Let me share with you verse 1
of chapter 14 of the Gospel of John, where our Lord Jesus says,
Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. Let not your heart be troubled.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me. The poor original disciples
of the Lord Jesus Christ might well be troubled in heart, ignorant
as they were of the Scriptures, when the Lord Jesus was preaching
to them his last sermon. Now in chapter 13, as we read
it this morning, the Lord Jesus had not only been telling them
of his approaching departure from this world, but of his betrayal
by one of them, Judas Iscariot, and by the denial of him by the
most forward and zealous disciple of them all, Peter. It was an
awful moment in the lives of the disciples. I don't know whether
you could gather that from the reading of John 13 this morning,
but startling truths were flashing upon the clouded minds of these
disciples. They were doubters at this time
and they gave evidence of their fear, evidence of their troubled
hearts by the looks, I think, on their faces. Look at verse
28 and 29 of chapter 13. Now Jesus had just told Judas
Iscariot, that thou doest do quickly. He had given him the
sock and In verse 28 he said, Now no man at the table knew
what intent he spake this unto them. They were in the dark.
They were under a cloud. For some of them thought because
Judas had the bag that Jesus had said to him, Buy those things
that you have need of against the feast, or that he should
give something to the poor. So they were confused. They didn't
know what was happening. And then when we get on down
here to the end of the chapter we see where that Peter said,
I'll lay down my life for your sake. What do you mean I can't
follow you? What do you mean I can't go where you're going?
The Lord Jesus was getting ready to leave this world, going back
to glory. Well, how come I can't follow
you? I'll lay down my life for your sake. And Jesus answered
him, wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? You're confused,
Peter. You really don't know what the
facts are, Peter. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, before the
cock shall crow thrice, before the cock shall crow, the cock shall not crow till
thou hast denied me thrice. And so you see them in their
state of confusion. But Jesus, ever true to his kind
and forgiving and sympathizing nature, exhorts them in our text
to let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me, in spite of the fact that I'm leaving you, in spite of
the fact that one of you is going to betray me, in spite of the
fact that I'll be denied by the most enthusiastic one of the
group. In spite of all of this, don't
let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Now I believe that he says the
same thing that he said to these disciples, he said the same thing
to us this morning. For I believe that all of the
living family of God are one, and that we all need the same
comfort as these original disciples needed. We need to be comforted. We're in a troubled world. We
have many, many things about our day that are peculiar to
us, and we need the comfort of the Word of God. And we need
to know that what Jesus says here in this first verse, along
with the other things that you'd find in this 14th chapter, that
those things were spoken to us. They were spoken to us. Now we
certainly never knew the blessing of having personal contact with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and so cannot realize the pain and the
loss that the original disciples experienced in having that contact
severed having him leave them as it were as orphans in the
world and him going back to heaven. We could not possibly know exactly
what that means because we never have had that kind of a personal
fleshly contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. But we have had
enough losses, we've had enough crosses, we've had enough trials,
we've had enough troubles, we've had enough fears and misgivings
to appreciate this sweet and blessed text that we have here
in verse 1 of chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. So let us try and realize
the fact that Christ here is speaking these precious words
to us. Most of us know what heart trouble
is. Most of us know. Now I'm not
talking about having trouble with the physical ticker here.
I'm talking about having heart trouble as you live in this world,
as you deal with the affairs of life, as you face the circumstances
of life, as you face the changing events of life, as you deal with
your own aging, as you deal with your own depravity, all of us
know what trouble is in this world. We know all about that.
We don't know everything about it, but we know enough about
it to know what trouble is. Well, how can we do, how can
we know, how can we realize the fact that Christ is speaking
these facts here to us. How can we do that? Well, first of all, I think it's
by calling to mind the evidences of our belonging to the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sincerely, if we be Christ, then
Christ is ours. I am my beloved's, the church
says, and my beloved is mine. Her being Christ, was the sheer
evidence that Christ was hers. We need to know of our interest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to know that these words were spoken
to us. Now, whose are we this morning?
