Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to the Gospel according to John,
the chapter that we read, and chapter 14, and verse 2, just
part of verse 2, and in fact the same words are in verse 3. It is the words, a place for
you. Reading the two verses, 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 ye may be also. But what is upon my spirit is
just these few words, a place for you. Now the context is our
Lord is preparing his dear disciples for the time he is to be taken
from them. He is to go to the cross, go
to Calvary. He is to shed his precious blood
there as an offering, a sacrifice. to redeem his people and then
he is to be buried, he is to rise again from the dead and
ascend up into heaven and there he shall prepare that place for
them there. But I believe really the words,
I go to prepare a place for you, is not just preparing a place
in his father's house, in those many mansions, though that is
what the Lord says here. But really, the very cross, his
very sufferings, without that, there'd be no place in heaven
for any of his people. It was absolutely vital that
he did lay down his life. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission. Without His sacrifice, without
Him being a Redeemer, there would be no inheritance in heaven. There would be no place there.
He could not, in all holiness and righteousness, bring a guilty,
sinful people to be with Him in heaven without Calvary. Though
as much then as there may be that preparing work in His Father's
house, And a beautiful way it's set forth here that there is
a place, there is a throne, there shan't be a vacant throne, partners
with him in his throne and in his kingdom. And there won't
be a vacant one. You know, when you go to a wedding
and you go to the reception, And there's a list of the tables,
and each table has the names on it. And you look perhaps in
the foyer, and you look to see what table you're on, where your
name is. Well sometimes, sometimes people
are ill last minute. Sometimes they can't go. The
name is there, but the person is not there. But that will never
be so in heaven. When the Lord prepares a place,
when he suffers for his people, when he lays down his life for
them, he redeems them, his will must be performed. When he says, Father, I will,
that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory, that will must be fulfilled. Those same people he has redeemed,
he has shed his blood for, and he expects them to be in heaven. When Stephen the martyr, first
martyr, was being stoned to death, we read that he looked up, he
saw the Lord standing to receive him. A wonderful thing when you
think that when the Lord ascended, he sat on the right hand of the
throne of God, but there he was standing to receive him. Now those times we may be in
a room and our host comes into the room, or maybe someone else,
and to show that respect and esteem to them, we don't just
stay sitting and say, oh, hello, nice to see you. We get up and
we meet them and we greet them. But we do so because we feel
that they are more esteemed than we are. We do it to recognize
who they are. And when we think that our Lord
does that, for a poor sinner that he has redeemed and that
is being brought to heaven, he rises and he welcomes him in. And really the word here, it
speaks even, I was going to say better than that, but you know,
dear Stephen, he saw the Lord on earth. The Lord was with him
in that way that he could see him, could see him standing to
receive him. Because in verse three we read
that if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also. So that is not, well it will
be in the last time, in the last day when the world is finished,
then the Lord shall come and those that are on earth shall
meet Him in the clouds, they shall be changed. And certainly
in that case, He will come again and receive you. But that is
so for all of the people of God. The beautiful time of the children
of Israel going through the river of Jordan in the way to Canaan
was that the ark, the type of our Lord, stayed in the midst
of Jordan until they were all passed over. Many times we prove
the Lord with us in our trials, our tribulations, here below. And is it not fitting to think
of that very time when the Lord changes faith aside, when the
Lord gathers His elect to Himself, His chosen people, and brings
them to heaven, that He shall not visit their souls there.
Come to them and bring them. Bring them to where He is. I'll come again and receive you. unto myself." The parable of
the prodigal son. The prodigal son did not have
to go all the way back to his father's house. His father saw
him a great way off and ran and met him. Sometimes we might have
a visitor. Visitor we're expecting. We see
the car drive up. Do we just stay in the house? wait until they get out, wait
until they come to the door, wait until they knock, or as
we see them come, waiting for them, longing for them, we open
the door and very often we'll run out and meet them and greet
them, we're pleased to see them. May the Lord hear with his people
when they must pass through the Jordan of death, Then he comes
and he receives them. It's a beautiful, beautiful thought. At last enemy, the Lord who has
been through it himself shall come and go through it with his
people. So this is the first application. This is the context. The Lord
preparing his dear disciples for the path of sorrow that they
would have when he went from them. in such a cruel manner,
crucified and slain. But here he points to the end
in view. What is to be done? What is to
be achieved? Sometimes it's very hard to see,
isn't it? With Joseph, he was given the
dreams as an intimation of an end in view. What would happen? His brothers, his father, they
all bow down to him. He'd be a place of authority. How many trials went in between? But many times in the Word of
God there is the intimations of what the end was in view. Abraham was told that his seed
should be as strangers in a strange land and they should afflict
them 400 years and in the fourth generation they would come forth
and into that place. He had an end in view, but how
much went before that? Moses had been told by the Lord
that the Lord would bring the children of Israel out of Egypt
and into the promised land. But all the trials of Egypt,
all of the nine signs and wonders, and then the Passover, then the
Red Sea, then the wilderness journey, the turning back, the
40 years, And then they were brought into the promised land.
