WEBVTT 00:00:01.111 --> 00:00:09.581 Let's pray. 00:00:09.581 --> 00:00:11.215 We heard about it in the song; 00:00:11.215 --> 00:00:14.721 we heard about it in the first hour - 00:00:14.721 --> 00:00:18.882 the grace and truth of Jesus Christ. 00:00:18.882 --> 00:00:22.245 Grace and truth. 00:00:22.245 --> 00:00:24.294 Lord, we pray for that. 00:00:24.294 --> 00:00:26.566 Please deal with us in a way 00:00:26.566 --> 00:00:29.477 that is not according to our sins. 00:00:29.477 --> 00:00:32.111 Grant us grace. 00:00:32.111 --> 00:00:36.218 And truth - sanctify them with Thy truth. 00:00:36.218 --> 00:00:37.667 Thy Word is truth. 00:00:37.667 --> 00:00:40.028 We pray for that cleansing, 00:00:40.028 --> 00:00:42.613 purifying, sanctifying reality 00:00:42.613 --> 00:00:44.762 to be in this place today. 00:00:44.762 --> 00:00:46.163 Father, please. 00:00:46.163 --> 00:00:48.016 You sent Your Son to this earth. 00:00:48.016 --> 00:00:49.561 The Word became flesh 00:00:49.561 --> 00:00:51.122 and He dwelt among us. 00:00:51.122 --> 00:00:53.250 And because He did and because He has 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:54.433 and because He died 00:00:54.433 --> 00:00:57.431 and because it is finished, 00:00:57.431 --> 00:00:59.478 because there is salvation to be had 00:00:59.478 --> 00:01:02.967 and there is a room full of saved people in this place, 00:01:02.967 --> 00:01:05.670 we would appeal to that blood by which we were saved 00:01:05.670 --> 00:01:08.410 and that cross work that was finished 00:01:08.410 --> 00:01:09.653 and made complete, 00:01:09.653 --> 00:01:11.327 so that we don't have to stand here 00:01:11.327 --> 00:01:13.403 in any of our own doings or works 00:01:13.403 --> 00:01:15.658 or accomplishments or merits. 00:01:15.658 --> 00:01:19.133 We stand here based on that sacrifice - 00:01:19.133 --> 00:01:20.775 the Lamb of God, 00:01:20.775 --> 00:01:24.113 who, we thank You, has put away - 00:01:24.113 --> 00:01:26.713 many of this in this place can say 00:01:26.713 --> 00:01:30.183 You've put away our sins. 00:01:30.183 --> 00:01:33.603 And we stand here forgiven - a forgiven people. 00:01:33.603 --> 00:01:36.450 And Lord, because of the kindness that You've shown to us, 00:01:36.450 --> 00:01:38.444 we pray, Lord, we want to appeal 00:01:38.444 --> 00:01:41.889 to Your past mercies to give us fresh ones. 00:01:41.889 --> 00:01:47.085 We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. NOTE Paragraph 00:01:47.085 --> 00:01:50.131 The love of Christ. 00:01:50.131 --> 00:01:51.550 I would take you once again 00:01:51.550 --> 00:01:55.068 to the Song of Solomon. 00:01:55.068 --> 00:01:59.449 This is a little bit of an aside 00:01:59.449 --> 00:02:02.828 for a number of weeks 00:02:02.828 --> 00:02:05.825 to the Song of Solomon. 00:02:05.825 --> 00:02:13.449 But the purpose is to keep 00:02:13.449 --> 00:02:18.827 in the spirit of Ephesians 3, 00:02:18.827 --> 00:02:20.640 "and that we would have the strength 00:02:20.640 --> 00:02:22.296 to comprehend with all the saints 00:02:22.296 --> 00:02:23.738 what is the breadth and length 00:02:23.738 --> 00:02:24.767 and height and depth 00:02:24.767 --> 00:02:27.344 and to know the love of Christ 00:02:27.344 --> 00:02:30.677 that surpasses knowledge." 00:02:30.677 --> 00:02:32.889 And as we're seeking to explore 00:02:32.889 --> 00:02:34.301 that love of Christ 00:02:34.301 --> 00:02:38.733 and to span some of the depths of it, 00:02:38.733 --> 00:02:43.111 as I told you last week, 00:02:43.111 --> 00:02:45.008 my thoughts have come back 00:02:45.008 --> 00:02:47.421 to the Song of Solomon 00:02:47.421 --> 00:02:48.846 again and again and again. 00:02:48.846 --> 00:02:50.897 The Song of Solomon. 00:02:50.897 --> 00:02:53.738 It's in your Bibles right before 00:02:53.738 --> 00:02:56.448 the major prophet Isaiah. 00:02:56.448 --> 00:02:58.150 Isaiah's typically easy to find 00:02:58.150 --> 00:02:59.788 even though the Song of Solomon 00:02:59.788 --> 00:03:02.337 may not be so easy. 00:03:02.337 --> 00:03:12.228 The Song - Solomon's Song. 00:03:12.228 --> 00:03:19.162 The old preachers called it: Canticles. 00:03:19.162 --> 00:03:26.652 Found right before the prophet Isaiah. 00:03:26.652 --> 00:03:29.498 I want you to look at 2 verses 00:03:29.498 --> 00:03:34.928 in chapter 1 of the Song of Solomon. 00:03:34.928 --> 00:03:40.550 Verses 15 and 16. 00:03:40.550 --> 00:03:43.990 Some of your Bibles don't supply this. 00:03:43.990 --> 00:03:46.468 Some do. 00:03:46.468 --> 00:03:51.367 The ESV has actually separated 00:03:51.367 --> 00:03:54.807 this letter into parts. 00:03:54.807 --> 00:03:57.472 And you can tell in the original language 00:03:57.472 --> 00:04:01.174 there are indicators as to who is speaking. 00:04:01.174 --> 00:04:02.963 You can see it in the flow 00:04:02.963 --> 00:04:04.446 of the song as well. 00:04:04.446 --> 00:04:10.698 But in v. 15, it says, 00:04:10.698 --> 00:04:12.616 "He." 00:04:12.616 --> 00:04:15.247 And He says, 00:04:15.247 --> 00:04:20.077 "Behold, you are beautiful, My love. 00:04:20.077 --> 00:04:24.298 Behold, you are beautiful. 00:04:24.298 --> 00:04:26.554 Your eyes are doves." 00:04:26.554 --> 00:04:29.916 V. 16, she says, 00:04:29.916 --> 00:04:35.186 "Behold, You are beautiful, my Beloved, 00:04:35.186 --> 00:04:39.559 truly delightful. 00:04:39.559 --> 00:04:41.180 Our couch is green." 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:44.765 Now, I am not going to preach on "our couch is green." 00:04:44.765 --> 00:04:47.157 You can take your own meanings with that one. 00:04:47.157 --> 00:04:49.107 I don't know what that means 00:04:49.107 --> 00:04:54.010 and I haven't really thought about it. 00:04:54.010 --> 00:04:58.819 But hear me. 00:04:58.819 --> 00:05:02.578 Look back at v. 1. 00:05:02.578 --> 00:05:07.811 The Song of Songs. 00:05:07.811 --> 00:05:11.417 This is a song. 00:05:11.417 --> 00:05:14.960 Yes, we say, the Song of Solomon, 00:05:14.960 --> 00:05:17.055 but it's a song. 00:05:17.055 --> 00:05:19.763 It's meant to be sung. 00:05:19.763 --> 00:05:23.689 God gave it to us to sing it out. 00:05:23.689 --> 00:05:26.244 This is inspired. Don't miss that. 00:05:26.244 --> 00:05:27.569 This is in your Bibles. 00:05:27.569 --> 00:05:28.962 This is inspired. 00:05:28.962 --> 00:05:32.377 God gave a song for us to sing. 00:05:32.377 --> 00:05:33.824 And I can tell you this, 00:05:33.824 --> 00:05:36.185 that if you went up and down this road 00:05:36.185 --> 00:05:38.350 singing a song about Solomon 00:05:38.350 --> 00:05:39.575 and one of his harem, 00:05:39.575 --> 00:05:44.189 I would think you were pretty weird. 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:47.082 That is not the kind of song He wants us to sing from this. 00:05:47.082 --> 00:05:50.698 That is not the song of songs. 00:05:50.698 --> 00:05:54.160 "Holy of holies" is used for the most holy. 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:56.072 "King of kings" for the greatest King. 00:05:56.072 --> 00:05:57.960 "Lord of lords" for the highest Lord. 00:05:57.960 --> 00:06:02.290 And so this is the song of songs, 00:06:02.290 --> 00:06:05.044 being the most excellent of songs. 00:06:05.044 --> 00:06:06.550 You know what that means? 00:06:06.550 --> 00:06:09.215 Never has man spoken or written 00:06:09.215 --> 00:06:12.737 a song to excel this song. 00:06:12.737 --> 00:06:14.239 It surpasses all others. 00:06:14.239 --> 00:06:16.342 Not only human songs. 