Thank you, Pastor. It's a joy to see some friends,
old friends, some of your old friends, old friends, and some
of your dear friends. It's good to see you. It's good
to see my favorite preacher. And you won't get jealous of
me for saying this, will you, Doc? And it's good to see Doris. I appreciate my preaching brethren.
And I appreciate the pastors. The pastors. I love the pastors.
I pray for the pastors. Pastors experience things nobody
else ever experienced in their hearts. They talk about 24-7s.
That's a pastor. 24-7s. I think so often about how Henry
used to come and go so much. And I tried that for a while
and it almost killed me. And I'm not Henry. I'm just not
Henry and I'm not Don. I can't go much. I love to stay
around home. I told Henry as he was sitting
there a minute ago, I'm not for sure if he heard me or not, but
I told him, I said, you know your mouth's been stopped, but your voice is still being
heard. All of us can testify to that,
can't we? I can tell you some things about what I've learned
from Henry Mahan. Good instructions he gives me.
I appreciate him. Just appreciate him. I love him.
I wanted to say that. I want you to turn this morning
with me in my text. It's found in Psalms of Solomon
chapter 8. Psalms of Solomon chapter 8. There was a man, he lived in Hartsville, Alabama. His name was Anthony Showalter.
He was a music teacher. He died in 1924. He got a letter, two letters
one day from two of his former students, and both of them had
just lost their wives on the same day. And Mr. Showalter had a friend by the
name of Elijah Hoffman, a hymn writer who lived in Pennsylvania.
And he wrote a letter and said, Dear brother, can you write a
hymn for this sad occasion of my two students losing their
wives? And just a few days later, he wrote back these lines, What
a fellowship What a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms. What a blessedness, what a peace
is mine, leaning on the everlasting arm. Oh, how sweet to walk in
this pilgrim way, leaning on the everlasting arm. Oh, how
bright the path grows from day to day, leaning on the everlasting
arm. What have I to dread? What have
I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arm. I have blessed peace with my
Lord so near. Leaning on the everlasting arm. Lean in on Jesus. Leaning on
Jesus. Safe and secure from all alarm. Leaning on Jesus. And that's
the title this morning. of what I want to look at in
the Psalms of Solomon chapter 8. Just a portion of verse 5. Just ever so often I visit this
and revisit this and preach from it and think so often of it.
Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness leaning upon her
beloved? Who is this? We have three persons
here. Somebody's asking this question.
Who is this? We're not told who's asking the
question. If they're asking because they already know, and they're
wanting us to consider what's happening. If it's somebody sincerely
wanting information. We don't know who's asking this
question. But somebody has recognized that something is going on. Something
is being done that they've just never seen before. Somebody is
coming up from the wilderness. They've never seen anybody but
this one person come up out of the wilderness. And they said,
who is this? The second person here is the
Beloved. The Beloved. And the other is said to be leaning
upon Him. coming up from the wilderness.
Now there's no doubt, I don't have to tell you who these are.
I'm going to, but I don't have to. You already know who these
are, don't you? This is Christ and His church. The whole book
of God is about Christ and His church. The Redeemer and His
redeemed and them leaning upon Him. In the Gospel of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, The Beloved is used eight times. And every time, it's of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Seven of those times, it's of
the Father speaking to Him like this, This is My Beloved Son. This is My Son. This is My Son. My Eternal Son. And I love Him. My soul is wrapped up in Him. I've given everything to Him.
I love Him. I love His person. I love His work. I love Him.
I'm going to set Him on my right hand and say, my son, sit here
and fulfill all my purposes, accomplish all my will. I love
you. This is God's beloved. Thirty
times in this little book of Songs of Solomon, this word,
Beloved, is used. Thirty times in eight chapters.
Twenty-seven times it's the church speaking of Him or to Him. And she identifies Him and describes
Him and speaks of Him in this way so often that those who heard
her just picked up on that and said, that's your beloved. That's
her beloved. Brothers and sisters, if we want
people to speak highly of Christ, then let us speak highly of Him.
