One of the most fundamental tenets
or truths of Christian life, Christian living, is stated simply
this, we walk by faith and not by sight. We don't conduct ourselves
in our in our way of thinking, our way of living, our way of
viewing the, you know, we talk about the worldview and all of
that. We don't judge things. We who are saved, sinners saved
by grace, we don't judge things necessarily by what we see, but
we judge all things concerning salvation and a right relationship
with God. by the Word of God. And that's
what it is to walk by faith, is to walk by the Word of God.
And as I was studying this passage, that just came to me. For example,
listen to verse one of Song of Solomon four. He says, this is
the Lord speaking to his people, the bridegroom speaking to the
bride. And he says this, behold thou
art fair. And that word fair means beautiful.
He says, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. In other
words, he emphasizes this. This is not something we can
debate, this beauty. He says, thou hast dove's eyes
within thy locks, and that's literally behind your veil. You
know, it was a custom of women then to wear a veil. And he says,
you've got dove's eyes behind your veil, and your hair is as
a flock of goats. Now, he's not saying, you know,
that doesn't sound very appealing to us in beauty, like you've
got goat hair. No, what he's talking about,
the idea there, it says that appear from Mount Gilead, that
flow down from Mount Gilead. He's talking about the beauty
of a flock of goats coming in unison down that mountain. and
talking about her walk, her gait, and all of that. So the issue
here is, is thou art fair? But here's the thing about it.
When we look at ourselves and take inventory of ourselves,
we don't see any beauty, do we? I mean, think about it. We've
got a struggle. Why do we have a struggle within
of the flesh and the spirit, you see? It's because we're not
inwardly perfect yet. We say by God's word and by the
grace of God, for example, that if we're believers in Christ,
if we truly trust him for salvation, we can say we love God, but we
don't love him perfectly, do we? Not yet. All of these struggles
that we have show us our sinfulness. And greatly, and thank God for
this, shows us that our need is the need of God's grace and
mercy in Christ at all times. But we don't see any beauty within
ourselves. But here Christ, the bridegroom,
speaking to his church, speaking to his bride, He's showing here
the reality of what he sees. He says, behold, you're fair,
you're beautiful. Emphasize it, speak it twice,
you're beautiful. And how can he look at sinners
like us? You remember, I've always emphasized
throughout this that Christ is the worthy bridegroom. Worthy
is the lamb. There's no flaw in him. There's
no sin in him. There's no unbelief in him. I
mean, it's all beauty and righteousness and holiness. That's what Christ
is in both his deity and his humanity. The beautiful savior. And she, we, we're the unworthy
bride. We are sinners saved by grace. And that's all we are. Now there's
a, we can talk a lot about growth in grace and in knowledge and
all of that, and that's great, that has its place. But at my
best, here's what I am, I'm a sinner saved by grace, and that's you
too. And so, she's the worthy bridegroom, we're the unworthy
bride, and the worthy bridegroom says, Behold, you're fair, behold,
you're beautiful. She's beautiful in his sight,
and his sight is the reality. There's an outward beauty, that's
his righteousness laid to our charge, his righteousness imputed. You see, that's not natural to
us. The beauty that we have is not natural, because naturally
speaking, what are we? We're spiritually dead, fallen,
depraved sinners. So naturally speaking, we're
unworthy in anything but beautiful. And this beauty is not by our
works. It didn't come by us. It didn't
come by our works. It doesn't come because of any
natural spark of beauty or goodness within us. It's not based upon
what we've done, what we are doing, or what we try to do.
