Psalms of Solomon chapter 8 and verse 5. We looked at this
this morning really in a general way, but I want to look at it
tonight in a more particular way and maybe somewhat of a personal
application. Apply it to myself and ask myself
and let you ask yourself some questions. When we compare ourselves
to this church in our text, The church is made up of individuals.
God calls out individuals, and that's who the church is. One
body. One body, but many, many, many
members. I want to read verse 5 to you
again, just a portion of this verse. Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Who is this
that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved. Now, I want to see four things
on this first heading here. Four things that this verse presents
to us as individuals. First of all, it says here of
this church, that she was coming up, coming up from the wilderness. David likened this world to a
pit. Remember that? He said, I was
in a horrible pit in the Mari clay. I waited patiently from
the Lord, and He brought me up out of this horrible pit in the
Mari clay. And my question is to myself,
And you can ask yourself this question. When you think of the
world, do you think of it as a pit? As a pit that wants to
swallow you up? Its purpose is to swallow you
up. Do you think of it as a mire
that is hindering you in your walk with Christ? Hindering you
from coming to Christ? Have you ever found this world
truly helpful to you on your way to heaven? Has it ever helped
you in the least or has it hindered you? And I'm not talking now about
going out and crying out against the world and talking about how
bad the world is. We often see that. We often hear
that. But I'm talking about how you
feel about it. We know how this lady, this church
of old, felt about it because she was coming up out of it. And why was she coming up out
of it? I think it had to do with she
could not endure to live in this pit anymore. It was the whole
motive that was behind it. You remember when the Lord Jesus
presented Himself to us as a seed sower who went out to sow seed,
and He said, The seed is the Word of God, and the ground is
the heart. And He told about these hearts,
these grounds where the seed was sown, and it brought forth
no fruit to perfection. It seemingly began to because
that heart had received it with much joy and excitement, but
then it said something happened, and it brought forth no fruit
to perfection. And remember what he said it
was. And this is something that should scare us. It should disgust
us about this world. The thing that hindered the Word
and the heart was the cares of this life, the deceitfulness
of the riches of this world, and the pleasures of this world. Do you find those things hindering
you? And how do you feel about them? We all confront these things. And here's the question to ask
ourselves and to compare ourselves to this church of old. Are we
coming out? Are we looking at these things
with such disgust, things that hinders us? And we want out of
them. We want this world, we want this
wilderness under our feet. Are we coming out? Out. Up. Up. Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness? I wish that I, personally, could
look upon this world as dear John Bunyan looked upon it in
Pilgrim's Progress. When he was awakened and began
to flee to the celestial city, remember what he called this
world, the city of destruction. Don't you wish you could get
that in your heart? This is not only a pit. It's
not only a corrupt pit full of miry clay that binds me and hinders
me from Christ, but it's a city of destruction. It's a Sodom
that rock fled out of, up into the mountains. Am I coming up? Am I coming up? And then the word that I used
here this morning, The second thing is here in the text, who
is this that cometh up from, from the wilderness? In other words, do I have my
back upon this world? She did, and what a blessing
she was. Do I have my back upon this world? The Amish has an old custom.
They still hold to it today as far as I know. They shun people
sometimes. If someone has broken their laws,
their traditions, they confront them with it. And if the person
doesn't repent, they stand up. They bring charges against the
person. They have the person to stand up front. And then they
stand and turn their back to the person. They won't face them
anymore. They won't look at them. They
won't speak to them. Whether that's right or wrong,
that's the way they do it. But isn't that a good attitude
to have towards this world? That we shun it? Paul said it
like this. He said, I am crucified to the
world, and the world is crucified unto me. He says, I've shunned
it. I count it to be a criminal,
and it counts me to be a criminal. I don't like it. I don't like
its course. I don't like its principles.
I don't like its opinion of God. I don't like its doctrine. I've
shunned this world. Am I turning my back upon it?