But there was an end in view. And here there's an end in view.
And may we remember that whenever the Lord does something, there
is an end in view. Whether it is in our trials,
in our afflictions, our path that we are called to walk. He
doesn't just randomly do these things. permitting men to do
things against us, permitting us to make mistakes or walk in
wrong ways, and there not be an end in view, that He'd even
turn the curse into a blessing, turn our wrong ways into right
ways, not that we should ever sin, that grace might abound,
but we know that how often. It may be like Joseph had to
say to his brothers, ye meant it for evil, God meant it for
good. Or like Peter had to say to those
who had crucified the Lord of life and glory, he had been delivered
by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God. They had
taken him by wicked hands, crucified and slain. But there was an end
in view. There was a purpose. The Lord
laid down his life to take it again, to redeem his people. And so in all the things that
we go through, the Lord does have an end in view. And when
we think then of the words, upon my spirit, a place for you, the
context here is a prepared place, a place for the people of God
that is prepared by God, it's appointed, it's ready for them. God is a preparing God. Do you
think of when God put Adam into the Garden of Eden. It was already
prepared. The Garden was there and he was
put in it. You think of when the children
of Israel had to go into the Promised Land. It was a prepared
land. The houses were built, the vineyards
were there, they just entered into it. You think of the case
of Jonah. God prepared the fish, God prepared
the good, God prepared the worm, God prepared the vehement east
wind. All of those things we're told
of through that account, a preparing God. Not just done on the spur of
the moment, but prepared. Now whatever we are doing in
our lives, we prepare for. We prepare for a meal. We prepare
to go on holiday. You prepare for a service, a
worship. It doesn't just happen just straight
away. When we know it is to happen,
we prepare for it. Maybe so with us, knowing the
certainty that one day we will die, that we prepare for that.
Not just taking out a funeral plan. but having regard to our
soul and where that shall be at the last great day, the Judgment
Day. And yes, even preparing in a
way of putting our house in order so that there is not a burden
left for those left behind. But the vital thing is that we
are prepared. I've prepared people for a prepared
place. That is what heaven is. And the
people that go there are prepared people for a prepared place. And hell is a prepared place
for an unprepared people. May these words, a place for
you, apply to many aspects in the lives of the people of God. And it's a good thing for us
to realise this and to look for it and to pray that we might
know some of those places that the Lord would have his people
to enter into and to know those places. And it is in that way
I want to consider this word this evening. I want to Look
at it under two heads. Firstly, in a literal way, a
place literally, mainly considered in Providence. And then secondly,
in a spiritual way. Firstly then, here below, here
in this world, Before we come to that prepared place above,
if we are the Lords, there will be those places, a place for
you that we're able to discern that that place has been especially
prepared and appointed that we come into. One place will be
our abode. All of us live somewhere. We think and we would sympathise
with those who are homeless, those who don't have a place.
Remember when the Lord Jesus was asked by John's disciples,
where dwellest thou? Well, he said, come and see.
