(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So tonight we're finishing up this fascinating book of Song of Solomon, chapter 8 verse 1. The Bible reads, O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother, when I should find thee without I would kiss thee, yea I should not be despised. Now if you would go to Lamentations chapter number 4, Lamentations chapter number 4. It's interesting, the book of Song of Solomon talks a lot about the breasts, and in this chapter that's something that comes up a lot. And you know, first of all let me say this, a lot of people consider the book of Song of Solomon to be explicit, because there are so many references to breasts in the book of Song of Solomon, they there think, wow this book is really explicit, this is inappropriate for children. But in reality we've gone through all 8 chapters of Song of Solomon, and really there's been nothing explicit. There's been no description of the act that takes place within marriage, there's no description of that act taking place, nothing overt anyway, and there's nothing talking about private parts or anything like that. It's actually a completely clean book because we know that God's word is clean, and we know that every word of God is pure, the Bible teaches, he's a shield unto them that put their trust in him. And so although there are a lot of intimate acts that are alluded to, or insinuated, the book is very clean and it does not go into any graphic detail about those type of things. But just because of the mentioning of the breasts, that's basically why people think of it that way. But part of the reason for that is because our society kind of has a strange view toward breasts, and here's why, okay, and I'm not trying to be inappropriate or anything, but honestly it's because of the fact that, you know, breastfeeding used to be pretty much the only way that children were fed. You know, if you go back to just a few generations back, I mean, breastfeeding was how babies were fed. They weren't doing Enfamil and this kind of, you know, formula fed thing. And even in the Bible you'll notice that, you know, if a woman is not able to breastfeed her child or doesn't want to breastfeed her child, they would hire another woman to breastfeed that child. I mean, that was the other option. Or they would sometimes, you know, the grandmother even breastfed, like in the case of the book of Ruth. Remember, Naomi actually breastfeeds her grandchild, you know, Ruth's son. And so we see throughout the Bible there's a lot of talk about breastfeeding throughout the Bible, okay. Go to Lamentations 4 where I had you turn and, you know, I'm taking the time to talk about this subject. You say, well, you're a preacher, you know, you shouldn't be talking about this or you're a man, you don't have the right to talk about it. But see, here's the thing. I believe that everything in the Bible should be preached by a man because I don't believe in woman preachers, you know, in church. So if it's going to be preached in the house of God, and I believe that the whole word of God should be preached in the house of God, it's going to be preached by a man in this church, okay. Look at Lamentations chapter 4 and this is a very important subject and this is why I want to cover it. In Lamentations chapter 4 verse 3 it says, Even the sea monsters draw out the breast. They give suck to their young ones. The daughter of my people is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. Now again, the Bible is always scientifically correct, understanding the fact that whales are mammal and that a mammal breast feeds. That's what mammal even means is that it's something that gives suck to its young. And so, you know, the Bible gets it right here because the sea monsters here is referring to whales, great whales that God created, huge animals that dwell in the sea that draw out the breast and give suck to their young ones. It says the daughter of my people, by contrast, is become cruel like the ostriches in the wilderness. What does he mean by that? Go to Job 39 and we can see exactly what he means by the ostrich. Two animals are being compared here, the whale and the ostrich. The sea monster draws out the breast and gives suck to its young. On the other hand, the daughter of his people had become cruel like the ostrich. Look what it says in Job 39 verse 13, Gave us thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks or wings and feathers unto the ostrich. Now watch what the ostrich does. Which leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild bees may break them. She is hardened against her young ones as though they were not hers. Her labor is in vain without fear because God had deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding. That's pretty interesting. God is comparing certain women unto an ostrich and he says the ostrich does not care about its children, in fact it's hardened against them, meaning it doesn't have that natural tender-hearted soft spot, that natural love and affection that a mother would have for her child. It says the ostrich is hardened against her children like they're not even hers, doesn't even care or realize that a foot may crush them, somebody might step on them, they might be devoured by a wild beast, doesn't even care because God has deprived her of wisdom. Now what I want to cover with this is that breastfeeding is important and it's something that women have done for thousands of years and you might say, well, it's optional. And again, this sermon might offend people, but whatever. Now here's the thing about breastfeeding though, okay? Breastfeeding actually requires you to be with your child because breastfed babies, and by the way, putting your child on a, a lot of people recommend a four hour schedule, put that newborn on a four hour schedule. Let me explain something to you. My wife and I do not use any birth control. We don't practice birth control. Now you say, why do you preach about this? Because here's the thing, most people knew this for the last 6,000 some odd years, that today our society has lost a lot of knowledge and a lot of wisdom and it needs to be brought back and God's word has the answer here. But you have to understand in Hosea chapter 1, Hosea talks about the fact that when his wife weaned their child, it says when he, when she had weaned Loruhama, then she conceived and brought forth another child. You see, when a woman breastfeeds