Neither Forsaken Nor Forgotten
(No. 2672)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, APRIL 29, 1900.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
NOVEMBER 5, 1882.
"Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." Isaiah 49:16.
You have probably noticed, dear Friends, while reading the chapter from
which our text is taken, that it seems to divide itself into two parts.
The first portion concerns that glorious Servant of God, "who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God," even our
Divine Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is, in this part of the
chapter, somewhat of a complaint–Christ was, as it were, uttering one
of His Gethsemane groans when He said, "I have labored in vain, I have
spent My strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely My judgment is
with Jehovah, and My work with My God." As far as our Lord's personal
ministry among the Jewish people was concerned, it did seem as if He
had labored in vain, for almost all of them rejected Him and they even
imprecated an awful curse upon themselves and their descendants when
they said, "His blood be on us, and on our children." He is here
represented as crying out before Jehovah concerning this apparent
failure of His earthly mission. And an answer is at once given to Him
which must have been eminently satisfactory to our Savior's spirit, for
He adds, "Though Israel is not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the
eyes of Jehovah and My God shall be My strength. And He said, It is a
light thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of
Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give You for
a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation unto the ends of
the earth." Oh, what joy must have filled the heart of our Divine
Master, even in the depths of His agony, as He saw that, through His
death, all nations should ultimately behold the Light of God's
salvation! What though Israel for a while rejected Him? Yet multitudes
of the Gentiles would receive Him and then, by-and-by, in the fullness
of time, the Jews would also receive Him, and acknowledge as King the
Nazarene whom once they crucified on Calvary!
The second part of the chapter, singularly enough, relates to the
Israelite Church and, to a large extent, to the whole Church of God,
and it also contains a complaint. In the expressive language of verse
13, God bids the heavens and the earth rejoice–"Sing, O heavens, and
be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for
Jehovah has comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His
afflicted." Yet, even while that jubilant note is pealing over sea and
land, there is heard the wailing of poor forsaken Zion–Judaea's
Church, the ancient Church of the living God! She sighs, "'Jehovah has
forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me.' He is blessing the Gentiles,
but I am left unblessed. He is gathering multitudes unto Himself, to
glorify His Son; but His poor Israel, His ancient choice, His first
love, He seems to have left out of all reckoning,' Jehovah has forsaken
me, and my Lord has forgotten me.'" Then comes the Lord's answer, "Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I not forget
you. Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands." Israel
shall yet acknowledge her King, her salvation waits for the appointed
time. There is a high destiny in store for the Israel of God and many
shall yet see the day when He who died as King of the Jews shall live
again to wear that title and to be acknowledged as the Head of all the
house of Abraham!
My objective, in speaking upon the familiar and precious words of our
text, is just this–Sometimes you and I get into the same sad condition
as Zion was then and we fancy that God has forgotten us, so I want to
show you that if we are
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord gives to us an answer
similar to that which He gave to sorrowful Zion, "I have engraved you
upon the palms of My hands." Upon that short sentence I shall try now
to speak to you.
I. First, let us think, for a while, upon THE FEAR EXPRESSED–the fear
in the hearts of God's people which led to the utterance of our text.
In verse 14, this fear is thus expressed, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and
my Lord has forgotten me."
This fear has been felt by very many. Fear is a most contagious and
infectious thing. When it has taken hold on one person, it has been
often known to spread to many others till a terrible panic has resulted
from a very slight cause. Here is the whole Jewish church expressing
the fear that God has forgotten her! I feel sure that I am not now
addressing such a church as that–I hope that the most of those now
present know that God has not forgotten them and that they are walking
in the light of His Countenance so that they do not imagine that
Jehovah has forsaken them. But, still, this fear has darkened, shall I
say, every sky, and passed before the window of every spirit? Well, I
will not go quite that far, yet I know that there must be but very few
of us who have not, at one time or another, naughtily whispered to our
own heart, if we have not said it aloud, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and
my Lord has forgotten me." We have gone up to the House of God with our
brethren and we have seen them very happy. The Word of God has been
precious to them and they have seemed to enjoy it to the fullest, but
we could not feed upon it, or get a glimpse of the Well-Beloved. And we
have gone out of the place sighing, "Jehovah has forsaken me and my
Lord has forgotten me." Have you ever had that thought? If you never
have, I hope you never will, but I fear that the most of us have, at
some time or other, been subject to that distressing complaint.
