It's my responsibility every
time I stand in front of you to do what I know I can never
do. It is my responsibility to speak to your heart and no man
can speak to another man's heart. Can't be done. Anybody with good
sense can prepare a sermon doctrinally accurate and deliver the sermon
and sit down. But finding a message from God
is something else. And speaking, not myself, but
rather God speaking through me, depends entirely upon Him. And that's the reason I earnestly
beg of you, never cease to pray for your pastor as I stand to
speak to you and to others. I can't tell you men how very,
very meaningful, how very important, how very helpful the scripture
readings and prayers in the office and here, Rex read and prayed
in the back, Merle here. I just, when God's with us, oh,
how blessed a time. We've had a good worship service
already. Now I pray that God will be pleased
to speak through this empty vessel to your heart. If he will, we'll
worship. All right, let's turn to the
Song of Solomon. We'll begin in chapter 4 and verse 16. As I've told you many times,
the chapter and verse divisions in our Bibles are convenient,
help us to memorize and locate passages of Scripture, but sometimes
the translators gave us chapter and verse divisions at just exactly
the wrong place, and that certainly is the case here. The Song of
Solomon, chapter 4 and verse 16, and chapter 5 and verse 1
certainly form one paragraph, as the paragraph marks indicate.
In chapter 4 and verse 16, we have a two-fold request, an earnest
earnest plea, made by the Church, the Bride of Christ, I hope by
our hearts. First, she asked for the gracious
influence of God the Holy Spirit. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Without the Spirit of God, We
are nothing, we can do nothing. And the graces that our Lord
has planted in us will amount to nothing unless continually
he breathes upon us. And then she asked a second thing. She asked for the manifest presence
of Christ himself. Let my beloved come into his
garden. Let him eat his pleasant fruits. Now in chapter five, we've got
his answer. Here in verse one, we have our
Lord's gracious answer to this prayer. Christ himself speaks
and says, I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have
gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink
abundantly, O beloved." Now here our Savior speaks of his manifest
presence with his church. We shouldn't be greatly surprised
by the language he speaks here. Did he not say that if we would
open to him If any man would open to him then he would come
in and sup with us and calls us to enjoy his presence. Our Lord is as good as his promise. No sooner does his church throw
the door open and say oh let my beloved come into his garden
and eat his pleasant fruits until we see him sitting in his garden
eating his pleasant fruits. The fact is This is one thing
you can be absolutely certain of. Every heart prepared by God
to receive Christ anxiously seeks him and desires him and such
shall surely have him. Did you hear me? Every heart
prepared by God to receive Christ seeks him anxiously, desires
him earnestly, and shall surely have him. Now this certainly
is true with regard to you who are here tonight yet without
Christ. Would you have the Son of God?
Would you have him? Would you trust the Savior? Would you be forgiven of all
sin, robed in his righteousness, washed in his blood? Would you
have a new record before God so that God himself speaks and
says behold I make all things new. Wouldn't you be forgiven
of all sin and accepted in him? This is just this simple. Look
to him and you have him. Seek him and you find him. Believe
on him and he's yours, yours already. For you would not seek him. You
would not look to him. You would not call on him. You
would not believe him had he not already come into you and
made your soul to be his very garden. So I bid you look. Look away to Christ. He says
let us therefore boldly come. Come boldly to the throne of
grace. Come to God's sovereign throne. But ever remember it's
a throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need. And this is most assuredly true
with regard to you and me who are the Lord's. If God has prepared
our hearts to seek him, and we seek him. If God has prepared
our hearts to desire him, to call on him, to run after him,
then the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed ours. He's easily found. The fact that our hearts truly
long for his presence is evidence that he's already present. Sometimes
we're like Jacob. You remember when he woke out
of his sleep and he said, surely the Lord was in this place. And
I knew it not. Sometimes we're like Mary when
she stood by the tomb and she was standing right present with
the master speaking to him. And she didn't know who he was.
