? I'll be home in time ? ? He
brings the fruit of sin ? ? Into his house of God ? ? I share
the Lord's prayer ? ? I know the Lord will share ? ? Glory,
prayer, glory, prayer ? The bright eye's not her garment. Then, glory but on my King of grace. Here said Hannah, the lamb is
for the glory, Hannah's lamb. Okay, go back to Song of Solomon. Song of Songs, the best, greatest
love song ever written. This is written by a greater
than Solomon. This was written by the Lord
Jesus Christ. His song of His church and to
His church. He sings it to her, hopefully
to us tonight. And she sings to Him and of Him.
And in this whole chapter, chapter 4, he is singing to her. He is
describing her. In verse 1, he says, Behold,
thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. And he says this over and over
again. Chapter 1, chapter 4. Look at verse 7. He says, Thou
art all fair. My love, there is no spot in
thee." Now that's what Christ says of
His bride. How can this be? He says, fair means beautiful. It's an old term we don't use
much anymore. It means beautiful, like a fair
maiden. It was even said of men in the Old Testament, like Daniel
and the three Hebrew men, their flesh was fairer and fatter than
everyone else. Beautiful, fair, thou art fair. The Lord says of His people,
each one of His people, His church in general, His people in particular,
thou art fair. There is no spot in thee. How can He say that? You know,
she doesn't think this. We don't think this. She said,
I'm black. Paul said it, and we all feel
it. He said, O wretched man that I am. How can this be? She sees herself as ugly. You know, this book, the Bible,
is called a mirror. James said, we look into it,
see what manner of man we are. And when we look into this mirror,
it describes us, our nature, and we see an ugly, sinful person,
don't we? We see ugly. He sees beauty. We're covered with spots, faults,
blemishes, wrinkles. He doesn't see one spot. How
can this be? Go to 2 Corinthians 5 with me. 2 Corinthians 5. Two ways that
this is so. Number one, literally, it is
true. It is literally true of God's
people. There is no sin in them. They are without spots. They
are holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in God's sight. They were without
thought before Him. That's literal. Look at 2 Corinthians
5, a child of God who's been born of God is a new creature. Verse 16, it says, "...henceforth
know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh." He was flesh and blood and they saw him as
a man, but he doesn't resemble that flesh now. He's in a glorified
body. Yet now henceforth know we him
no more. Read on. Therefore, if any man
or woman or person be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become brand new. When God made this new creature,
He created it in the image of Jesus Christ. Christ came and
put away their sins by the sacrifice of Himself, imputed His righteousness,
but not just that. You see, Christ in you is the
hope of glory. Christ dying for you, Christ
in you, a new creature, being born of God. You must be born
from above, of God. And that new creature created
in the image of Christ is holy and without spot and without
blemish, just like Christ. You can't see Him. You can't
see Him, but God does. And listen to this in 1 John
3, it says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the
world knoweth us not. We just read that, because it
knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. You can't see
this new man so much. You certainly can't see him in
yourself, but he's there. He's there. He's unseen to the
natural eye, this new creature. There's an old man in there.
That's the one that gives us all these problems. But you remember
Christ, when He was made flesh and dwelt among us, it said He
had no form nor countenance, didn't it? He looked like everybody
else, didn't He? He looked very common. There
was no beauty that anybody should desire Him. There's no way anybody
could look at Him and say, that's the Son of God. No way. He looked like every other sinner.
He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. And this is the perfect illustration. But he's altogether lovely. He's
like that tabernacle in the wilderness. It looked like a badger skin. It looked like an old tent. It
looked like any other tabernacle. The only way you could see the
beauty is for somebody to take you on the inside. Somebody to
come and take hold of you and bring you and give you an intimate
acquaintance with the inside of that tabernacle. And Christ
revealed Himself, came to His people then and now, comes to
them through the preaching of the gospel and says, I'm going
to reveal Myself to you and knows you, and you see Him as He is. And that's communion and fellowship
with Him. Christ in you is a hope of glory,
in your heart by faith, and formed in you, His character. That's what salvation is all
about. It's His workmanship. We don't have anything to do
with it. We're born of God. A little girl
one time, heard this in her Bible class. She heard talk about Christ
being in you, Christ in you, and she couldn't understand.
