Don't you love the fact that
our God is a rock? You can do what you like to a
rock, but it remains a rock. Listen to what Moses said at
the end of his life as he was aware of the fact that underneath
were everlasting arms. He says, Give ear, O heavens,
and I will speak. Hear, O earth, the words of my
mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the showers
upon the grass, because I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. He is the rock. His work is perfect, for all
his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is he. Isaiah says that so many, many
people are praying to a God who cannot save. Isn't it good that we have another
God altogether? A God who can and must save as
he has promised. In fact, he saved his people
from the foundation of the world and now we rest in a finished
work of our great Let's turn with me in your Bibles back to
Song of Solomon. If you go to Isaiah and go back
one book, or if you've gone to Psalms, you can go forward a
few and you'll get to Song of Solomon. I'm trying to bring
a few messages so that we get some picture of what this glorious
song, this gospel song, says of the Lord and his children,
Ben and Tegan want me to speak from a verse of this in chapter 2
for their wedding, and I thought, well, we've only got a few minutes
of the wedding, and we will relish something of what Song of Solomon
says beforehand, and I trust that that might be the case today. Okay, the Song of Songs, it begins,
which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, 4. Thy love is better than wine,
and very obviously the reason she's saying that, again, is
because she has tasted that his love is sweet. And then she says, because the
savour The odour of thy good ointments, the odour of all of
his name, all of his attributes, flow out, as we looked at it
last week, as the ointment that the Lord was anointed before
his burial by Mary in Bethany just the week before he died. And it filled the whole house,
and that's our longing, is that the savour of his name, the glory
of his name would fill the house. And it's ointment poured forth,
and that's exactly what Moses was talking about. That's exactly
what happens in the preaching of the Gospel. It's poured forth
and it becomes refreshing and sweet to the children. Therefore
do the virgins love thee. We looked at that last week,
the virgins in Revelation 14 are those who haven't defiled
themselves and particularly haven't defiled themselves with this
world. particularly, most particularly, have defiled themselves with
the religion of this world. Now I want to have a look at
verse 4 because it's just so sweet and glorious and so profound
in what it promises and what it delivers. Listen to these
glorious words. The King hath brought me into
his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. What a glorious plea. response that comes from being
drawn. Draw me, draw me and we will
run after thee. Who is the we? Well the children
of God run, not as individuals in this world. We are always
considered sheep and the sheep follow the shepherd and a shepherd
that had one sheep is not much of a shepherd. He's been a very
neglectful shepherd. So it's certainly the we, the
people, we also run and have all of our living and being in
God Almighty and we will be drawn and we will run as the Blessed
Holy Spirit does His work as promised in the hearts of His
people. And I love the fact that there is just one place that
all of the Lord's people are drawn to. It's a person. We will
run after thee. We won't run after this world,
we'll run after me. To run is to be in haste, to
have an urgency, to have a necessity. In the Old Testament, running
often speaks of those who are bringing news from battles. to run is to not be distracted.
You might remember when Elisha sent his servant after the lady's
son had died and he said, you just run and don't you stop for
anything. You run until you find him. You run. It's not to dawdle,
it's not to wander down different paths. The Lord says, my sheep
hear my voice, John chapter 10, and they do what? They follow
me. They follow me. We obviously
are aware of the fact that all of God's people are in desperate
need of being drawn by the Lord to himself. No man, John chapter
6, no man will come, no man can come to me unless the Father
which has sent me draw him. And so in this business of drawing,
we are passive and God is active. But as with the kiss, that she
cries out for in verse two, let him kiss me with a kiss of his
mouth because his love is better than mine. She's tasted that
his love, have you tasted the Lord is gracious? Have you tasted
the Lord? Tasted the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ? That powerful love. Jeremiah, we keep quoting Jeremiah
chapter 31 verse three, isn't it? I have loved you, He says
of his church, with an everlasting love, I've loved you everlastingly,
therefore with loving kindness have I drawn you. God's children are not brought
to the Lord Jesus Christ by the whip of the law or the threatenings
of hell. They are drawn into the very
presence of God Almighty by the cords and the bands of love.
that binds us to him and him to us. So this is the cry of
being drawn is from love experienced and love draws when his name
is poured forth as a good ointment. Everything that you read about
the Lord Jesus Christ isn't it? Every attribute and every action. He's done all things well. He
is doing all things well. He rules purposefully. He rules effectually. He rules
for his glory. We're drawn to him in his glory.
