Joseph Prince - Jesus' Love Unveiled In The Song Of Songs

The New Covenant, the new dispensation is all about family. It's not about distance. It's not about God being in the Holy of Holies and man outside having no access. No, it is God coming out as Father and we are his children. Can I have a good amen? And tonight we are seated at his feet, at our Father's feet. We are hungry. Remember that God calls himself the Savior God. What a beautiful word, the Savior God. And there's a beautiful title of God in the Book of Titus where it says, "The gospel of the blessed God". But the word "blessed" there in Greek is happy. The gospel of the happy God, the gospel of the happy God. He's happy. He now has a family. That was the dream of his heart.

God doesn't want servants, God wants sons. We serve him because we are sons. We have a vested interest in the family business. We don't serve as slaves, we serve as sons, not with a spirit of slavish fear, but the spirit of sonship. Can I have a good amen? Not with the spirit of the older brother, but the spirit of sonship. It is not just believing on Jesus, people. And sometimes we have this idea that, you know, God is stern. Jesus is wonderful. No friend, it was God who so loved the world he sent his Son. Don't forget the faith that justifies. He says it like this, "To him who worketh not but believes on him who justifies the ungodly".

The faith that justifies also says that righteousness will be imputed to those who believe in him who raised Christ from the dead. It's not just believing on Jesus, it's believing that God, who sent Christ to die for our sins, God who raised him from the dead to justify us, God who sent him to the cross, this is the God who justifies you. He's the Savior God. If we stand before him as God alone, we'll be finished but we're not standing before him as God. We are standing before him as Savior God. I said Savior God and he's our Father. He's our Father. And these are your family. Praise the Lord, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah. Always remember that.

You know, one of the concerns I have in these days is that we want to be like Israel, we want to be like the people of Israel that we use the terminology that they used and we gotta be careful that we filter everything through the New Covenant. We are not people of the Old Covenant. We are people of the new. God clearly proclaims, okay, clearly, clearly delineates for us in Romans 8, "This New Covenant is not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers when I brought them out of Egypt. It is not according to that covenant". Amen, people. So, we cannot worship God in the spirit of the Old Covenant. We must worship the father because Jesus told the woman at the well, the Father seeketh such. It's all about the Father. Worship is all about the Father.

When Jesus taught on worship to that woman at the well, what a blessed privilege she had. That woman, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, she was still living in adultery. I hate adultery, but she was living in adultery when Jesus revealed to her what true worship is all about but she didn't remain in adultery. She became an evangelist. What I'm trying to say is that God meets people where they are. In fact the theology of the previous chapter, John 3, Nicodemus, Jesus never told him that he was the Messiah, but this woman at the well who had five husbands just a few moments with Jesus and Jesus declared, "I am the Messiah. I who speak unto you".

You know, God does not think the way we think. We think that if you have the gone to Bible school... nothing wrong with going to Bible school. We think that if you've been a believer for a long time, you have mastered the Bible from Genesis to maps. You know the real identity of the Antichrist? You know then God, you have a special favor with God, but the Bible doesn't say that. You know we don't come together even for Bible study primarily to get knowledge. We come to grow in grace. In 1 Peter, it says it like this, grow in grace first and then in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It never says grow in knowledge and then grace. It's possible to be so Orthodox and so scriptural even but be so dry, be so graceless, be so mean.

There are theologians who are mean. If you are a mean theologian, amen, please, please, wake up and realize that the New Covenant is all about grace, amen. Do you know that you can be right Orthodox. I mean you can ecclesiastical. You can be proper. You might not even say anything wrong scripturally, but you are mean. Grow in grace for goodness sake. Grow in grace and then in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen. Turn to your neighbor and say," "I hope he's not talking about you". Praise God.

Okay, did you bring your Bibles today? And if you have your Bibles, you see, let's see if our Bible has this or not. Turn to the book contents. I'm serious, turn to the book of contents. We are starting off the book of contents, okay? There is no page here. Okay, the page. Okay over here, table of contents. Look at the Old Testament, now how many books are there in the Old Testament? If you are counting now, all right, we don't have time for you, okay? Just to let you know, there's 39, 39 books of the Old Testament, amen. Thirty-nine books in the Old Testament. Now, we start from Genesis over here, we go all the way to Malachi over there, right?

Now, by the way, just let you know that there is an order, even in the Old Testament, there is an order. Now, I'm teaching from the Old Testament tonight so I'm talking about Old Testament, not a New Testament but I'm teaching the New Covenant in the old because the old is in the new revealed. The new is in the old concealed, okay? You can say like this, in the new, the old is open. In the old, the new is hidden, all right? So, we have Genesis to Malachi. Now the first, I mean the center, the heart. If you look at a person, you see the heart. The heart is worship, poetry. When you go by your head, it's very hard to flow. How many understand? That's why it's very hard to write songs about the law. "Thou shall not commit adultery, ooh-ha-ha shoobie shoobie, wa-wa shoobie, thou shall not bear false witness, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Thou remember the Sabbath day, Hallelujah, Hallelujah". It doesn't rhyme doesn't flow.

If you are honest, I'm not making fun, I'm just telling you, people. Those who are for the law, they know that God doesn't give flow to the law. It is amazing that when people who believe even the law, by the way, the law, the Bible says, it has been fulfilled in Christ. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness for everyone who believes. The Bible calls the Ten Commandments engraved on stones the ministry of death, 2 Corinthians 3. There's no way you can get out of it. The law that we can no longer under is not just ceremonial law. The only part of the law that was engraved on stones, all right, is the Ten Commandments. The Bible calls it the ministry of death.

In John 7, the Bible says, "Now we are delivered from the law". What law is that? Read a few verses down. Paul says, "I have not known lust except the law says thou shall not lust, thou shall not covet". "Thou shall not covet, covet". You know, it doesn't rhyme. So, even people who believe in keeping the law, when they write songs, they write songs full of grace. It's amazing when they get into the flow, it's full of grace. There are many songwriters, I'm telling you down in church history, they can be very legalistic in their mind but when they get into their hearts, they're full of grace for that time period.

So, the heart of the Old Testament are the books of, five books of poetry. They are called Job, Psalms. Look in your Bible book contents. Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs. So, notice God put the book all these books, poetry books, we call it poetry books, right in the heart of the Old Covenant, right in the heart of the Old Testament. What does that tell you? That tells you the heart of God is love because love and poetry go together. When you are in love, you wax poetical, amen.

Psalms, the Book of Psalms is full of worship and love for God, adoration for his beauty, his glories. "The Lord is my shepherd," what a beautiful, heartfelt psalm, amen. Job is also a poetry book, so is Ecclesiastes, and one day I might teach on Ecclesiastes. It's very interesting. I've been studying on it and I'm telling you it's such interesting study. But tonight I want to touch on Song of Songs, okay, written by King Solomon. Song of Songs, it's called Song of Songs. In Hebrew, Song of Songs. Why is it called Song of Songs? We know that Solomon was a prolific songwriter. The Bible says he wrote 1,005 songs. The Holy Spirit scanned through all the songs that he wrote and singled out one and called it the Song of Songs. And why does he call it Song of Songs?

