You know, in this message here,
what we're going to see is a glorious description of the Lord Jesus
Christ using some metaphors and types and symbols where the daughters
of Jerusalem have been asked to guide the
bride of Christ into finding her husband, her Lord, whom she's
seeking. She had lost sight of it for
a while, lost sight of him. She says over here in Song of
Solomon, chapter five, in verse eight, she says, I charge you,
O daughters of Jerusalem. Now, I know in these metaphorical
passages, sometimes it's hard to determine who's speaking and
who they're speaking to and all this. You have the bride of Christ,
and then you have the daughters of Jerusalem. And actually, they're
one in the same. They're brethren in Christ. And
so what you have here is typology that you cannot, as Brother Mahan
used to say, make it stand on all fours. In other words, you
can't take every little detail and draw some theological position
from it, because that's not what it's for. So here what we have
is a picture of the church. And you could say made up of
individual believers who have, for a time, lost sight of the
joy of the salvation that she has received by the grace of
God through Christ. And so she's seeking him. And
so she charges the daughters of Jerusalem, brethren in Christ.
She says, if you find my beloved, If you find him, that you tell
him that I'm sick of love. I'm sick, I'm love sick. That's
what that is. I'm just so sick and eager to
find him. And that's what he's talking
about. Well, how do you find Christ? You know, the Bible says
seek the Lord. And I got to thinking about this
because, you know, false churches and individual people They have
their pictures, what they think is pictures of Jesus, their icons,
their crucifixes, and all of that. Though I don't want to
offend anybody, those things are not biblical. They are not. Nobody knows what the physical
humanity of Christ looked like. And so how do we see Christ?
Well, over in 2 Corinthians chapter five, let me read this to you. Paul is talking about how God
has changed our standard of judgment of things concerning salvation
and a right relationship with God. And so, you know, and it's
no use saying we don't judge because we do. We judge everything.
By nature, our judgment is clouded with sin and depravity. But God
changes that, and that doesn't mean that we can go around telling,
well, I know everybody that's saved and everybody, that doesn't
mean that. But it does mean this, is as we're seeking fellowship
with people, where should I go to church? Where should I join with the
people of God? I've got to make a judgment there,
don't you? You go to a church, you listen
to the message, and if that message is according to the word of God,
that's what we're looking for. And so Paul said in verse 16
of 2 Corinthians 5, wherefore henceforth from this moment on,
and he's talking about from the time that we're made new creatures
in Christ, we're born again by the Spirit, it says, wherefore
henceforth know we no man after the flesh. In other words, we
can't judge matters of fellowship who I'm to reject as being not
a brother or sister in Christ and who I'm to, we can't do that
by the flesh, by what we see. And he says, yea, though we have
known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him
no more. I don't know what Jesus of Nazareth
looked like. I've got images in my mind that
were put there by the imaginations of men and portraits and all
of that. I wish I could get him out of there. So how are we gonna
know what Christ looked like? How are we gonna find Christ?
Here's what God has determined for his people. We find him in
his word. And so what we have here in Song
of Solomon, chapter six, beginning verse nine, is a portrait, you
might say. This is a portrait of Christ.
This is what he is. This is what he looked like.
And so what the daughters of Jerusalem, they begin to say,
The question in verse nine, what is thy beloved more than another
beloved? What makes the one you love so
special? What makes the one you love better
than any other? Now this is a rhetorical question
because they're gonna answer the question. They're believers. And you know, if God has brought
you under the preaching of the gospel and given you eyes to
see and ears to hear life from above, you see the beauty and
glory of Christ. And I think a big part of growing
in grace and in knowledge is as we grow in grace, we see more
and more and more and more of his beauty. And I've said all
through these messages, you understand now, when we talk about the bridegroom
and the bride, he's the worthy bridegroom and we're the unworthy
bride. We see more and more of our sinfulness
and our depravity, but we see more and more of his glory and
his beauty and his efficacy. So what is thy beloved more than
another beloved? And so now begins a bragging
session, you might say. Bragging on Christ. And that's
what we're to do. Paul said in Philippians 3.3,
we are the circumcision, we worship God in spirit, and we rejoice,
we boast. We have confidence in Christ
Jesus and no confidence in the flesh. And so here's the response. If you find my beloved, tell
him I'm lovesick. I've got to have Christ. That's
what he's saying. That's what's being said here.
