We want to thank the choir for this truly beautiful song. "Hosanna to God in the highest" is what they were singing as well. And this I see to be the motto of Timothy and Alice's wedding. We want to thank the choir for this time, that Christ will be supreme in everything. It is truly a joy to be here on this occasion. And I would like to continue my exhortation and exposition from the Scriptures. I think some of you would be wondering which part of the Song of Songs am I going to preach about today? Well, I will stay with the same verse for the third time: "Let him kiss me."
This morning when I got up, I had not even washed my face, hadn't shaved, hadn't combed my hair. So I looked a very beautiful picture. And so I went into the bathroom to wash my face. Before I did that, I looked into the mirror with my hair standing up beautifully. And I smiled. I smiled at myself. I just looked at myself and I said, "Lord, thank you. Today you will kiss me. Today you will kiss me with your love." What a wonderful thing it is to be in the Christian life — I mean the true Christian life. We have a lot that isn't really Christian in Christianity today.
I want to continue to talk about "Let him kiss me." Look at those words. You know, the Bible is so rich in its content. And by now I think since you have heard me preach on this subject, you know that these words are from the Bible: "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth." I would like you to think carefully of these words and what they mean. There are riches in the word of God that you will never reach unless you quietly ponder their depth. In these simple words, what's there left to think about? Oh, there are deep riches.
"Let him kiss me." What does it express? Well, clearly it indicates that she has not yet been kissed. If she has already been kissed, she doesn't have to say, "Let him kiss me." But what is there in these words? There is a certain tension. A longing. An eager expectation. A strong desire. "Let him kiss me." And that so reflects the tension in life. It reflects the question here: what do you think? Will she be kissed? Or will she not be kissed? Just because she says, "Let him kiss me," doesn't mean she's going to get kissed. Not everything we desire we receive. Does he love me? Does he not love me? It's like those people pulling the petals: "He loves me. He loves me not." Is he going to kiss me? Is he not going to kiss me? There's tension in this. And that tension will not be settled until the kiss finally arrives.
So there is the tension and the seeking for that final peace, that satisfaction, the peace that comes from it. Now all life is reflected in that picture. All life is caught up in that tension between desire and fulfillment. When you were a baby, what did you do? You were hungry. What do you want? Milk? There's desire. "Milk, milk, please. Where is my mother? For milk, stick that bottle in my mouth, please. Why are you taking so long to warm this thing up? Never mind, just get it into my mouth." The whole of life is between this tension of longing and the fulfillment of that longing.
And then you go on in life and what do you find? The longing that I can get through school — hopefully I'm not the last in class, number 38 out of 38. The longing to be able to graduate from middle school, and longing maybe you can get to college or university or whatever. And finally maybe you got into college. The longing is fulfilled. Is that the end? Oh no, no, no. It's still the question of whether you can graduate. Always the tension, the longing, fulfillment. The whole picture of life is: will I get it, will I not get it? Will he kiss me, will he not kiss me?
All right, you have graduated, whatever it was you did. And now, satisfied? Oh no. Always longing for something else. What now? A job. What job can I get? Then you apply. You write a hundred letters hoping to get an application that will be accepted. I remember a person in our church in Montreal once long ago. He studied engineering, then he did a master's degree in business. And he thought, life is now in front of me. He wrote 75 or 76 letters of application and couldn't get one job. In the end, he gave up. He went to the United States, and there he wrote more letters of application. Longing, but no fulfillment. In the end, he was glad to accept anything that anybody was willing to give him. I hear that in the end, he got some sort of job. So the whole of life is in this question: will he kiss me? Will he not? I wish he will.
That is why you see people everywhere around caught up in this tension of life. So when you are in the world, you will find that every person is in this kind of struggle, the question of whether one can face the tensions of life. Tensions in life are so many. Not only the tension between desire and fulfillment, there is also the tension between good and evil, darkness and light, love and hatred. It keeps going on and on. Life is full of tension. And if you are married, you know about tension. Don't kid me. Everyone who has been married knows about that. Tension is in every aspect of life. "When will he kiss me? Will he not kiss me?" Until my heart is satisfied and at peace.
