The title of the message is Sinful
Yet Righteous in His Sight. Sinful Yet Righteous in His Sight. We'll begin at verse five of
Song of Solomon, chapter one. And this message, this poem,
this song, which represents the bride of
Christ, the church, the elect of God, the redeemed of the Lord,
the justified people, whose sins have been washed away by the
blood of Christ, who stand before God in Christ's righteousness,
imputed, charged, accounted to them. The church, admiring, loving,
longing for the presence and the fellowship and the blessings
that she sees only in her bridegroom, who is Jesus Christ. And this
is the language of Song of Solomon. These are the types in the pictures
that are put forth here to show the love, the intimacy, the fellowship,
and the union between Christ, the bridegroom, and his church,
the bride. And this message gets at the
very heart of the gospel. How in the world could Christ,
the Holy One, who is holy, harmless, separate from sinners, how could
such a person, God manifest in the flesh, love and commune with
and be intimate with such a sinful bride? Remember I said last week
that Christ is represented throughout this book as the worthy, perfect,
honorable bridegroom. And the church, the bride, is
represented as an unworthy, unfaithful, idolatrous, adulterous woman
who prostituted herself out to idols and yet Christ loved her
with an unconditional, everlasting love, even to the point of going
to the cross. The Bible says in John 13 and
verse 1 that he loved his own, his own bride, his own people,
his own sheep unto the end. In other words, to the accomplishment
and the perfection of everything that it took to bring his bride
to himself. And here in verse five, she starts
out saying, this is the bride speaking, and she says, I am
black, but comely. That blackness is the darkness,
the blackness of the sin that plagues us within. We are sinners,
we fall short We who are born again, who have the spirit of
God residing within, who have a new heart, a new mind, new
life, been born again. We still have the flesh, contamination,
the plague and the power of sin that keeps us from loving our
bridegroom perfectly. That keeps us from obeying perfectly. that keeps us falling short so
that the only perfection that we can see and find is the perfection
of righteousness that we see and find in our bridegroom, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so she says, I am black,
but I'm comely. Now there's two things here she's
confessing. She's confessing her own sin,
but she's also confessing her righteousness. It's like she's
saying, I am black, I am sinful. I'm totally unworthy. I'm totally
worthy of death if God were to judge me based upon anything
in me or done by me. It's like the Psalmist David
pray, Lord, in Psalm 130, Lord, if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities,
who would stand? I'm black, I'm a sinner. but
I'm also comely. The word comely means beautiful.
It means accepted. It's a word that comes through
here that represents something you cannot see physically. And
so she says, I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem. She's addressing the daughters
of Jerusalem here. And that's probably the same
ones that described up in the verse, four, or verse three,
as the virgins, as the upright. And what are those? Sinners saved
by the grace of God in Christ. And she addresses them too as
if they're members of Christ's bride, his church. Again, sinners
saved by grace, brought into the kingdom by the grace of God
through Christ, the bridegroom. and they're daughters of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, you know that city, the word Jerusalem or the name
means peace or peaceful and it represents peace with God through
Christ and fellowship within the bride of Christ begins with
this confession. I am black, I'm sinful, I'm unworthy,
but I'm comely. I'm comely. She says here in
verse five, I am black, but comely O ye daughters of Jerusalem as
the tents of Kedar. Now, Kedar, the name Kedar first
crops up as the name of one of Ishmael's son. You remember the
story of Ishmael and Isaac. Isaac was Abraham and Sarah's
son of promise through whom the promised Messiah would come,
the child of promise. Ishmael was the son of the bondwoman,
Hagar, that came out of the illicit relationship of Abraham with
the handmaid, Hagar. So Kedar means dark, and so describes
the sinfulness that we have within ourselves. Paul the apostle wrote
about this in Romans 7, when he talked about, I want to do
good, but anytime I want to do good, there's something that
keeps me from it. It's sin within me. And so this
Kedar shows the sinfulness, the darkness that we still reside
in as far as our state here on earth as sinners saved by grace.
But she says, I'm comely, comely. And in verse five, she says,
as the curtains of Solomon. So you can look at it this way
when you read that verse. She says, I am black as the tents
of Kedar, dark, no light. but I am comely as the curtains
of Solomon. Now, what are the curtains of
Solomon? Well, could this be a metaphor for the temple of
Solomon? I know it wasn't talking about,
it's not talking about the drapes in Solomon's house. It's the
curtain, you remember the curtains that went into the making of
the tabernacle and the temple, and especially the one curtain
that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, wherein
the Ark of the Covenant was? Could this be a metaphor, the
Temple of Solomon, the place of sacrifice and worship, where
God dwelt with his people from above the mercy seat? And I believe
it is. And Christ is our only mercy
seat. And how is this possible? Think
about it. She says, I'm black, but I'm comely. How is that possible?
