Song of Solomon: Marital Love as God Intended

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Open your Bibles if you would to Song of Solomon. If you have not read this ahead of time, then that's your fault. But the title of the message is, “Marital Love as God Intended.” Marital Love as God Intended. You know, as we come to the Word of God each week, the goal is the same. No matter what book we go to, it is to exposit or to reveal the purpose of the text, to reveal the message within the text, so that we can understand what God has to say about any particular topic. Even this one.

Love as you know has fallen, I guess you could say, on hard times. I think the reason is, is people are looking for love in all the wrong places. They look online, at the mall, and social apps, TV shows, commercials, all these things influence us. And yet we still continue to take them in. We seek advice from anyone savvy enough to put a video online and claim to be an expert or an influencer. They look to others for advice just because they seem to have an altogether or seem to have a good marriage. They read books on it by authors simply because the authors are best sellers. Parents have a difficult time teaching their children about it because maybe it's embarrassing, or maybe because they themselves don't have a clue. Pastors think couples don't really need premarital counseling because well, they're not on drugs or murdering anyone, yet.

Biblical love though, should not be elusive. We should not be scared to discuss what Scripture discusses. It should be clear and attainable. It should be given, not demanded. Appreciated, not taken for granted, cultivated, not assumed, and understood and desired. When people get married, they have many expectations, of course. But what is interesting to me is that most of them – in fact, I've never met, well, maybe one couple has – I've never met a couple who has read through, understand, and studied this book, The Song of Solomon. What this book brings is a healthy dose of the joy to be found in the physical relationship in marriage. Yes, the whole sermon is about that because the whole book is about that.

To give you a little idea of the structure of this book, so you can understand it. It's made up of about 20 love poems. Okay? The language is very poetic. It's most commonly understood as being written by Solomon. Look in Song of Solomon 1:1, “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's.” What does that mean? Why Song of Songs? Well Solomon wrote over 1,000 songs. That title means this is his best one. Song of Songs is a superlative, it's like to the highest degree. It's like holy of holies. It's not just the holy place, it's the holy of the holies. This is the Song of Songs. This is the best one that he has ever composed. I must warn you though, though it is carefully nuanced with veiled imagery. At times, it is very direct. While I have chosen my words carefully, the prudish among us may blush. You can look up prudish later.

The setting is instructive as well. The settings here are not just settings to talk about the husband and the wife and their dialogue together. The settings are instructive. They connotate circumstances. There is the palace setting and the rooms there. There is the countryside. And knowing what setting you're in, as we're reading some of this together today, will help you understand what is going on. They have dialogue about how they will spend time together and talk together and what they think about each other. They will describe each other in ways that maybe you have yet to describe your spouse. But instead of just telling you about it, let's read some of it together. No, we're not going to do responsive reading. I'm going to read it. And you're going to listen.

Song of Solomon 1:1-4, “The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's, Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine; your anointing oils are fragrant; your name is oil poured out; therefore virgins love you. Draw me after you; let us run. The king has brought me into his chambers.” Look at verse seven [Song of Solomon 1:7-10], “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions? If you do not know, O most beautiful among women, follow in the tracks of the flock, and pasture your young goats beside the shepherds’ tents. I compare you, my love, to a mare among Pharaoh's chariots. Your cheeks are lovely with ornaments, your neck with strings of jewels.”

Is this how you guys talk to each other at home? “I love your pomegranate cheeks, sweetheart.” Well, the language here is very poetic for a reason. And I believe it's quite impossible to wrangle out of this text, some understanding of Christ and the church. Which I will spend some time this morning proving to you why I think that is not the right interpretation. But when you look at this, you have to teach yourself and train yourself to understand poetic language in order to understand what's going on. So, for instance, in verse seven, what is going on in verse seven? Quite simply, the woman wants to know where he is. Tell me where you pasture your flock. Tell me where you are. The woman wants to be with him. Chapter one, verse eight. He doesn't actually tell her where he is. He says follow in the tracks of the flock. In other words, you know, I'm going to be out with the flock. Follow me, follow the tracks, and find where I am. This is a banter back and forth between the bride and the man. This is pretty typical all throughout this incredible book of the Bible.

