Turn in your Bibles again this
morning to John chapter 14. I want to reread those first
three verses. Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also." I'll call this message today, A Prescription for Troubled
hearts. And I want you to first be reminded
that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks these words to His people. He speaks these comforting and
consoling words to believers. Just go back and read chapter
13 and find out who he's speaking them to, and you'll find that
he's speaking them to his disciples. And I believe that to really
appreciate these words, we have to remember that he spoke these
words on the night before his death. He spoke them without
thought of himself, but as is always the case, thoughts of
compassion to his own. And also, he spoke then to these
people who were not really expecting what was about to happen. They
were already being troubled at hearing things like he speaks
in chapter 13 when he says that one of them will betray him. And then he says to them that
they will be by themselves. He said, just a little while
and I won't be with you. And then he talks about some
of the things that will transpire, and all of these things, knowing
their hearts like He did, stirred that kind of trouble of heart
that He's talking about. Not only did they not expect
what was about to happen, they expected something that was not
going to happen. He was not going to restore the
kingdom of Israel. And I thought about it, that
pretty well describes most of us most of the time. We are not
expecting what happens. And when it happens, it troubles
us. And we are, on the other hand,
expecting something to happen that doesn't happen, and that
troubles us. He says, let not your heart be
troubled. Now we, in our day, we hear a
lot of talk about heart trouble. And that simply being that organ
in our body, the heart, but not all people will have heart trouble. But you can just count on it,
all people will at one time or another have troubled hearts. The heart is the center of feeling,
of thoughts, of the mind, the center of faith. If you look in Romans 10, you'll
find the apostle talking about our believing with the heart. And this word trouble here means
agitated or stirred up like a pool of water that somebody throws
a rock into and it stirs up what would otherwise be calm. And he knows, just like we'll
find out if we haven't, that we are not immune to heart troubles. As a matter of fact, The Lord's
people may have more than most because they have simply identified
with the Lord Jesus Christ. They will have heart troubles
more than this unbelieving world because they have identified
with that gospel with that message that men hold in contempt, we
will have heart troubles. And sometimes they come from
inward causes, and sometimes they are caused by outward causes. Sometimes they stem from our
troubled heart over the matter of our sin, over the matter of
our failures and our weaknesses, all these things. Sometimes they're
from our bodies, our sicknesses, our frailties. Sometimes they're
from the circumstances of this world in family or friend or
work, all the things of the world. You see, Job described us in
this way, this very generic way. He said, man that is born of
woman. That's how every person comes
to be in this world. Man that is born of a woman is
of few days and full of trouble. Few days and full of trouble. And then the Lord Jesus also,
in John 16, goes on to say this. He says, "...these things I have
spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world
you shall have tribulation, trouble, but be of good cheer." I have
overcome the world." And if you notice here, the Lord Jesus,
in what He says, when He says, let not your heart be troubled,
He follows that immediately with this prescription that He gives
to His people, and it is simply faith in Him. That is not only the way by which
we receive the joy and comfort of forgiveness and every knowledge
of salvation in Christ, but it is always the source and the
way of every comfort, every relief, and every consolation. Listen to what he says. He says,
"...let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also
in Me." There is a double exhortation. He says, "...believe in God,
and also believe in Me." You see, when he says, also there,
that reveals the fact that Christ is, as the Father is, absolutely
and unchangeably God. If this were not true, He is
calling upon men and women to be idolaters, to put Him as equal
with God. He says, believe in God and in
the same way, and to the same extent and degree, believe also
in Me. As a matter of fact, this is
exactly what the prophet Isaiah is saying in chapter 26. He says,
"...thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on
thee." Now, is that true or is that not true? Is that worthy
of being said of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as it is of the
Father? Absolutely. He says, you will
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because
he trusts in thee. He trusts in thee. You see, faith is the gift of
God. As I said, it is the means, the
gift that God gives His people through which they not only believe
God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, but also receive every
comfort and consolation. But though it is the gift of
God, how does He give it? How does God give faith? We know by the Spirit of God. But turn over to Romans chapter
10, and look with me in Romans chapter 10 at what it says. I'll look back at that 10th verse
that I mentioned. He says, "...for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." But look down in verse 17. He says,
"...so then faith." which is simply believing God,
not just believing in God, but believing God. He says, "...so
then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." In other words, the faith that
God gives to His people by which we are not only enabled to believe
on Christ, but receive this comfort and peace, He says He gives it
through our hearing the Word of God. In other words, it is
born out of the Spirit of God enabling us from the Scriptures,
from the Gospel, to think about all that the Scriptures say that
God is. You believe God? What? Yes, that He is an absolute sovereign
ruling over all things? That He is truly and really the
Almighty God? That He rules over all things? That He does all things well? That He is not lacking in any
way in ability? that we are to think about what
His Word says about His promises and about His power to accomplish
everything. Not only that, but to think about
