Now we come to the third book that
Solomon wrote, the Song of Songs or Canticles
as some people call it.
And some people are embarrassed to read this
book, but I believe that that's because we've
got so many wrong ideas of the place
of sex in marriage from the world.
This book, as I see it, basically teaches
two things.
The first is that the sexual relationship in
marriage is essential.
God created it and he said after creating
it and telling Adam and Eve to multiply,
he said in Genesis 1.31, it's very
good.
And if God says it's very good, I
don't want to listen to any second opinion
on the sexual function that God created and
pronounced very good in Genesis chapter 1.
But we also see here, this is the
first thing which I'm trying to emphasize, is
that love must be coupled with that sexual
relationship.
Otherwise, it is not right.
Any sexual relationship without love is demonic, satanic,
belongs to hell.
And that is unfortunately what we see a
lot of in the world.
That is completely evil.
See, God has created something and the devil
has misused it.
God created the atom, but the devil can
use it to make a bomb to destroy
people.
And whereas it can also be used to
give electricity to a whole city.
God created that from which dynamite is made.
But you can use dynamite to kill people
or you can use dynamite to blast a
rock to build a foundation for a house.
Many things, a knife.
A knife can be used to cut meat
or vegetables.
It can be used to kill a person.
So what God has created, sex, can be
used in a bad way or a good
way, like all the other things God has
created.
And we shouldn't think that it's always bad,
that a knife is always used only for
evil purposes.
No.
A knife is a very useful instrument in
a kitchen.
And when God has created something, you remember
when Peter saw that vision of a sheep
coming down from heaven and God had to
tell him one word three times.
What God has cleansed, don't call unclean.
And I would say that to you also,
that when God has created something and says,
very good, we have no business to say
it's unclean.
What the world does with it is unclean.
The murderer taking that knife and killing somebody,
he is unclean.
The knife itself is not unclean.
He has used that knife for a wrong
purpose.
And when the world uses the sexual function
wrongly, then of course it's evil.
But otherwise it's a very holy.
It's not only good, I would say it's
holy, pure, and binds a husband and wife
together.
And in this section, I mean, I would
really encourage husbands and wives to read this
to each other.
Song of Solomon.
It's a wonderful book.
You know, it expresses appreciation.
In our Indian culture, unfortunately, husbands and wives
don't appreciate one another.
They just take each other for granted.
And of course, in India also, husbands and
wives have sex, as we all know.
But they don't appreciate one another sufficiently.
It's a very sad thing.
And Song of Solomon, Song of Songs, teaches
the necessity of appreciating one another.
Very, very important.
And the importance of communication, of speaking to
one another in marriage, in a loving way.
All these things are in this book.
And very practical advice.
And also, it's a very realistic book.
It shows that there are times when there
are ups and downs, like in marriage.
Feelings will go, but the love remains, and
how these up and down feelings can be
overcome, and how revival can come in a
marriage.
Very, very down to earth, realistic, practical.
The second thing about, the first is, as
I said, marriage relationships, and sex and marriage,
and communication, and love and all that.
The second thing that Song of Solomon pictures
is Christ and the Church.
And I would say we must see both,
as we read this book.
You can read it through in one way,
as a husband-wife relationship.
And then you can read it through another
way, as Christ-Church relationship.
And in both cases, you can get a
lot of profit.
And I would encourage you who are married,
to read it through husband and wife, as
a husband-wife relationship story.
And all of us, married or unmarried, can
read it through as Christ and the Church
story.
And there's a lot in that.
I remember, it's one of the first books
I studied in my Christian life, when I
started studying the Bible.
And I was alone on a ship, just
baptized a few months earlier, far away from
all contact with believers, for weeks on end.
And I studied this book, about 40 years
ago.
And it deepened my devotion to Jesus immensely.
And I learned in those days, because I
didn't have contact with believers, to trust in
the Lord, and to love Him, and to
rest in His love for me.
And that deepened my walk with the Lord.
And I've always valued this book, since that
time.
It's a picture of Christ and the Church.
It's called a song.
And I want to point you to a
verse, in Revelation 14, verse 3 in this
connection.
Revelation 14, 3 says about, those who follow
the Lamb wherever He goes.
And those who follow the Lamb wherever He
goes, it says about them, they sang a
wonderful new song.
And no one could learn that song, except
this group of people.
This 144,000, the bride of Christ, those
who follow Him.
See, like a bride who follows the bridegroom
wherever He goes.
They are the only ones, who can learn
this song.
You can follow this Bible study for the
next, 50 minutes or so.
But you won't learn the song, until you
follow Jesus.
If you follow Jesus, you can learn the
song.
And you got to learn it, on this
earth.
It says they learned it on earth, before
they reached up.
They learned it on earth.
Now is your time, brother, sister.
Ministry is not everything.
Let me give you my testimony.
After preaching, for 38 years at least, and
serving the Lord full time for 34 years,
my devotion to Christ, is the basis of
all my ministry.