Whose are we? To whom do you belong? Whose
spirit indwells us? Who has our hearts? Who has the
chief love of our hearts? Now, if we believe in Christ,
the Bible says that we have the witness in ourself. In 1 John
5 and verse 10, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness
in himself, and he that believeth not God hath made him a liar,
because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. If you truly be in Christ, If
you truly belong to Him, if you're a true believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ, then, my friend, you have a witness. The Spirit of
God dwells in you and testifies in you that you belong to Christ,
that you belong to Him. Well, how shall we know that
we certainly and sincerely believe in Christ? You say, how can I
know that I really believe in Him? How can I know this in my
heart? so that I can know that what
he speaks to me is mine indeed. How can I know? Well, first of
all, I believe it's by being convinced at some time or other
in our life of our lost estate by nature. And I mean by that,
some time or other we must get lost as men and women living
in this We must discover that by nature,
our being born into this world as sinful men and women, boys
and girls, that we are lost by nature. And we must understand
that the misery that is in our lives and that we've experienced,
and the misery in the world, that this misery is because of
sin. And if we understand that, I
think that's getting us to first base in understanding how it
is, whether or not we truly, really believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Are you a convinced sinner? Are
you convinced of your lost condition before God in a state of nature? Well, and then too, I think,
secondly, it's by finding out that it's a very hard thing,
really, to believe the gospel. It is a hard thing. You say,
well, I think anybody could believe the gospel, set their mind to
it. My friend, you haven't discovered yet. Nine times out of ten, you
don't know anything about the gospel. Jesus Christ is God. In order
for him to be God, he must be born of a virgin. In order for
him to be God, he must come down from heaven. He must come down. A body must be prepared for him
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and he must be born into this
world. A son must be given. You must
believe that Jesus Christ was born in a manger. You must believe that he's truly
God incarnate in order to be a Christian. Do you find it hard
to believe? Your faith ever really tested? Do you really feel that it's
tested? Have you ever been under great
trial, and the scripture says over and over, trust the Lord,
to trust the Lord with all thy heart, lean not to your own understanding,
in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He'll direct your steps,
and you've heard various and sundry verses on trusting in
the Lord. And have you ever tried to do
it? in order to relieve your fears, in order to quench the
trouble and the turmoil in your soul? Have you ever just said,
well, I'll just believe that? Well, you go ahead. You go ahead. My friend, if you found it hard
to believe, I've got more hope for you than for those that say,
no, I've always believed. I've always believed. There's
never been a time when I haven't believed. Well, I find it difficult
to believe that you're a Christian if you never found it hard to
believe. Now, then another thing, our
being willing to part with everything so that we might win Christ.
I'm talking about how we can certainly know that we belong
to Christ and that we truly believe in Him. Have we been willing
to part with everything so that we might win Christ? You know,
that's what Paul said. Paul said, I just gave it all
up. I counted it all done. I threw
it out! Everything! My self-righteousness,
my law-keeping, everything! I threw it all out that I might
win Christ. And my friend, have you thrown
it all away? All your self-righteousness, all your religion, every connection
with things that you thought might have somehow or other committed
you to God, have you thrown it all out in order that you might
win Christ? Well, if you have, then I think
that we're beginning here to see that we certainly do believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then too, I think, by our
being driven out of ourselves and into Christ as our only hope
and our refuge. Being driven out of ourself.
Have you been driven out of yourself? You see, I used to have a lot
of confidence, preacher. I used to really believe I was
somebody. I used to really believe that
God owed me salvation, that I had the ability to pay God because
I had so lived, or I had this particular peculiar characteristic
about me that would make me acceptable to God. My friend, we need to
be driven out of ourselves and into Christ. Nobody believes
truly into Christ that has not been driven out of themselves.
