2672. Neither Forsaken Nor Forgotten

No. 2672-46:193. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Evening, November 5, 1882, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, April 29, 1900.

Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. {Isa 49:16}

 For other sermons on this text:
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 512, “Precious Drop of Honey, A” 503}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2672, “Neither Forsaken nor Forgotten” 2673}
   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3441, “God’s Memorial of His People” 3443}
   Exposition on Isa 49:1-17 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2397, “Out of Darkness Into Light” 2398 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Isa 49:1-23 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2703, “Preservation of Christians in the World, The” 2704 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Isa 49:13-26 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2265, “Harvest Joy” 2266 @@ "Exposition"}
   Exposition on Re 7:9-17 Isa 49 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3238, “Vision of the King, A” 3240 @@ "Exposition"}

1. You have probably noticed, dear friends, while reading the chapter from which our text is taken, that it seems to divide itself into two parts. The first portion concerns that glorious Servant of God, “who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” even our divine Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is, in this part of the chapter, somewhat of a complaint; Christ was, as it were, uttering one of his Gethsemane groans when he said, “I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God.” As far as our Lord’s personal ministry among the Jewish people was concerned, it did seem as if he had laboured in vain, for almost all of them rejected him, and they even imprecated an awful curse on themselves and their descendants when they said, “His blood be on us, and on our children.” He is here represented as crying out before Jehovah concerning this apparent failure of his earthly mission; and an answer is at once given to him which must have been eminently satisfactory to our Saviour’s spirit, for he adds, “Though Israel is not gathered, yet I shall be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, ‘It is a light thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, so that you may be my salvation to the end of the earth.’ ” Oh, what joy must have filled the heart of our divine Master, even in the depths of his agony, as he saw that, through his death, all nations should ultimately behold the light of God’s salvation! Even though Israel for a while rejected him, yet multitudes of the Gentiles would receive him; and then, eventually, in the fulness of time, the Jews would also receive him, and acknowledge as King the Nazarene whom they once crucified on Calvary.

2. The second part of the chapter, strangely enough, relates to the Israelite Church, and, to a large extent, to the whole Church of God, and it also contains a complaint. In the expressive language of verse 13, God tells the heavens and the earth to rejoice: “Sing, oh heavens; and be joyful, oh earth; and break out into singing, oh mountains: for Jehovah has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted.” Yet, even while that jubilant note is pealing over land and sea, there is heard the wailing of poor forsaken Zion, — Judea’s Church, the ancient Church of the living God; and she sighs, “ ‘Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ He is blessing the Gentiles, but I am left unblessed. He is gathering multitudes to himself, to glorify his Son; but his poor Israel, his ancient choice, his first love, he seems to have left out of all his considerations, ‘Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ ” Then comes the Lord’s answer, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” Israel shall yet acknowledge her King, her salvation waits for the appointed time. There is a high destiny in store for the Israel of God; and many shall yet see the day when he, who died as King of the Jews, shall live again to wear that title, and to be acknowledged as the head of all the house of Abraham.

3. My object, in speaking on the familiar and precious words of our text, is just this. Sometimes, you and I get into the same sad condition as Zion was in then, and we imagine that God has forgotten us, so I want to show you that, if we are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord gives an answer to us similar to what he gave to sorrowful Zion, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” On that short sentence I shall try now to speak to you.

4. I. First, let us think, for a while, on THE FEAR EXPRESSED, the fear in the hearts of God’s people, which led to the utterance of our text. In verse 14, this fear is expressed like this, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.”

5. This fear has been felt by very many. Fear is a most contagious and infectious thing. When it has taken hold on one person, it has been often known to spread to many others until a terrible panic has resulted from a very slight cause. Here is the whole Jewish Church expressing the fear that God has forgotten her. I feel sure that I am not now addressing such a church as that; I hope that most of those now present know that God has not forgotten them, and that they are walking in the light of his countenance so that they do not imagine that Jehovah has forsaken them. But, still, this fear has darkened, shall I say, every sky, and passed before the window of every spirit? Well, I will not go quite that length; yet I know that there must be only very few of us who have not, at one time or another, naughtily whispered to our own heart, if we have not said it aloud, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” We have gone up to the house of God with our brethren, and we have seen them very happy. The Word of God has been precious to them, and they have seemed to enjoy it to the full; but we could not feed on it, or get a glimpse of the Well-Beloved; and we have gone out of the place sighing, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” Have you never had that thought? If you never have, I hope you never will; but I fear that most of us have, at some time or another, been subject to that distressing complaint.

