Love, the most mysterious word in our vocabulary today. We hear this word often in newspapers, in a song, in a movie, in a book, romance book, and everyone seems to be obsessed by this word. And because of this, the church has been swallowed up in this understanding of love, And that has nothing to do with the biblical meaning of this word. And not only that, but has projected heretical views of love in who God is. As if we hear people tell us, God loves me. Therefore, He doesn't care what I do with my life. And that is the understanding of people of what unconditional love is. Love is a feeling, a passion, a fleeting sensation. And so because of all this misunderstanding, we as reformed people overreact and decide not to talk about love because it's so liberal. It's been used by liberal people. And so whether in preaching or writing we become technical, dry, concerned with true doctrinal statements about love, And yet as we look at the past, those who came before us, our forefathers in the faith, looked at this in a devotional way, showing us that not only the love of God in general is full of implication for the Christian life, but also the triune God, His showing and displaying His love toward us. The Father. The spring of love. With His providence in creation. And in all of His gifts. Has been often misunderstood as a God of the Old Testament which is wrathful and hateful. And a New Testament Jesus that comes and tries to compensate for the wrath of the Old Testament. No, every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of life, says James 1.17. And it is because of that love that then it has been revealed by the Father through the Son. He came on this earth out of love. He died because of our sin. And while we were still sinners, the greatness of the love of God has been shown in Christ dying for us. Or the experience of the love of God in the Holy Spirit, who is indeed applying in our hearts the love of God, whose chief fruit of the Spirit is love. And often we go to passages of the New Testament, when we talk about the love of God, we think of 1 Corinthians 13, where the Apostle Paul gives us qualities of the love of God, and he says that it's kind, patient, rejoicing in the truth. But most of all, he defines this love with what love is not. envi-less, boast-less, arrogant-less, rude-less, not insisting to have one's way, not irritable or resentful, not rejoicing on wrongdoing. And then He goes and says these incredible words, that all things will fade away. Even faith, even hope, everything will fade away. And the only thing that lasts, the greatest thing of all is love. Shouldn't that be our concern? To understand why this love is so eternally endless? Why it is the greatest thing? Why does love never fail? What makes love so lasting? What is the reason that loves never fail and outdoes everything else? Why all things fade away? Even our gifts, our activities, all that we do in the church, everything will fade away and love will remain. Because, as 1 John 4, 7 to 21 says, This is a divine attribute. This is who God is. God is love. God does not add love to his person. This is the essence of who God is. And therefore, we reflect that essence. The heart of the whole law is love God with all of your heart, soul, and strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. It is summarized everything in love. in all of our Scripture. And this love becomes also a test in seeing if one is truly a Christian, if he loves God, if he loves the brothers. And yet, speaking of love can become so abstract. And that's why Paul in another place, in Ephesians, he tells us, Ephesians 5, As he often does as he goes through his letters, he has those household codes where he deals with relationship in the family, right? And in Ephesians 5, verse 27 in particular on, he talks about husband, love your wife. And what is he doing? What is he bringing into this discussion? The mystical relationship between Christ and the church. so that the human marriage becomes a little example of what this heavenly marriage is all about. All throughout the Old Testament, this marriage analogy was there. If you read the prophets, I was reading Jeremiah these days in my quiet times, but even if you go Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Hosea, all the prophets are talking about the relationship between The bridegroom, the groom which is God. And Israel which is the bride. And many times God record how Israel has been adulterous because of idolatry. And unfaithful to her husband. And this is all throughout the prophets. So that when we come to a book, as we will do tonight, a book like the Song of Solomon, it is plausible It is at least plausible to see how this marriage analogy applies even in the New Testament. Some people say that the Song of Solomon was never quoted in the New Testament. We should take it out of Scripture. It is too explicit, too graphic. And yet Paul, as I would like to see with you tonight, in 1 Corinthians 13, is actually alluding, is echoing these verses of Song of Solomon that we will read in chapter 8. And this definitely relates, first of all, to