I please God to bless our souls
this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of the Ecclesiastes and chapter 11 and we'll read verses
7 and 8. Ecclesiastes chapter 11 and reading
verses 7 and 8. Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for
the eyes to behold the sun. But if a man live many years
and rejoice in them all, yet let him remember the days of
darkness, for they shall be many, all that cometh is vanity. we should be thankful that God
in his wonderful mercy and providence ordains that Solomon, that most
wise man, was equipped to investigate everything in this world to see
whether he could find any happiness. And as he commenced this book,
It's called Ecclesiastes, or the preacher. He tells us, Vanity
of vanities saith the preacher, all is vanity, and what profit
hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? He directs us, doesn't he, directly
to our natural life. recognising that how our life
is just really one of vanity. And we might think, well, what
is vanity? Well, vanity really can be considered
as emptiness, or just something transitory, something just fading
and passing away, something which is unsatisfactory. It's not satisfactory. And that really is what our Natural
life is Consisting of its vanity and yet how slow we are to learn
such a great and important truth how we easily and continually
Just seek after the things of time the things which perish
the things which vanish away the things that we all try to
leave when we come to our day of death. We should not be able
to take anything with us out of this life. We came in naked
and we should go out as such. And what an important consideration
it is then that we give due diligence to these things. Well, we should
be thankful tonight that King Solomon was able to look all
around and as we read these 12 chapters in this little book.
I remember years ago Frank Gosling saying the young people should
read Ecclesiastes, read it carefully, read it prayerfully, and read
it often. And it is good for us to read
this account to remind us that here was a man who had everything
that he could want, all riches to purchase everything that he
wanted, And he could go wherever he wanted to. And his conclusion
was, all is vanity. Now he only came to that conclusion
because of the goodness of God to him, in revealing to him the
great need of God's salvation. And indeed, to enjoy the light
of the gospel and not to be left in a state of darkness. Because
the words we have before us this evening alludes to darkness,
and that can be taken really in two ways. First of all, in
our natural life, and then that state of eternal darkness. How often we fail to think of
eternity in hell. Often we think of eternity in
heaven. But I believe we should consider
what it's like to be in hell. And from the word of God we know
that that is a place of darkness. Outer darkness, pitch darkness. And you know Jesus speaks to
us about that when he was on the earth and in Matthew's gospel
he tells us in several occasions, but just perhaps naming a couple
of them, he tells us And I say unto you, this is in chapter
8 verse 11, I say unto you that many shall come from the east
and west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in
the kingdom of heaven, but the children of the kingdom shall
be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And of course, he was speaking
here to the Jewish people who were of the kingdom, but they
had rebelled against the great truths of God. And so people
have today, not always outwardly, but you see in their hearts.
We've said really before God, we will not have this man to
reign over us. We're going to please ourselves.
We're going to do our own will. And yet here is this great warning
that we have to be cast out into outer darkness. Not just, we
might think, immediate darkness, but outer darkness. And what
is there? Weeping and gnashing of teeth. No happiness there, is there?
No happiness at all. A solemn state it is to be found
in that situation. Then also, in the same Gospel,
in chapter 25, and that's the chapter which you may remember
has the parable of the ten virgins. About halfway through we come
down to this statement where the Lord is speaking about the
person that had the talents. And the Lord gave people talents
which they were to use and not to bury in the ground, but they
were to be used. And that one who was unprofitable,
the Lord speaks about him. And he tells us this, for unto
everyone that hath shall be given. And he shall have abundance,
but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which
he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable
servant into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth." Again a very, very solemn statement, isn't it? And
that is to such a person who is unprofitable. We need, don't
we, to carefully look into our hearts and lives to see whether
we are unprofitable servants, whether we've been given a talent
and we just buried it in the earth. We just buried it. We left it there. We're not doing
anything with it. See, the Lord gives us talents
to trade with and to work with. We have different talents and
different abilities and different quantities. But even if we are
just, as we might say, a one talent person, If God's given
us just one talent, we're not to bury it in the ground, we're
to use it for God's honour and for God's glory. So there's a
statement in Matthew, and then perhaps just lastly referring
to that little book of Jude which comes before Revelation, and
it's a book which perhaps is not read very often, but it is
an important little book and we read two verses in this book
which speak of similar situations. And first of all, we perhaps
will read verse 5 first. I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the
people out of the hand of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
believed not. And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment
of the great day. It's a very solemn statement. In verse 13, or perhaps we'll
read it verse 11 first. Woe unto them, for they have
gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error
of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Corrie.