My ministry would be zero, the moment my
devotion to Christ goes down.
This relationship with Christ, described in Song of
Solomon, is the basis, on which your service
for the Lord, whether evangelism, or teaching, or
whatever you do, social work in Jesus name,
medical work, planting churches, whatever it is, this
relationship with Christ, should be the basis of
your ministry.
This is a song we got to learn.
It is a song that Jesus sings to
us, the bridegroom singing to the bride.
And it's also a song, that through the
Holy Spirit in us, we sing to the
Lord.
It's the opposite of Ecclesiastes.
In Ecclesiastes, it's knowledge, knowledge.
Here it is love, love.
And many seek knowledge, but the Lord seeks
for those who love.
It's only then that our knowledge is useful.
And in the song, Song of Songs, we
see, there's a growth of love.
In the first chapter, we see the beginning
of love.
We could say it's like infatuation.
A lot of young people today, when they
say they are in love with each other,
it's actually not love.
It's infatuation.
Love is very selfless.
If you want to see the purest expression
of love in the world, it's not what
you see in the cinema screen.
It's not what you read in the romantic
novels.
It's not even what you see in a
boy and a girl who so-called love
each other.
The purest form of love that you can
see on earth, is the love of a
mother for its helpless child.
Particularly when that child is sick.
How that mother sacrifices everything.
All these young couples who say they fall
in love with each other, they won't do
like that.
As long as everything is going well, we
love each other.
But a mother's love is not like that.
The purest, the love which is closest to
God's love, is the love of a mother.
And that is how God's love is.
And when a husband and wife can love
like that, they have really understood love.
But that takes time to grow to that
maturity.
In the beginning, we are selfish.
We want something from the other person.
The man wants something from the girl, the
girl wants something from the man.
The man usually wants sex, and the girl
usually wants security.
But they want something.
It's a selfish type of thing.
That's how it begins, infatuation.
But it must grow to love.
In the same way, in our relationship with
the Lord, it begins with, Lord, I don't
want to go to hell.
Can you heal me?
Can you bless me?
Can you give me prosperity?
Or at least can you anoint me so
that I'll be a mighty preacher?
See, all this is selfish love.
But when you mature, you say, Lord, I
don't need anything.
I don't need property.
I don't need money.
I don't need health.
I don't even need a ministry.
I have you, and that's enough.
How can you get more out of my
life?
Not what I can get out of the
Lord, but what the Lord can get out
of me.
That is maturity.
In an immature, infatuation type of love, a
girl is thinking, what can I get out
of this man?
And the man is thinking, what can I
get out of this girl?
And the believer is thinking, what can I
get out of the Lord?
Now when Jesus came to earth, he didn't
think, what can I get from man?
He thought, what can I give to man?
That is mature love.
And that's the mature love we finally come
to in Song of Solomon chapter 8.
But in the beginning, we come to the
Lord for going to heaven, for healing, for
blessing, and so many things, for ministry perhaps.
But finally, we come to the place where
we love the Lord for who he is.
Whom am I in heaven but thee?
There's nothing on earth I desire beside thee.
Thou art enough.
I don't care for ministry, health, wealth, prosperity,
nothing.
So keep that in mind as we move
on.
Verse 1, it is Solomon's song.
That means it is primarily Jesus' song to
us, not our song.
First, we love him because he first loved
us.
We did not love him first.
Because he first loved us, because he sang
the song to us, we sing it back
to him.
And in the initial part, as it says,
it talks about falling in love.
It says here, there's no name mentioned, it's
assumed this person, this bride, is so taken
up with the bridegroom, and says, your love
is better than all the wine on the
earth.
And your name is like, how pleasing is
your name, verse 3.
I'm reading here from the New Living Translation,
which is an advancement on the Living Bible,
or a further development of it.
And some of these verses are a little
clearer here, that's why I read from it.
I want you to see one thing here.
It says here, draw me and we will
run after you.
Verse 4, love does not push, it draws.
And there's a difference between pushing and drawing
a person.
You know, like a magnet draws iron filings
to itself.
I, if I be lifted up, will draw
all men unto myself.
The Lord never pushes.
Is that all you want to go?
Okay.
He goes ahead and draws us.
The good shepherd always goes in front of
the sheep.
And a husband must always go in front
of his wife to draw her, not push
her, and say, why aren't you doing this,
and why aren't you doing that, and why
aren't you doing the other thing, like out
in the world.
But to go ahead as an example.
You find some fault in your wife, be
a good example, so that she can follow
your example.
So, that's one very important thing that applies
even in our human relationship.
And it says here in verse 4, my
king.
The bride calls her my king.
And from that, I want to mention this,
that you have to know Jesus as your
king, before you can know him as your
bridegroom.
You cannot know him as bridegroom, if you
don't know him, first of all, as king,
and you are totally subject.
