Message today is two testimonies,
two testimonies. Verse one said the song of songs,
which is Solomon's. According to first Kings chapter
four in verse 32, Solomon wrote a thousand and five songs. That's a lot of songs. for any
songwriter. A thousand and five. And of all
his thousand and five songs, this is number one. The best
of the best. The song of songs. Could say the song of all songs. We're familiar with that pattern of, line of speaking,
that similar statements of comparisons. For instance, of all that's ever
been called Lord, Christ is the Lord of Lords. And of all the
kings of the earth in all of history, Christ Jesus is the
King of kings. above all others, and so it is
here with songs. Of all the songs ever written,
of all the songs ever sung, including Solomon's thousand and five,
this song is the song of songs. It's number one on the charts
forever. Someone might ask, well, what
could possibly be the subject of this song of all songs. Well, it's a love song. And of course, reading this,
it becomes apparent as a he and a she express thoughts and words
of love one toward another. It's a love story. Initially
and historically, between King Solomon and a Shulamite maiden. At the same time, recorded by
divine inspiration, part of God's Bible for you and I, it is a
projection of a greater love story, that of Christ and his
church. So that's the message. Now we
might ask, who is this Shulamite, as she is called in Chapter 6
in verse 13. Well, what is a Shulamite? Who is she? Well, in translating
words, there are some spelling changes that involve inserting
letters of our alphabet, especially the letter H. In the Old Testament,
you remember Abram's name was changed to Abraham, inserting
an H. and another A. His wife's name
Sarah was initially Sarai, S-A-R-A-I, and it is changed to Sarah, S-A-R-A-H,
changing the I to an H, again the inserting of an H. Well,
Shulamite, or Shulam with the H, is a form of the older name
Salem, Salem, of which Melchizedek was king. Genesis 14, 18, Melchizedek,
king of Salem. Salem later had a prefix put
to it, Jeru, Jeru, Salem or Jerusalem. So a Shulamite is one who dwell
in or around Jerusalem. Solomon, the king, of course,
lived and reigned from Jerusalem. And in this couple, we have represented
Solomon and the Shulamite. We have represented two opposite
poles in the social life of an Israelite. Solomon, the king,
wealthy, popular. He was at the top of the social
ladder, of course. He's the king. But this Shulamite,
a poor farm girl, vineyard worker, was at the bottom of the social
ladder. And as we'd see it, there's not
one chance in a million that these two would ever come together
in a love relationship. But historians say that sometimes
the king, just to get away and have a little privacy, would
take off his royal garments and would put on a shepherd's garb
and pretend that he was just an ordinary peasant and would
go walking out in the fields like he was a nobody, like he
was a shepherd. And he saw her. And when he did,
it was love at first sight. She won Solomon's heart without
even knowing she had done it. At which point he purposed to
win her heart. And of course, that's the order
of Christ and his church. We love him, or in this line
we're thinking, We are brought to love Him because He first
loved us. That's the order. She speaks
first. Now, down through this chapter,
she first gives her testimony, two testimonies. Beginning in
verse two is her testimony of herself. And beginning in verse eight
is Solomon's testimony. of her. So she's the first to
speak. In verse 2, let him kiss me. Verse 4, draw me. And then comes the first of these
two testimonies we're going to talk about. She says of herself
in verse 5, I am black. But in verse 15, He says of her,
thou art fair. And so condensing the text to
these two little three word statements here, three word testimonies,
I am black. And then his statement, thou
art fair. That's what we want to talk about.
Those are the two testimonies. It seems they're talking about
two different people. But no, they're both referring
to her, just from different perspectives. And that's the blessed, blessed,
blessed thing about being God's child this morning, about being
part of the bride of Christ, is that what men say about us
is one thing, or even what we say about ourselves is one thing. But what Christ, our Redeemer,
says about us is another testimony altogether. So it's two testimonies. She speaks of what she knows
herself to be. And in all actuality, she is. He speaks from the perspective,
not of what she is in herself, but of what she is to him. She
said, I am black. And of course, you know, black
symbolizes dark, ugly, and filthy. But he says about her, thou art
fair, which symbolizes bright and beautiful and clean. We note here, she is so sure
of her testimony that she repeats it. First in verse five, she
said, I am black. And then again in verse six,
she said, look not upon me because I am black. Verse five, I'm as black as the
tents of Kedar, Kedar. Kedar was a son of Ishmael, tent
dweller. And of course the tents covered
with the black goats hair, very unattractive. He said, that's me, very unattractive,
black. She said, the sun, verse six,
hath looked upon me. That hot Eastern sun had beaten
down upon her, working in the vineyard day after day after
day. And it had parched her skin. She was not acquainted with Avon
or Mary Kay or any of the other skin care professionals. No. And she knew it. She knew it.
