The Best of the Best
(No. 2472)
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 5, 1896.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 19,
1881.
"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." Song of Solomon
2:1.
THE time of flowers has come and as they are in some faint degree,
emblems of our Lord, it is well, when God thus calls, that we should
seek to learn what He desires to teach us by them. If nature now
spreads out her roses and her lilies, or prepares to do so, let us try
not only to see them, but to see Christ as He is shadowed forth in
them. "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." If these
are the words of the Well-Beloved–and I have no doubt that they
are–then it may be suggested by some that here we have the Savior
praising Himself–and it is true–but in no unworthy sense, for well
may He praise Himself since no one else can do it as it should be done!
There is no human language that can ever set forth His beauties as they
deserve to be told. As good John Berridge says–
"Living tongues are dumb at best,
We must die to speak of Christ"
as He should be spoken of. He will never fully be described unless He
shall describe Himself. For certain, we should never have known God if
He had not revealed Himself–and every good thing that you or I know of
Him, He, Himself, has told us. We make no discoveries of God except as
God discovers Himself to us. If, then, any quibblers were to find fault
with the Christ of God because He commends Himself, I would answer,
Does not God commend Himself and must not His well-beloved Son do the
same? Who else is there that can possibly reveal Him to us unless He
unveils His own face to our admiring gaze?
Moreover, let it always be remembered that human self-praise is evil
because of the motive which underlies it. When we praise
ourselves–and, alas, that we should be so foolish as to do so–we do
it out of pride! But when Christ praises Himself, He does it out of
humility. "Oh," you say, "how can you prove that to be true?" Why,
thus–He praises Himself that He may win our love–but what
condescension it is on His part that He should care about the love of
such insignificant and undeserving persons as we are! It is a wonderful
stoop that the Christ of God should speak about having a bride and that
He should come to seek His bride among the sons of men! If princes were
to look for consorts among beggars, that would be, after all, but a
small stoop, for God has made of one blood all nations of men that
dwell upon the face of the earth. But for Christ to forsake the thrones
and glories of Heaven, and the splendors of His Father's courts above
to come down to win a well-beloved one here and, for her sake, to take
upon Himself her nature–and in her nature to bear the shame of death,
even the death of the Cross–this is stupendous condescension of which
only God, Himself, is capable! And this praising of Himself is a part
of that condescension–a necessary means of winning the love of the
heart that He has chosen.
So this is a matchless instance, not of pride, but of humility, that
those dear lips of the heavenly Bridegroom should have to speak to His
own commendation and that He should say, "I am the rose of Sharon, and
the lily of the valleys." O human lips, why are you silent, so that
Christ must speak about Himself? O human hearts, why are you so hard
that you will never feel until Christ, Himself, shall address you? O
human eyes, why are you so blind that you shall never see till Christ
shows Himself in His own superlative light and loveliness? I think I
need not defend my Master, though He used these sweet emblems to set
forth Himself, for this is an instance, not of His pride, but of His
humility.
It is also an instance of the Master's wisdom, for as it is His design
to win hearts to Himself, He uses the best means of winning them. How
are hearts won? Very often by the exhibition of beauty. Love at first
sight has been begotten by the vision of a lovely countenance. Men and
women, too, are struck with affection through the eyes when they
perceive some beauty which charms and pleases them. So the Savior lifts
the corner of the veil that conceals His glories and lets us see some
glimpse of His beauty in order that He may win our hearts. There are
some who seem to think that they can bully men to Christ, but that is a
great mistake. It is very seldom that sinners can be driven to the
Savior–His way is to draw them. He Himself said, "I, if I am lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men to Me. This He said, signifying what
death He should die." And the drawings of Christ are not, as it were,
with a cart rope, but with silken bonds, yes, with invisible chains,
for His beauty is of such a character that it creates love! His beauty
is so attractive that it draws the heart! So, in infinite wisdom, our
Lord Jesus Christ sets forth His own beauties that He may, thereby, win
our hearts.
