Solomon's Song, Chapter 5. Solomon's Song, Chapter 5. And we have one verse. One verse we'll be looking at
this evening. We're going to give you an introduction as to
where this answer of the Lord Jesus Christ comes from, but
we will in particular be looking at this verse. Let's read it
together. Matter of fact, it would make
more sense, let's read verse 16 of the previous chapter, because
these two really go together. The bride says, Awake, O north
wind, and come thou south. blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits." And then we have the answer immediately
of the Beloved. He says this, "...I 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,
O beloved. Now the title of the message
is The Presence of Christ Enjoyed. the presence of Christ enjoyed. Now, as we have seen in this
Song of Solomon, this whole book of the Song of Solomon, there
are two characters in this book, the bride and the bridegroom. both of which represent the Church
and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church is the Bride, and
the Bridegroom is Christ. Now, in this fourth chapter,
We see that the Bridegroom is speaking concerning His Bride. And what does He say about His
Bride? He says this, Thou art fair. Thou art beautiful, fair, lovely,
gorgeous. That's what he says of his bride.
Verse 7, he says, Thou art fair, my love, there is no spot in
thee. So then as we see this, it is
the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to his church. And he says of
us, Thou art fair. Beautiful. Beautiful. Gorgeous. without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. See the reality of this truth,
that this is concerning us. Our Lord is looking at us, and
when He sees us, this is exactly what He sees. He sees no spot
at all. No spot. He sees no sin. Is that not the most astounding
thing? That my Savior says of me, thou
art fair. I know this, we say with the
bride, I am black but comely. But that's not what he says about
us, is it? He doesn't say you're black and comely, he says you're
just comely, you're beautiful, you're fair. We who have been
chosen of the Father. You have been redeemed of the
Son of God. You have been called by the Holy
Ghost, quickened to new life and faith in Christ. We have
been quickened to see what? We've been quickened to see our
sin. I mean, when a man's quickened, isn't that what you see first?
You saw your sin. We saw our need of Christ. We saw our bondage. We saw the bondage of our nature. We saw clearly that salvation
could not be merited by us. We saw clearly that we could
not by any works of the flesh please God. We could not ever obtain salvation
by our merit or ability. But glory be to God that He send
Christ to obtain and merit His salvation for us. This is...
Substitution is a beautiful word, isn't it? Mediator is a beautiful
word, because it is only seen in our Savior. By the grace of
God, then, we heard of His great work, of His perfect love and
salvation, purpose to save sinners. You know, the Apostle Paul uses
himself as the chief example of the salvation of Christ. He
says, I am a pattern for all of you. He said over in Timothy,
he said, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who enabled me, for
that he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry who
was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, an injurious, but I obtained
mercy. Now look, if I was a blasphemer,
and I was a persecutor, and I was injurious, and I obtained mercy,
how much more you, who are less sinners than me, how much more
you may obtain mercy? He said, for this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came to save
sinners, of whom I am chief. And if I'm chief, look, He could
save you. If I'm the chief of sinners and
He saved me, no doubt He is capable of saving you. He said this, I obtain mercy
that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth the all long-suffering
for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe to everlasting
life. Our Lord Jesus Christ was faithful
to give such a blasphemer salvation. Surely he should give that he
would give us salvation. We found this to be true. We
have found this to be true of ourselves. And what do we say
of ourselves? Paul, I know you said you're
the chief of sinners, but that's not how I see myself. I see myself
as the chief of sinners. We see ourselves like the publican
saw himself. Lord, be merciful to me, thee
sinner, thee sinner. Be propitious unto me. Provide for me a sacrifice by
which I may obtain mercy. This is what a quickened sinner
does. We have, by faith in Christ, by the grace of the Holy Spirit
has been poured out abundantly to us and we confess this that
by His blood. by his righteousness. What he
says of us is true. We have no spot because he bore
our sins in his own body on the tree. Our sins were not overlooked,
were they? They were not just passed by.