6. And it has sometimes been very plaintively expressed. It is so in the text. I think I hear the mountains echoing the joyful voice of God, and the very skies reverberating with the song of the redeemed; and then, in between the breaks of the glad chorus, I catch this little mournful note, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” Perhaps it is all the more plaintive because the tone seems to indicate that Zion felt that she deserved to have it so. She thought herself so insignificant, so sinful, so provoking, that it was no wonder that the great Jehovah should forget her in her littleness, and that the pure and holy God should turn away his face from such iniquity as hers. Brothers and sisters, I feel sure that you and I must have been in that state in which we could weep and groan and sigh because of the joy in the air of which we could not partake, the songs in which we could not unite unless we became utter hypocrites. We heard the sweet strains of the holy merriment in the Father’s house, but we felt that we could not join in it; and we sat by ourselves mourning, with our harps hanging on the willows, while everyone around us only increased our grief in proportion to his own delight. I am trying to speak to such troubled souls; may God comfort them! There are many such, and their grief is great.

7. And some, too, are very obstinate while they are in that condition, for our text contains a very unreasonable complaint. Read the latter part of the 13th verse: “Jehovah has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted.” Yet, in the teeth of that double declaration, Zion said, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.” Ah! dear friends, our complaints of God are generally groundless. We get into a state of mind in which we say, “God has forsaken us,” when he is really dealing with us more than he was accustomed to do. A child who is feeling the strokes of the rod is very foolish to say, “My father has forgotten me.” No; those very blows, under which he is smarting, are reminders that his father does not forget him; and your trials and your troubles, your depressions and your sorrows, are signs that you are not forgotten by God. The chastening which is guaranteed to every legitimate son is coming to you. If you had not been chastened, there would have been far more reason for saying, “My Lord has forgotten me.” Besides, dear friend, you have had some comforts though you have had many sorrows; you can say, “Comforts mingle with my sighs.” Do not forget that. It is not all gall and wormwood; there is so much honey as greatly to mitigate the bitterness. Think of that, and do not obstinately stand by a word which, perhaps, you spoke in haste. If you have said, “My Lord has forgotten me,” call back the word, for it cannot be true. You have slandered him who can never forget one of his own people. And if you have said, “Jehovah has forsaken me,” again I ask you to call back the evil and false word, and eat it. Never let it be heard again, for it is impossible that Jehovah should change, or that the immutable love of his infinite heart should ever die out. Do not be obstinate about this matter, I implore you; yet I have known some of God’s people to stick to this grave falsehood, to their own grievous wounding and harm.

8. I suppose that Zion came to this conclusion because she was in banishment. She was away from the land that flowed with milk and honey, and she was suffering in exile. Is this the conclusion to be drawn from all suffering? Does the vine say, “The vine-dresser has forsaken me because he prunes me so sharply?” Does the invalid say, “The physician has forgotten me because he gives me such bitter medicine?” Shall the patient, beneath the knife, say, “The surgeon has forsaken me because he cuts even to the bone?” You see at once that there is no reasonableness about such talk, so dismiss it at once. “Do not judge the Lord” by outward providences, any more than “by feeble sense,” but trust him even when you can see no trace of his goodness to you. “Let God be true, and” every circumstance, as well as “every man, a liar”; for God must keep his promise to his people. He is immutable; he cannot possibly change. He must be true to every word that has gone out of his mouth. The fear that God may forsake and forget his own, if obstinately indulged, will certainly deserve to be set down among the deliberate and unreasonable transgressions of his people against their gracious God.

