We're very pleased to have Moose
and Sandy Parks with us this morning. He's a missionary to
St. Croix, Virgin Islands, been friends
with this congregation for a long time, and we're thankful to have
you. Tonight, we're going to observe the Lord's Table, and
I'm going to be preaching from Ephesians chapter four on keeping
the unity of the Spirit. Looking forward to this time,
may the Lord give us hearing ears and give you a word that
we need to hear. Come on up. Good morning. Is that too high
for you? It is. That's good. Now it's a good morning. I invite your attention to the
Song of Solomon, Chapter 3. Song of Solomon, Chapter 3. Good number of you were in attendance
in the conference in Crossville a couple of weekends ago. And I preached from this passage, but only got halfway through
it. So today I'm going to complete it. Song of Solomon chapter 3,
verse 6. Who is this that cometh out of
the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and
frankincense, with all powers of the merchant? Behold his bed,
which is Solomon's. Threescore valiant men are about
it of the valiant of Israel. They all hold swords, being expert
in war. Every man hath his sword upon
his thigh because of fear in the night. King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made
the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold. the
covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with
love for the daughters of Jerusalem. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion,
and behold King Solomon with the crown, wherewith his mother
crowned him in the day of his espousals. and in the day of
the gladness of his heart. In the first verses of this passage,
we find a scene that would be identified as Jerusalem. It is a city enclosed with a
wall. It is nighttime. And there are
watchmen on the wall. And they spy an approaching party. And someone asks, who is it? They want to know who it is that
is approaching the city. This morning, we are that city,
the Church of Jesus Christ. The city is Jerusalem. The church
is his, Jerusalem, in this day. Jesus comes to his people. In this instance, he's coming
at night, and he's coming out of a wilderness. And this world
is darkness and night all around us. And it is a wilderness all
around us as well. He is coming in a chariot. Actually, it is
not a chariot. It is a palanquin. It is a litter
or a couch that is enclosed. It is not a wheeled vehicle.
It is not a vehicle of war. Rather, this is a vehicle fit
for a king being carried from place to place, sitting on his
couch. He is on the shoulders of soldiers
who carried this vehicle from place to place. These soldiers
are his ministers, the ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This is what they do. They carry Christ from place
to place. Every time your pastor walks
through that door to approach this pulpit, a soldier of Christ
has Christ on his shoulder, carrying him up to this place to declare
his glory to you. Hopefully that is the case this
morning right now. These are 60 men, which is a
real number signifying a symbolic number. Christ has 60 valiant
men, that is the number of his preachers. They may number hundreds,
they may number thousands, but symbolically 60. These are his
ministers, each with a sword on his thigh because of fear
in the night. They guard their king as they
carry him. Some of them are carrying torches
to light the way as they carry their king on his couch through
the darkness, bringing him to Jerusalem. Hopefully, that is
the case today. Hopefully there is someone who's
going to carry King Jesus into your presence today so that you
may see him. We have looked at that passage,
those of us who were in Crossville. We looked at these men. They're
valiant men. They're experts in war. None
of them are novices. They come because of fear in
the night and they come well armed. They come ready. They
come valiantly. There are no novices among the
soldiers of King Jesus. These are proven men. They're
carrying not only their swords, but their battle scars experienced. But now we look at another subject. And this subject begins in verse
number nine. Thus far in the verses, the first
verses, we looked at Christ ushered by his ministers, but now we
see Christ coming in his gospel. Solomon represents Christ. All the way through this Song
of Solomon, Jesus Christ, or Jesus Christ is represented by
Solomon. His wife is called the Shulamite. and she is representing the church
of Jesus Christ. Evidently, both of them are in
this palanquin as it comes out of the darkness and as King Jesus
is being ushered into Jerusalem and there to be with his people.
We read in verse 9 that the king made himself this palanquin. He made it. That's a rather marvelous thought. Solomon is the king, and he made
his own vehicle. He did not trust someone to build
one for him. He says, I must make it myself,
and thus it is with Christ. This vehicle in which Christ
comes to his people, that in which he sits, in which he rides,
in which he comes in glory, he did not trust someone else to
make it for him. He made it himself. Have you
considered the things that Jesus Christ has made? I recall reading
some time ago of Jesus Christ appearing to his disciples. after
they had said, we're going fishing. It was following his resurrection.
