What a great prayer these old
hymns are. Her longing eyes are blessed. Do you have longing eyes? God's children have longing eyes. Longing eyes are blessed. And
the great church victorious shall be the church at rest. It isn't
a remarkable thing that God's way of seeing things and man's
way of seeing things are so radically different. Who would think that
the Church is a great Church, victorious. Turn with me in your
Bibles. the Song of Solomon. Again I
suppose as we study the scriptures, the more we study the scriptures,
the more important the study of the scriptures becomes and
the more important it is to meditate on things and to meditate on
them with our eyes enlightened by what God says. enlightened by what God says
He does. And Song of Solomon takes us
into those intimate places of union and communion with the
Lord Jesus Christ. And as we come to the end of
it, we see her leaning upon Him in close fellowship, in close
union with Him. She has Him in her company and
here she is praying with Him and talking with Him and declaring
wonderful things about Him. after he has declared such amazing
things about her. It is remarkable, isn't it? We
are talking about things which are beyond the understanding
of human beings. We are wading in waters that
are too deep. We are, I trust, overcome as
we read the scriptures and overcome as we meditate upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. that great everlasting love,
that great love that drew him to this earth, that great love
that he brings into the hearts of his people. as He shows them
who He is and reminds them again and again of who they really
are, not in the eyes of this world, not in their own eyes
almost all the time, but in His eyes. His eyes are on her with the
most extraordinary delight. She says, I am my beloved and
his desire is toward me. Let's read. Let's read about this love. In
verse 6 she says, set me as a seal upon thine heart, a seal upon
thine arm. For love, his love, is as strong
as death. Jealousy as cruel as the grave,
the coals thereof are coals of fire which has a most vehement
flame. His love burns with a passion
and it can't be quenched. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all of the
substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contempt.
It would be treated with contempt. You can't buy this love. It's
too precious. Then she says, we have a little
sister. She has no breast. What shall we do for our sister
in the day when she shall be spoken for? They say, if she
be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver, and if
she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am
a wall and my breasts like towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favour. I was in his eyes as one that
found peace. That's what the Sama says, and
he says, Remember me, O Lord, with the favour which Thou bearest
unto Thy people. His favour is life. And then she describes, this
Solomon, our Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon had a vineyard at Baalhamin. He let out the vineyard unto
keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof
was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which
is mine, is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand. Of those that keep the fruit
thereof, two hundred. Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice. Cause me to hear it."
What a prayer. God, cause me to hear what you
say. Make haste, my beloved, and be
thou like to a roe or to a young heart, a young deer, upon the
mountains of spices. What a great climax. What a great
way this Holy of Holies, this song of songs, this celebration
of that love relationship between the Lord Jesus and His Bride
is brought to a climax. He is in the Scriptures our great
Saviour, pictured in many ways. Obviously we know Him as a shepherd,
We know him as one who is a husband to his people, but so often in
scriptures he's pictured as being one who has a vineyard. A vineyard. In that day, sing ye unto her
a vineyard of red wine. The Lord Jesus If you turn with
me and Matthew, it's good to remember how the Lord Jesus took
these pictures and applied them particularly and personally to
himself. He said again and again, these
scriptures that you read, they speak of me. We're talking about
he who has a vineyard. We're talking about God, the
planter and the keeper of a vineyard. In Matthew chapter 20 he tells
the story to these people who would take his life, these people who would kill him. I'm sorry, I think I've got the
wrong chapter. Chapter 21, I beg your pardon. Just over the page. Chapter 21 of Matthew's Gospel,
verse 33. Here another parable. There was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard, and he hedged it round about, and
digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out
to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And when the time
of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that
they might receive the fruits of it. and the husbandmen took
his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants
more than the first, and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto
them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the
husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is
the heir, let us kill him and let us seize his inheritance. And they caught him and cast
him out of the vineyard and slew him. When the Lord, therefore,
of the vineyard cometh, what will He do unto those husbandmen? They said unto Him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and He will let out His vineyard
unto other husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits in
their season. Jesus said unto them, did you
never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders
rejected, the same has become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes. Therefore
I say unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and
given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever
shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever
it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." and the Chief Priest and the
Pharisees heard His parables and they perceived that He spoke
of them. They knew He was speaking of Himself and they knew He was
speaking of them. But what a prayer that is, what
a prayer for you in your hearts, for all of us in our hearts to
pray, isn't it? has been planted by the Lord,
hasn't it? The stone the builders rejected. It is now the head
of the corner. It is the capstone. It is that
tried and tested and true stone. You can read about it in Isaiah
28. But whosoever shall fall on this
stone, kiss the sun, is what the scriptures are saying. Kiss
the sun. fall on him. What does the Shulamite
do when she comes out of the wilderness? She's leaning upon
him. Trust him. Believe him. Fall on this stain. You'll be broken. Only the broken,
only the needy fall on this stain. This is the day of salvation. Fall upon Him. Rest in Him. Look to Him. Come to Him. One day soon, This stone will
fall upon others and this same stone will be that stone which
grinds them to powder. Our Lord Jesus is a great God
and Saviour. It's a great day when we can
spend time together to contemplate Him and look, be caused by Him
to look into our hearts. And as the psalmist says in Psalm
80, hear me, turn me, cause me to look to Him. Israel of course
was a shadow and it was a type of the church and of course the
vineyard is a vineyard which was special. Wine was a precious
thing. Vineyards were special. I went
looking on Wikipedia or somewhere to try and find out about how
precious vineyards are. Some of them have been around
for thousands of years. There are wineries in France
that have been making wine in the same place for a thousand
years or more. The oldest grape vines in the
world are 400 years old. And some of these really big
old grapevines, some of them, the older they get, the sweeter
and more precious the wine is in them. And some of them produce
the most remarkable crops of grapes. Some of them produce
nearly 400 kilos of grapes. Isn't that remarkable? So when
you're planting a vineyard, you need a special plop of ground. That's exactly what the Lord
Jesus has, isn't he? He owns this whole earth, but
he plants a vineyard, he plants a garden, and it's separated
from others. That's why God's children are
called a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
separated nation. And it's a plot of ground, it's
a gathering of these vines together in this special place, and it's
fenced. God fences His own in by sovereign grace. He hedges
their ways until they come, and then when they come, He fences
them in, every step of a believer's life. prior to conversion and
after conversion is particularly and specially ordered by the
Lord. He fences us in, he hedges us
in. It's the planting of the Lord,
as he calls it, the planting of His, that He might be glorified. It's a fruitful vineyard. The
fruitful vineyard is grafted into the true vine, it's nourished
by him, it's pruned by him to increase its fruitfulness. We
might grieve over the pruning, but the pruning in the hand of
our vine dresser is special pruning. We might not like it, but he
prunes for a purpose. He prunes to increase fruitfulness. You can read about it in John
Chapter 15. And vineyards of course were
delightful gardens. Not only did they have vines
in them, but they had other plants in them. They were special secluded
parts of a kingdom. Solomon was much given to planting
vineyards. He planted vineyards and they
built walls around them, as the Lord Jesus said, to protect them
from the wild animals. And here we have this great word,
isn't it? Solomon, our great Solomon, the
Messiah, had a vineyard. He had a vineyard. The Lord Jesus
is that one that is greater than Solomon who is here. He had a
vineyard. It's in his possession, he owns
it. It's his by his father's gift. It's His by His choosing. You didn't choose me, but I chose
you. It's His, of His own planting. He created all things. This is
His universe. There is not a thing that we
cast our eyes upon that we cannot say and we must say, the Lord
Jesus made that. And the reason it's here for
me to look at now is because He makes the sun to shine and
He sustains all things by His powerful word. And it's his because
of his watchful care over them. And as we'll see in time to come,
