All true. Most of them. But that one in Tennessee he
was talking about, I remember that very vividly. Made mention of it here before
church. There was an old preacher from
North Carolina. whose name was B.B. Caldwell. And anyone that knows anything
about the grace of God and the sovereign grace of God knows
who I'm talking about when I'm talking about B.B. Caldwell.
And while he was preaching, he told a story about on another
occasion at this particular place, and he called upon one of the
deacons to pray. And he said the man had been
a deacon for 20 or 25 years. And he said he prayed, and when
he got through praying, it sounded like a dog trotting through dry
leaves. And I've always been weary of
that, to be afraid that when I got through preaching, it would
sound like a dog trotting through dry leaves. I hope that doesn't
take place. Glad to be with you and glad
to hear all the preachers that have preached before me. They're
all exalted. honored and glorified him whom
to know is life eternal. And for the generosity and the
charity manifested to me and to my grandson and granddaughter,
I thank you and appreciate that. We sang there that our Lord is
all in all. And it reminded me of a conversation
that I overheard between a Pentecostal preacher and an elderly lady. And he questioned her about some
things as to her hope. And she said her hope was in
Jesus and Jesus alone. And he said, sister, he said,
do you think that that's enough? And she said, he's enough if that's all you
got. Do you get the drift of what
I'm saying? He's enough if that's all you
got. But if you're going to bring
something and lay on the table, then it won't be enough. He's
enough if that's all you got. Turn with me to the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon. And let me talk to you for a
few minutes about him whom to know is life eternal. In this fifth chapter, of course,
the biggest part of the chapter is setting forth a description
of Solomon's beloved. But there's two verses here that
I want to read and try to emphasize what he's saying here. In verse 10, he says, My beloved
is white and ruddy, the cheapest among ten thousand. The 16th verse, he says, his mouth is most sweet,
and he is altogether lovely. Now, the world pays homage to
its heroes. I want to try here this evening
to pay homage to my hero. Now, I listened the other day
on the television on the station that deals mostly with
biographies, and they had the biography of Cassius Clay. All of you know who Cassius Clay
is. He changed his name to Mohamed. And they had one fellow there
that seemed to be representing him and speaking for him. And he was paying great homage
to Mohammed. And he said, made this statement.
I was amazed at this statement. I never heard anything like it
before in my life. He said that Mohammed was such
a great man, Mohammed Ali, Cassius Craig. He said if Jesus was here,
Jesus would ask him for his autograph. The world pays homage to its
heroes, but as for this Jesus, he only gave his life for poor,
hopeless, helpless sinners. He was only pure and perfect
in every respect. But this poor, vain world cannot
see in him one virtue to admire. When he was here upon this earth, They couldn't see Jesus in Jesus. It's a blind world, isn't it?
And we're part of it. It's a wicked world. Virtue was
once in this world, and the world crucified virtue. Let me talk to you a little bit
here about my beloved. My beloved is white and ruddy."
He calls attention here, I think, to two characteristics of our
Lord's blessed person. This is Solomon. Solomon said
that he is altogether lovely and that he is white and ruddy,
the cheapest among ten thousand. Now Solomon has often seen the
snow white lambs, which are emblems of purity. He has seen them as
they brought them to the temple to be offered in sacrifice. So he said, My beloved is white. And he had also seen the uplifted
knife in the priest's hand as he was about to plunge it into
the throat of that snow-white lamb. And he'd seen that red,
crimson stream of blood as it flowed down to the foot of the
altar until that snowy white lamb was stained crimson in its
own blood. So he put the two together, the
white, the immaculate purity, and the red, sacrificial blood,
the blood-shedding. And these two speak of the two essentials
of true faith, which is his perfection, his sinlessness, and the shedding
of his blood, his death. Now, we're going to talk about
his character a little bit, and one highly significant aspect
of his character, the Lord Jesus, is his humility. He humbled himself. His greatest humility. Everybody loves a humble man. If a man is humble, he'd be recognized
by others. And our Lord Jesus Christ humbled
himself. In Philippians chapter 2 and
verse 8, he said he humbled himself. Now, his humility, as I understand
it, his greatest humility was when he become a man. When he
took upon himself the flesh of a man, when he took
upon himself the nature of a man apart from sin, was his greatest
humility. And we have already heard Rupert
emphasize with much force and expression the fact that the
Lord Jesus Christ is God, manifest in the flesh, and he that has
seen the Father hath seen me. And we know and believe beyond
a shadow of a doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ was as much
man as if he was never God, and he was as much God as if he was
never man, and he is the God-man. And there is in this redeeming person, a union of
two natures. He is God and man in one person,
and the designing of this is an act of wisdom, but the accomplishment
of this is out of an act of power. The Bible says that the Word
was made flesh. And this flesh and this Word
united in one person, a great God, a glorious God, and a little
infant. Now, what greater distance can
there be between deity and humanity, between the Creator and between
the creature? Can you imagine the distance
between eternity and time? Can you imagine the distance between infinite power
and miserable infirmity? Can you imagine the vast distance
between an immortal spirit and dying flesh? Can you imagine
the distance between the highest being and nothing? A God of unmixed blessedness
is linked, joined personally with a man of perpetual sorrows,
a life incapable to die joined to a body incapable to live without
first dying. Infinite purity and a black sinner
joined together. I was preaching one time several
years back, and I was trying to describe the awfulness of
sinful flesh. And I tried to think of something
that I could say that would impress somebody's conscience
as to the miserableness of what a human person was, and I said
this. I said that a man, naturally
speaking, at his best state, a man at his best state, is no
better than a pitcher of warm spit. And someone told me, After
that, they said, well, maybe you shouldn't have said it. And
I said, well, I have reservations. Maybe I shouldn't have. But I said one thing about it.
