As I say, we shall read a sermon
this evening. It was a sermon preached by the
late pastor, Mr. Matronola. It was preached on
the Lord's Day evening, 16th of June, 1991. The sermon is
entitled, He Is Altogether Lovely. And the text is from the Song
of Solomon, chapter five, verse 16. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. O daughters of Jerusalem. I believe that the words of our
text, Yea, he is altogether lovely, are without equal as they are
found in the authorised version of the Bible. I compared the
rendering of these words in some of the modern Bible versions,
and apart from the fact that some versions miss out the ye
altogether, because they think it is of no consequence, and
thus they subtract from what God has said, some of the so-called
improvements which they make seem to me to be no improvement
at all. The New American Standard Bible,
for example, renders these words as, he is wholly desirable. Does that come to us with the
force and the preciousness of what is in our text? Yay, he
is altogether lovely. In the Good News Bible, which
claims to be the English version for today, it says, everything
about him enchants me. Is that an improvement? I prefer
and am very thankful for the translation of our godly forefathers.
Yea, he is altogether lovely. It could not be put better than
that. But what does it mean? Of whom
does it speak? Interpretations are many, as
you will doubtless know. How is this book to be taken?
Is it to be taken literally? Is it to be taken figuratively?
I'm not going into the many different interpretations as it will not
be profitable for us to do but merely state that I see in this
book a marriage poem or a marriage hymn commemorating the love of
Solomon and his bride but beyond that I see in it the expression
of the love of Jehovah to Israel and beyond the love of Jehovah
to the old Israel I see the love of Jehovah Jesus to the new Israel,
to the church which he has loved and which he has purchased with
his own precious blood. It is in this sense, therefore,
that I understand it. It speaks chiefly and principally
of Christ. He is altogether lovely. In this chapter we learn that
the bride is seeking for the bridegroom. He has come and knocked,
but she has deferred to open the door, and when she does open
the door, he's not there. He's gone. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed
when he spake. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. So she goes
to seek him. She enters the city, but the
watchmen that went about the city found me and treated her
roughly. They smoked me, they wounded
me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. And
then she comes up against some of the women, the daughters of
Jerusalem. I charge you, she says, O daughters of Jerusalem,
if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love. She asks concerning him. She wants them to say, if they
find him, that this is her message for him, that she longs for him,
that she is sick of love. And back comes their answer.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved? What is so wonderful
about this one whom you are seeking, O thou fairest among women? What
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? She therefore begins to speak
of him and to describe him, and there follows the passage which
sets forth Christ as altogether lovely. as our purpose is mainly with
the words yea he is altogether lovely we have no time to fully
go into these verses which immediately precede them but I would just
mention them especially as we understand them of Christ she
speaks first of his complexion my beloved is white and ruddy
White, which speaks of his separation from all which is dark and sinful. Christ is the one who comes as
the Holy One of God. He is white, but he is also ruddy. And what is the ruddiness of
Christ? It is that which speaks of the blood that was shed by
the Holy One, the just dying for the unjust, that he might
bring us unto God. To her, he is also the chiefest
among 10,000. He is literally the standard-bearer
in the great company which make up the host of the Lord. He is
the one who stands out, the one who is as an ensign to the people. So is Christ, our Savior. He
stands out. He is unique. He is the God-man. Then she turns in her description
to his head. His head is the most fine gold. Gold speaks of the worth and
the glory of the one who is the Saviour, the Son of God from
all eternity. She then speaks of his hair,
his locks are bushy and black as a raven. John Gill says he
was a Nazarene from birth. The Nazarite vow of the Old Testament
was that the hair of the head should not be cut, that they
might be separated to the service of the Lord. Samson was dedicated
to be such from his very birth. We are told of Christ, that he
came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene.
Christ was separated from his very birth to the work which
God had entrusted to his charge. As she speaks of him, his locks
are bushy and black as a raven. Christ in all the covenant engagements
was true to the vow which he had undertaken. Lo, I come to
do thy will, O God. And then she speaks of his eyes.
