Where do you find the Lord Jesus
Christ? Where is He? The Shulamite in Song of Solomon
has been on an extraordinary journey, led away by a sin. I love that verse in that hymn
we have at the back of our books and it says prone to wander,
Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Is that your experience, brothers
and sisters? Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, seal it for thy courts above. The bride, the beloved bride,
had gone a-wandering, gone astray. She'd gone to a place of her
own comforts. And the Lord Jesus, that great
lover of the souls of His people, had gone to her, stirred in her
a desire to seek after Him. Him, personally. Him holding
her. Him being with her again. And
she goes on that journey that we've been looking at over these
several weeks and she's caused to say the most beautiful things
about Him. What a great lesson it is, isn't
it? In His absence, speak sweetly
of Him. Speak truthfully of Him. She
describes him, doesn't she? She describes his character,
the most beautiful, isn't he? Most excellent of characters,
none like him. She describes his work, effectual. She describes his love, great. And all in answer to that question,
what does he mean to you? And where do you find him? At
the end of it, the daughters of Jerusalem say, where is he
gone? Where is your beloved gone, O
thou fairest among women? Where is he turned aside to that
we may seek him with you? Where is he found? Where is he
found? Unless you find the Lord Jesus
Christ, by grace through faith, obviously you have to be found
by Him. You will meet Him one day. You'll either meet Him here in
grace and mercy and love and all of those blessings that we
read about in Psalm 103, or you'll meet Him as He really is in His
true character on His throne of judgment. To find Him is to
call out for Him. To find Him is the result of
longing to be with Him. Romans 10 is a seriously challenging
passage of scripture. Offensive to many, many people
in this world, isn't it? Not to God's children. It says
in Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. What a great promise. Martin
Luther said that there are four impossibilities. These next four
things are statements, aren't they? They're put as questions,
but really they're statements of fact. How then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent, as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of
them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things. Martin Luther said that there
are four things impossible. He says it's impossible for a
man to call on Christ unless he believes on Christ. It's impossible
for a man to believe on Christ unless he hears of Christ. Unless he hears of Christ Jesus
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus. It's impossible to hear of Christ
without a preacher. And it's impossible to preach
Christ, to preach Him truly in the power of the Holy Spirit,
unless that person is sent of God to do so. You see, you must hear. You must
hear to be saved. You must hear about the real
Lord Jesus. You must hear His gospel. A man must hear the gospel of
grace, the grace of God. The gospel answers that question. The gospel is not good advice,
it's good news. The gospel answers the question,
how can a God be just and justify the ungodly? How can God redeem? How can God, as we read in that
Psalm, how can He put away the sins of His people? How can He
deal with them who are but dust? How can He deal with them in
love and mercy? How can God be just? How can He be just to all of
His character and yet justify the ungodly? So the gospel in
the scriptures is the gospel which is a declaration of who
the Lord Jesus is and what he has achieved. We just read about
it in Psalm 103. It never says that he tried to
do something. The gospel is a declaration of
accomplished redemption in Christ. It's a declaration of effectual
atonement. It's a gospel that gives God
all of the glory. It's a gospel that puts his son
up on the throne that is rightfully his and puts man in his right
and proper place. A man must hear the gospel of
the grace of God. A man must believe. To believe,
he must be born again. He must have new life. Faith is the result of a regeneration,
a resurrection from the dead. It's the result of the creation
of a new life. It's a new heart. It's a new
nature that's put inside people. It's a heart revelation of the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus as he is revealed in the scriptures. That's what we are here for,
aren't we, brothers and sisters? Why go to all this trouble? Why
get up this morning and come here? Why prepare? Why prepare bulletins? Why prepare messages? Why all
of this? If it's not true, what we say
about him, it is all more than just a waste of time. It is the
most dangerous thing you can do. The most dangerous thing
in the world that you can do is be in church, in a place where
the Lord Jesus is not proclaimed and lifted up. not honoured for
what he's done. This is Australia's most famous
book on the Gospel, taught in the Bible colleges that I went
to in this land. You can search that book. We
were challenged about it last year, Simon and I, about why
we didn't think this was right. You can search that book from
one end to the other. I promise you, you can have it
after the service. Go home and search that book
and try and find in that book one simple, single statement
about what happened on the cross. Just one, in all of that book. Not once, not once. You see, she finds her beloved
and he's gone to the place where she had last seen him. It's the
description of his church. She's gone down, my beloved has
