I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. – Song of Songs 2:1

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 focussed. Blessed are they who truly know Him. 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 to 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 be 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 favourite 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 I am going to Him.” The ruling passion was strong in death; Christ was nearer and dearer to him than those he loved best here. All Bowers 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. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2472.cfm

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. – Song of Songs 2:1

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,” said He. And there were some delightful lilies in (Israel); 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 signify, for almost all lilies are wondrously beautiful. “But,” said He, “I am the lily of the valleys,” the choicest kind of lily that 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; ay, but He is a rose, that is the queen of flowers; ay, but then He is the best rose there is, He is the rose of Sharon. He is a Savior, and a great one; yea, 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 should 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 unto 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. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2472.cfm

All Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad. – Psalm 45:8

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…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 odours, so the soul has its spiritual nostril by which, though Christ be 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 Thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made Thee glad.” Whenever these sweet odours are wafted down to us, they make us also 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. Ay, the very stones He sat on, 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, brethren and sisters, there is a sweet savor about the Lord Jesus Christ; do you all perceive it? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2472.cfm

I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. – Song of Songs 2:1

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 want with roses? What do we want 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 for ever.” 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 for ever.” 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 odour 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 He is in Himself the delight of men. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2472.cfm

The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. – John 7:46

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; yet why is He a fountain but that we may come unto Him, and drink? He tells us, “I am the bread which came down from heaven;” but why does He speak of Himself as bread, whereof if a man eat, 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 other 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 spake 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 thee, and not thine own mouth,” I would say to Christ, “My Master, praise Thyself, for Thou alone canst do it as it ought to be done.” As for Thy poor servant, he would try to be the echo of Thy voice, and that will be infinitely better than anything he can say of himself. ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2472.cfm