Chapter 53. USE 3. We should delight in the Word.
Chapter 53.
USE 3. We should delight in the Word.
A third use of the point is this: Is the ministry of the Word such that it has God and Christ speaking in it? Oh, then! How should we delight in it? How should we bless God for it? With what eagerness should we come to hear at any time? What, is not the voice of Jesus
Christ sweet to us? We have Christ wooing us, Christ exhorting us, and Christ comforting us. When we come to the Word, O! with what readiness and cheerfulness should we come to hear the voice of Christ?
If you are godly, Christ delights in your voice when you are alone in your closet and can speak but brokenly. O then! your voice is delightful to him. Therefore, the voice of Christ should be very delightful to you. I will give you a text or two as proof of this:
Canticles (Song of Solomon) 2:14, it is a speech of Christ to the Church: "O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs: let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely." O! let me hear thy voice, my dove; O! thou that art in the secret places of the stairs; art thou alone in a place of prayer, alone behind the door in the secret places? (For it is spoken here of the state of the Church in times of persecution, when they dare not come together openly, no matter how wicked people will rail at them, saying they gather in corners to do this or that.) But saith Christ, "Thou that art in the
clefts of the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs, let me hear thy voice; for thy voice is sweet, and thy countenance is comely."
Again, in Canticles 4:11: "Thy lips drop as the honeycomb, O my spouse!" When the saints speak of Christ or speak to Christ, their lips drop before him as the honeycomb. Now, what an argument is this?
Shall your lips be so sweet to Christ, and shall not Christ's lips be as sweet to you? The ministry of the Word is as if Christ were entreating you and beseeching you. O! How sweet should it be to you if you have the Spirit of Christ! The Church of Christ answers what Christ said of her lips, her voice, and her mouth. So, the Church answers to Christ in Canticles 5. Notice what the Church says of his mouth: what an echo and an answer to prayer! Christ says to the Church, "Thy lips, O my spouse, are as the honeycomb." And the Church responds, "And thy mouth, O my Saviour, is most sweet."
In John 3:29, it says, "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." If you are the spouse of Christ, you will rejoice to hear the voice of the bridegroom, and every time you come to hear a sincere sermon, you come to hear the very voice of the bridegroom, and you cannot help but rejoice in it. O! How sweet is one word of Christ to a gracious heart? The spiritual communion with Christ here on earth is through his ordinances; we shall later be always in his presence and see his face.
But if you would have any evidence that we shall have communion with him in heaven, we must rejoice in hearing his Word.