gone into his garden. to the beds of spices, to feed
in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved's and
my beloved is mine. He feeds among the lilies. We've just got a few simple things
to look at in these verses this morning, haven't we? One is that
she finds him where she knows him to be. And when she finds him, she finds
him doing the things that he's always doing and the very things
that he's doing now. And remarkably, brothers and
sisters, when he gathers his people together in his garden
to the beds of spices, what does he do according to Verse two
and verse three. He feeds. He feeds. He feeds among the lilies. He
feeds in the garden. I wanted to put it to you as
a serious proposition for the sake of your souls. The Lord
Jesus is where He has planted His garden, and remarkably, in
that place of His planting, He is not only there caring for
His garden, but He is there feeding Himself. This is a planting of the Lord. What a remarkable thing, brothers
and sisters, these verses, and they are replicated throughout
scriptures. The Lord Jesus has promised to
be here. His angels are here. He's promised to be here and
He's promised in the preaching of the gospel, in the declaration
of who He is, that He will come and whatever your needs are,
needs that I'm not aware of, pains that you are bearing, which
sometimes are too hard to even explain to people. And the Lord
God, The Lord God, who rules this universe and makes the sun
shine, has promised to be in a place like this. And not only is He here, what
do we have food for? We have food for enjoyment, and
we have food for nourishment, and we have food for life. And in His true Church, He feeds. He finds nourishment, He finds
delight. May God preserve us and protect
us and make this a place and preserve this as a place as I
know He does. A place where His Son is honoured
and lifted up. A place where God Himself God
Himself can find nourishment, can find satisfaction, can find
delight. As we read in Psalm 103, all
flesh is grass. It's gotta be His doing. Thank
God it's His doing. We must find Him. We must find
Him. We must meet with Him. Those
who truly seek Him will find Him. She sought for Him because
she'd known Him and she'd experienced His love and His care for her. And it was she who wandered,
and it was He who in great love and grace and mercy caused her
to hunger and thirst even more. I'll read you those verses. out
of Matthew 7. Ask and it shall be given to
you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened
to you. For everyone that asks receives,
and he that seeks finds. And to him that knocks it shall
be opened. The Lord is good to them that
wait for him to the soul that seeks Him. Brothers and sisters,
be assured of one thing, or two things. One is that God will
cause His people to seek after Him, and these promises will
be true. For those who don't find Him,
they never do seek Him. They never do really seek Him. They've wandered and they feel
no need. See, to seek Him is to feel a
need, isn't it? It's a heart need. It's a great
need. The Lord Jesus talks about it
in the Sermon on the Mouth as a hunger and a thirst and a mourning
which will be satisfied. It's a need because of a revelation. A reality has been seen and felt,
who we are and who He is. As Isaiah 51 says, hearken to
me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord. And then
he says, look, look unto the rock from whence you were hewn
and to the hole of the pit where you were digged. Remember what
you are in your flesh. Remember what you are. Look where
you've come from. Those who truly seek Him are
promised by God to find Him. And you shall find me. You shall
seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your
heart. Those who seek Him And those
who find him, like the Shulamite and the daughters of Jerusalem,
they'll find him in the place where he is to be found. These daughters of Jerusalem
had witnessed two things from her, hadn't they? They'd witnessed
that she was the fairest among women. They'd witnessed her beauty
despite all of her difficulties. But then they'd witnessed something
else. They'd witnessed her faithful testimony about him. That beautiful 10,000 description
of who he is. Remarkable descriptions of his
person, his character. The beauties of who he is. The chief among 10,000 all together
lovely and all of those beautiful things in between. And she spoke
of him and she couldn't see him. She spoke of him even though
she felt his absence from her, and she spoke beautifully of
him. What medicine it is to our hearts, brothers and sisters,
to talk sweet things about him, just to outline the truth of
him, even in times of darkness, even in times of despairing. despairing after our state, it's
a good thing to practice. Say sweet things and think sweet
thoughts about the Lord Jesus. We're looking at Malachi on Thursday
nights and it's fascinating isn't it, all the prophets, all the
prophets of God spoke in times of terrible spiritual decline. They all spoke in times of shocking
apostasy. And that carried through right
until the very end, isn't it? There was that beautiful time
of sunshine on the day of Pentecost. Beautiful time. Thousands were
gathered and thousands more were gathered to then. But in no time
at all the persecution started. And in no time at all the persecution
had started from within the churches. Malachi lived in a day just like
us. Religion everywhere. Religion
that had evidence of the blessings of God. Religion in Malachi, if you read, you
will find that they had their religious services, they brought
