Well we come to the last message
that I intend to bring for this series out of the Song of Solomon
in Chapter 8, Song of Solomon Chapter 8. Song of Solomon as
we've been seeing down the last few weeks is a love story because
True believers are in love with Christ. You know, you say, well,
do you believe in God? And there are people who say,
no, I don't believe in God, I don't believe there's anything. And somebody
else might say, yes, I do believe in God. I assent mentally to
the unavoidable fact that there is a God who has created all
things and yes there is a God, yes I'll do God a favor, I'll
do him a favor and admit that I believe in him. No, that's
not being a child of God. That's not being a true believer.
True believers are in love with Christ. They're in love with
Christ. They love him. Peter, Peter,
do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love
you. Peter, do you love me? Him whom my soul loveth. That's the relationship of the
believer with the Lord Jesus Christ. Him whom my soul loveth. To you who believe, says Peter,
he is precious. is precious. The pearl of greatest
price. The one that when you've got
him you must sell everything else in order to get him. You
cannot do without him. All other jewels, all other possessions,
all other loves fall into second place as Christ said. Any man
coming after me and following me If he loves husband or wife
or anybody else more than me, he's not worthy of me. Is he
telling us to be unkind to those nearest and dearest of ours?
Of course not! But he's saying he must be preeminent
in everything. In all things, Christ must be
preeminent. Being a believer, a child of
God, a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, one who is a member of
his church, of his bride, who counts themselves by sanctification
of the spirit and belief of truth as one of his elect, there's
heartfelt love for Christ. You see, the truth of the gospel
comes, and it goes in through ear gate, and it gets into the
mind, and the mind turns it over, and the mind comprehends it.
by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit, the mind comprehends
it, and understands the effects of that truth. There are effects
of that truth. What are the effects of the truth
of the gospel of grace? My sins are forgiven. My sin,
oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part but
the whole is nailed to his cross. What does that mean? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Christ has died. He's died. He's paid the penalty
for it. He's paid the debt for it. And therefore, that truth
has an effect upon me, and it fills me with rejoicing. It fills
me with joy that I know that Christ has saved me from my sins,
that he has put me in a right relationship with him for eternity. The truth has an effect, and
that effect results in rejoicing, and that rejoicing spurs us on
to love for Christ. And there's a mutual possession,
a mutual possession between Christ and his believing people. My
beloved is mine and I am his. I am his and he is mine. A mutual
possession. And though we're in sinful flesh,
Though we, the people of God, the church of God, the bride
of Christ, though we live this life in sinful flesh, yet we
are declared to be, by the Son of God himself, beautiful. Oh, you are beautiful, my love,
he says. You are all fair, my love. He, the Son of God, declares
us to be so. On what basis? On the basis of
that which he has done. Christ gave himself for the church,
that he might cleanse it, and purify it, and make it a holy
church, without blemish and without spot, to be his bride. For it
was granted unto her, says Revelation 19, verse 7, the church, it was
granted unto her to be clothed with white linen, fine white
linen. That's the righteousness of God
which is made over to us. Now what I want to do in this
last message is give you a brief overview of chapter eight and
then focus for a little while on verses six and seven which
words are very much the theme of the last hymn that we sang. So a brief overview first of
all. Look at verses one to five with
me, let's read them. Oh 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. 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. left
hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace
me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that ye stir not
up nor awake my love until he please. Who is this that cometh
up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raise thee
up under the apple tree. There thy mother brought thee
forth, there she brought thee forth that bear thee." So words
that we've seen several times before throughout this book of
Song of Solomon, there's a lot of repetition in it, a repetition
of the themes. It is the church speaking, O
that thou wert as my brother, and she's talking to Christ,
and put it in its context, this is the Old Testament, so it was
written before Christ came the first time, and it's as it were
the church calling for Christ to come in the flesh, O that
thou wert as my brother. that suck the breasts of my mother."
Born of the same mother, in other words. And we know that Christ,
the Christ of God, the child that was given, unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder, those words from Isaiah, they are echoed in Revelation
chapter 12. I saw a woman a woman which is
the church and she's ready to give birth and what she's giving
birth to is the Christ of God becoming flesh from that people
that people that started with Abel and then Seth and then down
Noah and down through all of that line of those that down
to Abraham and through the Israelites that line from which Christ would
come David and our David is come, our Lord Jesus Christ. So this
is calling for Christ to come in the flesh and redeem, for
the mother is the church. The mother is the church, is
the one that has begotten us all. You can read in Psalm 87,
and I'm gonna be quick, so there's no need for you to turn over.
