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All right, we are in Song of Solomon chapter 5. We've finished half the chapters in this book, and Song of Solomon is a great book. It's a very interesting book. There's also a lot of symbolism in the Song of Solomon stuff we haven't really covered about salvation, soul winning, the end times. There really is a lot of great information, and the reason why I haven't covered that is because I want to focus primarily on marriage, which is the same thing I want to do today. However, I do have a major rabbit trail that's sort of unrelated to the Song of Solomon about marriage, and I don't want to do that at the end of the sermon, even though it's the last verse of the chapter, because then you'll be thinking about that. I want you to end thinking about, I'm a terrible husband, I'm a terrible wife, here's what I need to do. Okay, so we're going to go on the rabbit trail at the very beginning of this sermon, and look at verse number 16, Song of Solomon 5 verse 16. And it says here, his mouth is most sweet, yet he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, oh daughters of Jerusalem. Now, the religion of Islam, you know, Muslims, the religion of Islam, they loosely believe the Bible is the Word of God. And what I mean by that is, they pick parts they like, and they say, we believe this. They take other parts and say, well, it's not supposed to be Isaac, it's supposed to be Ishmael, they just kind of change it. Then there's other parts they just outright reject. Believe it or not, Islam teaches that Song of Solomon 5 verse 16 is a prophet of Muhammad. This is one of their big arguments for, you know, that the Bible proves that Muhammad is the next prophet or whatever. They say, Song of Solomon 5 verse 16 proves that Muhammad is a prophet. So, I don't know about you, but I understand Song of Solomon can be confusing, but that thought never crossed my mind when I was reading Song of Solomon. What they say is, well, if you go back to the original Hebrew, the phrase altogether lovely comes from a word that's Muhammadim. So it's very similar to Muhammad, and I don't speak Hebrew. I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that correctly. It's essentially Muhammad with an I and an M on the end, which they say is basically the same. So they say, well, this is a prophecy of Muhammad. Because the Song of Solomon was written long before Muhammad ever lived, right? And they claim there's prophecies within the Word of God that actually teach Muhammad is the true prophet. Now go to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy 3. Honestly, I don't really preach a whole lot on Islam because, honestly, although there are Muslims here, I don't think it's a very dominant religion. Maybe if we lived in Mindanao, I'd preach on it a little bit more often, but I had never heard this before until I was just studying and preparing the sermon, and then I saw, you know, Muslims, you know, prove that Song of Solomon 5 verse 16 is a prophet of Muhammad. And they'll say the original phrase, altogether lovely, is actually coming from Muhammad's is a prophecy of Muhammad. Well, then they go to this verse, 2 Timothy 3.16. Let me read you this verse and tell you what they explain about it. It says, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness. That's a verse that you commonly hear quoted at churches because it's a great verse, right? I quote that verse all the time. It's a great, great verse. And from this article, here's what they state. They look at this verse and they say that, therefore, whatever is believed to have been revealed or inspired by God must serve one of the four purposes. Either it must teach us doctrine, or it must reprove us for error, or it offers us correction, or it guides us into righteousness. Now, first off, that is not what that verse teaches. That verse does not teach that all Scripture does one of those things. What that verse teaches is all Scripture does all of those things. All Scripture teaches doctrine, reproves you. It doesn't do one of those things. It does all of those things, okay? But they say, well, if anything is Scripture, it has to do one of those four things. Then they say this about the Song of Solomon. On examination, we can find the Song of Solomon failing to pass any of the above criteria. From a religious point of view, it does not teach any doctrine, nor does it even mention God. It does not reprove us for any error on our part. It does not offer us any sort of correction, and does not guide us into righteousness. Rather, it gives sensuous descriptions of physical intimacy in a frank language in a book of God. Now, first off, we've gone through half the book, and I haven't seen this very intimate, graphic details of what a man and a woman do together. I have not seen that in the Song of Solomon. People claim that. I'm sorry, but I haven't seen it. I've seen people take a poetic description of something and come up with something perverted, and that just kind of shows your mind's defiled, right? But they say, well, the Song of Solomon doesn't reprove you. It doesn't teach you any doctrine. Now, first off, I can't really think of a book in the Bible that reproves me more, right? As a husband or wife, it's like, man, it's pretty rough, right? I mean, there's a lot of things I could be doing better. So it certainly reproves you, corrects you, gives you instruction in righteousness. But what I want to do is show you one very key doctrine that the Song of Solomon teaches. Go to Song of Solomon 8. Song of Solomon 8. Song of Solomon chapter 8. Because what Muslims teach is the Song of Solomon gives us insight on Muhammad, and I actually agree with that. The Song of Solomon does give us some insight. Now, first off, on a side point, I mean, the Song of Solomon teaches not to be married to multiple people at the same time, which Muslims have multiple wives. Muhammad had multiple wives. So there's a doctrine. Don't be a polygamist. I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine, right? That's throughout the book of Song of Solomon. There's a doctrine. Don't marry multiple people. Let me show you another doctrine that gives us some insight on Muhammad. Song of Solomon 8, verse 8. It says, we have a little sister, and she hath no breast. You say, what does that mean? It means she's a young girl. She is not physically mature, right? She hath no breast. She's 8 years old, 9 years old, 10 years old. We don't know exactly, but she's not physically mature, right? She hasn't reached that age yet. We have a little sister. This is a girl. She's not yet a woman. She hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? And what it says is, you know what? We have a little sister. She's too young to get married, right? She's not physically mature. But one day, there's going to be a guy that's going to be courting her. One day, she shall be spoken for. And it's kind of like, well, obviously, you want to protect your young little sister from some guy that would be a bad guy, right? So they're saying, what do we do in that situation? Because we're not at the point where a guy's going to be interested in her romantically. She's too young. But one day, she's going to be spoken for, right? One day, she's going to be at that age where she becomes a woman. If she be a wall, we will build upon our palace of silver. And if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. So the basic idea is, you know what? Once she reaches that point, we're going to have a lot of protection to make sure nothing happens to her, right? But eventually, there's