And that's the reason why many people do
not enter into this love relationship with their
Lord.
They do not know him as king.
We read also here about the daughters of
Jerusalem, or women of Jerusalem in verse 5.
Now the women of Jerusalem, I would say,
refer to the half-hearted believers.
They are in Jerusalem, but they are not
the bride.
They are not in Babylon, they are in
Jerusalem, but they are not the bride.
They want to be part of the church,
but they are more taken up with healing,
and ministry, and preaching, and teaching, and activity,
and Bible study, and things like that.
They are not taken up with devotion to
Jesus.
They are believers.
They don't do any terrible things, but the
Lord is looking for those who have the
heart of a bride, who are devoted to
him, and whose service comes out of that
heart of love.
So those are the women of Jerusalem.
And she tells them, I am dark, but
the Lord has accepted me.
I am dark and beautiful.
See, that has a number of things that
we can learn from, that this bride felt
that she was unattractive.
You know, the Bible says that God has
chosen the poor of the world.
Not many mighty, not many clever, not many
good-looking people.
Some of us feel, Oh Lord, I am
not so capable like other people.
I am not so intelligent.
I can't speak like others.
I can't do so many things.
I am so limited.
This is exactly how this bride felt.
I am dark.
I am unattractive.
I am not from a very educated background.
I am a little foolish, and I do
so many things wrong.
That I am dark could comprise a whole
lot of areas, where we feel ourselves inferior
to others.
You know how a dark person feels inferior
to someone who is very much fairer.
An ugly person feels inferior to a beautiful.
And God has chosen the ugly person.
God has chosen the dark one.
There were many prettier women of Jerusalem, but
the bridegroom picks on this dark one.
That is Jesus.
Only Jesus would do that.
Because He looks for qualities of the heart,
not appearance and gift and capability and all
that.
And we got to learn a lesson there.
This is what the Lord looks for, when
He picks out someone to be His servant.
All your natural abilities, background, family background, accomplishments,
are not really of any value to God.
It's the heart of devotion that He looks
for.
And He says, So, even if I am
dark, in the Lord's eyes, I am beautiful.
That means there is a sense of acceptance.
See, a lot of women, married women, suffer,
because they don't feel that their husbands really
rejoice in them.
I rejoice in my wife.
And I hope all your husbands do.
I think it's very important that your wife
knows that you rejoice in her.
And the same way, we as believers don't
realize that the Lord rejoices in us.
Zephaniah 3.17 says, The Lord your God
in your midst is mighty.
He shouts over you with shouts of joy.
He is so happy to have you.
Do you realize that?
Do you realize that when you were accepted
in Christ, God is so happy to have
you?
It's very, very important.
This sense of acceptance.
I'm ugly maybe, but I'm beautiful in God's
eyes.
See that combination.
That is so important to understand.
Verse 6.
Don't look down on me, you beautiful fair
city girls.
Because she's like a village girl.
You know, uncultured.
These refined city girls of Jerusalem look down
upon this girl who's come from the villages.
But that girl from the village is the
one the bridegroom has chosen.
The bridegroom has bypassed all these smart, charming
city girls and chosen that village girl.
That's how he's chosen you and me.
Praise God.
So he said, don't look down on me.
That means the other believers maybe look down
on this person.
And maybe other believers look down on you
in your life.
Don't get discouraged.
Ezekiel chapter 16 is another beautiful chapter that
describes how God picks up the rotten, the
one that's fallen by the wayside.
Okay.
One of the verse here.
It says, verse 6.
They made me the keeper of the vineyards,
but my own vineyard I have not kept.
Now, we could apply this this way.
The other vineyards are my ministry.
My vineyard is my life.
My walk with God.
And this is a common mistake that many,
many preachers and servants of God make.
They keep the vineyards, but they don't keep
their own vineyard.
They are busy in activity.
This vineyard, that vineyard.
I've got to go here.
I've got to do this.
I've got to.
But their own vineyard.
Their close walk with the Lord.
They have not kept that.
That's like a wilderness.
And they're always thinking in terms of statistics
and activity.
I brought so many people to the Lord
and I did this here and did that
there.
Remember, this book right at the beginning warns
us against that.
You keep your own vineyard first.
Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4, 16.
Take heed to yourself and to your teaching.
Thus you will save yourself and you will
save those who hear you.
It's a very common mistake that people make.
Verse 7.
There are two things she looks for here.
Where are you feeding your flock?
And where do you make them rest?
There are two things the Lord needs to
give us.
Food and rest.
And that's what she's looking for from the
Lord.
And notice here, the king praises her.
The bridegroom.
Verse 15.
How beautiful you are, my beloved.
But I believe we need to hear words
like that from the Lord to ourselves.
Expressions of appreciation that the Lord really delights
in us.
I believe wives need to hear that from
their husbands.
Expressions of appreciation.
A wife looks for security just as much
as a husband looks for sex.
And both are right.