their tithes and they brought their sacrifices and they went
to the temple of God. And yet their hearts were far
from Him. And if you look at God's accusations,
He asks them questions and He tells them what their thinking
is in response to their question. He exposes the hearts of these
people. But every single last little bit of their apostasy
relates to the very things in the worship at the temple which
picture the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. It is remarkable,
isn't it? that the attack upon the church,
the attack upon the character of the Lord Jesus always goes
to that. It is the very heart of biblical
Christianity, isn't it? It's the very heart of God's
revelation of Himself. It's the very place where God
is revealed in all of His character in the most beautiful way. No
wonder Satan finds it offensive. Where was the place where Satan
was crushed? Having spoiled principalities
and power, he made a show of them openly triumphing. His triumph over Satan is at
the cross. Now under the cross is the one
place where apostasy begins. It's like a liarship, isn't it?
his friend, the enemy of God, into the temple of God. He had
to clean out the storehouses, the very places where they stored
the things that pictured the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
Those sweet offerings to God, those sweet smelling savours,
that bread, the wine, all those emblems. Eliash had cleaned out
those chambers and in he brought Tobiah. an open enemy of God. That's why, brothers and sisters,
we will be called upon to stand. We will be called upon to make
a stand for the glory of God at that particular point over
and over again. It's just one simple question
you have to ask these people. What happened on the cross? Who
died and what was achieved? This man, famous in Australia,
cannot say in that book, after 50 years of evangelism and teaching
people in the Bible College of Australia, he cannot tell you
what happened. He cannot tell you in plain,
simple words what happened. Shulamite speaks in glorious
terms of her Saviour, even in His absence. Let us speak glorious things
of our Saviour, no matter what it costs. Let us love people
enough to talk to them about the one thing that matters, about
the Lord Jesus and Him crucified. My daughter Jennifer is looking
for a church to go to in Sydney and she's looking around and
she rings me and tells me of ones and I was showing Simon
and Jen yesterday on the website of one that she looked at. And
you just look and say, what happened on the cross? What does this
evangelical church in Sydney say about the Lord Jesus on the
cross? All I can say is that he dealt
with the consequences of human sin. What does that actually mean? What does it mean for people
in hell? What does it mean for people in heaven? What does it
mean for people on this earth right now? It's just a rubbery
bit of plasticine, isn't it? You can sort of mould it to the
shape that you like. and fit your box. You see, she speaks such sweet
words about her Saviour. She says, My Beloved, My Beloved,
I'm not going to have those things said about my beloved and treat
them as if they mean nothing. I'm not going to have my beloved
portrayed before this world, God help me, as someone who tries
and fails. My beloved, she says, my beloved. Where do you find him? My beloved,
he's gone down into His garden." It's a great description, isn't
it, of the Lord Jesus. He who is glorious, He who is
God, He who is God reigned over all, donned that body that the
Father had prepared for Him, and He came down. But He came
down into His garden. The book of God begins in a garden,
in a sense. It has a beginning before the
beginning, but in terms of history, it begins in a garden and it
finishes beautifully in another garden. And he came down into this world,
but he came down for a purpose. He says, I came down, he says,
he's gone into his garden. She now sees clearly where He
is, and where He is is where He was before her period of decline. Any time we're not in the presence
of the Lord, feeding upon Him His promises, His power, His
achievements, what a lesson. She speaks delightfully of Him,
but then she'll find Him. Then she finds Him in His garden. What a great description of Him
with His people. Him in that special place. See, the garden, just like your
gardens at home, is a special area. It's a planted area. In
a sense, it's a sanctuary. It's a separated area. You young
Dunbars can take those special plants out of your garden and
take them down and put them in the bush. And what would happen
to them? Would they survive down in the
bush, Stan? Would your tomatoes and things
survive down in the bush? Those delicate things are planted
in a special place. It's a special area. It's an
ordered area. It's a maintained area. It's
ploughed. It's fertilised. It's sown. It's weeded. It's pruned. It's harvested. And without the
care of the gardener, it goes back to its natural habitat. The garden, of course, is his
church. The church of the Lord Jesus,
the church universal, is the whole garden of the Lord, as
Isaiah 61 describes the Lord's people. In that great continuation
of the proclamation when the Lord Jesus came and his first
sermon, in Nazareth. You can read about it in Luke
4. He says these words out of Isaiah 61, The spirit of the
Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach
good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. I don't have time to go
into it now, but the remarkable thing is, who were the people
who were captives? in that audience. What were they
captive of? What were they imprisoned to?
