If you would, the Song of Solomon,
Chapter 8. Song of Solomon, Chapter 8. We'll
be concluding our study in this wonderful book, this wonderful
song, of which there's no love song
that ever comes close. This is just an absolute wonderful
song. It's a song of love between the
heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his blood-bought
bride, we who are the elect of God. The name of the message
is Longing for Her Beloved. Longing for Her Beloved. Chapter
8, verse 1. Oh, that thou wert as my brother
that sucked the breasts of my mother, when I should find thee
without, I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised. I would
lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house. Who would
instruct me? I would cause thee the drink
of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand
should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace
me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not
up nor awake my love until he pleases. So this is the bride
speaking through this chapter here. Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I have raised
thee up under the apple tree. There thy mother bought thee
forth, and she bought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal
upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is strong as
death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave.
The coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most veminent
flame. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the
substance of his house, all the substance of his house for love,
it would be utterly contemned. We have a little sister, and
she hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister
in that day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall,
we will build upon her a palace of silver. And if she be a door,
we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a well, and my
breast like towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favor. Solomon, head of vineyard, at
Bel-Hammam. He let out the vineyard unto
keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand
pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is
before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy
voice, cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be
like a row to the young heart upon the mountains of spices. And we come now to the close
of this beautiful book, this wonderful song. And we see the
church repeats her earnest desires for increasing her knowledge
of and communion with her Lord, who is her heavenly bridegroom.
And we see in this chapter the expressions of Christ and his
church in their desire for fellowship with one another. Look at verse
one, that that word is my brother, that sucked the breast of my
mother. When I should find thee without, I would kiss thee. Yea,
I should not be despised. The church, the bride here is
still thinking upon the same subject as the last chapter. She thinks upon his condescension.
She thinks upon his condescension, and what condescension the Son
of God has done. He left the glories of heaven.
He became a man, not just any man, the perfect man, God with
us, the God-man, sinless, human, and yet God at the same time.
And this he brings forth, the bride brings forth this in that
he is her brother as well as her husband, as well as her husband. And it's a great blessing for
the elect of God to think upon and meditate upon all the names,
offices, and especially to think upon the condescension of Christ.
It's a great blessing for us to think upon that God himself
became a man, and every blood-bought believer says, he became a man
to save me from my sins. Oh, what a blessing that is.
Just for us to meditate upon that, and all that means is to
think upon it. Just think upon it. Just think upon it. Ponder
it through the week. Ruminate on it, like some of
the old preachers say. Ruminate on it, chew on it. It's
wonderful that he did that. And if you're a believer, you
can say he did that for me. It'll bless your soul. It'll bless
your soul as you think about it. And surely all of God's blood-bought,
born-again saints should delight to look upon this blessed fact
that Christ is our brother as well as our Redeemer. Christ is the brother of his
church. He took upon himself our nature. God himself took
upon himself our nature. He became a man. And the fact
that he is the seed of the woman, God incarnated in the flesh,
and yet fully men, but yet fully God. This should leave us in
awe. Hebrews chapter 2 says this,
wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, like unto us. We're humans. We can't save ourselves. We can't redeem ourselves. So
God himself becomes a man to redeem us, to purchase us, to
save us from our sins. That he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest. There's another one of his offices
that God's people delight to look at him in. He's our high
priest. He's not just our high priest,
he's our sacrifice too. He's everything. In things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He's
sinless. But he makes reconciliation for
my sins. And if you're a believer, for
your sins. It's wonderful. as Martha sat
at the Savior's feet and heard His word. So they that believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, we ever long to live in communion
with Him, don't we? We long to go through this world
in communion with our Lord, with He who has loved us. He who has
loved us and He who gave Himself for us. And as we grow in grace,
what do we do? We lean on Him even more, don't
we? We lean on Him. We lean less on ourselves and
we lean more on Him. were taught the lean upon him. Look at verses two to four. I
would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house who would
instruct me. I would cause thee to drink of
spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand should
be under my head and his right hand should embrace me. I charge
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up nor awake
my love until he pleases. So here we see the church desires
again to be in intimate communion. intimate communion with her Beloved,
with her Heavenly Bridegroom. And we who have experienced the
grace of God in our lives, we're born again by the Holy Spirit,
we're redeemed by the blood of Christ, we fellowship with our
wonderful Redeemer through the preaching of His Word and through
the reading and studying of His Word. We desire even more communion
with Him, don't we? We do. We do. We hunger and thirst
after righteousness. I ask you this, you who are his
blood-bought people, do you not desire him more now than you
ever have before? As you grow in grace and you
learn more and more of the lover of our soul, we desire to learn
more and more of him. We desire more communion with
him. We hunger and thirst after righteousness more, and we know
who our righteousness is, it's Christ. He alone is our righteous. Now note here too, note this,
His left hand should be under my head and His right hand should
embrace me. Oh, we could spend weeks here.
