Let's go back to the book of
John this evening. We'll go to John chapter 14. And here's my subject, Remedy
for a Troubled Heart. Remedy for a Troubled Heart. These verses of scripture, you
know them quite well. You've read them a number of
times and you've heard messages preached on this passage of scripture. This will be just another message,
and yet I hope it won't be just another message. I hope that
the Lord will have something for us tonight that's fresh and
new and will cause us to rejoice in the Lord Jesus. Let me read
the first three verses of John chapter 14. Our Lord Jesus, of
course, is speaking to His eleven disciples He says to them, let
not your heart be troubled. That is, let not your heart be
agitated. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go. 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." These three verses of scripture,
rich in precious gospel truth, ever since the Lord Jesus spoke
them to his disciples about 2,000 years ago, they've been full
of joy and consolation to the saints of God throughout the
world. Other people of God, just like
us, down through the years have read this scripture. Maybe you
heard a message on it that they read it in their devotions at
home. And the Spirit of God has spoke
to them and once again driven the words deep into their hearts. And they can almost hear the
Lord Jesus. And if God would speak to us
tonight, may we hear Him saying to us, Let not your heart be
troubled. Don't be agitated. Now, you're
going to have troubles in the world, that's for sure, because
the Lord said in this world you're going to have tribulation. But
He said, I've overcome the world. But He said, don't let your heart
be agitated. Don't let it get to your heart.
Don't let it disrupt your peace. Don't let the troubles of life
interrupt your joy in Christ Jesus. He says, you, you believe
in God. You do believe in God. He's not
asking them if they did. They did believe God. They believe
God. They believe God existed. They
believe in the greatness of God. They believed in the might of
God. They believed in the great salvation of God. He said, you
believe in God. They did believe in God. They
rested in God. They didn't believe Him like
they ought to, but none of us do. But they did believe God.
They believed God as He revealed Himself in the Scriptures. And
He said, you believe God, believe also in Me. Believe Me. Rest
in Me. Indeed, commit yourself unto
Me. Don't let your heart be agitated. I tell you, many a hospital room
has been brightened by this verse, this verse. Many a dying heart has been cheered
by the Master's words. May the Spirit of God give us
great comfort from these words this evening. Our Lord's ministry
has come to an end. His public ministry has already
come to an end, three years of it. Three years of opening the
understanding of so many to gospel truths. Three years of enlightening
the darkened minds of people to the gospel of His grace, to
the way of His salvation. These years of instructing His
disciples, they're now coming to an end. These are the very
last words of our Lord Jesus to His disciples. This is the
night before He dies. His ministry to the world, to
the world at large, is over. And now, Thursday night, He is
speaking to these men, especially chapters 13, 14, 15, 16, and
then the next chapter, which is chapter 17, he will go out
into the garden and pray. In the wee hours of the morning,
Friday morning, this is the end of his ministry and these are
his words. His last words to his disciples
before he dies now listen I'm very interested in the last words
of men Remember over in 2nd 2nd Samuel David said the scripture
says these be the last words of David You know he's talking
about the covenant of grace, and I found great comfort in
God's everlasting covenant of grace. Well, here's the last
words of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. Now, this is no mere
man here. This is the God-man. This is
our Savior. This is our Redeemer. He's the
one who came into this world to give His life a ransom for
many. And these are His last words. His first words and His last
words, they're all vital. But most especially these words
that He will give to these men before He goes to die and their
stead. He's going to offer Himself a
sacrifice for these eleven men and not only for these eleven
men, but for all of His people. And these are His dying words
of encouragement to His own. You remember that he came into
the world to die? This is what his visit here was
all about. That which waits for him, all
of the agonies of Calvary's cross, these things were ordained for
him. After all, he's the lamb, he's
the lamb slaughtered before the foundation of the world. And
here he is speaking to his father's children. These men for whom He would give
Himself a ransom. The Scripture says, and truly
the Son of Man goeth as it was determined. He came to redeem
His people. He came to die for the Father's
children. There were 11 of them right in
front of Him. And they were listening to Him,
just like you're listening to me now. And they hung on every
word. This one before them, this is
all their hope. They have no hope except in Him. Now I know they're confused about
several things. They still are caught up with
the Jewish mentality of an earthly kingdom for Messiah. Their minds
are clouded by that. But deep down in their souls,
they believe Him and they love Him as their Savior and they
worshiped Him as their Lord. They're the Father's children. And He came to save these men.
