In your Bibles, the Song of Solomon,
chapter 1. Song of Solomon, chapter 1. You have the synopsis before
you. I believe this will be the third
lesson in this series. And thus far we have come down
to verse number four. Let me, by means of a short review,
bring you down to what we have come to in our text today. The Song of Songs. means that
this is the greatest of songs. As the King of kings is the greatest
of kings, the Lord of lords is the greatest of lords, as the
holy of holies is the most holy place, this is the greatest song. And it's Solomon's. Solomon here
represents our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The first speaker in this psalm
is his wife. In this instance, his beloved. She's the Shulamite. She says,
let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. She does not need
to identify him. She has only one him. She says,
your love is better than wine. And in your notes, I gave you
reasons why his love is better than wine. His love is divine,
eternal, immutable, pure, immeasurable,
free, medicinal, long-suffering, unfailing, sacrificial, and saving. Then she speaks of the fragrance
of your good ointments. And these are the ointments of
Jesus Christ with which he anoints his people and qualifies them
for office. But further than that, these
are his perfuming ointments. He is sweet, she says that he
is a bundle of myrrh between my breasts in chapter 113. He is perfumed with myrrh and
frankincense with all the merchant's fragrant powders. And his cheeks
are like a bed of spices, banks of scented herbs. And his lips
are lilies dripping liquid myrrh. To her, she is the sweetest smelling
savor there ever was and that is the same with us. She says,
your name is ointment poured forth. His name is what he is.
He is the sweetest ointment. There is no ointment anywhere
like that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in his person. She
says, furthermore, that therefore the virgins love you. These virgins
are individual members of the Church of Christ. She is called
the Shulamite, meaning perfect one or beautiful
one. but the virgins are individual
members in Christ's church. They became virgins when he converted
them. Now, in verse four, I want you
to see our introduction to verse four because this is gonna bring
us to the point I want to make today. She says, draw me away. This is the Shulamite speaking.
She says, draw me away. She does not say, draw me to
you. She says, draw me away. Draw me away from Satan's snare. Draw me away from sin and shame. Draw me away from everything
that is contrary to you. She is no free willer. She recognizes her inability
to come to Christ or to leave sin apart from being drawn of
the Father. She says, draw me. Notice the
change in the subject who speaks because it is from draw me away
to the plural, we will run after you. These are the daughters
of Jerusalem, the virgins in the church of Christ. They say,
if you will draw me away, we will run after you. We will run
after you. We will not dawdle. We will not
loiter and loaf along the way. We will run after you. We will
run after no one else. We will run after you because
we are thoroughly determined to do so. Now we come to my text for this
morning. Meshulamite again speaks. The
king has brought me into his chambers. When God's chosen people
cry to Christ, draw me away, he does. When Christ draws them
away, they exclaim, we will run after you. After they reach him,
they say, the king has brought me into his chambers. And here
I want you to note that Christ is here identified as the king. In his relationship to the world,
he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. That word, Potentate, has a bad
connotation in the world. Well, worldly leaders deserve
it. But when it is used of Christ,
that is a beautiful term. I am glad that he has potency. I am glad that he is omnipotent. I am glad that he is a potentate,
a ruler that knows no ruler above himself. He's the blessed, he's
the only potentate. He is the king of kings and lord
of lords. Pharaoh was king over Egypt,
Christ was king over Pharaoh. Nebuchadnezzar was king over
Babylon, Christ was king over Nebuchadnezzar. Solomon was king
over Israel, and Christ was king over Solomon. Donald J. Trump may be called
king or the leading executive of the United States of America.
Jesus Christ is the president over Donald Trump and over every
leader there is in the world. There are leaders across the
world over various nations, but Jesus Christ is the head and
the leader over them all. The blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, and he will permit no
other king to outrank him. But in his relationship to his
church, He is the King of the Saints in Revelation chapter
15 and in verse number 3. We acknowledge Him as our King. Who is your King, most parks?
