2644. The Last Words Of Christ On The Cross

No. 2644-45:493. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, June 25, 1882, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. 1/31/2016*1/31/2016

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, October 15, 1899.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit”: and having said this, he gave up the ghost. {Lu 23:46}

Into your hand I commit my spirit: you have redeemed me, oh LORD God of truth. {Ps 31:5}

And they stoned Stephen, calling on God, and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” {Ac 7:59}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2311, “Our Lord’s Last Cry from the Cross” 2312}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2644, “Last Words of Christ on the Cross, The” 2645}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3178, “Preparatory Prayers of Christ, The” 3179}
   Exposition on Lu 23:27-49 Mt 27:50-54 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2311, “Our Lord’s Last Cry from the Cross” 2312 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Lu 23:33-46 Joh 19:25-30 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2263, “Christ’s Plea for Ignorant Sinners” 2264 @@ "Exposition"}
    {See Spurgeon_SermonTexts "Ac 7:59"}

1. This morning, dear friends, I spoke on the first recorded words of our Lord Jesus when he said to his mother and to Joseph, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business!” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1666, “The First Recorded Words of Jesus” 1667} Now, by the help of the blessed Spirit, we will consider the last words of our Lord Jesus before he gave up the ghost, and with them we will examine two other passages in which similar expressions are used.

2. The words, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” if we judge them to be the last which our Saviour uttered before his death, ought to be coupled with those other words, “It is finished,” which some have thought were actually the last he used. I think it was not so; but, anyway, these utterances must have followed each other very quickly, and we may blend them together, and then we shall see how very similar they are to his first words as we explained them this morning. There is the cry, “It is finished,” which you may read in connection with our Authorized Version: “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” That business was all finished; he had been about it all his life, and now that he had come to the end of his days, there was nothing left undone, and he could say to his Father, “I have finished the work which you gave me to do.” Then if you take the other utterance of our Lord on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” see how well it agrees with the other reading of our morning text, “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Jesus is putting himself into the Father’s hands because he had always desired to be there, — in the Father’s house with the Father; and now he is committing his spirit, as a sacred trust, into the Father’s hands so that he may depart to be with the Father, to reside in his house, and go out no more for ever.

3. Christ’s life is all of one piece, just as the alpha and the omega are letters of the same alphabet. You do not find him to be one thing at the first, another thing afterwards, and a third thing still later; but he is “Jesus Christ; the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.” There is a wonderful similarity about everything that Christ said and did. You never need write the name “Jesus” under any one of his sayings, as you have to put the names of human writers under their sayings, for there is no mistaking any sentence that he has uttered.

4. If there is anything recorded as having been done by Christ, a believing child can judge whether it is authentic or not. Those miserable false gospels that were brought out did very little if any mischief, because no one, with any true spiritual discernment, was ever duped into believing them to be genuine. It is possible to manufacture a spurious coin which will, for a time, pass for a good one; but it is not possible to make even a passable imitation of what Jesus Christ has said and done. Everything about Christ is like himself; there is a Christ-likeness about it which cannot be mistaken. This morning, for example, when I preached about the Holy Child Jesus, I am sure you must have felt that there was never such another child as he was; and in his death he was as unique as in his birth, and childhood, and life. There was never another who died as he did, and there was never another who lived altogether as he did. Our Lord Jesus Christ stands by himself; some of us try to imitate him, but how feebly do we follow in his steps! The Christ of God still stands by himself, and there is no possible rival to him.

5. I have already intimated to you that I am going to have three texts for my sermon; but when I have spoken on all three of them, you will see that they are so much alike that I might have been content with one of them.

