difficult to get men and women to understand the simple truth of Holy Scripture, that salvation is altogether the work of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. Men and women are saved by God's election, God's redemption, and God's irresistible grace in Jesus Christ.

Nobody will ever be saved except God Almighty stop him in his mad rush to hell and turn him to himself. No dead sinner will ever live except God give him life. No sinner will ever believe on the Son of God except God give him faith. It's difficult, very, very difficult, impossible for any man to teach another man those things. But once men and women have been taught of God, that indeed salvation is of the Lord, there is a terrible danger to run in the opposite direction and get the notion in our heads that somehow men have no responsibility.

To get the notion in our heads that somehow faith in Christ is an indifferent thing. That faith is just something God sort of drops in you and leaves it there and it doesn't have anything to do with your salvation. I want you to understand clearly the teaching of Holy Scripture. Faith in Christ is not a passive grace. Faith in Christ is not indifferent. Faith in Christ is a gift of God's grace that is very much full of life and transforms everything about that person who possesses the gift of faith.

I want us this evening to take up right where I left off Sunday evening in the Song of Solomon, chapter 8, verses 5, 6, and 7. And I want to show you four things that faith does. Now here are four things clearly set before us in this beautiful allegory, showing the holy activity of faith. Four things that faith does. First, faith leans on Christ.

What a picture. What a picture. Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? God's people are people in a wilderness in this world. We are coming up out of this wilderness, and the way we come up out of this wilderness is leaning on our beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ is described as our beloved in so many, many passages in Scripture. And that which makes him beloved to us is our faith in him. Were it not for faith in him, Christ would be nothing to us.

Oh, he might be a word, he might be a sentiment, he might be expressed in various thoughts. But this is what the scripture says, unto you therefore which believe he is precious, and he's only truly precious to those who believe. What is something precious? I mean really beloved, precious. That's something you can't get along without. That's something you've got to have. I mean precious. Gold is not really precious. You can live without that. Rich is not really precious. You can get along without that. What's precious? Vital food. Vital drink. Vital air. That's precious.

You've got to have that. You've got to have that. Let me tell you something. The man, the woman who believes, understands that Christ is vital. Him alone. I've got to have. He is that one thing needful. I can, I wouldn't want to, but if I had to, I'd get along without you, and you without me, but Bobby, we can't get along without Him.

We've got to have Him. We must have Him. Not just what He gives, but Him. Not just what He blesses us to possess, but Him. We must have Christ Himself. He is our beloved. He is the one who by virtue of his love for us, which he has caused us to experience in grace, causes us to love him.

Now then, we come up out of this wilderness looking to him as the object of our heart's love, the object of our heart's devotion, the object of our heart's affection, leaning on him, laying the weight of our helpless souls on Christ alone. As we go through this world, We have great need for many things. We often stand before men accused of this, that, or the other, stand before men with questions that are meaningless to us, but questions that are intended to confuse and questions that are intended to turn men away from the faith. And we need wisdom. Well, we lean on Christ for wisdom.

You remember how our Lord spoke to his disciples and he said, they will call you before the judgment seats and they'll bring you before courts of law. And in that day, he said, don't take any thought what you're going to say. He said, I'll give you the words you need to speak. He said, you be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. And I'll teach you how to speak in my name. I'll teach you how to speak in my honor.

And we lean on Christ in just that way to give us wisdom to walk in this world, this dark wilderness. filled with hostility, filled with enemies, to walk in this wilderness as Rex prayed just a little bit ago, honoring him. And only he can give us wisdom and grace to do so.

We lean on him as Christ our righteousness. He is the only righteousness we possess. He gives us righteousness by imputation in a legal standing before God, but he gives us something else, Lindsay. Men and women who are born of God have his righteousness imparted to them. So that every believer is a man, a woman who possesses a new nature in Christ. The old nature is still there, but he possesses a new nature. We're made new creatures in Jesus Christ so that we walk before God in this world with hearts serving him in true righteousness.

We lean on Christ the Lord for sanctification. God requires that we be separated unto him. And strive as we may, we simply cannot separate ourselves unto him. And in a real sense, we will not. If he leads you to yourself, if he leads me to myself, we will cling to everything. and let go of him. Well, how are we going to be sanctified, consecrated to God, separated to God, brought finally to God, completely in Christ, only looking to him?

