Good morning again. In Isaiah 61, the prophet gives a prophecy
relating to what the Lord Jesus Christ would do when he comes. As a matter of fact, this is
the passage that our Lord read when he began his public ministry
in the synagogue in Nazareth. And he wrote, the spirit of the
Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me. He's made me
the Messiah. To preach good tidings unto the
meek, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them
that are bound. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Our hearts are hopeful that he'll do that for us this morning.
Let's stand together. Brother Tom's gonna come and
lead us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Of all the times on earth most
sweet, Tis when the saints together meet, To hear the gospel of free
grace, And mercies to Jehovah trace. O let us sing with one
accord and glorify our sovereign Lord, exalt and magnify His name,
His worthy praises now proclaim. Lord, bless Thy servants we beseech,
as they to us of Jesus preach. We love the precious gospel word,
the sweetest message ever heard. May Christ alone be magnified,
who for our sin was crucified. He is the Lord, our righteousness,
who saved us from our sinfulness. Lord, as we listen to thy word,
O may our stubborn hearts be stirred. Show us that we are
sinful dust, and grant that we on Christ may trust. Please be seated. Good morning. Turn, if you will,
to Deuteronomy chapter 32. The last book of Moses. Deuteronomy chapter 32, beginning
in verse one. Give ear, O ye heavens, and I
will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine
shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as
a small rain upon the timber or herb, and as the showers upon
the grass. Because I will publish or proclaim,
because I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe you greatness
under our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. They have corrupted themselves.
Their spot is not the spot of His children. They are a perverse
and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite the Lord,
O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father that have
bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established
thee? Remember the days of old. Consider
the years of many generations. Ask thy father and he will show
thee. Thy elders and they will tell
thee. When the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of
Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel because the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. Two things stand out in this. Number one is this. God separates
the son of Adam. We do not separate ourselves. The sheep on the right and the
goats on the left is God's work. We have nothing to do with that. And God's lot is his people. We belong to God. We're not our
own. We're bought with a price. We
should glorify God with our body and our spirit, which are God's. Father, we thank you for being
our God, Father, our rock, our hope of salvation. Father, the
scripture tells us that. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elected? You're the one that justifies
who shall condemn because Christ is the one that died. Father,
it's a marvelous thing that you have chosen us in eternity past. God the Son has died for our
salvation and God the Holy Spirit borns us again. Father, we need
to be reminded that All of this is the works of your hands, Father,
that we've received it, and that's it. We can add nothing to salvation. We can take nothing away. We'd
ask, Father, you'd bless Greg as he brings a message this morning,
Father, that you'd give him grace, Father. You'd give him the grace
to give us a word in time of need, and you'd give us the grace
to receive it. We ask these things in Jesus'
name, amen. Let's stand together once again
and we'll sing hymn number 336 from your hardbacked hymnal. Number 336, O For A Closer Walk
With God. ["O For A Closer Walk With God"] Oh, for a closer walk with God,
a calm and heavenly frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads
me to the Lamb. Return, O holy dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
born and drove thee from my breast. The dearest idol I have known,
What e'er that idol be, Help me to tear it from thy throne,
And worship only thee. So shall my walk be close with
God, calm and serene, I pray. So purer light shall mark the
road that leads me to the Lamb. Please be seated. I love William Cowper hymns.
He was a friend of John Newton's and at one stage in his life
John had to take him into his home to care for him because
his depression had become so bad. And yet in those dark hours is
when he was able to write some of the greatest hymns. So thankful for that. Will you
open your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah chapter 60,
if you remember last Sunday, we looked at the Gentiles as
being dogs. And now the prophet asked this
question in verse 8. Who are these that fly as a cloud
and as the doves to their windows? I want to try to answer a question
this morning. Why do we come to Christ? Someone might be thinking, well,
because God has chosen a particular people according to his own will
and purpose before time ever began and that would be true.
