All right, Song of Solomon, chapter
2. Our text will be found in verses 8 through verse 15. The voice of my beloved, behold,
he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved
is like a roe. That word roe is gazelle. So
if you can imagine a graceful gazelle leaping, or a deer is
what a heart is, a young deer. He said, she said, My beloved
is like a roe, like a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall. He looketh forth at the window,
showing himself through the lattice. The title of the message this
morning is Christ's Coming, Call, and Communion. Christ's Coming,
His Call, and His Communion. Now I know that we live in perilous
times. We live in times of great apostasy
where the gospel of Jesus Christ is marginalized and where the
gospel of free will works religion is exalted. We live in a very
dark age. We live in an age where the message
of anti-Christ is received and the message of God's free and
sovereign mercy in Christ is rejected. This world's religion
of free will works religion seems to be dominant and so widely
received that it even causes the saints of God to despair. It seems as though we live in
a time where God's church is small. and the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace is scarcely heard. But let us take comfort
not in what we see. Believers in Christ do not look
to this world or its religion for any sign of comfort or acceptance. Our Lord was not accepted by
this world and neither will His disciples be accepted. by this
world. His doctrine was not accepted
and neither will the doctrine of His disciples be accepted. Let us therefore call upon our
God for His mercy to reveal Himself. Is that not what we need this
morning? Is that not what you need? To
have the Lord God to reveal Himself to you. I hope that's what you've
come for. I've hoped you've not come to
hear me. If you have, you'll get what you asked for, and it's
not very good. But if you've come to hear Him,
and He speaks to you, then you'll have a greater blessing than
any of this world or its religion could ever give you. It's for
Him to speak to us in power We should desire that Christ should
come in power and that His gospel be preached by those He has sent
and that His Holy Spirit give us boldness and give His gospel
success. Isn't that a desire of our hearts?
That His gospel have success. That His gospel run forth in
power and that men be saved. It is our desire that the gospel
go out in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in the power of the
preacher, not in the power of the witness, but in the power
of God itself, because only God can save. Only God can save. Only God can open the eyes of
the blind. Only God can raise the dead sinner
to life. Only God can give faith in Jesus
Christ. I pray for a revival. I do. I pray for another great awakening. I long for the Lord Jesus to
come to His church and melt our hearts I pray that Jesus would come
and make his presence known unto us. And I'm not talking about
an outward stirring of emotion. I'm not talking about some kind
of festival atmosphere. What I'm talking about is true
revelation. That God revealed himself to
your heart and to your soul. I pray that He would speak to
the souls of men, that we may see Him and rejoice
in the beauty of His perfection. That's revival, isn't it? To
rejoice in His beauty, to rejoice in His salvation, in His mercy,
to rejoice, to believe and trust in Him. Let us this morning,
by the grace of God, behold here in this song of Solomon, the
words of the bride as she talks of her beloved. As she speaks
of her beloved, remember that this book, this book of poetry,
this book of visualization is a conversation between a husband
and his bride. And that husband is Jesus Christ,
the head of the church, and that bride is His church. Believer,
you are the bride. Believer in Christ, you are betrothed
to Christ. And He is your head. He is your
husband. And this is a love song between
Christ and His church. And the bride here, she is talking
about her husband in verses 8 through verse 15. She is talking about Him and
in three different things, three different things that she gives
that gave her soul peace and encouragement concerning her
husband. First of all, His coming. That gave her encouragement.
That revived her heart, His coming. Second of all, what encouraged
her was His calling. And third, what encouraged her
was His communion. These three things always, always
encourage God's people. First of all, let's look at His
coming. His coming. Look at verse 8. Verse 8 says,
"...the voice of My Beloved. Behold, He cometh." Leaping upon
the mountains skipping upon the hills my beloved is like a row
a gazelle or or a deer Skipping on the mountains now. I can see
a deer and I can see a gazelle skipping on the plains, but I
What a what a sight that would be to see him skipping from mountain
to mountain Our Lord Jesus is like a gazelle swift to come
It is the desire of every believer in Christ this morning that Christ
speak to us of His coming, of His coming into this world to
save His people from their sins. Isn't that the name that He was
given, Jesus? Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Our Lord Jesus
speaks, speaks to His people. And His
people testify of His coming and the salvation that He has
given and provided for them. This is my prayer that God might
speak to you concerning His coming. God might speak to you. That God might speak to your
heart. That He might raise sinners from death to life. What a miracle salvation is.
