Amen. Alright, take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Psalm 45. I've entitled this message, God's
View of the Church. How does God view His church? You're going to be able to see
this in verses 9 through verse 15. Just as a way of introduction,
we want to remember that the first eight verses are dedicated
to the view, God's view, of Jesus Christ. He is said to be the
King. God says, I have a good matter. This good matter is a matter
for sinners. Because it's concerning the King,
Jesus Christ. And He talks of His humanity,
Thou art fairer than the children of men. He talks of his office
as a prophet. Grace is poured into thy lips. Therefore God hath blessed thee
forever. Then he talks of his work in
verses 3 and 4. Gird on thy sword. Christ came
into this world to engage in warfare. in order as king to
deliver his people from the captivity of Satan and sin. He said, gird
on thy sword, O most mighty, and ride, how? Prosperously. What is it to ride prosperously?
It is to accomplish the thing that you were sent to do. to
finish the work. And that's what Christ did. He
came into the world and when He was crucified, when He hung
upon Calvary's tree, He said these words, It is finished. Salvation had been accomplished
at Calvary. He rode prosperously in truth,
in meekness, in righteousness. Thy right hand shall teach thee
terrible things. We know that the Lord suffered. And by this suffering, the scripture
tells us he learned obedience by the things he suffered. What
was the most terrible thing that happened to our Lord? It was
the crucifixion. It was when He was made sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And in verse 5 we read of the
work of Christ in conquering His people. sharp in the heart
of the king's enemies. We were his enemies. By nature,
enemies of God, haters of God. And yet, when God pierced our
heart with the gospel, what did we do? We fell under Him. We
fell under His dominion and this is what we saw. Thy throne, O
God, is forever. We saw the deity of Christ. A
scepter is a kingdom, is a right scepter. Thou lovest righteousness
and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, He who
is God, he became a man. And he says, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. We
saw last time in verse eight, all thy garments smell of myrrh,
aloes, and cassava. We remember those ointments,
those spices were for the anointing of the tabernacle and the furniture
and the high priest, all of which picture Christ. You go through
that Old Testament and read about the tabernacle, that's a picture
of Christ. That's where God meets with men. God only meets with
men over a sacrifice. And that sacrifice must be given
by an anointed high priest. Christ is the high priest. Christ
is the sacrifice. Christ is the tabernacle. Christ
is the furniture. It's all picturing Him. And now
we come to our text in verse 9. And it says, King's daughters
are among thy honorable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
the queen in gold of Ophir. Now, the Lord takes our gaze
and He takes it from Christ, seated upon the throne. Christ
victorious. And now He's going to show us
the fruit of His labor. He's going to show us the work
that He did. He performed for His people. And so now we view what God has
manifest, what Christ has accomplished, and that is what? The salvation
of his people. Christ accomplished the salvation
of his people. Jesus has made the king's daughters. This is speaking of His elect
people. This is speaking of all that
the Father chose, all that Christ died for, all those that have
fallen under Him, you who believe. Listen, this is speaking of what
He has done for you. Not just for you, but what He's
done in you. This is His work. That is beautiful. Listen to the language here,
the king's daughters. You know what, that's what you
are. You're children of the king. Isn't that what he purposed? Scripture says in Ephesians 1
that, Blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places,
according as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Here's the reason. That we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. See, this is all God's purpose
that you should be His children. Isn't this glorious? It is glorious
to our sight that we are called the King's daughters. And notice,
we are called honorable. This morning when you got up
and looked in the mirror, did you see that? Man, look how honorable. I did not see that. Every day I look in the mirror
and I don't see that. This is why it is of faith we
see these things. We know this because God says
it. The king's daughters are honorable.
They're valuable. They're precious. Do you realize
that the whole world God gives you? You that are here. Listen, everything that's happening,
troubles, trials, difficulties, Kingdoms rise, kingdoms fall.