His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed
with milk and fitly set to the enemies of Christ. His eyes are
as a flaming fire, which look into the very heart and penetrate
all that they have done, all that they have ever thought,
and strike terror into their hearts. So it will be in the
day of judgment. But to His people, to His bride,
His eyes are as the eyes of doves in all their meekness and in
all their purity. The bride then goes on to speak
of his cheeks, that they are as a bed of spices, as sweet
flowers. They are aromatic, they give
forth a perfume which is reminiscent of the words in the first chapter,
thy name is as ointment poured forth. the name of Christ stands
for his character and his attributes all about Christ all of his being
and all of his attributes which are his as the Son of God from
all eternity are as ointment poured forth when his people
hear of him they feel that these things are more than anything
that this world has to offer The bride then continues by speaking
of his lips. His lips are like lilies, dropping
sweet-smelling myrrh. In Psalm 45, which is entitled
A Song of Loves, it is usually taken to be a psalm for Solomon
and is therefore not unconnected to the portion of the word of
God which is before us. We are told that grace is poured
into thy lips. How lovely is that expression
as it speaks of our great Solomon. Grace is poured into thy lips. Never man spake like this man. And men wondered, men wondered
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. She goes on
to describe his hands which are as gold rings set with the beryl. Gold again speaking of eternity
and glory and the beryl of humanity. He is the one whose hands have
strength for nothing can pluck us out of his hands, nothing.
Satan cannot do it, men cannot do it, we cannot even pluck ourselves
were we to make the attempt when his hand is upon us, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. His belly, literally
his bowels or his very heart in the Hebrew is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires which suggests the depth, the heavenly
character of his love. like the heavenly blue of the
sapphire. It is love which will never end, for nothing can separate
us from the love of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for
us. We can never fully understand
that love. There is always more than we
can see. We can only see a little of God's
love, a few treasures from his mighty store, but out there beyond
the eye's horizon there's more, there's more the heart of Christ
towards his people is a heart of love everlastingly so then she comes to his legs which
are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold which
suggests the durability of the eternal purposes of the Redeemer
his countenance or his overall appearance is as Lebanon. It
is like Mount Lebanon shining not only in its limestone composition
but shining white also because of the gleaming snow upon its
summit. There is the shining forth of Christ. He is as the
sun that shineth in his strength. He is excellent as the cedars,
the cedars of Lebanon which are so sought after and so desired.
He is all of this. Finally, she says, his mouth
is most sweet. The breathings of love, the power
of the Holy Spirit bringing Christ to us. Oh, his mouth is most
sweet. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth. She comes then to what I want
to look at a little with you. Yay, he is altogether lovely. She is overcome. She's ravished. by the very thought of the one
whom she describes. Yea, she says, he is altogether
lovely, and the child of God is brought to see something of
this. If you have known him, if you have known him who loved
you and gave his dear self for your sake, in the words of Samuel
Medley, he saw me ruined in the fall, yet loved notwithstanding
all. As you think of his person at
his work, all that he is and all that he has done, in that
he has loved you and brought you to himself at the cost of
his own precious blood which was shed for many for the remission
of sins in the new covenant, you are brought to say with the
bride, yea, he is altogether lovely. Let us consider this
a little further. The titles of the Lord Jesus
Christ set forth His loveliness to us. The titles of Christ are
the names and the descriptions which God has been pleased to
use in the pages of the Old and New Testaments concerning His
Son. When you think upon them, every
one of them is a lovely title. In the book of Haggai, for example,
he is described as the desire of all nations which shall come. What a lovely title that is.
He is the desire of all nations, for he has a people amongst even
the Gentile nations, who apparently knew not God, and that people
will be made willing to seek after him. As his desire is to
them, so their desire will be to him. He is the desire of his
people. The gospel has been preached
unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world. Is he not your
desire today? We could consider the title the
Prince of Peace. There have been many princes
upon earth which can be described as anything but princes of peace.
