Song of Songs 2019

This is a new series that we began 2 weeks ago, and the introductory sermon you can find on the internet, either to download or to stream, and we're gonna be reading the whole of chapter 1 this morning. So song of songs 1. Solomon's song of songs. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is more delightful than wine.

Pleasing 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 darker my 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.

I liken you my darling to a mayor among among pharaoh's chariot horses, Your cheeks are beautiful with earrings. Your neck with strings of jewels. We will make your earrings of gold studded. With silver. While the king was at his table, my perfume spread its fragrance.

My beloved is to me a sachet of my resting between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms. From the vineyards of Engedi. How beautiful you are my darling. Oh, how beautiful your eyes are doves.

How handsome you are, my beloved? Oh how charming and our bed is verdant. The beams of our house, our cedars, our rafters, our furs. We'll we'll get to, calling your wife a horse, I think next week, but not this week. Can I just say to those of you that are, have, have young people away with the with the, the youth weekend away?

Do do thank do thank the the team that they are they are really fantastic. It was terrific. And if any of your teenagers come back with a face saying, it was really boring, then they are not telling the truth because I looked at every 1 of them. And last night, they were having absolutely fantastic time. So please please make sure you do thank them.

It's a lot of work goes in and it was just a great weekend good ministry and really just really really good fun. And what a privilege? I I was looking at these, you know, I was thinking about all the stabbings that are going on, the angry young men that are around that have, you know, often no family or, you know, then they don't obviously feel loved and they're stabbing. And you you looked at this group and thought, you know, that people are welcome. They're having a laugh.

It's fun. They're hearing the word of god. It really is terrific. So we do do be thankful. Father god help us now as we look at this book, again, help us to revel in the truths, help us please to see the lord Jesus.

So how confident are you as a person? Are you confident in your own skin? You know, how you look, your shape? Your face? How how confident are you?

When you walk into a room of strangers, if this is your first time here, you've gotta come through those strange doors and then you gotta come up this awful corridor and suddenly there's a whole load of people. How how confident were you in that? How confident are you as a person? Did you come in with your shoulders back and your head held high? And Look, I think this is the truth.

I don't think many people are confident at all. I think a lot of it is a show. I think most of us are not confident people. People look confident. There's no doubt about it.

But they're overcompensating. It's, you know, if you ever look at Love Island, don't, but if you ever do, or you look at something like x factor and those sort of things. You find that people are on there and actually they look confident. I mean, to go on those programs is quite an amazing in 1 sense. But actually if you sort of really listen, they're really wanting others to tell the full story they're telling themselves that they're actually believing themselves and that they're brilliant and they're better than anybody else.

And they're on there really to have their confidence boosted by by by other people. And it's a bit like whistling in the dark. I guess you know that expression, isn't it? When you're when when you're, okay, I'll tell you what it is. When you're going down a dark lane and you think there's might be a stranger behind you and you start whistling to make yourself feel confident like that because and then every noise behind you like this.

It's whistling in the doctor. Try to give yourself confidence, but actually there's a lot of self- a lot of lack of self confidence. Around. And when you know yourself, if you know yourself, you're even less confident in yourself. You've let yourself down, haven't you?

You know you've let others down and they know that. And so we we we walk around, I think the truth is not very confident. Gorge l Orwell, the writer said this, a man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, and then this is the line I thought was great. Since all life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats. Don't you feel like that?

You know, so you give off air of confidence, but actually inside, looking from the inside, it's a series of defeats. So I'm just not very confident at all. So With that in mind, listen to this verse from the Bible. It's Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, but just listen to it. Now faith, faith is another word for trust.

So this is Christian trust. Christian faith trusting in Christ. Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and an assurance about what we do not see. Faith is confidence and assurance Now how could the writer of Hebrew say that? And how do we work that out in our lives?

If we're not confident even in ourselves when we're honest with ourselves, if we're not confident before a group of people that we don't know, How could we possibly be confident before the all seeing all knowing god? How could he write something like that? How can we be confident that we have a good relationship with the living god? Now that's the question I want to answer as we, look at this story of song of songs. That's the question we're going for.

Can we be confident in our relationship with god? So we have this story. It's a love story. We saw this a couple of weeks ago. There's a woman, the Schulamite woman, she's called.

