Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles now and turn with me to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon chapter 5. Song of Solomon chapter 5. Our
text will be found in verse 1. And I've entitled this message,
The Presence of Christ in Joy. The Presence of Christ in Joy. Our Lord here says this, ìI am
come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my
myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink
abundantly. Now, as we have seen in our previous
studies of this book, we know that this book is intended of
God to show us Christ and His church. The bridegroom in this
picture, in this book, is none other than Jesus Christ. He is
the husband of his church, and the church here is pictured as
the Shulamite bride. This is the intent of the Holy
Spirit, and every time you read this book, it is always with
this intent. This is the importance of this
book. Otherwise, what importance would
this book have to us? It would be of no value, really,
to us spiritually, eternally. But it does. It pictures Christ
and His church. And so in chapter 4, as we've
seen, the bridegroom declares to us the beauty of the bride. He declares the beauty of the
bride. In verse 1, he declares the church,
Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. And then he tells us what that
means in verse 7. He says this, Thou art all fair,
my love, there is no spot in thee. Then behold the reality,
you that are believers in Christ, behold the truth of this statement. Behold, you are fair. You are fair. You are so fair
that you are all fair. And this means that you are without
spot. Isn't this the intent of God
in sovereign election? He said, according as He had
chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world,
what's the purpose? That you should be holy and without
blame before Him. This was the purpose of God in
your election. It was the purpose of God in
Christ's redemption. And it is the purpose of the
Holy Spirit in regeneration. That you be without spot. Blameless before the eyes of
God. And yet we know this about ourselves. We know this truth when God quickened
us, we began to really see that we ourselves, from head to toe,
are nothing but sin. By nature, this is what we are. From the sole of the foot, even
to the crown of the head, there is no soundness. There is no wellness. The picture of the leper, that's
a good picture of us. You know, if a leper had one
little spot, or if his whole body was covered, it didn't matter.
He was condemned. He was cast out. So if you've
got a little leprosy or a bunch of leprosy, guess what? You're
still a leper. You're still a leper. And so it is with us, by nature
we begin to see. We've got a glimpse We see clearly that salvation
was beyond our grasp and ability to obtain it. We knew this, by
the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.
Isn't that the first thing you saw? You saw your need of Christ. You saw your inability. But glory
to God, for He sent Christ to obtain, Christ to merit what
we could not merit. And by the grace of God, we heard
of His perfect salvation, didn't we? He sent Christ to obtain
a perfect salvation, and by grace we heard it. Now listen, I heard
this message many times before I heard it. I heard this message
thousands of times before I actually heard it. But I'll tell you,
when I heard it, I heard it. I just didn't hear it in my head. I knew total depravity was real
because I was totally depraved. I knew Christ's righteousness
and Christ's offering was perfect because of the experience of
grace in my heart. I knew He accomplished salvation. And I knew this, I must have
Him. And ever since then, that's the
only message I want to hear, is His perfect salvation. His
perfect salvation. We heard this, of His great love
wherewith He loved us. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for the ungodly. I'm glad He didn't wait for me
to do something. He had already done it. He had already done
it. He had already accomplished it. Now the apostle, he uses himself
as an illustration of what it is when God saves a sinner. Go
to 1 Timothy chapter 1. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 1 and look at verse 12. Paul says this, I thank Christ
Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me with counting me faithful,
putting me into the ministry. Now listen to what kind of person
Paul said of himself. He said, I was before a blasphemer. I was a persecutor and injurious. He persecuted the church. Of
all people, he was most unworthy to receive salvation. And yet
he says this, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in
unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
exceeding abundant. The grace of the Lord when He
came to you, wasn't it exceeding abundant? And this is what grace comes
with. Faith and love. These two things is what grace
brings you. Everybody talks about amazing
grace, how sweet the sound. Listen, you've never experienced
the grace of God unless you have faith and love. This is what
grace brings. It brings faith in Christ, it
brings love to Christ, and love for the brethren. That's what
it brings. That's what Paul experienced, which is in Christ. And look,
this was all the source of it. All the source of grace, all
the source of faith, all the source of love is in Christ. He said, This is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. How be it, for this
cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all longsuffering, all longsuffering, for a pattern
to them that should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Paul says, you want to see how
God saves a sinner? Look at me. Look at me. He exposed my sin. I was a blasphemer
and injurious, but in spite of that I obtained mercy. Now how
did you obtain mercy? By grace. By unmerited favor. God gave me both faith and love
and He tells us this, I'm a pattern. When you see Paul, can you not
see yourself? You were a blasphemer, you were
injurious, a hater of God, but you received grace. And the evidence
of that is faith and love. This was a pattern. If you've
been saved, then you, like Paul, are a pattern. You could tell if I look at you.
