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I asked Tim Weber if I could
take this hour this morning, and I may take this hour over
the next several mornings simply because I don't want Ruth to
get hung between when I'm here and when
I'm not here. I want to cover as much ground
as possible before Judy and I have to go
to Houston, which we're hoping that we get to do. The Book of
Ruth, Chapter 2, and the Song of Solomon. We'll be looking
at several passages in the Song of Solomon. I hardly know where to begin
this morning to organize myself or tell you where
I am going in this discussion. Most simply, it is a perpetuation
or a continuation of the discussion we had a few weeks ago when I
talk to you about romantic love and I want to continue a discussion
today about romantic love particularly the concept of falling in love
as it relates to the book of Ruth and in a more profound way
in the song of Solomon and also today I'm going to do something
a little risky which is to bring into our discussion a couple
of secular poets Charles Williams William Wordsworth and One of
the greatest poets ever Dante and his classical work the divine
comedy Bringing the secular poet or
philosopher in the sphere of theological discussion is a dangerous
thing to do For one of two reasons one if you're a bad preacher
and the beauty of the poet will always eclipse the paltry presentation
of your superficial theology. And I dare say that I find more
glory in William Wordsworth than I do Charles Stanley. And I find
more glory in Dante than I do Adrian Rogers. And I mention
popular evangelical Baptists simply because I am sick to death
of the pitiful superficiality that characterizes Baptists. The best radio programs on Sunday
morning are the Methodists and the Catholics. And occasionally
I turn on my radio and listen to a good Catholic or a good
Methodist on my way to church simply because what's available
here at First Baptist wherever is inferior to what the better
Methodists and the better Catholics are saying. And when you add
to that the power of the secular poet whose depth and beauty of
language vastly surpasses what is accepted and popular in evangelicalism,
then it becomes a risk to introduce the poet if you're a bad preacher.
So you'll have to make your own determination whether my preaching
is luminary that outshines the glories of Wordsworth and Dante
or not. The second risk is that poetry
and philosophy should be the handmaidens and not the mistresses
or queens of theology. In the 19th century especially,
great institutions like Harvard and Princeton compromised the
royal supremacy of scripture by bowing to the elements, particularly
of philosophy in literature. And today, if you attend a theological
discussion at Harvard or Princeton, you'll find that philosophy rules
theology, whereas the opposite should be true. Theology should
rule philosophy. Now, having expressed these cautions,
let me remind you that our greatest theologians, Augustine, would
be a premium example of someone who used both philosophy and
poetry to complement his explications of theology. Benjamin Breckenridge,
Warfield, A.H. Strong, to a lesser degree Charles
Hodge, and certainly Charles Haddon Spurgeon all used poetry
and philosophy to undergird, complement, and sometimes illustrate
their theological ideas. The other thing I want to sensitize
you today is the distinction between special grace and common
grace. All these things are going to
merge together in our discussion this morning, probably at 9.45
and at 11 a.m. But you should be reminded of
the distinction between special grace and common grace. Common
grace is that grace of God that appears to all men. Breath. is a common grace. Life is a
common grace. Health is a common grace. Nourishment is a common grace.
