Psalms of Solomon chapter 8.
I want to read the whole chapter to you. Psalms of Solomon chapter 8 and
verse 1. Oh, that thou wert as my brother,
that suck the breast of my mother. When I should find thee without,
I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised. I would lead
thee and bring thee into my mother's house. Who would instruct me? I would cause thee to drink of
spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand should
be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not up, nor wake
my love till he please. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raise thee up
under the apple tree, there thy mother brought thee forth, there
she brought thee forth that bare thee. Set me as a seal upon thine
heart, as a seal upon thine arm, For love is strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire which hath a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give
all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly
contemned. We have a little sister, and
she hath no breast. What shall we do for our little
sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall,
we would build upon her a palace of silver. And if she be a door,
we would enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall, and my
breast like towers. Then was I in his eyes as one
that found favor. Solomon had a vineyard at Bell-Horman,
He let out the vineyard unto keepers, every one, for the fruit
thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard
which is mine is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a
thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred. Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be
thou like a roll or a young heart upon the mountains of spices.
I don't know how many times I've preached from verse 5, but it's
been several times. But I've noticed through the
years I have to revisit this verse because sometimes it gets
on my mind and I think about it. And one of the reasons I
like it is because it's speaking here of that intimate relationship
between Christ and His church. This Beloved that the Scripture
speaks so much about. Brother Larry read us a verse
about it this morning, and it said that someone here is coming
up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved. Speaks of two people, doesn't
it? Speaks of the Beloved and someone leaning upon Him. Now,
there's no doubt here who the beloved is. All we have to do
is go to the Scriptures and see that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, as you
read those three Gospels, eight times it refers to the Lord Jesus
Christ under the title of Beloved. And seven of those times it's
the Father speaking of Him or to Him. calling him my beloved
son. This is my beloved son in whom
my soul is well pleased." That word, my soul is well pleased,
it means my soul is wrapped up. My soul is wrapped up. Remember
what they said about Joseph when he was kidnapped and his dad
Jacob thought he was dead. And they said His soul is wrapped
up in the child. His soul, that means He was all
of His delight, couldn't live without Him. That's the Father's
Beloved. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. That's how much the Father loves
His Son. He can accept us in Him, in His marriage. in His
worth. Thirty times this word is used
here in this little book of the Songs of Solomon. Thirty times,
the Beloved. Twenty-seven of those times,
it's the church speaking of Him, or speaking to Him. She refers
to Him so often that those bystanders that hear in her, finally they
started referring to Him as Thy Beloved. and your beloved." You
know, people around us, if they don't know Christ in their hearts,
we ought to talk about Him so much and speak so highly of Him,
at least they would know Him in their heads when we addressed
Him in so many different ways and highly exalted Him. But there's
no doubt here who this is that's leaning, is it? That's the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this that's coming up
out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? She's not far off from him, is
she? You've got to be close if you
lean on somebody, don't you? And she's so close to him that
the Scripture says it's not that she leaned upon him one time
or that she leans often, but she is leaning upon her Beloved. Only the church does that. Only
the believer in the Son of God does that. This word, lean, means
to rest one's weight upon. To lean heavily against. We often
say about people, leaning against the wall. Are we leaning on somebody's
arm to rest on their arm? Leaning has to do with trust,
dependency, confidence. We sometimes warn, don't lean
on that rail. It won't hold your weight. Don't
rest yourself on that rail. Don't put all your weight on
that rope. It'll break. Lean in. I was told you a while
back, I thought about this. I've often thought about this,
that it would scare me to death. I've been at the Grand Canyon.
I've looked out over that place and the depths of that place.
And I saw where a couple of years ago they'd put a huge glass platform
extended out over that. And people were standing there
on that glass platform. I thought to myself, you're going
to have some powerful convincing to get me to walk out on that
platform. Knowing the consequences. If
that thing breaks and falls, That's something that's man-made.
You ain't going to get me to do that. I'm not going to put
my weight upon that man-made piece of glass. But this is nothing
compared to the church leaning upon her Beloved, is it? Boy, she's weighed the consequences. She knows what's happened and
going to happen if her trust is misplaced. You here this morning
that's leaning on your Beloved, you have given some weight to
eternity, haven't you? You have given some weight to
what you're going to face at death. You know the consequences
if your trust is misplaced. But you've tried Him, haven't
you? You've tried Him. Boy, you know Him. And you're
facing eternity. And yet you put all your weight
upon this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. The church's beloved is one that
you can put your weight upon because He's no mere man that
can lie or the son of man that can fail. But this beloved is
none other than the eternal Son of God. He is God Himself. In the very essence of all God
is, Jesus is. He's said to be the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Listen while we can trust Him.
