Despised Light Withdrawn

Despised Light Withdrawn

(No. 2413)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, MAY 19, 1895.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, MAY
15, 1887.

"While you have light, believe in the light, that you may be the
children of light. These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide
Himself from them." John 12:36.

OUR Savior was very gentle with those who had real difficulties. He
would argue with them over and over again. He would state a Truth of
God, and re-state it. He would cast it into the form of a parable, or
He would condense it into a sentence comparable to a proverb, or He
would enlarge and expand it, for He was gentle with seeking souls as a
nurse is with her child. I do not believe that there is any real
difficulty in the hearts of those of you who are sincerely seeking
Jesus that He will despise. He will not quench the smoking flax, nor
break the bruised reed and, therefore, come to Him with your doubts and
your anxieties, believing that His tender heart so loves you and so
desires your good, that He will sit at your feet that He may induce you
to sit at His feet–He will come down to your level that He may lift
you up to His level!

I notice, however, that, while it is true that our gracious Master was
very gentle and patient with those who had real difficulties, yet He
did not always answer everybody's objection. When the difficulty was
raised for the sake of questioning and disputing, when it was mere
quibbling, when the enquirers were not in earnest and did not really
wish to know the Truth of God, He often declined to answer them. My
Master has no desire to be merely victor in a debate–He did not come
into the world to fight a battle of logic just for the sake of winning
it. It is you and your salvation that He is seeking!

So was it in the case of these Jews–when they came with fresh
objections, saying, "Who is this Son of Man?" our Lord, instead of
replying to them, exhorted them to believe and walk in the light while
they had it. He assumed that He was the Light–He took that as a thing
which had been proven–He did not go over that ground, again, but He
let the quibblers know that He claimed to be the Light of Life, the
Light of God whereby men can come to God. And He pressed them to cease
from questioning and to begin to practice real and true dealing with
Himself. "While you have light," He said, "believe in the light, that
you may be the children of light."

I am not going, on this occasion, to attempt to meet any difficulties,
or to answer any questions. The most of you have no difficulties about
the way of salvation and many whom I address, here, have done with
asking questions about Christ. The point is, how to come to a practical
decision. Spirit of the Living God, make this the day and this the hour
when many shall believe in the great Light of God, and shall be made
the children of Light once and for all!

I. First of all, I shall call your attention to a very solemn matter
which may be described as THE THREATENED END TO A TIME OF
PRIVILEGE–"while you have the light." You have no freehold possession
of it. You have the light, but the time of light will come to an end.
Observe the 35th verse, "Yet a little while is the light with you." You
have it at present, but it will soon be gone from you. Take heed lest
it be gone before you have used it, for when it has once been
withdrawn, darkness will come upon you and, "He that walks in darkness
knows not where he goes."

Now what was this light of which our Lord thus spoke? To the Jews, it
was the light of the Presence of Christ. It was a great privilege,
indeed, for the people living in that age and in that country to have
the Son of God among them bodily. John tells us that there were some
few who beheld His Glory, "the Glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of Grace and Truth," but the vast multitude were so
blinded that, with God, Himself, in their midst in the Person of His
Son, Jesus Christ, they did not perceive who the illustrious Stranger
was! He came and He went away, again, and they knew not who it was that
they had rejected, "for," as Paul said in writing to the Corinthians,
"had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory."
That was the Light of God that the Jews had–and which they lost.

Christ has never personally come to you, dear Friends, in the flesh,
but the light of His Gospel is still with you, and in a sense, that is
His Presence, for Jesus is the very Life of the Gospel. There is also a
light that comes to some men, I might even say in human form, for there
are some ministers whom God specially appoints as His representatives
to bless others. I cannot help looking back in history to such men as
Whitefield and Wesley and their companions in that great revival
period. It was a time of bright light while they were among the sons of
men! They flew like flaming seraphs over this land, leaving a trail of
light behind them which banished much of the darkness in which England
had been shrouded. It was a great privilege to have heard those men
and, when they were gone, to a large extent, and to many people, the
Light of God went with them." There are some preachers still on the
earth whom God blesses very greatly in the conversion of souls, men
whom you cannot hear without being profited in your souls.