You must go outside of yourself. Everything that matters in the
matter of salvation took place outside of you. It does not take
place, you say, well, I really don't understand that. I'm saying
that everything that affects our eternal salvation happened
outside of us. I'll tell you it happened in
the living out of our Savior's life. It happened in the death,
the crucifixion. exclusively for spiritual life
and for righteousness? Are you one of those that said,
well, I do indeed rely upon Him? Do you rely upon Him exclusively? Do you still hold on to a little
something that you think will commend you, as it were, to God,
or that would increase God's favor toward you, something that
would induce God to look upon you differently than He looks
upon other people? My friend, that is a damning
situation. You must, my friend, rely entirely,
exclusively, upon the Lord Jesus Christ for spiritual life and
for righteousness. A man gets to be righteous by
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way to be righteous.
No other way. By our obedience to the law.
No man, Paul said, can be justified by his obedience to the law.
No man. Oh, I know that there are those
that are in love with Moses. They're in love with him. And
we know the Jews of old, they were in love with Moses. I remember
hearing a story about a group of second graders and the teacher... anyone in the class that could
tell her who was the most important man that ever lived on the face
of the earth. And so there was one little boy said, well, he
thought it was George Washington. She said, no, sorry. And another
said it was Abraham Lincoln. No, I'm sorry. Another said,
well, it was John Kennedy. No. Somebody said Roosevelt. No. And there was a little Jewish
boy there and he spoke up and he said, Jesus Christ. And so
the woman said, well, that's right. And so she gave him the
$5 bill. And she said, Sonny, I'm kind of interested here.
You being a Jewish boy, how is it that you said Jesus Christ?
He said, well, in my heart I wanted to say Moses, but business is
business. And so we know that there's a
lot of people who really are interested in Moses and they
believe that Moses has all the answers but I'm telling you the
grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ while it all came
to Moses grace and truth know that we truly believe in
Christ and that this text belongs to us. Let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Now let's just look a little
bit at this text. There's two things that I think
that I see here that I'd like to point out to you. Number one,
I would remind you that God's people are subject to all sorts
of trouble in this world. And the second point is this.
that Christ has a remedy against this trouble. Whatever trouble
you find in this world, God through Christ has a remedy for that
trouble. Now we're not to think that Christ
means here that his people's hearts should never be unmoved
or never be troubled. We're not to believe that by
what Jesus said when he said, let not your heart be troubled.
Now the reason I say that is because we could show you here
where the Lord Jesus was troubled. Speaking of Judas, when he had been talking
about Judas, he said, what Jesus had thus said, he was troubled
in spirit. and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto
you that one of you shall betray me. He was troubled in spirit.
If you look back to John chapter 11 and verse 33, when he was
at the grave of Lazarus, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping,
and the Jews also weeping, saw the sister of Lazarus weeping,
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled. and said, where
have you laid him? They said to him, Lord, come
and see, and Jesus wept. And so the Lord Jesus himself
was a man of sorrows, he was a man acquainted with grief,
and he was a man who experienced trouble of heart. So we're not
to think here that Christ means that his people's never to have
any fear and right and proper for us to
experience some trouble, a troubled spirit at times, in our heart. It is against, I believe, inordinate
trouble of heart that Christ here speaks. That is excessive
trouble of heart, that is unusual, that which is accompanied with
a slavish fear, and that's what I believe Christ here is forbidding. There are many, many people who,
I mean, they're fearful. They're so troubled. They are
so troubled that they're hardly able to carry on in this life. And Jesus warned us that there
was a time coming when men's hearts would fail them for fear
of what is coming on the earth. And certainly, beloved, we're
living, I believe, in those days. Only God knows what we will experience
in the days to come. But certainly there's been some
horrific things happen in our nation as of late. And so none
of us should doubt that there can be very troublous times that
could come upon our nation and upon our lives that would affect
us to the very foundation. And Jesus would not have us to
be inordinately affected by the trouble that comes our way. Trouble
you will have and must have in this world, but do not. We are
forbidden to allow that trouble to overwhelm us. You believe
in God, the all-powerful, the all-faithful, and if you feel
that that is insufficient, then believe, Jesus said, also in
me, your mediator and your protector. Note some of the many troubles,
if you will, of which the poor people of God are subject in
this world. You know the patriarchs of old,
they had their trouble. We will not go into all the trouble,
but you remember Jacob was the one who said that his days had
been few and they had been full of trouble. You know old Job,
you remember him and all his afflictions and all of his trials,
and you remember how that he was tossed to and fro and had
boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. You
remember how tested this man really was. until he cried out
and said, if he slay me, still I'll trust him. And then David,
you know, he had his troubles. And many, many a time God hid
him in his pavilion because he was in trouble. How many times
did God rescue David and deliver his soul when he was in trouble? He said, this poor man cried
unto the Lord, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all
of his trouble. And David was talking about himself.