She said, I've been made the keeper of the vineyard that I'm
working in, and I work it day after day after day. But my own
vineyard have I not kept. I haven't had time to try to
make myself look good. I've been too busy taking care
of this vineyard. I haven't had time to be concerned
with my own appearance, washing my face, brushing my hair. I've been so busy in this vineyard,
my own vineyard, have I not kept? It's as if she's apologizing
for her appearance. As if to say, you couldn't possibly
want anyone like me. You can do better than this.
Have you ever told the Lord that? Lord, you could have done better
than this. I certainly have many, many, many times. But you see
what she didn't understand was that his requirement wasn't somebody
already beautiful. but somebody he would make beautiful.
That's the king's heart. That was his thinking. And the
spiritual picture here, of course, is the ugliness and the blackness
of our sinful hearts, the defiling and deforming effects of sin
in our very nature. And her testimony expresses her
consciousness of this, that she is conscious of the native vileness
of her own heart, which is made known by the Holy Ghost. And
it brings about a grieving, a mourning over sin. David said in Psalm
38, 6, I go mourning all the day long. That word mourning
is blackened. I go blackened. all the day long. The more I look, the filthier
I am. I am black with sin. That's what she confesses here.
I am black. That's her testimony. And this
morning we are black. All of us, first of all, with
sin inherit. We all have in us, by nature,
a spirit of rebellion that would be our own God, that despises the very thought
of submitting as an inferior and a failing creature to our
righteous and holy Creator. That's in us by nature, this
inherent sin. And then we are black, secondly,
with sins of omission. looking back over our lives at
all we should have done and have not done, all we should have
been and have not been. And then thirdly, we are black
with sins of commission, all the things we've done that we
should not have done. We are black, fourthly, with
sins of complacency, laziness, uncaring, without love for God
as we should have, without love for others as we should have,
without compassion as we should have. This is the only true testimony
for sinners like you and I. I am black. It's to say, along with Isaiah,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. It's to say, along with Abraham,
I am but dust and ashes. It's to say, along with Jacob,
I am not worthy of the least of all these thy mercies to me. No, we got the idea that we're
something. And people are even bold enough
to say it. Well, you know, I don't hurt people. I'm as good as anybody
else. And, you know, I try to, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I am black. I am black. It's to say with Job, behold,
I am vile. That law we heard about in the
lesson this morning, that looking glass, that stethoscope, that
the Spirit of God has made to shine in our hearts and show
us the truth about ourselves. Say with Job, behold, I am vile. I am black. It's to say with
David, I was conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity. I've been
black from before I ever came out of my mother's womb. It's
to say with Peter, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O
Lord. You wouldn't want anything to
do with me. And then this testimony, I am
black, is to say with the apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am. He didn't say wretched man that
I used to be, but as a child of God, as the great apostle. preaching the gospel mightily
used of the Lord. He says, I still am in this flesh. Oh, wretched man that I still
am. So this testimony, I am black.
It is the renouncing of any hope of acceptance with God in my
own merit. I really hope this testimony
is yours this morning. From your heart, I am black. There is no hope of acceptance
with God for me in my own merit. I myself, as Paul said in Ephesians,
am without hope and without God in myself. But thank God in this
text, in this chapter, There's another testimony to be heard. Solomon, in his love for this
girl, didn't look at her in her blackness,
her parched skin, her dirty face, her tangled hair, her work clothes
there in the vineyard. But he said these three words,
thou art fair. Well, now you and I couldn't
do that. You and I couldn't do that. You'd better be glad I'm not
God. And I'm certainly glad you're not God. Because what you see
in me and what I see in you would damn us all. It's all blackness. But our Lord in love was looking
beyond. He does not look at us in what
we are by nature. God looks at us in His Son, in
Christ. And what He has decreed us to
be, and in His mind and purpose, we already are. What is that? To be conformed to the image
of His Son. King Solomon in his imagination
and foresight and foreordination and predestination. As the king,
he can do what he will with anybody in the country. He can exalt
him or kill him. He's the king. So in all this,
his imagination, foresight, foreordination, predestination, And most of all,
in his love for this girl, he looked past all the ugliness
and all the blackness, and he saw her cleaned up in a white bridal dress. Her face shining, clean, skin
smooth and soft. A bridal wreath of flowers upon
her head, her hair clean and beautiful
flowing down her shoulders and back, with a sweet-smelling perfume
that only royalty can afford. He sees what she didn't see in
herself. And I'm telling you, if you can
get ahold of this this morning, if you can believe this this
morning, he sees what you don't see in yourself. Thank God, he's got something
better for you than yourself. There's a royal wedding. And all this that he sees is
not something that he wishes could happen. Oh, no. It's all
in his ability and his purpose and his determination and his
love to make it so. And he does. While she sees herself
black, walking between two rows in the old dirty vineyard, that's
not what he sees. He sees her beautiful. walking
down the staircase of the palace, adorned as a bride for her husband. She's coming and her first words
are going to be, I do. She's coming to say, I do. She'll throw away the bouquet.
