Let's take our Bibles again and
turn with me to the book of Proverbs chapter 5. Proverbs 5. We'll begin. I'd like to look at verses 15
to 23. I've entitled this message, Jealous
for him who is jealous." Now, we know that there's one honorable bridegroom and one honorable bride. The
bridegroom is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who is honorable. in Himself. And the one honorable bride is
the bride that is in Him and made honorable only
by His righteousness. The bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
is the virtuous woman that is spoken of in the last chapter
of the book of Proverbs, the woman of strength is what that
means, virtuous woman. She's a crown, the scripture
says, to her husband. That means that she's the wreath
of victory that is upon his head because of his redemption of
her. She's married to Christ. We just
looked at that. And she can do of herself nothing.
She is what she is by the grace of God. She's a chase woman. She's not
indecent. She's not indecent in her love
or her affection or her devotion to Him, though she does see her
frailty. We talked about a moment ago,
she sees Him through a glass darkly, but she does see Him. Now this woman is known by what she believes concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. She's known by what she thinks
of Him. That was a question asked by
the Lord. What think ye of Christ? And she agrees with the Apostle
Peter when he said, Thou art the Christ. You are the Messiah.
When we say Christ, we mean God-man. She is the one that God Almighty
has eternally loved. The Father chose. Christ redeemed. The Spirit of
God regenerates and quickens. According to the prayer of our
Lord in the 17th chapter of John, she's in this world, but she's
not of it. She just doesn't feel comfortable
here. The only thing that's comfortable
to her is her knowledge of Him. That's the only comfort she has
in this world. She doesn't give this world The mark of her spiritual reality
is that she loves Him who is revealed in the scripture, or saith the scripture. Christ
died for our sins according to the scripture. And a lot of people
say that Christ died for sins. But he died for our sins, Paul
said, according to the Scriptures. Died for his elect. Died for
his sheep. Died only for his sheep. And
this is the mark of her reality. She follows him. We looked at that word for a
moment last time. She follows him. The word means
alpha. He's her alpha. He's her one. He's her A. He is her beginning. And he said,
I am the omega. He's the N. And all in between. That's how you know her. Now, false religion, that is,
religion that claims salvation to be by the works of the flesh,
that means Anything that you think that you can do in order
to be saved. That's what it means. It means
if you think that there's something that you must do in order to
be saved or something that you have to do first in order to
be converted. That works. That works. The difference
In salvation by grace and salvation by works, salvation by works
says that what you do is the merit of your salvation. It's the source of it. And for
a believer, we do what we do as an effect. Salvation is of
the Lord. God's got to give life first. Now, this false religion is referred
to throughout the Scriptures. that we've looked at in Proverbs,
it's referred to as a strange woman. The bride is a virtuous woman.
The false religion is a strange woman, a harlot, an adulterous
woman. That's scriptural talk. Revelation
refers to her as the great harlot, the great whore, adulterous woman. This strange woman, the Lord in this passage gives
His people some warning about her. And in the passage that we want
to deal with today, I want to deal with two truths in our marriage
to Him, in the marriage of the bride to Him. This is the first
point I want to deal with. It's the jealousy of God for
His people. And the second point that I want
to deal with is the jealousy of the bride for Him. Now, I want you to turn to Exodus
20. I want you to read something
here. Exodus 20. Verse 1, And God spake all these
words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which hath brought thee
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, that is, in
the water under the earth, I shall not bow down thyself to them
nor serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me." Now the word that was
just used in Exodus chapter 20, This is what the Lord said concerning
Himself. He said, I am a jealous God. And the word that was just used
there, I'm a jealous God, that word is only used. There's more than one word. I'm
going to use another word in just a minute or two. Another
word, jealous. It's a different word. But that
word right there is only used concerning God Almighty. It's only used concerning Himself. In fact, it's a word that describes
His attribute of holiness, justice. Listen to this. Let me read this
for you. Exodus 34, verse 14, For thou shalt worship no other
god, and that word God there is a little g, thou shalt worship
no other little g God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous,
is a jealous God." Same word. His name is Jealous. Now, I'm going to look at another
word in just a minute, but I want you to understand something.