We could spend weeks here, beloved. We're held in the everlasting
arms of God. We who are His people are held
in the everlasting arms of God. And this shows our utter dependence
upon our Savior. Right here. It shows our utter
dependence upon our Savior. He's our all in all. And think
of this being held by both the hands and arms of Jesus. Just
shows us how He's everything for us. Everything for us. And in Him all the fullness of
the Godhead dwells bodily. He's our comfort. When God's
people are afflicted, we find no comfort in ourselves, do we?
None. But we find comfort in Christ.
We find comfort in our heavenly bridegroom. He's our strength
in our time of weakness. And when aren't we weak? When
aren't we weak? We think we're strong sometimes,
but we're not. We find out we're not. We're
weak all the time. But he's strong. He's strong.
He's the bread of life for his people, and he's the water of
life to all his blood-bought people. So to the babe in Christ,
they're filled with the sincere milk of the word, and that they
may grow thereby, and the young men and the fathers have their
spiritual senses both exercised and supported in Christ. He's
strong meat for us too, isn't he? He's everything. He's our
bountiful Lord. And all of God's people are taken
care of, and we're all supplied by Christ, for He alone is all
in all to His people. Turn, if you would, to Deuteronomy
chapter 33. Deuteronomy chapter 33. Oh, how
much peace and how much joy God's people can find in the fact that
we are held by the everlasting arms of God. And if he holds
us, what's that mean? If God himself holds us in his
arms, in his everlasting arms, that means we can never be lost,
beloved. We're secure, not in ourselves,
are we? We're secure in him. We're held
by God himself. That's why the Lord said, no
man can pluck you out of my hand. Oh my, he has all power. And no man includes even us.
Even us, beloved. Look at this in Deuteronomy 33,
27. The eternal God is thy refuge. We could just stop right there.
Deuteronomy 33, 27. The eternal God, let that sink
in. The eternal God is thy refuge. And we know Christ is our city
of refuge, isn't he? He's our refuge from the law
of God. He's our refuge from the justice
of God. He's our refuge from ourselves.
Isn't he? But look at that, the eternal
God is thy refuge. Jesus Christ is God. He's the
eternal God. And underneath are the everlasting
arms. Look at that. Oh my, and he shall
thrust out the enemy from before thee and shall say, destroy them. Think of the enemies. Our own
sin was our enemy, wasn't it? The law of God was our enemy.
The justice of God was our enemy. It's all satisfied in Christ.
All taken care of for the believer in Christ. The eternal God is
thy refuge. So we can look here and think,
we can personalize this. The eternal God is my refuge. And underneath are the everlasting
arms. I'm held by the everlasting arms
of God. Isn't it wonderful? It's absolutely
wonderful. Oh my. So this wonderful text
in Song of Solomon 8.3 brings forth the wonderful rest that
we have in our blessed surety. And what a rest we have in Christ.
