All right, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to the Song of Solomon. The Song of
Solomon, chapter 3. We'll be looking at verse 11 this morning. Song of Solomon, chapter 3 and
verse 11. The title of the message is this
morning, Behold Your King. Behold Your King. Verse 11 of
Song of Solomon chapter 3, Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion,
and behold King Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother
crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of
the gladness of his heart. Behold here in our text we have
a coronation service. We have a crowning of King Solomon. What a day this was. If you were
to go back into 2 Kings and see this, and read of this, how it
took place that his brother, Adonijah, was a goodly man, was
the brother of King Solomon, was the son of David, and he
took it upon himself to be king. And David did nothing to stand
against it, so Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, came to David
and reminded him, reminded David that it was the Lord who anointed
Solomon, and it was David's decision to anoint Solomon. And so David
agreed and crowned Solomon in his place. in one of the passages
of Scripture speaking of His crowning, and when they crowned
Solomon, they said the rejoicing was so loud, was so loud that
it rent the earth. Can you imagine that? That actually
the earth began to shake because of the sound of rejoicing when
Solomon was crowned. This was a glorious day. It was
a glorious day. The fulfillment of God's promises
was upon David and upon his kingdom. And his son Solomon was reigning
in his stead. It was a glorious day. And so our text says, Behold,
you daughters of Zion, you believers in Christ, you who know Him,
you who rejoice with me at His crowning, at His glory, at His
presence, Let us sing in our hearts today because Christ is
King. He is King. A greater than Solomon
has arisen. Solomon was a great king, but
I tell you there's a king greater than Solomon. His name is the
Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon was decreed by his father
David to be king, but I tell you Jesus was decreed by God
himself that he should be king. David in Psalm 110 in verse 1
says, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand till
I make thine enemies thy footstool. God anointed him to be king.
Solomon was anointed with an earthly oil. They took to all
of that tabernacle and they anointed his head with oil. But I tell
you, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure. He was anointed of God when He
came and manifest Himself in the flesh. Unto Jesus does the
Father speak in Psalm 45, verse 6, when He said, Thy throne O
God, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Thy scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter, a right scepter, because the Lord loved
righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Therefore,
behold you saints of God, this is for your comfort. This is
for your comfort. When the kingdoms of this world
are overturned, when rulers are set up and rulers are put down,
God's people often worry. Are you worried about the rulers
of this world? Are you worried who is going
to be next and who is going to fall, who is going to rise? Are
you concerned about these things? You should not be concerned about
these things. You should not let these things
trouble you as we do. We let these things bother us.
Behold, go forth and look at your king. Your king will never
be put down. Your king has a right scepter. He has a right to rule. And that's
the first thing I want us to see is that the kingdom of Jesus
Christ is one of divine right. One of divine right. Jesus Christ
is no usurper of authority. We read of how, I love reading
history, I love reading about the kings and how they come to
power and things, and you can see the intrigue behind the throne,
you see how people are conniving, how people are trying to manipulate
situations and exalt themselves. Now whether they have a right
to exalt themselves or not, they don't care. But I tell you that
Jesus Christ has the very right to exalt Himself. Because He is God. When I speak of Jesus, yes, we
see the man Jesus Christ, but I tell you before He became flesh,
He was the eternal Son of God. One with the Father, one with
the Spirit. There are three that bear record
in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Spirit. And these three are one. One God. One in essence. One in will. One in power. Do you often struggle with your
own self? God never struggles with himself. He's not like us. He is one in will. The Father's
will is the Son's will is the Spirit's will. The Father's power
is the Son's power is the Spirit's power. It's equal. The three,
great three in one. He declares to us by His Holy
Spirit that the Lord possessed Him in Proverbs chapter 8. He
said the Lord possessed Him and set Him up from everlasting to
be King. Jesus Christ was determined by
the eternal counsel of God Almighty to be king. It's His divine right
to be king. Jesus, the Son of God, reigned
over all creation because He is the creator and preserver
of all things. Believer in Christ, rest assured
that your king His throne is established. He created all things
by the word of His power, and He rules all things still by
the word of His power. If we go over to Colossians chapter
1, Colossians chapter 1 and verse
16. Speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it says, For by Him were all things created that are in heaven
and are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones
or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created
by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and notice this, and by Him all things consist. That is amazing. All things consist by Him. Without Him the world would disappear. It would not be able to be held
together without Him. You this morning are held together
by His will. You breathe because He wills
you to breathe, because He determines it. That's how much Christ rules
over man, is that man could not take a breath without His permission.
