Loving My Beloved Lord
By Nick Bibile
3:1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my
soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.
2 I will rise now and go about the city, in
the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought
him, but found him not. 3 The watchmen found
me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom
my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him
into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
Many
have opposed to this book as they say, the Lord is not in this book but Song of
Solomon is poetical and shows the romantic love between the bride and the
bridegroom. This book is in the Bible; there is symbolic expression, poetical
expression. It has great spiritual meaning. Here we see the romantic love
relationship between the bridegroom in this case the Lord Jesus Christ and the
Bride (Church)
The true bride of Christ, the church is always longing for
the Bridegroom. There are so many who believe they are Christians and if you
ask them if they love the Lord Jesus, instantly without any hesitation they
would say yes. But unfortunately many
do not love the Lord from the bottom of their soul. There is a divine curse for
not loving the Lord.
1
Cor 16: If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed.
How
can you love Jesus when you have never seen him?
It
is important to understand the spiritual birth of the Christian, as it is not
an earthly birth. The spiritual birth is by the power of the Holy Spirit, then
we become God’s temple. The ministry of the Holy Spirit will testify of Jesus.
(See John 1:13; 16:13)
John
20:29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who
have not seen and yet have believed.”
1Pet 1:8 Though you have not seen
him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and
rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.
There
are some who would love Jesus because he can help us, these people forget God
soon after church and only when problems come they remember Jesus; they would
like Jesus to be in their life only to solve problems. They may say, “It’s good
to have God, so he can help us.” Here we see the motive is not right, as Jesus
becomes one of their tools to solve their problems.
Also
some love God because of fear. They have heard of hell and the lake of fire.
They don’t want to go there when they die. So they will force to go to church,
force themselves to read the Bible, force them to pray even force themselves to
give thanks to God because of fear. It is like having a very strict husband,
the wife is living in fear, in fear she will serve him, in fear she will force
herself to satisfy him. Beloved this is not true love. In this sermon I am
going to show you the true love of the believer.
We need to love Christ as a real person.
There
are some, who would love by falling down to an image of Christ, but that image
is not real, it’s made by man’s hand. There are some who would love Christ by
going to church every Sunday, they remember Christ on Sunday and they give
their love to Christ every Sunday, once they leave the church that love is
gone, this is a ritual, traditional love. This is like loving your husband or
wife once a week. You cannot have a true real living love with a dead person,
you cannot have a true love with a system of religion, you can love only a true
living person then there are others who have knowledge of Christ, they love the
knowledge more than the person of Christ. We need to love Christ as a real
person, because Jesus is alive, he is a real person. Because he is real our
love to him should be a flaming love. A love with fire, hot burning love.
This true love comes from the bottom of the heart.
Now
look at Song of Solomon chapter three. It is a love of the soul, from the very
bottom of the heart. Your soul long for him, you will look for him until you
are satisfied. Once you find your true
lover, you will not let him go. This is true love of the Bride to the
Bridegroom. This is our love to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the love of Mary
Magdalene.
Jesus
was crucified, dead and buried but how Mary Magdalene missed him, she went to
the tomb looking for the dead body weeping outside the tomb. It was still very
dark in the morning and two angels appeared and asked, “woman why are you
weeping?” She said, “They have taken away my Lord and I don’t know whey they
have laid him.” Mary had a burning hot flaming love for the Lord, like in Song
of Solomon, her soul is not satisfied until she sees whom she love. Then there
was Jesus standing and asked her woman, why are you weeping and whom are you
seeking?” Because it was still too dark in the morning she could not recognize
him and she thought he was the gardener. She told him, “Sir, if you have
carried him away, tell me where you laid him, I will take him away.” Note,
Jesus called her woman. But when Jesus said to her, “Mary” Oh, that became very
personal, she recognized his sweet voice. She turned and tried to cling to him.
Just like in the Song of Solomon when the Bride found him would not let him go.
This is the soul searching burning true love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let
me give you an example. If you take an infant from the mother’s true love, give
that infant to another woman to be taken care of, the other woman does not have
the true mother’s love but give the infant back to the true mother whom she
love, then there is a real love between the child and the mother. Yes, my
beloved, we need to love Christ as a real person with a real burning soul
searching love. We want real Christ, not a picture of Christ, not only when you
are in church or reading the Bible or having a devotional time, not only the
doctrine and theology of Christ but a passionate flaming love for Christ. You
need to feel Christ as a real person, where he is really present with you where
ever you go; he is real with you so you can talk to him like you talk to your
best friend. You would talk to him the most intimate things where you cannot
tell others.
Make absolutely sure that you love Christ.
If
I ask some of you listening, do you really love Christ, some may say, “I think
I love Christ.” Just imagine apostle Peter telling Jesus, “I think I love you.”
