I wonder why you're here. And I wonder why I'm here, really. I said this morning as I tried
to preach to you, I pray that God will make me honest. Or as
Father used to say, honest folks won't go to hell. I want to be
honest before God, honest with you, honest with myself. I wonder
why we're here. Is it because of some duty? Is it because we know we ought
to be? Duty's a pretty good motive,
but it's not enough. That's not the case. Why we're
here. I hope it's because we need I
know we need it, and we've come seeking Him. I want to talk to
you this evening, if God will enable me, about seeking Him.
Let's turn to the Song of Solomon, chapter three. Song of Solomon,
chapter three. The psalmist said, When thou
said, Seek ye my face, I said, Thy face will I seek. Here in
the Song of Solomon, we have the church, the bride of Christ,
speaking to him. She has just declared, I am my
beloved's and my beloved is mine. And now we read these words,
beginning in verse one of chapter three, that by night, and we
do have our nights, don't we? By night, On my bed I sought
him, whom my soul loved. I sought him, but I found him
not. Said, I'll just quit there. Not
if you need it, but not if you've got to have it. I will arise now and go about
the city. in the streets and in the broad
ways, I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but
I found him not. The watchman, that's the preacher,
that's your pastor. The watchman that go about the
city found me, to whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little, just a little
while, that I passed from them and I found him. I found him whom my soul loved.
I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him
into my mother's house, into the chamber of her that conceived
me. I charge you, all you daughters of Jerusalem, By the rows and
by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up, nor awake my
love, to be pleased. For the believing heart, nothing
in all the world compares in importance to communion with
the Son of God. Nothing. Nothing is sweeter,
nothing more delightful, nothing more joyful, nothing more satisfied
than to walk with Christ in his manifest presence, beholding
his face and enjoying his communion. Oh, how blessed to walk with
him and have him speak to us and cause our hearts to burn
as he speaks to us as we walk in this way. And just as that
is the sweetest thing in this world to enjoy, for the believer
nothing is sadder, nothing more difficult, nothing more painful
than those night seasons when our Savior hides his face from
us for our good, because he would draw our souls after him. Holy
Scripture seems to exhaust every earthly figure to describe the
blessedness of fellowship with Christ. Words cannot describe
it. Earthly relationships cannot
really adequately portray it. And even so, words cannot describe
and earthly relationships cannot adequately portray the sorrow,
the pain of soul felt in our hearts when our beloved withdraws
himself. Now when I talk about seeking
him, perhaps it's needful that I make a couple of observations
before we look at this text. I know that our Lord Jesus is
no longer physically present with his church. Our Lord's body
is in heaven. There is a man sitting now upon
the throne of heaven, and it is best for us that his physical
presence not be with us. Sometimes folks get the idea,
superstitious idea, that the Lord's physical presence would
somehow make a difference. It's not his physical presence
we need, it's his spiritual presence. And I also know that it's best
for us because our Lord said plainly, it's needful for you
that I go away, it's expedient for you. For if I go not away,
the Comforter will not come. Now our Lord Jesus, having ascended
into heaven physically, Though he is limited in his physical
capacity. Now please understand what I'm
saying. A physical body is limited in this regard. It can't be but
one place in a town. He's seated in heaven. Yet this
man who's seated in heaven is himself God Almighty. You remember
how I spoke about that one who came down from heaven? Even he
who was in heaven? Though he was standing here upon
the earth talking. He's talking about himself. And
so he speaks of himself in his divinity and that is in no way
limited, he's everywhere present. But still the thing that we seek
and need is his manifest presence given to us as our God-man mediator
in all his covenant relationships and all his covenant fullness
as he is made known to us and as he comes to us in the person
of God the Holy Spirit. That's how the Spirit of God
is described as the Comforter. Remember Judas, not Iscariot,
Judas, one of our Lord's other disciples, said to the Lord,
he said, the Lord Jesus said, I'll not leave you comfortless.
I'll come to you. And I'll manifest myself to you.
