In this last chapter of Song
of Solomon, the bride of Christ continues what she's done throughout
this whole book, and that is express her love for her husband,
her love for Christ, express her sincere desire to know him
more. And I think about that, you know,
I always think about the apostle Paul, what he wrote in Philippians
chapter three, when he said that I may know him, that I may be
found in him. That's, that's, that's our desire,
isn't it? That's why we study the scriptures. We want to know
more of Christ. We want to know more of the glory
of his person, more of the power of his finished work. And that's
what growing in grace and knowledge of Christ is all about. That's
what gives us the true peace and assurance that's expressed
here in these words. And she starts out, she says,
oh thou wert as my brother. And we've recognized throughout
this book, and in other messages too, how this book basically
in a metaphorical sense, shows the relationship of Christ, who
is the bridegroom, the husband, and his church, who is the bride,
the wife, and that love relationship. But there are other titles that
he uses, that the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to use, to describe
the relationship of Christ and his church. And there's many
descriptions throughout, and we've dealt with those. his sheep,
his church, you know, the subjects of the king, all, I mean, all
that. We're members of his kingdom, subject of his kingdom. And we
could go on and on, but here she addresses him as a brother. Oh, that thou wert as my brother. And this really is not a, he
is as our brother. We're gonna see that. So, but
she's talking about, I want more knowledge of this. I want to
see more. of this in the word. And I put
in your lesson here that when I see that word brother, it carries
me back to that beautiful picture of Christ called the Kinsman
Redeemer. In the book of Ruth, especially,
you know, the Kinsman Redeemer. The law of the Kinsman Redeemer. If somebody had, let's say, gone
bankrupt and had to sell themselves into debt, if they could find
a near kinsman, one who's related to him, who is able and willing
to buy them out, then that could happen. And that was one of the
laws of Moses that God instituted to help Israel retain the land
that he had given throughout the time of the Old Covenant,
which lasted about 1500 years. That's what I see Christ as. He's our brother. He's our kinsman
redeemer. And if you'll look over in Hebrews
chapter two, I love this passage here because he talks about how
Christ tasted death for every, it says in verse nine, every
man, but the word man is not in the original manuscript. It
just says every, it could be every one or every son, And who
is the everyone? He's not talking about all without
exception here. He couldn't be. Who's he talking
about? And the first, he says in verse
10, for it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things, in bringing many sons. This is a family of children. He says sons, but he's talking
about daughters too, isn't he? God has children. And he says
to make the captain of their salvation. Whose salvation? These
sons. That's the elect of God. And
he says perfect through sufferings. Now Christ was not made morally
perfect through his sufferings. He was already morally perfect.
There was no sin or blemish in him. He was a lamb without blemish
and without spot. So what does that perfect mean?
It means complete. that in the sense that he completed
the work that he was given to do, and how did he complete that
work? He suffered. It was through his
sufferings unto death that the completion of the work. He said
it in John 19, 30. He said it's finished. Now look
at verse 11. This is Hebrews 2. He says, for
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all
of one. And he says, for which cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to
call sinners his brethren, sinners like us. And why is he not ashamed? Because he completed the work
that cleanses us, that makes us honorable in the sight of
God, not by our works, but his. And he says in verse 12, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church, will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my
trust in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. Now hold your place right
there and look back at Song of Solomon. I'm gonna come back
to Hebrews two now. He says, the bride says in verse
one, she says, oh, that thou were as my brother, as I said,
that's like the kinsman redeemer, that sucked the breast of my
mother. Now that is, that's referring
to an infant feeding on its mother's breast. Now what does that speak
of when you think of Christ? Well it speaks of his incarnation,
that he came to this earth and He united his deity with that
sinless humanity in the womb of the Virgin Mary, that Holy
See created by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. And
he existed as an infant child, sucking on his mother's breast.
And if you'll look at verse, go back to Hebrews 2 now, look
at verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself, likewise, took
part of the same. In other words, he identified
with us in our humanity, but he was without sin. And he was
laid in the manger. You know the story. Unto us a
child is born. Unto us a son is given. Well,
why did he do that? Verse 14, that through death
he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the
devil. He had to have a sinless human soul, body and soul, in
order to die in our place, to perform the work of assurity.
Our sins having been imputed to him, he had to die for those
sins and destroy him that had the power of death, that's the
devil. That doesn't mean the devil has the power to kill and
make alive, he doesn't. Only God has that power. But
the devil sometimes is used as an instrument of wrath to punish
unto death, but the devil's power actually is the power of accusation. If you're accused, for example,
of a capital crime, and you're found guilty, then the law says
you are to be executed. Now, I'm not talking about our
courts today and how goofy all that stuff is going on now, but
don't worry about that. I'm just talking about the letter
of the law. If you do a capital crime and
you're found guilty, somebody accuses you and you're found
guilty, well, the devil is called the accuser of the brethren,
isn't he? But what's the problem with his accusations? They don't
stick. Why? Because we turn him back,
Revelation 12 says, by the blood of the Lamb. We plead the blood
of Christ, who died in our stead. Our punishment for the capital
crime of sin has already been carried out on our surety, on
our substitute. We wear the breastplate of righteousness. So when he shoots his arrows
of accusation at us, they don't stick. Now that's why he had
to become a man. That's why he had to become incarnate.
