Boy, we could sing that song
every week. What a blessing. Turn, if you would, open your
Bibles to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon. Tonight, we'll
finish chapter one, the study we've been going through. And the name of the message is Reciprocal
Love. Reciprocal Love. We'll be looking at the last
two verses, but let's read the context of it. We'll read from
verse 8 all the way to verse 17. If thou know not, O thou fairest
among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock
and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared
thee, O my love, to a company of horses and pharaohs' chariots.
Thy cheeks are calmly with rolls of jewels, thy neck with chains
of gold. We will make thee borders of
gold and studs of silver. While the king sitteth at his
table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. A bundle of
mirth is my well-beloved unto me. He shall lie all night betwixt
my breasts. My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair,
my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast dove's eyes. Behold,
thou art fair, my beloved. Yea, pleasant, also our bed is
green, the beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of
fir. Now last week we looked at verse
15, and we saw, actually not last week, the week before, because
I was down in Ashland, Kentucky. The week before, two weeks ago,
we looked at verse 15, and we saw that the Lord calls his bride
beautiful, beautiful. Remember the The Hebrew word
for fair in our text is beautiful. Or in the text in verse 15, behold
thou art beautiful in the Hebrew. Beautiful, my love, behold thou
art beautiful. Thou hast dove's eyes. So to
think of that, we who are sinners, we who are blood bought sinners,
purchased by the precious blood of Christ, born again to the
Holy Spirit of God, And the Lord now looks upon us, clothed in
His perfect spotless righteousness, as beautiful. Beautiful. And we looked at how we are only
beautiful in His eyes again because of His perfect spotless righteousness. The beauty that He sees in us
is given to us by Him. By Him. Supplied by Him. And this makes the believer marvel.
This makes the believer in Christ marvel, because again we know
that we are sinners saved by the grace of God in Christ, who is our heavenly bridegroom.
We also looked at how he compares his bride's eyes to dove's eyes,
which focus upon one thing at a time. And how we who are redeemed,
We also looked at how we who are redeemed would be wise as
serpents and as harmless as doves. So tonight we'll be looking at
verses 16 and 17, where the scripture proclaims in verse 16 and 17,
behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant also. Our bed is
green, the beams of our house are cedar, and our rafters of
fir. So in verse 16 now, we see the
response of the church. we see the response of the bride. And look at the response. Her
beloved is beautiful in her eyes. And we saw from verse 15 that
the bride is beautiful in his eyes, and now we see that the
bridegroom is beautiful in her eyes. Reciprocal love. Behold, thou art fair, beautiful
in the Hebrew. Thou art beautiful, my beloved.
Yea, pleasant also our bed is green. And note the word behold. The word behold comes before
the church's proclamation of the beauty of Christ. And the word is also to bring
attention to Christ. The bride sees beauty in her
beloved. She's in wonder. She's in wonder
that one so beautiful, so fair, should take notice of her. Should
take notice of her. And she's swept away, beloved.
She's swept away in praise and awe as she contemplates this
precious truth that Christ sees his bride as beautiful. Now, who is the bride of Christ?
All the elect of all the ages. All those for whom Christ died
for on Calvary's cross. Behold, in awe and wonder, our
heavenly bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ, sees we who are
clothed in his righteousness as beautiful. Behold. And then her reciprocal love
says, Behold, thou art beautiful, my beloved. her response right
back is to look at his beauty. Behold thou art fair, my beloved,
yea, pleasant also is our bed, also our bed is green. So here
in this verse, we see the church knowing that her beauty comes
from her husband, comes from her head. And hearing how he
calls her beautiful, beautiful in verse 15, She now breaks into
her own discourse of praise. And we're gonna see this through
this book. We're gonna see this back and forth. It's absolutely
stunning. And she ascribes all glory and
beauty to him. And what a picture we have here
in our text of Christ in the church. What a picture we have
in this book of Christ in the church. Think of this. We love him because he first
loved us. Our love to Christ is reciprocal,
but only because we are born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
Before we were born again, we had no love for Christ. No love
for him at all. So even the love we have from
Christ is a result of us being born again. Because he loved
us, how long has he loved us for since eternity? since eternity,
and that's just stunning. But that's true. He's loved his
people from eternity. And the love now that the bride
has for the bridegroom has been shed abroad in our heart by the
Holy Spirit of God. Salvation is of the Lord, isn't
it? It's all of him. So think of that even. The love
that we have for Christ has been shed abroad in our heart by the
Holy Spirit of God. And note in our text, the same
thing that Christ said about his bride, she says about him,
behold, thou art fair. Behold, thou art beautiful. Fair
again, being beautiful. How is Christ fair to the church?