Salvation is not a decision. It's not something we do. It's
not something we earn. Salvation is given. Isn't it
amazing how that as we've grown, I know many of you have grown
up under the sound of the gospel, and isn't it amazing how many
people have come and gone? How many people have heard the
same gospel that we have heard? Heard of the same Christ? And
even some of them have professed to believe, haven't they? But
where have they gone? We've seen many go away. It was
a sad thing. I'd heard of a young lady and
know her very well. She'd only been married a year.
This man who professed to believe Christ, he has since left her
and left the church. What a sad thing. But we've seen
many come and go. Why is it that you still continue?
Why is it that you still believe? Well, it's because we rejoice.
We hear of His coming. We desire to hear of His coming
because He has saved us. He has given us life from the
dead. We have been raised from the
dead. We were born dead in trespasses and sins. And God, by His infinite
mercy, did not pass us by. God, by His infinite grace, chose
us, saved us, and called us. And we heard His voice. And He
gave us life. He called us. And this is the
desire of every believer's heart, that God call others. I want everyone in my family
to believe. I do. I want everyone in your
family to believe. This is our desire. But we know
this, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Man
by nature is dead in trespasses and sin, by nature is corrupt,
man by nature is ignorant of the things of God and can by
no means please God. Not by his will, not by his works,
not by his religion. Man cannot please God. Paul in Romans chapter 10 wrote
of his brethren after the flesh and he said, His heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. And these are
the same men that were persecuting Him. These were the same men
who were lying about Him in the court of law and had Him put
in prison for several years without a charge. And yet He said, My
heart's desire and prayer to God is that Israel might be saved,
that My brethren... He said, I bear them record they
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. I tell you, I bear
record that the religious people of this world have a zeal, don't
they? Man, they're zealous! They're zealous, they give so
much, and they travel, and they do all sorts of good things!
They're zealous! But they're ignorant! And I'm telling you, they're
not ignorant in education. They're not ignorant in morality. They're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. He said, My brethren have a zeal
to God, but not according to knowledge, for they, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteous to everyone
that believeth. All men who go about to establish
their own righteousness do so out of natural ignorance. Natural ignorance. Men who go about to establish
their own righteousness and sacrifices to satisfy the justice of God
have no idea who God is. They suppose that they can obligate
God or demand of God to accept them because of some decision
that they've made or some ceremony they have performed. They know
nothing of God's holiness. If that's your salvation, if
your salvation rests in some decision you have made, you know
nothing of God's holiness. If your salvation rests in anything
that you have done, you know nothing of God's holiness. God,
friends, is absolutely holy. And God demands absolute holiness. God is not asking for man's best
efforts. God is not asking for men to
be moral or religious. God demands, God demands that you and I be
as righteous and holy as himself. Can you do that? Can you be as righteous and holy
as God is? Is there any part of you that
thinks that you have any width to obtain God's favor? Is there
anything? The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do them. O foolish man, how can you hope
to stand before God in your own filthy rags? Behold, you unrighteous, unholy person. Behold God's holiness. And then behold God's Savior.
