Better than Wine

"Your love is better than wine." - Song of Solomon 1:2.
OUTLINE--

I. CHRIST'S LOVE IS BETTER THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IS NOT--
because it may be taken without question
because it is to be had without money
because it is to be enjoyed without cloying
because it is without lees
because it will never, as wine will, turn sour
because it produces no ill effects

II. CHRIST'S LOVE IS BETTER THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IS--
it has certain healing properties
it gives strength
it gives joy
it gives sacred exhilaration

III.CHRIST'S LOVE IN THE PLURAL--
Christ's covenant love
Christ's forbearing love
Christ's personal love
Christ's forgiving love
Christ's accepting love
Christ's guiding love
Christ's providing love
Christ's instructing love
Christ's sanctifying love
Christ's sustaining love
Christ's upholding love
Christ's enduring love
Christ's chastening love
Christ's love in your dying moments
Christ's love to those gathered with him in glory
Christ's love on the day of our resurrection

IV. CHRIST'S LOVE IN THE SINGULAR--
the love of Christ in the cluster
the love of Christ in the basket
the love of Christ in the wine-press
the love of Christ in the flagon
the love of Christ in the cup

The Scriptural emblem of wine, which is intended to be the symbol of the richest earthly joy, has become desecrated in process of time by the sin of man. I suppose, in the earlier ages when the Word of God was written, it would hardly have been conceivable that there could have existed on the face of the earth such a mass of drunken men and women as now pollute and defile it by their very presence. For man, nowadays, is not content with the wine that God makes, but he manufactures some for himself of which he cannot partake, at least in any abundance, without becoming drunken.

Redeem the figure in our text, if you can, and go back from the drinking customs of our own day to more primitive and purer times, when the ordinary meal of a man was very similar to that which is spread upon this communion table, ù bread and wine, ù of which men might partake without fear of evil effects; but do not use the metaphor as it would now be understood among the mass of mankind, at least in countries like our own.

"Your love is better than wine." In considering these words, in the spirit in which the inspired writer used them, I shall, first of all, try to show you that Christ's love is better than wine because of what is not; and, secondly, that it is better than wine because of what it is. Next, we will examine the marginal reading of the text, which will teach us something about Christ's love in the plural: "Your loves are better than wine." And then, lastly, we will come back to the version we have before us, in which we shall see Christ's love in the singular, for the love of Christ, even when it is described in the plural, is always one; though there are many forms of it, it is evermore the same love.

I. First, then, I want to prove to you that CHRIST'S LOVE IS BETTER THAN WINE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT IS NOT.

It is so, first, because it may be taken without question. There may be, and there always will be in the world, questions about wine. There will be some who will say, and wisely say, "Let it alone." There will be others who will exclaim, "Drink of it abundantly;" while a third company will say, "Use it moderately." But there will be no question amongst upright men about partaking to the full of the love of Christ. There will be none of the godly who will say, "Abstain from it;" and none who will say, "Use it moderately;" but all true Christians will echo the words of the Heavenly Bridegroom himself, "Drink, yes, drink abundantly, O beloved."

The wisdom of imbibing freely of the love of Christ shall never be questioned even by the pure spirits in heaven; this is the wine which they themselves quaff in everlasting bowls at the right hand of God, and the Lord of glory himself bids them quaff it to their fill. This is the highest delight of all who know Christ, and have been born again by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit; this is our greatest joy while here below, and we can never have too much of it. Yes, we may even swim in this sea of bliss, and there shall be none who shall dare to ask any one of us, "What do you there?" Many delightsome things, many earthly joys, many of the pleasures of this world, are very questionable enjoyments. Christians had better keep away from everything about which their consciences are not perfectly clear; but all our consciences are clear concerning the Lord Jesus, and our heart's love to him; so that, in this respect, his love is better than wine.

Christ's love is also better than wine, because it is to be had without money. Many a man has beggared himself, and squandered his estate, through his love of worldly pleasure, and especially through his fondness for wine; but the love of Christ is to be had without money. What says the Scripture? "Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." The love of Christ is 'unpurchased'; and I may add that it is 'unpurchasable'. Solomon says, in the eighth chapter of this Book, "If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be scorned," and we may as truly say, "If a man would give all the substance of his house for the love of Christ, it would be utterly scorned." The love of Jesus comes to his people freely; not because they deserve it, or ever will deserve it; not because, by any merits of their own, they have won it, or by any prayers of their own, they have secured it: it is spontaneous love; it flows from the heart of Christ because it must come, like the a stream that leaps from an ever-flowing fountain. If you ask why Jesus loves his people, we can give no other reason than this-"Because it seemed good in his sight."

Christ's love is the freest thing in the world, ù free as the sunbeam, free as the mountain torrent, free as the air. It comes to the child of God without purchase and without merit, and in this respect it is better than wine.

