“I Will,” Yet, “Not As I Will”

"I Will," Yet, "Not As I Will"

(No. 2376)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1894.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JULY
1, 1883.

"Father, I will." "Not as I will." John 7:24, Matthew 16:39.

We have, here, two prayers uttered by the same Person, yet there is the
greatest possible contrast between them. How different men are at
different times! Yet Jesus was always essentially the same–"the same
yesterday, and today, and forever." Still, His mood and state of mind
varied from time to time. He seemed calmly happy when He prayed with
His disciples and said, "Father, I will that they, also, whom You have
given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My Glory, which
You have given Me." But He was in an agony when, in Gethsemane, having
withdrawn from His disciples and fallen on His face, He prayed, saying,
"O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me:
nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." It is the same Man and an
unchangeable Man, too, as to His essence, who uttered both prayers, yet
see how different were His frames of mind and how different the prayers
He offered! Brother, you may be the same man and quite as good a man
when you are groaning before God as when you are singing before Him.
There may be more Grace, even, in the submissive, "Not as I will," than
in the triumphant, "Father, I will." Do not judge yourselves to have
changed in your standing before God because you have undergone an
alteration as to your feelings. If your Master prayed so differently at
different times, you, who have not the fullness of Grace that He had,
must not wonder if you have a great variety of inward experiences.

Notice, also, that it was not only the same Person, but that He used
these two expressions almost at the same time. I do not know how many
minutes–I had better say minutes rather than hours–intervened between
the Last Supper, the wonderful high-priestly prayer and the agonizing
cries of Gethsemane. I suppose that it was only a short walk from
Jerusalem to the olive garden and that it would not occupy long to
traverse the distance. At one end of the walk Jesus prays, "Father, I
will," and at the other end of it, He says, "Not as I will." In like
manner, we may undergo great changes and have to alter the tone of our
prayers in just a few minutes. You prayed, just now, with holy
confidence. You took firm hold of the Covenant Angel and, with
wrestling Jacob, you said, "I will not let You go, except You bless
me." And yet it may be equally becoming on your part, within an hour,
to lie in the very dust and, in agony, cry unto the Lord, "Pardon my
prayers, forgive me that I was too bold, and hear me, now, as I cry to
You and say, 'Not as I will, but as You will.'"–

"If but my fainting heart is blessed With Your sweet Spirit for its
guest, My God, to You I leave the rest– 'Your will be done!'"

Never be ashamed because you have to mend your prayers! Be careful not
to make a mistake if you can help it, but, if you make one, do not be
ashamed to confess it and to correct it as far as you can. One of our
frequent mistakes is that we wonder that we make mistakes. Whenever a
man says, "I should never have thought that I could have done such a
foolish thing as that," it shows that he does not really know himself,
for had he known himself, he would rather have wondered that he did not
do worse, and he would have marveled that he acted as wisely as he did.
Only the Grace of God can teach us how to run our prayers down the
scale from the high note of, "Father, hear me, for You have said, 'Ask
what you will,'" right down to the deep, deep bass of, "Father, not as
I will, but as You will."

I must further remark that these two prayers were equally
characteristic of Christ. I think that I should know my Lord by His
voice in either of them. Who but the eternal Son of God may dare to
say, "Father, I will"? There speaks Incarnate Deity! That is the
sublime utterance of the well-beloved Son. And yet, who could say as He
said it, "If it is possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless
not as I will, but as You will." Perhaps you have uttered those words,
dear Friend, but in your case they were not concerning such a cup of
woe as Christ emptied! There were but a few drops of gall in your cup.
His was all bitterness, from the froth to the dregs–all
bitterness–and such bitterness as, thank God, you and I can never
taste! That cup He has drained to the dregs and we shall not have to
drink one drop from it. And it was of that cup that He said–and I
detect the voice of the Son of God, the Son of Man, in that brief
utterance–"Not as I will, but as You will."

