Can you see? ? Lord and Savior ? ? Can you hear
His blessed word ? ? As He calls to do His will ? Believe me It's your cry I need
thee, Lord Held by God's unchanging hand I'm held by God's unchanging
hand. With his mighty hand, he lifted
me. I'm held by God's unchanging
hand. ? And for the king of glory ? ?
Lamb of God, the great I am ? ? He will never fail me ? ? Never leave me ? ? None can pluck me from this land ? ? Held by God's unchanging
hand ? Hail, my God's unchanging hand. With his mighty hand, he lifted
me. I'm hail. unchanging man. As he calls you to believe him,
here's your cry, I need thee, Lord. Oh, my. I still call them girls, you
know, and they all got grandbabies. But it never failed to be a blessing
to my heart. Oh, what a blessing. Well, John Chapman, pastor of
Bethel Baptist Church in Spring Lake, North Carolina. Been knowing him, oh, my goodness,
a long time. And I love you and appreciate
you. You come bring the Lord's message, John. You three ladies can come over
to Donny's and sing us to sleep tonight. Just lock the door on
your way out. That was beautiful. I'm glad to be here. I've been
coming down here, filling in for Donnie when I was just a
young man, my early 20s. I'm not in my early 20s no more.
I'm not even in my early 60s anymore. But I'm glad to be here. Thank
you for your hospitality, and Donnie and Cheryl, your hospitality
to me and Vicki. We appreciate it. Turn to the
Song of Solomon, Chapter 2. Lord willing, I'm going to stay
in the book of Song of Solomon today and tomorrow. I titled
this message Lovesick. Lovesick. Somebody that's lovesick can't think of anyone else but
the one they love. They can't wait to be with them. Their whole life is geared up
around them. They're just lovesick. I know something about that when
I was a young man. They couldn't get me to work
overtime anymore. I wasn't going to work the weekends no more.
I had someplace else to be. You just can't keep from thinking
of them. David experienced this. He said
in Psalm 73, 25, Whom have I in heaven but thee? There are so many people who
say they want to go to heaven to see mom and dad, grandma and
grandpa, this one and that one. But the believer says, whom have
I in heaven but thee? But thee. And there is none upon
earth, while I live on this earth, that I desire beside thee, above
thee. It's not that we don't love one
another and our family, we do, but not above Christ. not above
Him. You know, Paul said, I have a
desire to depart and be with the Lord. Not to just depart,
not just to get out of this world of trouble, but to be with someone,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He has such a yearning to be
with the Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship that we have
in Christ and with Christ is one of love. Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? The Lord said
this, By this shall all men know you are my disciples if you have
love one to another. if you have love one to another
by this shall all men know you're my disciples." Now, he starts
out here in verse 1. I'm going to do a little verse-by-verse
here, and I'll try to do it quickly, but I love the way it starts
out. I am. I am that I am, am the Rose of
Sharon and the Lily of the Valley. We think of God, we think of
someone great and glorious, and He is. We never think of him
as a rose or a lily. He comes down onto our level
and expresses himself to us as a rose, a beautiful rose or a
beautiful lily. And he says, he says, I am, I
am that I am, am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley.
Sharon was a very fruitful place. David fed his cattle there over
in First Chronicles. It's mentioned as a place of
excellence in Isaiah 35, and it was a place of flocks. They
fed the flocks there in Sharon. And here our Lord compares Himself
to the rose of Sharon. He's like a rose for His sweet
fragrance of grace. He SMELLS of grace. You know when Christ is preached,
just when our brother did here just a little bit ago, there's
a sweet smell that takes over the room. Sweet smell of grace. And it pours, listen, grace pours
from His lips. That's what comes from His lips. And He's likened to a rose in
that He's altogether lovely. When she describes Him over in
chapter 5, He's ALL TOGETHER LOVELY, not a SPOT or BLEMISH
in Him. ALL TOGETHER LOVELY. He also calls Himself the Lily
of the Valleys. A lily is a beautiful white flower
that grows in the valleys. The Lord Jesus Christ is PURE
and HOLY. No BLEMISH in Him, He's HOLY.
