Now, in just a sentence or two,
I can tell you what our lesson, the lesson I would like for us
to take home from our passage we'll look at this morning. Song
of Solomon six is this. That our salvation in keeping
that salvation, keeping that acceptance with God. Has absolutely. Absolutely nothing. to do with us, with what we do,
with what we think, with what we say. That salvation, that
acceptance with God is wholly and completely found in our Lord
Jesus Christ. And that knowledge in the heart
of a believer does not make a believer think, well, whatever I do doesn't
matter. No. That knowledge, that understanding
causes our heart to burn even more with love for our Lord Jesus
Christ. So let's see if we can't see
that in our text this morning. Now you remember in the previous
chapter, the bride has found herself in a spiritual stupor
and the Lord came and woke her up, made her start to look for
him. But while she was in that spiritual stupor, she said some
pretty bad things about her beloved, didn't she? She had a bad attitude.
She said, I'm already full. I don't feel a need of you. I'm already full. I'm too comfortable
here in my bed. I'm too comfortable to get up
and put forth an effort to have fellowship with you. Well, it's
no wonder that when she finally did get up and begin to look
for the Savior, he'd withdrawn himself, right? But now he's
come to, where he's returned to her and he's come to have
fellowship with her. And what we're going to see this morning
is how does he describe her? And when he describes her, he
gives a description of the whole church. He gives a description
here of every believer. And he does that for our instruction.
This is what we're to strive to be in this world. This is
written for our instruction. But secondly, it's written for
our comfort. Now, this is what we are to strive to be in this
world. But I can tell you going in, we're going to fail miserably.
And even though we fail to be what we should be, even though
we fail to be what we want to be, this is still the way Christ
sees us. The way Christ sees his church
is how we really are, because this is what he's made us by
his grace. Christ purchased the church with
his own blood. Now that just doesn't mean he
made payment to the father and purchased us, like you go to
Walmart and you give them money and you get something in return.
Christ washed each member of his church in his own blood.
And because of that, we're made what we're not by nature. We're
made what we can only be in him. And even though our love for
Christ grows very weak, his love for us never changes, never weakens,
never strengthens. It's always constantly perfect.
Even though our faithfulness is sometimes non-existent, He
is always faithful. Even though there are times we
can't see Him, we can't sense His presence, He always sees
us. Now, our Savior's withdrawn Himself
for a time. During this time of spiritual
stupor, He's withdrawn Himself, but now He's come back. And He
can't hold back anymore. He can't stay silent anymore.
He can't stay away from His bride anymore. He's got to come to
her. He's got to speak to her. It's like Joseph. Remember Joseph
went down into Egypt and he spent that time in prison and then
suddenly he's in a day. He went from the prison to being
second in command of all of Egypt. And one day his brother showed
up. Those brothers that sold him into slavery showed up one
day looking for food. And Joseph, he talked hard to
them. He hid himself from them, didn't let them know who he was.
And after going on with this for some time, Joseph, he couldn't
hold back anymore. He just had to, he just cried,
just weeped. And he cried and he told his
brothers through his tears, it's me. It's Joseph, your brother.
Don't be afraid. Don't, I know you, you didn't
treat me right, but don't you be afraid. I love you. I'm going
to take care of you. Well, that's what our savior
is doing here. And the first way he describes his bride is
beautiful. Look, verse four, son of Solomon
six, thou art beautiful. Oh, my love as terza. comely
as Jerusalem. Now, you know the bride's ashamed
of herself. She's been in this spiritual
stupor. She's been unfaithful. She's been unloving and ungrateful,
and she's ashamed of herself. She'd really like to hide in
shame, but her beloved comes to her, and first thing he says
to her is, you're beautiful. Now, Christ sees his church as
the way he made it, not the way we are in Adam, but the way he's
made us. The church is beautiful because
Christ put his beauty upon us. We're beautiful because we're
in him. Just like that baby that found in Ezekiel 16, just cast
out in the open field to the loathing of its person. But the
Lord passed by that baby. And he said, your time was a
time of love. Lord washed her, raised her.
In the end, what happened? He said, your beauty was renowned,
famous throughout the world. for my beauty, which I put upon
you. That's the reason we're beautiful.
The reason the Lord sees us as beautiful, because it's his beauty
he's put upon us. And he says you're as beautiful
as, he names two cities. The first one is Terza. That
word Terza, it means pleasant. Now you know that's what we are
in Christ, not in ourselves. We're not pleasant in ourselves.
In ourselves, we're unpleasant to look at. We're defiled and
ugly in sin. But in Christ, we're beautiful.
