The Love of God Poured into...

Very good, brethren. Once again, Romans chapter five. We're gonna be addressing versus five. Actually, the second clause of verse five through verse eight. This is part of our explanation of this passage.

These 11 verses that we started a couple of weeks ago. We're gonna be reading, as I mentioned before, the 1st 11 verses. This is the word of the Lord. Romans chapter five, verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice Not only that, but also we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Why? For while we were still weak, At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly.

For one would scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows or demonstrates His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in Him, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Amen. This is the reading of God's Word. Now, my dear brother and sister, if we were going to summarize the teaching of these first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans, we could say that in this passage of the scriptures, we find the blessings or the fruit of what it is to be justified. The Apostle tells us very clearly there in verse one, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, and from that point onwards, he's going to tell us about all of these blessings, all of these fruit that we receive as the result of our condition of being justified. That person who, by the grace of the Lord, places their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have mentioned now many times, that person is forgiven of their sins.

And also that person is declared righteous because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly, that is a great blessing to be forgiven and to be declared righteous. But salvation does not end there. There's other things that God is going to give to the person who has been justified by faith. And in this section of the Scriptures, we have all of those or most of those blessings that we receive as the result of our justification.

All of those blessings that we find here in this 11 verses can be summarized in one simple word, and that word is reconciliation. That is the main idea of the Apostle through these 11 verses. The person who has been justified by faith is also a person that is reconciled with God. That means that this person is no longer an enemy of God. By nature, we are enemies of the Lord.

By nature, we are children of wrath. Ephesians chapter two and Romans chapter one verse 18. It says that we are in enmity with God, so we need the grace of the Lord to come and justify us. And when we are justified, we enter into this state of reconciliation, and this reconciliation is manifested in many things. First, in the fact that we have now peace with God so verse one says that we have been justified by faith and hence we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ we are no longer enemies we are not in terms of war against God but we are in terms of peace, and this peace that we have with God does not depend upon the performance of the Christian, but this peace that we have with God depends only upon the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is not only peace that we receive, but also, verse 2, we receive access. You remember how in the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament, The high priest will enter into the presence of God only once per year, and the high priest could not remain in the presence of the holiness of God. He had to go away from the presence of God only once per year. Now in the new covenant, the covenant of Jesus Christ, that is a better covenant, Now, through the Lord Jesus Christ, verse two, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand so we can be in the presence of the Lord. We can enter into the throne of grace with assurance that we're not going to be destroyed because of our unrighteousness, but rather that we're going to be accepted because of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All of these peace and also these entrance that we have into the presence of the Lord also grant us the right to rejoice in the future hope of glory. So the apostle continues to say there in the end of verse two that we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. There is going to be one day in which the glory of God is going to be revealed, and he's going to come to judge the living and the death on that day. It is going to be a scary day before the Christian. It is a reason to rejoice that we're going to see the Lord and that we're going to be with him.

So the apostle says that because we have peace with God and we have entrance into his grace, we can rejoice in that future glory of God that is going to be revealed. But that future rejoicing also grant us, the apostle continues in verse 3, to give us or allow us to rejoice in our present sufferings. Why? Because the sufferings of this present age do not compare with the glory that is going to be revealed. Romans 8, verse 18.

Because the sufferings of this age do not compare with the glory that is going to be revealed, then hence we can have perspective of our trials, we can have perspective of our suffering, and know that our suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. That is, that our present suffering is with the purpose of working in us, conformity to Christ as we grow in hope of the glory that is going to be revealed. And that hope that we have, which is the other side of faith, with faith we look back to the cross and we hope we see to the future this glory that is going to be revealed. This hope now is the means by which we rejoice also in the fact that the love of God has been poured into our hearts. This hope does not disappoint us.

This hope does not put us to shame. Because, then the apostle says in verse 5, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. It is through the Holy Spirit that we know, brethren. It is by the Holy Spirit that we look back two thousand years ago, and we know that Christ died because your physical eyes have not seen Him. It is through the eyes of the Spirit that we look back and then we know that He died.