If we want people to think highly of Him, then let us think highly
of Him. And they may not know Him in
their hearts, but let us speak of Him so often and so clearly
and so lovingly they'll know about Him in their heads. My
beloved, my beloved. But these aren't just words that
she's using about him. This is heartfelt. I mean, she's
so near to him here, we're told that she is leaning up on him. You've got to be close to somebody
to lean on them. And it's not that she used to
lean on him. Or she's thinking, in the future
I'm going to lean on Him. But right now she is leaning
on Him. Who is this that's coming up
out of the wilderness, leaning on her Beloved? The church leaning
upon her Savior. This word, to lean, denotes trust,
dependency, confidence. We're sometimes warned not to
lean against the railing. Don't lean against that railing,
it may not hold you. Don't put your trust in that
railing, it may not hold you. Don't put all your weight on
that rope, it may break. I saw a few, a number of years
ago, they were building a glass platform out over a portion of
the Grand Canyon. And when you step out there,
you can look down hundreds of feet below. Somebody is going
to have to talk a lot of confidence into me to get me to walk out
on a glass platform over the Grand Canyon. The consequences of that thing
breaking is too dire. That could be fatal, could it
not? I'm not going to trust some man-made apparatus to hold my
weight up. I'm not convinced it will hold
me. And I tell you this, brothers and sisters, you and I are very
conscious of the eternal consequences if our trust is misplaced. We're facing eternity, aren't
we? We have precious souls to be
saved. If the Redeemer is not able to
support our full weight, then we're not going to make it. And
if we don't make it, the consequences is unthinkable. Is He able to hold us? You feel
like you can rest your full weight upon Him? You're resting upon
Him this morning so thoroughly and so wholly. If He stumbles,
you stumble. If He fails and falls, you fail
and fall. You have weighed these eternal
consequences in your soul. And you have brought your soul
and your heart to put all your confidence and all your weight
upon your Redeemer. That's the only way anybody has
ever got up out of this wilderness. is leaning upon her Beloved. Our eternal salvation rests upon
Him. Does it not? Here's some very good theology.
This is excellent and clear theology taught in this one little verse,
leaning upon her Beloved. We often make these statements
and we just go over them so fast we don't stop to think about
them. But why is she leaning upon her Beloved? And this is
the very beginning of her coming up out of the wilderness. This
is where she started. This is where she began leaning
upon her Beloved. Listen to this and see if this
isn't so. She's leaning upon Him for her
Complete acceptance with God. Now, that's a statement, is it
not? He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. She is leaning upon His obedience
for her righteousness. Don't just read over that. Don't
just hear that and let it go. Are you leaning your full weight
upon the obedience of another in the days of His flesh for
your righteousness? By one man's obedience shall
many be made righteous. She's leaning on His blood for
her cleansing from all sin. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. She's leaning on the fullness
of His supply for all her wants. My God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. She's leaning upon His power
for all her need. Fear not thou worm, Jacob. I
am thy help. She is leaning upon His grace
for all her strength. My grace is sufficient for thee.
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. She is leaning
upon His love for her security. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Jesus loves me. This I know. Is that not your security? For
the Bible tells me so. Who shall separate you? What
shall separate you from the love of Christ? Aren't you leaning
upon His love? She's leaning upon His intercession
for her continual access unto the Father. Through Him we have
access unto the Father. She's leaning upon His Word for
her hope and her rest. This is my hope and my affliction. Thy Word hath quickened me. Standing on the promises, I cannot
fall. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior. as my all in all. Isn't that
where we started? I know, brothers and sisters,
I know that we're not theologians when the Lord saves us. But I
would warn anybody to think that they begin leaning
today and don't even know how they're accepted until 20 years
later. That's the beginning of the way
up out of this wilderness. Leaning. Thinking that the Lord
saves us and somehow our righteousness is involved in that. Isn't this
good theology? We begin by leaning upon the
Beloved. King Shinasherab, the king of
Assyria, had come against Jerusalem. Hezekiah sent out a note to the
inhabitants of this city, and this is what he said. Be strong
and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
this king of Assyria, nor for the multitude that's with him. There be more with us than with
them. With them is an arm of flesh,
but with us the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. And it was said this, the people
rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah. If they rested themselves
upon the words of Hezekiah, should you and I not rest ourselves
upon the word of our King? Trust in the Lord with all your
heart and lean not to your own understanding. Don't lean on
the arm of flesh, it'll fail you. Don't lean on your present
circumstances, they're going to change. Don't lean on human wisdom, quantum
reasoning. The Lord's bringing you by way
that you've never been before. You don't know how to get up
out of the wilderness. This is a crooked place of pits
and serpents and it's a dangerous place. And how many have fallen
in this wilderness? How many have went from this
wilderness down into hell? How many have been like the rebels
of old in the day of Israel that never got out of this wilderness? Ain't but one way to come up
out of this wilderness, brothers and sisters. One way only. And that's what somebody was
noticing. Here's somebody doing something
that nobody else has ever done. And nobody else ever can do.