Paul said this, and I think this is a true shunning of turning
one's back upon it. He said, What agreement has the
temple of God with idols? What fellowship has righteousness
with unrighteousness? What communion has light with
darkness? What accord has Christ with Bilal
or the devil? What part has he that believeth
with man infidel? He said, what association do
you have with this world that would hinder you from turning
your back upon it? And then he makes this statement,
in the light of all this, he says, brethren, come out from
among them. Come out from this attitude of
association and fellowship with this world and its system. You know it's not what this church
here in our text was saying, is it? We never read she said
a thing. It wasn't what she was saying.
And that's what I'm asking you and myself this evening. I'm
not talking about what we say. What do we really feel in our
souls? Are we coming up from this awful pit? This awful wilderness? Have we turned our back upon
it? We don't say anything. We just
do it. We just do it. She was just doing
it. That's what was noticed about
her. But thirdly, the third thing
about our text in the Church is this. Who is this that cometh
up from the willows? This word here is always a present
tense. He didn't say, Who is this that
has come up? Who is this that is coming up? That's what the word means. In
other words, she hadn't fully accomplished what she longed
for. She was coming up from the world,
but she had not fully got out of it. She had not fully turned
her back upon it. But she was always in the process
of coming up, in the process of turning from the world. And that's what we have to ask
ourselves. Am I coming up? Am I laying apart the weights
and the sins that so easily beset me? Am I running the race? I haven't finished. You haven't
finished. But are we running? Are we walking? Are we coming to the Lord Jesus
Christ? Are we reading His Word? Are
we seeking Him in prayer? Or are you groaning? You know, a
lot of times a true believer's own estimation of himself is
that he's not making much progress at all. I'd be concerned if you come
to me this afternoon and you say, Bruce, I've not only come
up and I've turned my back upon it, man, I've really advanced
in this. I'd be concerned if you told
me that. In your own eyes, don't it feel like that you're not
advancing much at all? That's the way the believer feels.
But here's the thing. Are you coming? Are you turning
your back? You feel the need just to keep
on turning your back. That's the way the believer is.
That's the way this church was. She's coming, coming. Old Ralph
Barnard used to say, and I finally learned what he meant. I didn't
know much about the Mississippi River until I flew over it a
few times. And he says a believer's life is like the old Mississippi
River. It heads up up there in Minnesota. And it winds up down in the Gulf
of Mexico. But he says you follow its route,
and it's just twisting and curving, and sometimes it seemingly runs
back north for a while. But the bend of that river is,
it's headed south. That's the Christian's life.
It's full of crooks and curves, and sometimes it seems like she's
facing in the wrong direction. But I tell you, the bent of a
Christian's life, she's headed towards heaven. She's following
the Lord Jesus Christ. Cometh up. She's coming up from
the wilderness. She's continually coming up. And the fourth thing about this
is this, and I mentioned it just in passing just now, and it's
worth noting this, that the church never said this about herself. It wasn't her that said, who
is this that's coming up? She didn't say, look at me. Look
how far I've advanced. Look how successful I am. Look
how separated I am. It wasn't her that said that
about herself. Somebody else said that about
her. Either some other saints or angels or God said that about
her. But she didn't say that about
herself. I'm concerned about these people. They're all the time talking
about how separated they are. I don't trust those people. I'm
sorry I don't trust them. I've experienced it before. You
take a person that's always talking about how separated he is, you
better be careful of him. I remember Henry telling one
time, Brother Mahan telling about a church, a huge church out in
Texas. And they had this pastor who
was boasting about how separated. Not only he was, but he said,
I want the world to know how separated we are. And they got
together in a committee and wrote a bunch of rules to live by. Everything from how short the
hair for the men had to be to how long the dresses for the
women had to be, where you could go and where you couldn't go.
They wrote down all kinds of things to do and not to do to
let people know we are separated people. And Brother Henry said
he thought the ink was still dry, was still wet, when the
pastor ran off with the piano player. How many times do we
see that? How many times do we hear these
preachers hammering about separation? And they wind up, they're not
separating themselves. So it's not the person who brags
on themselves, or commends themselves, but what does the Lord say about
it? That's it. Let another praise
you, and not your own lips. This was said about the church,
and not what the church said about herself. And let's add this to this Word
coming up from the wilderness. It's not only coming up from
a place, that is, this world, but it's coming up from a state
of nature. It's coming unto a state of grace. What is it? It's a desiring to
come out of yourself. This old man, this old nature. You want to get out of yourself.
