The Song of Songs, chapter 1. We're going to be looking this morning at verses 12 to 14. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, chapter 1, verses 12 to 14. While the king was on his couch, Minard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a satchet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi." For centuries, the Song of Songs has been the go-to text for the Church of Jesus Christ in regards to the issue of union and communion with Christ. In recent days, in recent years, it has fallen out of favor with evangelicals. Most modern commentators and most who approach the book in any kind of teaching ministry simply use it as a guide for marital intimacy or physical union or the beauty of relationships. But by and large, it is altogether neglected. I believe it was Charles Spurgeon who said, the reason that many men find nothing in the song that is appealing to them or helpful to them is because it was not written for them. As I said, the song is written and the church has understood through the centuries that it speaks to us about our union with the Lord Jesus Christ as his people and about an intimate communion with him. The title of our message today is Sitting at the King's Table. Sitting at the King's Table, verses 12 to 14. It is a joy to feel the renewing grace of private communion with the Lord. To know His ministering grace in our prayer closet, or as we walk in the way, or as we find ourselves in any particular difficulty individually. We saw that reference back in verse 4. Draw me after you, let us run. The King has brought me into his chambers. This speaks of private communion, intimate communion with the one she calls the King. The bride here is the. Representative of the people of God, you could say of the church, or you could even say individually as believers. She represents us. The King, of course, is. Is the beloved he is Christ? For Christ to bring us into his intimate chambers alone with him to know the sweetness of his fellowship to know what it means to be alone with God. However. We do not simply commune with Christ in private. There is a public enjoyment and a public communion with Christ in the circle of his friends. George Burroughs says sitting at the table was evidence of reconciliation. The Lord in Revelation 3 says, if any man would hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. There is a preparation in heaven of a marriage supper of the Lamb. Where the reign of Christ will be consummated. His kingdom has come, but one day His kingdom will be consummated. And His people will sit down together with Him at the great marriage feast. And it is already in preparation. Those who once were his enemies, but now are reconciled will sit down in affection and sit down in fellowship with Christ. He will be at the head of the table. He will serve the feast to his people. But you see, every time we come to the Lord's table in the communion service, we are in a sense getting a foretaste of that great marriage supper. In truth, even today when we come to the Lord's table, it is not the minister which ultimately is serving, but it is Christ in his kingly majesty spiritually who is serving his people. Once when the Lord instituted the supper with his disciples, he sat at the head of the table and he passed the cup and he passed the bread and he blessed it and he said, this is the blood of the new covenant, my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the remission of sins. Do this in remembrance of me. He said, this bread is my body, which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. He was there with him physically. but he is no less with us when we meet. Sure, he is not with us physically. We don't believe that, as the Roman Catholics do, that the bread and the cup are translated into the body and blood of Christ. Neither do we agree with the Lutherans that his body and blood are physically present with the elements. But we do believe that spiritually he is with us. As we feed our bodies the elements of the supper, our spirits and our souls are nourished on the benefits of his blood and of his body. Christ is ministering grace to his people. To come to the Lord's table is symbolic of being reconciled with him. One day we will experience that, both body and soul, at the consummation supper. But today we get a foretaste. The Lord's Supper has been a great cause of division throughout the ages, right? And matter of fact, during the Protestant Reformation, there was more written and said about the table of the Lord than there was even of the doctrine of justification. That seems odd to us because we think of the Protestant Reformation and we think of the doctrine of justification by faith, the cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith, which is essential and necessary and was important in that battle, but more was written and said about this ordinance. And we as modern believers ought to at least ask why, and I think perhaps it's because even though there was a difference even among the reformers, they understood the importance of what was taking place. They understood the importance of being made a part of the circle of his friends. Because that's what is pictured. So we come to the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. In the circle of his friends, Christ sits and ministers to us. We are invited as reconciled friends to him. You could even say, Probably more properly, we should say, as his beloved bride, we sit in fellowship with him. But even there, it's not the only place we commune with Christ, right? I mean, that is that is one of the great pictures sitting at his table. But we commune with him. We are united to him. We know him. He knows us. And this is a reminder to us, it brings us together around his table. To fellowship with him. Let me give you a bit of a context to open up this passage. In the ancient times, when a king was to enjoy the fellowship of his friends, the society of his friends, he would sit at a round table and the people would sit in a circle around him. And