If you will, you can turn back
with me to John chapter 14. My message this morning is about
an untroubled heart. An untroubled heart. All true spiritual life begins
with a troubled heart. A man that's born a woman, Job
said, he's full of trouble. He's full of trouble. Trouble
attends him every day of his life. But this trouble that I speak
of begins as the Holy Ghost enables us to see the reality of man,
the condition of the world, and the truth about worldly religion. Do you know a religion that's
accepted across the board? That's worldly religion. Do you know a religion that's
accepted by politicians and people down at the bar and people all
over the place? That's worldly religion. If you
were of the world, our Lord said, the world would love its own. It begins as the Holy Ghost enables
us to see the reality of man and the condition of the world
and the truth about false religion. The reality of man is that he
is spiritually blind, wretched, wretched, miserable, poor, and
naked. Now he thinks he's rich. He thinks he's wise. Older he
gets, the wiser he gets. An amazing thing with me, when
I raised my three children, is when they become 17, they knew
it all. They knew it all. They had experienced
it all. They knew it all. They knew what
it was all about. We think we're wise. We think
we're pretty good compared to other men. But the Bible says
we're poor and wretched and naked and blind and miserable. The reality of man is these things. Man's not a work in progress,
evolving and improving with each generation. Man is a falling
creature, depraved by sin, twisted by sin, and called by the Holy
Ghost unprofitable. If you took them all, he said,
we are together become unprofitable. Take every man, rake him up in
a big pile, and all you have is nothing. Man, at his best state, when
he's in his youth, when he's in his prime, and he's strong,
and he's wise, and he's powerful, and he's all of these things,
is altogether vanity. That's what the Bible says. All gone out of the way. Job said, man that is born of
a woman is of few days. And full of trouble. Full of
trouble. And the reality of man is that
he is a sinner. That's what he is. That's what
he does. That's how he talks. That's how he lives. That's how
he thinks. That's how he breathes. He's a sinner. And while God may constrain him
by law and marriage and many things that God has brought about
in our society, relationship of family and there's a lot of
things that God restrains men and they look at themselves under
these restraints and they think about themselves not the way
God describes them. But God does this to make life
in this world livable. You take a man, take him away
from these restraints and put him out in the jungle and see
what he does. Do you know during wartime they
have to bring warriors back when they've been out there completely
away from people, all restraints gone. They have to bring them
back. They have to give them so many weeks to bring them back
down to these restraints. Our Lord said this is condemnation. This is condemnation. Light has
come into the world and men love darkness rather than light. The man who is enabled of God
to discover his sinnerhood is a troubled soul. He's a troubled soul. He sees
that God's gonna punish the sinner and all he can do is sin. These are not mistakes he's made
in his life. This is his being. He is the
sinner. That old publican came into the
temple and the Pharisee stood far off back in the back. He
couldn't even look up. That publican couldn't look up.
He said, God have mercy on me, the sinner. Not a sinner, the
sinner. That's my being, that's what
I am. And when a man discovers that, in the power of God's Holy
Spirit, he becomes troubled because he can't change his nature. Can
the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can the leopard
change his spots? Can you do good that are accustomed
to do evil? Can you do it? All you can do
is sin. he's in trouble and then add
to this the curse of God upon all mankind oh when a man finds that out
God plainly tells us that by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for
the doll of sin I don't care who your daddy is,
I don't care who your mama is, they might be believers They
might be righteous in Christ before the Lord, but you come
forth from the womb speaking lies. Why? Because death passed upon
you. Passed upon all men. And by the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men. Two, condemnation. They're under the judgment of
God. And it's a shock to the average man or woman to hear
from the book of God that this whole world is under the judgment
of God. Surely you can't mean that, preacher.
I mean that as much as anything I've ever seen. This whole world
is under the judgment of God. It's not awaiting a trial, it's
not pending further investigation, it's not living under a sort
of probation to see how things are going to work out. As the world under the preaching
of Noah was condemned to destruction. You know, lots of folks didn't
believe Noah. The overwhelming majority didn't believe Noah.
