Suppose that you and your wife
had been invited to a very exclusive affair. Black-tie dinner with
some world-renowned dignitaries. Your wife spends the week shopping,
getting just the right dress and shoes and purse. She spent
the morning at the beauty parlor getting her hair all fixed up,
and she's gotten dressed now. You help her with a necklace
and a bracelets and just as you start to walk out the door she
stops that full-length mirror and straightens her skirt out
and Fluffs her hair one more time says how do I look? Now
just in case you're wondering be sure you've got the right
answer How do I look That's my subject this evening. How do
I look? Let's find out turn to Song of
Solomon chapter 4 Song of Solomon, Chapter 4. In the third chapter of the Song
of Solomon, the bride speaks of the beauty of the Lord Jesus,
describes the magnificent beauty of our dear Savior. In this fourth
chapter, the Lord Jesus describes the beauty of his bride. Are you ready? Child of God,
this is how the master describes you. 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 come up from the washing, whereof
every one bear twins, and none is barren among them. Thy lips,
like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely. Thy temples
are like a piece of pomegranate within thy locks. Thy neck is
like the Tower of David, builded for an armory, whereon hang a
thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two breasts
are like two young rolls that are twins, which feed among the
lilies until the daybreak, until the shadows flee away, I will
get me to the mountain of Myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.
Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amman, from
the top of Shinar and Hermon, from the lion's dens and from
the mountains of leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine and the smell of thine ointments than all spices. Thy lips, oh
my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue. The smell of thy garments is
like the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse. A spring shut up, a fountain
sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of
pomegranates with pleasant fruits. camphor with spikenard, spikenard
in saffron, calamus in cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes with all the chief spices, a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon. Now, please understand. I must
always make this statement when we read the Song of Solomon.
This is one of those portions of scripture that must be understood
entirely as an allegory. It must be understood entirely
in a figurative spiritual sense. This is not the love story of
a man and a woman. This is not a love story between
Solomon and the Shulamite, though that is the analogy that's used.
This is a love story that speaks of the love of Christ for his
church and the love of God's church for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this becomes very apparent
in just this portion that we've read. Solomon here speaks of
the Shulamite as both his spouse and his sister. That would be
atrocious were we to think of it in a carnal sense for a man
to be married to his sister. That's beyond atrocious. But
here the Lord Jesus speaks to his bride as his spouse and his
sister because the church of Christ is indeed his sister. He took upon himself our nature
in the incarnation. And he makes us partakers of
the divine nature and regeneration. He clothed himself with a body
like ours, with our flesh. And he clothes the believer with
his spirit. Christ owns his church and loves
us as his sister, because we are the children of God, his
father and our father. And both he that sanctifies and
they who are sanctified are all of one. That is, we are one with
him in the family of God, one with him as the sons of God.
But there's also a marriage covenant between Christ and his church.
Every believing soul is married to Christ, members of the church,
which is his bride and his body. We are the bride, he's the bridegroom. We are espoused to Christ and
he is espoused to us. We are wed to him and he's wed
to us. We are no more two but one flesh,
bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, members of Christ
himself. Nothing more beautifully, nothing
more clearly demonstrates the love between Christ and his people
His love for us and our love for him, then the relationship
of love that exists between a man and a woman who genuinely love
one another. I don't pretend to understand
every detail of these 15 verses. This poetic imagery is beyond
my comprehension in many, many ways. So I won't try to explain
everything in the verses we've read. The imagery stands for
itself. But as we move along, I believe
the Lord has given me some understanding in the experience of his grace
described here. And as he gives me more understanding,
I'll try to share that with you. But this evening, we'll simply
walk along the shores of this deep ocean and gather the precious
jewels the Lord Jesus has scattered for us. Those things that are
unknown, the depths that are beyond us, we'll leave alone.
But there's much here that's obvious and blessed to our souls. How do I look? Here, the Lord
Jesus tells us what his own estimate of his church is. His own estimate. Now, a woman
who loves her husband finds joy and comfort not in
how she looks to herself and not in how she looks in the eyes
of others, but how she looks in the eyes of her husband. That's
all that matters. Nothing else is a real concern.
How does he esteem me? If he looks upon her with delight
and satisfaction, seeing in her beauty that is in none other,
then she has all her joy and all her delight in that. So it
is with the believer. Our comfort, our joy, is not
in how we appear to ourselves. Thank God that's not the case.
