Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Verse 3.
Who is the God of the Bible? If you tell men that God is holy and just and
righteous and true and faithful and merciful and long-suffering, patient, gracious and good, men will Delight
to hear that. Remember what I said now. You tell man that God is just
and holy. He's a just God. And He's a holy
God. He's a righteous God. He's true
and faithful. He's full of mercy. He's full
of grace. He's full of truth. He is long-suffering,
and he is patient. Then, for the most part, men
will delight in what you say." But here, the psalmist, the sweet
singer of Israel, David, sets forth that one attribute of God
Almighty that this religious generation rebels against it. And this is the point of rebellion. So we've got to insist that man must yield to it. Verse 3, verse 1, Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. But should the heathens then say, Wherefore should the
heathens say, Where is now their God? But the psalmist David says,
But our God is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased." That's the sovereignty of God. Our God's in the heavens,
and He does whatever He pleases.
Indisputable sovereignty. And that's the point of rebellion.
Men will believe about everything else you say about God. that
He is good, merciful, kind, just, gracious, long-suffering, and
so forth. They delight to hear that. But when you tell them
that our God is in the heavens, and He is a sovereign God, and
He does whatever pleases Him, then there is rebellion. Men won't believe that. Well,
what has God been pleased to do. Well, it has pleased the
Lord to make you His people. Over
here in 2 Samuel, I believe it is, 1 Samuel chapter 12 and verse
22, listen to what it says. 1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 22. What has the Lord been pleased
to do? It says, Our God is in the heavens, and He doeth as it pleases Him. In verse 22 it says, For the
Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake. Will it hath pleased the Lord? not to forsake His people. That's
one thing, one promise that He's made that He'll never forsake
His people. He has a people. And He'll never forsake them. It says, "...because it pleased
the Lord to make you His people." Why, what is your God doing?
Well, He's in the heavens, and He's doing as it pleases Him. Well, what has He done? It hath pleased the Lord to make
you His people. And then in another place here,
it says in the book of Isaiah, chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53. It says this. Verse 10. It says it has pleased the Lord
to bruise him. And he's talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's talking about his beloved
son. He's talking about him whom he
said that he so loved his people. that he sent his Son to save
his people. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased God to bruise the
Lord Jesus. You see, in this chapter here,
in verse 3, well, it says in the second verse that the Lord
Jesus would have no form or comeliness that when you see Him, there
is no beauty that you should desire Him. That is that we are
so sinful and so depraved and so far off from God, we in our
depravity couldn't see no beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when He came, In his outward form, when he became a man, there
was no beauty in him that you could recognize. He is despised
and is rejected of men. He wasn't despised and rejected
of God, but he was despised and rejected of men. He was looked
upon as a man of sorrows. He had many sorrows, and he was
acquainted with grief. and we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. But it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He was wounded for our transgression, He was bruised for our iniquities,
and the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes
we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. That is, it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He hath put him to grief, to
make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. It pleased the Lord to Bruese." And over here in the book of
1 Corinthians, Chapter 1, verse 22, I believe, it says this, is what the Lord was
pleased to do. Somewhere here it says, It pleased the Lord. And verse
21, it says, For after that in the
wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. That is, the world in their natural wisdom knew
not God. But it pleased God to bruise
him. It pleased God to make us his
people. And it says here, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now, someplace else I want you to
turn here. Psalm of Solomon. Chapter 5. Chapter 5 of the Psalm of Solomon. I think verse Chapter 5 and verse 16, I think
it is. It says, His mouth is most sweet, and is altogether lovely. His
mouth is most sweet. and is altogether lovely. Yet it pleased God to bruise
him. It pleased God to save his people
through the foolishness of preaching. And it pleased God to send the
Lord Jesus Christ from heaven to become a man, to take upon himself our flesh
and our bones and become a man. It pleased the Lord to do it.
It pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to make us his people. And it says here that his mouth
is most sweet. and he's altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this one, that it pleased God to bruise
him, who was despised and rejected, he's altogether lovely. And the psalmist says, this is
my beloved, And this is my friend, my beloved
and my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Well, I say here this
morning, brethren, about him, the friend of sinners, the Christ of God, God manifested
in the flesh who will become one of us. I say that it is the
mercies of mercies to the born child of God to be able to look
up in the midst of all the conflict which may be raging about him,
around him, and within And in the face of all doubts and in
the face of all anxieties, trials and troubles which distract his
mind, and in the midst of all gloom and all darkness, to make
use of this blessed precious pronoun, my, my beloved and my friend. Look at this precious pronoun,
my. Is he my beloved and my friend? Now, I may be able to speak of
my place of worship, where you go to church. I come here to
the Katie Baptist Church. That's my church. I can speak
of my church. It's my church. My place of worship,
my church. My fellow travelers, my companions
in my church. I can speak of my membership. I can speak of my pastor, my
preacher, my Bible right here. But this is the point. This is
the point that I want to emphasize. What about the blessed declarations,
my Lord, my God, my salvation, my beloved and my friend, my
surety, my King, my substitute, my being one with this precious
God, with this precious friend, this precious Christ. One with
Him. My. He's my God and my Friend. I'm not talking about your God,
I'm talking about my God and my Friend. That's what this text
says. His mouth is most sweet and He's
altogether lovely. This is my Beloved and this is
my Friend. It says over there in chapter
5 and verse 10 of this same chapter, it says in reference to him, it says that he is the chief
beloved. Verse 10. My Beloved is white and ruddy. That speaks of His purity and
His perfection. My Beloved, who's altogether
lovely, who is My Beloved and My Friend. And He's white and
ruddy. And He's the Chiefest. He's the Chief Beloved. It says
the cheapest among ten thousand. And there in verse 11, it speaks
of his head. It says his head is as fine gold. His head is as the most fine
gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven. There in verse 12, it says his
eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water,
washed with milk and fitness sand." See, this personal pronoun,
my, is the one that we talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and which
is the subject of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation. My friend, is he my beloved? This is my Bible. This is my
church. These are my companions. But
what about my beloved? What about my friend who is altogether
lovely? It pleased God. It pleased God
to bruise my friend. My Beloved, is He my Beloved? Really, honestly, truly, is He
my God, my Friend, my Salvation, my Substitution, my All in All? He is everything to me, my Beloved
and my Friend. And this describes the beauty
and loveliness of my God and my Salvation, my Christ, my Lamb,
my substitute, my righteousness, my obedience, my justification,
my sanctification. All that God requires of me is
in this my friend and my beloved. Well, it says, His eyes are as
the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with and fitly
set. And he says his cheeks are as
a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set
with the burl. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Yea,
he is altogether lovely from the bottom of his feet to the
crown of his head. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as fitly described by the sweet singer of Israel, says
he's altogether lovely. And he's my beloved, my beloved. This is my beloved. This is my
Bible. This is my beloved. I have no
other beloved like this beloved. He's altogether lovely, and he's
my beloved, and he's my friend, chief among ten thousand, my
surety, my king, my substitute. I'm one with this precious Savior. I was one with Him. Well, we
were chosen in Him. I was going to say we were one
with Him in the manger, and that's true, because we were chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. It pleased God to choose us. and make us His people. It pleased
God. He had done it out of His own
good pleasure. And it pleased God to place us
in Christ. We were placed in Christ before
we had been. We were placed in Christ. So
I can truly say that I am one with Him because I was put in
Him before the world ever was. And so I can also say that at
Bethlehem, I was in Him. At Nazareth, when He was a youth,
I was in Him. I was in Him in every step that
He took from the womb from the womb to the cross and from the
cross to the crown. I was in him who is my beloved
and my friend who is altogether lovely, whose eyes are like doves. I was in him and I am still in
him and will always be in Him. Who are you talking about? I'm
talking about God's Christ. Without me, you can do nothing. We must be in Him. And so being in Him, having this
vital union with Him, then regardless of how black and dark and full
of gloom this life becomes to us in times of distress, in times
of need, we can look up to where He is at and know for certain
and assured that He is my Beloved and my Friend. and He will never leave us nor
forsake us. One with Him in His life, one
with Him in His public suffering, one with Him in His distress
and trying times while He was here in this world, and one with
Him even when He was on that cursed tree. one with Him. Oh, it pleased the Lord to lay
on Him my sins, on the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of
the Father, He that is altogether loving, the only man that ever
lived, that pleased God, who had no
sins, but my sins was transferred and laid on him. And he bore
the guilt, the shame, and the penalty due me against my sins. He who is altogether lovely,
my friend and my beloved, what more could I ask? Why should
I and downcast in spirit. If I was one with Him before
the world was, one with Him in the manger, one with Him in His
public suffering and being despised and rejected, and one with Him
when He suffered on that tree, one with Him when He was buried
in Golgotha's tomb, one with Him when He was resurrected and
I'm still one with Him on the throne. Why should I worry and
why should I fear? I'm one with Him who's altogether
lovely, my beloved and my friend. Is that not right? Why are we
so downcast? Why Are we full of doubts and
fears when we're one with the Lord Jesus Christ, who ever lives
on God's right hand and makes intercession for us?
