Song of Solomon, chapter 5. And
our text will begin in verse 9 down to verse 16. This is what
we'll be looking at this morning. Song of Solomon, chapter 5, beginning
in verse 9. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved? that thou dost so charge
us. The title of the message this
morning is, What is our beloved above others? What is our beloved
above other beloved? And what got me thinking about
this message this week is I received a phone call from a lady who
had desired to ask about the history of the church. And so
I gave her what I knew about the history of Redeemer Baptist
Church. And she had somehow, I don't
know how, but somehow she had known that many of our people
drive a great distance to come and hear the gospel of Redeemer. They come a great distance. And
she asked me, why do these people drive so far? Why would they
not go to a church that is closer to them than Redeemer? Well, I confessed the gospel
to her. I confessed That it's not by
my gifts and abilities they come, they don't come to hear me. I'm
no great orator. I'm sure my voice is contemptible
to some, or most. I was being proud. Most, to most it's contemptible. I'm sure that they come only
to hear the truth of their beloved. That's it. The only reason. There's
no other reason for them to drive or to sacrifice and come this
far to hear this man and this message. Because I preach not
myself. And I preach not them. I preach
Christ Jesus the Lord. And I preach myself, your servant,
for Christ's sake. That's what we preach. 1 Corinthians 1, verses 17 and
18, Paul said, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but to them that believe it is
the power of God. To us who believe, In this, beloved,
the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of this particular
one, this precious one, is the power of God to resurrect sinners
to life and faith in Him alone. It is the power of God. This
message we preach is concerning a particular individual, a particular
person. The gospel is not a set of systematic
things that we check off in learning. The gospel is a man. The gospel message is a person. And my only goal, my only reason
for being here is to point you to that person. To show you that
person particularly and why he is so beloved to me. Essentially what this woman was
asking is, what is your beloved above another? Isn't that what
she was asking? Why do they come here? What is
your Jesus different from my Jesus, different from the Jesus
at the church next door? What's the difference? Why would
you do that? What is your beloved? Why is
your Jesus so special? Can't we just get along? No. No, we can't. Not if your Jesus
is not my Jesus. If your Jesus is not my beloved,
we can't. because then we would worship
a different Jesus. Well, how do we know that our
Jesus is the Beloved? Well, this bride, This bride,
she had an experience here. In the Song of Solomon, when
you read it, make sure that you understand that this is a picture
of Christ and His church. Christ is the husband, and the
bride is His church. So this is a love story concerning
Christ and His church. He's the beloved, and we are
His beloved. his church. Now, the bride, just
before this, did not treat her beloved as beloved, did she?
Matter of fact, she asked him to come in the previous chapter.
She said, come, come, I want you to come, my beloved. And
when he came and knocked on her door to fellowship with her,
to love her, to embrace her, she was asleep. And if that wasn't
bad enough, when He asked her to open the door so that they
can be together, she refused. How can I get up and put on my
coat? How can I sacrifice having to
wash my feet again? I've already washed them. I can't
wash them again for you. Now, does that sound like her
beloved to her? And I'll tell you what, at times,
that's exactly what the church of God does to our Beloved. We don't treat Him as He is to
be our Beloved. And when she did this, when she
came and He put His hand to the hole of the door, and she smelt
the sweet perfume of His presence, and she gets up in haste and
dips her hands in some sweet-smelling perfume and runs to the door.
What is that? Excuses and our good works. Isn't that
our natural reaction when we fall asleep, when we don't treat
Him as we should and we figure out that our heart is broken,
that we want to be with Him? We get up and the first thing
we do is say, Lord, come back. Look at what I've done. Look
what I did for you. Lord, I wanted to be there, I
wanted to open the door, but you've got to understand my feet.
They're very important to me. I didn't want to get him dirty.
Oh no. What happened then? He wasn't
there. He left. He hid his face from
her. Now, was he still her beloved?
Absolutely. Was she still his bride? Absolutely. But he hid his face. And then
she began to seek him and look for him. And the Scripture says
that she was wounded by the watchman. Well, what is that? Those are
the preachers of the gospel. They preach the gospel of the
beloved. They preach the gospel of His grace, of His mercy, of
His kindness to us. And what does that do to our
hearts when we've been asleep? It wounds us. stabs us in the
heart, strips us of our excuses, our
veiled excuses not to worship. It is then that this wounded
bride desires her beloved so much that she cannot help but
to run and still seek Him. Although wounded, although wounded,
she still presses on to find Him. You see, a faker, a man
who professes faith in Christ, he will soon seek the Lord, but
soon he'll just wander off. It'll be too much, too much.
