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Twenty Motives that Christ Might Have the Love of Your Hearts by Thomas Doolittle

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

I. Can you find a more excellent object for your love than Christ? If you search through the whole creation of God is there any like to Christ?  Whatsoever you think, who dare say there is?  Are riches, honors, pleasures, relations, which you have loved, comparable to Christ whom you ought to love?  If good be only the object of love, is not the best good the best object?  Can you love the lesser good and not the greater?  Yea, even the greatest of all?  Is not all the goodness in the creature but as a drop to the sea, as a candle to the sun, as a grain of sand to a mountain, if compared to the goodness there is in Christ?  If David were worth ten thousand of others (2 Samuel 18:3) is not Christ, David’s Lord, better than all the world? (Read Song 2:3; 5:16; Proverbs 3:14, 15; Philippians 3:8)?  Do you waver in your thoughts or hesitate about this?  Tell me,

1. Is not Christ a good most suitable for you? Is liberty so suitable to a captive man, or bread to a hungry man, or health to a sick man, or ease to a pained man, as Christ is to a sinful man? for,

(1.) Are you not lost, undone, in danger to be damned?  Christ will be your Savior, your keeper, and recoverer.  “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost,” (Luke 19:10).  “Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25). He is “mighty to save” (Isaiah 63:1).

(2.) Are not you ignorant, dark, and blind, know not the way to heaven and eternal happiness, and might weary yourself to find the gate of life, and yet miss it when you Have done all?  He will be your Teacher and your Guide, and direct you infallibly to it.  He will anoint your eyes, and cause you to see such things as you never yet saw (Revelation 3:18).  If he anoints your eyes with his eye-salve, though you were born blind, you shall have your sight.

(3.) Are you not sick and full of spiritual diseases, abounding with soul- distempers: even sick to death, near to eternal death?  He will be your Physician, who is so able and so skillful, that never any whom he undertook to cure, died under his hands.  For rather than you should die of your disease, he will make you a potion of his own blood, which, if you drink, you shall certainly recover.  Therefore he came to be a soul-physician and gave this as a reason why he did converse with publicans and sinners, that he might cure them (Matthew 9:12).

(4.) Are you not indebted?  Do you not owe millions to God?  Have you a mite to pay?  If God demand satisfaction from you, will it not prove to be your damnation?  If justice pursues you and death arrest you, will not devils seize your soul and hale it to the prison of hell, from whence you shall not be delivered, till you have paid the uttermost farthing, which will never be?  This Christ, if you will but love him, will be your bail, become your Surety, and make payment of your debt, and give you a discharge.

(5.) Are you not polluted and unclean?  Has not the leprosy of sin overspread your understanding, will, conscience, memory, and all your affections so that you are defiled all over, and lie wallowing in your blood?  Are you not cast out to the loathing of your person; and can you, in this your case, enter into the holy kingdom of God?  If you will give him your love, he will take away your filthy rags and give you change of raiment (Zechariah 3:1-5).  If you will come to him with faith and love, and say, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean,” he in love to you will say, “I will, be you clean” (Matthew 8:2, 3).  He will make for you a bath of his own blood, and his blood shall cleanse you from all your sins (1 John 1:7). Yea, “though they be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

(6.) Are you not a captive to Satan and to sin, drudging elbow deep in the loathsome service of sin?  Is not your bondage more hard than that of the Israelites in Egypt?  And are not Satan and sin as cruel and tyrannical as Pharaoh and his task-masters?  Do you love your chains?  Are you at ease in your fetters?  Would you be released?  Christ will be your Redeemer, by price and by power, and make you free; and then you shall be free indeed.

(7.) Are you not an enemy to God?  Born so, and lived so?  Take heed you do not die so, for then there shall be no peace, no making up the breach between God and your soul.  But now Christ is the blessed peacemaker, and by the blood of his cross he will reconcile you to God (Colossians 1:20, 2).  God will never be reconciled to you, except in and through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18, 19).

(8.) Are you not spiritually dead?  Have you not lost the holy image of God, which was your beauty?  Though you are dead, he can quicken you and give you the life of grace and glory (1 John 5:12).

Now, if this is your condition and Christ can and is ready, able, and willing, to help you in every respect, how suitable is Christ to you?  And suitableness being a ground of love, and a motive thereunto, what an argument is here to win your love?  O say then, I am lost, but Christ will save me; I am ignorant, but Christ will teach me; I am sick, and he will recover me; I am indebted, and he will be a surety for me; I am polluted, and he will cleanse me; I am a captive, and he will redeem me; I am an enemy to God, and he will reconcile me; I am dead, and he will quicken me.  Oh, I never found one so suitable for me; now, even now, he shall be loved by me.  Oh he is the most excellent object for my love, and I will no longer hold it from him.

2. Is not Christ the most satisfying good? You are indigent, he will supply you.  You are empty, he will fill you.  You are poor, he will enrich you.  O for love to such a Savior!

3. Is not Christ the most durable good? When your riches shall fail you; your pleasures, and honors, and friends, shall fail, Christ will never fail (Psalm 73:26).

4. Is not Christ a peculiar good? Given by peculiar love, only to a peculiar people, bringing with him peculiar privileges; when all other things you love are common to the bad, as well as to the good?  Though a worldly man might say, “Riches are mine,” yet he cannot truly say, “Christ is mine.”  Let him have from you peculiar love, and he will be to you a peculiar good.

5. Is not Christ the most necessary good? Do you need food so much when you are hungry, or liberty so much when you are in prison, or salve when you are wounded, as you need Christ when you have sinned?  Without other things you may be happy, pardoned, reconciled, and forever saved; but can any of these be your without Christ?  Christ is needful, while you live, for even if you are in health, without him your soul is sick.  If you should be sick, he will give the choicest and the richest Cordial; when you die, he will secure your departing soul; and after death, he will be your Friend; when all shall leave you at your grave, he will be your forever.

6. Is not Christ the most profitable good? For when you have him, you have all.  Then God is yours, and the Spirit is yours, and the promises are yours, and the privileges of the covenant are yours; and heaven itself shall be forever yours.

7. Is not Christ the most delightful good? Some delight in what they see, some in what they hear, some in what they taste, some in recreation, and some in notions, but the delight of Christ Does surpass them all.

8. Is not Christ a sure good? Other things God may give,\ and call for them back again: “I will return, and take away my corn in the Timothye thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax,” (Hosea 2:9).  But God never says, I gave such a man, my Christ, but I will take away my Christ again.  He may take riches out of your hand, but, if you get him, he will never take Christ out of your heart.

9. What shall I say to advance Christ in your esteem, that you may love him?  Is he not a comprehensive good? Eminently all?  There is no goodness in the creature, but it is formally, or virtually, in Christ.  Is there wisdom in the creature?  There is more in Christ.  Is there beauty, power, in the creature?  There is much more in Christ: “For it pleased the Father, that in him should all fulness dwell” (Colossians 5:19); “full of grace and truth,” (John 1:14).

This is the person for whom I beg your love.  This is He who is altogether lovely and desirable.  Consider now, I beseech you; can you be better offered?  Can you find a better match for your soul?  Can you say all this, or the one half of this, of anyone of all these things, concerning the objects you have hitherto loved?  Oh then say, I never understood the loveliness of Christ before: how has sin befooled me!  How has the world bewitched me!  And how has my foolish wicked heart deceived me that I have lavished my love upon the creature, and sin, when there was a Christ to love!  Such a Christ to love!  Such a good as is not to be found in all the world!  Now shall he have my love, my heart, my all.

II. Tell me, has not Christ deserved your love, by what he has suffered, done, given, purchased, promised, and prepared for those who love him?  Behold his wounds which he has endured for you!  Behold a crown of thorns on his head, that there may be a crown of glory upon your!  Behold him dying, that you may live!  Behold him suffering, that you may be saved!  Behold him poor, that you may be made rich with the best, surest, and most durable riches.  Behold him condemned, that you may be absolved!  Behold him in an agony that you upon the conditions of the gospel might have rest and ease in glory.  Behold him bearing the cross, and the cross bearing him, that you might not bear the curse!  Behold him bearing the Father’s wrath that you might be made the subject of his grace, and the object of his love.  And now tell me, does not this Christ deserve your love?  Should you love any like him, when none has done for you like him?  Does the small kindness of a creature draw your love and shall not all this in your Savior towards you kindle a fire of love in you towards him?  How can you forbear to love him?

III. Will not love to Christ be the best love you can attain unto? As he is the best object of love, so love going out to Christ is the best acting of love; and pity it is, that any other object should go away with your prevailing love.  For,

1. Love to Christ will be the sweetest love. He that loves other things, and not Christ, loves nothing but vanity, and to love vanity will prove vexation.  He that loves riches has vexing sorrow with his love, fretting fears, and perplexing, cutting cares.  When you love your relatives, if they are bad, the more you love, the more you are wounded; if they be good, the more evil befalls them, the more you are grieved.  There cannot be love to other things, without love to Christ, for it will be bitter love; for you will repent of that love, or you will not.  If you do not, then you will find more sorrow for it, more bitterness in it, than ever you didst find delight, and say, Oh now it does repent me that ever I loved the world as I have done; my pleasures, my sin, as I have done.  But you will never have cause to say, I repent that ever I loved Christ.  Never was such a word heard from the mouth of a sincere lover of Christ.  If you never do repent of your love to the world and sin, that love will certainly end in sorrow and with bitterness of soul be fruitlessly lamented in hell.  But what content, satisfaction, delight, comfort, joy, there is in loving of Christ, none can tell so well as he who loves him.

2. Love to Christ is the safest love.  There is no fear of sinning in this love, except it be in the smallness of the measure of it; but even that is not to sin in loving, but not loving more.  You might fear and tremble in loving other things, and say, Do not I sin in this?  Is there not sinning in my loving?

3. Love to Christ is the surest. Love to other things is often turned into hatred: love today, and hate tomorrow; but this remains firm.  The object is the surest object: neither men, nor death, nor devils, can take away the object of this love.  It is surest in the habit and principle, the power of God, the prayer of Christ; the promise of both secure the preservation of it.  It is surest in the act, for if we be careful, neither ourselves, nor men, nor devils, can hinder our acting of this love; they might keep us from hearing his word, but not from loving his person.

4. Love to Christ is the noblest love.  Love to pleasures, to the world, to sin, is base, polluted love, this most sublime and raised.  It has the noblest and the highest object, it carries the soul in his thoughts and meditations after Him into the highest heavens, and has complacency in the highest degree and shall have forever the highest reward.

