If you'll open your Bibles again
tonight to the Song of Solomon, Chapter 5, as God the Holy Spirit
will enable me, I want to tell you about my beloved. I hope you never tire of hearing
of him. It is never a weariness to me to speak of him. His name
is Jesus Christ the Lord. He is my Savior, my Prophet,
my Priest, my King. my all. He is my Lord and he
is my God. But more than that, Jesus Christ
is the beloved one of my heart, the friend of my soul. He's the
chiefest among 10,000. He's altogether lovely. I pray
that God, the Holy Ghost, has created in your heart a desire
to know him. This is the thing I want for
you. This is the thing for which I labor. This is the object of
all that I do as your pastor. The reason I preach to you. The
reason I write the things I write. This is the one thing I desire
of God for you. The one thing I desire of God
for you. The one thing I desire of God
for my own children. This one thing. Just this one
thing. that you may know Him, that you
may know Jesus Christ the Lord, whom to know is life eternal. It's not enough just that you
know the doctrine of Christ, though that's needful. I want
you to know Christ Himself. It's not enough that you merely
know about Christ crucified on the tree. You must know Christ
crucified in your own heart. Oh, may it please the Lord God
to make him the beloved of your heart and the friend of your
soul this very hour. Let me tell you about my beloved. All beauty, excellence and perfection,
divine and human, dwells in the person of our dear Savior. He's
the perfect God. He's the perfect man. All that
our soul needs, all that will satisfy our hearts is found in
Christ and found in Him in infinite abundance. Let me refresh your
memories of what we looked at this morning in this fifth chapter
of the Song of Solomon. The Lord Jesus had come to bless
his church with his presence, with his fellowship, with his
communion. But he found his church asleep, slothful and negligent. He was shamefully treated with
neglect. And he graciously put his hand
in by the hole of the door and caused her to desire him. He creates within us. a desire
for Him. When we neglect Him, when we
turn our backs upon Him, when we abandon Him, bless God, He
doesn't neglect us. He never turns His back upon
us. He never abandons us, but rather,
He graciously comes and causes our hearts to seek Him anew. When he did, the Lord Jesus withdrew
himself from his loved one, his church, his bride, his chosen,
not in a desire to punish her. That's never his object. He simply
intended to cause her to see his preciousness anew. So in
order to make her value and esteem him, the Lord Jesus withdrew
himself and hid himself for a while from his bride. At last, we see
the church, the bride of Christ, his beloved, holding him precious. When she had lost the sense of
his presence, she saw how valuable, how needful, how necessary he
is. And she gives this solemn charge
to those around her in verse 8. I charge you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him I
am sick of love. Now let's look at verses 9 through
16. I'll call your attention to three things in this text. First, the question. What is
thy beloved more than another beloved? And then in verses 10
through 16, the answer. She says, my beloved is and tells
us what he is. And then in the last part of
verse 16, the assurance. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. Now, here's the question. These
daughters of Jerusalem, when they're charged by the bride,
say, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou
fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another
beloved that thou dost so charge us? Some suggest that this is
a question of scorn and ridicule given by people who do not know
the Lord Jesus. There are those. There are those
assembled here tonight, possibly. There are those assembled in
every church. across the world in all ages
of time who wear his name but do not know him. Those who look
upon the believer's loving attachment to Christ as fanaticism. They think that we make much
ado about nothing. I trust none of you are so obstinately
foolish. I hope there are some here tonight
who would raise this question seriously. I hope that you, seeing
our joy in Christ, seeing how God's people truly treasure him
as the pearl of great price, are made desirous of knowing
him. You've heard us testify that he's excellent. You've heard
us speak of his obedience and his depth. You've heard us speak
of his righteousness and his blood, of his satisfaction of
divine justice by the sacrifice of himself, of him putting away
sin, of the blessed gift of faith in him. The saving mercy of our
God is great, and we speak of it constantly. I hope you're
convinced that there must be something more to him than you
ever imagined. that there is now in your heart
an earnest desire to know Him. Oh, to know Him. I hope some
of you have such a desire. There's hope for people who begin
to inquire about the beauty, the perfection, and the excellence,
and the glory, and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you raise the question? What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? What is it that makes him so
precious? What is it that causes him to
be your delight? What is it that causes your soul
to run after him? What is it that causes you so
highly to esteem him and to exalt him and worship him? Let me give
you the answer. Look at verses 10 through 16. My beloved is white and ruddy. The chiefest among 10,000, his
head is as the most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black
as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices,
as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies dropping
with sweet-smelling myrrh. His hands, there is gold rings
set with beryl. His belly is like bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon,
excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Yea,
he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved. And this
is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. This is my beloved. Nothing pleases me more than
to speak of him. My heart grieves that I so often
grieve him, so that he withdraws himself from me for a while.
