When I started this series on
Christ in the Old Testament, and we're up to like lesson 87,
my intent was to preach at least one message from each of the
Old Testament books. showing Christ in those books,
and I knew that there were some books of the Old Testament that
I would preach more than one message. I was thinking about
just some things I've been studying for future lessons out of the
book of Isaiah, for example. You can't preach just one book
on Christ in the Old Testament out of Isaiah. You've got to
preach at least a couple or three. But anyway, we're looking at
Song of Solomon chapter five. If you remember last year, I
went through Song of Solomon verse by verse in our Bible study.
So I'm just gonna preach one message out of the Song of Solomon,
and it's Christ our Bridegroom. And we're gonna begin at verse
eight of Song of Solomon. You remember Song of Solomon
is an allegory. It's not to be taken in a physical
sense. It's teaching through types and
metaphors God's greatness, God's power, God's love, Christ's love for
his church. Christ is portrayed in the Song
of Solomon as the bridegroom and his church as the bride. And so this, what that is speaking
of is our fellowship, our union with Christ. And it's portrayed
as a love union between a man and a woman, but again, that's
not to be taken in a physical sense, it's a spiritual sense.
It's not to be interpreted literally in that sense, but it's an allegory. So let's look at verse eight
of this chapter, Song of Solomon five. This is where the bride,
charges the daughters of Jerusalem, or we might say the women of
Jerusalem, to find her beloved, the bride seeking her beloved,
her bridegroom, and tell him that, look at it in verse 8,
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am sick of love. Now the way that's stated
sounds a little funny, I'm sick of love. What that means is I'm
lovesick for the bride, for the bridegroom. So that's the kind
of union that this is portraying. A lot of people don't like to
go through the Song of Solemn because of this. But this is
a beautiful allegory. And it uses the love between
a man, the love that we have for Christ is not the eros love,
the erotic love, like between a husband and wife, but it's
portrayed that way to show that it is a special love. The kind
of love we have is the agape love. You know these terms, you've
heard them. And it's the divine love. And so here the church,
you know the Bible says that unto you therefore which believe,
Christ is precious. And he's the object of our affection. He's the object of our worship.
And being the bridegroom, he took full responsibility for
the bride's well-being. And everything, he paid our dowry,
that's the price of our sins, with his blood. And he gave us our wedding garment,
we're gonna talk about that in just a minute. But this is the
equivalent here of a sinner who's being convinced of sin, longing
to find Christ for salvation. If the Holy Spirit shows us our
sin and depravity, He also shows us that Christ is our only hope. He's the only remedy. He's our
only way of forgiveness. He's our only righteousness by
which we can be justified with God. And so if He shows us our
sins, we must have Christ. And we don't need anything else
as far as salvation is concerned because in Christ we have it
all. The Bible says in Romans chapter
8, that he who spared not his own son, how shall he not freely
give us all things in him? We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So if we're convinced of our
sin, the Holy Spirit also convinces us of righteousness, which we'll
find only in Christ. And so here's the bride longing
for her bridegroom. Love's sick for him. And in a
spiritual way, that's the way we are when the spirit convicts
us of sin. We must have Christ. And in verse
nine, the bridegroom says, or the women of Jerusalem, they
ask a question. They say, 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? What's so special about your
bridegroom? What is he so special over any
other? And I thought about that, you
know, Christ, why do we say that Christ is the only way of salvation? None other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. All other ways are ways of death. Christ said, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. There's one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus. Why do we see Christ as better
than Buddha, or Muhammad, or any other human philosopher or
religionist? And this is the issue of what
this is about. And she begins to answer the
question in verse 10. Look at it. Well, my beloved
is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. You know what she's
talking about here. She's talking about the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. You know what white
represents. We can look at Him in His person.
It speaks of His spotless purity. The Lamb of God without spot
and without blemish. No sin in Him. He is God in human
flesh, but the humanity of Christ is a sinless humanity. Remember
that humanity created for Him in the womb of the Virgin by
the Holy Spirit. The seed of woman. And He was
pure. And He remained so throughout
His life, even on the cross within Himself. Now our sins were imputed
to Him, charged to Him, accounted to Him, but they weren't put
in Him, as people say. They weren't transmitted into
His psyche or His nature. His human nature was never corrupted
with our sins. But He went to the cross as a
guilty person because of our sins imputed to Him. And that's
His whiteness. And then it goes to the word
ruddy, which means red. And what is that? What do you
think that's talking about? That's His blood. The blood of Christ. He gave His life for His bride. Why is our bridegroom, our beloved,
more than any other? Listen. Buddha didn't die for
the sins of his people. Muhammad didn't die for the sins
of his people. Christ is our surety. Our sins
imputed to him. He is our substitute. Think about
him taking our place under the wrath of God. If you want to
define the wrath of God, look to Christ on the cross and what
he suffered. That indescribable agony that
he went through. That's why our beloved is more
than all others. And in his death, he worked forth
a perfect righteousness. And this white here also stands
for the righteousness that he worked out on the cross, which
is imputed to us, the white robe, so to speak, and that's an emblem,
that's a metaphor for his righteousness imputed by which God justifies
us. And so, what is our beloved more
than any other? He is everything to us. He's all blessings to us. Salvation,
Him, Christ is all and in all. That's what He is. And this speaks
of His preeminence. He's preeminent in the church.