But we who are wounded, we are sick with love. We can't do anything
else. We can't go anywhere else. Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Where else are we going to go?
I'm not going to another. I'm not going to another, beloved.
I need to find mine. I need to find my beloved. And
so then this morning I charge every one of you as the church
here charged the daughters of Jerusalem. I charge you this
morning. Forsake every other beloved. And seek after mine. That's what
she said. She says, if you find him, in
other words, you go and seek him. And when you find him, you
tell him I love him so much. And they ask this question, what
is your beloved above another? Why in the world should we quit
our beloveds, our lovers, to find yours? What's so special
about your beloved? Why are you so devoted? Why are
you so dedicated? Why is it that you sacrifice
so much to hear of this Beloved above every other Beloved? It is because our beloved Jesus
Christ is the perfection of beauty that God hath shined. Psalm 50. David said that out
of Zion, out of the church, out of his body, out of his precious
bride will come forth the perfection of beauty. You see, our beloved
is perfect. Perfect in every way. Absolutely perfect. Without flaws. Now, friends, the beloved Jesus
of false religion is not perfect. The beloved Jesus of false religion
is not perfect. Why? Because the Jesus of this
world desires to save, but cannot and does not have the power to
save unless man lets him. He is a weak Savior. He's not
perfect. He's not powerful. The beloved
of false religion gave His life for all men and yet redeemed
none of them. The false beloved, the false
Jesus, the reason we don't listen to them is because He is unjust. He is unjust. If Jesus died for
all of the sins of all men everywhere, then God would be unjust to send
anyone to hell. You see, he cannot demand twice
payment. He cannot demand payment at Christ's
hands and then demand payment at the sinner's hands. That's
unjust. It's unjust. Their beloved is
unjust. Their beloved has no power. Their
beloved. Is not our beloved. This Beloved
is not ours. This Jesus that I just mentioned
does not exist. He is but a figment of man's
imagination and not our Beloved. He's not Him. Therefore, God
shines out of His Church the perfection of beauty. We preach
the perfections of Christ. We preach the glory of Christ.
We preach the honor of Christ. And we preach the success of
Christ. The success of Christ. The power
of Christ. Now there are seven things that
the bride here describes her Beloved. She gives the reason
why her Beloved is above every other Beloved. The first one
is, she says He is white, and ruddy. Look at that in verse
10. For my beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten
thousand. Behold the person of Jesus Christ. Why is my beloved so beloved?
Because he's white. What is that? His deity. My Jesus
is God. A very God. He is the eternal
Son of the living God. He is white. It speaks of His
holy character. John says that in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. My Jesus is God. And because my Jesus, my Savior,
is God, equal with the Father, equal with the Spirit, He cannot
fail. My Savior cannot fail to save. He cannot fail. Everyone He determined
saved, He has saved, and He will save. He's holy. He's just. He's mighty. He's God. And he's also ruddy.
What is that? Red. When Adam was made, he was
made of the red clay. He was taken from the clay of
the earth and God formed him. He was a man. You see, my savior
is not only God, he is man. He's just as much man as if he
was not God and just as much God as if he was not man. He
is the only God man. There's no other. There's only
one God man. He is Jesus Christ, the Lord.
That's it. There's only one. That's my beloved,
and that's why he is the chiefest among 10,000, 10,000. Because He is the only God-man
mediator. He's the only one that can represent
you before God. That's it. This one. If you have any other representative
but this one, you'll suffer eternity in hell. This one is the only
one. God-man. Scripture says that
there is one. One mediator between God and
men. The man. Christ Jesus. The man. Praise God for the God-man. The God-man. Behold the beauty
of His person, the beauty of our Beloved as the only High
Priest of God. And that's why the Beloved said
He's not just white and ruddy. He's the cheapest among 10,000.
What does that mean? He's one in a million. Are we
actually saying that He's just one out of every million? No.
No. He's one of a kind. There is
no other. I'll tell you what, that's pretty
narrow, isn't it? She starts off pretty narrow. Well, it gets
narrower as we go down the list. He's the only God man. He's the
only mediator for sinners. He's the only hope for sinners.