all that He said concerning Christ. You see, in a sense, that's what
the Lord Jesus is saying. He said, you believe in God. Believe also in me. Do not let all these things that
I've just told you think that in any way it diminishes me in
some way. This is exactly what the Father
has always said about me. You believe God. Believe also
in me." You believe what he says about his grace, and his mercy,
and that salvation in Christ, and that he works all things
together for good to them that love God, to them that are called
according to his purpose. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. because there will only be one
final and eternal remedy for it. In other words, if you stop
and think about it, how many times in this life in a hard
moment or in the midst of maybe a bad job or something like this,
how many times in the midst of these things, the only thing
that brought you any comfort or prospect was something that
was going to happen in the near future? You guys in the military,
if you had to leave this country and go to another country and
it gets bad, what do you think in the midst of that? Oh, in
six months I'm coming home. Well, the only final and the
only eternal remedy, the only way to finally escape this trouble
of heart is glorification and heaven. I say glorification. Because glorification is simply
to be made like Christ. To be made like Him, as all His
people will be. John says something like this. He says, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is." That's glorification. Paul described it in this way
writing to the church at Philippi. He said, "...who shall change
our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue
all things unto himself." We won't be without this troubled
heart. until we are glorified and made
like Christ. But the other thing is, the only
other remedy will be when we enter into His presence in heaven. And you notice here that when
the Lord Jesus says, first of all, let not your heart be troubled,
You believe in God, believe also in me?" Look at what he says
then to bring them this peace and this comfort and this consolation. I know this, only the Bible can
teach us anything about heaven. You can just listen to TV, conversations
in the workplace, any of these things, and you can hear all
the fantasies of men and all the fairy tales of men and women
about a place that they call heaven. But you don't find them
in the Bible. This is not some mythological
place. This is not some mystical place
that's simply born in the minds of people who want to believe
in it. You see, only the Bible can teach
us anything about heaven, and it teaches us by both positives
and negatives. What does he say? He says, it
is the Father's house. In my Father's house. And I like that because it speaks
immediately of something that is born out of and so associated
with relationship. He says, in my Father's. And somebody says, well, he's
talking about his father. But if you remember, this is
the same Jesus who said to his disciples, I go to my Father
and your. He says this to a people that
are distinguished by fathers, such as the Pharisees and all
unbelievers are, when he said, you are of your father, He said,
in my Father's house. And when you stop and think about
that, the thing that characterizes the Father's house, and even
in the natural realm it's so in most cases, is He's talking
about home. Home. In my Father's house. You see, the Scriptures describe
the Lord's people, His elect on this earth, as being here
strangers and pilgrims. You show me somebody who has
their tent pegs driven so deep in this earth that they do not
for any reason want to leave it, I'll tell you somebody who
knows nothing about the Father's house. This world is not our
home. It absolutely, according to what
it says in Hebrews 11, is a place where the people of faith live
for a while preceding their entrance into glory, which will be home. All those Old Testament believers,
the Apostle describes in Hebrews 11 in this way, he says, "...these
all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having
seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced
them, and confessed that they were strangers, and pilgrims
on the earth. Christ says to His people, you
are not of this world even as I am not of this world. In other words, this world that
is so full of trouble and trial and everything imaginable as
the consequence of the fall and sin, this world is not our home,"
he said, in my father's house. I remember reading this week
about when the prodigal The Bible says, when he was brought to
his senses and began to realize and evaluate things for what
they really were, he went back to the Father's house and he
was received with joy and rejoicing. And the elder brother, you remember,
when he came in from the field, Luke says, before he ever got
back, to the Father's house, he heard music and dancing. He heard rejoicing. And all this
is, is a picture of that sinner who is saved by the grace of
God and returned back to the Father's house, which is a place
of joy and peace and rejoicing. It is home in the highest sense. But he says more than this. He
says, "...in my Father's house are many mansions." Now, I don't
suppose there's a verse and a word that has been any more abused
and stupidly dealt with than that, so as to give people a
notion that somebody's going to have a big, luxurious house
in heaven over here, and somebody over here may have one a little
bigger, a little shinier, more rooms, or what have you. That's
not what he's talking about here. You see, mansion, this word has
to do with dwelling places. Actually. He's signifying here
that this is not a place of tents or tabernacles or temporary dwelling
places, but what this literally says is, in my Father's house
are many abiding places. The Lord's people will not visit
heaven. We'll dwell there. We'll dwell
there permanently. will dwell there eternally. And as it says in Hebrews, for
here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. He said, in my Father's house
are many abiding." places, and we will abide in His presence,
because all of the Lord's people abide in the Lord Jesus Christ
forever." But he says, many mansions, many abiding places. And I know how that some people
are when we say we believe that God has chosen a people, that
He has taken to Himself a people to be the objects of His grace
and His mercy, to save them and leave the rest of their race
to their own just condemnation and sin. They say, well, you
think that God's only going to save a handful of people. I don't
know how many. But I'm sure of a few things.