For they have so often been messengers of war and bitter hatred. But he is described as wonderful,
counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. To secure peace he has taken
away the enmity, He has reconciled those who were at enmity against
God and against whom God must of necessity be at enmity by
His precious blood. He is also the Holy One of God. The Holy One of God. It was not
possible for His Holy One to see corruption What a lovely
title and description this is of the dear Saviour. He is God's
dear Son, God's beloved Son, the only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father. Peter says he is the chief cornerstone
of the building, elect, precious. There are so many other titles.
He is the refuge. He is the righteousness of his
people. He is the horn of their salvation. He is the shield.
He is the strength of Zion. He is the Passover. He is the
dew. He is the manna. He is the treasure.
He is the pearl. He is all of these things. He
is that one who is all sufficient. Yea, he is altogether lovely. It is a fruitful and delightful
study to go through the names of Christ, meditating upon them
and viewing them in all those blessed names of inspiration
which the Spirit of God has seen fit to apply to the dear Son
of God. He is altogether lovely. He is
altogether lovely also in his types. These can be divided into
persons and into things. There are those persons in the
Old Testament Scriptures which are types or anticipations of
Christ. They reveal something of Christ
to us. One example is that of Moses
and what a type of Christ he was. We are told of his birth,
that when his parents saw that he was a goodly child, they hid
him from sight. They did so by faith. For in
Hebrews, when we're told of the faith of Moses, we're also told
of the faith of his parents. They had faith in God. Therefore,
they took steps to secure their little son's life. And they did
it remarkably in that they hid him in the ark of bulrushes.
And none less than the daughter of Pharaoh found him and brought
him up. Moses was brought up in the court. But when he was
come to years, he left it and identified with his people. And
Christ has identified with his people. Moses drew his people
out of bondage. Christ draws his people out of
a greater bondage than that of Israel in Egypt. Moses was the
one who is the mediator of the law, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Moses is a type in that he sets
forth things which point to Christ, but Christ eclipses the glory
that is in Moses, although that glory that was in Moses was such
that his very face shone so that the children of Israel could
not look directly upon him and begged him that he might hide
the glory which was shining from his countenance. Oh, how great
is the mystery of godliness! that God was manifest in the
flesh. Men could look upon Christ, and
yet there is in the God-man that which outshines all the glories
of Moses, for he is altogether lovely. David is another type
of Christ. David was the great king who
brought the nation together and subdued it. He brought it from
a state of civil war, united it and made it strong. Christ
is the great king over Zion. Christ is the one who subdues
his loved nation for whose sake he shed his own precious blood. David is the man after God's
own heart and of the Son. The Father says, Thou art my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The testimony of the
resurrection is that Christ pleased the Father in all things, so
that His Father justifies Him and raises Him from the dead.
In these two examples of the personal types we see that He
is altogether lovely. There are many things which speak
of Christ and in these he is also altogether lovely. The ark in which Noah and his
family were preserved in the awful day of the flood speaks
of Christ. He is the ark in which we are
hid against all the tempest of God's wrath which will be poured
out at the last day. Are we in that ark? Are we in
Christ? Do we know what it is to be out
of condemnation and to be in Christ? He is the Ark, not just
for the eight souls that were saved by water, but He is the
Saviour of all His people. There are an innumerable multitude
who are trusting in Christ as their ark of safety, that precious
ark that was buffeted sore for our sakes and yet its precious
contents were never spilled. He died for his people and he
has obtained an everlasting salvation for them. They are secure. They
are delivered. Noah's Ark speaks to us of Christ,
but Christ comes far beyond any thought that we have of Noah
delivered by his Ark. Christ is the Ark of our salvation. Our eternal safety rests in the
person and work of Christ. Then there is the type of the
manna which supported Israel throughout the wilderness years
and which was attended by miracle even in the use of it. Christ
is the manna which came down from heaven. He is the bread
which has come down from God. Those who ate the manna in the
wilderness died. But those who eat the bread which
is Christ, the heavenly manna, will never die, but rather live
eternally. Christ is the manna, and as we
learn of Him, He is altogether lovely. It speaks to us of the
sufficiency and satisfaction which is in him. Is he your satisfaction? Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? Have you eaten of the heavenly
manner? There is also the mercy seat.