Listen while we can lean all of our weight upon Him. Listen
to what a mighty angel said of Him when He announced that He
would be conceived in Mary's womb. He said to her, You shall
conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and call his name
Jesus, and he shall be great, and he shall be called the son
of the highest, and the Lord God shall give to him the throne
of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Now I think
this angel knows who he is talking about, don't you? When He says He's going to be
great, He is great. Listen to what one of the holy
prophets said about Him. A virgin shall be with child,
and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name
Immanuel, which is being interpreted, God with us. And they have all had such a
side of Him and His glory and His power and His faithfulness.
This is what they said of Him. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till He has set forth judgment in the earth. In other words,
till He has won the victory, till He has accomplished redemption. That's what they think about
it. Another said this about it. The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man. That's our beloved. He shall
stir up jealousy like a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall prevail against his
enemies, and your enemies, and my enemies. The Apostle Paul
knew him probably better than any other man, and here's what
he said about him. I know whom I have believed,
and I am persuaded that He's able to keep that, listen, which
I have committed to Him against that day." What had Paul committed
to Him? Everything. The eternal salvation
of his soul, he rested it upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And he
said, I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've
committed to Him. And I tell you, brothers and
sisters, he was so persuaded, he counted every other thing
that he could lean upon. as dumb and forsook it, and put
all his weight upon this beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. I've made some statements like
this to you before, but sometimes I make them so quick and it just
seems like a mere lip service. But let me tell you some reasons
why we lean upon Him. And this is not lip service.
We feel this in our being. We lean hard upon the Lord Jesus
for this. This Beloved, His church was
leaning upon Him for all her acceptance with God. We are accepted in the Beloved. Now don't memorize that and just
say that with your lips. Think about that. How are you
accepted with a holy God being the poor sinner that you are?
Are you leaning upon Jesus and His marriage to be accepted with
a Father? That's why she leans upon Him.
She's leaning upon His obedience for her righteousness. By one
man's obedience shall many be made righteous. We're unrighteous
in ourselves, aren't we? And we can't work out a righteousness.
God requires perfect obedience. We can't render it. But one has. One has. This well-beloved of
the Father, He's rendered perfect obedience. And everybody that
leans upon Him leans upon His obedience for their righteousness.
She's leaning upon His blood for the cleansing of all her
sins. The blood of Jesus Christ God's
Son cleanseth us. from all iniquity. And listen
to this. She is leaning upon her Beloved's
fullness for the supply of all her wants. My God shall supply
all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Listen to this one. She is leaning
upon His power for her help. Fear not, old Israel. I will
help thee. Are you leaning upon the Beloved
this morning for your help in everything? She is leaning upon
His grace for her strength. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. She is leaning upon His love
for her joy. Rejoice in the Lord always. Why? Because He loves you. Because He loves you. There was
a fellow, I forget what his name was, he was some world-famous
theologian, and maybe it was Switzerland, years ago, but he'd
come to one of the universities to give a speech, and he opened
up the floor, and somebody asked him a question. Said, what is
the greatest thought that has ever gone through your mind?
And they said, you could hear the pin drop. He was one of the
greatest theologians in the whole country there. And he was asked
to tell the greatest thought that had ever went through his
mind. And they said he stood there in silence and thought,
and finally he said this, ìJesus loves me. This I know.î Thatís
a great thought, isnít it? ìThatís my joy.î Is that your
joy? ìAs amazing as it sounds and is, He loves me.î He loves
me. Thatís my joy. She leans upon His intercession
for her access to the Father. Through Him we have access by
one Spirit unto the Father. Every time I go to prayer anymore,
it seems like for years now, this thought has been up on my
mind, I can go to my Father, no matter how I feel or don't
feel. The way is open completely. The door of mercy, the door of
access is flung wide open. I can go into the Father's presence
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Does it depend on anything in
me? It all depends upon Him. I lean
hard upon Jesus by access into the Father's presence. She leans
upon His Word and promises for her hope. and her rest. Standing on the promises, I cannot
fall. Listening every moment to the
Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all
in all. Standing on the promises of God. What have I to dread? What have
I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arm. I have blessed peace with my
Lord so near. on His everlasting arm, His Word
and His promises. Shunasherab, the king of Assyria, had come against Jerusalem and
Hezekiah was their king. And the people were so upset.
He said, He's going to come in and He's going to rip the women
up with child. He's going to take us away captive,
starve us to death. And here is what Hezekiah said
to his people. Be strong and courageous. Be not afraid nor dismayed for
the king of Syria, nor for all the multitude that is with him.