It's right for a wife to give her
husband the sex he needs.
It's right for a husband to give the
security that a wife needs.
See, we can talk about these things openly
because these are spiritual things.
And so often the devil is the only
one who talks about these subjects.
And godly men in the pulpit don't speak
about it.
The result is all the people have only
heard what the devil says.
And I decided many years ago that I'm
going to speak very openly about these things
from the divine standpoint.
So that we have a proper understanding of
God's view on these subjects.
So that's the beginning of love.
It's a lot of infatuation and a lot
of delight in the fact that God's accepted
me.
I'm so blessed or my bridegroom has accepted
me.
That's all.
It's all how I feel.
Infatuation is always like that.
But that's okay in the beginning.
But then we read from chapter 2 to
chapter 7.
The growth of love till finally it culminates
in chapter 8.
We come to that.
In chapter 2 we see right on to
chapter 7 there are ups and downs.
There are times when feelings go.
And here in verse 1.
This is the bride speaking.
I am just a rose in Sharon.
I'm just a lily in the valley.
Now I'm sorry to disappoint some of you.
But that does not refer to Jesus Christ.
Like we sing in a lot of songs.
We call Jesus the rose of Sharon.
And the lily of the valley.
But that is not scriptural.
It is totally unscriptural.
It's the bride saying to the bridegroom.
I'm just an ordinary rose in Sharon.
There are thousands of rose in Sharon and
I'm just one of them.
I'm just an ordinary lily in the valley.
But the bridegroom says yes.
That may be true.
But you're a lily, verse 2, in the
midst of thorns.
A whole lot of thorns.
All these fair, attractive women in Jerusalem.
They're good looking on the outside.
But they're like the Proverbs 11, 22.
It says about like the pig with the
golden ring on its nose.
They are attractive.
But like thorns.
But in the midst of that you're a
real lily.
So there's that expression of appreciation.
Verse 4.
He's brought me to his banquet hall so
that everyone can see how much he loves
me.
I believe we must always recognize that the
Lord brings us to his dining table.
He brought the prodigal son right up to
the table.
And Jesus was very frequently sitting with his
disciples around the table.
And this table speaks of fellowship primarily.
You know, when you're sitting at a table,
you're not doing ministry.
You're having fellowship.
When you sit together, you're eating together, talking
together.
And the New Testament places a great emphasis
on that.
It's good.
Later on the bride goes to the bridegroom
to the fields.
But don't ever attempt going to the fields
before you've sat at table with him.
Throughout the scriptures you'll find this emphasis.
Fellowship first.
Adam's first day fellowship, then go to work
for six days.
The bride sits at the banquet hall.
We're going to have a celebration.
And sit at the table.
And she says, Oh, feed me with your
love, for I'm utterly lovesick.
It's a beautiful expression.
I'm lovesick.
That means the world is no longer attractive
to me.
Jesus is everything to me.
The tremendous expressions of devotion in this song,
which if you apply to Jesus, you find
your relationship with the Lord deepens.
And the world you find is no longer
so attractive.
Verse 7 is a wonderful verse which applies
to marriage, I mean, boy-girl relationships as
well.
Promise me, oh women of Jerusalem, verse 7.
Not to awaken love until the time is
right.
Don't awaken, don't try to stir up love
until the time is right.
Don't try to stir up emotions.
Hang on.
Don't let your suddenly falling in love, like
they say, love at first sight.
Hang on there, be a bit careful.
Particularly in boy-girl relationships, it's very, very
important that we don't get taken up by
emotions and feelings.
Keep those emotions under control.
If you want to be a godly young
man or a godly young woman.
You may have feelings, but don't let those
feelings just take over and lead you off
in a direction which afterwards you will regret.
It happens very, very often.
So many people, young people, called by God
to a unique ministry in their teenage years.
And the devil's got his eye on them.
He says, that fellow is going to be
a danger to my kingdom, the devil says.
That girl is going to be a danger
to my kingdom.
How can I destroy them?
Get them married to the wrong person.
He does that and I know numerous cases
like that.
India has lost godly homes because godly people
did not get married to godly people.
So don't stir up love until the time
is right.
Wait.
Infatuation cannot wait.
Must have it now.
Sex, people who are after sex, I like
that.
I must have it now.
I can't wait till I get married.
That's the devil always.
Whereas those who are godly can wait.
They have a control over themselves.
And be very, very careful, dear young people,
whenever you see some feelings arising in you
towards someone whom you are attracted towards, spiritually
or physically, whatever it is.
Be very careful with your feelings.
Don't awaken that love until the time is
right.
Until you are within about six months to
a year of the possibility of getting married,
I don't think you should ever awaken love
in your heart.
It can cause you serious problems in your
study of the scriptures, preparation for the Lord's
work.
Many people cannot study the scriptures because they
are always daydreaming about somebody.
You may not be thinking evil, but you
can't concentrate on what the Lord is trying
to say to you.
