Good evening, everyone. Let's
open tonight's service with a hymn in our spiral, Gospel Hymns Hymnbook.
Let's all stand together for number 32, in Christ we are free. Number 32, let's all stand together. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb, we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free. Please be seated. Where the Spirit of God is, there's
liberty. Stand fast, brethren, and the
liberty with Christ has made you free. What hope we have. Free from the curse of the law.
Free from the wrath of God. Free to love God. Free to believe. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 45, Psalm 45. My heart is indicting a good
matter. I speak of the things which I
have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer. Thou art fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore, God hath blessed thee
forever. The Lord is speaking of his church
there. The Lord has blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And
in thy majesty, ride prosperously because of truth and meekness
and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible
things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall unto
thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore, God thy God hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. He's got the full anointing of
the Spirit of God, doesn't he, as the Christ. Above what we
have, we have the Spirit of God by measure. He has the Spirit
of God in the fullness of His power. did stand the queen in gold of
Ophir. And there's the church. Hearken,
O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear. Forget also
thy own people and thy father's house. So shall the king greatly
desire thy beauty, for he is thy Lord. Worship thou him. And the daughter of Tyre shall
be there with a gift Even the rich among the people shall entreat
thy favor. The king's daughter is all glorious
within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of needlework. The virgins, our companions that
follow her, shall be brought unto her. With gladness and rejoicing
shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's
palace Instead of thy father shall be thy children whom thou
mayest make princes in all the earth. I will make thy name to
be remembered in all generations. Therefore shall the people praise
thee forever and ever. Let's pray. Our glorious and merciful heavenly
father, What great hope you've given us in your word, assuring
us of our acceptance before the. Assuring us Lord of. Of the righteousness
and the beauty that you've given us for Christ's sake. Making
us comely with his comeliness. And Lord, we ask tonight that
you would be pleased now to courage our hearts and enable us once
again to find our rest and our hope. in thy dear son and his
accomplished work of redemption. Oh, we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's all stand together again.
We'll sing hymn number 228 from the hardback temple, 228. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the Ever-Living One,
His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me. My great physician heals the
sick The lost he came to save For me his precious blood he
shed For me his life he gave I need no other argument I need
no other plea It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for
me. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. I know over the
years I've preached from this a time or two and you know that
Proverbs 31 is a picture of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
in all of her beauty and in all of her strength. The word virtuous
that we find in Proverbs 31 verse 10, who can find a virtuous woman? That word virtuous means strong.
Strong. No believing woman would want
anything more than to demonstrate the character traits that are
described in Psalm 31 as a virtuous woman. But at the same time,
no believing woman would call herself the Proverbs 31 woman. Yet the church can call herself
the virtuous woman, the woman of strength, strength to have
access into the very presence of God, strength to come before
the throne of grace with boldness, strength of His strength. When
I was yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly, and yet
His strength is made perfect in my weakness. So here's the
church. The church is strong in the Lord,
strong in Christ, strong enough to have fulfilled all the demands
of God's law and strong enough to be able to enter into the
very throne room of the King of Kings and know that they have
acceptance and access. The Lord spends much of his word
talking about his pride. We just read in Psalm 45 where
the Lord talks about his church, his bride. Oh, how he loves his
wife and how blessed we are to hear him speak of his bride and
to have the hope of knowing that we're part of that one he's talking
about. Turn to me to the Song of Solomon before we Before we
read Proverbs 31, Song of Solomon chapter 4 at verse 7, just a few pages
over from where we are. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Oh, he's made us comely with
his comeliness. He's imputed to us his righteousness,
and he calls his bride fair. So there's not a spot in you.