And he's the only one of his kind. There is no other. He is
the only Lord and Savior. And because He is God, He did
not fail. And because He was man, He was
able to pay for the sins of His people and intercede for us before
God. It was man that brought sin in.
And it must be man that pays for sin. So therefore, the God-man
came. Oh, He's precious. How precious
is He? How valuable is Christ? Can you put a price on Him being
the only one of His kind? No. Not if you're a sinner in
need of mercy. There is no price you can put
on Him. He is altogether lovely. And behold, He is chiefest among
ten thousand because He's sovereign. My Savior is sovereign. What
does that mean? Some people, I talk to them about
the sovereignty of God, and I watch them nod their head and their
eyes glaze over, and they have no idea what I'm saying. I am
saying that the only Lord Jesus Christ does all things after
the counsel of his own sovereign will. And there is nothing that
happens in this life without his direct permission. That's
it. And I'll tell you, if your beloved
is not sovereign, he's not mine beloved. My beloved is the chief
of all men. My beloved said, all power is
given unto me in heaven and earth." All power. Wow. Not one leaf will fall without
His direct consent. How many times have you heard
someone say when someone dies, well, that wasn't God's will.
Nope, that's not your God's will, that's my God's will. My God
did it. The Scripture says, I alone am
God. I wound and I heal. I kill and
I make alive. It's only God that does this.
He's the only sovereign. So my beloved is a God-man, mediator,
and He's sovereign. He does what He wills. That includes
salvation. Now, everybody might agree that
God is sovereign in everything else and say, well, everything
but salvation. That's not my Jesus. I don't
know who you're talking about, but that's not my beloved. My
beloved is far above yours because my beloved is sovereign in salvation. He saves whom He will. He saves
whom He will. He shuts man up to his own evil
works. Even the wicked. Even the wicked. The Scripture says, the wrath
of man shall praise Him, and the remainder of wrath, whatever
doesn't praise Him, He'll restrain. That's it. He does what He wills. My Beloved is white and ruddy,
God and man, chiefest among ten thousand, one of a kind, and
He is sovereign. Now, number two, let's go in
our checks here, go down to verse 11. He says, His head is as most
fine gold, His locks are bushy and black as a raven. What is
this head? What is this head? You see, my
beloved is head of His church. My beloved is the head of His
church. He is the federal head. In Adam, we had a federal head.
He represented all mankind, and that when He sinned, we all died
in Adam. For as by one man's sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men. We were born dead because of
our federal head, Adam. That's not fair, you say. It
really doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't
obscure the truth how we think about this. You were born dead
in sins. And I was born dead in sins.
My son was born dead in sins. These new babies are born dead
in their sins and trespasses because they had a federal head,
a representative, Adam. Well, guess what? God's church
also has a federal head. He is Jesus Christ the Lord.
He is my beloved federal head. And as such, he has obtained
all our salvation. My beloved has obtained all the
righteousness of God for me. For everyone that believes in
Christ, everyone who is His child, everyone who has this Beloved,
He has provided all our righteousness, and we add nothing to His righteousness. Nothing. You can add nothing
to it. If you can add something to it, then your Beloved is not
beloved at all. Isn't that what men are trying
to do? They say, oh, I believe in Jesus. I believe He died for
my sins. But I need to blank. Fill it in. Anything you want.
You see, that's not my beloved. My beloved, I believe in Jesus
Christ who died for my sins and gave me His righteousness. Period. There's no but. There's no and. There's no if. He did it. He
obtained it. He is a successful Redeemer,
a successful Savior. And He has accomplished salvation. We live in 2012. Some 2,000 years has passed since
the Lord has died. Now, I was not born. My parents were not born, their
parents and their parents for generations to come, and yet
He has accomplished my salvation even before my birth. Matter of fact, it was purposed
in himself from eternity that he would accomplish my salvation. And he has. He's done it. He's
finished the work. He said it is finished. Salvation accomplished. Redemption
accomplished. Justification accomplished. And God proved it by raising
Him from the dead. Why did God have to raise Him
from the dead? Because He must justify. He must show us that
He is acceptable unto God. Acceptable. His sacrifice was
acceptable. Friends, God demanded the death
of every sinner. And yet it was for me, Christ
died. Years I spent in vanity and pride,
caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me He
died on Calvary. Then I trembled at the law I'd
spurned. By hearing the Word of God, my
guilty soul and pouring turned to Calvary. Mercy there was great
and grace was free. The pardon there was multiplied
to me. There, my burdened soul found
liberty at Calvary. Why? Because Calvary covers it
all. All my sins have been taken away
and removed, and I am as righteous as God Himself in the inner man. This outer man didn't change.