You want to know how God saved the sinner? Look at me. Look
at me. And this is true of all who believe
in Jesus Christ. Like Paul, all of us will be
saved the same way. All will be saved by the abundant
grace of God that is in Christ Jesus. So to Him be glory and
honor. That's what he says in the next
verse. In verse 17 he says, Now unto the King eternal, immutable,
invisible, the all-wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. This is the heart of every
believer is to give glory to God. Paul's a pattern and we
follow that pattern exactly. We give glory to God for all
our salvation. And I know this, even now, We
still know this about ourselves, that we still, the old man has
not changed. God has saved us like Paul, but
we like Paul understand this, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. No good thing. We are always
and continually vile sinners, unworthy of mercy, unworthy of
the blood and righteousness of Christ, unable to save ourselves,
But God who shed His grace on us abundantly gave us life, gave
us faith in Christ, and we have faith in Christ. And what is
this faith? What do we have faith in Christ?
What does that mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? It
means this, I believe He's God manifest in the flesh. And many
people say, I believe in Jesus, but if they don't know who He
is, they don't believe in Jesus. He is God manifest in the flesh. That's what we believe. We know
this to be true. God came down in human flesh
so as to be a representative man. Sin came by a representative,
therefore righteousness and obedience must come also by a representative
man. We believe Christ came and obtained
righteousness as our representative, that He offered Himself to God
as a sacrifice for our sins, that God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And he suffered the full measure
of God's wrath for sins. That's what it is to believe
on Christ. It is to believe that God raised Him from the dead. That He is now seated on the
throne of God ruling all things after the counsel of His own
will. That He has sent His Spirit into the world to save His people. And that's what He's doing. Don't
be confused. Are you confused by the news
and what's going on? Don't be. God's using that to
call His people. He's bringing His people to Himself. Remember, this is an aside, it's
not in the notes. God gave a specific command to
those Christians who were in Jerusalem. He said, Go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. You know what
they did? They sat there. You know what God did? He burned
the temple. to get them out. And you know
what? They went out. They left there. As a matter
of fact, they used Saul of Tarsus to put them in prison and kill
them and they scattered. You see, God uses these outward
evils and He does it so His people would scatter and get out and
do what we're supposed to do, preach the gospel. Otherwise,
we'd just sit here. You see, God sent His Spirit
into the world to save His people, and He's going to save His people.
Now to us who are saved, we also have love. We have love for Him. I've got this verse written down
in Isaiah 44. God says this to His people,
Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art My servant. You
this morning are God's people, you are His servants. You are
His servant. This is what He says, I formed
you. Thou art My servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
Me. Here is the cause then of His
immutable favor. He says this in the next verse,
I have bought it out as a thick cloud, thy transgression. As
a cloud thy sins, return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.
Seeing, O you heavens, For the LORD hath done it. You know what that means? It means it's finished. You know
what that means? It means it's done. It's finished. The LORD hath done it. You are
saved this morning because the LORD hath done it. Your sins
that you know of, the sins that you feel so much guilt and shame
over, listen to this, Thou art fair, my love. Thou art all fair,
Thou art without spot. Why? I have redeemed Thee. I have blotted out Thy transgressions
as a thick cloud. I have redeemed Thee, Jacob,
and glorified Myself. You know, God glorifying Himself.
He did it. And then this generates what?
