Song of Solomon

[0:00] of Solomon, chapter 2 and verse 4. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Those of you that were present last Lord's Day will, of course, remember that we were dealing with the previous verse, the third verse in this chapter, and it seems almost imperative, really, that we should continue our meditation by considering these all-important words that are found in the fourth verse, because there is such a close connection between the two. Whereas the bride who is speaking, speaking the words of our text, has previously declared what her experiences have been, and has declared those experiences in three different ways, saying, first of all, how she could distinguish, she had begun to distinguish a mighty difference in the one now she had come to love, who was her bridegroom, her promised bridegroom.

[2:01] And as you remember, we laid emphasis upon that important experience that is undoubtedly at the very beginning of all spiritual life, where the soul begins to see that there is a mighty difference between Christ and all else. Nothing can compare with him or be compared to him. Then again, she tells us how she descended and came and sat down under his shadow. And also, she declares this, which is an important declaration. She did this with great delight. But there, in all this, she is simply testifying of those things that she had herself experienced. But now, in the text that I have taken this morning, she comes to a vast, a far greater, more blessed and more important stage in her experience, when she can tell us what he, the bridegroom, has done. Not what she has done, but what he has done. And I want us to take note of this, as to its importance and significance. Because we are trying to look, as we look at these wonderful words and this wonderful portion and part of God's word, we are trying to examine our own cases, I hope. And if the word of God has any light upon us, upon us individually and personally, we may well be able to see whether we are in the right way on the road that leads the life eternal.

[4:32] Because there are no doubt a great many experiences among men. Some of them are caused by one thing or another.

[4:44] some of them are some of them. Some of them are some of them. Some of them are some of them. Some of them are some of them are sheer sentiment or merely things that have arisen from one's own mind or thought or environment.

[4:58] But what we want is this, the real, vital, valid experiences of God's grace. That's what we really want.

[5:10] Now, you know, people may complain sometimes about what they call experimental preaching.

[5:25] And some people's idea of experimental preaching is simply when the minister just gives out his own experience. But that is not experimental preaching. Experimental preaching is when there is a setting forth before the people of the way that the Lord leads sinners out of darkness into light. When the great change is made, when the divine grace has quickened the soul into light. And that soul begins to see the dawn of a new day and the beginning of a new life. Now, that is experimental preaching.

[6:24] And that's the preaching that will really do you good. We want also setting forth of the glorious truths of the gospel, the grand doctrines of divine grace, because these are the very heart, the substance of all true belief.

[6:48] We cannot believe without these, these foundations which God hath laid in his holy word.

[7:00] But we are not saved merely by believing doctrine. We are saved by the experience and the power of divine grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:14] Now, here we have a part of the word of God which lays precious, clear evidence upon those wonderful features of a real, valid experience.

[7:34] Now, that is what we want. And so we have these two things, you see. We see the church here, and this is what it really is. This person that is speaking is called the bride in the song of Solomon, but really it is all those who belong to Jesus Christ.

[7:55] Every believer is embraced. Every believer is embraced in the descriptions of this part of God's word. We can therefore look at it as an individual case. It may be that some of you can see this morning or find this morning that your case is opened up, examined.

[8:21] Light is opened up, examined.

[8:51] of the word of God. So, this is the church then. She has told us so far what she has first begun to feel.

[9:06] And what the results of that feeling has been. how it's brought her right down made her descend to the very lowest place under his shadow and how she is found in coming into that place of humility of nothingness being put right in the shade so to speak there was something of an exquisite nature something of a delight that was unspeakable and wonderful now she comes and we're told in the word of God why what is the cause of all this experience he brought me if we only had these three words if those were the only words that we should take and consider we had something that is of immensity indeed something that is inexhaustible we have here in these three words the history of every child of God every believer he brought me it's very strange at least it may seem so to you and me that people try to reverse this and put it in the other way round and make it out as if they brought themselves to the Lord that the Lord could not do anything until they did bring themselves until they were willing to bring themselves for the truth is this plain and simple let us fasten upon it let us take it to our hearts the truth is what this dear bride says about herself and about her experience he brought me and what a wonderful three words they are when they can come into our own experience and I would say this you'll never be really at the threshold of divine life until you can say in some measure at least he brought me now who is this one of whom she is speaking

[11:53] I want us first of all to approach this subject by trying to discover a little more about him the one who brings this person to himself and we read this he says himself I am the rose of Shef that is what he says that's his own description I am the rose of Shef let us think of that for a moment a rose that was the sharonic rose was a red rose fragrant to an extensive degree and what does this speak to us it speaks of the blood that one that came from Bosra with dyed garments red with blood so the same person is here speaking and saying

[13:02] I am the rose of Shef now every rose you know has a thorn and what we understand by this description given to us of this person of whom the bride is speaking when he says I am the rose of Sharon it simply means this that all the beginnings of knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ all entrances into his kingdom must be by way of the cross it must be through the blood of the land of God there's no other way of knowing him notice this he says first of all I am the rose of Sharon then he says I am the lily of the valleys but while there might be those who will say I know him as a a lily they must first of all know him as the rose of Sharon and when they come there's no other way whereby sinners may come unto God but through that rent veil of the flesh of the Lord

