The Personal Pentecost and the Glorious Hope
(No. 1904)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 13, 1886,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And hope makes us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us." Romans 5:5.
PENTECOST is repeated in the heart of every Believer. Let me give you a
little bit of historical analogy to illustrate the text. The Lord's
disciples were made to sorrow at His Cross. Sore was the tribulation
which came upon them as they thought upon His death and His burial in
Joseph's sepulcher. But after a little patience and experience, their
hope revived, for their Lord rose from the dead and they beheld Him
ascending into Heaven. Their hopes were bright concerning their Lord
who had gone into Glory and had left them a promise to come again and
to make them takers of His victory. After that hope had been begotten
in them, they were, in due time, made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
whose Divine influence was shed abroad upon them so that they were
filled with His power. Then were they made bold. They were not ashamed
of their hope, but proclaimed it by the preaching of Peter and the rest
of them. The Holy Spirit had visited them and, therefore, they
fearlessly proclaimed to the world the Lord Jesus, their hope of Glory.
Truly, history repeats itself. The history of our Lord is the
foreshadowing of the experience of all His people! That which happens
to the First-Born befalls, in measure, to all the Brethren. We have
before us in our text an admirable example. First comes our
tribulation, our agony, our cross-bearing. Out of our patience and
experience there arises, in due season, a blessed hope–we are
quickened by our Lord's resurrection life and come forth from our
sorrow! He raises us up from the grave of our woe. Then comes the
Divine visitation of the Holy Spirit and we enjoy our Pentecost–"The
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is
given unto us." I trust we know what this means and are now enjoying
it. Consequent upon that visitation, our hope becomes clear and
assured–and we are led to make a full outspoken testimony concerning
our hope and that blessed One who is the Substance of it. I hope that
many of us have already proved that we are not ashamed and that others
of you will yet do so. Our God has visited us in mercy and endowed us
with the Holy Spirit who is His choice gift to His children. The Holy
Spirit dwelling in us has caused us to know and feel the love of God
and now we cannot but speak and tell others of what the Lord has made
known to us! Thus, on a small scale, have we rehearsed a portion of
early Church history in our own personal story. You shall find that not
only in this case, but in all cases, the life of the Believer is in
miniature the life of Christ! He who originally said, "Let Us make man
in Our image," still, in the new creation, follows the model of Christ
in the new-making of chosen men!
Now let me give you a little passage of experimental mystery. You have
it here spread before you in a little map of the inner
life–"Tribulation works patience; and patience, experience; and
experience, hope: and hope makes not ashamed; because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto
us." This passage can only be fully understood by those people of God
who have had it written in capital letters on their own hearts.
"Tribulation works patience," says the Apostle. Naturally it is not so.
Tribulation works impatience and impatience misses the fruit of
experience and sours into hopelessness! Ask many who have buried a dear
child, or have lost their wealth, or have suffered pain of body and
they will tell you that the natural result of affliction is to produce
irritation against Providence, rebellion against God, questioning,
unbelief, petulance and all sorts of evils!
But what a wonderful alteration takes place when the heart is renewed
by the Holy Spirit! Then, but not till then, tribulation works
patience! He that is never troubled cannot exercise patience. Angels
cannot personally exhibit patience since they are not capable of
suffering. It is necessary to the possession and exercise of patience
that we should be tried– and a great degree of patience can only come
by a great degree of trial. You have heard of the patience of Job–did
he
learn it among his flocks, or with his camels, or with his children
when they were feasting? No, verily, he learned it when he sat among
the ashes and scraped himself with a potsherd–and his heart was heavy
because of the death of his children. Patience is a pearl which is only
found in the deep seas of affliction and only Divine Grace can find it
there, bring it to the surface and adorn the neck of faith with it!
