Our message this evening will come from the Song of Solomon, chapter 8, and we are now on verses 10 and 12. I'll begin reading in verse 8, but the focus of our message this evening will be verses 10 and 12, and the title for the message is, Christ Must Have a Thousand. So let us now give ear to the word of God from Song of Solomon chapter eight, and I'll begin in verse eight. We have a little sister and she hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Then was I in his eyes as one that found favor. Solomon had a vineyard at Balhamun. He let out the vineyard unto keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand. and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred." In the previous verses that I began with, the bride had raised an amount of concern. We looked at this last time. She'd raised an amount of concern for her younger sister, and she'd asked Christ if there was anything that could be done for her younger sister who had no breasts. and the day that she should be spoken for. And if you remember, I opened this passage up to you and showed you that it was the Gentiles who were yet far off from Christ, undeveloped, yet in their ignorance, that the bride was asking about and that Christ's answer was very gracious concerning this younger sister of the Gentiles when he said, if she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. And so his gracious answer and his promise is to strengthen and help. that little sister that is yet far off. And so his answer is very gracious. And then we come to verses 10 and 12, and we have the bride speaking. And evidently the bride is very satisfied with what Christ has answered about her younger sister. And it stirs up thoughts in her about what Christ has done for her. And her mind goes back to what Christ has already done for her and the pleasant arrangement that she finds herself in. And it's fitting that it would be here so close to the close of the song that she's recalling what Christ has done for her right here at the close of the song. We know that throughout the song that there have been twists and turns for the bride. We know that she's experienced loss, and she's experienced hardship, she's experienced turmoil in her relationship, in her other relationships, and also in her relationship with Christ. And yet here at the end of the song, so near to the end of the song, she's able to reflect, and she's able to make these acknowledgements, and so she's stating what Christ has done for her, and the arrangement she finds herself in. We'll examine these verses here under three headings. First, that she humbly acknowledges the grace that's given to her by Christ. Second, that she outlines the covenant that Christ has established and enacted with her. And then third, she speaks of the fruit that should be rendered to Christ. And so under these three heads, we will examine these verses and we would do well to step back and to look at what Christ has done for each of us. And we would do well to consider how he has done it and to seek that he would continue to do it and to think about the fruit that we would give unto the Lord, that we would yield unto the Lord. And the challenge will come for us with the Lord's help. The challenge will come to see if we also identify with the bride here. when our desire is that Christ must have his thousand pieces of silver. If we can identify with that as well and with the Lord's help, that will be the challenge. Well, we begin with this first head in this first verse of the bride humbly acknowledging the grace that was given to her by Christ. And so she says this, I am a wall. And so she begins by saying that she is one that's found favor in the eyes of her beloved, and that he has indeed built upon her a glorious palace of silver. And so she is acknowledging humbly, I am a wall that Christ has been able to build upon, and that she has been shown so much kindness by Christ, and that Christ has, In this way, Christ has confirmed the truth of what He says He will do for the little sister, because she knows that she's already been the recipient, that He's already done it for her. She knows that Christ has made His Word good. for her and she acknowledges it humbly. It's like when we go preaching in the open air and sometimes we'll say or sometimes I'll say that Christ has redeemed us and Christ has forgiven us and pardoned us for our sin and he set us on a good path and he's blessed us and he's shown us such favor, he's shown us such joy. unlike anything that the world could ever offer. And we'll declare this openly as a way to say His Word is good. It's true. What He's promised, He will perform. And we're giving a humble testimony to Christ's work in us as we declare these things and we say His Word is good. Just like the bride is saying, I am a wall. And the glory goes to God. And this is why the bride says, then was I in His eyes, as one that found favor. So the glory goes to Him, the glory goes to Christ because Christ has been kind to her, Christ has been kind to us because of the favor that's in His eyes. She says, I was as one that found favor in his eyes, not for anything that was praiseworthy in us, not for anything that was commendable in us. This glory goes to God. The credit goes to God for this. It's just as it is with men in the scripture