It goes back to the heart of the gospel, the question of questions.
How can a sinner be made just before a holy God in his sight? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? It was asked in the book of Job,
how can a man born of woman be clean? How is this possible?
How can one who is black, sinful within, be considered comely
in the sight of the Lord? And is this real? You know, people
today question the reality of this, but they shouldn't. Is
this fictional? Is God gonna do something that's
not real or not true? Is he going to act like something
is what it is not? Well, no. Is Christ pretending
that his bride is not what she really is? Is he looking at her
as comely when she's really black? And the answer is absolutely
not. The reality of all things is
certainly not proven by what we as sinful creatures view or
feel. What I see and what you see and
what I feel and what you, that doesn't determine the reality
of a thing. The reality of all things is
proven by what God sees in his sight. That's why I titled this
lesson, Sinful Yet Righteous in His Sight, in God's Sight. When God declares a thing to
be so, it is so, whether I see it or feel it or not. If God
says this is the way it is, that's the way it is, that's real, that's
not fictional, that's not play acting. If Christ sees his bride
as righteous, rest assured that his bride is righteous. The issue
here, as I said, is the heart of the gospel of God's grace
in Christ. Those who believe God's gospel,
those who are members of his bride, his church, We confess
our sinfulness as dark as the tents of Kedah. That's what we
see when we look within. And we confess that the only
righteousness, the only comeliness, the only beauty that we have
before God is the imputed righteousness of Christ as beautiful as the
curtains of Solomon. And that's real. That's not,
that's justification before God. That's not God calling something
righteous when it's really not. We have sin within us. We have
a warfare with sin. The flesh contaminates, the flesh
is powerful within us. It contaminates and fights with
everything we do in desiring to please God, to honor him.
and yet legally we stand before God righteous through the blood
of Christ. The bride is washed in the blood
and clothed in his righteousness, imputed. And I think about John
chapter 16 and verse nine and 10 where it talks about how the
Holy Spirit convicts us of sin because we believe not on him.
In other words, if we don't have Christ, if we don't believe unto
righteousness that we find only in Christ, it's all sin. And
then he convicts us of righteousness because Christ went unto the
Father. So we see the only perfection of righteousness that we have,
comeliness you might say, is the imputed righteousness of
Christ. The bride of Christ, and think about this, The bride
of Christ sees the beauty of Christ, which she didn't see
before. You know, in Isaiah chapter 53,
in verse two, it speaks of Christ as the substitute, suffering
servant of God. And it says in verse two, for
he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root
out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
that is in his physical being, And when we shall see him, there
is no beauty that we should desire him. You see, before we're born
again by the Spirit, before we are given spiritual eyes and
spiritual ears, we look upon the true Christ with contempt.
We see no beauty in him. Oh, but after we're born again,
after he gives us eyes to see and ears to hear, we see his
beauty and our own ugliness. Isn't that right? We see his
beauty is our beauty. A beauty not of our own making,
but of his works. You know, I think about the book
of Daniel, and I think I referenced one of these, a verse out of the book of Daniel
here. I can't see it right now, I think it's in Daniel, well,
I can't remember what verse it is, but here, you know, in Daniel,
you know, whenever God reveals his hall of faith, you might
say, in the Old Testament, you know, talking about people like
Abel and going on down to Abraham all the way through, he always
shows us in their biographies, if you have an extended biography
of those men, It always shows us their shortcomings. God doesn't
hide that. Talk about Abraham, who's the
archetype of faith, but we see episodes in his life of unbelief. So I'm talking about Noah and
all of them. But in the book of Daniel, Daniel's the only
prophet that is not, if you see as he goes along in his prophecy,
you don't see any of his shortcomings or his sins mentioned in the
record of God's book, except when Daniel himself, when he
sees a vision of Christ, the Messiah, he says this, he says,
all my comeliness melt into corruption. What's Daniel doing there? He's
doing what every member of the bride of Christ does, confessing
her sin, his sin, but confessing Christ's righteousness, and that's
what it's all about. Well, look back at verse six
of Song of Solomon one. She says, look not upon me because
I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children
were angry with me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept. What it is here
is the bride seeks to turn the eyes of others away from herself
because of her sinfulness and her failures. It's like she's
saying, don't look at me. I'm not your salvation. I can't
help you. The keeping of vineyards and
the vineyard could be a reference to our fall in Adam. You know,
Adam and Eve were in the garden and God said, tend the garden,
and they fell. And they disobeyed God and plunged
the whole human race into a state of sin and death. It could also
refer to our own personal sins and failures to keep the law
and work out righteousness before God. When it comes to salvation,
And this is what I believe the bride is confessing. I'm black
because the sun look upon me. My mother's children were angry
with me. They made me the keeper of the
vineyards, but my own vineyard have I not kept. How could I
keep your vineyard if I couldn't even keep my own? When it comes
to salvation and a right relationship with God, I'm a failure. That's what she's saying. You're
a failure. And I can't save you. I can't keep your vineyard for
you because I can't even save myself. I can't even keep my
own vineyard. How could I make you righteous
when I can't even make myself righteous? And so she's saying,
we don't desire that others look to us for salvation. Don't look
to me, look to Christ. And that's what every true minister
of God preaches. The minister of God, the preacher
of the gospel, His message is look away from him and look to
Christ for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for eternal
life and glory. He's the only way of salvation
and righteousness before God. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's
none else. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. We know that if we're truly saved,
we are witnesses on this earth for the Lord. We also know that
people are going to see us. They're going to look at us and
they're going to make judgments concerning matters of salvation
and a right relationship with God. And for that reason, we
ought to be careful. We ought to strive to be witnesses,
good witnesses for Christ. We ought to strive to be good
stewards of His grace. But our desire is not that people
look to us. They might look at us. But we
don't want them to look to us because we're not salvation.