They go to fish and Jesus shows up and the scriptures declared
that when they came to the shore, Jesus had built a fire and that
he had prepared fish and bread. And it struck me strange that
Jesus could fix breakfast. Perhaps it struck me as strange
because I do not fix a meal if it requires more than a can opener
and a microwave. But Jesus fixed breakfast. And that thought struck me as
rather remarkable. Jesus could cook breakfast, but
then again, Why should we marvel? He made the earth and the heavens,
did he not? He spoke them into existence
and got it perfect the first time. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. That was Christ doing that. But
here, Christ comes riding in a vehicle. Now, what does this
vehicle represent? Christ is riding in it. He made
it himself. Some have said it represents
his human nature. Some have said it represents
his new covenant. But the fact that these soldiers
are carrying this vehicle from place to place would lead us
to believe it is his gospel. Christ rides in the gospel. Christ is brought to his people
through his ministers in the gospel. Here is Christ writing
in his gospel. And what do we know about this
gospel? He made it. He did not trust
someone else to make it. He made it. When Christ comes
to his people in his gospel, it is a message that he himself
has made. Paul declares that The gospel
that I preached to you is not according to man. Not according
to man. This gospel that I preached to
you this morning did not come to me from some man. It is not
devised by some man. Some man did not make it. Some man did not put it in the
scriptures. This comes strictly from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He made this gospel. He made
this gospel in being manifested in the flesh. He made this gospel
in His impeccability. He made this gospel in His righteousness
and holiness. He made this gospel through His
merits and His blood. He made this gospel through His
death and His burial and His resurrection. He made this gospel
through His ascension and enthronement and glory. This is His gospel. He made it. I'm so glad. I had nothing to do with it.
If I had something to do with it, it surely would be a faulty
gospel. My wife threatened some years
ago to put a sign in our front yard that reads, Bob Vila does
not live here. Well, you better be glad I had
nothing to do with making this gospel. You better be glad I
had nothing to do with this vehicle in which Christ rides. But I'm
glad to come to you today and bring to you this gospel that
Jesus Christ himself made. He made this vehicle in which
He rides. He made this couch on which He
sits. He made everything that we preach
to you today. This is His. He made it. He made
it for Himself. And His gospel is durable. Observe that it is of the wood
of Lebanon. What do we know of the wood of
Lebanon? It is the cedar. What do we know
of the cedar? It is with good reason that furniture,
fine furniture, is made of cedar. It's durable. It'll stand the
test. Cedar. What do we know about
this gospel of Jesus Christ? It is durable. That gospel, this
gospel that I preach to you, was demonstrated to Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden. This gospel that I preach to
you was preached by Noah in the days before God destroyed this
earth in the deluge. This very same gospel is the
same gospel that was preached by our Lord himself to Abraham
in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans. This gospel that I preach to
you is the very same gospel that was believed and preached by
the prophets and by the kings This gospel that I preach to
you is the very same gospel Jesus Christ preached during the days
of His incarnation. The same gospel that was preached
by the apostles. It's the same gospel. It'll be
the gospel that saved the first sinners in the Garden of Eden,
and it'll be the same gospel that will save the last of God's
elect, and it will never be altered. Never be altered. It's durable. John calls it in the Revelation,
the everlasting gospel, the eternal gospel, made by our Lord even
before time began. And when time is over, it is
still the very same gospel. The very same gospel. It's durable. It's also fragrant. It is so
sweet. What do we know of the wood of
Lebanon? The cedar. It is a fragrant wood. Cedar. maintains its fragrance. Cedar
maintains the sweetness of its odor. And so it is with this
gospel of Jesus Christ. It is full of what the scriptures
call the fragrance of Christ. The fragrance of Christ. Do you
not love the fragrance of Christ? Surely you do not prefer the
stench of death. The fragrance of Christ, of life
leading to life. There's a fragrance in this salvation. There's a fragrance in this justification
leading unto righteousness. There's a fragrance in this sanctification
leading unto holiness. There's a fragrance in this glorification. This is a A sweet gospel. It's a fragrant gospel because
it's full of Christ and in Christ is the sweetest fragrance. This
gospel that we preach to you has none of the stench of death.
Do you want to know what a false gospel smells like? Just smell
a man after he's been perspiring for a long time and that's what
it smells like. When men go to work for their
salvation and work up their perspiration, it's a stinking gospel, folks.
