I remind you once more as you
read this blessed song of loves, it must be understood allegorically. There is no other reasonable
interpretation of the song. It is a song between Solomon
and the Shulamites, certainly that is so. That is the historical
context of it. But it is written by divine inspiration
and the language used here cannot be properly interpreted in any
way in all of its details as language spoken between the Shulamites
and Solomon. It must be understood as the
scriptures universally represent marriage being representative
of the union of Christ and his church. It must be understood.
as a picture of Christ and his church in our various experiences
in this world and our various experiences of the knowledge
of his love and his grace and his mercy toward us. And with
that in mind, let's read again verses six and seven. My subject
tonight is a choice prayer. A choice prayer for everybody
here. A choice prayer for both saints
and sinners. You who do not know our Redeemer,
oh may God set this prayer in your hearts. And for you who
know him, may God be pleased to set this prayer upon your
hearts as well. Set me as a seal upon thine heart,
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." Now here's the picture. We've seen the bride, Shulamite
comes up with her husband out of the wilderness, and the daughter
of Jerusalem asks, who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness,
leaning on her beloved? And as she comes up out of this
wilderness, leaning upon her beloved, she recognizes and understands,
now that she is enjoying his presence, his manifest, sweet
communion, that as she comes up out of this wilderness, she's
coming out, but he soon must be taken from her. And she's
going to miss him. And so as he, as she anticipates
that time, she says, she says, set me as a seal upon your heart. Set me as a seal upon your right
arm. And she asks thereby that he
might give her some tokens. of the marriage covenant between
them. That he might give her some tokens before he leaves
of his grace and his mercy and his love toward her. And so the
picture is that of you and I in this present gospel age. It is
the picture of the Lord's church anticipating his going away and
his coming again. I take the prayer to be just
exactly that. Our Lord Jesus told his disciples
before he left that he must go away. You remember John 16, as
he was wrapping up his last sermon to his disciples, he said, it
is expedient for you that I go away, otherwise the Comforter
will not come, and it's necessary and best for you that I leave
you. Not that he was leaving us literally, But he was leaving
us physically. He is with us now in such a way
by his spirit that he's with all of his people at one time.
And yet his bodily presence is gone. And so he says, I will
pray to father. I'll give you a token of my love.
I'll give you a token of my covenant. I'll give my spirit to you. I'll
pray to father. And he will send the comforter,
send his spirit to minister to you. He promised then that he
would come again and when he returned he would gather us unto
himself that we might be with him and he with us forever. He
said if I go away I will come again and receive you unto myself
that where I am there you may be also. He said, in my father's
house and many mansions, many, many rich, rich spacious abiding
places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. Now then, having said that, we
now, living by faith in Christ, live with our hearts set upon
that time when he shall come again. Every believer looks for
the Lord's glorious second advent. We are to live upon the tiptoe
of faith. expecting Christ at any time. So that in the language of the
last verse of this holy song of love, we may say, make haste
my beloved, be thou like to a rule or to a young heart upon the
mountains of spices. Or in the language of the revelation,
we hear him say, surely I come quickly. And our hearts respond
saying amen, even so come Lord Jesus. And yet before our Lord
went away, as you read the gospel narratives, and you listen carefully
to the language between those disciples of his who walked with
him. And we understood he said something about leaving us. He
said something about dying. And they didn't understand exactly
what he was saying, but their questions seemed to be saying
this, if you're going away, set us as a seal upon your heart.
has a seal upon your right arm. Let me see if I can give you
an example of what I'm saying. Remember Judas, not Iscariot.