It comes to pass that this patience works in us experience, that is, to
say, the more we endure, the more we test the faithfulness of God, the
more we prove His love and the more we perceive His wisdom. He that has
never endured may believe in the sustaining power of Grace, but he has
never had experience of it. You must put to sea to know the skill of
the Divine Pilot and you must be buffeted with tempest before you can
know His power over winds and waves. How can we see Jesus in His full
power unless there is a storm for Him to turn into a calm? Our patience
works in us an experimental acquaintance with the truth, the
faithfulness, the love and the power of our God. We bow in patience and
then we rise in happy experience of heavenly support! What better
wealth can a man have than to be rich in experience? Experience
teaches. This is the real High School for God's children. I scarcely
think we learn anything thoroughly without the rod of affliction.
Certainly we know best that which has been a matter of personal
experience. We need that Truth of God should be burned into us with the
hot iron of affliction before we know it effectively–after that, no
man may trouble us, for our heart bears the brand of the Lord Jesus!
Thus patience works experience.
It is rather amazing that it should then be said, "and experience works
hope"–not amazing in the sense of being questionable, for there is no
hope so bright as that of the man who knows, by experience, the
faithfulness and love of God. But does it not seem singular that this
heavy tribulation, this grievous affliction, this painful chastisement
should, nevertheless, bring forth for us this bright particular light,
this morning star of hope, this herald of the everlasting day of Glory?
Brothers and Sisters, how wonderfully does Divine alchemy fetch fine
gold out of metal which we thought to be worthless! The Lord, in His
Grace, spreads a couch for His own upon the threshing floor of
tribulation and there, like Boaz, we take our rest! He sets to music
the roar of the floods of trouble. Out of the foam of the sea of sorrow
He causes to arise the bright spirit of "hope that makes not ashamed."
This passage from which we have taken our text is a choice extract from
the inner life of a spiritual man! It is a fragment of the Believer's
riddle–let him read it that has understanding.
Before I plunge into my subject, let me point out to you that this text
is none other than the House of God and the gate of Heaven. Behold a
Temple for the worship of the Divine Trinity in my text. Read the fifth
and sixth verses together–"The love of God (the Father) is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."
Behold the blessed Three in One! It needs the Trinity to make a
Christian! It needs the Trinity to cheer a Christian! It needs the
Trinity to complete a Christian! It needs the Trinity to create in a
Christian the hope of Glory! I always like these passages which bring
us so near to the Trinity. Let us pause a while and adore–"Glory be
unto the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end! Amen." It
is most sweet to be called upon to offer special worship unto the one
God in the Trinity of His Divine Persons and to feel your heart readily
inclined thereto, as we do at this hour. By faith we bow with the hosts
of the redeemed before the all-glorious Throne of God and worship Him
that lives forever. How heartily may we do this when we think of the
unity of the Sacred Three in our salvation! We have Divine Love
bestowed by the Father, made manifest in the death of the Son and shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit! Oh, to feel, at this moment,
communion with the Triune God! Let us bow before the sacred majesty of
Jehovah and then, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, let us enter the
Temple of our text!
The text runs thus: "Hope makes not ashamed, because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us."
The Apostle had worked up the subject till he came to the hope of
Glory. When he had reached that height, he could not help saying
something concerning it. Turning away from his main subject, as is
often his custom, he makes a diversion and gives us a few glowing
sentences upon the Believer's hope.
Our first head will be the confidence of our hope–the hope makes not
ashamed. Secondly, the reason of this confidence, which I hope we are
enjoying, today, for we are so confident about our hope that we shall
never be disappointed in it because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. Thirdly, we shall
have a word or two to say upon the result of this confidence of hope,
since, for this cause we bear testimony to the world and declare that
we are not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.
I. First then, consider THE CONFIDENCE OF OUR HOPE. We are not ashamed
of our hope. Some persons have no hope, or only one of which they might
justly be ashamed. Ask many who deny the Scriptures, what is their hope
for the future. "I shall die like a dog," says one. "When I am dead
that's the end of me." If I had such a wretched hope as that, I
certainly would not go about the world proclaiming it! I would not
think of gathering a large congregation like this and saying to you,
"Brothers and Sisters, rejoice with me, for we are all to die like cats
and dogs." It would never strike me as being a matter to be gloried in.