Number one, He's going to save enough people to glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ and magnify His grace. Number two, I'm sure
that He is going to save everyone He purposed to save. And compared
to our puny, finite mind, He's going to save many. The Bible says a numberless number
that no man can number. But that doesn't mean God hasn't.
And that doesn't mean that He doesn't know. He will save everyone
He purposed to save in His Son. They will all be saved. They
will all enter into His presence. There will not be one empty seat
or vacant place in that place to the glory of His grace and
His Son. They will, everyone, enter into
heaven. Many mansions. And this is a place that according
to what he says, and certainly faith is the only thing that
receives this, it is a place that we have reason for being
assured that it exists. How can you be sure? that heaven
exists. How can we be sure that we will
enter into God's heaven? Well, look at what it says here.
He said, if it were not so, I would have told you. Now, I can tell
you something on my own, and I wouldn't expect you to believe
it, have confidence in it for anything in the world. But I
can say this, whatever I tell you that he says, you can take
that to the bank. As a matter of fact, Mr. Spurgeon, the preacher in London
of years ago, He wrote a little daily devotional thing wherein
he went to the promises of God one by one on a daily basis over
the course of a year's reading, but he entitled it, Faith Checkbook. Seems like he said something
like this, it's better to have the Lord's check than the world's
cash. He said, if it were not so, I
would have told you. Here is the one that is described
as the truth. And the reason for faith, the
reason for believing, is simply because He said it. We'll sit
around and watch the TV and listen to the most ridiculous things
and believe it. We'll listen to scientists make
all kinds of claims, and we'll believe it, only to find out
later they didn't know what they were talking about. We'll take
the word of a guy off the street. He says, run! We'll run. But the warrant for believing
God is the fact that he said so. If it weren't so, I'd have
told you so. And not only that, but it is
a prepared place for a people that are said to be prepared.
I go to prepare a place for you. Now, I wonder if we'll ever get
this in our head, that heaven, which is the consummation, The
total and eternal revelation of all that we have in Christ
is His work. His work. He said, I go to prepare
a place for you. And the truth is that in Christ,
believers, because of what Christ has done, believers will all
have a right to be there. You say, I don't know if I'll
make it in or not. That sounds like you just might
be trusting in yourself and not in the Lord Jesus. No, every
believer that enters into God's heaven will have a right to be
there, because they will have been, in the language of Scripture,
justified. That is, they will have been
declared righteous by God Himself, because the Lord Jesus Christ,
in bearing their sins in His own body, has put them all away,
and God has imputed to them the very righteousness of God in
Christ, and that makes them totally fit for heaven. That's why that thief. hanging
on that cross, being all that he was in himself, to the very
last moment, could hear the words in truth, today, shalt thou be
with me in paradise. You're going to take this scoundrel,
this murderer, This thief, this liar, this lifetime criminal,
you're going to take him into God's holy heaven? Absolutely. I'm right now preparing a place. He bears, as He always did, their
sins in His own self, and He put away their sins by the blood
of His cross. He entered in, the writer of
Hebrews says, into heaven itself with the sacrifice. that God
required. Just like every one of those
priests going into the Holy of Holy in the tabernacle or in
the temple, just like every one of them except the Apostle said,
he entered into heaven itself. And he, with the sacrifice of
himself, opened that way within the veil. He prepared a place. He was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. And this being
true, Paul says in Romans 5, "...therefore as by the offense
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life." What does that mean? It means because
Christ bore the offense of His people, and through Him, He established
righteousness for them, and by that righteousness, now God justly
gives them life, and heaven, and every gift of His grace,
and would be unjust if He didn't. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. You think you could trust and
be confident if the Lord Jesus Christ has gone and prepared
a place for you? Is there any reason to rejoice? When you stop and think about
it, men were not in heaven. You might could say that heaven
was not a place prepared, in one sense of speaking, for men. But the God of heaven came down
to this earth and became a man and suffered the death of the
cross. And as the risen Christ, it shows
Him to have entered back into heaven as the head and representative
of His people. And when the head and representative
sat down in heaven, It says that they are already in Him, seated
in the heavens. Somebody said years ago, if you're
waiting out in the water and the water keeps rising and rising
and rising, if it comes to your knees, you're okay. If it comes
to your waist, you're okay. If it comes to your chest, you're
okay. If it comes to your neck, you're
okay. As a matter of fact, you're okay as long as the head's okay. The head of this body, which
is called the body of Christ, the church, He's already seated
in heaven, and therefore all His people are there in Him. And then He says this, He says
that He will Himself come again and take us there. He will come again. and take
every one of His people. He will not entrust that to anybody
else. Some He will come, the most,
I believe, He will come and take them when He takes them in the
hour of death. And some who are living, when
He comes again, He will take them, or as it says there, He
will receive them. You see, the Spirit of God has
been entrusted with their care on this earth in His absence,
and He will, from the Spirit, receive them unto Himself. He hasn't left them uncared for.