No, they were taken from us and charged to his son. And God in justice poured him
out on him. Therefore we who believe on him,
we who believe on him, confess that we have received grace and
mercy. And we love him. Isn't that the
bride? When you hear things like this,
you're fair. You're without spot. Does that
not move you to love? Oh, how this should move us to
love. It should move us to such heights of love and grace. We love Him, we praise Him, and
listen, we seek only to be found in Him. And what is the evidence of our
union? What is the evidence of our spotless,
sinless perfection that He has accomplished? It is this, even
your faith. faith in Christ is the evidence
of His work in us. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Do you love Him? Do you desire to be found in
Him and praise Him? Well, you know what? You're without
spot. You're without spot before His eyes. We are fair and without spot.
I like this, it says this in Isaiah 44, he says, Jacob, remember
these, O Jacob, in Israel, thou art my servant. I have formed
thee. Thou art my servant, O Israel,
and thou shalt not be forgotten of me. You hear that? Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. Now what's the reason that God
would not forget me? Here it is, "...I have blotted
out as a thick cloud thy transgression." There's the cause, isn't it?
You have great hope that God shall not forget you because
He has blotted out your transgression as a thick cloud and thy sins. He says, "...return unto me,
for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O heavens, for the Lord hath done it." Whose
work is this? Yours or His? It's His. It's His work. And it's His work
done for you. All for you. And it's this love of His that
moves us to love Him. To desire to be Him. Is that not your desire tonight?
To have Him. I mean to have him. I'm not talking just thinking
about it. I'm not talking about having an academic understanding
of it. I'm talking about having him. Do you want him? The bride wants him. And nothing
else will do. So what does she say? She says,
Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out. Listen, let my beloved come
into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruit. The bride, the
church, is the garden of God, planted and enclosed, protected
and nurtured by God Himself. And the church cries out for
what? His presence. His presence. There, the love of God For the brethren
and joy and rejoicing of the church is in the person and work
of Jesus Christ." What is the joy of the church? Is it just doctrine? Doctrine without him is dry,
dead, and useless. He is my doctrine. He is my doctrine. My doctrine
adorns Him. It is His doctrine anyway. It's
not even mine. It's His. And it's all about
Him. And in our love for God, what
do we desire to have produced in us. She desires that this
garden that He has planted in her own heart, that she desires
this garden to grow. What is the garden? It is the
graces of the Spirit. Love. Our love for God. Anybody
need to grow in love for God? Huh? What about love for the
brethren? Anybody need to grow in love
for the brethren? Well, of course. What about joy? Everybody full of joy? You're
just so full you can't take anymore? No, we need more joy. Joy in
what? In the Holy Ghost. Joy in the
things of God. Rejoicing over Jesus Christ,
our Savior. Peace. We haven't had enough
of peace. He is our peace. He has made
peace by the blood of His cross. I want to know more of this peace. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness
toward others. Anybody need to grow in those
things? Meekness, humility. Anybody need
to grow in humility? Seeing how our Savior had humbled
Himself Faith. Anyone need to grow in faith
in Christ? I want to grow in faith. I want to grow in faith in the
object of my faith. I want to grow in seeing Him.
That's what it is to have Him, is to see Him, to know Him, to
believe Him, to trust Him, to rest in Him. That's what it is
to grow in this. What about temperance? Moderation. Letting go of the world. Anybody
need to grow in that? Letting go of the world and the
things and cares of this life. We need to grow in these things.
The bride recognizes, I need to awake. The wind has to blow. The spirit has to move in order
for me to grow in these things. And what is the reason for our
desire to grow in these things? It is to experience more the
presence of Christ. These things, by these things,
by these graces, we know more of Christ. We'll be able to enjoy His presence. And listen, the bride is aware
of her need. That's why she said awake. And
if you read this next chapter, you can read what happens to
her. She goes right to sleep. He's knocking at the door, and
she's asleep. Obviously, she needed the north
wind, because that's what came next, wasn't it? It was the north
wind that came next. But whatever we need, she knew
she had a need. She felt her exercise and all
these graces were low, and she longed them to stir up for one
reason. I need Him to come to me. I want Him to be present with
me. Now, I don't care which wind
comes. That's what she's saying. I don't care which one you bring,
as long as you come with it. As long as you're there, what
do I care which one comes? Whatever comes. If I have Him,
whatever comes, it doesn't matter. Why? He's the object of our affection. He should be the object of our
love and attention, the aim and longing of our soul. Let my Beloved
come. Let my Beloved come. Do you long for this? I'm not
asking in the future, now. Do you long now for him to come? Do you desire his presence as
a friend and a brother? Are you so stagnant, so spiritually
asleep and cast down with sin and the cares of the world that
only, the only remedy for that is what? Him. That's it. The only remedy that would calm
our souls in all these circumstances is Him. Then call on Him. Call on Him to come ask him to
come, plead for him to come into his garden, and here's his answer.
