The Song of Solomon 1:9 comparison of the beloved to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots, arguing it's a compliment signifying the bride's value to Christ. It develops this by outlining seven characteristics of these horses: costly (redeemed by Christ's blood), chosen (elected by God), close (maintaining unity in the Spirit), clean (washed by the Word), controlled (filled with the Holy Spirit), contented (assured by God's presence), and commissioned (to carry Christ to the world). The sermon concludes by urging believers to live as a distinct, holy, and unified company that reflects well on Christ, enabling them to effectively share the gospel.
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Thank you very much. Jesus doeth all things well. He certainly does. Does things better than we do them. We make a mess of things, don't we? We try to operate on our own. Without him we can do nothing. It says in John fifteen, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye accept ye abide in me, for without me ye can do what? Nothing. That means nothing. Without him nothing. But thank God we can also quote the verse, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Christ makes all the difference, doesn't he? So you're delighted to be here this morning, right?
Thank you. Notify your face. I met a man this morning. I was out running this morning. I met a gentleman hard walking. I actually was around the town, the way around one of those back streets, and I met him. I thought I'd be friendly. So I said, good morning, sir. Smile. And he went, run. And walked on. And said, man, boy, that's a miserable walker. You ought to be happy. Joggers look miserable. Ever see that people walk in here? It's miserable. Well, I'm happy to run because it's good for you. And, as we said yesterday, running after Christ, a great, great subject, too. So we're delighted to be with you this morning. I was, we were talking about, actually, this morning about people who had lost their spouses and husbands and so on.
I was saying to brother much more before the meeting about this lady who was passing away. And she said to her husband, she said, I want you to promise me before I die that if I die and you marry again, that you'll not give my clothes to your second wife. And he said that they wouldn't fit her. He had already picked up. And the... They tell about the fact of the man who was in a graveyard and he was crying his heart out. I mean, he was sobbing beside the grave. And this other man saw him and he went over to him and he said, as he listened to him, the man was crying.
He said, why did you have to die? Why did you have to die? Just really brokenhearted. And so the man put his arm around him. And he said, well, he said, no, it comes a time when we lose our partner and lose our wife or husband. You've lost your wife. He said, it'll take time for the sorrow to die down, so on. He was comforting. The man looked around. He said, it isn't my wife. He said, it's my wife's first husband. You'll get that one later. That takes a while. Well, I'm delighted to be with you this morning. Turn to Song of Solomon, please. Song of Solomon. And there are great expressions here between a man and a woman.
A person who in this book is called by her beloved, my love. And also a man who is her beloved. She talks about my beloved. And then this book is where you read my beloved is mine. I am his and he is mine. And they make some great comparisons and great expressions. Last night we talked about the fact where she said to him, Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth. And he calls her the fairest among women. Great expression. Wonderful to point forward to Christ and the church and his bride and so on. Now you have, if you want to know, man, how to talk to a lady, the lady that you love, this book will show you.
Now listen to this. Verse nine. Now this is a man who is in love. He's her beloved. And she is his love. And here's what he says to her. This is a great expression. He says, I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Isn't that romantic? Can you imagine a man turning to a woman and saying, I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots? Well, it's good. It's better than calling her an old nag. He likens her.
He compares her to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Now, in reading this, you say, well, man, was this an insult? Did this man get mixed up in his metaphor? No, he didn't. It was a compliment. You see, he's comparing her to a company of horses in the chariots of a king, right? That's what he's saying. And when you think about a company of horses in the chariots of a king, there are certain things true concerning those horses which are complementary to us. And by the way, which when we're talking about the beloved one and the one that he loves, of course, in the New Testament, our beloved is who?
Jesus Christ and we're his bride, we're his love. And he could look at us and we're a company, you see. And he could say to his bride, I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots in the chariots of a king. Now, I'm going to give you seven things this morning. Seven. All begin with the letter C. And vitamin C is good for you. You see, these horses that would belong to the king would be costly. They wouldn't be cheap horses. They would be costly. When our brother picked a hymn this morning where we sung, For he purchased my redemption and forgave me all my sin.