So, this is very practical, this book.
And verse 7, verse 8, sorry.
I hear him, my lover, comes leaping on
the mountains and speaking of the way of
the Lord.
Comes to us and I want you to
see here verse 14.
The bridegroom says, my dove is hidden in
the rock, like we sing in that song,
rock of ages cleft for me.
It's a beautiful picture of our being hidden
in Christ.
Now, verse 15 is what I want you
to notice.
Catch the little foxes quickly, before they ruin
the vineyard of your love.
For the grapevines are in blossom.
I think this is a word from the
Lord to us.
There are little foxes, you know the big
foxes we can easily see.
But the small teeny weeny baby foxes that
creep into the vineyard and eat up the
vines, the grapes.
The little, you know in married life, it's
not the big calamities, the husband hitting his
wife with a stick, those things and all
we may avoid.
But it's the little irritations, little sharp voice
there.
Those little foxes are the things that destroy
a marriage.
Catch those little foxes, the little irritations of
daily life.
Catch them, throw them out of the vineyard.
Your marriage is like a vineyard, your marriage
is like a garden.
Preserve it, like any farmer would take care
of his put scarecrows to drive the crows
away, drive the foxes away.
In the same way, your relationship with the
Lord is also similar.
Little, little things, little sins.
It's not the big sins, it's not adultery
and murder that drive us away from the
Lord.
It's the little, little, little things that come
between us and the Lord that can ruin
our relationship with Him.
Catch them and drive them away.
In chapter 3, she says about the time
when she lost that sense of His presence.
One night as I lay in bed, I
yearned deeply for my lover, my Lord, but
He didn't come.
So I said to myself, I'll get up
and roam the city searching for Him.
She was seeking for those feelings of His
presence.
And my search was in vain.
The watchman, the watchman in this book referred
to other preachers, like the preachers in the
book of Job, who don't know God but
who know all the facts.
They could even be elders in churches who
don't know that devotion to Christ that this
young one who loves the Lord is seeking
for.
He goes to some older person in his
church for advice and that chap does not
have a devotion to the Lord.
How can he guide you?
So the watchman, she goes to the watchman
and I said to him, have you seen
Him whom I love so much?
They couldn't guide you.
It's a very sad thing that it's very
difficult to find now many older people who
can guide you in this life of devotion
to Christ.
They can teach you how to do evangelism,
how to teach and maybe a lot of
things in the scripture.
But can they teach you how to be
devoted to Jesus Christ?
These watchmen, unfortunately not.
If you're an elder of a church, it's
not enough teaching people the Bible.
Are you leading them to devotion to Christ?
That's a good watchman.
But then finally verse 4, he says a
little while later, I found Him myself.
That's how I found in my life, my
younger days.
I never had the privilege to have godly
older people to guide me.
But I found Him myself.
And sometimes that may be your lot also.
Some of you may be in places where
you don't have godly people to guide you
and lead you.
You can find Him yourself.
Seek Him.
And when I found Him, it says, I
did not let Him go.
I would not let Him go.
Now let me go on to chapter 4.
Now notice one thing that up until this
time, it's the woman speaking most of the
time.
I don't know whether you noticed that.
It's occasionally a sentence that the bridegroom says.
But chapter 4, you find a long message
from the bride.
This is a mark of growth in love,
I told you like in our earlier session.
The more we grow spiritually, the less we
talk and the more we listen.
And one mark of spiritual growth is that
we learn to listen to the Lord.
And now we find she's growing to maturity.
She's not just talking, talking, talking, talking to
the Lord.
She's now listening.
And then she says here, the bridegroom expresses
his admiration.
I just want you to notice one thing
in verse 8.
Come with me from Lebanon.
Come down from the top of Mount Ammonah,
Mount Sinai, Mount Hermon, where the lions have
their dens and the panthers growl.
Spiritually speaking, this speaks of a life in
the heavenlies.
The Lord says, don't look at things from
this low earthly standpoint.
Come with me to the high places.
And the things of earth will grow strangely
dim as you go to the high places
with Him.
You know how when you go up in
an airplane, the things of earth look so
small.
The cars look so small.
You're not so attracted to earthly things.
So that's the way.
The Lord says, let me lift you up
to a higher plane.
Yes, there are lions and panthers there in
the heavenly places.
There are demons and principalities and powers.
But you and I are together there, the
Lord says.
We'll overcome them and we'll be strong.
Here is a bride who's moved with her
bridegroom to the heavenly places and who's willing
to encounter these demonic spirits and overcome them.
In verse 12, the bridegroom says to the
bride, you're like a private garden.
My treasure, my bride.
Private garden means you're exclusively for me.
You are mine.
You don't belong to anybody else.
Just like a husband can tell his wife,
you don't belong to anybody else in the
world.
You belong exclusively to me.
I want to ask you whether your relationship
with the Lord is like that.