And someone might be thinking, well, because the Lord in his
time draws us and calls us irresistibly. and opens the eyes of our understanding
and takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh
and makes us to believe and that would be true. But why did you
come or why are you called to come to Christ in your experience? What is there about the Lord
Jesus Christ that makes him irresistible? What is there about the Lord
Jesus Christ that he reveals that causes us to fly like the
cloud or like the dove to its window? What is that in our view
of him that makes him so precious and so irresistible to us? Why do we come to him? And the Lord answers that question
in our text. Verse nine, surely the aisles
shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first. Now this is a prophecy relating
to Saul of Tarshish. who was the apostle to the Gentiles. This whole passage is about Gentiles
coming to Christ, fleeing to Him, desiring Him, being made
willing, not just with some sort of nebulous force, but with a
genuine heart's desire to know Him and to love Him. Paul said,
My passion in life is that I might know Christ. I've not yet fully
apprehended that which has apprehended me. But this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, I press towards the
mark for the prize. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I'd say
that's my only desire. What is there about Christ that
makes him so appealing? What is it that makes him so
irresistible? What is it in our experience
that causes us to want to come to Christ? And so the Lord says, I'm going
to first raise up an apostle And that apostle is going to
preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And in 1 Corinthians chapter
3, Paul said, I'm a master builder and I have laid the one foundation. No other foundation can any man
lay than the foundation that has been laid. And then he goes
on to say, take heed how you build on this foundation. For
some will build with silver and gold and precious stones and
others will build with wood, hay and stubble. And those who
build with wood, hay and stubble, that wood, hay and stubble will
be burned up in the judgment and yet they shall be saved even
as with fire. I've always had a problem with
that verse because I've always thought everything I do has got
wood, hay and stubble in it. I can't stand here and preach
to you the glorious gospel of God's free grace in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ without there being wood, hay, and stubble
in it. I'm sorry. I pray for that not to be the
case, but it's there. But here's my hope. God's going
to burn up all the wood, hay, and stubble, and the only thing
that's going to be preserved is the gold and silver and precious
stone. And we'll be saved. even as by
fire. So Paul said, I've laid the foundation. You preach the gospel. Yeah,
there's going to be some wood, hay and stubble in everything
you do. But that which is done by Christ
will be preserved for all eternity. There's our hope. Lord, cause
us to be careful how we build. that we would point to Christ
and glorify Him. Look at this passage. So the
Lord said, Surely the isles are going to wait for Me, and the
ships of the isles, that's us. That's all the nations outside
of Israel. And the ships of Tarshish first.
What are they going to do? They're going to bring the suns
from far, their silver and their gold with them. You come to Christ, you come lock, stock, and barrel. Everything you have and everything
you are belongs to Him. And you gladly acknowledge that. You gladly bow and worship to
Him. But this is also a picture of
what the passage I just quoted from 1 Corinthians chapter 3. The works of faith are gold and
silver and precious stone, and they're going to be preserved
by God for all eternity. And here's the Lord prophesying
there's going to be a prophet to the Gentiles. Those Gentile
dogs are going to come from afar. They're going to come from the
isles. They're going to come from faraway nations, and they're
going to bring everything they have with them when they come. And they're gonna come unto the
name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel. We learn who this Holy One of
Israel is by His name. His names declare His glory.
And the last phrase in this passage tells us why we come. Why we come. because He hath
glorified thee. That's why we come. What draws us so irresistibly
to the Lord Jesus Christ is that all the attributes of God are
glorified in Him. The Lord, when he gives us a
new heart, causes us to desire something about the righteousness
of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
glorified his righteousness. All we're gonna know about the
righteousness of God, we're not gonna see it in ourselves. We're
not gonna even see it in one another. We're gonna see it in
the life and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He glorified
the Father. The justice of God. Our God is
a holy God. He must punish sin. And the justice,
he said, I will not allow one sin to go unpunished. Not one. God's justice is perfect. And
the Lord Jesus Christ glorified the justice of God in that He
bore in His body all the sins of all of His people and suffered
the full wrath of God's justice in order to put away those sins
once and for all. We come to Him because He glorified
Thee. That's why we come. We see the
glory of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all that will ever
know about God will discover it in the Lord Jesus Christ. The wisdom of God. If any of
you lack wisdom, let him ask it of God, who gives to all men
liberally and upbraideth it not. But yet let him ask in faith,
nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like
the waves of the sea. He's tossed to and fro. He's unstable in all of his ways. Let not that man believe that
he'll receive anything from the Lord. And here again, just like
with the wood, hay and stubble, we feel like we're always wavering,
aren't we? But what the Lord's talking about
here is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ or believing that
you've got to bring something in order to find acceptance with
God that he didn't accomplish the work of redemption by himself.