The Agnostic knows nothing and, therefore, I suppose he hopes nothing.
Here, also, I do not see much to stir enthusiasm. If I had no more hope
than that, I would be ashamed.
The Romanist's best hope when he dies is that he may come right in the
end, but that, in the meantime, he will have to undergo the purging
fires of "purgatory." I do not know much about that place, for I cannot
find mention of it in Holy Scripture–but those who know it well,
because they invented it, and keep its keys–describe it as a dreary
region to which even great bishops and cardinals must go! I have
seen,personally seen, invitations to the faithful to pray for the
repose of the soul of a late eminent cardinal–and if such is the lot
of the princes of the church of Rome, where must ordinary people go?
There is no great excellence in this hope. I do not think I should call
you all together in order to say to you, "Rejoice with me, for when we
die we shall all go to 'purgatory.'" You would fail to see the special
ground of rejoicing. I do not think I would say much about it and when
anybody questioned me about it, I would endeavor to evade the point and
declare that it was a deep mystery which had better be left to the
clergy!
But we are not ashamed of our hope, we Christian people who believe
that those Believers who are absent from the body are present with the
Lord! We look for a city which has foundations, whose Builder and Maker
is God! We are not ashamed to hope for Glory, immortality and eternal
life!
We are not ashamed of the object of our hope. We do not believe in
gross carnal delights as making up our Heaven. We do not believe in a
Muslim paradise of sensual delights, or we might very well be ashamed
of our hope! Whatever imagery we may use, we intend, thereby, pure,
holy, spiritual and refined happiness such as the False Prophet would
not have regarded as a sufficient bait for his followers. Our hope is
this–that our Lord will come a second time and all His holy angels
with Him. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father! We believe that if we fall asleep before that
time, we shall sleep in Jesus and shall be blessed with Him. "Today
shall you be with Me in Paradise," is not for the thief, only, but for
all of us who have trusted our souls with the crucified Savior. At His
coming we expect a glorious resurrection. When He shall descend from
Heaven with a shout, with the trumpet of the archangel and the voice of
God, then shall our souls be restored to our bodies and our complete
manhood shall live with Christ! We believe and are sure, that from that
day we shall be forever with Him. He will give us to be partakers of
His Throne, of His crown and of His Heaven–and that forever and ever!
The more we talk about the promised bliss, the more we feel that we
could not be ashamed of the hope of Glory! The ultimate reward of
faith, the ultimate reward of a life of righteousness, is such that we
joy and rejoice in prospect of it. Our glorious hope contains, within
it, purity and perfection, freedom from all sin and the possession of
every virtue. Our hope is that we shall be like our perfect Lord and
shall be with Jesus where He is, that we may behold His Glory. Our hope
is fulfilled in that promise, "Because I live, you shall live, also."
We shall not merely exist, but live, which is another and a higher
matter. Our life shall be the life of God in our spirits forever and
ever! We are not ashamed of this hope! We press forward to the
attaining of it!
Furthermore, we are not ashamed of the ground of our hope. Our hope
rests upon the solemn promises of God which He has made to us by His
Prophets and Apostles–and confirmed in the Person and work of His dear
Son. Inasmuch as Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead, we that are
one with Him by faith, are sure that we shall rise again from the dead
and live with Him. The fact of Christ's Resurrection is the assurance
of our resurrection! And His entrance into Glory is the pledge of our
glorification because we are made one with Him by the purpose and Grace
of God. As we fell in Adam by virtue of our being in him, so we rise
and reign with Jesus because we are in Him. God is not the God of the
dead, but of the living–yet is He the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of
Jacob and, therefore, these men are yet alive! Even thus do we believe
concerning all who die in the faith that they have not ceased to be,
but they all live unto Him. Our hope is founded not upon reasoning,
which, possibly, may dimly prove the immortality of the soul and the
future reward of the righteous, but upon God's Revelation which states
it clearly and plainly and leaves no room for question. If this Book is
a lie, our hope must be given up. But inasmuch as we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, but have re-
ceived the testimony of faithful eyewitnesses of our Lord's
Resurrection and Ascension, we believe the Holy Record and are not
ashamed of our hope! What God has promised is sure–and what God has
done fully confirms the same and, therefore, we have no fear.
