Amen. I think one of the greatest truths that opens up the scriptures
to us and the things of salvation is, we could put it like this,
I'll put it in three words, in God's sight. In God's sight. And of course what I'm talking
about here is The scripture gives us a view of things as to how
God sees them. And we see them differently.
You understand. Talking to people about having
assurance of salvation. If I'm going to have assurance
of salvation, where would I go? Would I ask you all? And the
answer is no, I would. And that's no slight, but even
though I might be able to say the right words, and you hear
those right words, and it may give you reason to think that
I'm certainly a child of God, you can't peer into my heart
like God can. And here's the thing about it
though, do I ask myself, can I go by my feelings? No. Remember
the old poem, feelings come, feelings go, feelings are deceiving? That kind of thing. Somebody says, well, I just feel
saved. Well, what does that mean? What
does it mean to feel saved? Because it's not based on feelings. Or somebody might say, I feel
lost. I could probably say that as far as my feelings go, I feel
lost a lot of times more than I feel saved. But that has no
meaning. There's no substance that I can
hang on or you can hang on to there, because feelings come
and go. Certainly, do I look at my circumstances? Well, there are people who are
healthy, wealthy, living what we would call the good life,
who are lost. And there are people who are
suffering. who are saved. And of course, Christ brought
that out in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. You know, the rich man was faring
sumptuously, he said. Lazarus was outside of his gate
laying on the ground, the dogs licking his sores. And here,
Lazarus was blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. The rich man was lost. So you
can't go by circumstances. So what do we go by? We go by
the Word of God. For example, the word of God
says that no flesh will be justified, declared righteous, forgiven
of sins, in his sight. In his sight. So whenever I want
to talk about assurance of salvation, which is really every time we
preach the gospel, if you think about it, and study God's word,
what I'm interested in is what God's word says. That's our issue. And in this passage, there's
all this metaphorical language of love between a husband and
a wife that shows us how Christ sees his people. It starts off,
verse one, how beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's
daughter. When I read that, you know what,
the first thing I thought about was the whole armor of God. We
have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. Remember that's
in Ephesians chapter six. It says that we stand in the
whole armor of God. We stand therefore having our
loins girt about with truth, God's truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness, Christ's righteousness, and our
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And of
course, any time the metaphor of feet or legs are used, it's
speaking of our walk. How we stand, Christ has made
our feet beautiful by his grace and his power. We walk the narrow
way that leads to salvation. We started out walking on the
broad road that leads to destruction, that's what we are by nature.
But he set our feet in the plain paths of the gospel. And so we walk by faith in him. We walk in his word. We give
glory to him. And it's based upon his righteousness
alone and the power of the spirit who gives us life from the dead.
And this means fellowship and security with Christ. We walk
his way. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. And his way is the way of grace. His way is the
way of the cross. His way is the way of righteousness
established. We're not walking so as to earn
or merit our favor with God. We walk in him who is our favor,
who is our merit. And then he addresses her as
old prince's daughter. This is another name that he
gives to his bride. You know, Christ has many names
throughout the scripture that describe the one glorious person
because he's so vast in his glory and his honor and his power.
You think about all the compound names, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah
Sidcanu, all of those. His name shall be called Jesus,
which means he shall save his people from their sins. Emmanuel,
his name is wonderful. Prince of Peace, all those names. Well, he gives his bride many
names. We're his bride, we're his wife,
we're his sheep, we're his church, all of this. and here we're the
prince's daughter that and in the in the original that's one
hebrew word you remember back in verse 12 of chapter six uh
where he used the word amenadab or amenadib uh that last part
nadib that's what this word is prince's daughter it means inclined
it means willing in other words christ He didn't, you know, somebody
asked me one time, because, you know, we know the Bible teaches
that man by nature will not, of his own will, come to God. Not the true God. He'll come
to an idol who's likened to himself. But man by nature, he has to
be drawn. No man can't come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And you know that word
draw there is the word drag, like the dragnet, like catching
fish. They threw the net out and they caught the fish. And
a fella asked me one time, he said, are you telling me that
God brings us to himself kicking and screaming and unwilling?