it's his by his special purchase. He bought his vineyard at the
cost of his blood. That's how precious his vineyard
is to him. He had a vineyard at Bayel Hayman. Bayel Hayman means master of
a multitude, master of a troop. Our Saviour will have His reward
and His reward will be glorious. He will see the fruit of the
travail of His soul and it will be glorious and there will be
a multitude, a multitude beyond number. The Bible wants us to
see again and again that the victory of our Lord Jesus is
a sure certain victory, but also it's a magnificent victory. It's
a magnificent victory. All creation is going to stand
in wonder and awe when this rock, this stone of stumbling, This
great mighty God of ours is revealed in His glory and there with Him
will be the trophies of His grace displayed. Baal Haman speaks of this multitude. My beloved, says Isaiah 5 to
him, my beloved has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. It pictures Jerusalem, that great
city which typified the Jerusalem which is above. And it was a
city that was made to be desolate by the idolatry of people, but
it was a city that was in its time full of people. My beloved, has a vineyard in
a very fruitful hill. And here is one of the remarkable
things about the God, our great God of grace. He who is absolutely
sovereign and has all power, yet for His glory For His glory,
He has entrusted His vineyard unto keepers. He's given it into
the hands of people to guard. What an extraordinary thing that
God would give the likes of us the privilege of being those
who care for his vineyard, who delight in his vineyard, who
guard his vineyard, who watch over his vineyard. Any who have
ever been made to be keepers, will be made to be keepers, knowing
the depth of their frailty, and they'll know it again and again
and again, and they'll be made by God's grace to be people who
lean hard. The people who, like the Shulamite
here, can say, I am black, can be people who are continually
calling out to the Lord, these are Your sheep. This is Your vineyard. You see,
the people belong to God. God's people belong to Him. They
don't belong to other men. So He let out His vineyard. It's
His vineyard. He let it out unto keepers. They always, His keepers, will
always look upon the vineyard as His. They bear His name. The Shulamite is just the feminine
of Solomon. Christ our Righteousness is His
name. Christ our Righteousness is the
name of all those that are His. In His vineyard, His name, His
reputation matters most. His glory matters most. His purposes matter most. We have seen throughout time,
haven't we, that the Lord walks among the candlesticks and then
Throughout time He has, for His good purposes, snuffed out those
candlesticks. You think of where the Gospel
went with such power. All of Turkey, Galatia was in
Turkey, Greece. You think of where the Gospel
has gone in the power of God's Spirit and God has raised up
churches like we see in First Thessalonians and other places.
We see them growing up. We see them there standing strong. We see them there suffering the
most extraordinary persecution. And then we see them drifting
and fading and then ceasing to exist. Our land and all of Western
civilization is littered with empty churches, aren't they?
just littered with empty churches. Where we used to go on holidays
in Taree, right on the top of the hill, in the middle of town
next to the supermarket was a little old church building, and across
they'd repainted the roof, the high pitched roof, and across
they had the name Foster's. It was now a bottle shop. Why? Why? Ultimately God puts the responsibility
down to the keepers of the vineyard. And he has as his sovereign right
to raise up churches and he has as his sovereign right to close
them down. They are here for a time and
they are here for a set purpose. They are precious when they are
raised up by God. They will remain precious in
His sight until He has finished His work with them. What a remarkable
privilege we have, brothers and sisters, as we look around this
world and we see with clarity again and again the false Gospels
and we go to those people who preach those Gospels and we say,
this is what this book says about the Lord Jesus. This is who He
is. This is how He is described as
God and man. This is how He is described as
God who is a Saviour who really saves and really redeems and
really loves His people and keeps them and preserves them and protects
them. Will you please sit and read
this book with me? Can I talk to you about my Saviour? And you, as well as I, know the
response of these people. Their gospel doesn't give them
even the strength to sit and discuss the scriptures and be
challenged. How long, says Proverbs 22, chapter
2, verse 22, How long, you simple ones, will
you love simplicity, and scorners delight in their scornings, and
fools hate knowledge. Turn you at My reproof. Behold,
I will pour out My Spirit unto you, and make known My words
unto you. Because I have called, and you
refused, I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded. But you have set these false
teachers, You have set at naught all my counsel and would have