What we intensely need, what we most urgently need in the human life, is a peace in the midst of all this tension. It is a very deep peace. But where can we find it? From where can we find it? Most people try to find their peace out of sedatives. You swallow this medication to keep your nerves quiet. Or try to forget this tension and glue yourself to the television. Put yourself in there, let other people's tensions occupy you. A whole generation of people are now involved in drugs. But for what? To get this elusive peace that they can't find. Yet this most important thing — people don't know where to find it. Because drugs and sedatives and all this don't solve our problem. What about getting drunk? Maybe we can forget these tensions for a while.
And you know there's a strange thing. Many of us have gone through long years of education. From primary school up we're reading, learning to read and write. And then you go into middle school and they teach you chemistry and physics and mathematics and history and whatnot. And then finally some get to university. And who knows what you're studying there — law or chemistry or physics or whatever. And you know the most important thing in life nobody ever taught us. What is the most important thing in life? The art of living. When you have come out with your degree, you don't know how to live in this world, because nobody has ever told you how to live. There is no subject in school or in university that is called "the art of living." And yet this is the most important thing: how do I live in this world?
And so you see through the streets people trying to get peace through all the ways I've mentioned — alcohol, drugs, whatever. We need the peace to cope with the stress of life, yet nobody teaches us how to get there. Isn't it amazing that nobody teaches us through all the long years of our study? I suspect this is because nobody knows how. Do you, be honest, live with a deep peace and quietness in your heart through all the turmoil of life? Do you? If I ask you, in this moment, is there a very deep peace? When you got up this morning, was your heart filled with a serenity, a peace? Not to mention what the Bible speaks about — a peace that even is beyond understanding. But if you do not have peace, where are you going to get joy? If your heart is filled with anxiety, where do you have joy? And if you don't have joy, where are you going to have love? Because if you don't have joy, you're occupied with your own problems. Where do you have time to love anybody else?
That's why I'm saying to Timothy and others: make sure that you daily enter into the peace of God. Because nowhere else are you going to get this peace, except from him who said, "Peace I give you. Not as the world gives." Do you know that peace? Are you a Christian? I tell you, very few Christians know that peace. I dare to say that. Because after all, I'm a pastor. I deal with Christians. I am certain there is hardly one here who knows the deep peace of God in the midst of the turbulence of this world.
All religions teach peace, and they teach us some kind of technique. Like meditation — with your hands, "Mmm." You have to "mmm" at a certain vibration. This is called transcendental meditation. Peace as technique. Or peace as an external means by sacrifice, burning incense, worshipping, sacrificing animals. Or let us try our Chinese tradition — qigong. "Breathe, breathe, breathe. Bring the air down to the dan tian." That's called technique. I'm not talking about technique. I'm talking about the peace that only God can give with his power. That is what the Lord Jesus said: "Not as the world gives." The world tries to teach you techniques to get some sort of peace. Jesus said, "I give you a different kind of peace." When God gives you that peace, you really have peace. First, he takes away the thing that disturbs your heart — the guilt that comes from all the sins you committed before. Through the blood of his cross, he takes away every sin and the guilt that goes with it and the power of that sin.
I am not talking theory. It is something you can experience to see whether it's true or false. And so I want to come to this concluding part with some illustrations, because I want to imprint through these illustrations what my message is about.
Before I became a Christian, as many of you know, I was deeply interested in military science. I always loved China so much. I saw the mess in China. I wanted to build a powerful army that can drive out all these foreign invaders and establish peace in our land. And that is why I studied, I put my thoughts to think about military science. I liked to study the Chinese people like Sun Tzu and so on, and also the Western famous battles, the history of those battles. And when I was a teenager, I had the privilege of being taken by my parents to the scene of the famous Battle of Waterloo.
Two great generals and two great armies faced each other. On the one side was the famous Napoleon, famous for riding on his white horse with his hand like this — very impressive. On the other side was the famous British general, the Duke of Wellington. These two great commanders faced each other in the battlefield. What would come out of this battle? The future of Europe hung on the outcome. The two great armies faced each other, and anyone interested in military tactics will study this whole thing with great interest. Napoleon had fought and won many battles. His armies were experienced on the field, fearless in battle.