I believe that there is no preaching like the exaltation of Christ
Crucified. There is nothing so likely to win the sons of men as a sight
of Him and if God, the Holy Spirit, will but help all His ministers,
and help all His people to set forth the beauties of Christ, I shall
not doubt that the same Spirit will incline men's hearts to love Him
and to trust Him! Note, then, the condescension and also the wisdom
which are perceptible in this self-commendation on the part of
Christ–"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."
I think that our Lord also speaks thus as an encouragement to timid
souls. His tender familiarity in praising Himself to us is one of the
most effectual proofs of His lowliness. Does Christ commend Himself to
us? Does He say to us, for instance, "I am meek and lowly in heart"?
What is His objective in speaking thus but that we may take His yoke
upon us and may learn of Him and find rest to our souls? And if He
says, "I am the rose of Sharon," what does He mean but that we may
pluck Him and take Him for our own? If He says, "I am the lily of the
valleys," why does He take the trouble to tell us that but because He
wants us to take Him and to have Him for our very own? I think that it
is so sweet of Christ to praise Himself in order to show that He longs
for us to come to Him! He declares Himself to be a fountain of living
water, but why is He a fountain but that we may come to Him and drink?
He tells us, "I am the bread which came down from Heaven," but why does
He speak of Himself as bread, except that if a man eats, he shall never
hunger? Why, because He wants us to partake of Him! You need not,
therefore, be afraid that He will refuse you when you come to Him. If a
man praises his wares, it is that he may sell them. If a doctor
advertises his cures, it is that sick folk may be induced to try his
medicine. And when our Lord Jesus Christ praises Himself, it is a kind
of holy advertisement by which He would tempt us to "come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price." If He praises Himself, it is
that we may fall in love with Him–and we need not be afraid to come
and lay our poor hearts at His feet and ask Him to accept us–for He
would not have wooed us by unveiling His beauties if He had meant,
after all, to trample on our hearts, and say, "I care nothing for such
poor love as yours."
I feel most grateful, then, that I have not, at this time, so much to
praise my Master as to let Him speak His own praises, for, "never man
spoke like this Man!" When He commends Himself, what would have been
folly in others is wisdom in Him! And whereas we say to our fellow man,
"Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth," I would say to
Christ, "My Master, praise Yourself, for You alone can do it as it
ought to be done! As for Your poor servant, he would try to be the echo
of Your voice, and that will be infinitely better than anything he,
himself, can say."
I think, also, that there is good reason for our Lord to praise Himself
in the fashion that He does in our text because, after all, it is not
praise. "What?" you ask, "and yet you have been talking all this while
as if it were praise." Well, so it is in one sense, to us, but it is
not to Christ. Suppose the sun were to compare itself with a
glowworm–would that be praise? Suppose an angel were to compare
himself with an ant, would that be praise? And when my Lord and Master,
whose eyes outshine the sun, and who is infinitely higher than the
mightiest of the angels, compares Himself to a rose and a lily, is that
praise? Well, it is to you and to me, but it certainly cannot be to
Him! It is a marvelous stoop for Christ, who is "God over all, blessed
forever," and the Light of the universe, to say, "I am a rose; I am a
lily." O my blessed Lord, this is a sort of Incarnation, as when the
Eternal God did take upon Himself an infant's form! So here, the
Everlasting God says, "I am"–and what comes next?–"a rose and a
lily." It is an amazing stoop! I know not how to set it forth to you by
human language–it is a sort of verbal rehearsal of what He did
afterwards when, though He counted it not robbery to be equal with God,
"He took upon Himself the form of a Servant, and was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and became obedient to death, even the death
of the Cross." "I am God, yet," He says, "I am the rose of Sharon, and
the lily of the valleys."
What does our text mean? I think it means that our Lord Jesus Christ is
exceedingly delightful, so, let us speak, first, of the exceeding
delightfulness of our Lord. And then, inasmuch as He uses two
emblems–first the rose, and then the lily–surely this is to express
the sweet variety of His delightfulness. And, inasmuch as He speaks of
Himself as the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys, I shall
have to show you, in the last place, that this hints to us the
exceedingfreeness of His delightfulness.
