Now, dear congregation, to the ministry of the Word, so I invite you to open your Bibles to the book of Song of Songs. Song of Songs, or perhaps in your Bible it is called Song of Solomon. And we're going to be in chapter 4 this morning. If you're visiting, we have been working through a series called A Portrait of Love on Two Horizons. And we're systematically working through this Song of Songs, this most excellent song. One of the greatest examples of poetry in the Bible. And we come now to chapter 4, and I'm going to read in your hearing this morning verses 1 through 7. Verses 1 through 7. So Song of Songs, chapter 4, verses 1 through 7. Listen carefully. This is the word of the living God. Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing. all of which bear twins, and not one among them has lost its young. Your lips are like a scarlet thread, and your mouth is lovely. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. Your neck is like the Tower of David, built in rows of stone. On it hang a thousand shields, all of them shields of warriors. Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle that graze among the lilies. Until the day breathes and the shadows flee, I will go away to the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. You're altogether beautiful, my love. There is no flaw in you. That's for the reading of God's word. Dear congregation, the grass withers and the flower falls. But the word of our Lord stands forever, and we are grateful for it. Let's bow our heads this morning and ask the Lord to send a spirit from heaven and help in the ministry of the word. Father God, we come before you yet again this morning. After having read these verses, Lord, we pray that your Son would speak through the minister, speak through the preaching and the heralding of your word, and that your Son would speak comfort to us, Father. this depiction of the beloved, the depiction of the church. And, O Father, how You speak sweetly to Your people. O Father, how You, through Jesus Christ, offer to them comfort in a world of terror, certainty in a world of uncertainty, hope in a world of despair, And we pray that those same attributes and gifts and benefits that accrue to members of the new covenant would be put forth to them once again through the ministry of your word. We ask all these things in Christ's name, amen. So last week we looked at the procession of Solomon in the royal wedding. This week, in this passage, what we are seeing is a description of the bride of the Shulamite, no doubt by Solomon himself, and it could be that these are the thoughts that coursed through his mind and his heart as he saw her proceeding to the altar, as he was already there, as we think in marriage and in kind of our terms today. Or it could be a kind of amalgamation of many thoughts that he had had for the Shulamite, his bride, over many, many years. But what we see here is something that is unique to the ancient Near Eastern context. I'm sure, no doubt, as you were listening to this description, you may have chuckled in your mind and in your heart. Who knows, maybe you would have chuckled out loud. I thought I heard a few chuckles. Because this is certainly not the way that you wives would expect your husbands to describe your beauty. In fact, boys and girls, you may have a colorable of a picture of the Shulamite. And if you have that, I want you to lift that up for all the adults to see. If you have one of those colorables, there it is, lift up that picture. Isn't that a hideous picture? And that is a picture of a literal rendering of what the Shulamite would look like if you were to take this depiction and write it out on a picture. a long neck, the Tower of David, a flock of goats coming down, et cetera, et cetera. And boys and girls, what I want to convey to you is that part of the exercise of getting that is to convey to you that we are not describing something or depicting something as if we're giving an eyewitness testimony. This is not, in adult language, prose. This is poetry, and in poetry we use vehicles or metaphors of words to convey a different meaning. And that's what you're seeing here. But again, in the 21st century, husbands and wives don't typically speak this way. We would be more akin to using a language of Shakespeare, perhaps, to speak to our beloved. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I don't even know if that's Shakespeare, but it sounds like Shakespeare. So, what is going on here? I mean, after all, this is a poetry, this is depiction that is in the holy word of God. Well, here's what you need to understand. Remember in chapter one that the Shulamite was one, she was something of a shepherdess. She was one who worked out under the sun. Remember, she said, you know, I am dark but comely. The sun has burned me, the sun has made me dark. She is one who worked out in the fields. And Solomon, I believe, as one who wanted to court her, came as a shepherd into the fields to try to kind of infiltrate the ranks. And you must understand that they didn't have cameras back then. They didn't have phones back then. You see something that is pleasing to you or something that you want to remember, and you just pull out your phone, snap a picture of it, right? Well, they didn't have that, boys and girls, obviously. So how did those in agrarian settings back in the ancient Near East remember an image that they found pleasing? Well, they had a device of nature. They had art that was skillfully used by them. It was not drawing. You see, when you wanted to take a picture in that day, you took the object you wanted a picture for, and you divided it up into segments. And you took the segments and found some correspondence in the mundane, everyday part and experience of life, and that is how you would remember it. So, what would a shepherd think of as he's trying to capture the beauty of his beloved? Well, he would think of a flock of goats, think of black-haired goats coming down the hills of Mount Gilead, and those black goats would simulate the picture of black wavy hair, lush and full of lotions and creams and such. So that is what he would do. He would picture things with abstract everyday pictures. And so I wanna take this and I want to apply it on, as we have been doing throughout this series, on two levels. The first horizon and the second horizon. So let's look at the first horizon. And I want you to consider on the first horizon extolling the beauty of the body of the bride. Extolling the beauty of the body of the bride. How do we apply this description of the wife? Well, let me start by telling you how not to apply it, okay? We've already said that we should not understand this woodenly, okay? In other words, literally, point by point. And let me give you a very real life example. As you know, you're all waiting to see what I'm going to do with this, it's gonna be fun. There's a verse in there that talks about her breasts. Okay, now, if a man is to take this literally and to literally think in twos when he thinks about the breast of his wife, then what will the man do whose wife has struggled and lost the battle of breast cancer and has a mastectomy? Is he not able to still enjoy and drink in the pleasure of his wife? Well, that's nonsense, you see. See, it's not about the physical thing. It's about something that she exudes from her very soul. And yes, there is a physical counterpart to it, but it is not necessarily the thing itself. You see, there is something unique in every wife. There is something unique in every beloved. Her character, her body, the contours, the shape, and all of those things. are to be taken in and drunken and taken pleasure of by the husband. So we ought not take this wouldn'tly, but secondly, nor should we take this gnostically. What do I mean by that? Well, one of the greatest heresies in the first few centuries of the church, and it has made a comeback in various ways, is Gnosticism that essentially, in some sense, was platonic in the sense that they believed that the body was the prison house of the soul. The body, the flesh, was sinful. And so what really mattered was the soul. Who you really were is the soul, and the body is bad, it's sinful. Well, you may find that in Plato, and you may find that, and you will find that in the Gnostic authors, but my friend, you will not find that in Paul. I would encourage you to read very carefully the seventh chapter of the book of Romans, where Paul very clearly, if you follow it out, does not say that the flesh that he wrestles with in and of itself is ontologically sin. He may say it's sinful, but if you follow his logic he says it is not the flesh itself, it is sin in the flesh. And we must make that conclusion because if flesh, if the body is inherently sinful, well Paul says that flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. He does not mean by that any flesh and blood, he means sinful flesh and blood. But guess what? The new heavens and the new earth will be populated with flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of resurrected, sinless bodies. And so we must remember that the body in and of itself is not bad. We should not, in our thinking of our wives, men, and praising them for their beauty, say, your body doesn't matter, it's only your soul. Well, first off, you're not gonna score any points if you say that. But secondly, what I'm telling you, and we need to think Christianly in everything that we do, is you are thinking in a Gnostic way. You're not thinking as a Christian. Her soul and her body matters, and they are just as important as one another. But thirdly, a way to not think about this, is in an overly sensual way, or if I could put it this way, an overly pornographic way. This is the other end of the spectrum of only the soul matters. On this end, it's only the body matters. And I think that this is something that especially you young people need to keep in mind when you're looking for a mate. There is not necessarily a correlation between beauty on the outside and beauty on the inside. There is not a correlation between beauty on the outside and beauty on the