a long time ago when I was a
younger man, and that's been a while back. I was preaching
once with Brother Mahan at a Bible conference, and he sensed my fear and concern in finding a
message suitable and proper to preach to folks at a Bible conference,
especially where there were a lot of preachers, and he made a statement
to me. He said, Don, I'll tell you something
that'll help you. He said, don't ever try to preach
to preachers. And when you try to find something to preach,
try to find something that speaks to your heart. And maybe, maybe
if the message you've got speaks to your heart, it'll speak to
somebody else's. And maybe it will. Well, I have a message
tonight by which God has stuck his finger in my heart. And I
trust he will be pleased to put his finger right in your heart
as well. I want to talk to you about inward conflicts. For me, these things are very,
very real, very real. My text is the Song of Solomon,
chapter 6, verses 11, 12, and 13. The text opens with the Lord
Jesus speaking. I know Solomon wrote the book,
but he wrote as the mouthpiece of the Son of God. He says, I
went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the
valley and to see whether the vine flourished and the pomegranates
budded. Or ever I was aware that my soul
made me like the chariots of Abinadab, or Menadim. Return, return, O Shulamite,
return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will you see
in the Shulamite, is the Shulamite's response. The Lord Jesus speaks
to his bride as Solomon to the Shulamite, and he says return,
return, O Shulamite, return, that we may look upon thee."
And the Shulamite responds, our hearts respond. What will you
see in the Shulamite? As it were, the company of two
armies. Now in these verses, our Savior
speaks to his church not in her time of doubt and despair, while
she was seeking him, but rather he speaks to his church in her
very best condition in this world. She had just begun again to enjoy
his blessed fellowship. Christ was now returned to his
spouse. The breach that she had made
by her neglect and her sin, he had healed by his grace, and
now there was a sweet renewing of love and fellowship. In verse
11, Our Lord Jesus speaks to his beloved church and says,
though I had withdrawn myself from you, though I had hidden
my face from you for a time, and though I gave no comfort
to you for a while, even then I had my eye on you. Even then
I was watching over my garden with tenderness, love, and care. Though you didn't see me, I saw
you. I never will forsake the apple
of my eye. I never will depart from the
love and the work that is before me in my people. He says, I went
down to the garden of nuts. I was there. I went down to see
the fruits of the valley, to see where the divine flourished.
I was there watching over you all the time. Then in verse 12,
our Savior tells us how that he was overcome. This never ceases
to amaze me and it's portrayed over and over again in the Song
of Solomon particularly. She looks on him and he says
you've overcome me with just the look of one of your eyes.
Here in verse 12 it says the same thing in essence. He tells
us how that he was overcome by our broken aching hearts and
how anxiously he returned to his people who cried after him.
It is though he said I couldn't hide my face any longer. My love
for you compelled me with irresistible force. to return to you. Do you see it here? He says,
or ever I was aware. He speaks as a lover whose heart
has just been overcome. Or ever I was aware my soul made
me like the chariots of a minute dim. Now notice your marginal
reference. He says almost before I knew
it. My soul set me on the chariots of my willing people. Isn't that
amazing? My soul set me on the chariots
of my willing people. As soon as you were made willing
to turn to me, my heart was overcome by your willingness toward me,
by your love for me. Perhaps the best illustration
I can give, though it doesn't really serve as well as it might
desire, because this is a picture of Christ and his bride, Christ
and his church, his love for us. But you remember when Joseph
was in Egypt and his brethren came to him? And at last Joseph
was simply overcome. And he began to weep and he put
all the servants out of his house and he spoke to his brothers
in the Hebrew tongue. He said, I am Joseph. I'm Joseph. Don't be afraid. I'm Joseph.
I'm Joseph. I'm Joseph. Here I am right here
with you. I've been here all the time watching
over you. And our Lord Jesus here says,
As soon as you called to me, as soon as you turned to me,
as soon as you sought me, my heart was overcoming. Before
I knew it, I was on the chariots of my willing people coming to
you again. We ought always to be a willing
people, seeking Christ incessantly. There's a sense in which that's
true, we do seek him. We who know him seek him continually. And yet there's a very real sense
in which we often neglect him. We are always with earnest faith,
earnest love, earnest hope to seek him. For faith, hope, and
love, these are like the chariots of Amenadiel. These are chariots
of his willing people. which bring him to us. And if
we continue seeking the Lord, he will return to us in due time.
