Let's ask God's blessing. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this opportunity to meet in your name, and we pray that the things
which are learned in this series of lessons on this book will
benefit us spiritually, that we might come to love and appreciate
our Savior more, and to come to understand even more of his
remarkable love for us. Glorify your name, in the name
of Christ we pray, amen. Now we're starting a series this
morning on this book, and we'll probably not get past verse one
this morning, which merely gives us the name of the book, because
this book is going to require more introduction than other
books normally would. And that's partly because of
its uniqueness. There are several ways in which
this book is unique among the books of scripture. First thing
to notice is that it's one of only two books in the entire
Bible that never mentions God. I've read over it, I certainly
can't remember any reference that is direct, open reference
to God. The other book that's like that
is the book of Esther. And then secondly, it's a romantic
story that heavily references the sexual relationships, the
relationship of a married couple. Now this book is not about sex,
nor was it given as an instruction book for a godly sexual relationship. Some have used it that way. I
remember that, the church of my youth. The founding pastor of that church
was there as long as I was, but when he retired and the next
fellow that came in, at least I believe it was the next fellow,
by then I'd already left that church and was somewhere else,
but a fellow that was there for several years, he actually taught
this book as though it were some kind of biblical instruction
book. He even had a camp where, you
know, they rented a camp and all the couples that wanted to
go went there and each had their own room, and I guess he'd teach
during the day and they'd practice at night. That's not what this
book is about. It's using human sexuality, the
marriage relationship, to illustrate some spiritual things. And to use it any other way would
require speculating a great deal about what each of the individual
symbols refers to, and to do so also would miss the very important
and much more beneficial lesson that the book actually teaches.
Rather than being an instruction book about human sexuality, it
assumes the truth of human sexuality and uses that truth to illustrate
important spiritual truth. However, we cannot gain the spiritual
truth symbolized in the book unless we understand something
of how human sexuality is presented in the book. Now, the reader will search in
vain for any information regarding technique, but these things,
these following things, are assumed or implied in this text. First of all, that human sexuality
is not essentially sinful, gross, or dirty. Man has often made
it that way, But that is man simply adding his sinfulness
to what God has designed for man's good and God's glory. Everything that humanity touches,
humanity pollutes. And human sexuality is no different.
And we have so polluted it that we always feel a little bit squeamish
talking about it. because it arises within us a
sense of guilt or sinfulness, but there is no sinfulness attached
to it. That is essentially attached
to it. We may bring our own sinfulness
to it, but the sinfulness is not in the activity. Secondly,
things implied or assumed by this text, human sexuality does
have moral boundaries, but these boundaries are more about who
can engage in it rather than how they engage in it. Human
sexual activity is for married couples and it's for them only. And while it's horrible that
we have to mention this at all, such as the corruption of our
present culture we must add that it is for married couples that
consist of one man and one woman. Even though Solomon himself did
not obey this rule, I mean, it's written that Solomon had 700
wives and 300 concubines. So obviously the one man, one
woman rule, he didn't follow it. Yet as he
wrote this book, There's only mentioned one man and one woman. Thirdly, while human sexual relations
are God's way of propagating the human race, the production
of children need not be the goal in mind when married couples
engage in sex. Now, you think, Many might have never even considered
that, but there are those who believe that that's the only
appropriate motivation for it. That a married couple should
not enjoy that relationship unless they have the intention or hope
of producing children by it. Therefore, they think that any
attempt to stop or even hinder conception is ungodly. However, even though this book
is the most overtly sexual of all the books of scripture, children
are never mentioned. Fourth, human sexuality is to
be a joyful act of giving, not taking. Sexual desire is not
a bad thing, but our general attitude In sex, as in all other
things, should be what can I give, not what can I get. Now, I don't give a lot of premarital
counseling. And that's for several reasons.