5. Love to Christ is the longest: love that shall never end.  Sirs, before long, you will be one with loving this world, even you who love it most and have your hearts most set upon it.  You who now have your hearts full of earth, when you shall have your mouths full too, and your bodies lie rotting in the earth, you shall have done loving of it. Death, which ends your life in the world, shall end your love to the world, which grace never did.  You shall also have done, before long, loving your relations; you shall have done loving father and mother, brother and sister, and husband and wife, and children, as now in that relation; but the gracious soul, the lover of Christ, shall never have done loving Christ: it is sweet to have it.  But this does make it more sweet: to think he shall always have it—have it in life, have it at death, and have it after death.  Oh blessed love that shall never be lost, but ever last!

While I was musing upon this, it came into my mind to consider, what those who never love Christ in this world can love in the next; and I could not imagine anything which damned souls in hell, can love.  (I understand not, nor am acquainted with the acting of their souls nor their state.  God grant I never may, as they do.)  I thought, can they love God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, angels, or saints?  Their hatred to all these is and shall be, more deeply radicated, that is, rooted in them, than ever upon earth.  Can they love the place of hell?  They wish they never had come thither.  Can they love the pains of hell?  They grieve and groan under them and are weary to bear them.  Can they love the devils in hell?  They curse them for tempting them to sin which brought them to that place.  Can they love their companions in hell?  They are an aggravation of one another’s misery.  Can they love their sin in hell?  Alas! all that was pleasurable in it is gone, and the pain and sting only do remain.  Can they love their being in hell?  They had rather die than live, and cease to be at all, than to continue to be there.  I know not what it is that they can love.  Oh loathsome place, where there is, and can be, no love!

Oh lovely heaven where love does reign, where love does live!  And the life of those in heaven shall be forever a life of love!  And in this world, where love is wanting, so much that it often looks like hell.  Where love, and that which is the best, love to Christ, does prevail, so far it looks like heaven.  Dear Lord, save me from hell, because there, there is no love to you nor to anything that is good.  Sweet Savior, lead me in your way to heaven, and bring me there where love to you shall live and last forever.

IV. Is it not great folly to love other things and not Christ? For love you will. There is such an affection as love in all your hearts, and it will be set upon something in this world, whatever it be with damned souls in the next. Now if Christ has it not, the world will; if Christ has it not, sin will.  And do you act as rational creatures, as men endued with reason, to deny your love to Christ, and give it to the world and sin?  Set one over against the other, and then tell me,

1. Is it not great folly to love that which is worse than yourselves and not that which is infinitely better? Do you think your silver and your gold are better than yourselves, as much as you love it?   That your houses and your lands, as bad as you are, are better than yourselves?  But you are not yet so good nor yet so bad, but I hope you will say and acknowledge that Christ is better.

2. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot love you again, and not him who would? You love your gold, but that cannot love you again.  The clothes upon your back, the furniture in your houses, you love; but these can make no returns of love.  You give your love to them, but you receive no love from them.  Are you not vexed, when you love a man who does not love you again, nor return love for love?  And why are you so well pleased, and are so well contented, in placing the very strength of your love on worldly things, where the return of love is not only not actual, but impossible?  But would you love Christ, you should have more love from him than you give unto him, if you strive with all your might to love him with the utmost love you can (John 14:21, 23; Proverbs 8:17).

3. Is it not great folly to love that which can never satisfy you and not him who would satisfy your souls forever? Did these things you love ever fulfill your desires?  Did they ever give you full content?  How could they?  When God has made your souls capable of the enjoyment of an infinite good, how can that which is finite fill them? It is only an infinite good, and not finite, that can satisfy your souls, though they are finite; all the creatures cannot fill one.  For the will of man, though it be subjectively finite, yet it is objectively infinite; that is, (for to be easy and plain in such a place as this, and in such matters as these, before you, is best, because for you most profitable and edifying,)  Though the will in itself, and in its own nature, because a creature, is finite and limited, yet it is capable of making the choice of God for its chief good, who is infinite and unlimited.  And God has put into the hearts of men desires after good that is eternal, for they desire to be eternally happy; but God has not put this eternal goodness in any, in all the things of this world, for they are all transitory.  Therefore when you look for satisfaction in the creatures that you love, or in the loving of them, you look for that which God never put into them, and nothing can give more than it has, and nothing has more than God has given it; therefore to look for more from it than God by making it has put into it, may yield you vexation enough, but no satisfaction at all: “He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase.  This is also vanity,” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).

4. Is it not great folly to love that which you must shortly part with, and not him whom you might enjoy forever? Though you have your heart full of love to other earthly things, you shall not carry a handful of them to the other world: “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand,” (Ecclesiastes 5:15).  “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out;” (1 Timothy 6:7).  But death, that carries the lovers of the world quite away from the things they love, shall set the soul of a lover of Christ nearer to him: “For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better,” (Philippians 1:23).  The soul that loves Christ, when, by death, it is absent from the body, it shall be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

5. Is it not great folly to love that which might leave you while you live, and not that Christ who would never leave you, nor forsake you? As you are sure these things which you love will be none of yours after death, so you are not sure they shall be yours while you live.  May you not be rich today and poor tomorrow?  Well today, and sick tomorrow?   In honor today, and in disgrace tomorrow?  Was it not so with Haman (Esther 6:10, 11, and 7, 9, 10)?  When you have riches and love them, you are not sure to hold them: “Will you set your eyes,” your heart and love, “upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings, and fly away as an eagle towards heaven,” (Proverbs 23:5).  The Hebrew text is, Will you cause your eyes to fly upon that which is not?  Riches fly away, and the worldly man’s heart and love fly after them; and though his heart and love be swift in their motion after riches, yet sometimes riches fly so swiftly, that their lover cannot overtake them.  The pleasures of sin, and so the profits of the world, are but for a season (Hebrews 11:25), and when the season is over, they are gone; but Christ would never leave you, nor forsake you, (Hebrews 13:5).

6. Is it not great folly to love that which may prove a hindrance to your everlasting happiness, and not Him who is the purchaser and the promoter of it? To love that which is often hurtful to the owners, and always hurtful to the over-lovers of it, and not him who never did his lover harm, but good?  “There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt,” (Ecclesiastes 5:13).  This Solomon had seen, and many have seen; but that Christ should hurt any man who has him for his own, was never seen.  Riches are thick clay and clogs to the minds of men and keep them down to earth, that they cannot rise to heaven, nor get so high while they live, nor their souls when their bodies die, that they make salvation exceedingly difficult: “Then said Jesus to his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God,” (Matthew 19:23, 24).  But to love riches, and not Christ, while a man does so, does not make salvation only hard, but impossible; but the love of Christ makes salvation not only possible, but certain and easy.

7. Is it not great folly to love that which cannot comfort you at death, and not love Christ, who both can and would? Love what you will besides Christ, and not Christ, it cannot be a stay to your departing souls; what will you look to at death for comfort—your riches?  Why, you are going from them, with a heart full of love to them; to love them and yet must leave them, to leave them in loving of them, will torment and vex you, not support and comfort you.  To pleasures that you loved?  When you lie dying, they are fled, and past, and gone.  To your friends?  When you are dying, you are taking your last leave of them.  To Christ?  Alas! him you never loved, and the thoughts of that will be a sting more painful than the sting of death.

V. Can you do anything less than love Christ, or can you do anything more?  Is it not a small thing that Christ should have your love, for all those great things you have, and hope to have by Christ?  And yet Christ stands upon your love as greatest of all, and all without love is nothing.  If Christ had asked you to lay down your life for him, had he required more from you than he himself has done for you: had he called you to give your bodies to be burned for him, should you not have done it?  How much more when he says, Let your hearts but burn in love unto me, when that burning will not be painful, but delightful!  When Naaman came to the prophet to be cleansed of his leprosy, being directed to go and wash in Jordan, and he should be clean, in wrath he went away; but his servant came to him and said, “My father, if the prophet had bid you do some great thing, wouldn’t you have done it?  How much rather, then, when he says unto you, Wash, and be clean?” (2 Kings 5:13).  If Christ had required some great thing, that you might escape great torments, and be partaker of great salvation, would you not have done it?  How much rather, then, when he says, Love me, and be saved?  When you have received great kindness from a friend whom you cannot requite, yet you say, I cannot do less than love him: yet this small thing is more in Christ’s account than all without this.  You pray to him, but to love him is more; a heart full of love is more to Christ than a thousand prayers, full of the most eloquent expressions, without love.  You hear his word, but to love him is more.  You might suffer for him, but to have love to him is more.  Should you give all your goods to the poor, and your body to the fire for him, to give your heart and love to him is still more.  And, indeed, except all the former proceed from love, and are accompanied with it, they are not pleasing to Christ, nor profitable to your salvation (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

VI. Will you love that which you might easily love too much, and not Christ, whom you can never over-love? You might love your riches, your relations, your pleasures, yourself; your liberty, your life, too much.  In these your love might soon exceed and transgress the bounds; and it is hard not to exceed, but to keep within bounds.  And indeed, so much love as you give to these more than to Christ, is too much; but could you love Christ with as much love as all the saints in heaven love him, it would not be too much for him, if you were able to bear it.  Many have complained they loved Christ too little, but never any that he had too much of their love.  God does blame you, and conscience does accuse you, for your great love to things below; but neither God nor conscience, for the highest degrees of love to Christ and things that are above.

VII. Can you love yourselves truly, and not love the Lord Jesus sincerely? There is a self-love which is inconsistent with the love of Christ; and there is a self-love which is the best, that no man has but he that loves Christ.  Does that man love himself indeed, who regards not the salvation of his soul?  Who ruins himself and damns himself and shuts himself out of heaven?  Does that man love himself indeed, who exposes himself to the wrath of God, to the damnation of hell, and to banishment from the glorious presence of the blessed God?  All which a man brings upon himself for want of love to Jesus Christ.  If then you will love yourself truly, you must love Christ sincerely.

VIII. Are not all the duties of religion tedious to you, for want of love to Christ? Do you find it a burden to pray?  A burden to hear or read the word of God?  Is it a burden to you to meditate upon God and Christ, and things above?  It is all for want of love to Christ; for love makes hard things easy and heavy labor to be light.

IX. Does anything make you more like to God than to love Christ? Do you not in this most resemble God?  But do you love Christ?  So does God: “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hands” (John 3:35; 5:20).

X. Might you return to God and Christ like for like, in anything but in love? Or in anything carry it towards God, as God does towards you?  If God be angry with you, might you be angry with God?  If God withdraw comfort from you, might you withhold duty from God?  If he rebuke you, might you rebuke him?  If he be displeased with you, might you be displeased with him?  Would not all this be your sin, and perverseness of heart towards him?  But if he loves you, you may and ought to love him.  If he has set his heart upon you, your duty is to set your heart on him.