6. I. I invite you first to consider OUR SAVIOUR’S WORDS JUST BEFORE HIS DEATH: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

7. Here observe, first, how Christ lives and passes away in the atmosphere of the Word of God. Christ was a grand original thinker, and he might always have given us words of his own. He never lacked suitable language, for “never a man spoke like this Man.” Yet you must have noticed how continually he quoted Scripture; the great majority of his expressions may be traced to the Old Testament. Even where they are not exact quotations, his words drop into scriptural shape and form. You can see that the Bible has been his one Book. He is evidently familiar with it from the first page to the last, and not with its letter only, but with the innermost soul of its most secret sense; and, therefore, when dying, it seemed only natural for him to use a passage from a Psalm of David as his expiring words. In his death, he was not driven beyond the power of quiet thought, he was not unconscious, he did not die of weakness, he was strong even while he was dying. It is true that he said, “I thirst”; but, after he had been a little refreshed, he cried with a loud voice, as only a strong man could, “It is finished.” And now, before he bows his head in the silence of death, he utters his final words, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Our Lord might, I say again, have made an original speech as his dying declaration; his mind was clear, and calm, and undisturbed; in fact, he was perfectly happy, for he had said, “It is finished.” So his sufferings were over, and he was already beginning to enjoy a taste of the sweets of victory; yet, with all that clarity of mind, and freshness of intellect, and fluency of words that might have been possible for him, he did not invent a new sentence, but he went to the Book of Psalms, and took from the Holy Spirit this expression, “Into your hands I commit my spirit.”

8. How instructive to us is this great truth that the Incarnate Word lived on the Inspired Word! It was food to him, as it is to us; and, brothers and sisters, if Christ lived on the Word of God like this, should not you and I do the same? He, in some respects, did not need this Book as much as we do. The Spirit of God rested on him without measure, yet he loved the Scripture, and he went to it, and studied it, and used its expressions continually. Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord; — not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it until we have taken it into our innermost parts. It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to remember the poetic expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned on Scripture models, and, what is even better, your spirit is flavoured with the words of the Lord. I would quote John Bunyan as an example of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had studied our Authorized Version, which will never be bettered, as I judge, until Christ shall come; he had read it until his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim’s Progress — that sweetest of all prose poems — without continually making us feel and say, “Why, this man is a living Bible!” Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved, and, still more, the example of our Lord Jesus. If the Spirit of God is in you, he will make you love the Word of God; and, if any of you imagine that the Spirit of God will lead you to dispense with the Bible, you are under the influence of another spirit which is not the Spirit of God at all. I trust that the Holy Spirit will endear to you every page of this Divine Record, so that you will feed on it yourselves, and afterwards tell it to others. I think it is well worthy of your constant remembrance that, even in death, our blessed Master showed the ruling passion of his spirit, so that his last words were a quotation from Scripture.

9. Now notice, secondly, that our Lord, in the moment of his death, recognised a personal God:“ Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” God is to some men an unknown God. “There may be a God,” so they say, but they get no nearer the truth than that. “All things are God,” another says. “We cannot be sure that there is a God,” others say, “and therefore it is no use our pretending to believe in him, and so to be, possibly, influenced by a supposition.” Some people say, “Oh, certainly, there is a God, but he is very far off! He does not come near to us, and we cannot imagine that he will interfere in our affairs.” Ah! but our blessed Lord Jesus Christ believed in no such impersonal, pantheistic, dreamy, far-off God; but in One to whom he said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” His language shows that he recognised the personality of God as much as I should recognise the personality of a banker if I said to him, “Sir, I commit that money into your hands.” I know that I should not say such a thing as that to a mere dummy, or to an abstract something or nothing; but to a living man I should say it, and I should say it only to a living man. So, beloved, men do not commit their souls into the keeping of impalpable nothings; they do not, in death, smile as they resign themselves to the infinite unknown, the cloudy Father of everything, who may himself be nothing or everything. No, no; we only trust what we know; and so Jesus knew the Father, and knew him to be a real Person having hands, into those hands he commended his departing spirit. I am not now speaking materially, notice that, as though God had hands like ours; but he is an actual Being, who has powers of action, who is able to deal with men as he pleases, and who is willing to take possession of their spirits, and to protect them for ever and ever. Jesus speaks like one who believed that; and I pray that, both in life and in death, you and I may always deal with God in the same way. We have far too much fiction in religion, and a religion of fiction will bring only fictitious comfort in the dying hour. Come to solid facts, man. Is God as real to you as you are to yourself? Come now; do you speak with him “as a man speaks to his friend?” Can you trust him, and rely on him as you trust and rely on the partner of your bosom? If your God is unreal, your religion is unreal. If your God is a dream, your hope will be a dream; and woe be to you when you shall wake up out of it! Jesus did not trust in that way. “Father,” he said, “into your hands I commend my spirit.”