They're coming up out of this wilderness. And they noticed
this. And they noticed how she was
doing it. Ain't but one way to get out of this wilderness. If
you don't get out this way, you'll die in this wilderness. And if you die in this wilderness,
you're gone forever. And the only way to get up from
it is leaning, leaning upon the Beloved, the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Don't we love to read then about
those who speak so highly of our Beloved? We live to hear
the testimonies of those who have gone before us, long before
us, and left their testimony of His greatness and His power
and His merit and His faithfulness. Listen to what an angel said
about Him. I imagine if you heard the voice of an angel, you're
listening to one who had some experience of who this Beloved
was. And listen to what He said. He said to Mary, you shall conceive
in your womb and bring forth a son, And his name shall be
called Jesus, and he shall be great. And he shall be called
the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give to him the
throne of his father David. And he's going to reign forever.
And of his kingdom there will be no end. That's our beloved
upon whom we lean. Here's what an old prophet said
about him. A virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth
the Son, and thou shalt call His name Immanuel." And they
knew what that meant, God with us. Another one got such a sight
of Him, of His power and His faithfulness, they said this,
"...He shall never fail, nor be discouraged, till He hath
set judgment in the earth." In other words, until He has finished
His work. until he has accomplished his
redemption, until the hope of every last elect soul shall be
realized. He shall never fail and never
be discouraged. Another told what he knew and
believed about the beloved and he said this, he shall go forth
as a mighty man He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war.
He shall cry, yea, he shall roar, listen, he shall prevail against
his enemies." Another overheard him talking one day to his enemies.
Talking very boldly to his enemies and very sternly to his enemies. And this is what he overheard
him to say, I will be your plague. O grave,
I will be your destruction, and repentance shall be hid from
my eyes." This is just some of the testimonies men have left.
And one man that knew him better than any other man I imagine
said this of him, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
that He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him against
that day." And what had He committed? Everything! Everything to Him! He leaned His full weight, all
He was and all He ever hoped to be, He leaned it all upon
the Beloved, and He said, I'm persuaded He's able to carry
it. You'll not find anybody else like this. You better not be
depending on Moses. He complained about a few people
leaning on Him, didn't He? These people are leaning on Me
and I can't take it. If you don't help Me, just kill
Me now. This one is able to bear your
weight. This Beloved, He is a great one.
Two blind men come to Him one day to be healed and He said,
Do you believe I am able to do this? Yeah, Lord, I believe that
You are able. I believe that you're able. And
all of these countless number of people have already finished
their wilderness journey and they're now at home at rest in
the Father's house. They've reached their happy end.
They've come up out of the wilderness and now they're resting from
their labor. And everybody who is leaning as they did will enjoy
the same end that they have. Rest Him. Rest Him. From election to redemption to
calling to glorification, it all begins and ends with the
Beloved. And we begin by leaning on Him.
We continue by leaning on Him. As are all and all. I'm just saying this is clear
theology. It's clear theology. If you're leaning on yourself,
you're not going to make it. And He has to continue to teach
us to lean on Him, doesn't He? Something else about this. Not
only is she leaning on Him for her all in all, but she's leaning
because she feels welcome to lean. She feels so welcome to
lean. Don't you love to see a husband
and wife walking into a building or walking across the parking
lot and the wife is leaning on her husband? Don't you love to
see that? Maybe it's cold and she's snuggled up to him and
she's leaning on him to keep warm. Maybe she feels a little
bit threatened. Maybe there's some present danger
and what does she do? She snuggles up and she leans
on her husband. Maybe if she feels weak or sick,
she leans upon her husband for strength. I love to see that,
don't you? I used to be a truck driver. And one day I was following an
old car, you could tell it was full of women and kids. And just
up ahead, I saw what was going to happen before it ever happened.
There's this beautiful sports car. And just about the time
that old rattle trap got right even with that sports car, the
sports car pulled right out in front of it. And that old rattle
trap knocked the whole front end off of that sports car. And
boy, they started cussing that lady in that sports car and she
got out and she was standing there sobbing. I parked my truck
and went up to her and I said, are you alright? And you know
the first words out of her mouth, my husband's going to kill me. I said, why? She said, my husband's
going to kill me. He's not going to ask how you
are. He's not going to say, sweetheart,
that car is nothing, you're everything to me. No, he's going to say,
I'm going to kill you. Isn't that awful? My dear wifey, somebody asked
me how my dear wifey was. It'd take me an hour to tell
you how my dear wifey was doing. Bless her heart. She has gone
through some terrible trials the last two or three years.
And the other day she loves to mow. And I said, babe, I'll mow
the yard if you want to know. I get that at rest of my mind.
I like to mow. She was mowing and got out right
next to the well casing. You know these well casings that
sticks up a foot and a half. The more acquit. And I said,
get your Jeep and bring it around here and we'll hot shot it off.
