I would like to remind everyone
that the 28th of this month is the birthday party for Rosemary,
noon till two. The rules say no presents. I am sorry. Cards only. No one needs to bring
any food. I'd also like to remind everyone
about the conference. Lord willing, April 2nd, 3rd,
and 4th, Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night, Brother
Todd Nyberg and Paul Mahan will be here to preach for us. So we look forward to that, April
2nd, 3rd, and 4th. Turn with me in your Bibles to
the book of Song of Solomon, chapter 1. I would like to consider the
last few verses, verses 12 to 17. This passage of Scripture is
concerning the king, the Lord Jesus Himself
and His Bride and the way they speak to one another. The respect
that they have for one another. The Bride speaking in the twelfth
verse, and she says, while the King sitteth at His table. I began to think on that. The Lord has prepared a table. David said that. Thou preparest
a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Now tonight, we
have a table prepared. A table laden with the food of
heaven. The bread Himself. the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is our feast. We eat of Him by faith. And the very presence of the
Lord Himself makes this meeting tonight a very precious meeting. We've not come tonight just for
the mere sake of going through the motions. If that's all that
we've done, We've just wasted a lot of time. We're just here
tonight and it's just the best that we can conjure up. But He's here. Based on His Word,
where two or three are gathered in My Name. And as I've said
before, surely there's two or three here. Surely there are.
The King sits at His table. Life Himself, the King of kings. That's an amazing thought. Now you know, based on His Word,
He's seated in heaven. Seated at the right hand of the
Father, right hand of God. He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. He said, though where two or
three are gathered, I am in the midst of you. I think that's a precious thing. That He's here. That He hears. He knows. He perceives. He perceives, oh, infinitely
more than we can perceive. But by faith, we perceive Him. We believe Him. We believe Him
in the midst of His people and in the heart of His people. in
you the hope of glory. We are in the presence of the
King who in His life on this earth, walked on this earth,
fulfilled all the types and obeyed the law for His people. Imagine the honor that is given
the bride. to be able. This is an honor
tonight. It's a privilege. Some of you
know that. This is a grand joy to be in
His presence. This is the desire of the believer. Admitted into His presence just
like Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth That young boy,
his nurse dropped him. He was just a little baby. He
broke both his legs. Lame on his feet. A picture of
God's elect. King David, because of a covenant
with Mephibosheth's daddy, Jonathan. Jonathan asked him, you know
that? He said, when you become the king, Would you show mercy
to my family?" King David said, is there any of the house of
Saul that I may show mercy to for Jonathan's sake? There are
some folks that Almighty God has shown mercy to for the sake
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for His sake. But Phibosheth said
at the king's table, the king told him, he said, You can sit
here and you can feast every day. You're going to sit at my
table. You're sitting here because of your daddy's sake, because
of my covenant, my love for your father, Jonathan. Tonight we
sit and we hear the Word of Him and we preach to you in Christ's
stead. And I pray the Lord might be
pleased tonight to honor this Word. and give me mine, bring
back to memory some things that He's taught me, and then bless
in spite of me. I'm not saying that out of, you
know, sound spiritualism. I mean it, right? I mean it. In spite. The Lord might be pleased. Take that word. It honors Him.
What is this table? What is it? It's the gospel of
Christ by which we feast upon Him. That's His table. The gospel
set forth. The King's gospel. The King's
table. He provided it. He provides it,
presides at it, maintains it. And the bride is brought by grace
to enjoy the fullness of His table. as He is in her midst
and as He answers for her while the King sits at His table. My spikenard sendeth forth the
smell thereof. The bride says, It's my spikenard. Mine. It's mine. Mine. hers." It is the ointment that
is poured on the honored guest. Turn with me to John, chapter
12, verse 1. Then Jesus, six days before the
Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which was dead,
whom He raised from the dead And there they made him a supper,
and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the
table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment
of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and
wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with
the odor of the ointment." She took that spikenard that is made
from a plant called nard, and it's crushed. And spikenard is
what comes from that. It's an ointment and it's poured
and it has a savor, a smell, a fragrance. But the thing that
made it interesting to me was the bride said, my spikenard
sendeth forth the smell thereof. But here's the truth about her
spikenard. She has nothing of herself to
give. In herself, she's empty. In herself,
she's void. In herself, what does the bride
have? The only thing that she has is
what He's given her. That's all she's got. But it's
hers. It's hers. as a gift from God. You remember the Lord Jesus Christ
when the woman that had the issue of blood came to Him and she
said, If I could just touch the hem of His garment, I'd be whole. And she touched Him. And the
Lord stopped and said, Who touched Me? You know the story. He looked at her and He said,
Woman, thy faith, thy faith has made you whole. The spikenard that is given unto
the King, that's poured unto the King, what is that? It's love to Him that's kindled
as the result of His love for her. I love Him because He first loved
me. He loved His bride with an everlasting love. And He's given
her a heart to love Him. And she loves Him. She does love
Him. She'll admit, I don't love Him
as I ought, but she loves Him. And that has a savor, a smell,
sweetness, fragrance. She pours the spikenard of joy
upon Him that shed abroad in her heart, joyful in the Lord. And peace, the spikenard of peace
that surpasses all understanding. He is her peace. And she loves
Him. She's at peace with God because
of Him. She joys in the Lord. The joy
of the Lord is her strength. She says, my spikenard. She gives
Him the sacrifice and ointment of praise and thanksgiving. Where
did she get that? He gave her. I will remove that
heart of stone. I'll give you a heart of flesh.
