Song of Solomon chapter 1. I forgot to see that the heat was turned on. I thought about it several times yesterday and forgot it. And I called Toby and told him to come out here and cut it on. He called back. He said, it's 49 degrees in there. I said, oh goodness, it won't ever. It won't ever get warm. He said, I don't worry about it. Those are tough folks. Anybody that can sit under you is tough. So, you are tough folks. Song of Solomon, chapter number one. And verse number six. The last phrase in that is what I want you to think with me about, my own vineyard. Have I not kept? Would you bow with me as we seek our Father's face and help? Our Father, there ought to be a solemnness in our hearts as we gather. Your word says that where two or three are gathered, you'll be in their midst. And what a great responsibility we have with the Lord in our midst. It is often said when a crowd or multitude might be around that you turn to your disciples and say it. You had no word for the multitude, but you were always caring for your children. Instructing, guiding, correcting, whatever they needed. Not as a group, but as individuals. then that is what you provided. And we're looking for that day when there is a great awareness here that the living God is in our midst. Whether for all I know not, but would you be pleased to make it personal and have each with an awareness that God is near. Give help in preaching, Lord, you know my inability. Give help in hearing, you know what these will be faced with. Thoughts from every angle will try to distract and keep them from hearing. But blessed is the individual that heareth thee. So grant hearing ears, and give us all an understanding heart, and be honored in our midst today. Come, Lord Jesus, Fix us so that you will find people receptive of you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Verse number six. look not upon me, because I am black, because the Son hath looked upon me." Oftentimes, when the Son is mentioned, it is referring to the S-O-N, Son of God. Here, it is referring to her exposure. to the world. That which lightens this old world naturally has done this to me. My mother's children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards. But my own vineyard have I not kept. I was so busy caring for others, looking after the responsibility that they placed upon me, that I neglected my own garden, my own vineyard. My routine for years and years, when getting up and once alert, the first thing I do is try to find a good devotional. Will my heart fix when I go to meet with the Lord? And then I try to close everything out as I shut the door and speak with God, just the two of us there. And then I come back and I begin reading. And it's always for me, always. I never have started with you. And what can I find that they are in need of today? And this was what came to mind. Monday morning, I'd been thinking about it all week, didn't know until maybe Thursday that it might be more than me. It's why I've been here all week. For occasionally I found what the Lord gave me, what he had to say to me personally, would become that that he had for you. I trust and pray, honestly hope, that it is so with you, the hearer here today. When I was thinking about the verse, my own vineyard I have not kept, I remembered two men of the last generation, two conference speakers in their latter years, not pastors, that took me under their wings. I don't know why. I guess they looked at me and saw that kid needs a lot of help. One of them sent me a list where he had handwritten books on every book of the scriptures. For he said it's always better if you can find a single book written about, though Henry, Matthew Henry and Matthew Poole are good, that did a series from Genesis to Revelation, though both of them died before they finished that, and other men would join together and try to get it as close as to what Henry and Poole would say. But he sent me a list, several hundred books. Get these as you can afford them. And their advice has stayed with me over four decades, almost five now. And both said, before you ever begin to looking after other people, look after yourself first. Take care of yourself because you won't be of any help to anybody if the scriptures have nothing to say to you personally. So this verse, take care of your own vineyard, was what I looked at all week for me. And you cannot be a help to anyone until first you have a right heart with God. Looking after yourself. Do not neglect yourself. That advice is not just for a pastor. It is for a parent. It is for a spouse. It is for an employee. And to go with this, Proverbs 4, 23, keep thy heart with all diligence. Look after yourself first. You start looking after other people and you'll neglect your responsibility. Keep your heart. Think about number one when you go to pray. When you go to read. Don't read the scriptures thinking this would have been good for somebody else. I've had folk tell me, we so-and-so had been there last week to have heard that, and I'm thinking, I wonder if you heard that and benefited from it, or sat there the entire time thinking about somebody else that had missed it. Moses warned Israel on several occasions, take heed to thyself. You don't worry about other nations. You don't worry about other