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The title of my sermon this morning is thirsting for God. Thirsting for God. Go if you would to Psalm 42. Just go back a few pages in your Bible to Psalm chapter 42. The title of the sermon is thirsting for God. The Bible reads in Psalm 42 verse 1, as the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? So the Bible is using some very dramatic language here to describe the way our love should be for God and the way we should desire God and seek after God and love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. And it uses this illustration of an animal, in this case a heart, or what we would know as a deer, panting after the water brooks. The Bible says, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Now I haven't really been around deer that much. So I haven't seen a lot of panting of deer. But what's an animal that we've all seen panting a lot in our lives? Dogs, right? We see dogs panting just, and it's just, it's so pitiful, isn't it? It's so desperate how they're just, they just look so hot and they need something to drink and they're just, right? And that David here is saying, you know what, that's how I feel when it comes to seeking after God. You know, I'm thirsting for God. I love the Lord so much that I want Him so much like I would want a drink of water on a really hot day. And so he says, my soul thirsteth for God. Go if you would to Psalm 63 verse 1, Psalm 63 verse 1. There are a lot of things that we desire in this life, a lot of things that motivate us, a lot of things that we love. And people are pretty serious about their food and their drinks, but we ought to crave and seek a walk with God, crave the knowledge of the Most High, seek communion with God. We ought to love the Word of God and the Bible so much that we're practically panting for more of God's Word. The Bible says in Psalm 63 verse 1, oh God, thou art my God. Early will I seek thee. My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is. So you just picture just the driest, most barren desert, a guy who's thirsting to death crawling on his belly through the desert just saying, water, water. That's what the Bible is saying here. He's saying, look, I'm thirsty for the true God with the same feeling as that guy who's crawling through the desert begging for a drop of water. I wasn't here when Brother Corbin Ressel preached, but my wife said that he made a statement that when you have a lot of food, you have a lot of problems, but when you don't have any food, there's only one problem, the fact that you don't have any food, right? I thought that was pretty funny. And also, you know, when you don't have any water, you got one problem. One thing matters to you. You know that guy who's crawling on his belly through the desert with no water, thirsting, his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth, he's not thinking about his stock portfolio. He's not thinking about what he's going to wear. He's not thinking about his plans this weekend. He's thinking about one thing. I mean, his mind is single on one thing, just water. And that's what's being expressed here. He's saying, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is, my soul thirsteth for thee. God, you are my God, and my soul thirsteth for thee. The Bible says in verse 2, to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Now, when David here talks about seeing God in the sanctuary, we're not talking about a physical vision. The Bible's pretty clear that no man had seen God at any time. So we're not talking about David going into the temple and seeing a physical apparition of God. We're talking about what the Bible calls, in Hebrews chapter 11, seeing the invisible. The Bible says of Moses, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible. The Bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The Bible says the things that are not seen are eternal. The things that are seen are temporal. The unseen God, the invisible God. David saw God in the sanctuary, but he did not see God with his physical eyes. He saw God by faith. He saw God with his heart. He saw God through the preaching of God's word, through singing hymns of praise to God. The Bible says blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. So when he said, I'm thirsting and longing to see thy power and glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, what does sanctuary mean? Sanctuary means the holy place. And in the Bible, when they use the term sanctuary, we're talking about the temple or the tabernacle. We're talking about the holy place where God's house was in the Old Testament. Now in the New Testament, the house of God is the church. The Bible says that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So what he's basically saying is that when he went to God's house, he saw God in a powerful way and he longs to see God that way on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, on Friday, not just when he's at the sanctuary, not just when he's in church, not just when he goes to a holy place, but on Monday morning, he wants to open up his Bible and he wants to get on his knees and pray and he wants to sing praises to God and he wants to see God. And he wants to see his power and his glory the way that he saw it in the sanctuary. What am I talking about? How many times have you been to a powerful church service? I know I've been to some services where the singing was just powerful and just lifted your spirits and just being surrounded by God's people and there was excitement there and people were fired up and inspired and the preacher got up and preached and he was filled with the Holy Ghost and the sermon just cut like a knife and you walk out of there and you have had fellowship with God. You have communed with God. You have seen God. And what David's saying is, you know, I don't want to just leave that for once a year or once every few months at a special church service or a special meeting, special revival or even Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, he's saying, you know, in my own personal Bible reading, in my own personal prayer life or singing praises to God, I want to see God like I've seen him in the sanctuary. You know, I want God to be my God. That's why he says in verse 1, oh God, thou art my God, not just our God, not just the God of Faithful Word Baptist Church, but the God of, insert your name here. You need to see God outside of church, not just come to church to see God. David wanted to see God outside of church, okay. It says in verse 3, because thy loving kindness is better than life. That's a pretty powerful statement. Thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee. Blessed will I bless thee while I live. I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. What are we talking about marrow and fatness? We're basically talking about food. We're talking about some of the most flavorful aspects of food. We're not talking about some kind of a lean cuisine here, okay. We're not talking about something