Song of Solomon, chapter 5. And
the title of my message this morning is, Christ's Visitation
and the Church's Slumber. Christ's Visitation and the Church's
Slumber. Verse 1 says, I am come into
my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh and
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. This, of course, is the first
point of the message, Christ's visitation, Christ's coming. You know, the greatest promise
in Scripture is that God should send an offering for sin. That He would come, that Christ
should come and destroy the works of the devil by His righteous
obedience and by His blood sacrifice. And this One who was to come
is none other than the Son of God, Jesus Christ. And he whose the head is fine
gold that speaks of his deity. Yet he was promised to be born
of the seed of the woman. And so as we read these words,
I am come. This is the words of the bridegroom. This is the words of Christ. You remember the text of Scripture
that says, "...Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it
is written of Me to do Thy will, O God." This One that was promised
to come by this type of the Bridegroom in this book. Now this book,
Song of Solomon, if you go through this, you see two characters.
You see the Bridegroom and the Bride. This is only a picture. People take this as a marital
book. No, this is a spiritual picture. An allegory of Christ
and His church. And this bridegroom is Christ.
And you see Him coming into His garden. He said, I am come. I am come. What did the Son of
God come to do? He come to establish righteousness
and obtain redemption. You remember in Matthew's Gospel,
he said, I come not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. To fulfill the law. And so when
I read these words, I am come, that's what I think of. I think
of Christ coming. I think of Him coming into the
world as a representative man to meet the demands of the law
that His people could not meet. Jesus came into the world to
give His life a ransom for many. And the whole life of Christ,
the whole life of Christ was meant for this purpose. You remember
when He was walking with His disciples, He said, they were
doubting, they were fearful, and He said, all fools and slow
of heart to believe all that the prophets have said. Ought
not Christ to have suffered? and entered into His glory. And
beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He did what? He expounded
to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."
Oh, that's good. If you ever take the Word of
God, you should take it and find Christ as fast as you can because
that's what this Word is about. It is about Him. It is an honor
to Him. And so when we read these words,
We know that He has come to be an offering for sin. In Daniel,
we said 70 weeks are determined that He should make an end of
transgression and sin and iniquity. That He should bring in an everlasting
righteousness, seal up the vision, and anoint the Most Holy. That's
what happened when He came. He came and put away sin and
iniquity. And He hath by His one offering,
when He says, I come, this is what you should think of, believer,
I come. and obtained eternal redemption.
Isn't that what the Hebrews 9, 12? I think that's becoming one
of my favorite passages of Scripture. He entered in with His own blood
and hath obtained eternal redemption for us. Jesus has come to accomplish
the salvation of His people and He has come and now He is seated
at the right hand of God ruling all things after the counsel
of His own will. For what purpose? so that He
should call and come to every one of His people. He should
call them to faith, life and faith. Remember in John 17, our
Lord praying in that high priestly prayer, He said, Father, I glorify
Thy Son as I've glorified Thee on the earth. You've given Me
all power over all flesh. For what purpose? that I should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Me." That's
what Christ was sent for. And notice where He says He's
come. He said, I am come into My garden. I'll tell you that, that could
definitely mean the world. He did. This is His garden. He planted the Garden of Eden.
He created the world. And He did come into the world
to save sinners. But rather, this should be seen
as His coming to His church. You see, He came into the world,
but He didn't die for the world without exception. He came into
this world for His sheep. He came into this world to die
for His people. He said, I am come into My garden. My garden. This is speaking of
His personal coming to His church which He has planted from eternity. Go to Jeremiah chapter 32. Read
this with me. Jeremiah 32, verse 37. Lord says, Behold, I will gather
them out of all countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger,
and in my fury, and in great wrath. And I will bring them
again into this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart,
and one way. Is that not what He's done for
you? When He came to you, is that not what He's done for you?