What does faith in this regenerate? It generates love. This is a
grace. And this grace and this perfect
salvation moves the believer to love Christ, to desire His
presence, doesn't it? When you hear these things, this
is what you want. You want Him. You want Him. I want Him. I have to have Him. I desire His presence. Now, believers, you know these
things all the time. If I were to just come up at
any given time cause you to think about these things, you'd be
able to confess everything that I just said here. Where do you
want it, really? You want it here. You want His presence, His power,
His grace. And that's what happened to the
bride. Look at this. All of this draws out love. And she says
this, Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my
garden. that the spices thereof may flow
out. Let my beloved come to his garden
and eat his pleasant fruit." The bride here, this garden that
she's speaking about, this is the work of God. You are the
garden of God. You are planted of the Lord.
He enclosed you, He chose you, He watered this garden with His
own blood and He planted you in it. He planted you in this garden.
You are His garden. And these fruits are the fruits
of the Spirit of God. And so the bride is aware of
this. You are believers in Christ.
You realize that your faith, your love, your joy, your peace,
meekness, temperance, faith, all of these are fruits of the
Spirit. These are fruits of the Spirit.
Every believer has all of these fruits. Now some may have more
measure of these fruits than others, but all of us have them. But we understand this, the measure
of this fruit is not by our determination, not by our zeal, it is by the
will and power of God. This morning, how much faith
do you have? How much do you really believe? How much love do you have? Let me just ask you this. Do
you believe? Oh, yeah. Yes, I do. Well, how
much do you believe? Not enough. Not enough. Do you
love Him? Oh, yes, I do. How much? Oh, not enough. Not enough. Are you patient? Are you long-suffering?
In a measure, but not enough. What do you want? I want more.
This is what the bride is saying here. She's saying, look, whatever
fruit you've given me, I want that to please you. I'll tell
you this, my faith does not please me. I'm not pleased with my faith. Are you? I'm not pleased with
my love, or my long-suffering, or my gentleness, or my meekness,
or my goodness, or my temper. I'm not pleased with it. You
know who He is? Christ is. He's pleased. But what she desires
is to grow in these things. Do you want to grow in these
things? Of course you do. Well, how is that going to happen?
One of two ways. Affliction or prosperity. North
wind or south wind. Now which one? I know which one
you want. You want the South. The South
wins what we want, but that's not always the best case. So
what the bride says is, either way, North or South, whatever
you choose. So as I grow in the grace and
knowledge of Christ, whatever you choose is best for me. And whatever comes my way, as
long as you're with me, I'm okay. That's what she says, let my
beloved come. Now look, if the wind blows north
or south and he's not present, we're in trouble. And so she
recognizes her need of his presence. Let my beloved come to his garden. Do you long for him? Do you long
for His presence? Do you long for the presence
of your Redeemer? Does your heart cry, come, O
friend and brother, come now, don't wait, I need you now. Come and fill my heart with your
presence. Are you stagnant? Are you cold? Are you indifferent? You know what you need? You need
Him. Only He can warm your heart.
Only He can burn away the dross. Only He can satisfy your soul. Have you found that nothing else
satisfies in this world yet? You found that out? I tell you
what, I found it out and I'm still learning it. Nothing can
satisfy but Him. Nothing can satisfy but His presence. Now then, she's calling for Him.
She's crying for Him. She's telling us, look, whatever
you need to do to come to Me, do it. Whatever you need to do
to Me or anybody around Me, do it as long as you come to Me. That's what she's desiring. Do
you desire that? Christ is going to answer this.
Now look at the answer of Christ in verse 1. Listen to what He
says. I am come into My garden, My
sister, My spouse. Is this not the promise to the
church that He gave in Revelation chapter 3 in verse 20? He said
this, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Now listen, this
is not to an unbeliever, this is to His church. He's talking
to His church. I stand at the door and knock.
If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into
him and will sup with him and he with me. Every heart that
is prepared by the Holy Spirit is prepared to receive Christ.
Isn't that right? As many as received Him, to them
gave you the right to become the sons of God. How did you
receive Him? The Holy Spirit prepared the heart, gave you
life and ability so as you should receive Him. Now then, today,
you desire to receive Him. You desire His presence. Well,
how do you have that? The same way you got it the first
time. By the power of God, the Holy Spirit, He comes to His
children, He knocks and they open, they hear His voice. And they are open to Him. And
what does He do? He manifests Himself. He manifests
Himself. Do you long for Him to come?