The glory of his attributes made known, that ointment poured forth. And I want us to look at this,
it's both a prayer and it's something that is said so often in the
rest of the scriptures that it's extraordinary how often we miss
it and we shouldn't miss it. I'll read a number of them to
you and just I want you to get some sense in which the people
of God are crying out and asking Him. Psalm 27 verse 8 says, and
I'll just read them to you, we won't have time to look at them
in any great detail. When thou said, when God said,
seek ye my face, my heart said unto the Lord, thy face, Lord,
will I seek. He says seek. And we used to
turn around and say, I'm going to seek because you've said to
seek. Deliver me from blood guiltness, Psalm 51, O God, thou God of
my salvation. You deliver me from the blood
guiltness of the murder of Uriah and the adultery with Bathsheba
and the murder effectively of that child and the ruin of a
family. You deliver me from blood guiltless,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. You deliver me, I'll sing of
your righteousness. Psalm 51, 14. Psalm 65 verse
4 says, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to
approach. He chooses his people, then he
causes them to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy
courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Turn us again,
turn us again O God, and cause thy face to be shine, draw us,
and we shall be saved. Psalm 80 verse 17. Let thy hand
be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man, whom
thou madest strong for thyself. Psalm 119 is just full of this
exhortation, which is encompassed in this, draw me. Listen to some
of these verses. Psalm 119 verse 18. Open thou
mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Open my
eyes so that you will show me what's in your book. I can't
see it without you. Make me to understand the way
of thy precepts, and so shall I talk of thy wondrous work. Psalm 119 verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments
when thou shalt enlarge my heart. I'll run when you enlarge my
heart. Psalm 100 verse 35. Make me to
go in the path of thy commandments, for therein do I delight. quicken
me, cause me to be alive, make me alive after thy lovingkindness,
so shall I keep the testimony of thy mouth. Verse 117, hold
thou me up and I shall be safe. Have you cried that? You hold
me up. I can't hold myself up. Everything
is too much for me. All the circumstances are too
big for me. 133. Order my steps in thy word, and
let not any iniquity have dominion over me. Psalm 143 verse 8. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness,
thy grace in the morning, for in thee do I trust. Cause me
to know the way wherein I should walk. For I lift up my soul unto
thee. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies.
I flee unto thee to hide me. Teach me to do thy will, for
thou art my God. Thy spirit is good. Lead me into
the land of uprightness. Draw me, draw me, and we will
run after you. There are so many glorious pictures
in the Old Testament of people and in the New Testament of people
being drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't they? of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth was in a covenant
relationship with David because of Jonathan's love for him before
Mephibosheth was born and probably without Mephibosheth ever knowing
about it and he was a cripple. And how did he come to dwell
in the courts of the king and sit at the king's table and be
treated as a king's son when he was due to be murdered and
to die because of his association with Saul's house? A covenant
of love and a command from David. You can read about it in 2 Samuel
9, verse 5. David sent and fetched him. How
do you get to be in the presence of the king and to sit at his
table and be declared one of his sons? You go and fetch him. You fetch him out of the house
of Makea, a place that has no past. You fetch him out of the
wilderness. Draw me, and we will run after
thee. I love the story in Luke chapter
19 of Zacchaeus. You know, Zacchaeus was a little
man, and he was a tax collector, and he was an enemy, an enemy,
and someone, someone to whom the Jews had nothing but utter
contempt. And the Lord Jesus came, always
it's him who comes and does the calling and the drawing. You
can read about it in Luke chapter 19. And he was the chief among
the publicans and he was rich. And he ran and he climbed up
a sycamore tree to see him because he knew that Jesus passed. And
when Jesus came to the place, verse five, he looked up and
he saw him and he said unto him, Zacchaeus, Make haste, run right
now, and come down. Everyone who is called and everyone
who is drawn will have to come down. Make haste, come down,
for today I must abide at thy house. Draw me. How does Zacchaeus
get to be there? Get into that place? Who planted
the sycamore tree and caused it to grow? Who made Zacchaeus
of little stature? Who tolerated Zacchaeus being
an enemy of God's people and an enemy of God all of that time?
And who came at the time of love and says, you're mine? You come
down. You make haste. You make haste.
You make haste. This day, says the Lord about
Zacchaeus, this day is salvation come to this house for so much
as he also is a son of Abraham. For the son of man is come to
seek and to save that which was lost. He came to save sinners. He came
to save lost sinners. He didn't come for the righteous.
He came to save sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
his people and he draws them to himself. He draws them to
himself by the gracious work of the blessed Holy Spirit. He
draws them to himself by revealing himself to them. Was Zacchaeus
happy that day? Was Zacchaeus rejoicing that
day? He'd given away his money. He'd given away all of his reputation
with the publicans. He had been brought to the very
house of God and he heard, we are drawn by the influence of
the Spirit. We're drawn by the manifestation of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. We're drawn by the word of the
gospel and we're drawn by irresistible power of love. This is just a
manifestation of the glory of God in drawing his people to
himself. He'll draw them. He'll draw them. Draw me and we will run after
thee. That's a prayer. The Lord said,
when I be lifted up, I will draw to me. In John 12.32, the man
is in italics. He's going to draw all his people
to himself and he's going to draw them by being lifted up.
We lift him up in his glory. We lift him up in his majesty.