Without exalting anybody or depreciating anybody, it is a fact that
there are some preachers who do not touch your heart and do not stir
your spirit–they may be very useful to others and useful in other
directions–but they are not of service to you. On the other hand,
there are those whom God does bless to your soul and if you find
anywhere, in this Tabernacle, or in any other House of Prayer where
Christ is preached, a voice that really moves you, it is, so to speak,
a manifestation of the Light of God to you. Do not, I beseech you, play
with it, or trifle with it, for whoever the preacher may be, however
humble the instrumentality, if it is instrumentality that is adapted to
your case, it should be honored in your conscience and it should be
highly regarded in your heart! That light may readily enough be
quenched. The preacher and his hearers may be separated. He may be
taken from you, or you may be taken from him. In either case, it may be
a very sorrowful experience for you to have to look back upon all you
heard and saw in those days when there was an instrumentality exactly
suited to your case and yet you refused to be moved by it.

We have always with us the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you can read in
this Book whenever you will, but the Holy Spirit must go with the
Gospel to make it the power of God unto salvation! You cannot see the
Light that is in the Word unless the Holy Spirit reveals it to you.
Some of you have been under the influence of the Holy Spirit in some
measure and degree. There have been times when you have seen sin and
have stood aghast at it, when you have seen the Savior, and have
admired His blood and righteousness. There have been times when you
have been strangely inclined to come away from yourself and your sin,
and to come to Jesus and be saved, You remember those powerful
drawings, those inward strivings. Remember that this work of the Holy
Spirit is but for a time, it lasts not forever. Those solemn words are
still true, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." A day may
come when the same preaching that now greatly stirs you, will have no
influence over you–and when the Spirit of God, Himself, will seem to
be entirely absent, both from the means of Grace and from the Bible
when you read it. Therefore I put before you this serious
consideration, that you are at present favored with the Light of God,
but you are only favored with it for a certain term.

Do not reckon upon always having it, for the Light may be removed from
you. My dear Hearer, the day may come when you will have to go away
from this country and be found far off in the bush of Australia, or the
backwoods of America. Or you may even, in this country, be located
where you will not be able to hear the Gospel, for what you will hear
will not be the Gospel, and you will be obliged to confess that it is
not! Therefore, while you have the Light of God, remember that it is a
favorable season for your decision for Christ. The day may come, as I
said before, when the voice that has thrilled you, again and again, and
that wakes the echoes of your soul's most secret chambers, shall be
silent in death. The time may come when, although your minister and
you, yourself, are still left in the same place, yet, so far as you are
concerned, the Holy Spirit will be gone, and so the Light will have
departed from you.

Take heed, I beseech you, lest it really be so, and use the Light while
you have it. It may, perhaps, seem to some of you that I am raising a
needless alarm, but, indeed, it is not so. I do not think that, for
many a day, I have come to this platform to speak to you without being
informed, during the day, of some one or two who have passed into
eternity out of this congregation. Years ago the bulk of us, as Church
members, were young, and we lost comparatively few by the stroke of
death. But, as it is with the pastor, so is it with the people–we are
all getting older. We have entered middle life, the great mass of us,
and, consequently, our mortality is largely increasing–and every time
we meet we may be positively certain that we shall never, all of us,
meet again here!

Between this Sabbath and next Sabbath some in the ranks of our
membership will have passed into Heaven–and some out of our
congregation will have been called to stand before God. I feel,
therefore, like the guard of a train that is just ready to start. The
time is up for us to be off and the guard's whistle has been blown, but
there is somebody who wants to talk to me about politics, or there is
another person who wants to discuss a theological difficulty, and I
feel bound to say, "Sir, the time is up. We must start at once–will
you come on board, or must you be left behind? While the train is here
at the platform, enter it, take your place, and journey with us to
Zion, for now it is time for us to go! We cannot stop here forever."
Time and tide wait for no man! Neither will God forever wait for men to
turn unto Him and live–the hour shall come when all opportunities will
be past–when the gate of mercy will be finally shut. You remember how
it was with the wise virgins and the bridegroom, "they that were ready
went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut."

God bless that Word of warning! He can bless it, however feebly it may
have been spoken!

II. Now, secondly, I take you a little further into our theme. Here is
AN ACT OF GRACE COMMENDED–"While you have the light, believe in the
light." This believing is the most essential act of a man's life!
Therefore our Lord said, "Believe in the light."