oftentimes they would come in and they would anoint them with a perfume or an oil. They would anoint their head and that oil or perfume would then fill the room with a sweet aroma that would make the people to be acceptable to the king. And the feast would then be joy and peace and satisfaction. He would sit in the circle of his friends and they would be accepted because of his anointing. That's where we are, you see. We are brought into fellowship with the King, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You know, that should never be something that we can say mundanely or routinely. As James was sharing with us earlier in the study of Christ as our high priest. We're accustomed to Christian lingo, Christian language. Christ is our priest. His blood is the entrance in to union with God. He is atoned for us. He has forgiven us. He has redeemed us. We say this with such ease. We take the Lord's words upon our lips and we often don't even think about what that really means. What does it mean to have a high priest, to have an intercessor, to have a an atoning sacrifice, one who is a mediator that goes between us and God. You see, in our day, we make light of sin. We make light of what it means to be reconciled with God because we don't have a right view of sin. And we don't have a right view of sin because we don't understand the holiness of God. One thing that the Levitical system did was it reminded the people day after day and year after year that they were guilty. When you watch a lamb's throat be cut and the blood be poured out for your sin, you recognize that this is not right. Something is wrong. Something is desperately wrong. If an innocent lamb must have its throat cut for your sin, there is a big problem. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. But we don't see the shedding of blood, right? We have separated ourselves from death. We have separated ourselves from sin. We have separated ourselves from understanding our guilt before God. And even the priest would offer blood for himself and then for the people. And he would go into the holy place with fear because if he went in unclean, then he himself could die. We saw Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire on the altar which God had not commanded them. Sometimes ministers will speculate about why God struck them dead. And there's some hints in the text that may imply that they were drunk and they will pull things like that and I think that's a bit unnecessary. Because the text tells us why God struck them dead. It was because they offered strange fire, which the Lord had not commanded them. God requires a particular kind of worship. And to deviate from that is a great offense. To do things in a manner that you see fit. God has a standard, God has a law, and to deviate is a great offense, and the wage of sin is death. But Christ came as High Priest to offer the blood of His own life, to ransom us. And He ever lives to intercede and to save to the uttermost. And now we have been invited not only into union, but also into sweet communion with Him. Sometimes coming to Christ is seen almost as though A child looks at taking a bitter pill. It's a necessary evil. The only thing we want to avoid is the flames of hell and the wrath of God. And coming to Christ is the necessary evil to get out of that. And men want to come to Christ to have their eternity made secure, but they don't really want to leave their sin. You see, that's not truly coming to Christ. That is not delighting in Christ, trusting in Christ, but true believers have come to see the beauties and the glories of His person. They have come to enjoy His fellowship. They see Him as a blossom of henna or as a sweet-smelling perfume. And I guess before we really get into the substance of the message, I just want to make a note that if all of this seems an idol talk to you. If it's not something that you know personally, then you are not in Christ. You are still in your sins, and you will ultimately find yourself in hell unless you repent. It's a sober warning. It's a sober reality. But we have been invited today, and you are have been invited through the gospel, the good news, to come and sit at the table of the Lord as a reconciled friend rather than to be punished as an enemy. In order to understand the text, I want to look at two major points. We're going to look first of all at the delightfulness of a holy heart. And secondly, we're going to look at the delightfulness of the heavenly King. It may not be the best outline, the best division, but it will kind of help us look at this and see through the poetry and see the beauties of what Christ has done in and through us. As I said, this sets for us the image of a king in his tents, maybe in his travels, maybe in times of peace, but he has spread a table for his friends. They have come to fellowship with him. The chiefs would come in first, and all the others, and they would gather around him in a circle. His bride would be there. Someone would anoint their head with a rich perfume, a lavish scent would fill the tent and the aroma, and it would be a place of delight and joy and fellowship and happiness. And that picture's for us, the way we have been brought in to delight in Christ. But I want you to notice first of all that Christ finds not only the ability to receive sinners to himself, but he finds delight in those whom he has made to be his friends. He finds delight in you and delight in me as a saved sinner. Now, that's almost unthinkable. if you have any grasp of the depth of your own depravity. If you have any understanding of the sinfulness, not of others, but of your own heart. I find that through the years, my greatest discouragement is not the apostasy that I see in others. It's not the wickedness in the government, or the corruption in the world, or even the evil of women who will go on their day off work and lobby for the murder of children. That's not my greatest discouragement. As bad as that is, as heinous as it is, as taxing as it is, what discourages me most is understanding