Peace, Tribulation, Victory

Next Part Peace, Tribulation, Victory 2

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation—but be of good cheer—I have overcome the world." John 15:33

There is one feature in the discourses of the Lord with his sorrowing disciples (as recorded John 14-16) which has struck my mind; and which I may perhaps best characterize by one short sentence—the entire absence of self. Let us, for a few moments, consider the circumstances under which these discourses fell from the Lord's lips. It was upon that gloomy night when he himself was to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, upon the very eve of those horrors of soul which he was to endure in the garden of Gethsemane, and immediately preceding those agonies of body and soul combined which he was to suffer on the cross. Should we not have expected that his soul would have been so occupied with what lay before him, that he could have had no thought upon any other subject? But we find the blessed Lord in these discourses with his mourning followers laying aside, as it were, all consideration of himself, and of what he was about to endure, and devoting all his thoughts and words—and, I may add, all his heart, to comfort and encourage them; as he speaks, "Hereafter I will not talk much with you" (John 14:30); as though he would say, 'Now I devote myself entirely to you; now I lose all thoughts of myself that I may speak all my heart to you! But when this is done, other work lies before me.'

Now, after the Lord had laid before his disciples what he saw fit in his own infinite and all-wise mind as suited to their encouragement and consolation; and not to theirs only, but that of the whole church of God in all future time, he concentrates, so to speak, the whole in the words of our text, as if that were the substance of all he had said, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation—but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Three divisions of our text seem to occur to my mind, corresponding with its three clauses; and these we may briefly characterize as peace, tribulation, and victory—peace in Jesus, tribulation in the world, and victory through Jesus over the world.

I. PEACE in Jesus– "these things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace." What are "these things?" Are they not what he had just laid before them? Every word, then, contained in the preceding chapter, I may say, is comprehended in the expression, "these things." We cannot indeed recapitulate everything which the Lord spoke unto them in these three chapters. It would require not one sermon, but a long series of sermons to enter but a little into those holy topics of divine consolation. And yet, we must glance at a few of them; or we cannot enter into the meaning and fullness of our text. We shall, therefore, with God's blessing, endeavor to take a hasty glance at some of those things which the Lord spoke in their ears, that receiving them into their heart, and enjoying the sweet consolations that should distill out of there into their souls, "in him they might have peace." In so doing, I shall not follow the exact order in which the Lord spoke them; but take them up as they occur to my mind, yet preserving, as the Lord may enable, some thread of connection.

1. One thing which the Lord laid before them, that "in him they might have peace," was, the doctrine, or truth rather, (I prefer the latter word) of their union with him—their eternal, indissoluble union with his divine Person, as set forth in that parable, "I am the Vine, you are the branches." (John 15:5.)

Now out of this eternal union with Christ flows every blessing. Only so far as we have an eternal union with Jesus have we any living union, or any spiritual communion with him. Only so far as we have a standing in Christ from before all worlds have we any saving interest in, or any title to, his atoning blood, justifying righteousness, all-sufficient grace, manifested presence, shed abroad love, and communicated favor. We receive nothing, we can receive nothing of a spiritual nature except by virtue of an eternal union with the Lord of life and glory. For as the branches receive their sap out of the stem only by virtue of their union with the stem; so can we receive blessings out of Christ only by virtue of union with Christ.

Now is not this divine truth blessedly adapted to bring peace and comfort into the soul? If we can in any way realize a union with Christ; if we have faith given to us to believe in his name, and through faith to "receive out of his fullness, and grace for grace," and find him from time to time supplying our needs, and communicating his presence, mercy, and love to our souls—it is, it must be, the foundation of all true spiritual peace and comfort.

2. But the Lord also told his beloved disciples that he had chosen them in himself. He says, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." (15:16.) He assures them in these words of their eternal election in him; that he had loved them before all worlds, and had chosen them that they might be partakers of his grace here, and see his glory face to face hereafter. Now when we can believe (God must give us this faith) that we were chosen in Christ before all worlds, what can bring sweeter consolation to the soul? What can distill more solid joy and peace into the heart?

3. Further. He assured them that he would lay down his life for them. He says, "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do whatever I command you." (15:13, 14.) In these words he assures them that he was about to lay down his precious life for them; that his love for their souls was so great that he did not refuse to shed his own blood, that they might be washed in that holy fountain, and set free from all the guilt, filth, and shame of sin and iniquity.

4. He assured them further, that they were not "servants," but "friends" (15:15); that the tie between them was no longer, as it had been, of master and servant; but a far nearer, a far dearer, a far closer, a far more intimate relation—that of friend; that, therefore, as a friend opens his heart's counsels to his brother friend, and they are thus knit together by the closest tie and most tender relationship; so to them, as to his friends, he would open the very secrets of his heart. He therefore was to them, not a harsh master exacting obedience as from servants, and marking every transgression to punish it; but a kind and tender-hearted friend, who could bear with their infirmities; yes, a friend who would stick closer than any earthly brother.

