1553. Faith Working By Love

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Morning, August 15, 1880, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. *2/7/2013

Faith which works by love. [Ga 5:6]

For other sermons on this text:
   [See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1280, “Remonstrance and a Rejoinder, A” 1271]
   [See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1553, “Faith Working by Love” 1553]
   [See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1750, “Luther Sermon at Exeter Hall, The” 1751]
   [See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3454, “Circumcision and Uncircumcision” 3456]
   Exposition on Ga 5 [See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3249, “Under the Apple Tree” 3251 @@ "Exposition"]

1. All the ways of justification by human works and outward forms are set aside by the apostle. In one sentence he closes up every road which is made by man, and opens up the way of the Lord, even the way of salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Some hope to be saved by ritualism: their hopes are struck hip and thigh by this word, “Neither circumcision avails anything”; on the other hand, many are relying upon their freedom from all ceremonies, and place their reliance upon a kind of anti-ritualism — they are struck by the word “nor uncircumcision.” Just as Jews relied upon circumcision, so do many depend upon baptism and sacraments: to these the apostle gives no quarter. Others glory in uncircumcision: they have practised no rites nor ceremonies, their mode of worship is plain even to unsightliness, free almost to disorder, and of this they are apt to make a righteousness. It is quite as easy to make a self-righteousness out of the plainness of the Quaker as out of the gaudiness of the Romanist; and the one confidence will be as fatal as the other. You and I, as Baptists, may glory in the simplicity of our worship, and the scripturalness of our baptism, but if we think that outward things will save us because they are scripturally simple we shall err as much as they do who multiply gorgeous services and pompous processions. Let the whole sentence be quoted: Paul says, “Neither circumcision avails anything”; but he does not stop there, for he adds, “nor uncircumcision.” The outward, whether decorated or unadorned, whether fixed or free, does not touch the saving point: the only thing which can save us is faith in Jesus Christ, whom God has provided as a propitiation for sin. Faith brings us into contact with the healing fountain, and so our natural disease is removed; it appropriates on our behalf the result of the Redeemer’s service and sacrifice, and so we become accepted in him; but anything short of this must fail; it is the tearing of the garment while the heart is unbroken, the washing of the outside of the cup and platter while the inner part is filthiness itself.

2. The apostle, however, does more than merely condemn other foundations than those of faith; he distinguishes here between faith itself and its many imitations. It is not every kind of faith that will save the soul. True faith, undoubtedly, will save a man though it is only as a grain of mustard seed; but then it must be true faith — the genuine silver, and not a mere plated article. “Money answers all things,” says the wise man, but then it must be current coin of the realm; for counterfeit money will answer for nothing except to condemn the man who has it in his possession. Real faith will save us, but forgeries of it will increase our peril. Assurance is from God, but presumption is from the devil. The test of true faith is that it works, — “Faith which works,” says the text. To that end it must first of all live, for it is clear that a dead faith cannot work. There must be heart in our faith, and the Spirit of God breathing in it, or it will not be the living faith of a living child of God. Being alive, true faith must not sleep, but must arouse itself as a child of the day, for a slumbering faith is a matter for heart-searching, since sleep is a cousin to death. A wakeful faith becomes active, and in its activity lies much of its proof. “By their fruits you shall know them” is one of Christ’s own rules for testing men and things, and we are to know faith by what comes from it, by what it does for us, and in us, and through us. Faith is not worth having if it is fruitless; it has a name to live and is dead. If it does not work at all, it does not live at all, and cannot justify its possession. A dead God may be served by a dead faith, but only living, waking, working faith can please the ever-living, ever-working Jehovah. May God save us from a dreaming faith and a talking faith, and give us “faith which works.”

   Not words alone it cost the Lord
      To purchase pardon for his own;
   Nor will a soul by grace restored
      Return the Saviour words alone.

3. A further distinction is also made, namely, that true faith “works by love.” There are some who do many works as the result of a kind of faith who, nevertheless, are not justified, as for example, Herod, who believed in John and did many things, and yet murdered his minister. His faith worked, but it worked by dread and not by love: he feared the stern language of the second Elijah, and the judgments which would come upon him if he rejected the Baptist’s warnings, and his faith worked through fear. The great test of the working of saving faith is this, it “works by love.” If you are led by your faith in Jesus Christ to love him, and so to serve him, then you have the faith of God’s elect, you are undoubtedly a saved man, and you may go your way and rejoice in the liberty by which Christ has made you free. It shall be joy to you to serve the Lord, since love is the mainspring of your service.