But nothing more pleases me than for the opportunity of describing
him to you. Let me tell you about my beloved,
something of his beauties. Spurgeon expressed it magnificently
this way. What the hand is to the lute,
what breath is to the flute, what fragrance is to the smell,
what spring is to the well, what the flower is to the bee, That
is Jesus Christ to me. What the mother is to the child,
what the compass is in pathless wild, what oil is to the troubled
wave, what ransom is to the slave, what water is to the sea, that
is Jesus Christ to me. What is thy beloved more than
nothing beloved? Let me give you first a general
description of his character. In verse 10, we read, my beloved
is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. The Lord Jesus
is one of incomparable perfection, unparalleled beauty, and infinite
excellence. He's so infinitely precious above
all others that he alone is precious. His loveliness so infinitely
higher than the loveliness of others that he alone is lovely.
He has everything in himself that's pleasant, lovely, and
admirable. He's white and ruddy. I'm certain
those two words at least refer to the excellence of his divine
glory as God. He's white. And the excellence
of his mediatorial character as man, he's ruddy. In him are
all the perfections of the eternal God. And in him, everything my
soul needs. Everything my soul needs. He is the immaculate, holy, eternal
God and is made of God unto me, wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption. And when all said and done, all
we need is the wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption
that Christ is. He's white in the spotless innocence
of his life and ruddy in the bloody sufferings of his death.
He's white in his glory as God and ruddy in his incarnation
as man. Indeed, the name Adam. The name
given for man means red earth. Jesus Christ is the pure, perfect
God, white, and he's ready. He is man, perfect man. He's white in his tenderness
toward his people, and he is ready in his anger, vengeance,
and wrath upon his enemies. My beloved is so infinitely above
others, there's none to compare to him. He's called here the
chiefest among 10,000. In comparison with the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Apostle Paul tells us every other object of love. In comparison with Christ, every
other object of love is counted but done. He is altogether lovely. Our glorious Christ is higher
than the kings of the earth. He has obtained a more excellent
name than all those in heaven, earth, or hell. The Lord God
says, I will make him my firstborn higher than the kings of the
earth because of his obedience unto death. Because by his obedience
and death as our substitute having finished the work of Redemption
the Lord God declares that he has highly exalted him and given
him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus Christ every
tongue should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and
things under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father and Hold your hands in
the song of Solomon and turn to the opening chapter of the
book of Hebrews Hebrews chapter 1 Listen to how the Lord God
the Holy Spirit Describes the superlative excellence of our
dear Savior Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 God who at sundry times and
in divers manners spake in time past under the fathers by the
prophets and hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son. He has now spoken by his son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, who being the brightness
of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." Back here in
the Song of Solomon. In his church, the Lord Jesus
is the chief cornerstone. Among his brethren, he's the
firstborn. Among the resurrected, he's the
first begotten. He is the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end, the firstborn of every creature.
God has made Christ to be preeminent in all things. And in the hearts
of his people, he is indeed preeminent. He is the excellent Savior, our
blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus. That one who is our creator,
our sustainer, our fullness, our righteousness, our redemption,
our forgiveness, that one who is our meekness to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life is Christ our Lord. This
word chiefest among 10,000. If you look in the marginal reference
of your Bible, it might be translated, the standard bearer among 10,000.
