I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine (i) (Quality: Very good)

[0:00] As the Lord may help, I will direct your attention to the Song of Solomon, the sixth chapter, and the third verse. The Song of Solomon, chapter six, verse three.

[0:17] I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the lilies.

[0:30] I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the lilies.

[0:45] In these words, it would appear that the loveliness of Christ has reached its zenith in the view of the church.

[1:04] It is an occasion wherein much blessing is felt in the soul, and as that great blessing is felt in the soul, so a holy confidence has been engendered and is expressed in the words that we have before us at this time.

[1:29] I am my beloved's. If we look in the chapter that we, previous to the one here, and which we read, we shall find that this wonderful revelation and great endearment of Christ in the heart, the hope of glory is discovered after a sad lapse.

[2:04] The Lord had come into his garden, and he had extended that wonderful, welcoming word, and the Lord.

[2:21] I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly. O beloved. The deficiencies that were in the heart of the spouse is expressed just like this.

[2:39] I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.

[2:59] There are several points, as the Spirit of God may lead us today, that will draw our attention to the reasons why these words are included in the canon of Scripture.

[3:15] I am my beloved's. First of all, we refer to those words in the New Testament, which tell us we love him because he first loved us.

[3:38] And therefore, the deep exercise of love in the soul must necessarily come forth from the love of Christ to ourselves.

[3:53] The love of God and the love to God does not begin with us. It is not a question of any person suddenly finding a love well up to Christ.

[4:12] This is because it is not a natural love. If we only love Christ with a natural love, then we are bound to have many misconceptions in relation to him.

[4:30] We must, of necessity, bring him down to our level. And think about him on that level. And it is sad to say that many never rise above the level of their own imaginations.

[4:53] Natural love love is carnal even at its best state. But the love of God is spiritual and holy and glorious at all times.

[5:14] When we think, when we come to think upon the love of Christ Christ, that love for his people, it bears no change.

[5:26] It does not come under degrees that we may perhaps apply to a natural love.

[5:39] Cold and faint, warm and energetic, but always subject to variations in its intensity.

[5:52] But when we come to the love of Christ and the love whereby we are loved, if we are God's children, by Christ, it is always the same.

[6:07] It is not easy for us to receive it or to believe it. but it is true. The love of Christ is always the same.

[6:21] And in this fifth chapter that we read together with the sixth this morning, we can see that the love of Christ was not altered one iota.

[6:37] The church was sleeping. The blessing of God, the presence of God was evidenced and a mark was left that the Lord had been, the beloved had been.

[6:50] But there was a sleepiness upon the spirit. It did not alter the love of Christ to his church. It did not alter the love of Christ to Peter and James and John when in the garden of Gethsemane they were found sleeping when they should have been watching.

[7:20] Compassionate indeed are the words which the Lord spoke to them when he said the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.

[7:31] we shall not repose an excuse in this because it will be a great loss to us if we are God's children to may I say miss the opportunity of his visits and be sleepy too sleepy to take advantage of such favors but nevertheless the Lord knows that the Lord knows the fickleness of his children the powers that are against them the attractions that are presented to them and the temptations which continually abide them to draw them away not only from his love not only in respect to that which is inward but also that which is outward that which is outward and also that which is inward

[8:38] I believe we can say that if we feel our unworthiness and our sinfulness and our wretchedness we shall all the more feel the depth of these words I am my beloved it sets before us that we are of God no person that is not of God can rightly say I am my beloved beloveds there are those that use extravagant language that engage in a presumptuous speaking but let us not let these things prevent our making honest confessions according to what we feel

[9:39] I am my beloveds it is worth our while noticing that Christ that the powers of Christ speaks in the present tense we are dealing with God who is always always Emmanuel God with us now yesterday tomorrow always the same now sometimes God's children will look upon themselves and they will look over their past lives and they will think upon perhaps some of those things which at the time seemed to be so wonderful and so outstanding and so pleasant until the thought comes how much was there in those things that brought glory to

