Over the Mountains
(No. 3307)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 1912.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"My beloved is mine, and I am His: He feeds among the lilies. Until the
day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be You like
a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." Solomon's Song
2:16,17.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same verses are #1190, Volume
20–A SONG AMONG THE LILIES; #2442, Volume 41–"MY BELOVED IS MINE" and
#2477, Volume 42–DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN.]
IT may be that there are saints who are always at their best and are
happy enough never to lose the light of their Father's Countenance. I
am not sure that there are such persons, for those Believers with whom
I have been most intimate have had varied experiences and those whom I
have known who have boasted of their constant perfectness, have not
been the most reliable of individuals. I hope there is a spiritual
region attainable where there are no clouds to hide the Sun of our
soul, but I cannot speak positively, for I have not traversed that
happy land. Every year of my life has had a winter as well as a summer,
and every day its night. I have hitherto seen bright days and heavy
rains, and felt warm breezes and fierce winds. Speaking for the many of
my Brothers and Sisters, I confess that though the substance is in us,
as in the olive tree and the oak, yet we do lose our leaves and the sap
within us does not flow with equal vigor at all seasons. We have our
downs as well as our ups, our valleys as well as our hills! We are not
always rejoicing–we are sometimes in heaviness through manifold
trials. Alas, we are grieved to confess that our fellowship with the
Well-Beloved is not always that of rapturous delight, but we have at
times to seek Him and cry, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!"
This appears to me to have been in a measure the condition of the
spouse when she cried, "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away,
turn, my Beloved."
I. These words teach us, first, that COMMUNION MAY BE BROKEN.
The spouse had lost the company of her Bridegroom. Conscious communion
with Him was gone, though she loved her Lord and sighed for Him. In her
loneliness she was sorrowful, but she had by no means ceased to love
Him, for she calls Him her Beloved and speaks as one who felt no doubt
upon that point. Love to the Lord Jesus may be quite as true, and
perhaps quite as strong when we sit in darkness as when we walk in the
light. No, she had not lost her assurance of His love to herand of
their mutual interest in one another, for she says, "My Beloved is
mine, and I am His." And yet she adds, "Turn, my Beloved." The
condition of our Grace does not always coincide with the state of our
joys. We may be rich in faith and love, and yet have so low an esteem
of ourselves as to be much depressed. It is plain, from this sacred
Canticle, that the spouse may love and be loved, may be confident in
her Lord and be fully assured of her possession of Him, and yet there
may, for the present, be mountains between her and Him. Yes, we may
even be far advanced in the Divine Life, and yet be exiled for a while
from conscious fellowship. There are nights for men as well as babes,
and the strong know that the sun is hidden quite as well as do the sick
and the feeble. Do not, therefore, condemn yourself, my Brothers and
Sisters because a cloud is over you–cast not away your confidence–but
rather let faith burn up the gloom and let your love resolve to come at
your Lord again whatever barriers which divide you from Him may be!
When Jesus is absent from a true heir of Heaven, sorrow will ensue. The
healthier our condition, the sooner will that absence be perceived and
the more deeply will it be lamented. This sorrow is described in the
text as darkness–this is implied in the expression, "until the day
breaks." Till Christ appears, no day has dawned for us. We dwell in
midnight darkness! The stars of the promises and the moon of experience
yield no light of comfort till our Lord, like the sun, arises and ends
the night! We must have Christ with us or we are benighted–we grope
like blind men for the wall and wander in dismay.
The spouse also speaks of shadows. "Until the day breaks and the
shadows flee away." Shadows are multiplied by the departure of the sun,
and these are apt to distress the timid. We are not afraid of real
enemies when Jesus is with us, but when we miss Him, we tremble at the
shade. How sweet is that song, "Yes, though I walk through the Valley
of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil: for You are with me; Your
rod and Your staff they comfort me"! But we change our note when
midnight is come and Jesus is not with us! Then we people the night
with terrors–specters, demons, hobgoblins and things that never
existed save in fancy, are apt to swarm about us–and we are in fear
where there is no fear!