You need to stop and think of this fact that when God looks at us this morning and when Christ looks at us this morning, He's our beloved, He would say that we're a costly company, isn't that right? Costly. We're bought with a price. And you remember those wonderful verses over in First Peter chapter one, where Peter is writing to suffering saints, because they're suffering in every chapter of First Peter. And in that first chapter, he reminds them of their living hope and their lasting inheritance and their liberating salvation. And then in verse thirteen of First Peter chapter one, he says, Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.
Be sober and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And then he says, And if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear. And then he says, For as much as ye know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the what?
Said together, the what? The precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest In these last times for you who buy him to believe in God, that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. What verses? We have been purchased. A tremendous price has been paid for us, right? This company here. And what he's saying is, you see, if you were to examine the horses of a king, they would be the most expensive horses in Egypt, wouldn't they?
And by the way, salvation, folks, is free. Absolutely free. But it's not cheap. The price that was paid for our redemption was the precious blood of Christ. We are a costly company today, aren't we? And, of course, by the way, we'll talk about it a little bit later. We're a company who carries the king. That's who we are. And so when he says to her, I have compared to you my love to a company of horses and various sparrows' chariots, it isn't an insult. It is a wonderful compliment because, you see, those horses were the horses of a king, and they would be a costly company.
And so are we. We have been bought with a price. We have been purchased by the blood of Christ. We have been redeemed. That's why we sing redeemed, how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His infinite mercy, His child and forever I am. And that's why the writer goes on to say, Redeemed. I'm so happy in Jesus. No language my rapture can tell. I know that the light of His presence with me doth continually dwell, redeemed. Aren't you glad you're redeemed? We belong to a costly company of people who belong to the king.
That's what we do. Now, not only would it be a costly company, but it would be a chosen company of horses. You see, Pharaoh in Egypt would have the choice of all the horses, wouldn't he? He would have the choice. And one of the wonderful things to me in relation to being saved is that I'm one of God's chosen ones, aren't you? We're a choice company of people. I'm so glad that I'm part of the family of God, aren't you? Wonderful, wonderful truth. Now turn over to Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one, your Bible, and there it talks about the blessings of being Christians and the matter of being saved.
In Ephesians chapter one, verse three, We have the verse from which we get that great doxology, Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. And in Ephesians one, verse three, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That means we celebrate with praises the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason why we bless God with our words is because God has blessed us indeed. It says, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. I remember after I became a Christian, a lot of the people that I associated with after I became saved, they said, now you're saved, but you need to be sanctified.
And they said, what you need is, you see, you've got the first blessing, which is salvation, and now you need the second blessing, which is sanctification. And they tried to get me sanctified. And what they were saying was, you see, God wants you to be holy, and he does. We'll talk about that in a moment or two. But they said, we're trying to get you the second blessing. And they took me to meetings. And there were preachers who pleaded with me, come and get the second blessing. And if I got the second blessing, then my old nature would be removed, and I could live a holy life. Well, I found out, by the way, that my old nature hasn't been removed. And neither has yours. Right? I met a man one time. As a matter of fact, it was on...
Brother Murray on Whitehead Island. He was selling fuller brushes. And he was a man who believed in the second blessing. And when we met in the home where he was trying to sell the brushes, he said to me, he said to me, by the way, you're a preacher and you're preaching the gospel. But he said, have you ever received the second blessing? I said, what do you mean by that? He said, have you been sanctified? Oh, I said, I've been sanctified. Oh, yeah. I'm sanctified by the blood of Christ. By the way, he said, also I'm being sanctified. And one day I shall be sanctified. No, he said, I don't mean that. What I mean is, have you had the Lord take the desire to sin away from you, your old sinful nature?