her child, she does not conceive again until she weans that child. Now a lot of people will dispute that, doctors will laugh at that, and oh yeah, that's a myth and that's a wise fail. No, it's the truth, okay? And here's the thing, my wife and I don't use any birth control. We don't believe in birth control, okay? We believe in letting God open and close the womb. So people will say, oh you're just going to have children every 9 months. That's not healthy. You're going to just, you know, your wife's uterus is going to fall out. But here's the thing, we don't have children every 9 months. If you look at our children, they are naturally spaced and we do not use any type of birth control. And a lot of times they'll say, oh I know what you mean, you just don't use this kind of birth control. No, we don't use any kind. And when I say that, I'm including abstinence. I believe abstinence is a form of birth control and we do not believe in that. We do not use that. We do not use any kind of birth control because here's the thing, our children are naturally spaced through breastfeeding. Now if you're putting your child on a 4 hour schedule, yeah you're right, it's not going to work. You're going to conceive again. But if you feed the child on demand, meaning when it's hungry you feed it, and if you sleep with the baby in bed with you and feed it on demand throughout the night, it will cause your children to be spaced further apart because it will only be once they're weaned that you even are able to become pregnant. Now what we see though is we see women today sometimes, and I'm not trying to insinuate anything about anybody, but I'm just saying that there are women today that I've seen and known that were hardened against their young ones as if they were not theirs. And they're just like, oh just gave birth, how fast can I get back to work? How fast can I drop this thing off and go to great America? How fast can I drop this thing off and take a 3 day vacation with my husband? How fast can I drop off my 8 week old and go back into the workforce? You know, that is not normal, that is not natural, that is not biblical. Women are supposed to give birth to children and care for those children, part of that is through breastfeeding. That is something that causes a lot of bonding, that's something that's very healthy for the child, obviously look, the milk that is made by the mother is better than what's made in a factory. I mean that should just tell us if God designed it, that's the healthiest thing for your child. I get ads in the mail telling me that my child is going to be smarter if it starts on formula. I don't believe that for one second. I believe that the best option for your child is breastfeeding. Now you might say, well, you know, you don't understand my situation, okay, that's fine, I'm not judging you, I'm just preaching to the church here that that's the best solution. Science will tell you that, okay, the Bible is telling us here that, you know, drawing out the breast, giving suck to the young one is a loving act that a mother does for her child. It's a good bonding time, it caused them to spend time together, unlike the society that says 2 weeks after you give birth, 6 weeks after you give birth, you're dropping your newborn off as if it's not yours, and you're going to work, you know, who knows what's going to happen to you, it's like the ostrich, I mean who knows, you're dropping it off at some random daycare, who knows what they're doing to it there, who knows what they treated there, how it's going to grow up there. And so I'm a strong believer, and I always have been, and it offends people sometimes, but I'm a strong believer in women staying home and raising the kids. No daycare. No dropping them off to go to work. Stay home, and if you say, well it takes 2 incomes, then dad needs to get 2 jobs. You know, and it's no fun working 2 jobs, but you know what, children need their mother, you know, that newborn needs its mother. And so what I wanted to say about the breasts, go back to Song of Solomon if you would, chapter number 8, is that part of the reason why when we see breasts we're just, you know, thinking that it's a taboo subject is partially because there's a lot less breastfeeding going on than they're used to. So many people are using formula, so many people are using bottles, that basically now breastfeeding is like, you see a woman breastfeeding and you freak out. And look, I've been in a church where there was like no breastfeeding allowed in this church. You know, it's like they expect you to show up for Sunday school, church, go through the whole thing without being able to feed the child. And then they'll, even, and look, I understand that they don't want, you know, a woman just completely whipping out her breast, just completely exposed and just, you know, just like not even trying to cover anything up, just not even trying, you know, just letting it all hang out. Okay, I get that. But this church, they got upset even if a woman had a blanket over it, completely covering it. And he said to the pastor, like, what in the world is the problem if it's completely covered? And he's like, yeah, but everybody knows what's going on under that blanket. So that could come, it's like, are you insane? I mean this is how women feed their child. I mean this is like, I mean is this like that thing where pregnant women can't go in public because everybody's going to know how they got that way or something? I mean this is just, it's ridiculous. It's nonsense. Look, I'm telling you, I'm offended by it because, you know, what it does is it's this birth control culture is what it is. It's a birth control culture because whenever you try to complain about it and say, hey, look, you know, my wife needs to feed the baby or hey, we don't want to stick our kid and drop it off for three hours in your nursery. This is what it always is, oh, this is just a short little phase you go through in your life and you'll get through it. You know that little phase when you have little kids. Look, that's not a phase for me. Having little babies and toddlers isn't a phase, it's my life. Okay? And so it's this birth control culture that basically doesn't want to cater to people who are having a lot of kids like God told you to, okay? Be fruitful and multiply. And so I take a stand against it. I don't, you know, I don't think that anybody in our church should ever be hassled for