I've entitled our lesson this
morning, The Conversation that's Heard in the House of Worship.
There is a specific conversation that goes on in the heart of
a believer when we come to worship the Lord. Now, we looked at verse
7 last week where the bride asked her Lord, Where are you worshiped?
Where can I come and be fed? Where can I come and find rest
in Christ with God's people? She says in verse 7, Tell me,
O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest? Where thou makest
thy flock to rest at noon? For why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? If we're going
to hear this conversation that takes place in the house of worship,
the first thing we've got to know is where is the house of
worship? This is a conversation that only
takes place in a house of worship. So the bridegroom answers in
verse 8, he says to her, if thou know not thou fairest among women,
go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids
beside the shepherds tents. Now, our Lord says, if you know
not. Now, the bride has knowledge of Christ, doesn't she? She knows
him. She's in him. He's in her. She knows him. She
knows the name of the Lord. She knows who the Lord is. She
knows how the Lord puts sin away. She knows how the Lord makes
us righteous in him. You know those things. You do.
You've been taught those things. But our knowledge is far from
perfect, isn't it? How often do we need to be taught
the same lesson over and over again? How often? Where our knowledge
is far from perfect. We still have a lot to learn.
So he says, if you know not, I'll tell you. And you know,
especially for a new believer, he talks here about the kids.
These are the young sheep, the young lambs, especially a new
believer may not know exactly where the true house of worship
is. It may be hard for a new believer to distinguish between
the true shepherd and the false shepherd. These she mentions
in verse seven, Why should I turn aside after the flocks of my
companions? These are not the true companions of the Lord.
They're false shepherds. Don't let me be one of those
that follows after these false shepherds. How will I know where
you're worshipped? Well, if you find the house of
true worship, the Lord says you follow the footsteps of the flock.
If you want to find the shepherd, you follow the flock. They're
following the shepherd. And the flock is God's church.
All of God's church, his universal church, starting way back there,
all the way to however long this earth is going to go, it's all
of God's people. If you find the true house of
worship, you follow the flock, their steps throughout the scriptures. Start with the writings of Moses
and follow that flock. Read David and the prophets and
the apostles and follow that flock. They speak of the Savior. These footsteps have created
well-marked paths. You won't be able to miss them.
Every sheep has walked in the same path, so that path is clearly
marked through this world. It's the steps of the flock as
they're following the shepherd. They've all walked in the same
steps, and they've worn a well-worn path. And they'll lead you to
the shepherd's tents. Now, the shepherd's tents are
the place where God's preacher is, where God's under-shepherd
is today. This world is a horrible, horrible place. But there is
a place where God's raised up a man who will tell you the truth,
who will exalt Christ and feed God's sheep. That's the shepherd's
tent. Well, how do I know if that preacher is God's preacher
today in this path? Well, it's very simple. Does
his message match the whole word of God? Is his message the same
message as all the law and the prophets? It's the same message
as the message of the apostles. If it is, then he's God's under
shepherd. The word of God is the verbally inspired word of
God himself. It's God's word to men. If a
man's message does not match all of this, then you get away
from it because he doesn't have God's message for you, for your
soul. Follow the footsteps of the flock.
You follow those old paths. Don't look for something new.
Don't look for something novel. Follow that old, old story. That
message will feed the kids. It'll feed the young believer
and it'll feed the old, too, because they all need the same
thing. But once the bride, she gets to the house of worship,
she gets to the shepherd's tent, she immediately begins to hear
things. She doesn't speak first. She
immediately begins to hear things. She begins to hear this conversation. She begins to hear of Christ's
love for His people and His work that's in her. Look at verse
9. I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses
and Pharaoh's chariots. Now this is the Lord speaking.
He just called the bride in verse 8, the fairest among women. But
she sees herself as black with sin. We saw that back in verse
5. Remember, I'm black, but comely. She sees herself as black with
sin. She doesn't see anything beautiful
about herself, in her or of her. But the Lord sees her as the
fairest among women, the most beautiful of all women. That's
the way he sees her. And he sees her that way because
that's the way she is. He made her beautiful. So he
sees her as she is. He's washed her in his precious
blood from all the blackness of her sin. She's beautiful because
she didn't have any sin. He's clothed her in his righteousness,
so she's beautiful. She's beautiful in the beauty
that he put on her. Now, no believer sees himself
this way. You described the perfection
of God's people. No believer sees himself this
way. But now I'll tell you what, God sees me that way, then I'm
going to trust what he says a whole lot more than what I think. He
says, you're the fairest among women. The Lord says, you're
so beautiful. What will I compare you to? You're
so beautiful. I'll compare you to a company
of horses. Now, I was studying this, we spent a few days up
in Lexington, I was studying this, I came out, had some lunch
and I told Jan, I said, how would you, how would you like it if
I told you, honey, you're so beautiful, I'm going to compare
you to a horse? She said, that's not going to go over very well.