How is Christ beautiful to the church? Well, we see beauty in
all aspects of our wonderful Redeemer, our Savior and our
King. We see beauty in His person,
don't we? When we never used to. There was a time when I never
saw any beauty in Christ at all. But now, oh my, He's everything. Over in chapter 5, verse 12,
the church proclaims that His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of water washed with milk and fitly set. The bride just sees such beauty
in Christ. Such beauty. And here in our
text in Song of Solomon 116, Behold, thou art fair, beautiful,
my beloved. Oh, think of this. Christ does
not look upon the church in an angry manner. He looks upon his bride with
love. With love. And it melts the heart of the
bride. It melts her heart. Think of
this, you who are redeemed, you who are the elect of God. When
you think of the love that Christ has for you, does it not melt
your heart? My goodness. The Lord Jesus Christ,
God incarnate in the flesh, loves me. And it's based upon nothing
in me. It leaves us in awe. Because
we know that this love is undeserving. Does any of us deserve this love?
We who are redeemed? We who are trusting in Christ?
Do any of us deserve it? No. If we deserved it, it wouldn't
be by grace. This is unmerited favor. Grace
from beginning to end. And it's precious. Absolutely
precious. No wonder the church cries out,
Behold thou art fair. You're beautiful, Lord. No wonder. He's absolutely beautiful to
us. He's our heavenly bridegroom.
And Christ is beautiful in the eyes of the church as the son
of righteousness, rising with healing in his wings for us,
for us. Christ is beautiful in our eyes
as the great physician. He came to save His people from
their sins. He didn't come for the whole.
He came for the needy. Are you needy? Oh my. Lord, I'm so needy. I'm so needy. And I know that I'm a saved man
and I'm still so needy. Is it so with you? Oh, what a
great physician we have. What a heavenly bridegroom we
have. Christ is beautiful, the church, when we see our acceptance
before God in Him, He's absolutely beautiful to us. Knowing that
we could never stand in the presence of God on our own, but knowing that we are clothed
in His perfect spotless righteousness, knowing that we have pardoned
through His precious blood that was shed for us at Calvary's
cross. When we see that we have justification by His righteousness
and reconciliation with God, that we have the peace now that
passes all understanding through His sacrifice, through
His atoning sacrifice, and knowing that we have all spiritual blessings
in Him, and that all that a sinner needs is supplied in Him. He's
so beautiful to us. He's wonderful. What a Savior! He has infinite fullness. He's
full of grace and truth. He's beautiful. And when we consider all the
promises of God to us are in Christ, when we consider that
Christ is our mediator right now, when we consider that He's our
surety, that He's the messenger of the covenant of grace, And
when we see all the exceeding great and precious promises,
when we see that they're all secured in Him, is He not beautiful? Is He not beautiful? When we
see that He has made an everlasting covenant with His people that's
ordered and sure, this causes the church to cry out, behold,
thou art beautiful. Thou art beautiful. when we consider
the doctrine and the ordinances of the church, and what a great
joy they are to the church, and when we are taught by God that
they all find their center in Christ. Baptism points to the
death and burial resurrection of Christ. The Lord's Supper,
we proclaim the Lord's death. They all find their center in
Him. And when we sing that wonderful
song, redeemed, how I love to proclaim it. It sets our hearts and mind upon
the one who is beautiful to us. Absolutely beautiful. Note in verse 15, he's called
by her My beloved. Or he called, no, he called her,
yeah, in verse 15, he called her my love. But look in verse
16, she uses a term of endearment also. So he uses a term of endearment
about the bride, calling her my love. And then the bride precipitates
that love by giving him a term of endearment, saying, my beloved,
my beloved. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved,
yea, pleasant. The title which he give her is
my love. And that which she gives him
here is my beloved. And again, we will see as we
study this book, we will see this back and forth like this. She marvels in her beloved. And he marvels, he looks upon
his bride with love. They proclaim their mutual expressions
of love to one another. They are enamored with one another.