Matthew Henry, in commenting on this passage, sometimes he
says things like nobody else quite does. He says, no chariots
sent for Christ shall ever return empty. Seek him in the chariots of faith,
hope, and love. Seek him And I promise you, you
sin for him, he'll come to you. I promise. In fact, if you seek
for him, it's because he has come to you. Our Lord will return
to us because of his own grace, his own love, and his own faithfulness. We can do nothing to win his
favor, neither before he saves us nor after. He is gracious
because he will be gracious. He loves us because he will love
us. He returns to us because he will
return to us. He visits us with grace. He visits
us with times of refreshing because he will visit us with grace in
times of refreshing. Now then, look at verse 13. The
Lord Jesus, having returned to his beloved church, now courts
us. He wounds us like a young man
courting a young lady. He invites his beloved bride
to return to him. He says, return, return, O Shulamite. Return, return, that we may look
on thee. I was looking over this just
before service this evening and I thought, words could not be
more tender. Words could not be more compassionate.
Solomon chose his bride and espoused her to himself. And when he did,
he gives her the name Shulamite. The name Shulamite really should
be translated as Solomon. It's the Hebrew feminine form
of the word Solomon. So when Solomon chose this woman,
this Shulamite, this bride for himself, he gives her his own
name. And she gladly takes it. He gladly
takes it. I can't help but to mention in
this day of stupidity, when a woman marries a man and she honors
him, she takes his name. If she's not going to take his
name, don't marry him. If she's not going to take his name, she's
not going to be identified with him. I can't think of anything
more insulting and more despicable than for a woman to refuse to
take the name of a man she married. A woman who is a proper wife
and proper bride finds her identification and fulfillment in her husband.
And my friends, if you don't find it there, don't do a man
the dishonor of living with it. Believers obey Christ and follow
his example. Here, this woman takes the name
of Solomon. He gives her and does so gladly.
Well, listen to this. Our Lord Jesus, who is portrayed
by Solomon and his church portrayed by Solomon. He has so thoroughly
made us to be one with himself that he's given us his name as
well. He is our Solomon, and we are his Solomon, and I gladly
take it. This is his name. You can read
it for yourself. Jeremiah 23 verse 6, this is
the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. In Jeremiah 33 verse 16, this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. He has made us one with him and
he has made us to have all that he has by divine gift and divine
imputation. This name Shulamite or Solomon
means perfection. Oh, what a word. We are perfect
in Christ. Before God himself. Perfect,
perfect, perfect, complete. Being washed in his blood, we're
washed of all our sins. Being robed in his righteousness,
we are glorious in holiness, purity, and righteousness in
the eyes of God. The name Shulamite or Solomon
also means peace. The Apostle Paul writes, therefore
being justified, being made perfect before God. Oh, if this doesn't
give you peace, nothing will. Therefore being justified by
God and before God, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, being justified in Christ,
washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, God has now
removed the enmity of our hearts toward him in regeneration. And he has taken away the guilt
of our consciences, speaking peace in our souls, so that now
peace has been made between us and God. The warfare is over.
Buddy, that struggle that tormented us, that thing that kept us in
constant turmoil now is done. God says, we're at peace. The
war's over. No more calls for strife between
me and my people. He is our peace, the scripture
says of Christ. And then our Lord graciously
calls for us to return to him. Notice in one sentence, four
times, he says, return, return. Oh, Shulamah! Oh, Solomon! Return,
return! And so you see how willing Christ
is for us to have his fellowship and his communion. He speaks
to our hearts. He says return to me. Return
to me in your first simple faith. All children of God don't ever
grow beyond the simplicity of childlike faith. Return to me. to not clean yourself up in return,
not straighten things out in return, not improve your position
in return. He just says return. Return to
me. How? Just like you did in the
beginning. Sinners with nothing in your
hands, come again to me in the simplicity of faith. Trust in
me. Return to me in the sincerity
of your first tender love. Return to me. Return to me, he
says, where first we met, where first your heart was overcome
by me. Return to me where first you
saw my glory and melted before me. Return to me at the cross,
not the not the symbol but the thing accomplished at the cross.