The spouse's worst trouble was that the back of her Beloved was turned
to her and so she cried, "Turn, my Beloved." When His face is towards
her, she suns herself in His love, but if the light of His Countenance
is withdrawn, she is sorely troubled. Our Lord turns His face from His
people though He never turns His heart from His people. He may even
close His eyes in sleep when the vessel is tossed by the tempest, but
His heart is awake all the while. Still, it is pain enough to have
grieved Him in any degree–it cuts us to the quick to think that we
have wounded His tender heart. He is jealous, but never without cause.
If He turns His back upon us for a while, there is doubtless a more
than sufficient reason. He would not walk contrary to us if we had not
walked contrary to Him. Ah, it is sad work this! The Presence of the
Lord makes this life the preface to the celestial life! But His absence
leaves us pining and fainting, neither does any comfort remain in the
land of our banishment. The Scriptures and the ordinances, private
devotion and public worship are all as sundials–most excellent when
the sun shines, but of small use in the dark. O, Lord Jesus, nothing
can compensate us for Your loss! Draw near to Your beloved yet again,
for without You, our night will never end–
"See! I repent and vex my soul, That I should leave You so! Where will
those vile affections roll That let my Savior go?"
When communion with Christ is broken, in all true hearts there is a
strong desire to win it back again. The man who has known the joy of
communion with Christ, if he loses it, will never be content until it
is restored. Have you ever entertained the Prince Emmanuel? Is He gone
elsewhere? Your chamber will be dreary till He comes back again. "Give
me Christ, or else I die," is the cry of every spirit that has lost the
dear Companionship of Jesus! We do not part with such heavenly delights
without many a pang. It is not with us a matter of "maybe He will
return, and we hope He will," but it must be, or we faint and die! We
cannot live without Him–and this is a cheering sign, for the soul that
cannot live without Him shall not live without Him! He comes speedily
where life and death hang on His coming. If you must have Christ, you
shall have Him! This is just how the matter stands–we must drink of
this well or die of thirst. We must feed upon Jesus or our spirit will
famish!
II. We will now advance a step and say that when communion with Christ
is broken, THERE ARE GREAT DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF ITS RENEWAL.
It is much easier to go downhill than to climb to the same height
again. It is far easier to lose joy in God than to find the lost jewel.
The spouse speaks of "mountains" dividing her from her Beloved–she
means that the difficulties were great. They were not little hills, but
mountains that closed up her way! Mountains of remembered sin, Alps of
backsliding, dread range of forgetfulness, ingratitude, worldliness,
coldness in prayer, frivolity, pride, unbelief! Ah me, I cannot teach
you all the dark geography of this sad experience! Giant walls arose
before her like the towering steeps of Lebanon. How could she get to
her Beloved?
The dividing difficulties were many as well as great. She does not
speak of "a mountain," but of "mountains." Alps rose on Alps, wall
after wall. She was distressed to think that in so short a time, so
much could come between her and Him of whom she sang just now, "His
left hand is under my head, and His right hand does embrace me." Alas,
we multiply those mountains of Bether with a sad rapidity! Our Lord is
jealous and we give Him far too much reason for hiding His face. A
fault which seemed so small at the time we committed it, is seen in the
light of its own consequences, and then it grows and swells till it
towers aloft and hides the face of the Beloved! Then has our sun gone
down and Fear whispers, "Will His light ever return? Will it ever be
daybreak? Will the shadows ever flee away?" It is easy to grieve away
the heavenly sunlight, but ah, how hard to clear the skies and regain
the unclouded brightness!
Perhaps the worst thought of all to the spouse was the dread that the
dividing barrier might be permanent. It was high, but it might
dissolve. The walls were many, but they might fall. But, alas, they
were mountains, and these stand fast for ages! She felt like the
Psalmist when he cried, "My sin is always before me." The pain of our
Lord's absence be-
comes intolerable when we fear that we are hopelessly shut out from
Him. A night one can bear, hoping for the morning, but what if the day
should never break? And you and I, if we have wandered away from Christ
and feel that there are ranges of immovable mountains between Him and
us, will feel sick at heart. We try to pray, but devotion dies on our
lips. We attempt to approach the Lord at the Communion Table, but we
feel more like Judas than John. At such times we have felt that we
would give our eyes to behold once more the Bridegroom's face and to
know that He delights in us as in happier days. Still, there stand the
awful mountains–black, threatening, impassable–and in the far-off
land the Life of our life is away and grieved.