[11:01] God and when we consider such a point and we can see that generally speaking there was little glory if any glory to God brought about by those occasions it will be all the more wonderful that the Lord should love us still can we honestly say that we have been forward in promoting his glory glory to glory of God we may well have desired it the spirit indeed was willing but then again the flesh has been weak so that we have nothing to boast of to ask benign shame and confusion of faces and yet in spite of all this can we say this morning that the love of

[12:07] Christ is still the same I am my beloved this love of Christ to his church is an eternal love it did not begin in time it began before all worlds were formed and it is as we think upon these things and then think upon our own lives that we see the necessity of being loved with an everlasting love those well known words in Jeremiah are there for a purpose do we really value the depth of their meaning perhaps some might be satisfied to say that they were loved of Christ but the word of

[13:17] God speaks of an everlasting love and unless we mention the everlasting love of Christ as distinct from just the love of Christ are we professing by the omission that we are lacking in the depth of that love to us love of I am my beloved loved with an everlasting love the love that is everlasting is covenant love and that is why it is unalterable it is not a covenant made during time it is a covenant made with David's Lord before the sinner fell a covenant made by God the father with his beloved son and surely ratified by the eternal spirit by that the

[14:31] Lord Jesus Christ the bridegroom mentioned here in the text displays his foresight and his foreknowledge indeed this is so with respect to the father and the holy spirit also the persons that were to be loved were persons who were who had gone astray from the womb speaking lies were persons who when the fall came in would be utterly depraved now the more you feel your utter depravity the more you will prize the love of Christ and the more emphasis you will put on and the more confidence you will have and the more marvel will be upon your spirit as you join with the words here

[15:41] I am my beloved Medley says he saw me ruined in the fall has he seen you ruined in the fall do you know that he has seen you ruined in the fall ruin only has one meaning we pass by a ruin sometimes and it only has one meaning to us because that meaning is that the whole thing has collapsed the whole thing has collapsed and when we come to then consider Adam and Eve in the garden and the uprightness of the nature given to them when the devil came in with all his subtlety he brought ruin because the whole of the uprightness that was in human nature originally collapsed and there was no question of rebuilding it in the same way and this is the way in which the Lord has looked down upon you and has seen you in a collapsed situation with no possibility of rebuilding surely ruins would be rebuilt if there was a reasonable prospect of that being the right thing to do and something which would be beneficial but with respect to sin doing its great work ruin has developed and we have been completely destroyed utter ruin and it is with this view in mind

[17:53] I am my beloved can your faith aspire to this I am my beloved even though I am in utter ruin having nothing that I can project having no good deed or good temper or frame that I can bring forward my best sustained and died with sin my all is nothing worth am I the kind of person that will ever be able to say I am my beloved well we can never say any such thing unless we have some intimation from the Lord Jesus himself that he has loved us with an everlasting love and we must have some intimation too from the father himself that he has sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins when these things are applied to our soul by power from on high then

[19:08] God is given is giving us an indication that he has loved us with an everlasting love and it is then that the response may come forth from our hearts I am my beloved we can see this if we are drawn by the power of the father's love to Jesus Christ once a sinner near despair sought thy mercy seat by prayer examining that point can you see there that it was the result of the love of the father in drawing you to the mercy seat and the love of the holy spirit in giving you those words whereby you could pray not an easy thing to pray not for the children of

[20:17] God sometimes the hypocrites can always pray we are warned against it in the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ we read of those that make long prayers for a pretense but the people of God they cannot always pray depending upon the intercession of the spirit of God within have you no words ah think again words slow apace when you complain and fill your fellow travelers here with a sad tale of all your fear well why cannot you pray there are occasions with the children of God when sin stops their mouths they cannot utter a word hypocrites in Zion they will not be in that position but sin stops the mouths of the people of

[21:23] God sometimes the sins of the day the sins perhaps that other people have not seen oh it is not easy sometimes to get through public prayer it is not easy to get through family prayer oh it isn't especially if we are guilty and we feel guilt impressed upon our hearts how can we come to God here it is that we discover I am my beloved because of the Goding power and influence of the spirit of God of the father moving in your soul giving you words to speak let us turn to the Lord and say unto him take away all iniquity only