4. That is the point we are going to speak about this morning — the connection which exists between faith and love: “Faith which works by love.” We may be helped to test both our faith and love while we are speaking about the intermingling and intertwisting of the roots and branches of these two graces, and it will do us good to perform a thorough self-examination. It never does any man harm to overhaul himself and to see in what state he is, whether he really is right or not; whether he is prospering in soul or not. I am afraid of our taking our good estate for granted, but I am not afraid of the most searching self-enquiry. May God the Holy Spirit bless our ministry for this purpose this morning!

5. I. Our first observation will be this: FAITH ALWAYS PRODUCES LOVE — “Faith which works by love.”

6. When faith has anything to do she walks to the field with love at her side. The two graces are inseparable. Like Mary and Martha, they are sisters, and reside in one house. Faith, like Mary, sits at Jesus’ feet, and hears his words, and then love diligently goes around the house and rejoices to honour the divine Lord. Faith is light, while love is heat, and in every beam of grace from the Sun of righteousness you will find a measure of each. True faith in God cannot exist without love for him, nor sincere love without faith; they are united, like the Siamese twins, and where you find the one the other is sure to be present.

7. This happens by a necessity of faith’s own nature. The moment a man believes in Jesus Christ he loves him as a matter of course. It is possible to trust in another person and not love him, but from the particular circumstances of the case, our Lord having loved us and given himself for us out of the infinite love of his heart, we are compelled to love him the moment we repose upon him. To trust the bleeding Lamb and not love him is a thing not to be imagined. Faith is a gold ring which in every case the heavenly jeweller sets with the beryl of love. Water faith with a drop of God’s own dew and it blossoms into love. The first steps of the prodigal when he comes to himself are all towards his father’s house and heart. When he gets home he may make many steps here and there around his father’s estate, but at first, at any rate, his face is distinctly towards his Father. Did he not say, “I will arise, and go to my Father?” The first steps of the soul when it begins to believe in God are desires after him in which there is a measure of love. The affections are aroused and drawn towards God as soon as there is the slightest degree of faith in the soul. Every believer here knows that. Look back to the day when you first saw the Lord, if you can remember it, — the hour you looked to him and were enlightened; did you not love him immediately? Love him? Indeed! We sometimes fear we loved him better then we do than now, though I hope that it is not the case. If anyone had asked me, in the first flush of my joy when I first beheld my bleeding Lord, do you love him? I should not have hesitated, but replied, “I love him as my very soul, for he has redeemed me from going down into the pit.” Faith creates love as summer fosters flowers. Our first love came with our first faith by a necessity of nature which can never change.

8. Love grows out of faith even further by the discoveries of beauty in Christ which faith is sure to make. Faith is the soul’s eye, and its telescope, by which it sees what is so far off as to be otherwise invisible. Holy faith gazes upon the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, experiences his person, and discerns his matchless work, and so creates knowledge, out of which comes love. Faith stands like the cherubim upon the golden mercy seat, looking downward always upon the blood sprinkled propitiatory, admiring and wondering, seeing something new every hour, and so filling itself with ever-increasing delight with those things which the angels desire to look into. Out of this gracious discernment comes admiring love. Faith delights to unveil the superlative beauties of the Well-Beloved before the gaze of love, and then faith and love unite in crying out, “Yes, he is altogether lovely.” Those who believe can say, “We see Jesus,” and those whose hearts are won by him can add, “We loved him because he first loved us.” Oh that we knew our Lord better! Oh that we believed in him more! Then we would be knit to him as the heart of Jonathan was knit to David.

