Let's turn to the book of Song
of Solomon. Song of Solomon. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
Song of Solomon. Chapter 4. You know there's times
when the words of our Lord are so sweet, so captivating, so
amazingly wonderful, that it does us well to remember those
words often. His words are life. They're tender. To His people, they're merciful,
kind. And they're nothing less than
amazing grace. I'd like for us to look at a
passage of scripture that we've read often, I've quoted often,
we've rejoiced in often. But I want us to just take a
few verses. Song of Solomon, chapter 4. And
I want to read verses 9 to 12. I've looked in my notes. I've preached on this a couple
of times since I've been here. But believe me, it will do us
good to hear them one more time. Song of Solomon 4, verse 9 to
12. ravished my heart, my sister,
my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than
wine, And the smell of thine ointments than all spices. Thy lips, O my spouse, dropped
as the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue. And the smell of thy garments
is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Now, eternally,
the Lord has possessed a bride. The bride has always been the
Lord's. She was given Him before the
foundation of the world. That's what Ephesians 1-4 says. Chosen in Him before the foundation
of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. And concerning the Lord, in whom
the bride was found. Like I said, you ask, how long
has the bride been in Christ? She's always been in Christ.
There's never been a time when she wasn't in the Lord. Chosen
in Him before the foundation of the world. But listen, concerning
our Lord, the one in whom we've been chosen, Proverbs 8, 30 and
31. Concerning His relationship in
covenant mercy and grace to the Father, to the Spirit. Then I
was by Him as one brought up with Him. I was daily His light. Now listen, do you know who's
talking here? This is Christ. This is the Messiah. This is
the Son. I was by Him, who by the Father,
as one brought up with Him, I was daily His delight, rejoicing
always before Him, rejoicing in the habitable part of His
earth. And my delights were with the sons of men, always rejoicing
in the Bride. Now before The Lord was openly
revealed to His people before He was made flesh, before a body was prepared Him,
before He was born of the Virgin Mary, before He was conceived
by the Holy Spirit of God. The Scripture reveals that He
is. He is. He is the Eternal Son. If there's an Eternal Son, then
there's an Eternal Father. And God, who is Spirit, that's
what the Scripture says, God is Spirit, would become visible. God was going to manifest Himself
to men. And the Son, He who has eternally
stood as the surety, the guarantor, I guarantee, that's what he's
saying, what the Father has given me to do, I'm going to do it.
He has eternally stood as the surety for those chosen out of
the mass of humanity and he was set forth to be the pattern Now
listen to what I'm saying here. He was set forth to be the very
pattern of the future creation of man before he was ever made
flesh. God Jehovah spoke and said concerning
the creation of man, let us make man After our image, after our likeness, now again
I've looked these words up and I know what they mean. Here's
what the word likeness means, after our similitude, after our
resemblance. The Lord Jesus Christ was going
to come into this world and he was going to be made flesh and
the way that he was going to be made flesh, that's the way
God made man. Let us make man after our likeness,
after our image. The Apostle Paul referred to
the Lord as he who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. And when he says firstborn, it
means beginning, foremost in time and the oldest. That's what
it means. God in his glorious essence is
invisible. He's spirit. Yet Jehovah was pleased to manifest
himself to humanity as that holy thing. Luke 135. And John says,
John 1.14, we beheld His glory. The glory as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. So before He was made
flesh, before He was brought into this existence, before we
were created, we were His delight. I tell you often, I'm way over
my head here in explaining. I'm not explaining it. I'm not
trying to explain it. I'm just telling you what scripture
says. This is the way it is. There's some things we just don't
understand right now. We shall see him as he is and
be like him. I believe that. I don't understand
it. I can't grasp that, but I know
it's so. Now here's the glorious Lord
of heaven, the one who has ever been filled with joy. His delights were with the sons
of man. He delighted them. Taken up with
her. The one who has everlastingly
been betrothed to himself. He said, you're mine. The bride,
the beloved, the church, the elect, the chosen. His bride,
giving Him an electing grace, she fell in Adam. She was polluted
with sin. In her fallen state, she's referred
to in Galatians 2 as being children of wrath, even as others. And
I've told you before, the bride of Christ has never been under
the wrath of God, but her attitude toward Him, we were enemies in
our mind against Him. We hated God. We were born that
way. You say, well, that's kind of
a strong statement. Well, the carnal mind is enmity against
God. That's the way we are. But the
bride chosen in Christ has never been out of him. And he loved
her. And he gave himself for her.
So I want us to consider just a few minutes these glorious
words out of Song of Solomon that the Spirit of God is given
to us and may He give us ears to hear and a heart to understand
and eyes to see by faith and be thankful for. This is what
the Lord has got to say. He said in verse 9, Song of Solomon
4, 9, thou has ravished my heart. He said you have. Thou, thou. Not another. but all those given
Him by the Father in electing grace. He said, you have stolen
my heart. I am heartless. Thou has ravished
my heart. You've taken my heart. The ones that have caused Him
to be overcome with joy and delight. That precious bride given Him
by the Father, the one that fell in Adam and separated herself from Him. He's always beheld her. He's
always loved her. That's what Jeremiah 3.13. He
said, I've loved you with an everlasting love. Has there ever
been a time when Christ didn't love His bride? No. No, He's
always loved her. She didn't love Him, but He loved
her. These are the ones that the Father
gave Him. This is the one that He has covenanted
to. I'm going to bear her guilt.
