May God bless us as we consider
his word together this evening. I'll direct your thoughts to
the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians and chapter 2 and we'll read
for a text this evening verse 1. Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 1. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins." I remember my first trip to Austria
a good few years ago now, probably about ten years ago, and I'd
heard much about the Alps, And people had told me how impressive
they were, how big they were, how beautiful they were. And
I had seen, and I imagine I must have done, seen photos and pictures
of what it was like. But it wasn't until I stood there
in a valley and I felt the searing heat of the middle of July in
the valley and looked up and could see the snow on the peaks,
that I had some real appreciation of the grandeur and the beauty
that was before me. Not half was told, you could
say. The experience of being there and seeing it and the surroundings
and the sounds and the atmosphere and all that is around the region,
was so much greater than what anyone could have ever explained
or told me about. And in the Lord's Day two days
ago, we were considering together the love of God, and the love
of the Father in giving his Son, and the love of the Son in coming
to lay down his life and to bear our sins, our griefs and our
sorrows. That was glorious. That was wonderful. And there was a depth and a beauty
which I hope we all, in some sense, appreciated on Sunday.
But there is a sense in which those truths may have seemed
somewhat distant. They may have seemed as if it
were something that people were telling you. But what you felt
you needed was to be there yourself. To see it yourself. to appreciate
it yourself, that it became real for you, rather than just truth
that you felt you couldn't grasp. What does it mean for me? May
have been your crying. Well, this evening we come to
the third person of the Trinity, the love of the Holy Spirit. And it is the work of the Holy
Spirit that still goes on today and it is that work which applies
the truth to us as individuals. It makes it real for you and
me so that we behold, so that we understand, so that it enters
our hearts and our souls and that is the work of the Holy
Spirit and it is in that work and in what he does that we have
some appreciation of the love of the Holy Spirit. Well firstly
I just want to clear one thing up this evening and a much misunderstood
truth and that is that the Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God. Now some groups and sects will
teach that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal force, or it is
simply the active force of God, whom he sends forth. But the
scriptures clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit is God himself,
as truly as the Father and Jesus the Son of God are also. And
we can see that in a number of ways, just very briefly this
evening. We can see it in his attributes as we read the scriptures
of him. He has all the attributes of
God. We read of him way back in Genesis
chapter 1 and verse 2, of the Spirit moving across the waters. He was active at creation. We also read that the Holy Spirit
is everywhere. the same attribute as God. We
read Psalm 139, Whither can I go from thy spirit? He is in every
place at every time. There is nowhere that we can
go where we are beyond the knowledge and the presence of the Holy
Spirit. He is also all-knowing. He is aware of all that we are
doing. He is aware of everything that
occurs. Paul tells us in the Corinthians,
that God has revealed these things unto us by his Spirit, for the
Spirit searcheth all things. The Spirit knows all things. He knows all about us, the attribute
of God. And he is also, in the Scriptures,
put on an equal footing, as it were, with God. He is declared
as being equal with God. We read in the Corinthians again
of that, what we call the benediction. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you
all. It's well-known words. We hear
it at the end of every service. You see, it's putting the Holy
Spirit on the same level as the Father and of Jesus. We have
it again, don't we, in the Great Commission to be baptised in
the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So the Scriptures
clearly tells and clearly teaches the Holy Spirit to be equal with
God and to have all the attributes of God. But if all that wasn't
enough, just one final point. We're told in the Book of Acts,
when Ananias and Sapphira lied regarding the gifts that they
had brought before the apostles, that Peter said to them, Why
hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Note that. He lied to the Holy
Ghost to keep back part of the price of the land. And then he
says, Was it remained, was it not thine own? After it was sold,
was it not thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this
thing in thy heart? Thou hast not lied unto men,
but unto God. unto God. So you see, in the
same speech by Peter, he refers to them lying to the Holy Ghost
and lying to God. The two are linked together.