5. Again. He tells them that he was "the Way" whereby access was to be found to God; "the Truth," so that by following him they would be fully secured from all error; "and the Life," so that by believing in his name, life might flow into their souls, and revive them in every hour of drooping and bondage. He assured them, too, that there was no other way of access to God, for that no man could come to the Father but by him. (14:6.)

6. He told them also, that he would not leave them comfortless (14:18); but that he would send the Comforter, who would comfort, by his holy influences and sacred anointings, their sorrowful and mourning hearts; that this Comforter should lead them into all truth, should take of the things that were his, and reveal them to their souls; should guide them also, and be with them even to the end. (16:13, 14.)

7. He tells them also, that because he lived, they would live also (14:19); that they would never be in that drooping state of soul out of which he could not or would not revive them by that life which they lived in him.

8. He assured them further, that he was going before them to prepare mansions for them, and would come again and take them unto himself, that where he was they might be also. (14:2, 3.)

These indeed are but a few gleanings of the ample harvest of consolation which is stored up in these blessed chapters. But the Lord, having laid before them these sweet and encouraging topics, tells them for what purpose he had spoken these things to them—"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace."

But will the mere speaking of these things bring peace? How often have we read these chapters, and yet found no peace flowing from them! But when the Lord himself, all whose words are spirit and life (John 6:63)—when the Lord himself is pleased to speak any of these gracious promises with power to the heart, then his words bring with them peace.

And what more blessed legacy, what sweeter or more suitable inheritance could the Lord leave behind him for his sorrowing family than peace? Peace with God through the great atoning Sacrifice; peace in the court of conscience through the application of the blood of the Lamb; holy calm, divine tranquillity, produced by the blessed Dove brooding with his heavenly wings upon the soul. How far peace surpasses in soul feeling every other blessing! The child of God is not looking for ecstasies, visions, dreams, or wonderful discoveries to the bodily eye or bodily ear. Such things as these, visionaries, enthusiasts, and wild fanatics make their boast in. But to have peace dropped into the soul from the mouth of the Lord; to have peace proclaimed in the conscience by that blood which speaks better things than the blood of Abel; to feel that serenity in his soul whereby he can rest upon the bosom of Jesus, and find anxious cares and troubled thoughts all lulled within—can he desire, can he enjoy a more heavenly legacy, a richer portion than this?

But the Lord says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in ME you might have peace." Here lies the force of the whole. Peace in self! That never can be found. Peace in the world! That never can be had. Peace in sin! God forbid any of his children should dream of peace there for a moment. Peace in the things of time and sense! Are they not all polluted—all baubles, toys, passing shadows, smoke out of the chimney, chaff on of the summer threshing floor? Can an exercised soul—one tried, tempted, dejected, cast down with the difficulties of the way—can he find any peace in these things? His carnal mind may, to his shame, for a while be drawn aside by them; his wicked lusts and passions may be entangled in them; his fallen nature may grovel amid these poor perishing day-dreams. But peace! there is no peace in these things; for God has said, "There is no peace to the wicked." And so long as our wicked hearts are going out after wicked things, if the conscience is really tender and alive in God's fear, there will be no true, solid peace within.

But how often are the souls of the Lord's people like the troubled sea, which casts up mire and dirt! How often are they far from peace! How many anxious thoughts, painful suspicions, trying doubts and fears, assail and harass their souls! In these temptations do they find peace? Does the Lord mean they should find peace in them? Are not these things intended to be to them what the floating carcasses were to Noah's dove—to drive them back to the ark? The raven, that foul bird of prey, could rest and fatten upon the floating carcasses, and never more returned to the ark; but the pure dove, that clean bird, could find no rest for the sole of her foot, but in, or upon the ark.

So while carnal professors can find peace in self, in the things of time and sense, in empty notions, in a graceless profession, in dry doctrines, in a name to live while dead—there is that in the heart of a child of God which, like the dove, can find no solid rest—except in the ark, the Lord Jesus Christ; as he says, "In me you shall have peace."

But what is the import of the words "in me?" Do they not point, first, to the truth of eternal union with Christ? for out of this eternal union flows every blessing in time. Do not the words also point to faith in Christ? for it is only by faith in Christ that we can have peace in him; as the Scripture speaks, "peace and joy in believing." But is not the crowning point of "in me," and that whence solid peace flows, communion with Christ? Not merely eternal union, not merely living union, but divine communion under the sacred influences and operations of the blessed Comforter.

Now the Lord designs that all his dear family should have peace in him; he therefore drives them out of every refuge of lies that they may find no peace in self. He brings them out of the world, that they may find no peace there. He hunts them out of sin, that they may find no peace there. He sees fit also to exercise their minds, and to try them again and again, that finding no peace in anything else, they may come as poor broken-hearted sinners to the footstool of mercy, look unto Jesus, trust in his name, and find peace in believing.

