Paved with Love 2

II. We shall now NOTE THE POSITION FROM WHICH THE LOVE MENTIONED IN OUR TEXT IS BEST SEEN.

"The INTERIOR thereof is paved with love." It is not, therefore, to be seen from the outside. The mere outsider understands nothing of the love of God to his people as displayed in the covenant of grace. I am certain that there are many of you here present who have heard the gospel for years, and yet no more know the sweetness of it than the floor I am standing upon. A man may pass the door of the London Tavern or the Mansion House for years, and yet have no notion of the banquets within, for the banquets are indoors, and you must enter to partake of them. Savoury vapours floating from the festive board may awaken a transient imagination, but no more.

The rooster on the dunghill turned over the diamond, and, according to the fable, remarked that he cared very little for it, he would sooner have found a grain of barley. So, many hear of the sweetness of true religion, but they have not the taste or the ability to perceive its sweetness. Oh, unregenerate hearer, you never will know how sweet the gospel is, it is impossible you should while you remain in the state you now are in; but I tell you, if you could get half a glimpse of the joy which even the poorest Christian has, you would never rest content until you enjoyed it too.

If men have said concerning Naples, "See Naples and die," because of its beauty, I might say to you, it were worth while dying a thousand deaths to get a glimpse of Christ. When once your faith has perceived his beauty you will wonder how you could have been satisfied to be blinded so long. What must it be to be forgiven all your sins and to know it? What must it be never to be afraid of death, to be able to look forward to departing from this world as a thing to be longed for, and not to be dreaded? What must it be to be able to look up and say, "God is my Father, and I feel that I am his child? What must be the joy and bliss of having familiar communion with God, so that you are called his friends, as Abraham was of old?

I wish I could set your mouths watering after these things. If you had but a little taste of them you would long for more; but until the Lord shall grant you that taste, all we can say of the love of Christ will have no charm for you. The love which lines the chariot of salvation is not to be known by those who remain outside; "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant."

And so note next, when the Christian himself stands apart from his Lord, and judges by outward appearances, he cannot perceive, as once he did, the loving kindness of the Lord. Providence grows dark as a winter's day. The tried believer cries, "My wife has been taken from me; my property is melting away, my business fades; I am sick in body and weary in soul; I cannot see a trace of the love of God to me in all this."

Brother, the description in the Song does not say that the chariot is plated with love on the 'outside', but it is paved with love WITHIN, "in the interior of it." Oh that you had faith to believe that the heart and real core of every providence is love. The exterior of it may be as a thorn hedge, but sweet fruit ripens within.

"Oh," you say, "but I have looked at the Bible lately, and as I have glanced over its once-cheering promises, they appear to smile at me no more. Some of the words grate very harshly on my ear, and almost condemn me." I do not wonder, for although I can at this moment see love in the very outside of Scripture, yet there are times when I cannot, when I can only feel as if every text thundered at me, and out of God's own mouth came heavy sentences against me.

Beloved, it does not say, I repeat it, that the 'exterior' part of this palanquin was adorned with self-apparent love, but that love was in the 'interior'. If you stand examining the exterior of providence, and the mere letter of the word, and begin to judge and try your God, I should not wonder if little enough of love should be conspicuous to you. Look into the 'heart of God' and read what he has written there. When faith takes a step upward, and mounts to the inside of the chariot of grace, she finds that it is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem.

Come and sit side by side with Jesus in his chariot of grace, his bed of rest. Come and recline with him in hallowed fellowship. There is room enough for you, and strength enough to bear your weight. Come now and be carried with him who carried all your cross. Sit down with him who on his hands, and on his side, bears the memorials of his dying love to you. What company you have, and what royal accommodation is provided for you! Methinks I sit in the chariot with the Beloved now, and I begin to look around me. I catch a glimpse of the purple above my head, and remember the unspeakable love which bled and died for sinners; I look at the silver pillars which support the covering, and how infinite holiness stands fast, and in love to me secures my perfection; I place my foot on the golden bottom of the chariot, and know that divine power is pledged by love to preserve and bear me through; I see above me, and around me, and beneath me, nothing but love, -- the free, unbounded love of God. Now, beloved, indulge yourselves with a glance around you for a minute. Look back to old eternity; let your eye peer through the mists which hide that ancient age before the ages began! What do you see there but love, "according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus before ever the earth was"?