So maybe we ought not do that. But if we look at it at the time
that Solomon wrote this and understand what he's saying, you see this
as a compliment. In this day, a horse was a precious
thing. A horse is the difference oftentimes
between life and death. But he's not just talking about
any old horse now. He's talking about the horses
that pull Pharaoh's chariot. And each one of those horses
was chosen specifically for that job. That's God's elect. Each one of them chosen individually,
specifically by God to be His, to belong to Him. Each horse
that pulled Pharaoh's chariot was an expensive horse. This
was a good horse. He's expensive. That's the bride
of Christ. She's expensive. She's not bought
with silver and gold. She's been bought with the precious
blood of Christ. There's nothing more expensive
than her, what it took to buy her. Each horse that pulled Pharaoh's
chariot was beautiful. That's the bride we've just seen.
Christ says she's beautiful because of the beauty He's given her.
Each one of these horses was very strong. Do you see yourself
as strong? If you don't, then you are. The
bride of Christ is made strong in Christ. And when we see our
weakness, That's when we're strong because we're depending upon
him. Each horse that pulled chariots, Pharaoh was very fast, the fastest
of the fast pulled his chariot. The bride of Christ is swift
in the service of our king. Our feet used to be swift to
shed blood. Now our feet are swift in his service. And each
of these horses that they would harness together to pull Pharaoh's
chariot, they looked alike. I've seen those Budweiser Clydesdales. They're gorgeous, beautiful animals
and they all look alike. This team of horses, they all
look alike. That's what Pharaoh's chariot
looked like. Those horses pulling, they all
looked alike. That's a believer. Every believer is the same. One's
not better than the other. They're all the same in Christ.
They've all been made just like Christ. They're all perfect.
They look just alike. And each of these horses was
yoked together. They weren't all off running
in their own direction. They were yoked together, pulling
in the same direction for the same purpose. That's it, believers. We're yoked together with the
easy yoke of Christ in unity, pulling in one direction for
His glory, for the good of His church. And Pharaoh's horses,
every one of them, was well fed. and well taken care of by the
best horseman they could find in the day. That's God's bride. He makes sure she's well fed,
well taken care of by his under shepherds. He's gifted to take
care of her. No other animal was as well thought
of in this day as the horses that pulled Pharaoh's chariot.
These are no common field horses. These are royal horses. That's
God's elect. Now, we're common, ordinary people
of a common lump of Adam's race, but we've been made to be kings
and priests. We've been made to be royalty. We're married to the king. We've
been made royalty. That's what Solomon's saying
here. When the Lord compares his bride to these horses, he's
calling her beautiful, precious, expensive, strong and fast. You're no common horses. You're
royal horses. You're beautiful with the beauty
that I put on you. And that's every believer in
Christ. All of this that he's talking
about are characteristics of the Lord. They're not our characteristics
or his characteristics. But they've been applied to us,
they're in us by the new birth, that new nature that's born in
us is the nature of Christ himself. We partake of all these characteristics
of Christ. because we've been made partakers
of the divine nature. As soon as the bride enters the
house of worship, she begins to hear of what Christ has done
in her. Then second, she hears this part
of the conversation. She begins to hear of Christ's
work for us. Look at verse 10. Thy cheeks
are comely with rows of jewels, thy neck with chains of gold.
Now the bridegroom mentions the cheek of his bride. That's the
face of a believer that's been turned toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. Her face is turned toward him, looking to him to provide
everything that she needs. She's looking at him with a look
of love. And every woman, every woman
likes jewelry. Our Lord is the husband that
gives jewelry to his bride. But his jewelry is not gold and
silver and precious stones. It's his graces. It's his graces
that he has for her that make her beautiful. He gives her,
he says here, rows of jewels that hangs down her cheek. Those
are beautiful earrings that are hanging down her cheek. What
makes the ear of the bride of Christ beautiful? She's got an
ear that hears the gospel. She's got an ear that hears the
voice of her well-beloved. And then he gives her a necklace,
chains of gold, he says. Now, these chains are all the
graces of God that are wound together like a chain that binds
us to Christ. It's love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness. These are all bound
together in a chain and hung around our neck. You can't find
a more beautiful necklace than that. The necklace of all the
graces of God. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3. Like
I said, these aren't actual jewels, because that's not what makes
the bride of Christ beautiful. 1 Peter 3, verse 1. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also
may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives.
