I John 4:10 (KJV)
From Charles Spurgeon's Sermon # 1707, "Herein Is Love":
Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in search of the depths? Yes, by the leadings of God’s Spirit, we will search out the springs of the sea of love! Only in one place shall we find love enough for our supreme purpose, which is also the purpose of the Lord, Himself. There is one shoreless ocean into which we may be baptized and out of which we may be filled until we overflow! Where is the unfailing motive of Love? For Love is tried and hardly put to it to hold her own! Can we find a motive that will never fail, even towards the most provoking of mankind? Can we find an argument for affection which shall help us in times of ingratitude, when base returns threaten to freeze the very heart of charity? Yes, there is such a motive! There is a force by which even impossibilities of love can be accomplished and we shall be supplied with a perpetual constraint moving the heart to ceaseless charity!
Come with me, then, in the first place, to notice the infinite spring of love—“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us.” . . .
I. First, THE INFINITE SPRING OF LOVE. Our text has two words upon which I would place an emphasis— “not,” and “but.” The first is, “not.” “Herein is love, not”— “not that we loved God.” Very naturally many conclude that this means, “not that we loved God first.” That is not exactly the Truth of God taught here, but still it is a weighty Truth, and is mentioned in this same chapter in express words—“We love Him because He first loved us” (v. 19). The cause of love in the universe is not that man loved God first! No being in existence could love God before God loved him, for the existence of such a being is due to God’s previous love! His plans of love were all laid and many of them carried out before we were born. And when we were born, we, none of us, loved God first so as to seek after God before He sought after us—so as to desire reconciliation with God before He desired reconciliation with us. No, whatever may be said about free will as a theory, it is never found as a matter of fact that any man, left to himself, ever woos his God, or pines after friendship with his Maker. If he repents of sin, it is because the Spirit of God has first visited him and shown him his sin! If he desires restoration, it is because he has, first of all, been taught to dread the wrath of God and to long for holiness—
Your Grace is most sovereign,
Most rich, and most free.”
We inscribe a negative in black capital letters upon the idea that man’s love can ever be prior to the love of God. That is quite out of the question. “Not that we loved God.”
Take a second sense—that is, not that any man did love God at all by nature, whether first or second; not that we, any one of us, ever did or ever could have an affection towards God while we remained in our state by nature. Instead of loving God, man is indifferent to God. “No God,” says the fool in his heart and, by nature, we are all such fools. It is the sinner’s wish that there were no God. We are atheistic by nature and if our brain does not yield to atheism, yet our heart does. We wish that we could sin according to our own will and that we were in no danger of being called to account for it. God is not in all our thoughts, or, if He does enter there, it is as a terror and a dread.
No, worse than that—man is at enmity with God by wicked works! The holiness which God admires, man has no liking for! The sin which God abominates has about it sweetness and fascination for the unrenewed heart, so that man’s ways are contrary to the ways of God. Man is perverse. He cannot walk with God, for they are not agreed. He is all evil and God is all goodness and, therefore, no love to God exists in the natural heart of man. He may say that he loves God, but then it is a god of his own inventing and not Jehovah, the God of the Bible, the only living and true God. A just God and a Savior, the natural mind cannot endure—the carnal mind is enmity against God, is not reconciled to God and, neither, indeed, can be! The unregenerate heart is, as to love, a broken cistern which can hold no water.
In our natural state, there is none that does good, no, not one. So is there, also, none that loves God, no, not one! We come nearer to John’s meaning when we look at this negative as applying to those who do love God. “Not that we loved God”—that is, that our love to God, even when it does exist, and even when it influences our lives, is not worthy to be mentioned as a fountain of supply for love. The Apostle points us away from it to something far more vast and then he cries, “Herein is love.” I am looking for “the springs of the sea,” and you point me to a little pool amid the rocks which has been filled by the flowing tide. I am glad to see that pool—how bright! how blue! how like the sea from where it came! But do not point to this as the source of the great water floods, for if you do, I shall smile at your childish ignorance and point you to you great rolling main which tosses its waves on high.
What is your little pool to the vast Atlantic? Do you point me to the love in the Believer’s heart and say, “Herein is love”? You make me smile. I know that there is love in that true heart, but who can mention it in the Presence of the great rolling ocean of the love of God, without bottom and without shore? The word, “not,” is not only upon my lips but in my heart as I think of the two things—“NOT that we loved God, but that God loved us.” What poor love ours is at its very best when compared with the love with which God loves us! Let me use another figure. If we had to enlighten the world, a child might point us to a bright mirror reflecting the sun. And he might cry, “Herein is light!” You and I would say, “Poor child, that is but borrowed brightness. The light is not there, but yonder, in the sun!”
The love of saints is nothing more than the reflection of the love of God! We have love, but God IS Love. When I think of the love of certain saints to Christ, I am charmed with it, for it is a trait of the Spirit not to be despised. When I think of Paul the Apostle counting all things but loss for Christ. When I think of our missionaries going, one after another, into malarious parts of the African coast and dying for Christ. And when I read the Book of Martyrs and see confessors standing on the firewood, burning quick to the death, still bearing witness to their Lord and Master—I rejoice in the love of saints to their Lord! Yet this is but a stream! The unfathomable deep, the eternal source from which all love proceeds infinitely exceeds all human affection and it is found in God, and in God alone! “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us.”