He's our Sabbath, isn't he? We looked at that a little bit
today. He's our Sabbath. He's our rest. That's what Sabbath
means. He's a rest. Ponder in this verse
that, again, we are in the embrace of our wonderful Savior. and
what love should flood our souls. He who has saved us by the shedding
of his own precious blood, he who has redeemed us, he who has
justified us before God by giving his life for us at Calvary's
cross, we who are his blood-bought people are now embraced in his
all-powerful, almighty, everlasting love. And we all know what it's like
to embrace our children, don't we? And embrace our brides or our
husbands and what love we feel. Let this set your hearts on fire,
beloved of God. You are held in the everlasting
arms of your heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are secure in Christ Jesus
our Lord. And He who holds us in His arms
is the everlasting God. And we are safe in Him. Safe
in Him. Secure in Him. No evil shall
befall us because He's our refuge and defender. And He alone is
our confident rest and we praise His mighty name for making it
so for us, don't we? knowing that the only one who
made us to differ is God himself. Isaiah 11.10, the scriptures
proclaim this. And in that day, there shall
be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people. An ensign. They used to hold
the ensign in battles and the general would have the ensign
close by him. And the troops, if they were failing, would rally
around the general and the ensign. What an ensign we have. The Lord
Jesus Christ, mine. To it shall the Gentiles seek.
That's us. That's us. And his rest shall
be glorious. Glorious. The rest, the rest,
The rest that God's people have, turn there if you would, I'll
read that again. Isaiah 11.10, this is just a beautiful scripture,
we need to look at this. Isaiah 11.10, and we know the
root of Jesse is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this, Isaiah
11.10, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which
shall stand for an ensign of the people. Well, just as those
troops would look to the ensign, we look to our ensign, don't
we? The Lord Jesus. Christ is our banner. He's our
banner. To it shall the Gentiles seek. Well, who do we seek? Christ,
our banner. Christ, our ensign. And look
at this. I love this latter part of this verse. And his rest shall
be glorious. How glorious, how wonderful,
how magnificent is the rest that the bride has in Christ here. We have rest here from the burden
and guilt of sin, don't we? We have rest from the tyrannical
power of sin. We have rest from the bondage
of sin. And praise God, we're spared from the penalty of sin.
because our Savior took all that upon himself for us. This rest is glorious. This rest
that the bride of Christ has is absolutely glorious, as Isaiah
says there. In Christ alone we have rest
from the curse and condemnation of the law, from the divine wrath
of God, because it's been satisfied in our great substitute. His
death upon Calvary's cross for us. We can rest in afflictions
in Christ, though not from them. We still receive afflictions,
don't we, and persecution. But we can rest in those times
because of Christ. Because of Christ. For we know
we'll have tribulation in this world. And we look to Christ,
don't we? We look to Christ, who is what? Our eternal rest, our hope, like
we looked at in Sunday school. He's our hope. He's our only
hope. And what brings us great joy
while we journey through this wilderness of tears and woe,
because that's what it is, what brings us joy is the fact that
one day we'll be with or be with them. And like I said today,
it won't be long because our lives are like a vapor. I'm 54 years old already and
I remember when I was 17 and 18, it's just like that. I remember
when they put my daughter in my hands and my son in my hands
and they're both older now and living their lives. It goes so
fast, so quickly. Life is like a vapor. And what rest and peace though
we who are the sheep of God, we who are the bride of Christ,
what rest and peace with God we have in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when our Lord reveals Himself
to us and makes His presence known to us, our hearts are at
peace, aren't they? They're at rest. And therefore,
as we grow in grace, we rest more and more in Him. More and
more in Him. Let's now consider verses 5 to
7 in chapter 8 here. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up
under the apple tree, where thy mother bought thee forth there.
She bought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal upon thine
heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death.
Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire, which have the most veminous flame. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give
all his substance of his house for love, it would be utterly
contaminated. This is wonderful. We see here in these verses that
believing on Christ, leaning on Christ, looking to Christ,
and resting upon Christ, trusting Christ, and having faith in him,
we flee to him as the only refuge of our souls. And we who believe
have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us,
beloved. And the Lord is a strong tower,
and the righteous runneth unto it. And what? And it's safe.