I've taken them away. Look at verse 9. Thou hast ravished
my heart, my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thine neck. The bride of Christ
is the only one who has eyes to see him. The eye of faith
is given in the new birth and she's the only one that can look
his way. And he says to her, when you just glance in my direction
in one way, you ravish my heart. This is beyond our understanding,
isn't it? how the Lord could speak in such
glorious terms of us, and yet He does. How fair is thy love,
my sister, verse 10, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine and the smell of thine ointments than all spices. Thy lips, O
my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. When the bride of the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks of Him, they speak of His glory, Speak of his beauty,
speak of his strength. He says of her, your lips drop
of the honeycomb. My hope in this hour is that
the Lord will enable us to believe that he loves us. To believe
that he's imputed his righteousness to us. There can be no other
way. If the gospel is true, then this
is the only way that he can see his bride, isn't it? Go back
with me to Proverbs 31 verse 1. Now, Lemuel is a synonym for Solomon. It's another name that
the scripture gives to Solomon. And the word, the name Lemuel
translated means for God. For God. So these words are for
those who are for God. Those who are on the Lord's side. Those who are for His glory. We are. The Bride of Christ is
the only one in all of creation, in all the world I should say, that's for His glory, other than
the holy angels, the only ones in this world that are for God,
Lemuel, for God, for His glory. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
1. The bride of Christ The virtuous woman is the only
one that can truly rejoice in these words. Look at verse 27,
but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world. Oh, yes.
If these words are true about the bride of Christ, it's only
because He's given us His glory. For left to myself God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, God hath
chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty, the base things of this world, and the things
which are despised hath God chosen, yea, the things which are not
to bring to naught the things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence, but of him Of God are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us all our wisdom, all of our
righteousness, all of our sanctification, and all of our redemption. As
it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Proverbs
31 is written to the bride of Christ called Lemuel. We are for his glory. For God. We want him to get all
the glory, don't we? We want him to get all the glory
in election. We want him to get all the glory
in redemption. We want him to get all the glory in regeneration.
We want him to have all the glory in sanctification. Lord, if I'm
ever gonna be presented faultless before thy throne, it'll be to
your glory. We're for him, aren't we? How
do I know that Proverbs 31 is written to me? How do I know
that I'm part of the bride of Christ? I'm for His glory. Oh, I don't want to rob Him of
His glory and salvation. And we're for His grace, aren't
we? We're for His grace. We know that salvation is all
of grace. I don't want God to look to me
for anything that He requires of my salvation. I want him to
look to Christ for everything. So that Zachariah said, and he
shall bring the headstone with shoutings, crying, glory, crying,
grace, grace, grace unto thee, and grace unto that stone that
thou hast laid. We're for God, we are. Amazing
grace. How sweet is the sound that saved
a wretch like me. I have hope of knowing that these
words that the Lord speaks about his bride are for me in that
I'm for God. I'm for God's glory. I'm for
his grace. I'm for his gospel. I'm for his
gospel. The good news that Christ has
sufficiently satisfied the demands of God's righteousness and justice
in order to redeem us to himself. That's the gospel. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God unto salvation. To everyone that believe about
the gospel, there's no hope of salvation. Successful Savior who satisfied
God. And we're satisfied with Him
too, aren't we? we're satisfied with his gospel, we're for God,
we're for God in his glory, we're for God in his grace, we're for
God in his gospel, and we're for God in his church. We rejoice in knowing that the
church is the bride of Christ, that it is the body of Christ,
and that everything that the Lord does in this world is for
his church, is for his church. The nations are but a drop in
the bucket to him. Everything that God's doing of
any eternal significance is being done for the sake of his church. And we're all in, aren't we?
We're for God and we're for his church. The child of God will say, Lord,
let my business fail. Let me fail. Let my children fail, but don't
let your church fail. Lord, I've got to have your church.
I've got to be a part of your church. The words of those who are for
God, Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. Now Bath in Hebrew means daughter
and Sheba translated means an oath or a covenant and so Bathsheba
who is the mother of Lemuel the mother of Solomon her name means
the daughter of a covenant. And there again, we see a picture
of the church. The church is pictured here by Bathsheba. She's
the one that taught Lemuel everything that he knew, everything that
he learned about the glory of God. He couldn't learn it anywhere
else. I was thinking today, how horrible
this world would be if all our children had, for teachers, their
fathers or the husbands or the men in this world. How, you know,
how, how, how dependent we are for the mothers to teach their
children properly. And, and here we have a, have
a picture of the church has a picture of Bathsheba, the daughter of
an oath. And that's what the church is.
