Let's turn together to the Song
of Solomon, Chapter 2. The Song of Solomon is one of
the most delightful books in the scripture, one of the most deeply penetrating books in scripture. Here we're allowed to hear the
Savior's tenderest expressions toward his people, his bride,
his church, and her most tender expressions of love for him. And here in the Song of Solomon,
we see the varied experience of our own souls day by day. A constant struggle, languishing
and some reviving, and languishing and longing for some reviving
of our souls. Blessed times of sweet fellowship
with Christ long periods of seeking him. Our text this evening is
chapter 2, verses 16 and 17. The text begins with a statement
of blessed, blessed assurance. My beloved is mine. And I am his. And then. We read about a blessed
place. He feedeth among the lilies. And the text concludes with an
earnest desire. A joyful expectation. but an
earnest desire until the daybreak and the shadows flee away, turn,
my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young heart upon the
mountains of Bitha. Now, I will deliberately spend
the bulk of my time on the first part of our text. by far the most intriguing, delightful,
blessed portion. The psalmist here, I'm sorry,
the church here makes a statement concerning sweet, blessed, confident
assurance. My beloved is mine and I am his. Now we all struggle, I suppose
we all do, at times with assurance. And there are some I recognize
who say if you doubt, you're damned, and others say if you
don't doubt, you're damned. But we struggle, honestly, have
to acknowledge that. We struggle. And the struggle
is Almost always, if not always, because we look for assurance
in the wrong place. Assurance is based on Christ's
finished work for us. Fellowship and communion with
Christ. The joy of his presence, the
knowledge of his presence is based on our daily experiences
and varies with our daily experiences. I don't always enjoy my wife's
company. I mean by that, I don't always
have it. We are often separated by many
miles. I always enjoy the assurance
of her love for me and of mine for her. But we don't always
enjoy the privilege of being in one another's company. That's
much the same way it is with our souls and our Redeemer. We
have every reason, we who believe. Any sinner who believes on the
Son of God, no matter how weak, how trembling your faith, if
right now you believe on the Son of God, if you trust Jesus
Christ is your Lord, whether Whether it's with that trembling
hand of faith, if I can just touch the hem of his garment,
I'll be made whole. Or whether it's with that confident declaration,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. If you believe
on the son of God, you have every reason to be confident of your
relationship with him. Accepted and beloved. saved by
his free grace, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness,
made the very righteousness of God in him. You may not always
enjoy his manifest presence. Sometimes you can sing, as we've
seen earlier in this chapter, his left hand is under my head
and with his right arm he does embrace me, but that's the exception. not the rule. That's just not
true. I speak for me. I speak for me.
I can't speak for anyone else. I can't often speak so confidently
of his presence, of his manifest approval, of his manifest delight,
of his warm embrace. More times than not, I spend
my time seeking him, seeking his face, seeking His word seeking
the manifestation of His grace to me and in me. Here, though,
the psalmist, or I keep saying the psalmist, the church, the
bride of Christ speaks with confidence assurance that which may be the
happiest statement in all of inspiration. My beloved is mine
and I am his. Experience can't give you this
assurance. Because experiences themselves
are questionable always. I was talking to someone this
week. Someone made a comment, said, I know I'm saved because
I remember back when the Lord first saved me. I was there when
it happened. If you've got to look back to
this morning for assurance, You're looking at the wrong place. And
if you've got to look back to yesterday or to 20 years ago
for assurance, you've got real problems. And what you want to
know whether I'm alive or not, I don't go dig up my birth certificate. I don't even know where it is
anymore. I just breathe. That's all. I'm alive. I know I'm alive because I'm
standing here talking to you. I'm breathing God's air. Assurance
is not based on an experience. No matter how profound, no matter
how radically life-altering that experience may have been, no
amount of devotion will give assurance. Preachers forever
try to get folks to find assurance in their acts of devotion, in
their reading of the Bible, in their prayers. And please don't
misunderstand me. The more you read this book,
the more you understand this book, the better. The more time
you spend seeking God's face earnestly, the better. But assurance
is not found in your devotion to Christ or in your acts of
devotion toward Christ. The fact is our devotion to Christ
is just not much. It's just not much. We We may
see others and speak highly of their devotion. As Paul spoke
of the various churches and spoke of their and commended them for
their love and their fellowship and their work of faith and so
on. We speak highly of the devotion of others and rightly so. But
please don't talk to me about your devotion to Christ. I don't
want to hear it. When you start talking about
it, I know you're lying. Don't sing to me about your devotion
to Christ. I don't want to hear it. When
you start singing about it, I know you're lying. It's just not so.
