by John Newton, I can't remember
it exactly, but the jest of it was this. He said, it will be
no weight to me on the day of judgment that I have spoken too
much or too often of Jesus Christ, my Lord and my Savior. And it
will be of no concern to me, should anyone suggest now that
we talk too much about Christ here. It will be of no concern
to me on the day of judgment. for that I am determined to declare
to you is the glory and excellence and praise and honor, the accomplishments
of Christ our Redeemer. Let me tell you tonight one more
time about my beloved. I hope you never get tired of
hearing about him because it is never a wearisome task for
me to preach to you about Christ himself. His name, Jesus Christ,
the Lord. He is my savior, my redeemer,
my king, my prophet, my priest. He is my God. More than that,
he is my all. And this one who is my God, my
savior, and my all, he is the beloved of my heart and the friend
of my soul. He is the cheapest among 10,000.
and all together lovely. I hope that somehow God has created
in you by his grace a desire to know him. The one thing for
which I labor, the one thing I desire for you, the one thing
I ask of God to give you, every one of you, is to know him. To know him. I want you to know
all about him, but I'm more interested that you know him than I am that
you know his biography. I want you to know his doctrine.
His doctrine is, oh, his doctrine is like the dew of heaven. But
you'll never be saved just knowing his doctrine. Doctrine never
saved anybody. You got to know him. You got
to know him. I want you to know about his
accomplishments. But just knowing about his accomplishments
never saved anybody. Salvation is knowing Him. This
is life eternal, that they should know Thee, the only true God
and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. I want you to know Him. And the only way that will ever
come to pass is if as I or some other preacher tells you about
Him, He's pleased to come and introduce Himself to you. He
got to come and make himself known. There's just no other
way. All beauty, all excellence, all
the perfection of both God and man dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now turn with me, if you will,
to the Song of Solomon, chapter five. He who is my beloved and
my friend is the perfect God and the perfect man. All that
your soul needs, all that will satisfy your heart for time and
eternity, is found in Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ alone, but in
Jesus Christ it is found in infinite abundance. Here in verse 10,
the daughters of Jerusalem speak. They have just heard the description
given concerning the believing heart, the believing soul of
the love she has for Christ. If you find my beloved, tell
him I'm sick of love. And these daughters of Jerusalem,
they're hard to figure out as you go through the psalm, but
I think I figured out how it is they are set in the passage. The daughters of Jerusalem represent
the mixed multitude of the whole congregation gathered here this
evening, or of any true congregation. In that mixed multitude, you
have those who have been raised up in the church, who are yet
unbelievers, and they know facts and theories and doctrines. You
have those who have been raised up in the church, and they've
got the I's dotted and the T's crossed, but they don't know
Him. They're still unbelievers. You have others who have come
in and for some reason or another, by some force or some compelling
influence or another, they've made a profession of faith, but
their profession is just hypocrisy. They don't know Him. And then
you have young believers who are true believers, but they
have lack of experience and lack of knowledge. And so these daughters
in Jerusalem raised the question, 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? Now some suggest this is a question
of scorn and ridicule. What's so important about him?
I've had that question come a few times. And so those who raise
this question, who speak scornfully and ridicule of our admiration
and exaltation of Jesus Christ the Lord, they deserve no answer
and will get none here. I hope, however, there are some
of you in whose hearts this question is raised sincerely, seriously,
and honestly. I hope God has graciously caused
you to see something of the love and glory and majesty of Christ
in you. You want to know Him. You cry,
tell me about Him. I want to know more of Him, who
He is and what He's done, His beauty and His glory. Tell me
what it is about Him that just so enwraps and enravishes your
heart that you speak constantly of Him. I hope you have such
a desire. There is hope for sinners who
desire to know the beauty, perfection, excellence, grace, and glory
of Jesus Christ. Let me give you the answer. My
beloved is. Do you see this in verse 10?
My beloved is. He's white and ruddy. He's the
cheapest among 10,000. Let me tell you about him best
I can. What the hand is to the lute, what breath is to the flute,
what fragrance is to the smell, what the 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 compass is in pathless wild, what oil is to the troubled way,
what ransom is to the slave, What water is to the sea, that
is Jesus Christ to me. Do you understand what I'm talking
about? Christ is all. Christ is all. He's everything.