the love between a man and his wife. But this greater mystery, remember, That's what Paul has in mind in Ephesians and Corinthians, is the eternal marriage between the Lamb and His people. In Revelation. Which again, all the earthly marriages are a little foretaste of what greatest display of the love and the consummation of the love, the eternal love, the unfading love of God, of the glorious marriage of the Lamb. And so let's hear from the Song of Solomon chapter 8, verse 6 and 7. This is the Shulamite woman which addressed her husband, And says in verse 6, Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is as strong as death, jealousy as cruel as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, he would be utterly despised. Does that remind you of something? I hope it does, in the New Testament, as we will see tonight. This is a final chapter of this poem, love poem, as the bride burst in a desire of complete union with the groom. And she wishes to be closer than a brother to the bridegroom, in verse 1. A profound desire is in her to seal this union eternally so that we might realize that love indeed never fails, she thinks. There is this ascending from the desert of the bridegroom that is described in the first verses of the chapter. Think of Rebecca as she is getting ready to meet Isaac who is meditating on the field and she sees him. And she comes down and covers her head as she sees her future bridegroom. And here is Solomon and this Shulamite woman, and they are praying before they are entering in the royal palace, which we read in Psalm 45 tonight. And this prayer is a prayer that is aware of the infinite, unfading, eternal nature of this love. This desire for eternity that only God's love can fulfill because of who God is. And these verses again end the whole poem. In previous chapters there was a separation between the bride and the bridegroom. Now finally they are joined together and the bride is talking with the bridegroom and is saying, set me as a seal upon your heart. Now I will want to avoid wild interpretations. I know that through the ages of the church there has been indeed quite wild interpretations of this book, but again, Keep in mind, if the Apostle Paul is alluding to these verses, as we shall see, therefore, it is definitely by implication that again, human unions between man and woman are a little foretaste to the glory to come. And that's what I said. Some of you know that God has given me finally Hopefully, He's calling me to marriage. That's what I said to my girlfriend. I said, God is calling us to have a foretaste. The whole purpose of us coming together is not to please each other here. It is to have a foretaste of that eternal union with Christ that we will face. God gives an eternal declaration. And what does He say in verse 6? The first part of verse 6. Set me as a seal upon your heart." What do we see? That the unfading love of God is a mark of the surety that the bride entreats the bridegroom to be sealed. Sealed in ancient times were used to indicate ownership. Letters indicated that the document was authentic. And as we explore this morning, and in fact I would like to see this sermon tonight as connected with our overall discussion on the communion with God, John Owen says again, alluding to this text, to the high priest, the seal that the high priest had to bear in the Old Testament, which was spiritually representing the church before God. And remember what he had? He had a breastplate, right? Over his heart. And the name of the people of Israel were engraved upon that breastplate. And that is because our names are written and sealed upon Christ. All of these little details that some people coin as pointless, Rituals were all pointing to Christ. Let me be fixed constantly in your affectionate love. Oh, that I wear a seal upon His heart. That is the wish. That His banner over us is indeed love. The man is evidently showing his desire have her forever, but she prays for that intercession from the heavenly High Priest. He wants to lock her hand and heart together to His, and throw away the keys to the bottom of the sea. The devotion that He has to her is lasting. He longs for a stable and eternal relationship. A seal that is eternal, unfading. It cannot be taken away. They're joined together for better and worse. Don't we exchange those rings of gold which are an unending cycle? A band of gold with an intention to have an eternity. Instead, we realize often that this life is so fleeting. We are so disappointed by everything and everyone failing us. Soon, we all will die and go back in the dust, as we sang opening up this evening. And so many just get over the idea that everything changed. There's no lasting relationship. It was great, but now we need to move on. Bye-bye. But our God is not like this. His love does not change toward us, because He is love, and He is also unchanging. And so, He loves us of a love that will never change. It's as firm as hell itself, says Spurgeon. The love of God is as firm as hell itself. It's firm and everlasting. He's calling to taste and see how good it is in this supper of the Lamb. It