I've told you before that I don't know how to pray or what to pray
for, but I have Him. He's my Beloved and He's my Friend. And He's such a friend. There's
no friend like the lowly Jesus. He is such a friend that He makes
my prayers intelligible. He gives my prayers understanding
before God. Though my mouth runs off and
it's hard to understand what I'm saying, yet He takes every
word and fitly frames it in a sentence that it can be understood by
God. And he ever lives to do that.
Though my prayers are poor and not understandable, yet God rewrites
them and makes them known before the throne in the Lord Jesus
Christ, my friend. He walks with me He talks with
me. I am forever His own. What a
friend we have in Jesus! What a friend! What a friend! My Beloved! My Beloved! Is He your Beloved? Is He yours? I can't speak for
you. I can speak for myself. He's my Beloved and He's my friend. I want Him to be your beloved.
I want Him to be your friend. And the only way that that can
come about is that you'll have to trust Him. You'll have to
trust Him and Him alone. And He'll become your friend
to walk with you and talk with you. Let me read a little more. He says there in this fifth chapter
of Solomon's Song, He said, I've come into my garden, my sister,
my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I've eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Eat, O friend, drink, yea, drink
abundantly, and be drunken with love. O Beloved, I sleep, but
my heart waketh. It is the voice of my Beloved
that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew. and my locks
with the drops of the night. I have put off my coat, how shall
I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall
I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by
the hole of the door, and my vows were removed for him. I rose up to open to my beloved,
and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved hath withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul
failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. The watchmen that went with me
about the city found me, and they smote me, and they wounded
me. The keepers of the walls took
away my veil from me. Oh, I charge you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that
I am sick of love. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? O thou fairest among women. Now
of course here he's talking about his bride. He's talking about
his church. His church who are the members
of his body. He's the head and we're the body. And he's seeking now his bride. And she happens to be a harlot.
She's a harlot. We, too, were in that case, in
that condition. Far off from God. Far off from
God. Sinners by nature. Sinners by
birth. Sinners by practice. Oh, he says,
Where is, or what is my beloved? more than thou, more than another
beloved. O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost charge
so charges? My beloved is white and red,
and he goes on. O my soul, my beloved, is my
friend. I'm glad this morning that I
am my Beloved. He's mine and I'm His. And my
desire is towards Him. Is He your Beloved? Is your desire
towards Him? He who sitteth upon the circle
of this universe, who sits upon the throne who was promised that
he's going to leave us, and he left us. And he said, I'm going
to come again. But I'll leave my agent here,
the Holy Spirit, to guide you and direct you in all truth.
So amid disappointments and sorrows and darknesses, he said, look
unto me. I'm your strength and I'm your
help. I bid you to look to him and
trust in him. I look to Him in my own soul,
my own heart. I look to Him this morning and
confess unto Him my wanderings, my unfaithfulness, but look to
Him who is always faithful. He has not moved because of my
wanderings. He knew about my wanderings before
He put me in Christ. He knows all about me. My unfaithfulness
and all that. Yet He loves me. He's altogether loved me. Lord help us in these trying
times. Some of you got your loved ones
are sick. Your loved ones are away from
you. You can't be there to be with
them. Others have passed on. It's a
dark and gloomy world. Don't know where to live, don't
know where to look, how to live, what to say, how to pray. Ah,
my soul. We have one who's our friend. He's our beloved. He hears us
always. How did we get to be his friend? How did we get to be My beloved,
how did that happen? Oh, by the grace of God. It hath
pleased God to save them. It's pleased God. It's pleased
God to put you in Christ. Pleased God. That's how we got
in Him. Because it pleased God. Wasn't
nothing pleasing about you. Wasn't nothing pleasing about
me. Just the opposite. But He did so according to His
sovereignty. Sovereign grace, sovereign mercy
in Him. He put us in Christ, preserved
us in Christ. We ever live in Christ, stand
before God in Christ, so we never sin. Please God to do all these
things. Well, all right. We'll meet again
this evening for a few