The church is the daughter of the covenant of grace that God
the Father established with God the Son before time ever began. We just sang about that. And
so here she is. She's the oath that Christ made with his
Father for his bride. I mean, that's the first arranged
marriage, wasn't it? And she enters into that relationship
all willingly, doesn't she? She's made to be willing in the
day of his power. She rejoices that the marriage
was arranged before she had anything to say about it. Here's the daughter
of the oath. And the Lord himself makes an
oath with his father. I'll redeem her. I'll pay the
ransom price for her. The Father says, I'll give you
a bride. And here Lemuel says, I've been taught by my mother. Where do we learn the things
of God? We're not going to learn them in the world, are we? We're
not going to learn them on our own. Our mother teaches us, doesn't
she? We're taught through the preaching
of the gospel. We're taught through the fellowship and the encouragement
and the affirmation that we receive from one another. We're taught
as we enter into this book together, aren't we? This is where we're
taught the things of God. And so Solomon says, these are
the words of Lemuel, those who are on God's side, who had been
taught by their mother. And look what the first thing
she says, she says, what my son? The first reference here to my
son is her love for him. And she's speaking of this intimate
love that she has for her son. You know, there's a, There's an unfeigned love that's
not just in word, but it is indeed and in truth, as John speaks
about in 1 John, that believers have with one another that we
don't have with anybody else. We're able to enter into a relationship
with one another in our fellowship in the gospel and in Christ and
our spirits are able to, that we can't, we don't have anywhere
else, do we? And so Bathsheba says to her,
says to her son, Lemuel, the one who is on God's side, she
says, oh my son. And then look what she says,
the son of my womb. I know there's people who think
that they were born again out there in the woods somewhere
and just, you know, doing things on their own and reading the
Bible on their own. The truth is that God births
His children into His family through the womb of His church,
doesn't He? It's the foolishness of preaching.
It's the fellowship of the saints. When the unbeliever comes in
and he sees the things that God's doing among His people, if he's
one of God's elect, he's convicted by that and says, as Paul says
in 1 Corinthians, God is among you. God is among you. I want
to know the God that you know. I've heard something of him.
This is where God births his children. And so she says, Oh,
my son, I love you. The son of my womb, you were
birthed into the family of God right there in, you know, that's
what, that's what brother translated means of the same womb of the
same womb. And we're all birthed the same
way. We're birthed through the preaching
of the gospel. And look what he says, and the
son of my vows, the marriage vow that the Lord
Jesus Christ made with his church assured that she would have children. She's not going to be a barren
wife. She's going to bear children, and she's going to bear every
one of his children. All those that God chose are going to be
born into the kingdom of God through the womb of the gospel,
through the ministry of the church, and those are the children of
her bow. Now as we've seen in the other
proverbs, certainly it would be foolish for a man to give
his strength unto women and many men have been destroyed by doing
just that. But oh, what destruction comes
on the soul when a man looks outside of the virtuous woman
and chooses a different wife, a harlot. It's what the scripture
calls her. All those other churches out
there that are calling themselves the bride of Christ, they don't
believe the gospel. They're harlots. And there's
many men that are, men and women, that are being destroyed by giving
their strength unto women. What Bathsheba is saying to Lemuel
and what the Lord is saying to us through his church is choose
your wife carefully. Wait for the right woman and
make sure that she's the virtuous woman. Make sure that she's not
the harlot of this world. Verse 4, it is not for kings,
O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine nor for princes
strong drink. Now scripture speaks of wine
on the leaves being a thing that illustrates the gospel and there's
not a prohibition against the drinking of wine here. He's talking
about that spirit that John speaks of when he says, try the spirits
and be sure that they are of God. For many false prophets
have gone out into the world. There are intoxicating spirits
that will lead men away from Christ and cause them to put
their hope in their own will and in their own works. Look
what she says to him lest they drink and forget the law and
pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted." What is it to
pervert the judgment of the afflicted? The afflicted are those who are
burdened with their sin and seeking some hope of salvation. And what
does the intoxicated king say to them? Go back to Mount Sinai. Go to the law. Make this decision. You see, the one who's drunk
on a false gospel is going to take those who are afflicted
and lead them astray, only going to add to them their affliction. I was talking to a man just this
afternoon, and I think he wanted to impress me to let me know
that he listened to Joel Osteen and he really liked him. And
I was gentle with him. You know, I didn't want to just
tell him, right? I said, well, I said, Jeremy,
I said, you know, if you went to a doctor with terminal cancer
and that doctor, all he did for you was give you pain medicine
to make you feel better i said uh... what do you think of that
doctor and he looked at me and he got it he got it right there
he said you're right he said that's what Joel Osteen is doing i said that's exactly what he's
doing he's drunk on another spirit and he's leading the afflicted
to a feel good gospel while at the same time they're dying of
terminal cancer what does it what what what what
happens when when a person is intoxicated I just dealt with
one of them that makes them feel good doesn't they feel good in
the flesh it also makes them say foolish things don't it doesn't
person gets intoxicated make you know the the the the words
of a drunk man or is the heart of a sober man you've heard that
people say people say foolish things when they're intoxicated
and uh... and and the third thing is that
that people are bold to do things that they would not otherwise
do when they're intoxicated you show me a preacher that's preaching
against some uh... infraction to the law And I'll
show you a preacher that's covering up some sin in his own life. And that's because they're intoxicated
with the false gospel. They've got a false spirit. And
that's what the Lord's saying here. The church, the Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking through Bathsheba, the daughter of His oath, and
speaking to those who are on God's side, Lemuel, and saying
to them, be careful. Be careful. Not every woman out
there is a virtuous woman. Some of them will feed you an
intoxicating spirit that will lead you to say foolish things,
that'll lead you to do foolish things. And then all along, you'll
be feeling good, but you're gonna die. It's not for kings. It's
not for kings. give strong drink unto him, look
at verse six, give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish
and wine unto those that be of a heavy heart. Now that word
heavy is the word bitter. I've heard doctors say of dying
men and dying women who would otherwise Be very careful
about what they did and what they ate and what they drank.