We're safe in our beloved, safe in him. Realizing that we were under the wrath
of God, and knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's only
appointed place of refuge for guilty sinners, we flee to him. were made well in the day of
God's power. He reveals himself to us. And
faith is laying hold of Christ. It's like a drowning man lays
hold of a line thrown to him. That's how we lay hold of Christ,
isn't it? We lay hold of Christ and we
cling to him. Now we don't have faith in our
faith, we have faith in the object of our faith, which is Christ.
And He's the one who rescued us. He's the one we cling to. Faith is receiving Christ. As
many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on His name. It's not receiving Christ into
the head that brings salvation, but receiving Him into the heart.
It's not receiving the doctrine of Christ that saves, but receiving
Christ Himself. And this is a work of God. This
is a work of God. True faith is revealed in scripture. Loves Christ in all his offices,
all his offices, is our only acceptance before God. True faith
has been shown that all our works, like we looked at this morning,
all our works are like filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord.
And that Christ is our only acceptance with God. We have no hope outside
of them. If you're hoping in yourself
or in your own strength, you're hoping in a refuge of lies. That's
the truth. And every black believer, we
say that to folks because we were there. We were either trusting, I was
trusting in my religious works, before I was sitting home and
trusting in nothing, except the fact that I was so self-righteous
and thought, well, I'm not as bad as that other guy. Even before I knew what a sinner
was, I was self-righteous, because there was always someone worse
than me, but what does God show us? No way, and you're the chief
of sinners. My. And we flee to Christ, don't
we? We flee the hymn. By faith we
lean upon our beloved. We see that in verse five, we
lean upon Christ. Like a crippled man leans upon
crutches. When I was young, I went through
all kinds of operations and stuff. I had an operation when I was
about 12. They took me out of this cast
that was from my waist all the way to my toes, and I'd been
in that for six months. And I couldn't walk. I had to learn how to walk again.
And I remember being on them bars and telling nurses, I can't
do this. They said, yeah, you can, you've
got to do this. And praise God that the Lord
had them just keep being persistent with me, right? But then I went
from walking on the bars and wheelchair racing with the other
kids in the hallway to being on crutches. And I still couldn't
walk without them crutches. We lean on Christ. Just like
when I was walking in the bars, I was leaning all my weight upon
them bars. I learned how to walk again.
When I had them crutches, I was leaning all my weight upon them
crutches to keep me up. If I didn't have them crutches,
I would have went down like a sack of wheat. That's how we lean
on Christ, beloved. We lean on Him. We lean on Him. Oh my. And we lean on Christ,
this is an example I pulled from one of the commentators, we lean
on Christ like a timid, frightened woman passing through some dangerous
forest at night, like she might lean upon the strong arm of her
husband. And we lean on Him in this way. Why do we lean upon Him in this
way? Because He's proven His faithfulness, hasn't He? Time
and time and time again. He's proven his faithfulness.
He's proven his love for us. Over and over and over again.
And we lean upon him because he alone is able and he alone
is mighty to keep us from falling. Left to ourselves, beloved. We
would fall a thousand times a day, even more than that. Left to
ourselves. but the Lord keeps his people.
He keeps us from falling, Jude said. We still sin, don't we,
to our shame, but he keeps us from falling. He keeps us from
leaving the faith. He holds his people. You see
someone walk away from the faith, they walk away from the Lord,
that person will never save them. They totally apostatize. My. No, God keeps his people,
keeps them, keeps them looking to Christ, keeps them looking
to Christ, and he's proven our faithfulness. He's mighty to
save. And every day, the more we learn
of him, the more we trust him, the more we trust him. We trust
Him more and more. We lean upon Him more and more,
don't we? More and more. And this is constant. This isn't just, well, I need
you right now, Lord, because I'm going through a rough time. No,
the believer learns real quickly that we lean upon Him all the
time. When we think we're strong and when we really are weak.
