If you'd like to turn your Bibles
back over to where Brother Brad was reading for us in Romans
chapter 5, that's where you'll find our text this morning. Romans
chapter 5, and let me re-read one more time, verse 5. Romans
chapter 5 and verse 5. 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. The love of God in our hearts. That's encouraging thought, isn't
it? The love of God in our hearts. Every heaven-born son of God
has the Spirit of God. Because you are sons. You're
sons by new birth. born from above. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
heart. And what does He do there? He
does two things. He does several things, but these
two things He does. As soon as He comes to the heart,
He begins to cry, Father, Father. And it's just as natural for
a newborn babe to breathe out, Father, Father, as it is for
Joanna's little infant baby to begin to breathe when it came
from its mother's womb. That's how natural it is. You
don't have to learn a great deal about God. It's not when you've
studied for two or three years you begin to realize He's your
Father. He sends the Spirit of His Son into your heart. And
then you cry, and He cries, Father, Father. And the second thing
He does, we're told here in our text, that He sheds abroad the
love of God in our hearts. That's automatic. That's just
so natural. It's supernatural, but it's so
natural to the child of God. And when He does this, He produces
love in our hearts to God. We love Him. We love Him. Peter, lovest thou me? Lord,
you know that I love you. I love you. I love the Lord.
And knowing what you know about yourself now, as you've learned
more about yourself, and knowing what you know about your past,
aren't you amazed that you love God? Don't you see that as a
miracle of grace that you love God? You love the God of the
Bible. You love God in all His attributes. The God, perhaps, that you used
to not be able to endear to hear of or to think of, now you love
Him. And the more you find out about
Him, the more you love Him. He sheds abroad love in our hearts,
and we love God. When I tell you this morning
that there was a time that you did not love the Lord, you're
in perfect agreement with me, aren't you? Because you know
that to be the truth. You love Him now because He saved
you by His grace. And not until He saved you. You
love Him because He has forgiven you of all your sins. Some of the most ungodly and
open and profane people in this world now love God most. And you know why? Because He
has forgiven them mountains of sins. This woman sins, Simon,
which are many are forgiving her, and what's the effects of
that? She loves much. She loves much. If we want our
love for the Lord to increase, if we want it to grow in our
hearts, get a deeper heart knowledge of who we really are by nature. Get a scriptural knowledge, a
deeper knowledge of our sinfulness by nature and the tremendous
price that was paid to secure our salvation from sin. And Brad read it to us here in
verse 6 of this chapter. Look at this again. We want our
love to abound and grow to the Lord, then here is what we should
do. Learn more of ourselves. And
look what he says in verse 6. Look how he identifies us. For
when we were yet without strength, without strength to do anything
to help ourselves, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. That's what he says about us.
In verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous man will one dare,
dare to die. Yet preadventure perhaps for
a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth, He
demonstrated, He exhibited His love toward us and that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And look in verse 10,
For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved
through His life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received
the atonement." See the ways that He addresses us. Weak sinners,
ungodly sinners, His enemies. And in the light of that, He
talks about reconciliation through His death being justified by
His blood. Not just His blood, brothers
and sisters. Not just the Lord Jesus laying
down His life on a calm afternoon, but a violent death. The blood
shedding of the Son of God. We are saved from the wrath to
come, how? Through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. When you begin to think about
what you are, about your very nature, how you lived your life
until He saved you, doesn't that increase in your heart Not only
appreciation, but a deeper love for God. Everywhere we read about
forgiveness of sins, it's always connected with love. Listen to
this, He loved us and washed us from our sins in His blood. The life I now live, I live by
the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for
me." And this is when and where we begin to love Him. Our love's conditional. We've
said that so many times, haven't we? Our love for Him is conditional. It's only when He's shed abroad
His love in our heart that we begin to love Him back. Thank
God He loved us from eternity. And how He could do that? He's
God. He can do that. But you know, we were born not
loving Him. And we never loved Him. The first
time in our life, we never loved Him until He shed abroad His
love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And note this, this love
in our hearts for Him will never cease. It will never cease any
more than His love for us will cease. We talk about the cause
and effect. There's a cause for everything,
and God is the first cause. We went through our little doctrinal
book here that we had to adapt to get established as a church,
and we went through that one time. We studied about the cause
and effect, and it said God is the first cause of everything. Now boy, that rises some questions
in our little peanut minds, don't it? How can God do that without
being the author of sin? We don't know, but we just know
He's the first cause of everything. And if He's not, that's a dreadful
thing to think about, isn't it? But He is the cause of any man
loving Him. Cause and effect. We love Him
because He first loved us. And listen, as long as He loves
us, We will continue to love Him. Our love may increase and
thank God when it does. The Scripture even talks about
your love abounding. And sometimes it can shamefully
diminish. But you know something? He'll
never die. He'll never die because the cause of our love in Him
will never die. He is the cause of our love in
Him. I will give you another comforter.
