Turn with me to the book of Song
of Solomon, chapter 4, and I'd like to just for a few
moments consider one verse. Song of Solomon 4, verse 8. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amenah,
from the top of Shinar and Hermon, from the lion's dens, from the
mountains of the leopards." In the first seven verses of
chapter four, Our Lord spoke of the beauty of his bride to
him. He just described her as if the
husband on the day of his marriage, as it were, lifted the veil and
looked upon her and began to describe the beauty that he saw
Of course, we looked at that last week and considered that beauty to be the imputed
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Himself. He made her what she
is. He gave her what she has. The attributes that she possesses
of beauty are given to her by the bridegroom himself. And tonight
it is as if this one verse is another segment in the remaining
verses Lord willing we'll look at next week being another segment. But this part tonight is a part
that we consider when he is drawing her with Him. He says, come with Me. Our Lord spoke much of the certainty
of the coming of His own to Him. He said in John 6, 37, all that
the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. But here He says something
that is indescribably wonderful and comforting to God's sheep. To you that believe, He says
this even now. He speaks this. This is not a
future tense, past tense. This is right now. Come with
Me. Come. Come. Abide, attain, and
depart is what that word means. Come with Me. Depart. Now, He's
giving her an invitation, as you will. Come with me. A call
of fellowship. But this is more than just a
cordial request. It's one that is surely accompanied
by power from the Spirit of God to do what He's telling her to
do. Come with me. The One to whom
he speaks is more than just a casual acquaintance. This is not a kind
of a shotgun type invitation just made to anybody and everybody,
just whosoever will maybe exercise their own will or purpose. He's
talking to the One that the Father has given Him from the foundation
of the world. One that He has everlastingly
loved and chosen. to be holy without spot, without
blame before the Father in the Lord Jesus Christ in love. And it is shame for whom He took
upon Himself the form of sinful flesh and suffered the stripes
of divine wrath in her place. This is who He is talking to.
If you come with me. He has clothed her. with the garments of her beauty.
He keeps her by his grace from falling. And he says to her,
come with me. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse. This is the first time he has
referred to her as his spouse. Come with me, he says again,
from Lebanon and from the tops of these three mountains that
he describes as being mountains that have lion's dens and mountains
of leopards. Now, this invitation for whatever
is the depth, and it's one of those passages of Scripture where
I'm going to just consider at least three different areas in
which our Lord has called us out. He says, come with Me. So
obviously, He's bringing her out of something. He's bringing
her with Himself to somewhere else. He told His disciples,
He said, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am there,
you may be also. And here He's saying, the Spirit
of God says to the people of God, the church of God, even
now, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, Come with me." And even
now, His people are coming with Him. We're going through this
world. This world is not our home. Come
with me. Now, Lebanon is where He says
that she's to come from. Come with me from Lebanon. Now, Lebanon, surely, spiritually
speaking, is descriptive of the temple, the place where the Lord
had raised up a hearing of Himself. When Solomon built the temple,
it talked about the wood, the cedar of Lebanon. That place
where the Lord would allow His name to be proclaimed. And it
was mentioned as a glorious place. I want you to turn to Isaiah
35. Verse 1 and 2, Isaiah 35, Lebanon. Isaiah 35, 1 and 2. The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice
and the blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and
rejoice even with joy in singing the glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord and the excellency of our God." So when it speaks of Lebanon,
there is a sense in which we can behold Lebanon as being that
place where the Lord has established the hearing of Himself. Now,
I know that Lebanon is a picture of that. But obviously, here
there was a reason that our Lord said to His bride, come with
Me. Come with Me from Lebanon, My
spouse. Come with Me. I want you to look
at Isaiah 29.15. Isaiah 29.15. This is also something concerning
Lebanon. Isaiah 29, 15 to 17. Woe unto
them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their
works are in the dark. And they say, Who seeth us, and
who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things
upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay. Or shall
the work say of him that made it, he made me not? Or shall
the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding? Is it not yet a little while,
and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful
field shall be esteemed as a forest?" That is a degrading process is
what he is talking about right there. What is the Scripture
saying? Come with me from Lebanon." She
was commanded to do so possibly because of the outward show of
religious activity that pleased not our Master. Our Lord had
established the hearing of His Word and had given it to the
Jews. But He came to His own and His
own received Him not. He came to that place and they
wouldn't have Him. We'll not have this man to rule
over us. Matthew 21, verse 13, Our Lord
had come into the temple, that place where God Almighty had
established that His Word would be proclaimed. And there he found
men sitting around selling stuff, selling sacrifices and making
money and exchanging back and forth. And he said unto them,
My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you made it, you
made it a den of thieves. Matthew 23, 27, Woe unto you
scribes! These are the people, supposedly,
supposed to be great teachers, and guarders of the Word, and
setters forth of the truth of God's message. Woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you are like whited sepulchres,
which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The Scripture says, Except the
Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except
the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. Here we see the grace of our
Lord that calls us out of that which appears to be pleasing
to Him, but actually isn't. Having most of His people, I'm
not saying that this is always the case. But by and large, you'll
find that often the case is that the Lord calls us out of religion. Out of religion. We were sitting
there, I know for myself, sat there in religion years and years
and years. First time I ever heard the message
of the glorious gospel of Christ. I thought, that's a strange message. I've never heard that before.
