one who is loved as a friend,
and we spoke concerning the characteristic of friendship and how this friendship is part and parcel of marriage,
that is, in good marriages, and certainly it is a part of that
relationship that Jesus Christ bears towards His people. As
he said, I no longer call you servants, but friends. And so
that's how Solomon perceived this woman called the Shulamite. And remember, Solomon and Shulamite,
they are the same name, just one's a masculine form and the
other is a feminine form, kind of like John and Joan in the
English language. Having called her friend, he
likens her to a mare harnessed to one of the chariots of Pharaoh. Now, some have said that this
implies that the Shulamite was a daughter of Pharaoh. Because
we read in 1 Kings 3, verse 1, Solomon made an alliance with
Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and married his daughter. He brought her
to the city of David until he finished building his palace
and the temple of the Lord and the wall around Jerusalem. Now,
apart from Solomon's comparison of this woman to a mare among
Pharaoh's chariots, there is no indication that this Shulamite
was Pharaoh's daughter. But if we did assume that, Like
I said, we really don't have a reason to assume it. It might
be. But if we take that the Shulamite
indeed was the daughter of Pharaoh, or at least that the character
of the Shulamite was based on this daughter of Pharaoh, then
we can see these parallels. Egypt is always a picture of
the world with its sin and bondage. In the scriptures, that's how
Egypt is always used. So as Solomon rescued one of
the women of that nation by marrying her, so Christ has rescued us
out of our spiritual bondage of the Egypt into which we were
born. Our lives, as we come to the
world, we are born in bondage. We are born as part of this world,
and therefore in bondage to the law, sin, and death. And just
as the Jews were held captive in Egypt, so we were captive
in a spiritual Egypt and nothing other than the arrival of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he did was able to rescue
us from that. Secondly, Solomon's marriage
to the daughter of Pharaoh resulted in an increase in Solomon's wealth
and power. and increase in Israel's stature
among the nations with a concurrent decrease in the wealth and power
of Pharaoh and Egypt's stature in the world. In verse two, or
excuse me, in 1 Corinthians, I can't even read right this
morning. 1 Kings chapter 10, beginning in verse 23 we read,
thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches
and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the
presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into
his mind. Every one of them brought his
present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices,
horses, and mules, so much year by year. And in the same way,
as Christ calls his people out of this world, as he delivers
them one by one out of this Egyptian bondage, so does his glory increase,
even though that increasing glory has not yet been revealed to
the world. Likewise, the stature of the
kingdom of God in the universe increases as more and more are
added to the ranks of the church. That is the church both in earth
and heaven. Remember, the only difference
between us and those who are asleep in Christ and presently
with Christ, the only difference is where we are. We are still
the church. We are the church here, still
laboring under our connection to this world. They are already
perfected, but still, we are the church. And so this church
grows in stature in the universe. Now, once again, you and I can't
see that. This is a thing we take by faith.
As we look at the world around us, particularly I think those
of my generation would notice this, that like in our nation,
I mean, The church, and by that I don't
just mean broad Christianity. I mean the real, honest believers. They are held very much in contempt,
and it becomes more so. It's unbelievable the changes
that have gone on just during my lifetime. And I was talking
to Brother Bruce Crabtree on the phone last night, and we
were talking about, you know, even though I'm in my upper 60s
and I think maybe he's already reached 70, I'm not sure, but
he's somewhat thereabouts. But even yet in our day, we may
see a time of real difficulty for the people of God in this
nation, and it's already going on in other places. And so it
looks like the glory and stature of God's kingdom is not growing.
But that's because we can only view things with a natural eye. If you see things with the spiritual
eye, matters look differently. And at the same time that the
church grows in its glory and stature in the universe, so the
world and its ways are diminishing in power and will continue to
do so until Christ comes and puts a total end to it. In 1
Corinthians 15, 25, we read, for he must reign until he has
put all his enemies under his feet. Now that's what's happening
right now. Right now, our Lord Jesus Christ
is in complete control of the universe. And these men that
rise up to shake their fist in his face, whether they be high-born
people or low-born or whatever, they are all put there like so
many pawns on a chessboard, and he moves them about as he wants
to, and he sets this person up and then puts him down. None
of them are succeeding in their efforts to overthrow Christ and
his kingdom. Every enemy of the Lord If he
remains that way, if he is never reconciled to God, every enemy
of the Lord is destroyed. They are brought under his feet.
And he will continue to be in charge until all enemies are
brought under his feet. And actually, this is from the
passage of scripture we're going to be looking at in the regular
service. But he says, and the last enemy
to be destroyed is death. Even that's going to be brought
under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's going on now. Now, from our limited perspective,
we don't see that. It just seems like an endless
train of the enemies of God. You know, no sooner one comes
up, you know, and then, well, maybe he's put down, but there's
a dozen to take his place. And it seems to us, if we only
look at these things with the eyes of the flesh, it looks to
us as though it's just not working out. You know, in fact, the,
excuse me, The free will fundamentalism, which I was raised, would even
preach it that way, that God's doing his best to try to save
everybody, but very few of them will say it quite this plainly,
but for the most part, he's failing. Because they would agree that
for the most part, people remain unsaved. Well, Jesus Christ is
not failing at anything. It says very plainly, he shall
not fail. And the work that he came to do, he did perfectly,
and everything he was intended to accomplish will be accomplished.