And she, on the way home, asked her mother or father, I forget
which mother, and said, Mom, the teacher said that Christ
is formed in us. How big is He? She said, I don't
know, He's an average sized man, five, nine, or ten. 160 pounds
or whatever. She said, well, if he was in
me, he'd stick out, wouldn't he? Yes, he would. And he does. We don't see him
in ourselves. We look in the mirror. We don't
see any resemblance at all. Nor should we. But we can sure
see him in other people, can't we? We can see him in other people. Christ, and they look beautiful.
Well, I've got to go on. I've got to go on. So, literally,
it's true. And two ways that we're without
fault, without spot, without sin. Two ways, literally, it's
true. The new man, excuse me, I'm losing my voice. And lovingly,
literally and lovingly, love covereth. All sins. In 1 Corinthians 13, you can
turn quickly if you want to, but 1 Corinthians 13, this is
true love. This is the only kind of love
there is, really. And we need this kind of love.
This is the love Christ has for His people. And this is the love
that He perfects in us. 1 Corinthians 13, verse 6, love
rejoiceth not in iniquity, sins and faults in the one he loves
or she loves, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things. Love bears the burden of all
things. It puts up with. Believeth all
things. Believes the best. Love believes the best in the
one it loves. Hopeth all things. Hopes for the best. Endureth
all things. Goes through anything and everything. Love, charity, never faileth. And what an illustration or what
a description of Christ's love. He shall not fail. Love sees
beauty in the one that it loves. Sees really no faults. I said to Mindy, I said, this
is like the love of a parent for a child. I said, no, better
illustration than that, grandparent for a grandchild. Or a husband for a wife, or a
wife for a husband, and true love, true love that is, like
Christ and His bride. Love sees beauty in the one that
is loved, even in sickness and old age, especially in sickness
and old age. True love never fails. In fact,
it grows, doesn't it? In sickness and old age. David
said, Lord, he said, when I'm old and gray-headed, oh God,
forsake me not. And the Lord says back, to your
old age, I am He. Even to your hoary head, I'll
carry you. I've made you and I will bear
you. Even I will carry and will deliver
you. Why? Because He loves us. That's why. And we're beautiful
to Him. Even in sickness. Scripture says
you'll make your bed in sickness. Brother Walter Gruber has a younger
brother named James, Jim Gruber. Years ago, his wife, the Lord
gave her cancer. They'd been married a long time.
Gave her cancer. And she was in her 70s and dying
from cancer. And she'd taken all the treatments
and so forth, and Jim was taking care of her. And he was bathing
her body. And she was so ashamed, and she
said she felt so ugly. And he said, you've never looked more beautiful
to me than you do now. And when a black sinner lies
at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of his or her
sins, and said, I'm so ugly. I'm so ashamed. Christ says,
like he said to that woman bathing his feet with her tears, you
look beautiful to me. She was the only one he had eyes
for in that room. Then he describes her here in
these verses. He says, thou hast dove's eyes.
And he's describing The church in general and every believer
in particular, he says, thou hast dove's eyes within thy locks,
eyes of doves. He says that's for meekness and
purity, humility. Thy hair is as a flock of goats
that appear from Mount Gilead. It's like the covering, white
covering that she wears. Christ's righteousness. Thy teeth,
like a flock of sheep, they're even shorn, which came up from
the washing. That's every member that chews
the cud. Every member has its member. They're twins. Every one of your
teeth has one just like it. That's the members of the church.
They're all washed and fitly set. And they all chew the cud,
and they're matching. and their nun barren. Verse 3,
Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely. She speaks of blood and righteousness. That's on her mind and comes
forth from her mouth, red and comely. Christ's blood and righteousness.
And Brother Matthew Henry says, this is their cheeks, are like
a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. He said that twice,
within thy locks. Sometimes women wear long hair,
you know, and it covers their face and you can just see their
eyes looking through their locks for modesty and humility. And the cheeks, he said, are
like pomegranates, blush. You can't hide a blush. You know,
when somebody blushes, you give them a compliment or whatever.