My two texts make up a strange piece of music. Blessed are the lips
that know how to express the confidence that rises to the height as far
as we can go with Christ–and descends, even, to the deeps as far as we
can go with Him in full submission to the will of God! Does anybody say
that he cannot understand the contrast between these two prayers? Dear
Friend, it is to be explained thus. There was a difference of position
in the Suppliant on these two occasions. The first prayer, "Father, I
will," is the prayer of our great High Priest with all His heavenly
garments on–the blue, and purple, and fine twined linen, and the
pomegranates, and the golden bells, and the breastplate with the 12
precious stones bearing the names of His chosen people. It is our great
High Priest, in the Glory of His majestic office and power, who says to

God, "Father, I will."

The second Suppliant is not so much the Priest as the Victim. Our Lord
is there seen bound to the altar, about to feel the sacrificial knife,
about to be consumed with the sacrificial fire, and you hear Him as
though it were a lamb bleating, and the utterance is, "Not as I will,
but as You will." The first petition is the language of Christ in power
pleading for us. The second is the utterance of Christ made sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is the
difference of position that explains the contrast in the prayers.

Let me tell you, also, that there is a difference in the subject of His
supplication which is full of instruction. In the first prayer, where
our Lord says so majestically, "Father, I will," He is pleading for His
people. He is praying for what He knows to be the Father's will. He is
officiating, there, before God as the very mouthpiece of God, and
speaking of something about which He is perfectly clear and certain.
When you are praying for God's people, you may pray very boldly. When
you are pleading for God's cause, you may speak very positively. When
you know you are asking what is definitely promised in the Scriptures
as part of the Covenant ordered in all things and sure, you may ask
without hesitation, as our Lord did.

But, in the second case, Jesus was praying for Himself–"If it is
possible, let this cup pass from Me." He was praying about a matter,
concerning which He did not, as Man, know the Father's will, for He
says, "If it is possible." There is an, "if," in it–"If it is
possible, let this cup pass from Me." Whenever you go upstairs in an
agony of distress and begin to pray about yourself, and about a
possible escape from suffering, always say, under such circumstances,
"Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will." It may be given you,
sometimes, to pray very boldly even in such a case as that, but, if it
is not given you, take care that you do not presume. I may pray for
healing for my body, but not with such confidence as I pray for the
prosperity of Zion and the Glory of God. That which has to do with
myself I may ask as a child of God asks of his Father, but I must ask
submissively, leaving the decision wholly in His hands, feeling that,
because it is for myself, rather than for Him, I must say,
"Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will."

I think that there is a plain lesson, here, for Christians to take heed
that, while they are very confident on one subject for which they pray,
they are equally submissive on another, for there is a heavenly
blending in the Christian character, as there was in Christ's
Character, a firm confidence and yet an absolute yielding to the will
of God–let that will be what it may–

"Lord, my times are in Your hands. All my sanguine hopes ha ve planned
To Your wisdom I resign, And would make Your purpose mine."

Now all this while, you may say that I have only been going round the
text. Very well. But, sometimes, there is a good deal of instruction to
be picked up around a text. The manna fell round about the camp of
Israel. Perhaps there is some manna round about this text. May the Lord
help every one of us to gather his portion!

I want you now, for a few minutes, to view this great Suppliant in the
two moods in which He prayed, "Father, I will" and, "Not as I will,"
and then to combine the two. We will, first, view Jesus in the power of
His intercession. Next,

we will talk of Jesus in the power of His submission. And in the third
place, we will try to combine the two prayers, "I will," yet, "Not as I
will."

I. First, let us view Jesus IN THE POWER OF HIS INTERCESSION, saying,
"Father, I will." Where did He derive that power? Who enabled Him thus
to speak with God and say, "Father, I will?" First, Jesus prayed in the
power of His Sonship. Sons may say to a father what strangers may not
dare to say and such a Son as Jesus was so near to His Father's heart,
He was One who could say, "The Father has not left Me alone; for I
always do those things that please Him." He was One of whom the Father
had said, "This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Well
might He have power with God so as to be able to say, "Father, I will."