is a seal upon us. We are so precious. It's like if it's looking at you as the most precious possession. You are a treasure like a diamond to the heights of Christ. He touches you with the deepest imprint of His grace and mercy. Brethren and sisters, you are sealed with the blood and redeemed. You belong to Him and not just for a moment. He doesn't change His mind over you for eternity. You are sealed over His arm and His feet as He paid on that cross and those signs are still present in the glorified Christ in heaven. which are a perpetual reminder that you are accepted before Him, that your name is indeed engraved upon the palm of His hand forever because of His death for your sin. He intercedes. But secondly, the second part of verse 6, Love is not only a mark of surety, but it's also infinite power. God's love is infinite, first of all. Even in our marriage vow, we acknowledge the limitation. And we say, until death separates us. Not so in the kind of love described in this mystical relation between Christ and the church. The love of the Son is as strong as death. Like persecution. Made through the century, the church grows. So death cannot overcome the love of God. In fact, that divine love for the world led to his son's death for us. And in such manner, his love has been revealed to us. He talks about jealousy as a fire, as fierce as the grave. This is often a device that in the poetry of the Hebrew poetry was used. A parallelism between those concepts as the next Next line of the poem amplifies the strength of this divine love, even beyond death, beyond all the gifts that we were outlined for in Corinthians, which were causing division in the church, because some were saying, I got this gift, I got that gift, and they were not loving, and then Paul says to these Christians, he says, I show you a better way. A way that will never fail, while everything will cease, tongues will cease, evangelism, all these things will cease, but the love of God will never cease, even death will not quench it. Abel says, Owen, to bear the working of my love to thee, unless I may always have society and fellowship with you, O God. Like the grave still say, give, give. If I don't have all of you, I have nothing. Even earthly marriages will end at death. All will fade away in this life. Because nothing in this life was meant to be enough. To fill our hearts. Nothing can match this eternal marriage with the Lamb. The marriage is only a picture of this relationship of Christ with the church. The greater love that He has shown to lay down His life for His friends. So He did. He conquered death. And so we will witness that as the crowning of the King. The Psalm 45 that we read. The King of Kings. on the day of this eternal wedding, a day of gladness of heart, a day in light of which He has now bethrothed us to that day. The Bridegroom is coming back to bring us home. And what a glorious future is ahead of the Christian. As he sees us already as altogether beautiful, spotless, without flaws, says Psalm 4, verse 7. What's so special with God? They may ask you. Tell them of this Savior who is altogether lovely. Tell them of this altogether desirable Christ who sees us as truly delightful and that we are the apple of His eyes. Often we see jealousies as a negative thing, don't we? But in the case of God, He has a holy jealousy for us that He displays throughout our life. He wants to have supremacy in our heart. Like a fire from heaven, His jealousy over His people surrounds them to protect them from enemies. It burns those who approach Him in worship in a manner, as we were reminded last week, that is not prescribed. Why? Because of His holy jealousy And we have to give our exclusive commitment to Him in our worship. He is possessive about the things of God, but in a perfect possessiveness over us. Not in an oppressive way, but for our good. He alone must be the object of our ultimate affections. But how terrible in light of God's love His own people to mistreat or abuse in families, one's spouse, as we are supposed to be reflecting Christ, or a father, or a friend, and mistreat a daughter of the King. We hear all these scandals taking over the church. in all sort of churches. Southern Baptist scandals, the Sovereign Grace scandal, and this scandal, and that scandal, and I am sure that God will vindicate those things, but I am saying, Be careful, because this love of God has been poured out in our life, and we are to reflect it in our marriage, in our parenting, and in all things. This infinite, unconditional love of God. And secondly, God's love is also powerful. It is described here as flashes of fire ignited in our hearts. Hearts who were dead and made of stone. Unable to experience the resurrecting power of regeneration. Until the Spirit brought us and ignited us. Enlightened us with the flashes of His love. And that we are able. We are never the same. John Bunyan says and describes in his Pilgrim Progress. a place where there is a fire. And the interpreter is guiding the pilgrim, John Bunyan says, to understand this place. There was this burning against a wall. And one was standing