He's Jesus Christ. He's King of the Saints. Who
do you want to be a King? I want no other King. Give me
no other King. Let me have King Jesus and I've
got the only King that I need. He's King of the Saints. Alright,
that's his relationship. She says, the king has brought
me into his chambers. If you have been brought into
the chambers of the king, you have been brought into royal
chambers. You have been brought into the
place where none but royalty go. Notice that Christ brings his
church into his chambers. The Hebrew word here translated
chambers denotes an inward or innermost room. And it means
the bedroom in chapter 3 verse 4. The king has brought me into
his bedroom. Why would the king take a woman,
why would Christ the king take a woman into his bedroom? To
consummate their marriage. She says, the king has brought
me into his bedroom and he has done it for a purpose. Why did he do so? To consummate
the marriage. She says, furthermore, the king
has brought me into his chambers. He did not drive me there. He
did not lead me there. He brought me. A beautiful picture
of her and her relationship to him is found in the last chapter
of this Song of Solomon where we read Who is this that comes
up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? It is a beautiful
picture of Christ and His church. He's coming up out of the wilderness,
but they know who He is. Who is this coming up out of
the wilderness, leaning on her beloved? And that is the posture
that she always has when she is in his presence. She is leaning
on her beloved. And she went into his bedroom
with the same posture. Who is this going into the king's
bedroom, leaning on her beloved? She says, the king brought me
into his chambers. She willingly accompanied him.
He royally ushered her there. He did not have to force her
to come with him. Then the daughters of Jerusalem
speak. Notice that the change of subject
with regard to its number changes throughout these verses. Draw
me away. We will run after you. The king
has brought me into his chambers. We will be glad. It changes back
and forth with every phrase. These are the daughters of Jerusalem.
their respective and individual members of the church and they
say, we will be glad and rejoice in you. We will be glad and rejoice
in you. Two things, we will be in you. We will be glad and we will rejoice. Now gladness is our inward feeling
toward Christ. We are glad. There is a gladness
in your heart when the King has brought you into that relationship
with Him, into that intimate relationship with Him. When there
is this union with Christ, you are glad in your heart from then
on. You've got the greatest husband
in all the world in Jesus Christ. You've got the greatest spouse
in all the world in Jesus Christ. There is gladness in the heart
of his wife at all times. We will be glad in you. We will
have an inward feeling of gladness toward you at all times. But there's more than that. Our
rejoicing is our outward expression regarding Christ. There should
be no one in this world who is happier in this world than the
child of God, knowing Jesus Christ. There should be no such thing
as a sad Christian. I mean one who is sad all the
time, even though we have sadness in our lives. I recall my father
telling me many years ago of a boy who walked into his, that
farm boy, and he'd been out to the stable and he walked in and
he said, he said, Father, I think the mule out there must be a
Christian. And his father said, Why? Well,
he has such a long face. There should be no long-faced
Christians. If you are right in your relationship
to Christ, there is gladness in your heart and rejoicing in
your lips. There is this rejoicing in the
outward expression regarding Christ, and our gladness and
rejoicing are in Christ alone. And all these elements are expressed
in Isaiah chapter 61 verse 10. Notice what the bride of Christ
says. I will greatly rejoice. That's the outward expression.
Greatly rejoice. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving
in my heart. I will enter his courts with
praise. We have come in here today for what purpose? To praise
him. We will praise Him in our hymns,
we will praise Him in our prayers, we will praise Him in our message,
we will praise Him in our conversation afterward. I will greatly rejoice,
the bride of Christ says. I will greatly rejoice outwardly
in Jehovah. And then she says, my soul, the
inward part of me, shall be joyful in my God. What else is there
in this world in which you may be joyful? The riches we have seem to find
wings and fly away. The health that we have seems
to be overcome with illness and adversity. A good day today when
the sun is shining may be followed by a category five storm tomorrow. You just never know, but in the
heart there is joy and there is rejoicing from the lips. Why will I be joyful and glad
in him? He has clothed me with the garments
of salvation. He has covered me with the robe
of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. I think I've
told you before, but on my wedding day, when I was standing in front
of a congregation waiting for a
woman to come out and when she finally came out dressed in that
dress and I looked and I thought, you know, I didn't know she was
so good looking. It was, you know, I'd seen her
many times. But I didn't know she was so
beautiful. And I suppose the only time she's
ever been more beautiful has been every day since then. And
I'm not such a fool as to deny that. But, you know, she was
beautiful. The bride of Christ on her wedding
day. Beautiful. Why is that? She has garments of salvation.