Do you desire to see His face? Do you desire to believe His
Word and trust His grace? This is surely a manifestation
of our love. It is the evidence of our love.
It is our desire for Him. Have Him. I've got three things
about this text. Look at this. The first thing
is this. The presence of Christ. And in this one, I've got two
things. The presence of Christ. First of all, the abiding presence
of Christ. And secondly, the manifest presence
of Christ. These two things, I want you
to know that they're somewhat distinct. And then the second
point is this. The satisfaction of Christ. The
satisfaction of Christ. In other words, what God requires
of you so that He can be present with you, He's already done for
Himself. And thirdly, we want to see this,
the gracious petition of Christ. Okay, so first the presence of
Christ. I want you to see that the bride's condition and her
need is for Him to be near. We hear and we identify with
her prayer, but look what Christ says this morning. You're asking,
Lord, come. Lord, come to me now. I want
you to know this first. He's already here. I tell you this, before you got
here, He was already here. He's already here. Listen to
His words. He said this, She said, Come. And He said, I am come. What does this mean? I'm already
here. I'm already there. Before she even asked of His
presence, He was already there. His abiding presence. Now this is because He has promised
His continual, perpetual, abiding presence with His saints. I'll let you look at a couple
of places. Look at Hebrews 13. Look at Hebrews 13. This is the
promise of God. Hebrews chapter 13 and look at
verse 5. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. What an exhortation. Be content. with such things as you have.
Now why should you be content? Why should you be content? I'm
sick. Be content. I'm dying. Be content. I've lost everything. Be content. Listen. Look at the
reason. This is why He has said, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And you know in the original,
it is to be repeated three times. I will never, no never, no never
leave thee, nor forsake thee. Therefore, be content with such
things as you have. Why? You have the presence of
Christ always. Always with you. Always. And this presence is only understood
by faith. This continual abiding presence. Let me ask you this. Do you always
feel His presence? Well, no. Well, how in the world
do you know He's still here? The only way you know this is
faith. You believe what He said. God said, I will never leave
you nor forsake you. Therefore, we can be sure of
this, He will never leave you nor forsake you regardless of
how you feel or what you think. Regardless of what men do. None of the angels of heaven
nor the demons of hell could ever separate you from your God. He is always continually abiding
with you. Listen to what He said in Isaiah
41. He said, But thou art My servant Israel, I have chosen
thee, the seed of Abraham My friend, for whom I have taken
from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men
thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art My servant, I have chosen
thee, and not cast thee away. He says this, you that are chosen. He said, you, you're my chosen.
He said, I called you out from among men. You were not the cheapest,
but I called you out of them. There were some chief men there,
I didn't choose them. I chose you. I left the chief
men there. I chose you. and taken you, and
I didn't cast you away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee by the right hand
of my righteousness. Behold, you were chosen of God,
loved of God from eternity. You were redeemed by the blood
of Christ. You were robed in the righteousness of Christ.