I. First, then, the text sets forth THE EXCEEDING DELIGHTFULNESS OF OUR
LORD.
He compares Himself, here, not as in other places, to necessary bread
and refreshing water, but to lovely flowers, to roses and lilies. What
is the use of roses and lilies? I know what the use of corn is–I must
eat it–it is necessary to me for food. I know why barley and rye and
all sorts of roots and fruits are created–they are the necessary food
of man or beast. But what do we need with roses? What do we need with
lilies? They are of no use at all except for joy and delight. With
their sweet form, their charming color and their delicious fragrance,
we are comforted and pleased and delighted, but they are not
necessaries of life. A man can live without roses–there are millions
of people, I have no doubt–who live without possessing lilies of the
valley. There are all too few roses and lilies in this smoky Babylon of
ours, but, when we do get them, what are their uses? Why, they are
things of beauty, if not "a joy forever!"
Jesus is all that and more! He is far more than "a thing of beauty"
and, to all who trust Him, He will be "a joy forever." To you who are
Christ's people, He is your bread, for you feed on Him and He makes you
live! You could not do without Him as the sustenance of your soul. He
is the Living Water and your soul would pine and perish of a burning
thirst if you did not drink of Him! But that is not all that Jesus is
to you–God has never intended to save His people on the scale of the
workhouse–to give you just as much as you absolutely need, and nothing
more. No, no, no! He means you to have joy as well as to have life, to
look upon beauty as well as to be in safety and to have not only a
healthy atmosphere, but an atmosphere that is laden with the odor of
sweet flowers! You are to find in Christ roses and lilies, as well as
bread and water! You have not yet seen all His beauties and you do not
yet know all His excellence!
The exceeding delightfulness of Christ is suggested to our mind by His
declaration, "I am the rose, and I am the lily." And first, He is, in
Himself, the delight of men. He speaks not of offices, gifts, works,
possessions–but of Himself–"I Am." Our Lord Jesus is the best of all
beings! The dearest, sweetest, fairest and most charming of all beings
that we can think of is the Son of God, our Savior! Come here, you
poets who dream of beauty, and then try to sing its praises–but your
imagination could never reach up to the matchless perfection of His
Person–neither could your sweetest music ever attain to the full
measure of His praise! Think of Him as the God-Man, God Incarnate in
human nature and absolutely perfect! I was going to say something more
than that, for there is not only in Him all that there ought to be, but
there is more than your thoughts or wishes have ever compassed! Eyes
need to be trained to see beauty. No man sees half or a thousandth part
of the beauty, even, of this poor, natural world. But the painter's
eyes–the eyes of Turner, for instance–can see much more than you or I
ever saw.
"Oh," said one, when he looked on one of Turner's landscapes, "I have
seen that view every day, but I never saw as much as that in it." "No,"
replied Turner, "don't you wish you could?" And, when the Spirit of God
trains and tutors the eyes, they see in Christ what they never saw
before. But, even then, as Turner's eyes were not able to see all the
mystery of God's beauty in nature, so neither is the most trained and
educated Christian able to perceive all the matchless beauty that there
is in Christ!
I do not think, Brothers and Sisters, that there is anything about
Christ but what should make His people glad. There are dark Truths of
God concerning Him, such as His bearing our sin, but what a joy it is
to us that He did bear it and put it away forever! It makes us weep to
look at Jesus dying on the Cross, but there is more real joy in the
tears of repentance than there is in the smiles of worldly mirth. I
would choose my Heaven to be a Heaven of everlasting weeping for sin
sooner than have a Heaven–if such a Heaven could be–consisting of
perpetual laughing at the mirth of fools! There is more true pleasure
in mourning before God than in dancing before the devil! Christ is,
then, all beauty–even the dark parts in Him are the Light of God–and
the bitter parts are sweet. He has only to be seen by you and you must
perceive that, whether it is His Godhead or His Manhood. Whether it is
His priesthood, His royalty, or His prophetic office. Whether it is on
the Cross or on the Throne. Whether it is on earth, or in Heaven, or in
the Glory of His Second Coming, every way–
"All over glorious is my Lord,
Must be beloved, and yet adored.
