CHRIST’S PRAYER FOR HIS PEOPLE – Charles Spurgeon
Christ’s Prayer for His People
Introduction: Christ’s Intercession for Believers
“I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” John 17:15
This prayer of Christ is an ever precious portion to all true believers because each of us has an inalienable interest in it. Every one of us, beloved, when we listen to the words of Christ, should remember that He is praying for us—that while it is for the great body of His elect He intercedes in this chapter and the one preceding it, yet it is also for each believer in particular that He offers intercession. However weak we are, however poor, however little our faith, or however small our grace may be, our names are still written on His heart! Nor shall we lose our share in Jesus‘ love.
I. The Negative Prayer
First, there is a negative prayer: “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.” Now, beloved, when we see persons converted to God—when men are turned from iniquity unto righteousness, from sinners into saints, the thought sometimes strikes us: Would it not be good to take them at once to heaven? Would it not be an excellent thing to translate them speedily from the realms of sin to the breast of the Lord who loves them with an everlasting love? Would it not be wiser to take the young plants out of the chilly air of this world where they may possibly be injured and weakened and transplant them at once to the land where they may bloom forever in peace and tranquility?
Jesus’ Prayer: A Different Perspective
Not so, however, does Jesus pray. When the man had the devils cast out of him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.” But Jesus said to him, “Go to your friends and relations and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you.” Some men, when they are converted, are all for going speedily to heaven. But they have not done with earth yet. They would like to wear the crown without bearing the cross. They desire to win without running and conquer without a battle. But their whim has no countenance from Jesus, for He exclaims, “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.”
II. The Meanings of This Prayer
Let us now turn to the meanings of this prayer: “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.” There are two senses in which this prayer may be understood. One is—He prays not that they should, by retirement and solitude, be kept entirely separate from the world. The second is—He asks not that they should be taken away by death.
Retirement from the World
As regards retirement from the world and solitude, some hermits and others have fancied that if we were to shut ourselves out from the world and live alone, we would then be more devoted to God and serve Him better. Many men of old lived in deserts, never coming into the cities, wandering about alone, praying in caves and forests, and thinking they were contaminated and rendered impure if once they mingled with mankind. So have we among the Roman Catholics, persons who act the part of hermits, living far from the common haunts of men and believing that by so doing they shall abundantly serve God. There are also certain orders of monks and nuns who live almost alone, seeing only their fellows and fancying that they are putting honor upon God and winning salvation for themselves.
The Fallacy of Monasticism
Now it is too late in the day for any of us to speak against monasticism. It has demonstrated its own fallacy! It was found that some of those men who had separated from society were guilty of more vile and vicious practices and sinned more grossly than men who were in the world. There are not many who can depart from the customs of social life and in solitude maintain their spirit, pure and unsullied.
Why, brethren, common sense tells us at once that living alone is not the way to serve God! It may be the way to serve self and wrap ourselves in a garment of self-complacency, but it cannot be the way to truly worship God. If it is possible, by this means, to fulfill one part of the great law of God, we cannot possibly carry out the other portion—to love our neighbor as ourselves, for we thus become unable to bind up the brokenhearted, to bring the wanderer back, or to win souls from death and sin!
The Solitude Fallacy
Out of the heart proceeds all evil, and if we were in retirement, we would sin because we would carry our hearts with us into whatever solitude we entered. If we could but once get rid of our hearts, if there were some means of rendering our natures perfect—then we might be able to live alone! But as we now are, that door must be well enforced so that it can keep out the devil. That hell must be much secluded so that sin cannot enter.
The Story of the Solitary Man
I have heard of a man who thought he could live without sin if he were to dwell alone. He took a pitcher of water and a store of bread, and provided some wood and shut himself up in a solitary cell, saying “Now I shall live in peace.” But in a moment or two, he chanced to kick the pitcher over, and he, thereupon, used an angry expression. Then he said, “I see it is possible to lose one’s temper even when alone.” And he at once returned to live among men!