going to be a day when she shall be spoken for, right? For us that have daughters, it's just like, if your daughter is too young to be at the point of thinking of marriage, you want to protect them. You want to build, you know, a wall of cedar or whatever to protect them, right? You know, and I'm aware, one day, my daughter, when she's 40 years old and I let her date, you know? There's going to be a day, though, when your daughter grows up and she shall be spoken for, right? But if she hath no breasts, if she's a little girl, obviously that's too young, right? Verse 10. I am a wall. This is Solomon's wife. I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Then was I in his eyes is one that found favor. She said, you know, my breasts like towers, indicating she was fully mature. She was a woman. We don't know the exact age, but this is not a nine-year-old. This is not a 10-year-old. This is not 11-year-old. This is a full-grown woman, okay? And she says, my breasts like towers. Then was I in his eyes is one that found favor. She's saying, one of the reasons Solomon had interest in me is because I was a woman. I wasn't a little girl. Because what kind of a grown man would be interested in a girl that's not physically mature? That's weird. It's not normal, right? You're not going to be, I mean, she's not at that day where she shall be spoken for. Why would a guy be interested in a girl that's not physically mature? It's not right. You say, what are you trying to say, Brother Stuckey? Well, if you know anything about Muhammad, Muhammad married this young little girl by the name of Aisha, and the debate is, was she five years old or six years old? And this is what Muslims say to defend this. Yeah, but here's the thing. They didn't consummate the marriage until she was nine years old. Nine years old? They admit to that. This is what Muslims say. This is not some crazy conspiracy. This is what Muslims teach. They say, well, he married this girl, Aisha, but they weren't actually together until she was nine years old. And I've listened to the leading Muslim apologist explain this and defend this, and they say, yeah, but she wasn't six. She was nine. It's like, what kind of a defense is that? And then this is what they'll say, but she was not a normal nine year old. I mean, she could recite the entire Holy Quran word for word, but she still has no breasts. She was an intelligent girl, but she was still a girl, right? It doesn't matter how intelligent. It doesn't matter if she's doing calculus problems. It doesn't matter if she can quote the whole Quran. She's still nine years old. She's still not physically mature. You say, what are you saying? Here's what I'm saying. The Bible teaches us the doctrine that Muhammad was a pedophile. That's what it teaches, because it teaches if a woman is not yet a woman, she hath no breasts, she is too young to be married, right? And Muhammad married a girl that was not even 10. Now here's the thing. In a couple weeks, when we get to Song of Solomon 8, we'll go more specific on age ranges and the debatable range. Here's the thing. Under 10 is not up for debate, my friend. That's not even close to being debatable, right? That's not even close, and you know what? The Song of Solomon gives us insight of Muhammad. It teaches Muhammad was a pedophile. There's a doctrine for you. I mean, it teaches you don't be married to multiple people like Muhammad was, and don't be married to girls that are less than 10 years old, right? I mean, do you really need someone to explain that to you to just kind of know that? And you know what? What's crazy about this, and go back to Song of Solomon 5, is you know what? I remember when I was in college, and you know what? I lived near the college campus even after I graduated for a while, and you started seeing girls that were like 18, 19 years old. You'd see them as you're driving around to the store or whatever. They just looked very young to me, right? The age of 18 is like they look very, very young, and I didn't think that when I was five years younger, but then it's like, wow, 18 is looking really young. I don't know how for the life of you, you could look at a five or a six-year-old and say, you know what? That's the girl I want to marry. I mean, this is crazy. I mean, this is the second biggest religion in the world. Two billion people follow this religion, and their prophet that they follow was a pedophile. And their defense, literally their defense, they don't deny it happens. They just say, well, she was not a normal nine-year-old. It's like, you've got to be kidding me. That's not even gray area or debatable at that age. I mean, Muhammad was just playing a pedophile, right? Anyways, the rabbit trail's over. Now we're going back to our sermon. Song of Solomon, chapter five. Song of Solomon, chapter five. Song of Solomon, chapter five, verse one. I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, ye drink, drink abundantly, O beloved. Now when I read this, it really seems like that verse should be attached to the end of the last chapter, because really verse two starts to kind of go into a new thought. And what you're going to see in verses two through seven, this is a bit of a confusing chapter, and I'm going to give you my opinion about this. What I believe is taking place in verses two through seven is a dream, or what we would call a nightmare that she has. I don't believe it literally took place, and we're going to see that as we explain these verses. And we see that when she says, I sleep, but my heart waketh. She's not saying, I was asleep. She said, I sleep, but my heart waketh. She's describing a dream. Then in verse eight, she makes a statement to the daughters of Jerusalem, and although it doesn't explicitly say this, I believe what ties together the best is probably she explained that dream to the daughters of Jerusalem, and their reaction is, what's so great about your husband? Then she describes how great her husband is the rest of the chapter. So I believe verses two through seven is a dream. Verse eight, she probably told that dream to the daughters of Jerusalem. They say, what's so great about Solomon? And then she explains what's so great about him. And then we're actually going to look at verse one of chapter six, because it ties together with chapter five as well. So verse number two, I sleep, but my heart waketh. That sounds like a dream to me. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. So in this dream, it's nighttime, and it's raining outside. Now, if you remember in chapter three, there's a literal story that took place where a husband comes home at night. That seems to have created a bit of a nightmare in her head, and I don't know if this is a recurring nightmare, but she seems to have a nightmare about this of her husband being gone at nighttime. Now, this kind of goes back to the idea of the importance of a guy being home at night. Especially, you know what, you would imagine being the king's wife, it could be a dangerous thing to be alone at nighttime. And so basically she has this nightmare, and in this nightmare, it's raining outside. And he knocks, and he's like, open up. Now, I don't know why he wouldn't have a key, but maybe there's a deadbolt on. But once again, you have to realize it's a dream, in my opinion. Dreams don't have to make sense in real life, right? I mean, we've all had dreams that just are just strange, right? Things that don't make any sense, you know, whether it be a dream or a nightmare, something that's not going to happen in real life. So it's kind of hard to tie this all together