Song of Solomon, chapter 5, last part of the 15th verse,
the bride speaking of him. She says, His countenance is
as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. The believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is one who continually seeks comfort from the Spirit
of God by the revelation of Christ Himself afresh through the preaching
of His gospel. He wants to hear, that believer,
wants to hear every time not majoring on man's depravity,
though man's depravity is what gives the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is brilliance, understanding
who I am in myself, but majoring on the depravity of man is not
what gives a believer comfort. I know what I am, Carl. I want
some hope. Give me some hope in Him. It is only in Him as the bread
of heaven that the redeemed soul truly feasts upon that which
perishes not. I am a perishing creature in
myself, a leaf that is fading. I know I am. I am starting to
ache and I feel the effects of sin. We seek and desire help
because of the trials and the struggles and the problems in
this life. Many are the afflictions. of the righteous. That's what
Psalm 3419 says. Now, I know in the news in the
last few days, you have too, you've seen the devastation over
in Thailand. These people are suffering because
of this tidal wave. They're suffering. I understand
that. The Scripture says that the afflictions of the righteous,
though, are many. But the righteous is not talking
there about suffering and being afflicted as all men are, because
all men suffer. Everybody suffers physically
and emotionally or economically. They suffer. I understand that.
But that's not the afflictions that the believer He is talking
about the afflictions spiritually. They suffer. Anybody can have
afflictions in this life, but only a believer grieves over
the presence of sin in his life, in his flesh, while he beholds
something of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sees what
he is. And he's honest about it, especially
to himself. He'll tell you. He'll tell you,
I know what I am, but truly inside, he truly knows something. He's troubled with the service
of sin. Paul says, in my flesh, I serve
the law of sin. And a believer grieves over that.
He's afflicted with the apathy that he sees within while he
truly longs to be fruitful in the ways of the Lord." That's
what Brother Scott was just saying. They follow after him, not as
they wish they would, but they do follow. They long after him. We experience spiritual sufferings,
but we only experience in measure what he experienced fully at
Calvary. We talk about grieving. 2 Corinthians 1, 5 says, For
as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth by Him. We know something of His sufferings,
but really we don't. We understand that our guilt
imputed to him, but what did he suffer? We see slightly the
presence of sin. We feel slightly the effects
of sin. God the Father, the Scripture
says, saw the travail of his soul and he was satisfied. Only the Lord Jesus Christ fully
perceived suffering. Only He suffered and knew it. Turn with me just back a few
pages. Psalm 22. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Psalm 22. Let's look at a few
verses in Psalm 22. Look at verse 1. My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping
me from the words of my roaring." You know that that's the prophetic
words of our Lord. That was the words that Christ
would utter from the cross. Look at verse 12. Many bulls
have compassed me. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me round. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and roaring land. I'm poured out like water.
All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It has
melted in the midst of my bowels. These bulls, meaning these strong,
proud, and haughty men that looked upon Him, they gaped on Me with
their mouths. He delivered others. He saved others. I see Him save
Himself. He said, he's the Son of God.
If you're the Son of God, why don't you come down? That's what one
of the thieves told him. He said, you know, why don't
you save yourself? And us, physically and spiritual
foes, the sufferings that a believer suffers for his sake, receives
consolation and comfort by him. He suffered. He suffered and
was forsaken of Almighty God. now and know something about
it, but we have consolation. Christ cried to him. He was forsaken. So while the
carnal mind wars against the spiritual apprehension and understanding
that's taught by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of God teaches
God's people. And we have a nature within us
that's present with us, Neil, He fights against it. Fights
it. Fights it. While we are being instructed,
that renewed mind delights in being taught and pants after
Him. As the Scripture says, the heart
or the deer pants after the water brook for a clearer understanding
of His person. That is what the believer, you
that believe, that is what you desire. once again, what the Scripture
sets forth. And Lord, teach me by Your Spirit. Show me who it is, who He is. Cause me to understand. Cause
me to see Him. Cause me to perceive Him, to
see Him by faith. The Bride has been setting forth
the discoveries of His particulars and His character She said she
looked at His head. She meant that's her glory. She
spoke of His locks. That's her eternal comfort. She
spoke of His eyes. That's her guidance. She spoke
of His cheeks. That's her safety. She spoke
of His lips. That's her revelation from God
the Father. She spoke of His hands as being
her power and her security. His heart. is her joy and His
legs is her strength. And now tonight she speaks of
His countenance. That's what she said, His countenance. That word countenance there means
His appearance, how the believer sees Him, how the believer views
Him or beholds Him, His countenance. You know what I'm talking about.
