Tonight our road trip through the 66 books of the Bible brings us to the 22 nd book of the Old Testament.

Transcription

1 ROUTE 66 Destination: The Song of Solomon Tonight our road trip through the 66 books of the Bible brings us to the 22 nd book of the Old Testament. This book of the Bible was the favorite book of the Bible for Charles Spurgeon. You ve heard me quote him countless times here. He preached in the 1800s in England. He was so prolific and so anointed and used by God. He was called The Prince of Preachers. It was also the favorite book of the Bible for D. L. Moody, the famous American evangelist in the 1800s. It s the favorite book of the Bible for Hudson Taylor, the great missionary who pioneered mission work into the interior of China. This book may be the most unique of the books of the Bible. Pastor David Guzik, from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, made this very interesting comment. He said If the Song of Solomon wasn t in our Bible, and we were to discover it as an ancient document from the time of Solomon, it s unlikely that we would include it in the collection of Old Testament books. Like the book of Esther, there is no direct reference to the name of God in this book of the Bible. But unlike the book of Esther, there is nothing in The Song of Solomon that relates to the history of Israel or the coming of Jesus, because, remember the history of Israel is all pointing to, it s all anticipating the coming of Jesus; the history of Israel is just inextricably bound up in God s redeeming plans, and purposes. Page 1 of 28

2 So Esther relates to that because that book is about the preservation of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, necessary for the coming of Jesus Christ into this world. But The Song of Solomon has nothing that relates historically to the nation of Israel. And for those reasons some question why this book is even included in the canon of Scripture. Now, without getting into all sorts of details, analytical arguments, concerns, whatever questions we might have concerning its inclusion in the Old Testament, those issues are put to rest by Jesus, okay? Because The Song of Solomon was in the Bible that Jesus read. In fact, this little book of the Bible was one of five books of the Old Testament that were put into a collection called The Megillot Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and The Song of Solomon. And during the great feasts in the Jewish calendar they specified one of those five books to be read at specific feasts in the calendar year. Last week we learned that the book of Ecclesiastes was actually read at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Song of Solomon was the book singled out to be read at Passover a really amazing choice. Of all of the five books collected to be read at those major feasts, this one, the one that many say shouldn t even maybe be included in the canon of the Old Testament, is the one that they singled out to be read at Passover. Now listen, Jesus could have very easily said, You know what? There s a book that you guys have put in the Bible that s not supposed to be there. You need to take it out. But Jesus affirmed the entire Old Testament canon. Page 2 of 28

3 Jesus said that every word, every jot, every tittle, was inspired by God. And Jesus said that all of the Old Testament spoke about Him. So we know, by its inclusion in the collection of the Scriptures that the Jews considered to be inspired by God, it puts to rest, Jesus saying, I buy that whole collection, puts to rest whether or not this book should be there or not. It s important enough for the Holy Spirit to have inspired it, for Jesus to recognize its inspiration, and its inclusion in the Old Testament. Therefore it s important for us to read it, and treasure it. Now this book consists of 8 chapters, made up of 117 verses. This book is commonly called The Song of Solomon. But it s also known as The Song of Songs. The Roman Catholic Church titles it Canticles or the Canticle of of Canticles because the Latin word that canticle is derived from means song. All three titles are taken from the first verse of the first chapter of the book. You can look at it in The Song of Solomon 1: 1 The Song of Songs, which is Solomon s So Authorship - Jewish tradition and Christian tradition all accept this book as being written by Solomon. Solomon s name is mentioned six times in the book. Ancient rabbinical tradition holds that Solomon wrote The Song of Songs in his youth, when he was a young man; Proverbs, through the course of his adult life; Page 3 of 28