No, what he does is through his love and his power and his grace,
he changes our will. He gives us a new heart. He makes
us desire him rather than to desire our own glory. And that's
what this prince's daughter means. That's what that word means.
Christ's bride is made willing. whenever he gives her a heart
of love towards him and spreads abroad his love within our hearts
and gives us a willingness to believe him and submit to him.
And the Holy Spirit does this by convincing us of the reality
of what we are. We're the unworthy bride. He
shows us that if God were to give us what we've earned and
deserved, it would be eternal damnation. Yet he's loved us
with an everlasting love and to the point that he sent his
son into the world to pay for our sins and to work forth righteousness. Look back at verse one, he says,
the joints of thy thighs are like jewels and the thighs represent
the strength by which we stand. We stand in the power and the
grace of God. We're firmly on the ground. And just like Paul wrote in Ephesians
6 when he began that whole armor of God, here's what he said when
he began listing the armor. This is Ephesians 6, 10. Finally,
my brethren, be strong, but not in your own strength, be strong
in the Lord. Recognize his strength. Recognize
his ability because salvation and preservation and attaining
glory is not a matter of our abilities. or our strength, it's
His. That's why Paul said, I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He is able to
keep that which I've committed. We stand in the strength of His
grace. Everything we have from Him,
everything He does for us is all of grace. Through the strength,
the power, the righteousness of Christ. And Paul said, finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might. And I thought about this, I cited this in your lesson,
where the apostle Paul, you know when he was talking about the
thorn in the flesh, I mentioned this I think last week. And he
sought the Lord, apparently this was some sort of hindrance, physical
hindrance. Some say it was his eyesight,
some say it was something, we don't know because he didn't
specify. But it says he sought the Lord thrice, three times
for it. And here's the Lord's answer
to him. This is 2 Corinthians 12, nine. He said unto me, my
grace is sufficient for thee. Now that really sums it all up.
And he says, for my strength, God said my strength is made
perfect or complete in weakness. And I thought about Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. What is it about a sinner in
this thing of salvation? A sinner cannot save himself.
Cannot save herself from sin. So my strength is made complete. In other words, it reaches its
goal because of your weakness and he says, most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities. Now I don't believe Paul's talking
about bragging on his weaknesses. But what I believe he's talking
about, he explains it. I'd rather glory my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. That's why I glory
in my infirmities because it shows forth and sets forth the
greatness and the success of the power of Christ. Christ saves
sinners. One person, a man preaching one
time, he said, One of the things that gives
me assurance of salvation is that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. And I have absolutely
no doubt. I have absolutely no doubt that
I'm a sinner. I never doubt that. Well, did he come to save all
sinners? No. He came to save sinners,
his people, And how do you know that you're one of those sinners
he came to save? Well, by the power of God, we
look to him, we rest in him, we exalt him, we plead his blood,
his righteousness, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the
blood. Well, it says here in verse one,
the work of the hands of a cunning workman. Now, whoever he's describing
here, He describes them as the work of the hands of a cunning
workman. So who do you suppose that is?
Well, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in. We're not self-made people. We're not, you know, you heard
the old joke that they talked about the braggart, said he's
a self-made man and he worships his creator. Well, that's not
God's people. That's not God's people at all.
We're His workmanship. Whatever we are by way of salvation,
by way of righteousness, by way of forgiveness, by way of goodness,
by way of preservation unto glory, whatever we are, it's His work. It's not our work. Look at verse
two. Thy navel is like a round goblet
which wanteth not liquor. And thy belly is like a heap
of wheat set about with lilies. See, all this language is talking
about the life that is given from the bridegroom to the bride. The navel represents the umbilical
cord. That's the line of nourishment
from the mother to the baby while it's in the womb. And so he's
like, Christ is like our umbilical cord. Our life is from him. And
by him, it's not in us. And Solomon said in another place
that the navel's like a cup full of wine, refreshing and invigorating,
and it's well-shaped and full of life, and that's what we are
in Christ. And one commentator, I wrote
this down in your lesson, he compared it to the outcast infant
in Ezekiel. where it says that the navel
was not uncut, the umbilical cord was not uncut and it was
not tied off. It was bleeding out and loathsome. And that's what we were when
he found us. We were dying. Dying thou shalt die. But then
he picked us up and he washed us off, cleansed us, tied the
cord and all of that to give us life and to sustain us. And
in Proverbs chapter three in verse eight, Solomon wrote this.
