Song of Solomon, chapter 1. We'll continue our study in Song
of Solomon. Tonight will be Blessed Fellowship
part 2. Two weeks ago in our study in
Song of Solomon, we looked at verses 12 to 14. Tonight we'll
look at verse 15. Let's read the context though.
We'll read from verses 8 to seventeen. If thou know not, O thou fairest
among women, go thy way forth by thy footsteps of the flock,
and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents. I have compared
thee, O my love, to a company of horses and pharaohs' chariots.
Thy cheeks are calmly with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains
of gold. We will make thee borders of
gold and studs of silver. A bundle of merit is my well-beloved
unto me. He shall lie all night betwixt
my breast. My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi. Behold, thou art fair,
my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast
dove's eyes. I'll read that again, because
that's our text tonight. Behold, thou art fair, my love. My love, behold, thou art fair,
thou hast dove's eyes. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved,
yea, pleasant. Also, our bed is green, the beams
of our house are cedar, and the rafters are fir. So again, tonight
is the second part of a two-part message that we had two weeks
ago in our study in Song of Solomon. And again, last time we met,
we looked at verses 12 to 14. and we saw the bride, the bride
delighting in the bridegroom. The bride delighting in the bridegroom,
which pictures the bride of Christ, His people, His elect, delighting
in Christ. And tonight we'll look at verse
15, where we will see the bridegroom, which pictures Christ, delighting
in His bride. Delighting in His bride. Now, we see ourselves black with
sin. We see ourselves. We know what we are by our natural
birth. Yet, we've seen in our study
in Song of Solomon, the bride says, I'm black, but yet I'm
calmly. She's black with sin, and yet
she's calmly. And remember, we looked at the
word calmly. And in the Hebrew, that's beautiful. And she knows she's black by
her natural sin, but she is beautiful, clothed in the righteousness
of Christ. And this is what we kind of struggle
with, in a sense, because we know how much we're sinners.
But scripture declares, and Lord help my unbelief, Right? For all of us that we are clothed
in that perfect spotless righteousness. It's almost too much for us to
fathom. But it's true. It's true. And Christ sees us. Christ sees us. He looks at His
bride. Sinners. Still sinners. We who are on earth, still sinners.
But we who are redeemed, we who are purchased, we who are borne
again by the Holy Spirit of God, He looks at us and He sees us
as the fairest among women. Why? This is the truth of Scripture. He sees us literally or figuratively
in the Hebrew because the only reason He sees us as beautiful
is because we have the fine linen upon us. the righteousness of
Christ. Remember the wedding garment.
We have that. We have His perfect spotless
righteousness upon us. And it's hard for us to fathom
sinners, isn't it? Because I know you struggle with
sin just like I struggle with sin. But the scripture declares
this is a blessed truth. And for the believer, we just
marvel in this. It's absolutely wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful. And what did it cost us? It didn't cost us anything, did
it? But what did it cost to have us clothed in this righteousness?
The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him giving His life. on the cross I ask you this can
anything in this world compare to this can any riches in this
world you pile up all the gold and the silver can any of that
compare to the infinite value of the blood of Christ to his
people Nothing even comes close. You
can pack up all the world's riches and all the world's jewels and
everything, and it doesn't even come close to what it means that
Christ shed his blood for me. His sacrifice is of infinite
value to the believer because, beloved, we've talked about this
before. Augustus Toplater, who wrote
Rock of Ages, He tried to figure out, he did some numbers. He
was supposed to be a genius with numbers. And he did a numbering
where he came up with, if you sinned X amount of times in a
day, well, basically he came up to if you live to be about
80 years old, you sinned over 8 billion times. Bruce, I remember Bruce Crabtree
saying, well, I do more than that. Can you pay for one? Can I pay
for one? see how much how how how much
the blood of Christ is up infinite value because it covers all our
sins all the money in the world all the jewels and all the priceless
artifacts in the world could not redeem one so not redeem one so but price precious
blood has purchased purchased, purchased, pardoned, has purchased
the souls of all the elect, of all the ages. And he did it with
one sacrifice. Once. Having obtained eternal
redemption for who? For us. For his people. So no wonder the bride speaks
volumes of the excellencies of Christ. No wonder she proclaims
his excellencies. No wonder. No wonder we proclaim
the people the amazing grace of Christ, of God in Christ. But now we see tonight that Christ
the one that the bride only has eyes for, right? The bride only
has eyes for Christ. Only has eyes for Christ. And
we will see him pronounce how he feels and thinks of his bride. Note in our text he calls his
bride, fair. And he calls her, my love. whole our fair my love behold
our fair he says it why some will look at that later he says
why now has does I'm Christ here calls his bride their beautiful
beautiful and he calls her my How can this be said about sinners? Beloved, let us never forget,
we who are sinners are sanctified, redeemed, and justified in Christ
and Christ alone. And for the believer, Christ
is precious. But we see the preeminence of
Christ in how the church is precious to him. See, he's precious to
us. Let this sink in. You as a believer
are more precious to Him. So how we feel about Him is just
a little bit compared to how He feels about us. My, what love we have here. The
Hebrew word for fairest in verse 8, when Christ speaks of his
bride, is defined as beautiful. Beautiful. Behold thou art beautiful. We know what we are. He says. Oh, my. But ponder this, all
our beauty in his eyes comes from him. Comes from him, as it is he who
has made us beautiful. It's he who's made us beautiful.