Again, Christ's love is better than wine because it is to be enjoyed without cloying. The sweetest matter on earth, which is for a while pleasant to the taste, sooner or later cloys upon the palate. If you find honey, you can soon eat so much of it that you wilt no longer relish its sweetness; but the love of Jesus never yet cloyed upon the palate of a new-born soul. He who has had most of Christ's love has cried, "More! More! More!" If ever there was a man on earth who had Christ's love in him to the full, it was holy Samuel Rutherford; yet you can see in his letters how he labored for suitable expressions, while trying to set forth his hungering and thirsting after the love of Christ. He says he floated upon Christ's love like a ship upon a river, and then he quaintly asks that his vessel may sink, and go to the bottom, till that blessed stream shall flow right over the masthead of his ship. He wanted to be baptized into the love of Christ, to be flung into the ocean of his Savior's love; and this is what the true Christian ever longs for.

No lover of the Lord Jesus has ever said that he has had enough of Christ's love. When Madame Guyon had spent many a day and many a month in the sweet enjoyment of the love of Jesus, she penned most delicious hymns concerning it; but they are all full of craving after more, there is no indication that she wished for any change of affection to her Lord, or any change in the object of her affection. She was satisfied with Christ, and longed to have more and more of his love. Ah, poor drunkard! you may put away the cup of devils because you are satiated with its deadly draught; but never did he who drinks of the wine of Christ's love become satiated or even content with it; he ever desires more and yet more of it.

Further, Christ's love is better than wine, because it is without lees. All wine has something in it which renders it imperfect, and liable to corruption; there is something that will have to settle, something that must be skimmed off the top, something that needs refining down. So is it with all the joys of earth, there is sure to be something in them that mars their perfection. Men have sought out many inventions of mirth and pleasure, amusement and delight; but they have always found some hitch or flaw somewhere. Solomon gathered to himself all manner of pleasant things that are the delight of kings; he gives us a list of them in the Book of Ecclesiastes: "I made great works for myself; I built houses for myself; I planted vineyards for myself: I made gardens and orchards for myself, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I made pools of water, to water the woods that brings forth trees: I got servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me: I gathered also silver and gold for myself, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I got men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments, and that of all sorts;" but his verdict concerning all of them was, "Behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit."

But he who delights himself in the love of Christ will tell you that he finds no vanity and vexation of spirit there; but everything to charm and rejoice and satisfy the heart. There is nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ that we could wish to have taken away from him; there is nothing in his love that is impure, nothing that is unsatisfactory. Our precious Lord is comparable to the most fine gold; there is no alloy in him; no, there is nothing that can be compared with him, for "He is altogether lovely," all perfections melted into one perfection, and all beauties combined into one inconceivable beauty. Such is the Lord Jesus, and such is his love to his people without anything of imperfection needing to be removed.

The love of Christ, too, blessed be his name! is better than wine, because it will never, as wine will, turn sour. In certain stages of development, and under certain influences, the sweet ferments, and vinegar is formed instead of wine. Oh, through what fermentations Christ's love might have passed if it had been capable of being acted upon by anything from outside of him! Oh, how often, beloved, have we grieved him! We have been cold and chill towards him when we ought to have been like coals of fire. We have loved the things of this world, we have been unfaithful to our Best-beloved, we have allowed our hearts to wander to other lovers; yet never has he been soured toward us, and never will he be. Many waters cannot quench his love, neither can the floods drown it. He is the same loving Savior now as ever he was, and such he always will be, and he will bring us to the rest which remains for the people of God. Truly, in all these respects, because there are none of these imperfections in his love, it is better than wine.

Once more, Christ's love is better than wine, because it produces no ill effects. Many are the mighty men who have fallen down slain by wine. Solomon says, "Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine." But who was ever slain by the love of Christ? Who was ever made wretched by this love? We have been inebriated with it, for the love of Christ sometimes produces a holy exhilaration that makes men say, "Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell." There is an elevation that lifts the soul above all earthly things, and bears the spirit up beyond where eagles soar, even into the clear atmosphere where God communes with men. There is all that sacred exhilaration about the love of Christ; but there are no evil effects arising from it. He that desires, may drink from this golden chalice, and he may drink as much as he will, for the more he drinks the stronger and the better shall he be.

Oh, may God grant to us, dear friends, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge! I feel sure that, while I am preaching on such a theme as this, I must seem to some here present, to be talking arrant nonsense, for they have never tasted of the love of Jesus; but those who have tasted of it will, perhaps, by my words, have many sweet experiences called to their minds, which will refresh their spirits, and set them longing to have new draughts of this all-precious love which infinitely transcends all the joys of earth.

This, then, is our first point: Christ's love is better than wine because of what it is not.

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