Turn with me to the book of Song
of Solomon. Song of Solomon, chapter 4. Let's ask our Lord's blessing. Our Father, as we call upon your
blessed name, we ask you this evening, Lord, have mercy upon
us for Christ's sake. We pray this evening, Lord, for
the preaching and for the hearing of your word. And we ask this
evening, Lord, would you send forth this word as you've promised
in power? Lord, I pray that you'd call
out your sheep. Comfort, Lord, your people. We pray tonight for Rupert, for
Betty, and I ask you to have mercy. We thank you, Lord, for
the blessed privilege that we have had have known this, your
faithful, faithful servant. And I ask you now, Lord, remember
mercy for Christ's sake. Amen. I remember what Brother Henry
said one time, that if you want to really, truly tell somebody
something, write them a letter. He said a letter is something
that you have some time to think about what you want to say and
he said a letter is something that someone can pick up later
and read it again and glean from what was said. This letter pinned
by a man named Solomon, but dictated by the Holy Spirit of God, is
a blessed letter from the Lord Jesus Christ to His bride. Years ago we went through this
book, right after I got here. It was a long time ago. And I enjoyed so much going through
this book, verse by verse. This passage of scripture came
back to my heart, Song of Solomon, chapter 4. I'd like to look at
verses 9 through 12. But before I begin, I'd like
to just say that eternally, the Lord of glory possessed a joy
for his bride. Joy that is set forth in the
Holy Scriptures, but especially in specific portions of God's
Word. It is so plain and so plainly
set forth that I want us to just consider Just a few of these
verses tonight. I think about in Proverbs chapter
8, I'll read this for you, verses 30 and 31. Here is the Lord himself
before he was made flesh. This was penned concerning his
voice. Then I was by him as one brought
up with him. Here is the Lord Himself, the
Son of God, speaking of His Father. And I was daily His delight,
rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part
of His earth. And my delights were with the
sons of men. The Lord Himself was rejoicing
concerning his bride. Now, the Lord was made flesh
in time, but before that body was prepared him, before he was
conceived in the womb of a virgin, What we just read set forth that
he was secretly and mysteriously and marvelously one with the
father and the spirit. God is a spirit. But the scripture sets forth
that he would become visible. Christ who eternally stood as
the surety for those chosen out of the mass of humanity was set
forth. Now, I'm going to say something,
I'm going to say it like Mr. Hawker. Robert Hawker made a
statement on what I'm about to read. And he said, what is set
forth here is so wonderful and so marvelous and so mysterious
that he said I would not even dare to speak as he said it distinctly. He said but I would set forth
what is said and may we pray that the Spirit of God give us
some understanding of what he said. before the Lord was actually
made flesh, before Christ himself came into
this world, visibly came into this world, God said, let us,
Father, Son, and Spirit, let us make man after our image. After our likeness. And I looked up the word likeness. After our image. I'm going to
read you a scripture concerning the word image. But after our
likeness. Here's what the word likeness. After our likeness. After our
similitude. After our resemblance. Now God Almighty has one image,
one image. Colossians 115, who is the image
of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, the firstborn,
the beginning, the foremost in time, and the oldest. Here's
what Mr. Hawker set forth, and he said,
I speak with humility, I speak, he said, as I pray the Lord bless
it, I speak as I think the scripture sets forth this truth. He said,
the Lord Jesus Christ based on God saying, let us make man after
our image and Christ is the image of the invisible God. You know
that. Firstborn. He said the Lord Jesus Christ
was the pattern of the future creation of man before he was
set forth. I think he's right. Let us make
man in the way that God is beheld. And almighty God made man out
of the dust. And the scripture says, in time
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit referring to him as that
holy thing, Luke 1.35. John 1.4 says, we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, the only
one that ever came forth and was the image of God. We beheld
His glory. We saw it. We looked upon it. John said we touched Him. Our
eyes have looked upon it. Our hands have handled the Word
of Life. Now, before He was ever made
flesh, He is. He is. But He did come forth
and set forth His image. He is the image of the living
God. Now, it is of this glorious Lord
of heaven and earth, of whom we speak this evening, the One
who has everlastingly found to be filled with joy over his bride. My delights were with the sons
of men, taken up with her. The one that was everlastingly
betrothed to him, a bride that was given him an
electing grace, A bride that was made, fashioned in His similitude,
His resemblance. That's the word, that's what
it means. After our likeness, after our similitude, after our
resemblance, after our likeness in our image. And out of that
mass of humanity, there was a people, a bride taken out, chosen out
of every tribe and kindred, and nation, and tongue, and given
him. And he was joyful over her. Now I want us to consider his
letter to his bride. This letter, it is set forth