the mercy seat overlaid with pure gold, and with the cherubim
looking in upon it, of which God said, There I will meet with
thee, and I will commune with thee. More precious than the
mercy seat within the tabernacle, more lovely than the chest of
shitting-wood overlaid with gold, is that of which it speaks, that
of which it is but a type. It speaks of Christ. And God
meets with us in Christ. He will never meet with us outside
of Christ. For outside of Christ, our God
is a consuming fire. And it's not just the golden
cherubim which look in upon the mercy seat. It is the angelic
presence that we think of. For God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit seen of angels. as he came in order that he might
be the propitiation for our sins. It is the very same word which
is used for the mercy seat, which is the place of propitiation,
the place of reconciliation. The blood of bulls and goats
and the animal sacrifices merely pointed to the way which God
required, for without shedding of blood there should be no remission
of sins. The blood of animals could never
take away sin, It was rather only a pointer to the blood of
Christ which cleanseth us from all sin. He is the mercy seat. He is the propitiation for our
sins whom God has delivered up, whom God has sent. We do not need the tabernacle
or the temple although they had their place and they were glorious
in their day. We do not need cathedrals and
vast edifices built to the so-called glory of God, for we have the
mercy seat, which is Christ. We gather in the Spirit, we gather
with the immediacy of those who are believer priests unto God.
We need not the ceremonial and the ritual and indeed we repudiate
every aspect of it because we are complete in Christ. He who
is altogether lovely. We would have no distraction
from him. We love the simplicity of the
way in which the worship of his house is ordered in the New Testament
church. For the beauty of holiness is
never more set forth than when we meet, as we do around the
Word of God, where Christ in the midst condescends to address
us. In his types then, he is a most
wondrous and a most glorious Saviour. Yea, he is altogether
lovely. He is also altogether lovely
in his accomplishments. as a man, being found in fashion
as a man. He is altogether lovely. He is described by the psalmist
as being fairer than the children of men. Fairer than the children
of men. There never was a man like him. I know there are those who raise
the objection that we read he had no form nor comeliness and
when we shall see him there is no beauty in him that we should
desire him. Isaiah does indeed say that,
but that does not mean that this one who took his humanity by
the virgin birth and who had a perfect humanity, a true humanity,
yet preserved from any taint or contamination by sin, was
not a perfect man. The sense in which men see no
beauty in him is because he was marred more than other men by
the sufferings which he took upon himself, by all that he
endured for us. He was the man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief. But we're not saying that he
was anything other than perfect, that holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. I believe that
he is fairer than the children of men, for there never was another
like him and never will be. I do not press the point to any
speculation, but I would maintain that it was because of his afflictions
and because of the depravity of men's hearts that they saw
no beauty in the Redeemer. But he is altogether lovely,
in his humanity, in that which he has accomplished in assuming
our nature. He is altogether lovely, also
as the one who stands for us and represents us. Was there
ever perfection to compare with that which we see in the perfect
work which he has wrought for us? There is perfection in his
keeping of the law, There was not one jot or tittle which was
not fulfilled of all that the law required. When you think
of what the law requires, when you think of how often we sin
and transgress against the law of God in any day or even in
an hour of any day, think of the perfect obedience which he
rendered from the very beginning, how he was submissive even at
the age of 12 to Joseph and Mary and was subject unto that. how
he grew in wisdom and stature, how he went about doing good.