And He'll never die, will He? He'll never cease to work in
us. He still does until the day of repentance. The love of God
is shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. And until
He dies, or until He leaves us and ceases His work, we'll never
cease to love God. And that's a wonderful thought,
isn't it? I want to show you a passage I think somebody referred
to this the other day. If you want to hold Romans 5
there, look over in Galatians chapter 5. Paul contrasts here
the works of the flesh and the works of the Spirit. And he begins here in verse 16. Look
at this. Galatians chapter 5 and verse
16. This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit, He lusts, or wars against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one
to the other, so that you cannot do the things that you would."
And then beginning in verse 19 and down through verse 21, He
lists all the works of the flesh. And I think it may have been
Wayne that a few weeks ago or months ago made a statement to
this end that we can see these things working in us. They don't
work out and live in them, but can't you see envy? Do you ever
envy? Do you ever get angry? Anger
is a work of the flesh. Do you ever have to watch against
idolatry? Does your heart ever go out after unlawful objects? Adultery? You know, He talks in this context
here about crucifying the flesh. May the Christ have crucified
the flesh with its affections and its lust. Don't we see that
working, agitating? And you know something? Until
this old flesh has drawn its last breath, you'll never get
rid of the working of the flesh. You'll fight against it, you'll
war against it the rest of your life and guard against it because
if you don't, it'll break out. It'll break out. It'll start
looking for a gate, a door to get out of. But you know something? The Holy Spirit's not going to
be outdone in this battle. He's not going to be overcome
or outlived. And just as the works of the
flesh continues agitating us and bothering us, You know something? The Holy Spirit is going to continue
His work. And look what He said in verse 22 after He lists all
the works of the flesh. But, but, the fruit of the Spirit
is what? Love. Love. He has shed abroad His love in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And as long as the Spirit is
in our hearts, He's going to be working. And the first fruit
that He bears is love. His love. I've been on the way now for
about 43 years, and I've lived long enough and been on the way
long enough to know that if He ceases His work, then I can't
keep it going. You quoted this morning, didn't
you? He that worketh in you And what's He working in us to do?
To love. To love. I love the Lord. Don't you? And isn't that amazing?
That's amazing that I love the Lord. And I've loved Him for
43 years. And I'll love Him for all eternity
because He's given me the Spirit in my heart. And you feel the
same way. But the Holy Spirit, when He
sheds abroad the love of God in our hearts, He not only produces
in us a love for God, a love for the Lord. He also produces
in our hearts love one for another. If you have the Spirit of God
in your hearts, you love the brethren. By this shall all men
know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another. He that loveth Him that begate,
loveth Him also that is begotten of Him. This love is supernatural. It's a supernatural love. We
love each other with a love that's supernatural. And you know something? It's unconditional. It's unconditional. That's why it's supernatural.
Now, we can't always see that. But I'm telling you, the love
we're with you, love the Lord's children, is unconditional love.
Because it's not a natural love. You weren't born with it. It's
a supernatural love. It's shed abroad in your heart
by the Holy Spirit. You cannot not love the children
of God. It's impossible. If the Holy
Spirit is in your heart, you love the children of God. Our text is especially speaking,
though, And we see it here in this context of the knowledge
of God's love for us shed abroad in our hearts. He has given us
the Holy Ghost and He sheds abroad the knowledge, the heart knowledge
of God's love towards us. That's what He said there in
verse 8 of our text. He says this, But God commendeth
His love towards us. He demonstrated it. He exhibited
His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And listen to a couple of passages
of John. 1 John 3, 16. He says, Hereby
perceive we the love of God because He laid down His life for us. We grasp it. We see it. Listen
to 1 John 4, 9 and 10. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son
into the world that we might live through Him. Herein is love. Not that we loved God, but He
loved us and sent His Son to be the perpetuation for our sins
if God so loved us. How does He manifest that love?
At the cross. in His Son. It's a propitiating
love. It's a reconciling love. It's
a love that we might live. That's the kind of love it is.
Here's something that you and I need to understand, and I know
when I make this statement I'm preaching to the choir, but here's
what the world thinks of the love of God. They think it's
some sort of a romantic love. It's like falling in love with
somebody. And God loves me, and why shouldn't
He after all? Look at me. Such a beautiful
object. And it means nothing to Him,
does it? Don't we hear the world talking about this all the time?