They're enamored with one another. And they express their love by
using enduring terms. It's incredible. that sinners
who once cursed the name of God to our shame now praise His might and see
in Him beauty. Beauty. The Lord spoke of her
beauty, the church, in verse 15, and she takes his own gracious
words and makes application of all that is truly lovely to him
is because of his own beauty. because she is clothed in His
righteousness again. She proclaims Him beautiful as she sees Him as her all in
all. She sees Him as the God. She sees Him as her Redeemer. She sees Him as her Savior. She sees Him as her king. She beholds him as the disciples
beheld him. Turn, if you would, to John,
chapter two. When he manifest forth his glory and they believed
in him. John, chapter two. Verse eleven. Then put your finger in first
Corinthians three, twenty one will be going there next. John
2, verse 11, and 1 Corinthians 3, verse 21. John 2, verse 11. This beginning
of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifest forth
His glory, and His disciples believed on Him. He manifests His glory, and His
disciples believed on Him. and Christ is beautiful to the
church. Again, she calls him her beloved
and proclaims that he is pleasant to her. She adds praise by calling
him pleasant. Everything about him is a blessing
to her soul. Everything about Christ is a
blessing to his people, his cross, as well as His crown, His person,
His blood, His righteousness, all His promises, His interest
in her, His communion with her, the sweet
fellowship that the bride has with the bridegroom. They're
a blessing to her because they all find their center in Him,
in Christ alone. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
3. She calls the Lord beautiful,
beloved, and pleasant. Now marvel in this precious truth
before us here. Look at 1 Corinthians 3, verse
21 and 23. Therefore let no man glory in
men, for all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos, or Cephas,
or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come, all are yours. And ye are Christ's, and Christ
is God's. Why? He is so pleasant to us. Let's go back to our text again.
She says, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Also
our bed is green. Our marriage to Christ is a blessed,
happy, fruitful union. In Romans 7, 4, I'll read this,
it says, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ, that ye should be married to another. Even to him who is raised from
the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. God's bride
is married to Christ. Married to another. Also our bed is green. This speaks
of our union and communion and rest that we have in Christ Jesus
our Lord. With Him is a firm, lasting union. A communion which will never
end. And it's sweet to our souls. Think of this. We have communion
with Him in prayer. We have communion with Him through
the reading of the Word and through the preaching of the Gospel.
And we are strengthened. We looked at that this morning.
We're strengthened in Him. And we are built up in Him as
we hear the Gospel. That's why we need to continuously
hear the Gospel. We need to be strengthened. We
need to be built up. And man can't do that on his
own. Religion says you can, but grace says you can't. The scriptures
say you can't. We must be built up in Christ. Moses knew of this rest, which
only God can give, and also our bed is green, let's rest, turn
if you would to Exodus 33. Moses knew of this rest, which
only God can give, Look at Exodus 33, verses 13
and 14. And then also put your finger
in Psalm 116. David also wrote of this rest. And this rest is only found in
Christ. When the bride says also our
bed is green, speaking of the union and communion and the rest
that she has in Christ. Moses knew of this rest. David
knew of this rest. And I'll tell you, every blood-bought
saint of God knows of this rest. We were talking earlier about
how We had no peace at one time. Vicki and I were in the same
boat. We had no peace at all in religion. None, none, no peace.
Oh, what a peace. What a peace God's people have
in Christ. Look at Exodus 33 verses 13 and
14. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
if I have found grace in thy sight. Now, what a statement
that is. If I have found grace in thy sight, you know that every
one of God's people have found grace in the eyes of the Lord. If I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may
know thee, that I may found grace in thy sight and consider that
this nation is thy people. Where do we find grace in the
sight of God? Christ and Christ alone. Christ
and Christ alone. And then look at verse 14. And
he said, My presence shall go with thee. And I will give thee
rest. Rest. What a wonderful word. What a wonderful word. Now, David
also wrote of this rest. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
116. And we know, we who are redeemed,
know that the Lord has dealt bountifully with us, don't we?