9. Faith creates love next by its appropriation of what it discerns, for while faith is the soul’s eye it is also the mind’s hand by which it grasps the blessing. Faith sees the love of Christ, and then says, “He loved me, and gave himself for me.” Faith sees the wounds of Jesus, and perceives his deity through those windows of ruby, and immediately appropriates him, and cries, “My Lord and my God.” Love is sure to arise out of a sense of possession. Does not a mother love her child very much because he is her own? When we have an interest in a person so as to call him, “my brother,” “my husband,” “my son,” then a sense of relationship increases our sense of affection. This made the Psalmist sing, “Oh God, you are my God, I will seek you early.” Why, even in dead things, such as gold and silver, and goods and lands, when they are a man’s own they are apt to be loved, for the affections cling to what is possessed — “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” Hence the danger which attends worldly things, lest our heart be entrapped by them, and so be held captive, instead of mounting upward towards God. This tendency is clearly seen in reference to higher possessions, and especially with regard to Christ. If Christ is yours, and faith can say, “Jesus is mine,” love alters the sentence and cries, “This is my beloved and this is my friend.” When the faith of Thomas saw Jesus as Lord and God his love gave a musical ring to his exclamation by rejoicing in personal possession, and calling him “my Lord and my God.” Love rejoices in Jesus as her own possession, triumphs in him, and very sweetly sings of love for him because he is her own husband and Lord. So you see faith creates love from a necessity of its nature, from the discoveries which it makes, and from its appropriation of the good things that are in Christ. Dear hearer, do you know anything about these matters?

10. Faith further arouses love by another step, namely, by its enjoying the mercy, and then leading the heart to a grateful acknowledgment of the source of the mercy. There are two links in the chain in this case: faith wins the mercy by prayer, the mercy is enjoyed, and then out of the enjoyment of the blessing springs love for him who gave it. Brethren, what innumerable favours faith has already brought to us. Some of you, I trust, do not look upon the covenant as a locked storeroom from which nothing is to be taken until you come to die; but the key of David has been put into your hands by faith, and you have enjoyment even now of the fat things full of marrow, and the wines on the lees well refined, which the Lord has prepared for those who love him. At this moment you know that you are justified, you now that you are adopted into the family of God, do you not therefore love the Lord? I know you do. You feel at this moment that you are enjoying the privileges of heirship with Christ, does this not bind you firmly to your older brother? Every day you are receiving providential mercies, I hope you keep your eyes open to see them: every day you are receiving preserving mercies, restoring mercies, instructive mercies, sealing mercies; do you not love God for all these priceless gifts? Spiritual blessings are coming to you from the God of all grace, and you are filled with joys, like your Saviour’s griefs, immense, unknown; surely this cements your soul to your Redeemer. Unless your heart is altogether out of order, you love God better and better, because he is revealing his love to you more and more. Is it not so? Faith told you that the Lord was good, and then she cried, “I will prove it to you,” and she handed out of the covenant storehouse mercies rich and rare, and laid them at your feet; and since you have possessed them, and lived upon them as your own, you have blessed the Giver, and loved him more than you ever did before. So faith receives promises and feeds love on the fruit of them.

11. It does this even more sweetly by the familiarity with God which it creates in the heart; for faith is in the habit of going to God with all her burdens, and coming away with her load removed. Faith has the daily practice of pleading promises with God, speaking to him face-to-face as a man speaks with his friend, and receiving favours from the right hand of the Most High, which make even her expectant soul to wonder. Faith begins with God in the morning, as Abraham did, and walks with him in the field at evening, as Isaac did. Faith houses herself with God as the swallow built her nest under the eaves of the temple. Faith’s life is in God, even as the life of a fish is in the sea. The bosom of Jesus Christ is the pillow of faith; and the heart of God is the pavilion of faith. Because faith keeps us near to God like this it causes us to love him. Oh, poor blind soul, if you could see Jesus you would love him; you who are most opposed to him would become his friends if you knew him. It is not possible for a believer to be in Christ’s company an hour without feeling his heart warmed. The pilgrims to Emmaus said, “Did our hearts not burn within us while he spoke with us by the way?” Those who have known and believed his love towards them must feel his spell upon their affections, holding them captive. There is no one like him among the sons of men: his beauties ravish the heart. If Jesus only lifts the veil and lets us have a glimpse of one of his eyes for a moment our hearts are melted within us.

   Where can such sweetness be
   As I have tasted in thy love,
   As I have found in thee?

Because faith thus makes us familiar with our divine Lord it must inevitably produce love in the soul.