He's still a sinner. But the inner man is righteous.
He's done it all. And my beloved is like as a head
of gold. It says, a head of most fine
gold. In other words, just not old
regular gold. It's not gold you have to purify. It's not gold
you have to burn and take off the drawers. To me, He is perfect
and lacks nothing. He's precious to me. And what is this bushy locks? It speaks of His eternal youth,
friends. Jesus Christ, my Savior, ever
lives to make intercession for me. He intercedes. He pleads my cause. He knows my pain. He cares because
I cry, because I grieve. He understands and He has sympathy. He has affection toward me. And it will never change. It's
eternally young. Eternally young. I know a lot
of you ladies, I'm sure when you were younger, you had real
bushy hair. I know some of you lived in the
80s. I imagine it had to be real bushy. But, you know, that's
you. I mean, when we get older, this
it starts to fall out. It turns gray. It doesn't. You
know, that's not Christ. He never grows old. He never
dies. He's always going to be on the
throne. He says, I am the same yesterday,
today and forever. And so is his love for me. It
is eternally youthful. It never grows old. Is that your beloved? Does your
beloved's love for you continue forever and ever and ever in
spite of you? Wonderful! My beloved is so far
above everyone else's who can lose their love. Isn't that what
religion is teaching? That Jesus can love you today
and leave you tomorrow? That's not my beloved. My beloved
loved me from eternity and he loves me now and he'll love me
forever. Praise God, that's my beloved. And he is far above anyone else's.
Far above. Number three, his eyes, verse
12, his eyes are as the eyes of doves. By the rivers of water
washed and milk fitly set. Friends, my beloved eyes are
like dove's eyes in that they are fixed on me. You know, a
dove, when he has a mate, his eyes are constantly roaming,
but it's always fixed on his mate. He's roaming so that he
might protect his mate. My Lord looks at all things with
His burning eyes and nothing is hidden from His sight. There's
no enemy to attack me. There's nothing evil to harm
me because His eyes are fixed on me as though I were the only
one on the face of God's earth. Believer, it's as though you
are the only one he has to care about. And his eyes are fixed for our
protection. Fixed for our salvation. Fixed
on us. You know, I've never heard of
a sports team having a dove for a mascot. I may be mistaken.
But doves just aren't fierce. I mean, you just don't... Oh,
the doves are coming! No, you don't get scared. You're
not afraid of doves. When you look at a dove, you
say, oh, how precious. That's my beloved's eyes for
me. They're precious. They don't hold any animosity
toward me. They don't hold any wrath toward
me. They only hold sweet love and affection. There's no fierceness of His
wrath to me. Why? because He's just and He's
already taken away my sin. He won't require it in my hands
again. Now, my God chastens me because He loves me. He corrects
His sons and daughters whom He loves. But friends, He will never
hold His wrath against me because He had already taken it out of
the way and nailed it to His Son's cross in my place. Only love's left. There's no
justice left. There's no vengeance left. It's only dove's eyes. Only dove's
eyes. Is this your beloved? Is this the eyes of your beloved? I'll tell you what, if your beloved
can miss something, he's not my beloved. If something is happening
to me that is not for my good, Then that's not my Beloved. My
Beloved does everything for my good, even when I don't understand
what He's doing. Look next at your text in verse
13, His cheeks. His cheeks are as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers, His lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. His cheeks and His lips. What
are His cheeks? Oh, my beloved's cheeks are precious
because He gave them to the smiters. He gave them to be smitten for
me. He said, when a man smites you
on the one cheek, turn and give him the other. None of us have
ever done that. He's the only one that did that.
