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

Amen, so I'm continuing this morning what we've been talking about since last Sunday which was the allegorical interpretation of Song of Solomon. Obviously on the purpose, or excuse me, on the surface, this book is love poetry between man and woman and we've talked a lot about the different applications for marriage or just human love between men and women but also there's a deeper meaning here about Christ and the church. You know the Bible says husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. And so that's another way to read the book of Song of Solomon and we went over a bunch of stuff from chapter one last Sunday so today we're going to start out here in chapter three and I'm going to show you some other allegorical interpretations in the book of Song of Solomon. So it says in verse number one, by night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth, I sought him but I found him not. I will rise now and go about the city and the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth, I sought him but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little while that I passed from them but I found him whom my soul loveth. So the first thing I want to point out here is that she is looking for him and the Bible says in verse two that she's looking for him in the broad ways, right? In the broad ways I will seek him. And remember the bridegroom here, the beloved, the man here is representing Jesus Christ and so those who are seeking for Christ in the broad ways are not going to find him. What I mean by that is that the majority of people today are not saved. The majority of people today are going to go to hell when they die and even the majority of people who would even say that they're a Christian or claim to be following Christ are not saved. So if someone were to go seeking Christ in those broad ways, they're not going to find him. If you want to look for the biggest Christian denomination in the world, it'd be the Roman Catholic Church and if you go to the Roman Catholic Church seeking for Jesus Christ you're not going to find him. And then the second largest is East Orthodox, whether it's Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox and again, go seek Christ there, you are not going to find Jesus Christ there. That's a false Christ, it's another Jesus, it's another gospel and so seeking Christ in the broad ways is a fool's errand, you're not going to find him there. Because the Bible says that broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find him. And Jesus also said not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works. They're talking about all the things that they've done. Oh, we did this and we did all these works and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me that work iniquity. So even those who even claim the name of Christ, many of them are trusting in their own works, they're not trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ and they're therefore not saved. And Jesus will say to them one day, depart from me, I never knew you. Now he said not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is heaven. You know the Bible makes it crystal clear that it is the will of the Father, it's what Jesus said was the will of the Father that everyone who sees the Son of Man and believes on him would have everlasting life. That's the will of the Father is that you would believe on him whom God has sent to believe on Jesus Christ. That is his plan of salvation. And you can't just make your own plan of salvation of, well you know I'm going to clean up my life, I'm going to get rid of these bad habits I have, I'm going to start attending church and I'm going to genuflect and I'm going to light a candle and I'm going to go to a confessional booth and I'm going to bow down to idols. Hey, that is not Christ. That picture of that random long haired dude is not Jesus. That is a random long haired dude, okay? That is not Jesus. Who is that guy? Who knows who that guy is? It isn't Jesus. It's random. You know, I was at the grocery store and in the checkout, it seems like the big magazines, they always come out with like a Jesus issue like every like six months or a year or something, right? And I was at the checkout and it was like National Geographic, Jesus, that's the headline, you know. Why? Because I mean, hey, Jesus is the most important person who ever lived. So they can't stop talking about him. But here's the thing, if you think you're going to actually find Jesus by buying this month's National Geographic, I really doubt that anybody buys that, they take that home and then they're crying, Lord save me, I really doubt that, okay? That's the broad way, okay? The broad way, the popular way, the way that everybody's doing, the big mainstream way, folks, the broad way leads to destruction, okay? And so that issue about Jesus, oh, and on the cover, it has a picture of a random dude. And with that picture, this is what it said, oh, this is one of the oldest icons of Jesus. But guess when it's from? About 500 years after it's alive. So imagine me drawing a picture of a historical figure who lived 500 years ago with no picture to go off of and with no physical description to go off of. Like just pick a historical figure from the early 1500s, I have no picture, no physical description and then I draw a picture and then thousands of years, people will say, thousands of years in the future, people would say like, well, that's got to be the most accurate picture because there's only 500 years after the fact. That's more accurate than what we could draw today. Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Folks, there is no physical description of Jesus in the Bible. Where does the Bible in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John tell us about his hair and his height and his build and his eye color? It doesn't. There's no physical description for a reason because God doesn't want us to make an image and pray to an image and bow down before an image because that is idolatry. That's why he doesn't want us to do that. That's why there's no physical description. But folks, this is where people are seeking for Christ today. They're seeking him in either the Roman Catholic Church or maybe some big giant charismatic rock and roll type church. Maybe they're grabbing the National Geographic Jesus issue or whatever. But if you see Christ in the broad ways, you're not going to find him. Here's the thing about the Gospel. The Gospel finds you. The Gospel finds you. And here's how that works. The Bible says here in Song of Solomon 3, in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him but I found him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me. They found me. Do you see that? Now here's the thing about watchmen. We're going to be talking about this this Wednesday night because this Wednesday night, I'm preaching on Ezekiel chapter 33 which is about the watchman and his blood, will I require at thy hand, that kind of stuff. We already did that earlier in the book of Ezekiel but that theme comes up again in Ezekiel chapter 33. And God tells Ezekiel, I've set you a watchman over the house of Israel. So the watchman in the Bible represents the one who preaches. Now the watchman is a perfect metaphor for the preacher because of the fact that he's warning people about danger. The watchman is a guy that's up in the watchtower, he's up on the wall and he sees the danger coming and he warns the city that something bad is about to happen. And so preachers are constantly warning people either when it comes to salvation, warning people about hell and our sins and how we're doomed without Christ. That's the warning that we give as soul winners. We're out being a watchman when we are winning souls. So preachers get up and just warn people about how sin could destroy their lives or warn people about false prophets, warn people about just dangerous reprobates and people that they need to stay away from. So preachers are watchmen. So notice, she is seeking the beloved in the broad ways, just kind of the mainstream, she's just googling, you know, who is Jesus or something, right? How do I get saved? And just kind of just going with whatever's the most popular view or most popular answer. That's not the way, okay? The way is that the watchmen find you. The watchmen that go by the city found me. You see, the Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But it says, how then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? How should they believe on him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. You see, it's the feet because the watchman is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And so it's the preparation of the gospel of peace on our feet. So soul winning, evangelism, preaching the gospel, it's always associated with the feet because there's a go aspect of taking the gospel to the lost, seeking and saving the lost. And so it says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So it says they have to call upon him but they can't do that until they believe on him. They can't believe on somebody that they haven't heard from and they can't hear without a preacher and how should they preach except they be sent. And so, you know, we as a church are sending you out there into the world to go preach the gospel to the lost. So we send you out there and you go out there, you preach the gospel to every creature, people get saved. That's God's plan. It's not God's plan that we just wait for people to come to us or that we just hold church services and maybe people show up, maybe they don't. No, no, we're sending you out there. We're sending ourselves out there to go out and take the gospel to the lost. We're watchmen. We're warning people. We're getting people saved, going out there and finding them. And that's what the Bible is teaching. And when we say preacher, I didn't say pastor, right? Because obviously pastors are supposed to be men. They're supposed to be the husband of one wife. They're supposed to have children. They're supposed to meet all these different qualifications and so forth. And obviously a pastor is not supposed to be a beginner, not supposed to be a novice, less being lifted up with pride. He fall into the condemnation of the devil. And so there are all these qualifications for being a pastor, but when it comes to being a preacher of the gospel, as far as just going out and winning souls to Christ and preaching the gospel to every creature, that's something that every man, woman, boy, and girl should be involved in. So when the Bible says, how's they here without a preacher, it's not saying how do they hear without like a actual full-time minister or pastor. It's just saying how's they here without somebody preaching it to them. And that could be a little girl. That could be a little boy. That could be anyone that's saved preaching the gospel to every creature. And so, you know, the watchman isn't just the pastor, you're the watchman. If you're saved and you're telling people how to be saved, you're the watchman now. And so she saw him in the broadways and found him not. The watchmen that go about the city, you know, going around the city, going up and down the highways and hedges trying to get people saved. The watchmen that go about the city found me to whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. So shortly after the encounter with the watchman, boom, she finds Jesus, which makes perfect sense because that's how you get saved. And again, people aren't always going to get saved necessarily while you're talking to them right there at the door, maybe not the first time that you talk to them. Sometimes they have to hear it and the seed has to be planted. It has to be watered. Someone else can come along and reap that harvest. Or sometimes you'll preach the gospel to somebody and they don't get saved right then and there, but they might think about it more and get saved later. And you don't even realize the fact that that person that you preached to down the road got saved. So as a result of the encounter with the watchman, she ends up finding him whom her soul loveth. And it says, I held him and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that conceived me. And again, we get into the love poetry, but we're talking about the allegorical interpretation of finding Christ and basically marriage, being married is symbolic here of being saved. Sometimes when I'm out sowing, I even use the illustration of marriage when it comes to what it means to be saved. There are lots of different illustrations we can use about being saved. A lot of times we use the illustration of a parent and a child because when we believe on Christ, we become a child of God. And just as our earthly parents have rules for us, we break the rules, we're going to get disciplined. It's the