God loves me. And it means nothing. God loves
you and so do we. You see that on the church sign
all the time. God loves you and so do we. I tell you, the world
is taking a lot to itself, ain't it? They're taking a lot for
granted, and it better be careful. You know, when I was talking
about this the other day, this is what people are saying. I
bet you've heard your relatives say this, like even lost relatives,
they're lost people, are saying when they get in a little bit
of trouble, they'll say, well, I know this is working for my
good. I don't know how, but I know this is working for my good.
But you know, everything don't work for everybody's good. Romans 8.28 says this, we know
that all things work together for good to who? Them who love
God. Them who have the Holy Ghost
shed abroad in their heart. Those who are the called according
to His purpose. I tell you, sometimes you just
want to stand up and tell somebody, you know this may not be working
for your good. This may be a forerunner of the
evil that's coming on you. This sickness, this cancer, this
wreck that you've just had may be a forerunner of God ready
to bring judgment upon you. It's only the children of God
who can say, I know that this is working together for my good. And they do the same way with
the love of God. They just embrace their love of God so easily and
talk about it. But one of the things you and
I know, and this is very important here about the love of God, this
love of God is in Christ and it's redeeming love. It's redeeming
love. You can't talk about the love
of God towards anybody unless you talk about redeeming love,
perpetuating love. He sent His Son that we might
live love. That's the love it is, isn't
it? Everything that you and I have
and everything that we hope for as children of God flows from
His love. Everything. His election. Why did He even choose anybody?
His love. It's not because you were more
in number, Moses told the children of Israel, but because He loved
you. He chose you. He loved you. The atonement upon
Calvary's tree, what brought Him down to bleed and suffer?
His love. His love. What about our calling
to Himself? That's the first place the love
of God is manifested to us personally, is it? When He calls. Remember
Ezekiel chapter 16, that little baby that was cast out in the
open field? Nobody washed it. Nobody put
swaddling clothes on it. It laid there and was still attached.
Its umbilical cord was still attached to its mother. And its
mother was a Hittite. And his father was an Amorite.
Ungodly nations. And yet the Lord said, when I
pass by you, And I saw you polluted in your blood. I said, live. And he says that three times
in that one verse. I said, live. I say, live. I said, live. Three times. And
then he said, when I passed by you and saw you laying there
naked and polluted and I washed you, your time was the time of
love. The time of love. And I spread
my skirt over you. and I covered your nakedness."
And there's where you first see the love of Christ to your soul.
When He called you out of your sin and corruption and He washed
you and He reveals Himself to you, then there's where you say,
He loves me. He loves me. Until then, nobody
can believe God loves them, can they? They can't. The love of God is in Christ
and it has to be revealed. It's strange to me and it shows
how spiritual this is that the world can so easily talk about
the love of God. And you have to have a sovereign
witness for some broken hearted child of God to convince them
God loves them. And only one can do that and
that's the Spirit. You ever doubt His love for you?
I have. I have. And it's because who He is and
who I am. And therefore the Spirit has
to convince us. We have known and believed the
love that God has to us. But how do we know it and how
do we believe it? The Holy Spirit convinces us of that. And if
He didn't, we could never believe such a thing. It's never been any problem to
me since the Lord saved me that He hates people. That He's angry
with the wicked every day. That don't surprise me at all.
What is glorious to me is how He could love any of us. How
He could love any of us. And notice here in our text also
how Paul connects our hope with the love of God to us. He tells
us in verse 2 of Romans 5 that we rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. We rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. That is, our hope for the future
has to do with God's redeeming glory in Christ. Boy, I tell you, the children
of God have got a bright future ahead of them. They hope for
the glory of God. They're going to partake of that
glory. They're going to see it in Jesus Christ. They're going
to see the King in His beauty. But you know, they're going to
do more than that. They're going to partake of that glory. For when He comes again, He's
going to change their vile body and fashion it like unto His
glorious body. It's going to be a glorious resurrection
for the children of God. That's their hope. They live
in hope of the glory of God. I want to show you that because
it talks about these three things. Look in 1 John. It talks about
this hope and it talks about love. Look over in 1 John chapter 3. And look in verse 1. Look at this. Here is our hope of the glory
of God. It tells us what this glory is. And tells us it flows
from the love of God. 1 John chapter 3, look at this
in verse 1. Behold, what manner of love,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
of all people should be called the sons of God. Therefore the
world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. Now that's glory, isn't it? But
we shall see Him as He is. I tell you, I can just imagine,
I can just imagine when we look at Him, And we see the glory. For the first time, we see glory. Father, I want those that You've
given to me to be with me that they may behold my glory. And
none of us have seen Him, have we? Only through the Scriptures
we've seen what He looks like. But when we see Him, oh, the
glory that we'll see in Him. But you know something? When
we turn and look at ourselves and we look at one another, you
know what we're going to say? You look just like Him! You look
just like Him! They will have glorious bodies
likened to His body. When He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. And you know the most glorious
thing about that? He has no sin. But the first time in our life,
these bodies will be changed and made absolutely holy. The sense of sin will never molest
us and bother us anymore. That will be heaven in itself.