It's got the stench of death in it. When men talk about what
they would do of their own works, it's as though we were an unclean
thing and all our righteousnesses were as filthy rags. There's
a stench. in the so-called gospel of will
worship. There's a stench in the so-called
gospel of works. There's a stench in men claiming
that they were saved by anything other than the free and sovereign
grace of God in his lovely son, Jesus Christ. I love this sweet
gospel. I love this fragrant gospel,
and it is fragrant because it is full of Jesus Christ. The
king is the most important person in this palanquin. And evidently
his wife is here with him in this palanquin as he and she
are brought into Jerusalem. But I want you to note that in
the gospel of Jesus Christ that although the church is intimately
involved with the gospel, She's not the most important person
in it. He is. It is his gospel. It is called the gospel of Christ
at least 10 times in the New Testament. It is called the gospel
of God's Son. It is called the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ. It is called the gospel of the
glory of Christ. When you hear the gospel being
brought to the Lord's people, it's full of Christ. I believe
I read in your bulletin that Chris Cunningham said that any
message that is not of Jesus Christ, him crucified, should
be discarded. We heard him say that down at
the conference in Crossville. And Chris Cunningham said that
every message should be entitled Christ and him crucified. Number
one and number two, today might be Christ and him crucified,
number 453 or whatever you wish to put to it, but that's our
subject. Our gospel is all about Jesus Christ. You do not suppose
that Christ would make himself a gospel and then want somebody
else to get all the glory for it, do you? Not at all. He made
his gospel, he made his gospel for himself, and it is he who
receives all the glory in it. Observe that he is enthroned
in this gospel. He's seated on a couch in this
gospel. In this gospel of Jesus Christ,
we not only declare how that he died for our sins according
to the scriptures, not only that he was buried, not only that
he arose in the dead, but we declare to you that he ascended
into glory and is right now enthroned in heaven, enthroned. This is the gospel of a seated
Jesus Christ. He's on his throne. He's victorious
over death, held in the grave. And then he is carried from place
to place. That's what we do, folks. That's
what we do. For the last month or so, I've
been traveling over a thousand miles a week. And it's about
to come to an end. I'm going home Thursday, God
willing, going back to St. Croix. I would hope that at the
end of this visit to the US, it could be said that most parks
carried Christ from place to place. It was not that I was
just coming to visit, though I did enjoy that. Not that I
just came to do this or do that. I would hope that it could be
said that Moose Parks carried Christ from place to place, hopefully
even this morning here. That's what we want to do. We
preachers of the gospel desire to bring Christ, to show him
to you as he is in all his glory. And consider also that in this
gospel, he made its pillars of silver in verse number 10. Silver,
what does this represent? We read that the words of Jehovah
are pure words like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified
seven times. There are no lies in the gospel.
Every word of the gospel is of silver. It's pillars of silver. Everything that is held up is
held up by the purity of the declarations of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Then observe that its support
is of gold. That support or the bottom, the
floor of the palanquin or the back of the couch, it is of gold. Gold speaks of Jesus Christ himself
as the foundation and the support of the gospel. He's the foundation
of the gospel. He's the support of the gospel.
And it is of gold, again, purified gold. He says, I count you to
buy from me gold. What is it to buy this gold?
It is the gold of his gospel, the gospel of salvation, the
gospel of justification, the gospel of sanctification. Its
support is of gold and its seat is of purple. Purple. Why purple? Purple signifies
two things. First, it signifies holiness. You'll find purple threads in
the tabernacle and second purple signifies royalty. Kings wore
royalty. This gospel that we preach to
you is a gospel. It is a gospel of purity. It
is a gospel of royalty. It is a gospel of holiness. We
declare the holiness of God and we declare a royal king as we
come preaching this gospel to you. It is a gospel that and
that has the seat that is of purple, meaning that wherever
Christ sits is a holy and royal place. It is a throne and it
is a holy throne. And then we read that its interior
was paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. What is this love? It is the
distinguishing characteristic of God's people. By this they
shall know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. And
why do we love one another? We did not used to, but we do
now. Why? Well, we all fell in love
with Jesus Christ and he's the one thing we have in common.
This is a gospel of love. It is a gospel of God's love
to people and it causes them to love him and then to love
one another. And then we're told, go forth,
O daughters of Zion. Go forth and declare this gospel. It is so worthy of being preached. Go forth and declare it. Declare
what? A defeated Jesus? Nah. A victorious Jesus. A holy Jesus. A righteous Jesus. A glorified
Jesus. Go forth, O daughters of Zion. Rejoice in what you see in King
Jesus. Go forth and see King Solomon. Let me ask you something. What
did you come here today to see? And please do not tell me that
you came here to be seen. None of us did that, I hope.
Some people do in some circles, I'm sure. They're dressed and
decked, you know, to be seen. Did you come to see this person,
that person? I would hope that every one of
us has come today to see Jesus. Like the Greeks who came to Philip
and said, sir, we would see Jesus. What a noble request was that,
sir. We wish to see Jesus. I would
hope that every time that you come into this auditorium, that
is your desire to see Jesus. In the pulpit of the church on
St. Croix, I have put a little placard
across the pulpit that reads, Sir, We Would See Jesus. I would hope that today and that
every time in this pulpit there is someone who's trying to show
Jesus to you. Go forth and see King Solomon.
