Alright brethren, we're going
to go back to John 13. In the first hour we heard our
Redeemer command us and He said, as I have loved you, you love
one another. Now let's see an example of how
our Savior loves His own. We'll just look at this example
of His dealing with the Apostle Peter. It begins in verse 33. And he said, little children.
Do you think the apostles were offended that he called them
little children? Do you think that offended them? Do you think who this was, he's
calling them little children? These are some old, rough, salty
fishermen. One of them was a proud publican. James and John were the sons
of thunder, Scripture says. And our Lord called them little
children. That's a blessing. You know why? He's our everlasting
Father. He's the last Adam. He'll never
stop being the everlasting Father of His people. And He's God,
our Father. One with the Father. And He says, little children,
we're His by purchase, by birth. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. You shall seek Me. And as I said
unto the Jews, whether I go, you cannot come, so now I say
to you." The Lord was going to the cross. He was going to the
cross. And He's going to the grave. And
then He was going to send to the Father. And His apostles
could not go because Christ must accomplish this work by Himself.
We read there in Psalm 22, there's none to help. He had to do this
work all by himself, and he did it all by himself. And think
on this. Yes, Peter would suffer tribulation,
and the other disciples would, and we will suffer tribulation.
We will die, our bodies will die, and we will go in the grave. But our substitute said, whether
I go right now, you cannot come. And because He suffered the cross
of divine justice for His people by Himself, tread the winepress
alone of the people, there was none to help Him. And because
He went there, you and I cannot go there. His people that He
died for cannot go there. You can't go unto the justice
of God. Because He bore that for His people. Yes, we'll go
with Him. We'll go through the grave and
we'll ascend and we'll be with Him. But that's one place we
can't go. under the wrath and fury of God's
justice. He bore that. He satisfied that.
Now as the Lord commanded His disciples to love one another,
that was His next word. And as He said that to them,
Peter is hung up. Peter just hung up on this word,
wither I go, you cannot come. That's all he heard. He didn't
hear anything about the loving part. That's all he heard. Wither I go, you cannot come.
As soon as our Lord paused, Verse 36, Simon Peter said to him,
Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I
go, thou canst not follow me now. Thou shalt follow me afterwards. Our Lord is going to say later,
Peter, when you were young, you girded yourself and you walked
about wherever you would. But when you are older, another
is going to gird you and they are going to carry you where
you wouldn't go. He is going to die for Christ. He is going to
die. He is going to be killed for
Christ's sake. And so he would, and he would have sinned to the
Father as well. But verse 37, Peter said to Him, Lord, why
cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy
sake. Why cannot I follow You now? I will lay down my life
for Thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou
lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
The cock shall not crow, till thou hast to die in me thrice.
Let not your heart be troubled. You 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." Our subject is One
need of a troubled heart. Did you catch it? When we read
this, did you catch the one need of a troubled heart? Peter's
heart was troubled and so were the other disciples. And our
Lord said, let not your heart be troubled. Here's the one need
of the troubled heart. You believe in God, believe also
in me. That's the one need. The one
need of a troubled heart is to believe on Christ. That tells
us the underlying cause of the troubled heart is unbelief. It's unbelief. Let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. What love of our Redeemer. What
love of our Redeemer for a poor, unbelieving believer like me. like Peter. Just unbelieving. Peter said to Him, Lord, why
cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy
sake. And in that right there, we see
why Peter could not follow the Lord Jesus right then. Peter had too much confidence
in his will. He said, I will lay down my life
for Thee. That's a lot of confidence in
self right there. I don't doubt Peter a bit. We
don't doubt him a bit. He would lay down his life for
Savior. And you know at Pentecost, Peter stood up before the very
ones that had crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter preached
boldly the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. He stood up there
before a great multitude and preach the gospel boldly, he
would do so the rest of his life and be killed for doing so. But
in John 13, 38, Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life
for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me three times.