in the book of Song of Solomon, chapter 4, starting in verse
9. And here's what he has said to
her. hast ravished my heart. It is to her alone, it is to
the bride alone, it is to the elect alone, it is to the church
alone that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks. Thou, Thou, not another,
not all mankind without distinction, but all that the Father has given
him. He said, you have ravished my
heart. You have stolen my heart. I am heartless. If I say, if I make this statement,
my wife has ravished my heart, Of whom am I speaking? One person. I'm not talking about every woman
in here. I love y'all. But this one has ravished my
heart. Thou has ravished my heart. The elect of God have amazingly,
now I just, I don't want to try to embellish this, I want to
just say what He said. You have taken away my heart. The ones that caused Him to be
overcome with joy and delight is His bride, whom He is smitten
with love. He said, you have captivated
me. That's what He's ravished. You
have captured me heartfully. The ones that the Father beheld
the Son eternally dying for. The one that was slain from the
foundation of the world. He was laying down His life in
the eyes and the purpose and the will and the knowledge of
Almighty God. And God trusted Him. In time,
He was going to come. But that bride that was given
Him, He came into this world and bore her debt and laid down
His life pay what she owed before God's broken law. Why? He said, I have loved you with
an everlasting love and he will not, I will give her eternal
life and she will never perish. She has my heart. You have ravished
my heart and the very joy of being eternally with her in glory. The joy of having her with him
in heaven, in glory, where he is. The joy of having her. Whatever it was going to take.
What was it going to take? I will have her. I will have
her. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, that was set before
him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. He finished the work. I will have her. She's mine. He said, thou have ravished my
heart. That is a statement that is beyond
our comprehension. The heart, the love, the joy
that Christ has for her. You talk about a love story.
This is it. This is it. Wounded for her. Dying for her. laying down his life for her.
Thou hast ravished my heart. Now listen to this. My sister, you who are mine, you who are
near me, by the bond of us being the same nature. This is way, way over my head. But she was made in his image. before he was ever brought forth
in time. She was made in his image. Let
us make man in our image, one image. And she was brought forth
in his image. Lord willing, one of these days
we'll understand this. I don't understand it now, I'm
just telling you. But he said, you are my sister
being of the same Nature. Bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh. You to whom I've joined myself
and made myself in the likeness, the scripture says, of fallen,
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He said, you're my spouse. You
who were given me by the Father. The Father chose a particular
people, selected. That's what the word means, selected.
You who were taken from among the daughters of men and you've
always been my sweet companion and my mystical body, you're
mine. If there's been an eternal husband,
I've always loved you. If he's always loved her, then
she's always been. Remember when the father told
Jeremiah, he said, before I formed you in the belly, I knew you.
I knew you. So all of these things are brought
forth in time. I understand that. I understand
that. I mean, we're all born. I'm looking at us tonight. But
this is not where we started. The Lord said, I've always loved
you. Everlastingly betrothed, everlastingly betrothed. I will
betroth her in everlasting love. Well, if there's been an everlasting
betrothal, then there's been an everlasting husband. And if
there's been an everlasting husband, there's been an everlasting bride.
She was brought forth in time again, I understand. But he said,
you are my sister. and you're my spouse, one with
me. You're my body. He's the head
with the body. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with a single look of faith toward me, not
looking to your own works, not looking to your will, but looking
to me. with your desire toward me only. I mean, you think about this.
Now listen, you brides, it's the bride looking at him now,
but think of the security that a bride has in her husband that
loves her. When I perform a wedding, I want
to make sure that the husband knows you're the head of the
wife. You're responsible. But here's
what scripture says. love your wives as Christ loved
the church and gave himself for it. A wife whose husband loves
her and gives himself for her, only for her, for her well-being,
for her security, for her safety, for what Whatever it is, He gives
Himself for her. For somebody to get to her, they're
going to have to come through Him. You're going to have to
come through Me first. You may get to her, but you won't
get to her without going through Me. He said, you've ravished
My heart with your trust for Me. He gave her faith and she
believes Him. She's made new by the Spirit
of God. and now looking to him by faith
that he gave her, he said, that steals my heart. You've ravished
me. He said, you've stolen my heart,
you've ravished my heart with one of thine eyes and one chain
of thy neck. One jewel of your neck, one jewel of your
necklace. And what does that speak of? Hold your place right there.