breastfeeding. You know what I mean? Just understand that it's a normal part of life. And look, honestly, when the Bible talks about your nakedness, it talks about from your loins to your thighs. Now again, I don't believe that women's breasts should just be exposed because of modesty, right? Obviously we believe in modest apparel, okay? And obviously when we talk about the breast, they have two functions biblically, okay? Go to Proverbs chapter 5. There are two functions of the breast according to the Bible. And we need to understand both functions. Number one function is to feed the child. And the Bible talks a lot about that. And I'm not even turning, I mean if you want to, I can just take the whole sermon, we can go to all the breastfeeding passages. You know, blessed is the womb that bear thee and the paps which thou has sucked. I mean we can go down the whole list. There's so much scripture on this subject, it could be a whole sermon, okay? But what I'm saying is we ought not be squeamish or act like somebody's doing something wrong when they're feeding their child. That's the way God designed it. And you know what? God did not design it on a four hour schedule. And you know newborns often need to eat every hour. I mean literally. I mean anybody who has kids know, I mean a lot of times they need to be nursed constantly when they're a newborn. And the Bible says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. I don't, I question the sincerity of some formulas. Sincer means pure, you know? I know that what's coming from my wife is pure, you know, as long as she's eating pure food going in, right? But anyway, because you know it ends up going through the process, whatever you do. But look what the Bible says here. It says in verse 19 of Proverbs 5, let her be, it's talking about your wife, the wife of your youth. It says let her be as the loving hind in the pleasant row. Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times and be thou ravished always with her love. So obviously there is an erotic component to the breast. Obviously we're not ignoring the fact that there is an aspect that has to do with husband and wife there for the breast. But there's also a nursing or breastfeeding aspect. Both of those two things exist. And so we have to understand that, you know, a child nursing his mother is not, has nothing to do with anything obscene. It's just a normal activity. And you know, if you see a woman breastfeeding at our church, you just need to chill out, okay? And I mean, literally, have you ever seen these articles in the news where women are getting like arrested? They're like arrested in a restaurant. One of them got kicked off an airplane just for nursing, just for breastfeeding. So you know, people have a weird view of it because of that, you know, but, and people probably think that this sermon, you know, is over the top something, what I've been preaching for the last 15 minutes. But honestly, it's just because our culture has drifted away from just a normal culture where breastfeeding is just like an everyday thing that's just constantly happening all the time. You're not really going to think anything of it, right? Whereas to us it's this rarity, oh wow, normal human behavior is happening. I'm shocked, you know, because we live in such an artificial, synthetic society. Now on that same note, go down in the chapter of chapter 8, you think, okay, if you couldn't handle what I just preached, you're definitely not going to handle this, okay? Go down, if you would, to verse 5. It says, who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree, watch this, there thy mother brought thee forth. And just in case you didn't get it the first time, there she brought thee forth that bare thee. Okay, where was she born? Where was she born? Apple Tree Methodist Hospital? No, she was born, she was born under the apple tree, okay? Now you say, whoa, that's crazy, like can you imagine giving birth outside under a tree? Like oh, that's so unsanitary, but you know what's really unsanitary? Going to a place where sick people go to give birth. Why would you go to a hospital to give birth? And it's funny, if you try to bring a newborn to the hospital, here's what they say, you can't bring that baby in here, way too many germs, right? It's like, well, you know, they're giving birth in here. So, you know, and again, I understand that sometimes there's a need to go to the hospital, and I'm not against hospitals, and if you just choose to say, Pastor Anderson, I'm just doing a hospital birth, I'm going to be completely doped up, I'm going to be numb from the waist down, I'm going to just schedule a cesarean, you know, you do whatever you want, I'm not trying to tell you how to live your life here, but I'm just trying to give you some wisdom that, you know, my first child was born at the hospital, Solomon. And we had such an awful experience that the subsequent six children were born at home. And my wife has given birth at home, six times, with no anesthetic, no painkiller, just natural childbirth, six times. And every time turned out great, healthy, no problem. You say, well, what if something goes wrong? Well, you know, first of all, you know, if you have a midwife, we don't use a doctor either, we use a midwife. The midwives that we use are so knowledgeable, they can prevent like 99% of problems. I mean, they've done so many births, they're so knowledgeable, they do such a good job that they can actually preempt a lot of problems. Instead of just, see, a lot of our medical system, they create problems and then fix the problems. Whereas the midwives seem to be more like trying to prevent problems from happening in the first place. You know, for example, your baby's in the wrong position, the doctor's just like, cesarean, you know. But then if it's in the wrong position, the midwife's like, oh, you know, I don't know, stand on your head and do this and that, and then they like flip it over. So I mean, they're able to do a lot of stuff like that and they're pretty smart and they, you know, it depends on which midwife you have. I mean, there are some midwives that are awful, and then there are other midwives that are very good at what they do. But honestly, if something goes wrong at the hospital, you know, they still have to wheel you over and get the staff and get the surgery ready and, you know, if there's an emergency c-section, well, you know what, unless you're