Well, dear congregation, as we continue to worship our God, we come to the ministry of the word, and so I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn in them to Song of Solomon, chapter two. Song of Solomon, chapter two, and I'm gonna read in your hearing verses four through seven. Song of Solomon, chapter two, verses four through seven. Song of Solomon is after the book of Ecclesiastes and before the book of Isaiah. Song of Solomon, chapter two, verses four through seven. Listen carefully, this is the word of the living God. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 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. That's for 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. Let's ask the Lord once more for help in the ministry of the word this morning. Father God, here we are. We pray that as the text is open that you would teach us and that we would hear the voice of Christ. We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, there's a number of visitors here this morning. Boy, what a Sunday to come as a visitor. We are talking about the Song of Solomon, and I understand, I'm under no illusion that Song of Solomon is a book that is often preached. It is a book that really could be categorized under a cultural banner of taboo. I've told you this before, but even in rabbinic circles and Jewish circles, certainly in Orthodox Jewish Judaism, they don't allow young men to read the book of the Song of Solomon until they're like 32. Because there are many things in it that are, well, quite frankly, embarrassing. But we have been trekking through this book, really we've been in chapter 2 and I've been unconventional and not starting in chapter 1 and I understand that. But I do believe that the Lord has been speaking to us and specifically to our marriages in the exposition of this poetry. But because there are visitors, I want to say that we have a particular hermeneutic or a way of interpreting the Bible. And I'm gonna lay that out for you if you're just tuning in. And it really is in two steps. Number one, we understand the book of the Song of Solomon on the first horizon, which means that it is a celebration and description of love between a man and a wife in the context of a covenant of marriage. That's very important because we're not talking about love outside of that covenant of marriage. There's a word for that. It's called fornication. Nor are we talking about love that is a perversion of the covenant of marriage, where instead of giving your love to your spouse, to whom you gave covenant vows, you give it to another lover. There is a word for that as well, and that word is adultery. And both of those things are wicked and heinous in the eyes of God. I have often come across young men and women who have tried to tell me that there's nothing wrong with fornication, that it's not in the Bible. Well, I don't know what Bible you're reading, but the Bible that I read makes it abundantly clear that, number one, sex is a wonderful gift that God has given us. It is not something to be shunned. It is not something to be embarrassed about. In fact, it is something that we must fold into the life of our marriage for a healthy marriage, and more on that in a moment. But secondly, it is to be enjoyed in the context of marital covenant. And so, when God says, do not fornicate, he is very serious. You are giving your love, and the Proverbs talk about this. Men, you are giving your strength to women, women with whom you have not entered into a covenant, and that is a very dangerous thing to do. Women, to the degree that you are doing it, you are approaching that man as your head, when in reality, he is not your head, because you have not entered into a covenant of marriage with him. But then a second horizon or lens through which we view the Song of Solomon is as it describes and celebrates the love between Christ and his church. So yes, it is an allegory. Yes, it is metaphorical. Yes, it is on considering love on two different levels. Well, this morning in these short verses, I just want to put before you three things on two horizons. Number one, the bride's banner. Number two, the bride's longing. And number three, the bride's warning. So once again, the bride's banner, the bride's longing, and the bride's warning. Let's look then at verse four and consider the bride's banner. Verse four says, This is obviously the woman speaking. He brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Now let's consider this in the context of the relationship between a man and a woman. I want you to notice here that the bride is extolling the way that the groom or the man makes much of her. The bride is extolling in poetic rhapsody The wonderful way in which the man makes much of her. Now there are lessons on two sides of this, but let me just unpack this a little bit. I want you to understand that the banqueting house is the house of wine. It is the house of celebration. It is the house of feasting. In other words, it is the place where perhaps the king is holding the feast. And you can imagine a marriage reception, right? So many marriages and ceremonies that we've been to, you go to the reception afterwards and there is a banqueting hall there and there is a grand entrance for the groom and the bride. And to be honest, everybody's really looking at the bride. I mean, the groom's just kind of there, right? Everybody's really looking at the bride in her beautiful dress. And in her