Thank you Bibles and turn with
me to Song of Solomon chapter 1 Song of Solomon chapter 1 and the title of the message
tonight is The Beautiful Believer The Beautiful Believer in verse
8 this is the bridegroom speaking to the bride he says if thou
know not O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the
footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's
tents. I have compared thee, O my love,
to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots. Thy cheeks are comely
with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold. we will
make the borders of gold with studs of silver. So far in this chapter we've
seen the bride's desire, we've seen the bride's faith, and now
then we will see the Savior's response. the Savior's estimation
of his bride. First of all, see that the desire
of the bride here in verse 2. He says the bride blurts out
here and doesn't even have an introduction. The bride says,
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is
better than wine. If we are ever to understand
this book, if we are ever to understand the Song of Solomon,
it must be as the Holy Spirit intended this book to be. It
is an allegory. It is completely, all the way
through an allegory, an expression of the relationship between the
Lord Jesus and His church. And so as we go through this
continually, I will continue to remind you of this so that
we can get the full understanding of what the Spirit has for us.
Christ is the bridegroom and the elect are His bride. And the bride here, the church,
the whole church here cries with the same voice, let him, let
him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. You know the whole
purpose of marriage was to picture Christ in his church? That's
it. The reason that our parents,
Adam and Eve, had the institution of marriage, and the reason the
institution of marriage continues is because God ordained it to
be a picture for us, to show the union, to show the love,
the affection between Christ and His church. And as Christ is the husband,
as the husband is the head of the wife, even so Christ is the
head of His church. And so here the longing desire
of all the saints of God is that Jesus Christ would draw near
to us. This is the desire of every believer,
is that Jesus Christ Himself would draw near, that He would
manifest His presence before us. He is all the desire of our
hearts, He is all we need, and He is all we enjoy. His presence is better than all
the things of this life. There is no greater experience
for the believer than to have the presence of Jesus Christ
manifest. There's no other joy. There's
no greater joy. In Psalm 27, verse 4, it says,
One thing have I desired, and that will I seek after. It is
the presence of God. He desired to be in His house.
Why? That's where the presence of God was. He desired to behold
the beauty of the Lord. Why? He wanted to see the Lord
in His presence, in His mercy, in His character, to inquire
in His temple. I pray this is our prayer. This
evening, I pray that all believers in Jesus Christ would pray this
with me. I pray that you would pray this
with me, that Jesus would manifest His presence now. Now. Oh, that He would fill our hearts
with joy. That He would fill our hearts
with joy concerning His great salvation. I want to be drawn
by the Holy Spirit into His presence. I want to abide in the secret
place. I want to be in His presence. I want to rejoice in His love
for me. Don't you want that? Do you want
that? I know every believer does. Now
in verse 5 through 7, we see the bride's inward reflection
of herself. She says, I am black but comely. Oh, you daughters of Jerusalem,
as the tents of Kadar. She's black as the tents of Kadar
and as comely as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me,
because I am black. because the sun had 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. Tell me, O thou whom my soul
loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flocks to rest
at noon, for why should I be as one that turneth aside by
the flocks of thy companions?" This is the character of the
believer. First, you have the desire of
the believer, oh, that he would be present. that He would manifest
His presence. Now you have the character of
the believer, the character of true faith, true faith in Jesus
Christ. True faith always confesses,
I am black. True faith always confesses our
nature. This is the truth concerning
ourselves. It's one thing to know the doctrine
of depravity, but it's another thing altogether to know your
own. depravity. God's people know their own. God's people know who they are,
that they are full of sin. They, like the Apostle Paul confessed,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. We confess that we have
not kept our own selves from sin. By nature, we feel it's
our duty to judge everyone else. We, by nature, like to judge
other people's gardens, but our own garden we have not kept,
our own vineyard. The Apostle says in Romans 1,
32, it says, Who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which
commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them. We by nature, man by
nature, knows that it's wrong to steal, it's wrong to lie,
it's wrong to bear false witness. But our nature is such as we
would judge other men before we would judge ourselves. God's
people judge ourselves before we judge other men. We judge
ourselves. Man by nature is already judge
of others. But his own vineyard he has not
kept. Look how these fools of our generation
judge others. Isn't that so? Can you not see
them running around judging everybody even before evidence is given?