What manner of love that our Father has bestowed upon us to
give us such a hope! See, our hope flows from that
love to be like Him. Verse 3, Every man that hath
this hope in him, he purifieth himself, even as he is pure. And the reason this hope is called
a sure and steadfast hope, that is one that has to be realized.
One that can never fail is because it flows from the never failing
love of Him who has already died and who is in heaven this morning
as you and I gather here. Listen to Hebrews chapter 6 and
verse 18, talking about this hope. We have a strong consolation,
a strong comfort, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the
hope set before us. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within
the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."
What does he tell us there? The anchor of our hope is Jesus. He's our anchor. It's not that
we're connected some way. to an anchor, but He is our anchor. He is our anchor. And where is
He? Well, He's within the veil, isn't
He? He's already in heaven. And what's He doing there, brothers
and sisters? How come Him there to begin with? He pleased the
Father. The Father examined His work
on our behalf and said, Son, You have pleased Me so well.
Come up here to heaven and sit down at My right hand. until
all your people are here with you. And He's our anchor. The
anchor of our hope, listen, must not be in the ship. If our anchor is in our duties
or in our fillings, our frames of mind, that means the anchor
is yet in our ship. And what happens if the anchor
is in your ship? Your ship is going to continue
to drift, isn't it? When it goes over the falls, you'll have nothing
to keep it from dashing on the rocks below. The anchor cannot
be in the ship. It's got to go and grip to something
that will hold the ship steady. Our anchor is not even the Spirit's
work in us, is it? Our anchor is not in that we
love Him, though we do. And listen, somebody may say
this, Oh, if I just had more faith. If I just had more faith. Well, you know something? Faith
is not your anchor. Faith connects you to the anchor,
but your faith is not your anchor. The anchor is already in heaven
behind the veil, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior
on whom we hope and upon whom our hopes depend is an accepted
Savior He is within the veil where we hope soon to be. And
for that anchor to fail means His love has failed. And if His
love fails, then that means that He has failed. And that is utterly
impossible because He has already succeeded. He has already succeeded. That is what it means to be within
the veil. He has already succeeded. If
He had not succeeded, He would not have been there. Where is
your hope, dear soul? Where is your hope? Is it in
Him? Is He your anchor? Have you cast
your faith upon Him? Do you utterly depend upon Him?
Do you trust Him for all your salvation? Is He your hope? And that flows out of His love.
And His love will never fail, neither will He ever fail. And
Paul says here in our text, Such hope as this, he says, maketh
not ashamed. It maketh not ashamed. Such hope
will never disappoint is what that means. And such hope will
never bring delusion or put us to shame. Therefore, we will
never have cause to be ashamed of our hope. The object of our
hope, the person who is our hope, will never be ashamed of Him. I was reading this old song yesterday
in our hymn book, and I thought what a blessed old song this
is. Listen to him, talking about being ashamed. Never been ashamed. Jesus and shall it ever be, page
400. Listen to this. Jesus and shall
it ever be, a mortal man ashamed of thee, ashamed of thee whom
angels praise, whose glory shines through endless days. Ashamed
of Jesus, sooner far let evening blush to honest star. He sheds
the beams of light divine, or this benighted soul of mine.
Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend, on whom my hopes of heaven depend? No, when I blush, be this my
shame, that I no more revere his name. Ashamed of Jesus? Yes, I may, when I have no more
guilt to wash away, no tears to wipe, no good to crave, no
fears to quell, no soul to save. Till then, nor is my boast in
vain, till then I boast a Savior slain, and oh, may this my glory
be, that Christ is not ashamed of me. Hope maketh not ashamed. And I'm telling you, if He's
your hope, and that's flowing out of His love, you can't be
ashamed of Him, can you? And you can't be ashamed of the
hope that He's given you. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and look at this lastly, which
is given unto us. What a precious, immeasurable,
sovereign gift. The Holy Ghost is given unto
us. Brother Larry was talking about
Simon the sorcerer this morning. And this was his awful sin. Remember
what he said? I'll give you money if you'll
give me the power to give the Holy Ghost to whomever I put
my hands on. And what did Peter say to him?