And, Brothers and Sisters, we are not ashamed of our personal
appropriation of this hope. Somebody may sneeringly say to us, "You
expect to be in Glory, do you?" Yes, we do and we are not ashamed to
acknowledge the soft impeachment, for our confidence is well grounded.
Our expectation is not based upon any proud claim of personal merit,
but upon the promise of a faithful God! He has said, "He that believes
in Him has everlasting life." We do believe in Him and, therefore, we
know that we have eternal life! He has declared in His Word that, "whom
He justified, them He also glori-fied"–and we are justified by faith,
therefore we shall be glorified! Our hope is not based on mere feeling,
but on the fact that God has promised everlasting life to them that
believe in His Son, Jesus. We have heard our Lord pray, "Father, I will
that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that
they may behold My Glory." We believe that the Father gave us to Jesus
because we have been led to put our trust in Him and faith is the sure
sign and token of Divine election. Therefore, being Christ's, we expect
to be with Him where He is. Reading in the Word of the Lord the words,
"that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life," we hold on to that promise and know that we have everlasting
life! This seems to us to be a strictly logical argument. Unless it is
a mistake and God has not said that the Believer shall live forever,
then we are under no delusion in expecting so to live. God's Word is
the most sure thing that can be and we are not ashamed to hold on to
any claim which truthfully arises out of it! We dare believe that God
will keep His Word to us and to all other Believers.
Brethren, we are not ashamed as to the absolute certainty that our hope
will be realized. We believe that if, indeed, we are justified by faith
and have peace with God, we have a hope of Glory which will not fail us
in the end, nor on the way to the end. We do not expect to be deserted
and to be left to fall from Grace, for, "He has said, I will never
leave you nor forsake you." We do not expect to be left to ourselves,
which would mean our sore and certain ruin, but we expect that He who
has begun a good work in us will perfect it unto the day of Christ–we
are certain that He who has worked this hope in us will justify that
hope by fulfilling it in due time. He will preserve us through long
life if we are to live long; will maintain a living hope in us when we
come to die and will remember, even, our dust and ashes when these are
hidden in the tomb. "Who shall separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord?" It is written, "He that believes and is
baptized shall be saved." And so it shall be. He shall not perish from
the way, nor in the way. Has He not said, "I will put My fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from Me?" He keeps the feet of His
saints. "I give unto My sheep," He says, "eternal life and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." Never
shall we be deceived in our trust in Jesus! No man shall say, "I
trusted the Lord Christ to keep me, but He has not kept me. I rested in
Jesus to preserve me in spiritual life, but He has not preserved me."
Never! We shall not be ashamed of our hope!
II. As I have introduced to you that confidence which makes
Believers–especially tried and experienced Believers– full of hope
which makes us not ashamed, my second objective is to dwell upon THE
REASON OF THIS CONFIDENCE. Why is it that men who possess the good hope
are so far from being ashamed of it that they rejoice in it?
