well we've been seeing that uh...
the song of solomon is a love story love story between solomon
the king and uh... the shulamite or solimar as her
name is the feminine form of solomon and uh... we've been
seeing how It isn't really a literal love story between Solomon and
this woman, it's a picture, an allegory. It's a picture of Christ
and his church and the marriage of Christ and his church. We
saw in Revelation the marriage of Christ and his church. We
live in a society today which on the whole has contempt for
marriage. There's this alien notion in
society that monogamous fidelity is a good thing. Well, I'm telling
you, that's not what God has revealed. What God has revealed
is this, that marriage is for life, and that marriage is between
a man and a woman. Whatever our modern society might
think to say, marriage, true marriage, is between a man and
a woman. and so God says in Genesis 2
24 even before the fall of man he said therefore shall a man
leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife
and they shall be one flesh it says in the marriage ceremony
and also in Matthew 19 what God has joined together let no man
put asunder ever what God has joined together the purpose of
marriage is the procreation of children It's to form stable
families. It's to form loving homes, safe
environments in which children can grow up. And it's a very
sensitive thing to say, but every child of divorcing parents is
deeply grieved by their parents' divorce. It's a fact. Why is
there divorce? The Pharisees asked Jesus. But
Moses said that we can divorce our wives, and Jesus said, Moses
allowed it because of the hardness of your hearts, because of the
sin of your hearts. No. The intimate Lifelong union
of husband and wife is honourable. As Hebrews 13, verse 4 says,
marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers
and adulterers God will judge. We live in a world where there
is great tolerance of diversity, as they call it, the politically
correct term. Tolerance of diversity. Every
company has to teach its employees to accept diversity of race and
all sorts of other things, but primarily it's of what they call
sexual orientation. Tolerance of diversity is alien
to God's word. That's a fact. That is an absolute
fact. You see, the kind of diversity
that our society in the last twenty years has been taught
so powerfully to accept and promote according to the word of God
it's a sterile perversion that's what it is it's completely contrary
to the God intended purpose for marriage of men and women We
saw recently, just after the election campaign, the leader
of the Liberal Democrats who claims to be a Christian, and
I make no judgment on him, he may well be a true Christian,
I don't know, I've never spoken to him, I don't know him, but
he felt he had to step down from being a political leader because
the press and everybody around, all the political correct sort of, swathe of human society
expected him to publicly declare things which went against his
Christian beliefs. They wanted him to say that homosexuality
is not a sin. And he couldn't say it. Well,
he did. He did. He did, but then he realised it was completely
incompatible with what he's supposed to believe. So he stepped down.
Do I hate all that pervert the truth of marriage? No. But I hate the sin. I hate
the sin. I hate that. God holds marriage
in the highest esteem and respect. You know the first miracle in
John's Gospel, you remember it? In John chapter 2, Jesus went
to the marriage at Cana of Galilee. And there, he made water into
wine. He made water become wine. That was the first miracle. At
a marriage, where he went. So it just shows, if the Son
of God, walking his earthly life, deigns to go to a marriage, God
holds marriage in the highest esteem and respect. But, The
purpose of God's Word is not primarily to give sound marriage
guidance. Before we get much further, you
know, yes, there is a lot of good advice on marriage in the
Bible, a lot, but the purpose of God's Word is not primarily
to give sound marriage guidance. If you turn over to Ephesians
chapter 5, Ephesians chapter 5, and you know these verses
are very familiar, but it's worth looking at them again Ephesians
chapter 5 verse 22 We read, wives, submit yourselves
unto your own husbands. Good, good, good advice in the
word of God, how to conduct human relationships in the realm of
marriage. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and
he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let wives be to their own husbands in everything. 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. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord
the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. But,
but, I speak concerning Christ and the church. That's it. It's
about Christ and the church. It's a picture of Christ and
the church. that's what it is about marriage
really is a picture of the union between christ and his church
albeit flawed because of human sin but nevertheless it's really
about christ and his union with his church the best of human
marriage is but a weak picture of the eternal heavenly marriage
of which the scriptures speak and we see that in song of solomon
chapter six and seven well throughout the entire book But especially
here. And the first point I want to
come to is overcome with a look. Christ is overcome with a look. Look at verse five of chapter
six, where Christ says to his bride, turn away thine eyes from
me, for they have overcome me. Overcome me. overcome with a
look. Christ says he's overcome with
a look. These chapters six and seven
that we read earlier of Song of Solomon, they predominantly
reveal the depth of intimate love that exists between Christ
and the church that he saved from its just condemnation. For
the church, the people, we the members, born in the flesh, descendants
of Adam, Adam who was the one who sinned in the first place
and we all because of his nature we have inherited that nature
we're sinners by nature and by practice and in everything we're
under the just condemnation of God but in the redemption that
Christ has accomplished he has saved his church from that just
condemnation. Now this is pictured dimly in
the best of human marriage but whereas human marriage is until
death us do part you know, you make your promises of fidelity
of devotion to one another and it is brought to an end in the
purposes and reckoning of God when one party dies, one of the
married parties dies whereas human marriage is until death
us do part heavenly marriage, the marriage between Christ and
His Church is eternal. There is no time limit on it.