none of my reproof." Says some shocking things then,
our God, in perfect judgment. I will also laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when your fear comes. When your fear comes as desolation
and your destruction comes as a whirlwind, when distress and
anguish come upon you, then they shall call upon me. They will
call upon God. What does he say? You can read
it please in Proverbs 1 verse 28. They shall call upon me,
but I will not answer. They will seek me early, but
they shall not find me. For they that hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would have none
of my counsel to them, and they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat the
fruit of their own way and be filled with their own devices. He says, hearken to His voice. So the shepherds are doing what
Isaiah 57.2, we sang it earlier, didn't we? Our God reigns. We
tell people about a Saviour who really reigns. We call upon people
to look upon Him who has a vineyard, has a vineyard which is a fruitful
vineyard. We call upon people to look to
that Saviour bleeding upon that cross and we want to call upon
people to say He's a real Saviour who really saves His people. It is good news. It's not good
advice. Good news about a saviour whose
work is done and finished. The people, the real keepers,
unlike those ones we just read about, the real keepers look
to His name, look to His glory, look to His purpose, look to
His provision because they see nothing in themselves. They see
nothing in themselves. We are what we are by the grace
of God. We're not what we are by human
inventions and things. The other thing that these keepers,
the real keepers of the vineyards do is they ask those questions.
So the question that she asked, we have a little sister. What
shall we do? We have a little sister, what
shall we do for her? What shall we do for that sister? God's keepers. Trust the Gospel. God says it's the power of God
unto salvation. Our job is not to entertain.
Our job is not to tell people how wonderful they are. Our job
is not to tickle the flesh of people with all sorts of gimmicks
and things. Our job for our little sister
is to preach, is to preach the gospel. As I keep saying to you,
preaching the gospel is a church activity. It is my privilege
and duty and responsibility to preach often to you, and other
people here do it, but it's a church activity. It must be a church
activity. It cannot be done in isolation
from God's people. What should we do for our little
sister? We preach. What should we do for our little sister?
We pray for them. What should we do for our little
sister? We persuade them to submit to the Saviour. Look to the Lord
Jesus and trust Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus and
you will be saved. And the true keepers ask that
question And then they hear the triune God say, we'll build,
we will build, and we will enclose. And then those that are built
upon, those that are enclosed in His arms of love, in His sovereign
arms of providence and protection, they will say, I was in His eyes. as one that found favour. Can you say that, brothers and
sisters? Give Heaven no rest until you can say, I was in His
eyes, in His eyes. In my own eyes I see so little. In His eyes I was one that found
favour. I was one that found peace. and peace in who he is. I love that hymn. I'm hoping
one day I'll be singing it. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day, and there have I, though vile as
he, washed all my sins away. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I'll sing Thy power to save, When this poor, lisping, stammering
tongue Lies silent in the grave. Lord, I believe thou hast prepared,
unworthy thou I be, for me a blood-bought free reward, a golden harp for
me. There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's vein. Keepers, what a remarkable
thing, he's left into the hands of men like us,
and women like us, and children like us. What a great sovereign
God that is. He's done it, and there's everything
else He's done it for two purposes, hasn't He? For His glory. Such
is the confidence that he who has a vineyard and sits on a
throne in heaven, that he can entrust his glory in this world
into the hands of his church. This is the one place, if you
read Ephesians again and again it says, this is the one place
where God has promised to get glory for his Son. Isn't it remarkable? A bunch of believers like us,
is the place where God has ordained through the preaching of the
Gospel, the gathering of His people together. This fenced
in, hedged in vineyard of His planting should cause us to be humbled
to be thankful, to be expectant. This is the place where God will
bring that message of his Son in power to the hearts of people
and they will be saved because the Lord is here. What did Paul
say? I have planted and Apollos has
watered, but who gives the increase? God gives an increase. He puts his body together. He grafts us into a vine. And in this vine, in this planting,
in this vineyard, he has supplied absolutely everything that is
needed. He has gifted everyone, every
member of that body, he's gifted everyone with gifts that are
perfectly necessary and perfectly suited to the needs of everyone
