Turn to the Song of Solomon again. The Song of Solomon chapter 7. Before I read my text for this
morning, I will give you my title. But I do not intend this title
in a way of trying to be cute. I don't even intend this title
this morning trying to be clever. But I do hope that this title
maybe might stick in your mind. Even if you don't remember one
of the words I'm going to use, you'll say, there was a word
he used. I need to remember what that was. I need to check that
out. The title of my message is this, The Gospel Arboretum. You know what an arboretum is?
A place where plants are grown, trees, flowers. It's a place where you grow these
plants to study them. and to enjoy them. Now, let's listen to the passage.
Song of Solomon 7 and verse 10. I am my Beloved's and His desire
is toward me. When you think of that in light
of this as Christ and His church, that is an amazing thing. Because
His church is made up of sinners and sinners only. Sinners and
sinners only. If you're not a sinner, you're
not a part of His church. And His desire is toward me. That causes me to bow in humility. Even, Joe, when I feel like I
don't have much humility in me. Look. Come, my beloved. Let us
go forth into the field. Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards. Let us see if the vine flourish,
whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth.
There will I give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and
at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruit, new and old. which I have laid up for thee,
O my beloved." Now I hope I can make good on that title, the
Gospel Arboretum. In this passage, the church speaks
to Christ. The Song of Solomon can be a
little confusing when you begin to read it because you wonder
who is speaking. But generally speaking, when
Christ is talking, you will see that. And when the church is
talking, you will see that. Now there are at times third
parties that speak, but we don't know for sure who they are. And
it doesn't really matter. The amazing thing is even these
third parties are always talking about either Christ or the church
or Christ and the Church. Mason, even if that's not their
love, they still speak of Christ and the Church. But we know this
is the Church speaking to Christ. How do I know that? And you can
see it here, and people who have a lot more knowledge than me
recognize this. You notice it's the start of
a paragraph in verse 10, if you have a Bible that indicates paragraphs
with that little paragraph mark. I am my beloved's, and his desire
is toward me. So who's speaking here? The her
is. The she is. The church is speaking here.
That's an established fact. Now first of all, let me say
this, we do not base any doctrine upon types and figures. We do not base our doctrine on
types and figures. We base our doctrine of who God
is and who man is by the clear statements in scripture, thus
saith the Lord. but these types and symbols give
you and I word pictures, if at least nothing else, through which
we can, to some degree, relate to the truth that's spelled out
in the doctrine of the book. I hope I've made that understandable,
at least. So in this passage, this church
speaks to Christ. And I do not intend on trying
to define every word and every phrase. And you fall into lots
of trouble when you do that with types and symbols. But this sets
the scene of our text. That is, the church is speaking
to Christ. God's church, those who are born
of God, those who are converted by the gospel of Christ. And
I emphasize those two things together. And I'll show you why,
hopefully, here in a moment. God's church rejoices in her
union with Christ in the gospel ministry. The church said, let
us. That doesn't mean us here, though
that certainly is applicable, because we're in this endeavor
together. But the church, even speaking
to Christ, Joe, says, let us. In other words, God, don't send
me if you're not with me. And God, if you sent me, I know
you are with me. Let us go forth. Let us lodge. Do you see it? Let us get up early. Let us see
our gates. Oh, what a glory to be united
to Jesus Christ. Or I could say, us. He and I. What a glory! What a privilege! What a comfort, because I know
we, as God's people, we are not in this thing by ourselves. This
is not a job God laid upon us. It is a privilege that God has
been pleased to vouchsafe to us. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Think
of it. Let us, think of that phrase, let us, let us. I'm not
going through the context here, but I'll read one verse and then
make a couple brief statements. 1 Corinthians 3 and verse 9,
Paul is speaking, and specifically of himself and Apollos. And he
said, I planted, using this arboretum, if you will, this plant kind
of illustration, I planted seeds, Apollos came along and watered.
But who gave the increase? God did. It's not up. The one who sows seed, the one
who waters seed. They're both even together. Nothing
by themselves. By themselves. But, look at what
he says in verse 9. For we are labors together with
God. Do you see that? For we are labors
together with God. Yet Paul, knowing the truth,
does not say, ye are our husbandry, Nothing. For ye are God's husbandry,
ye are God's building. We've simply been given this
great privilege of sounding forth the name of the person and work
of Jesus Christ. Let us go forth. Let us lodge.