So the spouse seems to have come to the conclusion that the
difficulties in her way were insurmountable by her own power She does
not even think of herself going over the mountains to her Beloved, but
she cries, "Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, turn, My
Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of
Bether." She will not try to climb the mountains, she knows she cannot.
If they had not been so high, she might have attempted it, but their
summits reach to Heaven! If they had been less craggy or difficult, she
might have tried to scale them, but these mountains are terrible, and
no foot may stand upon their long crags! Oh, the mercy of utter
self-despair! I love to see a soul driven into that close corner and
forced, therefore, to look to God alone! The end of the creature is the
beginning of the Creator! Where the sinner ends, the Savior begins! If
the mountains can be climbed, we shall have to climb them, but if they
are quite impassable, then the soul cries out with the Prophet, "Oh
that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the
mountains might flow down at Your Presence, as when the melting fire
burns, the fire causes the waters to boil to make Your name known to
Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your Presence! When
You did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down, the
mountains flowed down at Your Presence." Our souls are lame, they
cannot move to Christ and lo, we turn our strong desires to Him and fix
our hopes alone upon Him! Will He not remember us in love and fly to us
as He did to His servant of old when He rode upon a cherub and did fly,
yes, He did fly upon the wings of the wind?
III. Here arises that PRAYER OF THE TEXT WHICH FULLY MEETS THE
CASE–"Turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the
mountains of Bether."
Jesus can come to us when we cannot go to Him. The roe and the young
hart, or, as you may read it, the gazelle and the ibex, live among the
crags of the mountains and leap across the abyss with amazing agility.
For swiftness and sure-footedness they are unrivalled. The sacred poet
said, "He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high
places," alluding to the feet of those creatures which are so fitted to
stand surely on the mountains' sides. Our blessed Lord is called in the
title of the 22nd Psalm, "the Hind of the Morning"–and the spouse in
this golden Canticle sings, "My Beloved is like a roe or a young hart;
behold, He comes leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills."
Here I would remind you that this prayer is one that we may fairly
offer, because it is the way of Christ to come to us when our coming to
Him is out of the question. "How?" you ask. I answer that of old He did
this, for we remember "His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sin." His first coming into the world in human
form–was it not because man could never come to God until God had come
to him? I hear of no tears, or prayers, or entreaties after God on the
part of our first parents–but the offended Lord spontaneously gave the
promise that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.
Our Lord's coming into the world was untaught, unsought, unthought
of–He came altogether of His own free will, delighting to redeem–
"Withpitying eyes the Prince of Grace Beheld our helpless grief! He
saw, and oh, amazing love– He ran to our relief."
His Incarnation was a type of the way in which He comes to us by His
Spirit. He saw us cast out, polluted, shameful, perishing–and as He
passed by, His tender lips said, "Live!" In us is fulfilled that
ancient word, "I am found of them that sought Me not." We were too
averse to holiness, too much in bondage to sin to ever have returned to
Him if He had not turned to us. What do you think? Did He come to us
when we were enemies and will He not visit us, now that we are friends?
Did He come to us when we were dead sinners and will He not hear us,
now that we are weeping saints? If Christ's coming to the earth was
after this manner and if His coming to each one of us was after this
style, we may well hope
that now He will come to us in like fashion, like the dew which
refreshes the grass and waits not for man, neither tarries for the sons
of men.
