Grace, let's continue to worship our Lord this morning under the ministry of His Holy Word. We're going to do that this morning through Song of Solomon, Chapter 6. So if you would please turn there, Song of Solomon, Chapter 6. And I'm going to read in your hearing, verses 13 through Chapter 7, verse 9. Song of Solomon, Chapter 6. Once again, I'm going to read verse 13 through chapter 7, verse 9. So let us give our attention to the reading of God's Word. Thus saith the Lord, Return, return, O Shulamite, return, return, that we may look upon you Why should you look upon the Shulamite as upon a dance before two armies? How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter. Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Your belly is a heap of wheat encircled with lilies. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Your neck is like an ivory tower. Your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Beth Rabin. Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon, which looks toward Damascus. Your head crowns you like Carmel, and your flowing locks are like purple. A king is held captive in the tresses. How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights. Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh, may your breaths be like clusters of the vine, and the scent of your breath like apples, and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly for my beloved, gliding over lips and teeth. Thus far, the reading of God's word, the grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. Even this word, beloved, it stands forever. Let us give thanks to the Lord and ask Him for help in the exposition of His word this morning. Father God, we are continually amazed by how you describe us in this book. On the whole, Father, you describe us as perfect. You describe us as beautiful. You describe us as lovely. You describe us as delightful. And Father, We know that what these observations and declarations on your part toward us are supposed to do is to make us look to the one who has given us such loveliness, Jesus Christ. And we pray that you would do precisely that this morning, Father, that as we think of how Christ speaks of us, how Christ views us, that we would be all the more smitten and fall deeper in love with Christ who makes us such. and that we would not try to be someone that we're not, but that we would be who you have made us to be, a new creation in Jesus Christ. And that, of course, Father, is on the second horizon. On the first horizon, Father, we pray that once again you would, through this text, strengthen our marriages, particularly, Father, the all-important sexual intimacy which must characterize a strong and healthy marriage. Father, instruct from your word. Keep our attention focused on the main thing. Help us not to get distracted. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. In our response of reading this morning we read from Exodus chapter 15 and if you recall that is that moment in the children of Israel's history where they came out of Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea and rider and horse of the Egyptians was enveloped in the waters of judgment and the children of Israel came through And they sang the song of Moses. Miriam helped them to cry forth and cry aloud with songs of jubilation and victory. And then they started, really, on a 40-year journey to actually get to the land that the Lord had promised them. And right from the get-go, it was difficult, wasn't it? They went to the wilderness of Shur and there was no water. And they went three days with no water. Have you ever gone three days without water? Some of you military guys have, I'm sure. But then they came to a place where there was water, but it was bitter. And they, of course, complained to Moses, not trusting the Lord, but complained to Moses. And Moses cries out to the Lord, and he throws a log into the water, as we read, and it turns sweet, and they were able to drink it. And then they came to Elim, and it's just that one verse at the very end, very interesting, just that one verse after all this that the Lord was taking them through. The Lord having taken them through times where he turned bitter moments into sweet moments, and we have those in our lives, don't we? Where kind of the blessings of the eschaton break in, when the blessings of God's provision are so, we're so keenly reminded of them and made aware of them that God makes a way where there seems to be no way, and the bitterness of despair and the bitterness of anxiety are dissipated by the sweetness of God's supernatural intervention. But then there are times when the sweet is turned to bitter. And those are those dark providences that the Lord brings our way. but in the midst of these vicissitudes where the children of Israel's trek for 40 years through the wilderness is really characteristic of our trek through this life as pilgrims until we get to the promised land. Not the physical promised land on the typological level, but that spiritual promised land which will be actually physical in the new heavens and the new earth. You see, the life of Israel is a type of the life of the church. But in the midst of it, what he does is he punctuates that journey with visions of the eschaton. And I would submit to you this morning that when they came to Elim, and there was basically this oasis-like setting, water that was potable, water that was drinkable. And not only water that was lush and drinkable, not only water that quenched their thirst, but palm trees. And I just want you to put yourself in that setting for a moment, okay? You're going through the wilderness. We're talking desert. We're talking rocks as far as the eyes can see. We're talking hot, hot weather, dry, desert, arid climate. Not much