Open up our Bibles to the Song of
Solomon, chapter 4.
As you know, we've extended these meetings.
God has been very, very gracious to us.
And tomorrow night we'll not be having meetings,
but Sunday, and we will again, Sunday and
Sunday night.
I know that many of you who are
visiting will probably, and should, go back to
your churches, support your pastors.
But I just want to thank you.
It's been a great privilege for me to
be here.
It scares me a bit.
I feel something like John Wesley.
He was riding on his horse one day,
and going from one preaching spot to another,
and he realized that in the last few
weeks, people had been unusually kind to him.
So he got down off the horse, and
he got down on his knees, and he
asked God to forgive him, because he said,
I must be compromising in my preaching.
I must be carnal in some way, to
have so much affection for men placed upon
me.
And while he was praying, a farmer who
hated him, saw him and threw a brick
at him, and it missed his head by
a few inches.
And he said, thank you, Lord, for that
confirmation of my ministry.
But at the same time, I know that
the leadership, not only the pastor, but the
leadership in this church, and many of you
have gone through many of the same things
that I have gone through.
So I was telling a sister this morning,
I said, do you remember the message that
I preached on the cross of Jesus Christ?
And she said, oh yes, Brother Paul.
I said, I preached that in a Southern
Baptist church a few years ago, the first
morning that the revival was to begin, or
the first evening that the revival was to
begin.
And the next morning, the leadership came to
me and asked me to leave.
Because I had said that the wrath of
God abided upon men, and Jesus Christ, when
he was on the cross, bore our guilt
and our shame, and the wrath of God
crushed him in our place.
And because of that, the meetings were canceled.
So I want you to realize that I
appreciate, I want to be quick not to
flatter men, but I appreciate what God is
doing here.
I appreciate it in a great and tremendous
way.
And I only hope that God will grant
you the courage, the courage to continue.
The reformers coined a phrase in Latin, semper
reformanda, always reforming, always reforming.
And there is such a need in the
Southern Baptist convention, not to move on to
new ideals, not to move on to new
fads and new theories, but to turn back
from the rock from which we were cut,
and embrace the old way, the biblical way.
We don't need anything new.
We need to go back to what is
old.
Now, before I enter into this message, I
need to explain again that we have throughout
this week preached against the idea of a
continuously carnal Christian, that there is no such
thing, that assurance does not come from praying
a prayer, and assurance does not come from
writing your name in the back of your
Bible and putting the date there.
Assurance comes from a continuing work of the
grace of God in a person's life, a
work that will be evident.
And if there is no fruit in your
life, and if there is no discipline or
correction, and you can live in ungodliness, that,
my friend, is the evidence of a lack
of regeneration.
You are not a Christian.
And so we've preached hard on that this
week.
But then we came to last night, and
it seemed as though we almost contradicted ourselves.
But then again, if you read Romans chapter
6, you'll find the same thing in the
Apostle Paul.
Because of his view of grace and his
declaring grace to the people of God, the
true people of God, some people were saying,
well, let us sin that grace may abound.
And that was not what Paul was teaching.
Last night, I was done with preaching to
carnal lost church members and began to preach
to the people of God.
And the people of God need to know
that God has done a work.
And that work is finished.
And by virtue of the death of the
Son of God, they are pardoned of all
their sin and all their iniquity and all
their trespasses against the Lord of glory.
By virtue of the perfect life He lived,
He has not only forgiven you, but He
has granted you His righteousness so that you
are the very righteousness of God in Christ.
And it is for these very reasons that
angels long to peer into the very things
that have been given to you.
The very things that have been given to
you.
Now, before I go into the Song of
Solomon, I just have to turn over to
the book of Ephesians.
So forgive me if my old preaching professor
is here.
Well, I'm out of school and you can't
flunk me now.
Let's go to the book of Ephesians just
quickly.
I want to show you something.
Something that is so dear to my heart
and I must say it quickly because there's
other things that must be said.
But have you ever wondered the reason behind
everything God has ever done?
Have you ever wondered the reason behind everything
God has ever done?
You know, people will say, well, why did
He make the earth?
Why did it fall?
Why this?
Why that?
Why all these things?
Well, the book of Ephesians tells us.
And you're wrapped up in the answer.
Or maybe even the answer is wrapped up
in you.
Look in Ephesians chapter 2.
In verses 4 through 6, he's talking about
the work of God in Christ on behalf
of God's people.
And then he gives the reason for it
in verse 7.
So that in the ages to come He
might show the passing riches of His grace
and His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
Why has He done everything that He's done?
So that in the ages to come He
might show the surpassing riches of His grace
and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
Now go to chapter 3 verse 10.
Speaking about the church, the same thing in
verse 10 of chapter 3.
He says, So that the manifold wisdom of
God might now be made known through the
church to the rulers and authorities in the
heavenly places.
What is this all about?
God is doing a demonstration.
Even liberal theologians will agree with me on
this.
God is a God of revelation.
What does that mean?
Not that He's the God simply of the
book of Revelation, but the thing that God
desires to do most within His creation is
reveal Himself to His creation.
Not only unto men, but unto angels.
See, you often think that angels know everything.
Well, they don't.
Because angels are creatures and they're finite.
And finite can never grasp an infinite God.
So not only for us, not only for
this earthly creation, but for all of heaven,
God is revealing Himself and He has chosen
to do His greatest work of revelation through
you.
The greatest revelation God will ever give He
has given through the work of His Son,
Jesus Christ, and it has much to do
with you to declare to all principalities and
powers, mites, dominion, men, crickets, and clowns, to
all of them, who He is.
Now, I want you to think about something
for a moment.
God makes a ball of dirt.
That's basically what the earth is.
He makes a rock, a ball of dirt.
Something far beneath Him.
They tell me heaven is more splendid than
this place in which we live.
So why did He make a lesser place
than heaven?
And they tell me that angels are spectacular
creatures.
That if one were to walk in right
now, we would probably all fall on the
floor.
But you walked in and we didn't do
that.
So why did He make a ball of
dirt?
And why did He put little pieces of
clay, living life on this planet?
When He could have done something far much
greater.
Far greater.
We have no idea the works of God
in heaven.
We have no idea the miraculous and the
special and the unbelievable sorts of things He
has done elsewhere.