In Christ, we're pleasant to look at. In ourselves, we smell
unpleasant. That's the smell, the defilement
of sin. But in Christ, we smell beautiful
to God because we've been washed in the blood of Christ, washed
in that sweet savor to the Father. And terza also means accepted.
Now, this is comfort for the believer, accepted. We are not
accepted because of anything we've done or anything we haven't
done. We don't become unaccepted because
of something we've done. We're accepted how? In the Beloved,
in Christ. And in Christ, we're not grudgingly
accepted by the Father. The Father is well pleased with
His people for Christ's sake. God is well pleased because of
what he's made his people. He's made us the righteousness
of God in him. He's well pleased with the righteousness
of Christ. That righteousness is beautiful
to God. Now, I know that's not the way
we see ourselves, but that's the way God sees us. And then
he says, you're as beautiful as Jerusalem. Now, Jerusalem
is the city of God. Jerusalem is where the presence
of God dwells. That's a believer. We're beautiful
because Christ dwells in us. Paul said, don't you know, you're
the temple of God. Christ dwells in you by his spirit. And that
makes us beautiful. And Jerusalem also means a city
that's well built. Well, that's a picture of the
church of God. The church of God is well built. Every living stone is put in
its place and it's cemented there by the unchanging, unmovable
love of Christ for his people. And that whole church is built
upon the foundation, the cornerstone, Christ Jesus. So that building
can never crumble. It's well built. It's a beautiful
building. And then Jerusalem is also known
as the city of peace. Now, I don't want to get into
next week's lesson, but this is a clue about next week's lesson.
Jerusalem is known as a city of peace. Do you know a place
where more wars have gone on than around Jerusalem? I don't. There are a lot of wars. I mean,
there's constant fighting and just, my goodness sakes, around
this city. How can it be known as the city
of peace? Well, that certainly is the life
of a believer. We've got peace, peace with God. But who goes
through more turmoil and trouble and attack than a believer? That's
next week's lesson. We'll get into that next week.
But even though we're surrounded by war, God's church, his people,
are a place of peace. Why? Because of Christ. He has made peace for us through
the blood of his cross. God's church is a beautiful people. because of what they are in Christ.
Christ is in them and they're in Christ. Second, the end of
verse four, Christ sees his church as a mighty army. He says you're
as terrible as an army with banners. Now God's church is made up of
sheep. We just saw God's church is a
peaceful place. Sheep are not fighting animals.
They're not, you know, you just don't get attacked by a flock
of sheep. Sheep are peaceful animals and God's people are
peaceful people. They're not out there looking
for a fight. But there comes a time that we must contend for
the faith. Look at Jude, verse three. There
comes a time we must contend for the gospel, contend for the
faith because we're an army. In Jude, verse three. Beloved, when I gave all diligence
to write unto you the common salvation, it's needful for me,
needful, to write unto you and to exhort you that you should
earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto
the saints. And here's why it's necessary we earnestly contend
for the faith. For there were certain men crept
in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men. turning the grace of our God
into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord
Jesus Christ. And those men always will be. So this is why we must contend
for the faith. Even though God's church is made
up of peaceful people, God's church is a militant group, a
militant group. And by that, I mean this, we're
not fatalistic. We don't just sit on our hands
and say, well, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen. Whoever's gonna
be saved will be saved. We'll just see what happens.
It doesn't matter what we do or what we don't do. It doesn't
matter. Oh, yes, it does matter. We're
a militant group. We compel men to come to Christ. We strive to be like Christ. We strive for the glory of Christ. Christ, our Savior, He's the
great shepherd of the sheep, so we're sheep. But how else
is he described? As the captain of our salvation. He's the captain and we're the
foot soldiers. Look over Matthew chapter 28.
As good foot soldiers, we follow the commandments. We follow our
captain into battle. We follow him wherever he leads.
In Matthew chapter 28, our captain gives us the marching orders.
for all his foot soldiers. He says in Matthew 28 verse 19. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. You make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always.
A captain is going into battle with us, even unto the end of
the world. Now there's our marching orders.