Next, He derived this power from the Father's eternal love to Him. Did
you notice how, in the very verse from which our text is taken, Jesus
says to His Father, "You loved Me before the foundation of the world"?
We cannot conceive what the love of the Father is to Christ Jesus His
Son! Remember, they are one in Essence. God is one–Father, Son and
Holy Spirit and, as the Incarnate God, Christ is unspeakably dear to
the Father's heart. There is nothing about Him of which the Father
disapproves. There is nothing lacking in Him which the Father would
desire to see there. He is God's ideal of Himself–"In Him dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Well may One who is the subject of
His Father's eternal love be able to say, "Father, I will."

But our Lord Jesus also based this prayer upon His finished work. I
grant you that He had not yet actually died, but in the certain
prospect of His doing so, He had said to His Father, "I have glorified
You on the earth: I have finished the work which You gave Me to do."
Now, He has actually finished it, He has been able, in the fullest
sense, to say, "It is finished," and He has gone up to take His place
in Glory at His Father's side. You remember the argument with which
Paul begins his Epistle to the Hebrews–"God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spoke in times past unto the fathers by the Prophets,
has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He has appointed
heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the
brightness of His Glory, and the express image of His Person and,
upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had, by Himself,
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
being made so much better than the angels, as He has, by inheritance,
obtained a more excellent name than they. For unto which of the angels
said He at any time, You are My Son, this day have I begotten You? And
again, I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son?"

When the Father looks at Christ, He sees in Him Atonement accomplished,
satisfaction presented, sin annihilated, the elect redeemed, the
Covenant ratified, the everlasting purpose settled on eternal
foundations! O Beloved, since Christ has magnified God's Law and made
it honorable–and since He has poured out His soul unto death–He may
well possess the power to say, "Father, I will."

Remember, too, that Jesus still possesses this power and possesses it
for you and for me. O my dear Hearers, you may well go to Christ and
accept Him as your Mediator and Intercessor, since all this power to
say, "Father, I will," is laid up in Him on purpose for poor believing
sinners who come and take Him to be their Savior! You say that you
cannot pray. Well, He can–ask Him to plead for you! And I thank God
that, sometimes, when we do not ask Him to plead for us, He does it all
the same, as He did for Peter, when Satan had desired to have him, but
Christ had prayed for him. Peter did not know his danger, but the
Savior did, and He pleaded for him at once. What a blessing it is to
think of Christ, clothed with Divine authority and power, using it all
for us! Well does Toplady sing–

"With cries and tears He offered up

His humble suit below!

But with authority He asks,

Enthroned in Glory now

For all that come to God by Him.

Salvation He demands,

Points to their names upon His breast

And spreads His wounded hands.

His Covenant and Sacrifice

Give sanction to His claim—-

'Father, I will that all My saints

Be with Me where I am.'"

Further, that power of Christ will land every Believer in Heaven.
Notice how Christ turns all His pleading with God that way. He says,
"Father, I will that they, also, whom You have given Me, be with Me
where I am; that they may behold My Glory." The devil says that we
shall never get to Heaven, but we remember that declaration of Moses,
"Your enemies shall be found liars unto you," and the arch-enemy will
be found to be the arch-liar, for the Lord's Prayer will be heard and,
as He pleads that those whom the Father gave Him should be brought up
to be with Him where He is, you may depend upon it that they will all
arrive safely in Heaven! And you, if you are among those who are given
to Christ– and you may know that by your faith in Him–shall be among
that blessed company!

I shall have finished with this first point when I have said this–that
power which Christ had, may, in a measure, be gained by all His people.
I dare not say and I would not say that any of us will ever be able to
utter our Savior's words, "Father, I will." But I do say this–if you
abide in Christ and His words abide in you–you may attain to such
power in prayer that you shall ask what you will and it shall be done
unto you. This is not a promise to all of you–no, not even to all of
you who are God's people–but only to those of you who live wholly unto
God and serve Him with all your heart. You can, by habitual communion
with God, attain to such power with the Most High that men shall say of
you what they used to say of Luther, "There goes a man who can ask what
he likes of God and have it." You may attain to that glorious altitude!
Oh, I would that every one of us would seek to reach this height of
power and blessing! It is not the feeble Christian. It is not the
worldly Christian who has just enough Grace to make him miserable–the
man who has only about enough Grace to keep him from being absolutely
immoral! That is not the man or woman who will prevail with God. You
paddlers in Christianity who scarcely wet your toes–you who never go
in beyond your ankles, or your knees–God will never give you this
privilege unless you go in for it! Get where the waters are deep enough
to swim and plunge in! Be perfectly consecrated to God! Yield your
whole lives to His Glory without reserve! Then may you obtain something
of your Master's power in prayer when He said, "Father, I will."