He's everything. Let me first describe him for
you in this general statement given in verse 10. This one who
is described here as my beloved is one with incomparable perfection,
unparalleled beauty, infinite excellence. So infinitely precious
is he above all others that he alone is precious. So infinitely
lovely is he above all others that he alone is lovely. He has
everything in himself that is pleasant, lovely, and admirable. The scripture says here, he is
white and red hair. Those words refer to His excellence,
the excellence of His divine glory and the excellence of His
mediatorial character as the God-man, our Savior. I see in
Him all the perfection of the eternal God and all the perfection
of manhood as God created man to be. He is holy, immaculately
holy, the eternal Son of God. And he is made of God unto me
as the God-man mediator, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption, so that Christ is made of God to me, everything
I need. He's white and he's ready. He's white in the spotless innocence
of his life in order to redeem me. in order to save my soul. He must be a man who has lived
in perfect obedience to God, and yet a man whose life is of
infinite worth to God. So he must be a man who is God. And he must live in perfect righteousness. The full age of a man is white. You see him yonder on heaven's
throne? There sits a man white in holiness. perfect, not only as God, but
as a man. And he's ready, ready in his
bloody sufferings. For he must be one whose death
is of infinite value to God himself as well. A man who dies, a man
who is innocent, a man who is holy, a man who is righteous,
a man who is God, but a man whose blood is shed in justice because
he was made to be sin for us. And so you see yonder on heaven's
throne one who is God in human flesh, perfectly white in righteousness,
and yet covered with his crimson blood by which he makes continual
intercession to the Father for us. He's white in his glory as
God, and he is ready in his incarnation as a man. The very name for man,
Adam, means red earth. Jesus Christ is God who is light. And he's man, the last Adam,
whose name is red earth. He's ready. He's wide in his
tenderness toward his people. And he is ready, ready in his
terrible vengeance upon his enemies. And then my beloved is so infinitely
above all others. There is none to compare to him.
He's here described as the chiefest. The chiefest among 10,000. The
chiefest among 10,000. My spell checker, both in English
and in American English, kicked that word out. And I got to looking
at it. It's not even really a proper
term used in Elizabethan English. Chiefest among 10,000. But it
is a very proper description of the Son of God. He's not just
the chief. He's the chiefest among 10,000. In comparison with Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, you listen to me now. You can read it for yourself
in Philippians chapter 3, verse 8. In comparison with Jesus Christ,
every other object of trust and every other object of love is
compared to dumb. That's all. That's all. No love like He is. No love like
He is. I'm a man who has been blessed
of God with many who love me. Blessed of God with a wife who
loves me. And Precious as that love is,
that's just dumb compared to his love. It's meaningless, insignificant,
insignificant. Christ is higher than the kings
of the earth. He has obtained a more excellent
name than any in heaven or any in the earth. This is what our
God says, also I will make him my firstborn higher than the
kings of the earth. Thou hast given him a name, a
name that's above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ
every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in the
earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. The Lord God has given Jesus
Christ the name, the place, the position of excellence and of
all preeminence. And he has obtained a more excellent
inheritance than all others. In his church, Christ is the
chief cornerstone. Among the brethren, he is the
firstborn. Among the resurrected, the Lord
Jesus is the first begotten from the dead. Turn to Colossians
1 for a moment. He is Alpha and Omega, the firstborn
of every creature. God made Christ to be preeminent
in all things. And in the hearts of his people,
Jesus Christ is indeed preeminent. I recall sometime back, Brother
Bob Ponce was reading this passage here in Colossians 1, back in
the office. And Merle was sitting close enough
to me, I could hear him speak almost under his breath when
Bob had finished reading the chapter. And Merle said, oh,
what a savior. And that's exactly what this
is intended to leave us thinking. Oh, what a savior. Here is the
infinite excellence and supremacy of Jesus Christ. Put in the kind
of words we can understand. Colossians 1, now it's kind of
hard to break in here because this is such a long sentence,
but we'll start in verse 14. In whom? In whom? Not in what? In whom? In whom we have redemption. Redemption not in the church.
Redemption not in your works. Redemption not in your profession.