It's not any beauty or cleanness within ourselves. Now there is
an inward beauty, and I want to talk about that. And I'll
show you, our beauty is that which Christ has given us, which
God has applied to us, and we can say this, we are washed clean
from all our sins in the blood of Christ. Now what does that
mean? That means Christ paid our debt in full. We owe zero. We don't have any debt at all. In fact, we have the riches of
his glory and grace. And you know, I oftentimes use
the banking analogy to show that beauty. It's a beautiful thing,
too. If you found yourself in debt
to a local bank, let's say a million dollars, and then all of a sudden
you woke up and realized you don't have one single solitary
penny to pay that debt. And so you go into the bank to
try to plead, beg for mercy. You know how far that would get
you, don't you? Not very far. And the banker
sits down, and he opens the book, and he said, well, let's look
at your name here. And he looks at your name. He
says, well, here it says you don't owe a dime. You say, well,
what's happened? Did the bank just wipe the debt
clean? No, somebody came in and paid that debt for you in full. You don't owe a dime. Could you
imagine how beautiful you feel inside that way? And so you get
up to leave and the banker says, hold on, wait a minute, there's
more. What more could there be? Not only did he pay your debt,
wipe it out zero, he's put a million dollars in your account. And
that's a good analogy of what Christ has done for us. He paid
our debt in full and he gave us his righteousness in return.
And so we stand before him in the beauty of his righteousness,
and that's what the scripture teaches, the very righteousness
of God. It's not the righteousness of
man, it's the righteousness of the God-man, and we stand there,
and that's how God sees us. And let me tell you something,
people say, well, if that's just a legal matter, it's not real.
Wait a minute, who's saying here thou art fair? Is it me or you?
Is it the bride speaking to herself? No, it's Christ saying this.
That's how he sees it. Now let me tell you something,
how God sees things is the reality. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. And
so whatever God does is reality and many times what we see is
not reality at all. So we walk by faith. This is
what the bridegroom says to the bride. Thou art fair. And how
is that? Well, we stand in beauty, as
old Machine wrote, we stand in beauty not our own. In other
words, it is ours. But what he meant by that is
not by our working. It's not by our constructing. It's something that Christ did
on our behalf as our substitute on the cross. And that's why
we glory in the cross. We see that beauty. And this
beauty can be attributed to the bride, as the church collectively,
and it's to every individual member that makes up this body
of Christ. Some say that the phrases here
in these verses apply to the church as one body with many
members, like Paul described in 1 Corinthians chapter 12,
verses 12 through 14, you know, the church, Christ is the head,
and then the church has many members. That's true. I don't believe that's what this
means, but that's what some commentators say. I believe what we're talking
about here is that each individual member of Christ's church Paul,
or the psalmist, or the wise man here is talking about the
metaphors that we see in the gospel light that we can see
how each one can be attributed to each individual member of
the body of Christ. And so it's not just, well, this
is talking about the arm and this is talking about the leg.
No, it's all one. All one in Christ. So, Having
said all that, we need to recognize this too, and this is walking
by, but there is an inner beauty. There is an inner beauty to the
people of God. And what is that? Well, it's
the inner beauty of spiritual life. We have spiritual, you
know, that's a beautiful thing. We've been brought from death
unto life. It's the inner beauty of faith, a sinner clinging to
Christ, begging for mercy, humble before God. That's a beautiful
thing. A sinner looking to Christ, feeding upon the word of God,
the graces and the gifts of the spirit. Those are beautiful things.
Now our inner beauty does not equal the perfection of righteousness
that we can only find in Christ. One day it will, when we go to
be with the Lord, when we leave this body of death and we're
free of this flesh. But it's called the inward man,
it's called the hidden man of the heart. That's a beautiful
thing because that's the work of God. And even though we're
still contaminated by works of the flesh, thoughts of the flesh,
we still are sinners saved by grace. And that's a beautiful
thing. So he talks about dove's eyes.
You know what the dove is. That's peace, symbolizes peace. I'm at peace with God. Based
on what ground? The righteousness of my Savior.
the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he says, your hair's
like a flock of goats, beautiful, flowing down from Mount Gilead.