Death as a Means of Removal
It may also be understood in a second sense. “I pray not that You should take them out of this world”—by death. That is a sweet and blessed mode of taking us out of the world which will happen to us all, by-and-by. In a few more years, the chariot of fire and the horses of fire will take away the Lord’s soldiers. But Jesus does not pray that one of His chosen people should be too soon removed—He does not desire to see His newly-begotten souls plume their wings and fly aloft to heaven until their time shall come.
III. The Reasons for This Petition
These reasons are threefold. Christ does not pray that we should be taken out of the world because our abode here is for our own good, for the world’s benefit, and for His glory!
For Our Good
First, it would not be for our good to be taken out of this world. I leave out the first idea of the text and only speak of it concerning death. We conceive that the greatest blessing we shall ever receive from God is to die. But doubtless it would not be for our good to withdraw from this world as soon as we had escaped from sin. It is better for us to tarry a little while—far better.
Why It’s Good to Stay on Earth
And the reasons for this are—first, because a little stay on earth will make heaven all the sweeter. Nothing makes rest so sweet as toil! Nothing can render security so pleasant as a long exposure to alarms and fears and battles. No heaven will be as sweet as a heaven which has been preceded by torments and pains! I think the deeper draughts of woe we drink here below, the sweeter will be those draughts of eternal glory which we shall receive from the golden bowls of bliss! The more we are battered and scarred on earth, the more glorious will be our victory above when the shouts of a thousand times ten thousand angels welcome us to our Father’s palace! The more trials—the more bliss; the more sufferings—the more ecstasies; the more depression—the higher the exaltation. Thus we shall gain more of heaven by the sufferings we shall pass through here below.
Let us not, then, my brethren, fear to advance through our trials—they are for our good. To stop here awhile is for our benefit. Why? We would not know how to converse in heaven if we had not a few trials and hardships to tell of and some tales of delivering grace to repeat with joy. An old sailor likes to have passed through a few shipwrecks and storms, however hazardous they may have been, for if he anchors in Greenwich Hospital, he will there tell his companions, with great pleasure, of his hair-raising escapes! There will be some old soldiers in heaven, too, who will recount their fights—how their Master delivered them and how He won the victory and kept off all their foes.
Fellowship with Christ in Suffering
Again, we would not have fellowship with Christ if we did not stop here. Fellowship with Christ is so honorable a thing that it is worth while to suffer that we may thereby enjoy it. You have sometimes heard me express a desire that I might be in the number of those who shall be alive and remain and so shall escape death. But a dear friend of mine says he had rather die, in order that he might thus have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings—and I think the thought finds an echo in my own breast! To die with Jesus makes death a perfect treasure. To be a follower in the grave with Him makes death a pleasure.
IV. The Doctrinal Inference
The first doctrinal inference we may derive from this prayer is that death is God taking His people out of the world, and when we die, we are removed by God. Death is not an independent being that comes at his own will to carry us away when he pleases. In fact, it is not true that death takes away the Christian at all—God, alone, can remove His children from this world.
The Harvest of the Righteous
You will see this by referring to the Revelation where the vintage of the wicked is gathered by an angel, but the harvest of the righteous is reaped by Christ, Himself. “And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he, also, having a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over the fire and cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the cluster of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.”
The Importance of How We Live
The next thing is that dying is not of one-half so much importance as living to Christ. “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.” He does not make their dying an object of prayer, “but that You should keep them from the evil one.” He prays that they should be preserved in life, knowing that their death would assuredly follow rightly, as a matter of course.
V. The Practical Lesson
The practical lesson we learn from this part of the text is that we never have any encouragement to peevishly ask God to let us die. Christians always want to die when they have any trouble or trial. You ask them, “Why?” “Because we want to be with the Lord.” O yes, they want to be with the Lord when troubles and temptations come upon them! But it is not because they are “panting to be with the Lord”—it is because they desire to get rid of their troubles—otherwise they would not want to die at all times when a little vexation is upon them!