And Judas said, Lord, how are you going to show yourself to
us and not to the world? This is how he does it. He sends
his spirit. He said, I and my father will
come to you. Come to you in the person of
the Holy Spirit. Make ourselves known to you by
the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. Make ourselves manifest
in you and to you by the sweet, blessed, comforting work of God's
Spirit. It is the spiritual presence
of Christ which is the strength and glory of His church. It is
in this sense that our Lord says He as the angel of the covenant,
he as the blessed son of God walks in the midst of the golden
candlesticks. He is that one who comes and
visits wherever two or three are gathered together in his
name, there am I in the presence in the midst of you. He is that
one of whom Paul spoke when he said we come together, we are
the temple of God and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. He's
talking about the sweet, blessed manifestation of Christ's presence
with us in his mediatorial capacity as our God-man Savior as he is
revealed and made known by God the Holy Spirit. These days,
I have no question, the name of the church in 20th century
is Ichabod, for the glory has departed from Israel. The church
of this day is without the Spirit of God. She has a name to live,
but she's dead. She's like whited sepulchers.
They look pretty on the outside, but inside just full of dead
men's bones. And you know that corruption
follows death. The churches around us, the churches
of this age, have long since lost all power to do good to
the souls of men because they become obnoxious, loathsome,
and the causes of evil in this world, rather than the preventives.
I said that exactly as I meant to say it. The churches of this
day, having forsaken God, have been left empty and void of God,
and void of his presence, and void of his knowledge, and now
corruption and death has given way to constant evil influence
and not good. And that can certainly happen
here as well. The one thing we need is Christ. The one thing we must have is
the Son of God. Our Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. And that's exactly what he meant.
Nothing. Nothing of benefit to the souls
of men. Nothing for the glory of God.
Nothing for the presence of God's kingdom. Without me, you can
do nothing. The spiritual presence of Christ
made the apostolic church a force to be reckoned with in the world.
In just a few years, that little band of nobodies and nothings,
that ragtag mob of fishermen and uneducated, illiterate sinners,
saved by God's free grace, were used of God to carry the gospel
literally into the four corners of the earth. I'm talking about
just a few years. They didn't have radio, television,
they didn't have satellites, they didn't have cassette tapes,
they didn't have telephones. All they had was just a burning zeal
for God in their hearts and they carried the gospel everywhere.
And then days of darkness plunged the professed Church of Christ
into pagan idolatry, superstition. Every imaginable corruption had
had come into the church. You read the pages of church
history and you don't have to read church history. Just read
the epistles that were written to Corinth and Galatia and the
Ephesus and Colossae. Read the things written by John.
Read what Merle just read a little bit ago in Jude. And you read
those epistles and understand that even while the apostles
themselves walked upon the earth, Satan was at work causing darkness,
darkness to invade the church. and every perversity of doctrine
imaginable, you can find it within the second century of Christianity.
Every one of them. I can show you it in history
books and I say, well, we got history behind us, heresy's got
history behind it too. Every one of them. Every heresy
known to man in regards to Christianity was found in the second century.
Every one of them. And then there came that mighty
time when God aroused a few people. within that apostate, heathen
religion that was called Christianity. A few people to seek his face.
A few people to whom he said, seek ye my face. And by the effectual
power of his grace, caused them to seek his face. And he poured
out his spirit upon his people. And he caused his church once
again to flourish with power. Or may he do so now, in these
dark Every revival, and I use that
word very scarcely, you know I do, I'm not talking about religious
excitement. Every true awakening of God's
church and of God's people has come by the outpouring of God's
Spirit, making known in the midst of his people, Jesus Christ in
his redemptive saving glory. That's what we see. want to know him. I want to experience
him every time I come here. That's exactly that. I want to
experience him. In the words of this very soul
of Solomon, let him, let him kiss me with the kisses of his
mouth every time I come in this place. Every time I endeavor
to sit and listen, or every time I endeavor to hear a man read,
every time I endeavor to preach the gospel of God's grace, I
want to experience Him, and I want to be satisfied with nothing
less. Now tonight, it's my object to stir up our hearts to seek
Him. I want to stir up mine and yours
to seek Him continually. be satisfied with nothing less
than Him. To embrace Him, to follow after
Him, to seek Him, to lay hold of Him, and to bring Him with
you every time you come here into your mother's house. Every
time you come here into the chambers of her that conceived you. We
have been enormously blessed of God these past 18 years. The
Lord has been with us in a remarkable way. He's made himself known
to us so many times. It's so seldom, so very seldom. In my experience, I hope in yours,
we come here for what God doesn't speak to make himself known.