in this dream, because it's just a dream. It's not really real, okay? Verse three, I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? Now, this is one of the few verses in the Song of Solomon that I feel is a bit up for debate about who's speaking. I believe it's the woman speaking, but once again, it's a dream, so it's kind of hard to fully interpret this. I could certainly see where you'd think it was the guy, because maybe the guy's outside. He's like, I don't have my coat on, and you know, my feet are being defiled. But the reason why I wouldn't think that, and once again, it's a dream, so it's kind of hard to see this, is that if you're coming back from work, your feet are already dirty. What it seems like to me is, she's in bed at night, and she's taking a shower, taking a bath. Her feet are clean, and what I believe she's basically saying in verse three is, she's excited for her husband to be there, but I'm not dressed for the occasion, right? Where basically, you know, my feet are going to be defiled as I walk across the floor. You know, I'm already in bed and everything. Basically, you know, I'm not dressed to meet my husband. Now, this is really hard to see, because it's a dream, and how much doctrine do you want to form from a dream? It's kind of hard to see, but I believe it's the woman speaking. But let me just say this, whether it is the woman or the man, I would say one application we can make is that, for guys, it's not really that big of a deal for dressing for a big occasion. For women, it is generally like a big deal, right? For example, if you're on your five-year anniversary, and you go out to a nice fancy dinner, as a guy, you'd be perfectly fine wearing shorts and a t-shirt, right? But for the ladies, it's a big occasion, so you want to look nice, you want to look presentable. So the way I read this, the way I've always read this is, basically, she's excited for her husband, but she's just like, man, you know, I'm not dressed for this. I'm not dressed for the occasion. Now, of course, it's a dream, because in real life, you just run to the door and open up, but I believe it's trying to teach us something, perhaps. Verse four, my beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bows were moved for him. And it just seems like there's a time period going by where she's excited to see her husband, but she's not opening up. Now, once again, it's a dream, so it's really hard to be that literal with everything. Verse five, I rose up to open my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer. Now, if this was a literal story, and your husband's knocking because it's raining outside, he's probably going to wait a little while for you to open up. There's not going to be a lot of time that goes by. It seems like there's time that goes by in this dream, but once again, it's a dream, so it's kind of hard to get super specific about everything. I think the idea is that she's having a nightmare is what we're meant to take away. But she's trying to find him, and she can't find him. Verse seven, the watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. Now, verse seven really adds to the the proof that this is a dream. I mean, I really don't think the watchmen of the city are going to beat up the king's wife, right? The watchmen found me and beat me up. Now, first off, they're not going to beat up a woman, and a couple chapters earlier, they were very helpful to her, right? They helped her find her husband. Here, they're beating her up. I don't think that happened in real life. I believe this is a dream that she's having. They smote me. They wounded me. They basically take the veil. Basically, you're no longer the queen. It seems to be as it's just a dream, okay? But, you know, this doesn't make sense in real life, but it makes sense if it's a nightmare, right? If she has a nightmare about her husband being gone, all the things that could go wrong seem to be what's taking place, right? Verse number eight, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick of love. And it kind of goes back to that idea that the person you marry, you have intense feelings for, very strong romantic feelings and passion for. You care about them quite a bit, and she's like, I'm sick of love. Basically, I'm overcome by my emotions. I'm overcome by this nightmare. I'm overcome by all of these things, and she's just like, I'm having trouble taking it. It's so much too much to handle. And they say here in verse nine, which is kind of our text verse for the week, what is thy beloved more than another beloved? What they're saying is, what makes Solomon better than any other guy? That's what they're saying. Now, I believe this literally was said by the daughters of Jerusalem. What makes this guy better than anybody else? O thou fairest among women. They're saying, you're the most beautiful woman in the land. What's so great about your husband, right? Then it says, what is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us? So they're basically saying, you're overcome by all these emotions for this guy. You're the most beautiful woman there is. Why do you care so much about this guy? What's so great about him more than any other guy? And what I want you to realize is that in life, you will have opportunities to criticize your spouse to other people if you want to. Because I want you to realize, she's distraught emotionally at this time. They say, here are her friends saying, you're the most beautiful woman. You're too good for that guy. Right? I mean, isn't that what women can sometimes say? You know, you're too good for that guy. You know, get rid of that zero, get yourself a hero. Right? They'll say things like that. You're too good for this guy. Right? You're the most beautiful woman of the land. What's so great about your husband? I want you to realize, both as husbands and wives, you will have opportunities to criticize your spouse to other people when you're not in a good mood, or when somebody compliments you, or kind of flatters you, or whatever. But I want you to realize the big takeaway we're going to see in this chapter is, she never criticizes her husband at all. Right? She has a perfect opportunity. She has this big nightmare. She's emotionally distressed. Maybe her husband's gone sometimes at night because he's busy. He's working. She's emotionally distraught. And they're saying, what is so great about your husband? Perfect opportunity to criticize her husband. Right? Now, was Solomon perfect? Of course not. Right? I mean, were there things that she could have complained about? Yes. Of course there were things she could complain about. I mean, you in this church right now that are married, there are things that you could criticize your husband or wife about to other people. You know them better than anybody else. You're around them all the time. You know the things that they do wrong. Right? You could criticize them to somebody else, but you never see her doing that. What the Bible's teaching you is, you never criticize your spouse for any reason to other people. And this is a very basic thing, but honestly, this will save you a world of trouble in your life. Right? Notice what it says in verse number 10. Verse 10. Here's her response. What is so great about your husband? She says, my beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. She said, he's the best among 10,000. There's no comparison. You say I'm the most beautiful or fairest woman of the land. My husband is the chief. Right? He is that apple tree, as we talked about several weeks ago. He is the best, the chiefest among 10,000. That's