If you find comfort and joy in how you appear to yourself, then
I'm here to tell you, you've never seen yourself as you really
are. Our comfort and our joy is not
to be found in how others see us. If your comfort and joy is
found in how others look upon you, what others make of you,
how others judge your righteousness, your godliness, your faithfulness,
your devotion, your purity. If that's where your comfort
and joy is found, I'm here to tell you you're nothing but a
self-righteous Pharisee. Our joy and our comfort all together
is found in how the Son of God beholds us. How the Son of God beholds us. He to whom we are married declares
thou art all fair, my love. Three times he says thou art
fair, thou art fair. Thou art all fair, my love. There
is no spot in thee. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes. with one chain of thy neck. Now
let me call your attention to three things in these 15 verses.
Excuse me. Here's the first thing to be
learned. A lesson we need to learn and once learned is most
comforting to our hearts. But a lesson that we are all,
we who believe, we are all most reluctant to learn. The Lord Jesus in verses one
through seven declares that his church is perfect in beauty. That's an amazing declaration. The son of God looks upon you
who are here. and declares that you are perfect
in beauty. Perfect before him. Perfect in
his eyes. Now, let me repeat what I've
told you many times in recent months. We often say, well, this
is how God sees things. James, however God sees things
is how they really are. If he declares that you're perfect,
you're perfect. If he declares that your beauty
is without spot, your beauty is without spot. No matter what
I see and no matter what you see. All right, let's read verses
one through seven again. 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 come up from the washing, whereof
every one 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. Thy neck is
like the tower of David, builted for an armory, whereon there
hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men. Thy two
breasts are like two young rose that are twins, which feed among
the lilies. Until the daybreak and the shadows
flee away, I will get me to the mountain of mirth and to the
hill of frankincense. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Now there's no beauty in you
or in me by nature. There is in us by nature nothing
but corruption, nothing but darkness, nothing but death, nothing but
sin. There is no beauty in us that
he should desire us. Nothing in us to attract his
heart toward us. Nothing in us appealing to him. There's no beauty in any of us
by nature. In our own esteem, there's nothing
beautiful in us. We who are his. The more we know
Christ, the more clearly we know ourselves. And the more we know
ourselves, the more obnoxious we know ourselves to be. Is that not so? Is that not so? The more we see his beauty, the
more we see our ugliness. The more we see his holiness,
the more we see our sinfulness. The more we see his perfection,
the more we see our deformity. There's no beauty in us by nature
and none to be esteemed by us in ourselves. But in the eyes
of the Lord Jesus, we are perfect in beauty. In him, in his eyes,
we're complete, beautiful, perfect. Turn to Ephesians chapter five.
Ephesians chapter five, our Lord Jesus has made us perfect. He made
us beautiful. You get to Ephesians, the fifth
chapter. Sadly, the bulk of commentators, old and new, the good ones as
well as the bad ones, sadly, misunderstand Paul's purpose
in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. Paul is not here giving us instructions
about the kind of husbands men ought to be, or kind of wives
women ought to be. That certainly is included, but
that's not his purpose here. You will not find in this place,
you will not find this preacher spending time talking about those
things very much. Occasionally, because it's needed
occasionally. But if I were to announce this
week that I'm going to begin a series of messages on the family,
husbands and wives, and how a husband ought to be to his wife and a
woman ought to be to her husband, then folks would start to come
and they'd listen. And the folks who'd listen, they'd
listen for a little while and be talking about how a husband
ought to love his wife. And Mark would go home and he'd
say, I want to I will be a better husband. I will be a better father
and start working on things. And then he'd get things kind
of straightened up and he'd be more complimentary and nicer.
And if it's possible, he'd be nicer and sweeter and be a better
daddy. And then in a few weeks he'd,
he said, man, I sure wish Rex was here. He needed to hear that.
And that's always the result when works are the theme. Always
the result. Never does it vary. Never does
it vary. Paul's theme here is not the
marriage of a man and a woman. He says, I speak not concerning
a man and a woman, but I'm talking about Christ and his church.