II. TRIBULATION in the world. And therefore it is that peace and tribulation are so closely connected. "In the world you shall have tribulation." The Lord knows what our hearts are. He knows what a close affinity there is between our nature and a tempting, alluring world. And he knows that each one carries a little world in his own bosom. He therefore declares, that "in the world we shall have tribulation;" a promise as sure as that "in him we shall have peace." How glad we would be to separate these two things! How pleased we should be to have no tribulation in the world, and yet to have peace in Christ? How our coward flesh shrinks from tribulation! The very thought of it at times makes us tremble. Yet the Lord has so joined together these two things—peace in himself, and tribulation in the world, that they never can be put asunder; and so far from a possibility of their being severed, we may add, they bear to each other the closest and nearest relation.

The Lord, then, has promised, that "in the world we shall have tribulation." But how this staggers a child of God! He can understand, or seem to understand, what it is to have peace in Christ; but that his allotted path should be tribulation in the world, how it seems to cut deep, as it were, into the very fibers of his heart! And yet how needful, how indispensably needful it is, to have tribulation in the world; for how closely bound up our heart is in it. How glued and fettered our carnal heart is to the things of time and sense! What proneness, what daily; hourly proneness there is to go after idols; to amuse our vain mind with passing shows; to take an interest in the smallest trifles which surround us; and thus forsake the Fountain of living waters, and hew out to ourselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water.

What a veil of enchantment, too, is often over our eyes; and therefore, what a series of troubles—what days, and weeks, and months, and years of trial does it take to convince us that the world is not our home, not our rest, not our enduring habitation. We live in a fallen world; and, therefore, in this fallen world tribulation of some kind or another must be our lot. We are born into a sinful world, and carry about with us a sinful nature, which is intimately and closely connected with the world, and therefore all the evils which are entailed upon a sinful world are entailed upon us by rightful inheritance. The wrath of God rests upon the world, because it lies in the "Wicked One;" and we therefore, as sojourners in this valley of tears, come under his chastening hand.

But the Lord mercifully and graciously makes use of tribulation, in various shapes and forms, to bring us out of the world, that we may not be condemned with it, nor make it our rest and home. Thus he draws us to his blessed feet, that in him we may find that peace which we never have found, which we never can find anywhere else.

But what various sources of tribulation there are! If you and I could lay our hearts bare to each other; if we could compare our various sources of tribulation—how different they might be; yet each has his own suffering path; and each, perhaps, might think his tribulation the hardest to be endured. For instance,

1. Our very connection with the world is sure to entail with it tribulation. If a man has a business in the world, the very calling by which he lives will be connected with tribulation. There will be anxious cares, blighted prospects, disappointed hopes, bad debts, and a thousand painful circumstances so connected with the very business that he follows, so intimately blended with the worldly calling whereby he earns his daily bread, that he cannot escape tribulation from the very source of his natural subsistence.

2. How, too, the closest family ties prove sources of tribulation! If we have beloved children, they may be taken away, or grow up to grieve us. If we have loving partners, they may be snatched from our fond bosom. Our keenest sorrows may spring from our dearest and nearest social ties. And from these things there is no escape. No wisdom or contrivance of ours can prevent them. They are so appointed by the Lord, they are so laid in our path, they are so fastened round our neck, they are so a part of our allotted portion, that we cannot escape them.

3. Again. While in the world we are continually entangled in some evil. Well near every look is a means of conceiving sin in the heart. We can scarcely open our ears without hearing something to defile and pollute the imagination. We can scarcely think without that thought being a sinful one. We can hardly speak without something sinful, worldly, or selfish mingling itself with the speech. And out of these things tribulation comes. The sin of the eye, or the sin of the ear, or the sin of the heart, or the sin of the tongue—each brings tribulation in its train, for with a child of God sorrow always follows sin, as the shadow follows the sun.

4. Again. If we are faithful followers of the Lamb, we are sure to suffer persecution. It may not come in those shapes and forms which prevailed in times of old. The law has extinguished fire and faggot; but "the scourge of the tongue," slander, calumny, detraction, are not silenced; and we may suffer inward martyrdom from the scourge of the tongue, as the blessed martyrs endured outward martyrdom when their backs were scourged with whips, or their bodies burned in the flame.

5. But again—our very intimate ties with the church of Christ—if we come out of the world, as we are bound to do, and come into close connection with the family of God—this very uniting ourselves to God's people may be a source of tribulation. If we belong to a church, there may be divisions in it, and those often of a very painful nature. If we have spiritual friends, from them some of our sharpest sorrows may spring. If we have walked in close and intimate union even with the people of God, circumstances may arise to sever us from them, and we may rue the day when we first became acquainted with them.

Thus, on every side, without and within, there are sources of tribulation.

Next Part Peace, Tribulation, Victory 2

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