inside. In fact, there is much, dare I say, much of external beauty that you would see on your banners of the side of your webpage and on the billboards as you're driving to work and on the glossy pages of magazines. There is much that is externally and aesthetically pleasing and beautiful, but inside it rings hollow and plastic. And men, there are women who are just the same way. And women, there are men that are just the same way. So we should not automatically equate external beauty with internal beauty, but the body does matter. And guess what? We need to redeem the body. What do I mean by that? The sexual perversion of the body in a million different ways, including the innuendo, et cetera, that so often accompanies it, has made us, as Christians, timid to speak about the body for fear of being taken the wrong way. Beloved, the body is beautiful. Don't over-spiritualize things. Men, don't be afraid to speak to your wives, yes, I'm saying this, about their bodies. Praise them for their bodies. I know of a man, a young man who was newly married, and he came in for counseling. He didn't come into counseling to me, but to another pastor, and I was told of this. And he was probably three months into his marriage, and he and his wife came in for counseling for a very serious problem. He just could not, let me put it this way, they had problems with intimacy. And the thing was is because he had been so trained, and rightfully so, he had been so trained as a young single man to stay away from pornography and sensuality and all those things, But he overreacted and he thought that the whole shooting match, the whole enterprise, the whole concept of sexual intimacy, it was bad. So when they came to their marriage chamber, as it were, he had a hard time bringing all of himself there. And see, what we need to balance as we talk about sex and marriage in the church is that the pagans do not have the corner on sex. Okay, we Christians like our sex just fine. We like our sex just fine within the covenant bonds of marriage. And it is something not only that we should obviously engage in and appreciate and love and take joy in, but parents, dare I say also, there is an obligation on our behalf as parents in some way to teach our kids how to think correctly about sex. And guess what? It's not always the birds and the bees talk. It's also how husband and wife carry themselves before their children in the context of their home. It's the aroma of love that wafts throughout the kitchen as kids see how mom with care and love and great service prepares the pot roast, not just for her man but for her children. But then as the man comes into the kitchen, how he caresses his wife and shows affection and care and love and rubs her arm. These are things that are very important and we should not blush at them, beloved. We should have a robust, healthy, biblical view of marriage and intimacy. And further, why is that? Well, beloved, can I remind all of you who made the body? God made the body, and at the end of the day of making the body, He said, and all things were made very good. It was all very good. The body is very good. So this is how we should not apply it, but how should we apply it? Well, men, as you come to these verses, if you will, do not apply these verses as an answer key, as if you've got to write your poetry and give your sayings to your wife in the same way that Solomon did. Look, she may not have black hair like the flock of goats coming down Mount Gilead. You need to take your creative powers, and I know that some have more than others, I understand that, but you need to take your creative powers and think of the unique character and the unique contours and the unique shape of your wife, and you need to praise her with words that accentuate those things that the Lord has given her, for your eyes only. So this is not an answer key, but it's a model. Notice how Solomon is intentionally looking at and praising contours and shape in his wife. Can I tell you something of an analogy? It's gonna break down, but just listen. I remember seeing in a movie, I will not say which one, many of you will know which one, that this wrestler was getting ready before his match. And you know, some fighters, they not only have trainers and nutritionists, but they also have psychologists. And these psychologists are very important because these psychologists help them get out of their head and get into the ring. And one of the ways that this particular psychologist of this particular wrestler helped him get out of his head and into the ring is as the wrestler is on the table and the masseuse is oiling him down and getting him ready and massaging his muscles, the psychologist sits right in front of him, eyeball to eyeball, and he says this, your legs are the best. Your biceps are the best. Your pectorals are the best. What is he doing? Well, if you saw the wrestler, you would know that they are something, you know, they're pretty big, you know, they're a force to be reckoned with, but he's psychologically praising him. And he's getting that