The Spurgeon Series 1857 & 1858. Charles H. Spurgeon

those whom you regard with affection; but we tolerate falsehoods now, as if they were truths; and we call them courtesies. Courtesies they may be; but untruths they are in many cases. Now, Christ’s love lies not in words, but in deeds. He does not say, “My dear people”; but he let his heart out, and we could see what that was. He does not come to us, and say, “Dearly beloved” simply; but he hangs upon the cross, and there we read “Dearly beloved” in red letters. He does not come to us with the kisses of his lips first — he gives us blessings with both his hands; he gives himself for us, and then he gives himself to us. Trust no complimentary friend; rely upon the man who gives you real tokens worth your having, who does for you deeds to show the truthfulness of his heart. Such a friend — and such is Jesus — “sticks closer than a brother.”

      17. 7. Once more, and I shall not weary you, I trust. A purchased friend will never last long. Give to a man nineteen times, and deny him the twentieth, and he shall hate you; for his love sprang only from your gifts. The love which I could buy for gold I would sell for dross; the friendship that I could buy for pearls I would dispense with for pebbles; it would be of no value, and therefore the sooner lost the better. But oh! believer, Christ’s love was unpurchased love. You brought him no present. Jacob said, when his sons went to Egypt, “Take the man a present, a little oil, a little balm, a few nuts and almonds”; but you took Christ no presents. When you came to him you said —

      Nothing in my hands I bring,

      Simply to your cross I cling.

      You did not even promise that you would love him; for you had such a faithless heart, you dared not say so. You asked him to make you love him; that was the most you could do. He loved you for nothing at all — simply because he wished to love you. Well, that love which so lived on nothing but its own resources, will not starve through the scantiness of your returns; the love which grew in such a rocky heart as this, will not die for lack of soil. That love which sprang up in the barren desert, in your unirrigated soul, will never, never die for lack of moisture; it must live, it cannot expire. Jesus must be “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

      18. 8. Shall I continue to give more reasons? I may only mention one more, namely, this — that there cannot, by any possibility, arise any cause which could make Christ love us less. You say, how is this? One man loves his friend, but he suddenly grows rich, and now he says, I am a greater man than I used to be, I forget my old acquaintances. But Christ can grow no richer; he is as rich as he can be, infinitely so. He loves you now; then it cannot be possible that he will by reason of an increase in his own personal glory forsake you, for everlasting glories now crown his head; he can never be more glorious and great, and therefore he will love you still. Sometimes, on the other hand, one friend grows poorer, and then the other forsakes him; but you never can grow poorer than you are, for you are “a poor sinner and nothing at all” now; you have nothing of your own, all you have is borrowed, all given to you by him. He cannot love you, then, less, because you grow poorer; for poverty that has nothing is at least as poor as it can be, and can never sink lower in the scale. Christ, therefore, must love you for all your nakedness and all your poverty.

      19. “But I may prove sinful,” you say. Yes, but you cannot be more so than he foreknew you would be; and yet he loved you with the foreknowledge of all your sins. Surely then, when it happens it will be no surprise to him; he knew it all beforehand, and he cannot swerve from his love; no circumstance can possibly arise that ever will divide the Saviour from his love to his people, and the saint from his love to his Saviour. He is “a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

      20. III. Now then, AN INFERENCE TO BE DERIVED FROM THIS.

      21. Lavater says, “The qualities of your friends will be those of your enemies: cold friends, cold enemies; half-friends, half-enemies; fervid enemies, warm friends.” Knowing this be a truth, I have often congratulated myself, when my enemies have spoken fiercely against me. Well, I have thought, “My friends love me intensely; let the enemies be as hot as they please; it only indicates that the friends are proportionately firm in affection.” Then we draw this inference, that if Christ sticks close, and he is our friend, then our enemies will stick close, and never leave us until we die. Oh, Christian, because Christ sticks close, the devil will stick close too: he will be at you and with you; the dog of hell will never cease his howlings, until you reach the other side of Jordan; no place in this world is out of bowshot of that great enemy; until you have crossed the stream his arrows can reach you, and they will. If Christ gave himself for you, the devil will do all he can to destroy you; if Christ has been longsuffering to you, Satan will be persevering, in hopes that Christ may forget you; he will strive after you, and strive until he shall see you safely landed in heaven. But do not be disappointed, the louder Satan roars, the more proof you shall have of Christ’s love. “Give me,” said old Rutherford, “give me a roaring devil rather than a sleeping one; for sleeping demons make me slumber, but roaring ones provoke me to run to my Master.” Oh! be glad then, if the world rants at you, if your foes attack you fiercely. Christ is just as full of love to you as they are of hatred. Therefore,

      Be firm and strong;

      Be grace your shield, and Christ your song.

      22. And now I have a question to ask: that question I ask of every man and every woman in this place, and of every child too — Is Jesus Christ your friend? Have you a friend at court — at heaven’s court? Is the Judge of the quick and dead your friend? Can you say that you love him, and has he ever revealed himself in the way of love to you? Dear hearer, do not answer that question for your neighbour; answer it for yourself. Peer {b} or peasant, rich or poor, learned or illiterate, this question is for each of you; therefore, ask it. Is Christ my friend? Did you ever consider that question? Have you ever asked it? Oh! to be able to say “Christ is my friend,” is one of the sweetest things in the world. A man who had lived much in sin one day casually entered a place of worship. Before the sermon, this hymn was sung —

      “Jesus, lover of my soul.”

      The next day the man was met by an acquaintance who asked him how he liked the sermon. He said, “I do not know, but there were two or three words that took such a hold of me that I did not know what to do with myself. The minister read that hymn, ‘Jesus, lover of my soul.’ Ah!” he said, though he was by no means a religious man — “to be able to say that, I would give up all I have! But do you think,” he asked, “that Jesus would ever be the lover of such a man as I am? ‘Jesus, lover of my soul!’ Oh! could I say it.” And then he buried his head in his hands and wept. I have every reason to fear that he went back to his sin, and was the same afterwards as before. But you see, he had conscience enough to let him know how valuable it was to have Christ for his lover and his friend. Ah! rich man, you have many friends. There are some here who have learned the faithlessness of friends, there are some here who have toiled for their country’s good, and deserve a reward of honour at their country’s hands, who, for one mistake — or what perhaps was a mistake — have been neglected by too many who once appeared to be their most trusty adherents. Oh! put no confidence, you great men and you rich, in the adherence of your friends. David said in his haste, “All men are liars”; you may one day have to say it at your leisure. And oh! you kind and affectionate hearts, who are not rich in wealth, but who are rich in love — and that is the world’s best wealth — put this golden coin among your silver ones, and it will sanctify them all — Get Christ’s love shed abroad in your hearts, and your mother’s love, your daughter’s love, your husband’s love, your wife’s love, will become more sweet than ever. The love of Christ does not expel the love of relatives, but it sanctifies our loves, and makes them far sweeter. Remember, dear hearer, the love of men and women is very sweet; but all must pass away; and what will you do, if you have no wealth but the wealth that fades, and no love but the love which dies, when death shall come? Oh! to have the love of Christ! You can take that across the river of death with you; you can wear it as your bracelet in heaven, and set it up as a seal upon your hand; for his love is “strong as death and mightier than the grave.” Good old Bishop Beveridge, I think it was, when dying, did not know his best