If nothing else, I've got to have Christ. If this salvation
has any reality and assurance at all, I must have Christ. I must have his blood to wash
away my sins. I must have his righteousness
to justify me. I must have his life, his spirit,
to give me life from the dead. If I don't have him, It's all
sin. I love that passage where the
Lord told the disciples that he's going to send the spirit
into the world to convince the world of sin because they believe
not on me. In other words, without Christ,
it's all sin. If I don't have him, it's all
sin, even at my best. So they start showing the glory
and the beauty of Christ, and he says, O thou fairest among
women, And the fairest there, the beauty of the bride, is the
beauty of the bridegroom, isn't it? She wears the coat that he
wove for her by his obedience unto death, that's his righteousness
imputed, and she has the grace of God within. to give her a
new heart, new mind, all of that. She's fair. What is thy beloved
more than another beloved? There's the question twice. That
thou dost so charge us. Why should we even put our energies
into this? Because, you know, it's kind
of like, you know, if you think about the world, you know, there
are many gods. And you just pick which one you
want, you know. As the Irishman said, you pays
your money, you takes your choice. And that's what the world thinks.
You say, well, you're going your way, I'm going my way, we'll
all get there. You know, the mountain analogy.
Some go straight up, some go around, but the top of the mountain's
the same God. That's not true. What is our
God? What is our Lord? What is our
Savior? What is our beloved more than
any other? Well, let me tell you about him. That's what's
gonna happen. Let me tell you, this Christ
that we worship, and there's so much misinformation out there,
isn't there? This Christ, look at verse 10.
My beloved is white and ruddy. What does that whiteness mean?
That means his purity. Sinlessness. The lamb without
spot, without blemish, who did a great work because our sins
were laid to his charge. And he drank damnation dry. He was made guilty, not because
of his own sin, not because of any sin within him, but because
of our sins. He died for our sins according
to the scriptures. And if he didn't die for my sins,
what am I? I'm of all men most miserable.
He's white. And that's why the robe that
we wear in God's sight is white. An everlasting righteousness
of infinite value that cannot be taken away and cannot be contaminated. And what was it based upon? Well,
he's also ruddy. What does ruddy mean? It means
red. And when you think about red
and the types of scripture, what are you talking about? Talking
about the blood of the crucified one. You talk about his satisfaction
to God's justice in our place, to make us white. Remember the
Christ said, I am fair, I'm beautiful, but I'm black. In the sight of
God, God cannot lay anything to my charge, because he charged
it to Christ. I'm beautiful in Christ. But
in myself, I'm a sinner. Only, we're gonna sing that song,
I think, this morning. Only a sinner saved by grace. That's our biography,
isn't it? You say, well, I'm more than,
no, I'm only a sinner saved by grace. And that's what this is. He's white and he's ruddy. He's
the lamb slain for the sins of his people. I heard a message
a while back where a preacher got up and mentioned his own
name. He said, Christ didn't die for my sins, he died for
his sins, because my sins were charged against him. Listen,
those are my sins. And the Bible says he died for
our sins. So don't deny that. Don't try
to tweak that beautiful truth with something that you think
you see or you think you've arrived at. No. Think about this. Listen, he's the chiefest. Now
that word chief, you probably have this in your concordance
there, it means a standard bearer among 10,000. That speaks of
his preeminence. Christ is the preeminent one. He's the firstborn. He's the
firstfruits. He's everything and all to his
people. He is our standard bearer. When
people look at us, what do we want them to see? We want them
to see the glory and beauty of Christ. Even when we do good
works. You know, let your light so shine.
That light is Christ and the glory and beauty of Christ and
his person and his work. We want him to glorify God. Let
he that glorieth glory in this. Not in themselves, but in him. He's our wisdom. He's our righteousness. He's
our sanctification. He's our redemption. And so he's
the chiefest among 10,000. That's a Hebrew idiom that means
a multitude which no man can number. Verse 11 says, his head
is as the most fine gold. What does gold normally point
to in scripture? It points to the beauty of his
deity. You know, anytime gold was used, like, for example,
in the tabernacle, you remember the mercy seat was made of chitim
wood overlaid with gold. And the wood pictured his sinless
humanity. The gold pictured his absolute
deity. And the head here is his authority. The head rules. He's in control. I heard a preacher say on TV
one time, he made this statement, he said, most Christians are
operating under a fallacy. And he said, the fallacy is that
God is in control. God is not in control. I thought,
are you kidding me? And who would listen to that
joker and send him money? Billions. Because that's his
ministry, he promises you how to make money. Well, let me tell
you something, God is in control. He's on the throne. Our Lord
right now is working all things according to the purpose of his
own will. And that's mind-boggling now.