If you look at someone and you look at them and say their countenance
changed. Well, it was something that you
looked at and something that you perceived. You saw them. You beheld them. You're looking
at them. Our Lord asked His disciples
in Matthew 16, verse 13, He said, do men say that I, the Son of
Man, am? Who do they say? And after Peter
gave the false notions and opinions of others, Christ asked him,
He says, Whom say you that I am? Who do you say that I am? And
this is what the Father had revealed to Peter. This is the countenance
that Peter had of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, You're the Christ. The Son of the living God. That's
the countenance that Peter perceived of Him. The believer beholds
Him as God in the flesh. Jesus the Christ. The rock of our salvation. of glory the door to the Father. Who is He? How do you see Him? How do you behold Him? His countenance
or His face, it must be revealed. Numbers 6.26 says the Lord lift
up His countenance upon thee and give thee peace. If you perceive
Him, If you perceive His countenance, truly perceive His countenance,
not as the false notion of the carnal mind perceives Him as
someone wanting somebody to do something for Him by an act of
their own free will. Not that. But how do you see
Him? Who do you say He is? His countenance. Christ, who is the face or the
countenance of the Father must be lifted up or shown. 2 Corinthians, let me read this
to you, 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 6, it says, For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined into our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. The gospel, the glorious gospel
of Christ is hidden to them that are lost. That is to say, they
see no beauty in Christ at all. They see Him not as a substitute. They see Him not as a Redeemer.
They see Him not as the High Priest who intercedes They see
no beauty in Him whatsoever. The God of this world, the Scripture
says, has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image
or the countenance of God, should shine unto them. Christ is the
countenance of God who is beheld only as the one who shows mercy
to sinners. When you behold Him, the Lord
said, He said, You see Me. You've seen the Father. You see
Me. I read that Scripture a few minutes
ago. It came up earlier and I was reading over my notes and I read
that and I said, You see Me. I've heard folks, and I'm sure
you have too, I have actually heard people tell me that they
saw the Lord Jesus. It's always He was at the foot
of the bed. And they've described looking
at, actually physically seeing. That was their perception. Well,
I know that's not so. But the Lord Jesus Christ said,
you see Me, you've seen the Father. What is it to see Christ? Now, you that believe, you know. By faith, you see Him. But what is it to see the Lord
Jesus Christ? John 8, verse 56 says, Your father
Abraham rejoiced Now you think about how long before the Lord
Jesus Christ came into this world that Abraham actually walked
on this earth. This is what Christ said of Abraham. He said, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see My day. He saw it and was glad. To see Christ is to perceive
Him by faith to be the Christ. To see Him is to behold the Father. That is to say, to behold the
Father's glory and opinion to show mercy, to see Christ. If you behold by faith the Lord
Jesus Christ as God's gift, God so loved the world He gave His
only begotten Son. As you behold Christ by faith,
you see the mercy of God and you see Him. You perceive Him. But this image that we behold
of Him must be powerfully given and displayed. John, the Gospel
of John, I'll read this to you. If you want to turn, that's fine.
It's John 8, 12. The Scripture says, Then spake
Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world.
