I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Song of Solomon, chapter 3, or Song of Songs, chapter 3. So, if you are unfamiliar with where that book is, a helpful way to find it is if you could find Isaiah, go one book toward Genesis, and if you could find Ecclesiastes, go one book toward Revelation, and you'll find it there. Song of Solomon, chapter 3, verses 6 through 11. If you're visiting this morning, we have been working through the book of Song of Songs and considering a portrait of love on two horizons. On the one hand, what does this book have to say about a man and a woman's love for one another in the covenant relationship of marriage? And on the other hand, the second horizon, what does this book have to say about the love between Christ and His church? So this morning, we'll be considering Song of Songs 3, 6 through 11, and hopefully you're there. Listen carefully, for this is the Word of the Living God. What is that coming up from the wilderness like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense and with all the fragrant powders of a merchant? Behold, it is the litter of Solomon. Around it are 60 mighty men, some of the mighty men of Israel, all of them wearing swords and expert in war, each with his sword at his thigh against terror by night. King Solomon made for himself a carriage from the wood of Lebanon. He made its posts of silver, its backs of gold, its seat of purple, its interior was inlaid with love by the daughters of Jerusalem. Go out, O daughters of Zion, and look upon King Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart. Thus, Father, redeem God's word. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever, and we are grateful for it. Would you bow your heads with me this morning as we ask the Lord for help in the ministry of his holy and inerrant word. Father God, this morning we have sung wonderful songs of love to our Savior, and more importantly, his love for us. Father, as we consider this beautiful poetry, this inspired poetry, I pray that we would enter into its rhythm and its meter. I pray, Father, that we would enter into the reality that this is not simply a pipe dream of some lover. But this is the reality of all the children of God who have the Spirit of God in their hearts and the law of God written on their hearts and Christ as King and Lord of their life. I pray that you would help your servant this morning, Father, to unpack this Word of God for the edification of Your people and for Your glory. We ask in Christ's name. Amen. One of my favorite things to do whenever I am invited over someone's house for dinner, or whatever the case may be, is if they are married to look immediately for their wedding pictures. I love to look on the walls and see if there are pictures of the groom and the bride. I love to look on the coffee tables to see if there are any photo albums and of course with their permission to look through them. When you think about our wedding day, those of us who are married, for most of us anyway in this world after the fall, there is still yet a sense in which it is and was the most important day of our lives, the most glorious day of our lives. In fact, it's so glorious that we really want to capture it, right? And so we hire a number of photographers. I remember on my wedding day when We were being photographed or shot, if you want to put it that way. I just remember this moment when the whole wedding party was there, and I was there, and photographers were like jockeying for position. And I remember one saying, hey, they're paying me, so get out of the way. I'm like, man, these guys, and it just, like we wanted to capture that day. Wanted to capture that day because it was a glorious and splendid day. Well, what we read of here in Song of Solomon 3, verses 6 through 11, is, I believe, a snapshot of one of the events in the wedding of Solomon and the Shulamites. Now, I'll just tell you at the outset that there is obviously division amongst the commentators on what this is. I'm taking a position that I can't even say it's the majority position because there are so many different positions on this, but I think that there's good reason to see this as the wedding day of Solomon. After all, verse 11 says this is on the day of his wedding. I mean, you can't beat that. If you're just trying to take the Word of God at face value, it's easy to conclude that this is the wedding day of Solomon and the Shulamite. So this is a depiction of that wedding, and really that depiction of the wedding day, it runs all the way throughout chapter 5, but in this particular section, I think it's probably the bride, I'm not 100% on that, but I think it's either the bride or the bridal party that is describing Solomon as he is entering the picture. It's really describing Solomon's procession, as it were, if we can think of it in today's terms, to the altar. to give the solemn vows of the marriage covenant, and he is depicted in a majestic and royal language. And if you look at the text, just a cursory look or glance, you see that all the trappings All the trappings of pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding are here. We see the perfume and fragrant powders in verse 6b. We see his royal entourage in verses 7 and 8. David's mighty men. We'll come back to that in a moment. But he's surrounded by this entourage, not only of mighty men, but you can no doubt imagine, though it is not explicitly stated, that all of His servants are coming along with Him and the camels that are carrying all His supplies. And then we see