He KNEW NO SIN. And whatever valley you and I
find ourselves in, He's there. He's there. The lily's there.
That pure, white, beautiful lily is right there in the valley
with us. When you go through the waters, He didn't say, I'll
be on the other side waiting on you. When you go through the
waters, I'll be with you. When you go through it, I'll
be there. I'll be with you. I'm not waiting on you. I'll
be with you. My what, what love? This is over
my head. To preach such love that brought
him into this world and to redeem a wretch like me and you, you
who believe. I can't, it's love that passes
understanding. And notice how Christ compares
what He compares His Church to in verse 2. As the lily among
thorns, so is My love among the daughters. She s a lily, too. You know, the Word of God says,
As He is, so are we in this world. Is he a lily? So are we. Is he
holy? So are we. Is he righteous? So
are we. Is he a son? So are we. Is he
accepted? So are we. As he is, so are we
in this world. So he calls his church a lily. And he says she's like a lily
among thorns. She lives in an ungodly world.
She lives among the cursed. You know, the thorns came from
the curse. She lives among the cursed. But
in her living among the cursed, she's still pure and holy. Job, he said, is a perfect, upright
man. Perfect! Really? Absolutely. In Christ, we are
perfect. We are literally perfect in Jesus
Christ. We are perfect. And I'll tell
you what her beauty is. Her beauty is her oneness with
her Lord. In Christ we are one. We are
one. And the world, listen, the world
is not worthy of her presence. The world is not worthy of your
presence. Hebrews 1138, of whom the world
was not worthy. The world doesn't even recognize
what it has in its midst. God's people. God's people. The sun shines for you today
and the world enjoys it. The rain is for you. The sun
shines for you. Every day is for you. Everything
God does, He does for us in this world. And the world gets to
enjoy it. It rains on the just and the
unjust. The unjust gets to share in that
rain, but it rains for the just. That's why it rains. Take the
church out of this world and there's no more reason for it
to exist at all. And notice here in verse 2, she
compares him now to an apple tree. As the apple tree among
the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I
sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit
was sweet to my taste. Now the church compares him to
an apple tree. And rightly so, for an apple
tree is good for food. You know, you could walk into
a forest or you could go to California where the big redwoods are. Oh,
how impressive. But you could starve to death
under a redwood. But there's nothing so sweet
as an apple. And there's none so sweet as
our Lord, none so kind, none so generous, none so gracious,
none so loving, none so caring as the Lord Jesus Christ is to
us. He's so good to us, I think, Lord, you're so good to me. He
is. THERE IS NONE TO BE COMPARED
TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AMONG THE SONS OF MEN. SHE SAID, AS
THE APPLE TREE AMONG THE TREES OF THE WOODS, SO IS MY BELOVED
AMONG THE SONS. NONE TO BE COMPARED TO HIM. SCRIPTURE
SAYS HE'S THE FAIREST, OR PSALM 45 TOO, THOU ART FAIRER THAN
THE CHILDREN OF MEN. NONE COMPARED TO YOU. GRACE IS
POURED INTO THY LIPS OR FROM THY LIPS. None like Him. And I sat down. Rest. You know you can never have real
rest until you find it in Christ. If you never find rest in Christ,
you're never going to find it. He's our rest. He's our Sabbath.
Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. And I sat down under His shadow,
His presence. You know, if you're going to
have a shadow, you've got to be present. There's got to be near. If something's
going to cast a shadow, it has to be near. And here she is,
she said, I find my rest in his presence. In his presence. And I did so with great delight.
I've never met, I've yet to meet a believer that's mad because
God saved him. I've never met one. I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, glad to be there. Are you glad
to be here this morning? Or this evening? Get my bearings
right. You glad to be here? Oh great,
and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Was that message that
Chris brought, was it not sweet to your taste? I still taste
it. Sweet to my taste. The gospel
sweet to my taste. I thank God he's given me an
appetite for Christ. I thank God he's given me a taste
for the Lord Jesus Christ. When I was young, there was a
lot of things I didn't like that I love now. And when I was a
young teenager, I did not have anything to do with Christ. It
never entered my mind. And now it's the joy of my life.