living out in the boonies, they can do that while you're in the ambulance ride. You know what I mean? I mean, the hospital's still there, 911 is still there, the ambulance is still there. I mean, if something were to go wrong, you can rush to the hospital or drive yourself to the hospital, you know, as far as the husband or the midwife. Okay, don't drive yourself, you know what I mean. The husband or the wife, the husband or the midwife can get you there is what I meant by that. But anyway, I meant drive her to the hospital yourself. So what I'm saying is, you know, and people are like, wow, you're this daredevil having a home birth. You are just playing Russian roulette. But honestly, look up the statistics. It's safer. I mean, just look at the statistics. And by the way, the statistics that the hospital does are fraudulent. They've been doctored to make it look better than it really is, okay. But even their fraudulent statistics, home birth comes out better. Look it up. I mean, then the numbers don't lie. So you know, I think I read a quote a few days ago by Hippocrates, who's called the father of modern medicine. He said like, you know, if the doctor can't do anything to help you, he must be prevented from harming you. You know, that's pretty much the way I look at doctors, you know, a lot of times. You know, so they need to make sure that they do no harm. But what I'm saying is that giving birth under the apple tree used to be pretty normal. Now I'm not necessarily recommending an outdoor birth simply because of the fact that today you're probably not going to be able to, you know, privately do that or modestly do that because we live so close to one another. You know, if you were out in the middle of nowhere on your own property, this could be viable, this could happen. But honestly, you know, giving birth at home, we live in kind of an overly sanitary society. You know, and here's the thing. When you go through life in a plastic bubble, you don't really develop any immunity. You know, if you never let your kids go out and play in the dirt and you're just constantly just hand sanitizer washing and just, you know, and I'm all for being clean. But if you read the Bible, I mean, you know, they're wearing sandals, their feet are dirty all the time, they're outside, they're giving birth under apple trees. You know what I mean? Jesus is like, don't worry about washing your hands before you eat. To eat with unwashed hands, to follow with not a man. There's the thing, because there are so many germs and stuff, yeah, if you're touching a lot of other people or getting around other people, you should wash your hands before you eat. But if you just have literal dirt, like as in soil on your hands, you know, I've eaten with unwashed hands many times. I quote that verse first just so that God, you know, I'm like, God, I'm doing this, you know. I quote the verse to eat with unwashed hands, to follow with not a man, and then I eat with dirty hands. And I wouldn't, like if I touched other people or if I touched something dirty or if I shook hands with somebody, then I'm definitely going to wash my hands before I eat because there's so many germs that people are carrying today. But as far as dirt, I mean, good night. I get so much dirt in my mouth. I mean, man, we swum in a dirty river a few days ago, but anyway, I'm just saying, you know, this overly sanitary, overly hospitalized, just, I mean, look, women have been giving birth for thousands of years. Birth is not a disease. You know, pregnancy is not an illness. You know, and you say, what in the world to give birth at home? It's like, what do they do at the hospital? I mean, the woman does all the work. And really the only reason we even have a midwife is just in case something goes wrong. That's the only reason. Like, our midwife pretty much doesn't do anything. I mean, she just monitors. She checks signs and monitors just to make sure everything's fine. But the less we need her, the better. We just let nature take its course. God has designed it in a very good way. And you know, part of the pain of childbirth is what produces the joy and ecstasy when it's over. You know, and it's a bonding between mother and child. That's a whole other sermon in and of itself. But anyway, I just wanted to show you that in here that, you know, we need to understand that some things about our culture are a little bit imbalanced and a little bit weird. And we're a little bit too obsessed with overly sterilizing and overly sanitizing everything. And it's actually harmful for our immunity. It's good to get out in the dirt a little bit. You know, you don't have to just be obsessively like Howard Hughes or something, you know, about germs. And then also we see here that, you know, the Bible's talking a lot about breasts. Just relax. You know, it's nothing weird. Just take it easy. So anyway, it says in verse 2, I would lead thee. She said I would kiss thee, yea I should not be despised. Verse 2, I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house who would instruct me. I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. Now what's interesting about this verse is that this is the only place in the whole Bible that the word juice is ever used. And the word wine is used many times, isn't it? The word juice is only used one time in the whole Bible. Now go to Isaiah, keep your finger in Song of Solomon. Go to Isaiah 65, because a lot of people when they read the Bible, they think that every time the word wine is used, they think it's always alcohol. They think Jesus turned water into booze. You know, they think that every single time you see wine in the Bible, it's alcohol. But in reality, the word wine in the Bible is used to refer to both juice and wine. Because back then, the word juice was not the most common word. In English, there are almost two words for almost everything in English. And the reason for that is because English was originally a Germanic language. It was a purely Germanic language when we were speaking Anglo-Saxon, old English. But in 1066 AD, William the Conqueror invaded England and the French Normans ruled over England. And they got rid of a lot of the English nobility, and so therefore the ruling class was all French. And all of the underclass were all speaking English, old English, Anglo-Saxon. And what happened is, over the next hundred years, they developed like a hybrid language. You know, sort of like