And, she has desire for this man, and we see this in chapter 1, who is a magnificent, glorious king. She may not know that he's the king right at the beginning but she soon clicks on. And she has no confidence in herself, but someone like her would even be noticed by him. And in some ways you get this dilemma going on. In some ways, She doesn't want him to notice her because if he does notice her, she'll he'll see how unattractive and ugly she really is.

And so the best thing in 1 sense is just to dream, isn't it? To live in a dream that maybe he'll I'll be able to run away with him and sort of plan that in your mind but the reality is that actually all he's gonna do in glorious magnificent kingliness is to expose how ugly she is. So how can she have any confidence How could she be confident? They're they're from they're from different worlds. He's a king and so say she's a commoner, You can see it in verse 4 and verse 6.

You can see that she's a commoner or he's a king and she's a commoner. He's he's royalty. She's a rural country girl. He was brought up in a royal palace. She was brought up in a rough field.

He was brought up amongst the beauties and all the models and the ones who have time and money to exfoliate their skin at night and put on night cream. She was brought up in a field where she didn't even have sun cream and the sun just burnt her. So there's no confidence, but she's still taken with him. She still still desires him. And, what's gonna happen?

Well, here's the first thing I want you to see then. Let's have a look at her desire. There's a desire really stirred. You see it in verses 2 to 4. Just just hear her.

Let's just look at some of these verses. Just here, look at verse 2. It's very interesting. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is more delightful than wine.

You see her? This is what she desires. There's no confidence in this as we'll see in a minute. But this is what she desires. She really desires to be kissed by him.

You hear her speaking to herself? Let him kiss me. Now the word kiss that is used here, comes from the root word to fasten. So she wants to be kissed by him because she wants him to be her lover and she doesn't want a formal peck on the cheek. She doesn't want, you know, do what IJ does, which is, you know, whichever way you go and sort of peck you on the cheek.

You see, I I I j's was always coming up to give me a a kiss on the cheek, but I don't think she wants this sort of kiss, which is to farson, you know, It's passion. It's long. It's not letting go. It's not cold. It's not passionless.

It's a lingering felt. Take my breath away kiss because his lips are so on you for so long. It's exclusive kiss me. Kiss me, she says. Kiss me.

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is more delightful than wine. Now you I want you to get this. She's not interested just in kissing. It's not like she's a girl that's never been kissed and she's talking amongst all her friends. Have you been kissed?

No. Oh, was it either been kissed? Yes, I've been kissed. Oh, what was it like? You know, she's not she's not just taken up with being kissed.

She wants to be kissed by him. She wants him, not just the kiss. That's what's going on here. She wants to be fulfilled in him, not fulfilled in the kiss or the romance or this this love thing that's going on here. She's not in love with love.

She's in love with him and there's a difference. The communists when they were in power in Europe, had a textbook, school textbook, which defined a kiss. This is a communist version of a kiss, yeah, in their textbook. A kiss is the approach of 2 pairs of lips with the reciprocal transmission of microbes and carbon dioxide. I mean, that kills anything, doesn't it?

If you said to a girl, hello? Can we pass microbes and carbon dioxide side together, I think she might, you know, get move away. Let him kiss me with the kisses of your mouth for your love is more delightful than wine. She's warm. She's passionate.

She's drawn. She's attracted. She desires him more than anything. She wants to seal her love with a kiss from him. She's found her man.

Just have a look at verse 7. It says, tell me you whom, I love where you get grazed your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. You see, she's not interested in just going out with someone, like, you know, going to the cinema or the theater or whining and dining or walking hand in hand in the beach, She's interested in him and even though he's doing his normal job in taking the sheep wherever they graze, then, she wants to be with him in those normal times, not those wonderful wining and dining times. You see what I'm trying to show you is She's really in love with him, not in love with love or romance or whatever. She wants to be with him even when he's just grazing his frocks.

But here's the dilemma. Perhaps she's letting her imagination go because we're gonna find out who she is in a minute. Perhaps she's letting her her her her imagination run away. He's the knight in shining shining shining armor and she's the made in distress. Just have a look at, chapter 2 verse 7.

