{"id":3039,"date":"2014-11-15T08:19:41","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T08:19:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3039"},"modified":"2014-11-15T08:19:41","modified_gmt":"2014-11-15T08:19:41","slug":"the-love-of-god-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3039","title":{"rendered":"The Love of God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Love of God<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James Smith, 1860<br \/>\nWhat subject can be compared to the love of God? What subject is so sweet, so profitable, so full of wonders!<\/p>\n<p>God, loving his people.<br \/>\nThe infinite, loving the finite.<br \/>\nThe Creator, loving his creature.<br \/>\nThe Most High God, loving a worm.<br \/>\nThe Holy One, loving the unholy.<br \/>\nThe Sovereign, loving his rebellious subject.<\/p>\n<p>The Eternal God, loving poor sinners in his Son. For God puts us\u00a0<em>into Christ<\/em>, and there he blesses us, saves us, and loves us with an infinite love.<\/p>\n<p>I want to think over, to meditate for a little while, on the love of God this morning. Holy Spirit, it is yours to enlighten the mind, and to direct the heart into the love of God. O direct my heart into this glorious subject, and shed abroad the love of God in my heart, that tasting its sweetness, and feeling its power\u2013I may write from experience on this delightful theme!<\/p>\n<p>God loved his people\u00a0<strong>first<\/strong>. No one ever loved God, or wished to love him\u2013but as the\u00a0<em>effect <\/em>of his own love. We love him\u2013<em>because <\/em>he first loved us. He loved all of his people\u00a0<em>before time began<\/em>, as he says, \u201cI have loved you with an everlasting love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s love was fixed upon, and flowed out to his people\u00a0<strong>freely<\/strong>. That God loves his people is clearly revealed, and powerfully proved; but WHY did he love them? How did he come to fix his love upon them?\u00a0<em>How <\/em>did he come to reveal and communicate that love to them? This he has not told us. He has assured us that it was not for anything\u00a0<em>in <\/em>them, or done by them. He loves freely. He loves\u2013just because he will love, or because it pleases him to love.<\/p>\n<p>His love is great\u00a0<strong>beyond expression or conception<\/strong>. No one can possibly conceive the greatness of God\u2019s love, and if it cannot be conceived, then it cannot be expressed. It is as vast as eternity, and as infinite as his own divine nature. How wonderful, that God should love one like me\u2013and love me with\u00a0<em>such <\/em>a love!<\/p>\n<p>His love is\u00a0<strong>fraught with every blessing<\/strong>, and is the fountain from which flows every good. Yes, in the love of God is comprised and comprehended, every blessing that can be conferred on sinners in time, or be enjoyed by believers in eternity.<\/p>\n<p>The love of God is as\u00a0<strong>unchangeable <\/strong>as his nature. He is without variableness\u2013and so is his love. His\u00a0<em>works <\/em>may change, do change, must change; but he is the same, and as he is, so is his love. It ever was, what it is; it is, what it ever was; and what it is, it ever will be.<\/p>\n<p>His love is\u00a0<strong>eternal <\/strong>in its duration. Once fixed, it is fixed forever. Having loved his own\u2013he loves them unto the end. No object of his love is ever lost. No one cared for by him, will ever perish. He is able to keep us from falling, and we are kept by his power, through faith unto salvation.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s love is sweet and\u00a0<strong>powerful<\/strong>, and it wins over all its objects to itself. God is loved\u2013because he loves. The sweet power of his love, as displayed in the gift of his Son, and as shed abroad in the heart by his Spirit\u2013wins us over to himself, and we love him\u2013but never feel as if we loved him enough.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, that I could enter into the love of God more fully! Oh, that I\u00a0<em>felt <\/em>the love of God more powerfully! Oh, that I could love God more heartily and constantly, in return for his love to me! Oh, to illustrate and commend the love of God in my temper, conduct, and conversation with my fellow-men!<\/p>\n<p>Nothing will make me\u00a0<em>happy<\/em>\u2013but this love.<br \/>\nNothing will make me\u00a0<em>holy<\/em>\u2013but this love.<br \/>\nNothing will give me\u00a0<em>strength<\/em> and\u00a0<em>energy <\/em>for duty\u2013but this love.<\/p>\n<p>If I realize that God loves me, loves me infinitely, loves me eternally\u2013then I can do anything for God, I can suffer anything from the hand of God.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s love to me, is like . . .<br \/>\nlight in darkness,<br \/>\nmanna in the wilderness, and<br \/>\na sweet song in the night.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s love to me, is . . .<br \/>\nmy joy in sorrow,<br \/>\nmy solace in suffering, and<br \/>\nmy life in the midst of death.<\/p>\n<p>God\u2019s love to me, will make me happy anywhere, satisfied with anything, and raise me above the most trying circumstances of time. O may this love comfort me in my lonely hours, in seasons of sickness and sorrow; and may it inspire me with courage, in every conflict with the foe.<\/p>\n<p><em>Father of mercies<\/em>, God of love, may I know and believe the love you have to me!\u00a0<em>Precious Lord Jesus<\/em>, you are the\u00a0<em>proof <\/em>and\u00a0<em>exposition <\/em>of the Father\u2019s love! May I study you more, know you better, that so I may rejoice in your Father\u2019s love!\u00a0<em>Heavenly Comforter<\/em>, it is yours to reveal, unfold, and impart the love of God to poor sinners; do more clearly reveal, more fully unfold, and more plentifully impart\u2013the love of God to me, that I may be filled with all the fullness of God!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Love of God James Smith, 1860 What subject can be compared to the love of God? What subject is so sweet, so profitable, so full of wonders! God, loving his people. The infinite, loving the finite. The Creator, loving his creature. The Most High God, loving a worm. The Holy One, loving the unholy. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-james-smith","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3041,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions\/3041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}