He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life. The Scripture says God commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. He has shined in our hearts,
God's people. You that believe, you see Him. You hear Him. When by faith we
see Him and the world does not understand what we are talking
about. How do you explain to somebody that by faith you see
Christ? Only a believer understands what
you are talking about. An unbeliever has no perception
of what you mean. You say you see Him, you hear
Him, you hear His gospel preached and you hear of His mercy and
grace and substitution. And you say, I see it. I see. I see. I see Him. I perceive
Him. I understand, Carl. If I tell you something and I
explain it, something you say, I see. I see what you see. I
understand what you see. I perceive. I see it. I perceive
Christ. When by faith we see Him, perceive
Him, we see, we understand, we perceive pardon by His blood. Justification by His righteousness
and acceptance before God Almighty in Him alone who is our Head. Those that have had the light
of His countenance, His face revealed to them know that they've
heard His voice. Now, He said that. He said, My
sheep, hear My voice. I looked that word up a few minutes
ago. My voice. Now here again, you try to ask
someone, have you ever heard the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Only a believer understands what I'm about to say. My sheep hear
my language. My sheep hear my address. That's what that word voice means. It means my disclosure. my address,
my language. A believer hears the gospel of
free grace and they recognize by revelation of the Spirit of
God, that's the voice of Christ. I hear His disclosure. That's not the word of a man.
A man didn't come up with that. I'm not preaching anything that
I made up. I'll back up everything I'm saying,
everything Brother Scott says. He'll back it up with Scripture.
It's disclosure. It's the address. It's the voice. My sheep, hear my address. Psalm 89, 15 says, Blessed is
the people that know the joyful sound, that is, of the gospel. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. They behold Him by faith. I'm not talking about looking
at a man and seeing a head and two arms and two legs. They behold
Christ. They hear His voice in the Gospel
when the two on the road to Emmaus had their eyes opened. They were looking. They were
looking at the Lord Jesus Christ, but they didn't know who He was.
They didn't see Him. They saw Him and didn't see Him.
They heard Him and didn't hear Him. But when the Scripture says,
He took bread and He broke it and He gave it to them. The Spirit
of God took that bread and they saw in that bread the bread of
life. And when He broke it, the Spirit
of God opened their heart and showed them He died for you. Broken body. And He gave it to
them and the Spirit of God opened their heart and their eyes illuminated
spiritually. They perceived Him. And they
said this, did not our hearts burn within us as He opened unto
us the Scriptures? They heard the Scripture being
spoken. And when the Spirit of God taught
it to them, they saw Christ. They heard Him. The sight of
Him as the substitute. The sight of Him as the Lamb
of God, the Redeemer of the sheep, blessed by the Spirit of God,
inflamed their heart as the objects of His mercy. They beheld Him. It is the sight of His countenance
as the Mediator between God and men, the Man, Christ Jesus, that
gives hope and peace and comfort. Even as we speak, we say, I know
that this life is fleeting. But as I was speaking with Brother
Scott before the services, we were talking about that situation
that I mentioned a while ago about all of those people, over
80,000 people as of this moment that has perished, just snuffed
out immediately. catapulted into eternity. For a believer, we say that we
know that this life is fleeting. But you know, we really don't
think that tonight might be our last night. We really don't.
Honestly, we don't. We say we know that this life
is fleeting. But I'm telling you, there's
coming a day I know, I'm convinced that in that day, Christ, to
see Him, to perceive Him, to hope in Him, that's all that
a believer is going to have. That's all he's got. His countenance
is one of mercy, comfort, peace, and joy. The bride says his countenance
is as Lebanon. Lebanon is referred to in Scripture
as that which sets forth the height, the exaltation, that
which is lifted up. That's what Lebanon perceives
or sets forth. Psalm 92.12 says, The righteous
shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall grow like a cedar
in Lebanon. Song of Solomon 3.9, King Solomon
made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. It speaks of
the height, the best of it. The Lord said, speaking to his
bride in Song of Solomon 411, thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
the honeycomb and milk are under the tongue, and the smell of
thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon." The smell of your
garments, the imputed righteousness of Christ, it smells of the best. So when the Scripture speaks
of Lebanon, He speaks of Him who is high and lifted up. is His Lebanon. It's the best,
the greatest. 1 Chronicles 29, 11 says, Thine,
O Lord, is the greatness and the power, the glory and the
victory and the majesty for all that is in the heaven and in
the earth is Thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and Thou art exalted as head above all. You're Lebanon. You're
the best. In whatever aspect He's spoken
of in Scripture, He is the Chief, the Preeminent. He is God over
all, blessed forever. The Father, the Scripture says,
has put all things under His feet, His countenance. The way
He is, His face, His glory, His honor, set forth as Lebanon,
the greatest. But then we consider Him who
is the greatest. Let me tell you how far it goes. He is the highest of the high,
the King of kings. And the Scripture says He humbled
Himself. He is the Lebanon of humility,
the greatest of all humility. He humbled Himself. We can't
humble ourselves. We must be humbled. But He humbled
Himself. I mean, last Sunday I was in
Rocky Mountain. This thought came to me. I might
tell you that I'm humbled. I really have humbled myself. And I'm so proud of that statement
when I say it. I'm just really, really proud
of my humility. Scripture says He humbled Himself.