And I doubt not that's often the case with us. Now I pray
that this night he may be pleased, one more time, to visit us in
a manifest way. These 18 years we have been so
blessed of God, so blessed of God. The Lord graciously, graciously
meets with us, graciously speaks by his word, graciously causes
our hearts to be inclined toward him. But let us never presume
upon such goodness, but rather always earnestly seek it. Now
I want you to see first tonight that our Lord Jesus calls for
us to take notice of his presence. Our prayer in the last verse
of chapter four was, let my beloved come into his garden. And here
he says, I have come into my garden. It is as if he said,
Just look here, here I am. Just look here, here I am. Could
it be that he has come to us and does not perceive it? Could
it be that he is present with us, who so earnestly long for
him, and yet we don't know it? I'm afraid it's often so. are so much taken up with doubt. God forgive me. With concern and care for other
things. That we have to have the Son
of God advertise his presence. And we don't know it. Here I
am. Just look! You call for me to
come into my garden. I'm in my garden. Look to me
now. Our master promised us that where
two or three are gathered together in his name, he would be present
with them in Matthew 18, 20. It doesn't matter where they
gather. I preach to folks in tar paper shanties and I preach
to folks in large, nice, nice buildings. I preach to folks
in cow pastures and in the woods. I preach to folks in thatched
buildings, not just thatched roof buildings, I mean just thatched
buildings. I go down to Mexico and I've I preach where folks
just tie sticks together and put some tin over the roof and
just rejoice in the Lord. It doesn't matter where you meet.
It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how many are gathered.
It doesn't matter what denomination you may be part of. The only
thing that is of importance is that we have gathered here in
his name. I wonder if there's two or three
gathered here in the name of Christ. Oh, what does that mean
to gather in the name of Christ? It means that we've come here
believing Christ, trusting Him, and Him alone for our acceptance
with God. Trusting His blood and His righteousness
alone to give us acceptance with the Holy Lord God. And as such,
we've come seeking to worship Him. to magnify His name, to
honor Him, to give glory to Him. To gather in His name is to come
here trusting Him, seeking a word from God to direct us in His
will. To gather in His name is to come
here in His name, seeking His mercy and seeking His sheep. Brother Skip this morning said
to me after services, made a good observation He said some churches
are in the business of business. Unlike here, we're in the business
of preaching. And that's what we're in the business of. We're
here to promote God's glory and promoting God's glory to seek
his sheep, to declare his word freely and plainly so that lost
sheep may hear the shepherd's voice and be drawn to him. Our
Lord has promised to be with his people, not only as we gather
in his name, But He's promised to be with those who truly worship
Him in spirit and in truth at all times. He said, Lo, I'm with
you always. I'm always with you. He's the
Lord at hand. You remember how Paul speaks?
He said, Rejoice in the Lord. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. The Lord's at hand. He's always by your side. Perceive
it or not, He's always there. Our Savior said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee. Oh, how often I have turned to
that word. It's given so many times in the scriptures. I think
four or five times that promise is repeated to different men.
It was first given to Jacob. And as Paul gives it to us in
Hebrews 13, he uses compound negatives over and over again.
Kind of encourages me. You don't have to speak perfectly.
You speak right. He said, This is the way Paul
gives it to us by inspiration. I will never, no never, no never
leave thee and no never, no never will I forsake thee. What's he
mean? He means you understand I'm not
going to leave you. I'm not going to forsake you for any reason
at any time. And our Lord Jesus Christ has
promised his manifest presence to those who love him, obeying
his word. Look in John 14, John chapter
14. Now this is the thing I'm talking
about this evening. We know the doctrine of Christ's presence,
but we want to know his real manifest presence. John chapter 14 verse 18, our
Lord is beginning his final valedictory address to his church. And he
says, I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. Yet a little
while and the world sees me no more, but you see me. Because
I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that
I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He that hath
my commandments, he's not talking about the ten commandments, he's
talking about the whole revelation of God. And this is it, that
you believe on the Son of God. Read it plainly. He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me, and
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest myself to him." Now look at this. Judas
saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it thou wilt manifest
thyself unto us and not unto the world? How is it? Well, it
happens all the time. Happens all the time. Some of
you folks sit here and listen, you come to the services and
God's saints go home rejoicing, go home giving thanks to God,
go home because they've heard from the master, they've seen
his face again, they've been able to worship him, they've
been instructed in his word, and you walk out the door saying
what's so special about that? What? I didn't say anything special
going on down there. I don't see any reason why anybody ought
to be excited about that. How come? Read on now. Jesus
answered and said unto him, if a man loved me, he'll keep my
words, he'll heed my word, and my father will love him, and
we will come unto him and make our abode with him. What'd he
say? He said, this is how I manifest
myself to you and not to the world. I come specifically to
you. Specifically to you. Whenever
the door is opened, our Lord Jesus declares, I'll come in.
