John 16:32

And on the fifth day of the week, when we had eaten the passover with Him, and when Judas had dipped his hand into the dish, and received the sop, and was gone out by night, the Lord said to us: "The hour is come that ye shall be dispersed, and shall leave me alone;" and every one vehemently affirming that they would not forsake Him, I Peter adding this promise, that I would even die with Him, He said, "Verily I say unto thee, Before the cock crows, thou shall thrice deny that thou knowest me." And when He had delivered to us the representative mysteries of His precious body and blood, Judas not being present with us, He went out to the Mount of Olives, near the brook Cedron, where there was a garden; and we were with Him, and sang an hymn according to the custom.

(Hom. lxxix) Ye shall be scattered; i. e. when I am betrayed, fear shall so possess you, that ye will not be able even to take to flight together. But I shall suffer no harm in consequence: And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

(Tr. ciii) For they did not only with their bodies leave His body, when He was taken, but with their minds the faith.

2171 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, every man to his home, and will leave me alone. Here we see their approaching troubles and falling away. Notice that by their falling away they lost what they had acquired …

And lest they, holding such thoughts about Him, should think that they were pleasing Him, He says: "The hour is coming when you will be scattered, each to his own." You think that you have a great understanding of Me. But I say to you …

Behold, the hour is coming and has already come, that is, it draws near: that you will be scattered, each one to his own, that is, that you will be scattered, such that each one to his own, because not one remained with another, neither …

Behold the hour cometh, yea, is now come,....

The hour cometh - Ye shall shortly have need of all the faith ye profess: ye now believe me to be the Omniscient; but ye will find difficulty to maintain this faith when ye see me seized, condemned, and crucified as a malefactor. Yea, your faith will be then so shaken that ye shall run away, each striving to save himself at his own home, or among his kindred.

The passage we have now read is a very remarkable portion of Scripture, for two reasons. On the one hand, it forms a suitable conclusion to our Lord's long parting address to His disciples. It was fit and right that such a solemn sermon should have a solemn ending. On the other hand it contains the most general and unanimous profession of belief that we ever find the Apostles making—"Now are we sure that You know all things . . . by this we believe that you came forth from God."

Do ye now believe?--that is, "It is well ye do, for it is soon to be tested, and in a way ye little expect." 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--A deep and awful sense of wrong experienced is certainly expressed here, but how lovingly!

quarantine:scripture (2026-07-29) — verbatim-run:28w-of-68

The passage we have now read is a very remarkable portion of Scripture, for two reasons. On the one hand, it forms a suitable conclusion to our Lord's long parting address to His disciples. It was fit and right that such a solemn sermon should have a solemn ending. On the other hand it contains the most general and unanimous profession of belief that we ever find the Apostles making—"Now are we sure that You know all things . . . by this we believe that you came forth from God." That there are things hard to be understood in the passage it would be useless to deny. But there lie on its surface three plain and profitable lessons, to which we may usefully confine our attention. We learn, for one thing, that clear knowledge of God the Father is one of the foundations of the Christian religion. Our Lord says to His disciples, "The time comes when I shall show you plainly of the Father." He does not say, we should mark, "I will show you plainly about myself." It is the Father whom He promises to show. The wisdom of this remarkable saying is very deep. There are few subjects of which men know so little in reality as the character and attributes of God the Father. It is not for nothing that it is written, "No man knows the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him." (Matt. 11:27.) "The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." (John 1:18.) Thousands imagine that they know the Father because they think of Him as great, and almighty, and all-hearing, and wise, and eternal, but they think no further.

OUR Lord looks for faith as the result of His teaching and I think that I hear Him say, at the end of every service, "Do you now believe? You have listened. You have made remarks about the speaker—do you now believe? You have been made to feel, you have brushed the tears away, but do you now believe? For anything short of believing leaves you short of salvation." I would like to put the question of my text to every hearer in this great house tonight. You have listened, now, to years of sermons—"Do you now believe?"