4 And the book of Ecclesiastes, we learned last week, at the end of his life as almost the explanation for how he had lived, and a warning for that life lived without God. The Date of this book 900 years before Jesus. Now here s what s interesting. It s interesting to think that the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to title his song as the best song ever written. For something to be called The Song of all Songs, the Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to open, to introduce the book as the best song ever written. Now we know that Solomon s dad, King David, was a phenomenal musician, and a prolific song writer. David s the author of the majority of the Psalms that include the name of the author within the book themselves. Solomon apparently got some of his dad s song writing DNA. The Bible tells us in 1 st Kings 4 that Solomon wrote 1,005 songs. That s a big catalog 1,005 songs. But if Solomon were living today he would have been known as a one hit wonder. Of his massive catalog of tunes only this one song made it into the Scriptures. But if the Holy Spirit said that one of your songs was The Song Of All Songs, who cares what the critics say, right? The Holy Spirit calls this the greatest of all songs because it addressed the greatest theme The theme of this book is Love. Now how many songs have been written about love? countless songs - but all songs that have nothing to do with God s concept of love, God s definition of love. The theme of this book is love, but not just any love. It s about the intimate love between a husband and a wife, between young Solomon and a Shulamite girl. Page 4 of 28

5 In a sense, we could say that The Song of Solomon is the Old Testament version of 1 st Corinthians 13, which is the famous love passage of the Bible, right? 1 st Corinthians 13 tells us what love is. 1 st Corinthians 13 tells us what love does. It begins with what love is Love is patient. Love is kind. Love suffers long. And after it suffers long, it s kind. The Greek word translated love there in 1 st Corinthians 13 is the word agape. And it s the word used in the New Testament to speak of God s love. 1 st Corinthians 13 goes on to talk, not only about what love is, but it talks about what love does, how love behaves. And there s a way that love behaves. And there a way that loves does not behave. In all of this we see how perfect love is expressed. And when you see, when you read through 1 st Corinthians 13 you immediately realize a few things 1. Number One You don t love like that. Replace the word love in 1 st Corinthians 13 with your name. Like for me, I would have to put my name where love, and say, Richard is patient. Richard is kind Page 5 of 28

6 not so much, or not as much as he would like to be, right? 2. The second thing you realize when you read 1 st Corinthians is you realize That s how you want to be loved; But then you realize that other people don t love you like that, at least not to the degree that God would want them to love you like that. 3. And what you do, is you come to the conclusion that Jesus does love you like that. You replace the word love with the name of Jesus and it works perfectly. So 1 st Corinthians 13 is describing the love that God has for us. And it then sets the standard for the way God wants us to love, describes the love that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in our lives like fruit, right? Galatians 5:22 says that love is the fruit of the Spirit. So now in the 22 nd book of the Old Testament the Holy Spirit wants to talk about the expression of love, the kind of love that we read about in 1 st Corinthians 13. The Holy Spirit, in this 22 nd book of the Old Testament, shows marital intimacy as an expression of love. And in a moment I ll read you a couple quotes to just note it is very, very explicitly sexual intimacy that s in this book, okay? And as you read through The Song of Solomon - You say, As a man I want a woman to love me like that. And as a woman you say, I want a man who will love me like this. But we need to understand that such an expression of love is only found when we look at the way God loves us. You see, in the world, the world says physical intimacy produces love. That is a lie. Physical intimacy does not produce love. Real love results in physical intimacy. And we ll get to how God wants to say how love is to look, and what is the context of that love in the course of our study. Page 6 of 28

7 Now though The Song of Solomon is about the beauty and the intimacy of marital love, it does illustrate for us the deep and profound love that Jesus has for the church. Did you know that the New Testament refers to us as the bride of Christ? Here s some references for you 2 nd Corinthians 11:2 This is Paul writing to Christians in Corinth He says 2 nd Corinthians 11: 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. Roman7:4 I ll read this one from the New King James Version Roman7: 4 you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to Him who was raised from the dead So there is a way in which we are wed to Jesus. Now the Holy Spirit lets us know that the life-long monogamous union between a man and a woman in marriage is intended by God to be a reflection of the kind of love that God has for His people. Here s a portion of the most famous of the marriage passages in the New Testament. And it s an astounding one, because in it, it gets so specific, so absolutely clear, that God says, When I want you to know about marriage there s only one thing I m going to compare human marriage to, it s the same thing as the relationship between Jesus and the church. Ephesians 5: Husbands, - notice this love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor with spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. If you re thinking about getting married, barring a minute exception by the LORD, almost all of you are going to get married. There are some. The New Testament talks about some who by God s design they re single. God has set them apart to be single for Him. But the mass majority of Christians are called to be living in a marriage relationship. And so if you re thinking about getting married, you need to get to know Ephesians 5:22 through the end of that chapter. But here s what s so interesting about it, as you Page 7 of 28

