Song of Songs 2019

Well, this morning, we are, beginning a new series in the book of the song of songs and, really this this morning will be somewhat of an introduction to that series. And so we've got 2 Bible readings to kick us off, and, they're on the screen. If you would like to turn first of all, to page 3 39 of the church Bible, 1 Kings 4. And you might want to put a finger in page 6 80 because we'll be turning to song of songs chapter 1 after that. Funkings 4, first 20.

The people of Judah and Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They ate, they drank, and they were happy. And Solomon ruled over all the kingdoms from the river euphrates to the land of the Philistines as far as the border of Egypt. These countries brought tribute and were Solomon's subjects all his life. Solomon's daily provisions were 30 cores of finest flour and 60 cores of meal.

10 head of stall fed cattle, 20 of pasture fed cattle, and a hundred sheep and goats, as well as deer, Gazelle's, Robox, and choice fowl. For he ruled over all the kingdoms west of the River euphrates from tipza to Gaza and had peace on all sides. During Solomon's lifetime, Judah and Israel from Dan to beersheba lived in safety. Everyone under their own vine, and under their own victory. Solomon had 4000 stalls for chariot horses and 12000 horses.

The district governors, each in his month, supplied provisions for King Solomon and all who came to the King's table. They saw to it that nothing was lacking. They also brought to the proper place their quotas of barley and straw for the chariot horses and the other horses. God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east.

And greater than all the wisdom of Egypt. He was wiser than anyone else, including Ethan, the Ezra Heights, wiser than Hammond, Calcole and Dada, the sons of Mahole, and his fame spread to all the surrounding nations He spoke 3000 proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and 5. He spoke about plant life from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also spoke about animals and birds, reptiles, and fish. From all nations, people came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world who had heard of his wisdom.

The next reading will be Song of songs. Chapter 1 verse 1 to 8 page 680. Solomon's song of songs. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is more delightful than wine.

Plasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the young women love you. Take me away with you. Let us hurry.

Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you. We will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you? Dark, I am, yet lovely daughters of Jerusalem.

Dark like the tents of Cadar, like the tent curtains of Solomon. Do not stare at me because I am dark. Because I am darkened by the sun. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards. My own vineyard I had to neglect.

Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock, and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends? If you do not know, most beautiful of women, follow the tracks of the sheep and graze your young goats by the tents of the shepherds. Good morning. My name's Pete Woodcock.

I'm the pastor of the church and, as Tom said, we're starting a new series and song of songs hopefully, it'll be a bit shorter than Roman's series. But that's what that's where we're at. So keep, your finger in song because eventually we'll we will get there and, I'll try and do a quick overview, today. The Beatles, most famous pop group in the world, I guess. Their number 1 words that they used if you look at all of their songs is love.

But they have they have a song where I think I think it has love in a hundred and 30 times. Love, love, love, and they go on and on and on about love. And love songs are good, aren't they? Love songs, love poems. They can be cheesy.

They can be earworms. They can be very irritating, but largely we love them. That's why there is so many of them because in the good ones, at least, there's something haunting haunting about them. They expressing a sort of longing Even though we don't have a particular person in mind, they express a longing to be loved and to and to love. After the Beatles, which were a pretty good group, you had wings, Paul McCartney's wings, who was a member of the Beatles, and, they wrote some very cheesy songs.

And this is 1 of them. You'd think that people would have had enough of silly love songs But I look around me and see it isn't so. Some people wanna fill the world with silly love songs and what's wrong with that I'd like to know because here we go again. I love you. I love you.

I love you. I love you. Do you remember that song, anyone? Few, few of you. Love.

You may well have heard of Romeo and Juliet, I guess you have of Cinderella and Prince charming of Anthony and Cleopatra But have you ever heard of Solomon and the Schulamite woman? Because that's what we're gonna be looking at. We're gonna spend 6 or 7 weeks in, in this book of song of songs, and we're gonna be introduced to this couple Solomon and the Schulamite woman. And in many ways, they should be more actually known than Romeo and Juliet and others. Because it's a remarkable story that we're going to see, and it'll hit home in many, many ways I hope.

We're gonna start the series, today And then we are interrupted. If you like, by the mix, we're going to think about the ear. We're looking at the eye, and we're going to think about the ear. In the mix, and then we come back to song of songs. So that's how the next few weeks are gonna pan out.