Some people say well, the Song of Songs is about Israel. Some say it's about the church. All right, honestly it's neither. It's about him, the bridegroom and his love. It is about the love of Christ and that's why it's called the Song of Songs, amen. "Where do I begin.."., it's not the Song of Songs. We got a lot of love songs written them but when God looks down at everything God says, "This is the Song of Songs," and it's right in the middle of the Old Testament. So, you have five poetry books in the center. If you look in the middle of the Old Testament, you have 39 books so the middle is Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.

That leaves you what? How many books down here? Talk about order, divine order. How many books down here through Genesis? And how many books from Song of Songs all the way to Malachi? How many books? You have five from 39 books. Five, how many here? Seventeen. How many here? Seventeen. Order. If you're gonna go further into it, there's even more order because the first five books are called the Torah, the law. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. They are called what? The law. Then comes the historical books, the story of David, for example. It's all there in the historical books. Now, over here you also have 17 books, but you also have five, division of five. What are they? The five major prophets followed by? Now, if you have five Torah books, how many left out of 17 if five is taken here? Twelve, number of government.

So, after the five poetic books in the center, you have 17 books all the way to Malachi and you have five books of major prophets ending at Daniel here. The rest are called minor prophets, not because they are less important, because their books are smaller, all right? I mean theologically they're called major prophets, minor prophets. How many major prophet books? Five. How many minor prophets? Twelve. Divine order. I haven't even started preaching yet, okay. Song of Songs, are you ready? Let's turn to Song of Songs. Now, there is a teaching that is more recent that came out not too long ago that talks about the Song of Songs as being a three party thing, all right? Either that this person had been watching too much Korean drama or whatever but three party thing which means there is King Solomon. He's in love with a Shulamite.

By the way, the Shulamite woman, Shulamite is the feminine, in Hebrew, Shulamite, mite, all right or mete, or Shulamete, all right, it's the feminine term used of a woman. Shulamete is the female for Solomon, Shlomo in Hebrew, Shlomo, all right? The feminine of Shlomo, Shulamete, Shulamete, got it? It's actually the name of Solomon in feminine, okay? So, she is the girlfriend, the lover, all right, of Solomon. Solomon here is the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the greater son of David, so is Solomon, amen?

Now, of course, the details of compared to both, Jesus is greater than Solomon. Jesus says greater than Solomon is here, amen? But in terms of type, David represents Jesus Christ when he was on earth. David was rejected. He was the one who killed Goliath. He was the one that won the victory, but he was rejected by his brethren. They rejected him and then he went back to the Father, amen. So, we are still in the days of David's wanderings. And during this time of rejection by Israel the brothers of Jesus, the greater David who is now in heaven, David was hidden from Israel even though he was the rightful king. So likewise the world and Israel has rejected the Messiah, the greater son of David, but he's waiting for the day of his coronation.

And there'll come a time they'll say, "Bring forth the king's son". And the Bible tells us finally Judah welcomed David back. And David says, "Why are you the last to invite me back"? And that is so telling when finally Jesus returns, Israel will welcome Jesus. It's almost like saying, "Why are you the last? You are my flesh and blood. I'm also a Jew". The Savior of the world is a Jew. Are you listening, people? Okay, so here we have David, a type of Christ, Solomon, a type of Christ, but Solomon is a type of Christ after he returns and the millennial rule begins. The golden era of Israel was Solomon's rule, but David's rule was rejected king. He was rejected by his own, amen.

So, this is the time period we are in. For 2,000 years now, the greater son of David has been rejected but a those who identified with him in his rejection, all those who come to him during this time, all those in the Adullam cave with him, do you know something? The Bible says he says, "Because you are with me, you'll be my mighty men and when I rule, you will rule with me". And there'll come a time the mighty men were no longer running and wandering but they were ruling from the palace. So, that time is coming, people, okay? So, in Song of Songs, it's a song of love. So, it's not a three-party thing. Wah man, we went from three party to all this, you know, that's going on.

Okay, from three party... no, there's no three party thing. It's a figment of someone's imagination but unfortunately in fact it was a German guy, a German scholar that came up with this and it wasn't too long ago that he came up with this, and a lot of people believe it's a three-party thing. They believe it's a king who's in love with a country girl, the Shulamite, but then the Shulamite is in love with a farmer boy and the farmer boy is in love with her, okay? Actually, that farm boy, that country boy is also Solomon. Solomon, all right, when he wooed that girl, he came not in the guise of a king, but in the guise of a country boy. That is a picture of the king of all kings. When he came to us, people, he came in a lowly way.

Now, there are people who say that Jesus, you know, came and he was rich. No, listen carefully. He is rich, but he came into a poor family. How do I know it was a poor family? By that time, Mary from the lineage of David, I mean she came from a royal line so is Joseph, Mary's husband. He also came from David's line. Mary came from Nathan, David's son. Joseph, Mary's husband came from Solomon, David's son. Both have a claim to the throne but by then because of the curse that was on Joachim, a king of Judah, all right, they became poor. The royal line became poor. So, when Jesus came, that's why Mary, according to the law, gave for her because she gave birth to a son according to Leviticus law, you must bring either a lamb or you bring turtle doves. If you are rich, very rich, you can bring an ox. Middle income, bring a lamb. But the poor, they bring a pair of doves.

Well, in the gospel of Luke, talking about Jesus' birth, Mary brought a pair of doves, that tells me that Jesus was born into a poor family. They didn't remain poor because wherever he is, gold will come, myrrh and frankincense, and these are very expensive spices in those days. He sponsored his flight to Alexander, I believe, it was where they fled to in Egypt. He sponsored his flight. He sponsored his family's flight. So yes, they didn't remain poor, but they were poor when he was born into that family. Are you with me? It warms my heart to know it wasn't a wealthy family that he was born in. It wasn't a wealthy place that he was born in.

So, Solomon became like a country boy, wooed the girl and she fell in love not knowing he's a king. All right, it's the same man, no third party. In fact, it's a wonderful drama but it's designed in such a way, all right, it's designed in such a way that the story is such like you're watching a play. You're watching a musical. Then you have the daughters of Jerusalem, you know, narrating. You have the beloved narrating. You have the shepherd, shepherd king, we call him the shepherd king narrating. It's beautiful.

So, let's go right to the first chapter. I'm not focusing on the first chapter tonight. I have something that the Holy Spirit is leading me to do so I just want to give you the highlights of first chapter. The first chapter begins with the Song of Songs which is Solomon's, right? And just wait for me. And it tells you straightaway the bride says what? The Shulamite, and the Shulamite's a picture of the church. The church is typified in a feminine way. Feminine means you are the one receiving the love. You are the one receiving the protection. You are the one. You see women today, all right, the thing is this, I believe in equal rights but understand this, you are made to be loved. You're not made to rule the man. You are made to be loved by the man. And you know what? Equal position, not same function, mmm.

Okay, so the woman here is a picture of the bride of Christ, amen? We are all the bride of Christ. Can I have a good amen? So, the first thing she says, "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth". Now, we've been saying some things here, to the pure all things are pure, all right? So, the love does not want just knowledge from afar. Love wants intimacy. We are here not just to know about Jesus, but to draw near to him. We want him to kiss us. The word "worship" in Hebrew proscuneo, another word for that, the meaning of that is to kiss, to come near and kiss. No, you don't, you don't kiss any toad, trying to find a prince, people, amen? You kiss, you don't give your kisses so freely. Be very careful about your kisses.