For there be more with us than is with him. With him is the
arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and
to fight our battles. And listen to what happened.
And the people rested themselves upon the word of Hezekiah. If they rested upon the words
of their king, can't you and I rest upon the words of ours?
Where the word of the king is, there's power. You can take him
at his word, can't you? It'll never fail. Not one promise
will fall to the ground of all that he's promised you. Oh, lean
hard upon his word. lean hard upon His promises.
The Beloved, the Church is leaning upon Him. All of us are facing
enemies too strong for us. We read about it in the Word
of God, these principalities and these powers, rulers of the
darkness of this world, the God of this world. This spiritual
wickedness in our places, that's our enemies. And there are too
many and they're too strong for us to contend with them and overcome
them. And not only that, physical death
awaits us. It's just out in front of us.
And you know something? We have no weapons to resist
it. It's going to get us. Is it not? I can't believe that. I say that, but I can't believe
it. But it will. I am going to die. No man is
going to get out of this life alive. We're all going to die. And the Scripture says we all
shall give account of ourselves to God. And knowing the terror
of the Lord, we persuade man. And I'm simply saying this, nobody
will successfully get through this world and face death and
get across that river and go up to that celestial city and
face God and do it all with joy except they are leaning upon
the Beloved. That's the only way. That is
the only way. Leaning upon the Lord Jesus Christ
who has gone into heaven and is there as the representative
of all that lean upon Him. I remember this story, and I've
told it to you so much, you have to bear with me. I'm getting
old, and I'm telling these things over and over again, but I like
them myself. I tell them just as nobody's
ever heard them before. Roland Hill, I don't know how
well I could have got along with him. He's sort of hateful, but
boy, he told about a dream he had one time. And said he didn't
put any stocks in the dream, but he said, I love this dream.
He said he thought the day of judgment had come. And all the
dead had got up out of their grave. And he said, I was among
the dead standing before the throne. And people's names were
being called and they were coming up to give account of themselves.
And he said, I heard my name called, Roland Hill. And he said, I sat there. How
solemn. And then He came again, Roland
Hill, and He said, I brace myself to stand before Him, the Judge
of all the earth. And one stood up just before
me and said, Roland Hill is here. And the voice came again, Roland
Hill, are you holy? And He said, Roland Hill is holy. Roland Hill, have you been righteous
and perfect in all your ways? Roland Hill has been righteous
and perfect in all his ways. And he that stood and answered
for me, turned to me, Roland Hill said. And I saw the prints
in his nails. The prints of the nails in his
palms. And I saw the hole in his side. And he said to me,
Come, ye blessed of my Father. Inherit the Kingdom prepared
for you. Brothers and sisters, I'm leaning
on Him. We're leaning on Him. Not just
for acceptance here. Not just for the burdens here.
Not just for salvation here. Not just to face death, but the
judgment to come. We're leaning hard upon Him. And we will in that day too.
We'll be accepted in the Beloved. I can't face the judgment. I
don't know all of how it's going to be, but I don't want to think
of it apart from leaning upon Jesus Christ. And that's for
sure. Something else here about her
leaning upon her Beloved. Not only that she did it, but
to do it she must have been convinced that He was able to carry her
weight and also that she was welcomed to lean upon. I love it when you see a wife
leaning upon her husband. I love to see that. It just shows
to me an affection. You see them when it's cold sometimes
and she's snuggled up next to him hanging on to his arm. Or
maybe she feels a little bit threatened or something and she
gets up next to her husband and holds on to him. She's going
to slip or something and she grabs ahold of him and she's
hanging on to that. But you know, a wife ain't too apt to do that
if she don't know that she's welcome to do it. Not only that
her husband is strong enough to hold her weight, but she's
got to know, he wants me to hold him. He wants to support my weight. I saw one of the saddest things
when I used to drive a truck. I saw this lady and she had,
man, a beautiful sports car. It was a top of the line sports
car. And she pulled right out in front of this old clunker
full of women with kids and they were so mad at her, they were
cursing her. And I got them settled down and
I went up to this woman. And she was such a beautiful
woman. You know how this car was? Man,
the front end knocked dead. And you know the first thing
she said to me? She looked right at me and she said, My husband's
gonna kill me. Your husband's gonna kill you?