They make judgments and they condemn people even before evidence
is given that they're guilty. But of a truth, man by nature
has probably done worse than the person we're judging. But we know this, God will judge
all sin. This is true. Every believer
knows this. And we are sure of this truth,
yet one who is born of the Spirit of God sees all our righteousness as filthy rags. We see that if God were to mark
iniquity, who could stand? This is the beginning of true
faith. This is the first evidence of
true faith is a confession of ourselves. Second is the true
faith in Jesus Christ confesses that we are comely. True faith
not only confesses the blackness of our sin, but it also confesses
the righteousness of His nature that has been imputed to us and
imparted to us. We who are black and full of
sin by nature have been made righteous by the works of Jesus
Christ. In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5
and verse 21 it says, for he hath made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. This is the result
of the new birth. This is the result of the will
of God on everyone that believes on Christ alone. We are saved
by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ. And that faith
that we have in Christ is not of ourselves. That faith we have
is a gift of the Holy God. It is the gift and the will and
the pleasure of God to give us such faith as to believe on the
Son of God. And our faith in Jesus Christ
rests on Him, absolutely falls out on Him. He is all our hope. He is all our righteousness. Think of Him who knew no sin. That's totally foreign to us,
isn't it? All we know is sin. All we've done is sin. And yet
here is the beautiful, sinless, spotless Son of God who knew
no sin. The sinless Son of God who did
no sin. And I tell you, even on the cross
as He was suffering for our sin, He Himself was still holy. Amazing. He is the holy Son of God. You remember when He was crying
out on the cross, He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Could
we say that in any honesty? We know why God would have forsaken
us. But in Christ He knew no sin.
He did no sin. And yet He was made sin. He who was no sinner was made
sin for us. Made sin by the imputation
of the Father in such a degree that He became guilty and bore
the guilt of our sins. So much so that God poured out
all His righteous indignation and wrath upon His own beloved
and precious Son. You who think of sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great, here may view its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate. Where? The cross. That's where
you'll view what God thinks of sin. When God imputed our sins
to His Son, He judged Him in our stead. And our sins were
made to meet upon Him as the justice of God met upon Him.
And God justly did it. God justly punished His own Son
for the sins of His people. Therefore, It was by His Word
that we learned of His righteousness. We learned that He is the righteousness
of God. That He had obtained the righteousness
that we could not obtain. And not only did we know this,
we were taught this of God. We were taught this of God. You
know the righteousness of Christ because you were taught it of
God. God gave you that. And not only were you taught
that righteousness, but He imputed, imparted to you that righteousness
even now. John says, As He is, so are we. When? In this present world.
We're black, I confess. I'm full of sin. But I also confess
this, I am beautiful. Made beautiful by the robe of
Christ's righteousness. Made beautiful because He had
paid the utmost for all my sins. Made beautiful. And third faith
confesses His love for Jesus Christ. We love Him. Do you love Him? I'll tell you, we don't act like
we love Him. We are many times like Peter. But every time our conscience
smites us, every time Satan throws his darts at us, this is our
response, Lord, You know that I love Thee. I love Him. And what is the motivation for
my love? He loved me first. That's the
motivation for my love for Him, is that He loved me first. I
loved Him because He loved me with an everlasting love. Therefore,
my faith rests not in my love, but in His. In His love. I like this song. It says, Jesus,
friend of sinners, loved me ere I knew Him. drew me with the
cords of love tightly bound unto him. Round my heart still closely
twined the ties that none can sever for I am his and he is
mine forever and forever. True faith loves Jesus Christ
and true faith seeks Christ. Notice this in your text. Notice
this just before your text. Tell me, where are you? Tell
me, O thou whom my soul lovest, where do I find you? Where feedest thou and makest
thy flock to rest at noon? This is often the question. Is
this not often your question, believer? O Lord, where are you? O Lord, where are you? Have we
not often responded like Mary, Lord, if you'd been here, if you'd been here, my brother
had not died. If you'd have done it, where
were you? Where are you? It's off the question of our
hearts. Because of our sin, because of our proneness to wonder from