That word Jealous, right there, is used only concerning God,
and it has No insinuation. We know the word jealousy. It's a fiery, heated emotion
that comes up. This word jealous has no hint
of the word envy in it. I mean, when we think of jealousy,
we're competition. Competition might
be a word that you might throw in when it's our jealousy. But concerning this word, there's
no word of envy. Zealous, yes. But envy, no. Every other word jealous except
the word here. My name is jealous. Every other
word has a taint. to it of sin, something that
can't be controlled. My name is Jealous. Now, knowing that God Almighty
is jealous for His people, He said, I am a jealous God. Knowing that, I want us to look
in Proverbs chapter 5. I am going to go back to verse
15 in a minute, but I want to start in verse 20. And here is a question that is
asked by Almighty God concerning His people. Why wilt thou, my son, be ravished
with a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger? Why will you be led astray? Now here's the question that
Almighty God has. There's a nature. There's a nature
about us that is still that old presence of flesh. It's still
there. And I'm telling you, if you think that you can control
yourself, you're sadly mistaken if you think you can control
yourself. Why? Will thou be ravished with
a strange woman?" There is a lot in this world that appeals to
this flesh. And let me tell you something,
false religion goes a whole lot deeper than just sitting in a
congregation where there is the love of this world. Why will you be ravished? with
a strange woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger. Why would
you embrace anything that steals you away? There is no life in her. He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. That woman arrayed in purple
and scarlet color Revelation 17, 4, decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden crown on her head, I mean, a
cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness. Why? Why? How do you know? How do you know? Why will thou be ravished with
a strange woman? Why will you be ravished with
a harlot? Why will you be ravished with
anything that steals you from Me?" How do you know if you're embracing
the bosom of a stranger? Matthew 12.30 says the answer,
"...he that is not with Me, he that does not accompany and associate
himself with Me." is against me. And he that gathereth, he
that assembles not with me scattereth abroad." Has one desire, that
is, to scatter abroad. Now this rebellion that's prevalent is not one that's secret
to the one with whom all men's going to have to deal. That's
not a secret to him. Men can lie to themselves. Actually, it's the heart. It's
the heart that lies to them. You're not that bad. That's what the heart says. You're
not that bad. You're relatively faithful. The heart is deceitful above
all things. I'll tell you, here's how I know
that it's no secret to him. Verse 21 of Proverbs 5, For the
ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth
all of his goings. The road that one treads, that's
what it means. The road that you tread, that's
before the eyes of the Lord. And he, that is the Lord, weighs
or ponders. all of his goings. That thought
right there ought to arrest a man and cause a man to consider his
ways. It ought to. But Psalm 10 verse 4 says, The
wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after
God. God is not in his thoughts. The thought of an all-seeing,
all-knowing Almighty God to the unbeliever,
it inspires no alarm, no conviction, no restraint. Man, as he's born
in Adam, he's a rebel against God. But carnal man is not going
to escape. How do you know? Well, verse
22 says, "...his own iniquities shall take the wicked himself,
and he shall beholden with the cords of his sins, embracing
a harlot." Anything, anything that steals a man away from the
God of this Bible, anything, call it whatever, call it whatever,
anything, false religion, is actually, according to that
Scripture right there, a chain of bondage. His own iniquity
shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be whole, and he
shall be enslaved with the cords of his sins. And man left to himself. He can't
give it up. He won't give it up because he
can't give it up. In his rebellion, it's his custom,
it's his habit, it's his necessity. You know a habit? You just can't
give it up. You won't give it up. And he has one end. Verse 23, He shall die without
instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. He'll die without warning. He'll die without correction.
He'll die without restraint. That's what instruction means.
He'll die. And in the greatness of the abundance
of His folly, His silliness, and silly by nature, just foolish,
He makes fun of the things of God. If not outwardly, He does
inwardly. Y'all make too much deal out
of this thing. It's not that big a deal. I wonder how big a deal it is
when a man leaves this world and he faces God Almighty. I bet it's a big deal then. There,
now there's the warning. There's the warning of embracing
A strange woman, false religion, anything, anything. I'm telling you that that tendency
right there, if you think, you know, we always think, well,
I tell you what, I'm not going to sit on a false religion. You're
not going to go get me. Get me to go get in another church
house. I may not be talking about a church house. I'm talking about anything. I'm
talking about false, adulterous, hungering and longing after anything
that is not honoring to Him. He's talking to His people. I realize just reading that,
but for the grace of God, where would I be, how quickly My old
nature draws me away. How quickly I'm just like a rambling,
babbling, foolish idiot. He's a jealous God. I'm a jealous
God. There's the warning. And His people, they're sensitive
to it. They're sensitive to themselves.
They're sensitive to Him. And the believer knows, though
he knows as we read in part, he still knows. And though he
sees, he sees through a glass darkly, but he sees. I know he's jealous for his people.
He says he is. He's zealous for her. But let me show you something
about her, the virtuous woman that I was talking about. There's
the bridegroom. And everything that's honorable
and good and holy and precious is said about him. He's jealous for her. He doesn't
want his wife any remotely even appearances. unfaithfulness. How jealous is he of her? I'll tell you how jealous he
is. Hear the words of our blessed Savior on Calvary when He cried, My
God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? I'll tell you why He forsook
Him. because He's a jealous God. And
He's jealous for His bride. He's jealous for His people.
