NO. 3378
PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30TH, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
ON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, NOV. 4TH, 1866.
“Keep yourselves in the love of God. “ — Jude 21
This exhortation is not addressed to all who are here present. It is only addressed to those who “are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.” It is, in fact, addressed only to the true Christian, who has passed from death unto life, who is a new creature in Christ Jesus, and in whom dwells the Holy Spirit. To such persons the Apostle Jude says in the text, “Keep yourselves in the love of God.;’ To other persons, we have this to say, You cannot keep yourselves in the love of Go, for you never knew what it was to be in it. You have lived — with shame and sorrow be it spoken! — you have lived all this while in a world that is full of God, and yet you have never perceived him! You have been a pensioner upon his bounty, clothed by his charity, protected by his providence, and yet you have been altogether forgetful of the God whom you ought to have loved with all your heart, and soul, and strength. Ah! little do you know what you have lost by living without the love of God’! The love of God is that which fills our mortal existence with the brightness of heaven, and makes us feast on immortal joys, even in this vale of tears. If some men were born and bred in mines, where they saw not the light of day, I can suppose that they would think themselves possibly better off than those who had lived above, and who had walked abroad in the light. I can suppose them to be even conceited, because they found themselves better able to find their way about in the gloomy caverns below than those would be whose eyes had been used to the light. More at home there in the gloomy bowels of the earth, than the sons .of light who had lived above. I can imagine their getting much conceit to themselves, because of their enjoying the darkness which is beneath. But still, what a miserable life would it be always to live in that gloom, and what a change to be taken suddenly, and for the first time, from the dark pit out into the light, to look upon the green fields, the god of day, the flashing waves of the sea, .and the glories of the starry night! So I can conceive many of my hearers having lived so long in the clark world where there is no light, that they have acquired the art of living in this gloom until they are “wiser in their generation than the children of light.” They can do a thousand things better than God’s people can do them, and they, therefore, perhaps despise the Christian. But oh! my friends, if you could but be brought out into the world of love, the world of light, where God, the blessed ,Sun of Love, who floods the earth with peace and blessedness, could shine upon those darkened eyeballs of yours — if you could but “know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge “ — you would think that you had never lived before, and would pity yourselves to think you could have spent so many years without knowing what true life means. May that come to pass with some to-night! Pray, Christian, pray for those who know not God, that he may be found of them. Ask for them that mighty grace may come and meet with them, and that they may also begin to understand what “the love of God” means.
But the text is spoken to Christians, and we must keep it to them, and come at once to apply it to the believer.
The word “keep,” which is used here, has in it, in the Greek, the idea of keeping under a guard, or of keeping a prisoner in custody. There is the thought of watchfully regarding one who is likely to escape, and so we are told to keep ourselves in the love of Go, as the warder keeps his prisoner in his cell. I do not like to use such a metaphor in connection with so sweet a text, and yet I must, and so we will have three thoughts. First, we will speak a little about this prison — oh! that we may Be always shut up in it! — “the love of God.” Secondly, about the earnest warder who is told to keep the prisoner; and then, thirdly, about the free prisoners, “keep yourselves in the love of God.” Keep yourselves in heavenly custody, being never so free and never so happy, as when shut up in this divine enclosure.
I really do not like to use the text with such a signification, but I cannot very well bring out the meaning of it in any better way. Let us speak, then, first of:-
—————
I. The Heavenly Prison Of “The Love Of God.”
There is no restraint about this prison. He who gets into it finds, for the first time, true liberty. Then his mind is free from all its bondage: then his faculties find themselves in a sea where they may swim. Then are his purest longings gratified: then are his passions allowed to take wing, and mount as they will. Then the soul has space to float onwards, and when it cometh fully unto the love of Go, the new-born soul is in its element.
But what is the meaning of this “love of God,” in which we are to keep ourselves? It means, first, believer, that you are to keep your mind in the remembrance of the love of God to you. We, alas! forget too often what a friend we have above. Keep up, Christian, the recollection of what the Father did for you when he chose you before all worlds. Be continually mindful of what the Son did for you when he poured out his precious blood upon the cross, and gave his life a ransom for many. Be ye never unmindful of what the Holy Ghost did for you when he called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. About the neck of memory let the glittering pearls of God’s mercy ever hang. Take care, whatever else thou mayest forget, that thou forget not the love of God to thee. As the Krishna said: —
“Let every idol be forgot;
But oh! my soul, forget him not.”