And you know, it's not so our devotion. He is devoted to me. And I want to be devoted to him,
but my devotion to him can't be measured in the light of his
devotion. Experience and devotion can't
give you assurance. No measure of personal piety
or righteous behavior or godliness, as men call it, is a basis for
assurance. If you want assurance, quit looking
within yourself. Quit looking in here. I've told
you many times, it's a true story. I think I'll make it up when
I tell it, but in various monasteries throughout history and today,
monks, you know, monasteries, that's where those fellows like
the loafers who call themselves priests lock themselves up and
get close to God. beat themselves and they exercise
special disciplines and diet and by their various disciplines,
they think that somehow by cutting themselves off from this thing
or that, then they become more spiritual and draw more close
to God that way. Kind of like these Far Easterners,
you know, sitting down in their home and thinking, this is going
to get you to God. Well, there was a group of monks
many years ago, many years ago, who, for their spiritual devotion
to get closer to God, Bob, they'd go in their cells, and they'd
pull up their robes, and they'd spend hours, bent over, looking
at their navels. Just staring at their navels,
looking inside themselves. And this will get you close to
God. No. It'll just get you close
to you and that ain't much. No, assurance is not found looking
in yourself. Assurance is found outside ourselves. Christ is the anchor of our souls. And the anchor that holds the
boat steady is not in the boat, it's cast out of the boat. Christ
himself is our assurance. Our assurance is not based on
our faith, but his faithfulness. It is not our righteousness,
but his righteousness. It is not our works, but his
worth. Our assurance is in Jesus Christ
alone. Hold your hands here in Song
of Solomon and turn to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter
2. Listen to Paul's admonition here
in Colossians chapter 2 verse 6. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Oh God, teach me so
to walk. What did you first bring to the
Savior? When you first came to Him, how
did you come to Him? When you first received Him,
how did you receive Him? Brother Don, I came as an empty-handed,
doomed, damned, helpless, lost, bankrupt, filthy sinner, and
I had nothing to offer Him. Walk just like that. Walk with
Him just like that. As an empty-handed, doomed, damned,
lost, helpless, bankrupt sinner with nothing to commend yourself
to God. And I promise you, as you have
received Christ Jesus the Lord, if you so walk with him, you
will walk with him with some confidence, able to say, my beloved
is mine and I am his. My beloved, what a marvelous,
title for our Savior. My beloved, how I delight to
hear him spoken of as such. How I delight to be able to speak
of him as such. Certainly, he should be beloved
by you and me if we know him in the saving power of his grace.
Who lavished us with such gifts? Who's shown us such love? If
you don't love him, you're lost under the wrath of God. If any
man loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be damned is
language of scripture. We love him because he first
loved us. We do indeed love the savior. Again, we speak little of it. We speak little of it. When people start talking about
their love for Christ, they either speak far too lightly of what
ought to be very serious, or they speak that which they know
is not so. Love for Him is we do love Him,
not like we should, not like we want to, not like we shall.
Love Him, yes. Sooner give up life than give
up him. Oh, love him, yes. But we love him because he first
loved us. His love for us causes our love
for him. His love for us precedes our
love for him and exceeds our love for him by infinity. But
love him, we do. If you know him, you love him. I wouldn't have you to be presumptuous,
but I would have all of you who know the Lord Jesus. To be able
in your chambers at night. In your closets. In the closet
of your own heart and soul. To be able to lift your heart
to Christ on his throne. And say my beloved. My beloved. He deserves this title for he's
redeemed us with his precious blood. He's adopted us into his
family. He saved us by his matchless
grace. There was a time when he became
our beloved, when first he revealed himself to us. And it is truer
today than it has ever been. My beloved is mine. My beloved is mine. My personal possession, my personal
property shall be now often referred to
one of our favorite episodes on Andy Griffith. That's about
as much television as we watch these days. But some of you may
have seen it. Barney Fife was talking to Gomer
about his girlfriend, Thelma Lou, and said, I got her right
where I want her in my hip pocket. Now, Thelma Lou didn't much like
that. But I often will say, I've got her right where I want her.