Look a little closer; see the garden of Eden and the fall-- what strikes your eye there but love? The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head.

Look to the cross, and at God incarnate here below; behold Jesus living in suffering, and dying in shame! Here love comes to her climax, and lays bare all her matchless charms.

Look to the time of your own life. Was not love present at your birth, perfuming your first breath? Were you not nursed in love, cradled in love, and swaddled in love? Have you not since then, even in your sinfulness, been loved with an exceeding great and wondrous love? Did not love turn your heart of stone into flesh? Has not love dwelt in you since then even to this day? Have not even your trials been sent in love? Blind unbelief called it severity; look now, as Jesus sits at your side, and say, was it not the wisest form of love that smote you, and made you cry out in bitterness?

Oh, I do remember at this day nothing in the dealings of God to me but love. I sat me down last night, as this text charmed my spirit, and tried to think over my whole life, if perhaps I might light upon some unkindness of my God to me; but my solemn witness is that from the first day my life began to beat, from the first hour I knew anything of the Lord whatever, all his dealings have been love, love, love, love, love, love alone -- nothing else but love. Of my life I can and must say, "the interior thereof has been paved with love."

Look at the tessellated pavement of love beneath your feet for a moment. Do you see the Father's love -- that golden mass of uncreated love, for the Father himself loves you!

Look at Jesus' love, another diamond pavement beneath your foot- Jesus loved you to the death, with a love that many waters could not quench, nor floods drown!

Look at the love of the Spirit, too- equally precious is the tender affection of the loving Comforter. Think how the Holy Spirit has borne with you, has striven with you, and endured your ill manners in the wilderness, and blessed you still!

Look at those delightful embroideries from the divine needle-- the precious promises! A thousand promises there are, but they are all love!

Look down and see how all the attributes of God are engaged for you, but they are all in league with love!

Look, then, at all the providences of God towards you, at all the exercises of his grace in your heart, and you will see many and strange colours of varied beauty, all blending in one wondrous pattern of deep, unsearchable love!

I cannot talk this morning, my tongue fails me, but I feel the love of Jesus in my own soul, and I pray that you may feel it in yours. This one thing be assured of, that as it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be-- love, love, love, right on, for ever and for ever. The Lord who has begun to love you will never cease from doing so. The interior of the covenant of grace is "paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem."

III. I want you to notice THE PECULIAR POSITION OF THE PAVEMENT OF LOVE DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT.

It is "in the interior" of the chariot, and only from the interior is it to be seen. It is in the interior of it; and therefore Jesus rides upon it, and his espoused ones ride upon it. It is a very simple thought, but it richly deserves to be beaten out a little. Jesus is represented here as the King in the chariot, and as the chariot is lined with love, we are taught that Jesus dwells in love. Where is he now? Among the thrones and principalities above, but he abides still in love. Love brought him down from heaven to earth, love conducted him in all his weary journeys over the acres of Palestine: love led him to the garden, the death-sweat, and the cross; and equally at this hour does love attend him- he loves in heaven as he loved below. Whatever he is doing, whatever he is feeling, whatever he is saying, we know this one thing about him, he dwells in love to us. He is in his chariot, and all around him in that chariot is love.

The chariot was a royal one, and as the king rode along he was reigning, but he was REIGNING IN LOVE, and it is so with Jesus. All things are in his hands, and he governs all things in love to his people. Heavenly principalities serve him, and angels are his willing messengers; but there is no power which Jesus has, which he does not wield in love to us. Has his power seemed sometimes to be exercised harshly? It is not so: it cannot be so. He reigns in love. Our Joseph is lord over all Egypt, and since Joseph loves his brethren, the good of all the land of Egypt is theirs. Jesus rules all the world for his people's benefit; all things are theirs, whether things present or things to come, all are theirs. Jesus reigns in love.

And JESUS RESTS IN LOVE. This chariot was a place for the traveller to rest in; he reclined as he was carried along. Nothing gives Jesus such rest as his love for his people. It is his solace and his joy. It is almost inconceivable by us that Jesus should derive joy from the fact that he loves us, but so it is. That text in Zephaniah which we read on Monday evening comes again to our recollection -- "He will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing." It is a joy to Christ to love his people. His own heart finds a joy in their joy, a heaven in their heaven. To see them saved is bliss to him. Oh, how glad we ought to be of this. Jesus rests in love.