He's jealous. And He chose them to be holy
and without blame before Him. And He's going to make her exactly
what He says she is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm a jealous God. But I want you to look secondly.
Now we'll go back to verse 15. of the jealousy or the desire
of the bride, though she knows something of herself. Like I
said, we don't know the depth of ourselves, but we know something
of it. I want you to look at her desire,
her jealousy for Him. Now, I want you to read something
Go ahead. I want you to turn to 1 Kings.
1 Kings 19.10. 1 Kings 19.10. This is what Elijah said. 1 Kings
19.10. He said, I have been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain
thy prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left,
and they seek my life to take it away." That's when the Lord
told him. He said, I've reserved. Seven
thousand hadn't bowed to me. Elijah said, I'm jealous. Let
me ask you this. you that know Him. Are you not
jealous truly for His honor? You are. You are. But that word
there, I am jealous, that is not the word that God used of
Himself. Here are the words that we hear
concerning jealousy. I have been jealous for the Lord
God. That's a different word. The
word jealousy here included in the definition is the word envy
that I mentioned a while ago. That word that God had in His
law given to Moses, thou shalt not envy. See, in this word right here,
there is something that is set forth that I'm not able to control. I can't control my emotions.
I'm jealous. I am jealous, Elijah said, but
I admit it's not as his jealousy. God's jealousy is a holy jealousy,
perfect jealousy. No word, no insinuation, no sign,
nothing concerning any sin. in God's jealousy, holy, His
name jealousy. We're here today. We're jealous
for His honor. But I'm telling you, the moment
that I start talking about my jealousy for God's honor, do
you know the first thing that pops up? Pride. Pride. I don't know about you, But I've
been jealous of God. I don't know about all you people
out there, but I'll tell you one thing. Pride. I hate that. I hate that. But I can't control it. But though she knows the frailty
of her flesh, I will tell you this. Elijah, he was honest. And you that believe are honest
too about it. You are jealousy for his honor.
You are jealous. You are jealous of his honor.
But we can't use the same word that God uses. But here is the
voice of the bride now as she speaks to him. He spoke to her,
starting in verse 20, and explained to her his jealousy for any deviation. And thanks be to God that He
pardons our iniquities for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But listen to the words of the bride toward Him, toward the
Lord. Drink waters out of thine own
cistern, verse 15, Proverbs 5, and running waters out of thine
own well. Do you know what she wants? Because
she is jealous of him. He is jealous of her with a holy
jealousy. And she is jealous for him. Though
she does know her frailties. She knows her shortcomings. Drink
waters out of thine own cistern. Turn over just a few pages toward
the back to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon 4. Verse 12,
Song of Solomon 412, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse,
a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard
of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, kemphor, spikenard, spikenard
and saffron, calamus and cinnamon with all the trees of frankincense,
myrrh, aloes, all the chief spices. A fountain of gardens, a well
of living water, streams from Lebanon. This is what God has
made her. Almighty God has made His bride
to be a garden with all of these wonderful descriptions of plants,
fragrances, beauty. Verse 15 says she's a fountain
of gardens, a well of living waters that flows forth from
her because of life. She is a fountain. She's a well. And this is what she says because
she's jealous for Him. Drink waters out of thine own
cistern. and running waters out of Thine own well. Lord, refresh
Yourself of that which You have made me to be in You. Lord, drink. Drink from what
You said You've made me to be. You made me to be. Here the bride desires Him to
be taken up only with herself. She's jealous of his affection.
She really is. That's what Elijah said. I'm
jealous. I'm jealous of him. Look at verse 16. Let thy fountains
be dispersed abroad and rivers of water in the streets. Now,
there's one of two ways that that could be taken. A verse that's a continuance
from what we just said, drink waters out of thine own sister.
And since it's a continuance of the bride's desire for her
husband's love. You husbands, are you not jealous? You desire your wife's love and
affection, don't you? You wives, don't you feel that
way toward him? This is the way the bride But
the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ realizes something of her frailty.
