Song of Solomon, Chapter 8. In
our text this morning, there's a scene of two people coming
together out of the wilderness. It's Christ and his bride coming
out of the wilderness. And then we'll see the prayer
of the bride. And in this scene, in this prayer,
we're going to see a good description of love. Christ's love for his
bride and the bride's love for Christ. So I've entitled the
lesson What love is this? We begin in verse five. Who is
this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her
beloved? Now in verse four, where we ended
last week, the bride gives a charge to the daughters of Jerusalem.
She says, I charge you, oh daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not
up nor awake my love until he please. And now the daughters
of Jerusalem are responding. And they ask, who is this that
cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Now,
can you picture the scene in your mind? There's two people
coming up out of the wilderness. It's a man and a woman. And the
woman, she's just leaning all of her weight on her beloved. She's exhausted. She's beaten. She's bloodied. She's battered.
She didn't have any strength left. She's parched. She cannot take a single step
by herself. She would have died out there
in the wilderness if her beloved bridegroom hadn't gone and found
her and brought her out. She brought out leaning upon
him. Now this wilderness, it's the
wilderness of our own nature. We carry this wilderness around
with us everywhere we go. It's the wilderness of our sin
nature. And this wilderness is also the
dry and barren world that we've got to go out and live in. We
go out and work and live and do things we've got to do. We're on a pilgrimage through
a wilderness of this world. In Christ the Savior, the beloved
bridegroom came to this world to deliver his people from the
wilderness, from the wilderness of their sin nature and the wilderness
of the world. Look back a few pages at Psalm
107. Christ came to deliver his people
from the wilderness. Psalm 107, verse one. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord
for he's good, for his mercy endureth forever. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the
enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from
the west and from the north and from the south. They wandered
in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell
in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they
cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them
out of their distresses. He led them forth by the right
way. He led them forth leaning on him, just like the bride in
the Song of Solomon, that they might go to a city of habitation.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for
his wonderful works to the children of men. Christ came and he delivered
her. She's leaning upon him, bring
her out of the wilderness. And in this, we see Christ's
love for his people. First, Christ's love is a delivering
love. Now Christ doesn't come and help
his people get out of the wilderness. He brings his people out of the
wilderness. Christ delivers his people from
the power of sin, from the power of the wilderness of our sin
nature by paying for their sin with the blood of his sacrifice.
He delivers his people from the wilderness of this world by washing
them, washing them in water, causing them to be born again.
So they have a new nature and a new home. Now we're still passing
through this wilderness, but it's not our home anymore. We've
got a new nature and a new home. We're pilgrims passing through
and he's bringing his people out of that. But Christ has to
do this now. Our fallen nature loves sin. We're lost in the wilderness,
but we don't care. We love that wilderness of sin
by nature because we don't know any better. Our fallen nature
doesn't know any better. So the only way we'll ever turn
our back on the wilderness of sin is if Christ the Savior comes
where we are and fetches us. He comes and reveals himself
to us. And when Christ is revealed to
us, oh, now I see the awfulness of this wilderness. and I'll
follow him. And he brings his people out.
His love is a delivering love. But now listen, this is a constant
journey. Christ didn't have to be brought
out of the wilderness, you never deal with it anymore. This is
a constant journey. The believer's constantly being
brought out of the wilderness. The word that the daughters of
Jerusalem use here, cometh, is in present tense. It's the same
way that Peter spoke in first Peter chapter two, to whom coming? Oh, I've come to Christ, but
I keep coming to him. The believers constantly coming
to Christ. We're constantly coming out of
the wilderness and constantly coming to Christ. And one day
that journey is going to be over. One day, the Lord will finally
deliver us from this wilderness and we'll be brought to him forever
because of his delivering love. Second, Christ's love for his
people is a supporting love. The bride leaning all of her
weight on her bridegroom. That's faith, leaning everything
upon Christ. In Christ, the bridegroom is
holding her up by the power and might of his strength. Now, faith
throughout scripture is described in several different ways. Faith
is looking to Christ. How often have you heard from
this pulpit, look to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ.
You look to him like those children of Israel looked after they were
bitten by those fiery serpents. God told Moses, you make a serpent
of brass and you lift it up on a pole and everybody who looks
will live. Now you look to Christ. God said,
look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for
I'm God and there's none else. Look, that's faith. Faith is
coming to Christ. How often have you heard, come
to Christ? You know when you'll come? When
he brings you. When he brings you, you'll come
to Christ. Faith is described as laying hold on Christ. Laying
hold on him and never letting go. You know I laid hold on Christ? Well, he laid hold on me. I laid
hold on him. That's faith. Look at John chapter
one. Faith is described as receiving
Christ. Now we talk about receiving Christ.