Whenever there is a heart broken and contrite before God, the
Lord Jesus Christ has taken up his abode in that heart. Listen
to this. Thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy. What a description of God. The
high, the lofty one, he inhabits eternity. His name is holy. Holy and reverend is his name.
Why don't you call me in holy? Because God's name is holy. Why
don't you call me in reverend? Because God's name is reverend.
There's nothing reverend about me. Nothing holy about me. I
am just a sinner saved by God's grace just like you. His name
is holy. His name is reverend. He dwells
in and inhabits eternity. Listen to this. And I'll dwell
in the high and holy place with him also. that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, to
revive the heart of the contrite ones. In other words, when a
sinner is made to see himself a sinner, a sinner is made to
see himself in need of mercy, a sinner is made to see himself
in desperate need of grace and cries out to God for mercy. The
Lord God says, I'll dwell right there with you and in you. This personal manifest presence
of Christ among his people. Oh, what an unspeakable blessing
of grace it is. I'm not talking about a fanatical
delusion, you know me better. I'm not talking about some charismatic
nonsense. I'm not talking about all the
silly stuff that goes on in the name of religion. I'm talking
about coming year. and visiting with the Son of
God in his house. He said, well, we can do that
anywhere. Our Lord said, where two or three
are gathered in my name, I'll meet you. We recognize, we recognize
God's people worship him continually. But the Lord God has placed a
special sanction upon the gathering of his saints in worship. And
he said, where two or three of them get together to worship
me, I'm there with them. When our Lord Jesus makes himself
known in our midst, then our prayers, our singing,
our reading, our preaching, our hearing of the word, oh, how
blessed those things are. And when he, for our good, for
the discipline of our souls, Hides himself from us. Oh, what languishing. You try to pray and you can't
pray. Try to read and you read a letter and nothing comes. You
listen but you hear nothing. This place here, I'm going to
be honest with you. Sometimes somebody will ask me
when I know I'm sick and just Real sick, so why don't you not
preach? Man, this is the best medicine in the world. It's the
best medicine in the world if God's here. But if he leaves me here, this
is the loneliest, emptiest, hardest work in the world. You see what
I'm talking about? We got to have him. Without me,
you can do nothing. When he's present in our midst,
oh, what joy comes. When he's present, then our souls
are blessed with grace and peace multiplied. I can't tell you
that you'll always find Christ present with his people here.
I wouldn't dare make that presumption. But I can tell you this. Are you listening? He will always
be present with everybody who seeks him. I promise you that. Whether I've
come seeking Him or not, whether Bobby's come seeking Him or not,
if Ginny's come seeking Him, He'll be present with you. That's
what He promised us, two or three, gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them. Look in Jeremiah 29, and remember
the Lord's talking here about His people. Verse 12, do you ever feel like
the children of Israel in captivity? You feel like your soul is just
held captive? Listen to what the Lord says.
Verse 12, Jeremiah 29, 12. Then, then shall you call upon
me, and you shall go and pray unto me. And as soon as you call
on me, as soon as you go praying to me, I will hearken unto you. Verse 13. And you shall seek
me. As soon as you seek me, what
does he say? What does it say? You shall seek
me but you'll not find me. Oh no! You shall seek me and
find me when you search for me with all your heart. Listen to
this word from God. I will be found of you, saith
the Lord. And I will turn away your captivity.
And I will gather you from the nations and from the places whether
I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again
into the place which I called you to be carried away captive.
What are you saying, pastor? It's what I'm saying. Those who
ask, to them it shall be given. Those who knock, to them it shall
be opened. Those who seek, They shall find
anyone who misses Christ, misses Him because he didn't seek Him. If you come here tonight and
you go away and you miss Christ, it's because you didn't come
seeking Him. If you come here for the next
30 years and you go away to hell, and miss Christ, it'll be because
you didn't come to see him again. Secondly, it is evident in our
text that our blessed Savior finds great satisfaction in his
church. This is what Christ here says
to his church. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my
spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Our Lord here claims his church
as his own special possession. In this one verse, he uses the
personal possessive pronoun, my, nine times. What you saying? You're mine. I chose you. I bought you, I called you, I
hold you in my hand, you're mine. You don't belong to yourself,
you're mine. You're not your own, you've been
bought with a price. We rightfully belong to the Son
of God, possessed of him because he bought us, because he loved
us, because he has conquered our hearts and grown us to him.