I said, of you? He said, yes. He said, I haven't sinned for five years. Well, I said, that's the first one. I said, what's that? I said, you're telling lies. The Bible says, if we say we have what? No sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. And Julie said next. He said, no, I haven't sinned for five years, but my wife has. But I said, that's another sin. I said, what's that? I said, pride. No, no. You know, I discovered this. When I got saved, God gave me every blessing I ever need in Christ. He has blessed us with all.
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And one of those blessings is that we are His chosen company. Right? We sure are. And by the way, some people are afraid of the word election and they're afraid of being chosen. Well, I'm not afraid of it at all because I believe it as the Bible says it. Right? Don't you? Look at verse four. It says that God has blessed us according as he hath what? Chosen us. Now remember, he has chosen us not in ourselves, not in our sins, but in him. It says he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.
Having predestinated us. That's another great subject. Unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good measure of his will. We are a chosen company. We are a choice company of people in Christ, right? In Christ, in Him. And thank God for that. And so when this beloved one looks at his love and says, I have compared to you my love to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots, that company would be a chosen company. Pharaoh would have the choice of all of the best horses in Egypt. What amazes me is this.
Why I would be one of God's choice ones, right? Why would you? Did you look at yourself in the mirror this morning? God did not choose you before because you were good looking. He didn't choose you because you're intelligent. Because some of us are not. There are some people, if they put their fingers in their ears, they touch. If you know what I mean, there's nothing in between. But we're God's chosen people. That's a wonderful thing. We are choice. And this one looks at his love and says, I compare you to a company of horses. We're chosen company. So we're, first of all, a costly company.
Say that together? Costly company. Bought with a price. And a what? Chosen company. Chosen in him. Now, horses that are pulling a chariot need to be close. Don't they? I was in a shopping mall with our choir. I used to travel with our school choir. I was the choir director for about twenty-seven years. And some of you know Joe Wooden. Do you remember Joe Wooden and Detroit, Michigan soloist? Joe used to be our music director and he left. And someone said to me, could you take over the choir? I couldn't read music. Could you take over the choir for one year until we get somebody? And I had it for twenty-seven years.
I never read to anything again. But, you know, I had the choir, and we called this the mall tour. In other words, we were traveling, and we had to put in time, a lot of time during the day, because we had to get out of the homes we were staying in the morning, and then if we're going a short distance, I had to try and keep this choir occupied, and I used to take them to a mall. Bless the mall. And Orange Park, Friday. Is that what it is? My wife isn't here this morning. I don't want her to hear that. But... You know, I was in the mall, and when I was in the mall, they said to me, did you see the horses? I said, no, I don't see any horses. No, no, it's in the back of the mall, the other back. And they said, beautiful horses at Clydesdale's.
You know what company they belong to, right? Which we will not advertise. And I went out the back, and here's these horses in this big red wagon, right? Now, there wasn't two horses. and then forty feet distance between the next two. You see, if horses are going to pull together, they've got to be close together, right? Close. One of the sad things about God's people and about our Lord's bride is that many times Christians do not stay what? Close. We need to be close, don't we? And more than ever before, We need to keep the unity of the what?
Of the Spirit and stay close. Now, I don't believe in being close with darkness and all that other thing, and we are separated from darkness because light has no fellowship with darkness. But as God's people, we need to endeavor to stay close because we are close, right? It's the unity of the Spirit. Now turn to Ephesians chapter four. And in Ephesians chapter four, the apostle Paul, talking about now not our blessings, but our behavior, says in chapter four of Ephesians, verse one, these words, he says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called.
And what he's saying is, live consistently with what you are in Christ. In other words, in your behavior, be consistent with what you are in Christ. You see, if I'm a blessed person, I ought to look like a blessed person, is that right? And I ought to act like a blessed person. And the way I live when you should be ridiculous for me to come and say, listen, you know, when you get saved, God gives you a joy unspeakable and full of glory. Is that true? Sure it is. And we rejoice with joy and speakable and full of glory. And then I come to a meeting and everybody looks like they've been baptized in buttermilk. You see, now the point is, that's inconsistent with what we say we have.
