Solomon chapter 7. At the beginning
of this chapter, the bridegroom, one more time, describes the
beauty of the bride. He's going to describe how beautiful
she is to him. And you'll notice that he does
it so tenderly with such compassion and pity on her. Now, it's important
for us to understand the timing here of when he describes the
beauty of his bride. He's already done this before.
Why is he doing it again? Well, the first time he described
her beauty was in a time when they were in such close communion,
just so together. But this time, now, between then
and now, she's gone through this time of spiritual stupor, and
he's describing her beauty again. She ends the chapter six asking
the question, Why do you want to look at me? There's nothing
good in me to see. All I see when I look inside
myself is these two warring armies, the flesh and the spirit, warring
against each other. If I'm honest, I see a whole
lot more flesh than I do spirit. So why do you want to look at
me? And Christ, our bridegroom, answers. He answers her question
by telling her how beautiful she is to him. This is why I
want to look on you, because you're so beautiful to me. There
are two lessons for us here. First, we know this. There's
nothing about us and our nature that's beautiful, that's beautiful
to our Lord at all, not by nature. All of our beauty is Christ.
It's us in him and Christ in us. He is our beauty. When he
describes us, you'll see this as we go through, really what
he's doing is describing himself. This is what we are in him. And
the second lesson is this. Our security, the believer's
security is Christ. Our security is not anything
we've done or anything we haven't done. Our security is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And after acting in such an ugly
way, in this way of spiritual dullness, Christ still describes
his bride as beautiful to him as he did before she went through
this time of rebellion and stupor. Because Christ's love for his
people is unchanging. His love is not dependent upon
us. God's love for his people is in Christ. It's not dependent
on us in any way. It's all Christ. Christ is our
salvation. Christ is our righteousness.
Christ is our justification. Christ is our sanctification.
Christ is our beauty. Christ is our acceptance. Christ
is our hope. It's all Christ. And that's a
comfort to the believer. Just look to him. And the bridegroom
shows us that it's all Christ. in the order in which he describes
the beauty of his people. You know, if we would be talking,
you know, we'd say someone is beautiful from head to toe. That's
the phrase we'd use. Christ our bridegroom describes
his bride from toe to foot. And that's the title of the lesson
this morning, beauty from toe to head. I said toe to foot,
it's from toe to head. And he does it that way, describes
our beauty, the beauty of a blear from the foot to the head, to
show us that everything we are in Adam is done away with in
Christ. In Christ, all things are made
new. Look over this one page, Isaiah chapter one. Here's a
description of all of us as we are in Adam. Isaiah one, verse
five. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You'll revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, even
unto the head, there's no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. All those wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that have not been treated, that have not
been bound up, where do they go from? soul of the foot to
the head. What we are in Adam is described
from the foot to the head, but everything we are in Adam is
done away with in Christ. That's why Christ describes his
beauty in this chapter 7 from her from her foot to her head.
Now in verse 1, Christ our bridegroom has a new title. This is a title
we haven't seen for his bride that he gives her in verse one.
How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter. O
prince's daughter. Now believers, we're born sons
and daughters of God. because our father said so. The
father knows who his children are. If he calls us his children,
he calls us his sons and daughters, then we are. He knows who his
sons and daughters are. Look over at John chapter one.
He calls us sons and daughters because this is what he's made
us by his grace. This is what we're born. Born
in a new birth as sons and daughters of the king, the prince's daughter. In John 1, verse 11, he came
unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power. He gave the right or the privilege
to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but they were born of God. The father
knows his children. He caused them to be born. We're
born daughters. Secondly, we're adopted into
the family of God as daughters of the king. And thirdly, we're
married. We're married into the family
of God. God's people have been betrothed
to Christ in eternity. And when we become joined to
him, we're the prince's wife, we become the daughter of the
king of glory. Now, I don't know of a term more
endearing to a father than daughter. I just don't know, but there's
no love like it. The love that a daddy has to
his daughter. But this love he's describing
here goes a whole lot more than just those two girls sitting
right there. All these young women, these girls, they're our
daughters. They're the daughters in the
family of God. This is a love of protection,
a love of provision, a love of Watch care over them. That's the love that we have
in the family of God. And this is a term of endearment,
a term that meant more than just the daughter you gave life to.
