Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 636
“Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You make Your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of Your companions?’
Song of Solomon 1:7.
We shall need to lift up our hearts to God and ask to be quickened in Divine Grace or the precious truths in our text will not prove to us “as honey out of the rock,” nor the “least of fat things, of wine and marrow, of wine on the lees well refined.” We cannot appreciate the spirituality of this book unless God’s Spirit shall help us. Many read these words and only see a proof of the imaginative power of an eastern mind. Some read to scoff and blaspheme and others, even good people, neglect to read this book altogether, being unable to drink in its spirit because of their need of that higher life of communion with the Beloved which is here so beautifully laid open to our view.
Now I am persuaded of better things of you, Beloved. I am sure that you believe that every Word of God is precious and most certainly we say of this Book, “it is more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, or the droppings of the honeycomb.” This book of the Canticles is most precious to us. It is the inner court of the temple of Truth. It seems to us to belong to the secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. We see our Savior’s face in almost every page of the Bible, but here we see His heart and feel His love to us. We shall hope this morning to speak of our own experience, as well as of the Church who is here speaking.
You will perceive that she begins with a title, she expresses a desire, she enforces it with an argument—“Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed, where You make Your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be as one that turns aside by the flocks of Your companions?”
I. We commence with the title—“O You whom my soul loves.” It is well to be able to call the Lord Jesus Christ by this name without an “if,” or a “but.” A very large proportion of Christian people can only say of Christ that they hope they love Him. They trust they love Him—but this is a very poor and shallow experience—to be content to stay here. It seems to me that no one ought to give any rest to his spirit till he feels quite sure about a matter of such vital importance. We are not content to have a hopeof the love of our parents, or of our spouse, or of our children! We feel we must be certain there.
And we ought not to be satisfied with a hope that Christ loves us and with a bare trust that we love Him. The old saints did not generally speak with buts and ifs and hopes and trusts—they spoke positively and plainly. “I know whom I have believed,” says Paul. “I know that my Redeemer lives,” says Job. “He whom my soul loves,” says Solomon, in the song as we have it here. Learn, dear Friends, to get that positive knowledge of your love to Jesus and be not satisfied till you can talk about your interest in Him as a reality which you have made infallibly sure by having received the witness of the Holy Spirit and His seal upon your soul by faith that you are born of God and belong to Christ.
Speaking, then, of this title which rings the great bell of love to Jesus, let us notice first the cause and secondly the effect of that love. If we can look into the face of Him who once sweat great drops of blood and call Him, “O You whom my soul loves,” it is interesting to consider what is the cause of our love. And here our reply is very quick. The efficient cause of our love is the Holy Spirit of God. We should never have had a spark of love to Jesus if it had not been bestowed upon us by the Divine Worker.
Well said John, “Love is of God.” Certainly it is so. Our love to Christ is one beam from Himself, the Sun. Certainly a man can no more naturally love Christ than a horse can fly. I grant you there is no physical disability, but there is a moral and spiritual disability which effectually disqualifies him from the high and lofty emotion of love to Jesus. Into that dead corpse the living spirit must be breathed—those who are dead in trespasses and sins cannot love Christ. That heart of stone must be transformed into a heart of flesh, for stones may be hurled at the Savior but they can never love Him.
That lion must become a lamb, or it can never claim Christ as its Shepherd. That raven must be turned into a dove, or it will never fly to Christ as its ark. “Except a man is born again,” we may say, he cannot see this precious sparkling jewel of the kingdom of God—love to Christ. Search yourselves then, Brethren—do you love Him or not? If you love Him, you have been born again! And if you do not love Him, then you are still in darkness and are not His—
“Can you pronounce His charming name, His acts of kindness tell? And while you dwell upon the theme, No sweet emotion feel?’