You you you you you We're going to read this morning, or you're going to hear read in your presence, verses 8 through 17. Song of Solomon, chapter 2, verses 8 through 17. And while you're turning there, let me just make a few important comments as we get into the ministry of the Word this morning. Just to be completely transparent with you, I was, thank you, I was planning on starting the book of Matthew, and I still, Lord willing, will do that, but I don't think we're gonna get to it as quickly as I had hoped because as I got into Song of Solomon last week, it really was like flypaper in my hands. I couldn't put it down. I couldn't put it down for a number of reasons, and one of those reasons is that it is immensely practical for our marriages in this congregation, and it's important that we allow the Word of God in every genre in which it comes to us, even poetry. to be a source of motivation, perhaps a fresh source of motivation for our marriages, and poetry has a very, very good way of doing that, has a very powerful way, in fact, of doing that. But more importantly, as we'll see this morning, another reason why I couldn't put it down is because the church has long understood the Book of Solomon not simply as a literal poetic reflection and observation and celebration on the beauties of the relationship of a marriage between a man and a woman, but also as something of an analogy or something of an allegory that the love of Christ has for his church and that the church has for Christ. And we'll look at that in just a moment. So as I thought about this and I've been praying about it, I think we're gonna spend some time in the Song of Solomon. So I hope that it will be a benefit to you. So let's bring our attention then to Song of Solomon, chapter two. And I'm gonna read once again in your hearing verses eight through 17. And just to let you know, the focus of our reflection or meditation on the word this morning will actually be in verse eight and the first part of nine. So Song of Solomon, chapter two, verses eight through 17. Listen carefully. This is the word of the living God. The voice of my beloved. Behold, he comes leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, there he stands behind our wall, gazing through the windows, looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me, arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. For behold, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land. The fig tree ripens its figs, and the vines are in blossom. They give forth fragrance. Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away. Oh, my dove in the clefts of the rock, in the crannies of the cliff, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. My beloved is mine and I am his. He grazes among the lilies until the day breathes and the shadows flee. Turn, my beloved, be like a gazelle or a young stag on cleft mountains. That's far the reading of God's word. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our Lord stands forever. and we are grateful for it. Would you bow your heads with me and let us ask the Lord for help as we come to the ministry of the word this morning. Oh dear Lord and King and Savior and friend, Jesus Christ, speak for your servants, listen. Speak for your servants, listen. We are here, dear Christ, and we want to be transformed. Even those of us that are fighting against that desire this morning, we desire to desire to be transformed. And we pray, Father, that you would push back against our fleshly instinct this morning, the fleshly instinct that we might have to be distracted by something outside these windows, the fleshly distraction that we might have to be distracted by something on our phone, Father, kill those things, murder those things, mortify those things in us and around us that we might be locked in in our hearts and with our minds and with our souls and even with our bodies to the ministry of the Word because as the text says this morning, Father, We hear the voice of the beloved. We want it to be amped up to level 10. We want that voice, Father, the voice of Jesus Christ, to be a singular voice for us this morning. We want Him to be He that ministers to our souls. So Father, would you send the voice of your Son from heaven, Jesus Christ, would you speak loudly, Holy Spirit of God, would you take these words and massage them into our hearts that we might behold and celebrate and lift up and exalt this voice and that this voice might be to us, not simply that which we hear, but that which we do for your honor and your glory, we pray in Christ's name, amen. As I said, poetry has a way of bringing ideas to our minds and our hearts, especially in our marriage relationships, that is fresh. Poetry has a way of bringing out dormant affections and commitments. And I want to say that again. Poetry has a way of bringing out dormant affections and commitments, okay? Because, as I said last week, you know, I can come to you as a husband, I can come to you as a wife, and I could say, wife, submit to your husband, I could say, husband, love your wife, and well, you should, okay? You should do those things, but it's an imperative, it's a command. But there is something in the area of the indicative, the indicative that is dressed up in the garb and the beauty and the splendor of poetry that doesn't need to command because its beauty itself commends. Its beauty itself commends. I see As I read this text, as I look at this beloved relationship between Solomon and his wife, I see something put on display there that is appealing to me. And it's not so much that I want to do it because I have to, it's that I want to do it because, like a moth to a flame, so I am drawn to beauty. I'm drawn to the beauty of a relationship where the soil and the freshness and the air is exquisite. I'm