If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me again to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon,
chapter 1. Song of Solomon, chapter 1. Our text will be mainly found
in verse 8, but I want to go back and read Verse 4 through
8. The Scripture says, Draw me,
and 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. I am black, but comely. O ye
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. Tell me, O thou
whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy
flock to rest at noon. For why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions?" And this is
the beloved speaking here in verse 8, answering the bride. If thou know not, O thou fairest
among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,
and feed thy kids by the shepherds' tents." This book of the Song of Songs,
which is Solomon's, the Song of Solomon, is a picture in its
entirety, is a picture of the relationship, the marriage relationship
of Christ Jesus and His church. Even as it was in the beginning
with Adam and Eve, marriage has always been a picture of the
relationship between Christ and His church. And we know this,
especially from Ephesians, when the Apostle Paul says, Wives,
submit yourselves to your husbands. Why? Because you're a picture
of the church. Wives, you are a picture of the
church. And husbands are to love their
wives as Christ loved the church. Why? They are to be a picture
of Christ in His loving kindness toward the weaker vessel. There's so much to say about
Adam and Eve that I have been over this week, I don't have
time to go into it. But it's wonderful. It is a great
picture. How that God promised him a helpmate
even before she was formed. Isn't that election? Isn't that
the purpose of God, an election concerning His church? Adam picturing
Christ. And guess where Eve was always
at? She was always in Adam, even
before she was made. And she was taken out of Adam. We are taken out of Christ by
His death and by His suffering, by His being cut open. We are
taken out and God makes us a new creation. You see that? And He
formed that union between them. And that's the same union that
we have with Christ in the church. And that's the union we have
before us in this book of the Song of Solomon. This is the
testimony of every saint of God. The confession of the church
is easily seen in verse 5. I am black, but comely. I'm black, but beautiful. Black,
but beautiful. This is a testimony of us in
this present world. We, by nature, are truly full
of darkness. We are born into this world full
of sin, dead in sin, empty of any type of beauty or goodness
in our nature. Evil from the crown of our head
to the soles of our foot is nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. There's no soundness in us. This
is the testimony of God's church. But it's also the testimony of
God's church that I am beautiful. I am comely. Not by my own making,
not by our own nature, but by the grace of our Saviour. We
are made comely. By the grace of our Saviour,
He called us. Verse 2 says, Draw me, and we
will run after thee. You see, salvation is a drawing
of the Father. No man can come unto me except
the Father which hath sent me. Draw. Draw. The church recognizes believers. We recognize this, that He has
drawn us. The flesh profits nothing. It's
the Spirit that quickens. And we know that the Father,
that Christ, He is the revelation of the Father. By Him we know
the Father. And the Holy Ghost, when He calls
us, He gives us a new nature. A comely nature. Righteousness. He says in Ephesians that we
are His workmanship. His skilled craftsmanship. Created. Created. We said this last Sunday. I said this. We have created
nothing. No man has ever created anything,
because to create means that you take from nothing and make
something. We take from something and combine
something, and we have something that would have been made that's
already there anyway. We just discovered it, that it
was there. If somebody else would have put
it together, the same reaction would have happened. It would
have always been there. We've never created anything.
But God creates in us a brand new man, a new nature, a holy
nature, a righteous nature. So righteous, the Scripture says,
as He is. How is He? How is He doing? How is Christ? How righteous
is my Savior? How holy is my Lord? As He is,
so are we right now sitting down in that chair. There you are
just as holy as Christ. Now is that beautiful? That's
beautiful. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5 that we are a new creation. The new creation of God. Therefore,
we as believers, as the bride of Christ, we recognize this. We have two distinct, separate
natures existing in one person in ourselves. There are two natures
in us that are totally, completely opposed and set against each
other. Completely. opposite. You see,
there is no getting along with these two. There's no common
ground that they can agree on. Because one is holy as God, and
the other as sinful and dark as can be. And they'll never
agree. Go to Romans chapter 7. The Apostle Paul describes this
very plainly. Romans chapter 7, he says, For
I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
which I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin which is in my members, O wretched man that
I am." Now, who can identify with that? What part of this
do you not identify with? Because I got it all. I got every
bit of it. I resemble that remark. I am
that remark. Oh, wretched man that I am. What then is the application
of this? To understand and keep this in our hearts. To keep this
in our minds. Why would the Lord continually
remind us of these things? Well, let me ask you this. Are you not often tossed and
turned? Do you not often doubt as to whether you know Him at
all? When you sin, is your conscience
so overwhelmed with guilt that you can't even stand to look
up? Does the blackness of your soul
cause you to feel and grow up in the dark When I look within, all I see
is vain and wild and empty. All I see is darkness. You look
in. You sit and meditate on all your
so-called good things that you've done. And I know this, the believer
will not find one. Not one. When this blackness overwhelms
us, God has a very wonderful word for us. You're comely. I know you're black, but you
are also beautiful. You are beautiful. You are black
but comely. And because we are, because we
have that nature, when the blackness overwhelms our soul, the believer
always, always cries out to God, always cries out for mercy, always
cries out for forgiveness and grace and kindness. I need His
tender mercies right now, don't you? I need His tender kindness. to lead me. Oh, I would clasp thy hand in
mine and never murmur nor repine." And we cry out like the Shulamite
woman here, the bride, tell me. I'm black, yes. I'm comely, yes. Everybody's angry at me. And I've not kept my own vineyard. Tell me, O thou whom my soul
loveth, do you love him? I didn't say, did you love him
like you should love him? Because I know none of us do.