the way she feels about her husband. Verse number 11. His head is as the most fine gold. His locks are bushy and black as a raven. When it says his head is as the most fine gold, I'm not sure if it's saying that, you know, gold as in being very valuable or precious, or if it's stating maybe that he has, you know, a tan. You know, maybe he being outside in the sun, he has a bit of a tan. I'm not really sure. It could be either one of those things. But obviously she's complimenting her husband. His locks are bushy and black as a raven. So I do believe it's telling us what his hair is like. His hair is bushy and the color black is what she's describing. And realize, as we describe what this guy looks like, this might not be the sort of guy you'd be interested in if you saw him. Right? I mean, it's not about what he looks like being, you got to have black hair to be attractive. I don't think that's what the Bible's teaching. The Bible's just teaching that she finds her husband attractive. Right? And this is what he looks like. His hair is bushy. His hair is black as a raven. It says, his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water, washed with milk and fitly set. Now this is an interesting verse. And it's one of the verses in the Song of Solomon. I used to kind of read over just kind of poetically and not think about it. But I really kind of stopped to think about it. And it talks about the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters. And it talks about being washed. And obviously water is something that will wash. But it says, wash with milk. And you say, what's the significance? Well, I think she's actually referring to his sclera, the white part of your eye. And she's stating the white part of his eye is very white. Now why would that be significant? Because all of us have a white part to our eye. Now here's the thing about this. All of us have times where we're tired, we wake up, we got bags under our eyes, we got red streaks in our eyes because we're tired. And that happens to all of us. All of us sometimes our eyes are not that white. However, when people live a very sinful life, it destroys their eyes. I mean, if you see somebody who's drunk, you can tell by looking at his eyes. It's like, that person's been drinking last night, right? And when people live a hard and sinful life, it permanently discolors their eyes. When people lived a hard life, the white gets discolored. And actually being a drunk can actually result in blindness from what I read. It has a lot of side effects to even your eyes, but it can permanently discolor your eyes. And obviously, as people that are serving God, we're not doing those sorts of things, and we can have times that we wake up, we're tired. But in general, if you looked at people that live very sinful lives, their eyes would not be as white as the result of sin. It's kind of a side effect. So I believe that's what she's stating, that his eyes are very white. Maybe there's a lot of drunks in town, I'm not really sure. But basically, I mean, the takeaway is he's taking care of his body, okay? And look, when we live a sinful life, the Bible says, you know, drinking is one thing that's mentioned, your beauty is as a fading flower. It affects every part of your body. And I would never think that drinking alcohol would affect your eyes, but it does affect people's eyes. And you can tell it in people, but it can also give not just, you know, a side effect for a couple hours, it can give permanent changes to somebody's eyes and even cause blindness eventually. It also says in this verse, his eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters. I'm not sure, I'm 75% that it's also giving a dual application that his eyes are blue when it says the rivers of waters. But I'm not really sure, because I think the significance is washed with milk, but I think it's referring to, you know, white and blue, but I could be wrong. And once again, it doesn't really matter specifically what his hair color is, what his height is, what his eye color is or whatever, that's not the point. The point is just that she finds him attractive. But I'm just trying to bring this story to life and see what these verses are saying. I could be wrong on that, I'm not really sure. Verse 13, his cheeks are as a bed of spices as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh. Now, once again, with lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh, and I think this is a dual application, because I do think there's the literal gist that he had the personal maintenance of brushing his teeth and taking care of his body. Remember, it talks about dropping the Word of God, so I think it's just saying sweet things came out of his mouth. You know, he wasn't someone who would just get quick to being angry and say all types of terrible things to his wife, but he's very kind to his spouse when he spoke to her. His lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh. Verse 14, his hands are as gold rings set with a barrel. Now, barrel is a stone that's known for being a very hard stone. And what this verse is saying when his hands are as gold rings set with a barrel is his hands are very strong. That's the poetic language that's being stated. And so, obviously, during these time periods, if you're working outdoor jobs and you're working hard, you're going to be strong. And his hands are as gold rings set with a barrel. I mean, sometimes you shake hands with someone. Sometimes people that are a lot older than you, but they work their whole lives with their hands, they shake your hand and you're like, ah, right? It's like someone who's a hard worker, they have a really strong handshake, right? And what she says about her husband is his hands are strong, right? I would presume his hands, his arms are strong. His belly is as bright ivory overlay with sapphires. I think that's also indicating the strength of his stomach. And if he's strong physically, then he's going to have a strong stomach. His legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold. That one's the most clear where it's saying pillars of marble, it's talking about the strength of his legs. Because a pillar is something that supports something, right? And so this has to be very strong. And his legs are as pillars of marble set upon sockets, think of your ankle socket, of fine gold. So what it's stating is his legs are very strong. So his, I mean he's just strong, he's in good shape, is what she's stating in those verses. His countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. Now your countenance is basically, you know, your attitude and what appears upon your face. And she says excellent as the cedars. Well, a cedar tree is known for great strength. So what I believe she's stating is her husband has a good attitude, right? His lips like lilies dropping sweet smelling myrrh, but he was like a cedar tree in the fact that he didn't allow problems in his life to just change his countenance. His countenance was excellent, but it was firm, it was strong, right? Where basically, because you know you can wake up on a day and be in a good mood, and then you go through the drive through at Jollibee, and you order pineapple juice, they give you coke, and then you're mad the rest of the day, right? And it's like, but that's kind of, you know, being facetious, but honestly people allow small things to just make them mad. And you know what, someone who's serving God, I mean isn't it true the Bible says that the righteous, that basic, man, my mind is blank, you know? When they love thy law, man, the verses, I can't remember, but