Facing Difficulties in Life
They want to get home, not so much for the Savior’s company, as to get out of the little hard work! They did not wish to go away when they were in quiet and prosperity. Like lazy fellows, as most of us are, when we get into a little labor, we beg to go home. It is quite right, sometimes, that you should desire to depart because you would not prove yourself to be a true Israelite if you did not want to go to Jerusalem. You may pray to be taken home out of the world, but Christ will not take up the petition.
The Call to Labor
When your prayers come to the Lord, this little one may try to get among them, but Christ will say, “I do not know anything about you, ‘I pray not that You should take them out of the world.’” You may wish it sincerely and really desire it, but you will not, at present, get your Master to pray with you. Instead of crying or wishing to be away from the battle, brace yourself up in the name of the Lord! Think every wish to escape the fight is but a desertion of your Master. Do not so much as think of rest, but remember that though you may cry, “Let me retire into the tent,” you will not be admitted until you return a victor!
Conclusion: Enduring in the World
Therefore stop here and work and labor. My dear friends, I had intended to preach from the other half of the verse, but that is quite impossible. The time is so far gone and I can only manage the first part. So I must depart from my original intention. And I will restrict myself to some thoughts which occur to me upon the first portion of our text. “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.”
The Importance of Living Well
Perhaps tomorrow you will be saying, “I am very sorry Sunday is over. I am obliged to go to business again. I wish it were always Sunday, that I might attend to my preaching, or to the schools, or to the prayer meeting, or to the tract-distributing. No obstructions of the world afflict me there, no vexations of the spirit occur there. I am sick of the world; oh, if I could never go into it again.” Let me jog your elbow a bit. Does Jesus think so? Hear Him! “I pray not that You should take them out of the world.” There is no remedy for the ill, if it is an ill—therefore endure it with becoming fortitude!
The World Needs You
Yes, rather seek to improve the opportunity thus afforded you of conferring a blessing upon your race and of gaining advantages for yourselves. The pious mind will know how to improve the very sight of sin to its own sanctification. It will learn humility when it remembers that restraining grace, alone, prevents a similar fault in itself. It will gather subjects for gratitude and admiration from the fact that grace, alone, has made it to differ. Never shall we value divine grace so much as when we see the evil from which it delivers us!
Christ’s Intercession and the Call for Repentance
Introduction: Christ’s Mercy and Intercession
“O spare him now.” And you are spared. The second time disease comes near you and great pains bow you down. Again He prays, “Spare him!” And you are yet safe. The third time you are fast approaching your end. Now the angel of death is lifting up the glittering steel, and his axe is almost fallen on you. Yet Christ says, “Spare him, angel! Spare him—perhaps he may yet turn to Me with full purpose of heart.” He whom you hate, loved you so much that He interceded for you and, therefore, you were spared till now.
Remember, however, that this reprieve will not continue forever. At last, Justice will cry, “Cut him down, he cumbers the ground.” Some of you have been cumbering the ground for 60 or 70 years—old sinners—of no use in this world. Is it so? There you are! Occupying the ground, keeping other trees from growing and of no use! Your family is being damned by your example. The whole neighborhood is tainted by you.
A Stern Warning for the Unrepentant
Do not tell me I should not speak so roughly. I tell you as long as I have a tongue in my head you shall have no mincemeat from me! If you are lost, it shall not be for want of plain speaking and honest warning. Oh, you cumber-grounds! How much digging and dunging have you received at the Lord’s hand and yet you are fruitless? The axe will soon be at your root and oh, the fire into which you shall be cast!
Ungodly man, you are spared until your overflowing cup of sin is dropping like oil upon the flame of vengeance, and the increasing fire will presently reach you. The longer the archer draws the bow, the mightier is the force of the arrow. What though vengeance tarries, it is that its sword may be sharpened and its arm nerved for direr execution.
The Imminent Judgment of God
Oh, you gray-heads! A little more delay and the stroke shall fall—tremble and kiss the Son, lest He be angry and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little!