But do you love him? And if we do, we cry out to Him.
We say, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where do You feed? Where do You
make Your flock to rest at noon? Oh, how often we are tempted
and tried, and how quickly we turn aside. from the way. How soon do we forget His great
love and His great offering for our sins? It doesn't take us long, does
it? We can only hold so much, and
what we can hold, it drips out very quickly. And many times in our lives,
it's like the noonday sun. Our trials are like the sun at
high noon. It makes us faint and weary.
We become weary. The blackness, it becomes wearisome
to us. And yes, you can tell me how
comely I am. You can tell me how righteous
I am. But I don't need to hear it from you. I need to hear it
from Him. I need to hear it from Him. Our souls become weary and we
wonder where is rest to be found. It's noon and my soul is dried
up. Where do we go? Where do we go? To whom shall we go other than
Christ, our husband, our love, our shepherd? Where will sinners find pardon
and where will saints find strength? In Christ alone. In Christ alone. Hear the reply, then, of your
Savior, your Bridegroom. If this is your condition as
it is mine, I know this. This is His answer to you and
to me. If thou know not. Any man thinketh he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing as he ought to know. I tell you, the more
I know, the more I know I know nothing. And whatever I think I know,
I usually forget. If thou know not. You know, if
we tell somebody something and we tell them over and over again,
our patience don't last very long, does it? How many times
has Christ said this to us? If thou know not. And said it
with such kindness. These are the words of a loving
husband. This is not belittling her. He
is not abrading her. He said, if you know not. Let me tell you again. I'll tell
you again. If you know not. And notice what
He calls her. Thou fairest among women. Yeah, I thought I was comely.
But that's better than comely. That means you are the best looking
thing in all the world. You're not just among the best
you are. You are the best. You fairest among women. Our Savior tells us, He replies
to us, if you don't know fairest among women, then go thy way
forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside
the shepherd's tent. Where are lost sinners to go? Sinners? If this is you, where do you go for mercy? How will you know where to go? Our Savior kindly tells us this. Go forth by the way of the footsteps
of the flock. In other words, follow the flock. You want to know where to go?
You want to know where I am? Watch that little lamb right
there. Watch that little lamb. Why? He's following me. And so
you follow alongside them. You'll find me. You'll find me. Because wherever I go, they go. Look and see where the saints
of God find rest, sinner. Where do the saints of God find
rest? See where the saints of God assemble
together to hear the gospel of Christ. And there, right here,
in this place, you will find Him. He's here. He's here. Kathy, when you left your commune,
your compound full of people, if there were any sinners there,
in need of mercy. The only thing they would have
had to done is watch where you're going. Matter of fact, they know
where you're going. They know where you were going
and they knew where you'd be. Why? Because this is where Christ
is. This is where Christ says He'll be. If there's any sinner
that comes to you and by God's mercy reveals their nature to
them, their darkness to them, And they ask, what is the hope
you have? You can just say, hey, follow me. Come with me. Come with me. I'll show you where
it's at. I believe it was Nathanael who
said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Pilate said,
I don't know. Come and see. Come and see. You just follow me and see. See
for yourself. Jesus said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Two. Praise God, there's more
than two, but there is more than two here. There's more than three
here. But when there's two, who are the two? The man of God preaching
and the person listening. That's all you need. You need
a man of God, sin of God, to preach the gospel, and you need
someone that needs mercy. And Jesus says, I'm right there.
I'm right there. That's where you'll find rest.