And the grace of God has called you. The grace of God has saved
you. And God says, I'm with you. Don't
be afraid. I'm with you. And what I'm going
to do for you is I'm going to strengthen you. I'm going to
help you. I'm going to be there and I won't
cast you off. Yes, but I feel I am worthy to
be cast off. Well, you're right. If it's based
on your merit, surely you'd be cast off. But God doesn't base
it on your merit. He bases it on Christ. He says,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous. What's
that? What is the right hand of His righteousness? That's
Christ. I'm going to do this for you
because I love Him. That's what God says. I'm not
going to leave you because of Him. Don't you see you are so in union
with Christ that in order to forsake you, you have to forsake
Christ. He's not going to do that. He
won't do it. He will never leave you. And
how do we see this? We see this by faith, not by
sight, not by feeling. I know that we often do not feel
His presence. And when we're in a low estate,
when we're cast down, when we're overwhelmed by our sin, we feel
surely He will leave us. Surely He's left me. As we examine our present circumstances
of grief, of sorrow, we cannot know or even feel the presence
of God. Remember, that's what he said
in Ecclesiastes 9, verse 1. He said, you cannot tell the
love of God by what's happening. You can't. Your circumstances
will never tell you about God's presence or His love. In Genesis 28, verse 15, God
says this, Behold, I am with thee. He's
talking to Jacob. Remember, Jacob had that dream
of the ladder and he comes out and God says this to him. He
said, Behold, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places. No matter where you go, no matter
what you do, God says to this dude, I'm with you and I'll keep
You that have been a believer for some time, has that not always
been the case with you? Why are you still here? Because
He was with you and He kept you. How many of you known that professed
to believe and now they're gone? What happened? Well, God wasn't
with them. God didn't keep them. But you,
He has been with and you He keeps in all places whither you go. And I will bring thee to the
land. What is this? I will carry you
to glory. Remember that picture the Lord
gave of the sheep? He said He leaves the 99 and goes and finds
him in the wilderness and puts him on His shoulder and carries
him all the way. You know why you're going to
heaven? You're carried. He's carrying you. You know that
little thing about the footprints in the sand? You know, He said,
I saw two sets of footprints and then I saw one set and then
He carried me and then when I was two, I was walking with Him.
No, no, there's only one set. It's His. And you're being carried. You're carried to glory by the
hand of God. I will bring thee, I will carry
thee into the land. And I will not leave thee until I have done
that which I have spoken of thee. You know when God's going to
leave you? Never. Never. He said, I'm going to
stay with you until this flesh drops in the ground and then
you'll be in my presence forever. I'm never going to leave you
until I've accomplished what I've done then. Then Jacob awoke
out of sleep and he said this, surely the Lord is in this place. He went to bed not knowing God
was in this place. And God says, I'm in this place.
And he wakes up and says, well surely God's in this place. Now
you may leave this place this morning knowing this, that God
surely is in this place. Why? Because He's with you. He's
in you. And He will never leave you.
Therefore rejoice, rejoice, for our lack of knowledge and feeling
of His presence does not prevent His presence or cause His presence
to flee from us, because He says to us, seek Him. Seek His presence. And you know
what? He always answers, I'm already
here. I'm already here. This is not only true of us personally,
but corporately. This morning we are corporately
gathered to worship this morning. I want you to know this, that
every time God's people are together, He is present. In Revelation,
you see the vision of Him walking among the candlesticks. He doesn't
leave you to guess what that is. The candlesticks are the
churches. They're the churches. And He walks among the candlesticks. He walks among the churches.
This morning, He is walking among us. Can you feel Him? No. Does that mean He's not here?
It doesn't have anything to do with it. He said, where two or
three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst
of them. So this morning we long for His
presence, we ask for His presence, and listen to what He says, I'm
already here. I am come to my garden, my sister, my spouse. Now the second type of presence
is His manifest presence, and this is what we're really asking,
isn't it? We say, Lord, be with me. What are we asking? Are we
asking for His presence? His constant presence? No. You
don't have to ask for that. That's something He's always
giving you. What you and I are asking for
is a manifestation of His presence. That we want to know and feel
His abiding presence with us. And so then now let us open our
hearts. Let us lay ourselves bare before
Him. So that He may show Himself to
our hearts. He may spiritually open our hearts. That He may strengthen us and
revive us, comfort us, and assure us of His continual presence.
And I tell you this, surely if we don't manifest His presence,
if He doesn't manifest His presence, I tell you this, we would despair.
We would live in agony and despair. if He would not do this, but
He does this on occasion to refresh us, to refresh His saints. In Isaiah 57, in verse 15, He
says, For thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabit the
eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place with Him as Christ, also that is of a contrite and humble
spirit. You see, Christ is the one who
has a contrite and humble spirit, and God says, I dwell with Him
for this purpose, to revive the spirit of the humble, to revive
the heart of the contrite ones. Listen, we can have faith that
He is always present, but I know this, you and I need constant
reviving, constant refreshment. And the only thing is His presence. That's what does it. How many
times have you heard the Word and all of a sudden you are overwhelmed
with love? Somehow, one day you're reading
the Scriptures and it's just dry and dead and you can't get
it, and then the next time you read it, it just floods your
soul with love and grace and power. What is that? That's His
presence. He's manifesting Himself to you.
