Song of Solomon 1:12  While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.
13  A bundle of myrrh is my wellbeloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts.
14  My beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphire in the vineyards of Engedi.
15  Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes.
16  Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant: also our bed is green.
17  The beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of fir.

There is such a vast difference between Biblical salvation/Christianity and what is the popularly accepted average testimony of salvation/Christianity. The sad reality is that for many, the testimony of today’s professing Christian supersedes what the Bible says. I was sent a link to a testimony of Alice Cooper. According to his testimony, he was raised in a Christian home. He went to church every Sunday and was there on Friday nights as well. Yet, he chose to go, as he states: to the dark side.
What must be understood is that going to church does not make anyone a Christian. Being an usher or even a preacher, does not make a person a Christian. A true Biblical Christian is someone who has been changed from the heart out. That change is not based on a list of laws someone gave you. It is based on the Book called the law of the Lord. We call that book the Bible, it is also called the Holy Bible. It is the Word of God. That title can only be placed on the true Word of God — the King James Version, for the English speaking world. The change that matters is due to surrendering to the Author of that Book, the God of creation, and the Saviour of mankind — the Lord Jesus Christ.
From correspondence I have received in the past, I know there will be people who will be fuming mad at what I am saying, but they cannot support their hostility from the Word of God. They can only support it from their “experience” and what some other compromised person like Alice Cooper has to say.
As we look at the Song of Solomon, we see what God says about true Christianity. It is focused in knowing the true Jesus, the eternal Son of God. When a person actually knows this Jesus, they do not take offence when evil is exposed. They are jealous for the purity of that relationship with Christ and they want others to know that relationship is so pure that we, the true saints, never achieve the fulness of that purity until we enter heaven. Jesus Christ is always pure. We enter into that life of purity at the New Birth and we grow to become purer as we walk with Him. We see in this book that there is an intimacy described here that is unique. The true saint cannot help but become more Christlike as he/she lives this life of intimacy with the true God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The shelves of certain areas of our stores are full of varieties of perfume. Some places ask that no perfumes be worn due to some people’s allergies. That was obviously not a problem in our text. The bride here is noting the scent of her perfume that is wafting to where the king was sitting at his table. He may have been hungry, but the smell of her perfume would not be missed by him. The relationship here is sweet and it is overpowering.
This is again a picture of the relationship there is between the true saints and the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a sweetness there that overtakes everything else. The Bible does tell us that the old man is still around in the saved person. It is possible to be in the flesh as a true child of God. It is also a fact that the true child of God cannot remain in that fleshly state. The true child of God has the indwelling Holy Spirit in him/her. The true child of God will face the chastening of the Lord if he or she persists in sin. We are warned not to put the Lord to the test. We have His Word and we know what is right and what is wrong. As we read in this book, the true child of God does not want to be distant from the Lord. He wants to be up close and intimate with the Lord.
In verse 13 we see that the groom also had a cologne on. Myrrh was taken from the myrrh-bark tree. It was a pleasant fragrance used in Bible times. It was one of the gifts the wise men brought to young Jesus when they arrived where He was. The bride would welcome her groom to lie right close to her with his head between her breasts. That is a special place reserved only for the groom or a new born child. That implication is different there. For the groom, this is a privileged place his bride is inviting him to because of her love for him.
In the spiritual sense, the Lord Jesus Christ is welcomed into the heart and life of the saint. The saint wants to know Him better all the time. There is no restriction placed on the Lord’s place in a true child of God.
Engedi is a desert oasis on the west shore of the Dead Sea. We do not know for sure what the cluster of camphire is. Some have suggested it is the Lawsonia alba of botanists, the henna of Arabian naturalists. The henna plant grows in Egypt, Syria, Arabia and northern India. The flowers are white and grow in clusters, and are very fragrant. The whole shrub is from four to six feet high,
In verses 15-17 we have a further description of the adoration the bride has for her groom. The bride discovers many things about her groom in the marriage. She is of the mindset to want to know him better and adore him more. As we see throughout Scripture, God teaches a patriarchal way of thinking. The bride has her place, but as we see from the creation of man, the woman was created to be the “help meet for the man”. She was not to be the dominant person. Eve listened to the lie of the devil and chose to allow herself to be deceived by the devil. Adam chose to yield to the deception she had accepted. He was to blame for bringing sin into this world.
Many churches today have adopted a false philosophy that the church dictates what truth is, not God. Too many churches love the world, rather than Christ. This is evident in the music standards and in the dress standards. The preaching has been changed to story telling and occasionally a truth might be slipped in but it is quickly covered over by more story telling.
We see in this book that you cannot have that sweet, intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ if He must be subservient to your opinions. He does not need to bow to man’s whims. He is right and He is Truth.

I John 2:15  Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17  And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

God is very clear that the true child of God needs to build that intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that is begun at salvation. We need to guard against adopting the lies of the devil. The saying goes: “all that glitters is not gold”. At this season on our calendars there is certainly much temptation to dwell on that which glitters and glows. By January that stuff is all gone and many of the gifts are put away. God does not want us to go through a moment of euphoria and then drop down to the doldrums. He wants us to build our lives on Truth and continue to develop that intimacy and sweetness that He offers to His children through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pastor Bartel