beauty that she is exuding, and not just a beauty that is skin deep, but just the glow of her smile as she enters into this new season, this exciting season of love and intimacy and marriage. This is public. And in poetic form, she says, in this kind of word picture that she gives to us, that as she is coming in, the king is wearing her on his arm with great pride and delight. He is putting her on display before the public to see, and he is proud of her. He is bragging over her. His banner over her is love, and they can see it in the body language, in the smiles, in the posture, in everything that the bride and the groom exude. So the king publicly displays his love for the bride in this feasting hall. So what this is getting at, what this is getting at is, husbands, let me put it this way. The way you speak to your wife, the way you plan things out for your wife, the way you think beforehand about doing things for your wife, The way you have a trajectory of wife-forward thinking puts a banner over your wife. I want you to think for me just for a moment, in this word picture, if I could put it this way, think of your wife as going around the house, or maybe at work, or everywhere that she goes, think of an emoji that's over her head. Just think of an emoji that's over her head. And my question for you this morning, dear husbands, is what emoji would that be? What emoji would that be? Well, I humbly submit to you, dear husbands, that much, not all, but much of what that emoji would be is a consequence of how you do or do not speak into her life, how you do or do not think of her beforehand, whether it is in planning a date or whether it is in opening a door for her. Just give me an example. One of the things that I had to learn early on in a marriage, and there's a lot going on as you progress through different seasons of marriage, but my wife noticed that I was in this habit of, in social settings, I would be talking to people, and my wife would be there, and I would just talk on and on, often about myself, that's what we do as selfish people, or talking about them, and I would never stop and say, oh, by the way, this is my wife. I would never introduce my wife. And I mean, how would that make her feel? How did it make her feel? Well, it made her just kind of feel like an appendix, okay? Something on the side, something at the end of the book, something that was not the pride and glory of the man. And by the way, that's how Paul describes the woman. He is the glory of man. Does your wife feel like your glory, dear husbands? What kind of emoji is over her head? The emoji language that I'm using is indicative of Solomon saying his banner over me was love. His banner over me was love. So I would say how you make your wife feel by your words and your forethought and your actions is going to be indicative of that banner over her head. So husbands, I have a humble homework assignment that I would submit to you today. I dare you to go home and ask your wife at some time alone, how do I make you feel? How do I make you feel? Do you feel loved? Do you feel special? Do you feel like a queen? You see, words and action, time and forethought are all incredibly important ways in which you husbands push back the chaos of life and shape your wives' lives into order and beauty. God calls us to use our words to bring life to those who hear them, and this is no less the case in the context of the marriage. So husbands, this morning, very simply, what banner is over your wife? Is it a banner of love? Is the banner over your wife that she is the maid? She washes your clothes, she cleans your boots, she's there for physical needs, and really that's, oh, maybe she's there to put you through school, maybe she's there to help pay the bills, maybe she's there to take care of the kids and wipe the staunty noses, maybe she's there to teach your children, and then that's it, but she's not a friend, she's not a lover. That is a very dangerous thing and I would be willing to guess that oftentimes men, brothers, our wives fall into that thinking. Am I just here for Him or does He delight in me and does He show it and say it with His words and actions? But now let's consider the bride's banner on the level of Christ in the church. I want you to think just for a moment of this banner. Christ puts a banner over us. His banner over us is love. And I'll just give you a few examples of how that is the case. When you look at how Christ views the church. In the grand scheme of redemption and glorification and eschatological bliss, how are we described? Well, when you go to the book of Revelation, you will find time and time and time again that the saints are described as wearing white robes that signify purity. They are described in the book of Revelation, you and I, are described as spotless and pure. We are described as virgins. Now here's the blessed beauty of the gospel. We all know, especially in the now time, that that is not the case. We all know that we are contaminated. We all know that we fail at many points, but how does Christ describe us as those who are clothed in pure white robes? And why is that? Because when Christ looks at us, beloved, He looks at us as we have been washed in the blood of His cross work and have had imputed to our account righteousness that does make us perfect, that does make us pure virgins, that does make us able to stand in the age to come. Now all I want to say about that is this, that's His