This is, without question, one
of the most blessed, blessed, instructive, heart-challenging,
and heart-warming portions of all Holy Scripture. The Song
of Solomon is all about the believer's relationship to Christ, his love
for us, and our love for him which he has created within us.
It is a description, much like the Psalms, of the constantly
the varying experiences of our souls in the grace of God. We
find ourselves sometimes in sweet, intimate,
precious communion with our Redeemer, and oftentimes he seems to hide
his face from us and shows himself through the lattices and through
the windows, but he sometimes seems afar off. Here we have
seen the Church of God, the spouse, the bride, coming up out of the
wilderness, leaning on the arm of her beloved. Now look at verse
6. It's on Solomon chapter 6, verse
8. She says, Set me as a seal upon
thine heart, a seal upon thine arm, for love as strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire, which hath the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it. Here is the love of
Christ that passes knowledge. Who shall separate us from the
love of God? that is in Christ Jesus. His
love is invincible and irresistible as death. His love is jealous
love, as unyielding, as unalterable as the grave. There seems to
be an allusion here to the fires that were continually burning
on God's altar. He says His love is comparable
to coals of fire, the very flame of the Lord God. Here, then,
is that love, the breadth and length and height and depth of
which are altogether immeasurable. And the Church is here in the
enjoyment, the sweet manifestation of the Savior's intimate love.
But there is a fear that arises. It appears that as she's coming
up out of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, a thought crosses
her mind. She seems to have an anticipation
of the day that he would soon be taken away from her. And before
he leaves, she asks that he would set her as a seal upon his heart
and as a seal upon his right arm. Not only on his heart, the
place of his deepest emotion, passion, love, and care, but
on his right arm, the place of his might, his strength, his
omnipotence. So I take the prayer to be a
picture of the Church of God, particularly at the time when
our Lord Jesus was on this earth and was about to go away to the
Father. You remember he said to his disciples, it is expedient
for you that I go away. And they were full of confusion,
full of concern. They were concerned about what
would happen to them, concerned about how things would go after
he has gone away. They didn't understand his words,
much like we don't understand his words or his ways in our
experience of them. But the Lord Jesus said, I'm
going away, but as I do, I will pray the Father, and he will
send you another comforter. And that word, You remember what
Paul says, that those who came and bewitched the Galatians turned
them aside to another gospel, which is not another. He said,
there is another gospel that's not even similar to the gospel
of Christ. The word another used over in
John, where our Lord says, I'll send you another comforter. He
says, I'll pray the Father, and he will send you another comforter
exactly like me. And he, the Spirit of truth,
will guide you into all truth. He will comfort you. He will
sustain you. He will strengthen you. And the
Lord Jesus then promises, Let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house
there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I am going to prepare a place
for you, and if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto
myself, that where I am there you may be also. The seal referred
to As it alludes, then, to our Lord's going away, is a twofold
seal. We are sealed, that is, we are
given the assurance, the sweet, blessed tokens of Christ's love
for us by the revelation of his word and by the indwelling of
his Spirit, which gives us faith in him. This is where assurance
is found. Would to God we could learn this.
We too often look for assurance in ourselves. We too often look
for assurance and peace and comfort in ourselves and our feelings
and our emotions and our experiences. Our assurance of our Savior's
love for us, the seal that we have of his grace, is the Holy
Spirit he's given us, giving us his word and giving us faith
in him. Now this is my confidence, that
I am indeed partaker of the Master's love. I believe it. I believe
him, that's all. But if he only loves his elect,
if he only loves his own people, how can we be assured that he
loves us? Believing him. Believing Him. We believe Him because He first
loved us. We love Him because He first
loved us. And now believing Him, we have
every reason according to His own word. Believing Him, we have
every reason according to His own word to be confident of His
love for us. And being loved of Him, we are
sealed upon His heart. And sealed upon His right arm. This prayer, then, expresses
concern and fear. It is a prayer that might well
be uttered by any sinner needing mercy, any sinner knowing his
alienation from God, any sinner without life and faith in Christ.
Set me, O God, as a seal on your heart. Set me, blessed Savior,
as a seal on your right arm. give me an interest in you, in
your saving mercy, in your saving grace. But the seal, and this
prayer requesting it, speaks of that which is the believer's
experience. It is the longing, the desire
of a sinner, seeking to know that his name is engraved upon
the Savior's heart. In the language of the psalmist,
it's like this, say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Over the
years I have had lots of people contact me, come to me, struggling
with assurance and wanting, according to their own experience with
other preachers, for me to do the same thing others have done
and give them some assurance that they are born of God, that
they are believers. I can't do that. I can't do that
with anybody. I wouldn't dare presume to do
so. And if I could give it to you,
you'd lose it real quick. The only person who can say to
your soul that Christ is yours is Christ himself. Say unto my
soul, I am thy salvation. I want to know that Christ is
mine. that I have an interest in his
love. I want him to make me to know that he has written my name
on his heart and engraved it as a signet upon his breast.