And whenever He manifests Himself, our prayers are vivid, they're
vital. We have zeal, we have love abundantly
when He manifests Himself. Brother Don wrote this a long
time ago. He said, The Lord is manifestly
present in our assemblies. There is life in our midst, fervency
in our prayers, vitality in our songs, and blessedness in hearing
His voice read through the Word. The preaching of the Gospel and
its delivery of a message from God. When He is present, you
understand that this is a message from God. Not from me. You know, God help you if you
ever just come to hear me. I'm sorry for you. I really am.
Oh, but if you hear Him, this is a message from Him. It's a
message from God. When He is absent, all is lifeless
and dead. When He is present, there is
joy and peace in Jerusalem. Any who miss Christ, miss Him
because they will not seek Him. Seek Him. Ask for His presence. And He will manifest Himself
to you. Now then, I want you to quickly
go over these last two. The satisfaction of Christ. Look
back at your text. He says, I am come to my garden.
This is both constantly, perpetual presence and His manifest presence. Now how do you know He's going
to come to you? Do you deserve His coming? You
deserve this presence? No, you don't. This is why He's
going to come. Listen. I have gathered my myrrh
with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. True believers
in Jesus Christ know that all our salvation comes not by works. Salvation is not by our carnal
zeal or by some creed. It's not in a building or denomination.
It doesn't come by our feelings or our will. It does not come
by our efforts. Our salvation is in a person. It's in the God-man who has redeemed
us, the Son of God. And we know this, there is no
salvation in any other. Now what the Acts tells us, Acts
4, it said, there is none other name given among men. whereby
we must be saved. So then all the church, His bride,
all those who are in union with Christ, we were ordained and purposed
of God from eternity to never be separated from Him. Never be separated from our God.
Therefore, when He comes, when He came to accomplish our righteousness
and obedience, to suffer for our sins, He satisfied God forever. He satisfied God. In other words,
everything God requires of you to be in His presence, Christ
has already done it. You know, it's kind of like this.
If I invite you over to eat at my house, I do not want you to
bring anything. I want you to come and enjoy
yourself. I will prepare the meal for you. I will have everything
ready. How much more so God? Remember,
that's that parable that he gives out about the king and the wedding
feast for his son. And he bids them to come. And what was the declaration? All is ready. Don't bring anything. Come. Listen, you don't have
to change your clothes. He went out and he asked those
ones that were nobles and they all rejected him. You know, he
got the beggars, he got the blind, he got the halt, he got the lame.
What is this? He got sinners. That's a picture. He calls sinners to this feast. The self-righteous will never
come. They will always make excuse.
They don't have a need. But sinners, beggars, they have
a need. They can't provide anything. And so He brings them in. And
what does He do? He washes them and He gives them
a robe. A wedding garment. How do you
know this? Because there was one fellow
in that parable who brought his own garment. Remember him? He brought his own garment. His
mama must have sewed it or something. It must have been very sentimental
to him. Isn't that what religion is? Religion says, you know,
well, I just have the religion of my mama, my grandma. That
ain't sufficient. They sow their own righteousness
and they try to come to this feast. What I'm here to tell
you is come like you are. Don't wait till you're better.
Isn't that the hymn? If you tarry till you're better,
you will never come at all. Isn't this how you came to the
feast? You came to the feast with nothing. And Christ says, I have eaten
my honey with my honeycomb. I have gathered my myrrh with
my spices. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. In other words, I'm satisfied. Isn't that what He's saying?
I'm satisfied. When I come to you, I don't want
anything from you. Whose garden is it anyway? When
the bride says, I've come to my garden, it's my garden. And so when He comes to you,
guess where He's coming? He's coming asking nothing from you.