8 read through that passage Paul makes these seamless transitions. seamlessly He moves from talking about a husband and wife, to talking about Christ and His church. And that s what I think the Holy Spirit is doing in The Song of Solomon. As you re reading it, you re thinking, I m looking at this deep and profound and powerful love between this man and this woman. But then it seems that suddenly God has slipped into the story; and He s talking about me, and about the way that He loves me. That s the way the imagery works in The Song of Solomon, just as Paul seamlessly would move from Christ and the church, to man and woman, from man and woman, back to Jesus and the church. Now The Song of Solomon is not a type of Christ. And I say that because types are always defined and explained - like Paul will say the Passover lamb is a shadow of Jesus. Jesus is our Passover Lamb. So the Passover lamb is a picture of Jesus. It s a type, a very specific type. It s pointing to, it s anticipating Jesus in a very specific way. And Jesus fulfills that type in a very specific way, as He is the Lamb led to slaughter without spot; he s without blemish; he s sinless as our sacrifice to redeem us from the penalty and power of sin, right? So The Song of Solomon is not a type of Christ. But it does provide for us some of the greatest pictures of Jesus in the whole of the Old Testament. A guy, Bernard of Clairvaux, lived from , he preached about 86 sermons just on the first two chapters of The Song of Solomon. Charles Spurgeon, The Prince of Preachers, pastored in London in the 1800s, preached some 59 sermons on The Song of Solomon. And they weren t sermons on marriage. They were sermons about Jesus. Now having said that, there are differing views as to how we should even read and understand the book that we re looking at tonight. Page 8 of 28

9 Some avoid this book altogether. A guy named Origen, one of the early church fathers, A.D., okay? He was a significant figure in the early church, and as a teacher and theologian. And listen to what he said of The Song of Solomon I advise and counsel everyone who is not yet rid of vexations of the flesh and blood, and has not ceased to feel the passions of this bodily nature, to refrain from reading the book, and the things will be said about it. Apparently felt that he was in a good space to study The Song of Solomon because he had castrated himself as a young man. So he wasn t even in that position. But imagine that. He s thinking this is so graphic. It is so explicit. In this book it s talking about things that in the 1 st century they surely understood of the Middle East, and in 1 st century culture, like these are allusions to sexual things that are happening here. These are things that are understood in the way Solomon was talking, that they are very real sexual things that he was talking about. So Origen says no one should even read it unless you feel nothing in your body sexually, right? Another of the church fathers, he had a woman say, I want my daughter to study the Bible. But I m not quite sure, like when is she going to be ready to read The Song of Solomon? And he says, Have her read the whole of the Old Testament except that. And then have her read the Gospels. And when she s finished reading the rest of the New Testament, then when she understands about the Law of God and grace and sin and what it costs God to do that, then she s ready to read The Song of Solomon, because she just needs to be spiritually ready to deal with the content of it as a young woman. So some people think avoid it altogether. Others embrace this book as an allegory describing the love relationship between God and His people. Page 9 of 28

10 A guy named Estes, in his commentary on The Song of Solomon, he said this The early Jewish rabbis taught that the book pictures God s love for Israel. Early Christian writers took the same approach. But they replaced Israel with the church. One writer in the 3 rd century wrote a 10 volume commentary on The Song of Solomon, telling how the book describes God s love for Christians, okay? John Trapp, a very famous English preacher, a 17 th century guy, he said The chief speakers are not Solomon and the Shulamite, but Christ and His church. So there are those who go, No, this shouldn t even be read. And then if you re going to read it as anything literal, physical, sensual, intimate. The speaker is Jesus and the church. That s all you want to see in this. For time sake I ll cut to the chase, and get to the view that I call the right view, okay? We begin by seeing the book as literal. It s a powerful description of the romantic and sensual love between a husband and wife. That s what it is. It involves their courtship. It involves their marriage. Now we need to be careful looking at these places where they re talking about, there s this very powerful romantic sensual language that s there, because it doesn t follow this smooth chronological line, like Here s their courtship, Here s their marriage; And here s their intimacy. It begins with an introduction of the couple to one another. Page 10 of 28