His worth, if all the nations knew,
Sure the whole earth would love Him too."
But, next, our Lord is exceedingly delightful to the eyes of faith. He
not only tells us of what delight is in Himself–"I am the rose, and I
am the lily"–but He thereby tells us that there is something to see in
Him, for the rose is very pleasing to look upon. Is there a more
beautiful sight than a rose that is in bud, or even one that is full
blown? And the lily– what a charming thing it is! It seems to be more
a flower of Heaven than of earth! Well now, Christ is delightful to the
eyes of faith. I remember the first time I ever saw Him–I shall never
forget that sight–and, by His Grace, I have seen Him many times since,
but my grief is that I ever take my eyes off Him, for it is to look
away from the sun into blackness! It is to look away from bliss into
misery! To you who look at Christ by faith, a sight of Him brings such
peace, such rest, such hope, as no other sight can ever afford–it so
sweetens everything, so entirely takes away the bitterness of life and
brings us to anticipate the glory of the life that is to come, that I
am sure you say–"Yes, yes, the figure in the text is quite correct,
there is a beauty in Jesus to the eyes of faith! He is, indeed, red as
the rose and white as the lily."
And, next, the Lord Jesus Christ is delightful in the savor which comes
from Him to us. In Him is a delicious, varied, abiding fragrance which
is very delightful to the spiritual nostril. Smell is, I suppose, a
kind of delicate feeling–minute particles of certain substances touch
sensitive membranes–and we call the sensation that is produced,
smelling. It is a mysterious sense. You can understand sight and
hearing better than you can understand smelling. There is a spiritual
way of perceiving the savor of Christ–I cannot explain it to you, but
there is an ineffable mysterious sweetness that proceeds from Him which
touches the spiritual senses and affords supreme delight–and as the
body has its nose, and its tender nerves that can appreciate sweet
odors, so the soul has its spiritual nostril by which, though Christ is
at a distance, it yet can perceive the fragrant emanations that come
from Him and is delighted therewith!
What is there that comes from Christ, from day to day, but His Truth,
His Spirit, His influence, His promises, His doctrines, His words of
cheer? All these have a heavenly sweetness and make us, with the
Psalmist, say to our Lord, "All Your garments smell of myrrh, and
aloes, and cassia out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made You
glad." Whenever these sweet odors are wafted down to us, they also make
us glad–anything that has the savor of Christ in it is sweet to a
Christian! If Christ has touched it, let me put it in my bosom and keep
it there as a sweet forget-me-not until I see His face in Glory! Yes,
the very stones He sat on–I was about to say the very mountains at
which He looked–have become dear to us! We have no idolatrous or
superstitious reverence for Palestine, or even for the garden in which
He sweat great drops of blood, but for spiritual things with which He
has to do, we have a never-ceasing reverence and affection. Everything
that comes from Him is wondrous as the songs of the angels must have
been to the shepherds of Bethlehem–and sweet to the taste as the manna
that dropped from the skies around Israel's desert camp. Yes, Brothers
and Sisters, there is a sweet savor about the Lord Jesus Christ! Do you
all perceive it?