[14:19] Jesus Christ through his sufferings through his death we are brought nigh to God by the dear Redeemer and his atoning sacrifice let us ever remember this I am the rose of Sharon then he says again and the lily of the valley now notice this it's one lily he is the lily but the valleys are many not one valley but many valleys valleys and what a glorious description this is of the dear son of God the Lord Jesus when he makes himself precious to his people in their valleys there are many valleys you will have to go through a great many valleys in your life and profession of godliness it's not a plain pathway that is without any undulation there are hills and valleys as the book of

[15:39] Deuteronomy tells us when God said to Moses the land which you are going to inherit is a land of hills and valleys and it is watered by the rain of heaven it's not a straight plain pure easy pathway it's a path in which there are ups and downs sometimes the downs are very deep but the deepest down or the deepest valley that ever can be experienced has a person there in it that is like the glorious pure perfect lily Jesus Christ who can enter into the trials and difficulties and frailties and woes and sorrows of his people now there are many valleys the scripture tells us of many valleys there's the valley of

[16:40] Achor which was a gloomy valley indeed and yet God says in the valley of Achor there will be a door of hope for my people and that is because the Lord himself is in it there's never a trouble for a child of God but what the Lord is able to be present with them and is willing to be present every believer can testify that in their deepest traits they have had the great blessing and benefit of the presence of the Lord with them the help of the Lord in their troubles they would say to you and to me this morning if we could listen to them we could never have been through we could never have got through this time of our personal trial unless the

[17:46] Lord had been with us he was at our right hand he was our defense and all we could see how perfect he was perfect was his presence perfect was the timing of his coming to us he was never a moment too late he was always at hand and succoring us in our time of great need and we could tell us again and again to his glory and his praise that there was never a valley in which they ever had to come but the Lord himself was there there was the valley of Jezreel that was a gloomy valley indeed Naboth's vineyard was there in that valley and you know what God said through his messenger when Ahab through

[18:48] Jezebel's ingenuity and wickedness she secured the possession of Naboth's vineyard for Ahab her husband how the Lord sent his servant down to the very vineyard just at the moment when Ahab was about to take possession and he tells him it's here at this very spot the spot that he had now taken possession so falsely and so wickedly his blood would be licked by the dogs we do not find very often in the scriptures God testifying beforehand his vengeance upon men but he did so in the case of Ahab and it was fulfilled men remembered those words and when the time came that Ahab was brought home dying in his chariot and when his blood flowed out of the chariot and dogs ran to lick up that blood one man said to another thus didst thou not remember the word of the

[20:13] Lord which declared that this would all come to pass because of the wickedness of Ahab you see there are valleys of the great solemnity but for the people of God there's the lily then there's the valley of the shadow of death which David speaks so beautifully in that twenty third psalm though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me the lily of the valleys and there are valleys of persecution we were listening on

[21:14] Friday to the cases and conditions of those in Russia that are under the severe persecution of the authorities but what an amazing spectacle it was to see that in spite of all those persecutions and the people of God could only meet in secret they had to hide in woods and in far distant places in order to worship and join together and praise God and worship him and yet in those valleys where they had to hide for fear of persecution the Lord was very present and his blessings were very wonderful and very real now he's the lily of the valley and my dear friends if we want to know him we must know him first of all as the rose of

[22:17] Sharon we must come to the Lord Jesus Christ to his cross that's where Christian lost his burden he carried a very heavy burden with him until he came to a place which ascended somewhat and there was a cross and when he came to that place his burden began to loose from off his back and it rolled away from him and he saw it no more that was the place where he found the beginning of his joy and his life of blessedness yes now the church she says this or the bride she says he brought me they're very simple words but what a tremendous meaning there is in them he brought me this is what you will have to say of yourself and of him if he ever has anything to do with you and what an infinite mercy it is if the

[23:33] Lord does deal with us and have to do with us and in contrast what an awful thing it is if he does not have you ever thought of what it would be to be left utterly and completely to yourself never for one moment to be dealt with by the Lord but what an infinite wonder what a unspeakable blessing it is indeed to be able to say like she said here he brought me well now let us try to think for a moment what it is really she was speaking of here he brought me you know she's tracing now right from the very beginning of her experience she recognizes that when the moment came that she could compare and see something in her Lord that she wanted and see that there was something in him that was so very different from anyone else or anything else she says he brought me there it wasn't anything of a sudden discovery that had come about by my own knowledge or experience he brought me there and if you can look back in your life to that very early that very first beginning of movement it might have been an impression it might have been something that you couldn't very well shift from your heart or mind it kept coming back again it couldn't be thoroughly and completely thrust out of your thoughts that beginning of things he brought you to that and the church now she begins to see it and she declares it openly she says this he brought me and when she says when I came to sit down under his shadow when I came to lose myself in Christ when I came to forget all about my own significance and importance when I was made willing to be nothing to hide myself beneath him when I was made willing that he should be everything and all things then it was he that brought me he made this precious person so wonderfully dear to my heart he brought me and made me sit down in willing submission under his shadow it was not any credit to me it was all his own work and all his own goodness and when