that is lean and low calorie. I mean, we're talking about something that fills you up, right. Sometimes you can eat lean foods and they taste pretty good, but they don't really fill you up, do they? You'll find yourself hungry an hour later, two hours later, three hours later. You know, I know sometimes when I was trying to lose a little bit of weight or something, my wife will put me on a more austere diet and I'll eat a meal and I'll think like, oh man, this diet's a piece of cake because, you know, this tasted great, I'm full, great. But then an hour and a half later, my stomach's just screaming, right. Because you know what really ends up satisfying you is the fatness. You know what I mean? You kind of get some fat in there. Why? That slow burning energy, fatness, those fatty foods, not only do they taste great, but they keep you full for a long time, all right. This message has been brought to you in part by fatty food manufacturers all over America and all over the world. I'm talking about healthy fats, you know, eggs, meat, cheese, milk, dairy, stuff like, you know, good fats from coconuts and avocados and whatever, whatever your preferred source of fat. And then the ultimate source of fat is butter, of course. And as you can tell, I had a light breakfast so I'm a little hungry right now, okay. But anyway, but the point is that he's saying, look, my soul will be satisfied by God as with marrow and fatness. So other people are just craving food. And when they gorge themselves on food, they're satiated, they're satisfied, they have that feeling of contentment after a great meal. He's saying, you know what, that's how I feel when I've spent time with the Lord. And I am craving God's word, God's presence, the power of God, the glory of God, like other people are craving food. That's how I feel about the thing. Like other people want water on a hot day. That's how my soul thirsted after God. And then he says in verse 6, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night watches. So it's interesting because it starts out in verse 1 saying, oh God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee. And then in verse 6 it says, when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on me in the night watches. So basically he's saying, hey, I wake up in the morning and I'm longing to see God. And then when I go to bed at night, I'm reflecting back and meditating on what? The things of God. I mean morning, evening, night, the Lord is in all his thoughts. Go if you would to Psalm 143, Psalm 143, Psalm 143 verse 6, the Bible reads, I stretch forth my hands unto thee. My soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land, sea law. Hear me speedily, oh Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. So this is not just an isolated incident in scripture. This is an illustration that's used over and over again. We saw it in Psalm 42, Psalm 63, now it's in Psalm 143 saying my soul thirsteth after thee. And he says in verse 7, hear me speedily, oh Lord. My spirit faileth. Hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. He's saying I don't want to be like a person that's on their way to hell, an unsaved person that's on their way to the pit where they don't have any communion with God. They don't have fellowship with God. Their sins have separated between them and God. They're at enmity with God. The Bible says that those of us who are saved have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So he's saying I don't want to be like an unsaved person where I just don't have any walk with God. I don't know God. I don't talk to God. God doesn't talk to me. I don't have communion with God. Don't hide from me, Lord. I know you're there, but I don't want to even be like the people that aren't saved. I want to have a walk with God. If you would, flip over to Matthew chapter 22, Matthew 22. While you're turning there, I'll read for you some other verses. Amos chapter 8 is, of course, a famous scripture. Verse 11, behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Get that, thirsty for hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east. They shall run to and fro and seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. He's talking about a time and a place where God's word can't be found and people are just thirsty for it and they're fainting of thirst because they're running to and fro and there's a famine of hearing God's word and they're thirsty. Job said in Job 23, 12, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. He's saying, more important to me than making sure I have a nutritious diet or getting up and having breakfast, the most important thing is that I get God's word in me. The most important thing is reading my Bible. I could go a day without food, but I'm not going to go a day without reading the Bible. That's what Job is saying. I've esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. What am I talking about today, thirsting for God? I'm talking about loving God because the Bible says in Matthew 22, 36, where you are, master, which is the greatest commandment, I'm sorry, which is the great commandment in the law, Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. That's the number one commandment. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Why? Because if you do that, then everything else will fall into place. If you actually love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and if you really are thirsting for God, you're going to read your Bible. You're going to pray. You're going to sing praises. You're going to go to church. You're going to want to preach the gospel to the lost. You're going to want to tell other people the good news and get other people saved. But it all starts with loving God. And if you love God and you love your neighbor as yourself, he's saying, look, on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. Everything hangs on that. Church attendance, soul winning, Bible reading, not stealing, not killing, not committing adultery, not bearing false words. Everything just hangs on those two things. These are the two things. These are the keys that open the lock to keeping all of God's commandments are you've just got to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. You could comprehend the whole law briefly in that saying the Bible says, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The loving God is the number one most important commandment in the Bible. Is loving God optional? Not if it's commandment, not if it's the great commandment, not if it's the first commandment. It's not optional. Like, well, I'll go to church, I'll believe in him because I have to because I don't want to go to hell and, you know, I'll go to church, I'll go through the motions, I'll phone it in. But you know what? We're supposed to love God. We're supposed to delight in the things of God. We're supposed to enjoy reading our Bibles, going to church, praying, et cetera. God isn't looking for people to begrudgingly serve him because God loves a cheerful giver, the Bible