Once more, in all that He is, Christ is the choicest of the choice. You
notice the Bridegroom says, "I am the rose." Yes, but there were some
particularly beautiful roses that grew in the valley of Sharon. "I am
that rose," He said. And there were some delightful lilies in
Palestine–it is a land of lilies! There are so many of them that
nobody knows which lily Christ meant and it does not at all tell us,
for almost all lilies are wondrously beautiful. "But," He said, "I am
the lily of the valleys." The choicest kind of lily grew where the soil
was fat and damp with the overflow of mountain streams. "I am the lily
of the valleys," that is to say, Christ is not only good, but He is the
best! And He is not only the best, but He is the best of the best! He
is a flower–yes, but He is a rose, the queen of flowers–yes, but then
He is the best rose there is, He is the rose of Sharon! He is a Savior,
and a great one. Yes, the only Savior. He is a Husband, but what a
Husband! Was there ever such a Bridegroom as Christ Jesus the Lord? He
is the Head, but Father Adam was a poor head compared with Him! He is
inexpressibly, unutterably, indescribably lovely! I might as well leave
off talking about Him, for I cannot hope to set Him forth as He
deserves! If you could but see Him, I would leave off, for I am sure I
should be only hanging a veil before Him with the choicest words that I
could possibly use!
Suppose you had a dear son, or husband, or friend, far away, and that I
was a painter who could carry pictures in my mind's eye, and then draw
them to the very life. If I stood here, trying to paint your
well-beloved friend, laying on my colors with all the skill I possessed
and doing my best to reproduce his features, suppose, while I was at
work, that the door at the back was opened and he came in? I would cry
out, "Oh, stop, stop, stop! Let me put away my canvas, let me pack up
my brushes and my paints. Here is the loved one, himself–look at him!
Look at him, not at my portrait of him!" And you would rise from your
seat and say, "It is he! It is he! You may talk as long as you like,
dear Sir, when he is away, but when he is, himself, here, your talk
seems but mere chatter." Well, I shall be quite content that you should
think so, I shall be even glad if you do, provided that the reason
shall be that you can say, "We have seen the Lord. He has manifested
Himself to us as He does not to the world." "I am the rose of Sharon,
and the lily of the valleys." The best of the best, the fairest of the
fair, the sweetest of the sweet is Jesus Christ to you and to me if we
are, indeed, His people. I cannot say more about the exceeding
delightfulness of my Lord. I wish I could.
II. I must pass on, next, to notice THE SWEET VARIETY OF CHRIST'S
DELIGHTFULNESS.
He is not only full ofjoy, pleasure and delight to our hearts, but He
is full of all sorts ofjoy, and all sorts of pleasure, and all sorts of
delights to us–
"Nature, to make her beauties known, Must mingle colors not her own."
The rose is not enough. You must also have the lily, and the two
together fall far short of the glories of Christ, the true, "Plant of
renown."
"I am the rose." That is the emblem of majesty. The rose is the very
queen of flowers. In the judgment of all who know what to admire, it is
enthroned above all the rest of the beauties of the garden. But the
lily–what is that? That is the emblem of love. The Psalmist hints at
this in the title of the 45th Psalm. "Upon Shoshannim, a Song of love."
Sho-shannim signifies lilies, so the Lily Psalm is the love song, for
the lilies, with their beauty, their purity, their delicacy, are a very
choice emblem of love! Are you not delighted when you put these two
things together, majesty and love? A King upon a throne of love! A
Prince, whose very eyes beam with love to those who put their trust in
Him, a real Head, united by living bonds of love to all His
members–such is our dear Lord and Savior! A rose and yet a lily. I do
not know in which of the two I take the greater delight–I prefer to
have the two together. When I think that my Savior is King of Kings and
Lord of Lords, I shout, "Hallelujah!" But when I remember that He loved
me and gave Himself for me and that He still loves me, and that He will
keep on loving me forever and ever, there is such a charm in this
thought that nothing can excel it! Look at the lily and sing–
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Your bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high!
Hide me, O my Savior, hide,
Till the storm of life are past.
Safe into the ha ven guide
Oh receive my soul at last!"
Then look at the rose and sing–
"All hail the po wer of Jesus 'name! Let angels prostrate fall. Bring
forth the royal diadem, And crown Him Lord of All!"
Then put the rose and the lily together and let them remind you of
Christ's majesty and love. The combination of these sweet flowers also
suggests our Lord's suffering and purity–
"White is His soul, from blemish free.