And we hot shotted it off and she backed up and pulled right
over the top of the well case. I mean, PVC pipe was flying everywhere. 220 volt, she had stretched the
wires, bent another pipe over, and I was standing there like
this. And she saw me and she fell. She just fell. just weeped and sobbed. And you
know what I did? I said, wife, I've never loved
you more than I love you right now. And I held her and I had to hold
her up. And I knew the labor it was going
to take me to fix that wheelchair. I had to dig down deep into the
ground And I thought, boy, my back's going to be killing me
when I get through this. Blisters on my hands, sweat on my brow.
But you know, it was a joy to do that. Because I was doing
it because I loved her. I fixed all of that with such
joy. And I heard her tell somebody
a day or two after that, she said, you know, Bruce never did
say a negative thing to me about that. He never did throw that
up to me. I'm just saying this, brothers
and sisters, don't we sometimes judge our heavenly husband like
that one woman judged hers? Don't we think, oh, he's so mean,
he's so uncaring, he's so unkind? But is he that way? How many
messes have you made up? How many things have you done
wrong? And look what it cost him to
fix it. Look at His back at the pharaohs.
Put your hands into the prints of the nails. Thrust your hand
into His side. And have you ever heard Him complain
about it? And He did it all with a measure
of joy. Did He not? Don't you feel welcome to lean
on Him? Casting all your care upon Him. All your sorrow over the past,
just cast it on Him. All your anxiety about the future,
all your heaviness about the present, all your cares, bring
yourself and all your cares and roll them all up on Him and He'll
carry you and them too. And all along, He'll be smiling. and welcoming you to do it. Look here in chapter 7. Look in chapter 5 and verse 16. Look at these two
places. Here's her thought of her Beloved. Look in verse 16 of chapter 5.
His mouth is most sweet, yea, He is altogether lovely. This
is my Beloved and this is my Friend. This is my Friend. This is the Eternal God. This
is God in our humanity, and He's my Friend. Look what He says in chapter
7 and verse 10, I am thy Beloved's, and His desire
is toward me. Isn't that wonderful? He desires you. He's desired
you from all eternity. He desired you when He was here,
suffering temptations and being rejected and despised. He desired
you when He was on the cross bearing your load. And He desires
you now in heaven. And He just can't wait to have
you with Him there in the Father's house. His desire is towards
you. Sometimes I get to thinking about
this, and I think if I had a thousand souls, and every one of them
was lost, I could come to Him and have every one of them saved.
If I had a mountain of sins, I could bring them to Him and
cast them into the sea of His blood and have them all washed
away, simply because He welcomes me to do it. He delights for
me to lean hard upon Him. And I tell you, I've never had
Him to throw it up to me. Seems like the more weight I
put on him, the better he likes it. The easier my weight becomes,
and it don't burden him at all. He's a mighty Savior. I had a
friend of mine to tell me about a lady, I promised myself I wasn't
going to get this way, sobbing like this, but I can't help it
sometimes. I had a friend of mine tell me about a lady that
got on the bus, shuttle bus where you have to
stand and hold to the pole. She was standing there on the
bus and she had such a heavy suitcase, she was having to change
hands holding the suitcase. And they had gone several blocks
and she kept changing hands with that heavy suitcase. And finally
the fellow next to her says, Lady, if you'll set that suitcase
down, this bus will carry it. If you'll put all your load upon
Him, He'll carry you and your load. He cares for you. He cares for you. If we're leaning upon Him, that's
a clear indication that He's near. You can't lean on anybody
if they're far off. If you're leaning upon Christ,
then He is near to you, so near to you that He can fill your
infirmities. He's so near to you that He can
be touched with your feelings. How are you feeling today? How
are you feeling? Oh, Bruce, you just don't know.
You just don't know how I'm feeling. Man, it's got tough. It's got
tough. You're feeling rough? Feeling
heavy? He fills it too. He fills your
infirmity. Nobody's nearer to you than your
Beloved. He's a friend that sticks closest
than a brother. He's near them that are of a
broken heart. What nation is there that has
God so near to them as we have God near to us? I tell you what, brothers and
sisters, He can hear the slightest groaning of your soul. He can
feel the pressure of your heart when you're under the load. He's
near. He's near. If you're leaning
upon Him, that's evidence enough that He's near you. You want
to feel His presence? You probably never will. I never
know anybody that seeked after a feeling that got it. Here's
assurance enough If you're leaning upon Him, He's near you. If He wasn't near you, you wouldn't
be leaning upon Him. Oh, He's so near. He's so near. He's here. He's right in our
midst right now. He's here. A cloud may come between you
and the sun, but there's never been a cloud to move the sun.