And it's through the eyes of the Spirit that is in us that we look ahead and we know that this hope is a certain hope. But the Apostle is going to give us here an expression that is rather particular in the New Testament because he's going to tell us in verse 5 that the love of God has been poured into our hearts by or through the Holy Spirit that was given to us. And what is the meaning of that? What is the meaning of the love of God being poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to us? Is this, as I said in the beginning, a declaration of God's love?

Is this just simply God saying in different ways that He has loved us, that He has loved us in such a way that He sent His only begotten Son in the category of John 3, 16 for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son? Or even just like verse 8, that says, for God demonstrates his love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Is this a declaration of God's love? Is this the way that scripture tells us that God has loved us so much? Or is this an experience?

that Christians are to go through or that Christians experience? Is this something that happens to the Christian? What is it? Well, let me submit to you that the answer to this question is very important because if it is an experience, then that means that Christians have gone through or will go through this experience of having the love of God being poured into their heart through the Holy Spirit. And more important than that, the key question I suppose that we get out of this message is, have you received the love?

of God being poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit. Have you received the Holy Spirit so that the love of God has been poured into our hearts? Can you join the we of verse five here and say that you are also a partaker of the love of God that has been poured into your heart by the Holy Spirit that has been given to you. Can you join the Apostle, the Romans and Christians in saying that your heart is the vessel that has received the love of God that has been given to you by the Holy Spirit? I suppose that is the most important question that each one of us has to answer.

So, of course, I want us to examine these scriptures from the teachings of Paul, from the Book of Romans and from the canon of the New Testament primarily. And basically what I want us to do with this passage is this. First, I want us to answer the question of what? What is this pouring of God's love into the heart of the Christian by the Holy Spirit? What is the meaning of that?

Is that a declaration of God's love, or is that an experience that we ought to go through? First, I want us to answer the what. Once we have considered the what from this passage here, then I want us to consider what are the practical implications. of having received the love of God that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. What is the meaning of it, practically speaking?

What are the practical implications of it? And in order to answer that, we're going to depart from Romans. And then we're going to be coming back to this passage of the Scriptures. And finally, I want us to see the reason behind the pouring of God's love into the heart of the Christian by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. Of course, the intention with this sermon and with this study, brother and sister, is not so much that we will fill our heads with knowledge and understanding the love of God being poured into the heart of a Christian, but brethren, that by faith we will rejoice in the fact that if we are in him, we are partakers of his love, that we are no longer enemies of God and that we are not under wrath, but that we are under his love because of Jesus Christ.

The exposition of the scriptures should lead to the glory of God in the heart of the Christian. So I hope that the Lord may help us and bless us as we address this. And I hope not very long because we have baptism, which is a great blessing. So let us start first with the What? What is this pouring of God's love into the heart of the Christian through the Holy Spirit that has been given to them?

Let me submit to you. I'm gonna put it in a sentence and then I'm gonna try to explain it from the scriptures. But let me submit to you that here We do not have a declaration of God's love for His people in the way of John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Or Romans chapter 5, verse 8, for God demonstrated His love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We do not have a declaration of that.

We have many of those in the scriptures. And they are glorious because they describe what God That's for us, and that is that He loves us in Christ Jesus. Let me submit to you that what we have in verse 5 is a once-for-all spiritual experience of every Christian in which the Christian, now by virtue of the Spirit, It is illuminated, enlightened to understand the love that the Father has had for them in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is applied into the heart of the Christian that they learn, they understand, they are illuminated to know that they are loved at the cross. And this is a once-for-all experience in which the Holy Spirit is given to this person as a seal of this revelation, of this enlightenment given to the Christian, and from that point onwards becomes the foundation upon which the Christian life is lived as we wait for the hope of glory that the Apostle speaks about.

Let me try to say that once again. Let me submit to you that what we have in verse five is an experience of the Christian. It's a spiritual experience, a once-for-all spiritual experience of the Christian in which The Christian, when they are saved, they are enlightened, illuminated by the Holy Spirit to be recipients of the love of God the Father that is given to them by and through the completed work of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, given to them by grace, by the Holy Spirit. When the person has faith, yes, it is true that we say we are forgiven. Our sins have been forgiven.