But she still realizes what she is in Him. What He's made her to be. She
says, drink. Let thy fountains be dispersed
abroad in rivers of waters in the streets. Here's what she's asking. Should
your overflowing springs be scattered outside like rivers of water
in the streets? meaning this, the fountains,
the source of satisfaction, the actual revelation of the
Lord Jesus Himself, that's precious to the church. And she would
never desire that that which He has made her alone to love
and to have affection She would never want that to be scattered
and trampled on. Think of it like this. Casting
their pearls before swine. Let thy fountains be dispersed
in rivers of waters in the streets. Or it could mean this, and probably
this is the meaning. Let the source of satisfaction,
thy fountains, be scattered or cast abroad in rivers of waters
in the streets. That is, accomplishing your purpose
and your will. That's, Lord, You who said that
You have a people. Your sheep. Lord, those that
You said, they must come. They shall come. Lord, those
that will come through the hearing of the gospel, wherever they
are, if there's some in this area
right here that God's pleased, If there are some in Fairmont,
West Virginia, Lord, let Thy fountains be dispersed abroad
and rivers of waters in the streets. Lord, call Your own to Yourself. Why? Because we are jealous for
Him, jealous for His honor. Verse 17, Let them be only Thine
own and not strangers with Thee. Now you remember this is a conversation
between the Lord and His people. He told her what He said because
of His jealousy for her, and this is a conversation concerning
her jealousy for Him. She longs for only that which
He longs for. That's what verse 17 says. Let
them be only thine own and not strangers with thee. Lord, we
would not desire Accept that which you desire. I told you before, I have those
within my family that I pray for. Lord, have mercy on my family. I have grandchildren. Lord, would
you save? according to your will and purpose,
would you save my grandchildren? Would you save my kids? Would
you save my family? Would you save my brother? I've got a brother and I've got
two sisters. Lord, save them. Lord, save me. But you know what I know. Almighty
God is going to do that which is pleasing in His sight. And
being jealous for Him, jealous for His honor, I would desire truthfully, let them be only Thine own and
not strangers with Thee. Let the objects of Your mercy be only those that You have purposed
and chosen to save, only those, Lord, that You have redeemed
by Your blood. Let them be called by Your Holy
Spirit. and not strangers with thee."
You know what the believer says because she's jealous for his
honor? Lord, thy will be done. That's what she says. And I'll
tell you this, she will not, his bride will not say, that's
not fair. She's not. She's going to bow.
She's going to bow. She knows he's sovereign. He's
God. She knows he's a potter with
a clay. Does the potter have the right
out of the same lump to make one vessel under honor and another
under dishonor? Does he have the right to do
that? Yes, he does. And what is the believer going
to say? Thy will be done. Lord, I pray, if it please You,
Lord, if You will, Lord, if it is good in Your sight, nevertheless,
not my will but Thine be done. Let them be only Thine own. and
not strangers with thee. And verse 18, let
thy fountain be blessed and rejoice with the wife of
thy youth. Let thy fountain, let the well
of life that you create, let the source of life which is you,
Lord. Let thy fountain be blessed. Let thy good pleasure to give
life be blessed. And rejoice with the wife of
thy youth." This is what the wife says to him. That wife that He betrothed Himself
to forever. Rejoice with the wife of thy
youth. Lord, rejoice with me. Lord, rejoice Yourself with me. Lord, said you've everlastingly
loved your bride." Love me. Verse 19, "...and let her be
as the loving hind and pleasant roe. Let her breast satisfy thee
at all times, and be thou ravished also with her love." Lord, let her be to you as one
tamed, a wild animal. Settle down. Quiet it. Affection it. And let her breast, that is,
let the seed of her love, that's what that means, let her heart
satisfy thee. Let her breast satisfy your thirst." Can you imagine these words? This is how the bride feels. You wives, you could understand
saying this to your husband. Be satisfied with me. Let me be your satisfaction.
Let my heart for you But the bride reads this right
here and thinks to herself, be thou ravished also with her love. You know the verse that we've
looked at in Song of Solomon when the Lord said to His bride,
you've ravished me with one of your eyes. You've stolen my heart.
The bride is jealous. And even in her jealousy, she
realizes it. She's plagued with the presence of
sin. She's so thankful for his jealousy
for her, for the honorable jealousy that he has. And even in her
jealousy for him, she admits, there is that presence of sin
that I cannot get away. But Lord, one day, As we've just
looked at a moment ago in that day, there'll be no more darkness
there. And we shall be jealous for Him
as He's jealous for us. See Him as He is and be like
Him. Be like Him. Jealous for Him who is jealous
for her. This is a marriage. Now, this
is a marriage right here. The Lord God Himself. The Lord
Jesus. The Bridegroom. He loves her as He loves Himself.
That's love. That's that love Brother Scott
was just talking about. He loves her as He loves Himself. I'm a jealous God. Zealous for
her. And she's a jealous bride. But that word jealous for her
has got that word envy in it. And she knows her jealousy is
a frail jealousy. Though she is jealous, you that
believe, you know it so. May the Lord bless this message
to our heart for His glory and our good. Amen. Gary.