It's a term of endearment that carries with it a special kind
of love, a love of protection, a love of provision. Look in
Ruth chapter three. I'm sure Solomon is very familiar
with this term, daughter. because his great-great-great-grandfather
used the same term when he was courting his bride. Look at Ruth
3, verse 8. This is after the harvest, and
they've been winnowing the harvest that they had, and they're laying
down boas, just laying there sleeping on the floor. In verse
8, And it came to pass at midnight that the man was afraid, and
turned himself, and behold, a woman laid his feet. And he said, Who
art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth,
thine handmaid. Spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid,
for thou art a near kinsman. And he said, Blessed be thou
of the Lord, my daughter, for thou hast showed more kindness
in the latter hand than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followest
not young men, whether poor or rich, and now my daughter. You fear not. See, this is the
love of provision and protection. And now, my daughter, you fear
not. I will do to thee all that thou requirest, for all the city
of my people doth know thou art a virtuous woman. And you know
how that story turned out. This was a term of endearment. My daughter. Now, that's the
nature and the character of the bride of Christ, the daughter
of the king. Then our Savior begins to describe
the beauty of his people from the feet up. Verse one, how beautiful
are thy feet with shoes. Now look over in Ephesians chapter
six. The feet of the church, he's describing the whole church
here, is beautiful. Our feet are beautiful because
we follow Christ, but this means more than that. He talks here
in our text about your feet shod with shoes. Your feet with shoes. Well, what is the shoes he's
talking about here? He means more than just feet that follow
Christ. Look at Ephesians 6, verse 13. Wherefore taken to you the whole
armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Now, if you're gonna stand
very long, you better have you a good pair of shoes, because
just standing is hard on your body. You better have a good
pair of shoes. Well, here's our shoes, verse 14. Stand, therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, having on the breastplate
of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace. The feet of the church are shod
with the gospel of peace. It's those shoes that enable
us to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. You stand in these shoes. But if you look in Romans chapter
10, These feet have reference to
the main function of the church, which is to preach the gospel
of peace. In Romans 10 verse 15, how should they preach except
they be sent? This is what the church is sent
to do, to preach. As it's written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. of God's church is beautiful
because of Christ. He's the subject of the gospel
of peace. He's the prince of the gospel of peace. It's him
that make our feet beautiful. Next in verse one, he talks about
the joints. The joints of thy thighs are
like jewels. The work of the hands of a cunning
workman. Now the joints is what holds
all the body together. And the body of Christ is held
together by him. It's by the power of his love
holds his body together. And the joints of the thighs,
those joints hold up the weight of the whole body. The whole
body weights put on those on that joint. That's the church
all being held up in Christ by him. And that's the work of a
cunning craftsman. Nobody but God has the wisdom
to be able to compact that body of Christ together and hold it
all together in him. But the joints of the thighs,
you know what that also refers to, the believer's wall. You
remember when Jacob wrestled before he went to meet Esau,
he wrestled all night long with that pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. And that's when Jacob said, I will not let you go except
you bless me. What did the Lord do during that
night? He touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh. He touched
that, that joint of the thigh. And that affected Jacob's walk
the rest of his life. Scripture said he halted on that
thigh. He limped on that thigh the rest of his life because
when the Lord touched that thigh joint, it affected his walk. Brethren, if Christ ever touches
you, your life will be affected. Your walk will be affected. from
here on out. It won't be perfect, but it'll
be affected. It'll be the walk of a believer. And our Lord calls
that beautiful because this is the walk that he's given his
people. Next, he talks about the navel in verse two. Thy navel
is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor. Now he's
not talking about liquor like we talk about wine and bourbon
and things. What he's talking about is how
a believer is nourished. through the preaching of the
gospel. He's talking about the navel, he's talking about how we're
nourished through the preaching of the gospel. The word liquor there is actually
mixture. And they considered that day
to be a mixture that was a nourishing drink. They considered the mixture
of wine and milk to be a nourishing drink. The wine and water mixed
together was a nourishing drink, or milk and honey mixed together
is a nourishing drink that's a healthy drink, it's good for
you. Well, that's a picture of the mixture of the gospel. What's
more nourishing than the gospel? Nothing nourishing but the gospel
to a believer. But now when we talk about a
mixture, the gospel is not a mixture of grace and works. The gospel
is one truth. It's not really a mixture. The gospel is one truth, the
doctrine of Christ. But the gospel is a proper mixture
of all of the different truths that we call the gospel. Everything
that goes together in the right proportion to make one glorious
truth of Christ. I'll see if I can illustrate
that with a couple of examples. God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. You have to preach both if you're
going to preach the gospel. If you go to hell, that's your
fault. God, if you're saved, you wind up in heaven and what
you awake in the likeness of Christ, that's God's doing by
his grace. But you gotta preach both. God's
sovereign, man's responsible. You're not preaching the gospel.