See what she says here, daughters of Jerusalem, there are other women. I charge you by the gazelles and by the doze of the field, do not arouse or awaken love until it's so desired And maybe she's saying to herself, wow. Look at him. I totally desire him But now have I got just let myself down? Have I open myself up in seeing that he would be the man for me, but there's just no hope here.

Don't awaken love. She says, don't be like a dough that's bouncing over the field, you know, or don't be like a gazelle that saying. I as it jumps in the air, female. Female. Weee.

Don't be like that. Don't awaken love until you've got, at the right time because perhaps she's just dreaming here. But, nevertheless, go back to that verse, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For your love is more delightful than wine or better than wine. Better than wine.

See, wine is a counterfeit experience to real love. Wine's a counterfeit experience to real emotion and intimacy. It just takes you over and you're sort of taken up with whatever's in front of you. I don't want that. I want real passionate, proper kiss from love.

And then she's attracted to his smell, look at verse 3. Plasing is the fragrance of your perfumes. Your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you. She's attracted to the perfume.

Now, this isn't just he's wearing the latest aftershave. She's talking about his character The name is perfume. His name is perfume. His character. His character fills the room.

He's not his personality. Don't muddle those 2 up. Again, as we'll see in a minute, but his character, his character, he's got a good name. He's got a good name amongst all of the maidens. They're all the same way.

Listen to him. Look at him. So it's not just her now carried away, is in the sense of love is blind and you don't you don't see all of the faults with with the with the person that you you are suddenly taken up with. It's not like having wine in you where you're just taken away with whatever's going in front of you. Now even the other maidens are saying, yeah, absolutely.

This this character, his name is like perfume. So verse 4, take me away with you. Let us hurry. She wants him to snap her up. Because of his character and his reputation and how wonderful he is.

Now, that's the story. What's that all about? Lovely story. It's nice, make a great film, but what's that all about? This desire stirred In Ephesians chapter 5, Paul is writing to the church at ephesus in the New Testament, and he talks about love and intimacy, nearly every 1 of our marriages that we've had have has that passage read out.

It's about love and intimacy between a husband, and a wife. And then he says, an amazing sentence. So he's talking about love intimacy between a husband and his wife, and then he says, I'm talking about Christ and the church. That's extraordinary sentence, isn't it? Physical intimate love, commitment, laying down your life for your wife.

Obedience of the wife to the husband. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a great illustration, but I'm talking about Christ. And the church. And listen, I hope you bear with me in this series because that is really all I want to do in this series. I want us to spend the 6 weeks or whatever it is going to take to take us through this to just revel because here we have an ancient love story, and it is illustrating the relationship between Christ Jesus and the church. The the church isn't a building, as you can see here, the people that he loves, the people of god, I just want us to revel in.

That's all really all I want to do. And and each week, I just want to revel in that. I want us to just go deeper into the water of that. I really want us to do that. There's all kinds of things from this that we can learn about, relationships.

All kinds of things, but I'm missing a lot of that this time around doing songwriters because I want us to revel in this love for Christ, for his people, and if you're his people, his revelling how he loves us as a group and individually. The church god's people in type is the Schulamite woman. King Solomon in type is Jesus. Not everything fits but it's a type. It's a picture and I want to ask this question Have you experienced this sort of thing?

How's your longing for Jesus? Is it like the woman? Have you ever come to this place? Do you know what it's like? Okay.

You don't know everything about Jesus. Brilliant. We've got lots to learn, lots to learn, lots to learn. But have you ever at least desired him from a distance and desired that he kiss you? The Bible says this that what comes from the mouth of god?

What is it that comes out of the mouth of god? The word of god. The word of god proceeds from the mouth of god. For 3000 years, the Jewish rabbis have read this text for 3000 years let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. For 3000 years, they've interpreted that to be the kisses of the Torah or the kisses of the Bible, the Old Testament.

It's an amazing sentence. Ask, will you ask? Will you ask lord? Would you take my breath away with your word. Have you ever asked for that?

And we're so dull sometimes, aren't we? Ask for the big thing. Don't just study the word. Do, of course, but don't just do that. Don't just know the word.

Do know it. Of course, we need to keep doing that, but let the word of god take your breath away. Let it be intimate in your life. Let it know you like a husband knows his wife and a wife knows her husband. Let it be intimate with you.