No, I'll tell you exactly what Noah was telling them, the same
thing I'm telling you. God's gonna judge this world.
He's gonna destroy this world. This world is under the judgment
of God. And there's no way out except
get on that ark. That's it. Isn't it? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Huh? And you already know the alternative.
He that believeth not shall be damned. Noah told them that. And they
said, well, I just can't go along with that. God's going to judge
the whole world. Him and his boys think they're
the only one in the world knows anything. I couldn't tell you how many
times I've heard that said about us. They think they're the only
ones around who understand anything in the scripture. They think
they're the only ones around who know anything about God. They
said that to Noah until the flood came. Then they rethought it, but it's
too late. Men and women live out their
days as if no judgment had ever taken place, as if there were
no vengeful God and no sin in them. That's how they live. They
live every day of their life like that. When God the Holy
Ghost begins His work in the sinner, He causes him to be aware
of the judgment of this world, and he becomes a troubled soul. Why? Because he's part of this
world. The world's in him. And then to add insult to injury,
he makes us to see the most shocking thing of all, the truth about
religion. I don't think anything could
have shocked me more than when I heard for the first time that
that place that I was raised in, that my father whom I loved,
belonged to, was a preacher of, a lot of my relatives went to,
a lot of them who are dead now and passed on and gone at that
time. to find out that they were anti-christ. That shocked me
down to my shoes. I just couldn't hardly believe
that. What is the truth about the religion
of this world? Well, the truth is it's satanic. Now, that's a bit hard, isn't
it, preacher? That's what it is. The disciples of Christ, these
men had the same inhibitions and things that we do. They're
no different from us. They lived in a different, they didn't have any cars, they
didn't have any planes, they didn't have a lot of things that
we have today, but these men, they thought just like we think.
And the disciples, when they looked at the Jewish religion,
And they listened to the Lord preach. They thought, well, they're
missing some pieces of the puzzle. And they went astray in some
of their doctrines. And that's how they looked at
them. And they couldn't understand why the Lord spoke to them the
way he did. They didn't ask him about it.
Why do you speak to them in parables? These are smart men. These are
wise men. These are holy men. The disciples of Christ were
willing to say that the Pharisees were mixed up in their doctrines
and so on. But our Lord said, you are of
your father, the devil. Do what? We'd be not born of
fornication. We have one father, even God.
He said, if God was your father, you'd love me because I proceeded
before and came from God. You're of your father the devil
and the lust of your father you will do. What's religion doing? They're doing the lust of their
father. How often do we hold out a little
confidence in the fact that one of our loved ones embraces some
point of doctrine? And I don't mean that you shouldn't.
You ought to be You ought to be enthused if one of them believes
something, but we go a little too far with it, don't we? Brethren, if God is your father,
you will embrace the Christ of God as the father has set him
forth in his word. Sovereign, omnipotent, just,
holy, gracious, merciful. the good shepherd of the sheep,
the Savior of God's Israel. This world and its religion,
now I want you to listen to me. This world's religion is called
by the Spirit of God, Antichrist. Antichrist is not a person. It can be. The Pope is Antichrist,
but he's not the Antichrist. The religion of this world is
Antichrist. How is it Antichrist? It denies
God's eternal election in Christ. It denies it. God said, I chose a people in
Christ. They said, no, he didn't. That's
Antichrist. It denies God's provisions in
the Savior. They say you choose the Savior.
Bible said God chose him. Huh? He told his disciples, now this
is his disciples, he said, you have not chosen me. They thought
they did. You've not chosen me, I chose
you. It denies Christ's particular
redemption. The Bible said, the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. They said, no,
he didn't. They said, he died for everybody.
He died for everybody. That's antichrist. It denies
Christ's unchangeable love. They say you can remove yourself
from the love of God. He says you can't. Though they believe not, yet
He abides faithful. He cannot deny Himself. It denies the effectual calling
of the Spirit of Christ and it puts that whole thing into decisionism
and free willism. It denies salvation by grace. They think grace is a passion. That you're a gracious host. You know, you show that when
you have guests over and they look at God that way. Brethren,
salvation by grace means that man's work don't enter in it.