The other disciple called Judas said, Lord, how are you going
to show yourself to us, not to the world? Philip said, Lord,
we don't know where you're going, how can we know the way? He said,
Lord, show us the Father. And so they were asking that
the Lord might be pleased somehow to give them some blessed, real
comfort and assurance of his love, the steadfastness of his
love, of his mercy, and the strength of his grace. Set me as a seal
on your heart, as a seal upon your right arm. Now though our
Lord's bodily presence is indeed absent from us, We want him near
us. We want to be near him and near
his heart. We want to have the blessed consciousness
of the fact that we're his and he's ours. We want the blessed
consciousness of the fact that he loves us and that he holds
us in his right arm. Now let's look at two things
in these two verses. First the prayer and then the
pleas. Let's first look at this prayer
which is uttered by the people of God. In our text, this is
clearly a prayer which arises from the earnest hearts of God's
believing children, but certainly this is a prayer that might well
be spoken by any sinner desiring mercy, grace, and salvation. Call upon the Lord God where
you sit. Come now to the throne of grace
and seek mercy and grace in the time of need. Ask him, set me,
Lord, as a seal on your heart. Set me as a seal on your heart. Pastor, what do you mean? Go
to God in prayer and ask him, Lord, take me into your heart. I know this is an age when everybody
thinks that, and been taught by foolish false prophets, that
God loves everybody and you're in his heart and the silly, sentimental,
sloppy religion makes the love of God nothing. If God loves
everybody, God's love is nothing. It's meaningless. Everybody,
if God loves everybody, folks in hell as well as folks in heaven,
then God's love doesn't make any difference to anybody. But
the scriptures don't teach anything of the kind. The scriptures teach
us that the Lord God loves a people who are distinguished by his
love as his people. And that those people who are
set in his heart will be with him forever in glory. And you,
by nature, who are without Christ, we all, by nature, are children
of wrath, even as others, so that our consciences condemn
us and declare that we're worthy of death before God. This is
what you must seek from him. Lord, take me into your heart,
though I deserve your wrath, and make me to know that you've
taken me in your arms. Set me then as a seal upon your
heart and as a seal upon your arm. The illusion here, as I've
shown you, is to the high priest of Israel. Let's turn back to
Exodus chapter 28, where this law was given. The prayer that
is made here is really twofold. First, she longs to know that
she has an interest in the love of Christ's heart, don't you?
Oh, let me know that I am loved of God. Let me know that I am
loved of God. I mean, really, let me know that
I am loved of God and that I'm on his heart and on his arm and
everything's all right. All right, look here in Exodus
28. Here's the allusion of our text back to this law given to
Israel. Exodus 28, verse 29. Aaron shall
bear the names of all the world on his breastplate. Anybody got
a Bible that reads like that? No. He bears the names of who? He bears the names of the children
of Israel. in the breastplate of judgment. Now look at that.
Let's not put that in Philip's face. but they're for purpose.
He bears the names of the children of Israel, who were but representatives
of the Israel of God, all the host of God's elect, which are
spoken of in Revelation as the 144,000 chosen, redeemed from
among the earth, so that these children of Israel are spoken
of representatively here. Aaron bears their names on his
breastplate, and his breastplate, Bobby, is called the breastplate
of judgment. the breastplate of righteousness, justice, and
truth. Read on. He bears it upon his
heart. When he goeth in unto the holy
place for a memorial before the Lord continually, and thou shalt
put in the breastplate of judgment, justice, righteousness, and truth,
the urim and the thummim, And they shall be upon Aaron's heart
when he goeth in before the Lord. And Aaron shall bear the judgment,
the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before
the Lord continually. In other words, even back in
this Old Testament time, God is saying there is no mercy without
judgment. There is no grace without righteousness. There is no salvation without
a sacrifice. Look at verse 36. And thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold, and engrave upon it like the engravings
of a signet. Look at this, holiness to the
Lord. Holiness to the Lord. Aaron goes
in with his breastplate into the holy place, and he has this
mighty upon his head, this thing inscribed, holiness to the Lord.