Let it touch you. Don't run from it. Desire it. Kiss me. Kiss me.

There's a photo that I didn't have time because I was away this morning, to get, but you may well have seen it. It's banksy. I think banksy is just a genius personally. And I really hope he does a graffiti on my wall. I've been hoping for that for years.

But, I think he's he's genius, and there's this wonderful photo of 2 lovers hugging, to sort of go for a kiss but they're lit up, as they're looking at their mobile phones over each other's shoulders. You may would have seen that 1. It's a brilliant bit of graffiti. You see, they're not passionate enough. They're hugging and looking at something else.

They think wine is better than love. Don't do that to the lord Jesus. Don't do that with the word of god. Let it kiss you. Here's a prayer.

Father god, this week, be intimate with the word of god into my life. Allow it to touch areas of my life. Like a husband and a wife. The affections of Jesus are better than anything the world can offer more delightful than wine. You see, we learn that we yearn for pleasure.

We really do learn for, yearn for pleasure, pleasure because because god has created us as pleasure seekers, and we'll never be satisfied until we find full pleasure in god. That's how we were designed. But the trouble is we look at wine instead of love, false emotion. Instead of really knowing we're loved. There's a rock group prop you know, rock group or whatever you call them a alternative music group.

They're very, very big amongst young people. They're very big in the big concerts that go on, you know, at Glastonbury and all of that sort of stuff, Florence and the machine. Some of you may well have heard. Last year, they had a song out. She had a song out and, it's called hunger.

The words aren't brilliant, but there's some truths here that really hit me. She sings this. She says, she starts the song by saying, at 17, I started to starve myself. I started to starve myself, and then then then she explains why. I I I find this deeply moving.

A 17, a 17. I started to starve myself. I thought that love was a kind of emptiness That's why I starved myself. And at least I understood then the hunger I felt and I didn't have to call it loneliness. She's so muddled when she was 17 that she thought love was empty so I'll starve myself and maybe I'll feel some love and yet she's dealing with the whole idea of loneliness.

She wants loneliness. And then she sings her chorus. You may have heard it on the radio. We all have a hunger. We all have a hunger.

We all have a hunger. We all have a hunger. That's 1 chorus. We all have a hunger. Yes.

God's made us that way. We're starving for what though. Not emptiness. For relationship, we feel lonely. We feel there are hundreds of teenagers outside the church like that.

That's why I say, honestly, this this youth group away is just fantastic. There are young girls doing stuff and it's so sad. You think of the longing in the human heart that we all have to to know that someone loves us, to know that we belong, to know that we can love without people knocking us or calling us names. That's the beauty and that's the whole thing about nakedness together. When Adam and Eve were naked together, they had no shame because they could be open with each other without someone saying, you just gust me or or belittling us or calling us horrible names.

We don't want that. We want love. We want to be accepted. We want to love and we want to to to be in love. And Satan comes with his counterfeit pleasures, his wines, and says, and he's very deceptive in his love He says, this is the easy route.

Drink this. Take this. Do this. Staff yourself here. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.

Your love is more delightful than wine. Christ's love is better than wine. Better than wine. It's better than all of that. His love will fill you.

Ask him to kiss you. Ask him to know that. People are white. You you get 2 types of people that are into wine. Those are just guzzled away at any cheap they can get completely, you know, Blotto.

And then those that go on about wine, you know, they savor it, don't they? So why don't we savor Christ? You know, they give give me this and, you know, there are people, they're so odd, aren't they? And they don't, they don't seem to drink it, they smell it. What's the are you smelling it for?

They smell it. Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, yes. It reminds me of sausage rolls.

Yes. Church lunch. And then, you know, they sip it and they say, oh, yes, this came from the South of France, this was a special grape. It has a special blush to it, and farmer, you know, whatever his name is. Grew that special grape.

I think this was probably plucked from the vine in September 19 94. Very good vintage. And they go on and on and on. Don't they? Well, if his love is better than wine, why aren't we doing that with Christ?

He's beautiful. He's amazing. He's my savior. He loves me. His kisses are better than wine.

I'm intoxicated. I'm taken up. I desire him. Or what do you look for in a marriage partner? What do you look for?