And as we shall see this morning, most glorious of the common graces
is the common grace of romantic love. Special grace is the grace
of God, particular to His chosen people. Special grace manifests
itself in the operations of providence, in the lives of His people, whereby
He shapes them with spatial destiny to His purposes. Special grace
Relates to the work of regeneration in the life of the believer special
grace relates to sanctification and revelation and maturing understanding
of God's holy words special grace relates to power in witnessing
Etc. Etc. Etc Romantic love is in
both dimensions of common and special grace. So here's a summary
of my introductory points. One, our topic today is romantic
love. Two, there's a synthesis in our
discussion of theology and philosophy as expressed in poetry. And three,
we need to keep in mind distinctions between common and special grace,
both of which are the domains of romantic love. Now in Ruth
chapter 2, Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man
of wealth of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. And Ruth
the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field and
glean ears of corn after him, in whose sight I shall find grace. And note the element of faith
there. She didn't know who he was, but she of a certainty knew
that when she found him, whom her soul desired she would find
grace in his eyes. And glean ears of corn after
him in whose sight I shall find grace. And Naomi said unto her,
Go, my daughter. And she went, and came, and gleaned
in the field after the reapers, and her hat was to light on a
part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred
of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And said unto the reapers, Yahweh
be with you. And they answered him, Yahweh
bless thee. Then said Boaz unto his servant
that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this? Whose damsel is this? This is
a normal, logical, and expected question. in that Boaz probably
would have recognized Ruth as a stranger in his field, and
therefore it would have been normal, expected, and logical
for Boaz to inquire as to the identity of this unknown gleaner. However, as the subsequent narrative
of Ruth continues, we know that Boaz's interest in Ruth increases
greatly. and becomes much more than a
passing curiosity about a strange damsel in this vineyard. So we
might safely speculate, therefore, that Boaz's first impression
of Ruth was much more than a momentary and inquisitive glance towards
an unknown gleaner, but very well may have been that other
phenomenon we call falling in love. Whose damsel is this? I want to talk about falling in
love in relation to both the secular sphere of common grace
and the sacred sphere of special grace and reiterate that falling
in love is an experience common to both spheres, the spheres
of common grace and the sphere of special grace, the secular
and the sacred. And I might add a point to this
as well. That is, falling in love occurs
in the secular sphere and the sacred sphere. In both cases,
falling in love is an experience which engenders revelation. Falling in love in the secular
sphere evokes divine revelation, and falling in love in the sacred
sphere evokes divine revelation as well. Let me talk a moment
about divine revelation as it relates to secular poets and
philosophers versus sacred theologians. Frank Gablein says, quote, all
truth is God's truth, unquote. And we believe that, do we not?
Whether it's in science or mathematics or whatever field, all truth
is God's truth. And that idea of Dr. Gablein,
that all truth is God's truth, is an expression which recognizes
the activity and agency of God in revelation, whether that revelation
be general and common, or particular and special. God is the source
of all revelation. Secular literature is as much
the sphere of divine revelation as is sacred literature, though
not to the same degree of perfection. Let me give you an example in
which sacred literature is the sphere of divine revelation.
You know that the history of the Greeks is such that they
were polytheists. They believed in many gods. But
Socrates and his student Plato became the popularizers of a
new view of deity in the dialogues of Plato. that new view of deity
being monotheism, and you see this on Mars Hill with the Apostle
Paul, do you not, as the Romans inherit the polytheism of the
Greeks, where Paul sees the altar erected to quote the unknown
God, and Paul says, this is the God I want to talk to you about,
whom you ignorantly worship. Plato was a monotheist, and his
writings or secular media to communicate the truth of monotheism. And if you study the great theologian
Augustine, you will learn that Augustine is highly dependent
in his pre-Christian days upon Plato for his understanding of
God. The second thing you'll see in
the writings of Augustine is not only that in his pre-Christian
days he was dependent upon Plato, but after he became a Christian,
Augustine felt very strongly that Plato could communicate
profound truths about deity. In Augustine's words, quote,
Plato showed me what God was. Paul showed me who God was. Unquote. So we see in the writings
of Plato an evidence of general revelation in common grace. And
I would argue you see this in almost all literature, particularly
the literature of the literary world, as opposed to science
and mathematics. I teach many secular writers,
such as Ernest Hemingway, and there's a tremendous amount of