banner over us, beloved. That's how He describes us to the world. I have two application points for that. Number one, listen to me very carefully, please. You be careful about how you speak about the church. You be careful about how you speak of the church. I am well aware that the church is weak in many areas. I am well aware of that. I am well aware that I personally contribute to the weakness of the church. I wonder if those who are so vocal about how horrible the church is have often considered that question with respect to their own actions. What do I contribute to the weakness? What do I contribute to the toxicity? What do I contribute to the horrible state in which the church finds itself? There's always a critic. There's always a critic, right? But rarely is there somebody who also brings to the table their own admission of guilt and what is good about the church. Well, I'll tell you this, beloved, Christ speaks very highly of the church. He extols the church, his banner over the church is love. And so the first application is what are you doing to prop up, as it were, and show to the world that the church is glorious and lovely in the eyes of its groom. But secondly, let me say this, if that is how Christ views us, that we are pure virgins, we are white, we are perfect, then I would say this, we should be striving for this picture of holiness in the now time as we anticipate it becoming reality in the age to come. So my charge to you is that we should be striving in every area of our life to put on display in real form, in real time form, what Christ says of us to the world, that it manifests itself in how we live our lives. You see, Christians are humbled by this banner of love that Christ waves over his bride. They do not use it to justify their sin. Listen, it is a wicked and pernicious thing to use Christ's imputed righteousness to excuse your sin or to block people from talking to you about your sin. You say, what are you talking about? Sometimes I often hear this. And I've even been guilty of saying it and doing it. It is, listen to me, this is an intentional mind game that sometimes we fall into. Some people do this when they're confronted with their sin. They say, well, everybody's a sinner. Everybody's a sinner. You want to talk to me about my sin? Everybody's a sinner. What is that? That is a smoke screen. You understand what I'm saying? That is a smokescreen. That is taking the attention off me and my sin and my personal responsibility and trying to level the playing ground as if it's actually leveled. Is your particular sin the same in every single person's life? No, it's not. Old John Rabbi Duncan got it right when he said this. that everybody is a sinner. That phrase is not a bed of roses or a couch that I can just rest on and feel acquitted, that everybody is a sinner is a bed of nails. You see what he's saying? What he's saying is when I hear that everybody's a sinner, I don't say, oh, then I am freed from the responsibility of having dealings with God on my knees and on my face and with tears in my eye before him, but rather I feel the weight of it. We are all sinners. and we must come before a God with whom we have to do. And if my attitude toward my sin is, everybody's a sinner, so I'm just gonna keep on doing it, I don't get it. It is a wicked and pernicious attitude that often finds itself on the lips and the actions of antinomians who wanna cast off God's law and think that they could do whatever they want. And we all have antinomians in our own heart. The imputation of the benefits of the whole Christ to the Christian leaves him or her humbled. It leaves us humbled, beloved. And the Christian's desire to repent and obey is heightened. So do not pervert your motivation for holiness into a license for sin. Paul says this in Galatians 5.13, he says, for brothers, you were called to freedom. That's right, you were called to freedom. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. That is called antinomianism, and it is a pernicious heresy that the church has been wrestling with for all of its existence. And why? Well, it goes with the territory, doesn't it? When you have a gospel that is a free grace, free grace. untethered to you and your actions, the natural consequences is we will try to say, well, if it doesn't have to do with me, then I can do whatever I want. I just cast all my cares on Jesus, and then go on. Well, what you're saying is what Paul condemned in 1 Corinthians 6. Shall I throw my arm around a prostitute and my other arm around Jesus and say, let's go party? No! May it never be. So that is the bride's banner, and the bride's banner is love. But I want you to consider, secondly, in verses five and six, The bride's longing, the bride's longing. Verse five and six says this, 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. Now, let me just give a little warning before I go any further. We all knew the moment was gonna come in this series when we were going to, in some way, shape, or form, be it metaphor, simile, whatever you wanna call it, that we would get to the topic of physical intimacy between a man and a woman. Well, here it is, okay? And I'll unpack that in just a moment. So what I wanna say before I even get into this is something that I alluded to in my pastoral prayer just by way of introduction to this topic. I understand as a man with a seven-year-old and a five-year-old, I understand as a parent, I understand as a pastor who has