Matthew 5, 16, let your light so shine before men that they
may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven. We all need to go to the preacher's
school of John the Baptist. Behold the Lamb of God, he said. I'm not the Messiah. Don't look
to me. I'm not even worthy to untie
his shoes. I must decrease, he must increase. That's what the bride is expressing
here. Now look at verse seven. She says in verse seven, tell
me, oh thou my, well one thing that I wanted to make a point
of in verse six, when she says, look not upon me because I am
black, because the sun hath looked upon me, commentators differ
on the meaning of that phrase. Some say that it's talking about
the heat of the sun that dries up and kills all that we try
to produce in aiming at our salvation. In other words, but I think what
it's talking about is the sunlight of Christ. In other words, it's
kind of like this. I am black because the sun hath looked upon
me. When I compare myself to Christ, I'm nothing. I'm just dried up and dead. When
I compare myself, all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And so I
stand before God in His sight as a sinner, saved by grace,
who has been washed clean in the blood of Christ. That means
He took them away. He paid for my sins. He settled
the debt. He put them away. I don't owe
a debt to God's law and justice. God will not charge those sins
to me. And he has given me his righteousness,
the white robe of his righteousness, in which I stand before God justified,
not fictionally, not in some unreal way. I am really righteous
in God's sight as I stand before him in the righteousness of his
son, the bridegroom. imputed, charged to me. And one
day, the blackness of my sin, the blackness and darkness of
my sin within, in the flesh, will be gone completely when
I'm glorified and go to be with Him. Now look at verse seven. Tell me, O thou whom my soul
loveth. Talking about the bride speaking
to Christ. Where thou feedest, where do
you feed your people? That's what she's asking here.
Where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon? Where can I go
to find rest? Where can I go to be fed? She said, tell me, O thou whom
my soul loveth. She loves the bridegroom. We love Christ. We don't love
him as we ought. We don't love him perfectly,
but we do love him. That's a gift of God. That's
a grace of the Spirit, a gift of the Spirit. We love him, we
love his truth, so tell me, we go to him for guidance, his word. So tell me, where can I go? You
whom my soul loveth and who loves me, there's the assurance of
his love for us because of what he accomplished. Where can I
go to be fed? Where can I go to have rest at
noon? For why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? So she's wanting
to know where she can go. Tell me. You know, there are
so many symbols and metaphors and pictures that typify Christ
and his church. And here mainly we see the bridegroom
and the bride. But we also see here the shepherd
and the sheep. And they're kind of intermingled.
You know, it takes more than one name and one way to describe
the majesty of our Savior and the multitude of blessings that
we have in Him. He's the shepherd of the sheep.