II. Now I ask you kindly to accompany me, in the second place, to
notice JESUS IN THE POWER OF HIS SUBMISSION. Our second text is all
submission–"Not as I will."

This utterance, "Not as I will," proved that the shrinking of Christ's
Nature from that dreadful cup were all overcome. I do not believe that
Christ was afraid to die. Do you believe that? Oh, no–many of His
servants have laughed at death! I am sure that He was not afraid to
die. What was it, then, that made that cup so awfully terrible? Jesus
was to be made sin for us. He was to come under the curse for us! He
was to feel the Father's wrath on account of human guilt and His whole
Nature, not only His flesh, but His whole Being shrank from that
fearful ordeal! It was not actual defilement that was to come upon Him,
but it looked like it and, as Man, He could not tell what that cup of
wrath must contain–

"Immanuel, sunk with dreadful woe,

Unfelt, unknown to all below–

Except the Son of God–

In agonizing pangs of soul

Drinks deep of wormwood's bitterest bowl,

And sweats great drops of blood." After dwelling in the love of God
from all eternity, He was, in a few hours, to bear the punishment of
man's sin, yet He must bear it and, therefore, He said, "Not as I will,
but as You will." Do you wonder that He prayed, "If it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me"? Is Christ to be blamed for this shrinking of
Nature? My dear Friends, if it had been a pleasure to Him and He had
had no shrinking, where would have been His holy courage? If it had not
been a horrible and dreadful thing to Him, where would have been His
submission, where would have been the virtue that made Atonement of it?
If it had been a thing that He could not, or must not, shrink from,
where would have been the pain, the wormwood, and the gall of it? The
cup must be, in the nature of things, something from which He that
bears it must shrink, or else it could not have been sufficient for the
redemption of His people and the vindication of the broken Law of God!
It was necessary, then, that Christ should, by such a prayer as this,
prove that He had overcome all the shrinking of His Nature.

"Not as I will," is also an evidence of Christ's complete submission to
the will of His Father. "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and,
as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opens not His mouth."
There is no resistance, no struggling. He gives Himself up completely.
"There," He seems to say to the Lord, "do what You will with Me; I
yield Myself absolutely to Your will." There was on Christ's part no
reserve, no wish, even, to make any reserve. I go further,

and say that Jesus willed as God willed–and even prayed that the will
of God, from which His Human Nature, at first, shrank, might be
fulfilled. "Nevertheless not as I will, but as You will."

O Brothers and Sisters–for you both need this Grace–pray God to help
you to learn how to copy your Lord in total submission! Have you
submitted to the Lord's will? Are you submitting now? Are not some of
you like bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke? There is a text, you know,
in the 131st Psalm, "My soul is even as a weaned child." I have
sometimes thought that, for some of the Lord's children, the passage
would have to be read, "My soul is even as a weaning child," and there
are many of God's people who are very long in the weaning! You cannot
get satisfaction, quiet and content, can you? Can you give yourself up
entirely to God, that He may do whatever He likes with you?

Have you some fear of a tumor, or a cancer? Is there before you the
prospect of a painful and dangerous operation? Is business going badly
with you, so that you will probably lose everything? Is a dear child
sickening? Is the mother likely to be taken away? Will you have to lose
your position and reputation if you are faithful to the Lord? Will you
be exposed to cruel slanders? Will you probably be cast out of your
employment if you do what is right? Come now, whatever you dread or
expect, can you give yourself up wholly to God and say, "It is the
Lord, let Him do what seem good to Him"? Your Lord and Master did–He
said, "Not as I will." Oh, that He might teach you this Divine art of
absolute resignation to the purpose and ordinance of God till you,
also, would be able to say, "Not as I will"! Thus you will sing–

"I bow to Your will, O God, and all Your ways adore! And every day I
live I'll seek To please You more and more!"