by this wall. And he was trying to cast more water upon that wall to quench it. And yet the fire burned higher and hotter. Why? Because one secretly was pouring from the wall and casting out oil in it. The fuel of this divine love which is unstoppable, which is able to win every resistance, every hatred. It is described here in our text as the very flame of the Lord. God's love is the spring of true everlasting and perfect love. And that is why people don't understand. That without the love of God, we will fail. And if we do not abide in His love, we cannot produce any fruits. And then in the following verse, this is amplified. From the flame now we move to the water. That same flame of divine love cannot be quenched by many waters. No waves, no storm, no rain, no flood can drown and quench that fire burning inside the chest of the believer. Think of the waters of Elijah as he pours out the water on the altar. And he keeps saying, pour that water, pour more water. And yet they could not quench the flame of the divine intervention upon those waters. In the same way, they become vapor. And the crowds recognized, the prophets of Baal recognized that this is indeed the Lord. It's Yahweh. Yahweh is the Lord. The fountain of living waters. In the same way that we thirst for and we drink from transformed the life of the believer from upside down. And we become sick of love for the love of God. His heart is ravished with one glance As we have one glance of His eyes, nothing can stir us and awaken us. But how many loves disappear like a cloud after the morning light. I was terrorized as an unbeliever, in fact, to wake up one day and not being able to love my ex-girlfriend. The complete lack of surety that we are without God's love. Inability. And so many young people should wait before stirring up love. So many fail to see that they are not prepared. And that this is not yet the moment. And yet God can overcome all this power of chaos. All the effects of our fallenness and our brokenness. And He can dry our tears with His love. Even to those like that sinful woman that approaches Jesus and she washes her feet with her tears and dries with her hair. Christ says to her, you can be forgiven because she loved much. But those who love little, how sad. Those who have forgiven little and stay so distant. from the experience of this divine fount of love. Sometimes great sinners challenge many believers in their diving into the love of God when they discover it. And they challenge and convict us of our coldness of heart. Who, like the other son of the prodigal son, look at this and say, why this is going on? I was faithful over my life. But he didn't see that this forgiveness stirs up the fount of love. This love of God is more than friendship. More than a simple acquaintance, it's a fire that burns within our chest. And bring me the most formidable obstacle to God's love, says Paul in Romans. Bring me all the obstacles. whether life, whether death, whether persecution, whether trials and tribulation, nothing, I say nothing, says Paul, can separate us from the love of God which we have in Christ Jesus. Once we taste His love, we vehemently desire those flames, the perfect love, and we realize that nothing, nothing in us can make us love Him, and yet He loves us first. We only have waters of sin. We only have corruption. But like the bride and son of Solomon, we long to be drawn after the King. We seek the shepherd after the flock. We ran after Him. We are not satisfied when we cannot find Him. Where is He? Think of some of you who are waiting your husband or your wife to come back from the service in the military, and you long for his or her return. And so we should long to commune with Christ. And when we find Him, we are like Jacob, and we will not let Him go until He blesses us. We are willing to give ourselves away so that God may have His way in us. Let me have Him. I desire nothing else but Him, but Christ. And lastly, We look at this connection with the New Testament in the immeasurable value of this unfading love of God. At the end of verse 7, the last exhortation of the Shulamite woman in her prayer to her beloved husband. This is not directly quoted in the New Testament, but is indeed alluded and echoed by the Apostle Paul In his definition of love, he says, 1 Corinthians 13 verse 3, If I give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but I have not love, I gain nothing. It's right here in the text. What Paul is doing is taking this human relationship and mystical applying to the love of God in the New Testament. What is it that the Beloved Bride says to us here? That if a man offered up for love all that he had, all the wealth of his house, he would be scorned. He would gain nothing. He would be utterly despised. People will look at his offer and realize that he's indeed a little thing compared to what love is and how immeasurably valuable such love of God is. All of the treasure of the world will pale in front of it. Why don't some believers get it? Because they do not have this experience. But if they could see, oh, they will see how anything else, like Paul