CH Spurgeon on John 17 verse 15

Christ prayed for His people to be kept from evil, rather than taken out of the world. Reflecting on John 17:15, C. H. Spurgeon considers the wisdom of remaining where God has placed us and the protection we need amid temptation. He encourages believers to trust their Father’s keeping power and fulfil their calling in the world.

Waters from Cherith is an official sermons podcast from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London.

Listen to our other podcasts:

The Word in Your Ear

Sermons from the Metropolitan Tabernacle, London

https://feeds.captivate.fm/word-in-your-ear/

Sword & Trowel

Reformed Articles and Ministry on Vital Topics

https://feeds.captivate.fm/sword-trowel/

For an extensive collection of sermons, articles and other materials, visit:

https://metropolitantabernacle.org/

Spurgeon on John chapter 17, verse 15

Verse 15. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Notice in the prayer of our divine Lord what honour He always puts upon God the Father. He ascribes to God everything—the taking the disciples out of the world, or the keeping them from the evil in the world.

Our lives are entirely in the keeping of our loving Father. Jesus speaks of God as taking the beloved ones out of the world, and it is even so. This fact should make us cease to be anxious about when or how we shall die, and it should, at the same time, reconcile us to the time and the manner of the home-going of any whom we love most dearly. They were not snatched away by the robber Death; they were taken out of the world by our dear Father’s gracious hand.

See also how our Lord Jesus honours the Father by ascribing to Him the keeping of the saints from evil, for He says, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil.” Beloved, our escape from evil, at the first, was by the Father’s grace. Our persevering in righteousness until now has been wrought in us by the Father’s hand, through the divine Spirit.

Observe, again, that God has us absolutely at His disposal. He can take us out of the world, or He can keep us in the world and preserve us from evil. We are glad to be at the disposal of our God; as His people, we would have no voice or choice in fixing our own position, but with the psalmist we would say, “He shall choose our inheritance for us.”

Whether we stay, or whether we go, depends entirely upon the Lord’s will.

Verse 15. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.”

At first sight, that seems almost unkind on our Saviour’s part. What could happen better than for those whom the world hated to be taken out of the world? Jesus Himself was going out of the world; what could He do that should have greater love in it than to pray that they might go with Him?

Yet the Saviour says, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world.” I am sure, therefore, that it is a better thing for us to stop here till our appointed time than it is for us to be taken out of the world. It may not be better in all respects, but there are some points in which it is an advantage for believers to remain here. Our Saviour loves us so much that He would be certain to ask the very best thing for us.

verse 18. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Does not the Lord wish the righteous to stay in the world a while that they may be the means of the salvation of others? How came Jesus here Himself? He came to seek and to save that which was lost, and when He went away, He did not take His disciples out of the world because their ministry was to be blessed to many of their fellow creatures. They, who might be safely housed in heaven, stay here that they may be the means of saving others.

Beloved Christian brothers and sisters, if the Lord is keeping any of us here with the object of using us in the salvation of others, let us take care that we answer the purpose of our continued existence on the earth. Let us be up and doing; let us be earnestly seeking the souls of our relatives; let us be zealously endeavouring to bring others to Christ.

I charge you, by Him who bought you by His blood, either go to heaven and glorify Christ there, or else, if you remain in the world, glorify Him here. But whether you live, or whether you die, do see to this matter, that you answer the divine purpose, which is that, being saved yourself, you may become the means of saving others.

The Lord also lets His people stay in the world that they may serve Him in the place where they sinned against Him. It seems to me that it is most gracious of the Lord to let us remain here to serve Him where we sinned against Him, and not to take us home as soon as we are converted. I think that we shall congratulate ourselves even in heaven that we had some opportunity of contending for the faith, or of bearing reproach for Christ’s sake, or of seeking to win souls for Him before we entered upon our everlasting rest.

The Lord keeps His people here also that He may exhibit in them the power of divine grace. He keeps us here to let the devil and all men know what His grace can do for His people, and also to let angels and principalities and powers in the heavenly places behold what saints God can make out of guilty sinners.

He takes those who had gone far away in sin and brings them near by the blood of Jesus. He fashions the rough, knotty timber that did not seem as if it could ever be shaped, and uses it in the building of His temple. He makes wonders of grace out of sinful men and women.

We cannot exhibit patience in heaven, so far as we now know anything about heaven; it does not seem possible that there will be any need of patience there. We cannot manifest strength of faith in heaven, for faith will be lost in sight. The Lord, therefore, bids us tarry here a while, that He may show what grace can do in sustaining us in suffering, upholding us under trial, and protecting us against temptation.

verse 15. But that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

What did Jesus pray for His disciples? That God would keep them from the evil. This is the right prayer for you to offer for yourself. Do not pray to get out of the battle; ask God that you may never be a coward, but that you may bravely play the man in the day of danger. Do not seek to be screened from affliction, but plead that you may never be driven to sin by your affliction.

You need not even pray that you may not have prosperity, but you may entreat the Lord that prosperity may not make you proud, or worldly. Let your condition be as God wills it, but let your great anxiety be that you may be kept from all sin in every condition.

We need to be kept from the evil of apostasy, the evil of worldliness, from the evil of unholiness, from the evil of getting to be as men of the world are; that is the main point. I do not think that it matters much what the condition of a man is so long as his heart is above his condition.

Pray not that you may be taken out of this or that, be it poverty or be it wealth, be it sickness or be it health, but pray that you may be kept from the evil of it, for there is an evil in every case. The great point is not where you are, not what you are as to circumstances, but that you may be kept by almighty power from the evil which might come out of any circumstances unless you were divinely preserved from the evil.

Do not let us be anxious to get to heaven just yet. Let us seek to fight our way there in valiant fashion. Do not let us be so earnest about the end as about the way, laying hold on Christ and uplifting His dear cross as our banner. We will bend our thoughts to this one point, and not think so much of going to heaven as of avoiding sin.

Lord, keep me out of evil! Then let me live or let me die, hold me up or press me down, let me dance with joy of heart, or let me lie and pine in an agony of pain; it shall be all the same to me, so long as nothing of the evil of surrounding circumstances enters into me. Do with me as You will, O my God!