IT has pleased the Holy Spirit to take the common usages and customs that existed in the Holy Land and in those countries adjacent to it and apply these usages and customs to spiritual and eternal realities. We have in these words a usage and a custom that was common to the countries of the East. When the Prince was expected to visit one of his townships, or when some honoured distinguished person was expected, they brought out the choicest fruits and laid these fruits at the gates. When a family expected an honoured guest they gathered together all manner of the choicest fruits and laid them outside their gates in order to indicate that they and all that they had were laid at the feet of their friend. You find the Holy Spirit applying these things to the blessed Saviour and to the Church who would honour Him and who would welcome Him. And the question now arises on the evening of a day of self-examination—is Jesus our honoured guest, is He our Prince and do we expect Him to come our way at such a season as this, and are we on the look-out for Christ? Is it our desire that He will fulfill His promise for He has said: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them.” Has the Saviour promised to come to such a gathering as this? Has He given His word that He will come? Surely He has! Surely He has said: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” Surely the Lord’s people expect Christ—Ah! but—never mind the “but,” never mind these “buts,” surely you expect the Saviour. Surely you are keeping Him to His promise. Well then, if you expect Him see that you seek spiritually to do what these people of the East did literally. Pick out your choicest fruits, lay them outside the gates and give Him a right royal welcome, show Him that you and all that you are by grace is His. The Church says:—”Here are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.”
Let us notice three things from these words: First of all, the Person that is to be honoured. I pointed out that it was by way of honour that this was done. And secondly, the way in which He is to be honoured. He is to be honoured by the laying up of all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old. That is the way He is to be honoured. Let Him have the fruits. Delight His eye by beholding these pleasant fruits; store them up; lay them up and that for Him. And thirdly, the place where this storage is to be made. The Church says here: “at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.”
I. Something first of all about the Person who is to be honoured, something about the beloved: “O my beloved.”
Well, dear friends, it is not on the side of the creature that the love is so much, but on His side. On the evening of a day of self-examination you may be searching your heart for love to the Lord, and you will not find very much. It is easier for you to speak about coldness, than it is to speak about your love to Christ. But you take the mind of the Holy Scripture. Certainly, the Scripture speaks about the love of the Lord’s people to the Lord, but that is not what is impressed in the Scripture, but His love to them. Love in the heart of the people of God is for the most part a delighting and a desiring for the love that God has bestowed; the love that Christ has bestowed. You find the Apostle John putting these words into the mouth of the Church: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sin.” “Herein is love,” “He loved us,” and dear friends, we have to be captivated by this gracious truth—”He loved us”—if we are to have any outgoings of love to Him. That is how the Lord’s people in every age and generation are enabled to exercise love in a measure to Him by being captivated, taken into a blessed captivity by the love that God has revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Love is a wonderful grace. We speak about the grace of faith and we speak about the grace of love as these graces are bestowed upon those who are united to Christ in a day of mercy. It is out of the same fulness that the grace of faith and the grace of love come, but the exercise of the grace of faith differs from the exercise of the grace of love. Faith in the heart of a sinner is the sinner realising by grace his needs, his emptiness, his inability, his utter ruination as a sinner, and he, beholding the riches of Christ, the unsearchable riches of Christ, riches that are above all knowledge and understanding, and in the exercise of faith, he comes in his need to the fulness that is in Jesus. In a good sense, faith is like a miser. A miser has nothing, or he is supposed to have nothing and he is always grasping and wanting, seeking. I do not apply that in any but a good sense. Faith in the heart of a believer is a going to the fulness—I have nothing unless I get it from Christ. I must draw all my sustenance, all my strength; I must draw for all my needs out of the fulness that is in Jesus.