and embrace him, the rose of Sharon. She'll toss aside the
bouquet and embrace him, the lily of the valley. He is more to her than all the
flowers of all the fields and all the valleys. And so is Christ
to his people this morning. He's her beloved. He's her beloved. Oh, if you
could just believe this, the Lord don't think of you as you
think of you. You can see no beauty for the
blackness. He can see no blackness for the
beauty. Let me show you whose testimony
is the most emphatic. She said, I am black twice. Two times, verse five and verse
six. He said, thou art fair more times
than that. Verse eight, O thou fairest among
women. That's once. Verse 15, Behold thou art fair,
my love. That's twice. Same verse, he
repeats it. Behold thou art fair. That's
three times. Verse 16, Behold thou art fair,
my beloved. That's four times. Chapter two,
verse 10. Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away. That's five times. Chapter two,
verse 13, the end of the verse. Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away. That's six times. Chapter four
and verse one. Behold, thou art fair, my love. That's seven times. Still in chapter four, verse
one, he repeats it. Behold, thou art fair. That's eight. Chapter four, verse
seven. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. That's nine times. Chapter four,
verse 10. How fair is thy love, my sister,
my spouse. That's 10 times. Chapter 6, verse
11. Excuse me, verse 10. Who is she that looketh forth
as the morning, fair as the moon? She's the fair one. That's 11
times. Chapter 7. In verse 6, how fair and how
pleasant art thou, O love, for delights. That's 12 times. Twice
she said, I am black. And it was true. 12 times he said, thou art fair. I am black with sin. I'm willing
to say it a second time. But he said, thou art fair. There
is no spot in thee. And he said, I'll say it 12 times. That's the emphasis. It's all
in whose eyes you're looking through. It's so hard. To believe that Christ thinks
any more of you than the blackness you see. Oh, but he does. He does. When this girl leaves
the peasant life and enters the palace life. Do you find it hard to believe
that there's just one thing in her heart I'm going to do? whatever it takes, with all that's
in me, to please Him. I don't find that hard to believe. Well, what's wrong with us? What's
wrong with us? Our minds are so warped with this popular religion. If I thought more of God, He'd
think more of me. If I did more for God, he'd do
more for me. Well, that may build kingdoms
and it may build fat bank accounts, and it does all around our country
at the expense of ignorant religious people. But I promise you what
God thinks of you is not determined by what you think of him. What you think of him is determined
by what he thinks of you. And what he does for you is not
determined by what you do for him. But what you do for him
is determined by what he does for you. That's the order. That's
the order. Two distinct testimonies. about
the same person. It's all a matter of whose eyes
you're looking through. Yours or his. The world looks at you and you
may look at you and say, what a loser. Oh, but if you could see Through the eyes of God, looking
at his son, the statement would be, what a lover, what a lover. Oh, what he's done for such a
wretch as you and I. What a redeemer. What I couldn't, wouldn't, and
didn't do. which is to love him, he loved
me. He loved me. And nothing I've
ever done or hadn't done has changed his love for me. If God's love is conditional,
you and I will never be able to earn one ounce of it. But if it's unconditional, and
he is pleased to make himself known, to make his love known, if his
love is shed abroad in your heart through the Holy Ghost, then
we'll never be able to do anything but love him back. And that's
how it is. Yes, I am black. I see that. I despise that. But he said,
behold, thou art fair. And he says it 12 times. He said,
I don't see it. Neither do I, but I love it.
I love it. Two testimonies. Christ thinks more of you. Then
you think he does bless his holy name. Let's stand together.