Psalms of Solomon chapter 2. Such a sweet and tender book. And we know that Psalms of Solomon
is basically the love relationship between Christ and His church. We're just going to look at the
first four verses of Psalms of Solomon 2, verses 1-4, and we
notice the bantering going back and forth. The Lord speaks first,
and then the church, and then the church says a few more things.
But it's just precious. And sometimes it can be confusing
to try to figure out who's speaking, but if you read it slow, and
I would recommend reading it with no commentator first, and
just glean what you can and then, of course, use what you can,
but it's just wonderful. Let's look at this together.
Songs of Solomon chapter 2, and the Lord begins the conversation. He says, I am the rose of Sharon.
And we know that's another name for Christ. and the lily of the
valleys. Now the church brings up, and
as the lily among thorns, so is my love, that's my love the
Lord Jesus Christ, among the daughters. As the apple tree,
the church compares Christ to an apple tree, among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under
His shadow with great delight, and His fruit was sweet to my
taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and His banner over me was love." Now, before we get
right into verse 4, which is what we're going to look at,
a little whet your whistle in verse 3. Look at what the church
says. I sat down under His shadow. divine protection. And then He says that with great delight, and His fruit
was sweet to my taste. So we have divine protection
and divine provision. He provides His people with food,
convenient for them, and He designs and gives us divine protection.
So there's just the two thoughts, Two promises. Protection and
provision. So now let's look at verse 4.
And this just amazed me. I just love this. He, that is God, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, the Blessed Trinity, brought
me to the banqueting house. and His banner over me was love."
I'm just going to go phrase by phrase. He brought me. He brought me. The word here
is besiege or fetch. It sounds a little bit like Mephibosheth. When David says, go fetch, is
there any left of the house of Saul? that I may show him kindness
for Jonathan's sake?" Yes, there's one. His name is Mephibosheth,
but he's lame on both feet. And you remember, he was lame
because when he was born, the nurse dropped him. So he was
lame because of a fall. Well, that's us. We fell in Adam. So, my question is, has the King
of Kings literally besieged or fetched you and my heart unto
Himself? Because if He hasn't, the stuff
that I'm going to say afterwards, it won't have that much of a
meaning. Has the King of Kings, it says in verse 4, He brought
me, has our King brought you unto Himself, to His banqueting
house. called you, quickened you, redeemed you. We know of
a certainty, and this is found in John 6, verse 44, John 6,
verse 37, John 5, verse 40. We know of a certainty. We will
not come, we cannot come, unless He draws us unto the Father.
You will not come unto Me that you may have life. That's what
He says. You won't believe on Me. You will not come. You cannot
come. that will not, we don't have
the ability and cannot, that pretty well takes care of us.
Naturally, all of us in this room chose death, not life. Naturally, we chose separation,
not union with Christ. We chose lust, not love. And in Ephesians 2 it says we're
dead in trespasses and sins. Dead in trespasses and sins.
A dead person cannot move a muscle. Therefore, if any are to be born
anew, called, made accepted, regenerated, it must be that
we must be brought to Christ. He must bring us. And the church
says, He brought me. The church has no qualms. You
know, people fuss and fight over predestination. They do a little
bit, but they fuss and fight over election. They can't stand
it. They fuss and fight over... The
reason why they can't stand it is because they don't understand
depravity. If we knew, if our neighbors knew, if our friends
knew how sinful we are, and that spiritually when we fell in Adam,
we completely fell, If we knew how bad we were, we would embrace
Christ. We would run to Christ. We would
flee to Christ. There's that passage, we would
look and live. We've been bitten by the serpent.
We live. Only those who were bitten...
If you weren't bitten, you wouldn't look. If you're not sick, you
don't go to a physician. So my prayer for us here, I pray
for our children, and anyone listening on the call-in is that
He would cause us to see, by in and of ourselves, we will
not come to Christ. We have to be, He brought me. He besieged me. He fetched me. The Holy Spirit of truth, by
the particular election of the Father, and the complete purchase
by the blood of the Son, must bring us to life. Yes, He brought. He brought us. He fetched us.
Like David did Mephibosheth. Like Jacob did Rachel. Like every
sinner for whom Christ suffered, bled, and died. We're wandering
sheep. We're wandering sheep. We don't
know for sheep. Before we understood the Gospel,
by Holy Spirit enabling us to believe the Gospel, we didn't
know whether we were sheep. Some people say, well, am I one
of the elect? Don't go there. Look and live. He that believeth
on me has everlasting life. But let's go in a little deeper.