Can the Lord say to you, you are
my private garden.
There are many things out in the world
that attract you, like the opportunity to make
money and get a name.
Those are like other men trying to attract
his wife.
But she's not attracted.
She's taken up with her beloved.
Are you taken up with the Lord like
that?
Promotion in your job doesn't mean anything to
you.
The opportunity to make a lot of money
in the world doesn't mean anything to you.
There are very, very few believers like this.
And I believe that's the reason why they
don't know the Lord.
They don't understand His word.
To me, I would say that the secret
of understanding the whole Bible is having this
type of relationship with the Lord.
Because the one who wrote it will explain
to you what it means.
That's what I've found through the years.
And I want to encourage you to develop
this type of relationship with Jesus Christ.
Walk with Him.
Like the early disciples, walked with Him, those
apostles, and heard Him speak.
And their eyes were opened.
Their hearts burned.
So, the Lord calls us to the heavenlies,
expresses His appreciation for us.
And the bride says, in similar words, she
says, that's right.
Let the north wind come, verse 16.
The north wind is the cold wind of
suffering, adversity, trials.
And the south wind is the wind of
blessing, encouragement, prosperity, happiness.
And the bride says, it doesn't matter which
wind it is.
Let me have a cushy, easy time in
life.
Or let me have a difficult time in
life.
From both winds, a perfume will come out
of my garden.
In other words, when God blesses me, a
perfume of praise and thanksgiving and worship will
come.
When God allows trials and difficulties and pressures
to come into my life, that's another wind
which blows the same beautiful perfume of praise,
thanksgiving and worship to God.
And let my beloved, verse 16, come into
His garden and eat its choicest fruits.
Everything I produce in my garden, in my
life, is not to impress other people how
spiritual I am.
No.
It is for my Lord.
It's for my beloved.
It's for my bridegroom.
Let him come into my garden, into my
heart, and eat the fruits in my life.
See, this is another great secret of effective
Christian ministry.
Make sure that what you do is primarily
for the Lord.
Not because you have to write a report
at the end of the month and tell
somebody what you did.
Not because you want to impress somebody how
God is using you.
That means you're giving all the fruit in
your garden to other people and the Lord
gets nothing.
But this bride says, this is all for
you, Lord.
Here, did you use me to bring somebody
to Christ?
That's not for me to show off to
other people how God used me.
No.
I couldn't care less.
This is for you.
This convert is for you.
This ministry I did, this is for you.
This sacrifice I made, which nobody knows about,
that's for you.
Why should I advertise to everybody the sacrifice
I made?
Why should a husband tell everybody in the
world all the sacrifices he made for his
wife or vice versa?
There are so many secrets between husband and
wife.
There should be secrets between us and the
Lord.
There are things we do which nobody should
know about.
There are times you spend alone with the
Lord, which nobody should know about.
When a wife spends time with her husband,
two people who are deeply in love with
each other, they spend time with each other.
Do they want anybody else to know about
it?
They don't want anybody to know about it.
In fact, they try their best, young people
who are in love, not to let anybody
know that they're meeting somewhere.
Why don't we meet with the Lord like
that?
Shut the door.
Get alone with the Lord.
Nobody should know.
I am with my beloved now.
You see, hardly anybody we find has this
type of relationship.
Everybody is busy doing this, that, and the
other for the Lord.
This love relationship is not there.
That's why I say the Song of Solomon
is a secret of a deep relationship with
the Lord.
I'm personally very thankful that the Lord led
me to that book first when I began
my Christian life.
I believe this should be the basis on
which we do all our work and service
for the Lord.
You may work harder than anybody else, but
let it be based on a relationship like
this.
In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 3, Paul says
to the Corinthians, I'm afraid, like the serpent
led Eve astray, you also will be led
astray from that simple devotion to Christ.
When are you led astray?
Whenever you go away from simple devotion to
Christ, you've already gone astray.
You don't have to steal.
You don't have to commit adultery.
You don't have to tell lies.
When you've lost simple devotion to Christ, the
devil has already led you astray.
However much you may serve the Lord.
Okay, we go to chapter 5.
And when the beloved now accepts the invitation
of the bride to come into her garden
and eat, and the bridegroom says, I'm here
in my garden.
Verse 1, my treasure, my bride.
I'm going to gather my spices and eat
my honeycomb.
And he invites others also to come in
and eat with him.
The bridegroom has got the right to give
our fruit to others.
And the bride responds, Oh, lover and beloved,
eat and drink, drink deeply.
Then we go to verse 4.
One night, as I was sleeping, my heart
was awakened.
And I heard the voice of my lover.
You know, sometimes we don't expect.
The Lord comes without warning, suddenly.
Because he wants us to be in a
state of readiness all the time.
Have you seen in the Old Testament sometimes,
suddenly you read, the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, here I am.
Then years later, many chapters later you read,
and the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham.
He said, here I am.
That really blesses me.