And here in the account we have Solomon and the Shulamite. The
Shulamite is mentioned, it's the only place that it is actually
given that name. Verse 13 of chapter 6, return,
return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon
thee. The Shulamite, the word there, really, in its original,
is Solimar, which is the feminine form of Solomon. And you know
how we've seen earlier in the Song of Solomon, Christ calls
his bride, my sister, my spouse, my sister, my spouse. Well, what
he's saying is that they're of the same type, in that Christ
came to this earth and took upon him flesh, that he might become
of the same intrinsic nature of flesh that we are. As the
children have partaken of flesh, says Hebrews, so he likewise
partook of flesh. Why? That he might die in the
place, that he might satisfy the justice of God. For the justice
of God demanded human blood to be shed for human sin. And Christ,
God, had to become man, that which he was not before. He had
to become man that he might die the death that the law demands
for the redemption, for the payment of the sin debt, of the sins
of his people. They're made of one and the same
thing. They're of the same basic nature. Sister, but yet spouse. They couldn't be sister literally
in a marriage, because that is incest, and that is completely
forbidden by the word of God. But it's in the sense that they're
of the same nature. Just as Adam and Eve. Adam was
created in the first place by God. The first man to be created
at the end of the first week of creation. Then he made man.
Let us make man in our own image, said the triune God. Let us make
man in our own image. And man was made, but man was
lacking. Man was lacking. Man was incomplete. And so God made woman from man. He took, it says, in Genesis
a rib. I think you can you don't need
to take that literally as a literal rib from the man but he took
genetic material in fact if you look at the chromosomes it's
quite remarkable about that which distinguishes male from female
in terms of the chromosomes I'm no biologist but it's quite remarkable
you can picture that in what God says about taking a rib so
that the woman was flesh of his flesh Adam's flesh and bone of
his bones her flesh and bones Adam was made from dust, but
woman was made from Adam. That's the order in which God
did things. They are of the same nature.
Just as Eve was the flesh and bones of Adam because she was
made from him. She was made out of the same
genetic material. Miraculously, I don't know how,
God did it. male and female. So Christ is
united with his bride, his church. And do you remember when we read
Ephesians 5, those verses just before? Flesh of his flesh and
bones of his bones. His people, his church, is united
with him. United with him in a bond of
being of the same basic nature in the flesh. And what he is,
His bride is in everything in the reckoning of God. I've told
you this several times before, but it doesn't hurt to repeat
it because I think it's such a beautiful picture that when
we read in Jeremiah 23 verse 6, the name of the Son of God,
the name of the Messiah that was to come, the name of this
one, the Lord our righteousness. This is His name, the Lord our
righteousness. To the people of God, He, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is the Lord our righteousness. And then ten
chapters further on in chapter 33 verse 16, speaking of the
church, the people of God, the redeemed of the Lord, this is
the name by which she shall be called. the church. What is that
name? The Lord Our Righteousness. He
is the Lord Our Righteousness and the people that he's purchased
with his own blood are called the Lord Our Righteousness. That
is why in a human marriage ceremony, a biblical human marriage ceremony,
the wife takes the name of her husband. That's why it's like
that. That's why it's the way it is. It's a picture of the
absolute union that there is. And note that this underlines
particular redemption, doesn't it? Where in the Word of God
is there any concept of salvation being a thing that is offered?
It's nowhere. It's a declaration of that which
is accomplished. Christ didn't love those who
might decide to accept his offer, did he? Because how would he
know who they were? He didn't love those who might
or might not decide to accept his offer. He loved his church. Christ loved his church and gave
himself for it. What's his church? His elect.