It's works mixed with grace, isn't it? So, Lord, I need wisdom. And God has made him, God has
made him, 1 Corinthians 1, to be our wisdom and our sanctification,
our righteousness, our redemption. Everything about God is found
in Christ. Why do we come? Because we see
through the eyes of faith that only in the Lord Jesus Christ
is God glorified. God is glorified. If we have
any interest in knowing God, we're drawn to Christ because
to know Him, That's what the Lord said in John chapter 17,
didn't he? He said, and this is life eternal, that they might
know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. So the Lord says, I'm going to
send a prophet, an apostle to the Gentiles. and they're going
to come from all the isles, and they're going to bring their
silver and their gold, and they're going to come unto the name of
the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel. For He, the Holy
One of Israel, hath glorified thee." All the glory of God is perfected
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why we come. That's
why we come. God puts into our hearts a desire
to know His perfection. And so we come because He has
glorified Thee. God is love. And the love of
God is glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. What more can we
know about the love of God than what we see in what the Lord
Jesus Christ did? For greater love hath no man
than this, that he lay down his life for his friend. And herein
is love, not that we loved God. We don't measure love by how
much we love or by how much somebody else loves. Herein is love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as
a propitiation for our sins. We come flying like a cloud. We come like a dove to the window. We're drawn irresistibly because
He hath glorified thee. God puts into the hearts of His
people a desire to know something of the glory of God. His mercy,
His mercy. God delights in showing mercy.
Where do we see the mercy of God? More than in the sacrifice
the Lord Jesus Christ made on behalf of His people, He has
glorified thee. in his justice, in his righteousness,
in his love, in his mercy, in his wisdom, in his grace, in
his grace. He bore it all. He finished the
work all by himself. He's a God of grace, for by grace,
not by merit, the grace of God is glorified in thee. all the attributes of God, the
power of God. I want to know something about
the power of God, don't you? The power to put away sin, the
power to satisfy a holy God, the power to save sinners, all
of that is glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why do they come? Why do they come? The Lord tells
us right here why they're gonna come. They're gonna come because
he hath glorified thee. In the Song of Solomon, just
one book prior to Isaiah, if you'll turn back with me to chapter
five in the Song of Solomon. We have another picture that
answers this question. Why do we come to Christ? Yes, God's elected a people. Yes, they are called and drawn
irresistibly. But why in our experience do
we find him to be so irresistible? What is there about the altogether
loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us have to
come to Him? What is there about Him? And
the Lord's given us a picture of Christ here in Song of Solomon
chapter 5 that answers that question. Look at verse 1, I am come into
my garden. Now, this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to His church. I am come into my garden, my
sister. No longer do I call you my servants, for a servant doesn't
know what his master's doing. I called you my friends. I've
revealed to you the glory of what it is that I came to do.
I've revealed to you the glory of my Father in all of His divine
attributes. And so I'm calling you my sister.
And the Lord said where two or three are gathered together in
my name there I am in the midst of them. I inhabit the praise
of my people. The Lord Jesus Christ was seen
by John as walking among the candlesticks, doesn't he? This
is where he's pleased to manifest himself. And going back to the
previous hour, We don't put people under the law to come to church
on Sunday. You see, this is the work of
grace. This is the irresistible call. This is where God's people
who have seen something of his glory want to be in order to
see more of him. This is where he makes himself
known. And so he says, I come to my garden, my sister, my spouse,
my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. Here's why we come. Because the
Lord Jesus Christ has given His body as our meat. He has given His blood as our
drink. This is where our souls are satisfied. This is where we find the hope
of eternal life. This is where we find the meaning
for everything in Him. And He's calling us. He said,
come, my sister, my spouse. And then He calls us His beloved. And John put it like this, we
do love him. We fly as a cloud. We go as a
dove to the window to see more of his glory. Why? Because he's
made us to love him. We do love him because he first
loved us. Made himself known unto us. And
so the bride says, I sleep. I'm in a spiritual slumber. I
don't have this irresistible draw to be with him. I sleep,
but my heart waketh. There's a tingling. There's a
little bit of an interest. There's a desire that's being
put into my heart. I'm asleep, but my heart waketh.