Behold, Jesus Christ is the end of the law. the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Jesus Christ
is the Lord, our righteousness. For He has come to honor God's
law, obey God's law in perfection. Jesus Christ came to do what
none of us could. He came to honor God's law. Jesus said, I am come not to
destroy the law, but to fulfill it, to establish the law by His
faith and obedience. And He has obtained. He has obtained. He, by His own merit, by His
own work, by His own obedience, by His own faith, has obtained
the righteousness of God through His own merits. And this righteousness this righteousness
of God is given to everyone that believeth. To everyone that believeth. Christ
is the end of the law, the end of the curse, because He was
made a curse for us. God took our guilt, took the
guilt of His people, and imputed it to Christ, His Son, so that
He bore the guilt of our sins in His own body on the tree. God poured out all His justice upon the Holy Son of God in our
stead. The holiness of God not only
demands righteousness but also satisfaction of justice. What
would happen if God gave you His righteousness without dying
for your sins? We would have corrupted it. It
would have been no good. But Christ has done both. He's
made our righteousness and He's also made our atonement. He's
already sacrificed Himself for our sins. Jesus has come. Behold, my beloved, he cometh. Skipping on the mountains. He came in the flesh. It pleased God to bruise him
and to put him to grief and to make his soul an offering for
sin. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. and be satisfied." Consider this,
believer, that it pleased God to crush our Lord Jesus Christ.
This was not by accident, was it? It was not by chance that
our Lord was crucified. It was by divine and sovereign
purpose. He was crucified on purpose. The determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God determined that he would be crucified. I love this, when
the Pharisees, they wanted to take him and crucify him, and
yet they said, well, let's not do it during Passover. And God
says, no, you'll do it exactly when I told you to do it, right
during Passover. And they did it right during
Passover, just exactly as God determined them to do it. It
pleased God to crush him. It does not please God that any
die in their sins because you cannot pay for your sins. If you suffer an eternity in
hell, you could not pay for your sins. God's justice would never
be satisfied with your death in hell. But it pleased God to
bruise him because he satisfied God's justice for sin. Behold how that Jesus came into
the world. He came leaping. That sounds
joyful, doesn't it? He came leaping. He cometh leaping
upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. Our Lord Jesus
came willingly. He came joyfully. I'll tell you what, sometimes
you can't get people, even those that love you, to go across the
street for you without griping. Isn't that so? Cheryl asked me,
go, I said, would you go to the store? Oh, no, not the store. Please don't make me go. I don't
want to go. Well, if you love me, you'll
go. All right, I'll go. My Lord Jesus
did none of that. He has loved His people from
eternity, and He had set His heart to die for our sins from
eternity. He had purpose to come. The Father
looked for a Savior, and Christ said, I'm your Savior. I'm the
one. Send me. I love them. I'll die
for them. He was always our surety, always
our guarantee. and he came leaping and skipping
upon the mountains. This also shows me that all of
the difficulties that he went through, he leaped over them. The law of God, is that not impossible
for us to obey? But for him, it was leaping. He leaped. And I tell you, God
said of his son, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He was well pleased with his
righteousness. Well pleased with his offering. Scripture says, for yet when
we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely will a righteous
man, for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure for a
good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. Isn't that something? He didn't
wait for us to get better. He died for us while we were
yet sinners. much more being justified by
His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through Him. Jesus
loved us that He came to die for us willingly. He shed His
blood willingly. He honored God willingly. And
now He sits on the throne of God willing to save His people. We heard this Wednesday night,
and I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto me." Jesus
said He was willing to be lifted up. I will be. When I am lifted
up, He was willing to die for our sins. And notice how Jesus
came. He came skipping and leaping.
The difficulties that stood between us and Him, He leaped over them. In Colossians 2 and verse 13
it says, And you being dead in your sins and uncircumcised of
your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven
all your trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to His cross. What difficulty stood
between us and God was our sin. Our unrighteousness. And Jesus
took those things and He removed them out of the
way. Do you know what stands between
you and God? Only Christ. Only Christ. Only Christ stands between us
and God. He took our sins and He blotted
them out. He nailed them to His cross and
He did it joyfully. And Jesus now, having ascended
to the right hand of the Father, He will one day yet come again. He has come, leaping over the
mountains of our sin and saving us and He has come in regeneration
of our hearts. And I tell you, one day He will
come again and we will experience the fullness of His salvation.