What kind of love is that? That would not be true love at all. If your wife or
husband tells you, “I think I love you.” Or “Sometimes I love you.” That is not
true love that love is a fake, poisonous, dangerous love. That is the love of
Judas, who would love Jesus for his own selfish reasons. God forbid that you
would never ever dream of such ordinary fake love to Jesus. So my beloved, make sure you are absolutely
standing on the Rock of Jesus and your love is true and real to him.
We cannot
love two at the same time. Then the love of the other is less. There are so
many who would love the Lord and at the same time they would love others more
than the Lord. It could be the material things of the world, their flesh pants
thirst after the things of this world. Their heart is set upon the sports
stars, movie actors and actresses, Hollywood stars, politics, so they don’t
have time for Jesus. This is lukewarm love.
Revelation
3:16 so, because you are
lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.
If
you love any other more than Christ Jesus you commit spiritual adultery, you
are like a prostitute to the Lord.
Jeremiah
3:1 “If a
man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played
the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.
James
4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not
know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever
wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
There
was a Persian husband and wife who attended a royal wedding. The royal
bridegroom was very noble and handsome looking. On their return home, the husband
asks the wife, “Wasn’t he noble and handsome”? The wife replied, “I have no
beauty of other man than my husband.” Yes, my beloved, Satan will put other
beauties in front of you, but keep your eyes fixed on the beauty of Christ, as
Christ is altogether lovely. Can you say, “It’s Christ but nothing else.”
Do
you love your husband, wife or your children more than Christ Jesus? It will be
easy to say with your mouth ‘yes’ but when you come to a situation between
Christ and our family, whom do you love most? Let me tell you a true story.
There was this puritan by the name of Nicholas Ferrar who lived in England in
the 1600’s. He loved his wife and the father of 12 little children. The day he
was to be taken to be martyred his enemies made his wife and children to be on
the roadside. His enemies’ thought when he would see his wife and little
children he would deny the Lord Jesus so he will escape the fire and be freed.
But he took one by one his little children to his bosom, he looked and looked
again at them, he kissed his wife and he gave his family unto the hands of God
as he trusted his heavenly Father would take care of them. He was martyred
boldly in the name of the Lord. Yes, it is the same love of Abraham, who loved
the Lord more than his son Isaac. We all must have a burning love like this for
the Lord.
This
love is not ordinary love it is a love from the very bottom of the soul. It is
a hot, burning flaming love. Yes, we can talk about his love, we can teach his
love, we can preach his love, but do you really love him? I know you can pray
to him, but do you really love him? I know you trust him, but do you really
love him? Faith may stand at a distance but true love to Christ must be at the
bottom of the heart in your very soul. It is a love of Mary Magdalene had. It
is the love of the woman who poured all the expense perfume on Jesus. It is the
love of the thief on the cross with extreme severe pain did not complain or murmur
but acknowledge the Lord; it is the love of the apostles who gave their bodies
to be crucified, stoned, as they loved the Lord. Do you know this love brothers and sisters? Chris Jesus is a real
person; love him as a real person wherever you go, have a passionate love for
him.
Because
of his infinite loveliness. There is no other reason. What do you mean that
Jesus is infinitely lovely? We are not talking of his physical beauty but his
inward loveliness. His character, him as a person and his life. The inward
beauty of Christ that attracted the sinners to lay their sins. We love him
because he loved us first.
1
John 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
Although
he was God, he became a servant and came down to this earth for you. He obeyed
all of God’s law that you violated. He went to the cross; remember how
difficult it was, at Gethsemane he prayed so hard, the sweat turned into blood.
Remember he was thinking of you. They put a thorn of crown on him, blind folded
him, spat him, mocked at him, whipped him but he never uttered a word, he was
thinking of you. He carried his cross and he was nailed to the cross, he was
thinking of you, he cried to the Father, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Yes,
he was with the Father from the very beginning, he was never separated from the
love of the Father but when all your sins were poured upon Jesus, there was a
very short separation of the Father and the Son for the first time because of
sin. This separation was for the sake of you, the elect of God. He rose from the dead, he is alive and he is
in heaven interceding for you and he is coming back for you, and one day there
will be a great wedding in heaven. This is the loveliness of Christ.
Yes,
my beloved, you and I were black in sin, wretched, miserable sinful creatures
we were, we did not love God we hated God by sinning against him, yet it was
the Lord Jesus who came down to this earth and plucked us from the gates of
hell brought us to the bosom of the Father.
Now
from today, demonstrate your true love to God in your daily life.
John
14:23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love
him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”
Let
the world see that you are not just a Christian by label, but Christ is really
in you and your soul love him from the very bottom of your heart. You may ask
how do I do it? You don’t have to shave your head and become like a monk. Go
home now engage in your regular daily work, but love Christ as a person, talk
to him as you talk to a person, remember his presence is always there,
demonstrate your love to him, show your love to him inwardly and outwardly,
don’t feel shy of your love to Christ. Yes beloved daily search for him through
the word of God, cling unto him for the rest of your life.