All the time. And our fellowship is with Him.
We lean on the person of Christ. Think of this. Think of this,
we as believers, we as blood-bought people, we lean wholly upon Christ
for all our acceptance with God. All of it then. We have abandoned any sense of
acceptance with God based upon anything we do. Anything we do. We lean wholly
upon Him. for acceptance with God. We lean
wholly on Him, who is our righteousness. We lean upon Christ for our justification
before God. We lean on Christ for pardon
of all our sins. And we lean on Christ for the
cleansing power of His blood, which cleanses us from all sin.
Past, present, and even future. Oh, this is a complete salvation,
beloved. It's a complete... Christ paid
for all my sins on Calvary's cross. Did he so for you too,
eh? All of them. Not just some of them. There
was none left behind. He cried, it is finished. Payment made in full. You're
complete in Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. Oh, it's
absolutely wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. He supplied
all our needs, and He does. He physically supplies what we
need. He spiritually provides all what
we need, temporal and eternal. Ever think of that? He gives
us everything we need. He don't always give us what
we want, and that's a good thing, though. That's a good thing. We learn that, don't we? We learn
that. But He always gives us what we
need. Always gives us what we need. Think of that. Temporal,
while we're here on this earth, and eternal. All the spiritual
blessings that we have in Christ. Now let's look at verses 6 and
7. We see faith preserving. Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
as a seal upon thine arm, for love is strong as death and jealousy.
Jealousy is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of
fire without the most veminent flame. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give
all the substance of his house for it, it would utterly be contaminated. So true faith loves Christ, loves
Christ, beloved, loves him. True faith preserves, true faith
is preserving faith, it's preserving faith. The true believer in Christ
will love him and will continue to love him. And we trust and
will continue to trust in him. We who are his blood-bought people,
we love him and we will continue to love him. And our love for
him grows, doesn't it? It grows. As we learn more about
him, our faith in him increases also. As we travel through this
wilderness of life, Our love for Him increases as well. And
it's Him working that in us too. We can't take no credit for nothing.
It's Him working that in us, beloved. And our Lord loves His
people so much that He gave His life for us. And He loves us
with an everlasting love. Think of this, He loves us unto
death. He loves us unto death, and we love Him. And think of
this, we're dead to the things of the world now. And then we're
loving forever in glory. It says here we see that jealousy
is cruel as the grave. We who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ are jealous of anything that might draw us away from
him. Anything. Because we love him. We're consumed by his love for
us. And his love for us flames our love for him. Think of that. The more you learn about Christ,
the more you learn about how much he loves you. It just fuels the love that you
have for Him. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. We're passionate about our love
for Him, and many waters cannot quench that love, neither can
floods drown it. He's put it in our hearts. He's
put it in our hearts. The world and death cannot quench
the Savior's love for us, and where true love for Christ is,
it cannot be overcome or destroyed. It clings more and more to Him. who is our hope, and he who is
the lover of our soul, the Lord Jesus Christ. And my prayer is,
Lord, may you continually grant faith, increase this wondrous
love that we have as believers, that we have as believers for
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may be, that our love for him
may increase more and more, and that he who is the object of
our faith, That our love for him would grow.
And that we would see him more and more as our hope, as our
hope. He's the only hope we have. And
this is my prayer, too, for all of us who are his people, that
he'd become more precious in our eyes. And as we grow in grace. For the true belief. As we grow
in grace, he becomes more and more and more precious to us. Let's look at verses 8 to 14
to close out this wonderful book. But we're we're spending a little
bit of time on this. We have a little sister and she
had no breasts. What shall we do for our sister
in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall,
we will build Upon her a place of silver, a palace of silver.
And if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breast like
towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favor. Solomon had a vineyard at Bel-Hammam. He let out the vineyard unto
keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof
was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which
is mine, is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred.