Someone who's just good looking on the outside or someone with a good reputation and a name There are lots of personalities around, aren't there? Don't fall for personality, go for character. Don't fall for looks, go for character. This was an advert that a bloke put in 1 of those things, what are they called? You know, when they connect.

But what? Loney heart, you know, think I'm looking for a woman. Yeah. This is what he wrote. I thought it was brilliant myself.

Listen to this. He's he's talking about himself. Well groomed, well dressed, well mannered, well endowered, good sense of humor, good personality, not just that, not character, good wage, good looks, killer smile, killer body, not a killer. Like to travel, but no baggage. Hidden depths, but no fine print, strong hands, strong arms, strong sense of loyalty, broad shoulders, broad chest, broad mind, self esteem, certainly, self worth, not self obsessed.

Happy to commit but doesn't need committing. Free, but not cheap, sense of fun, sense of adventure common sense, sensitivity, sixth sense, that enough. And it's underlined. That enough. Of course it's enough for most of us, but not for this woman.

Solomon had all of that, but she wasn't attracted to him because of that. She was attracted because of his character, his name. His name. What about the lord Jesus? How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believers ear.

Just read the gospels, will you? Just read, I I was always against them in some ways I am and I'm amazed I'm even saying this really. But, you know, the red letter Bible, they always annoyed me. You know, where where it's the the the letters, the the the the words of Jesus in red letter. You know, the whole Bible in in a sense is a word of Jesus.

So I always thought why do you have red letters? But actually, there's something quite good about just take time and read through only the words of Jesus. Just just look at him. Isn't he amount of character? Isn't he 1 that you desire in your life?

Isn't he? Well, here the testimonies of people around you about Jesus. Here what they've done. Look at the people that turn away from Jesus. See what they become.

Look at the people that are following Jesus. It's their extraordinary. They really are. Again, if you go to the youth leaders, they're giving up a weekend that's extremely tiring. They gotta go to work tomorrow morning.

This is fantastic fun. They just are great fun and they've got great character. 1 day, When Jesus appears, all the nations will go wow, and fall down. You see who he is? Do you understand who he is?

Don't you desire him? Isn't he the 1 you want to be married to? Oh, look at verse 4 then. Take me away with you. Let us hurry in the old version, the old King James version or authorized version.

It says, draw me. We will run after thee. Draw me. She wants to run together with him. David in the Psalms, a songwriter says my soul thirsts for you as a deer pants for streams of water.

I'm thirsty for you. Do you know any of that? When you see him, aren't you thirsty for him? Not for the wine, not for the substitutes, but for him. Paul says, I wanna know Christ I want to know Christ better in the book of, uh-uh, Ephesians.

So she's prepared to run away with him. She's prepared to give up her old life, her old wine drinking. She's prepared to give up the things that attracted her. She's no longer gonna be single anymore. She's no longer gonna stuck to the old habits.

She she doesn't wanna stick to the addictions that she's in. Take me away. Draw me to yourself. Let's run away. Hurry.

I need you now. I'm hungry. We all have a hunger. We all have a hunger. We all have a hunger.

We all have a hunger and I do for you. There's a fantastic sentence in proverbs, another wisdom literature in the Bible. Proverbs 29 18, it says this, where there is no revelation People cast off restraint, but blessed is the 1 who heeds wisdom's instruction. Where there's no revelation, where if you've not had the revelation of who Jesus is, if you've not seen who he is where there's no revelation, people will get addicted to all kinds of things and all kinds of habits. There's no restraint.

We we cast off strength. We do anything we like. When we don't see the lord Jesus in his magnificent character, then we're going just try and find it somewhere else, but when you see him, you're blessed. And notice the friends quickly. Look at the friends in verse 4, the second half of verse 4, it says, we rejoice and delight in you.

We will praise your love more than wine. The friends are impacted by her hungry desire for him. If we want to evangelize this world, we've got to show that it's him we desire, and then other people who will come and be hungry for him. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. Do you know that old song?

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in her believers ear? It soothes, his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. Is that true for you? Then ask. Let me kiss you.

Pray that prayer. Here's here's the next thing. Back to the story though. We've got to get back to the story. I'll try and be quick.