You remembered it. I said, that's one thing about
it. And he probably will never forget it. That's what I'm saying here.
Infinite purity and a black center as worthless as a pitcher of
warm spit. Eternal blessedness joined to
a cursed nature. All mightiness and weakness joined
together in one person. omniscience and ignorance and
liars, immutability and changeableness join together in one person. That which cannot be comprehended
and that which can be comprehended join together in one person. I'm talking about this redeeming
person that union between these two natures, God and man, and
the condescension, the condescension, the willingness, the gladness,
the cheerfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the messenger
of the covenant to come and condescend and to take upon himself the
humility of our awful nature. His willingness to do this in
order to redeem us. I'm talking about his humility.
He was humble. He was a man, a real man. The
only real man that ever lived upon the face of the earth was
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only real man. That which cannot be
comprehended joined to that which can be comprehended in one person. and that which is entirely independent
to that which is totally dependent in one person. The Creator God
forming all things and the creature made met together in personal
union. The Word of Almighty God was
made flesh and dwelt among us. What is more miraculous than
for God to become a man. Anything more miraculous than
that, for God, God, oh God, no man, one person, become a man,
humble himself. He didn't lay his deity aside,
he clothed his deity with his humility, or clothed his humility
with his deity. Oh, my soul. that a person possessed
of all the perfections of the Godhead should inherit all the
imperfections of manhood in one person. I say that's humility,
and only sin accepted. A holiness incapable of sinning
to be made sin. and all the properties of a human
nature admitted, fixed, joined into union with the properties
of the Creator God. The fullness of deity and the
emptiness and nothingness of man united together. Unspotted righteousness to be
made sin, unblemished blessedness to be made a curse as humility. He humbled himself, he consented. Listen, he's got to come down,
he's got to split history wide open and come down and become
a man if you and I are ever going to be redeemed. He got to become
a man, got to become a man. Oh, my soul. In creation, His power made the
sun to shine upon us. In redemption, God, in redemption,
the heart and the bowels of God sent His Son to die for us. Oh, and this God must be made
a man. Eternity must suffer death. The Lord of angels must weep
in a cradle. The Creator must hang like a
slave on a tree. Ah, that's the humility of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He humbled himself. Oh, he has not only this humility,
but he has this immaculate perfection of character. As it's been said,
as God in him is light and no darkness at all, perfect purity
without a trace of sin, he is a very God of very God. the Holy, Holy One of Israel. In His Godhead, Jesus Christ
is perfection itself. As to His manhood, the term whiteness
describes Him who was born without natural conception or hereditary
depravity, that holy thing. the Christ of God who became
incarnate yet without sin. The word white describes him
also in his actual life. There was never any sin in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and you can challenge any word that he ever
spoke. any word that is ever attributed
to him from the Holy Bible, and you'll find that every word of
the Lamb of God is absolutely true. You put his word in a fiery
furnace, and heat it seventy times hotter than it wants to
be heated, yet it will come out as it went in. No gloss will
be found upon it. That is as to his character,
as to his actions. They are matchless and they are
perfect in every respect. The true great objects of the
life of the Lord Jesus Christ were the glory of God and, as
Gary said this morning, the good of man. The first or the second
song that the angels ever sang, the one expression of their songs,
the salvation of God is wrapped up in that expression which is
goodwill towards man. His object in this life, he didn't
have two or three, a half a dozen. He had two objects, the glory
of God and the good of man. That was his objects. He is so pure in his character,
in his actings. in every aspect of his person. He's so pure that even those
who hate his religion and read his writings with no purpose
but to find a flaw in his character, even those agree that they cannot
find any flaw in the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
while he was here on this earth, they said never a man spake like