drawn to it. And so I want this morning for us to be drawn to poetry displaying a relationship that points to something else. And what I wanna do this morning is I wanna do three things. Number one, I wanna give you a hermeneutic for how to read Song of Solomon. It's gonna be very quick and dirty. And then number two, I want to apply this text to you on the first horizon. And then secondly, I wanna apply it to the second horizon. You'll understand what I mean by that in a second. So, here's the first thing I wanna say, okay? Three points this morning. Here's point number one. I want you, or I want to commend to you and submit to you what I'm calling a two-horizoned hermeneutic for reading the Song of Solomon. The Song of Solomon has a long and very interesting history of interpretation. In fact, I was just reading the other day Ian Proven, who is a Old Testament prof in Canada, and he wrote just a masterful history of the history of interpretation of Song of Solomon. But again, this is quick and dirty. Some of you, a few of you are gonna come to me and you're gonna be like, you forgot to say this. This is not a lectern, this is a pulpit, okay? So I'm laying the ground so that I can press these things upon your heart. not make you a smarter nerd, okay? So, I wanna give a quick and dirty account of the history of the interpretation of Song of Solomon. There's basically two ways that Song of Solomon has been read. Two ways that Song of Solomon has traditionally, both in Jewish circles and in Christian circles, okay? Judaism before the coming of Christ, okay? So I'm thinking of the rabbinic interpretation that took root in those 400 years of silence between the last prophet of the Old Testament and the coming on the scene of John the Baptist in the New Testament. And then in church or ecclesial interpretation, how we've understood it. And those two ways are this, a literal reading and an allegorical reading. So let's talk first about the literal reading, okay? The literal reading is basically this. We look at the Song of Solomon, we see it's a poetry about love, a reflection on love, and we see it as between a husband and a wife. So it is for, literally, the love and affection and building up of the love relationship between a husband and a wife, okay? So it is there to to spur you on, husbands, to love your wife better and likewise to the wives. And the Jews understood it this way. Some of them did. And in the church, some of them have understood it this way as well. But, of course, there were problems with that because, make no mistake, when you get into the Song of Solomon, though euphemism is used, Sex is mentioned, okay? They don't literally use that word, but they're using poetic language to talk about the sexual intimate relationship between man and wife, and that's a good thing, it's not a bad thing. But early on in rabbinic thought, and certainly early on in Christian thought, they didn't think about sex the way that we do today. They didn't have, in my opinion, a more balanced and healthy approach to it, recognizing that we Christians love our sex just fine within the boundaries of covenant marriage. We're not ashamed of it, we're not afraid of it. In fact, it's something to be celebrated, once again, in the context of marriage. And so, you know, many of you know that what Martin Luther said about marriage is this, or what he said about sex, is he says, it's a necessary evil. It's a necessary sin. You would expect an ex-monk to say something like that, right? But we don't think that way. And the Song of Solomon, I think, commends itself to us to work on that relationship, work on that area in our marriage relationships, and so we should. So many in rabbinic circles and many in church circles have understood literally the love between a husband and a wife, but then a second way to understand it is allegorically. Now listen to me very carefully. Some of you, especially some of you recovering dispensationalists, okay, you hear that word allegory and you go, pfft, you go crazy. No allegory, no, there's no allegory in this place for reading about, let me point something out to you, okay? Not all allegory is bad. Okay, I know that Augustine made a mess of it, I understand that, I get that, but you must understand that in the book of Galatians, I think it's either, I think it's chapter four, last part of chapter three, early part of chapter four, Paul gives a contrast between a covenant connected to Sarah and a covenant connected to Hagar. One was the heavenly Jerusalem and one was the present Jerusalem at that time, or another way to put it is Mount Sinai. The covenant connected with Sarah was the gospel, and the covenant connected with Hagar was law. Law and gospel are being contrasted. And Paul says these two women, allegorically speaking, are two covenants. So what you need to understand is that Paul uses allegory. Just keep that in mind. Paul uses allegory, all right? And it was not uncommon at all when you look at the church fathers for them to use allegory. Now, some definitely went overboard. But, you know, to use a tired, old cliche, don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. There is a place for allegory. So, both in rabbinic circles and Christian circles, The Song of Solomon was seen as an analogy or an allegory of the love between God and his people. So in rabbinic circles, it was the love between God and Israel. And of course, in the church, it's the love between Christ and his church. So how should we understand this? Do we need to pick a side? Do we need to say, look, you either exclusively interpret this literally, it's a physical love between a husband and wife, or you need to understand it allegorically. Well, as is most things in life, such a presentation is what I might call a false dichotomy. You