Now, what's this? Ephesians 5, verse 25, Husbands,
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. And here's the reason he did
that. that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word, with the washing of regeneration by the
preaching of the gospel, that he might present it to himself
a glorious church. Watch this. Not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing. He died to sanctify us. He died to make us whole. To make us whole. He comes and
causes those who are sick and infirm, he makes them whole again. And all of those miracles of
mercy performed on men's body designed to show us pictures
of miracles of mercy performed in our souls. He died to make
us whole. What's that mean? He died so
that we might in him have no spot of sin, no wrinkle of infirmity,
or any such thing. That was the object of our Redeemer
in his death, but that we, that it, his church, should be holy
and without blemish. How do I look? holy and without
blemish. Oh, my soul, dares a man? Dares a man? Imagine such. Not except you
have God's word for it. Holy and without blemish. In the teeth of just the evil
that I sense in my soul this second. The son of God declares, I am
holy and without blemish. What does that mean? That means,
Larry Brown, that I am holy and without blemish. That's what
that means. No matter what I am by nature,
no matter what I do in time, holy and without blemish, without
spot, without wrinkle, without any such thing. He has thoroughly
removed every spot of sin from us by his blood. And he has implanted
within us a new holy nature that cannot sin. Look at 1 John 3. Brother Bobby read this back
in the office just a few minutes ago. First John chapter 3. Verse 5. You know that he was manifested
to take away our sins. He was manifested to take away
our sins. Either he did it or he didn't. There's no in between
ground. He did it for in him is no sin. We're in him and in him is no
sin. Whosoever abideth in him Sineth
not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Now the words might very well
there be understood. Whosoever abideth in him does
not habitually practice sin. But you know, and I know, that
though we are born of God, we do habitually practice sin. But
not that new man. Not that new man created in righteousness
and true holiness. Not that new man put in you by
the Spirit of God. Read on. Little children, let
no man deceive you. He that doeth righteous is righteous,
even as he is righteous. He who habitually practices righteousness. That's what that new man does.
He loves the law of God. with all his heart. He loves
God with all his soul and all his being. That new man is born
of God and cannot sin. Let's see. He that committeth
sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. Now watch verse 9.
Here the Spirit of God tells us exactly what John is teaching.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him. And he, how does it read? Cannot. He cannot. He cannot sin. Because he's born
of God. Brother Todd Nybert called me
a few weeks ago and we were talking about this very thing. And I
said to Todd, when you sin, that's you. That's what you really
are by nature. And what we do that may be called
godliness and righteousness and true holiness, believing God,
seeking to serve him, serving one another, that's you. That
really is you. That really is you. That's what
you are by grace. The sin is the old man in you. Righteousness, the new man in
you. Well, how can that be? Our Lord
Jesus walked on this earth, one man, two natures, God and humanity. And you cannot distinguish what
he does one from the other. And that's the way it is with
you and I, while we attempt to worship sins, marvel at everything
we do. Everything we do barred by sin because of our nature
We are one person and yet within us dwells two distinct persons
not just two natures a new man and an old man and bless God
the old man soon shall perish as He must and the new man alone
live on in righteousness and true holiness And when our Lord
is finished He will present us in this perfection to himself.
You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now has he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Oh, blessed, blessed, blessed
hope. Soon, our Savior will present
us spotless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy,
holy and unblameable and unreprovable. What does that mean? Holy, as
God Himself is holy. Unblameable, nothing laid against
our charge. Unreprovable! standing before
God beyond reproof in the perfection that Christ himself has put upon
us. The Lord described back here
in the Song of Solomon. Look at it. Chapter four. He
describes his church as having a sevenfold beauty in his eyes. Everything about her is perfect.
Read these words and apply them to yourself individually. If
you believe the son of God. Apply them to the Church of God
collectively as all the members of Christ are here described
Behold thou art fair my love Behold thou art fair thou hast
doves eyes within thy locks Doves eyes tender Eyes Described as eyes of contrition
Looking upon our Savior we bow in contrition before him Thy
hair is like a flock of goats. Now again, I remind you this
is an allegory. I never dreamed of saying to
Shelby, your hair is like a flock of goats. I just somehow don't
think that would go over very well. But understand the spiritual
significance. Your hair is like a flock of
goats that appear from Mount Gilead. A flock of goats, speaking
of the multitude of God's elect, as the hairs on your head. All
in perfect security, for the hairs of your head are all numbered. Thy teeth are like a flock of
sheep that are even shorn, which came up from the washing, whereof
every one bear twins, and none is barren. Your teeth, like a
flock of sheep, each one Perfect each one evenly shorn as it comes
up from the washing The washing of the blood and the washing
of the water by the word each one Bearing twins each one fruitful
because God our Savior makes us fruitful by his grace Thy
lips are like a thread of scarlet Thy speeches come there From
your lips comes forth the constant reminder of redeeming love, the
sacrifice of God's darling son. Thy temples are like a piece
of pomegranate within thy locks. Pomegranate. Throughout the ages have been
used in poetry to represent passion, pomegranate being considered
a passion fruit. The Lord looks at us and says,
your temples are like Constant passion for me. I look on you, and I see in you
passion for me. Thy neck is like the Tower of
David, built for an armory. Your neck strong and firm, whereon
there hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men, conquering
and prevailing over all your foes. Thy two breasts are like
two young thongs that are twins, which feed among the lilies.