in verses 7 and 9 what in Old English would be called a royal palanquin, which is basically a couch that is carried by long sticks, and the servants are carrying this couch upon which the king is seated, and usually there's a box over that couch with curtains, royal curtains, and there's gold and silver laced everywhere, and certainly it is built into the couch itself. It has silver posts, verse 10a, and the back of it is gold, verse 10b, and it has a seat inlaid by love by the daughters of Jerusalem in 10b. C and D. But unlike our weddings, boys and girls, if you've ever been to a wedding, what is kind of the big deal? I mean, I'm not going to give the minister's answer. I'm going to give the boys and girls answer. Well, the big deal, boys and girls, is it not, is when everybody stands and the bride comes walking down the aisle, right? That's the big, we don't care as much about the groom being there. Certainly don't care about the minister being there, but that bride. That bride with that immaculate white dress and the train that flows behind her, and usually there's some people who are holding her train, and then there's little girls who are throwing out little rose petals, and it's a wonderful affair. But that is the big deal in our modern day weddings, but not so in this wedding. Boys and girls, I don't know if you noticed, but it's not the bride who is on display here, but it is the groom. It is Solomon. He is the majestic and glorious one that everybody is calling to one another's attention. I'm going to give you this morning four reasons why I think it's solemn, and I'm doing this. I don't want to get bogged down in this. I think it takes away from the glory of the poetry, but just to let you know, some commentators do think that this is the bride. I don't think that that is the case. I'm going to give you four reasons why. I want you to notice in verses 7 and 8 that he is accompanied by the royal entourage, David's mighty men. I mean, certainly the mighty men are there. Just like today, if you see the president going out, he's always got his secret servicemen around him, right? Secret servicemen, sometimes there's soldiers. There's always somebody there to protect this man because he has royalty. His life is very, very important. But secondly, I want you to notice in verse 9. that it says, his bed upon which he enters, in verse 9 it says, it was made for himself. Solomon made it for himself. Now certainly that means that he had it commissioned to be made, but he had it commissioned to be made for himself. Not for his bride. But then thirdly, I want you to notice in verse 11 that there's a charge that goes out to the daughters of Jerusalem as this procession is going forward to come out and feast your eyes on King Solomon, on the day of his wedding, on the day of the gladness of his heart. But then, fourthly and finally, I would say a fourth reason why I believe that this is Solomon that we're looking at is that there are rich, robust, and unmistakable biblical, theological, and redemptive historical themes and motifs that are made up by the very procession of Solomon coming into view. Just one that I will give you is the pillar of smoke, and we'll come back to that in just a moment. But whereas we see on the first horizon Solomon's wedding, that becomes a picture to lift our eyes up to the second horizon of the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's what we're looking at here. For us, for we Christians, we are looking on that second horizon at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Certainly Solomon was an important figure. And certainly there is much we stand to learn from his thousand plus writings. But the greater Solomon is who we long for. The greater Solomon is the one we adore. The greater Solomon, the greater David, Jesus Christ, and the marriage that he brings us into is what we want to see this morning. So I want, before we get into that, and I wanna show that to you from the text, I wanna start this off with a thought that perhaps you've never had before, maybe you have. But I want you to recognize that In the New Testament, there is a sense in which The authors of the New Testament present the relationship between Christ and the church as a marriage. There's a sense in which that's true. Ephesians chapter five says that. In fact, that's the lens through which we are looking at the Song of Songs, right? But I want you to think about something for a moment. There's also another sense in which the New Testament authors either explicitly or implicitly present the relationship between Christ and the church, not as a marriage, but as a betrothal. And I want you to listen to the words of Paul in 2 Corinthians 11 too. He says, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Now I want you to think about that for a second. Why is it that in the book of Revelation, which speaks of the consummation of the kingdom, the consummation of all things, that one event is held out and titled the marriage supper of the Lamb. Why are we eating at the marriage supper of the Lamb? I'll tell you why. Because in heaven, when we get to heaven, when Christ gets us to heaven, we will fully and finally be married to Christ. But now we're simply betrothed to Christ. And what's fascinating to me, this is what I believe, I happen to believe that one of the reasons that God put the concept of betrothal, not only in the Bible, but in history, is actually to give us a picture of the tension between the already and the not yet. Because we are betrothed to Christ. Now what you