We could not do anything without Him. He is a sovereign king who
rules over all things. All things were made by Him and
all things were made for Him. Everything that has happened
that is happening is for His own glory. Everything is working
out just like He planned it, just like He purposed it. He
is disappointed in nothing. He regrets nothing. Nothing. He is sovereign. He is king.
And he's king by divine right. Behold Jesus Christ in the glory
of his eternal deity that he made all things and all things
by him consist. By this king all things are held
together, the sun, the moon, the stars, men and beasts are
under his dominion so that they accomplish all his eternal decrees. People ask foolish questions. If God is sovereign, why is there
suffering? Because God decreed it. Why else
would there be? God decreed it for His own glory.
And who are we to shake our fist in the sovereign face of God? God uses the anger of men to
glorify Him, and when it does not, He restrains the anger of
men. He does with men as He pleases.
This is the God and King of heaven and earth, the Lord Jesus. This is best seen at the cross,
isn't it? If you go to Acts chapter 4.
Acts chapter 4 and verse 26. The kings of the earth stood
up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against His Christ. For of a truth against Thy holy
child Jesus, whom Thou hast appointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate
and the Gentiles and all the people of Israel were gathered
together for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined
before to be done. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
at the hands of wicked men, and I tell you, they are responsible. If they were not His own, if
He had not redeemed them and saved them, they died in their
sins, and they are today being punished for crucifying the Lord
of glory. Yet, in their own wickedness,
they did exactly what God determined before to be done. Is that not
glorious? This is glorious. Our King does
whatsoever He will. Hath not the potter power over
the clay to make one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?
Have you not found that in your own case? That God who has chosen
you, redeemed you, called you to faith and yet He has made
you a vessel of honor and He has passed by others that you
know. Others that you love. Hath not God power to do that?
Shall we not bow to His sovereign will? Yes. We who are His people
will bow to His sovereign will. Shall not the Lord of all the
earth do right? Yes, He will. He will. Jesus has this by divine right. He is King. He has made us and not we ourselves. It is He who reigns and rules
over all His creation. Because He is the Creator, He
has the divine right to rule and to demand of men. Yet, because
of sin, man by nature has set his heart against Christ. The natural man receiveth not
the things of God, neither indeed can He can't, because he's spiritually
discerned. He can't obey the law of God,
and therefore he says in his heart, man by nature says, I
will not have Him to rule over me. Isn't that foolish? Isn't that an arrogant, foolish
statement to shake your fist in the face of your Maker? Let
the potsherd strive with the potsherd. Let man strive with
man, but how will you strive against God? And yet man does continually. He says, I will not have this
man to rule over me. All of you who will not bow to
the Lord Jesus Christ as a rightful king, but continue in your rebellion,
following after the lust of your flesh and of your mind, you will
surely lose against the justice of God. This is a surety. If you will
not bow, you will burn. This is, kiss the Son, lest He
be angry with thee, and you perish in the way. The day is coming
when the Sovereign King will return to the earth and sit on
His throne. Will you think it'd be a hard
thing for Him to divide the nations into two parts? Do you not think
it'd be hard for Him to divide all people into two parts, into
those who are goats and the sheep? It'll be nothing for him. When