Who's in his church? The innumerable multitude, the
multitude without number from every tribe and race and kindred
that ever lived throughout all humanity, his elect. but they're
the sovereign choice of God. And you say, well, I don't like
that because that might rule me out from believing the truth.
Well, let me give you a biblical answer to your objection. The
word of God says this, whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Whosoever. Does that rule you
out? Whosoever. Listen to what Jesus said to
the Pharisees. He said, No man can come to me
unless the Father that sent me draw him. No man can come, none
in his own strength can come to the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation unless the Father, God the Father that sent Christ,
unless he draw that one to himself. And then Jesus says immediately,
and he, whoever he is who comes, I will in no wise cast out. He will not turn away any who
come. So please don't tell me that
election rules anybody out. If you hear the voice of the
Son of God, If you hear and the Spirit moves you inside you to
hear and to see that which He's saying, and you come, He will
not turn you away. No. Calling and believing is
not the cause of redemption, but it's evidence. Your calling
on the name of the Lord is not the cause of your redemption,
it's the evidence that you have been redeemed by the Lord Jesus
Christ. As 2 Thessalonians 2.13 tells
us, Beloved, we're bound to give thanks to God for you always,
for God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Through what? Sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. No, the Son of God here
tells us that he is overcome with a look from his people.
Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me. You
know, we read in romantic tales, or it's perhaps best portrayed
in movies, you know, those old black and white movies, you know,
like the one at Canter station, what was it? Brief Encounter,
wasn't it? You know, you can imagine, you can see the scene.
And you know, there's those things where there's a crowded room,
but there's a look across the room. There's just a look across
a crowded room, and there's attraction, and there's desire. And in Song
of Solomon six, verse five, Christ admits to being overcome with
a look. Just chew that over for a moment
in your mind. The eternal God, manifested in
the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ declares
that these people who are by nature in the flesh and by practice
in their lives sinners and therefore to him the Holy One of God they
must be revolting and vile and an evil stench in their fleshly
nature yet when he looks at them he is so overcome with love that
he says, oh, turn that look away, oh, you've just completely overcome
me. When? When did this happen? Well,
in eternity, outside of time, because we read in the scriptures
in Jeremiah, he's loved us with an everlasting love, loved with
an everlasting love. From the, well, moment, time,
I can't use those terms because it's in eternity, it's outside
of time, but from God's sovereign choice of a people in Christ. That's when that look overcame
him. Christ looked on his people and
was overcome with love. redeeming love, self-sacrificing
love for them. And he declared his love. In
the book of Proverbs, chapter eight, is explicitly the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking. Wisdom, I am wisdom, wisdom.
Who is the wisdom of God? Of him, we are made, he is made
unto us. Wisdom from God and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. What is hid in the Lord Jesus
Christ? All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is wisdom. And in Proverbs 8, 31, wisdom
speaking, which is the Lord Jesus Christ speaking, he says, My
delights were with the sons of men. Which sons of men? Because God declares God is angry
with the wicked every day. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Our God is a consuming fire. Not every man, obviously. The
Lord Jesus Christ says his delights were with the sons of men that
were his by sovereign choice. God, we read in John 3.16, God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. What
does that mean? It means this. It means he so
loved sinners from all over the world without distinction. He didn't love Jews only and
hate Gentiles. He loved a world of sinners,
a world of his elect sinners that were given to his son before
the foundation of the world. And he so loved them that he
gave his son to redeem them, that they might not perish but
have everlasting life. His son so loved his bride, the
son of God so loved the bride that the father had given him,
that he came as a man to redeem them. He became, God became a
man to redeem his bride. Philippians 2, verses six to
nine, you know, let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
take anything. He didn't steal anything from
the Godhead that was not His by right when He was declared
equal with God. He is God. He is God from all
eternity. But being God, in order to accomplish
redemption according to the covenant of grace between the persons
of the Triune Godhead before the beginning of time, He made
Himself of no reputation. He who is of ultimate reputation
made himself of no reputation, and taking the form of a political
leader no he didn't take the form of a political leader he
took the form of a servant and he was made in the likeness of
men the likeness of sinful flesh as the children have been partakers
of flesh and blood so he also and he humbled himself can you
can you conceive of a bigger step down in humility that the
one who is eternal God reigning in glory that we will never understand
until we are there and we see his face in glory as the redeemed
of the Lord he humbled himself so that when the men and women
of his day looked upon him as Isaiah 53 says they saw no comeliness
in him that they might desire him They didn't see a man as
the artists paint him. You go to the National Gallery
and you look around at all the religious pictures and here's
this man walking and what distinguishes him is that there's a halo glowing
around his head. Not according to the ones that
saw him in his day. No comeliness that we should
desire him. They said of him when he said
that Abraham looked for his day and rejoiced in it, the Pharisees
said to him, you're not yet fifty years old. 50? He was 31 or 32. 50? He looked older than his
years. No comeliness that we should
desire him. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Well, all men die, don't they?