Listen, I'm not telling you I've got this thing, you know, wrapped
up in my back pocket or something. It's mind-boggling. And the book
of Hebrews makes this argument in that in Hebrews 2 that We don't see all things yet put
under his feet. What that means is when we look
at the world to our physical eye, it looks like chaos, doesn't
it? You ever seen any of those videos
about Portland, Oregon? Looks like people have just gone
crazy. But it says there in Hebrews chapter two, but we see Jesus. We see him. Now how do we see
him? Through his word. And I know that there's not one
wrinkle, there's not one thing out of place that would thwart
or hinder his sovereign purpose and will. He's in control. He's
working all things after the counsel of his own will. It says
his locks are bushy and black as a raven. Now normally, in
the scripture, When we speak of blackness, when it's referring
to us, it's referring to our sin. It's referring to our depravity,
how we have to be saved from sin and from unrighteousness. But what is it when it refers
to Christ? Well, it's either one of two things. It's either
our sins charged, accounted, imputed to him, which he did
call his own, not because he committed them, not because they
were infused into him, but because they were charged to his account,
and they became his by imputation. So sometimes the blackness, when
we talk about Christ, it could refer to that. But here's what
I'm thinking that this is meaning here. Blackness refers to things
that we're in the dark about. And here the idea, his head is
the most fine gold, his locks are bushed. Speaking of his head,
and what I think it's talking about, there are things in the
mind of God that are just black to us, they're dark to us. We
can't figure it out. Like, for example, I've said
it this way, and a lot of people say this, I don't know what's
gonna happen tomorrow. I'm in the dark about that. But
he knows. because he's in control. So you
can look at that and take whatever position you want to take on
it. I know he's not a sinner like us. He never became a sinner. He was not made a sinner. He
was made sin, but that's speaking of the charging of the debt of
our sins to him. That's what that's speaking of.
He remained pure and holy, white within himself. and yet he died
for our sins. So if you wanna look at this
blackness as our sins imputed to him, that's fine, that doesn't
deny the gospel. But what I'm thinking is this,
is that the secret things belong to God. I rely, I'm gonna bring
that up in the message from John 17. You know, I rely heavily
on that verse, Deuteronomy 29, 29. Here's Moses telling the
people about the law. And he's telling them about God
being in control. And there's not a hair out of
place, you see. But he tells them this, he says,
now the secret things belong to God. You and I don't operate
in that realm, see. God has not taken us into glory
and said, now let me tell you about my secret will. He said,
the revealed things belong to us that we might do all the things
in the law. And that's why we operate in
that realm. We operate in the realm of revelation. Now, there's two types of revelation. There's a general revelation,
and that's right here from Genesis to the book of Revelation. It's
in God's word. What God wants us to know and
what we need to know, God has put in this word. Is that right?
He's put in this word. But there are things that God
has kept hidden from us. Some of those are revealed day
to day. I can tell you what happened
yesterday. That was God's will. But I can't tell you what's going
to happen. I can't tell you what's going to happen five minutes
from now, as far as that's concerned. And because this is in accordance
with his head, most fine gold, his lox bushy, and that Bushiness
refers to his beauty. It's the beauty of his glory. And it boils down to this, and
I'll just read this to you. I've got this cited in your lesson
in Romans 11. And, you know, after the apostle
Paul was inspired by the spirit to write of the glorious things
of the gospel, And God bringing his people, Jew and Gentile,
into a saving knowledge of Christ. And God working his sovereign
will, both in the nation of Israel and both among the Gentiles.
And he says in verse 33, this is what I believe this verse
is teaching us. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. Or he said, for
who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor,
his advisor, or who hath first given to him, and it shall be
recompensed unto him again. You know what that verse is saying?
Is God never acts in a responsive way. In other words, he doesn't
respond to sinners. The salvation of sinners is not
a response from God to our choice. And what God does is not a response,
either to what men call goodness or evil. That's what he says. Who first given to him and it
shall be recompensed. You know, people say, well, if
you give God this much, he'll give you that much. Well, read
that verse 35 again. Who's first given to him and
it shall be recompensed unto him again. God's not like that,
see. He's not like, You know, like the prophet told old Naaman,
it ain't like you thought it was. In verse 36, for of him and through
him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever, amen.
It's all centered in God, through Christ, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. We'll go back to Song of Solomon,
chapter five. Look at, look at verse, See in
Leviticus, in black as a raven, again, that's what I believe
he's talking about. The secret counsels of God. The
depths of God's glory that we cannot know. And his purpose. Verse 12, his eyes are as the
eyes of doves. That's his view of his people
and he's the prince of peace. There's peace between God and
sinners. By the rivers of waters. The
water of life. washed with milk and fitly set. In other words, they can't change.