Every one of his enemies will be destroyed. Every one of his
friends will be brought to him. And they will, while he has always
loved them, they will come to love him. And in the end, this
world, as we perceive it, will be utterly destroyed, and the
kingdom of God will have been fulfilled in every aspect glorious
forever. It's written in Philippians 2,
therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him
the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Now, there's going to be a lot
of people confessing that that don't like the fact that Jesus
is Lord. But it will be undeniable as
they stand there in His presence and see this multitude no man
can number who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and
they who rebelled against Him are now about to be cast, body
and soul, into hell. They will see that all their
efforts came to nothing. While on earth, while in their
natural lives, they mocked the Lord Jesus Christ, they mocked
the God of creation and redemption, and said, all that he has done
will come to nothing. But they're gonna find out that
all the time they thought his work was coming to nothing, it
was actually being perfected. And it shall be made perfect
in that day. In 1 Corinthians 7, verse 31,
it says, the world in its present form is passing away. Now Paul
said that way back yonder, it's still happening. Everyone that was alive in Paul's
day is now dead. And it just keeps going up. And
what we're not able to see, but what we understand by faith is
that as this world is passing away, as the people of it are
born into it and have their day in it and then pass on, there
is at that passing on a division. And they who are of the Lord's
people are made glorious like the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
who are of this world, who were not redeemed by the blood, who
were not called by the Spirit, who did not believe, they go
into everlasting destruction. And then thirdly, we learn in
1 Corinthians, 1 Kings 11.1, Solomon's originally political
marriage to the daughter of Pharaoh. Remember, it says he made an
alliance with Pharaoh and married her daughter. He had 700 political
wives. But that marriage eventually
became a truly romantic, loving marriage. Now Christ has always
loved his church. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, he said through the prophet. However, the church has not always
loved him. Sometimes, you know, well, you
look at somebody like me. I was essentially born in the
church. That is, the church is considered a religious organization
in this world. My earliest memories are of going
to church. And there was this kind of, for
lack of a better word, a political union between me and Christ. But eventually, that was part
of the Lord's method of bringing me to himself, not only claiming
me as his own, but making me agree to that claim. Making me
not merely resign myself to it or simply consent to it, but
wholeheartedly embrace it. I am my beloved's and my beloved
is mine. We'll run into that phrase later
on in the Song of Solomon. Here is this joint union of love. Last night, again, I was talking
to Brother Bruce, and he recently lost his wife, and that's just
a horrible thing to have to deal with. And spoke of how much he
missed her, and I said, isn't it a wonderful thing to know
that our Lord, for lack of a better way to put it, misses us even
more. He's the God-man, but he is a
man. There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And he longs for us to be with
him. And he's working out everything
to make sure that happens. He has a passion for his people,
a love for them that will not be denied. When the church was
united to Christ and the eternal covenant that God made with his
son, the church did not even exist in the sense we think of
it. And as the various members of the church were born into
this world, they did not love the Lord Jesus Christ. But this
did not dissolve those bonds by which our Lord Jesus was united
to his church. The natural hatred that God's
people had for him as they came into this world did not change
the fact that they were bound to Christ in the eternal covenant. And in time, each of those members
of his bride come to love him. And in the end, all of Christ's
bride shall love him fully. A soloing compares the Shulamite
to one of the mares harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot. That may
seem like a rather low compliment. I would not advise a man of our
day to Tell his wife, you remind me
of a horse. She probably won't appreciate
it. But that's due in large part
because of the mechanization of everything. And we don't have
the kind of appreciation that people in times past would have
had for horses, especially draft horses such as would have been
harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot. Now, I am a thoroughly suburban
individual. I was never raised on anything
that even closely resembled a farm. The closest to farming we ever
did was Dad had a few tomato plants. you know, every year. We had no farm-type animals.
We had cats, dogs, parakeets, hamsters, things like that. But
even I, not being raised in that environment, I look at some of
those horses and they are beautiful things to behold. They're magnificent
animals. And so much so, you know, the
beer commercials, you know, they got those Clydesdales pulling
the wagon. It's just, they're a beautiful
animal. And so looking at it from that
perspective, this was a compliment. And there is a magnificence to such
horses. And not only this, the tack that
was put on such horses was lavishly ornamented. So when he says a
mare harnessed to Pharaoh's chariot, he wasn't talking just about
a horse walking around the corral or anything like this. This was
a horse with all the finery that they put on those horses, which
would draw the chariot of the king of Egypt. And so you can
imagine that their harness would be studded with jewels as well
as the bridle and everything. And those horses not only look
magnificent as horses, they were made to look all the better for
they were so lavishly adorned. And that's kind of brought out
when he says in verse 10, he says, your cheeks are beautiful
with earrings, your neck with strings of jewels. We will make
you earrings of gold studded with silver. And so what he's doing, he's
saying, you're like those mares. And then he brings up the ornamentation. And it is an interesting, it
says, it doesn't say your ears are beautiful with earrings.