Of Zion it shall be said, this and that man was born in her. This man was born there. The
idea being that the woman brings forth children. In Revelation
12, the seed of the woman is that which the devil goes on
to persecute. Having failed to destroy Christ,
the woman and the offspring of the woman, the children that
are born in her, are you a child of God this morning? You were
born in the church. That's the picture of scripture.
You were born from this line. Galatians 4, 26, Jerusalem above
is the mother of us all. And in verse 1 it says, I would
kiss thee. What are these kisses? Kisses
are exercises of faith, and of love, and of repentance. It's
the experience of living that Christian experience of knowing
Christ. And then, verse 2, I would lead
thee. The church says, I would lead Christ and bring thee into
my mother's house. The church leading Christ into
its worship. for instruction, he would instruct
me, instruct me. And sweet fellowship, the sweet
spiced wine, the juice of the pomegranate, he's speaking about
sweet fellowship in the things of Christ. And verse three, his
left hand under my head, his right hand embracing me, as we've
seen those words before in this book, Christ supplying and tending
to all of my needs. Christ takes care of all of my
needs. And verse four, I charge you,
oh daughters of Jerusalem, don't disturb this, don't let anything
disturb this intimate communion between the believer and his
or her Lord. And verse five, again, a verse
that we've seen earlier. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Leaning, entire
dependence. That's it. As believers, we depend
entirely on Christ. We depend entirely on Christ.
Verses 6 and 7 are a prayer that we'll come back to later but
then verse eight we have a little sister and she has 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 Most commentators think that
this is speaking of the Gentiles who were yet to come into the
church. Remember, this is Old Testament, this is in Israel
that this was written. And the little sister is immature,
clearly immature, because of the signs of maturity. the bride in verse ten, my breasts
like towers I was in his eyes as one that found favor. You
see already a maturity in terms of knowing God but there's a
little sister who's immature who is yet to come. And a lot
of people think that, and I'm very inclined to agree with it,
that this is a hint at the Gentiles yet to come to maturity in the
church as we are in these days. verses 11 and 12 Solomon had
a vineyard and he let out the vineyard for fruit that it might
bring forth fruit that it might bring a reward my vineyard which
is mine is before me thou oh Solomon must have a thousand
and that those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred he
gets the increase he gets the majority of the increase this
is speaking of Christ's vineyard what is Christ's vineyard? it's
his church and the fruitfulness of his people. In some of the
parables, in the Gospels, Christ refers to his people, his church,
his kingdom, as a vineyard that he lets out to people to look
after it for him. And he comes looking for the
fruit. And what is the fruit? It's the fruit of his spirit.
The fruit of his spirit that Galatians 5 speaks about. Love,
joy, peace, those things that are the marks of the grace of
God in the heart of a person. Verse 13, This is a prayer. Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice. Cause me to hear it. A prayer that he will cause me
to hear his voice. A prayer to Christ, who, as we
see in the early chapters of Revelation, walks among the golden
candlesticks. What are they? They're the churches.
The churches. And it's his brethren hearing
his voice. Cause me to hear. That's the
prayer. Whilst on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Cause me to hear the voice of
the Son of God. And so verse 14. even so come
as revelation ends even so come lord jesus make haste my beloved
and be thou like a row or to a young heart upon like to a
row or to a young heart upon the mountains of spices even
so come lord jesus it's a prayer that he'll come again and take
us to be with him there is the context Now let's look at the
prayer that's in verses six and seven. You see, the highest human
experience is to know the living God. That's true. That is the
highest human. All others, all other human experiences
are fleeting and temporal and of temporary value. but to know
the Living God, to enjoy sweet, eternal fellowship with our Creator,
to glorify everything that God is in His being, in His character,
in His holiness, in His justice, in His redeeming love. That is
the highest human experience, to know the Living God. This
is a prayer in verses 6 and 7 that I might not just know about it,
but that it might be my daily, my eternal experience. Look at this prayer, verse six. Set me as a seal upon thy 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 a most vehement flame. 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
contend. So the prayer then. We read earlier,
Exodus 39, the description of the priestly garments, the high
priestly garments that were prepared at God's instruction to Moses,
they were prepared for Aaron, Moses' brother. But Aaron was
the one who was set apart to take upon him the role of the
high priest, the one who would intercede. Now Aaron was a weak,
frail, fallen, sinful man. But in God's pattern, he was