else. What a shepherd. What a gardener. What a gardener we have. Isn't
it remarkable? Vines are weak things in themselves. It's wonderful that we're pictured,
aren't we? We're pictured in scriptures so often as being
sheep. pretty hopeless sorts of animals,
constantly in need of care, constantly in danger, always in need of
a shepherd. And then he pictures us so often
as being grafted into a vine. A vine, a branch of a vine has
no strength in itself, it has no ability to sustain itself,
it has not much use other than its fruitfulness. were all grafted
together, God's children are grafted into his body. Obviously
the vineyard is a reference to his church universal, but his
church universal is just made up of the church that is gathered
in his various places throughout the world. God gives the increase. He has some keepers who are specially
trained and specially equipped by him, I mean, to prune, and
some are specially equipped to support and uphold weak believers. The vine needs training. You
see the grape vines around here, they don't grow automatically
along those fences that they make for them. They go there
and they wind them around and they prune them and they support
them so that they're held up and they are more productive.
And some of his keepers are especially equipped to protect and defend,
to take with him the little foxes, the little foxes of false teaching,
of false doctrine and false practice, the little foxes that ruin his
vine, ruin the vines. But As we read in the next verse,
we see, as we always do in the scriptures, we see signs of God's
provision and we see remarkable pictures of grace. Everyone for
the fruit thereof was to bring in a thousand pieces. In Isaiah 7 it says, and it shall
come to pass in that day that every place where there were
a thousand vines there will be a thousand silverlings. Speaking of the fruitfulness
of Gospel ministry, He says in John 15, He says, I've ordained,
I've chosen you, I've ordained you that you should go forth
and bring, go and bring forth fruit. And here's a word of great
comfort to those who are in need of grace and great comfort to
people who stand behind these pulpits and lead God's people.
How much did they bring in? What did they all bring in? Every
one. For the fruit thereof was to
bring in a thousand pieces of silver. A thousand. whether you have the most enormous
ministry and it reaches in powerful ways all around this world. How many do you bring in? A thousand. If you are, as many of our brothers
and sisters are, little flocks, there is amongst the sovereign
grace churches in all of the United Kingdom, There is no congregation
which is as large as the one that I'm looking at here now.
Most of them are tiny, just a few souls. How many do they bring
in? How many are brought in? A thousand. Isn't it wonderful? The question
of course is not how many noses are sitting how many people are
sitting, how many noses are being counted. The question is, question
for the keepers and the promise of the vineyard keeper is that
fruitfulness is linked to faithfulness. Our job, brothers and sisters,
as a church here that declares the Lord Jesus in His glory is
just to be faithful. When people ask me what they
can pray for me, I just have one response and I've had it
for many years. I just want to be found faithful. I just want to be found faithful. I just want to tell the truth.
I want for you to read this book and to find that the Lord Jesus
who's captured my heart is the Lord Jesus you see described
here again and again and again. I want for you people, when you
come to meet him in salvation, that he's described here, as
he's described here, is how you have met him on that great day
of conversion. And I want, when you meet him
in judgment, to say, that's exactly how he was described. Found faithful
brothers and sisters. to be faithful. Faithful in little
things, faithful in big things, just to be faithful. We've been
spending some time looking at 1 Thessalonians and Paul looks
at these believers that he sees now standing firm in the faith. And he says, what is our joy,
our hope, our crown of rejoicing? Ah, not even you in the presence
of our Lord Jesus. Out is coming for you. are our
joy, our glory and our joy. He delights in what God is doing
in the hearts of His people. He delights to see that these
people are standing firm together. He delights to see that these
people have withstood the temptations to turn away from the truth of
the Gospel. and he rejoices. He rejoices
before God. Such is something of the nature
of the keeper. But our Lord Jesus goes on, He
says, My vineyard which is mine. This is one of the passages in
Song of Solomon which can be very difficult to say who is
doing the speaking here. And like so many of them, like
so much in poetry, it can be both. But let's look at it first
from the point of view of our Lord Jesus. My vineyard which
is mine. He says my vineyard, singular. His church, His body. And then
He says my vineyard, I own it, I bought it, I bought it with
my blood, I've planted it, I've protected it, I've caused it
to be fruitful. He says, my vineyard, which is
mine. In a sense he doubles the claim.