wrestler ready to go and battle his opponent. Well, in the same way, husbands. Can I just say by analogy, when your wife goes out into the ring of the world, she's got a lot of opponents too. She's got a lot of opponents. She's got a lot of figures that have been airbrushed that are vying for your attention. And you know what she wants to hear? She wants you to sit down in front of her and look her in the eyeballs and say, your thighs are the best. Okay? Your cheeks are the best. Your sunshine smile and warmness is the best. There is no other for me. You are the only one. Brothers, that is incredibly important. You say, well, we're just not that way. Well, I'll bet you were once that way. I'll bet you were once that way. And that old romance, those old fires, they need to be rekindled. This is not an answer key, it is a model. And he's not so much describing her bare looks, he's describing how he feels when he looks at her. I mean, I'm not going to go through and spend time on every single one, but just a cursory look. What is her eyes are like doves? What is that getting at? Well, it's speaking of her sense of gentleness and tenderness. Her eyes are a window into her soul. What about the hair like a flock of goats? We've already spoken to that. Her luscious hair is one of the first things that a man sees when he looks at a woman. Her teeth are pearly white and she has all of them. She takes care of them, none of them are missing. Her mouth is beautiful and attractive. Her neck is like the Tower of David in that both are statuesque and cause of feelings of admiration and wonder. Dwayne Garrett, my Dr. Father, says this, he says, he does not mean that her neck is outlandishly long, although in the neighboring country in Egypt, they actually, that was something very beautiful to them, but this is Israel. What is striking in this analogy is the military terminology. The picture of a tower of David, Israel's great warrior king, adorned with the shields of weapons of mighty men, cannot but convey a sense of unassailable strength. Think about that. No man can conquer her, and her suitor is awed by the dignity that she carries. Her love is a gift, it could never become plunder. I love that. You need to praise, men, the dignity of your wife. And here's one of the biggest reasons why we as men need to praise the dignity of our wife. I'm gonna say something that's gonna step on my own toes, okay, but here's where we are as men. Sometimes the biggest enemy to our wife's dignity is us, the way we speak to her, the way we treat her, And so we need to, you know, we have a system of deposits and withdraws. We need to, having withdrawn by our words that are hurtful, we need to deposit by giving her the dignity that she deserves. After all, she is a co-heir of the grace of life. What of her two breasts? Well, obviously, this points to two things, I would say. Both the pleasure that she brings to him and her unique natural ability to nurture and feed their young. And I think it's really important that today we say her unique natural ability, a man may scientifically in a Frankenstein kind of way be made through surgery to do something like that, but dare I say and I do is an abomination to the Lord. It's an abomination to the Lord. and it completely takes away from this poetry. This poetry becomes opaque. This poetry means nothing if there is not first presupposed the distinction between a man and a woman and their particular roles and their particular graces and their particular beauties that God has given them. But again, not all of this may apply to your wife, so you must create your own words of praise. But what is the principle? Here's the principle this morning. Here's the principle that I want all of you men specifically to get. And by the way, why am I just addressing the men this morning? Well, because here it is the man speaking to his wife. There's going to come a passage pretty soon where the wife is going to speak to her man about his physical body. Body, okay? Legs of alabaster, okay? I remember I was at a Bible study one time and this guy who was the teacher, he had like a Hawaiian shirt on and these really short 70s shorts. I don't know, it's a hangover from the 70s. We wear short shorts. And we're like, yeah, man, nice shorts. We were making fun of him. He's like, yeah, legs of alabaster. I'm like, what is this guy talking about? Oh, he was quoting the Song of Solomon. I didn't know. I didn't know until later. So man, I guess he should have been the teacher minus the shorts. But anyway. I'm specifically addressing the men because when we come to the passage where the woman is speaking of the physical beauty and attraction of her husband, then I'll drill down in an application kind of way to you ladies. But here's the principle for you men this morning. I want you to see that the bridegroom is extolling the symmetry between his lover's body and her soul. This is so incredibly important. He is not simply in a pornographic or over overtly objectifying kind of way saying your thighs are beautiful for thighs