But it's also true that when we see the cross, in the cross, we see the greatest manifestation of God's love for us. That is that God the Father so loved us that he gave his son to die upon the cross for us. And the understanding of God's love into our hearts is given to us only and uniquely by the Holy Spirit. When the Christian understands that they have not only been forgiven, but that they are loved by God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, this becomes the foundation for absolutely everything that we do in our Christian life. And we are supposed to grow in our understanding of the love of God for us through Jesus Christ as we live our life, as we wait for the hope of glory that is going to be revealed to us.

First, I said that this is an experience, that this is not an abstract declaration of love, but rather that this is a spiritual experience. And I think that the text that we have in verse 5 very clearly tells us that that is the case. Pay attention to the wording that the apostle uses there in verse 5. It says, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts. You may have shed into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The word in there is very clear. There is the love of God that has been poured into their heart. of the Christian. This is something that has taken place. The heart, as you know, represents and symbolizes the very core, the essence of who we are.

So here we have the love of God being deposited, being given into the heart of the person. We cannot say that this is just an abstract declaration of God's love. This is something that takes place in the life of the Christian. The heart of the Christian is the one that receives, and also the Apostle makes the use of this word, this pouring of God's love. Every time that you go and check, actually these were, I think it's 13 or 16 times that happened in the New Testament.

These were pouring or shedding is most of the time used to speak of the work of the Holy Spirit. You remember how the Holy Spirit was poured upon the believers in Acts chapter 12? Or you remember how the Holy Spirit was poured upon the Gentiles that later on believed? This is the experience of the Holy Spirit that comes upon people and then they are transformed and the apostle is going to choose these were here not so much to speak about the spirit, but to speak about the love of God that has been poured or given into the heart of the believer. There's nothing to do here, brother and sister.

We have before us an experience. Something that happens to the Christian. And of course, when I'm saying experience, please do not imagine that this is just people collapsing or people going to the floor. When I'm saying experience, I only mean something that happens to the Christian. That experience may be different to every person, but I'm referring to something that happens to the Christian.

Now, we know that this experience is not something that happens only for an exclusive group of Christians. But if you pay attention to verse five, you will see that those who receive the love of God being poured into our hearts is the us or the we that the apostle has described in verse one. Pay attention once again to verse five. And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And who is this us that the apostle includes himself into?

Well, this us is those who have been justified by faith. Pay attention to verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who have the love of God being poured into their hearts are those who have been justified by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that is all Christians. All Christians who by grace through faith have come to the Lord Jesus Christ now have the love of God being poured into Now, this is very important that I mention here because there's going to be people that will teach or say that this experience of the love of God being given to a person or the pouring of the spiritual love of God through the Holy Spirit is something that happens to an exclusive group of Christians that have developed a certain level of holiness and closeness to the Lord.

And now they receive this experience of the love of God. and submitting to you that this pouring out of God's love is a once-for-all experience, a spiritual experience that happened to the Christian, to every Christian. And once again, this is going to be a once-for-all experience. Why do I say that it's a once-for-all? Because of the tense or the times that the Apostle uses there in verse 5.

Pay attention once again to verse 5. It says, And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts." There we have the past. You may have something like, is given or is shed. If you have something like, is shed, this is Old English to mean exactly the same.

To say, has been poured into our hearts. And then he has, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us or some of you may have something like is given to us. This is old English also to say the same thing who has been given to us. The timing of this pouring of God's love into the heart of a person is the past. It has taken place.

Those who have been justified by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ are those who have received the pouring of God's love into their hearts through the Holy Spirit that was given to them. This which we have in verse five is an a spiritual experience. That happens to every Christian, and I'm going to submit to you, in the moment in which they are saved, in the moment of conversion, when the moment of justification, when by God's grace that person is justified. Also, that person receives the pouring of God's love, and now they have the Holy Spirit that is given to them. Of course, now when we come to the New Testament, we realize that the relationship of the Christian with the Holy Spirit is one that has to grow.