But another time he said, the foxes have holes and the birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man had nowhere to lay
his head. But it is a great blessing if
we have a home, an abode, somewhere where we dwell, that we can call
home. Many of us have moved home many
times in our lives. And we trust we have seen the
Lord go before, direct us, and show us what place should be
our place. And it's a cause of great thankfulness,
a cause of praise when we're able to go back over the steps
and over the things that have happened to bring us into a particular
home. I can look back to many of the
times of changing home and the providences. Many times they
have been very anxious times, very uncertain times. We had
to walk out the path, often not knowing where we were going,
and watching the Lord's hand in it. And yet we may know this,
a place for you. Now there is a place for us,
a place where we are to live, a place where we are to be. It's not by chance, and it's
not something the Lord is uncertain about. And maybe if we're looking
for a place of abode, have this in mind, our prayers being this
way, Lord, where is the place for me? If they are preparing
a place in heaven for me, but I must dwell here until going
there, where is the place here? for May. And sometimes it literally is
a place that is being prepared. One of our moves in Australia
from a rental place into a home that we bought and had for four
years when we were first looking, that was a rental place, very
bad condition, unknown to us. The landlord was doing it up,
doing it up to sell it. Painting it through, and new
carpets, and floor coverings, and getting it all. We didn't
know that. But we told the agent exactly what we wanted and the
price that we could afford, and he laughed at us. And he said,
you won't get that. But we did. And when we bought
that house, which was just 300 yards just round the corner from
where we were, We could go through that list and tick off all that
we'd asked. It was a place for us and it
was being prepared when we first approached the agent and asked
about it. And there we lived for four or
so years. There we were sent out into the
ministry. A place for you, a place for
a bow. Some of our young people as well
may be very exercised on study, where they shall study, where
their time should be at university or wherever else. A place for
you. Very often it's put in those
same words. You're looking for a place. A place in the university. Will you be offered a place?
Again, it's a wonderful thing to realize that for the Lord's
people, there is a place for them. And he has appointed it. And to come into it and trace
the providences and the things that have happened that have
brought you to be in that place. Then again, it applies for employment. Some people stay in the same
job all their lives. Others, they move from one job
to another. Many secular employments I've
had in this land and in Australia. I'm now full-time in the ministry. But a place for you, many, all
of those places. Even before I was called by grace,
the providences that brought me there were clear, marked,
could look back and see the Lord's hand. And it is comforting to
know that, that in this world, in all the jobs and employment,
in all the different locations, there's a place for you. I remember
one time when I lost a second employment over here, and for
a whole month, the only month in my life that I've been without
employment since I started work, and applied for job after job
after job, I began to wonder, was there a place for me at all? And yet after a month, we heard
Mr. Gerald Bass preach at Matfield,
the city Shushan was perplexed. And that service was so blessed
to us. When we got out into the car
afterwards, before we went home, we gave thanks to the Lord. We were there as a whole family,
for hearing our prayers and appearing for us. Still hadn't got a place,
hadn't got a job, but very soon we did here. And the very first
place I'd applied for in that month, that was the job I was
given. They thought, and well I was,
I was too highly qualified for the position. So they tried to
get other people. They couldn't. And I then was
given that position. And it was the right place for
that time. A place for you. And you might
be in that position now. And you're thinking, where is
the place for me? Doesn't appear to be any. You've
looked here, looked there, tried this door, tried that door. Is
there a place for me? But in the Lord's time, in the
Lord's way, I believe you'll prove this, there is a place
for you. And the Lord at this time may
be preparing it unknown to you. And in His time, you'll know that
place and you'll be in that place, a place for you, a place to provide
for you, A place where you shall have an income, where you shall
have a place of usefulness, of employment. But what about a place of worship? I hope it is, if we're looking
for a place of an abode and especially, that the first thing we think
is, is it near a place of worship that I will feel at home? It's
very nice where you see those that are looking to move and
the first thing they're looking for is not a house, it's not
a home. They're looking for a spiritual
home. They're looking for where they
can find a church, a congregation that they may feel at home and
one with. When they find that, then they
move as close as they can to that place of worship. That's
the right way of going about. finding a place of abode especially,
but a place for you. Why is it that everyone doesn't
gravitate to one place of worship and under one minister? We're
not all country people, not all city people. We don't all have
loved ones or employment in one place. And we don't all like or able
to sit under one minister or one pastor. We've all got different