And yet He has made us.
And then we have a man who clenches
his fist in the face of God and
rebels.
Now, what do you suppose the principalities and
powers and mites and dominions thought on that
day?
Well, from what we know from Scripture, there
had only been one other rebellion that anyone
even knew about.
And that was Satan and his angels.
And what happened on that day when they
rebelled against God?
Perfect justice happened on that day.
You rebel against God, there is one thing
you will know.
He is holy, He is just, He is
sovereign, and He shares His throne with no
one.
And so with that disobedience of the creature,
we see judgment.
No mercy, no grace, pure judgment.
Isn't it amazing?
The angels fell, and God never sent them
a Savior.
That ought to tell us something.
He didn't have to send one to us
either.
If God had saved no man, He would
still be God.
He owes nothing to man.
A.W. Tozer said one time, he said,
if everyone on the face of the earth
were to go blind, it would not diminish
the glory of the sun.
And if every man on the face of
the earth were to turn their back on
God and spend eternity in hell, it would
not diminish the glory of God.
But now you've got these principalities and powers
and mites and dominions that are looking on
to learn of the wisdom of God, the
manifold wisdom of God.
The only thing they knew was this, you
disobey, judgment.
What do you expect they thought was going
to happen when Adam clenched that dirty paw
of his and shook it in the face
of God?
Judgment.
But what happened?
Mercy.
Oh, here's a new thing.
Here is a new thing.
Here is a splendid thing we have never
seen before.
Mercy and grace.
You say, no, Brother Paul, there was judgment.
I mean, after all, there was the sentence
of death, there was the suffering in the
world, there was the pain in childbirth, there
were all these things.
Judgment, judgment, judgment.
No, judgment would have been the annihilation of
the race.
But we saw mercy.
And know this, people.
Know this, every time you go out, sir,
every time you go out and you go
to that factory or you go to that
job and you work by the sweat of
your brow and you see around you what
seems to be so much without meaning, you
know what that is?
You say, yes, it's the judgment of God.
God said I would have to work that
way by the sweat of my brow.
Not only is it judgment, my dear friend,
it's mercy.
It is mercy.
God has brought that upon you because with
that sweat on your brow and with that
struggling in your life, He is screaming out
to you, lost, lost, lost.
Here I am.
And woman in childbirth, every ounce of pain
shooting through your body like a knife.
You say, judgment, yes, but also mercy and
grace and God's voice calling out to you,
fallen, fallen, fallen.
There is a Savior.
These principalities and powers and mites and dominions,
my, how they learned something about God the
day that Adam fell.
Things they had never seen before.
And then, the incarnation of the Christ, the
Son of God becomes a man and all
of heaven stands in awe.
All of heaven.
Every splendid being speechless as the creator of
the universe, the glory of glories takes upon
himself human flesh and then goes to a
cross and takes upon himself the sins of
his people, the iniquities of his nation and
he stands in their law place and all
the judgment of almighty God falls down upon
him and the principalities and mites and dominions
say, what is this new thing?
Who is this God?
You see, if you've ever questioned the wisdom
of God and the fall of the human
race, although the fall was definitely the fault
of the human race, the sovereignty of God
was also there.
And if you've ever wondered what was the
purpose of the fall, let me throw this
out at you.
If God truly is God and if God
is worthy and if knowledge of God is
the greatest gift, then no matter what the
cost, it is worth it if God, all
of God, might be known.
You say, well, what are you getting at?
In a world where everyone meets the conditions,
you will never know anything about unconditional love.
In a world where everyone keeps the rules,
God's mercy is hidden.
And in a world where everyone deserves what
they deserve, you know nothing of grace.
This fallen world, though it be laid squarely
at the feet of man and the blame
placed upon man and man alone, there was
a purpose in this fall of God revealing
God.
You say, but what a high price!
Not if it's God.
What's worth more to you?
That's what I ask Christians sometimes that are
suffering.
What's worth more to you?
The knowledge of God or a tranquil life?
And then there's you.
Oh, those angels know you better than you
know you.
Do you know why they know you better
than you know you?
Because they know God better than you.
They know He is holy.
Oh, in such a way that the most
powerful, most holy, most beautiful angels that have
ever been created bow their knee, bow their
faces in the presence of God and cannot
look to Him.
Look at Isaiah 6.
In the year the king Uzziah died, I
saw also the Lord high and lifted up,
and His train filled the temple, and above
Him stood the seraph, each one having six
wings.
With two He covered his feet, with two
He covered His face, and with two He
did fly.
And one cried unto the other, Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of His glory.
They're the most powerful, the most splendid, the
most beautiful, the most holy.
You say, how do you know that, Brother
Paul?
Because of their proximity to the throne.
There's no creature closer to the throne than
them.
And yet they cannot look Him in the
face.
And that is why when Adam fell, I'm
sure there was a rattling of swords and
spears and lances in heaven.
The only thought that they should think there
in glory is it's time for war.
Let's go down and annihilate the whole lot
of them.
And then they see you in your unconverted
state.
And I must anger them when they think
of how conceited you are, not knowing the
holiness of God, lifting your head so high
in your disobedience, thinking you could stand up
against omnipotence, not knowing, as they know, that
you would melt before them like a tiny
wax figurine in a blast furnace.
And although they looked at you and said,
judgment, judgment, judgment, one day, one day, through
the preaching of the gospel, God declared, grace,
grace, grace, and He saved you.
And on the day that He saved you,
every principality and power and might and dominion
in all of heaven itself fell down and
worshiped God who could do such things.
And then throughout all your life, He will
be working.
Throughout all your life, He will be working
and working and working, giving ever greater measures
of grace and placing it upon you, just
like the servant who went to get a
bride for Isaac.
Don't you suppose when he found the girl
and began to bring her back, that with
every step of the camel, probably her heart
would doubt, who is this one I am
going to meet?
Will he really love me?
And that servant, every time he saw that
look on her face, pulled another jewel out
of his pocket and said, this is from
your Lord.
This is from your Lord.
And every time you have doubted, every time
you have become weary, God has given you
extra measure and extra measure and extra measure
of grace, and all of heaven looks on
at the demonstration of God's goodness in you.
And then one day a trumpet sounds, a
trumpet, a mighty blast.