Peter didn't believe the Lord's word. He refuted it. He insisted
he would not deny the Lord. But later, we're going to see
Peter standing at a fire, a little ways off from where the Lord
was. And there's a little maid there and a few people there,
not a very big crowd at all. And they're going to say, weren't
you with him? Peter's going to say, I don't
know him. Now, I'm pretty sure we saw you
with him. Blankety blank, I don't know
him. When that fisherman came out in him and he went to cussing,
I don't know the man in the rooster crowed. The rooster crowed. It's hard to believe that's the
same man who stood up at Pentecost and declared this. He stood up
at Pentecost before thousands of people and said, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God had made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Is that the
same man? Yes and no. Yes and no. Why did Peter have to suffer
denying the Lord? He learned It was the Spirit
of our Lord who made the difference. Peter declared that at Pentecost.
He said at Pentecost, Christ being by the right hand of God
exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the
Holy Ghost, He hath shed forth this which you now see in the
air. He did this. That wasn't what Peter was saying
when he was standing there with the Lord that night. He was saying,
I will, Lord. I will. The Lord had to first let Peter
experience his own weakness so that he might know by experience
that his only strength was Christ. is the only strength of Christ.
This will make Peter love his brethren when they deny the Lord
because he's experienced Christ's love and grace in restoring him
when he denied the Lord. What made it so Peter's faith
didn't fail? I said it to you in the first
hour. The Lord said, I prayed for you
that your faith fell not. That's why it didn't. And here's
what that is. That's Christ representing Peter
before God, interceding for him so that God only looked at the
perfect faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and never regarded
Peter denying Him. That's how his faith didn't fail.
Christ's faithfulness. And Christ came to him and restored
faith in his heart. And we are only going to behold
that, that Christ is our strength in the face of our total weakness. That's the only way we're going
to see that. While we got some strength, we're not depending
on Christ. When we don't have any, when
you've got nothing else. That's when you see He's your
only strength. And you still believe Him, you
still love your brethren, and you haven't fallen away. That's
when you know there's only one reason. Christ alone. Christ alone. He said unto me,
Paul said, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is
made perfect in weakness. You're going to know God's strength,
Christ's strength, in weakness. In weakness. How little we really
know of ourselves. Do you realize that? We know
very little of ourselves. Matthew Henry said, the most
secure are commonly the least safe, and those most shamefully
betray their own weakness that most confidently presume upon
their own strength. Don't glory in what you will
or will not do. Don't glory in it. Don't boast
of what you will or will not do. Always seek strength from the
living Lord, and let this be our word, if the Lord wills,
we will do this or that. If the Lord wills, we will do
this or that. Our sufficiency is of God. It
is not of us. Listen to this. From Christ,
the whole body is fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplies by Christ. From Him. That's how
you got in the body. That's how you were joined to
the body. If you compacted in this body, that's how you were
compacted in the body. From Christ. Well, how does...
But He said every joint supplies whatever joint needs. How does
that happen? according to Christ's effectually working in every
member, in measure, in every part. He doesn't give everybody
a full load of grace and a full measure of grace. He doesn't.
Why? Because, but the measure he's given to each member makes
the body perfect, providing what every other member doesn't provide.
That's wisdom. That's wisdom. That makes you
need each other. That makes you depend on each
other because you depend on Christ. You depend on Christ. And it
makes you see He's the only one working it. He's the only one
producing this unity and this provision you need. The only
one. Now here's the need. Here's the
need. The need of our troubled heart
is to believe in our Lord Jesus. He said, believe in me. He said, if you believe in God,
you do. He said, you believe in God.
He said, believe also in me. Believe in the Lord Jesus that
He will keep you, child of God. Do you depend on Him to keep
you? Do you? You know what keeping yourself
involves, don't you? Trusting Him to keep you. Trusting
Him to keep you. We see it right here. Our Lord
was greatly troubled at this time. He had said that before.
Now is my soul troubled. He's troubled. He's greatly troubled.
Think of what He's facing. And He knows, He knows that in
just a little bit His soul is going to be exceedingly sorrowful
even unto death. He knows in just a little while
He is going to sweat drops of blood. He is going to be arrested
and He is going to go to the cross and He is going to be nailed
to the cursed tree and bear the wrath of God. He knows this.