characters, and all of the Lord's servants have got different characters,
different manner of ministry, same truth we hope is preached,
but in a different way. and it's good to go where you
can feel. You can feed, you can sit, you
can hear, without controversy, without troubles, without trials,
you can worship, you can benefit, you can be strengthened through
the people of God, part of that local church, that living family,
a place for you. Everyone else might say, oh,
you want to go there, That'd be a good place. Well, it may
be a place for them, but it may not be a place for you. And it
is a place where the Lord would have us to go. And throughout
this land, there's many little nonconformist places. Then the
establishes churches where there is the truth faithfully set forth. There's places where the Lord's
dear people are found. And it's a sacred thing when
each one can say, this is the place for me. God has brought me here. God
has placed me here. And this is where, here below,
in this wilderness journey, I am to find my spiritual food. I
am to be strengthened. I am to be helped. I am to be
admonished. I am to be guided. I am to View
the Lord Jesus Christ through the ministry and through the
word, a place for you. Well, you may think of other
places in a providential way, literal places, here below. But I move on now to our second
point, which is spiritually. And the first place I've mentioned
is a place of repentance. We read concerning Esau that
he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. His tears were because he missed
out on his birthright. He'd sold it. And then he missed
out on the blessings. Jacob had stolen them. But his tears turned into murder
in his heart to pursue after Jacob if he could. And the Holy
Sacred Word says that though he shed many tears, that was
not real repentance. The repentance God gives to his
children is repentance that shall not be repented of. And I take
that to mean in two ways. One, God who gives that repentance
will never take it back. It is a gift from him, and it
is a true token of heaven for that soul. On the other side, if we have
repentance from the Lord, then that repentance will never have
to look back and say, that was just put on, that was imitated. I must repent of that type of
repentance, which those that have, as it
were, put on and made out that they repented when it's not that
real, genuine from the Lord, but just meant to deceive. they
will not find that place of repentance that brings to heaven. But for
the people of God, the Lord will give them a place of repentance. Like dear Peter, he went out,
he went bitterly, but how he claimed to the Lord, how he sorrowed
over his sin. Like dear David, when Nathan
brought the parable of the poor man's lamb. And as David heard
that parable of someone else, then he was convicted of his
own sin. And he testified, clearly I have
sinned. And you read the reality of that. Before his son died, how he bowed
before the Lord, And then in Psalm 51 especially, the real
professions of repentance and godly sorrow for his sin. And real repentance that we want
is that we be turned away from those sins. We read in 1 John
chapter 1, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's the effect that we
so need, because otherwise we'd continue on in those sins, we'd
carry on in them, there'd be no change. And I know we slip,
we have the besetting sins, we have those things, we return
and again, again in. Not by willingness, not by craft,
not by design, but those fools. But what we want, the Lord, is
to give repentance that turns us from one course of action
to another course of action, one way of life to another way
of life, and brings us, if those sins are against man, then to
confess those sins to those people that actually have been wounded
and sinned against. For the people of God they shall
have a place, a place for them, a place of repentance. We don't
know how long David was walking in a way with no repentance,
no sorrow, covering his tracks all the time, but in the end
there was a place for him and the Lord put him in it. And may
we that are troubled by our sins and by the hardness of our heart
By our impenitence, the Lord granted us this place for us,
a place of repentance. Very often it is at the foot
of the cross, seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, and that then will
have a profound effect upon our lives. It will bring us to real
repentance. the true effect of viewing the
Lord Jesus Christ suffering for us. It won't just be a testifying
of that, but no effect in our lives and no confession to those
who we have sinned against and wounded and injured. Another place is a place of refuge. One of our hymns says, a refuge
for sinners, the gospel makes known, is found in the merits
of Jesus alone. The children of Israel were told
to appoint amongst the cities of the Levites three cities for
refuge, one side of Jordan and three the other. And those that
had slain a man unawares, they could flee to those cities of
refuge and stay there until their case was heard. When it was heard
and found that truly it was an accidental killing, then they
had to stay there until the death of the high priest. But it protected
them from death, from the slayer, It was a hiding place, a refuge
for them. And we may say of those places,
a place for you. And especially in a place pursued
by the avenger of blood, pursued by death, pursued by sin, a place
to run to. How the Lord Jesus Christ is
that place for his people. and may we often run to that
refuge in times of trial, distress and of sorrow, a place for you. Then closely linked to that is
the hiding place, a place where we may hide in His wounded side. Hide me, O Thou Saviour, hide. while the storm of life is, until
the storm of life is past. And how we need that hiding place. Moses was told the Lord would