Spanglish, except they developed a hybrid language between English and French so that they could communicate with one another. That hybrid language of English and French became what we would call Middle English. Then over the next few hundred years, so by about 1150 AD, they're speaking Middle English. And then that slowly evolved from Middle English to Modern English. And the King James Bible is written in Modern English. People are like, ah, you read that old English Bible. No, it's Modern English. This is Modern English. What we speak is called contemporary English. But this is called Modern English, is the proper term for the language of 1611. So because of that French influence, French is a Latin-based language. English is a German-based language, okay? So what you have is two words for everything. The Latin-derived word and the Germanic-derived word. And usually the fancier, big fancy-schmancy words are going to be the Latin-based, because that was the ruling, the upper class was speaking French. And then the more everyday common words that the common man is using are more Germanic. Okay? Let me give you some examples. In German the word sun is zone, right? But in Spanish it's what? Sol, el sol, right? So here's the thing. In English we have the word sun, which is Germanic, but then we also have solar. We have the moon, which is a German word, and then we have lunar, right? That comes from Latin. Because you're like, why is it lunar if it's about the moon? What does that mean? Or for example, we have fingers, right, which is a German word. And if we do something by hand, hand is a German word also, we do it manually. Well that comes from the Spanish word mano, okay? Like Latin word mano. Spanish is a Latin language. I'm using Spanish because a lot of people here speak Spanish. So do you see what I mean about how a lot of things can be expressed, both Germanic and English? Well here's the thing. Juice is a Latin-based word. Because if you think about it, what's the Spanish word for juice? Hugo. You can see the similarity with juice, right? Wine, you know, German, vine, okay? And I know it's similar in Latin as well. But what I'm saying is, these are two words that mean the same thing, wine and juice. Well in 1611, wine was by far the more common word. That's all that's used. Now you say, no Pastor Anderson, you're wrong. Wine's alcohol. Okay, look at Isaiah 65 verse 8, and let's see if wine's alcohol. Thus saith the Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith destroy it not, for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servant's sakes that I may not destroy them all. Here the new wine is found where? In the cluster. The cluster is the grape. Now are grapes alcoholic? Have you ever been carded when you buy grapes? They ever ask you for ID? Hey, you look like you're under 30. Let me see some ID on those green grapes. No. Now, so this proves that the word wine can just refer to juice right here. This is one example. Many times in the Bible, it's referring to just juice. You say, well Pastor Anderson, why don't they use the word juice? Because juice is not the common word. Wine was the common word. You say, okay, well then why is juice used in Song of Solomon 8? Here's why. Look at the verse again. The only reason that the word juice is used here is because the word is used twice in a row. And if they didn't use it a different word, then it would sound weird. Because look, it says, I would lead thee and bring thee into my mother's house who would instruct me, I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine of the wine? Wine of the wine? See, that doesn't sound right, does it? Juice of the wine, you know, that sounds better. Wine of the juice, that sounds better. It's like in Hebrews 1-1. The word divers is used many times throughout the Bible. Tons of times you'll see the word divers. But the word sundry is only used in the Bible one time. And it's used in Hebrews 1-1 because it says God who at sundry times and in divers manners. The only reason he used sundry there is because he didn't want to say God who at divers times and divers manners. It doesn't sound good. And the Bible that we have in English, the King James Version, is not only translated accurately, but it's also translated into a very beautiful language. You know, you read the NIV, it sounds like garbage. I mean, it sounds like, it doesn't even sound like good literature. I mean, whoever translated it just seems like they were just this complete dweeb that just didn't understand anything about poetry or, I mean, they just, it's like a machine train. It's like you typed, it's like they typed in the King James into Google Translate. And then out came the NIV. Literally, I mean, it doesn't, it seems like they just put the Greek into Google Translate. Comes out all wooden, comes out all stilted and just sounding bad. I mean, look, you know the NIV sounds bad when you read it. It's poor translation. The King James, very beautiful, and there's a lot of things in the Bible that, in the King James that rhyme, a lot of alliterations where he uses the same letter a lot. There's a lot of times where he uses two different words to make it sound more poetic, to make it sound better, and that's what we have here. That's the only reason why he used juice here. When you see the word wine, sometimes it means alcoholic, sometimes not. You go by the context. It's easy to tell from the context. Look at verse 3. It says, his left hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor awake my love till he pleased. We already saw verse 5 about giving birth under the apple tree. That's kind of a doozy there. But look at verse 6. It says, sent me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm. For love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire which hath the most vehement flame. And here the Bible is comparing love unto like a burning fire, a very vehement, burning fire. Go back, keep your finger in Song of Solomon and go to Proverbs 6, Proverbs chapter 6. And also he covers jealousy in that verse. He says jealousy is cruel as the grave, love is strong as death. The coals thereof are coals of fire. So he compares jealousy and love to coals of fire. You see, love and jealousy are something that should be a part of every marriage. Because jealousy in the Bible is when we're possessive of our spouse. We don't want to share them. We are very possessive of them and we don't