Address—B. Ansty
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Let's begin the meeting this afternoon by singing #166.
Lord, thou hast drawn us after the knowledge is run and never tire 166 Could some brother raise the tune?
Nsnoise.
Oh my.
God.
Amen.
Not long ago, someone was concerned about my health.
I suggested that I get to a doctor and because, you know, you could have something, something wrong with you and after all, you could die. I there's nothing wrong with me. But I I, uh, got to thinking about that. You know, what if I did go to a doctor and he did examine me and he did find out there was something wrong with me and I was going to die.
00:05:06
Let's say I was gonna die in three weeks or something from now, and this was the very last opportunity that I would have to address a group of Christians like this.
This will be the very last opportunity that I have in my life to address young people to whom this address is specifically been set out for. What would be the content of my message? What would I be thinking of and would try to communicate if this was my last message to fellow Christians? My farewell address, if you wanna call it that. I got to thinking about that, you know?
What would I say?
Well, I think for the course of this afternoon meeting, I would like to just bring out something that I think I would say if this was the last time I was ever going to see you two young people.
Something that I think is very, very important for your life.
Do you think I'd be talking about how you need to get a good education and buy a good home and a good part of the city, or making some good investment moves with the stocks and so on? I don't think so. I don't know about stocks anyway.
Do you think I'd be telling you that you need to get involved in some real Christian work for the Lord and to find out the joy of serving the Lord? No, I wouldn't tell you that either. There's something more important. Well, what is it, you may ask, would you say? Oh, it's to take your place at the Lord's table? That must be the most important thing that a Christian would need to do after he's come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as his savior. And I have to say, no, that's not what either, what I think I would like to say to you.
Something that I'd like to speak about this afternoon is something even, well, I don't know if it's more important, but it is something that is that should come before all of that, that we need to have in place in our lives if we're going to have a happy, fruitful Christian life. And that is simply this, to make the Lord Jesus our nearest and our dearest friend in life. If I could say one more communicate one message to you young people in your life, the very most important thing that you need to have after being saved.
Is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. As I say, is to make him your nearest and your dearest friend in your life. If you get this in place, many of the other things will fall into proper place in your Christian life. But without that companionship with the Lord Jesus Christ, many other things will not flow properly in normal Christian life. And so I want to speak to you about that. To make the Lord Jesus your nearest and dearest friend will make you not only a happy Christian.
It'll make you a fruitful Christian, and it'll make you a useful Christian. But without it, you have no link with him. And without any, uh, communion with God, you're not gonna go very far in your Christian life. And so I would just like to say that if this was the last time I ever looked into your faces, and with all the things we've been praying about this morning, you know, the accidents and troubles that happened, you know, it could very well be the case. So far be the thought, but let it be so. Let it be known.
But I think if you could get this one thing in your Christian life in place, there's going to be fruit from your life and usefulness in the Kingdom of God.
Turn with me then to the chapter that we've already had a little bit before us in the meetings, John, Chapter 15, John 15.
Reading from verse 13.
Greater love hath no man than this than a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you henceforth, I call you not servants. For a servant knows not what his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends. For all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and have or.
And ordained you that ye should go forth and bring forth fruit, that your fruit may be remain, that whatsoever you shall ask. And the Father in my name he may give it you these things that command you, that you love one another. Here we have some verses that tells us that the Lord Jesus is interested in being our friend, And it's beautiful to see. Here three things come before us.
That the Lord Jesus mentions that really mark or characterize or prove his desire for friendship with us. And then there are three things in these verses that I've read that show or will prove our desire for friendship with Him. But before we look at these verses in detail, I would just like to say that the Lord Jesus wants to be more than your savior. To be your savior is most important. Of course, if you're not saved here tonight, this message will have very little content.
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I am impact on your life because I'm addressing what I believe to be Christians in our audience, young Christians in the faith and, umm, the Lord Jesus.
Wants to be more than a savior to you. He wants to be your friend, and he has proved it in these three ways that we see in these verses. First of all, it says here that he laid down his life for his friends. There is one incredible proof that the Lord Jesus is interested in having us as his friend. He's serious about our friendship, so serious that he's willing to die on the cross. He's willing to suffer the toning sufferings in order that we may be redeemed and brought into a relationship with himself. I can tell you from this verse alone, he's very serious about having your friendship. He died to be make you not only a Christian.
And to save you, but that you might have him as your friend, that he might have you as his friend, so he wants companions. There's a second thing here, that he proves and shows that he desires our friendship, And that is that he promises to confide in his friends the things that his father has given him to, and to bring us into the secrets of his heart, and to disclose the things that he has in mind with regard to the Father and from regard to the future of this whole world.