XI. Can you hope for salvation by him, without sincere affection to him? Or who bids you hope for any such thing?  Can you have the face to expect such great things by, through, and from Christ, as pardon of all your sins, deliverance from hell, the happiness of heaven, and yet not love him?  Do you hope for eternal life by Christ?  I know you do; might not Christ then expect love from you, when you expect life by Christ?  As you would have life by Christ, let Christ have love from you, or else your expectation of life will be disappointed, and end in death without end.

XII. Dare you die without love to Christ? Can you leave this world with a quiet mind, if you love not Christ?  No, surely, except you die as blind as you were born.  What think you when you come to be sick, and when you come to die, will it not be a cut to your heart, to think—I have lived twenty, forty years, but I never loved Christ?  Now must I go to appear before him whom I never loved?  Why not love him while you live in health, as well as wish you had loved him when health is gone, and sickness come?  When life is going as fast as death is coming?

XIII. Is not your love Christ’s due? Do you not owe it to him?  Is it not due to him by virtue of creation?  Did not he give your being to you?  By virtue of redemption, when you were worse than nothing, did not he lay down his soul, his life, his blood, as a price for your ransom?  By virtue of preservation, has not Christ kept you out of the grave and hell unto this day?  Justice would have hewn you down, and wrath would have condemned you long ago; and who has procured a reprieve for you but Christ?  That you are on this side the torments of the damned, not past praying, and hearing, and hoping, is all through Christ’s procuring for you longer time.  By virtue of provision, which Christ made for you, you would not have had a rag to your back, nor a morsel for your mouth, nor sleep in your eyes, if Christ had not bought and by purchase procured for you what you have.  Your love is due to Christ by virtue of command, whereby you are obliged and bound to give it to him, and shall be accounted a transgressor, and a great one too, if you do withhold it from him.

If it be due so many ways, what injustice will it be in you to deny to Christ that which is his due?  Are you not careful to give to every one their own?  And is it not an ease to your mind, that though you are not rich, yet you have to give every one his due?  Do you not trade, work, cark, and care, to give all their own, and shall Christ be the only person to whom you will be unjust?  If you have not enough to satisfy all your creditors, yet of one, whom you love and bears more respect unto, you say, If it please God, such a one shall lose nothing by me.  Poor sinner!  Will you say, Though I cannot do what I should, yet Christ shall not be so far a loser by me, as not to have my heart and love.  Look to it that he does not; for if he does, you will lose your soul; and then who will be the greatest loser?

XIV. Is it not great condescension in Christ that he will so kindly accept of your love? One so great, accept of the love of one so mean?  One so holy, accept the love of one that is so sinful?  One so glorious, of one so vile?  Do great men value the love of beggars?  Or princes the love of peasants?  Would a man of great birth and estate give leave to one clothed in rags to love him in order to marriage?  Or would he not scorn and reject both the person and her love?  I think, considering what Christ is, and what you are, you should say, If Christ will give me leave, I will love him.  Give you leave!  Not only so, but gives you command, and that upon pain and peril of everlasting damnation; if you do not, he does give you leave and charge to love him, but no leave to live without love to him, though for your long refusal he might justly leave you to live without love to him.

XV. Should you ever have any cause or reason to be ashamed of your love to Christ? Is not the time coming when covetous men shall be ashamed of their loving the world, and voluptuous men ashamed of loving their pleasures, and the ambitious of their honors; but the time will never come, the day will never be, that a gracious soul shall be ashamed of his sincere love to Jesus Christ.  For what is said of hope, is true of love, it “maketh not ashamed,” (Rom 5:5): but as all sin is matter of shame, “What fruit have you of those things of which you are now ashamed?” (Rom 6:21), so especially the lovers of sin shall be ashamed that they loved not Christ.  For is it not a horrid shame, that a rational creature should be such a sot as to love sin which is most loathsome, and not love Christ who is most lovely?  To love deformity, and not beauty?  A real evil under the notion, and appearance, and paint, of a seeming good, and not a Christ who is a real good, without the appearance of the least evil?  Oh shame, shame!  I am ashamed that sin should have such esteem, and Christ such great contempt put upon him; but shame shall ere long confound these now shameless wretches, when they shall cry out, We are ashamed that we loved profits, and not Christ; house, lands, lusts, and not Christ.  This is the confusion of our faces, and shame does cover us, that we should be so foolish, and so blind, that we had not sense, nor reason, to distinguish between the greatest and most lovely good, and the greatest and most odious evil.

XVI. Is there any love so profitable as the love of Christ? Gain draws love; by the love of other things more than Christ, you will lose more than you gain.  By such love, God, Christ, heaven, and your own soul, will be forever lost; and should your gains of the world be proportional to your love of the world, yea, and exceed it, to the gaining of the whole world to yourself, which never man yet did, your gain would prove your loss; and when you come to cast up your account at death or judgment, you will find yourself cast much behind-hand, because from God’s face and favor: “What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).  But by the loving of Christ you shall have gain, that no man can value, no mind can estimate, no arithmetician, by all his numbers and figures, can compute; even pardon of innumerable sins, the favor of an infinite God, deliverance from inconceivable torments, possession of endless life, and more than I, or any man, can describe or comprehend.

XVII. Is there any love so universally necessary, as the love of Christ? One man loves one thing, and a second another, and a third another, but there is no necessity that all men should love any one thing but Christ, and things appertaining to our having and enjoying him; and love to Christ is necessary for poor and rich, for great and small, for noble and ignoble, for learned and unlearned, for bond and free.  O then, what doings are these that that love which is necessary, not only for the most, but for all, should be neglected not only by the most, but almost comparatively by all?

XVIII. Do not you want one great help against the temptations of Satan, while you are void of love to Christ? Is not Satan your enemy?  Is not your heart forward to yield to him?  Does it not concern you to resist him, when, if you yield, you deserve to die?  But this love would garrison your hearts, fortify your souls, make you courageous and resolute against all the batteries of Satan, assaults of sin, and watchful against the allurements and ambushes of the world, and that you would say, Shall I offend my dearest Lord?  Shall I displease him who has had such good pleasure to do me such good, such everlasting good?  Oh, how can I do this or that great evil, and sin against him whom I do love!  For do you not find that love forbids, and exceedingly restrains, from grieving, offending, or wronging him whom you do entirely love?

XIX. Will you ever be able to hold your profession of Christ without sincere love unto him? When trials come, will not such as have no saving love to Christ, turn their backs upon him?  Will they that love riches, ease, liberty, honors, life, or anything, more than Christ, leave, lose, lay down, these for Christ?  What you love most, will you not endeavor to keep longest?  These must be harbored, but Christ then shall be abandoned (Matthew 19:21, 22), but if you have not that love which will keep you steadfast and constant in suffering for Christ on earth, for want of that love you shall suffer eternally in hell.

XX. Is it not possible for you to set your love upon Christ? Is it not attainable?  Devils cannot love him, but you can.  Damned souls cannot love him, but you can if you would; for have you not the means to help you to love him?  Is not he preached to you?  Is not the Spirit striving with you?  Will you say you cannot love him, though you would!  That I utterly deny, for if you were really willing to love him, you could love him; nay, if you do unfeignedly will to love him, you do love him, for what is willing but loving?  And what hinders you from loving, but your not willing to love him?  Will you say, you want power?  What power do you mean?  The natural faculty or power of the will?  That you have; how else do you will anything you do?  Will you say you want a power of willing to love Christ?  What is that, but that you are unwilling to love him?  And if you cannot, because you will not, the more you plead your cannot, the more you aggravate your will not.  A natural power God has given you, that is a will; if you lie under a moral impotency, that is your sin; and what is this moral cannot or impotency, but the averseness of the will from Christ?  Therefore, though without the powerful workings of the grace and Spirit of God, you cannot love Christ sincerely, yet this cannot is your will not, for if by the grace of God you were enabled to will, you could, and if you were as willing to love Christ, as some now are, who once were as unwilling as now you are, you could love him as well as they.  Why should you stand off, and say, If it were possible for me to love Christ, I would?  How?  Possible? What?  Is there no difference between you and a devil?  Between you and the damned in hell?  You can love the world; can you do that?  You can love yourself; can you do that?  Yes.  And I suppose you can love sin too, can you not?  To your grief and your shame, we find it: but why can you love the world, and self, and sin?  Is it not because you will?  Do you do it against your will?  I wish you did, then there might be more hopes you would be persuaded to love Christ.  You can and do love sin, because you are willing; have but as great willingness to love Christ, as the world and sin, and then it may be said, not only that you can, but do love Christ.  However, though I am no assertor of the liberty and power of the will in things supernatural, nor an opposer of the necessity of the workings of the Spirit, to enable a sinner to love Christ, yet it is most manifest that your unwillingness is the hindrance of such love, and this unwillingness is your weakness; since then your unwillingness (certainly by grace) might be removed, your love is possible, therefore cease not till it be actual.

Are you at length convinced of the necessity of love to Christ?  And are you at length persuaded to seek it and willing to get love to him?

Edited and modernized from Motives to Love Christ.

Posted in Thomas Doolittle |

Lovest Thou Me? by C. H. Spurgeon

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

“Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?  He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.  He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?  He saith unto him, Yea, Lord thou knowest that I love thee.  He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.  He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me?  Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me?  And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.  Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” — John 21:15-17

How very much like to Christ before his crucifixion was Christ after his resurrection!  Although he had lain in the grave, and descended into the regions of the dead, and had retraced his steps to the land of the living, yet how marvelously similar he was in his manners and how unchanged in his disposition.  His passion his death, and his resurrection, could not alter his character as a man any more than they could affect his attributes as God.  He is Jesus forever the same.  And when he appeared again to his disciples, he had cast aside none of his kind manners, he had not lost a particle of interest in their welfare; he addressed them just as tenderly as before, and called them his children and his friends.  Concerning their temporal condition he was mindful, for he said, “Children, have ye any meat?”  And he was certainly quite as watchful over their spiritual state for after he had supplied their bodies by a rich draught from the sea, with fish (which possibly he had created for the occasion), he enquires after their souls’ health and prosperity, beginning with the one who might be supposed to have been in the most sickly condition, the one who had denied his Master thrice, and wept bitterly — even Simon Peter. “Simon, son of Jonas,” said Jesus, “lovest thou me?”

Without preface, for we shall have but little time this morning — may God help us to make good use of it! — we shall mention three things: first a solemn question — “Lovest thou me?” secondly, a discreet answer, “Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” and thirdly, a required demonstration of the fact, “He saith unto him, Feed my lambs;” or, again, “Feed my sheep.”