Look at verse two. He speaks of the teeth. The teeth
are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, it's all the
same, which came up from the washing, cleansed, whereof everyone
bear twins, and none is barren among them. Now the teeth, obviously,
they're in the mouth. And what it speaks of is, I believe,
talking about how the gospel, the word of truth, that which
comes out of the mouth is from the heart, the scripture says. And so even though, think about
it this way, even though we are not yet perfect within ourselves,
we're perfect in Christ, but not yet perfect in ourselves,
you know our gospel is perfect. There's nothing wrong with the
true gospel. Now men and women will try to corrupt it and water
it down and make it nothing, but that's a false gospel. But
the true gospel, wherein the glory of God is revealed in the
face of Jesus Christ, That's an even-shorn, newly-shorn message. It's clean. There's nothing wrong
with it. Somebody said, well, you're saying
you gotta have perfect doctrine. Well, if it's God's doctrine,
what, is it not perfect? Somebody says, well, you're saying
you have to have perfect knowledge. Well, we know in part, but we
know the gospel, because God has taught us. And it's fruitful,
that's what it means when he says everyone bear twins. Not
only is there children, but there's twins. And that's symbolic of
a woman, fruitful, she's not barren. And what he's saying
here is the bride is not barren. We're gonna bear much fruit in
the preaching of the gospel. As God's word goes out, it's
going to accomplish whatever purpose God has sent it for. Mainly we see that that the fruitfulness
of it in the salvation of sinners that good tree that produces
good fruit when God by the Holy Spirit brings his people under
the preaching of the gospel and Gives them life and brings them
to faith in Christ and repentance of good works They're going to
come to cry all that the Father giveth me. He said cometh unto
me Look at verse 3. He says thy lips are like a thread
of scarlet again speaking about the The lips, the speech is comely. Thy temples, that refers to the
mind, are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. Here it is,
the beauty of the bride is as she testifies of the bridegroom,
speaks of the bridegroom. What do we do? We're not perfect
in ourselves, but we point sinners to the perfection that we have
in Christ. And we pray that they will receive
it and submit to it. These lips, these speech, continuously
speak of the grace of God, speak of his glory, praise him, worship
him. This morning as I preach the
gospel to you, I want to brag on my savior. I don't want you
to look to me, I want you to look to him. Because he is our
beauty. And that's opposed to the lying
lips of false preachers and false Christians under false gospels
whose praise and worship is of an idol. As I said, the temples,
I believe that's a metaphor of the mind. The pomegranate symbolizes
fertility of God's promise in knowledge and learning and wisdom,
qualities that come from revelation of the truth. The Son of God
hath come and giveth us an understanding that we may know him that is
true. Look at verse four, he says, thy neck is like the Tower
of David, builded for an armory, whereon there hang a thousand
bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Well, what does the neck
do? It connects the head to the body. It holds the head up. And the
imagery here is of the strength of God's grace in the church,
that we might look to him that we might speak of Him, that we
might be established in Him in our minds and in our hearts,
and there's a thousand bucklers. In other words, we're protected. We're sealed in. by the power
and the grace and the goodness of Christ. And even whenever
we get away from it in our minds, he'll always bring us back. Why? Because there's a thousand bucklers,
all shields of mighty men who protect us, who reign us in,
you might say, that kind of thing. Verse five, he says, thy two
breasts are like two young rows that are twins which feed among
the lilies. There's the language, this language
is romantic, but it speaks simply of the connection, the love. And what he's doing, he's using
the love of a man for a woman and a woman for a man to show
the unity, the closeness of Christ and his church. The closeness
of Christ and his church is not an erotic love. There's nothing
like that. It's a union of love that cannot
be broken. And that's what he's talking
about here is a man and a woman who cannot be divided. It's sad
to say we don't see that all the time in our society, but
in this, there's no divorce whatsoever. And think about her two breasts
like mother's milk that's created in her by God that flows through
to feed her babies. And that could be intended here
too. We desire the sincere milk of the word. We feed upon that
milk. And we're told to desire that
in grace and in knowledge of Christ. Tell me more. I'm hungry. Blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness. We hunger and thirst after the
word of God. And we're fed just like mother's
milk, like babes. We're dependent upon him, upon
our heavenly father. And so look at verse six. He
says, until the day break, and it says, and the shadows flee
away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense."
And obviously, that's a, I believe, a reference to Christ, the bridegroom. He speaks, you remember he told
his disciples, I'm going away. It's necessary for you that I
go away, but soon I'll be coming back again. And I believe the
daybreak there refers to that, his coming again. He comes to
us all the time, just like right now, he's in our midst. And so
you could say each time we meet together to worship, it's like
the daybreak. It's like a beautiful morning.