You know, in England, also in the United States, when you go past the cash register in a store, right? Grocery store. You ever see the newspapers that are there? Yes, you have. If you go to a grocery store, you can't miss them. The inquirer, you've seen it? Don't look so spiritual. You've seen it, right? And you see the headlines, and so the globe, all that stuff. And over and over again, you'll find Lady Die and Prince Charles there. And there's gossip there about them. And there's other people there's gossip about it. Now the big thing is OJ. You say, every time you look at those papers. And, you know, some of those papers, it's garbage.
You know what I mean? Those papers are stupid. Like they'll say, you know, a seventy-five-year-old woman gives birth to a forty-five baby. That's the kind of thing. Stupid. Anyway, so that you look at those things. Now, in the paper, they get headlines. Royalty gets headlines. If it isn't behaving like royalty, right, they get headlines. And in England, the same way, Daily Mail, all those newspapers, they'll write about royalty because they're saying these people are the royal family of England, but there's some of them not living that way, right? That's the headlines. And by the way, sitting right here this morning is the royal family of heaven, right? And Paul is saying, I want you to live that way.
Live that way. And here we are, we say, now we are one. We are one because the Lord Jesus died on the cross and through his blood he brought Jews and Gentiles by faith in Christ into the same body. And there's one body we belong to the household of faith. And we need to stay close then. You say, what does it take for to stay close? to be a close company, in order we might pull our weight in taking the king to the world that they might get saved. Well, look at verse two of Ephesians chapter four, and it says this, with all what? Lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in what?
Love. Now, it isn't very hard to find an outline there with Bimming the same letter, because there's three L's in that verse. Loliness, long-suffering, and what? Love. By the way, you know, Christians do have differences of opinion. Right? I mean, you get three Irishmen together, you have four opinions. We've got different opinions. And we make different certain things. But I'll tell you, if we're going to stay close, what we need is not just what we believe, but it's what we are. In other words, we need to be lowly and meek, right? And we need to be long-suffering, which means to suffer long.
And there's some people, let's be honest, it's hard to stick them, right? And they're Christians. And we need a lot of long-suffering, and the fact that people are different. We're talking this morning at the table about preachers and the gift that preachers have, we're all different. That's a sad thing when someone comes along and says, now listen, I don't like that man's ministry because, you see, he doesn't, you know, stand behind the pole, but he walks, moves all over the place, see. And some people who just stand there are indignified. There's nothing wrong with that. And there's others who move all over the place.
Some are loud and some are Quiet. Now, for this crowd, you've got to be loud. Right? I can hear the... You know what I mean? When I'm preaching. Turn off the volume. And I can't understand that. But there are other people who are quiet preachers, right? Now, you need all kinds. But the fact is, when you've no long serpents, I just can't stand a preacher like that. Well, there's something wrong with it. The fact is, what he's saying is, stay close if you're going to carry the king. Stay close.
And we need to be. Don't we need to do that? And as God's people, even around the park of the palms here, don't we need to stay close? Because we are one. You see, they would be a costly company of horses, and they would be a chosen company of horses, and they would be a close company of horses in order to pull the chariots of the king. Let me give you another one. They would be a clean company of horses. Clean. It would be a reflection on the king if those horses appeared in public filthy. Is that right? Sure, it would. And if you were to go to the stables of the king, of course, I'm from the old country, and I've been in London, and if you see the chariot or the carriage there which carries the Queen of England and so on, you'll find that when those horses appear in public, they're spotless.
Right? And if you were to go behind the scenes, you'd say, why are they so clean looking? Why is their coat so shiny? Why are they glistening? And so on. Because in the stables of the king, every day they would take the water and the curry brush and apply it to the horses and keep them clean. And particularly when they're going out there to carry the queen or the king, they're clean. A good testimony to the royalty. Folks, one of the wonderful things about this book is the Word of God, it's like water, isn't it?
