Songs of Solomon chapter 8. The
topical heading, I guess, The Church's Graces and Love to Christ. In verse 7, and verse 10, I am
my Beloved's and His desires towards me. So the church is
speaking there. And then we come to chapter 8,
and I'm just going to look at the first phrase of verse 5. Something about it that arrested
my attention, and I pray will be a blessing to you. This short
text could be referenced about us, His church, His sheep, in
our coming unto Him in salvation and continuing with Him throughout
our varying lives. And when you look at this, you'll
see what I mean. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? It's just Songs
of Solomon, it just, it blesses me. This love relationship that
the church has with Christ and Christ has with the church. So here in Songs of Solomon,
chapter eight, in this first section of verse five, I just
have several points. Who, who is this? Who is this
indeed? When we speak about the church,
it's the wonder of spying angels. When we speak about the church
and its redemptive glory through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, which is through Christ, it's the song of heavenly hosts. It is and we are the envy of
devils. the contempt of this world, and
the scripture in Hebrew says, of whom the world is not worthy. And this is all because of sovereign
electing grace, upon whom shines the richness and freeness of
divine mercy and supreme pity. Oh, this abounding love and selective
grace is all found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, here referenced
in this verse as beloved, her beloved. And her would be the
church because the church is called the bride of Christ in
the feminine sense. So her, her, who is this that
cometh up from the wilderness, leaning, leaning upon her beloved. Well, who? These are those who
have been made willing in the day of God's power of grace to
see our sinfulness and our violence. We see that. So Bruce made a
comment clearly this morning. He reveals by his free, unasked
for oftentimes, but it's unmerited favor, he reveals to us our sinfulness,
our violence, our inability to perform that which the holy God
demands, that which Jehovah requires, and that which he expects from
us. Can't do it. We can't do it. Not only the
law, but all things scriptural. The natural man receives not
the things of the spirit of God. He cannot. their foolishness,
that would go back to that Proverbs, their foolishness unto Him. Oh, how weak spiritually we are
in and of ourselves, powerless to honor our Creator, unfit to
reclaim ourselves, and inadequate to meet the high standards of
God's law. This is, I think, seen in our
text. Who is this? We've described
who this is. These are those not good in themselves. These are, as Romans says, these
are the base, the baser sort. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness? The wilderness. That's where
we're coming up from. Whether it's unto salvation, that's where
God finds us, or day-to-day walking in grace. We're in this world.
This is the wilderness. This is not our home. So this
is seen in this depiction, this word wilderness. It depicts barren,
dry wasteland. That's us outside of Christ.
A desert of spiritual inability. Turn with me to Ezekiel 37. He words it this way in Ezekiel
37. It's a valley of dry, very dry
bones. That's us by nature. We're found in the wilderness.
Who is this that comes up from the wilderness? This is where
we are. Ezekiel 37, the hand, verse one, the hand of the Lord
was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and
set me down in the midst of a valley which was full of bones and caused
me to pass them round about and behold, there were very many
in this open valley and lo, they were very dry. And the Lord said
unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O
Lord, thou knowest. Now free willers would say, you
bet, we're going to get so many people to make a decision, to
sign a card, and we're going to put it up on our little board
of how many people got saved. But when the Lord says, can these
bones live, the true person who understands the gospel and understands
our inability says, you know. I'm going to leave it there.
You know, thou knowest. And again, the Lord said unto me, prophesy,
preach upon these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear
the word of the Lord. That's, that's what I'm doing
this morning. I'm preaching to sinners and
I'm a sinner preaching to sinners back and forth. If you don't
know the gospel this morning, You're very, try these dry bones. Hear the word of the Lord. Thus
saith the Lord God unto these bones. Behold, I will cause,
this is God speaking, not the preacher, not the denomination,
not his oratorical abilities. I, God, will cause breath to
enter into you and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon
you, and bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know
that I am the Lord." Anybody who's saved by the grace of God,
the sovereign, majestic Lord, knows who saved them. They know that they didn't have
anything to do with it. The Lord did it. And so, what
do we do? Whether you're out like this
morning in open air, and preaching, if you're standing on a corner,
you're talking to somebody, if the mailman comes in, the UPS
guy comes in there and starts, somehow a conversation starts
up, this is what you say. So you preach, and as I was commanded,
and I prophesied, and there was a noise, and behold a shaking,
and bones came together, bone upon his bone, and I beheld,
and low sinews of flesh came upon them, and the skin covered
them above, But there was no breath in them. Then he said
unto me, prophesy to the wind, there is the Holy Spirit. Move
upon us. Lord, move by your Holy Spirit.