while they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
Whose adorning? Let it not be that outward adorning
of plaiting the hair and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of
apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, and that which
is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is in the sight of God at great price. For after
this manner in the old time, the holy women also who trusted
in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own
husbands. Even Esther obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord, whose
daughters you are, as long as you do well and are not afraid
with any amazement. Now, ladies, don't take this
and think you don't, it's not supposed to wear jewelry or comb
your hair or wear makeup. Do all those things, whatever
you like, do that. Don't take it to success. And
don't ever think that those things are your real beauty, because
they're not. The real beauty of a believer
is the inner man. It's the person that you are,
the person that God's made you. I often think, Janet is most
beautiful. She's just in a sweatshirt and
jeans. I just think that's beautiful. She's beautiful to me. Doesn't
have anything to do with what she's wearing. It's the inner
man. It's the person that you are.
But men, that doesn't just apply to ladies. Now, that applies
to every believer. We're speaking to the whole bride
of Christ, which is men and women both. Look at verse 7, this is
the ornaments of beauty that Christ gives. Likewise ye husbands,
dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto
the wife, even as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life, that your prayers be not hindered. Finally,
be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love
as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil,
or railing for railing, but contrarywise, Knowing that ye are there unto
called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will
love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from
evil, and his lips, that they speak no guile. Let him eschew
evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and ensue
it." That's the true beauty that the Lord gives His people, and
that's the true beauty He admires. Look at verse 12. For the eyes
of the Lord are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do
evil. This is the beauty that our Lord,
our husband, admires. Well, that beauty is not of us,
is it? None of those things Peter just mentioned there come naturally
to us. That's not our beauty. We're
born naked of all these things. We're born polluted in our sin. So this beauty that he's talking
about here is the beauty that Christ gives his bride. Remember,
this is a necklace, all the graces of Christ bound together in a
necklace. Where do you wear a necklace?
Right around your neck that's closest to the head. And that
shows us our beauty comes from being closely connected to Christ
our head. Now, this is not just the work
of Christ alone. Look back in our text in verse
11, Psalm 1. This is the work of the whole
Godhead. We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver.
This is not just the Lord speaking of himself. He says we. Who's
he speaking up there? The Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit working together, giving us borders of gold and studs
of silver. That's everything that Christ
has put in us and keeps us in Christ. God the Father chose
us. The Son redeemed us with His
blood. The Holy Spirit gives life and
points us to Christ, showing us the things of Christ. These
golden borders are exceeding great and precious promises that
are borders to us that keep us from running off the edge. This
is Christ's righteousness imputed to His bride and Christ's righteousness
imparted to His bride. So she doesn't want to leave
Him. Now with the bride, she comes into the house of worship.
She begins to hear of everything that Christ has done in her.
She begins to hear of everything that Christ has done for her.
It doesn't take her long to respond. It does not take long for her
heart to burst out singing the praises of her Redeemer. Now
you cannot worship unless you're hearing of Christ. You cannot
worship unless you're hearing the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who He is and what He's done for and in His people. But
you also can't worship unless you're singing His praises in
your heart yourself. And that's what she does in verse
3. Now you hear, this is a conversation. It's not a one-sided. The Lord
speaks and now she responds, singing the praises of Christ
in verse 12. While the king sitteth at his
table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. Now, last
week we saw the bride. She's honored being brought into
the king's chamber. This week, the bride is honored
being brought to the king's table. And this table is a pleasant
table because Christ is seated at the head of the table. He's
seated with his people. The gospel is a feast that's
on the table prepared. But now it's his table. This
table belongs to the Lord. He's provided all the food of
the table. He's the master of the table sitting with us, and
he is the food that's provided on the table. This table is Christ. And the bride is thankful. How
thankful are you to sit at the table of Christ himself? Aren't you thankful? The Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, eats with publicans and sinners. He
sits with us at the feast, providing everything. Just like old Boaz,
Ruth was there. She wasn't getting enough to
suit him, and he handed it to her. He said, here, you take
this. You dip this in the grave if you need it. Our Lord is making
sure his people are well provided for at his table. We can never
worship unless Christ is present with us. It's impossible to worship
unless his spirit meets with us and enables us to worship.
And the bride's doing just that. She's in the presence of her
well-beloved. And she's overcome. She's just
overcome with everything about him and she just burst out. She just got to tell somebody
how wonderful Christ is to her. And she begins speaking of the
spikenard that's on his table. Now the spikenard, that's the
presence of Christ that gives a sweet odor to the whole house.