our Savior, this question is asked over and over and over
and over again. But I tell you, how many times
has it been answered? Has it not been answered every
time you've asked it? How patient are we with others
who ask us questions? Especially if they keep asking
the same question. It doesn't take long for my patience
to wear very thin. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
infinitely patient with us. Oh, Lord, where are you? I'm
where I've always been. Oh, Lord, where are you? I'm
right here, son. I've never left you, and I won't
leave you. Where is my love found? Where may I draw near to my dearest
Savior and friend? Oh, how sin wounds us. Oh, how
Satan accuses us. Oh, how the world tempts us and
hates us. The psalmist said in Psalm 129,
he says, many times have they afflicted me from my youth. Many
times have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have
not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back,
they made long their furrows. Have not the plowers of sin made
long furrows on our back? Does not Satan and our conscience
constantly plow us to the ground? Maybe I'm speaking alone, maybe
I'm not. I'm the only one, but I feel
as though that they keep digging deeper and deeper into my back. And as they plow over us, we
think, will our Lord take us back? We think surely he'll forsake
us now. He'll forsake us because of our
gross scars of sin that are ingrained upon our backs. But praise God we don't have
to be left to our thoughts. The Savior tells us The Savior
responds, what does Jesus say? Not what do you think, what does
Jesus say? What does our master say? What
does our husband say? What does the bridegroom say
to his ignorant and foolish bride? If thou know not, thou fairest
among women. Do you feel fairest among people?
Do you feel the fairest? It doesn't matter what you feel. It matters what your husband
says. His opinion is the only thing that counts, doesn't it?
His opinion is the only one that counts. He said, If thou knowest
not. Oh, what a gracious response.
The Lord is righteous and hath cut asunder the cords of the
wicked. Those sins that plow us, they
are no longer in charge of us. Our Lord Jesus has cut their
cords asunder. Believer, this has always been
the response to every weak and wounded sinner. Come unto me. Come unto me. all you that labor
and are heavy laden and I will give you rest come
unto me take my yoke upon you and learn of me have you known
enough about him do you know enough about him yet I haven't
found out enough about him he said learn of me for I am meek
and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls, for
my yoke is easy and my burdens light." Believer in Christ, come
to Him, forsake the world, let it go! Forsake the world and
come to Him. He'll not cast you out. Learn
of Him, of His meek and lowly heart, and He will give you the
desire of your heart. What's the desire of your heart?
Him. He'll give it to you. He's promised
to give it to you. He's promised to give Himself.
In Him we find peace. In Him we find rest. In Him we
find contentment for our souls. In Him we find all that we need.
To be quiet of conscience, to quench the fiery darts of the
wicked one, in Him we find all the strength and assurance we
need to make it and stand against every temptation and stand against
the world and its religion. We have all the strength and
power we need. We have Him. Him. Believer in Christ. know you
not that you are the fairest. In the eyes of your husband,
you are the fairest among all people, the most beautiful of
all people, the fairest church. We, who though black in our own
eyes and in the eyes of others yet are fair, surpassingly fair,
fairer than all others in His eyes, even notwithstanding our
late sinfulness and neglect, which shows the invariableness
of His love. Have we not realized yet that
His love won't change? Have we found that out? His love
does not change. It does not change from day to
day. It is the same yesterday. It
is the same today. It'll be the same tomorrow. He
loves you infinitely, without measure, every single day. And today's no different. Your love is variable. His is fixed. It will not change. In our own eyes, we see all our
sin and unworthiness. We see our surpassing unfaithfulness. But in the eyes of our beloved,
he sees every believer as perfect and righteous. Now, this is not due to his willful
ignorance. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
ignorant concerning our sin nature. A lot of times we hope that's
the case. That's not true. He's not willfully eager. He's
not saying you're righteous and winking like sometimes you'll
I use my wife. She'll come to me and she'll
say, how do you like my hair? And then I have to be not so
honest at times. And so I'll say something and
I'll say, oh, it's lovely. And really on the inside, that's
not what I'm saying. She usually catches on to that
anyway. But the Lord Jesus Christ is not pretending that you're
righteous. You are righteous. This is not