that we read of like Noah or Abraham or Jacob or Moses. When speaking of these men, the Bible says things like, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so you see the grace is in the eyes of the Lord. The grace is in God. The favor is in God. God is the one who shows mercy. God is the one that extends grace. We love because he first loved us. And so all credit goes to God. Even as the bride humbly acknowledges that Christ has shown her this kindness, she says it's not for anything commendable about her. See, brethren, no one will ever be able to say that Christ came and built his kingdom using them and picked them out because Christ was so impressed with them. Christ was impressed. Or because Christ did not want to pass up the opportunity to include them in the building of his kingdom. No one will ever say that. Not in glory. No one will ever say that that it was something about them. No, in glory, everyone will say, I was in his eyes as one that found favor. He showed me favor. He chose. He extended his grace. And so this is a beautiful statement of God's mercy to the church in Christ. It's something like when Peter said to Christ, when Christ said, who does thou say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. In Christ's answer, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And so do you see that Christ gives the glory to God, says that God revealed it to Simon, not flesh and blood, that God has blessed him and that Christ is going to build. And so that's Peter's moment of saying, I am a wall. I am a wall and Christ will build. Yet it's all the glory and all the credit to the Lord. Now what's this that she's saying to us about her breasts in this verse? She says that they are like towers on the wall. And so what she's doing is she's combining the metaphors here. So she said her little sister had no breasts. So her little sister was undeveloped. Her little sister was not desirable to anyone for marriage. And so this was viewed as a sad thing. This was viewed as a sad estate for her little sister. But now the bride is looking over her situation, and she's saying that she has full development, that she has been made complete, and that she's ready for communion, full communion with Christ. She's mingling the metaphors a little bit because she's saying that she's like the wall that also has towers. And she's been completed because Christ has made her so. And Christ has poured into her gifts and graces so that she can say, I'm completed. I've got Christ. I've got communion with Christ. in the fullest sense that I can have in this world because of what He's done in me. And so the bride, again, she humbly acknowledges that Christ's Word is good, that His Word is true, that what He says about the little sister, she knows that He can do it because He's already done it for her. And she gives a good testimony of this, a good witness of it. It's good for us to humbly acknowledge that God has delivered us and that God has poured out gifts and graces to us humbly. And to say, look at what the Lord has done. Look at what the Lord has done. He's done it for such a miserable wretch as I. I know he can do it for anyone. I know he can do it for all, for any. And so this takes us to the next verse here in which the bride takes a step back and she changes metaphors again. And she summarizes what she sees that Christ has done in another way. And she outlines the covenant of grace in the terms of a vineyard. In verse 11, it says, Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman. He let out the vineyard unto keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. So this verse stands as a summary of what Christ has done in the covenant of grace. Solomon is Christ, and Christ has a vineyard, which is his church. For proof of that, we could go to Isaiah 5, verse 7. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. and the men of Judah his pleasant plant. So Christ has this vineyard. Christ won this vineyard through his great work of redemption. He suffered, he died, he shed his blood to win this vineyard. It's his by right. And so he has this vineyard. Now the name for this vineyard, the name of the location, it says Baalhamen. It's interesting because it's not referring to any place that we know of. But the words here, the words would mean a lord or a father of a multitude. And so the bride is saying that Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman. Christ won a vineyard. He's the father of a multitude. He's the lord of a multitude. And so this is because of his work of redemption. His work of redemption was to secure this vineyard for his own. making him the father of a great multitude as we know. And then she says that he lets the vineyard out to keepers. He lets it out. Now this would be a common practice in the ancient world and even today, and there's nothing strange about this. Jesus told of this happening in his own parable about the man who bought the vineyard and he let the vineyard out to keepers. There's nothing strange about this, but what's the signification? Well, the keepers are to be understood as the ministers of Christ. the ones that he let it out to, that they may perform the public ordinances of his church, and in that way, they would keep and they would tend the vineyard. And so this is also