the sin in my own bosom. And yet Christ delights in His people. He is not only willing to receive us, but His compassionate heart makes Him to pity us. And He is moved with compassion, and He feels the weakness of our fallenness. And just at the moment when we feel we are farthest from the reach of grace, at that moment the Bible says grace is available. In verse 12, We read, while the king was on his couch, Minard gave forth its fragrance. This verse could be translated, while the king was at his table. The couch here is the couch that would be at the table. It's the place he would sit and recline with his friend around his table. And she says, while the king was at his table, on his couch, in the circle of his friends, in this great fellowship supper, she said, there I am, and my nard, my spike nard, gives forth its fragrance. What is meant by this? is that the holy heart, the heart that has been made holy by the blood of Christ, has also been made acceptable and delightful to Him. The Lord's table is a table of examination. One of the things that I have tried to emphasize to you as your pastor is that when we come to the table of the Lord, there are a variety of things that we should understand the ordinance is intended for. It is intended to proclaim the death of Christ until He comes. It is intended as a real communion with Christ and with His people. It is intended to produce thankfulness in our hearts, but it is also intended to cause us to examine ourselves. Are you in Christ or are you not? However, when we say that the Lord's table is a table of examination, and that we must not approach it in an unworthy manner like some who have become sick and ill and even fallen asleep, died because of their sin. I don't want you to get the impression what that means is that we should come to his table in a self-worthiness, okay? As though we could be worthy by our duties or by our practices. I remember years ago speaking with a man in our church about the communion supper, and he said to me, as the cup was passed, I don't think I'm worthy today. I don't think I'm worthy today. Well, I understood what he meant. But what he implied is that some days he is worthy and some days he's not, and it really was just dependent upon his own performance. there's a tendency in our hearts to feel that way. I remember as a young Christian my own experiences that I would dread the Lord's Supper. Our church's purpose to meet once a quarter on Sunday evening and to partake of the ordinance and that was never Never a Sunday of joy for me. It was always a Sunday of concern and agony and deep prayer and self-examination. And there's a sense in which that's good, but I would find myself often when my children were little or even before they were born, we would go home after church and the kids would lay down and maybe Christy would take a nap with them and I would hop on my bicycle and I would ride off down the trace to maybe a branch or a spring or even sometimes to a to a cemetery and I would spend the evening in agonizing prayer searching out my sin for fear that I would approach the Lord's table in an unworthy manner. While we ought to examine ourselves and prepare our hearts before coming to commune with Christ, we should never lose sight that the table and table fellowship with Christ is both an honor and a joy. To be brought into the circle of his friends, to be made his dear bride, It is the highest of privileges. I mean, the bride just said to us, I am dark. Don't gaze at me, verse 6, because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My skin is blemished and black. I have sunspots and wrinkles because I have been blemished by the sun. Don't look at me. Don't gaze at me. It makes me uncomfortable. While I've been made keeper of the vineyard, I haven't kept my own vineyard. I look more like a sunburned slave than a daughter of Jerusalem. And yet, here she is, brought into the fellowship with the king, sitting at his table with his friends in the seat of honor. When I was young, I knew I had been justified by faith, but much like the Galatians, I had come to think that my performance was now the issue of my sanctification and acceptance with Christ. But the bride says her nard gives forth its fragrance. She recognizes that the Lord is pleased with her. But it's not because of her own worthiness, for she knows herself to be unworthy. She has already prayed to Him, draw me after You, let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth. Tell me, You whom my soul loves, where do You pasture Your flock? Where can I find rest for my soul? Where can my little ones be nearest? She sees her own sinfulness, but she now speaks of the nard, this rich, fragrant perfume which was given to her by the King as sending forth its fragrance in His presence. She is made pleasing to Him by Him. The Lord delights in His grace shining forth in our hearts. He has made you and given you everything that is necessary to be beautiful in His sight. It's His grace. It's His Spirit. as we cry out to God with repentant hearts and confession that we don't even long for Him as we ought, that we still have a desire for sin, that we wrestle with our own fallenness, that is pleasing to Christ because that is a grace that He has put in our hearts. As we come in sweet communion, as we delight in His Word, as we meditate on the beauties of His nature and of His offices, as we relish in the fact that He is our High Priest and that full atonement has been made, He is pleased and He loves and receives us because of that grace which He has put in our hearts. As we go out and proclaim Christ weakly and poorly, as we stumble over our words, as we fail in preaching Christ as He ought, as we don't show forth to others the love and compassion in our evangelism that we ought, but we seek to be faithful, Christ is pleased in that because that is a grace He has put in our hearts. as we seek to bring our children up in the fear and the admonition of the Lord. And we stumble and we fail, but we try and we labor. The Lord is pleased