truth in the writings of Ernest Hemingway, especially as it relates
to the fallenness of human nature. Hemingway is a tremendous tool
to illustrate the doctrine of total hereditary depravity. Sigmund
Freud has profound insight to the human psyche, as does Carl
Jung, both of whom, in part at least, can corroborate Christian
doctrine. Freud is more the friend than
the enemy of Paul. And I think there are even redemptive
qualities of truth in Darwin, not the least of which, in Tennyson's
words, is that, quote, nature is red in tooth and claw, unquote. The violence of nature attesting
again to the fall of man. But there's one particular area
of common grace that I want to focus on today, which is really
the ultimate subject matter of both the secular and the sacred
poet. That is the idea of falling in
love. Now if you had a favorite song
when you were 16, what are the odds that it had something to
do with love? Or if you have a favorite novel,
what are the odds it has something to do with love? Or if you have
a favorite poem Or God forbid that you listen
to country music. What are the odds that the subject
matter has to do with something regarding love? Isn't love the primary interest
of all poets, whether bad poets or good poets? Why, certainly
it is. And what I'm getting at here
is that love, thus perceived and experienced by
poets, evidences their entrance into the experience of common
grace. Romantic love being an advent
of common grace. Of course, we see this in the
sacred poetry of Solomon more than any other. The holiest of
holies in the Old Testament is the Song of Solomon. What is
it? It is a love poem. Now, when we think about love, really there are four dimensions
to it that relate to both secular and sacred experience. And they
are as follows. The paternal, the maternal, the
fraternal, and the marital. Maternal, maternal, fraternal,
and marital. And all those dimensions of love,
even in the common sphere of the secular, sensitize humanity
to the nature of divine love, do they not? God is love, says
the apostle. And even the alien darkened primitive,
can have a sense of the meaning and experience of divine love
if he is a father. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so doth the Lord God pity them that fear him. The
pagan mother knows something of the maternal nature of God,
which is an earthly witness to an heavenly reality. And when
love is fraternally expressed within a family, brother-to-brother,
brother-to-sister, sister-to-sister, or within a community, neighbor-to-neighbor,
friend-to-friend. When fraternal love manifests
itself in secular communities and societies, fraternal love,
apart from special grace, is nonetheless a participation in
the grace of God, which commonly bestows this capacity for fraternal
love upon all humanity. And this is what the nobler politicians
of the world are seeking, the realization of fraternal love
among the nations. They're seeking, though they
don't know why, to enter into the divine ideal, thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. So, paternal love, maternal love,
and paternal love, all evidence to the common grace of God throughout
all cultures universally and historically. But, in Holy Scripture,
the highest expression of divine love is not in the relationship
between a father and a child, though we see this particularly
in the writings of Paul and in the prayers of Jesus. nor between
the mother and the child, though indeed God does liken himself
sometimes to a mother who loves her children, nor merely in fraternal
affection. Jesus said, greater love hath
no man than this, and that a man lay down his life for his friends.
The supremest expression of the divine love is the marital sphere. marital or romantic love. And therefore the experience
of falling in love, even in the secular heart, must be an experience
that somehow enters into the divine, though short of regeneration,
sanctification and glorification. Now, if you think about love
poetry this way, if you think about love songs this way, if
you think about novels this way, secular songs, secular poems,
secular literature, are they not all evidences of and quests
for the divine? What is the poet singing when
he sings of love but singing a hope for the ideal a hope for
the ultimately good and completely perfect and so while you may
hear me on occasion demean country music within its abilities and
spheres as it relates to love it is a pitiful inquiry into
a divine reality. The same thing is true of the
secular poets. They are, as defined by human
ability, glorious inquiries into the participation of a divine
reality which they do not understand. The same thing could be said
of great music. great art as well. They're questing,
and their theme is love, they're questing for something they sense
but do not know. The poet Dante describes this
experience of the secular experience in pursuit of divine love as
the oracles of the Cumaean Sybil The oracle at Delphi had a sybil
which expressed his mind. And the way the sybil expressed
the mind of the oracle, the sybil would write the words of the
oracle with leaves and leave a brief impression upon the eye
of the beholder that communicated the truth, but then the wind
would come and blow the leaves away. And all poetry, all love
songs, all novels which attest to a noble quest for love are
like the leaves of the Cumaean Sybil. They write as it were
with disappearing leaves and impress a brief glimpse of the
divine word and mind. So I think we can look with pity.