part of the covenant of grace. And what would the vineyard be without keepers? Christ wouldn't do that. What would the vineyard be without keepers? No, he left keepers. He left ministers. Was Christ going to win the vineyard and let it go unkept? He appointed keepers from the very beginning. He entrusted the care of his church to men who would appoint others through the courts of the church, and in this way, through the public ordinances, the ordained ministry, the vineyard would be kept. And the vineyard would yield a revenue. And that's coming. But this is why it's so important to understand the ordained ministry, and why it's so important. Because Christ gave it. and whoever despises it and whoever looks down on it or seeks to subvert it or seeks to step around, whoever would climb in from another direction over the fence or over the wall, this is usurpation. This is a confusion. This is not in alignment with what we're seeing here, that he let the vineyard out to keepers and that he would have a revenue. This is why ministers are to give an account and to show how they have tended the vineyard and to show how they have increased the revenue of the vineyard. And this is leading up to what he says or what the bride says. about the reward that Christ must have from the vineyard. She says Solomon must have a thousand pieces of silver from the fruit. Now James Durham is helpful in opening this up to us. This is what he says, the number is a definite for an indefinite saying in some that Christ's scope in letting out his church is thereby to make her fruitful. that by his servant's ministry, he might have rent from her, which is especially to be understood in respect of their ministerial fruit, or the fruit of the ministry. The sum required is alike to all, that everyone may bring, not implying that all ministers will have a like fruit in effect, or de facto, but to show that all of them have one commission, and of right ought to aim at having much fruit to the landlord. and would by no means seek to feed themselves, but to seek the master's profit. And so what Durham is saying is that the keepers of the vineyard have great responsibility laid upon them to increase the yield for the master and to seek the master's profit. So much like the parables we read earlier in Matthew 25, the servants had great responsibility upon them to increase the master's profit. And Christ is a great master. And so this is a tremendous motivation for those that minister in the church to pray and labor diligently in the ministry. Because Christ is worthy, he's a great master, and he's let it out. and he has an expectation of this revenue. Christ did not just win the vineyard by his blood so that he could see whether or not it might bring forth fruit to him. Christ expects it, and Christ will have it, and he's well worthy of it. He's well worthy of this and more. We can look at Isaiah 53, a familiar passage. He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. So you see what he's doing. He's letting it out to keepers. He will see the travail of his soul. He will have the thousand pieces of silver from the fruit of the vineyard and the treasure will be brought into Christ. And so that's a joy, that's a privilege, that's a wonderful thing. Well, what are we talking about in practical terms? Children, are ministers in the church really going out to tend vines and picking grapes out and making wine and making profit and bringing it to Christ? Is that what ministers are doing? No, that's not what ministers are doing, but yet they're bringing forth spiritual fruit, spiritual fruit. You see, sinners coming to repentance is pleasing fruit to God. And so ministers preach the gospel. Inside and outside the church, ministers preach the gospel because this is pleasing fruit and it's honoring to Christ. Good works that are done in faith are pleasing fruit to God. So ministers, preach the whole counsel of God, and preach righteousness, and lay it upon the people, and we preach obedience to Christ's commandments, and we exhort you to good works. Even the things that we read in Matthew 25, in that passage, when Christ said, verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto me, or done it unto one of these, the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. And so these glorify God, these are fruits. These are things that we exhort you to, to these good works done in faith. The praise of families in their homes is pleasing to God. It's fruit for the Lord. And so ministers exhort and encourage families to fulfill these obligations and to worship God and to order their homes aright and to bring forth pleasing fruit to the Lord. And the good repute of Christ's church, that's pleasing. That's a fruit to the Lord. It's a matter of his honor, and therefore it's linked to the health of the vineyard. And so this is why ministers and elders must exercise church discipline when needed, like pruning the vines. And so you see, boys and girls, these are spiritual fruits. These are spiritual blessings and things that ministers aim for out of love for Christ and service for Christ, because all that he has done And in these ways and in other ways, keepers of the vineyard are seeking to store up treasure for Christ. The keepers are motivated by the goodness of Christ and His worthiness to receive all that is His and His commandment. and keeping in front of their eyes what the scripture says, that he shall see the travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied. This is the joy and the crown of the minister, that he shall see and shall be satisfied and that we shall hear from his lips, well done, thou good and faithful servant. And that he should have his thousand pieces of silver. But you see, brethren, this same motivation that we're speaking of, it extends to all believers. It extends to all of us, as we will see here in our third head in verse 12. This is what the bride says in verse 12. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof, 200. Well, the obvious question is why would she begin by saying that Solomon has a vineyard and then just a moment later say she has a vineyard? She says, I have a vineyard, which is mine. Well, it is Christ's vineyard. The church is his vineyard. Yet each of us, we have responsibilities within and with our own souls to keep it. It's like the same as the talents that were given to the servants in that parable. We have responsibilities. The talents are the master's, but he issued them to the servants. And so it's something like your own life being given to you by God. Now, children, who gave you your life? Well, God gave you your life. He gave it to you as a gift. And yet another way, it's your life. and you have responsibilities, and you have things to do with your life. So you can say it's my life while also saying it's God's gift. God gave it to us. God gave it to you like a loan for his glory. Durham, once again, is helpful in opening this. He says, because of the variety of graces bestowed on her and the ordinances and privileges whereof she is a partaker with the whole as is said, it's called hers. because she must make a special account for her own soul and the talent that is given to her according to the trust that is put on her. So the bride is aware that the vineyard is Christ's, the church is Christ's, while also taking care to see that her soul is accounted for and that her soul is fruitful, that Christ might have his reward from her as part of the church. and that he might be satisfied. And so you see, each of us has the same motivation as the keepers do, to take account and to bring forth that pleasing fruit for the Lord. And the bride, she puts it a little bit more forcefully, and she puts it a little bit more personally, when she says for herself, thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand. Thou must have a thousand. In other words, Christ must have His glory. Christ must have His due. And she's putting it personally for herself when she says, Thou, O Solomon. And what a cry this is, that Christ must have His due. This must be our great cry. And this must be our great motivation for pressing on in our life, in our following of the Lord Jesus Christ, in our service, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he must have his due. He must have his thousand. I'm not going to stand in the way of it. I'm not going to do anything that's going to hinder it. I'm going to be supple and compliant in the hand of Christ. and following after His commandments, that He would have His thousand, and nothing is too much. No sacrifice is too great, because He must have it. It's His by right, it's His due, and He's going to have it. This is a great cry. This is very instructive for us. This is how we are to order ourselves and to watch our own steps. And we ask ourselves, We ask ourselves, is Christ having his right? Is Christ having his due? From the way that I'm living today, the things I'm involved in now, the things that I'm tangled up in, things I'm twisted up in, is Christ having his due? Is that any way to serve the master? Is that any way to give thanks unto the Lord? That should be our cry just as this bride issues forth, Christ must have his thousand. She also says something here, the keepers are to have something too. She says the keepers are to have their 200. She's recognizing the place and the honor that is to be given to the keepers along with Christ. And in this way, she is saying that she loves Christ's order, and she loves Christ's government, and she loves Christ's public ordinances, because she desires that the keepers would have their honor, along with Christ's greater honor. It's all ultimately to Christ's honor. But she says this out of due love, and due appreciation for that government that Christ has instituted on the earth. And so she says, the keepers shall have their 200. More could be said about this by way of application on how the 200 for the keepers teaches us about things like the proper care and maintenance for the ministry and the honor that is to be shown to those that do have the rule over you and the Lord. More could be said. but I'll leave it there, that she shows love and thankfulness. And ultimately, it's honor to Christ for her to say that the keepers shall have their 200. Well, we've looked at these verses. They come so near the end of the song. We've worked through this song for quite a long time, and now, so near the end, We see the bride stepping back, reflecting, thinking about what Christ has done for her. She makes a humble acknowledgement of her position in Christ. And she says, I'm a wall. I'm a