So you cannot keep clean unless you come day by day and have the water of the Word applied to your life. He can't be clean. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy what? Word. Now turn to Ephesians chapter five. You're in Ephesians chapter four. Turn over to chapter five. And in chapter five, there's a word there to husbands and wives. Where it says in verse twenty-five about husbands. Now preceding God talks about wives and wives being subjection to their own husbands. as the church is subject unto Christ and so on. By the way, that's a good book for marriage, isn't it, Ephesians?
Our youngest daughter was married just a year ago in November. I've had the privilege of marrying all of my kids who are married. We've got, someone asked us yesterday, do you have other children as well as Joanna? Yes, we've got eight children, eight of them. And we had seven children in eight years, all singles. And you know, it's interesting, when we said that to some ladies ago, And the men shuffled their feet. We had seven kids in eight years. And that was a perfect family, complete family. And then, P.S., Melody. He came along later. And, of course, afterwards, seven children. Then Melody was the number eight, and eight is the number of a new beginning. Melody was our eighth child, and she was eight pounds, eight ounces when she was born.
and eight notes make an octave, and I was the choir director, so we called her a melody. So she was eight, eighth child, eight pounds, eight ounces when she was born, and then she went to school, and she graduated from high school in nineteen eighty-eight. Do you realize what that means? Do you? Nothing. It's very significant information, the trivia. But she said, number eight was all over melody. But she'd get married ultimately. She's now twenty-four years old. Married a nice young man. He's a servant of the Lord, full-time work in Maine. And I had their wedding, and I've had all of our kids' wedding.
It's cheaper for them, more expensive for me. And they're happy, and I'm broke. And I had their wedding. And I remember when they were getting married, Melody was going to sing to her intended. And she said, Dad says, I'm nervous. She said, I'm really nervous. And I don't want to be uptight. She said, now when you have the wedding ceremony, I mean, don't read anything. I mean, just ad-lib it. And she says, I know you'll ad-lib it in the proper way so that things will be relaxed. So I said, do you realize what you're doing when you ask your dad to ad-lib, what's going to happen? She said, I do. That's why I'm asking you to. And so at that wedding, I looked at this young man and I said, by the way, son.
Of course, I knew him. He was a campus kid, too. I said, do you realize that you're marrying my daughter? I looked her right in the eye. It isn't just anybody you're marrying here. And his dad was standing beside me too. He didn't get saying a word. I gave him instructions about what he was trying to treat my daughter, but I said to them, you know, there are a lot of young people when they get married, they come along and they say, man, I'd like to have a good book on marriage, right? I have a good book on marriage for to build a solid marriage and solid foundation for marriage. And I said to him, Ephesians is a good book. Right? There isn't any better book, by the way, than this book.
Is that true? There isn't any better book than this. The Word of God. Of how a woman should act to her husband. It's in this book. and being in subjection to her own husband. That hasn't changed. The Word of God is still there as the church is subject to Christ. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. That's a good principle. On the other side, look at verse twenty-five, Ephesians five, it says, husbands love your wives. It's amazing when you're teaching some of this in a meeting and you say, Wives be in subjection to your own husband. You see husbands going like this. And they forget that coming up is you. And they say, Husbands love your wives. back again.
Now how should you love your wife? Here's what it says. Husbands love your wives even as Christ also what? Loved the church. That's a high standard. We'll say how did Christ express his love for the church? It says he gave himself for it. There's no substitute for giving yourself. And then he says that he might sanctify and what? Stay together. Cleanse it. with the washing of water by the Word. And we've got a beloved one, our bridegroom, who keeps his bride clean, right, every day with the washing of water by the what?
The Word. And God wants us to live clean lives. God wants us to be holy. God wants us to take time to be holy. God wants us to be separate and separate from sin. And sometimes nowadays it's difficult to preach on personal separation, isn't it? It's true. In many circles that the only difference between Christians and non-Christians is that the Christians go to meetings on Sunday. Folks, I believe this, that Christians ought to be distinct by the way they live holy lives. Don't you?