sake. He is extolling the symmetry between the beauty of her soul and how the beauty of her soul comes out in the beauty of her body. That is what's going on here. And it is incredibly important that we as Christians who believe that we are psychosomatic entities, that is to say soul, body entities, that we never lose the body and we never lose the soul. And men, if you can think of praising your wife and loving your wife and showering your wife with this kind of intimate praise that you are commenting both on her body and her soul, it's actually, it has the potential to make your marriage bed a spiritual experience. Now you've probably never thought of it that way. I think that there's many of us in the Christian faith that we're like, man, God is welcome into every room in my house but not the bedroom. And what I say to my wife and what she says to me in our pillow talk and the intimacy of our time together, we're off the court of Christianity. We're in the bleachers. No, you're not in the bleachers. You're still in the court. God's law still applies and it extends even to the bedroom. And so we want even our language of intimacy to be God-honoring and God-glorifying. He extols her for how her body and soul sing together. There's a sense in which the unique character of the soul, as I said, comes out in the unique shape and contour of her body. So, ladies, what I would say to you this morning, and I say this lovingly and graciously and as humbly as I possibly can, how you look matters. How you look matters. Whether, Paul says, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, what does he say? Do it all to the glory of God. There are some who would say, Pastor, you're not a dietitian, you're not a nutritionist, you're not a personal trainer, so don't talk about my body. Well, here's the thing, spiritual disciplines extend even to what we put into our body. Spiritual disciplines extend to how we keep our body fit so that the beauty that we desire to be on the inside will in some sense, especially to our spouses, reflect themselves on the outside. To say, for example, I don't need to keep myself up for my spouse is to take a platonic and gnostic view of things. All that matters is my soul. No, your soul and your body. Your body, in some sense, is a reflection of your soul. You are an image of God. You are the image of God, right? You are to, in some way, shape, or form, image God in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness, according to our catechism. See, that stuff comes out in the scent that you put on yourself, in the way that you keep yourself up. I think it is commendable and beautiful that women, their primary desire to be in the gym and to watch their calories is because they want to look good for their beau. That is a commendable thing. And I think that we need to be careful about saying, I can just let myself go, it doesn't matter, because then we're driving down the road and we see a church that is unkempt, it's got grass and weeds growing all over, it's dilapidated, derelict, and people are still meeting there, they're violating all types of building codes and whatnot. You're like, man, they really ought to do something about that. Guess what, your body is a temple of the Lord. Your body is a temple of the Lord, both individually and corporately. And if on the one hand we think that that spiritual truth extends to our body, extends to the building, and that it matters what the building looks like, and that aesthetics are important, and that things are to be done for glory and for beauty, then my friend, the analogy is true when it comes to our bodies. It is to be done for glory and for beauty. So husband, speak to your wife in such a way that you draw out the beauty of her soul. Listen, condition her by your unique and consistent praise of her body to want to desire to strike symmetry between body and soul. A woman's confidence in what her husband thinks about her body will greatly build intimacy in the marriage and even greater unity between husbands and wives. Now, that is the first horizon. And because I want to get to the table this morning, I'm going to stop there. And next week, with the Lord's help, we will come back to the second horizon. And if any will say, well, you didn't end your sermon with Christ, we're coming to the table and Christ will be handled bodily. So there's your Christocentric climax to the sermon, okay? Let's stand and we're going to respond in song. to. Mine are days that God has numbered. I was made to walk with Him. Yet I work for worldly treasure and forsake the King of kings. But mine is spoken, my redeemed. Though I fall, His brow is sure, For Christ has paid for every failing, I am His forevermore. Mine are tears in times of sorrow, darkness not yet understood. Through the valley, where I see no earthly good. But mine is peace that flows from heaven, and the strength in times of need. I know my pain will not be wasted. Christ is pleased. Look in me. Mine are days here as a stranger Pilgrim on a narrow way One with Christ I will encounter Harm