11 And it ends with their married life. That s not the way it rolls out. That s not the way the book flows. Instead it s kind of a collection of snapshots of their courtship and their married life. But the pictures are not in chronological order. Think of it like this Most of you have something like this (iphone), this, or something inferior to it. Take your pick. I just had to say that. I m not sponsored by Apple or anything. But what happens is when you take a picture with this it gets timestamped, right? There s a timestamp with it. And it ll tell you when you took it. And we can even have it tell us where you took it, right? You can attach it to a location date, a day, week, month, year, place, the whole thing. So say you take pictures with your phone. And then you want to set out to tell a story by way of the picture you ve taken with your phone. And so you pick, not in a chronological way, but you take pictures that you want to use to tell the story. Some of the pictures that you might have at the front of this story, because it s the way you want to tell it, you kind of want to bounce around in things chronologically, it might have a later timestamp on them than things that actually happened earlier. But you re not telling the story like that. So we need to understand this is a literal powerful description of romantic intimacy between a husband and a wife. But as we ve already seen in the pages of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit in the New Testament deliberately uses the marriage relationship to illustrate the relationship that God has with His people. Now some of you may have heard this old saying. I ve used it before a number of times. The New is in the Old contained. The Old is in the New explained. Okay? The Gospel is contained in the Old Testament. Page 11 of 28

12 The Old Testament points to, promises, anticipates the cross, the resurrection, and the eternal reign of Jesus. The New Testament explains what we read in the Old Testament. I believe that this great Song of Songs informs us by way of imagery or illustration about the love, the intensity, the beauty of relationship that should exist between God and the believer, not in its intimate sensual sexual way, but in the intensity and the beauty and the expression and the affirmation of love that we see there. G. Campbell Morgan said this There are those who treat the book as a song of human love. There are those who consider its only value is that of its mystical suggestiveness. Personally I believe that both values are here. Differing viewpoints as to the characters It s my opinion that there are three main characters or speakers. 1. There s the young maiden, the Shulamite. 2. There s the young man, Solomon, the Beloved. 3. And the chorus, known as the daughters of Jerusalem. In addition to these main characters or speakers, there are a few minor characters including the brothers of the Shulamite and some relatives to the wedding party. The young maiden is often called the Shulamite. That means she s a country girl from Shunem, a small agricultural village in lower Galilee. Page 12 of 28

13 The young man, Solomon, the king, is often called The Beloved. Now I have to tell you that I m amazed that God used Solomon to write this, because in the big picture, as we ve seen in the historical books of the Old Testament, Solomon miserably failed the test of real love and romance. So we re left some interesting, and even challenging questions. When did this all take place? Who s the woman so passionately loved by Solomon, who ended up with 700 wives and 300 concubines? And why was such a brilliant man not wise enough to reserve his affections for this one special woman, and her alone? Here s how I come to terms with those challenges. The Song of Solomon surely does not reflect the big picture of Solomon s life. But by inspiration of the Holy Spirit Solomon captures and conveys the beauty and glory of romantic and sensual love in a monogamous relationship of marriage. Tragically for Solomon the ideal never endured in the fabric of his personal life. Here s how one man put it Solomon was not the first, nor the last wise man that lived as a fool when it came to romance and sexuality. The Holy Spirit has inspired and preserved this book for a reason. The Holy Spirit inspired and preserved this book for us because left to ourselves we really don t know how to do marriage. The Holy Spirit inspired Solomon to write the best song ever written to give us insights as to how we can express love in marriage, both physically and emotionally. Solomon is constantly expressing his love to this young woman. Now men How many married men here? a bunch of you? Page 13 of 28