So, so rare. But let us not take it for granted
how we ought to be thankful before him. The Lord has graciously,
graciously visited us. Let us hold Let us hold it. Now if your heart has an interest
in these things, I want to urge you to make this determined resolution. Fix it in your heart. I will seek Him. I will seek Him whom my soul
loves. You understand that? resolve
ever to seek Him. How come? How? Well, first, we seek Him. Now, preacher, be honest. We seek Him because we love Him. I will seek him whom my soul
loveth. Over and over again in this text
she speaks of Christ as him whom my soul loveth. Now I'm talking
to you men and women who have experienced God's grace, to you,
to you who are chosen of God, who can who can sing and rejoice
in God's electing love and redeeming mercy, redeeming blood and pardoning
grace, the call and power of God's Spirit, to you who can
say with Jude, now unto him that's able to keep us from falling,
to present us faultless before the presence of his glory. You
who have experienced his grace. There is one thing, one thing
clearly obvious about every person who's experienced His grace.
Believers love the Son of God. Turn to 1 John chapter 4. I want
you to look at it. 1 John chapter 4, verse 19. This is what the apostle says, We love him. Do you understand that? Do you
know anything about that? We love him. And I underscore
this word, because. Paul Wendell, if you love him,
it's because he first loved God. His love certainly precedes our
love for Him. He loved us from eternity. His
love infinitely exceeds our love for Him. He loves us beyond measure. Oh, the infinite, boundless,
immeasurable love of the Son of God for us. He loved us. But His love has called us to
love Him. He has ravished our hearts with
his love so that now every believer can speak with honesty. We recognize
how insignificant our love for him is. We recognize how inconsistent
it is. We recognize how shameful it
is. But every believer can say with
honesty, we love him. We do. That's the plain, honest
confession of the believer's heart. And I'll tell you something,
if you love somebody, you seek them. You just seek them. You seek out their company. You
seek to be with them. You know, we've got this new
granddaughter and she lives, Hannah, live. She lives 35 miles
away. Already love her. Already love
her. And you miss her. She's not but
three weeks old, but you miss her. And that's nothing compared
to this. I am absent from my wife, have
been over the years a good bit. And man alive, I'm anxious to
get home. I'm anxious to get home. Love that lady. And when
you love somebody, you seek them. You want to be with them. You
want not only to see them. You want not only to be near
them. You're not just be able to reach
out and touch them. Oh, to be near them. So there's never a barrier, never
a difficulty, never anything stand between the two. All right,
secondly, we seek him because we've got
to have him. The Apostle Paul, writing to
the Philippians about all his past experiences, all his his
religious nobility, all his religious works, all his religious zeal,
all his religious righteousness. Oh, he was good. He was a good
man. Good man. Hated God, but a good
man. Good man, so that all men looked
at him, bragged about how good he was, but he hated God. And
when the Lord Jesus made himself known to him, because I tell
you what I've done, I've kissed mama and daddy goodbye forever.
And I've kissed their religion goodbye forever. Well, what do
you think about your past religion? It's horse manure, that's what
it is. Read the third chapter of Philippians. He's out there
and he's dumb. What about your righteousness?
