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5-8-2022 Weekly Messages

Meditation of the Week: Psalm 91:1-16

Text: Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Sermon Title: Love as strong as death and jealousy  cruel as the grave

       Seeing the Sulamite woman who had restored her first love, Solomon said that she was a woman coming up out of her wilderness leaning on her beloved. From now on, she would say that she is coming up from the world like  wilderness, as she trusts him completely.

       That’s right. Today, the Lord also says the same thing to Christians who have come to realize the love of Jesus Christ through all their suffering and have restored their first love.

        She lived as a religious person, then repented, received the forgiveness of sins, and born again by the Holy Ghost. Solomon said to her, “Set me as a seal thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave.”

That’s right. As Solomon said to engrave himself on her heart and arm, our Lord Jesus is telling Christians who are the brides of Christ today to engrave his words on their hearts like a seal and also on their arms.

       That’s right! Christians who have received the Holy Ghost and become the bride of Christ must engrave all the words of God like a seal deep in their hearts, just like Christ Jesus Himself. Not only that, but it should be engraved on their arm so that they can do all things with the power of the word. When Apostle Paul spoke in this regard, he was testifying Christians to put on the full armor of God.

        When God gave the Ten Commandments to the people of Israel, God gave them commandment:

” Thou shalt have no other gods before me.… Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:3,5,6).

        Because God has chosen them to be his wife, he gave a stern word to them who betray that love. Solomon was speaking on behalf of God about how terrifying love and jealousy are:

“Set me as a seal upon thine 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.” (Sol 8:6).

         God loves not only the people of Israel but also all the Gentiles, as much as God gave up the Word God of creator of all things with the Word for the sins of all people in the world as a sacrifice. Of this Heavenly Father’s love, Jesus, the Only Begotten Son, testified:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16).

        Jesus spoke of the greatest love:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

14 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” (John 15:13-14).

        That’s right! As God, Jesus regarded us as friends and laid down his life for sinners like us. Therefore, for those who do not believe in him to the end, love turns into jealousy. Finally he foretold through his prophets how cruel his jealousy will be as hell when he comes to judge all the nations that do not believe in him:

“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

2 Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?

3 I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.

……. Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

2 A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.

3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.” (Isaiah 63:1-4) , Joel 2:1-3)

         That’s right! The stronger the love, the more brutal jealousy is. No matter how hard a person tries to avoid being buried in a tomb after death, the grave  is as cruel as being dragged into darkness and covered up. Not only that, but the grave savagely devours people’s bodies and cruelly throws their souls into the blazing coals of hell.

         Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment:

” A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.” (John 13:34).

       Apostle John also testified of the new commandment:

“Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.” (1 John 2:8).

          Jesus is the Good Shepherd. Because He alone is good. He is good that He is a God whom He alone loves. But everyone born into the world is born unable to do good. In other words, they are born an unlovable sinner. The prophet Jeremiah prophesied of this fact:

” The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?…. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.“ (Jeremiah 17:9; 13:23).

          Apostle Paul testified that only those born again of the Holy Ghost can love:

” But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

24 And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. “(Galatians 5:22-24)

         In other words, only those who realize that not believing the gospel of Jesus Christ is sin, repent of not believing in Him, receive forgiveness of sins, receive the Holy Ghost, and enter the kingdom of God can bear the fruit of the Spirit and can love.

         Therefore, to those who have been loved by God through the Holy Ghost, as Solomon said, many waters cannot quench love, neither can the flood drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

          In order to keep the promise un to Abraham, God planned to lead the Israelites through harsh trials under the pharaoh of Egypt for 400 years and lead them to the Promised Land so that they would become a nation of priests in the future. God had a plan to make the Israelites take all the silver and gold that the Egyptians possessed and use it for the temple to be built. But they were committing fornication before God. At this time, Moses burned the calf they had made, ground it into powder, sprinkled it on water, and made the children of Israel drink it. On that day, God of love became God of jealousy and killed about 3,000 of them.

         Likewise, we must not forget that Christians who are saved through the death of Jesus Christ through God’s great love will be disciplined by a jealous God for serving Mammon (money) like a golden calf, just like the Israelites did.

        Therefore, Christians who have been born again by the Holy Ghost deeply engrave all the words of God on their hearts as if they are sealing a seal, receive the filling of the Holy Ghost and always keep the first love given by the Lord Jesus Christ to the end, trusting only Him completely, preaching the gospel to many souls, and preaching the love of Jesus Christ to many souls.

Amen! Hallelujah!