Let us get up early. Let us see and hour gates. Now because of this, The church
beams with love for her beloved in the gospel ministry. If speaking to someone about
your Lord's personal work is a chore to you, then he's not
your Lord. He's not your beloved. Frightening
it may be. There are times and circumstances
when speaking of the person and work of Christ, you may feel
that knot in your throat, and that lump in your stomach, and
that fear that comes from, which we should not, but we do, when
we fear men. God, the Son Himself said, don't
fear men, all they can do is kill your body. You fear God,
He can destroy both your body and soul in hell. But we do not
preach His gospel out of fear. Do we? Oh no! We beam for love
for our beloved in the gospel ministry. Note that she says,
there, there will I give thee. She cries this out, as if it
were. There will I give thee my loves. Where? In this garden,
you see. In this gospel arboretum. There will I give thee my love. The church beams with gratitude
in the privilege of sounding forth Christ and his perfections. And that's what it's about. Jesus
Christ is altogether lovely. Everything about both who he
is, not just was, but who he is and what he has done and is
yet doing is a glory to God's people. They delight speaking often with
one another about His perfections. And they see it as a great privilege
to be able to speak to others about their Lord. Who knows that
one we speak to may be one of the elect of God chosen in Christ
before the world began, but yet not called out of darkness. In other words, you may be speaking
to a person who's a brother and sister in Christ before the world
began, who's not yet in Christ in time, but yet is your brother
and sister in Christ in God's mind and purpose. What a privilege. As I said, we beam with this
gratitude of Christ's honor. At our gates are all manner of
pleasant fruits new and old, which I have laid up for thee,
O my beloved." You see, it's the gospel where we honor Christ.
The gospel is the chief primary place where we honor Christ.
Think of it even in our conduct. The gospel is the priority. Go
back sometime and look at Philippians chapter one and verse 27. For
let your conversation, Paul says, that's your way of life, the
way you conduct yourselves, the way you live in this world, let
your conversation, let your way of life, what? Be as becometh
the gospel. Most of so-called Christianity
today is simply telling believers they ought to be moral people.
What is far more important, we ought to be righteous people.
But in myself, Mason, I am not. I'm a sinner of the deepest dye,
even yet today. Remember last week? When you
look at the Shulamite, what do you see? What will you see? Not
what may you see. What will you see? You will see
a company of two armies. sinner, black, dark, corrupt,
sinner. And yet one lifted to the heights
of glory in Christ Jesus, called a saint. Somebody says, well,
I'd rather be a saint than a sinner. You're either going to be both
or you don't know God. The only kind of people God Almighty
saves is sinners. Until God Almighty brings you
individually and personally to see what you are in Adam, he
will never save you. As one pastor said, he doesn't
clothe anybody until he first strips them of all their self-righteous
rags. He doesn't fill anyone with the
glory of His grace till He shows him or her that I have no grace. I have no righteousness until
God Almighty bestows it upon me and His Son. At our gates
are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid
up for my beloved. So much so, if you look at it,
in other words, let your conversation, let your way of life be as becometh
what? The law? You can't meet that standard.
You can't meet that standard. Desire to do it, Paul says, to
will. To will is present with me. He's talking about the law.
Romans said, to will is present with me. But how to perform that
which is good, it ain't in me. I don't find it. It's not there.
I can't love you as I love myself. I can't. I know I should. I know
I ought to. I wish I could, but I can't.
I like me better than you, let alone love me or love you better
than me. This is the law says love your
neighbor as yourself, but it's not the standard of our life. Our conversation is not the law. It's the gospel. So much so that
remember when Paul Was it in Jerusalem? Maybe I'm wrong. But
Peter came along. Peter was eaten with the Gentiles.
You remember that account that Paul gave in Galatians chapter
2? And Peter was eaten with the Gentiles when these Jews came
from Jerusalem. And they came down from Jerusalem.
