I am my beloved's and he is mine. Song of Solomon chapter six.
You know, whenever a sinner is brought to truly seek the Lord,
that is a true miracle of God's grace. Because we know that on
our own volition, on our own choices and our own will, we
would not seek him. I always think about Romans chapter
three where it says, there's none that seek after God. And
my former pastor, Brother Mahan, used to say, it doesn't say there,
there's none that seeketh after a God. Men seek religion, they
seek a God, a God of their own imaginations. But until the Spirit
of God gives us life and enlightens us, we don't seek the true and
living God. And he used to say this too,
and I like this, he said, wherever you find a seeking sinner, a
genuinely seeking sinner, you'll find that before that, before
he sought, he or she sought the Lord, there was a seeking Savior. Christ is gonna find his sheep.
He knows where they are. He knows where his sheep are
right now. There are sheep out there who have yet to be brought
into the kingdom. And he knows every one of them
by name, and he knows where they are, and he knows the exact time
that he's going to bring them out of the world and into the
kingdom of God, because he's the one who's appointed that
time. And so whenever you see people who are met together to
seek the Lord, That's a miracle of God's grace. And here, you
know, the daughters of Jerusalem in this, which refers to brothers
and sisters in Christ, back up in verse 9 of chapter 5, they
pose this question. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved, O fairest among women? In other words, your Savior.
And think about this, there are many, many people who claim to
preach Christ, claim to preach Jesus, but when you hear their
doctrine, and that's how we have to understand this, when you
hear their doctrine, you find out that it's doctrine that is
contrary to what the Bible here teaches concerning the glorious
person and the finished work of Christ. And so we claim to
preach the true Christ of the Bible. Well, what is our Savior
more than any other Savior? What is our beloved more than
another beloved? Well, let me tell you about it.
You see, that's what we want to do. We want to tell people about
Christ, our Savior, God in human flesh without sin, the powerful,
the sovereign of this universe who works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Our God is not, he does not act
or choose upon the whim of sinners. Isn't that something? Our God,
he says of himself, this is what, this is not just a doctrine we've
adopted, this is what God says of himself in his word, this
is how he is. So it's not just, well, you know,
you take this doctrine, you take this, no. What does God say about
himself? What does he say about his son?
He said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Hear
ye him. There's only one way to God. And that's Jesus Christ
crucified, risen from the dead. That's his blood. That's his
righteousness. He is the Lord, our righteousness. So what is our beloved more than
any other? He's infinitely, infinitely higher
and more beautiful and greater than these false messiahs that
are being preached today. And so we love to tell people.
But then the bride, she answers with a vivid description of his
beauty, and that's what we do when we preach the doctrine of
Christ. We're not just, again, I know, you know, people, Sometimes
they want to make a point, and it may be a good point, but they
do it wrongly. I used to hear people say, well,
you don't arrive at Christ through doctrine, you arrive at doctrine
through Christ. Well, it's Christ who saves us, but the only way
he saves us is by revealing himself to us, and when he reveals himself
to us, what is he revealing? The teachings concerning who
he is and what he accomplished. That's doctrine. So don't get
hung up on the quaint sayings of men that sometimes are used
to give people an out so that they can say they were saved
without the doctrine of Christ. Without the gospel? What is the
gospel? It's good news. Well, what is
that news, you see? How am I gonna, you know? Only
way I'm gonna tell you the good news is to preach the doctrine
of Christ. Only way you're gonna witness
the good news. And so the bride, she gives all these descriptions
of his beauty and his glory, his power, his goodness. But now here in verse one, they
pose another question that every sinner who's been born again
by the spirit who are still sinners saved by grace, we're in this
spiritual, we're in this state in the world, we're righteous
in God's sight based upon Christ's righteousness imputed, but in
ourselves we're still sinners, we have a warfare, the flesh
and the spirit. And so they ask this question,
look at verse one, whither or where is thy beloved gone? You
remember, she had fallen asleep, And he came, and he woke her
up, and then she opened the door, and he wasn't there. He withdrew
himself for a time. And that's, I believe, most of
the commentators have that right, that that's talking about how
sometimes we lose sight, even as believers. knowing what we
have, knowing how blessed we are, but we still, we get bogged
down in our own affairs, looking within the situation of the world,
you know, and we lose sight of our savior. And so he withdraws
himself to teach us, to stir us up, to wake us up, to do what? To seek him more. And so the
Christian life is not just seeking him one time, It's seeking him
all of our lives. That's what we're doing this
morning, reading his word. We're seeking the Lord. And he keeps
us seeking him by his ways. Sometimes by withdrawing himself.