He said, the fear of the Lord is said to be health to the navel. And so what he's talking about
is life. Christ is our life. The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. And that righteousness
is Christ. It's his righteousness imputed.
The goblet here is a cup of salvation. And it says, in verse two it
says, which wanteth not liquor. What it means is that it's full.
In fact, Psalm 23 five says, our cup runneth over. So we're
not coming with empty cups because that's what we are in ourselves,
but Christ fills the cup with his nourishment, his water, his
life. And that's how we walk in this. And he says, the belly's like
a heap of wheat. Wheat always talks about the
fruit. You know, the wheat that makes
bread is life. We feed upon Christ. Fruitfulness,
it's connected with the belly because it feeds our hunger.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. and it's filled with Christ.
And the lilies refer to the beauty of righteousness that comes from
the life that he gives, the pleasantness of life, the white lily. We've
seen that metaphor before in the Song of Solomon. Look at
verse three, thy two breasts are like two young rose that
are twins. This refers to the word of God.
We feed upon the word of God like a baby feeds upon the milk
of the word. And one commentator said, it's
like the Old Testament and the New Testament, twins. Like twin
fawns, full of life as they point to Christ. Both the Old Testament
and the New Testament. They're gospel. Gospel of salvation
by grace. You've heard people say this
who don't understand the scriptures, when they talk about the wrath
of God, and they say, well, that's the God of the Old Testament.
But the God of the New Testament is the God of love. No. That's
not right. God is the same God today, yesterday,
and forever. And He'll never change. And when
He saves sinners in the Old Testament, it was by His grace, through
the blood that Christ would come and shed, through the righteousness
that He would come and accomplish on the cross. And that's how
He saves sinners in the New Testament. So we desire the sincere milk
of the Word. And that's what we're doing right
now, looking at this Old Testament book with all of these metaphors. And I've thought about this as
I've gone through Song of Solomon. Can people disagree on what a
particular metaphor stands for? And the answer's yes. As long
as what you believe about it doesn't deny, confuse, or undermine
the gospel of how God saves sinners. But what I try to do is I try
to go back and see where any of these metaphors are used before
this in the Old Testament, and then I try to look at gospel
commentators and what they say. But yeah, people can disagree
on the particular application. Let's say it this way. People
can disagree on the particular gospel application, but it's
still gospel truth. So understand that. Look at verse
four. Thy neck is as a tower of ivory, the faith of God's
people, which joins the body to the head. There's the neck
that joins the body to the head. And that's what happens. See, we're joined to Christ in
representation, in surety ship, Legally, you might say, but then
we're joined to him by faith. God-given faith joins us to Christ
and he is the head of the body. He's the head of the church.
He guides our way. It says here, thine eyes like
the fish pools of Heshbon, by the gate of Bathrabim. Now these
places, and it's a little tough to figure out where these are. These ancient cities, some of
them were just totally obliterated. Some of them had different names.
Some of them had probably as many as six or seven different
names coming. But here's what I see in this.
Whenever he makes reference to a city like this, he's talking
about something that in their day, When that image came up
in their mind, it would have been something beautiful, something
that is well-founded. And I tried to think about something
today that we would think about. I guess it's like people going
to the beach or something like that. They think, well, that's
where I'm going to find rest. And that's, we were talking to
Ron and Trish Traybant last, this past week, and it seemed
every year they would go to the North Carolina beach, over there
where Gary Shepard is. And they'd go, I think in September.
And every time they'd go, a hurricane would come. And so, now they've
decided to go in May. And I think somebody said, well,
now the hurricanes have stopped. So I said, well, I told Ron,
I said, well, maybe they'll name a hurricane after you, Hurricane
Ron. But anyway, most people, when
they think of going on vacation, they want to go to a place that
they consider to be a beautiful place to go, a restful place.
And I think that's what he has in mind here, this Heshbon, Beth
Rambam. Now, there may be some biblical
historians who will go technical on you and give you a whole four
or five pages on this. I'm not one of them. And if I'm
wrong about this, then too bad. I mean, I know this. that when
he's describing something here, he's describing something that
in his sight is beautiful. It's beautiful in his sight.