same thing with God. If we break God's rules, we're going to get disciplined, but we will never stop being his children. You know, he will never leave us or forsake us. And just as the DNA of my parents is in every cell of my body and nothing could change the fact that I'm their child, it's the same way with salvation. God's spiritual DNA is in every cell of you spiritually. You cannot lose your salvation because you are a child of God. You could be a black sheep of the family. You could disobey and get a lot of chastisement, but you're still God's child. So that's an illustration that we use a lot. But sometimes I've even used the illustration of marriage as well, which is another symbolic thing that God uses. Because if you think about it, with marriage, you're basically vowing that you're going to be together for life. You're saying that I will never leave you or forsake you, till death do us part. And basically, this is what God has promised to us, that he will never leave us nor forsake us. And a lot of people, when you're out soul winning, some people will say, well, in order to be saved, you've got to have a relationship with Jesus. You hear that a lot, right? Like, you've got to have a relationship with Jesus. And some people that are saved say that because they kind of mean something different by that. Because they just mean relationship like basically, he's my father and I'm his son. But some people, when they say this, you have a relationship with Jesus. What they mean is, you have to kind of continually work on that relationship as far as you've got to be talking to him, and he's got to be talking to you. And you're constantly praying and walking with God. Now look, I'm all for that, of course. We're supposed to walk with God, and he talks to us through his word, and we talk to him through prayer. And that's really important. But that's not how we get to heaven. That's not how we get saved. Because whenever someone brings that up to me and says, well, it's all about that relationship. In order to be saved, you've got to have a relationship with Christ. I'll usually say to them, you know, quality relationships take a lot of work, don't they? Relationships don't just happen by accident. You know, especially if you use the illustration of marriage, you're not just going to have a good marriage just without any effort. That relationship takes work. And this is the illustration I'll use. I'll say, OK, well, let's say that my wife and I are married, right? And we've made this vow that says that we're married, and we've got the marriage license, and we're legally married, and we've made this promise. You know, what if my wife and I just don't talk to each other? Does that mean that we're not married anymore? What if I say something rude to her? What if she says something rude to me? What if I do this or that or the other? Bottom line, we're still married. OK? And you know, this illustration doesn't always work as well, because so many people get divorced, and then it kind of ruins the illustration. But anyway, but if you think about an idealized view of marriage, where it's supposed to be till death do us part, no matter what, to where no matter what happens to my wife or no matter what my wife does, I will never leave her or forsake her. That's an idealized view. That's what salvation is like in that sense. And so you know, the Bible in Song of Solomon with this love story between man and woman is also picturing salvation in that way. So basically, the watchmen, they find her, she finds the beloved, and then they're married. OK? So go over to Song of Solomon chapter 5, because in Song of Solomon chapter 5, I kind of like to think of this part of the chapter as like, the honeymoon's over a little bit, OK? Because here's the thing. You know, when you get saved, a lot of times there's sort of a spiritual honeymoon, like, where people get saved, and they get baptized, and they get in church, and at first they're really excited. And they're serving God, and everything's great, and they love it. But I've noticed that sometimes after a couple of years in church, people will start to kind of just not be as excited about the things of God. And if they don't have the character to stick with serving God, they can start to fade away. It's the same exact thing with marriage. You know, you first get married, oh, it's so exciting, it's wonderful. And then after a few years, the newness wears off, and people who don't have the character to stick with marriage, they end up just splitting up. And that's why you see these Hollywood types. Many times they'll be getting married. It seems like about every two years, their relationship fails. And it's like, two years later, they're trading up, two years later, two years later. And that's because that's about how long it takes for the newness of things to wear off. And I've noticed the same thing in church. People come to church for about two years, and then they're just kind of, and then, you know, next thing you know, they're not bad people, but they just fade away, because the newness has worn off. What I want to preach to you about this morning from Song of Solomon, chapter 5, is the fact that the Christian life is not always going to be easy. It's not always going to be fun. Sometimes it's going to be filled with pain. There are going to be doubts that creep in. There are going to be dark times in the Christian life, and you need to go into the Christian life understanding what lies ahead, tribulations, afflictions. There are going to be negative things that you experience as a Christian. You don't want to paint this picture that the Christian life is just so wonderful every day and everything's perfect and so great. Let's get to the chapter, and I think you'll kind of see what I'm saying. So we start out in chapter 5, verse 1, and it starts out very positive. I'm coming to the garden, my sister, my spouse. I've gathered my myrrh with my spice. I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I've drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, oh friends, drink. Yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved. So it's a big party in verse number 1, right? But then verse 2 changes gears a totally different scene. So let's move on to the next scene in verse 2. It says, 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. The locks are referring to basically sections of his hair, right? You talk about a lock of