We are washed clean in his precious blood. If he loves his bride,
those he shed his blood for, those he gave his life for, and
he sees no spot in them. I Need to live there I Need to be remind myself of
that every day because I know what I am and I know y'all know
what you are too We're sinners This is what the scripture declares What great affection is shown
here, isn't it? What great affection? We see
on display the great affection that Christ has for His bride.
She is highly esteemed by Him. Because she is the very one that
He has purchased from the slave block of sin. And that's what
we were on. We were on the slave block of
sin. And he purchased us. He paid everything that God demanded
for us. And he did it by himself. By
himself. Now look at Behold. It says,
Behold, thou art fair, my love. A behold is set before this statement,
John Gill says, as a note of attention. Behold. As a note
of attention. A note of attention. Behold,
thou art fair, thou art beautiful, my love. Behold is there for
us to consider that she who was so black and uncalmly in herself,
in her own eyes, should be so beautiful and so fair in the
eyes of Christ. And it's all through His blood
and righteousness and His grace. Stand in awe. Stand in awe of
God and note these words, behold thou art fair my love. And note also that the Christ
gives his church here a very affectionate title. We looked at verse 9 and it's
mentioned that title in verse 9 and here it's mentioned again.
To let her know that she is, to let the bride know that she
is and always will be, that she is and always will be
the object of His His delight. She's His delight. His love towards His bride is
great and strong and lasting and unchangeable. And we see
in the text here that Christ is absolutely ravished Do we deserve this? Absolutely
not. What mercy, what grace is bought forth here. And let
us make a note of attention here. And may this stir up our heart
with praise and adoration of our wonderful bridegroom, our
heavenly bridegroom. We know that our beauty, which
Christ speaks of here, comes from him. And we are prone to
keep our eyes upon the blackness of our own sin. We're prone to
do that, aren't we? And our own imperfections, but
let us just marvel here. Let us just marvel here. Let
us marvel at the wonders of the grace of God in Christ. Let us
marvel in the fact that our Savior sees us complete in Him, in Himself. That He sees us as beautiful. beautiful. And we have this in
Christ alone, who is our beauty, and we are sanctified in him.
We are redeemed by him. He's our sanctification, our
redemption, our righteousness, our all in all. And marvel on
this wonderful truth that's set forth here, beloved of God, that
we who are by nature children of wrath, because scripture declares
that's what we are, Whose natures are, when we come into this world,
are corrupted and depraved, and who are blocked by both original
sin and by actual sin which we commit, right? Are now fair and beautiful in
the eyes of Christ. That's what the scripture declares
here. And we know it is through his blood. and through his righteousness,
and marvel that we are now clothed with a remnant of fine linen.
Marvel in that. We were once clothed in our own
self-righteousness. We were once clothed in the filthy
rags of our own self-righteousness. But now, the believer, whether
we can, we can't see it, can we? But we are clothed in the
perfect, spotless, fine linen of the righteousness of Christ.
And it is like embroidered work. We are adorned with bracelets,
chains and jewels and earrings of the grace of God in Christ.
We are beautiful in his sight. Beautiful in his sight. Oh, what
wondrous love is this? Oh, my soul. Oh, my soul. This is super abounding grace. This is grace unmerited, undeserved. But let us marvel in it. Let
us marvel in this. What astonishing love God has
for his people. And we see it here. We see it
in the text. And think of this. He sees us
as absolutely beautiful. It makes the scripture come alive
in Colossians. And you are complete in him. Complete means complete. It means there's nothing to be
added. And so we see that's why he looks at the bride. And he
sees her as absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. And think of this beautiful truth
in light of our scripture tonight. Ye are complete in Him. All we
need is Christ. And in Christ we are without
spot or blemish. And our redemption is in Him.