If it's by works, then is it no more grace, otherwise grace
is no more grace. And it denies the accomplished
redemption of Christ. They say we have to add to it.
You have to add to it. How shocking to the hearts of
men and women it is to learn that the religion they were raised
in is antichrist, satanic, and an abomination before God. Here
come these Jews and they were dressed in the particular dress
and all of these things and they were offering sacrifices and
they were doing all these things and God said to his prophet Isaiah,
he said, I've had enough. your new moons and your sabbaths,
there's no faith in it, there's no grace in it, there's no praise
for God in it, there's no glory for Christ in it, I cannot away
with. It's an abomination, he said
before me. Acting religious and doing religious
things does not constitute worship. Worship is in understanding who
he is. and what he's done, why he came
and where he's at, that's worship. Now this is where Christ found
his beloved disciples. He found them practicing sin
out of a sinful nature and living in a condemned world and believing
in anti-Christ religion. And now being somewhat aware
of these things, he says to them, let not your hearts be troubled. I don't mean much to the average
person. He thinks about his back row being a little short or something,
and he thinks that's what you're talking about. It's not what
he's talking about. He's talking about a man whose
whole hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's divine. And if you're in him, God grafted
you into him. He's divine. Without him, you
can do nothing. This is a man's whole hope is
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, let not your heart
be troubled. You 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 to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. Now, there are four monumental
truths stated in these verses, truth which, if we could lay
hold of, will soothe a troubled soul. And I encourage you, if you have
pen and paper, to write these things down and go over them
when you get home this afternoon. Now, the first thing is a very
basic truth, but one so common that it often gets overlooked.
Our Lord tells them to believe on Him as the God-man. Now, look how that's worded there
in John 14. In that first verse. You believe in God, believe also
in me. What's He saying? He's saying,
I'm God. You believe in God, I'm God. Everything you know about God,
you know by looking to me. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Do your faith in Christ look
to Him as God, our Savior? Do you think on Him as God, your
Savior? Or as a reformer? A do-gooder? A martyr? No. This is God coming into the flesh. That's what faith sees. Faith
sees God coming into the flesh. You think about Christ, do you
see Him dwelling in eternity with the Father? Do you think
on Him as being with the Father always? Never a time when He
was without the Father? The very first words that John
penned in his gospel is this, in the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God, now listen, and the Word was God. And then he works his way down
there to verse 14 and he said, and the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Now listen, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Again, in his first general official,
he says, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard
and which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon
and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the life
was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That
which we've seen and heard declare we unto you that you may have
fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ. You believe in God? Well, that's
what he asked. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. And the scripture is very clear
that Jesus of Nazareth is God come into the flesh. He said
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son. made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. Jesus Christ is the God-man. There's one mediator between
God and me and the man Christ Jesus. And then listen to this. Paul tells Timothy, he said,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. That's hard to conceive. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him.
He who had never been seen manifested Himself in the virgin-born Son
of Mary. Now listen to this. He tells
us if God be for us, who can be against us? If God be for us, Who can be
against us? And there's only one way that
you can look at the Son of God becoming a man, a representative
man, and that is that God is for you. Peace on earth, goodwill
toward men. This is goodwill, God sending
his Son. The manifestation of God in the
flesh declares God's good will toward men. And this is not just
God and man in one person, but God our Savior. This is God our Savior. He came
to save. He robed himself in human flesh
for one purpose, to save his people from their sins. He took not on him the nature
of angels, but the seed of Abraham. What's that got to do with anything? Well, it says in the scripture,
now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. God made all
his promises in Christ. All the promises of God in him
are yea and amen. You see what I'm saying? And
when this God-man appeared, Here's the promises. Here's the promises
of God being manifested. This is the covenant seed, the
promise seed. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Are you with me so far? All right,
here's the second monumental truth. There are dwelling places
in the Father's house. Do you believe that? Do you believe, do you really
believe that one day as a child of God that you'll live in God's
house? That's what the scripture says.