We have the Holy Spirit in dwelling us and he's within us. You remember the Christian is the temple of the Holy Spirit, but we are to also continue to walk in the Holy Spirit. We are not to quench the Holy Spirit. We are to walk in alignment with the Holy Spirit. That is, that we have been baptized into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then that which we receive here is the love of God that has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

given to us. Paul is going to use similar language as he's writing to Titus. Come with me to Titus chapter 3, because in Titus chapter 3, the Apostle once again is going to connect this pouring of the Spirit with this expectation of the future hope by the salvation of the Christian. Come to Titus chapter 3, please. And there we can see this pouring of God's love into the heart of the Christian.

It says in Titus chapter 3, Pay attention to Titus chapter 3 verse 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, that is Titus chapter 3 verse 4. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope to eternal life. We have been saved, we have been justified by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ, and in being forgiven, in being declared righteous, in being justified, we have received the Holy Spirit that is given to us.

I'm submitting to you that the coming of the Holy Spirit in us, it is also the coming, the bestowing of God's love to us that make us the children of God, because we are the sons of God. The Apostle says in Galatians chapter 4, we have received the Spirit of His Son by whom we cry, Abba, Father. That is the Spirit of God. Now it is given, it is bestowed to the heart of that person, and that is the pouring of God's love. Perhaps the Apostle that makes it more clear is the Apostle John.

If you come with me to 1 John chapter 3, there we're going to have two verses that are going to tell us about the pouring of God's love, the bestowing of the giving of God's love to us in a spiritual way through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John chapter 3. 1st John, Chapter three, verse one. Pay attention to 1st John, Chapter three, verse one. See what kind of love 1st John, Chapter three, verse one.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us on the way that is written here that given to us. It is actually put into you. Literally, what it says here, see what kind of love the Father has bestowed, put into you, that we should be called children of God. The Apostle actually makes it more clear if you come to chapter 4. Pay attention to chapter 4 in verse 16.

Verse 16 of 1 John, he says, So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is also are we in this world. This is, he says in verse 16, pay attention, so we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. If you pay attention to verse 13, the apostle has told us that this love, or that this knowing, it is by the Holy Spirit.

Pay attention to verse 13, which is actually what I should have read from the beginning. Verse 13, it says, By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

It is through the Holy Spirit that the sinner comes to the realization that they are loved because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the experience of God's love being poured into the heart of the sinner. Now, brethren, I'm not speaking here about emotionalism or feelings, emotions. I'm not speaking about that. I'm speaking about the...

illumination, the understanding that we were dead in our sins and our trespasses, and when the grace of God comes upon a person, then the eyes of that person are open to know that only in Jesus Christ we can be forgiven and justified and declared righteous, and that only in Jesus Christ we can be recipients of the love of God. That is only in Jesus Christ that I can say with certainty, I am loved. Because emotional love will require that the person looks to self and said, what do I have that is lovable by God? And when that happens, the person realizes that in themselves there's nothing that is lovable. And then they doubt.

But biblical gospel love. Christian center love is not the love that derives certainty because of who you are, what you have, but rather because of the completed work of Jesus Christ. Biblical love to experience and to know that a person has been loved by God is when we look to Christ and then we see that the work has been completed. And in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's sufficient grounds to be recipients of the love of the Father. And then we know that by the Spirit, because we cannot know that in our own strength.

We cannot know that in our own flesh. We cannot know that with our own intellect, because in our own mind, what we want is a transaction. I give you, and then you love me. I behave in certain way, and then you love me. I feel this.

you know, set of behaviors or expectations, and then you love me. This is our flesh, how we understand love. But the love of God does not work that way. The love of God is centered upon the person of Jesus Christ and his completed work. So then the Christian can be recipient and have certainty that we are loved by God.

Not in an emotional, poetic, abstract way. As some people say, God loves me and He has a wonderful plan for my life. Not in that way. But in the way in which we look to Christ, and we see the completed and finished work of the Savior, and we can say, I am the object of God's love. Because Jesus is the object of God's love.

And in Him, by grace through faith, I know that I am loved and I have the love of God that has been poured into my heart. Because, brother and sister here, what we have in verse 8 of Romans chapter 5, it is actually the certainty and the knowledge that a person is loved by God. Not that we love God, but that He loved us first. that He loved us to have the love of God be poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, is the experience, spiritual experience of the Christian, by which we have certainty through faith that we are the children of God the Father, by and through the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, a once-for-all, knowledge, illumination of His love that becomes the foundation of our life. Because the same apostle will tell us that in Christ Jesus neither circumcision or circumcision avails for anything or nothing.