14 How many single guys here? This is important for you because, like I said, should the LORD tarry, most of you are going to end up getting married. So you ve got to have something ready for that moment. Now I am not suggesting, men, that you use Solomon s exact verbiage to express your love to your wife. Let me explain. I ll do some explaining here. Look at - 4: 1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love, behold, you are beautiful! Now first of all, men Those of you that are married, you should be saying this to your wife. And feel free to use this one word for word. Look at your wife, and say you are beautiful, my love, you are beautiful! We ve already seen how many married men are here. I bet my life that every one of you said those exact words to your wife when you were dating her. You shouldn t stop. And if you did, let me ask you, why? Carrying on in verse 1 he says - Your eyes are doves behind your veil. That s not going to work! But you understand what he s saying, right? You understand what he s saying. It s more than a reference to her physical eyes. He s speaking of the personality of this woman expressed in her eyes. He s expressing her gentleness. The dove was known and thought of in terms of its gentleness. How about this one? Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Page 14 of 28

15 Men, I do not recommend that you quote Solomon when your wife asks what you think about her new haircut Well, honey, it looks like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead from here. Now actually you could; and your wife would go, Oh? Thanks? - Because you know what it s like when your wife says to you, Like my new haircut? And you re looking at her going, Are you kidding? Like no! That s one of those hard to answer questions. It kind of presses your integrity and honesty sometimes if you don t like the haircut. I don t know about you, but when I look at my wife s hair I m not thinking goats, okay. I m not. It gets better. Look at verse 2 2 Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, and listen to this all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Like Honey, you are so awesome! You have goat hair; and you ve got all your teeth. Like I want you, babe! Still in chapter 4: 4 Your neck is like the tower of David, built in rows of stone; on it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. So, look, you have all of your teeth. You ve got goat hair. And you have the neck of a linebacker in the NFL. You are awesome. I dare any guy to use those! It s not going to work, right? It s the concept. He is, in his language flattering her. Turn to chapter 7: 1 How beautiful are your feet in sandals, O noble daughter! Now that s usable. I used to tell my wife when we were dating, Honey, you have the sexiest feet! Page 15 of 28

16 And it goes - Your rounded thighs are like jewels, the work of a master hand. Now, guys, if your wife ever asks you that question - Do these pants make me look fat I highly recommend that you do not use the words, rounded thighs, right? Or verse 2 Your navel is a rounded bowl that never lacks mixed wine. Again, round is not the adjective of choice in our culture, right? Large belly buttons that might be the rage in the day of Solomon. I dare any husband to tell your wife that her belly button is so big you just want to pour your favorite cold beer into her belly button and drink it. It just is not going to work. And he continues Your belly is a heap of wheat and circled with lilies. Now, again, I recommend that you never tell your wife that her stomach looks like a heap of anything, right? Here s the deal, men I think you get the point. The Holy Spirit wants us to see how Solomon, by way of relevant and flattering cultural imagery, was constantly telling his wife how absolutely beautiful she was in his eyes. And do you know what s interesting? I think that he s very intentional. Turn back to chapter 1: 5 I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon. 6 Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me. My mother's sons were angry with me; they made me keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard I have not kept! She essentially says, Don t look at me. I m really not beautiful. And the reason she doesn t think she s beautiful is because of the way she s been treated. She s like the stepsister out working while her siblings were in the house. She references being tanned. Like today, in our culture, women will pay tons for tans. They pay to have them spray painted on them. That so blows my mind, like professionally painted, like going to a body shop and being spray painted with tan. They do that. They pay lots of money. Then they pay to have them baked on, going into tanning beds. She could not think of Page 16 of 28