And his glory and those things that are pertained to that. He wants to open up many things with regard to the truth of God to you. That's what he does. That's what he promises he will do for those who make him his friend. Now it's the third thing here too, and that is he promises to grant prayer requests to those of his friends. He said there very clearly, whatsoever you ask in my the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
And so the Lord has made these wonderful promises as an overture toward us that He might secure our friendship and dear young people. As I say, I believe this is the most important thing that you need to have in place in your life after being saved and knowing the Lord Jesus as your personal savior.
Now, not only are there three things here, as we mentioned, that show that his great desire and interest to have us as his companions, there are three things in these verses, as I've already mentioned.
Will show that we have, but that we really are interested in being his friends. And uh, I'm sure there's not one person here in this audience that doesn't wouldn't say that. Oh yes, I want to be the friends of the Lord Jesus. Well, it will be proved by these three things that I'm now going to read in this chapter. So here we have three things that prove our desire to have Him is our friend. Firstly, by doing whatsoever he commands, he says here ye are my friends, if you do whatsoever, I command you. And so our friendship to him will be.
Evidenced in the fact that we will be obedient to His commands, there will be evidence of obedience in our lives that will show that we have a desire to have Him as our friend. Secondly, it's He mentions in the 16th verse, I have chosen you, you have not chosen me. And so I want to adorn you or ordained you that you should go for go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.
And so here is another way in which our friendship will be seen as evidence in our lives. There will be the production of fruit. There will be fruit bearing. What is fruit in Scripture, at least in this chapter particularly, fruit bearing is not doing service and works for the Lord Jesus. Wonderful is doing a work and doing a service for the Lord Jesus is Fruit bearing is the reproduction of the moral features and characteristics of Christ in the life of the believer and as we walk through life with the Lord Jesus as our personal friend.
We're going to become not only like him, but there's going to be evidence of it. Come out in our lives for others to see, and we're going to bear fruit. And so let me say that again, fruit bearing is not works of service that we can do in the Kingdom of God, serving and preaching, teaching, helping, whatever it may be. Fruit bearing is the reproduction of the characteristics of Christ in the life of the believer. And in other words, what we're saying is that we make him as our friend. We pass through this world I see in his company.
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As Christians, we are going to bear the characteristics of the Lord Jesus, and that's a wonderful thing. You know, one of the things I remember about John Brennan, you know, some of these brothers that have lived and gone before us, we remember them, and there's usually one or two things that come to mind.
And these servants have gone by the way, and have taught us and have an influence in our lives. And this dear brother has influenced my life. And one of the things that I remember particularly that he said was Bruce.
The thing that I covered the most for my soul, I could just hear him saying that was to be more like Jesus. I thought he would say, well, I covered from my soul the coming of the Lord. But no, He said I and I'm sure He does desire. He did desire throughout his life that the Lord would come and he had the imminence of his coming before him. But his personal desire for his life was to be more like Christ. And that's what the fruit in Christian living is all about. Production of fruit.
Third thing that marks our friendship with Him and that is mentioned down in verse 17. These things that command you, that you love one another. It will be evidence that we are a friend of Jesus. If we practice the things that He's asked us to do in obedience, we see fruit in our lives of Christ likeness. And then also that we love one another, that we get along with one another and the evidence of it is real in our lives. That's what the Lord Jesus wants to be more than a Savior.
In this world with us, he wants to be our friend. He wants us to go through life as our nearest and dearest friend, one whom we can confide in, one with whom we can talk to and pour out our hearts to. Things that you may be able not be able to stay to, some of your companions and friends that are in this room, or any other Christian. He wants you to just just be able to burden your heart and talk to him as your nearest and dearest friend. And I think that's the secret of a happy, fruitful Christian life.
Now we might ask the question.
So what do friends do?
Well, I've seen some of it around here and it's good to see what do friends do? Well, they hang out together, as they say, young people, to put it in more of a brethren terminology. We spend time together and that's.
Right.
Uh, so we have, uh, that's what friends do. We spend time together. And you know, I believe that the more we spend time with the Christ in our lives, the more we spend time with the Lord in secret with him. There's going to be these things come out in our lives and we're going to be truly happy and fruitful Christians. You know, one of the things I desire for you dear young people, uh, is that you will not go through your Christian life and, uh, end up. Really.
Not, uh, having a full Christian life and just know what it is to be a forgiving center and really not really know much of these things that we're Speaking of. And it reminds me of what my father told me years ago, a story. He read it to me, actually. I think it was about a man that was, uh, crossing from England many years ago.
