Occupation with Christ

He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me is love. Were we here this morning? Were we under the apple tree? Was his fruit sweet to our taste? I think it was. The bride is occupied with her beloved and as she compares the trees of the wood her mind is upon the apple tree.

I've got some apple trees in my yard and when they're in blossom before the wind gets at them you can't see a leaf. They are just a complete array of blossoms and they look beautiful and sometimes we get a whole lot of apples and sometimes we don't but just to see them in blossom and throughout some streets in some cities are ornamental apple trees and they're simply beautiful but there's something else about it. There's a freshness and a flavor about it and as we are occupied with the person of Christ we could say compared with Christ in all beside no comeliness we see.

There's a beauty about the person of Christ that you never see in any other man. It's not physical attraction that there were something about his facial features that was different. It's the person of Christ.

It's what we read about him. It's what we enjoy about him and there's a sweetness and a freshness just to contemplate him. The psalmist says my meditation of him shall be sweet.

Now you know I remember once I spoke at Winnipeg on meditation many years ago but it's something I've I've tried to develop in my own experience and some of you may have heard me make some mention on this in time past but one of the greatest things I'm speaking to brethren and sisters one of the greatest things we can do is to develop a habit of meditating on the word of God and the person of Christ. I've said before if I go to bed and I'm mad at Chris I'll probably be mad at her in the morning. You know what I mean? It doesn't go away from your mind what you're thinking at night but listen if you go to bed at night and you meditate on the person of Christ you know you can't sleep all the time.

You know Alec Driver I've been with Alec quite a bit and we'd stop in the car and Alec would put his head back and within two seconds he's snoring. He didn't have time to to but I don't do that and so I've got to think and things go through your mind and I don't want to think about you. I don't want to think about what people say to me.

I want to think about the word of God and what I could enjoy and take something to bed with me and think on it. You know what I found and you know it's interesting. I said this to John Meakin and he says you know I tried it and it works.

If I go to bed and I'm occupied with Christ I'm meditating on him meditating on the scriptures. Do you know this? In the morning I start doing it again. Twelve o'clock I'm thinking on him.

Six or seven o'clock in the morning it comes back but oh you know if I go to bed with a bitter spirit if I'm annoyed at someone I don't wake up with a sweet spirit in the morning. But there's a sweetness about the Lord Jesus. A brother quoted I think it was this morning from Psalm 45.

All his garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces were made the glad and there's a sweetness and a freshness about the person of Christ. We were pointing out this morning in Philippians chapter 2 that the disunity that characterized the Philippian church maybe started with two women arguing on who made the best cakes. I don't know.

Doesn't really matter. Everybody takes their position. Do you know there's nothing worse than to be out of harmony with your brethren.

There nothing ruins an assembly more than disunity among the people of God. And the psalmist he's looking at the how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And there's a freshness about it just to be at one with your brethren.

And if you are then you're at one with the Lord. And the problem there at Philippi was disunity. What's the antidote? Well Paul could have just bawled them out.

He speaks about disunity and unity and one soul and one mind and he does that in every chapter. But now in chapter 2 he takes up the person of Christ and he says let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. How do I know the mind of Christ? How do I learn the mind of Christ? Well I can talk to my brethren about him and that's helpful.

Better occupation than talking about fast cars or the ball game or something. And certainly better than talking about your political scene. My heart goes out to you.

No, you know, we can talk about him. If we can get occupied with him. And sometimes we get occupied with other people and we all do that.

But just to get our mind centered and we can enjoy Christ from our brethren. But you know this, we can enjoy Christ in here. We can enjoy Christ in here.

Do you know how long it takes to read the average chapter about 20-25 verses? Five minutes. For the average reader to read the average chapter about 20-25 verses. I spoke to one of the elders in a meeting I was in one day and talking about the bible reading and he said he didn't like them.

Never enjoyed them. Wow. I love bible readings.

So I said, well brother John, I said, tell me, do you read the passage before you come? Do you? Before you go to the bible study, do you read the passage? Twice? He said, I don't have time for that. I just left it. He was an older man.

You know, I'll never learn the mind of Christ outside the word of God. And as I read the word of God and I'm thinking on him. And we've mentioned over the weekend here that we're thinking of Luke chapter 24.

And you look at the two on the road to Emmaus and it came up today. And there the Lord Jesus, beginning at Moses and the prophets, he told them things concerning himself. And all the scriptures speak of the Lord Jesus.

From the beginning to the end, we can learn about him. What more should occupy my mind? You know, it's sad when he's speaking to the disciples later on. And he says, when I was with you, I taught you from Moses and the prophets and the Psalms about himself and about his death and so on.

But listen, we learn in John chapter 16, the spirit of God will bring these things to remembrance. And in first Corinthians chapter two, you're going to learn that the spirit of God, he's the teacher of the deep things of God. And as a believer in the Lord Jesus, as we read the word of God, then these things of Christ will become real to us and precious to us.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. You know, I've got a sweet tooth and I like coffee, but I like a sweetness in it. I've got to take artificial sugar.

But you know, there's nothing sweeter in this world and in that world than the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Time has gone. It's just about, just about time I should finish.

There's fruit. There's something that comes out of it. The Lord Jesus says to the disciples in John 15, that if the urine me, if the branches in the vine, it's going to produce fruit.

But you know, we, as we become occupied with and live with and meditate on the person of the Lord Jesus, there's a fruitfulness in that occupation that is of great value. And there the bride says, I'm sitting under his shadow. Where did she go? She went under his shadow.

She sat down, Mary, you know, she, she, she liked to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And, and what a thing to do, to be occupied with him and to listen to his voice, to listen to his words and to carry out what he says. So the lovely Psalm, then it goes on and he says, he brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love.

You know, that's the hallmark of Christianity. If there's not love with nothing. And Paul writes a whole chapter about it in chapter 13 to the Corinthians.

And love is of God. God is love. And God loves the world.

Do you know, I was surprised when I learned this, I didn't read it any place. I, you know, you, you start to check and where similar verses are, do you know John's the only gospel writer that tells us that God loves the world? Did you know that? Not another verse like John 3 16 in your Bible. Did you know that John is the only writer who tells us that the Lord Jesus loves the father? I mentioned it this morning in John chapter 14 at the end of the chapter, but the world may know that I love the father.

And as the father gave me commandment to rise, let us go hence. The only time that I can find in the gospels. If you have another time, let me know that the Lord Jesus says that he loves the father.

And there he brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. I've traveled a little bit around the world and met various believers. And some of you have traveled more than me.

You know what I find every place I go, I find there's love one for another. Why is that? Because it's the love of the Lord Jesus. And even coming down here, I'm a relative stranger.

We go to our conference at home and I just about know everybody and come down here and I recognize faces. I don't remember. I have a very poor memory and I don't remember names, but there's a love among the people of God.

And you know, child of God, we'll have to love one another because the world hates us. The Lord Jesus says, if it's hated him, it's going to hate us. The world doesn't love us, but Christ loved us.

Child of God, we love one another. Listen to the Lord in John chapter 13. As I have loved you, so are ye to love one another.

As the apple tree, unique, sweet, standing out, as the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.