Turn to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Ezekiel 16. The Lord said, starting in verse
six, I'll read verse, Ezekiel 16, six to 13. When I passed by thee, and saw
thee polluted in thine own blood." Now here's a picture, Ezekiel
16 verse 6. Here's a picture of every object
of God's mercy whenever the Lord is pleased in regenerating grace
to pass by and call them out of darkness. When I passed by
thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned, thine
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed
by thee, I looked upon thee. Behold, thy time was the time
of love." What he was saying is, he said, this is your time
for my love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and I covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I throughly washed away
thy blood from thee. I anointed thee with oil. I clothed
thee also with broidered work and shod thee with badger skin.
I girded thee about with fine linen. I covered thee with silk.
I decked thee also with ornaments. I put bracelets upon thy hands
and a chain about thy neck. I put a jewel on thy forehead,
and earrings in thy ears, and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thus wast thou decked with gold
and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and
broidered work, and thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and
oil. Thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper. into
a kingdom. He said, you have ravished my
heart. One of thine eyes and one chain,
one of the ornaments, one of the graces that I have bestowed
upon you. Where was she? Well, she was
in that fallen state. She was dead in trespasses and
sin. and so miserable and so spiritually
poor she could not do anything for herself. She was dead. But what did he do? He walked
up to her and he said, live. Live. And she lived. And He dressed her, and He decked
her out in all of the beauty of His spiritual blessings. And
here, the Spirit of God takes one of God's people and lifts
them from the pit of their spiritual death and regenerating grace. They're washed. in the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and robed in His glorious righteousness,
and all of the glorious graces of the fruit of God's Spirit. And now, he sets forth, he said,
those graces that I bestowed upon you. He said, you've stolen
my heart. You're beautiful. You are so
beautiful. Robed, clothed, shod, graced
with everything that he gives. And then he says unto her in
verse 10, how fair is thy love. How fair, how beautiful is thy
love to me, to me. You know, we love him only because
he first loved us. A believer, if you ask him, do
you love the Lord as you wish you did? He's going to say, no. Do you love the Lord as you desire
to? No. Do you love the Lord? Yes, I do. That's what Peter
said. Lord, you know all things. You
know I love you. And God's people do. They love
Him. And when He says, how fair is
thy love, how beautiful, it's beautiful, He said. You think, Lord, only as you
say things are. That's the way they are. God's
people look at themselves and what do they say? They say what
Paul said, oh wretched man that I am. Even my love for Him, to
me, is an embarrassment. My faithfulness to Him. We're
speechless and lost in the wonder of the truth that He would set
forth and say concerning us, how fair is thy love, how beautiful,
how sweet, how acceptable to me are your caresses. He says, How much better is thy love than wine? How much better is thy love than
all the temporal enjoyments of this fleeting world? It's not
beyond our comprehension or thinking to consider that he's worthy
for us to say unto him these words. The bride had previously
said concerning him in Psalm 1-2, let him kiss me with the
kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. His
love for us is better than any temporal blessing in this world.
But for him to condescend and take up the same language toward
us, how truly can we say herein is love? Not that we love God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation, the satisfaction
for our sins. And then the Lord declares, not
only is the bride's love better than anything that is temporally
found in this world, He said unto her, and the smell, the
latter part of verse 10, the smell of thine ointments than
all spices, Psalm of Solomon 1.3 sets forth
concerning His fragrance. Well, you just look at it. Just
turn back to Psalm of Solomon 1.3. Because of the savor of
Thy good ointments, Thy name is as ointment poured forth.