Now let's get marching. This is our marching order, to
preach the gospel, to contend for the faith, to compel men,
come to Christ. Now look in Joshua chapter two,
here the Lord has described his church as a terrible army. What
does that mean? Well, I'll tell you what it means. The enemies of Christ have always
seen God's church, his people, as a terrible army, an army that
causes fear. In Joshua chapter 2, this is
the way Rahab describes Israel. Joshua 2 verse 8. This is after
she hid the spies up on her roof. And before they were laid down,
she came up unto them upon the roof. And she said unto the men,
I know that the Lord has given you the land, and your terror
has fallen upon us, that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we've heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt, And we heard what you did unto the two kings of the
Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og,
whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things,
our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
he's God in heaven above and he's God in earth beneath. That's
why this is such a terrible army that the enemies of Christ fear
because of who our captain is. to who the captain of our salvation
is. The gates of hell can't prevail
against the captain of our salvation. And the gates of hell cannot
prevail against this army, the army of God's people. It's because
of the banner that we fight under, the banner of Christ our Savior.
The gates of hell cannot prevail against this enemy because our
only weapon is our banner, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is the very power of God unto salvation. This is an army
that can't lose. God sees his people. His church
is a mighty army. Thirdly, look at verse five.
Christ sees his church as the sole object of his love. Verse five. He says, turn away
thine eyes from me, for they've overcome me. Thy hair is as a
flock of goats that appear from Gilead. Now, this is the Lord
speaking. He says to his pride, don't look
at me with those eyes. Those eyes ravish my heart. The love of Christ for his people,
it's a passionate love that never stops. He said, don't look at
me with those eyes. I just, oh, they overcome me.
Now, what's he talking about here? Well, he's talking about
the eyes of faith. A believer looks to Christ with
eyes of faith that believe him. And that faith in Christ, believing
Him, draws out Christ's love for His people. And he's talking
about eyes of dependence, eyes that look to Christ to depend
on Him for everything we need. That dependence draws out Christ's
love for His people. And he's talking about eyes that
love Him. We do love Christ, not as much as we ought to, not
like we should, not like we wish we did, but we do love Him. And
looking at him with those eyes of love, that draws out his love
for his people. And so he's also talking about
the eyes of repentance. Eyes that look to Christ, that
turn to Christ away from ourselves and away from our idols. That
draws out Christ's love for his people. You notice all those
things that draws out Christ's love for his people he sees in
our eyes? None of those things are in us by nature, are they?
All those things Christ put in us in the new birth. Those are
the things that by His grace draw out His love for us, for
His people. He says your hair is as a flock
of goats that appear from Gilead. He's still talking about how
beautiful His bride is and how her beauty just overcomes Him. Now a woman's hair, this is why
he's talking about her hair. A woman's hairs are beauty. A
woman's long hair is a sign of submission to her husband and
that submission is beautiful to the Lord. Now when the bridegroom
compares his bride's hair to a flock of goats, he's talking
about specifically goats from Mount Gilead. Because the goats
that fed on Mount Gilead, they were known to have beautiful
coats because of how rich the grass was there. Their coats
were made so beautiful because of the grass that they ate. The
same thing is true of the believer. You know what makes the coat
of a believer beautiful? The covering of a believer beautiful?
It's what you feed upon. When you feed upon the Word of
God. But mostly, The bridegroom, he talks about your hair being
like these flock of goats from Mount Gilead. He's talking about
the beauty of our covering. Well, what's a believer's covering?
It's not a what, it's a who, isn't it? Christ is our covering. And I tell you, when a sinner's
made beautiful, when we're hidden in Christ, when we're covered
with Christ, then we're beautiful. We're covered with his blood
and his righteousness and his person. That's what makes us
beautiful. And that beauty, draws out Christ's
love for his people. Next in verse six, he goes on
describing her beauty, how that beauty draws out his love. In
verse six, he says, your teeth are beautiful. Your teeth are
as a flock of sheep, which go up from the washing, whereof
every one beareth twins. There's not one barren among
them. Now teeth are what we use to eat. And the bride's teeth,
they're all even. They're no long fangs. She doesn't
need fangs. We're not biting and devouring
one another. We're not out there hunting animals
and stuff. God's sheep eat green grass,
the green grass at Mount Gilead. So we don't need fangs, we need
even teeth. They can eat the grass, the grass
of the word of God. And there are no gaps in these
teeth because there's none missing. All of God's elect are all gonna
be there. Not one is missing. They're all
fitly framed together. And these teeth are bright white
because they've been washed inside and out with the blood of Christ.
They're clean and white. And every one of these sheep,
they're fruitful. They're fruitful because they
all have life. They're not barren. They've got the life of Christ.
And they're so fruitful, they all bear twins. They bear twins
that look alike because every believer looks exactly alike.