Our justification is in Him. He's our sanctification. And
we are complete in Him. By our union with Him. You see,
outside of Christ we're not complete, are we? But by our union with
Christ, we are complete in Him. He is the head and we are the
body. It's a personal union of the church. This body of mine,
the head is attached, isn't it? It's a picture of Christ, right? Each one of us. We have a head
and we have a body. Christ is our head, beloved.
And we are the body. And the head controls everything,
doesn't it? Everything. It's the preeminent one. You
don't see pictures of people's feet and hands, you see pictures
of the head. Because it's preeminent. He is
the head. And he gets all the preeminence.
And we are the body. She, the Church, the Bride of
Christ, is fair, fair, we see in our text here. Fair, fair. Look at our text here, it says,
Behold thou art fair, there's the first one. My love, behold
thou art fair, there's the second. Fair, fair. Beautiful, beautiful. Oh my. Exceedingly beautiful. And this is being said again
by Christ Himself. The text is a picture of Christ. He says this of His bride. Oh,
she's beautiful, beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful. He says she's the fairest among
women to Him. There is no such beauty to be
found in any as in Christ. And He is fairer than the children
of men. And next to Him is the church.
And she is the fairest among women. This surpasses. Excelling beauty. And she possesses it all. And
it's all because we are clothed in his perfect, spotless righteousness.
What great value and esteem Christ has for his bride. There is none
so beautiful in his sight as she. His thoughts are fixed upon her,
His eyes are upon her, and His heart is sweetly ravished with
her. Think of the eternal love that
Christ has for His people. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. We are chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. And that which was planned and
purposed by God. The sacrifice of Christ for His
people is executed when He dies upon Calvary's cross to redeem
His people from all their sins. My, no wonder the bride wonders in awe at this great
love. The Son of God, our all-glorious
God and King speaks in this text of all who are united to him
by faith, his bride. And he speaks of them with delight
and satisfaction. The Lord Jesus Christ has great
delight in his church. And this can be said of every
single true believer. They are beautiful in his eyes.
It's beautiful in His eyes. Now knowing this will not fill
us with pride. It leaves us in awe. It leaves us in absolute awe. It leaves us in wonder. As again,
this beauty is not our own. and we are unworthy of this wonderful
salvation that we have in Christ, and unworthy of this grace and
mercy which has been bestowed upon us. And let us never forget
that the only beauty that Christ delights in is the beauty that
He has created. The beauty that He has created.
God looks upon His church and sees us in Christ. He sees Brother
John, He sees you in Christ. He sees you clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ. It's wonderful. It's absolutely
wonderful. My. And we marvel. We marvel. That that is how he
sees us. And marvel at the love of God
towards you who are redeemed. It is sovereign. Selective, sacrificial, saving,
and satisfying love. And Christ's love for His own
is an immutable, indestructible, everlasting love. And it will never change. You
know why? Because God never changes. And our savior is God. God incarnate
in the flesh. Again, oh what wondrous love
is this, oh my soul. Oh my soul. How long has Christ loved his
bride? From eternity. From eternity. How long will
Christ love his bride? All through eternity future.
His love will never change, because he doesn't change. This is overwhelming. It says, behold, thou art fair,
my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast
dove's eyes. Now, doves in general here, doves
in general are peaceful and gentle birds. They are often called
lovebirds, and you see them in pairs a lot. You do see them
in pairs a lot. And I remember someone once telling
me that they mate for life. So for this study, I looked it
up, and it says this. Morning doves, also referred
to turtle doves, tend to mate for life. They mate for life. Now, birds in general cannot
move their eyes like humans. You know how we can move our
eyes without moving our heads? Birds in general cannot do that.
It is said that doves have binocular vision, it's called, which means
that they can only focus on one thing at a time. They can only
focus on one thing at a time. And they have to turn their head
to look at something beside them. Watch them next time you see
them on a wire or in the tree. And they do. They turn their
little heads around looking at different things. And often times they focus upon
their mate. And often times you find them
in tubes. And they are called love birds.
Because they're always watching each other. They're always watching
each other. And if you watch a dove, what
one does, the other does soon after. And it's amazing. It's
amazing. Often, I get the blessing of
sitting out here. And after study, I'll sit out on the porch. And
there's a couple morning doves that sit on the wires out there.