10. But, thirdly, here is an even better point. Observe how Jesus Christ brings out the Fatherhood of God here. The Psalm from which he quoted did not say, “Father.” David did not get as far as that in words, though in spirit he often did; but Jesus had the right to alter the Psalmist’s words. He can improve on Scripture, though you and I cannot. He did not say, “Oh God, into your hand I commit my spirit”; but he said, “Father.” Oh, that sweet word! That was the gem of our thought, this morning, that Jesus said, “Did you not know that I must be at my Father’s, — that I must be in my Father’s house?” Oh, yes! the Holy Child knew that he was especially, and in a particular sense, the Son of the Highest; and therefore he said, “My Father”; and, in dying, his expiring heart was buoyed up and comforted with the thought that God was his Father. It was because he said that God was his Father that they put him to death, yet he still stood by it even in his dying hour, and said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”

11. What a blessed thing it is for us also, my brethren, to die conscious that we are sons of God! Oh, how sweet, in life and in death, to feel in our soul the spirit of adoption by which we cry, “Abba, Father!” In such a case as that, —

    “It is not death to die.”

Quoting the Saviour’s words, “It is finished,” and relying on his Father and our Father, we may go even into the jaws of death without the “quivering lips” of which we sang just now. Joyful, with all the strength we have, our lips may confidently sing, challenging death and the grave to silence our ever-rising and swelling music. Oh my Father, my Father, if I am in your hands, I may die without fear!

12. There is another thought, however, which is perhaps the chief one of all. From this passage, we learn that our Divine Lord cheerfully rendered up his soul to his Father when the time had come for him to die:“ Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” None of us can, with strict propriety, use these words. When we come to die, we may perhaps utter them, and God will accept them; these were the very death-words of Polycarp, and Bernard, and Luther, and Melancthon, and Jerome of Prague, and John Huss, and an almost endless list of saints: “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” The Old Testament rendering of the passage, or else our Lord’s version of it, has been turned into a Latin prayer, and commonly used among Roman Catholics almost as a charm; they have repeated the Latin words when dying, or, if they were unable to do so, the priest repeated the words for them, attaching a kind of magical power to that particular formula. But, in the sense in which our Saviour uttered these words, none of us can fully use them. We can commit or commend our spirit to God; but yet, brethren, remember that, unless the Lord comes first, we must die; and dying is not an act on our part. We have to be passive in the process, because it is no longer in our power to retain our life. I suppose that, if a man could have such control of his life, it might be questionable when he should surrender it, because suicide is a crime, and no man can be required to kill himself. God does not demand such action as that from any man’s hand; and, in a certain sense, that is what would happen whenever a man yielded himself up to death. But there was no necessity for our blessed Lord and Master to die except the necessity which he had taken on himself in becoming the Substitute for his people. There was not any necessity for his death even at the last moment on the cross, for, as I have reminded you, he cried with a loud voice when natural weakness would have compelled him to whisper or to sigh. But his life was strong within him; if he had willed to do so, he could have unloosed the nails, and come down into the midst of the crowd who stood mocking him. He died of his own free will, “the Just for the unjust, so that he might bring us to God.” A man may righteously surrender his life for the good of his country, and for the safety of others. There have frequently been opportunities for men to do this, and there have been brave fellows who have worthily done it; but, then, all those men would have had to die at some time or other. They were only slightly anticipating the payment of the debt of nature; but, in our Lord’s case, he was rendering up to the Father the sprit which he might have kept if he had chosen to do so. “No man takes it from me,” he said concerning his life; “I lay it down by myself”; and there is here a cheerful willingness to yield up his spirit into his Father’s hands. It is rather remarkable that none of the Evangelists describe our Lord as dying. He did die, but they all speak of him as giving up the ghost, — surrendering to God his spirit. You and I passively die; but he actively yielded up his spirit to his Father. In his case, death was an act; and he performed that act from the glorious motive of redeeming us from death and hell; so, in this sense, Christ stands alone in his death. But, oh, dear brothers and sisters, if we cannot render up our spirit as he did, yet, when our life is taken from us, let us be perfectly ready to give it up. May God bring us into such a state of mind and heart that there shall be no struggling to keep our life, but a sweet willingness to let it be just as God would have it, — a, yielding up of everything into his hands, feeling sure that, in the world of spirits, our soul shall be quite safe in the Father’s hands, and that, until the resurrection day, the life-germ of the body will be securely in his keeping, and certain that, when the trumpet shall sound, spirit, soul, and body, — that trinity of our manhood, — shall be reunited in the absolute perfection of our being to behold the King in his beauty in the land that is very far off. When God calls us to die, it will be a sweet way of dying if we can, like our Lord, pass away with a text of Scripture on our lips, with a personal God ready to receive us, with that God recognised distinctly as our Father, and so die joyfully, resigning our will entirely to the sweet will of the ever-blessed One, and saying, “It is the Lord,” “my Father,” “let him do as seems good to him.”