A spikenard. grows from a shrub, and this
shrub is small, it's ugly looking, you just don't think that shrub's
anything. But when the branches of that
small, ugly shrub are processed correctly, you get a very expensive,
very good, sweet-smelling ointment. That's Christ to the believer. He's the root of a dry ground.
He doesn't look like much to the natural man, but when Christ
is preached in power, When the Spirit of Christ comes to us
in power, we get the most expensive, sweet-smelling ointment you've
ever smelled. This is what happened when Mary
came to anoint the feet of the Savior. What did she use to anoint
Him with? Expensive spikenard. And the
whole house was blessed with the fragrance. She didn't go
put a little bit in all the rooms of the house, did she? She poured
it all on the feet of her Savior. And the whole house was blessed
with the smell of the worship, the presence of Christ. I don't
think it's coincidence that Mary anointed the feet of our Savior.
What was he doing when she anointed him? Sitting at the table with
his disciples, just like the bride describes here. She goes
on, verse 13. This is a blessing. I enjoyed
this this week. A bundle of myrrh is my well
beloved unto me. He shall lie all night betwixt
my breast. I notice she calls Christ, he's
not just my beloved. He's my well beloved. The bride
loves the Lord Jesus Christ supremely, more than anything else. She
loves other people and other things, but nothing can be compared
to her love for him. Because nothing can be compared
to him. There's no love like the love
of the bride for Christ, because there's no love like the love
of Christ for his bride. The believer's love for Christ
is so great. Human language just will not
express it. It just won't. He's my well beloved. And if you love him, you know
exactly what she's saying. And she says, Christ is a bundle
of myrrh to me. Now, myrrh is a good picture
of Christ to the believer. Myrrh is made from a very rare
plant, and its rareness is what made it precious. When Jacob
was going to send a present down to that mean king, hear about
that mean king down there in Egypt. He didn't know that was
his son yet. He just thought this is a mean, stern king. I'm
going to send him a little present. Part of that present was myrrh
because it's so rare, it's precious. Is that Christ to your soul?
He's rare. He's the only Savior. Christ
is the only one who could love me. Christ is the only one who
would die for me and could die for me to put my sin away. Christ
is the only one who could make me righteous. I am so black with
sin, the only one who could make me comely is Christ. His rareness makes him precious.
That's why Peter said, unto you therefore which believe, he is
precious. Then myrrh is a very sweet smelling
perfume. They would mingle myrrh with
the sacrifices to make that sacrifice a sweet smelling savor. Well,
what makes Christ the most sweet of all the things about our Lord?
What is what makes him most sweet? It's his sacrifice, his sacrifice
for your sin. What makes you who believe to
smell sweet? Nothing but the blood. Nothing
but the blood of Christ. The sacrifice of the blood that
he offered upon the altar before God cleansed you of all of your
sin. That's the only thing that makes
you smell sweet. It's the sacrifice of Christ. When our Lord in his
dying agony on the cross said, I thirst, they reached to give
him vinegar mixed with gall. You know what that word gall
literally translated is? Myrrh. They gave him myrrh. The myrrh is closely tied to
the sacrifice. That's the sweet smelling savor
to the believer. Christ sacrificed for my sin.
Then myrrh, they also used it as a preservative. They would
use myrrh to embalm the dead to prevent corruption and decay
of the body. Well, the only way the corruption
and decay of our soul can be taken away is in Christ. By Christ, our well beloved.
And then myrrh was used for purification. They used myrrh as a medicine
to stop plagues. They would wear it in a bundle
around their neck as disinfectant, you know, to keep the germs away.
I don't know if it worked or not. Maybe it did. But I do know
what works, the medicine, the only medicine to work for my
soul is the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you love the medicinal
value of Christ? He is Jehovah Rapha. the Lord
that healeth thee. He does heal all the diseases
of his people. Only Christ can heal the plague
of sin in our souls. Then last, about myrrh. Look
here in Ephesians chapter 5. Myrrh, women used it as a beauty
product. The bride can only be made beautiful
in Christ. And I know women like a wrinkle
cream. Anybody interested in a wrinkle
cream for your soul? Christ himself. Look in Ephesians
5, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. That's Christ. spot cream, the
blemish cream, the wrinkle cream. He makes his people beautiful. And what is my well beloved to
me? He's a bundle of myrrh, not just a little twig of myrrh,
a bundle of myrrh. It's all the graces and the glories
of Christ bundled together in one place. I hang it around a
necklace that hangs over my heart. Christ is going to lie near my
heart the whole night long. The whole night of trial, the
whole night of my pilgrimage in this valley of death, Christ
is the comfort of my heart. And the bride goes on, verse
14. My beloved is unto me as a cluster
of camphor in the vineyards of Engedi. That word camphor is
propitiation. It's the word that's used to
form the word propitiation. What she's saying is the Lord
Jesus Christ, my well beloved, is a cluster of propitiation
for me. Christ is precious because his
sacrifice covered all my sin and made a sinner like me righteous. Now let me sing his praises.