And there you stand before the Lord.
You say, well, what will be my main
thing in heaven?
Do you really want to know?
Let me show you what your purpose will
be in glory.
In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 7, so that
in the ages to come, so that in
the ages to come, He might show the
surpassing riches of His grace in kindness towards
us in Christ Jesus.
As the pastor was sharing yesterday from Jonathan
Edwards and from his own particular studies, I
was sitting there going, I thought I thought
of that.
But now we know there are no days
in heaven.
We do know that, don't we?
But let's just say they are for the
sake of learning something.
You walk into heaven.
You say, well, I know everything, Brother Paul,
when I get there.
No, you'll know a lot, but you won't
know everything.
And that's what makes heaven, that's what keeps
heaven from becoming boring.
You will spend the rest of eternity marking
out an infinite God.
And with every new dawn will bring greater
measures of the knowledge of God and throw
you into greater states of ecstasy and joy.
But not only that, the first day you
arrive, grace is lavished upon you.
The kindness of God is lavished upon you.
You walk through the door and the kindness
of God in front of all of creation
is poured forth on you.
And all of creation looks at what you
were, what God has made you.
And the kindness He is bestowing on you
on that day, and they go, now we
understand who God is.
And they fall down and they worship God
because of His kindness to you.
And then, day two.
Day two, we all wake up.
You get up.
And all of heaven once again turns its
eyes toward you and waits.
What will God do to this one today?
And then God comes with a greater measure
of kindness and a greater measure of grace
and a greater measure of beauty and love
and douses you with it.
He lavishes it upon you.
And there they go again.
All principalities and powers and mights and dominions
fall down and worship God because of His
goodness revealed to them through what He does
to you.
That is why angels, the most spectacular, long
to look at the things that have been
ordained for you.
Now, I wanted to say that before we
got to the Song of Solomon.
Let's go there now.
How then should we be?
If your Christianity is marked by rule keeping
and nothing more, then this has nothing to
do with you.
Or maybe it does.
Maybe you will learn tonight that Christianity is
much more than rule keeping.
I hope to take some of you back
to what has horribly been called your honeymoon
with Jesus.
You know, someone gets saved and they're all
excited and we say, well, that's just a
honeymoon period.
I remember the first time someone told me
that.
I should have known at that moment I
was going to have trouble with my mouth
the rest of my Christian life.
He said, well, this is just your honeymoon
period.
One day you'll be like us.
And I said, I hope God kills me
before I'm like you.
Verse 16 of chapter 4.
Awake, O north wind.
Now this is the girl speaking.
Awake, O north wind, and come, wind of
the south.
Make my garden breathe out fragrance.
Let its spices be waft abroad.
May my beloved come into his garden and
eat his choice fruits.
This little girl, and I'll refer to her
in that way, this is not a wealthy
princess.
This is not some woman of means.
This is a simple girl.
And what is her greatest desire?
Her greatest desire is to draw the king.
Her greatest desire is for him to come.
Her greatest desire is when he is walking
down the path that he will turn and
look to her.
Oh, she knows he's great.
She knows he's something.
She knows all about him.
But her one desire is that he will
just stop and glance her way.
Remember last night when I spoke about how
God, His heart beats faster with every glance
from your eye.
Well here, we see something very, very special.
Here is the bride.
Here is the church.
And her only desire is to catch his
eye.
Do you remember when you were a brand
new Christian?
Now some of you won't even know what
I'm talking about and it could be evidence
that you've never come to know him.
But you remember when you were a brand
new Christian and the only thing you wanted
was to catch his eye?
You would pray.
You would cry out to him.
If anything of service or any opportunity came
to do something in the name of Jesus,
you would want to do it.
No matter how great or how small, you
just wanted to be involved.
And you hoped that with all the things
that you did, you hoped that you would,
you know, sense His pleasure on your life,
that He would turn your way, that He
would look at you.
You didn't desire anything else.
It just seemed that you were consumed with
this one passion that He might look your
way, that He might send a smile your
way, that He might say, it is well,
that He might just look at you.
I'm amazed.
And fathers, this is a word for you.
When I go to the playground with my
little boy, usually I'm the only dad there.
The other boys are all there with their
mom.
And it's amazing.
When I begin to play with my little
boy, that all the other little boys that
are there at the playground run over to
me, because I'm a man, and they say,
Sir, watch me.
I can do that too.
Sir, watch me.
Watch me, sir, because I can do that
too.
The only thing they want because their dad's
not giving it to them.
And their dads will pay dearly.
And so will the child.
The only thing they want is for me
to look, swing off monkey bars, half kill
themselves on the trapeze, whatever it takes, but
just look my way, sir.
That's all I want is that glance from
you.
I remember when I was a new Christian,
and I hope you do too, when all
I wanted, you know, was, you know, I'd
pray, just, oh Lord, just a sense of
your presence, and sometimes you'd feel his presence,
and you'd just think that you were the
most special person on the face of the
earth.
That he had done something with you he
didn't do with anybody ever.
And then I would get in church, I
remember my first activity, first ministry ever given
to me in a church.
I, you know, I thought, well, the preacher
will ask me to teach or preach or
something.
And he said, You're from a farm, aren't
you?
I said, yeah.
He goes, You know how to build a
fence?
I said, yeah.
He said, go out to the ballpark and
build a fence.
And I can remember going out there and
just building that fence.
You know, the only thing was, you know,
Jesus, look at my fence.
I made this fence for you.
Look at me, Lord.
I'm having my quiet time.
It wasn't a thing of works.
It wasn't a thing of trying to earn.
No, I just wanted him to see me.
I just wanted him to look my way.
I just wanted that hand on the shoulder.
I would have died a thousand deaths for
that.
Maybe that's the only ambition we should ever
have.
This little girl stands there and she goes,
Oh, come winds of the north and southeast
and west, whichever, will find my beloved.
Take this thing I have.
I made this little garden.
Now take it and blow it towards him
that he might know and that he might
come and that he might take from me
The only thing she wanted to do was
give everything she had to him and she
would be happy.
Do you remember when you felt that?
Oh, I hope you do.
Do you remember those days?
Now, here's the amazing thing.
Verse 1.
I have come into my garden.
This is the bridegroom.
My sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrth along with my
balsam.
I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey.