What else is worth seeing? Really, what else is worth seeing? Solomon here represents King
Jesus. Forsake everything else in this
world for the enjoyment and the blessing and the pleasure of
seeing him. And then see him with the crown
with which his mother crowned him. Huh, now who is his mother? Who is Jesus' mother, Jesus Christ's
mother? And when did she crown him? Well, now this is not Mary. This
is not the Virgin. You never read of her crowning
him. She birthed him. But what do you read of her crowning
him? This is not her. This is not
Bathsheba, Solomon's mother. This is Jerusalem, the mother
of us all. This Jerusalem is also the mother
of Jesus Christ himself. He indicates this when he looks
around and he says, you see these believers in me? They are my
mother and my brother and my sister. Jesus is born. of Jerusalem, the mother of us
all, and she has crowned him. How has she crowned him? We have
crowned him by removing the crown from our own head and giving
it to him. We have, as it were, joined that
heavenly host of elders around God's throne in heaven, and we've
taken the crowns he's given unto us, and we cast them before him
and say, you are worthy. These are your crowns. King of
my life, I crown thee now, thine shall the glory be. We have crowned
King Jesus when we praise him, when we exalt him. We have crowned
King Jesus when we have abased ourselves and saying that he
got all the glory. We have crowned him when we said
he must increase but I must decrease. And see King Solomon with the
crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding. What is the day of his wedding?
It's probably the day of our conversion. That was the day
when we were wed to him, each of us, respectively and individually. The day of his wedding. The day we took the crown from
our own heads and placed it on his. The day when we separated
ourselves from the world and said, I am now yours and yours
alone. And it is the day of the gladness
of his heart. the day of the gladness of his
heart. Well, I can tell you this. It
was the day of the gladness of my heart. Oh, happy day that
fixed my choice on thee, my savior and my God. Well, may this glowing
heart rejoice and spread its rapture all abroad. Happy day
when Jesus washed my sins away. What a happy day. Folks, that
was the happiest day of my life, the day Jesus Christ saved this
sinner. The day when I realized that
he had brought to me a salvation that saved me from my sins and
from God's coming wrath. The day when I realized that
he had justified me from my condemnation and guilt and given to me a perfect
righteousness. The day I realized that he had
sanctified me from my pollution and made me holy in God's sight. The day that I realized that
he had healed me of all my infirmities. The day when I realized that
he had cleansed me from the leprosy of my sin. The day that I realized
that he had glorified to me that I might be like himself. Was
there ever a happier day? No, could not be. Oh, happy day. That was the day of the gladness
of my heart. The gladdest day of my life.
And it was also the day of the gladness of his heart. The day of the gladness of the
heart of Jesus Christ himself. All heaven rejoices when Jesus
saves a sinner. All heaven rejoices. Jesus is
represented by that father of the prodigal son who looked down
the road and saw his wayward boy coming home. And the father
breaks out into joy. It's such a joyous occasion.
My son has come home. My son has come home. What rejoicing
there is. It was the day of the gladness
of the heart of King Jesus when sinners come home. He is represented
as coming back, bringing them into the fold, and having the
whiteward lamb on his shoulder, rejoicing as he comes, and saying,
rejoice with me. The Scriptures declare that there
is rejoicing even in heaven around God's throne when a sinner returns
to the fold. When the Lord saves a sinner
and brings that one home, Jesus rejoices, God the Father rejoices,
God the Spirit rejoices, the angels rejoice, and the whole
church rejoices. I tell you, when Jesus Christ
is brought in his gospel, when his ministers faithfully bring
him and carry him from place to place, when you behold that
gospel that he himself has made by his blood and his righteousness,
when you behold the king seated upon his throne in holiness and
in royalty, when you see Jesus Christ with that crown upon his
head, when you see him happy over the salvation of his people,
Does it not bring joy to you? Does it not cause my heart to
skip a beat? If you have never beheld Jesus
Christ coming in his gospel, being brought in by his preachers,
may today be that day. May this be the day when you
can say, who is this that's coming? Who is this that is coming for
me? Who is this that is coming for my good and for my salvation? And I pray that God might be
pleased to reveal his son today to us in the gospel of his son,
Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you. What a remarkable thing to think
of the Lord's gladness. His gladness in saving his people
makes me glad, too. Thank you for that message. That
was a blessing. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
only in the name, the righteousness and the merits of our dear son. And Lord, we ask in his name
that you would be pleased by your grace to reveal yourself
to every one of us for his sake. We pray that we might be found
in him. We pray that our sins may be washed away by his blood.
We pray that we might be made thy very righteousness in him. Accept our thanksgiving. In Christ's
name we pray, amen.