0:01 Welcome once again to the Words of Life program. Today we are going to study the Song of Solomon in our study through the Bible. Does this have a message for us today? 0:22 Many Christians are embarrassed embarrassed to read this book because they have a wrong understanding of it. Most people think that matters related to sex must never be talked about. And that's why a lot of young people who 0:43 never hear any teaching on this in the church go completely astray in this area. It may not be an important issue for you parents, but it's a very important issue for your teenage boys and girls. If you don't have the correct 1:06 understanding of it, and you don't communicate it correctly to your children, they're going to go astray because they're going to get the wrong information from the worldly people. Sex was not created by the devil. 1:31 The desire for sexual union was created by God. That's what God created in animals and God created it in man also. But the difference between animals and man is this. Animals cannot control it. 1:53 But man is given the ability to control it. And when we become Christians, we can we have the power of the Holy Spirit to control it even more. If you don't control it, we descend to 2:11 the level of animals. Man has the ability by God's grace to be faithful to one woman. You don't need to be a Christian to do that. 2:30 There are multitudes, millions and millions of non-Christian people who are very faithful to their wives. And when people who claim themselves to be Christians are not faithful to their wives, I would say they're not even Christians. 2:53 They're only Christians in name. For how can they be Christians when a non-Christian is faithful to his wife and this fellow who calls himself a Christian is not? So, who created the sexual function? God. 3:14 And when he created he said in Genesis 1:31 it's very good. What we learn from this book is the sexual function is very good in marriage and very essential. It's evil outside of marriage. Even the thought of it is evil outside 3:37 of marriage. That's the correct biblical position. So, people who got all their ideas of sex from the cinema think it's totally evil. And a lot of people think this is sort 3:58 of a necessary evil just to have children. That's all. God certainly gave the sexual function to have children. He also gave it so that man and woman could enjoy it with each other. Not only for children. 4:20 And many women particularly just don't understand that. Even Christians. Because they don't know the Bible. They only know what they read and seen in the cinemas. Many Christian women need to have their mind renewed to understand sex according 4:37 to the Bible and not according to the cinema. Just like many men also need to have their understanding of sex from scripture. And we can talk about it in a pure holy 4:56 way. The second thing we see in this book is that our relationship with Jesus Christ must be as intimate and warm as that of a loving bride with her bridegroom. When God created the sexual function in 5:20 Adam and Eve, he told them to use it multiply. And if God has said in the first page of the Bible it's very good. Very good. 5:38 Genesis 1:31 That's the last word on that subject. We don't have to hear any more from anybody else. But what we learn from the Song of Solomon is that the an unselfish love 5:58 for your partner is what makes the sexual act really meaningful in marriage. You can say you're faithful to your wife. But sexual love even within marriage 6:18 without any sexual action in act in marriage without love is just is fleshly. A sexual union must come out of love. Like many other things that God has created, Satan has used what God has 6:37 created to promote his own purposes. We must remember what God says. What God has cleansed, don't call unclean anymore. And here's a good test for you who are 6:54 Christian husbands and wives. To see whether your mind is got the understanding of sex from the Bible or from the world. How many of you married Christian 7:12 married couples would be willing to read Song of Solomon to each other as husband and wife? Where the man reads the man's part and the woman reads the woman's part. Would you be embarrassed to do that? 7:34 I'm not saying in public. In private. I mean in your home. If you're embarrassed to do that, then you got a wrong understanding of sex. You can't even read the Bible to each other. If you think you are holier than God, 7:55 you got to be crazy. That's not holiness. That's Phariseeism. So, every It's good if every married couple reads this 8:12 and appreciates each other like that. And above all, we must read this book to deepen our relationship with Christ. One of the things we learn from this 8:31 book is the importance of communication in marriage. This book is a very realistic book. Even though it's speaking about an engaged couple, consider it like a married couple. 