First, believe that it is the true Light of God, believe the Gospel to
be of God! Many here have proven in their own experience that it is of
God and that, "it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes." That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into this world and
was made Man. That as Man He took upon Himself the sin of His people
and suffered for us, "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to God," is
most assuredly true! And, that in His name there is salvation, that in
Him we have eternal life is, also, equally true. "He that believes on
the Son has everlasting life," even now. Believe this to be true.

"Well, I do believe it to be true," says one, "but I am not saved for
all that." Then, next, I pray the Holy Spirit to help you to go a
little further. Not only believe the Gospel to be of God, but believe
Jesus Christ, Himself. There is a text that is often misquoted–I have
many a time heard it said, "I know in whom I have believed," but Paul
wrote, "I know whom I have believed." He had not only believed in
Christ, but he had believed Christ! I want you, dear Friend, if you are
sincerely seeking salvation, to believe Christ. Believe Him to be what
He says He is–believe that everything He says is true–believe that
He, Himself, does save, and can save, and will save you! So believe Him
as to hand yourself over to Him and take Him to be your Savior! In a
word, as our text says, "while you have light, believe in the light."

It is essential, also, that you should believe for yourselves. It is no
use for people to try to believe the Gospel for their friends or for
their children. Believe it for yourselves! I notice that some unsaved
persons will read with great interest accounts of conversions and even
feel pleasure in hearing of this and that man being saved. My dear
Friend, why not believe Christ yourself? Why not take Him to be your
own Savior? Remember that it is true to you that, "He that believes in
the Son has everlasting life." May you be led at this moment to make it
true to yourself! You stand in a banqueting-hall tonight–the tables
are delightfully spread with every kind of food that your hunger can
crave and every drink that is suitable to quench your thirst–you have
been up and down those table–and admired the generosity of Him that
furnished them so liberally. And you have rejoiced as you have seen
others sit down and feast!

Now I want you to do this. There is the chair for you. What is next?
Sit down at the table and begin to feast. It is you, yourself, who will
find the Gospel true! It is your own personal participation in this
feast that shall be to you, your joy and your salvation! You do not
simply need a Savior–knock that little letter "a" out and put in the
blessed pronoun, "my," and say from your heart, "my Savior!" Do not
merely say, "I believe that there is pardon for sin"–take Christ to be
your own Savior and then you are pardoned–your sin is gone! All that
is said in the Word of God to sinners in general is meant for each
sinner in particular when he comes and takes it to himself by his own
individual faith. There is a passage in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress
where he says–"These are the generals; come to particulars, Man." That
is just what I want to say to you! All that you have heard, all that we
have preached, may be put down as generals. But if it is to benefit
you, you must come to particulars, you must personally appropriate the
general Truth of God and say, "This is for me. This I believe. This I
will take. This Savior is mine."

"Still," says one, "suppose that I should take what was not mine." That
is a supposition which every honest man might fairly suggest, but, in
this case, so free is the Gospel that you may freely take it and there
will be no question about whether you had a right to it. Look, there is
a hungry dog! He rushes into a butcher's shop, jumps up, steals a piece
of meat and runs off with it. It is hardly worth the butcher's while to
run after him, to take it away, but if the dog has actually eaten the
meat, then I am sure that no sensible butcher will even think of taking
it away from him. Now, I would advise you to make a snatch at the
Gospel and hungrily devour it by a ravenous faith–and I am sure that
no one will ever take it away from you! Have you ever read that promise
of our Lord, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out"? I see
the Savior standing there and His different disciples come to Him, one
after another, and He does not put one of them away from Him!

At last there comes a filthy beggar, leprous as snow–the white scales
are on his brow and men flee in terror from him! He comes right up to
the Christ and tries to get into His arms. Will He not push Him away?
No, for He says, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out," and
He embraces this filthy, leprous beggar and, wonder of wonders, as He
presses Him to His breast, the leprosy is healed, the filth is all gone
and His rags are transformed to shining raiment! Wonders of Grace
belong to Christ! Come along with you, then, and try Him for
yourselves! Did He not Himself say, "While you have light, believe in
the light"? If you dare to believe in that Light, you shall make no
sort of mistake, for Jesus, Himself, bids you to do so!