When He gathered you, believer, is that not? He has given us
one heart. What is your heart? Your heart
is the new nature that He has given me. It's the same heart
of faith and love, and listen, one way. You know what the church
was called before they were called Christians? People of the way. Because they believed there was
only one way to God, Jesus Christ. That they may fear me forever
for the good of them. Do you not see then that all
God is doing is good for you? I pray to God when He come to
you and show you that, that you should rejoice, that all things
work together for your good. You who are purposed of God,
called of God, redeemed of Christ, all things work. He said, I know
my thoughts of you. Do you not think too hard of
God? I know you do. When we are in trouble, we think
too hard of God. We think, this is ill! This is
bad! This is horrible! How can this
be? We think God to be a cruel taskmaster. And God says, no, I know my thoughts
of you. Now, you may not know my thoughts,
but I know my thoughts. Thoughts of good, peace, and
not evil. He said, "...to do them good,
and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting
covenant with them, and I will not turn away from them to do
them good. But I will put My fear in their
hearts, and they shall not depart from Me." Listen to this, "...Yea,
I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will plant them."
Who's the garden? You're the garden. I am come
into my garden. I am come into my garden, into
His church. God has purposed with His whole
heart to deliver you. Do you realize that? That God has exerted His whole
strength and person to deliver you and do you good. that His heart and thought and
purpose is to deliver His people. That was His purpose, to do them
good, to put His fear in their hearts, His reverence, to show
them Christ, to plant them in Him. Do you know you were planted
in Christ before the world began? You are His seed. God has given you to Christ so
that He should lose none of you. And that you should all bear
the fruit of His Spirit. You are His garden. Now this
is a very solemn statement. Christ has come into the world
for the sole purpose of redeeming all that the Father gave Him.
That's the purpose of His coming. Jesus did not come for all men,
but only those chosen of the Father. And His righteousness
was only made for the elect. His atonement was only made for
the elect. Only for them did He present
His blood to the Father and obtain eternal redemption. And now that
He has accomplished this, now that He's even applied this to
you, He's applied this to you, His garden. Jesus Christ, even
this morning, comes into His garden, even today. Is this not
His promise? Where two or three are gathered
together in My name, there I am in the midst of them. You know, that's not contingent
upon anything you do or feel. He said, I am come into my garden. Why? It's His garden. And He
has come into His garden today. He has come into His garden.
He is here. He is here. He is among us. He has come into His planted
from eternity. He has come to us. as a husband
comes to his beloved bride in love and affection and says,
I am come to you. I'm come to you. You see, Jesus Christ is no adulterer. He does not go into the harlot. He doesn't go into the false
churches and false doctrines of this world. Do you realize
that? That He only comes to His church?
I tell you, I know He is everywhere, but He is not. He is not with
false religion. You could read that later in,
I believe it's in Jeremiah chapter 18, I believe it is. But He says,
I will not profit those false preachers at all. Will not profit
them at all. Why? He's not there. He's here. He's here. He's come to His garden,
and His bride is not some painted lady. We didn't come to paint
our faces, to put on a show or appearance. But His bride makes
this confession, I am black, but comely. I am both. In my heart is a banner of two
armies, always conflicting. This is His bride. Those who
are born of God are born not righteous, but sinners. We are
born dead in sins, cannot please God, yet these are His chosen. Who? Those who need salvation.
That's His bride. That's His garden. Those who
need salvation. Well, do you stand in need of
salvation? Are you a sinner that has no
claim on God or heaven? Are you without hope of pleasing
God or meriting His acceptance? Oh, well, these are the ones
that Christ came for. These are the ones that Christ
comes to. And notice what He comes with.
He said, I come into my garden, here it is, for my sister, my
spouse. Listen what he brings. I have
gathered my myrrh with my spices. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. What does he come doing? First
of all, he comes bringing his own myrrh and spices. You remember in the Old Testament
that there was the offering of incense upon the altar. The ingredients for those incense
were very specific. God laid out for Moses exactly
the ingredients for that incense to be burned in the holy place,
on the altar of incense. But you remember that the sons
of Aaron, Hophniah and Phinehas, how they made their own spices. They made their own incense.
And what happened to them? The fire of God came down from
heaven and consumed them. And listen, even so will the
wrath of God consume all who come to God by their works or
righteousness. Anyone who tries to mix his works
with the work of Jesus Christ offers strange fire unto God
and God will consume them. You remember the marriage supper.