You mean the first thing he's gonna do is get mad at you? And
curse you or threaten you? The first thing he's not going
to do is say, oh baby, I'm glad you weren't hurt. We can replace
that old car. Thank God you weren't. That's
not what he's going to say. No, he's going to kill me. I
thought, what kind of husband is that? Do you ever get the feeling that
way about your heavenly husband? Do you ever misjudge him? Do
you ever think that badly about your heavenly husband? You think,
boy, I made a wreck out of everything. Everything I put my hand to,
I mess it up. And you get to thinking, He don't
want me to lean upon Him. Dear soul, He does. He knows
how weak you are. He knows what a mess you've made
of things. You're His love. You're His wife. You're His bride. He gave Himself
for you. He loves you. And He says, lean
upon Me. I desire you to lean upon Me. Look here in chapter 7 of this
book, just back one chapter. Here tells us, I think, why she
leaned so freely. Look what it says in chapter
7. Look what she says about her Beloved in verse 10. I am my
Beloved's and His desire is toward me. Isn't that amazing? His desire is toward me. And
look in chapter 5 and verse 16 what she said about it. His mouth
is most sweet, yea, He is altogether lovely. This is my Beloved and
this is my friend. Oh, if we think of Him. as we
ought to, we ought to know and believe that His desire is towards
us. Hasn't He proved it over and
over and over again? You and I should be so convinced
of the love of Christ towards us, as amazing as it is, and
His desire is towards His church. We ought to come to this conclusion,
brothers and sisters, if I had 10,000 souls I'd be willing to trust Him with
every one of them. If I had a mountain of sins weighing
upon me, I'd feel like I could go right into His presence and
cast them all into His blood and have them all washed away.
Do you think that highly of Him? Do you think that He's just waiting
to pounce on you? He's looking for every error
that you make? Waiting to accuse you? That's
not our Lord. That's what the devil tells us
about Him sometimes. But that's not our Master, is
it? He says this, Casting all your care upon Him. All of them? The big ones? The little ones?
The sorrow of the past? The uncertainty of the future? The anxiety of the present? Casting
all your care upon Him? Yes. Why? For He careth for you. He careth for you. I saw yesterday
where Justice, I can't even pronounce his last name, the Supreme Court
Justice, Scalela or something. Boy, that just went to my heart
when I found out that he had died. All of these decisions that have
been made from the Supreme Court coming down, most of them have
been five to four decisions. All the ones that judge what
we call properly is five good guys and five bad guys. One of
the good guys just died. And I realized yesterday how
much confidence I have put in that court. because my heart
just sank. And you know what I thought?
What in the world are we going to do now? What are we going
to do now? And that's something to be concerned
about. Some of these decisions going
on now are going to change to affect your life, and it's going
to change to affect my life. But you know another thought
I had? Bruce, that's an anxious care. Yes, it is. Cast it on
me. Cast it on me. Who sets those
justices up? Who turns the President's heart
like rivers of water? Our Lord does, doesn't He? And
we look out ahead of us and we see some things that gives us
anxious thoughts. Well, He said, don't be anxious
for anything. Cast it upon Me because I care
for you. And I've noticed this just about
every time we think, boy, we've got it figured out politically
now. Everything is coming together for us politically. The Lord
just sticks His finger in there and stirs it all up and says,
Don't put your trust in Him. I'll send a hurricane or something
up the east coast and I'll change the whole election. Cast in your cares upon Him for
He cares for you. I told you about the lady one
time who got on the bus and she was standing. No place to sit,
and a man was standing by her, and she kept taking the heavy
suitcase, and she'd switch it into the left hand and bend over,
and she'd switch it back to the bend over. And the man finally
said, Lady, if you'll set that heavy suitcase down, this bus
will carry it and you. Is Jesus Christ able, is He willing
to support our weight? Then put it on Him. Yourself
and your cares too. Cast it upon Him. He's good enough
and He's willing to carry it. His desire is towards you, dear
child of God. Something else about this leaning,
and I just said something about it there a minute ago. To lean,
you have to be near someone. You can't lean if you're a long
way off. And listen to this. Christ is so near to every child
of God. He can hear the whisper of your
spirit and the groan of your heart. And He's so near that
He can feel your infirmity. Now think about that. Think about
that. He can feel your infirmity. He's a friend that sticks closer
than the brother. He's a very present help in the
time of trouble. The Lord is near them that call
upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. What nation is
there so great, Moses told Israel, who has God so near unto them
as the Lord your God is unto you, in everything that you call
upon Him for? The Lord is near them that have
a broken heart, and He saveth such as be of a contrast spirit. Just because you can't see the
sun this morning, There's no sign it's not there. And just
because you can't feel His presence or discern His presence or perceive
His presence, that's no sign He's not there. He Himself gave
us this witness. I will go with you always. I will never forsake you, not
even to the end of the world. Is He near you or not? Yes, He's
near you. He's so near you that you can
lean upon Him. And I tell you how it's evident
that you know He's near you. You're leaning. Are you leaning
on Him this morning? That's evident that He's near
you. You wouldn't be leaning on Him if He wasn't near you.