he raises every man from the grave, they will stand before
him, and he'll divide them. The king will separate all nations
as easily as a shepherd divides the goats from his sheep. And
I tell you, this royal king, his royal subjects, those who
believe on him, he will say to you, You, blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you. But to those who will
not bow, to those who boast it. And that's what it is to not
bow. It is to boast against Christ. It's nothing but pride. Nothing
but arrogance. You hear men boasting here. You
hear men today say, I will have my way. I'll do what I darn well
please to do and I don't care what God says. In that day you
will shut your mouth and God will cast you into hell and you
won't have a word to say against Him. Today men boast of their works,
their religion, but in that day what will they say? What will
they say? Nothing. There's nothing they
can say because he judges rightly. He'll give you exactly what you
deserve. And not only is Christ king by
divine right, but I tell you Christ is king by conquest. Behold
your king, believer, because your king is a divine king. He
has a right to rule, but not only has he a right to rule,
he also won the right to rule by conquest. The Son of God has
the right as sovereign ruler over all men from eternity, but
has decreed that He should rule in triumph over all His enemies. By His own sovereign will, the
Father chose us according to His grace. And He predestinated us to be
the sons of glory. He decreed that we should be
made holy and blameless before Him. Therefore, the Father gave
the charge, your charge, to His Son. He charged you. He said, these are My people.
And He gave them to His Holy Son, who He decreed should be
King. And the Son willingly took them
and said, I will win them. I will win them. God gave them to His Son, and
His Son was purposed to ride into victory. I love this psalm. Go to Psalm 45. It is a majestic,
it is a majestic psalm. It shows the glory and triumph
of our Lord Jesus Christ riding into humanity. Psalm 45. God says, My heart
is indicting a good matter. I speak of things which I have
made touching the King. My tongue is a pen of the ready
writer. And this is what He says of Jesus. He said, Thou art fairer than
the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and with thy majesty. and in thy majesty ride prosperously,
because of truth and meekness and righteousness, and thy right
hand shall teach thee wonderful things. Thine arrows are sharp
in the heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever. Thy scepter of thy kingdom is
a right scepter. This is Jesus writing prosperously. How many times have you and I
rode to something and we thought we were gonna get it, whatever
it is, we just thought, oh, yes, this is a sure thing, and it's
turned upside down. We've done that so many times,
we've determined to do things, and we've failed. Friends, we are failures. We have failed in everything
we've tried to accomplish. We've accomplished truly nothing
we've ever set out to do. But I tell you this, King, He
has set out to accomplish the salvation of God's elect, and
He rode prosperously. He accomplished the work. His arrows hit the mark. of His targets. What was His
target? His target was our sin. His target
was our enemy, Satan. His target was death and hell,
and He destroyed them all. Jesus Christ is a right ruler. The King, anointed to ride, rode
majestically to accomplish our righteousness. He is Jehovah
Tiskanu, the Lord, our righteousness. He's all our righteousness. He
honored God's law in the foolish measure, in every jot and tittle
of the law. Tell me the truth. If you've
read the law, Who hasn't fallen asleep just reading it? Much less honoring it. He honored it. He was victorious in righteousness. He said, which of you convinces
me of sin? Is that not something? If I said that to you, you'd
find it in a heartbeat. You'd find something really quick.