water. The water that you do have is warm, and your brother or your sister keeps, you know, bogarting it and taking all of it, right? And it's dwindling, and there's less and less of it. And then you see this oasis, and you think, oh, that's a mirage. We've seen that four or five times since the wilderness of shore. But the closer you get, it doesn't disappear. It's still there. And they come, and there's fresh cold water, and you see those palm trees, and boys, what would you do if you saw those palm trees and you were hungry? You're going to climb up those suckers, right? You're just going to climb all the way to the top, and you're going to be throwing down the dates of the palm trees. You're not going to wait for those to fall down. You're going to conquer them. You're going to take advantage of them. You're going to get on your knees before the water, and you're going to lap it up. These are pictures of the Eschaton. How so? Well, you've got to see the biblical theology in this. It's beautiful, really. First off, the palm trees. Let me tell you, beloved, I've been to Israel. There aren't many palm trees in Israel. There aren't many palm trees. When you think of palm trees, what do you think? You think of that glorious eschatological land to the south of us, starts with an F and ends with an A, okay? Or you think of another place that's beautiful on the other coast, down in the south, starts with a C and ends with an A, and it has palm trees down there, nice warm weather, right? Well, if you recall in 1 Kings chapter six, when Solomon's temple was built, you'll recall that inside the temple, on the walls and on the doors, were etchings and carvings of palm trees. Why? Because the palm trees were supposed to represent paradise lost, which will one day be paradise restored, the garden with these beautiful, luscious palm trees. And in the in-between time, when man comes to worship through the mediation of a priest in that temple, he is reminded of what he lost and what he will gain. a place that is restored in paradise. But not only that, but why 70? I'm not trying to get too crazy on numerology here. Some people go overboard. But it is very interesting that another place that we see the number 70, there were 70 palm trees, another place that we see the number 70 was in Exodus chapter 24 when the elders and Moses, 70 elders, went up to the top of the mountain and they communed with the Lord. It says they beheld the Lord. There was this inbreaking of this unfettered communion of man, the 70 elders, and God. Well, it was only the leaders then under the old covenant. They needed mediation, but in the new covenant, we have the priesthood of all believers, right? All people can go directly to the Lord. So this is a picture of direct access. This is a picture of coming into the presence of the Lord. And so what I wanna submit to you this morning on two horizons is that the palm tree, the palm tree has rich symbolism not only for our marriages between a man and a wife on the first horizon, but then secondly, we're gonna look at the symbolism of the palm tree on the second horizon as we consider the love between Christ and the church. So let me start with the first horizon, the first horizon. And I want you to think about this palm tree for a moment. What a beautiful picture of provision, God's provision it is, right? I mean, did Israel deserve those palm trees? No, she didn't deserve those palm trees, but God gave them to her. And I don't know about you men, but when I think of my wife, I think of her in the same categories. I didn't deserve my wife. but God graciously gave her to me. I'm not saying she's perfect, but I am saying that when I tell people, let me talk to my better half, I'm not just saying that as a metaphor. I literally mean that she is my better half. I literally mean that she is a blessing from the Lord. And so we should all think this way. I know that there are exceptions. I know that there are extremes, but though we don't deserve them, the Lord gives them to us. So on the first horizon, I want you to consider this. We are men, as husbands, to perpetually conquer and delight in your palm tree. We are to perpetually conquer and delight in our palm tree. And I want to draw your attention to chapter 7, verses 7 through 9. Before I go any further, let me just give a caveat here, okay? I'm gonna try to be as tasteful as I possibly can, but I would encourage you to try to let this text teach us. I know that talking about sexual things is not always comfortable in this setting, but I just want to, at the front end of this, say one of the best places we can learn about sexual intimacy in the context of the marriage is not Cosmopolitan Magazine, but the Word of God. I repeat that. I want you to know that because I say this in all seriousness. I know that some parents may be tempted to write me an email later this week, but I just want to tell you right now, if you are concerned about anything that you don't want your kids to hear, maybe this would be a time to take them out. But as I said, I'm going to be as tasteful as I possibly can, but I would encourage you parents to try to think a different way about things of this nature. I've had Single women tell me before, single women who have kids, that when the Bible teaches about sexual intimacy and marriage relationships, it doesn't have anything to do with them. They get no application out of it. Well, why? Well, because I'm not married. Okay, well, do you have a daughter? Yeah, okay, well, you're gonna have to teach your daughter about sexuality, aren't you? Do you have a son? Yeah, well, you're gonna have to teach your son about how to think about women, right? So once again, where do we go? We don't go to Cosmopolitan Magazine, we come to the Word of God. And