On boat to North America and he was coming across and he was going to set up home and set up his life over here. And so he came across, he was going to try to do it as cheaply as he possibly could because he wanted to have as much money as he possibly had for a buy a home or whatever. It was over here.
And so he made sure that he packed lunches and so on. He wasn't gonna buy meals on the the, the, uh, the liner, the ship, because it could get expensive. And so he packed a bunch of lunches and a lot of crackers and a lot of cheese and this kind of thing. And he would go to his cabin from time to time and snack a little bit on that as the chip went away. I'm sure after. But whatever, it takes eight or nine days in those days to cross the Atlantic. He was probably getting pretty tired of eating those, uh, stale sandwiches and his crackers and cheese.
He got to know quite a few people on the ship liner as you do, you kind of put together and these people were always go down to the UH diner and they would go to the UH place where they had lunches and fantastic meals. They were eating them together. And I got to the last day of the journey. They're almost, uh coming into the North America. And they they saw him and they said hey, we haven't had a dinner with you yet. How come? And uh, he well explained to him. He says actually when dinner time comes, I I'm trying to get across very carefully and cheaply so that I have more money to use over there. And he explained the whole thing and he goes to his cabin and he would pick up these things.
And snack on them as a way of saving money. And they said, man, you don't know what you're talking about. If you go look at the ticket, you look at the thing, it tells you that all the meals are included.
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So he went back to his cabinet, checked out his boarding pass or whatever it is, and sure enough, there it was.
He has thought that he was going to save some money and he missed out on fantastic meals for whatever it was 8 or 10 days coming across and the ship. The journey was over in a few hours and he had missed out and my dad was reading that to me for a reason, I'm pretty sure. But anyway, the point that I want to get across to you is it's possible to live your Christian life and go through your whole life and really not touch on much of the things that God would have us to touch on and to know the things.
And enjoy the things that you would have us to enjoy because we have neglected to take hold of the thing of the word of God. And it's a pitiful, it's a real pity, you know, And I I just desire for you more than anything else, is that the truth of God and the things of God would really have a place in your life. And it reminds me of another story I had read myself about a Native American Indian who served in the the Civil War.
And he had done some valiant acts and served for the cause of the North. And when it was all over, they passed out these medals. I think they're called the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm not sure. But anyway, it's a big medallion that they give you as a medal from the president himself of the United States. And it is not only an honor to have one of these things, but it also has on it some certain things. And I don't know what it is, but anyway, the holder of one of these metals has.
Uh, free access to every Government House in the country and to every legion across the country for free meals and whatever else that they want because of what they did for their service of their country. And this dear man, he had fought in the battle, and he had once did some significant thing that they awarded him with this medal. But he was an illiterate man and he didn't read and he did not understand exactly what it was, but he apprised it and he cherished it.
And he loved that metal so much he actually made a medallion it into a medallion and put a string on it and tied it and put it around his neck and wore under his clothes. And he wore it every day of his life. He was so happy to have this medal about three or four years later. I'm not too sure how long it was, but a number of years later, anyway, they found him in Philadelphia, somewhere in the streets. He was a man that was dying. He was dying of starvation.
He did not realize that he could walk into any one of those government houses or legions and he could walk right up and get any meal he wanted because of that meant all he had to do is show it to them.
And yet he did not understand what it was all about. And So what happened was that he, he died. They were administering first aid to him. They opened up his clothes, and there they saw this thing and said, what? How could this man be starving to death in the streets of Philadelphia when he could have been eating a meal at any time, any part of the country? Well, I think of that. You know, we've been blessed with a lot of truth. We've been blessed with a lot of things from God. But, you know, if we don't really understand how richly we have been blessed, we're no better than that man.
And God doesn't want us to have a a unfulfilled Christian life, our life that is filled with uncertainty or not knowledge without knowledge. He wants us to know what it is to pass through this world with Jesus as our nearest and our dearest friend, and to know the truth that God has given to us. I like to spend some long time now in the book of Psalm of Solomon the first chapter and uh in the first chapter saw Solomon. We have 4 great.
Desires of the Shulamite bride for her, uh, bridegroom. And these desires of what we might call normal desires for one who has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that should be seen in every companion uh of the Lord Jesus and throughout the uh the book. It's beautiful to see how that uh, there are these two things. That is, there's this unchanging love of the Bridegroom all the way through and when she fails.
And does not rise to the height of her what she should do. You never find him reproaching her with any words. Something like what Angel was saying a couple of days ago the Lord Jesus never same came to somebody and said you're a Sinner and yet in this book is kind of the same thing. She failed a few times as you know as you read through the chapters. But he never reproached her for the her shortcoming and failure. You just see his unchanging love towards her. You know you can take up this book.