Salvation is all of grace, not of works lest any man should
boast. But I tell you what, you see
your walk is after godliness. Now, if somebody tells you your
walk is not important, they're not preaching the gospel. Both
are true. There's the mixture of grace
and justice. The gospel declares God's grace
is poured out on his people in justice because justice for our
sins was poured out on Christ our substitute. You have to preach
both. If you just preach justice, you're
not preaching the gospel. If you preach grace at the expense
of God's justice, you're not preaching the gospel. It's a
mixture that must go together. The gospel declares that salvation
is in, it's all in Christ. It's his death, his burial, and
his resurrection. Now you mix all three of those
together and you got the gospel. But now listen to me, please.
You cannot overemphasize one at the expense of the other two.
If you do, you don't have the gospel. You've got everything
out of proportion. And the illustration I thought
of is a recipe. Now what I'm about to say I understand.
This is just an example. I don't know much about recipes,
so I couldn't come up with a real one. A recipe, it may call for
two cups of sugar, a cup of flour, and a cup of milk. Mix them together
real good and bake them for 30 minutes. If you've got some,
it tastes delicious. But I can take those exact same elements
and create a disaster. I could use a tablespoon of sugar.
10 cups of flour, an ounce of milk, mix it together and bake
it for three hours. What do I got? I got a mess. Well, I used all the same elements.
What happened? I got them out of proportion.
And you cannot, if you're gonna preach the gospel, you cannot
preach the death of Christ at the expense of the resurrection
of Christ. You can't preach the blood at the expense of the new
birth. You can't preach the blood at
the expense of the water. If you do, you've got a mess. Just preach the message that
God gave us. And God's people will be nourished.
That's the mixture of the liquor that he's talking about there.
And he says in the navel. Now the navel is where the umbilical
cord is attached to the baby in the womb. That through that
umbilical cord through the navel, that's how the baby receives
its nourishment. What's in the womb, right? And then after the
baby is born, depending on how you take care of that navel,
it can look good. Or it can look bad, depending on how you take
care of it. Look at Ezekiel chapter 16. By nature, our navel, the
core of our being, is ugly. In Ezekiel chapter 16, verse
1. And again the word of the Lord
came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know
her abomination. And thus saith the Lord God unto
Jerusalem, thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. You notice here, their abominations
is not what they've done, it's what they are by nature. Thy
birth and thy nativity is the land of Canaan. Thy father was
an Amorite, thy mother an Hittite. As for thy nativity, in the day
that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to supple thee. Thou was not salted at all or
swaddled at all, None I pitied thee, to do any of these unto
thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out in
the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that
thou was born. Now that's us by nature. Our
navel was not cut, was not taken care of, and we're left ugly,
just cast out to the loathing of our person. This is a very
familiar chapter. You can read it this afternoon
at your leisure, but you read the rest of that chapter You
see, that's what we are by nature. And then you see the beauty that
we are in Christ. When that navel's taken care
of and we're washed and suppled and taken care of, that's the
beauty that we have in Christ. Everything that we are in Adam
is done away in Christ. Next, verse two, back in our
text. The Savior talks about the belly of his people. At the
end of verse two, thy belly is like a heap of wheat set about
with lilies. Now, we normally do not want
to think of our belly as a heap of wheat. You know, it's a big
old round belly. That's not something we generally
consider attractive about ourselves. Well, everybody's trying to get
rid of, right? You know, springtime's coming, everybody's exercising.
We want to get rid of this big old heaping belly. But what our Lord
is describing here is something very beautiful. You know what
he's describing? He's describing a fruitful marriage.
He's describing a pregnant belly. Pregnant belly is beautiful.