We lift him up in all of his glorious attributes. To draw
me is to acknowledge that there is a distance between us and
him. And that distance is only a distance
that's going to be brought near by him doing everything. run, don't you love that? Nothing's
too demanding, no sacrifice is too great, no obstacles like
the mountains will be made low and swept away. We'll be made,
we'll run, we'll run to worship him. Don't you love what he says
in Hosea chapter 14, for you who like me feel we're backslidden
in appalling ways, he says, I will heal their backsliding. And I
will love them freely. Mine anger is turned away from
them. Where was his anger turned? It
was turned on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why can he draw his people
to himself? Because they have no sin. Their
sin has been taken away. How on earth can we be in the
very presence of God Almighty? We have to be as holy as he is
holy. We have to be as righteous as he is righteous. And we have
to be made like the Shulamite to love who he is and love what
he is. But I want us to look very briefly
as we close at the beautiful conclusion of this. She prays
a prayer, draw me. And we will run after thee. And
what's the answer to the prayer? The king has brought me into
his chambers. He's brought me into the place
where he reveals himself in his glory. Is the prayer answered? He who loves me, says the Lord
Jesus Christ in John 14, he who loves me will be loved by my
Father, and I will love him, and I'll manifest myself to him. Why has he gone away? He's gone
away to prepare a place for you. What's he doing? He's coming
back, John 14, chapter one. He's coming back. And what's
the believer's response? If you've been drawn by the Lord
Jesus Christ, It's thankfulness, isn't it? We will be glad. I want to be glad. I want to
be around people who are glad. I want to be around people who
rejoice and are glad in the fact that there is a savior for sinners.
There's a Saviour who comes. There's a Saviour who draws out
a prayer from our hearts. We'll come. We'll come when He
causes us to come. But we'll come with gladness.
We will be glad and rejoice in Thee. Our rejoicing is in who
He is. We will just rejoice in His person. His gifts come to his people,
and he causes us to rejoice in his gifts, but all of his gifts
point to him. We rejoice in him. We're glad in him. And we will,
if you're drawn, and he answers that prayer, we will remember
thy love more than wine. We will remember thy love much better than wine. Wine is
given of the Lord to remind us of many things, but it's given
of the Lord to gladden our hearts. But there's a very small limit
to how much we can have and it'd be good for us and gladden our
hearts. You can drink this wine all day long. day and all day and still have
more room for Thanksgiving we will remember your love more
than wine We will love who you are. We will love fellowship with
you. We will love being in your company. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin and we have a fellowship. God creates
a fellowship. Draw me and we will run. after thee, therefore the upright
love thee. If we're drawn we will run. We will be brought into a place
where we see that he is absolutely and completely righteous and
holy in all that he does. And we'll love his holiness and
we'll love the purity of all of his attributes. We'll love
the holiness of everything that is about him and we'll love the
glory of all of his attributes we will rejoice we will be glad
and God commands his people to rejoice rejoice in the Lord Philippians
rejoice in the Lord always there's always a reason to be thankful
and to rejoice there's always a reason to remember as we have the Lord's Supper.
What are we doing? We're not remembering what we've
done, or what we promised to do, or what we should have done,
or what we ought to have done. We're remembering Him, aren't
we? He says, He'd given thanks, 1
Corinthians 11, 24. He'd break it and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which
is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. You can only remember someone
that you know. You can only remember someone
that you know. After the same manner he also
took the cup, when he had supped, saying, this cup is the new testament,
the new covenant in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink,
in remembrance of me. If he's drawn you, you'll remember
his love, you'll remember his chambers, and you'll long to
be back there again and again and again. For as often as you
eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death
till he come. We are preaching and proclaiming
to each other in the Lord's Supper His death till he come. We're proclaiming it to each
other. The wonder of that death that put away death, the wonder
of that death which is death to all of my sins. The wonder
of that death that brings joy and gladness to hearts that can
find very little joy and very little gladness in very little
else around this world. Do this in remembrance of me. Draw me. and we will run after
thee. The king hath brought me into
his chambers. What do you see in his chambers?
What we see in heaven's chambers, our great king and saviour, reigning
supreme, bearing in his own body the very marks of our sin forever
to show that they're gone, brothers and sisters. We will be glad
and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. Let's
pray. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would cause us to be mindful of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. We might be caused as we take these elements that remind
us of his broken body and his shed blood. Oh, our Father, Draw
us again to the cross of your dear and precious Son. Draw us
to the place where he is glorified. Draw us again and again and again,
Heavenly Father, into the chambers where he reveals himself in his
glory. Cause us, our Father, as we drink
and eat to do it with thankfulness, to do it with gladness, to do
it with rejoicing, to do it with the glorious expectation that
one day soon we'll be in his chambers forever and ever and
ever. Draw us away from this world,
draw us away from our flesh, draw us away from all the anxieties
that this life brings Heavenly Father and causes us to find
peace and joy and and precious Son. We pray that he might be
glorified amongst us, Heavenly Father, that we might honour
him by simply trusting and resting in who he is and what he's done. We pray these things in his name
and for his glory and for the good and the comfort of your
people in this world, our Father. We pray in Jesus' precious name,
Amen.