She has garments of redemption. She has garments of justification. She has garments of sanctification.
She has garments that cover her from head to toe. She is there
in a robe of righteousness, and that is her husband's. He gave
it to her. She now wears a royal robe. She
wears the king's robe. She's royalty now. He has made
her to be royalty. and she has been dressed as the
bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, he sees that his bridegroom
is decked in ornaments as well. He sees that she is adorned in
jewels. and therefore she rejoices. He does not make her look like
she lives in poverty, nor in shame, nor as though he is afraid
of her. He dresses her in the finest
of garments and brings her out for all to see, and when he does,
she's glad in her heart and she rejoices with her lips. Then
she says, through the voices of the daughters of Jerusalem. We will remember your love more
than wine. Wine here represents what God
gives to us to gladden our hearts. Locate Psalm 100 forward. Psalm
100 forward. The 104th Psalm. God is so good in his benevolence
and then his providence. Look what he has done for mankind. 104th Psalm. Verse 14. He causes the grass to grow for
cattle and vegetation for the service of man. He gives us beans
and provisions and carrots and peas. He gives us all these things,
vegetation for the service of man, that he may bring forth
food from the earth. He gives wine. Notice the three
things that are in this verse. He gives wine that makes glad
the heart of man. He gives oil to make his face
shine. He gives bread to strengthen
man's heart. Three things that God has given
unto us in his providence. The bread to strengthen the heart,
and in Christ we have the greatest bread, the bread of life. Oil
to make the face shine, and in Christ we have the greatest oil
because he gives the oil of gladness. And wine that makes glad the
heart of man, and in Christ we have a wine that is even better
than wine because look what we read. We will remember your love
more than wine. Wine here represents what God
gives unto us to gladden our hearts And Christ's love is better than
wine. It is remembered more than wine. Wine is one of those great blessings
of life that the Lord has given unto us. And many people are
connoisseurs of it. I do not know that anyone considered
himself a connoisseur of potatoes or of green beans. But of wine,
yes, there are connoisseurs, experts on them who know one
from the other. And they can tell you which is
the best of wines. And the bride of Christ says,
his love is even better. You find the best wine there
is, his love is even better than the greatest of wine. As wine
makes the heart glad, Christ makes the heart even gladder. Christ is better than wine, and
notice that it is remembered more than wine. We treasure the
love of Christ more than we treasure anything else in all this world. You can take You can take the
love of anyone else from me. Let the whole world hate me if
the world wants to hate me. If I can but know that Christ
loves me, I do not care who hates me. His love is the greatest
love that there is. It is a sacrificial love. It
is a love with which he loved me and purchased me and washed
me, redeemed me, and made me presentable for himself. His
love is better than wine, has done for me what wine never could,
made my heart more cheerful than wine ever could. It is the greatest,
it is greater than any earthly treasure or pleasure. then I
want you to notice also that Christ's love is commemorated
with wine. Now, look at the word remember. We will remember your love more
than wine. Our translators used more or
less what is called dynamic equivalence when they translated the scriptures
from Hebrew and Greek into English. And in dynamic equivalence, what
you try to do is this. When you come across one word
in the original language, you try to translate it with one
word. You don't translate it with a
thought or a phrase. You try to translate it with
one word. Well, when they came to this
one, I suppose they did about the best they could. We will
remember your love but this our English word remember fails to
convey what the bride of Christ is here saying to him she is
not saying that I will simply remember your love no no no the
word here in the original when she says remember she says she
says I will commemorate with praises your love I like that. I will commemorate with praises
your love. I can recall as a wee lad watching
my father come home from work. When I was a wee lad, he worked