He is coming. Do you realize it's only been
two days since the Lord died? Two days? A day with the Lord
is a thousand years. To Him, it's only been two days. It's not been long. And He's
coming back shortly enough. He's coming back shortly enough,
and He will gather all His people to Himself. Have you heard the
voice of Jesus? Have you heard Him call concerning
His coming? Have you believed on the Son
of God? Then you are His bride, and He is your Beloved. Second of all, the call of Christ.
You that have heard of the coming of Jesus Christ, have you not
also heard the voice of Christ? The bride here heard the voice
of her beloved, even so does every child of God hear the voice
of Jesus calling. Go to John chapter 10. John chapter
10, verse 14. Jesus said, I am the good shepherd,
and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. Other sheep have I which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring." And notice this, "...and
they shall hear my voice." Is there any doubt in that statement? Is there any doubt? Did the Lord
leave room for any doubt concerning the hearing of the shepherd? He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Well, guess who's going to hear
Him? Only the sheep. only the sheep and there shall be one fold and
one shepherd look down at verse 25 and Jesus answered them he
said I told you and you believe not the works that I do in my
father's name they bear witness of me but you believe not because
you're not of my sheep why is it that men won't believe because
they are not of his sheep His sheep will believe. His sheep
will. And all those who will not believe,
they believe not because they are not of His sheep. As I said
unto you, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow
Me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. What a promise! what a promise
to you who have heard the voice of the shepherd you have heard
the voice of the shepherd you have this promise he says you
have heard my voice because you are my sheep my sheep hear my voice and I
like this and I know them isn't that amazing That Christ
is not going to be surprised. We don't have to worry about
goats hearing this gospel. And we don't have to worry about
sheep rejecting it. His sheep will hear His voice. They will follow Him. He gives
to them eternal life. When did this eternal life begin? in eternity. When will it end? Never. Never. I give them eternal life and
no man will pluck them out of my hands. Have you heard Him? Are you known of Him? Do you
follow Him? This is because you are his sheep
and he has called you and given you eternal life. You've heard
his voice. If anyone is to hear the voice
of Christ, where do you suppose it would be? The scripture says that God is
a God of means. That God uses his gospel. the
preaching of the gospel. To this world, to those who perish,
the preaching of the gospel is foolishness. I'm sure some of you think this
is foolishness. That's because you're dying,
because you're dead. But to us, But to us which are
saved, it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth. The preaching of the gospel is
where men hear and believe. It's where the voice of Christ
is present. He said where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. He promised
to be here with us. He promises to speak to His people
and His people will hear His voice. They'll hear Him. And we pray for His regenerating
call. It says the day is coming and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and
they that hear shall live. Have you heard His voice? Do
you believe on Christ? Because faith in Christ is to
hear His voice. You can't have faith not by yourself. It must be something God gives
you. Faith is a gift of the Almighty God. It is a power of grace that
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, His people
love nothing more than to hear of Him. Every Sunday, Wednesday, what
I desire to do in my heart, I know I may not accomplish, but my
desire is to put Him on a pedestal and make myself unseen. I don't
care to be seen. I care for you to see Him. I
care for you to hear His voice and not mine. I want you to hear
Him. And when you hear Him, you have life. You have life. It's amazing. Life and faith
go together. You can't have one without the
other. You can't have one without the other. And thirdly, communion
with Christ. The bride here in our text speaks
of communion. Go back over to Song of Solomon. He said, The voice of my beloved
is called, Behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping
upon the hills. He is coming. My beloved is like
a roe, like a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall. He looketh forth. through the
window, showing Himself through the lattice. Communion. Look at this picture and see
if this is not true concerning our communion with Christ. Does
He not appear to us as one peeking through the window or staring
through a lattice? Are not our glimpses of our Savior
small and brief? The Apostle said that we see
through a glass darkly. Is that not your experience?