8:59 There are ups and downs in their experience like in all marriages. There are times when there are no feelings of love. But in those times, true love comes out triumphant. So, this book is a very down-to-earth, 9:17 practical book on love and sex in marriage. Don't spiritualize it and look at it only as a picture of Christ and the church. Certainly, during the thousand years before Christ when it was in the Bible, 9:36 they didn't look at it that way. In Revelation 14 and verse 3, we read about the bride that follows the lamb wherever he goes. And it says there that that bride 9:54 learned a song. Here is a song. A song of love for her bridegroom. Your ministry for the Lord should not be the most important thing in your life. Your love for the Lord must be primary. 10:16 What we see in the Song of Solomon is a growth of that love for the of the bride for the bridegroom. This is the song of the bridegroom and the bride. This is the song that Jesus sings to us. 10:35 And that we need to sing to him. You remember what the Lord told the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2. You do a lot of good things, but you don't love me as you did at first. You left your first love. 10:54 That's the complaint the Lord has against that church. You have lost your first love. So, think about that here. Here is a song that speaks of a love that not only didn't go away, but kept on increasing 11:13 by the time you reach the end of the book. In Proverbs 6 of divine wisdom, Ecclesiastes speaks of human wisdom. And Song of Solomon, the third book written by Solomon speaks of divine 11:33 love. In the first chapter we see the beginnings of that love. And then as we go on that growth that love grows. Finally, it becomes a very mature type 11:53 of love. There's a lot of difference between what the world calls love and what God calls love. You know, when the world talks about falling in love they think about a boy and a girl 12:13 falling in love with each other. All the cinemas and movies are based on that. Somebody love with somebody else. Sometimes somebody is in love with some person who's married to somebody else. That is not love. 12:38 This is this is just human infatuation. It's not divine love. We're not supposed to love Jesus like that. The essential difference between human love and divine love is this. Human love is selfish. 13:00 Divine love is selfless. When a boy and a girl say they love each other it's selfish love. The boy wants something from that girl. Which will give him some pleasure. And the girl wants something from the 13:20 boy. Or her security or money or something like that. It's selfish both ways. That's why when God wants to describe his love for man, he doesn't take the example of a husband 13:42 and wife. He says in Isaiah 49:15, "Can a mother forget her sucking child?" No. She may forget everything else. And the Lord says even they may forget, 14:00 but I won't forget you. So, when God wants to describe his love, he doesn't take example of a man and a woman. He takes the example of a love of a mother for its newborn child. That is 14:21 selfless. That child may be handicapped. That child causes a lot of inconvenience to the mother. And it gives nothing in return. Demanding, demanding time, demanding 14:38 attention all the time. And the mother keeps on serving that child with no hope of return. Which man will love a woman like that? That love of a mother for a child is the 14:57 example of divine love. In the early years of marriage, husband-wife love is like a human selfish love. Man wants sexual pleasure and the woman wants security. But as grow in maturity 15:27 that's not the main thing. They become more and more unselfish and begin to care for one another. So Jesus' love for man was like that. He wasn't thinking, "What can I get from man?" He was thinking, "What can I give to 15:45 man?" Like the psalmist said, "I don't desire anything, Lord, but you yourself." So let's look at chapter 1. The Song of Solomon, verse 1, it's called the Song of Songs which is Solomon's. So what do we learn from this? 16:08 This is primarily the song of the bridegroom and not the song of the bride. So this is bridegroom singing to us. We love him because he first loved us. And the first part here talks about 16:30 falling in love. And the girl says in verse 4, "Draw me and let us run after you." You know, true love draws a person. God doesn't push people. The devil 16:50 pushes people. When a preacher pushes