Very quiet all of a sudden. But listen, there's no condemnation if you find that you have messed up in your, in your past life, whatever it is, there's no condemnation. There's a verse in the Bible I can show you that even after you have lost your virginity, God can restore to you the spirit of virginity and can be pure again. But and we need to talk to people that are still, you know, pure, still keeping their virginity for the Lord Jesus Christ. Save your kisses. Be very careful who you kiss. But for you to kiss, you must come what? Must come near. Say, "come here".

You know, Joseph said when his brothers realized it was Joseph, all right, who was on the throne, the story of Joseph, the brothers realized that, "Oh my goodness, it is Joseph. It really is Joseph". They were happy, then they were afraid because they betrayed him. But what did Joseph say? "Come near me". With all the power he had for these brothers that betrayed him, sold him off for money, what did he say to them? "Come near to me. Come near to me. Come near to me". And then he says, "You will dwell in Goshen". Check out the Hebrew word for Goshen. It literally means drawing near. "I will put you, and your children, and your loved ones, all your family in a place called Goshen drawing near so that you'll be near me. And there in the place of nearness, I'll provide for you, I will feed you, and I'll protect you and your loved ones, and your little ones". It's all there, Goshen.

So, we are all the near to God, but we want to be near to Jesus. Not everybody is near to Jesus. There were 70 disciples around Jesus when you walked on earth. Later on, 12 remained. Many of the 70 left when he said a certain statement, which is not our study tonight. Twelve remained. Out of the 12, there were three that were closer than the 12. They were Peter, James, and John. Out of the three there was one that's even closer. He was allowed to rest on the bosom of Jesus, his name was John. I want to be John. That's why we are here tonight, gonna draw near to Jesus. Can I have a good amen? All right, so when she said that, then she asked the question, she asked this the chapter 1 of Songs of Songs, she asked this. "Tell me, O you whom I love, Where you feed your flock, Where you make it rest at noon. For why should I be as one who veils herself by the flocks of your companions"?

So, what's the question of the woman? All right, she wants to know where does the Lord, where does this Shepherd King, where does he feed his flock? She wants feeding. Number two, "Where you make it rest at noon". She wants rest, feeding and rest. This is what flocks need. A good shepherd will always feed and then makes his flock rest. Are you listening shepherds that are watching? All right, a good shepherd will always feed, not beat, and then help their flock to rest, amen. So, she asks a question, she wants to know where he does this. Would you like to know his answer? Oh, man, I'm telling you his answer, are you getting ready right now for his answer? Are you sure you can handle it? His answer is this, "If you do not know, O fairest among women". What kind of response is that? Straightaway it says you are the most beautiful among women, just for asking that question.

You know something, the Lord does not love you after you've come and arrived at a place of holiness. He loves you from the start of your journey. Even when you ask, how, when Lord, how, he starts loving you, he starts seeing you as beautiful and the most beautiful among women. "O fairest among women". By the way, the word my fair one. You will see a lot of this word, "my fair one, my beloved". I'm using the New King James Version and many new versions still keep the word fair. You know, mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all? You know, fair has nothing to do with the skin color. It's old English. It's from the Hebrew word, yaphah, yaphah. Yaphah means beautiful. So fair is, O, literally, O, yaphah among women, the most beautiful among women.

By the way, there's a Hebrew word that you eat every other day or whatever, if you like oranges, it's called Jaffa, right, Jaffa from Jaffa. That's where they export the oranges from Israel. It's a place called Jaffa. Literally J is Y like my name is Joseph, they will say Yoseph. All right, yaphah, yaphah means beautiful, so literally the orange is called beautiful, okay? So, yaphah so from now we'll use the word beautiful. When the Lord looks at you, he sees you beautiful. The problem with us is we say, "No, lah. I'm not, lah, you know me". So, you're telling the Lord the Lord doesn't know you? This is not me, this is not somebody else, you know? This is not your husband, you know? This is the Lord telling you, "O, most beautiful among women. That's how he sees the church". And the answer to a question, "Follow in the footsteps of the flock, and feed your little goats beside the shepherds' tents".

In other words, you don't know where the is, always go to church. "Follow the footsteps of the flock where they are, find out other flock, where they are well fed, okay, and you'll find me, the place where I'm feeding the goats, even some rebellious ones". Besides where? The shepherds' tents. What is the shepherd's tent? Tonight you are in a shepherd's tent. Not the building, not the star building, not the concrete, no, no, no. When we come together, it's a shepherd's tent and tent is always temporal. And you know this building is also temporal, amen? That's why we use money to serve him, amen? We don't use him to serve money. I believe God wants to prosper his people, yes, but I think we gotta be careful about overemphasis on prosperity on Christian television. I think it turns people off.

All right, emphasize is enough, but overemphasis, no. All right, Jesus is more important than money. With Jesus, you are provided for and much more, amen. Okay, moving right along. Okay, so don't forget this chapter 1. Now, I'm gonna tell you something he's about to describe. Because of time, I'm getting ahead of myself. So, just jump to chapter 4, that's my teaching for today. The Lord is talking to the church again, he says, "Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful". Now by the way, in chapter 4, chapter sorry, chapter 6, it says like this chapter six please. "O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah".

Now, in the New King James, this one is also yaphah. I don't know why here they say beautiful, other places for fair. So, to be fair, I'll be consistent and I'll use beautiful, okay, got me? All right, the word beautiful here. "O, my love, you are beautiful as Tirzah". You know, Tirzah is a place in Israel, my pastors and I, we have been there. And when I was there, I told them to take a picture, our cameraman, to take a picture of the Tirzah Valley, because in Israel, it's considered the most beautiful valley. And the place where we took the picture from, there is an oak that is believed to be thousands of years old from the time of Abraham, the alone Moreh, the oak of Moreh of Abraham, that is the point of which we took a picture of this Tirzah Valley. You can only see from far. You gotta be there to see it.

It's so beautiful right in the valley below. You can see yonder. You can find it's dry but in the valley below, it's very beautiful. You gotta be there to see the Tirzah Valley. By the way, Tirzah is one of the daughters of Zelophehad. Okay, back to chapter 4, chapter 4, "Okay, behold," the Lord is talking. He says, "Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, You are beautiful". Do you talk to your wife like that? You say, "Well, you know, she must measure up first before I say that". Well, turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Look at Ephesians chapter 5. "For the husband is the head of the wife, so also Christ is head of the church. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church". Wah, we just saw how the way he loved. He also made love with his words. "Amen, Pastor Prince". You gotta learn to make love with your words, bro.

You say, "What? I put bread on the table, wah. I work so hard. She knows I work very hard, you know? She go to Paris, you know, she go to New York, you know, where the money come from? From me". But you better know she, you know, the thing is about women is this, the Lord made them. So, you see the way the Lord loves the church, he uses words. He says you are beautiful, amen? So, "Husbands, love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word," his word that is, "that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish".