But I was in religion, convinced in myself that I was fine. Come
with me. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse. That word Lebanon right there,
it means a snowy peak. It's a mountain. Lebanon is a
mountain is what it is. Symbolic. But this mountain can
also be a snowy peak, a picture of the world, the coldness and
deadness of the world. It could be the Lord calling
out of religion, false religion. You know that that is everywhere. Or to call us out of the world.
He withdraws her affection. from her former abode." That's
the heart of what's being said. Whatever it means, whatever He's
called her out of. Come with me from Lebanon. Whatever, whether it be false
religion, the world, whatever her former abode, the love that
she had, the place of thinking that she was in a place or a
source pleasing Him. Come with me. Come with me. Come
with me from Lebanon, these places that are inhabited by lions and
leopards. Obviously, whatever these places
possessed, they were dangerous to the spouse. And here we see
the keeping grace of our Lord to protect us when we are oblivious
to any danger. She didn't know where she was.
Here He is. omniscient God telling her, drawing
her, you come with me. John 17, 15, the Lord praying
in His high priestly prayer. He said, I pray not that thou
shouldest take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep
them from the evil. This is the Spirit of God speaking
to His people even now. Come with me. Come with me. Oh, how we're compassed on all
sides now, right now. all areas, dangers that we don't
even know about. And the wooing of our precious
Lord, come with me. He promised to never leave nor
forsake His people, and each day is a monument to His sustaining
grace and power. Whatever comes our way does so
by divine providence, and it's for our good and for His glory. He says unto us, come with Me. Come with Me. Here is the call
to leave the love of this world in heart and affection. Not as
Lot's wife, when she came out of Sodom, and Scripture says
she got out and turned around and looked back, the Lord turned
her into a pillar of salt. Not as that, looking back with
affection. But here the Lord is telling
us even now, this world is a place in which we're all born. This is the bride's birthplace
in this world. She must be weaned from the love
of it. Ephesians 2.2, Paul says, wherein
in time past we walked according to the course of this world,
among whom also we all had our conversation. This is where we
are. This is where we are born. This
is where we reside. This is what we look upon. This
is what by nature we love. But this coming out takes the
giving of a new heart, a new mind, a new will, a new spirit. This is not something that is
done in the power of our flesh. I know that man thinks that the
Lord gives an invitation and someone is able to just exercise
something within them, call that free will. But it's not there. Man's will is not free. Captive. Captive to sin. Bound in trespasses
and sins. This takes the Spirit of God
to teach a man, teach a woman. Give them a willingness. My people,
thy people shall be willing in the day of His power. And when
He says to her, come with Me, she says, Lord, I'll come with
You. Lord, where You are, that's where I want to be. Where You
reside, that's where I want to be. Where You go, that's where
I go. This world is a place of discomfort
because of its rebellion and resentment to the Master, but
because of our own nature, a place of attraction. The lust of the
flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life I know
are present with us, and it must be by the Lord Himself giving
us a desire, a heart, I'll give them a new heart. I'll write
my law on their heart. It won't be like a law written
on a stone. He said, I'll write it on your
heart. You'll do it because you want to do it. You'll long follow
after me. Don't you follow after you that
know Him. Don't you follow because you want to? You desire to? You
look upon Him and you say, I want to come. I want to hear. Tell
me again. That's why I've said so many
times. Tell me one more time. Tell him how he's put away my
guilt. Tell me what he's done for me. Don't tell me rules and regulations
and things that I must do to accomplish my salvation. I know better than that. Tell
me how the Lord has set His affection upon me. We're commanded to set
our affections on things above and not the things that are on
the earth. But He must say to me, to my heart, come with me. He must give me a heart to do
that. Outside of that, without me,
I quote that Scripture so many times, and Lord, I pray God,
teach me that. Teach me that without me, you
can do nothing. Lord, you mean not even desire
after you? No, not even desire after you.