because that is a grace that he has put in our hearts to desire such things. It is the Lord that prepares the table before us. It is the Lord that anoints our head with oil. To have a table spread speaks of provision, right? Think of the provision of the Lord to his people. The psalmist said, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for your rod and your staff are a comfort to me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have provided all that I need and all that I should desire. Even though my enemies are present, even though danger is present, you have provided for me. You have anointed my head with oil. You have made me to be acceptable in your sight. The Lord has provided all that we have need of. And he delights in seeing that grace in our hearts. One Middle Eastern scholar who grew up in a family of shepherds wrote, in the east a man's fame is spread by means of his table and lavish hospitality rather than by his possessions. Strangers and neighbors alike discuss tables where they have been guests. Such tables spread from one town to another and are handed down from one generation to another. Proverbs chapter 9 verse 2 tells us that wisdom has set her table and then she invites the simple and the ignorant to come and dine and to receive from her the wisdom that she offers. Christ is said in Scripture to be our wisdom and our righteousness and our sanctification. He has set a table before us and he lavishly provides for all of our needs. One of the things that was striking to Christy and I as we were in Mexico a couple of years ago is the hospitality and the kindness of the people. I remember one brother who lived on virtually nothing, really. He lived on the equivalent of $5 a day. He would make 100 pesos per day, nine months out of the year. And that's what he provided for his family with. That's the way he lived. But he said to me, you come, you stay in my house, you eat my food, you sleep in my bed, you don't worry for anything. Your feet are under my table, you're under my care, you're under my provision, you are my guest. We've lost that in our culture. We don't understand what it means to bring people into our home, under our table, and to be provided for them and to care for them. But in the East, this was such a huge part of their culture that even their fame and their accomplishments and their wealth was nothing compared to their lavish hospitality. When the king The Sovereign brings you into the circle of His friends. When He prepares the table, when He spreads the feast, when He anoints your head, He makes you acceptable by His provision and by His care. You are under His protection. No enemy will come and harm you because He protects you, He guards you, He governs you. No famine will plague you because He has taken you in to provide for you. No disease. No disease will keep you because He will see that you are given all that you need. You see, that is what has happened to us. Christ as our King, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords came to us, invited us in. He made a way through His own blood by atoning for our sin and then sent His Spirit to draw us. Think of the active nature of the Holy Trinity in our salvation. God the Father from eternity decreed chose, elected us, predestined us to adoption. God the Son came, wrapped himself in human flesh, emptied himself, humbled himself by becoming obedient even to the point of death on the cross. The hyper-humiliation of Christ, going down, down, down, become a man, be obedient, die on a cross, be laid in a tomb, remain there for three days. and to be raised and exalted and seated with the Father. God the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment and to draw us in like drawing in a net of fish. God actively sought you if you are His. He has made you acceptable in the Beloved. He delights in you. He longs to know you. Eternity will be spent searching out the riches of his provision for us. Jesus said, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses that gave you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. And they said to him, Sir, give us this bread always. And Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. In his great hymn, Isaac Watts, One of his great hymns, How Great and Awful is the Place, Isaac Watts wrote these words. How sweet and awesome is the place with Christ within the doors, while everlasting love displays the choices of our stores. While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful tongue, Lord, why was I guessed? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room, while thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sins. Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come. Send your victorious word abroad and bring the strangers home. We long to see your churches full, that all the chosen race may with one voice and heart and soul sing your redeeming grace. This recognition that we are made delightful and acceptable to Christ does not breed pride in the heart of the Christian, but it breeds humility. The herb that nard came from was a lowly plant. It speaks of humility. It was small and insignificant, but it made the richest and sweetest of perfumes. We have been made acceptable because Christ is the nard that makes us beautiful. It is His grace, His Spirit which ministers to us. Christ in us, the hope of glory. What does that even mean? That Christ may be formed in us, in our hearts, that we'd be made Christ-like, that men and women would see Christ in our countenance, in our behavior, in our obedience. I would like to make one further note before we move on. She says here in verse 12, while the king was on his couch, While the king was at his table, my nard gave forth his fragrance. The fragrance of the spike nard went out while she was in his presence because he ministered to her. But if he were to withdraw from her, so would be the grace, so would be the perfume. If he were to withdraw from us, the graces that he has given us would wither if a plant flourish in the sun and wither when it is