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As a picture of Christ dealing with the remnant of Israel. But you can also take it up in a modified form as Christ dealing with the affections of his people, regardless of what dispensation of who they may be. Because we're all in a relationship with the Lord and in one way or another. And so the principles are large enough for us to apply to ourselves as Christians. And that's what I want to do here for a few minutes with regard to these four outstanding longings or desires that she has.
That should be seen in every normal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. What are they? Well, let's look at them. First of all, we find first verse. You know, is really not a verse number. I suppose you could say it's really the title of the book, first one, the Song of Songs. That's what it should be called.
But anyway, the uh book of Solomon has uh what we call it has been called 6 canticles, which are essentially 6 poems.
And uh, they don't follow the chapter breaks unfortunately, so I'll just point them out to you real quickly. I remember Clarence Mundine pointed them out to me when I was younger. He said take a great big ballpoint pen in your hand and make a big fat dot at these places. I remember doing it too at verse two of chapter one is the first canticle and it goes down through the chapter through into chapter 2, down to the end of verse seven. At verse 8 marks the 2nd canticle. He said put a great Big Blue dot there.
Chapter 2 verse eight starts the second canticle.
And it goes down through into the third chapter to the end of chapter verse five. Then at chapter 3, verse six put another big dot there because we have the third canticle begins at verse 6 and stretches down through the 4th chapter and into the first verse of chapter 5.
At verse two of chapter 5 marks the 4th canticle. Put a big dot there and then in chapter 6.
Down to the fifth chapter that Candlefield goes right into the chapter 6. Down to the end of verse 12. At verse 13 marks another canticle. Put a mark there. This would be the 5th canticle and it goes down through into the 7th chapter and right through the 7th chapter into the 8th chapter to the end of verse four. At the at verse 5 marks the last and 6th canticle which stretches on to the end.
Of the book, I just point them out to your young people to realize that there are these six poems and they illustrate relationships and the maintenance of communion in our relationship with the Lord and the lessons that we need to learn with them. Let's go back to chapter one. Now we'll look at these four outstanding desires and of the bridegroom of the bride, Excuse me, verse one, verse two, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. This brings before us the desire for a deeper and more intimate enjoyment.
Of his love. I say that because a kiss is an expression in scripture, used in scripture of an affection and love. And so here she is saying, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And as I say, that really translates, if you want to understand this for its significance, it translates into having a desire for a deeper and more intimate enjoyment of his love. This is normal to every relationship that a person may have with the Lord Jesus. We should want to have a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him, and there's something wrong in our lives if we don't.
And so, dear young people, I hope that you have an interest in getting to know the Lord Jesus more and to enjoy His love more deeply. And then it goes on and it says, For thy love is better than wine. She had good reasons for wanting to enjoy more of his love, and that is because she had proved that his love was better than any wine that there is now. Wine is a figure in Scripture that's used for earthly joy.
And So what she's saying here is she she has discovered, she has proved, that his love and the enjoyment of his love is better than any earthly joy that there can be. Have we discovered that, dear young people? I say that for my own self and for your consideration. And isn't it beautiful to see here what the result is in verse 3? Because the Savior of thy anointments.
Thy name is as ointment poured forth, Therefore do the virgins love thee. There are two things that grow out of this the enjoyment of his love. And what are they? Well, they are the fact that His name becomes as ointment toward force. In other words, the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus and his love will sooner or later become an overflow in our life. It will come out toward others, toward God, and praise, but toward others will speak well of His name.
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And the beauties of his person. And then secondly, as it says here, therefore do the virgins lovely, that is, that it begets or produces virgin love. And what is that? Well, it's a love that would desire to keep oneself separate from the world. As for him, it is that spiritual chastity that uh, every believer would have as a result of enjoying his love. You see it illustrated, I suppose, in Rebecca when she was traveling on the camels to meet Isaac. When she discovered that he was coming to her. He asked. She asked him, the servant, and he said it shouldn't the master coming.
What was? What did she do? She took a veil and covered her face. She wanted to reserve herself for him and him alone. And so it is that we should have that desire to maintain our spiritual chastity with regard to the Lord Jesus and not let our hearts go out after the things of this world and so on. And so that's what that's one of the reasons, two of the results that come of a deeper enjoyment of the Lord's love. And I trust and hope that that's something.