III. I have finished my discourse when I have just twisted these two
sayings together a little. So, thirdly, let us COMBINE THE TWO
PRAYERS– "I will," yet, "Not as I will."

First, let me say, Number One will help you very much to Number Two. If
you learn to pray with Christ, with the holy boldness that almost says,
"Father, I will," you are the man who will know how to say, "Not as I
will." Is it not strange that it should be so? It looks like a
contradiction, but I am sure that it is not so. The man who can have
his will with God is the very man who does not want his own way with
God. He who may have what he likes is the man who wishes to have what
God likes!

You remember the good old woman who lay near to death, and one said to
her, "Do you not expect to die soon?" She answered, "I do not know
whether I shall live or die and, what is more, I have no concern which
way it is." Then the friend asked, "But if you had your choice whether
you should live or die, which would you choose?" She replied, "I would
rather that the Lord's will should be done." "But suppose the Lord's
will were to leave it entirely to you to choose whichever you liked?"
"Then," she said, "I would kneel down and pray the Lord to choose for
me." And I think that is the best way to live–not to have any choice
at all, but to ask the Lord to choose for you! You can always have your
way, you know, when your way is God's way. The sure way to carry out
self-will is when self-will is nothing else but God's will! Oh, that
the Lord would teach us this mighty power with Him in prayer! It will
not be given without much close fellowship with Him. Then, when we know
that we can have what we will of Him, we shall be in the right state to
say, "Not as I will."

The next remark that I would make is, that Number Two is necessary for
Number One. That is to say, until you can say, "Not as I will," you
never will be able to say, "Father, I will." I believe that one reason
why people cannot prevail in prayer is because they will not yield to
God. And they cannot expect God to yield to them. God does this and
that with you, and you quarrel with Him. And then you go upstairs and
begin to pray–get down on your knees and make your peace with Him,
first–for if you must not come to the altar till you have become
reconciled unto your brother, how can you come to the Throne of Grace
till you have given up your quarrel with God?

But some people are never at peace with God. I have heard of a good
friend who lost a child and he was wearing mourning clothes several
years afterwards. And he was always fretting about the dear child, till
a Quaker said to him, "What? Have you not forgiven God yet?" And there
are some people who have not yet forgiven God for taking their loved
ones. They ought always to have blessed Him, for He never takes away
any but those whom He lent to us, and we should bless His name as much
for taking them, again, as for lending them to us. Dear Friends, you
must submit to the will of God or else you cannot have power with Him
in prayer.

"Well," you say, "you will not let me have my own way at all."
Certainly, I will not let you have your own way! But when you say,
"There, Lord, I have no quarrel with You. Do what You will with me,"
then He will say, "Rise, My child, ask what you will, and I will give
it to you; open your mouth wide and I will fill it."

Notice, also, dear Friends, that Jesus will help us to have Number One
and Number Two. He gives Himself over to us to teach us the power of
prevailing prayer, but He also gives Himself over to teach us the art
of blessed submission in prayer–and it is His will that these two
should not be separated. "Father, I will," is Christ's word on our
behalf. And, "Not as I will," is equally Christ's word on our behalf.
When you cannot pray either of these prayers as you would, fall back
upon Christ's prayer and claim it as your own.

Lastly, I think that true sonship will embody both Number One and
Number Two. It is the true child of God who knows that he is his
Father's child, who says, "Father, I will." He is often very bold where
another would be presumptuous. Oh, I have heard full often of
somebody's prayers–I will not say who the somebody is–he seems so
familiar with God in his prayer. Oh, yes, I know! You love those very
stately prayers in which the bounds are set about the mountain-top and
no man may dare to come near! You make the Throne of Grace to be like
Sinai was of old, of which the Lord said, "Whoever touches the mount
shall be surely put to death: there shall not an hand touch it, but he
shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it is beast or man, it
shall not live."