basically, you know, you don't get easily offended is the verse I'm trying to remember off memory. But people that love God, they don't just get easily offended when something doesn't go their way. And I can say that's true in my life. When I'm serving God and doing right, I don't allow small things to make me upset. Now when I'm not as close to God though, and something goes wrong, I lose my temper very easily, right? Because our natural flesh is not like a cedar in terms of the countenance, right? It just easily gets upset when things don't go our way. But you know, honestly, when you're serving God, great peace have those that love thy law and nothing shall offend them is the verse that I was trying to remember. And when you love God's Word and you're serving God and you're close to God, things don't easily offend you. Things don't easily bother you, right? I mean if somebody's rude to you, you just kind of say, eh, maybe they're in a bad mood. It doesn't really affect you. But if you're not close to God, things affect you very easily. And I think what she's stating is his countenance is like a cedar tree and the fact that he doesn't easily just let himself get upset when things don't go his way, right? Verse 16, and we still have a lot of sermon left. I know we're at the last verse, but it's all about this last verse. It started with this verse, it's going to end with this verse, okay? And it says, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. There's Muhammad right there, right? Altogether lovely, right? Just in your commentary, in your Bible, just right to the side, this is Muhammad, right? Because otherwise you would never know that, right? This is my beloved, and this is my friend, the daughters of Jerusalem. And, you know, the significant thing in this verse is that statement, this is my friend, right? And what it's stating is that when you get married to someone, you need to be friends with that person. And I'm not stating you have to be friends before you get married, but I'm stating when you get married, your best friend ought to be the person that you're married to, okay? Now when you think about being friends with someone, you know, before you're married, you're generally friends with people that are very similar to you, right? For example, you know, the people that I was friends with in college were people that I went to church with, people that I went soul winning with. But the truth is, there's a lot of people I went to college with, but not all of them I had the same interests with necessarily. Some of my friends like to lift and play basketball. Well, those were the ones I was close friends with. You say, why? Because that's what I did outside of church-related stuff. And basically, you generally pick your friends based on similarities. Now, I do think there's wisdom in the fact that when you get married, you ought to pick someone that you have some things in common with. But what you need to realize is that when you get married, obviously, men and women are very, very different from one another, right? Even if you have a lot of similarities, there's going to be major, major differences in the way that you see things. And before you're married, I mean, you pick your friends based on who's very similar to you. Now, obviously, that can factor into who you get married to. But when you get married, that ought to be your best friends. And some people look at marriage as sort of like, well, you know, we said our I do, and, you know, we have kids, and that's kind of the end of us really talking to one another. That's not the way it's meant to be in marriage, though. Because what she says about her husband is, this is my friend. Well, what do you do with your friends? Well, you talk to them. You hang out with them. You spend time with them. And look, if you never talk to your spouse, you never spend time with them, you never hang out with them, they're not really your friend, right? And what the Bible's trying to tell you is the person you marry, you ought to actually spend real time with, actually get to know them, talk to them about stuff. You know, I mean, before I was married, if there were things that bothered me, you know, you talk to your friends about them, right? Things that you're thinking about, you know, fears that you have, concerns that you have. Obviously, you go to God, number one, but you talk to your friends, get advice, and stuff like that. Well, once you get married, that ought to transition to the person that you're married to is the person that you talk to about those kinds of things, right? And once again, I mean, here's the thing, a lot of people, they get married, and they basically treat their friends still the exact same, and their wife is just like their wife, or their husband's just their husband, and they complain about their husband to their friends. That's not the way it's meant to be. Because that person is meant to be your best friend. That's the person you ought to confide in and talk to about things. That's the person you talk to about things that nobody else knows about, or at least that's the way it ought to be, right? That's what she's saying about her husband, this is my friend. This is the person I go to, and not only do I find him very attractive, but also, this is my friend. It's like, I'm not going to criticize my friend, right? Because I remember, you know, when I was younger, you know, let's say somebody wants to criticize your friend or put them down. You know, when they're your friend, it makes you mad, right? You want to defend them, right? I don't really get too much into the online stuff with the sermons and like-minded churches, but every once in a while, when somebody like mocks one of my friends, it's kind of like, all right, well, I'm going to get involved in this. Because it's like, I don't really say a whole lot, but that pastor is my friend, right? And it bothers me when people insult my friends. What ought to feel the same way to you if somebody would insult your spouse? And you certainly shouldn't criticize your spouse to your friends. It's the opposite, right? Your spouse is the one who's meant to be your best friend that you actually confide in and talk to about things. Now, turn in your Bible to 2 Samuel 1. 2 Samuel 1. 2 Samuel 1. Now, what takes place in marriage is to become one, right? And you're meant to share life together, okay? You're not meant to get married and then act as if, well, you know, we're just husband and wife. We live in the same house, but we never say anything to each other, never talk to one another. We're not close to one another, but you're married. That's not the way that God intended it. He intended two to become one. And not just literally saying that you're together, but actually you spend time together, you talk together, you know, you get to know them, you're friends with them. That's the way that God intended it to be. Two become one. Now, of course, when two people get married, you know what? They're not going to be the exact same. They're going to have differences. Obviously, part of it is a husband and wife. Men and women are different. Personalities can be different. Interest can be different. And wisdom would say that in areas where you have differences, you try to meet in the middle. So, for example, if something is really important to your spouse, you try to, you know, make that as an interest of yourself or show some interest in it. In both ways, it should work that way, and you should find things that you can do together and enjoy together and share together, because you generally hang out with