And it has sometimes been very plaintively expressed. I t is so in the
text. I think I hear the mountains echoing the joyous voice of God and
the very skies reverberating with the song of the redeemed! And then,
in between the breaks of the glad chorus, I catch this little mournful
note, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." Perhaps
it is all the more plaintive because the tone seems to indicate that
Zion felt that she deserved to have it so. She thought herself so
insignificant, so sinful, so provoking, that it was no wonder that the
great Jehovah should forget her in her littleness–and that the pure
and holy God should turn His face away from such iniquity as hers.
Brothers and Sisters, I feel sure that you and I must have been in that
state in which we could weep and groan and sigh because of the joy in
the air of which we could not partake, the songs in which we could not
unite unless we became utter hypocrites. We heard the sweet strains of
the holy merriment in the Father's House, but we felt that we could not
join in it! And we sat by ourselves mourning, with our harps hanging on
the willows, while everyone around us only increased our grief in
proportion to his own delight. I am trying to speak to such troubled
souls–God comfort them! There are many such, and their grief is great.
And some, too, are very obstinate while they are in that condition, for
our text contains a very unreasonable com-plainer. Read the latter part
of the 13th verse. "Jehovah has comforted His people, and will have
mercy upon His afflicted." Yet, in the teeth of that double
declaration, Zion said, "Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has
forgotten me." Ah, dear Friends, our complaints of God are generally
groundless! We get into a state of mind in which we say, "God has
forsaken us," when He is really dealing with us more than He was known
to do. A child who is feeling the strokes of the rod is very foolish to
say, "My father has forgotten me." No, those very blows, under which he
is smarting, are reminders that his father does notforget him–and your
trials and your troubles, your depressions and your sorrows are tokens
that you are not forgotten of God. The chastening which is guaranteed
to every legitimate son is coming to you! If you had not been
chastened, there would have been far more cause for saying, "My Lord
has forgotten me." Besides, dear Friend, you have had some comforts
though you have had many sorrows. You can say, "Comforts mingle with my
sighs." Do not forget that. It is not all gall and wormwood–there is
so much honey as greatly to mitigate the bitterness. Think of that and
do not obstinately stand to a word which, perhaps, you spoke in haste.
If you have said, "My Lord has forgotten me," take back the word, for
it cannot be true. You have slandered Him who can never forget one of
His own people! And if you have said, "Jehovah has forsaken me," again
I ask you to take back the evil and false word, and eat it. Never let
it be heard again, for it is impossible that Jehovah should change, or
that the Immutable love of His Infinite heart should ever die out! Be
not obstinate about this matter, I implore you! Yet I have known some
of God's people stick to this grave lie to their own grievous wounding
and hurt.
I suppose that Zion came to this conclusion because she was in
banishment. She was away from the land that flowed with milk and
honey–she was suffering in exile. Is this the conclusion to be drawn
from all suffering? Does the vine say, "The vinedresser has forsaken me
because he prunes me so sharply"? Does the invalid say, "The physician
has forgotten me because he gives me such bitter medicine"? Shall the
patient beneath the knife, say, "The surgeon has forsaken me because he
cuts even to the bone"? You see at once that there is no reasonableness
about such talk, so dismiss it at once! "Judge not the Lord" by outward
Providences, any more than "by feeble sense," but trust Him even when
you can see no trace of His goodness to you. "Let God be true, and"
every circumstance, as well as "every man, a liar," for God must keep
His promise to His people. He is Immutable! He cannot possibly change.
He must be true to every word that has gone forth out of His mouth. The
fear that God may forsake and forget His own, if obstinately indulged,
will certainly deserve to be set down among the wanton and unreasonable
transgressions of His people against their gracious God.
Yet I think that there is some measure of Grace mingled with this fear
Let me read you this passage straight on– "Jehovah has comforted His
people and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, Jehovah
has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." She did not say that
till God had visited her. "The Lord has comforted His people." He has
brought them out of a yet lower depth that they were in and they have
been lifted up so high as now to want His Presence, and to sigh for it!