He is our sanctification, and he, by his grace, will see to it that we are cut out of this world and consecrated to him. We lean on Jesus Christ as the Lord, our righteousness, the Lord, our sanctification, the Lord, our wisdom, and the Lord, our Redeemer. He has bought me. He has paid for my sins. He has earned for me a place at God's right hand. He has taken possession of heaven itself for me by virtue of the merit of his blood. And I lean on him alone to give me acceptance with God.

We lean on the Lord Jesus indeed for everything. In all the affairs of our lives in this world and for the world to come. This I recall to my mind the prophet said, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. Bless God they never fail. They are new every morning. Every morning. is thy faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." That's enough. That's enough. The Lord is my portion. Therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good to them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. All right, now that's the first thing. Faith leans on Christ. Faith trusts Jesus Christ alone as Lord and Savior. We lean on him. Secondly, faith arouses Christ. Now I want you to give me attention for a minute. Look here, verse 5. I raised thee up. I raised thee up under the apple tree.

Now, when you read that, immediately you think, well, that's got to be Christ talking to the bride. No, no, no. The word thee, T-H-E-E, that pronoun in the Hebrew text is in the masculine gender. So it's clearly speaking of the bride speaking to Christ. I raised thee up. Now obviously, this is one of those places where it's clear we're talking about an inspired allegory. These things cannot in their strictest sense be true of Solomon and the Shulamites, but they are indeed true of Christ and his church.

So here the bride speaks again, and she says, I raised thee up under the apple tree. There thy mother brought thee forth. There she brought thee forth that bare thee. First, there is a lesson here about prayer. I raised thee up. This is what she says. I have wrestled with you in prayer and I prevailed upon you to help me and to comfort me.

Faith rouses God. Faith moves God. You heard me right. rouses God. Faith moves the arm of omnipotence to action. How can you say that, Pastor? We recognize God's sovereign. Yes sir, we recognize that God responds to the cry of his people in faith. God Almighty says for this, he promised that he would give mercy and grace, and he says for this will I be sought after.

In Acts 28, is it, where the apostle speaks of the shipwreck, and he tells the folks there, he says, now God has promised, he's promised nobody on this ship is going to die, but you're going to have to stay on the ship. You jump off the ship and you're dead. God promised nobody's going to die, but you've got to unload all the cargo. If you don't, you're a dead man. Well, how can that, how can both be? Because they are.

And I'm telling you, God Almighty, in His glorious sovereignty, condescends to believe in grace to the cry of faith. We recognize that it's grace that causes us to cry. We recognize that it's grace that moves our hearts in prayer to him in faith. But faith arouses God.

Let me show you what I'm talking about. Turn to Psalm 44. Psalm 44. You remember when the disciples came to the Lord Jesus in the hull of the ship. He was asleep during the midst of the storm. And they said, Master, cares thou not that we perish? And thus they roused him up. How? By crying out in their desperation to him, even in weak faith, they roused him up.

The Lord God often appears to be sleeping. I didn't say he sleeps. He that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, but he often seems to. He often seems to forsake us. He never forsakes his own, but he often appears to. He does so that we may cry to him, and he responds this way. Look in Psalm 44, verse 23. The psalmist says, Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise! Cast us not off forever. Now, you and I would probably Never speak in exactly that language. We'd be afraid to.

If Bob heard me talk like that to God, what would he think of me? If Bobby heard me pray like that, what would he think? If my son, my wife, or my daughter heard me pray like that, what would they think concerning me? How would they respond to that? David was speaking to God in the desperate need of his own heart In the hour of his great trouble, when God seemed not to care a flip, what happened to him? That's where it looked. He said, God, wake up. Well, God, I'm waiting for my help. And he did. Look in Psalm 34. Psalm 34. Verse 1.

I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear thereof and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me. Let us exalt his name together. How come? This is one of my favorite psalms, and here's the reason why. I sought the Lord. Have you ever sought him? I mean sought him.

You all had the experience one time or another when you lose someone in a large crowd, lose someone in a shopping mall, or your husband's trying to get lost when you're in a shopping mall, and your wife goes seeking you. Have you ever lost your son or your daughter? Little types. And you were looking for them, you can't find them. And you begin to seek them. I mean, you're in dead earnest now.