In my father's house there's many dwelling places. All that's good news to a dying
sinner. Men and women that must give
up the ghost, be laid in a box and put in the
ground, that's good news. From dust you were taken to dust
you shall return. Now won't you listen to me for
a minute. There's places prepared for every man born of Adam. their places. If you go out that
cemetery and you see a man laid down there and you say well that's
the end of it. Oh no it's not. That's not the
end of it. Your souls are eternal. Your
soul will live on. Your body will lie in that grave
and your body will return back to dust but not your soul. the
rich man died and went to hell. Isn't that what scripture says?
Well, wait a minute now, he died. That's the end of it. No, it
wasn't the end of it. His soul now abides in hell. Is that right? Isn't that what scripture says? There's places prepared for every
man, woman, and child born of Adam. Your souls are eternal.
After this body dies, go to a place prepared for you. But not everyone
has a dwelling place in the Father's house. I get so sick of going
to funerals, and here's a man who despised God and hated God
his whole life. And you go down there, and that
mealy-mouthed preacher stands up and preaches him right into
glory. Oh, his suffering's over now. His pain's over now. His trouble's
over now. Oh, no, they distorted. Now comes the real trouble. Second
death. Eternal death. Eternal suffering. Never ceasing. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places. Places ordained by the Father
before the world was. Places intended for a people
He chose in His Son before the foundation of the world. These
places are already there. There are, in my father's house,
many dwelling places. They're already there, they're
already prepared, and God's children's names are already on the house. You go down through here in the
country, or at least you did years ago, it might just have
numbers on the boxes now, but it used to have a man's name
on there, that's who lived there. Go down there and see his name,
turn in the driveway, sure enough, there are many dwelling places
in my father's house. And his children's names are
on the places. Just as there was a parcel of
ground for each of the twelve tribes of Israel in the promised
land, so there are many dwelling places in the father's house. Now here's the third great truth
to settle the troubled soul. Are you listening to me? I'm
trying to talk to you. I'm trying to get you to listen
because these are things that's going to soothe that troubled
soul and nothing else will. Nothing else will. Here's the third thing. I go
to prepare a place for you. Huh? Boy, that's good news. I go to prepare a place for you,
not for everybody, for you. When our Lord died on Calvary's
tree and rose from the dead on the third day and ascended into
glory, it was to secure a place for all those who believe on
Him. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. He took it into his possession. He possessed it. And he sits
there as the guarantor of it. Somebody asked Henry one time,
a man he went to seminary with, and he said, Henry, you still
saved? He said, I don't know. Christ still on the throne? If
he is, I'm still saved. That's my guarantor. That's my hope. The eternal provision of Christ,
now I want you to hear what I'm saying. The eternal provision
of Christ and his divine appointments do not in any way set aside the
necessity of his suffering and death and of his righteous obedience
and as his work as our covenant surety and representative. Now,
there's religions who are very close to what we believe, who
believe that these things, it didn't matter. If God chose you,
that's the end of it. Oh, no, that's not the end of
it. All those eternal provisions did not take away the necessity
of Christ to die on that cross. I must need to go to that cross. He told Peter, he said, the cup
that my father giveth me, shall I not drink it? Isn't that why
I came? I have to drink this cup. The eternal provision of Christ
and his divine appointments do not in any way set aside the
necessity of his suffering and death. Rather, they lay the foundation
of it. This is why he must come and
why he must die. and why he must ascend to the
right hand of God. When our Lord ascended into glory,
the scripture said he obtained these things. He obtained eternal
redemption for us. He laid hold of it, took it into
his possession, and his presence there guarantees it. I go to
prepare a place for you. Now, I tell you, the Jesus that
most people talk about and believe in, you couldn't possibly have
any hope in to prepare a place for you. Huh? Well, he's failed
on every part. Why would you have any hope that
he's going to accomplish what he does there? He came here trying
to do some things, and he couldn't do them because you wouldn't
let him, and now he goes to prepare a place for you. Well, what makes
you think he ain't going to fail there? He said, I. You know who that I is? That's
I am. We believe on God. We believe
God. Believe also on me. This is God, God our Savior.