[22:27] God can take away iniquity we read in an earlier chapter in this song I am black but comely O ye daughters of Jerusalem as the tenth of Kedar as the curtains of Solomon look not upon me because I am black this is a feeling of the soul have you ever felt that you have been black black perhaps you've gone a little further and felt that you have been foul in that well known hymn of that latest some you will find it in some places black eye to the fountain fly and in other places foul eye to the fountain fly one of our good ministers who is now in heaven he said

[23:38] I prefer the latter he said I'm wearing a black suit and it doesn't offend me but he said if it was foul how differently I should feel about it I should not want it by me and what are these he was not empty from vessel to vessel and secondly his taste was not changed he still had a taste for sin oh what about that in respect to ourselves have we still a taste for sin or is it a bitter thing to us there's no sweet morsel that we may roll upon our tongue but rather bitterness upon our spirit this is a teaching of the spirit of God when we abhor ourselves and repent in dust and ashes and say oh Lord lead me to Christ lead me to him who is able to wash away my sin the desire of the righteous shall be granted the chosen of God do not wish to keep their sins they're anxious that they might have their sins washed away wash me said David so soon after he had sinned in such a sad and tragic way wash me purge me with hyssop wash me and I shall be whiter than snow as soon as he was convicted by the parable that the prophet brought to him he needed to be washed now what about our sins

[27:39] do we still retain them or do they strike us as a horrible sight in our eyes now I do not speak so much about open transgression as inward iniquity that is the iniquities of our heart the pride and the envy and the self love all these things can become a tremendous burden to the children of God but if there are tremendous burden to you God is teaching and God is bringing you to this place where even in the teaching you can say I am my beloved because he is directing me along that course which brings me to Christ he brings me to the point where I say oh wretched man that I am oh that I was delivered from this self and that this self was truly crucified cannot we go along with Charles Wesley when he says oh crucify this self that I no more but Christ in me may live may live bid all my vile affections die nor let one hateful lust survive in all things nothing may I see nothing desire or seek but thee

[29:35] I am my beloved you see we speak about crucifixion of the flesh and if we are Christ's then that crucifixion of the flesh will mean something to us we should not turn aside from it and say oh dear that's going to upset my life we should long after it that those things which so powerfully attract us may be taken away and that Christ may become our all and in all if we are truly included in this blessed these blessed words I am my beloved prophets then our prayer will be Lord draw my heart from earth away and make it only know thy call speak to thy inmost soul and say

[30:47] I am thy saviour God thy all oh dwell in me fill all my soul and all my powers by thine control and if this is the desire of your heart be assured this is true of you I am my beloved you have the witness because of the gifts that he has bestowed upon you and the gift that he has bestowed upon you may be said to be one and yet divided into many he has given you the gift of his grace and the fruits of the spirit and therefore your heart will be after Christ with all the fruitfulness of that spirit of Christ being manifested in your own life in your own soul you know when we are in the spirit of the text the world will be nothing to us it will all pale into insignificance what favoured moments of these when we consider the fate of Jesus and enjoy nothing else but him

[32:19] Paul relates to us in his epistle to the Galatians what the fruits of the spirit are love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law now how you must hate yourself if you feel or fear the predominance of just the reverse hatred instead of love an empty and false joy instead of real joy disturbance instead of peace long suffering long suffering short temperedness instead of long suffering harshness instead of gentleness evil thinking instead of goodness unbelieving instead of faith proud spirit instead of meekness intemperance instead of temperance when our soul is after Christ and filled with the love of Christ then we shall hate the sins that may be more hate them and that with a perfect hatred and all this time

[34:08] God is gradually drawing this picture before your eyes which will enable you to say I am my beloved maybe you will say but how can this really be true when God shows you what you are and how unworthy you are and how according to any standard you are the most unlikely person to receive anybody's love then how astonishing will that be when the Lord says I have loved thee when the Lord speaks about his love does he not speak pointedly I know we have those words in Deuteronomy yea he loved the people but it is when God says I have loved thee that you will be able to say I am my beloved because he has told me that he has loved me in spite of all that I have misgivings about you see there are not only sins of our nature in respect to what we might call time things but there is spiritual wickedness in high places spiritual wickedness even in our worship the things that we would not have which disturb our mind we wonder whether