We know, we know that. Psalm 116, verses 6 to 8. The
Lord preserveth the simple. I was bought low, and he helped
me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul,
for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee. Return unto thy rest. For thou hast delivered my soul
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah,
chapter 28. Isaiah wrote of the same rest. The same rest. Isaiah 28. Verse 11 and 12. For with stammering lips and
another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom He said,
This is the rest, wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest.
And this is the refreshing, yet they would hear not. To whom
He said, This is the rest, wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest. This is the rest that is revealed
to sin-sick sinners. by the Holy Spirit of God, and
by Him revealing Christ to us, and by Him teaching us of Christ
through the Word, whereby we are given the true knowledge
of Him. Turn, if you would, to Matthew 11, and let's look at
the words of the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh. So in our text, also our bed
is green, speaks of, again, our union, our communion, and our
rest that we have in Christ. And we saw that Moses wrote of
that rest, and David wrote of that rest, and Isaiah wrote of
that rest. And here we will see the master proclaiming himself
to be that rest. To be that rest. Matthew 11,
verses 28 to 30. Come unto me, all ye that labor
in our heavy laden, And I will give you rest. Are you heavy laden with works-based
religion? Come to Christ. Are you heavy
laden with sin? Come to Christ. Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Are you a tried and troubled
saint? Come to Christ. We just keep coming to Him. I'll
give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am
meek and lowly in Heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls
eternal life in and through Christ eternal rest a peace that passes
all understand Keeps our hearts and minds upon Christ and look
at this for my yoke is easy and my burden is light Why is the
why is yoke easy and his burden is light because salvation is
of the Lord It's not based upon our doing it's based upon what
Christ has done He's done it all and when he cried it's finished.
It was finished Salvation was accomplished for his people.
Oh my What a wonderful Savior Also our bed is green. Hawker
and other commentators bring forth, back to our text in Psalm
116, Behold thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Also
our bed is green. Hawker and other commentators
bring forth that this is speaking of the church, the called out
ones, which both the bridegroom and the bride have a mutual interest
in. And we are united to the Savior. He is the head and we
are the body. And when we gather together,
we have communion with our heavenly bridegroom and with one another. And we find rest in the preaching
of the wonderful gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Hawker
brings forth that the greenness of it may be designed to set
forth the everlasting lushness and fruitfulness of the church
in Christ, as the seed of Christ are promised by Jehovah to spring
up To spring up in the gospel church is among the grass and
willows by the water courses. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
44. And we only prosper in Christ.
And I'm not talking about that garbage you see, those guys talking
about the name it and claim it on TV. Not that at all. Not that
at all. Those men are liars. They're
liars. No. We have all spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus our Lord. All in Him. Look at Isaiah 44
verses 1 to 5. Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant,
in Israel, whom I have chosen. Remember that God's people are
a chosen people. His elect, who He redeemed upon
the cross. We saw that this morning in John
10. My sheep. And remember, he's
talking to the Pharisees, and he said, you're not my sheep.
Oh, my. Whom I have chosen. God has chosen
the people. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not. Beautiful words. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and thou, Jezeron, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water
upon him that is thirsty. and floods upon the dry ground.
I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine
offspring, and they shall spring up among the grass, as willows
by the water courses." Oh my. One shall say, I am the Lord's,
and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another
shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord. and surname himself
by the name of Israel. But look at verse four, and they
shall spring up among the grass as willows by the water courses. And then let's us now consider
verse 17. Let's go back to Song of Solomon,
chapter one, and consider verse 17. The beams of our house are
cedar and our rafters of fir. Our marriage to Christ is a blessed,
happy, fruitful union, as we looked at in verse 16. And now
here in verse 17, we see the beams of our house are cedar.
Now, the union between Christ and the church is an ancient
and durable union. It's an ancient and durable union.