we take up the poetry and the raw materials that the Lord has given us to teach our children at the appropriate age and in the appropriate manner about how to think about a man and how to think about a woman and how to think about their union together. Verses seven through nine, chapter seven, verses seven through nine. This is Solomon speaking to his wife. Your stature is like a palm tree and your breasts are like its clusters. I say I will climb the palm tree and lay hold of its fruit. Oh, may your breasts be like clusters of the vine and the scent of your breath like apples and your mouth like the best wine. It goes down smoothly from my beloved gliding over lips and teeth. I want to say a few things to you, husbands particularly, this morning. And here's the first thing under this head. Husbands, have eyes only for your wives. I want you to notice that three times in this chapter, in verse three and verse seven and in verse eight, he mentions the breasts of the Shulamite. Now, I want to make it abundantly clear here This is not narrowly focusing on one anatomical location of the body of his wife as much, listen, as it is describing the physical and marital intimacy that they share together. And I want you to think of that in these terms. I want you to think, husbands, that you are to conquer your wife. You are to delight in your wife. You are to take hold of your wife. Just think of that image again of the Israelites coming out of the arid desert temperature into that oasis-like setting. They didn't come up to the tree and just sit under it like a bum and wait for those dates to come down, you see. Do you follow me? No, they scaled the tree, didn't they? They scaled the tree and they went up for the fruit. You know what that means? That means that they had to think about it. They had to plan. Oh sure, there were some people that didn't think first and didn't prepare accordingly and probably fell down. But the ones who were successful. are the ones who considered the tree, are the ones who planned on how to scale the tree, are the ones who were intentional and single-minded in scaling that tree and going for its fruit. And so we, as husbands, should be as well. Don't wait for the fruit to drop without effort, but scale the tree. Have eyes only for your wife. Secondly, keep your fountain and your conscience pure and clear. I want you to turn over just for a moment, keep your finger in Song of Solomon 7, and turn over to Proverbs chapter 5. Proverbs chapter 5. I want to splice two ideas or themes together as we're thinking on the first horizon. Men. Proverbs chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. Proverbs chapter 5, verses 18 through 20. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely dear, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight. Be intoxicated always in her love. Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? I want you to see here, men, that the fountain is a rich Hebrew idiom that was used particularly in poetry. It was an idiom that referred to the sexual pleasure and intimacy between the man and the woman. It was a, listen, a singular fountain, okay? And it was a fountain, meaning it was not a billabong, a stagnant body of water where you come, you see, you dip, and then you're done. There's nothing more to be enjoyed in it. There is no freshness. There is no springing forth. No. The sexual intimacy that you are to have with your wife is to be an always springing forth intimacy. Body is given to you for your pleasure, among other things, and this is a fountain, listen, that is to remain pure. That is to remain pure. And I think one of the ways that our fountains are contaminated, men, is when we have a troubled conscience, looking at porn, lusting after other fountains, fountains that are not yours. in your mind and in your heart, and God forbid, with your hands, renders you ineffective in taking delight in the fountain of your wife. It clouds your vision. You don't get as much joy and pleasure out of it. Why? Because your conscience is afflicted. You see, the intimacy, the fountain that the Lord has given us in marriage is not simply about the physical body, is it about the soul as well? It is about a clear conscience. The Lord wants you to take pleasure in this gift of sex, but it has to be done with a singular focus on the fountain that the Lord has given you with a conscience that is clear because she is your only fountain. Now, I want you to notice, men, that the proverb does not say, delight in your wife, in your youth. No, it says, delight in the wife of your youth. Now what's the difference between that? What this means is that A man's conquering activity on the part of the husband, which leads his wife into marital intimacy, should be a perpetual joy throughout the marriage. In other words, as one man once told me, men tend to be conquerors and mover-oners, right? We tend to be conquerors and mover-oners. First time you beheld the stature of your wife, at some point you said, I must have her. But you had to work for it, didn't you? He had to climb the palm tree to get to its fruit. He doesn't expect that the clusters are just gonna fall down without effort. No, he has to climb, which is to say he has to plan, he has to work, he has to execute. He has to invest mental acuity and preparation. Let me put it this way, he has to earn it. The clusters of the palm were for you, but you had to prove yourself worthy to climb the tree. She had to give you permission, and so you did. And then you put a ring on her finger, you exchanged vows, and now you've conquered her. Now she's yours. But our tendency, as I said, is to be a conqueror and a mover on her. I have her. What's next? Well, here's what's next. Now you maintenance her. You serve her. You love her. You