people saying, "Why can't you do this?" and "Why don't you do that?" and "Why don't you do that?" he's just following the devil. Jesus doesn't do that. 17:09 He draws people by his own example. He himself lives in a certain way. He draws people to himself. This is one of the most wonderful things about the Lord. That he draws us to himself. And that's how a husband should be in 17:31 his towards his wife. Pushing her, pushing her, do this, do that, do the other thing. Notice here in verse four the bride calls her beloved my king. We must know Jesus is our king before we 17:53 can know him as our bridegroom. You can't enter into a real loving relationship with the Lord if you don't know him as your king. And we read here in Song of Solomon in 18:11 chapter 1. He says, "I'm dark, verse five, but I'm lovely." So obviously she's not very attracted. The bridegroom has chosen a girl who's 18:29 not very attractive. That's amazing. Very few bridegrooms will choose a black girl. She says, "I'm black here." In here in the pen she says, "I'm black here." Why 18:47 did the Lord choose a black girl? Because he looked at the heart. And he saw loveliness in the heart. There were many other prettier women in Jerusalem, but the bridegroom here chooses this one. And the security this woman had is that 19:09 even though she's dark, she's attractive to her bridegroom. The Lord rejoices over us with shouts of joy. He She says to the uh 19:28 daughters of Jerusalem saying, "Don't stare at me verse 6 because I'm dark and black." It doesn't matter what you think about me. But God loves me. That's a great comfort we have. 19:47 God didn't love you because you're very attractive. He loved you because he just loved you. There's no reason for it. And then he says, "They made me the keeper of the vineyards but my own vineyard I have not kept." In verse 6 20:03 last part. My vineyard is my own life and my walk with God. Common mistake that many preachers make. They take care of the Lord's vineyard 20:25 but they don't take care of their own vineyard. In other words, they're taking care of the ministry but not of their own life. Paul told Timothy, "Take care of yourself first before you can and then you're teaching to others." 20:48 In verse 7, she asks the bridegroom, "Where do you make your flock to rest? I'd like to be there." Why should I go to uh the flocks of your companions? See, she's looking to be with her 21:07 bridegroom. I don't She doesn't want to go to a flock of people where her bridegroom is not there. I don't want to go to a church with just because there's good music. I want to go to a church where the Lord 21:26 is there. And here then the bridegroom says, "How beautiful you are." He expresses his admiration for her. Uh he doesn't just say that, he 21:47 expresses it in different ways. And there are many women who never hear such words from their husband. Imagine a bridegroom telling a black bride, "You are really beautiful to me." Is that important? 22:13 If the Lord says that to us and we find comfort in that, why can't husbands say that to their wives? The devil is always discouraging God's people. And 22:32 God is there to tell us He loves us. And we need that security to know that God loves us. I'll tell you many women need that security, too. Knowledge that they are loved by their 22:50 husbands. And vice versa. When the bridegroom says in verse 15, "How beautiful you are." She says in verse 16, "How handsome you are, my beloved." There's tremendous value in this mutual 23:14 appreciation. It's not just kept in the heart, but expressed. In our Indian culture, unfortunately, we don't give expression to these things. Well, if you don't do it, you're 23:33 un-Christ-like. The Bible shows very clearly that Jesus expresses his appreciation to his bride. And the bride also expresses her appreciation to Jesus. What do we do on Sunday mornings when we 23:56 praise the Lord? And if that is a picture of Christ and the church, if husband and wife relationship on earth is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church, then surely there must be mutual 24:14 expressions of appreciation towards one another. And that's one theme that runs right through the book of Song of Solomon. Where the husband and wife, the bride and bridegroom are so eager to express 24:31 their appreciation to each other. And I believe we must learn from this in the church, too. In the church, we need to express and our appreciation for one another. We must not be just 24:52 thinking of ourselves. That's a good lesson to begin with. So, let's learn that. God expresses our love for us. We express our love to God. And every husband and wife express their 25:09 appreciation