He would give His life for them the very next day. They'd be crucified on Friday
afternoon. And there are all those lambs
that are dying at Passover. And little did the vast majority
of the people know that God's Passover lamb would die then. And therefore God would pass
over all of those for whom the blood was shed. We find him on this Thursday
night in the upper room with his disciples. It's been an amazing
week for him. And I'm sure every week was an
amazing week for the Master. But especially this last week. Monday, He had come into Jerusalem. Thousands of people lined the
streets. They're all cheering Him on. My, what a great celebration. As the Lord Jesus rode into Jerusalem,
The multitudes went before Him and those that followed Him.
They said, Hosanna to the Son of David. Be propitious to us,
the Son of David. Be merciful to us, the Son of
David. Blessed is He that cometh in
the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. They
hailed Him as the Messiah. Thousands of people. They join
their voices together in this great celebration. But by Friday, they join their voices together
saying, crucify Him. Crucify Him. He's going to die. And we know that first day of
the week, He'll be raised from the dead. So in this text, We
find him Thursday evening with his disciples. And this evening,
it began this way with these words back in chapter 13 in verse
1. Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them to the end. It began with the Spirit
of God making a statement of the love of the Lord Jesus for
His own people, a love that would not end, a love that would always
endure. He bore with them through their
doubts, through their fears, through their error, through
guiltiness, through their foolishness, through their unbelief, much
like He bears with you, and like He bears with me. He knows our
frailty. He knows there's nothing to us.
We're just dust. We're so sinful. We're so wicked. We're so weak. He knows all about
us, and yet He loves us still. And we're always His Father's
children. And though we have misbehaved
as the children of God, as children do, yet He's never kicked us
out of His family. He's never threatened to... I'll
disown you. I'll put you out. I'll excommunicate
you out of my church. He's never threatened anything
like that. All through the days of these
men's unbelief and unfaithfulness, He has abided faithful still. Just like all through the days
of your weaknesses and my weaknesses and your unbelief and my unbelief. His love hasn't waned. His mercy is nonetheless than
it was to begin with. An ever-glorious mercy and an
all-powerful grace. Our Lord's intent in speaking
to these men in this chapter and the two that follow seems
to be clear and plain His intent is to comfort, to establish them,
to build up the downcast, these disciples who have heart trouble. Our Lord recognized that their
hearts were troubled for several reasons. First of all, they had
seen the master troubled in spirit. That'd be troubling to me. Wouldn't
that be troubling to you to see the master troubled? The scripture
says that, go back to John 11. Let me give you a couple of verses.
John 11, verse 33. This is when Lazarus had died
and the Lord Jesus has already spoken to Martha and he's gone
to see Mary. And when he sees Mary weeping,
John 11.33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews
also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the Spirit
and he was troubled. And I really can't I can't comprehend
this. And I read all the commentators
and I'm not really satisfied with really anything that they
had to say. This is a real man who is agitated
in his own heart at the lack of faith, at the doubt of Martha, But he's
agitated, and our Lord's disciples, here are all 12 of them because
Judas was still with the group, and they see the Savior, and
they see Him actually, in verse 35, weeping. Weeping. This is the Lord. This is the Creator. This is
the Sustainer of all things. This is the Giver of all blessings. This is the One who made everything
and conducts everything to the end that He has ordained and
here He is weeping. That troubled me. And then look in the next chapter,
John 12 and verse 27. Well, first of all, in verse
27, he said, now is my soul troubled. Now is my soul agitated. What shall I say? Shall I say,
Father, save me from this hour? But for this cause came I unto
this hour. They see him troubled again.
They can see it in his face. Our Lord was a man of sorrows. The scripture says He was acquainted
with grief. When the Lord Jesus said before
Abraham was, I am, they said, well, you're not yet 50 years
of age. He wasn't anywhere near 50. But He had an aged look to Him. He's a man who is God. He's a real, the scripture says,
sympathetic high priest. He was tempted in all points,
like as we are, yet without sin. This is our great high priest.