Beloved Brothers and Sisters, you who are so deep down in the dungeon,
I feel glad that you want to get out of it. There is, in your soul, a
longing after God, is there not? There is a panting and a crying after
peace with God, is there not? You are not satisfied as long as you even
think that God has forsaken you, are you? Ah, then, this is the work of
His Holy Spirit in your soul, making you long after the living God, so
that there is some sign of Grace even in that discontented moan of
yours, for it proves that you cannot bear that God should forsake you!
Now, if you belonged to the world, it would be nothing to you if the
Lord had forsaken you. If there were no Grace in you, you would not
care whether God forgot you or not! Indeed, you might almost wish that
He wouldforget you and not visit you in His wrath. There is, therefore,
some trace of His hand in your spirit, even now that you say, "Jehovah
has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me."
Besides, although the text is a word of complaint, it has also in it a
word of faith–"myLord." Did you notice that? Zion calls Jehovah hers
though she dreams that He has forsaken her! I love to see you keep the
grip of your faith even when it seems to be illogical–even if you
fancy that the Lord has forgotten and forsaken you! Though you fear
that it is so, yet you still say, "my Lord," held on to this assurance
with a death-grip! If you cannot hold on with both hands, hold on with
one and if, sometimes, you can hold with neither hand, hold on with
your teeth! Let Job's resolve be yours– "Though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him. Though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my
flesh shall I see God" "And every scattered grain of this, my dust,
shall still confide in God." Oh, for the faith that laughs at
impossibilities, that leaps with joy between the very jaws of death,
itself, and sings in the very center of the fire! Such a faith as that,
whatever weakness there may be about it, brings glory to God! So I
treasure up that little word, "my." There are only two letters in it,
but they are fraught with untold hope to the man who can use them as
Zion does here, "my Lord."
So much for the fear which the text is intended to meet.
II. Now I come, as God shall help me, to speak concerning THE COMFORT
BESTOWED. "I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands."
This assurance is the Lord's answer to Zion's lament, "Jehovah has
forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." So take it from God's own
mouth and never doubt it! God's remembrance of His people as a whole
and of each individual in particular, has been secured by Him beyond
all question. "That we might have a strong consolation, who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us," He has said to
each of us, "'I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands.' I have
done it and I have done that which will render it utterly impossible
that I should ever forget one of My people. I the Lord have committed
Myself to something which will henceforth render it absolutely certain
that I never can forget My own, for, 'I have engraved you upon the
palms of My hands.'"
These words seem to say to us that God has already secured, beyond any
possible doubt, His tender memory towards all His own. He has done this
in such a way that forgetfulness can never occur at any moment
whatever. The memorial is not set up in Heaven, for then you might
conceive that God could descend and leave that memorial. It is not set
up in any great public place in the universe, nor is it engraved in a
signet ring upon God's finger, for that might be taken off. It is not
written upon the Almighty's clothes–to speak after the manner of
men–for He might disrobe Himself for conflict.
But He has put the token of His love where it cannot be laid aside–on
the palms of His hands. A man cannot leave his hands at home. If he has
put something, by way of memorial, upon the walls of his house or the
gates of his home, he may go away and forget it. Or if, as I have said,
he shall write the memorial upon some precious diamond, or topaz, or
other jewels which he wears, yet he might lay them aside. But God says,
"I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands," so that the memorial
is constantly with Him! Yes, it is in God, Himself, that the memorial
of His people is fixed.
I suppose the allusion is to an Oriental custom, possibly not very
common, but still common enough to have survived to this day. Mr. John
Anderson, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Helensburgh, who was
a very dear friend of mine, told me that on one or two occasions, he
had seen, in the East, men who had the portraits of their friends, and
others who had the initials of their friends, on the palms of their
hands. I said to him, "But I suppose that, in time, they would wash off
or wear out." "No," he said, "they were tattooed too deeply in to be
removed, so that, whenever they opened their hand, there were the
familiar initials, or some resemblance to the features of the beloved
one, to keep him always in remembrance." And the Lord here adopts that
ancient custom and says, "I cannot forget you. It is impossible for Me
to do so, for I have engraved you where the memorial can never be apart
from Myself. 'I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands.'"