Let thine ear be bored to this doorpost of God’s love to thee! Set this as a seal upon thine arm, and as a signet upon thy finger. Brand it into thine inmost heart, and let thy soul’s core ever wear in it the thought of God’s love to thee. Queen Mary said that when she died they would find the word “Calais” written upon her heart, for the loss of that town had grieved her so; but while the Christian lives — for he shall not die — there shall ever be engraven upon his heart the name of Christ, for the love of Christ shall abide there. Yes, we will remember thee; “we will remember thy love, for thy love is better than wine!”
The apostle means, too — Keep yourselves in the assurance of the divine love. Brethren and sisters, you have known that Christ loves you. You have had it proved to you as clearly as a mathematical demonstration, that God loves you. You have even been able to speak in the singular, and say, “tie loved me, and gave himself for me.” There have been blessed moments when no ripple of doubt disturbed the glossy surface of your calm and peaceful soul. Oh! keep that assurance! Pray that no evil doubt may come in to make you think that God does not love you. Ask that you may be always able to say, “This is my Beloved: my Beloved is mine, and I am his.” Do not sometimes climb the mount and then slip down again into the treacherous mists of the valley, but ask that you may evermore bathe your forehead in the sunlight of the divine assurance of the love of God to you. And so keep yourselves in the love of God.
It means next, keep yourselves in the enjoyment of the love of God. No one knows what the enjoyment of the divine love is but the man who has experienced it. Oh! the calm which a sense of that divine love will bring to the heart! Our Lord said to the noisy billows of the lake, “Be still,” and they quickly hushed their raging, and there was a great calm; but the love of Christ is more than even peaceful: it is joyful, it is inspiring! The man who has it has a cup filled to the brim and running over. And he who drinks of that holy chalice can say, “There is none like it.” Like the water of the well of Bethlehem by the gate, if any of God’s people should not be able to get .at it, they will sigh for it, .and say, “Oh! that one would give me to drink of that water again!” Some of us know what mirth means; we .are of a genial nature, and can enter into the common joys of men. We can sit around the social hearth, and feel the joys of childhood’s prattle, and the glee of the little ones. We thank Go we are not stoics: we can share the joys that are common to mankind, but oh! we do protest and bear our witness that all the joys of earth heaped together are as nothing compared with the bliss of having the love of God shed abroad in the heart. The others are but common joys, but the love o.f God is heaven’s own joy. They are but husks, which are well enough in their way, but the kernel of felicity lies in a full understanding of the love of God in the soul. Oh ! that we could always live upon it; that this manna dropped from heaven every morning, that we gathered our omer of it as soon as the sun dawned, and fed on it till the sun went down! Happy Christians, seek to keep yourselves thus in the love of God.
But, brethren, this is not all. The apostle also means, “Keep yourselves in the power of the love of God.” Oh! the power of the love of God has in governing and influencing a man! Nothing can master .a strong temper, a forceful will, an obstinate disposition, or a wayward heart, like the love of God. Even God’s law is but a frail reed compared with God’s love, which is the rod of omnipotence. If the love of God be shed abroad in the heart the idols will soon depart, and the love of sin will take its flight, and the wickedness which you and I could not conquer without it will be driven out with this two-edged sword of the power of the love of God manifested in the soul. I do love to feel myself bowed down under this power until I would sacrifice my own interest, relinquish all self-seeking, abandon all care of being obedient too my own will, and be passive in the hand of the omnipotent Ruler to mould me, rule me, and govern me just as he wills. We are not like the horse and the mule that have a bit in their mouths, and that require the rod, but when love impels us, our willing feet in swift obedience move, and we feel it to be a blessed thing so to obey his commandments, or even his gentle leadings by his gracious Spirit.
Brethren, I pray you take this exhortation in its practical, as well as its experimental, form. Keep yourselves in the love of God, in the manifestation of it. Love the souls of your fellow-men. Pity the poor and needy. Have compassion upon the ignorant and the wicked. Let no strangeness nor excess of sin prevent your loving the sinner, and let no extravagance or unkindness either prevent your forgiving one another, even unto seventy times seven.