Truly, I can't even imagine that because I'm so filled with pride. It's just foreign to me to say.
But for him, Philippians 2.5 says, Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus, who being the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation. I'm just honest with you. I want
you to speak well of me. I really do. Someone says, how would you like
for your reputation to be with people? Well, I want it to be
the best. Scripture says he made himself
no reputation. I can't even imagine the depth
of that humility. He took upon himself the form
of a servant was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man. He humiliated. He humbled. Humiliated himself. No created creature can do that. Humiliated. He is the highest. He is the greatest. He is as
Lebanon in His greatness and His majesty. And He is the greatness
as Lebanon in humility. No man. ever humbled himself. But Christ made Himself of no
reputation, emptied Himself. He emptied Himself. I got to
thinking about that. He emptied Himself. I thought
when I read that, I thought of what? What did He empty Himself? That's what the Scriptures say.
He emptied Himself. Made Himself. What did He empty
Himself of? Well, I know this, not of His
glory. I know that. For all the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt in Him bodily. So I know that He didn't empty
Himself when He humbled Himself as a man. He didn't empty Himself
of His glory. But He emptied Himself of the
continual outward manifestation of His deity. He emptied Himself. That is to say, He walked among
men as a servant in the likeness of men. He looked like a man. There was nothing about Him that
when men would look at Him, there on the Mount of Transfiguration,
the Scripture says that He revealed for a moment something of the
brightness of His glory. But He bore Himself to others,
walked in this earth, and emptied Himself before men in the form
and the fashion of a man. Lastly, the Scripture says concerning
His countenance, His countenance is as Lebanon, as excellent as
the cedars. Psalm 104, verse 16 says, "...the
trees of the Lord are full of sap, the cedars of Lebanon which
He hath planted." The cedars. The thing we see is that His
countenance, what He is saying is excellent. The cedars of Lebanon
were noted for their firmness, for their strength, and for their
durability, for their savor, the smell. I don't know, you
men, well, women too, you ever, cedar. I used to like to look
at these little, they'd make souvenirs down in Louisiana.
I guess they make them out of cedar everywhere, but man, I
used to love to just take, if it was made out of cedar, smell,
I loved the smell of it. It was the savor of that wood. Here the bride describes her
relationship to Christ as being that of the cedars. Countenance
as Lebanon is excellent as the cedars. As His countenance is
excellent. Excellent because as He is, so
are we in this world. As His countenance is as Lebanon. Excellent as the cedars. The
bride considers that and says this as God Almighty views him. He views me in him in that way. He considers me, he being excellent
as the cedars, makes me in him excellent by imputation, by the
imputation of his righteousness, not in myself, not of myself. Not for myself, but for His glory. As the cedar is strong in Him
who is our strength, we are strong in Him. Nothing shall happen
to them who are in Christ. Not one is going to be lost.
As the cedar is evergreen, He who endureth forever keeps us
eternally secure. Fragrant there is to us the fragrance
of His covenant blessing. Song of Solomon 1.3 says, His
name is as ointment poured forth. And the saints are counseled
to walk in love as Christ also hath loved them and hath given
Himself for them an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling savor. Who is He? Here is his countenance
to me. Who is he to you? This is who
he is. He is altogether lovely. The
countenance of the Lord Jesus Christ is as Lebanon. His countenance is the highest
as the King of kings. He is the highest of those who
humbled himself and made himself of no reputation, emptied himself,
came in the likeness of a man, suffered under the justice of
God Almighty as my substitute. Who is he? He is my Lord, my
hope, my Savior, and he is, concerning his countenance, excellent as
the sinners. May the Lord add his blessing
on this portion of Scripture to our heart.