Red with the blood He shed for me." The rose, with its thorn, reminds
us of His suffering, His bleeding love to us, His death on our behalf,
His bearing of the thorns which our sin created. Christ is a royal rose
beset with thorns, but the lily shows that–
"For sins not His own
He died to atone."
Jesus, when on earth, could say, "The prince of this world comes, and
has nothing on Me." The devil himself could not see a spot or speck in
that lovely lily! Jesus Christ is perfection, itself! He is all purity,
so you must put the two together, the rose and the lily, to show
Christ's suffering and perfection, the infinitely pure, infinitely
suffering. In which of the two do you take the greater delight? Surely,
in neither, but in the combination of both! What would be the value of
Christ's sufferings if He were not perfect? And of what use would His
perfections be if He had not died, the Just for the unjust, to bring us
to God? But the two together, the rose and the lily, suffering and
purity, fill us with delight!
Of both of these there is a great variety. I wonder how many different
sorts of roses there are? I would not like to have to tell you! They
vary exceedingly–perhaps there are as many kinds as there are days in
the year. How many varieties of lilies are there? Possibly, there are
as many sorts of lilies as there are of roses, for both of them are
wonderfully diversified, but the joys that flow from our Lord Jesus
Christ are as abundant and as varied as the roses and the lilies
together! Bring me which rose you please and I will tell you that it
smells sweet. Bring which lily you choose, and I will say, "Yes, that,
also, has a delicate perfume. That will do, with the rose, to serve as
an emblem of Christ." Our Lord Jesus possesses every kind of beauty and
fragrance. "He is all my salvation and all my desire." All good things
meet in Christ–in Him all the lines of beauty are focused! Blessed are
they who truly know Him.
Further, Christ is the very essence of the sweetness, both of the rose
and of the lily. When He says, "I am the rose," He means not only that
He is like the rose, but that He made all the sweetness there is in the
rose–and it is still in Him! And all the sweetness there is in any
creature comes to us from Christ, or else it is not sweetness such as
we ought to love. I like to look upon the bread I eat as His gift to me
and to bless His Providential hand that bestows it. I like to look upon
all the landscape on such a fair day as this has been, and say, "Christ
is in all this, giving this charming view to such a poor, unworthy
creature as I am." He is in all there is that is good! He is the
goodness of all the good there is! He is the very soul of the universe,
whatever there is in the universe that is worthy of our soul's love!
All good for our soul comes from Him, whether it is pardon of sin, or
justification, or the sanctification that makes us fit for Glory
hereafter, Christ is the Source of it all and in the infinite variety
of delights that we get from Him, He is, Himself, the essence of it
all.
We can become tired of most things. I suppose that we can become tired
of everything earthly. But we shall never tire of Christ! I remember
one who, when near his death hour, forgot even his wife, and she was
greatly grieved that he did not recognize her. They whispered in his
ear the name of his favorite child, but he shook his head. His oldest
friend, who had known him from his boyhood, was not recognized. At last
they asked him, "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Then he said, "Ah, yes, and
by His Grace I am going to Him!" The ruling passion was strong in
death–Christ was nearer and dearer to him than those he loved best on
earth! All flowers will fade, even roses and lilies among them, but not
this blessed Rose of Sharon and Lily of the valleys!
Christ does not say, "I was a rose and I was a lily," but, "I am the
rose, and I am the lily." He is now all that He ever was! And He will
be–in life, in death and throughout all eternity to the soul that
knows Him–an infinite variety of everything that is delightful!
III. I must now, very briefly, take up the last head of my discourse
which is THE EXCEEDING FREENESS OF OUR LORD'S DELIGHTFULNESS.
It is not very pleasant or satisfying for hungry people to stand in the
street and hear someone praising a good meal of which they cannot even
get a taste. I have often noticed boys standing outside a shop window
in which there have been all sorts of dainties–they have flattened
their noses against the window–but they have not been able to get
anything to eat.