He's saying it twice, isn't he? And as we know in Hebrew, the
reason for saying something twice is it wants to be made emphatic.
He's putting exclamation marks under it or putting it in bold
and bigger type. My vineyard, which is mine. It's mine, he says. It means
that it's excluding all others. It's His by the gift of His Father. It is the purchase of His blood. This church which He has bought
with His own blood, it belongs to Him. He is, as we read in
Matthew 21, He is the rightful heir. This vineyard is His fenced,
separated from all others. It's His by election and choosing. It's His by a covenant that He
entered into with His Father. It's His by the conquest of His
people's hearts. He owns them. He's won their
hearts like He's won the Shulamites' heart. She again and again says,
I am my beloved's and his desire is toward me. She belongs to
him and she takes special notice of his particular love for her.
It's His because He finds great delight in it. She longs for
Him in this end of Song of Solomon, she longs for Him and she's finally
got Him in her arms as it were again and she's leaning on Him
and she wants to go and go and see the vineyards, go and see
the fruitfulness of His work. He's won their hearts. and he'll
never allow them to be lost. He holds them close to his heart
and he carries them. And his vineyard is before him,
always before him. It's always in His presence. He says, I, the Lord, I keep
it, I will water it at every moment, lest anyone hurt it.
I will keep it night and day. He's a great shepherd. He's a
great, great gardener. He keeps His church in His presence. He cares for it. without ever
taking his eyes off it. Not a moment of your life is
lived without him carefully watching and guarding you. And as a vineyard
is selected and fenced and planted and watered and it's pruned and
it's fertilized and it's harvested, he does it all for his delight. And the keepers It is so good
for the keepers to know that the vineyard is in His sight. As I speak to you here, He promises
to be here, and He is the one that is watching over His Word
and watching over His little ones." So Peter was taught a
great lesson, wasn't he, on that shore of Galilee. He looks around
and says, what about him? And the Lord says, don't you
worry about John. I can keep him alive for several
thousand years if I wish to. It's no problem for me. Nothing's
impossible. He says, you look to me. You
feed my sheep. Don't you worry about John. You
feed my sheep. You look as my servant upon me. I am watching over always. I am there to guard and protect. Our job, like Peter's, is to
fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus, that He might cause us to be
found faithful. But also it may well be that
this is the Shulamite speaking, this is the Church speaking. My vineyard which is mine is
before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand, and those who keep the fruit There are 200 things
that our Lord has entrusted His vineyard into the carer's, into
the keeper's hands, and they're all to bring that thousand pieces
of fruit, of silver. But the Shulamite at the beginning
of this song speaks in words which I'm sure resonate with
you who are the Lord's people. She acknowledges that she's black.
She acknowledges that she's comely in verse 5 of chapter 1 and then
she says, she was made the keeper of the vineyards. Her mother's
children were angry with her and then she says, but my own
vineyard I have not kept. But she gives us a great lesson
for someone who sees herself in that state. The Shulamite
is not passive in Song of Solomon. You think of her comings and
goings and interactions she has with the Lord. Immediately she
says, I haven't kept my own vineyard. Immediately she prays and says,
tell me, where do you feed your flock? Where do you feed? Where
do you feed? our Saviour, and where do you
make your flock to rest at noon?" And then she cries to him, don't
let me be one as those who have turned aside from the flocks
of your companions. Don't let me be one that's turned
aside. Keep me, preserve me, shepherd
me, graft me in and cause me to be fruitful. She is never
passive. She is sinful and openly so. But here it may be at the end
of Song of Solomon the Church is acknowledging her responsibility. We are not our own. Satan gave us that message in
the garden. You are a king. You sit on the
throne of your life and you rule it as you see fit. And if God
helps you to sit on your throne, then good on God. But you will
want to sit on your throne. Our Shulamite has been dethroned. We are not our own. We are not
our own. We have been bought with a price. The Lord says, my son, give me
your heart. He says in Proverbs 4.23, keep
thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues
of life. I was chatting yesterday to Simon
about Jude. Remarkable letter where Jude
sits down and he wants to talk about this common salvation.