We've been made just like Christ. And that draws out Christ's love
for his people because it's so beautiful to him. But if you
look in verse 7, here's what really tops off the bride's beauty
and what really draws out Christ's love for her. Verse 7, as a piece
of pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks. I've told you
this often, pomegranates refer to the sacrifice of Christ. When
God gave Moses the instructions for Aaron's ephod, the ephod
of the high priest, he made pomegranates to put on the hem of that garment. And they alternated a pomegranate
and a bell, a pomegranate and a bell, all the way around the
hem of that garment. So on the day of atonement, when Aaron
was, he was alone in the tabernacle. He was alone there in the Holy
of Holies. And when the people heard the bells ringing, they
knew Aaron was still alive. He was moving around, so he had
to still be alive. And the reason they are so happy
he was alive is if he is still alive, they knew God's accepting
the sacrifice. If God did not accept the sacrifice,
if he didn't accept the blood that Aaron was sprinkling on
the altar, then they were all going to die. But if they heard
those bells ring, they knew God was accepting the sacrifice.
Pomegranates refer to the sacrifice. And where does Christ see these
pomegranates on his bride? He sees them right next to her
temples. right next to the brain. Now the temples are the soft
spot in our head. What protects the soft spot?
The sacrifice of Christ. What protects your mind from
error? The sacrifice of Christ. This
is the helmet of salvation that protects our head. And pomegranates
are also considered to be fruits of passion. The bride has a passionate
love for her bridegroom, and that love draws out the love
of Christ for his people. Does any of that sound familiar?
You who are here for class every week, does that sound familiar?
It ought to. Look back at verse four, and
this is beautiful. I want you to get this. The bridegroom
said the exact same thing back in chapter four, verse one. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair. Thou hast
dove's eyes within thy locks. Thy hair is as a flock of goats
that appear from Mount Gilead. Thy teeth are like a flock of
sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof
everyone bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips
are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely. Thy
temples are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks. Now, why does
the Lord just wait, go over just two more chapters and repeat
himself? Why does he repeat himself? Almost word for word. So that we know nothing has changed. This is so precious. In chapter
four, when we heard this description of Christ giving this description
of his people, that was during a time of sweet communion. This
was a time of springtime for the bride. time of communion
with her bridegroom, she hears this description of how beautiful
she is to him. Then soon after that, she goes
through this time of spiritual stupor. She didn't do anything
right. She didn't say anything right.
She's ashamed of herself. And the Savior comes to her and
he repeats the same thing he said to her back in chapter four
to show her nothing's changed. Nothing's changed between you
and me. Nothing's changed in our love. Nothing's changed in
your position with me. Nothing's changed. God's love
for his people is in Christ. God's love for his people is
because of Christ, because what he accomplished for us is our
representative. We can't earn it. We cannot earn
God's love. God loves his people in his son. It's all in Christ. Well, if
God loves us in Christ and because of Christ, we didn't do anything
to make God stop loving us, did we? Then nothing we can do to
make God stop loving us. And that does not make the bridegroom
presumptuous. Not at all. It makes her heart
burn with love for Christ, that he'd love me and be faithful
to me despite of who and what I am. That doesn't make us presumptuous. It doesn't make us want to go
out and sin. It makes us love him all the more. It makes us
desire to be faithful to him all the more. Christ loves his
people and that love's unchanging. Fourth, Christ sees his church
as his only wife. This is his only wife. She's
the sole object of his love. Verse eight. There are threescore
queens and fourscore concubines and virgins without number. My
love, my dove, my undefiled is but one. She's the only one of
her mother. She's the choice one of her that
bear her. The daughter saw her and blessed
her. Yea, the queens and the concubines, and they praised
her. Now there are threescore queens,
fourscore concubines, virgins without number. Other kings had
many wives, many concubines. Even King Solomon did, didn't
he? But King Christ just got one wife. Just one wife. She's his bride. He chose her. He betrothed her to himself in
divine election. And he loves her. He didn't love all the other
women. He loves her. He chose her. He gave his life
that she would be his. He's all for her, and she's all
for Him. And it doesn't matter how sinful
she was before conversion, and it doesn't matter how faithless,
and how indifferent, and how cold, and how sinful she is after
conversion, Christ is gonna have His bride. She's His. She's the choice one. That's
His distinguishing love. He only has eyes for her. Doesn't
matter what she's done. Doesn't matter what she hasn't
done. His eye is on her. His love is for her and he's
gonna have her. He won't lose her. Now fifth,
get a hold of this. This is immediately after this
time of spiritual stupor. Christ sees his people as perfect. The beginning of verse nine,
he says, my dove, my undefiled is but one. He calls her undefiled. Well, Didn't God see his people
sin in Adam? No. He always saw his people
in Christ, as perfect in Christ. Well, didn't God see all the
sin I committed? No. He's always seen his people as
perfect. He's always seen his people as
washed in the blood of Christ. Well, didn't God see all the
sin I committed after he saved me and all the awful things that
I said and thought, my spiritual stupor? No. God always and only
sees his people as perfect. He always sees his people as
washed in the blood of Christ. When I got lots of sin, infinite
amount of sin, when did God see my sin? When he put it on Christ,
my substitute. And then he saw that sin as Christ
and not as mine. He made it his. He's always seen
me as perfect. and washed in the blood of Christ.