We're not talking about receiving a doctrine. We're talking about
receiving the whole Christ, receiving the person and work of Christ.
In John 1, verse 11, and this receiving is a gift of God. Verse
11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
but of God. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, believed they received Christ. And we received Christ
because he gave himself for us. And he gave himself to us. That's
how we receive him. Well, in our text, Solomon describes
faith as a loving faith and a loving dependence upon Christ. The bride
leans upon Christ, just like a crippled man leans on his crutches
or leans upon his walker. We lean all the weight of our
salvation upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Because, Roy, we can't
be held up any other way. We lean everything on him. We're
not leaning to our own righteousness. We're leaning upon Christ our
righteousness. We're not leaning to our own
understanding. We're leaning on Christ our wisdom. Leaning
everything upon him. You parents will understand this.
There are times our children are little and they get tired
and they're constantly leaning on you, constantly leaning on
you, constantly leaning on you. When you eventually get tired,
they're like, stand up straight, stand up on your own. The Bridegroom never says that. What a loving Savior we have. He allows us to lean all of the
weight of our salvation upon him. And he willingly, lovingly
supports and holds up his people so that in him we stand before
God complete. And in the darkness of trials
night, Christ our Bridegroom allows us to lean upon Him for
strength and warmth and comfort. In trial's fiery furnace, Christ
our Bridegroom allows us to lean on Him for safety and protection. And as we're like this bride
walking through this wilderness, walking through the world, we're
hated by the world, beaten and bruised and bloodied and misunderstood
and abused, Christ our Bridegroom allows us to lean on Him as He
brings us out of the wilderness. And I tell you this, I'm so thankful
for it. We'd never make it if He didn't
allow us to lean upon Him. He lovingly allows us to lean
on Him and be supported by Him. My child of God, you listen to
me. There's not a step you take that you're not leaning upon
the arm, the all-powerful, loving, supportive arm of our Savior. There's not a step you take that
our Savior hasn't taken first. The Lord was talking to the Pharisees
one day and he told them, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd
comes to the foal, the poor opens the door to him. He calls his
sheep by name and he leads them out. And when he leads them out,
He goeth before them. Every step we take, he took first. Made it all right. Every step
we take is leaning upon him. That's the course we just sung. Learning to lean, learning to
lean. I'm learning to lean upon Jesus. Finding more power than I've
ever dreamed. I'm learning to lean on him.
Learning to lean on his supporting love. Third, Christ's love for
his people is an active, seeking love. Christ has a people. He didn't just say, well, whatever,
you know, I mean, they'll come to me or not. No, he goes and
seeks and finds his people. And he gives us a nature that
seeks him. Look at verse five here in our
text. Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning
upon our beloved? I raise thee up under the apple
tree. There thy mother brought thee forth. There she brought
thee forth that bare thee. Now, when you first read this,
but I thought this when I first read it, I thought, well, that's
Christ speaking. Sounds like him, doesn't it? I raised you
up under the apple tree. This is things that he did, but
really this is the prayer of the bride. This is the bride
speaking to her bridegroom. The word thee that's used here,
it's a Hebrew word. It's a masculine pronoun. It's
the pronoun that you'd use when you're talking to a man. This
is the bride speaking to her bridegroom. And she's speaking
to him out of love, out of her love for him. She's sitting under
the apple tree. Remember, as we've seen this
in our study, that shows love. Apples were a token of love.
Well, she just doesn't have an apple. She's got a tall tree.
She's sitting under the tree of love, speaking to her bridegroom
out of love. And this is what she's saying.
She says, I remember the times I raised you up. Well, now, how
do we raise Christ up? It's by crying to him in prayer,
by seeking him in prayer that raises him up and brings him
to us. Remember the time the Lord was
asleep in the bottom of the boat and the disciples, they were
crossing the sea and a horrible, awful storm came up and they
thought that boat was sinking. They were so afraid, the disciples
went and woke the Lord up. How'd they wake him up? By crying
to him. Lord, don't you care we perish?
When they cried that to the Lord, what happened? The Lord raised
up. He went to the top of that top
deck. He looked out over that storm and said, peace be still.