But this was the death of the cross. And we say, you know,
the cross has been It's been romanticized in our
culture. The old wooden cross, we used
to sing it, I can't believe we did. The old rugged cross, the
old rugged cross. It's not a symbol of beauty. It's something of shame. The
only beauty in it is to you and I who believe where we see that
there the Son of God redeemed me from my sins. But the cross
was a cross of shame, a cross of shame, a cross of cursing. There he bore the curse of the
law for his people. And because he did, it says,
God therefore also has highly exalted him and given him the
name which is above every name, that at the name of this one
who became so humble, Jesus, every knee should bow. He came
to pay the price of his people's sins that was owed to the offended
law and justice of God. Why? We already read it in Ephesians
5. Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse
it. He might make it holy. that he might set it apart for
his purpose, and cleanse it, cleanse it from its sin, from
its stain, with the washing of water by the word, that he might
present it to himself, a glorious church. This church of sinners
by nature, made by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. And
having redeemed his people and satisfied justice, he calls on
his people to look. He calls on them to look, but
then he's overcome with this look. Turn thine eyes away from
me, for they have overcome me. Where does God tell his people
to look? Isaiah 45, verses 21 and 22. He says, there is no
God else beside me. Oh, you young people, you will
hear all around how there's no God, there's no need for a God,
all of this wonderful design put itself together. No it didn't,
no it did not, absolutely not. The only reason supposedly intelligent
people hold to such utter abject nonsense is this, as Romans tells
us, the epistle to the Romans, man did not like to retain God
in his knowledge. Why don't they like to retain
God in their knowledge? Because if there is a God, they're
accountable to that God. They're accountable to that God.
And yet, everything around us screams that somebody has designed
it. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made, says the psalmist. And so it is. So it is. Fearfully and wonderfully made.
No, there is no God else beside me. God says, I am a just God. God is always just. He must always
punish sin. His law is absolutely unchangeable. It cannot be bribed, it cannot
be circumvented. A just God, but a God who is
a saviour. How is he a saviour? By what
I've already described. By what we seek to preach every
single time we meet together. That Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom, as Paul said, I am chief. Call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins
by doing that which satisfies the law in their place. God says,
there is none beside me. He says, look unto me, and be
ye saved, all the ends of the earth, without distinction, for
I am God and there is none else. Look unto me. There is life in
a look at the crucified one, says that hymn. There is life,
look unto me and be ye saved. Look unto me. But what will persuade
people to look? What will persuade people to
look? Will it be the gimmicks of the marketing of this world?
As we see going up the road this last week? Is that what will
persuade people to look? No. It's the Holy Spirit. Psalm
110 verse 3, thy people shall be willing in the day of thy
power, made willing to look and be saved. Just as the Israelites,
bitten in Numbers 21 thereabouts, bitten by the serpents, because
they complained and God sent fiery serpents among them, and
they were bitten and these were poisonous serpents and many people
died. And Moses was told, make an image
of bronze of the very thing that's causing the death. Make an image
of it and lift it up on a pole and say to them, look and live. Look and whoever looked in faith,
whoever looked believing the word of God, they recovered from
their venomous snake bites and Jesus said the son of man just
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must
the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish but have everlasting life you know as I've told you
many times it's not the looking that saves it isn't it's not
the looking don't make looking don't make believing don't make
faith into a work that you do it's not the looking that saves
but what is being looked at with the eye of faith what is being
looked at and faith is not of yourselves it is the gift of
God for you're saved by grace looking simply apprehends that
which is already done and accomplished This isn't cold and mechanical,
for that look overcomes our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see? That
the look of the believing heart overcomes the Lord Jesus Christ. It says it here in this verse.