12. Once more, and here again are two links instead of one — this familiarity with Christ soon creates congeniality of disposition and spirit, for those who are much with Christ become much like Christ. He who lies on a bed of spices will naturally find his garments smell of the same. A mirror upon which the sun is shining is bright itself, and flashes its reflected rays afar. He who walks with wise men will be wise, but he who dwells with the infinite wisdom shall be taught by God. Doubtless happy couples who live together in mutual affection and confidence become very much like each other — the one becomes the other’s self; they have the same goals and objects, they are often surprised to find that they have thought the same thought, and are about to say the same words at the same moment. So do the saint and the Saviour grow like each other after years of acquaintance, only the growth is all on one side — we grow up to him in all things who is the head. Oh that our likeness to Christ were as clear and complete as our likeness to our dear companions below. You see how love is so nurtured in the soul by a growing likeness of disposition. Wherever there is congeniality of taste, and mind, and view, and disposition, and spirit, love becomes strong and well established; and so faith, by creating in us likeness to Christ, causes love for Christ to become a mighty power in the soul.

13. Surely all these points sufficiently show that faith creates love in the soul wherever it really dwells. Do not, I urge you, begin to say, “I am afraid I do not love the Lord as I ought,” and so on. Take it for granted that you do not love him to the full of his infinite deservings, and instead of raising questions about the degree of your love, ask yourself whether you believe in him? Are you trusting in the Lord Jesus? Are you confiding in him? Because if the root is there the flower will appear before long. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ you are born by God, and all who are born by the God of love must themselves love God. Do not talk about trying to love God. You cannot force yourself to love anyone: who in his right senses would ever dream of such a thing? Such attempts would be utter folly. Love must be free-born, it cannot be bought or forced. We cannot tell what love is though we feel it. It is a mysterious something, not to be described by the cold maker of definitions; but it is always a product of something else which goes before it. If you believe you will love, if you do not believe you will never love until you do believe. Go to the root of the matter. Do not try to grow the hyacinth of love without the bulb of faith. Do you trust Jesus with all your heart, and are you confiding your soul’s eternal interests with him? Then I know that you love him, though you may for a while be occupied with other pursuits. Love slumbers in you like fire in a flint, or rather, it smoulders like fire in smouldering turf, but before long it will burn vehemently, like coals of juniper. Look well to your faith and your love will not fail. Remember the lines of a sweet poet, and pray that you may sing them out of your own soul: — 

   Hallelujah! I believe!
      Now, oh Love! I know thy power,
   Thine no false or fragile fetters,
      Not the rose-wreaths of an hour.
   Christian bonds of holy union
      Death itself does not destroy;
   Yes, to live and love for ever,
      Is our heritage of joy.

14. II. Let me now enlarge upon a second remark: LOVE IS ENTIRELY DEPENDENT UPON FAITH. “Faith which works by love.”

15. Love, then, does not work by itself, except in the strength of faith. Love is so entirely dependent upon faith that, as I have already said, it cannot exist without it. No man loves a Saviour in whom he places no confidence. There may be an admiration of the character of Christ, but the emotion which the Scripture treats as “love” only comes into the heart when we trust in Jesus. “We love him because he first loved us.” When we have a belief in his love, and a sense of it, then we begin to love Jesus, but love for Jesus cannot exist without faith in him.

16. Certainly love cannot flourish unless faith flourishes. If you doubt your Lord you will think harsh thoughts of him, and cease to love him as you should. If you fall into trouble, and you doubt his wisdom, or his goodness in sending it, the next thing will be that your heart will be cold towards him; you will begin to think your Lord to be tyrannical and harsh towards you, and you will quarrel with him. The two graces must diminish or increase together. If you attain to a simple, childlike confidence, which rests in Christ as a babe on its mother’s bosom reposes entirely in her care, then your love shall be made perfect. But because you want to trust yourself a little, and you begin judging your God, and do not repose entirely in him, therefore it is that you have to ask yourself whether you love him or not. May God the Holy Spirit work in us a mighty strength of faith so that we may have a vehement love, strong as death, immortal as divinity.

17. Love, again, just as it cannot flourish without faith, so it cannot work without it. Love is a great designer and planner, but does not find how to perform it unless faith shows the way. Love sits down and says, “I wish the world were converted to Christ!” but faith goes out and preaches the gospel. Love cries, “I wish that the children knew about Jesus, and that their hearts were renewed even while they are still little”; but faith opens the Sunday School and teaches the young, and trusts in God that he will bless the word to their salvation. Love must have faith to give it muscle, sinew, and strength, therefore take very good care of your faith. Longfellow says, “Therefore love and believe, and works will follow spontaneously, even as the day the sun.”