Besides, He is coming again in Person, in the latter days, and
mountains of sin, error, idolatry, superstition and oppression stand in
the way of His Kingdom–but He will surely come and overturn, and
overturn till He shall reign over all! He will come in the latter days,
I say, though He shall leap the hills to do it–and because of that I
am sure we may comfortably conclude that He will draw near to us who
mourn His absence so bitterly. Then let us bow our heads a moment, and
silently present to His most excellent Majesty the petition of our
text, "Turn, my Beloved, and be You like a roe or a young hart upon the
mountains of Bether."
Our text gives us sweet assurance that our Lord is at home with those
difficulties which are quite insurmountable by us. Just as the roe or
the young hart knows the passes of the mountains and the
stepping-places among the rugged rocks, and is void of all fear among
the ravines and the precipices, so does our Lord know the heights and
depths, the torrents and the caverns of our sin and sorrow. He carried
the whole of our transgression and so became aware of the tremendous
load of our guilt. He is quite at home with the infirmities of our
nature. He knew temptation in the wilderness, heartbreak in the garden,
desertion on the Cross. He is quite at home with pain and weakness,
for, "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sickness." He is at
home with despondency, for He was "a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted
with grief." He is at home even with death, for He gave up the ghost
and passed through the sepulcher to Resurrection. O yawning gulfs and
frowning steeps of woe, our Beloved, like hind or hart, has traversed
your glooms! O my Lord, You know all that divides me from You and You
also know that I am far too feeble to climb these dividing mountains so
that I may come to You. Therefore, I pray You, come over the mountains
to meet my longing spirit! You know each yawning gulf and slippery
steep, but none of these can stop You. Hasten You to me, Your servant,
Your beloved, and let me again live by Your Presence.
It is easy, too, for Christ to come over the mountains for our relief.
It is easy for the gazelle to cross the mountains– it is made for that
end. So is it easy for Jesus, for to this purpose was He ordained from
of old that He might come to man in his worst estate, and bring with
Him the Father's love. What is it that separates us from Christ? Is it
a sense of sin? You have been pardoned once and Jesus can renew most
vividly a sense of full forgiveness! But you say, "Alas, I have sinned
again! Fresh guilt alarms me." He can remove it in an instant, for the
fountain appointed for that purpose is opened and is still full! It is
easy for the dear lips of redeeming love to put away the child's
offenses since He has already obtained pardon for the criminal's
iniquities. If with His heart's blood He won our pardon from our Judge,
He can easily enough bring us the forgiveness of our Father. Oh, yes,
it is easy enough for Christ to say again, "Your sins are forgiven!"
"But I feel so unfit, so unable to enjoy communion." He that healed all
manner of bodily diseases can heal with a word your spiritual
infirmities! Remember the man whose ankle bones received strength so
that he ran and leaped? And she who was sick of a fever and was healed
at once, and arose and ministered unto her Lord? "My Grace is
sufficient for you; for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
"But I have such affliction, such troubles, such sorrows that I am
weighted down and cannot rise into joyful fellowship." Yes, but Jesus
can make every burden light and cause each yoke to be easy! Your trials
can be made to aid your heavenward course instead of hindering it. I
know all about those heavy weights and I perceive that you cannot lift
them. But skilful engineers can adapt ropes and pulleys in such a way
that heavy weights lift other weights. The Lord Jesus is great at
gracious machinery and He has the art of causing a weight of
tribulation to lift from us a load of spiritual dead-ness, so that we
ascend by that which, like a millstone, threatened to sink us down!
What else hinders you? I am sure that if it were a sheer impossibility,
the Lord Jesus could remove it, for things impossible with men are
possible with God!
But someone objects, "I am so unworthy of Christ. I can understand
eminent saints and beloved disciples being greatly indulged, but I am a
worm and not a man, utterly below such condescension!" Say you so? Know
you not that the worthiness of Christ covers your unworthiness and He
is made of God unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and
redemption? In Christ, the Father thinks not so meanly of you as you
think of yourself! You are not worthy to be called His child, but He
does call you so and reckons you to be among His jewels! Listen, and
you shall hear Him say, "Since you were precious in My sight, you have
been honorable, and I have loved you. I gave Egypt for your ransom;
Ethiopia and Seba for you." Thus, there remains nothing which Jesus
cannot leap over if He resolves to come to you and reestablish your
broken fellowship!