What did Peter do? He removed himself from the Gentiles
and went over and started associating only with the Jews. Paul said,
I was stood him to the face because he was to be blamed. You know
why? Because he walked not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel. There was nothing immoral in
eating here, eating there, but it's not as become with the
truth of the gospel. So therefore Mason, that was
an unrighteous conduct. on Peter's behalf. Wasn't it? So you see what I'm getting at
here? Our standard is not the law. It's not church ideas. It's not church rules. Well,
we do this this way. This group does this. It's not
in any of that. It has to do with the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Hear me now. The gospel endeavors
of every born-again believer, they're not for merit. There's
a part of me that thinks if I preach Christ, I've got to be able to
go to glory. Don't tell me you don't think
that way. You may know better than that, but there's a part
of you that thinks that way. If I preach, if I witness to
people of the glories of the Lord, there's got to be some
merit in that, but there's not. Gospel preaching is not for merit.
Gospel preaching is declaring his merit. That's what it is. The gospel endeavors of every
born-again believer is not for reward. It's not for reward. Noah preached for somewhere around
120 years. We don't know if he preached
the whole 120. He was preparing the ark for 120 years, and during
that time it said he was a preacher of righteousness. There were
only seven other people that believed him, and he was told
from the get-go they would be with him. You see what I'm saying? Well,
we must win someone to Christ. No, preach Christ. God will do
the winning. Preach Christ. God will do the
winning. He that winneth souls is wise.
Not they who win souls are wise. But preach Christ. Preach Christ. Preach Christ. The gospel efforts,
the gospel endeavors of every born again believer is not for
recognition. Now you'd think somebody like
me would not have a problem with that because for 30 some years
I preached to a small little group like this, but deep down
inside there's a part of me that says, well, what's this all about? What's this all about? And I
say that to my shame. Our gospel endeavors are not
for our recognition. Our Lord preached the gospel.
Our Lord was the gospel. Did he bring in great accolades? Did the masses flock to him for
what he said? No, they flocked to him because
they got their bellies full. Because they've seen many of
their loved ones with their diseases healed. And rightfully so, he
was the son of God manifesting forth his power in these things.
But when he spoke, he drove people away. He drove people away. You see, the results are not
up to us. The results are up to God. Preach Christ. Preach
Christ. Preach Christ. The Gospel is
always for the glory of God, as His blessed Son is honored
in Gospel preaching. You want to honor God, brag about
His Son. You want to honor God, boast
about Jesus Christ. Hear me now. The venue is not
important. Field, or village. That's right. Is that what that says? Yeah.
Whether it's the field we go into, out yonder in the backwoods
somewhere, or whether it's in the big city, in the villages,
in the town. The venue is not important, is it? You remember
what Paul told Timothy, be ready instant even, not ready, instant,
in season, out of season. Amen. When it feels right or
if it don't feel right. When you feel like it or you
don't feel like it. When you're afraid or you're not afraid.
When you're bold as a lion or whether you're cowed down like
a little lamb. Preach the gospel. Be instant. In season, out of
season. Hear me again. Procrastination
and sloth are to be disdained. Let us get up early. Well, I'm
just going to wait for the Lord to move me. You're probably going
to sit right there for the rest of your life. Now granted, if
you move, God's moved you. But oh, let us cry out unto Him.
Let us get up early. Oh, God moved me in this thing.
How many times has somebody come to me in just a few recent months?
You're on TV now! And all I say is, well, how did
you like it? That's not the question to ask. No, what I ought to be. Oh, God helped me to get up early
to say, do you believe it? Are you still wanting to watch
it? Do you love that Christ? Oh God, Joe, oh, let us get up
early. You know, when you get up early
and you know, once you get that morning coffee, if you like that
kind of thing, get those eggs or whatever it is. And honestly,
it's like, I know in the mornings when I feel most invigorated,
Joe, Oh God, let us get up early. And great desire for the salvation
of the elect is God honoring. Let us see if the vine flourish. Just to have these folks showed
up. Show up, I'm sorry. Just to have these folks show
up. It just boggles my mind. From New Jersey? Up in this little
hollow here in West Virginia? In Crow? This morning, I was
concerned about the fact that we've got several people missing,
some in Colorado, some at Rocky Mount, because they've been down
to the lake for a while. And all of a sudden, here shows
up a, probably, they're half the group here. Paul said, I endure all things
for the elect's sake that they may obtain the salvation which
is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. So there are some people
out there that, Mac, they're elect already, but they don't
have that salvation yet. But bless God, they will. But
help me, God, not to think that gives me the right to sit on
my seat of do nothing. But oh, God, raise me up early.