She's in my hip pocket. And you know, she likes it. She
likes it. She likes me being confident
that she's mine. Imagine how our Savior delights
for you and I, who are the objects of His intense, personal, infinite
love, to be confident that He is ours. confident of his love
for us, confident of his devotion to us. My beloved is mine. Spurgeon said this. Every heart
that has been renewed by sovereign grace takes Jesus Christ to be
the chief object of its love. How is he mine? The father gave
him to me. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. A gift. People talk about a gift
as though it's a present, an offer. Every year, on about Christmas
time, some of the churches will put out some kind of signs or
advertisements or even commercials on TV saying there's a present
that wasn't opened at Christmas. As if Christ is a present presented
to you for you to take him or leave him. He's never presented
that way, never presented in scripture as an offer. He's a
gift. A gift is something that is bestowed. It is bestowed freely. It is
not just offered to you. It's put in your hands. Christ
is not just offered to you. He's given to you by the bestowment
of God's sovereign grace in the new birth given to us, given
for us and given to us. The Lord God said, I will give
thee for a covenant of the people and he is ours by marriage union. He espoused us to himself, betrothed
us to himself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving
kindnesses, and in tender mercies, even in faithfulness, and espoused
himself to us, and us to him forever. Oh, astonishing grace,
our maker, our redeemer has become our husband. Christ is mine. as a personal possession. That
means that I have him and I have all things pertaining to life
and salvation in him and with him. And the same is true of
you who are gods. We have Christ in us, the hope
of glory dwelling in our hearts by faith, living in us as a man
lives in his own house, living in us as God dwells in his own
temple, reigning in us as king and Lord by his spirit as a king
ruling in his own palace. Christ is mine for Christ liveth
in me. My beloved is mine and I'm his. I'm his. First and foremost, I'm his. I'm yours as your friend and
your pastor and your brother, but I'm his. I'm hers as her
friend, her pastor, her brother, and her husband. But there's
somebody more important than him, than her. And that's him. I'm his. We come to the Lord
Jesus, giving up ourselves to him. That's what faith is. It is the surrender of our lives
to Jesus Christ, our Lord, willingly, made willing in the day of his
power. All God's servants are volunteers. We are sweetly forced and made
willing, but willing we are. Not only willing to be his. But
deeply in our souls, desiring more fully, more completely,
more entirely to be his. It's been now 44 years since
first God created in me an interest in these things. And I want more now than I've
ever wanted to devote myself to him in the totality of my
being. Where he is by the bands of his
own everlasting love. by his grace in choosing us,
by his blood in redeeming us, bought with the price of his
own precious blood. He is by the power of his irresistible
mercy. And he is by the conquest of
our hearts. He revealed himself and made
us want him. That's the difference. When Christ
is revealed in you, you've got to have him. Y'all don't mind
me telling you one more time about our engagement, do you? When I was 16 years, 17 years
old, Shelby and I started dating. And just in a matter of a couple
of weeks, I told her I wanted to marry her. Do you know what
she told me? She looked at me, sitting as
close as I am to the corner of that pulpit, and she said, you're
crazy. You don't know what you want.
And I proceeded to court her. I mean, I courted her. Every
spare minute I had, I was on the doorsteps of the dormitory
calling her number. I would drive across town to
walk her a half a block. I took her to McDonald's and
got her whatever flavor milkshake she wanted as often as I could.