And he goes to prepare a place for you. And he can't fail. He
can't fail. I go to prepare a place for you. What was lacking? God already
had the place. He predestinated us. We're predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will. What was lacking? The legal right. That's what was lacking. The
legal right to possess it. When Christ died, He declared
God as righteous. in the remission of our sins
and himself to be just in our justification. All right, here's the last great
truth. John 14, 3. 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. Now, I know that this is so.
I've experienced it. I've seen it played out in the
lives of men and women. Natural men are infatuated with
this world. They love this world, this present
world. They love it. Demas, Paul said,
hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. In verse
John 2, 15, we're told to love not the world. Now listen. neither the things of the world. You think God's going to burn
up the world and leave the things? No. Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father's not in him. How could you have a love and
expectancy to enter into the Father's house, into all that
glory, and still love this world? when this world is the very thing
that's troubling you to start with. This world and its things
and its sin and its nature and its condemnation, these are all
things that are troubling you to start with. All that's in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life is not of the Father. It's of the world. Now listen,
and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he
that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now that's Christ, who
doeth the will of God, and he abideth forever. But it's also
the believer, it's also the believer, because he has an unction from
the Holy One, and knows all things. He knows the truth about himself
and his sinful nature. All it does is lust. It's insatiable. You can't fill
it up. Buy it a house, it wants another
one. I'm just talking about my wife here the other day. I said,
boy, I wish I had three or four guys go in with me and buy a
vacation home somewhere. Oh, we got a house. You can't stop your flesh from
lust. It just lusts. It'll go to the
grave wanting one more thing. One more thing. Well, they call that a bucket
list. Get ready to die. They're still grasping for things
in this world. That's what a bucket list is.
It's a slop jar as far as I'm concerned. He knows the truth about his
sinful nature. He knows the truth about this
world that all its so-called treasures are just kindling for
the fire. And it knows the truth about
religion and its abominable practices before God. We love not the world
as we see its glory fade away. We see the moth and the rust
prevail. Paul warned in Philippians 3.18
that many walk, he said, of whom I've told you often and now tell
you even weeping that they're enemies of the cross of Christ,
whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose
glory is their shame. Now listen, that's not all. Here's
the summation of all that. They mind earthly things. Earthly things take precedence
over spiritual things. But our citizenship, listen to
this, is in heaven. Is it not? If we're believers,
it is. We're fellow citizens with the
sanction of the household of God. Our citizenship is in heaven
from whence also we look for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And our citizenship is in heaven
because he went and prepared a place for us. And he sent us
the Holy Ghost who makes his promise a reality and so we patiently
wait for his return. But will you see his return or
you don't? Oh, you'll see it in its time.
You will see it. But will you see it before you
die or not? We know that if the earthly house
of this tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building of God, a
house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. You know why
you have that? Because he went and prepared
it for you. When I think about my heavenly
house, I don't pay much attention to the one I've got in Taylor.
I just don't give it much thought at all. When I think about a
glorified body, I don't get too distressed over this aching body
that I now dwell in. When I think on standing in the
loving presence of my Savior, I cannot be overly troubled about
those who don't want anything to do with me here. How can you? Not when you think about standing
in His presence with the untold multitude standing in the presence
of God, having the full victory, having the full inheritance,
standing there in His presence. You're going to be troubled about
that handful, don't want anything to do with you here. No. And
when I think of our heavenly citizenship, I find it difficult
to be overly affected by earthly politics. Who cares? That's too hard. Who cares? And when I think of the glory
of my father's house, everything in this earth loses its luster. You just can't see anything here
to compare to it, can you? Oh, my soul. Hymn writer said,
old soul, are you wearied and troubled? Huh? No light in the darkness, you
see? There's light for a look at the
Savior and life more abundant and free. His word shall not
fail you, he promised. Believe him and all will be well. Then go to the world that's dying. His perfect salvation to tell. And turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.