The sea was glass, the wind was gone, the rain was gone. Their
cry in prayer, their cry of need raised up the Savior to come
to their aid. And the Lord brings his people
out of the wilderness. When he comes to us, the first
thing he teaches us is who and what we are. He makes us see
the horrible condition of our nature. And that makes us cry
to him. Lord, save me. You said you're
the savior of sinners. Lord, save me. Lord, forgive
my sin. And the savior rises up at the
cry of his people. And he comes to him. Now we find
out real soon, I cried to him because he was already seeking
me. I cried to him because he already gave me life. But the
point is this, the cries of his people. The cry of his beloved
bride will make him rise up and come to her. In the times of
trial in the wilderness, remember now the Lord brought us here.
How'd you know you were in the wilderness of sin? How'd you
know you were in the wilderness of your own sin nature? That's
a horrible realization. It's scary, it's miserable. Well, who put you there? Who
made you realize you were there? The Lord did. Do you do that
to punish you or for your good? Which was it? It was for your
good, wasn't it? So you'd cry to Him. The trial
of wilderness, the wilderness of trial is the same thing. The
Lord brought us there. Did He do it to punish us or
did He do it for our good? As painful as it is to this flesh,
He did it for our good. So we'd cry to Him. And it's
our cries of anguish and sorrow and brokenhearted cry that causes
the Savior to rise up and come to comfort and strengthen his
people. And what the bride's praying here, she prays that
love will continue. I remember those times, my cries
to you raised you up to come to me. And she's praying that
love will continue. And it will, because Christ's
love for his people is an active, seeking love. Fourth, Christ's
love for his people is a love that will endure, verse six. Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
as a seal upon thine arm. Now the seal the bride's referring
to here is the seal of the king's reign. The love of Christ is
eternal. It doesn't have a beginning and
it doesn't have an ending. Long time since I was married,
I think I can get this off. I can't put this on my finger.
Normally I can get it off. There we go. That ring's a circle. It didn't have a beginning. It
doesn't start here and go, no, it doesn't have a beginning or
an ending. That circle is perfect, eternal. That's Christ's love
for his people. Christ's love for his people
has been sealed with the ring of the king, with the ring of
the king of kings and Lord of lords. Nothing's going to change
it. This is the will of the king. When the king would give a commandment,
you know, they put that wax there and he'd seal it with his reign.
That's the king's seal. His will will be done. His love
is eternal. It'll never change. The love
of Christ has been sealed with the blood of his sacrifice. That love can never end. It's
the blood of the everlasting covenant. This love doesn't have
any ending. And that love will always make
everyone that's in Christ accepted by the Father. They'd be lovingly,
not grudgingly accepted, but lovingly accepted by the Father
because they've been sealed with the blood of His own Son. That's
His eternal love for His people. Now, our love for Christ When
we speak of our love for the Savior, it's embarrassing. It's a weak, fickle love. I really don't even want to talk
about our love for Christ in light of His love for us. But
do you know the believers' love for Christ will never end, ever. It's weak, it's fickle, I know,
but it'll never end because it's love Christ gave. It's His love
He put in us. It'll never end. Fifth, Christ's
love for his people is irresistible. Christ's love for his people
is as strong and as sure as death. Verse six, she goes on, she says,
for love is strong as death. Now Christ loves his people.
And because he loves his people, he has been irresistibly drawn
to his people. The son of God, prince of glory,
loved his people so much, he was irresistibly drawn to become
a man, to come to this wilderness of this world because he loved
his people. He loved her so much he had to
have her. So he humbled himself to become
a man so he could. It's his love that drew him to
his people. Christ was irresistibly drawn
to the cross. He set his face like a flint
toward Jerusalem. Why? He had to go there and redeem
his people that he loved. He was drawn there by his love.
And Christ, just as we've just seen, is irresistibly raised
up by the cries and the prayers of his people because he loves
his people. And you know, this is a two way
street. You know, the old saying is nothing as sure as death and
taxes. Well, I guess if you've got a good enough accountant,
you might be able to get out of some taxes. None of us will avoid death.
Unless Lord returns, none of us will avoid death. It's appointed
unto man once to die. And after this, the judgment.
Death is irresistible to these bodies of flesh because of the
sin that's in us. So this flesh is irresistibly
drawn to death. It can't help it. So what's Solomon
saying here? If the Lord Jesus Christ has
set his love upon you, he's irresistibly drawn to you. And you will be
irresistibly drawn to him. Because he's gonna give you new
nature. And that's gonna draw you to him like a steel to magnet. It's gonna draw you to Him just
as irresistibly as your flesh is drawn to the grave. You will
be irresistibly drawn to Him. You won't be able to help Him. I never beg anybody to do
anything. I command you to look to Christ
because God's Word does. I never try to make anybody make
a decision. Never try to talk anybody into coming to the pool,
the baptismal pool, never. All we do is preach Christ. Just
preach Christ. If he is pleased to reveal himself
to one of his sheep, I don't have to beg them. They'll come
to me and say, oh, I need to confess my Savior. I say, all
right. They will be able to help it.