His dove is undefiled. His dove's been born again with
a new holy nature that cannot sin. She's undefiled. Well, somebody's
gonna say, what? That's pretty good news. Then
I just go out and sin all I want to and it'll never be a problem.
God doesn't see my sin. He's seen it. Christ paid for
it all already, so I can just sin all I want. My friend, if
you think that, you've never come to Christ. If you think
that, you've never experienced His grace. Grace is for the guilty. God's grace to me makes me never
want to sin. How could I want to sin against
such wonderful grace? That's the experience of a heart
that's been born again, that understands God's grace. What
grace, I mean, the only explanation that God could see someone like
me as perfect is grace. What grace that God would see
me as perfect as his son. And that he'd see me as perfect
as his son because that's what I am. Because that's what he
made me in his son. That's grace, isn't it? And no
saved person would ever want to sin against that grace and
that love. Then last, Christ sees his church
as a reflection of himself, because that's what she really is, verse
10. Who is she that looketh forth
as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible
as an army with banners? Now I reckon this means I've
gotten old. I used to hear my parents and grandparents and
people say, oh, the moon's so beautiful, I thought. Whatever,
I mean, I guess that's what old people think now. I think, oh
wow, I tell Janet, come here and look at the moon, it's so pretty.
Guess that means I've gotten old. But the moon really is beautiful
at night, isn't it? I mean, a dark night and that
full moon's so bright, just wow. Well, you know the only reason
we can see the moon at night, the only reason, it reflects
the light of the sun. If it wasn't for the sun, we
couldn't see the moon. When you can't see the sun, You can see
the moon because the moon's reflecting the light of the sun. The moon's
the church. When is the church beautiful?
Only when it reflects the light of Christ. We preach Christ. By God's grace, we're not going
to get pulled off on a tangent. We're not going to get talking
about something else other than Him because the church is beautiful
when she reflects the light of Christ. And at night, The sun
disappears. How do you know the sun didn't
go out? How do you know it's not dark because the sun just
went out and we're never going to see the sun again? Earth's
all going to die. How do you know that? Look at the moon. As long as you can see the moon,
you know the sun's still burning. Even if you can't see it, you
know the sun's burning because the moon is reflecting the light
of the sun. And when we see the moon shining
in the middle of the night, it's dark. And it's scary. I don't
know what it is about nighttime, but at nighttime, when you're
up late, you wake up and you can't sleep, everything looks
bad. I mean, you can paint the worst
picture in the world. Everything's just going to fall
apart and be horrible. It's dark. How do you know you're
ever going to see the sun again? Look at the moon. The moon tells
us sunrise is coming. The moon tells us it's not going
to be dark forever. And the best way for this world
to know that Christ is, that he is who he says he is, that
he's gracious, that he saves sinners, that he loves sinners,
is the church reflecting his light. The best way for this
world to know that the light of Christ is not extinguished
is the church continues to preach Christ, to preach his glory and
reflect his light. And it's the church that tells
you sunrise is coming. It's the church that tells you
Christ is coming again. And when he does, he's going
to gather his people to himself and they'll never be dark again.
But now the moon, this kind of gets into next week's lesson,
but I'll repeat it next week. The moon is not full more than
it's full, right? It's most of the time, it's either
waning or waxing. Isn't that the way it is for
a believer? Most of the time we're not full. We're waning
or waxing. I wish it weren't that way, but
that's the way it is. I'm telling you, this waning
and waxing is not going to last forever because sunrise is coming. And when Christ returns, every
believer, every member of God's church is going to be clothed
perfectly with Christ our righteousness and will never wane and will
never wax again. But until then, what's our comfort? Our comfort is not how we see
ourselves. Our comfort is how Christ sees us. And the way he
describes us here is the way we really are, because that's
what he's made us in him, by his grace. All right, I hope
the Lord will bless that to you.