The blessed Trinity is involved in the salvation of every sinner,
every elect sinner. And say unto the wind, thus saith
the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe
upon these slain that they may live. And he did it, and they
lived. They were there. They were there. He went to them, and Bruce was
talking, and I got thinking about that. I was talking to some brethren
down in Texas, and they said they still go down to downtown
Texas and preach. They still go down there and
preach. And I thought, wisdom cries without. If you can't get
people to come, maybe we ought to go out. There's nothing wrong
with that. There's nothing wrong with that.
You don't have to, you just go out and just do your daily routine
and you'll meet enough people to speak. That's the truth. But who is this? It's the church,
the church of the living God. Those who have been made known
that they are in the wilderness. They're in the wilderness. And if you're coming, if you're
rattling and you're shaking and bone flesh upon flesh and sinners
are coming, this wilderness is a most miserable place to one
who now knows, is now made aware of our condition. You want to
get out of it. But look at our text again. Who
is this that comes up? They're not staying there. They're
not staying in sin and degradation. It's like Bruce said this morning.
I've called, and you're responsible. You're responsible to come out.
Don't go through the motions, religious motions, and not have the heart to follow
Christ. Who is this? Those selected,
discriminated, chosen, redeemed, called, that comes up from the
wilderness. It does say that we're coming
up or we're coming out of the world, out of sin and out of
Satan. We're called by sovereign love
like we saw in Ezekiel 17. We are being called out that
could be separated from serving self and sin. Come out from among
them, he says in the New Testament. We are being brought out. We
are purchased. We're blood bought. We are not
our own. We're no longer our own. We seek
a country, a place, a heavenly Jerusalem. This place, this world,
is a wilderness. It's but an apartment which we
are renting or we're occupying. He said, occupy until I come
and receive us unto himself. That's why in Amos 6.1, he says,
woe unto them who are at ease in Zion. You hear the message? and then you leave and there's
no difference. You come and then you leave. Woe unto those who are at ease
while they're hearing the gospel and it has no effect. We do have
a warfare to engage in, a crown to win, a place where many mansions
are, a garden that must be continually tilled by the Holy Spirit, enabling
us to mortify the deeds of the flesh. We have a gospel to believe,
a savior to trust, a God to honor and glorify, a cause to promote
and adhere to, a fellowship to enjoy and be a part of. We don't
have a role. If you join, you join. I know
they used to say there's three ordinances, church membership,
the Lord's Supper, and baptism. Well, I think there's two ordinances. Church membership is voluntary,
and you're here because you want to be here. You're here because
you love the gospel. You're here, I hope, because we love one another. I was talking to somebody, and
I said, this is a family. This family is closer. than the
regular family. It should be, but now I know
there's differences, age gaps, and stuff like that. But Bruce
and I were talking years ago, when the rubber meets the road
or something happens, you ought to be able to call anybody here,
and they ought to be able to help. And whoa, I say whoa to
those who are at ease in Zion. If you call somebody else who's
not a believer, And I take that, I don't take this lightly, but
I take it, this is my opinion mainly. The brethren understand and know
what you've been going through. The world does not. Now, I'm
not saying you can't have close friends and family. I have family. Matter of fact, we're getting
ready to go down after church, family reunion. but we'll be
ready to come back pretty soon. Why? Because they don't understand
the God we love. So, and there's people who are
smarter than me, finances, consult these people by all means. But
the brethren, we are family. Let us encourage each other to
continue in the faith. They can't. They won't. Matter
of fact, they'll try to take you away Sunday, Wednesday. They'll
make sure you're not here because the world doesn't care about
these things. But let us encourage one another to keep the faith,
to walk in the faith, to trust in Him. Now, how is this done?
How is this done? How is salvation accomplished?