need to understand is in the time of the New Testament, betrothal wasn't like engagement today. An engagement today, you know, you get into the engagement, the ring is given, you're figuring out marriage, you know, wedding invitations and so on and so forth, but then something happens, you're like, this is not the guy for me, this is not the gal for me, and you call it off. Well, if you did that in the first century, you'd be liable to a lawsuit because the idea of betrothal was much closer to an actual contract of marriage. And so in the same way, we have entered into a betrothal with Christ by His grace and for His glory and for our good, and we are in some sense married to Christ. But that consummation hasn't come yet. That not yet, the tension between the already betrothal and the not yet consummation is the age in which we live. And in that day, when Christ breaks through the clouds, we will fully and finally be married to Christ. And then, beloved, we will enter the banquet hall and sit at table and engage in the marriage supper of the Lamb. I think that this is also what helps us understand the passage from last week, verses one through five, where the bride is sitting on her bed and she's kind of longing to be with the husband. I mean, I'm not gonna stake a claim on this, but I think you could almost see an analogy between that, that picture, and maybe the night before when a woman is thinking about her wedding the next day. She's on her bed, she's thinking about her husband. At that point, he is her boyfriend, but within 24 hours, the relationship's going to radically change. And she's longing for that. And so also in this age, beloved, as the church, as the people of God, as those of us who have the Spirit of God in our hearts, we long for the eschaton, the end, the new heavens and the new earth, when Christ will break through and consummate all things. And so this is why the marriage supper of the Lamb is such a brilliant and glorious thought. laid at the end of the Bible. So what I want to do this morning with that in mind, I want to give you three features. Three features of this picture which foster a joyful anticipation of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Three features in verses six through 11, with Solomon going forth in his procession, three features that point us to the marriage supper of the Lamb that we might rejoice in it. Here's the first one. Here's the first one. I want you to notice. Columns of smoke are seen as the new exodus into the banqueting hall of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Columns of smoke as the new exodus into the banqueting hall of the marriage supper of the Lamb. I want you to look in verse 6a. Notice it says, what is that coming up from the wilderness? Then it says, like columns of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all fragrant powders of a merchant. What do you think of? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a pillar in the Bible? Well, no doubt you think of that pillar of fire that led the people of God, listen, out of the wilderness, through the Red Sea, out of that time of wandering aimlessly for 40 years, out of that time where all they had was McDonald's morning, noon, and night, it was called Manna, just every single meal, same thing all the time. Lord took care of them, but it wasn't the promised land. flowing with milk and honey. It is that pillar that brought them through. And I want you to notice that though in the book of Exodus, when that story is told of the pillar, the same word used for pillar in the Hebrew is not the same word used here, but The word used here in the Hebrew for pillar is the word used in Joel chapter 2 verse 30. Now why is that significant? It's significant because Joel chapter 2 is the section of prophecy that Peter on the day of Pentecost when he was preaching to the 3,000 who got saved. quotes, and he says all this that you're seeing here, the pouring out of the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, speaking in tongues, this is that which Joel spoke of. Now, one of the things that Joel spoke of when he gave that prophecy is this, and by the way, there is some already not yet in this as well. But he says, and I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. What is he talking about? If you go on to read in Joel chapter two, he's talking about bringing them into Jerusalem, which for us is the new Jerusalem. And oftentimes the prophets, both the major prophets and the minor prophets, would take the motif of the exodus and the motif of the pillar of fire that would lead the people of Israel out of the wilderness, and they would talk about a new exodus that was coming in the future. Isaiah does this quite a bit. And so old motifs become new expectations. And what we see is that there is a new Exodus coming, listen, where God will take us out of this wilderness realm and bring us into the promised land. And you say, well, where are you getting that? Well, if you read the book of Hebrews, some of you know this well, chapter three and chapter four, focus on this theme or this motif of the children of Israel going through the wilderness. And then that motif gets imposed on the church age right now. And the author to the Hebrew says, we are entering the rest from this wilderness age. And so this age, the church age, the age of sin, the age when Christ has not yet broken through the clouds, the age when in some sense, Satan is still the prince of the power of the air. The age in which Satan really has the deed to the earth. It's in