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3-27-2022 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Song of Solomon 6:2-9

Sermon Title: Holy Church of God, Beautiful to the Eyes of Christ

       The Shulamite woman had left Solomon outside and lost him, and while searching for him, with the help of the daughters of Jerusalem to found King Solomon down to his garden and  to the juniper fields feeding sheep and gathering lilies in the gardens.

         Even the Lord is still looking for His sheep and feeding them, even when Christians neglect His prayers and Words because of their laziness in self-satisfaction.

        The Shulamite woman, who found her Solomon after all her hardships, revealed her spiritually matured self to Solomon and said:

“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine: he feedeth among the lilies.” (Sol 6:3).

        The Shulamite woman, who suffered her tremendous spiritual suffering after her expulsion of Solomon, was now transformed from self centered beliefs to her King Solomon centered life. When she was a spiritual baby, she said to Solomon, ”  My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.” (Sol 2:16).

      Even today, when Christians lose their first love for the Lord and lead a self-centered life,  they are finally disciplined and their spiritual state falls into a pit of wretchedness, spiritual and physical, they meet the Lord again through bone-breaking repentance and restore their first love.

        When the Shulamite woman finds and meets Solomon again through her earnest repentance, Solomon gives her praise enough for her to be difficult to bear in apology:

” Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, comely as Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners.

5 Turn away thine eyes from me, for they have overcome me: thy hair is as a flock of goats that appear from Gilead.

6 Thy teeth are as a flock of sheep which go up from the washing, whereof every one beareth twins, and there is not one barren among them.

7 As a piece of a pomegranate are thy temples within thy locks..” (Sol 6:4-7)

         King Solomon asks that the eyes of the Shulamite woman overwhelm him, and that he turn them around. That’s right! It is surprising to know that when Christians repent, when they are washed with the blood of Christ, they appear so clean in the eyes of the Lord. It’s unimaginable.

      When the Sulamite woman repents and recovers spiritually, Solomon  gives the Sulem woman the very same compliment he had previously given the Sulamite woman. If we recall the words of  Solomon to her when the Shulamite woman was in her deep communion with Solomon:

“Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes within thy locks: thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear from mount Gilead.

2 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 among them.

3 Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet, and thy speech is comely: thy temples are like a piece of a pomegranate within thy locks. .” (Sol. 4:1-3)

        That’s right! Today, Christians who belong to the church, the body of Christ, established by God are  one and only bride, purchased with the price of Christ’s own blood. Sometimes, even if his bride is far away from him, he is waiting for them, knocking on the door until the end.

        God put the first man Adam into a deep sleep and took one of his ribs to make his bride, Eve. Like it or not, there was only one woman in the whole world. When Eve sinned, Adam had no choice but to choose the path of death following Eve, who  died. Perhaps Eve broke Adam’s heart like the Shulamite woman. When Adam went out, she might have complained at him doubting with any other woman he might met. What a nonsense it may be! Just as Christians today break the heart of the Lord by complaining to the him as if they might forgot of him died for them shedding blood.

        King Solomon, who loved only the Shulamite women, is a type of Christ Jesus who will appear in the world in the future.

         Like the first man, Adam, Jesus slept deeply in dead  in the grave for three days and three nights, and when he  resurrected, he put those who believed and accepted him into his body, and made them all into the church of God to become his own ribs. He gave the Holy Ghost to them so that they could become the  helpers for him like Adam’s wife Eve. With what kind of love he atoned for the sins of sinners like the Shulamite woman, and even made them members of the church, which is his body, he shared with them all that God the Father created in heaven and  earth with him forever and ever. Although he wrote so in detail in the 66 books of the Bible in order to make them realize that he has done for them, he is still knocking on the door and calling for repentance toward the church of Laodicea, which has turned away from these great and holy words and has become self-centered.

        God wants His church to be as  beautiful as Tirsha, like the woman of Sulamite, and like an army with flags. The Church of God must first be washed clean with the Word to be beautiful. Apostle Paul testified to the Ephesian church members:

“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:26-27).

        The Church, being the Holy Bride of Christ, must not only be spiritually clean, but must also be an army as dignified as an army with flags. In other words,it must become the soldiers of Christ who fight and overcome the forces of Satan that attacks the Church of God.  Apostle Paul testified of spiritual warfare with certainty:

” I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.

12 Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.

13 Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will ye see in the Shulamite? As it were the company of two armies.” (Ephesians 6:11-13).

       The Shulamite woman was like two armies joined together (Sol 6:13). That’s right. Christ’s army is a united army of Jews and Gentiles. Those who are called to this army are organized into those who have been saved by believing the gospel of Christ. Jews and Gentiles who have believed in the gospel of Christ will become two armies of the church of God and the warriors who defend the church for Christ. Apostle Paul testified of these two armies:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16).

         After Apostle Paul had run all the way of faith, he confessed that he had kept his faith through this spiritual battle:

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing..” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)

         That’s right! Christians who long and wait for the day of Christ’s appearing are warriors in constant spiritual warfare with Satan. He will crown them with the glory of reigning with Christ in His kingdom.

        Solomon is speaking of his guests present at his own wedding in the future. This is a foreshadowing of the wedding ceremony of the Lamb of God in which the Church of God becomes  the bride of Christ like the Shulamite woman after rapture:

“Sixty queens and eight concubines, and virgins are uncountable, but my dove, my undefiled, is one. She is her mother’s only daughter, and she is precious to her mother who bore her. When the daughters saw her, they blessed her. Yes, queens and concubines, and they praise her” (Sol 6:8-9).

         God has established  salvation plan for the innumerable people who had lived before the coming of Jesus Christ, as well as those who shall be saved during the Great Tribulation, and those who will be saved during the Millennium Kingdom. He had established the plan of salvation for Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses, David, and so on. During the Great Tribulation, countless thousands of Gentiles coming out of the Tribulation, those who have been beheaded, and so many others shall participate in Christ’s wedding ceremony. It is not known exactly who the queens, concubines, and virgins are, but they are all invited to Christ’s wedding. John the Baptist spoke of himself having full of joy as the bridegroom’s friend (John 3:29).

        Solomon said of his own bride, the Sulamite woman, “My dove, my undefiled one alone” (Sol 6:9). He testified beforehand about the church of God, the bride of Christ who will appear in the future. The psalmist also testified of the bride of Christ when he testified of the wedding ceremony of the Lamb of God:

” The king’s daughter is all glorious within: her clothing is of wrought gold.

14 She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.

15 With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.” (Psalm 45:13-15).

Amen! Hallelujah!