It's on, Johnny. Not yet. This one is on. Yeah, I'm on. Wire for sound. Well, it's good to be here. I
really look forward to coming down here. It's probably been
30 years ago, somewhere in there, that I was down here. And if
you can remember me, you have an exceptional memory. You should
have a good memory. You would turn to John chapter
14. John chapter 14. A couple weeks
ago, I was at my parents' house mowing
their grass. I guess I never outgrew that. And afterwards, I sat down with
them, visited, and we talked. And my parents are in their 80s
now. And I noticed the last few times,
probably the last two or three months, they just seemed to be
down, just kind of cast down. And I was talking to them. And
they believed the gospel. And dad teared up and he said,
you know, he said, the hardest part of dying, he said, is leaving
the family. He said, our relationships, you
know, these things. He said, other than that, it
wouldn't be so tough. And after I left there, I was down. But after I left there,
I thought of two things. Two thoughts stayed on my mind. First it was the thought, let
not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. And then I thought, how important
it is, and I will not be able to stress this enough, the importance
of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. the importance of knowing Him.
Those two thoughts have stayed with me. They've been on my mind. I had a young man ask me some
time ago, he said, how do you go about working on a sermon,
a message? And I said, I think the best
messages I've learned over the years are the ones that work
on me, not the ones I work on, but the ones that work on me.
And this has worked on me. Because they're in their 80s,
their health is failing, they're getting feeble. And these two
scriptures here, these two thoughts. Let not your heart be troubled. Our Lord is comforting His disciples. In the face of His trouble, in
the face of what He is about to endure, He turns to His children. HIS DISCIPLES, HIS CHILDREN,
AND HE SAYS TO THEM, AND HE SAYS TO US, HE SAYS TO US, AND THIS
APPLIES IN EVERY SITUATION. WHATEVER GOD SENDS INTO MY LIFE,
WHATEVER COMES MY WAY, I HAVE A GOD-GIVEN RIGHT NOT TO BE TROUBLED. HE SAID, LET NOT YOUR HEART BE
TROUBLED. THEIR HEARTS WERE He's about
to leave them, He said He's gonna leave them, and their hearts
were troubled over it. They were perplexed. Perplexed. The scripture says, We have not
a high priest that cannot be touched with the feelings of
our infirmities, but was in all points, as we are, tempted, yet
without sin. And I've learned as I've gotten
older how precious, how precious those scriptures are. I have
a high priest that can be touched with every heartache I have.
With everything I deal with, he can be touched with it and
he's dealt with it himself. He knows by experience what a
heartache is. He knows by experience what it
is. He who made the heart knows the sadness of the heart by experience.
Now he says this, he says, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God? He knew they believed in God.
He knows right now every person in this room who believes God,
not just in God, not that God exists, but you believe God.
Abraham believed God. And he says to this, you believe
God. You believe God is infinite in
power? You believe that, don't you? You believe that. I tell
you this, whatever comes my way, whatever comes my way, no matter
how severe it is, no matter how troubling it is, that has absolutely
nothing to do with God's power but God's will. God's power is infinite. There's no limit to it. It's
infinite. He's infinite in goodness. His
wisdom is infinite. His sovereign right to do as
He will is infinite. And we know that He will do as
He promised. God will do just as He said.
He'll do exactly as He said. Now He says here, you believe
God, you believe God who is, who's infinite in wisdom and
power Exercise that same faith in me. Exercise that same faith in me.
Now, in saying that, what is he saying? In saying that, he
is saying, I am God. I am God. He would not say, now, the same
way you exercise faith in God, exercise that same faith in me.
Look, I'm God. I am God, I am the Almighty.
Believe also in me with the same faith you believe in God. And
then he says here, in my Father's house, in my Father's house are
many mansions, many dwelling places, that's what that means,
many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you. I'm going to my father's
house and I'm going to go and I'm going to prepare a place
for you. You know, we lost our place in
Adam, didn't we? We lost it. In Adam all die. In Adam all die. And Christ says, I'm going to
go back and I'm going to prepare a place for you. A prepared place. In my Father's
house are many mansions, many dwelling places, plenty of room.
Plenty of room. When I grew up, I grew up in
a house of nine. There's a lot, several of us.