for one another in words. May God help you. Amen. Welcome to Words of Life. In our study going through the Bible, we 25:29 have now reached the Song of Solomon. This is the song of the bridegroom and the bride. A picture of Christ and the church. And also applicable to every husband and 25:48 wife that seek to live in a godly Christian way. This teaches us that physical attraction between husband and wife is God-given. If it's kept within the bounds of 26:10 marriage, it's holy. When it goes outside, it's sinful even if it's only in your thoughts. We need to establish this truth very clearly in 26:30 Christian homes. A Christian husband and wife must grow in love for each other. Unfortunately, this is not so in many Christian homes. Just like our love for Christ must 26:53 increase. Just like I love for Christ must increase. Husband and wife, our love for each other must increase. This must grow out of this selfish 27:09 human infatuation to divine love. That's what we see in the Song of Solomon. one we see the beginnings of love. And then chapter 2 to 6, we see it 27:29 growing. Then a mature love in chapter 8. And we see here the bride and bridegroom expressing their admiration for each other. In chapter 2 verse 1, the bride says, 27:54 The bride says, I'm only a rose of Sharon. I'm only a lily in the valley. It's important to know, even though most Christian songs teach wrongly, these words refer to the bride. It's not the bridegroom. 28:23 It's the bride saying, "I'm only a rose in Sharon. I'm just an ordinary lily among the valley." But the bridegroom replies saying, "Yes, you may be a only just a lily, but you're a lily in the midst of thorns." And then the bride goes on to say, 28:47 uh like an apple the young men. And he, verse four, he has brought me to his banqueting hall, so that everybody can see how much he loves me. When the prodigal son came back, the 29:08 father set him at a banqueting table. Jesus would often sit around a table with his disciples. When he says, "I stand at the door and knock," he says, "I'll come in and dine 29:27 with you." Here we see this table speaks of fellowship. And it's only after that that the bride and bridegroom go to the fields. Don't ever go to the fields of ministry 29:48 before you've sat at the table and had fellowship with the Lord. And when the bride says in verse five, "I'm lovesick," what is what she's saying is "Lord, you're everything to me. I don't need anything else." Nothing in the world attracts me 30:15 anymore. In verse seven is a verse that all young people should bear in mind. It says here, in the latter part of that verse, "Don't stir up 30:31 or awaken love until the right time." Don't let your emotions be awakened in loving someone of opposite sex until God's time. You can't avoid having feelings. 30:53 It's just like the desire God wants you to keep them under control. We're not to be like the animals that just let loose without any control. Whenever the devil sees a young man or 31:12 woman who's zealous for God, the devil fears this person is going to be a threat to my kingdom. He will try to destroy him or her by getting married to some carnal worldly 31:31 person. The devil's very smart there, and he's not succeeded many times. Wonderful brothers have ruined their ministry by marrying the wrong person. Wonderful sisters have ruined their 31:55 ministry by marrying the wrong man. Don't stir up love until the right time. And there's another little warning that the 32:12 bridegroom gives here. Tells the bride, "Catch the little foxes, verse 15, that are ruining our vineyards." It's easy to see the big foxes that come 32:30 in and ruin our vineyards. Those are the obvious sins that are very easy to detect. We got to be careful about the little sins. They are more dangerous because they are 32:48 not easily noticed. You don't have to fear adultery. Because that's such an obvious sin. You got to fear the habit of gossiping because you can indulge in that and not even feel it's a sin. Laziness can be more dangerous than 33:11 telling lies. To sign a false statement, you may not never do that in your life. But you can be lazy and not even realize that that's hindering your fellowship with Jesus. It's the same in marriage. 