Keep yourselves in the love of Christ under provocations as multiplied as those which fell upon your Master’s shoulders, and so prove that your charity suffereth long and is kind, hopeth all things, endureth all things, because it is not mere human charity, beautiful as that is, but is the, love of God reigning and commanding your heart. “Keep yourselves in the love of God” in your relations one to another. May no root of bitterness spring up in this church, nor in any other. Love one another as one happy family. Love one another, for you will have to dwell together for ever in heaven. Bear with each other, as you hope to be borne with by your loving Savior. Be ye knit together in brotherly love. Be as one man; be forceful like a phalanx of soldiers marching on to victory. Let the love of God reign in your hearts; let it gleam from your eyes; let it flash radiantly from your countenance; let it bedew your lips; and let its savor sweeten your words. Let it give a holy blessedness to your deeds and your thoughts.
Keep yourselves, in .all these senses, in the love of God. It is a wondrous prison for a man to be inca blessed paradise for him to walk in. Paradise had a gate, and once Adam never wanted to get out o.f it; just in that sense keep yourselves in this blessed paradise of the love of God, and wander not from it. And now, secondly and briefly, let us say two or three words about: —
—————
II. The Earnest Warder Who Is To Seer Himself In The Love Of God.
This warder is not the minister. The minister has to preach and assist me, but the minister is not to take care of my soul as though I had nothing to do with it. I do not believe in any such. nonsense as that you can be responsible for other people’s souls, so that others may assist you with their vigilance.:Never, I beseech you, Englishmen and Englishwomen, never be such fools as to put yourselves at the foot of a priest! Believe that you have as much prevalence with God .as these pretenders have, and that if you go to God, and take your burden of sin, you will get it taken off; but if you go roundabout to seek relief and pardon through them, you will never get it, for you insult God in the way by which you go to work. Oh! may God grant that we may never live to see our countrymen so befooled as to put their necks under the Romish yoke once again! May England never be beneath the Pope’s feet, but may we ever have too much manliness ever to fall to the snare of this cunning fowler. May we ever be kept from it, and so may ever keep ourselves in the love of God.
And now, Mr. Warder, we are to say a word or two to you. See, then, your prisoner. He is one, alas! who is very apt at escaping from the gracious prison. So infatuated does he become with worldly joys, that he will oftentimes let his God, his Savior, go. And besides this, there are many who are prison-breakers, and who will break his prison bars for him. ,Shall I tell you their names? There is one fellow called sin. Sin will soon prevent your enjoying the love of Go. Let the Christian linger to walk disorderly, and he will soon begin to talk lightly of his wickedness, and this, again, will soon stop his communion with God. Though the Christian shall not perish, yet many of his joys shall; though God will keep him so that he shall not be utterly destroyed, yet the gladsome sense of the love of God will soon depart when sin comes in to lead astray.
And so it shall be when another breaks the prison, namely, those under the command of idolatry. Let your hearts begin to idolize an earth-born creature, and very soon you will not be able to keep yourselves in the love of God. Father, that dear child of yours may become as much an idol to you as even the golden calf was to the Israelites. Husband, wife, friends, acquaintances, brethren, sisters, our goods, our persons, our fame, our reputation — any one of these may become our idol, and when this is the case there is no keeping the heart in the love of God, for the prison doors are opened, and the prisoner, unhappily, comes out.
Warder, if thou wouldest keep thy prisoner, remember he cannot well come out, except through the doors, and do thou, therefore, watch well the door by which he has communications with the outward world. If thou wouldest keep thyself in the love of God, Christian, watch thyself well when thou art in business; watch thyself when thou art in the family; watch the door in private; watch the communications which thou hast with the ungodly, and as it is here that thou wouldest be apt to fritter away thy joys and lose the richness of thy communion, be thou here the more watchful.
And, warder, watch in the night, when it is dark in thy soul, for many a prisoner has made his escape at nightfall. Watch well when trouble comes, lest doubts and fears should come in. And if thou wouldest lock thy prisoner securely in, and keep him from escaping from the all-surrounding love of God, watch thyself carefully at all times, lest by any means thou slip from this good way. And, warder, I would recommend thee to take care that every bolt in the prison door be securely fastened. God has given thee certain gospel ordinances, and if thou wouldest keep thyself in the love of GOd, read his Word, for it well stir thee up to bind thyself to him. Be much in private prayer, for this has a force like a bolt to keep out the world and keep thee in.
Come to the communion table, for at the time when Christ is known in the breaking of bread, another bolt is put between thee and the world. In fine, whatsover he saith unto thee, do it, for in keeping of his commandments there is great reward.