I won't go into the details of this because I want to stress one point to illustrate my message. The battle strategy that Wellington decided on was to form his army into squares, because he could not match the cavalry of Napoleon. The cavalry was very fast, sweeping from all directions. It was very difficult to know which side they would attack from. And so Wellington formed his battle units into squares. This was an impressive picture. And if you ever pass through Europe and you see it, you will see that there is a whole museum picturing this matter.
The battle begins. The French cavalry are massed for attack. Their swords are drawn. The long lances are poised. Their armor gleamed in the sun. Wellington stands in the middle of those squares. He gives the order for all troops to stand ready for battle. One line, two lines. The first line is kneeling on one knee, the arm supports against the knee the rifle. All bayonets are fixed. The second line stands ready.
And now comes the difficult part. Which soldier, knowing the tremendous reputation of Napoleon, doesn't fear in his heart what's going to happen? The order goes down to all soldiers in Wellington's command: no soldier will fire until the order is given. Absolute discipline through the ranks. And there in the distance you see Napoleon's massive cavalry getting ready for the charge. I think if you were one of the British soldiers, your heart would be boom, boom, boom, right in your ears. Take a few breaths. This is the last time you're going to breathe. How many great armies Napoleon had wiped out before?
And then the dreaded moment begins. The sound of the bugle of battle. The drums begin to sound. And then the next thing, the horses are on the move. And you know what is the thunder of a thousand or tens of thousands of horses drumming on the earth? It's bad enough if they are going past you — the whole earth is shaking under their hoofs. But they are coming straight at you. Try to get that picture. And you are one of the soldiers. You get the order: take aim. Soldiers lower their rifles. The British ranks, apart from the quiet order, there is not a sound. There must be total silence, otherwise you cannot hear the order.
I want you to see the contrast of these two pictures. One is now coming, galloping, thundering — the noise is deafening. Their armor is flashing in the sun, almost blinding your eyes. When soldiers charge, you know they scream, and they are coming full at you, the whole earth is shaking with the thunder. And on the British side, total silence. Not a word, not a sound. Can you see the picture?
From all sides now, Napoleon's army is charging into these squares. Terrifying. And the only order so far has been "take aim." The soldier looking over the top of his rifle, he can only see one dot jumping up and down. How are you going to shoot? And in those days, you have only one shot from your rifle. It's not your M16 going "dudududu" like this. One bullet. You miss — you're finished. The next moment, you have no time to load. The cavalry will be on you within seconds.
I wonder if you can feel the tension in the nerves of the soldiers. You're looking at your target and you can say, "How am I going to hit it? It's moving up and down, up and down. It's so far away, it's just a dot. I'm sure I'm going to miss. I have no time to reload. And the next moment, the long lance of the French will be right through my heart." I think you can see the sweat coming down the soldier's brow.
And even worse, they are coming closer and closer and closer. Now you can see them more clearly. Now you can begin to see their faces quite clearly. You can see the determination on their faces. Those with the swords have their swords ready to strike. Those with the lances have them aimed straight at you, right in the center. "Oh, squeeze the trigger. Come on, come on, let's shoot." And there is that famous order: no man shall fire until I give the order. And they are coming closer and closer and closer. The sound is getting more and more deafening as the horses are coming closer. You've got them now in the sights. It's getting clearer. "Squeeze the trigger. Next moment I'm going to be killed if I don't squeeze this trigger." You see, I can't wait for this. My nerves are going to pieces. You know how fast the horses are coming? 40, 50 miles an hour. I can't wait any longer. Total silence. Every man without moving. Two more seconds and the cavalry will be right on top of you. Where's the order? Nerves are going. Your heart is pumping.
There is a reason why the order is not given. The experienced officers know precisely the moment to give the order. But the inexperienced don't know. They fire straight away. They must wait for the cavalry to come close enough to make as sure as possible that you will not miss. And that is very close. It is terrifyingly close. They are now so close that you can see them within 10-20 yards away. Finally the order: "Fire!" And in that second — boom. And the whole line of cavalry goes down.