The Lord had delivered him out of much trouble. In fact, man
that is born of a woman is a few days, has but a few days to live,
and those are, as we mentioned, full of trouble. Matter of fact,
man is born into trouble as sparks fly upward, Job said. Man is
born into it. And then John Bunyan said that
men are born, the second time, those that are Christians are
born into double trouble. They have trouble, the same troubles
that other men have, other people have in this world, and then
they have the trouble that comes to a believer, to somebody who
is following the Lord Jesus. First of all, let me point out
some of these troubles. Satan troubles the people of
God. Now then, you're going to be
troubled because Satan is going about his roaring line seeking
whomever he might devour. Satan, I believe, especially
goes after the younger of those in the faith. He goes about and
he attempts to shake the belief of those that are young believers
in the Lord Jesus. He would seek to knock them off
of the foundation. You know there's one foundation
that has been laid, no other, but Jesus Christ. And Satan would
shake you off of the foundation. And he uses his utmost ingenuity
I can't say the word, empowered to make their road to heaven
as hard and as uncomfortable as possible. Satan tries to make
our road to heaven hard, and difficult, and stressful, and
as we go Day by day we experience his harassment. You see, Satan
hates Jesus Christ. He hates him because Jesus Christ
dealt him a fatal blow when he died on the cross. And now Satan
is out to revenge himself. And the word is ingenuity. That's the word I was trying
to say a while ago. You'll have to pardon me, I'm getting old. road to heaven is hard and as
uncomfortable as he possibly can. Now the men of the lost
world, this lost world, they know nothing of this. They know
nothing about Satan's harassment. They know nothing about the devil
and his work. But the people of God truly do
know about this. The people of God have experienced
his onslaughts and his fiery darts, and they've experienced
the fiery darts of those that he empowers. And so they know
about this. The people of God know about
it firsthand. They know about it. Have you ever been harassed
by Satan? Have you ever been made to pray for the Lord to
put Satan under your feet? Well, beloved, I have. I know
that only the elder brother can handle Satan. Only Jesus Christ
can deal with him. Let not your heart be troubled.
You're experiencing trouble from the devil? Then just remember
that Jesus said, don't let your heart be troubled about it. You
say, well, it looks like Satan has gotten a hold of this one
or that one in my family. Let not your heart be troubled.
