God's Prison, Warden and Prisoner
(No. 3378)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 4, 1866.
"Keep yourselves in the love of God." Jude 1:21
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 God, 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, 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 always be 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 dark 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 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 passes
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 tonight!
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 God as the warden 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 warden who is told to keep the prisoner And then,
thirdly, about the free prisoners, "keep yourselves in the love of God.
"Keep yourselves i n 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 meaning, 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 comes fully to the love of God, 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.
Never be unmindful of what the Holy Spirit did for you when He called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light. About the neck of memory
let the glittering pearls of God's mercy always hang! Take care,
whatever else you may forget, that you forget not the love of God to
you! As the Krishna said–
"Let every idol be forgotten, But oh, my Soul, forget Him not." Let
your ear be bored to this doorpost of God's love to you! Set this as a
seal upon your arm and as a ring upon your finger. Brand it into your
inmost heart and let your soul's core always wear in it the thought of
God's love to you. 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 always be engraved upon his heart the name of Christ,
for the love of Christ shall abide there! Yes, we will remember
You–"we will remember Your love, for Your love is better than wine!"
The Apostle means, too–Keep yourselves in the assurance of the Divine
Love. Brothers and Sisters, you have known that Christ loves you. You
have had it proven to you as clearly as a mathematical demonstration,
that God loves you. You have even been able to speak in the singular,
and say, "He 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 mountain and then slip
down into the treacherous mists of the valley, but ask that you may
always 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 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 a 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 God we are not stoics–we can share the joys that are common
to mankind, but oh, we do proclaim 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 of God is Heaven's own joy! They are but
husks, which are well enough in their way, but the kernel ofjoy 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, Brothers and Sisters, 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 is 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 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 mold 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 to obey His commandments, or even His
gentle leadings by His gracious Spirit!
Brothers and Sisters, 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 prevent your forgiving
one another even unto 70 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 suffers long and is
kind, hopes all things, endures 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 forever in Heaven!
Bear with each other, as you hope to be borne with by your loving
Savior. Be 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 in a blessed paradise for him to walk
in. Paradise had a gate and once Adam never wanted to get out of
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 WARDEN WHO IS TO KEEP HIMSELF IN THE LOVE OF GOD. This
warden 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 feet 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 a Pope's feet, but
may we always have too much manliness ever to fall to the snare of this
cunning fowler! May we always be kept from it and so may always keep
ourselves in the love of God.
And now, Mr. Warden, 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 God. Let the Christian
hesitate 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, brothers, sisters, our goods, our
persons, our fame, our reputation–any one of these may be-
come 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.
Warden, if you would keep your prisoner, remember he cannot well come
out except through the doors, and, therefore, watch well the door by
which he has communications with the outward world. If you would keep
yourself in the love of God, Christian, watch yourself well when you
are in business! Watch yourself when you are in the family. Watch the
door in private. Watch the communications which you have with the
ungodly–and as it is here that you would be apt to fritter away your
joys and lose the richness of your communion–be the more watchful
here. And, Warden, watch in the night, when it is dark in your 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 you would
lock your prisoner securely in and keep him from escaping from the
all-surrounding love of God, watch yourself carefully at all times,
lest by any means you slip from this good way!
And, Warden, I would recommend you to take care that every bolt in the
prison door is securely fastened. God has given you certain Gospel
ordinances and if you would keep yourself in the love of God, read His
Word, for it will stir you up to bind yourself to Him! Be much in
private prayer, for this has a force like a bolt to keep out the world
and keep you in.
Come to the Communion Table, for at the time when Christ is known in
the breaking of bread, another bolt is put between you and the world!
In fine, whatever He says unto you, do it, for in keeping of His
commandments there is great reward.
And, Warden, since you have 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, 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 before the
earth was. Think of eternal love before the day star had begun to
shine. Think of what Jesus did for you in the Covenant and in the
suretyship engagements of eternity! Bind about your soul the chain of
the Savior's pangs and griefs. If you would keep your 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 your heart to hold
it a fast prisoner forever!
Oh Brothers and Sisters, we have indeed enough to bind us to Christ if
we were not the most willfully 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. Warden, take care to call in help and
remember there is One who can help you very efficiently. It is the Holy
Spirit. You keep yourself in the love of God? Indeed, you cannotdo it
unless you call in Divine Power. If ever you get the love of God in
your heart, go down on your knees and ask the Holy Spirit to always
keep it there! You shall never catch this bird and shall never be able
to keep it unless the Holy Spirit helps you. 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
ofGod.