And they just sing away. And it's beautiful. But when one takes off, the other
one soon falls. The other one soon falls. Fast behind. And oftentimes you'll
see one on the ground and another one will come and land beside
it. Start feasting on the food on the ground too. They're found eating together
or just sitting on a wire singing to each other. I know we've all
seen that. And it's a beautiful sound. singing or calling out to one
another. Now Christ speaks of his bride that she has dove's
eyes. She only has eyes for him. She moves when he moves. Is this
not true of the church? We wait on the Lord, don't we?
We pray and ask the Lord to lead us and guide us. And when He
tells us to move, we move. Just like the Israelites. When
the cloud moved, they moved. And Christ speaks of His bride. Again, that she only has eyes
for Him. She has dove's eyes. And the cry of the church is,
Lord, don't let me go anywhere where you don't go before me. Oh, and the church's eyes are
set upon Christ. They're set upon Christ. He is the only one she sees. And she follows her beloved wherever
he may lead. Now doves are also mild and harmless,
chaste and faithful. And by the eyes, He seems to
bring forth both their outward and inward behavior, their temperament
of mind, as the church is born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
And let us ponder this. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 10. Let us ponder this, that when
our Lord sent out His disciples, He bid them to be wise as serpents
and what? And harmless as doves. To be
wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Those who are His faithful ministers
are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. As we preach
the Gospel, we speak of Christ and Him alone. who is our beloved, the one who
we have eyes for. And this is the temperament of
God's people. Look at Matthew 10, verses 16 to 24. Behold, I send you forth as sheep
in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents
and harmless as doves. But beware of men For they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in
the synagogues. And ye shall be bought before governors and
kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye
shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what
ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak,
but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the
brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father
the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents,
and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake. And sometimes that comes from
family members, and sometimes that comes from close friends. But he that endureth to the end
shall be saved. But when they persecute you in
this city, flee ye into another. For verily I say unto you, ye
shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the Son
of Man become. The disciple is not above his
master, nor the servant above his Lord. Now it says in verse
16 that we are to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Why are we to be wise as serpents
and harmless as dogs? Well, it is said that the serpent
is a very sharp-sighted, cunning creature. And uses strategy for
its own preservation. Especially the preservation of
its head. So God's preachers and the believer
in Christ, we are to make use of all proper methods to preserve
ourselves from the insults and rage of men, and not expose ourselves
to unnecessary dangers, being careful to avoid all snares and
traps that are laid for us. And the enemy will lay traps
and snares, and the enemies of Christ shall lay traps and snares. And we're to be aware. We're
to be aware. At the same time, they are to
maintain the innocence and harmlessness of the dove. Being free from all wicked cunning
and craftiness, without bitterness, malice and wrath, not plotting
or seeking revenge, but being meek. Being meek and humble in
their calling, in our calling. And that simply means we must
pray for God to give us wisdom and good sense in situations. Praying for a sound mind that
we may speak with sincerity of heart. And the word harmless
means innocent, harmless, simple. We are to be simple, honest,
sincere as God's servants. And we must have wisdom and use
good sense. And we must never seek to avoid
persecution by cowardice. We're not to do that. We saw
that in the text, didn't we? No. We speak what we know. We proclaim what we know. We
are never to seek to avoid persecution by cowardice, compromise, or
intimidation. No. Here I stand. Here I stand. And we proclaim
what we know. My. The offense of the cross,
we gladly bear, one commentator said, but we are not to be offensive,
beloved. We gladly bear the offense of
the cross, but we're not to go out and be offensive and to seek
to be offensive to people. Now, the offense of the cross
will already be offensive to people. Trust me. But we are to be as wise as serpents
and as harmless as we just present. If the Lord opens the door, and
we talked about what witnessing is, is when someone asks a question.
There is an open door for you. Proclaim what Christ has done
for you. And I'll tell you, just that will be an offense to the
people. Just telling them about God being
absolutely sovereign and that He is sovereign in salvation,
not only in creation. Because most folks will say,
oh yeah, He's sovereign in creation. But as soon as you hit that sovereign
in salvation, boy, that's a bell you're ringing that they're not
used to hearing. But for the believer, it's melodious for
us. Oh, we love it. Because we know that salvation
is of the Lord. So the offense of the cross,
we gladly bear. Let's look at our text again.
It says, Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair.
Turn, if you would, to Matthew chapter three. Thou hast dove's
eyes. Now the features of a dove is
her beauty, her gentleness, innocence and constant love. And let us
consider this. The emblem of the Holy Spirit
is pictured as a dove coming down from heaven. And it is he
who conforms us to Christ. It is he who conforms us to Christ.