These are spots in your feasts of charity. When they feast with
you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without
water, carried about are winds, trees whose fruit withereth,
without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves
of the sea, foaming out of their own shame, wandering stars, to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. Well, we have these words of
warning to us. We should not forget that which
is a lot of those who are cast out, who are cast into hell,
The terribleness of it, we so often fail to remember, fail
to realize, fail to understand the terrible, terrible situation
which is found with the lost. And let us not forget, it is,
as the Word of God tells us, forever, forever, forever. No escape. no salvation in hell,
no looking to the Lord, but, my friends, it's outer darkness.
Well, I believe here Solomon alludes very clearly to this
when he says, let him remember. We should remember the truth
of God's Word. We should not pass over it, but
may it be before our eyes as something which continues to
concern us with regard to our eternal state. The last thing
that you and I want is to come down to the gates of death and
to find that we do not have a God-given religion. We've been fooling
ourselves. We've been walking in a false
light. Indeed, the Word of God has a
statement which tells us, sparks of our own kindling. That means
we've produced our own light. You and I need the light of God
to shine into our souls, so that we have the unmistakable evidence
that it is the work of God and it's not our own kindling, it's
that which God has done. Our own kindling will go out,
just like those five foolish virgins. They all thought they
were all right, didn't they? Yes, they looked to be the same.
No doubt they all dressed similarly. They all perhaps spoke similarly.
And yet there was that great lack. They didn't have oil in
their lamps. What does that mean? They didn't
have the grace of God in their souls. They didn't have the knowledge
of salvation. And therefore when the bridegroom
came, at the time when they least expected it, at midnight, that
cry came, and it was, behold, the bridegroom cometh. They rose
up. Their lamps had gone out. They
had a false profession. It was just of the flesh. There
was no reality in it. And when they went to buy, those
who were wise went in, and the door was shut. The door was shut. A very, very solemn consideration,
isn't it? And how needful it is, therefore,
for us today to have the evidence that we're not just abiding in
darkness, that we're not fooling ourselves and thinking we have
a religion, when in fact we don't. when in fact we have just an
outward profession without any possession of the grace of God. Well, we should be grateful to
God that we have the Word of God to speak to us so clearly
about these things, that our hearts and our minds may be directed
to the blessings which are to be found in that knowledge of
Christ, and to realise there is then that peace that peace
which passes all understanding, that comfort to our souls from
the evidence that we are born again of the Spirit of God. Well,
Solomon here really comes and he draws this natural analogy
between light and darkness and he gives us a very clear analogy
when he says, the light is sweet and pleasant thing it is for
the eyes to behold the sun. Well, I'm sure we all understand
that, don't we? And I'm sure we all know how
pleasant it is to behold the sun. It's lovely to get up, isn't
it, in the morning and see the sun shining beautifully from
a blue sky. And it's a wonderful sight, isn't
it? And surely it's an encouraging
thing. And it is, as the word tells
us here, a pleasant thing, for it is for the eyes to behold
the sun. Well, we can rejoice in that,
can't we? We can be thankful for it. But there is, of course,
a tremendous analogy here, because as there is that sweetness and
that pleasant thing for the eyes to behold the sun, and the contrary
position, of course, is the terrible situation of darkness and, of
course, also outer darkness, But there is the spiritual analogy. And what a blessing it is for
you and me if we know the wonderful favour, as Malachi speaks of,
and it's this, the sun of righteousness arising with healing in his wings. Now all of us, we need to be
healed. We need to be healed of that
terrible illness, that terrible malady, of sin. We need to have
our sin removed. And how is it to be removed?