Very often, at the bottom of our unbelief, there lies this thought, "I
am, after all, somebody of importance." It is the old story of Naaman
all over again. He went to the house of Elisha, we are told, "with his
horses and with his chariot." That equipage was a very important part
of the real Naaman–his horses and his chariot went to show that he was
a great man with his master and he would have Elisha to know that he
was a great man and honorable, albeit that he was a leper. Such a great
man, when he goes to the Prophet's door, down that narrow street in the
city of Samaria, must still have his horses and his chariot! The
coachman thought he never would get down that lane but Naaman said,
"You must drive right up to the door. I must go with my horses and with
my chariot." The man of God was indoors and Elisha knew how to treat
the proud warrior–he did not even go out to him–he sent a message to
him, saying, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall
come, again, to you, and you shall be clean."

Naaman thought that Elisha should have come out to him! He said, "I
thought, he will surely come out to me; the proudest man in all Syria
has been glad to unloose the laces of my shoes! Did I not come to the
Prophet's door with my horses and my chariot? Yet he sent out a bit of
a boy, or a servant girl, with a message to me! Then, besides, he tells
me to wash! Does he think that I do not wash? I, a prince of Syria,
need washing? And if I needed washing, must I come all the way to
Jordan to wash in that paltry stream? No, there are Abana and Pharpar,
back there at Damascus, the rivers of my very respectable country–may
I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage."
Yet you know that when he came to a proper state of mind, he did as the
Prophet bade him–he washed seven times in Jordan and his leprosy was
cleansed. Thus, proud sinner, obey the Gospel command, "Believe and
live," and you, too, shall be made whole!

III. I want you, now, to advance another step. I have almost
anticipated this third point–"While you have light, believe in the
light, that you may be the children of light." Here is A RESULT OF
FAITH MENTIONED.

They who believe in Christ receive a change of nature. They were born
heirs of wrath, but, by Grace they become children of the Light of God.
"You were sometimes darkness, but now are you light in the Lord," as
soon as you have believed in Jesus Christ! This new birth, this
regeneration, is a great puzzle to many poor sinners. One asks, "How
can I make myself a new creature in Christ?" Of course, you can do
nothing of the kind! This is a miracle–it is as much a work of God to
make us children of light as it was to make light in the first place!
Only God can work this miracle, but mark you this, there never was a
soul, yet, that truly believed in Christ, but at the same time it
underwent the change called the new birth or regeneration. Christians
have often been asked about which is first, faith or regeneration,
belief in Christ or being born again. I will tell you, when you answer
me this question–When a wheel moves, which spoke moves first? "Oh,
they all start together!" you say. So these other things all start
together, whether it is the hub of the wheel, which is regeneration, or
the spokes of the wheel, which are faith, repentance, hope, love and so
on–when the wheel moves, it all moves at once!

If you believe in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, in the moment that
you believe, this great change of nature is effected in you, for faith
has, in itself, a singularly transforming power. It is a fact in
everyday experience that when a man comes to believe in his employer,
he becomes, at once, a better employee. A person whom I disliked,
because I suspected him, becomes, at once, pleasing to me as soon as I
trust him. So, faith towards God, in itself, produces a total change of
mind in the man who has it.

But, beside that, there goes with faith a Divine energy which changes
the heart of man. I have heard of an old sinner who had been in prison
many a day, growing gray in his iniquity, who took a little child up in
his arms, and, as he put his hand upon the boy's curly head, he said,
"There would be some hope for me if I could become like this little
child." Now, that is exactly what God can do for you! If you believe in
Jesus Christ, you shall receive a new and childlike nature. There shall
be created in you something better than what is called the primitive
innocence of infancy–it shall be a really pure and holy life that
shall be given to you and you shall become a new creature in Christ
Jesus!

Is not this very wonderful? The text says, "Believe in the light, that
you may be the children of light." The children of light–what a
wonderful picture that might be if I were an artist and could exercise
the power of word painting which some have! "The children of light."
Why, in the morning, when the sun first shines forth, those myriads of
dew-drops, all brighter than diamonds of the first water–these are the
children of light! And those innumerable flowers that open their cups
and sweeten the air with their dainty perfume–these are the children
of light! And those birds that have been slumbering away, there, during
the night, in their hidden corners in the grove, come out and begin at
once their charming minstrelsy, for they are the children of the light!
I cannot tell you how many and how bright are these things in nature
which are the children of light, but God can make us, by His Grace, to
be like these things, only far better, children of light spiritually.