13. II. My second text is in the 31st Psalm, at the 5th verse; and it is evidently the passage which our Saviour had in his mind just then: “Into your hand I commit my spirit: you have redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth.” It seems to me that THESE ARE WORDS TO BE USED IN LIFE, for this Psalm is not so much concerning the believer’s death as concerning his life.

14. Is it not very exceptional, dear friends, that the words which Jesus uttered on the cross you may still continue to use? You may catch up their echo, and not only when you come to die, but tonight, tomorrow morning, and as long as you are here, you may still repeat the text the Master quoted, and say, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.”

15. That is to say, first, let me cheerfully entrust our souls to God, and feel that they are quite safe in his hands. Our spirit is the noblest part of our being; our body is only the husk, our spirit is the living kernel, so let us put it into God’s keeping. Some of you have never yet done that, so I invite you to do it now. It is the act of faith which saves the soul, that act which a man performs when he says, “I trust myself to God as he reveals himself in Christ Jesus; I cannot keep myself, but he can keep me; by the precious blood of Christ he can cleanse me; so I just take my spirit, and give it over into the great Father’s hand.” You never really live until you do that; all that comes before that act of full surrender is death; but when you have once trusted Christ, then you have truly begun to live. And every day, as long as you live, take care that you repeat this process, and cheerfully leave yourselves in God’s hands without any reserve; that is to say, give yourself up to God, — your body, to be healthy or to be sick, to be long-lived or to be suddenly cut off; — your soul and spirit, give them also up to God, to be made happy or to be made sad, just as he pleases. Give your whole self up to him, and say to him, “My Father, make me rich or make me poor, give me eyesight or make me blind, let me have all my senses or take them away, make me famous or leave me to be obscure; I just give myself up to you; into your hand I commit my spirit. I will no longer exercise my own choice, but you shall choose my inheritance for me. My times are in your hands.”

16. Now, dear children of God, are you always doing this? Have you ever done it? I am afraid that there are some, even among Christ’s professing followers, who kick against God’s will; and even when they say to God, “Your will be done,” they spoil it by adding, in their own mind, “and my will, too.” They pray, “Lord, make my will your will,” instead of saying, “Make your will my will.” Let each one of us pray this prayer every day, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” I like, at family prayer, to put myself and all that I have into God’s hands in the morning, and then, at night, just to look between his hands, and see how safe I have been, and then to say to him, “Lord, shut me up again tonight; take care of me all through the night-watches. ‘Into your hand I commit my spirit.’ ”

17. Notice, dear friends, that our second text has these words at the end of it: “You have redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth.” Is that not a good reason for giving yourself up entirely to God? Christ has redeemed you, and therefore you belong to him. If I am a redeemed man, and I ask God to take care of me, I am only asking the King to take care of one of his own jewels, — a jewel that cost him the blood of his heart.

