Sermon #8 Series: Song of Solomon

Title: “My Beloved Is Mine And I Am His”

Text: Song of Solomon 2:16-17

Readings: Office: Ron Wood Auditorium: Larry Criss

Subject: The Joy Of Assurance

Date: Sunday Evening - June 21, 1998

Tape # U-74a

Introduction:

Someone said, “This is the happiest verse in the Bible.” I think might have to agree - “My Beloved is mine and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.”

Those words reflect a heart full of peace, assurance, contentment, and joy. But the very next verse has a shadow over the scene. There is a cloud in the sky. “Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.”

The text seems to reflect a state of mind with which many of you are very familiar. You do not doubt your salvation. You know that Christ is yours. However, you do not always enjoy the light of his countenance. You know that he is yours; but your soul does not always feed upon that blessed fact. You are, in your heart, assured that you have a vital saving interest in Christ; but, still you do not sense that his left hand is under your head and that his right hand embraces you. There are times when the believer sings tenor and bass at the same time. We sing with great delight

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,

Oh what a foretaste of glory Divine!

Heir of salvation, purchased of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

While at the same time we sing -

How tedious and tasteless the hours

When Jesus no longer I see;

Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers

Have all lost their sweetness to me.

It may be that there are some saints who are always at their best, who never lose the light of the Savior’s face, and whose communion with him is never disturbed. I am not sure that such persons exists; but there may be some.

But those believers with whom I am most intimate have a different experience. And those people I know who always boast of their constant bliss are not the most reliable sort of people.

For myself, speaking from my own heart’s experience, I have always had a mixture of joy and sorrow. Every year of my life has had a winter as well as a summer. Every day has its night. I have seen the clear shining of the Sun of Righteousness. And I have felt the heavy rains. I have walked in the warm breezes of a summer’s evening. And I have made my way through the snowy blizzards of winter’s night. I am sure that I speak for many of you.

Like the oak tree, our sap is always there; but it is not always flowing with equal vigor. We do, at times, lose our leaves. We have our downs, as well as our ups. We have our valleys, as well as our mountain tops. We are not always rejoicing. Sometimes we are in heaviness through our manifold trials. We are grieved by the fact that our fellowship with Christ is not always full of rapturous delight. At times, we have to seek him, crying, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him!”

This appears to me to be the sense of our text. It is a song both of joy and of sorrow. It is the sweet song of assurance; but it is mingled with an earnest longing for fellowship.

Proposition: This is the thing I want you to see tonight. Though we may experience times of spiritual trial, when our fellowship and communion with Christ is broken, the assurance of our hearts that we are accepted in the beloved need not be broken.

NOTE: Assurance is based upon Christ’s finished work for us. Fellowship and communion with Christ vary with our daily experiences. I do not always enjoy the company of my wife, because we are at times separated; but I always enjoy the assurance of her love. And I do not always enjoy sweet fellowship with Christ; but I do enjoy this blessed assurance - “My Beloved is mine; and I am his.”

Divisions:

I want you to see three things in our text.

1. It is possible and profitable for us to have assurance of our personal, saving interest in Christ.

2. It is wise for us to know where Christ is, where he reveals himself, and makes himself known.

3. It is the desire of every renewed soul to know the conscious presence and fellowship of Christ.

I. First, I want to show you that IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO ENJOY THE ASSURANCE OF OUR PERSONAL INTEREST IN CHRIST.

I do not suggest that every believer has this assurance. But I do say that every believer should and can have an assurance of his personal, saving interest in Christ. These are the words of confident faith and blessed assurance - “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.”

A. Most people look in the wrong places when they seek assurance.

1. No experience will give assurance.

2. No amount of devotion will give assurance.

3. No amount of personal piety will give assurance.

4. If you want assurance, you must stop looking at yourself and look to Christ.

· Look not to your experience, but to his expiation.

· Look not to your repentance, but to his ransom.

· Look not to your faith, but to his faithfulness.

· Look not to your works, but to his worth.

· Look not to your feelings, but to his fulness.

· Look not to your prayers, but to his promises.

· Look not to your righteousness, but to his righteousness!

Look to Christ alone!

(Colossians 2:6) As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

B. Mark the words of this sentence - “My Beloved is mine, and I am his.” If you are a believer, your heart should rejoice to use such language.

1. “My Beloved.”

Will you not delight to call Christ your Beloved? Certainly, he should be beloved by you. Who has done so much for you as Christ? Who has lavished you with such gifts? Who has shown you such love? If you do not love him, you are a lost soul, yet under the wrath of God (1 Cor. 16:22). All who are redeemed by his precious blood and saved by his matchless grace love him (1 John 4:19).

If you know him, you love him. I would not have you to be presumptuous. But I would have all of you who know Christ to call him “My Beloved.”

a. He deserves this title in your heart.

· He redeemed you with his own precious blood.

· He adopted you into his family.

· He saved you by his matchless grace.

· He loved you with an everlasting love.

b. There was a time when he became the beloved one of your heart - When he first revealed his love to you.

c. It is true today, more than ever, we do love Christ. He is “My Beloved.”

2. “My Beloved is mine!”

Spurgeon said, “Every heart that has been renewed by sovereign grace takes Jesus Christ to be the chief object of its love.

I ask you, my friends, do you love Christ? Is he the Beloved one of your hearts?

3. “My Beloved is mine, and I am His!”

· His by the bands of his eternal love.

· His by the grace of his sovereign election.

· His by the blood of his special purchase.

· His by the power of his irresistible grace.

· His by my own willful, deliberate choice.

Are you a believer? If so, then Christ is yours, and you are his. You are the sheep of his pasture. You are the partners of his love. You are the members of his body. You are the branches of his stem. You belong to him.

I am his, totally, unreservedly his. I belong to him. He may do with me what he will.

C. How can I have such assurance as this? (1 Pet. 3:15).

(1 Peter 3:15) But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

What is the basis of this assurance? How can a person be assured that he has a saving interest in Christ? How can I know I am my Beloved’s and that he is mine?

1. Christ has been revealed in my heart.

2. I rest my soul upon his finished work as my Substitute. I believe on him.

3. I have not been moved away from the hope of the gospel. I cling to him.

(Colossians 1:23) If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.

4. I do love him!

Illustration: Robert Hall - C. H. Spurgeon.

II. IT IS WISE FOR US TO KNOW WHO CHRIST IS, WHERE HE REVEALS HIMSELF AND MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN.

The soul, being assured of its personal interest in Christ, longs to know where he is. “Where is my Beloved?” asks the soul, and the answer comes - “He feedeth among the lilies.”

· The redeemed in glory.

· The saints upon earth.

A. The Assembly of His saints.

(Matthew 18:20) For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

(1 Corinthians 3:16-17) Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (17) If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

B. The ordinances of the gospel.

C. The Book of Inspiration.

III. IT IS THE DESIRE OF EVERY BELIEVER TO KNOW THE CONSCIOUS PRESENCE AND FELLOWSHIP OF CHRIST (v. 17).

(Song of Songs 2:17) Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

A. This is our night, soon our day will break.

NOTE: When the gospel day broke forth the shadows of the law fled away.

B. The mountains which separate us from our Lord, He can overcome.

They are too high for us, but not for him.

C. Our hearts earnestly desire the conscious sense of his presence. - “Turn, my Beloved!”

(Psalms 42:1) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

(Psalms 84:2) My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

Application:

1. Are you united to Christ? Do you love him?

2. Look for him now and seek his presence.