Jesus Christ is lifted up as the ensign to whom all God's
elect across the world throughout the ages of time are gathered
and to whom we gather. He is the banner lifted up around
whom we rally. He said, I, if I be lifted up,
will draw all men unto me. You ask what? Is thy beloved
more than another beloved? My beloved is white and ruddy,
the chiefest among ten thousand." But that's not all, that's just
a general description of his character. Let me look at it
in a little more detail. I want you to see the excellence
of his beauty, the fullness of his power, and the accomplishments
of his grace. I want you to see that in every
way, Jesus Christ the Lord is worthy of all the worship and
praise we give him for he is fully qualified for the work
of redeeming and saving his people and bringing us at last to heaven.
He's so transcendentally glorious that he is both great and gracious. Look at first at his head. Verse
11, his head is as the most fine gold. His head speaks of his
sovereignty, his dominion. He's the head of all things. Like gold, the sovereign Christ
is beautiful, strong, and precious. Believers never object to it. Believers never object to it.
I know religious people object to his sovereignty Believers
never object to it that which gives our Lord great beauty in
the eyes of his people is his absolute sovereignty head over
all things to the church that is to say he who is our Savior
sits upon the lofty throne of heaven and rules the universe
and for the good of his church, for the good of our souls, for
the everlasting benefit of our souls. Like, let me tell you
about his hair. His hair, his locks are bushy,
black as a raven. Over in Revelation chapter four,
you don't need to turn there, his hair is referred to as white. Whiteness speaking of his eternality
and his wisdom. His head, John said, and his
hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were
as a flame of fire. But here, his hair is described
as being black. Is there a contradiction? No. Both statements are spoken
of our Savior, not physically, obviously, but spoken of Him
in spiritual reference to His character. The whiteness speaks
of His purity, His wisdom, and His eternality. The blackness
spoken of here speaks of His perpetual strength and power.
He who is our Savior is the eternal God, full of wisdom, pure. And He is everlasting strength,
so that there is no possibility I'll fail you with Him. Look
at his eyes. His eyes, why they are as the
eyes of doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and
fitly set. Like dove's eyes, his eyes are
pure, always peaceable toward us. His eyes are penetrating,
like a flame of fire penetrating, but like a dove's eyes, those
peaceful, peaceful eyes, look at you like they can just see
right through you. So our Savior sees right through us. His eyes
are penetrating and His eyes are both tender and powerful. Peter cussed and denied the Savior. And when he had done so that
third time, the Lord Jesus turned and looked on Peter. Can you
imagine the look? Oh, what a look. Looked right
through him. Looked right through him. And
looked upon him, not in anger, not in wrath, not in harsh judgment,
but in tenderness. Peter, I told you, you believe
in God, believe also in me. Peter, I told you, trust me. Peter, I told you, my love for
you is love to the end. And his eyes look right through
Peter. His eyes never blink. Never turned
aside, his eyes punish his enemies, but for us, they're eyes of tenderness,
love, and peace. Look at his cheeks. His cheeks
are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers. This is called a love song because
it is a song about the love of Christ for his church. and a
song about the love of the church for Christ. And lovers speak
to one another and speak of one another in extravagant ways,
in unusual ways. My wife and I, the year we were
engaged, were separated for a year. We saw each other only twice,
Thanksgiving and Christmas, before we were married in June. But
we called every day. Every night we called. Seventy-five
cents a call, three quarters, three minutes. And wrote every
day. Being a man, I didn't have good
sense and I didn't keep the letters to blackmail her. She has kept
the letters. Some of them she's discarded,
but she's kept them. I beg her, please burn those
before somebody else sees them. Please, please, I'd be embarrassed
for you to read them. But I'm not at all embarrassed
for her to go read them. Because lovers speak extravagantly
of one another and to one another, but not here. Not here. The Lord Jesus never
speaks extravagantly, but rightly. And we never speak extravagantly
of him and his beauty. The very sight of his face, like
a rich, fragrant garden, is reviving, refreshing, and pleasing. His
lips, his lips are like lilies dropping with sweet-smelling
myrrh. They're so sweet and pleasant.
The words of his lips are sweeter than honey in the honeycomb.