He's the rock upon which we stand. He's the head and chief cornerstone
by which all things are measured. He's the heart and the head of
the church. Without him, what do we have?
Death. He's our life. So that's what
our beloved is. And look at verse 11. It says,
his head is as the most fine gold. You know, that always speaks
of his deity. Gold means that he is God, manifest
in the flesh. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. And so it's applied
to his head here, which speaks of his sovereignty. Not only
is he God, he's sovereign. He is our protector. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. He is the source and originator
of our salvation. And then as God manifests in
the flesh, he is the one who worked it all out for us in his
obedience unto death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension
to the father, and he now is seated at the right hand of the
father, ever living to make intercession for us. He's our keeper. We wouldn't
be kept if it weren't for him. It says here that his locks are
bushy and black as raven. This, you know, black in the
scripture, and even in the Song of Solomon, in passages of scripture,
usually speaks of our sin and depravity, doesn't it? The blackness of our sin, the
darkness of it. But when it's applied to Christ,
it couldn't refer to Christ as a sinful person, because he was
not a sinful person, as I said before. Now again, That doesn't
mean that he didn't die justly on the cross for the sins of
his people. But he didn't die as a sinner.
He died as a sin offering. The lamb without spot and without
blemish. And he did it with, and our sin debt was charged
to him. It became his. And he did away
with it completely by the sacrifice of himself. But here's a description
of Christ in the glory of his finished work, wherein our sins
imputed to him have been completely erased. So the black, I believe,
is in line with his deity here. Verse 11, this statement is talking
about his deity now. Gold on his head, locks that
are bushy, and that speaks of the beauty of his person. and
black as a raven, it's in line with his deity. And what I think
it's referring to here is the mystery of godliness. The mystery of God himself. You
know, it's an amazing thing when God reveals himself to us. And
we actually do know some things concerning God. We know God.
Christ said, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. So we do
know some things, but think about the vastness, the depth of God. You know, Paul spoke of that
in Romans chapter 11. I've got that cited in your lesson
here, when he talks about all the depth of the riches, the
depths of his person. There's some mysterious things
there about God that we just haven't, we, just like John said,
it does not yet appear what we shall be, but when we go to be
with Him, we'll see Him as He is. All some of that will be
erased, that mystery. I believe that's what that's
talking about. But look at verse 12. His eyes are as the eyes
of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set. The eyes of doves. You know what
the eyes represent, that's his omniscience. He sees and knows
everything. Doves represent peace. Waters represent the water of
life. Milk represents sustenance. The milk of the word, the water
of the word. Fitly set, his eyes are on his
people. He watches over us. They're fitly
set. His eyes never are off of His
people. And so we're kept, we're safe,
we're pure, we're clean, and we're at peace with God on the
ground of His cross. In other words, he looks at us
as being at peace, reconciled. God is reconciled to us, and
we're reconciled to God. This is the bridegroom and his
bride coming together in peace and love. Verse 13 says, his
cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, his lips like
lilies, dropping sweet, smelling myrrh. All of this is language that
describes the beauty of who he is and the beauty of his word,
the beauty of his person, God manifest in the flesh. And his
lips describe the blessedness of what Christ has given to the
church in his word of truth. We feed upon his word. What he
says is our bread. what he speaks, and we know that
because of his word. And if we've seen his beauty,
and if we heard his word, then nothing can more set forth the
person and finished work and the mediatorial offices of Christ.