don't have to choose between the two. In fact, I would submit to you this morning that there is a sense in which we should read it both ways. On the first horizon, and I've talked about this before, in its original context, yes, it was a compendium of poetry that celebrated and exalted and even gave instruction via a poetic mode for the love of a husband and a wife, Solomon and his wife or wives, okay? But certainly for us in monogamous relationships, the way that it's intended to be, it's meant to be a celebration of love between a husband and a wife, okay? So on the first horizon, that's what it's meant to be. And Solomon, who I believe wrote it, that was his intention. And he was the original author, if you will, okay? But then on the second horizon, then on the second horizon, after the coming of Christ, we're given a new lens. In light of the coming of Jesus Christ, we look back on all of the Old Testament and we say, there is a secondary level, if you will, a second horizon, if you will, where we understand this Christocentrically. What is being spoken of in some way is speaking of Jesus Christ. And so Song of Solomon on that first level becomes, yes, on this first level, the love relationship between a man and a wife, but then, at the second level between Christ and His church. Now, if some of you or all of you are tracking and you're like, I need scriptural proof to demonstrate that, okay? All you gotta do is you gotta look in your bulletin for a response of reading, okay? And in our response of reading, in Ephesians chapter five, verses 22 through 23, isn't it interesting what Paul did there? Isn't it interesting what Paul did there? What did he do? He gives all these instructions for husbands and wives, right? Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Wives, submit to your husbands as the church submitted to Christ, okay? Husbands, love your wives. Wives, respect your husbands, okay? But then at the very end, what does he say? He says, this mystery, speaking of the relationship between a husband and a wife, and by the way, when Paul says that, this mystery, speaking of the relationship between a husband and a wife, he's hitting on a lot of things in many different ways, right? I mean, kind of in his first century way, he's saying, you know, men are from Venus, women are from Mars, like it's a mystery how God brings two species together that are so different, and yet they are in union together. So this mystery, he says, is profound, And I am saying that it, the marriage relationship, refers to what? Christ and the church. So even under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul takes this concept of marriage and he says, yes, on the one level, it's a very real relationship, but listen, Christians, you who are married, your marriage relationship is a picture of the love of Christ for his church. Now I've said it before and I'll say it again, that is a very tall order. That, men, if you're like, oh yeah, no problem, you're not listening, or you're not paying attention to the things that your wife is saying, or you're not paying attention to the things that you do or fail to do throughout the day and throughout the week, that is a tall order. It should humble you, husbands, it should humble you that in this picture of the gospel we stand in this analogy in the place of Christ, that's weird, but that's what Paul says. Not that we are Christ, but in this picture we play the role of Christ, and as Christ loves the church, so we love our wives. Listen, you can go to school for eight years to be a marriage counselor. And if you get your schooling from secular psychology, you're gonna come out after eight years with absolutely nothing to give to people, nothing. You wanna know why? Because for eight years, they're gonna say, well, Freud thought this, and this guy thought that, and here's a smorgasbord of what everybody believes. And after eight years, you'll be like, well, what's the right answer? Oh, well, you have to figure that out yourself. Guess what? No degree. You can go down to your local Bible bookstore or go online and buy this Bible, and you're gonna have all the answers for marriage right here, okay? Is that a bold claim? It is, it is. But you see, the biggest problems in marriage come down to a matter of motivation and the heart, and Paul addresses that. Paul gets to that. And that's why we as Christians, I don't want us to be prideful about this, but we know how a marriage works. At least we should. So the marriage relationship is analogous to the relationship between Christ and the church, and I believe, and this is, I'm not alone in this, the church has long understood both of these horizons, the first horizon, physically, and then the second horizon, allegorically or spiritually. And so for the rest of the morning, I want to pan out or mine out application on both levels. So secondly, let us consider what I'm calling Overcoming obstacles on the first horizon. Overcoming obstacles on the first horizon. Look at verse eight. Song of Solomon chapter two verse eight. The voice of my beloved, behold he comes, leaping over the mountains, bounding over the hills. I want you to notice first here under this heading how the husband, you husbands, you, how the husband overcomes obstacles in the marriage. Notice first that as the wife is extolling the activity and describing the activity in poetic form of her husband, note that she recognizes that he both talks the talk and walks the walk. Listen to what she says. I hear the voice of my beloved and then I see him doing what? Leaping over mountains and bounding over hills. What picture does this give us husbands of what kind of husbands we are to be? We give more than just talk to our wives, we also give action to our words, right? We do not simply say, wife, I