It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to
me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is
filled with doom, my locks with the drops of night." Oh, I'm
hearing a little bit of his voice, but it's distant. It's like a
dream. I can't quite wake up out of
my spiritual slumber, out of my deadness. I want to. So I put him off. I put him off. I have put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall
I defile them? I've already gone to bed. I'm
comfortable right where I am. I have found peace in my circumstances. I have found some comfort in
where I am. I'm not drawn to need him. So my beloved put his hand by
the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. He wouldn't
let me be comfortable in my circumstances. He left the scent of his grace
in my nostrils. I knew of his presence and I
wanted to see him more. I rose up to open to my beloved
and my hands dropped with the myrrh. I could smell the scent
of his presence there on the door. This is a picture of God
speaking to our hearts by his grace and giving us a little
bit of taste, a little taste of his mercy, a little taste
of that which makes us want to come to him. and my fingers with sweet smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved
but my beloved had withdrawn. The Lord Jesus Christ will give
to his children a little scent of his presence and then he will
withdraw himself. forcing them to come look for
him. Lord, I want to know you. I've
just tasted of the heavenly gift and I want more. And so he withdraws
himself. And one of two things will happen
when the Lord withdraws Himself, withdraws the awareness of His
presence. Some will say, well, I'll just
go back to bed. I was comfortable there before
and I can find comfort there again. And others will say, oh, no, I've
got to find Him. I've got to know Him. I need
Him. Why did they fly to him? Because
he glorified thee. I want to know something about
the glory of God. I opened to my beloved, verse
6, but my beloved hath withdrawn himself and was gone. And my
soul failed when he spake, and I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. And again, some will say, well,
I'll just go back to bed. I'll just lie down in the comfort
of my circumstances. It was a dream. I thought I needed
him, but I didn't really. But not so, not so with those
Gentile dogs who've heard the gospel. Not so with those who
want to know something of the glory of God. They, in verse
7, will go out of the house into the city and they'll talk to
the watchmen. Now watchmen are preachers. And
they'll approach the preachers and they'll say, have you seen
my beloved? Tell me about him. And most of the watchmen that
she finds in the city will smite them. they'll smite them. Now these
are preachers who are not preaching the gospel of God's grace, they're
preaching the law. They're giving you something
that you have to do in order to earn favor with God. They're
giving you something that you have to bring. They're saying
that man was made to meet the needs of the Sabbath. They tell
you, well you know, you need to make Jesus Lord of your life.
You need to invite him into your heart. You need to give him your
heart. You need to do this or do that. You need to pray this
prayer. You need to perform this work. And for the child of God,
that's being smitten. Because if they're genuine, and
they're honest, and they evaluate what they've brought, they're
left with nothing but fear, wondering if they did enough. or if they
did it right. So you're not helping me find
my beloved watchman, you're smiting me with law. You're putting me
under the law. And they wounded me. It's like
the woman with the issue of blood, you remember? She had spent all
that she had on physicians. And she was worse off at the
end than she was at the beginning. Oh, that I might touch the hem
of his garment. And she was crawling through
the crowd trying to get to Christ, wasn't she? She was being irresistibly
drawn. She'd been smitten by the watchman.
She'd been used and abused by the false prophets. And now she just needed to get
to Christ. What is there about him that
draws us irresistibly to him. For he hath glorified thee. All the glory of God is found
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. They smoked me, they wounded
me, the keepers of the wall took away my veil from me. Oh, I had a clothing, I had a
covering and now they've taken away my covering. They've robbed
me of His glory. They've robbed me of the hope
of my salvation by forcing me to look to something other than
Him. And so she says, I charge you,
O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you
tell him that I am sick of love. I've got to find him. If you
find Christ, tell him. Tell him that I'm desperate. I wish I'd gotten up when he
first knocked, but I didn't. I was in a spiritual slumber,
but now my heart's been stirred. I've got to find him. What did she say? What did the
daughters of Jerusalem say? What did the religious person,
what did the religious people say? What is thy beloved more
than another beloved? What makes your husband so special? What makes him better than my
husband? What makes you, you think you're
the only one that knows God? You think you're the only one
that has knowledge of the truth? What makes your husband better? Oh thou fairest among women.