And yet, I think some of you who have cumbered the ground do most heartily desire to serve God. Poor sinner! I rejoice that you feel that you have been a cumber-ground. Do you confess that you have been a poor thorn and briar until now? Do you acknowledge that the Lord had been just to you if He had damned you? Then come as you are and cast yourself on Jesus—without works, without merit! Will you ask the Lord to turn you into a good fig tree? If you will, He will do it, for He declares that He hears prayer!
The Story of Jack: A Sinner’s Redemption
There was once a poor man in a small country town that had not all the sense people usually have, but he had sense enough to be a great drunkard and swearer! As God would have it, he once listened to a poor woman who was singing:
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
Home he went, repeating these words—he put his trust in a crucified Savior, and was really converted. Well, he soon came to church, and although he was a peddler and always traveling about, he said, “I want to join your church.” They, remembering his sinful way of life, required some great evidence of a change before they received him, “Oh” he said, “I must come in.”
“But you have been such a great sinner and you are unconverted,” added the elders.
“Well,” said poor Jack, “I don’t know if I’m unconverted, and I confess I am a great sinner—but—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
They could not get from him any other testimony save this. He would only say—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
They could not refuse him, and therefore accepted him for fellowship. After this, he was always happy. One day a Christian said to him, “You always seem so happy and pleased, Jack; how is it?”
“Well” he said, “I ought to be happy, for—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
The Assurance of Faith in Christ
“Well but,” said the gentleman, “I can’t see how you can be always so happy and sure. I sometimes lose my evidences.”
“I don’t,” said Jack, “I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is in my all-in-all.”
“Well,” said a friend, “I am at times miserable because I remember my sad sinfulness even since conversion.”
“Ah,” said Jack, “You have not begun to sing—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
“Oh,” said the friend, “How do you get rid of your doubts and fears? My faith frequently fails, and I miss my sure hope in Christ. My frames are so variable and feelings so contrary, what do you think of that?”
“Think?” said poor Jack, “Why Master, I have no good things to care about—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
But Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
The Path to Salvation
Well, then, if there is anyone here who is “a poor sinner and nothing at all”—where is he? In the gallery, or sitting down below? If he cannot say all that poor man said; if he can say the first line, he need not fear to say the second! Never mind if he can’t say—
“Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
If he can say—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,”
he is most assuredly on the right road!
“Oh, but,” says one, “I am sinful, vile, worthless.”
All right! You’re “a poor sinner and nothing at all,” and Jesus Christ is willing to be your “all-in-all.”
“But I have blasphemed God, departed from His ways and grievously transgressed!”
Well, I believe all that and a great deal more, and am very glad to hear it, or thus I see you are—
“A poor sinner and nothing at all.”
I am very glad if you will hold that opinion of yourself.
The Struggle of the Soul
“Ah! but I am afraid I have sinned too much. When I try, I cannot do anything! When I try to mend my ways; when I try to believe in Christ, I cannot.”
We are glad, very glad of it Brother, that you are—
“A poor sinner and nothing at all.”
If you had a single particle of goodness; if you had a little bit—not big enough to cover the top of your little finger—we would not be glad. But if you are—
“A poor sinner and nothing at all,
Jesus Christ is your all-in-all.”
The Call to Christ
Come! Will you have Him? You are “nothing at all.” Will you have Christ? Here He stands. Ask—it is all He wants, for you are the object of His regard. There are only three steps. One is to step out of self. The second is to step upon Jesus. The third is to step into heaven. You have taken one step. I am sure you will take the others. God never makes you feel you are, “A poor sinner and nothing at all,” but, sooner or later, He gives—
“Jesus Christ as your all-in-all.”
Conclusion: The Power of Christ to Save
O poor sinner, do not be doubtful of my Master’s power! Do but touch the hem of His garment, and you shall be made whole! Like the poor woman in the crowd, do but get at it, and touch it, and He will surely say unto you, “You are saved.” If you will go to Him with this cry—
“I’m a poor sinner and nothing at all,
And Jesus Christ is my all-in-all.”
Then you will see the blessed reason why Jesus interceded thus—“I pray not that You should take them out of the world.”