will get to that project, that honeydew list that has been outstanding for four, five, six months, maybe even going on to a year. I'll get to it, I'll get to it, I'll get to it, but for Pete's sake, I gotta watch this cat video on YouTube first. No, no. She hears the voice of her beloved. I am coming. I see the obstacles. I see the mountain. I see the hills. I am coming, my beloved. I am coming to save you. I am coming to comfort you. And then there he comes. Not only does she hear it with her ears, but she sees it with her eyes, ocularly, if I could put it that way, that he is leaping over mountains and bounding over hills. He is coming. Oftentimes, as I said, we give live service to things but we don't do them. The wife praises and celebrates a husband who gives more than just hot air. He works tirelessly. And I want you to notice secondly under this heading that it is the husband who takes dominion We love, I don't know about you, but I love the cultural mandate that God gives to Adam in the garden. Adam, take dominion of all things. Take dominion of all things. Take the bull, buy the horn, this earth, the ground is yours, the animals are yours. Use them for your purposes, Adam. Well, that has never ended. That continues with us. And as we men think about our call to take dominion, it comes down also to our family. In fact, I would say that the family is ground zero for where we take dominion. We begin by taking dominion in our family, and then we flower out from there. A man once came to me after I made a plea to the church some time ago. for men to disciple men. This was years ago. And he came to me and he said, you know, I'd be willing to disciple a young man. I said, okay, let me ask you a question. Do you disciple your family right now? No. I said, okay, listen. You start discipling your family, okay? And once you get that down, you come back and talk to me about discipling somebody else. Talk about getting our priorities mixed up, right? We don't start, by the way, that's hypocrisy, we don't start by going out and putting things on the mantle of what we're doing in the kingdom of God, I'm discipling this guy, I'm involved in this Bible study, while your family is languishing spiritually at home. We don't do that. That is hypocritical dominion taking and not real dominion taking. We start in ground zero of our family and we flower out from there. And you know, this is why Paul tells Timothy, he says, look, a man who is serving as an elder, he must have ownership over his home. He must have his household in order. Why? Because somebody who can't manage his own household has no right being a leader in the household of God. Now look, you may not be an elder man, but that still applies to you. You start in your dominion taking at home, and you take the bull by the horns. You set a time aside for family worship. You set a time aside for praying with and over your family. You set a time aside for washing your wife in the water of the Word, confessing your sins to her. and she to you, and as I exhorted you last week, asking from time to time, do you feel, dear wife, like I see your face and hear your voice? That's one of the most manly things, men, that you can do. It's one of the most manly things that you can do. A man takes dominion. He overcomes impossibilities. He is one who overcomes the lure of the world to overlook and depreciate his God-given role to be a priest of his home, and he ministers to his children and to his wife as the priest of his home. He takes dominion. But I want you to notice thirdly, these mountains and these hills, what are they, poetically speaking? Well, they're obstacles. They're obstacles. And as the beloved sees her beloved overcoming these obstacles, you know what she is? Listen, she's proud of him. She's proud of him. I think that that is an oftentimes missed note in our marriages, is that the wife is not just in her mind and in her heart proud of her husband, But she lets loose those feelings and those sentiments as she speaks to her husband words of affirmation. A wife, dear husband, wants to be proud of you. A marriage is not simply a commitment and a partnership. It's meant to be, as Bruce Lee once said, a friendship on fire. It is meant to be one in which husband and wife adore one another. Some of you who speak Spanish, you know this word, adorar, okay? It's roughly equivalent to our word in English, adore, but in Spanish, it has more of the idea of worship. But it's interesting, the Latin roots of that, because if you went back to the first edition of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, it's not all bad, it's actually really good. If you went back to that and you went to their forums for a minister marrying a man and a woman, it has words for the man, words of the woman. Listen to this. In the Book of Common Prayer, the groom would give the ring to his wife, place it on her finger, and then he would say this, listen. With this ring, I thee wed. With my body, I thee worship. With all my worldly goods, I thee endow. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, amen. There is not worship, but there is or should be a healthy dose of mutual adoration that is going on in the context of the marriage. And I want you to notice here that that's precisely what the wife is doing, and we'll get to that in just a moment. But she says, my husband, as she's seen him leaping over the mountains and bounding over the hills, she says, he's like a gazelle. He's like a young stag. She can't keep it hidden in her heart. She's got to let it loose. She's got to let those words of affirmation loose. And guess what? It works like a cycle, ladies. Your man comes and takes dominion in his family, in his marriage relationship, and she praises you. I'm so proud of you. I'm so grateful for how you are being a leader and being a man and shepherding my heart and shepherding the hearts of my children and mowing the lawn and weed eating and caring about the little things because the foxes, they matter. You care about the little things. I'm proud of you, husband. Thank you. Thank you for your example." And then what does that do? It wells up a good kind of pride in the husband's heart. And what does he want to do again? Show me more mountains. Show me more hills. I want to leap over them and bound over them again so that my wife can give me affirmation. That's a real thing. It's a real thing. So to serve your wife in selfless servitude, I can hear some men saying, well, you know what, pastor, you're really making this role of a husband sound effeminate. He's just always giving himself to his wife and doing what she wants. Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? Turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter two. Turn in your Bibles to Philippians chapter two. This idea of selfless servitude, This idea of not putting your own interests first, but putting the interests of others, and in the context of the marriage relationship, that means the interests of your wife, the interests of your children. Beloved, this was the model and disposition of Jesus Christ our Lord when he left the right hand of the Father in heaven and took on flesh in the incarnation. Philippians chapter two, I'm gonna start at verse three, listen to this. Paul says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Husbands. Your wife, she wants to be proud of you. You know what she wants? Listen to me, listen. She wants, when she sits down and talks with her girlfriends, when they have coffee or whatever foo-foo la-la drink they have at Starbucks, okay, they're getting together and they're talking about life, you know what she wants to do? She just wants to be like, my husband makes it look easy. bounds over mountains and leaps over hills and the grass was really, really tall because in Virginia during the summer, you know, I have to mow it like two times a week. He did that. He did that. He shepherded our kids' hearts. He talked with little Johnny who, you know, punched Susie in the face. Like he just, he just, he's doing it all. He's like an octopus. He has, he has arms and everything. He just makes it look easy. But instead of making it look easy, men, what we are prone to is to gravitate toward that which is easy. We don't make it look easy. We gravitate toward that which is easy. Your phones is easy. Your tablets is easy. Netflix is easy. Amazon is easy. Going out into your garage and getting away. Let me get to Siberia and get away from my wife. That's easy. I've seen it so many times and it breaks my heart. In the last neighborhood that we lived in, over in town center, I would jog around the neighborhood, and sometimes at night, and I would see men out in their man caves, right? They're out in the garage, and they've got a TV, they've got a beer in their hand, they're on a bar stool, they're whittling on some wood. Where's their wife? Who knows? He's trying to get away from her. What is he doing? He's not making it look easy, he's gravitating toward that which is easy. Husbands, what are you doing in your marriage? Are you making it look easy like our Lord does for the church? He's leaping over mountains and bounding over hills, or are you gravitating toward that which is easy? Guess what's easy? It's easy not to bring your family to church on Sunday. Notice I did not say Sunday morning, Sunday. It's easy not to bring your family to church on Sunday. Well, it's hard, it's inconvenient. How inconvenient was it of our Lord to empty himself? Emptied himself. Don't complain to me about the lack of manhood in this world and in this society when you don't even bring your family to church. That's square one. That's level one, getting your family to church. Okay, that's not even half the battle, beloved. Part of the battle is taking the raw materials of what was preached and what was said and what was sung home and trying to drive it home into the hearts of your children and into your wives, but you can't even do that unless you get there. Husbands, leap over the mountains and the hills of traffic. Leap over the mountains and the hills of your own laziness. Leap over the mountains and the hills of your own apathy and your own complacency and get your family to the means of grace that will be means to get them to heaven and means of sanctifying their souls and means of sanctifying your own souls. Finally, under this heading, a husband overcomes the obstacles of a cold marriage bed. I'm just thinking of obstacles in the marriage, you know, mountains and hills, there's all kinds of things we can say. You know, early on, husbands, when I was a younger man, and even in my, the time that I was dating my wife, and corded, whatever word you wanna use, I don't care. What's the word I'm looking for? I was engaged to my wife. And all these men, I sought the counsel of men. Tell me how to be a good husband. Tell me how to be a good father. And to the man, to the man, all the wise ones that had good marriages, you know what they told me? Josh, date your wife. Date your wife. Date your wife. Date your wife. She's got a love tank. It gets low, you gotta fill it. And then when kids come along, like not just life, but life with kids, that really drains it, Josh. You know what she felt like? I want you to picture your wife, Josh. She's there in a semi-nice dress, but she's got a kid on one arm, and another kid she's dragging by the arm, and then there's snot running down her dress, and then there's boogers over here. I'm just trying to be real with you, okay? There's throw up over here. There's your wife. Do you think she feels like a lady? She doesn't