That will be affected in your life and more in mind as well. And then we, uh, come to verses 4:00 and 5:00, we'll have a second great desire that we see here, and that is that she would be drawn after him. She says, draw me, we will run after thee. And I think this is beautiful. She had a desire to follow after her beloved in the past. She wanted not only wanted to enjoy his love, but she wanted to follow him in the past. Wherever he would go, she wanted to be with him.
And that's beautiful to take the Lord Jesus with you in your life.
That's what he wants to do, you know, we can go to places and go into things that really you'll lose the enjoyment of his presence very quickly. But if we keep ourselves in the path where he is and we can walk with him in the places that we go, it's beautiful to see. Draw me and we will run after the Isn't that interesting how it turns from the singular to the plural? Draw me that we will run after thee. It's because when a person is affected by the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will affect others because love and affection for Christ is, uh, contagious and it it affects others and you see that down in the uh. I think it's the 6th chapter when the others, uh, the daughters of Jerusalem are asking her uh, whether that beloved gold in chapter 6, verse one and so on. And she describes and they say, well, wherever he's gone, we want to go with you. If he's that good, we want him too. And so you can be a blessing and a help to your fellow Christian friends.
If you're enjoying Christ, they'll see it in your life. They'll want it as well. That's the point. So in response, now we have the Lord, uh, that is, the bridegroom brings her into his chambers.
He has brought me into his chambers.
What does that speak to herself? That speaks to us of the of His presence. And that's what the Lord Jesus wants to do, is to bring us into His presence. And why did he do that? Well, he wanted to spend time with her alone. And that's what the Lord wants to do with us in our lives, is to spend time with us alone. And I hope that I trust that each one of us here take time to be alone with the Lord Jesus every day, to have the Scriptures open and have our knees bent, and you just have time to meditate on the Lord Jesus.
And to enjoy him, because that, yeah, as I have already said, is the secret of a happy and fruitful Christian life. And when she was drawn into his chambers, into his presence, she discovered some wonderful things. First of all, she discovered that it was a place of true happiness. She says we will be glad and rejoice in thee. So not only did she get drawn into his presence, the others might win her because she says, we and uh, isn't this beautiful?
We will be glad and rejoice. Yes, she discovered that it was a place of happiness. And secondly, she discovered that it was a place where her affections were stirred. And we take time to be along with the Lord Jesus in His presence. Our affections for him will be stirred as well. So she goes on and says, we will remember that I love more than wine, the upright love thee. She desires to remember his love. Now in Christianity we have a way of remembering the Lord, of course, through the supper of the Lord's Supper. And it's beautiful what His love would capture the hearts of our young people and older people alike, that we would want to respond to his request.
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And break bread and remembrance of him. So it's not that's not the only way in which we can remember his love. He would have us to remember his love throughout our Christian lives, and to go through the day and the enjoyment of his great love for us in thy presence is fullness of joy, Psalm 16 tells us. And he wants us to enjoy that. The third thing she discovered that that place of his secretive place. With him she learned what was in her own heart.
That's illustrated in the point in verse 5 when she said I am black but comely. It was in the secret of his presence. She discovered what was in her own heart. She discovered what she was. And I think this is helpful and needful because it's going to cast us independence upon the Lord when we know what we are in ourselves. We don't need to go off into the world and connect some of the horrendous sins and failures that we hear about, know about to just find out what's in your heart. You get into the presence of the Lord Jesus and you'll find out what's in your heart.
You'll learn what's in your heart, and that's the place to learn it. On our knees, in his presence. But she discovered something else in his presence. It was not just she was just black only, but comely. Now what does that mean? She discovered that even though she was there had been failure or whatever, there was some blackness. He still loved her just as much, and she was comely to him. It was a she had he had communicated to her in some way that he appreciated her.
And he valued her, and he approved of her. And, you know, we're looking for approval. Young people are always looking for approval, want, acceptance and so on. Now, it's not wrong to want to be accepted, but with whom do you want to be accepted, may I ask? And we want to be approved. We want to be accepted by the Lord Jesus. And he wants to grant that sense of approval. Then you don't need to be swayed by the things and the styles and everything that's going on in this world because you have that secret confidence in your heart that the Lord is everything, and he makes it real in your soul. So she discovered some wonderful things by being drawn into his chambers. And I trust that you've discovered these things, and I hope that you will make them good.
In your Christian life, let's go on to the third great longing and desire that she had, that she's normal to every relationship with the Lord Jesus. And that is she said in verse six, look not upon me because I'm black and because the Son of Uh looked at me or scorched me, or whatever looked not upon me. Here I see another great desire on her part, and that is that she did not want others to look at her. In other words, she didn't want to draw attention to herself.
She had no interest in attracting attention to herself.