He is facing this in a very short time. He is troubled. But here
is our Lord's love. He believed His Father. How could
He do this? How could He split His trouble
aside and put His trouble behind Him and comfort His troubled
disciples? How could He do that? Where did
He get the strength to do that? He believed God the Father. He
said there, the works I do, the Father does them. He gave Him
the glory, just like His people are going to give Christ the
glory. He said, ìLet not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me.î What a Savior! Facing all that Heís facing,
and this is His concern, ìLet not your heart be troubled.î
He knows your heart when itís troubled, believer. He does.
He knew their hearts were troubled. He knew it. And He knows your
heartís troubled. And He's the one who can speak
to you affectionately and say, let not your heart be troubled.
When will your heart stop being troubled? When He speaks and
says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. That's when the trouble is over.
All around you the sea could be raging, but the trouble is
over when you believe Him. And know He's got you. He's carrying you and all your
brethren. This is our Savior who tells
His people, Comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, crying to her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquities pardoned, she is received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. Is that not what Christ said
to comfort them? That's exactly what He's telling
them, to comfort them. Believe in our Lord Jesus Christ
because He's faithful to each of His own. He said, Peter, Peter
said this, Peter said, Lord, I will lay down my life for you. That's what Peter said. And the
Lord said, Peter, you will deny me three times before the rooster
crows. Our Lord knew that. He knew that. I said to you before, Judas Iscariot denied the Lord. He went out and betrayed him
and sold him for 30 pieces of silver. Korah opposed the Lord when he
opposed Moses. What's the difference in their
end and Peter's end? Here's the difference. The Lord told Peter by whose
will Peter would be saved and kept. He said in verse two, 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. I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Peter
said, Lord, I will lay down my life for you. Lord said, Peter,
you will deny me, but I will save you. That's the will by
which we're going to be saved. And that's how the Lord is going
to affect this faith in our heart and keep us trusting Him and
believe in Him and settle our troubled heart is to hear Him
say, I will save you. Christ went to that cross to
prepare a place for each elect child that the Father gave to
Him before the world was made and He prepared it. He prepared
it. He fulfilled Daniel's prophecy.
He finished the transgression. He finished the transgression.
Don't you like the way that's worded? He finished the transgression.
He made an end of sins. You see your sins, don't you?
God doesn't. God doesn't. The only way God
beholds our sin is just in the sense that He's going to keep
you turned from Him back to Christ, to trust Christ, to save you
from you. But in Christ, Christ made an end of sins. In Him is
no sin. That means everybody that's in
Him, He made an end of sins. You don't have any before God.
Don't have any before God. He made reconciliation for iniquity. You know, people say make your
peace with God. It's not God that needed to be reconciled
to us. We need to be reconciled to God.
And He reconciled us to God. He brought in everlasting righteousness. Everlasting righteousness. He
sealed up the vision and the prophecy. Fulfilled all the law
and the prophets. He anointed the most holy. And
He did it for each and every one of His brethren. He accomplished
it. That's what He's saying to Peter.
Peter, I go to prepare a place for you. I'm laying down my life
for you, Peter. You're not laying down your life
for me. Believe Him. He promised Peter and He promises
all His disciples, I will come again and receive you to Myself.
I will come again and receive you to Myself. Peter denied the
Lord. He left. He went fishing. He
is done. Left there, Peter would have
never preached the Gospel again. He would have never written his
epistle. He would have never done one other. That's you and
me if God takes His hand off you and leaves it to your will. There's Peter's will. There's
your will. He left and He wouldn't have
come back. But our Lord, when He arose,
He sent word. Jesus of Nazareth, which was
crucified, He's risen. Go your way. Tell His disciples.
And tell Peter, tell Peter, that He goeth before you into Galilee. He knows where you're going and
He's going before you. And there shall you see Him as
He said unto you. He said He would. He said I'm
going to come again and receive you to Myself. He said you're
going to see Him there. And He came personally and He
restored Peter. You know what Peter was saying
after that happened? I know what Peter was saying.