There's a problem. He's definitely the man for her. She totally desires him other people adore him. He's great character. He's the best of the best, but he's way out of her league.

It's a dream, isn't it? So there's a lost hope here Look at verses 5 to 7. Dark am I. Yet lovely daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of cedar, cater, 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 flocks and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends? There's 2 things that really strike her. Now she's seen who he is, 1 that she is just not attractive.

She's awful. She has no confidence in herself whatsoever. Her confidence has been blown away. She's broken. And the second thing, even if she wasn't, how would she have access to him?

Just look at those. She's not attractive. She shits very, very clearly, self conscious about her appearance. She compares herself unfavorably with the pale skin palace beauties in Jerusalem. Now this isn't a racist thing going on here.

You've got it under stand and you've got to understand culture today. In in in the British culture, how do I show that I am rich and I'm healthy. Well, I go on to sunny places, and I lay in the sun, even with a fair skin. And I'm prepared to get burnt or even cancer because I want to come back with a brown face. Yeah?

So dark is is beautiful. To the British mind, but you know some of you Asians. You know that fair is beautiful. Fair. That's why Asian people always buy umbrellas.

You say, what? It's not even raining? We we invented the umbrella. You put the umbrella up when it rains. What what you got the umbrella up when sunny.

Get out in the sun. Put your face to get an ice brown skin and it will show that you're rich and wealthy and you've been on a holiday. Yeah. But no, in other cultures, it shows that you haven't been working in the field, you see. It shows that you're rich you're amongst the elite if you've got a pale skin.

It's different cultures, and that's the different culture here. She compares herself, as I say, unfavorably to the pale skinned palace beauties in Jerusalem. How can she compete with them? She hasn't had the opportunity to have the creams and all of the pampering and her eyebrows done or eyelashes done or what is the thing you do? The nails and She can't do all of that.

Sorry. I shouldn't have picked on you, but it just came to mind. In fact, she didn't have the money for it. So there you go. But she she had to work in Look at her nails and she's got mud under it dirt under it, grape juice stained her hands.

Dark I am. Look at verse 6. Don't stare at me. She says. There's an awareness of our unworthiness and how the world and life has affected her, her her step brothers have made her go out into the work.

She she had no time for the lovely ladies to do her hair and make herself look good, dark. I am. She's unattractive. In fact, she's ugly, and she feels it. And then even if she wasn't, she has no access, look at verse 7.

See, when it talks in verse 7 about a veiled woman. That's a prostitute. She feels like just a prostitute. I mean, how is she ever gonna get near this king other than Vail herself because she's so flipping ugly? And if she does Vail herself, She's gonna look like a prostitute.

How can she get near the king? What on those terms? So there's no access and there's no attractiveness. She feels like a woman of the night. She feels dirty and and abused and and she's been abused by her her own own family by being pushed out.

Never been able to pamper herself. So there's a loss of hope here. It's hopeless. No confidence. She's seen him desires him Now what's this all about?

But don't you see it? It's so beautiful, isn't it? Often we just feel like this woman, don't we? When it comes to god, don't you feel like her? This is 1 reason why people don't come to Christ.

It's 1 reason why people don't want to hear about God. They feel so dirty. They might as well carry on in their dirt. They don't want to be exposed. He's so beautiful.

If if you come out into the light, then I'm gonna be exposed for the dark ugly person I am better put a veil on. This is the adam and eve syndrome. That's where they run away from god and then went into the into the forest to cover up themselves. That's the syndrome. Or if you don't feel like that, you have 2 minds.

You're staring and peeking out of the woods as it were, from your veil and seeing if I want him. I want him. Kiss me. Kiss me. And then no don't come anywhere near me.

Don't come anywhere near me. You're exposed me. It's a sort of dilemma that goes on, isn't it? Matthew Henry, who's an old puritan writer, says that you can divide verse 5 up differently. You gotta remember that when in our bible where you have headings, he, friend, she, It is quite difficult to know quite where you put who's speaking where.

It's not set in concrete. He has a lovely way of doing it. He says verse 5 is both of them talking, and this is how it goes. She says, because she started doing a selfie and looking at herself. She's looked away from him, and all of his grace and beauty in magnificence, and now she just looks at herself only at herself.