9. Yet I think that there is some measure of grace mingled with this fear. Let me read for you this passage straight through: “Jehovah has comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. But Zion said, ‘Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.’ ” She did not say that until God had visited her. “The Lord has comforted his people.” He has brought them out of an even lower depth that they were in, and they have been lifted up so high as now to want his presence, and to sigh for it. Beloved brother, you who are so deep down in the dungeon, I feel glad that you want to get out of it. There is, in your soul, a longing after God, is there not? There is a panting and a crying after peace with God, is there not? You are not satisfied as long as you even think that God has forsaken you, are you? Ah, then! this is the work of his Holy Spirit in your soul, making you long after the living God, so that there is some sign of grace even in that discontented moan of yours, for it proves that you cannot bear that God should forsake you. Now, if you belonged to the world, it would be nothing to you if the Lord did forsake you. If there were no grace in you, you would not care whether God forgot you or not; indeed, you might almost wish that he would forget you, and not visit you in his wrath. There is, therefore, some trace of his hand in your spirit, even now that you say, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me.”

10. Besides, although the text is a word of complaint, it has also in it a word of faith: “my Lord.” Did you notice that? Zion calls Jehovah hers though she dreams that he has forsaken her. I do love to see you keep a firm grip on your faith even when it seems to be illogical, — even if you imagine that the Lord has forgotten and forsaken you. Though you fear that it is so, yet still say, “my Lord,” hold on to this assurance with a death-grip. If you cannot hold on with both hands, hold on with one; and if sometimes you can hold with neither hand, hold on with your teeth. Let Job’s resolve be yours: “Though he kills me, yet I will trust in him …… Though my skin is destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”; — “and every scattered grain of my dust shall still confide in God.” Oh, for the faith that laughs at impossibilities, that leaps with joy between the very jaws of death itself, and sings in the very centre of the fire! Such a faith as that, whatever weakness there may be about it, brings glory to God. So I treasure up that little word “my.” There are only two letters in it, but they are full with untold hope to the man who can use them as Zion does here, “my Lord.”

11. So much for the fear which the text is intended to meet.

12. II. Now I come, as God shall help me, to speak concerning THE COMFORT BESTOWED: “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

13. This assurance is the Lord’s answer to Zion’s lament, “Jehovah has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me”; so take it from God’s own mouth, and never doubt it. God’s memory of his people as a whole, and of each individual in particular, has been secured by him beyond all question. “That we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us,” he has said to each of us, “ ‘I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,’ I have done it, and I have done what will render it utterly impossible that I should ever forget one of my people. I the Lord have committed myself to something which will henceforth render it absolutely certain that I never can forget my own, for ‘I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.’ ”

14. These words seem to say to us that God has already secured, beyond any possible doubt, his tender memory towards all his own. He has done this in such a way that forgetfulness can never occur at any moment whatever. The memorial is not set up in heaven, for then you might conceive that God could descend, and leave that memorial. It is not set up in any great public place in the universe, nor is it engraved on a signet ring on God’s finger, for that might be taken off. It is not written on the Almighty’s skirts, — to speak after the manner of men, — for he might disrobe himself for conflict; but he has put the token of his love where it cannot be laid aside, — on the palms of his hands. A man cannot leave his hands at home. If he has put something, by way of memorial, on the walls of his house or the gates of his home, he may go away, and forget it. Or if, as I have said, he shall write the memorial on some precious diamond, or topaz, or other jewels which he wears, yet he might lay them aside. But God says, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,” so that the memorial is constantly with him; yes, it is in God himself that the memorial of his people is fixed.