The two are the same thing. So you see, we have, when we're
considering the love of the Holy Spirit, we are also considering
the love of God and how important it is to know and to understand
that doctrine. Well, interestingly enough, the
Actual words, love of the Holy Spirit, is not really found very
much in the New Testament. We read more of his work. There
is only one place where those words are found, and you find
them in Romans chapter 15 and verse 30. It's a little bit out
of context, but the words are there nonetheless. Paul says
this, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake
and for the love of the Spirit. So we are clear. that the Spirit
loves and that we see the love of God through the Spirit. Well,
how do we see that? Well, we see it in what he does,
in the work of the Spirit. And what does he do? Well, we
have one point in this text, in Ephesians 2. You hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. The Holy Spirit comes to
those who are dead. To those who are dead in trespasses
and sins we have here. Those who are spiritually lifeless. They are dead. Those who have
no ability to make themselves alive. A dead person cannot make
him or herself alive. They are dead. And those who
are described here as being dead in trespasses and sins are dead
in such a way that they cannot make themselves right with God. They are dead, they are cold. They have no ability to make
themselves right with God. They cannot remove their sin. They are, as it were, cold in
the tomb, laid in the tomb, dead and buried. No hope of coming
to life. Dead in trespasses and sins.
And the sins that they have committed and the sins that they have inherited
from Adam has made them dead. So that they cannot come to God. There is, as it were, no hope. No hope, naturally speaking.
No hope for these who are dead. That is what sin has done. And
each one of us, you and I, were born in that state. We were there. We may still be there, I don't
know. But we were certainly at one point there, born in that
state. That is what sin has done to
mankind. It has made them dead. No spiritual,
no eternal life. It is as if God and Heaven is
as remote to us as running the marathon is to someone in a grave. It's impossible. Well, what do we need? We need
to be made alive. Something we can't do ourselves,
but we need someone else to make us alive. The Lord Jesus said
that, didn't he? In the chapter we read regarding
him speaking to Nicodemus. We must be born again. What is needed is a total new
birth. A total new birth. To start again,
as it were. To be born again. To have our
spirit, our soul made alive so that we know and long for God. so that there is some desire
for the God of heaven. We need to be born again. It's a total new birth. How radical
it is, you see. It's the opposite, isn't it?
You can't get more opposite than death to life. And here is a
radical change that is required. It is death to life. We read it in another sense when
Ezekiel had his vision of the valley of dry bones. and he sees
there all these bones scattered about and he sees the deadness
and dryness of all these bones and then he hears or he prophesies
and he hears all of these bones coming together and they stand
there and the skin comes on them but he says there was no breath
in them There was no life. Yes, they were brought together,
but there was no life in these bones, in this army that stood
before him. And the Lord says, prophesy unto
the wind. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds,
O breath, and breathe upon the slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded,
and the breath came into them. They were made alive. You see
the wind representing the Holy Spirit comes and gives them life,
makes them alive. And this is what the Holy Spirit
does. I want us to think how amazing it is as we see the love
of Christ, the love of God, as we see it in the love of the
Spirit. Because He comes to hard, lifeless, rebellious hearts. Hearts, as it were, cold in the
grave. Hearts with no hope and no desire. Hearts which are dead. And he
comes to those hearts and he breaks them and he gives them
life. He comes to the dead and gives
them life. The dead do not deserve life,
do they? The dead do not deserve the Holy
Spirit to come, but he looks upon them in their lifeless condition
and he comes to their soul and makes it alive. That is the love
of the Holy Spirit, to come and make it personal, make you alive,
so that Christ becomes your Saviour, so that God is your father. In that chapter, in John 16,
we read of the Lord Jesus' words regarding the coming of the Holy
Spirit. And he refers to him as the Comforter in John 16.
