For our reading of Holy Scripture this evening, we turn to Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31. We'll begin reading with verse 10. The whole chapter is the Proverbs of King Lemuel. There have been many who have wondered who King Lemuel is because there's no mention of such a king. in Scripture, and many believe it's simply another name for Solomon. Be that as it may, verses 10 through the end, which we read now, are definitely set apart from the previous section in that these verses are anacrostic. And the young people this morning learned what anacrostic is. and how often they appear in Scripture. We're studying and just began the study of the Lamentations. And the first four Lamentations, the first four chapters out of the five, are in a cross stick. Twenty-two verses that all begin with a different Hebrew letter. There being twenty-two Hebrew letters. That is done for a number of reasons, but it's meant to memorize, to remember, and also often in Hebrew poetry to show that the essence of a thing, the completeness of a thing, has been taught. And so Psalm 119 consists also of an acrostic, eight verses all of the same letter, and then 22 sections. And you'll notice we have that here too, except you can't see it in the English. Proverbs 31 verse 10, who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life. She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands. She is like the merchant's ships. She bringeth her food from afar. She riseth also while it is yet night and giveth meat to her household and a portion to her maidens. She considereth a field and buyeth it. With the fruit of her hands, she planteth a vineyard. She girdeth her loins with strength and strengtheneth her arms. She perceiveth that her merchandise is good. Her candle goeth not out by night. She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff. She stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of the snow for her household, for all her household are clothed with scarlet. She maketh herself covering. Of tapestry, her clothing is silk and purple. Her husband is known in the gates when he sitteth among the elders of the land. She maketh fine linen and selleth it and delivereth girdles unto the merchant. Strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gates. We consider 29 and 30. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. The question that we need to ask this evening is, what is a beautiful woman in your estimation? That is, what are the essential and defining characteristics of a woman that makes her beautiful? What does she look like, or doesn't it matter? How does she live her life, or doesn't it matter? And those are not unimportant questions because beauty and favor are desirable and a praiseworthy gift of God. We might not think so from the text because we read that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. But the text clearly is not teaching that all favor and beauty are deceitful and vain, but only a particular kind. A particular kind of characteristic and activity that is considered favor or beautiful is in fact vanity and deceitful. And so the text is teaching positively what a favorable or beautiful woman really looks like and how she behaves. Because the fact is that God Himself shows us favor. The word favor here is really another word for blessing or grace. So also we read that Noah found favor or grace in the eyes of the Lord. The Bible says that a man who marries a woman who finds grace in his eyes. The Psalms speak about the fact that the Lord blesses the righteous and encompasses them with favor as a shield. So favor itself can't be deceitful and vain. Not only that, but the Bible speaks very highly of beauty. God makes beautiful things. The Lord made a beautiful creation. The Lord tells Israel and his church that she is beautiful. In fact, hopefully we see that what's spoken of here in the text isn't simply the women of the church and is speaking about them, but is speaking about the church itself, which is always presented in the feminine. and about which the Lord says she is beautiful. We're called to worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, and we're told the Lord Himself is beautiful, so that we pray to sit in His sanctuary and behold that beauty. Exactly because favor and beauty are desirable and praiseworthy qualities, this text has something for us, whether we are men or whether we are women. Both favor and beauty have built into them the idea of attractiveness. When we say what is beautiful or what is favorable, we're saying what is attractive to you, what you desire, what do you look for, whether as a woman for herself or as a man for a mate. In fact, that's even really on the foreground here. I think we all know from this chapter and its description, it's talking here not simply about a virtuous woman, any woman, although it certainly applies, but especially a married woman. The woman in the text is married, and that implies then that this is the kind of women that we fathers ought to rear and to raise in the church, This is the young woman that the young men of the church ought to seek out and find for their spouse, and even when the spouse is married to them, ought to encourage that kind of beauty to be cultivated and expressed in the home. And therefore, the answer to the question, what is a beautiful woman, to you, ought to be answered entirely differently than it is by others. The world also has an answer, and it has an answer to what is beautiful and favorable, and the text, which is the word of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, is that is vain. So consider with me this evening the beautiful woman, her inward grace, her exceeding virtue, and then finally, her unending praise. The great difference in the text when it speaks