[35:55] God can ever look down upon us much more speak to us in touch terms that I can say I am my beloved but the Lord looks down and he said those people that were not my people shall be my people and if you are saying how can I be numbered amongst the people of God and if you seem to hear the Lord saying how should I put thee among the children yet God is able to do those things which are impossible with men I am my beloved because he has found out a way to put me among the children he has found out a way to reconcile me to God he has found out a way whereby

[36:56] I can and am truly loved by him the confession here I am my beloved is not one sided if it is likely to be one sided it is to be on the other side there was a time when the Lord loved his people loved you and loved me perhaps and we have to honestly say that we didn't love him and we manifested it so very clearly because we had no interest in doing the things that he commanded us to do but how is it with us today are we deeply concerned to pray as Saul of Tarsus prayed Lord what wilt thou have me to do wholly reserved by

[37:59] Saul to Jesus Christ the crucified there are those in a natural profession who delude themselves and use this irritating expression God wants me to do and as far as they're concerned if you listen to the conversation the only reason why they say God wants them to do it is because they want to do it and therefore they assume that God must be glad and pleased with what they want to do and if we're taught by the spirit of God we shall know that just the opposite is very often the case the things which appeal to us are not the things which appeal to God the things which we may love are the things that we've got to give away and foremost amongst them is as I've mentioned already self love we've got to despise ourselves if we're not going to despise

[39:05] Jesus Christ we've got to look at ourselves in the same way that Job did I abhor myself therefore he could not look himself in the eye so to speak he was so ashamed and full of iniquity and sin but it did not prevent his hoping in God and neither will it prevent any sinner hoping in God the Lord Jesus in his gospel he tells us this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners what Paul mentions in writing to Timothy is the thorness of the gospel and why did he come into the world to save sinners it was on the pure and only ground of love that was why he came and he came to save certain sinners he came to save those sinners that had been chosen by his father and he came to save the vilest of sinners who would live to feel their need and would be welcomed to the throne of grace a saviour's blood to plead these are the people that

[40:31] Christ came to save and the motive is clear to us all for love now the people that Christ came to save will be made aware of their need of Christ and will come to Christ because there's no other person to whom they can come greater love hath no man than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends well it is wonderful as we may occasionally see what natural love will do or when it is extended but when we come to look at the love of Christ for wretched sinners we must stand amazed and when the Lord gives us just a little hint if not more that he has come lay down his life for me who loved me and gave himself for me it will be the testimony of love there is an expression in the epistle short epistle to

[41:55] Philemon for love's sake now wherever you look at the work of God you can add those words for love's sake whether you look at the word of God in the ascending forth of the gospel it was for love's sake and whether you consider the father sending his only begotten son it was for love's sake and if you consider the spirit of God teaching you opening your eyes quickening your soul it was for love's sake well now if it was for love's sake we must surely come to this conclusion I am my beloved maybe we can profitably sit down quietly this afternoon and consider whether there's been anything that

[42:58] God has done with us in us and for us to which we can only add for love's sake for love's sake and then if God has done anything for you for love's sake surely you can though perhaps with trembling lips say I am my beloved because he has done this for love's sake the father has chosen me from all time for love's sake and the son even Jesus Christ came into the world for love's sake to lay down his life and the spirit of God has taken of the things of Jesus for love's sake and has shown them unto me and he has quickened my soul and made me fear my sin and brought me to the throne of grace to the footstool of mercy and it's all for love's sake sometimes we can get a great deal of instruction from a child there was an occasion when that well known hymn number nine in our hymn book about the loving kindness of God was sung in the home circle and at its conclusion a child that was there said it's all loving kindness now have you been able to say that it's all loving kindness mercy it's all loving kindness and if that is yours if you see that to be true then what must you also say

[45:23] I am my beloved because throughout my life it's been all loving kindness we will leave the subject for this morning