Turn your eyes away from it, they've overcome me. That look,
save me from my sins Lord. There is such love and fondness
and deep affection. Doesn't it speak of deep, intimate
affection, these words here, despite his church's human condition,
despite what we are by nature? Look at verse 13 of chapter 6.
what will ye see in the Shulamite second half of the verse what
will you see in the Shulamite as it were the company of two
armies what are these two armies that are in the Shulamite in
the church in the bride flesh and spirit as long as we're in
this life and they're contrary as Galatians chapter five tells
us the spirit and the flesh war against one another and so isn't
that our experience just like Paul recounts his experience
in Romans seven that as a believer you hate sin and yet you constantly
sin as one of the hymns that we sung stated who can half our
baseness tell satan's captives and we loved his service well
and we loved his service well sinning constantly yet hating
sin warring against one another loving the fellowship of God
yet slothful with fleshly ease as we saw in chapter five you
know he's come and she's oh she's washed her feet she's settled
down she's cozy she doesn't want to get up and be disturbed nevertheless
despite this frailty of the human condition as they say beauty
is in the eye of the beholder And when Christ looks on his
bride, even in her flesh, he sees nothing but beauty that
overcomes his heart with deep affection. The beauty that he
has made her to be. And chapters 6 and 7 Overflow
with superlatives as the groom describes his bride and vice
versa read it again for yourself I'm not going to go and try and
Spiritualize every one of these pictures. Let's just say it's
a picture of intimate mutual affection and love It overflows
with it. To be a Christian is not simple
assent to a set of spiritual propositions. You know, there
is a God, oh yes, tick, I'll agree with that. God's created
things, it didn't evolve. Yes, tick, I'll agree with that.
We're sinners because God's holy. Yeah, okay, tick, I'll agree
with that. And because you're a sinner, it needed somebody
to come and redeem from the curse of the law and pay the law's
price. Yes, tick, tick, I'll believe that. Yes, okay, so that's
it. No, that's just cold, mechanical. No, it is to experience and know
from the heart what it says in verse 3 of chapter 6. Verse 3,
chapter 6. This is the believer speaking,
I and my beloveds. And my beloved is mine. There's
a mutual ownership, a mutual love for one another. So the
risen Lord Jesus Christ, you know when he meets the forlorn
fisherman and he's risen from the dead and they haven't seen
him for a few days and they've gone fishing and they've been
complete failures and he shouts from the shore and they don't
recognize him to start with and he says, have you caught anything?
And they say, no, nothing. Experienced fisherman, fished
all night, nothing whatsoever. Put your net on the other side.
And they do, and it nearly sinks the boat. There's so many fish,
so many huge fish. And they come ashore, and he's
cooked breakfast for them, and they're having breakfast. And
he looks at Peter, who said, I'll never betray you. And he
looks at him, and he says, Peter, Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you. And how it must have panged his conscience, because he knew
he was the one, despite his bragging, who had denied Christ three times
on that fateful night. Peter, do you love me? Feed my
sheep, feed my lambs. Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord,
you know all things, you know. Do we love him perfectly as we
ought to? No, of course we don't. Not in the flesh, we never will
until we put off this body of flesh and go to glory. But his
people love him. To you who believe, he is precious. What is the end game? I'm going
to finish with this. The end game of this love match.
What is the end game of it? Paul writes to the Corinthians,
in 1 Corinthians 15, 19, he says this. If in this life only we
have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Why? Well, you've deprived yourself
of the things that the world's children love and aspire to. But the believer's hope is eternal. The marriage betrothal, the engagement
that is now, reaches its consummation in eternity. Let me remind you
of Revelation. There we see repeatedly pictures
of the redeemed people of God in heaven, endlessly praising
God. When we get to the end of it,
in 19 and verse 1, there John looks and he sees much people
in heaven, and they're all singing the praises of the Lamb of God.
In verse 7 of chapter 19, the Lamb's wife is made ready, and
it's granted to her to be clothed with righteousness. She's got
the righteousness of God upon her. And in verse 9, there's
an eternal marriage supper, one that goes on without any end
for it's outside of time. And in 21 verse 2, there's a
new Jerusalem, which is as a bride adorned for her husband. And
the picture is of God dwelling in intimate communion with his
people. He shall be their God and they
shall be his people. Intimate, unbroken, close communion. of those who are redeemed from
their sins, who have shaken off this body of flesh, and are clothed
with new bodies in eternal glory, in perfect, righteous perfection
forever with God. In 22 verse 3, God's servants
marked with God's name, serving God, and seeing His face in eternal
light. This is the goal the endless
end, the consummation of this love story of God for his elect
and his elect's love for him? Is that your experience? Or that
it might be the saving experience of everyone who hears this message?