about favor and beauty, and then calls one favor deceitful and another beauty vain, is essentially the difference between inward and outward, between what we might say the spiritual and the physical, but the main difference is between the inward and the outward. The beautiful woman has an inward grace, an inward beauty. It is therefore something that is itself essentially hidden and cannot be seen, which might be strange. when we think about beauty and attractiveness. So when the text says that favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, it's referring to the favor and beauty of an outward physical appearance. It refers, therefore, to a favor or a beauty that is entirely based on physical attributes. It is a beauty and a favor that is based on body size and weight and height and body fat content. It is based on the color of one's skin or the tone of one's hair. It is based upon complexion, body proportions, and shape. It's a beauty and it's a favor that is altered by diet and exercise or enhanced by jewelry and accessories and clothing and style. And this is the favor or beauty that is promoted by men and women of this world as exceedingly desirable and valuable. The exact opposite of the text. This is what is considered valuable and this is what is considered desirable by the women themselves. That is promoted in the fashion magazines and stores. on the TV and in the movies, by the stars of the movies and the athletes, in the advertisements. This is what wins pageants. But the Word of God says that such beauty and such favor is really not favor at all. When it speaks of deceitful, It's God's way of saying it may look like favor and be that which you call grace, but in fact it is not that at all because it is bought. It is bought at a tremendous cost of time and energy and money. That's underlying the text. And that's the exact opposite of grace. You must know that in the text, there's a play of words going on, although the words are related deliberately. Beauty and grace. We don't often think of grace as beauty, and yet we should because we use those terms interchangeably. When I speak about the favorable woman or the beautiful woman, you don't see a great difference between those two terms. And the reason is because favor and beauty are related as terms. In fact, the root idea of grace is lovely. It is beautiful. And thus we have words like gracious, very closely relied to being beautiful. But what is it really when one understands the scripture that makes grace lovely? And the answer is, it's given to you. It's given to you free. It's given to you without earning it, without meriting. It's simply bestowed upon you. Now you might think, well isn't beauty that way? Aren't you born with it? Isn't God who gives you your body type and size so that people look at you and say beautiful? And from a certain viewpoint you might say so, but we all know that even in our world Even those we might say were born beautiful, born full of favor or grace of a certain earthly kind. That's not good enough, is it? Such people have to still alter their bodies and add all sorts of things. to the natural beauty that they have. And that simply is a reflection that in the earthly world and in the world we live, grace isn't really grace. And therefore, beauty isn't really the beauty of God. And so that beauty isn't free at all, but comes at a tremendous cost. Young girls spend hours and hours thumbing through the magazines and shopping with their mothers. There's the hours and the hours of the buying and putting on of makeup. The hours and hours and the money that is spent on new wardrobes every season and throughout the year. The hours and the hours that are spent before the mirror doing the hair and primping. the hours and the hours that are simply spent talking about that kind of beauty. And keep in mind, too, that in the text the idea is that this is a desirable attribute. This kind of favor and this kind of beauty is highly desired because it's that which is praiseworthy. It's that which is desired among others. And so it shows another reason why such beauty and such favor is vanity or deceitful, because it's not the praise of God that is sought. But the praise of others, this is the first thing the women critique themselves about or comment about when they see each other. Nice dress, nice hair. I see you've got a new piece of jewelry. This is the main thing that women worry about. I wonder what others think about this dress or this piece of jewelry. I wonder if they will notice my new haircut. This is what we associate with being popular or being wealthy. This is what we think attracts other men. Beautiful men. Favorable men. If you're going to attract them, then you yourself have to have a certain beauty and favor. God says, no. That favor is deceitful and that beauty is vain. And please understand that the Word of God here says that about all such beauty and favor. It's saying it's all completely, totally deceitful and vain. Not just certain over-the-top beauty, just not a certain excessive favor that's held by the billionaires or the internet influencers, by the Kardashians, Not only that beauty and favor that's achieved by expensive surgeries or gym memberships, the lavish fashions and the very pricey jewelry. In fact, the text isn't even saying that this is truly only that standard, that which is deceitful and vain is only that standard when it's promoted by the ungodly. And we can interpret that way, right? Well, it's only deceitful and it's only vain when it's the standard of the ungodly, when it's promoted by the world. But if it's done by Christians, then it's good, then it's worthwhile, then it has some value. Please avoid that temptation. That's a temptation for us in order to justify our own vanity and our own outward standards