tribes. You don't worry about your own tribe and all the people that is in that. You take heed to yourself personally. And one time he said, keep thy soul diligently. That's your primary work. Paul writing to the elders at Ephesus or discussing with them as he was about to leave them, take heed, number one, unto yourself. You look after you primarily. And then you take heed to all the flock in which God hath made you overseer. He writes to Timothy, Timothy, take heed unto thyself. And then unto doctrine. Not what you know, how much you know, It's the one that you know. And Peter was called, there's six other disciples there out fishing one night, and the Lord met them the next morning and says, children, you caught anything? No. And he tells them, cast your net on the right side, on that side of the ship, and they brought in a great number of fish. John said, that's the Lord. And Peter girded himself and was the first one to get to shore. And they dined there before Christ ever had anything to say to Peter. He put him in a comfortable setting there and they had the meal together. Then he said, Simon, not what I named you, because you have not lived up to that name, the rock. Simon, son of Jonah, lovest thou me? He didn't ask him how much he knew about him. Didn't ask him how experience in life had helped him on in knowledge. Didn't ask him about what he had taught him. He said, do you love me? That's the issue. Not what you know, but do you love the one that you claim as your savior. Three times. I think it probably had to do with Peter denying him three times, bringing it all back, and finally said, Lord, you know, I'll commit that into your hands. You know that I love you. So it's not right doctrine, though that is essential to a degree, Not what you hold, but do you love Him? Has doctrine that you have learned of Him brought you on to a greater appreciation? Are you seeing the Lord Jesus in all the great truths of Scripture about God and the Godhead and the Son of God? Has it been settled in your soul to the degree that you can right now say, Lord you know that I love you? So you keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are all the issues of life. Timothy, if you take heed to yourself. And then you take heed to doctrine. You will both save thyself. He's not talking about salvation. You will save yourself and those that hear thee. He's talking about becoming a little careless in his living and missing the road sign that God has posted on your journey from here to that celestial city. You will save yourself. You won't have a detour. You won't make a wrong turn if you take heed to your heart, number one. And then number two, you take heed to all that I've taught you. Then you won't crash in life. You'll get through it in good shape. Now do you think that growth and development in the Lord will free you from temptation? You think once that you become a child of God that the sailing will be smooth from then on and the devil will never bother you? You can forget that. You can forget that a few months after you were converted. And one of the old men, I treasured both of them, but he and I were talking, I mainly was listening, and he brought up 1 John 2.16. All that's in the world, son, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He said, now the lust of the flesh is you as you are now, a young man. The lust of the eyes will be when you become a middle-aged man, and the pride of life will be after you pass all these. And it becomes important who you are, it becomes important what you own, it becomes important what other folk think about you. Watch out. He said, every sin will come to you through one of these avenues. He said, now look, this is the way the serpent got Eve. She saw all of it. the fruit. She saw that it was good for food, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. She saw that it would be a fruit that would make one wise and she would be as God's. So he got her. And then to Achan, through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, like Achan lost his life and the life of his family. Then he brought up the temptation of our Lord. Turn these stones into bread, lust of the flesh. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world, the lust of the eyes. And he said, now if you will bow down, I will give you all these. Just cast yourself down, pride of life, and God will sustain you. Paul knew the greatest enemy he had was not the Jews wanting to destroy him. It was not when he was in perils of robbers. That wasn't his greatest enemy. Not when he was in the perils among the heathens or among false brethren. His great danger was not when life had brought him to a painfulness physically and to hunger, cold, and thirsting. He knew that's not, those things are not my great enemy. My great enemy Wasn't even per se in Satan himself But it was in him using my fallen nature All the dangers Those that wanted to kill him trying to kill him destroy him No, that's not my danger God will deliver me from those. Satan, though he used these men, he's not my great enemy. I'm living with the greatest enemy that man could ever have. To be carnally minded is death. That's in me. The carnal mind, Romans 8, 7, is enmity against God. Not the devil, me. Carnal mind being dead will bring me to