I want you to keep this picture in your mind. The whole of the victory or defeat depends on the disciplined quietness. You lose your nerves, you fire too soon, and you are finished. The secret of Wellington's victory was the quietness and control, refusing to panic in the face of terror. This scene was repeated again and again as the French cavalry charged and charged and charged. And so finally the British won this significant victory. It was the victory of quiet disciplined quietness against violent turbulence.
But this kind of quietness is man-made. It can be trained by discipline among the soldiers. This is the kind of quietness which is external. Of course, the soldiers were terribly nervous and frightened, but military discipline kept them. No man dared to fire because he knew what would be the consequences if he disobeyed the order. This is the kind of quietness that you get from meditation, the kind of quietness you get from qigong training. It is basically man-made. It has some value, but it is not the kind of overwhelming powerful peace that comes from God's gift.
Let me contrast this picture of Wellington and Napoleon with another picture: the contrast between Moses and Pharaoh in the Bible. Oh, here is something different. Here is the contrast not of external disciplined peace, but true internal peace that comes from communion with God. This victory is far more famous than the Battle of Waterloo.
I want to briefly paint this picture for you to see the contrast. The Israelites were leaving Egypt and they came up to the Red Sea and they were blocked from any further progress by the sea in front. And when they looked back, there was absolute terror, because the Egyptian king had changed his mind about letting them go. And there on the horizon, what did they see? A column of dust rising up. And every Israelite knew what that meant. The Egyptian army, which was a superpower in those days, was coming after them. In front was the sea. Behind, the Egyptian superpower was coming. That was finished. They were all looking at Moses. What is he going to do?
Standing on a high place. A picture of total peace. No fear. No panic. But the Israelites were in total panic. They were going to be slaughtered. And those not slaughtered would be taken back as slaves to Egypt again. They are all looking at Moses, looking at the column coming closer and closer. Their hearts are panicking.
Now, if Moses were a good military commander, he wouldn't be standing there looking up to heaven in all his peaceful gaze and talking with somebody up there who they can't see. What is he doing up there? What is this? He's studying the clouds? What is he doing? If he were a military commander, take action. You know that every Israelite was armed. They came out of Egypt carrying weapons of battle. What would you do? If you were a good commander, here's the time for action. All women to the back. All men with arms forward. Move to high ground where the chariots cannot be so effective. Form battle formations. That's the way to handle the problem, Moses.
Nothing is happening. What is he doing? We have 600,000 men. At least we can give the Egyptians a good fight. But Moses says nothing. They are looking, waiting for the command. He doesn't do anything. And finally the Egyptians are coming closer. You can hear the horses, the sound of their hooves. Finally Moses lifts up his stick. Israelites are saying, "What does he think he's doing now? Does he have advanced kung fu? He's going to with his stick beat the whole Egyptian army?" His stick is lifted. They're looking at him. What's wrong with him?
And suddenly they hear a sound. The sound of rushing water. They're all concentrating on Moses and the Egyptian army. But they hear the sound behind them. Look behind. What do they see? The water is piling up. And a path is going through the sea. This man must be a hypnotist. He got us all hypnotized. Can there be a path through the sea?
The total peace of Moses. Why was he so peaceful? God spoke to him. Has God spoken to you? What did God say? "Stand still." That's why he didn't give the order for the Israelites to move. "Stand still and see the salvation of God." Oh, did they ever see the salvation of God. How many people in this world, in this situation of life and death — total peace. "He will kiss me with his love. He will not cause any harm to come to me. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, no fear. I will have peace." After this message, there will be a song on that very theme. Peace and total peace in the fearful tensions of life. The peace of God that guards your heart. This is God's power that gives you peace, not some kind of technique that every day you have to do some funny things.
My last picture and we must close. I think of that beautiful picture in Acts chapter 7. There we see it in actual practice the words in the Old Testament: "Be still." Do you know the stillness in your heart in the midst of all the turbulence of life? That is the art of living that nobody ever taught us through school and through university. "Be still and know that I am God." The reason you do not know that he is God is you don't know how to be still. Look at your prayer life if you are Christians. Do you know how to be still? So still that you can hear that soft and still small voice? You can't be still. You are always jumping up and racing around in wild circles. "I have to do this, I have to do that." That's why you don't know that he is God. You can't be still.
But look at the picture of Stephen in Acts. He was being stoned to death by these religious people.