Satan had gotten a hold of Judas, you remember. And not only that,
but old Peter was confused, and he thought he was more of a Christian
than he really was. And so, but let not your heart
be troubled, the Lord Jesus said. In your home life, in your family
life, in your church life, the devil will pursue you in an unrelenting
way. But let us be sober, let us be
vigilant, and remember Christ's exhortation. Let not your heart
be troubled. Remember it. Whatever happens
and whatever Satan attempts to do, remember that your heart
is not to be overwhelmed by it. You are to trust in the Lord. Secondly, I wanted to say this,
and of course the time is really getting away today, but we ourselves
are a trouble unto ourselves very often. We have a great deal
of trouble that comes from Satan. We have a great deal of trouble
that comes from wicked men around us. But there will come a time
when the wicked shall trouble no more and the weary shall be
at rest. But nevertheless, we ourselves
trouble ourselves often. We must be honest with our own
souls here in this matter. We're often unwatchful and careless,
are we not? We're careless in our walk. careless
in our conversation, our behavior, and often neglectful of the means
of grace. Often we neglect prayer. Often
we neglect the reading of the Word of God. Often we're too
much absorbed in the things of this world. We get caught up
with what's going on around us, caught up with what's on the
news. And we have so much of this and we don't realize how
much it's really affecting us. Now, often we're forgetful of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my friend, I hope that God
will so deal with us that we will not be able to go a day
of our lives without thinking upon, meditating upon, cogitating
upon the Lord Jesus, our precious Redeemer. And often too much
of our time is taken up and we're too distracted by our temporal
afflictions. And I do believe that as we grow
older that this is going to get worse instead of better. How
much time do you spend thinking about whether you should take
this medicine or whether you shouldn't take that medicine?
How much of this should I take or should I just quit it all
together? What should I do? What should I do in regards to
my health? Should I make an appointment
with this doctor? Should I go there? Should I travel out of
state? What should I do? And we're distracted thinking
about these temporal bodies and these afflictions that we have. And these things, my friend,
these things cause us a great deal of heart trouble. Heart
trouble! Now then, we can't palm it off on the world, and we certainly
can't palm it off on the wicked around us, and we cannot palm
it off on the world. We must put the saddle upon the
right horse, and certainly that horse is ourselves. We must put
the saddle upon ourselves. But there's a remedy, thank God,
even for this. There's a remedy. And it's good
for us to back off and to shut our mouths and to get quiet and
say, I just trust the Lord. I believe God and I'll face the
trouble as God allows it to come. I'll face the trouble, but I'm
not going to be overwhelmed by it. I'm going to trust the Lord.
Now you see, your failures can plague you to the death. Your
failures can plague you. All of this business of our being
unwatchful and careless in our walk, neglectful of the Lord,
neglectful of prayer, neglectful of the reading and the study
of the Word of God, these things, my friend, can plague you to
the death. And you'll have a lot of trouble
in your soul. And I'm telling you young people,
make it a habit. Make it a habit. to come to the
Lord and confess your failures and to trust Him. Just believe
God and to trust Him. But don't let your heart be overwhelmed
by your failures. Now, the third thing I think
that troubles a lot of God's people is the hiding of the Lord's
face. And the Lord does hide his face
from his people. He hides it in sovereignty and
in fatherly correction. He hides his face from the Lord's
people. Now the Lord's true people, they
have experienced the presence of God. They know something about
God's visitation to their life. They know how pleasant it is
for the Lord to show His face. They know how wonderful it is
for God to come down, as it were, and to fellowship them. They
know what it is to be riding along, driving along, and for
the Lord to melt their heart and to give them a soft spirit,
a tender heart, and they can rejoice in the Lord. They know
what it is to wake up in the night with a song in their soul
and a song in their heart. They know something about the
presence of the Lord, but they also know something about what
it is for Him to hide His face. and not for Him to visit for
a while, for Him to leave us, as it were, for a short time. Well, how ungrateful we are to
the Lord! How unmindful we are of His benefits! But God, listen, might justly
withdraw His countenance from us, but I remind you, that God
cannot be your enemy, because, dear people of God, for Christ's
sake, He has forgiven you, and we are reconciled to God, regardless
of what develops and what happens, and the Lord smells the sweet
smell and savor of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is always ascending
up into His nostrils. He's not your enemy, and we've
been saved from wrath through Him, but He can hide His face. He can hide His face in sovereignty
or in love. In sovereignty, the Lord hides
His face to deepen our teaching, to make us to study and to think
and to meditate upon His Word and upon His truth, that we might
know why it is that He's thus dealing with us. And I'll tell
you, I've been a many a child of God, learned a whole lot when
God hid His face. when God hid His face. And then
also God hides His face in love and I believe by that, that it's
when He would drive us and make us cry after Him the more to
teach us that we've been careless, that we've been ungrateful. I
think the Lord often does that. He hides His face. You've taken
Him for granted. You haven't prayed for days.