00:06:16.342 --> 00:06:18.643 Remember, if Solomon was simply saying this; 00:06:18.643 --> 00:06:20.270 if a man walked in here and said: 00:06:20.270 --> 00:06:23.587 of all the songs that I ever wrote, this is the song of all my songs. 00:06:23.587 --> 00:06:26.345 But you have to hear God's voice. 00:06:26.345 --> 00:06:28.493 This is inspired. 00:06:28.493 --> 00:06:33.442 The Holy Spirit is saying, Christian, 00:06:33.442 --> 00:06:37.921 this is the song of all songs 00:06:37.921 --> 00:06:39.406 not only humanly speaking, 00:06:39.406 --> 00:06:42.463 but divinely speaking. 00:06:42.463 --> 00:06:44.660 Again, if you were to say that's simply 00:06:44.660 --> 00:06:47.316 Solomon and one of his harem, 00:06:47.316 --> 00:06:54.009 that is not an impressive song. NOTE Paragraph 00:06:54.009 --> 00:06:58.085 And remember just how fitting 00:06:58.085 --> 00:06:59.924 the placement of this book. 00:06:59.924 --> 00:07:04.871 You come out of vanity of vanities 00:07:04.871 --> 00:07:09.517 into song of songs. 00:07:09.517 --> 00:07:12.581 The emptiness, and then, 00:07:12.581 --> 00:07:17.856 Solomon turns us to the fullness. 00:07:17.856 --> 00:07:20.703 And as I reminded you last time, 00:07:20.703 --> 00:07:26.486 this isn't one woman 00:07:26.486 --> 00:07:29.006 with one she loves. 00:07:29.006 --> 00:07:36.140 If you look at chapter 1, v. 3, 00:07:36.140 --> 00:07:38.752 "Your anointing oils are fragrant. 00:07:38.752 --> 00:07:40.897 Your name is oil poured out. 00:07:40.897 --> 00:07:44.701 Therefore, virgins love you." 00:07:44.701 --> 00:07:46.584 Or you look at v. 4. 00:07:46.584 --> 00:07:48.966 "Draw me after You..." 00:07:48.966 --> 00:07:54.496 Not, let me run, let us run. 00:07:54.496 --> 00:07:56.529 As I said before, 00:07:56.529 --> 00:08:00.530 there's no woman who glories 00:08:00.530 --> 00:08:05.929 in the love other women have for their own husband. 00:08:05.929 --> 00:08:08.082 But if the virgins are those 00:08:08.082 --> 00:08:11.944 in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 11:2 00:08:11.944 --> 00:08:16.631 where Paul says that he's betrothing us 00:08:16.631 --> 00:08:18.874 as virgins to Christ, 00:08:18.874 --> 00:08:20.345 the whole thing makes sense. 00:08:20.345 --> 00:08:22.456 Each of us as individuals can glory 00:08:22.456 --> 00:08:23.957 in the love of Christ, 00:08:23.957 --> 00:08:26.293 but we can glory in the fact that other people 00:08:26.293 --> 00:08:29.447 run after Him as well. 00:08:29.447 --> 00:08:32.738 That's the flavor of the Song of Songs. NOTE Paragraph 00:08:32.738 --> 00:08:40.561 Now, when we come to v. 15 and 16, 00:08:40.561 --> 00:08:43.128 the reason I want to take you here 00:08:43.128 --> 00:08:46.505 is you have mutual expressions. 00:08:46.505 --> 00:08:47.913 What jumped out at me first 00:08:47.913 --> 00:08:51.127 was what He says to us, 00:08:51.127 --> 00:08:52.153 we say to Him. 00:08:52.153 --> 00:08:54.184 What we say to Him, He says to us. 00:08:54.184 --> 00:08:55.542 It's the same language. 00:08:55.542 --> 00:08:56.893 Do you see it there? 00:08:56.893 --> 00:09:00.479 "Behold, you are beautiful." 00:09:00.479 --> 00:09:03.213 Both say that to each other. 00:09:03.213 --> 00:09:06.293 There's a mutual expression 00:09:06.293 --> 00:09:09.305 of admiration and attraction. 00:09:09.305 --> 00:09:17.586 Now, we know how we feel about Christ, 00:09:17.586 --> 00:09:19.869 because the truth is, we feel it. 00:09:19.869 --> 00:09:21.192 We know the attraction. 00:09:21.192 --> 00:09:24.981 What makes the Song of Songs so precious 00:09:24.981 --> 00:09:29.523 is that we hear God-inspired words 00:09:29.523 --> 00:09:35.754 as to how Christ feels about us 00:09:35.754 --> 00:09:38.432 and the attraction that He has for us. 00:09:38.432 --> 00:09:41.009 And the truth is 00:09:41.009 --> 00:09:45.399 it's something we would hardly believe 00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:48.530 unless it was written here. 00:09:48.530 --> 00:09:53.337 And watch this, in v. 15, 00:09:53.337 --> 00:10:00.582 "Behold, you are beautiful, My love." 00:10:00.582 --> 00:10:04.367 She never calls Him by that terminology. 00:10:04.367 --> 00:10:08.130 Those are His words for her. 00:10:08.130 --> 00:10:14.683 "My love." 00:10:14.683 --> 00:10:16.801 As you go through here, 00:10:16.801 --> 00:10:19.629 do you know what He calls her? 00:10:19.629 --> 00:10:23.864 My beautiful one, 00:10:23.864 --> 00:10:27.777 My perfect one, 00:10:27.777 --> 00:10:30.176 My dove, 00:10:30.176 --> 00:10:32.669 My bride, 00:10:32.669 --> 00:10:36.009 My sister. 00:10:36.009 --> 00:10:41.652 And that possessive pronoun: Mine. NOTE Paragraph 00:10:41.652 --> 00:10:43.529 You know what that reminds me of? 00:10:43.529 --> 00:10:46.184 You kind of come across this 00:10:46.184 --> 00:10:47.941 and you must maybe shoot past it. 00:10:47.941 --> 00:10:51.379 You're reading Revelation. 00:10:51.379 --> 00:10:53.963 You know when Jesus is speaking 00:10:53.963 --> 00:10:58.384 to the churches in Asia Minor? 00:10:58.384 --> 00:11:01.720 Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation? 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:03.732 He says something. 00:11:03.732 --> 00:11:08.650 He gives a promise to the people of God 00:11:08.650 --> 00:11:10.543 who overcome. 00:11:10.543 --> 00:11:12.145 Listen to what He says. 00:11:12.145 --> 00:11:15.949 He says, "I will give you..." if you overcome, 00:11:15.949 --> 00:11:21.112 "I will give you a white stone." 00:11:21.112 --> 00:11:22.480 What's that? 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:25.729 Well, it's not so much the stone 00:11:25.729 --> 00:11:30.081 as what's written on it. 00:11:30.081 --> 00:11:32.606 Do you know what's written on it? 00:11:32.606 --> 00:11:35.632 A name. 00:11:35.632 --> 00:11:39.825 Does anybody remember what name? 00:11:39.825 --> 00:11:42.287 What was it? 00:11:42.287 --> 00:11:44.779 A new name. And listen to how it says it. 00:11:44.779 --> 00:11:47.577 "A new name written on the stone 00:11:47.577 --> 00:11:50.022 that no one knows 00:11:50.022 --> 00:11:54.762 except the one who receives it." 00:11:54.762 --> 00:12:02.186 Jesus has personal intimate names 00:12:02.186 --> 00:12:06.369 just between you and Him, 00:12:06.369 --> 00:12:09.188 and no one else knows it. 00:12:09.188 --> 00:12:12.179 He says these names, 00:12:12.179 --> 00:12:15.321 "My love," "My dove." 00:12:15.321 --> 00:12:19.063 Mine - not just love - My love. 00:12:19.063 --> 00:12:22.465 "My beautiful one," "My bride," "My dove." NOTE Paragraph 00:12:22.465 --> 00:12:24.371 So what are we talking about? 00:12:24.371 --> 00:12:29.403 We're talking about the love of Christ for His people. 00:12:29.403 --> 00:12:31.986 A love that surpasses knowledge. 00:12:31.986 --> 00:12:35.436 And as we're looking at these two verses, 00:12:35.436 --> 00:12:37.825 v. 15 and 16 of chapter 1, 00:12:37.825 --> 00:12:39.492 I want to say something that might 00:12:39.492 --> 00:12:43.214 at first not register with us. 00:12:43.214 --> 00:12:44.877 If I were to ask you, 00:12:44.877 --> 00:12:46.782 which of these two verses 00:12:46.782 --> 00:12:51.649 seems to most capture Christ's love for us? 00:12:51.649 --> 00:12:55.443 Which one would you pick? 00:12:55.443 --> 00:12:57.538 You'd probably say that's easy. 00:12:57.538 --> 00:12:59.059 Yeah, v. 15. 00:12:59.059 --> 00:13:01.431 And undoubtedly it does express His love for us, 00:13:01.431 --> 00:13:03.318 but you know what? 00:13:03.318 --> 00:13:05.827 As I looked at these 00:13:05.827 --> 00:13:12.415 and I read through the whole book again, 00:13:12.415 --> 00:13:15.904 I found myself struck 00:13:15.904 --> 00:13:22.517 by how much v. 16 reveals His love to us. 00:13:22.517 --> 00:13:25.970 And yes, you heard me right. V. 16. 