My answer, is first, because that hope has for one of its main supports
the love of God . I expect, one day, to sit among the angels and to
behold the face of my Best-Beloved, but I do not expect this because of
anything in me, or anything which may ever be done by me, but simply
because of the infinite love of God! I trust not to my love of God, but
to God's Love to me! We trust Him because He loves us. We are sure that
He will fulfill our hope because He is too loving to fail us. It is
from the love of God that all our hopes begin and it is upon the love
of God that all our hopes depend! If it were not for the Father's love,
there had never been a Covenant of Grace. If it were not for His
infinite love, no atoning Sacrifice had been provided. If it were not
for His active love, no Holy Spirit would have quickened and renewed
us. If it were not for His unchanging love, all that is good in us
would soon pass away. If it were not for love almighty, love immutable,
love unbounded, we would never hope to see the face of the King in His
beauty in the land that is very far off. He loves us and, therefore, He
leads us, feeds us and always keeps us. Do not your hearts confess
this? If that love could be suspended for a moment–if its power were,
for an instant, to cease, where would we be? We fall back upon the love
of God as the final reason of our hope in Him.
Observe, dear Brothers and Sisters, the actual cause of our confidence
is that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Spirit. Let me try and explain what this means. The Holy Spirit is in
the heart of every Believer and He is occupied in many gracious acts.
Among other things, He sheds abroad the love of God in the heart in
which He resides. The figure is taken from a box of precious perfume
being poured out in a chamber. There lies the slumbering scent within
the alabaster box–it is a very choice thing, but no one has yet
perceived its odor. The love of God brought within the soul is that
rare fragrance, but till it is shed abroad, it is not enjoyed. Now the
Holy Spirit takes that box, opens it and the sweet savor of Divine Love
streams forth and fills all the capacity of the Believer. This love
penetrates, permeates, enters and occupies the entire being. A
delightful perfume streams through the entire room when the odor of
roses is poured out and even so, when the love of God is thought upon
by the devout heart and the Holy Spirit helps its meditations, the
theme fills the mind, the memory, the imagination, the reason and the
affections! It is an engrossing subject and is not to be confined to
any one faculty any more than you could keep the aroma of spices within
a certain narrow space.
Moreover, as perfume gives delight to the nostrils, so the love of God,
when shed abroad in the power of the Holy Spirit, imparts a singular
sweetness to our emotions. All the garments of the Lord of Love smell
of myrrh, aloes and cassia. Where can such sweetness be as in the love
of God ? That the eternal and the infinite One should really love men
and love them at such a rate as He has done, is a Truth of God at once
surprising and gladsome! It is a root from which springs the lily of
perfect joy. This is an ivory palace wherein every dweller is made
glad. You may meditate upon that love till you are ravished and carried
away by it–and your soul, before you are aware, becomes like the
chariots of Amminadib!
Yet again, wherever perfume comes, it not only spreads itself abroad
and gives delight to all who are in the place, but it abides there.
Take the ointment away if you will, but the sweet odor remains for many
an hour in the room which was once filled with it. Some scent appears
to abide forever. You went to your drawer the other day and there was a
delicious flavor of lavender, yet there had been no lavender there
since last summer–fragrance lingers! A few drops of the true oil will
perfume a wide space and remain long after the vase from which it was
poured has been taken away. The love of God, when it comes into the
heart and is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit, who is the great Master of
the art of diffusing love, abides in the heart world without end! All
other things may cease, but love abides. For a moment we may seem to
forget the love of God amidst the business of the world, but no sooner
is the pressure removed than we return unto our rest. The sweet perfume
of Divine Love overcomes the rankness of the odor of sin and never
quits the heart that has once known its exceeding deliciousness.
If I change the figure, I may say that the love of God is shed abroad
in the heart by the Holy Spirit like one of yonder rain clouds, black
with exceeding blessing, which pours forth a shower of innumerable
silver drops, fertilizing every place on which they fall, making the
drooping herbs to lift up their heads and rejoice in the Heaven-sent
revival! After a while, from that spot where the rain fell, there rises
a gentle steam which ascends to Heaven and forms fresh clouds–thus is
the love of God poured upon our heart and shed abroad in our nature
till our spirit drinks it in and its new life is made to put forth its
flowers of joy and fruits of holiness and, by-and-by, grateful praise
ascends like the incense which in the Temple smoked upon Jehovah's
altar. Love is shed abroad in us and it works upon our heart to love in
return.