Now if you're sitting here and you're going, “I'm single, I don't know what's in this for me.” Well, let me tell you turn to Song of Solomon 2:5-7. “Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand embraces me. 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.” What in the world is she talking about? Well, let me point you towards the point I want to make from the few verses at the end of verse seven. The imagery is pretty clear, I think, in the verses before that. But in verse seven, it says, “[do’ not stir or awaken love until it pleases.” If you are not married, this is your verse. It also repeats itself in Song of Solomon 3:5 and Song of Solomon 8:4. It is a refrain that is put in here over and over again. And I think this is one of the main reasons why the world is addicted to pornography and all kinds of other stuff. Why there's, I mean, just imagine if intimacy and marriage was relegated only to marriage that would, in and of itself solve most of the abortion problems in the world.

So yes, I think Scripture is significant. But the idea is that if you're not married, then don't try and awaken that which is forbidden. Don't try and awaken love when it should be slumbering. And if you let it slumber, it will awaken just fine at the proper time. That is what the bride here is trying to communicate. Oh, Daughters of Jerusalem, the singles, the ones who would like to be married, but are not yet. Notice here also this refrain. It's in its poetic features in verse seven. She adjures them, by who? Not by God, but “by the gazelles or the does of the field.” Now, I think the Lord is mentioned here in Scripture. But it's interesting that she says, you know, “I adjure you by these other things.” And you'll come to understand what those mean, as you read through Solomon, as you read through this book.

Singles, were not done with you yet. Sometimes we can see everyone – speaking relationally as a single person would. Sometimes we can see everyone as a potential mate. And then you wonder, whenever you start doing that – age 13,14,15 – why it's so difficult to then go through age 16,17,18,19, 20,21 as a single. When you’re always like, “Oh, I wonder if that's who I'm going to marry? Oh, I wonder if that's who I'm going to marry?” And you're just constantly bombarding yourself with these ideas that are fine to have, but should not define you. You see, what should define you, as we read this morning earlier in the Grace Equip in 2 Corinthians 5, is that we are ambassadors for Christ. That we make it our aim to please the Lord. That because, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. These are the things by which we are known. And while yes, it is good and appropriate to pursue someone, of the opposite sex. Keep that in mind. In the proper time. That should not define who you are. Anymore than that relationship in marriage should define a married person. And I think our society has done you a disservice to make you think that is your greatest goal in life. No, your greatest goal is to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 119:9-11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Notice the deepest desires of David's life were between him and God. That is always the case: married, single, widowed, whatever state in life you're in. Even if you're five years old. Your goal in life should be to pursue the Lord Jesus Christ. And I just want to ask you, is that your goal? Is that the sum total of who you are? That you wake up just wanting to please God and God alone. The world will try and put something else in front of you. But friends, God wants himself and his Word, to be the consuming passion of your life. And as that is the consuming passion of your life, God will then add these other things according to his will and in the appropriate times. But if you get that mindset wrong, you're just asking for daily struggles. Win the battle of the mind and love will slumber until its proper time.

Moving on to chapter three, Song of Solomon 3:1, “On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.” Again, this is pretty straightforward. She is looking for him. Does that kind of rub your Christian morality and your whole courtship culture – which the main person who wrote about courtship, you know, in the 2000’s has now left the faith – but, does that rub your courtship the wrong way? That she is pursuing him? Friends, the Word is true and glorious in all that it has to say. And yet I think sometimes we let even the Christian cultural scene tell us what we should think. But yet here we see, it is so obvious, “I sought him, but found him not.” We need to be okay with what Scripture actually says. Not just what we want it to try and say. Now this is in the relationship of marriage. But I think you would be hard pressed to say that a woman is not allowed to scripturally pursue a man.

Chapter four. We're going to be in verse 11. But let me summarize Chapter Four for you. Lest I empty the place all at once. After a long description of his bride in chapter four, describing her eyes, her hair, her teeth, guys, do you do that? Do you describe your wife's teeth? Her lips, her neck, etc. He says this in Song of Solomon 4:11, “Your lips drip nectar, my bride; honey and milk are under your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.” I’m sure Lebanon was a good smelling place. Chapter four is an invitation from the man to the woman.