15. I suppose the allusion is to an Oriental custom, possibly not very common, but still common enough to have survived to this day. Mr. John Anderson, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Helensburgh, who was a very dear friend of mine, told me that, on one or two occasions, he had seen, in the East, men who had the portraits of their friends, and others who had the initials of their friends, in the palms of their hands. I said to him, “But I suppose that, in time, they would wash off or wear out.” “No,” he said, “they were tattooed too deeply in to be removed, so that, whenever they opened their hand, there were the familiar initials, or some resemblance to the features of the beloved one, to keep him always in remembrance.” And the Lord here adopts that ancient custom, and says, “I cannot forget you; it is impossible for me to do so, for I have inscribed you where the memorial can never be separated from myself. ‘I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.’ ”

16. Now, what is it, dear friends, that makes it so certain that God cannot forget his people? Well, first, God remembers his eternal love for his people, and his memory of them is constant because of that love. He says to each believing soul, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” The people of God were loved by him long before the world was created; he has loved them too long ever to forget them. “I have loved too long,” said one man, “to be turned aside by the blandishment of another.” We cannot imagine anything that could separate us from that dear heart to which our heart is knit even with a human love; while both of us shall live, the two are indeed one. And God has loved us more than husbands love their wives, or fathers love their children, or brothers love their brothers. His love is like a great ocean of which all human love is only a drop of spray; and he has loved us for so long, so well, so deeply, so unreservedly, that he cannot forget us. Even when any one of his people wanders from him, and grieves his heart, he says, “Yes, but I have loved you with an everlasting love, and I will not cast you off. Though all that you now are might tend to wean me from you, yet mine is not the love of yesterday, it is not a passion like what flames within some men for a brief time, and then quickly goes out in darkness.” It is God’s eternal love that makes him keep us in memory. He has inscribed us, from all eternity, on the palms of his hands, and therefore he cannot forget us.

17. Next, God’s suffering love secures his memory of us. Well did we sing, just now, —

    The palms of my hands while I look on I see
    The wounds I received when suffering for thee?

Oh, how deeply the cruel engravers cut our names in Christ’s dear hands! Those nails that fastened him to the cross were the engraving tools, and he leaned hard while the iron pierced through his flesh, and nerve, and vein. Yet the engraving of which our text speaks is more than that, for the Lord himself says, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” The sufferings of Christ for us were such that never, by any possibility, can he forget us. Since he has died for us he will never cast us away. By his death, on Calvary’s cross Christ ensured that all those for whom he died shall live with him in his kingdom as surely as he lives. He did not pay in vain such a tremendous price; neither shall he lose any part of what he has purchased for himself. What a blessed memorial, then, is not only God’s eternal love, but Christ’s suffering love!

18. Yet again, by the expression, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands,” God seems to say, “I have done so much for you that I can never forget you.” God has actively worked for his people in many ways, but I will only now mention what his Spirit has worked in you; what a theme that is! And, from the fact that the Spirit of God has done so much in us, we derive the satisfaction that he will never forget us. A man does not forget the work of his own hands, especially if it is something very choice. I remember that, in the siege of Paris, {a} a great artist hid away a grand picture which was then only partly finished. Did he forget to go to Paris when it had its liberty, and to seek out his painting? Assuredly not; he remembered the work of his own hands, and back he went to finish drawing it, and to put the finishing touches on it. So, God has done too much for us for him ever to loose us. Has he not created us anew in Christ Jesus, and given his Spirit to dwell within us? Then, surely, he will never turn away from work so costly, so divine; but he will complete it to his own praise and glory.

19. But, once more, when a memorial is inscribed on a man’s hand, then it is connected with the man’s life. While he lives, that memorial is a part of his life. So it is with God. He has linked his people with his life. Our Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “Because I live, you shall also live.” The union between your incarnate God and yourself is a thing which is so complete that your life is intertwined with his life. Christ and you have become one fabric. To tear you away would be to destroy him. “Your life is hidden with Christ in God”; and until Christ himself shall die, his people shall not die. Oh think of this marvellous mystery! The ever-blessed Son of God is bound up in the bundle of life with all his people.

20. This I take to be the meaning of the Lord’s words, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.” I cannot go deeper into this blessed subject; but I pray God to take you deeper, for there is a great depth here.