They were religious. Religious people need to be set
free. They need to be released from
the prison that binds them. To proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord and the vengeance of our God. To comfort all that
mourn. to appoint unto them that morning's
eye on, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
morning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness. The planting
of the Lord. See, a garden is planned, a garden
is separated, a garden is planted. But this gardener gardens effectively
and gardens purposefully. And it says at the end of verse
3 that he might be glorified. That's why he does his gardening.
That's where he does his gardening. Verse 21 of the previous chapter
says, Thy people shall all be righteous. What a great description
of God's children. All righteous. Perfectly righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. You see, his garden is his church. He plants it. His church is the
gift of his Father. The church is those for whom
he was betrothed in eternity. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. they are betrothed, they are
His by gift, they are His by creation, they are the purchase
of His blood. Acts 20 verse 28, Paul has his
last meeting with those Ephesian elders and they are weeping as
he tells them that he will not see them again in this world. And then he tells them to watch
over. to watch over. Take heed unto
yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has
made you overseas. Feed the church of God which
He has purchased with His own blood." Why couldn't that man
say that? Why couldn't he just say a simple
thing like that? That God, our Saviour, redeemed
His people. He loved them in eternity. He
redeemed them. They were His on the cross. Their
sins were put on Him. Not just the consequences of
all human sin, the sins of a particular people purchased by His blood. He orders all things in providence
for their good, even the wanderings of His people. They are the planting
of His grace and they are the protection by His power. He's the one that sets up the
walls and the bulwarks. The church is the place of His
presence. The garden is the place where
He is, isn't it? Where two or three are gathered
in my name. To be gathered in his name is
to be gathered according to the character of him as is revealed
in this book. He says, Lo, I am with you always
until the end of the age. He's promised to be with us,
brothers and sisters. He's here. He's promised. It's remarkable, isn't it? Promised
to be with his people. And what's he doing? He's going
down into his garden to the bed of spices to gather the lilies. The Beds of Spices, as we saw
earlier in Chapter 5 and in Chapter 4, are the congregations of the
Lord's people. And he talks about gardens. He
has his gardens all over the world. And he's gathering his
lilies. He's gathering his individual
believers. What a beautiful description
of his people, lilies. It's interesting, isn't it? When
he likens us to animals, we're not lions. We're sheep. Hopeless. Pretty pathetic. Desperately in need of a shepherd.