It's all beautiful. to the banqueting house. Now,
in the margin, it's a house of wine. So, we know what a banqueting house
is. Even in this country, we know what a banqueting house
is. You go there to have fun, you go there to eat, you go there
to fellowship, you go there to enjoy yourself, you go there
to relax, you go there to have peace, You go there for protection.
It's all these things. He brings us. He brings us into
the banqueting house. What a splendid scene we have
before us here. We discern in this verse that
He brought us to His banqueting house, a perpetual feast for
all His children. It's rich in grace and mercy,
whereby we are made conformable to His image. We dine at His
table. continually, even though we're
lame on both feet through a great fall, like our brother Mephibosheth. We enjoy true and everlasting
friendship at this banqueting house, fellowship, daily love
tokens specifically ordained to meet every need imaginable. The world does not know what
this banqueting house is. It has houses on every corner,
churches, so-called, on every corner, But they're talking about
things they've done by their own free will. They did this,
they did that. No, we understand, the believer understands we've
been brought. We've been brought to this, basically
it's the wedding feast, is it not? Here we have everlasting righteousness
provided by our gracious host, by our elder brother, by our
spouse, by our everything. We have and find truth and that
is all sufficient. Because he says in John 6, he
that comes to me shall never hunger and never thirst. Why? Because he brings us to the banqueting
house. It's not of ourselves. It never
has been. It never was. It never will be.
This is none other, as I said, than our wedding feast wherein
is joy, happiness, great exaltation of our beloved. Just think in
your mind of your wedding day. And I can look at every one of
you and there's a smile upon your face. Because those memories
are great. Sometimes, you know, you think
about it and it's like, well, that's hilarious. You know, something
I did, I didn't mean to do that, you know? And then you think
about this, and you think about what it meant, the bride and
the groom coming together, and it's just, you know, I don't
know of anybody, when you think of their wedding day, that doesn't
get all mushy, you know, get all emotional, or as my college
professor said, you know, watch out while I emotiate, because
that's what we do. But it's a wedding feast. This
is not a shotgun wedding. This is not a forced. Let me
make this clear. This is not a forced wedding.
He makes us willing in the day of His power. In Psalms 110 verse
3. This is not a shotgun wedding.
This is a mutual, willing, love bond as He has made us willing
in the day of His power. This is hand in hand. Because
Christ is in our heart now. That's why it's hand in hand.
Take your spouse's hand into your hand. It's willing. Because Christ is now in our
heart. He has placed in us a new heart, a heart of flesh, which
beats and pants after our Savior. Now, some writers say, now this
is, I thought this was very interesting, this house of banqueting, this
banqueting house. Some say this banqueting house
may refer to like four or five things. One, the covenant of
grace. And I say yes, it does to all of them. The covenant
of grace. Perhaps, for in the covenant
is everything found for the sinner to feast upon. You think about,
you think about in the Old Testament, you think about the New Testament,
you think about a covenant between God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. That covenant is for us and everything
about that covenant we can feast upon. Everything. So it could
refer to that. Other writers say it's the church
specifically where we gather together to honor and exalt our
glorious head. We're feasting upon the fellowship
that He brings, the hymns we sing together, the Lord's table
that we enjoy as one body. It could very well be the church,
the banqueting house, Others say it's the Word of God, specifically
the Gospel. It could be meant here. True.
Every day we read and hear from the pages of this living Word,
it's like a banquet to the soul. Scripture says it's sweeter than
honey in the honeycomb. And that's why we need to continually
crack it open. When I was raised and people,
friends of mine that raised, they had big Bibles in their
living room. And they just sat on a coffee
table and collected dust. This is our life. This is our
life. I don't know what to do. You know, if we had a road map,
if we're starting here and we're going to go somewhere, now we
use Google Maps, you know, Garmin. If we had a road map that we
knew exactly what was happening, why it was happening, and where
we were going to end up, I think we'd want to know. I think we'd
want to find out. Because He's brought us. First of all, He's not going
to lose us. All those for whom Christ died shall be with Him
in glory. Not a one is going to be lost.
Why? Because He brought us. If any is lost, it's on Him.
But it's not going to happen. So, He brings us into this banqueting
house, which could be the covenant of grace, could be the church,
the word of God, or the gospel. Remember young Timothy in 2 Timothy
3 verse 15? Timothy found, says Paul to Timothy,
from his youth, he knew the Word which was able to make one wise
unto salvation. Let's turn here. 2 Timothy 3.