Now, what is it, dear Friends, that makes it so certain that God cannot
forget His people? Well, first, God remembers His eternal love to His
people, and His remembrance of them is constant because of that love.
He says to each believing soul, "I have loved you with an everlasting
love." The people of God were loved by Him long before the world was
created–He has loved them too long to ever forget them. "I have loved
too long," said one man, "to be turned aside by the blandishment of
another." We cannot imagine anything that could separate us from that
dear heart to which our heart is knit even with a human love. While
both of us shall live, the two are, indeed, one. And God has loved us
more than husbands love their wives, or fathers love their children, or
brothers love their brothers. His love is like a great ocean of which
all human love is but a drop of spray! And He has loved us so long, so
well, so deeply, so unreservedly, that He cannot forget us. Even when
any of His people wanders from Him and grieves His heart, He says,
"Yes, but I have loved you with an everlasting love, and I will not
cast you off. Though all that you now are might tend to wean Me from
you, yet Mine is not the love of yesterday, it is not a passion like
that which flames within some men for a brief space and then quickly
goes out in darkness." It is God's eternal love that makes Him keep us
in memory! He has engraved us, from all eternity, upon the palms of His
hands and, therefore, He cannot forget us.
Next, God's suffering love secures His memory of us. Well did we sing,
just now–
"The palms of My hands while I look on I see The wounds I received when
suffering for thee!" Oh, how deeply the cruel engravers cut our names
in Christ's dear hands! Those nails that fastened Him to the Cross were
the engraving tools and He leaned hard while the iron pierced through
flesh, and nerve and vein. Yet the engraving of which our text speaks
is more than that, for the Lord Himself says, "I have engraved you upon
the palms of My hands." The sufferings of Christ for us were such that
never, by any possibility, can He forget us. Since He has died for us,
He will never cast us away. By His death, on Calvary's Cross, Christ
ensured that all those for whom He died shall live with Him in His
Kingdom as surely as He, Himself, lives. He paid not in vain such a
tremendous price–neither shall He lose any part of that which He has
thus purchased for Himself! What a blessed memorial, then, is not only
God's eternal love, but Christ's suffering love!
Yet again, by the expression, "I have engraved you upon the palms of My
hands," God seems to say, "I have done so much for you that I can never
forget you." God has actively worked for His people in many ways, but I
will only now mention what His Spirit has worked in you. What a theme
that is! And, from the fact that the Spirit of God has worked so much
in us, we derive the satisfaction that He will never forget us. A man
does not forget the work of His own hands, especially if it is
something very choice. I remember that, in the siege of Paris, a great
artist hid away a grand picture which was then but partly finished. Did
he forget to go to Paris when it had its liberty, and to seek out his
painting? Assuredly not! He remembered the work of his own hands and
back he went to draw it out and put the finishing touches to it. So God
has done too much for us for Him ever to lose us. Has He not created us
anew in Christ Jesus, and given His Spirit to dwell within us? Then,
surely, He will never turn away from work so costly, so Divine–but He
will complete it to His own praise and Glory!
But, once more, when a memorial is engraved on a man's hand, then it is
connected with the man's life. While he lives, that memorial is a part
of his life. So is it with God. He has linked His people with His life.
Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples, "Because I live, you shall live
also." The union between your Incarnate God and yourself is a thing
which is so complete that your life is intertwined with His life!
Christ and you have become one fabric. To tear you away would be to
destroy Him. "Your life is hidden with Christ in God" and until Christ
Himself shall die, His people shall not die. Oh, think of this wondrous
mystery! The ever-blessed Son of God is bound up in the bundle of life
with all His people!
This I take to be the meaning of the Lord's words, "I have engraved you
upon the palms of My hands." I cannot go deeper into this blessed
subject, but I pray God to take you deeper, for there is a great depth
here.
III. Now, Beloved, I turn to the third head of my discourse, upon which
I will be very brief. We have had a fear expressed and a comfort
bestowed. Now, here is AN INSPECTION INVITED. "Behold," says Jehovah,
"Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of My hands."
Come, then. "Behold." Look for yourselves. There is God the Father. Did
you say that He had forsaken you? But how can that be? Behold, and see.