In Matthew chapter 22, your marriage supper, what was the saying that
the king gave to his servants? All is ready. All is ready. Go out into the
highways and the hedges and call them that they may come. All
is ready. And when the house was full of
guests, you remember that there was that one man who did not
have a wedding garment. There was a wedding garment prepared
by the king and yet he chose to bring his own garment. Probably
one his mom made. Probably one that was real sincere,
one that he loved so much. I'm sure that to him that was
the most precious robe that he could possibly bring to this
wedding. And when the king saw his robe,
it was an affront, it was an offense to the king who had prepared
the wedding garment. Why should you bring your own?
I've brought my spices. I've brought my garment. My son
has made his righteousness. And what did they do with that
man? They cast him out into outer darkness. To come to God with your own
works is an affront to Christ. It is to count the blood of Christ
an unholy thing. In other words, when a man comes
to God by his works plus Christ's works, he's saying to God, Christ
is not enough. Your Son did not do enough. I have to finish what He started. God says, that's an affront to
Me. That's an offense. But listen to the gospel message.
I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered
my myrrh and my spices. My myrrh and my spices. I have eaten my honeycomb with
honey, with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Where in this list of ingredients
are any of these things yours? How many times does He say they're
mine? Every one of these is His. My
myrrh, my spices, my honeycomb, my honey, my wine, my milk. Do you not see? Where's yours? You don't have anything in that
list. See, you don't bring anything. He brings everything. He brings everything. What is
this that He's bringing? He's bringing in the righteousness
of God. That's what He's bringing. It's
a sweet smell. His obedience to God is a sweet
savor unto God. He said, My servant, My servant,
who is blind like My servant and deaf like My servant, He is satisfied for His righteousness. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. Friends, this is Christ coming
into the world and by the shedding of His blood, God was satisfied. So what is He bringing? He's
bringing His salvation to who? My sister, my spouse, my bride. I'm bringing it all to you. You
don't bring anything. He brings it all. And listen what He says, eat,
O friends. We by nature are enemies of God. He said, you were alienated,
enemies of God in your mind. Your carnal mind was at enmity
and what did He do to you? He in sweet grace brought you
His salvation and now He says, friends, I call you my friends. You're my friend. You're my friend. Friends come and drink, come
and eat. Is that not what He tells you to do this morning?
When I'm preaching this gospel, is that not what you're to be
doing? You're to be eating this. You're to be drinking this. This
is it. How do we do that? By faith.
We drink and eat this by faith. It is not by what we see or what
we feel, but by His very Word. We should take it and simply
trust His grace. And it's a message of grace to
the graceless, a gospel of hope to the hopeless. What a message
for sinners. Bring nothing. Come and eat. Buy wine and milk without money
and without price. That's the gospel message. Now,
what would you expect the bride to do? at the sweet coming of Christ,
at the sweet invitation of Christ. He comes with all of these good
things, a covenant of grace, a covenant of mercy, kindness,
friends. He comes calling you friends.
Should you not leap for joy? Yes, the bride should leap up
at His coming, should come with open arms and bow and hold Him
and embrace Him. But we see that's not what the
bride does. Verse 2, I sleep. I sleep. It is the response of the bride
in the initial call of grace to immediately come. Isn't that
true? In the initial call of grace,
when He calls you, you come. It's like Lazarus. When Lazarus
was called, he came forth. That's exactly what happens in
initial grace at the appointed time of God's grace. He calls
us in power and demonstration of His Spirit, and we rise from
the dead, we cleave to Christ, we confess our sins. And we sing with the songwriter,
I once was a stranger to grace and to God. I knew not the danger,
nor felt not my load. Though friends spoke of rapture
of Christ on the tree, Jehovah Tishkanu was nothing to me."
Isn't that so? Before you came the first time,
He was nothing to us. We were dead in our sins. But
when our Savior came, that hymn writer continues, When free grace
awoke me by the light from on high. Then legal fears shook
me and trembled. I trembled to die. No refuge,
no safety and self could I see. Jehovah Tizkanu, my Savior, must
be. My terror all vanished before
the sweet name. My guilty fears banished. With boldness I came to drink
at the fountain of life-giving and free Jehovah Tizkanu. That word means the Lord will
provide is all things to me. That's the initial experience
of grace. But is it not true, believer, as you have grown, do you not need Him more? Is He of not more value now than
He was at the initial day of grace? Yes. I come to see more of my sin
and more of my need as I grow in His grace. I need Him more
today than I ever needed Him before. The more we need to see
of His sure salvation. I need to be sure. I need to know for sure that
I'm in Him. And so what do we do? In such
a place when you need Him most, what do you do? You call. You call on Him. Look, this is
what the bride did initially. Look at this in verse 16 of the
previous chapter. Look at the last part of that.