death. Carnal Mindedness is enmity against God and this they that are in the flesh Cannot please God that's my enemy I'm living with Can't get rid of him 24-7 365 days a year I'm never free from my great enemy. There will be times when Satan does not bother me. There will be times when I am journeying all alone and no other apostle or brother is with me. But my enemy is that saw of Tarsus. I carry about with me a dying old carcass." And when we were in the flesh, the motions of sin did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, Romans 7.5. The natural mind, my natural will, was constantly at war with a spiritual mind that I am attaining unto and a will within this new man determined to do the will of God no matter the cost. So Paul, the new man, constantly battled Saul the old man, because the new man lived within Saul of Tarsus, the great Pharisee. Now turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Remember it is about the bride that she has been so involved looking after other people that her vineyard was all grown up. First Corinthians 15 And verse 14. That's not what I want. I do want it, but after a while. 1 Corinthians 9. Now I'm on track. 1 Corinthians 9. Verse 25 through 27. And every man that striveth for the mastery, we'll look at those words in a little greater depth in a moment. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. I'm not a shadow boxer training for a big fight. I am battling a real enemy. I'm not beating the air. But I keep under my body, here Paul says, now this is the problem I have. I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that By any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be cast away. Word is translated reprobate, and another place or two. So the great apostle said, I bring this old body into subjection, not only to the will of God, but to the pursuit of God. And oft times when I am striving to get it bent, bowing to the will of God, it's fighting against my physical nature. Sometimes the will of God requires me to get all alone. But I'm better off if I've got noise. The pursuit of God. Well, when I retire and reach a certain age and can sit down comfortably without worrying about life, then I will begin my pursuit of God. You who are waiting for that will never begin. I bring the soul body into subjection. to do the will of God and to pursue after God. And those two things are contrary to this old man that was first in life, Saul. I do not give my mind freedom to control me. Well, you ought to be doing this when he kneels to pray. or when he's writing a letter to one of the churches there in Asia Minor or another epistle. Mine says, well, you ought to be doing other things. No, I keep under my body. I, by the help of God, the grace and the work of the Spirit within, I bring this old natural man into subjection. I fight and I war constantly with this carnal mind and this carnal nature that wherein is my habitat. I'm always at war with these things that are at enmity against God. But do you know many people that would even think to consider or admit that their nature, their fallen nature is at enmity against God? I strive I keep under my body, I beat it black and blue, is what that is. But he's not talking about physical. Whips, as some say, well, if you beat your old body and bring pain to it, that will help you in your looking after the things of God. That's not what he's talking about. It's not a physical beating. But he said, I bruise it to keep it from getting the mastery over me. Verse 25. Every man that is striving for the mastery of the Lord Jesus Christ is warring against the soul nature that he has. But I put up a good fight, I bruise it, I keep it from destroying me. Verse 25 that I read, I strive, I fight, that is, I enter into a contest. Folk, isn't it pitiful, literally pitiful, that athletes College, particular, and the pros. How they are so disciplined with what they eat, with their time, How they take care of themselves. And isn't it pitiful that we are striving for a trophy greater than those men will be playing for soon. They've labored for years and years and years. Deny their body something that might taste good and they won't but would be harmful to their body All for the purpose of lifting a trophy and saying we're number one Now apply that Are we that intent? on warring against ourself, fighting constantly, watching what we take into our system. By way of our head and way of our heart, those men are doing it, Paul said, all they're going to do is they're going to get a flower arrangement and this, and in a few weeks the arrangement will all be dried up. And we're laboring for an incorruptible crown, but we don't put any effort into it. One of two natures, if you are a Christian, will be advancing while the other is being stunted according to what nature you feed. And if the life within is more important than the natural life, parents, that does not relieve you of the great responsibility of teaching, of training, of discipline. It does not relieve you moms or dads or husbands or wives for that which is necessary in life to provide for them. But if that's the entirety of your life, you spend it on things here below. And your aim of life, the principles by which you live, is all for this life down here. Paul said, I press