Because none but he who is himself perfectly holy can come before
God Almighty to make atonement for sin. And thou shalt put it
upon a blue lace, that it may be upon the miter, upon the forefront
of the miter it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron's
forehead, that Aaron, look at it, that Aaron may bear the iniquity
of the holy things. The holy things? by even their
services to God, even their sacrifices, even their mourning and even
in oblations, even their prayers, even their gifts, all are full
of iniquity because they come from our hands. They come from
hands full of iniquity and there must be atonement made for them.
Our prayers on their own ground, the best prayer you ever imagined,
much less spoke, is worthy of God's wrath. The greatest sacrifice
we ever made is worthy of God's judgment. The most holy deed
we ever performed is so full of sin on its own merit, it'll
take you to hell. So we must have someone, a go-between,
an advocate, a high priest, a mediator, to go in the presence of God
with holiness. to bear the iniquity of our holy
things that we may be accepted of the Lord. Look at it. The
holy things which the children of Israel shall harrow in all
their holy gifts, and it shall be always upon his forehead that
they may be accepted before the Lord. Well, that takes care of
the breastplate. Set me as a seal on your heart. What about a seal on your arm?
Look at verse 12, Exodus 28, 12. And thou shalt put the two
stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial
unto the children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names
before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. Now you who are God's children
know by your own experience something of the meaning of this prayer.
I hope that some of you who've never yet experienced the love
of Christ and the power of his gracious arm, may this night
come to experience these things. The prayer then is these two
things. Number one, oh Lord, let me know
that my name is engraved on your heart. In the language of the
Psalmist, this is what I'm saying. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Over the years, I've had a lot
of folks all around the world, wherever I go to preach, they
come and say, Preacher, I don't have any assurance. What can
you do for me? Nothing. Not a thing I can do for you.
Not a thing I can do for you. Rob Barnard used to say the only
person on this earth who will give a lost man assurance that
he saves another lost man. And I think he's exactly right.
I can't tell you what God's done for you. I don't know. I don't
know. But I'll tell you who can. I'll
tell you where you can get it. You go to God himself and you
say to the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord God, with the finger of
your grace, inscribe this on my heart and make me to hear
you speak and say, I am thy salvation. I want an interest in your love.
I want more. I want to know that I have an
interest in your love. Write my name upon, write your
name upon my heart and my name upon your heart. Engrave it as
a signal upon your heart so that I can look to you and see it. Pastor, how can you see it? I
don't understand. You tell us we can't see things
physically, we have to look for things physically. How do you
see it? I see my name engraved on his heart. And I see it clearly
because as a guilty, hell-deserving, wretched sinner without one shred
of righteousness to claim before God, I trust Jesus Christ who
came into this world to save sinners just like me. Now I'm
telling you, if you can take your place before God as a lost
sinner, Take your place before God, deserving his wrath. Take
your place before God Almighty, acknowledging your guilt and
his justice against you, and call on him for mercy. He declares
that he came here to save you. All right, read on. Set me as
a seal upon your heart. And without question, there are
many whose names are written on the heart of our Redeemer
who do not yet know it. Christ loved them from all eternity.
His heart has been set upon them from everlasting. But they have
not yet seen the signet with their names written upon it. How can I say this and be understood? It is positively wrong. Now listen to me. It is positively
wrong. for you and I to teach our children
as their little boys and little girls that Jesus loves them. It's positively wrong, absolutely
wrong. The love of God is in Christ. And until a sinner believes on
Christ, until a sinner trusts Christ, there is no token of
love from God for that sinner. The only way you can know that
God loves you is you trust his son. That's the only way. Unless
you trust his son, the wrath of God's on you. Unless you believe
on the son of God, the wrath of God's on you. Well, but God
is love. I know that. I've rejoiced in
that. But the love of God's in Christ,
only in Christ. Apart from Christ, God's a consuming
fire. And if you meet him without Christ,
his wrath will consume you. In all of his work, our great
high priest, bears the names of his people upon his heart. Everything he does Everything
he has done, is doing, or shall do, is for his people. Everything. The high priest in Israel would
go in on the holy day of Atonement and he would bear that mighty
repugnance to the Lord and this breastplate upon his heart and
these stones upon his shoulders with the names of the children
of Israel. How come? Because he was going there for
the children of Israel. for specific people. And then
he would go into the holy place and take off those gorgeous priestly
garments and put on his white linen garments and make sacrifice.