Have you ever sought the Lord that way? You ever sought Him? Those who need Him seek Him. I sought the Lord, and He heard me. All who thus seek Him, He shall hear them, and He delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. when the Lord Jesus teaches us about prayer, he teaches us that prayer of necessity involves opportunity. True prayer of necessity involves opportunity.

You remember how he gives the story, says that someone came and had Folks come visiting them in the middle of the night, and they didn't have any bread, so they go to their neighbor, and they knock, and their neighbor says, I'm already in bed, don't bother me now, come back in the morning.

But I've got nothing to feed my friends with. I've got to have some bread. And so she knocks, and she knocks, and she knocks, and she knocks. And he says, okay, now get up and give me what you want. That's exactly how our Lord teaches us to pray. We have just begun to see the fruit of earnest prayer for 19 years. Some longer than that. How do you pray? How do you pray? If we don't use vain repetitions, it's not vain repetition to cry out for water when you're thirsty. It's not vain repetition to call for mercy when you need it.

We call upon our God with earnestness, expecting that he will arise and give us what we need. And so faith rouses him up. You see, We speak this way in a confident, because he who is our God is ready and willing to yield to the cries of impetuous faith.

I'll say nothing much about it now, but this is also a lesson concerning prophecy, the prophecy of the Old Testament and of the New. She looks here with an eye to the future prophetically. She says, I raised thee up unto the apple tree, there thy mother brought thee forth, there she brought thee forth. How does that refer to anything prophetically? Read the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation.

There we're told that the Lord Jesus Christ was born out of a woman's womb. And that woman is not the Virgin Mary, but that woman is rather the church of the Lord God. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting he was not born in Mary's womb. He was. But in Revelation 12, it's talking right about the church. That church that the devil seeks to destroy from the very beginning of time. And the Lord Jesus comes forth out of her womb, who is her Savior. and our Lord himself in John 16 verses 21 and 22. Turn there if you will. Here our Lord uses this same analogy to speak of his second advent. John chapter 16 verse 21.

A woman when she is in travail has sorrow because her hour has come but as soon as she is delivered of the child she remembers no more the anguish for the joy that a man is born into the world. woman goes into labor, she has a great hard time delivering a child, she has a large son in her womb, but just as soon as that baby is laid on her breast and she kisses his forehead, that's worth it. Trouble's over now, she's got a man child. Listen to what our Lord says, and you now have sorrow.

As long as you're in this world, this is a veil of tears. And sorrow is your bitter cup here. That's just that. That's just that. Somebody says to you, trust Jesus, everything will be all right. It will sooner or later, but I'm going to guarantee you when you come to enroll under the banner of Jesus Christ, you come to enroll in a warfare.

And in a warfare, you got sorrow. Our Lord says, you now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again. And your heart shall rejoice, like a woman who brings forth a man-child, and your joy no man takes from you." Again, when Rex prayed a little bit ago, you heard, as I did, the quiver of sorrow in his voice, and the anticipation of joy. Oh, blessed be his name. Soon the sorrow is going to be over. This travail will give way, and we will see him. who is the man-child, God the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior.

All right, thirdly, faith leans on Christ and faith arouses Christ and faith begs for grace unceasingly. I hear fellows want to argue and debate, you know, should we pray for forgiveness? After all, we've already been forgiven. Should we ask for grace? God promised he'd give us grace.

Don't get involved in that silly nonsense. Man, if you're hungry, ask for food. If you're thirsty, ask for water. If you feel a sense of guilt, you ask for forgiveness. You confess your sin and seek God's mercy. Here is faith begging for grace. Believers never get above that. Look what we read in verse six. Set me as a seal upon thine heart. Well, he did that from eternity. I know it. I know it. As a seal upon thine own heart, that's always been so. I know that. But this is written for a reason.

We as believers constantly desire the Lord Jesus to give us the confident reassurance and reaffirmation of his grace and the constant experience of it. As we make our pilgrimage through this world, the bride prays for her union with Christ that it may be confirmed, that her communion with him might be constant, that her fellowship with him might be intimate. Each of us, as we believe, might very well make these same words to express the prayer and desire of our hearts. This is my prayer, my God.