Look at Matthew chapter three. Verses 13 to 17. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
John knows who he is. He has revealed to him who Christ
is. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Suffer it to be so
now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.
Now look at that. Thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness. He had to do this. is part of
what He came to do, to weave that perfect coat of righteousness
for us. Then He suffered Him. And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove, and lightened upon Him. And, lo, from heaven saying,
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now look at
that statement too. This is My beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. God is not pleased in anyone
but Christ. And that's why, that's why when
God looks upon us, he sees Christ. He sees the righteousness of
Christ. He sees the righteousness of
the one he's pleased with. It's beautiful. It's just beautiful. My goodness. So the one aspect
of beauty which the Lord mentions, let's go back to our text. Behold
thou art fair, my love. thou art fair my love behold
thou art fair thou has doves eyes the one aspect of beauty
which our Lord mentions is that his people have the eyes of a
dove think of this they have been enlightened and are now
guided by the dove of heaven God the Holy Spirit they have eyes that are loyal
and faithful and they have eyes for Christ alone Now contrast
that. Contrast that. Turn if you would
to Psalm 101. With the eyes of the wicked.
And know that at one time we had the eyes of the wicked. Oh my. But now we are born again
by the Holy Spirit of God. Look at Psalm 101 verses 4 and
5. So consider the eyes of the church
In the eyes of her beloved has dove's eyes in contrast to the
eyes of the wicked. Look at Psalm 101 verses four
and five. A forward heart shall depart
from me. I will not. I will not know a wicked person
who so privately slander of his neighbor. Him will I cut off
him that hath what a high luck and a proud heart. Will I not? Well, will not I suffer? Think
of this. It says there him that hath a
high look. Proud heart, okay? A high look,
a look of pride. Contrast there with the bride
saying, I'm black. I'm black. My, what a difference. Turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 20. So the church sees the blackness of her sin and
she's bought low And you contrast that to the wicked who have a
high, proud look. Oh, the miracle of God's sovereign
grace. Matthew 20, verse 15, Is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with my own? Is thine eye evil
because I am good? Now an evil eye is opposed to
a good eye, John Gill writes, which is spoken of frequently
in Jewish writings as an eye of benevolence and generosity. So a good eye is an eye of benevolence
and generosity. An evil eye, he goes on to say,
intends envy and covetousness. Envy and covetousness, as it
does here in that text. And the sense is, that they're envious of the goods
of others, they're covetous, and they're greedy. But God's
people are said to have dove's eyes, and they keep their eyes
fixed upon Christ and Him alone. They're not caught up with the
things of the world, because they realize this is just stuff
we have, things we have. Christ is said to be fairer than
the children of men Psalm 45 verse 2 and and the bride is
called the fairest among women So his estimate of her is the
very opposite of how she feels about herself She says I'm black and he says
you are beautiful beautiful She has the exact opposite feeling
of what she is and But his estimation of her is, you're beautiful.
You're beautiful, my love. Oh, my. God's people count themselves
as nobodies. Scott Richardson used to say,
we're a bunch of zeros till you put the one beside us. That being
Christ. We count ourselves as nobodies,
but But it is He, Christ, who delights
in us. And He says of the church, all
the blood-dots saints, He says this in Jeremiah 32, He says
this, I will rejoice over them to do them good. He rejoices
over His blood. John Gill brings forth some thoughts
on church heaven dove's eyes. He says, for clearness in Perpiscuity,
the eyes of the doves are clear and sharp-sighted, so are ministers
to search and penetrate into gospel truths. It is with much
more clearness they behold, and plainness they deliver gospel
truths now." Now the church, having dove's
eyes, may also be meant of her understanding. And our understanding
is enlightened by the Spirit of God. All that we know about
Christ, we've been taught. It's been revealed. We can't
boast in anything, can we? We can't boast in our salvation.
We can't boast in our knowledge. We can't boast in nothing. We boast in Christ though, don't
we? That's one thing we can boast in, is Christ. We can't boast
in anything from this flesh. We can boast in Christ. We can
boast in Him. So her understanding has been
enlightened by the Spirit of God and the eye of faith by which
a soul takes view of Christ's glory and fullness and suitableness
for them. See, our eye of faith looks upon
Christ and we see the one who is absolutely my suitable Savior. My perfect Redeemer. my Lord and my God. We had revealed to us our own
unsuitableness, right, in our own eyes, but oh my, when we
read these texts, we just rejoice. And when a soul takes a view
of Christ's glory and His fullness and the suitableness for them,
They rejoice. They rejoice because we look
to him alone for life and we look to him alone for salvation.