What are the children of light spiritually? Well, I have met with some
of them and it has been a great joy to know them, for these children of
light have a great delight in the Truth of God. They are not afraid of
it, they love to dive into it! As children of light they like to know,
they wish to know, even the deep things of God. They do not shut their
eyes to the Truth of God about eternity. They do not refuse to search
their own hearts. They are children of the Light of God and they desire
the Light of God to shine! They come to the Light of God that their
hearts, their thoughts and their works may be made manifest. They
delight to know the Truth of God–error and falsehood are loathsome to
them–but that which is true is charming to their judgment.

"Children of light." They are those who move in a world of knowledge.
They have come to know what others do not know. To them the world is
peopled with invisible beings! To them eternal things are no dreams,
but they have become realities. Their eyes have been opened to a Light
that shines not from the sun and they move in an atmosphere in which
they behold things which the telescope cannot reveal. They are children
of the Light of God who have come into a world of perception and
discoveries to which others are strangers!

"Children of light." I will tell you, again, how you may know them.
They practice truth. They speak the truth. It is said that an
ambassador is a gentleman who is sent abroad to lie for the good of his
country. I suppose that common saying is so nearly true that we need
not correct it. And a politician is often a gentleman who has learned
the art of concealing his thoughts, or who expresses opinions which he
trusts will be in accordance with those of his constituency! A child of
God is a man who says what he believes, let the world believe it or
not! He does not understand, "policy." He is no mariner who trims his
sail to every shifting wind but, believing in the difference between
right and wrong, he chooses the right and eschews the wrong, for he is
a child of the Light of God! He has made up his mind to follow the
right, the true, the good and the gracious at all costs. Now, that is
what faith in Christ will do for you. It will make you, by the good
Spirit of God, to be a child of light!

A child of light, further, is one who exhibits the mind and character
of God. He is not an earthworm, hiding himself away in the mold. He is
not a rat which loves to be behind the wainscot except at nighttime–he
is a child of light. He wears his heart upon his sleeve where birds may
peck at it and they will do so, but that will not affect him. It is not
for him to conceal anything–what has he to conceal? He lives in the
sight of the eternal God and, as for how he appears in the sight of
men, what is that to him? Such an one condemns me, but God acquits me,
so let the other condemn if he will, what does it matter to me? Such a
man acquits and applauds me, but if God condemns me, the acquittal of
man is less than nothing and vanity! A child of light should be very
bold for his Lord.

You remember that the times were horribly dark in the days when William
Farel lived in Switzerland and young John Calvin had written his
weighty volumes of treatises called the Institutes. They were the
product of his early days and he wrote in a flowing style, either in
French or Latin, and he thought, if he wrote books and sent them forth,
he would have done his part towards the Reformation. But Farel
discovered this young writer and said to him, "You must take up the
work of the Reformers and carry it on by preaching the Truth." Calvin
replied, "I am a bookish man, I have not the courage and the strength
to stand out in the front of the battle–that is for men like Martin
Luther. I am a studious person and not so much a man of action."

Farel reasoned with him and said, "You must come out and take the lead
in this Reformation fight," and he asked him, "Are you afraid of losing
your life?" Calvin protested that he had no such fear, he would
willingly lay down his life for Jesus Christ if that were necessary,
but he shrank from the tumult of controversy." Then Farel pronounced
upon him a curse so terrible, if he did not immediately come and take
his proper place, that John Calvin had to yield and he never doubted
afterwards, but was always to the front, and always the bravest of the
brave! I have often admired the noble veteran, Farel, who could not
tolerate that this young man, with so much in him, should simply hold
the pen and keep in the background, but threatened that the Lord would
follow him with all the vials of His vengeance if he did not take his
place at the post of duty. I should like now, if I could, to put my
hand upon the shoulder of some young Brother, and call upon him to come
out to serve his Lord. I feel myself, tonight, like an Elijah to
you–and I charge you, Elisha, quit the cattle and betake yourself to
this prophetic ministry! God calls you to it and woe be to you if you
stay back from it!