That gives us peace. That gives us assurance. How
can we know that we're at peace with God? Well, what does his
word say? All who look to Christ alone,
the bride looking to the bridegroom, longing for the bridegroom, seeing
the bridegroom in his beauty, loving the bridegroom, all who
do that by the power of the Spirit are at peace with God. That's
it. God's reconciled us and we're
reconciled to God. Look at verse 14. His hands are
as gold rings set with the barrel," that's a stone they say that
was part of the priest garb, the stone barrel, and his belly
or his heart you might say, most commentators say that refers
to the heart, is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. Again,
all this metaphorical language, When it speaks of His hands,
you know, anytime it speaks of the hand of God or the arm of
God, it's talking about His power. His power to reach out and take
us off the dunghill of sin. He lifted the beggar off the
dungheap, Hannah prayed and said. He reached out and got us. That's
how He saves sinners. He didn't hold out his hand and
say, now, come to me and give me your heart or walk an hour
or anything like that. He reached out and grabbed us
when we weren't looking for him. And he did it because he has
the power to do it. His power to rule over all things. You know, to get us under the
gospel, God had to work all things after the counsel of his own
will. And you think about that. How the Lord brought me under
the gospel. How the Lord brought you under
the gospel. He was in control of all that.
And that's what He was doing. He was grabbing us and bringing
us under the gospel. And then He has the power to
save. The power to save. This barrel
that he mentions here, I put here in your lesson, is viewed
by various translators as one of the stones on the breastplate
of the high priest. So what does that speak of? Speaks
of his mediatorial, a high priestly office. He has the power to present
us before his father so that we're accepted, washed in his
blood and clothed in his righteousness. He has that kind of power. And
as I said, the belly here represents the heart, probably speaks of
his love and his compassion toward us. Herein is love. Not that
we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Look at verse 15. His legs are
as pillars of marble. That describes his strength,
his stability, the legs. You know, one of the things I'm
trying to work on in this physical therapy that I'm going through
is to get strength back in my legs. Because of this arthritis,
you know, I haven't been exercising. And when your legs get weak,
that's not fun, is it? But his legs aren't weak. His
legs are as pillars of marble. That's a strong foundation. That's
what I think of when I think about the righteousness of God
revealed in the gospel. What a strong foundation. That's Christ crucified, risen
from the dead. That foundation cannot be moved.
I hear these preachers talking about that they have a righteous
nature that cannot sin and cannot be contaminated. That's not a
strong foundation. First of all, it's a lie. It's
just not true. But there's no foundation in
a new nature that we have. Our foundation is our husband,
our bridegroom, Christ. And his legs are as pillars of
marble, set upon sockets of fine gold. The power of his deity
in union with his humanity. And so we stand upon him, the
rock of our salvation. The solid rock. And so all of
that. Then look at verse 16. Well,
he says, his countenance as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. You've
heard in the Bible, the cedars of Lebanon are often mentioned
as the best wood. The best of which, what they
used in the building of the temple. They used Shetim wood and they
used the cedar. And the cedars of Lebanon were
always considered the best. And that's what it's talking
about. He is the best. Somebody said, well, bring your
best to God. Okay, let's bring Christ. Let's
plead Christ. Let's plead his blood. Let's
plead his righteousness. That's the best. Nothing we do
is the best. Well, look at verse 16. His mouth
is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and
this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. All of this is
the reason that our beloved is much, much more than any other. His mouth, I believe, speaks
of the sweet fellowship and closeness he has with his bride, and it
describes his word, what he says. He's altogether lovely. There's
none to be compared with him. He's perfect. He's beautiful. And we see his beauty now, but
we don't see it like we're gonna see it when we go to be with
him, when we're in his presence. And then I love this when she
says, and this is my friend. I'll never forget. You remember
the old movie Shenandoah with Jimmy Stewart? His daughter was
getting ready to marry a young man who was going into the Civil
War on the side of the South. And Jimmy Stewart, he was wanting
to sit down and talk to the young man before he married his daughter. And he asked the young man this
question. He said, do you like my daughter? And he said, like? He said, I love her. He said,
that's not what I asked you. Do you like her? There's a difference,
isn't there? And the fellow said, well, I
suppose I do. When I think about Christ and
his bride, and the bridegroom and the bride, we love him, but
he's also our friend. Christ is called the friend of
sinners. Abraham was called the friend
of God. And so that, what I believe that
does is it describes the depth of the relationship between God
and sinners in Christ. It's a love relationship, but
it's friend to friend. And so he is the friend of sinners. You know, the Pharisees criticized
him for that. Told his disciples, your master
eats with publicans and sinners. And what was Christ's response?
He said, well, look, that's the kind of people I came to save.
I didn't come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners. What
is a church? Well, it's a hospital for sinners.
That's what this is. Somebody said, well, I don't
want any sinners coming in here. Well, you better just get up
and leave. Because that's all we are, sinners
saved by grace. That's the whole issue. Well,
there's the bride and the bridegroom. OK.