I tell you, if you want to know what this pit is, you look at
the world, but if you want to get closer home, look at yourself. Look what an awful pit our heart
is. That old sinful nature that claims
to us that you just can't get up out of to spite you. It will
be a lifelong battle. Ain't you found that so in yourself?
You want to come out of yourself? You don't want to lean on yourself?
You're so sick of that. You're so sick of your self-righteousness. Oh, you want out of yourselves
to lean on Christ. But I tell you, it's the most
difficult thing you've ever done in your life, ain't it? You can separate yourself from
the world. I locked myself in my little office. I remember
when I first started pastoring full-time, and I got me an office,
and I thought, man, this is the way to live. I'm going to get
out of this world. You don't have to go to work.
You don't have to put up with all this foolishness. And I went
and locked myself in the office, and I found out I took it all
in there with me. All the sin, all the foolishness, all the
warring was right there with me. And I tell you what, it's
difficult to get out of yourself into Christ. And we'll be laboring
to do that all our lives. Oh, wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from, from? You try to turn your back on
it. You try to shun old self. But there he is hanging on. The flesh lusting against the
Spirit, and the Spirit lusting against the flesh. But are you
coming up? Are you headed up? Have you turned
your back upon? Is it a process or are you still
doing it? And then the second point here
is this. The second portion of this, not only is she coming
up out of the wilderness, but she's leaning. She is leaning
upon her Beloved. We know who that is. There's
no doubt who that is. That's Jesus, the Son of God,
and the Beloved. Several times this word, Beloved,
as it applies to the Lord Jesus, is mentioned in the four Gospels.
You can get your concordance out and look at it. But every
time, without exception, It's applied to him and it's spoken
of by the Heavenly Father. And it's what the Father calls
him, My Beloved. He says when he was baptized,
remember this, when the dove came down and lit upon him? They
heard a voice from heaven and said, This is My Beloved Son,
My Beloved. In Matthew 12, verse 18, about
halfway through his ministry, this scripture was quoted concerning
him, and the Father in Heaven spoke it. He said, Behold my
servant in whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is
well pleased. My beloved, the Father said.
And then in Matthew 17, verse 5, on the Mount of Transfiguration,
there was a voice that spake out of the cloud and said, This
is my beloved son. Hear him. My beloved. He's the Father's beloved. Beloved. And he's beloved to the saints.
You can check me out on this if I haven't made a mistake in
the Psalms of Solomon. This word, Beloved, is mentioned
thirty-one times in eight chapters. Twenty-nine times refers personally
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Twenty-six of those times is
the Church addressing Him as My Beloved. He is Beloved to
the saints. This word, beloved, it means
one who is altogether lovely, one who is worthy of love, one
who is deserving of affections, amiable, beautiful, and fair. And when I read that word fair,
my mind went to Psalm 45, verse 2, and here is what David said,
Thou art fairer, Thou art more beautiful. Thou art more amiable
than the children of men. Grace is poured into your lips. Therefore, you are blessed of
God forever. Thou art fairer. Now listen. This is what Samuel Rutherford
said about this particular psalm. And here's how the saints Here
is how the saints feel about Jesus Christ. He is their beloved. Listen to what Samuel Rutherford
said on David's psalm, Thou art fairer than the children of men.
He said, O fair sun, O fair moon, O fair star, O fair flowers and
roses and lilies, but O ten thousand times fairer Lord Jesus." And
then he stops and says, Alas, I have wronged him in making
the comparison this way. And then he says this, O black
sun, O black moon and black stars, but O fairer Lord Jesus. O black flowers and black lilies
and black roses, but O fairer fairer, ever fairer, Lord Jesus. Oh, black heaven, but fairer,
Lord Jesus. Oh, black angels, but surpassingly
fairer, oh, more fairer, Lord Jesus. And brothers and sisters, I would
ask you the question that I ask myself. Is He your Beloved? Can you say, this is my Beloved? Do you love Him? Do you love
for others to know Him? Do you love Him for others to
think highly of Him? Is He your Beloved in your heart? Do you want others to know that
He's your Beloved? Do you want others to know what
estimation you put upon Him? It wasn't even her here that
said this about herself. But somebody saw her so leaning
upon her beloved, they said, look at her leaning upon this
person. It must be her beloved. Oh, we
say that about ourselves, that he's mine. But we want others
to know it, don't we? Are we ashamed of him? No, we're
not. And I tell you, the more highly
you can speak of Him, the better we like it. Because He's mine. He's my Beloved. My Beloved. And secondly, not only does it
say that she looks upon the Lord Jesus and esteems Him as altogether
lovely, But it says here also that she is leaning, she is leaning
upon her beloved. This word lean means to recline
or rest one's weight upon. And why is she leaning upon her
beloved? Could you guess why she would
be leaning upon her beloved? If you ask her, I'm sure she
could tell you. If you said, Dear Lady, why are
you leaning upon Him? And you know what she would tell
you? There's no other way to come up from the wilderness but
leaning upon Him. If I asked you this afternoon
if you were coming up from this world, and you had your back
unto it, and your answer was, yes, even though I found it to
be a struggle, I'm coming up from this world. Then I asked
you, how are you doing it? Look at all the others that are
still there. How do you find the strength
to do it? And your answer would be this, if it was the right
answer. I found that by experience. The only way I can do it is by
leaning upon my Beloved. I find grace in Him. I find strength
in Him. I find power in Him. I tried
to come up out of it myself, and I found out I could not,
only as I am leaning upon my Beloved. If I asked you this
afternoon if you ever sinned, and your answer undoubtedly would
be, Yes. Then my question would be, what
do you do then? What would your answer be? I'm leaning hard upon the blood
of my beloved and nothing else. I am not leaning upon the fact
that I'm coming out and I'm coming up. But I am leaning hard upon
the blood of my Beloved to cleanse me from this sin. If I told you
this afternoon that you were a poor, wretched, naked sinner,
and that you must be clothed with a righteousness before you
could enter heaven, what would you tell me? Would you tell me
that you believed it to be so? That you were leaning hard upon
your Beloved's obedience to provide you with the righteousness that
you must have? Are you leaning hard upon Him? Is this your Beloved? Do you
feel welcomed to lean upon Him? Is He encouraging you to do it?
Some people are afraid to trust Christ. Oh, they can trust Him
partly, but they are afraid to trust Him fully. They cannot
begin to understand or comprehend how He can do everything for
them. So they can't bring themselves
to put their full weight upon Him. Do you feel that way? Or has He taught you, or has
He encouraged you to cast yourself And everything upon Him. Casting
all, casting all your care upon Him. For He cares for you. You got all your weight leaning
on Him? I mean for everything. For everything. A fellow told me one time about
a fellow sitting on a city bus. And some lady got on with a suitcase,
and he offered to get up and give her his seat, and she refused,
but she stood there holding that suitcase. Stop after stop, she
was holding the suitcase. And he finally looked up at her
and said, Lady, if you'll set that suitcase down, that bus
will carry it as well as you. Is the Lord Jesus Christ encouraging
you to cast your entire person upon Him? All your cares, all
your anxiety, all your salvation, all your acceptance, all your
hope? Do you just feel like you're
absolutely welcome to cast everything upon Him? And do you feel like
that He's strong enough to carry it? I'm not afraid to cast everything
on Him. Are you? Twenty? Twenty. My goodness. Seventy-three. What's
that? How many years? Seventy-three
years ago. How many, Bill? Thirty-eight years ago. Bill's
a math whiz. I see that right now. He's a math whiz. Thirty-eight
years ago. Thirty-eight years ago. I cast
my soul upon Him because He brought me to do it. And that's what