Again, a child of light is one who, by God's Grace, is bright, happy,
restful, full of joy, life, fruitfulness. These are the children of the
Light of God and if we believe in Christ, who is the Light of God, and
take Him to ourselves with all our hearts, then we shall be the
children of Light. I pray that some of you may become the children of
Light even tonight. O God, work miracles of mercy in this house!
Jehovah, true God, when You answer by fire, then are You known to be
God and the priests of Baal flee away. If you will convert men by Your
own Omnipotent Grace, they will worship and adore You. If You will not
do this, what can my voice do? Pray, O you people of God, that He may
bring those who have His Light to believe in the Light and to become
the children of Light! These people to whom Christ spoke were bigoted
persecuting Jews, yet He said, even to them, "Believe in the light,
that you may be the children of light." Whoever may be in my
congregation tonight–and doubtless there is a mixed medley here–there
are none within these walls whom the power of Divine Grace cannot at
this moment save! Our Lord Jesus Christ is as able to save the most
abandoned as the most moral and to bring to Himself the most skeptical
as well as the most credulous! May that miracle be worked in our midst
by His great Grace!

IV. My last point is, A GRIEVOUS CLOSE TO A SERMON.

Christ Himself was the Preacher on this occasion–do you, therefore,
infer that these people believed? Let me read to you what happened when
the sermon was done. They gathered about that extempore pulpit from
which Jesus had addressed them, but, all of a sudden, they could
scarcely tell how, He was gone! They said one to another, "Where is
He?" According to the latter part of our text, this happened at the
close of Christ's sermon–"These things spoke Jesus, and departed, and
did hide Himself from them." So, although He had preached as never man
preached, though His very soul had run over at His lips in a mighty
cascade of love, yet His hearers were not converted, but the Divine
Preacher had to go and hide Himself from their malicious violence! The
preacher, on this occasion, will not have to do that. No one will seek
his life, or try to do him injury, but it is a sad reflection that the
same result may follow as followed from Christ's own preaching. Men may
go their way with their eyes blinded and the question of Isaiah may
have to be repeated again and again, "Who has believed our report? And
to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"

Do you blame Jesus because these people rejected His testimony? Do you
blame Jesus because He had to escape from their violence? No, no, no–a
thousand times, no! And "in that day," in that last dread Day of
Judgment, I trust that you will exonerate me from all blame if you are
lost, for I have earnestly exhorted you to believe in Jesus, and in
Jesus only! There is salvation to be had in Him–will you have it, or
will you not? I would gladly grip your hand, to detain you, as that
"ancient mariner," of whom Coleridge tells us in his weird poem,
transfixed with his glittering eyes the wedding guest, and held him
when he wanted to be gone, and I would pray you to remember that
tonight may be the turning point, the deciding hour, of your eternal
destiny! The scales, I see, are quivering–which way shall they turn? O
blessed Christ, cast Your Cross in the balance and turn it, tonight,
for the salvation of each one before You, and unto Your name shall be
praise forever and ever! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON:

Verses 20-24. Now there were certain Greeks among those who came up to
worship at the feast. Then they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida
of Galilee, and asked him, saying, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip
came and told Andrew, and in turn Andrew and Philip told Jesus. But
Jesus answered them, saying, "The hour has come that the Son of Man
should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of
wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies,
it produces much grain." I think that our Savior looked upon these
Greeks as a sort of vanguard of the great army of Gentiles who would
come to Him as the result of His death, but He fixed His eyes upon the
cause rather than the result, and so He began to talk about that death
of His, and how it was that it would work such glorious results. If you
want a corn of wheat to grow, you must put it into the ground. It must
be resolved into its primary particles–for that is what, "to die,"
means–and then it must spring up, again, with newness of life, or else
it can never be multiplied. It was so with the Lord Jesus, Himself. It
is still so with us, it is in proportion as we, ourselves, shall be
prepared to die that we shall be prepared to give life to others.

25. He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. To hoard your energies will
be really to destroy them, like hoarded wheat which, in the end,
becomes useless. But to give up your energies, to expend your life
forces–this is to sow the wheat–and this is the way to ensure the
harvest.

26. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me. Do not let him invent some
new method of service–"Let him follow Me." If you would do Christ a
service, it cannot be by will-worship, or by any way of your own
devising! "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me."

26. And where l am, there shall also My servant be. "He shall be with
Me in tribulation. He shall be with Me in hu-miliation–and he shall
ultimately be with Me in triumph and in Glory."

26. If anyone serves Me, him will My Father honor. Those servants of
Christ who follow at their Master's heel and do His bidding at all
times, are the true knights of the King who win the honors that God
alone can give.