at a fire station and I can remember him coming home in his uniform
and walking through the door. He and my mother had only been
married 5-6 years or so, he'd walk in the door and she'd meet
him and he'd wrap his arms around her and he would sing, you are
my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies
are gray. And commemorating, he was not
simply remembering her love, commemorating it. We may come
to Christ and say, He is our sunshine, our only sunshine. He makes us happy when skies
are gray. Do not take my sunshine away. He's everything to me. We will
commemorate His praises with love. Do we not have hymns that
are devoted to that? Yes, they all should be. I will commemorate with praises
your love unto me. We commemorate with praises the
wine God has given to gladden our hearts, but we will commemorate
with more praises Christ's love to us. Joe Terrell wrote an article
a few months ago about the hymn, Oh How I Love Jesus. And when
it was first written, it became very popular on both sides of
the Atlantic. And there were meetings in which
someone would say, let's sing, oh, how I love Jesus. And it
was such a popular song when it first came out that, you know,
you'd get through singing and someone would say, let's sing
it again. And they would, you know, sometimes half a dozen
times they would sing, oh, how I love Jesus. And it is said
that in one of those meetings, someone actually stood and said, I do not want to be disrespectful,
but I'm tired of singing about how I love Jesus. I want to sing,
I'm so glad that he loves me. I am so glad that Jesus loves
me. We commemorate his love to us. What better love is there to
commemorate? I will commemorate with praises his love to me. Now, notice in this phrase or
in this verse we read, we will remember your love more than
wine. We will commemorate your praises
or commemorate with praises your love more than wine. But notice
that in verse 2 she said, let him kiss me with the kisses of
his mouth for your love is better than wine. How did she know so? She had never been kissed by
him before. How did she know that his love
was better than wine? Well, she assumed so. She assumed
so. Now she knows so. She says, let
him kiss me. His love is better than wine.
She assumed so. But now that she has been brought
into his chamber and known his love, she now says, I know it
is. I know it is. Your love is better
than wine. Now having been kissed by Christ,
the church praises his love because she knows it is better than wine. Now we come to the last phrase
we will consider today. The Shulamite, because remember,
we're changing back and forth between the subject that is singular
and plural. Look at it again, go back to
the beginning of verse number four. Draw me away, singular. The plural in, we will run after
you. The singular subject in, the
king has brought me into his chambers. The plural subject
in, we will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your
love more than wine. Now the singular subject, speaking
of the virgins, she says, rightly do they love you. rightly do
they love you. Scholars are divided whether
this phrase should be translated rightly do they love you or the
upright love you. And you'll find defenders of
both. Some say that the Hebrew should
be translated rightly do they love you and others say that
no, it should be translated the upright love you. Well, I have
told you before about the Moose-Parks rule of deciding which is correct
in such an instance as that. When both senses are correct,
but it is undecided which is the better according to the text,
but if they're both correct, let me have both. I'll take both. I'll take both. I'll do so here. so that I'll join them together
and I will say, the righteous rightly love Christ. The righteous rightly love Christ. Who loves Christ? None but the
righteous. The unrighteous do not. They
despise him, they reject him. He is a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief and they turn their backs to him. Somebody loves
him. Who are they? The righteous love
him. And how do they love him? Uprightly. They love him in a righteous
manner. Our love toward Christ is holy. It is reverential. It is righteous
and therefore rightly do the upright love you. Do you? O God our Father, Be pleased,
we pray, to bless this work and this exhortation and this exposition
and this instruction to the glory of your son, to the salvation
of your people, to the edification of your church. To your glory
in Jesus' name we humbly pray. Amen.