17 herself as beautiful. emotional beat down. In Solomon s day, for a woman to be dark skinned was an Solomon falls in love with her. And he sees her as beautiful. And all he wants to do is tell her that he sees how beautiful she really is. He wanted her to see herself as he saw her. File that away. He wanted her to be shaped by the way he spoke to her, by the way he treated her, not by the way she was treated in the past. Men, Solomon was constantly speaking to her of this great love that he had for her. In chapter 1, verse 8 he calls her the most beautiful among women. Every wedding that I ve ever had to go to or officiate, and Valerie was with me, I ve always told her, Honey, sometimes when I have you with me at weddings I feel bad, because you re the brightest light in the room. Constantly, he constantly said, You re the most beautiful among women. In chapter 1, verse 15 he calls her My love. In chapter 5, verse 2, My love, my perfect one. That is what he thinks of her. He says, You are perfect. I love you. Now, men, this is so huge! She struggled with her past. And those kinds of things can make marriage hard. Somebody said that Marriage is a three ring circus. There s the engagement ring. There s the wedding ring. And there s suffering. And do you know what? Some marriages suffer because of things a wife has experienced in her youth. And she s trying to process all of that in her relationship with her husband. Page 17 of 28

18 Notice how Solomon addresses the stuff of her past that makes her feel like she s nothing to look at; she s undesirable. He didn t fix her issues by saying, Look, I m sick of hearing about your tan, and your brothers, and your days working in the hot sun. The Holy Spirit tells us that he didn t say, Look, can you just get over this? We re married. I love you. The Holy Spirit tells us that he expressed his love for her; he found ways to pour his love over her; he built her up. Now there s another important reason why this Song of Solomon is radically relevant for us in the 21 st century. Turn to chapter 2: 7 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.. There were some commentators, and for all of their linguistic stuff they were trying to do, they tried to make this say that this is really saying, Look, please don t interrupt us while we re having sex. I m looking at this; and I m just reading. Hebrew scholars translated it. And I m looking at this. And what I see is, first of all, this woman adjuring other young single women. That word adjure means promise me; I m begging you; I m asking you to promise me; please swear to me - that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases. Page 18 of 28

19 In other words Don t stimulate love prematurely. Don t make a relationship move too fast. And, again, in our culture, as people are desiring to have greater intimacy with one another, they believe that more physical intimacy is going to create emotional intimacy. And that s exactly backwards. God didn t wire, literally, physiologically; God wired us the opposite of that. There s a divinely ordained time for the sexual intimacy that is so clearly put into the pages of this book. God is not anti-sex. God is the author; He s the designer of sex. And as the author and designer, He also governs the context in which He will bless it. That is so important for us to understand. We cannot let culture dictate the way we understand sexual intimacy. We let the truth of God s Word and creation, God s order in creation, explain these things to us. God designed this beautiful intimacy that is the expression of love to be enjoyed in the context of the covenant of marriage. Outside of that covenant it is not anything beautiful. It s an expression instead of selfishness that s destructive. If you are involved sexually with someone that you re not married to, it is not love. Guys, we are being constantly bombarded with the phrase making love, making love, making love. And 99.9% of the time that phrase is used in the media, whether it s TV, whether it s movie, whether it s music, whether it s print, it has nothing to do with the covenant of marriage nothing! Sexual intimacy with someone you re not married to is not love, because Page 19 of 28

20 you re taking, not giving. Guys, did you know that sexual intimacy is actually you re actually worshipping God in marriage when you are sexually intimate with your spouse for their pleasure. You re actually wanting to give. You re loving God by being the giver in the relationship. In sexual intimacy outside of marriage you re putting your sexual desire above the spiritual and emotional well-being of the other person; you re willing to involve in something that God calls sin so that you can gratify sexual desire. I ll say this especially to the single young women, because it s 99.99% that comes from this direction, when a guy tells you, Look, if you love me you should have sex with me; If you love me, have sex with me, guys, that is broken and wrong from the inside out. The real meaning of that statement, if a guy says anything to you like that verbatim, or in whatever way he wants to articulate it, if he says that, here s the real meaning of that statement. He says, If I really loved you I d never ask you to do that which God calls sin. But I really don t love you. I love me. And I want you to give me pleasure at your expense. That s what s meant by that. All of this incredible description of the intimacy between the husband and a wife, God wants to make sure, don t awaken that outside of where God appoints it - the time, the context of marriage. Don t awaken that. So we re going to close our study by looking at the way this book illustrates who Jesus is to us, and how Jesus loves us. One of the most famous passages in this book is found in chapter 2, verse 4. Why don t you turn there and take a look at it? chapter 2, verse 4. Page 20 of 28