There's no reason for them to be troubled. He sent the Comforter,
the Divine Paraclete, the word is, One who walks alongside it,
so they have no need to be troubled. He said, I'll come again. And
that means two different things to do different groups of people. What does it mean for the unbeliever? If he comes in the sense of coming
for them in death, what does it mean? It doesn't mean heaven.
You can ask Brother Parker who works for the funeral home. He
hears all kinds of sermons, all kinds of words at funerals. But
most likely he's never heard anybody that was going to hell.
But most do. But when Christ comes for his
people, he said it is to receive them unto himself. And this brings
me to the greatest thing about heaven. You know what the greatest
thing about heaven is. He said, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, ye may be also."
The greatest thing about heaven is to be in the presence of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you're interested in heaven
for a golf game or a parade or something like that, you wouldn't
like it. He says that, where I am, there
you may be also. There are people who go to great
lengths just to get a glimpse of a celebrity, or a politician,
or something like that. It's like sacrificing everything
for one worm to look at another worm, or get another worm's autograph,
or something like that. This is the Son of God. This
is the Christ. And if you just went back and
looked at the descriptive names that the Spirit of God uses to
describe Him in this book, it would amaze you. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. The Faithful One. The Lily of the Valley. The Lovely
Bridegroom. Altogether Lovely. The Rose of
Sharon. On and on and on. Christ says in John 17 when He
prays to the Father, He said, I will that those that You've
given Me out of the world be with Me where I am. Do you think
that the Father is going to answer that prayer? I think so. Paul said, for I am in a straight
betwixt two. having a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better." I'll tell you how good
this is. Christ said, I'll give to them
to sit with me in my throne. Somebody said, well, you know,
if you do this and you do that, somebody's going to get this
one, somebody's going to get a silver star, somebody's going
to get a gold star, was in the idolatrous Sunday school. It's
like somebody's going to be a private, somebody's going to be a third
world general with all their medals and all that. He said,
I'll give to all of them to sit with me in my throne. You think there's any place higher?
You think there's any person greater? You think there's any
greater glory? That's the glory. Paul describes
it in 1 Thessalonians 4 when he speaks of that coming. He
says, "...then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air,
and so shall we ever be with the Lord." An eternal, unending,
uninterrupted, unhindered fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ forever. And then I said that heaven also
is described by negatives. I'll just read you one verse
in Revelation 21, when he says, And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. No more death, no more sin, no
more temptations, no more fear, no more suffering, no more hate,
no more loss, no more separation, no more troubled hearts. He'll
never have to say to us From that point on, let not your heart
be troubled, because there'll be nothing to trouble our hearts.
Look back here in John 14, in verse 4. He says, And whither
I go you know, where I'm going you know, and the way you know. But Thomas saith unto him, you
know the one we have labeled doubting Thomas, well, I'm not
so sure that Thomas was doubting Thomas. I'm afraid that we are,
and the Lord used this to teach us. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
What is the way to heaven? Somebody said, it's walking that
straight in there. No, it's in that one way. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father
but by me. In other words, I am the only
way to the Father's house. I am the only way, and that way
is the way of my cross. the way of grace, described as
the way of righteousness. Your trust in Christ. He's your
only hope. He's the only way. You cast off
every other consolation and hope. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe on Him. He is the way. Father, this day we give you
thanks and we give you praise. And we pray that you'd take your
precious word and bring it home to our hearts, enable us to believe
you, to believe on Christ, to look to him as the way of salvation,
the way of truth, the way of glory, the way to heaven. We thank you for him, and we
pray in his name. Amen.