Here was a man in the midst of
all the other things he did.
He could hear the Lord saying, once we
read, we saw that for 13 years, the
Lord said nothing.
Suddenly the Lord said, Abraham, he was ready.
13 years, he never heard, as soon as
the Lord called, he was ready.
I want to be like that, and I
hope you'll be like that.
You know, asleep, and suddenly the Lord comes.
Says, come, I want to tell you something.
He calls us sometimes like that.
Like he calls Samuel in the middle of
the night.
But, and he said, open to me.
My darling, my treasure.
I've been out in the night.
And how is her response?
Well, Lord, not right now.
Verse 3, I've taken off my robe and
do I have to get dressed again?
If I wash my feet, if I go
into the streets, I'll get soiled again.
And he tries, verse 4, to unlatch the
door.
And then he disappears.
Because he, she did not respond when he
called her first.
So I opened it.
And the hands, my hands dripped with perfume.
Verse 6, I opened to my lover, but
he was gone.
That happens sometimes.
The Lord says, Now drop all that you're
doing.
Stop reading that book.
Just stop that conversation.
Get alone in your room and pray.
Or go for a walk.
Talk to me.
And you say, Lord, just wait.
I've just got something very important to do.
In 15 minutes I'll be finished.
And 15 minutes later, after you finish that
important work, you say, Lord, I'm ready.
But he's gone.
You can't find him.
This is the experience of many, many, many
believers.
Because the Lord tests you to see whether
he is more important to you than that
conversation you're having with your friends, that book
you're reading, that work you're doing.
He'll always test us to see, am I
willing to drop everything and listen to him?
You want to be an effective servant of
God?
Develop this way of life, where you're willing
to listen, drop everything, and listen to him
when he calls.
Then when she couldn't find him, she again
goes to the watchman, to the elders of
her church, verse 7.
And it says, they struck her and wounded
her.
They are all legalists.
She's seeking the Lord and she's speaking about
love and devotion to the Lord.
And they can't understand.
They say, you've got to be practical.
And they rebuke her with their words because
they don't know that type of devotion.
And it says here, they even tore off
her veil.
That means they exposed her to public disgrace.
Like they got up in the pulpit and
said, there are some brothers and sisters here
who are always talking about loving the Lord
and publicly humiliated them.
Okay, you may face things like that from
preachers who don't know the Lord.
That's the meaning of taking away the veil.
Public disgrace and scandalizing you.
And then, verse 8, she goes to the
other half-hearted believers, the women of Jerusalem
and says, if you find my beloved, tell
him I'm lovesick.
She speaks of her devotion to others and
she says, verse 16, the last part, he's
altogether lovely.
He is my beloved and my friend.
He's not only my beloved, he's my friend.
Is Jesus not only your savior, but your
friend?
Is your wife your best friend on earth?
Is your husband your best friend on earth?
It should be.
Very often, husbands and wives, they love one
another, they say they love one another, but
they're not friends.
Their friends are others.
I want my wife to be my best
friend always.
I want to be her best friend all
my life.
That's a good marriage relationship.
I want Jesus to be the greatest friend
of all in my life.
Not only my beloved, but my friend.
We move on to chapter 6.
She finds her beloved herself.
She was searching, you know, and she finally
found him in his garden.
And here when he says, I am my
beloved's and my beloved is mine.
This is different from chapter 2, and verse
16, where he says, my beloved is mine
and I am his.
Do you notice the difference here?
She's progressing.
In chapter 2, 16, the initial stages of
love, it is, my Lord is mine.
In chapter 6, verse 3, it is, I
am my Lord's first.
That is a progression.
I think that the Lord has something for
me.
Like I said, an immature believer thinks, what
can I get from the Lord?
What can I get out of the Lord
for myself?
A mature believer thinks, what can the Lord
get out of me in my one earthly
life?
So here's a progression.
And then you find, there is this fellowship
between both of them.
It says, the bridegroom says in verse 4,
expresses appreciation for his wife.
And he says in verse 8, Solomon says,
there may be 60 wives, all queens, 80
concubines, but no one like this one, my
dove, my perfect one.
I choose her above everybody else.
I believe that a husband should have that
attitude towards his wife, that there are so
many attractive women in the world, but there's
no one like my wife.
She is number one in my eyes.
That's what the Lord says about us, more
than all the clever people in the world
and everybody else.
He appreciates us more than anything else.
And here also in verse 10, we read
of the bride being like an army.
See, this bride is not a soft sissy.
She's like a strong person who's like an
army with banners.
And in verse 13, she's called a shulamite,
a young woman of shulam, meaning a person
of peace.
Selam is a word, shalom.
It's a Hebrew word for peace.
And this is speaking about a woman who's
peaceful.
See, when we have this type of relationship
with the Lord, in one way we are
like soldiers in an army against the devil.
And with human beings, we are always at
peace.
It's this combination of battle with the Lord,
I'm an army with banners and peaceful with
others.