And then he'd come back out and sacrifice was made, atonement
was ceremonially made, and he would put on those gorgeous priestly
garments again. And he stepped out and blessed
the people in the name of God. In all of that, he was a picture
of Christ. Our Lord Jesus makes intercession
for the Israel of God. That's exactly right. He didn't
pray for everybody. He said so. He said in John 17,
nine, I pray not for the world, I pray for them. He said again,
he said, I pray not only for these here now who believe on
me, but for them also who shall hear their word and shall believe. John 17, 20. Our Lord Jesus bears
the judgment of his people as he offers sacrifice to God with
his righteousness crying holy to the Lord. He is the sacrifice
that justice must accept because this sacrifice is holy. And the
Lord Jesus bears our iniquity and our judgment and he makes
the sacrifice in our stead. And then he comes and blesses
us. That blessing, that blessed benediction I so often use here
when we finish our service on Sunday evening. Alan goes in,
makes the sacrifice and he comes back out and he lifts up his
hands. Oh, I love this picture. With
a smell of blood at the altar and the blood freshly sprinkled
on the blessed seat. This priest comes out with the
names of God's elect on his breastplate, holiness to the Lord on his forehead,
and the stones of judgment on his shoulders. And he says, the
Lord bless thee and keep thee. Well, how can a holy God do that? Because justice has been satisfied
through Jesus Christ the Lord. Now, this prayer is also, Lord, Let
me experience the power of your arm. It is enough for me if I can know and be assured
in my soul that the Lord Jesus Christ is my high priest, my
advocate, my cenotonic mediator before God. If I can know that
I have a place in his heart of love, and that his arm is set
to do me good. Oh, if he'll give me that, I
don't want anything else. That's enough for my soul. It ought to be. It ought to be. I would be upset with my wife
if she had any question concerning my love for her. I had any question
of my willingness to care for her, provide for her, protect
her, defend her, I'd be upset with her. And she's got a whole
lot more reason to question those things than I do his. But set
me, Lord, as a seal on your heart. Seal on your heart. Make me know
that I'm yours and I want no more. His arm preserves me. His arm protects me. His arm
provides for me. His arm will carry me to glory
like His sheep gathered in His arms and laid upon His shoulder.
That's enough. He'll carry me home. This then
is the prayer we make. Set me as a seal upon thine heart
and as a seal upon thine arm. But whenever you pray, Whenever
you go to God and seek something from the Lord, it is always wise
to carry arguments with you. To give him reasons why he should
give the thing you request. So that when you go to God in
prayer, you offer him reasons. He said, plead with me that I
may remember. Plead my covenant with me. Put
me in remembrance. So that when we go to Him in
prayer, we give Him a reason why He should hear us and answer
our prayers. So that we're not just muttering
words. We're not just acting religious. We're not just being
sentimental. We go to God with an earnest burden on our heart.
And this is the reason why. Now Lord, hear my pleas. Hear my arguments with you. Here's
the reason why I ask you to set me as a seal on your heart. As
a seal on your arm. First, show me your love. because your love is strong as
death. The love of Christ is as irresistible
as death itself. People sometimes call a writer,
even in person, they say, you preach hellfire and brimstone.
Hellfire and judgment, yeah, but not too much. God preached
judgment, preached judgment, yeah, yeah. You're under the
wrath of God. I think I'm plain enough concerning
that, but I'm gonna tell you something. The wrath of God will
never bring a sinner to repentance. It'll never happen, won't happen.
I've told you many times, right after I came here, preachers
in town got together They showed a movie in high school in Boyle
County. How many liberals, conservatives,
fundamentalists, everybody. They got together and they showed
a movie called Burning Hell. And everybody got scared to death.