I'll write my law on your heart. She has only that which He has
given her. If He withdraws Himself, her
spirit languishes like tender plants that wilt. But when He
reveals Himself, her soul is renewed and made fruitful. Now
you know that. You know that there are times
when the Lord will just manifest Himself to you You know it, and
you're so thankful. And then there's times that it
seems as though that maybe you don't know where He is. But oh,
in the precious times that He's there, as the King sits at His
table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of
myrrh, verse 13, is my beloved unto me. a bundle of myrrh. He is my well-beloved. Myrrh was a gum from a shrub
that perfumed the bearer. It was a gummy substance and
it had a sweet smell to it. And it was an expensive perfume
and it gave credence to its owner. It was an expensive perfume,
myrrh. I want you to turn with me to
Genesis 43. Something about myrrh that I
found very interesting. Genesis 43, beginning in verse
8, Jacob was going to send Judah, one
of his sons, into Egypt. And he said, Judah said unto
Israel, his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise
and go, that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and
also our little ones. And listen to what Judah said
unto Jacob, Israel. Remember, Jacob's name was changed
to Israel. Listen to this. Oh, I can look
at just one passage of Scripture right now. Genesis 43, 9. My
goodness, what a picture of the Lord here. I will be surety for
him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel
said unto him, It must be now so. Do this, take of the best
fruits in the land of your vessels, and carry down the man a present,
a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds,
Take double money in your hand, the money that was brought again
in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand per adventure.
It was an oversight. Myrrh was an expensive perfume
that was sent. And Jacob, Israel, was sending
with his son, with Benjamin. He said, I want you to go now.
We're going to go and approach this man. And he says, whenever
you go, he said, take some myrrh. Myrrh was one of them. Myrrh
there, that expensive perfume, gave credence to that owner. Judah here is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ, our surety. Jacob, his father, sent the choicest
gifts, the costliest presents with that surety. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our surety. He's given us His Word. For we
have Him as the Word. He is, the Scripture says back
in the Song of Solomon, a bundle of myrrh is my well-beloved unto
me. He is the expensive gift. He is the grand. He's the costly
in His incarnation, in His atonement, in His resurrection, His ascension,
His intercession, His grace. You can't put a price on that.
What kind of a price would you put on Him who is a bundle of
myrrh? He's a bundle. Take a little
myrrh. Take a little myrrh. He's a bundle of myrrh to me.
Mingled also was Myrrh in Exodus chapter 30. Just turn over there
with me for a second. Exodus 30. Exodus chapter 30. The Lord gave
some instruction concerning Myrrh. Exodus chapter 30, verse 26,
Thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith,
and the ark of the testimony, and the table, and all the vessels,
and the candlestick, and the vessels, and the altar, and incense,
and the altar of burnt offering, all his vessels, and the labor,
and his foot shall sanctify them. They will be most holy. Thou
shalt anoint, verse 30, Aaron and his sons, and consecrate
them, that they may minister unto me in the priest's office.
And I shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, This shall
be a holy anointing oil unto me throughout your generations."
Now this oil that he spoke of, back in verse 23 of Exodus 30,
"...take thou also unto thee principal spices of pure myrrh."