Let me tell you this, a lot of people teach this like it will happen in the future one day, the church will be a glorious church. Actually, the Greek tenses doesn't allow that. The Greek tenses tell us the church is already, in Jesus's eyes, already without blemish, already without spot, already without wrinkle. Now, you know what's without wrinkle? Young, bro. That means without wrinkle. Don't look beside you, see in the spirit. We are all without wrinkle. We are all without spot. So, in other words, let me show you real quick, okay? You see the word, that he might present, verse 27, that he might present her to himself, can you see that? Well, that word down there in the Greek, all right, is in the present active participle.

We think that he might present one day when he returns, one day when we get our new body. No, it is saying present active participle. He died so that he can present to himself. Thank God, not to our spouse, not to our mother-in-law, not to somebody else, amen, not to the world, not even to fellow Christians in the church, but present to himself a glorious church without spot without wrinkle. Without spot or wrinkle, that means the church is forever young, or any such thing. You can put disease there. Let your faith out there, man, or any such thing. "But that she should be holy and without blemish". This is not a action, this is a declaration. That she should be holy and without blemish.

The word "without blemish" in the tense, in the Greek is present, all ready without blemish, all ready holy. Wow, that's how the Lord sees you. No, lah, Pastor Prince, I'm not like that". I said, that's how the Lord sees you. How dare you raise your reason and opinion above the Lord's opinion of you. The Lord says you are beautiful, and holiness is agreeing with God's estimation of anything. God says you are beautiful. Go back to Song of Songs chapter 4. "Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful". He's describing his bride. "You have dove's eyes behind your veil. You have dove's eyes".

You know, there's something about being in love for the sake of one, or two, or three that will be in love in the future. When you are in love, you don't seek to look at the earlobe of a loved one. "You got nice earlobes, chubby and cute. I like the way it flaps in the wind, and I like it when you talk, it goes... you know"? No, where do you look when you look at your loved one? Something about the eyes. You look into the eyes. Looking in. Oh, there are so many songs I can sing, you know that, right? Because of time don't sing songs, okay. Look into the eyes. The Lord looked into the bride's eyes, amen? That's the very first thing because we are gonna see dove's eyes. We're gonna see hair, your hair. We're gonna see your teeth.

Next verse, your lips, your mouth, your temples. Temples, lips, go backwards. Temples, lips, teeth, hair, eyes, where are they? They're all in the head. By the way, there'll be seven depictions of the bride that we want to cover, hopefully we can cover them, okay, because I'm gonna leave you early, let you go off. Seven characteristics, we are touching on the first one real fast, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, we have five. Neck is no more the head. Breast is also not the earlobes. So, so where the head is concerned, listen, where the head is concerned, majority of the beauty of the bride, I want to show you this, out of seven characteristics, the point I'm trying to make is our of seven, okay, five of them, it's all in the head. What does that tell us? That tell us it's actually a reflection of Christ who is the head of the church. It's a reflection. The beauty we have is a reflection of his beauty. Can I have a good amen?

Okay, because the eyes is in the head, all right? The teeth is in the head. The lips and mouth is in the head, and the hair is in the head. Am I right? The temple is in the head. We only left what? The neck and the breast. Okay, like I said, to the pure all things are pure. We're gonna study some things. Someone laughing, and I saw Bob Fitz laughing also with his wife so I know that there are children around so we gotta be careful how we teach this. All right, go back to the first verse. You have dove's eyes behind your".

I want to tell you something, okay? When God looks at you, the Lord looks at you, when Jesus looks at you, the first thing he sees is where you're looking. He want to see whether you're looking at him because only when you look at the same person who's loving you, can he see your eyes. It's hard to see into the eyes if they're looking sideways or somewhere else. You look into someone's eyes when they look back at you, looking unto Jesus. By the way, in Hebrews 11 when it says, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith," do you know that the Greek word there, literally the Greek word is look off. That means look away from something to Jesus. Look off means do not be distracted by anything else. Look off those things. Look off unto Jesus. It's a picture of a man who's drowning, and there is a, there is a life guard on the beach. He's screaming, he's looking off everything else unto him. Look off your circumstances.

Some of you came here tonight, you want God to answer your prayer, you want God to give you a Word, whatever it is, look of those things. A child might not be feeling well, amen, or you have financial challenges that's besetting you, or you might have a teenage boy that is having an addiction. Whatever it is, look off unto Jesus. Look off unto him. Can I have a good amen people? Okay, so the Lord noticed the eyes. Now, can I say something, pastors and leaders? Let's be, let's have the same attitude as the Lord. The Lord, the first thing he looks at is the eyes. He does not look at our hands. It is not your works. The first thing he does, he doesn't look at your works, whether they're good or bad. That's not the first thing he looks. He doesn't look at your feet. It's not what you do, it is not how you walk. It is not your work is not your walk.

Now, your work is important and your walk is important, but the first thing the Lord does, he doesn't he looks at neither. He looks at your eyes. Your eyes, if you look to Jesus, it will affect what you do because when you look at Jesus, even what you do, you might not even know you're doing it. When the woman came with the alabaster box and anointed Jesus, her eyes, she had only eyes for him. She didn't even know she was doing something with her hand. But the Lord says, all right, "Don't rebuke her. She has done a good work". She wasn't conscious it was a good work. There are many people in the church involved in date works, but she was involved in a good work. A good work is born out of love. She only had eyes for Jesus. It will affect your walk as well, amen? Back to the portion here, "You have dove's eyes behind your veil".

So, the veil is something that hides, okay? It is something that hides. In those days, please understand all these is Middle Eastern, the time of Solomon, but the Lord is able to look beyond, he's concerned about your eyes, amen? And what does he tell us? I can see the Holy Spirit dove in your eyes. Do you know beside the eagle, the dove, the bird the dove, can see from very far? And that's why they can use doves, all right, to send messages, amen. Doves can find his home. Even you take a dove, all right, away from your home and you drive somewhere like miles away, the dove can still find his way back. The dove loves its mate. There are doves recorded. There are doves who will never mate again once its mate pass away, pass away.

Now, that part is not applicable to you. Okay, I'm just telling you the faithfulness and the devotion of a dove. And God, of all the animals, God uses dove for the eyes, amen, the reflection of the Holy Spirit. Dove is tender, gentle. It's a picture of gentleness peaceful. The Lord's saying, "I see gentleness in your eyes". You know, when Peter denied knowing Jesus, Jesus turned and looked at Peter. It was when Peter engaged in that same, with those same eyes that he wept. The Lord doesn't condemn us. The Lord loves us and that's what broke Peter's heart or else Peter will never go jump into the water and go to Jesus, hmm, amen?

So, when the Lord looks at you, he sees you beautiful. He looks at your eyes, he says, "You know what? I see gentleness in your eyes". "Pastor Prince, you don't understand, just not only on the way here I was shouting at my wife". All right, but he see doves in your eyes and it's important that you meditate on what the Lord is saying, and not what the devil is saying. Look off from your own behavior. I repeat, he's not saying that one day you'll be lovable. He's saying, "You'll be lovable now. All right, I see beauty in you now". Isn't the Lord beautiful? Amen, let's go on. "Your hair is like a flock of goats".