It's a joy to preach Him. It's a burden. It's a burden
to stand here and do this. It's called a burden of the Word
of the Lord. Charles Spurgeon said, if you don't find the Word
to be a burden now, you will then. It's a burden, but it's
also a privilege. I get to stand here, this clay
crackpot gets to stand here and brag on Jesus Christ. My soul. Oh, I sat down under His shadow
with great delight and His fruit sweet to my taste. The church
finds great delight sitting at the feet of Christ, protected
by His power. Enjoying His love and His grace
and communing with Him in the cool of His shade. Feeding in
His green pastures. You know, the Word of God are
the green pastures. And He feeds us in them week after week. It's
where His sheep eat. And we find real rest under the
shadow of His love and grace. We do. We find real rest. And
His fruit, He says, sweet to my taste. This is communion with
Him. You know, it's a sad relationship,
a sad marriage when the husband and wife don't communicate with
one another. And most break down just for that fact, they don't
communicate with one another. You know, relationships are something
we work on our whole life. Our whole life. If it's going
to be a good relationship, a good marriage, you work on it your
whole life. His fruit sweet to my taste.
This is communion. And those who have tasted that
the Lord is gracious find Him to be sweet. And He brought me to the banqueting
house. Here's our Lord's generosity.
He brought me to the banqueting house. That's where you are right
now. This is the banqueting house. We're drinking of the wine of
His grace, of His love and His mercy. One more time. With desire, He told His disciples,
with desire I've desired, eat this with you. You know, our
Lord, we can't comprehend this, of the desire that He has, the
joy He has when His people gather together to be here in their
midst and to bless them and to comfort them. what we miss when
we when we don't come when we miss what we when we don't come
what we miss he brought me he takes her from the shadow to
the banquet in house the house of wine he gives her the fruit
of the tree and then the fruit of the vine he said I'm the vine
you're the branches he takes his church from the types to
the real and he brought me it doesn't say he invited her He didn't invite her to the banqueting
house. He said, you know, here's an invitation, would you? He
brought her. He picked her up and brought
her to the banqueting house. By His Spirit, He brought her.
By His Word, He brought her. By His power, He brought her.
You know, it's the Lord who brought me into His church. I didn't join the church. The Lord brought me into it.
He brought me into His church. He made me a member of His body.
He made me a member of His church, His bride. You know, that's what's
going on right now. That's what's going on right
now. When the bride is finished, when she has all the parts, every
believer that make up the bride of Christ, when she is finally
finished, then this will be over and she'll be presented in glory
to the Son. Can you imagine what it was like
when Adam named all the animals and he says there was none like
Adam. There's none like him. And so
what did God do? He said, I'm going to make him
a mate, a helpmate. He took a rib from Adam And he
formed a woman and brought her to Adam. And Adam said, this
is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. This is one. This is
one with me. That's exactly what God's doing
right now with the church. He is forming and bringing the
church right out of the Lord Jesus Christ. His own bride is
coming from him. It's coming from Him. It's going
to be just like Him. There's none like Him. God said
there's none like Him. And there's none like Christ.
And you know what He's doing right now? He's conforming His
Bride to the image of Christ. Now there's going to be one like
Him. There's going to be one like Him. He brought her to the banqueted
house. And His banner over me was LOVE. Everyone's going to know, everyone's
going to know, THIS is the one I love. THIS is my love. Not ashamed of her, and she's
not ashamed of him. What a beautiful picture here.
He's claiming me as His love. This is my love. He doesn't slip
the church into the banqueting house. He makes an OPEN DISPLAY
of her. This is the one I love. We are
going to be displayed in glory as trophies of His grace. Trophies
of God's grace. That's the only reason anyone
will be there is because of Him. I did nothing to be there. Nothing,
no more than Eve did anything to be in the garden with Adam.