00:13:25.970 --> 00:13:32.372 V. 16 expresses Christ's love to me. 00:13:32.372 --> 00:13:39.403 Think what Christ has done for you 00:13:39.403 --> 00:13:42.958 that such expression should ever come 00:13:42.958 --> 00:13:46.445 from people like us. 00:13:46.445 --> 00:13:49.209 Think about the expressions here. 00:13:49.209 --> 00:13:52.272 Think about what Christ has done 00:13:52.272 --> 00:13:54.023 and how He's responsible 00:13:54.023 --> 00:13:57.248 and what expressions of love it is 00:13:57.248 --> 00:14:01.958 from Him to us that out of our mouth 00:14:01.958 --> 00:14:07.202 should ever come such expressions as these. 00:14:07.202 --> 00:14:10.003 If you think about where you have come from: 00:14:10.003 --> 00:14:11.727 the miry clay, the pit - 00:14:11.727 --> 00:14:13.793 if you remember the things you've done, 00:14:13.793 --> 00:14:15.981 if you remember the things you've thought, 00:14:15.981 --> 00:14:20.676 if you think about the stock. 00:14:20.676 --> 00:14:40.249 Look at chapter 2:3. 00:14:40.249 --> 00:14:52.208 2:3, "With great delight, I sat in His shadow." 00:14:52.208 --> 00:14:54.547 Now, here's what I want you to feel. 00:14:54.547 --> 00:14:58.005 I want you to feel the expressions 00:14:58.005 --> 00:15:00.365 of the church to Him. 00:15:00.365 --> 00:15:02.064 Think about these. 00:15:02.064 --> 00:15:05.850 I find the most amazing expressions. 00:15:05.850 --> 00:15:09.967 She is saying, 00:15:09.967 --> 00:15:13.056 "Behold, You are beautiful." 00:15:13.056 --> 00:15:16.158 In 2:3, she says, 00:15:16.158 --> 00:15:20.281 "With great delight, I sat in His shadow." 00:15:20.281 --> 00:15:22.379 Now see the delight. 00:15:22.379 --> 00:15:25.613 Look at 2:5, she says, 00:15:25.613 --> 00:15:29.079 "I am sick with love." 00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:30.070 Now think. 00:15:30.070 --> 00:15:31.745 We're talking about the Christian. 00:15:31.745 --> 00:15:33.366 Think about the Christian. 00:15:33.366 --> 00:15:34.734 Think about you. 00:15:34.734 --> 00:15:37.933 Think about you going through this life, 00:15:37.933 --> 00:15:41.109 living in this world. 00:15:41.109 --> 00:15:42.868 We heard "love not the world," 00:15:42.868 --> 00:15:44.631 but you're actually going along 00:15:44.631 --> 00:15:46.673 and your mind is working 00:15:46.673 --> 00:15:48.350 as you go through your day 00:15:48.350 --> 00:15:49.719 and go through your life, 00:15:49.719 --> 00:15:54.763 and such feelings well up in you 00:15:54.763 --> 00:15:58.597 that you could say I find beauty in Him. 00:15:58.597 --> 00:16:01.144 Or that you're even speaking to Him 00:16:01.144 --> 00:16:04.365 on an intimate level. 00:16:04.365 --> 00:16:07.958 You are beautiful, my Beloved. 00:16:07.958 --> 00:16:12.212 Not just that: truly delightful. 00:16:12.212 --> 00:16:17.165 "With great delight I sit in His shadow." 00:16:17.165 --> 00:16:20.181 I'm sick with love. 00:16:20.181 --> 00:16:22.690 I mean there's an ache to have more of Him, 00:16:22.690 --> 00:16:24.243 to see more of Him, 00:16:24.243 --> 00:16:26.781 to hear His voice more clearly, 00:16:26.781 --> 00:16:28.510 to have a visitation. 00:16:28.510 --> 00:16:32.999 Look at chapter 5:9-10. 00:16:32.999 --> 00:16:36.936 Here you have others in v. 9. 00:16:36.936 --> 00:16:38.215 Others say to her, 00:16:38.215 --> 00:16:41.083 "What is your Beloved more than another beloved?" 00:16:41.083 --> 00:16:43.233 I mean who is this? 00:16:43.233 --> 00:16:45.904 Who is this that you talk about Him like this? 00:16:45.904 --> 00:16:47.771 "O most beautiful among women, 00:16:47.771 --> 00:16:50.902 what is your Beloved more than another beloved?" 00:16:50.902 --> 00:16:54.231 And in v. 10 she says, 00:16:54.231 --> 00:16:58.287 "My Beloved is radiant." 00:16:58.287 --> 00:17:01.726 The NAS says "dazzling and ruddy." 00:17:01.726 --> 00:17:04.659 "Distinguished among 10,000," 00:17:04.659 --> 00:17:07.093 or "Chief among 10,000" in KJV. 00:17:07.093 --> 00:17:08.507 Or the New American Standard, 00:17:08.507 --> 00:17:12.343 "outstanding among 10,000." 00:17:12.343 --> 00:17:17.160 Look at v. 16 of Song of Solomon 5. 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:21.905 "He is altogether desirable." 00:17:21.905 --> 00:17:23.491 Or as the KJV says, 00:17:23.491 --> 00:17:27.992 "He is altogether lovely." NOTE Paragraph 00:17:27.992 --> 00:17:29.557 And here's the thing. 00:17:29.557 --> 00:17:33.521 I would say to you, Christian, 00:17:33.521 --> 00:17:37.342 when you have felt the most, 00:17:37.342 --> 00:17:39.611 when you have seen Him most clearly, 00:17:39.611 --> 00:17:42.570 when you've heard His voice 00:17:42.570 --> 00:17:46.355 with most audibleness, 00:17:46.355 --> 00:17:49.181 when you've smelled the fragrance of His presence, 00:17:49.181 --> 00:17:52.067 when the power of the Word has opened up, 00:17:52.067 --> 00:17:54.972 when He has come across most beautiful to you, 00:17:54.972 --> 00:17:57.276 I would say where's the pen? 00:17:57.276 --> 00:17:58.567 Where are the thoughts? 00:17:58.567 --> 00:18:00.537 Who is the poet? Where is the songwriter? 00:18:00.537 --> 00:18:03.504 Some of the songwriters are fantastic 00:18:03.504 --> 00:18:06.435 in the way they're able to bring out 00:18:06.435 --> 00:18:08.564 what we feel, 00:18:08.564 --> 00:18:12.552 but who can put what a Christian feels into words? 00:18:12.552 --> 00:18:14.217 But the Song of Solomon 00:18:14.217 --> 00:18:17.723 seems to capture it oftentimes. NOTE Paragraph 00:18:17.723 --> 00:18:21.330 And look, right now, 00:18:21.330 --> 00:18:24.259 I am not speaking to everyone. 00:18:24.259 --> 00:18:28.594 I'm speaking to you who know what I'm talking about. 00:18:28.594 --> 00:18:31.491 You who have felt this. 00:18:31.491 --> 00:18:32.953 Have you ever considered 00:18:32.953 --> 00:18:38.450 what Christ's love has done for you 00:18:38.450 --> 00:18:41.147 that you could even be delighted in Him? 00:18:41.147 --> 00:18:43.083 I mean, do you hear what I'm getting at? 00:18:43.083 --> 00:18:46.990 Christ finding me beautiful? 00:18:46.990 --> 00:18:50.074 I mean, that should blow us away. 00:18:50.074 --> 00:18:53.230 What sort of expression of love is that to me! 00:18:53.230 --> 00:18:56.190 But here's the thing, me finding Him beautiful, 00:18:56.190 --> 00:19:01.108 that too is a massive expression of His love to me. 00:19:01.108 --> 00:19:04.862 All these, I mean, they are vehement 00:19:04.862 --> 00:19:09.908 expressions of affection to Christ. NOTE Paragraph 00:19:09.908 --> 00:19:12.966 Look, think with me. 00:19:12.966 --> 00:19:16.047 If you go looking around the world, 00:19:16.047 --> 00:19:17.803 go looking on the Internet, 00:19:17.803 --> 00:19:19.782 go through the channels, 00:19:19.782 --> 00:19:20.700 do whatever, 00:19:20.700 --> 00:19:23.356 do whatever gives you a picture into this world. 00:19:23.356 --> 00:19:28.457 Go through the radio stations. 00:19:28.457 --> 00:19:30.178 You know what? 00:19:30.178 --> 00:19:34.301 To find men who are attracted to women 00:19:34.301 --> 00:19:35.900 on the computer screen, 00:19:35.900 --> 00:19:38.410 that's common. 00:19:38.410 --> 00:19:43.411 To find young men attracted to computer games, 00:19:43.411 --> 00:19:46.613 that's pretty normal. 00:19:46.613 --> 00:19:49.060 To find young ladies that are interested 00:19:49.060 --> 00:19:50.706 in being attractive, 00:19:50.706 --> 00:19:53.150 addicted to their cell phones, 00:19:53.150 --> 00:19:55.545 trying to make themselves pretty, 00:19:55.545 --> 00:19:57.470 that's average. 