And he says that he must go away, because if he did not go away
that the Comforter would not come. And then he explains three
things that the Holy Spirit would do. In verse 8 he says, when he has
come he will reprove the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. These are three things that the
Holy Spirit does and in these three things we see more of the
love of the Spirit to sinners. Firstly, of sin, because they
believe not on me. The Holy Spirit shows us the
state of our heart. He reveals our sin. He comes and works in a dead,
lifeless, disinterested heart and makes that heart see its
standing before God. How it stands before a holy God.
The state of the heart and its utter inability to reform itself. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. And what is so wonderful about
the work of the Holy Spirit here is that it is showing the true
state of the heart. You see, we see here the love
of God in not allowing us to believe a lie. Because we will
tell ourselves, and the devil will tell us, that all is well,
that we are good enough, that God will accept us as we are,
or that, well, don't worry, there's not a God in the first place.
It doesn't matter. Do what you want and enjoy yourself. There's no such thing as sin.
It doesn't matter. But here we see the love of the
Spirit in coming to us and not allowing us to believe a lie.
to show us the truth and the truth is that we stand before
God guilty in our sin and that there is nothing we can do to
reform ourselves to a point that we are acceptable in ourselves.
He reproves of sin because they believe not on me. And that is
the work of the Spirit and it may be that you were there tonight
reproving of your sin. Well it's the Holy Spirit that's
done that. Shown you something of your failures, shown you something
of your rebellion, shown you something of your inability to
reform and you're standing before a holy God. He has shown you.
He reproves of sin. You see, we have it in the example,
don't we, in the day of Pentecost, when Peter was preaching and
the Holy Spirit was clearly working as he came down onto the apostles,
and then he was clearly working amongst the people, and after
the sermon they cried out, what must we do to be saved? They realised their sin. As Peter had expounded their
guilt in crucifying the Lord of Glory, they realised their
standing before God in crucifying the Messiah of God. and it was
the Holy Spirit that had worked to show them their sin. So, although this is hard, and
although this is painful for us, and although we may, at the
time, wish we did not feel this way, and we wish we could enjoy
the sins of the world like we used to, this is a mark that
the Lord has come to a dead heart and made it alive. The Holy Spirit
reproves the world of sin. He shows us our sin. But also
the Lord says in verse 10 that of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and ye see me no more. He shows us our sin, but
he also shows us righteousness. And where is righteousness? He
shows us Christ. Christ. You see, we have here
the unity of the Spirit and Christ, so clearly joined together. Just
a couple of verses later, in verse 13, He says, When He, the
Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth,
for He shall not speak of Himself whatsoever He shall hear that
He speaks. He will show you things to come.
He shall glorify Me. for he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you. The Spirit glorifies, he reveals
Christ's righteousness. He reveals to us that the Lord
has lived a perfect life that we cannot live. He reveals to
us that the Lord has removed our sins and clothed us in his
righteousness to make us pure in the sight of God. When the
Lord was speaking, to his disciples just a couple of chapters earlier
in chapter 14. He again speaks about the coming
of the Holy Spirit and he says this, he says, I will pray the
Father, he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with
you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot
receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but
ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you.
And he says this, I will not leave you comfortless, I will
come to you. You see how important it is,
these things join together. The Holy Spirit will come, he
will dwell with you, he will be with you, I will come to you. Well the Lord Jesus, though he
did of course come for a few days following his resurrection,
he left again. And we have here the clear teaching
that the Lord Jesus is among us as the Holy Spirit reveals
Him unto us. It is the work of the Spirit
to show us Christ, show us His righteousness and righteousness
through Him. And as we have seen our sin,
how suitable Christ becomes, doesn't He? How beautiful Christ
becomes as we see something of His love And as we see something
of what He has done and it brings out some response from our hearts
unto Him, He makes Christ precious. You see how it all works together
in the love of God. We've considered the love of
Christ in bearing our sins, but the Holy Spirit in His love comes
and shows that and makes it wonderful and personal for us. Of sin, of righteousness, the
malady, the remedy, and thirdly of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. Here he's talking about judging
the defeat of Satan. The prince of this world is judged.