To leave the figures–the shedding abroad of the love of God in the
heart by the Holy Spirit means this–He imparts to us an intense
appreciation and sense of that love. We have heard of it, believed in
it and meditated upon it and, at last, we are overpowered by its
greatness! "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten
Son." We cannot measure such love! We become affected by it. We are
filled with wonder and admiration. Its greatness, its singularity, its
specialty, its infinity–all these amaze us! It is shed abroad in our
hearts. Then there comes an appropriation of it. We cry, "He loved me
and gave Himself for me." We begin to feel that God's love was not only
love to men in general, but love to ourselves in particular and we are
now fairly carried off our feet! In a belief of this special love to us
we are ready to dance for joy. Faith perceives that it is even so and
then we praise the Lord upon the high-sounding cymbals.
Then follows, as a matter of course, that return of love which the
human heart must feel–we love Him because He first loved us. We
doubted His love once, but we cannot doubt it now. If we were asked
three times, "Do you love Me?" we would answer humbly, but most
emphatically, "Lord, You know all things, you know that I love You. I
could not live without loving You. I would rather a thousand times that
I had never been born than be without love to You and, though I do not
love You as I ought, and my heart craves after a far greater love, yet
I do love You in deed and in truth.
You know that I do and I should be false to my own consciousness if I
denied it." This is to have the love of God shed abroad in the heart by
the Holy Spirit which is given to us–to know it, enjoy it, appropriate
it, rejoice in it–and come under its Divine influence. May this bundle
of myrrh never be removed from the chamber of my soul!
But I want you to notice the special sweetness which struck our Apostle
as being so amazingly noteworthy. He goes on to tell us what most
affected him. He says, "When we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly." That is the first point to be dwelt
upon–that God should give His Son to die for the ungodly. That God
should love those who love Him, that God should love His renewed people
who are striving after holiness is, indeed, delightful. But the most
overpowering thought of all is that He loved us when there was nothing
good in us whatever! He loved us from before the foundation of the
world! Regarding us as being fallen and lost, His love resolved to send
His Son to die for us! Jesus came not because we were good, but because
we were evil! He gave Himself, not for our righteousness, but for our
sins! The moving cause of love in God was not excellence in the
creature then existing or foreseen to exist, but simply the good
pleasure of the God of Love! Love was born of God, Himself. It was so
great in the heart of God that–
"He saw us ruined in the Fall Yet loved us notwithstanding all." He
loved us when we hated Him! He loved us when we opposed Him, when we
cursed Him, when we persecuted His people and blasphemed His ways.
Marvelous fact! Oh, that the Holy Spirit would bring home that Truth of
God to our hearts and make us feel its energy! I cannot put the thought
fitly before you, much less shed it abroad within you, but the Holy
Spirit can do it–and then how charmed you will be, how humbled and yet
how full of praise to the Most High
God!
The Apostle is not content with bringing that point before us–he would
not have us forget that Christ died for us. Brothers and Sisters, that
Christ should love us in Heaven was a great thing. That He should then
come down to earth and be born in Bethlehem was a greater thing. That
He should live a life of obedience for our sakes was a wonderful thing.
But that He should die–this is the climax of Divine Love's
sacrifice–the summit of the Alp of love! Some sights in the world
astonish us once or twice and then grow commonplace, but the Cross of
Christ grows upon us. The more we know of it, the more it surpasses
knowledge! To a saint who has been saved 2,000 years, the sacrifice of
Calvary is even more a marvel than when first he saw it! That God,
Himself, should take our nature and that in that nature He should die a
death like that of a felon upon a gallows to save us, who were His
enemies, is a thing which could not be believed if it had been told us
on less authority than the Divine! It is altogether miraculous! And if
you let it take possession of your soul until it is shed abroad in your
heart by the Holy Spirit, you will feel that there is nothing worth
knowing, believing, or admiring when compared with this! Nothing can
ever rival in interest the Cross of Christ. Let us study what books we
may, the knowledge of a crucified Savior will still remain the most
sublime of all the sciences.