33:34 Between husband and wife, it's not so much they hitting each other, but the little little irritations that can cause problems between them. So just like a wise farmer would watch its vineyard and its fields, we need to 33:52 watch our relationship with the Lord and with our marriage partner. And we read in chapter three 34:11 how even when she's at bed, this bride is longing for her bridegroom's presence. And that's a good way to go to bed and get up from bed. Longing for the presence of our heavenly 34:28 bridegroom. And the marriage with a deep longing for one another. And since the bridegroom was not there, he says, "I must go and look for him in the city." And 34:48 she looks around and she doesn't find him initially. And she asks the watchman, verse three of chapter three. This could refer to elders in churches who may not have a great longing for 35:07 Christ themselves. Like the preachers in the book of Job. They don't have the devotion to Christ that this young believer may have. So, such elders can't guide a young 35:27 brother who is zealous for the Lord. I would say to all young brothers and sisters, don't go to elder brothers who don't have a passionate devotion to Christ. They won't be able to guide you like these watchmen couldn't guide this 35:46 bride. She had to leave them and then she found him. She says, "I held on to him and wouldn't let him go." It's a very sad testimony that in Christendom today it's very rare to find 36:06 elder brothers who can guide young people into a life of devotion to Christ. Many of them who can teach you the Bible and how to engage in evangelism, but not how to be devoted to Christ. You don't somebody else. You can go 36:30 directly to Jesus yourself. And in chapter 4 we see the bride speaking most of the time. And we also see the bridegroom saying how beautiful you are, my darling. And 36:49 there's a long passage of appreciation of the bride. This is the bridegroom speaking all the whole chapter almost. about the bride. 37:11 And you can see here how the Lord appreciates us. And there's an invitation here which we could apply spiritually in chapter 4 verse 8. Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. And 37:30 may you come with me from Lebanon, and let's go up to the summit of these mountains and look down from there. This is a picture where the Lord is inviting us up into the heavenlies to look at things from his standpoint. 37:54 In verse 12 the bridegroom speaks of the bride as a locked garden. Something exclusively for the Lord himself. Can the Lord say to you that you are my 38:11 private garden, exclusively mine? There are many things out in that can attract us that can draw us away from our 38:28 bridegroom. We can look at all those attractions in the world like men trying to draw us away from our bridegroom. If you want to understand the 38:48 scriptures, you must have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. And it's the last verse where finally the bride speaks. The whole chapter the bridegroom has been speaking. And the bride says, "O north wind, O 39:11 south wind, come make my garden breathe out fragrance. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his choice fruit." See, the north wind speaks of winds of suffering, trial, 39:31 adversity. It's a cold wind. And the south wind are winds of prosperity and happiness and blessing. Warm winds. 39:53 And it doesn't matter which of these winds blow. The result is the same. And the way that it is the fragrance of Christ that goes out of our life to our beloved Lord Jesus. And that's the mark of growing to 40:11 maturity. Whether we go through trial or through prosperity, it's the same. The spirit of thanksgiving and praise comes forth from us in all circumstances. And he says, "Let my beloved come and 40:35 have this fruit." In other words, everything that comes forth from my life is not to show other people. It's only for the Lord. For him to receive from us. So, then we move on to chapter five. 40:56 And here we see something more concerning devotion of the the bridegroom accepts this invitation to come into the garden. And he says, "I've come into my garden." And uh 41:14 he calls it my garden, my sister, my bride. He knows that this person belongs exclusively to him. And then he invites others saying, "Eat friends, come and eat from my garden." And that's how the Lord invites others 41:35 to be blessed through us. And as we grow in maturity, our life begins to bless many other people. In chapter five, verse two onwards, we see an experience that's very common to all of us. The bridegroom comes and calls us for 41:59 fellowship at a time which is not very convenient for us. You know, the Lord may call us suddenly at times when we are doing something else. You see that in the Old Testament sometime God would say, "Abraham, Abraham." And always Abraham would immediately 42:22 reply, "Yes, Lord." Or "Samuel, Samuel." And he would respond. We must be ready to respond anytime God calls us. Uh we see from scripture that he can 42:41 come at odd times. And so, here the beloved comes, the bridegroom comes knocking at the door. But the bride says it's not convenient for me to come and fellowship with you now. I changed my clothes. 