Now pay attention. I am come. Not I am coming. I am already there. You got that? Before you ask,
He was already there. He was already there. Behold,
I stand at the door and knock, and if any man hear my voice
and open the door, I will come in and will sup with him and
he with me. Now listen, every heart prepared
by the Holy Ghost to receive Christ He who desires the presence
of Christ in his heart, with all his heart, he will come and
manifest himself to you. He will come. Do you long for him to come?
Then ask. And you'll get this same answer.
Now I got three things. Three things in this text that
we can see clearly. First of all, I want us to see
the presence of Christ. And in this, there are two things.
The abiding presence of Christ, and then the manifestation of
his presence. Both of these are included here.
The second thing is the satisfaction of Christ with His church. Look,
He said, I have gathered my myrrh, I have gathered my spice, I've
eaten my honey and my honeycombs. I'm happy. Is that what that
sounds like? I'm satisfied. You ask me to
come and eat these things? I'm already coming. And I love
those things. I've already eaten those things.
They're good. I'm satisfied. And then the last thing you see
is a gracious invitation to his church. He says this to you and
me, eat, O friends, and drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. So let's look at this first thing,
the presence of Christ. We see the bride's condition
and her need of Christ. We hear her and identify with
her prayer. She says to Jesus, come. And he says, I'm already here. I am come. I am already come
to my garden. And this is the first thing I
want us to recognize is this. Jesus' presence is always abiding
with His bride. He never leaves her. He is always,
constantly, perpetually abiding with His people. You know this
verse, and then we're going to turn to another one in just a
second, but you know this very well. Let your conversation be
without covetousness. Be content with such things as
you have. Now what is the reason for your contentment? Why should
you be content with such meager things of the world? Why? For,
he said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. with that you should be content. God will never leave you. Turn over with me to Isaiah 41.
It's a few pages over here, Isaiah 41. Read this with me. This is precious. Look at verse
8. He says, But thou, Israel, art
my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen. Election. Oh, you got that, Jacob? I've
chose you. You're mine. I've chose you.
You're my servant, the seed of Abraham, my friend. Thou whom
I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from
the chief men thereof. Yet you've been taken, have you
not been called and taken out from among men, you who were
sinners, born with Adam's nature, only ruined in your condition?
And yet, what is he? He hath chosen you, and he hath
taken you. Isn't that wonderful? He's taken us out from among
men. And this is what he said unto
thee. He said, Thou art my servant. I have chosen thee, listen, and
not cast thee away." Believer, has he cast you away?
Now, I'm not asking, do you feel like you should be cast away? I know you and I both feel we
should. But he said this, I've chosen you, I've called you,
I've taken you out, and I won't get rid of you. That's good news. I'm not going to get rid of you.
Fear thou not. Why, Lord? For I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, I will
help thee, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
Now, you know, you got why he's not going to forsake you, right?
You understand why he's not going to leave you. He is upholding
you by Christ. In order to forsake you, He would
have to forsake His Son. That's how close this union He
has put us in with His Son, that He will never leave you, because
He will never leave His Son. He was chosen, redeemed, called,
and kept by the power and grace of God, not because of our goodness,
our greatness, our usefulness, but because of Christ and His
righteousness charged and imputed and imparted to us. Therefore
He will never cast us off, but only strengthen us. But you say
this, I don't feel strengthened. I don't feel as though he's with
me. I feel like he's cast me off. David said that how many times?