to picture, he was to picture the high priestly office of our
Lord Jesus Christ. In interceding between holy God
who lives in unapproachable light and cannot be approached, and
sinful man. Just as David is a picture of
the King, the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingly office, and yet
David was so flawed in the flesh, he was so weak in the flesh,
David in the flesh fell so far short of the glory of God, yet
he was a picture of kingly supremacy, and so Aaron,
weak though he was, was to be the high priest. And there were
garments made for him that were to picture in various ways how
he fulfilled that role of standing between sinners Remember when
they came to Mount Sinai, God said, don't let the people come
nearer than a certain marker, because if they do, they'll be
burned up with fire, they'll be eaten up with fire, they'll
be consumed. Please don't do that. You tell
them. And they shook with fear when they saw the rumblings and
the earthquakes and all of those things. Now part of the High
Priestly clothing, part of it was this thing called an ephod. Now you might go, I've never
heard of an ephod, what's an ephod? Well I'll tell you what
it is. It's like It's like a piece of cloth that hangs down the
front, and then another piece like it that hangs down the back,
and it's joined together on the shoulders, and it has no sleeves. It is just this thing that hangs
down the front, and it was adorned with ornaments, with a gold breastplate,
with stones in it, with things in the shoulders, uchis, these
containers that held the two sides of it together. So if you
like, it was like You know, let me think the nearest thing I
can think of today, but sometimes when you're walking the streets
of London and you see somebody that's got the job of going out
advertising pizza, let's say, and they have to put these clapper
boards on them and there's a board that hangs down the front and
then there's some leather straps on the shoulders and a board
that hangs down the back and it says, come to Pizza Hut to
get the bargain pizza or whatever it might be. They wander up and
down the street, and I feel so sorry for them, I think, oh dear,
what a horrible way to have to earn a little bit of money. Because
it looks so silly, it looks so foolish, having to wander around
in a crowded place with this crap. Well, if you can imagine,
the high priest's ephod didn't look a bit like one of these
pizza advertising boards, but the idea of it hanging on the
shoulders, the front and the back is what I'm trying to get
at. That's what it was. But did you notice when we read
in Exodus, It talked about the onyx stones in the shoulder pieces
and the different stones, twelve different stones on the breastplate.
Why twelve? Twelve tribes of Israel. Twelve
sons of Jacob. The Israel tribes. Israel was
always a picture of the election of God. You know people say,
oh I don't believe in election, I don't see election in the scriptures.
You must be blind if you don't see election in the scriptures.
It's there in every place, on every page. The whole point of
Israel is to show us that God is a God of sovereign grace.
Why did he choose Israel? Because they were better and
stronger and more holy than everybody? No, not at all. They were the
least of all the nations. He chose them. Why? He says,
because he loved them. He loved them. He loved them. Grace. Why is anybody who believes
Christ today a believer? Because God loved you with an
everlasting love from before the beginning of time. And those
names of the children of Israel were to be held close to the
high priest's heart. I know Aaron was a fallen man,
but he's picturing Christ, and Christ isn't a fallen man. He's
the Christ of God, the Messiah of God, and he holds the names
of his people close to his heart. close to his heart. The children
will remember this. I remember being a child, and
when I used to get a new toy, you know, I'd get this new toy,
and what I used to love to do with it, and all children do,
don't they? You know, even though it's totally inappropriate, you
take your new toy to bed with you, don't you? And you cuddle
it in bed, as silly as that seems, but you love it. It's close to
your heart. the people of God are held close
to the heart of Christ. And, not only that, they're upheld
by his strong shoulders, on his shoulder pieces. I quoted earlier
about the child who would be born, the son who would be given,
that the government shall be upon his shoulder, and you can
interchange shoulder or arm, it's the same idea. And so it
is here, set me as a seal upon thine heart, and as a seal upon
thine arm. Set me as one of your people,
like the picture of the high priest with his ephod, set me
close there to the heart of the Son of God, and on his strong
shoulders, where the government resides. Put me there, that's
where I want to be. Where do you want to be? Paul
prayed this, didn't he, writing to the Philippians, that I may
win Christ. This is his hope. Everything
that I counted to my benefit in religion, the religion of
the Jews, the religion of legalism, everything that I counted to
my benefit, I count it as done. I count it as rubbish, that I
may win Christ. Where do you want to be? I want
to be found in him. I want to be found in him not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. That's where I get righteousness.