The sweet produce which Christ finds in his garden. Those graces
of the spirit described in Galatians, love, joy, peace, and so on,
is the result of his own cultivation. He takes great delight in it
as he looks over his church, his garden, his vineyard, and
sees the produce of his hand. I guess the only fellow here
who can really appreciate this, Oscar is kind of like you going out
and looking over that farm and see what you've done. I've never
been down there. In 18 years, I've never been
down there. He didn't drive me around that far. Never have.
How come? Because he takes great pleasure
in that thing. It's the work of his hands. Listen
to me. The Lord Jesus Christ takes great
pleasure in you. You who are the work of his hands.
The words of our text have been interpreted by many in different
ways. think they're smart, scholarly.
But surely they convey to us this one message, the Lord Jesus
Christ finds satisfaction in his people. He delights in his
people. What condescending grace. The Son of God comes to his garden,
but that's not all. He looks upon his garden with
complacency, delight, and satisfaction because his blood and his righteousness
makes everything in his garden accepted before God Almighty. Listen to this in 1 Peter. You
can look at it later. The apostle tells us, you also
as lively stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood
to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. They will, God will accept anything
we give him, oh no, oh no. But he accepts our gifts, our
praise, our worship, our prayers, our hymns, our preaching, he
accepts it all only because of Christ. Outside Christ, the best
prayer you ever uttered is just worthy of hell. Outside Christ,
the best sermon I ever thought about preaching is just worthy
of hell. He accepts us only because of Christ. He accepts us because
of Christ's blood. He accepts us because of Christ's
righteousness. And he accepts what we do For
Him. Just cause we do it for Him.
Let me see if I can illustrate it. I think I've told you this
story before, but you'll probably hear it a lot more if I live
any longer. When Faith was about three or four years old, I'd
been out on the road preaching, been gone a while. And got time
for me to come home. I would be home sometime during
the daylight hours and that little girl was sitting out front waiting
on her daddy to come home. Must have been in the springtime
because she went and gathered up a rich bouquet for me. She went around and gathered
her a handful of dandelions. Those horrible, ugly flowers
that when they're gone. Just dandelions. And she gathered
them up and I pulled in the driveway. She had those things ready and
she came running to me and handed those things to me with a kiss.
That's the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I ever saw in my life.
You understand what I'm talking about? worthless to anybody except
me and her. How come? Because she's mine! And she did it just because she
loves me! That's all. And our Master, in
great grace, condescends to receive these
paltry gifts we offer to Him, these withering just cause he loved us and we
love him and were washed in his blood. That's called grace, called
grace. And then our Lord Jesus gives
a loving invitation to his people. He says, eat, oh friends, drink,
ye drink abundantly, oh beloved. Now look at these two words.
He calls us his friend. He never had a more hardened,
implacable enemy in all of history than this man who stands before
you. But he has reconciled me to him by his blood, and in the
fullness of his time, in grace and mercy, he conquered my heart. and turned this man who was his
impeccable inner man into his friend. He's a friend to me,
but he made me a friend to him. He's called us to be friends.
And then he says, Oh be loved. Loved with an everlasting love.
Loved with a redeeming love. Loved with a pardoning, preserving,
keeping love. He says, eat, O friends, drink
abundantly, O beloved. Eat what? Eat of my flesh and
drink of my blood. That's what faith is. Faith is
eating his flesh and drinking his blood, what's symbolized
here in the picture of the Lord's table. Faith takes Christ's righteous
obedience as our only righteousness before God, and Christ's blood
atonement as our only acceptance with God, our only cleansing
from sin, and as I take the bread and take the wine into my mouth,
it becomes mine and nobody can get it. It's mine. And as you, by faith, eat his
flesh and drink his blood. He's yours just as soon as you
taste and see that the Lord is God. And I love this word abundantly. It's translated in the margin,
be drunken with love. There is no danger of overindulgence
when you eat of his flesh. And there is no danger of excessive
drunkenness, when you're a drunk with his love, set forth in his
blood. Come then and eat and drink,
eat and drink, eat and drink of the Son of God. Oh God, let
us never tire of eating and drinking of