"Oh, but," you say, "so-and-so is so familiar at the Mercy Seat!" Yes,
I know, and you think that is a pity, do you not? Perhaps you are
acquainted with a judge. Look at him on the bench wearing his wig and
robe of office! But you will not dare to speak to him, there, unless
you address him as, "My Lord," and behave very respectfully to him.
By-and-by he goes home–and he has a little boy there, Master Johnny.
Why, the child has seized hold of his father's whiskers! There he is,
up on his father's back! "Why, Johnny, you are disrespectful!" "Oh, but
he is my father!" says the boy, and his father says, "Yes, Johnny, that
I am; and I do not want you to say, 'My Lord,' and talk to me as they
do in the court." So, there are certain liberties which God's children
may take with Him which He counts no liberties at all, but He loves to
be treated so by them. He will let each one of them say, "Father, I
will," because they are His children!

Then, mark you, you are not God's child unless you can also say,
"Father, not as I will." The true child bends before His father's will.
"Yes," he says, "I would like so-and-so." His father forbids it. "Then
I do not want it and I will not touch it." Or he says, "I do not like
to take that medicine, but my Father says I am to take it," and he
takes the cup and he drinks the whole of its contents. The true child
says, "Not as I will," although, after his measure, he also says,
"Father, I will."

I have only been talking to you who are the Lord's people. I hope you
have learned something from this subject. I know you have if the Lord
has taught you to pray after the fashion of these two prayers, as you
humbly, yet believingly may, copying your Lord.

But oh, what shall I say to those of you who are not the Lord's people?
If you do not know how to pray at all, may the Lord teach you! If you
do not yet know your needs, may the Lord instruct you! And let me tell
you that if ever there shall come a time when you feel your need of a
Savior, the Lord Jesus will be willing to receive you! If ever you
should yearn after Him, you can be sure that He is also yearning after
you. Even now–

"Kindled His relentings are,"

and if you will but breathe the penitent's prayer, "God be merciful to
me, a sinner," and turn your eye Christ-ward, and Cross-ward, there is
salvation for you even now! God grant that you may have it, for Jesus'
sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: John 17:15-26; Matthew26:36-46.

We will read, this evening, a portion of two prayers offered by our
Divine Lord and Master on that night in which He was betrayed. The
first is that memorable intercessory prayer of His recorded in the 17th
Chapter of the Gospel according to John.

John 17:15. I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but
that You should keep them from the Evil One. Christ did not pray that
His disciples should be taken out of the world. It is very seldom that
we ought to present such a petition. If that had been a proper prayer
for us to offer, it would have been authorized by the Master. There are
times

when, in great pain of body, or in deep depression of spirit, the
Believer, like Elijah under the juniper tree, requests for himself that
he may die. If you ever do pray such a prayer, utter it very softly,
for the Master does not authorize it and that is a matter that must be
left to the Lord of Life and Death. Jesus says here, "I pray not that
You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them
from the Evil One." Sin is the real evil of the world–the danger of
our being entangled in worldly customs, or dropping into the evil ways
of an ungodly generation. Christ prays that we may be kept from the
evil that is in the world and we, also, may and must pray that the Lord
will keep us from the evil by which we are surrounded–and especially
from the Evil One who seeks our destruction.

16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. "They are
of another race–they are swayed by other motives, they have another
life–they have another destiny, 'They are not of the world.'" Is that
true of you, dear Hearer? We are reading out of God's Book, remember.
This is the description of Christ's people–does it describe you? "They
are not of the world." They are not worldly, they are other-worldly.
Their thoughts and hearts are set upon the world to come."

17. Sanctify them through Your Truth: Your Word is Truth. What? Do they
need to be sanctified? They are not of the world and are kept from the
evil in the world–do they need to be sanctified? Yes, we shall always
need sanctifying until we reach our heavenly Home where sin cannot
enter. Every day we need the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit
to lead us unto holiness! "Sanctify them through Your Truth: Your Word
is Truth." It is only the Truth of God that can beget holiness. False
doctrine is never the medium of sanctification. You can tell which are
false doctrines and which are the true by our Lord's own test–"By
their fruits you shall know them." The same men who reject the
old-fashioned doctrines also rebel against the old-fashioned style of
living! Loose living generally goes with loose doctrine. There never
was an age in which the Doctrines of Grace were despised, but, sooner
or later, licentiousness prevailed. On the other hand, when we had
Puritan teaching, we had also pure and holy living. This prayer is
still needed for all Christ's disci-ples–"Sanctify them through Your
Truth: Your Word is Truth."