Not even hunger after you? No, no. Without me, you can do
nothing. Not only does the Spirit of God
call the Lord's own out to come with Him in regeneration, which
He does, and from the love of this world, which He does, but
this is a daily call. The Scripture says, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, if any man will be my disciple. Let him deny himself, take up
his cross daily, and follow me." Deny himself of what? Of ability. That's what he denies
himself of. Any man being my disciple, let
him deny himself. Well, does that mean deny myself
like people do penance and stuff like that? Well, I'm going to
give up, you know, stuff or something. Well, if that comes down to that,
I'd give up stuff I didn't want anyway. I'm just not going to
do that. I don't like boiled okra. Let
him deny himself. No. Let him deny himself. I have
no ability. I deny myself. I cannot. Leave me to myself. I will not. Let him deny himself. Take up
his cross. That is his lot of burden. That's where the Lord has placed
Him in this life. Any man be My disciple, let him
deny himself, take up his cross, his burden in this life, and
follow Me. My sheep, He said, they hear
My voice and they follow. They do. That's the most amazing
thing to me. That which I know God's people
by nature cannot do, they do by His grace. They follow. You
say, oh, but I see myself following so weakly. I see myself. I just
don't see. But you follow. You won't leave. Why? Because He keeps you. Keeps you
by His power. And this commandment continues
until the time that we shall hear Him call us out of this
world and behold Him no more by faith, but by sight. It's a continual Call. Come with me in conversion. Come with me out of this world,
from the love of this world. Come with me daily and come with
me in that day. But lastly, consider the comfort
and the aid of this journey. When he says, come, listen to
this. He says, come with me. Come with me. Come with me. With me. If He has given a revelation
of Himself, revealed my helplessness to me, and shown me the fallacy
of false religion, the dangers of this world, given me a heart
to do so, Why would I want to stay among lions and leopards
of deceit where Satan as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom
he may devour? He says to me, as that prophet
Elijah said in that still, small voice, the Lord's people hear
him say, Come with me. Come with me. the comfort of the believers
knowing that this journey is not one left to my decision. You come with me. He's the friend
that sticketh closer than a brother. He says, and by God's grace we
believe this, fear not. I'm with you. There comes a time
in every person's life. And unless the Lord receives
His own out of this world in that day, every person is going
to die. Every one of us are going to
die. We're going to come to that time
where there's something that is unknown there. I know that. We have the precious promises
of Almighty God, but I'm going to tell you, frail creatures
were just weak. And there's something that's
unknown about crossing over that area. But to hear Him say, and
in that day, to hear Him say in that moment, by His grace,
in that moment, that He would say to His own effectually, and
they'd believe it, fear not. I'm with you. I'm with you. I
think of him who has tread the winepress of God's wrath alone
already. And as a man, he hung on that
cross and died, but he rose and he said, I ever live. I ever
live. And then to hear him say, you
come with me. Now that's comfort. When thou
passest through the waters, I'll be with you. Through the floods,
they'll not overflow you." The believer will say in that moment,
coming up to that time, Lord, if You carry me. If You carry me not, I won't
be able to go. Hear Him say, Scripture says,
the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they
comfort me. He is the omniscient God. He
orders our steps. He is the victor. over death,
held in the grave, he says to his people, come with me. And his people say, Lord, I come,
I come. Okay, Gary, you come.