The only thing that counts is faith that works through love. Because love is that which empowers the faith that we are supposed to have in order to have works. Faith is not only an assent that I say that something is truth, but faith is something the apprehends with the heart, something that apprehends with the inner person. And that which we apprehend by faith is Christ Jesus. And when we see Christ Jesus, we say, He loved me.

Even though I'm broken, even though I'm a sinner, even though I have done all of these things in order to be sent to hell, He has loved me. Not because of my works or deeds, but He has loved me because of His completed work. This is the love of God being poured into our hearts, and as I said, this becomes the foundation of many important things of the life of a Christian. One of them, I move on to my second point, practical implications of it. If you come with me to 1 John, chapter 2, Having the love of God be poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit given to us, it is going to be a revealer of our spiritual condition.

Having the love of God, and this is the love of God the Father, you saw that there in Romans chapter 5, right? I did not explain that, but it's God's love, God's the Father love that is given to the Christian by the Holy Spirit because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. It's a Trinitarian love. God's love is the Father's love that he has had for us. Now, having this love into our hearts, in other words, having the certainty and the assurance by the Spirit that we are loved, not because my works and deeds, but that we are loved by the Father because of the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be a revealer of what is my spiritual condition.

When I say revealer, I'm making up that word, but it's just something that reveals. You understand that, right? That reveals. It's a revealer of the spiritual condition of a person. Pay attention to 1 John 2.

15. It says, "...do not love the world, or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, then the love of the Father is not in him." Now, he's not saying that the Father does not love him, but rather he's using the same construction of Romans chapter 5.

That is, that the love of God has not been put into them, that it's not inside of them, that they don't have the certainty and the assurance that he's going to explain in 1 John chapter 4, that we know that we have been loved by God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The point of the apostle here is that the heart of a person, it is between two contentions, love to the world and love to the Father. knowing that we are loved either by the world or the things of the world, or that we have the love or are loved by the Father. If a person loves the things of the world, then that means that the inclinations of the heart of that person are directed towards the world, not because of any other thing than the absence of God's love in the heart of that person. Because the way that we run away from the world is not by going up to the mountains, but it's by having the love of God in us.

when the affections and the things of this world become less appealing to us than to exalt and to glorify God because of what He has done for us in Christ Jesus. That's why the apostle says once again, verse 15, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires.

But whoever does the will of God abides forever. And what is the will of God? That we might believe in the name of the Son whom he has sent. This is the will of the Father. Love to the father is that that which defines a relationship to the world.

If the heart of the Christian has been the vessel upon which the love of God has been poured by the Holy Spirit, revelation has been given to this person. The eyes have been open to know. I was a sinner, and I was dead in my sins and my trespasses. But the love of God was manifested in such a way that He loved me and He made me His own. When the person knows by grace through faith and illumination in the Spirit that we belong to Him, then everything else is interpreted through the lens of the love that God has given to me through Christ Jesus.

Our contention and our war against the things of the world is not one that has to be fought in the flesh. Our contention against the world and the things of the world is one that has to be fought in the Spirit of God, the Spirit that illuminates to us the love of God in sending His Son to die upon the cross for our sins. When the eyes of the Christian are illuminated to the world, to the depth, to the value, to the excellency of the cross of Jesus Christ, then we understand the things of this world are passing away. But when our eyes are not illuminated, enlightened to comprehend the greatness of the love of God in sending His Son to die upon the cross for our sins, then the things of this world that are passing away become appealing and become so powerful within us that they move us to be with those things of the world. The things of the world are not fought in the flesh once again.

They are fought in the spirit. And this is not a battle that we do in our own strength, brethren. It is one that we do through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The greater is the understanding of the love of God, through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater will be our understanding of how feeble are the things of this world and how they are passing away, including ourselves. So being or having the love of God being poured into our hearts is a revealer of our condition, a spiritual condition before the Lord.