want other people filling any of our roles as husband, as companion, as provider. We want to fill that role. And we're jealous of that role. God's name is jealous. He's a jealous God. We ought to be jealous husbands. That means we don't just let our wives hang around with other men, hang on phone calls to other men, go out to eat with other men. We need to be possessive of our wives and say, no, you're my wife. But you know what? It's a two-way street, guys. We shouldn't be going around and hanging around with other women either. We shouldn't have all these female friends. We need to basically have close friends that are men. And our female companionship should all come from our wife. As a woman, your male companionship should all come from your husband. Obviously a brother or a father or a son is appropriate. But you know what I mean. Inside the family, there's no reason in the world for you as a woman to have a male friend. You say, well, he's gay, so it's okay. He needs to be stoned to death then, okay? That's what the Bible says, all right? So don't give me this, he's gay. These bunch of gays, these bunch of filthy faggots is what they are. You know what? They are predators and they all go both ways. Don't buy into the world's propaganda of LGBT. You know what LGBT stands for in my book? Let God burn them. That's what I make a sentence. Let God burn them like he burns Sodom and Gomorrah. And I'm not advocating killing gays because I want God to kill them all, okay? And to rain fire and brimstone. I'm not saying that we should do it. I didn't even harm a butterfly at that field trip, okay? But anyway, let alone killing someone. I'm not trying to kill people, but you know what? They're worthy of death and they ought to be executed by the government, okay? Anyway that was the law of the land back in the day, the good old days in Leviticus. But anyway, you know this thing of, oh, he's just a little lovable, queer little thing that, you know, you know what? Don't you dare hang around with sodomites. But you say, well, you know, I just have this male friend at work. You know, and that's the worst place for you to have a male friend at work. Because look, you're hanging around with him all day more than you're even at home maybe even. If you're, you know, women who work a full-time job and they're constantly palling around with another guy. I mean, that's just a recipe for adultery right there. And you know what? Even if there's no adultery, you're going to make your husband jealous and angry. You know, I don't even, man, I hear somebody give my wife a compliment, I'm like, what's that supposed to mean? No. But you know what I mean? Because we're jealous of our wives and you as wives should be jealous of your husband. You know, we as men, there's nothing that's going to help enhance your life or help your marriage or help you serve God more by you having some close female friend. And ladies, it's not going to help you in any way, shape, or form having some male friend that you're close with. You know, outside of a blood, a close blood relative, you know, a close family member. You know, I understand family is one thing. Okay, but a non-relative, you don't need to be buddy-buddy with the opposite gender. Okay, and it's going to make your spouse jealous and it ought to make your spouse jealous, okay? But look what it says about adultery in Proverbs 6 because it actually uses the same illustration about coals of fire, about jealousy. Look at Proverbs 6, it says, verse 27, can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes be not burned? Look at the next verse. And one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned. So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whoso toucheth her, shall not be innocent. Don't even touch a woman that's married. Stay away from her, you will not be innocent. He says next, men do not despise a thief if he steal to satisfy his soul when he's hungry, but if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house, but whoso commiteth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding, he that doeth and destroyeth his own soul, a wound and dishonor shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away, for jealousy is the rage of a man. Therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. You know what that's basically saying in a nutshell? Commit adultery with another man's wife and die. Commit adultery with another man's wife, he's probably going to kill you. I had a friend that I worked with and this guy was not a violent type guy. I mean, he was a peaceful guy. You know, I'm a peaceful guy, but you know, I could see myself killing somebody pretty easily in that situation. But you know, this guy was a pretty peaceful guy. He came home to find his wife committing adultery with another man in the very act. And he, and this guy that was committing adultery with his wife was a marine and he was physically fit, but jealousy is the rage of a man. And my friend from work, he grabbed this guy and literally beat him almost to death. He started beating him and then he threw him through the front window of the house. I mean, so the guy got all cut up. I mean, the guy, I mean, the guy almost died. The guy went to intensive care because he literally, I mean, somebody finally pulled him off this guy as he's just killing him with his bare hands. You know, and honestly, obviously we sympathize with him. You know, I mean, because we all probably would have done something similar, you know. And so, you need to understand not to play around with that. You know, it's a wicked sin. God says those who committed are worthy of death. And we see that also just, you might be just revenged right then and there. You know, when you start messing around with somebody else's wife. And you better not even put yourself in a compromising situation with somebody else's wife that could even be misunderstood or misconstrued. You'd be very careful with that. Remember what Potiphar did when he thought that Joseph had committed adultery with his wife? Threw Joseph in prison. You know, obviously Joseph was innocent, but Potiphar, he believed his wife. So in Song of Solomon, we see the Bible talking about just the fiery, passionate, fervent love. And that's how love should be within our marriage, it should be very strong. So look at verse 7, going on with that same illustration about fire. It says, many waters cannot quench love. Quench meaning, the Bible often used the word quench of putting out a fire, right? Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt. Contempt means despise. What that's basically saying there is that love is worth more than all the money that you owe. Love has more value. It says if a man gave all the substance of his house for love, it's basically saying that wouldn't even be enough. You know, basically what he's saying here is that our relationship with our spouse is more important than money. It's more important than material things. It's more important than the substance of our house, okay? Go if you would to Romans chapter 8. With that in mind, if the Bible's teaching us that love within marriage is more important than financial blessings, the substance of our house, our wealth, okay, that tells me that it's not worth it to sacrifice my marriage for financial gain or to sacrifice the happiness of my marriage. For example, sending my wife to work. Now if I send my wife to work, it's possible that we could have more money. The substance of our house might increase, but then I'm also sacrificing our relationship. We're not going to have as good of a relationship. We're not going to have the right male-female roles. The fire is going to be quenched in some ways, and we're not going to also have as much time together. We're not going to have as good of a relationship. You know, other things that we might do. For example, you know, you might have a job opportunity that estranges you from your wife. You know, I've seen it where, you know, the guy goes far away to work for months or something and his family's back here. You know, I mean, I could see if it became a survival thing, but honestly, I wouldn't separate from my family like that for months on end for financial gain, you know. Because honestly, we need to put people first and things need to take a backseat. We need to not have an attitude where it's all about money, it's all about possessions, it's all about things. No, we need to have an attitude that says people are what's important, my marriage is what's important, my wife is what's important. And you know, I don't really know anybody who's in danger of this and I rarely meet people that are in danger of this, but you know, working too much could also be an issue. Some men can be a workaholic, work too much, and not invest in their marriage, not invest in their children. I don't think most people have that problem. Most people don't work enough, but some people don't work, you know, they work too much and that could be a danger, that's putting things and the substance of your house before love, before your marriage, before that relationship. But he said many waters can't quench love, he's talking about all the things that could try to extinguish the love in our marriage that can't do it. Look what the Bible says in Romans 8 35, Romans 8 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And remember, the husband is supposed to love your wife as what? Christ loved the church, right? Well this is the love of Christ, that means that our love as husbands should be patterned after this love in Romans 8, the love of Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, we're all going to be gone right? Just kidding. Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors to him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So look, that tells me that our love for our spouse should be for better or for worse, till death do us part. I mean, we should not let anything come between us and the love we have for our spouse. We need to still love our spouse no matter what happens. And I mean, that means, you know, when the finances are bad, you know, maybe your spouse gets injured, or disabled, or diseased, and you know, they're not as lovable as they used to be, or maybe one spouse even goes to prison. You know, a lot of people divorce their spouse because their spouse goes to prison. And maybe their spouse goes to prison wrongfully. Or maybe their spouse goes to prison because they actually broke the law. You should still love your spouse. You should still forgive your spouse. You should not divorce your spouse who is sent to prison no matter what they did to go there. You know, obviously if they committed some really weird thing, then obviously they should be dead anyway if they're like a molester or a rapist, you know, something like that. You know, most people that go to prison, 90-some percent is like drugs, right? 90-some percent is a non-violent crime. You know, it's drugs, it's taxes, it's embezzlement, you know, it's something like that. And you know, we ought to stay true to our spouse even when they make mistakes, even when they do wrong. And look, honestly, even if your spouse commits adultery, I don't believe that you should divorce your spouse. I don't believe in it. Now I believe that your spouse should be killed if they commit adultery, but because we live in a society where they're not going to be killed, because it's not the law of the land, right? I mean look, adultery is not even against the law, is it? Now under God's way of life, if your spouse committed adultery, they're going to die, and then you marry someone else. But today, that's not the law of the land, so honestly, theoretically, if my spouse ever committed adultery, you know, I have two options, you know, murder or stay married. You know, but I will not divorce my wife. You know, and I'm not saying I'm going to murder my wife either, but I'm just saying, I would stay married, even though that would be hard, even though that would be tough. You know what, God forbid it would ever happen, but I don't believe that there's any grounds for divorce. I think that you should love your wife through thick and thin, no matter what happens as a picture of the love of Christ. Let me ask this, if you committed adultery, are you going to lose your salvation? Is Christ going to stop loving you? Well, that's the love that we need to have as husbands, that's a love that knows no bounds, neither height nor depth. That's the love that we should have. Go down, if you would, to Song of Solomon chapter 8, verse number 7, we read, Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contempt. We have a little sister and she hath no breasts, what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver, and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. I am a wall and my breasts like towers. Then was