This is who represents us before God. This is the man, Christ
Jesus. A real man in every sense of
the word. Of course, without sin. That's
a big of course. But he had no sin. But he was
a real man. He knew what it meant to be thirsty,
to be hungry, to be weary. He joins with His disciples as
they go across the Sea of Galilee, and He goes to the back of the
boat, and He goes to sleep. Where's the Master? Where's the
Lord? Is He up there at the helm of
the ship? Is He up there steering? I saw
Him back in the back. He's fast asleep. That's His
heart. He's tired. He's weary. Can you comprehend that? I can't
comprehend that. But that's the reality of his
humanity. And his soul, his innermost being
becomes agitated. Agitated. That's bound to trouble
them. I'll tell you something else.
Secondly, their carnal Jewish expectations of an earthly kingdom
An unearthly Messiah were now shattered. And they just banked
on that. They were under the same delusion
as the rest of the Jewish nation that when Messiah came, he was
going to reinstate Israel to the glory days of David. He's
going to be like David, lead them to victory. He'll be like
Solomon. He'll lead them to great prosperity. But now it's very obvious that's
not going to happen. And it's like their whole world
is just crumbling to pieces. Go back to Luke chapter 24. It's like these two disciples
on the road to Emmaus. Look at this, Luke 24. And they didn't recognize the
Savior when He walked with them, but here's what they said in
verse 21 of Luke 24. But we trusted that it had been
He which should have redeemed Israel. We thought He was the
one to redeem Israel. And they're not talking about
redemption by the blood of Christ Jesus, are they? They're not
talking about that. Now that's what He would do.
He would redeem Israel. All of Israel will be redeemed. But that's not what's in their
minds. What's in their minds was this.
We thought He would redeem Israel and drive the Romans out of the
land. But boy, were we wrong. Were
we wrong. Now they don't know what to think.
He's dead. Though word had got to them,
he lived again. But they were confused. They
were confounded. And then as you go back to John
chapter, this time 13, the Lord had also told them what causes
troubling of their hearts. Well, first of all, they saw
the master troubled and then their expectations of a temporal
kingdom that is no more. They can see
that's not gonna happen. their man is not gonna sit on
the throne. Like they thought he would. Thirdly,
the Lord Jesus had just said to them, one of you is gonna
betray me. Look at John 13, 21. When Jesus had thus said, he
was troubled in spirit, here he is troubled again. And he
testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you
shall betray me." That staggered them. I don't think we can imagine
the camaraderie and the unity that these men had for the better
part of three years. These 13 men had been together
virtually 24 hours a day. They never left His side. They
were always with Him, listening to Him, observing Him, watching
Him, hearing Him as He preached to them, as He opened to them
the Word of God. They were always with Him and
always together, except on very rare occasions. They were always
in His presence. And they were with one another.
And they knew each other. They depended upon one another.
They leaned on one another. When they got hardships from
the rest of the world, they knew, I can count on my brethren here,
the rest of the apostles. And now the Lord Jesus says,
one of you is a devil. Lord, surely it can't be. It just shook their world. It
troubled their hearts. One of you is going to sell me
out. That's what he said. And then, here's something else
that troubled their hearts. He had just said something to
Simon Peter. And this staggered them as well.
It's like one punch after another. Here comes another one. This
is a heavy punch. Look at verse 36 of chapter 13.
Our Lord Jesus talking about, I go. In verse 36, Simon Peter
said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him,
John 13, 36, whither I go, thou canst not follow me now, but
thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why
cannot I follow thee now? I'll 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 denied me thrice."
