March 26, 2006
Scripture:
Can we turn to the Song of Solomon chapter 1; with the thoughts we have had before us this morning, I was reminded of verse 5: “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.” We know that the Song of Solomon is a beautiful discourse between the bride and the bridegroom. In this verse the bride confesses what she was like by nature. “I am black … as the tents of Kedar.” Kedar was the son of Ishmael. His descendants lived in the North; they were nomadic people whose tents were made of black goats’ hair. We can imagine how uncomely a black tent would be against the desert sun. That is our natural state. But this morning we have read about the Lord’s compassion, through which we can now say, “I am comely … as the curtains of Solomon.” God sees us through the Lord. “By blood we are purchased, are cleansed and made nigh.” The curtains can remind us of the veil, made of fine twined linen. In Genesis, we see that at the time of Noah, mankind “was only evil continually.” The apostle Paul—one of the most spiritually advanced people in the Bible—said that, “in me dwelleth no good thing.” We were black, but through the work of Christ we are made comely.
EG Hymn 313– God is in heaven: can he hear Prayer I Corinthians 2:9 • WE have 5 senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Everything that comes into your body through these senses goes through your heart. There it is filtered; do you like it or not? If you do like it, it can produce action through five things: 2 arms (what you do), 2 legs (where you go), and your mouth (what you say). But there are some things our senses cannot sense; our verse tells us about this. They are “the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” What are some of these things?
Hebrews 10:22–25 • Last week we were talking about going through the rent veil. This is not something we should do only on Lord’s Day; we should draw near to God every day. He made it possible for us to go in by dying; now he has risen and is interceding for us, being our High Priest (v. 21), or Great Priest (Darby). We are priests to God, also, to sacrifice to Him. Here it says he is the High Priest in the house of God. Today, people think the place they go on Sundays, whether church or meeting room, is the house of God. Those places are not the house of God; it is actually made of living stones, each one being a Christian. When the Holy Spirit came down at Pentecost, the body of Christ and the house of God were formed. The practical exhortation in view of this encourages us to draw near. Are we not already near? We are in position, but what about in practice? We do not need to do anything, we are brought near by salvation. Although Hebrews is not a book of assembly truths, this brings up a good point. Those who are gathered unto the name of the Lord have the promise that “there am I in the midst of them.” Where that is, where those who are gathered follow all the truth of the ground of gathering and have “kept my word, and hast not denied my name”, the presence of the Lord is a consequence of faithfulness to the truth. However, what if someone goes to a meeting and says, “They say the Lord was present, but I didn’t feel Him”? We can enjoy the Lord’s presence alone, but he has promised to be in the midst of those gathered to his name. That person’s enjoyment of the presence, the nearness, depends on himself. The presence of the Lord depends on whether we are keeping the truth, but my enjoyment of it is my own responsibility; we each have to examine ourselves. We should be able to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” In chapter four, we also read of drawing near, but that is for help in time of need (succouring is another one of our High Priest’s activities). In both of these cases, we need to be clean to come near. This is shown in verse 22. The sprinkling is of the blood, the washing is of the water, both signifying salvation. We also need to draw nigh in full assurance of faith. We can be assured of the three points we saw in the first part of this chapter: the Will of God, the Work of Christ, and the Witness of the Spirit. A true heart, also, is necessary; a true heart realizes that in it is nothing good. Full assurance is interesting; there are three things in the Bible that we can have full assurance of: 1) “full assurance of faith” (Heb 10:22); 2) “full assurance of understanding” (Col 2:2); and