The kisses of his lips are better than wine. Grace is poured into
his lips and grace pours forth from his lips. Grace was poured
into his lips as our covenant surety before the world began
when he said, I will go, I will pay the price, I will redeem
them, I will bring them to you. Here am I, send me, I'll save
your people. And grace poured forth from his
lips when he suffered as my substitute at Calvary. He said, forgive,
forgive, forgive. Forgive them, they know not what
they do. Oh my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And at last
he cries, it is finished. Oh, what grace poured from his
lips. And grace poured from the lips
of our Savior when he came to us and said, live. He said, I've
loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, have I drawn thee. And grace continually pours forth
from his lips to our souls day by day in sweet forgiveness,
in mercy and in loving kindness. His hands, verse 14. His hands are as gold rings set
with beryl. His hands, like golden rings
fitted to the finger, are fitted to accomplish their purpose.
His hands are fitted to save his people from their sins. His
hands, like the king's signet, seal God's covenant grace. The
piercing of his hands in death was the ratifying of that covenant.
His hands. Hold open and fulfill the book
of God's purpose day by day. His hands, His hands hold the
reins of universal monarchy. Over all things, He holds dominion. Again, verse 14, His belly, His
bowels of compassion, what it's talking about, His heart is as
ivory overlaid with sapphires. When you speak of the emotions
of the heart, and the feelings of the heart, deep emotions. The emotions aren't felt here.
They're not felt here, they're felt here. The deep seated compassion
of our Savior, His belly is speaking of His heart. The love of Christ's
heart for His people is strong and firm as ivory. And the many
instances of His love by which He reveals His love to us. sapphires
and precious jewels. His election, His redemption,
His forgiveness, His justification, His righteousness, His sanctification,
His holiness, His salvation, His preservation, all these things
are but jewels of reflecting and showing us His infinite love
for us. At last, He will present us spotless
before the presence of His glory because of His love for us. Look at His legs, verse 15. His
legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of gold. His
legs. There was a day when these legs
were strong, muscular. Hold up anything I took a notion
to hold up. Those legs are strong. His legs,
his legs are like pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine
gold. That speaks of his stability,
his faithfulness, his strength, his power. He is able. Able to what? Whatever the need
is. He's able. He's able to save
to the uttermost all who come to God by him. He's able to carry
you through. He's able to sustain your soul.
He's able to pick you up when fallen. He's able to hold you,
to guide you, to strengthen you. He is able for he's the rock. Now, let me tell you about his
countenance, his appearance. Verse 15, his countenance is
as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. In height, in strength,
in power, in grace, in beauty, in love, he excels all others. There's no rival to him. And
his mouth, verse 16, is most sweet. The words of his mouth
are sweet to his people. The precepts of His Word, all
of them, all of them. Oh, how sweet to those who know
Him. Every word He speaks. There's
not a commandment given in the book, not one we don't cherish,
not one. The precepts of His Word. Not
only that, but the principles of his word are sweet. Every
principle of grace revealed in the book is sweet to our souls.
And the promises, oh, how sweet the promises. How sweet the promises. You find the Psalms. to be thick pages in the lives
of men and women who've carried the same Bible for a long time.
They're thick pages because they're full of promises, full of promises. And when our hearts are heavy,
we go to the promises and read them afresh. And they're sweet
to our souls. The kisses of his mouth, the
many tokens of his love and goodness have a transcendent excellence
and sweetness about them. When I read about the kisses
of his mouth, I can't help but to remember the prodigal who
comes home to his father. And when it was yet a great way
off, his father saw him. He saw who he was, where he'd
been. all that he had done, and he
saw everything he would do for him. And when he saw him, he
ran. The only time in this book there's
a picture of God getting in a hurry, he ran. He ran. And he ran to his son and fell
on his neck and kissed him. If you could read that in the
original language, you'd have to read it like this. He fell
on his neck and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and
kissed him and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him. Just
smothered him with kisses. Oh, that's what Christ does for
our souls. His lips are full of kisses of
grace for his people. What more can I say? What more
can I tell you about my beloved? He's all together lovely. Another way of expressing that
is unto you, therefore, which believe he's precious. He's truly
lovely, completely lovely. There's nothing about him, but
that which is lovely and nothing truly lovely, but that which
is in him. All that we need. All I desire
and I hope all you desire is in him Whom have I in heaven
but thee And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee My heart and my flesh faileth But
God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever His divinity
is lovely. His humanity is lovely. His redemption,
His salvation is lovely. His providence is lovely. He
is even lovely in the exercise of justice and judgment, showing
forth the perfection of His character. Now, look at verse 16. Here's
the assurance our dear Savior gives to all who trust Him. The
assurance He gives to all who trust Him. I call on you now. Trust the son of God. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And go home with this assurance
in your soul. Settled forever. This is my beloved. And this is my friend. I know
that Christ is all in all the fullness of his grace and glory
is mine. For just one reason. I trust
him. That's all. That's all. This
statement, my beloved is mine and I am his. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. That statement is made by the
church, the bride, here in the Song of Solomon chapter 5, when
there were absolutely no evidences to support it. None. The Lord Jesus came knocking. Open to me, my love, my dove,
my sister, my undefiled. And a more shameful, more sinful,
more obnoxious response could not be given. Don't bother me. Don't bother me. We often speak of David's crime
and Peter's crime and the crimes of others. Never did one loved
of Christ respond more horribly to him than what we have right
here in Solomon chapter 5. I'm resting. I'm comfortable.