this man. There was no spot in him. He is the Lamb of God. He is without spot and without
blemish. So those who love excellence
and those who love purity must love him, for he has every excellence
in his perfection. even if there was no atonement,
even if we had no regard for the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Lord and our Savior, yet still every true man, every real person,
he ought to love Him. He ought to love Him because
He's the brightness of the Father's glory. He's the express image
of His person. He's so white, and He's so pure,
and He's so wonderful. Brethren, we cannot help but
love Him. Now, as to that sacrificial character
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been told over and over here
in the last three days that in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ
was born of a woman. came into this world as a substitute
for sinners, and the vengeance of God against sin was poured
out upon his holy soul. And it's been said that he suffered
death, that those who believe and who trust in him might not
die. The Lamb of God was slain in
the sinner's room, and in the sinner's place, and in the sinner's
stead, that he might render satisfaction, and it's been said in many ways
here, that he might render satisfaction to the injured honor and the
broken law of God Almighty. And this, brethren, he did. And this is the chief reason,
I believe, why people love him, why people believe on him, why
they trust him, because in his doing, in his dying, in his precious
blood, they see the pardon of all their sins. It is this despised
and crucified Christ He is the source of the sinner's salvation,
and if indeed, here this evening, if indeed He be your Beloved,
if indeed He be your Beloved, let me say this, if He is your
Beloved, then thou art married to one who is equal with the
eternal God. That's a tremendous statement,
isn't it? I never heard that statement
before. If He's your beloved, you're
married to one who is equal with God Himself. I think it says in the book of
Philippians, doesn't it? married to another, even to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my soul, married to him. Said he's the cheapest among
10,000. And I wondered about that word,
cheapest. Is that right? He's the chief
among 10,000. Well, what about the cheapest? Well, he's the cheapest. That's
what the scriptures say. He's the cheapest of ten thousand. That means he's the highest.
That means he's the best. That's what that means. It means
he's the most loveliest of all. It means he's more excellent
than anybody else. It means that he's better than
anybody around him. He's the chiefest of 10,000. If you bring
10,000 angels, He's the chiefest angel. Why? Because He's the
messenger of the covenant, isn't He? Huh? If you bring 10,000
friends, He's the chiefest friend. You know why? Because He's the
friend that's thicker, closer than a brother. Now, if you bring
10,000 physicians, He's the best. before he healed with all the
diseases. Now, if you find 10,000 shepherds, he's the good shepherd,
he's the great shepherd, and he's the chief shepherd. Whatever
else you can find has got to give way to him, because there's
none like him. Is he your beloved? Solomon said, He's my beloved.
He said, He's altogether lovely. He's my beloved, too. He's altogether
lovely. Well, some say, well, I'm just
a little sinner. That's all. I hope I'll go to heaven when
I die. Well, I'll tell you this. If you've ever committed one
sin and God would take you to heaven, then he wouldn't be true
to himself. He'd have to quit being God.
Because the Bible says if you offend in one point, you're guilty
of all. I'm telling you here tonight, I hope I can tell you
this, that you and I, we must have a salvation that even God
himself can't find a flaw in. And that can only be found in
my Beloved. That's the only place you can
find it, in my Beloved. There's no spot in Him. There's
no sin in Him. The powers of hell united and
pressed, and squeezed His heart and bruised His breast. what
dreadful conflicts raged within, when sweat and blood was forced
through his skin. Only him who afflicted the wrath, and
only him who received the wrath, knows the agony of that wrath. God the Father inflicted the
wrath, and the Lord Jesus Christ received it gladly and willingly
in the place and stead in the room of the poor, helpless, hopeless,
doomed, damned sinner, and took our sins as far as the
east is from the west. And now we're not under any condemnation. And there's no separation from
him. And my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. My beloved. He's my beloved. He's altogether lovely. He's
all I love. And he's enough if that's all
you've got. But don't bring anything else.
Come empty-handed. Huh? Well, the Lord bless you. Thank you for being so