says. He wants people to delight in serving him and having fellowship with him. Flip over to Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. While you're turning there, I'll read for you a few other things. Psalm 112, verse 1, praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his commandments. You'll be blessed if you delight greatly in his commandments. Of course, the famous Psalm 1, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Look at Psalm 119. We're going to look at nine different verses. Starting in verse 16 it says, I will delight myself in thy statutes. I will not forget thy word. See, man, it seems like some people are so good at memorizing verses, they're so good at memorizing the Bible. Would that I had that gift. Well, you know, it starts with delighting in God's commandments and then you'll remember. Have you noticed that things that are important to you, you remember them? And things that you don't really think are that important, you tend to forget them sometimes. And isn't it amazing how if you tell a child about some treat that they're going to get or some outing that they're going to go on, they'll never forget that. But if you tell them to clean their room or sweep the floor or take out the trash or do the laundry, isn't it amazing how that could slip their mind? When you delight in the law of God, you won't forget God's word. You'll remember that which you delight in. Look at verse 24, thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors. Verse 35, make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight. Verse 47, and I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved. Psalm 119 verse 70. So we see over and over again, nine different times in Psalm 119, he talks about delighting in God's word, delighting in the Bible, delighting in scripture, delighting in the commandments of God. It's so funny how some of the commandments of God offend people today. You read them scriptures out of Leviticus and Deuteronomy and they get offended. Well, you know, shame on them for not delighting in every word out of God's mouth. Who are they to talk badly about God's word or to be down on it or criticize it or act like it's outdated or old-fashioned or barbaric or cruel? No, you're barbaric. God has more culture in his little finger than you have in your whole body. And so the Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 70, their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. I mean, look, no matter how much food they, whoever they are, no matter how much food they have gorged themselves on and eaten the best food on the planet, you know what? I get more enjoyment out of God's word. That's what he's saying. I mean, their heart's as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. Look at verse 77. Let thy tender mercies come unto me that I may live for thy law is my delight. Look at verse 92. Unless thy law had been my delights, I should have perished in mine affliction. I mean, look, if I hadn't have delighted in God's word, I would have already failed by now is what he's saying. Look at verse 143. Verse 143, trouble and anguish have taken hold on me, yet thy commandments are my delights. And then lastly, verse 174, I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, thy law is my delight. So this is just repeated over and over again. I'll delight in thy statutes, thy testimonies are my delight. I delight in thy commandments, I delight in thy commandments, I delight in thy law, thy law is my delight, thy law is my delight, thy commandments are my delights, and thy law is my delight. Nine times in one chapter he hammers this great truth. Now go to Song of Solomon, chapter number 3. So loving God today, which is the greatest commandment, which is not just a mild form of love, but it's love like the guy who's out in the desert crawling in the dirt loves water, or like people love their food, people that love to eat food how they love their food, learn to love God the way that the most obese person ever loves their food, right? And it's compared unto fulfilling an appetite, right, starving or being very thirsty and craving it. That's what love is like. So not only that, but loving God is also compared for the longing that a woman has for a man or that a man has for a woman. The husband and wife relationship is also a picture of Christ and the church. It's a picture of God loving us. And Song of Solomon is a book that deals with that subject. Song of Solomon is a very deep book. On the surface meaning, it's about a husband and wife. And it's very profitable just as a book about husband and wife. You can learn a lot of good relationship advice and get inspired about the relationship between husband and wife and that's the primary application and we never want to lose sight of the primary application of scripture. But then as we go deeper in Song of Solomon, we find that it's also an allegory and that it deals with a lot of other very deep things and there are a lot of different interpretations that you can draw from it and illustrations that you can draw from it about the love of God and the love of Christ, et cetera. And if you think about it, being saved is very similar to being married, okay? So let me give you some connections here between being saved and being married. Well, just like when you get married, the commitment is supposed to be perpetual, right? It's till death do us part and the promise is I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And sickness is in health and poverty is in wealth for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. The idea is I'm going to stick with my wife through thick and thin no matter what happens. She's going to stick with me through thick and thin no matter what happens. That's what marriage is supposed to be. That's not always what it is in our sinful human world, but that's what it's supposed to be. Okay. Well, here's the thing. Salvation is the same way. Once we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He has said I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we are saved forever. He won't leave us. He won't forsake us. Nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But in this marriage, as it were, between us and the Lord, we can be disobedient. We can tend to be unloving or we can be rebellious or whatever, but he's going to remain faithful no matter what. Okay. So he will not stop loving us or mistreat us, but there are times when we stop loving him and where we mistreat him and where we don't give him the attention that he deserves, the affection that he deserves, the love he deserves. We don't give him the obedience that he requires. Why? Because we are sinners. But he's still there, right? He's still our savior. He won't leave us. He's not going to forsake us. His mercies are new every morning and where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Now think about within a marriage, okay? Shouldn't a marriage have love in it? But is love necessary to be married? The answer is no because of the fact that