Song of Solomon, Chapter 1. It's a delight to be with you tonight. I'm honored by the invitation
to come and minister the Word here tonight, and I've been looking forward to
this night. There's no place I'd rather be
than in God's people, in the worship of God. We're here before
the Lord, aren't we? We're before Him. Now, there are three things that
we know—should know—concerning the
Word of God. Three things. We know that all Scripture is
inspired of God. How do we know that? Second,
Timothy 316. All scripture. Is inspired. Or you could say there God breathed. All scripture is inspired. God
breathed. So we know that don't we? That's the first thing we know
about the scriptures. Inspired of God. The second thing that
we know about the Word of God is that it is profitable. All Scripture is profitable. How do we know that? 2 Timothy 3, 16. All Scripture
is inspired of God and is profitable. Profitable for what? for instruction, for correction,
and so forth. So we know those two things,
don't we, about Scripture? Inspired of God. All Scripture
is inspired of God. All Scripture is prophetic. Well,
what's the third thing that we ought to know about the Scriptures? The third thing is this. Every
Scripture, all Scripture, concerns Christ. Concerns, right? How do we know? Turn over to, before we get into
Song of Solomon, turn over to Luke just for a moment. Gospel
of Luke. Say something here in the introduction. Luke 24. Luke, Gospel. Keep your place there at Song
of Solomon. Go to Luke. Luke 24. In verse forty-four, Luke twenty-four and verse forty-four. Number one, all Scripture is
inspired of God. Number two, all Scripture is
profitable. Number three, all Scripture concerns Christ. How do we know that? Look at
verse forty-four of Luke twenty-four. This is our Lord speaking to
his disciples on the road to Emmaus, on the Emmaus road. Verse
forty-four, And he said unto them, These are the words which
I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. All Scripture concerns Christ. Whatever passage that we have
before us from the Word of God, whether we read it in our own
private reading or whether we are asked to turn by a preacher,
by your pastor, or by any God-called preacher, Whatever passage of
Scripture we have before us, we can be sure. We can be sure
that we are going to be profited, because all Scripture is profit.
It doesn't matter what Scripture passage it is. There is profit
there for our souls. There is edification there for
our souls. We can be sure of that. We can also be sure that
whatever passage of Scripture is before us, there's something
there that will teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
care where it is, what part of divine revelation it is, it concerns
a person, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We are asked to turn to a passage
of Scripture. The one who is leading us in
the study of the Word of God had better lead us to Christ
and point us to Christ from that passage of Scripture, or he's
not preaching the Word of God like it ought to be preached.
All Scripture concerns Christ, and we can learn of Christ. Now, let me ask you another question
here. How do we find Christ in the
Scriptures? Well, simply stated, the answer
is this, the Lord does that for us. The Lord, by revealing Himself,
by revelation, reveals unto us Christ. You see, we find Christ
by revelation in the Word of God. How do we know that? Look at this passage right here
in Luke. Look at verse 45. Then opened
he their understanding, that they might understand the Spirit. Who opened their understanding?
The Lord did. Who opens our understanding?
Who gives us the understanding to see Christ? Who gives us a
vision of Christ in the Scriptures? The Lord does. It's by divine
revelation. And so Christ, then, is the key
to the Scriptures. Now, whatever passage of Scripture
we are, we can see Christ. We can learn about Christ. Now,
let's go back to the Song of Solomon. here in chapter number one, Song
of Solomon, chapter one. The theme of this book, Song
of Solomon, is the relationship between Christ and His people.