He is your Father if you are trusting in His Son, Jesus Christ. Do you
forget, do you forsake your own children? Tell me! You had a boy who
well-near broke your heart. He went away and you were sadly glad when
he went, for he had so grieved you that you thought it better that he
should be out of sight. But have you forgotten him? Suppose he came
back tonight? 'Tis years, now, since he left you without your blessing.
Mother, you have never heard from him. Father, no tidings of your boy
ever come to you. But if, when you went home tonight, there should be a
big fellow sitting by the fireside–not your boy any longer, and yet
your own long lost son–after the first surprise and after you had seen
that it was your son, tell me, Mother, would you turn him out of doors
for all his ingratitude to you? Father, what would you do, first of
all? I know what I would do if it were my case–I would fondly kiss
that cheek, and bless God that I had lived to see my son again,
whatever he might have been, and however much he might have grieved me!
If you, then, being evil, neither forget nor forsake your children,
will your Father who is in Heaven forget you? Behold, and see if it is
possible! God the everlasting Father does so intensely love, so
Infinitely love His own children that it must never be dreamt for a
moment that it is possible for Him to forget any one of them!
Come, now, and look again. Behold, by faith, the second Person of the
Blessed Trinity in Unity, Jesus, the Lamb of God. Look at Him on the
Cross. Oh, what griefs He bore there for His people! Take down the
blessed body–(you can scarcely bear to handle it), and help to wrap it
in its linen cloths, and lay it in the tomb. Why did He suffer thus?
Why did He die? For His own loved ones! Then, can He ever forget them?
Is it possible? After all that agony, can Jesus forget? Oh, no! Our
children may forget us, but the mother remembers how she suffered for
the child and she loves it for the very pangs she endured in its birth.
She knows the struggles of her widowhood to find bread for the
child–how she starved herself to satisfy its hunger. Oh, what agony
and self-denial some parents have suffered for their children! But
these make them all the dearer and render it all the more impossible
that they should ever forget them. Well, then, remembering all this,
look into the face of your Savior, who died for you, and will you dare
to say that He can possibly forget you? It cannot be! He has engraved
you upon the palms of His hands and He will never forget or forsake
you!
Then think, also, of that dear and blessed Spirit of God who has come
into your heart and striven with you when you resisted Him and, at
last, won the day. And, since then, has helped your infirmities,
checked your hastiness, awakened you from your sloth and been
everything to you that He could be–and do you think that, after all
this, He will ever forget or forsake you? Oh, if He had meant to cast
you away, He has had many opportunities when He might have done so!
Surely, He would never have come to dwell in such a hovel as your
fallen nature is if He had not intended to transform it and make it
into a pure alabaster palace wherein the living God might dwell!
"Behold," says the Lord. That is, look into this great Truth of
God–look deeply into it–and then say to yourself, "My fears of being
forgotten or forsaken are all gone, for I am engraved upon the palms of
His hands."
IV. So I close by referring very briefly to the last point, which is
this, A RETURN SUGGESTED. I want, Brothers and Sisters, to speak in a
very homely and familiar way to each one of you and, at the same time,
to
be speaking to myself as well as to you.
Does Christ remember us as I have tried to prove that He does? Then,
let us remember Him. To that end He ordained that blessed Supper to
which many of us are presently coming–the eating of the bread and the
drinking of the cup in memory of Him. "This do you in remembrance of
Me." Now try to forget everything but your Lord and Savior. Pass an
act of oblivion on all your cares, troubles and sorrows–and only look
at Him as though, like a mysterious stranger, He stood at the pew door
and leaned over you, and you seemed to feel His shadow falling upon
you. Now think of Him, for He is very near you, and you are very near
to Him.
And, Brothers and Sisters, let us not only remember Him at His Table,
but let us remember Him constantly. Let us, as it were, carry His name
upon the palms of ourhands. Let us ask God to help us always to think
of Jesus–never to forget Him, but to have the memory of Him
intertwined with our very breathing, with the pulsing of our
blood–till our whole nature, like a bell, shall ring out but one note,
and that shall be love to Jesus! And our heart shall be like
Ana-creon's harp, of which he said that he wished to sing of the deeds
of Cadmus, but his heart and his harp resounded only love. Oh, for the
love of Christ to be the one all-engrossing, all-absorbing theme of our
entire being, till we truly say to Christ, "I have engraved You upon
the palms of my hands."