He told how much of it to do. He said, you take that perfume
and you anoint everything. in that tabernacle. The candlesticks,
the table, Aaron, his sons, it's holy. It's an anointing, a holy
anointing oil. Anoint everything within. The
presence of the Lord is the sweetness. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 15. 2 Corinthians 2.15 says, For we
are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of
death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto
life. And who is sufficient for these things? This myrrh. He
is a bundle of myrrh unto me. It was an expensive perfume that
gave credence to the bearer It was a mark of the surety ship
of that one. It was that holy anointing oil
that was put on everything in the tabernacle. The bride says,
He's a bundle of it to me. He shall, last part of verse
13, He shall lie all night betwixt my breast. This world is the
night. This is the night that we're
in. I was born by nature in spiritual darkness and death. But He has
given the bride, the regenerated bride, His bride, a new heart. And it is within her that He
stays. He never leaves her. He never
forsakes her. In this world we have tribulation. But He is our peace. When she says, He shall lie all
night, the picture of this night betwixt my breasts, what she's
saying is, He's in my heart. That's where He stands. He's
in me. He's within me. My beloved, verse
14, is unto me as a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of En-Jedi. In Judea was a place near the
Dead Sea, I found out, that was famous for growing the best camphor. Camphor is another perfume. So
the camphor that speaks of the Lord Jesus, my beloved, is unto
me as a cluster of camphor. So this camphor that speaks of
Him has its origin in the best place. That's what it said. My
beloved is unto me as a cluster of camphor in the vineyards of
En-Jedi. En-Jedi grew the best camphor. So the camphor, a picture of
Christ, it says comes from the best place. But the word camphor
has for its root word the same meaning as the word atonement. covering, propitiation. The word camphor means atonement. So my beloved, He is at Scripture,
I can just say it this way, is unto me a cluster of merit and
righteousness. He is precious to me because
He is my propitiation, my satisfaction before God, the place of glory,
the best place, in the best place, the place of God's glory and
honor. He is a cluster of camphor to
me. He is my covering. He is my atonement. Verse 15, 16, and 17, the Lord
and His bride speaks to each other. And verse 15, the Lord
speaks, and He says, and as I read this, I mean this with respect. I read it, and as you read it,
you'll see what I'm saying. The Lord speaks, and He says
this to her, and she says, oh, that's the way you are. And He
said, this is the way you are. She said, that's the way you
are. Back and forth. Verse 15. says, Behold, thou
art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast
dove's eyes. The bride is being spoken to
by the Lord. And the Lord says to her, You're
fair. Fair by His imputed righteousness. Not fair in herself. The bride
will tell you what she is. She says, I'm black. But I'm
comely. I'm beautiful. I'm fair. Fair
how? Fair only in His righteousness. His righteousness being charged
to her count. His righteousness entered in. His righteousness imputed. Oh,
I know we have nothing to glory in as far as being in ourselves,
but He looks upon us as we truly are in Him. Turn back with me
in 1 Corinthians 1.30. 1 Corinthians 1.30. The Scripture says, "...but of him are ye..." Now,
whatever this says right here, we are. "...but of him are ye
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Oh my! We could stay there a
long time. Suffice it to say that as He
says we are, we are. He says you're fair. Just turn
over to 1 Corinthians 6.11. This is where we are. 1 Corinthians
6.11. The Scripture says, but such
were some of you, speaking of verse 10, thieves, covetous,
drunkards, revelers. But you're washed. You are washed. You're sanctified. You are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
We looked at justification last Sunday morning. Justified before
God. Declared to be just. and righteous by the imputation
of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ." Therefore now,
no condemnation to them that be in Christ Jesus. This is what
He said, you are fair. You are fair. You are fair, My
love. That word there means My companion. Those made willing to walk in
agreement with Him. How can two walk together unless
they be agreed? He said, you're fair, my companion,
my love. If He didn't make us so, we wouldn't
walk. We wouldn't walk with Him. You'd
have no desire after Him. If you desire Him tonight, if
you walk after long after Him tonight, you do so by the grace
of God. You're fair. I tell you, this
is encouraging to a believer to have him say, based totally
on his righteousness to us, for him to say, you're fair. You
have Dove's eyes, single eyes to him, loyal to him. Loyal. I'll tell you this, God's
people that He calls out of darkness, God's people that He gives a
heart, they stay. God's people stay. God's people
remain. God's people remain. Why? Because they're kept by the power
of God through faith. You have dove's eyes. Eyes to
see spiritually. Eyes to see that are governed
by the dove of heaven. And then the bride speaks in
verse 16, His bed is green. He said, You
are fair. But she is fair by His imputed
righteousness. And she says, You are fair in
Yourself. You are fair. Zechariah 9, verse
7 says, How great is His beauty! But how does the believer express
and behold His beauty? John said, We beheld His glory,
the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The believer beholds the glory of God as he expresses
himself in his Word at his table. This is his table. And at his
table, he serves. And he serves himself through
his Word. And we feast on him by faith. That's what's happening tonight. We feast on the Lord. He says,
The bride says, You are fair in Yourself, my Beloved, yea,
pleasant, comely, beautiful, beloved. Also our bed is green. Where we rest, He leadeth me
beside the green pastures. Where we rest, we flourish and
prosper. green life. Where I attempted to rest before,
and you attempted to rest before, there was death. I was in bondage,
and you were too. Bondage to the law, it had me
under its yoke. But wherefore the Scripture says,
My brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of
Christ, that ye should be married to another, even to Him who is
raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto
God Almighty, God Himself. Our bed's green. Our place of
rest is green. It flourishes. How is that? In Him. Married to Him. He's life. He's life. And in
union with Him, our place of rest is green. The beams of our
house are cedar. and our rafters of fir. It speaks of the house. The house. And in closing on
that scripture right there, I think 1 Peter 2, 5 to 9. Turn with
me there. I'll read that while you're turning.
The beams of our house are cedar and our rafters of fir. 1 Peter
2. 1 Peter 2, verse 5, You also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, A chief
corn of stone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded unto you therefore which believe.
He is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is become
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
even to him that stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. or a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show
forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light." Our house, our place, our rafters,
our place of rest, the beams of our house, house of His making,
His building, cedar and rafters of fire. May the Lord add His
blessing upon the reading and the expounding of His Word. Let's
just sing one song. Pat, why don't you just lead
us in one verse of a closing hymn, and then, Brother Scott,
I'll ask you if you would dismiss us, please, sir.