That's why he had to be made like unto his brethren. Verse
15 of Hebrews, to deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. That's the brethren, that's the
elect. That's the children of God. And all of that to save
us from our sins. Now go back to Song of Solomon
8. Now she says, oh, that thou wert as my brother that sucked
the breast of my mother. When I should find thee without,
I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised. Now one of the
things that you can look at here is the Old Testament believers
looking forward to the incarnation or the coming of the Messiah.
And so when she says, oh, that thou wert as a brother, she's
looking forward in the Old Testament to the coming of the Messiah.
the promise of God, that sucked the breast of my mother. He's
coming in human form, God-man, that's who Christ is. And she
says, when I should find thee without or outside, I would kiss
thee. Now, the kissing here is a metaphor
in the scripture for faith and love. You remember in Psalm 2,
where the psalmist said kiss the son lest he be angry. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about believing in Christ, embracing Christ,
loving Christ. And so that's the whole thing. So what we have here in the next
few verses is what we can look at as seven blessings or seven
advantages which we as God's children gain from Christ being
our elder brother. And here's the first one, she
says, when I should find thee without. What does that mean?
It means we're gonna seek him and we're gonna find him. That's
a blessing. And we know that if we seek him,
he sought us first, because by nature we won't seek him. Not
the true and living God, we'll seek a God. You know, when the
Bible says in Romans 3, I think in verse 10, there's none that
seek after God. I remember when Brother Mahan
was preaching on that, and the first time I heard this, he said,
now that doesn't mean they won't seek after a God. And I understood
what he meant. People out here are religious,
and they're on their knees praying, praying to a God. But there's
none that seek after the true and living God, the God of this
book, the God of the Bible. We talked about it last week,
they want the God of unfulfilled desires, who doesn't get his
way until you let him have it. But the God who is sovereign,
the God who is both a just God and a savior, they don't want
him. But if you come to seek him, You can rest assured he
sought you first and found you first and inspired you to do
so. And you'll find him. That's a blessing. Seek and you
shall find. Well, where are you going to
find him? Without. What does that mean? Outside.
And I believe that's a direct reference. I'm not going to say
that. I don't know that the writer
of Song of Solomon had a specific verse in mind. I'm sure he didn't,
because it wasn't written yet. But like in Hebrews 12, it talks
about how Christ, when he came to earth, he operated outside
the confines of human religion, human philosophy, human culture. He was an outsider. And when
you seek him, that's what you become, an outsider. One who
has to go outside the confines of human religion, human philosophy,
and human culture. And in Hebrews chapter 13, it
says that we follow Christ outside the camp. Outside the camp of
common religion in Jerusalem and whatever that was. And that's
where we'll find him. Christ was hated. Among the Jews,
it said he came unto his own and his own received him not.
But that's the first blessing, we'll find him. Well, look at
verse two. Here's the second one, or no, I mean verse one.
He said, I would kiss thee. In other words, that metaphor,
as I said, describes God-given faith and love for Christ. That's
a blessing of God's grace. That's not anything that we have
naturally. It's a blessing of his grace.
And the Bible says he came into his own and his own received
him not, but we'll receive him because of the blessings of God
to us. And so, as I said in Psalm 2
and verse 12, kiss the son lest he be angry. And you perish from
the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. We're not under
his wrath. We're under his grace, we're
under his love. And then she says in verse one,
yea, I should not be despised. In clinging to Christ and pleading
his blood, pleading his righteousness imputed to us as our only ground
of salvation, we can rest assured that he's not angry. His wrath
is not kindled against us. So he says, yes, I should not
be despised. Look at verse two. He said, I
would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house. That's the fourth blessing. Now,
when she says to Christ, to the husband, I would lead thee, you
know, it may seem odd to us that the bride speaks of leading the
bridegroom because we know that he leads us. We sing that hymn,
he leadeth me. And he does, he leads us in his
word And he is our supreme leader. And we don't lead him by any
way of authority over him. And I hear some of these word
of faith preachers, you know, they'll talk about having authority
with God by speaking a word. We don't have any authority with
God. We have his authority as ambassadors for Christ to preach
his word and to preach the gospel. And so that's the authority that
we have. But what she's talking about
is an old practice back in those days. Let's think about it like
a king who went into battle leading his army and he was victorious
and he's coming back home to his own nation, like his mother's
house, you might say, something like that. And his subjects are
going before him, casting their laurels, praising him. That's what she's talking about
here. That's the leading that's going on here. In the original
language, it describes leading one who has triumphed over our
enemies and with respect and honor to him, coming before him,
casting our laurels at his feet to worship him. And that's what
it's talking about. And then the fifth blessing,
bring thee into my mother's house, that's to worship. That's what
we're here, we're in the house of God. That's not these walls.