18. And I may still more especially expect that he will do so, because of the title which is given to him here: “You have redeemed me, oh Lord God of truth.” Would he be the God of truth if he began with redemption, and ended with destruction; — if he began by giving his Son to die for us, and then kept back other mercies which we daily need to bring us to heaven? No; the gift of his Son is the pledge that he will save his people from their sins, and bring them home to glory; and he will do it. So, every day, go to him with this declaration, “Into your hand I commit my spirit.” Indeed, not only every day, but all through the day. Does a horse run away with you? Then you cannot do better than say, “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” And if the horse does not run away with you, you cannot do better than say the same words. Do you have to go into a house where there is fever; I mean, is it your duty to go there? Then go saying, “Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” I would advise you to do this every time you walk down the street, or even while you sit in your own house. Dr. Gill, my famous predecessor, spent very much time in his study; and, one day, someone said to him, “Well, at any rate, the studious man is safe from most of the accidents of life.” It so happened that, one morning, when the good man left his familiar armchair for a little while, there came a gust of wind that blew down a stack of chimneys, which crashed through the roof, and fell right into the place where he would have been sitting if the providence of God had not just then drawn him away; and he said, “I see that we need divine providence to care for us in our studies just as much as in the streets.” “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” I have often noticed that, if any of our friends get into accidents and troubles, it is usually when they are away for a holiday; it is a curious thing, but I have often seen it. They go out for their health, and come home ill; they leave us with all their limbs intact, and return to us crippled; therefore, we must pray God to take special care of friends in the country or by the sea, and we must commit ourselves into his hands wherever we may be. If we had to go into a leper house, we should certainly ask God to protect us from the deadly leprosy; but we ought equally to seek the Lord’s protection while dwelling in the healthiest place or in our own homes.

19. David said to the Lord, “Into your hand I commit my spirit”; but let me ask you to add that word which our Lord inserted, “Father.” David is often a good guide for us, but David’s Lord is far better; and if we follow him, we shall improve on David. So, let us each say, “Father, Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.” That is a sweet way of living every day, committing everything to our Heavenly Father’s hand, for that hand can do his child no unkindness. “Father, I might not be able to trust your angels, but I can trust you.” The psalmist does not say, “Into the hand of providence I commit my spirit.” Do you notice how men try to get rid of God by saying, “Providence did this,” and “Providence did that,” and “Providence did the other!” If you ask them, “What is providence?” — they will probably reply, “Well, providence is ——— providence.” That is all they can say. There is many a man who talks very confidently about reverencing nature, obeying the laws of nature, noting the powers of nature, and so on. Step up to that eloquent lecturer, and say to him, “Will you kindly explain to me what nature is?” He answers, “Why, nature, — well, it is — nature.” Just so, sir; but then, what is nature? And he says, “Well, — well, — it is nature”; and that is all you will get out of him. Now, I believe in nature, and I believe in providence; but, behind everything, I believe in God, and in the God who has hands; — not in an idol that has no hands, and can do nothing, — but in the God to whom I can say, “ ‘Father, into your hand I commit my spirit.’ I rejoice that I am able to put myself there, for I feel absolutely safe in trusting myself to your keeping.” So live, beloved, and you shall live safely, and happily; and you shall have hope in your life, and hope in your death.

20. III. My third text will not detain us for many minutes; it is intended to explain to us THE USE OF OUR SAVIOUR’S DYING WORDS FOR OURSELVES.

21. Turn to the account of the death of Stephen, in the 7th chapter of Acts, and you will see there how far a man of God may dare to go in his last moments in quoting from David and from the Lord Jesus Christ: “And they stoned Stephen, calling on God, and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ ” {Ac 7:59} So here is a text for us to use when we come to die: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” I have explained to you that, strictly, we can hardly talk about yielding up our spirit, but we may speak of Christ receiving it, and say, with Stephen, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

22. What does this prayer mean? I must just hurriedly give you two or three thoughts concerning it, and so close my discourse. I think this prayer means that, if we can die as Stephen did, we shall die with a certainty of immortality. Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He did not say, “I am afraid my poor spirit is going to die.” No; the spirit is something which still exists after death, something which Christ can receive, and therefore Stephen asks him to receive it. You and I are not going upstairs to die as if we were only like cats and dogs; we go up there to die like immortal beings who fall asleep on earth, and open our eyes in heaven. Then, at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet, our very body is to rise to dwell again with our spirit; we do not have any question about this matter. I think I have told you what an infidel once said to a Christian man, “Some of you Christians have great fear in dying because you believe that there is another state to follow this one. I do not have the slightest fear, for I believe that I shall be annihilated, and therefore all fear of death is gone from me.” “Yes,” said the Christian man, “and in that respect you seem to me to be on equal terms with that young bull grazing over there, which, like yourself, is free from any fear of death. Please, sir, let me ask you a simple question. Do you have any hope?” “Hope, sir? Hope, sir? No, I have no hope; of course, I have no hope, sir.” “Ah, then!” replied the other, “despite the fears that sometimes come over feeble believers, they have a hope which they would not and could not give up.” And that hope is, that our spirit — even that spirit which we commit into Jesus Christ’s hands, — shall be “for ever with the Lord.”