toward the mark, Philippians 3.14, of the prize of the high calling of God to run swiftly, is what he's saying, in order to catch a person or a thing. I run as fast as I can to gain that prize, to have placed upon my head that victor's crown. Oh, not that I will wear it throughout eternity and folk will be looking at me saying, look at the great apostle. No, one day I'll cast it down at the feet of my Lord. I'm aiming, running, got my own life. Personally, that is secondary to the Paul that is housed within this old flesh. I want to wear that victor's crown. I want to finish prize of the high calling of God. I want to gain that so I can return it back to the one that enabled me to win that trophy. You have to work, children. You have to walk in this old world below. You have to be honest and cannot steal from your employer by not doing your work. Not saying any of that, but that's not the chief end of man. You've got to do it now. But the chief end of man, as those old men got together and wrote that catechism, the chief end of man is to glorify God. Above all things, whether I eat or whether I drink, whether I work, whether I'm married, whether I have children, my chief end is to glorify God throughout my life. And listen to the second, and enjoy. Is there any here enjoying God. What about it, children? Three days, I looked at this. None of it for you. All for me. But now, I said it before you, you work naturally. Are you laboring spiritually? Go to the ant, thy sluggard, and consider her ways. You don't see little ants running around right now, do you? You haven't seen any in the wintertime. How are they living? They're living on that that they labored for throughout the spring and summer months. Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways. When the weather is fair, I'll be out searching for food, not only for me, but for all in my colony. Consider her ways. She doesn't have a guide. She doesn't have an overseer. Nobody's bossing that little thing around. Now you, compare your labor, spiritual labor. If I do not have right principles and a right belief within me, then I'm going to live completely for this old life here below. And I'll have my end and my enjoyment when I depart. That's the end of me and of all I've done. But if I within have the belief that I'm going to another, no, first of all, that there exists another world beyond this. And that the moment that my heart stops, there I face an all-knowing God. And from those principles, from those beliefs, Paul said, I'm laboring more than all before me. Those principles embedded within me when I met the Lord Jesus, they are governing my personal behavior. I gotta face God. That's a reality to me. It may not be to you yet. That's a reality. I got a face of God that knows everything about me. That also is a reality. I got a face of God that knows whether or not I was honest with you. And I set before you truth, sometimes even knowing that it would just make you folk tough, as Toby said. That's a tough bunch of folk down there. I want to be as honest with you as I possibly can, for I don't want the blood, God said to Ezekiel, you don't tell them, son of man, Jeremiah, you don't tell them, then their blood's going to be on your hands. had a morally correct behavior and attitude. That's a given. Paul knew that soon I will be headed into an eternity, and he knew that what I held to before The rigid law and standards of the Pharisees is going to end me up in hell. I'm going to one of two places, not an in-between. And I'm going to a place where there is no time and where there is no reprieve from my punishment or my rewards. Joseph lived with the reality of this. I will face God one day. I must give an account to this God. And he said to Potiphar's wife, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? There's one inside me and that that God has imparted to me that makes me flee from you. Now if he did not have the reality of facing God, his practice in life would have been solely for life here and he would have given in to ratify the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. But the Joseph we read about was well acquainted with the God we say we serve. Why live for another world? And why live beyond all this that's here below, if death ends everything? Now this is where I tended, I turned to a while ago, 1 Corinthians 15. I've been jumping ahead. I didn't keep my vineyard. Looking after others. Now mine's all grown up. I run with a certainty. I fight with a certainty, Paul said. And my great warfare is not with the devil, though he can create anxiety within. And he can trouble you greatly. But I am my own worst enemy. Not the life of God within, but this old carnal nature that I've got to get beyond. Now, 1 Corinthians 15, 14, And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, You are yet in your sins. The great apostles said, if I don't have these high principles within me, guarding my heart every moment, such as another world, such as at the moment of death facing God, But then waiting till it's all over, everybody is either in hell or heaven. And then God begins to judge us personally. You see, your works will follow you. If you lead somebody astray, if you falsely teach someone, then not only that person, but the one that they might