He says, thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward
Damascus. I believe he's talking about
our safety, our security, our defense. He has set our nose,
our eyes, our face towards him. And he is our defense against
all that would come against us. By the, all of this, this speaks
of the boldness and the courage of the church in facing her enemies
in the cause of Christ. Our victory is assured. And so
we don't have to worry. We don't have to live anxiously
on that end. Verse five, he says, thine head
is upon thee like Carmel. Now in your, if you have a concordance,
that word Carmel is translated crimson. And he says, and the
hair of thine head like purple. Crimson, as you know, is a major
type or symbol of the blood of Christ, which washes away our
sins. Purple is his royalty. He's God-man. We stand before
God in the righteousness of Christ. And he says the king is held
in the galleries. And all of this is, He is in
our view. Christ is in our view in everything. And one commentator used a woman's
beauty being in her hair. The glory of the woman, Paul
talked about that in 1 Corinthians. Christ is our head, our great
glory and beauty. We have no beauty except as we
stand in Him. We're fair. Even sinners. Even sinners, who we see the
blackness of our souls, the wretchedness of our thoughts and our imaginations. But in him, in his sight, who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? God doesn't charge
us. Think about that. God does not
impute my sins to me. How do you know that? Because
he imputed them to Christ. And Christ has given me his righteousness. And look at verse six, he says,
how fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights. What a description of sinners
saved by grace. He's been merciful to us. And
he delights to show mercy. That's what I think of when I
see that word delight in the scripture, in referring to God's
people. God delights to show mercy. His mercy is his glory. He'll
have mercy on whom he will have mercy, he says. That's his glory.
And his mercy is based upon Christ, who is our mercy seat. That's
his glory. So in Isaiah 62, 5, I've referenced
here, as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your
God rejoice over you. Boy, I tell you what, you think
about that. I get up in the morning and I feel like I can't even
move sometimes. So there's no strength. I go
through the day and I have to fight, always have to fight sinful
thoughts and sinful actions. And then to think about the Lord
delights in me. That's amazing. Well, how can
he do that and be a just God, a righteous God? Only through
Christ. And that's it. Look at verse
seven, he says, this thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy
breast to clusters of grapes. The palm tree was considered
stately, high, and firm. And he compares his bride to
the tall and noble palm tree. Isaiah said that he has made
his people trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that
he might be glorified. And that's the key. This cluster
of grapes refers to the fruitfulness of righteousness, spiritual life,
faith, repentance, perseverance, all of these things that are
the works of God. We are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus. And so we see that Christ's righteousness
imputed to us is not only the ground of our justification,
it's the source of our strength, the source of our life. And look
at verse eight. He said, I said, I will go up to the palm tree
I will take hold of the boughs thereof. Now, how can he do that?
He owns it. It's his palm tree. It's his
bride. He takes hold of the branches.
In other words, he holds us in his hand, and he turns us and
moves us wherever he wants us to go. He says, now also thy
breast shall be clusters of vines, and the smell, the odor of thy
nose like apples. a sweet smelling savor unto God. From the life that God has given
us, all of these things expresses his delight in viewing his bride. Her stature, her glory, her beauty,
it's all of him. And then lastly in verse nine,
he says, in the roof of thy mouth, like the best wine for my beloved,
that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep
to speak. Obviously he's talking about
the taste here, the sense of taste. And he has given us a
sense of taste to where the gospel, which was sour to our taste before
God brought us to faith in Christ, is now sweet. And we feed, we
drink the word of God and it goes down sweetly. That's what
he's talking about here. We think this is the gospel,
leads our souls directly to Christ and all that he has accomplished
for us and the power of the spirit that has given us a wake up call. Remember he says there in verse
nine, of those that are asleep to speak. The gospel is a wake
up call for God's people. First of all, it's a wake up
call to wake us out of the sleep of spiritual death when he gives
us life. But then even in our lives, when
we go to sleep on the job, so to speak, remember we talked
about that in an earlier chapter, this same gospel's gonna wake
us up. And then we drink the sweet wine
of his truth, all right?