And we're coming in here and we're hearing of him again. Maybe
times in our lives where we're in darkness, we're going through
a trial, We're being tested or we're going through a hard time.
And then all of a sudden, the Lord brings his spirit and his
word into our lives and the day breaks. But obviously, he's speaking
of the day of eternal glory. That morn. And in order for him
to accomplish that for us, he said, I will get me to the mountain
of Myrrh and to the hill of Frankincense. What's that talking about? That's
talking about the cross. mountain of myrrh. Remember the myrrh
that was given to him mixed with sour wine? And he wouldn't take
it because that myrrh deadens the senses, like it would ease
his pain. He wouldn't take it. But myrrh
in that sense is a metaphor for his suffering and for the healing
that comes afterward. Frankincense is a metaphor for
the accomplishment of what he did on the cross in bringing
forth righteousness that satisfies God and enables him to be a just
God and a savior to all for whom Christ died. And his going away
to prepare a place for his bride. He told his disciples that I'm
going away to prepare a place for you, but I'll come again.
He's coming again. You know, I think sometimes we
get so discouraged And especially in our day today, because if
you turn on the news, I've gotten to the point where I don't even
watch the news anymore. I mean, I want to be informed. Man, it's
so depressing, isn't it? I'm usually not a pessimist,
but when I watch the news, I get pessimistic. And especially in
our country, I thank God for our country. I thank God for
our freedoms. I never did, since I've been, since the Lord brought
me to a saving knowledge of Christ, I've never been one to fool myself
and talk about this as a Christian country. Because even the founding
fathers, most of them were not Christian. But they did establish
some biblical principles upon which we were to, our constitution
was formed. It seems like all that's getting
blown away. And I don't know what's going to happen. Lord
does, isn't it? I know this. And I've always, I think I put
this in like a three or four point outline one time in the
bulletin. When you look at all that's going on in our country,
here's what I realize. Number one, as much as I love
the United States of America, the United States of America
is not my salvation. You understand? I'm a patriot.
And I thank God for men and women who've given their lives and
who fought for our country, all of that. I'm a flag waver. But
this country is not my salvation, Christ is. You know, just because
you're an American doesn't mean you're going to heaven. Christ
is our salvation. And the second thing I realize
if I believe the Bible, which I do, is that nothing's gonna
stay the same. Is that right? We just think
like, you know, especially our generation, now I'm talking about
my generation. You're the next generation, Tim.
We grew up in the 50s, you know. Father knows best, you know.
Leave it to Beaver, all that. That was a great time. We've
been spoiled. We had it good. But coming generations
probably won't. I know it's not gonna stay the
same. It's not. And here's another thing I know
about this world. It's not gonna get better. Isn't
that right? This world's not headed for some
utopian society. This world's gonna get worse
and worse in a lot of different ways. So it's not gonna get better,
it's gonna get worse, and then fourthly, and here's the kicker,
God is in control. As much as I look at the news
and it shocks me, it doesn't shock the Lord, He's sovereign. I believe in predestination,
don't you? I believe it's all the wisdom
and power of God. God doesn't create sin, He's
not the author of sin, but boy, I tell you what, He's got it
on a leash. If He didn't, where would we
be? All things work together for good to them that love God,
who are the called according to his purpose. He's in control.
This world is not out of God's control. It's out of my control
because it never was in my control. But it's not out of God's control.
But here's the final word here. Look at verse seven. And here's
what he says. He says, thou art all fair, my
love. He emphasizes this. There is
no spot in thee. As the bride stands in union
with him, washed in his blood, clothed in his righteousness,
she's beautiful without spot or without blemish. No sin charged
to her. And although we still have within
ourselves the remnants of the remaining sinful flesh, And that's what drives us to
Christ. This is the testimony of God's
word in his scripture. There's no spot in thee. This
is how Christ looks upon his church. Sinners saved by grace. And it's no pretense. It's no legal fiction. Yes, I'm
still a sinner. But he says of me, thou art all
fair, my love. There's no spot in thee. And
may the Lord bless His word to our hearts. All right.