Now, I must say, as I said before, that some people take this whole book to be about Christ and the Church. There's a reason why the word prude used to be synonymous with Puritan. If you look that word up in the dictionary, Puritan is one of the definitions. That is people who are made queasy by this topic easily. Intimacy is now thought of in such negative terms that people who know better for centuries have tried to describe this book as something that it's not. The Church has not been mentioned in the Old Testament. Jesus Christ specifically, has not been mentioned. Yet they say over and over again, this is all about it. So, your lips drip nectar. Is that even appropriate to think of how Christ and his love would be conveyed to the Church. Let me remind you, though, that this is the inspired Word of God given for people to understand God's view of intimacy, and I would encourage you to read this book. Intimacy is not bad, or dirty, or repulsive. It is lovely and to be cherished. And contrary to what the world says, a husband and wife will grow in their love for each other over time. Their love will deepen, if they are believers, and their relationship should deepen and their time together more desired.

Now, why do people say this is an allegory? Mostly for two reasons. One, they wanted to constantly have ways to tear down the Catholic establishment, and I'll prove that to you in a minute. Two, they were just embarrassed about the topic, altogether. Right, there was the whole idea that the topic shouldn't be mentioned. That it's just something that must occur for the survival of the human race. But really? Are we going to take allegory and use it as a hermeneutic, as a study method, simply because we don't think something is appropriate? While Jesus isn't mentioned, of course, as you know. Nor is the Church, as you know. Solomon is mentioned, specifically, six times in the book. It's a famous case of using the New Testament, which was written 900 years later, to reinterpret what the original meaning was, in a passage that is clear.

Let me give you an example.1730’s. Jonathan Edwards, brilliant scholar, used analogy to write off all kinds of obvious imagery here in this book. And I caution you, because analogy is a way that people disregard specific ways of looking at Scripture when it says something that seems to be so plain and clear, their presupposed theology doesn't allow them to have that understanding. So, the way to get around that throughout the centuries has been analogy. I know it's flowers, but it couldn't mean flowers, even though we're in a flower shop, that kind of thing.

So, turn back to Song of Solomon 1:5, and let's just take a second to go through an example of this. Because this is very important in how you study and look at Scripture. Chapter one, verse five, this is the female talking. “I am very dark, but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon.” Now, if you are like Jonathan Edwards – look up Yale University, if you want to see his acumen – he takes, “I am dark,” which is actually, “I am black.” I think dark is a better translation because it has nothing to do with race at all. It's simply the color of her skin, it can actually mean coal. He takes dark to mean, meanness and affliction, meanness and affliction. Let me read to you the whole quote where he writes his commentary on this book. Okay? And remember, it used to be translated, “I am black,” that just simply means the color of her skin, it has nothing to do with race. He says, “I am black. This denotes an outward meaning, obscurity and affliction, often denoted by darkness or blackness in Scripture. So, Christ was without form, or comeliness.” Did you? Did you get that connection, when you were thinking about this? Me neither. “This meanness and affliction is in great measure, owing to the contempt and hard usage of false churches, and false professors, which appears very much in their keeping them under and in a state of servitude, to serve their temporal interests and to maintain their worship.”

So, we've already hit the Catholic Church, we've already talked about Christ. “Thus, the Protestants in Popish countries are obliged to help maintain the Romish Church and the dissenters in England,” however, he got that from this, “are forced to pay tithes to the Church of England and among those of the same profession, true Christians are commonly kept under and obliged to serve false professors.” That's what you were thinking when I read that, right? So, you're at a church this morning that takes the plain, literal interpretation of Scripture, unless context denotes otherwise. I did not see the universal, that's what Catholic meant, the universal Church mentioned here. Nor did I see anything about Christ being without form, or attractiveness in here. I didn't see anything about affliction coming from the color of her skin. What I did see in the very next verse was an actual explanation of why she said that.

Look in verse six [Song of Solomon 1:6], “Do not gaze at me because I am dark, because the sun has looked upon me.” She had a dark tan. The sun made her skin dark. That's what that means. You're at a church who uses the content acts to determine meaning. If allegory is your thing for this Book, you won’t enjoy anything I have to say today. They have done this for the last thousand years and called it high theology. What I would say is that philosophical understandings of the theology of Scripture have crept in and have now allowed them to go to their predetermined end. And so, to get to their predetermined end, they have to bring these things in. Spurgeon was guilty of this. Spurgeon did that with this book all the time. I never read Spurgeon on the Song of Solomon, it's not useful. Let me give you an example. You do this automatically, every single day of your life, you use context to determine meaning. Earlier in the service when we said, “let's stand to sing.” What did you think we meant? Let's stand up to sing, right? Did you think, “Oh, he's asking me to allow the love of God to well up and burst forth in my heart”? No, you know, we stand. So we say, “Let's stand to sing.” Or we stand to read the Word of God. So, you didn't automatically think – although the church talks about the heart, and then bursting forth in song, we can sing to one another songs, hymns and spiritual songs – you didn't automatically think that when we said, “Let's stand.” Why? Because you live by a literal hermeneutic, a literal study method.