people could stop loving each other and they're still married, right? Or maybe they didn't even love each other at all in the first place, yet they got married. So why would anyone do that? Well, there are people who live in places where it's an arranged marriage or people just have a misguided view of marriage and they're just getting married for their political career or they're getting married for whatever pragmatic reason, not really because of love. Maybe they're just marrying someone because they want their money or they're just marrying someone because they're narcissistic and feel like they can get something out of the relationship for themselves. So a marriage may not even have any love at the beginning or it could start out being a loving marriage and then that marriage could wax cold and the husband could stop loving his wife or the wife could stop loving her husband. But let me ask you this, are they still married? Of course they are. It's not like, oh, I woke up one morning and I wasn't married anymore because I realized that there was no love there so I guess we're not married anymore. Wrong, you're still married. Now, could there be love without marriage? Sure, because usually love begins before marriage because usually I love someone and that's why I'm going to marry them. And they love me, that's why they married me. That's how marriage usually works. So there's love, there's desire, there's a longing and then the marriage is the fulfillment of that. So you see how marriage and love are closely related. And obviously if we're talking about love and marriage, those are two subjects that would go hand in hand, wouldn't they? You know, if I'm preaching at a wedding, I'm probably going to talk about love. That's probably the subject that's going to come up the most at a wedding. And when we think of marriage, if we had you give the aspects of marriage, I'm sure love would come rolling out of your mouth right away. So love and marriage are closely related but they are not the same thing because you can have love without marriage and you could have a marriage without love and it's still a literal, legal, binding marriage. Now that marriage ought to have love. It's a shame if the marriage does not have love in it but you could still have a legitimate marriage without any love there. It's still marriage. Okay? Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Okay. Well, now let's carry that over to the illustration about salvation. Should we love God? Now here's the thing. God loves us. There's no question about that. So from God's end, this marriage as it were, quote unquote, or salvation is a loving marriage in the sense that God loves us and nothing can separate us from his love. But do we always love him? No, because the Bible says if you love me, keep my commandments. The Bible says if a man say I love God and keepeth not his commandments, he's a liar. So if I say I love God and I'm not keeping his commandments, then I'm lying. Now it doesn't mean I'm not saved because if I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior, I'm sealed by the Holy Ghost under the day of redemption. I'm saved. I'm a child of God. I'm born again. I'm sealed. He'll never leave me nor forsake me. I have eternal life. I'll never come into condemnation. I've been passed from death unto life. But if I'm not keeping his commandments, although I'm saved, that means I don't love him like I should. And the more I love him, the more I'm going to keep his commandments. And if I don't love him, I'm not going to keep his commandments. And you don't have to turn there. You're in Song of Solomon. Go ahead and stay there. But you know, the book of 1 John talks a lot about this, okay, that if you say you love God and you don't keep his commandments, that you're actually lying. Here's another thing it says. It says if a man say I love God and hateeth his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? Now some people will say this. Well, if you don't love God, you're not saved. That's not true because then you know what that would mean? That would mean if you don't keep the commandments, you're not saved. And you know what that is? Works-based salvation. That's a work salvation. Now this verse proves that you can not love God and still be saved because it says if a man say I love God and hateeth his brother, he's a liar. Well, listen, if you're not saved, you don't have a brother in Christ to love or not love. See, what it's talking about is somebody who says they love God but they don't love, it's not talking about their physical brother here. Because if you actually get the context, chapter 5, verse 1, which it rolls right into, says he that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Everybody listen to this. Pay attention to this because David Cloud doesn't understand this, okay? He that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. So if we love God, we love the children of God. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. So that's the context. And in that context, he says if you say you love God and hate your brother, you're a liar. For he who loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? So look, if I weren't saved, then I wouldn't even have a brother to love or not love because I wouldn't even be in the family. I wouldn't even be a child of God, okay? So there are plenty of proofs in the Bible of the eternal security of the believer, amen? That once we believe on Christ, we're saved. Just like when my wife married me, she is not eternally secure, but she's secure for this lifetime. I'm not leaving. I will never leave nor forsake her. Now, if she treats me like dirt, what's going to happen? We're going to have a bad relationship, okay? But we're still married, okay? If she treats me well, we're going to have a good relationship and vice versa because I'm not Christ either. I'm not a perfect person, so it's a two-way street. But with God, it's kind of a one-way street because he's always doing his part perfectly. He's always the perfect husband. He's always the perfect father. He's always the perfect savior, perfect God, but we are delinquent on our end, aren't we? But yet, we're still in that relationship. We're still saved no matter what. He'll never leave us or forsake us just as in marriage. So this is a powerful illustration that's used throughout the Bible. All throughout the Epistles of Paul, he compares, you know, Christ loved the church as the husband is supposed to love his wife and, you know, it goes on and on. I'm not going to go into all that scripture, but there's a mountain of scripture, right, that compares marriage to Christ's love for us. Okay. So let's go to Song of Solomon with some of that in mind here. Song of Solomon, chapter 3, verse 1. And again, these scriptures are very deep, so I'm only going to scratch the surface a little bit here this morning, but we're going to talk a little bit about the allegory here that's going on in Song of Solomon, chapter 3 and chapter 5. It says in verse 1, by night