To conclude, our Lord can do all this IMMEDIATELY. As in the twinkling
of an eye the dead shall be raised incorruptible, so in a moment can
our dead affections rise to fullness of delight! He can stay to this
mountain, "Be you removed and be you cast into the midst of the sea,"
and it shall be done. In the sacred emblems now upon this Supper Table
Jesus is already among us. Faith cries, "He has come!" Like John the
Baptist she gazes intently on Him and cries, "Behold the Lamb of God!"
At this Table Jesus feeds us with His body and blood. His corporeal
Presence we have not, but His real spiritual'Presence we perceive. We
are like the disciples when none of them dared ask Him, "Who are You?"
knowing that it was the Lord. He is come! He looks forth at these
windows–I mean this bread and wine–showing Himself through the
lattices of this instructive and endearing ordinance. He speaks. He
says, "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone." And so it is. We
feel it to be so–a heavenly spring-tide warms our frozen hearts. Like
the spouse, we wonderingly cry, "Or ever I was aware, my soul made me
like the chariots of Amminadib." Now in happy fellowship we see the
Beloved and hear His voice! Our heart burns! Our affections glow! We
are happy, restful, brimming over with delight! The King has brought us
into His banqueting house and His banner over us is love. It is good to
be here!
Friends, we must now go our ways. A voice says, "Arise, let us go
hence." O Lord of our hearts, go with us! Some will not be home without
You. Life will not be life without You. Heaven itself would not be
Heaven if You were absent. Abide with us! The world grows dark, the
glooming of time draws on. Abide with us, for it is toward evening. Our
years increase and we near the night when dews fall cold and chill. A
great future is all about us! The splendors of the last age are coming
down and while we wait in solemn, awe-struck expectation, our heart
continually cries within herself, "Until the day breaks and the shadows
flee away, turn, my Beloved!"
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN 14.
Let us read that well-known and most blessed Chapter, John 14, which so
clearly shows our Savior's tender consideration for the comfort of His
people, lest the great grief excited in them by His impending death
should altogether break their hearts.
Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe
also in Me. [See Sermon #1741, Volume 29–"let not your
HEART BE TROUBLED.] I think our Savior meant to say and really
did say, "If you believe in God, you are believing in Me; and if you
believe in Me, you are believing in God; for there is such a perfect
unity between us that you need not, when I die, make any distinction
between Me and God, but still believe in Me as you believe in the
Father."
2. In My Father's house are many mansions: ifit were not so, I would
have told you. "Wicked men will shut you out of My Father's house
below: the Temple at Jerusalem, through being still used for Jewish
worship after all its ritual and ceremonialism have been abolished,
will cease to be My Father's house to you; but there is a building of
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, and there is
room for all of you there. When this country gets to be a desert to
you, remember that there is the Home Country, the blessed Glory Land,
on the other side of the river, and the Father's house there with its
many mansions."
2, 3. I go to prepare a place for you [See Sermon #2751, Volume 47–"A
PREPARED PLACE FOR A PREPARED PEOPLE."] And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself; that where I
am, there you may be also. Jesus often keeps this promise in many
senses. By His gracious Spirit, He has come again. By His Divine
Presence in the means of Grace, He full often comes again. By-and-by,
if we die, He will come again to meet us. And if we do not die, then
will the promise be fulfilled to the greatest possible extent, for
Jesus will come again and receive in His own proper Person those who
are alive and remain unto His coming.
Anyhow, "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself," remains one
of the sweetest promises that was ever given to Believers by the Lord
Jesus Christ! He did not say, "I will receive you to Heaven." He
promised something far better than that–"I will receive you unto
Myself." Oh, what bliss it will be to get to Christ, to be with Him
forever and ever!
4. And where I go you know, and the way you know. "At least, I have
taught it to you. I have explained it to you. I have told you that I am
the goal of your way, and the way to your goal. That I am the end, and
also the way to that end."
5. Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we know not where You go and how can we
know the way?Oh, how much ignorance there may be where there ought to
be much knowledge! It is not always the man who lives in the sunlight
who sees the most. Thomas had been one of the 12 Apostles for years. He
had, during all that time, had Christ for his Teacher, yet he had
learned very little. With such poor teachers as we are, it is no wonder
if our hearers and scholars learn but little from us, yet they ought to
learn much from Christ–although I think that we learn nothing even
from Jesus Christ, Himself, except under the teaching of the Holy
Spirit!
6. Jesus said unto him, Iam the way the truth, and the life: no man
comes unto the Father, but byMe. [See Sermons #245,
Volume 5–THE WAY TO GOD; #942, Volume 16–THE WAY and #2938, Volume
51–JESUS THE WAY.] "I am going to the Father–that is where I am
going, Thomas, and you can only come to the Father by Me–don't you
know that?"
7. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. For Christ
is the express Image of His Father, so that you always see the Father
when you see the Son!
7. And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. Thomas had made
an advance in heavenly knowledge. He had taken a higher degree in
Divinity now that the Master had taught Him so much upon this most
important point–"from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him."
8. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.
It was not merely one of Christ's scholars, you see, who was so dull of
comprehension–here is another of the dunces–Philip.
9. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have
you not known Me, Philip? He that has seen Me has seen the Father; and
how say you, then, Show us the Father?He who really knows Christ and
understands Christ's Character, understands, as far as it can be
understood by man, the Character of God. We know more of God from the
life of Christ than we can learn from any other source.
10-12. Believe you not that Iam in the Father, and the Father in Me?
The words that Ispeak unto you Ispeak not of Myself: but the Father
that dwells in Me, He does the works. Believe Me that Iam in the Father
and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very work's sake.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me, the works that
I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because
I go unto My Father The Lord Jesus Christ, after He had gone back to
Heaven, gave to His servants the power to do these "greater works"–the
Holy spirit resting upon them–in the gathering in of the nations unto
their Lord. Whereas Christ kept to one little country, He sent His
first disciples and He sends us still to preach the Gospel to every
creature in the whole world, and He clothes His servants with all
necessary authority and power to do the work He has committed to their
charge.
13-14. And whatever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My
name, I will do it There is the only limit to true believing prayer!
There are some things which we could not ask in Christ's name–that is,
using His authority in asking for them. There are some wishes and whims
that we may cherish, and that we think we may pray about, but we have
not Christ's name or authority to warrant us in expecting that we shall
realize them and, therefore, we cannot ask for them in His name. To
say, "For Christ's sake," is one thing, but to say, "I ask this in
Christ's name," is quite another matter! He never authorized you to
make use of His name about everything. There are only certain things
about which you can pray in His name, such as are the express subject
of a Divine promise–and when you pray for one of those things, you
shall prove Christ's words to be true, "If you shall ask anything in My
name, I will do it."
15-16. Ifyou love Me, keep My commandments. AndI willpray the Father,
andHe shall give you another Comforter, [See Sermons #1074, Volume
18–THE PARACLETE and #1932, Volume 32–LOVE'S LAW AND LIFE.] The
Paraclete, the Succorer, the Helper. The word, "Comforter," has lost
its old meaning. You get
it in certain old writings, when you read of such-and-such a man that
he gave to someone else succor and comfort. There
is more here than merely giving us consolation. It means Helper–"He
shall give you another Helper." Advocatus is the
Latin, and that, too, is the correct word. "He shall give you another
Advocate"–
16, 17. That He may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of Truth
whom the world cannot receive because it sees
Him not, neither knows Him, but you know Him; for He dwells with you,
andshall be in you [See Sermons #4, Volume 1–the PERSONALITY OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT; #754, Volume 13–THE SAINT AND THE SPIRIT and #2074,
Volume 35–INTIMATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT–.] Worldly men are
not cognizant of the existence of the Holy Spirit. They do not believe
in Him–they say that there may or may not be such a Divine Being in
the world as the Holy Spi-
rit, but they have never come across His path. This, then, is one of
the tests of true Believers, the twice-born–they have received a new
nature which enables them to recognize the existence of the Spirit of
God and to feel the influence of His work–"You know Him; for He dwells
with you, and shall be in you."