I have drunk my wine and my milk.
Now, here's something very interesting.
In verse 16, it's her garden that she
made.
In verse 1, he claims it as his
own.
He takes it.
You say, well, what's so big about that?
Don't you understand?
This is the king.
This king has thousands of gardens.
He has thousands, maybe tens of thousands of
men doing nothing but working in the royal
gardens and making them one of the great
wonders of the world.
What does he need with a puny little
garden of some little girl?
But you see, this king is different.
Oh, this king is different.
There's none like this king.
He's the one among ten thousand.
He's different.
He takes it.
That's one of the most beautiful things in
the world to me.
Maybe I'm not making myself clear, but it's
one of the most beautiful things in the
world to me.
I'm never going to be big.
I'm probably never going to do great things.
When I die, my name will die with
me, just like millions and millions of other
servants of God.
I have nothing to offer someone like him.
I have nothing worthy.
I just have a little garden.
And there's all these other men out there
that have these gardens that are just so
much bigger than mine.
What's somebody like me to do?
I'll tell you what someone like me should
do.
Take that little garden of mine and hand
it over to him and he will claim
it as his own.
He will not despise it.
I know of wealthy, strong, proud men who
own everything.
And if some little peasant were to walk
up to them and hand them a little
crocheted napkin or something that they had made,
they'd say, you know, what value does this
have?
But Jesus is not that way.
Dear saint, everything that you offer to him
out of a sincere heart, he will take
it and call it his own.
Oh, this is a feeble prayer.
How can I offer it to him?
Everything I have is feeble.
Why not offer it?
He is a gracious master.
Oh, this ministry of mine, it is such
a tiny thing.
It is just so silly itinerant preacher running
around the country.
What am I to do?
Give it to him and he will take
it.
You say, well, you know, I'm a janitor
in the church, right?
I cut the lawn here at the church.
I was out there today with the guy
cutting the lawn.
You've got the coolest tractor I have ever
seen.
You can spin that thing on a dime
and I almost hit somebody's car in the
parking lot.
Everything.
Have you never read that even a cup
of cold water given to a disciple because
he is a disciple, you will not lose
your reward?
That I so encourage you.
You know, so much of our lives are
governed by fear.
The fear of man is a snare.
But also our lives are governed by the
fear of rejection.
There is so much we don't do because
we think what we do doesn't matter and
that it will not be received.
But that is not the case with him.
The smallest thing, he takes it and he
calls it his home.
You say, what's the Christian reward?
That's it.
He took it.
That is the reward.
He took it.
He esteemed it.
He took it.
Now, he says in verse 1, Eat friends,
drink, and imbibe deeply, O lovers.
Although this is a relationship between two people,
an intimate relationship, it is amazing that when
this intimate relationship is as it should be,
when she is passionately, when the church is
passionately in love with Christ, and Christ, of
course, always passionately in love with his church.
And when the one believer is passionately in
love with Jesus, it just seems to overflow
with joy to so many other people.
So many other people are brought in.
You don't need hype in this church.
You don't need entertainment in this church.
You don't need to turn this church into
a six flags over Jesus.
Fall in love with Jesus Christ, and that
will flow out into other people.
Passionately seek Him, and that will flow out
into others.
And it will bring others in.
What do you know about that church, great
preacher?
Oh, pray to God they never say that.
Pray to God they say, Oh, there's such
a passion.
There's such a passionate love for Christ.
Such a passionate love for Him.
And I went there, and I was just
brought into, sucked up into the joy.
You know, kind of like when you go
to a wedding, and you don't even know
if you're really supposed to be there, but
there's so much joy, and there's so much
life.
You just get caught up into it, and
you forget you're not even related to anybody.
It is that sort of thing.
Basically, most churches in America are lawless.
They're without discipline.
There's no church discipline.
That's why there's just godliness, ungodliness runs rampant.
The name of God is blasphemed because of
unconverted church members, and all sorts of things.
And when I preach those things, people think
of me as someone who will be, you
know, very strict, and very this, and very
that, and very proper, and very solemn.
I'm completely the opposite.
I hope to be like my Lord, who
at times spoke about God, and the wrath
of God, and the holiness of God, and
men were afraid to walk with Him.
And yet at other times, speaking about other
things, children ran to Him.
There is a real sense in which this
church needs to stand up as a lighthouse,
and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and
preach the attributes of God.
And if those things are not enough to
draw a man, then nothing will do any
good.
But at the same time, when they walk
in here, there should be an overwhelming sense
of people who are in love with Jesus
Christ.
So many churches have, you know, you can
go in, you can tell that this is
a Bible church.
This is a Bible church.
I preach in Bible churches.
What are Bible churches?
Man, they're scholars.
It's just the Word, the Word, the Word,
the Word, and when you walk in church,
everybody's just looking down at their Bible.
And then there's the charismatics, and they're over
there, you know, jumping through hoops and doing
everything that they think they need to do
in the name of the Holy Spirit.
And then there's this evangelistic church, and this
church, and that church.
What you need to be church is a
church that preaches biblical messages from the Word
of God, but people who do not hold
preaching to be the end, but a transformed
life of people who love Jesus Christ.
And if you love Jesus Christ, you'll love
everybody else.
You'll love everybody else.
And other people will be brought in to
your joy.
Now, we go to verse 2.
I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
A voice, my beloved, was knocking, open to
be my sister, my darling, my dove, my
perfect one.
For my head is drenched with dew and
my locks with the damp of the night.
Now, first of all, here again is the
lover, the man.
And look at the way he sees her.
My darling, my dove, my perfect one.
How does Christ see the church, the true
church of Jesus Christ?
Not the membership role, the church.
How does he see the church?
Exactly this way.
If you are a Christian, how does he
see you?
Exactly this way.
In terms of endearment, in terms of love,
in terms of purity, this is how he
sees you because he has done a work
on your behalf.
And another thing that you need to realize,
here he comes at the watch of the
night, at the hour least expected.
At the hour least expected.
Sometimes I'm preaching and I have great, great
fear when I preach or when I go
to a place.
It's like Duncan Campbell preaching about the great
Hebrides revival.
The first thing he says in the message
is I want you to know that Duncan
Campbell did not bring revival to the greater
Hebrides.
Revival doesn't ride on the back of a
man.