a pretend. This is not pretend beauty. It's
not hopeful beauty. He's not hoping that you'll be
righteous someday. He's not saying, dear, you look
okay and someday you'll look very pretty. No. He says now. You are beautiful now. That's what He's saying. You
are the fairest. It's not pretend. You are righteous
because you have His own righteousness. Do you not see the Lord Jesus
Christ sees you as He sees Himself? The scripture tells us in Jeremiah
that we have His name. I think in Jeremiah 23 it says
that the Lord Jesus Christ, He is called the Lord Our Righteousness. But in Jeremiah 33 it talks of
the church and it says, She shall be called the Lord Our Righteousness. He sees you as righteous because
you're righteous. You're righteous. Observe how
sweetly and affectionately Jesus speaks to His church by such
endearing names He calls her. However black in her own eyes
she may appear, Jesus views the church as all fair. A believer do not forget, do not forget to connect with
this view, the sole cause of our beauty is that he beholds us in his
own righteousness. He has made us beautiful from
His own comeliness. O precious Jesus, is this Thy
love, Thy matchless love, unparalleled love to make souls that are in
themselves black fair in Thy loveliness? And then admire them
for Thy own graces. He admires you because of His
own righteousness. The sins and iniquities that
we are troubled by that cause us great pain and affliction
are used of God. They're used of God to show us
our need of Him. Do you not suppose that if we
were to go about our daily life without sin we would not need
Him? Sinner, have you not found your
need for Him? Have you not seen your need because
of your sin? God uses these things so we see
our need of Him. He is reminding us that we, though
we know something of our sinfulness and the corruption of our own
hearts, we really have no idea how sinful we are. But we do know we are sinful.
We do know we are weak. Therefore, we must ever look
to him for our strength and see that all he sees of us
is in himself. God says, hearken unto me. ye
that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto
the rock whence you were hewn, and the hole of the pit whence
you were digged." We are taught of God to look at the pit of
our sin and depravity where we were taken by the grace of God
for the express purpose of praising His grace. To see how far He
reached down to save us to see that by His labor He restored
us from our ruined condition. He restored us. He made us righteous. Is it not just for Him to call
us what He made us? Therefore, Jesus may call us
the fairest. Because we stand in His righteousness,
we are washed in His blood, and we are risen together to sit
in heavenly places with our Redeemer. O thou fairest among women. Do you desire to know the truth,
to know this truth? Do you desire to know this? Do we desire to see what Jesus
sees? I long to see what he sees, don't
you? And what does he tell us? O thou
fairest among women, he says, follow the flock. You want to
see what I see? Follow the flock. He says, If thou know not, O
thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps
of the flock. In Jeremiah 6, 16 it says, Thus
saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the
old paths. Where is the good way? And walk
therein, and you shall find rest to your souls. This gospel message
is not a new message. It's an ancient message. Therefore, we walk in the old
paths as they have been declared to us from the beginning. This message of Jesus Christ
who accomplished salvation is one that was purposed of God
before the world began. It was preached to the first
sinners. It was pictured by the law of God given to Moses. It
was foretold by the prophets and it was straightly declared
by Jesus Christ himself and his apostles. And now, right now,
this old path is preached to you. There is no other gospel than
salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. There is no other way that black
sinners are made fair. Only by the righteousness and
blood and resurrection of Christ And there is no comfort or assurance
outside of this message. Outside of faith in Christ you
won't find any comfort. And he who calls us the fairest
among women, notice this. Now I'll ask you ladies, have
you ever received a valentine card with this inscription? I have compared thee my love
to a company of horses. I had to scratch my head for
a minute. This was something, you know,
if you really want to swoon a woman, you don't say, well, you know,
you're like that horse. This obviously has some greater
sense. I know in this day that horses
were like a Rolls Royce. They were luxurious. They were
something that was of great value. But especially, he says that
these are the horses of Pharaoh's chariots. They were chosen. They were choice. They were the
strongest. They were the best. They were
the most beautiful. And that's what he's compelling
here about his people. He says, you, you are the choicest. I chose you. And you were of great value to