And the believers eyes are fixed just like dove's eyes. They are
fixed upon Christ, fixed upon him. And the church's eyes are
said to be dove's eyes for the clearness and the clarity of
the dove. As they are quick and sharp sighted
creature. The eye of faith penetrates into
those things within the veil as the Holy Spirit illuminates
the scripture for us. My, we start to see things we
never saw before. Oh my goodness. Turn if you would
to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Our faith is in Christ, and our
faith has one object, and that's Christ. Look at it a little bit
here in Hebrews 11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it
the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which
are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of
the gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch
was translated that he should not see death, and was not found
because God had translated him, for before his translation he
had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is
impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. But without faith, it's impossible
to please Him. So all these folks that say that
these God-haters who die go to heaven, they don't know what
the Scriptures say. Because without faith, it's impossible
to please God. That's what the scriptures declare.
We know that faith is a gift from God, don't we? It's a gift. The only way we can please God
is by being in Christ. And we saw that this morning.
To be found in Him. To be found in Him. So the natural eye does not see
Christ. But the eye of faith is fixed
upon Him. Look at verse 1 in Hebrews 11.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. The natural eye does not see
Christ, but the eye of faith is fixed upon Him. Just as a
dove's eye is fixed upon whatever it's looking at. It's fixed upon one thing at
a time. It says here, now faith is the substance of things hoped
for. What are the things hoped for? Eternal salvation, and deliverance,
perseverance in Christ, eternal glory, and fellowship with God,
and faith is the ground, foundation, and support of these things.
And because of our confidence in God and His word, faith gives
us possession of these things beforehand. Faith gives them
reality. Gives reality to these promises,
which are certain in Christ. And that's the key. They're certain
in Christ. Our faith gives us confidence,
and Christ is the object of our faith. We are saved by Him. And we have faith in Him. Trusting
in him resting in him reposing in him and I've told you what
we're posing means it means sitting down like this and just I'm trusting
this chair is gonna hold me up That's what we're posing And
that's what we do we repose in Christ we trust in Jesus And then the scripture says there,
the evidence of things not seen turn, if you would, the second
Corinthians 418. Second Corinthians 418, the things
not seen. Second Corinthians 418, the scripture
declares this. Well, we look not at at the things
which are seen, but the things which are not seen for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. So what are the things not seen?
The evidence of things not seen. Things which were done in eternity.
Things which were done in eternity, the council in the covenant and
the purpose of God. Done far back in eternity. Things which were done in time,
the incarnation of Christ, the death of Christ and the resurrection
of Christ. and things which are done right
now, intercession, providence and the work of the Holy Spirit
moving and saving sinners and drawing them to Christ and regenerating. These. And also things in the
future. The resurrection. of God's people,
their bodies, judgment of the lost and eternal glory for his
people. These are all unseen. But the
eye of faith looking to Christ gives the heart proof in the
evidence of these things unseen. And our eyes are fixed like dove's
eyes upon Christ, upon him. Song of Solomon 7.6 says this. How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love for delights. And these are the words of the
king. Wondering at the church's beauty. Wondering at the church's
beauty, he proclaims that she is lovely in his sight, and we
saw tonight, beautiful, beautiful. Let that be our thought this
week. Let us ponder that we who believe. that the scriptures
declare that Christ calls us beautiful, beautiful, clothed
in His perfect, spotless righteousness. She is lovely in His sight, and
it is because He has made her so. Marvel in that, too, you
who believe that He's made you so. He's made you so. And how has he made you so by
the new birth and by being clothed in his righteousness? Rejoice
in this, beloved, rejoice in this, you know why? Because this
is precious truth, precious, gracious, heavenly father. Lord
Jesus, we come before the marveling that you call us beautiful, beautiful. We who are black with sin, both
original and actual. And yet. Oh, you see us, we your
bride, you who you purchased your people, your elect, who
you purchased with your own precious blood and you see us is beautiful,
beautiful. Oh, how this makes our hearts
fill with love for the Lord, knowing that it is totally unmerited,
undeserved mercy. May we. Think upon these things
this week, these precious truths that we've looked upon, and may
they be a well that we can draw from for grace and strength this
week. We love Thee, Lord Jesus, and
praise Your name. And we pray in Your name. Amen.