Revival comes as a sovereign work of God
when Jesus Christ walks in the door.
And so many times we try to plan
things and get people motivated in so many
things but Jesus Christ doesn't walk in the
door.
And he usually walks in the door at
the hour least expected.
And an hour least convenient for the believer
and for the church.
That's why sometimes I have trouble with the
idea of quiet time.
To me quiet time is like putting my
wife in a closet and bringing her out
20 minutes a day to talk to her
and then putting her back in the closet.
Jesus, didn't you already have my quiet time?
Jesus, we had the revival last week.
No, you had meetings last week.
I wasn't there so it wasn't a revival.
Are you constantly a lover watching, watching, watching
this little girl?
Man, when she first met this guy, if
she even heard that he was going to
be walking through the market, she'd say, Mom,
I'm going to buy eggs.
She'd walk around that market a thousand times
in the heat of the day just hoping
to catch one glimpse of his eye.
Lord, I'll turn that TV off.
Would you come?
Lord, I think I heard you call my
name.
It's four in the morning.
Did you call, Lord?
Speak.
Speak, Lord.
I'm waiting.
A true man or woman of prayer is
someone who waits.
They hear no voice.
They hear no sound.
They do not speak much.
They wait.
And they listen.
But here we see something else.
Verse 3.
I have taken off my dress.
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet.
How can I dirty them again?
Oh, my.
This is you.
When you were a brand-new Christian, maybe
felt the leadership of the Holy Spirit to
read your Bible or to pray, to turn
away from the world and things.
It wasn't even hard.
I mean, you didn't have to have a
mystical experience.
It's what you wanted to do.
You wanted to read your Bible.
You wanted to pray.
You wanted to be around other believers and
all sorts of things.
And now your life is so filled with
activity, maybe even church activity.
Your life is so filled with so many
things, both religious and secular, worldly and carnal.
And your life is filled with so many
things.
And Jesus stands at the door and knocks.
And by the way, if there's any evangelists
here, stop using that verse out of context
because it's a verse to the church, not
to the unregenerate.
You say, well, it's good, but that still
doesn't give you the right to twist it
out of its context.
Behold, I stand at the door and I
knock.
And there was a time if you would
have heard Him knocking at your door, you
would have jumped out of bed so fast.
I mean, the covers wouldn't have been off
of you and you'd have been running across
the floor.
Jesus has come.
Someone comes by.
Let's fellowship.
Let's talk about Jesus.
Let's pray.
He felt a desire and a need to
pray, to seek His face, to worship Him,
to gather with other Christians, to read your
Bible.
But now after the years, He comes and
you say, I've already done that.
I'm tired.
That's a terrible thing.
Chinese proverb says, a lover is not a
man who can love 10,000 women.
A lover is a man who can love
one woman 10,000 years.
When things grow common to us, our heart
grows cold.
How many times, in how many ways, is
Jesus Christ knocking at your door?
You've got so many plans, so many desires.
You're so busy.
And that TV, that TV is something, isn't
it?
It's just always on.
Always on.
Always so much noise.
Noise at home, noise at work, noise in
the church.
And He says this.
She says, I have taken off my dress.
How can I put it on again?
She wouldn't ask that when she first met
Him.
She'd have had that dress on so fast.
I've washed my feet.
How can I dirty them again?
When she first met Him, she would have
walked through a sewer to get to Him.
But her heart has grown cold.
Has your heart grown cold, believer?
Is your life filled up with so many
things that you no longer have the strength
nor the time to be alone with Jesus
and to seek Jesus?
You might be moral.
You might be godly.
You might even be memorizing Scripture.
You might be faithful to this church or
another local church, and I applaud you for
that.
But do you have time for Jesus?
Remember, this is not a doctrine.
We are not disciples of a doctrine.
Fellowship.
Now, verse 4, My beloved extended his hand
through the opening, and my feelings were aroused
for him.
She's called him off.
She's been dull of heart.
But he stretches forth her hand again, an
act of grace, and tries to arouse her
heart.
You are so blind, if you're like me,
to so many of the things that God
puts in front of your life in order
to arouse your heart.
So many good and perfect gifts He gives
you.
So many things that the Lord does for
you simply that you would turn your attention
to Him, and yet you do not.
You do not.
And even the gifts that He gives us
to arouse our hearts so that we will
turn to Him, it's like we snatch them
out of His hand and then go play
with them.
Instead of allowing those gifts to cause us
to run to Him.
And now, verse 5, I arose to open
to my beloved, and my hands dripped with
mirth, and my fingers with liquid mirth.
On the handles of the bolt, I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had turned
away and had gone.
There is a real sense in which the
Lord will never forsake His people.
There is another real sense in which the
Lord is always with His people.
But think back for a little while to
that honeymoon time with the Lord, when His
presence seemed to be so real in your
life.
And that went on for a while until
gradually more and more and more you ignored
His voice.
More and more you ignored His calling and
more and more you allowed other things to
take His place until one day you found
yourself praying, as many of you do now.
Many of you spend most of your time
praying, saying, Lord, please come, please come.
I don't feel Your presence.
I don't feel Your pleasure.
Please come, please come.
Lord, where are You?
Where are You?
Love offended doth draw back.
Our Lord is quite a lover, and as
all lovers are, quite sensitive.
That's why the Holy Spirit is not an
eagle, so doth.
There is a sense of being sensitive to
the workings of God in your life and
being sensitive to His callings in your life
and being sensitive to Him when He says,
come away.
Oh man, you've known this.
You've known this in your own life.
When your wife has said, why don't you
just sit with me for a little while?
Let's just talk.
Well, what would you want to do that
for?
I mean, I want to go outside and
work on something.
And you break her heart into six trillion
pieces.
Oh, there was a time when you would
have fought an army of men to have
an opportunity to sit with that girl and
just talk.
Matter of fact, I knew that I loved
my wife in the sense that I didn't
even have to talk.
If she was just sitting there, it was
enough.
It was enough.
But then even the most wonderful relationships can
grow common when a man's heart is dull
enough and his brain stupid enough.
It's the same way with the Lord.
This is not some heartless deity.
He calls you to come to Him.
He calls you to fellowship with Him.
He calls you just to sit alone.
