This is a concluding statement for the Song of Songs; however, I believe the following should be thoroughly examined within each our hearts and souls (by this I mean for you to search deep the scriptures for yourself). Recently a young brother in the faith (Dalton Lifsey) who I believe to be a lot wiser than his years; Dalton was preaching on the “bride of Christ” reality, he said some thing that struck me as a reality of truth; he said that it is good and needed to preach the affections of Jesus, to preach Jesus loves you, you are a lily among thorns, and you ravish the heart of Jesus. Dalton then continued by preaching that it is simply not enough; we hear these things and they either captivate us for a moment or a season or they don’t even come through at all; so how can you preach this message effectively? Preach the Cross of Christ. He said we need something to hang on; when we hear that we are the lily among thorns we need something in our heart to know why! Jesus crucified and made a curse for mankind.
So in this brief conclusion; I pray that the Lord would open a door in our hearts that leads to the reality of the Cross and Christ being crucified for undeserving men.
The Depravity of Man
God did not create man to be in spiritual depravity. God created Adam free from the dominion of sin; he had no natural compulsion to walk in a sinful nature. By sinning Adam plunged himself and the entire human race into spiritual ruin; he lost for himself and his descendants the ability to make right choices in the spiritual realm. We are still free to chose-every man has the ability to choose things; but concerning his nature, man is born in sin; man does not have the ability to choose spiritual good over evil. Man is no longer free; he is either enslaved by the bondage of sin and death, or he has been set free by the Lord and is made alive through the regeneration of the Spirit of God.
So for man to be made a son of God so that he may enter the kingdom of God; he must be regenerated by the Spirit of God. In his natural state he is fallen and in complete bondage to sin and eternal death.
1. When Adam was placed in the garden of Eden, he was warned not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on the threat of immediate spiritual death. (Genesis 2:16-17)
2. Adam disobeyed and ate of the forbidden fruit; thus, mankind is now living in spiritual death. (Genesis 3:1-7)
Romans 5:12: Therefore, just as through one man sinned entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men-because all sinned.
We are totally depraved; our nature is corrupt, perverse, and sinful throughout. The whole of our being has been affected by sin. The corruption extends to every part of man, his body and soul; sin has affected all (the totality) of man’s faculties-his mind, his will, etc.
Ephesians 2:1-3: And you He made alive, who were dead in trespass and sins. In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of our flesh and of the mind, and by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Colossians 2:13: And you, who were dead in trespass and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiving us all our trespass.
Because men are born in sin and are by nature spiritually dead, Jesus taught that men must be born anew if they are to enter God’s kingdom.
John 3:5-7: Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born anew”. Compare with John 1:12-13.
As a result of the fall, men are blind and deaf to spiritual truth. Their minds are darkened by sin. Their hearts are corrupt and evil.
Genesis 8:21: ….the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth…..
Ecclesiastes 9:3: ….the hearts of men are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live….
Jeremiah 17:9: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
John 3:19: And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Romans 8:7-8: For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Titus 1:15: To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very mind and conscience are corrupted.
Therefore, we are deserving of death
“Another thing implied is, that they are liable to fall of themselves, without being thrown down by the hand of another; as he that stands or walks on slippery ground needs nothing but his own weight to throw him down. That the reason why they are not fallen already and do not fall now is only that God's appointed time is not come. For it is said, that when that due time, or appointed time comes, their foot shall slide. Then they shall be left to fall, as they are inclined by their own weight. God will not hold them up in these slippery places any longer, but will let them go; and then, at that very instant, they shall fall into destruction; as he that stands on such slippery declining ground, on the edge of a pit, he cannot stand alone, when he is let go he immediately falls and is lost.
The observation from the words that I would now insist upon is this. -- "There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God." -- By the mere pleasure of God, I mean his sovereign pleasure, his arbitrary will, restrained by no obligation, hindered by no manner of difficulty, any more than if nothing else but God's mere will had in the least degree, or in any respect whatsoever, any hand in the preservation of wicked men one moment”. Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”.
Christ Crucified
We are completely deserving of eternal death. The whole lot of mankind are bad; no not one is good. So in this context we must view the Cross of Christ.
God was under no obligation to save any of us. He did it out of mere pleasure. In eternity past the triune God set forth a plan of salvation; not out of obligation. The Father chose a people, the Son set forth to do whatever must be done to accomplish salvation for man, and the Holy Spirit awakens men with the regeneration of the Spirit of God, making them a new man.
Galatians 2:20-21: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vein.
Galatians 3:13: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us…
We are a new person upon regeneration. The old man dies and the new man walks in accordance to the Spirit of God. Christ became condemnation so that we would walk boldly without condemnation. We through the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit have been joined to Christ; there is no separation for those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35). We are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus; we are justified by the blood and the testimony of the Cross. We are set free; Jesus is forever faithful to complete the sanctification of our souls. He ever lives to intercede for us. The Father crushed Him and poured out His furious wrath on Him that deservingly should have been poured out on mankind.
You and I have been made sons and daughters of God. We have been purchased; bought with a price. Only out of the mere pleasures of God to do so. So it is in this context that we build a foundation of love and glorification of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. In this context we have a revelation of the jealous love of the Bridegroom of Heaven; declaring salvation and freedom to those who love Him.
I believe it is out of this revelation that the Shulamite in the Song of Songs finds herself fully in love. Like us, in the beginning, she had little understanding of the Cross. That it is finished. Salvation has been declared for those who love Jesus. The triune God has made a way. When we realize that we are really set free and boldly walk in the authority of God; we then really believe that we are a lily among thorns, and we have ravished the heart of God.
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