That's what all these women do when they're pregnant. They want
to have pictures taken, you know, profile their belly. That pregnant
belly is beautiful. It's a thing of beauty. How God
creates life in that womb, medical science has come light years
since David wrote. But I'll tell you what, that
baby forming that womb is just all you can say. We're fearfully,
wonderfully made. Wow. What a beautiful thing. God created life in that womb.
That's why Solomon talks about here about the belly being decorated
with lilies. He means for us to understand
this is a beautiful thing that God's done. That baby formed
in the womb comes from a beautiful union of husband and wife. That's
a believer in beautiful union with Christ and his people. And
the belly is described as a pure heap of wheat. There are no tears
in this. This is pure righteous life in
Christ. And Christ gives that life to
his people. He causes them to be born and
gives them life. And I tell you how he does it.
Lightning doesn't strike when you're sitting on your couch
one evening. God gives birth to his people
through the preaching of the gospel. So in that way, the church
that he's describing here as the bride of Christ and that
way gives birth to new believers. That's why Paul told the church
at Galatia, I travail in birth again until Christ be formed
in you. So in that way, the church gives
life to new believers by preaching the gospel to them. Now what's
more beautiful than that life that Christ gives? I mean, when
a newborn baby, when we see that baby, oh, we're so thankful and
rejoiced and beautiful, new baby. How much more do we rejoice to
see a new child of God born? God gives life and he's gonna
do it through the preaching of the gospel. And our husband,
our bridegroom says, that preaching of the gospel, that giving of
life to my people is beautiful. Next in verse three, our bridegroom
talks about the breasts of the bride. Thy two breasts are like
two young rose that are twins. Now the breasts, they're both
for beauty and for usefulness. How are newborn babes fed the
sincere milk of the word? By nursing at the breast of the
church, through the preaching of the sincere milk of the word.
And Solomon says they're twins. Now I don't know, there's a lot
of speculation about what that, the best thing I've heard, I
like, that's the Old Testament and the New Testament. Those
two testaments are twins. They have the exact same message.
The message is Christ. Twins. And this is how the church
is useful, both beautiful and useful in this world, is by feeding
God's sheep, by feeding the lambs, by feeding the babes. And our
Lord says, that's beautiful to me, to see my children fed. Then
verse four, he talks about the neck. Thy neck is as a tower
of ivory. Now, ivory, ivory is something
that's both strong Beautiful? Well, the believer is joined
to Christ our head by the neck in a union that's both strong
and beautiful, just like ivory. The union of Christ and his people,
where the head is joined to the body at the neck, that union
is so strong, it's eternal. It never has not been. It doesn't
have a beginning. It doesn't have an ending. It's
eternal. We cannot be separated from the Savior. Now, what's
more beautiful than that? That's the beauty of the ivory.
What is more beautiful than to know despite everything we are
by nature, we cannot be separated from Christ if he's our bridegroom,
if he's our savior. And what's more valuable than
that? Absolutely nothing. That's the strength and the beauty
and the valuableness of ivory. Then verse four, he talks about
the eyes, nine eyes. like the fish pools of Heshpon
by the gate of Bethrabim. Now these fish pools that Solomon
talks about are man-made pools. They're not something that naturally
occurred. Man made them. Solomon probably
made them. And because they're man-made,
they're more for decoration than they are for fishing. The water's
kept clear. You can see the fish, but it's
not like a farm pond. It's for fishing. This is clear
water. And what he's saying is the eyes
of a believer, The eyes you receive in the new birth are clear eyes.
The eyes of a believer are the clear eyes of repentance. They're
clear because they've been washed with the tears of repentance.