Which shall never be broken. We looked at that very fact from
scripture this morning, didn't we? Those he saves, he keeps. They have eternal security. Because
their salvation is not dependent upon them and what they do, it's
dependent upon what Christ has done. Now the word rafters literally means galleries
or balconies. Our rafters of fur. These are porches that extend
out from the bedroom where the bride and groom would sit together
or walk together in intimate fellowship, in intimate fellowship,
enjoying the presence of one another, just soaking it in. enjoying sweet communion and
sweet fellowship. These galleries were made of
fir, which is a durable wood. And
these galleries may have reference to the Word of God and the ordinance
of divine worship in the assembly of the saints, which brings the
church great joy when we hear the gospel preached, When we
partake of the ordinances, it sets our hearts and minds upon
Christ. And it brings us great joy and
we have communion with our heavenly bridegroom. One commentator said,
perhaps they refer to our times of private prayer and worship
and meditation. Again, in which we have sweet
communion with the Lord. And another commentator said,
perhaps they refer to all the blessed doctrines of the gospel.
and all the blessings of grace revealed in it, in which the
believer delights in. We delight in the gospel, don't
we? Because it points us to Christ. We delight to hear the gospel
preached because we hear about our Savior. We see our Savior and we hear
His voice through the preaching of His word. The galleries wherein we walk
with our Savior in sweet, intimate communion include all these. And what joy the believer finds
in communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as the Son of God makes himself
more known to us by the preaching of his word, the believer cries out with Peter,
he's precious. He's precious. Is it any wonder
that the bride cries out that He is beautiful God? As we ponder these precious truths,
what communion they have. So we've seen in our study of
chapter one, the delight that the bridegroom and the bride
take in one another. And we've seen that this is the
song of songs. that no song compares with this
song, that it's a picture of Christ and his bride. And we've
seen the wonders of the grace of God, which have been given
to us, and the pardon of all our sins, and the eternal salvation
that the believer has in Christ because of his shed blood. And the fact that we can stand
again in the presence of God, clothed in his perfect, spotless
righteousness and the righteousness of another. And it makes the
bride marvel. She marvels in the grace that
has been bestowed upon her and his grace, which has given us
is like ointment poured forth. Remember, we looked at that.
It's like ointment poured forth. to the believer and his name
is a sweet fragrance to us. It's sweet, isn't it? That name
that once we may have used as a curse word. Oh, now he's beautiful. He's beautiful. What made that
change? The Holy Spirit of God. Born
again, he must be born again. He must be. regenerated by the
Holy Spirit of God, and then He becomes precious to us. We
looked at how His love is better than wine, and the communion
we have with Him is indescribable. And we also looked at how His
love for us ravishes our heart. If you get down, which we do,
through the day, you who believe, think about it. The love that
Christ has for you. Marvel in it. Marvel in it. It'll ravish your heart. As we set our minds upon him. Oh, again, his grace is poured
forth like ointment. His name is a sweet fragrance
to the believer. And we rejoice that He draws
us, knowing that we never would have come to Christ unless He
drew us. And He draws us with cords of
love. And it's wonderful. And then
what happens as He draws us? We run to Him. We flee to Christ,
the only Redeemer and Savior. And then we continue to come
to Him. So let us remember these precious truths and let us give
praise to Him who is the Lord our righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And let us also proclaim to our
generation, we who are redeemed, let us proclaim to our generation
the mercy that we've obtained. We've obtained mercy. the pardon that we've obtained
through Christ, the forgiveness of all our sins. And let us proclaim
to our generation the justification which we have received. Being
clothed in Christ's perfect righteousness in the peace that we now have
again, the peace that passes all understanding. And it's all
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ who is our heavenly bridegroom.
Is it any wonder that the bride proclaims Christ is beautiful? Oh my. And may we who are the bride,
we who are the elect of God, we who are redeemed by his precious
blood, may we rejoice in our bridegroom.
And may we consider how blessed we are. How blessed we are in
Christ. And may this fill our hearts
with joy. And may we meditate and think
upon these precious truths this week. What a Savior. What a Redeemer. It's Jesus Christ,
my Lord. And the believer says, Thou art
beautiful. And he says, Thou art beautiful,
beautiful. He gets the preeminence. He gets
the preeminence, always. Gracious Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee for the opportunity that we've had to gather together
and to look into Thy Word this love that you have shed
for your people that has been set upon us from eternity. We
who are redeemed marvel in this. Again, knowing that there's nothing
in us that merit this, we don't deserve this mercy and grace
which we receive in Christ Jesus our Lord. But thou who rules everything, Your love has been set upon us. We marvel at the grace and the
mercy which has been shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord. May
we proclaim it to a lost and dying world, Lord. May you open
up doors of utterance for us to be able to speak boldly thy
gospel. And may we proclaim how beautiful
our Savior is. It's in your name we pray, Lord.
Amen.