She said, Let my beloved come to His garden and eat His pleasant
fruit. She wanted Him to come. She desired
Him to come. But because he delayed, because
he did not come at the exact time she wanted him to come, when he did come, what did he
find her doing? Sleeping. We called him to come to his
garden, but let him delay for a moment. Let us lay down in
prosperity for a moment. And I tell you, that's what the
church has done. In this generation and many generations before,
the church has laid down in prosperity and fallen asleep. Fallen asleep. Let Him leave us in a prosperous
state and we shall soon find ourselves, even as this bride,
in this sad condition of spiritual slumber. How prone are we to
this? Are you prone to this? If you don't feel your proneness
to this, it's probably because you're asleep. That's just so. We are prone
to this. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the
God I love. Because of the cares of this
world, because of the sin and weakness of our flesh, because
of our unbelief, we forsake and leave even the worship and communion
of our Beloved. How feeble then is our excuses. Seeing He has come, seeing He
has promised to be here, seeing He has brought so great salvation
for you to feast on. He brings it every time. What excuses have we? Well, I've
put off my coat. How can I put it on again? I've washed my feet. I'm laying
in bed. If I get up, I'm surely going
to get my feet dirty. There are some, even among us,
who have set this world first. Some who have set family and
friends and worldly goods above the worship of God. Some believers
are too comfortable in this world. But you mark it down, God will
not leave you so comfortable. God will not leave you comfortable.
If you belong to Him, He won't. He will not put He will not long
put up with these excuses. But notice how He chastens us. This is different than how you
think He should chasten you. Because you and I both know what
we think He should do to us. He should crush us with the heel
of His boot. That's how we feel when we sin. We feel as though thunder and
lightning and earthquakes should come. And we should fall into
the very pits of hell because we deserve it. That's not how
he treats his bride. That's not how he chastens his
bride. Look what he does. Verse 4, My beloved put in his hand by the hole of
the door, and my bowels were moved for
him. His hands are full of spices
and honey and all sorts of sweet aroma. And what does He do with
this aroma? He puts it into the hole of the
door. And the smell permeates the room. And she smells her Beloved. And
she can't help it. Her heart leaps. Oh, I've got
to have Him. Her bowels are moved for love
for Him. Isn't that how He chastens us? speak so comfortably to you? How often when you've wounded
someone would you rather them yell at you than to speak comfortably
to you? He sends His Spirit of free grace
not law and thunder. He puts His hand to the hole
of our hearts. He speaks to us of forgiveness,
of grace, of His blood, of His righteousness, and our bowels
are moved for Him. O believer, do not expect then to find Him
at the door if you try to bring your own fragrances and works. When you've been asleep and the
Spirit of God comes to you, what is the natural thing to do? Natural thing is to try to make
up for it. To try to fix it. To rectify the situation. So
what do you do? You start working. You start
working. You start doing and doing and
doing. That's what the bride does. Look
what she does. I rose up to open to My Beloved. Now then, that would have been
fine if she just left it there. But look what she did. And my
hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my Beloved,
but my Beloved hath withdrawn Himself." Why do you suppose
that is? Because He will not allow you
to have any part in this. He didn't allow you to have any
part in the first. He's not going to allow you to have any part
in the middle, and you won't have any part in the end. Do not expect to find your Savior
there if you try to move Him with your works, or your obedience,
or your excuses. And is this not the greatest
chastisement of the soul, as when He hides His face from you?
Is there any greater chastening? Not in all the world. She said, My soul failed when
He spake. I sought Him, but I could not
find Him. I called, but He gave me no answer. She went to the watchmen. Well,
who are these? These are the preachers of the
gospel. She went to hear the gospel. And what did they do?
The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote
me. They wounded me. The keepers
of the wall took away my veil from me. Isn't that what the
Gospel does? I have no intention, nor do I
follow you, nor do I tape you or video you or figure it out.