wall because Christ has built on me. My breasts are as towers because Christ has formed me and helped me and I've been developed. by Christ, by his grace, and she says, Christ has favored her. She says, I was as one which found favor in his eyes. And so she says, everything he says is true. All of his promises are faithful. He will not disappoint any who come unto him with faith because he's done it for her and she knows that he'll do it for any who come. She says that Christ has a vineyard. She says that she is the vineyard, and that he also entrusted the care of his vineyard to these keepers who are his ministers, and that he has his expectation, his right, that there would be revenue, there would be increase, there would be a reward for his travail. And this is his expectation. This is his right. What will he say if you have no fruit? I trust that this is clear. What will he say? We read of these instances from Matthew 25 earlier. I never knew you. Depart from me. I never knew you. That's what the expectation is. That's what he will say if there's no fruit. If there's nothing in your life that anyone could point to and say, oh, I see the fruit there. I see the pleasant fruit of righteousness. The pleasant fruit of peace. I see the pleasant fruit of grace. that God has marked you with. If it's not there, what will Christ say? Depart from me. Depart from me. It reminds me of what Christ said to that fig tree in Matthew 21, verse 18 to 20. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only. and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently, the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, how soon is the fig tree withered away? That's how it is with the fool. That's how it is for the dry person with no fruit for Christ. It's the way of the fool who dies for lack of understanding. And the Bible says, how soon will they fall? How suddenly will they meet their end in their disaster? How quickly will they wither away like the fig tree? The disciples marveled how quickly it withered away. Our life is like a vapor. How quickly will those who have no fruit to show wither away? And so what am I telling you? I'm not telling you to try and grow some fruit on dead branches. That's not possible. I'm telling you to believe. I'm telling you to repent. I'm telling you to bring that confession of your sin to the Lord and ask that He might do to you what He has done to that bride. And then, and then will you yield this fruit. So what if you have this fruit, what if you have this fruit, but it's so poultry, there's not much there, it's so poultry? Well, you might be like the bride herself at the beginning of the song. In chapter one, verse six, she says this, look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. And so if your vineyard is not kept, your fruit is so paltry, so small, so weak, you may be like the bride at the beginning of the song. But what happened to her? What happened over all this song, over eight chapters with her comings and her goings and her longings and her desiring and her coming, her going after Christ, what happened to her? Chapter eight, I am a wall. My breasts are like towers. Solomon has a vineyard and he shall have his thousand. That's what happened to her. And so that's the hope and the expectation for anyone whose fruit is very small and very weak. But the challenge, the challenge is that our cry would be like the brides in chapter eight, that Christ must have his due, that he must have his thousand. That's the challenge. The challenge is that we would earnestly seek and desire and pray to the end that there'd be nothing standing in the way of Christ having all of his right and all of his due, and that we would follow what Christ says. He says, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. That's the desire of the believer, to lay up that treasure for the master, and to render it all to Christ, for it is his. May the Lord bless his word to our hearts. Let us stand now as we pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee for all Thy bearing with us and all Thy patience with us. For we would give more fruit to Thee. We would render more delights to Christ. And so we pray that that would forgive us. We pray that that would stir up those graces whereby we would cry as the church cries in the word of God, Christ must have his thousand. We pray that this would be our cry, this would be our motivation. We pray that any who have been given charge, any who are the keepers would have this as their motivation. And that Christ would be honored above all things. Our father, we thank thee for this evening, this time to gather together and to worship thee and to bring our requests, requests unto thee. And we do pray for our dear brother. We do pray for Mr. Gardner. We pray that thou would prepare him and sustain him and uphold him with such strength. that he would come and that he would minister in just a few days' time, and that would work thy mighty wonders through thy ordinary means, and that we would see the salvation of our God. Bless our congregation, bless our families, bless Pastor Piers as he's away, and give him safety in his return. Our God in heaven, we look to Thee. We pray that Thou would sustain us. We ask these things, praying in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.