If I said, “the Scripture is a light unto your path,” how many of you think I'm thinking that the book is a flashlight? But we do this over and over again with Scripture. We do not appreciate what it is trying to say and so we wrangle it out of context and make it mean, something else. Now, Jonathan Edwards and Spurgeon, they're both respectively, a more brilliant theologian, and scholar and preacher than I ever will be. But I would not be in line with them on those things. And if you appreciate the literal hermeneutic, you will not either. Now, if you think that, “a light unto your path” doesn't mean a flashlight, you obviously use the literal hermeneutic and everybody who takes Scripture that way, think so too. When Jesus said, “I am a door.” I don't think because I take it literally that Jesus is trying to say, he's dense like wood, or that he's a piece of wood with a doorknob, right? We understand things in their context. Thank you for obliging me in my little rant, as we preached about this. You can see the tension in my voice, it just baffles me.

But let's go on because there is more to read together. The Song of Solomon 5:4, and let's see if – with our cumulative context and understanding so far – see if you can figure out what is being described. [Song of Solomon 5:4-6] “My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.” Now, what in the world is going on here? Well, I think it's pretty clear. The king came to see his bride. She took so long, I don't know if she started prepping or what, but she took so long to come to the door that he left. That's it. It's not like the Church, Jesus left the Church. Or that somehow this is representative of preparing Jesus for burial. And so, they mentioned myrrh, or Jesus's birth, or any of those kinds of things. This is simply a description of the King coming to see his bride.

Now, guys, if you're taking notes this morning, let me give you some good quotes for you to speak to your bride. Turn to Song of Solomon 6:4, “You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners.” Huh? Ladies, is that good? Well, let me describe what that is actually saying here. Remember, it does mean an army with banners, okay? And that might not sound like much to you but remember where they are. This is Solomon and his bride. They are in the wealthiest kingdom on earth. They walk on gold in the temple. The palace throne is inlaid with gold and then covered like a secondary sub floor. There are servants everywhere. They have pools just to water the forest. They have gardens, they have exotic animals, which you can read about in other books that describe those things. This is opulence, unhinged. And what he is saying is, “My Bride, you are more majestic than all the beauty of this entire kingdom.” See, now it's starting to sound a little better, right?

Song of Solomon 6:5. This impacts the man. “Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me.” Guys, you might want to use that one. Her beauty is so stunning that it overwhelms him. Men, let me just say this very clearly, your wife should feel like the most beautiful person on the planet, unequivocally. And yes, this is the one-time, wives, you can elbow your husband in the service. They should totally feel like the most cherished, the most loved, the most adored, the most served, every single day of their life. Practically speaking, if they don't, someone will make them feel like that at some point when you're not. You want to cultivate your relationship with your bride. Men, specifically, you need to lead in this. If you're single and you're thinking about marriage, the husband needs to lead in this. You need to lead in a safe place, a safe environment. You need to lead your wife spiritually, you need to lead her physically. That doesn't mean, like I said before, that she can never pursue you. But it does mean, you are the one in the family who is leading in all these areas. She should not be more poetic in her description of you, you should. If you like to hunt, I don't know, “You're like the best tree stand.” Try something, you know. See if it works. You might want to say it at arm's distance, in case it doesn't. Solomon had names for his bride. He called her, “my love.” They had a deep relationship. He called her, “my sister.” Your deep family. He called her, “my bride, my dove, my perfect one.” Right? It wasn't just Sarah that said, “my lord.” Solomon called his wife, “my perfect one.”

Women, your husband should feel like you only have eyes for him. Like there is no one else that you would want to spend time with, besides him. That you look forward to being together. If you both work, that you look forward to when you both come home. If you're at home, you look forward to his arrival. Kids you should not scatter when dad comes home because you didn't do the chores. You should run to your father.