this age that we see as the wilderness, and this pillar of fire will bring us out. Now, I want you to imagine this, boys and girls. Come back to the first horizon with Solomon. I want you to picture his entourage coming out of the wilderness. And I want you to realize that it's Solomon and his palanquin, his couch bed, and then all his servants, and then his 60 mighty men. And I want you to imagine if all of those people, let's just say 200 people, to be conservative. If 200 people were coming out of the wilderness, by wilderness, I don't mean jungle, Wilderness in Palestine was like a desert, rock desert, not sand desert, rock desert. Okay, if all of those people were coming out of the wilderness and they're stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomping, what's gonna go up? A pillar of smoke. A pillar of smoke is going to emerge out of the wilderness. And this is what the person calling our attention in verse six says, what is that coming out of the wilderness? It's like a pillar of smoke. And so we see here a new exodus. And I want you to notice also, because the imagery continues, when we come to Solomon's bed in verse 6, it's called a... No, in verse seven it's called a litter. That's very misleading. It's kind of a bad translation. Unless you have a cat, then you can make the connection, because a cat has a litter bed, right? And so that's actually much closer to the idea of this Old English word. A cat has a litter bed, and it's a bed that Solomon is in. It just doesn't have that cat sand stuff in it. So it's an old word that basically refers to a couch which servants carry a king on. Another word, as I said, is a palanquin. And we see this in different translations. We see some saying a couch of Solomon, a portable couch, or even Solomon's carriage. But I want you to notice that this carriage is like a box-like enclosed vehicle. And it's carried on poles that rest on the shoulders of men. And James Hamilton says this, he says, a box with curtains is almost like a tent, as though this is Solomon's own personal tabernacle, or ark carried on poles coming up like smoke out of the wilderness, just as the tabernacle was surrounded by tribes of Israel, described like army regiments marching as to war, When they pulled up camp, so Solomon, who was being carried as the tabernacle and ark were on poles, is surrounded by these troops." He's surrounded by his people. And so we see this ark, as it were, coming. Because where did the pillar of fire rest? Over the tabernacle. What was in the tabernacle? The ark. And so when you put this picture together, you see, beloved, the Lord gives us pictures for reasons. That's why I'm so amazed sometimes at some of the commentators and preachers who come to this book and they say, this is just marriage advice from Solomon. Oh, it's that, but it's so much more. If you believe that Christ is not in this book, then every time you say, we need to see Christ in every 66 books. No, just say 65, because you don't believe he's in this one, but he is in this one. He's given us a picture, and this picture is this column of smoke, this tabernacle, just like we saw in the wilderness. God was with his people, and just as God brought his people out of the wilderness into the promised land on that first level typological manifestation, so he's going to bring us out of the wilderness on the second level typological manifestation to bring us into the new heavens and the new earth. coming up out of the wilderness. So that's the first one, first feature that I want you to see. Here's the second one. I want you to notice secondly, The fragrant aroma of Christ will be clearer and more pleasant to you on that day than it ever has been in all of your life. And on that day I refer to the marriage supper of the Lamb. The fragrant aroma of Christ will be clearer and more pleasant to you on that day than it ever has in your whole entire life. Look at verse 6b. Like columns of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the fragrant powders of a merchant. You know the phrase, a pleasing aroma? You know how many times that phrase is found in the Bible? 41 times. We get a little scared as Protestants when you say anything that approximates in any way, shape, or form something like smells and bells. Because we look at other certain Christian traditions that have it, and we're not fond of them. And there's good reason to, at least at the beginning, have a knee-jerk reaction to that. But can I just say this? In redemptive history, for far more of redemptive history than we experience here in the church, smells were very important in worship. I'm not advocating for them, okay? I'm not doing that. But I will say this, I will say this. One of the reasons I love the book of the Song of Solomon is because the Bible gives us the gospel in typological form in the Old Testament and then revealed form in the New Testament, but it does it in many different ways. And one of the ways that it does it in the Song of Solomon is it tries to arouse your nose. It tries to arouse your nose. Now, some of you have never thought about that before, thinking of the gospel in terms of aloes and spices and lotions and cinnamon. But can I say this, like we associate wonderful, beautiful things with smells, do we not? I remember walking into, I was probably five years old with my mom and my brother, and we walked into this like, I don't know, spice shop. It was Christmas time, and I smelled cinnamon and nutmeg and all these things, and to this day, I still remember that, and I associate it with