hope, and with some assurance that we can discover truth upon
the secular poets and philosophers as they deal with love, particularly
marital love. Now, when Boaz asks, whose damsel
is this? Had he already fallen in love? Was this love at first sight. Well, I think very possibly it
was and if not then certainly shortly thereafter. I want to
give you four or five effects of falling in love which happens
to every person who falls in love. Let me briefly define for
you from C.S. Lewis's allegory of love what
it means to fall in love. Lewis defines love as one of
two kinds either Venus or Eros and that's confusing for Christians
because we tend to think of Eros as bad love but Lewis defines
love as Venus or Eros and here's the difference in Lewis Venus
for Lewis is just the inclination of a man towards a woman Really
not towards a woman but towards women or conversely of a woman
towards men it's the force if you will of Love itself, but
Eros for Williams is love crowned with nobility And Christian theology
we might say love crowned with holiness It's love that becomes
focused upon one object. Love crowned with monogamy, if
you will. Lewis, Charles Williams, Wordsworth,
Dante, all address this experience of love becoming focused on a
single individual. And you cannot argue the reality
that this happens in the secular sphere. In fact, one of the best
things that can happen to an unbeliever if he falls in love
with a woman whom he can love. This singular moment where love
becomes focused in a singular individual. And these poets say
that this love experience does the following things. And listen,
we're going to discuss these secularly and then discuss them
theologically. Falling in love, even in the
secular sphere, generates a state of karitas, k-a-r-i-t-a-s, karitas,
from the Greek word grace. And what are we talking about?
Common grace. Falling in love, even among secular
parties, generates a state of karitas, a state of grace. Not
special grace, not saving grace, but common grace. And this state
of common grace in the unbeliever who falls in love has the following
effects upon him. First, it renovates the nature
of the beholder. Now let me stop there and camp
a moment. Falling in love renovates the
nature of the beholder. What happened to Boaz when he
saw Ruth? Well, it's hard to explain. And
those many of you men who confessed a couple of weeks ago that you
fell in love with your wife at first sight, what happened? Well,
it's hard to explain, isn't it? Well, I submit it renovated your
nature for the better. It had a renovating
effect upon you. And William Wordsworth, describes
this experience, and let me say a word about this renovating
experience of common grace. You can experience a kind of
internal renovation in any number of ways in the natural order. Have you ever been thrilled internally
to look at a mountain? Every time I see a red-tailed
hawk in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, I am thrilled in my
soul. Words were said my heart leaps
up when I behold a rainbow in the sky. And the history and
anthologies of secular poets attest to this power of natural
experience to sublimate the soul. to cause the soul to transcend
in some kind of adoration and wonder, even if it be the adoration
of mere nature. So this powerful experience of
the sublime is something that the secular mind and heart knows,
especially in romantic love. In beautiful words, Wordsworth
says, quote, There are in our existence spots of time that
with distinct preeminence retain a renovating virtue. And the round of ordinary intercourse,
our minds are nourished and invisibly repaired. For the Romantic poets,
this was the contemplation of nature. Wordsworth, Thoreau,
Emerson, Keats felt that by meditating upon nature, the human soul could
be ennobled. And you know what? I do believe
that is true, even for the secular unbeliever. Wordsworth complains
in another poem, the world is too much with us of late. Getting and spending we lay waste
our powers and little we see in nature that is ours. This loss of a genteel and yet
profound sensitivity to nature was, for the Romantic poets,
the great tragedy of the 19th century. And those of you who
live in our society, especially if you teach children, know how
out of touch children are to the wonders of nature. Technology
has preempted nature as the primary experience of youth and adulthood. And I believe that is a great
tragedy. in our generation. Nature, as
you know, is one of the preeminent media through which the prophets
and the poets and Jesus Christ himself sought to touch the mind