My dear saint, when was the last time
you just sat alone in the dark with
the Lord and communed with Him?
When was the last time you just walked
with Him and talked to Him about all
sorts and manner of things?
As I've said so often, the more that
I pass my years walking with the Lord
and the more I study theology, the more
childlike my life becomes.
I've decided against this thing, Catholic idea, that
there's such a thing as the secular and
sacred.
Because for the Christian, everything is sacred.
Everything to the glory of God and everything
in His presence.
You want to fast for seven days?
Let's fast.
We'll sense the presence of the Lord.
Want to read your Bible?
Let's read the Bible and memorize Scripture and
we'll sense the presence of the Lord.
Let me grab my little boy and go
play out in a field and I will
sense just as much of the presence of
the Lord.
Let me walk with my dear friends through
a woods on a snowy November day speaking
about the things of God, going to our
tree stands.
Let me sit there and worship God as
I watch this squirrel He has made do
so many things that the greatest gymnast would
never be able to conquer.
I've come to this conclusion.
You are truly a godly and a spiritual
man when you can look at the veins
on the leaf of a tree and fall
down and worship God with awe.
That's why sometimes I am so in disagreement
with the idea of quiet time.
Yes, I read my Bible a set time.
I need to pray a set time.
But my religious life, if you can say,
doesn't stop there.
It begins there.
Every moment that I'm walking, every moment that
I'm talking, it should be in the presence
of Christ.
If I'm meeting with friends, Christ should be
a guest.
What part of my life should He be
shut out of?
You say, well, I don't want Him in
a lot of parts of my life.
Then you need to change your life.
Oh, this walking with Christ is so much
different than most people think.
It is so different.
He is my Lord.
If He were to manifest even a slight
bit of His glory, it would dash me
to pieces.
And yet, He walks with me and talks
with me and He tells me I am
His own.
I love to pray walking down paths.
I love to look at things in books,
extravagant things, from everything from science to everything,
and marvel at God.
To look at a platypus and be well
aware of the presence of Christ, so much
so that you go, Lord, why did you
make that thing that way?
I am not trying to be quaint and
I am not trying to be cliché.
I am trying to tell you that when
we say that a relationship with Jesus Christ
is a relationship, that is exactly what I
am trying to say.
How should I be as a good husband?
Sharing everything with my wife?
Keeping all the channels open with my wife?
Telling her all the most intimate things in
my heart?
Experiencing big joys and little ones?
Everything.
She wants to be in every part of
my life and I want to be in
every part of her life.
I don't want the children to grow up
without her.
I don't want them to grow up without
the Lord.
And I don't want to go fishing or
on vacation or anything without her.
And I don't want to do it without
the Lord.
I don't want to eat without her.
I don't want to eat without the Lord.
I don't want to laugh without Him.
I don't want to cry without Him.
I want Him everywhere.
When I'm reading a theological journal and when
I'm looking at a catalog from the Bass
Pro Shop, I refuse to have anything secular
in my life.
Do you want Him?
He is such a friend, a friend dearer
than a brother.
Now, I want you to look at something
she says in verse 5.
I arose to open to my beloved and
my hands dripped with mirth and my fingers
with liquid mirth on the handles of the
bolt.
There are some scholars who say that at
this time when a man was courting a
girl, that he would often leave if he
knocked on the door and she wasn't at
home, he would leave his calling card, a
little pouch of scents, of things, of aloes,
of things that we see here, and he
would open up that pouch and pull some
of it out and smear it all over
the handles of the door so that she
would know that even though she was not
there, He had come.
And that's wonderful, but a fragrance can never
make up for a person.
I can remember one time when my wife
had to go back for studies and I
was in the jungle and I couldn't come
to the United States and we were separated
for almost 90 days.
And I always look forward to coming out
of the jungle if my wife wasn't traveling
with me and heading home and just there
she is at the door.
And I can remember one of the saddest
days of my life.
I came out of the jungle.
I'd been there for weeks and weeks.
Opened that door.
The house was empty.
I remember going to her closet and rummaging
around.
She had this one sweater that she wore
all the time.
And I pulled that sweater down and I
just smelled it.
I just held it.
It still had her fragrance, but it could
never replace her.
There is so much of what we do
in church that has a fragrance of Christ
about it.
It's done in His name.
It's done for His sake.
It's done for His glory.
It's done in obedience to His Word.
But all of that church, all that activity,
even that good activity, will never replace Him.
And believer, you can go out and you
can come up to your pastor after the
church and say, Pastor, you know, I just
want to lay my life down.
What does this church need?
I'll do anything.
Wonderful.
But that will not take the place of
Christ.
And that will not take the place of
a personal, intimate, ongoing, continuous relationship with Him.
It just won't.
Some of you tonight, not necessarily here.
I don't need people to come forward.
But some of you here tonight, you just
need to go home maybe.
Or if you feel like here or anywhere,
go off in a corner somewhere.
And you know, you're not in immorality right
now.
You're not in gross immorality or committing adultery
or on drugs or lying or cheating or
running around in drunkenness.
But you know, I can avoid all that
stuff and I'm still not a good husband.
I mean, there's nothing to brag about if
I tell my wife, I don't cheat on
you.
I mean, I'm not supposed to cheat on
her.
She wants more than just a person who
keeps the rules.
Someone asked me one time in Romania, what's
the first thing you're going to do when
you get home?
I said, I'm going to kiss my wife.
He said, what's the second thing you're going
to do?
I'm going to put my luggage down.
That's what my wife wants.
That's what she wants.
She wants a person who wants her, not
just a moral man who follows some how
to be a good husband rule book.
In the same way, Christ desires a bride
more than just obedience.
A robot can be obedient.
A dog can be obedient.
Christ desires you.
I know you'll give him so much activity,
but will you give him you?
Because a fragrance, my friend, is just not
enough.
You want to talk about ministry?
I tell seminary students this all the time.
I say, listen, most of you guys are
so filled up with self wanting a big
ministry.
Well, let me just tell you something.
Moses had about the biggest ministry anybody's ever
going to have.
I mean, he had a big church.
And it was not enough.
Because after bringing them out of the land,
he said this, Lord, show me your glory.
Lord, this ministry, all this fame, I know
I'm going down in the who's who's book
of religion.
Lord, it's not enough.
