CH Spurgeon on John 16, verses 31-33

When faith falters and friends forsake us, where can we find strength? Reflecting on John 16:31–32, Spurgeon warns against self-confidence and points us to Christ, who stood firm when His disciples fled. Our confidence rests in God’s faithfulness, even when we feel alone.

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Spurgeon on John chapter 16, verses 31–33

Verse 31-32. Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Christ loves faith wherever He sees it, it is to Him a precious thing. To you that believe, He is precious, He is an honor, and upon Him you who believe confer all the honor it is possible for you to confer. Your trust adorns Him with jewels, your confidence in Him puts the crown on His head. But our Lord is very discriminating, He distinguishes between faith and presumption, and between faith and our idea of faith.

These disciples said now that they were sure. “Yes! Yes!” the Savior seemed to say, “That is your measure of your own faith, but I do not measure it in the same way that you do.” Do not mistake your belief in your own faith for faith in Christ, for belief in your own faith may be only self-conceit, while faith in Christ gives glory to God, and brings salvation to the believer.

We have never any reason to boast of our faith, for we have been very long coming to it. We do trust Christ now, I hope that many of us can sincerely say that we lean all our weight on Him. We believe in God, we believe also in His Son, Jesus Christ, but it took months to drive us out of our self-confidence, it took years to lift us out of despair, it has taken all this time for the Lord, in the power of His own Spirit, to work out what little faith we have.

Verse 32. Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone.

Our Lord reminded them of another thing more humbling still, that as their faith was long in coming, it might be very quick in going. A little trouble arises, an unforeseen difficulty occurs, and where is your faith? A little persecution, the idle banter of an unbeliever, the sarcasm of an agnostic, and where is your faith?

Let the believer never vaunt his believing, lest he be reminded how long he was in coming to it, and how soon he may be parted from it. What others have done, however base and mean, we too are capable of doing. If we think we are not, it is our pride, and our pride alone, that makes us think so.

Let us learn the lesson of our frailty, and though we are honestly trusting in Christ, let each one cry, “Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe.” From the most experienced and best established of you, as well as from those who have but recently been brought to know the Lord, let each one cry, “Lord, keep me, for I cannot keep myself!”

Our Lord was left alone. These eleven apostles that are around Him, and to whom He is talking, surely they will not leave their Lord! They are so sure that they will stand any fire that may be directed against them, and yet not one of them will stand firm. They will all forsake Him and flee.

The sure ones left Him whom they so certainly believed, and they were honest men too, when they spoke so confidently. There was no hypocrisy about what they said, they meant it all, they did each one verily believe that he could go to prison and to death, and that he would do so rather than deny his Lord.

They also really loved Christ. They all loved their Lord, yet all of them left Him, and poor weak things that they were, they turned their backs in the day of battle.

It is a grief to our hearts to be forsaken of good friends and loving friends. Your very knowledge that they were true at heart, as true as such poor things could be, increases the bitterness that they should leave you. You need not think, when this occurs in your experience, that any strange thing has happened to you, for Christ was thus left alone.

Verse 32. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Christ’s confidence was confidence that the Father was with Him and this confidence kept Him to His purpose. See the disciples flee, they are all scattered, every man to his own. Has Christ gone? Not He. John, Peter, James, Thomas, and all the rest are gone. Has Christ gone? Not He. There He stands.

They have left Him alone, but there He is, still standing to His purpose. He has come to save, and He will save. He has come to redeem, and He will redeem. He has come to overcome the world, and He will overcome it. They have left Him alone, they have not taken Him away with them. From His purpose He does never fly, blessed be His name! He stood fast in that dread hour when all forsook Him and fled. This was because His confidence was in God.

Notice how it runs, “Ye shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone.” Christ does not say, “I shall not be alone.” That was true, but He said, “I am not alone.”

I love to read the experience of the child of God in the present tense, the gifts, and graces, and promises of God in the present tense, “I am not alone.” “The LORD is my Shepherd,” as well as “I shall not want.” “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.” He is doing everything for me now.

Beloved, if everybody leaves you, and even God seems to leave you, still hold to your confidence in God. Do not believe that God can forsake His own, do not even dream it, it cannot be. He never did forsake His own, He never can, and He never will.

In the design and method of the atonement, the Father and the Son were together. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” but Jesus so loved the world that He gave Himself. The atonement was the gift of the Father, but it was the work of the Son. In all that He suffered He could say, “The Father is with Me in it.”

So far as earthly companions were concerned, the words written by Isaiah could be literally uttered by Christ, “I have trodden the winepress alone.” Every man was gone, but God was always with Him.

Verse 32. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Learn fidelity when others fail. Are you a Christian? Do you trust Christ? Do you love Him? Then never desert Him. If God the Holy Ghost has taught you to trust in Christ, trust in Christ, whatever other people do.

When the many turn aside, stand the more boldly and the more confidently, for your confidence and boldness are all the more needed at such a time. Your Lord did not forsake His grand errand when all men forsook Him. Do not renounce your lifework and your faith, even though all others should renounce theirs.

With your Master, believe that God is all-sufficient. “Ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because”—what? “Because there will be half-a-dozen of you faithful”? No. “Because three of you will cling to Me?” No. “Because the Father is with me.”

Oh, we do not count as we should. There is a million against you. Is God for you? Well then, you are in the majority. What is a million after all, but one and so many ciphers? Trust you in God and let the millions go their way. God is enough.

Rest in God, despite appearances. Are you very poor? Are you weak? Are you slandered? Are you scourged with God’s heaviest rod? Believe Him when you cannot see Him, believe Him when He smiles not, believe Him when He frowns, believe Him when He smites, believe Him when He slays, for that is the climax of it all, to say like Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.”

It is His to do what He likes, it is mine to trust Him, let Him do as He will. I throw my arms about my God and say, “My God, my God,” even when no sensible joys are felt, and I am obliged to walk by faith.

Struggling child of God, standing firm for the truth and the right, expect that your trouble will not last long. Did you notice how Christ puts it, “Behold, the hour cometh”? Only an hour.

It is the part of faith to shorten days to hours. It is your part to recollect that if you have to suffer, and to stand alone for Christ, it is but for an hour. Our trial is but for an hour.

So it shall seem in heaven as if we never had suffered anything for Christ. It is but an hour, and we shall meet before the golden throne, and stand upon the sea of glass, and sing forever, “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood...to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.”