That's the theme. And there are numerous applications
that can be made upon this theme. There are so many applications. Let's just read here in chapter
one, beginning in verse one, just for a little while here
in chapter one, a few verses here. Verse one, the song of
songs, which is solemn. Verse two, let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth. Now, a kiss is a token of acceptance,
of friendship, of reconciliation. And here we have the kiss that
the Lord gives to His people. I've been reconciled. He's been
reconciled unto the Lord through Christ. Let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth. And John Gill, I believe, said
that when the gospel comes to us in the power of the Holy Spirit,
God kisses us. When the gospel comes in the
power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is revealed to us, and we have
that blessed assurance that we belong to the Lord. We've been
reconciled unto him. That's him kissing us with the
kisses of his mouth. And then he also says here in
verse 2, For thy love is better than wine. Thy love. Talks about his love. That's
what we talk about. His love. Thy love. The excellency
of His love, the supremacy of His love. His love passes knowledge. We can't begin to comprehend,
to know really His love. Thy love, it's better than anything
this world can offer. It's better than the delights
of this world, the pleasures of this world. Thy love is better
than wine. Well, we could just stop right
there and just meditate on that for a long time because we're
talking about His love. Look at verse 3. Because of the
savor of thy good ointment, thy name, His name, the Lord's name,
thy name is as ointment poured forth. Ointment poured forth. The ointment
was used in that day for healing. It was also a symbol of joy, the
oil of gladness. Ointment was rich and costly. Oh, talk about the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Christ is the anointed one, Messiah,
anointed one. Ointments there could refer to
the graces of Christ that He bestowed upon His people. It says here, the savor of thy
good ointments. We read over in 2 Corinthians
2.14 that the preaching of the gospel is the manifesting, the
savor of Christ's knowledge. See how that this is setting
forth Christ and His grace. Verse 4, draw me, draw me. We will run after Thee. If we run after the Lord, it's because
He drew us. He gave us the desire to run
after Him. If we have a desire to hear the
gospel, if we have a desire to gather with God's people and
worship the Lord and fellowship with the people of God, it's
because He gave us those desires. He gave us that desire to run
after Him. Our Lord said, Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall
be filled. They are blessed because God's
Spirit dwells in them and causes them, that is, God's people,
to hunger and thirst after the Lord and after the things of
God. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Think about this drawing. There is an effectual drawing
that takes place when we are converted to Christ. We are converted
to Christ because we are drawn to Him. This is effectual on the Lord's
part. He effectually draws His elect
unto Himself. He makes us willing in the day
of His power. We're made willing to bow and
submit to Christ, take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. Our Lord said in John 6, 34,
No man can come to Me except the Father draw him. That's effectual,
effectual draw. In verse 37 of that same chapter
there, chapter six, our Lord said this, "'All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh unto me I will
in no wise cast out.'" The Lord effectually draws us,
and when He draws us, we who have been given unto Christ by
the Father, every one given to Christ by the Father shall come
to Him when they're drawn. They shall come. And so, the Lord continues to
draw us unto Himself. You see, coming to Christ is
continual. To whom coming? Say it in peace.
We continually come to Him. I know there's an initial coming
to Christ, but we continue. This is a lifelong thing. I've heard preachers, so-called,
give their invitations, you know, at the end of the sermon or the
message. They say, well, come down here in the aisle and get
this thing settled. Get it settled up with the Lord.
I don't want to settle up with the Lord. Do you? I want to continue
to do business with Him. I need him. I need to do, I need,
I need to come to him every day. I don't want to get this thing
settled up. Get settled with the Lord and
go on about my way. Oh no. Read the Psalms and see how David
desired to come to the Lord. Talk about seeking God's face. His heart was seeking the Lord,
and that's the belief that he seeks the Lord, because he's
drawn, but he seeks the Lord. And he prays that God would continually
draw me, Lord, unto Yourself. Draw me! Here in verse four. We'll run after Him. And we will
when He draws us. We'll run after Him. Then look
at the next phrase there in verse four. We can talk about the king now. The king has brought me into
his chamber. All right, let's look at this,
phrase by phrase. Who is the king? Solomon? Well, not really. A greater than
Solomon is he. This is the king of kings, the
Lord of lords. Christ is the King. He's the
King of saints. He's the King of glory. The King
has brought me into His kingdom. The King has brought me. This is something that God's
people will acknowledge and will confess. God, Christ, has brought
me. I am what I am by the grace of
the Lord, the grace of God. He hath brought me. This implies, does it not, an
inability on our part to draw near unto our King, unto the
King, unto the Lord. That's all we are, inability. That describes us, doesn't it?
Inability. We can't even worship God. As
Paul prays, we need God to even enable us to worship Him. We
can't do that. That's beyond the flesh. He hath brought me. God's people
will acknowledge their dependency upon the Lord and His effectual
grace in bringing them to Christ, in bringing them into the very
presence of the Lord. They acknowledge their dependence
upon Him, not their ability, not their decision. They ascribe
all to the Lord, to the praise of the glory of His grace. You see, believers glory in the
Lord. Let him that gloryeth, let him
glory in the Lord. Now, you can glory in the Lord
all you want to. You're commanded to do so, but
not in yourself, but in the Lord. Let him that
gloryeth, glory in the Lord. The King hath brought me. Where? What does it say? Into his chambers. Where's that? Well, not everybody could go
into the king's chambers. It would be very hidden. I believe it has reference, in
a spiritual sense, to that place of intimacy, that sacred nearness,
that place of fellowship and communion with Christ. When our souls are made to be
filled with the love and the comfort of God and the Holy Spirit, this also could refer to the
mystery of the gospel, where the Lord shows us those
things which we have not seen or heard before. the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Turn over to 1 Corinthians for
a moment. Keep your place there. We'll
come back there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I love this passage of Scripture.