But there are more ways they describe each other and it gets better. The second part of verse five, “Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young.” “Sweetie, your smile is so beautiful, you're not missing any.” That's what he's saying. Your molars are beautiful. So, you might want to, you know, update this a little bit, the language. But everybody wasn't getting braces and teeth whitener. Right? So, you can imagine what that would do, this beautiful lady with, you know, the smile and teeth are going everywhere. It was a compliment. It probably took a lot more effort than it takes for you and I to have a nice smile. But he notices.

He notices her hair. It's like when your wife gets her hair done and you don't notice for a week. You are in the doghouse. Big time. He notices her hair. He notices what she looks like. And he tells her. The communication between them is at the level where they can talk to each other about these things. And they welcome it. It's not like, “Oh, you're embarrassing me, stop it.” You know, it should be, “Oh, what else?” That's what it should be like. Verse seven [Song of Solomon 6:7-8], “Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. There are sixty queens and eighty concubines, and virgins without number.” In other words, as the context shows, she is held high above all others. Remember Solomon's Kingdom.

Song of Solomon 6:9-10, “My dove, my perfect one, is the only one, the only one of her mother, pure to her who bore her. The young women saw her and called her blessed; the queens and concubines also, and they praised her. ‘Who is this who looks down like the dawn, beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome [there again] as an army with banners?’” You are beautiful as a sunset he tells her. You're thinking, “Well, the moon's got all kinds of pock marks all over it. What is that all about?” Well, at night, the moon is the only thing lit, right, and so your attention is drawn to its gaze. She outshines them all. And the sun is the brightest in the daytime, even when everyone can see. So I think you can understand these things. We need to cherish our spouse and cultivate the relationship. This book will help you do that.

Yesterday, we drove through the countryside with some friends and we went south of Purcellville. You hop on 32nd Street in Purcellville and drive South, you'll go through civil war battlegrounds. You'll see all kinds of farms. Some of these things are gigantic. They've got barn buildings bigger than, you know, the church here. They're just stunning. Some are made of brick, some of stone, some are really old, and have survived since the 1700s, 1730s, when the area was established. Some of them are brand new. They’re barns with glass doors and windows on them and riding stables and I love just going through the countryside. But every now and then, there would be a little shack or a small tiny house that did not look cared for. The shutters would be just a little off and the paint not done and the grass not trimmed and you can just tell whoever lived there did not like to take care of their house. It looked out of place. It looked uncared for. It looked kind of lonely, not really abandoned completely. But almost set aside.

Your spouse should feel like the beautiful farm, the one that's cared for. When the fence is broken, it's fixed that day. When the paint chips, it's taken care of. They should not feel set aside or ignored for your job, for your pursuits. A biblical, godly marriage takes a lot of work. Can I get an amen, right? Yeah, all the single people like, what? Yeah, it takes a lot of work. It takes a man and a woman who are attentive to each other. Who know the other person's tendencies. Who, when they sin, they're already praying for them. They're not offended every single time they're sinned against as though, “Wow, I can't believe they did that, we've been married so long.” Yeah, you've been married to a sinner for 30 years, have you not figured out they're actually a sinner?

A good marriage takes hard work to communicate. And don't tell me that you don't know how to communicate, guys. Don't give me that excuse. Because you're going to be talking to each other after the service, like trying to get in like, “Oh, who's playing this afternoon?” You know, football games, or whatever your hobby is, or you can talk on and on and on. It's just we need to train our minds, to be devoted to our spouse in such a way that she knows when we speak, we're building her up. She wants to hear us speak not because we're just going on and on about our own things, but because our words are used to be a form of grace in her life. Ephesians 4:29-32. Right? [paraphrase] “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification, according to the need of the moment. So that may give grace to those who hear.” Ladies, when you speak, your husband should be attentive. Not because the honey-do list is, you know, abandoned, but because he loves to hear you praise him. He loves to hear you say kind words to him, to be thankful for him. And in that way, your relationship will grow and you'll be drawn to each other, simply by talking.