Now, this is not romantic for the modern man, amen. You tell a girl, "Your hair is like a flock of goats, baah, baah". Huh? That doesn't sound romantic, right? That's why I'm saying we must go back to the times that when they wrote this. Do you know that more goats, more prosperity? Like Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, you know, in those days when the Bible talks about their prosperity, it doesn't talk about banks, talk about this account, talk about they had plenty of flocks and goats and cattle. Remember that? So plenty of goats, flock of goats means plenty. Now, in the natural, when you have plenty of hair, all right, for a lady, it looks good, isn't it? "Going down from Mount Gilead".

Do you know Mount Gilead, there is a verse that says: "They had no balm in Gilead". Mount Gilead today is in Jordan area and they produce a balm. Even today they say that there are, you know, special balm that they produce which is very good for the skin, for beauty and all that. And that's why even back in the Bible time they say, "Is there no balm in Gilead"? Who is the balm of Gilead? Jesus Christ And notice, when you look at the... how many of you have been to Israel? You see the mountains sloping down and many times you will see Bedouin boys or shepherd boys bringing their flock of goats, usually mixed up with some sheep. But imagine all of them are goats, completely black, the whole place.

So the Lord says, "Your hair is beautiful, like a flock of goats going down from Mount Gilead". And hair speaks of maturity. He sees you mature before you are mature. We don't do that with our children. We don't do that with our friends, all right? But many a times, we see immaturity even when there's maturity. And that's why, you know, some teenagers says, "You never believe the best of me". We've got to be careful how we see them because sometimes when they are immature, we still see them as mature and trust them, they will rise up to that level. But there are times they didn't do, all right, something but we accuse them of doing something, that can cause a hurt and the Bible says: "Provoke not your children to wrath". It's better to lean on trusting them, and even when they fail, say, "I trust you. You're a Jesus boy," you know? "I love you," amen? "You're more mature than your friends".

Well, when you are there tonight with all your friends, just remember, "I see you more mature than them. I see you wiser than them". That's a better approach than saying, "Hey, you ought to be careful, huh, I scare, now, you always, you know, don't do that," amen? He's teaching us how to love. So hair speaks of maturity. Baby girls, even when they are born, they have no hair, all right? Even with the hair, it's very, you know, soft hair. So when you grow, you have hair, all right? So "Your hair is like a flock of goats, going down from Mount Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn sheep which have come up from the washing, every one of them bears twins, and none is barren among them". "None is barren among them".

So we know the teeth, upper teeth and lower teeth, they're perfectly synchronized. They are perfectly in shape. When it says they are like sheep coming up, shorn sheep. You know a shorn sheep? That means they have been shaved of all encumbrance. Okay, I'll tell you the meaning in a while's time but let's talk about the words here first. And this sheep, after you've shaved them, you bring them into the bath and when they come out they feel so fresh, they feel so light, they feel so free, amen? And they are white. Some people, they don't realize that. Isaiah 1 first, before we look back. Isaiah 1, look at the last part: "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool".

So someone asks, you know, so far no one has asked but, you know, if you ask the question, if you look at the sheep in New Zealand and Australia, you look real close, it's not white. It's dirty. But God says, "White as snow," and "as wool". But if you meet any shepherd, you meet anyone who deals with flock in Australia or New Zealand, they'll tell you, "Why do you think when they shave the sheep, they wear sunglasses or they wear special goggles? Why"? Because after you shave them, you shave the dirty part out, all right? The wool on the inside is so white that it can blind you like snow. That's when you're skiing, wear special goggles. Not to look cool, you know? But because when the sun reflects on the snow, it'll blind you. That's how wool is like. That's what God will do with your sins. And for many of us, that's what God has done with our sins.

By the way, have you read this verse and wondered at the beauty of the way the Lord expresses things sometimes? You know, man reasons. We all reason a lot. You switch on CNN, watch the news. You watch any Fox news or whatever news, people are reasoning all the time. They're arguing, they're giving their opinion all the time. Would you like God's reasoning? Watch this. "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool". What a reasoning. No mortal man can reason the way he does. Don't you just love him? What beautiful reasoning, mm. Let's go back. See, five, c'mon. I'm only on the... we've got four more to go, right? Right, "Every one which bears twins, none is barren among them".

So in the natural, or course, when people have their teeth, all right, on top and below and it's white, right, and it's perfectly in symmetry and it's bearing twins, both upper and lower, it's beautiful, right? Okay, forget about the natural. The spiritual is there. Again, the Lord sees you mature, you're able to masticate food. You don't just swallow anything that comes along. You're able to chew on it. What does that tell you? Meditation. Does that remind you of something in the... yes, the Bible says in the olden times, in the book of Leviticus, the people of God cannot eat anything that does not chew the cud. Anything that does not chew the cud, all right?

Now, that's why cows, goats, they chew the cud. What is that a picture of? Meditation. I have a whole teaching on that. So the Lord looks at you and the Lord says, "You know, even your teeth is beautiful. I love the way you meditate on my word". And every time you meditate the washing is going on. And your teeth come up from the washing. It's like you are whitening your spiritual teeth. You know, it's like every time 'cause the Bible is the washing or water of the word. Do you know, tonight because you came here, you're gonna walk out of this place washed? Now, all of us are washed by the blood if we put our trust in Christ, but there's a washing of the water of the word that washes away the dust and the negativism of this world. And all the defilements of this world that's gonna happen to you.

Jesus says, "Now you are clean to the Word which I have spoken unto you," okay? So that is the washing of the teeth. Verse 3, now we come to lips: "Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, and your mouth is lovely". "Your lips are like a strand of scarlet," or scarlet rope, "and your mouth is lovely". When you look at a strand or a rope, a scarlet rope, scarlet is red, what does that tell you a story of? By the way, all these people live after this story. What story is that? Rahab, the prostitute of Jericho. So the story, it goes like this. She was a prostitute but Joshua sent his spies to spy out Jericho that was filled with Anakims, giants at a time. And the Bible says that this woman who was a prostitute, she hid the spies. And the Bible calls that an act of faith.

So before the spies departed, she says that "I know your God. Your God dried up the Red Sea for all of you," all right? In other words, she, at that moment, she put her trust in Christ. By the way, she became the mother of Boaz who married Ruth and later on the great-grandmother of David. And her name is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus Christ because Christ came from the line of David. From a prostitute to the great-grandmother of Jesus. Why? She trust in Christ. That was the moment she said, "I believe in your God, but please remember me and my family when y'all come and invade," all right? She knows that God will give them the victory, even though she's on the wrong side. And then the two spies says, "You know what you do? All right, your", her house was on the walls.

By the way, the walls collapse when Ezra shouted. Archeologists have found the remains of the wall and there's one wall still standing. It's the only part of the walls that's standing. And by the way, there is a window there. Many believe it's Rahab's house, okay? So the spy says, "Let down a red rope and we'll tell our men, 'When you see the red rope, don't go into the house to destroy it.'" But the amazing thing is that when they shouted, all the walls collapse except that part. So red. Why red? It's a picture of the blood of Jesus. The entire Bible has a scarlet thread from the time of Adam and Eve sinning, God was the first one to shed blood, innocent blood, to cover the guilty. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. All the way, there's a scarlet thread.