43:04 And I've already washed my feet. And I'm in bed now. And I can't get up. And then after some time, she feels maybe she should get up and fellowship with him. And by the time she got up 43:22 and went the bridegroom had disappeared. He said, "I opened verse six, chapter five, six. I opened my beloved, but he had gone away." And my heart went out to him as he spoke. I searched for him, but I did not find 43:43 him. Now, when you hear words like this, all that we've been speaking about, is that a strange language to you? I want to tell you something that this is the essence of true Christianity. It's not just learning doctrines and 44:07 getting engaged and being engaged in evangelism. If your relationship with Jesus is not like that described in this Song of Solomon, you can do 101 things for him. 44:29 The Lord will say you have left your first love and I'm not interested. When the Lord invites us, he tests us to see whether we'll drop everything to seek fellowship with him. And that's what we see here. 44:48 That she didn't find him and he she finally decided to seek him at her convenience. And when you decide to seek the Lord at your convenience and not when the Lord calls you, you may not find him. The Bible says seek the Lord when he can 45:13 be found. And she goes to the women of Jerusalem and says, "If you find my beloved, tell him I'm looking for him." And then she begins to describe how beautiful her 45:30 beloved is. Finally, the bride finds her beloved in chapter 6 verse 3. And she says, "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." In chapter 6 verse 3. 45:52 Now, this is different, if you notice, from chapter 2 verse 16. There, she said, "My beloved is mine and I am his. Notice the difference here. Chapter 6, verse 3. 46:12 She says, "I am my beloved's." That comes first. In a immature state, we think, "Oh, the Lord is mine." We think, "What can he do for me?" But as we mature, that changes. And we begin to say, "Oh, I belong to 46:35 the Lord." I think more about what the Lord can get out of me. More than what I can get out of the Lord. Like little children, they're always thinking what they can get from their parents. Older children think of what they can do 46:54 for their parents. Then the bridegroom expresses his appreciation again for the bride, chapter 6. 4 through 10. And in verse 10, he compares his bride 47:12 to an army in the last part of verse 10. So, the bride is not a soft girl who's helpless. Like a warrior who's ready to fight the devil. And then finally, we come to the mature 47:35 stage of love for the bride for the bridegroom, chapter 7. And again, we find the bridegroom appreciating the bride first. And now the bride says in chapter 7 and 47:53 verse 10, something even more. A higher plane than even what we read in chapter six. Here, she's saying I am my beloved's. But 48:12 now she's not saying the Lord is mine. But she's saying his desire is for me. That means he's happy with me. Not that they he's mine. So you see these three stages. 48:31 Now she's gone further. The Lord is happy with her. And then in verse 11 she says, "Come my beloved." Now she's saying to the bridegroom, "Let's go to the fields together." She is concerned with her bridegroom for 48:49 the needy fields of the world. That's the way we are to serve the Lord. Say, "Lord, I want to go with you. I don't want to go alone." I want to go with you. Wherever you want me to go. And there we see further in chapter 49:11 seven verse 12 it says, "Let us rise early and go to the vineyard." She's not just sitting at the table enjoying fellowship. And then chapter eight expresses the bride's longing for perfect union with her beloved in heaven. 49:34 "Put me on your heart." She says, "Like a a seal upon your heart." In verse six. She never wants to be separated. She wants to have a permanent place in his heart. And she says 49:53 she's jealous for this love for the Lord. It's like the flame of the Lord verse six. In the Hebrew that's the one place where the word Jehovah comes there. Love for the Lord is like a fervent 50:11 flame. And then finally she has a concern for her younger sisters. Concern that her younger sister should grow spiritually. And she's concerned whether her younger sister is going to be like a wall verse 50:31 nine or like a door. That's a good advice for sisters, young sisters. You must be like a wall otherwise men will take advantage of you. Don't be like a door and inviting them. 50:54 And finally we conclude with the prayer come Lord Jesus come quickly verse 14. That is how we are to wait for our bridegroom. Amen. Amen.