fill her up. You take joy in the intimacy and the purity of the fountain that the Lord has given you by His grace through constant fidelity. Every season of life, brothers, brings new fruit. And you've got to scale that tree, and you've got to go get it, you see. Every season. Every season has new fruit, new challenges, new memories to cherish, fresh romance to kindle. And in order for things to stay fresh, you must have just as much industry and diligence to climb and conquer that palm tree as you did at the beginning. Now, I understand that this is a challenge for all of us, right? This is a challenge for all of us. Just on a very, very practical note, many times I've exhorted you men from the pulpit to date your wife. You know, when I was a young man, a young married man, older men would tell me that all the time. You gotta date your wife, you gotta date your wife. And I remember always thinking, oh, that's a luxury, especially when I was younger and didn't have as much money. You know, I mean, because let's face it, dates cost money, right? I mean, let's just be honest, let's call a spade a spade. And dates take planning, right? Especially if you got kids, right? Who's gonna watch my kids? You know, maybe you rotate through three or four different babysitters. Who watched them last? That's too close. You gotta do this scheduling and coordinating. It's a lot of work. But I remember as a young man thinking, what a luxury. What a luxury to go on a date once a month. What a luxury to go on a date twice a month. I mean, wow, who does that? And the older I'm getting, dear friends, I'm realizing it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. It's a necessity because I have to continually be conquering my wife, maintenancing my wife, serving my wife, and I need times and context, listen, and space that is uninhibited by children. Now, please don't take that the wrong way. We love children in this place. We make a lot of children in this place, okay? Children are beautiful, but there's times when children can be a challenge to the purity and glory of the fountain of marriage. And so we must put them aside. There's a season for everything, right? Let's put them aside, and men, listen, this is where it's hard, and this is where I confess, like, as an individual, I'm not good at this, but I have to think beforehand, what am I gonna talk to my wife about? Have you ever thought about that? I mean, don't get me wrong, if the beginning of your dating your wife is more like, okay, kids are out of the way, let's talk shop. All right, let's balance the checkbook. Oh, that is a boring date, right? Let's talk about our plans, five years, 10 years, what are we going to do with the finances, investments, house, need a new lawnmower, kids need braces. Boy, that's a buzzkill, right? So what you need, men, is you need to be intentional. I repeat, you need to be intentional, thinking about, how am I going to talk to my wife about things that make her feel like a lady? How am I going to talk to my wife in ways that make her feel beautiful? She is beautiful, but she needs to hear that she's beautiful. Often I tell men, do you compliment the beauty of your wife? Well, she already knows that. Listen, buddy, it's not about what she knows. You know that Jesus Christ died for you and you need to hear it over and over and over and over again, right? Well, in the same way, she needs to hear not just that she's beautiful from her mother, her father, her brother, she needs to hear it from you when you talk about the contours and shape of her body. You run your fingers down them as you speak about their beauty. You need to have space, you need to have time. It's not a luxury, brothers, it is a necessity. So keep dating your wife, keep conquering your wife, keep scaling the palm tree and delighting in the fruits of that blessed marital intimacy. All right, good job, you got through the first horizon. Let's come to the second horizon. And if you're just tuning in, when we talk about first and second horizon, the Song of Solomon, it's our hermeneutic or our heuristic for reading it, our lens through which we read the Song of Solomon, which comes from Ephesians chapter five, that the picture of marriage on the first horizon, the first level, is a picture of the love between a man and his wife, but on the second horizon, it is a picture of the love between Christ and his church. And so we go to the second horizon, and I want you to consider the beauty and stature of the church. The beauty and stature of the church. And I wanna give three observations, three ways that the church adorns her beauty. She adorns her beauty to God. She adorns her beauty amongst herself, meaning with other members, and she adorns her beauty to the world. I wanna talk about three ways in which the stature and beauty of the church is put on display. Number one, number one, the church adorns her stature and beauty through internal unity. The church adorns her stature and her beauty through internal unity. I want to draw your attention to verse 13, coming back to Song of Solomon. And I confess before I go into this that this doesn't totally fit the theme, but I had to fit it in somewhere. So I hope that you'll forgive me and bear with me, but I do think that there's some spiritual and necessary application for us in verse 13. So in chapter 6, verse 13, Return, return, O Shulamite, return that we may look upon you. And as you recall last week, I think that that's really saying turn, turn, twirl, dance, O Shulamite, that we may look upon you. And then there's this interesting question. Why should you look upon the Shulamite as upon a dance between two armies? What does that mean? What does that mean? I would submit to you, beloved, that the church is a dance between two