The eyes of a believer are clear because our saviors washed them
with milk and made them clear, pure, clear eyes. And the eyes
of a believer are eyes of faith. They're pure, clean eyes that
look only to Christ. The eyes of faith just has one
object. We only have eyes for Him. And the eye of faith sees
Christ clearly. All we want is Christ. And our
Lord says, our Savior says, that's beautiful to Him. The clear eyes
of faith and repentance that look to Him. Then at the end
of verse four, He talks about the nose. He says, thy nose,
is as the tower of Lebanon, which looketh toward Damascus. Now,
when he talks about the nose, some people think he's talking
about the forehead or the face. It's the face that's turned toward
Christ, the face that's turned to him in love, the face that's
turned to him in dependence, looking to him to supply everything
we need. It's the face that looks to him for grace. And he likens
it to the tower of Lebanon. Now the Tower of Lebanon was
considered impregnable, and that's a picture of the church. It cannot
be defeated, cannot be, it's impregnable. And that tower faced
toward Damascus, that tower faced toward Israel's real enemy, towards
their most vile enemy. And it's turned toward them in
bold, it's impregnable. That's a picture of the boldness
that a believer has in Christ. The boldness to stand in Him. The boldness to preach Him. The
boldness to believe Him. And our Savior says, that boldness. He gave it. We can only be bold
because we're in Him. But yet He says it's beautiful.
But if you look back in Genesis chapter two, I think this has
a dual meaning. Our Savior here talks about the
nose. He's talking about the nostrils, where the breath of
life is. In Genesis chapter 2, verse 7. And the Lord God formed
man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. And man became a living soul. Now that breath that he breathed
into Adam was different than the breath of life he breathed
into the animals. Animals are just animals, they
don't have a soul. The Lord God breathed the breath of life into
the nostrils of Adam. He became a living soul. But
Adam lost all that, didn't he? Adam ruined that breath of life
when he fell. So the breath that we receive
in our fleshly birth is his breath. It's the breath of death. It's
not the breath of life. It's the breath of death. But
when we're born again, God the Holy Spirit breathes into us
the breath of life, of spiritual life, so that we have eternal
life. Now, Solomon here is describing
beauty. What's so beautiful about a breath
of air? We don't think that's something very beautiful. Wait till you can't get one.
See, when you finally do, that breath's a beautiful thing. It's
the breath of life. and that's the life that's in
God's people. Christ gave it. He is our life,
yet he says it's beautiful to him. Then verse five, our bridegroom
talks about the beauty of our head. He said, thine head upon
thee is like caramel, and the hair of thine head like purple.
The king is held in the galleries. Now our head, you know that's
Christ. crowning beauty of God's people is Christ our head. And
the word Carmel there is actually crimson. When he talks about
our hair and head, he's talking about crimson. It's the beauty
of the sacrifice of Christ, the beauty of the blood of Christ.
What's more beautiful than the son of God dying to redeem sinful
men? There's nothing more beautiful
than that. And the purple he says about our hair here refers
to the kingship of Christ, it's his royalty. Well, I thought
Solomon here is describing the bride. Well, he is, he's describing
the bride. But as he describes the bride,
you have to describe Christ because we're in him. It's the union
that we have with him. She's been washed in the blood
of Christ. She's been made a royal priesthood
through union with Christ. And Christ's love for his people
is so strong I don't care what happens. I don't care what she
does, what the world does, I don't care what happens. The love of
Christ is so strong, he's telling us here he cannot be separated
from his people. When he talks here about the
king being held in the galleries, he's talking about being tied
to his people. The word held there is tied.
And the galleries is a hollowed out place. He means the king
is tied to his people in those hollowed out places. In the hollow,
the cleft of the rock, he's tied to his people. Christ loves his
people so much he cannot be separated from them because he will not
be separated from them. Despite her spiritual stupor,
despite these two armies that are warring in her, the flesh
and the spirit, He will not be separated from her because he
loves her. So he sums up his description
of the bride in verse six. How fair and how pleasant art
thou, O love, for delights. A literal translation at the
beginning of this verse is how beautiful, or behold, how thou
art made fair and pleasant. This is what Christ has made
his people. We're made both beautiful and
useful. Now you behold what we are in
Adam. Don't ever forget what we are in Adam. And then you
behold what we are in Christ. She's right in us. There's these
two warring armies, flesh and the spirit. Don't forget the
rottenness of that flesh. Don't forget the uselessness
of that flesh. But then you behold what we are
in Christ. You behold his amazing power
and his amazing grace and his amazing love for his people. I can sympathize with the bride,
saying, what do you want to look at me for? I don't see anything
lovely about me. But can't we be thankful for
the love and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ? And he takes
delight in his people. I'm disgusted with myself. He's
delighted with me in Him because of what He's made, how fair and
beautiful He's made His people. And no matter what happens to
us, that'll never change because He never changes. All right,
I hope the Lord will bless that to you.