Without question, there are many whose names are written on his
heart from eternity who know nothing of it, and we desire
at the time when he comes to us, awakens us by his grace,
to know that we are his." Now, this speaks, of course, there's
an allusion here to the engraving of the names of the children
of Israel upon Aaron's breastplate as their high priest. There's
an allusion here to Aaron bearing their names before the Lord as
he goes in to make atonement for sin, as he goes in to make
atonement for the holy things. There's an allusion to the fact
that Aaron constantly, as he stood before God, making intercession
for the people, was making intercession specifically for God's Israel. And this is what's spoken of
here. We want to know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, makes
intercession with our Father for us. Turn to three passages,
two passages. John 17. John chapter 17. Now hear me, you who believe
God. The Lord Jesus Christ in all
that he does upon the throne of grace, in all that he does
in heaven, in all that he does before the Father, is constantly
pleading your cause with God. He's taken up your cause from
eternity, and he will not lay it down. Look at this. This is
our Lord's high priestly prayer. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world. Our Lord didn't come to save
the world, to redeem the world, to call the world. He said, I
pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. down
in verse 20. He anticipates not only these
who were present believers, but he anticipates all who after
them by their word should believe. He's talking about you and me.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word. Now, turn to 1 John 2. I suspect I would either refer
to or quote this passage at least once a week and preach it, but
look at it and read it carefully. John assures us of the free forgiveness
of sin by Christ, and it says now in verse 2, My little children,
these things write I unto you, that you sin not. Children of God don't ever seek
a cloak for maliciousness. Don't ever seek to justify your
sin and your ungodliness. Don't ever seek to hide it, to
cover it up. Don't ever seek in any way to
make an excuse for it. And if any man sin, you can write
that word if just as big or just as little as you want to. If
any man sin. I saw you reading the passage
just now, Bob. Sin's still in it. I've been
all week preparing to preach to you, trying to pray and seek
God's face. Sin is in it. I'm declaring to
you the Word of God. There's nothing I do that doesn't
involve sin. You too. You too. And it doesn't
matter whether the sin is something that's hidden in your heart between
you and God alone, or whether it's something that's open and
manifests like David's sin with Bathsheba before all of Israel.
If any man said, now listen, we have. Isn't that a great word? We have. Nothing's changed. Did you hear me? In relationship
with God Almighty, In regard to his love, his mercy, and his
grace, nothing has changed. We have an advocate with the
Father. We have someone to plead our
calls in the court of heaven. And he pleads our calls, not
that the Lord God would overlook our sin, oh no. He pleads our
cause on the basis of the fact that he has satisfied the justice
of our God in anticipation of our sin. We have an advocate
with the Father, and the Father will hear him, because this advocate
is Jesus, our Savior, the Christ, God's appointed one, his anointed
one, the righteous. And he is. Not he was or he shall
be, but he is. Because his sacrifice, his atonement,
his satisfaction of justice is as fresh right now as if he had
died this morning. He is the propitiation. The words must see. He is the one in whom justice
is satisfied. He is the one in whom the fury
of God is pacified. He is the one by whom the wrath
of God is utterly consumed. He is perpetually the all-prevailing,
never-failing propitiation for our sins. And not just for ours,
John says. but also for the sins of the
whole world. That is to say, he's the propitiation
not only for our sins, we who believe among the Jews, or we
who believe right here, but he is the propitiation for the sins
of his people scattered through all the world, Jew, Gentile,
black, white, bonder-free. Or in the back here in the Song
of Solomons, set me as a seal upon thy heart,
as a seal upon thy arm. Maintain my cause, keep me by
your grace, and love me forever." Well, how on earth can anyone
make such a prayer as that? How can a man presume to plead
with the Son of that he would love us forever and maintain
our cause when we have no claim on his love, and we have no claim
for his grace to maintain and keep us. The basis of the plea
is all together found in him. Our hope is all together found
in him. If we would make argument with
God, and it's a good thing if you're going to ask God for something,
to give a reason for it. Make your argument based upon
His goodness and mercy. Hold your heads here and turn
to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. David is here describing his
experience of God's mercy with regard to the matter of Uriah
the Hittite. The psalm says so right at the
very title. To the chief musician, a psalm
of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone
into Bathsheba. Now watch what it says. Have
mercy upon me, O God. What? You adulterous, murderous
man. willing to sacrifice everything
and everybody on the altar of your lust for a moment's gratification? You dare plead with mercy? On
what basis? On what basis? Watch it. According to thy lovingkindness. According to the multitude the
incalculable multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge." Remember what John said, if we
confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Here's David confessing his sin, and he never mentions the act.