armies. not two current hostile armies, but two former hostile enemies that are now united under the same head, Jesus Christ. One Lutheran commentator said that these warring armies were the Jews and the Gentiles, and then God has broken down the wall of separation. He's obliterated these boundaries and these walls and these barriers of race, and socioeconomic status, and male and female. He's broken them all down, and this is the message of the New Testament, isn't it not? And he's brought these otherwise former, warring, hostile armies together in one body. And now they do not war, now they dance. Now they dance under the maestro Jesus Christ. Whereas before they warred with one another with deep suspicion on each side, now they dance together in the context of the church. The dividing walls, as I said, have been broken down. And what I want to say to us this morning, and it's important for us to be reminded of this, is that we not allow the world to bring that hostility between the races, between the sexes, between the socioeconomic statuses, back into the walls of the church. If you've listened to the media, you'd think that such a hostility is alive and well in the church and in the world. But the odd thing is that when I come and I worship with all of you on Sunday, I don't find that hostility. Do you? Do you find that hostility? Do you find in this place the hostility between the races and the hostility between the socioeconomic statuses, if that's a word? in our people? No, I don't see that. The things that I read and see in the videos that I watch or used to watch on social media feed is not the reality that I see here. What I see here is different races and different backgrounds and different socioeconomic statuses, people with Chevrolets and people with nice cars all coming together. for the purpose of worshiping God, and they could care less what's out in the parking lot. They could care less how green your lawn is. You know what they care about? They care about the people in front of them. They care about the souls that are in the embodied people in front of them. Well, but, but, the world says, you don't see the problem because your eyes aren't adjusted to the right things. Oh, well, please, teach me. How do I get my eyes adjusted to the right things? Well, if you read our books, like White Privilege and How to Be an Anti-Racist, then you'll be able to see it. Well, my response is this. Yeah, thanks, but no thanks. I've got my own book, it's called The Bible, and actually, my book says that you need to repent for your race-baiting. You could say amen, it's okay. It's a good place to say amen. The church is waking up, beloved. The church is waking up from her culture-intoxicating slumber. The church is waking up from leaders, unfortunately, in the church who decided to throw good brothers and sisters under the bus of the cultural zeitgeist so that they can be seen as better in the eyes of cultural and religious despisers. But you know what? Here's what those leaders didn't realize. Cultural and religious despisers are still what? Despisers. And they despise you for your religion, whether you are on the left side of the aisle or the right side of the aisle, politically. Because you named the name of Christ. Let us not throw our brothers and sisters under the bus and paint them with sins that don't come out of the Bible. But let us enter and continue the dance between two formerly hostile armies that are now dancing in harmony because of the unity that Christ Jesus gives us. That's the first thing. Here's the second thing. The church adorns her stature and beauty with balance. The church adorns her stature and beauty with balance. And here I want you to come back to Song of Solomon chapter seven verse six. How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delights. Your stature is like a palm tree, and your breasts are like its clusters. Now, why is Solomon using a palm tree here to describe the Shulamite? Why is Christ describing the church, the people, and the blessings that the people of God receive as a palm tree? Palm trees are beautiful, they're stately, they're tall, they're majestic. But just considering, as I said, the palm tree from a redemptive historical perspective, remember, as I said, that in the temple the walls were sketched with palm trees. Why? Because the place where God and man meet through the mediation of a priest is the place of paradise. Palm trees are emblematic of paradise lost and paradise restored. And the only institution on earth that holds forth the beautiful offer of paradise restored is the church. So beloved, you are the palm trees. You are the palm trees. And if you just think of that picture for a moment, if we could press the imagery a little bit further. I think of that beautiful hymn, we're standing on the stormy banks of Jordan, and we're looking out into the Eschaton, we're looking at, just as the children of Israel were on the stormy banks of Jordan, they were looking into the promised land, we as the people of God, as we walk this veil of tears, as we pilgrim unto the heavenly new heavens and the new earth, we are standing on the stormy banks of Jordan, and there's a sense in which on those banks, are these palm trees, and we can climb up to the top, and you know what we could do? We could see a little bit further. We could see a little bit further into the eschaton of what God has prepared for us, and then as we come down from the stature of those palm trees, we can take that lens, that eternal perspective, and we can view everything in the now time through it. I think that's one of the ways in which these palm trees represent not only us as a people, but also the perspective with which we look at the world. But let me take you, keep your finger in Song of