feel like a lady. But what you gotta do, Josh, you gotta take her out, you gotta make her feel like a lady. You know what I thought in my younger years? I thought, well, that's a luxury. Does that fit into the budget? I mean, it's a lot to take my wife out twice a month. Now, 15 years on, I see, dear men, it's not a luxury, it's a necessity. It's an, I have to date my wife, and I confess to you, I am not good at it, but I have noticed this, just give you one little tidbit of practical application, okay? When I am in a season, listen to me, when I am in a season of dating my wife, telling her I love her, seeing her, hearing her, taking her out, making her feel pretty, even buying things to make her look pretty, okay? Prettier, if I could put it that way, okay? Then, Then when the poop hits the fan and we're in an argument, and maybe before I would expect her to be coming at me with both fists clenched, she's like, okay, all right, we'll work through this. I'm like, oh, wow, you took that well. She's like, well, you've been filling my love tank. Remember I talked last week about the lubrication in the marriage? My wife told me not to use this example, I'm sorry. But it works, we're talking about marriage, so go with it, okay? When the friction comes, the dating of the wife, the speaking words of affirmation, the speaking her love language functions as lubrication in the interaction with the marriage, and it works, husbands, and it's pleasant, and it's the way it should be. So I want you to, now we've looked at the husbands, let me look very briefly at the wives. The wife adores and celebrates and is proud of the obstacle-overcoming feats of her husband. Look at verse 9a. What does she say, coming back to Song of Solomon 2? My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Notice what she's doing here. I've already mentioned it, so I won't spend a lot of time on this, but notice she is recognizing, she is complimenting, she is praising the overcoming activities of her husband. She doesn't expect it. Well, yeah, that's your job, husband. You should do that. No, no, no, no, no. She praises him for what he does. Thank you for providing for us. Thank you for leading our family in family worship. Thank you for taking so seriously the spiritual state of our children and even of our soul that even though you come home and you're dog tired and all you wanna do is take that scepter of the remote control and that and that cup of whatever, iced tea, and sit on the couch and lose yourself in a football game, you put those things off, you empty yourself, and you put the needs of others before your own, even though you could barely keep your eyes open. Husband, I praise you for that. I adore you for that. Thank you for being my hero. She praises him. It's one thing to recognize and even thank your husband for his care and provision, but it's another thing to praise him. Like I said, she wants to be proud of you. And why is this important? Listen, why is it important that a woman do this? Why is it important that a woman do this? Don't turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says something very interesting in verse seven, very interesting. It's in the context of head coverings, and we're not gonna get into that, but he's talking about man and woman, and I think if I were to ask you the question, do man and woman bear the image of God, you'd all say theologically yes, but that's actually not what Paul, it's not that it's untrue, But it's not actually what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, 7. This is what he says. He says the man is the image and glory of God, and the woman is the what? The glory of man. The woman is the glory of man, you see. So what does that mean? If that counterpart or that part of you, husband, who's supposed to be your glory, is not feeding you words that make you feel like this is a glorious thing, that's gonna be a recurring cycle, isn't it? You're gonna get discouraged, she's not telling me I must not be doing things right. That's how your husband's gonna feel, dear wife. But you put on display, 1 Corinthians 11, 7, that you are the glory of man, that's what Paul says, when you are telling him and praising him and adoring him for his obstacle overcoming ability. All right, so that's the first horizon. Now listen to me. I want to say thirdly this morning, third and last head, I want to talk now about how Jesus overcomes obstacles. So thirdly, overcoming obstacles on the second horizon. Now listen to me. We're now going to apply Song of Solomon at the level of Christ and his church. And I want you guys, all of you, to understand, man, woman, child, old, young, tall, short, all of you who profess faith in Jesus Christ, you are the church. You are the wife. You are the beloved. You are the female commanion in this analogy of Christ and the church. And Christ is our beloved husband. Christ is he whose voice we want to hear, and Christ's activity is the leaping over the mountains and the bounding over the hills. Look at verse eight, come back to Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse eight. It says, the voice of my beloved, behold, he comes. Behold, he comes. Listen to me, church, listen to me. Does Jesus physically come to us today? You might think watching TBN that he does, but Jesus does not physically come to us today. How does Jesus come to us today? Listen to me, and he does. Jesus comes to us, he comes to his church every single Sunday through the heralding and the declaration of the word of God. Ephesians 2.17, memorize it. Don't tattoo it, but tattoo it on your mind. Ephesians 2.17, what does Paul say? He says, and he, Christ, came and preached peace to you, Ephesians. Wait a minute, when did Christ physically ever come to the Ephesians? He didn't. So what is Paul