She had nothing to do with it. God did it. God did it. God did it all. His banner over
me is love, was love. He put a banner of electing love,
eternal love, persevering love. I can't conceive that there was
never a time he didn't love me. And here's something else. He
knew everything about me and still loved me. Now somebody
loves you when they know every secret, every thought, everything
about you and still love you. Only God can do that. Only God
can love like that. Everyone will know that Christ
loves His church. Everyone. And she says, stay
me with flagons, strengthen me with flagons, comfort me with
apples, for I am sick of love, I'm lovesick. That's what she's
saying, I'm lovesick. Strengthen me, I'm weak in the
knees. I'm so lovesick, I'm weak in the knees. Oh, strengthen me. Give me more
of the fruit of His love. More about Jesus would I know. Tell me about Him. Give me more
of His grace and kindness and mercy. Tell me more about it.
Tell me more about my beloved. You know, if you ask someone
to show you their children, I've never had anybody say, no, you
don't want to see them. Let me show you my dog. You don't
want to see them. They throw that billfold out
or whatever and just start flipping through. And you can't, you know,
you say something good about them and they're just beaming.
I mean, it's just like, they love them. They love them. Oh, give me more of him, more
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because I'm lovesick. I'm so
sick of lovesick. Just talk to me about him. Just
mention his name. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. Lovesick ought to be our state.
It ought to be the state we live in. Overcome with love. Overpowered by his love. Thinking
of it, thinking of Him and what He's done for us. She says, I'm lovesick. She says,
His left hand's under my head and His right hand doth embrace
me. Constantly supports His church
and constantly supports us individually. He holds me tight. He holds me
tight. You know, if we could just realize
How tight the Lord has us! How hugged up He has us! He has
us so hugged up! If we could just realize that.
The disciples, CARES THOU NOT THAT WE PERISH? What do you think
He's here for? What do you think He's here for?
He's here because He CARES! He's here because He CARES! Oh, how shameful is that? Cares
thou not that we perish? His left hand is under my head,
holding me, and his right hand has got me braced right to his
heart. He never lets her go. She may
not perceive his touch, but he's always there. He's always there. He's always supporting her. You
know, I've realized over the years, it's the Lord who's kept
me. He's kept me. You know one of
the things that gives me great joy? Some year, 45 years have
gone by, and we are still here. And we still believe the gospel.
We're still preaching. We're still singing His praises.
We're still here. You know why? Because His left
hand is under our head, and His right arm doth embrace us. He
ain't letting go. He ain't letting go. He supports her even when she
don't realize it. I charge you, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds of the field, that
you stir not up, nor wake. Now take that word, my, out of
there, because it was translated by the, it was put in there by
the translators. Read it like this, I charge you,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds
of the field, that ye stir not up, nor wake love till he please. He's the embodiment
of love. He's not just someone who loves
me, though he does. He's the embodiment of love.
Love doesn't even exist apart from him. She says, don't wake
love up till he please. Don't do that. She charges those
about her, do not disturb my love. She stands in awe of him
as she gazes upon him. It's as if she's saying, don't
wake him, just let him lie here in my arms and let me look at
him. Just looking at him, saying,
I can't believe this is my, this is my husband. This is my husband. I had a man, relatively young
man, ask me something about marriage, some advice on it. And I said,
the best advice I give you, outmarry yourself. I said, you'll always
admire the one you married if you outmarry yourself. When you
start to think you could do better, you're in trouble. She outmarried
herself. The church outmarried herself.
I outmarried myself. Outmarried myself. And if you'll
always outmarry yourself, you'll always admire the one you married. And she's looking at him. She's
going, I can't believe he's mine. I can't believe. You know, you
women, you're always thinking about marrying this Prince Charming.