I've heard doctors say in the last days, let them have whatever
they want. It's not going to matter. They want to drink, let them
drink. They want to smoke, let them smoke. Let them have whatever
they want. It's not going to matter. They're
almost gone. They're dying. They're dying.
They can get some pleasure in that for the last few days, you
know, let them. And, you know, that's true, isn't
it? And that's what the Lord is saying here. Give strong drinking
to him that's ready to perish. If a person's got a bitter heart
towards God and they're hell-bent on perishing, let them have what
they want. Let them have what they want. It's not going to
matter. Let him drink. Look at verse
7. and forget his poverty and remember
his misery no more. And that's what happens. Man,
I mentioned Sunday that unbelievers, you know, one of the things that
the Lord's shown me more clearly lately is that when in preaching,
I warn men about having a false hope. And you know there's people
here all the time that have false hopes. People have ears but they
do not hear. People have eyes but they do
not see. People think they're believers and they're not. But
you know what happens? I've learned this over the years.
Every time I point out that, you know who the people are That
fear that I'm talking about them. It's not the people. The people
I'm talking about don't, it doesn't bother them at all. He's not
talking about me. You see, it's the believer that's
caused to think, well, you know. Let him drink and forget his
poverty. He doesn't know he's a sinner. He's not convicted
by those things. I hope the Lord will give me
wisdom and knowing how to encourage believers and how to extend the
proper warning to unbelievers. But I have learned that when
unbelievers are warned, believers are the ones that take it to
heart. Believers are the ones that take it to heart. Unbelievers
don't fear. They don't worry about their
salvation. They don't doubt. They presume upon God. They just
go on as if everything's fine. Let him drink and forget his
poverty. He doesn't know he's poor. He's
like that church in Laodicea. You say that you're rich and
increasing goods and in need of nothing, but you don't know
that you're poor and miserable and blind and naked? There he
is. Let him drink. They don't know.
They don't know. They forget their poverty. They
forget that they're in misery. They don't know. He remembers
his misery no more. He drinks of that free will,
works gospel. He goes back to Sinai and he
comforts himself in thinking that he's keeping the law. And
he's just drinking down that intoxicating lie. And he believes
the lie. He believes the lie. Because
he has no love for the truth, God sends him a strong delusion
that he should believe a lie. Child of God, if you try yourself
to see whether you'd be in the faith, that's a good thing. And
if you hold yourself suspect, that's good evidence. The unbeliever
doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. He goes on
forgetting his poverty, remembering his misery no more, thinking,
I'm okay, everything's good. What are we to do? Well, look
at verses 8 and 9. Open thy mouth for the dumb.
Now, what are the dumb? The dumb are those who can't
speak. I'm not talking about those who are intellectually
deprived that he's all about those who can't speak and he's
saying to the church pray for them that's all you can do for
them is pray for them open your mouth for the dumb in the cause
of all such as are appointed to destruction open thy mouth
judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and the needy
open thy mouth before God plead But that's what Paul said to
Timothy, he said, he said, brother, and I would have you hold up
holy hands, pray for all men, particularly for those in authority
and speak to them as God gives you opportunity, open your mouth
for the dumb, tell them about Christ and plead with God. How many people in this world
have a child of God praying for them? We ought to be bold to go before
the throne of grace and plead on behalf of our children and
our parents and our loved ones and our friends and neighbors.