You don't read His Word. You've got caught up with a lot
of other things. And so the Lord would hide His
face. And that troubles your heart. And it drives you to Him
that you might again feel His presence. Now then, you may ask,
are God's people more troubled about this than others? About
God hiding His face and about God being silent? And I tell
you, they are. They're a great deal more troubled
about this than others are because they're more sensitive. Their
hearts have been made tender by the Spirit of God. Like I
said a few minutes ago, they are people of experience. They've
experienced God's presence and God's blessing and therefore
they're more tender to it. They see sin more quickly than
others. All the people of the world,
they never have the presence of God. They never see His face. And they don't know anything
about sin. They just go ahead and live as haphazardly as they
desire, sinning with both hands, as it were, drinking sin up from
the world like a dog would lap water out of a mud hole. Now,
my friend, listen to me. I say to you this morning, if
you're sensitive about the presence of God in your trouble, because
God is silent to you. He's not saying anything anymore.
You say, well, people, we come to church and I think some people
say the Lord blessed them and they heard from God in the meeting.
The Lord spoke to their souls and say, I never hear from the
Lord. I never hear from God. Well, my friend, you need to
think. You need to think back. You need to begin to rehearse.
But take comfort in the fact that you're aware your soul is
troubled, and it's because you are his child, and it's because
you have experience. So let you have this experience
in the past, and so let not your heart be troubled. Now, also,
believers are the chief objects of the assault of Satan and the
flesh and the world. The people of God are the objects
of the assaults of the devil. Therefore, they're more conscious
when they're left to themselves or when they, as it were, were
left, as it were, to Satan in order that they might learn some
very valuable lessons. Wicked men have more cause to
be troubled than the godly, but they're not. They're not. The
wicked don't really, they don't really care whether they hear
from God or not, but a saved man or woman They want to hear
from God. They don't want God to be silent
to them. So, whenever that happens, then the remedy is, don't let
your heart be overwhelmed. Wait before the Lord. Confess
your sin. He'll forgive your sin and your
unrighteousness, and He restores the soul. He restores the soul
of His people. Now let me say, in closing, a
few words about the remedy that Christ has provided against heart
trouble. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. And I think this needs some explanation. Now, beloved, head belief, mere,
clear-headed belief in the existence of God or in the existence of
Christ cannot relieve a heart that is burdened with trouble.
Cannot. Most people get no comfort whatever,
no soul comfort from their so-called belief in God. They get no comfort
from it. I'm telling you, most people
have only a head belief in God. They know nothing about a real
heart belief, faith, that has been given by God to their soul.
Most people, I say, don't know anything about comfort from the
Lord, even though they, oh, I believe there's a God, but that's not
going to bring the comfort that he's talking about here. Beloved,
you must bear in mind that Christ here is speaking to a particular
party, his disciples, both then and now. He's talking to a particular
party of people, to His people, those who are one with Him and
one with His Father and not to the world. This is clear, I think,
very clear from the context. So Christ is taking it for granted
that those to whom He's speaking were in covenant, were in God
as Abraham of old, was and is Abraham and his spiritual seed
are. Now you remember that Abraham
is the father of the faithful. You remember that Abraham was
that one that God chose. And he took him out one night.
Abraham was a Syrian. And God took him out one night
and pointed him up to the sky and said, look up there Abraham.
And he looked up there and he said, if you can tell me how
many stars is in the heavens, you will know how many your seeds
are going to be. And he was talking about a spiritual
seed. And then we know that God blessed
him with Isaac after a huge trial, and that in Isaac the Bible says, in Isaac shall your seed be.