someone's hair. So the picture here is that the beloved is outside of the door knocking, OK? And this kind of reminds you of Revelation 3.20, right? Behold, I stand at the door and knock with the Laodicean church. They're lukewarm. They're neither cold nor hot, and he's outside the door knocking and so forth. But he's outside, and he's saying, look, it's raining outside, or my head's filled with dew or whatever, the drops of the night. I'm out here. I'm getting wet. I already took off my shoes. I already washed my feet. I don't want to put them back on again. Why don't you let me in? And he's knocking at the door, and he wants to get in. Verse 3, I've put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall I defile them? My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to 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. There are a few different ways to interpret this, okay? If you remember, the very first thing that was stated in verse 2 was, I sleep, but my heart waketh. So the question is, was he ever really actually there at the door? Because she's sleeping. Her heart is awake. So it's almost like, you know, her mind is thinking and possibly imagining all this because she's actually asleep. It's just her heart that's awake. So you can think of it that way, and that basically there's doubt of whether he's there. She gets up. She thinks it's real. You ever wake up from a dream and think it was real for a while? So I've done that before. One time I was driving down the road. I was in the passenger seat asleep, and I fell asleep, and I had a dream that I had a big giant tarantula on me. So I started screaming like, pull over the car, pull over the car, you know. So basically the car pulls over. I jump out of the car, and I'm trying to get this tarantula off me, and like within a few seconds I was like, oh man, I'm pretty sure that was a dream. And I was kind of embarrassed, you know, but that was kind of weird, but I was really tired. But the point is, you know, sometimes you wake up, and you're not sure. So the idea is like she's in bed, and he's knocking at the door, or is he? Because she's asleep. And then she wakes up, she goes to the door, and there's nobody there. He's withdrawn himself. So there's kind of a doubt there of, was he really there? Because I'm not saying that he wasn't there. Maybe he was there, maybe he wasn't. It's doubtful, OK. And she goes there, and he's gone. And she sought him, but she couldn't find him. She called to him, but she gave him no answer. And this is something that can happen in our Christian lives. We can go through a period where we feel like God's not there. We don't really feel the presence of God in our lives, or we're praying, and it doesn't feel like our prayers are getting past the ceiling, and we're seeking him, and we're not finding him, and we're calling upon him, he's not answering. And you know, there's a lot about this in the book of Psalms. If we read the book of Psalms, there are all kinds of scriptures, you know, oh, thou art a god that hidest thyself, and you know, how long will you not answer me? Why are you ignoring me, God? You know, if you read the book of Psalms, there's a lot of that kind of language of just feeling like God's not answering me. Where's God right now? And so this is a period that people could go through in their Christian life when the honeymoon's over, getting to a point where they feel like God is there, or where they have doubts. Doubting is Christ there. I don't know, you know. Was he there? Was he there? And you know, I think it's normal for all Christians at some point to experience doubts in their life. And I would point to the scripture for this, because John the Baptist doubted Jesus. After John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove and lighting on Jesus, after he pointed to him and said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, later when he's in prison, he's going through dark times, he says, art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? Okay. That's a serious doubt. And I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but if I ask for a raise of hands, who's ever doubted your salvation? Who's ever doubted that the Bible were true? Whoever doubted that Jesus is real? You know, if people were honest, probably every hand would go up. I'll admit right now that I have had those kind of doubts in my life, and I think every single Christian has had those kind of doubts. And you know what? I have dealt, as a pastor, I have people come to me all the time, constantly, with doubts about things, and doubts about their salvation, and doubts about the Bible. This is something that happens because we're human. We are carnal. You know, the fruit of the Spirit, one of the fruits of the Spirit is faith. And as Christians, we're indwelled by the Holy Spirit. If we walk in the Spirit, then we're going to be walking in faith, we're going to have strong faith. But you know what? If we walk in the flesh, then our faith can sometimes flag, and we can doubt. And that is normal. And typically, whenever someone comes to me doubting their salvation, I'm always telling them like, you're saved. Because the people are coming to me with these doubts, you know, just the fact that they're so worried about it is clear that they believe in it. And they're not trusting some other gospel or some false gospel. They're just having doubts because they're human, and they're coming to me, and I'm always just trying to reassure them. I'm showing them all kinds of Scripture, giving them illustrations, talking to them. And it's just, we're human, right? So we're human, so we have doubts. And you know what's funny? Even events that I've witnessed with my own eyes, things that I've actually experienced in the flesh, years later, I'll wonder like, man, did that even really happen because that was so weird. Did I really even see that? Did that even actually take place? Why? Because we're human. That's how we are. And so don't feel bad if you've had doubts because join the club. You know, one of the most influential preachers of the 20th century, Jack Hiles, he said that his definition of faith was believing and doubting, but acting on the belief. You believe and you doubt, but you go with the belief. What about in the Bible when the guy comes to Jesus and wants a miracle, and Jesus says to him, well, you know what, if you believe all things are possible to him that believeth and the guy's weeping because he needs help for his child and he says, Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief, help thou my unbelief. And you know what? Jesus ends up doing that healing because that's enough. Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief is enough according to scripture. Okay. We just need to take what little faith we have and put it all in Jesus to be saved. And then after we're saved, obviously doubts can creep in. Our faith can waver. That's because we're human. And so here is a dark place in the story. She can't find her beloved and she's seeking him and he's not answering. Okay. Well, let's see about the watchman. Let's see if they can help. Verse seven, the watchman that went about the city found me. Oh, great. Things are gonna be great now. They smote me. Now smite means hit. Okay. They smote me. They wounded me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved that you tell them that I am sick of love. Now this does not mean like I'm tired of love because when we say I'm sick of something, ah, I'm sick of that. That's not what this means. When it says I'm sick of love, it's like what we would say lovesick. So this is when people, when they're in love, sometimes they feel nauseous in their stomach. Who knows what I'm talking about where you're in love and you felt nauseous. See these are, there's only a handful of people that have actually been in love. It's really sad this morning. You know, it's truly sad. If you haven't been sick to your stomach, were you even in love? On the authority of scripture. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just messing with you. But anyway, but well I've experienced it, you know, but I'm just saying like, you know, you get like a sick feeling in your stomach, nausea. That's what this is talking about when it says I am sick of love. And so what's interesting here is that the watchman who in chapter three we talked about, oh, they found her and then she found the beloved, isn't that great? Now the watchmen are smiting her and wounding her and taking away her veil from her. Now you know, at first when I was looking at this, it kind of perplexed me a little bit. Like what's going on? Cause chapter three seemed like such a great interpretation with the, you know, the watchman. They found me and I was looking in the broadways and I couldn't find him and then they found me and then just a short time after I passed from them, I found my beloved. It all seemed so great and I'm just like, well then why are they smiting her in chapter five? But then I stopped and thought about it and I thought, wait a minute, of course it makes perfect sense because guess what? Our fellow saved Christians, soul winners are going to hurt us. That's life too. I mean, do you know, do we need a raise of hands on who's ever had a godly soul winning Christian harm them or hurt them in some way? And again, obviously the watchmen are human too, aren't they? Just because someone is a soul winner, just because someone's a godly Christian, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to always be nice or that they're always going to do the right thing. And so again, we're talking about the honeymoon being over here in the Christian life. You know, you first get saved or you first get in church, you're all excited, everything's great. And then, you know, years later, now all of a sudden doubts are kind of creeping in, you feel like God's kind of distant from you, and then maybe some of the people at church do you wrong. People insult you or somebody gossips about you or criticizes you, somebody rips you off in some way, somebody just hurts you in some way. And here's the thing about that, if you go to church long enough, somebody at church is going to do you wrong. But a lot of people would use this as an excuse to not go to church and say like, well, the church is just filled with hypocrites, there's too many rotten people down at the church. No, newsflash, there's just rotten people in this world. School is filled with rotten people, work is filled with rotten people, the grocery store is filled with rotten people, that's just life. Why? Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? There's none righteous, no, not one. This world is filled with sinful people, we are sinners as well, we're not perfect. And people out there without Christ can only be worse. But then people get this attitude of, well, I'm not going to church, too much gossip. How much gossip is there at the water cooler at work, my friend? It's called being human. It doesn't make it right, but it's out there. So don't get that attitude that says that church is the only place where, oh, there's just too much drama at church. What about the drama at work? What about the drama at school? Think about it. What about the drama on your neighborhood street? All of these things are just due to human beings being imperfect, being sinful. And so this is a darker scene here where I'm calling out to God, and I don't feel like he's answering me. He seems distant from me. In fact, am I even doubting? Is he even there? Did I dream that? Was that even real? And then the watchmen, the people that at once had edified me or built me up in the faith and contributed to my Christian life, they smote me. They wounded me. You know, I can say in my own personal life, there have been mentors and people who actually had a profound influence on my life spiritually that have then later turned around and harmed me and stabbed me in the back and lied about me and things like that. And that's very hurtful when that happens, but it happens. It's happened to me. I'm not going to name a specific example because there's no point in drudging up things from the past or something like that. But thankfully, the person that won me the Lord was my mom, so she's never going to burn me like that. But I'm saying other people, though, that have been spiritual role models and leaders in our lives, they're not always necessarily going to do the right thing. They're not always going to treat us right. They might be disloyal to us, and that's just life. And you know what? At the end of the day, you just keep on moving forward in the Christian life. And this is what separates the men from the boys when you get to this stage in your Christian life, whether you're going to stick it out of character or whether you're going to quit at this point. Just like with marriage, you know, after