pass on the information you gave them. All this will be brought upon us at the judgment But it doesn't have to be like that. It can be where Jesus says, well done, my good and faithful servant. Look, I don't know how closely you think God will judge us, but every idle word I will give an account. If I do not have this within me, I'm going to pursue things here and my life will be so active in the natural man. I might as well eat, drink, have my lust where they do not remain, unchecked, If Jesus Christ did not get up from that grave, then I might as well remain a wicked old man, for the Bible is not true. If he did not rise, then that man that walked on earth proclaiming to be equal with God was an imposter. But if the Spirit has convinced me, it's not an if with God, but it is with me. Ruth went out, and perchance, She lied it on this lot. Well, it was perchance with her and Naomi, but not with God. He'd have her on that specific plot of ground wherein she would meet her future husband. If the Spirit has convinced me that the book is true and that the man Jesus was not only equal with, but was God manifest in the flesh, then my life takes on being lived with high principles within myself. My walk will be cautious and careful and in a manner that is pleasing unto God. But if God's so loving, he's gonna let everybody by, no matter how we live, how we talk, how we act, then that principle within is gonna give me freedom. Just live, if I want to, like the devil, because I got saved. Beware and watch. Guard against all things that would retard your growth in grace. All things. Do not get caught up spending your time watching over other people's vineyards while doing so the little foxes have all crept in. And your tender grapes that was growing on those vines, they've stolen from you. And you have no fruit unto Christ's glory. Peter said, grow in grace. And in the knowledge of our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Growth in a Christian is as imminent as it is in a healthy baby. You can't keep them from growing. Now, we can retard our growth in Christ if we go off astray. But you'll pay dearly when God lays the chastening rod upon you. But as far as growth and grace, it is a seed implanted by the Spirit of God in every newborn child. Solomon said, I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding, and lo, it was all grown over with thorns and nettles. They'd covered the face thereof, and that which was protecting that man's vineyard, the stone wall, it's broken down by the field of the slothful. I didn't have time to look after myself. I was busy looking after others. My vineyard and my garden I did not keep. And it was manifest to those that passed by. And they looked and they saw that place that were so carefully attended. It's all grown over now. Now it's got weeds that she did not plant there. Amazing how you have to plant that which is going to bring forth good fruit. And that which will destroy your plants in your garden from bringing forth good fruit, you didn't have to plant. You don't even have to work it. You don't even have to fertilize it. You don't have to water it. Those weeds and briars are just going to keep coming up, and they'll spring up, and they'll choke out the good fruit if you don't keep your vineyard. Parable of the sower. Our Lord said, one hears the word of God and he doesn't understand it, and immediately, immediately the wicked one comes along and catches out the word that was sown. And then the word among the thorny ground hearers, the word, the seed was sown. They sprang up, looked good for a while, looked promising for a while. But soon thereafter, those storms, the cares of this world, the pleasures and lust of other things, seeking after riches, it all choked out the seed. And that ground becomes unprofitable. And folks, this is not just some little sermon. It's a life and death issue with you, as it is with me. It's not about someone next hearing this. It's about you hearing it. Probably stepsisters. I can't read that verse. What is the fairy tale story about the one that had the stepsisters? What? Cinderella. I knew that. I can't read that verse without thinking about Cinderella. They made her work so. It's not about Cinderella. It's no fairy tale. It's about you guarding that which God planted within. You taking care of your garden. Making sure it's weeded. Making sure that the fence is up. I remember we used to have in some spots we would have a fence with chicken wire all around. Because the chickens used to run wild, or free I should say. They went wild. And they'd get in there and they'd destroy. So everybody had a five and a half foot or six foot chicken wire up with a door that they could go into their garden. They could work it. They kept it clean knowing one day my labor here will be beneficial. I'll gather, I'll gather fruit. That which is helpful, helpful. But I got to watch after it. You got to look after it. Nobody else is going to look after your garden. Might be a lot of folk telling you, you need this and this and this. And your own nature might also be telling. Disregard it, folks. The only thing you can trust is the life of God in the planet within. So may it be that you have hearing ears today and you find profit and benefit from the Word of God.