When my daughter was about three years old, I asked her, "What is the Bible, Jessica"? She says, "The Bible is a book that has a red thread". Then God spoke to me: "Throughout the Bible, look for the red thread. Look for the blood of Jesus". So what does he mean? "Your lips are like a strand of scarlet, your mouth is lovely". In other words, God looks at the believer. It's like when you speak. It's not like the people of the world. They speak with no hope. Yours is like there's hope. You are ministering redemption, you are ministering grace. You are talking about what Jesus has done. You are talking about what Jesus can do for them.

You know, it's amazing how people misquote this portion of Scripture. You know that when they say, "Oh, don't grieve the Holy Spirit". And it's always depending on the particular teacher's slant sometimes. It's like, if he doesn't like people to do up their hair, the ladies and all that, or make-up, they'll say, "Well, you know, the people who have make-up and it grieves the Holy Spirit". The problem is that you're jealous, all right? Your wife don't put on make-up maybe or whatever. I do not know, but the thing is this, all right? You cannot interpret the Bible like that. You must interpret the Bible in its context, or else grieving the Holy Spirit's for everybody. I don't like the way the guy looked at me today, it grieved the Holy Spirit. Be careful, when you talk about the Holy Spirit.

So what grieves the Holy Spirit? Let's go to Ephesians 4: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption". No statement opens with "and". And means it's a continuation of the previous verse. What's the previous verse? "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary building up, edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers". Now, that means if you speak, some people think, oh, you know, if you don't use profanity, all right, that's what it means. No, we are against profanity. That's not what it's saying. It is saying when you speak to your children, when you speak to your spouse, and you speak according to what they deserve and no more, you grieve the Holy Spirit.

You should be speaking words that build them up, even though they don't deserve it. Like, what I told you just now, your son is going to a party at night or whatever with their friends and you go to your son and you don't wait until he has proven himself. You tell him, "I believe the best of you, and I know that Jesus is with you, and I know that you are wiser than your friends, all right? Always remember that. Don't make them make you feel like they are smarter than you, amen"? You minister grace. "You're the best". That's your final word, "You are the best". But you say, "But he's not the best".

That's a problem with you. You are ministering, what is law? Law is deserved favor. When you keep all the commandments, you get the favor from God, and only if you keep all. No one can do that. What is grace? Undeserved favor. So when your words impart grace, what does it mean? That means you are speaking as if the person has arrived. That's what the Lord did with us in the Song of Songs. He's speaking to us like we are mature. He's speaking to us like we are beautiful. He's speaking to us like our eyes are gentle. He speaks to us like we are meditators, amen? The Pharisees, when they speak, they didn't use vulgarity, but their words grieved the Holy Spirit. How do I know? The Bible says Jesus was grieved when they said, "There are six days that men ought to come and be healed, but not on the Sabbath day".

In fact, their words uphold the Sabbath and yet the Bible says Jesus was grieved. And Jesus says, "You hypocrite". So do our words minister grace? That is the scarlet thread. "Your neck or your temples behind your veil are like a piece of pomegranate". So where's the temple, people? The temple is this on here, the temple, right? So that's where we think. That's where our thoughts are. And the Lord says, "Your temples behind your veil are like a piece of pomegranate". Now, if you know the pomegranate, this is a picture of a pomegranate, okay? Recently, they found out that it's one of the healthiest juicing you can do for yourself, is the pomegranate juice. It is one of the strongest antioxidants and already in the Bible it is used as one of the fruits when there's harvest is a fruit of blessing, amen?

So notice that the liquid there is red. So when the Lord looks at your head, he sees your head like a pomegranate. Listen carefully, don't get in the natural. You don't look at your husband and say, "Well, no wonder, your head like a pomegranate," all right? You know? He'll probably say, "Yours like a durian". Durian is a thorny fruit in Singapore, you know? Don't get in the natural. See the spirit of it. It's a fruit of blessing. When God looks at your head, he sees your thoughts. How many know God sees your thoughts? Now, a lot of people are afraid that God sees their thoughts. A lot of people are afraid. "Oh, no, he sees my thoughts". But then he says your head, your temple, where your thoughts are springing forth from, they are like a piece of pomegranate. Can you see the right part?

All those seeds, it has more seeds than any fruit that you know of. That means what? All those seeds are lively. All those seeds are seeds that you... one of them, just one of them, can produce a tree. In other words, your thoughts are creative thoughts, life-giving thoughts. And how about the part where you're afraid the Lord sees your thoughts because we all know that our thoughts is not always all together there. That's where the red liquid comes in. I said that's where the red liquid comes in. I said that's where the red. Why do you think that they're both red? The lips and the pomegranate is together. God is telling it's the same blood. "When I see you, I don't see your dirty thoughts. I see your thoughts washed in my blood, hallelujah, amen! I see your thoughts washed. The bad thought you had just now already washed, amen".

God didn't liken us to this, all right, because it exists. No, God created this for this. When God created all this, God meant for this to be used in Song of Songs. That's why God created them. Song of Songs not lining up with God's creation. God's creation is lining up with God's redemption. Okay, time, time, time, praise God. All right, "Your neck is like the tower of David," baby. She was that. It's like a tower. Okay, I got to put all these jokes aside now because of time, all right? What does he mean, "Your neck is like the tower of David"?

By the way, there's a tower of David in Jerusalem now. But it's not the real thing, okay? They just call it the tower of David in the Temple Mount but back then, it's "built for an armory". Baby, your neck is built for an armory, I'm telling you. Now, that doesn't sound really romantic, right? But if you know the meaning back then. I'm telling you, it's beautiful. "On which hang a thousand bucklers, all shields of mighty men". Now, remember David's mighty men? Once upon a time they were, what, the 3D army, distressed, discontented, and in debt. And they all became the mighty men. Stories of their account. One of them can go on a snowy day in a pit with a lion and kill the lion.

Imagine jumping into a pit and fighting in snow. It's not easy. But for them, for them, for the lion, it's not easy. I have God. These are mighty men. One of them with a spear can destroy 600 at one time, amen. These are the mighty men of David, and in other words, where do they rest their armory? Where do they rest their weapons, their shields? Upon the neck. What does that mean? The neck is used in the Bible for your will. Have you heard in the Bible, "obstinate neck"? "Stiff neck"? Oh, "pain in your neck" is not stiff neck, by the way. Stiff neck is someone rebellious. God looks at Israel and God says, "You're a stiff-necked people" at one time, amen? And God still loves them. But stiff neck means what? That will has not been subdued and because it's not been subdued, it's not a pliable will.

When God says, "Go this way," he wants to go this way. They're stiff-necked. But God says when he looks at the bride and God says, "Your neck is like everyone can rest in your will". In other words, your will is submitted to me. Such a restful thing, flowing with you. God says, "You know, when I'm with you, I feel like, wow, I can just rest. All the mighty men can rest. Other ministers, other ministries, they can just rest with you. In your presence they are refreshed. In your presence, they're just lifted. The mighty men find their rest because you have made your decision. I'm gonna follow the Lord. I'm gonna follow his way," all right? So the neck has got to do with a will. Got it?

By the way, I'm gonna stop here for a while and show you something, okay? And this is very important because something happened. This is chapter what? Four. In chapter 4, he describes the beauty of the bride. In chapter 5, some of you are saying, "Well, Pastor, it seems like this bride, you know, she has it all together. She's obedient. You just said her neck and all that". I'm telling you how the Lord sees. I'm not saying that this woman is perfect because in the very next chapter, chapter 5, you know what she did? The Lord wanted time with her, a time of intimacy, a time of love. You know what she did? She refused to have. And finally, she got up from her bed to look for him and he was gone. The Bible talks about this woman going down the street, looking for him.

Now, in our case, the Lord will never leave us nor forsake us. But I think sometimes to stir up your love he will sort of like, he doesn't leave you but he leaves the sense of his presence so that you'll be hungry. You'll say that "there was a time I felt, wow, when I read the Bible I felt so warm in my heart, when I hear a message. And now I feel so cold inside. But I long for those days". I believe the Lord does things to stir you into passion, to stir your emotions for him. The Lord knows. He made us with emotions. But don't go by your emotions in terms of, "Oh when I feel cold that means God is far away". He never leaves us.

And Hebrews 13 when he says, "I'll never leave you," is a double negation in the Greek. I will never ever leave you. But in other words, she was disobedient. She was lazy. Does that change the way the Lord looks at her? Okay, now you're in chapter 4, right? Right, you just read how he distracts the bride, right? Chapter 5 is where she rebelled, okay? And chapter 6, let's see how the Lord treats her after she found the Lord again or the Lord found her, rather. You know how the Lord treats her? Chapter 6: "O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners! Turn your eyes away from me, they have overcome me". One look from you and, baby, "One look from you kept me in my seat". Okay, never mind. It's like, one look from you and the Lord, he says he's overcome.

Can you imagine? We can overcome the Lord by looking at him. That's love, man. People receive this. This is the Word of God. I'm not teaching some man's book. I'm teaching the God-breathed, God-inspired book. And look at this. "Your hair is like a flock of goats going down from Gilead". Sounds familiar? He has not changed his view, even though she has rebelled in chapter 5. This is chapter 6, by the way. Chapter 4 he describes her. In chapter 5 she rebelled, all right? Does that change his love? Next verse, "Your teeth are like a flock of sheep which have come up from washing". Is this familiar? We saw this in chapter 4. Then, chapter 5, she rebelled. He still says the same thing of her.

This is for all of you who think God changes his attitude because you've done something wrong, something you shouldn't have done. I'm telling you, he still sees you the same. This is the Word of the Lord, amen? Chapter 4, okay, "Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies". Now, the woman's beauty, this is very pure. God made the woman and God made the woman beautiful. The devil didn't make a woman. God made the woman. And have you ever, ever, ever really, really, really, really loved a woman? God made you to love her. God made you to cherish her, to nurture her. And the Bible says: "Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, which feed among the lilies".

Again, the imagery is from the times that they're at but I wanna show you fawns, gazelle, twins together. You see the beauty of these two fawns, these gazelle? It's beautiful. It speaks of grace. It speaks of beauty. So what is breast in spiritual truth, in spiritual substance? Look at 1 Thessalonians 5: "Let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation". Now, the thing is this. When we come to church, one of the greatest things that you can tell a ministry of the Holy Spirit is that you leave with faith and love in your heart, okay?

Do you remember... by the way, some people, like, the Bible does say in Song of Songs, that there was a little sister that this woman had. She has no favor because she has no breasts. It tells you literally that. She has not grown. In other words, there's no faith, the Lord doesn't see love. Here, the typology is in substance, "breastplate of faith and love". God wants your faith and love to grow, amen. And how does faith come? By hearing the Word of Christ. How does love come? By seeing him, enjoying his love. We love because he first loved us. Real quick, Revelation chapter 2, angel of the church of Ephesus. Look at verse 2: "I know your works, your labor, your patience". Say "works". Say "labor". Say "patience".

Now go to Thessalonians chapter 1: "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope". Work, labor, patience. Similar? Same. But what happened to the church of Ephesus? Jesus says, "There's work. You're involved in a lot of activity. There's labor but it's not out of love. There's patience but it's not out of hope. What is missing? Faith, hope, and love. Can you see that? How do we get this? Okay, let's go back to Song of Songs. Okay, it says: "Which feed among the lilies".

Now, the lilies in the Bible, throughout the entire book of Song of Songs, lilies actually is so beautiful, it speaks of all of us believers. Lilies are all believers. You know where the Lord feeds? Turn with me to chapter 6 of Song of Songs. Verse 2 of chapter 6: "My beloved has gone into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies. I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. He feeds", listen to this. "He feeds his flock among the lilies".

The Lord loves to be where believers are. That's where he feeds us. That's where your faith and love will grow because back to Song of Songs again, the last part says what? "The gazelle twins feed among the lilies". And it's talking about the church. It's where God is feeding his people. It's not lily, it is plural: lilies. Where we gather, the Lord is feeding. And that's where your faith and love will grow. Are you with me? Okay, we're gonna wrap this up. Drop down to verse 6. We are finished, by the way. Seven characteristics, right? And then it says: "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense". Because of time, I'm not gonna expound on that, all right? "You are all beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in you".

By the way, "no spot in you". He doesn't see any spot in you. You know, the word "spot" here is the word m'uwm in Hebrew. It means no blemish. No blemish. Blemish has got to do with birth. The word m'uwm, blemish, has got to do with the birth. For example, in Exodus 12, the first Passover that was instituted on the night the angel of death would go through Egypt, God said, "Choose a lamb without blemish". It's got to do with birth. It's got to do with birth. In other words, when this lamb is born there is no blemish, no disease, no crooked leg or something like that. It's got to do with your birth. God says, "When I look at you, child of God, my beloved, I see your new birth. Your new birth has no blemish. There is no spot".

By the way, in Exodus when they choose a lamb, they can only choose a lamb, a small lamb. They cannot choose a lamb without spot. Notice "without spot" is not mentioned. It's only without blemish because spots come later in a lamb's life. There's no such thing as no spot for a lamb. They are without blemish. In other words, when they were born, they are born without any problem, physically. But watch Jesus in 1 Peter. Because of time, look at verse 19: "We are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot".

Only Jesus is without blemish in his birth and without spot. A lamb, a real lamb, cannot be without spot. They have some problem but God only asks without blemish. What has blemish gotta do? Birth. Spots come later. And God knew there's no such lamb for Israel. So God only says "without blemish". But his Son is without blemish in his birth and without spot in his life. We are redeemed with that blood. Okay, last verse, I think. And I'll finish. Look at verse 8: "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards. You have ravished my heart".

The Lord is talking to you now. "You have ravished my heart". Imagine Jesus talking to us like that. "You have ravished my heart". Memorize that. Your wife is not here, use it on your wife. "You have ravished my heart". Piah! Okay, "What did you say"? You know, I'm, no, she wouldn't do that. She will, ah, man, I'm telling you. "My sister, my spouse". How many know that Jesus is our elder brother? Firstborn, and we are still his spouse. So it's very, very telling. "You have ravished my heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace".

This is so beautiful, it's like the Lord is saying, "Don't you know how you thrill my heart? The moment you just move and look at me, one look, my heart is captured. More than that, ravished". Ravished is that, we don't realize our impact on the Lord. That's when you worship the Lord and you mean it from your heart. Of all the people, the Lord says, "Wow". You understand, people? Necklace, when you move your neck, your necklace move. With one move of your eyes, one move of your necklace, just turn to the Lord, the Lord says, "You ravish my heart," amen?

All right, we'll finish at 11. Drop down. There's so much more I wanna share. "How fair is your love, my sister, my spouse! And how much better than wine is your love". "How much better than wine is your love". The Lord is saying, "How much better than wine is your love". The word "wine" here is yayin. And yayin, my friend, is not one-quarter water, three-quarter wine. Some people say that. It's not yayin. The first mention of yayin is that Noah drank yayin and he was intoxicated, all right? In other words, yayin is wine that's fermented, that is alcoholic, all right? God is against drunkenness. "He that have ears to hear, let him hear".

Don't argue with me, okay, people, all right? I just wanna let you know that the Bible says that the Lord liken, your love is better than wine. He won't liken it to something bad for illustration. It might be something good but your love is better than wine, all right? "And the scent of your perfumes than all spices! Your lips, O my spouse, drip as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue". The Lord is still talking. Honey and milk. He brings us to a land flowing with milk and honey. God is saying, "Hey, don't you know the Promised Land is under your tongue. When you speak, you enjoy the Promised Land. Tell me your love. I'm telling you I love you. There's no spot in you," amen? "And the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon".

And let me just finish off with this. Drop back to, "Come with me". "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountain of leopards". Now, back then, Lebanon's a very beautiful place. I'm gonna close with this. Lebanon's a very, very beautiful place. That's where you get the cedars of Lebanon. When Solomon wrote this, Solomon was enraptured with the beauty of Lebanon.

So Lebanon, Hermon, the mountain there, Amana, Senir, are all the ranges of Mount Hermon which is still there today and its snow peak. Many of us go there. We've seen Mount Hermon. It's beautiful. It's still beautiful. But watch this. These are pictures of the world. With all its attractive allurements, the lions' dens are there. It's a mountain of the leopards. And what do lions go for? Sheep. Leopards also. So the law says watch out when you are in the world and I'm gonna tell you how he attracts us, how he purchased us, how he brings us away from the world. Watch this. "Come with me".

When he sees danger, we don't see danger. We think that the world is all right. But the world, this mountain range, has the leopards crawling there, all right? Crouching there waiting to kill. They have the lions' dens, amen? It's a dangerous place. But you know how the Lord attract us from all this? "Come with me. Come with me". Now, people note he does not say, "Go away from these places. Go away from the Hermons and the area of Senir and all that is dangerous. There's lions' dens. Go away, depart, you, depart".

He didn't say to go away, depart. Because you know why? When you say, "Go away and depart," I am here, you are there. It's still not personal. He said like this, "Come with me". It's his presence. The way he attracts you from the world is like this: his own presence says, "Come with me". Let me illustrate. Let's say you have a boy and you're playing with the boy in the garden, all right? It's a public garden but all of a sudden you didn't realize he was playing and he was playing close to the edge of a precipice, okay? And you are quite a distance away and your little boy's playing and all of a sudden you realize he's near the precipice.

What do you do? Say, "Don't look down. Don't fall". Chances are, they will look. A wise parent will say, "Justin, over here, Justin. What's this? What's this"? He likes Thomas the Train. "Thomas is, Come here". Okay? And then you distract him away from the danger; he will go over here. Not saying, "Don't, don't, don't". He's saying, "Come to me, all you that labor and are heavy-laden and I will give you rest. Come with me. Come". Do you get it? He's not saying, "Depart you, go away from that place". He didn't say, like, from a distance, "You go away from that place. It's dangerous for you". No, the way he does it: "Come with me".

Remember Noah? After everything is done, the flood is about to come, what did God tell Noah? "The Lord said to Noah," Genesis 7, verse 1, "Come into the ark, you and all your household". You know what's "come into the ark"? That means the Lord goes into the ark first and then he says, "Come into the ark". He didn't say, "Go into the ark and he's outside". He goes inside first and, "Come into the ark". And do you know, after one year and the flood subsided and the ark rested on Mount Ararat, the Bible says he says, "Go out of the ark". First one in, last one out. That's a hero, all right?

"Come". And there's no better word. You know, the first word my son learnt, one of the first words, is come. Every child, one of the first words they learn is come. Come to Daddy. Come, come. They all know come. And Jesus, the law is all about don't come near, lest you die. Grace is all about come. Come unto me all you that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. What's the word to all sinners? Heavy-laden with trying to please God and never feeling like you have made it. Burdened with guilt, sin, condemnation. Jesus says, "Come". Come to what? "To me". Not to a teaching. "To me. And I will give you rest". In fact, the Greek doesn't actually say I will give you. It says, literally, you can check this out, "I will rest you". Come unto me and I, the person, will rest you.

And finally, turn with me now and we'll close with this verse. The last chapter of Revelation, chapter 22. Look at verse 16. Chapter 22. I believe that the book of Revelation corresponds to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. That's why the church is mentioned in chapter 2 because the second letter is bet which means house, the house of God, the church. The redeemer taking the scroll is chapter 5, grace. It's a picture of the Redeemer, worthy is the Lamb. The last chapter is tough. Jesus, and it says, verse 16: "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star".

How can he be the root and the offspring of David unless he's God and man? Being God, he's the root of David, or rather, he's the root means what? He brought forth David. David is the branch. He is the root. That's deity. He's deity. And he is also the offspring of David. Now, David brought him forth in his lineage. That's Jesus's manhood. So he can be the root of David and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star. Let's all read this together, next verse. We'll end with this. Verse 17: "And the Spirit and the bride say'", one more time, "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!'"

I used to read this and I thought that they were saying to Jesus, "Come back, Lord Jesus". It's not saying that. It's saying to everyone who is thirsty, come. Our message to the world is come. Our message to people who are in need is come, all right? "And the Spirit and the bride say," let's all read together, "'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who's thirsty come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely".

Close your Bibles. People, God's word to you is "Come," amen? Give him praise, hallelujah. Stand to your feet. Praise the Lord. "Come with me," he says. If you are here today and you've never, never experienced this new birth that is without blemish, the Lord says if you put your trust in Christ and Christ alone, only Jesus can save. Only Jesus can redeem. And only Jesus can see you with the eyes of love like no one can. And, friend, if you are here today, you have never made Jesus Christ your personal Savior and Lord, pray this prayer with me right now.

Heavenly Father, I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe he died on the cross for all my sins. I am a sinner so I qualify for the Savior. Jesus Christ is my Savior and he is my Lord. And now, God, you are my Father and my Father forever. All my sins are forgiven. You have raised Christ from the dead and he is alive today at your right hand. Help me, give me grace to know him more and more, this one, this perfect man, this lovely man, who loves me like no other can. Give me grace to know him more, in Jesus's name, amen.

Praise the Lord. Lift your hands all across this place. The Lord bless you with the blessings of Abraham, the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. The Lord keep you and your little ones from all danger, harm, from all accidents, from all terror, from all evil, from all sickness. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious, be favorable to you. The Lord lift up his countenance on everyone, every family under the sound of my voice and grant to you and yours his shalom peace, in Jesus's name and all the people said, "Amen". God bless you. We'll see you again.