Redemption's in a whom? In whom? Jesus Christ. We have
redemption only through his blood. And all who are redeemed by his
blood have even the forgiveness of sins. Now who is he? who is
the image of the invisible God. I heard somebody recently say,
we've got to make God visible. That's a tough job. That's a
tough job. Oh, no. You want to know who
God is? You want to see God? This man, Buddy Darty, is God
Almighty. He's the image of the invisible
God. He is the firstborn of every
creature. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
All things were created by Him and for Him. And He's before
all things. And by Him all things consist.
And He's the head of the body who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence.
You see that? It is God's intention, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
that the incarnate God-man, our Redeemer, my beloved, should
have all preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him, in this man, Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God,
in Him should dwell, all fullness dwell. And having made peace
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things
to himself. By him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in the heaven. He's the chiefest
among ten thousand. The word is translated in our
marginal reference. He's the standard bearer among
ten thousand. In Isaiah 11 and verse 10, we're
told that Jesus Christ is the ensign. You know what an ensign
is? It's the banner that an army
has, and there's a troop in the army, and they go about and they
raise up the banner. And around that banner, the troops
gather, and the forces rally, and the soldiers fight. Jesus
Christ is the ensign, lifted up by God. unto whom the gathering
of his elect shall be, according to Isaiah 1110. Our Lord Jesus
said, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will gather all men
unto me. We lift up Christ, and as we
lift him up, proclaiming his glory and his grace as our Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ, like a magnet, gathers his elect out of all
the four corners of the earth unto himself. You ask me, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved? I'll tell you, my beloved
is white and ruddy. He's the cheapest among 10,000.
But I haven't even begun to get started yet. Let me give you
a little more detailed description of him. Look at his head. Verse 11. His head is as the
most fine gold. Nothing so clearly identifies
a man as his head, his head. He'd have a tough time recognizing
even this body if it wasn't with the head. That which is identifying
to me is this thing right here, the head. Our Lord Jesus Christ
sets head of everything. King upon his throne, his head
is as most fine gold. Now that I understand to be speaking
of his sovereign dominion over all things. Like gold, the sovereign
dominion of Jesus Christ is beautiful, strong, precious, and enduring. Let me tell you about his hair.
His locks, all his locks are bushy. Black as a raven. have already read over in Revelation
1, 14, where John said he saw him. And he said his head and
his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes
as a flame of fire. And somebody said, well, that's
two contradictions. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, not at
all. The whiteness that John saw denotes his eternality and
his wisdom as God. But the blackness and thick locks
of his hair here denote his perpetual strength, his perpetual power. The scripture says, thou hast
the dew of thy youth. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He is the eternal God, and he
is the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. His
locks are black as shit. Look at his eyes. His eyes, verse
12, are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water washed
with milk fitly set. Now, some of you fellows who
do a little hunting, I haven't done any in years, you'll be
more aware of this than I am. But no bird in the field, no
bird in the sky, no bird in the earth has eyes like a dove. Oh, this is a special word. His
eyes are pure, peaceable. He looks at us always with peace,
always with peace. His eyes are penetrating. Oscar, he looks right through
us, right through us, sees what we are. His eyes are powerful. Oh, what eyes. Do you remember
when Peter had cursed and denied the master? The cop crew for
the third time. And the scripture tells us that
the Lord Jesus looked on Peter. That's all it took. That's all
it took. No word from a man could change
his heart. Nothing could penetrate that
hard, cold heart except those eyes. And he turned and looked
on Peter, and Peter went out and wept bitterly. His eyes are
fitly set. That is like a dove's eyes. They
never blink. Never. Never blink. Watch a dove. Try to watch those
eyes move. They never blink. Never. Our
Lord Jesus has his eye on you. Child of God, hear me now. He
has his eye on you. He's had his eye on you from
eternity. And his eye fixed on you, deeply
set, never bleeds. Never. You're always held in
his eyes. Look at his cheeks. His cheeks
are a bed of spices, as sweet flowers. The very sight of his
face How was it we sang this morning? One glimpse of his dear
face, all sorrow will erase. Like a rich, fragrant garden,
reviving, refreshing, pleasing are his cheeks. You get to feeling
a little down, a little depressed, a little uncomfortable. I have a recommendation for you.