I have been talking about my Master and I want to show you that He is
accessible, He is meant to be plucked and enjoyed as roses and lilies
are! He says in the text, "I am the rose of Sharon." What was Sharon?
It was an open plain where anybody might wander and where even cattle
roamed at their own sweet will. Jesus is not like a rose in Solomon's
garden, shut up within high walls with broken glass all along the top.
Oh, no! He says, "I am the rose of Sharon," everybody's rose, the
flower for the common people to come and gather. "I am the lily." What
lily? The lily of the palace of Shushan, enclosed and guarded from all
approach? No. but, "I am the lily of the valleys," found in this glen,
or the other ravine, growing here, there and everywhere! "I am the lily
of the valleys."
Then Christ is as abundant as a common flower. Whatever kind of rose it
was, it was a common rose. Whatever kind of lily it was, it was a
well-known lily that grew freely in the valleys of that land. Oh,
blessed be my Master's name, He has brought us a common salvation and
He is the common people's Christ! Men in general do not love Him
enough, or else they would have hedged Him in with all sorts of
restrictions–they would have made a franchise for Him and nobody would
have been able to be saved except those who paid, I know not how much a
year in taxes! But they do not love our Lord enough to shut Him in and
I am glad they have never tried to do so. There He stands, at the four
Cross roads, so that everybody who comes by and wants Him, may have
Him! He is a Fountain bearing this inscription, "Let him that is
thirsty, come. And whoever will, let him of take the Water of Life
freely."
"I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys." Why do roses
grow in Sharon? Why do lilies grow in the valleys? Why, to be plucked,
of course! I like to see the children go down into the meadow when it
is decked in grass and adorned with flowers–gilded with buttercups, or
white with the day's-eyes! I love to see the children pluck the flowers
and fill their aprons with them, or make garlands and twist them round
their necks, or put them on their heads. "O children, children!"
somebody might cry, "do not spoil those beautiful flowers, do not go
and pick them." Oh, but they may! Nobody says they may not–they may
not go into our gardens and steal the geraniums and the fuchsias–but
they may get away into the meadows, or into the open fields and pluck
these common flowers to their heart's content! And now, poor Soul, if
you would like an apron full of roses, come and have them! If you would
like to carry away a big handful of the lilies of the valleys, come and
take them–as many as you will! May the Lord give you the will! That
is, after all, what is needed. If there is that Grace-given will, the
Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the valleys will soon be yours! They are
common flowers, growing in a common place, and there are plenty of
them–will you not take them?
Even to those who do not pluck any, there is one strange thing that
must not be forgotten. A man passes by a rose bush, and says, "I cannot
stop to think about roses," but as he goes along, he exclaims, "Dear,
dear, what a delicious perfume!" A man journeying in the East goes
through a field that is full of lilies. He is in a great hurry, but,
for all that, he cannot help seeing and smelling the lilies as he
rushes through the field. And, do you know, the perfume of Christ has
life in it? He is "a savor of life to life." What does that mean but
that the smell of Him will save? Ah, if you do but glance at Him,
though you were so busy that you could not come in till the sermon had
begun, yet a glance at this Lily will bring you joy and peace, for He
is so free that, often, even when men are not asking for Him, He comes
to them!
"What?" you say, "is it really so?" Yes, that it is! Such is the
freeness of Christ's Grace that it is written, "I am found of them that
sought Me not." He sends His sweet perfume into nostrils that never
sniffed after it. He puts Himself in the way of eyes that never looked
for Him! How I wish that some man who has never sought for Christ might
find Him even now! You remember the story that Christ tells of the man
that was plowing the field? He was only thinking of the field and how
much corn it would take to sow it. He was plowing up and down, when
suddenly his plowshare hit upon something hard. He stopped the oxen and
took his spade, and dug, and there was an old crock full of gold!
Somebody had hidden it away and left it. This man had never looked for
it, for he did not even know it was there, but he had stumbled on it,
as men say, by accident. What did he do? He did not tell anybody, but
he went off to the man who was the owner of the field and he said,
"What will you take for that field?" "Can you buy it?" "Yes, I want it.