on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. And of course, the allegory is this is the human being seeking after God, right, seeking after the Lord. I will rise now and go about the city and the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that conceived me. Now let's look at this story here and understand the meaning, the deeper meaning than just a woman who's looking for the man that she loves. Let's go to the deeper meaning. I will rise now and go about the city and the streets and in the broad ways will I seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him not. So she goes to seek him in the broad way and doesn't find him. What does the Bible say about the broad way? God is the way that leads to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth in life and few there be that find it. So if you're looking for the Lord, if you're looking for Jesus, if you're looking for God in the broad way, you're not going to find him. Now how does she eventually find him? The watchmen that go about the city. Now who are the watchmen that go about the city? Well according to the parable that I'm giving you right now from the scripture, the watchmen are the soul winners because the Bible said to Ezekiel that he was said as a watchman to warn people that they would not die in their sins, right? And so the watchman is a preacher. It's someone who warns you of danger, okay? So it could be a soul winner who's warning all men and preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. So basically she seeks in the broad way, doesn't find him, okay? But then the watchmen found me. So notice, she didn't find the watchmen, the watchmen found her. See we as watchmen and God said to Ezekiel, I've sent you as a watchman, son of man. And we're watchmen. You know, we've been given the responsibility of preaching the gospel and warning people of hell and teaching people the gospel that they can be saved and go to heaven. We don't wait for them to come to us. We're not going to sit here and wait for them to come to church and show up. No, we go out into the streets and into the city and we find them, okay? And the Bible says the watchmen that go about the city, which is what we do, found me to whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth. So once the watchmen find her, it doesn't take long to find the Savior, right? So this is a picture of soul winning. I found him whom my soul loveth, I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house, into the chamber of her that conceived me. So again, this is a story of love, of loving God, longing for God as a woman longs for her beloved. And once she's found him, she doesn't want to let him go. She wants to keep him. Now let's flip over to chapter 5 and see this again. Go to chapter 5 of Song of Solomon. And again, there's a surface meaning but then there's the allegorical meaning or the symbolic meaning. Look at Song of Solomon chapter 5 verse 2, I sleep but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying, open to me my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night. I've put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall I defile them? Now get the picture here. Here's a guy standing outside the door. He's banging on the door of the house, right? He's beating on the door. He's knocking on the door and what's he saying? Open up, let me in, open up, let me in, right? And he also says, my head's filled with dew, my locks with the drops of the night. So basically he's getting wet. He's out in the, you know, you could picture like a drizzle or mist or a light rain. He's outside, he's banging on the door saying, let me in, he's getting all wet. His locks are his hair. His hair is getting wet, he's getting soaked, he's expecting to be let in but he's not being let in. He's beating on the door and he's giving all these reasons. I mean this seems like he's really working hard to get into the door here. You would think that just would be sufficient and then it's just like, come in, my beloved. But no, here he is, he's out on the porch just banging away, banging away, getting wet, his hair's wet, he's, and then he says, I already took off my coat. So it's like he got there, he took off his coat and he already washed his feet, you know, he cleaned up from the road, he's ready to come in. His feet are washed, his coat's, he's like, are you really going to make me put my coat back on and get my feet dirty again? I mean, I'm here, here I am, I'm ready. I'm more than ready, in fact, I've been already waiting too long, I'm getting soaked out here, are you going to let me in or what? Does everybody get the picture here? This is pretty dramatic. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved. It's about stinking time. And my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock, I opened to my beloved but my beloved had withdrawn himself. Yeah, I wonder why. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of many young people I've talked to where I gave them the gospel and here's what they said, you know what, I'm too young for religion. This is something I'm going to deal with when I'm older. I'm going to get saved when I get older, I'm too young for this, I'm too inexperienced, I need to live life a little bit, and I'm not really interested in the things of God right now. No, I'm not against it and in the future, you know, I had someone specifically tell me this not too long ago, you know, a loved one that I'd given the gospel to repeatedly and they said, you know, in the future, I definitely want to seek after God but I'm just too young. And this seems to be a European mentality. A lot of people in Europe will have this attitude of seek God when you're older. No, the Bible says seek the Lord while he may be found. When he's knocking at your door and, you know, when somebody's giving you the gospel, you better know that's God beating your door down. When you hear the word of God preached, when there's any kind of a moving in your heart, when you hear something about the Lord, some scripture, some word of the gospel, you know, that's the time to get saved. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. And so the picture is, you know, Jesus is trying to get in, trying to get in, he's trying to get in. Come on, let me in. And then finally, after he finally just, forget it. You know, she comes to the door all dripping with myrrh, all right, I'm ready to let you. And you know what the picture is too, is that we don't wait till we're ready to get saved. Oh, I got to clean up my life first. I got to get all dripping with good works. I got to get all the sweet smelling good works and get all the junk out of my life and repent of all my sins, then I'm going to come to Christ once my life's cleaned up and I'm ready to receive him. You know, it'd be like if you're at home and somebody comes to visit you, you're like, just a second, and then you just go get in the shower for 15 minutes. And then you spend 10 minutes agonizing about what you're going to wear, getting dressed, and you're like, oh, better cut my fingernails. Oh, better put on some deodorant. Oh, you know, got to do this, do that, get ready. And then you just get totally ready, 45 minutes have gone by, and then you're surprised when he's not there. And now all of a sudden you wish you would have opened the door to him. What have I done? Why didn't I open the door? Now I don't even have his number. I don't even know where he is. I don't even have his address. I don't know where to find him and he was here. And I neglected to open the door. That's the picture here, okay. So what happens next? I rose up to open to my beloved, my hands dropped with myrrh, my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh, I'd repented of all my sins and was living a very pious life. I opened to my beloved, verse 6, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. Yeah, you failed. I sought him but I could not find him. I called him but he gave me no answer. The watchman that went about the city found me. Oh, this looks good. This looks like it's going to be good because good thing some soul winners found you. They smote me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. Now why did this encounter with soul winners go so bad? You know, I mean, are these soul winners not properly trained? You know, they're just going out, just smiting, wounding, ripping off your veil. Here's what's going on. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Here's another verse that might help. How about this? Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. Some people have interpreted this as, oh, well, these watchmen, they must be the bad guys in the story because they're wounding, because they're ripping off the veil from her. But you know, I believe that there's a better interpretation here of the fact that faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. This is a person who has been delinquent in receiving Christ and has sought to clean up themselves, and they think that that's somehow what's required when really what's required is just to open the door. That's what's required. Okay. And look what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 15. For we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. So to God, we are a sweet saver of Christ. To the one, we're the saver of death unto death. And to the other, the saver of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, as of God and the sight of God, speak we in Christ. So what's the Bible saying here is that, you know, we as servants of God, we as watchmen, we as soul winners, we are a sweet saver of Christ to God. But unto our fellow man, we're either a saver of life or a saver of death. You know, if we knock on somebody's door and we give them the gospel and they believe on Christ, boy, that's a sweet saver of life. We're the best friend that they've ever had. You know, nobody's ever done anything so great for them. But if we come to them and they're not saved, we come to them and they're a reprobate, it's too late for them. God's not even knocking on that door anymore. Well then now we're just a saver of death unto them. All we're doing is what? Reminding them that they're damned. Just by showing, just by showing them, you know, that hell is real and heaven's real and we're all sinners, we all deserve hell, but you got to believe in Christ. You know, if they don't believe in Christ, then that's a saver of death unto them. All that is is a message of you're damned, you're doomed, you're going to hell. Even if it's not said in a rude way, even if it's said kindly and not in so many words, but that's really the message at the end of the day. If you reject Christ, you're going to hell. That's the message. That's the warning. That's what the watchman's saying. And I believe the veil being removed or ripped off. You know, what's a veil? It's like a covering. I think people become exposed for what they really are. The gospel shines the light on them that they're not as good as they thought they were. Their myrrh and their sweet smelling scents aren't going to get them into heaven, not going to cut it, not going to bring back their beloved unto them, he's gone. So what am I trying to say with these stories here from Song of Solomon? I'm saying that this love here that a woman has where she's just longing for the beloved, that's how we should feel about God. Look, there are even some unsaved people who long for God, right? You know, they're in there by night on their bed and they're seeking him whom their soul loveth and they're not finding him. But when the watchman find him, you know, then they find the Savior. But there are people out there that are not saved. But they're longing to know God. They want to know God. They want to be saved. And you know what? That's why I go soul winning more than anything is to find those people. Because man, when you go soul winning, some people you find them and they're not even interested but then once you start giving them the gospel, then they start getting interested. And they can still get saved, which is great. But man, I love it when I run into that person that just says, man, can you tell me how to be saved? Man, I would love to know for sure I'm going to heaven. I would love to know how to be saved. That person who wants to meet the beloved, they want to know the Savior, they've already been looking for him. Somebody else already planted a seed somewhere, they've heard God's word somewhere, they're already looking for him and you can find them and bring them to the Savior. That's what I live for when I'm out soul winning, is finding that one person. But we that are saved, now that the honeymoon's over, we shouldn't lose that craving that we had when we were dating. Think about when you're dating, boy, you just live to see your beloved, don't you? You just can't wait, you're just counting down until the next time you can see him or her and you're just living for that next appointment. You know what? But then after a couple years of being married, some people will be avoiding their spouse. They're spending as much time away from home as they possibly can. In fact, they'll seek to hang around with everybody else. They'll seek their buddies and the bowling league and everything else and be as little with their spouse as possible. Or even wives doing the same thing, just avoiding their husband, wanting to do everything else. Or even just spending time with their husband or wife, but just being, no big deal because it's just old hat to you because you've been married for a long time. We as Christians, if you've been saved for a long time, we don't want to lose that love that this woman had in Song of Solomon chapter 3 and chapter 5 where her bowels were moved for him, where she's just longing for him. We don't want to lose that feeling toward the Lord Jesus Christ or toward the Bible or toward the things of God where it just becomes dry unto us. We want to keep the love burning bright for the Lord. And obviously in your physical marriage as well, your carnal relationship, obviously