All those that God has chosen out of every nation, and kindred,
tribe, and tongue. That's in Revelation 5. All these that God chose to give
her a bride. And Christ, He's going to bear
her guilt. He's going to lay down His life
for the sheep. When did the Father see that? He saw that before
the foundation of the world. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. I'm going to live for her, I'm
going to die for her, I'm going to robe her in my righteousness. He said, you've taken my heart. If I say my wife has ravished
my heart, who do you think of? I don't have but one wife here.
Who do you think I'm talking about? What does the Lord say?
Thou has ravished my heart. And the joy of being eternally
with her Being with her in glory and having
her unto himself, listen to Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy, the joy that
was set before him endured the cross. They beat him, plucked
out the beard, put a crown of thorns on his head, took a stick,
hit him, mocked him, put a robe on him. You know, who hit you? for the joy that was set before
Him. He endured the cross, despising
the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne
of God. He said, you have ravished my heart, my sister. My sister,
you that I have come into this world, you were made in my likeness. in the image of God, made in
the flesh, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, you for whom I came
into this world and joined myself, making myself in your likeness,
you who are made in my likeness, my spouse, you that I've taken
to myself. You have ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with a single eye of faith toward me. Oh, I
think about that, with one of your eyes. Maybe we got two.
With one of your eyes. I think about how the Lord would
talk to his disciples and say, oh, you of little faith. But
at least they had faith, little faith. But they had faith, they
believed God. Oh that the eyes of our understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of your
calling. He said you've ravished me with one of your eyes and
with one chain, one jewel is what that word is, of your neck.
And to what does the Lord refer when he says it? Right there,
you see, latter part of verse nine. You've ravished my heart
with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thine neck. Hold your place and turn to Ezekiel
16. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel 16. Listen to these sweet words. Starting in verse 6, Ezekiel
16, 6, when I pass by thee, now here's a beautiful passage of
scripture concerning when the Spirit of God is pleased to call
out one of God's own. And the Lord knows where they
are. He knows. He knows. I know my sheep. When God is pleased to call out
one of His own, here's how He's going to do it. When I passed
by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto
thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field. Thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned,
thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now,
when I passed by thee and I looked upon thee, behold, thine time
was the time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine openly." She'd always been his, but openly. How do you know
God's people? How do you know who God's people
are? Well, when God converts them.
That's when you know them. That's when you see them. Until
then, they don't care. Then washed I thee with water.
Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee. I anointed
thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, shod thee with badger skin, girded thee about with fine linen,
covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments.
I put bracelets upon thy hands, a chain on thy neck. I put a
jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful
crown upon dying head, who did everything for her? Her? I saw you. I saw you polluted
in your blood and that fallen nature of Adam. I saw you. I washed you. I clothed you. I put ornaments of my grace upon
you. Here she was, a bride in that
fallen state, miserable, spiritually poor. She'd lost everything,
lost peace, and comfort, and love, and life, and fellowship
with God. Incapable of making anything
out of herself. What can a spiritually dead sinner
do for themselves? Nothing. Nothing. Oh, but she
was taken. out of the pit of that spiritual
death, depravity and regenerating grace and he came and washed
her in his precious blood and robed her in his glorious righteousness
and bestowed all these glorious graces of the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness and kindness.
Love for him and him for her and love for each other. God's
people bestowed all that. He said, I put those ornaments,
that chain around your neck and set forth all the spiritual blessings
of God upon you. Now he beholds her, he looks
at her. Now in Song of Solomon, back in Song of Solomon chapter
4, he said, you know, thou have ravished my heart, my sister,
my spouse, you've ravished my heart with one of thine eyes
and one chain of thy neck. He said, you've stolen my heart
and the beauty of what I did for you. He says in verse 10, how fair
is thy love, my sister, my spouse. How beautiful. How beautiful is your love for me. My love for you and your love
for me. How beautiful and sweet and acceptable
are my caresses for you, but your caresses back to me. We
love him. Why? Because he first loved us. Before I realized anything of
His love for me, I didn't love Him. Somebody said,
well, I've always loved the Lord. Well, that's just a little bit
too long. That's a little too long. Because
we hadn't always loved Him. How do you know that? That's
what He said. Oh, He says, how much better
is thy love than mine? Better than the temporal enjoyments
of this world? Oh, absolutely. It's not beyond
our thinking that he is worthy of us speaking to him that way. But for him to say that of us?