We ought to be clean. We belong to the king. And the way we live can cast a reflection on the king. And that means that every day, not just on Sunday, but every day, not only when there are meetings, we need to get aside and into the Word of God and allow the Lord to take the water of the Word and apply it the way we live. As a matter of fact, we ought to be filled with the Word of God. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And by the way, when your life is filled with the Word of God in all wisdom, it will make you sing. Did you know that?
It will make you sing. And in Ephesians three, sixteen, that verse which we quote, let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, it says there, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Now, someone said that with Brother McClellan said this morning, thank you for that good thing. That's good. And in meetings to be singing through your heart. Let me ask you this question. Do you sing at any other time? I mean, when you're working around the kitchen, wherever you are, do you sing?
Because you feel like singing. You see, when the Word of God is applied to your life, it not only makes you clean, but it makes you sing. And you'll find that, for instance, when you see wonderful things in the Bible I see, right, what's going to take places, it will put a song in your lips. Now, if you look at the Word of God, you'll find this. That when the Israelites, for instance, came across, and you were talking about Egypt, the Canaan last week, but when they came across, the Red Sea, and they saw the power of God's redemption, and they saw the Egyptians buried in the midst of the sea, and their bodies on the seashore, when they saw God's great salvation, what did they do? They sung. And in Exodus fifteen, beginning of that chapter it says, Then, on the basis of what they saw of God's great deliverance and God's great salvation, the enemy was defeated, they were freed.
They started to sing, and they sung this song unto the Lord. The Lord hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation, my Father's God, and I will build him in habitation and so on. And they're singing, and they're singing about what they saw at the Red Sea. And the more your life is touched and cleansed and filled with the wood of God, you'll be singing about what you see. And that's true. We came from Ireland with a quartet in nineteen fifty-four. We got on the boat in Liverpool, England.
And when we got on the boat, there were four of us and we were coming to Canada and we didn't know where we were going to preach. We didn't have any meetings. We were coming and we said, Lord, we are going to preach the gospel today. where the boat stops, and that was Saints on New Brunswick. That's why I'm in New Brunswick today. And when we got on the boat, we got on the boat, and we were lined up to get our place at the table in the dining room, and whatever cabin we had, and the four of us were standing in the line singing. And people were over. We were singing hymns. And we went to the purser. I said to the purser, I said, Sir, I would like, if it's possible, to have a meeting in the lounge.
where we're going to sing on Sunday night after supper, after tea. He said, boy, that would be great. We always look for something in the lounge on Sunday night. Well, I said, I want to tell you what it is. I said, we will be singing, and I will give a message from the Word of God, if that's fine with you. He said, oh, yeah. Great. And he put it in the ship's newspaper. They published a paper that night, distributed to the cabins. And on Sunday night, about four hundred people gathered in the lounge. The bar was over here. And I got up and I introduced the quartet and we sung the archipelago and we started to sing. And while we were singing, all the people gathered in and a lot of them were in there because the bar opened at seven o'clock and we started this about six thirty.
Now by the time we got through our singing it was seven o'clock, time for the bar to open and the steward was standing beside the bar and I started to preach. And everybody's wondering how we're going to get to the bar and the speech you're standing there preaching the gospel. And so one man, he left his seat. He said, I've had enough of this. And he went over to the steward. And I could see him talking to the steward and saying, you know, well, it's seven o'clock. And it says up here, bar opens at seven. And the steward went like this. And he turned back and listened to the message. And it came ten after seven. And a couple of other fellows went over and they looked at the clock and said the sign says bar open at seven o'clock. The steward went. And by that, about a few people are getting mad.
And I kept on preaching. And because of my message wasn't finished yet. So I went on to twenty after seven. And that steward would not open that bar. And we sung another song. Then I looked to the steward and I said to him, Sir, thank you very much for not opening the bar while I was preaching. He looked at me and he said, Sir, I would have lost my job first before I'd opened that bar. He said, I'm not a Christian, but my parents are Christians. And I've got more respect for the gospel than that. He said, that was wonderful. That singing, he said, to be in this place. He said, but he said, I would not open the bar while you're preaching. I said, thank you very much.