That's what the Lord's saying. They don't know. They're just
going on as if everything's fine. They have drunk of that intoxicating
liquor and they're out of their mind and they're saying foolish
things and they're doing foolish things and they feel good about
it. It's just like alcohol. They feel good about it. They
don't know that they're in misery. They don't know that they're
poor and naked and blind. So you open your mouth for them.
See, the Lord's speaking to his church, isn't he? With the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the bride of Christ, Lemuel, those
who are for God, they're the only ones that have access into
the throne room of grace. Other people could be pretending
to be praying, but they're just like that Pharisee, aren't they?
Praying unto themselves, saying, God, I thank thee that I'm not
like other men. That's what most prayers are
like. The child of God is the only one that can go boldly before
the throne of grace, knowing that we have a high priest who
is not unable to sympathize with the weaknesses of our afflictions,
but is always tempted as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, come
boldly. Come with confidence before the
throne of grace to find help in your time of need. That's
what the Lord is saying here. Open your mouth for the dumb. It's good to speak to men on
behalf of God. It's better yet to speak to God
on behalf of men, isn't it? Open your mouth for the dumb. Who can find a virtuous woman? She's a rare thing, isn't she?
She's a rare thing. I was talking to Jeremy this
afternoon, and he was saying, you know, I live all the way
out in Osteen, and that's a long way to go to church. So I was
telling him where some of our folks come from, and he couldn't
believe it. He said, why would they drive
so far? I said, because they can't find
a virtuous woman anywhere else. Brother Henry Mahan, you say
sheep will travel a long way to get to a pasture of fresh
clover. You hear about the gospel, hear
about Christ. And that's, who can find a virtuous
woman? Her price is above rubies. What kind of price are you going
to put on this woman? This word virtuous,
Not only means strength, but it also means wealth. Wealth. Matter of fact, it's translated
most oftentimes army in the Old Testament. And here's the army of God, isn't
it, that has the riches of grace given to her by the Lord Jesus
Christ and has access into the very presence of God and has
the strength of truth about her. She's girt about with truth as
Paul speaks of in Ephesians chapter 6. Remember that soldier who
had the sword of the spirit, the shield of faith and his loins
girt about with the loins of truth. Look what she says. The
heart of her husband, verse 11, the heart of her husband doth
safely trust in her so that he have no need for spoil Now who's
her husband? The Lord Jesus Christ is her
husband. He doesn't have to go out and conquer the enemy in
order to rob from them their riches. He already reigns Lord over them. What is the Lord Jesus Christ
pleased with? He's pleased with praise. He's
pleased with the praise of our lips. and that which he's given us
the love of our hearts this is faith is what he's pleased with
without faith it's impossible to please God they that come
to him must believe that he is and the rewarder of them that
diligently seek him God's pleased with what God gives and he hasn't
given them anything he's given to his bride faith he's given
to his bride riches and wealth he's given to his bride the desire
to worship him and to believe upon him and that's what he's
pleased with. So the heart of her husband,
that's the heart of God. That's the heart of Christ. He
doth safely trust in her. Safely trust in her. As long
as she's his bride, as long as she's his church, He's gonna
trust that she's gonna honor Him. She's gonna point to Him. She's gonna praise Him. She's
gonna worship Him. She will do Him good and not
evil all the days of her life. When she stops doing Him good,
she stops being His bride. The bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
will always do Him good. She will always speak of him. Now when I say she stops being
his bride, I'm talking about the local assembly. And every
local assembly that one time was identified by God as the
bride of Christ stopped. That local assembly stopped being
his bride. And at that point he didn't trust
her. She will do him good and not
evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool. That's what she seeks. That fleece
that Gideon wrung out. Remember the fleece that was
wet with water and then it was dry. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
who was wet. He was dry first, wasn't it? The fleece was, there was no
dew on the fleece. Let the dew fall everywhere,
but not on the fleece. and the wrath of God fall on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then the dew of heaven falls
on his people when they like Adam are clothed in that robe
of righteousness made from the lamb that was without spot and
without blemish. There we are. She seeks after
wool and flax. Now that word flax is linen,
linen. And that's what the priest was
clothed with, wasn't it? Aaron's garment was made of linen. And we have been made to be priests
and kings. A royal priesthood, a holy nation. There's the bride of Christ.