of beauty. And if that's the opinion we take over against the Word of God, not only is it over against the Word of God, but we will never strive for and seek after the true beauty that's of the text. Now, why do we do that? Well, we know full well our little girls and our young women and our mothers and grandmothers and widows do also spend a great deal of time and money on physical beauty. They, too, keep their eye on the current fashions and do a lot of shopping for clothes and makeup and jewelry. They, too, engage in a lot of exercise and diet and spend a lot of time on their hair and clothes to say, beautiful. We want to just kind of say, well, that's OK. It's all OK. But you have to understand the real force of this text and what it's trying to correct and what it's trying to open our eyes to see. We can say that's not the same thing as saying there's no beauty in the physical appearance that's good. There's nothing about the physical nature that's attractive. We must spurn ourselves on all beauty that God has given us, or even that there aren't ways to enhance it in some way. But don't go there. Don't go there right away. Listen to the Word of God. Favor is deceitful. All favor. and all beauty that is based on the outward, that has anything to do with the body and the body shape and the body type. Now, why? Why is it making such a strong and absolute judgment? Well, understand, first of all, the words are deceitful and vain, and we need to look at why it's deceitful and vain. And in the first place, we can say that such a standard of beauty and such a standard of favorable is deceitful and vain because it's fickle. It's changing all the time. In fact, you will discover that the very changes are made deliberately, often, often to gain attention, to make money, to get richer, Who makes all these fashions up? Who's the one that determines this is the in-hairstyle and this is the piece of jewelry you have to have? Who is it that determines that this body type is good today but not tomorrow? And don't deny it. The standards of beauty and the standards of favor are changing all the time. And they're not changing because God changes or the standard of beauty changes. No, men change, people change. They're fickle, they're vain, they're deceitful. It's done to make money. It's done simply to gain attention. It's done for all sorts of reasons. And so the Bible places its condemnation on that. Beside, if we're honest, we're going to discover that this is a standard that is completely determined by the ungodly, by the worldly, by those who are without God and therefore are deceitful in vain themselves. There's a reason why they're fickle and changing all the time. And let's keep in mind something here, which is that it's true. that God regulates this part of our life. We may even really say to ourselves that this is the domain of the world and they can determine what we can wear and not wear and what we should do and not do with our bodies. That's not true. God does regulate this part of our life too. God has much to say about the clothing we wear and the fashions we wear, at least to the extent that they must be modest, for example. The women of the church are cautioned about wearing outfits to church that are to gain attention because the focus, the apostle says, should be on God. God requires stewardship that has something to say about all this. God says a lot about forbidding pride and promoting humility. and also warns that simply what you wear and how you wear it isn't exactly prideful or humble either. So that if we all dress in drab black, that somehow we have accomplished what God seeks as good. But the point is, you wouldn't let the world determine the standard for how you educate your child, would you? Sad to say, some do. I don't know why in the world anyone would let the world determine what and how you should teach your child. We don't let the world determine how we spend our money, do we? What's the standard of good behavior? Does the world determine how we worship God? Then why would we let the world determine what is beautiful and what is favorable? There's something else we need to be reminded of, all of us, which is, all of it is deceitful in vain because there's something happening to all that outward beauty that God gives us in nature. And that is, it's dying. All of it is destroyed in the grave. And with it, all the time and money you spent on it. We need to be reminded of that reality. Are we really going to behave like Jezebel? who, knowing that she had only a few minutes to live, spent her minutes not on her knees in prayer before God, but slapping makeup on her face only to have it splatter all over the walls with her blood. This is one reason such favor is deceitful. All those standards of the world are really tools of the devil to turn the heart of the human race from its true misery, which is sin, and the wages of sin being death. to deceive the human race, to ignore the true beauty of mankind, and that that true beauty was destroyed by him and made vanity by reason of sin, to turn from God alone, who is alone, beautiful. It's even deceitful as regards the woman who adopts such standards, even if she's supposedly godly. Have you noticed that? Every standard of outward beauty in some way or another involves changing or covering up what God gave to someone to turn it into something else. What is that? What really is it? When we think under the guise of enhancement or adding to the beauty, we really turn ourselves into something we are not. And sometimes it's shocking. And we know it's shocking, so then we don't even dare step out of the house unless we've painted our face. What is that? That's deceit. That's really deceit that wouldn't be tolerated in the business world. We would think ill of someone who tried to sell us a vehicle that was all rusty and all full of all sorts of problems that we just covered up with a coat of paint and some Bondo. Yeah. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain. That's what God's Word's saying. Now, the beautiful woman. Ah, there are beautiful women. And there are favorable women. And many of them. And what is her beauty? And what is her favor? Does it have anything to do with anything she wears, or anything she buys, the answer is no. It's inward. The text is clear. She fears the Lord. And you have to understand what it's saying is, you can't see that. Not all by itself. Fear is something that's in the heart, not in the skin. It's a matter of the spirit, not a matter of form and substance. The fear of God has to do with an attitude, has to do with an emotion, has to do with love, has to do with how she thinks about something. And that strikes at the very heart and center of the whole book of Proverbs. Have you ever asked yourself why the book of Proverbs ends this way? Because that's the theme of the book, the fear of the Lord. Chapter 1, verse 7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and all of the Proverbs are about that. What does it mean to fear the Lord? Pick a proverb. but it's all a matter of the heart. And so that whole book of Proverbs goes through and really here at the end we have this bookend. And then wonderfully, the whole book, which is mainly about my son, my son, my son, it's about the daughter, the woman in the home, the mother and her daughters, the young girl and the ladies. And we can make a mistake. We can go through that list, and we look at all the things she does, and we go, wow, wow. Sometimes we look at that, and we mothers feel guilty. We don't measure up. But we've missed the point then, really, which is the main thing, the heart of the matter. What makes a virtuous woman a virtuous woman is what's hidden in her heart. The fear of God. She fears God. This is the beauty of the women who made confession of faith here tonight. Is there any greater thing that you can say about your wife? Any more complimentary adjective that you can give? Is there anything more blessed and lovely that you can say about your daughters or about someone else's daughters? I fear God. You see how all the rest is vanity? Do you? Do you see how all the rest is just a bunch of deceit? What does that mean? We kind of get a sense of the text and its meaning there, because the Bible talks about the fear of God all the time, and there's a lot of different components to it. But just think about this from the point of view of the text. When a woman or a young lady feels the need to pursue and buy and purchase and run after and do all these things with regard to outward beauty and favor, what's really the issue? The answer is she fears men. That is, the idea of fearing men has the idea of you're seeking their approval. What you're thinking about when you stand before the mirror and do all these things is, what are others going to see? What do others think? How do they perceive me? Will they see me as acceptable? Will they see me as beautiful? Will they see me as attractive? That's the thoughts of the mind. That's the thoughts of the heart. Now take that which is really deceitful and vain and utterly worthless, and apply it to God. And when we say a young girl or woman or a wife fears God, we're saying what's in her heart and what's in her mind in everything she does is related to God. What drives her, what moves her, what makes her do what she does is she really doesn't care what anyone thinks except God. Now, add to the thought. Add to the thought by understanding that if you have a truly God-fearing woman, what she especially is concerned about with what God thinks is, what does He think about my life? What does He think about my heart and my mind? And what does He think about my sin? Because I'm sorry, but I'm one of those women I'm one of those women who stands in front of the mirror a little too long. And I have to confess, I've changed my dress just before church because I don't know if it's beautiful enough. And I've made a lot of decisions based on those kinds of things. What does God think? And then the woman who fears God understands that they stand before God and they think about what God thinks and what drives them Because God is the God who has forgiven all that in his own grace and favor. And thus someone who looks at God as unbelievably beautiful. You see the thought process, how it works? You can't have a woman who fears God, who does not know the grace and favor of God himself. And if anyone knows anything about the grace and favor of God, then they understand and have seen the beauty of God. You can flip the script too. If you have a woman in the church, and all she thinks about is the fear of men, what men think, what people think, what other women think about her appearance, whatever it might be, that's a young lady or a woman who does not really know the grace and favor of God at all. Do you see that? That if you can find such a woman A woman who knows herself, therefore, as a sinner before God, but a sinner that's forgiven purely by the grace and favor of God. And understand what that means. What that means is God blessed you with all kinds of blessings. Your life itself, even your natural beauty, whatever it might be. But whatever God has given you has no basis in you yourself. God did not say, I'm going to love you because you're so lovely. I'm going to bestow you with blessings because you're so worth it. And you see, if God has done that to you, you can be the most ugly person in the eyes of the world, someone that they would stone to death and kill. They don't matter. That's the beautiful woman. A beautiful woman is one who fears God. That means she knows God, she loves God, and she serves God. Now that's the life that's being talked about here. We have to go on and talk about her virtuous life. That's brought up. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Now, you kind of have to understand the passage here. Many have argued about the many daughters. Is it talking about many daughters who are also truly virtuous, and that this is just excelling an especially virtuous one? No, not really. That's not the idea of the passage. The idea is there's all sorts of women, even women who you can say do sort of virtuous things. But there's only one who truly is virtuous. Now, we have to look at this because you understand this beauty of this woman, this favor, this attractiveness being hidden, being in the heart, essentially can't be seen. And yet it can be, we all know that. Well, how is it seen? How does it become visible? And it becomes visible through the virtue of her life. That's always the way God's grace and favor makes its appearance. That invisible grace of God is always manifest in how someone lives their life. And this is cast as virtuously. Now, there's a lot of different ways for us to look at that, speak about that, expound on that, but let's limit us to a couple of things that are related very closely to the text. First of all, it would be obviously this. Her virtuous life is that what she does before God and how she lives her life before God is far more important than how she looks before men. I think it's a fair and that's the right understanding of such a virtuous woman, especially the one described in the text. She doesn't let her life be moved and motivated by all that. It's quite amazing that there's a parallel here out in the world among the ungodly. They would lead you to believe, you young ladies and you women, that if only you're beautiful, you don't need anything. Why, if you have beauty, the men are going to come to court you, and they're going to come with money, and you're going to have a life of ease and pleasure, and everything is well, and everything is good. It's not true. We know the lie of it already. It's been exposed as vanity and deceit. But yet there's something true of the concept. If you are beautiful with the beauty of God, which is the fear of God, you don't need anything else. Why would I spend all that money on this or that? Why would I worry about this or that? Why would I be concerned about what someone thinks about my hair? if God has set His favor and grace on me. You see? Now that's a virtuous woman. That really, really is a virtuous woman. That's her virtue. And that's brought out in the text. The idea is that there's many daughters, many daughters of Adam, many women, and they have a certain virtue. They have a certain attractiveness to them. They have a certain thing that's regarded with praise and that people want. but it too is vanity and worthless. Next, the virtue that she does that excels them all has to do with how she considers what life is. Why is she here? What's her purpose? What's her goal? What is she called to do? I could spend a lot of time describing that, but Lemuel does a very good job himself doing that. He lays this life out of a woman, and anybody that reads the passage, reads it honestly, will discover that this woman is entirely dedicated to her husband and her children. That is, she's dedicated to the church. She's not dedicated to her husband and her children to the exclusion of the church, but there's a connection. And the connection is how she views her husband and her children in the light of God's covenant. And the other thing you will notice about the life of that virtuous woman is it is entirely self-sacrificing. It is a life of a servant. It is the life of service. You don't read anything here about the virtuous woman making sure she gets her two weeks on a sun deck of a nice ship that's touring the Caribbean. Or that she gets her spa time and her massage time. Doesn't say anything about the virtuous woman making sure that her husband buys her X amount of dollars worth of jewels. There's nothing there. In fact, the very same people that have the standards of beauty and favor that's denigrated in the text as deceitful and vain are usually the same people that look at that passage and say, you've got to be kidding me. That woman's a slave. She's got shackles on her legs. Someone ought to free her and liberate her. What an idiot. Oh no. Oh no. Why is that? Why is it, and that behavior that's described there, which is indeed a sacrifice of a woman and her life and all that she has for the care of her husband and child, where does that come from? And the answer is God, from her fear of God. You know why? because she understands God again. Remember, the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge. If you fear God, you know something about God, which is when God gave us his favor and his grace, it came at a extreme cost. God doesn't save us by sprinkling a little grace dust all over us. All of a sudden we're saved, but it required God take his own son and put him to the death. and then save us by serving us. Understand that. God who is our Lord is our servant. So all He does is wash our feet and wash our clothes. Anybody that looks at the list of what the woman's doing there in Proverbs 31 and says, impossible, well, that may be, but understand that's what God does for you and for me all the time, nonstop, nonstop picking up our messes, Dealing with all the junk that we throw around and break. Unending service. And the person who knows that finds it beautiful. And therefore says, that's the life I must live too. And if I'm not serving a husband and I'm serving children, then I'm going to serve you. And I'm going to serve that person over there in the church. My life is a life of service. That's what love