And so Isaac was the miracle child, and we all are miracle
children if we've been born again, if we've been saved, that's a
miracle of God, and therefore we're Abraham's spiritual seed.
You remember the terms, I'm sure, of God's covenant with Abraham.
He said, I will be thy God. I'm talking about people that
God is speaking these words of comfort to, are those who are
in covenant with God, as Abraham was. I will be thy God and the
God of thy seed after thee, and as we said, spiritual of course,
I am thy shield and thy seed in great reward. Which means
this, that all that God can be to you or can do for you, I will
be to you and do for you and for your seed. Now that's a big
statement. This is the sum and substance
of the covenant of grace. Christ's disciples or Christ's
people are the spiritual seed of Abraham. I repeat that. So
when Christ says to them and to us, you believe in God, he
means that God has made himself over unto you with all he is
and all that he has. All wisdom, All the attributes
of God are pledged for your safety and your support, your protection
in this world. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God as Abraham believed in God, and you're in
covenant with him, then you have a sovereign remedy for all of
your heart trouble. Because God is everything to
you that he was to Abraham. Now listen, Abraham found God
to be all that he revealed himself to be. Do you believe that? I
believe he did. All sufficient he was to Abraham. All wise. Almighty, if you please,
the Lord God. Merciful and gracious. Long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth. Wonderful in counsel and
excellent in working. Now what do you need? What is
it that's troubling you? What is your problem this morning?
Why are you overwhelmed? Why are you overwhelmed with
trouble? Believe in God as Abraham believed in God. You see, God
made himself over to his people in covenant, as he did to Abraham. This must be understood, or else
you're going to be looking at Scripture, and there are many,
many people who do this, for the want of knowing this. that
God has a people in covenant with him who have truly believed
and that God has made himself over to them, all that he is
and all that he has. For the one of knowing this,
there are many who take unwarrantable, let me say, liberties with the
scriptures by carnal and unbelieving hearts. are not saved people. I've heard people use this text
of scripture at funerals and other places just like that this
was a promise to even the heathen. Let not your heart be troubled.
This is no promise to the heathen. This promise is unto those who
are in covenant with God as Abraham had. Hear me! The privileges
and the promises of the Bible are all made over to a covenant
people. Outsiders have nothing whatever
to do with these things. Nothing whatever to do with them.
This is the first part of the remedy. If we are in covenant
with God, if our God is he was Abraham's God, then my friend
we can let not our heart be troubled, because God is my God and he'll
be everything to me he was to Abraham. Now Abraham was a tested
man, he was a tried man. He was a tested and tried man.
You and I are are people who have been transformed by the
renewing of our minds. We've been translated from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. We've
been tested. We've been tried. We have been
dealt with by the hand of the Lord, chastened by the hand of
the Lord, but not killed as Paul was. And we've been in places
of distress and difficulties. We've been in places where necessary
to sacrifice. But I'm telling you what, I wonder
about this sometime. Somebody says, well, I don't
know whether I'm like Abraham or not. I think it would be a
good time to ask the question, do I have the faith of Abraham?