That's a bunch of us. And we all shared rooms. We all
shared rooms. There was not plenty of room
in that house. But in my Father's house, the
Lord said, there's plenty of room. There's plenty of room,
but no vacancies. No vacancies. Plenty of room,
but no vacancies. And I'm going to go there, and
I'm going to prepare a place for you. I heard my pastor Henry
say one time he went there, he went back there to prepare a
place of acceptance. Of acceptance. When Adam fell, What did he lose? He lost the way to God, the life
of God, the truth. We lost it all. We lost it all. That's why Philip said, we don't
know the way. He said, where are you going? Lord, we don't know the way.
We don't know the way. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. You know, every time He spoke, every time our Lord
spoke, He spoke the truth. Every word that came out of His
mouth was truth. He never spoke, our Lord never
spoke an idle word. Every time He spoke, it was truth
and wisdom every time. And He said, if it were not so,
I would tell you that, I would tell you. And I go and prepare
a place for you, a place of acceptance, a place before my Father. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, for you, this is personal, I'm going to prepare a place
for you. I'm not going to just prepare
a place and see how many I can get to show up. See if I can
get someone to accept me. I'm going to prepare a place
for you. Through my blood, through my righteousness, through my
substitutionary work, I'm preparing a place for you. That's what
I'm doing. Going to the cross, I'm preparing a place for you.
Dying, I'm preparing a place for you. Going to the grave and
going back to the right hand of the Father, I'm going there
for you. You. And if I prepare a place for
you, notice what he says, I'll come again. I'll come again. I'll come again and receive you
to myself. I'll come back and get you. That's
what happens when a believer dies. When a believer dies, the
Lord has come to get him. Him or her. I'm coming to get
you. I've prepared a place for you. And then He prepares us for that
place. And then He comes and gets us.
He comes and gets us. These are such words of comfort.
Such words of comfort. I go and prepare a place for
you, I'm going to come again and receive you to Myself. You
know, when God created Adam, before He did that, before He
created Adam, He prepared a garden. He prepared a garden. Garden
of Eden. And everything in that garden
was Everything in that garden was prepared by God. Adam didn't
prepare anything, anything, nothing. He added nothing to it. The Lord
prepared a garden and then He created Adam and then He put
him in the garden. He said, now, take care of it. He put him in the garden. God
through Christ has prepared a place for us Then He prepares us for
that place by the work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration. We've got to be prepared for
it. You wouldn't enjoy heaven, I'm telling you. A lost, unregenerate
sinner would not enjoy heaven. It would be a miserable place
for an ungodly wretch. So He prepares us through regeneration,
the new birth. teaches us, instructs us, sends
troubles and trials into our lives, preparing us for that
place, conforming us to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he says, I'll come and receive
you to myself. Take you home. Take you home. Take you home. Brethren, when we die, When I
say we, I'm talking about those who believe God. When we die,
when we leave this life, we just began. We just began. We have really began to live. Really began to live. I told
my dad when we were sitting there talking and he had teared up.
I said, Dad, I've learned over the years sitting under the gospel. I've learned, I said, I've learned
that we should live life preparing to leave it. Preparing to leave
it. Letting go. Enjoy what the Lord
gives, when He gives, and when it's time to let it go, I said
we need to learn to let it go. To let it go. The Lord gives and the Lord takes.
And we need to enjoy when He gives and rejoice in Him when
He takes. In all things. I will bless the
Lord, David said, at all times. I'll bless the Lord at all times.
When the sun's shining or when it's raining. When I'm rejoicing or when I'm
weeping. I need both. I need both and He knows what
I need. He knows when to give and He knows when to take. He knows. Let me read you something over
in Revelations 21. Revelation 21. I wrote over top of that chapter,
our future. This is my future. This is what
I have to look forward to. That's why it's so important.
In Colossians 3 it says, Set your heart on things above, not
on the things of this earth. Let these earthly things go.
And if we learn to let these earthly things go now, and set our hearts on things
above where Christ sits at the right hand of God, it will make it even easier.