that couple of years go by, are you going to stick it out or are you just going to say, oh, I married the wrong person, you know, and just throw in the towel? No, you just, you're the wrong person, by the way. You just stay with it, and you gut it out, and you push through, and it's the same thing with the Christian life. It's the exact same thing. So the watchmen that went about the city, we love the watchmen, they're great people, but guess what? Every once in a while, they're going to smite you and wound you because they're human. They smote me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you, oh, daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved that you tell him that I'm sick of love. Now taking away the veil from me, what are we talking, you know, we think about a veil, that seems like it could reflect a few different things, but whatever it is, the veil, it's some kind of a display to others of the woman's status, whatever that status is, OK? So for example, maybe there'd be a certain veil that the virgins would wear, you know, the Bible talks about in ancient Israel, a certain like garment that the girls would wear that are virgins, that are of marriageable age or whatever, because, you know, throughout history and cultures, there'd be ways to signal, hey, this girl's too young, or hey, this girl's old enough for you to think about marrying this girl, or hey, this girl's already taken. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? You know, throughout history, you study ancient cultures and there'll be, and again, this isn't in the Bible described this way, but there is some evidence in the Bible, like for example, with Tamar, it says that she's wearing a certain garment that the virgins of Israel would wear, and she ends up rending that garment because she got violated by Amnon. So we have a little bit of evidence there, but we just think about, you know, just culturally different places, girls reach a coming of age where it's like, OK, she's old enough now to be on the market, as it were, to be dated or married or whatever. And by the way, that's 16 in my house, all right, so don't talk to any of my daughters that are younger than that. You can talk to them, but don't try to date them or die anyway. But here's the thing about that, OK? The veils, you know, the veil, maybe the veil could be representing, you know, being a young, you know, marriageable virgin girl or whatever. Maybe the veil is representing one that's already married. Maybe that's what it symbolizes. Maybe it symbolizes being married. You know, you think about the bridal veil, or when you get married, they wear a veil or whatever. So I'm not really sure exactly what the veil represents here, but whatever the veil represents, it's some kind of a status that it's projecting. What is that status? What exactly does it represent? I don't know, but this veil is representing something about status. And they basically physically assault her and take the veil from her. And I think that one way you could look at this symbolically would be basically that they're basically saying, you're not legitimate here or you're not what you're presenting yourself as or, you know, give me that veil because, you know, you shouldn't be wearing that for whatever the reason. And so, you know, there could be people who come along and maybe they even say that we're not saved or that we're not actually a good Christian or that we're not actually serving God properly or, you know, we're not winning souls or whatever they might accuse us of because it seems like the taking away the veil is in a sense like an accusation of you're wearing this veil illegitimately, so we're going to take it away from you. Like you're not worthy to wear this, whatever it means, whether it's something that probably a married lady would be wearing, you know, based on the chronology here because he's already called the spouse in verse 1 of chapter 5. That's kind of where we're at in the story. So it's probably a veil that has something to do with being married and, you know, it's being taken away. And the idea here is you're not worthy, you're a fraud, you're not who you say you are, you're bogus, whatever, okay? And you could see how that could happen in the Christian life where sometimes people might accuse us of things or even say that we're not saved or say that we're not, you know, a real preacher, that we're not a real soul winner or that or just lie about us in some other way. This is something that can happen. Now, here's the thing about that. You know, if I'm saved and somebody says that I'm not saved, does that change the fact that I'm saved? If I'm serving God, if I'm walking with God, if I'm right with God and somebody tells me that I'm not right with God and I'm not a servant of God, does that really change that? No. And so the right way to respond to this is just to not worry about it. And you know, I've had people accuse me of not being saved all the time and honestly, it's like water off a duck's back. It's never really bothered me because it's just I know I'm saved and so if somebody's just like, you know, pastor is pastor Steven Anderson's a heretic, he's not saved. You know, it's laughable to me. I know I'm saved. I don't care what some bozo says about me, but you know what I've noticed is that when you accuse unsaved people of not being saved, it's like they can't get it out of their mind. They can't get out of their mind. Like my dad was talking about this guy that he knows and he had preached to this guy and he told the guy that the guy that he wasn't saved and he said that just for years after that, every time he would see this guy, the guy would just be like, well, I know you don't think I'm saved and then he'd say X, Y, and Z. I mean, I know you don't think I'm saved, but, but, but what's funny is that he would never, he didn't even say like, well, I am saved. It was just always like, well, you don't think I'm saved. You don't think I'm saved. Why do you not think I'm saved? And I've had, whenever these people that, that I've called out for not being saved, because I truly believe that they're not saved, whenever I've called people out for not being saved, it's like, they just can't stop bringing it up. He said, I wasn't saved. He doesn't think I'm saved. I mean, why don't you think, but why don't you think I'm saved? Like it's like, why does that bother you so much? Because if you know you're saved, then