18. As you have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them
into the world. This is the original Missionary Society and the model
for all others. Christ sent, commissioned, of the Father, and every
saint commissioned of Christ. Are you carrying out your mission, O you
people of God? How dare you call yourselves by that name if you have no
mission to anybody! If you are living here only for yourself, how can
you belong to Christ who never lived a moment for Himself, but always
lived wholly for others?

19. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself. "I set Myself apart, as One
who is consecrated, dedicated, devoted to a grand design."

19. That they, also, might be sanctified through the Truth. This is our
Lord's prayer for His disciples. In the ninth verse we read, "I pray
for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which You have given
Me; for they are Yours." Now our Lord Jesus prays for those who are to
be His people. I wonder whether there are any of them here tonight?

20. Neither pray I for these, alone, but for them, also, which shall
believe in Me through their word. There is a great company of people
who are not, at present, Believers, but who shall yet believe on Christ
through the testimony of those who are already Believers on Him. O God,
call out many such through our word!

21. That they all may be one. This is Christ's prayer for all those who
shall believe on Him, that they may be converted and brought into the
one Church, together, with those who are already there–"that they all
may be one."

21. As You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they, also, may be
one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me. Christ
would have all His people joined in communion with Himself and with His
Father. And when that is the case, then will men know that Christ came
into the world for a definite purpose–"that the world may believe that
You have sent Me."

22- 23. And the glory which you gave Me, I have given them; that they
may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and You in Me, that they may
be made perfect in one. Christ is the Incarnation of God, and the
Church should be the incarnation of Christ. Oh, when shall this great
prayer be answered?

23- 26. And that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have
loved them, as You have loved Me. Father, I will that they, also, whom
You have given Me, be with Me where I am, that they may behold My
Glory, which You have given Me: for You loved Me before the foundation
of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known You: but I
have known You, and these have known that You have sent Me. And I have
declared unto them Your name, and will declare it: that the

love wherewith You have loved Me may be in them, and I in them. A very
short time after our Divine Lord offered this intercessory
supplication, He prayed a very different prayer, in a strangely-altered
style. You will find it in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter
twenty-six. Remember that there was a very short interval between the
utterance of the majestic prayer I have been reading and the
presentation of the cries and tears of which we are now to read.

Matthew 26:36-40. Then came Jesus with them unto a place called
Gethsemane, and said unto the disciples, Sit you here, while I go and
pray yonder. And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee,
and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then said He unto them, My
soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death: tarry you here, and
watch with Me. And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and
prayed, saying, O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from
Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as You will. And He came unto the
disciples and found them asleep, and said unto Peter, What, could you
not watch with Me one hour? He felt the need of human sympathy in that
awful hour. Yet He trod the winepress alone.

41. Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation: the spirit,
indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak. Admire the tenderness of
Jesus in making this apology for His disciples. What He said about them
was true, but it is not everybody who would have uttered that gentle
truth at such a trying time. Dear Friends, make excuses for one another
whenever you can! Never make them for yourselves, but often make them
for others, and especially when some treat you as you think very
untenderly, be the more tender towards them.

42-44. He went away, again, the second time, and prayed, saying, O My
Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Your
will be done. And He came and found them asleep again: for their eyes
were heavy. And He left them, and went away, again, and prayed the
third time, saying the same words. You cannot use much variety of
language when your heart is very heavy. You will usually dwell upon
just a few words at such a time. Do not blame yourself for doing so–it
is natural, and it is right. Even your Lord, the Master of language,
"prayed the third time, saying the same words."

45, 46. Then came He to His disciples, and said unto them, Sleep on
now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of
Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going:
behold, he is at hand that does betray Me. May the Master never have to
say this concerning any of us, for His dear name's sake! Amen.