Give me boldness to speak of the glories of my Lord. Hear
me now again. The gospel is where you and I
as believers give Christ our loves. And that's what it says. There will I give thee my loves. What's he talking about? It's
something along this line. Here's what she, I should say,
is talking about. How do we give Christ our loves
there in the gospel? One, by believing Him. If I don't believe Him first,
how in the world do I expect anybody else to believe Him?
Am I persuaded of these things? I'm very unpersuaded about myself
sometimes, but folks, I don't doubt my Lord at all. I don't doubt Him at all. We
show Him our loves by believing Him, by bragging about Him. by proclaiming Him, by defending
Him and His honor, by adoring Him, and how's the best way to
do that? Preach His gospel. Preach His
gospel. It's not even about your experience
other than those places where your experience has been hedged
underneath the truth of God. I've had a lot of experiences,
but I don't know whether they was of God or the flesh. But
those things were in the gospel has conquered my soul Mason.
I know that's of God Because this gospel doesn't conquer everybody
It doesn't conquer everyone But it conquers his people think
of it the tender grapes Tender grapes, what's that? That's redemption
by blood Is it not he took the fruit of that vine when he was
sitting there doing the Passover Supper and he took that wine
in that in that cup. It was more of a cup It's not
like what we use today, but there's a cup and he said this is the
blood of the my blood of the new covenant Which is shed for
many for the remission of sins. What are the grapes? What is
that Mac? It's blood redemption What are the pomegranates you
remember the pomegranates? I remember Earl preaching on
this years ago that high priest when he done his daily No When
he done his daily work, he was all decked out in all of that
breastplate. But when he went into the Holy
Holies, you know what he did? He put those things off and put
on all white. White turban. Had a girdle around
about him. And at the bottom of that vestige
were bales and pomegranates. And you know, have you ever cut
into a pomegranate? Here's this fruit that looks
kind of plain. A little nice color maybe on the outside, but
Joe, you slice that thing open and inside are the seeds and
they're in this red looking fluid. Now if that don't already ring
a bell to you, I don't know how to put it any other way. I am
in Christ as my Redeemer. And He redeemed me when I was
yet an enemy of God. He reconciled me even when I
was breathing out threatenings and hatred to God. And He still
redeemed me. What about mandrakes? I've got
to be careful here. I know there are some young ones
here, so I have to watch what I say, but you know, those older
ones, our ears are a little tender. You know what a mandrake is?
It was a... well, I guess they still exist
today as far as I know, but they are a narcotic love plant. They're
an aphrodisiac. And as I've said before, God's
people are intoxicated by the truth of Jesus Christ. Paul, who was at one time called
Saul, said, all of my religious background, all of that law keeping,
all of that personal righteousness under the law, he said, I count
that but what? Dung. For what reason that I
might start going to church? No. Now he wanted to gather with
God's people. Oh no. Oh yes, for sure. What
is, that I may win Christ. And he was drunk on Jesus Christ. That's right. Be ye not drunk
with wine, wherein what is excess? You've gone too far. If you drink
enough, you get drunk on it. But be ye what? Filled. filled
with the Spirit. And what is that? To be caught
up with Jesus Christ. Because the Spirit, when He comes,
He testifies of the things of Christ. Oh, grapes, pomegranates,
mandrakes, and all manner of what? Pleasant fruit. There's some fruit out there
that I hear is not too pleasant. Well, that's not Christ. Free
willism? That ain't Christ. Self-will,
that ain't Christ. Personal righteousness before
God, that ain't Christ. But His arboretum is filled with
all manner of pleasant fruits. That's His gospel. That's the
only way you and I know who He is and what He's done, is by
this Word. and it's proclaimed in the gospel.