I. First, then, here was a SOLEMN QUESTION, which our Savior put to Peter, not for his own information, for, as Peter said, “Thou knowest that I love thee,” but for Peter’s examination.  It is well, especially after a foul sin, that the Christian should well probe the wound.  It is right that he should examine himself; for sin gives grave cause for suspicion, and it would be wrong for a Christian to live an hour with a suspicion concerning his spiritual estate, unless he occupy that hour in examination of himself.  Self-examination should more especially follow sin, though it ought to be the daily habit of every Christian and should be practiced by him perpetually.  Our Savior, I say, asked this question of Peter, that he might ask it of himself; so we may suppose it asked of us this morning that we may put it to our own hearts.  Let each one ask himself then in his Savior’s name, for his own profit, “Lovest thou the Lord? Lovest thou the Savior?  Lovest thou the ever-blessed Redeemer?”

Note what this question was.  It was a question concerning Peter’s love.  He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, fearest thou me.”  He did not say, “Dost thou admire me? Dost thou adore me?”  Nor was it even a question concerning his faith.  He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, believest thou in me?” but he asked him another question, “Lovest thou me?”  I take it, that is because love is the very best evidence of piety.  Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence.  I do not believe love to be superior to faith.  I believe faith to be the groundwork of our salvation.  I think faith to be the mother grace, and love springs from it.  Faith I believe to be the root grace, and love grows from it.  But then, faith is not an evidence for brightness equal to love.  Faith, if we have it, is a sure and certain sign that we are God’s children, and so is every other grace a sure and certain one, but many of them cannot be seen by others.  Love is a more sparkling one than any other.  If I have a true fear of God in my heart, then am I God’s child; but since fear is a grace that is more dim and hath not that halo of glory over it that love has, love becomes one of the very best evidences and one of the easiest signs of discerning whether we are alive to the Savior.

He that lacketh love must lack also every other grace in the proportion in which he lacketh love.  If love be little, I believe it is a sign that faith is little, for he that believeth much loveth much.  If love be little, fear will be little, and courage for God will be little, and whatsoever graces there be, though faith lieth at the root of them all, yet do they so sweetly hang on love, that if love be weak, all the rest of the graces most assuredly will be so.  Our Lord asked Peter, then, that question, Lovest thou me?”

And note, again, that he did not ask Peter anything about his doings.  He did not say, “Simon Peter, how much hast thou wept?  How often hast thou done penance on account of thy great sin?  How often hast thou on thy knees sought mercy at my hand for the slight thou hast done to me and for that terrible cursing and swearing wherewith thou didst disown thy Lord, whom thou hadst declared thou wouldst follow even to prison and to death?”  No, it was not in reference to his works, but in reference to the state of his heart that Jesus said, “Lovest thou me?”  To teach us this; that though works do follow after a sincere love, yet love excels the works, and works without love are not evidences worth having.  We may have some tears; but they are not the tears that God shall accept, if there be no love to him.  We may have some works; but they are not acceptable works, if they are not done out of love to his person.  We may perform very many of the outward, ritual observances of religion; but unless love lies at the bottom, all these things are vein and useless.  The question, then, “Lovest thou me?” is a very vital question; far more so than one that merely concerns the outward conduct.  It is a question that goes into the very heart and in such a way that it brings the whole heart to one question; for if love be wrong, everything else is wrong.  “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Ah! dear beloved, we have very much cause for asking ourselves this question.  If our Savior were no more than a man like ourselves, he might often doubt whether we love him at all.  Let me just remind you of sundry things which give us very great cause to ask this question: “Lovest thou me?”  I will deal only with the last week.  Come, my Christian brother, look at thine own conduct.  Do not thy sins make thee doubt whether thou dost love thy Master?  Come, look over the sins of this week: when thou wast speaking with an angry word and with a sullen look, might not thy Lord have touched thee, and said, “Lovest thou me?”  When thou wast doing such-and-such a thing, which thou right well knowest in thy conscience was not according to his precept, might he not have said, “Lovest thou me?”  Canst thou not remember the murmuring word because something had gone wrong with thee in business this week, and thou west speaking ill of the God of providence for it?  Oh, might not the loving Savior, with pity in his languid eye, have said to thee, “What, speak thus?  Lovest thou me?”

I need not stop to mention the various sins of which ye have been guilty.  Ye have sinned, I am sure, enough to give good ground for self-suspicion, if ye did not still hang on this: that his love to you, not your love to him, is the seal of your discipleship.  Oh, do you not think within yourselves, “If I had loved him more, would I have sinned so much?  And oh, can I love him when I have broken so many of his commandments.  Have I reflected his glorious image to the world as I should have done?  Have I not wasted many hours within this week that I might have spent in winning souls to him?  Have I not thrown away many precious moments in light and frivolous conversation which I might have spent in earnest prayer?  Oh! how many words have I uttered, which if they have not been filthy, (as I trust they have not) yet have not been such as have ministered grace to the hearers?  Oh, how many follies have I indulged in?  How many sins have I winked at?  How many crimes have I covered over?  How have I made my Savior’s heart to bleed?  How have I done dishonor to his cause? How have I in some degree disgraced my heart’s profession of love to him?”  Oh, ask these questions of thyself, beloved, and say, “Is this thy kindness to thy Friend?”  But I hope this week has been one wherein thou hast sinned little openly as to the world, or even in thine own estimation, as to open acts of crime.

But now let me put another question to thee, Does not thy worldliness make thee doubt?  How hast thou been occupied with the world, from Monday morning to the last hour of Saturday night?  Thou hast scarce had time to think of him.  What corners hast thou pushed thy Jesus into, to make room for thy bales of goods?  How hast thou stowed him away into one short five minutes to make room for thy ledger or thy day-book?  How little time hast thou given to him!  Thou hast been occupied with the shop, with the exchange, and the farmyard; and thou hast had little time to commune with him!  Come, just think!  Remember any one day this week; canst thou say that thy soul always flew upward with passionate desires to him?  Didst thou pant like a hart for thy Savior during the week?  Nay, perhaps there was a whole day went by, and thou scarcely though test of him till the winding up of it; and then thou couldst only upbraid thyself, “How have I forgotten Christ today?  I have not beheld his person; I have not walked with him.  I have not done as Enoch did!  I knew he would come into the shop with me; I knew he is such a blessed Christ that he would stand behind the counter with me; I knew he was such a joyous Lord Jesus that he would walk through the market with me!  But I left him at home and forgot him all the day long.”  Surely, surely, beloved, when thou rememberest thy worldliness, thou must say of thyself; “O Lord, thou mightest well ask, “Lovest thou me?’”

Consider again, I beseech thee, how cold thou hast been this week at the mercy-seat.  Thou hast been there, for thou canst not live without it; thou hast lifted up thy heart in prayer, for thou art a Christian, and prayer is as necessary to thee as thy breath. But oh! with what a poor asthmatic breath hast thou lived this week!  How little hast thou breathed?  Dost not remember how hurried was thy prayer on Monday morning, how driven thou wast on Tuesday night?  Canst thou not recollect how languid was thy heart, when on another occasion thou wast on thy knees?  Thou hast had little wrestling, mayhap, this week; little agonizing; them hast had little of the prayer which prevaileth; thou hast scarcely laid hold of the horns of the altar; thou hast stood in the distance and seen the smoke at the altar, but thou hast not laid hold of the horns of it.  Come, ask thyself, do not thy prayers make thee doubt?  I say, honestly before you all, my own prayers often make me doubt, and I know nothing that gives me more grave cause of disquietude.  When I labor to pray — oh! that rascally devil! — fifty thousand thoughts he tries to inject, to take me off from prayer; and when I will and must pray, oh, what an absence there is of that burning fervent desire; and when I would come right close to God, when I would weep my very eyes out in penitence, and would believe and take the blessing, oh, what little faith and what little penitence there is!  Verily, I have thought that prayer has made me more unbelieving than anything else.  I could believe over the tops of my sins, but sometimes I can scarcely believe over the tops of my prayers — for oh! how cold is prayer when it is cold!  Of all things that are bad when cold, I think prayer is the worst, for it becomes like a very mockery, and instead of warming the heart, it makes it colder than it was before and seems even to damp its life and spirit — and fills it full of doubts whether it is really a heir of heaven and accepted of Christ.  Oh! look at thy cold prayers, Christian, and say is not thy Savior right to ask this question very solemnly, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

But stop, again; just one more word for thee to reflect upon.  Perhaps thou hast had much prayer, and this has been a time of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.  But yet, mayhap, thou knowest, thou hast not gone so far this week as thou mightest have done, in another exercise of godliness that is even better than prayer, — I mean communion and fellowship.  Oh beloved, thou hast this week had but little sitting under the apple tree and finding its shadow great delight to thee.  Thou hast not gone much this week to the banqueting house and had its banner of love over thee.  Come, bethink thyself, how little hast thou seen thy Lord this week!  Perhaps he has been absent the greater part of the time; and hast thou not groaned?  Hast thou not wept?  Hast thou not sighed after him?  Sure, then, thou canst not have loved him as thou shouldst, else thou couldst not have borne his absence, thou couldst not have endured it calmly, if thou hadst the affection for him a sanctified spirit has for its Lord.  Thou didst have one sweet visit from him in the week, and why didst thou let him go?  Why didst thou not constrain him to abide with thee?  Why didst thou not lay hold of the skirts of his garment, and say, “Why shouldst thou be like a wayfaring man, and as one that turneth aside and tarrieth for a night?  Oh I my lord, thou shalt dwell with me.  I will keep thee.  I will detain thee in my company. I cannot let thee go.  I love thee and I will constrain thee to dwell with me this night and the next day.  Long as I can keep thee, will I keep thee.”  But no; thou wast foolish; thou didst let him go.  Oh! soul, why didst thou not lay hold of his arm, and say, “I will not let thee go.”  But thou didst lay hold on him so feebly, thou didst suffer him to depart so quickly, he might have turned round, and said to thee, as he said to Simon, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”

Now, I have asked you all these questions, because I have been asking them of myself.  I feel that I must answer to nearly every one of them, “Lord, there is great cause for me to ask myself that question,” and I think that most of you, if you are honest to yourselves, will say the same.  I do not approve of the man that says, “I know I love Christ, and I never have a doubt about it;” because we often have reason to doubt ourselves, a believer’s strong faith is not a strong faith in his own love to Christ — it is a strong faith in Christ’s love to him.  There is no faith which always believes that it loves Christ.  Strong faith has its conflicts, and a true believer will often wrestle in the very teeth of his own feelings.  Lord, if I never did love thee, nevertheless, if I am not a saint, I am a sinner.  Lord, I still believe; help thou mine unbelief.  The disciple can believe, when he feels no love; for he can believe that Christ loveth the soul; and when he hath no evidence he can come to Christ without evidence and lay hold of him, just as he is, with naked faith and still hold fast by him.  Though he see not his signs, though he walk in darkness and there be no light, still may he trust in the Lord, and stay upon his God — but to be certain at all times that we love the Lord is quite another matter; about this we have need continually to question ourselves, and most scrupulously to examine both the nature and the extent of our evidences.