It is the same love in the heart of a believer as it is in the heart of God. They are not two different loves. The love of God and the love that is in the heart of the believer are not two different loves but they are the same love. Ah! how trivial, how small is the exercise of love in the heart of the choicest believer in comparison to the exercise of love in God. Love is a giver; a self denying grace: “God so loved the world that He gave.” That is the call of love in the heart of God—give to these poor needy sinners who are the fruits of everlasting love. Give them, give them. And such a gift who ever heard the like of, the gift of the love of God. You see the love of God cannot be measured; it is an infinite love. The only way in which we can in the measure of a creature comprehend the love of God, is by this measure—the gift of Christ: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” He had one only Son, His well beloved, He gave Him. The Church through the Apostle Paul speaks like this: “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” See, the grace of faith seeks to draw out of the fulness of Jesus. The grace of love—you have not any, at least you have very little and you find the stamp of sin and shortcoming on all, but you want to give to the Lord, to Christ, to His Church, to His people; like the woman who had the box of alabaster full of the sweet ointment and she could not keep it to herself. No! it would burn her fingers if she would keep it, although it was a sweet ointment. She had to pour it out in the presence of the Lord. That is the exercise of love. You have not got very much. You can do very little and the little you can do is there not the trademark of sin in it, shortcomings. Yet you would like to honour the Lord, you would like to love His people, you would like to help His cause, you would like to see the coming of His kingdom. Love is a giving grace. Just as love in God is a giving grace, a giving love, that love that is shed abroad in the heart of the sinner is of the same nature in the creature’s lower measure. Ah dear friends! here is one and if you would ask him: “What kind of love have you got to this person?—great love?” he would answer:—”How cold, how dark, how far back I am in this exercise, as well as in every other exercise; but He is my beloved; I love His love.” It is a case of loving the love of God, loving the love of Christ, and do you just try yourselves tonight. Do you bear this mark of being one of the people of God? Do you love God in Christ for His love being everlasting? No beginning, no end, and unchangeable. Do you love Him for the love that is eternal and unchangeable? We change; we will no sooner be at summer weather than we will be back to winter weather again. We change like that, but shame on us, shame on us, when we change we are apt to give place to this that the love of God changes. You had a day and the blackness of darkness was before you. Everything was dark but He shone into your heart—”the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” He filled your heart with the knowledge of salvation and with the peace of God which passes all knowledge and understanding and you tasted of the love of God at that time and you realized that this love would be yours to all eternity—a love that never changes! But now you are down, battling with dragons, with devils and men and your own corruption, and you find stark unbelief in your heart and you are apt to give place to this thought—”the Lord loves me not.” You see, we cannot but love God when we see the unchangeableness of His love.
Christ’s Love Unchanged
Never mind how the devil is tempting you. Christ has the same love unchanged. The Lord’s people love to hear that.
Christ’s Love Will Be Requited
Then this is another thing that is to be loved in the love of God in Christ. Christ’s love will be answered, it will be requited. Christ will not love on His side alone without possessing the object of His love. Among men there is no creature so miserable as one who loves a person and his love is not returned. That causes misery. Many tragedies have taken place in the history of men over that—love unrequited, love unreturned. But, ah! dear friends, that is not the way with the love of Christ. It is a love that will win love. He will have the objects of His love—all His people. They will love Him in return and as He gave Himself for them, they will give themselves to Him and for Him too. The Lord’s people love Christ for His love to them shall be responded to on their part. Christ’s love is the love of faithfulness. You see there may be unfaithfulness and there is unfaithfulness on the side of the creature. When you examine yourselves to-night about these matters, what will you find? Unfaithfulness to Christ: that you have met His faithfulness with unfaithfulness in many instances, but dear friends, Christ remains the same, He will never go back on His word. What He undertook to do He will perform.
Christ’s Love was Calvary Love
Christ’s love was Calvary love, love brought down to hang between two thieves on the cross. That is how He gave expression to His love for the Church. He died on the cross, He opened the way to heaven by giving Himself over to the wrath and curse of God, to save and die in the room and stead of the guilty. And so His love was divine love, love unto death, love unto this—that He would make an end of sin, finish transgression, make reconciliation for iniquity and bring in everlasting righteousness.
Christ’s Love Delivers
And as His love is divine love, it is a love that delivers:—“Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Surely we all ought to love Him who showed such love as that, love that will bring the soul out of the pit and cast the sinner’s sins behind God’s back. That is One that ought to be loved and who will be loved. Why do the Lord’s people love Christ? Because on the basis of His death they have a hope that their sins are forgiven and that their transgressions were expiated and that God casts their sin behind His back.
Christ’s Love is Forbearing
Then again, the love of Christ is a forbearing love. Here you are on the Friday of another Communion. Look back to the Friday of last Communion. What have you got to say about Christ? Must you not say about Him:—”He has borne with me, He alone saw me as I really was. Others saw me as I was outwardly; He saw me inwardly and He bore with me and carried me on from step to step until this moment.” That is the forbearance of the love of God in Christ.
Christ’s Love is Restoring
But here is another thing. Christ’s love is restoring love. There is Simon Peter, he has been cursing and he has been saying:—”I never knew this man,” but outside the door he weeps and his weeping to a great extent was on account of this—that he lost the honoured place he had in the Saviour’s eyes. So he thought: “He will never restore me, He will never take me back.” O Simon you are wrong! No sooner will the Lord rise out of Joseph’s tomb than He will restore you to something better. His love is not of such a nature as that He will reject you because of your great sin. Certainly He will bring you to repentance; He will bring you to loathe yourself in your own sight, but He will restore you: “He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
Christ is to the natural man merely a name, but to those to whom He has been made precious, His name is full of meaning, His name is as sweet ointment poured forth. His love is that which they need in all its phases. The love of Christ in the gospel just meets the need of the creature to the very uttermost. What he needs in a state of nature, in a state of glory, Christ’s love meets it to the very uttermost. This is the “well beloved,” at least, it is a few points about the Saviour, “fairer than the children of men” and “altogether lovely.” The one name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
(To be continued).