He never mentions the act. And I'm not suggesting that we
should hide the act before God, but merely confessing the act
of evil is not confessing your sin. Confessing your sin is to
open your heart up before God and attempt never to hide from
him anything you are. Now watch what he says. I acknowledge
my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee, thee only have I sinned. and done this evil in thy sight."
What? Well, he sinned against Bathsheba,
he sinned against Uriah, he sinned against the nation of Israel,
he sinned against his family, he sinned against himself. But
David recognizes, as we must, that all sin is a defiance of
God Almighty. All all our self-serving interest,
all that we do contrary to that which is right, holy, just, and
true, all that we are that's contrary to the character of
God, the very enmity of our hearts by nature, is sin against him. It is the defiance of his right
to be God. It is the attempt of man to rape
God Almighty of his character, and slit his throat. That's what
sin is. And David says against you, you
only have I sinned. Therefore, therefore, I said
this, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. Lord God, no matter what you
do, and the execution of justice upon me. No matter what you may
do, in this world or in the world to come, in the punishment of
my sin, you're right. You're right. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. I'm nothing but sin. And then back in the Song of
Solomon, the bride urges her prayer, saying, Make me to know
your love, because I know this concerning your love. Your love
is as strong as death, as firm as the grave, as intense as fire,
as unquenchable as eternity. And with these four things, she
makes her plea to God. Now, stop for a moment and consider
something about the love of our God in Christ Jesus. It's as
strong as death. Try as you may to resist death. Hire all the best physicians
you can get. Go through all the experimental
drugs that are offered. When time has come that you're
going to meet God, die you shall. It's irresistible in His power. And the love of Christ is as strong as death. He pitched
His love on us from eternity, and we tried with all our might
to resist it. But when he came and spread his
skirt of mercy and grace over us, spread over us the skirt
of his righteousness in the time of love and said, live, once
we were made to see something of the wonder of his love, there
was no resistance left in us. It's irresistible as death. Show
me your love for your love. is as firm as the grave. Look
at this. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. That really is not
a real good translation of what's being said here. The words would
be more accurately translated this way. Jealousy is as hard
as hell. Is that a good description of
Christ's love? Oh, consider what it says. The Lord Jesus will not allow
those whom he loves to be taken from them, because he's jealous
over us. You will more likely see the
gates of hell opened, the fires of hell quenched, and the spirits
of the damned set free, than see the Son of God lose one of
those who's engraved on his heart. Those whom God has chosen, he'll
never refuse. Those Christ has redeemed, he'll
never say. Those he has justified, he'll
never condemn. Those he's found, he'll never
lose. Those he has loved, he will love forever. Show me your
love, for your love is as intense as fire. The allusion is to the
fire that was on the altar. You'll remember when God commanded
Moses to make the tabernacle, to make the furnishings, and
commanded Moses to have Aaron and his sons to keep the fire
burning. The fire burning at the altar was originally lit
by God himself. Its origin was in him. They were
commended and required of God to continually fuel the fire
and keep it burning, but the origin of the fire was God Almighty
Himself. Nadab and Abihu despised it,
and they thought they had to bypass God, bypass God's mercy,
bypass God's purpose, bypass God's love, bypass God's Son,
and to start strange fire in before the Lord, and were killed
because they did it. But his love is like that fire
on the altar, vehement, blazing, intense, never diminishing. The
only cause for it is in himself. This is what Isaiah saw when
he saw the Lord high and lifted up, the smoke filling the house. And he saw the revelation of
God's glorious holiness in Christ Jesus, in the sacrifice on the
mercy seat, saw Christ sitting on his throne, and he cried,
Woe is me if I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips. And then an angel came and took
with tongs one of the live coals from off the altar and laid it
on his lips. He said, Your iniquity is gone. Gospel preachers come and bring
the live coals of God's infinite love from off the fire of Christ's
sacrifice, and God's Holy Spirit causes the sinner to hear His
grace in Christ, and He says to his soul, I am thy salvation. Set me as a seal on your heart,
because your love is as unquenchable eternity. By God, how I have proved that. His love cannot be quenched. Anybody else's can, not his. His love cannot be quenched. Children of God, keep yourselves
in the love of Christ.