Irresistibly drawn to Christ. His love is so strong that it'll
overcome any obstacle. And his people will come to him.
And that irresistible love, irresistibly draws us to each other. What
draws us together? So many different backgrounds,
educational levels, ages, experiences. What draws us all together? The
love of Christ that's in the hearts of his people. We're irresistibly
drawn together. This is an irresistible love. Six, Christ's love for his people
is a consuming love. Consuming is the grave. Verse
six, jealousy is cruel as the grave. Christ's love for his
people consumed him. As a man, he wouldn't turn off
to the left or the right because he was consumed by his love for
his people. No amount of work was too tiring.
No amount of walking was too much. He must need to go through
Samaria. That's a long walk. He must go. No amount of walking was too
much. He had a sheep there. He had more than one, didn't
he? No amount was too much because of his love for his people. It
consumed him. The Lord Jesus Christ has a jealous
love for his people. He loves them so much. He will
not let them go. He's jealous of his glory in
redeeming them. He won't let him go. He's not
gonna lose one because he's jealous of his glory and saving his people. And he's jealous of the good
of his people. If you're his bride, you're one
of his children, he's jealous of your good. He'll never let
anything harm your soul. Nothing that happens to you is
bad. It's painful, painful this flesh. but nothing that happens
to us is bad because he's jealous of the good of his people. And
you could sooner escape from the power of the grave, one day
we'll bury you, put you in a casket, they'll close it one final time
and put you in the ground. You could sooner escape the power
of that grave once you've been dead and buried as you could
escape the love of Christ for his people. Can't do it. You're
consumed by it. You can't escape it, and he'll
never let you fall out. He'll never let you go. It's
a consuming love. Then seventh, Christ's love for
his people. It's a warm, fervent love. The
end of verse six. The coals thereof are coals of
fire, which hath a most vehement flame. Now the love of Christ
for his people, it's a fervent love. It's a burning love. This
vehement flame, it means a bright and glittering flame. As I read
that, I thought about young love. Young love often burns very,
very, very hot for a real short period of time and it extinguishes
itself, it burns out. Christ's love for his people
burns white hot, glittering flame and stays hot eternally. It never
reduces at all. And you know why Christ's love
for his people, that flame will never be extinguished. You know
why? It's his sacrifice. This burning
love is based upon his sacrifice for his people. Remember the
brazen altar, we studied that in the tabernacle, the brazen
altar that was out there, the coals in that thing never went
out. They kept them going constantly.
And that's where the sin offering was offered. That's where those
bodies, all those animals were burned with fire. It's the sin
offering. Where the love of Christ for his people will never go
out because of his sacrifice for them. Because he shed his
blood for them and washed them in his blood. Now, that is the
only explanation. There's nothing about us to love.
There's nothing about us to love. Every reason that God loves his
people is based upon the sacrifice of Christ, because we've been
washed in the blood of his son. And the love of Christ for his
people, it's a warm, fervent love. In the cold of sin, in that cold
wilderness of the nature of our sin, that love warms us. It warms his people. In the cold
night of trial, when it's so cold and it's so dark, and your heart feels like cold,
cold stone, and you wonder, how can this be? I thought I knew
the Lord. How can I be so unaffected by
the gospel? How can I be so unaffected by
hearing of Christ? How can I be so unaffected by
the sorrows and suffering of my brethren? It's the love of
Christ that warms us. The love of Christ for his people
gives us light to see and understand. It's a constant, fervent love. Then eighth, Christ's love for
his people is indestructible. Verse seven, many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it. No amount of
waters can ever quench Christ's love for his people. The waters
of sin couldn't do it. I mean, you talk about an ocean,
an indescribable ocean of sin could not extinguish Christ's
love for his people. He came to put the sin of His
people away. The waters of shame couldn't do it. You think how
shameful our sin is and that the Savior was willing to bear
the shame of the sin of His people. That ocean of the shame of sin
could not extinguish His love for His people. He went to the
cross, He endured the cross, despising the shame. The waters
of death could not extinguish Christ's love for His people.
He overcame death by dying as a substitute for His people.
And the waters, the ocean of our constant rebellion and our
constant rejection of Him could not extinguish the love of His
people. He comes to His people anyway
and gives them a new heart of obedience and faith. The waters
of trial can't do it. When the Lord sends trials to
us, he's not sending that to extinguish our love for him.