The bride had previously said of him in Song of Solomon 1-2,
let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is
better than wine. That's what the bride says to
him. I can understand that part. But oh, the wonder that he say
that about me. I've told you a little bit about
me before the Lord is pleased to call me out. Darkness. Heck,
I've got two sisters and a brother here that could probably write
a book. on some things, you know? He
talked about if they wanted to throw me under the bus, but that
the Lord would speak to me out of kindness, mercy, gentleness. Herein is love. Not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation,
the satisfaction, the atonement for our sins. That's love. Then the Lord declares concerning
the bride's love was better than anything that this world has
to offer. Now He speaks of her sweet fragrance. He says in verse
10, and the smell of thine ointments and all spices. How much better
is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointments and
all spices. It was said of Him. back in Song
of Solomon 1.3 that concerning his fragrance is the ointment
poured forth. That's the sweet grace of God's
Spirit that was given to him without measure but concerning
the bride. The one whom the Spirit of God
has been given as an earnest of her inheritance in Christ,
she possesses That fragrance of God's mercy that's better
than all spices. I know I'm going to embarrass
my wife right here, and I'll hear about it afterwards, but that's
OK, baby. That don't mean anything by it. You know, we get ready
to go somewhere. We get all dressed and everything. She'll put her perfume on and
stuff like that. I give her a hug, something like
that. You know, after I get away from her, every once in a while,
the wind blows a certain way, I can smell that perfume. I smell
it. That smells like my wife. But
she'll tell me the same thing. I'll put some of that foo-foo
juice on, you know. She'll say, you know, I can smell your cologne. That's right. the smell of thine
ointments and all spices. And then he says in verse 11,
Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. Honey and milk
are under thy tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like
the smell of Lebanon. You know, continuing with that
thought of her ravishing his heart. The Lord said here that,
you know, my heart is stolen because of your lips. Her speech,
you know, her speech, that sweet conversation that she has from
the heart that drops from her lips in speaking. It was, you know, you think about,
I think about that passage of Scripture in Malachi chapter
3 verse 16. The Lord, you know, when God's
people would talk, they talked to each other, and the Lord hearkens,
and he hears it, and a book of remembrances written before him
for them that fear the Lord and think upon his name. David said
in Psalm 145, 11, they speak of thy glory and thy kingdom,
and they talk of thy power. The Lord says concerning their
conversation with one another, thy lips, oh, my spouse, drop
as the honeycomb, honey and milk. Honey for the sweetness, milk
for the nourishment, is under your tongue, and the smell of
thy garments, oh, it's like the smell of Lebanon. You remember when Isaac, he was
gonna bless his boys, remember this? And Jacob and Esau. And Isaac, you know, Esau was
his firstborn. That's the one he was gonna bless.
You remember that, you know the story. But the blessing was going
to go to Jacob. And so Esau had gone out to prepare,
get some venison. He was going to make that soup
that his daddy liked. Then he was going to come in
and get the blessing, the birthright. And his mama took Esau. She said, now you
can't go in there to your daddy. He's going to know that you're
not Esau. Esau's a hairy man. Killed a
goat, put goat skins on him on his arms. Esau's coat on Jacob. They went in there and Jacob's
standing there. Isaac, his eyes are dimmed and can't see good.
He said, He said, you know, you sound
like Jacob. He said, are you Esau, my son?
And here's Jacob. He said, I am. I am. He said, come near to me. Let
me smell you. Comes and puts his hand on his
arms. He feels those goat skins. It's hairy like Esau. And he
smells that coat. He said, you sound like Jacob,
but he said you smell like Esau. There was a glorious picture,
type, of that believer being robed in the righteousness of
Christ. And you smell that coat. This is what the Lord says right
here. I smell. He said, I smell your garments. And it smells like the smell
of Lebanon. Robed in Him. We have the scent,
the smell of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ robed in His
righteousness. We stand before God, in Him accepted,
in the Beloved. Then he says in closing, a garden
enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed. The bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
is an enclosed garden. You plant a little garden, you
want to keep deer and stuff out of it, so what do you do? You
put a little fence around it, you enclose it. Good ground,
separated, set apart. Out of the rest of your yard,
your field, whatever. But all for God's people. For
her, that bride. She's enclosed by the grace and
power of Almighty God. Psalm 4.3 says, know that the
Lord has set apart him that is godly for himself. Care is taken
for the bride as the husbandman guards and preserves that garden,
hedging her about. Remember when the Lord came to
talk to Satan, he said, have you considered my servant Job?
Satan said, well yeah, but you got him hedged about. I can't
get to him. How's that? She's kept. The only
thing Satan could do to Job is what the Lord allowed. But the
bride, the people of God, they're kept by the power of God through
faith ready to be revealed. She is a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed, a spring that flows as the evidence of Him who is the
living water. So secure that no man is able
to pluck her out of God's hand. The Apostle said in Romans 8.35,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? Paul said in Romans 8.38-39, I am persuaded that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor
depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our Lord comes to His people
and He says, You've stolen my heart. You're
mine. I'm yours. I'm yours. Oh, He
said, with just one look of your eye of faith, one smell of your
garments that I've robed you in, One chain of your neck that
I bestowed upon you for the graces of God's spirit." He said, my
heart's ravished by you. Oh, may the Lord teach us afresh
of the mercy of almighty God to save us because he loved us,
gave himself for us. Amen. All right.