through what Christ did, when he was faithful, when he was
obedient unto death. The righteousness which is of
God, and I apprehend it, I know I've got it, I experience it
by faith. Oh, that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings,
being made conformable to his death, if by any means I might
attain to the resurrection of the dead. I want to be amongst
that number. Oh, says this prayer, set me
as a seal upon thine heart. Oh Christ, my God, my Saviour,
set me on one of those stones. My name there. A seal upon your
shoulders, upon your arm. Put me there. As I've just said,
quoting that hymn, pass me not O gentle Saviour, hear my humble
cry. Whilst on others Thou art calling,
O my prayer is this, do not pass me by, please do not pass me
by. Having tasted that the Lord is
good, O that I might have assurance of being with Him for eternity. Have you tasted that the Lord
is good? Have you tasted that God is good? Have you tasted the blessings
of salvation of the living God, oh that you might have assurance
then of being with him for eternity. That love and that strength of
God that you can never get to the bottom of, it's fathomless,
it's without limit, it's that strength that even now upholds
a universe, oh that I might know it for myself as being applied
to me in the love of Christ for his people. All God's true people
know this. But there are some whose names
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and I know this because
we're still here, who have not yet heard the call and believed
the gospel and embraced Christ. There are some still to come.
There are some still to believe. There must be, because we're
still here. Only when the full number of God's elect is made
up will we be taken to be with Him forever. Well, oh, might
they know it, too. that there are a seal upon his
heart and a seal upon his arm. Oh that you and I might know
it for sure. But what is it that gives confidence
that this prayer can and will be answered positively. What's
the rationale behind praying, O Lord Jesus Christ, set me as
a seal upon thine heart and as a seal upon thine arm. What's
the rationale of that prayer, the reason for it? In Jeremiah
31 and verse 3, we read, the Lord hath appeared of old unto
me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee, loved with an everlasting love. God has
loved his elect, the people of his sovereign choice, from before
the beginning of time. When did God start to love you?
Chosen in Christ, before the foundation of the world. 2 Timothy
1 verse 9, speaking of Christ, who has saved us and called us
with an holy calling, not according to our works. Oh, how I thank
God for that, don't you? Not according to my works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us,
where do we receive it, where do we experience it? In Christ
Jesus. When did he do it? Before the
world began. Before the world began. Before
there was ever the tick-tock of time, before time began. And the reason? Nothing to do
with being qualified. Nothing to do with gazing into
a divine crystal ball to see that this one would be better
than that one, this one would choose and that one wouldn't
choose. No. Just pure, simple, sovereign grace. Because he's
God. Because he's God, He is entitled. Is that strong enough a word?
I don't think so, but you know what I mean. He's entitled to
choose. He is God. He's the potter that
makes one pot. for honour, and another part
for everyday destruction. Is that love, is that love, and
the God who's so loved, is that love capable of accomplishing
its sovereign purpose? Well in these verses we see four
reasons for believing that it is. They're given us here. Firstly,
for love is strong as death. Love is strong as death. The love of Christ for his people,
pictured by that high priestly ephod with the stones and the
names, the love of Christ on that seal upon his heart, that
love, can it keep me? Is it strong enough? It's as
strong as death. You may say, what a strange comparison. What a strange thing to compare
it to. Love as strong as death. But think about it for a moment.
In all of our experience of living, do any of us know anything as
strong as death, as irresistible as death, as all-conquering as
death? It is all-conquering. Nothing
can hold back death, can it? It respects not worldly status
or financial well-being, Whatever fight some seem to put up, everyone,
without exception, succumbs to it in the end. Death is strong. Death is mightily strong. Whether
you believe in a God or you reject God, death is going to get you. Death will get you. Death gets
everybody. It's strong. It's the strongest
of all. that the love of Christ is as
strong as death. The love of Christ is every bit
as tenacious, for it has disarmed all opposition. Listen to these
verses, 1 Corinthians 15, 55-57. Oh death, writes Paul, where
is thy sting? Death is strong, but where's
its sting gone? Oh grave, where is thy victory? The grave which conquers everybody
because everybody comes to the end of their life and dies, where
is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, which condemns us all. But thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory. How? Through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Death and its sting is conquered
by what Christ has done in redeeming his people from their sins. Christ's
love for his people is as strong as death. It conquers hard hearts. None are able to resist. Charles
Spurgeon put it like this in describing this verse. He said,
you know the creatures of the night that only come out at night.
We have foxes that come out at night and roam around the garden.
We have real problems trying to stop them doing the things
that they like to do in the night when nobody's looking, when the
lights are not on them. And the owls come out to hunt
and all the nocturnal creatures come out to do their thing. And
the thing that they don't like is the sun because the sun shines
on them and shows where they are and they become vulnerable.