II. And now I come to the second thing, which is A DISCREET ANSWER.

“Simon son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”  Simon gave a very good answer.  Jesus asked him, in the first place, whether he loved him better than others.  Simon would not say that: he had once been a little proud — more than a little — and thought he was better than the other disciples.  But this time he evaded that question, he would not say that he loved better than others.  And I am sure there is no loving heart that will think it loves even better than the least of God’s children.  I believe the higher a man is in grace, the lower he will be in his own esteem, and he will be the last person to claim any supremacy over others in the divine grace of love to Jesus.

But mark how Simon Peter did answer: he did not answer as to the quantity but as to the quality of his love.  He would aver that he loved Christ, but not that he loved Christ better than others.  “Lord, I cannot say how much I love thee; but thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I do love thee.  So far I can aver: as to the quantity of my love, I cannot say much about it.”

But just notice, again, the discreet manner in which Peter answered.  Some of us, if we had been asked that question, would have answered foolishly.  We should have said, “Lord, I have preached for thee so many times this week; Lord, I have distributed of my substance to the poor this week.  Blessed be thy name, thou last given me grace to walk humbly, faithfully, and honestly, and therefore, Lord, I think I can say, ‘I love thee.’”  We should have brought forward our good works before our Master, as being the evidences of our love; we should have said, “Lord, thou hast seen me during this week.  As Nehemiah did of old, “Forget not my good works. O Lord, I thank thee. I know they are thy gifts, but I think they are proofs of my love.”  That would have been a very good answer if we had been questioned by our fellow man, and he had said, “You do not always love your Savior;” but it would be foolish for us to tell the Master that.  Peter’s answer was wise; “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”  You know the Master might have said to Peter had he appealed to his works, “Yes, thou mayest preach and yet not love me; thou mayest pray and yet not love me; thou mayest do all these works and yet have no love to me.  I did not ask thee what are the evidences of thy love.  I asked thee the heart of it.”

Very likely all my dear friends here would not have answered in the fashion I have supposed; but they would have said, “Love thee Lord?  Why, my heart is all on fire towards thee; I feel as if I could go to prison and to death for thee!  Sometimes, when I think of thee, my heart is ravished with bliss; and when thou art absent, O Lord, I moan and cry like a dove that has lost its mate.  Yes, I feel I love thee, O my Christ.”  But that would have been very foolish, because although we may often rejoice in our own feelings — they are joyful things — it would not do to plead them with our Lord, for he might answer, “Ah! thou feelest joyful at the mention of my name.  So, no doubt, has many a deluded one, because he had a fictitious faith, and a fancied hope in Christ; therefore the name of Christ seemed to gladden him.  Thou sayst, ‘I have felt dull when thou hast been absent.’  That might have been accounted for from natural circumstances; you had a headache, perhaps, or some other ailment.  ‘But,’ sayest thou, ‘I felt so happy when he was present that I thought I could die.’ Ah, in such manner Peter had spoken many a time before; but a sorry mess he made of it when he trusted his feelings, for he would have sunk into the sea but for Christ; and eternally damned his soul, if it had not been for his grace, when, with cursing and swearing he thrice denied his Lord.  But no, Peter was wise; he did not bring forward his frames and feelings, nor did he bring his evidences: though they are good in themselves, he did not bring them before Christ.  But, as though he shall say, “Lord, I appeal to thine omnipotence. I am not going to tell thee that the volume of my heart must contain such-and-such matter, because there is such-and-such a mark on its cover; for, Lord, thou canst read inside of it; and, therefore I need not tell thee what the title is, nor read over to thee the index of the content; Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”

Now, could we, this morning, dear friends, give such an answer as that to the question?  If Christ should come here, if he were now to walk down these aisles, and along the pews, could we appeal to his own divine Omniscience, his infallible knowledge of our hearts, that we all love him?  There is a test-point between a hypocrite and a real Christian.  If thou art a hypocrite, thou mightest say, “Lord, my minister knows that I love thee.  Lord, the deacons know that I love thee; they think I do, for they have given me a ticket [to participate in the Lord’s Supper], the members think I love thee; for they see me sitting at thy table; my friends think I love thee, for they often hear me talk about thee.”  But thou couldst not say, “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.”  Thine own heart is witness that thy secret works belie thy confession, for thou art without prayer in secret, and thou canst preach a twenty minutes prayer in public.  Thou art niggardly and parsimonious in giving to the cause of Christ; but thou canst sport thy name to be seen.  Thou art an angry, petulant creature; but when thou comest to the house of God, thou hast a pious whine and talkest like a canting hypocrite, as if thou were a very gentlemanly man and never seemed angry.  Thou canst take thy Maker’s name in vain, but if thou hear another do it thou wouldst be mighty severe upon him.  Thou affectest to be very pious, and yet if men knew of that widow’s house that is sticking in thy throat, and of that orphan’s patrimony which thou hast taken from him, thou wouldst leave off trumpeting thy good deeds.  Thine own heart tells thee thou art a liar before God.

But thou, O sincere Christian, thou canst welcome thy Lord’s question and answer it with holy fear and gracious confidence.  Yes, thou mayest welcome the question.  Such a question was never put to Judas.  The Lord loved Peter so much that he was jealous over him, or he never would have thus challenged his attachment.  And in this kind cloth, he often appeal to the affections of those whom he dearly loves.  The response likewise is recorded for thee, “Lord, thou knowest all things.”  Canst thou not look up, though scorned by men, though even rejected by thy minister, though kept back by the deacons, and looked upon with disesteem by some — canst thou not look up, and say, “Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee”?  Do it not in brag and bravado; but if you can do it sincerely, be happy, bless God that he has given you a sincere love to the Savior and ask him to increase it from a spark to a flame, and from a grain to a mountain.  “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?  Yea, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.”

III. And now here is a DEMONSTRATION REQUIRED — “Feed my lambs: feed my sheep.”  That was Peter’s demonstration.  It is not necessary that it should be our way of showing our love.  There are different ways for different disciples.  There are some who are not qualified to feed lambs, for they are only little lambs themselves.  There are some that could not feed sheep, for they cannot at present see afar off; they are weak in the faith and not qualified to teach at all.  They have other means, however, of showing their love to the Savior.  Let us offer a few words upon this matter.

“Lovest thou me?”  Then one of the best evidences thou canst give is to feed my lambs.  Have I two or three little children that love and fear my name?  If thou wantest to do a deed, which shall show that thou art a true lover, and not a proud pretender; go and feed them.  Are there a few little ones whom I have purchased with my blood in an infant class?  Dost thou went to do something which shall evidence that thou art indeed mine?  Then sit not down with the elders, dispute not in the temple; I did that myself; but go thou, and sit down with the young orphans, and teach them the way to the kingdom.  “Feed my lambs.”

But there are many in our midst, good pious souls who love the Savior as much as the sheep do; but one of their complaints which I have often heard is, “Oh! sir, I joined your church.  I thought they would be all brothers and sisters to me, and that I could speak to them, and they would teach me and be kind to me.  Oh I sir, I came, and nobody spoke to me.”  I say, “Why did not you speak to them first?”  “Oh!” they reply, “I did not like.”  Well, they should have liked, I am well aware; but if we had some means of feeding the lambs, it would be a good way of proving to our Savior and to the world, that we really do endeavor to follow him.  I hope some of my friends will take that hint; and if, in concert with me, my brethren in office will endeavor to do something in that way, I think it will be no mean proof of their love to Christ.  “Feed my lambs” is a great duty; let us try to practice it as we are able.

But, beloved, we cannot all do that; the lambs cannot feed the lambs; the sheep cannot feed the sheep exactly.  There must be some appointed to these offices.  And therefore, in the Savior’s name, allow me to say to some of you, that there are different kinds of proof you must give.  “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”  He saith unto him, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”  Then preserve that prayer-meeting; attend to it; see that it is kept going on, and that it does not fall to the ground.  “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?”  See to thy servants; see that they go to the house of God, and instruct them in the faith.  There is a sister: Lovest thou Christ?  “Yea, Lord.”  Perhaps it is as much as you can do — perhaps it is as much as you ought to do — to train up your children in the fear of the Lord.  Do not, O Christian, say that thou lovest Christ and yet do nothing for him.  Doing is a good sign of living; and he can scarce be alive unto God that does nothing for God.  We must let our works evidence the sincerity of our love to our Master.

“Oh!” say you, “but we are doing a little.”  Can you do any more?  If you can, then do it.  If you cannot do more, then God requires no more of you; doing to the utmost of your ability is your best proof; but if you can do more, inasmuch as ye keep back any part of what ye can do, in that degree ye give cause to yourselves to distrust your love to Christ.  Do all you can to your very utmost; serve him abundantly; ay, and superabundantly: seek to magnify his name; and if ever you do too much for Christ, come and tell me of it; if you ever do too much for Christ, tell the angels of it — but you will never do that.  He gave himself for you; give yourselves to him.

You see, my friends, how I have been directing you to search your own hearts, and I am almost afraid that some of you will mistake my intention.  Have I a poor soul here who really deplores the languor of her affections?  Perhaps you have determined to ask yourself as many questions as you can with a view of reviving the languid sparks of love.  Let me tell you then that the pure flame of love must be always nourished where it was first kindled.  When I admonished you to look to yourself it was only to detect the evil; would you find the remedy, you must direct your eyes, not to your own heart, but to the blessed heart of Jesus — to the Beloved one — to my gracious Lord and Master.  And wouldst thou be ever conscious of the sweet swellings up of thy heart towards him; thou canst only prove this by a constant sense of his tender love to thee.

I rejoice to know that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of love, and the ministry of the Spirit is endeared to me in nothing so much as this, that he takes of the things of Jesus, and shows them to me, spreading abroad the Savior’s love in my heart, until it constrains all my passions, awakens the tenderest of all tender emotions, reveals my union to him, and occasions my strong desire to serve him.  Let not love appear to thee as a stern duty, or an arduous effort; rather look to Jesus, yield thyself up to his gracious charms till thou art ravished with his beauty and preciousness.  But ah! if thou art slack in the proofs thou givest, I shall know thou art not walking with him in holy communion.