18. Love is as Solomon’s lily, dropping sweet-smelling myrrh. How fair to look upon! Stand and admire its charms. Know, oh gazer, that that lovely flower could not be so arrayed were it not joined by its stalk to a living root which is hidden underground. Faith is the necessary bulb out of which comes love as the perfection of beauty. You look over the fair city of Mansoul, and you see a gilded dome glittering in the sun — that dome is love, and it rests upon foundations of faith which are laid deep upon the rock, otherwise the dome would fall in ruins. Love for God, if it is worthy of the name, must be soundly based on confidence in Jesus; it cannot endure without it, but is carried away by wind and flood, like the house on the sand. Hence we are disposed to judge with prudence the outbursts of emotion which we see in certain excitable people. We hear them sing, “Oh, yes, I do love Jesus,” but we are not so sure of it when we watch their lives. We are pleased with such emotions if they arise out of the knowledge of Christ and genuine faith in him, but we have too often seen the semblance of ardent affection without knowledge and without humility, without penitence and without childlike faith, and therefore we rejoice with trembling. We fear lest the building which rises up in a night should vanish, like “the baseless fabric of a vision,” and disappear like the soap bubble of a child, which, though it is adorned with all the colours of the rainbow, dissolves in an instant. See, then, to your faith, since love is entirely dependent upon it. See that you are rooted, and grounded, and settled, lest the high tower of professed love should soon lie in ruins, and only indifference remain.

19. III. Thirdly, I advance to another observation which comes more closely home to the text, though our previous thoughts have been necessary to bring us up to it, — FAITH DISPLAYS ITS POWER BY LOVE. “Faith which works by love.”

20. For a moment you must permit me to compare faith to a craftsman in metals who is about to prepare some work of fine art such cunning smiths were accustomed to produce in the days of wrought iron, when skill and hand-labour were thought much of, and articles were produced which are almost worth their weight in silver. Faith, as a smith, strong and vigorous, has love to be its arm. Faith does not lift a finger without love, it is her arm every morning. Faith believes and resolves, and then it proceeds to action, but the power with which it can work lies in love. Faith without love would be a cripple without arms.

21. More than this: it is not only faith’s arm but its tools. “Faith works by love.” This is faith’s hammer, and file, and anvil, — its every implement. You have seen an adjustable wrench which can be made to fit every nut and bolt, however large or small: love is just such a tool, for love will teach a little child, or evangelize a nation. Love can stand and burn at the stake, or it can drop two mites that make a farthing into the offering box. Love hopes all things, endures all things: nothing comes amiss to it. A wonderfully handy tool is this sacred grace which faith has adopted to work with; it can strike and it can cut, it is good for uniting and good for breaking, it will avail for anything which faith wishes to perform. Only let faith wield love as its instrument, and it can fashion whatever divine wisdom tells it to form.

22. More than that, love is faith’s furnace. All the tools in the world will not suffice the smith unless he can blow the coals and create a fervent heat. What is there, brethren, that can kindle the heat of enthusiasm like earnest love for God? Faith believes God, and rejoices in God; then comes in love, and the heart grows as hot as Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. The melting fire burns very gloriously, and sparks of joy leap upward from it. What is there that cannot be performed if we have enough love? This is the great fire which burns in human hearts when God the Holy Spirit sheds abroad the love of Jesus there: by its heat all things are fused. This fire will even consume all sin and melt all hardness: no one can quench it, everything must yield before it. That consecrated craftsman called faith blows the coals of love, and plunged into its glowing flame tasks hard as iron become easily workable. So, “Faith works by love.”

23. Love is more than this, for, when all is melted and ready to flow, love is faith’s mould; it pours out all it does into the mould of God’s love, fashioning its works according to the divine pattern of love in Christ Jesus. Just as Jesus loved us, even so we would love each other; and just as he loved the Father, and for love for the Father, so that he might glorify him, fulfilled the law and made himself a sacrifice, even so we are willing to lay down our lives for the brethren and for the Father’s honour. Thus love becomes faith’s mould, into which it carefully seeks to pour out its whole being.

24. What is more, it is faith’s metal, for into the mould of love faith pours love itself. So love “answers all things.” Love is the substance of every good work. Melt it down in the refining pot, and holiness is love. If there is any virtue, zeal, consecration, or holy daring its substance is love. All the grand deeds which the heroes of the cross have performed are composed of the solid metal of love for Jesus Christ. Whether it is great or small, he who has served God properly has always brought into the sanctuary an offering of pure love comparable to the gold of Ophir.

