Love

Spurgeon addresses the concern that a gospel of free grace to the vilest sinners might produce moral indifference, and answers it by showing that God's love, when truly received, does not license sin but generates love in return — a love that is entirely God's work, beginning with his initiative before the sinner ever sought him, sustained by continual meditation on the cross where that love was most fully displayed, and growing as the believer flies back over the vast landscape of electing grace, daily mercies, and the promise that nothing can separate them from God's love. He then traces the practical walk of this love, arguing that genuine love for Christ will inevitably express itself in love for Christ's whole church across all denominations, in feeding and clothing the poor who are Christ's representatives on earth, and in giving generously to the work of his kingdom. He closes with two piercing tests of love: whether prosperity has cooled the devotion that poverty once kept warm, and whether — when compared to Christ who endured the agony of the cross without once drawing back or disowning his people — believers will stand firm under the far lighter trials of mockery, social cost, and loss of comfort that faithfulness sometimes demands.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on December 19th, 1858.