many different people and many different seasons of life in his congregation, I understand that when we talk about things like physical intimacy, when we talk about things like sex, that we need to be very, very careful. And I want to commit to you as we continue to go through this, that that's exactly what I wanna do. But there are cliffs that we could fall off on either side. And one of those dangers is to say, you know, we're not going to talk about this in the context of the church because there's little ears and we don't want them to hear. And listen, there is a balance, but here's what I would say. Listen, your children are in a world that is awash with messages of how they should think about sex. And as the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. You know what that means? That means that in the absence of something, it is our nature to go find something to fill that area. And so your children, whether they are five years old, 15 years old, 20 years old, they are going to be curious and they are going to want to know about this. And here's what I would submit to you. What better place for them to learn about and think about sex than in the context of the church? Now, wow, that's tweetable. That is very tweetable. And it's counterintuitive, isn't it? but I stand by it. I stand by it because if God has given us a book, that extols the sexual intimacy between a man and a woman. We need to go to that book, and we need to try to understand it at different levels, okay, pedagogically speaking. I understand that what I say to adults is gonna be tempered for five-year-olds, but I would say by extension, if the church is the best place, that is in conjunction and in partnership with parents who, in the context of their homes, are having those conversations with their children when it is appropriate. So that's all I have to say by way of warning. Now let me say this. First thing we see in verse five is that the bride desires the intimate union that is appropriate within the context of covenantal marriage. Now, the language is subtle here, the language is subtle, but what you need to know is that this talk of raisins has a corollary in the false worship of Israel. I'm not gonna go there for sake of time, But in Hosea chapter three, verse one, and if you compare it with Hosea chapter four, verses 13 through 14, God is bringing a case, a lawsuit against Israel. Why? Because she is playing the prostitute. She is playing the whore. She is going after other gods. And one of the ways in Hosea chapter three, verse one, in which that is described is she is offering up cakes of raisins Cakes of raisins in the context of fertility cults up to false gods. What we often forget is that in the old covenant, you must understand, they didn't have doctors that they could go to when they had fertility issues. What they did is they were tempted, and many of them did, go to the other gods of the other peoples who promised that if certain sacrifices were given and certain obeisance or worship was given to this god, then the barren woman would... Have a child, you see. These were fertility cults. And one of the offerings or the sacrifices that was given in the context of these fertility cults is cakes of raisins. And so what we're seeing is the converse of that. In the context of Song of Solomon, raisins were also, in the ancient Near Eastern context, used as something of an aphrodisiac. So she says, sustain me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. So what is she getting at here? What she's saying is sustain me with your physical intimacy. Physical intimacy in the marriage covenant is a blessed gift of the Lord that is intended to show forth, listen to me, show forth the physical manifestation that a man and a woman have of love. It is to be celebrated and not shunned. Physical intimacy is not primarily, and I say this directly to you men and to me, it is not primarily to meet physical needs. There is a place for that way down the line, okay? But it is primarily to put on display the love and the intimacy, the words, the affirmation, the affection, the acts of service, the gifts that is going on in the background of everyday life, and then it finds its apogee, its culmination in this wonderful gift of physical intimacy. And here we are a fly on the wall as the bride is thinking about her beau. She is thinking about her husband. She is thinking about her man, and she's thinking about how she needs to be sustained, not just psychologically and not just spiritually, but physically with the intimacy that is between her and her husband. So, I would say that physical intimacy is a good barometer for the health of the marriage. It shows where the marriage relationship is. And I think women understand this more than men. I think women understand this more than men because men are microwaves, women are ovens. You've heard that before and it's absolutely true. It's absolutely true. Men are microwaves, women are ovens. And part of the preheating process that a woman needs is how, men, you speak to her. at the beginning of the day, in the notes that you send, in the texts that you send, in the flowers that you send, in the dates that you plan, in your project, in your efforts, in your overall endeavors to date your wife for the rest of your life, you have to keep things fresh. You have to maintain a love relationship. You want, listen, you want your wife to be sick with love and not to be sick with