In verse seven, he concludes and says, Thou art all fair,
my love. There is no spot in thee. He
so delights in the beauty of his church that he finds rest
for his soul in us. He finds rest for his soul in
us. His souls travail. He now rest
from and his rest is in us, his people. Look at verse 16, verse
6. Until the daybreak and the shadows
flee away, I will get me to the mountain of myrrh and to the
hill of frankincense. You don't need to turn there.
This is this. Zachariah 3. The Lord thy God is in the midst
of thee. He is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in his love. He will rejoice over thee with
singing. Imagine that the Lord God in
the midst of you is mighty and he rest in his. He rejoices over you with singing. He rejoices that you're his and
he rest in his love for you. Now, look at verse eight. Here's
the second thing. Our savior calls for us to walk
with him in sweet fellowship and intimate communion. Come
with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon, live from
the top of a manor, from the top of Sheiner and Herman. from
the lion's dens and from the mountains of the leopards. Here's
a gracious call from the Lord Jesus to his bride to come along
with him. It is a call which we must obey
and a call which he graciously forces us to obey. Come with
me. All who have come to him Thy
faith must come to him in holy communion. Being joined with
him, let us walk with him. Matthew Henry said, this is Christ's
call to his spouse to come off from the world and all its products
and all its pleasures to set loose all the delights of sense.
All those must do so that would come to Christ. Throughout this Song of Solomon,
and I encourage you often to read this blessed portion of
scripture frequently and read all eight chapters at one setting.
Throughout this Song of Solomon, we see the unfailing steadiness
and faithfulness of our Savior's love. And the constant variation
and fluctuation of our own souls. And we're all that's just the
way we are. One moment, our hearts burn with
love for him so that it seems we can hardly contain ourselves.
And next moment, we're frozen over like ice. One moment as
soft and tender to him as we could
imagine, and another moment as hard as steel. One moment seeking
him fervently, another moment barring the doors of our hearts
against him, refusing even to hear his voice, but he never
relents in his love. He never relents in his compassion. He never relents in his tenderness.
He never varies in his faithfulness. His heart is always the same. We're compelled to sing with
Calper. Oh, for a closer walk with God, a calm, a heavenly
frame, a light to shine upon the road that leads me to the
lamb. Where is the blessedness I knew? When first I saw the Lord. Where
is the soul refreshing view of Jesus in his word? What peaceful
hours I then enjoyed. How sweet their memory still.
But now I find an aching void. The world can never feel. Return. Oh, holy dove, return. Sweet messenger of rest. I hate
the sins that made them mourn. and drove thee from my breast. The Song of Solomon is an inspired
record of the constant languishings and constant revivings experienced
in this world by God's people. The languishings of our hearts
because of sin and the sweet revivings of our souls by his
unfailing grace. Daily Savior, let me hear your
call. Come away with me. Come away with me. While we look
not at the things which are seen, but things which are unseen.
For the things that are seen, they're temporal. The things
that are unseen are eternal. If you then be risen with Christ,
Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you're dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God. We who belong to the son of God. Live above the dangers of this
world. And let us then live above the
cares of this world. But this is not just a call that
we must obey. It's a promise to be believed.
Christ's church shall be brought home with him to heaven. We shall
be delivered in the time of his love from all the dangers and
difficulties of this world and soon The lions of hell and the
leopards of darkness will torment us no more. The God of peace
shall brew Satan under your heel shortly. Now, look at this third
thing, verses 9 through 15. The very heart of our Lord Jesus
is ravished with love for his people. Thou hast ravished my
heart My sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one
of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine and the smell of thine ointments than all spices. Thy lips, O
my spouse, drop as honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of
Lebanon. The Lord Jesus has made us so perfect in his
beauty, so perfect in his beauty that he's given us a beauty that
ravishes his heart. that ravishes his heart. He is ravished with our love
for him. We love him. We love him. If we're his, we
do. Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. Not
as we would, not as we should, not as we shall. But love him we do, because he
first loved us. His love precedes our love for
him by eternity and infinitely. And his love exceeds our love
for him infinitely. But love him we do. When our
Savior says, thou hast ravished my heart, he's using a strong,
passionate term. shall be asked me last night,
what does that word mean? Ravished. It means to take by
force. It's commonly used as one who
is raped, that's commonly used. Here, the Savior is saying, you
have taken my heart captive by the force of your love. and make
it beat feverishly. I can relate to that. I can relate
to that. I remember the first time I saw
that pretty blonde over there. I was 16 years old. And I said,
if I can get her to, I'm going to take that gal out just as
soon as I get my license back. And we dated for a good while.