00:19:57.470 --> 00:19:59.456 To find people grasping for money, 00:19:59.456 --> 00:20:03.230 movies, popularity, clothes, food, fame, power, 00:20:03.230 --> 00:20:06.011 there's nothing unusual about that. 00:20:06.011 --> 00:20:08.162 You think with me here. 00:20:08.162 --> 00:20:12.300 To find a man, a woman, or a child 00:20:12.300 --> 00:20:15.666 whose heart jumps 00:20:15.666 --> 00:20:19.540 when they hear the name of Christ, 00:20:19.540 --> 00:20:22.546 that is rare. 00:20:22.546 --> 00:20:25.301 That is special. 00:20:25.301 --> 00:20:28.905 That is a mark of God at work in somebody 00:20:28.905 --> 00:20:31.514 in an absolutely miraculous way 00:20:31.514 --> 00:20:33.617 because that is not common. 00:20:33.617 --> 00:20:35.984 Not at all. NOTE Paragraph 00:20:35.984 --> 00:20:38.084 The thing to ask is this: 00:20:38.084 --> 00:20:44.682 Where do such people come from? 00:20:44.682 --> 00:20:45.796 Go back there. 00:20:45.796 --> 00:20:59.294 Go back to Song of Solomon 1:16. 00:20:59.294 --> 00:21:02.800 Now I recognize that for a man 00:21:02.800 --> 00:21:06.355 to actually speak 00:21:06.355 --> 00:21:09.093 with some of these words 00:21:09.093 --> 00:21:10.749 and speak them about Christ - 00:21:10.749 --> 00:21:12.761 I don't know, maybe it would cause some people 00:21:12.761 --> 00:21:14.066 to be uncomfortable. 00:21:14.066 --> 00:21:16.092 But I can tell you this, 00:21:16.092 --> 00:21:18.602 the manliest of men - 00:21:18.602 --> 00:21:20.165 and Christians should be men. 00:21:20.165 --> 00:21:22.091 "Quit you like men." 00:21:22.091 --> 00:21:24.109 Be men. 00:21:24.109 --> 00:21:26.072 But you know what? 00:21:26.072 --> 00:21:30.800 The purest men in this world, 00:21:30.800 --> 00:21:32.338 they may not walk around using 00:21:32.338 --> 00:21:33.655 terminology like this, 00:21:33.655 --> 00:21:38.622 but God's man, he feels this in his heart. 00:21:38.622 --> 00:21:41.149 He feels v. 16. 00:21:41.149 --> 00:21:45.053 When he feels the realities of Christ, 00:21:45.053 --> 00:21:48.142 he can say, 00:21:48.142 --> 00:21:54.551 "Oh Christ, You are beautiful. 00:21:54.551 --> 00:21:57.663 You are truly delightful." 00:21:57.663 --> 00:22:02.110 He feels it in the very fabric of his soul. NOTE Paragraph 00:22:02.110 --> 00:22:06.451 And the thing to ask is where do they come from? 00:22:06.451 --> 00:22:09.681 Where do people who truly feel 00:22:09.681 --> 00:22:11.713 in the depths of their being 00:22:11.713 --> 00:22:14.425 that Christ is beautiful and desirable - 00:22:14.425 --> 00:22:17.646 where do they come from? 00:22:17.646 --> 00:22:21.527 Seminaries don't make them. 00:22:21.527 --> 00:22:25.843 The truth is churches don't make them. 00:22:25.843 --> 00:22:32.160 None of us have a mother that makes people like these. NOTE Paragraph 00:22:32.160 --> 00:22:34.419 Listen - in fact, turn there. 00:22:34.419 --> 00:22:35.806 You're very close to it. 00:22:35.806 --> 00:22:38.153 Turn to Isaiah 53. 00:22:38.153 --> 00:22:41.723 Isaiah's right after Song of Solomon. 00:22:41.723 --> 00:22:53.130 Go to the well known Isaiah 53. 00:22:53.130 --> 00:22:55.705 All I have to do is take you here 00:22:55.705 --> 00:22:57.616 and take you in your mind 00:22:57.616 --> 00:23:02.364 back to former days. 00:23:02.364 --> 00:23:04.383 And here we are. 00:23:04.383 --> 00:23:09.189 Isaiah 53:2. 00:23:09.189 --> 00:23:15.048 "Like a root out of dry ground..." 00:23:15.048 --> 00:23:21.505 A root sticking up out of dry ground. 00:23:21.505 --> 00:23:23.988 "...He had no form or majesty 00:23:23.988 --> 00:23:27.782 that we should look at Him, 00:23:27.782 --> 00:23:33.682 no beauty that we should desire Him." 00:23:33.682 --> 00:23:40.061 That statement right there 00:23:40.061 --> 00:23:47.747 given the chapter of Scripture that it's in, 00:23:47.747 --> 00:23:56.710 man in his fallen state is so backward. 00:23:56.710 --> 00:24:00.033 "No beauty..." and look at v. 3. 00:24:00.033 --> 00:24:04.999 "Despised, rejected by men, 00:24:04.999 --> 00:24:10.275 as one from whom men hide their faces, 00:24:10.275 --> 00:24:13.502 He was despised 00:24:13.502 --> 00:24:17.982 and we esteemed Him not." 00:24:17.982 --> 00:24:19.603 Do you remember? 00:24:19.603 --> 00:24:23.193 Pilate said to the Jews, 00:24:23.193 --> 00:24:27.160 "Behold your King." 00:24:27.160 --> 00:24:28.711 And they did. 00:24:28.711 --> 00:24:31.320 They looked. They beheld Him. 00:24:31.320 --> 00:24:32.936 See Him standing there 00:24:32.936 --> 00:24:35.854 with His crown of thorns. 00:24:35.854 --> 00:24:38.487 His robe of purple. 00:24:38.487 --> 00:24:40.789 I mean, never, never had they stood 00:24:40.789 --> 00:24:43.496 in the presence of one pure 00:24:43.496 --> 00:24:46.717 or more beautiful or more pleasing to God 00:24:46.717 --> 00:24:48.750 or more willing to save, 00:24:48.750 --> 00:24:52.841 and they cried out. 00:24:52.841 --> 00:24:54.425 You know what they cried out. 00:24:54.425 --> 00:24:56.725 "Away with Him! Away with Him! 00:24:56.725 --> 00:25:00.294 Crucify Him!" 00:25:00.294 --> 00:25:04.856 You know what that songwriter said. 00:25:04.856 --> 00:25:10.884 "Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice 00:25:10.884 --> 00:25:15.966 call out among the scoffers." 00:25:15.966 --> 00:25:18.170 Do you remember? 00:25:18.170 --> 00:25:21.127 Do you remember those days? 00:25:21.127 --> 00:25:23.023 That was your voice. 00:25:23.023 --> 00:25:25.548 That was my voice. 00:25:25.548 --> 00:25:27.569 Ashamed. 00:25:27.569 --> 00:25:31.148 Ashamed. I can hear my voice 00:25:31.148 --> 00:25:34.400 in that crowd. 00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:37.536 I can listen for it. NOTE Paragraph 00:25:37.536 --> 00:25:40.028 Clint was telling me 00:25:40.028 --> 00:25:42.602 that when he's over on the oil rigs, 00:25:42.602 --> 00:25:45.362 he sometimes watches us livestream. 00:25:45.362 --> 00:25:48.072 I said you listen for Caroline's voice 00:25:48.072 --> 00:25:49.697 in the singing, don't you? 00:25:49.697 --> 00:25:53.878 And he said, yeah, I do. 00:25:53.878 --> 00:25:57.438 But you listen for your voice 00:25:57.438 --> 00:26:01.274 in this crowd because it's there. 00:26:01.274 --> 00:26:03.783 We didn't esteem Him. 00:26:03.783 --> 00:26:08.072 We despised Him. 00:26:08.072 --> 00:26:10.032 Despised Him. 00:26:10.032 --> 00:26:13.926 That any of us should find Christ attractive 00:26:13.926 --> 00:26:16.913 is only shocking to the degree 00:26:16.913 --> 00:26:19.154 that we realize it is not natural, 00:26:19.154 --> 00:26:20.404 it is not normal. 00:26:20.404 --> 00:26:21.806 Do you know what normal is? 00:26:21.806 --> 00:26:23.687 "They hated Me without a cause." 00:26:23.687 --> 00:26:25.755 You know what normal is? 00:26:25.755 --> 00:26:27.170 "He came to His own 00:26:27.170 --> 00:26:31.069 and His own received Him not." NOTE Paragraph 00:26:31.069 --> 00:26:33.549 You know, we get these guys. 00:26:33.549 --> 00:26:35.373 They want to write these stories 00:26:35.373 --> 00:26:37.063 about the end times; 00:26:37.063 --> 00:26:38.536 tell us about the antichrist. 00:26:38.536 --> 00:26:41.118 You know, he's going to come from the European Union. 00:26:41.118 --> 00:26:45.703 He's going to have 666 stamped on his forehead. 00:26:45.703 --> 00:26:50.339 You don't have to look to Europe, 00:26:50.339 --> 00:26:52.497 because the reality is all we had to do 00:26:52.497 --> 00:26:56.275 is walk into the bathroom 00:26:56.275 --> 00:27:00.187 and look at ourselves in the mirror. 