He's already satisfied. And yet, what does your flesh
want to do? You want to merit it. You want
to bring something. Don't bring anything. You don't even have to get ready. He says, I'm already here. And
I'm satisfied. He is completely satisfied. That's how you can enjoy the
presence of Christ, is because He is satisfied. And so we see His garden, we
are His garden, we are planted of Him, we are nurtured of Him,
so all that He has required of us, He has Himself accomplished. And so all the prayers and all
the worship, all the joys and all the sorrows and all the life
and death, everything that is happening to you is well pleasing
to Him. You know that? Everything that's
happening to His people is well pleasing to Him. I'm so glad
that nothing happens by chance or accident to us. But everything that happens to
us is for the purpose of drawing us close to Him so that we might
know that He has accomplished all our salvation. John Gill says this about the
saints. He says the saints are precious to him, living and dying. There's something in their death
or that attends to it that delights him. and the high esteem with
Him. The Scripture says that the precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. Do you realize
even your death is precious to Him? Why? Because He has accomplished
all that is necessary to make you precious. And not only precious
in your death, but precious in your life. Everything that Your
faith that isn't enough. Your love that isn't enough.
Listen, it's enough for Him. Why? He gave it to you. That's why it's enough. It's
enough for Him. And so this last thing, Christ's
petition. His petition. Look at this. He
says then to all His saints, eat, oh friends, drink. Drink
abundantly, O Beloved. Two words here that should affect
every believer. This is what He calls you, friend
and beloved. Friend. Greater love hath no
man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And so when you ask for His presence,
He is coming to you as a friend. And more than that, as your husband. He says, you are my beloved.
You are beloved of God. You are a friend of God. And what does He say to His friends
and beloved? He says, eat and drink abundantly. We know what this is, don't we?
It is to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Now what He tells
us in John 6, In John chapter 6, he says, Except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal
life, and I will raise him up at the last day. What is he talking
about, the Lord's Supper? We know it's not. We know, he
said, these words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they
are truth. He's talking spiritually. How
do we eat? How in the world shall we be
nurtured? Now Christ is satisfied, but you and I in His presence,
we desire that same satisfaction. We desire that joy of His presence. How can you rejoice in His presence?
How can you experience His presence? Listen, eat and drink His flesh
and His blood. Believe and trust His grace. Trust His coming. Trust His righteousness. Trust His blood. Trust His resurrection. Trust His ascension. Trust His
power. Trust His grace. Trust Him. Believe Him. That's how you eat.
You eat by believing. By believing. And look, He says this, how much
should you eat? When you believe on Christ, how
much should you believe on Christ? I remember this story Don told
me. I'll quit with this. Don said when he was a young
man, he was a vile man. Very rebellious young man. And
he knew this older man who would always encourage him. He was
always there for Don. helping him no matter what. He
was there for him and he encouraged him in his sin. It didn't really bother him that
Don was such a vile man. But when the Lord saved Don,
he came to this friend of his, this old man, and he said, the
Lord saved me. And he said this, he never warned
Don about sin. Never warned him at all about
doing too much sin. But he warned him this, he said,
you know what, that's all right, just don't be fanatical about
it. Just don't get too, don't get too involved in it. When a man is saved by the grace
of God, listen, he is saved abundantly. And we give our whole self to
it. And God says this, you can never
eat too much of Christ. Can you ever hear too much of
Christ? Can you ever hear too much of Him? Can you ever praise
Him too much? Can you ever thank Him too much?
Can you ever rejoice in His blood too much? Can you ever rejoice
in His righteousness too much? No. He said this, eat and drink
to your fill. abundantly. And so, therefore, we see this. Christ says this, I am come.
You desire Him? He said, I'm already here. I'm
with you always. What do we want? We want the
manifest presence of Christ. So we say, Lord, come, manifest
Yourself to me. And He said He will. Now, why
will He? Because I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied
with my work. I'm full. Don't bring anything.
You want me to come? Don't bring anything. I'm already
here. I'm satisfied. Now what I want
you, is I want you to be satisfied. And you're only going to be satisfied
how? Believing on Christ. Trusting in Christ. I pray that
Christ would cause us to enjoy His presence. Bask in the light
of His presence. And when you can't feel it, you
can still bask in the light of His presence because He's still
there. He didn't go anywhere. He didn't go anywhere. I pray
God will bless us to heaven and be dismissed in prayer.