The Holy Spirit shows us the final victory. The coming of
the Holy Spirit himself. The Holy Spirit came following
the death and resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That in itself was a witness of the final finished work and
victory of Christ. The fact that the Holy Spirit
came on that day of Pentecost was a witness, was the earnest,
was the clear display that Christ was victorious because he had
come. But we have also here of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged, how the Lord, through
the Spirit, assures his people, gives assurance. that the devil
is finally defeated and that Christ is finally victorious
and that the judgment to come has been borne for us by him. And he helps us and gives us
faith to lay hold on the promises of the gospel and the promises
of eternal life and the promises of heaven with Him forever, faith
and eternal hope. This is the work of the Spirit.
He shows our sin, He shows Christ and He gives assurance of that
salvation. And you see, that may not all
happen at once, and it may not all happen overnight, and it
may be very gradual and it may cost us much prayer and tears,
but it is only the Holy Spirit that can do those things for
you. And if those things have happened, even in that smallest
way, and you have a small hope in them, it is the work of the
Spirit, and only the work of the Spirit that has done that.
And as we go on, the Holy Spirit in his love continues to be with
us. We read, don't we, He shall be
in you, shall be with you and in you. The Holy Spirit indwells
each believer, each Christian. And He continues with us and
He comforts us each day. He comforts us from the Word
of God. He comforts us as He shows Christ again, perhaps in
a different aspect that we haven't seen before. He sanctifies us. He separates us off from the
world. and makes us more uncomfortable in the world, and gives us more
desires for the Lord as we go through our life, to serve and
to love Him. And He shows Christ to us as
we go on. He shall not speak of Himself,
but of me. So we see something here, don't
we, of the love of the Holy Spirit. How glorious it is that He comes
to dead souls. who were dead. Remember that. Remember who he comes to, who
he makes alive. And then doubt, if you can, if
he is a God of love. So we have seen the wonders of
the Spirit in coming to dead sinners, as he reveals to us
the love of God. as he comes and makes the love
of God personal and real to us, and that God is willing, willing
to come to sinful hearts and to change us, to radically renew
us from being dead to being alive. That is love, isn't it? That's
amazing love. Well, we've considered, in our
small way, the love of God. The Father in giving his Son,
and what a sacrifice that was. The Son in giving himself, in
laying aside his glory and his life, and bearing our sins and
carrying our sorrows. The Spirit in coming to our hearts
and revealing of the things of Christ to make us alive. to show
us our need, to show us the truth, and to show us the way to glory. But what can we learn? What can
we learn from these lessons on the love of God? What lessons
can we draw? What encouragement can we take
from the truths of the love of God? Well, firstly, this evening,
we can believe that it can reach even you, even me. As we consider the love of God,
we can believe that it can reach the worst of sinners. And here
is hope for all of us, isn't it? Here is hope for you and
me. Because we have a Father who
loved the world, remember, the world, sinners, corrupted, and
lost in their sins, the worst of sinners. He loves the world
and that love is vast enough that He would send His Son to
die for them. There is hope for you and me
because that love is so great. He loves the world. And we have
the Son whose love is strong enough to carry our griefs and
sorrows and sins, to bear them away on the cross. We have a
Son who is able to bear your sins, a son who is able to bear
them away. And we have the Holy Spirit whose
love is deep enough to come and to break your dead cold heart
and to give it life and to come and work within your soul. We
have a spirit who comes to dwell in the worst of sinners. So the
love of God teaches us that there is hope. that there is hope for
all of us, that we cannot fall outside of the reach of his love. Do you mourn tonight about your
sins, about your unbelief, about your
failings, about your hardness of heart? Do you cry out, I need
compassion, I need pity, I need love? I don't need someone to
be harsh to me. I don't need someone to beat
me. I, as it were, can tell myself off. I can beat myself regarding
my sins. I don't need someone to tell
me off. I need pity. I need love. I need compassion. And I cannot earn anything from
God. I need Him to come to me as I
am. Where I am, I need his love to
reach into my heart. Well, the love of God and the
glory of the Trinity teaches us this, that it can, that it
can, and there is hope. Secondly, it teaches us a tremendous
worth of preaching. and the worth of distributing
and evangelizing in the world. Because we have a Father whose
love is not restricted to a particular type of person. It's not for
the Jews only, it's not for the English only. We have a Father
whose love is to the world and you and I do not know who the
elect of God are and I'm so thankful we don't. We don't know when
someone comes through those doors whether they are elect of God
or not. What we do know is that love of God is so vast that it
goes into the world and that it is not beyond reaching that
soul. That it is for sinners and therefore there is hope.