And I know that's a a difficulty that some of us have to get over more, some more or less. And I was young trying to understand that some of the things we do, you know, the clothes we wear, the styles we do, things we say often times are geared to attracting attention to ourselves. But you know, having come out of his presence and having enjoyed the sweetness of his love, she did not need to have that kind of a thing. She was, she didn't want to be looked at. She did not desire to attract attention to herself and it brings before us what.
Humility, Genuine humility. We've had a lot of humility in our meetings in Philippians chapter 2, and I don't know if we just exactly touched on it from this angle, but isn't this beautiful? Being in the presence of the Lord will humble us. Being in the presence of the Lord Jesus and enjoying that love of His will actually produce humility in US. And I think that's one other great way in which humility is produced in the believers.
Well, we could go on to some other further details here, but to hurry along we'll come into verse seven. It says, uh, here another and final, that you really will say, this is the 4th great desire that she had. And that is, she says, tell me, oh, without whom thou so my soul loveth, where thou feedest, and where thou maketh thy flock to rest at noon? For why should I be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of that companions? And he answers and says, if I it's the first time he speaks in the book.
And verse eight, he says, If thou knowest not, O thou fairest among women, go forth, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids, decide the shepherd's tent. So what was this longing desire that she said she had? Well, it's simply that she had a longing desire for fellowship and rest with his flock. She wanted to know where his flock was, so she could find fellowship and rest. Now of course she wanted to be. Then that was where that flock was, because she knew he would be there, and she wanted his company.
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But you know, that is very, very important for us to understand that we need fellowship, Christian fellowship with the flock of God. And she understood that. And she had a desire to be with his flock, and I think that's good. And she realized that there was a problem, or at least a difficulty or a danger of being turned aside after one of his companions, that it would be another shepherd. And she realized that she needed fellowship. And without it, there was a danger that she could get turned aside after.
One of the other shepherds that are out there. And we need to realize that there are dangers out there and we can get misled. We can get taken off the Christian path by persons that may be well meaning, maybe not. But whatever. The case is to draw us away from following after the Lord Jesus. And she realized that she needed fellowship with his flock, and so he desired to know where he fed his flock so she could be there with them. And it's beautiful to see his answer, he says. If you don't know.
Go by the way, by the footsteps of the flock. And that's where you're gonna find me. He's with his people. That's where you'll find him. I think that's beautiful, you know, and I've often said to the young people, you know, keep with the footsteps of the flock, keep with the footsteps of the flock, of the young people are getting together for a thing or something. Be there if you can be there, you know, if they're gonna get together, some other thing, if you can be free to get, be there. Be with the footsteps of the flock, their safety with the Lord's people.
And I just encourage you to veil yourself of every bit of Christian fellowship as you can because it's necessary. And this dark day in which we live because there are dangers in the Christian pathway. So we've covered now 4 great desires that she had that really characterized what is normal to every relationship with the Lord Jesus. If you have a love for the Lord Jesus, I trust everyone of you do that you would have these desires as well. Now I want to turn on to the fifth chapter for a few minutes just to speak about.
Something that is not normal to the relationship.
That we have with.
Our Lord, Chapter 5, verse two. I sleep but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knock is saying open to me, My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew and my locks with drops of the night. I have put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall I defile them? My beloved put forth his hand by the whole of the door.
And my bowels were moved for him. I aro I rose to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers were sweet. Smelling myrrh upon the handles of the law, I opened to my beloved. Behold, my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed. When he spake, I sought for him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. The watchman that went about the city found me, and they smoked me.
They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge your daughters of Jerusalem. If you find my beloved that you tell me, tell him.
That I am sick of love. As I say here we have something that is not normal to the relationship that we have with the Lord Jesus. You see the picture here? She's in her cozy chamber. She's made herself very comfortable and she's left him outside. She's left him outside. There's something seriously wrong here if he's on the outside and we've left him out of our circumstances in life, and it's pitiful really. He comes and he knocks on the door and he's wanting to come in.
And have a little time of fellowship with her. And, you know, young people, I believe that the Lord Jesus wants to have a little fellowship, a little time with you and him alone every single day of your life. And I believe he comes knocking every day seeking to just have a little time of fellowship, a little time of prayer and communion and meditation. He wants to do that. But what is it? What does he run into here in this 5th chapter? It's so sad. She's made herself comfortable in her own circumstances, in her own bed without him. And you know, that's a tendency that we can fall into in our Christian life very, very easily.