He's sending that to prove his love to us by sustaining us and
holding us up through it. Look at Romans chapter eight.
The apostle Paul gave us a very good commentary on this verse. In Romans chapter eight, verse
35. No waters. can quench the love of Christ
for his people, his love's indestructible. Verse 35, Romans 8. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? So tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it's written, for thy sake we're killed all the day long.
We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. Name all these things. We're more than conquerors through
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, because his love
is an indestructible love. Like I said a minute ago, the
believer's love for Christ is so weak When you talk about it
as being a flame, it's just a barely glimmering ember of a coal, often,
isn't it? But that love can never be drowned
if it's love Christ gave us, never. The waters of trial can't
do it. Trials don't drive a believer
from Christ. Trials drive us to Christ and cause us to love
him more. The waters of time can't do it.
The longer I live and the more I learn of Christ, the more I
love Him. The waters of death won't do
it. The waters of death one day will extinguish our relationship.
The waters of death. They don't extinguish our love
for Christ. You know what the waters of death do? All they
do is take us from here to there where we're loving perfectly.
Then that love will be perfect. It'll never be just that glimmering
ember anymore. It'll be perfect, eternally perfect
because his love is indestructible. And last, Christ's love for his
people is free. You can't buy it, it's free.
Verse seven, if a man would give all the substance of his house
for love, it would be utterly condemned. I don't care what
you give. I don't care what you give up.
I don't care what you do. You can't purchase. You can't
earn God's love. God's love is free, sovereign,
immutable love that's found in Christ Jesus, our Savior. You
can't even purchase human love. I know you can pay somebody enough
to be around you, you know, all these stars and stuff, all this
entourage, you can pay somebody to be around you and act a certain
way and fawn all over you, but you can't pay him to love you
in the heart. It's just an act for money, that's all it is.
Then what makes us think we can purchase the love of God? It's
fallen nature, it's the only reason we think that. Tithing's
not gonna do it, what are you gonna give that God needs? He
already owns everything. Doing some religious ceremonies
is not gonna do it. God sees our hearts. He sees
through that. Keeping a few laws won't do it.
God demands perfection. Friends, the love of God's not
for sale. Now, there's nothing God needs,
so we can't barter with him. And more importantly, the love
of God is not for sale because of the character of God. God's not a mercenary. His love
is free and sovereign. And that's the believer's comfort.
His love for me is free. I didn't do anything to earn
it, and I can't do anything to lose it. It's free. That's the
believer's comfort. And it's also the believer's
motivation. Our only motivation is love for Christ. Let me ask
you a question. Would you do anything different
than you're doing right now if you thought by doing something
different or giving more or whatever, giving more of your time and
talents, doing more, would somehow earn you more of God's love?
If you could do something to earn more of God's favor, if
you thought you could, if you thought you could do something
to earn a better spot in God's kingdom, If you thought giving
more of your time and your talents and your money, if you thought
that would earn you more of Christ's love, would you do it? If so,
then you're not serving God as a son. You're not serving him
out of love. You're serving him as a servant.
God's people are his children. We serve out of love, of thankful
hearts for who he is and what he's done for us. Would you change
what you believe, what you say you believe if you get more money
and more popularity for doing it? Would you? If I took the
edge off this message, before long, this place would be full. Is it worth it? If you think so, you don't love
God. When somebody changes their beliefs,
It's not a doctrinal problem. It's a heart problem. It's a
love problem. Believers continue to do what
they do out of love for Christ. Believers continue to preach
Christ because we love Him. You know why I keep coming home
to Janet? I come home to her every day. You know why I stay
faithful to her? Because I love her. I don't come
home to her and I'm not faithful to her because I'm afraid God
will punish me. I don't stay faithful to her
because it's the right thing to do. It is the right thing
to do, but that's not why I stay faithful to her. I don't leave
her because I'd be miserable without her. I love her. You
couldn't pay me enough money to leave Janet. Couldn't do it. Give me a truckload of money.
I guess, you know, I have money. I'd be rich. I'd be miserable. Because I love her. That's the
way it is for a believer. This world doesn't have anything
it could give. Nothing. They would make me want
to compromise the gospel and leave him and leave his fellowship. We took the edge off this message.
We'd fill the place with people. But you know who wouldn't be
here? Christ, I wouldn't trade anything for that, for his presence. Not because I'm afraid God will
punish me, not because it's the right thing to do, although it
is the right thing to do, but out of love, out of love for
him, a thankful heart, that for reasons known only to him, he
set his love on me. And out of love that returns
to him, By His grace, by His power, we won't leave Him either.
All right. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that too.