But Charles Spurgeon said, nocturnal creatures can't stop the sun
rising. So, what might stop the sun of
the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ
shining into the heart of a sinner? His sin might stop it. His unbelief
might stop it. His fears might stop it. Troubles
might arise and stop it, but no, no, no. No. Just like the
nighttime creatures can't stop the sun rising, so all of those
things that people might think would stop them. Being the objects
of God's unfailing loving Christ, it can't stop it. It can't resist
the light of God's love. God's loving Christ is as strong
as death. Oh, set me as a seal upon thy
heart, as a seal upon thine arm, for your love, I know, is as
strong as the strongest thing I'm ever, ever going to face
in this life, which is death. I know I've got to face that.
I know that in this body I'm going to die, but I know that
the love of God is stronger. Jealousy is cruel as the grave.
Jealousy is cruel as the grave. This is the second reason why
the love of God will not let us go. Jealousy, in this context,
is a form of love. It's a form of devoted, very
focused love. And it says Jealousy, that love
which he's speaking of, which is the love of Christ for his
people, is cruel as the grave. Cruel? The word there is hard,
or firm. As the grave? As hell, Hades. It's as hard, as firm, as stubborn,
as sternly relentless as the grip of the grave and of hell.
That love of Christ for his people is as unbending, It's as unmovable, unchangeable, you
can't diminish it, you can't dent it, you can't mark it in
any way. It's hard, it's firm, it's sternly
relentless as the grip of the grave and of hell. And we know
that the grip of the grave and hell is strong for Jesus himself
said in the Sermon on the Mount about agreeing with your adversary
while you're in the way. Your adversary's the devil. Agree
concerning your sin. Because if you go into the court
of God's justice, bearing your sin, thinking that you can get
off, Jesus said you will never get off. Verily I say to you,
thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the
uttermost farthing. It never gives up. As the last
verse of Isaiah says, Isaiah 66, 24, their worm shall not
die, neither shall their fire be quenched, because it's sternly
relentless that the love of Christ is just as sternly relentless,
just as unflinchingly relentless. This strong is the love of Christ
for his church. And if you can prove that one
true child of God ever perishes in hell, it can be proved that
the fires of hell can be extinguished, that God's judgment doesn't matter
anymore, and of course that's not true. The love of Christ
is as cruel, as strong, as relentlessly stern as the grip of the grave
and of hell. And then the third reason. The
coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.
The coals thereof, they're of what? Of the love of Christ.
The burning of the love of Christ is a most vehement burning. They're coals of God, is the
terminology. Not just coals of fire, they're
the coals of God. The burning coals of Christ's
love for his church are coals of God, burning fiercely. fed by the infinite nature of
God himself and nothing of merit in its object. So, in other words,
it isn't that God looks and thinks, oh, that one's good, I'll love
him. No, it is just fed by the nature of God, the God of grace,
and it burns with a fervent, fervent heat, a fervent, a vehement
flame. Set me as a seal upon thy heart,
for the love of Christ burns with the most vehement flame.
That flame is going to keep you. That flame is not going to let
you go. And that flame of the burning of the love of God for
his people, verse seven, many waters cannot quench it. Many
waters cannot put it out. Neither can the floods drown
it. You know, water's very good at cooling things down, isn't
it? I mean, the weather that we've had recently, we had 10
days of absolutely blistering heat for this country in June,
the hottest day recorded for 40 years. And then if anybody
was in this country last Tuesday and Wednesday for a short visit,
they just wouldn't have believed it possible, because it felt
more like cool day in March, or a day at the end of November,
I think the temperature, I know our American friends won't understand
this because we use Celsius, but I think my outside thermometer
on Wednesday was showing 13.8 degrees C, which is freezing
cold for June, when previously, in the previous week, it had
been 35, 36 degrees C. You see, because the cold water
from the Atlantic came and dumped on us on the Tuesday and it quenched
all of that heat. The many waters that it dumped
on us quenched all of that heat. But here's the analogy. Many
waters, however cold, cannot quench the love of Christ for
his church. Neither can the floods drown
it. No, can't be done. Can't put it out. If a man would give all the substance
of his house for love, it would be utterly condemned. A man who
knows this love of Christ is not going to exchange it for
anything else that he might have. Now that's it. Four reasons.
Love is strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave, it burns
with a fervent heat, and many waters cannot quench it. This
is the love of Christ for his church, for his people. My prayer,
my prayer, this prayer, is it your prayer too? is set me as
a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm. Give me the assurance
to know that I am there, the object of your love. Give me
personally that assurance that I am in the eternal embrace of
unchanging love with the Christ of God. What persuades me? Romans 8, 38, 39, 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.