The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep. The good shepherd
calls his sheep. He cares for his sheep. Where
can his sheep go to be fed and to find rest? So just as in the
case of Christ as the husband who has taken full responsibility
for the complete salvation, the eternal well-being of his wife,
the church, as the shepherd of the sheep, Christ has taken full
responsibility to redeem and save and keep his sheep. You
can read about that, for example, in John chapter 10. So the bride
is expressing her God-given desire to be where the bridegroom is.
to be where he feeds his sheep, to be where his sheep can rest
in green pastures. And obviously, you think about
the 23rd Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, lack. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He leads me beside the still
waters. He restores my soul. All of that,
what a beautiful Psalm that is. Here's the key. She wants to
be where his word is preached, where his word is spoken, his
gospel, that which soothes and feeds and encourages her in the
fellowship of his church, in the fellowship of his bride,
in the fellowship of the sheep foe. And the answer, he gives
the answer. This is the bridegroom talking. If thou know not, verse eight,
O thou fairest among women. Think about that. If thou know,
if you don't know, and we don't know by nature, we have to be
taught, we have to be led, we're like dumb sheep. And we have
to be led by our shepherd, and he says to her, he addresses
her as, O thou fairest among women. What is he doing here? Well, when it comes to matters
of salvation, Here's what we know. Here's how the bridegroom
looks at the bride, fair. This is what he sees. Now that
doesn't mean that he's not aware of our inadequacies and our failures
and our sins. He knows our frame, but he knows that he gave his
life. Those sins, though they are present
within us, they cannot be imputed to us. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify. They deserve condemnation, they've
earned it, but they cannot be condemned because in Christ there
is no condemnation. And so he sees her as fair because
he's washed her clean. He sees her as fair because he's
given her the white robe of his righteousness in which she stands
before him. And so next, he gives her what
she desires. You know, when you read passages
of scripture that talks about, you know, when we ask, we're
going to get whatever we ask for, you know, the context of
those verses is salvation. and all the blessings of salvation.
It's not representing God as a genie in a bottle, and if you
pray for this, that, or the other, you'll get what you want. The
Bible says if you pray according to his will, and the context
is salvation, and that's what she's asking for. I'm a sinner
saved by grace. I have been given a new heart
that longs to be fed by the word of God, that longs to rest in
those green pastures. Where am I gonna go? And he says,
well, look at it again. He says, if thou know not, O
thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps
of the flock, follow the flock. He says, and feed thy kids beside
the shepherd's tents. Now shepherds there is plural.
You know, there's only one great good shepherd and that's Christ. But that great shepherd, that
good shepherd has under shepherds. And what's he talking about?
He's talking about his gospel ministers. Who feed the flock
of God. That's what Paul wrote to the
Ephesians. Feed the flock of God. Take heed that you feed
the church, which he redeemed, purchased with his own blood.
Follow the sheep where the under shepherds preach Christ. Preach
the true gospel. Don't go where they're preaching
a false gospel. Don't go where they're talking
about where it's man-centered. You people say, well, I go to
church here. Well, is it a true church? Do they preach the true
Christ? Do they feed the flock of God
with the word of God or they piecemeal it out? Do they make
it man-centered? No, go where Christ is preached
in his true character, in his true nature. where his finished
work is preached. Don't go anywhere else. Go where
the gospel is preached. Well, they're all preaching the
gospel. No, they are not. I wish they were, but they're
not. And that's what he says. You
follow the sheep where the under shepherd preaches Christ, preaches
the gospel, preaches the righteousness of God, preachers of righteousness,
his righteousness, not their own. And then look at verse nine,
he says, I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses
in Pharaoh's chariots. Now, when you think about Pharaoh,
you think about a man who's evil, don't you? But this description
here doesn't have anything to do with Pharaoh himself. He was an evil, unbelieving man. What the bridegroom is doing
is comparing his bride to Pharaoh's horses, the ones that drew his
chariots. They were the best of the best.
They had strength, they had beauty, they had majesty. They're strong. And what he's saying is you're
just like those, the best of the best of the horses. You are
strong, strong in Christ. Not by your own strength. Strong
in His grace. Beautiful and comely in His righteousness. just as those beautiful horses,
back then horses were really important. It's kind of like
cars today, you know. And so they were, and these horses,
Pharaoh's horses, they were well fed. They were well cared for. Well, aren't we well fed and
well cared for by our master? They're not like wild horses
galloping on their own and in different directions. They're
all hitched to that chariot, pulling in the same direction.
They're trained and they're bridled, pulling together in the chariot
of God's glory and guided by Christ in his word, the reins
of his grace and his word. They cost a great price. I guarantee
you the Pharaoh's horses weren't cheap. Well, these horses, the
horses of God, you might say, they cost a great price. What
was the price? The blood of Christ purchased
us. And we're well fed with the finest
of wheat, the word of God, and under the care of both angels
and gospel ministers. And then let me read these last
two verses quickly. He says, verse 10, thy cheeks
are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver. And
this is the bride being adorned with the robe of righteousness
for her justification, but also adorned with the jewels and the
precious metals of the graces and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
That's what she is. It's all the work of God by his
power and by his grace in Christ. The Bible says we are his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. All right, may the Lord
bless his word to our hearts.