and heart of their hearers. How many biblical metaphors do
you know of? How many personifications of
Christ can you think of? Are cast in the language of Nature
I am the light of the world. I am the bread of life. I am
the true vine. I am the water of life Etc, etc,
etc the modern sensibility Has been dead and dying to nature
since the 19th century Well when an old boy Sees a girl and falls in love with her, though
he cannot explain it, he is experiencing, in the sphere of common grace,
this profound renovation of nature that we call falling in love. And as such, that means that
there is not only a basis for you and me to talk about love
with the secular unbeliever, but there is also a precondition
of great hope that they may come to know the love of God. And
thus God appeals to men that Christ is the Bridegroom, the
Church the Bride, that God is the Father, the Christian, the
Child, etc., etc. So it renovates the nature of
the beholder. A second impact of romantic love,
listen carefully, it creates in the worshipper, the worshipper
being the one who looks upon his beloved and adores her, or
she upon him and adores him. Falling in love creates in the
worshipper an ethical deference to the object of adoration and
affection. Let me repeat that. Falling in
love creates in the worshipper an ethical deference to the object
of adoration and affection. Now the most common way we hear
and see this is in marital vows. When the unbeliever falls in
love, as a rule, is he or she not eventually to stand before
the priest or the vicar or the pastor and hear these words? I take thee to be my lawfully
wedded wife or husband, for better or for worse, in sickness
and in health, in riches or in poverty, to love, cherish, care
for, and honor forsaking all others till death do us part? Even the secular and liberal
spheres of professing Christianity recognize the ethical demand
of the experience of falling in love. And how many old boys,
wild ones at that, have been brought to their heart's knees
by meeting the right woman? and to the altar upon their knees
as well, willing at least in that moment to say, forsaking
all others with this ring, I thee wed. And is this not again an
evidence of the participation of the secular individual in the
common grace of God, whereby Falling in love has moral or
ethical power on that individual. Falling in love renovates the
nature of the beholder and it creates in the worshipper an
ethical deference to the object of adoration and affection. Charles Spurgeon loved lawn bowling.
And he loved lawn bowling because he knew it was the favorite pastime
of Oliver Cromwell, John Owen, and John Milton. And in his yard,
Spurgeon used to bowl and try to imagine that Cromwell and
Owen and Milton were with him, bowling. If you'd gone to Spurgeon's
home on a Saturday afternoon, you might have found him lawn
bowling, if not in his garden. And he may have said, come join
me in Cromwell. and Owen Milton, the great Puritan
poet. In Paradise Lost and Regained
by John Milton, which is one of the two great love poems,
epic poems of all time, the other being Dante's Divine Comedy,
Milton seeks to describe poetically what may have been the effect
of Adam when he first met Eve. And it is my favorite passage
in all literature about how a man should behold the woman he loves. Listen how beautiful this is,
Adam speaking through Milton's pen. Quote. When I approach her
loveliness, and let me say, what are we getting at here? We're
getting at adoration. And adoration as a participation
at least in common grace, and if more than that, adoration
as a medium to the discovery of the divine through marital
love in the sacred sphere. When I approach her loveliness,
so absolute she seems, and in herself complete, so well to
know her own, that what she wills to do or say seems wisest, virtuousest,
discreetest, best. All higher knowledge in her presence
falls, degraded. Wisdom in discourse with her
loses, discountenanced, and like folly shows. authority and reason
on her weight, as one intended first, not after made, and to
consummate all, greatness of mind and nobleness their seat
build in her loveliest, and create an awe about her as a guard angelic
placed. Adam adored Eve. And this experience of adoration
in romantic love is replicated every time someone falls in love
in the secular or sacred sphere of life. Now, when you think
about the original creation of man and woman, God said let us
make plural man. Adam is plural. in our image. And as Milton said, Eve was no
afterthought. It's only in the narrative that
Eve is an afterthought. Not in the original mind of God.