But as the traveller rested he also PROCEEDED on his way- the bearers carried the palanquin from place to place, and the traveller made progress, but always with the same surroundings within his curtained bed. So Jesus in all his glorious marchings, in everything he does or is to do, still marches on in love. You read the Book of Revelation, and think of the trumpets, and the falling stars, and the opened vials full of judgements, and you may well tremble; but then fall back upon the doctrine of the Scriptures, and say, "These are the goings forth of my Lord the King, but he always rides in a chariot which is PAVED WITH LOVE for the daughters of Jerusalem. So let him come: with earthquake and with flame, if so he chooses, let him come; let him even loose destroying angels to smite the earth; and let the whole world rock and reel before his coming, and all men's hopes depart like visions of the night- I will not fear, for sure am I that he cannot come except in love to me. No judgement can bear wrath to his people, no overturning can overturn their hopes, no rod of iron can shatter their bliss. This is surely a thought which should make your spirit glad!

Now notice that as Jesus rides in this chariot, so do you, O believer, and at this moment your STANDING is upon love. You stand in this palanquin upon love. You are accepted in the Beloved: you are not judged according to the law, but you are judged according to grace: you are not estimated at the judgement seat by what you have done, but according to his abounding mercy. Recline this morning in the love of God. Ah, take your rest in it. As the rich man tries to find solace in his riches, and the strong man in his strength, and the great man in his fame, so stretch yourselves and lie at ease upon this glorious bed of almighty love!

And, beloved, take care that when you labour to make progress, you still make it in the power and energy of his love. Do not strive after virtue and grace by the law, for you will never get them. The chariot in which you rest is also the chariot in which you are to be carried forward towards perfection. Grow in grace, but keep to the cross. Cling still to the love of God in Christ Jesus, for that keeps you always safe. You sleep in it; you wake in it; you eat and you drink in it. Wherever you are, love surrounds you. It is in the atmosphere you breathe; it is to be found in every place, wherever you roam. You are never out of the love which is in the interior of the chariot.

These are things not to be talked of so much as to be thought over. Carry them home, and if you have leisure this afternoon, try to mark, learn, and inwardly digest this precious truth-- "The interior thereof is paved with love for the daughters of Jerusalem."

IV. To close, DWELL ON THAT LOVE itself just for a moment.

Remember it is SPECIAL love. It is not love for all men. There is some consolation in universal benevolence, but here we go deeper, and rejoice in love for "the daughters of Jerusalem". There is an electing, discriminating, distinguishing love, which is settled upon a chosen people-- a love which goes forth to none beside, but only to them; and it is this love which is the true resting-place of the saint.

It is love UNDESERVED, for what daughter of Jerusalem ever deserved that our glorious King should fall in love with her? It is a love, therefore, which is a theme for eternal wonder. Why did you love me, Redeemer? Why did you make a covenant of grace with me, and line that covenant with immutable love?

This love is EVERLASTING and ETERNAL. It never had a beginning, it never will have an end. Simply as I have stated the truth, it is a nut with heaven for its kernel. You were always loved, O believer, and you always shall be, come what may.

It is love UNRIVALLED, for never was there such affection as that which Christ has for his chosen; love UNEXAMPLED, to which none of us shall ever reach. We should seek to love, as God has loved us, but to the infinite, the boundless degree, we shall never arrive. There is no love like the love of God in Christ. It is love which to us has become this day our brightest thought, our truest comfort, and our most potent incentive. Law rules the slaves of this world, but love rules the freemen of the world to come. The ungodly, if they do right after a fashion, do it from fear of punishment or hope of reward; but the true-born children of God find in the love of Christ their sole motive: they are obedient not because they are afraid of being lost -- they know they never shall be: not because they hope to get to heaven by their good works -- they have heaven already by the works of another, guaranteed to them by the promise of God: but they serve God out of pure gratitude for what they have received, rejoicing as they work in the service of one they love so well.

Beloved, may the love of God be shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit this morning, and all the days of your lives, and O that many who have never tasted of that love may be made to long for it, that they may be made alive by it, and unto God shall be glory. Amen and Amen.

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