what's the big deal? What's the issue? People have accused me of that all the time. So here's the point. The point is if you know you're saved and somebody attacks you and says that you're not saved and, and, and makes that claim about you, you know what? It really shouldn't bother you. Just don't worry about it because you have to know that you're going to go through persecution in the Christian life. And it's not always from people out there. Sometimes you'll even go through some persecution, even from your brothers and sisters in Christ, unfortunately. It's just, that's the reality. It's not just people out in the world that will persecute you, but sometimes even your fellow Christians can persecute you because of the fact that, you know, if you really are zealous in the Christian life, some people can basically not like that about you because it makes them look bad in a sense. You know, so, so for example, there could be some churches that don't do any soul winning and then there's a soul winning church across, across town that's winning a bunch of souls. Well, it kind of makes them look like a dead church. So then they'll find a way to criticize and say like, oh, well, you know, that church over there that the soul winning they're doing, that's not real soul winning. They're not actually winning people, Lord. And they'll lie and say like, oh, they're just praying a prayer with people. They just do a quick wham, bam, one, two, three, repeat after me. And you know, they have to find some way to criticize it too because it's making them look bad. Oh yeah, I know that church is, is winning a bunch of people to Christ at baptism. Oh, but that, you know, they have the wrong gospel. They're not even saved and, and, and their soul winning is not real. That's the kind of accusations that could get thrown at them just out of envy. Okay. That's a phenomenon that could take place. And what would that be? That would be Christians persecuting Christians and maybe even both sides are saved. This is just the reality of the world that we live in. Imperfect people are going to commit sin even after they're saved. And so, you know, you'd think in a perfect world we, we'd all just be happy for all the work for Christ that's being done in different places, but human beings are by nature envious. They're boastful, they're proud. And so you could get these wrong attitudes of competitiveness and instead of realizing that we're all on the same team. If we're saved, if we're preaching the right gospel, we should be on the same team. But yet competition enters in because of the sinfulness of the flesh. Okay. So, you know, looking back, now I can totally see why when we're reading this, the watchman smite her and take the veil from her. That makes perfect sense. Think about my own life and I'm sure if you think about your own life where even soul winning Christians, even true believers in Christ have done you wrong, harmed you, accused you of something, taken something from you that belonged to you, et cetera. And then the next thing it says, of course, is that I'm sick of love. I am sick of love. What is that referring to? Well, what we can think about there is that sometimes the, even the best relationships in our life can still bring us pain, right? So even, you know, everybody wants to be in love and everybody wants to have that romance and everybody wants to marry their soulmate and the love of their life and all that. But guess what? That relationship will bring you pain. Now, I'm not saying that that doesn't make it worth it, but I'm telling you that anybody here who's married will say it has brought me pain. Okay. Put your hands down. All right. You have to, you know, you have to jump out of your seat. Okay. But the thing is, you know, obviously it brings you pain, but here's the thing. Many of the things that we love in our lives bring us pain, but that doesn't mean that we don't want to keep doing it. It doesn't mean, right? I mean, think about it. No pain, no gain. So you know, think about, I mean, becoming a zealous servant of Christ. It's joy unspeakable and full of glory. But being a zealous servant of Christ is a world of pain. You really think you're going to be just this zealous, red hot, soul winning Christian and not going to experience pain. The Bible says all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer, suffer persecution. You are going to suffer in the Christian life. You're going to go through pain. You're going to go through misery. You're going to go through agony. Think about the greatest men in the Bible are the ones who suffered the most. Think about guys like Job, guys like Jeremiah, Ezekiel. These guys went through pain. They went through suffering. And in fact, look how many guys in the Bible that we would consider some of the greatest men who ever lived were just at the end of their rope at times. Where Elijah is saying, just go and kill me, God, kill me now, God. Is that a person who's going through pain or is that a person where everything's just great in their life? Is that Joel Osteen in a $10 million mansion just smiling and happy and everything's great? The great men of God in the Bible are like, kill me now. Look at Jonah. Jonah was a great man of God. And yet Jonah basically is just completely at the end of his rope and just we leave Jonah in chapter four kind of messed up. Elijah goes through a messed up period. John the Baptist goes through a messed up period. He's in prison. He's doubting Christ. He gets his head chopped off, you know, and they live happily ever after the end. So the point is that, you know, everything in our lives that has value is going to also bring us pain. You know, even just from a worldly perspective, you go out and start a business. That's satisfying. That's gratifying to found a business, start a business and build something. But you're going to experience pain in that process, right? Building anything, doing anything, accomplishing anything, living the Christian life. There's an incredible amount of joy, but there's also suffering. There's also pain. Marriage is the same way. You know, there's great joy. There are great mountaintops, but then there are also some low valleys and pain. So the sick of love, you know, we think of love as being all positive, but it's also a sickness. I'm saying it's also going to bring nausea. Sometimes it makes you want to puke. You know, the point is it brings pain, but does that mean