1 Corinthians 2. Think about the mystery of the
gospel. The secret of the Lord is with
him that fears him. That's the covenant, isn't it?
The secret of the Lord. Look at I Corinthians 2 verse
9, But as it is written, I have not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man the thing which God hath
prepared for them that love him. But don't stop there. Go to the
next verse. But God. There's another one. But God. But God hath revealed
them unto us. Who? The elect. God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things the hidden wisdom that the world
cannot see, that the world doesn't know anything about, but these
things are revealed to God's people by the Spirit of God who
searches the deep faith of, He hath brought me into His chains
and has revealed unto me the great and glorious things of
grace. Isn't that something to rejoice
about? Well, we could read on in that
chapter, but let's go back to to our text here, verse 4 of
chapter 1 of Psalms. The next thing we have here in
verse 4, which is really the text, I guess you could say,
for this message—you also look at it a little bit in verse 5—but
in verse 4 we have here Draw me, we will run after thee. The
king hath brought me into his chambers." And the next thing,
"'We will be glad and rejoice in thee. We will remember thy love more
than once.'" Now, I'd like to say, concerning
this part of the verse here, in verse four, this is, we have
the effect. for the results of what the Lord
has done for us, because he has drawn us, because he has brought
us into his presence, that we might behold the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. Because of that, we're glad. We're glad in Him. We rejoice
in Him. The Lord has made our hearts
to rejoice. We're here tonight to rejoice
in that which the Lord has done for us. That's the common theme of God's
people. They come to do this one thing,
to rejoice in the Lord. Not to rejoice in a man or what
man has done or what man can do, but rejoicing in the Lord. We rejoice in Christ. He is the object of our praise,
the source of our joy, the author and the finisher of our faith.
He's everything. Christ is all. and to rejoice
in Him, in His person, who He is. Boy, you think about
who He is, that's something to rejoice about. Who is He? He's God. Who is He?
He's man. He's God and man in one person. He's the God made.
All the fullness of God dwells in Him. He's full of grace and truth.
We beheld His glory, John wrote, as of the glory of the only begotten
Father, full of grace. We rejoice in the person of Christ. We rejoice in the work of Christ,
His person and His word. What did He do? Well, He's the
victorious Savior. We can rejoice tonight because
we know Christ is victorious. He wasn't defeated. He won the
battle. He cried, It is finished. Now
I am finished, but it is finished, the work that God called, gave
Him to do, He finished the work. We rejoice tonight in a successful
Savior, a successful Redeemer, that He satisfied divine justice.
We rejoice in what He did for us on Calvary's cross, that He
took our sins on His on His own body on the tree that He might
bring us to God, that He might reconcile us to God. He's our
mediator. He's our surety. He's our advocate. He ever liveth
to make intercession for us. We rejoice in these things. We
rejoice in Him and who He is and what He has done for us,
the great things of God. He's our Savior. He's our King. He's our Lord. Now, He's everybody's
Lord, but He's the Lord especially of His people. He's everybody's
King. I know that. He's King of kings
and Lord of lords. But God's people are glad of
that. They rejoice in that. We rejoice in that. And we, by
His grace, bow to Him. on my Lord's joyful will. We will be glad and rejoice
in the Lord. Then he says here, we will remember
thy love more than mine. Let's remember His love. Let's reflect upon His love.
Let's meditate upon His love. Herein is love. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. and gave His Son to be appreciation
for our sins. Herein, we will remember thy love. We're to meditate upon His love
every single day. Remember His love, the love that
He has for His people. The Apostle Paul wrote, He loved every child of God. He said that He loved me. He
gave Himself for me. Herein is love. It says here that He remembered
our love more than wine. Why does it say more than wine?