is. That's what real grace is. That's what favor is. That's not deceitful, that's not vain either. And again, and again the parable brings it out by describing it as one that's praiseworthy. A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. I hope you see why that's brought up. Because we already should understand the reason why we seek out the standards of the world for beauty, and why we follow them to our own shame, is because we know it brings praise. Why is it that we do this? And why is it that we buy that? Why is it that we spend so much time in this? Because we know it brings praise. In fact, we become angry when it doesn't. I got a new hairdo and you didn't notice it? I got this new outfit at school and none of the girls said anything. We want their praise. We want them to notice us, to take up. And that's the idea here. Lemuel knows it. And he's saying that this kind of fear of God that is beautiful, it isn't deceitful and it isn't vain exactly because it is praised. Oh, it's mocked and ridiculed, too. It's scorned by the same people who promote something entirely differently, and that we're suckers to follow. How is it praised? Now, that ought to wake us up. Spend all your money on the standards of the world, and spend all your time and energy on it. Go ahead. Now, take note of the people who praise you. You're going to notice something about them. They're as fickle as their fashions. Their praise is enduring as their beauty. It gets old. It changes. It flip-flops. One day these people are in vogue, and the next day they're all watching television programs of somebody else. This is in, then that's out. So this is praised, and that's mocked. That's what we don't want, right? Wear last year's fashion, you could be mocked. But the virtuous life, that real beauty and favor of God is praised and it's praised by the people you want to be praised by. Did you notice in the text that the woman who fears the Lord, what drives her is that her husband rises up and calls her blessed. And their children go off to school and they say, you ought to see my mom. Now, that wouldn't be so great all by itself. Even that could be earthly and physical, except we're talking about the children of the covenant and husbands of the covenant. In fact, it's a sad thing that This is all praise that the women of the church ought to seek, and when they don't, they can get into trouble. Many a woman has found herself in an absolutely terrible marriage to an unbeliever or an abusive man exactly because they were attracted only to her outward beauty, and that was the only thing they praised, and when they got what they want, they became ogres. Their unbelief came out. In fact, one sign of a wicked or an abusive husband is he's only mainly concerned about her appearance. only mainly concerned is that she belongs to Him, not God at all. In fact, criticizes her godliness, criticizes what she does for others, tries to use them as an excuse to do what he does that's evil and wicked. I'm not blaming the woman, trust me. That man bears his own sins and it's vile and it's wicked beyond description, but on the other hand, You don't want to be attracting that. You don't want that kind of praise of those who are only looking for that. And that's what the women of the church ought to want, the kind of praise of godly men. And that's what the men of the church ought to find attractive. In fact, I'll say this. If the beautiful women of the church who fear God aren't snapped up by the men of the church, then there's something seriously wrong with those men. Then they're not God-fearing either. And then, what was the church? That church is finished. That church is done. You want the praise of God-fearing men. But even more than that, God-fearing men, God-fearing husbands, God-fearing children, that's not the praise, really, that makes a difference. It's the praise of God, and that's why I called it unending praise. Over against the deceitful and vain, which is temporary and physical, and deceitful is the praise of God. You say, why is that? because it's God's own beauty. It's the beauty that God himself has imparted. It's the beauty that's perfected by God in a perfect holiness. I don't know how in the world we could desire and want what God really has proposed for us and has in store for us if we don't see what real beauty is. Because what's really beautiful is that God makes us perfectly holy as He is holy. That's why the Bible always equates them, the beauty of holiness. Can you imagine the women and the men of the church, without sin, entirely dedicated to God and to one another, and that as the work of God? Can you imagine the praise? Can you imagine the honor? That's why God says what He says about the church. That's why this is ultimately about the church. Thou art beautiful, my love. That wasn't just Solomon talking to his wife. That's God talking to His church. Thou art beautiful, my love. What is that beauty of the church? What is that beauty in the individual woman of the church, the wife of the church, the daughters of the church? It is the beauty of God Himself, of His grace and His favor, that sanctifies us and makes us perfectly holy as He is holy. Have that God in your thoughts and fear that God. That's beautiful. Amen, let us pray. Father which art in heaven, O Lord our God, may we find Thee beautiful and fear Thee. Serve Thee, honor Thee, and follow Thee. and do so by living a virtuous life whereby we take all that we are given in thy grace and favor and serve one another. And we pray, O Lord, especially that this may be the beauty that the women of this church desire and the beauty that adorns them. For those are truly the priceless jewels in the robes and the dresses and the fashion of the church. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.