When you hear that Christ is a cluster of propitiation, how
can you be silent? The bride can't. Everything about
Christ is just too much for our senses. The sight of him, the
smell of him, the sound of his voice, the sweetness of his sacrifice. It's too much. She mentions here
the vineyards of En-Gedi. Those were famous for flourishing
palm trees. David said the righteous shall
flourish like palm trees, like these palm trees in En-Gedi because
of the propitiation of our well-beloved. With sins removed, We're going
to flourish in the courts of our God. We'll only die because
of sin. We'll only decay because of sin. When sin is gone, when
Christ has taken our sin away, we'll flourish. Now, here we've
been listening to this conversation. First, the Lord speaks. Now,
the bright heart charges burst out. Now, our Lord answers back
in verse 15. He says, Behold, thou art fair. Ladies, nobody can make you feel
beautiful. as your husband, telling you,
honey, you're beautiful. That's what the Lord's saying
here. Behold, thou art fair, my love. Behold, thou art fair,
thou hast dove's eyes. Of all the people who've ever
lived, our Lord says the believer is the fairest of them all because
she's been made just like Christ. He calls his bride, my love,
my love. How our Lord loves a people nobody
else could love. He loves His people enough to
humiliate Himself, to come in their flesh, the likeness of
their flesh, to be their representative. He loves His people enough to
come save us from the mess that we've created. He loves His people
enough to be made what they are, to be made sin for them, that
they might be made what He is. perfectly righteous and holy.
Now, that's a love that Christ has just for his bride. He doesn't love everybody that
way. Andrew, you'd not be pleased if Dan loved every woman he saw
like he loves you. It's the specific love for his
wife. That's the love of Christ for
his bride. It's just for her. He doesn't love everybody in
the world this way. It's his bride that he chose and made
his own. You know, we can understand The
bride talking about Christ like this, can't we? It's beyond our
comprehension to hear the Lord talks about us this way. He takes
delight in his people. Yet we say we can't understand
it, but she does. She understands what the Lord's
saying. She understands what he is, everything he's saying
here, because he's given her eyes to see. That's these dove's
eyes. A dove's eyes, they're beautiful eyes. They're eyes
that mourn over sin. They're clear eyes that see things
as they are and see Christ as He is. But a believer has dove's
eyes in one very particular way. Doves only have eyes for their
mate. I don't know how they tell the
difference one from another, but they do. They only have eyes
for their mate. A believer only has eyes for
the Lord Jesus Christ. Some people say, well, I can't
tell the difference between your gospel and somebody else's. If
you've got doves eyes, you do. You can see the difference. You
see Christ. You only look to Christ. You only look to him for the
forgiveness of your sin. You only look to him to make
you righteous. You only look to him to make
you accepted because he is your all. Now, the last two verses
here, I'll cover these quickly. This may be Christ continuing
to speak. Some people think that's what
he's speaking here. Some people think it's the bride
answering back. He says, you're fair. And she
says, oh, no, you're fair. You're the fairest of them all.
Maybe that's what he's what is happening. And it could be that
the bridegroom and the bride start singing together, and that's
what I think. I think they're both singing
here. But, you know, it really doesn't matter who's singing.
because the bridegroom and the bride both sang the same message.
Verse 16, Behold, thou art fair, my beloved, yea, pleasant. Also,
our bed is green. The beans of our house are cedar
and rafters of fir. Christ says his people are fair,
the fairest of them all. And Christ and the bride responds
and says, No, he's the fairest of them all. I'm fair only in
him. Christ loves his people and we
love him. He's my beloved and I'm his beloved. And our bed is green. This marriage
union between Christ and his bride is a fruitful, happy union. This green is the color of spring,
the color of life. This is a fruitful, happy union.
And it's a union that will last forever. There's no dying, no
divorces, no falling out of love. The beans in the rafters These
are made from wood that lasts a long time. These are strong
woods that don't rot and smell good, the fragrant woods. The
rafters are good. They're going to last forever.
The beams, that's good wood. It's going to last forever. The
roof is staying on God's house. It's not going to leak. It's
not going to blow off. It's going to be there forever.
Because Christ, he is the roof, and he's the rafters, and he's
the beams that hold it up. He is our all. All right, I hope
the Lord bless us.