You understand? It is for the salvation of His
people. He's doing all things for His own glory. And His glory
is this. It's manifest in the salvation
of His people. You're confused as to what God's
doing. He's saving His people. I don't
understand. You don't have to. Trust Him. Trust Him. Because he is his Children are
precious in his side. He said, I've given Ethiopia
and see before the you got that he gave nations of people for
his people. Precious, honorable Jesus Christ
in the gracious purpose of God was betrothed to his bride. He was sent forth of the Father
to be the Savior of His people, to redeem them by His blood,
provide righteousness for them that they could never provide
for themselves. Isn't this true of you? Christ
has provided all that is necessary for His bride to make her honorable. Look at Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon at chapter 1. Song of Solomon, chapter 1. Now,
you remember the Song of Solomon is not a book about how to have
happy marriage. That's not what it's for. The
Song of Solomon is a picture, again, of Jesus Christ and His
church. Christ is the bridegroom. The
church is the Shulamite, the bride. And listen to what she
said in chapter 1 and verse 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine, because the
savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured
forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. When the Holy Spirit reveals
to a sinner a Jesus Christ person, when Christ is revealed by the
Spirit, It's like that precious ointment, just we read about
in verse 8, that ointment which Christ was anointed. The perfume
of that, the glory of His person, the beauty of His deity and His
humanity, the beauty of His perfect work is as an ointment poured
forth. It's glorious, it's smell. He's honorable. He's made us
honorable. And His elect love Him. And they
are effectually drawn to Him by faith. In verse 4, He says,
She said, Draw Me. We will run after Thee. The King
hath brought Me into His chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
Thee. We will remember Thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. The honor
of his bride is only found in the honor of her husband. Our honor, the king's daughters
are among the honorable, precious. Our honor only comes from him. He bought us with his own blood. And in time he brought us to
himself, we who were rebels, we who were sinners, haters of
God, going about to establish our own righteousness. You know, this matter of seeking
God, religion believes that men are seeking God, naturally, that
men are looking for God. Totally against what the Word
of God says. There is none righteous, no not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. I wasn't seeking after God. I
was seeking after a God of my own imagination, sure. I was
seeking a God that was much like myself, sure. But I wasn't seeking
God. The miraculous thing was, He
sought me. He sought me. He found me. And when he quickened me, I ran
after him. He drew me to himself. And the desire of the church
is always to honor Christ. That's it. If there's any glory
to be had, it belongs to Christ. There is no glory here. I don't get to glory in any part
of my salvation. I had nothing to do with it.
It was all of Him. He has made me honorable. Believer in Christ, we have truly
been greatly honored of God. We have been blessed. We have
found great favor with God. And the manifestation is He drew
me. He brought us to spiritual life
and truth, spiritual faith, true spiritual faith. Now notice in
Song of Solomon how the believer, the honorable, the wife, views
herself. You that are honorable, is this
not how you view yourself? Look at verse 5 of Song of Solomon. She says, I am black, but comely. O daughters of Jerusalem, as
the tents of Kadar, as the curtains of Solomon, look not upon me
because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's
children were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. This is the
testimony. This is my testimony. I am black. I am a sinner. I am. It's not a slogan, it's just
true. That's who I am by nature, a sinner. But I know this, he
has made me beautiful. Black, but comely. Black, but
comely. In his sight, we are beautiful. Believer, let us keep this in
remembrance and we will be glad because of his grace. Let us constantly see this truth.
that in his eyes we are precious. In his eyes we are honorable.
And I know so many times you do not feel that way. But one good thing about salvation,
it really has nothing to do with how I feel. I could feel like
I'm saved one minute and I could feel like I'm lost the next.
What does that matter? My feelings had nothing to do
with my salvation. It's all Christ, He has made
me honorable. And we are glad. We are glad. The second thing is this. Not
only is the church honorable, but I want you to see the position
of the church now. Look back at your text. The king's
daughters are among the honorable women. Upon thy right hand did
stand the queen in gold of Ophir. We are not only said to be honorable,
pure, holy in the sight of God, but we are also said to be the
queen of heaven. This is the position of the church.
If Christ is king and we are his bride, what does that make
us? It makes us a queen. His church is as a queen. Go to Revelation chapter 12.
Go to Revelation chapter 12. This is a view of the church. Revelation chapter 12. Look at
this. And there appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her
feet and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being
with child cried, travailing in birth, pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven. Behold a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns, seven crowns upon his head. And he
drew a third part of the stars of heaven, and he cast them to
the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour the
child as soon as it was born. Again, this is a picture of the
church. Consider the church as it was in the position before
Christ came into the world. Before Christ came into the world,
she was as a woman ready to deliver. Christ was promised from the
beginning, wasn't He? He was promised to come into
the world. The seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent.
From that time, those were the first members of the earthly
church, Adam and Eve. And they were promised that the
church, that by His people should come forth a son, a conqueror. And what has Satan been ready
to do ever since that came? He's been ready to devour Him. That's what it is. Every chance
he had, he was ready to try to find Christ and devour Him. Remember when he found out that
Christ was born into the world? What did he do through Herod?