And we courted and courted and courted and courted. And I kept
showing her all the good things she'd be missing if she didn't
get me. Now, the other things I kept
secluded, but I kept showing her all the best features of
my character I possibly could. And after about a year, we were
in the mountains of North Carolina, my aunt's house. Everybody else
had gone to bed. We were sitting on the couch
and I got down on my knees and asked her to marry me. I thought
she was going to jump off the couch. So anxious she was to
say yes. What happened? I had been working
on her will for a year. And all of a sudden, she saw
something she hadn't seen before. And she wanted me much as I wanted
her. That's what Christ does for sinners. God, the Holy Spirit reveals
the Son of God in you and you have no will to resist. My beloved is mine and I am his. I'm his by my own willful, deliberate
choice. Turn back to Isaiah, Isaiah 44. Isaiah 44, just over a few pages. Isaiah 44, verse 5. Made willing in the day of his
power, we willingly, voluntarily, delightfully give ourselves to
our beloved. One shall say, Isaiah 44, verse
5. One shall say, I am the Lord's. I'm his. And another shall call
himself by the name of Jacob. Another shall subscribe with
his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel. I belong to God. I'm a sinner
saved by his grace. I'm among those called Israel,
the chosen princes of God. We are his totally and unreservedly. I belong to him. He may do with
me what he will. and he's mine. Let me talk about
that a little bit more. If Christ is ours and we're his,
then all he is is ours. All the perfections of his being,
all the attributes of his nature belong to us. Is he almighty? Then he's able to save and defend. Is he omniscient? that he knows
all our needs and the omniscient almighty God is able and willing
to provide our needs. Is he omnipresent? That he is
with us. The Lord, our God, always at
hand. I am with you all the way, even
to the end of the earth. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Is he immutable? Is he Jesus
Christ the same yesterday, today and forever? Then we need not
fear. any variation in his mind, any
alteration of his love, or any change of our state. I'm his
and he is mine. If Christ is ours and we're his,
then Christ himself is ours. Christ himself. How far can you
carry that? Let's see. Is he accepted of
God? They've come when I'm accepted
of God. Does the triune God smile upon him? The triune God smiles
upon me. His blood is ours to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. His righteousness is ours to
justify us. His grace is ours to forgive,
save, pardon, and keep us. His promises are ours and all
His fullness is ours. As a matter of fact, the scripture
puts it this way. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and you are complete in Him. I take that to mean that
just as in Him resides all the fullness of God, so in Him You
have all his fullness. You're complete in him. Nothing
like it. Nothing like it. Now, I haven't
begun to get started with this thing, but this certainly speaks
of a blessed union. A union of persons. We are one
with Christ as he is one with the father. A spiritual union. He that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit. Might I say a mystical union? I mean by that a union that we
can't begin to understand, let alone explain. A mystical spiritual
union, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. one with Him. So really and truly
one with Him. That there is no way to distinguish
our persons from our Redeemer. Now I said that deliberately.
I would encourage you to write it down and remember it. So really
and truly one with Him. That there is no way to distinguish
our persons from our Redeemer. No way to distinguish the head
from the body. And the two cannot be severed,
not this spiritual body. Christ is the head and we're
the body. So that as one hymn writer put
it, near, so very near to God, nearer I cannot be. For in the
person of his son, I am as near as he dear, so very dear to God,
dearer I cannot be. For in the person of his son,
I am as dear as he. Can we really say that? Well,
let's look in the book. Turn to John 17. John 17. Here's our Lord's prayer, his
great high priestly prayer. And listen to how he speaks. He describes our union with him. Comparing it throughout this
17th chapter of John with his union with the father. John 17
verse 11. Now I am no more in the world.
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one. Is this possible? As we are one. That's his prayer. That's his prayer. Does he always
have what he asked of the father? Does the father deny the son
anything? Father, I pray that they may
be one as we are one. Verse 12, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I have kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition.
And that's because that's the way it was purposed, that the
scriptures might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them because they're not of the world, even
as I'm not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world. but that thou shouldest keep
them from the evil. Keep them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. Sanctify
them, make them holy through thy truth. Separate them, distinguish
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou has
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify
myself. that they also may be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word.
I pray not only for these presently with me, but for all my elect. Verse 21. And this is what I
pray. That they all may be one. Now watch this. As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest
me, I've given them, that they may be one, here it gets even
stronger, even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that
thou has sent me by their perfect union in me and with me the world
will be convinced you sent me I am the Christ and convinced
of something else and has loved them as thou has loved This union is vital. Without
him, we are not complete. Without him, we cannot live. Without him, we are nothing and
we can do nothing. But it's not just vital to us.
Brother Bob, it's vital to him. Turn to Ephesians chapter one.