Solomon 7 for a moment, and turn to Ephesians chapter 4. When Solomon talks about the stature of the palm tree, what does he mean? Well Paul in Ephesians chapter 4, he uses the language of our stature as a church. Verse 11 and following, Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11, he's talking about the ascended Christ and as Christ ascends he gives gifts, he gives gifts to the church, he gives gifts to the world. The church is a gift to the world, but within that church He gives particular gifts. Verse 11, and He gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. Notice this language, the building up, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature man. to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. What is Paul getting at here? Beloved, one of the things that is supposed to happen in this nursery called the church, in this garden called the church, is we are building one another up in love unto the stature of Jesus Christ. And I want to say this, that is a flourishing And that flourishing of sanctification, that flourishing to where you're more and more and more as you see the day approaching, looking like Jesus, is not an individual effort. It is a corporate and communal effort. It grows in the soil of corporate worship. It grows in the soil of mutual edification. It grows in the soil of mutual encouragement. You cannot do that by yourself. You need to be with other palm trees. You need to be with other people. I come back to Song of Solomon 7. Behold how Christ views the stature of the church. He views us as tall and stately, pleasant on the eyes and sweet to the taste. Again, as I said earlier, this is talking about the gift of Christ's imputed righteousness to us. that God looks at us not as we really are, shot through with sin, struggling with besetting sins, walking in sin from time to time, but He sees us as perfect, as stately, as tall, as adorned with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And this is a glorious privilege that we must always remember. It is often important, especially. Why is it especially important when we think about how God views us in Christ? Well, it's especially important as we contrast that with how other people view us, how other people think of us, how other people criticize us. Because what we're doing at that point is we're saying, well, this is what my critics think of me, and this is what God thinks of me. And it's important to keep that in mind. Why? Well, when we tangle with such people, it's important to contrast how they view us, how they think of us, and what they say about us with what God thinks of us in Christ. But I want you to remain balanced in this. In other words, we are to adorn Christ's imputed righteousness with beauty and balance. What do I mean by that? Well, let's take a moment to consider how we can handle this adornment of the righteousness of Christ with care. Paul writes an exhortation to Christian slaves in Titus 2, 9, and 10, and it applies to us as well. It's really applicable to all Christians. This is what he says, listen. He says, "'Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything. They are to be well-pleasing and not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith, so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior.'" In other words, we are to adorn this doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. What does that mean? It means, beloved, that when we go around telling people we're a Christian and that we have the imputed righteousness of Christ, as much as possible, we need to live our lives so that it's trending toward and trying to emulate that righteousness of Christ in our lives. Does that make sense? In other words, we don't use it as a get out of hell free card. Well, I've got Christ's imputed righteousness. That's all that matter. I'm not gonna try to be who I am. I'm just gonna use it to get out of hell and to get into heaven But down here, I'm going to do whatever I want." No. Paul says, adorn the doctrine of God. Beautify. Make it look beautiful in the world as people look upon you so that they may think highly of Christ as well. And I think that this is the balance that I always tell you Kohelet is getting at. He says, it's good to grasp one thing and not let go of the other, for whoever fears God avoids extremes. I like that translation. So one extreme is to care so much about what other people think of you that it denigrates what Christ thinks about you. So in this extreme, Christ's imputed righteousness and what God the Father thinks of you means nothing and has no effect upon you. It can therefore never be a comfort to you. Instead, the only comfort you have will be purely based on the circumstances and the whims of other people's opinions. If people approve of you because you got a promotion or lost weight or whatever, then you are content. But when they criticize you, you forget your identity in Christ. That's an extreme that we should try to avoid. But here's the other extreme, and I'd venture to bet maybe the majority of us are here. I don't know, but let's consider it. Here's another extreme. The other extreme of adorning the imputed righteousness of Christ is a disconnect between how God sees you in Christ and how that should motivate you to be further sanctified and grow in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. So I have seen troubling trend over the past 10 to 15 years or so, both in evangelical culture at large and specifically in my counseling where people say, Just tell me what God thinks of me in Christ. Don't tell me what I have to do. Just tell me what Christ has done for me. Just give me the indicative. Don't give me the imperative. Don't tell me what I have to do. And as a general rule, the mature Christian will