Believer, are you feeling thirsty and dry in your soul? Has sin
and the things of earth failed you again? Then I say, let us go up together
and worship in the house of God. Believer, if you want to find
rest, here is the place to find rest. Where God's Word is preached. It is the place where you find
words like, thou fairest among women. You beautiful bride. You are so lovely. We can see from the Gospel how
it is that He sees us rather than how we see ourselves. Come with me to the house of
the Lord and we will meet together there, and He will bless us and
give us words of joy to fill our souls. Yes, we are black but comely,
but Christ says we are the fairest. We are the best. We are the most
righteous. Perfect. Complete. Lacking nothing. That's how your husband sees
you. You're righteous. This is because we have His righteousness. We are His bride, and He has
made for us a robe of righteousness. Go to Matthew. Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 22. Here we have before us the parable
of the marriage supper of the king. The king preparing a marriage
supper for his son, calls his servants forth to go
out and bid those to come to the wedding. But instead of coming, they made
light of it. Oh, friends, how people make
light of coming. to Christ. Coming to hear His
gospel that says all is ready. They made light of it. And when
He heard this, He was mad and He slew them. And He said to
His servants, verse 8, The wedding is ready, but they which are
bidden are not worthy. Go you therefore into the highways,
and as many as you shall find, bid them to the marriage. So
those servants went out in the highways and gathered together
all, as many as they found, both bad and good. And the wedding
was furnished with guests. And when the king came to see
the guests, he saw there was a man which had not on a wedding
garment. And he saith unto him, Friend,
how comest thou hither not having a wedding garment? And he was
speechless. One day God will truly shut men
up in judgment. God has made all things ready. This wedding feast is already
done and the robes are provided. The robe of righteousness made
by Christ is provided and anyone who does not have this righteousness
will be cast into outer darkness forever. It's so easy for us to see our
blackness and we don't have to look very far. You want to see my sin, you don't
see it very far. But when we see our sin, don't
stop there. Don't stop there. And only look at what we are
by nature, but look at what Christ has made us to be, the fairest, the most righteous, the most
suitable bride for Christ. He's made you ready. Is that
not wonderful? Everybody's running around trying
to make themselves ready. They're trying to fix their own
garments. I don't want to fix my garment. My garment is perfectly
fine just the way it is because God made it. And I don't want
to touch it. I don't want to add anything
to it. Let us not forget. Though we have not kept our own
vineyard, though we have lost our inheritance by nature, I
know this, I have an inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled,
that fadeth not away, reserved for me in heaven. Why? I am the
bride most fair. I am the bride most fair because
He had made me so. Believer, if you doubt, what our Master says, what our
Savior says of us, then come and follow me and we'll hear
it again. Come and follow me and we'll hear it again. Come
with me and I'll go with you and we'll go together and we'll
hear our Master say it again. Because I need to hear it again,
don't you? I need to hear it again. Once
is never enough. I need to hear it every single
time it's preached. Come and follow the footsteps
of God's people and you shall find rest, for He by His one
offering hath perfected forever." How long is that? Well, that's
forever. He hath perfected forever. Wasn't now part of forever? You
bet it is, right now. He says to you. You're the fairest
you can possibly be. You can't get no fairer than
what I've made you. Doesn't the burden roll off? The weight that we put on ourselves,
doesn't it just fall and melt? And you could just sit down in
that grass and just eat. Just rest. under the shade of
the shepherd's tent. He calls us fairest believer
because it's true. I like when my wife tells me
stuff that isn't true. I like when she tells me how
wonderfully handsome I am. Even though I know she's lying,
I still like to hear it. But friends, Christ ain't lying.
When He tells you, you're the best you can be. You're the best you can be because
He's made you the best. We are free from the law that
bound us. And we are free to marry another,
which is Christ. By the body of Christ, He has
borne all our sins, and not one is left for us to bear. Not one. He bore them all away. And by His death, the law is
dead to us, And we are dead to the law. So, I'm free to marry Christ. I'm free to be bound to Him as
His wife. And joyfully so. Anyone who tries to combine His
works, the law, And grace, he is an adulterer, a spiritual
adulterer, because he's not free from the law. Well, if the law
is not dead to him, he's not free from it. But praise God,
the law is dead to me, and I'm dead to the law. What am I free to do? I'm free
to be the most submissive wife that I can be. I'm free to serve
my lovely and gracious husband, Jesus Christ, my Savior. And every day, He fills my ear
with such great and wonderful words as how beautiful I am in
His eyes. I pray that God would bless this
to you, that you would follow God's people constantly. Because
they're following Christ. If you get lost up in the mix,
just go with the crowd of God's people. They're following Him. And you'll find rest right here. So He can tell you again how
good you are. How good He's made you to be. I love his words. I pray they
bless him to you. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.