Then your reality sets in if you're married. But you think
you're marrying this Prince Charming. We did. We did in Christ. He married
us to Him. We did. The church outmarried
herself. She married the Prince of Prince. The King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. I'm talking about something that's
real. We are married to the Lord Jesus. He's our husband. We are
His bride. She outmarried herself. And she
says, don't wake Him till He pleases. She recognizes His sovereignty. Now listen, she recognizes her
place and his place. He's the head. He's the head. You know, when God set the order,
God is a God of order. He set the woman in her place.
He set the man in his place. And when we get that out of order,
it's ugly. And it doesn't work. She said,
don't wake him till he pleads. He's the sovereign. My dad used
to work at midnight shift. He'd come in, and mom would run
us all out of the house. She made all of us kids get out
of the house. Don't wake your dad up. She wouldn't let us. She protected his sleep, his
rest. You know why? She loved him.
She loved him. She wasn't afraid because he
was going to get up and be mad. She loved him. Oh, don't wake my love till he
please. And listen here, and she adores, the bride adores
her beloved's voice. The voice of my beloved. You
know the scripture says his sheep hear his voice. Strangers are
not followed. She knows the voice of her bridegroom.
She knows that voice even before she sees him. I've never seen
Jesus Christ, but I know his voice when I hear it. I heard
it a while ago when Chris was preaching. I heard his voice.
I heard His voice. It's the voice of My Beloved.
Behold, He cometh. This is the message. He's coming.
He's coming. He cometh. The Old Testament
says someone's coming. The New Testament says He's coming.
The Epistles say He's coming again and we're looking for Him.
It's the voice of My Beloved. He spoke tonight. He's coming. He cometh. He's leaping upon
the mountains. No difficulty too strong for
My Beloved to overcome. There's the curse of the law,
the power of Satan, the death of the cross, and He overcame
them to get to His Beloved. To get to His Beloved. You know
the scripture says love is stronger than death. Over in chapter 8
it does. And note the speed in which He
comes and the ease with which He comes. Skipping up on the
hills. You know if you don't want to
do something you ain't skipping. Are you? No, you're dragging. You're dragging your feet. You
don't want to do it. But if you're really willing to do something,
anxious to do it, you got a snap in your step. He desired to redeem
us. He didn't say, well, I can't
believe I got to do this. He was willing to do it. willing
to die, willing to suffer, willing to take our hill. He was willing
to do it, willing to do it, skipping upon the hill. She said, My beloved
is like a roe or a young heart. She compares him to this young,
gentle, but swift animal, not a wild beast. Our Lord's not
a beast. He's lowly. He said, I'm lowly of heart.
BEHOLD, HE STANDETH BEHIND OUR WALL, HE LOOKETH FORTH AT THE
WINDOW, SHOWING HIMSELF THROUGH THE LATTICE. You know, in the
Old Testament there was a wall of partition called a veil, and
our Lord stood behind it in shadows and types. And the believers
saw Him, but they saw Him not as much as we see Him, but they
saw Him. Abraham saw my day and was glad. And our Lord shows
Himself through each window of time to the church. You see,
we see in part, we know in part. But oh, what we're about to see
and what we're about to know in a little while. I mean, in
a little while, every believer in this room will be with the
Lord. I mean, it's gonna be like that. It's gonna be that fast. And we are gonna be looking into
the face and speaking to Jesus Christ. That's astounding to
me. It's astounding to me. And he
says here, verse 10, I'm going to hurry along here. My beloved
spake, and he said to me, rise up, my love, my fair one, come
away. Let's take a walk. Oh, let's take a walk. Don't
you like to walk with someone you love? Henry said this once,
he and Doris used to go to the peaks of Otter all the time.
And he said on his way back one time from a meeting, Doris was
with him. He said, I stopped there and
it just wasn't the same. He said, I learned the experience
of something is sharing it with the one you love. It's sharing
it with the one you love. Father, I will. That they be
with me, that they behold my glory that I had with you before
the world was. I want them to see it. I want
them to see it. Yeah, Henry said it wasn't the
same. I want them to see my glory.