23. The next thought is that, to a man who can die as Stephen did, there was certainty that Christ is near, — so near that the man speaks to him, and says, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” In Stephen’s case, the Lord Jesus was so near that the martyr could see him, for he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.” Many dying saints have borne a similar testimony; it is no strange thing for us to hear them say, before they died, that they could see within the pearly gates; and they have told us this with such evident truthfulness, and with such rapture, or sometimes so calmly, in such a business-like tone of voice, that we were sure that they were neither deceived nor speaking falsehood. They spoke what they knew to be true, for Jesus was there with them. Yes, beloved, before you can call your children around your death-bed, Jesus will be there already, and into his hands you may commit your spirit.

24. Moreover, there is a certainty that we are quite safe in his hands. Wherever else we are insecure, if we ask him to receive our spirit, and he receives it, who can harm us? Who can pluck us out of his hands? Rise up, oh death and hell! Come out, all you powers of darkness! What can you do when once a spirit is in the hands of the omnipotent Redeemer? We must be safe there.

25. Then there is the other certainty, that he is quite willing to take us into his hands. Let us put ourselves into his hands now; and then we need not be ashamed to repeat the operation every day, and we may be sure that we shall not be rejected at the last. I have often told you about the good old woman, who was dying, and to whom someone said, “Are you not afraid to die?” “Oh, no”; she replied, “there is nothing at all to fear. I have dipped my foot in the river of death every morning before I have had my breakfast, and I am not afraid to die now.” You remember that dear saint, who died in the night, and who had left written on a piece of paper by her bedside these lines which, before she fell asleep, she felt strong enough to write down, —

    Since Jesus is mine, I’ll not fear undressing,
       But gladly put off these garments of clay;
    To die in the Lord, is a covenant blessing,
       Since Jesus to glory thro’ death led the way.

It was good that she could say it, and may we be able to say the same whenever the Master calls us to go up higher! I want, dear friends, that all of us should have as much willingness to depart as if it were a matter of will with us. Blessed be God, it is not left to our choice, it is not left to our will, when we shall die. God has appointed that day, and ten thousand demons cannot consign us to the grave before our time. We shall not die until God decrees it.

    Plagues and deaths around me fly,
    Till he please I cannot die;
    Not a single shaft can hit
    Till the God of love sees fit.

But let us be just as willing to depart as if it were really a matter of choice; for, wisely, carefully, coolly, consider that, if it were left to us, none of us should be wise if we did not choose to go. Apart from the coming of our Lord, the most miserable thing that I know of would be a suspicion that we might not die. Do you know what quaint old Rowland Hill used to say when he found himself getting very old? He said, “Surely they must be forgetting me up there”; and every now and then, when some dear old saint was dying, he would say, “When you get to heaven, give my love to John Berridge, and John Bunyan, and ever so many more of the good Johns, and tell them I hope they will see poor old Rowly up there before long.” Well, there was common sense in that wishing to get home, longing to be with God. To be with Christ, is far better than to be here.

26. Sobriety itself would make us choose to die; well, then, do not let us run back, and become utterly unwilling, and struggle and strive and fret and fume over it. When I hear of believers who do not like to talk about death, I am afraid concerning them. It is greatly wise to be familiar with our resting-place. When I went, recently, to the cemetery at Norwood, to lay the body of our dear brother Perkins there for a little while, I felt that it was a healthy thing for me to stand at the grave’s brink, and to walk amid that forest of memorials of the dead, for this is the place where I, too, must go. You living men, come and view the ground where you must shortly lie; and, since it must be so, let us who are believers welcome it.