I often tell him now. Lord, you started this work. You're the one that caused me
to trust in you and hope in you, and I'm going to hope in you
until I die. He's the one that started it. And you know, for
the last 38 years, I have learned by experience that he'll not
only carry me and the weight of my salvation, but he'll carry
everything about me. All my cares, all my concerns,
all my heartaches, all my burdens. And He's strong enough. He's
strong enough. I've never seen Him break. I've never seen Him bow. I've
never seen Him move. He's unmovable. All of my weight
and all the weight of countless others that's been leaning on
Him, He's carried it all. Spurgeon told about old elephants
back during the days when they used to have to use elephants
and work them. He said the old elephants, they
went across these bridges that went across the little gorges
and across rivers. He said those elephants were
very smart. They could detect by the sound
where a bridge was strong enough to hold their weight. And he
said, walk up to these bridges, and they would stomp those bridges. And they'd listen for the sound
before they went across. And he said, if they didn't cross
that bridge, they could tell by the sound, you don't want
on this bridge, isn't that what I say? You know the Lord Jesus Christ
don't care if you're sounding Him. He don't care. He don't care. I have sounded
Him, and I have found Him to be able and strong enough to
hold my weight. There was a king one time that
burned his children in the fire. He rejected the Lord, hated Him.
The Lord sent His prophets to preach to him. I don't want nothing
to do with God. And finally the Lord sent his
enemies, took him by broilers and they brought him into prison.
There in that dungeon he began to cry to the Lord, Lord be merciful
to me a sinner. Could the Lord get somebody that
heavy upon him and get him from this world to the world to come?
Here is the only bridge from this world to glory. It is the
Son of God. Could he hold the weight of a
man like that? There was a woman who had seven devils. Glenn mentioned
this morning. What those devils were, I don't
know. But you can imagine having seven devils that ruled that
woman's life. Do you know she is in glory today? There was a bridge that she was
on that spanned this awful gulf between this world and the next,
and it held her weight. Saul of Tartians was killed in
the Lord's little children. Hated Christ. Sought to do many
things contrary to His name. He was put on this bridge, and
it got him across this gorge. And you just go on and on and
on, and you sound this bridge, and you'll find out it will hold
your weight, and everybody else is on it. Nobody and everybody
that gets on this bridge It's never bowed, it's never broken,
it's never moved. I was reading, I can't think
of his name, Clark, Adam Clark, is that his name? He's a friend
of Brother Larry's. He's an old commentator. And
he believes that when the Lord saves you, He really don't save
you. You read him and he says he puts him in the way. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be put in the way of
salvation. But he believes that the Lord
puts everybody on probation. When you come to him and believe
in him, you're on probation. If he could lawfully and felt
free enough to translate that Scripture in Acts 16, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the way he would have
translated it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall
be put on probation. That's the way he would have
translated it. I don't want an abrasion like
that, do you? That's not fit to lean on. I'm telling you it's
not fit to lean on. He can have that mess. He can
have that. I want to lean on one who can
save me. I want to put all my weight on
Him. The weight of my eternal salvation. And you know something? I'm convinced. And you know where
I've been convinced at, not only from experience myself, but here.
I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've committed
to Him against that day. Some of you remember Daryl and
Joyce Hardman. Danette, remember Danette that
died? Had her aneurysm and they rushed
her to the hospital. And was pregnant with a little
baby. And she came to herself. And her husband was standing
there. She told me this story. And she'd come to herself after
several days. And he said, Danette, I've trusted
Christ. I've trusted Christ. And she looked up at him and
said, have you trusted him for everything? Have you trusted
him for everything? That's a question I'll have to
answer for myself, ain't it? You'll have to answer that question
for yourself. But I tell you this, you'll never put too much
on him. And He'll happily carry everything
you lay there. And I tell you this, everything
you put on Him is secure. It's secure. You put your soul
on Him, it's secure. You put everything you do on
Him, it's secure. It's secure. Build up on Him
and your works will be secure because you are secure. God bless
you.