I want her to see my glory. We get a glimpse of it now. But
oh, my soul. When we see Him, we're going
to think, this is our husband. I did outmarry myself. Oh, rise up, my love, my fair
one. He says here, and come away.
Every day we should come away from this world and come to Him
and feed and drink of His love. We should do it. He doesn't keep
us from it. He never keeps us from it. Come
away from that which keeps us away. Set your affection on things
above, not on things of this earth. For lo, he says, the winter's
past. The rain is over and gone. The
harsh cold deadness of serving self is past. The time of trials
or a particular trial is over. It's over. It's time to rejoice
again. You know, God the Father would
not have his children crying all the time. There's a time
to weep and a time to rejoice. He said, The flowers appear on
the earth. The time of the singing of birds has come. The voice
of the turtle is heard in our land. When it looked like nothing
would bloom again. You ever been there? You ever
been where it looked like it would never have a better day? Job thought he would never see
another good day. He thought that. He thought he'd
never see another good day. He sure did. Just as sure as
God takes you down, He's going to bring you back up. And you're
going to appreciate it. You're going to appreciate Him
more. You're going to appreciate Him more when He brings you back
up. We see throughout the Scriptures the ebb and flow of the church.
Our Lord never ebbs and flows. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. His love never flickers. Ours does. I'm going to show
you that tomorrow in chapter 5. This same one, this same woman
speaking here, admiring Him, didn't have time for Him. In
chapter 5. That's astounding. The time of
the bird just singing, There's a time to weep, a time to laugh,
a time to mourn, a time to dance. No matter how hard the winter,
God's birds will sing again. You'll hear music again. Morning,
you know, it may endure for a night, but joy will come in the morning.
God will see to it. God will see to it. He'll see
to it that sun rises again. He'll see to it. And the voice
of the turtles heard in the land, the turtle dove was a seasonal
bird, and she knew her time. We too ought to know our time.
Time to mourn. It's time to get over it. Time
to move on. You know, when God brought Job
out of that, he never apologized to him. He never said, I'm sorry. He never said, I'm sorry, because
what he did was good for Job. You know, every trial I've ever
had is a need-be trial. Every heartache is a need-be
heartache. Every tear was ordained of God. The psalmist said, my
tears are in thy bottle, ordained of God. And it keeps getting better here.
The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and her vines with the
tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love. What language? You reckon if we spoke to one
another like husbands and wives spoke to one another like this
that it might get along better? We might ought to learn something
here. This is a beautiful love letter, and you know it's to
us? It's to us. Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away. Come away. You see, He speaks
now of the nearness of summer and the smell of fruit in the
air. You know, it's good to look at the flowers. They smell good.
In the spring, and to hear the birds sing, they sing good, but
we need fruit. We need to eat. We need food.
We need Christ. We need Christ. We need the fruit
of His love, His joy, His peace, His long-suffering. We need to
experience these things. You know how you experience good
food? You eat it. It's that simple. Stick it in
your mouth and eat it. Then swallow it. Digest it. Don't
read the scriptures and just forget it. Digest them. Here's what we need. We need
these things. We need this fruit. They make
us smell good. You know kindness makes you smell
good. Love makes you smell good. You know, I know especially the
ladies, you put on perfume and you know, just smell good. Nothing
makes you smell better than the spirit of love, a meek and quiet
spirit that smells so good. It smells so good. These are
the fragrances of his grace. Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away. Come along with me. I don't know
where I got this at, but it was like, come along with me, the
best is yet to come. Come along with me, the best
is yet to come. Oh, arise. You know, the Lord
has to revive us so many times. Peter, when thou art converted,
I can't tell you how many times I've been converted. I've been
regenerated one time. I've been converted a lot. You
know, to be converted means to turn again. The Lord has turned
me again so many times. Rise, my love, my fair one, and
come away. Take advantage of the season.