This is sarcasm. You think you're so fair? You
think you're different? You think you've got access to
God that nobody else has? What makes your God so special
and what makes you so fair? What is thy beloved more than
another's beloved that thou dost so charge us? Why don't you just
settle for, why do you drive so far to get to church? Don't
you know that there's a hundred churches between where you live
and where you go? Why do you do that? What makes
your beloved better than my beloved? And now she's going to answer
the question. Now she's going to tell him without
apology why she has flown like a cloud. Why she flew like a
dove to the window. Why she was drawn so irresistibly
to Him. She's going to tell the daughters
of Jerusalem something about the glory of her Savior and that
He is altogether lovely. There's none like Him. There's
none like Him. I can't settle for anybody else.
For He has glorified thee." Look what she says. My beloved? You want to know about my beloved?
He's white. Now that's not a racial thing.
White in the scripture is a picture of purity. It's a picture of
sinless perfection. No other gods like our God. He
stands as my perfect righteousness before God. And he has promised
to give me a white... Remember John, when he got to
heaven in Revelation and he said, who are these with the white
robes? I've never seen robes so white before. These are those that have washed
their robes in the blood of the Lamb. And the blood of the Lamb
has washed them white. My husband, he's white, he's
righteous, and he's ruddy. You see that next word? That
word means red. So the white and the red go together.
You see, there's no way to have your robe made white without
the red blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Christ
that washes away sin. He has put away all my sin and
he has put away all the sins of all of God's people and God
is satisfied with him. God's looking to his shed blood
and he's given me faith to look to my beloved who is white and
ready. He's white and that he's perfect
before God. He's ready and that his blood
put away the sins of his people. He's the chiefest among 10,000.
There's none like him. His head is as most fine gold. Priceless. Precious. Pure. Like the gold of Ophir,
there's none like him anywhere else. He has perfected the attributes of God in his
sinless perfection before God. He's the head of gold. Look what
he says. As fine gold, his locks, his
locks are bushy. He has a full head of hair. A hair in the scripture. This is
symbolic language. You see that, don't you? This
is not This is not language that's to be understood in any other
way other than that relates symbolically to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what is hair in the scriptures? It's the crown of glory. His locks are bushy, he's got
a full head of hair. Baldness in the scripture is
a symbol of shame. And the woman that shaves her
head is full of shame in the scriptures. This is his hair. This is his glory. Absalom. They had to cut Absalom's hair
every year, didn't they, because it became so heavy and long. And it was his hair that caught
him in the limb of that tree, wasn't it? And it was the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ claiming union with the Father that put
him on Calvary's cross. The accusation of blasphemy. You're claiming to have the glory
of God? You're claiming to be God? What
other witness do we need is what Ananias said, what the Pharisees
said. What other witness do we need?
Well, he's testified of his own self. He's a blasphemer. How does she see him? Oh no,
his locks are bushy and black. You see that? That's a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ being as the scripture describes him
forever young. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ is pleased to show Himself and to reveal Himself,
He's forever new, isn't He? It's not something old. It's
not something that we become accustomed to. Every time he
speaks, it's a new glimpse of his glory. Why do we fly? Why do we come? Because he has
glorified the. Why did this woman come to this
man? The same reason every child of
God is drawn irresistibly to the Lord Jesus Christ. My beloved. He's white. He's ready. The locks of his hair are bushy
and black. He's full of glory and full of
strength. His eyes, look at verse 12, His
eyes are as the eyes of doves by the
rivers of water washed with milk and fitly set. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
in the book of Revelation, the scripture says that His eyes,
when He comes in judgment against the world, His eyes are like
eyes of fire. Now I don't want to know anything
about that. I believe what God says. I don't want to know anything
about that in my experience. And let me tell you what I do
know something about in my experience. When I come to Christ, He doesn't
look at me with eyes of fire. He doesn't roll his eyes. He's not put out. When Peter, after having denied
the Lord three times that night with cursings, the scripture
says, that the Lord Jesus Christ, bloody and bruised, set his eyes
on Peter. You think he looked at Peter,
shaking his head, saying, Peter, how disappointed I am in you.