Lost or sick outside of a flock. When he likens us to plants,
he doesn't liken us to the great forest. We are the vine. He's the branches. Wherever he
talks, he talks about us as people in need. But also lilies are
beautiful, aren't they? They are delicate. Chapter 2,
he talks about the lily being a lily among the thorns, and
a lily is a delicate flower, and the thorns damage it without
any effort whatsoever. He gathers his lilies, and then
remarkably, as I said earlier, He is feeding. He says He feeds. He finds nourishment. He feeds
in the garden, the garden which is a planting of His grace, the
result of His labours, the reward of His suffering. You see, He says in Isaiah 53
that He will be satisfied. Hebrews says in chapter
12, for the joy set before him. There are two characteristics
of our Lord God that we need to bear in mind. He sits now as someone who has
seen the travail of his soul and he is satisfied. He's seen
that work finished, accomplished, and he's satisfied. And now he
has joy. Gardeners feed in a sense in
two ways, don't they? They delight in seeing the garden,
which is ordered and productive. They love seeing it free of weeds. The way vegetables grow is exciting
for vegetable gardeners. It is just exciting to see how
quickly they grow. So they delight. He delights
in the productivity, delights in the growth, but also they
then delight in the fruits that come from it. the fruits of his
planting. As we read earlier in Isaiah,
it's the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified. The work of his hands. He feeds
among the lilies. And he says in chapter five,
he says, I've gathered my myrrh, I've eaten my honeycomb, I've
drunk my wine with my milk. He's come to his garden and he
has feasted. And then he calls upon the bride
to enter in to that feasting with him. Eat, he says. Eat, drink. Drink abundantly,
my beloved, he says to her. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
As I said earlier, where the Lord God has gathered his people,
where the Lord Jesus is, by the graces that God has brought into
the lives of his people, by his appointment, by his time, he
gathers his people together, he gathers his people together
in church, and he is fed. It is remarkable, isn't it? He
calls it a glorious church in Ephesians 5, not having spot
or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and
without blemish. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
2, just for a minute. There's a remarkable verse. Sometimes
you wish the Holy Spirit had led the Apostle Paul to elaborate
on things sometimes. And he does. We just have to
keep reading on. It's all through the scriptures. He again, as he does throughout
his letters, he's asking his people to stand firm and to wait. And the Lord will fulfill the
things he's promised. In verse 10 he says, when he
shall come to be glorified in his saints, glorified in His
saints, and to be admired in all them that believe. And why is that, verse 10? Because
our testimony among you was believed. So he's glorified, sorry, 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1, verse 10. I'm so sorry if I've got that
wrong. Let me read it again. He shall
come. He's talking about the everlasting
punishment and removal from the presence of the Lord and the
glory of His power. When He shall come to be glorified
in His saints and to be admired among them that believe, And then he highlights it, doesn't
he? Because our testimony among you was believed. There is only one place where
God is glorified, where the Lord Jesus feeds, and that is the
place where the apostolic testimony about the Lord Jesus is just
held up and presented plainly to these people. You can read
the list of the things in 1 Thessalonians 1. But he says, Name, beloved
brethren, your election of God. They preached God's election. They preached God's sovereignty.
They preached a perfect, finished redemption. They preached a Lord
Jesus who is God. They preached a Lord Jesus who
is God in human flesh, who has dealt with the sins of his people.
That's how He is going to come to be glorified in His saints
and to be admired among all then that believe because our testimony
among you was believed in that day. Wherefore also we pray always
to you that our God would count you worthy of His calling and
fulfil the good pleasure of His goodness and the work of faith
with power. Verse 13 is remarkable, isn't
it? That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you. I can understand that bit of
the sentence. It's a remarkable statement and
a beautiful promise from God. And you in Him, according to
the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, brothers
and sisters, He feeds among the lilies. He feeds in His garden.
The glory that God's people have and the glory of the Lord Jesus
are as one. We are loved by God the Father
just as He loves His Son. He sees us as married. We are
bone of His bones, flesh of His flesh. No wonder He delights. No wonder He feeds. No wonder he comes to his garden. It's the place that he's planting.