Do I really believe God like Abraham did? Well, you know,
a fellow says, well, I believe God like Abraham did, but I never
made a sacrifice. I never made a sacrifice. Surely
not. You surely don't have the faith
of Abraham if you haven't made some sacrifice unto God. Abraham had to take his son Isaac,
the most beloved thing in his life, and take it out there on
Mount Moriah and he was ready to put a knife in him. He was
ready to sacrifice the best thing he had in order to be a servant
unto God. He was willing to do it. You
say, well, I don't know whether I, well, you say, I think I have
the faith of Abraham. Surely not. Surely not. You make no sacrifices at all
for the glory of God. And then you say, well, I think
I've got the faith of Abraham. But have you ever waited on a
promise being fulfilled? You ever had to wait, wait, wait,
wait, and wait, and wait, until you get so old that you can't
have any part in the matter? Really? And then God does what
he said he was going to do. Well, surely not. Surely not. You say, well, I
waited a week, I waited 10 days, I waited 15 days, and then I
went on. I waited a while. You don't have the faith of Abraham,
my friend. The faith of Abraham makes man
wait until God is ready. Until God will do what he will
do. Until the Lord comes and says,
the hour of the fulfillment of my promise is here! That's what
the faith of Abraham is. Don't talk to me about, oh I
believe, I believe God. Surely not! Surely not. Surely not. as impatient as you
are, surely you're not one of those that have the faith of
Abraham. We need to have that. Now if we have the faith of Abraham,
then let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? You believe
in God? Trust Him and rely upon Him. And the Lord will undertake for
you. He'll undertake for you. He's God Almighty. And every
one of His attributes is all pledged toward your safety and
security and your being brought out. Let not your heart be troubled. And the second part of this is
Jesus said, Believe also in Me. Out of the, with the same, in
the same breath, He said, Do you believe God? You believe
in God? Believe also in Me. Now why would
he say this? It is as if he said, believe
what is revealed of me. Just believe what's revealed
of me. Believe what I have told you of myself. Believe what the
prophets have written of me. Believe that I am in the Father
who made himself over unto your father Abraham, and that I have
finished the work that I came to this earth to do, which is
your salvation. which is your righteousness again. It is as if Christ had said,
I am God as well as the God of your fathers is God. I am God. Believe in me as that very God
of your forefathers now manifest in the flesh. That's getting
right down there, isn't it? Believe that I am the very God of your
forefathers, that I am God. And there's none else. Believe
in me as the consolation of Israel. Believe in me as the bread and
the water of life. Believe in me as the son of righteousness. Believe in me as the bright and
morning star. Believe in me as the one altogether
lovely. Believe in me as the captain
of your salvation, the author and the finisher of your faith.
Believe in me as the captain of the Lord's host. Believe in
me as the mighty God, the Prince of Peace, the everlasting Father,
as the covenant of the people. has the Messiah, who is to be
cut off, but not for Himself, to make an end of sin and to
finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness.
And then, when you believe in Me thusly, then you will have
an infallible remedy for your heart trouble. Believe also in
Me. My question to you is, do you
believe in God? As Abraham did, I want you to
go out with that question on your mind. And then, I want you
to ask yourself, do I believe in Jesus Christ? Do I really
believe in Him? As He's revealed Himself to be.
Now, if you do believe in it, then you'll never be overwhelmed
with all these problems that's going on. You won't be shook
to the foundation. You won't. You'll be able, whatever
you've got to do, you'll be able to deal with it. You'll be able
to overcome in Him Our overcoming is in Him. I want
to read and then we're done. Isaiah chapter 65. The older
I get, the slower I get. And Isaiah 65, I'll just read
here a couple of verses. Verse 16. That he who blesses
himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth.
And he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth,
because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are
hid from mine eyes. Now be all right with me, how
about you? All the former troubles forgotten and hid from our eyes. Now look over here, verse 22
and 23. They shall not build another
inhabit, they shall not plant another eat, For as the days
of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall
long enjoy the work of their hands, they shall not labor in
vain, nor bring forth for trouble." Seems like it don't make any
difference what you do, you gotta have some trouble mixed up with
it in this world. But there's coming a time when
we'll not bring forth for trouble, for they're the seed of the blessed
Lord and their offsprings with them. And it shall come to pass
that before they call I'll answer, and while they get speaking I'll
hear. And then I want to share these verses out of Psalm 116
with you just quickly. Oh Israel, verse 9, trust thou
in the Lord, He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear
the Lord, trust in the Lord, He is their help and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us, No, ye that fear the Lord, trust the Lord. He is their help
and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel.
He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear
the Lord, both small and great. Trust the Lord. Believe in God
and believe also in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe in the
God of Abraham. May the Lord add His blessing
and may my blessed