21. III. Now, beloved, I turn to the third point of my discourse, on which I will be very brief. We have had a fear expressed, and a comfort bestowed; now here is AN INSPECTION INVITED. “Behold,” says Jehovah, “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

22. Come, then. “Behold.” Look for yourselves. There is God the Father; did you say that he had forsaken you? But how can that be? Behold, and see. He is your Father if you are trusting in his Son, Jesus Christ. Do you forget, do you forsake your own children? Tell me. You had a boy, who almost broke your heart. He went away, and you were sadly glad when he went, for he had so grieved you that you thought it better that he should be out of sight. But have you forgotten him? Suppose he came back tonight. It is years now since he left you without your blessing. Mother, you have never heard from him. Father, no news of your boy ever comes to you. But if, when you went home tonight, there should be a big fellow sitting by the fireside, — not your boy any longer, and yet your own long-lost son, — after the first surprise, and after you had seen that it was your son, tell me, mother, would you turn him out of doors for all his ingratitude to you? Father, what would you do, first of all? I know what I should do if it were my case; I should fondly kiss that cheek, and bless God that I had lived to see my son again, whatever he might have been, and however much he might have grieved me. If you, then, being evil, neither forget nor forsake your children, will your Father who is in heaven forget you? Behold, and see if it is possible. God the everlasting Father so intensely loves, so infinitely loves his own children, that it must never be dreamed for a moment that it is possible for him to forget any one of them.

23. Come now, and look again. Behold, by faith, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity in Unity, Jesus, the Lamb of God. Look at him on the cross; oh, what griefs he bore there for his people! Take down the blessed body — (you can scarcely bear to handle it), and help to wrap it in its linen cloths, and lay it in the tomb. Why did he suffer like this? Why did he die? For his own loved ones; then, can he ever forget them? Is it possible? After all that agony, can Jesus forget? Oh, no! Our children may forget us; but the mother remembers how she suffered for the child, and she loves him for the very pangs she endured in his birth. She knows the struggles of her widowhood to find food for the child, — how she starved herself to satisfy his hunger. Oh, what agony and self-denial some parents have suffered for their children; but these make them all the dearer, and render it all the more impossible that they should ever forget them. Well, then, remembering all this, look into the face of your Saviour, who died for you, and will you dare to say that he can possibly forget you? It cannot be; he has inscribed you on the palms of his hands, and he will never forget or forsake you.

24. Then think, also, of that dear and blessed Spirit of God, who has come into your heart, and striven with you when you resisted him, and at last won the day; and, since then, has helped your infirmities, checked your hastiness, aroused you from your sloth, and been everything to you that he could be; and do you think that, after all this, he will ever forget or forsake you? Oh, if he had meant to cast you away, he has had many opportunities when he might have done so. Surely, he would never have come to dwell in such a hovel as your fallen nature is if he had not intended to transform it, and make it into a pure alabaster palace where the living God might dwell. “Behold,” says the Lord. That is, look into this great truth; look deeply into it, and then say to yourself, “My fears of being forgotten or forsaken are all gone, for I am inscribed on the palms of his hands.”

25. IV. So I close by referring very briefly to the last point, which is this, A RETURN SUGGESTED.

26. I want, brothers and sisters, to speak in a very homely and familiar way to each one of you; and, at the same time, to be speaking to myself as well as to you.

27. Does Christ remember us as I have tried to prove that he does? Then, let us remember him. For that purpose he ordained that blessed supper to which many of us are coming presently, — the eating of the bread, and the drinking of the cup in memory of him. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Now try to forget everything but your Lord and Saviour. Pass an act of oblivion on all your cares, and troubles, and sorrows; and only look at him as though, like a mysterious stranger, he stood at the pew door, and leaned over you, and you seemed to feel his shadow falling on you. Now think of him, for he is very near you, and you are very near him.

28. And, brethren, let us not only remember him at his table, but let us remember him constantly. Let us, as it were, carry his name on the palms of our hands; let us ask God to help us always to think of Jesus, — never to forget him, but to have the memory of him intertwined with our very breathing, with the pulsing of our blood, until our whole nature, like a bell, shall ring out only one note, and that shall be love for Jesus, and our heart shall be like Anacreon’s {b} harp, of which he said that he wished to sing of the deeds of Cadmus, but his heart and his harp resounded love alone. Oh, for the love of Christ to be the one all-engrossing, all-absorbing theme of our entire being, until we truly say to Christ, “I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands.”