And, Brothers and Sisters, let us remember Christ practically. We ought
so to wear Christ on our hands that whatever we touch should be thereby
Christianized. I have heard of the "christening" of babies–that is an
idle superstition and a perversion of Christ's ordinance of Believers'
Baptism–but I believe in the Christening of everything a Christian
touches! Make it all Christ-like by doing everything in the name of the
Lord Jesus, as the Apostle Paul says, "Whether therefore you eat, or
drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." Thus engrave
His name upon the palms of your hands.
And, so Brothers and Sisters, let the name of Christ and your memory of
it become vital to you. Not with a broad phylactery, not with the
borders of your garments enlarged, not with outward signs and tokens of
which some think a good deal too much in these days–for true religion
consists not in a dress of this cut or that, nor does it lie in
boasting, like Pharisees, what we are, sounding our own praise at the
corners of the streets that all may know it and observe! True religion
lies in this–that we cannot live without Christ, that our ordinary
life becomes uplifted by the Christ who dwells within us till every
meal is a sacrament, every garment is a vestment, every place is an
altar, and the whole world a temple in which we are kings and priests
because God has made us so! Unto this may we each of us come, and come
now!
If any of you have not yet believed in Jesus, oh, how I wish you would!
As I am going away for a while, I shall not be able to speak personally
to you for some time to come, but I hope that those whom my voice has
failed to influence, may be reached by some other servant of the Lord
Jesus Christ who shall occupy this pulpit to speak to you in my
absence. Oh, that you all knew my Lord! There is none like Him! His
bonds are freedom! His service is rest! To die for Him is life! To live
for Him is Heaven! God bring you to Him and fasten you to Him forever!
Amen, and Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN14:1-21.
We have often read this chapter, both in our private meditations and at
our public worship, but we cannot read it too often. It is sweet as
honey and the honeycomb. It contains the very quintessence of
consolation. Every word in the chapter is rich and full of meaning.
Perhaps they understand it best who cannot read it quickly, but are
obliged to spell over every word of it and so are like those who feast
upon marrow and fatness.
Verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe
also in Me. That is the cure for heart-trouble, and all other trouble,
too–believing in God, and believing in His Son, Jesus Christ. Faith is
the double cure of trouble, for it delivers us altogether from the
trouble and, at the same time, it helps us to find sweetness in it as
long as we have to endure it. Notice that our Savior says, "Let not
your heartbe troubled." If your heart can be preserved from trouble,
you will not be greatly tried by it. Trouble is in your house, perhaps,
but, if so, let it not get into your heart. The waves beat all round
your vessel, but let not the vessel itself leak and take in the water.
"Let not your heart be troubled."
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. This was very largely
the cause of their trouble–they were full of sorrow because their Lord
and Master was going away from them. Yet He was going for their good.
It was with a set purpose that He was leaving them, and the same reason
still keeps Him away from us. We are not to mourn for Him as we might
for one slain in battle who would never come back to us. He has gone
for a little while to another country, to the great Father's House,
upon a most gracious and nec-
essary errand–"I go to prepare a place for you." The Spirit of God is
down here to prepare us for the place–the Son of God is up yonder to
prepare the place for us!
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. Do not
tell us about a "purgatory" for Christ's people, a limbo in which they
are to be awhile to be prepared to share His Glory. No, He will come at
the right time and take them to be where He is, and they shall have the
very place that Jesus has! "I will come again, and receive you unto
Myself; that where I am, there you may be also." Do you need a better
rest than that after all your work and warfare here below? Does not
this prospect cheer you while you are journeying down the hill of life?
It is better on ahead.
4. And where 1 go you know, and the way you know. "You know that I am
going to the Father, and you know that I am, Myself, the Way to the
Father; I am going from where I came."
5. 6. Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we knownot where You go; and how can
we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. "I am all that you need on your Way to Heaven–the Truth that
will make Heaven for you–and the Life which you will enjoy with Me
forever in Heaven. I give you all that while you are yet here
below."