put him in the cliff to the rock. He would cover him there, hide
him there. He would make all his goodness
pass before him in the way. But he was given that place to
hide in. Top Lady says, Rock of Ages,
cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Another place is a place
of blessing. Some of you may think it's been
a long while since you've been blessed and favoured in your
soul. Since the Lord came and gave
you such a Blessing. Caleb Jabez, he said, oh that
thou wouldst bless me indeed. You might say I can count many,
many blessings in my life, but I want one of those indeed blessings. One like Jacob had, with the
stones for his pillow, happy as he, that hath the God of Jacob
for his God. One of those blessings. One of
those blessings that dear Jacob had when he wrestled, there wrestled
a man with him to the breaking of the day and he said, I will
not let thee go except thou bless me. He blessed him then. He changed his name from Jacob
the supplanter to Israel for as a prince, hast thou had power
with God, and hast prevailed. Are you wrestling, and am I wrestling,
for a blessing, a place of blessing? You may look back and think of
places, literal places, where the Lord has come and blessed
us. And we want another one of those places, another one of
those times. May this word encourage you this
evening. A place for you. A place of blessing. I go to prepare a place for you. How many of the blessings, at
least I can look back, and they are blessings in times of trouble. They weren't isolated. They weren't
in times of prosperity and ease. There were times of trouble,
times of affliction, and the Lord blessed us there. A place
for you. Then there is a place of rest. You know, Naomi said to Ruth,
her daughter-in-law, shall I not find rest for thee? There she was a gleaner, laboring
all the time, gleaning. But Naomi had a greater aim,
that she be joined with Boaz, a near kinsman. And she bid her
to seek that relationship, seek that rest, a place for you. Many resting places for the people
of God, not literally in this world. They're told, this is
not your rest, it is polluted. that there's a resting in his
promises, a resting in his perfect will, a resting, leaning hard
upon what the Lord has accomplished and done. We have the Lord's
Day, the Sabbath Day. What is it? It's a day of rest. When we rest from our labors,
as Christ rested from his. But our God, our Lord, he accomplished
on Calvary a work that was finished. And we enter into his rest as
we believe in him, as we trust solely in him, then spend the
rest of the week working out that salvation. Those that know
what it is to be under the Lord, do and live, do and live. The
Lord's a hard taskmaster. Paul says it is a taskmaster
unto Christ and coming unto Christ and realising and seeing God's
plan. It is Christ that died, yea rather
risen again. There's not a work of salvation
for us to do, it's finished and done. And the rest that ensues
when we see that, believe that, is the rest of what the Lord
said. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Take
my yoke upon you and learn of me as you find rest unto your
souls. If you think of the dove that
was put out from the ark by Noah, she found no rest for the sole
of her foot. The Lord's people, like a nun
to the dove that is pure, they find no rest in this world. She
came back to the ark, back to Noah, he put out his hand, he
took her hand. that rest in the ark, the Lord,
a beautiful, tight, the ark is of our Lord Jesus Christ. So
spiritually, there are these places, places for the people
of God. Yes, there are places of adversity,
places of trial, places of trouble, But there are the balancings
and there are places of blessing. Now what is evident in the context
here, the place that the Lord would have his people be, a place
for them, is also a place for him. His desire was, and his word
is, that where I am there ye may be also. And those are sacred
places. If we can say where we are living,
the Lord comes and dwells in our home. Christ is the head
of this house. Where we are studying, where
our employment is, where our worship is, Christ is there. Those places we come in our spiritual
experience as well, in our repentance. He is there. And of course, The
refuge, the hiding place. He is there. He is that refuge
and hiding place. And those places are blessing. In each place that we mentioned
of dear Jacob, the Lord was there. And the place of rest, the Lord
is there. A place for you. May we truly
believe that the Lord has appointed these places, and in all our
uncertainties, our exercises and our trials, may we have this
in mind, and our prayers reflected, that we desire the Lord would
bring us to these places that are for us, that maybe he is
preparing now, making ready for us, laying the foundations of
it, making all things ready. And then he'll bring us into
it. A place for you. When Jacob and
his sons went into Egypt, Joseph had a place for them in Goshen,
the best of the land of Egypt. And the children went into Canaan,
the Lord had a place for them. That was their inheritance. The
Lord has a place for all his dear people. And in our text
here, in the greater context of it, it lands that soul above,
passing through those places spiritually, passing through
those places here below, that one day shall never know us anymore
again forever. that are to be found in that
mansion, in that place above. And as we head there, and as
we go there, be able to say, the Lord who has appointed me
a place so many times here below, surely has appointed me a place
above. And that's why often I think
of it, long for it, and desire it. So he bringeth them, we read
in Psalm 107, and to their desired haven, that place above. The Lord add his blessings.