I don't have any clue what's going on outside when you leave
and you go home. But when this Word comes in power
to His people, it wounds. It does. It's sharp. That's not my intention. My intention
is not to beat the sheep. That's not my intention. My intention
is just to tell you the way God's Word is. I just declare God's
Word. I should be faithful to do that. God's men should be faithful
to point you to Christ, to tell you of Christ. But all the while
I'm telling you to go to Christ, it pierces the heart of the slumbering
bride. It takes away all of the excuses. And notice what this does. It
causes the bride to be humbled. I charge you, daughters of Jerusalem,
if you find my beloved, tell him I am sick of love. It causes the bride to speak,
to cry. That's what this does. When he
hides his face, the bride can do nothing but cry. And what does the world do? They
ask, what is thy beloved above another? Why are you so down? What's wrong with you? Why don't
you just pick yourself up? Why don't you just shake yourself
up? Can't. I'll tell you this, if
he's not present, there's nothing you can do to make me happy. How tedious and tasteless the
hours when Jesus no longer I see. Sweet birds, sweet prospects,
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim, the fields strive in vain to look gay, but
when I am happy in Him, December's as pleasant as May. Oh, the sadness and sorrow, and
she cries out, and the world doesn't understand. But notice
what she is moved to do. She is moved then to speak of
Him, to think on Him, to dwell on Him. Why did God allow this
time to hide His face? So that He would move you to
think of Him, move you to love. and grace. That's what He did
to her. What is your Beloved above another?
What's caused you? Why do you charge us like this?
Oh, because my Beloved is white and ruddy, chiefest among ten
thousand. What is this speaking of? His
perfect humanity. You see, my Beloved is the perfect
man, the righteous man. His head is of most fine gold.
He is not only man, He is God. He is the God-man, His locks
are bushy, and black as a raven, His eternal sonship, His eternal
priesthood. His eyes are as the eyes of doves. What does that mean? You know
doves only have one mate? One person. They only have eyes
for one. His eyes only have eyes for me. By the rivers of water
washed with milk set fiddly, his cheeks are as a bed of spices,
sweet flowers." Oh, isn't his cheek so sweet? How he was smote
on his cheek. How he was smitten, afflicted
of God for me. Is that not sweet? That he bore the brunt of God's
justice in my stead. His lips like lilies dropped
with sweet-smelling myrrh. That's His words of love. I have loved Thee with an everlasting
love. His hands are His gold rings
set with a barrel. My name on the palms of His hands
eternity cannot erase. written in marks of indelible
grace. And this also speaks to us of
His hands that support us, His hands that hold us, His hands
that embrace us, His everlasting arms. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphire. That speaks of His heart. His
heart is pure and full of gems for you. His heart only speaks
good things. His legs or His pillar of marbles
set upon sockets of fine gold speaks of the foundation of your
soul. Who's holding you? Who's holding
you up? On what foundation are you laid,
believer? It is the eternal foundation
of Jesus Christ, sure and steadfast. His mouth is sweet. Yea, He is
all together. In case I miss something, He
is all together lovely. You want to know who my beloved
is? That's Him. And I've got to have Him. You
see what God did by hiding His face? Was it bad for her? Was
that evil for her? Now, her sleep was evil. But was God's chastening hand
bad for her? It hurt her, but it made her
move. It stirred her heart. And that's what God does with
His people. He stirs our hearts for love
for Him. And look at this in chapter 6
verse 1, Where is thy beloved gone? Now fairest among women,
whither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek after
him? Now notice, she finally realizes where he is. My beloved
is gone down to his garden. Wait a second, where was he to
begin with? I am come into my garden. Now where is he now? My beloved is in his garden.
My Beloved is gone down into His garden, the beds of spices
to feed in the garden of lilies. I am My Beloved's, and My Beloved
is Mine, and He feedeth among the lilies." Where is He? He's asleep. Where is He? He's where He's always been. He's faithful. He's kind and His chastening hand is never
meant to punish your sins. It is only meant to draw you
closer to Him. May He even come now to His garden
and find us not asleep But ready to embrace Him. Ready
to receive Him. Not in our own words. But to
receive what He has brought for us. Isn't that what you come
for? To see what He has brought for you. Not what you could bring
to Him, but what He brought for you. I pray God will bless this to you.