Now, the other fellows didn't thank me very much. They were glaring at me. But every day, that week, every day that week, we had an open air meeting on the deck. We sung in the place. And we landed in St. John New Brunswick and went through the customs at seven o'clock. And we were singing and preaching at church at eight o'clock, same night. Now, after the meeting, we went into the Riviera restaurant in St. John. And as soon as we get in, we start to sing. We're sitting at the table. We ordered a coffee, and we started to hum and sing. We're singing away there. And this waitress came over and she said, that's beautiful. Why don't you sing? I said, well, who's the manager? So the manager's over here. He was a Greek Orthodox fellow. He's over here, and they called the manager over, and he listened. And the waitress said, should they sing?
He said, certainly. He didn't know we were a gospel quartet. And so for two hours, we sat there and sung. We sung about Christ. We sung about the gospel. Two hours, nobody left. And then we had evangelistic meetings. And the next week. And what happened was, every night after the meeting, we'd go to that restaurant. And people called in and said, is Crystal River Quartet there yet? And they'd come and order their order. And we'd sit there two hours every night. That waitress came to Christ. She came to Christ. Now, the reason why we did that is because we loved to sing. And wherever we were, whatever circumstance we were in, we felt like singing.
And we sung, walking down the street, people followed us, walking down the street, on the street cars, in trains, on the boat going across the ground and on. The crew got to know us. Here they come again. We'd walk on there singing. And we felt like it. And what happened was in that city we were trying to get it becoming known around the area. We went into the radio station and the engineer said, what would you want? I said, well, we're wondering how much it would cost to put on an announcement for gospel meetings. He said, it would cost nine dollars a minute. Now, this is back in nineteen fifty four. We didn't have nine dollars. I said, we don't have any money. He said, that's too bad. I said, that certainly is.
I said, well, I'll tell you what. We'll sing and we'll give you the talent. if you give us the time. And I was joking. He said, what talent? He shouldn't have said that because we had a pitch pipe and we blew the pitch pipe and the four of us stood in front of him soon. And while we were singing, the manager of the station came through and he stopped and this high tenor we had, he sung top F without going into falsetto. He's like a girl. And he was singing at the front. And the manager came in and he said to the engineer, who are these people? He said, I don't know. They just came in off the street. He looked at him and he said, put them on the radio Wednesday night, prime time, fifteen minutes, free.
And I said, sir, just a minute. If you're putting us on the radio, fifteen minutes, prime time, Wednesday night, I've got one condition. He said, what is it? I've got to preach. We will sing ten minutes. I'm going to give a five-minute gospel message. And he said, sir, you can have it. And our ministry went all over Grand Anne Island, over into Nova Scotia. And that's how I started preaching the Maritimes. And it all came because of singing. Singing not because we were professionals, but singing because we felt like it. Do you feel like singing when you get up bed in the morning? Or moaning. You know what I mean? See, when God takes the Word and He applies it to your life, cleanses you by the Word of God, makes you one of His clean horses.
The fact is, and then fills your life with the Word of God, fills you. Then you can teach and admonish other people with what you see in Psalm. So they would be clean horses. Here's another one. They would be controlled horses. It would be a terrible thing for the king to be carried and the horses out of control. Now, one of the things I believe in my own life every day which is necessary, whether it's in ministry, and I say this honestly, is that I be under the control of the Holy Spirit. Don't you believe that? That's important. It's important in your life to be controlled by the Spirit.
And over in Ephesians chapter five, verse eighteen, It says in that verse, it says, And be not drunk with wine, wherein is access, but be filled or be controlled by the what? The Spirit. How can a Christian's life be under control, held under control, as we take the King to the world? I mean, you're controlled by the Spirit, by the way. You'll walk the way that God wants you to walk. You'll do what God wants you to do. I mentioned the other night before I was a Christian, I did a lot of boozing. And I learned this from drinking. When it says in this verse, Ephesians five, eighteen, be not drunk with wine, we're in this excess.