talking about? Every time the minister there in Ephesus stands up before the people of God and opens the word of God, we are hearing the voice of our beloved. We're hearing the voice of our beloved. This is how Jesus comes to you. This is how God made, I'm not making this up, this isn't reformed garbage, this is the word of God. Jesus comes to you, dear church, the voice of the beloved comes to you to save you, to sanctify you, and to one day glorify you. He comes to you through the preaching of the word. The word is transformative. all the more reason why we should come to the fount of the voice when the beloved is speaking. We should come morning and evening, if that's what your church does, whenever that word is there. By the way, can I just say something else? There's a reason why we begin our services with a call to worship. You wanna know why? Because God through his word is calling you and you and you, every single one of you to worship. He's calling you to worship. He's calling you to be there. He's calling you to leap over the mountains, husbands, and bound over the hills and cause your family to arrive safely on the precipice of the Eschaton in the worship of God's people, of God, to listen and hear the voice of the beloved. So He comes to us in His voice. He comes to you in your justification. He comes to us in our sanctification. And one day, He will come to us physically in the glorification of all things. But consider, consider how Christ overcomes obstacles in our redemption. I mean, we're talking about husbands, like your wife wants you to make it look easy. Look how Christ made it look easy. He's leaping over mountains and bounding over hills. What does this depict? It tells us that there are no obstacles for the Lord. There are no obstacles for the Lord. What did the Lord do? What did the Lord do when he considered the fall of man? The fall of man was perhaps the greatest obstacle that no man, no human being, being a son or a daughter of Adam and Eve, no human being can overcome. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. What did He do? He leaps over the mountains and the hills of the fall of man and incarnates. He comes to us in the incarnation. He bypasses sin by being born of a virgin, born under the law to redeem those who are under the law. How flawlessly and how easy our Lord makes it as He leaps over the mountain and bounds over the hills of the fall of man. But it doesn't stop there. There was an obstacle and it was eternal life. How is Christ going to get eternal life, not only for Himself, but for His people? He's got to overcome something. What does He have to do? He has to overcome death. And our beloved, he overcomes death. What does he say in John 10? I have authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it back up again. Nobody gives this to me except for the Father. Nobody can take it away from me. I have authority and I will lay it down. and then I will conquer it, and the Spirit will raise me up. Look at how our beloved leaps over mountains and bounds over the hills of death. This is Christ leaping over obstacles. Whatever the problem, he says, I shall overcome it for my bride. What dying love our Savior gives to us as he comes, speaking words of love over mountains and hills. Would you consider your beloved this morning? Think of it, he leaps out of heaven, he skips through the cross, he leaps out of death into life and he accomplishes it all for his people. He does it with such ease. I'm not saying it was easy. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but he does it so perfectly because he is the God man that it seems simple, but it wasn't simple. It required giving up his life to make it possible. But beloved, Christ makes the impossibilities become possible. Listen to me. Sinners are dead, what does he do? He makes them alive. Listen to me. Sinners are blind, what does he do? He makes them see. Sinners are lame, he makes them to walk. Sinners are deaf, he makes them to hear. The daunting demand of the law that stood over him, the fiery smoking mountain of Sinai, no obstacle that our Lord could not overcome. He perfectly kept the law. He secured and established righteousness. The law could not kill him. He perfectly fulfilled its demands. The political threat of Rome, no obstacle. He doesn't even speak to Pilate. He doesn't even give him the pleasure. Rome was no obstacle. Suffering, no obstacle. He set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He conquered it all by leaping over mountains and bounding over hills. What a lovely savior he is. Well, that's our justification. What I'm about to tell you right now, if you have ears to hear and eyes to see, will radically transform whatever besetting sin you're struggling with. When we think of how our Savior leaps over mountains and bounds over hills in our justification, what we forget is that the same power with which He leaped over mountains and bounded over hills is also the power that He gives to His beloved in our sanctification. You bring your impossibility and Christ will bring the remedy. When you consider all the obstacle overcoming activity of our Lord, you soon realize that we undervalue His power when it comes to our sanctification. Try Him, beloved. Try Christ. Let Him have His way with you. You say, my laziness is off the hook. Bring it to Christ. You know what He could do? He raises the dead, He makes the blind to see, He makes the lame to walk. Don't you think He can overcome your laziness? Don't you think He can do that? Well, but it's laziness. He overcame death. My marriage is impossible. Bring it to Christ. Bring it to Christ. You don't think he can overcome those longstanding habits? You think Freud has a better word than Christ? No, no. Christ has a lasting word. Christ has the model and the