your friends. But if what happens is, you know, you work your job, and every time you come home from work, you hang out with your friends, but you never talk to your spouse, that's not the way God intended it. God intended it where basically the person you're married to is your closest friend. Now, here's the thing. When you get married, a lot of your hobbies end up changing. It just is what it is. You don't have the same amount of time for the things that you used to do, and this is especially true once you start having kids, because there's a lot of things that you want to do that you just don't have time to do, right? You know, I love working out, and I still try to work out regularly and stuff, but you know what? When I was single, I would go to the gym all the time. I would spend, you know, over an hour all the time. I don't usually do that now. When I work out, it's usually at home, you know, or it's at the park nearby, and then I come back or whatever, and it's because, you know, I have a family. I want to be around my family. You know, it's just like there's just things that change, right? You know, it's just not the same, right? Things change as, you know, you get married, and you have a family, and the person you're meant to be closest to is the person that you're married to. Now, let me give you a couple examples in the Bible of this, of a good example and a bad example. Well, actually two bad examples, I should say. Second Samuel 1. Second Samuel 1, verse 25. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle, O Jonathan? Second Samuel 1, verse 25. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle, O Jonathan? Thou wast slain in thine high places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan. This is after Jonathan has been killed, and this was a close friend of David. Very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. Now, let me just say on a side point, you know, sodomites that try to criticize the Bible, they'll try to say that they had like a relationship. That's ridiculous. You can love your brother in Christ. You can love your brother in the Lord, and David loved Jonathan as a friend. People that I'm friends with, I would say I love those people, right? And I love both my brothers and my sisters in Christ. I love everyone who's God's children, people that are actually genuinely saved, right? But he's stating he had a close relationship and friendship with Jonathan, and you know what? It's basically half of this is very awesome and half is terrible. It's awesome that you have a close friendship with this guy that you're friends with, that you guys are really close to one another. But actually, there's something wrong when you have a closer relationship with a friend than you do your wife, right? I mean, because this verse you can look at as like encouraging, like wow, what a strong friendship, but wait a minute, stronger than his relationship with his wife? Actually, there's something wrong with that, right? I mean, your number one relationship ought to be with God. Number two, your spouse. Number three, your children. That's the way it works. Because, you know, your relationship with God is an eternal relationship. It's forever, right? One way to look at this, your relationship with your spouse, I mean 50 years, whatever, you know, however long you're married, your relationship with your kids, well, of course they're your kids forever, but once they become adults and move out, it's different, right? It's not like they're just, you know, the young little child that you're feeding and stuff like that. And so your relationship with your spouse is the one that actually lasts through this life, or it should, right? And your love for your spouse ought to be greater than your love for any other person, other than God, obviously. Now turn to Second Samuel chapter six. Second Samuel six. Second Samuel chapter six. And when it comes to marriage, I mean, there's a lot of aspects. I mean, you know, when I talk about, you know, marrying someone that you have things in common with, well, this is the reason why you shouldn't just marry someone because they're also saved. Because there's people that are saved that don't really care that much about serving God, and there's people that are saved that would say, Christ is my life, right? That basically my life is about serving God, about reading the Bible. And you know, here's the thing. A lot of things in my life might suffer, but I'm going to read the Bible every day, right? And there's people with that attitude, and praise the Lord for that. Well, it would be foolish for you to marry someone who's just kind of like, eh, I'll go to church sometimes and read the Bible sometimes, but you don't really care about it that much. You know, you ought to marry someone who's not just, they believe on Jesus also, but they're like-minded in faith and what they actually care about. Because here's the thing about this. You know, us in this room, you know, us that are guys, you know, we're going to do our darts competition later. It's going to be fun and everything. And you know what? Us at this church, us men, we're close to one another. We're friends with one another, right? These are my best friends in the world in this room, in this church, right? Here's what's interesting about this, but if none of us were saved, just based on how we normally naturally are in our flesh, we wouldn't all be friends with one another. You say, why? We wouldn't have anything in common. I mean, maybe some people in this room you'd be friends with, you know, maybe others you wouldn't, but the thing that bonds us together is our faith in the Lord. Not just believing on Jesus, but also the doctrines we believe, and we believe in soul winning and things such as that. I mean, that's what really bonds us together. We understand the repentance fight. We understand the Calvinism fight. We understand these issues. We realize the agenda of the LGBT and the feminists and all these things. We're on the same page with this. We talk about these things. We bond together because of that. We have a close friendship because of the fact we're not just both saved, but we also, we love God. We want to serve God. So the person you marry, you need to make sure at the very least that there's that common bond as in, I love God, and they also love God. Not just, well, they're saved. Well, you know what? If that's all you're going for, the reality is most saved people don't want to serve God. You're probably going to have a miserable marriage. Find somebody who's saved, but find someone who actually loves God also. Why? The person you marry is meant to be your best friend, meaning you have things in common. And look, just believing on Jesus is not that much in common because if you really want to serve God and you want to talk about the Bible all the time, someone else is saved but doesn't want to serve God, you're going to argue all the time about stuff. Why are you always talking about the Bible? It's like, can you talk about the Bible too much? I mean, the Bible says talk about the Word of God when you're sitting in your house, when you're lying down, when you're rising up, when you're walking by the way. Is there ever a time not to talk about the Bible? And it's like, you know, you notice this in life, especially sometimes when you have family, because family are people that you're around sometimes, and you try to bring up the Bible sometimes, and they try to tune you out sometimes or just change the subject. And I'm just thinking, man, my friends that I go to church with and go sowing with, they're