Second, the love of God being in the person is also connected and attached to our obedience to the commandments of the Lord. We cannot obey and follow the words of the Lord if our heart is not growing, in understanding of the greatness of the love that God has had for us in the person of Jesus Christ. Come with me, please, to the previous chapter, chapter 2, or it's the same chapter, chapter 2, the previous page in my Bible. 1 John chapter 2, pay attention to verse 3. Pay attention to verse 3.

This idea of the love of God in the Christian, it is a very John idea. He's the one that explains that the most. Verse 3, it says, And by this we know that we have come to know Him. Chapter 2, verse 3. And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Whoever says, I know Him, but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in Him. The truth is not in Him. Pay attention to verse 5. But whoever keeps His word... Pay attention to this expression.

In him truly the love of God is perfected. But whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him, whoever says that he abides in him also to walk in the same way in which Jesus, or he, walked." It says that Whoever keeps his word in him truly, the love of God is perfected." That does not mean that we're able to love in a perfect way.

But what the apostle says here is that your heart is like a vessel. And then when you abide in the word of the Savior, when you keep the commandments of the Savior, when you follow the Lord Jesus Christ, your heart that is an empty vessel keeps being filled in or poured into it, the love of God, your understanding, realization of the love that God has had for you through the Lord Jesus Christ. So the love of God is being matured, it is being completed into your vessel. And the more that a Christian grows in understanding of the greatness The perfection, how undeserving we are to be recipients of the love of God. The more that we understand that, not in an emotional way, but through the gospel of Jesus Christ and who Jesus Christ is and what He has done, the more that we grow in understanding of that.

The more that our hearts are mature, perfected in His love, and the more that we are perfected in the love of Christ, everything flows from the Christian life because it's no longer me trying to follow a set of principles that I want to do this week. But now it is the power of the Holy Spirit that is pouring God's love into my heart, that is leading me in the spirit to do as God has commanded. For that reason, another implication of having the love of God in us is that we love the If you come to chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4, there the apostle is going to tell us that having this love in us by the Spirit is that which leads us to love the brothers and sisters. Pay attention to chapter 4 verse 10. In this is love.

Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us. This is verse 10. In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That is the definition of love.

Verse 10 is a glorious gospel definition of love. That He sent His Son to die upon the cross to be a propitiation for our sins. Now he says in verse 11, Beloved, if God so loved us, We also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love, once again, is perfected in us.

The vessel of the Christian grows as the spirit pours the love of God into their hearts. The love of God is being perfected, being mature, being completed. The realization of what God has done for us with his son upon the cross is the means by which my heart is empowered, strengthened from above in order to do as God has commanded me to do. My necessity or my need of strength is not found in myself. My need of strength is found in Him alone, as I continue to grow by the Spirit in understanding of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that God the Father so loved me, so loved you, that He sent His only begotten Son.

This also leads us, and with this I finish this section, that if you pay attention there to verse 18, Having the love of God into our hearts also will lead us to assurance of our belonging to God and the removal of fear of punishment. Pay attention to verse 18. There is no fear. Verse 17 better. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment.

Because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love. But perfect love, that is the love that has been perfected in the heart, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved thus.

What is the biblical definition of fear of punishment and fear in the Christian that we have broken God's commandments and fear of God? The definition of fear is absence of a love that has been perfected in the heart. When we experience fear, we tend to run away from the source of fear. That is not the solution in the Christian life. When we experience fear, fear of punishment, the solution in the Christian life is to ran to the gospel of God that has been given to us in Christ Jesus.

That is that in the cross we see the greatest manifestation of his love. Because the more that we grow in understanding of the love of God, then the less that we are going to experience fear of punishment. Why? Because the more that we understand through the scriptures and by the Holy Spirit, the great love that God the Father has had for us, the more that we understand that does not depend upon us. But that is completely the work of God alone in Jesus Christ.

And the more that we are thankful and we say, behold, what kind of love the Father has bestowed upon us. 1 John chapter 3 verse 1, that we should be called the children of God. The solution to all the affairs and all the sufferings and all the trials of men are these. Look to Christ. Place your eyes upon Jesus, his completed and finished work.

Are you struggling to have certainty about your spiritual condition? Look to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Come to the scriptures, and then there you will find the story of this man who came to this world to die upon the cross. to set you free from your sin and now has given you the promise that one day he will come to rescue you from the evilness of this world. If you are broken in your feelings and emotions and uncertainties about the future, come to this book because then you will find the story of a man who came to die and once again will come to be victorious and will take his people out of this wilderness.