It can only be removed by the Lord himself. Now, is a view
of that sweet and pleasant to our spiritual eyes? It's important that we're able
to answer such a question. do we view the Son of Righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as He shines, shines from on high,
with the glory from on high, into our heart. And what does
that shining do? It reveals Christ. It reveals
Himself. It's not darkness. He is light. He is continual light. Well,
do we know something of that? The Son of Righteousness arising
with healing in His wings? That we are healed from our sin? We are delivered from our sin?
We are freed from that sin? Well, it speaks, doesn't it?
This Son, this great and glorious Son, and of course the Son of
Righteousness is exceedingly bright and exceedingly beautiful.
and exceedingly pleasant, and think of it this way. You see
the sun shining, how beautiful and pleasant it is. But my friends,
when the sun of righteousness shines into our heart, how much
more blessed and wonderful and pleasant is that. And the reason
it is, is purely this, that that brings with it eternal blessings. The sun will one day perish. We have no need for it. But the sun of righteousness
will be shining in glory. And his people on this earth
partake and understand and have a little sense of that shining
into their hearts. And they can thank God for the
great blessing of the Son of Righteousness and the healing
which it brings. The healing from sin. Sin is
vanquished and it's vanquished because The Blessed Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ, amazing truth. He takes to himself all
our sins, our vile sins, our evil sins, sins against light
and knowledge, desperate sins, lustful sins, terrible to think
of. The Lord Jesus, he takes them
to himself. They are imputed, they are placed
upon him. Just ponder that. Isn't that
an amazing truth? Isn't that a wonderful fact for
the Church of God? Isn't that attractive to us today,
to think that this great blessed Saviour Almighty God Himself
gloriously condescends to take our sins upon Himself. And what is there then that's
a wonderful exchange? A wonderful exchange, a completely
undeserved exchange. And it's an exchange which you
and I can't possibly realise why it should ever be. In exchange
for our sins, He gives us His righteousness. Now, isn't that
a tremendous truth and a wonderful consideration? Does that Son
of Righteousness then, the Lord Jesus Christ, does He not shine
into our hearts? Isn't it wonderful? Sure it's
pleasant for us to think and to meditate upon such a great
truth. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to give his people his righteousness, to cover their
nakedness, to deliver them from the wrath to come, to take away
all their sins. The expression here is, truly
the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold
the sun. Does this not apply in a much
greater measure to our spiritual life? Well, it does. But may we seek to have the evidence
of it in our hearts. And it really comes down to this.
It comes down to bowing down and worshipping the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to have the evidence that He is to us more precious
far than earth and all its comforts are. So the question is, what
thinking of Christ? Well, is He, or perhaps coming
down a little bit, do we pray that he might be indeed more
precious far than earth and all its comforts are? Do we have
a spiritual longing after closeness and nearness to the Lord Jesus
Christ, so that we may be able to give a good description of
what Christ means to us? You know, Solomon also, he wrote
the Song of Solomon, didn't he? And in that Song of Solomon,
there is that wonderful account of the Bride of Christ. The Bride
of Christ and all his people are his bride. And we have these
examples given to us in the Word of God to warn us and to encourage
us and to direct us to be careful in the path that we take, but
also to have the evidence that is set before us in the Word
of God, that we may seek after, that in measure we may also be
blessed with this true, gracious, blessed understanding. You see, we cannot demand the
blessing. We cannot give God a timetable
for the blessing. The Lord is sovereign in these
things and the Lord deals with his people in love to their souls
in accordance with his timetable and you and I can be sure that
that timetable is a good and a right timetable. But we have
the example of this bride that she slept She slept, and it's
easy to become sleepy in the things of God. Again, we read
of a description, really, and it's described like this, lukewarm. Neither hot nor cold, in the
letter to the churches. Lukewarm, the Laodicean spirit.