He says, let us make the atom in our image. Male and female,
God says. And the original intent of the
divine and the creation of man and woman was that in both of
them there would be a reciprocal expression of divinity. Or, to state it more simply,
man and woman, as one, would be a reflection of God. And isn't
the original expression of the image of God in creation, in
the union between Adam and Eve? And in that union, isn't therefore
inherently, there inherently, a medium to the appreciation
of God. And you see this emphasis upon
the metaphor of marriage throughout Holy Scripture as the grand expression
of God's relationship to God and God's relationship to man.
Whether it's the prophet Jeremiah, or the prophet Hosea, or the
Song of Solomon, or the book Revelation. Or John the Baptist
standing by the river saying, Behold the bridegroom. This grand,
glorious expression of the divine image in the marital relationship
between man and woman is the supreme expression of God's love. And my point is that when the
fallen, unregenerate, secular individual enters into love,
it's the common grace of God. It does have a renovative effect
upon the nature of that individual. It does create in that individual
a sense of adoration. Let's stop there just a minute
and think about that sense of adoration. And here's a point
to practically convict ourselves about our spouses and the phenomenon
of adoration in our marriages. We ought to adore our spouse. Almost. Almost. We ought to adore our
spouse. And here's a practical exhortation
for those of you who are unmarried. Don't marry anyone whom you don't
adore. Like Judy did. Don't marry anyone whom you don't
adore. If your attraction to an individual
can't approach a religious experience, don't do it. Because it evidences
that you participate not in the sphere of grace as you express
your interest in this individual. There's no condemnation against
you men who didn't fall in love at first sight, but I say it's
better if you can. There's a sudden, powerful, overwhelming,
realization and revelation of love that swallows you with its
power, that's closer and more immediate to the divine. Love is a kind of adoration and
as such it partakes, if only minimally, it nonetheless partakes
of the nature of divine love as adorational. At one point, and we'll close
and come back, go back to all those country songs, all those
movies, all those odes to love. How many of them express love
in the language of worship? Let me ask you to do something
sometime. Take the language of a country
song or a secular song and then apply it to God and see if it
doesn't work. Many of those odes to love about
the person loved, if you take the person loved away from the
human and make it Christ and apply the words to Christ, you'll
see that the song perfectly fits a tune of adoration to the Lord
Jesus Christ. I've done this many times with
many songs. So the point is that Literature,
secularly, or philosophy, secular attest to the experience of divine
love and common grace as surely as falling in love does for the
secular individual. In the broadest cultural sense,
my last point, how do the human quests for love culminate in
pagan and darkened societies? Not merely in poetry. In religions. Haven't cultures historically
erected icons to love? Expressing the whole passionate
beating of the culture's heart to worship this experience? Aphrodite? Venus? Cupid, all these icons
of love in broad cultural experience evidence that the experience
of falling in love witnesses even to the unregenerate human
heart that it is an experience of and on a quest for the divine. And thus our poetry and our music
and even our worship in pagan and darken cultures give evidence
to The fact that falling in love is somehow an entrance into the
divine experience of love in common grace. Let's stand together. And we will come back in the
second hour and talk about this more from a theological standpoint
as it relates to Boaz and more specifically the Song of Solomon.
Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we pray
that we would have a deeper appreciation of the power of love, and especially
that it may be practically and passionately experienced in our
own marriages, that the love of God in Christ Jesus for the
Church may be replicated in our homes, that we, as He, may love
our wives passionately, and that she, as the Church of God, may
love the bridegroom. And Father, we pray also that
we would learn to appreciate the darkened, but nonetheless
real attempts of human culture to know love. And we ask that
you help us use these media to touch the lives of lost people
who search for and even experience that which they do not understand.
And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
Romantic Love
Falling in Love expressed in the book of Ruth
| Sermon ID | 62903165540 |
| Duration | 46:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Ruth 2 |
| Language | English |
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