How is growth and grace accomplished? How do we walk day by day? It's
in our text. Who is this that comes up from
the wilderness to stay there in sin? Sin shall not have dominion
over you. It has a power, but not dominion. Leaning, leaning upon her beloved. Leaning. How is this done? Whether
unto salvation or continuation in the ways of grace, our text
says once more, leaning upon our beloved. Or the Hebrew is,
to recline. To recline. Other versions have
it this way, casting upon. to cast yourself upon him, commit
ourselves, joining or cleaving upon Christ. Who is this? Who is this happy? Happy is the man who the Lord
is their God. Happy art thou, O Israel, who
has made the Lord thy God. Who is this? It's those happy,
though tried, though troubled. Like everybody else, they're
coming out from the wilderness, but they're leaning Other people
are leaning on their money. Other people are leaning on their
age, their strength, their wisdom. But we're warned in the scripture
not to do so. But these folks, these prized
few, these ungodly as everybody else, they're leaning upon their
beloved. They're leaning upon their beloved. Isaiah 50 verse 10 says this,
who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of
his servant, that walks in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust
in the name of the Lord and stay, stay, lean, cleave upon his God. And this is only by His distinguishing
grace can we, or do we lean upon Christ for all we need and all
we want for He is all we have. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. That's who we lean upon. 1 John
1, verse 7. But consider this posture, leaning. Consider that
posture. Leaning. Have you ever leaned
on anybody? The older you get, you may be
leaning on a cane. But you ever lean upon somebody?
There's a couple situations where folks were leaning on me. And
I've had situations where maybe after surgery, you have to lean
on them. But this implies weakness. It implies weariness. It implies
fainting, but it also implies dependence upon another. Sinner, we have no strength in
self. I implore you, and I take these
words to myself as well, may we lean upon the anointed one,
Christ Jesus. Do you not find it so day in
and day out? Lay hold of Emmanuel, for he
is the only one who has overcome. And he is the only one that has
the proper strength to support whatever we're going through.
If you think about in the New Testament, he talks about the
vine and the branches. He says, don't boast because
the vine, it cannot hold itself up. It must have a trellis or
a strong cedar of Lebanon, which that would be Christ to grow
up. You know, you've seen these vines. They're not freestanding. They don't. They can't. Well, I see this passage here,
leaning upon her beloved. I see a couple of parallel passages
in the New Testament. We don't need to turn there.
When that man says, that publican says, God be merciful to me,
the sinner. In Luke chapter 18, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. I'm here, I can't stand on my
own. I can't handle this spiritual corruption and degradation. I can't handle it because your
law says that I must be perfect and I cannot be. I can't handle
it in and of myself. And I also see another passage
in the New Testament that's similar to me than this Old Testament
text. The thief on the cross. Lord,
remember me. He wasn't standing, he was nailed
to the cross. In Luke chapter 18. Lord, remember
me. I am but a vine. I have no righteousness needed. I have no clear conscience. My conscience condemns me. The
law condemns me. The spirit condemns me. In Romans
11, and you don't need to turn there, but he says, boasts not
against the branches, but if thou boasts, thou bears not the
root, but the root bears thee. That's, that's what I'm talking
about. And Christ says in John 15, without me, You could do
nothing. Now spiritually, that's what
we're talking spiritually. We come into this house for spiritual
knowledge, the knowledge of Christ, not human wisdom. But lastly, and it's just one
blessing, grace after another, who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? It says her beloved. It's the
church's beloved. It's the chosen sinner's beloved. So I ask you and I ask me, can
we call Him our beloved? You know whether you can or you
can't. Can we call Him Christ, the apple of God's eye? Can we
call Him this wonderful counselor, this mighty God, this everlasting
Father, this Prince of Peace? Can we call Him the most intimate
words, perhaps, that the church ever called, I just thought about
that, probably the most intimate, heartwarming words that the church
can call her Savior, is He our beloved. May we show it by faith
and hope and trust in Him and His blood-secured sacrifice.
Is he the beloved of your and mine and our souls? Put another way, is he the Lord
my righteousness? Is he the Lord Sidkenu out of
Jeremiah 23? Is he the Lord your righteousness?
If he is, he's the Lord your beloved. Folks, may we lean upon
him until one day The leaning will be no more and it will be
face to face. And this promise will be totally
fulfilled. Listen to this promise. For the mountains shall depart
and the hills be removed. But my kindness, God's kindness,
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." Specifically,
has he had mercy on you? If he has, he's your beloved. Bruce, would you close this?