He says your cheeks. And of course, these were earrings,
not just the little tiny, you know, kind of stud type earrings
that go in. These are the kind that hung
down and covered the cheeks of a woman and accented her natural
beauty, and also communicated to those around her the status
that she had. I mean, you didn't find your
common peasant woman wearing that kind of jewelry. And he
says, your neck was strings of jewels, and this hearkens to
the harness. And of course, we think of harness
in terms of work, but all that Solomon is talking about here
is the beauty of it. Now, there's a reason that Women
wear jewelry. I know sometimes it's simply
because in pride they want to demonstrate that they can afford
jewelry. But there is an adornment to
it. And when tastefully chosen and worn, it accents natural
beauty. And so here he is likening this
woman to the most magnificent of animals. And not only that,
one who is beautifully adorned. Now, the church of God is dressed
in her or the church of God dressed in her regalia is a beauty to
behold, such that her husband sees nothing but beauty in her. Later in the book, we'll hear
Solomon say to the Shulamite, I find no fault in you. Now imagine the Lord Jesus Christ
saying that to you, but that's what he does say to every believer,
I find no fault in you. We may be fully aware of all
our faults, but they are gone in his eyes. Christ is enamored of the church,
even smitten with her beauty. The church's regalia is the many
graces that God has bestowed on the church. Now that's kind
of brought out here in verse 11, because he says, we will
make you earrings of gold studded with silver. This beautiful ornaments
that she wore, She didn't buy them. She didn't make them. He
had them made for her. And everything beautiful about
the church is that which God, that which Christ has made and
dressed her in. Now, these graces that the church
has, Isaac Watts wrote a hymn about the church. In this, one
of the stanzas goes, I love her gates. I love the road. The church adorned with grace
stands like a palace built for God to show his milder face. Now, I know that we more often
accent our sinfulness in our preaching, and that's because
we need to be constantly reminded of our need of Christ. But on
the other hand, let us never dismiss what grace has done. We know our sins. We know our
natural ugliness. We are more likely to note our
native nature than to note the graces that have been given to
us. But God has given us graces by
which we appear beautiful in his sight. We have the grace
of forgiveness. which renders our sins irrelevant. We have the grace of the fruit
of the spirit by which we glorify God in this world. We have the
graces that make us useful in the kingdom of God. Our heavenly husband does not
behold us in the flesh, but sees us adorned with all the graces
that he has given to us. So to him we are possessed of
all the regal beauty of the most glorious of queens." Now, this
is the astounding truth of the gospel. Now, we can't help but
be brought down by the knowledge of our sinfulness. And I know
that our Lord knows of our sins as a matter of fact. It's not
as though he's ignorant of them. But he doesn't see them. He doesn't
perceive them. His blood has washed them away.
And he sees us even now as he will make us to be in time to
come. Well, the next part, and as we
noted, A couple of weeks ago, this section kind of goes back
and forth between Solomon and the Shulamite as they speak back
and forth. And we've got just a few minutes
left and won't be able to get very far into what the Shulamite
says, but we can at least begin and maybe a little head start
for next week. Verse 12, while the king was
at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance. My lover is to
me a sachet of myrrh resting between my breasts. My lover
is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. Now, the Shulamite perceives Solomon
in three ways. First of all, her provider who
draws the purest devotion from her. Now, Solomon is described
as being at his table. Now, our translation says, well,
it just says, well, the king was at his table. Others say,
well, the king was sitting at his table. But in all truth,
they didn't sit at tables back then. They reclined at tables. And so our translation handles
it very well. The king was at his table. In
other words, they were at a meal. And there, she perceives these things
concerning him. First of all, she perceives him
as the king. They say, well, of course, she
was married to the king. But notice, that's how she speaks
of him. Now, she calls him her beloved
and all that, but she says, well, the king. was at his table. Thirdly, she says that all that
has set before her is provided by him. Where do we get that? It's his table. She didn't meet him at her table.
It was his table. And the table and everything
on it came from him. And her love for him, draws from
her a pure devotion expressed in the fragrance given off by
this costly perfume." Now, it says here just perfume, but the
Hebrew makes it clear which one it was. Sometimes it's just called
nard, sometimes it's called spikenard, but in either case, it's the
same thing. In all of this, we see the perception
the church has of Christ as her provider, her king, her provider,
who draws forth from her the sweetest and purest devotion. Now, we can only wish and seek
after the purity of the devotion that's expressed here. And the
reason for this is simple. We are of two natures at the
present time. We are of the nature that we
were naturally born with, and then we are of the nature that
we were born again with. And those two natures fight.
But in that aspect of us, which truly is the work of the grace
of God, the new man within us, from that man, from that person,
from that being, comes a pure and unadulterated devotion to
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only reason it doesn't
look like we're purely devoted to him on the outside is because
what you see from the outside is a mixture of this flesh and
spirit. But from the inner man, we perceive
him as king. We see him as our provider in
all things. And our love for him draws from
us a pure devotion. which is, to him, a lovely fragrance. And we'll pick up there next
week.