Now we come to chapter 7 and we
read about the admiration of the bridegroom and
when you come to verse 10, it's still
higher than chapter 6 verse 3.
I'm my beloved's and I'm the one he
desires.
He doesn't even say, I'm my beloved's and
he is mine.
I'm the one he desires.
He desires me.
It's not just that he belongs to me,
he's pleased with me.
See, it's one thing for the Lord to
say, OK, I love you.
It's another thing for the Lord to say,
I'm happy with you.
You know, a husband can love his wife,
may not be happy with the way she
does things.
And the Lord may love you, but he
may not be happy with a lot of
things.
So, this is a still further progression, mature
love, where she's tried to please him, she
longs to please him and his desire is
towards me.
He's happy with me, he longs for me.
Not just because he's having chosen me, but
he's so happy with what I am.
And now, verse 11, she becomes a co
-worker with him.
She says, Come, my love, let's go out
into the fields.
Let's go into the fields and serve together.
There's a needy world out there.
Let's you and I go together.
My dear brothers and sisters, please listen to
me.
You who want to serve the Lord, don't
go alone.
Don't go alone to the fields.
Go with your beloved.
Build up a relationship with him.
That is how I have served the Lord
all these years.
I walked with him and said, Lord, let's
go out together to the fields.
You and I.
I never want to go anywhere alone.
If you're not going there, I don't want
to go.
You lead, I'll follow.
See, a lot of people decide where to
go and ask the, like the wife, telling,
okay, we're going here, and ask the husband
to come along.
That's wrong.
The husband must say, let's go, and you
come along.
That's why I say, Lord, you tell me
where to go, and I'll just come along
with you, and we'll go together.
Then we don't compare our life or ministry
with anybody else's.
So, she's a co-worker, and verse 12,
she's caring for the vineyards.
See, she's matured now.
Now she's not just thinking of sitting at
the banqueting table and enjoying his love.
She said, let's go, get up early, go
to the vineyards, and let's see whether the
wines have budded.
Let's see how these young believers are doing.
Let's see how the churches are developing.
Have the blossoms opened.
Are the pomegranates in flower?
And there, even there, you and I can
express our love for one another, Lord.
In the midst of all this ministry, I
still want to walk with you.
And, again, Lord, everything I have stored up
there is for you, and you alone, verse
13.
It is for you, my beloved.
And now we go to chapter 8, which
is mature love, longing for perfect union in
heaven.
It's talking about the time when, you know,
when we'll be raptured, verse 5.
Who is this coming up from the desert
of the earth, leaning on her beloved?
This is the time when Jesus comes again,
and the bride will be united, leaning upon
the bridegroom, just like John leaned upon the
breast of Jesus when he comes again, and
we'll be united with him.
This is talking about that time of rapture.
And she asks for a permanent place on
his heart and arm, in verse 6.
Put me as a seal over your heart,
tells the bridegroom, and like a seal on
your arm.
Lord, I never want to be separated from
you.
I want to be like a seal on
your heart and like a seal on your
arm.
Like a tattoo that people have on their
arms.
Lord, I want to be like that, on
your arm and in your heart.
All the time.
A permanent place with you forever.
And here he speaks about love and jealousy,
verse 6.
Wherever there is love, there is jealousy.
Jealous that I don't want anybody else to
own you.
You are mine alone.
And the Lord is very jealous that you
should not love money, that you should not
love the world, that you should not love
yourself, you should not love anything on this
earth.
He is jealous.
Where there is love, there is jealousy.
He wants you for himself.
Totally.
And this is the only place in this
Bible where the word Lord comes.
Jealousy is an enduring as the grave.
Love flashes like the fire, the brightest kind
of flame, or the flame of Yah.
The flame of the Lord.
It's the only place in the Bible where,
only place in the Song of Songs, where
the word God comes.
The Lord's name comes there.
Many floods cannot quench this love.
Verse 7.
The waters cannot drown it.
And in verse 9, it speaks about a
girl who can be like a wall or
a door.
A wall is one who is very open,
sorry, reserved.
A door is one who is open.
You know, some girls are like doors.
You can walk right in.
Some girls are like walls, reserved.
A godly woman will be like a wall,
reserved.
But if a girl is like a door,
then we have to sort of cut her
off from other men by building a fortress
around her.
If a father has got daughters like that.
Verse 11 speaks of the rewards that the
Lord will give in the final day to
different people who have served Him.
And finally it says in verse 14, Come
quickly, come Lord Jesus.
I'm waiting for you to come.
Please come quickly.
And the Lord also says in verse 13,
I'm waiting to hear your voice.
What a beautiful song.
I want to encourage all of you to
live in the good of it all your
days in your married life and in your
relationship with Jesus.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we want to live like this
and walk like this with You.
Devoted to You.
Rejoicing in Your devotion to and love for
us all our days.
In Jesus' name, Amen.