We believe that there is a love of the Son who bore the sins
of many, and a number that no man can number, and we don't
know who they are, and that he is able to bear the sins of the
worst of sinners, and we mustn't despise anyone who we preach
to. And we believe in the love of the Holy Spirit, who can reach
into the coldest and the hardest and the most stubborn heart,
who is not interested, who is rebellious and running in the
wrong direction. or perhaps has sat in a pew with
hard, stony hearts all their life, and we believe in the Holy
Spirit who can come and work in their heart as he has in ours. And therefore it gives us such
encouragement in the tremendous worth of preaching and in declaring
the Gospel. Because I believe that as I preach
I know that God will take his work, his word, and I know he
will apply that to his child. He must, in his time, in his
way, bring his children to himself. And I don't know who that is,
so what a privilege to declare the gospel to all, and to pray
that God will work in his way. I believe that as we preach and
as we distribute the word of God, We must have this view that
the people before us can be saved because God's love is so great. But lastly, what else can we believe from
the truth of the love of God? Well, the Apostle Paul tells
us in the most encouraging and amazing chapter in Romans chapter
8. In the last few verses of Romans
8 we are told and we can believe that the love of God is so vast,
it is so immense, it is so tremendous in its scale and its depth, that
that love is so deep that it can never be removed. It can
never be removed. What does Paul tell us? Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us? And as we go on in our Christian
life, we may feel that there is much that could separate us.
That it is so glorious and we appreciated it in some way in
the newness of it as we were born again and brought to the
Lord Jesus Christ and we saw the joy and the liberty of it.
The life has gone on and there's so much opposition, so much tribulation. Can we fall out of the love of
God? Can it be removed? Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, problems
in your life, difficulties you have to pass through, worries
and problems, can they separate you from the love of Christ?
Can distress in your life, in your soul, in your mind, worries
in your own mind, distress in your own soul as you still mourn
over your sins and more of your things you do even since you've
been converted, can that distress separate you from the love of
Christ? Can persecution Hated from people without, as we see
a constant and increasing tide of opposition in the world and
even persecution. Hatred from others around us.
Attempts to stamp out the church. Attempts to stamp out the life
in your soul. The devil himself, can the persecution
he brings, can that separate you from the love of Christ? Famine. Bodily famine. You know, when we're in want
naturally. That can be used of the devil
to tempt us against the Lord. Why has the Lord left me to want?
Why has the Lord removed my employment from me? Why has the Lord brought
these problems upon me? Why are these things happening?
Famine. And more deeply, famine of soul.
Those times that we've been through when we've not gleaned. When
the Word of God hasn't meant what it used to. When the preaching
isn't what it used to be in our souls. Famine. Can that separate
us from the love of God? Does He not love us anymore?
Nakedness, wanting of natural things, feeling that things are
being stripped away from us that we love and rely on. Peril, danger
surround us. And the sword, death itself.