The sun never moves. Clouds don't move the sun. And
just because you can't perceive the Savior's presence is no evidence
that He's not near. Are you leaning on Him? You get ready tonight to pillow
your head. Are you leaning on Him? Committing yourself to Him
for the night, then He's right there with you. You're leaning
on Him. He's there. Let this dispel your
fear of Him not being with you. He's with you. This wilderness,
for just a second, this wilderness. Boy, what an apt description
of this world, isn't it? A wilderness. Listen to these
verses. The Lord led thee through that
great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents.
and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water. He found
thee in the desert, and the waste, howling wilderness. He led thee
through a land of deserts, and pits, and droughts, and the shadow
of death, through a land no man passed through, and where no
man dwelt. They wandered in the wilderness
in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them." What an apt
description of this world. It's never brought forth any
fruit to God. There's no bread in this world
to sustain our soul. There's no water of life here.
Nobody dwells here for long, does he? And most people are
leaving this wilderness and going down into the pit just like Corrie
did. This world is a wilderness. But
you know something? If you could stay in your house,
let someone else go to the grocery for you, run all your errands
for you, and shut yourself up inside the house, you can't get
out of this wilderness. Because this world is not only
a wilderness, there's a wilderness in here. There's a bunch of serpents
in here. There's a bunch of slime pits
in here, is there not? Shut us up in a cave and never
let us out. Old Luther said, I wanted to
join the monastery and take a world of sin away from me. And he said,
when I got into the monastery, I found out I took a world of
sin in with me. That's us, is it? This old nature
is a wilderness, and there's only one way, brothers and sisters,
to come out of it, and that's leaning upon the Beloved. Are you leaning on Him? Are you
leaning on Him? I love how the Holy Spirit says
this. If he had said it another way,
I would have almost despaired. If he had said it like this,
who is this that has come up out of the wilderness? I thought,
oh, it ain't me. Because I haven't come up out
of it, have you? I love the way he says it because he said, who
is this that is coming up? We haven't gotten out of it yet.
We're still coming up. coming up out of the world, coming
up out of ourselves, leaning upon our Beloved. And I tell
you the way to come out of it, the way to come out of these
things that's so appealing to the flesh, all the pleasures
that this world is seeking out for today, the temporal advantages,
sat in an object before your eyes that's more attractive than
anything else. Look in chapter 1 right quickly,
just back over to your left, and look what she says in verse
2 and in verse 16. Psalms of Solomon 1, 2, "...let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better
than wine." Knowing what I know now, right here is where her
trouble begins. When somebody comes up to me
and says, the Savior has been revealed to my heart, I say,
man, you're going to have trouble. You're going to have trouble
the rest of your life. You're in trouble. You're going to find out you've
got these two opposing armies in you. And sometime when you
hear His voice, you're going to be sleepy and not listen to
Him and open the door. You're going to hate yourself.
You're going to hate this world. You're going to hate your other
failures. And it's all going to be because you know something
about His love for you. And look at the object of her
love. Verse 16, Behold, thou art fair,
my beloved, yea, pleasant, thou art fair and handsome. This word
fair means handsome. Our husband is handsome and he's
pleasant. John, you're pleasant, but you're
not very handsome. Some men are handsome, not very
fair. Some men are neither. Christ is both. Here's what Samuel Rutherford
said about the Lord Jesus being so fair. He said, O fair sun,
O fair moon, O fair stars, O fair flowers and roses and lilies,
but O ten thousand times fairer Lord Jesus. Alas, he says, I
have wronged Him by making such a comparison, O black sun. O black stars, O black moon,
but fairer, Lord Jesus. O black flowers, and black lilies,
and black roses, but O fairer, ever fairer, Lord Jesus. O black
heavens, but fairer, Christ. O black angels, but surpassingly
fairer, Lord Jesus. Set Him before your eyes. Set
your affections upon Him and lean on Him. If we want others
to know Him, then let us tell them about Him. If we want others
to love Him, let us love Him ourselves. If we want others
to learn how to come up out of this world, then let us teach
them. But beware, brothers and sisters,
beware all of us of just teaching in words. Words are wonderful
things. Words are powerful things when
they're followed by actions. It's not enough to say, this
is my beloved. They'll see soon whether you're
leaning on Him or not. And if you say, this is my beloved,
and you're not leaning, your words will become sounding brass
and a tinkling cymbal. Call Him your beloved if He's
yours. And if He's yours, God has made Him so. And if He's
yours, you don't ever have to doubt you're His. God bless you. Thank you, Pastor.