When a person is drunk, and if you've never drunk, you don't understand this, but when a person is drunk, they say a lot of things that ordinarily they wouldn't say. It affects their reflexes. That's why drunk driving is a terrible thing. They do a lot of things ordinarily they wouldn't do. They see in a way which they don't ordinarily see because their eyes are not focused right. They can't see properly. They can't speak properly. They can't act properly. Liquor controls it. And they do things when they're drunk, which afterwards, they're ashamed of. It's all because they're under the control of liquor. By the way, wouldn't it be wonderful if Christians were so controlled by the Holy Spirit?
They witness because they can't help it. Right? And you find them saying things that ordinarily they wouldn't say, but it's something controlled by the Spirit. And they see things that ordinarily they wouldn't see, and they're walking in a way which, because that's the way it is. And that's important that we be under the control of the Spirit of God if we're going to carry our Savior to that world out there that needs him. And so these horses in the chariots of a king would not only be clean, but they'd be controlled. Let me give you a couple more. They would be contented. Horses that were well fed, well provided for because they're in the chariots of a king.
Got a question for you this morning. Are you content? Do you know the secret of contentment? Living a full life. And sometimes, by the way, as you get older, and particularly if your resources are sort of humanly speaking or disappearing, and you feel very, very lonely and so forth. And you're saying, man, if I had much more to go on, if I had more security financially and so forth, this would be the secret of being contented. Folks, listen. Contentment is not based on the amount of money you have. Contentment is not based on how many friends you have. Contentment is based on one thing, and that is that Jesus Christ will never leave you nor forsake you.
Now turn over to Hebrews thirteen, verse five. Hebrews thirteen, five. And in Hebrews thirteen, verse five, it says there, let your conversation be without covetousness. And it says there be content with such things as ye have. Why? For he hath said, I will what? Say it together. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. That's a great promise. It's an unchangeable promise given by an unchangeable person concerning his unchangeable presence. And whatever happens to you, he doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. It says that in verse eight of the same chapter. And this is a kind of a phrase in the Bible, by the way, in the King James, of course, that when you read it frontwards and read it backwards, it means the same.
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Now listen to it backwards. Thee forsake nor thee leave, never will I. And frontwards it's I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So when things are upside down, you can still read this. and topsy-turvy. It's still there. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, thee forsake nor thee leave, never will I. That's the secret of contentment. By the way, God, the Lord wants us to be content, doesn't he? I have learned in whatsoever state I am, even in the state of Florida, therewith to be content. They'd be contented horses. But you know why?
Why would they be costly? and clean, chosen, and close, controlled, and content. Because they had a commission. Their commission was to carry the king. Right? That was the commission. Carry the king. You know, our commission is to what? Carry the king. The world. That's our business. To bring Christ to people. And he's a greater king than Pharaoh or any of these other kings ever were.
But to bring Christ to others, we're a company which is commissioned. He told us, he said, go ye into all the world and what? Preach the gospel to every creature. We're carrying the king. And by the way, if those horses that carried the king were not controlled, and they were tripping over one another and they were having problems. The person who would be let down would be the king, wouldn't he? That's the whole thing. Now, I don't want to let the king down. I'm sure you don't either. I don't want to. We've got a wonderful Savior. And he looks at us this morning and he says, listen, we're his love and he's our beloved.
He says, I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses. in Pharaoh's chariots. Your company. I wonder, I wonder, when people look at us, what kind of company they see. And can they see the king lifted up and carried to the world that meets him? That's important. That's a wonderful thing. And it's a wonderful comparison because, you see, this beloved one was not insulting his love. He was complimenting her.
That's what he was doing. Let's bow in a word of prayer, please. Our Father, we thank you for the word of God. We praise you for its truth. And so, Lord, as we leave this morning, as those who have been purchased by the payment of a price, those who have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Those who can say that we're satisfied with Jesus. Help us, Lord, to be the kind of company that will be a good testimony to the king of kings and lord of lords, that sinners may come to know him as their personal savior. Bless your word to our hearts.
Send us out of here to live for God. We pray in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.