Set me as a seal on your heart. Set me as a seal on your right arm of omnipotence. Now this is what it means, four things. Let me have a place in your heart and an interest in your love. Dutty dutty, that's what I want with Christ. Oh God, give me a place in your heart, an interest in your love.

The reference is to the high priest in Israel. You remember, he wore the breastplates that God ordained, and on the breastplate were the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, right up next to his heart. This is what I want. Blessed Son of God, great High Priest over your Israel, it's enough for me if you bear me on your heart before God Almighty. That's enough. That's enough. Give me confidence of that and whatever sorrow, whatever trouble, whatever heartache comes, I will rejoice in you. Number two, let me never lose that place that I have in your heart.

Set me as a seal, seal. Let your love be secured to me as a, as a deed that is sealed and can never be broken. Sealed by God's Spirit, sealed with the earnest to foretaste the damn payment of everlasting life, but sealed, unbreakably sealed. Thirdly, let me always, oh my Savior, let me always be near and dear to you and make me know it. The illusion is He says, set me as a seal upon your right arm.

The allusion is to those bracelets used to be common when I was a kid, were common in ancient days that lovers would wear with one another's names inscribed on them. Set me as a seal on your right arm. So does I look at the bracelet and see your name. And I look on your arm and see my name. I'm constantly reminded that everything's all right. I'm constantly reminded of your love for me. I'm constantly reminded of the intimate communion I have with you because of your love for me. The Lord God indeed speaks in this way to comfort his people.

He says, can a woman forget her sucking child? Well, she might. She might. yet will i not forget thee behold i have graven thee from the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me this prayer also means this lord let your power be engaged for me as the token of your love for me set me as the seal on your right heart Oh God, make me to know always that your arm is set for my protection, my defense, and my salvation.

All right, here's one fourth thing that faith does. Faith leans on Christ, and faith arouses Christ, and faith begs for grace, and faith just stays with Christ. Just stays with him. Look at verse 6 again. for love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, the cold thereof are as coals of fire, which hath their most vehement flame." You see, all true faith is persevering faith. It perseveres in love for Christ, so that if ever a man or a woman comes to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, they continue in both faith and love toward Christ. Love for Christ is a vigorous passion in the believing heart. Faith is confidence in Him, leans on Him, rouses Him, begs for His mercy, confidence in Him.

Love is commitment to him. Faith is not so much something that involves passion as it is just simply fact. Whereas love involves passion. Here it's described as love that's stronger than death. The love of the believer for Christ is as strong as death. Love for Christ makes the believer dead to everything else in the world, and indeed his love for us was stronger than death.

Jealousy. Wherever there is love, there's a measure of jealousy. Not jealousy of a lack of confidence, not jealousy that involves a lack of assurance concerning the one who is loved or his love for us. But jealousy in this regard, that dear lady sitting there, I'm jealous of anything or anybody that in any way would come as a wage between us. You better not be one of them. That's just the way it is.

I'm jealous of it. I'm jealous of it. I'd fight for it. I mean physically I'd fight for it. I'm jealous of that. We've got something special, and I'm jealous of it. And I'll tell you something I'm even more concerned about. I'm jealous lest I should behave in any way as to hinder that blessed, blessed communion myself. That's what I'm talking about there.

Love for Christ is jealous of anything and anybody that comes between us and him. Anybody. Anything. And jealous of anything in us that may come between us and him. There's nothing in him going to come between us. But there's much in us that might. Therefore we're bidden quench not the spirits.

Love for Christ is an all-consuming fire in the hearts of his children. It burns like a vehement flame. And love for Christ is the victorious passion of the believing heart. Look at this. Many waters cannot quench love. Neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly contemned, utterly despised. Neither the substance of this world nor the swelling floods of death could quench our Savior's love for us. Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. And where there is true love for Christ, it cannot be destroyed.

Waters of affliction can't quench it. They only make it grow stronger. Floods of trouble can't destroy it. It only clings more tenaciously to Christ. All the bitches of the world can't buy it. Even life itself would be despised before this love would be sacrificed. May God graciously grant each of us this holy faith, this faith that leans on Christ, arouses Christ, begs for grace, and stays with Christ. Amen.