down into Egypt and Lot went with him.

And while Abraham was recovered and was brought up out of Egypt again, poor Lot, think of the awful disaster in that man's life because of influence. Dear brethren, you and I are influencing others for good or otherwise. Yes.

The power of influence, sitting under his shadow with great delight. But you see, something has happened. In chapter 2, she says, the voice of my beloved, behold, he come of leaping upon the hills, the mountains, skipping upon the hills.

And now she says, he standeth behind the wall. That place of nearness, that relationship that she was so enjoying, something has come in between. And now there's a separation.

You know, when I was first saved, there wasn't a conference, but we heard something of separation. Separation from a godless world. Believers' baptism and separation.

You know, the word of God still speaks of separation from all that this world has to offer. It's culture. It's literature.

It's defiled. It's music. It's art.

God has called us apart from it all. And whatever happened here, there was a separation. But she's longing to hear his voice.

Listen to these words. Let me see thy countenance. Let me hear thy voice.

Oh, I wonder at this point in the conference, is there some believer? And could it be possible that you haven't heard the voice of God? I want to tell you, my heart has been touched by the ministry of my dear brethren. And I'm hoping there will be changes made in areas of my life. You say a preacher? Oh, yes.

You know, a gifted man that's out of touch with God is a dangerous man. God wants us to be drawn closer to himself. Let me hear thy countenance.

Let me hear thy voice. The little foxes, I don't know what they were. You know what they are in your life.

So many things that just take us away. They could be legitimate up to a point. It's like the late Mr. Douglas that I've heard my brethren quote.

Godly man that he was in Scotland. He had a greenhouse and he raised tomatoes, which you call them. And his neighbor wanted out of the business, he had one too.

And he wanted to sell them his. Mr. Douglas said to his neighbor, he said, I have a greenhouse and I have the tomatoes. But he says, if I bought yours, the tomatoes would have me.

You see, dear brethren, God doesn't want us to get our stakes down too deeply. He's calling us out of a Godless world. And our brethren have told us again and again that he's coming and we're going to leave it all behind.

When's the last time you sat down and wrote a letter to some dear brother laboring under difficult circumstances away in a dark corner of the world? Assembly is like a garden. If you saw my garden, it doesn't amount to much. Too many weeds.

I haven't time to touch it. But you see, a garden should be protected. There should be a fence around it.

And that's what God's assembly needs. Men that have been raised up by God. Shepherds with a shepherd's heart.

They live for God and they live for the assembly. Divinely planted. He walks in the midst of it.

That assembly in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul was saying that we should build into it that which will stand the fire. Gold and silver and precious stones. For he says, every man's work shall be tried by fire.

Not of how much it is, but of what sort. You see, it's quality God's speaking about. Not quantity.

God's garden. A till field, he calls it. Oh, there's so much labor.

Out where I live, now the men are going nearly 24 hours a day on their big John Deere tractors or whatever else. I was a little plugged because a lot of our brethren work for John Deere. And the wife comes out with a little sandwich and a lunch and a cup of coffee and they'll nearly stay there 24 hours.

For several days. Labor! Oh, but when the fall of the year comes and they're bringing in the harvest, they forget all about the labor. And brethren, listen.

God's assembly is a place where there is labor put into it. But the day comes when God will reward. The crowning day is coming.