Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1932
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15.
THIS is a chapter singularly full of certainties and remarkably studded with “ifs.” Concerning most of the great things in it there never can be an, “if,” and yet, “if,” comes up, I think, no less than seven times in the chapter and, “if,” too, not about trifles, but about the most solemn subjects. It is, perhaps, worthy of mention that with each of these, “ifs,” there is something connected, as following out of it, or appearing to be involved in it, or connected with it.
Look at the second verse. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.” If there had been no place for us in the Glory Land, Jesus would have told us. If any Truth of God which had not been revealed would have made our hope a folly, our Lord Jesus would have warned us of it, for He has not come to lure us into a fool’s paradise and, at the last, deceive us. He will tell us all that it is necessary for us to know in order to a wise faith and a sure hope. The Lord has not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth—He has not spoken in contradiction of His revealed Word. Nothing in His secret decrees or hidden designs can shake our confidence, or darken our expectation. “f it were not so, I would have told you.” Had there been a secret thing which would have injured your prospects, it should have been dragged to light that you might not be deceived, for the Lord Jesus has no desire to win disciples by the suppression of distasteful Truths. If there were anything yet to be revealed which would render your hope a delusion at the end, you would have been made acquainted with it—Jesus, Himself, would break the sad news to you—He would not leave you to be horrified by finding it out for yourselves! He kindly declares, “I would have told you.”
Notice the third verse. Again we meet with, “if,” and its consequence. “f I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” If the Lord Jesus should go away (and this is a supposition no longer, for He has gone), then He would return, again, in due time. Since He has gone, He will come again, for He has made the one to depend on the other. We make no question that He went up into Heaven, for He rose from out the circle of His followers and they saw Him as He went up into Heaven. They had no sort of doubt as to the fact that the cloud received Him out of their sight and, moreover, they received assurance out of Heaven, by an angelic messenger, that, “He shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven.” “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto Myself.” His going Home pledges Him to come and compels us to look for Him!
The next, “if,” comes at the beginning of the seventh verse—“f you had known Me, you should have known My Father, also.” If we really know the Lord Christ, we know God. In fact, there is no knowing God aright except through His Son Jesus! It is evidently true that men do not long hold to theism pure and simple. If our scientific men get away from the Christ, the Incarnate God, before long they drift away from God altogether. They begin to slide down the mountain when they quit the Incarnate Deity—and there is no more foothold to stop them. No man comes to the Father but by the Son—and no man long keeps to the Father who does not keep to his faith in the Son. Those who know Christ know God, but those who are ignorant of the Savior are ignorant of God, however much they may pride themselves upon their religion! They may know another god, but the only living and true God is unknown except by those who receive Jesus. The Divine Fatherhood, of which we hear so much in certain quarters, is only to be seen through the window of Incarnation and Sacrifice. We must see Jesus before we can gain even so much as a glimpse at the Infinite, the Incomprehensible and the Invisible! God comes not within finite perception till He enters human flesh—and there we behold His Glory, full of Grace and truth.
The next variety of, “if,” you will find a little farther down in the chapter, namely, in the 14th verse—“f you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” The, “if,” in this case involves an uncertainty about our prayers, if an uncertainty at all. Taking it for granted that we ask mercies in the name of Jesus, a glorious certainty is linked to them. Jesus says, “I will do it.” Here our Lord speaks after a Sovereign style. We may not say, “I will,” but the, “I wills,” pertain to Christ. He can answer and He has the right to answer—and, therefore. He says without reservation, “I will.” “If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.” Oh that we might put the first, “if,” out of court by continually petitioning the Lord and signing our petitions with the name of Jesus! May we be importunate only in prayers to which we are warranted to set that august name and then, boldly using His name and authority, we need be under no apprehension of failure! The great Father in Heaven never denies the power of His Son’s name, neither does the Son Himself draw back from the keeping of His own pledges! True prayer operates with the same certainty as the laws of Nature. “Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Oh that we did delight more in the Divine name and Charac-ter—and then our prayers would always speed to the Throne!