It's the place where his work has been done. It's the place
on this earth, isn't it extraordinary? In all of this earth, the one
place that God the Father has promised to get glory for God
the Son is in the church. In the church. and the only church
where he can come and find it his garden and he can feed, he
can be nourished in a sense and he can be delighted, is a place
where he is held up and the testimony of his apostles, the testimony
of his prophets is upheld. A glorious church. He says in
Revelation 3.20, He comes and He eats with them and they with
Him. What beautiful pictures after
His resurrection that He came and He had meals with them. When
they're out there fishing and they see Him on the shore. And
what's He got for them? Breakfast is ready. He lays out a feast. So your garden is his church. It's the place where she knows
he is. It's the place where he meets
with her. He meets with sinners in saving
mercy in his church. It's a place where a family,
a family, a new family, a new created family gathers. It's the place where the Lord
Jesus meets with His people. It's the place where God deals
with men. He reveals His glory. He gives
out His law. He makes known His will. He disposes
His blessings. He instructs His people. He causes
His people to see His dear and precious Son. And like a garden,
To be in the garden is to be in a place of nourishment, a
place of security. To be outside of the garden is
to be in a wilderness. That's why church is the most
serious activity in all of your life. There is nothing more serious. There is nothing more serious. and our serious warnings. in
Scripture, isn't it? It's just extraordinary when
you think of the opposition that the Apostles have. And I often
speak of John, they call him the Apostle of Love. And there
he is, he's an old, old man. Maybe in his 80s or 90s. They say that they used to carry
him in towards the end of his life into the church in Ephesus. They'd carry him in, he was unable
to walk and he was unable to speak much at all. and they just
asked for a word from him and he'd say, brothers and sisters
love one another. That was his message for them
again and again. And it's extraordinary, isn't
it? After all that life, a life lived with the Lord Jesus, a
life bearing witness to the Lord Jesus for 60 or 70 years, the
people would stand in his face and oppose what he said about
the Lord Jesus and him crucified. Talk about total depravity of
man. Just from a human point of view,
it's ingratitude. These people came into his churches. he would send his ambassadors
to the churches and the people in the churches, the pastors
in some of the churches, would hunt them away and not welcome
them. You can read about it in his
other two letters. And people went out from his
church. They went out from that garden, that garden of God's
planting. In verse 19 of 1 John 2, they
went out from us. They went out from us. It is
the last time. It's the last days. The last
tick of the clock is happening. As you have heard that Antichrist
shall come even now there are many Antichrists whereby we know
it's the last time. They went out from us. But they
were not of us. For if they had been of us they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out that
it might be made manifest that they were not all of us. The garden is a precious place. The garden is a sanctuary. The
world outside of the garden is a wilderness. It's a wilderness. And he's come to finish off.
He's come to gather his lilies. the flowers of His grace, the
flowers of His love, flowers that are beautiful, flowers that
are delicate, flowers that delight our lives, the flowers that indicate
there's new life, there is new life. You know, the seeds are
a hidden thing, but there they are. That's the reason for the
flowers. He has a beautiful description
of the bride in Psalm 4511. She's all glorious within. To the world she looks like nothing,
but she's all glorious within. Gathered, that lilies were gathered
as one with him upon the cross. They are gathered as the Holy
Spirit sends out the gospel and we hear about a message, the
only message of the only one that can satisfy our souls. He
gathers His people, He gathers His lilies when they go up to
glory and He gathers them and He will gather them all when
He returns. And then she says, I am my beloved
and my beloved is mine. And it's interesting that when
she'd spoken earlier, she had reversed the order of things.
She'd said in those earlier chapters, maybe indicating a sense of pride
and self-worth. She said, my beloved is mine. Now she says, I am my beloved's. I belong to him. He's come and
he's gathered me together with him. He's the gatherer. He's the gardener. She puts his
love for her as first. You see, we love him because
he first loved us. His love, his call, his ownership. If she's ever going to call him
hers, he must, first of all, make her his. Make her his eternally,
unchangeably and delightfully. And He feeds among the lilies. We are reminded again that He
feeds. He feeds delightfully. He feeds
delightfully on those who are His jewels, for those who are
the delight of His heart. In that day, it shall be said
to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thy hands
be slack. The Lord God is in the midst
of thee, is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over you with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over you. over thee
with singing, and he will gather. I will gather them that are sorrowful
for the solemn assembly. He will gather them. He will
be the great gatherer. His renown, his name, his fame
goes forth among the heathen for thy beauty for by beauty,
for it was perfect through my comeliness, my beauty, which
I had put upon you, says the Lord God, exceedingly beautiful
by His grace, by His work alone. Let's pray.