Spend much time with Christ, especially when He makes His
presence known. Two or three gathered together,
there am I in the midst. He's here. That's astounding
to think that Jesus Christ is here. The Lord's here. That might make you listen a
little more. It ought to. But He says, Come
away with Me. It's time to come home. I go, in John 14, and prepare
a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you to Myself. that where I am,
there you may be also. Come away. Arise and it's time
to go home. It's time for the bride to go
home now with the bridegroom. And he's speaking here and he
calls her, oh my dove, what language? Thou art in the clefts of the
rock, the secret place of the stairs, let me see thy countenance.
Let me hear thy voice. The Lord said, let me hear your
voice. Call upon Me! Speak to the Lord! You know,
just to hear the voice of your loved one is so... Let me hear your voice. Let me
see your face. That s what He s saying. Let
me see your face. Let me hear your voice. He tells
us to call upon Him. You know the Scripture says,
Come boldly to the throne of grace, and cast all your cares
upon Him, and We need to call upon the Lord more often. Often. Henry told a story one time,
a man ran out of gas. And he saw this farmhouse. And
he says, I'm going to go down there and see if I can get some
gas. So he started to walk toward that farmhouse. And he said,
he probably won't give me any gas. And he got a little closer
to it, and he says, I know he's not going to give me any gas.
Then as he got right up to the porch, he said, he is not going
to give me any gas. He knocked on the door. The farmer
came to the door and said, can I help you? He said, keep your
old gas. Don't go to the throne of grace
like that. We ought to go expecting. We ought to go expecting. He's a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. Oh, let's go, let's call upon
the Lord and expect, expect Him. Here's the problem, and I'm going
to close. Take for us the fox, take us the foxes, the little
foxes that spoil the vines. Oh my. For our vines have tender
grapes. That's why we're told in the
scriptures so often to mortify the deeds of the flesh. They're
little foxes. What's these little foxes? That's
nitpicking. Peevish. You nitpick at each
other, then you come here to worship? The little foxes have
just destroyed that. That's those little foxes. You
know, little sins left unchecked do great damage. They do great
damage. Oh, my beloved is mine and I'm
his. You know Jesus Christ is as much
mine as I am his? This is a true marriage when
two become one. He feedeth among the lilies.
You notice here she knows where he is? He's among the lilies. Now you may think I'm old-fashioned,
but husbands and wives should always know where one another
are. If that's a problem, don't get married. That's an easy way to remedy
that problem, don't get married. But they ought to always know
where one another's at. They should. Until the daybreak, she
says, He feedeth among the lilies. That's us. Listen. You know,
He feedeth among the lilies. He's enjoying this a whole lot
more than we are. He feedeth among the lilies. Until the day break and the shadows
flee away. Her desire here is that he would
come quickly, like the roe or young heart, skipping upon the
mountains of Fetcher. And one day he will come. And
he will say to us, one by one, come away, come away. Come away until it's time, it's
time. David said, my times are in his
hands. lovesick. Oh, that God would make us lovesick.
Just make us lovesick. All right. Well, well, well, well, well,
well, well. I've never heard on this wise.
I just I don't know what to say except thank the Lord. Just thank
the Lord. Oh, thank the Lord. That's wonderful, wasn't it?
Oh, my, what a wonderful night. Oh, Lord, blessed be your name. Oh, Father, thank you. Thank
you, thank you, thank you. Blessing your holy name. All
we can do is thank you and bless you and praise you. for what
you gave us tonight. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. You come among us. You just come
among us. Oh, we felt your love. We felt
your power. Oh, Lord, thank you. Blessed
be your name. Be with us tomorrow. Give people
the good rest tonight. Bring glory to yourself through
us all, for Christ's sake. Amen, amen. Well, we'll see you
in the morning at 10 o'clock. John, you go back there and let
the folks tell you how much they love you and appreciate you.
That was, man, that was some kind of preaching. That just. Okay.
About John Chapman
John Chapman is pastor of Bethel Baptist Church located at 1972 Bethel Baptist Rd, Spring Lake, NC 28390. Pastor Chapman may be contacted by e-mail at john76chapman@gmail.com or by phone at 606-585-2229.
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