He wants to talk about the wonderful things of the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus and he's led because of the false teaching and the false
shepherds in the church to write this short letter of warning
and he says in verse 20, he says, but you, beloved, building
up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep yourselves in the love of
God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus unto eternal life. Be built up by faith. He is trustworthy. He is worthy
of our trust. He is worthy of our love. Keep your life for Him. Where are our lives now? Our
lives are hidden with Christ in God. And when He is a lot,
when He returns, We will see that so clearly. May God help
us to see it early. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, and not on things of the earth, for you are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him
in glory. She knows what it is to be separated
from Him. She knows what it is now to have
Him in her presence. She calls on Him to set her as
a seal. She calls on Him to come and
let's walk together amongst these vineyards. She honours His work
and she delights in His presence. God has raised us up, brothers
and sisters in Christ, to bear His witness before this world,
to encourage our fellow believers, to remind each other again and
again of the Gospel, that salvation is in Him and salvation is complete
and salvation is finished and salvation is by grace and not
by works. Let a man so account of us, says
Paul, as of ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries
of God. Moreover it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful, faithfully looking to Him, faithfully
encouraging others to look to Him and to seek Him. Solomon
must have his thousand, and those that keep the fruit, two hundred. He will have his thousand. He
must have his thousand. Let him that glory, let him glory
in the Lord. Neither is he that planteth anything,
nor he that waters, but Christ gives the increase. God honours
those who honour Him. We're not talking about extra
jewels in crowns in heaven. We're talking about the fact
that faithfulness has its own reward. She delights in His presence. She delights in his word. She says at the beginning, she
says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy
love is better than wine. The savour of his good ointments,
the savour of his name is the ointment poured forth. She delights
in his presence. She's in anguish at his absence. Faithfulness has its own reward. She is now rewarded with him
in his presence. See our souls benefit. Our souls
benefit from faithfulness. You bear testimony, brothers
and sisters, to the times in your life when His Word has come
and it's spoken with power to your heart and it's as if the
ink is still damp on the page as He's written words which are
perfectly fitted to your circumstances, the situation around you, the
situation like she has so often, the situation of your heart.
What a precious, precious Word we have. There is sole reward. He rewards them that diligently
seek Him, says Hebrews 11.6. The rewards of His presence are
great. The delights of His Word believed
are light. Our darkness is lit up when we
think about Him and His promises. Our trials take on a whole new
meaning when we think of what He suffered on the cross. And
you think that He has in His sovereignty a perfect purpose
for the trials that He brings into our lives. I love what I
read somewhere of a woman some centuries ago. She said, when
I get to heaven, Jesus Christ will never hear the end of it.
When I get to heaven, Jesus Christ will never hear the end of it. He shouldn't be hearing the end
of it even here, brothers and sisters. What a fruitful vineyard
our Saviour has. Let's delight in His planting,
delight in His hedging, find peace and thankfulness in His
pruning. and find the fruit that He produces,
not just something that delights Him, but brings delight into
our lives as well. There is a crown of righteousness,
says Paul. A crown of righteousness, I love
what the story, what the next words are, it's actually laid
up in heaven. It's not a crown of righteousness
I have to earn. It's a crown of righteousness
laid up in heaven for all them Let the light roll in, that long
and love is appearing. Let's pray.