27. But, what if you are not believers! Ah! that is another matter altogether. If you have not believed in Christ, you may well be afraid even to rest on the seat where you are sitting. I wonder that the earth itself does not say, “Oh God, I will not hold this wretched sinner up any longer! Let me open my mouth, and swallow him!” All nature must hate the man who hates God. Surely, all things must loathe to minister to the life of a man who does not live for God. Oh that you would seek the Lord, and trust Christ, and find eternal life! If you have done so, do not be afraid to go out to live, or to die, just as God pleases.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 15:1-8}

1. I am the true vine, —

Now we know where to find the true Church. It is to be found only in Christ and in those who are joined to him in mystical but real union: “I am the true vine,” —

1. And my Father is the gardener.

Now we know who is the true Guardian of the Church. Not the so-called “holy father” at Rome, but that Father above, who is the true Guardian, Ruler, Keeper, Preserver, Purifier, Gardener of the one Church, the vine.

2. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away:

There are many such branches, in Christ’s visible Church, which are not fruit-bearing branches, and consequently are not partakers of the sap of life and grace which flows into the branches that are vitally joined to the central stem. These fruitless branches are to be taken away.

2. And every branch that bears fruit, he purges it, so that it may produce more fruit.

There is some work, then, for the knife on all the branches; cutting off for those who are fruitless, cutting for those who are bearing some fruit, so that they may produce even more.

3. Now you are clean [purged] through the word which I have spoken to you.

The Word is often the knife with which the great Gardener prunes the vine; and, brothers and sisters, if we were more willing to feel the edge of the Word, and to let it cut away even something that may be very dear to us, we should not need so much pruning by affliction. It is because that first knife does not always produce the desired result that another sharp tool is used by which we are effectively pruned.

4. Abide in me, and I in you.

“Do not merely find a temporary shelter in me, as a ship runs into harbour in stormy weather, and then comes out again when the storm is over; but cast anchor in me, as the vessel does when it reaches its desired haven. Do not be as branches that are tied on, and so can be taken off, but be livingly joined to me. ‘Abide in me.’ ”

4. Since the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine; no more can you, unless you abide in me.

You must bear fruit, or else be cast away; but you cannot bear any fruit except by real union and constant communion with Jesus Christ your Lord.

5. I am the vine, you are the branches: he who abides in me, and I in him, the same produces much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

Not merely will you do very little, but you can do nothing at all if you are severed from Christ. You are absolutely and entirely dependent on Christ both for your life and for your fruit-bearing. Do we not wish to have it so, beloved? It is the incipient principle of apostasy when a man wishes to be independent of Christ in any degree, when he says, “Give me the portion of goods that falls to me so that I may have something in hand, some spending-money of my own.” No; you must, from day to day, from hour to hour, and even from moment to moment, derive life, light, love, everything that is good, from Christ. What a blessing that it is so!

6. If a man, does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

There is a sad future in store for tares, according to another parable; but, somehow, there is a much sadder lot reserved for those who were, in some sense, branches of the vine, — those who made a profession of faith in Christ, though they were never vitally united to him; those who well for a while ran, yet were hindered. What was it that hindered them that they should not obey the truth? Oh, it is sad indeed that any should have had any kind of connection with that divine stem, and yet should be cast into the fire!

7. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.

Do not think that all men can pray equally effectively, for it is not so. There are some whom God will hear, and some whom God will not hear. And there are some even of his own children, whom he will hear in things absolutely vital and essential, to whom he never gave carte blanche in this way: “You shall ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you.” No, if you will not hear God’s words, he will not hear yours; and if his words do not abide in you, your words shall not have power with him. They may be directed to heaven, but the Lord will not listen to them so as to have regard for them. Oh, it needs very tender walking for one who would be mighty in prayer! You shall find that those who have had their will at the throne of grace are men who have done God’s will in other places; it must be so. The greatest favourite at court will have a double portion of the jealousy of his monarch, and he must be especially careful that he orders his steps properly, or else the king will not continue to favour him as he was accustomed to do. There is a sacred discipline in Christ’s house, a part of which consists in this, that, as our obedience to our God declines, so will our power in prayer decrease at the same time.

8. In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you shall be my disciples.

If we are his true disciples, we also shall produce much fruit.