I don't know that I'm qualified. I have managed to stay married
for 44 years, I think it is now. But a lot of that owes to Bonnie. I can't take full credit for
that. But I've also, I do know this
about marriage. For everybody, it's on-the-job
training. There's no amount of counseling that makes the business
of being married an easy thing to do. It was probably easy before
sin, but seeing that we're all sinners and all naturally selfish,
and the marriage relationship is an essentially selfless relationship,
it makes it into work. And this is as true of the sexual
relationship of marriage as anything else. But one thing I do tell
couples when I talk to them, is if you go into this marriage
for what you can get out of it, it will fail. If you go into
it with what can I bring to it, then you will succeed. And that's
true in every aspect, including this aspect of marital sex. Throughout this book, the couple
express their desire and appreciation for one another But their calls
to sexual activity are invitations to enjoy. They are not demands
to bring joy. And we'll see this as we go through
the book. Fifth, and there are seven of
these things I'm mentioning here, But I think these are important,
because if we don't understand how the Bible approaches human
sexuality, we're going to miss some of the things that are in
this book. The physical pleasures of sexual relationship are not
at all discouraged, as though they're secondary to some other
aspect. Rather, they are described in
this book in terms of the mating habits of animals. And humans,
they are more than animals, but they are animals. We are animals. God made us from the ground just
as he made animals from the ground. That which distinguishes man
from the animals is simply that God added a spiritual nature
to the animal of man. Our animal nature, just like
all aspects of human nature, has been corrupted. And every
appetite we have is corrupted and broken. But that's not because
it's an animal desire. We desire to eat. We desire connection. We desire touch. And while these things can be
corrupted, there's nothing essentially wrong with the animalistic desires
of sexuality. Now, with animals, you know,
they seek out fulfillment of their sexual desire any way they
can. There are boundaries set on humans that are not set on
the rest of the animal world. And that's precisely because
humans, even though they are animals, they're more than animals.
So humans are bound in their sexual expression to the context
of marriage. The door is open within marriage,
but it is utterly closed. outside of marriage. Six, human sexual expression
is not essentially dirty or sinful, but it is private. And now the immorality or the dirtiness of
it that seems that everybody kind of feels a little bit, to
different levels, that comes about because of our sinful nature
that can make anything seem to be dirty. And probably because
we find sexual drive to be so strong, and when it is improperly
expressed, it's so destructive, we tend to associate immorality
with it, even when it's expressed properly within its proper bounds.
Now, when I was a kid, and I don't know if this was true outside
of the culture I was raised in, you know, being raised in West
Virginia, but I remember being told, don't say the word sex. Even to say the word pregnant
was frowned upon, and in the previous generation, It was almost
completely forbidden. My mother went to school when
she was nine years old. She had a sister nine years older
than her. That sister had gotten married, and pretty quick, she
was pregnant. Well, my mother thought that
was wonderful. She told her teacher. The teacher thought that was
wonderful, and she called my mother's stepmother and said,
I hear Jewel is pregnant, or Jewel probably said, Jewel's
going to have a baby. And my mother's stepmother said, who
told you that? Well, Martha did. And my mother
got a good beating for it. Now, that is man's essential
sense of guilt being attached to that which is not guilt-worthy.
And we don't have to do that. But while it's not essentially
dirty or sinful, it is private. See, the essence of intimacy
is the combination of secrecy and revelation. If the relationship is open to
all, there is no intimacy. If it is open to none, there
is no relationship. The essence of intimacy is how
narrowly confined the relationship is. And there are various levels
of intimacy for various things. For instance, there's the intimacy
of the immediate family. We know things, you know, within
a household, parents and children, that nobody outside the household
knows. And it's kind of understood that there are things you don't
share outside the household, particularly the things that
are going on, the various stresses. They say, don't air your dirty
laundry. Well, we normally don't think of that in terms of intimacy,
but that's what it is. You have a relationship that's
confined to the people within your house. Well, there is no
relationship. that is more, no human relationship,
more intimate than that between a husband and a wife. And that
means it's confined just to them and no one else. The sexual relationship between
a husband and wife is as intimate as human relations can get. Neither
party is ever to share his or her body with someone else, nor
are they even to share that relationship by way of talking about it with
others. It is for them and for them alone. Now these things you know, just
saying them, probably all of you understand them already.