21 4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. What does that mean his banner over me was love? Well, banner was a large visible sign often like a flag that would be raised high. When the tribes of Israel were encamped in the wilderness, they were encamped by order of their tribes. And banners would have identified them, the tribes. And you would camp under the banner of your tribe. You belonged to that tribe. You were known and loved by that tribe. You were under the covering of its leadership and its resources..so when this lady says, his banner over me is love. She s saying, Everybody can see that I belong to the king ; Everyone can see that the king loves me. Now, Christians, this is so important God has put a big sign over you. His banner over you says, I love you. And you belong to me. And that banner is the cross of Jesus. You live under the awesome demonstration of God s love for you. The cross is the visible sign of His sacrificial love, His unconditional love, His unchanging, eternal love. If you doubt that God loves you, look at His banner over you. It tells you that God gave His best, that God gave His all; He gave His only Begotten Son. Page 21 of 28

22 And we ll close with this one chapter 5, verses 9 through 16. And we re going to end by talking a little bit about it. It begins with the friends of this bride, the friends of this young lady. And they re saying, You ve been talking about this guy non-stop, day and night. So let s hear it, what s so special about this guy? Why is he better than anybody else? She says 10 My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand. 11 His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven. 12 His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool. 13 His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh. 14 His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires. 15 His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars. 16 His mouth is most sweet, How many wives would say that the best thing about your husband is his mouth? Man, when he opens his mouth I can t wait to hear what comes out! When the door opens, when the phone rings, and it s him, I just can t wait to hear what s going to come out of his sweet, sweet mouth. and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. This woman could not shut up about how wonderful Solomon was! She couldn t shut up about how much he loved her! She couldn t shut up about how much she loved him! Guys, this fits so amazingly with the close of our Bible study yesterday morning, - about fishing for me, Page 22 of 28

23 about telling others about Jesus. That should be us, telling others about Jesus who He is, how He loves us, why we love Him. And when you begin to speak about Jesus, many will respond like those who listened to this young lady. They re going to respond with, You re always reading your Bible. You re always praying. You re always going to church. Like who does that? Okay, so what is it about Jesus? Why is it that He is better than anything else? How do you respond to that? Well, turn with me really quickly to the book of Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1. In Ephesians 1 Paul s writing a letter to Christian friends. And he s telling them about Jesus. And once he gets going, he can t stop. And that s literally verses 1 through 14 is one sentence in the original. Ephesians 1: 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, In other words, he says, Get ready, because I m going to tell you all the blessings that belong to you if you re a believer in the LORD Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1: 4 even as he chose us in him When people go, What s so great about Jesus? Well, the answer to that is - He chose you. Page 23 of 28

24 That means your salvation has nothing to do with you. It s not a matter of what you deserve. There s nothing that you ve earned. But notice it says that you were chosen before the foundation of the world. Like, how much had you done, good or bad, before the foundation of the world? The answer is nothing! That means that it s not about you; it s not about what you ve done; it s not about what you ve earned; it s not about how you failed. He chose you because of who He is. He chose you because of what He s done. What s so great about Jesus? Well, before you could do anything wrong or anything right He already said I love that one; And I m choosing them. That s why Jesus is so great! And then notice I ll read this from the King James Version it says in verse - 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: He chose us with the purpose. And that purpose was to make us holy and blameless. Page 24 of 28