Not forsaking us. He never will leave us or forsake
us. He's always with us. Another saying of my former pastor,
he said, God's got us on a leash. You know, you see people walk
their dogs on a leash. They can get so far, but they're
gonna come back. And so God's got us on a leash.
And so, where is he? That's the question. I wanna
seek the Lord. He saved me from my sins. He
brought me into the kingdom. He prays for me. We're gonna
talk about that as we close out John 17. And so we seek him for
salvation, but we, even us, if he were to let us go, we'd fall
away. Now that's so, but he doesn't. And so the question is posed,
whither is thy beloved gone? O thou fairest among women. And
I love that because when we look within ourselves, we see anything
but fairest, don't we? Our sins are ever before us,
as David prayed. And that wasn't just one sin
he was talking about. You know, when he wrote that
Psalm 51, it is a penitent psalm. He said, my sin is ever before
thee. I don't believe he was just talking
about his adultery with Bathsheba. I believe he was talking about
his life as a sinner saved by grace. Somebody preached a message
one time entitled, God Does Not See Our Sins. And he made this
statement. He said, he doesn't see our sins
because they don't exist. And his point was, he went back
to some metaphorical language where it talks about God casting
our sins behind his back, throwing him into the deepest. Well, that's
metaphorical. Does God see our sins? Did he
see David? You remember what the prophet
Nathan told David? He said, you've committed this
sin in the sight of God. God sees our sins, but now when
it says he sees no sin in us or on us, he's talking about
the fact that he doesn't charge us with our sins. He doesn't
impute our sins to us. Our sins are not in the record
of God's book because they've been blotted out by the blood
of Christ. Now is that metaphorical language?
Yeah, God doesn't have an actual book. that he writes names in. Our names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. They're in the mind and the heart
of God as sinners saved by grace. So yes, we look within ourselves,
but this is how the Lord sees us. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. How
does God see me? How does God see you? Does he
see my sin? He knows our frame, the scripture
says. His word is sharper than a two-edged sword, cutting a
son. Listen, that sinful thoughts that I have, God knows that.
But he doesn't charge me with my sin. And he sees me as fair,
as beautiful, through the blood of his son. through the righteousness
of his son. And it says here, whither is
thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee. That's
the whole church of God. We're seeking the Lord together.
We're seeking him as sinners in need. The Bible says in Hebrews
4, that we're to come to the throne of grace in our time of
need. And we always look at that as
prayer, and that's okay. But it's not just prayer, it's
all the time. We're a needy people. We were
talking about this last week. As I say, we're high maintenance.
We are. And so think about that. And
it says in verse two, my beloved has gone down into his garden.
This is the bride speaking. What is God's garden? That's
his church. He sows the seed. Christ sowed
the seed of his children, sows the seed of the word, and waters
it with his grace and his word. And we grow in grace and in knowledge. And his church grows as he adds
to it. saving the elect of God, bringing
them into the kingdom. This is his garden. And in order
to do this, he had to go down. My beloved has gone down. He
didn't go up. He went down. You know why? Because
we're sinners. And he had to condescend to be
made like unto his brethren. Walk on this earth as God-man
without sin. He was made sin, our sins were
imputed to him, but he wasn't corrupted or contaminated by
our sins. He ate with publicans and sinners,
but he was neither a publican nor a sinner. But that's what he did, and he
came down to do the work of establishing the foundation of his church,
of establishing the field of his garden. He's the vine, we're
the branches. We're the garden of God, the
beautiful garden. And he says, to the beds of spices,
to feed in the gardens. That means he's gonna feed us.
That's what that's talking about. To feed us, to feed us with his
word, by the power of his spirit, to water us with his word, and
to gather lilies. You remember the metaphor of
the lily, the white lily? To gather his people unto himself,
made white, by the grace of God, in the blood of Christ, all of
this, see. And the idea, as I said, it's
not that he's feeding himself, because he doesn't gain anything
from us but his glory. God doesn't need us, but we need
him. We're constantly in need of him.
And then he says in verse three, I am my beloved's and my beloved
is mine. And I love that kind of language.
That's covenant language. Over in the book of Hebrews.