Thou that dwellest in the garden, the companions hearken to thy
voice, cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be
thou like to a roe or a young heart upon the mountains of spices. Now we who are trusted in the
Lord Jesus Christ are the children of God in everlasting love. Our eternal God chose us in Christ,
He adopted us in Christ, and He purchased us by the precious
blood of Christ, again, who is God incarnated in flesh. And
we are purchased by God the Son. We are purchased by His blood.
And He alone is our righteousness. And He was our substitute before
God's justice. And he was the fulfiller of the
law for us. We could never fulfill the law.
He did it for us. For we who believe. He's all
our righteousness. He died at Calvary as our substitute.
He did this to satisfy the law and justice of God that was against
us. And God's people praise his mighty
name for what he's done. And we who believe are born again.
blood-washed saints, born again by the Holy Spirit of God, all
by His sovereign power. Don't ever let that become commonplace. You are born again by the sovereign
grace of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by the power
of the sovereign God of the universe. You're born again. Oh, and it's
all by His grace and mercy. all by His grace and mercy. And
we trust the Lord for all our salvation, again, wholly leaning
and resting in He who is our hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And we lean upon Him again for our eternal acceptance before
God, don't we? Our eternal acceptance before
God. We're clothed in His righteousness. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1. 1st Corinthians chapter 1, where
we read verses 26 to 31. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. I like what Henry says,
that just means common things. common things of the world to
confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the
world to confound the things which are mighty, and base things
of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not to bring to naught things that
are, look at this, that no flesh should glory in its presence.
There be no boasting in heaven. No, nobody be boasting about
what they have and what Christ is our reward. Christ is our
reward, beloved. There'll be no boasting in glory.
That no flesh should glory in his presence. If one man received
more than the other, remember the penny? All the servants received
the same penny, didn't they? Whether they worked all day or
whether they only worked a few hours. Christ is our reward. Christ is our reward, beloved.
That no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are
ye. in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it's written, he that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Note, Christ is all our wisdom. Christ is all
our righteousness. Christ is all our sanctification. Christ is all our redemption.
In short, Christ is our everything. My hope is built on nothing less.
In Jesus' blood and righteousness I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Look at verses
8 to 10. We see Christ our Lord giving
us instruction concerning our responsibility toward our sister. We have a little sister and she
hath no breast. What shall we do for our sister in the day
when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build
upon her a palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will
enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breast like
towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favor. Now note, we have before us a
question of both compassion and concern. We have a little sister,
and she hath no breast. What shall we do for our sister
in the day when she shall be spoken for? The bride of Christ
raises a question concerning her little sister. And what is
suggested by John Gill in this passage is that this speaks prophetically
of the church, the church of God, which is scattered among
the nations of the Gentile world. And through the gospel was revealed
only to the Jews in the Old Testament, the Lord God had espoused to
him a people from the nations of the world before time began.
Remember that. There's a remnant according to
grace, but there's a people who are chosen of God who are both
Jew and Gentile. Both Jew and Gentile. And it
was plainly revealed in the Old Testament that the barren and
desolate Gentiles would be united to the Lord as a bride. And that
the church would be made up of both Jews and Gentiles. And here
the church of God among the Gentiles is called a little sister. Little
sister, because Jewish believers and Gentile believers are children
of the same father. We're children of the same father,
we who are truly his people. And the time of her espousal
to Christ was not yet come. And at this time, the Old Testament
time, she had no ministers, no ordinances, no scriptures, no
prophets, no covenant, no ordinances, no promise, no instruction. She had no one to tell her about
the sincere milk of the world. And it was some time after the
gospel came to the Gentiles before they had a settled ministry,
as one preacher said. Though chosen of God in eternity,
their election was not yet manifest and revealed. But the bride of Christ consists
of both Jew and Gentile. And this title belongs to all
the lost sheep of God, the elect of God. who have not yet been
called out of darkness into the marvelous light of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let us never forget that
all of God's elect belong to Christ. Every one of them belong
to him. They belong to him right now. Even though some have not
yet been born again, they still belong to him. They still belong
to him. We were once dead in trespasses
and sins. Just like they are. And they
are espoused to Him in covenant love. And He will have them. He will gather them. He will
gather His sheep to Himself. Why? Because He purchased them.