and hatred for His name But mine is armor for this battle And He has said, He will deliver safely to that golden shore. And mine are keys to Zion's city, where beside Christ is mine forevermore. Come rejoice now, O my soul, for His love is my reward. Fear is gone and hope is sure, Christ is mine forevermore. Come rejoice now, O my soul, For His love is my reward Fear is gone and hope is sure Christ is mine forevermore And mine are keys to Zion's city Where beside the King I walk For there my heart has found its treasure Christ is mine forevermore Christ is mine forevermore Christ is mine forevermore. Thank you. Please be seated. Dear congregation, we have heard of Christ at the first horizon, as it were, relationship between a man and his woman. So we think on that second horizon of Christ, relationship between Christ and the church. We have heard it, but now we will handle it with our hands at the Supper of the Lord. I want to invite all of those who are believers in Jesus Christ this morning, who have repented of their sins, who have followed the Lord's command in baptism, who have followed the Lord's command in joining themselves to a local church and who are not under the discipline of any church to come to the table this morning, whether you are a member of this church or another church, a church that bears the three marks of the pure church, a church that preaches the pure gospel, a church that administers the pure sacraments, and a church that practices church discipline, come. Come to the table of the Lord where we will be reminded through the ordinance, the elements of bread and wine of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, his shed blood and his broken body, which are given for us. We will remember Christ in this sacrament. We will be spurred on to greater obedience through this sacrament. We will spiritually feed upon Christ, not carnally, not in the mean of physical things, but we will be catapulted to heaven through faith in Jesus Christ and we will spiritually feed on Him with the help of the Holy Spirit. And He will confirm to us that He is faithful and true to fulfill His promise, every last one of them. For God has given us a bond and a pledge in these emblems through faith. that believers have with Him and that we have with one another through our fellowship with the body. And finally, we'll be reminded to look forward in this supper to the final day when Christ will break through the clouds. Things have set the table. I want to remind you that this is exclusively for Christians that have believed in Jesus Christ, repented of their sins, have been baptized, are members of a church that bears the three marks. If you are an unbeliever this morning, we're delighted you're here, but we would ask that you would refrain from taking the elements. We would ask that you would just let them pass and just observe what is taking place. If you are a believer, we would exhort you to examine your hearts and confess your sins to the Lord. If you have ought between another brother or sister in this place, number one, we would ask you to, if possible, cover that transgression with a blanket of love. But if you cannot cover that transgression with a blanket of love, because love covers a multitude of sins, and it's still something that you can't let go of, then we would ask that you would go to your brother and or sister and reconcile with them. We also ask after you have confessed your sin to the Lord and if necessary gone to reconcile with your brother to take the hammer of edification and to build your brother or sister up with words of encouragement And then, as we are doing all of this, that you would sing unto the Lord, this, beloved, is not a morbid, introspective, exclusively exercise. This is a joyous exercise of faith as our hearts are lifted to heaven. So, in a moment, I'm going to pray, and what we will do, especially for those of you who are visitors, is elders will be stationed up here. One elder right here, one elder right here, and then one elder will be in the hallway. And you can come up and receive as the deacons excuse you. We do have gluten-free options if that is something that you're interested in. They will be on both sides. But I would ask you to come, get the elements, go back to your seat, and do the things that we have called you to do. So let's bow our heads this morning and ask the Lord's blessing upon the elements. Our gracious Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thank you for sending your son Jesus Christ to give us his righteousness and to take away our sin. Dear God, send your Holy Spirit so that this bread and cup may be for us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we and all your saints be united with Christ and remain faithful in hope and love. Gather your whole church, O Lord, into the glory of your kingdom, we pray in Jesus Christ's name, amen. So one more reminder, after you have received, go back to your seats and wait until everybody has received, and then I will come back up and direct us to take the bread and the cup.