He was saying the same thing Jeremiah was saying. It is of the Lord's
mercies that we are not consumed because His compassions fail
not. His compassions fail not. Our
Savior is not going to sin for you, believer. He is not going
to sin for you. He is coming Himself. He said, I will come again for
you. And brethren, that's what He
said later. He said that those that He works in their heart
and you obey Him, He said, I will come to you, I and my Father
will come to you and make our abode with you. And He promised
this, the Lord Himself shall come, He shall descend from heaven
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump
of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, and then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. He said, I'm coming
again. He didn't say, I'm sending somebody
else. He said, I'm coming. He went personally and restored
Peter. That's what he's doing for his people right now. To
receive you unto myself, he said. Think of that. To receive you
to myself. The one you just denied. The
one that you left and turned you back on. I'm going to come
and receive you to myself, he said. That where I am, there
you may be also. To that dying thief, he said,
Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Today. He said, If any man serve me,
let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant
be. He said, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. Brethren, Christ's word here
We see him speaking to Peter. We see what he's worked for Peter.
This is our assurance. This is our assurance. He will
keep his people and he will restore his people just like he will
come again and bring us to himself. He does it now. He's going to
keep doing it and he's going to do it in the end. We're looking
for that blessed hope and that glorious appearing of the great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ, even right now, in every time
of need. every time of need. It's Christ
who comes in spirit to strengthen us and to renew us and restore
us just like He did the Apostle Peter. So we got renewed assurance. Every time He does it, you have
this assurance in your heart and you just know beyond a shadow
of a doubt. And you start singing, He's coming
again, He's coming again. The very same Jesus rejected
of men with power and great glory, He's coming again. You know it.
It's a token, it's a foretaste of Him coming in the last day.
Every time He comes and renews you and restores you and brings
you back to Himself. Now, at the heart of all our
trouble is unbelief. It's all at the heart of all
our trouble. Christ said, you believe in God, believe also
in Me. Now what is it to believe in
Christ? What is it to believe in Him?
Well, it's to believe Him as He's revealed in this Word and
as He's revealed in our hearts. It takes God revealing Christ
to us for us to believe Him. It's by divine revelation. And
our Lord reveals Himself in our hearts. And when He reveals Himself,
He declares what He declared right here. He said, in my house
are many mansions. There's many mansions, many dwelling
places. A dwelling place made especially
for each and every chosen child of God. A dwelling place. Got
your name on it, child of God. Because Christ went to the cross.
Christ ascended to the Father and He's ever living to make
intercession for His people, keeping us because He has prepared
this dwelling place for each and every one of His people.
And there's not going to be a vacancy in one of those dwellings. He's
bringing all His people to Himself. I will come again and receive
you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also. That's
His Word. So we can have some assurance,
Paul said, and we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
was dissolved, we have a house that's eternal in the heavens,
not made with hands, made by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's our confidence. Believe
in Christ as He revealed in His Word. Believe in what He says.
It's to believe He'll supply all my need. That's what He said. I'm preparing things for you.
And it's to believe He shall provide all my need. Christ is
my advocate with the Father. What does that mean? It means
He's speaking to God for me. That's what He's doing for you,
child of God. He's advocating for you with the Father. You see some trial on TV and
sometimes the attorneys, you think, where did they get that
attorney? He must have been on sale. Not a very good advocate. You've
got the best advocate anybody's ever been. This is Christ advocating
for His children before the Father. That's the only reason we're
not consumed. When I see my sin, when I see
my sin, I look to Christ my atonement. That's right. When I see my unbelief
and my weakness, I look to Christ my strength. When I'm looking
at the grave and I know I'm going to that grave, I'm looking to
Christ my life. When I think about the resurrection
and think, I can't bring myself out of that grave, I can't give
myself life, I look to Christ my resurrection. When I think how on earth God
received me because of who I am and what I am in myself, I look
to Christ my justifier, my righteousness. That's the only way. We sing
it this morning, there's only one holy, that's Him. And His
people, He's made holy in Him, righteous in Him. When I think
of eternity, I look to Christ my hope. Listen, my hope is built
on nothing less. How about yours? Nothing less. Nothing else. Nothing else than
Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, no matter how sweet they are. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name entirely. And so knowing
Christ laid down His life for you, child of God, you know this,
whatever you need in this wilderness right now, He'll provide it. He's your full provision. He shall provide. Paul said,
my God shall supply all your need according to His riches
and glory by Christ Jesus. You know where he wrote that
from? Prison. Prison. You know what that was? That was God supplying just what
he needed. That's exactly what it was. To believe on Christ is to really
and truly cast all your care on Him. Believe Him. Don't cast your care on anybody
unless you believe in them. If you don't believe in somebody,
I wouldn't sit and listen to them. If you suspect Him, I wouldn't
listen to Him a minute. I'd go somewhere I could hear
the gospel. But if you believe on Christ, it's going to be because
you believe He cares for you. He cares for you. Child of God,
He cares for you. He careth for you. That means
He don't ever stop caring for you. And to believe Him is to
cast it all into His hand. If I'm still trying to make something
happen, I'm not trusting Him. If I'm still depending on my
works, I'm not trusting Him. If I'm saying, Lord, I'll lay
down my life, I'm not trusting Him. It's to put it all into
His hand. Not some of you care, all you
care. Not some of the time, all the
time. For he careth for you. Paul said, we are troubled on
every side, yet not distressed. Why? He careth for you. It's
the only reason. We're perplexed, but not despair. Why? He careth for you. We're
persecuted, but not forsaken. Why? He careth for you. Cast down. but not destroyed. Why? He careth for you. Peter wrote what he learned.