childhood. I associate it with Christmas, and guess what? Who made the senses? The Lord did. He gave them to us, and He intends that even through that sense, we should take in the aroma of the gospel. It was a pleasing aroma, 41 times it says. And I want you to notice in verse 6b, the language of myrrh and frankincense and fragrant powders. Now, is this significant in any way, shape, or form? Absolutely. In Exodus chapter 30, verses 22 through 38, as Moses is describing and giving instructions for the tabernacle, one of the things that he describes is the altar of incense. And on that altar of incense many different oils and aromas and scents were used and some of them, listen, were even to be placed upon Aaron and his sons. smells of myrrh and frankincense and fragrant powders. And what's fascinating is in Exodus chapter 30, verses 32 and 34, it says, and these oils and aloes and anointings should not be put on any ordinary person. just Aaron and his sons, who served as what? High priests. And to whom did they point? They pointed to Jesus, the high priest, and only on him should these fragrant aromas be placed. And the myrrh was used in the anointing oil prepared for the Tent of Meeting and the Ark of Testimony. The frankincense is used in the incense to be put in the Tent of Meeting. And we know that at his birth, the birth of our Lord, kings gifted him with frankincense and myrrh, And we also know in Isaiah 60 verse 6 that when all the elect come streaming into Zion on that final day, they too shall bring gold and frankincense to their king, like bookends. See, smells evoke things to us. There's a reason why the perfume and the lotion and the cream industry is such a booming industry. God made us to be pleased by pleasant smells. And as I've said, one of the things that Solomon does is help you to get some extra sense of the gospel through another sense, the sense of smell. His redemptive activity has a pleasant aroma to it, but we don't always find that aroma pleasant. But it's not because Christ is not pleasant in his person and work. It's because his pleasantness has taken a back seat to the competing aromas of the world. That's why sometimes Christ does not appear to us as pleasant. He is not a pleasing aroma to us. He's ho-hum. The aroma of Christ's saving power was never clearer to us than when we first believed. You remember that? In fact, I would say in some sense the Lord came with the myrrh and the frankincense of the gospel in the form of a smelling salt when we got saved. And He aroused us. He woke us up. Have you ever smelled smelling salt? Wow! That's like a smack in the face. But what if that smack in the face were as gentle as myrrh and frankincense? Well, we could, in some sense, describe conversion that way, couldn't we? And then there were moments in our life when we were aroused again by the scent of a far-off country when He did a mighty work in our lives, maybe something close to a miracle. Maybe He gave you something that you wanted for 15 years. I think of some of you parents who've been praying for the salvation of your children for years, and then your children come back to the Lord. You smell the myrrh and the frankincense of the goodness of God when those things happen, don't you? When you pray for something fervently, diligently, you add to the prayer, fasting, and the Lord answers it, you smell the myrrh and the frankincense of the goodness of God. But remember that the aroma of Christ, as extraordinary as it can be, is also ordinarily put on display every Lord's Day in the preaching of God's word. It's not just these extraordinary experiences, brothers and sisters. If you want to take in the aroma of Christ, you need but come to the market day of the soul where the people of God are gathered and take in the aromas of the preached word, and the sung word, and the read word, and the benediction, and the call to worship, and in these you see Christ and Him crucified. It is upon the people who bear His name and have the mark of baptism upon them in the corporate assembly of the congregation that this aroma wafts up, because not only is Christ the aroma of God, but He has put that aroma on us. That's what Paul says, does he not? He says, we are the aroma of God. To those who are dying, an aroma of death. To those who are living, the aroma of life. You see, Christ is not only altogether lovely to behold with the eyes, His aroma is likewise altogether pleasant to take in, and we need more of it. He is altogether pleasant in his meekness and tenderness with sinners. Is he not? Is he tender and meek with you? Is he kind and compassionate and long-suffering with you? That is the fragrant aroma of the myrrh and frankincense of the kindness of God in Jesus Christ. He is altogether pleasant in his submissive obedience to the Father. Think of how often you're not submissive. And then you think of how it's a breath of fresh air when you think of Christ, who from the moment he was born to the moment he was slaughtered on the cross, was absolutely submissive to the Father. Submissive in a way that you've never been, submissive in a way that you can't be, because he was perfectly, perpetually, and personally submissive to the Father. That is a fragrant aroma. is altogether pleasant in His overriding desire to see the Father glorified in all that He does. I spoke of this when I talked about wisdom this morning. Oh, that I had more of the aroma of Christ in what I pray for when I desire wisdom. Oh, that when I said, Lord, not my will, but Your will be done, I really meant it. I really