happy. It's like, man, that's a good point. I never thought about that verse applying to this, right? The people that you form that close friendship with are people that are like-minded in faith, and when you marry someone, find someone that's like-minded in that way. I mean, if you love this church, but there's somebody else who hates this church, that's probably not the best person to marry, because you just have different ideas of what you're going after in life. I mean, it is what it is. I mean, we love them. They're our brother or sister in Christ, but it doesn't mean that you're going to marry them for the rest of your life. I mean, is that the person that you're going to commit your life to? You need to have more in common than just the fact that you both believe on Jesus Christ. It ought to be your best friend, the person that you marry. Now, let me show you an example. I mean, we looked at David saying that he was closer to Jonathan than any of his wives, right? Well, notice what it says in 2 Samuel 6, 2 Samuel 6 verse 20, and it says, and David and Michael had a really messed up relationship. Part of it was the fact David married multiple women. Part of it was King Saul's fault. I mean, there's a lot of things that went wrong, but 2 Samuel 6 verse 20, then David returned to bless his household, and Michael the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, how glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovered himself. Now, I'm not 100% positive, because the Bible doesn't tell us this. When I see verses like this, I really try to picture it in my head. I picture this fight being in front of other people. I don't think it was just a one-on-one fight. I mean, I could be wrong, but based on the side effects of how serious this argument gets and how they're never together, I think there's actually other people that probably heard this argument, and I could be wrong. I mean, he comes home. I think there's probably people around the king, and then they hear David and Michael just arguing with one another. Verse 21, and David said unto Michael, it was before the Lord which chose me before thy father and before all his house to appoint me ruler over the people of the Lord over Israel. Therefore will I play before the Lord. So he says, you know, basically I was chosen before your father. Well, who's the father of Michael? Saul, right? Saul died, and is kind of the judgment of trying to kill David is tied into that. So basically, this is a huge backhanded slap to his wife saying, well, you know what? I was chosen before your dead dad is what he's basically saying to his wife. You can't really think of something that's ruder to say to your spouse than that. I mean, if your spouse's parent has passed away, and to bring that up in an insulting way, it's a very rude thing to do, right? Verse 22, and I will be yet more vile than thus, and will be base in mine own sight. And what David says is, you know, you did me wrong, but I'm going to be more vile. I'm going to take this to another level. And of the maidservants which thou has spoken of, of them shall I be had in honor. Well, when you're married to multiple women, and you're kind of making a backhanded statement that you're going to be flirting around with all these women, that's a pretty insulting thing to say to your wife as well. What's the result of this argument? Verse 23, therefore Michael, the daughter of Saul, had no child unto the day of her death. Therefore ties together verses 20 through 22 with verse 23. They did not have children together, and Michael never had children. You say, why? Well, because of this fight. They were never together again. You can't have children if you never see each other, right? Because of this fight, they were never around each other. Now, I picture this fight being in front of other people, and maybe I'm wrong about that, but let me ask you a question, because we're talking about criticizing your spouse to other people. Does this fight make David look good? I mean, you walk away from this and say, man, you have a right to be mad. I side with you, David. Does this make Michael look good? It makes them both look bad. Can't we agree on that? I mean, they both look terrible. It's like, wow, David, you're a pretty bad husband. I mean, you did a lot of great things, David. You're a pretty bad husband, right? Michael, you're a pretty bad wife. It's like you see this argument. It makes them both look bad. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. When you criticize your spouse, you think it's making you look good. It's not. It makes you look bad. I mean, if people criticize their spouse all the time, I think negatively of them. I think, why would you criticize your spouse? Now, the worst is when somebody puts something on Facebook, right? They get into a fight with their spouse, and it's all over Facebook. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, I mean, because that's permanent, because here's the thing. You get into an argument with your spouse, and you're both upset about it, and then you forget about it the next day. It's gone. It's done. But you send it out to everybody. You know what everyone's going to think? Man, they have a terrible marriage, because you told the whole world. It's like, what are you doing? I mean, you criticize your wife to your friends, and here's the thing. You forget about it the next day and say, well, you know, I just was in a bad mood. They're not going to forget about it. And the worst is when you criticize your spouse to your parents and your family, right? Because this is what a lot of people do. In marriage, two are meant to become one. You join together. But what a lot of people do is they treat marriage as something where it's like, well, I'm kind of half married, but I'm also kind of half still living with my parents and under their authority as well. That's not the way it works. And people get in a fight with their spouse, and then they go to mom and dad and complain about it and say how bad their spouse is. Here's the problem. You will forget about that fight in 24 hours. Your parents will never forget about it. They're going to say, you shouldn't have married that guy. We told you there was somebody better for you. We told you you made a mistake. And it's like 10 years later, it's like, hey, it's over. We're happy. It's like, but they're not going to forget it. And that's literally the way it works. And I would normally think women would be more guilty of that, but we actually have Samson crying to mom and dad in the Bible when he gets in a fight. So the strongest man is crying to mom and dad. So maybe everybody has a natural tendency to do that. Look, when you get married, two become one. You are a new family. You don't go complaining to mom and dad whether you're a guy or a girl, whether you're a husband or wife, when things don't go well because that's the person you're now best friends with. That's the person you're bonded with. That's the person you're married with. And when people criticize them, you defend them. You don't criticize them to other people. And if you do criticize them to other people, here's the thing, it makes you look bad. It doesn't make you look good because people criticize their spouse because they want sympathy. It just makes you look bad. People might give you a little bit of sympathy, but especially if it keeps going on, they're going to just think badly of you. It doesn't make you look good. It makes you look bad because my reaction is why would you criticize your spouse? It's wrong. Right? Why would you do that? Right? Go