it's not worth it? No. Does that mean that we shouldn't get married? No. You know, the MGTOWs, they look at the pain and just decide to just keep playing video games and just keep on whatever with the Japanese anime and whatever they're doing. They've given up on, they've given up on marriage. They've given up on dating and finding someone that they can share their life with. You know, God wants us to be married and to have children and to have a family. Now obviously marriage isn't for everybody. I get that there are a small amount of people who are going to remain single in their lives and God talks about that and the Bible talks about how, you know, they're just, they're serving God, they're single, they're happy with that, but that's not the majority of people. Most people should get married. That's God's plan. The vast majority of cases don't give up on that. You know, you have a bad relationship. Don't give up on that. You say, oh, it's too much pain. Well, you know what? Pain is what life throws at us no matter what we choose. There's pain in being a MGTOW. You know, there's pain from playing too much video games. You're going to go through life and experience pain because that's the world that we live in and so the Christian life is no exception. Marriage is no exception and so there's the sick of love and this isn't even the first time it came up because all the way back in chapter two, if you want to flip back there quickly as I close here, back in chapter two, it says in verse five, in verse four it says he brought me to the banqueting house and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples for I am sick of love and so even when things are good, there's pain. Even in the good chapter, it can be a little painful. And then you get into chapter five in the dark times, it gets really painful. You get wounded but the difference between those who succeed in marriage, succeed in the Christian life or succeed in anything, it's not that they don't go through pain, it's not that they don't go through woundings and it's not that they don't get attacked or criticized or lied about or gossiped about or whatever, it's that they push through and keep going through the misery, through the pain because they know that there are brighter days ahead and they find comfort of the Holy Ghost. And you know what? There are times when God feels distant but when you push through, then God is near once again. You have to go through those valleys to get to the mountain tops and that's what life is like and you are not the only one who is experiencing this. If you experience doubts, realize you're not the first and you won't be the last. If you try so hard to serve God and keep getting burned and you even get persecuted by fellow Christians and you have people stab you in the back, both inside and outside of the church, realize you're not alone. This is life. But at the end of the day, it's beautiful. You know, at the end of the day, we read Song of Solomon and it's beautiful. The relationship is beautiful, love is beautiful, everything about it is beautiful but it doesn't mean it doesn't have some dark points and some pain and some suffering but in the aggregate, it's beautiful. And in fact, would Song of Solomon be as beautiful without these episodes? The answer is no. The painful episodes increase the beauty of the entire song and that's how our lives are and that's how the Christian life is specifically. So again, just a quick recap of what we learned today from Song of Solomon is that people are out there seeking Christ in the broad ways that lead to destruction and they're not going to find him. We need to go out and we need to be a watchman and go out and find them and preach the gospel to them so that then they can call upon the name of the Lord themselves. I think the reason why it said, you know, is but a little while that I passed from them that I found him is because ultimately finding Christ is something that they ultimately have to do on their own. We can't do it for them, can we? Now we can preach it to them and we can lead them in a prayer but ultimately it has to be their own heart that reaches out to Christ and when they speak those words, it has to come from their own heart. We can't make someone get saved. You know, sometimes I'll be out soul winning and the person won't get saved and my soul winning partner will say to me like, you know, what should I have done differently? Or what could I have done differently? Or what would you have done? And they feel like they failed because the person didn't get saved. And I look at that person, I'm like, I would have done anything differently. Like they're just not going to get saved because they have, that's their choice. Like you think that you could change something and then now they're going to get saved? No. I mean, you preach them the gospel. The ball's in their court. Hopefully they'll get saved later, but you can't decide that. They have to decide that. But then once you're saved, once you're saved, once you've got the beloved, once he's your spouse, once you're married to him and he'll never leave you or forsake you. But guess what? Even though he'll never leave you or forsake you, sometimes it might feel like he has left or feel like he has forsaken you and you begin to doubt and then you look to Christians for help and then they smite you and wound you and people are taking your veil from you and you're sick to your stomach and you feel like you're going to puke, okay? This is the Christian life, beloved. Let us pray. Dear Lord, thank you so much for this great book, Lord, and it's so amazing how much meaning is packed into the Bible. There's the wonderful surface meaning about love and marriage, but Lord, thank you so much for salvation through Christ. Thank you for those watchmen, Lord, that preach the gospel and win souls. Lord, some preach Christ even of envy and strife, but some also of good will, Lord, but we're just thankful that Christ is preached. And Lord, if Christians that are actually saved Christians who win souls, Lord, if they ever do us wrong, Lord, help us to forgive them and to realize that even the best Christian is still a sinful human being ultimately, Lord. We just pray that you'd help every single one of us to push through and to stay faithful and not to quit on the Christian life because of whatever pain and suffering that comes along. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.