Therefore do the virgins love Thee. Now, the sweet graces of
God's Spirit to us. It's what he says is an ointment
poured forth. The smell. I mean, you know when
someone has some nice perfume on, and I mean it's really, really
nice. It's good perfume. And it just
has a pleasant smell, a savor. I really like that smell. I remember Now just the other
day, we walked by, Glenda and I were walking past, and the
only reason I knew it was a gardenia, I don't know flowers. The only
reason I knew it was a gardenia is because when we were living
in Louisiana, in front of our house, Mama had some gardenias. And that's the only reason I
knew, gardenia, because mom, she told me it was. And I'd smell
that flower as a kid. And I'm telling you, I could
come back, Chuck, to that flower, a whole bush of them, but I'd
come back to that flower and that particular smell, roses
didn't smell good to me, gardenias do. And I'd smell that gardenia
and I thought, man, wow, that smells good. And we were somewhere
the other day and I walked past and I went back and smelled that
and immediately I went back to six years old, you know, smelling
that gardenia and just the savor of that sweet flower. And the
Lord says concerning, He said, the smell of thine ointments,
all that He had bestowed upon her, He said, the smell of thine
ointments, Oh, it's greater. All spices, that sweet grace
of God's spirit given unto him without measure is given unto
us in part, in measure. Oh, but he said, you smell, you
smell wonderful to me. Then in verse 11, he said, thy
lips, oh my spouse, drop as the honeycomb, thy lips, drop as
that which is the sweetness of praise and thanksgiving unto
me." He had told her that she had ravished his heart. Now he's
saying, what you say, your speech, that sweet conversation
that originates in her heart, out of the abundance of a man's
heart, his mouth speaks. And he said, your lips, Oh, the
lips that just set forth the glorious gospel, those lips that
pray unto Him to the Father in secret, and the Father that hears
and sees in secret rewards openly. But then also that conversation,
He said, they spoke together often, and the Lord hearkened,
and a book of remembrance. Oh, what value He puts upon the
speech of His people that emanates from their heart. Thy lips, O
my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. Honey and milk, sweetness and
nourishment are under your tongue, and the smell of thy garments
is like the smell of Lebanon. Why? Because it's His robe of
righteousness. That's what smells sweet. That's
what ravishes his heart. And then verse 12, in closing,
he said, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring
shut up, a fountain sealed. She's a garden. I probably told you this, but
when I was growing up, My dad liked to have a garden. And Buddy,
he was so proud of that garden. Man, he'd go out, and he'd plant
that stuff, and he'd take his hoe, and he'd bring it all up,
and he'd put a water hose if it was dry, and it was often
dry. And he'd set that water hose, and I'd just watch the
water go down, you know, down the row there. And he'd put it
over here, and little buds would come up. Somebody'd come over
to the house, you know. He'd say, come out. Come out
here and look at my garden. Go through, you know, look inside. He said, yeah, boy, that's some
fine beans. Man, your corn is doing real
good. He said, yeah, look at this okra
right here. They're so proud, you know. The
Lord said, a garden enclosed, hemmed up, secured, kept, made
so by the grace of God, planted in good soil, Made good in regenerating. It wasn't wayside and stony ground
and thorny ground, but it was good ground. Good ground. Black dirt. Black stuff. I mean just fertile, fertile.
And here he says, my garden, a garden enclosed, hemmed up. set apart for the Lord Himself.
That's what David says, Psalm 4, 3. But know that the Lord
has set apart Him that is godly for Himself. He said, You're
my garden. You're mine. And care is taken
for the bride by the husbandman himself. He guards and protects
his garden, hedging her about. She's kept by the power of God
through faith, ready to be revealed. And he said, you're a spring
shut up, a fountain sealed, a spring from which flows the evidence
of God's grace. He said, come unto me. If any
man thirsts, let him come unto me. Out of his belly will flow
rivers of living water, life, word. He said, shut up. And you're sealed. You're sealed.
I give them, as I said a while ago, I give them eternal life. And they'll never pair. You're
sealed. You're in my hand. And we're in my Father's hand.
And nobody is able to pluck them out of my hand or my Father's
hand. So secure that no man will ever
be lost to whom God has given eternal life. Romans 8, 35 says,
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? What a marvel. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation? Shall distress? Persecution? Famine? Nakedness? Peril? Sword? Paul
said, I'm persuaded that neither death... I think about Brother Rupert. If the Lord is pleased to take
him tonight, You think death is going to separate him from
God? Death is the means by which God
Almighty is just going to usher him right into his presence.
I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. What love? Love that is greater
than anything we can comprehend. Oh, we love Him because He loved
us. But oh, one day, we're gonna
see Him as He is and know Him and be like Him, be like Him. Come, Lord Jesus, quickly. For
Christ's sake, we ask these things. Amen.