So much so, so much so that God put it this way through Paul
the Apostle. It pleased God. Can you think of the holy sovereign
of heaven and earth who before he ever created this universe
sat pleased in himself. For eternity. We try to explain,
there is no explaining of that. It never had a beginning and
God was pleased with himself. And God chose, I want to create
this little, we think it's big, to Him it's nothing. This expanse
they want to call the universe. Think of that. I'm going to create
this expanse called the universe and when I do, it pleased me
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Paul
said Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel. You
know what he said? Christ didn't send me to regenerate.
No. That's right. But to preach the gospel. Yeah.
Amen. Christ didn't send all that.
He didn't. To preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. Preach the
gospel. Why? Because that pleases God.
Amen. And if it pleases God, oh how
it ought to please me. I understand, there's a part
of me, I fully understand why most people would not be satisfied
coming to a place like this. Because all you do, about all
you get, you get to sing, you get to pray, you get to hear
the scripture read, and you get to hear two men who only pretty
much have a high school education stand up and preach from the
Bible. That's got to be boring. It is for most folk. It is for
most of us. And I understand that. I really
do. I understand that. Were it not, Joe, for God putting
something in here in me that was not there before, there's
no way I would be here this morning. There's a lot of things out there
to enjoy in this world. But you remember one man said
that, this life's great. I'm going to build me some more
barns. And I'll build bigger barns.
I'm going to make me some good wine. And I will eat tonight,
and I will drink tonight, and I will say to my soul, soul,
you've got it all. Eat, drink, and be merry. And what did God say to him?
Thou fool. That's what he said. This night
shall thy soul be required of thee. Amen. I don't want to be
that man. Exactly. Do you? I don't want
to be that man. Think of it. This gospel, it's
as new as the dew of the morning. We've had a lot of dew lately.
Have y'all noticed that? Maybe it's with a lot of the
rain we've had. I mean, I go out to walk through the yard
to walk the dog and my feet are wet. My boots are wet. And it's
there, Mason, every morning. You know, it's new every morning.
It's as new as the dew of the morning, but it's older than
time itself. This gospel, every time I hear it, it's like, man,
that's fresh. That's a fresh drink of water.
You hear somebody proclaim the glories of Christ, you think,
man, you hear somebody like Gabe Stalker come here and preach,
or somebody like Moose Parks come here and preach, or somebody
like Walter Urgell come here and preach. And you hear the
personal work of Christ, it's like, man, that's good. That's fresh. But yet at the same time, this
water, Don't compare how old he was as a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. New and old. And there's a whole
lot more I can say about that, but let me move on. This gospel
is about God's Son. A lot of people say, we're going
to preach the gospel this morning, or we will preach the gospel
tonight, and they never even mention Jesus Christ. That's
not gospel preaching. No Christ, no gospel. It's that simple and yet that
profound. People will get up and talk about
love your neighbor as yourself. Well, we preached the gospel
to you. No, you ain't. You preached me by indictment. You brought
to me an indictment with God's name stamped on it. It says you're
dead in trespasses and sins. That's what you brought to me,
my letter of indictment. But I know that indictment's
right. Oh, when I hear about Him, this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all, all. You can't say it too much. You
can't overemphasize it. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save. It doesn't even say believers,
though that's true. It says to save who? Sinners. But can you take your place as
a sinner, then you're a candidate for God's grace. Because that's
the kind His grace saves. And that's the only kind. That's
a good thing. Today people are taught how to
become a saint instead of a sinner. You can't do it. You can't do
it. No Christ, no Gospel. There is
the truth of the Gospel. Just a few quick, I'll be brief.
The Gospel message is this. Not that you can be reconciled
to God if and then start giving a list. Baptists say, maybe,
if you believe, that's all. You can be reconciled to God
if you believe. That's all you gotta do. Or you can, another
group comes along and says, you can be reconciled to God if you'll
believe and be baptized. Right? Or another group may come
along and say, you can be reconciled to God if you're brought up under
the ship of grace. If you're sprinkled as a young
baby and you're indoctrinated into the doctrines, then you'll,
then, then, then it'll be, no, no. we were reconciled to God
by the death of His Son. When He died some 2,000 years
ago, that's when He reconciled everyone whom He reconciled.
