Romans 5:5 And hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. I. THE LOVE OF GOD. If you would have this love shed abroad in your hearts you must consider carefully — 1. Who it is that loves you, namely, the most high God. To be loved is a sublime thought, but to be loved of Him is a right royal thing, A courtier will often think it quite enough if he hath the favour of his prince. It means riches, pleasure, honour. And what means the love of the King of kings to you? All that you ever can need. 2. What He is who so loves you. Very much of the value of affection depends upon whom it comes from. It would be a very small thing to have the complacency of some of our fellow creatures whose praise might almost be considered censure. To have the love of the good, the excellent, this is truest wealth; and so to enjoy the love of God is an utterly priceless thing! 3. The remarkable characteristics of that love, (1) It is heaven born; it sprang from no source but itself, and is not caused by any excellence in the creature. (2) It is self-sustaining. It borrows nothing from without. It lives, and shall live as long as God lives. (3) Utterly unbounded and altogether unequalled. You cannot say of God's love it has gone thereto, but it shall go no further. There is no love that can any more be compared with God's than the faint gleam of a candle with the blaze of the sun at noonday. He loves His people so much that He gives them all that He hath. (4) It is unvarying and unsleeping. He never loves us less, He cannot love us more. The multiplicity of the saints doth not diminish the infinite love which each one enjoys. Never for a single moment does He forget His Church. (5) It is undying and unfailing. II. THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD. Here is an alabaster box of very precious ointment, it holds within the costly frankincense of the love of God; but we know nothing of it, it is closed up, a mystery, a secret. The Holy Spirit opens the box, and now the fragrance fills the chamber; every spiritual taste perceives it, heaven and earth are perfumed with it. 1. No one can shed abroad the love of God in the heart but the Holy Ghost. It is He that first puts it there. 2. Do you inquire in what way is the love of God shed abroad? (1) The Holy Spirit enables the man to be assured that he is an object of the Divine love in the first place. The man comes to the Cross as a guilty sinner, looks up to the Cross, trusts in the living Saviour, and then cries, "I am saved, for I have God's promise to that effect. Now, since I am saved, I must have been the object of the Lord's love."(2) Next thing, the Spirit makes the man understand what kind of love this is, not all at once, but by degrees, until he apprehends Jehovah's love in its length and breadth and height. (3) But then comes the essence of the matter — the Holy Spirit enables the soul to meditate upon this love, casts out the cares of the world, and then the man, while he meditates, finds a fire begins to burn within his soul. Meditating yet more, he is lifted up from the things of earth. Meditating still, he is astonished, and then, filled with strong emotion, he cries, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." Then while gratitude is still within his soul a Divine resignation to all the Master's will keeps rule within him. Then follows a rapturous leaping over this devout calm, a joy unutterable, next akin to heaven, fills the heart. III. THIS LOVE BECOMES THE CONFIRMATION OF OUR HOPE. Hope rests itself mainly upon that which is not seen; the promise of God whom eye hath not beheld. Still it is exceedingly sweet to us if we receive some evidence and token of Divine love which we can positively enjoy even now. And there are some of us who do not want Butler's "Analogy" or Paley's "Evidences" to back our faith; we have our own analogy and our own evidences within, for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we have tasted and seen that the Lord is gracious. (C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. |
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