conclude that in every criticism, in every venue when a wiser Christian or just another Christian is trying to point something out in your life, There's two things that we can focus on or two things that we could balance. The one thing is, remember, this Christian is still a sinner, right? So I promise you they're not gonna do it perfectly. I promise you. There's gonna be a crinkle in their forehead that's gonna make you think that they were mean, okay? They were mean in how they said that. They didn't speak the truth in love. And the extreme is you could say, so nothing that they said has any relevance for me. I'm just gonna dismiss it all. Okay? All right? And again, the other extreme is to say, everything they said is gospel truth, it was all right, there was nothing wrong in it, so I'm gonna believe everything and I'm going to be depressed because they think that about me and forget what God and Christ thinks about me. No, there's a balance here. Yes, I'm righteous in Christ, but, The question is, am I showing forth that righteousness in my life when I fail to be teachable, when I refuse to hear and see and take into deep consideration what God is trying to show me through my husband, through my wife, through fellow church members who are speaking the truth to me in love? Yes, they're doing it imperfectly, but they have the same goal, that you would be mature in Christ, right? So one of the things, beloved, I try to do, and trust me, I get a lot of criticism, okay? One of the things I try to do is I try to do this, I say, Lord, some criticism that comes to me, I don't like how they did it, maybe they were factually inaccurate in some things, but Lord, there's something that you're trying to show me in what they're saying, right? There's something, there's something. Maybe there's a recurring theme that keeps coming up to you from various different people who are not talking to each other. It's because the Lord is trying to sanctify you through them. And to the degree, beloved, that we fight against that, we are not adorning the doctrine of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. You know what we're doing? We're fighting against it. We're saying, I want the righteousness, but I don't want to fight to be more righteous. I want the righteousness, but I don't want to fight to be more sanctified. No, the mature Christian will grab onto one thing, not let go of the other, avoid two extremes, and say, you know what? If my brothers and my sisters and my wife and my husband and people who love me are coming to me with concerns, then I'm not going to try to throw them under the bus because they didn't do it perfectly, but I'm going to try to take what I can from it and learn from Christ who is gentle and meek. Well, here's the final thing this morning. The church adorns her stature and beauty by bearing fruit into old age. I want you to turn this morning to Psalm 92. Psalm 92. I want you to follow along with me. Psalm 92, verses 12 to 15. The church adorns her stature and beauty by bearing fruit in old age. Verse 12. The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord. They flourish in the courts of our God. Verse 14, they still bear fruit in old age. They are ever full of sap and green to declare that the Lord is upright. He is my rock and there is no unrighteousness in him. You know, one of the things, beloved, that I see in some old people, I'm not necessarily talking about old people, I'm just talking about old people in general, all right? You know what happens the older you get because you've seen many things in life, right? What does Jacob say? Many have been the days of my life, they've been long and depressing, I can't quite remember, but they've been challenging, right? There is a path that you can tread that when you get to the end of your life, listen, you're angry, you're bitter, you're discontent, you're unhappy, you're disillusioned. And beloved, I've seen people like this and I know that you have too. But this text says that even in old age, the saints are full of sap and green. Why? Here's my question, why? Well it says it right here, the righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Verse 13, they are planted in the house of the Lord and they flourish in the courts of our God. You know how you can keep from being bitter and angry and disillusioned with life? If you make your life the people of God and the worship of God and the corporate nature of God by coming here week in and week out and receiving the sap and the green and as it were the chlorophyll from heaven that keeps joy in your heart and bitterness far away. There is someone in this congregation, I'm not going to obviously mention this person's name, but I would just say by the standards of the world, this person should be bitter and angry because of what this person's spouse did to them for years and years and years and years. Horrible, unspeakable things. And as a result, this saint, this Christian should be bitter and angry at the world and at God. But to the contrary, this person, this person comes faithfully to church because they want the manna from heaven. They have a smile on their face. And the very spouse, the very spouse that did them so much harm. And so much pain, an infliction of pain, they still serve that person today. You want to know why? Because they flourish in the courts of God, amongst the people of God, under the Word of God, and that's what keeps them flourishing because they have in their hearts, not the highways of bitterness or the highways of anger, but they are following the highways to Zion. And you can do the same thing. You could flourish in this life. You could flourish in this place if you would flourish in the courts of the Lord. When I see older saints serving the Lord and still