removed and there is no sunlight, then grace also flourishes in the heart of the Christian while he is near to Christ and withers as if it was wrong. This should cause us and fill our hearts with a desire to always be near him. to always seek his fellowship, to always, not only our union with Christ is never broken, but there are seasons in the Christian life which the old writers would speak of as spiritual desertion, okay? Not ultimately, but spiritual desertion, which I think Willemus of Brockles said was hell on earth, or Thomas Watson, for the believer. Where for a period of time, the Lord withdraws the consciousness of his grace and presence from you. But even that is given to us as a grace from Christ to teach our hearts that there is no rest but in him. We are restless until we find our rest in him. We should always long to live near to Christ first. And then the grace that he ministers in our hearts gives us great confidence as we draw near because we know we are accepted in the beloved. Our second point. is not only the delightfulness of the holy heart, the heart that has been made holy, the purchased one, the redeemed one, which Christ, by His Spirit, has ministered grace to, has been made beloved and delightful to Himself. But now let's notice more than that, the delightfulness of the heavenly King. Verses 13 and 14 speak of this. My Beloved is to me a satchet of myrrh that lies between my breasts. My Beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. Let me just deal with the elephant in the room first. In verse 13, we are told that the Beloved, Christ, is to be compared to a satchet or a patch, a pouch of myrrh that lies between my breasts. To us in 21st century as modern listeners and readers, we read this and it appears to us to be a sexual reference. It makes us a bit uncomfortable. It makes us feel awkward. This phrase, and others like it is one of the very reasons which so many people struggle in reading this great song. We have been so perverted and so sexualized in this pornographic society that we see this as a reference to something illicit and unclean. But it's not, not at all. In fact, this is the idea. When she says He is to be compared to a satchet of myrrh that lies between my breast, she is saying one that lies, it could be translated, all night near my heart, in my bosom. She didn't say that He is a sack of myrrh thrown over my shoulder that I must bear Him. Or one that is put behind my back to carry. But between my breast, in my heart, near to my bosom, in the place that I can protect, the place that is dear to me. Think of a locket with a picture of a dear loved one. Maybe one who's gone home. Maybe a wife will have a picture of her beloved in her locket and she wears it around her neck and she will often take it out and look at him when he is away because it is near to her. Of course, I grew up in a small rural area. Farmers and loggers and people like that. A lot of the old men in my town would wear overalls, bib overalls. One of the businessmen years ago said a man carries his real money in the bib of his overalls. Why? Because that's the place he can protect it, right? That's the place that he can watch over it. That's the place that's safest of all. It is the nearest and dearest to him. It is next to his heart. That's what Christ is to the believer. All night long. This speaks of her desire for unbroken communion and nearness to Christ as near as possible. In Genesis chapter two, verses 24 and 25, when God was making man in his image, we're told that the scripture says, therefore, man shall leave his father and his mother and shall hold fast to his wife and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. The loving husband longs to be one with his bride. Not just physically one with her, but spiritually and emotionally and mentally. To be one soul and one person It is not enough for him to be at peace with his wife, for all to be quiet on the Western front. It is not enough that she give him her respect or her service, that all things are orderly in the home and tranquil. But a truly loving husband longs for union and communion with his bride. And he longs for that on the deepest level, he wants to know the depths of her concerns and her fears. He wants to shoulder her hurts, and He wants to lavish on her His affection. He wants to know her. Even the Bible uses that terminology, know her, to speak of intimacy in the marriage. He knows her. He doesn't know about her. He knows her intimately. While other marriages look like Two ships that pass quietly in the night. He longs to be as near to her as is humanly possible. And the same could be said of the bride who truly loves her husband, who truly longs to be one with her husband. She wants to know all his thoughts. She wants to know all his plans and his ambitions. She wants to understand what makes him tick. She wants to truly be his perfect one. The phrase, the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed, speaks of more than physical intimacy or physical nakedness, it speaks of openness and honesty. Think about the created order there. There was nothing hidden between them. There were no lies, no secrets, absolutely nothing that would prevent oneness of person. All was open, all was clear, all was honest, and they were not ashamed. There was no sin, nothing. Now, we live in a fallen world and we certainly wrestle with our own sinfulness and we wrestle with the curse of God. In union and in marriage, there is the tendency of a man to lord his headship over his wife, to dominate her. There is a tendency in the woman to manipulate the man and to be controlling. Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. This is part of the curse. But in the Christian marriage, we still look back to the created order and the created model. And we we long for that. We seek that. And and by God's grace, we know something of it. We know something of what it means in the Christian marriage to have a foretaste of heaven, union and sweet communion and openness and honesty and fear and shame is gone, right? Well, it's true the same way with our union and communion with Christ. God longs to commune with his people. He longs to know us and to be intimate with us. And that is why he sent his son to die on the cross to redeem us. Because he desired to lavish his love on us because of our need, because of his loveliness, because of beauty in us that attracted him, because he longed to love us. And we, as his people, long to know him. Oh, that I may know Him, that I may know the sweetness of His fellowship, the power of His resurrection, and I may know even the sufferings that are intended for Christ. If the coals which are heaped upon Christ fall off of Christ and burn my head, oh, that I may know Him that much. In his high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may be one just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they may also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Here, Christ prays certainly for the unity of his people, but he doesn't just pray for unity here, he prays for intimacy here. Father, I want them to be one in the same way that we are one, the oneness The unity in the Trinity. One God. One essence. Three persons. Yet one God. There is a unity there. Intimacy. Communion. That is beyond our comprehension, but that is the model for unity within the body. But He's not only praying for unity within the body, but He's praying for unity with the body. That they may be in me as you are in me. Christ is praying that we would share intimacy with Him. He longs to know his people. I mean, that's a great comfort, is it not? When we sin and when we fall and we stumble. There's a certain shame that I feel that wants to, you know, that makes me want to withhold myself from Christ and to back away and cower away. And yet it is the offended God which sought reconciliation. And it was Christ who knows all that came to me and saw me in my blood and wrapped his cloak around me and made me his own. Our communion in our marriages is often broken. And in the same way, a loss of the sense of nearness with one another because of our sin. And in our union and communion with Christ, though our union is never truly broken, there is a loss of the consciousness of His near presence that teaches us to value the preciousness of His fellowship. He is here said to be as precious as a sachet of myrrh. Myrrh was one of the choicest spices in the East. To have a sachet full, to have an entire pouch full of myrrh would be a tremendous treasure that the bride would want to have near to her heart day and night, unbroken, unhindered, with no danger at all. Always protected, always near. As she lies on her bed at night, she can still smell the sweetness of the perfume. To the believer, Christ is precious. There is none that we desire beside Him, none that can rival Him. As I said, this could be translated He lies between my breasts all night. Lies could be, it means to be applied all night. Some translations actually add those words to help clarify that it speaks of lying there permanently all night long. Night sometimes is given to us to speak of a time of watching, a time of fear, a time of darkness, a time of stumbling. of longing, desire, of weariness, of sleeplessness, of restlessness, sorrow, solitude, of toil, of sin and temptation. Night is a time of weeping, it's a time of prayer, a time of death, a time when the world is sunk in sloth and engaged in revelry. Nighttime is when the servants of Christ should watch, even at midnight. Night pictures darkness and sorrow and sin and heartache, and it represents the whole of this existence. At all these times, the bride declares that the myrrh shall lie between her breasts, very near to her heart. This is the desire for unbroken communion with Christ through all of the ups and downs in life. All the persecutions and sorrows, all of the heartaches. Even in times when we feel alone in the world, we know that He is near. We desire that he be near. This union with Christ is a motive to avoid sin. Paul said, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall you then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two shall become one flesh. You see that same principle again. Well, if you have been joined to a prostitute who made one flesh with her, verse 17, he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Therefore, when you join or are joined to Christ and you commit sin, you are joining Christ to your sin. He is there with you in your sin. This is a motive for holy living to avoid such things. Scandals. Apostasies. The apostle is saying, because you are now one with Christ. Flee him around. flee sin, avoid it like the plague, would you join Christ to a harlot? No, but that's exactly what you do. No, he is like a satchet of myrrh. Verse 14, he is compared to a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of Engedi. Henna plants were beautiful to the eye and delightful in their aroma. One man said, the dark color of its bark, and these plants were not lowly, these would get eight, 10 feet tall. The dark color of its bark, the light green of its foliage, the softened mixture of white and yellow with which the flowers collected into long clusters like a lilac are colored, the red tint of the ramifications which supported them form a combination, the effect of which is highly agreeable. The flowers, whose shades are so delicate, diffuse around the most grateful odors and embalm with their strong fragrance the gardens in which they grow and the apartments which they adorn. The women take pleasure in decking their persons and apartments with these delightful blossoms." So what would take place is These beautiful henna blossoms would be gathered into bouquets and put around in apartments, on tables and near windows so that the place would be made beautiful and it would be made to smell sweet. But not only that, they would also put them in their hair or on their body so that they would have adornment for their person and that they would have a perfume to enrich their fragrance and to make them to be