00:27:00.187 --> 00:27:02.663 You know what John said? 00:27:02.663 --> 00:27:12.569 He said, "Now many antichrists have come." 00:27:12.569 --> 00:27:15.658 We were the antichrists. 00:27:15.658 --> 00:27:20.911 Anti means to be against. 00:27:20.911 --> 00:27:22.500 We were them. 00:27:22.500 --> 00:27:24.506 We would have never admitted it, 00:27:24.506 --> 00:27:27.249 but that's precisely... 00:27:27.249 --> 00:27:30.043 Man's natural disposition is such 00:27:30.043 --> 00:27:32.515 that the Song of Songs 00:27:32.515 --> 00:27:36.358 is a foreign language. 00:27:36.358 --> 00:27:40.949 The lost man - it is unintelligible. 00:27:40.949 --> 00:27:44.076 It's basically a parable. 00:27:44.076 --> 00:27:46.363 And you know how in the New Testament, 00:27:46.363 --> 00:27:48.014 the disciples asked, 00:27:48.014 --> 00:27:50.561 why do You speak to them in parables? 00:27:50.561 --> 00:27:53.362 And Jesus said this is why I speak to them in parables: 00:27:53.362 --> 00:27:56.222 "Because seeing they do not see, hearing they do not hear, 00:27:56.222 --> 00:27:57.738 nor do they understand." NOTE Paragraph 00:27:57.738 --> 00:27:59.909 You see, that's the thing with this. 00:27:59.909 --> 00:28:04.267 The Song of Solomon to the unconverted: 00:28:04.267 --> 00:28:06.203 what's that? 00:28:06.203 --> 00:28:11.998 It is in a foreign language. 00:28:11.998 --> 00:28:15.638 But I know we have a whole number 00:28:15.638 --> 00:28:17.329 of people in this room 00:28:17.329 --> 00:28:20.315 that do have eyes to see and ears to hear 00:28:20.315 --> 00:28:22.058 and you do understand. 00:28:22.058 --> 00:28:25.382 And when you hear these expressions 00:28:25.382 --> 00:28:29.355 come from her to Him, 00:28:29.355 --> 00:28:32.782 something jumps inside you and says, 00:28:32.782 --> 00:28:37.007 yes, that's how I feel. 00:28:37.007 --> 00:28:38.789 You see the thing is 00:28:38.789 --> 00:28:41.775 Christ is not ugly. 00:28:41.775 --> 00:28:44.433 He is not unkind. He is not cruel. 00:28:44.433 --> 00:28:47.068 He is the Savior of the world 00:28:47.068 --> 00:28:49.623 and robed in the beauty of holiness. 00:28:49.623 --> 00:28:52.732 He's altogether lovely, altogether desirable. 00:28:52.732 --> 00:28:54.849 Man's great problem? Newton said it 00:28:54.849 --> 00:28:57.289 in his most famous song: 00:28:57.289 --> 00:29:00.653 "I was blind, but now I see." NOTE Paragraph 00:29:00.653 --> 00:29:05.118 Do you recognize 00:29:05.118 --> 00:29:08.738 that when Adam took that fruit 00:29:08.738 --> 00:29:11.995 and he brought it up to his mouth, 00:29:11.995 --> 00:29:15.730 you can just imagine two daggers right there. 00:29:15.730 --> 00:29:18.152 The moment his teeth 00:29:18.152 --> 00:29:21.347 broke the skin on that thing, 00:29:21.347 --> 00:29:27.504 those daggers took his eyes out. 00:29:27.504 --> 00:29:29.063 And the problem was they took 00:29:29.063 --> 00:29:32.039 all of our eyes out as well. 00:29:32.042 --> 00:29:34.904 They were gone. 00:29:34.904 --> 00:29:38.031 We could see the ground, 00:29:38.031 --> 00:29:39.772 the fields, 00:29:39.772 --> 00:29:42.974 the weeds that now were in the world. 00:29:42.974 --> 00:29:46.973 We could feel the pain that came, 00:29:46.973 --> 00:29:48.945 the age. 00:29:48.945 --> 00:29:52.871 We could see the sun, the moon, and the stars. 00:29:52.871 --> 00:29:55.064 But we couldn't see. 00:29:55.064 --> 00:29:58.822 Our eyes had been put out. NOTE Paragraph 00:29:58.822 --> 00:30:01.111 We sang this too: 00:30:01.111 --> 00:30:06.754 "Something lives in every hue, 00:30:06.754 --> 00:30:11.951 Christless eyes have never seen." 00:30:11.951 --> 00:30:16.249 Beloved, do you remember 00:30:16.249 --> 00:30:19.630 when you carried around in your head 00:30:19.630 --> 00:30:25.194 Christless eyes and Christless ears? 00:30:25.194 --> 00:30:28.161 I remember it. 00:30:28.161 --> 00:30:29.866 You remember how it was? 00:30:29.866 --> 00:30:31.823 Jesus said it. 00:30:31.823 --> 00:30:34.693 Jesus said it this way, 00:30:34.693 --> 00:30:39.317 "those who are well 00:30:39.317 --> 00:30:43.256 have no need of a physician." 00:30:43.256 --> 00:30:46.457 Do you know how it was? 00:30:46.457 --> 00:30:48.889 No need. 00:30:48.889 --> 00:30:51.132 We didn't need Him. 00:30:51.132 --> 00:30:52.989 We were okay without Him. 00:30:52.989 --> 00:30:55.429 We could walk around. We could smile. 00:30:55.429 --> 00:30:59.540 We could joke. We could laugh... 00:30:59.540 --> 00:31:00.869 without trembling. 00:31:00.869 --> 00:31:04.145 We could casually sin without screaming in terror. 00:31:04.145 --> 00:31:06.104 We could go to sleep each night. 00:31:06.104 --> 00:31:07.811 We could talk about death and hell 00:31:07.811 --> 00:31:10.063 as if they were fairy tales. 00:31:10.063 --> 00:31:12.200 I mean, here we were walking through life, 00:31:12.200 --> 00:31:17.210 this great big mouth of hell 00:31:17.210 --> 00:31:21.016 underneath us waiting to swallow us. 00:31:21.016 --> 00:31:23.730 And we were so casual. 00:31:23.730 --> 00:31:27.426 So careless. So confident. 00:31:27.426 --> 00:31:29.689 No thought ever crossed our minds: 00:31:29.689 --> 00:31:32.703 "Oh, may He kiss me 00:31:32.703 --> 00:31:34.872 with the kisses of His mouth." 00:31:34.872 --> 00:31:39.544 Things like that - what? Christ? 00:31:39.544 --> 00:31:42.153 We sang "Joy to the World." 00:31:42.153 --> 00:31:44.458 He's a little baby in a manger. 00:31:44.458 --> 00:31:45.650 I would see it. 00:31:45.650 --> 00:31:48.176 Yeah, that crucifix up on the wall. 00:31:48.176 --> 00:31:52.160 Yeah, that's Christ. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:54.230 For me it was a word of cursing 00:31:54.230 --> 00:31:56.465 and swearing in my mouth. 00:31:56.465 --> 00:31:59.769 Some effeminate looking picture 00:31:59.769 --> 00:32:08.731 of probably some Catholic priest. NOTE Paragraph 00:32:08.731 --> 00:32:12.224 Isaiah is spot on. 00:32:12.224 --> 00:32:14.810 Look at it. 00:32:14.810 --> 00:32:17.989 V. 2, "No beauty." 00:32:17.989 --> 00:32:22.663 Isaiah 53:2, "No beauty 00:32:22.663 --> 00:32:26.197 that we should desire Him." 00:32:26.197 --> 00:32:34.660 What Christless eyes we had! 00:32:34.660 --> 00:32:40.139 "One from whom men hide their faces." 00:32:40.139 --> 00:32:43.376 We don't want to look at Him. 00:32:43.376 --> 00:32:44.786 We hide our faces from Him. 00:32:44.786 --> 00:32:47.359 We don't want to look His way. We don't want to look at Him. 00:32:47.359 --> 00:32:48.791 We don't want to regard Him. 00:32:48.791 --> 00:32:51.306 We don't want to esteem Him. 00:32:51.306 --> 00:32:53.360 And just see where Isaiah takes us. 00:32:53.360 --> 00:32:56.252 Look at v. 4. 00:32:56.252 --> 00:32:59.756 This is what's so amazing about it! 00:32:59.756 --> 00:33:02.392 It's not as though you continue reading here 00:33:02.392 --> 00:33:04.126 and you look at it and you say, 00:33:04.126 --> 00:33:06.559 oh yeah, yeah... 00:33:06.559 --> 00:33:08.273 yeah, there was no beauty. 00:33:08.273 --> 00:33:10.990 He was ugly. 00:33:10.990 --> 00:33:12.254 Listen to it. 00:33:12.254 --> 00:33:14.914 "Surely He has borne our griefs 00:33:14.914 --> 00:33:17.809 and carried our sorrows." 00:33:17.809 --> 00:33:22.225 V. 5, "He was pierced for our transgressions, 00:33:22.225 --> 00:33:24.833 crushed for our iniquities. 00:33:24.833 --> 00:33:27.115 Upon Him was the chastisement 00:33:27.115 --> 00:33:29.261 that brought us peace. 00:33:29.261 --> 00:33:32.074 With His wounds we are healed." 