Return to me at the site of blood redemption, salvation accomplished
by me, by my sacrifice and by my death. Return to me. Now catch
the last loving word of our Savior in this text. He says, return,
return that we may look upon thee. I don't know whether I can deal
with this or not, this is what he said. You, have you ever been
away from somebody precious to you? for a long time. And you meet them and you just
hug them. And you kiss them and you embrace
them. Now hold on. Just stand there a minute. Let
me look at you. Let me look at you. Our Lord seems to say that you've
not been with me much lately. You've neglected my word and
my throne. I've seldom heard your voice
or seen your face. Return to me that we may look
on you. That I and my Father and our
Spirit may look on you. Look on you in love, forgiveness, with kindness, with
with satisfaction, that we may look on you. So he says to you,
to you, he says, Bob, you come on back to me now. I've missed
you. I've missed the sound of your
voice. I've missed seeing you in my presence. I've missed hearing
you. Return to me. Return to me, that
we may look on you. And I'll show you my face again.
But now in the second part of verse 13, the bride speaks. Let me make it a little bit more
personal. He's been talking to me. He says, you return to me. And now, I respond. The church, the bride, people
of God, being convinced of her own sin, being full of shame,
she confesses her frustration with herself. She thinks, you
called me to return to you. That you may look on me with
nothing to see. Nothing to see. What will you
see in Solomon? What will you see in the Shulamites?
I'll tell you what you'll see. As it were, the company of two
armies. He says there's nothing in me
but conflict and confusion. In my heart there are two armies
constantly at war. If you look at me you'll see
a raging battle, a battle good fighting evil and evil good,
light fighting darkness and darkness light. I'm not worth looking
on because I'm a half divided against itself. Now there's something in that
language strikes true to my experience. And I am sure to yours as well,
if you know anything about walking with Christ in this world. Let
me make four statements and I'll wrap this up. The passage here speaks of conflicts,
the struggles in a believer's soul between flesh and spirit.
Now here's the first thing to recognize. These inward conflicts
are facts and reality in every believer's life. He says, well, I don't have any
kind of struggle in my soul like you're talking about. You've
never met Christ. You've never had your flesh exposed to yourself.
The believer's life, you see, is not all sweets. It's mixed
with a lot of sweet, but there's some bitter as well. It's not
all joy and peace. Faith in Christ brings bitter
conflict. Conflict would cause the child
of God more pain, more toil, more tears than any conflict
outside him. I had been sheltered in God's
providence from the sorrows and pains of what many of you go
through. I've been sheltered in God's providence in the difficulties
I've seen many of my friends around the world and across the
country go through. But I can say this from my experience,
the pains I've had, the sorrows I've had, the difficulties I've
had outside this body have been, they can't even be weighed in
the balance with the pain of what goes on inside me. all the
time. The struggles between flesh and
spirit are evident to the child of God. To the young believer,
these things may seem a little strange to speak of them and
speak of them plainly. To you who've been in this warfare
for a while, you know what I'm talking about. You see the raging conflicts
throughout the Song of Solomon. You see hints of it, traces of
it. She says, I am black but come. She speaks of herself and says,
I sleep but my heart wakes. She says, by night on my bed
I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him but I found him
not. You see these conflicts in the lives of God's servants,
particularly as you read the Psalms. One of the reasons the
Psalms are so So precious to the believer. You pick up the
Bible of any old saint, any of them, I'll guarantee if you've
got a Bible that's been around a while, the most soiled, thickest
pages of the Psalms. I'll guarantee it. How come?
Because here, Rex, we go with a man after God's own heart into
his closet, and we hear him say what we feel in our heart, but
we're scared to death to say. That's exactly it, is David. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Why are you so far from the words
of my Lord? And why won't you hear when I
cry unto you in the daytime and in the night? And we hear it,
we know that's what I want to say, but I don't dare say it.
