Preacher of God's Word
Puritan Book Reviews
A series of sermons by Christopher
Love.
Preacher of God’s Word
by
Christopher Love
Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan, PA: 2000
178 Pages, Hardback.
Everything I have
ever read of
Christopher Love
is phenomenal.
This book is no exception. It
is a series of sermons on different topics ranging from “Christ’s
prayer the Saint’s Support,” to “Directions Concerning Immoderate
Joy for Worldly Comforts” to the series of sermons on “Wrath and
Mercy.” In his sermons on
“Wrath and Mercy” Love gives 4 sermons on this topic, each in his
usual style of exposition, doctrine and application.
They are hearty and full of life, and death for some.
I
was very moved by his sermon on “Directions Concerning the Nature of
Sorrow.” Here he
expounded 1 Cor. 7:30, “Brethren, the time is short; it remaineth
therefore that they that weep, be as if they weep not.”
He speaks to the heart about suffering and afflictions and the
disposition of the Christian under these difficult trials.
The
sermons cover the following texts: John 17:15; 1 Thess. 5:21; 1 Cor.
7:30; Acts 16:30-31; Luke 11:28; and 4 sermons on 1 Thess. 5:9.
The volume is a spiritual garden of delights for anyone
interested in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ in am ore intimate way.
Some
Quotes:
“You
must hate no man as he is your enemy or does injury to you, but as he is
God’s enemy you ought to hate him, and to rejoice at his
destruction.” (Loves Emphasis)
“Excessive
sorrow for worldly crosses provokes God, many times, to send heavier and
greater afflictions than ever yet you suffered.”
“Above
all things in the world, the most needful thing for the sons of men to
make inquiry after is what they must do to be saved.”
“Though
a man may know and ought t know that he is elected and appointed by God
to obtain salvation, yet he ought not to know, nay, he cannot know that
he is appointed unto wrath. A
man may make his election sure, but he cannot make his reprobation and
damnation sure.”
“If
God has, all your life, withdrawn the efficacy of His Spirit from His
ordinances which you have enjoyed, when you shall perceive the same man
that sits in the pew with you in God’s house to grow better and better
by every ordinance, and you grow worse and worse; he is made more holy
and you more profane; his heart more tender, and sensible of the least
sin and yours more hard and inflexible; his conscience more awakened and
apprehensive of the danger of sin and yours more stupefied and benumbed;
he finds the Word of God as marrow and fatness to him, the joy and
rejoicing of his heart, but you find no sweetness or relish in it at
all, this is a sign of reprobation.” |