We need to be delivered from it, and seek to be delivered
from it, and to pray to be delivered from it. And so we have this
position here, I sleep and my heart waketh. And we're told
it is the voice of my Beloved. Who is her Beloved? The Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you and I know the voice of
our Beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it a voice that we love to
hear? Perhaps we might describe it as reading the Word of God
and the Lord speaking to our hearts as we read of the Saviour. It is the Saviour speaking to
us through his Word. And do we rejoice in it? Or do
we put the Word of God to one side? It's really like this,
a sleepy condition. And when the Lord then comes
and, as it were, knocks, well, we're not there. We're not reading
the Word of God. We're occupied in some other way. And this person,
this bride, we're told, the question was to her, 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. And how does she respond? not in a lively way, not in a
healthy way. She says, I've put off my coat,
how shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall
I defile them? She was unwilling to get up. Maybe in our lives, we may be
unwilling to hear the voice of our beloved. We may find the
Word of God is not as attractive as it should be. And perhaps
not in a way like this, putting off our coat or having our feet
washed and we therefore can't get up. We might be occupied
in other things. And we're doing those things
and therefore we're not prepared to hear God's voice. And then we find that the Lord
tells us, my beloved put his hand by the side of the door
And my bowels were moved for him. Yes, we may then come and
we may hear the word of God speaking to us. But you see, the problem
was that she now, as it were, had been passed by. Because when she rose up to open
to her beloved, and her hands dropped with myrrh and her fingers
with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock, she
opened to her beloved, but her beloved had withdrawn himself
and was gone. Gone. Yes, we should be aware
and should be very concerned that we are always alert to hear
and to read about our Saviour. And then when she wanted to find
the Lord, she could not find Him. She could not find Him. She turned her back upon the
Lord. Sometimes we can do just that.
We can turn our back upon the Lord. And then you see when we
want the Lord to appear, we find He's not there. We then look
for him. We can't find him. Well, we have the description
of what occurred. And what occurred was, the watchmen
who are, of course, the preachers, they went about the city and
they found her, and they smote her, and they wounded her, and
the keepers of the walls took away her veil from her. And she
then asked the Church of God The daughters of Jerusalem, if
ye find my beloved, that ye tell me that I am sick of love. Here then was the bride, the
child of God, seeking for the Lord's return. And the question
then was put to her. And it's a good question. And
if a question is put to you and me today, I wonder how we would
answer it. The question was this. What is
thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among
women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou
dost so charge us? She desired the sun of righteousness
to shine into her heart. She desired that once more she
might know the pleasant effect of it But she's been asked, well,
what does it mean to you? What does Christ mean to you?
And I ask this question today, what does Christ mean to you
and what does he mean to me? It's so important, isn't it,
that we have right views of Christ. Well, she is able to describe
what the Saviour meant to her. a very full description. And
from the 10th verse really down to the end of this 5th chapter,
she describes what the Saviour meant. And she gives a general
description to begin with. He's white and ruddy, the chiefest
among 10,000. What a statement that is, isn't
it? What a statement! Oh, that you and I might long
for this Son of Righteousness, to shine so gloriously into our
hearts that we could come and say, yes, he is to us, he is
to me, the cheapest among 10,000, the cheapest. Then she describes him in some
detail. She says, his head is as the
most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven." Well, we won't go through it, but just to say it
shows in that black as a raven, his eternity, and his hair is
fine gold, yes. His glorious knowledge of everything
about us and about his people and about everything that exists.