Make ourselves comfortable in our life, You know, our job, our work or play whatever it is. And what happens is that we don't have time for him. When we leave him out. And when he knocked and he start to have her a little time, a fellowship with her, she comes up with these flimsy excuses as to why she couldn't do it. Oh, I put off my cold. I could. I couldn't get put my coat on. I couldn't put my shoes on. What? I have to get up out of bed to do that. I stay flimsy excuses at the at the best. And oh, how sad it is that we come up with excuses as to why we can't take a little time each day to be with the Lord. Oh, I'm so busy I gotta get to work. Oh, I'm so busy to get to school. And someone's always waiting for me. And I'm just so busy today.
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I know what it's like. I'm not pointing the finger at any young person here, but you know, the Lord feels it when we leave him outside.
Dear young people, don't leave the Lord out of your life. Don't leave the Lord out of your life. He feels it, but he never reproached before he feels that.
He feels that if you do that too.
But what I see so beautiful here.
He's not. He's jealous of her affections. He's jealous of her affections. And he will not stop until he wins her heart back. And that's just like our blessed Lord Jesus.
And so we find here that he undertakes to draw her out of her comfortable little bed. I think it's beautiful. There are four things that he does to recover the affection of her heart. May these things ring with our souls, dear young people and older ones.
The first thing he uses is his voice. He speaks to her through the door. You know his voice. What would he speak? Words, of course.
And so this brings before us the thought of He uses His word, He uses His word, the scriptures. He'll bring some scriptures to mind, to our hearts, to an effort to touch our hearts, an effort to awaken us to the fact that He wants fellowship with us. And I trust that's what's happened in the course of these meetings. We've heard His word. It has registered with our heart in some way. In some way, it has taken effect on our souls.
And stir this up. If there's anybody here that's living a life that is like this here, sort of what the Lord left out, let his word that you have heard through this conference address your heart, your conscience, and awaken you to fresh exercise desire to be with your eternal lover. It's worth it. Don't pass one day in your Christian life without walking with Jesus. It's not worth it. It's not worth it, you know, it says in Psalm 84 a day and thy presence is better than 1000. That is 1000 without having his company.
And so.
It's precious. He uses his voice. Second thing he used was his knock.
He not only used his words in voice, but he used his knock. What does that speak to herself? Well, the knock, you know, it speaks to us. We all know it's a jarring experience. When somebody knocks on the road. It really alerts us, awakens us. And I just want to say that the Lord can sometimes use some sort of a jarring experience to get our attention. You know, dear Christy Coleman, we love her much. She's gone to be with the Lord, the last thing she said to me.
She said Bruce.
The Lord wants our attention.
The Lord wants our attention, man. That moment was right, dear sister, lover dearly.
Gonna see her someday.
But anyway, she said, the Lord wants our attention, and I'm going to say it to you, the Lord wants your attention, and he will. He's knocking. He will allow a jarring experience in your life to get your attention because he loves you that much. And we've heard about some pretty serious things in our prayer meeting that could happen. So listen to the knock if it comes your way. He uses a knock because he loves you that much.
Yes, but he uses something else. Here we find that he uses.
His hand.
He sticks his hand in by the door.
And has Mer on it, and she can smell the myrrh. She sees his hand.
And immediately it says that her bowels were moved within her, her affections were stirred, and she yearned for him. What does that speak to us of his hand? What is myrrh on the hand? Speak to yourself well, it speaks us to us of atoning sufferings throughout Scripture. Myrrh speaks to us of the atoning sufferings of Christ, and to bring his hands and push it in through the door, and let her see his hand, but bring her back to.
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This to.
Suffering. And I think that that's what the Lord would like to do with us, is to show us His hand. That's another way in which He would stir our affections. He would remind us of what He paid as a price to redeem us at Calvary and just give us a fresh glimpse of His hand and what He passed through. If He showed you his hand or me his hand today, it would be a hand that had a nail print in it. And that nail print was put there because he loved you and He loved me. He loves you and He loves me.
And will continue to love us with an everlasting love. How beautiful. And I think that's one of the most sweetest things that we we we enjoy when we come together to break bread as we have yesterday morning. And that is that we we saw His hand afresh. It just caused us to well up and praise and Thanksgiving. How many times were we called to stand on our feet and give thanks to the Lord because we were moved. And so you'd like another thing, a third thing that the Lord uses.
To restore and to call out defections of its people. When we get a little bit sleepy, as she did, he shows us or reminds us, give us a fresh glimpse of his atoning sufferings. But there's a fourth thing.
And that's the withdrawal.