What will you take for it?"
The price was so high that he had to sell the house he lived in, his
oxen and his very clothes off his back, but he did not care about that!
He bought the field and he bought the treasure. And then he was able to
buy back his clothes, his house, his oxen and everything else. If you
find Christ and if you have to sell the coat off your back in order to
get Him! If you have to give up everything you have that you may find
Him, you will have such a treasure in Him that, for the joy of finding
Him, you would count all the riches of Egypt to be less than nothing
and vanity!
But you need not sell the coat off your back–Christ is to be had for
nothing–only you must give Him yourself. If He gives Himself to you
and He becomes your Savior, you must give yourself to Him and become
His servant. Trust Him, I beseech you! The Lord help you to do so, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: GENESIS 8:15-22; JEREMIAH33:15-26.
Genesis 8:15-21. And God spoke to Noah, saying, Go out of the ark, you,
and your wife, and your sons, and your sons' wives with you. Bring
forth with you every living thing that is with you, of all flesh, both
of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creeps upon
the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be
fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And Noah went out and his sons,
and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: every beast, every creeping
thing, and every fowl, and whatever creeps upon the earth, after their
kinds, went forth out of the ark. And Noah built an altar to the LORD,
and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savor. Until
then the earth had been obnoxious to Jehovah. He had put it away from
Him as a foul thing, drowned beneath the flood. But after the offering
of Noah's sacrifice, the Lord smelled "a savor of rest."
21, 22. And the LORD said in His heart, I will not again curse the
ground. And any more for man's sake, for the imagination of man's heart
is evil from his youth; neither will I again strike any more every
thing living, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and
harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night
shall not cease. Thus we see what we may expect so long as the earth
remains, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Now let us read a few
verses from Jeremiah's prophecy.
Jeremiah 33:15. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the
Branch of Righteousness to grow up to David; and He shall execute
judgment and righteousness in the land. In the latter days, at the
glorious appointed time, Jesus Christ will grow up like a Branch out of
the stem of Jesse. The dynasty of David now seems like a tree cut down,
whose stock is buried under the ground, but, "the Branch of
Righteousness" shall appear in due time, and Jesus, the Son of David,
"shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land."
16. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD
Our Righteousness. What a wonderful unity there is between Christ and
His Church! She actually takes His name–"The Lord Our Righteousness."
17, 18. For thus says the LORD; David shall never lack a man to sit
upon the throne of the house of Israel, neither shall the priests, the
Levites lack a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle
meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually. This shows that the
Covenant was not a literal and fleshly one, made with David and his
seed according to the flesh, or with the priests and their seed
according to the flesh. There is a Kingdom that can never be moved–and
our Lord sits on that Throne. There is a Priesthood which is
everlasting, it is held by that great High Priest who has offered one
Sacrifice for sins, forever, and who abides a Priest forever after the
order of Melchisedec.
19, 22. And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Thus says
the LORD; If you can break My covenant with the day, and My covenant
with the night, and that there should not be day and night in their
season, then may also My Covenant be broken with David, My servant,
that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the
Levites the priests, My ministers. As the host of Heaven cannot be
numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured: so will I multiply the
seed of David, My servant, and the Levites that minister to Me. So that
they are, at this day, the seed of Jesus, the Son of David, who shall
count them! And the company of those whom He has made to be kings and
priests to God, who but He can number them!
23-26. Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, Consider
you not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which
the LORD has chosen, He has even cast them off? Thus they have despised
My people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus says
the LORD, If My Covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not
appointed the ordinances of Heaven and earth; then will I cast away the
seed of Jacob, and David, My servant, so that I will not take any of
his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I
will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them. This
shall be literally fulfilled in the latter days, I doubt not, but it is
even now being fulfilled to the spiritual seed of Jacob and David! The
Covenant of Grace is made sure to all the seed, even to as many as have
believed on Christ's name.