00:33:32.074 --> 00:33:35.468 Or v. 6, "The Lord laid on Him 00:33:35.468 --> 00:33:37.625 the iniquity of us all." 00:33:37.625 --> 00:33:41.957 V. 8, "Stricken for the transgression of My people." 00:33:41.957 --> 00:33:45.693 V. 11, "Out of the anguish of His soul, 00:33:45.693 --> 00:33:49.752 God shall see and be satisfied. 00:33:49.752 --> 00:33:52.867 He shall make many to be accounted righteous. 00:33:52.867 --> 00:33:54.918 He shall bear their iniquities." 00:33:54.918 --> 00:33:57.357 V. 12, "He poured out His soul to death 00:33:57.357 --> 00:34:00.828 and was numbered with the transgressors, 00:34:00.828 --> 00:34:03.052 yet He bore the sin of many, 00:34:03.052 --> 00:34:06.795 and makes intercession for the transgressors." 00:34:06.795 --> 00:34:08.920 What Christless eyes! 00:34:08.920 --> 00:34:10.649 Do you remember? 00:34:10.649 --> 00:34:13.187 Well, I have no memory of these verses 00:34:13.187 --> 00:34:18.339 because I doubt I ever saw them. 00:34:18.339 --> 00:34:20.635 I didn't care. 00:34:20.635 --> 00:34:21.855 In the midst of my life, 00:34:21.855 --> 00:34:24.215 if somebody would have read those verses to me 00:34:24.215 --> 00:34:28.952 it's like clear them aside. 00:34:28.952 --> 00:34:31.950 I lived for the weekends. 00:34:31.950 --> 00:34:34.590 I just existed during the week. 00:34:34.590 --> 00:34:37.606 I lived for the weekends. 00:34:37.606 --> 00:34:41.299 Make money during the week to live it up. 00:34:41.299 --> 00:34:44.410 Words like this meant nothing. 00:34:44.410 --> 00:34:46.818 Don't bother me with that religious nonsense. 00:34:46.818 --> 00:34:49.663 We had it figured out, right? 00:34:49.663 --> 00:34:51.509 I mean, most of us, 00:34:51.509 --> 00:34:53.952 we kind of come from the same stock. 00:34:53.952 --> 00:34:56.630 A bit of religion - that was me. 00:34:56.630 --> 00:34:57.822 Just a bit. 00:34:57.822 --> 00:35:02.136 A lot of superstition. 00:35:02.136 --> 00:35:06.287 A good dose of self-love. 00:35:06.287 --> 00:35:09.146 A portion of self-righteousness. 00:35:09.146 --> 00:35:11.915 We were good. We were good! 00:35:11.915 --> 00:35:19.138 Jesus? We had a manger thing growing up. 00:35:19.138 --> 00:35:24.441 Or my dad had a crucifix on the wall. 00:35:24.441 --> 00:35:28.326 Yeah, He's either a baby or He's dead, 00:35:28.326 --> 00:35:30.420 but don't bother us with that. 00:35:30.420 --> 00:35:32.359 We're pretty good. 00:35:32.359 --> 00:35:36.610 We esteemed Him not. 00:35:36.610 --> 00:35:41.603 And that is the world around us. 00:35:41.603 --> 00:35:45.222 This idea, this Song of Solomon 00:35:45.222 --> 00:35:50.025 is so foreign to this world. 00:35:50.025 --> 00:35:56.730 People - yeah, show me how to miss hell. 00:35:56.730 --> 00:35:59.540 But the idea, 00:35:59.540 --> 00:36:03.228 this is what it means to be saved. 00:36:03.228 --> 00:36:05.473 So often, people just think 00:36:05.473 --> 00:36:07.568 no lake of fire in the end. 00:36:07.568 --> 00:36:10.206 That's not really being saved. 00:36:10.206 --> 00:36:12.431 Yes, yes, that's not suffering 00:36:12.431 --> 00:36:14.453 the consequences and the punishment 00:36:14.453 --> 00:36:15.908 that our sins deserve. 00:36:15.908 --> 00:36:18.731 But to truly be saved, 00:36:18.731 --> 00:36:20.868 to truly have life 00:36:20.868 --> 00:36:27.051 is to know God and to know His Christ. 00:36:27.051 --> 00:36:31.959 To know - intimacy - to have this love. 00:36:31.959 --> 00:36:34.026 We know this. 00:36:34.026 --> 00:36:37.670 Listen, the greatest thing 00:36:37.670 --> 00:36:40.258 about the way God has designed us; 00:36:40.258 --> 00:36:43.555 the thing that causes the greatest joy 00:36:43.555 --> 00:36:47.766 and expression in who we are as human beings 00:36:47.766 --> 00:36:52.048 is when we are madly in love. 00:36:52.048 --> 00:36:54.504 There's no getting around that. 00:36:54.504 --> 00:36:57.623 This is what we find here. NOTE Paragraph 00:36:57.623 --> 00:37:01.269 Brethren, how did we ever come 00:37:01.269 --> 00:37:03.122 to esteem Him? 00:37:03.122 --> 00:37:05.420 What happened to us 00:37:05.420 --> 00:37:08.930 that we looked up one day? 00:37:08.930 --> 00:37:12.172 I can remember that time in my life. 00:37:12.172 --> 00:37:22.201 It's like suddenly the fog was gone. 00:37:22.201 --> 00:37:29.229 How did I never see Him before? 00:37:29.229 --> 00:37:32.126 Who is this? 00:37:32.126 --> 00:37:35.216 I was stunned. 00:37:35.216 --> 00:37:38.860 (incomplete thought) 00:37:38.860 --> 00:37:42.132 How did this even happen? 00:37:42.132 --> 00:37:45.503 John tells us. 00:37:45.503 --> 00:37:51.849 We love Him because what? 00:37:51.849 --> 00:37:54.574 You see, the thing is, we're incapable of loving Him - 00:37:54.574 --> 00:37:57.945 and you say, I didn't get that. What did he even say? 00:37:57.945 --> 00:38:00.676 1 John 4:19, 00:38:00.676 --> 00:38:02.881 "We love Him because He first loved us." 00:38:02.881 --> 00:38:04.540 What John is teaching is this: 00:38:04.540 --> 00:38:06.334 The one has to come before the other 00:38:06.334 --> 00:38:08.611 because the one is responsible for the other. 00:38:08.611 --> 00:38:10.505 The one produces the other. 00:38:10.505 --> 00:38:12.584 We're incapable of loving Christ 00:38:12.584 --> 00:38:14.643 apart from what He does to us. 00:38:14.643 --> 00:38:16.565 Left to ourselves, the reality is, 00:38:16.565 --> 00:38:21.867 there's nothing in us to call forth love for Him. 00:38:21.867 --> 00:38:24.153 I loved everything else. 00:38:24.153 --> 00:38:26.862 Many other things. NOTE Paragraph 00:38:26.862 --> 00:38:28.650 What did our Lord teach us? 00:38:28.650 --> 00:38:31.446 He said this - 00:38:31.446 --> 00:38:33.231 He said one day after He had fed 00:38:33.231 --> 00:38:34.855 those 5,000 people, 00:38:34.855 --> 00:38:38.647 He was talking about the true bread. 00:38:38.647 --> 00:38:43.315 He said, "No one can come to Me 00:38:43.315 --> 00:38:49.668 unless My Father who sent Me draws..." 00:38:49.668 --> 00:38:53.583 What sort of drawing was that? 00:38:53.583 --> 00:38:55.815 It wasn't chains of a slave. 00:38:55.815 --> 00:38:57.865 It's something else. 00:38:57.865 --> 00:39:01.443 Something pulled us to Christ. 00:39:01.443 --> 00:39:03.767 This is how He saves. 00:39:03.767 --> 00:39:10.759 He saves by causing us to behold Christ. 00:39:10.759 --> 00:39:13.069 Christ asked the question: 00:39:13.069 --> 00:39:16.706 What think ye of Christ? 00:39:16.706 --> 00:39:19.919 How you answer that 00:39:19.919 --> 00:39:22.623 says everything about you - 00:39:22.623 --> 00:39:23.923 not about Him. 00:39:23.923 --> 00:39:25.809 What you say positive or negative 00:39:25.809 --> 00:39:27.098 doesn't change Him. 00:39:27.098 --> 00:39:28.924 But how you answer that question 00:39:28.924 --> 00:39:31.118 says everything about you. 00:39:31.118 --> 00:39:33.460 And it says everything about the love 00:39:33.460 --> 00:39:36.519 that Christ has expressed to you, 00:39:36.519 --> 00:39:38.458 what He has done for you, 00:39:38.458 --> 00:39:40.518 what He has done in you. NOTE Paragraph 00:39:40.518 --> 00:39:43.081 And we can go back to Song of Solomon now 00:39:43.081 --> 00:39:44.677 if you're in Isaiah. 00:39:44.677 --> 00:39:48.432 Song of Solomon - you remember this. 00:39:48.432 --> 00:39:53.185 Chapter 1:4 - I mean, yes, you have 00:39:53.185 --> 00:39:55.643 there in John 6, 00:39:55.643 --> 00:39:59.671 "No one can come to Me 00:39:59.671 --> 00:40:03.457 unless My Father draws..." 00:40:03.457 --> 00:40:08.717 Here it's the church herself saying - 00:40:08.717 --> 00:40:11.742 she's coming to that recognition. 