pleasant to others. Very beautiful. Both of these representations, the satchet of myrrh and the cluster of henna blossoms, speak of the delightfulness of Christ to His people. We are made delightful to Christ by the grace which He has infused in our hearts. But Christ is delightful to us because of the nature of His person. We are refreshed in His presence as with myrrh. our souls are encouraged and our spirits are lifted up in the same way as when we enter a house decked with beautiful flowers and the sweet smell of henna blossoms. Not only in public worship but also in private we enjoy the presence of his fellowship. When we are alone we feel and we feel abandoned. When we feel that no one understands our hurt or our pain, we as his people know that he is with us and we are refreshed by that and we have learned to enjoy the sweetness of his communion. That's what this text is speaking about. Please, I know there's a lot to take in here, but please don't miss this when the bride says, While the King is on His couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. While I was in His presence, I was made acceptable and beautiful, and I was made to be a sweet-smelling odor in His presence near Him. For He is to me a sachet of myrrh that lies always upon my heart. He is a cluster of blossoms, sweet-smelling and beautiful in the vineyards of En-Gedi." En-Gedi, of course, was part of the inheritance of Judas. made his refuge. Notice it's not a cluster of henna blossoms which came from the vineyards of Engedi, but a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyard. The nard was for the banquet in verse 12, as he sits and feasts in the circle of his friends. The myrrh was always in the bosom. the henna blossoms are in their natural habitat surrounded by beauty and yet they are eclipsed by one cluster of blossoms is the lily of the valley the bride and morning star the pearl of great price Lord Christ whether in the banquet, in the circle of His friends, in public communion, or whether at night turning and tossing on the bed in private communion, or out in the world, in the natural beauties of the world, seeing the one cluster of henna blossoms that eclipses it all, Jesus Christ, the desire of the people of God is to delight in Christ. For He is worthy. You know, we live in dark times. Our times, our day is rightly called night. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Everywhere we turn, the world has gone stark mad. I mean absolutely stark mad. The population of my town is 1,093 people or something like that. Small little community. There are kids who dress up like cats and go to school every day. There are girls which my children played with. I know them. I know their parents who have decided that they are boys. One girl likes boys, but she thinks of herself as a boy. So she calls herself a gay, transgendered boy when in reality, she's just a normal girl. And the stark foolishness of it all is that nobody can say anything because that's bigotry. And it's not following the signs. Our world has lost its mind. Our world is under the wrath of God. Our government is writing blank checks and sending them out in the mail. So to speak, blank checks, I mean just write, write, write, write, write. Trillions and trillions and trillions of dollars. Good is called evil, evil is called good. Whatever kind of perversion men can imagine, we have to embrace and celebrate. But heaven forbid that we discipline our children or tell them no. Or do something that's good for them. Light is called darkness. Darkness is called light. Good is put for evil. Evil for good. Our world has gone mad. And we feel like we are aliens and strangers and unwelcome in the world. And people mock and ridicule. They call us fools and ignorant. They tell us to get an education. They call us bigots and racists. Why? Because we see reality? Have I become your enemy for telling you the truth? You know it's easy to get discouraged in a world like this. And then you see the church and the mess the church is in. Professing Christians everywhere who know nothing of what it means to really walk with God. They claim to know God, they claim to speak for God, never read his word. My wife was doing the Meals on Wheels volunteer program last summer, and this little old, sweet little old 93-year-old lady told her, said, you know, I've probably read through the whole Bible in my life. 93 years, and you got through the whole Bible? That was exceptional, right? People think that they can come to God on their own terms and invent God after their own liking, have no knowledge of the truth, are offended at the preaching of the Gospel, at the opening of the Word, bored in church, bored at the reading of Scripture, bored at the singing of hymns and psalms because it doesn't entertain us. Yet Christians, and those are the ones that haven't just utterly apostatized, You know, I was told this week Beth Moore's apologizing for being a complimentarian. If Beth Moore's a complimentarian, we are in big trouble. Every week it seems like more and more scandal, more and more apostasy. And then we've got our weak little faith, you know, that seems like it could anytime be snuffed out It's easy to get discouraged, not because of what's going on on the outside, but all this is going on on the outside, and I know the struggle that's going on on the inside. What's the cure for that? What is the cure for all of that? To grin and bear it? To muster up? To fake it until you make it? No! The cure is to look at Christ and see the beauties and the glories of His nature and His character. It's to look unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Set our gaze upon Christ. One look at ourselves, 10,000 looks at Christ. That's the problem today, is we've forgotten to look to Christ. Now, if we look to Christ, if we delight in Him, sure, we're going to begin to pity others. We're going to have compassion on others. We're going to want to go out and bring the nations in, bring the people to Him. But we must first look to ourselves that we live near