Everybody was scared to hell by that movie. And they did that,
but it don't work. That won't bring a sinner to
repentance. What does? The goodness of God. Oh, let a sinner see the love
of God in Christ. And I'm telling you, his love
is as irresistible as death. If ever he makes you to know
his love, if ever he speaks words of love to your heart, I'm telling
you, he has conquered you by his grace. The love of Christ
triumphed over death for us. And as death refuses to give
up its victims, so the love of Christ refuses to give up its
objects, the captives of God's grace. Nothing shall ever cause
the Son of God to cease loving his people and let them go. The prayer is this, Lord set
me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm. Show
me your love because your love is firm as the grave. Jealousy,
as cruel as the grave. Now, there are many ways to translate
that. I like the way Martin Luther
translated it. He puts it this way. Jealousy is as hard as hell. Jealousy is as hard as hell. That seems, that just doesn't
seem to fit this, does it? Let's see if we can make it fit
with our understanding. Our Lord is jealous over his
people. He will not allow those whom
he loves to be taken from him. And 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 one sinner, loved of
Christ, torn from his heart. Jealousy is as firm as hell. Those whom God has chosen, he
will never refuse. Those whom Christ has redeemed,
he will never sell again into captivity. Those whom he has
justified, he will never condemn. Those whom he has found, he'll
never lose. Those whom he has loved, he will
never hate. Here's another plea. Lord, show
me your love, for your love is as intense as fire. See this
in the text? The coals thereof are as coals
of fire, which hath the most vehement flame. Literally, literally,
this might be translated, the coals thereof are as the coals
of God. Again, the illusion goes back
to the Old Testament and the sacrifices of the Old Testament.
You remember at the door of the tabernacle, the door of the temple,
there was the altar of God, and at the altar of God there was
a fire that the priests were required to keep burning continually,
day in and day out, never let the fire go out, because that
fire represented something. That fire represented both the
wrath of God, the justice of God, and the love of God for
his people. Certainly here, there is a reference
here making it to speak of the love of God for his saints. The
Lord God revealing his love to us in Christ tells us that the
love of Christ is like coals of the altar, which never go
out, but more. The love of Christ for his own
elect is like a vehement blazing flame of intense love that never
diminishes. Having loved his own, which win
the world, he loves them to the end. The only cause of his love for
us is in himself. He loves us cause he will, that's
all. And there is nothing, no form
of love in all the world to compare to his. Sometimes the scriptures
compare his love to the love of a man for a woman. Sometimes
the scriptures compare his love to the love of a mother for her
child. But all of those comparisons fall indescribably short of showing
us his love. Because his love is eternal. Our puny brains, we can't even
think about eternity. We just, we can't fathom it. Eternal. What on earth is eternal?
No beginning. When did God begin to love us?
He didn't. He didn't. He never started anything. He
never learned anything. He never began anything. He loved
us with everlasting love. His love for us is free and sovereign. And nothing we do to get him
to love us, he loves us freely. I believe this will cause God
to look at me with favor. No, no, no, no, no. His love's
free, sovereign. His love is sacrificial and saving. He loved us and gave himself
for us. His love for his people is immutable,
never changes. Immutability, that's a word I
got it fixed pretty good up here. I know what it means, but I don't
have any idea what something is that's unchanging, unchanged,
and unchangeable. I've never seen it except by
faith. I've never experienced it except
by grace. I'm telling you, God's love never
increases, it never diminishes, no matter what. The fire of his
love is a zealous flame burning constantly before him. His love
is inexhaustible. Here's one last thing. Show me
your love, for your love is unquenchable as eternity. Many waters cannot
quench love, neither can the floods drown it. The waters of
God's wrath poured out upon his son did not quench his love for
us, and the floods of our sins before he saved us and since
can never quench his love for us. Amen. Set me as a steel upon your heart.