25. Love, also, is faith’s burnisher and file, and with it she finishes all her work very carefully. Have you never lovingly gone over all your work to give it the finishing touches? Have you not wished to perfect all that you have attempted? I know very well what it means. My rough castings, how very coarse they are, and when I fix them I look at them and say, “That will not do, for I see self there; that will not do, unbelief is there; this will not do, too much of self-will is there”; and then I have with tearful love filed down and polished my poor efforts, and found love to be an excellent burnisher, ready at hand. When Augustine went over all his works to write his Retractations, it was love removing roughnesses from her work; if we loved more we might have more of retractation work to do.

26. So faith works by love: love is faith’s arm, faith’s tools, faith’s furnace, faith’s metal, faith’s mould, and faith’s burnisher. My hearer, if you are working for God in any other way than this you will make a mess of it. The law can never help you to do such work as God will accept; it is fitted to produce bars for a prison but not pillars for a temple. You must work for God because you love him; no other labour except the labour of love can be acceptable with him. Some people serve God because they are in religious society, and they must not be thought stingy; hence that blessed guinea, squeezed out by all the ten pound subscriptions on the list at the top of it: — respectable people must put down something, you know. That occasional going out to week-night services is often done because it is expected of you, and not because it is a delight. Even Sunday assemblies grow to be a weariness, and worship is regarded as a task. This is not gold, but gilded dross: take it away! This is forced service, devoid of the life-blood of obedience; fruit without flavour or scent. What is done because a man loves God, because he loves to yield his heart to his God, however humble the service may be, is accepted by God. True affection for him who redeemed you from going down to the pit never fails to present an acceptable tribute before the living God. May you abound in this for your own comfort and for the glory of Christ.

27. IV. I close with the fourth remark, which is this, LOVE REACTS UPON FAITH AND PERFECTS IT.

28. For while love owes everything to faith, faith eventually becomes a debtor to love. Love leads the soul into admiration, and so increases faith. Having loved Christ, having become enamoured by him, love, that has dove’s eyes which can see everything that is fair, daily sees more and more of Christ’s perfections, and so she aids the eye of faith. Love sees among the rest of the Lord’s perfections his power, his faithfulness, his immutability; and faith at once concludes, “then I can trust him more than ever.” Knowing more of his power, more of his faithfulness, more of his unchangeableness, I can depend upon him without wavering. So if faith’s eyes first look to Jesus, love’s eyes see even more, and discover further excellencies. Faith is that other disciple who outran Peter, but love is the disciple who enters in and seeks out details.

29. Love, moreover, forbids unbelief, and so helps faith, for love says, “How can we grieve him by doubts?” Does not true love in every heart, when exercised towards a man or a woman, forbid doubt? Fear in the form of doubt has torment, and therefore love casts it out. The lack of mutual confidence in married life is the death of love, but love is instinctively tender of showing anything like suspicion towards a dear and faithful lover. Even when it supposes that there is an error, love puts it down as by no means a wilful fault, but concludes that there may be a sense in which it is right, for love believes all things, endures all things, and will not tolerate doubt, which it knows to be a worm at the very core of the heart. So you see where there is great love for Christ it forbids doubt, and so kills the foxes of doubt which spoil the tender vines of faith.

30. Love for Jesus feels that it would be better to doubt all men and angels than to doubt the dear Redeemer who poured out his blood to prove his love. Doubt the heavens, for they shall pass away; doubt the earth, for it shall be utterly burned up; doubt man, for he is as a broken reed; but never doubt the faithful God; lean on him with your whole weight, repose in him with your undivided confidence. So love teaches, and faith learns her lesson.