Peter wrote what he learned. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful
for the Lord and what he did with the apostle Peter. Peter
wrote what he learned. I remember one time going through
what was up until that time, the worst trial I'd ever been
through, and Brother Don came and preached for us, and he preached
from this verse right here. Oh man, the Lord comforted us
so much. This was the message he preached
right here. This is what Peter learned. Humble
yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He
cares for you. That's the end of trouble. You
won't have any more trouble When you know you and all your troubles
are in His hand, and He's carrying you and all your troubles, you
won't have troubles anymore. To believe on Christ is to continue
to the end believing in Him. Continue to the end. When the
multitude walked away, our Lord didn't chase after them. He didn't
go kowtowing to them. He turned around to His and he
said, will you go away also? How could he say something like
that? Because he's the power by which they answered him. And
how did they answer him? They said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? You've taken away all our choices. We used to have
a lot of choices. I can go worship over here, I
can go worship over there, I can worship over there, I can sit
under that one, that one, this one, the other one, or not. I
can go to the ball game on Sunday. Lord took all your choices away
from you. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of
eternal life and we believe and we're sure Thou art the Christ,
Son of the living God. Once you believe like that, you'll
believe like that all the time. No, you won't. Peter's sitting
here now after that saying, Lord, I will not deny you. I will lay
down my life for you. And a little while, he completely
denied knowing Him. But here's the promise. He careth
for you. How are you going to persevere
to the end? Because you're preserved to the end. That's how. And He
will not let you go. 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. He said it like this in another
place, I'll never leave you, I will never forsake you, lo,
I'm with you always, even to the end of the earth. He said
it like this in another place, because I live, you shall live
also. today, tomorrow, the next day,
all the way to eternity. Because Christ lives, you shall
live also. We're made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the
end. I don't have a doubt God's people
are going to persevere to the end. I don't have a doubt they're
going to love each other. I don't have a doubt they're
going to believe Christ all the way to the end. But I know this. If that word right there depended
entirely upon you and me, we would have a great reason to
fear. But that word is for sure because of what we see Christ
work with Peter. He is not going to let you fall
away. He is caring for you. He is going to keep us believing
on Him until the end. Brethren, believe in Christ is
the cure to the heart trouble. Remember what the Lord told Peter,
I mean Martha? You are troubled about many things.
There's one thing needful. Believe on the Lord Jesus. Cast
it all into His hand. And Peter wrote this later. He
learned this. He wrote this later. He said,
Whom having not seen, you love, in whom though now you see Him
not, yet believing, what comes next? You rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. That's the difference between
him not believing and his heart being troubled and him saying,
believing, your heart's full of joy. You know everything's
fine. Everything's fine. Next time
you become fearful and anxious and you're just aggravated and
you're down and you're in the doldrums, you know, next time
you're in that place, next time your brother, sisters, down,
remind one another of this. Repeat these words to yourself
and repeat these words to one another. Our Lord said, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in Me. Just repeat that. Next time you're
down, just remember what He said. My Lord told me, let not my heart
be troubled. Believe on Him. And you'll have
rejoicing. You'll have rejoicing. Amen. Okay.