Song of songs is probably 1 of the most neglected books in the Bible. You rarely hear talks on the song of songs. It's probably the least understood. And actually, in some ways, the friends of song of songs have done more harm to to song of songs than actually it's critics because we can get it so wrong. So I wanna do something that I rarely do when I start a new series.

I love to just get into the book But I want to do an introduction to this book because it's such a different genre, particularly to Romans. So here's the first thing I wanted to see. The song of songs, what is it? Well, we're told in the first line. If you have a look at the first line of the book, we're told that it's Solemon's song of songs.

And we've already read in in 1 kings that Solomon poured out songs from his pen that Solomon actually wrote 1005 songs. But in verse 1 of this song, this big poem, we're told that this is Solomon's greatest hit This is his greatest album. This is the 1 that went platinum. This is the 1 that actually, you know, if he was ever going around doing a tour, you had to play this whole album, you know, in entirety. And, it's his his his best song.

Is called his song of songs. That's a Hebrew way of expressing qualify, you know, unequal and and and beyond compare. So if you know the Bible, you have things like holy of holies. In other words, that's the most holy place, the holy of holies. You have king of kings.

There's no greater king than this 1. You have lord of lords. Well, this is song of songs. Solomon's song of songs and unequaled. You can't compare it.

It's the number 1 song in the world. In fact, traditionally, the Jewish people regarded song of songs as the holiest book in the Bible. It's a bit strange to think like that, but that's how how they often talked about it. So orthodox Jews and they still do today, they consider proverbs to be, the outer court of the temple. If you think of the temple, if you know that, there's an outer court that proverbs of the outer court, Ecclesiastes is the holy place which is inside the outer court and songs with a was holy of holies, which is quite interesting, actually, because Next week, we're gonna look at proverbs, which is the outer court.

If you're a student, we're looking at Ecclesiastes, which is the holy place, and now we're looking at the holy of holies. So it's, you know, that's that's how it goes. And, why is it the song of songs? Because it's a love song. That's why?

It's a very erotic love song, so don't be surprised at some of the rot eroticism we're gonna see. It's a love song about a desire between a man and a woman and a woman and a man. It's the greatest love song. And it's the greatest love song ever written. Paul says, and we were looking some of us at this, in in our midweek meeting, in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16.

Paul says this amazing sentence that all scripture is god breathed the very breath of god and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. All scripture is the very breath, the very word of god. And that word is not just for us to know a word so that we can be intellectualized, but it has practical implications so that we could be servants of God. Now if this Bible, this scripture is the word of god, it would be very strange if there wasn't a prolonged message in this word of god about human love. And sexual desire.

If god is going to speak and it's going to equip us in this world to be servants of god, it would be a very strange thing if the subject of deep intimate love wasn't touched upon. But it is. And it is here in this book in the song of songs. And the Holy Spirit has inspired this. He's breathed this song out so that we can understand the beauty of human love as god intended it.

The song of songs, The very title actually takes us away from the lurid and the dirty songs about sex and love. It's a beautiful song. 1 theologian described it this way. It's eros without shame. Now, eros is the is the love word, but is used for the physical love word, the sex word.

Eros without shame, and this theologian says, a poetic commentary on the wide eyed wonder with which the first man and the first woman admired each other as they stood face to face naked and unashamed. And the very setting of this song The very setting, if you just sort of flick down, and and, you know, wiz through it, you'll see the very setting of this song is is in a garden. It takes us back to the Garden of Eden actually if you want to put it in its place. It's a bit like the return of Eden. But in all its beautiful perfection, better and more vivid than it actually was originally.

So we're gonna see echoes of Eden throughout this song. So the garden is the place where this this couple go The garden is the place where they find intimacy. The garden is the place where they find refuge. The garden is the place where they find satisfaction amongst themselves. The garden is the place where they enjoy each other's love in the it's it's all done in the seclusion of this garden.

So song of songs is sort of like a poetic it's like Adam and Eve the musical. You could you could put it that way. Adam and eve the musical or adam and eve the big poem As we look at this couple who are exclusive together in intimacy yet vulnerable an enduring and a deepening of relationship. That's what we're going to see. In a sense, the heart of this this song, this This poem is Genesis chapter 2.

You may know the story. God had made man in his own image, but it was not good for man to be alone and so he put man asleep and then he created out of, man, out of the rib of a man, a woman. And when she when he woke up and saw this woman. Remember she was stark naked, when when he saw her, he basically went, wow. And then burst into a poem.

Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. And I imagine he was saying this as he was running towards her. You know? And there wasn't any of the whenever you get pictures of these things, there wasn't any sort of, you know, there's always like a tiger standing in the right place or a leaf that just happens to come over. So he he he saw through the leaf from the tiger.

And, he was running with great joy. So it's sort of that again, replayed, but more vivid. This young couple that only have eyes for each other. He is her strength. She is his peace.

And they delight and compliment each other in completeness. But of course, if you know the story of the Bible, you know Genesis 3, and there's the entrance of sin. And with that entrance of disobedience to god, relationships break down. The garden becomes a thorny place, and the relationship between husband and wife Adam and Eve becomes a painful sort of fight desiring to lead each other. In a wrong way.

And so you've got an antagonistic language going on in the garden of Eden, and then they're thrown out of the garden of Eden. So song of songs sort of takes us back and, idealizes that shows shows us just what god intended. On that. But then let me just, you know, push a little bit more here at this door a little bit more. Sort of songs in many ways is is like the story of the whole Bible.

The Bible starts in a garden, as I've just seen with Adam and Eve, song of song starts in a garden as we see with Solomon and the Schulomite woman. But actually, The Bible ends in a garden city. If you know the end of the book of Revelation, Genesis garden, Revelation garden city, a garden city, and that's called the bride, that garden city. And it's the same thing in song of songs. If you follow it through, it starts in the garden, intimacy in the garden, but in the end, they're in a city.

So this is like a summary of the whole of the Bible, the love of this man for his bride, and how it overcomes the thorns and the fish that the the thistles and the difficulties in order to get from garden to garden city. There's a great word in the Bible I've spoken on it before, and you probably know it. It's the word shalom. Shalom, you know the word shalom, don't you? And it may well, basically, people say it means peace.

So if I say shalom to you, it's like peace be with you, shalom. But it means much more than peace. It means that everything is at peace with each other. It means complete wholeness. There is whole peace.

It it means Shalom that we're complete. We are what we were meant to be. We're back to what we were created to be. I am the man. I meant to be.

You are the woman you're meant to be. Complete, shalom. And it's god that gives shalom. And god has always wanted us to have shallon. So back in Genesis again, in that garden, He walked with the man and the woman in the cool of the day.

Yeah. There was shalom between them and and god and god had this seventh day where he rested. It didn't mean they didn't do anything, but the whole resting was to enjoy Shalom. It was a shalom day the seventh day where they would shalom together. He wanted them to enjoy water and wine and food and all of his design and the garden.

And that's what we have in the song of songs. Solomon means shalom. Solomon It's the same word. It is. In fact, the same word.

It is that. I'm not messing around. Salon, wholeness, So this song of songs is taking us back. How do we get back to shalom? But we've seen and I've already just reminded you.

Genesis 3, the problems and this ruination of the garden and and now we're in a world where we're not in the garden and we're we're longing desperately for the shalom of the garden. That's why people on drugs and drinking and, workaholics. They're all trying to find what we've lost in the garden. Well, song of songs sort of shows us where you find the end of that search for Shalom. Solomon.

Solomon. That's right. And under his reign, because he was a real person, King Solomon, we read in 1 king chapter 4. Something of what Solomon even did in this world, a little bit of shalom he brought. By his wisdom.

And we read it in 1 king's chapter 4. It says the people of Judah and of Israel were as numerous as the sand on the seashore. They ate and they drank and they were happy. Under Solomon's leadership in the history of Israel, there was something of shalom. Because he is Solomon.

Something of Shalom. I love it. I don't know why you it may be different in the bible that you had, but He's wiser than he man. I love that. Yeah.

If you're into he man, Solomon's wiser than he man. What a great expression. To be wiser than he man. And he brought wisdom and he understood plants and under King Solomon's reign Israel was at its most prosperous at its biggest. It had peace with all the surrounding nations that brought tribute to to the king.

They bowed to the king. Under Sholloman, but who's the woman? The woman is called remember the shulamite woman. It's the same word. Shulamite.

It's right. So you have Solomon shalom, the peace bringer, and the shulamite woman, the woman that has shalom, has peace, completeness. And that's what's going on. I know that was quite long winded, but that's what's going on in this incredible scene. That we're going to look into.

So let me just recap before I go on. What is the song of songs? It's a love song. It's a love poem. It's a series of love poems from a man to a woman and a woman to the man.

So there'll be all kinds of poetry stuff that we can get into. There's some amazing stuff, wait until next time. Can't wait to show you some of this stuff. It's it's lifting up the ideal of what God created of a man and a woman in harmony together without the sin that destroys and the thorns that destroys. It's giving us a longing for intimacy that we really want this shalom in our lives and where do we find that so it's a whole poet poetic summary of the entire bible done in this love affair, and it's a song of wisdom as well because It wisely celebrates sex and desire without smutiness.

It's very erotic. It's very straightforward. In in many ways. But it shows this deep, important relationship that you find with married couples. It's not the be all and end all of marriage, but it is a very important part of marriage and sometimes can be an indicator of how the marriage is going.

So sex is not all about orgasm. Is about being vulnerable and intimate and self exposed. And all of those things are necessary for a deep relation friendship, to be honest and open and naked and unashamed. So there's this beautiful celebration of sex and intimacy in a very wisdom light way. But I hope you're still with me.

We go even deeper It's even deeper than that. It is impossible. At least I would contest that, and I can't understand how people do try and do it. It seems impossible to me to read the song of songs without finding the lord Jesus Christ in the book. There is a greater than Solomon here.

Jesus is called that. Greater than Solomon, a greater shalom, a greater intimacy, a greater 1 who will bring us into the garden. And then into the garden city. There's a greater love, a greater lover that we can know the greater than Solomon, and the whole Bible is about pointing forward to him who will be our Solomon and that we can be his shulamite. We can be people that have this completeness under him.

Hudson Taylor, who was a great, missionary, said this, the incarnate word is the key to the written word. The incarnate word is the key to the written word. Incarnate means in the flesh, Jesus is the word of god in the flesh Jesus is the key to the word of God, the Bible. So whenever you read the Bible, if you don't see Jesus, You've missed out something. We're always supposed to come to Jesus.

Jesus when he was walking after the resurrection, with some of his disciples on the way to Emeus opened up the scripture and all the way through the scriptures, all the way through Moses and the Psalms and the song of song would have been included showed that all the scriptures concern him. They're all about him. Paul, in the book of Ephesians in his letter that he writes to the Ephesian Christians in the New Testament compares And we we know this because we have it almost at every marriage. We had it at the last marriage at at Phil and Mim's marriage. Uh-uh chapter 5 of, ephesians read out.

And we we realize that actually that that marriage and the intimate life, the becoming 1 flesh The sex act is a picture of Christ's intimacy with his people, the church. Is it extraordinary to say that? But it's what he says. Listen. This is Ephesians chapter 5.

For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife the 2 will become 1 flesh as a description of the sex act. This is what he says. This is a profound mystery. But I am talking about Christ and the church. There is utter intimacy with Christ and the church he is saying.

And the marriage act is just a picture of the reality. So that's how we're going to interpret song of songs. We're gonna celebrate the physical We're gonna celebrate human sexual love, I hope, but so much more than that. As we do that, we're gonna see the profound love that Christ has for the church that he is our solomon, and we can be the shulamite. So that's my first point.

Okay? I hope you're with me. Second second thing I want you to see. Ways of interpreting the book. Waste of interpreting the book, there's basically 3 sort of schools of how you interpret the book.

Again, I very rarely do this, but I will do it here. There's an allegorical approach. We're not gonna take that. Okay? An allegorical approach.

That's a bit like pilgrims progress. You know, everything in pilgrims progress stands for something outside of the story. Now, this is poetry, and there is there will be allegorical sort of stuff there because it's poetry, but we're not to sort of say that everything means something completely different to what it really is meaning there. So for instance, I'll give you a classic a bloke called Cyril. I mean, immediately with a name like that, you gotta be suspicious.

But nevertheless, Cyril of Alexander, I bet you there's a guest in here first time and your name is but there we go. Forgive me, and we'll never see you again anyway. So Cyril of Alexander, of Alexander. Sarah of Alexander, he took song of songs as an allegorical thing. So for instance, if you look at chapter 1 verse 13, where it says my beloved is like a sachet of my resting between my breasts.

Now he didn't like the idea that we would be talking about women's breasts and so he aragolic what's the word? Turned it into an allegory. And, breasts, he said, mean the old and New Testament. Yeah. So, which I think just really does give a very different sort of feel, doesn't it to you know, when someone says, do you know what?

I really wanna get a grasp of the old testament. It's sort of like be be careful. Or I'm, you know, and which is which? Anyway, let's not go too on. But that's that's, to be aragorical.

It's it's ridiculous. Because he didn't want us to have a book that ever talked about human love or the parts of the body and so he thinks that's dirty and so therefore he's he's off sort of doing that sort of thing. And there's lots of other stuff I could tell you, but they're even more straight than that. Just spiritualizing everything. We're not gonna take that approach.

The second approach, and this is now big these days. And particularly, I've noticed from commentaries on this book that are coming from America. It's the naturalistic approach In other words, this book is only about human love and sexuality. That's all it's about. It's not a it's not about Christ and the church.

It's only about section, sexuality, and some famous writers are I've read some of their commentaries, and it it's it's only about that. It's only about physical, human, sexual love. We're not gonna take that approach because of Ephesians 5. The third approach is the approach that we're gonna take is that this is typical. It's called typical.

In other words, these are types It's not aragorical, but it's types. You see Solomon, a type of Christ. You see the shulamite, a type of the church. They're types They're typical, they're pictures. You don't take every detail.

It's not old and new testament or old and new testament, but it's It's she's a type and you can enjoy these breasts as as Solomon enjoys the breasts of the Schulamite woman and is desires them. And you see there in that story, a desire for the man, for the woman, and you see a desire for for for Christ and people he desires That's how you that's how you take it. And that's how we're going to take it. And I'm very excited about that. Because we're gonna see Christ.

We're gonna spend 6 weeks revelling in his love for us. It is extraordinary. And it's intimate and it's beautiful. Now third point then, the song has a story line, I think. I I believe this some don't, but I do.

And that's how I'm gonna take it. The song has a story. I so turn to song of songs and we're gonna just I'm not gonna read all these verses out. You just have a look at them and you'll you'll see with me. So here's the story line as I can see it.

King Solomon has a vineyard in the north of the country about 50 miles north of Jerusalem, which he let out to keepers. Chapter 8 verse 11. I'll read that out. Chapter 8 verse 11 Solomon had a vineyard in Balhamun. He let out his vineyard to tenants.

So it's very clear. Yeah? Solomon had this vineyard about 50 miles north of Jerusalem and he lets it out. Now we're just whizzed through these verses. Now the keepers of that vineyard are made up of a mother.

At least 2 sons, the Schulamite woman herself, which we don't know her name, and her little sister. You can see that in chapter 1 verse 6, You can see that in chapter 6 verse 13, and you can see that in chapter 8 verse 8. Mother at least 2 sons, Schulamite woman herself and a little sister. It's very likely if you look at verse 6 of chapter 1, that these are her half brothers. It explains that phrase.

Do not stare at me because I am dark because I'm darkened by the sun. My my mother's sons. So it's not my brothers and sisters there. It's my mother's sons. Were angry with me and made me go and work in the vineyards and then go and trap the trap the foxes and and that sort of stuff.

So there's a sort of Cinderella story going on here. You've got sort of the wicked step brothers instead of the wicked stepmother and, the step brothers are using this woman, the shulamite in this world in the heat of the day, to pull the forms and to track the track the foxes as you'll see as we go through the story, and they're using her. So there's a Cinderella story going on here. She's she's trapped She's a slave. She's used and abused.

And yet, the handsome king is gonna come along. Solomon. And he does arrive in the vineyard and he arrives in chapter 1. She doesn't recognize him. If you look at verse 7, she thinks that he's a shepherd at first and not quite sure where he is and who he is.

That might explain that, but Eventually, she really likes him and wants to go where he is. And he makes promises to her as men do to women. I'll come back because he goes away. And so she dreams about him coming back in chapter 3. Look at chapter 3 verse 1.

All night long on my bed. I looked for the 1 my heart loves. I looked for him but did not find him. So she's dreaming about him. Where is he?

He said he'd come back and he hasn't just like every other bloke. He's gorgeous. She has all kinds of insecurity problems about herself as we'll see as we go through. But finally, he does come back in, in verse 6 of chapter 3. In all his kingly splendor, look at verse 6, Who is this coming from the wilderness?

Who is this? Like a column of smoke, perfumed, and myrrh, with myrrh and incense. Made from all the spices of merchants. Look, it's Solomon in his carriage. He's coming.

He's coming. He said he would and he's coming. And then in chapter 5 verse 1, they're married, and there's intimacy in the garden. Yeah? Look at look at verse 1.

I have come into my garden, my system, my bride. You know, I have gathered my mirror. With my spices. In other words, I'm I'm reading the old and new testament here. I have eaten my honeycomb and and my honey and I have drunk my wine and my milk Yeah.

That's what's going on here and they're married. There's a hundred and 11 lines in the Hebrew. From, verse 1 to chapter 5 verse 1, and there are a hundred and 11 words in the Hebrew following. So chapter 5 verse 1 is the center, the marriage, the intimacy, the consummation, That's what's going on there. So you have this story.

The courtship days when they're getting to know each other, the wedding, the married life, difficulties in their relationships all going on. Here's my fourth point, which has many points. Why why do I think we need to, you know, we need to read this book and what do I think we need to learn from it? First thing, it's very obvious. It's in the Bible.

God has put it in the Bible for our edification And as a preacher, I shouldn't ignore it, and so we're gonna look at it. It's pretty obvious. It's in the bible. It's part of the scriptures. God has given it for a a reason.

And it's gonna show us some beautiful things. Second thing is because we live in a world that is obsessed with sex and absolutely destroyed it. It's obsessed with it. CS Lewis, had a great illustration, about some what he called hooligans that broke into a department store and change the price tags. All the things that were cheap, they made expensive, and all the things that were expensive, they made cheap.

It's a great illustration. And then when people came to the store, the things they thought were cheap were really expensive and the things that they thought were really expensive were really cheap. And Satan in this world has changed the price tags with sex. That which is beautiful and honorable. Is dirty and smutty and is used for lurid songs rather than love songs.

Jesus says the truth will set you free. And so here is a scripture that's going to show us the beauty of intimacy and the beauty of the sex life and how that is a beautiful picture of intimacy with Christ and the church. So we need it for that reason. Third reason, because we all need relationships with others, and this is a book about relationships. The lone hermit is not the model of the Christian.

The bloke who goes on the cake, you know, when you go on these walks or something and someone says, yeah, hermit used to live out there and there's a wilderness in a little cave that is not Christianity. That's some weird thing, but it's not Christianity. Or the woman that seems to be coming into fashion, even in evangelical circles, which I'm amazed at, is Julian of of of, Norwich. She was a nut, a complete self obsessed nut who walled herself in a little tiny room about quarter of the size of this room and just had a hole where she pushed out her poo so someone else could deal with it. And received food and she was in there and people are saying she was a holy woman.

No, she wasn't. She had certain serious mental issues. That is not Christianity, the lone hermit. We are meant for relationships We desire relationships. We cannot find ourselves in ourselves by looking at ourselves.

By being hermits. We don't find ourselves in our job, in our career, in our study, in our own thinking. The way you find yourself is in relationships. So there's this wonderful phrase that you'll see throughout the book several times I am my lovers and he is mine. I am my lovers and he is mine.

That's how you find yourself. In giving of love and receiving of love. And so this is a wonderful picture of what church is because church is the place where you find deep relationships. Fourth reason for studying this book and I guess you realize it is that it will turn our eyes to the lord Jesus, and I hope stir our souls with for him. There's a very old hymn by a book called Joseph Hart.

It goes like this. True religions more than notion something must be known and felt. Gonna say that again? True religions more than notions, something must be known and felt. Something must be felt.

1 of the great old preachers George Whitfield, I was quoting him, I think, last Sunday, talks about the feeling Christ I hope this series causes us to feel, actually, to feel love that we would feel it, not just a notion, but we would deeply feel it and see how gorgeous the lord Jesus Christ is. If you're a Christian, this song is your song, and I want us to sing it. I want us to sing it. For your songwriters, write some songs about this. I want us to sing this song, not just to know it.

I don't want you at the end of the series. Close the book and say, that's another book done. Yes. We know We know that. Yeah.

Good job. He didn't go on as long as he did in Romans, but, yeah, so we know that book. Now what next what's the next book? I want us to be falling on our face as it were with tears of joy. I am so loved.

I want us to feel the completeness beginning this side of eternity. I want us to feel the shalom and that I am on shalom. I'm sure longed. The greater than Solomon, this is your story. I want us to long for the new creation when we'll be in the garden city forever more with our with our bridegroom and we're feasts at the wedding day.

That's why I wanna do this, and I hope this will work Father god help us as we begin this series, not next week, but the week after in this book. To begin to be remade as we feel the shalom of our lover, the lord Jesus, our, ma'am.