says, is like rubbish. It's like trash. It doesn't compare to the love of Christ. As newborn believers are faced with a little foretaste of the love of God, it becomes enough for them that they are willing to sell all that they have and buy that field where the peril of great price has been found. This love of God is a gift. You cannot buy it. You cannot sell it. Every attempt from you to do so will only be received with contempt. Everything that you may do will sound like a rusty cymbal without love. Everything you can do in the Christian life without love will be secondary. And instead, while you can continue to do things for God, God is constantly calling you back into the field to spend time with Him and to seek Him with all of your heart. To come away in this divine romance. And who is this husband of the church that is able to feel the emptiness that we carry around for years? And then we wonder, why did I do it? Why did I spend sometimes so much time away from my Savior? Even though we are sinful, He hides all of our sins. He covers all of our sins. He bears with all of our sins. What an infinite patience. What an infinite forbearance. What an infinite love. What an infinite grace. What an infinite mercy. And the question is, husband, are you reflecting this to your wife? Often, like the bad shepherds of Israel, they needed her sought. that which was lost. They needed a saw, the one who was lame. The sheep that needed careful attention. No. Not like the good shepherd. Jesus comes and heals and takes the broken sheep, and I myself will be a shepherd for them. Church, do you long for such a Savior? He who suffers with you and takes shares in all of your trouble through Christ. He went through all of your afflictions. He went through all of the temptations. He was tempted in all ways, like we are, in His human nature. You hold Him and won't let Him go. Christ and the Church, as these lovers described in the Song of Solomon, I am my beloved and His desire is for me. He removes our seven winters of sin and brings about the spring of a new resurrection. And He calls us to take away our mourning, believers. But this is not like a human spring. They are soon to be gone and somehow, sooner or later, the spring will end. This love of Christ is as strong as death, as stubborn as the grave, which cannot be given up. in the case of Christ. He cannot be bought. Nothing within us can produce such love. He first loved us. Christ has sealed us with His Holy Spirit before He left us, but He's coming again as He promised in the pledge that He gave. It is like those sacraments that we remember, that cup and that bread. are a symbol. He's coming back. And every time we partake of it, we say, Christ comes soon. And like the bride, we take the cup and we think of the marriage of the Lamb. When we finally will be united forever. When we finally will be at the Supper of the Lamb. And when we finally are united with Him in that eternal marriage. And our role as church is to long expect that day as the sand of times are sinking, The love of Christ shall constrain us as constrained the apostles to face death and persecution in order to spread that love abroad. Think of us, O God. Set us as a seal upon your heart. Set us on your arms, on your wounds, because we long to have your love. And perhaps today, instead of being sealed to Christ, you feel still chains upon you, which are the chains of sin and Satan, bond slaves still, knowing nothing of this imperishable love, trying to produce it on your own, and failing at every corner. God can come with His strong love and deliver you from it. Deliver you. from this lack of love and produce it for your lasting blessing. Oh, what a love. Let us pray. Let us pray our Savior. Oh, Father, we thank You. We thank You for Being the spring and fountain of love, O Son, we thank You for having revealed such love. And Spirit, we thank You for applying and giving us the experience of such love. We thank You, O Triune God, for being in us and having shown us that according to Your very nature, we are indeed loved by the King of kings, and with a love that is unfading, a love that will never disappoint us, a love that will never run out. We, worthless and unworthy, We thank You, Lord, because Your love is powerful to take over all of our fears. We thank You because Your love is infinite to scare away all of our limits and changes in life. We thank You because Your love is so sure as death and overcomes death. And You are worthy of all of our affections, Your grace, Your justice, Your tenderness, Your truth, Your majesty. Oh, what love! What matter of love is this that You have shown to us? And we pray that as a church we will indeed reflect such love in our family, with our wives, with our children, with our strangers, with those who hate us, with all circumstances. Oh God, may we abide in You and bear much fruit and understand that all of our gifts, All of our hopes, all of our, even faith may fade, but your love, oh God, never, never will fade. And so help us to choose and walk in that better way. It is in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.