Ultimate opposition and persecution, the sword. Can that separate
us from the love of Christ? As people in the world are called
to pay their ultimate sacrifice in serving the Lord, giving their
life because of their faith, why has the Lord brought them
to that point? Why has he not intervened? Does he not love
them anymore? Is the sword separating from
the love of Christ? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded. Persuaded, unsure. I've, as it
were, weighed it up. I've considered all of the ideas,
I've considered all of the arguments and I am now utterly persuaded. I am certain that neither death,
as death will only usher us into his presence, nor life, The life
that we live and the spirit that will remain with us, whatever
occurs, whatever we go through, the spirit remains with us. Angels,
the mighty angels, even they are still subject to God. Principalities
and the power of the devil and his agents and the things that
he does and the things that he whispers and the things he suggests,
his powers, his principalities, all things present. Whatever
you're walking in today, Whatever you've had to deal with today,
even the hardness of your heart today, even the problems of today,
things present and things to come, the worries of the future. Oh, the worries of the future,
don't they get us down? We worry how we'll fare. We'll worry how we'll carry on
and we'll worry how we will make a good witness. We worry if we'll
deny our Lord. We worry that opposition will
become too great, and we worry that the cost is too immense
for serving the Lord, that it's too great a cost. And we worry
of things to come, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nothing in heaven, nor depth, nothing in hell, and
the experience of it, nor any other creature. Anything else
that you can think of. I think it's all summed up in
the list, but it's certainly all summed up in this. Any other
creature. Anything else that comes into your mind. If you
have got something tonight that you're saying, oh that's not
covered. Oh no, that can separate me from the love of Christ. That can cast me away. It's not
covered in this list, but I know of something which... Nothing. Nor any other creature. shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. What does the love of God teach
us? What does the vastness, the intensity, the depth of the love
of God teach us? That it's eternal. That we are
eternally safe. That we are eternally blessed.
And that love, that we may for a while feel its withdrawing,
to reprove us and to teach us and to restrain us and to bring
us back. That love still burns as intently
in heaven as it ever has. The love of the Father still
burns intently and the Son and the Holy Spirit. The Father,
as it were, is still well pleased with His Son in sending Him for
you. This son is still satisfied with
the travail of his soul and he is still the conqueror and he
is still paid it all. The spirit is still working in
love, though it may be painful, and still dwells within the love
of God. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is love,
isn't it? This is love beyond comprehension.
This is love beyond what we can imagine. This is love to unlovable
sinners. This evening look nowhere else. Does the Christian message and
the preaching seem too harsh? Does it seem too difficult? Does it seem too hard for you
to accept? The truth of the Lord and of
the Bible seem full of laws and commands which you feel you will
never meet. Look nowhere else. Look nowhere
else for your hope for your salvation tonight. Here is love. There's a glorious hymn by Horatius
Bonar. I'll just read it because it
sums up this whole subject. Oh love of God, how strong and
true, eternal and yet ever new, uncomprehended and unbought,
beyond all knowledge and all thought, O love of God, how deep
and great, far deeper than man's deepest hate, self-fed, self-kindled,
like the light, changeless, eternal, infinite, O heavenly love, how
precious still in days of weariness and ill, in nights of pain and
helplessness, to heal, to comfort and to bless, O wide-embracing,
wondrous Love, we read Thee in the sky above, we read Thee in
the earth below, in seas that swell and streams that flow,
we read Thee best in Him who came to bear for us the cross
of shame sent by the Father from on high, Our life to live, our
death to die. We read thy power to bless and
save, even in the darkness of the grave. Still more, in resurrection
light, we read the fullness of thy might. O love of God, our
shield and stay, through all the perils of our way. Eternal
love, in thee we rest. forever safe, forever blessed. God is love. That is the truth that I hope
we have all been helped in some sense to enter into. And may it not leave us as we
go out the doors tonight May it remain with us and encourage
us and in the darkest times and in the most trying times and
in the times of conviction and of guilt, may we remember that
God is still above, that the Father still loves the greatest
of sinners, that the Son died for the worst of sinners and
that the Spirit is willing to come and dwell in the worst of
hearts. Amen.