That's proof enough, isn't it? Something else about her leaning
on her Beloved, and these around her notice this. This is something
that people around notice. Look what she was doing. She
was coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved. What a good description, an apt
description that is of this world, a wilderness. An apt description
of this old nature too, a wilderness. Listen to what the Bible says
about a wilderness that the children of God are coming up from. The
Lord led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein
were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was
no water, who brought you water from the rock of flint, and fed
thee with manna from heaven. He found thee in the desert land
and in the wasteland wilderness." And Jeremiah said, ìHe led us
through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through
a land of drought and the shadow of death, through a land that
no man passed through and where no man dwelt.î And David said,
ìThey wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found
no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul
fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord,
and He delivered them from their distresses. Boy, this world is
just like that, ain't it? It's a world of pits. It's a
world of devils. Serpents of sin on every hand. Never brought any fruit to God
at all. This world is not bringing any
fruit to God at all. Has this world helped you unto
God? Has it helped you to heaven or hindered you? Has it grieved
you? Has it been a burden to you?
Yes, that's all this world is fit for, isn't it? How many of this world is like
poor old Corey of old, who was swallowed up and gone down into
the pit. No man dwells here very long.
The ungodly, like the rebels of Israel, they die here. And
no man gets through this wilderness successfully, except he's lenient. on the arm of His beloved. Here is what the Lord says to
His people. Come out of her, My people. Come out. Be not partakers
of her plague. Come out from among them, and
be ye separate, saith the Lord. Touch not the unclean things.
And I will receive you unto Myself." You see here, you can't help
but see the correlation between what the church was doing and
what was said about her. What was said about her? Who
is this that's coming up from the wilderness? Why did they
make such a stink about her? Nobody else was doing it but
her. Nobody else was coming up from
the wilderness but the church. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? But here is something
I've got to add to encourage us. It didn't say she came up,
but she is coming up. She's coming up. She's never
gotten out of it yet. Have you got out of it yet? No,
and you won't. You're coming up out of it. But
there's something in your own nature that is very attracted
to this world. Even though you've got your back
to it and your faith from it, there it is, isn't it? And if
somebody asks you, how are you coming up from it? How are you
making any progress? You don't say, well, boy, it's
my faith. My faith is strong. It's this determination. I've
made a resolve. That ain't what you say, is it?
How do you say it? Only one way I've found to do
it. Leaning upon my Beloved. That's the only way. In closing,
look back in Chapter 1 of this book. Back in Chapter 1. If you and I want to come more
and more out of this world, then what we need to do is set an
object before our eye that's more attractive than this world.
More attractive than this world. And the church found an attractive
object. She found something that was
more appealing to her than the world. Look what she says about
him in chapter 1 in verse 16. Behold thou art fair. The word
means handsome. They are handsome, my beloved,
and pleasant. That's why she thought about
him. That's why she hung on to him. That's why she leaned upon
him coming out of this world. He's handsome. Now you ladies
probably won't find both of these characteristics in your husband.
A lot of husbands are handsome, but they're not very pleasant.
And some are pleasant, but they're not very handsome. And some are
neither, to be honest with you about it. But the Lord Jesus
is both handsome, He's so pleasant to look at, He's so pleasant
to be around. She said, I'm just going to lean
on your arm and stay close to you and just keep on coming up
out of this world. Samuel Rutherford, he wrote a
little commentary on this about the beauty of Christ. He compared
the beauty of Christ to this world and this universe. And here's what he said, O fair
sun, and O fair moon, and O fair star, O fair flowers, and fair
roses, and lilies, but O ten thousand times fairer Lord Jesus,
And then he stops and says, Alas, I have wronged him in making
a comparison this way. And then he says, O black sun,
O black moon, O black star, but O fairer Lord Jesus. O black
flowers and black lilies and black roses, but fairer, fairer,
ever fairer Lord Jesus. O black heaven, but O fairer
Jesus. All black angels, but surpassingly
fairer than the Lord Jesus. If you and I want people to thank
highly the Lord Jesus Christ, then let us thank highly of Him
and speak highly of Him. If we want men to love Him, then
let us love Him. And if we want to tell men and
learn men how to come out of this world that's headed for
an awful judgment, then let them see us teaching them by example
that we're leaning upon our Beloved. Or tell them, but they don't
just need to be told, they need to see us doing it. Words are powerful, but if they're
not followed by actions, they're just mere words. But when you
see words and actions go together, boy, that's a powerful testimony.
Who is this? Who is this that's coming up,
leaning upon her beloved? Let's pray.