There's the church again. And she's got a priestly garment
on. She's got the righteousness of
Christ and she's got access into the presence of God. And she
works willingly with her hands. She doesn't do any of this begrudgingly. She delights in worshiping her
husband. She delights in serving him.
She delights in hearing about him. She wants to know more about
him, doesn't she? She is like the merchant ships.
She bringeth her food from afar. Now in Revelation, the false
prophets are spoken of as merchants who merchandise men's souls and
take their gospel around the world in ships and how God's
going to destroy them. But here's the bride of Christ
going afar to get her food. You know where I went today? I went into the very presence
of God. I did. I did. I asked Him to speak to
me. I asked Him to open up the mystery
of the gospel to my heart. And where we're going now, we're
going afar to get our food, aren't we? We go into the very heaven
of heavens asking God to teach us. She riseth also while it is yet
night and gives me to her household and a portion to her maidens."
Oh, how many times has the Lord woken you in the middle of the
night and caused you to have thoughts of Him, caused you to
open your mouth for the dumb, caused you to seek the Lord for
that wool and for that flax. of the mercy of His grace. She
wakes early in the morning. She has thoughts of Him when
she first wakes up in the morning. Children of God, when they wake
up in the morning, they're one of the very first thoughts they
have, maybe after figuring out what day it is. That's the first
thought that hits my mind. As soon as I open my eyes, I
have to, because if it's not Wednesday or Sunday, you know,
I've got to know, the first thought I have, is it today, Wednesday,
or Sunday? But that thought doesn't last
long until I'm brought to think on Him, aren't we? We do. The Spirit of God causes us. She considereth a field and buyeth
it, the fruit of her hand. She planteth a vineyard. She's always looking for for
the ground to plant the seeds of the gospel. She's always hoping
that seeds of the gospel will be planted in her own heart.
Lord, plow the fallow ground of my heart and let the seeds
of the gospel take root and produce fruit. Don't let me be like that,
like that wayside here. Don't let me be like the one
who was so grown up with thorns that the thorns choked out the
seed. Lord, don't let the birds of
the air come and snatch away the truth of my heart. Lord,
buy this field. Plant the seeds of your truth
in my heart. She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. Paul said, when I am weak, then
I am strong, for his strength is made perfect in my weakness.
Here's where she finds her strength in her husband, doesn't she? How many men have failed their
wives? I've seen just somebody recently
that came listen to the gospel and he had an interest but she
convinced him not to come back. I've seen that happen time and
time again. Men who relinquish the spiritual
responsibilities of their home to their wives and are led away
from the gospel as a result of it. Her strength is in her husband. She's confident in him. She knows
that he's going to lead her right. She knows that he's going to
teach her properly. She knows that he's going to
provide everything that she needs and so she's confident. A confident
woman is a woman that's got a strong husband. Now you know I'm not
talking about some sort of male chauvinism or bullying of a woman. I'm talking about a man who's
able to lead his wife, she's strong because she's confident
that he's there. And women that have weak husbands,
what are they? Well, they fearfully try to take
control, don't they? They do. They're not strong,
they're fearful. They're fearful. They don't have
the confidence. Oh, what confidence the bride
of Christ has. Here's the virtuous woman. She's
strong and she's wealthy because of her husband. And she's confident
in him. Who can find her? She's a rare
thing, isn't she? She's more precious than rubies.
She's more valuable than gold. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would enable us as the bride of Christ to seek your glory to bow to your authority, and
to receive our hope from your strength. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. All right, Tom? 186. Let's stand together. 186. The Church's one foundation is
Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water
and the Word. From heaven he came and sought
her to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her and for her life he died. ? Elect from every nation ? Get
one or all the earth ? Her charter of salvation ? One Lord, one
faith, one birth ? One holy name she blesses ? Partakes one holy
food And to one hope she presses With every grace endued. Mid toil and tribulation And
tumult of her war She waits the consummation Of peace forevermore
Till with a vision glorious Her longing eyes are blessed and
the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth hath union with
God the three in one, and mystic sweet communion with those whose
rest is O happy ones and holy, Lord, give us grace that we,
like them, the meek and lowly, on high may dwell with Thee.