It's dumb. It's dumb, that's all. It's worthless
droppings left behind of a beast. Just dumb. How come you count
it all dumb? That I may know Him. That I may
be found at last in Him. Not having my righteousness which
is of the law, that's useless. Oh, that I may know Him and be
found in Him having His righteousness. The righteousness of God which
is by faith. We need His righteousness. We need His cleansing every moment. We need His grace every second. We need His power all our days. We need His direction unceasingly. We need Him. Without Him, you
can do nothing. Let me see if I can illustrate
that for you. I come here and try to prepare,
study, write up my notes, pray. And if the Lord will allow me
to preach, man, there's no place in the world I'd rather be than
right here. And if the Lord leads me to myself,
this is the most lonely helpless, frustrated place in the world
today. But I keep preaching. I remember Brother Gary Vance
years ago. I thought it was a little unusual
up in Davis, West Virginia. First time I went up there to
preach. Pastor called on Gary to pray. Gary's pastor there
now, and this is how he prayed. He said, Lord, Brother Don, just
a man. Preach him. Preach him. And I thought as
he prayed, oh God do that, do that. Without me, you can do
nothing. Try to sing in the spirit without
him. Try to pray without him. Try to worship without him. Without
me, you can do nothing. We seek him thirdly, knowing
I need him. Because we love him, we seek
him diligently. Believers, folks who need to
take it diligently. Look at verses two and three. I will rise now and go about
the city in the streets, in the broad ways. I will seek him whom
my soul loveth. I saw him, but I found him not. The watchman, the watchman that
go about the city, they found me to whom I said, saw ye him
whom my soul loveth? Those who ardently love Christ
and feel their need of him never cease to seek him. In this chapter
we see ourselves seeking him, the spouse seeking him upon her
bed, seeking him in the streets, seeking him in the broadways,
and finally seeking him at the lips of the watchman. She sought
him everywhere, everywhere she thought he might be found. Everywhere,
in the broad ways, in the streets, in the city. All through. She's
talking now, not about the broad ways, in the streets, in the
city, out here in the world. No, no. The city spoken of is the
city of God. Zion, Jerusalem, the church of
God. She comes and seeks Him in all
the ordinatures of the gospel. Wherever He might be found. And
she says, as the pastor opens the word, she seeks Him. Oh God,
let me have Him. Let me see Him again. through
the lips of this watchman. If you're truly earnest about
enjoying the fellowship of Christ, you will diligently seek Him
in just exactly that way. I'm sent of God to be a watchman
for your souls. Oh, what a responsibility. I
was talking to Larry the other night. He said, I come to be fed, sometimes
I forget to ask God to let you feed me. That's my responsibility
to feed your souls. That's my responsibility. But
Oscar, I can't speak a word to your heart. It can't be done,
not by this man, unless God speaks by me. That's my responsibility
to have food It's my responsibility to be prepared, but oh, God,
speak through the lips of this watchman to these souls committed
to my care. Fourthly, I want you to turn to Psalm 34
and learn this. I want to wait till you get there
because I want you to hear what I want to say. All right, now listen. Those who truly, earnestly, diligently
seek Christ will find Him. That's right. He said, I know
the thoughts that I think toward you. Now, you hold your hands
there in Psalm 34 and listen. I know the thoughts I think toward
you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace, not evil.
to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon me,
and you shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken to you. And you shall seek me and find
me, for you search for me with all your heart. I will be found
in you, he said. The psalmist says, 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.
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all
my fears. They looked unto and were lightened,
and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried unto the
Lord, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his
troubles. Neither the brethren, nor the
church of God, nor those who preach the gospel, can comfort
the afflicted conscience unless Christ himself is apprehended
by faith. But as soon as she left the watchman,
she says in verse four, it was but a little that I passed from
there. I'd been to church and I'd been
praying, Lord, make yourself known. Come to me again. Visit me again. We're going down
to the church house tonight. We're going to sing. Oh, let
me, let me find you. We're going to hear somebody
sing, you'll praise it. Let me see you. We're going to
read your word. Lord, show yourself through the
lattices. We're going to listen to Brother Don as he preaches.
Oh God, come to me. Come to me. We're going to eat
the bread and drink the wine at the Lord's table. Let us,
let me remember you. And you, you go home and you And your heart's still dead,
barely lightless. And you lay down on your bed
again in darkness. You turn out the light and the
wife's gone to sleep, the husband's gone to sleep. And you're still
mulling over the themes of the day. And he comes. It was just a little while. I
left. And I found him. Oh, I found
him through my soul of it. Now, let me stay just like this,
right here, forever. Matthew Henry said, those who
continue seeking the Lord shall find him at last, when perhaps
they're almost ready to despair of finding him. Fifthly, those
who seek Christ, when they have found him, will hold him fast. Look at verse
4 again, I held him and would not let him go. Now listen, listen
now, when you found him and hold him, don't let him go. Amen.