6. No man comes unto the Father, but by Me. There is no getting to God
except through Christ. Those who say that we can go to Heaven without a
Mediator know not what they say, or say what they know to be a lie!
There can be no acceptable approach to the Father except by Jesus
Christ the Son!
7. If you had known Me, you should have known My Father also. For
Christ is also "the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father." All the
Character of God is seen in the Christ of God, and he who truly comes
to Christ has really come to the Father.
7. And from henceforth you know Him, and have seen Him. I hope that
this may be said of many of us, that we do truly know God and, since we
have seen Christ by faith, we have seen the Father also.
8. Philip said unto Him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.
What a comfort these questions and blunders of Thomas and Philip ought
to be to us, for it is clear that we are not the only dolts in Christ's
school! And if He could bear with them, He can bear with us also. Like
they, how little do we retain of that which He teaches us! We are
taught much, but we learn little, for we are such poor scholars. Our
memory holds but little and our understanding still less of what we
have been taught, and we are all too apt to want something that we can
see, just as Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices
us."
9-11. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long a 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? Don't you believe that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto
you, I speak not of Myself but the Father that dwells in Me, He does
the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or
else believe Me for the very works' sake. Note how the Master continued
to urge His disciples to believe. Again and again He returned to that
vital point–"Do you believe?".. .believe Me.. .believe Me." This He
did because there is no relief from heart-trouble but by believing the
everlasting Truth of God and especially by believing Him who is "the
Truth." The Believer, alone, has true peace of heart. The unbeliever is
tossed to and fro on the billows of the great ocean of doubt–how can
he rest? There is nothing for him to rest upon. Happily, Christ is
still saying, "Come unto Me, and I will give you rest," and they are
truly wise who accept His gracious invitation!
12. 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 When Christ had gone back to the Father, He
opened all Heaven's treasures for His people. He bestowed the Spirit of
all Grace, and so His servants were helped to do even greater works
than He, Himself, did while He was upon the earth. We cannot add
anything to His Atonement–that work must forever stand as complete and
unique–but there are other forms of service in which He engaged in His
earthly ministry, in which His servants have gone far beyond Him. The
Lord Jesus Christ never preached a sermon after which 3,000 were
converted and baptized in one day. To a large extent He kept His
personal ministry within the bounds of Palestine, but, after His
Resurrection, when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, then, in the
power of the Spirit, greater works than His were worked the wide world
over!
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. Is that promise true to every man? Certainly not!
It was made by Christ to His own disciples and not absolutely to all of
them, but only to them as they believe in Him, as they are filled with
His Spirit, and as they keep His commandments. There are some of God's
children who have little power with Him in prayer–some who walk so
disorderly that since they do not listen to God's Words, He will not
listen to theirs. Yet He will give them necessities as you give even to
your naughty and disobedient children. But He will not give them the
luxury of prevailing prayer and that full fellowship with Him which
comes through abiding in Him. Such luxuries He saves for His obedient
children who are filled with His Spirit. Even under the old
dispensation, David wrote, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall
you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed. Delight yourself
also in the Lord; and He shall give you the desires of your heart." And
in a very special sense, under the new dispensation, that spirituality
of mind which enables us to delight in God is a necessary antecedent to
our obtaining the desires of our heart in the high and spiritual sphere
of prayer.
15-17. If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I 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. The world is carnal. It is
unspiritual. Therefore, it is unable to see or to know the Spirit of
God. A man outside a spiritual nature cannot recognize the Holy
Spirit–he must be born again before he can do so. You who are only
soul and body need to receive that third and loftier principle–the
spirit which is worked in us by the Spirit of God! Until you have it,
this verse applies to you–"The Spirit of Truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it sees Him not, neither knows Him."
17. But you know Him. Christ's own disciples know Him.
17-19. For He dwells with you, andshall 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. Oh,
what a rich promise! How, then, can Christ's people ever perish? Until
Christ Himself perishes, no child of His can ever be lost!
20. At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me,
and I in you. Three wondrous mysteries of union–Christ in the Father,
the Church in Christ, and Christ in His Church.
21. 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. May we be such lovers of Christ
that He may love us and manifest Himself to us, for His name's sake!
Amen.