My dear Brothers and Sisters, if by the help of God we shall be able to
do this, how 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 then be miserable–all that the heart wants is to be kept
in the love of God–
for then it would always be in a state of true blessedness! Dear
Brothers 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 ofjoy
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 is 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 with
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 need you, the members of this Church, particularly to have
the love of God in your hearts just now, so that these 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 no help–but every warm and loving heart that comes
increases the general fire. You each bring your bundle of wood, as it
were, 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. Brothers and Sisters, we
shall yet have great times! God is going to bless us and we shall see
greater things than the world has ever beheld since the day of
Pentecost! I trust we are seeking for it and expecting it–and if so,
we shall get it! Let us seek to have the blessing in ourselves and ask
to be kept in the love of God!
It would not do for the farmer to have his men ill in harvest
time–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 would like,
tonight, to bring out among you the big bottles of the promises of God
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 you,"
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 open 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
Spirit and let this be always our prayer–
"Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove,
With all Your quickening powers.
Come, shed abroad a Savor's love,
And that shall kindle ours."
Now, to many here I am afraid I have been saying some things which are
no more understood by them than Latin or Greek would be! You could not
understand it, but there is one thing I want you to understand before
you go tonight, and that is this, "God so loved the world that He gave
His only-begotten Son that whoever believes 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 or woman
or child shall be forgiven! They shall be saved, shall be made a new
creature, shall go on their way rejoicing! And they will be
filled with the love 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: you 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. You
already be-lieve–believe more. "You 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, or 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 one 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 you may be also.Oh,
this is ground for sweet comfort, and it ought to yield it to us
tonight! He has gone, but He will come again. He has not left us
forever. Space divides us for awhile, 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 where I go, you know, and the way you know. You know where
Christ is gone. You 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 Him, yet in spirit you can. "Where I go
you know, and the way you know."
5. Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we know not where You go; and how 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 flat denial. His
Master said, "Where I go you know." Thomas said, "We know not where You
go." 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 commonsense! 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 said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no
man comes unto the Father, but by Me. If you had known Me, you would
have known My Father also: and from now on you 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 knows Christ, knows the way, the truth, the life, yes, and God
Himself!
8, 9. Philip said to Him, Lord show us the Father, and it is sufficient
for us. Jesus said to 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 why do you say, then, Show 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–yes and in all history added to Nature! God has
given us a full-length portrait of Himself in Jesus, while in all His
works, we have no more than a mere miniature of Him. Oh, that we knew
Christ more! Then should we know the Father.
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 works'
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
to 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
Christ's! Yes, 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 know 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 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. 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 to do so. 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, Brothers and Sisters,
depend upon it–Christ will do it!
15. If you love Me, keep My commandments. Oh, some of us would have
liked Him to have said, "If you love Me, give all your money! Go into a
convent! If you love Me, perform some wonderful action. Go into the
streets and preach where you will be hooted. Go to some foreign country
and get yourself made a martyr." No, no! "If you love Me, keep My
commandments. Stay at home near your father and mother. If you 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 you love Me, keep My commandments."
16-19. And 1 will pray the Father, and He shall give you another
Comforter 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, and shall be in you. I
will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while,
and the world sees Me no more; but you see Me: because I live, you
shall live also. "Yet a little while and the world sees Me no more; but
you 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, you 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, dies no more; death has no more dominion over Him."
"Because I live, you shall live also."
20. At that day you shallknow that Iam in My Father, and you in Me,
andIin You. What a wonderful union this is–Christ in the Father, the
saints in Christ and Christ in the saints! These are 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 has My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves
Me. Not He that preaches about them, talks much about them, boasts
about a higher life and all sorts of things, but, "He that has My
commandments and keeps them, He it is that loves Me: and he that loves
Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
Myself to him."
21, 22. And He that loves Me shall be loved by 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?If you do manifest Yourself to us, who are only a
few poor fishermen, You do not extend Your Kingdom much. But if You
would manifest Yourself to the world in all Your Glory, surely they
would be surprised and overwhelmed, and Your 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 to 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. 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 loves Me not keeps not My sayings; 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. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give
unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart
be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard how 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 had stooped to take a lower place for our sakes.
29-31. And now I have told you before it comes to pass, that when it is
come 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.