in the church and full of joy and hungry for the means of grace and not bitter, I see a manifestation of Psalm 92. So how do we keep from getting jaded in the church, especially in old age? By planting yourself in the house of the Lord and in the courts of the Lord. And how can you keep, beloved, because somebody will tell me this, they'll say, well wait a minute, but don't we get disillusioned by the church too? Yeah, we do. But let me give you something that I hope will help you. You are going to get disillusioned by people in the church. You're going to get disillusioned by leaders in the church. Many of you know, but my former pastor, who was my Paul and I was his Timothy, the one who really introduced me to Christ, introduced me to the church, is sitting in San Quentin with almost two lifetime sentences. He's done unspeakable things. And when that happened, I and many others were very, very tempted to just chuck the whole thing. Say, if this is what the church produces, if this is what Christianity is about, I don't want anything to do with it. But what are we missing when we do that? Here's what we're missing. We've got the wrong guy at the helm. We've got the wrong guy at the helm. Many leaders are going to fall. They never should have been in ministry in the first place. Many Christians are going to let us down. There are wolves in sheep's clothing in the church, right? But does Christ ever step away from the helm? Never. He's always there and he's gonna steer us safely to the shores of the Eschaton. And if you can remember that, then you will not be disillusioned and embittered and angry at people in the church and even people in your family. You wanna know why? Because some of the sap and the green that runs through the roots of the palm trees in the church of Christ is the sap and the green of grace. You say, well, these people did this to me years ago, and they still haven't asked for forgiveness. That's not good. It shouldn't be that way. Okay, but you know what? In the same way that God shows grace to you when you are undeserving of it, you could show grace to them. Not by having that transaction of forgiveness. That awaits the time when they admit that they're wrong. But until then, you could have a disposition of forgiveness. Let me say one last thing before I end this morning. And I want to get very brass tacks with this, okay? One of the things that will cause a church, one of the things that will cause a church to be fractured and to be ununified, Okay, and to just put on a show and a charade every time we come in, is if instead of dealing with conflict, listen, instead of dealing with conflict the way that Jesus taught us to, which was directly address that person, this is Matthew 18, that's why we talk about it so much in here, okay, instead of doing that, we talk around people and behind people's backs. Now, do I recognize that on the surface that's the path of least resistance? Yeah, it's a lot easier to talk about people and their problems and to gossip about them and to slander them and to just kind of vent and get it out. But beloved, that is sin. Can I say that again? That's sin. And the way we're gonna stay sticky in this place, the way we're gonna stay united in this place, is if we do the hard work of reconciliation. In fact, God has given us, 2 Corinthians chapter five, the ministry of reconciliation. And let me say this, the thing that militates the most about the ministry of reconciliation is if in cowardice we talk about people and around people's backs. Beloved, I want, and I pray for this, and the elders pray for this, and I hope that you pray for this, I want Grace Covenant Church, among other things, to be marked as a people who aren't afraid to have the hard conversations. Who aren't afraid to say, brother, sister, I've got something I've got to deal with, the supper's coming up. I take the supper so seriously that I want to make sure things are right with you and I." And you actually come to them and you know what? That actually builds strands of unity in the bond of peace. It builds it. It strengthens it. And that's what we want in this place. Why? Because this is what God redeemed us to be. Sinners who seek reconciliation with our fellow man, sinners who don't keep a barrier between others and the church, sinners who love the gospel of grace so much that they want to embody it and manifest it and exude it in every single relationship that they have. So beloved, let us look to Christ this morning, how He has reconciled us with His blood, and may we find refuge in that, find an oasis in that. And may the Lord humble our hearts to do the same as we branch out into our horizontal relationships to seek peace and reconciliation with one another. Let's pray. Father God, we do thank you for your grace and mercy to us extended in the person and work of your son Jesus Christ. He is fair, fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, Son of God and Son of Man. Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou my soul's glory, joy, and crown. Jesus Christ, we pray this morning that we as a church would be fitting palm trees with a fitting stature and a fitting unity that would mark us as a people, that when others look at us they say, oh see how they love, oh see how they do the hard things, oh see how they exude the gospel of grace, oh see, oh see how they pant after reconciliation and peace. with their brothers and sisters. And Father, I pray that this testimony would follow us into the world, would go before us, really, and that we would seek the same with coworkers, with family members, and that we would manifest the gospel of Christ through it. We ask all these things in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand. We're going to sing Ferris, Lord Jesus.