[27:16] I tasted of his precious fruit love when I had that first sip of his love and his mercy that indescribable experience of the first time of a thing it was he that brought me to it I should never have tasted never have wanted to taste unless he had brought me there now my friends this is real religion you know this is the experience this is the experimental preaching that we want the word of God sanctions it it makes it wonderfully and abundantly clear and it tells us and teaches it's very wonderful that all we have and all we are and all we experience every real valid experience comes from the Lord oh you feel thankful do you not because if you had to manufacture your own experience you would be very woefully wrong we should go out and after all kinds of things we should trust ourselves we should rely upon our feelings we should be thankful for what was really vain and empty and nothing but if

[28:54] God is the worker if the Lord is the one that produces and brings everything to us then whatever we may have we believe it will be right it will be valid and it will be exceedingly blessed he brought me now in this word this word that I want to linger with this morning this word brought is an immensity he brought me have you ever looked into the times and places in the scripture where the Lord speaks about bringing his people you'll find in the book of Deuteronomy the Lord says this using a very plain simple figure he said

[29:59] I brought you on eagles wings unto myself I bear you on eagles wings and brought you unto myself he was speaking about his people Israel being brought out of the Egyptian bondage God says to them then he says I brought you on eagles wings with mighty power and I brought you unto myself then again in teaching his children and laying great emphasis upon the need to keep the Sabbath day he links with that injunction this truth he says remember remember remember the Sabbath day and remember this every time you are to remember the Sabbath day remember this

[31:03] I brought you out of Egypt so you see he lays the burden of necessity upon his people to keep the Sabbath because he had brought them out of the bondage of Egypt therefore they should keep the Lord's day with liberty with joy with rejoicing with worship and with praise of his great and holy name and with thanksgiving for their deliverance from the land of Egypt now you know when we come to think of it when we were young we would be very glad when Sunday was over let's get back to our daily life our pleasures Sunday is a restrictive time we don't like it we did we loved various days in the week but Sunday no we couldn't tolerate

[32:10] Sunday it meant as to go we had to be taken to chapel there we had to sit for an hour or more listening to a man we didn't want anything to do with it really but when God brings his people to himself when he brings them near to the Lord Jesus Christ he makes one thing very clear to them that the Lord's day is a day of love and delight and pleasure because it's a mark in their hearts to the fact that they have been delivered from all the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God and there's a great link between a day day of worship and the day in which the Lord brought his children out of the world unto himself then gained the Lord

[33:20] David for instance attributes in his psalms he attributes all that he had all that he was made to experience all the victories he gained over his enemies from the very beginning of his life to the end of it from those those triumphs over the bear and the lion and over Goliath and over other enemies that he conquered through his long life and reigning power he attributes it all to the fact that God had brought him unto himself God he says has brought me he brought me up out of a horrible pit and out of a miry clay he did it he attributes the power and the reality to the one to whom it belongs and should be attributed to God oh let us give all praise to God for what we may what we experience what we enjoy of his grace and pleasure and power because he brought us out then as it says here in the first chapter the king she says in the fourth verse the king hath brought me out the king hath brought me into his chamber she says in the fourth verse the king hath brought me into his chamber now do we know anything of being brought into the lord's chambers into the king's chambers oh I would love to feel and love to hear too from any of you that you've been brought into some precious experience this is the sort of conversation

[35:46] I love to hear I was telling our people my people on Thursday of a case that came under my notice last week of a young person that was being drawn into the Roman church and how dissatisfied she became and felt there was something woefully lacking and she was ever undoubtedly being led by the lord because she came to feel how there was something more needed than what she had had and it's very wonderful how the lord will guide such a person without any human influence influence although there was human influence in this case of a very important nature but this person was led to the word of god and opened the bible and came to these words after she had been taught that they must go to the priest there's only one way to heaven and that was through the priest through the church she thought oh I shall never get to heaven wondering however she could find a way to heaven and she comes in a great need desperation she comes and opens the bible and the first words that come before her eyes were these there is one god and one mediator between god and man the man christ jesus and she says I don't need a priest

[37:46] I have got a way to god and that is through jesus christ i can go to him you see she brought she was being brought to him and I think my dear friends the one thing I want to hear from your lips is this that you have been brought there are things that you've been brought to feel to taste to know to experience you've been brought right out of a place of indifference of estrangement from god and from godliness you've been brought right away from those things that were once your idols and your pleasures you've been brought to seek one thing and one thing only and that is christ and his salvation his eternal mercy now says one of the poets I have found the ground on which my hope shall firm remain the wounds of jesus for my sin before the world's foundation slain for heaven and earth shall pass away but his eternal mercy ever is ever shall be ever will remain these are the things he brought me she says those three great words may each one of us here in this chapel this morning and those of our friends who are not with us may we all be able to say this he brought me amen that to another can which will plunder come from the trib verr

[39:59] Thank you.