And what she sees is ugly, darker my. Dark am I. Darker boy. And he says, yeah, yet lovely. Did you get it?

She says, don't look at me. He says, I'm looking at you. She says on dark like the tents of Kedah. The tents of Kedah are made out of hairy, dark goat skin. Dried, dark goat skin.

I'm just like us. Have you ever smelled a goat? They stink. They eat anything. They're stupid.

Well, they're not stupid actually. They they deliberately eat everything. So I I I have some family members that have some goats and I was feeding them and they stink. The males stink. Yeah.

And then they just eat everything. You can just be standing there looking and suddenly get off and they're eating your jumper. The the the They she's saying I'm a dirty, dead, hairy, black goat skin. That's how I feel. Ugly.

And I have no time to go and be waxed and get the hair off. And that's how she feels. And he says, no. See what he says? No.

You're like the tent curtains of Solomon soft and silky and beautiful colors to me. It's only when you know that Jesus loves you that you can face yourself And when you face yourself and your sin and who you are and what you've done, the reality that you are dark in sin. And then you hear his words. Yes, but lovely. I love you.

Remember this is Jesus and the church. I lay my life down for you. I've dealt with that darkness. I've dealt with that sin I've dealt with the darkness deep inside. We're not just talking about skin here.

That's just ridiculous. I've dealt with all of the darkness inside your ugliness. I've dealt with this while I died on the cross. You see, here's the difference. And can you get this?

And here's a little bit of pastoral advice if you're going through difficulties. That get this in your head. There is a massive difference between the Holy Spirit and what he does with Jesus and the devil. The devil accuses you The devil says you're dark. You're dark.

You've failed. You're rubbish. No 1 loves you. You're horrible. You're nasty.

And you break And he does this to young women all the time. This is the world we're in. You're ugly, you're horrible. You need to do something to get yourself nicer or you gotta look like this and and and it's all very evil world that we're in and the pressure particularly on young girls is just way horrible. But that satan, the Holy Spirit says, look, you it's true.

You failed. But I died for you and I love you. He never crushes you. He sends you the Christ. That's the difference.

If you're crushed under your sin full of guilt and you can't look at anything but your own ugliness, That is the devil. But if you know that you really are sinful and you go to Christ, that's the Holy Spirit. He he brings life not death. So she asks where do you go to my lovely in the midday. And he answers in verse 8 if you do not know most beautiful of women, most beautiful of women.

What me? You talking to me? Who are you talking to? Dark, I am. Yet lovely.

Who are you talking to? You see someone I don't see? I'm enjoying this now. I need a hat, like Tommy Cooper. Most beautiful of women.

Who are you talking to? You? You. You're the 1 I desire. You're the 1 I died for.

You're the 1 I love. I love you. Why hasn't brought it? Has it? This world hasn't brought that love, but I am your lord and savior.

And I am bold over in love with you. So where are you going? She asked. He says I'm going where the flocks are, where my flock is. Jesus, the great shepherd where his flock is, where god's people is, never run away from god's people.

Follow god's people. Where are they? That's the community that I'm among. A community of broken, dark, sinful people. You don't know what we've done.

You don't know how we feel inside. We all feel broken and ugly, but he loves us. So we sing his praise. Amazing, isn't it? So what am I saying?

I've got on too long. I'm sorry. But let's just wrap up. Will you use some of these words and some of these thinkings today today and this week use them to Christ in your personal times. Go through the whole thing.

Kiss me. Would you ever say that? Lord kiss me with your word, possess me. Let your word be life breath in my mouth. Take me away with you.

Where where where where are you? You're with God's people. I wanna be with God's people. Dark, I am. Yeah.

Absolutely. I am. That's how I make that. Yep. I'm lovely because of him.

I'm almost beautiful of women. Think of Jesus, king of kings, lord of lords, son of righteousness, the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world, and allow your heart to see how precious he is, as Peter says, and to us who believe he is precious. That's why when people use his name as a swear word, it hurts. So how can we be confident in our relationship with god because of him, because of his character? Because of what he has done.

He's come to save sinners like us. Father god help us to understand these truths in our lives that we may have our breath taken away by your utter love. Oh, ma'am.