Go walk in a beautiful garden. It's hard to be too sad around
blooming flowers. It's hard to be too sad when
they're just such sweet, sweet fragrance. That's what he is. His lips, verse 13, they're like
lilies dropping with sweet-smelling myrrh. His lips are so sweet
and so pleasant. The words of his lips are sweeter
than honey in the honeycomb. The kisses of his mouth are better
than wine. The scripture says grace is poured
into thy lips. And grace, having been poured
into his lips from eternity as our covenant surety, is poured
forth from his lips to us as his people. Grace poured from
his lips as our surety back in the covenant of grace when he
said, Lo, I come. to do thy will, O my God. In the volume of the book it
is written to me, I delight to do thy will, O my God, by the
which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Grace poured from his lips when
he hung upon the cursed tree as our substitute at Mount Calvary. He said, Father, forgive James
Jordan. He doesn't know what he's doing.
Father, forgive Don Fortner. He doesn't know what he's doing.
Forgive them. They know not what they do. And grace poured from
his lips as my Savior, when he came to me by his Spirit, and
spoke to me by his Word, and said, Live. Yea, he said unto
me, Live, behold, thy time is the time of love. He spoke and
said, I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore with
lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Now look at his hands, verse
14. His hands are as gold rings set with beryl. A king in those
ancient times wore a ring set with a signet, and in the signet
was the seal of the king, and nobody had the ring but the king,
nobody else. The Lord Jesus, we're told, his
hands are like gold rings, every one of them, set with His hands
are like golden rings fitted to the finger and are fitted
to accomplish their purposes. His hands are the hands into
which God Almighty has committed the souls of His people for the
saving of His people to the glory of His name. His hands are the
hands into which God has given the reigns of total monarchy
for the glory of His name. His hands are like the king's
signet, the seal of God's covenant of grace. The piercing of those
hands was the ratification of God's covenant. Now look at verse
14, his belly. That word that's used here for
belly speaks of his bowels of compassion, his heart. His heart
is as ivory overlaid with sapphires. The love of Christ for his people
is as strong and firm as ivory. The many instances of his love
The many commendations of his love, by bread to us, God commendeth
his love toward us. Those things just reveal his
love. They're like sapphires, rubies, precious stones. Oh,
here are the many, many indescribable reflections and instances of
his love given in the scripture. He chose us. Oh, now there's
a diamond. He redeemed us with his precious
blood. What a precious ruby. He has
brought us from death to life by the power of his spirit in
regenerating grace. What an emerald that is. He keeps
us. So many are left to themselves. And you see where they are? They're
scattered to the four winds. How come we're still here? Oh,
well, he keeps us. His grace is preserving grace. Has a whole cluster of diamonds.
He keeps us and will not let us go. He intercedes for us.
He forgives us. Oh, he forgives us perpetually
and eternally and completely forgives us. Look at his legs. His legs, his legs are as pillars of marble.
set upon sockets of gold. Somebody said every idol has
feet of brass. Yeah, but this is no idol. This
is God the Son. His legs are as pillars of marble. A man's strength to work, a man's
strength to stand, a man's strength to endure, a man's strength for
anything is in his legs. When his legs are gone, you can
knock him over with a feather. His legs, our master's legs,
the legs which stand one foot on the sea and one on the earth,
turning the pages of the book of God's decrees are marbles,
pillars of marble set in sockets of silver. That speaks of faithfulness,
stability and strength and power. I'm talking to you about Jesus
Christ who is able, able to save to the uttermost all who come
to God by him. Now look at his countenance,
his countenance, is as Lebanon, excellent as the Cedars. In height,
in strength, in power, in grace, in beauty, in the love that he
displays, he excels all others. There's none to rival him. And
his mouth, oh, his mouth is most sweet. Here's all we know about
his mouth. All we know about it is right
here in this book. All the precepts of his word are sweet. All the
principles of his word are sweet. All the promises of his word
are sweet. The kisses of his mouth, the many tokens of his
love, goodness, and grace have transcendent sweetness in them.
What more can I say? Why, he's altogether lovely.
He's altogether lovely. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. He's truly lovely, completely
lovely, There's nothing in him but that which is lovely, and
nothing truly lovely but that which is in him. Whom have I
in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. When my heart and my flesh faileth,
my God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.