And, warder, since thou hast a prisoner to keep who needs much watching, load him well with chains. Do you think this is a hard suggestion? The chains are such that the more of them the prisoner wears, the more free, and light, and happy he will be. Shall I tell you how to forge them? Forge them on the anvil of meditation. Think of what God did, or ever the earth was. Think of eternal love before the clay star had begun to shine. Think of what Jesus did for thee in the covenant, and in the suretyship engagements of eternity. Bind about thy soul the chain of the Savior’s pangs and griefs. If thou wouldest keep thy heart a blessed prisoner in the love of God, nail it with nails which pierced the hands of Christ, .and bind it to the pillar where the Lord was scourged. Make every drop of blood which Jesus sweat in the garden and shed upon the cross, to be a course of mighty network bound about thy heart, to hold it a fast prisoner for ever.
Oh brethren and sisters, we have indeed enough to bind us to Christ, if we were not the most wilfully forgetful men and women in the world! Oh! what has Jesus done for me? Rather, what has he not done for me? He.is all in all, and being to me more than all, let me bind the sacrifice with cords, even with cords to the horns of the altar. Let the hands of a man and the cords of love be cast about this prisoner, so that he may never get out of the divine enclosure of the love of God.
I cannot set before you as I would, nor with all the earnestness I want to command, the necessity of thus binding your heart to the love of Christ, but I will add this. Warder, take care to call in help, ,and remember there is One who can help thee very efficiently. It is the Holy Spirit. Thou keep thyself in the love of God? Indeed, thou canst not do ,it, except thou callest in divine power. If ever thou gettest the love of God in thy heart, go down on thy knees and ask the Holy Spirit to keep it always there. Thou shalt never catch this bird, and shalt never be able to keep it, unless the Holy Spirit help thee. Oh! to. be crucified with Christ! We may well desire it — to be fastened to his cross, so that we shall never again desire to wander, but feel ourselves the happy bond-slaves, the free servants, of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, time flies, and we have, thirdly, to say a word or two about: —
—————
III. The Free, The Happy, And The Blessed Prisoner who is thus exhorted to keep himself in the love of God.
My dear brethren and sisters, if by the help of GOd we shall be able to do this, haze happy we shall be. I would, make:no stipulation of any kind if God would grant me one request, namely, that he would keep me in his love. If I might but have this request granted, I am sure it would be equal to me whether he may have appointed me life or death, or whether he may have appointed me weal or woe.
It would make no difference, where one lived, if one lived in the love of God. It would make no difference either, whether one were in wealth or poverty, if the love of Christ had consumed all care about self. When once the love of God, like a devouring flame, has consumed and destroyed all care about self, then we are perfectly happy. It is impossible to be miser;able then, so that all the heart wants is to be kept in the love of Go, for then it would ever be in a state of true blessedness. Dear brethren and sisters, how important it .is that we should be happy! Moses, without the brightness of his face would be little more than other men. And a Christian without holy joy — what is he? I am certain that nothing has done more mischief to Christianity than the loss of joy of some professors. Why, there are some of you that only dishonor your religion by your constant moans and groans! If we are not happy, who ought to be? Children of God, heirs of heaven, accepted in the Beloved, .all our sins forgiven, and we ourselves on the way to heaven — if we do not sing, who can sing? If there be no holy mirth in our hearts, no joyous songs set to glorious tunes in our souls as we go along our pilgrimage to heaven, then it must be a miserable world indeed. But a. happy Christian entices others to Christ. His very face and bearing are a gospel ministry of invitation to others, and those otters say, “We will go with you, for we perceive that the Lord is witch you.”
And there is another thing. If you are kept in the love of God, besides being happy, you will be so useful. If we do not enjoy the love of God ourselves, we cannot do much good to others. You will be blessed to your families; you will be blessed to the ungodly, and you will be blessed wherever you are, if you are kept in the love of God. I can conceive that a man with the love of God in his heart, if he saw a stranger here, would be pretty sure to have a word with him, and, perhaps, the stranger would be very glad. I am sure there are here every Sunday a great many people who would be quite willing to have a little talk about divine things, and to whom a little private conversation might be far more useful than any sermon that I could deliver. You who have the love of God in you will look after such; you cannot help it. You love, and God loves. God is blessing you, and you want to bless men, and you will pine and pant to bring others to the Savior. I want you, the members of this church, particularly to have the love of God in your hearts just now, so that those daily prayer meetings of ours may be seasons of great and miraculous power. When a cold heart comes into the prayer meeting, if it does not hinder, at any rate it brings them no help; but every warm and loving heart that comes increases the general fire. You each bring your bundle of wood, as it wore, and put it on the hearth, and so it makes one great blaze. Oh! when a thousand hearts that are full of love come together, then prayer is sure to speed.