We're talking about the Word of God here, the Gospel. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, Paul speaking
to Timothy, "...and that from a child thou hast known the holy
Scriptures, the banqueting house, which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." That
sounds like a banquet. Every time we come here, whether
it's me, or Bruce, or whoever's up here, or whoever's teaching,
The one requirement is that they exalt Christ. I don't want to
hear about the economy. I don't want to hear about the
news. I get that all week. I try not to get as little as
I can because it's just heartbreaking. It's aggravating. It's annoying. And it gets your eyes off Christ
just like that. I don't need to hear that. I need to hear
this Word. Now look with me, I've never
seen this. Look at Jeremiah 15. The Word
of God as a banqueting house. The Word of God, the Gospel of
the Living God. Jeremiah chapter 15 and look
at verse 16. I've seen this before. In fact,
I had it circled in my study Bible. This Bible. There's a
star by it. So I've seen it before. It blessed
me then and it blessed me again during this study. Thy words. The prophet speaking through
the Lord. Thy words were found and I did
eat them. What's that mean? I don't have
to tell you. What does it mean? You're meditating. You're chewing the cud, you're
digesting, you're taking it in. You're trying to be made conformal
to the image of Christ, which is that Christ is the Word. I
did eat them, and Thy Word was unto me the joy, like what you'd
find at a banqueting house, and rejoicing of my heart. For I
am called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts." I don't know whether
I'm the Lord or not. Start reading your Bible. Continue
to come and hear the Gospel preached. continue the fellowship among
believers. You'll know. You'll know. Lastly, some others say, which
is obvious, it's Christ Himself. It's Christ Himself. He brings
us to Himself, because there's life in no other. So, yes, it
is Christ. It could be Christ. Perhaps it
is Christ. He is our feast. He is our exceeding great reward,
our refuge, our house built upon a rock. He's our refreshing,
our shelter from every storm. He's one among a thousand. He's
the cleft in the rock, our protection, safety, peace, Son, S-U-N. He's the Son of Righteousness
that has, He comes with healing in His wing. He is all these
and more. And we truly feast or banquet
in Him. And He richly supplies our daily
needs. Now, lastly, His banner over
me was love. We didn't always love Him. This banner, this means an ensign.
It's a flag. It could be a flag used in war,
which we were at enmity with Him, and now we love Him. It's
His victorious conquering flag. It's not a war banner anymore.
It was, and then He made us aware that we're kicking against the
pricks, and we're not going to go anywhere. We're not going
to go. We walk out like King Nebuchadnezzar
and look around and say, oh, I did all this. And then the
Lord just makes them like an animal. It was a war banner, but not
anymore. Now it's a banner of peace and love. He's totally
disarmed us. We're at enmity, but now we're
friendship and goodwill comes our way. And Corinthians says,
and I know it's speaking a little differently here, but the greatest
of these, all these things is love, and Christ is the greatest
lover of our soul. Christ is the greatest mediator.
As a matter of fact, He's the only mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus. Matthew Henry said concerning
this phrase, this banner's lettering is written in letters of gold
and letters of blood. Love. Love is truly most like
Christ. His banner over us is love. Love
constrains us. Love overcomes us with kindness
and sweet gentleness. This we confess with great delight,
His love. This banner of love and its life of love, once adhered
to, distinguishes Christ's army from all others. Isn't that what
He says? They'll know us by our love one
for another. This banner enclosing of love
is now above our heads. His banner over me. It reigns,
it rules. We submit to it voluntarily,
willingly. It's above our heads, it's above
our hearts, and it's above our lives. We have peace with God
through the Son. We are now brought into His banqueting
house, the place of relaxation and feasting. I ask you, I ask
me, may we act worthy of our calling and simply take care
to eat, to feast, and rejoice. We are bought with a price. We're
brought with a price. We're not our own. But this phrase,
this verse, is so anti-world. You can't serve two things. You
can't serve the world and serve the Savior. You can't love one.
You love one, you hate the other. And we have to constantly be
reminded, constantly come here, constantly call, constantly pray
for one another, constantly be reminded that the world does
not love our Lord and we don't love the world. We pay Caesar,
pay our taxes, we live, we work, but let us be about feasting
in the banquet house. Now, if you had told me that
this world is a banquet house, I'd say it's not, but in Christ,
it sure is. It sure is. Well, to God be the
glory. Bruce, would you close us?