And allow me to suggest one profitable way of improving the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper.  That is: while you are partaking of it, my friends, renew your dedication to Christ.  Seek this morning to give yourselves over afresh to your Master.  Say with your hearts, what I shall now say with my lips: “Oh! my precious Lord Jesus, I do love thee; thou knowest I have in some degree given myself to thee up to this time, thanks to thy grace!  Blessed be thy name, that thou hast accepted the deeds of so unworthy a servant.  O Lord, I am conscious that I have not devoted myself to thee as I ought; I know that in many things I have come short.  I will make no resolution to live better to thine honor, but I will offer the prayer that thou wouldst help me so to do.  Oh! Lord, I give to thee my health, my life, my talents, my power, and all I have!  Thou hast bought me and bought me wholly: then, Lord, take me this morning, baptize me in the Spirit, let me now feel an entire affection to thy blessed person.  May I have that love which conquers sin and purifies the soul — that love which can dare danger and encounter difficulties for thy sake.  May I henceforth and forever be a consecrated vessel of mercy, having been chosen of thee from before the foundation of the world!  Help me to hold fast that solemn choice of thy service which I desire this morning, by thy grace to renew.”  And when you drink the blood of Christ, and eat his flesh spiritually — in the type and in the emblem, then I beseech you, let the solemn recollection of his agony and suffering for you inspire you with a greater love, that you may be more devoted to his service than ever.  If that be done, I shall have the best of churches; if that be done by us, the Holy Spirit helping us to carry it out, we shall all be good men and true, holding fast by him, and we shall not need to be ashamed in the awful day.

As for you that have never given yourselves to Christ, I dare not tell you to renew a vow which you have never made; nor dare I ask you to make a vow, which you would never keep.  I can only pray for you, that God the Savior would be pleased to reveal himself unto your heart, that “a sense of blood-bought pardon” may “dissolve your hearts of stone;” that you may be brought to give yourselves to him, knowing that if you have done that, you have the best proof that he has given himself for you.  May God Almighty bless you: those of you who depart, may he dismiss with his blessing: and those who remain, may you receive his favor, for Christ’s sake.  Amen.

Posted in C. H. Spurgeon |

Motives Unto the Love of Christ by John Owen

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

The motives to love Christ are the last thing that I shall speak unto.  When God required of the church the first and highest act of religion, the sole foundation of all others — namely, to take him as their God, to own, believe, and trust in him alone as such, (which is wholly due unto him for what he is, without any other consideration whatever,) — yet he thought it proper to add a motive unto the performance of that duty from what he had done for them, Exodus 20:2-3.  The sense of the first command is that we should take him alone for our God; for he is so, and there is no other.

But in prescribing this duty, he minds them of the benefits they had received from him in bringing them out of the house of bondage.  God, in his wisdom and grace, ordered all the causes and reasons of our duty, so as that all the rational powers and faculties of our souls may be engaged.  Therefore he does not only present himself to us, nor is Christ merely proposed unto us as the proper object of our affections, but he calls us also to the consideration of all those things that may satisfy our souls.  That it is the most just, necessary, reasonable and advantageous course for us so to fix our affections on him.  And these considerations are taken from all that he did for us, along with the reasons and grounds for why he did it.

We love him principally and ultimately for who he is.  But firstly and primarily, we love him for what he did.  What he did for us is first proposed unto us, and it is that with which our souls are first attracted.  For we are drawn to him by our sense of need and by our realization that he alone fulfills our desire for blessedness.  This directs us to what he has done for us as sinners.  But then we are led immediately unto the consideration of what he is in himself.  And when our love is fixed on him or his person, then all of these things, from a sense of our own wants and desires, become motives to confirm and increase that love.  This is the constant method of the Scripture: it first proposes unto us what the Lord Christ has done for us, and then it leads us to see who he is and shows us the consideration of all other things to engage our love for him.  (See Philippians 2:5-11, with chap. 3:8-11.)

Motives to the love of Christ are so great, and so many, and so diffused through the whole dispensation of God in him unto us that they can by no means be fully expressed.  Let these be ever enlarged in the declaration of them since they certainly cannot be represented in this short discourse where but a very small part is allotted unto their consideration.  The studying, the collection of them or so many of them as we are able, the meditation on them and improvement of them, are among the principal duties of our whole lives.  What I shall offer is the reduction of them unto these two headings: 1. The acts of Christ, which is their substance; and, 2. The spring and fountain of those acts, which is the life of them.

1. The Acts of Christ. In general, they are all the acts of his mediatory office, with all the fruits of them, whereof we are made partners.  There is not anything that he did or does, in the discharge of his mediatory office, from the first inception of it in his incarnation to his present intercession in heaven, except it is motivated by his love (as is proposed to us often in the Scripture).  Whatever he did or does with or towards us in the name of God, as the king and prophet of the church — whatever he did or does with God for us, as our high priest —all speaks this language in the hearts of them that believe:  O love the Lord Jesus in sincerity.

The consideration of what Christ thus did and does for us is inseparable from that of the benefits which we receive from him.  A mixture of both these — of what he did for us and what we have obtained — comprises the substance of these motives: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me” — “Who loved us, and washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God” — “For you were slain, and have bought us unto God with your blood.”  And both these are beyond our understanding.  For who is able to comprehend the glory of the mediatory acting of the Son of God, in the assumption of our nature — in what he did and suffered on our behalf?  And for us, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can it enter into the heart of man to conceive, all that we receive from it.  The least benefit we have received deserves our love and seems almost criminal were such love is not entertained.  What, then, does this greatest love deserve, which was purchased for you by the greatest expense, even the price of the blood of the Son of God?

If we have any faith concerning these things, it will produce love, and that love will produce loving obedience.  Whatever we profess concerning Christ, if it springs from tradition and opinion and not from faith, will not engage our souls to love him.  The frame of heart which ensues on the real faith and love toward these things is expressed in terms of remembering what he has done: Psalm 103:1-5, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits; who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfies your mouth with good things; so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Let men pretend what they will, there needs to be no greater and no other evidence to prove that any one does not really believe the things that are reported in the gospel, concerning the mediatory acting of Christ, or that he has no experience in his own soul and conscience of the fruits and effects of them, than this — than that his heart is not engaged by them unto the most ardent love towards his person.

Anyone who has no love for the One who has given his all for them cannot be a true believer.  Some may more abound in good deeds more than others; some may be more diligent than others in the observation of times for the solemn performance of certain duties; some may have brighter and clearer understandings than others.  But as for those whose hearts and minds do not have love for the Savior, on what grounds can they be esteemed Christians?  How do they live by the faith of the Son of God?  Are the great things of the Gospel and of the mediation of Christ as presented to us, so small as that they must give place unto all other occasions or diversions whatever?  No; if our minds are not filled with these things — if Christ does not dwell plentifully in our hearts by faith — if our souls are not possessed with them — we are strangers unto the life of faith.  But if we are conversant about these things, they will engage our hearts into the love of the person of Christ.

Take one instance from among the rest — namely, his death.  How can someone have the heart of a Christian, if he does not derive his life from it?  Who can look into the Gospel and not fix on those lines which either immediately and directly, or through some other paths of divine grace and wisdom, do lead him thereunto?  And how can anyone have believing thoughts concerning the death of Christ and not have his heart affected with ardent love unto his person?  Christ in the Gospels “is evidently set forth, crucified” before us.  How can any by the eye of faith look on this bleeding, dying Redeemer and suppose love unto his person to be nothing but the work of fancy or imagination?  Those who “always bear about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,” (as the apostle speaks, 2 Corinthians 4:10) know the contrary.  Those whose hearts recognize this precious perfume of his death have their hearts ravished with love for this Savior.

Again: as there can be no faith in Christ where there is no love to him on the account of his mediatory acts; so, where this love is lacking, these persons are put under the highest guilt of ingratitude that our nature is liable unto.  The highest aggravation of the sin of angels was their ingratitude unto their Maker.  For why, by his mere will and pleasure, they were stated in the highest excellency, pre-eminence, and dignity, that he thought good to communicate unto any creatures — or, it may be, that any mere created nature is capable of in itself — they were unthankful for what they had so received from undeserved goodness and bounty; and so cast themselves into everlasting ruin.  But yet the sin of men, in their ingratitude towards Christ on the account of what he has done for them, is an aggravation above that of the angels.  For although the angels were originally instated in a condition of dignity which in this world we cannot attain unto, yet they were not redeemed and recovered from misery as we are.

In all the crowd of evil and wicked men that the world is pestered withal, there are none, by common consent, so stigmatized for unworthy villainy, as those who are signally ungrateful for singular benefits.  If persons are unthankful unto them, if they have not the highest love for them, who redeem them from ignominy and death, and instate them in a plentiful inheritance, (if any such instances may be given,) and that with the greatest expense of labor and charge, — mankind, without any regret, does tacitly condemn them unto greater miseries than those which they were delivered from.  What, then, will be the condition of them whose hearts are not so affected with the mediation of Christ and the fruits of it, as to engage the best, the choicest of their affections unto him!  The gospel itself will be “a savor of death” unto such ungrateful persons.

2. His Love to Us. That which the Scripture principally insists on as the motive of our love unto Christ is his love unto us — which was the principle of all his mediatory actions in our behalf.  Love is that jewel of human nature which commands a valuation wherever it is found.  Let other circumstances be what they will, whatever distances between persons may be made by them, yet real love, where it is evidenced so to be, is not despised by any except the most heartless of men.  Even if such love can produce no outward effects to them that are beloved, yet it commands at least, as it were, some kind of respect in return.

This is especially so if this love be altogether undeserved and so proves itself to proceed from a goodness of nature, and an inclination to the good of them on whom it is fixed.  If there be any such affection left in the nature of any man, it should provoke a reciprocal love.  And all these things are found in the love of Christ, unto that degree and height as nothing parallel unto it can be found in the whole creation.

I shall briefly speak of it under two general heads:

(1.) The sole reason for all the mediatory acts of Christ, both in light of our sinful nature and in all that he did and suffered for us, was his own mere love and grace, working by pity and compassion.  It is true; he undertook this work principally with respect unto the glory of God and out of love unto him.  But with respect unto us, his only motive was his abundant, overflowing love.  And this is especially remembered unto us in that instance where it carried him through the greatest difficulties — namely, in his death and the oblation of himself on our behalf, Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2, 25, 26; 1 John 3:16; Revelation 1:6.  This alone inclined the Son of God to undertake the glorious work of our redemption and carried him through the death and dread which he underwent in the accomplishment of it.

We should regularly make consideration of this love of Christ, which was the great means of conveying all the effects of dine wisdom and grace unto the church — that glass which God chose to represent himself and all his goodness in unto believers — that spirit of life in the wheel of all the motions of the person of Christ in the redemption of the church unto the eternal glory of God, his own and that of his redeemed also — that mirror wherein the holy angels and blessed saints shall forever contemplate the divine excellencies in their suitable operations.