If you need help in your marriage, you have plenty of resources here to get that help. If you don't know how to communicate to each other, come talk to one of the elders. Come talk to me. We'll go to the Word of God and see what it says. If your marriage is crumbling, go to the Word of God to be encouraged. Don't place upon your spouse, the joy and the perfection that only comes through Christ. No one can bear that, except Christ alone. But run to the Lord Jesus Christ and let him sustain you. Wherever your marriage is, whatever it looks like.

Song of Solomon 7:10, summarizes this physical love in marriage. Simply put, “I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me.” She is his, “his desire is for me.” Now Solomon obviously didn't always live that way, did he? I would like to ask her later in his life, what she thought of how he lived. But when this was written, it's my view, because of these things, that he was actually living the way he should. She says in Song of Solomon 8:14, “Make haste, my beloved.” In other words, this is something she looks forward to so much, spending time with her husband, that no matter where he is, and no matter what he's doing, she hopes he comes to see her. As you know, intimacy is not to be pursued outside of marriage. It's only to be pursued between a man and a woman. Everything else is a perversion of what God has given. All other forms should be rejected. In fact, our society goes so far as to treat pleasure as truth. That drives them. That's the secret, as you know, to every commercial, this will make you more happy than you are right now. So, buy whatever we're selling. Men pursue relationships with other men because they simply have a feeling that they want to pursue. You can even go so far as to say, “Well, some people think they were born that way.” Well, that's okay. You don't have to dispute that with them. You can just say, “That's fine, you need to be born again.”

Love should never be confused with lust and the constant sin that makes the heart calloused to real joy and real truth in relationships. Much of the Song of Solomon is descriptive language trying to show what this relationship looks like in a marriage. But there are a few verses, in fact maybe two, that actually try and probe the meaning of love. What's the meaning of love? How do we describe this? Look in Song of Solomon 8:6, “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD.”

She wants him to claim her. I want to be known as being yours. That's her desire. Set me “as a seal upon your arm.” Make it official. And she compares love is as “strong as death.” Death will capture everyone at some point. But if you're not careful, biblical love will elude you. She says, “jealousy is fierce as the grave.” These things with great finality, trying to describe what this desire in marriage is. And “the very flame of the LORD.” That's a compound word with Yahweh’s name in it. This is about the strength of love. Song of Solomon 8:7, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.” Biblical love is strong. It's powerful. It's formidable.

Let me ask you, is that what love looks like in your marriage? If not, you've got a whole book that will help you work on it. Love endures. To use the words of 1 Corinthians 13:8, “Love never ends.” Never, ends! So obviously, we have skipped over some of the passages in Song of Solomon. But where does this leave us today? Where does this leave us? Well, let me categorize maybe three groups of people. First, are the young. And you’re like under 18. You're like, “Well, this was one I don't have to think about for a while.” No, let me encourage you as you grow into adulthood, that God's Word is sufficient for all of life and godliness, ALL of life and godliness. There is no older person in the room who doesn't wish they would have had a biblical view of love and marriage earlier.

If you're single, I should not point you to have group Bible Studies on the Song of Solomon. I would point you more towards Ephesians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13. Study these passages. See what biblical love is. See how the marriage relationship is supposed to be held in honor and supposed to work. That will help you win the battle of the mind, which you must win. And if you're married, read this book together and discuss it. Surely, you desire to know and understand the Word of God, right, in your marriage. Read this book. And for all of us, this is not a time to feel bad about how you used to live. This is not a time to feel bad about where you're at in life. This is a time to understand God's design for marriage. And to ask God to help you live according to his Word, trust in his forgiveness for everything that's gone on. And set a course unequivocally to pursue Christ in your marriage from this time forth, until you die. That's what this was all about today. Let's pray.

Father God, we so love that you care about these issues. That you truly have given us all we need for life and for godliness. And that you have set the bar and the standard high. And Lord, we know we don't attain the things described here in the Word. But we want to.

I pray, Lord God, that you would protect the congregation. Protect them from the worldly views of marriage, of relationships, of singleness, of childhood. And instill within us, Lord God, a deep and strong biblical worldview. A deep understanding, Lord God, of your Word. That we might glorify you in all that we do.

Right now, why don't we just take a moment to ask God to help us to pursue Christ, in our relationships? In all of our relationships.

Lord God, help us, guide us. Give us wisdom, I pray, to live for you in all areas of life. In your precious, Holy Name. Amen.