He sent Herod. Herod sent those men out to kill
the Christ. Was he successful? No. Everything he did only moved
toward the salvation of God's people. Look at this. And she brought forth a man-child
who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was
caught up unto God. And to His throne, we know that's
Christ. We know that's Christ. And the woman fled into the wilderness
where she had a place prepared of God that they should feed
her for a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days. Now that
Christ has come and conquered and has ascended into heaven,
now where is the church? Where are you this morning? We're
in the wilderness. We're in the wilderness. Yet God has promised
provisions. Provisions for His Church. His Queen has promised provisions. Because we are the Queen of Heaven,
the Bride of Christ, I want you to know this, that nothing in
this world will ever overcome our position. Nothing will ever
overcome our position. Believer, you are made the royal
bride. The royal bride. You were chosen
of God. Predestinated to be his child
betrothed unto Christ forever. But I tell you, this was not
our natural birth, was it? And in that chapter 12, you'll
read that the dragon sent forth a flood after her. And you know what? The earth
opened up and swallowed up the flood. You see that God, there's
nothing that's going to be able to move us from God. Isn't that
what Paul says concerning this in Romans 8? Romans 8, he says,
who can accuse you? Who can accuse you? It's God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again and even seated
at the right hand of God. Who then shall separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? Paul said, I'm 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 not that they're
not going to try, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God that is in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you from
this position. It's your position. He gave it
to you, not because you deserved it. He gave it to you as an act
of grace and mercy. We are the queen of heaven, friends. We weren't born this way. You
remember that passage in Ezekiel 16? That bastard child of the
two heathens, thrown out, left to die. That's a picture of us. We were the bastard children
of Adam and Eve. To the loathing of our own selves,
There was none to save us. When that passage in Ezekiel,
God says this, None I pitied thee to do any of these unto
thee, to have compassion on thee. But thou wast cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou
wast born. And when I passed by thee, I
saw thee polluted in thine own blood. And I said unto thee,
When you were in your own blood, Live! Yes, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. See the compassion of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We were born rebels and yet in
grace he had made us royalty. Royalty. So we see that we are now, go
back to your text, we are the honorable. We've been made holy,
we've been made acceptable. Now then we see that our position
is the Bride of Christ is Queen. And now I want you to see the
garments of the Church. Look at this, the Queen in gold
of Ophir. Gold of Ophir. This place Ophir
was known for its gold, the purity of its gold. The purity of its
gold. For gold to be pure, It must
be melted. It must be melted so the dross
may be removed. And the more this is done, the
purer the gold is, the softer the metal becomes. The church
is said to be dressed in gold of Ophir. You know, I looked
this up. It's astounding to me that gold
can be made into thread. You can melt it down so much
and you can make, I think someone made a 24 carat gold threaded
dress. It was very expensive. I think
someone said 1.5 million dollars for that dress. But believer, I want you to understand
that this gold dress is not made of physical gold. It is the righteousness
of God. It is pure, unadulterated righteousness. That's precious, isn't it? You realize that there's only
one man in all of human history that ever was totally perfect
and without sin? How rare is that? There's only
one of Him. And He made this righteousness. He didn't need it for himself.
He was already righteous. Jesus Christ came into this world
honoring the law of God so that you and I might have the righteousness,
not just any righteousness, the righteousness of God. We are dressed as believers in
Christ, we are dressed in the righteousness of God. Look at verse 13. Notice where
this righteousness is found. It's found within. Look at this
in verse 13. The king's daughter is all glorious. Where? Where is she glorious? Within. Where is this robe, this
gold of Ophir? Where is this dress? Her clothing
is of wrought gold. She shall be brought into the
king in raiment of needlework. The garment of our righteousness
is not made by our own hands, but by the needlework of Jesus
Christ, who meticulously honored the law of God in every jot and
tittle. In our new birth, when God gives
us a new heart, a new nature. That nature is without sin. That nature is holy. The scripture
says we are created after God in true holiness. That nature
wasn't there before and it was created of God in the new birth. And that nature is holy and perfect. So our righteousness
is therefore acceptable to God because every thread of our righteousness
was made by Christ. Not one, not one stitch of my
garment was made by me. Not one. I like the way it said in in
when God told Moses to build an altar. He said, I want you
to take stones and I want you to put these stones and build
an altar. But I don't want you to put your tool to it. I don't
want you to shape it. I don't want you to touch it.