He said, will thou cast me off forever? Now did God cast him off? No.
God never cast him off. And neither has he cast off you.
So don't think you ever shall escape his presence. And when
you're so low and cast down, you may feel He's left you, but
what does His Word say? He said, I won't cast you off.
Now listen, He does hide His face. No doubt about that. He hides His face and we begin
to quake. We become so cold and indifferent
in our own hearts. Listen, that scripture says,
our sin has separated us from God. But listen, it never separated
God from us. Why? He's already taken it out
of the way. We feel as though He's separated. What does that
passage in Romans tell us? What shall separate us from the
love of God? Shall life, death, angels, principalities,
powers, things present, things come, height nor depth nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You see, he's not ever going
to cast you off. He's never going to leave you.
Why? He upholds you by the righteousness of Christ and that's why he's
never leaving you or forsaking you. I like this. You remember
when Jacob was in, was leaving, he had to leave his home and
he went out there to that desert place and God gave him that vision
of the ladder that stretched from earth to heaven. Picture of Jesus Christ. Picture
of our Lord who has bridged the gap and mediated between us and
God. And at the top of this ladder,
he sees the Lord, and the Lord says this, I am with thee, and
I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again into this land. For I will not leave thee until
I have done that which I have spoken to thee thereof. Is this ambiguous to anybody?
Is this questionable as to whether God's going to leave you? How
many times does he need to say, I'm not going to leave you? So if he said, I'm not going
to leave you, is he not present with you? Always. Jacob said this, now tell me
if you identify. He said, surely the Lord was
in this place and I knew it not. That's how many times we feel.
We don't feel His presence. That does not negate the fact
that He is ever-present. Ever-present with us. This is most commonly our experience. But listen, rejoice! For our
lack of knowledge and feeling of His presence does not prevent
Him from being with us. nor does it cause him to flee he says this to all who seek
him with their whole heart seek his presence I am always with
you now with the bride he said isn't that what the text is saying
you're calling for me to be here and he says I'm already here
though you knew it not I am already there how precious is this now
What about, this is privately, but what about now? What about
in worship? In worship. This is not only
true in our private, personal relationship, but also in public
worship. That every time we meet together,
He says, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am in the midst of them. So where is He? You asked for
him, you wanted him, now where is he? Right here. When? Every single time. Every time. So then, do we long
for his presence? You should believe his word when
he says, I'm already here. Come, my Lord. I'm already here. I didn't leave you. I've never
left you. And I won't ever leave you. The
second thing is the manifest presence of Christ. Now this
is what we really want, isn't it? This is when we're asking
for His presence, we understand His abiding presence, but what
we're really asking for is His manifestation of His presence. We want to feel His presence. We want to know His presence. A false religion, they think
that feelings are everything. And we know they're not. Feelings
come and feelings go. Now listen, I don't want to undercut
feelings because they have their place in the believer's heart
and life. We're not cold and we're not
to be callous about these things. We want to feel His presence.
I know you do. Do not let them rob you of your
joy because that's all they think about. And that's how they think
they're saved, is by their feeling it. That's not how we're saved. We're not saved by feeling His
presence, but we sure would faint if we didn't. So we need to feel
His presence. He understands this. So let us
now open our hearts. Lay yourself bare. Plead for His mercies. He understands our weaknesses
and need of these things. Come to Him and open up your
heart and He will come to you. Isaiah 57, it says this, verse
15, "...For thus saith the High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy
place with Him also, that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the
contrite ones." Now, what revives your heart most? It is to feel
His presence. to know He is with us. Our Lord is manifestly present
among all the assemblies. He is manifestly present in our
songs, our worship, the hearing and preaching of His Word, the
delivery of His message, and in the hearing of it. We should never absence ourselves
from these things. We should never take these things
lightly, They should never be cold and lifeless, but rather
they should be joy and peace to our hearts, knowing that He
is always present. Now, the second thing is His
satisfaction. Look at this. The satisfaction
of Christ with His church. True believers in Christ know
that our salvation comes not by our works, but salvation comes
by His grace. His grace. Our salvation is not in creeds,
denominations, Not in a building, but rather in a person. And it
is this person of Christ that we desire to manifest. Now, all the church, all of you
are His bride. You're chosen, you're redeemed,
you're called, you're washed from all your sins, you're spotless
in His eyes. Yet it is our desire to please
Him. Is it not? Can you not hear that in the
bride's words? Come and eat your fruit. Don't come and eat of
my works. No, I don't want that. That's
rotten fruit. We don't want any of that. We
know that does not allure our Master to us. There is nothing
in us, but rather we desire Him to come and eat of His work,
His fruit that He has made. And listen to what He says. He
says, I have already gathered My myrrh, My spices together. I've already eaten my honey with
my honeycomb. I've already drank my wine with
my milk. What is he saying? You know,
he says that word my nine times in that text. Why? It's all his. It's all his work, isn't it?