to Him. Because we can't teach what we don't know anymore than when we come back from where we haven't been. We can't help others to delight in Christ, if we have not first delighted in Him ourselves. As the sun is withdrawn and a plant is put in the basement, it will wither and die. And if we withdraw ourselves from the light of His presence, from the beauty of His word, from the richness of the sweetness of the means of grace, the scriptures and prayer and the presence of God and the fellowship of the church and the ordinances of the church which are given to minister grace to us and to sanctify us, the preaching of the gospel, the singing of His praise, if we remove ourselves from that, we will wither and die. And what happened last year? For fear of dying, Christians, professing Christians, removed themselves from the source of their spiritual life, and many have withered and died and proven that they were dead branches and not even connected to the vine. You see, what we believe about the church is not that we should be careless, but what we believe is that this is the most important thing in the world, that men know God. It's far more important that men live, than that men live. Because if you know God and you die, it's not nearly as bad as living and not knowing Him and then dying. It's not nearly as bad as having a full belly and having all your needs met, all of your felt needs met, and then dying and going to hell. The good news of the gospel is not that God wants to make your life comfortable, but that God will forgive your sins. And there is only one institution in the world that has been charged by the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim that message, and it is the church. And when the church stops doing its job, the world goes to hell, literally, because it is lost and it has no witness, no prophet, no one to preach Christ. I mean, think about it. Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. God is rich in mercy to all who will call on Him. How will they call on whom they have not believed? How will they believe in whom they've not heard? How will they hear without a preacher? Do we love our neighbors? The law is summarizing this, love God first, love your neighbor as yourself. What does it mean to love your neighbor? Do you love your neighbor enough to preach Christ to him? Do you love his approval of you or do you love his soul? Do you weep over his lostness? Are you broken over his unbelief and his fear? Because if not, you may not know Christ yourself. To love your neighbor is to do them good. To do them good is to preach Christ to them, to point them to Christ in any way. That is our job, that is our duty. That is what is springing up in our hearts as we learn to delight in Him. for He is delightful. And we love Him because He first loved us. the bride who mourned that she was not a keeper of her own vineyard and she ran to him whom her soul loved and asked for rest and nourishment has now been brought into the fellowship of his friends and is sitting not at the outskirts of his tent but in his fellowship in the circle of his friends on his couch at his table fellowshipping with him she has been made acceptable her fragrance is sending forth Her nard is sending forth fragrance. She is a sweet-smelling aroma. She has graced the place with her presence, though she thought herself to look like a sunburned slave. Why? Because Christ, Christ is near to her. So when we see this, we see her desire, we see her delight, but we also see a resolve. And I guess if I could leave you with one point, that's it. I just want you to resolve to live near to Christ. Don't waste this day going home and thinking about all the things that are going on, your bills that need paid, your enjoyments, your pleasures, your hobby, who plays what sporting event, whatever. Don't waste the day on frivolous enjoyments and pleasures and cares, for the cares and pleasures and worries of the world will choke out the seed. But use the day and every opportunity to seek Christ, every struggle, every burden, every heartache, every temptation, every sin, every reminder of your fallenness. Every preaching of the gospel, use it to seek Christ and to be near to Him. Every time His glorious office is unfolded, take the opportunity to meditate every morning. Fill your heart with His word. Commune with Him in private prayer. Ask Him for grace for the day. Close the day thanking Him for grace for the day. Pray without ceasing constantly to Him. For we have been called to His fellowship. It is both an honor and a joy. It's what we see, it's what's pictured for us in the Lord's table, but it's what we enjoy all the day long. Father, we just know so little of delighting in Christ. Lord, I I fear some in our assembly today have never delighted in Christ. It seems like vain babbling and idle talk. Their eyes are not open to see eternal realities. They may believe in Christ, they may believe that He is, they may believe that He's a rewarder of those who seek Him, they may believe that He is the only Savior, but they don't delight in Him, they don't love Him. The crown of life is reserved for those who love him. Lord, they can't love him unless your love embraces their hearts, takes out the heart of stone, puts in a heart of flesh. Father, I think that at the table we are reminded that the friends of Christ are welcome to feast, but not everyone is welcome. Those who've not been clothed with wedding garments, Lord, we want this division to be seen so that sinners can see their need and can look and behold Christ and enjoy the feast that we have been brought to. Lord, it was the the love that spread the feast that drew us in the same love. And we pray that your victorious word, your love would go to the ends of the earth. And bring strangers in today. We want to see your churches full. We want to see men come to Christ. Please, Father, do this. Teach us to delight in Christ, to look to him, to love him. And we pray that you would be pleased in our worship. We ask these things in his name. Amen.