Furthermore, the Apostle then goes on to say that the Lord must always
love us, now that we are reconciled. He puts it thus–If God loved us
when we were enemies, He will surely continue to love us, now that we
are friends. If Jesus died for us when we were rebels, He will refuse
us nothing, now that He has reconciled us. If He reconciled us by His
death, surely He can and will save us by His life. If He died to
reconcile enemies, surely He will preserve the reconciled. Do you see
the whole argument? It is very full of reasons for the upholding of our
hope of Glory and causing us not to be ashamed of it. When the great
God makes us feel the exceeding greatness of His love, we banish all
doubt and dread. We infer from the Character of His love as seen in the
past that He cannot possibly cast us away in the future! What? Die for
us and then leave us? What? Pour out His heart's blood for our
redemption and yet permit us to be lost? Will He manifest Himself to us
as He does not to the world, robed in the crimson of His own Atonement
through death, and then will He, after all, say to us, "Depart, you
cursed"? Impossible! He changes not! Our hope has for the keystone of
its arch the unchanging love of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today
and forever! The Holy Spirit has so shed abroad the love of God in
Christ Jesus in our hearts that we feel quite sure that no one can
separate us from it and, so long as we are not divided from it, our
hope of Glory is sure as the Throne of the Eternal!
Once more–the Apostle reminds us in the 11th verse that, "we have now
received the atonement." We already feel that we are at one with God.
Through the Sacrifice of the Lord Jesus we are at peace with God. We
love Him–our quarrel with Him is ended–we delight in Him, we long to
glorify Him. Now this delightful sense of reconciliation is a
satisfactory assurance of Grace and Glory. The hope of Glory burns in
the golden lamp of a heart reconciled to God by Jesus
Christ. Inasmuch as we are now in perfect accord with God, longing only
to be and to do just what He would have us to be and to do, we have the
beginnings of Heaven within us, the dawn of the perfect day! Grace is
Glory in the bud. Agreement with God is the seed-corn of perfect
holiness and perfect happiness. If we are under the dominion of
holiness. If there is no wish in our soul but what we would take back
if we knew it to be contrary to the mind of our holy Lord, then are we
assured that He has accepted us and that we have His life in us and
shall finally come to His Glory. He that has brought His enemies to be
His hearty friends will not permit this gracious work to be undone, or
His holy purpose to fail! In our present delight in God we have the
earnest of our endless joy in Him and, therefore, we are not ashamed of
our hope.
One word more on this point–note well that the Apostle not only
mentions the love of God and its being shed abroad in our hearts, but
he mentions the Divine Person by whom this has been done. The shedding
abroad of God's love in the heart has been worked by the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us. Only by the Holy Spirit could this have been
done. Would you ever have been charmed with the love of God through the
influence of the devil? Would you ever have been overpowered and filled
with excessive joy in the love of God through the power of your own
fallen human nature? You judge! They that have felt the love of God
shed abroad in their heart can say without a doubt, "This is the finger
of God; the Holy Spirit has worked this in me." Nothing short of the
Holy Spirit can effect it. "Thank God," says one, "I sat under an
earnest ministry!" So you might and yet have never felt the love of God
within your heart! We can shed that love abroad by preaching, but we
cannot shed it abroad in the heart. A higher influence than that of
human orator must deal with the inner nature!
Perhaps you were alone in your chamber, or walking by the roadside when
the sweet savor of Divine love stole into your soul. Oh the love of
God! The amazing, immeasurable, incomprehensible love of the Father!