Ephesians chapter one. This union can't be broken. Can't
be broken. Verse 15, Ephesians 1. Wherefore,
I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love
unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened. that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us word who believe according to the working of his
mighty power. Which he wrought in Christ when
he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand
in the heavenly places Far above all principality and power and
might and dominion and every name that is named not only in
this world but also in that which is to come and hath put all things
under his feet and Gave him to be head over all things to the
church now watch this which is his body the fullness, the completion,
the fullness of Him that filleth all in all. Without His members,
Christ the Mediator is not complete. He is so vitally joined to us
that He as the Mediator is not complete if one member should
be missing. Mother Dawn, how can a man enjoy
such assurance as that? Believe on the Son of God. I know that my beloved is mine
and I am his because Christ has been revealed in me. Because
I rest my soul upon Jesus Christ alone. And I've had some great
experiences of His grace. I cherish them. I cherish the
memory of each embrace from my Redeemer. I cherish the memory
of every kiss of His mouth. I cherish the memory of every
word made known in due season to my soul. But my assurance
is not there. Not there. I'm confident that I'm his and
he's mine because this is the one to whom coming I find life. I still cling to him. I trust him alone. To whom coming, isn't that a
sweet word? Peter used it in first Peter
two, four, to whom coming. We didn't come to Christ, we're
coming to Christ. It's not that we shall come to
Christ, we're coming to Christ. Believers are ever coming to
Him. We have come, we are coming,
and we shall come. But that which is our assurance
is our present faith in the Son of God. Now you will from time
to time run across people who will want to examine you and try to
decide whether or not you meet their mold. And the smart thing
for you to do is just laugh it off. Just laugh it off. You don't
have to meet my mold. And you don't have to meet some
other preacher's mold or anybody else's mold. Well, I don't know
whether he saved or not. He didn't see what I saw and
didn't experience what I experienced, didn't know what I knew. So what? That's just what I think of it.
And, uh, and I'm being real nice right now. This is what I think
of it. What's the basis of your hope?
I'm a sinner and I trust the savior. How about you? Have you got a Shura foundation?
Have you got a better hope? Have you got something better
to offer? I'm a sinner, and I trust the
Savior, and that's all. And that's all. Then we're told, he feedeth among
the lilies. He feedeth among the lilies.
He, our beloved, our redeemer, feeds among the redeemed in glory. He feeds with his saints upon
the earth. He feeds in the assemblies of
his saints. He goes into his garden and gathers
his nuts. He says, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
He feeds among the lilies. He describes us as his lilies
and he feeds among the lilies. Oh, cherish then the blessed
privilege of meeting with God's saints in his house, where Christ
comes to refresh himself and where he refreshes himself, he
refreshes his own. Know you not that ye are the
temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? We are about to take again of
the bread and wine of the Lord's table. The bread is just bread, the
wine is just wine. But the bread represents his
body, the wine his precious blood. Feed again, O my soul, upon the
crucified Redeemer. And here the Redeemer sups with
his own. Every time I baptize in you,
heaven-born soul. I try my best to put myself where
he is and again confess to my redeemer my allegiance to him.
Here he feeds us and he feeds himself and refreshes himself. And look at verse 17 for just
a minute. Here's the desire of every believer. the desire of our hearts, a constantly
increasing desire. Our soul's great joy, our blessed
hope. Until the daybreak and the shadow
flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young
heart upon the mountains of Bithyr. This Our night season will soon
give way to the breaking of day. Certainly, there's a reference
here to the anticipation of the saints of God in the Old Testament
church for the coming of the Messiah. When the gospel day
finally broke, when the sun of righteousness finally arose,
the shadows and types and pictures of the law were done away and
the night of darkness was done. The mountains would separate
us from our savior. The mountains that interrupt
our fellowship with him are too great for us to overcome, but
not too great for him to overcome. When Peter had denied the Lord
Jesus and he thought everything was lost, Peter couldn't overcome
anything. You remember the first rooster
that crowed in the morning? Oh, how Peter must have trembled. But he couldn't stop himself.
He must deny the Lord a third time. And when the rooster crowed
again, Peter thought, it's over. It's over. He told his brethren,
I've gone back to fishing. I can't overcome this. No, Peter,
you can't. But he said, to those women at
his tomb, sent the angel and said, you go tell my disciples
and Peter, nothing's changed. I'll meet him by Galilee. Turn, my beloved, be like a roll,
our young hearts skipping across the mountains to me. Our hearts
earnestly desire the companionship and presence of our Savior As
the heart panteth after the waterbrook, so panteth my soul after Thee,
O God. And soon He shall appear. Soon He shall appear. Oh, what a breaking of day that
will be. Whether it's Him coming to take
us to Himself in glory, or him coming in his glorious second
advent, making all things new. Soon the night and the winter
and the separation times will be no more. I am my beloved's and my beloved
is mine. Amen.