{"id":2453,"date":"2013-03-16T09:10:06","date_gmt":"2013-03-16T09:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2453"},"modified":"2013-03-16T09:10:06","modified_gmt":"2013-03-16T09:10:06","slug":"unquenchable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=2453","title":{"rendered":"Unquenchable!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Unquenchable!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>(Bonar, \u201cThe Love That Passes Knowledge\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cMany waters cannot quench love; neither<\/strong> <strong>can rivers drown it.\u201d<\/strong> Song of Solomon 8:7<\/p>\n<p>Let us take this verse as descriptive of <strong>the love<\/strong> <strong>of Christ<\/strong>, the \u201clove that passes knowledge.\u201d \u00a0Nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell is able to extinguish or cool <strong>the love of Christ<\/strong>; the one love whose dimensions are beyond all measure!<br \/>\nIt is <strong>unquenchable!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. The waters of SHAME AND SUFFERING sought to <strong>quench<\/strong> and drown it. They would have hindered its outflowing, and come (like Peter) between the<br \/>\nSavior and the cross; but this love refused to be arrested on its way to Calvary; it would not be either <strong>quenched<\/strong> or drowned. Herein was love! It overleaped all the barriers in its way. Its fire would \u00a0not be <strong>quenched<\/strong>, its life would not be drowned!<\/p>\n<p>2. The waters of DEATH sought to <strong>quench<\/strong> it. Their waves and billows went over him. The grave sought to cool or <strong>quench<\/strong> it; but it proved itself stronger<br \/>\nthan death. Neither death nor the grave could alter or weaken it. It  came out of both as strong as before. Love defied death, and overcame  it!<\/p>\n<p>3. The waters of OUR UNWORTHINESS could not <strong>quench<\/strong> nor drown love. In general we find love drawing to the loveable; and when anything unseemly<br \/>\noccurs, withdrawing from its object. Not so here. All our unfitness and unloveableness could not <strong>quench<\/strong> nor drown his love. It clung to the unlovely, and<br \/>\nrefused to be torn away!<\/p>\n<p>4. The waters of OUR LONG REJECTION sought to <strong>quench<\/strong> it. After the gospel had showed us that personal unworthiness could not  arrest the love of Christ, we continued to reject him and his love. Yet  his love surmounted this unbelief, and<br \/>\nsurvived this rejection. In spite of all it remained <strong>unquenched!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>5. The waters of OUR DAILY INCONSISTENCY sought to <strong>quench<\/strong> it. Even after we have believed, we are constantly coming short. Ah! what inconsistencies,<br \/>\ncoldness, backslidings, lukewarmness, doubtings, worldliness, and such like, are daily flowing over this love to <strong>quench<\/strong> its fire and drown its life! Yet it survives all; it remains <strong>unquenched <\/strong>and <strong>unquenchable!<\/strong> All these infinite evils in us are like \u201cwaters,\u201d \u201cmany waters\u201d; like  \u201cfloods\u201d; torrents of sin, waves and billows of evil; all constantly  laboring to <strong>quench<\/strong> and drown the love of Christ! And truly<br \/>\nthey would have annihilated any other love; any love less than divine.  But the love of Christ is unchangeable and everlasting! His love is  invincible, and irresistible as death; it is a jealous love, unyielding  and inexorable as the grave! All earth and heaven together would be  ineffectual to cool or <strong>quench<\/strong> His mighty love! The love of Christ truly passes knowledge. It is infinite like himself. It emerges out of every<br \/>\nstorm or flood. It survives all our unworthiness, and unbelief, and rejection!<\/p>\n<p>Here, then, is the love of Christ! Its breadth, length, height, and depth, are absolutely immeasurable!<\/p>\n<p>Sinner, resort immediately to the fountain of the Redeemer\u2019s blood,  while it is yet open. Come, without delay: \u201cWash, and be clean.\u201d \u201cThe  Spirit and the bride say, \u201cCome.\u201d Let each one who hears them say,  \u201cCome.\u201d Let the thirsty ones come\u2014anyone who wants to. Let them come and  drink the water of life without charge.\u201d If you thus come to the  fountain of living water, you will be able to adopt the language of  Cowper, and say\u2013<\/p>\n<p>There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel\u2019s veins<br \/>\nAnd sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains<\/p>\n<p>The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day;<br \/>\nAnd there may I, though vile as he Wash all my sins away Dear dying  Lamb, thy precious blood Shall never lose its power Till all the  ransomed church of God Are saved, to sin no more<br \/>\nFor since by faith I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply<br \/>\nRedeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die<\/p>\n<p>When this poor lisping, stammering tongue<br \/>\nLies silent in the grave Then in a nobler, sweeter song<br \/>\nI\u2019ll sing thy power to save\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 William Cowper, 1800.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unquenchable! (Bonar, \u201cThe Love That Passes Knowledge\u201d) \u201cMany waters cannot quench love; neither can rivers drown it.\u201d Song of Solomon 8:7 Let us take this verse as descriptive of the love of Christ, the \u201clove that passes knowledge.\u201d \u00a0Nothing in heaven, or earth, or hell is able to extinguish or cool the love of Christ; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,72],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-horatius-bonar","category-christ-and-his-church"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2453"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2454,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453\/revisions\/2454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}