me. The Lord says to you, his church,
you were my chosen. and you are of great value. How
much are you worth? I tell you, God has paid the
blood of his own son for you. Not because you were worth it, but simply out of his love and
mercy, he chose you. Above all else, Can we not bask in the wonder
of His grace that would choose us? Sinful man is wondering how in
the world God could not, how God could pass him by. We understand
how God could pass us by. The fact that He didn't pass
us by causes us to glory in Him, to boast of Him, to brag of Him. He chose us. His church are a choice people,
a select company, distinguished from others by the grace of God,
cost a great price, the blood of Christ, are well fed with
the finest of the wheat, and under the care of the angels
and the gospel ministers. and look very beautiful as under
the yoke of Christ, and join together in the gospel bands,
being of the same faith and judgment, drawing one way, striving together
for the faith of the gospel, and endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You see those Pharaoh's
horses, how beautiful they are, how strong they are, how choice
they are, and they're all pulling in one direction, and who's behind
them? The King! The King is driving them. Who
drives you? Who moves you? Who causes you
to love Him? Who causes you to endure in faith? It is the King behind us, the
King who steers us, the King who guides us. Believer, thou art fair because
thou were chosen by endless, boundless love and grace. You
are the fairest because you were most precious, bought by the
blood of Christ, called by the Spirit, fed by the gospel, and
cared for unto the end. You're not supposing this day
people would look at Pharaoh's horses and say, man, I wish I
was fed like that. These people were starving to
death. These horses were eating better than they were. And I
tell you, God's people eat the best food. They feast on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, we are all of the
same God, saved by the same Savior, called by the same Spirit, and
feast on the same Gospel, and we're all headed in one direction,
heaven. Isn't that great? Isn't that
great? And thirdly, believers are beautiful
as the jewels. as a row of jewels and chains
of gold. Look what he says here. Thy cheeks
are beautiful, comely, with rows of jewels. Thy neck with chains
of gold. These have respect to the graces
of God given to us. You see, in these eastern countries,
they would wear these rows of gold and silver plates all over
their cheeks and their head, and they were all connected together. The graces of God are all connected
together in Christ and they adorn us. Love, joy, peace, meekness,
gentleness, faith, temperance, all of these things are the graces,
the jewels of God's grace that He gives to every one of us. Is there anything more beautiful
than a believer who is adorned with the grace of God. I know you have to look outside
yourself. I have to. But truly, this is
what he says of all of us. You're beautiful because I've
adorned you with all my grace. Everything I have, you have.
That's what our Savior says. Every bit of my love is your
love. My faith, your faith. Is that
not wonderful? These are all the graces given
to every believer. We've all been justified, redeemed
by Christ and called by His Spirit and given the eternal promises.
Is it not becoming for a queen to wear a golden crown? It's
just as becoming for a believer to wear these graces. Paul says in Romans 12, I beseech
you, I beg of you, therefore, by the
mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. Isn't it just reasonable
to sacrifice everything for Him? Just reasonable. I think that's
the most reasonable thing I've ever heard, is to give up all
for Christ. To offer our bodies a living
sacrifice to Him. And those who do are adorned
with His graces. And lastly, we see God has made
us borders of gold with studs of silver. Notice the transition
here from to we. Notice that. We will make thee
borders of gold with studs of silver. This is God in the Trinity
of His persons promising. Promising heaven. Jesus says I go to prepare a
place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will
no doubt come again and receive you unto myself without a doubt. Without a doubt. We will make
you borders of gold with studs of silver. God has promised to
give us himself. God said to Abraham, I am thy
exceeding great reward. I know another believer said
this and I like it. I don't care if heaven was paved
with dirt. I want Him. Wherever He is, that's
where I want to be. And the only way I'm getting
there is if God does it. He that hath begun a good work
in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Why? To Him you're beautiful. You
who believe, you're as righteous as the Son of God. His love does not change. May God cause us to see what
great things He has done for us. May God give us hearts to love
and adore Him and long for His presence. a stand will be dismissed in
prayer.