If we are struggling with fear of punishment, then we are to come to this book because this book will tell us the story of Jesus Christ. in whom we can have certainty, and assurance, and peace, and rest, that does not depend upon our performance, works, or deeds, but depend upon Him alone. This is the love of God that is being poured into the heart of this Christian by the Holy Spirit that has been given to them. And the reason and the center of it all is Christ alone. So we return to our passage in Romans And with this I finish.

Why is this love of God being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that has been given to us? The apostle will tell us in verse six of Romans chapter five. The reason why this love of God has been given to us freely by this Holy Spirit that then now we know that God has loved us and we're saved. It is verse six. Because while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly."

Brethren, because we are broken, because we're helpless, because we are weak, and we don't have in and of ourselves that which is necessary to be lovable in the eyes of God. God loved us and demonstrated His love. When we were broken and when we were nothing, that is when the greatness of the love of God was manifested. And this is what makes the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He sent His Son when humanity could not save herself or itself. That is when God sent His Son to die upon the cross, because apart from the coming of the Savior, every one of us, Every single human from day one until the last day would have ended up in hell because that is what we deserve by nature.

But the mercy and the grace of God is manifested that while we were weak at that time, God manifested his love in sending his son, Jesus Christ. Second, verse seven and eight. That is that the love of God is not like a human love. It is a completely different type of love, it says in verse seven. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us in that while we're still sinners, Christ died for us. Human love is transactional. Divine love is sacrificial. Human love expects to receive something in exchange for what it gives. Divine love is not expecting anything in return for what it gives.

Human love is expecting to be satisfied to love the other person. Divine love is not expecting to be satisfied to love the sinner. They are completely different loves. The love of humans perhaps will do something sacrificial for a righteous person. Perhaps I would die for someone that I love.

Perhaps I would do something sacrificial for the person that I uphold as someone to be loved. But God does not do that. He demonstrates His love for us that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. We did not deserve anything at all. And that is the greatest manifestation of the love of God the Father.

And because divine love is not human love, then we need the Holy Spirit to teach us how to understand that love. Because we understand love only through human and fleshly categories. Even when we relate to the Lord, we're expecting to receive or to give so that we are loved or we want to be loved because of the things that we do. We need the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to lead us to understand and to comprehend. that if we are loved by God, this is not contingent upon our works or our performance.

But while we were still weak, while we were ungodly, while we were sinners, that is when Christ Jesus died for us. Jesus Christ was not expecting for humanity to achieve something so that perhaps I will come down and I will die for them. Jesus Christ was not expecting that perhaps they may change their ways a little bit so that then I will come down and die for them. No. Jesus Christ died for us when we were weak, when we were broken, when we were ungodly, when we were sinners.

This is the glory of having the love of God being poured into our hearts, brethren. That when we are down, then we can know that the love of God does not depend upon my today, but the love of God depends upon the past. Because you paid attention there to the tenses of verse 8, and with this I finish verse 8. For God, pay attention to verse 8. For God, or but God, shows, that is in the present, or demonstrates, that is in the present, His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

The present manifestation of God's love does not happen today. The present manifestation of God's love happening in the past. That is when God demonstrated His love for us. My circumstances, my life, my future, what I accomplish or what I don't accomplish is not the means by which God has demonstrated His love towards me mainly. The main way in which God has demonstrated His love for me and for you, brother and sister, is by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to die upon the cross 2,000 years ago.

So when the Christian is tempted to feel that they are not loved or cared by God, or when the Christian is tempted to feel that God is distant and that he is not with them, or when the Christian is tempted to feel this burden of guilt that separates them from the presence of God, the eyes of the Christian should not be placed about the present time and how am I going to fix that situation so that I will come once again in fellowship and communion with the Lord, but rather the eyes of the Christian should go back to 2,000 years ago when Jesus Christ died upon the cross because that is the demonstration of God's love. And this is love, it says 1 John 4, verse 7 through 9, in that God sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And not that we love, but that he loved us first. That experience of love of the Christian is meant to be the reflection. of the glorious manifestation of the love of God for his people.