you. You want your wife to be sick with love and not to be sick with you. But so often, husbands, the way our wives get sick with us is that we're not giving them what their love languages demand. And listen, listen, I've talked to so many men, and this boggles my mind, I don't totally get it. But maybe their wife's love language is words of affirmation, and what they need to hear is they need to hear words. They need to hear, I love you. They need to have you, men, caress their arm and whisper into their ears and show them and speak to them words of affirmation. But men will often say, well, she knows that. Well, Bozo, she doesn't know that. She needs to hear it time and time and time and time again. She has a love tank it needs to be filled. Who's gonna fill it? Well if it's not you, if it's not you, she's gonna be tempted to go find somebody else to fill it. You must maintain the relationship with your wife and physical intimacy is a huge component in that. So like the bride here, if you want your wife to be thinking about you all day in such a way that she desires physical intimacy, take care how you speak to her and make her a priority. All right, well, how do we understand verse five on the horizon of Christ in the church? Well, I want you to think of this, listen. Thank God, thank God that Christ sustains us with the sustenance of his person and work. God gives us metaphors, beloved, and here are just a few metaphors that Christ gives us. He says that if we are true disciples of his, we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. He says if we are hungry, He is the bread of life. He says that if we are thirsty, He gives forth waters of life, living waters. What are these but metaphors for faith in the only source and sustenance for our souls? When I'm at my wit's end and no rational argument can give me comfort and all my actions are spent and I can do nothing else and I can say nothing else to relieve the affliction or relieve the tribulation or relieve the pressure that is on me, what do I do? I fall upon Christ whose left hand is under my head and whose right hand sustains me. I throw myself on him. I say, Jesus, I can't do this. I need you to take it. I need you to be my strong and mighty head. I need to trust in your promises. I need to sustain my soul with the metaphors that you've given me. And what are these metaphors of bread and water and flesh and blood, but metaphors of faith. They are metaphors of faith. That you don't simply profess the name of Christ, but you really, deep down in your soul, you trust Christ. You trust Christ when He comes to lift your countenance, and you trust Christ when He comes to rebuke you. You don't divide up Christ, you want the whole Christ. The whole Christ. This morning, beloved, do you want the whole Christ? Do you want the whole Christ? The whole Christ who as a good father disciplines those whom he loves. The whole Christ who if you are that smoldering wick, he will not quench it, he will not put it out, he will blow gently upon your soul and he will give you the affections that you so desperately desire. I mean, I think really we could sum all of this up. with what Jesus said to one of the disciples. It was actually in John chapter six, after Jesus was talking all this mess about eating my flesh and drinking my blood, called it a hard saying, you remember that? and all the disciples, I'm putting square codes because that's what they were. They weren't really disciples, they were disciples. Many disciples were walking away from Him. And what did Jesus do? He turned to the 12 and He said, will you go also? And what does one of the disciples say? He said, Lord, where will we go? You have the words of eternal life. Where will we go? Beloved, where will we go? We will go to Jesus. We will go to Jesus time and time and time again. And I call you this morning to come to Jesus. I call each and every one of you this morning, whether you have professed faith in Jesus Christ or not, you come to Jesus. How shall I come? I'll tell you how you should come. You come by turning from your sins. Every last one of them. Turn from your sins. Have a change of mind that only the Spirit of God can have, but you are panting after in your own soul. Turn from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ, and He will sustain you. He will sustain you with His left and His right hand. And I'm just gonna stop right there. I'm just gonna stop. Next week we'll come back and look at verse seven, and we'll behold this wonderful Christ. Let's bow our heads. Father God, You are so wise, and whereas the world, Father, scoffs at what has just taken place here, that some man gets up and gives a monologue based on the Word of God, so old-fashioned, so cliche, so 100 AD-ish, And yet, Father, here we are 2,000 years later, and we're in a room, in a building, under a roof, with people who still believe that Jesus speaks through such foolish means. So, Father, I pray that you have spoken through your Son, to all of us here, and I pray that we would not pass it off as just a fleeting moment, but that we would grab onto it, Father, in such a way that our knuckles are white and we are clinging to it with every fiber in our being that we want to repent and cling to promises and trust in your Son and be happy in it as he sustains us with all that he is and all that he has done. And we ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Let's stand, Nathan's gonna lead us.