And his cheeks are precious because God smote him in my stead. God's justice smote his sweet
cheeks, his precious cheeks. He did nothing wrong. It was
for my sin. He was stricken and smitten of
God, afflicted. And I'll tell you what, those
cheeks are precious. His death is so precious. to me. His wounds, do you know he still
has his wounds? When I go and see him, I will
see his wounds for me. His marks are precious because
they actually save me. They actually paid for sin. Is that your beloved? Are his
cheeks so sweet and precious? I cannot wait to kiss his cheeks. What a wonderful picture. Beautiful. And also His lips. His lips are
a sweet-smelling myrrh. What is this? This is the gospel.
This is the message I'm preaching. This is His Word. This is His
message concerning Himself. Is it not sweet? Is it not sweet to hear His voice? I come to
the garden alone while the dew is fresh on the roses. And the
voice I hear falling on my ear, the voice of the Son of God discloses. His voice is so sweet that the
birds would hush their singing. Have you heard the voice of my
beloved? Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever been dead? Because my beloved only speaks
to dead men. The Scripture says the hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. You see, if
you've never been lost, you've never been found. If you've never
been dead, you've never been given life. And if you've never
been given life, you've never heard the voice of My Beloved.
Many people say, oh, oh, I'm just at the point where I can
make my decision now. No, you're not. No, no. Forget
that. Has He made you alive? Has He
resurrected your soul from the dead? I'm not talking about a
decision. I'm talking about something His
lips do. I'm talking about something His
voice does. Raises the dead to life. So why is it that we come so
far? Why is it that we sacrifice so much? Because I love the sound
of his voice. I told you my voice is contemptible.
His voice is precious. And if you've ever heard it,
you know it. There's no voice like his. He
is my beloved. And friends, when He speaks,
nothing prevents Him from raising the dead. You see, the Jesus
of modern day, He can speak all He wants to. He can try to whittle
at your heart and maybe you'll come. No, that's not my beloved.
When my beloved speaks, people are saved. He's got power. His lips are sweet. Oh, His voice
is good. It drops like the sweet-smelling
myrrh. You know what? If God revealed
everything about Himself to us, we'd just die. That's why He
drops it. He just gives us little drops
because we couldn't handle all of it. We just couldn't. And notice this, my beloved's
hands. It says, His hands are as gold rings set in a barrel. His belly is as bright and overlaid
with sapphires. His hands and His belly. What
is this? His hands are like rings, gold rings. When you have a ring,
what do you put on top of it? What do you set in a ring? You set the precious stone in
the ring. Christ, His hands are the reins
and the barrel, the precious stone of the barrel is His church. We are His precious stones and
we have been set in His mighty hands. Well, will we ever fall out of
His hands? Not my beloved's hands. If your
beloved can lose you, he's not my beloved. He's not my beloved. My beloved. His hands are secure
hands. Tell you what, as a child, there's
nothing like a mother's embrace. Nothing like those hands. And I'll tell you what, my father
worked for many years, and I'll tell you what, when I hold his
hand, there's nothing like his hand. I mean, it's just, you
know, it's steady. It was steady. When he held my
hand, I knew it was safe. And I know this, I am my beloved's
and he is mine, and he'll never leave me nor forsake me. I'm
safe in his hands. And also His belly. What is this? His affection. It means bowels. His bowels are
like ivory. What is ivory? It's a white,
durable tusk of the elephant. It is strong. It's durable. And it's pure. It's white. It
doesn't have any motive or reason to be found in us. God doesn't
love me because of anything I could do for him. He loved me because
he would. That's your love. I'll tell you
what, I love my wife, but there are reasons why I love my wife. My love is conditional, his is
not. His love is effectual and unconditional. Is that your beloved? That's
mine. And lastly, look at this, his legs are as pillars of marble
set in sockets of gold. What good is a leg if the socket
is not any good? You can have legs of marble if
your sockets pop out. Rick was hobbling along trying
to pop his hip back in. He's a walking funny. Why, the
socket was messed up. You see, my beloved, He is in
the socket of God's eternal decree. God set the stone. The sure foundation stone was
set of Almighty God and nothing can move it. He is a sure foundation. Sure. Are you sure that your Beloved
is this Beloved. To me, this is my Beloved. And He is above every other Beloved. And to sacrifice everything for
Him is nothing. To hear Him is everything. To serve Him is everything. To be found in His righteousness
is everything. What is your beloved above another? Friends, I pray that you would
be able to see my beloved. I pray that God would reveal
Him to every one of us here this morning. that we may truly honor
Him. He's beautiful. He's altogether
lovely. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.