They blush. You can't hide that. That's what
that means. God's people are modest. They
eat a blush each day. Thy neck is like the Tower of
David, builded for an armory. What is it that connects the
head to the body? It's the neck. This is faith. God's people, the faith that
they have, strong. A thousand bucklers and shields
of mighty men. Thy two breasts are like two
young roses that are twins, which feed among the lilies. It's as
much of His beloved's breast, isn't it? God made them beautiful
and for pleasure and for nourishment. Turn with me to Isaiah 66. With
me. Isaiah 66. And this fully explains what
the breasts are of the church, Isaiah 66. Now, this represents
the Word of God, the Word of God, the Law and the Prophets,
or the Old and New Testament. Or one Dr. Gill said it represents
gospel preachers that he sent out in pairs that bring the sincere
milk of the Word. and his people. That would work,
wouldn't it? But look at Isaiah 66. I love this passage. It says
in verse 10, Rejoice with Jerusalem. Speaking to Jew and Gentile here. Be glad with her, all ye that
love her. That's the church. Rejoice for
joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. That ye may suck and
be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. that you
may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.
For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like
a river, the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall
ye suck. He shall be born upon her sides
and be dandled upon her knees as one whom his mother comforted.
So will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You remember the story of the
previous message on the bed, the church's Christ's bed, where
he read. Well, you were conceived in the
church, not by the church. You were conceived by the Spirit
of God, by the Word of God, and by Christ, by God. Not by the
church, but in it. He puts you in here to hear the
seed, the Word, the incorruptible Word was planted in you, conception
began, and that's where you'll grow up and suck the consolation,
the breasts of God, as it were, the milk of God's Word, and you'll
grow. You'll grow in grace and the
knowledge of Christ. And the Lord made two breasts
for beauty. But not just for that, but in
case twins. And neither one of them will
be left without nourishment. Because everyone shall have her
mate. Everyone shall have her mate.
But these dove's eyes, let's go back to that just a minute.
These dove's eyes, you know, that's how he's described it. His eyes. The eyes of dove. And hers. Dove's eyes. Dove's
eyes for purity. No guile. No guile. I can't wait to see him. No eyes. You could look into
his eyes. He could look into your eyes. Complete, perfect
honesty, and integrity, and love, and mercy, and no deception,
no guile, no hidden anything. Like a dove. You've looked at
a dove's eyes, haven't you? Just innocent, pure. He even told his disciples one
time, he said, Be wise as serpents, but harmless as doves. No guile, no deception. You don't
have to do that. Be up front. Be straightforward. Be like your Lord. Sincere. It says that about His people
over in the Revelation. It says they have no guile. No
guile. And they're like virgins. And
it doves eyes for faithfulness. Faithfulness. Once again. It's
been putting on a show for me, outside my windows, the doves.
Ever since I've been studying this, the doves have just been
frolicking outside. This is the time of season, the
Lord says, where the voice of the turtle dove shall be heard. And the doves, the birds and
the bees, you know, are all making love, as it were. But these doves
today, Today, just this morning, I looked out the kitchen window
and there flew a morning dove up into a tree and I thought,
well, I'm going to see another one. And it wasn't five seconds. And they just chased each other
everywhere. The point being, they're true to each other. They're
faithful. You never see one without the
other, unless something happens to the mate. And that's why they're
called mourning death. It's one of the most woeful and
doleful sounds you hear. And true and faithful. Our Lord is faithful. Great is
Thy faithfulness, O Lord God, my Father. And His people, well,
they're faithful, but not like Him. They do want to be, don't
they? And like David, here's our prayer,
O Lord, turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. Deliver me
from the lust of the eyes, which is looking with longing and desire
for anything more than You. Anything. Let me only have eyes
for Thee. Is that your prayer? Then he
has terms of endearment for her. Things he uses. Do you have pet
names for your... Steve, you probably wouldn't
divulge it, would you? Certainly wouldn't want her to
say what she says about you. But we do, don't we? Husbands
and wives have these terms of endearment. Poochie, you know,
whatever it is. Baby doll, you know, honey pie.
Well, the Lord calls her. His love, he calls her, my dove,
didn't he? And look at this, all through
these verses, verse 8, he says, come with me, my spouse. Verse 9, my sister, my spouse. Verse 10, my sister, my spouse. Verse 11, oh, my spouse. Verse 12, a garden enclosed is
my sister and my spouse. Now, those are two of the most
wonderful and special relationships known to man. A sister, sisters
and spouses, aren't they? Sisters. I had a sister. I have a sister. Blood relationship. I have lots of sisters. that
I had one blood kin sister. That's a very special relationship. You're blood kin. You have the
same parents, father and mother. You're born and raised together,
aren't you? You grow up together. It's a
very special bond, isn't it? You have family traits just alike,
just alike. What a blessing that is. Only
children I feel sorry for. We always felt sorry for Hannah,
didn't we? We couldn't have another child.