Let us contrast our love to God with His love to us. Dear Brothers and Sisters, we do love God and we may well do so, since He is infinitely lovable. When the mind is once enlightened, it sees everything that is lovable about God. He is so good, so gracious, so perfect that He commands our admiring affection. The spouse in the Song, when she thought of her Beloved, mentioned all manner of beauties and then cried, “Yes, He is altogether lovely!” It is natural, therefore, that one who sees God should love Him. But, now, think of God’s love to us—is it not incomparably greater, since there was nothing lovely in us whatever, and yet He loved us? In us there is, by nature, nothing to attract the affection of a holy God, but quite the reverse—and yet He loved us. Herein, indeed, is love! When we love God, it is an honor to us! It exalts a man to be allowed to love a Being so glorious!
Here is love, vast as the ocean,
Lovingkindness as the flood,
When the Prince of Life, our Ransom,
Shed for us His precious blood.
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten,
Throughout Heav’n’s eternal days.
On the mount of crucifixion,
Fountains opened deep and wide;
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide.
Grace and love, like mighty rivers,
Poured incessant from above,
And Heav’n’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love.
Let me all Thy love accepting,
Love Thee, ever all my days;
Let me seek Thy kingdom only
And my life be to Thy praise;
Thou alone shalt be my glory,
Nothing in the world I see.
Thou hast cleansed and sanctified me,
Thou Thyself hast set me free.
In Thy truth Thou dost direct me
By Thy Spirit through Thy Word;
And Thy grace my need is meeting,
As I trust in Thee, my Lord.
Of Thy fullness Thou art pouring
Thy great love and power on me,
Without measure, full and boundless,
Drawing out my heart to Thee.
* * *
By the grace of God, have you begun to search out and explore and enjoy the shoreless, boundless, measureless ocean of God's love – or are you continuing to be distracted and lured away by the finite, limited love of the world – and in the process left hungry, thirsting, empty, dissatisfied and joyless? Idolatry – love to the creatures – is dangerous, as the Isaac Watts' hymn reminds us. Idolatry is an insatiable lust and a wicked and malicious taskmaster:
Ezekiel 16:28 You played the whore also with the Assyrians, because you were not satisfied; yes, you played the whore with them, and still you were not satisfied. 29 You multiplied your whoring also with the trading land of Chaldea, and even with this you were not satisfied.
Proverbs 30
15 The leech has two daughters;
“Give” and “Give,” they cry.
Three things are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough”:
16 Sheol, the barren womb,
the land never satisfied with water,
and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
No matter how much you may drink of the world, you will not be satisfied. Though seemingly satisfied for a season, your soul will remain in constant misery, for it will continue to cry out like a leech, "Give, give!" for the world's fare is never enough! Know this – you will find the broken cisterns empty each and every time – because you will find no infinite spring of Living Water there!
Only as you begin to drink of the ocean of God's love in Jesus Christ will you be satisfied –
and filled to overflowing...
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
May God give show you the futility, wretchedness and evil of continuing to drink of the water of the world and place into you an overwhelming desire and thirst so you might drink of Christ and Christ alone!
The Lord Jesus Christ stands and cries out to you today...
John 7:37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
May God's Spirit give you ears to hear Him
and place this blessed cry of David into your soul today...
I stretch out my hands to you;
my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.
Psalm 143:6
Whosoever is thirsty, come to Christ today and be satisfied, be filled to overflowing with Himself – with His life and His love!
Isaiah 55
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
O! my friends, take heed! Do not be like the rich young ruler, and go away disobedient, sorrowful and unsatisfied, cutting yourself off from the only sure supply, forsaking the wellspring of abundant life, everlasting joy and pleasures forevermore!
Jeremiah 2
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the LORD,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
Psalm 81
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.
Psalm 16
11 You make known to me the path of life;
in your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Revelation 22:17 (KJV) And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
If you knew the gift of God... (John 4:1-15)
five years ago ~ for your joy (AND an inheritance | Richard Sibbes & the Sealing of the Spirit)
"The Christian should not just believe the truth, and know it..." | the Father's assurance
The Father's Inheritance (Eleven days' journey ~ A lamentation & an exhortation)
As a deer pants ... Is your soul panting for God? (Psalms 42 & 43)
"The honeycomb I lift!" ~ Will you join me? I Samuel 14:24-30
Two Fountains ~ Where are you drinking? What is flowing? Don't waste your drinking!
Songs about "What *I* Want": If the curly fry doesn't satisfy, what does? ("Satisfy")
Don't Waste Your Singleness | Single one ... be single-eyed
to My seeking unmarried child (letter 40 on assurance & fighting for joy)
my dear single sister in Christ: Christ & Christ alone for your joy (Letter 62 on joy)
adopting God's purpose for the nations is for your joy & His glory (Letter 76 on joy)
the lover's inquiry | letter 114 on fighting for joy
Let Him kiss me – none can compare! | Letter 135 on assurance & fighting for joy
don't waste your new year ~ teach us, satisfy us, make us glad (Psalm 90:12-15)
Are you a radiant Christian or a drunken old woman?
Still This Weekend, Still This Night
"And Jacob was left alone" ~ Don't waste your loneliness
Happy Birthday, John Piper ~ reflections on year-ends, aging, fruit bearing & Christian hedonism
References:
Excerpt from Charles Spurgeon's "Herein Is Love" from spurgeongems.org – to access a PDF of the sermon, go to <spurgeongems.org/vols28-30/> then scroll down the page to Volume 29 (1883), Sermon No. 1707 – accessed 2.14.2012, Public Domain.
"Here Is Love" – Lyrics by William Rees, verses 1-2; William Williams, verses 3-4 tr. from Welsh to English by William Edwards; Music by Robert Lowry ~ accessed from <http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/h/e/herelove.htm> 2.14.2012, Public Domain.
Photo credits:
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Woman_of_Samaria_at_the_Well_%28La_Samaritaine_%C3%A0_la_fontaine%29_-_James_Tissot_-_overall.jpg / {{PD-Art|PD-old-100}}
Scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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