OUR Lord looks for faith as the result of His teaching and I think that I hear Him say, at the end of every service, "Do you now believe? You have listened. You have made remarks about the speaker—do you now believe? You have been made to feel, you have brushed the tears away, but do you now believe? For anything short of believing leaves you short of salvation." I would like to put the question of my text to every hearer in this great house tonight. You have listened, now, to years of sermons—"Do you now believe?" You are getting gray. The Gospel is very familiar to you—you have heard it preached for many, many years—but, "do you now believe?" This is the crucial point. According to your answer truthfully given to this question, you may decide as to your condition before God, "Do you now believe?" Christ loves faith wherever He sees it. It is to Him a precious thing. To you who 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 now said that they were sure— "Now are we sure that You know all things, and need not that any man should ask You." "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." If there are any here who say, "As to the matter of faith, I need no caution, I scarcely need admonition, I believe! Oh, you cannot tell how firmly." No, my dear Friend, and perhaps you cannot tell how weakly you believe.

[Another sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #2271, Volume 38—ALONE , YET NOT ALONE.] "Do you now believe?" Then it seems that faith held them fast to Christ, but as soon as fear prevailed they were scattered and left their Master alone. Faith has an attracting and upholding power. It is the root of constancy and the source of perseverance under the power of God's Spirit. While we believe, we remain faithful to our Lord. When we are unbelieving, we are scattered, "every man to his own." While we trust, we follow closely.

[Another sermon by Mr. Spurgeon upon the same text is #2271, Volume 38—ALONE , YET NOT ALONE.] "Do you now believe?" Then it seems that faith held them fast to Christ, but as soon as fear prevailed they were scattered and left their Master alone. Faith has an attracting and upholding power. It is the root of constancy and the source of perseverance under the power of God's Spirit. While we believe, we remain faithful to our Lord. When we are unbelieving, we are scattered, "every man to his own." While we trust, we follow closely. When we give way to fear, we ungratefully forsake our Lord. May the Holy Spirit maintain our faith in full vigor that it may nourish all our other Graces! Faith being strong, no faculty of the inner man will languish, but if faith declines, the energy of our spiritual nature speedily decays. If you believe not, you shall not be established, but "the just shall live by faith" to the fullest force oflife. This being noted, our meditation shall now be fixed alone upon the Savior's loneliness and the measure in which the Believer is brought into the same condition. I. THE LONELINESS OF THE SAVIOR. Note the fact of it He was left alone—alone just when most, as Man, He needed human sympathy. Solitude to Him, during His earthly life, was often the cause of strength. He was strong in public ministry because of the hours spent in secret wrestling with God on the lone mountainside. But when He came to the hour of His agony, His perfect Humanity pined after human sympathy, yet it was denied Him. He was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane though He took the eleven with Him. Yet must He leave eight of them outside at the garden gate—and the three, the choice, the elite of them all—though they were brought somewhat nearer to the scene of His passion, yet even they must remain at a stone's cast distance.

The hour cometh - To wit, on the next day, when he was crucified. Ye shall be scattered - See Mat 26:31. Every man to his own - That is, as in the margin, to his own home. You shall see me die, and suppose that my work is defeated, and return to your own dwellings. It is probable that the two disciples going to Emmaus were on their way to their dwellings, Luke 24. After his death all the disciples retired into Galilee, and were engaged in their common employment of fishing, Joh 21:1-14; Mat 28:7. Leave me alone - Leave me to die without human sympathy or compassion. See the notes at Mat 26:31, Mat 26:56. Because the Father is with me - His Father was his friend. He had all along trusted in God. In the prospect of his sufferings he could still look to him for support. And though in his dying moments he suffered so much as to use the language, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” yet it was language addressed to him still as his God - “My God, my God.” Even then he had confidence in God - confidence so strong and unwavering that he could say, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit,” Luk 23:46. In all these sufferings he had the assurance that God was his friend, that he was doing his will, that he was promoting his glory, and that he looked on him with approbation. It matters little who else forsakes us if God be with us in the hour of pain and of death; and though poor, forsaken, or despised, yet, if we have the consciousness of his presence and his favor, then we may fear no evil. His rod and his staff, they will comfort us. Without his favor then, death will be full of horrors, though we be surrounded by weeping relatives, and by all the honor, and splendor, and wealth which the world can bestow. The Christian can die saying, I am not alone, because the Father is with me. The sinner dies without a friend that can alleviate his sufferings - without one source of real joy.