you want to make sure that you still love your wife and that you want to spend time with your wife and that you love your husband and you want to hang out with your husband and talk to him and get to know him and not just think, oh yeah, the old man, the old ball and chain or whatever. Think about the unsaved person who's just longing to have that assurance of salvation. Okay? Well, what about you? You have that assurance of salvation. Are you rejoicing in it or do you just take it for granted the way a man could take his wife for granted after 20 years of marriage or 30 years of marriage? Are you taking the Lord for granted? Are you taking the – you know, there are people in this world who wish they had the whole Bible translated into their language. They wish they had a copy of the Bible in their hand. These are things that the angels desire to look into. Have you lost that love and zeal for the things of God that you had before the honeymoon was over? What do you hunger and thirst for in life? What is it that you crave? If you would turn over to Isaiah chapter 55. What is it that you crave in life? And I'm not just asking you to fill in the blank with the answer that you know I want you to give – God. I mean, I want you to actually do some real introspection. Actually look inside yourself right now and ask yourself, what is it that I really want in life? What is it that I truly crave? What is it that makes me get up in the morning? What is it that I live for, that I long for, that I would die for? What is it? I mean, is it money? Is it fame, prestige? Is it food and drink? Just eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die? Is it drugs? What is it, true love? You're going to find that special someone? Let me tell you something. That special someone can provide a lot of joy in your life, but you know what? They're not going to give you what you're looking for in the end. They're not going to fulfill your ultimate craving. It's a blessed relationship, but you know, the one thing that we really ought to love more than anything else is God. We ought to really love God, and I don't mean to just say we love God, but actually desire him, actually thirst for him, hunger for him, right, and just want to spend time with him, want to see him, want to know him, and actually love him like the glutton loves his food, like the drunk loves his alcohol, like the husband loves his wife, like the wife loves her husband. We ought to love the Lord God with passion and zeal and with all our heart, all our strength. I mean, think about that. That's a lot of love. When you're loving him with all your strength, all of your might, it's like you're just channeling all of your energy into loving God, maximum. This is what the Bible teaches. Now if you love and crave something other than the Lord, first and foremost, and obviously of course we love other things in life. I love food. I love hiking and I love running and I love carnal things like that, and then of course there are people that we love. We love our parents, we love our children, we love our spouse, we love our brothers and sisters, we love our fellow Christians, right? Of course there are other things and other people that we love, but we've got to love God first and foremost. And if you don't love God first and foremost, if you love something else, that thing's not even going to satisfy you anyway. Because the Bible says, he that loveth silver should not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase. This is also vanity. That's why the Bible says, speaking of God's word in Psalm 19, more to be desired are they than gold, yea than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey in the honeycomb. Those who thirst for God will truly be satisfied, according to the Bible. Go to Isaiah 55. Those who thirst for God will truly be satisfied. Isaiah 55, one, hoe everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me, here and your soul shall live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. He said, look, come to the Lord, salvation's free, it's a free gift. You don't have to buy anything, you buy it, but it's free, you don't spend a dime. And you get the wine and the milk, now look, when you're super thirsty, what is it that you really want more than anything else, you just want water. Just plain old water. But you know what, when you come to the Lord for the water of life, he gives you the water, but as a bonus, he pours you a glass of milk, right? He gives you a glass of wine as well. He gives you even just luxurious things. What's the alternative? Or you can go spend your money on that which is not bread. You can go spend your money on something that doesn't satisfy. You can go down to the Catholic church and pull out the five dollar bill of confession and the five dollar bill of baptism and the five dollar bill of confirmation and pull out the five dollar bill of the communion and the five dollar bill of the last rites and pay all this money and put money in the offering plate and go straight to hell and not be satisfied and not be saved and not have eternal life and never even meet the God of the Bible. Or any other church, whether it's the Orthodox church, whether it's some Lutheran church or whether it's even some apostate Baptist church that teaches a workspace salvation or repent of your sins salvation and go ahead and drop down all the money of turning from your sins and living a good life and you know what you're buying? You're buying a one-way ticket straight to hell because your righteousnesses are as filthy rags and you're buying that which is not bread and you're buying that which does not satisfy. Or you can come and take the water of life freely. You come to the Lord. When you actually find Jesus Christ as your savior, he satisfies. He is what he's cracked up to be. And not only does he satisfy you in the sense of getting you saved, giving you the water of life, everlasting life, but he also will satisfy your longing for real love. Because he loves you with an everlasting love and you love him and that's what you ought to be craving and that's what you're going to find in the Lord. Through having a walk with God, reading your Bible, praying, going to church, singing praises to God and truly loving him with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. It's said in Isaiah 44-3, I'll pour waters upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon my seed and blessing upon thine offspring. The Bible says as cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country. What's that good news? The gospel of Jesus Christ. And lastly, let me just close on this verse. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the, you know, if you're hungry and thirsting for money and power and food and whatever, you're never going to be satisfied. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you'll be filled. And there's a dual application this morning. Number one, salvation obviously, right? You got to be saved. It all starts with salvation. If you're not saved, nothing else matters about what I'm saying this morning. I mean, getting saved is number one because if you're not saved, you're still sitting in the house and Jesus out on the doorstep banging on the door getting wet. That's where you're at if you're not saved this morning. If you're not saved, Christ is outside of your dwelling beating on the door and you're just leaving him out there. And no matter what you're trying to do to clean yourself up or get yourself ready, the clock's ticking. Because you know what? He's only so patient. He's only going to wait so long. And when he walks away, you know what? That means you're a reprobate at that point, according to the parable. He's gone. You can't find him. Where is he? You call out. He won't answer. He's nowhere to be found. You don't want to be that person. So if you're not saved, boy, getting saved. And when you get saved, he's going to satisfy your need for salvation. He's going to satisfy the assurance that you're looking for of where you're going to go when you die. And not only that, but he's going to be your beloved for the rest of your life. So not only does he save you, but he also becomes your friend. He also becomes your companion. He also is like a husband unto you. He is also like a father unto you. He's a friend that sticks closer than a brother. And so if God so loved us, do we love him? Can you honestly say my soul thirsteth for God? Because if not, if you're like, I can't relate to any of this. I mean, I feel that way about lunch. You carnal fool. And you know, if you're a little child, I understand. If you're five years old and you're just craving lunch right now. But you know what? If you're an actual adult and you're just craving food right now and all you're thinking about is food and you couldn't care less about the things of God, boy, that is just disgusting. That is so foolish and stupid. What are you, an animal? All you have is just a physical craving? And you have no interest in the things of God. That's a shame. Or maybe you're like, I can't relate to this. I mean, all I want to do is just make money and party and have nice things and buy. You idiot. The God of the universe is ready to commune with you and have fellowship with you. And I don't, even if you're saved, you're still an idiot if you don't love the Lord and you want to just seek out the worldly pleasures, they're not going to satisfy. Look, the God of the universe wants to commune with you and have fellowship with you and you're not going to give him the time of day? It makes no sense. And if you don't relate this morning, if you don't thirst for God, if you don't hunger and thirst after righteousness, if you don't hunger and thirst for the word of God, then what you need to do is you need to get your heart right. Just like, what would be the advice? It doesn't mean you're not saved. I'm not saying you're not saved. It just means you're walking in the flesh, not walking in the spirit. That's what it means. Think about this. What if your relationship with your wife were dead as a doornail? Or your relationship with your husband were dead as a doornail? What if you just looked over at your spouse and you just don't have feelings for them? Is that a good place to be in marriage? Okay, so what's the answer? How do you fix that? Because the same way that you fix that is the same way you fix your lack of love for the Lord. It's the same way. How would you fix it? I mean, if you were at a place in your marital relationship where things have just died or things have just gone cold, how do you fix it? Well, what are you going to have to do? You're just going to take some effort. You're going to have to do what? Make a point to spend more time with her, right? Make a point to spend time with him. Do nice things for him, okay? And you're just going to have to, through an act of the will, learn to love that person, find love for that person, right? If you got to that place where love has grown cold. You'd probably go back and think about what was it that attracted you to that first and then the first place. You could maybe sit down and think of a list of things that you like about your spouse, right? And focus on those things and meditate upon those things. And then soon you will begin to feel those feelings of love and affection come back. And by spending time and effort and meditating on these things, you could improve that relationship and get to a point where it's sweet again, where you love your spouse. Okay. How about with the Lord? Same thing. What do you need to do? You need to get back into reading your Bible. You need to start praying again. Well, but I just don't feel it. Well, read and pray and then maybe you will feel it. You know, you need to start being faithful to church. Maybe you're a Sunday morning glory and you need to start coming on Sunday night. Start coming on Wednesday night. You know, maybe you're not going out soul winning. You're listening to all the hype about soul winning. You're hearing all the reports of salvation's here, there and everywhere. Hey, maybe it's time for you to get out and be a silent partner and go soul winning. And you know what? I think that going out soul winning for the first time as a silent partner, that can inject real excitement into your relationship with the Lord again. I bet that could be like a second honeymoon for you. Reading the Bible cover to cover, if you've never done that, could be like a second honeymoon. Going out and doing soul winning which you've never done, becoming a three to thrive Christian Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, you know, there are all different manner of ways that you can rebuild the relationship, but you better do a self check this morning and ask yourself the one question that matters more than any other question once you're saved. The one question that matters more than anything else is do I love God? Do I really love him? And he knows whether or not you love him. And you could lie to me and say, oh, I love God. He knows if you love him. He knows your heart. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for just everything that you've given us, Lord, for being our beloved, for dying on the cross for us, and for giving us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Lord, we're so thankful. What a privilege to be able to have communion with you and a relationship with you, Lord. Help us never to take you for granted. Help us to love you with all our mind, heart, soul, strength. And Lord, if there's anyone here today whose walk with you has grown cold, I pray that you would just knock on that door, Lord. First of all, knock on the door of the unsaved so that they would be saved. But even those that are saved, Lord, I pray that you would knock on the door of their heart as well and seek to have renewed fellowship and renewed communion with them. We thank you so much for our salvation and for our church and the fellowship that we have. We've been given so much. And the least we could do is love you with all our hearts.