Oh, to feel this till our very souls are inflamed with it and our
unloving nature is all on fire with love to the great Lover of the
souls of men! Who can do this but the Holy Spirit? And how come we to
have the Holy Spirit but by the free gift of God, whose gifts and
calling "are without repentance"? God does not give and take–His gifts
are ours forever. If the Holy Spirit has been given to you, is He not
the pledge of God's love? Does not the New Testament describe Him as
the earnest of the inheritance? Is not an earnest the security for all
the rest? Does the Holy Spirit set His seal to a document which, after
all, is so faulty that it will not effect its purpose? Never! If the
Holy Spirit dwells in you, He is the guarantee of everlasting joy.
Where Grace is given by His Divine indwelling, Glory must follow it.
The Holy Spirit, when He comes into the soul, comes that there He may
take up His dwelling place–and there He will abide till we shall be
caught up to the higher realms, to behold our Lord's face forever!
III. Lastly, let us hint at THE RESULT OF THIS CONFIDENT HOPE. Let the
context instruct us.
First, this confident hope breeds inward joy. The man that knows that
his hope of Glory will never fail him because of the great love of God,
of which he has tasted, that man will hear music at midnight! The
mountains and the hills will break forth before him into singing
wherever he goes! Especially in times of tribulation he will be found
"rejoicing in hope of the Glory of God." His most profound comfort will
often be enjoyed in his deepest affliction because then the love of God
will especially be revealed in his heart by the Holy Spirit, whose name
is, "the Comforter." Then he will perceive that the rod is dipped in
mercy, that his losses are sent in fatherly love and that his aches and
pains are all measured out with gracious design. In our affliction, God
is doing nothing to us which we should not wish for ourselves if we
were as wise and loving as God is. O Friends! You do not need gold to
make you glad! You do not even need health to make you glad–only get
to know and feel Divine love and the fountains of delight are unsealed
to you–you are introduced to the banquets of happiness!
This brings with it the Grace of holy boldness in the avowal of our
hope. Christian people do not often enough show worldlings the joy of
their hope. We do not wear our best liveries, nor say enough of the joy
of being in the Lord's service, nor speak enough of the wages which our
Lord will pay at the end of the day. We are as silent as if we were
ashamed of our hope! We even go mourning, although we have reason to be
the happiest men on God's earth. I fear we have not enough experience
of Divine love shed abroad in our hearts. If the perfume were within,
it would be perceived by those who are around us. You pass a factory of
perfume and at once perceive that sweetness steals abroad. Let us make
worldlings know the fragrance of our joyous hope–especially let us
tell those who seem most likely to laugh at us–for we have learned by
experience that some of these are most likely to be impressed. Often
has a new convert written to a
worldly friend to tell him of his great change and of his new joy–and
that worldly friend has put the letter aside with a sneer or a jest.
But after a while he has thought it over and he has said to himself,
"There may be something in it. I am a stranger to this joy of which my
friend speaks and I certainly need all the joy I can get, for I am dull
enough." Let me tell you that all worldlings are not such fools as some
would take them for–they are aware of an unrest within their bosoms
and they hunger after something better than this vain world can give
them! So that it frequently happens that as soon as they learn where
the good is, they accept it.
Even if they do not hunger, I do not know any better way of making a
man long for food than yourself to eat. The looker-on feels his mouth
water. All of a sudden his appetite arrives. In the parable of the
prodigal son, the servants were ordered to bring forth the best robe
and put it on him and to put a ring on his hand and shoes on his
feet–but the father did not tell them to take the son and make him
eat! What he said was, "Let us eat and be merry." He knew that at the
sight of others feasting, his hungry son would eat. When you who belong
to the Divine family, eat and drink in happy fellowship and are merry
with the Lord in feasting upon love Divine, the poor hungry brother
will desire to join you and he will be encouraged to do so.
Come, then, you that have a hope of Glory, let all men see that you are
not ashamed of it! Act as decoys to others– let the sweet notes of
your happy life charm them to Jesus! May the Lord cause you to spread
abroad what He has shed abroad and may that which perfumes your heart
also perfume your house, your business, your conversation and your
whole life! May we so enjoy true godliness that we may never bring
shame upon it, nor feel shame concerning it!