Don't bother me. I've already, I've already taken
care of all this business of righteousness and peace and holiness.
I'm yours in your mind and I'll rest in my bed. I don't want
to defile my feet. Don't bother me. And yet now
she seeks him. And the watchman has stripped
her veil from her, exposed her corruption to her. And she has
nothing about her. By which she can say, now here,
here is proof that I'm his and he's mine. But while there's
no tokens, no evidences at all, she says, this is my beloved
and this is my friend. He is my Lord and my God. In all his offices, in all his
works, in all his ways, in all his provisions, he's mine, always
mine, now and forever. He's mine in all his possessions. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which
is the head of all principality and power. This is my beloved
and this is my friend. He's mine when He openly reveals Himself
and kisses me with the kisses of His mouth. And He's mine when
He hides Himself and sweetly forces me to seek Him. He's mine when I sense that He's
mine. And He's mine when I have no
sense of Him at all. In prosperity and in adversity,
in health and in sickness, in joy and in sorrow, in strength
of soul and in weakness of soul, in reviving of heart and languishing
of heart, Jesus Christ is mine and I am His. Because he is mine,
he's my beloved. He loves me, and I love him. We love him because he first
loved us. He is my one true love. I have willingly Deliberately
given myself to him My heart is for him only for him not for
another But what about your wife your daughter grandchildren your
son-in-law what about us? Here on this earth my heart I
give to you But you are no rival for him She is no rival for him
And I know in her heart I'm no rival for him. We who are his
give our hearts to him, only to him. And the Lord Jesus is
my friend. Shelby and I often talk, especially
when we're returning from a trip somewhere, we're the richest
people in the world. We have friends all over the
world. all over the world. There's no
place in this country where I might not drive in just a couple of
hours and pick up a phone and call someone, say I'm visiting,
or my wife and I are visiting, or even my wife, my daughter,
my son-in-law, my two grandchildren are passing through the area.
Could we stay with you tonight and be perfectly comfortable
to do so? Have friends everywhere. But
that's because He who is their friend and our friend is the
same. Jesus Christ is my beloved. He's my God and he's my friend. Oh, what a friend. The faithful
friend who sticketh closer than a brother. He's powerful, sympathetic, patient,
tender, unchanging, wise, and good. Touched always with the
feeling of our infirmities. Always able and always willing
to succor his people. He's my friend. Now, I'm done
when I can tell you about my beloved. I want to tell you what
I can, and I want you to know it. I don't know whether you'll
ever trust Him or not, but I'm here to tell you Jesus Christ
is worthy of your trust. I don't know whether or not you
will ever love Him, but I'm here to tell you He is worthy of your
love. I don't know whether you'll ever
devote yourself to Him or not, but I'm here to tell you that
Jesus Christ the Lord is worthy of your complete devotion. I
don't know whether you'll ever worship Him or not, but I'm here
to tell you. My beloved, God the Son, my Savior,
is worthy of your worship. Oh, God give you grace to trust
Him, to love Him, to devote yourself to Him, to worship Him. Amen.