Oh, no, no. His eyes were like the eyes of
doves. One look broke Peter's heart. One look of love. Why am I drawn
to Him? Because He never looks down at
me. He never looks at me with contempt. He never gives an angry glance in my direction. His eyes are always filled with
compassion. He remembers that we are made
of dust. and he has compassion upon his
children, there's never any reason not to come to Christ. Yeah, Psalm 711, as we saw Wednesday
night, he is angry with the wicked every day, but he's never shown
an angry look towards one of his children. Never. He has nothing but pity, nothing
but compassion, When he looked at that rich young
ruler, scripture says that he looked
on him and loved him. And whoever that rich young ruler
may have been, he didn't stay away from Christ forever, did
he? He remembered that look. Notice in verse 13, his cheeks
are as a bed of spices. You remember in Luke chapter
15, the prodigal finally came to himself. He said, my servants are better
off in my father's house than I am here feeding these pigs.
I'll go home and I'll say unto my father, I'm not worthy to
be thy son, just make me a servant. The son never got it out of his
mouth. The scripture says that the father
saw him from afar and ran to him and kissed him. pulled him to himself, fell on
his neck, and kissed him. Why are you drawn to Christ? Why are you drawn to Christ?
Why do you come? What has been your experience with Him? Do you find His cheeks, His mercy,
His love, His whiteness, his redness, his glory, his flock,
his locks of hair, his strength, do you find it irresistible? Do you say with this woman, let
me tell you about my beloved. I can't stay away from him. I've
got to know him. I didn't respond when he first
spoke, but now my heart has been stirred. Look what he says in
verse 12, His eyes are as eyes of does by rivers of water, washed
with milk and fitly set, His cheeks are as a bed of spices
as sweet flowers, His lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. This book of Song of Solomon
starts out with, Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth,
for His love is better than wine. Now how does God kiss His people? He speaks to them. Last Sunday we looked at the
difference between being a guide and being a teacher. Do you remember the Ethiopian eunuch
said, how can I unless a man should guide me? And a faithful
gospel preacher is nothing more than a guide. He's just taking
his people out into the wilderness and showing them what God has
done. You have no need that a man should
teach you, John said, for you have the unction of the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Spirit is the one who has to take that which
the guide points out and make it applicable to your heart.
You know what the guide can never do? The guide can never speak
peace to your heart. He can never kiss you with a with the sweetness that's
being described here. The hope, the forgiveness, a
guide can never do any of that. All a guide, a guide can inform
you, a guide can give you some information, but it's only the
Lord Jesus Christ that's able to lavish us with his kisses,
and sit us down and give us peace. Only he can do that. And if he ever gives you a taste
of that heavenly gift, you just want more of it, don't you? You
just want more of it. Isaiah said, they're gonna fly
to me like the clouds, like a dove to his window. And they're gonna
come to the name of the Lord their God and to the Holy One
of Israel, for He, the Holy One of Israel, has glorified thee." I've learned something of the
glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's kissed
me. He's given me hope. He's put
away my sin. He's given me a clear conscience
before God. He's enabled me to come to the
throne of grace with boldness, with confidence. He's given me
access into the very presence of God. He's my forerunner. The veil has been rent. The blood has been shed on the
mercy seat. And I have access into the very
presence of God. And I just want to know him better. And so we fly like a cloud. Look at verse 14. His hands,
now you know what hands are a picture of in the scripture. It's a picture
of your work. Your work. His hands are as gold rings set with barrel. Barrel is a precious stone. I
mentioned that passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 a moment ago where
Paul said, I'm the master builder and I've laid one foundation
and no other foundation can be laid than that which is laid
and let each man take heed how he builds on that foundation.
The wood, hay and stubble is going to be burned up and the
gold. You see, only the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ can build. on the foundation in a way that's
going to be forever. And so he says, his hands. Whatever
God enables me to do, it was his hand that did it. It was
his hand. And his belly. This word belly is most often
translated bowels in the scripture. We've already seen it in this
chapter where the bride is, her bowels are
moved within her. She has this need. She feels it. What did David
say in Psalm 51? Thou desirest truth. in the inward parts. Man looks at the outward appearance,
God's looking at the heart. What about your inward parts?
You see, they're always mixed with wood, hay and stubble, aren't
they? We can't separate in our motives, and in our behavior,
and in our thoughts. Everything we do is always infected
with our flesh, isn't it? And so what does she say? Oh
no, His belly is like ivory. His motives are perfect. God
desired truth in His inward parts and in the hidden parts thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. His motives, His inward parts
are perfect. And the only way that God's going
to accept me into His presence is if the Lord Jesus Christ presents
His perfect righteousness, His perfect obedience, His perfect
motives on my behalf. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphire. His legs are as pillars of marble. Oh, the strength of His ability
to stand in the presence of God. When John saw the Lord Jesus
Christ coming in the terrible day of the Lord, riding upon
that horse, the scripture says that his name was written upon
his thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords. He came conquering,
conquering everything and everybody. And the strength of that is seen
in his legs. Now I know the Hollywood movie
makers and the artists like to depict the Lord Jesus Christ
falling under the weight of the cross whereby Simon the Cyrene
was forced to take his cross. There's no evidence of that in
the scripture. There's no evidence in the scripture
that the Lord stumbled and fell when carrying the cross. Simon
of Cyrene, that's a whole different picture. The Lord Jesus Christ
never stumbled and fell carrying his cross. No, his legs are pillars of marble
set in sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. He's able to stand in the presence
of God and he's able to carry the full weight of our sin into
the very presence of God and satisfy God's justice. His countenance, His appearance
is spectacular. The sight of Him is captivating. The cedars of Lebanon were majestic
trees. Now back in our text, turn with
me there for just a moment if you will. In Isaiah chapter 60, Look at verse 12, for the nation
and kingdoms that will not serve thee shall perish, yet those
nations shall be utterly wasted. The glory of Lebanon shall come
unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, the box together to
beautify the place of thy sanctuary and I will make the place of
my feet. glorious. In Isaiah chapter 61
the believer is called trees of righteousness, the plantings
of the Lord. This is his work. But here he's
called the cedar of Lebanon. Why do we come? Because his countenance His countenance
is irresistible. He has glorified Thee. In verse 16 of Song of Solomon,
verse chapter 5, His mouth is most sweet. When God speaks, never man spake like this man
before. His words are words of life. Oh Lord, speak to me, speak to
me. Let me hear you say, it is finished. Let me hear you say to me, I
go and prepare a place for you. Let me hear you say to me, I
have loved them with an everlasting love. Let me hear you say to
me, father, keep them. Let me hear you say to me, father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. His mouth is most sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. Oh, you daughters of Jerusalem.
What's she doing? She's describing her friend,
her beloved to the unbeliever. And so they ask in chapter 6
verse 1, Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?
Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with
thee? Now that's my hope. In all our
feeble efforts to preach Christ, the hope is that someone will
say, Where can I go to find him? My beloved, is gone down to his
garden to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens and to
gather lilies. I am my beloved and my beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies. This is where he is. This is
his garden. This is where he's pleased to
open the eyes of our understanding to give us faith. cause us to
fly like a cloud, to be like a dove to the window, to say,
He, the Lord Jesus Christ, hath glorified Thee. I want to know something about
the glory of God. Lord, reveal Yourself to me. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word and we ask that You would Bless it by your spirit
and cause us to be drawn irresistibly. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Number 14, let's stand together,
number 14. In the Beloved accepted am I. Prison ascended and seated on
high, Saved from all sin through His infinite grace, With the
redeemed ones accorded a place. In the Beloved, God's marvelous
grace, Calls me to dwell in this wonderful place. God sees my Savior, and then
He sees me. In the Beloved, accepted and
free In the Beloved, how safe my retreat In the Beloved, accounted
complete Who can condemn me? In Him I am free. Savior and Keeper forever is
He. In the Beloved I went to the
tree There in His person by faith I may see Infinite breath rolling
over His head ? Infinite grace for the eyes of men ? We'll sing
the retreat one more time. ? In the beloved God's marvelous
grace ? ? Calls me to dwell in this wonderful place ? God sees
my Savior, and then He sees me in the Beloved, accepted and
free. Amen. th th