And actually he's quoting here in the book of Hebrews, he's
quoting Jeremiah. It's a verse I'll probably be
looking at later on in the main message. But he says in Hebrews chapter
eight, he's talking about the new covenant. established by
the coming of Christ, Christ coming down to establish the
new covenant by his obedience unto death as the surety, the
substitute, and the redeemer of his people. And he talks about
this covenant union. You understand the new covenant
is only new in time. It's not new as far as its origin because it's actually
the new covenant. John Owen helped me with this
in his commentary on Hebrews. He says the new covenant is the
establishment in time of the terms and conditions of the everlasting
covenant of grace made before time. As we were chosen and given
to Christ before the foundation of the world, our sins were imputed
to him, and he had to come down into this garden, and he had
to, as God in human flesh without sin, he had to fulfill the conditions
of the covenant, which was the complete, perfect, eternal payment
for all our sins in his death. And that issues forth in a covenant
union With the Lord, he says, look at verse, no, I'll just
read this to you. Hebrews 8 and verse 10, I think
is what I've got listed there. It says, for this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. And that's speaking of spiritual
Israel. In the context, you can't get away from that. He said,
I will put my laws, my word into their mind or into their heart,
write them in their hearts. And he says, I will be to them
a God and they shall be to me a people. And that's another
way of saying that is I belong to Christ and he belongs to me.
We belong to each other. And all the conditions of that
union were met by him completely. None of them were upon me. Again,
the worthy bridegroom and the unworthy bride. And this is a
marriage union. It's a union that cannot be broken. There is no possibility of a
bill of divorce in this union. You know, Jeremiah spoke of a
bill of divorcement that God gave to Israel because that old
covenant was never meant to be eternal. The relationship that
God had with those people under that conditional covenant was
made, but always had its ending in sight. And that ending in
sight was the time of the coming of the Messiah. And then God
wrote him a bill of divorcement. But here, that don't happen.
He said, and they were always unwilling. As a nation, now there
was a remnant of true believers, But they were always unwilling
as a nation. And God wrote them that Bill
of Divorcement. That's over with. That relationship is over with.
But God's relationship with his spiritual nation, his elect,
will never end. And she recognizes that. And
it's in this statement, I am my beloved's. And my beloved
is mine and he feedeth among the lilies. Now it means he feeds
the lilies. That's what the idea here is.
It's kind of hard to discern that in the English translation.
He feeds us. And that means he keeps us. Not
only does he save us from our sins, but he keeps us. He preserves
us. He will not let us go. Again,
a marriage union that cannot be broken. Why? Because it's
by the grace of God, it's based upon the righteousness of Christ,
and it results in life from the dead, where he gives us a heart,
a new heart to love him, and to believe in him, and to cling
to him. What are we looking for? We're
looking for our savior. We're looking for our beloved.
Look at verse four. He says, thou art beautiful,
O my love. Again. And this language just
redounds through the Song of Solomon. How beautiful are God's
people. Sad to say, we don't always act
beautifully, do we? We don't always live up to our
calling. And that's why our salvation
is not only begun by grace, it continues by grace. But we are in God's sight, because
we stand before Him in the clean, white, sterling robe of His Son. And He's given us within a new
heart that clings to Him. And then when we lose sight of
Him, He won't let us go. So He feeds among the lilies,
and He says, as Tirzah. Tirza may refer to an ancient
city in Canaan that was known for its beauty. And so that's
what these metaphors, sometimes scholars will differ over what
it means, but that's the closest that I can come for that. It
was a city named Tirza in Canaan that was known for its beauty.
And so he's comparing her beauty to that. And then, comely as
Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. Comely as Jerusalem.
I want you to look at this. If you'll turn to Isaiah, chapter
one. And that's just over about one
page. Now, Jerusalem, the city of peace, You know, that's the capital
of Israel, and I'm not talking about Israel today, but that
was the place where the king dwelt, that's where the temple
was, all of that. There was some beauty about that
place in that issue. This was where the temple was,
where the worship of God, but it was always corrupted. There
were very few times in their history where the worship of
God was seen and acted upon as God had given it. So when the Bible uses the word
Jerusalem to describe the bride of Christ, it's speaking of the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God, the pure and perfect,
beautiful Jerusalem. But in those days, Jerusalem
itself, the actual city, was not beautiful. Listen to what
Listen to what Isaiah, now Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem. In fact,
some people say he was of the royal family in physical line. But look at verse two, or verse
four rather. This is what he says about Jerusalem
and the surrounding areas. Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity. a seed of evildoers, children
that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord.
They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger. They are
gone away backward. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revoke more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head.
There is no soundness in it. but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores, they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment. Your country is desolate, your
cities are burned with..." Now that's the description. Doesn't
sound beautiful to me, how about you? And that certainly describes
all of our sins by nature. That's a good description of
me and you by nature. but we've been made beautiful
by God, by his grace. And so when he says back here
in Song of Solomon 6, for comely as Jerusalem, the city of peace,
the city of God, I believe he's speaking of the heavenly Jerusalem.