27. Now is My soul troubled and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from
this hour?' But for this cause came I unto this hour. Often, my
Brothers and Sisters, should we be checked in prayer if we would be as
wise as our Lord. "What shall I say? Shall I ask to be delivered from
sickness? Shall I ask that I may not endure the troubles which are the
common lot of men? Shall I pray to be screened from persecution?" You
see, I am rendering our Lord's question into our language, bringing it
down from the lofty height of His Divine thoughts to the level of our
poor humanity! We must often pause before we pray, and say with our
Lord, "For this cause came I unto this hour. Have I not been brought
here on purpose to suffer? Have I not been led to this place that I may
glorify God by submitting to all His will?" Therefore, sometimes let us
check ourselves in prayer lest we should ask what is not for our own
good or for God's Glory. The next word of the Savior will give us
liberty enough, for He went on to say–

28. Father, glorify Your name. When we are pleading about that glorious
name of Jehovah, we may pray with vehemence and importunity–"Father,
whatever I do or suffer, glorify Your name."

28, 29. Then came there a voice from Heaven, saying, I have both
glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that
stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel
spoke to Him. Ah, they did not understand the voice of God, or the
cause of the voice speaking to them. If the men of the world in our
Savior's day did not understand the Father's voice to the
Only-Begotten, do not expect that the men of the world, today, will
understand the Divine voice in your heart. They will reckon that you
are in error and that God has not spoken to you–it has only thundered.
They will be ready to invent all kinds of stories of angels and I know
not what, so as to get rid of the voice of God to you. But you know
it–if you are God's children, you know His voice and you also know
what He means when He speaks!

30-32. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but
for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince
of this world be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto Me. This is the sermon which has the Greeks for
a text. They are already coming, being drawn to Christ, but when He
dies, when He is lifted up upon the Cross, instead of losing His
attractive power, He will have greater drawing force than ever–"I, if
I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

33, 34. This He said, signifying what death He should die. The people
answered Him. As they were always doing, capaciously answering–not
answering Him with sentiments that responded to His, but replying
against Him with their caviling.

34-41. We have heard out of the Law that Christ abides forever: and how
can say You, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up?' Who is this Son of
Man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with
you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he
that walks in darkness knows not where he goes. While you have light,
believe in the light, that you may be the children of light. These
things spoke Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himselffrom them. But
though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not
on Him: that the saying of Isaiah the Prophet might be fulfilled, which
he spoke, 'Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm
of the Lord been revealed?' Therefore they could not believe, because
that Isaiah said again, 'He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their
heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with
their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.' These things
said Isaiah, when he saw His Glory, and spoke of Him. It is an awful
thing to resist the Spirit of God, for if His softening influences are
withdrawn, the heart grows hard! If His enlightening influences are
taken away, the eyes of the understanding are darkened! I believe there
are many who have so long trifled with conscience and violated the best
instincts of their nature that they are given up as those who are past
hope. I pray God that it may not be so with any here. But it was so
with many in the generation among which Christ labored.

42. Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him.
Christ has His secret followers in the darkest days. There are men who
believe in Him even when the current of infidelity runs most strongly.

42, 43. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest
they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God. For which they deserved great censure!
Yet some of them cast away their cowardice at the last, for Joseph of
Arimathaea and Nicodemus were among those who confessed their love to
the Crucified Christ.

44-49. Jesus cried and said, He that believes on Me, believes not on
Me, but on Him that sent Me. And he that sees Me sees Him that sent Me.
I am come a Light into the world, that whoever believes on Me should
not abide in darkness. And if any man hears My word, and believes not,
I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the
world. He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has that which
judges him–the words that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in
the last day. For I have not spoken of Myself, but the Father which
sent Me. He gave Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should
speak. Christ did not pride Himself upon being a great original
thinker. He took His words from His Father's mouth–and the preacher of
the Gospel is to be no inventor of new thoughts. The "thoughtful" man
of whom we hear so much is just a man who is rebellious against God.
The Lord's true servant is to repeat God's thoughts, not his own–to
borrow from the Scriptures, to borrow from the teaching of the Holy
Spirit–even as the Lord Jesus Christ did.

50. And I know that His commandment is life everlasting: whatever I
speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto Me, so I speak. If the
great Head of the Church was thus only a Messenger, the Deliverer of a
message from the Father, should not we, who at our best are such poor
ministers of Christ, take heed to it that we, also, can say, "Even as
the Father said unto me, so I speak"? God grant it! Amen.