All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to the book of Proverbs chapter 27. Proverbs
chapter 27. I'd like to look at verses nine
and 10. Proverbs 27, verse nine and 10. The scripture declares ointment
and perfume rejoice the heart. So doth the sweetness of a man's
friend by hearty counsel. Thine own friend and thy father's
friend forsake not neither go into thy brother's house in the
day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbor that is near than
a brother far off." Now, you know, it's wonderful
when the Spirit of God is pleased to reveal unto us the things
that truly are sweet. pleasant. Ointment and perfume rejoice
the heart. Now, that's a natural truth. That's the fragrance of aromatic
oil. It's pleasing to the senses. You know, that's nice. I like
I like to smell stuff that smells good. I don't like to smell stuff
that doesn't smell good. It's a stench. I don't like it. But to have
some perfume or ointment or something that smells good, I like that.
I like that. You do too. We like that. And that's wonderful. But as pleasant as the aroma
of a natural fragrance may be, Let's fly to the sweet fragrance
and the spiritual senses, spiritual senses that a believer enjoys
when he considers the vessel of God's mercy, us, being blessed. to be able to smell the wonderful
fragrance of Christ. Let's consider the fragrance,
what the Spirit of God says. Smells good to those who have
been made to see something of themselves and the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want you to hold your
Bible. Turn over to Psalm 1. Song of Solomon, chapter one.
When I was saying a while ago how wonderful it is that the
Spirit of God would tell us something of things that are truly so,
but we just don't understand it until the Spirit reveals to
us. I understand smelling something
that smells good, naturally speaking, I get that. But when the Spirit
of God tells us something that smells good to a believer, That's
what I want to hear. Now, listen, Song of Solomon,
chapter one, verses one to three. The song of songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine because of the
savor of thy good ointments. Thy name is as ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." Now, here's a song. And the Spirit of God moved upon
Solomon to say, now, this is the song of Psalms. This is it. This is the song of the renewed
heart that realizes now something of the relationship between the
Lord Jesus Christ and his bride. Now here's the song, it's the
language of love that's expressed by the Lord for his people and
therefore his people back to the Lord. This is a song of the
glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
believer's thankfulness, too. I mean, there's a song that's
being sung in the hearts of God's people. Whenever they hear the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, their heart rejoices. The Spirit
of God says, that's a song. It's a psalm. Let him kiss me. Verse 2. Let him kiss me. with the kisses of his mouth, the Lord, personally, kiss the
objects of his mercy, him who is the only begotten of the Father. He's the only one that's come
forth from the Father, begotten of God, the God-man mediator. Let him kiss me. It's a sovereign
kiss. He just gives kisses to those
that he loves. Let him kiss me. Let him kiss
me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.
Wine that refreshes the senses, but it's temporal. Oh, this is better, better. His
kiss is a spiritual kiss of his everlasting love, and that refreshes
my soul. that the Lord would kiss me. He who has kissed those that
he's everlastingly loved and he's everlastingly pleased, he
draws the objects of his affection and he kisses them and reveals
to it. And they, by faith, they hear
this. They say, the Spirit of God has
moved. Psalm 212 says, kiss the Son. lest he be angry, and ye perish
from the way when his wrath is kindled, but a little blessed
are all they that put their trust in him. I wanna kiss him. I want
to kiss him. But the reason I wanna kiss him
is because he kissed me first. The reason I love him is because
he loved me first. His kisses are better than wine.
Verse three in Song of Solomon one says, because the savor of
thy good ointments the savor of all that he is, the perfume
of his character, the perfume, the ointment of his glory, as
the Spirit of God has anointed him without measure. The Spirit of God says, because
the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love thee, his ointment, all that he is. set forth by His precious name. What's His name? He's the Lord,
our righteousness. He's the Lord, our banner. He's the Lord, our savior. He's
our mediator. He's our king. He's our priest. I mean, all of the ointments
of His character poured forth. I think about that passage of
Scripture in Psalm 133, It talks about the ointment that was poured
upon the head of Aaron, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it ran down his beard, you know the one, down his garments
all the way to the bottom. It's talking about all of the
gracious gifts of God's mercy that's given to the humblest
and poorest of all of his people. Listen to this song, it says,
thy, the savor of thy good ointments, thy name, it says, ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. What, the virgins
who? The people of God, made by his
shed blood and imputed righteousness to be in him, holy and without
blame before God, virgins, spiritual virgins. Back in Proverbs 27,
verse nine, ointment and perfume rejoice
the heart. But then the Spirit of God moved
Solomon to say, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel. A friend. So doth the sweetness
of a man's friend by hearty counsel. One that loves you. One that
you can trust. I'm talking about a friend. Thick
and thin. A friend. There when you need
him. Do you know there's only one
true friend that you could ever depend on? There's only one.
It's this one that we've been talking about. That ointment
and perfume rejoice the heart. Well, I'll tell you what else
rejoices the heart. The sweetness of a man's friend
by hearty counsel. Now let me tell you who is a true friend. I want
to be honest with you. Honest. You know, sometimes you
hear about, you know, boss or something like that, and he's
got a lot of yes men, you know, or whatever he wants to hear.