Because the day you touch it, you defile it. Now listen, the
day I put my hands to the righteousness of Christ, I've defiled it. The
day I add the stitch of my own righteousness to His, it's done,
it's defiled. He was a church. Believers, do
you want to add something to this? Is there anything? I always
use that illustration of the Sistine Chapel. You got Michelangelo
painting that beautiful thing up there. And it's like I just
want to go up there and add my stick figures. I think I'm going
to just add something to it. And I go up there and just start
painting stick figures on it. I'd ruin it. How much more it
is when men try to add their righteousness, their will, their
works to His. Isaiah 42 said, ìThe Lord is
well pleased for His righteousness sake.î Why is God pleased with
me? For His righteousness sake. Thatís why Godís pleased with
me. That's why I'm glorious within. He shall magnify the law and
make it honorable. And Ephesians 2, 10 says, for
we are his workmanship. You got that? We are his, it's
the work of a skilled craftsman. We are his workmanship. Created
in Christ Jesus. Unto good works, no doubt. which
God hath before ordained that we should walk therein. We wrought
nothing for God, and yet for His own sake, by the blood and
righteousness of Christ, He has blotted out our sins and made
us the righteousness of God. Isn't this wonderful that we
sing that hymn? My sin, my sin, O the bliss of
this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise my free will. Praise God, I'm doing the work
of God. No, praise the Lord, praise the
Lord. Why? Because He is the Alpha
and Omega in our salvation. He's the beginning of it, He's
the author of it, He's the finisher of it, and He's everything in
between. Therefore, all the glory of this belongs to God. And thirdly,
I want you to see the importance of the word of God to the church.
Go back to your text. We see that we are honorable,
made honorable by Christ. Our position is that we are the
queen. Our dress is the righteousness of God, all glorious within. Now then, I want you to see in
verse 10, listen to this. Hearken, O daughter, and consider
and incline thine ear. forget also thy people and thy
Father's house. So shall the King greatly desire
thy beauty, for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. I want
us to remember the importance of the Word of God. God says
to His church, listen to me, hearken to me. Now listen, you
who are believers, I've told you nothing new, and I won't
ever tell you anything new. I only want to tell you what
God says. I'm not here to give opinion. I just don't do it. Your opinion is just as good
as mine. Really of no value. They're just
opinions. I'm here to tell you what God
says to you. That's it. I want to speak of the good matter
His heart's indicting to you, which is His Son. I only want
to speak of His Son. I only want to speak what He's
done. I only want to speak what He's done for you and in you
and to you. These are words of value. And those who are saved by grace,
we only desire to hear, thus saith the Lord. What else matters? But thus saith
the Lord. If God didn't say it, I don't
want to say it. I just don't. And the Word of God commands
us to believe on Christ, only on Christ, always on Christ,
for all our salvation. We must and shall consider Christ,
who is our merciful and faithful high priest, who has offered
himself to God. We always are to consider him
who suffered the guilt of our sins under the wrath of God,
we are always to consider His faithfulness to constantly intercede
for us. Isn't that a beautiful thing,
that we are constantly interceded? John says, He cleanseth us from
all our sin. You know what that ETH means,
right? It's a present perfect tense. He has cleansed me of
my sin. He is presently, constantly,
now cleansing me of my sin. And He shall forever cleanse
me of my sin. You know that's only good news
to one type of person. A sinner. That's it. Well, I
don't... I'm good. I don't need to be
cleansed. I'm doing pretty good. Well,
it's not for you. It's for sinners. These people
are sinners. And they need constant, perpetual
cleansing. I'm so thankful for that grace. And this is what His Word constantly
tells us. And listen, Jesus Christ is always
the object of all our worship. Look what He says in the beginning
of the text. He says this, forget also thine own people and thy
father's house. Who? Who was your father? Your father was Adam. Our house was a house of death. Our line was a ruined race. You know what? When we betrothed
to Christ, when we come to Christ, you know what He says to us?
He says, forget about that. Forget where you came from. That's
no longer your position. There's a text over in Deuteronomy
21, when they were to conquer this land, one of the commandments
of God, He says, if you see one of those heathen girls and you
like her, and you love her, then you take her in. You shave her
head, and you marry her. And you take care of her. What
a picture of what Christ did for us. He humbled us. That was what had to be done.
In order for her to be brought in to the Jewish nation, she
had to be humbled. She couldn't keep up her lineage. She couldn't continue to follow
after her heathen parents. She had to leave them if she
wanted to be part of this community. How much more us? Jesus said
this, If any man come unto me, and hate not his father, and
mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, and
yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever
doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
Isn't this true of you that we forgot? The Lord said, Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55, I'm looking it up,
hold on. Make sure I get it right. It said, Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord, and he shall have mercy, he shall pardon
him. You see, we had to forsake our ways. The way of Adam is
always works. The way of natural religion is
always trying to earn God's favor. Trying to turn God to your favor
by what you do. We had to forget our father's
ways. We had to forget our religion.
Forsake it. And so this is what it is when
we come to Christ. We forget our father's house.