18, 19. I willnot leave you orphans: I will come to you. Yet a little
while, and the worldsees Me no more; butyou
see Me. [See Sermon #2990, Volume 52–THE BELIEVER NOT AN ORPHAN.]
"Your spiritual sight, which discerns the Presence with you of the Holy
Spirit, will also discern My continued Existence when I have gone away
from you."
19, 20. Because Ilive, you shalllive also. At that day you shall know
that Iam in My father, and you in Me, and Iin
you [See Sermon 968, Volume 17–LIFE IN CHRIST.] This is something more
for us to know. To know that Christ is in the Father is one thing, but
it is still more for us to understand the next mystic unity, "you in
Me, and I in you." Oh, wondrous combination of the Father and the Son,
and of Immanuel, God with us, and ourselves!
21, 22. He that has My commandment, andkeeps them, He it is that loves
Me; andHe that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love
him, and will manifest Myself to him. Judas said unto Him, not
Iscariot, Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself unto us, and
not unto the world?'[See Sermon #29, Volume 1–christ manifesting
himself to his
PEOPLE.] Large-hearted Judas, very different from Judas Isca-
riot! He wants Christ to manifest Himself to all the world! He seems to
have been a man of very broad views. He does not comprehend
discriminating love and electing Grace–He wants all the privileges of
the children of God to be the privileges of the King's enemies–but
that cannot be.
23. Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man loves Me, he will keep
My words: and My Father will love him, and
We will come unto him, and make our abode with him. [See Sermon #2895,
Volume 50–A BLESSED GOSPEL CHAIN.] Christ is sure to manifest Himself
to those who love Him, but how can He manifest Himself to those who
love Him not? They cannot see Him! They would not appreciate Him if
they couldsee Him– they have no spiritual taste with which to enjoy
Him.
24-26. He that loves Me not keeps not My saying: and the word which you
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 Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever
I have said unto you.Do we sufficiently look to the Holy Spirit for
Divine teaching? We read our Bibles, I trust, with diligence–and also
any explanatory books by which we may better understand our Bibles–but
do we look up to the Holy Spirit and ask Him distinctly and immediately
to teach us what is the meaning of Christ's words, and to bring them to
our remembrance? I wish we did this more than we do.
27. Peace I leave with you. "That is My legacy to you."
27. My peace I give unto you–[See Sermons #247, Volume 5–THE BEST OF
MASTERS and #300, Volume 6–SPIRITUAL PEACE.] My own deep calm of
spirit, which is not ruffled or broken though the contradiction of
sinners continually annoys Me–"My peace I give unto you." Christ puts
His hand into His heart and takes out of that priceless casket the
choicest jewel it contains–His own peace! And He says, "Wear that on
your finger, the seal and token of My love." "My peace I give unto
you"–
27. Not as the world gives, give I unto you."With an expectation of
getting a reward for it. Neither do I give it to take it back again.
Nor do I give it in mere pretence–I give it in reality, sincerely,
disinterestedly, as your freehold possession forever."
27-28. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You
have heardhow I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If
you loved Me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father:
for My Father is greater than I.Christ as Man had condescended to
become less than the Father–He had taken upon Himself the form of a
Servant, but now He was going back to take His own natural dignity
again. We ought to rejoice in His gain! Though you may think it a loss
not to have His corporeal Presence, yet would you like to call Him away
from yonder harps that ring out His praises and the perfect love of the
Father with whom He reigns supreme? Oh, no, blessed Master, stay where
You are!
29-31. AndnowIhave told you before it comes to pass, that when it is
comes to pass, you might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with
you; for the Prince of this world comes, and has nothing in Me. But
that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave
Me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go from here.
–Adapted from The C. H. Spurgeon Collection, Ages Software,
1.800.297.4307
PRAY THE HOLY SPIRIT WILL USE THIS SERMON TO BRING MANY TO A SAVING
KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST.