Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, you believe
also in me. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. There's plenty of room, plenty
of room in heaven. I'm just so thankful that God's
command to me and to all of his messages in this world is to
comfort his people. You comfort my people, he says.
Tell them, Isaiah 40, tell them that their warfare is accomplished. They have received double of
the Lord's hands for all their sins. The sins of all of God's
people have been covered in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
and we are here to proclaim peace. We are here to proclaim to hearts
that will be troubled. The only reason the Lord would
say let not your heart be troubled is because the hearts were troubled
and they had every reason this night to have their hearts troubled.
These events in this upper room, they're going to have even more
reason to have their hearts troubled and Peter was going to spend
three days with his heart so troubled that I have no doubt
that for that time he thought that I am lost. I'm sinned away. whoever denies me before men,
the Son of God will deny me before men. This is a great and glorious
passage of scripture that lies before us and I just pray that
all of the little children here will be children who are comforted.
Don't you love the fact that he calls us little children? a throne with the King upon the
throne of our own lives and with the masters of our own destiny. I remember a fellow who had that
tattooed on his forearm so that he could see it again and again.
He used to proclaim to be a Christian. No longer, one day may the Lord
be merciful and take the masters of their own destinies and turn
them into little children. Unless you become as a little
child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. And so I wanted to talk
a little bit tonight, today, sorry, from these verses, from
verse 33 down. Little children, yet a little
while, just a little while, I am with you. You shall seek me,
and as I said to the Jews, whither I go you cannot come. So now
I say to you a new commandment I give unto you, that you love
one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another." Three
times it speaks of love, one for another, four times it speaks
of love. And of course it's the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ which is the measure and the example of
what our love is. The Lord Jesus Christ is about
to go to the cross of Calvary. He's to go there by the garden
where he will, in just a matter of a few hours from now, be sweating
great drops of blood as the weight of the sin that was in the cup
crushed him and his blood was shed on the ground there and
then his blood was shed in that judgment hall of Pilate and the
judgment hall of the Jews and the judgment hall of Herod as
they mocked the Lord Jesus Christ and then his blood would be shed
again on Calvary's tree as he bore the wrath of God on all
the sins of all of us. And don't you love the fact that
in the midst of all that that lay before him, our Lord Jesus
Christ has his heart set, in the previous verses, on the glory
of God, but his heart set on the comfort of his people. What
a Saviour we have, what a God we have. What a God to be turned
to. What a God to be turned, to turn
yourself away from. He says, just a little while,
just a little while. All of life is a little while,
isn't it? Your time here, your remaining
time on this earth is a little while. I still think that I'm going
to live for a long, long time. What a load of nonsense that
is. What a load of nonsense. As it gets closer and closer
to being evidently a load of nonsense, I still cling to it.
And young people think that they're going to live forever. You do,
don't you? It's just how we are. It's how we are wired. Just a
little while, just a little while, while I am with you. So these
are precious words. These are the Lord's last words
before his crucifixion and resurrection to his disciples. Just a little
while. And then he says, you shall seek
me. And as I said unto the Jews,
whither I go, you cannot come. I say unto you he is going to
his father that's where he's going it's interesting isn't
it the Lord never said that he's going to heaven and he never
said that he's going to the new creation not that he wasn't going
to heaven and not that he wasn't going to the new creation where
does he say he's going all the time at the very heart of the
gospel at the very heart of God his relationship isn't it said
the very heart of God why did the Lord Jesus come because God
so loved the world. What's the great delight of the
Lord Jesus Christ? To go back to his father. What's
the delight of the Lord Jesus Christ for all of his bride and
his world? That we would go back to the
father. Don't you love what he said to
Mary on that glorious resurrection morning? He says, he says, I'm
going, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and to your God. All of God's children are part
and parcel of one family in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in God. Believe also
in me when your hearts are troubled. Believe that my going is further
service and love to you. Believe that I am going to a
place where I'm having fellowship with my Father and where you
will be. I'm going to prepare a place
for you. you where does he receive them
chapter 14 he receives them to myself to myself and here in the midst of this
the Lord Jesus Christ says three times What extraordinary evidence of
the fall of man in the garden that we would need to be commanded
of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another three times. Because
what did we lose sight of in the garden? We lost sight of
who the character of God was. We lost sight of who we were.
And in the brokenness of that fall, seeking that love, the love to love one another,
to love one another, to love as he has loved us, as I have
loved you. And this love, one for another. The world is
watching. The world is watching believers
and according to God they're watching out for our love one
for another. I just love how he begins, I said
earlier what extraordinary grace it is for our God to call us
little children. We come into this world so proud
and so full of our own importance in that these men were older
than the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that some of them were.
They were businessmen, they were fishermen. Matthew was a tax
collector. They were wealthy men. They employed
servants, they owned boats. And yet, he calls them little
children. What extraordinary grace and
power is required of our God to reduce the pride of Adam's
race which says, I will, I will, I will, I will reign, I will
ascend, I will rule, have my own life. Strip Adam's fallen seed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Strip them of the clothes of
their self-righteousness. Strip them of the clothes of
self, which says, me, me, me. I will be satisfied. I will be
gratified. And your purpose in this world Jesus Christ came as a servant. I have grandchildren and my wife,
Lisa, goes up to babysit little Janie. Little Janie is now 18
months old and she runs around the house saying, Appie, Appie. It's the sweetest little thing.
Lisa tries to record it and send it to me. What makes her Appie? Is it having stuff? Is it having
prestige? What makes it happy? It's fellowship and relationship,
isn't it? It's being in the love and care
and protection of her mother and father. Let not your hearts
be troubled. May the Lord cause us to to be
able to run around saying, happy. Me happy, Jennifer's first words
were me happy, so the fruit hasn't fallen too far from the tree,
but Jamie, but anyway. There is, it's so fleeting, isn't
it? No wonder the scriptures don't talk about happiness rather
than joy, and joy is much deeper than happiness. Happiness involves
the circumstances of our life. The joy, that was set before
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the joy that we are commanded
to have as believers is a much deeper thing. It's a joy in who
God is. It's a joy in his salvation.
And it's a joy in fellowship with him. And before we go on, one must talk
just briefly about love. I know we talk about the love
of God often because the scriptures are so profoundly full of it. But we must remember that the
scriptures God, it speaks far more of the
wrath of God and the holiness of God and the justice of God.
But our scriptures declare that our God is love, God is spirit,
God is life. God is love. 1st John 4 right. It's not simply that God loves,
it's that God is love itself. Love is not just merely one but
it's His very nature. And as I want to remind you that
the Lord has magnified, as we read earlier in Psalm 136, the
Lord magnifies His name, His word above all of His name, but
His word declares that our God all of these glorious attributes
and we pull them apart as it were to examine them, but we
have to put them back together again because all of God's attributes
reflect all of God's attributes as one. So God's love is a sovereign
love. God's love God's love is the love in the
truth. God's love is a sovereign love. God's love is an infinite love. God's love is an unchangeable
love. Jeremiah 31 verse 3 says, I have
loved you with Therefore with loving-kindness,
with grace have I driven you. God's love is not an ineffective
love, an ineffectual love. The notion that God can love
and fail is to deny all of the very attributes of God which
are tied up in His love. is immutable. His love no end
nor measure knows, no change can turn its course. Eternally
it flows the same from one eternal source. God's love is holy and
God's love is gracious. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness, that word is graciousness, I
have drawn you to myself. And we love him, 1 John. If you can turn in your Bibles
to 1 John, let's just have a look at some of them. I want us to
see how essential this is. This is not this command of the
Lord Jesus Christ. is not something that we can
put to one side. It's absolutely fundamental and
essential to our Christian life. It's fundamental and essential
to the glory of God. And in 1 John chapter four, it
says that we love him, we love him because he first loved us. because he first loved us. So let's just look at some of
these issues of how vital love is. So love is a bond of fellowship
and John is writing to these same brethren and to us, isn't
it? He's writing this book that you,
in verse three he says, that which we have seen and heard
declare, verse three of chapter one, declare we unto you that
you may have, you also may have fellowship with us and truly
our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. These things write we unto you
that your joy may be full. He's writing to people. people to continue walking in
these light and to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. But
it is love, 1 John 3 verse 14, chapter 3 verse 14. We know,
these are things that all believers know, 1 John 3 verse 14. This
is something that we know. This is something that all God's
children are persuaded of. We know that we have passed from
death to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. to go back to verse 10 of chapter
2 to reiterate what he is saying there. He saith, He that saith
he is in the light, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, is the
light of the world, and hateth thee, brother, is in darkness
even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth
in light, and there is no occasion for stumbling in him. We abide. in his love. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7. It says, Beloved, John never
forgot this lesson that particular night that his words were etched
deep in his heart that day. He's called the apostle of love.
He said, Beloved, let us love one another of God its origin is in God and
everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God in John
17 verse 3 this is eternal life that you know him this is how
this is revealed he that loveth not God is love. You want a great description
of love? Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That's the covering for our sins. That is the text the Lord sent by his father in love, and
in love for his bride from before the foundation of the world,
he went to the cross of Calvary and he propitiated their sins. They are covered. They are covered. They are washed in his blood
and washed away. So anyone who says that the Lord
Jesus Christ is denying the simplicity of that verse. Here in his love. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time No man has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby we know we that we dwell
in Him and He in us, because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world.
How can God dwell in a sinful wretch like me? I'd like to say
like you, but there are so many people that don't think they're
sinful wretches. Paul did, how can God dwell in us? This why can this Holy Spirit
come and take up residence in us? Why can the Lord Jesus Christ
come and take up residence in us? And be undefiled by the communion and the union. That's what it is for him to
be propitious towards us, isn't it? 1 John chapter five. I wanted
to say verse 19, sorry. We love him because he first
loved us. If any man say, verse 20, if
any man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For
he that loveth not his brother whom he has seen, how can he
love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment have we
from him. So John's reiterating what he
heard in that upper room discourse. And he that loveth God loveth
his brother also. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him
that beget. He is the begetting one. You
must be born again to see and to enter the kingdom of God.
God is the begetting Father. He has children. Born from above,
there is a mother of us all, the Jerusalem that's above. Begat
he that loveth him that begat loveth him also that it is begotten
of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God,
that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not
grievous. and only if the Lord Jesus Christ
works that love in the hearts of his people, and that's exactly
what he does. I want us to understand that this
is not side of Christian life. It's
the sign of salvation. It's the sign of abiding with
God. It's the sign of God dwelling in us. It's the sign of loving
God and God dwelling in us. It's the sign of God having saved
us. No wonder Paul would say at the
end of 1 Corinthians, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema. Let him be accursed. Galatians 5 says that all the
activities of our flesh Whether they're done as circumcised
or uncircumcised, they have no power. Galatians 5 verse 6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything. All of your law keeping doesn't
avail anything. Nor uncircumcision. And I love the Th engines in
our King James Version. It means that it keeps on going.
And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying to these
apostles. He's saying love one another and keep on loving one
another. You love one another and keep on loving one another. greater than faith and greater
than hope. Love is the greatest commandment and that scribe came
along to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the greatest commandment
is love and all of Old Testament scriptures are held together
by love. And gloriously it is the work
of the Spirit in the hearts of God's people to love one another. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 is
a remarkable passage of Scripture, in a remarkable passage of Scripture,
in a remarkable book, in a remarkable Bible, in a remarkable word from
God. But love covers so much, doesn't
it? Brotherly love covers, he says, but as touching brotherly
love, 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9, as touching brotherly love,
you need not that I write unto you, for you yourselves taught of God. If God is your teacher, you'll
love one another. Isn't it remarkable that that's
the that he would give himself, is
give himself over to those men who despised God, and give himself
into the hands of the justice of God Almighty, that he might
wash away our sins, that there might be these bonds of unity,
that all of these things that we have read and promised He's going away. He's going to
do a work that night that he alone must do. He must tread
the winepress alone. But he came as a servant. He came not to be served, but
to serve and to give his life around some for many. And when
he had by himself purged our sins, He entered into Heaven's glory
and took all of us with Him. He came as a servant. So how
do we love? What does this love look like?
Let's just look at what this love looks like in the context
of John Chapter 13. How does this chapter begin? This chapter begins, if we're
going to love as the Lord Jesus Christ loved, we can't go to
Calvary's tree. We can. We can exemplify his
love for us in our love for his brethren as he loved us. And
what was that love like? That love sent him from heaven. conviction of sin as against
himself. He came, this night is the night of the Passover,
he came as a Passover lamb to be sacrificed, that the very
meat of the Passover And they went out free. They
went out set free by God. And so that's the night that's
being celebrated. That's the event that's being
celebrated. But he came as a servant. And he knew that the hour that
he should depart out of this world unto the Father, listen
to this description of him, having loved his own, which are in the
world, It's one of the extraordinary
things, isn't it? In religion people are continually encouraged
about how they're going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. He came
as a servant. God's children made him to serve
us, don't they? He humbled himself as a servant
and he took He took those clothes aside, he laid them inside his
garments, verse four, and he took a towel, and he girdled
himself, and he poured water into a basin, and he began to
wash his disciples' feet. How do you love one another?
You come as a servant, and you wash
their feet. What do your feet do in this
world? Every step of the way. We need to be washed. We need
to be washed from the things of this world. How do you wash
me from the things of this world? You can wash my feet all day
long and it doesn't make any difference whatsoever. But that's
a glorious picture of what he did, didn't he? He took to the feet of his apostles and
bound it to himself in that cloth that was wrapped around him and
he washed their feet and he washed all of that dirt away. He reminded
them to wash each other's feet, he used to remind us How He has taken all of my sins
upon Himself and they've all gone. Tell me, tell me about a Saviour
who really saves. Tell me about a Saviour who came
as a servant. He goes on to talk about how he's chosen these people. He says, I have chosen you. I
have chosen you. He talks about his electing love. He talks about how, he talks about how, how we receive
him in verse 20. He says, Whosoever receiveth
himsoever I send, he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. To receive him is to receive
his Father. He tells the truth. He tells
the truth about the betrayer and betrayal. He casts out Satan
from their midst. And at the beginning of this
discourse, he speaks of the glory How do you love as He loved at
the beginning of a troubled heart and the cure for a troubled heart?
The beginning of a troubled heart is to lose sight of the glory
of God and to have your eyes fixed on the things of this world.
That's what brings trouble. What brings trouble to your heart?
When I think that my sin is bigger than the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ, But I think that the circumstances of this world are
so big that he can't fix it. What's the cure for a troubled
heart? The glory of God. Listen to what he says. Father,
glorify. Glorify your name, he says in
John chapter 12. He says, now the son of man glorified. If God be glorified, God shall
glorify him in himself. This is how we love. This is
how he was loving these people. He was saying to his people that
his love will be in them and his love will move them. But how do we love? I love the fact in the midst
of all of this, Peter does exactly what you and I would do all the
time, wouldn't he? Peter stands up and he denies
the very word of God, and he denies the very command of God,
he denies the very activities of God, going to the cross and
doing what he must do by himself. And he says the words that ultimately
bring trouble to all the hearts of God's people, the words of
I will, I will, I will, I will. He completely reveals the fallenness
of man, but also in his fallenness he completely reveals the glorious
restoration of Peter. Peter's going to have three days
of serious, serious darkness, but that Sunday morning the light
will shine. And I just love what the apostles
were told. Those ladies were told at the
tomb, you go back and you tell my apostles, because all 10 of
them have behaved very, very wickedly that night, and Peter
was the worst of the lot, but you tell them all, and you tell
Peter, you tell him specifically, where was Peter's sin? as the Lord Jesus Christ bore
in his body on that tree. The sin of Peter's proud heart. How do we love as he has loved? We remind people that He came
to be a servant. We remind people of the Passover. We remind people of the glory
of God. You remind people of the fact
that the Lord Jesus Christ is going away, but He's going away
and He's preparing a place for us, and He's gone to Calvary's
tree, and He's gone into heaven's glory, and He's taken all of
His people with Him, and He's coming back. He's on His way
to gather His bride to Himself. And he says to a fallen Peter,
and a falling Peter, let not your heart be troubled. What's
the solution for a troubled heart? You believe in God. Believe also
in me. God's children are left in this
world with a simple task, isn't it? to declare in their fellowship
with Him, their fellowship with one another, that in the midst
of all their fallennesses that night, They were commanded to
love each other and keep on loving each other. In the midst of our
fallennesses we either keep saying, will you come back? Will you
come back with me and come back and hear about how glorious my
Saviour is? Will you come back and hear about
a salvation that's completed in the Lord Jesus Christ, a salvation
that was done 2,000 years ago and was done outside of me completely? And the Lord Jesus Christ has
put all my sins away. You gonna love me? You gonna
love me? Tell me about my saviour. I had
a man ring me the other couple of mornings. I was just in the
midst of doing all this and writing out all these notes. And this
guy rang me. And he spent 20 minutes berating
me. Telling me that what I was doing
was a waste of time. I wanted to mention the scripture,
he buttered the scripture away and he wanted to tell me about
how he wanted to fix all the problems of the world and he
wouldn't let me talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he'd
done and he calls himself a believer and there I was writing about
don't let your hearts be troubled, love one another and he wouldn't
let me love him. He wouldn't let me speak as a
saviour of There is a sweet fellowship in
the gospel, in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm so thankful
that his commands are his promises, the promises of his work amongst
us. May we be enabled just to love
each other as he loved us.