00:40:11.742 --> 00:40:16.595 "Draw me. Draw me." 00:40:16.595 --> 00:40:20.240 We will run. Let us run. 00:40:20.240 --> 00:40:24.607 Draw, draw, draw. 00:40:24.607 --> 00:40:26.478 (incomplete thought) 00:40:26.478 --> 00:40:30.014 Look, this is appealing to Him 00:40:30.014 --> 00:40:32.529 to do something to us. 00:40:32.529 --> 00:40:35.215 Pull me. 00:40:35.215 --> 00:40:38.203 We are so willingly hard, 00:40:38.203 --> 00:40:41.587 so willingly blind, so willingly do we not 00:40:41.587 --> 00:40:44.358 want to find anything beautiful in Christ 00:40:44.358 --> 00:40:46.394 that unless there is this powerful, 00:40:46.394 --> 00:40:50.058 effectual drawing of the soul to Christ, 00:40:50.058 --> 00:40:53.068 both at conversion and afterwards, 00:40:53.068 --> 00:40:56.874 we will gladly run right into hell. 00:40:56.874 --> 00:40:58.102 We will. 00:40:58.102 --> 00:41:00.877 A soul's coming to Christ for life 00:41:00.877 --> 00:41:03.981 is not the product of any power 00:41:03.981 --> 00:41:06.526 or free will of man - 00:41:06.526 --> 00:41:08.065 power found in man - 00:41:08.065 --> 00:41:11.452 it's the result of Christ giving us life. NOTE Paragraph 00:41:11.452 --> 00:41:14.598 Have you ever read this? 00:41:14.598 --> 00:41:20.851 "Whoever does not love 00:41:20.851 --> 00:41:24.545 abides in death." 00:41:24.545 --> 00:41:27.529 Think about that. 00:41:27.529 --> 00:41:31.550 To love is to live. 00:41:31.550 --> 00:41:34.822 To live is to love. 00:41:34.822 --> 00:41:36.467 We looked up one day 00:41:36.467 --> 00:41:40.738 and we can't explain how it happened. 00:41:40.738 --> 00:41:45.805 But Christ was increasing. 00:41:45.805 --> 00:41:49.008 He was growing brighter. 00:41:49.008 --> 00:41:52.297 And everything else was growing pale. 00:41:52.297 --> 00:41:55.764 Everything else was decreasing. 00:41:55.764 --> 00:41:56.740 You know. 00:41:56.740 --> 00:41:58.275 The Apostle Paul comes along 00:41:58.275 --> 00:42:02.244 to the Philippians and he says, 00:42:02.244 --> 00:42:06.032 there was a day my circumcision, 00:42:06.032 --> 00:42:08.787 my Jewishness, 00:42:08.787 --> 00:42:12.186 my belonging to one of the premier tribes - 00:42:12.186 --> 00:42:13.280 the tribe of Benjamin - 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:14.751 that was one of the two tribes 00:42:14.751 --> 00:42:17.337 that stayed loyal to the Southern kingdom. 00:42:17.337 --> 00:42:22.485 A Hebrew of the Hebrews. 00:42:22.485 --> 00:42:26.278 He says but I saw Christ. 00:42:26.278 --> 00:42:28.759 I saw Him. 00:42:28.759 --> 00:42:32.823 I mean, the Christless eyes were taken away. 00:42:32.823 --> 00:42:34.309 And what does he say? 00:42:34.309 --> 00:42:37.359 I count it all loss 00:42:37.359 --> 00:42:40.814 that I might have Christ, 00:42:40.814 --> 00:42:42.549 that I might know Christ. 00:42:42.549 --> 00:42:43.722 For the sake of Christ. 00:42:43.722 --> 00:42:45.385 Indeed, I count everything as loss 00:42:45.385 --> 00:42:47.428 because of the surpassing worth of knowing 00:42:47.428 --> 00:42:50.406 Christ Jesus my Lord. 00:42:50.406 --> 00:42:53.601 We looked up one day 00:42:53.601 --> 00:42:55.253 and we began to have such thoughts 00:42:55.253 --> 00:42:57.956 as like we find in the Song of Solomon. 00:42:57.956 --> 00:42:59.679 Do you notice? 00:42:59.679 --> 00:43:04.048 Do you remember how that happened? NOTE Paragraph 00:43:04.048 --> 00:43:07.205 Out at Community, we used to sing a lot - 00:43:07.205 --> 00:43:08.571 we sing it sometimes here, 00:43:08.571 --> 00:43:12.717 but from Revelation 5 - 00:43:12.717 --> 00:43:15.577 4 and 5, they both have the words: 00:43:15.577 --> 00:43:17.599 Worthy. 00:43:17.599 --> 00:43:22.141 Can you remember when you were lost, 00:43:22.141 --> 00:43:24.341 you never, unless you were lost 00:43:24.341 --> 00:43:26.260 and your parents made you go to church 00:43:26.260 --> 00:43:29.236 where they sang Revelation 4 or 5 - 00:43:29.236 --> 00:43:34.643 you never put the word "worthy" 00:43:34.643 --> 00:43:39.730 in the same sentence with Christ. 00:43:39.730 --> 00:43:42.049 Ninety-nine percent of the time 00:43:42.049 --> 00:43:47.381 when His name came out of my mouth, 00:43:47.381 --> 00:43:52.612 I was simply cursing and swearing. 00:43:52.612 --> 00:43:56.667 Never did the term worthy 00:43:56.667 --> 00:43:59.356 fall in the same sentence with Him. 00:43:59.356 --> 00:44:01.585 Or the term "precious." 00:44:01.585 --> 00:44:07.526 Or the term "beautiful." 00:44:07.526 --> 00:44:11.494 Therefore - this is the KJV, the New King James Version, 00:44:11.494 --> 00:44:14.727 but you know this from 1 Peter 2:7. 00:44:14.727 --> 00:44:17.522 "Therefore to you who believe, 00:44:17.522 --> 00:44:23.075 He is precious." NOTE Paragraph 00:44:23.075 --> 00:44:25.714 And the thing that was amazing 00:44:25.714 --> 00:44:28.869 is that once you have the eyes to see - 00:44:28.869 --> 00:44:30.810 because I remember this - 00:44:30.810 --> 00:44:35.246 I could see and I suddenly looked around, 00:44:35.246 --> 00:44:37.892 and all my friends - 00:44:37.892 --> 00:44:40.201 all the comrades that I hunted with 00:44:40.201 --> 00:44:41.304 and drank with 00:44:41.304 --> 00:44:42.718 and lived my life with 00:44:42.718 --> 00:44:44.641 and my co-workers, 00:44:44.641 --> 00:44:47.478 my family - 00:44:47.478 --> 00:44:50.018 and you look around, 00:44:50.018 --> 00:44:54.112 and they're like the deer caught in headlights. 00:44:54.112 --> 00:45:00.111 I had such revelations to my soul. 00:45:00.111 --> 00:45:03.849 I said oh, I am certain 00:45:03.849 --> 00:45:06.316 that once I tell them, 00:45:06.316 --> 00:45:07.980 they are going to see what I see 00:45:07.980 --> 00:45:10.595 and they are going to jump on board. 00:45:10.595 --> 00:45:12.531 And one after another, 00:45:12.531 --> 00:45:17.951 they looked at me like I had three heads. 00:45:17.951 --> 00:45:19.743 Unwilling to come to Christ for life. 00:45:19.743 --> 00:45:21.049 But this is what He says, 00:45:21.049 --> 00:45:23.758 "You refuse to come to Me that you may have life." 00:45:23.758 --> 00:45:27.566 All day long - the book of Romans - 00:45:27.566 --> 00:45:30.462 "I have held out My hands to a disobedient 00:45:30.462 --> 00:45:32.337 and contrary people." 00:45:32.337 --> 00:45:33.934 But here's the thing, 00:45:33.934 --> 00:45:36.175 those Christ sets His love upon 00:45:36.175 --> 00:45:40.950 are made willing in the day of Christ's power 00:45:40.950 --> 00:45:44.817 by some secret, invisible power. 00:45:44.817 --> 00:45:47.640 He slays that enmity that was in us. 00:45:47.640 --> 00:45:50.532 That that despised Him; that that didn't esteem Him; 00:45:50.532 --> 00:45:53.692 that that was repulsed, that hid our face. 00:45:53.692 --> 00:45:56.200 We didn't want to see. We didn't want to know. 00:45:56.200 --> 00:45:58.890 Give me a small christ, a weak christ, a dead christ - 00:45:58.890 --> 00:46:00.385 not the Christ of Scripture. 00:46:00.385 --> 00:46:01.490 I can't tolerate Him. 00:46:01.490 --> 00:46:03.871 Not the one that says that I have to die to self 00:46:03.871 --> 00:46:05.859 and carry my cross and follow after Him. 00:46:05.859 --> 00:46:10.076 And unless I forsake all that I have, I can't be His disciple. 00:46:10.076 --> 00:46:12.131 And unless I repent, I'm going to perish - 00:46:12.131 --> 00:46:14.210 not that Christ. I don't want Him. 00:46:14.210 --> 00:46:16.389 Not the Christ that deals with me about my sin. 00:46:16.389 --> 00:46:18.378 Not the Christ that's going to make me holy. 00:46:18.378 --> 00:46:21.587 Not the Christ that's going to love me so much 00:46:21.587 --> 00:46:26.125 that He's going to remove every single idol from my life. 00:46:26.125 --> 00:46:29.995 I don't want that. 00:46:29.995 --> 00:46:31.922 But we were made willing. 