He purchased them with His own precious blood. He gave His life
for them. They are His by creation. And
they are his by purchase. And not one of them will be lost.
Not one of them will be lost. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
18. Acts chapter 18. Look at this. I was talking to
Brother Drew about this on the phone today. Acts chapter 18. Look at this in verses 9 to 11. Then the Lord spake to Paul in
the night by vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace. For I am with thee. For God to
tell a man that he's with him? Oh my. And look at this. And no man shall sit on thee
to hurt thee. Now, he's telling Paul to go
and preach the gospel. And look what the Lord's saying
here. For I have much people in this city. He tells Paul, you go and preach
there, because I have much people there. There's a bunch of lost
sheep there. And their time of love is coming.
It's coming. When he appoints it, when he
appoints it. And he continued there a year
and six months teaching the word of God among them. This is why
we proclaim the gospel of Christ. This is why we seek the furtherance
of the gospel, because Christ uses the preaching of his gospel
to draw in lost sinners, lost sheep, all by his mercy and the
power and grace which comes from him. And we who believe are granted
faith. Faith. And we come to hear. We come
to hear the preaching of the word. Look at verses 8 or verses
9 to 10. If she be a wall, we will build
her a palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will
enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my breast like
towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favor. Notice it's the bridegroom himself
who will build up the church. It is he who cares and watches
over his bride. He adds to the church. That's
evident when he tells Paul, you go and preach there, because
I have much people in that city. He adds to the church. He adds
as he's pleased. And he's pleased. And note the
bride acknowledges this in verse 10, the fact that she is the
one who has found favor in his eyes. Look at that. Then was
I in his eyes as one that found faith. Do you know that salvation
is altogether the work of God and it's entirely a matter of
divine favor? We who have received this wonderful
gift of salvation in and through Christ have found divine favor. Remember what the Bible says
about Noah? He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He found
favor, beloved. He found favor. There was nothing
in him to find favor. We acknowledge there's nothing
in us to find favor. But when we look at this, where is one that's found favor? Divine favor. Now the Hebrew
word for this, this word favor means peace or tranquility. Peace
or tranquility. And think of what peace the believer
has found in Christ. Divine peace. Peace with God. We have the peace that passes
all understanding. And what tranquility we have
in Christ. What tranquility we have in Christ.
Rest for our souls. Rest for our souls. Rest from
our labors, from the works of religion which we were trying
to justify ourselves before God. Rest from all those works. And we found favor in the Lord
Jesus Christ and through him alone. Let us now consider verses
11 to 14. Solomon had a vineyard at He
let out the vineyard unto keepers, every one for the fruit thereof
was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard which
is mine is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.
The church is Christ's vineyard, and faithful pastors are called
to labor in Christ's vineyard. But let us not forget that every
believer, every believer in Christ is entrusted with a part of the
work in the vineyard, every believer, every believer. And the service of the church
is to be our business in this world, right? Each according
to the capacity that God has given us, the gifting that God
has given us. We all have different gifts, every one of us. have
different giftings, but we're united in one cause, the furtherance
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're united in that. And thus, our Savior's cause
must be our cause. Must be our cause. And it is. We're like, I was talking to
John and Roy about this, we're like an army unit, or even the
Navy, you have one mission. One mission, the operation that
you're to do. Whatever operation you're on.
Well, our continuous operation is the furtherance of the gospel.
To preach and proclaim that. To have it sent forth from here.