31. Moreover, perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment, and when perfect love has cast out fear, then faith has room to display its strength. Love has not learned to be afraid, nor will she permit the work of faith to become the labour of a shrinking, crouching slave. Dread! Where can that find a lodging in the heart that loves? You hear very proper people sometimes cry out against certain of us because they say we speak as if we were on the best of terms with God, and were familiar with the Lord Jesus. Sarcastically they speak what is soberly true; in their blindness they have hit the truth: it is even so. To them God is a stranger, and I do not doubt that the language which we use may well seem to them strange and almost profane, and it would be profane if they were to use it, being what they are. I do not accuse them of open sin, but I do say and will say, that he who is not a child of God cannot properly use expressions which are most becoming from the lips of those who are the sons of God. A child may say to his father what no one else may dare to say, and yet he has more reverence for him than anyone else. Your child shall properly behave towards you in a manner which you could not tolerate in a stranger. Look at the judge on the bench, with that big wig, and those solemn robes; the prisoner at the bar, and the court and the jury must all be very respectful and distant, but I warrant you when his lordship reaches home his grandchild has no dread of grandpapa or his robes. Love gives boldness, and is still most reverent: reverently familiar. Chilliness and coldness are not for the children of God; they are called to close communion with their heavenly Father, and the meeting place is not at Sinai, but at Calvary. Faith and love are home-living children, and not outdoor pensioners; they live in the house of the Lord for ever. Oh beloved, this is the joy of love, that it brings us into such close personal communion with God in Jesus Christ that trembling, slavish fear is gone, and loving God we are familiar with him, and trust him implicitly. Oh, dear friends, trust your God with everything, trust him in little things, trust him in great things; trust him in your joys to keep you sober, trust him in your sorrows to keep you from despair. Oh, that you may possess much of this love, for it is an eminent grace. “Faith is childlike,” says Dr. Eadie; “hope is saintlike, but love is Godlike.” May we reach this Godlike virtue through faith in God himself.

32. My final word is this: let us, dear friends, as a church and people be working people. Faith works; let us work because we have faith. I wish that every member of this church were at work for Jesus. I have very little to complain about, because I believe that the major part of the dear brothers and sisters associated here are hard at it; but if there are any of you who are not serving the Lord, I urge you to bestir yourselves. You must work, or your faith will be questioned, and your love will be suspected. We are a hive of bees, but what will happen if instead of making honey the workers all turn to drones? Why, they will next turn to wasps. If such a change cannot take place in nature it certainly does occur in morals and spirituals, for we have seen companies of good hardworking Christians suddenly break up into factions and quarrel furiously. When bees turn to wasps there is nothing but fighting. May our good Lord save us from such a calamity. I do not mind being like the queen bee in the hive, king of the bees, but I cannot be a leader of wasps. Dear friends, do get to work for the Master: you, I mean, who stand all the day idle. Go work today in the Saviour’s vineyard. Oh, my beloved brethren, I beseech you do not relax your energies. Continue to be a lively, energetic church. Now that so many Sunday Schools need teachers, I charge our friends not to let that blessed part of the service flag. Here are dozens of Sunday Schools crying out for teachers. The children come and there is no one to instruct them. Should it be so?

33. If you are to be a working church you must be a loving church, because faith works by love. You must love each other much, and love Christ more, and love the souls of perishing sinners; yes, love them so that you will not let them perish if you can do anything towards their salvation. Personal doing of good towards men is needed if love is to be real. The love of Jesus made him seek and save the lost, and if ours is worth the name we shall be engaged in the same holy endeavour.

34. But if you are to be a working church and a loving church you must be a believing church, for that is the basis of it all. Faith works by love. Get home, then, to prayer, and renew your faith in Jesus. May the Holy Spirit lead you anew to the dying love of Jesus. I often go immediately back to the cross from which I started when I set out for heaven. The devil says to me, “You are no Christian.” I do not think he knows much about it, but I have before now tried to show him some evidences that I am a Christian, and he has only puffed at them. I find the short way is to go immediately to the cross and say, “I rest on Jesus only.” Satan cannot deny that you are a Christian when you stand there. Go and do your first works, and believe in Jesus just as you did at the first, and remain in him for evermore. As sinners, still cling to Jesus, and let him be everything to you. Constant faith will create fervent love, and fervent love will do persevering work; so we shall be a people zealous for good works. May the Lord bless every one of you, for Christ’s sake. Amen.