But you'll find that these are important aspects of the spiritual
truth that's being taught in this scripture. And then seventh
and last, while human sexuality has its animalistic aspects,
it is also, or it also has psychological aspects to it, unique to human
nature. It is virtually impossible to
engage sexually with someone without forming a psychological
bond to that person. This connection is the essential
connection of romantic love. But we must never enter that
psychological connection unless there is first the essential
bond of marital love. And what do I mean by that? The
lifelong commitment of marriage. Now, we could give a spiritual
reason for that. We could say, well, among humans,
this bond of marriage is to be a lifelong bond because it is
a picture of Christ and his church And that's an eternal bond. Therefore,
so long as our life lasts, because we can't do anything about it
after that, but certainly for the length of our life, we make
a commitment to one other person. And that is a completely selfless
commitment. I remember my philosophy professor
was asked to give a lecture on biblical courting
or dating or whatever you want to call it. And he started out
by saying, I cannot give you a lecture on the biblical concept
of courting because there is no such thing. In that day and
age, pretty much there wasn't any such thing as courting or
dating. Dads made arrangements. If they had daughters, they sought
out good husbands for them. And generally, the most freedom
that a woman had in marriage, and sometimes she didn't even
have this freedom, was whether or not she would accept that
proposal. This was the case with Isaac
and Rebecca. They finally asked her, well, are you going to go
with this man? They did put it to her. She didn't have to. But
neither was she free to go out and find one for herself. So
trying to find, you know, biblical principles of courtship, he couldn't.
So instead he just defined what marriage is and essentially what
marital love is. And really this is the essence
of all love. He said, love is not an expression of the emotions. It's an act of the will. It is
a determination. to do good for someone else. That's what love is. Now, there
are many ways you could expand on that. Paul does that in 1
Corinthians when he, you know, says, you know, love endures
all things, love's patient, love seeks not its own. But all of
these come together under this. Love is an act of the will by
which we determine to do good for someone else. And that's
true in every expression of love, whether it be for our children
or for friends or whatever. But in the marital relationship,
this determination to do good is sealed by vows that promise
this characteristic of love for a lifetime. That's the nature of marriage.
And part of this marriage is the sexual relationship, and
it is part of the bond of love that is allowed to those who
are married. And when they enter into that
bond, in fact, in the Bible, human sexuality is so connected
with marriage, it's, you know, not only do we say you can't
have sex without marriage, you can't have marriage without sex. Bonnie and I were given a book
by the pastor that performed our wedding. This was our wedding
gift, and it was a book called The Act of Marriage. And it was
a book about sex. But that's true. When you realize
that every other aspect of marriage, every other aspect of the relationship
of marriage, is allowable outside the bond of marriage. then you realize that the essential
characteristic of marriage is the sexual union. And in humans,
this sexual union is more than simply a biological process by
which offspring are generated. It forms a psychological bond
between the two. And if that bond is broken, it leaves psychological scars. Recently, I saw it come across
my Facebook feed. I put this question, can trust
be reestablished after someone cheats in marriage? And a lot of people, no. Well,
I know that it can. I know that it's happened. But
it's very, very difficult. Because it's in our nature, that
bond, probably more than any other that humans enter into,
so connects us that to go elsewhere is one of the deepest betrayals
that a human can enact. So there is this psychological
aspect to human sexuality. which means that when we go outside
the bounds that God set upon it, it's harmful to us on a psychological
level. Now, as we move through this
book, we'll not be focusing on all the particular metaphors
for sexuality in it, partly because we can't be sure what each one
of them means. Actually, as we go through it,
we're going to just read it with the understanding that we as
adults already have about the matters involved. Thirdly, we're
talking about the uniqueness of this book. It is a work of
Hebrew dramatic poetry. There's other poetry in the Bible.