Fitly set. His gaze is upon his bride and
he never takes his eyes off of us. He feeds us with the milk
of his word, with the water of life, the bread of life. He never
forgets us. He never sleeps. We read that
last week. We'll sleep sometimes when we
should be awake. He never sleeps. And that's our
preservation. And His eyes are fitly set. You have the Bible says His eye
is on the sparrow. And the point of that is, think
about how God thinks about His bride. How the Lord thinks about
His bride. He's set. And set upon us in
peace. Never in condemnation. Now sometimes
He chastises us. in different ways for different
reasons. Sometimes we might be able to understand why he's chastising
us. Sometimes we don't. Somebody
said, well, he always chastises us for our sins. Now, I want
you to think about that. If that were true, I don't think
any of us would be able to look up. I think we'd be crawling
on our bellies like a reptile all the time. It's just, you
know, I know he chastised Job. Not for Job's sins. Was Job a
sinner? Yes. And we're all sinners, and
we all deserve condemnation, but his eye of peace, his eye
of grace, his eye of power is always set upon us to save us
from our sins. That's an amazing thing, isn't
it? Fitly set, it says. Fully placed and set as precious
stone In the foil of a ring, is what your concordance says.
And then look at verse 13, his cheeks are as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers. That's speaking of his glory.
The face of Jesus Christ, his cheeks, you know, the glory of
God in the face, that's the glory of God in his person, the glory
of God in his finished work. All that makes him, spices as
sweet flowers. an odor of sweet smelling. His lips are like lilies dropping
sweet, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. His lips are, that's his
speech. He kissed us with his lips and
we kiss him, kiss the son lest he should be angry. That's talking
about faith in Christ, loving Christ, being brought to embrace
Christ by the power of the spirit, being submitted to him as the
Lord, the Lord our righteousness. The Lord who's in control. The
Lord in whose hands we are. But his lips speak forth this
sweet-smelling myrrh. Myrrh is usually something that
is associated with his suffering. He speaks of his death. Remember
when he spoke on the Mount of Transfiguration with that vision
of Moses and Elijah. They spoke of his decease. He spoke of his decease, which
he should accomplish. He tells us of his love. He speaks
of His love, His grace, His mercy, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh,
the sweet-smelling savor. Verse 14, His hands are as gold
rings set with the barrel. Usually in the scripture, when
it speaks of God's hands or God's arms, it's talking about His
power. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Do you know
who the power of God is, who the arm of the Lord is? Christ,
1 Corinthians 1. To the Greeks, he's foolishness. To the Jews who are looking for
a sign, he's a stumbling block. But to us who are saved, who
believe, he's the wisdom and the power of God. We're in his
hands. He said, no one shall pluck them
out of my father's hands. He got a hold on us. that he'll
never let go. And that barrel there, I think
most commentators speak of that barrel as one of
the precious stones that was associated with the breastplate
of the high priest. And so, speaking of his high
priestly work on behalf of his people. And then it says, his
belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires. Most commentators
say his belly refers to the torso, but mainly to his heart. The
lifeblood of Christ, his belly is bright ivory overlaid with
sapphires. What he's talking about there
is the beauty of his heart towards his people, the beauty of love.
Herein is love. Not that we love God, but He
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He was cut to the quick in our
place. And that's a beautiful thing.
Because as ugly as it was physically, His suffering on that cross,
When he, we talked about the seven sayings of Christ on the
cross, and I think about, you know, when he said, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? When he said, it's finished.
Boy, what a word. One word in the Greek, three
words in English, it's finished. What was finished? Our sins are
finished. Oh, we still live with them today,
but their end is coming. They cannot be charged to us.
We cannot be condemned. It's finished. Righteousness
is finished. We strive to be like Christ,
but the righteousness that God requires and the righteousness
that we need for justification is already finished completely.
And it's charged to our account. We don't add to it. And we can't
even take away from it. We can't even dirty it up. It's
perfect, it's white. So his hands and his belly, verse
15, his legs are as pillars of marble. That speaks of the foundation. That speaks of being able to
stand. Who will stand in the day of
God's judgment, the psalmist asked. Not, no one without Christ. We stand upon the rock Christ
Jesus. We stand upon the foundation
of Christ. We're steady. and standing, set
upon sockets of fine gold," he says. The power of his deity,
the power of his work, his countenance, it says, the way he looks is
as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. We've seen that metaphor
all the way through here. Lebanon and the cedars of Lebanon.
His people are called the cedars of Lebanon. The beauty and the
glory of those trees that were so strong. And so said, and then
verse 16, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely.
His word, his kisses, he's altogether lovely. He's altogether lovely. In other words, there's not one,
one little inch of him, no part of him that is not lovely. When
we think about ourselves, there are things we like, There are
things that are not lovely. Isn't that right? Not him. Not our bridegroom. This is our
bridegroom. What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? He's altogether lovely. Everything about him is perfect,
pure. Everything about him is powerful
to save. And he says, she ends this way,
this is my beloved. This is the one I love. But not
only is he my beloved, he's my friend. A friend loveth at all
times. And a brother is born of adversity,
the wise man said. Christ is every believer's friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem. See, that's when the bride at
the end, when she brings this to the conclusion, she says,
this is my beloved. This is the one I'm bragging
on. He's my hope. Okay, we'll stop there.