When some raise questions about the divine nature of the person of Christ, they unwittingly destroy the whole nature of that love which we ascribe unto him.  Therefore fore, a more distinct explication and defense of it may be called for.  And this cause will not be forsaken.  Those who do so know nothing of the life and power of the gospel, nothing of the reality of the grace of God, nor do they believe aright one article of the Christian faith, whose hearts are not sensible of the love of Christ; nor is he sensible of the love of Christ, whose affections are not thereon drawn out unto him.  They often make a pageant of religion — a fable for the theater of the world, a business of fancy and opinion — whose hearts are not really affected with the love of Christ.  They do so that they might have some emotional affection toward the mediatorial work of Christ.

Many babble things which they have learned by rote but they have no real acquaintance with Christianity, who imagine that the placing of the most intense affections of our souls on the person of Christ — the loving him with all our hearts because of his love — our being overcome until we are sick of love — the constant motions of our souls towards him with delight and adherence — are but fancies and imaginations.  I renounce such a religion, whose ever it may be, that teaches, insinuates, or gives countenance to such abominations.  Such doctrine is far from the gospel and as contrary to the experience of believers as that which instructs men to a contempt of the most fervent love unto Christ or casts reflections upon it.  I had rather choose my eternal lot and portion with the weakest believer, who, being effectually sensible of the love of Christ, spends his days in mourning that he can love him no more than he finds himself on his utmost endeavors for the discharge of his duty to do, than with the best of them, whose vain speculations and a false pretense of reason puff them up unto a contempt of true love for Christ.

(2.) This love of Christ is pure and absolutely free from any alloy or mixture.  There cannot be the least suspicion of anything of self in it.  And it is absolutely undeserved.  Nothing can be found amongst men that can represent or exemplify its freedom from any desert on our part.  The most candid and ingenuous love amongst us is, when we love another for his worth, excellency, and usefulness, though we have no singular benefit of them ourselves.  But not the least of any of these things was found in those on whom he set his love, except as effects of that love which he set upon them.

Men sometimes may rise up unto such a high degree and instance in love, as that they will even die for one another; but then it must be because they esteem their worth and merit.  It may be, says the apostle in treating of the love of Christ and of God in him, that “for a good man some would even dare to die,” Romans 5:7.  It must be for a good man — one who is justly esteemed “commune bonum,” a public good to mankind — one whose benignity is ready to exercise loving-kindness on all occasions, which is the estate of a good man — it is possible that some would even dare to die for such a man.  This is the height of what love among men can rise unto; and if it has been instanced in any, it has been accompanied with an open mixture of vain-glory and desire of renown.  But the Lord Christ placed his love on us when we were sinners and ungodly; that is, everything which might render us unlovable and undeserving.  Though we were as deformed as sin could render us and more deeply indebted than the whole creation could pay or answer, yet did he fix his love upon us, to free us from that condition and to render us fit for the most intimate fellowship with himself.

Never was there love which had such effects — which cost him so dear in whom it was and proved so advantageous to them on whom it was placed.  In the pursuit of it, he underwent everything that is evil in his own person, and we receive everything that is good in the favor of God and eternal blessedness.

On the account of these things, the apostle ascribes a constraining power unto the love of Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:14.  And if it constrains us to any return unto him, it does so in terms of love to him.  For no suitable return can be made for love but love, at least not without it.  As love cannot be purchased — “For if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be condemned,” Song of Solomon 8:7 — so if a man would give all the world for a requital of love, without love, it would be despised.  To fancy that all the love of Christ unto us consists in the precepts and promises of the gospel, and all our love unto him in the observance of his commands, without a real love in him unto our persons, like that of a “husband unto a wife,” Ephesians 5:25, 26, or a holy affection in our hearts and minds unto his person, is to overthrow the whole power of religions to despoil it of its life and soul, leaving nothing but the carcass of it.

This love unto Christ and unto God in him, because of his love unto us, is the principal instance of divine love, the touchstone of its reality and sincerity.  Whatever men may boast of their affectionate endearments to divine goodness, if it is not founded in a sense of this love of Christ and the love of God in him, they are but empty notions they feed upon.  It is in Christ alone that God is declared to be love; without such an understanding, none can love him as they ought.  In him alone that infinite goodness, which is the peculiar object of divine love, and it is truly represented unto us, without any such deceiving phantasm as the workings of fancy or depravation of reason may impose upon us.  And on him alone does our salvation depend.  And it is an infinite condescension in the holy God to so express his “glory in the face of Jesus Christ,” or to propose himself as the object of our love in and through him.  For considering our weakness in even comprehending the infinite excellencies of the divine nature and his resplendent glory, it is the most adorable effect of divine wisdom and grace that we are admitted into the contemplation of them in the person of Jesus Christ.  Yet the evidence of his love is also seen in all the blessed effects of his love which believers have experienced personally.  We can only really love him for who he is when we love him rightly for what he has done!

Modernized revision of “Motives Unto the Love of Christ,” in the Works of John Owen, Vol. 1.

Posted in John Owen |

The Godly Man Prizes Christ by Thomas Watson

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

To illustrate this, I shall show (1) that Jesus Christ is precious in himself; and (2) that a godly man esteems him precious.

Jesus Christ Himself is Precious

“Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious” (1 Peter 2:6).

  1. Christ is compared to “a bundle of myrrh” (Song 1:13).  Myrrh is very precious; it was one of the chief spices of which the holy anointing oil was made of (Exodus 30:25).  Myrrh is of a perfuming nature.  So Christ perfumes our persons and services, so that they are a sweet odor to God.  Why is the church, that heavenly bride, so perfumed with grace?  Because Christ, that myrrh tree, has dropped his perfume upon her (Song 3:6).  Additionally, myrrh is of an exhilarating nature.  Its smell comforts and refreshes the spirits.  So Christ comforts the souls of his people when they are fainting under their sins and suffering.
  2. Christ is compared to a pearl: “when he had found one pearl of great price.” (Matthew 13:46).  Christ, this pearl, was little with regard to his humility, but of infinite value.  Jesus Christ is a pearl that God wears in his bosom (John 1:18); a pearl whose luster drowns the world’s glory (Galatians 6:14); a pearl that enriches the soul, the angelic part of man (1 Corinthians 1:5);  a pearl that enlightens heaven (Revelation 21:23); a pearl so precious that it makes us precious to God (Ephesians 1:6); a pearl that is consoling and restorative (Luke 2:25); a pearl of more value than heaven (Colossians 1:16-17).  The preciousness of Christ is seen in three ways:
    1. He is precious in his person; he is the picture of his father’s glory (Heb. 1:3).
    2. Christ’s prophetic office is precious (Deut. 18:15).  He tie great oracle of heaven; he has preciousness above all Prophets who went before him; he teaches not only the ear, but the heart.  He who has ‘the key of David’ in his hand opened the heart of Lydia (Acts 16:14).
    3. Christ’s priestly office is precious.  This is the solid basis of our comfort.  ‘Now once hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Heb. 9:26).  By virtue of this sacrifice, the soul may go to God with boldness: ‘Lord, give me heaven; Christ has purchased it for me; he hung upon the cross, that I might sit upon the throne.’  Christ’s blood and incense are the two hinges on which our salvation turns.
    4. Christ’s regal office is precious: ‘He hath on his vesture, and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords’ (Rev. 19:16).  Christ has a pre-eminence above all other kings for majesty; he has the highest throne, the richest crown, the largest dominions, and the longest possession: ‘Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever’ (Heb. 1:8).  Though Christ has many assessors — those who sit with him (Eph. 2:6) — he has no successors.  Christ sets up his scepter where no other king does; he rules the will and affections; his power binds the conscience.  The angels take the oath of allegiance to him (Heb. 1:6).
    5. Christ’s kingship is seen in ruling his people.  He rules with clemency; his regal rod has honey at the end of it.  Christ displays the ensign of mercy, which makes so many volunteers run to his standard (Psalm 110:3).  Holiness without mercy, and justice without mercy, would be dreadful, but mercy encourages poor sinners to trust in him.
    6. Christ’s kingship is seen in overruling his enemies.  He pulls down their pride, befools their policy, restrains their malice: ‘the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain’ (Psalm 76:10), or as it is in the Hebrew, ‘thou shalt girdle up.’  That stone ‘cut out of the mountain without hands, which smote the image’ (Dan. 2:34) was an emblem, says Augustine, of Christ’s monarch­ical power, conquering and triumphing over his enemies.
    7. Christ is precious in his benefits.  By Christ, all dangers are removed; through Christ all mercies are conveyed.  In his blood flows justification (Acts 13:39); purgation (Heb. 9:14); fructification (John 1:16); pacifica­tion (Rom. 5:1); adoption (Gal. 4:5); perseverance (Heb. 12:2); glorification (Heb. 9:12). This will be a matter of most sublime joy for eternity.  We read that those who had passed over the sea of glass stood with their harps and sang the song of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. 15:2, 3).  So when the ‘saints of God have passed over the glassy sea of this world, they shall sing hallelujahs to the Lamb who has redeemed them from sin and hell and has translated them into that glorious paradise where they shall see God forever and ever.

The Godly Man Esteems Christ Precious

“Therefore to you who believe He is precious” (1 Peter 2:7). In the Greek, it is ‘an honor.’  Believers have honorable esteem of Christ.  The psalmist speaks like one captivated with Christ’s amazing beauty: ‘there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee’ (Psalm 73:25).  He did not say he had nothing: he had many comforts on earth, but he desired none but God; as if a wife should say that there is no one’s company she prizes like her husband’s.  How did David prize Christ?  ‘Thou art fairer than the children of men’ (Psalm 45:2).  The spouse in the Song of Solomon looked upon Christ as the Coryphaeus, the most incompar­able one, ‘the chief among ten thousand’ (Song 5:10).  Christ outvies all others: ‘As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons’ (Song 2:3).  Christ infinitely more excels all the beauties and glories of that visible world than the apple tree surpasses the trees of the wild forest.  Paul so prized Christ that he made him his chief study: ‘I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:2).  He judged nothing else of value.  Consider how he slighted and despised other things in comparison with Christ: ‘I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord’ (Phil. 3:8).  Gain he esteemed loss, and gold dung for Christ.  Indeed, a godly person cannot choose but set a high valuation upon Christ; he sees a fullness of value in him:

  1. A fullness in regard to variety.  ‘In whom are hid all the treasures’ (Colossian 2:3).  No country has all commodities of its own growth, but Christ has all kinds of fullness — fullness of merit, of spirit, of love.  He has a treasure adequate for all our wants.
  2. A fullness in regard to degree.  Christ has not only a few drops or rays, but is more full of goodness than the sun is of light; he has the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 2:9).
  3. A fullness in regard to duration.  The fullness in the creature, like the brooks of Arabia, is soon dried up, but Christ’s fullness is inexhaustible; it is a fullness overflowing and ever-flowing.