25 And, guys, I m just telling you the young Shulamite woman paints such an epic picture of reality in regards to how great Jesus is, and what He s done for us. Remember she says, Don t look at me. I am not attractive. How do we become holy and blameless? How do we become attractive in the sight of the LORD? How does that happen? Is there some Christian hoops that we re to jump through to become holy, to become blameless, to be appealing to the LORD? The answer is No! We become holy and blameless by what our king did for us on the cross. God looked down on us, and He said, I want that one. I want him. I want her. But they re not holy; they re not blameless. And I can t have that one; I can t have that guy; I can t have that woman, unless he s holy, unless she s holy and blameless. So here s what I m to do. I m going to send my Son, my only Son, who is sinless, holy and blameless. And He s going to be bear the weight of all of their sin. I m going to take everything that s ugly about them; and I m going to lay it all on Jesus. And He ll wash them from their sin with His blood so that they can be holy and blameless, and have a relationship with me. And hence that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Guys, because of what the lover of our soul did for us on the cross, He can look at us, and say, Behold, you are beautiful, my love! Behold, you are beautiful! You are altogether beautiful, my love! There is no flaw in you! That is what Jesus sees when He looks at us! That s what Jesus has to say every man, every woman that s trusted in Him! Page 25 of 28

26 5 having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, What s so great about Jesus? Well, because of Jesus I m no longer an orphan in this world! 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He has made us accepted in the Beloved. What s so great about Jesus? What makes Jesus greater than anything in this world? Well, because of Jesus I m accepted by the God whom I had so horribly and utterly betrayed! There s a song we used to sing some time ago, I m forgiven because you were forsaken! I m accepted because you were condemned! And here s the grand finale! Ephesians 1: 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In other words, guys There s coming a day when all of us who have put our faith in Jesus are going to be gathered together in Christ for all of eternity. So when people are saying What s so great about Jesus that you would love Him so much? What s so great about Jesus that you d want to get up early and read the Bible, and talk with Him? What s so great about Jesus that you d want to talk about Him so much to us? What s so great about Jesus that you want to give up Monday nights to be with other men and women who love Jesus, so that you can sing songs to Jesus, and learn more about Jesus? Page 26 of 28

27 Well, the answer is because He chose me. And He made me holy. And His banner over me is love. Jesus is mine. And I am His; Looking forward to a forever when my Beloved speaks, and says to me - Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Because of Jesus I ll spend forever in His presence. That is what s so great about Jesus! And I want to tell you - As you grow in grace and in the knowledge of your LORD and Savior, as you get to know Him more and more, you begin to understand that as you read The Song of Solomon, you re going, Man, this is about this amazing powerful sensual intimacy between this man and this woman. But suddenly I m seeing the profound love of God for me. I hear God saying to me, You are beautiful! You are perfect! And as you understand that love of Jesus for you, then you re going to tell people about Jesus, just like this woman was telling all of her girlfriends about Solomon. So what we re going to do now is we re just going to close. The communion elements are on the table. And they remind us of how precious we are to God, and what He has done for us in that He can look at us, and say in the Old King James Version - Thou art all fair! As we take the bread, as we take the cup, as we worship the LORD in song, I would encourage you, draw near to the LORD. If you don t know Jesus, we re going to give you an opportunity here in just a moment to give your life to Jesus. Yesterday morning we had Pastor John and Pastor Chris make their way up here. And I think Pastor Travis was with us as well, to make their way up to the sides. And we re going to ask the band just to kind of play softly so that anybody who wants prayer can Page 27 of 28

28 come for prayer. And when we dismiss, if you still want prayer, you re just going, I know about Him. I flirt with understanding His great love for me. But I m just not crazy about Him like this woman was crazy about Solomon. I just want to know Jesus like that. Then whatever you do, don t waste a moment tonight. I know it s hard to get out of your tables, make your way up for prayer. If you want to wait till later for that; or grab somebody at your table, and do it. Or just back away from the table, and get on your knees, and seek Him. Seek Him. Let s bow our heads and hearts before the LORD. Father, I want to pray right now for anybody who really doesn t know you. They don t have an intimate personal relationship with you. They don t understand the profound depth of your love. They don t know what it s like to be on the receiving end of you saying to them, You are my love! And I ve died for you so that now every blemish, every stain, everything about the ugliness of sin in your life, I took all of that on myself so that you would be perfect before me. LORD, I pray for that man, that woman, young or old, that, LORD, tonight they would give their life to you, that they would say, God, I want to know that great love for my life. How can I not love you? Page 28 of 28