Think of these glorious accomplishments. Yay! He is altogether lovely. There was nothing about him that
was questionable or doubtful, nothing that he sordid or unseemly. There was nothing salacious about
anything that he did or about anything that he said. And although
some awful things were said of him by his enemies in their malignity
against him, stirred up by Satan himself, not one charge was ever
proved. At the end of his life there
was the testimony even from the lips of Pilate. I find no fault
in this man." And from a dying thief who said, we receive the
due reward of our deeds but this man hath done nothing amiss,
nothing amiss. He is the holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners and made higher than the heavens, Jesus. In His bloodshed, He is altogether
lovely, although you will not see it until you are given the
spiritual eye-self by the Spirit of God, which takes away your
spiritual blindness and causes you to see what He has done upon
the cross. Men recoil from it and say they
cannot understand it. To them his death seems weakness
and that he was merely the victim of circumstances and subject
to the gathering forces which were against him. But his people know that he did
what he had to be done in the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, although it cost him his very life. He died for our
sins. He was not one that merely swooned
upon the cross and then recovered. Rather, he did taste death for
every man. He tasted death for his people's
salvation. Therefore, we say that in what
he did, although there were all those things about it which were
awful to behold, there is a loveliness in it. There is a loveliness
in all that he wrought for us. I remember reading about a little
girl who was with her mother. And the little girl, in love
to her mother, said, I love your hair and I love your face, mummy.
And she came to her mother's hands, which were scarred and
disfigured. And she said, but I do not like
your hands, mummy. And her mother replied, when
you were a very little girl, there was a fire. And in rescuing
you, my hands were burned and deformed. And the little girl
replied, I love your hair and I love your face, but mummy,
most of all, I love your hands because they were put forth to
save me. Do you love him who is altogether
lovely, who died to save us? Do you love him who is altogether
lovely, who died to save us. He loved me and gave himself
for me. Oh, his accomplishments. What
words can we find to express these things which are so deep
and so profound? What a saviour he is. He is altogether
lovely in his sufferings. As Isaac Watts puts it in the
hymn, See from his head, his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love
flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown? And he will be altogether lovely,
when he shall come again, to be glorified in his saints, and
to be admired in all them that believe. We shall look our eyes
away in that day, when we shall see him as he is, for he is altogether
lovely. Let me conclude by saying how
excellent he is. No wonder Paul said, he determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. We can never hear too much of
him. We can never hear enough about him. But what if we have not eyes
to see him? Those that cannot see the loveliness
of Christ are blind indeed. Oh, that God will give them eyes
to see and be able to say, yeah, he is altogether lovely. We long
that those who do not see him might be given this spiritual
sight. We pity those who will not see him. We pity them because
what can they find? What can they find that is comparable
to him? They've got their idols, things
to which they give their allegiance, on which they spend their substance,
is numb like Christ. Where will all those things which
they follow so blindly take them? They will never take them upward.
They will only ever bring them down. We pity those who are following
any other save Jesus Christ, those who have not seen that
he is altogether lovely, Because except God bring them to see,
to believe, and to receive God's dear Son, they are going to a
place where they shall never see anything lovely throughout
all eternity. Whereas God's people are going
to a place where they will not see anything else. For he that is altogether lovely
will be the sun that shines in heaven. In that blessed place
there is no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine
in it, for the glory of God delight in it, and the Lamb in the midst
is the light thereof. Oh, that men might see Him and
love Him! Oh, that we might see Him and
love Him! Christian, do you want to love
Him more? Do you want to serve him better?
Do you want to follow him more closely? Do you desire that you
might be taken up with him? I desire it. I fear that I am
so very unlike him, but I long to follow him. I know no better
master to commend to you. My longing is that everyone that
enters within these walls might see something of the beauty of
Christ. and come to say yea he is altogether
lovely yea he is not he was but he is
not in part but altogether lovely yea he is altogether lovely this
is my beloved and this is my friend o daughters of jerusalem
May we be unashamed to speak his name. May we not be silent
about him. How can we be silent? We would
testify as God opens our mouths concerning the one who is our
beloved and our friend that he is altogether lovely. God then
sealed to us his precious word and give us suitable preparation
of heart as we come month by month to the Lord's table, and
as we come into the banqueting house, that we may find that
his banner over us is love, and that we may sit down under his
shadow with great delight and find his fruit sweet to our taste. Yea, he is altogether lovely. Amen.