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Ga 5]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 92” 92]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Acts, Covenant — The Covenant God Extolled” 229]
[See Spurgeon_Hymnal “God the Father, Attributes of God — Condescension” 195]
[See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3564, “Publications” 3566 @@ "John Ploughman’s Pictures"]

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 92 (Part 1)
1 Sweet is the work, my God, my King,
   To praise thy name, give thanks, and sing,
   To show thy love by morning light,
   And talk of all thy truth at night.
2 Sweet is the day of sacred rest,
   No mortal cares shall seize my breast;
   Oh may my heart in tune be found,
   Like David’s harp of solemn sound!
3 My heart shall triumph in the Lord,
   And bless his works, and bless his word
   Thy works of grace, how bright they shine!
   How deep thy counsels, how divine!
4 Fools never raise their thoughts so high;
   Like brutes they live, like brutes they die;
   Like grass they flourish, till thy breath
   Blast them in everlasting death.
5 But I shall share a glorious part
   When grace hath well refined by heart;
   And fresh supplies of joy are shed,
   Like holy oil, to cheer my head.
6 Sin, my worst enemy before,
   Shall vex my eyes and ears no more;
   My inward foes shall all be slain,
   Nor Satan break my peace again.
7 Then shall I see, and hear, and know
   All I desired or wish’d below;
   And every power find sweet employ
   In that eternal world of joy.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 92 (Part 2)
1 Lord, ‘tis a pleasant thing to stand
   In gardens planted by thine hand:
   Let me within thy courts be seen,
   Like a young cedar, fresh and green.
2 There grow thy saints in faith and love,
   Bless’d with thine influence from above;
   Not Lebanon with all its trees
   Yields such a comely sight as these.
3 The plants of grace shall ever live;
   Nature decays, but grace must thrive;
   Time, that doth all things else impair,
   Still makes them flourish strong and fair.
4 Laden with fruits of age, they show
   The Lord is holy, just, and true;
   None that attend his gates shall find
   A God unfaithful or unkind.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.

God the Father, Acts, Covenant
229 — The Covenant God Extolled <6.8.4.>
1 The God of Abraham praise
      Who reigns enthroned above,
   Ancient of everlasting days,
      And God of love!
      Jehovah, great I AM!
      By earth and heaven confest;
   I bow, and bless the sacred name,
      For ever blest!
2 The God of Abraham praise,
      At whose supreme command,
   From earth I rise, and seek the joys
      At his right hand:
      I all on earth forsake,
      Its wisdom, fame, and power;
   And him my only portion make,
      My shield and tower.
3 The God of Abraham praise,
      Whose all sufficient grace
   Shall guide me all my happy days
      In all his ways:
      He calls a worm his friend,
      He calls himself my God!
   And he shall save me to the end,
      Through Jesus’ blood.
4 He by himself hath sworn,
      I on his oath depend;
   I shall, on eagles’ wings upborne,
      To heaven ascend:
      I shall behold his face,
      I shall his power adore,
   And sing the wonders of his grace
      For evermore.
            THE SECOND PART.
5 Though nature’s strength decay,
      And earth and hell withstand,
   To Canaan’s bounds I urge my way
      At his command:
      The watery deep I pass
      With Jesus in my view,
   And through the howling wilderness
      My way pursue.
6 The goodly land I see,
      With peace and plenty blest;
   A land of sacred liberty,
      And endless rest:
      There milk and honey flow
      And oil and wine abound,
   And trees of life for ever grow,
      With mercy crown’d.
7 There dwells the Lord our King,
      The Lord our righteousness!
   Triumphant o’er the world and sin,
      The Prince of Peace.
      On Sion’s sacred height,
      His kingdom still maintains;
   And glorious with his saints in light,
      For ever reigns.
8 The whole triumphant host
      Give thanks to God on high,
   “Hail Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!”
      They ever cry:
      Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine!
      I join the heavenly lays;
   All might and majesty are Thine,
         And endless praise.
                     Thomas Olivers, 1772.

God the Father, Attributes of God
195 — Condescension
1 My God, how wonderful thou art,
   Thy majesty how bright,
   How beautiful thy mercy seat,
   In depths of burning light!
2 Oh, how I fear thee, living God,
   With deepest, tenderest fears,
   And worship thee with trembling hope,
   And penitential tears.
3 Yet I may love thee too, oh Lord,
   Almighty as thou art,
   For thou hast stoop’d to ask of me
   The love of my poor heart.
4 No earthly father loves like thee,
   Or mother, half so mild,
   Bears and forbears, as thou hast done
   With my thy sinful child.
5 Father of Jesus, love’s reward,
   What raptures will it be,
   Prostrate before thy throne to lie,
   And ever gaze on thee!
            Frederick William Faber, 1852.