When she finally opened the door, he withdraw. He drew back from her, he said. Why would he do that? He's asking to come in and have a time with her. Finally he gets her on her feet and get it to open the door and he takes off, he said. What's going on? Well, I tell you she the reason for it is because she wanted to have resumed fellowship with him as that other times, without making any kind of a confession or acknowledgement that she had snubbed his love and he wasn't going to have relationship like that.
She need to go on that. And so he made her feel what it was like to have pushed him out. And you know, the Lord may do that for us too. There may be a time when you may turn to him in prayer and may turn to him. You just feel like you got a wall there because he's got an issue. His love has been offended. He's jealous of our affections. And if we just allow ourselves to be careless with our walk and our ways, and then we turn to him in prayer and expect we're gonna have the sweetest time of fellowship, we got another thing coming.
He may withdraw a little bit.
To cause the exercise to deepen cause us to search our hearts as to why.
And to cause us to judge ourselves.
But and and when we do it, I believe that's what happened because she turned and she did find him. In the next chapter we find she finds him down in the garden and she gets hold of him and she won't let go. She's learned a lesson and I hope we've all learned the lesson of not allowing ourselves to have something come between our blessed Lord Jesus and US1. Closing thing I like to just mention now is we pass on to the 7th chapter of Psalm of Solomon.
We'll find something very interesting here.
And that is that uh as he's speaking to her in the 7th chapter, he runs over 14 different features that he appreciated in her. And I think if we take time with the Lord Jesus and his company and presence, he's got a lot of things he wants to tell us and it's not a bunch of doctrines and so on. Yes, he does want to teach us these things, He just want to tell us some things that he appreciates about us. You may never have thought about it, that the Lord Jesus appreciates you like that, but in the 4th chapter he runs over 7 features.
But in the 7th chapter he runs over 14 features that he appreciated in his beloved and he just starts with her feeding, runs all the way down. But when you get down to verse nine it says on the roof of thy mouth like the best wine. Now the better translation has three dots after that word wine and then it goes on and says.
That floor straight to my beloved, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. Now when you have three dots like that in the Darby translation, he tells you in the introduction that he's doing that because he's indicating a change of speakers. So what we're getting here now is that the beloved uh, the bridegroom, is enumerating these various features that the bride has that he appreciates. He gets down to the 14th one, and as he's talking to her about it, she interrupts him.
And she says, I know what you're talking about.
And she starts speaking to him how that uh.
That her mouth has been asleep and her lips have been closed toward him. And it's beautiful to see that she now begins to speak to him in the Song of Solomon. That you were in a way that she has never done before. Let me put it this way. It's time to close. But it's simply this. Apart from those opening verses that we read, she does not speak to her beloved until this point.
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She talks about him, She thinks about him. She does a lot of things for him and with him and so on, But she doesn't talk to him. And he says to her, you know, let me hear thy voice. Let me see that countenance. All he wants is have a little time of fellowship with her, and she's so busy talking about her, him to others and so on. But she doesn't understand that she needs to talk to him. And he's been trying through the book to get her attention, to get her lips open so she would speak to him and communicate with him. And that's what the Lord Jesus wants, is our communion and our fellowship. But it dawns on here, right here. When he touches on the 14th feature, which is her mouth, he's going all through the various features he likes, and he comes to her mouth because that was the one that was closed.
And so he opens her mouth, so to speak, and she realizes what's been missing and the causes her lips, uh, that were asleep, to speak. And from this point onward, to the end of the book, she starts speaking, and she won't stop speaking to him until the end of the book. She's speaking to him. She's discovered the secret of a happy, fruitful life. She's discovered the fruit, the the secret of real communion. Talking to him, it's one thing to communicate to others about him, like I'm doing here.
This is no substitute for communion, believe me.
I feel privileged to be able to stand before Christians and talk about the Lord Jesus, but it's no substitute for communion. Communion is getting a loan with Him and talking to him. Dear young people, I just want to say this one last time now before we close. Make the Lord Jesus your nearest and your dearest friend and allow these principles that we've been speaking about to have place in your life and you'll get that right. You'll get a lot of other things right in your Christian life. They'll all flow into a proper place and right balance.
The communion with him.
Is more important than anything else. You say what is communion anywhere? Well, if you go to some of the high churches, they'll tell you that it's taking emblems where the Eucharist or something, and they've given us some strange definition. But communion is an old English word. It just simply means to talk together. Let me put it this way, if there are two people standing in the corner over there and they're having a little conversation together, I could say look at that, They're communing together. That's all it means, and that's all the Lord Jesus wants. He doesn't want some great service out of you, although it would be nice if you could get engaged in some service.
He doesn't want any great feature to accomplish. He just wants your company. If you get that one right, you got a lot of it right. Let's pray.