The book of Psalms is made up of 150 poems. And there are other books like
Lamentations that are mostly poetry. And then there are other
books that do have small amounts of poetry in them. But this book
is a dramatic poem. And by that, I mean it has the
feel of a play. Now, not a play that's necessarily
to be acted out on stage. But when you read the book, you
understand it's a very visual book. And you would probably
picture the conversations going on. In fact, what we think of
as a play, as a stage production, is actually a fairly new concept
in the world of literature. Even in the days of Shakespeare,
They didn't have these elaborate sets and action sequences going
on. All the actors were men. Even when they're playing female
parts, they all had their face covered with a mask of some kind.
And they essentially stood there and said their lines. And all
the drama of it was in the way they delivered the lines, not
in any action sequences going on. And you go back even further,
it gets more that way. So when I say it's a drama, it's
not a drama like we would think of a stage production in our
day, but it is meant to be understood or taken that way. for this reason
you know as we go through this I would advise this every week
try to find an opportunity to just sit down read through the
whole thing in one sitting because that's the way this book is supposed
to impact you. Now we can't look at all of it
in a half hour Bible class and I don't know how long it will
take us to get through this. But really it is not so much meant
to be taken apart as like we might do with the book of Romans
or something, you know, take it apart and examine the logical
sequence. Just like a play, you sit there
and you just watch it. And it impacts you. Poetry, whether dramatic or just recited,
poetry is that which impacts you above a mere intellectual
level. In fact, our English word poem, it comes
from the Greek word poema. And this is what distinguishes
poetry from prose. The Greek word poema is the word
that is used when it says in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his
workmanship. So what is a poem? A poem is
more than putting words together to put across a point. A poem is when the poet artfully
uses words not only for their meaning, but for the emotional
impact they may create. In English poetry, generally
you have rhyme and rhythm, though that's not always possible in
other languages, but there will be devices that they use that
causes the message to impact you on a deeper level than merely
what you would get maybe in just a simple prose declaration of
some kind. And for that reason, it's not
really like everything can be divided into just prose or poetry. Some prose, that which was designed
to give information, if you look at it, it's got poetic aspects
to it. One of my favorite writers is
Abraham Lincoln. He may have been the best wordsmith
that Americans have ever had, certainly among politicians.
He and, well, Thomas Jefferson with the Declaration of Independence
and whoever it was wrote the preamble to our Constitution.
Those English expressions are so elegant. It's obvious they
were written in a way not only to inform but to move. The Gettysburg Address is to
me one of the best pieces of English writing, speaking in
print. that you have access to. It is
poetic in its nature. So you understand that's what
a poem is about. It is to impact us directly,
not only with the meaning of the words. So as you read this
book, don't stop and ask questions. Don't say, well, what does that
mean? Just read it. wash over you as you would if
you were watching a play. Because that's the level it was
intended to affect you. Now, we'll give a couple of minutes
to the first verse. The first verse simply gives
us the title, Solomon's Song of Songs. Now, by the nature
of Hebrew language, it's really the Song of Songs of Solomon. But what that means is the best
of songs written by Solomon. The Bible says that Solomon wrote
1,005 songs. And this one is called
the best of what he had written. And it is the best because it
is so clearly and so powerfully
a declaration of Christ and the love he bears towards his church. And there is no better theme
in all the world. You can't choose a better subject
than that subject. And therefore, it is called the
Song of Songs of Solomon. And we're going to have to stop
because I've already gone past time. But that's the introduction
of this book. It's a poem, a dramatic poem. It's a dramatic poem that deals
with the most intimate aspects of human relationship and uses
those to teach us about Christ's regard for us and actually what
I regard is toward him. All right, you may.