00:46:31.922 --> 00:46:36.834 Christ exercised such a power on us. 00:46:36.834 --> 00:46:41.446 He killed that enmity that was in here. 00:46:41.446 --> 00:46:43.169 It was in the heart, in the brain, 00:46:43.169 --> 00:46:46.438 in the thoughts, in our discernment. 00:46:46.438 --> 00:46:50.432 (incomplete thought) 00:46:50.432 --> 00:46:53.063 Something way beyond our power. 00:46:53.063 --> 00:46:56.477 But we weren't forced. 00:46:56.477 --> 00:47:00.881 It was like it was a sweet drawing. 00:47:00.881 --> 00:47:04.968 It was us beholding that He was desirable 00:47:04.968 --> 00:47:07.132 that makes us run. 00:47:07.132 --> 00:47:13.095 He captures us by capturing our affections, 00:47:13.095 --> 00:47:14.544 changing the desire. 00:47:14.544 --> 00:47:18.241 That's precisely what happened. NOTE Paragraph 00:47:18.241 --> 00:47:21.854 I was thinking as we were listening to Jeff 00:47:21.854 --> 00:47:23.997 in the first hour. 00:47:23.997 --> 00:47:25.182 Those words: 00:47:25.182 --> 00:47:31.012 We have seen His glory. 00:47:31.012 --> 00:47:36.995 But you know, what glory? 00:47:36.995 --> 00:47:38.527 He didn't walk around shining. 00:47:38.527 --> 00:47:40.512 I know on the Mount of Transfiguration, 00:47:40.512 --> 00:47:42.237 but I don't believe that is at all 00:47:42.237 --> 00:47:45.300 what John is talking about. 00:47:45.300 --> 00:47:48.272 His glory - we have seen His glory. 00:47:48.272 --> 00:47:50.122 But that "we" right there, 00:47:50.122 --> 00:47:53.645 that is not everybody. 00:47:53.645 --> 00:47:55.747 There are many people who with their eyes 00:47:55.747 --> 00:48:00.948 they saw Christ do His miracles. 00:48:00.948 --> 00:48:02.775 They didn't repent. 00:48:02.775 --> 00:48:05.091 They didn't believe. 00:48:05.091 --> 00:48:07.277 Jesus appeals to them in John 5. 00:48:07.277 --> 00:48:09.820 We'll see that when our brother gets there. 00:48:09.820 --> 00:48:11.930 He says they bear witness. 00:48:11.930 --> 00:48:20.415 My works bear witness that I am Him. NOTE Paragraph 00:48:20.415 --> 00:48:27.680 It is a gift of all gifts 00:48:27.680 --> 00:48:32.297 that you stand in the crowd 00:48:32.297 --> 00:48:35.955 and Christ does His miracles 00:48:35.955 --> 00:48:45.232 and you say, 00:48:45.232 --> 00:48:48.203 I need Him more than I need anything else. 00:48:48.203 --> 00:48:50.039 I've got to have Him. 00:48:50.039 --> 00:48:51.710 There's a beauty, there's a power, 00:48:51.710 --> 00:48:53.038 there's forgiveness. 00:48:53.038 --> 00:48:56.801 This is what my heart has been looking for forever. 00:48:56.801 --> 00:48:59.464 When the crowd is big 00:48:59.464 --> 00:49:03.970 and you look around and most in the crowd: 00:49:03.970 --> 00:49:06.054 what's for dinner? 00:49:06.054 --> 00:49:11.511 And away they go. 00:49:11.511 --> 00:49:15.571 This is a phenomenal gift. NOTE Paragraph 00:49:15.571 --> 00:49:18.242 Brethren, do you count it 00:49:18.242 --> 00:49:22.130 one of the greatest gifts of Christ's love to you 00:49:22.130 --> 00:49:24.769 that your heart aches for Him? 00:49:24.769 --> 00:49:28.201 Because it is. And it's special. 00:49:28.201 --> 00:49:30.516 And He doesn't just haphazardly 00:49:30.516 --> 00:49:33.759 and randomly throw that gift around. 00:49:33.759 --> 00:49:38.551 They are for His loved ones. 00:49:38.551 --> 00:49:42.561 He said this, that drawing - 00:49:42.561 --> 00:49:45.193 He said you lift Me up 00:49:45.193 --> 00:49:48.103 and I will draw all men. 00:49:48.103 --> 00:49:50.382 That doesn't mean all without exception. 00:49:50.382 --> 00:49:53.417 It means men from all the nations. 00:49:53.417 --> 00:49:55.096 There were Greeks there. 00:49:55.096 --> 00:49:58.372 That's the context in which He said that. 00:49:58.372 --> 00:50:00.960 The thing that is so beautiful about Christ 00:50:00.960 --> 00:50:03.007 is not like the beauty that we would find 00:50:03.007 --> 00:50:08.850 in a woman necessarily or in a sunset. 00:50:08.850 --> 00:50:12.278 Actually, that which Christ Himself says 00:50:12.278 --> 00:50:15.882 has that drawing efficacy 00:50:15.882 --> 00:50:18.792 is lift Me up and I will draw. NOTE Paragraph 00:50:18.792 --> 00:50:21.683 Do you realize His death, His blood, 00:50:21.683 --> 00:50:25.225 the gore, the agonies, 00:50:25.235 --> 00:50:30.497 the shame of that cross, 00:50:30.497 --> 00:50:33.670 that's where so much of His beauty is found. 00:50:33.670 --> 00:50:37.144 It's found in those words we read in Isaiah 53. 00:50:37.144 --> 00:50:42.630 That is the most precious thing imaginable. 00:50:42.630 --> 00:50:45.509 "The Word became flesh 00:50:45.509 --> 00:50:47.986 and He dwelt among us." 00:50:47.986 --> 00:50:52.597 But He took His humanity - the God-man, 00:50:52.597 --> 00:50:53.845 to do what He did. 00:50:53.845 --> 00:50:56.176 Would you not say it is one of the greatest gifts 00:50:56.176 --> 00:50:57.535 He has ever given you 00:50:57.535 --> 00:51:02.279 to find Him whom you have never seen - 00:51:02.279 --> 00:51:04.647 this is what Peter says. 00:51:04.647 --> 00:51:08.260 Peter says though you have not seen Him, you love Him. 00:51:08.260 --> 00:51:09.658 I mean, can you imagine it? 00:51:09.658 --> 00:51:13.951 Can you imagine that you have been given a gift 00:51:13.951 --> 00:51:18.296 to ache for, to worship, to long after, 00:51:18.296 --> 00:51:21.740 to feel the need of, to have a love for, 00:51:21.740 --> 00:51:27.570 to find desirable this Christ. 00:51:27.570 --> 00:51:30.080 And you love Him more than anything else. 00:51:30.080 --> 00:51:34.754 More than father or mother or husband or wife. 00:51:34.754 --> 00:51:37.529 And you've never seen Him. 00:51:37.529 --> 00:51:40.544 That is a miracle. 00:51:40.544 --> 00:51:43.017 That is a gift. 00:51:43.017 --> 00:51:46.437 And that is altogether an expression of His love 00:51:46.437 --> 00:51:49.472 that you can look up and say, 00:51:49.472 --> 00:51:56.778 You are beautiful, my Beloved. 00:51:56.778 --> 00:51:59.999 Altogether desirable and precious. 00:51:59.999 --> 00:52:02.871 That is a manifestation of His love. NOTE Paragraph 00:52:02.871 --> 00:52:05.920 Now next week, what I want to look at 00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:10.648 is Him looking at her - 00:52:10.648 --> 00:52:12.867 looking at us; 00:52:12.867 --> 00:52:16.885 looking at His people and saying, 00:52:16.885 --> 00:52:21.444 "You are beautiful, My love." 00:52:21.444 --> 00:52:25.279 "You are beautiful." 00:52:25.279 --> 00:52:28.733 Because we often don't feel it. 00:52:28.733 --> 00:52:30.668 But I want you to see His heart 00:52:30.668 --> 00:52:34.484 expressed to you, Lord willing, next week. NOTE Paragraph 00:52:34.484 --> 00:52:36.111 Father, I pray, 00:52:36.111 --> 00:52:41.497 help us just to delight 00:52:41.497 --> 00:52:46.538 in the fullness, the realities 00:52:46.538 --> 00:52:49.921 of what it means to be loved by Christ. 00:52:49.921 --> 00:52:52.207 This love that surpasses knowledge. 00:52:52.207 --> 00:52:57.587 Help us, give us according to the riches of Your glory, 00:52:57.587 --> 00:53:00.324 Lord, enable us to comprehend 00:53:00.324 --> 00:53:02.738 with all the saints 00:53:02.738 --> 00:53:06.493 what is the breadth and length and height and depth. 00:53:06.493 --> 00:53:09.340 We ask this in the name of our Savior, Amen.