Show me you.
And then it says in verse 6, I
opened to my beloved, but my beloved had
turned away and had gone.
My heart went out to him as he
spoke.
I searched for him, but I did not
find him.
So many believers today, so much ignored the
voice of God that your prayer life is
basically 15 minutes of searching for God and
giving up.
And you know that's true.
I said that last night and so many
people came to me last night and said,
man, you described me to a T.
I pray for a few minutes, don't really
expect God to show up.
I go into certain petitions that I need
to ask and say amen and that's it.
I called out for him and he did
not answer me.
Verse 7, the watchmen who make the rounds
in the city found me.
They struck me and wounded me.
The guardsmen on the wall took away my
shawl from me.
A woman alone in the streets, no matter
who she is, is in trouble.
A church walking through this cruel, violent world
alone is in trouble.
If the king had been there beside her,
not one of those guys would have even
looked at her.
They would have put their heads down.
They would have feared to look up for
fear of being misinterpreted.
They would have showed such respect, such reverence.
This girl belongs to the king.
Shut your mouth, put your eyes down.
But when the king is no longer walking
beside her, she's just another girl.
What separated Israel from all the other nations?
The presence of God.
The favor of God.
Fellowship with the one true God.
What will separate this church?
It should be more than just doctrine.
It should be more than just right practice.
It should be the presence of God.
Your one goal in this church is to
walk beside the king, no matter where he
might take you.
To walk with him and to be in
his presence.
To be in his presence.
Sometimes we're so afraid of charismatics and all
this abuse we see on television that we
forget that this is not only a supernatural
conversion, it's a supernatural life.
And we can seek the Lord.
And this church ought to seek the Lord
and as individuals we ought to seek the
Lord with great expectation that He will be
real to us in this place, that He
will be real to us in our homes,
that He will be real to us in
the watches of the night.
We ought to.
Good doctrine without the presence of Christ is
nothing more than a parrot quoting good books.
So they beat her, they abuse her, they
mire her, they hurt her.
Never forget this sheep and all these TV
evangelists yelling at the devil and everything.
That devil's not afraid of you.
He's afraid of the shepherd and you better
stick very close to him.
People marvel at how I was able to
go through so many different terrible parts of
the jungle and stay alive.
Well, you know how I did it?
It's not because I'm Indiana Jones.
It's because I didn't go anywhere that my
brother Aguaruna didn't go first.
And when we walked through the jungle, I
stayed right by his side because I knew,
regardless of the fact that I'm an outdoorsman
in America and I like to hunt in
America, that jungle is something totally different.
He sat, I sat.
He stood up, I stood up.
He moved, I moved.
Why?
He knew what he was doing.
I did not.
There were things in that place that could
kill me.
But he knew.
I survived because I stood by his side.
And that's the only way the church will
make it through this world.
Fear is such a good thing.
Fear is such a good thing if it
keeps you holding on.
Do you know we do not have persecution
in America?
It's coming, but we don't have it now.
And do you know it's one of the
reasons why in God's sovereignty there are often
in the body of Christ people dearly, dearly
loved who suffer terribly physical ailments that no
man can cure.
And sufferings such as that are brought upon
dearly beloved people in our congregation.
The doctors, the good doctors, no one can
help them.
God ordains that among us.
Why?
We don't have persecution to blow us to
God.
But God allows in His grace for certain
situations to come into our lives and to
come into our congregation where no man can
help us and we run to Him.
It is the strong winds against us that
blow us to Him.
Now, verse 8, I adjure you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, as
to what you will tell him, for I
am lovesick.
What kind of beloved is your beloved?
Almost beautiful among women.
What kind of beloved is your beloved that
you would thus adjure us?
Let me be kind of vulgar.
She says, O daughters of Jerusalem, O girls,
please help me.
Have you seen my groom?
Have you seen my man?
Have you seen the one I love?
Would you help me find him?
Would you seek him out also?
Well, why should we?
I mean, after all, he came to your
door and you didn't even let him in.
Why should we go looking for him?
I mean, he can't be all that.
I mean, yeah, I've heard everything you've said
about how wonderful he is and all this
other stuff, but I mean, you don't even
want to be with him.
Why should we go look for him?
Do you sense any application there?
Oh, come to Jesus.
You need Jesus.
Well, why?
I mean, after all, you supposedly belong to
him and I can't see any passion in
your life.
I mean, he can't be all that.
You say you meet him in the house
or whatever and I look at the way
you live.
I mean, what is he on your list?
Number 10?
Number 20?
After all the other stuff?
Would the world look at you?
Now, I know, I know the doctrine of
regeneration, doctrine of radical depravity.
I'm not going to stand up here and
say that if you would just love Jesus,
the world would come to him.
I'm not going to say that.
It's like someone said, what would happen, what
would happen if all Christians were like Jesus?
And I want to stand up and say,
well, they'd crucify us.
That's what would happen.
But there is at the same time a
real sense, what are you so excited about?
I mean, you know, this guy, he loved
to do all these different things that we
love to do and I mean, everything.
He's running with us all the time.
Now, all he can talk about is this
Jesus.
I mean, you go over to his house,
it's Jesus.
I mean, just everywhere you go, he's just
Jesus.
I mean, who is this guy?
Who is this Jesus that he could affect
this man so?
Do people look at you and say that?
Do they?
Who is this Jesus?
Or when you say, hey, you know, come
to church.
Well, why?
You having a catfish supper?
Why should I go there?
You need Jesus.
But you don't seem to need Jesus.
Jesus is wonderful.
Oh yeah, right.
That happens.
That does happen.
Church, you have such a possibility.
God has been working for the last several
years in you to do things.
I know that carnal-minded theologians and pastors
and denominational workers would look at this church
and say you've gone backwards.
Jesus would say, keep following me.
But church, I'll tell you something you lack
because it's something this preacher lacks.
All of us lack it in a certain
degree.
The world ought to be able to look
at me and know that my heart has
been stolen.
The world ought to be able to look
at me and know that a thief has
come and stolen this heart.
That my heart belongs to him.
Now, you know how usually when someone comes
up to you and challenges you on something
that you say, and you know how when
you lose something you begin to realize just
how wonderful is the thing that you lost.
Well, that's what happens to her and I
hope that's what happens to you tonight.