He said, Why? Your money perish with you because
you have thought. You think thoughts can't be wicked?
And I tell you some of the most wicked thoughts is to think that
salvation can be merited or earned or bought in any aspect of it. Your money perished with you
because you thought the gift of God could be purchased with
money. And what did he say? He said
you don't have partner lot in this matter. You're yet in the
bondage of sin. You're in the gall of bitter.
Because you thought. Oh, brothers and sisters, the
Holy Spirit is a wonderful gift, isn't He? He's a precious gift.
He's a sovereign gift. And we don't marry Him, we can't
earn Him. Every aspect of salvation is
by grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourselves. Not
of yourselves. Not of yourselves. Why don't we give an altar call
and get people up here on all these emotional feelings? Why
don't we do that? We'll deceive people if we're
not careful. The Holy Spirit is the very one that has to bring
a person to Christ. We preach, we persuade men to
come, but it's just like Larry said this morning. It's God that
gives the increase. And I tell you one of the most
difficult things it is, and only the Holy Spirit can do it, is
to persuade a man, I'll save you by my grace. I'll save you
freely and no other way. I spent years trying to earn
my salvation. I spent years and me and Jesus
had our own thing going until I found out I was going to hell.
I was going to hell. And there's when He saved me,
when He made me to know, I'll save you by Christ, I'll save
you by my grace, but no other way. You cannot earn anything
from Him, can you? The Holy Spirit which is given
to us. He don't come by works. You can't
work to get the Holy Spirit. He comes by faith, doesn't He?
The only channel we read that the Spirit of God comes to our
heart is through the channel of faith. Received you the Spirit
by the works of the law? Or by the hearing of faith? By
the hearing of faith. I want to read that to you and
we'll close in a minute. Look over in Acts chapter 11.
Acts chapter 10 and Acts chapter 11. This is where the Apostle
Peter went down to Carnelius' house. A house full of Gentiles
to preach the gospel to them. And here's what happened when
he got down there. But I want you to notice how
the Holy Spirit came to their hearts. Peter begins to preach to them
that Jesus Christ, peace comes by Him, He's Lord of all. And
he says in chapter 10, and look in verse 42. Peter says, here's what the Lord
commanded us. to preach unto the people and testify that it
is he which was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick
and the dead. To him gave all the prophets witness that through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. And while Peter yet spake these
words, the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision
which believed were astonished As many as came with Peter because
that on the Gentiles also were poured out." You know, that's
the same word in our text that's shed abroad. Very same word. He's poured out the Spirit in
your heart. Look at this. He poured out. What? The gift. The gift of the Holy Ghost. And then Peter went back up toward
Jerusalem and he met these brethren and they got all over him. And
He's going to tell them what happened. And look over in chapter
11 and verse 12. And here's what He said, And
the Spirit bid me to go with him. I saw this vision. The Spirit
bid me to go with him down there to the Gentiles' house. Nothing
doubted. Moreover, these six brethren
accompanied me, and we entered to the man's house. And he showed
us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said
unto him, Send men to Joppa. and called for Simon, whose surname
is Peter, who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy
house shall be saved. And as I began to speak, the
Holy Ghost fell on them as on us at the beginning. Then remembered
I the word of our Lord, how that He said, John indeed baptized
with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
Forasmuch then as God gave them the lack gift as He did unto
us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could
withstand God. And when they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." And if you've heard and you've
believed, This may sound so simplistic, but if we lose this, we'll lose
the simplicity that's in Christ. If you've heard the Gospel and
you have truly, from your heart, been able to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, to trust Him, to depend utterly upon Him for your
acceptance with God, for your righteousness, for your salvation,
then listen. The Holy Spirit has come to your
heart. I'm not saying you felt Him.
I'm not saying you were so aware of it, like somebody flipping
the lights on, but I am saying this. If He's come to your heart,
He's done so because you and when you believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ. And nobody will ever have the
Spirit apart from that. He comes to glorify Christ, to
reveal Christ, to bear witness of Christ. And the minute you
turn your eyes to Christ and believe on Him, the Holy Spirit
comes to your heart. That happens every time. There
is no such thing as having a new birth and believing in Christ
and not having the Holy Spirit in your heart. There is no such
thing as that. No such thing as that. All right, let's quit right there,
okay? Let's quit right there. Good text, wasn't it?