The question, the gospel is not do something to be reconciled,
the gospel is this, do you believe Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago
reconciled you to God in His death? That's the gospel. The gospel is not where you can
be sanctified and purified if you'll do something. What if
that list is? No, according to Hebrews 10 verses 9 through 14,
he sanctified us by the offering up of his body. And how many
times did he do that? Once for all. And you could say
it in our way, the way we'd say it in our day is once for all
time. He offered up His body one time.
When did He sanctify me? When I came forward and prayed
through? No. When did He sanctify me? When He died on that tree.
And everybody He sanctified when He died on that tree, He also
perfected back then. Somebody says, I don't see that.
It ain't about us seeing it. Who's it about seeing it? God
Almighty the Father. That's the one that matters.
Right? You look at me until the day I die. You will not see my
sanctification and my perfection. You might think you get a couple
of glimpses of it, but you're probably seeing nothing but me
putting on a show. And I'm not saying that bragging.
See, it's not how you see me. It's not how you see yourself.
It's how does God the Father see me. And if He sees me in
His Son, He sees me as what? C-O-M-P-L-E-T-E. Complete. How much more needs to be added
to complete? It ain't complete if you gotta add something to
it. What about believing? He'll give you that, but that's
not for his sake. That's for yours. You gotta repent. He'll give
you that. He grants repentance. But that's not for him, so he'll
know what you really are. He knows what you really are
already. He gives us repentance for our benefit. Wouldn't life
without repentance be a miserable thing? The very fact that we need to
repent, Mack, lets me know I'm bad. But repentance is a gift. It's not a chore. It's a gift!
Oh God! Oh God! Change me. Turn me. Cause me to think differently.
Cause me to believe differently. Cause me to walk differently.
All of those things are in Him. Sins purge. When did He purge
our sins? When we believed? Hebrews 1 verses
1 through 3 says, he did that by himself. And then he went
up and sat down on the right hand of God the Father. So where
does that let me know, Roy Jr., when my sins was purged? Before
he even ascended up to the Father. The question of the Gospel, if
you want to put it as a question, do you believe those things about
Jesus Christ? As John put it, do you believe
the record God gave of His Son? You see, the gospel is a glorious
arboretum, is it not? I've just scratched the surface
of all of the fruits that typify Him. And even this, the grapes,
the pomegranates, the mandrakes, that's just scratching the surface. The Gospel is a glorious arboretum.
The place where Christ is set forth before the sons and daughters
of Adam. We don't even deserve to hear
this message. Let alone believe in it. Let alone find some comfort in
it. But isn't it glorious that God
has been pleased to allow that for us? Mason, he could have
had his son die for us. We could have lived in misery.
and defeat, and under sin, and bondage all our lives, and said,
well, now let's take them to heaven. Could not he have done
that if he wanted to? But he didn't do that. He didn't
do that. He was purposed to unite himself
to us, even with our knowing it. We sang that song first,
conscious salvation. A salvation you know about, you
experience, that becomes a part of you. Where I'm allowed to
even know my Lord as my beloved now. And that's a glory not just because
of all out here I've got to put up with. That's true. But it's not just because of
all of that out there. That's a glory knowing what I've got
to put up with from in here. I really don't know how people
stay sane without knowing Jesus Christ. I really don't. But that's only because I'm on
this side of it. Because when I was on that side,
I was happy in my insanity. Wasn't you? Spiritually speaking,
happy in my insanity, going along religious. And God says, bang,
your eyes are open now. And this gospel comes along,
it's like, I never knew God was really like
that. And a part of you still says, no. No. But aren't you glad, Mac, that
He don't put up with no from some people? He don't put up
with no from some people. He says, I will not. One preacher
said, I will not take no from you for an answer. Your answer
is eventually going to be this. Yes. Oh, my beloved. Father, we thank You for everyone that's
here today, even especially, not just even, but especially,
Father, our visitors today. We thank You for them. We pray
that we've all heard something this morning, not me, not me,
and not just Joe, but Lord, that we've heard Your Son proclaimed
and have been enabled to rejoice in Him. I thank You in Christ's
name. Amen.