When they say, well, who is this guy
that we should follow him?
And she says in verse 10, she says,
My beloved is dazzling and rudy, outstanding among
ten thousand.
His head is like gold, pure gold.
His locks are like clusters of dates and
black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves beside streams of
water bathed in milk and reposed in their
setting.
His cheeks are like a bed of balsam,
banks of sweet-scented herbs.
His lips are lilies dripping with liquid mirth.
His hands are rods of gold set with
beryl.
His abdomen is carved ivory inlaid with sapphires.
His legs are pillars of alabaster set on
pedestals of pure gold.
His appearance is like leaven and choice as
the cedars.
His mouth is full of sweetness and is
wholly desirable.
This is my beloved and this is my
friend.
O daughters of Jerusalem, she begins to wake
up.
I want to scream at you and I
want to say, Wake up, wake up!
But I know that only the Holy Spirit
can wake you up.
Wake you up to what?
How good you ought to be?
Wake you up to what?
How more involved in church service you ought
to become?
No, no, no!
Wake you up to how wonderful He is
and how much of that wonder you have
forgotten.
I want to wake you up to that.
And then, look at verse 1 of chapter
6.
After she goes through this tirade, they say,
Where has your beloved gone, O most beautiful
of women?
Where has your beloved turned, that we may
seek Him with you?
Oh, man!
We had no idea!
Man!
Boy, did we!
Press your button!
A light has come out of you.
A beauty has come out of you.
A fire has come out of you.
A passion has come out of you.
Kindled by something, we want to meet this
man.
That's the way it should be with you.
We want to meet this man.
This Jesus of whom you speak, where is
He?
I remember W.A. Criswell one day preaching,
First Baptist Church, First Baptist Sermon in a
First Baptist Church.
That's exactly what it was.
And I think he was in the book
of Colossians.
I can't really remember.
But that old man hit on a passage
about Jesus.
You know, there's a lot of refined people
in that church.
The high culture of Dallas is in that
church.
But that old preacher, going through Colossians, all
of a sudden began to see Jesus in
that book.
And this is what he did.
He backed up off that pulpit like this.
And he just stood there.
And then all of a sudden, he backed
up and he started going, Whoa!
Whoa!
And he slapped his hands down.
He goes, Oh folks, let me tell you
about my Savior!
And that old man went wild!
He went wild!
And that place went wild.
As it should be.
Let me tell you about my Jesus.
Let me tell you.
Let me testify about my Lord.
Twenty-two years ago, I woke up in
my apartment, half naked, having drunk myself almost
to death.
I noticed that I was cold and I
felt something on my face.
What was I lying in?
I stumbled to my feet and I went
to the mirror and I turned on the
light.
And this very distinguished, eloquent preacher, lost and
without Jesus, had slept the entire night in
his own vomit.
Let me tell you about my Jesus.
He has saved me.
When I was such a wretch, you would
not have wanted to run me down with
your car.
But my Jesus, He bought me with His
blood.
And my Jesus, He came to me.
And my Jesus took away my sin.
And my Jesus took away my shame.
Oh, hail the power of Jesus' name.
Let angels prostrate fall.
Bring forth a royal diadem and crown Him
Lord of all.
That's my Jesus.
And I glory in my weakness.
And I glory even in my sin.
Where did those stars go today?
Have you ever asked yourself that question?
Where did the stars go this morning?
Did someone put them in their pocket and
take them to another place?
The stars were there.
But there was so much light, they could
not be seen.
But I walked out.
The pastor picked me up on the side
of the road.
I was outside looking at those stars.
And I could only see those stars because
of all the blackness around them.
Sometimes young men will ask me, Brother Paul,
what's the secret?
How is it that you preach the way
you do?
How is it, Brother Paul, that you talk
about things like that?
How is it that we see the power
of God?
What's your secret, Brother Paul?
He found me in a pool of vomit.
That's my secret.
That there are not many wise or noble.
I am the cheapest of all sinners.
I was the lowest of the low.
And that's what Jesus does.
That's my secret.
I had nothing.
That's my secret.
And you were probably much prettier than me
on the outside.
But I can assure you, you were not
any prettier than me on the inside.
They say to me, they say, how do
you pray like that?
How do you preach like that?
I mean, what did you learn in your
devotional time?
No, you don't understand.
He saved me.
Where's that great motivation?
Did you get it from some verse you
read?
You don't understand.
He saved me from what I was.
There's no key except I was the worst
in the pack.
He saved me.
What else needs to be done to motivate
me?
What else needs to be done?
Isn't salvation enough?
This is my favorite part of the verse,
of the passage, and this is for you.
This is for all of you.
She'd lost Him.
She was looking all over to find Him.
And where does she find Him?
My beloved has gone down to His garden,
to the beds of balsam, to pasture His
flock in the gardens and gather lilies.
Where did she find Him?
In the very place she left Him.
He did not leave her.
She left Him.
Now, here's the most important part.
To gather lilies.
And this is for you.
This is for you.
The whole sermon is based on those words.
To gather lilies.
He shed His blood for me and you.
He suffered the wrath of God for me
and you.
He has saved me and you from more
terrors than any of us could even know.
He has given everything, watched over everything, been
everything we ever needed Him to be.
And yet He's somewhere down on our list
of 5 or 6 or 10 or 20.
If someone did that to you, if a
spouse did that to you, if someone treated
you in that way, you would have almost
an eternal hatred in your heart towards them.
You would seek to hurt them.
You would seek to show them how bad
they are, how wrong they are, how much
they hurt you.
You would make them pay.
And I am sure, since she had only
been taught from the world, that when she
realized she had lost Him, she went after
Him and she was wondering, will He receive
me?
Will He receive me?
I mean, look what I've done.
Will He take me back?
I mean, I don't know.
I mean, look at me.
Now I'm beaten up.
I'm soiled.
Men have had their hands on me.
I don't know.
Will He take me back?
And she goes to the garden and there
He is picking flowers to give to her
the moment she returns.
Picking flowers.
I don't care what you've done and I
don't care what you've become.
You come back to that garden and you
will find the whole time you have been
running, He has been in that garden picking
flowers.
And the first thing that will happen when
He sees you is He will say, Here,
these are for you.
I love you.
Pastor.