meant it when I had my eyes closed in prayer, and I really meant it when I opened my eyes after prayer. Lord, whatever comes my way. And then the phone rings. And it's God's immediate answer, and the answer is no. And you say the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, may the name of the Lord be placed. That is a precious and fragrant aroma of God's goodness. He is altogether pleasant as he protects his sheep from the savage attacks of Satan. One of the verses I love in Proverbs 31 is when it says that the Proverbs 31 woman, she laughs at the future. And as the church, we laugh at the future, not in a mocking way, but we see what's going on. We see churches being put restrictions on them. Even in Canada, our brothers and sisters in China, it's been going on for a long time. But you know what? The church in China is thriving because they've read the end of the book. They know what's going to happen. They believe the promise in Matthew 16 that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. And who is it that's superintending all those things? It's our precious Savior, Jesus Christ. And when we think of Him, we should almost smell the aroma of frankincense and myrrh. He's altogether pleasant in His determination to not lose one of the precious ones that His Father has given Him. Not one. He will not lose any. All the elect that are given to Him, He will bring to glory. He is altogether pleasant in His setting His face like a flint toward Jerusalem, to suffer and die in the place of His people. He is more pleasant than the morning dew when He rose from the dead for His people. more pleasant than the morning dew. And he will be altogether pleasant, beloved, when he breaks through the clouds on that great day and extends the nail-scarred hand that will wipe away every tear and extend that scepter which will break every earthly power that opposes him and will make all things new. Jesus Christ, the aroma of God. And on that day, when we are brought to the marriage supper of the Lamb, The fragrant aroma of Christ will be more pleasant and more desirable to us than it ever has been. We go through patches when we don't smell that aroma. It's never God's fault, beloved. It's never God's fault. It's always our fault. It's always because in some way, shape, or form, sin is keeping us as an obstacle from seeking him. No competing aroma of the world will even enter our minds on that day, even though they flock for attention in this day. So that is the aroma of Christ. Don't you love this book? This book gives us smells. This book gives us smells. And you know what, I don't know that I, I actually have smelled frankincense one time when I was sitting in Israel, and it's not like you would expect. But go smell it, go smell myrrh, okay? They're actually wonderful smells and you can associate them with these promises of our God. But thirdly and finally, thirdly and finally, I want you to notice that his royal entourage reminds us of the relief we will have at his coming. His royal entourage reminds us of the relief that we will have at His coming. Back in verses 7, B and 8, we read of David's mighty men. Now, if you know your Old Testament well, and you knew about David's mighty men, you would know that this is enumerating more mighty men than David actually had. You see, David, if you go back and read in, I think it's 2 Samuel 23, had 30 mighty men. But look at the eschatological, I don't want to say exaggeration, the eschatological hyperbole that this verse has. It is imagining this pillar of smoke, Solomon, coming as a type of Jesus Christ with not 30, but 60 mighty men. And what we see here is a picture of Jesus' coming reflecting the strength and might of His angelic entourage. And the best I can do to explain this is just to go to the New Testament. You don't need to go there. But I want you to listen to Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 10, where Paul describes the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to listen for the entourage that he's going to have and then put it together with this picture that we're given in shadowy form in Solomon. So 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 10, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. Beloved, when Christ comes, you will no longer fear the terror of the night. When Christ comes, you will no longer fear the terror of the night. The terror of the night will not even be a memory because in Revelation 22 verse five, John tells us that there will be no more night. There will be no more night. They will have no need of light of lamp or sun for the Lord God will be their light and they will reign forever and ever. So these three features point us on the first horizon of Solomon's wedding to the second horizon of the marriage supper of the Lamb. The betrothal that we experience in this age, beloved, will be a marriage consummation in the new heavens and the new earth. And I want to exhort you in just a few different ways this morning by way of application. I want to come to Revelation 19, 7 through 9. You can turn there if you like. I'm just going to read it. It's the passage that we actually read in our responsive reading. John, the revelator, says, Revelation 19, 7 through 9, let us rejoice. and exalt and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Let me just give you a few applications as I close out this morning. Number one, are you single this morning? Whether you have never been married or you have been married, I want you to picture yourself, dear child of God, longing for