blueprint for marriage, and you must bring it to him. You must be willing to learn. You must be willing to change. You must be willing to do what he has called you to do. My children won't listen. Bring it to Christ. Did the triune God have children that did not listen? Yeah, they were called Israel. They were called Israel. Don't you think he knows a thing or two as a sympathetic priest of what you need and what you need to hear and what you need to do and the affections with which you need to approach those things? Yes, come to Christ. My anger is out of control. Oh, beloved. Oh, beloved. If you come to Christ and you bring your impossibility, He has a remedy for your anger. Once again, I don't care what Freud says. I don't care what the secular psychologists say. Christ has the remedy for anger if you would but come to Him and let Him overcome it. Let Him raise over your anger like He rose over death, hell, and the grave. Let Him heal your anger like He healed the man with the withered hand. He can do it if you would come to Him in faith. My critical spirit's out of control. Bring it to Christ. You see, the problem is not the Christ who overcomes impossibilities. The problem is that we don't bring such things to Him in faith. Well, yes, He made the lame to walk and the blind to see, but you can't help me to overcome my gluttony and my hoarding and my pride and my anger. To which Christ are you looking? To which Christ are you looking? Are you looking to a counterfeit, or are you looking at the real McCord, the real thing, the substance, not the shadows? Which Christ are you looking to? My Christ sleeps over mountains. My Christ bounds over hills. And your besetting sin is no impossibility to him. He can overcome it in you, but you must come to him in faith. You must stop making excuses for your sin and start making war with your sin. You must stop shifting the blame for your sin and start accepting responsibility for your sin. You must approach him with a teachable heart and not a prideful heart. Allowing Christ to overcome the obstacle in your life is not a matter, listen to me, is not a matter of behavior modification. Turn as we end this morning to 2 Corinthians 3.15, please. Please turn to 2 Corinthians 3.15. Pastor Jim read this, you can actually find it on the front of your bulletin, it's in the assurance of pardon, and I'm gonna tell you right now, the way God intends to change you. It is not behavior modification. It is not pick yourself up by your bootstraps, try harder, dig deeper. This is not a basketball game and God's not a coach. What does Paul say? Second Corinthians 3.15. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord. are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit beloved. Change in your life, overcoming your besetting sins, you know it's a matter of doing what Paul says here, look to the glory of the Lord. When you look at Jesus and His obstacle overcoming activities, it inspires you via gratitude to be more like Christ, and then the Spirit transforms you into the image of Christ. But if He is not altogether lovely to you, you will overcome nothing. If He is not altogether lovely to you, you do not know what beauty is. If He is not altogether lovely to you, you have missed the very point of existence. Jesus Christ comes to all of us this morning and He gives us the voice of the Beloved. He leaps over mountains, bounds over hills. My question for you, oh unbeliever, this morning is this. Do you think that you could overcome these obstacles in your life apart from a Savior such as this? And the answer is no. You are not good enough, you are despicable, you are wretched, you are a sinner. Those are not my words, those are the words of the very living word of God. You have fallen short of the glory of God, but wonder of wonders, there is a Savior, an altogether lovely Savior, an altogether beautiful Savior, who comes to you in the muck and mire and in the filth in which you are squirming around in your self-righteousness and pride, in your delighting in the sensual pleasures of this life, and despite all that, He reaches down into the muck of the mire and he plucks you out. That's why we heard this morning the tax collectors and the prostitutes get into the kingdom of heaven before the self-righteous. Do you see yourself as wicked and defiled and disgusting before God? Well, Christ has a garment with which he wants to cover you. It is the garment of his perfect righteousness, his perfect obedience, and he wants to cleanse you and take away the judgment due you by shedding his blood on the cross to pay for your sins. How do I get this? How do I get this? By simply doing this, turn from your sins. Turn from your sins. and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Let's pray. Father God, thank you for giving us the voice of your beloved this morning. I pray, dear God, that that voice would reverberate to the very center of our souls this morning, that we would have dealings with you, Father. I pray that you would remind us who are downcast and downtrodden, Father, that the voice of the beloved is followed up by the obstacle to overcoming activities of a Savior who leaps over mountains and bounds over hills. Father, may we look to him this morning. May we be transformed by that gaze as your spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to another. And Father, may we in our marriages this morning, this week, and forevermore, put on display this glorious and mysterious an exquisite picture of the gospel and how we love our wives and how wives submit to and love and encourage and support their husbands. And Father, may your church be strengthened by our witness, we pray. We ask all these things in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand this morning. Sing the doxology.