If your heart is full of the love of God, it will keep on going up to heaven in prayer, even when you are at your business or your work, as well as when you are in the house of God. Brethren and sisters, we shall have great times yet. God is going to bless us, and we shall see greater things than the world has even beheld since the day of Pentecost. I do trust we are seeking for it, and’ expecting it, and if so, we shall get it. Let us seek to have the blessing in our own selves, and ask to be kept in the love of Go.
It would not do for the farmer to have his men ill in harvest time, but they must be strong, and hearty, and robust, when they have to reap. Oh! that you and I may be made strong to reap here! At such times they bring out the big bottle, and though some of us do not think that that is the best thing that could be done for the workman, yet I should like to-night to bring out among you the big bottles of the promises, of which you may drink without any fear of getting intoxicated. Oh! that you could drink of such a promise as this, “I will be with thee,” and then, full of strength, go out into the fields .and work for Christ without weariness! When heaven begins to open its golden gates, and throw up its windows, and cast out its blessings, then, at all events, let us open the doors .of .our hearts, throw them wide open in expectancy, and open the doors of our mouths wide, that God may fill them. Let us come up to this house, and go to our own houses too, with the love of God plenteously Shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, and let this be ever our prayer: — –
“Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With all thy quickening powers;
Come, shed abroad a Savior’s love,
And that shall kindle our’s.”
Now, to many here. I am afraid I have been talking something which is no more understood by thom than Latin or Greek would be! You could not understand it, but there is one thing I want you to understand before you go to-night, and that is this, “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son that whose-over believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” and whoever here believes in him — that is, trusts Christ to save him — shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Whatever his past life may have been, however black his character may be, if he will but come to the Heavenly Father, through Christ, trusting in Christ, who bore the punishment for sin, such a man shall be forgiven, shall be saved, shall be made a new creature, shall go on his way rejoicing, filled with thelor, of God, and with all the blood-washed shall pass through the pearly gates, and in heaven shall join with them in singing of the love of GOd, world without end. May you and I have a portion there, for Christ’s sake.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON.
JOHN 14.
Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.
You will be troubled; that cannot be helped. But let not your heart be troubled. You are like a ship, and all the water in the sea cannot hurt a ship, if it is kept outside of her. Let not your heart be troubled. How .are you to prevent it? Faith is the remedy. Ye believe already; believe more. “Ye believe in God; believe also in me.” “You have a trust in the infinite power of God; believe in me as the incarnation of his infinite love.”
2. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
There is no room for you on earth; there will be in heaven. If troubles should so multiply that it seems impossible to live in them, you shall be carried away where you shall live above them “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” You may depend upon the love of Christ beloved, for if there were anything dark, mysterious, distressing, which would lead you to despair, he would not have kept it back. He treats you frankly. “If it were not so I would have told you. I go, and you are sorry that I go. It is the source of your sorrow. But I go to prepare place for you.”
3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Oh! this is ground for sweet comfort, and it ought to yield it to us to-night. He has gone, but he will come again; he has not left us for ever. Space divides us for a-while; but, skipping over the mountains like a roe and a young hart, he will come again, even to this poor world, and to us, his waiting church, he will come again. Therefore, have patience. Let not your heart be troubled. Jesus Christ will come very soon.
4. And whether I go ye know, and the way ye know.
Ye know where Christ is gone. Ye know how to get at him. The throne on which he sits is the throne of grace. [He is gone to the Father, and your prayers will find the Father. You know the way. Then frequent it; .and though as yet in your bodies you cannot reach to him, yet in spirit you can. “Whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
5. Thomas saith unto hint, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and haw can we know the way?
Which was a contradiction of his Master, which Thomas ought not to have uttered. He should have put it much rather in the form of a question for explanation, than of such a fiat denial. His Master said, “Whither I go ye know.” He said, “We know not whither thou goest.” But we must take care that we do not contradict Christ. Our unbelief would be shamed out of us, if we were to look at it and examine it. I am persuaded that your faith will be justified the more you examine it, till you will discover that faith in God is nothing, after all, but sanctified common..sense. So unbelief will appear to be more shameful the more you examine .it, till you discover at length that it is nothing but garish folly. An outrage upon the first principles of wisdom is distrust of God.
6, 7. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh ∙ unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from hence forth ye know him, and have seen him.
This, then, is the main point of knowledge with us, to know Christ. All the studies in the world are vain, compared with the study of Christ crucified. This is the most excellent of all the sciences. He that knoweth Christ knoweth the way, the truth, the life, yea, and God himself.
8, 9. Philip saith unto him, Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
The best view of God we can ever have is Christ In the person of his Son there is more seen of God than in all nature; aye and in all history added to nature. God hath given us a full-length portrait of himself in Jesus; while in all his works, we have no more then a mere miniature of him. Oh! that we knew Christ more; then should we know the Father.
10–12. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you if speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that if do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
Oh! what strength there is in faith. These are the same people who are not to be troubled. They are to rise so much above trouble of heart, that they are to become performers of works like to Christ. Yea, and since Christ has. gone, and he has endowed us with the Holy Spirit, we are to do yet greater works than he did. Oh! to know the possibilities of our nature; to knew what God can do by us. What appears to us as we are, as unable to be done, we may be enabled to do through the spirit of God which is in Christ Jesus.
13, 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
It does not mean that every prayer will be answered. The power to ask a thing in Christ’s name is not given to everybody. It is not merely to say at the end of your prayer, “for Christ’s sake.” It is another thing; it is to be able to feel that, as Christ stood in your place, so you dare stand in Christ’s place; and what you have asked, you have asked in his name, feeling that what you have asked is such that Christ would have asked it. Now, when you can feel that, and can feel that Christ puts his seal on what you have asked, then., you ask in his name. A person cannot always speak in the name of another; cannot do it at all unless he has received an authorization so to do. Then he stands as that person’s deputy; stands in his place; speaks in his name. I am sure that nine out of ten of the prayers of Christians are not offered in the name of Christ, and could not be. It would be a sin against Christ for such prayers to be supposed to be the prayers of Christ. But when we talk of the Spirit of God, and we dare ask in the name and use the seal of Christ. to set his signature at the bottom of our petition, then, brethren, depend upon it Christ will do it.
15. If ye love me, keep my commandments.
Oh! some of us would have liked him to have said, “If ye love me, give all your money; go into a convent. If ye love me, perform some wonderful action. Go into the streets and preach; where you would be hooted. Go to some foreign country and get yourself made a martyr of.” No, no; “If ye love me, keep my commandments. Stop at home near your father and mother. If ye love me, love my disciples. Let. love rule you. And in that place in life in which I have set you try to honor my name by exhibiting my character. If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
16–19. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter. that he may abide with you for ever. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.
“Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me.” Now, when the world does not see him, we still see him. He is present to our faith, though passing from our sight. “Because I live, ye shall live also.” Is he a dead Christ? Then he has a dead people for his church. He is a living Savior: he has a living people; and they shall, no more die than he shall die; “for he, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
20. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in You.
What a wonderful union this is — Christ in the Fat. her; the saints in Christ, and Christ in the saints. These be riddles which are not meant for the children of this world; but they who are the children of God shall understand them, shall live upon them.
21. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me:
Not he that preaches about them, talks much about them; boasts about a higher life and all sorts of things; but “he that hath my command monks and keepeth them he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.”
21, 22. And he that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
If thou dost manifest thyself to us, who are only a few poor fishermen, thou does not extend thy kingdom so; but if thou wouldest manifest thyself to the world in all thy glory, surely they would be surprised and overwhelmed, and thy kingdom would thus come. But that is not Christ’s way.His manifestations are for his own: not for glitter, but for edification. He comes to bless them; not that he may be ostentatious among men.
23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father win love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
Oh! what an honored man that — for the Father and the Son to be his guests, to make an abode in his heart.
24–28. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings; and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me These things have I spoken unto you being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever ∙ have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard horn I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Christ had stooped to take a lower place for our sakes.
29–31. .And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father: and as the Father gave me commandment, even so ∙ do, Arise, let us go hence.
Feathers For Arrows; or, Illustrations for Preachers and Teachers, from my Note Book. By C. H. Spurgeon. Cloth. Published at 2s. 6d., offered all; 2s.
Barbed Arrows, from the Quiver of C. H. Spurgeon. A Collection of Anecdotes, Illustrations, and Similes. With Preface by Pastor C. Spurgeon. A Companion Volume to “Feathers for Arrows.” Cloth. Published at 2s. 6d., offered at 2s.
Illustrations And Meditations; or, Flowers from a Puritan’s Garden. Distilled and dispensed by C. H. SPURGEON. Cloth. Published at 2s. 6d., offered at 2s.