29. And, brothers, let us remember Christ practically. We ought so to wear Christ on our hands that whatever we touch should be Christianized by it. I have heard of the “christening” of babies, that is an idle superstition, and a perversion of Christ’s ordinance of believers’ baptism; but I believe in the Christ-ening of everything a Christian touches. Make it all Christ-like by doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, as the apostle Paul says, “Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” So inscribe his name on the palms of your hands.

30. And so brethren, let the name of Christ, and your memory of it, become vital to you. Not with a broad phylactery, not with the borders of your garments enlarged, not with outward signs and tokens of which some think a good deal too much in these days, — for true religion consists not in a dress of this cut or that, nor does it lie in boasting, like Pharisees, what we are, sounding our own praise at the corners of the streets so that all may know it and observe; — but true religion lies in this, that we cannot live without Christ, that our ordinary life becomes uplifted by the Christ who dwells within us, until every meal is a sacrament, every garment is a vestment, every place is an altar, and the whole world a temple in which we are kings and priests because God has made us so. May each of us come to this, and come now!

31. If any of you have not yet believed in Jesus, oh, how I wish you would! Since I am going away for a while, I shall not be able to speak personally to you for some time to come; but I hope that those, whom my voice has failed to influence, may be reached by some other servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall occupy this pulpit to speak to you in my absence. Oh, that you all knew my Lord! There is no one like him. His bonds are freedom; his service is rest; to die for him, is life; to live for him, is heaven. May God bring you to him, and fasten you to him for ever! Amen, and Amen.

{a} The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 to January 28, 1871, and the subsequent capture of the city by Prussian forces, led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Paris_(1870%E2%80%9371)" {b} Anacreon (570 BC-488 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacreon"

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 14:1-21}

We have often read this chapter, both in our private meditations, and at our public worship; but we cannot read it too often. It is sweet as honey and the honeycomb. It contains the very quintessence of consolation. Every word in the chapter is rich, and full of meaning. Perhaps they understand it best who cannot read it quickly, but are obliged to meditate over every word of it, and so are like those who feast on marrow and fatness.

1. “Do not let your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me.

That is the cure for heart-trouble, and all other trouble, too, — believing in God, and believing in his Son, Jesus Christ. Faith is the double cure for trouble, for it delivers us altogether from the trouble, and, at the same time, it helps us to find sweetness in it as long as we have to endure it.

Notice that our Saviour says, “Do not let your heart be troubled.” If your heart can be preserved from trouble, you will not be greatly tried by it. Trouble is in your house, perhaps; but, if so, do not let it get into your heart. The waves beat all around your vessel, but do not let the vessel itself leak, and take in the water: “Do not let your heart be troubled.”

2. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

This was very largely the cause of their trouble; they were full of sorrow because their Lord and Master was going away from them; yet he was going for their good. It was with a set purpose that he was leaving them, and the same reason still keeps him away from us. We are not to mourn for him as we might for one slain in battle, who would never come back to us. He has gone for a little while to another country, to the great Father’s house, on a most gracious and necessary errand: “I go to prepare a place for you.” The Spirit of God is down here to prepare us for the place; the Son of God is up there to prepare the place for us.

3. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; so that where I am, there you may be also.

Do not tell us about a purgatory for Christ’s people, a limbo in which they are to be for a while to be prepared to share his glory. No, he will come at the right time, and take them to be where he is, and they shall have the very place that Jesus has: “I will come again, and receive you to myself; so that where I am, there you may be also.” Do you want a better rest than that after all your work and warfare here below? Does this prospect not cheer you while you are journeying down the hill of life? It is better up ahead.

4. And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

“You know that I am going to the Father, and you know that I am myself the way to the Father; I am going from where I came.”

5, 6. Thomas says to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; and how can we know the way?” Jesus says to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:

“I am all that you need on your way to heaven, the truth that will make heaven for you, and the life which you will enjoy with me for ever in heaven. I give you all that while you are still here below.”