Because wine is the best of the world. It represents the best
of the world, the light of the world. And I'll say it again,
the love of Christ for us is more precious than any earthly
or worldly comfort or delight. Meditate upon His love, it will
do your soul good. Often think about His love. All right, verse five. We're
going to close this verse. I am black. Here's a comparison
confession of a child of God as stated by the
bride in the song of Solomon. I am black. Now, this does not
mean it's meant to be taken literally. It's not talking about her natural
complexion. But rather, it is an expression of her, the bride,
or we could say of a child of God. It is an expression of a
child of God acknowledging that she's a sinner. It's our very nature. Paul calls it the body of this
place, the body of sin. And we will never be rid of it
in this life, never. If we say, If we have
no sin, what do we live for? And the truth is life, if
we say that we have no sin. We are defiled with sin. We are
black as midnight. This is the sin, defilement of our nation. I am black, but come, but come. That's what we are by nature. By nature, we're black, we're
sinful. But by grace, we've been made
human. This is what God has made us
by grace. With an everlasting righteousness,
with a perfect righteousness, a road in the very white righteousness
of Christ, a white road in His righteousness. I am black, yes,
that's what I'm talking about. I am a sinner by nature. Center by birth, center by next,
center by choice, but by grace I've been raised, beautified
in the very righteousness of Jesus. We're justified from
all sin. We stand before God as holy, before Him as holy,
clothed in the very beauty of holiness, before God in Christ. Not in ourselves, in Christ.
He sees no sin in us. That's our condition. I believe
that's a good place to stop. Thank you. We'll stop right there. That's enough to rejoice our
hearts right now. We're going to roll play. So, I'm going to show you how
to do it. All right, let's stand and all
this business together and go down and have a bite to eat and
gather back up here. Let's be here by 11. I'm going to be talking to you
today about life in essence, and how our life forces us to change. I'm going to be
talking to you today about life in essence, and how our life forces us to change.
I'm going to be talking to you today about life in essence, and how our life
forces us to change. I'm going to be talking to you today about life in essence,
and how our life forces us to change. I'm going to be talking
to you today about life in essence, and how our life forces us to change. I'm going
to be talking to you today about life in essence, and how our life forces us to
change. I'm going to be talking to you today about life in essence, and how our life
forces us to change. I'm going to be talking to you today about life in essence, and how
our life forces us to change. I'm going to be talking to you today about life
in essence, and how our life forces us to change. I'm going to be talking to you
today about life in essence, and If it weren't for the Word, I would be so blamed
for not being a child in the right sense of the word. I say
this not because it's hurting me, but because I'm here to endorse
it. I'm here to endorse Jesus Christ. I'm here to endorse the
truth because it's hurting me. If it weren't for the Word, I
would be so blamed for not being a child in the right sense
of the word. I want to say this. Strengthen our faith, or
his faith, whether it be faith in Christ, which is his eternal
life. Now, gather this together for
a time of fellowship. Thank you for the food. Thank
you for everything that you've provided us with. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So, I'm going to give you a little
bit of background on what we're doing. I'm going to show you how to
do it. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. So I'm going to go ahead and
do that. So I'm going to go ahead and
do that. So I'm going So I'm going to
show you how to do it. I'm going to show you how to
do it. I'm going to show you how to
do it. So I'm going to go ahead and
start by saying thank you so much to all of our sponsors. I'm going to start by saying
first of all, thank you to all of our sponsors, thank you to
our sponsors, thank you to our sponsors, thank you to our sponsors,
thank you to our sponsors, thank you to our sponsors, thank you
to our sponsors, thank you to our sponsors, thank you to our
sponsors, thank you to our sponsors, thank you to our sponsors, thank
you to our sponsors. I can't wait to see what you
guys have to say, so just watch out for me. I'll be back soon,
so just watch out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch
out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch out for me. I'll
be back soon, so just watch out for me. I'll be back soon, so
just watch out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch
out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch
out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch out for me. I'll
be back soon, so just watch out for me. I'll be back soon, so
just watch out for me. I'll be back soon, so just watch out for me. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. I'm going to go ahead and get
started. We're going to try to do the
same thing. We're going to try to do the
same thing. We're going to try to do the
same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the
same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going
to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the
same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going
to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing.
We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing.
We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing.
We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing.
We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to try to do the same thing.
We're going to try to do the same thing. We're going to I'm going to show you how to
do it. I'm going to show you how to do it. We're going to go ahead and get
started. It's not for purchase. It's not
for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not
for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not for a purchase. It's not for
a purchase. Okay. I'm just going to go ahead and
do that. I'm just going to do that. So I'm going to show you some
slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going to show
you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going
to show you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm
going to show you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going
to show you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going to show
you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going to show you some
slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going to show
you some slides from the first year of grad school. And I'm going
to show you some slides from the first year of grad school.
And I'm going to show you some slides from the first year of
grad school. And I'm going to show you some slides from the first year
of grad school. And I'm going to show you some slides from
the first year of grad school. And I'm going to show you some slides
from the first year of grad school. And I'm Okay. I'm going to go ahead and show
you how to do it.