to Song of Solomon 6. Song of Solomon 6. We'll close up here. Song of Solomon 6. Look, I'm not saying that there's nothing that you could ever criticize your spouse about. I'm sure your spouse has done things that you could make them look really bad to other people because we're all sinners. We all have problems. I mean, if every time they did something wrong, you wrote it down to just tell your friends, you could find something probably every day. Right? We're sinners. We make mistakes. But here's the thing. When you get married, you're meant to be best friends. You're meant to defend them against other people, not to criticize them to other people. Because I don't know about you, but you know what, kind of one of the code of ethics of guys that are friends is you don't criticize your friends to other people. You defend your friends. Even if your friends are wrong. Right? They're wrong in a situation. They get in a fight. You just jump in and defend your friend no matter what happened. Right? It's just like, you know, that's your friend. You defend them against other people. You don't criticize your friends to other people because you want people to think well of your friends. Right? Well, you ought to want people to think well of your spouse as well. Say positive things about them. Say nice things about them. Not to criticize them. Even if there's an area you can criticize them, what's the purpose? What is your goal? Your goal is to get sympathy. What you do not realize is it actually makes you look bad. What you also don't realize is if you're doing that to your spouse, your spouse is going to start doing that to you. And now all of a sudden, people are going to start calling you David and Michael at church if, you know, you're always like criticizing one another. That's not the reputation you want. Song of Solomon chapter 6. And as I said, Song of Solomon 6, the thought continues. And we'll close up on verse 1. And the sermon was longer than I was hoping for, but it is what it is. I think we all expected that. Song of Solomon 6 verse 1. And here is the reaction of the daughters of Jerusalem after she praises her husband. Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? So they say once again she's the fairest among women. They weren't saying that mockingly. I mean, she had a good reputation to other ladies. Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee? And they're basically saying, you know what, we can tell you really love this guy. We want to help you find him. Right? But I believe they're also saying, you know, you've praised him so much and said all these great things about him. And here's the thing about this. We're seeing this in a poetic form. And I believe this is a literal conversation that took place. That conversation took more than 30 seconds. I mean, she was probably praising her husband for a while. And those are probably the highlights, I would presume. But basically she praised her husband. They say, well, we want to seek him with thee. And I think it's kind of the idea, man, it sounds too good to be true. Is he really as great as you're saying? It'd be like if somebody told you, this is the greatest restaurant in the world. Right? If somebody told you this is the greatest restaurant in the world, it's only, you know, 150 pesos per person. It's like, well, I'm going to check it out. Right? Not that expensive. I mean, it's doable. Not that bad. And it's the greatest restaurant. You're going to check it out because you want to see if it's really true. And she praises her husband. And here's the thing about this. Of course they knew who Solomon was. But I know everybody in this room. But if I close my eyes right now, and I had to guess your eye color and hair color and all, I mean, I would be wrong on everybody, pretty much. Because I don't pay that close of attention. But if she's praising her husband, now they're saying, well, we want to see if this is really the truth. I don't believe that they're going after saying, we want to be romantically involved. I think they're just saying, you're saying all these great things about your husband we want to see, because it sounds just amazing, all these great things you're saying. Here's what I'm saying. When you praise your spouse, you will cause others to think highly of your spouse. And here's the thing. If you want people to think highly of you, well, actually praising your spouse makes you look good. Because what they're going to say is, man, you're very lucky to marry someone like that. You're right. But here's the thing about this. If you're praising your spouse and saying good things about them, your spouse is probably going to do the same to you. It's going to make you both look good. But if you criticize your spouse to other people, your spouse is probably going to do the same to you. And you know what? Everybody's going to think bad about both of you. Right? It's going to make you look bad. And so, look, this chapter, kind of the main theme, because other chapters, there's a lot of practical stuff, and there is in this chapter as well, but kind of the main theme that I want you to take away and what I really see in this chapter is just the idea, never, ever, ever criticize your spouse to other people. Here's what you do if you have a major complaint. Number one, you can always take it to the Lord. Right? If you've got a problem with your spouse, you know, where you're fighting, you're arguing about something, number one, take it to the Lord. That's the number one thing. Right? Anyway, what I found in life is that when you pray to God for guidance, you know, and maybe there's things that you're upset about, usually it actually, God kind of shows you the things that you can work on. That's what I found. And you realize actually there's two reasons why there's a fight, both the husband and the wife. It's not just one-sided. Right? When you take things to God in prayer, it actually really shows you what you can change. That's the reaction that I have. And the other thing is this, if it's a major thing, you know, sometimes as a husband and wife, you have to actually talk about it alone. Nobody else around. Be mature enough to have an honest conversation and not to get super emotional, but just be honest and talk about it. Be straightforward and just talk through your problems. Right? And you know what, I believe, and you know, a lot of times in marriage, people never talk about their problems. Well, the big thing that takes place if you never talk about your small little foxes or the little problems is they become big problems. And then you have major problems that you never fix. When you have certain things that are a problem, you need to be mature enough as husband and wife not to go to mom and dad, not to go to your friends, but just talk to your spouse about it. And when you do it, you do it in a kind way. You don't just say, you're like the worst person ever. You do it in a kind way. And just have an honest conversation and talk through them, and that's going to prevent major problems. But what you never do is criticize your spouse to other people. Let's close in order of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and just getting this wisdom from the Song of Solomon and help all of us apply this to our lives. Obviously, none of us are perfect at this. All of us have been guilty of this before, God, but help us strive to just speak well of our spouses, to feel very blessed that you have blessed us with the spouse that we have, God, and to work on improving our marriages, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.