I in his eyes as one that found favor. And again, this is just referring to the erotic aspect of Bres, Bres is just talking about the fact that, you know, her husband likes the fact that she is well endowed in that area. That's all she's saying in those scriptures, as opposed to the little sister that has no breasts. Verse 11 says, Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Haman. He let out the vineyard unto keepers. Every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me. Thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred. Now, that's an interesting verse because this verse goes in the face of communism. Now, I know we're preaching about marriage, like, what in the world? Communism? But honestly, communism teaches that basically the worker should get all the benefit and all the proceeds as the owner. Basically communism teaches that the owner of the company should not make more than the worker. Everybody should get paid the same, and they're against capitalism, meaning they're against a guy owning a field, having workers come reap it, and then they only get a fraction, even though they're the ones doing the work. Now in this passage, we see that there's a vineyard that's owned here, and it's kind of, it's hard to understand for me this scripture, but you know, it's either owned by her or it's owned by Solomon. You know, depending on how you look at these verses. One of them too owns it, and basically the fruit thereof, when they sell the fruit that's grown in this vineyard, it brings in a thousand pieces of silver. That's how much the fruit goes for. I don't know how big those pieces of silver are, but let's say they're like an ounce. You know, then I guess you're looking at, I don't know, an equivalent of like $25,000. I think silver's like what, 25 bucks an ounce? Maybe it's a smaller coin, maybe it's $12,000, I don't know. It's some major vineyard where the fruit of that vineyard goes for a thousand pieces of silver. But look what it says in verse 12. My vineyard which is mine is before me. Thou O Solomon must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred. So out of that thousand, two hundred is being paid to the people who are actually doing the work. Does everybody see that? Two hundred goes to the actual worker, eight hundred are going to the owner. So you say, well I don't think that's fair. But here's the thing, if you own land and you own the vineyard and you hire people, you can pay them whatever you want. You know, and if you're paying them a wage that's a fair wage for a fair amount of work, and you're making a killing, like this looks like a pretty good profit here. Thousand pieces of silver give two hundred to the people who actually kept the vineyard? Nothing in the world wrong with that. And so don't let, don't let people deceive you, you know, occupy Wall Street or whatever to try to tell you that basically, you know, everybody should be making the same amount of money. Because you know what, the owner of the vineyard has risk. Because guess what, sometimes there's a crop failure. And then you still have to pay the two hundred pieces of silver, you know, plus they're going to tax the fire out of you when you make that kind of money too. Honestly, I didn't understand this until I ran a business. I can honestly say that when I first started working and I was an employee, sometimes I would be envious and think like, oh it must be nice. You know, when you look at management and when you look at the owner, it's easy to think to yourself, man, I'm doing all the work, I'm getting it, I'm not getting paid. But you know what, then you own your own business and you realize the stuff they have to deal with. The paperwork, they're working, they're staying up all night, they're working long days, they're on call all the time. And the risk, I mean when I started my fire alarm business, you know, I borrowed seventy thousand dollars. That's a big risk, seventy thousand dollars. You know, and it's like, and you don't know, are you not going to get paid, is something going to happen, is something going to go wrong? And of course I got it all back, paid it all off in the first year, year and a half of business, but still, that's stressful, right? And honestly, there are a lot of jobs where you don't get paid, there are jobs where you lose money, whereas when you're the worker, it's a guaranteed thing. Even though it's a low wage, it's guaranteed. Friday comes, you're getting paid. So this is just a good scripture just to show capitalism in action in Song of Solomon 8 verse 12. It says in verse 13, thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions harken to thy voice. Cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young heart upon the mountains of spices. And so as we finish the Book of Solomon, let me say this, there's a lot of good stuff in this book. I couldn't even cover everything, it's such a deep book. There are some things that are difficult to understand, there are some things that are right on the surface, but honestly, I hope that throughout this series, the biggest thing that you take from it is that you just love your spouse, that you care about your marriage, that you invest in your marriage, that you put time and energy into it and that you go back and read the Book of Song of Solomon on your own and try to glean from it. I think it's a pattern book for a marriage that's really on fire, for a marriage that's passionate, two people that are madly in love with each other. That's what I want for my marriage, that's what I want for your marriage, and so let's keep reading the Book of Song of Solomon, study it, learn it, memorize it, understand it, and let it change you and help you to be the best husband and the best wife that you can be. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this book and for the things that we've learned from it, Lord. Please just help us to put these things into practice and to use the wisdom of your Word to not fall into the trap of going the way of this world, which most marriages in this world will fail and end in divorce, and even the ones that don't end in divorce are not where they need to be. Help us to be different, help us to have a great marriage patterned after your Word, patterned after Proverbs, patterned after Song of Solomon, and so many other places where you've taught us in Ephesians 5 and elsewhere how to have a good marriage. And in Jesus' name we pray.