The fruit of your garden is his work. And what does he eat? He eats of his work. And what
does he find? He said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. It's his garden, it's his fruit,
it's his work, and what does he say about it? It's perfect.
It's perfect. I've already saved you. I've
already redeemed you. I've already planted these graces
in you. And they will produce the fruit
that I determine them to produce. And I will come and I will eat
of it and be satisfied with you. This is what his message is to
his church. He says, I am come. I'm already
abiding with you. I manifest my presence unto you. And this is my word to you. I'm
pleased. You realize he's pleased with
your worship? Are you pleased with your worship?
I know you're not. But see, that's your work. He's not eating your work, he's
eating his. And his work is perfect. It's as sweet as honey. It's
more joy than wine. It's more nourishing to his soul
than milk. To say this, come thou good and
faithful servant. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you before the foundation of the world. Why? God's satisfied. With what? His work. His work. He is satisfied, completely satisfied. Our sins are washed. Our corruption
is gone. We are now clothed in the perfect
righteousness of Christ so that all of our prayers, all our worship,
all our joys, all our sorrows, all our life, and all our death
is pleasing to God. Pleasing to Him. Is it not pleasing to hear his
voice say these things to you? It should be pleasing to our
souls to hear him say, I'm satisfied. And not only this, but consider that he longs for
your presence too. You got that? That's the next
thing he says. It's an invitation he gives.
He says to you, who he's satisfied with, you who are his bride,
he says this, come and eat. Come and eat, my friends. Friends. Drink, yea, drink abundantly,
my beloved. all friends he desires our presence
with him more than we desire his presence with us he desires
us to abide with him now what he said when he left abide in
me and I in you who's the one always leaving
him or you so what does he say I'm always
with you. You come with me. You come and
eat what I have for you." And what does he have to eat? What
does he have for his beloved friends? He said, my flesh is
meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. So what are we
going to eat and drink? We eat and drink of his salvation,
right here. You know when Moses and Elijah
came to talk with the Lord, you know what they talked about? His death. Isn't that something? That they
were already in heaven and yet they were still desirous to see
His death, His work. What are we going to sing in
glory? Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. So if the people in heaven right
now are feasting on his salvation by the blood of Christ. If we
in the future are going to feast, why do we not feast on it now?
Now let me ask you, when do you ever get enough of this? Anybody
ever found the bottom of this? Do you suppose that this is ever
going to be empty, this food that he's prepared for us? They
think it'll get stale? Now, I'm not talking to your
flesh. Your flesh is gonna... I know that. But not to the inner
man. Not to the new man. We can't
ever have enough of this. But rather we rejoice always
in this. And so much does our Lord Jesus
Christ love our presence that the scripture says this. Precious
in the eyes of the Lord are what? The death of his saints. Why? Because then he has us completely. Nothing then will stand between
us and him and we will be able to feast without sin. What a day. What a day. Christ's presence. You have it
always. Yet we desire that manifest presence
of His. Seek it. Pray for it. And He'll
give it to you. Why? He's satisfied. He's satisfied. And third, He invites you to
come and eat of His flesh, drink of His blood daily, constantly,
perpetually. Why? Because He loves you. He loves you. Even so, come now, Lord Jesus. Encourage our hearts by your
presence. Pray, we'll do it. Stand, be
dismissed in prayer.