Listen to these verses. In chapter 21 of Revelation,
I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Do you believe that's
going to happen? Do you believe that's going to
happen? I do. I do. I believe there's going to be
a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God
out of heaven. prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband, and I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold,
the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, no more death. I was doing a funeral for someone
I knew, me and Henry, As we walked away from the grave, Henry looked
at me and said, I'll be glad when we quit dying. I'll be glad
when we quit dying. There'll be no more death. We'll
never have to deal with that again. Neither sorrow, no crying. No crying. You ever cried yourself
to sleep? You ever just wept and wept and
wept? You just felt like it was never
going to lift. He said, there'll be no more of that. No more crying. Neither shall there be any more
pain. No more pain of heart or pain of body. For the former things are passed
away. They're gone. They're not coming
back. They're gone. And the cause of all that pain
is gone. Sin. Sin. And he that sat upon the throne
said, Behold, I make all things new. You know, I know we get into antiques,
don't we? We like to get into antiques
and restorations, but not God. He said, I make all things new.
And when a person is born of God, he's got a new heart, a
new spirit, nothing's renovated. It's all new. And he said unto
me, Write, for these words are, listen, true and faithful. Truth,
now is there any sadness in what I just read? That's what we have to look for,
that's my future. Let not your heart be troubled.
Here's your future. And he says this, that where
I am, there you may be also. Where is he? Where is Jesus Christ? Well, we know this, he's in paradise.
Whatever that is, he's there. He's it. He is paradise. Wherever He is, it's paradise.
And He says, where I am, there you may be also. That's where you're going. In John 17, 24, the Lord said
this, Father, I will. I will. He's the only person who could
ever say that. You and I say, Father, if thy will be done,
don't we? We say, Father, thy will be done. And we are to say
that. But here's evidence of His Godhead. Father, I will. I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am. He didn't say where I'm
going. He said where I am. Where I am. that they may behold my glory. That's what we're going to do.
We're going to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
see through a glass darkly. We have a glimpse of His glory
now. We have a glimpse of it. But one day we are going to see
the full glory of Jesus Christ. And we're going to fall at His
feet and worship Him as we ought to worship Him. We are going
to praise Him as we ought to praise Him. We are going to worship
Him, praise Him without sin, without any interruption in our
minds. He will have our full attention
and we are going to stand there amazed, amazed at the glory of
Jesus Christ. That they may behold my glory
which Thou hast given me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. And he says, and whether I go
you know, and the way you know. You know where I'm going, I just
told you, to my father's house. And the way you know. The way
you know. And Thomas said to him, Lord,
we know not whether thou goest. How can we know the way? How can we know the way? And Jesus said unto him, Thomas, and he said to them,
to Thomas and to these disciples, and to us, to us. This is to
us also. I am the way. I'm it. Don't go looking at the Roman
road. I'm it. I'm it. I'm the way. I am the
truth. I'm not just telling you the
truth, although he did. Every word he spoke was truth,
but he's not, he didn't just come to tell us, he is the embodiment
of truth. He is the literal embodiment
of truth. And I am the life. I am the life. And no man comes unto the Father
but by me. There is no access to the Father. There is no access to the throne
of God except through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's it. He's it. That's why he said, I'm it. Our Lord makes it plain that
the way, the truth and the life is a person. It's a person. It's a person. Adam lost the way, but you know
what? Adam never was the way. He was not the way. Jesus Christ
has always been the way. He lost the truth, but Adam was
not the truth. Jesus Christ has always been
the truth. He lost life, but Adam was not
the life. Jesus Christ is the life. He
is the life. And Christ not only restored
all that I lost, I want you to get this. Our Lord not only restored all
that we lost in Adam, but He is all that I lost in Adam. He
is all that I lost. He is the truth. He is the life. He is the way to God. He's it. How can we know the way? Give
us a map. Show us. Tell us what to do.
Give us directions. And he said, you're looking at
it. Listen here, Jesus said unto
him in verse six, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man
comes unto the father but by me. If you had known me, and
this was my second thought, if you had known me, you should
have known my father also. From henceforth you know him
and have seen him. Philip said unto him, Lord, show us the father
and it'll be sufficient. Show us the father. And Jesus
said to him, have I been, and I'll let this just resound in
your ear. Have I been so long a time with
you and yet thou has not known me? Oh my soul. Have I been with
you so long and you don't know me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. You're looking at the Father.