I tell you I want to see more of Him. I want to know and feel
His presence every time I read His word, every time I lift up
my voice in prayer, every time I breathe and move, I want to
feel His presence. I want to know Him. I want to
see Him. I want to commune with Him. But
it seems as though He's in and out. It seems like I can feel
Him at a moment and then it's gone. Our Lord comes, and when he comes,
we feel his presence, but most of the time we are like this.
We are like this bride, and we know this, the Lord standeth
behind our wall. How many times have we placed
up walls of sin, placed up the cares of this world,
and separated our own self from communion with our Savior? Does that not break your heart? He says to his church, this is
not to a lost person, but to his church, behold, I stand at
the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come in and sup with him. Do you see
the willingness of our Savior to commune with us? He is looking
through the window. He is looking through the lattice.
Yes, we see parts of Him, but His eye is continually on us
and He continually desires communion with you. This is amazing to me because
I don't desire communion with myself. But He desires to commune with
me. May Christ do to us as He did
to this bride of the Song of Solomon. He said, My beloved
put his hand in Song of Solomon 5.4. He stood at the door and
he knocked and the bride said, I'm asleep. There's the wall. How can I get up and put my shoes
on and come to you? and he put his hand to the hole
of the door. And the scripture says her bowels were moved within
her. May God put his hand to the hole
of the heart so that we would desire to have communion with
him. Our Lord Jesus knows our hurts. He knows our trials. He knows
our cares. And He knows our needs. These
things we have no idea of. How many times have you been
hurt or feeling bad and you don't know what it is? And you just
say, man, I don't know why. I'm just upset. He knows. Why not go to Him? He knows our needs. Jesus looks
through the windows. of his love, and he would speak
to our hearts words of comfort. Robert Hawker says, the slightest
views of Jesus are blessed. The smallest manifestations he
is pleased to make of himself are gracious to the soul. Shall
I venture to ask, have you seen the king in his beauty? Hath
He looked upon you through the windows and lattice of His love
and mercy? O believer, let us hear His voice
and commune with Him. He says in the song of Solomon,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Is that not beautiful? Is that
not wonderful? He says, Hey, get up and come
with me. Let's go away. I know a Sheryl
probably would like me to say that and say, let's just go away.
We'll just leave everything. That's what you do when you enter
the closet with your Lord and Savior, is that all the things
of the world disappear. You say, Lord, take me to be
in Your presence. Take these cares from me that
is me and You only. Me and You only. Have we done
that even this week? Or have we missed it? He standeth behind the wall. He says, rise up and come. Oh,
but my sin is too great. He says, you're His fair one. You're His beautiful one. And
He loves you. What reason have we to not commune
with our Savior? What reason? Is there any reason? If it is, it's just a wall, and
it needs to be gone. It should be gone. He says, lo,
the winter is past. Doesn't that sound good? We're
just getting started in winter. That sounds good to me. I don't
like the winter. But he says the winter is past. come out. It's springtime. Wherever the Lord Jesus is, it's
springtime. Isn't that so? Newton said, when
the Lord is near, December is as pleasant as May. Isn't that so for you, believer? It seems when our Lord is near
that all winter is past and the rain is gone and there's nothing
left but birds and flowers and singing and joy and love and
peace. You desire those things? I know you do. Believe it, there's nothing that
comes to pass in our life that is not for our good. Do you think these troubles are
by accident or chance that you experience? What are they there
for? They're there to draw you nearer
to Him. Is that not what they do? Do they not draw us nearer to
Him? They do. We are to Him as a dove. in the
cleft of the rock. We are found in the stairs, in
the ladder that extends from heaven, that we may commune with
our God. Praise God, believers, for we
dwell in the secret place that no man can find. A place, I like this song, a place
where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God. May God give us eyes to see His
great coming. May God give us ears to hear
His precious calling. And may God give us sweet communion
with our beloved. And again, all this is of Him. Ask. Ask for these things. Beseech God for these things.
And I tell you, He is gracious to give us these things. May God draw us nearer to Himself.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.