All for God's glory. All for His glory. And every
one of us have a part in that. Every one of us. It's wonderful. Let us take note of the closing
verses here in this book. which again is all about Christ
and his bride. Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear it. Make
haste, my beloved, be thou like a row to a young heart upon the
mountains of spices. And take note here, beloved,
that remember that this is a song of love between the bride and
her bridegroom. Now, for now, we're here upon
this earth, aren't we? We're here in this world, we
who are his blood-bought people. We're separated from our bridegroom,
although he has promised to never leave us nor forsake us, but
one day we will see him face to face in glory. We won't be
separated from him anymore. The Lord has now ascended into
glory, right now. Right now, he's seated at the
right hand of the Father, right now. And he's seated there in glory
and majesty, and he's our one mediator. And he hears the prayers
of his people. And remember, he is there interceding
for us. Interceding for us. And we hearken
to his voice, don't we? We hearken to his voice through
the preaching of the gospel. We hearken to his voice through
the reading of his word. And it makes us long to be in
his presence. We're homesick for glory, aren't
we? We are. People don't understand
that when you tell them that. They don't have any idea what
you're talking about. Unsafe folks. I didn't when people told
me that. I had no idea. What? You want
to die and go home and be with the Lord? I got a whole life
to live. Well, then you find out that
your life is in the Lord's hands and that each one of us have
an appointment with Him. And for the believer, it's a
graduation day when we die. We receive, I like what Brother
Norm says, we receive our promotion. We go home to be with the Lord.
And there's sadness for we who are left behind, simply not for
where the person is, because we're rejoicing for when the
believer goes home to be with the Lord. But there's sadness
in that, for now, our fellowship with them is broken for a time.
But only for a short time, beloved, only for a short time. We, like Paul, desire to depart
and be with our Lord, which is far better. We long for His return,
too, don't we? We long for His return. We see
that in verse 14. It's good for us that we are
dwelling down here in His garden and laboring in His vineyard.
But we desire to be with Him. We desire to be with Him. Turn,
if you would, to 1 Thessalonians, I'm sorry. 1 Thessalonians, chapter
5, and we'll read this in just a couple more words and we'll
be done. Our Lord is coming again. And it's our business to labor
and work in his vineyard, living in anticipation of his return,
trusting and resting in him, and joining together in the furtherance
of his precious gospel, of his precious gospel. Look at First
Thessalonians, chapter five. Worry, verses one to 11. But
of the times and seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write
unto you. For yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. And
when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and
they shall not escape. No one will escape the wrath
of God. Not one. Not one Christ rejecter or Christ
hater will escape the wrath of God. But ye, brethren, are not
in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are
all the children of life and the children of the day. We are
not of the night nor of the darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as
others do, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep
in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love. And for an helmet, the hope of
salvation. Well, we know that the armor
of God is Christ, right? So he's telling us like he told
us, like Peter told us to set our hearts on Christ, set our
minds on Christ. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, because Christ took our wrath that was due us,
it fell upon him. but to obtain salvation by our
Lord Jesus Christ. God's appointed us, look at that,
not to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. I ask
you, have we not found divine favor in Christ? Who died for us, the sinless
one dying for sinners, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together, and edify one another, As also you do. Behold, he cometh,
beloved. Behold, he cometh. And may this
comfort our hearts as we labor in the vineyard here below. He
says, surely I come quickly. Oh, my. And here either come
for us at his at our death. Or come for us when he comes
back. Even so, come quickly, Lord. Oh, gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank Thee for the study that we've had through this wonderful
book, which brings forth the everlasting love that You, who
are our Heavenly Bridegroom, Lord Jesus, have for Your blood-bought
bride. And we see all through this book
our unworthiness. We know that we're blocked with
our sin, but yet, oh Lord, We marvel that the bride proclaims
that we are calmly, which means beautiful in your eyes. And it's all because of thy righteousness. It's all because of what you've
done for us. And we rest and trust in you
wholly for our acceptance before God. Lord, we love you. We who are your people, we love
you because you first loved us in Jesus name. Amen.