And how would I desire, brother and sister, that in my personal life and in the life of each one of my brothers and sisters, we will receive a double portion of the Holy Spirit that would allow us, brethren, to see the greatness of this truth. that if we are on the side of God by the grace and the mercies of the Savior, and we are recipients of the love of God, then indeed all of the things of this world are passing away. All of this happens purely by grace, through faith, along in the Lord Jesus Christ. And with the same question that I began, now I'm going to finish. So if we have explained and spoken about this God's love important to the heart by the Holy Spirit, have you, have you, received God's love into your heart by the Holy Spirit that has been poured.

Can you say that is your heart a vessel that has received the love of God that is poured only by and through the Holy Spirit, only by grace and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you a recipient of this glorious blessing that comes from above in which you can have certainty that you are loved by God, the Father, not because of your works or deeds, not because of your performance, not because of your achievements, not because of how good a father or mother or brother or sister or citizen you are. But have you received the fullness of the grace of the love of God only purely upon the completed work of Jesus Christ? Or are you still trusting in your works and deeds in order to feel that you're lovable by God? Are you still trying to fix yourself and accommodate certain things in your life so that you will put according to your own standard in the category of I'm lovable and I'm deserving to receive the love of God?

Because anything that does not have Jesus Christ as the source of love and all the accomplishments of the Christian life, it is not of him and it's of this world. So the call to all Christians and my brothers and sisters is this, that by the grace of the gospel, we will continue to look to Christ because it's only in the completed work of the cross that we can see the greatest manifestation of the love of God. And when our hearts are tempting us to despair, When our hearts are tempting us to feel that we are not worthy, then please know with your mind that you're not, that there's nothing good in you, and that is completely okay, because God did not come to die for the righteous. God sent His Son to die for the unrighteous. God sent his son to die for the broken.

God sent his son to die for the ungodly. God sent his son to die for the one that was lost, so that being recovered and saved, then he will begin this work in them that he will bring to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. May the grace of the Lord abound in your heart, so that the love of God will be poured into yours by the Holy Spirit that continues to be with us, will be with us, and will take us to the day of the hope of glory. Amen? Amen.

Let us pray. Father, Lord, I give you thanks for your mercy, your kindness, your goodness, for your patience towards us, Lord, and as we come before you, I give you thanks, Lord, for the words that we have before us in the Scriptures. I pray, O Lord, that if there is anyone among us who has not experienced or received or seen the love of God given to us by the Holy Spirit in the completed work of Jesus Christ. Even as we say these things and even as we pray, Lord, I ask that the eyes of this person will be open. We do give you thanks, Lord, for your abundant grace and your mercy given us, Lord, salvation in Christ Jesus.

Help us, Lord, by your Holy Spirit to understand, to comprehend the words of the Spirit. Help us, Lord, to be enlightened and to have this glorious certainty that if there is love that comes from above to us, it is because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Teach us, Lord, to be humble before your presence, to depend upon you always. Forgive us, O Lord, please, for the many times that we have tried in our own strength to fix ourselves, to make us lovable before you. Lord, help us, please, Lord, to know that in the gospel we find all things that is the same gospel that empower us to grow in holiness and righteousness in love one for the other and love for you as we await for the blessed hope that is to come.

I pray, Lord, now as we are going to witness the baptism of our brother and as we are going to hear his testimony, Lord, that you will bless us with the work of salvation. And as we can see there, the love of God being bestowed upon this brother, becoming a child of God purely by your grace and by your mercy. I pray, Lord, that you will use this testimony in this time of his baptism for us not only to rejoice in knowing that you continue to do the work that you have started with your people and that you will bring to completion, but also, Lord, to be thankful for the day of our salvation, that as our brother goes into that water, we might remember the day in which you saved us, the day in which the love of God was poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us, the day in which our eyes were opened to the fact that we were not only forgiven, justified, but also loved by God, even though we were dead in our trespasses and sins. that we will be a testimony, Lord, of your grace for him and for your people, for your church. I pray, Lord, that you will bless us as we do all of these things, and that we might do it for the glory of your precious name.

And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.