And you're not even looking. But I'll tell you what, these
men were looking for something in Christ. They were looking
for sin, and they found nothing in Him. Nothing. The prince of
this world hath found nothing in me. I'll tell you, he can
find a lot in me to tear me apart, but he could find nothing in
Him. Nothing in Christ. He rode victoriously, so much
so that God said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased. And Jesus rode victoriously also
to the cross. Jesus rode victoriously to the
cross. The justice of God must have
been satisfied. Sin must have been punished. We were His people and in the
chains of our sin. wrapped in thick Egyptian night,
fond of darkness more than light. Madly I ran the sinful race,
secured without a hiding place. Is that not our condition that
He found us in? His people were in this condition These people that he loved, these
people that were his chosen bride, he fixed his heart of love on
them. On the helpless, the hopeless,
the abandoned souls, he saved them by becoming their substitute. If you want one word to describe
the gospel, here it is, substitution. Substitution. The king coming
down to take your place. I'll illustrate this. There was
a great Indian chieftain and at this time the Indian tribe
who owned the most land was the wisest and the most powerful
of these Indian tribes. And there was a great chieftain,
there was a man who owned most of the hunting grounds because
he was the strongest. But not only the strongest, this
man was the wisest chieftain. He was a very just man. He had
a set of laws that his people must have abided by. And this
gained respect of all the other tribes and so they began to gather
around this one chief. And so it happened that there
was a thief found among his own people. And the chief, being a just man,
sentenced, says, whoever is caught stealing will receive twenty
lashes. But that didn't deter the thief. And so the king upped the punishment
and said it would be thirty lashes. And then at last he said it would
be forty, which no man could endure these flashes. No man
but the chief alone was the strongest among these men. No one could
endure this punishment. Well, come to find out the one
that was stealing was his own mother. His own mother, his elderly mother
was the one who was caught. What was he to do? The people
wondered, how is it that he, will he show love and forgive
his mother or will he show justice and punish her to death? Which
is it? They didn't know. And so the
day came when it come time to punish, judgment day came. And
the chief sat on his throne with his royal garments and his mother
was taken to the post and strapped up ready for punishment. The whipmaster moved toward her,
the little woman, cracking his whip. And just as he was about
to strike, the king raised his hand and halted. He took off
his own robe, bearing his back, wrapped his arms around his mother,
and commanded that the punishment begin. Do you see how He satisfied both
justice and love? How much wiser, how much better
then is the substitution of Jesus Christ? How much greater a king
was He? How much more infinitely just
is the Lord Jesus Christ? How much greater is His love
toward us? In that He not only took the
whip of God's justice, but He also took the guilt. That's one thing this chieftain
or no man could ever do. That woman was guilty. And no matter how many lashings
her son took for her, that would not cease from making her guilty. But God, The only one who could
do this is God. God took our guilt and made His
Son a curse for us. So that sin was not only punished,
guilt was removed. And He triumphed gloriously. He triumphed gloriously in that
he rose again from the dead. Do you fear death? Are you troubled? Your king has already won the
victory over death. We should not fear. Your King
sits on the throne of God. He is a King by right and He
is a King by conquest. And I tell you, the day that
the believer, the day that the sinner comes to faith in Christ
is a coronation service in itself. Although God has crowned Him,
although He is your King and has been from eternity, it is
the day that we behold Christ by faith, that we crown Him,
Lord, of all. I'll give you a question, very
simple one. Who wants to go to hell? Who? If you do, because you don't
believe there is a hell. Nobody wants to go to hell. Everybody
wants Jesus to be their Savior today. Have a whole bunch of
people wanting Him to be their Savior. I'll tell you this, if
Jesus Christ is not your Lord, He is not your Savior. Have you seen Jesus as King? Have you bowed and giving all
in service to Him. We bow daily. I still find things
that I surely should give up in service to Christ. Have you
not? Have you finished casting off this flesh in the world? God give us grace to keep throwing
it off, and keep bowing until he brings us home to be with
himself. May God give us such comfort
to see our King. O daughter of Zion, behold thy
King, behold King Solomon, Jesus. In the day that he was crowned
by his mother, that's speaking of his people, Jesus said, Behold,
my brother, my mother, my sister, his people, crown him. We willingly
crown him, gladly crown him. For he has conquered our sin,
he has conquered the grave, and I tell you, he's conquered our
soul. You don't have to ask a believer
to bow, do you? Do I need to ask you to bow?
You gladly bow down before Him. I gladly do. I'm so thankful
He's gave... Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauty of holiness. From the womb of the morning.
That's what it is to be born again. To see the beauty of our
King. The glory of our King. the triumph
of our King. Behold your King. I pray God
blesses to you.