And this fullness is for believers: Christ is a common thesaurus (as Luther says), a common treasury or store for the saints: ‘of his fullness have all we received’ (John 1:16).

Use 1: Is a godly man a high prizer of Christ?  Then what is to be thought of those who do not put a value upon Christ?  Are they godly or not?

What is it to know all the motions of the orbs and influences of the stars, and in the meantime to be ignorant of Christ, the bright Morning Star (Rev. 22:16)?  What is it to understand the nature of minerals or precious stones, and not to know Christ the true Cornerstone (Isaiah 28:16)?  It is under­valuing, yes, despising Christ, when with the lodestone we draw iron and straw to us, but neglect him who has tried gold to bestow on us (Rev. 3:18).

Use 2: Let us test our godliness by this: Do we set a high estimation on Christ?

Question: How shall we know that?

Answer 1: If we are prizers of Christ, then we prefer him in our judgments before other things.  We value Christ above honor and riches; the Pearl of Price lies nearest our heart.  He who prizes Christ esteems the gleanings of Christ better than the world’s vintage.  He counts the worst things of Christ better than the best things of the world: ‘es­teeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt’ (Heb. 11:26).  And is it thus with us?  Has the price of worldly things fallen?  Gregory Nazianzene solemnly blessed God that he had anything to lose for Christ’s sake.  But alas, how few Nazianzenes are to be found!  You will hear some say they have honorable thoughts of Christ, but they prize their land and estate above him.  The young man in the Gospel preferred his bags of gold before Christ.  Judas valued thirty pieces of silver above him.  May it not be feared, if an hour of trial comes, that there are many who would rather renounce their baptism and throw off Christ’s livery than hazard the loss of their earthly possessions for him?

Answer 2: If we are the prizers of Christ, we cannot live without him; things which we value we know not how to be without.  A man may live without music, but not without food.  A child of God can lack health and friends, but he cannot lack Christ.  In the absence of Christ, he says, like Job, ‘I went mourning without the sun’ (Job 30:28).  I have the starlight of creature comforts, but I need the Sun of Righteousness.  ‘Give me children,’ said Rachel, ‘or else I die ((Gen. 30:1).  So the soul says, ‘Lord, give me Christ, or I die.’

Let us test by this — do they prize Christ who can manage well enough to be without him?  Give a child a rattle, and it will not want gold.  If men only have worldly provisions, ‘corn rid wine’, they can be content enough without Christ.  Christ is a spiritual Rock (1 Cor. 10:4).  Just let men have ‘oil in the cruse’ and they do not care about honey from this rock.  If their trade has gone, they complain, but if God takes away the gospel, which is the ark wherein Christ the manna is hidden, they are quiet and tame enough.  Do those prize Christ who can sit down content without him?

Answer 3: If we are prizers of Christ, then we shall not complain at any pains to get him.  He who prizes gold will dip for it in the mine: ‘My soul followeth hard after God’ (Psalm 63:8).  Plutarch reports of the Gauls, an ancient people in France, that after they had tasted the sweet wine of the Italian grape, they enquired after the country, and never rested till they had arrived at it.  He in whose eye Christ is precious never rests till he has gained him: ‘I sought him whom my soul loveth; I held him, and would not let him go’ (Song 3:1,4).

Test by this!  Many say they have Christ in high veneration, but they are not industrious in the use of means to obtain him.  If Christ would drop as a ripe fig into their mouth, they could be content to have him, but they will not put themselves to too much trouble to get him.  Does he who will not take medicine or exercise prize his health?

Answer 4: If we are prizers of Christ, then we take great pleasure in Christ.  What joy a man takes in that which he counts his treasure!  He who prizes Christ makes him his greatest joy.  He can delight in Christ when other delights have gone: ‘Although the fig tree shall not blossom, yet I will rejoice in the Lord’ (Hab. 3:17, 18).  Though a flower in a man’s garden dies, he can still delight in his money and jewels.  He who esteems Christ can solace himself in Christ when there is an autumn on all other comforts.

Answer 5: If we are prizers of Christ, then we will part with our dearest pleasures for him.  Paul said of the Galatians that they so esteemed him that they were ready to pull out their own eyes and give them to him (Gal. 4:15).  He who esteems Christ will pull out that lust which is his right eye.  A wise man will throw away a poison for a stimulant.  He who sets a high value on Christ will part with his pride, unjust gain, and sinful fashions (Isaiah 30:32).  He will set his feet on the neck of his sins.

Test by this!  How can they be said to prize Christ who will not leave a vanity for him?  What scorn and contempt they put on the Lord Jesus who prefer a damning pleasure before a saving Christ!

Answer 6: If we are prizers of Christ, we shall think we cannot have him at too dear a rate.  We may buy gold too dearly, but we cannot purchase Christ too dearly.  Though we part with our blood for him, it is no dear bargain.  The apostles rejoiced that they were graced so much as to be disgraced for Christ (Acts 5:41).  They esteemed their fetters more precious than bracelets of gold.  Do not let him who refuses to bear his cross say that he prizes Christ: ‘When persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended’ (Matt. 13:21).

Answer 7: If we are prizers of Christ, we will be willing to help others to get a part in him.  That which we esteem excellent, we are desirous our friend should have a share in it.  If a man has found a spring of water, he will call others that they may drink and satisfy their thirst.  Do we commend Christ to others?  Do we take them by the hand and lead them to Christ?  This shows how few prize Christ, because they do not make more effort that their relations should have a part in him.  They get land and riches for their posterity, but have no care to leave them the Pearl of Price in their portion.

Answer 8: If we are prizers of Christ, then we prize him in health as well as in sickness; when we are enlarged, as well as when we are straitened.  A friend is prized at all times; the Rose of Sharon is always sweet.  He who values his Savior right has as precious thoughts of him in a day of prosperity as in a day of adversity.  The wicked make use of Christ only when they are in straits — as the elders of Gilead went to Jepththah when they were in distress (Judges 11:7).  Themistocles complained of the Athenians that they only ran to him as they did to a tree to shelter them in a storm.  Sinners desire Christ only for shelter.  The Hebrews never chose their judges except when they were in some imminent danger.  Godless persons never look for Christ except at death when they are in danger of hell.

Use 3: As we would prove to the world that we have the impress of godliness on us, let us be prizers of Jesus Christ; he is elect, precious.  Christ is the wonder of beauty.  Pliny said of the mulberry tree that there is nothing in it but what is therapeutic and useful: the fruit, leaves and bark.  So there is nothing in Christ but what is precious.  His name is precious, his virtues precious, his blood precious — more precious than the world.

Oh, then, let us have endearing thoughts of Christ, let him be accounted our chief treasure and delight.  This is the reason why millions perish — because they do not prize Christ.  Christ is the door by which men are to enter heaven (John 10:9).  If they do not know this door or are so proud that they will not stoop to go in at it, how can they be saved?  That we may have Christ-admiring thoughts, let us con­sider:

  1. We cannot prize Christ at too high a rate.  We may prize other things above their value.  That is our sin.  We commonly overrate the creature; we think there is more in it than there is; therefore God makes our gourd wither, because we overprize it.  But we cannot raise our esteem of Christ high enough; he is beyond all value.  There is no ruby or diamond but the jeweler can set a fair price on it.  He can say it is worth so much and no more.  But Christ’s worth can never be fully known.  No seraphim can set a due value on him; his are unsearchable riches (Eph. 3:8).  Christ is more precious than the soul, than the angels, than heaven.
  2. Jesus Christ has highly prized us. He took our flesh upon him (Heb. 2:16).  He made his soul an offering for us (Isaiah 53:10).  How precious our salvation was to Christ!  Shall not we prize and adore him who has put such a value upon us?
  3. Not to prize Christ is great imprudence.  Christ is our guide to glory.  It is folly for a man to slight his guide.  He is our physician (Mal. 4:2).  It is folly to despise our physician.

What!  To set light by Christ for things of no value?  ‘Ye fools and blind’ (Matt. 23:17).  How is a fool tested but by showing him an apple and a piece of gold?  If he chooses the apple before the gold, he is judged to be a fool and his estate is beggared.  How many such idiots there are who prefer husks before manna, the gaudy, empty things of this life before the Prince of Glory!  Will not Satan beggar them at last for fools?

Some slight Christ now and say, ‘There is no beauty that we should desire him’ (Isaiah 53:2).  There is a day coming shortly when Christ will as much slight them.  He will set as light by them as they do by him.  He will say, ‘I know you not’ (Luke 13:27).  What a slighting word that will be, when men cry, ‘Lord Jesus, save us,’ and he says, ‘I was offered to you but you would have none of me (Psalm 81:11); you scorned me and now I will set light by you and your salvation.  Depart from me, I do not know you.’  This is all that sinners get by rejecting the Lord of life.  Christ will slight at the Day of Judgment those who have slighted him in he day of grace.  Only a godly man truly prizes Christ!

Posted in Thomas Watson |

Theme Study: Loving Jesus by Jim Ehrhard

January 17, 2010 by ADMIN

Preface to the Study

What can be more important in our lives as believers than loving Jesus?  At times, we can become so caught up in knowing about Jesus that we have a tendency to forget that all our knowledge of Jesus is designed to cause us to love Him even more.

This issue is a collection of articles that remind us of the importance of loving Christ with all our hearts, minds, souls and strength.  The opening article by Thomas Watson reminds us that Christ is more precious than anything this world has to offer us.  Articles by Owen and Doolittle provide a number of motives for loving Christ in this way.  A. W. Pink reminds us of the wonderful privilege we have of friendship with Christ.  In each article, we are reminded of His great love toward us.

We have also included portions of two sermons by Spurgeon from John 21 where Jesus asks Peter that all-essential question: “Simon, son of Jonas, do you love me?”  In these sermons, followers of Christ are asked to consider this question above all others – not how much do we know about Jesus; not how much do we work for Christ – but do we love him?  That is the one thing that matters most.  And it is the one true motivation behind any service for our Savior.  Paul reminds us, “Although I speak with tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or clanging symbol.  And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have the faith so that I can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I give all my goods to the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”

Indeed, “we love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).  And our love ought to spur us to love others.  The excerpts from the writings of George Mueller remind us that loving Christ leads to a proper love of others.

It is our hope and prayer that the articles in this issue might cause you to see Jesus as He really is, in all the fullness of His glory, and love Him with all the fullness of your heart!  As you read each article, take time to reflect on Jesus and His great love to you.  May your love for Him increase and be so evident to all that they too may be drawn to love our lovely Savior!

By His Grace, Jim

Posted in Jim Ehrhard |

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