This is a man who's like the spokesman of the group. He's
the one who's always quick to speak up. Who do men say that I the Son
of Man am? Some of them said, well, you're
Elijah, you're Jeremiah, you're one of the prophets. Well, who
do you say that I am? And this man Simon Peter says,
I am the Christ, the Son of the living God. When multitudes of
disciples left him back in John chapter 6, because of the hard
sayings that he preached, the Lord looked at his disciples
and said, will you also go away? It's Simon Peter who said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe, we're sure, you're the Son of the living
God. This is a man to whom the rest of the men looked to and
said, he's so strong. I bet they even said, I wish
I was like him. And now the Lord says, you're
going to deny me. Three times. Three times. This preacher? Simon Peter? That must have been devastating
to them. And then there was the enmity
and the obvious hostility of the Jewish leaders that was growing. It's heating up to the boiling
point. In fact, here's what the master would say to them. Look
at chapter 16. He would say to them in this
address, He would speak these words to them in John chapter
16. Look at verse one. These things
have I spoken unto you that you should not be offended. They
shall put you out of the synagogue. Yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. These things
will they do unto you because they've not known the Father
nor me. And they've observed these Jewish leaders. They're
just ganging up on the Savior. They're like wild dogs going
after Him. They're barking at Him. They're
nipping at His heels. And they want Him. They want
to kill Him. And they sense this anger, this mob-like mentality
of the religious Jews. Their hearts are troubled. but the most disturbing thing
of all." Notwithstanding these other things that I mentioned,
this is what troubled them the most. He said, I'm going away. He said this, look back in John
12, John 12. He says in verse 23, Jesus answered
saying, the hour has come. that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, bring it forth
much fruit. He's talking about death. I thought
he'd be talking about going to Jerusalem and sitting on the
throne. I thought he'd be talking about gathering an army together
and driving the Gentiles out. No, what's he talking about?
He's talking about dying. And He says, if I don't die,
nobody's going to live. He's the seed that must fall
in the ground. He's the seed whose life must
be given and then all of His people will live forever to the
glory of God. I don't understand this. They understand the living, reigning
Messiah on David's throne in Jerusalem. They understand that,
but what they can't understand is a suffering, bleeding, dying
Savior hanging on a cross in agony and pain. They can't understand
that. It disturbed them. And He kept on saying, I'd go
away. I go away. Look at chapter 13 again, and
verse 33. Oh, how tenderly he spoke to them. Little children, yet a little
while I'm with you. You shall seek me, and as I said
unto the Jews, whither I go, you can't come. So now I say
to you, I'm going away. It was the most disturbing thing
of all to his disciples. And I feel certain that as he
talked about his death, these men began to be ashamed, because
you know what they'd been talking about all the while? Pre-eminence
in the kingdom for themselves. Who's going to have the greatest
position? In fact, James and John's mother said, Lord, can
I talk with you? I have a prayer request. I want
my sons to sit in positions of honor in your kingdom. That's what they've been arguing
about. And they wouldn't even stoop to wash the master's feet
And none of them would stoop to wash the other one's feet.
The Lord had to do it. I expect now they're kind of
hanging their heads in shame and saying, boy, ain't much to
us, is it? And I'd say, you're right. Not
much to you fellows and not much to us either. It's a difficult time. And to
these men, this is not the way it's supposed to go. They had been faithful disciples
for three years. And they all had wonderful expectations. Glory days are coming again. But they didn't come. And here's the Master. He's talking
about dying. And nobody came to him. None
of these men came to him and said, Lord, Lord, I'm praying
for you. Lord, I can't comprehend all
of this, but you're talking about your death. And I remember what
the Old Testament stated, how Isaiah talked about you being
wounded and bruised for our transgressions. Lord, I just want you to know
I'm with you." Nobody talked to him like that. They didn't talk to him like
that. He's alone. And it's as though they have
no interest in his suffering. But yet, all along, as he set
his mind and his heart upon Calvary to fulfill God's redemptive purpose,
He still cares about these men. There's room in his great big
heart for these men, even though he's about to endure and perform
the greatest work that'll ever be performed, the reconciliation
of his people. And still he thinks of these
men. Don't let your hearts be troubled. No one offers him a word of comfort. No one presses close to him and
says, Lord, I love you. Nobody hugged him, said, I'm
so thankful you're my Savior. They were all, like we are, pretty
much self-absorbed. It's a good thing salvation's
all of grace, isn't it? None of us would be saved. Nobody
would be saved. So while they offer no comfort
to Him as He anticipates the agonies of the cross, He gives
immense comfort to these men. And it runs through all these
chapters. Keep in mind, chapter divisions
are not inspired. By the end of chapter 13, who
is the Lord Jesus speaking to? Simon Peter. You'll notice in
this first verse, he doesn't say hearts as in plural. He says heart. Let not your heart
be troubled. I think, first of all, he's speaking
directly to Simon Peter. He has just addressed him and
said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, the cock shall not crow
till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled. You're gonna fail, Peter. Don't let your heart be troubled.