That's what they're going to say. They don't want to rock
the boat. But somebody that'll be honest
with hearty counsel, hearty counsel, that truthfulness. whether it's
loving chastisement or gracious encouragement, building up. Now,
here's some good, hearty counsel. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend. Somebody that's not, they're
not trying to beat you down or something, but it's, they're
trying to help you. Faithful are the wounds of a
friend. I was thinking about Song of Solomon. We were in,
look at Song of Solomon four. Song of Solomon, chapter four. And verse 16, now this, here's
the counsel, hearty counsel. of a friend, the one friend of
sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this hearty counsel. Awake, oh north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Now, here's some hearty counsel,
hearty counsel, counsel that corrects That's what the Lord
said, blow, oh, north wind. The chilling wind of needful
chastisement. I need to be corrected. I need
the Spirit of God, the chilling wind and the realization that
I need straightening up. Move me, direct me, order my
steps. Awake, oh, north wind. But then
He said, oh, come thou south. Same Spirit, blow upon my garden. Correct her and encourage her. Warm her heart. But the Lord
who loves us, he's not going to leave us in despair. He sends
that spirit. He directs us, keeps us according
to good pleasure. Oh, back in Proverbs 27, ointment
and perfume rejoice the heart. So doth the sweetness of a man's
friend by hearty counsel. Then verse 10, he says, thine
own friend and thy father's friend, forsake not. Neither go into
thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity, for better is
a neighbor that is near than a brother far away. Thine own
friend and thy father's friend. You know, when we naturally speaking
now, Proverbs is that book that we've said so many times. There's
a natural understanding, a spiritual understanding. Many see the natural
understanding, but if you don't see the spiritual understanding,
you missed the message of Proverbs. But naturally speaking, when
we hear of having a friend who was also the friend of our father,
naturally speaking, I'm just looking around here thinking
how many friends that I have in here And I knew your daddy,
too. I knew your daddy. We're friends
now. I was friends with your dad.
But you know, when you think about having a friend that was
a friend to your father, that's something special. That's a special
friend. There's been a relationship that
has proven itself to be true. And there's a faithful friend. But may we, without laboring
the passage, behold the beauty of the greatest of all what I'm
going to call, for lack of a better understanding at this moment,
time-honored friendship. Time-honored friendship. The
friendship that every vessel of God's mercy has and in the
mind and will and purpose of Almighty God has had eternally. A friend. Proverbs 17, 17 says,
a friend loveth at all times. Now you think of the time that
according to God's will and God's purpose, Almighty God has had
a people that he has had as friends. Now they're going to have to
be called out of darkness, and he's going to have to be regenerated
by the grace of God and taught and stuff, but he's always loved
them. He's always had them upon his
heart. You know, humanly speaking, a
friendship that's been possessed for decades by another creature,
the dust, like I said, that's sweet. But I want you to consider
the Lord Jesus Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our friend. That's what the Lord said to
his disciples. He said, you're my friends if you do the things
that I've said. He is that friend that sticketh
closer than a brother. But now, here's our friend, the
Lord Jesus, and his father is our friend. Now this just, you know, God,
God Almighty, Abraham was called the friend of God. Moses, and God spake unto Moses
face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend. Isaiah 41, 8,
but thou, Israel, art my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham, my friend. the Father, the Son, thine own friend, and thy Father's
friend. Forsake not. Someone says, well,
I think you just, you know, no, I think it's just sweet to think
and to realize that the Lord Jesus Christ, He who was made
flesh, who is our friend, through Him and by Him, We're the friends
of the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ and Father,
Spirit, they're one. That which is loved of the Son
is loved of the Father by the Spirit. Oh, thine own friend and thy
Father's friend, forsake not. Forsake not to do what? to look
to him. I'm going to tell you where I
came up with that forsake not by the next words that comes
after that forsake not. If it would have been, if what
said afterwards, I wouldn't have known exactly what it was talking
about. Thy own friend, thy father's
friend, forsake not, semicolon, neither go into thy brother's
house in the day of calamity. For better is a neighbor that's
near than a brother that's far off. Forsake not, forsake not
to cast your care, all your care on him. Forsake not to trust
him. Qualify that by saying neither
go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity. For
better is a neighbor that's near than a brother far off. Going
into a brother's house, pouring my heart out to him, my calamity
unto him, is not the way of instruction, according to these scriptures
right here, but rather go to the friend of friends. Go to
him that sticketh closer than a brother. The scripture says,
forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in the day
of thy calamity, in day of trouble. For better is a neighbor that's
near, near in heart, near in spirit. How near is him? He said, I'm not gonna forsake
you. How near is him? He's near. Than a brother that's far off.
Not only, I got a brother that lives in Louisiana. but far off
in heart. Forsake not to cast your care
upon him. Come unto me. All you that labor,
heavy laden, come unto me, and I will give you rest. Ointment
and perfume rejoice the heart. So doth the sweetness of a man's
friend by hearty counsel. Thine own friend and thy father's
friend, forsake not, neither go into thy brother's house in
the day of thy calamity, for better is a neighbor that's near
and a brother far off. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart for Christ's sake, amen.