His eyes are as the eyes of doves, but the rivers are water, washed
with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as the bed of
spices, as sweet flowers, His lips like lilies, dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. His hands are as gold rings,
set with a beryl. 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." She
goes through it, doesn't she? From head to foot, she describes
her Saviour. She describes her beloved, and
what he's like, and what he means to her. And it's good, you know,
just to ponder these great truths, because here is the son of righteousness,
in all his glory, shining forth. And therefore she comes and concludes,
yea, he is altogether lovely. Nothing wrong. No fault in Christ. Perfection. exists in the Saviour. It's a great blessing then when
the sun of righteousness shines into our heart, we see the great
light and the glory of it, and the perfection of it, and we're
attracted to it. And we can say, as she comes
to the conclusion of this description, this is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. What a great description
it was. Now then, as we read, truly the
light is sweet. Her beloved was sweet to her,
and a pleasant thing. He was a pleasant thing to her,
for to behold her beloved. Well today, how do we view the
Lord Jesus Christ? Do we view him indeed as sweet
and pleasant? You won't do that. You won't
know that unless the Spirit of God has entered into our heart. And by that I mean unless the
true light has shone and we realise that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the light of the world. He's the only one that can lighten
our dark heart. He's the only one that can set
our feet upon a rock. and establish our goings and
put a new song in our heart. He's the only one that would
do us any real good. He's the only one that would
do us any eternal good. He's the only one that would
turn us from the vanity of this poor world. The vanities that
exist to turn our hearts, turn our affections and draw us to
himself. It's the power of God. And my
friends, when we are blessed with just a little of this, a
little of this foretaste of eternal light, it is that which is not
of this world. It is that which is outside of
this world, because it is a spiritual blessing and it brings with it
eternal blessings. It's not something which fades
away. The things of time fade away. All these vanities will perish
and be burnt up, that they disappear. But Christ is there. Oh, those beautiful words, on
Christ, the solid rock I stand, all of the ground is sinking
sand. What a favour tonight, if you
and I have a realisation of this light, the sweetness of it and
the pleasantness of it, The glorious Saviour is the Son of Righteousness,
coming to us and giving to us, unmerited, undeserved, His gracious,
glorious robe of His righteousness. None of us will get to heaven
without it. But all of God's people are clothed
with it. So they enter in to that holy
place, not with their righteousness, which is just as filthy rags,
that's had to be cast away and thrown away, but to be clothed
with the righteousness, the white, spotless, sparkling robe of His
righteousness. It's wonderful to think, isn't
it? And always ponder it, the glorious exchange that the Lord
comes and gives. We are just not worthy of it. Do we stand thankful tonight?
If we have a good hope, the Lord has come. He has dealt with our
souls. He has given us to realise our
lost condition and the desire indeed that he will shine into
our hearts. We may be able to enter in then
to the truth of these words in a spiritual sense. Truly, it's
not false, naturally it is true, the natural sun is pleasant,
isn't it? Truly the light is sweet and
a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun, but oh
my friends, much more needful it is that you and I can echo
and say truly, the light is sweet and a pleasant thing when Christ
shines into my heart. With that eternal light, the
sun disappears at night time, doesn't it? One day the sun will
no longer be needed and will disappear. But the sun of righteousness,
when that sun shines into our heart, it never goes out. It's
an eternal light which God gives. Now, can we rejoice tonight if
we have the little evidence of that light shining, that light
of the Saviour into our dark hearts, and what has it done? It's revealed Christ. Revealed
Him in all His beauty, and all His beauty surely is centred
in what He's done in giving His life dying upon that cross, becoming
that great sacrifice for sin, for the sin of His whole Church,
for your sin and my sin. If we are amongst those who the
Lord has loved with everlasting love, everlasting love, everlasting
light, oh may we rejoice in it and may we bless God for it.
As we think of these great truths, we realise that outside of Christ,
all is vanity of vanities and vexation of spirit. But in Christ is sweet and pleasant
light and a glorious view of eternal blessings which are prepared
for the Church of God, all those who have been redeemed by the
precious blood of the Saviour, those for whom He laid down His
life, and one day, by His grace, we shall be found in glory, enjoying
the everlasting light and praising God for His great goodness and
love, mercy and grace. Amen.