That's the people of God. And we come here to worship God.
That's why we don't want the disturbances. You know, like
I said, listen, I've never turned away anybody who genuinely wants
to come in here and worship. I don't care who they are, what
color they are, anything. I mean, I'll never forget the
first time I met our brother, Felton Riggins. I was telling
Timothy about that. I pulled up into the parking
lot. This was over 20 years ago. Felton pulled in behind me, and
he got out of the car, and he'd been watching me on television
and we Started talking and he said this is the message I want
to hear and he asked me this he said can just anybody come
to your church I Said anybody who wants to sit and worship
with us and hear the truth and so that's the case anyone who
wants to Now, but now anybody who wants to come in and holler
and hoot and yell, I'm sorry. That's not what this is about.
This is not about making a show of yourself. This is about the
glory of Christ. And so that's what we're all
about. And that's what it means coming into my mother's house.
We're gathered together to worship in spirit and in truth as Paul
wrote in Philippians chapter three and verse three. And what
do we do? We rejoice in Christ Jesus. We boast in Christ. And we have
no confidence in the flesh. Look at the next line. He says,
and bring him to my mother's house. And then it says in verse
two, who would instruct me? This could read, thou would instruct
me. That's what it should read. It'd
be a better translation. God's people are taught of Christ.
That's what we're here to do. We're learning of him and we're
taught by his spirit and his word and all things are made
known as we look to him in the scriptures. That's what he did
to the disciples before he ascended unto glory. He sat down with
the disciples and he showed them how everything that he did, everything
that he is and everything that he accomplished was written in
the books of Moses, in the Psalms and in the prophets. And you
know what I believe he was doing there? It's written in the book
of Luke chapter 24. What he was doing mainly was
showing those disciples how to preach Christ, how to preach
the gospel from the Old Testament. That's what this is all about.
All right, verse two, she says, I would cause thee to drink of
spiced wine and of the juice of my pomegranate. That's the
seventh blessing. What that's talking about is
celebration. It's talking about a worship
experience that is celebratory. That's what we're here to do.
We're not here to slap each other down. We're not here to whip
each other with the, as one preacher said, the black whip of the law.
We're here to point one another to Christ. If we need to be admonished,
we can be admonished. But we're admonished in a way
of grace, not in the way of the law. If I have something to say
to myself or to you that corrects us, that's okay. But all it's
going to do is bring us back to Christ to celebrate his grace
and his mercy for all of us in him. And that's what this is.
Look at verse three. She says, his left hand should
be under my head and his right hand should embrace me. Now what's
that talking about? It's talking about how he embraces
his bride, how he supports his bride. He is our high tower. He is our foundation. He is our rock. He is our safety. He is our preservation. All of
that, everything that we need to be saved, to be preserved,
and be brought to glory, we find in Him. And so he supports our
head, he supports our body, he embraces us, he loves us with
an everlasting love. And then verse four, he says,
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not
up nor awake my love until he pleads. Now this is the third
time that she's given this charge to the daughters of Jerusalem.
You'll find the other in Song of Solomon 2.7 and 3.5. And it's a way of expressing
our desire to enjoy that sweet comfort and sweet rest in Christ
and not to have it interrupted. Now, if it is interrupted, let
it be His providence. Don't let me interrupt it. That's
what I don't want in our service. I don't want interruptions while
I'm preaching the gospel. And while you're listening and
hearing, I don't want all this stuff on your mind and my mind. You see what I'm saying? I don't
want anything to interrupt that. And if it is interrupted, let
it be his work. Let it be his providence. Now
I know everything that happens is the providence of God for
a purpose. But if nothing else, our little
incident this morning will remind us how important our worship
service is. and how much we need to guard our worship service.
And again, invite anybody who wants to be part of that, come
on in. You're welcome, but you're not gonna disturb our peace and
our assurance and our hearing of the word of God. And another
thing that this purports, I believe, is the fact that whatever we
hear in the preaching of the word, It is never to interrupt
our constant looking to Christ as the author and finisher of
our faith. And I think about, I reference this in your lesson,
I think about the Apostle Paul when he wrote in 2 Corinthians
11, when he talked about I'm jealous over you with a godly
jealousy, for they who come in, they're wanting to corrupt your
minds from the simplicity that's in Christ. The singleness, the
singularity, In other words, we want our minds on Christ and
his glorious person, his finished work, so that we can worship
in spirit and in truth together in the Lord. All right.