But maybe someone in here was an only child. You always wanted
a brother or sister, didn't you? Well, it's a very special relationship. I can already see my two granddaughters. I'm so happy for them that they
have each other. If the Lord allows them to grow
up and grow old, oh, how special. That will be. Especially if they
become sisters in Christ. Because that's the only relationship
that will last. But that's a special relationship.
And as I said, the sisters... I wouldn't take anything for
these sisters. Wouldn't take anything. What a special relationship.
We have the same parent. Don't we? We're growing up together. We're blood kin. Aren't we? We have the same traits. I hope
we're being made like Him. I wouldn't take anything from
my sister. He calls her my sister. You've never had a better big
brother. Never. I had a good, too good
a big brother. The second one liked to kill
me. But he was still a good brother. And still is. I love him. But
my oldest one especially, what a good big elder brother he was. We have an elder brother. My,
my. He won't let anything happen
to us. Oh, my. My spouse, he calls her. What
a wonderful, endearing term. My spouse. You know what the
word means? I looked it up. It's only found
in the Old Testament. The Hebrew word means complete
or perfect. One that makes you complete and
perfect. Perfects that which you're lacking. That's a very good illustration
of a husband and a wife. One that makes you complete.
Now when God made man, he said it's not good. for him to be
alone, did he? Not good. So he said, let us
make man in our own image. And he made man, and it says
male and female. He called them male and female,
called them man. And he said, for the man to leave
his father and cleave, and the two become one flesh. Spouses,
mated, a mate, literally mated together. And they're a perfect
complement to each other, male and female, mated to each other. Husband and wife make each other
complete. Perfect that with other lacks.
The man may be lacking in this area, she's strong in this area.
She's weak in this area, he's strong in this area. Checks and
balances, right? She may talk too much, he may
not talk at all. So they need each other, don't
they? He can't hear? He hears everything. Just on and on it goes. Right? They need each other, don't they?
They need each other. They perfect that. Now we know
how Christ perfects that which concerns us. We know why it is
we're complete in Him, don't we? By His righteousness. That perfect work He's done for
us makes us complete in Him. How do we? make Him complete
as His spouse. How do we make Him complete?
I'll tell you how. Now, He has glory and honor,
and He had it with the Father, glory, before the world began.
He was holy, just, righteous, and He dwelt with the Father
in love. But nobody knew anything about
His mercy. They didn't even know what the
word meant. The angels that kept not their
first estate, He cast them down. No mercy. They didn't know what
mercy was. They didn't know what grace was.
Grace is an unmerited favor and gift, a gift to those that don't
deserve it. They didn't know what it meant.
And Christ's greatest glory and that which perfects or makes
His character complete, not makes it, but reveals it to be complete,
holy, just, righteous, I'm a just God and a Savior. He said, I will show you my glory.
I will be merciful. And the greatest display of that
mercy is for the altogether, listen to me now, the altogether
lovely son of the Most High God, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, leaving his father to come to this cesspool and marry
a forlorn, ugly woman. Why would he do that? For his
glory. and for the great love. I mean,
see, this is one, there's nothing lovely about it, like that child
in the field at Ezekiel. That's through Christ. And you
know how He made her lovely? That's through His glory. Remember? And He said to her after He'd
decked her with jewels and made her lovely and gave her life
and all of that, He said, you're made perfect through my goodness. So that's the way in which His
glory is complete. And God gave Him a name above
every name. Have you ever thought about all
these fairy tales? You know, the ones we grow up
listening to and reading like Cinderella? You know, a poor
woman that the prince comes looking for? A shoe that only would fit
her? Where did these come from? These
are fairy tales, but this actually happened. I remember my dad preaching
that one time, a shoe that would only fit his beloved, the gospel. And Snow White, she's asleep,
only the kiss from the beloved will awaken her. Rapunzel, she's
trapped. She's captive. He's got to come
set her free. Where did these come from? Huh? Well, Peter said, this is no
cunningly devised fable. This is no fairy tale. He said,
we beheld His glory, His majesty, and the power and the coming
of our Lord. He came. The bridegroom came. I've got to hurry now. Look at
verse 8. Here's his desire to be with
her. You know, love means that you
love to be with the one you love. You don't want to be without
them. Right? That's what love means. You ask
me a definition of love, and that's it. You want to be with
the one you love. You don't want to be without
them. And our Lord says here in verse 8, Come with me from
Lebanon, my spouse, with me. He says, I want to take you up
on the top of the mountains, and I'm going to show you some
scenery. You know, the Lord, Scripture says in Ephesians 5,
that He's raised us up together with Christ and made us to sit
together in heavenly places. What a view. Here we are in this
place, you know, the field of Zion yields a thousand sacred
sweets before we reach the heavenly fields and walk the golden streets.