He's speaking of the church. And then he says terrible as
an army with banners. Even though we have a beauty
about us, a graciousness about us, we're still a great army
under the banner of Christ. In other words, as I've put here,
the beauty is not to be mistaken for weakness, because we stand
in the power of God, and we cannot be defeated. Now Jerusalem, the
actual city, was defeated many times, and then ultimately, and
then in AD 70, it was completely leveled. But this city of Jerusalem,
is a terrible army, a strong army under the banner of Christ
who is our victor. And we don't fight any battles
in our own strength or our own goodness or our own power. It's
always in the power of the Lord. Be strong in the power of the
Lord. That's what the scripture says. And that's how we exist. We're a kept people. We're a
protected people. He is our banner. He's our high
tower. He's our fort, he's our protection. And so he says in verse five,
turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. This
is a little bit difficult, but he's not talking about, what's
happened is the bride is telling the bridegroom, turn your eyes
away from me. Or I mean, the bridegroom is telling the bride,
turn your eyes away from me because I'm consumed, I'm overcome. This is romantic language of
an intense love. It's not turn your eyes away
from me in disgust or dislike. He's telling her to turn her
eyes away because he's consumed in his own heart with love. It's
a way of speaking that indicates an intense love. And he uses
the same symbol here that he used back in Song of Solomon
4 in verse 1. This is not to be taken literally
as sinners saved by grace. We're never to look away from
Christ. We run the race of grace. We walk the walk of faith, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that's our
whole life. But this is a poetic way of expressing
the intensity of his love for us. And just like in Psalm 4-1,
Song of Solomon 4-1, when speaking of her hair, look here in verse
six, or verse five, he says, thy hair is as a flock of goats
that appear from Gilead. He's not saying your hair's like
a goat's hair. He's talking about on this Mount
Gilead, when the flocks of goats would come down in unison, flowing
down. And it speaks of the direction
and the beauty and the unison of God's people. Now that's what
most gospel commentators say about this, and I'm gonna agree
with them. I'm not gonna try to go off onto
a tangent there. And that's the same thing that
he'd said back in chapter four. And verse six goes on with that.
It says in verse 6 and 7, thy teeth are as a flock of sheep
which go up from the washing. The teeth speaks of the mouth
as our testimony, our words. You could say it's what we feed
on. We feed on the word of God. The
washing is the washing of his blood. How are we washed? in
the sight of God. We're washed in the blood of
Christ. What can wash away my sins? That's the testimony of
our mouth. And that's what we feed upon.
What can wash away our sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
He says, whereof everyone beareth twins. That's the fruitfulness
of the message of our life in Christ. We're not barren. but were fruitful just like a
woman that has twins. You couldn't say she's done fruitful,
that she's barren. And this is the work of Christ.
He suffered like a woman in the pain of childbirth. And Isaiah
calls that the travail of his soul. And what is the result
of his death, his dying? It's the salvation of every sinner
for whom he died. It's fruitful, just like a woman
that has twins is fruitful. Christ did not die for anyone
who perishes. Because he's fruitful and the
church is fruitful in our work. We may not see the fruit immediately.
I'm sure that Stephen, when he preached that message in Jerusalem,
he didn't see anybody coming to Christ. And what he saw was
a bunch of rocks coming after him. And he died. But there was
some fruit out of that. If nothing else, the Apostle
Paul, he was standing there holding their coats, but later on, as
he was on his way to arrest Christians, God stopped him. Now was that
the result of one message that Stephen preached? I don't know,
but I'd say Paul probably heard the gospel plenty of times because
he knew, Paul knew, that the message of Christ exposed him
to be lost and in a false refuge, and that's why he hated it so
much. That's why sinners by nature hate it and won't believe it.
But there's always fruitfulness here. You know, you go around
town into various churches, you'll see big crowds, and you come
in here, and we're just a little few, a little flock. But don't
think that we're not fruitful here, because we are. And then
we have the fruit of the Spirit within us. That's fruitfulness,
that's the work of God. That's the work of Christ. And
he said, there's not one barren among them. If you're a sinner
saved by grace, you're not barren. And then verse seven he says,
as a piece of pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks. And just like it stated back
in Song of Solomon chapter four, the temples refer to the mind
of God's people, the pomegranate symbolizes the fertility of God's
promise of salvation and the biblical concepts of knowledge
and learning and wisdom All these come to God's people through
His power and His revelation to bring us to seek our Savior
and realize that I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine. I'm in
a relationship with Christ and it'll never end by His grace.
Okay.