Isn't that amazing? He said, I'm in the Father and
the Father's in me. He that has seen me, he that
knows me, knows the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father? Well, let me finish here with
just this thought. The importance of knowing Christ.
I wanted to say to my dad after I left and this was on my heart,
Dad, let not your heart be troubled. You believe, you trust in God,
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. Just trust him and let these
things go. I can see him and mom just, you
know, it's a big family and it's troubling to them. And I understand,
I understand But I also want to say, just trust the Lord. He'll take care. He'll take care.
And I realized, as I thought about that, how important it
is to know Christ, to set your heart on things above now. Now,
right now. And tomorrow morning, when you
get up, do it again. As you go throughout the day,
do it. When you go to bed, do it. When you get back up, do
it again. Set your heart on things above, not on things of this
earth. Listen, why is it so important to know Christ? Because to know
Christ is to know God. It's to know God. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. That's what he said. It's to know the living God.
In the beginning, God, says in Genesis, created the heavens
and the earth. Well, who is that? The same one
spoken of in Colossians. All things were made created
by Him and for Him. The same God in Genesis is the
same God speaking right here. Same God. It's to know God. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. To know Christ is to know the way of salvation.
It's to know how God can be a just God and a Savior. It's to know
how God can save me. How God can have anything to
do with me and still be God. To know Christ is to know wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. If I don't know
Him, I don't know anything about these things. I will mess it
up every time. If I do not know Christ, I assure
you, what I do know about God, I'll twist it and it'll be wrong.
It'll come out wrong. We never get it right. We just
never get it right. Apart from Christ, we cannot
get it right. To know the Lord Jesus Christ is to know the wisdom
of God, the righteousness of God. It's to know redemption. It's to know these things. To
know the Lord Jesus Christ is to know peace with God. It's
to know peace. Peace in the heart. Peace with God. Reconciled to
God. Reconciled to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. There
is no peace with God apart from Jesus Christ. He is our peace. He's it. And to know the Lord Jesus Christ
is to know forgiveness of my sins. It's to know what it is
to be forgiven. Apart from Him, there is no forgiveness.
Apart from the shedding of His blood, there is no forgiveness.
Apart from the atonement of His blood for my sins, there is no
forgiveness. But to know Him. To know Him. Not just some facts
about Him. I'm not talking about knowing some facts about Him.
I'm talking about knowing Him. A genuine relationship with Him.
I'm the vine, you're the branches. That's a relationship. It's the no forgiveness of my
sins. Did you hear, we sing this song,
did you hear what Jesus said to me? They're all taken away. All my sins are gone. They're
gone. You know, David said in Psalm
51, I acknowledge my transgressions, my sins ever before me, but I
tell you what, it's not before him, it's gone. He wiped it off
the book, it's gone. He's put them all away. And then
to know the Lord Jesus Christ is to know acceptance. Acceptance
with God. It says in Ephesians that He
has made us accepted. Accepted in the Beloved. He didn't
make me acceptable, although you can say that that fits, You
can make something acceptable. I might not want it. I might
say, I don't want it. You can have it. I don't want
it. But He doesn't say He made us acceptable. He made us accepted.
Now if I accept something, I receive it. It's mine. I take it. And
He has made us accepted. We are received in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God the Father has received us
in Christ. He has made us accepted in Him.
I'm accepted in Him. I'm His. I'm His. And then to know God, last of
all, is to know life. To know the Lord Jesus Christ
is to know life. People think they have life because
they can move around, that we have this fleshly life. You don't
have it until you know Christ, not real life, not the life of
God. To know Him is to know life. Let me close with this scripture,
1 John chapter 5. In 1 John chapter 5, look at
verse 20. And we know that the Son of God
is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know
Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Eternal life. Talking about the
quality of it, not the length of it. The quality of it. This
is the life of God. Eternal life. I'd say to my father and I'd
say to everyone here, everyone here who believes God, let not
your heart be troubled. Whatever comes your way, whatever
God sends our way, however tough it is. We have a God-given right
not to be troubled. We have a God-given right not
to be troubled. And how important it is to know
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only way, the only way that
I can be able to not let my heart be troubled is if I know Him. Knowing Him. No idea. All right. Thank you, John.