Christ as the Shulamite longed for her spouse. And I am not trying to take away the desire that you may have in your heart for a Solomon in your day. or a Shulamite in your day. You want that, it's there. But remember that that relationship with that spouse, it stands as a type of a greater lover, a lover of your soul, a lover who could save your soul, a lover who, if you believe in Him, has saved your soul. And I just charge you, dear ones, this morning, If you are single, to long for that one more than you long for the one that is not yet. Lift up your eyes, church. Behold, the bridegroom comes. Blessed are those who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, those who will be ready when the marriage of the Lamb has come. But then secondly, let me draw out another group in our congregation. Is your marriage difficult or even unbearable? Perhaps it is. Maybe it's a season. Maybe you, like some that I've known of, sadly, have had a whole life of a marriage that has just been absolutely unbearable. And we'd like to think that nobody in our congregation has that, and maybe they don't. I don't know. But if your marriage on this first horizon is absolutely unbearable, that I encourage you and exhort you to look to your marriage to Christ on the second horizon, Christ who has always been a faithful spouse to you, Christ who has never hurt you, Christ who has never harmed you, Christ who has never spoken a nil word of you, Christ who keeps the covenant as your covenant head and upon whom you can lean and depend day in and day out and who, despite your unfaithfulness, is faithful evermore, always until the end, Christ who gave a promise that He would be with us always until the end of the age. He will never divorce His elect. He will never leave them. He will never forsake them. He will always be there for them. I want to encourage you to press into Him this morning. Thirdly, let me ask all of us who are in a marriage relationship, does your marriage create curiosity from unbelievers as to what stands behind such love? I don't want to, well, let me just put it this way. I hope it's a common occurrence in your marriage that when outsiders look at it, they say, hey, what's up with you guys? You guys sure love each other. You guys can't keep your hands off each other. You guys are always whispering sweet, it's kind of awkward sometimes, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. Like, I'm the plumber, I'm here to fix your toilet, can you talk to me? Okay, I mean, that's a good thing. Not only is it a good thing to the unbelieving plumber, can I tell you who else it's a good thing to? Your unbelieving children. because your unbelieving children watch your marriage, and then when the shoe drops one day in church, they're listening to Ephesians 5, and they hear that marriage is a picture of the gospel, they're gonna be like, oh. So as Daddy loves Mommy, so Christ loves the church, and as Mommy submits to Daddy, so the church submits to Christ. Finally, Perhaps you're an unbeliever this morning and like the parable that Jesus told in Matthew 22, He sent out an invitation to a marriage, but the Jews didn't come. Many of the Jews didn't come. They were too busy. They had too many things going on. So the master came back to his servants and said, well, go out to the highways and the byways and anybody who's out there, invite them to come. And that is the gospel call that has gone out in this age. The gospel call that first was on the lips of John the Baptist in this dispensation where he said, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And then Jesus Christ came before him and was the embodied kingdom and preached the kingdom. And then he taught a band of disciples to carry that message forward And for 2,000 years, the message of Christ and Him crucified has gone out as a wedding invitation. How do I get this wedding invitation? You must repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you why, because as that parable goes on to say, when all those people come into that banquet hall, before they eat... Master's gonna come and look at some of them. He's gonna say, hey, pal, how'd you get in here? You're wearing basketball shorts and a wife beater. You don't have wedding garments on. And he will be cast into outer darkness. You see, you need certain garments in order to be at that marriage supper of the Lamb. You know what garments you need? You need the garments of righteousness of Jesus Christ. You need perfect righteousness to cover your sin. You need blood to cover your filthiness, and Jesus Christ gives you those two things. Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and He died a death that sinners deserve, so that if you turn from your sins today, and you believe in that Jesus Christ who gives you His righteousness and takes your punishment, then you will be brought into the banquet hall of the marriage supper of the Lamb, and you will come to a place at the table that even has your name. And guess what? Christ will say, that name was written before the foundation of the world. Come into the joy of your master. Let us pray. Father God, we thank you for this song. We thank you for the smells. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for the Spirit. And Father, I just pray that you've given us yet another fresh way to think about the work of our beloved Savior. And I pray, Father, that as he is a faithful spouse to us, we would ever and always strive to be a faithful spouse to him. May your Spirit help us. We ask all these things in Christ's name, amen.