Because the Psalms show us this constant struggle and conflict.
I read to you the 73rd Psalm this morning. Go back and read
it again. David said, he said, this is what I experience. I'm
sitting in my palace and I'm sitting here looking out over
my family. I've got a wife that hates me, sons that despise me,
and despise my God. My family's in constant turmoil
within itself. And over yonder is that man who
hates God. He worships a stone. And his
eyes bug out with fatness. His boys are all sitting at his
table with him. He doesn't want for anything. Shoot. It's a useless thing to serve
God. That's what he said. He said, I've washed my hands
in innocence. And he said, I would have said this publicly, but
I feared to offend against the generation of God's children.
Then I went into the house of God. I heard God say, He set them
in slippery places. I heard God say, that man's over
there enjoying everything in this world because I've appointed
him to destruction and he's being fattened up like a calf for the
slaughter. You into him. And David said,
Oh God, I was so fooled. I was as a beast before you."
He said, oh forgive my thoughts. He said, whom have I in heaven
but thee? There's none on earth I desire
beside thee. But the conflict he went through
was real. And it was one of those things
he went through constantly. We see this inward conflict continually
in the lives of God's people in the Old Testament. speaks for himself in Romans
7, and he says, I know that in me, in my flesh, dwelleth no
good thing. He said, the will is present
with me, but having formed that which is good, I can't buy it.
He said, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against
the flesh, and these two are contrary one to the other, so
that you cannot do the things you want. We see these conflicts
in our own daily experience. John Bunyan, who wrote that blessed
Pilgrim's Progress, wrote another book about these conflicts, called
it the Holy War. Richard Sims, the Puritan, wrote
a book called the Soul Conflict. These things have been going
on for a long time. You see, we all have a corrupt nature
within us that loves sin, because that's what it is. We have within us the righteous
nature as well if we're born of God. A righteous nature that
loves righteousness is born of God. And would draw us into perfect
conformity and union with Christ. This righteous nature is the
seed of God created in us. But between the two, as long as we live in this world,
there's never going to be a truth. Never. Sin is never going to
surrender. Under dominion, yes, under dominion
to Christ, but surrender never. And righteousness will never
cease to struggle against sin. So the first thing to be learned
is this conflict is a fact. It's just a fact of life. The
second thing is that these conflicts in our souls are caused by and
begin in the new birth. They only begin when you begin
to live. Let me see if I can illustrate
it for you in a personal way. Bobby won't mind me telling you
this. Several years ago, you know, he was like most folks
raised in religion. He came to me after services
one day and he said, you know, we were out on his farm just
He said, you know, I used to never have any trouble getting
up in front of the church and praying. He said, since God saved
me, I have so much trouble doing that. How come? Conflicts. Conflicts. You want to be honest
before God, honest with his people. He recognizes nothing in you
by nature except dishonesty and corruption. You want to honor God? You want
to lead Him but you recognize me? Me speak to God on behalf
of God's people? Me? Knowing what I know about
myself? Spurgeon said the reigning power
of sin, that is broken in the new birth. Its dominion is broken. But it
never dies until the man himself dies. A new nature has been planted
in us, but the old nature is not eradicated. I don't need to prove that to
anybody, do I? Home to wonder. Lord, I feel
it cold. leave the God I love. Here's
my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above."
Now here's the fact. God could remove all the conflicts
that exist without his purpose in place. Like that. That'd be no trouble for him. He could take it away. like that.
He could make us perfect experimentally here, just as perfect as we shall
be in glory, like that. Well that is perfect. Therefore
this third thing must be understood as well. These conflicts, they have some
good effects. They teach us continually that
salvation is by grace alone. That Christ is our only righteous.
They teach us continually to lean upon him. They teach us
to pride his faithfulness. And they make us to long for
the day when these conflicts shall be over. And that's the last thing. Oh, bless God. One day soon. We shall, when we leave this
world, be free from sin. Entirely free from sin. the conflict with it, the presence
of it, and all the consequences of it. And we'll look back at
the conflicts and we'll say, thank you, Lord. This was the
path best for me, for your glory, that I might serve your interest
here in this world. Amen.