And by forgetting our father's house, remember our father's
house was cursed. What did Christ do with that curse? He removed
it. By being made a curse, he removed
the curse of my father's house and brought me into his own house.
This is the word of God to his church. And so because the king calls
us to leave our father's house, and cling to our husband Christ
and his gospel. We forsake our sin, our self
righteousness and all our religion and come after him. Paul says
it this way in Philippians chapter two and verse eight three verse eight Philippians
three. And verse 80 says, yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ
my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do
count them but dung that I may win Christ. Is that how you viewed
your religion? The religion before you came to Christ. The religion
with which you sought to earn God's favor. How do you count
that religion? Paul says, I counted it dung. All that Jewish religion,
all of my works and self-righteousness, count it as done that I might
win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. And lastly, I want you to see
that the church, the church shall be brought into heaven. The church shall be brought into
heaven. Go back to your text. Look at
this in verse 14. She shall be brought unto the
king in raiment of needlework, the virgins, her companions that
follow her shall be brought unto thee. With gladness and rejoicing
shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's
palace. He has made us honorable, accepted
with God. He has made us his queen. He
has robed us in his righteousness. He has given us his word, which
we believe and trust. We are no longer of the house
of Adam, but rather sons and daughters of God. And now here's
our hope. We shall be brought to him. You that believe, was there any
chance you were going to miss this? Any chance at all? If God chose you, if Christ accomplished
your salvation, is there any way that He would miss bringing
you to Himself by faith? Not a chance. Not a chance. Let me ask you this, is there
anything then that will hinder Him from bringing you to Heaven? I'll tell you what I feel like
there is. I feel that there are mountains
between me and glory. Sometimes you just wonder, how's
this gonna work out? I don't know. All I know is this. He said, she shall be brought
to the king. John says, it doth not yet appear. He said, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. I told you, that look in the mirror, does it appear what
you shall be? Can you look at your works? Can
you look at your deeds and say, ah, yeah, I can see some righteousness
there. I can't. I can't see it. Again, what does it matter? I
believe Christ. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know, by faith, we know when He shall appear. When He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. How is it? You know, John even
says this, as He is, so are we in this present world. You know
that? I can't see that, but that's so as he is. How is he? Tell me how Christ is. So are we. Right now. Even though I can't see it one
day, I will see it when he appears. When he comes, we shall be made
like him completely. Body, soul, and spirit totally
holy. And what is the response when
we are there? She shall be brought unto the king, and all her virgins
shall follow. With gladness and rejoicing they
shall be brought. And they shall enter into the
king's palace. What is our rejoicing? When we get to heaven, what is
going to be our song. Is there any part of this song
other than our sin? I think that's the only part
that we have in this song in heaven. It says, Thou art worthy. The song in heaven is, I had
it written down, here it is. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and blessing and glory forever and ever. Amen. Repeat verse
one. Constantly praising, constantly
praising Christ. I remember when I said this one
time, I said, Heaven is an eternal church service. And my son, he
said, I don't know if I'd like to go. He said, there's nothing to do
there but church? Not like this. Not like this. Ain't no more sin there. No more
distraction. We will constantly rejoice in
the work and the person of Christ. Forever. There'll be no weariness. No
struggle. You struggle. I had struggle
just preaching this message. I've got struggles. My mind is
at warfare. My heart constantly at warfare. You sitting there, you got a
heart constantly at warfare, trying to be torn away. When
we're brought to the king, none of that. There won't be any more
of that. We shall adore him and we shall love him as much as
he loves us. I want to love him, I do. I tell you what, I dare not look
at my love for him for any assurance. There's no assurance in looking
at my love for him. My assurance is in this. He's made me honorable. He's given me the position of
a queen in heaven. He has robed me in his righteousness. that He Himself has wrought,
He has made me glorious within. He has given me His Word and He
has given me faith to believe it. And He shall bring me to
Himself. Of this there is no doubt. He said, I go and prepare a place
for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will, I will come again and receive you unto myself,
that where I am, you may be also. I pray that God comforts you
with this, to see what Christ has accomplished for us and what
Christ has promised to do for us. So no matter what happens,
Listen, does it really matter what happens in this life? Not
really. Because all he's doing in this
life is saving his people. What's he doing? Bringing them
to himself. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your own blessing and mercy, I pray. Pour out your
spirit, take the word, make it effectual to the hearts of your
people for their comfort and their joy. Teach them again what
great things Christ has done for them. And for those who are
outside of Christ, oh, give them faith that they may run to Christ
and find refuge, find forgiveness and pardon for
sin. I pray you would do this for
your own glory in Jesus name.