What a view we have in here that only the beloved, only the loved
ones of Christ have. Other people don't see this view.
We see it here, don't we? He's right in Mount Zion, we
see it. Oh, but we haven't. You haven't. And I can't even
talk about it because I haven't been there. But what a day. We're
going to look out over the eons of time as our Lord shows us.
Look what I did for you. Just for you. Just for you. He greatly desires the company
of His people. Come with me. With me. I want
you with me. That's what He said. This is
the only way you can say want in relation to Christ and His
people. Desire. His desire is toward her. I want
you with me." Come with me. With me, he said, with me. Didn't
our Lord pray in his high priestly prayer, Father, I will that they
be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Oh my, he
greatly desires the company of his people. Do you believe that?
Wait till you hear the end here. You know, there's nothing more
beautiful than to see an old couple, or young for that matter,
but it's especially beautiful to see an old couple, been together
a long time, walking hand in hand. Isn't that beautiful? Mindy
and I go out to Wade Park, and there's an old couple that's
there almost every day, I guess. And they look like they're in
their 80s. And we go out there in the middle of the winter.
I mean, it's been down in the 20s, and they're still there.
And they're all bundled up, and they're just kind of, you know,
walking all around it, but holding hands. Men, we never get tired
of seeing that. Holding hands. Two old folks. So, you know, that kind of love
can be nurtured and must be. As with us and our Lord, He said,
draw nigh unto me, and I will draw nigh unto you. We sing that
song, Take My Hand. Take My Hand. Well, let's close
with these next few verses. He says in verse 9, Thou hast
ravished my heart. Can you believe that? We read in Titus, it says, he
cannot lie. He cannot exaggerate. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. You know, God is love. And Christ is the embodiment
of that love. He is love personified. Greater
love hath no man than this. And he says, you have ravished
my heart. Every believer, my sister, my
spouse, thou hast ravished my heart. He said throughout the
gospel of John, which we may start looking at soon, he says,
barely, barely. He says that over and over through
John's gospel, the only gospel, barely, barely. Of a truth, of
a truth. He says it here, you've smitten
me. with one of thine eyes, if you
just look to Him, that any lowly sinner that looks to Christ will have His unfailing love,
with one chain of thy neck. How fair, verse 10, is thy love,
my sister, my spouse! How much better is thy love than
wine, the smell of thine ointments, than all spices, Thy lips, O
my spouse, drop as a honeycomb, honey and milk under thy tongue,
the smell of thy garments like the smell of Lebanon." What's
he talking about? He's talking about the praises,
the prayers, the calling upon, the fellowship, the attempts
of his people to worship him. And we think they're so feeble
and so poor, but he says, it's the most beautiful and savory
thing, everything to me, it's everything to me. Your little
children, do you not, your grandchildren, do you not love the slightest
display of affection? Just the slightest, this display. And Christ, you've ravished my
heart, Sid. Alright, stand with me. Our Lord, no message, no man,
no preaching can declare or make known your true love and what
you've done for your people and how you feel toward your people. But yet, take some of this, we
pray. Take some of this and remove
our doubts and fears. Comfort our hearts in Thy love
and faithfulness and desire towards Your people. And also, increase
our desire toward Thee. O Lord, cause us to Seek Thy
face and seek Thy company and Thy fellowship more and more. The older we get, cause us to
grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ and be
like Him. And cause us, Lord, to love one
another. This is Your commandment. This
is how You loved us. Cause us to love as You loved
us. Let us be the brother to our
brethren that You are to us. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank you.