6. No man comes to the Father, but by me.

There is no getting to God except through Christ. Those who say that we can go to heaven without a Mediator do not know what they are saying, or are saying what they know to be false. There can be no acceptable approach to the Father except by Jesus Christ the Son.

7. If you had known me, you should have known my Father also:

For Christ is also “the mighty God, the everlasting Father.” All the character of God is seen in the Christ of God, and he who truly comes to Christ has really come to the Father.

7. And from henceforth you know him, and have seen him.”

I hope that this may be said of many of us, that we do truly know God; and, since we have seen Christ by faith, we have seen the Father also.

8. Philip says to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.”

What a comfort these questions and blunders of Thomas and Philip ought to be to us, for it is clear that we are not the only dolts in Christ’s school; and if he could bear with them, he can bear with us also. Like them, how little do we retain of what he teaches us! We are taught much, but we learn little, for we are such poor scholars. Our memory holds very little, and our understanding still less of what we have been taught, and we are all too apt to want something that we can see, just as Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us.”

9-11. Jesus says to him, “Have I been so long a time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; and how can you say then, ‘Show us the Father?’ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority: but the Father who dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.

Note how the Master continued to urge his disciples to believe. Again and again he returned to that vital point: “Do you believe?” “Believe me … : believe me.” He did this because there is no relief from heart trouble except by believing the everlasting truth of God, and especially by believing him who is “the truth.” Only the believer has true peace of heart; the unbeliever is tossed to and fro on the billows of the great ocean of doubt; how can he rest? There is nothing for him to rest on. Happily, Christ is still saying, “Come to me, and I will give you rest”; and they are truly wise who accept his gracious invitation.

12. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do he shall also do; and he shall do greater works than these; because I go to my Father.

When Christ had gone back to the Father, he opened all heaven’s treasures for his people; he bestowed the Spirit of all grace, and so his servants were helped to do even greater works than he himself did while he was on the earth. We cannot add anything to his atonement; that work must for ever stand as complete and unique; but there are other forms of service, in which he engaged in his earthly ministry, in which his servants have gone far beyond him. The Lord Jesus Christ never preached a sermon after which three thousand were converted and baptized in one day; to a large extent he kept his personal ministry within the bounds of Palestine; but, after his resurrection, when the Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, then, in the power of the Spirit, greater works than his were done in the whole wide world.

13, 14. And whatever you shall ask in my name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Is that promise true for every man? Certainly not. It was made by Christ to his own disciples, and not to all of them absolutely; but only to them as they believe in him, as they are filled with his Spirit, and as they keep his commandments. There are some of God’s children who have little power with him in prayer, — some who walk so disorderly that, since they do not listen to God’s words, he will not listen to theirs. Yet he will give them their basic needs, as you give even to your naughty and disobedient children; but he will not give them the luxury of prevailing prayer, and that full fellowship with him which comes through residing in him. Such luxuries he saves for his obedient children, who are filled with his Spirit. Even under the old covenant, David wrote, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you shall dwell in the land, and truly you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of your heart”; and in a very special sense, under the new covenant, that spirituality of mind, which enables us to delight in God, is a necessary prerequisite for our obtaining the desires of our heart in the high and spiritual sphere of prayer.

15-17. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may remain with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, neither knows him:

The world is carnal, it is unspiritual; therefore, it is unable to see or to know the Spirit of God. A man without a spiritual nature cannot recognise the Holy Spirit; he must be born again before he can do so. You who are only soul and body need to receive that third and loftier principle — the spirit which is created in us by the Spirit of God. Until you have it, this verse applies to you: “The Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him, neither knows him.”

17. But you know him;

Christ’s own disciples know him.

17-19. For he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world sees me no more; but you see me: because I live, you also shall live.

Oh, what a rich promise! How, then, can Christ’s people ever perish? Until Christ himself perishes, no child of his can ever be lost.

20. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

Three amazing mysteries of union, — Christ in the Father, the Church in Christ, and Christ in his Church.

21. He who has my commandments, and keeps them, it is he who loves me: and he who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.

May we be such lovers of Christ that he may love us, and reveal himself to us, for his name’s sake! Amen.