I remember the first time I reached over and took her hand. First
time I sat down by the river in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
down by the Yadkin River, watched the moonlight and kissed that
girl. Man, I saw skyrockets. My heart beat feverishly. This is what the Savior says.
You have by your love for me with one look of your eyes toward
me, with one look of faith toward me, You have taken captive my
heart and make my heart beat feverishly for you. Thou hast
ravished my heart, my love, my dove, my undefiled. Our all glorious Christ is ravished
by his own grace that he's put upon us. He says he's ravished
with the smell of thine ointments. Fragrance. Turn to Ezekiel 16.
Ezekiel 16. Let me remind you what he's talking
about. He came to us when we were naked,
cast out from our mother's womb, polluted in her own blood, and
aborted it, defiled, corrupt, and dead. And he calls us to
live. And then he says in verse 9,
then washed I thee with water. Yea, I throughly washed away
thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee
also with brooded work, and shod thee with badger skin, and girded
thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked
thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands,
and a chain on thy neck, and I put a jewel in thy forehead,
and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine
head. Thou wast decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was
of fine linen and silk and brooded work. Thou didst eat fine flour
and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful. Watch this
now. and thou didst prosper into a
kingdom. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty. For it was perfect through my
comeliness which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord. What's the beauty with which
Fred Evans stands before God Almighty? His beauty. His beauty, His beauty, perfect
through my comeliness. Our Savior is ravished by our
speech as well because our speech is all about Him. Thy lips, the
most delightful constant theme of the loving bride is her husband. When I go places and folks get
my wife off to a corner, I'm never the least bit concerned
about how she's talking about me. I hope they believe everything
she tells them. I really do. I hope they believe
everything she tells them. Cause I know her. She's only going
to speak well of me. Now she knows other things, but
you're not going to hear them. She only speaks well of me. Our
Lord Jesus is ravished by his bride's speech, for she only
speaks well of him and speaks of him unceasingly. Looking into
our hearts, the Savior is ravished with our thoughts of him. Honey
and milk are under thy tongue. Do you know how you often weep because you can't find words
with which to express your heart's feeling for the Son of God. He hears. And he's ravished with those
thoughts. Knowing the sincerity of our
hearts, our savior is ravished even by the works we perform
for him. The smell of thy garments, without
question the garments are the garments of salvation. He's wrought
for us and bought for us and brought to us and put upon us. And they're garments of grace
and holiness. by which we and with which and
in which as God's priest, we serve him continually. And he
takes that which we endeavor to do for him. Though it's defiled with these
polluted hands and this corrupt heart of nature, though it is
less than insignificant, As we seek to serve him, he accepts our works for him. As fully, as perfectly, as delightfully
as his father accepts his works as our substitute. Oh, look how they've served me.
Look how they honor me. And he rewards us for that which
he creates in us, because that which he creates in us truly
is our own. Then he speaks of his church
as a garden, a garden enclosed, flourishing with good works,
works done for him Created by him in us a garden planted by
his grace watered by his spirit so thoroughly So effectually
watered that she becomes a well of water Gushing out into all
the world for the benefit of others. Let's see if that's not
what you find in these last verses Verse 12 a garden enclosed is
my sister my spouse and A spring shut up, a fountain sealed, thy
plants are an orchard of love fruits, an orchard of pomegranates
with pleasant fruits, camphor with spikenard, spikenard and
saffron, calamus and cinnamon, all the trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes with all the chief spices, a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon, my garden
enclosed, my sister, my spouse, my garden full of fruits, passion
fruits for me, the well of living water gushing up from you, going
out into all the world for my people everywhere. That's how
I look. That's how you look. Now, to Him be the glory who soon
shall present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight, with
exceeding joy at the throne of His grace, in the perfection
of His own beauty. Amen.