I'm your savior. You're going to deny me three
times, but don't let your heart be troubled, Peter. Don't be
agitated within you. I'm your forgiver. You're gonna transgress something
awful, and you'll do it three times, but don't let your heart
be troubled, Simon. I still love you. I'm not kicking
you out of the family. In fact, I'm going to the cross
to pay your debt of sin. I'm going to reconcile you to
God. I'm going to bring in for you everlasting righteousness
while you fall flat on your face. Let not your heart be troubled.
And that's what he says to us. Let not your heart be troubled.
We're failures. Transgressors, we're still sinners. But He's still the mighty Savior. And He says this, in my Father's
house are many mansions. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Because in my Father's house
are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it weren't so, I would
have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. This does not mean, now listen
to me, this doesn't mean that for 2,000 years the Lord Jesus
has been building up in heaven many mansions for us. That's
not at all what it means. I'll tell you what it means.
He was going to the cross, now listen, to prepare us for heaven. and to prepare heaven for us.
That's exactly what He's gonna do. You see, we have no place
in heaven. We have no rights in heaven.
We have no rights to everlasting glories, except the Savior Himself
lay down His life, give Himself a ransom for us, and justice
is satisfied. Thereby we enter in upon the
merits of our Savior. And you know, when we enter in,
it will be right for us to enter in. Isn't that correct? It will
be right. That's justice. You see, salvation
doesn't mean justice is set aside and mercy reigns to the expense
of justice. It doesn't mean that at all.
It means justice has been honored. Justice has been upheld. And
we're going to glory. Because justice demands it just
as much as grace does. Yeah. You see, heaven is a prepared
place for prepared people. And when our hearts are troubled,
our hearts are distressed, when our innermost being is driven
to despair, Let's remember, the Savior's gone to prepare a place
for us. He calls it the Father's house. We talk about heaven, and I say
we, most people talk about heaven in kind of a flippant way. You
read the obituaries, she went to heaven, so and so died, she
went to heaven. It's just kind of common speech. But you know what heaven is?
It's the Father's house. The Father. Who is the Father? Our God is a consuming fire. He's holy and righteous and just. You mean you're going to see
a holy, righteous, just God? Yeah, because that's where heaven
is. That's the Father's house. and you're not going to the Father's
house and remain there apart from a mediator, apart from a
great high priest. That's the reason he says, you
believe in God, believe also in me. I'm the great high priest. I'm the offering for sin. Believe
in me. Believe in me. I watched a little bit of the
memorial service President Bush today, just a little bit of it.
Enough to hear a couple of folks talk about he was saved by baptism. How he's gone to heaven, not
to see the Lord Jesus Christ, not to be in the presence of
the Lord of glory, but go back to meet family members. And I
thought, Lord, that's how I'd look at it, too, if you hadn't
showed grace to me. I think that's what heaven would
be, just a big old family reunion. And that's what most people think. The Father's house. That's where all is pure. All
is light. That's where the angels bow down
before God and veil their faces in the presence of majesty. That's the Father's house. Are you going to the Father's
house? I am. I'm going to the Father's house.
And here's the thing. We will go there with boldness
someday, but even now when we pray, We go to His throne with
boldness, not with arrogance and not with irreverence, but
with boldness. Listen, my substitute has died
for me. My debt of sin has been paid
for. I'm righteous in God's sight. He's not ashamed of me. I'm in
the Lord Jesus. He's pleased with me because
He's pleased with His Son. And so the Lord says, don't let
your heart be troubled. I know you're a mess, and so
am I. And I know we're full of doubts
and failures, but here's the remedy. Believe me. Believe me. I hear men talk about faith as
if it's something easy. I'll tell you how difficult faith
is. You won't believe Him unless
God gives you the gift. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. Believe me. Lord, comfort your
people. Give us a strong consolation
through grace. Closing song tonight.