Let's open our Bibles together
tonight to John chapter 14, the 14th chapter of John. The title of the message tonight
is, Let Not Your Hearts Be Troubled. Let not your hearts be troubled.
You know, these verses of scripture are definitely among my favorite
verses in all the word of God. And I believe that that's the
case for most, if not all of God's people. And how merciful
that God, the Holy Spirit, has given us insight into these words
recorded in the scripture. If he wouldn't have inspired
John to record this, we wouldn't have had these words for our
comfort in this life. What a merciful, God is merciful,
isn't he? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
But you know, why is it the case that these words are some of
our favorites in the scripture? I believe it's because our hearts
are often troubled. As I prepared this message, I
felt very sure that your heart would be troubled tonight. Why? Because our hearts are often
in trouble. They're often troubled. But our
Lord said, let not your heart be troubled. And our hearts are
troubled for a lot of different reasons. There are probably as
many reasons as there are people here tonight, plus a whole lot
more. The words of the Lord Jesus apply
to all of them. For whatever reason, our hearts
are troubled tonight. These words apply. Let not your
heart be troubled. You know, many times troubled
hearts come with fearful hearts. And many times fearful hearts
come with troubled hearts. They go together, don't they?
For many in the world, the trouble and the fear can be of not having
enough material things in order to take care of their families,
the ones they love, or to even take care of themselves. And
that causes fear and trouble in the heart of that believer. But our Savior said, therefore,
take no thought saying, what shall we eat or what shall we
drink? Well, wherewithal shall we be
clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek,
for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things.
But seek you first the kingdom of God. Here's something to be
troubled about. Don't have any anxious thoughts
about the necessities of life, our Lord said. But he did say,
seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you. For many of God's children,
it can be fear of man while their hearts are troubled. Many of
our brothers and sisters in Christ around this world suffer persecution
even till today. Many even in our country suffer
persecution from their own families. Maybe it's not physical, but
definitely emotional, psychological. A lot of different ways that
people fear. They have the fear of man. The
Lord said, I say unto you, my friends. Don't you like that? I say unto you, my friends. Be
not afraid of them that kill the body. And after that, have
no more than they can do. He said, in other words, don't
be afraid of man. Are not five sparrows sold for
two farthings? And not one of them is forgotten
before God. But even the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore. You are
of more value than the sparrows. Let not your heart be troubled.
For many of God's children, I believe it can be fears and doubts as
to whether or not we know the Lord Jesus Christ in truth. You
ever had that? Had that fear, that doubt? Do
I really believe in the blessed Son of God? Because God has taught
us enough to know that if we are found in the Lord Jesus Christ,
everything's gonna be okay, right? And yet, maybe our hearts are
filled with trouble. Do I really know him? Am I really
trusting in him? Do I really believe him? And
I thought of some words in the scripture that the Lord said
that could comfort our hearts with that tonight. He said, fear
not, little flock, for it is your father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom. God takes more pleasure in giving
us the kingdom than we even desire the kingdom. You know that word,
pleasure? It's the same word that we find
where God spoke from heaven after the Lord Jesus Christ was baptized. And he said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. That word, please, is the same
word that the Lord uses here. It's the Father's good pleasure.
to give you the kingdom. I think of the comforting words
of the angel to the women who came to the empty tomb of the
Lord Jesus Christ to mourn of his resurrection. You remember
the words that the angel spoke to them. He said, fear not you,
for I know that you seek Jesus, which was crucified. And those
words can be applied to every believer here tonight. Are you
seeking to know the Lord Jesus Christ and fear not? Why? For I know that you seek him.
None seek unless we're sought first. None call unless we're
called first. I thought about not turning to
this passage. Our pastor read a passage of
scripture I wanted to go to, but we're gonna go there anyway.
It won't hurt us to read it twice. Go back to Luke chapter one with
me for just a second. And then we'll come and spend
the rest of the time here in John 14. Luke chapter one. And we'll begin reading again
in verse 67. Scripture says, and his father
Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying,
blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed
his people and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us. Who's
that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his
holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father
Abraham, that he would grant unto us, that we, being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. And thou, child, shall be called
the prophet of the highest, for you shall go before the face
of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto his people by the remission of their sins. through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath
visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and
in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Only a child of God truly should
have any peace. The Lord said, let not your heart
be troubled. The opposite of peace is trouble,
isn't it? If our hearts are not at peace,
they're in trouble. If they're at peace, they're
not troubled. Only a believer should really have any peace.
Why? Because we're the only ones that
are seeking a city which has foundations, whose builder and
maker is God. We're the only ones that have
any hope of anything beyond this world. People may have some type
of a false hope, but only the believer should have true peace.
And we're told in this prophecy of Zechariah that that's one
of the things the Lord Jesus came into this world to do, that
we should walk through this world not in fear, not with hearts
constantly troubled, but hearts that are at peace. It's what
he said, to guide our feet into the way of peace. The Lord Jesus
is the way of peace, isn't he? So, back in John 14, if you would. John 14. Why would their hearts
be troubled? Why were their hearts troubled?
There are many reasons, I'll give you three reasons why I
know that their hearts were troubled. The first was this, because Jesus
said that one of them was going to betray him. And we're told,
we're given some insights into how that took place there. And
they all began to be troubled and say, Lord, is it me? Is it
I? Not one of them. said, is it
so and so? They all said, no, Lord, is it
me? And that troubled their hearts. No doubt their hearts were troubled
because the Lord said, one of you, there was only 13 at the
table, one of you is going to betray me. Secondly, they heard the Lord
tell Peter that before the cock crowed that he was going to deny
him three times. and that all the rest of them
were going to scatter and leave and abandon the Lord Jesus Christ,
forsake him. And I'm sure that troubled their
hearts, wouldn't you? That would trouble my heart,
wouldn't it? All of you are gonna forsake
me. And Peter, you know, Peter said, Lord, if everybody else
were to forsake thee or fail thee, I wouldn't. And the Lord
said, Peter, he said, before the cock crows, you're gonna
deny me three times. We could have the same types
of fears, couldn't we? Lord, am I gonna forsake you? That's why they were troubled.
Lord, am I going to deny you? And then thirdly, the Lord Jesus
had told them, and I think this was the primary reason why their
hearts were troubled, he told them he was going away. And that
where he was going, they could not follow him now. You know, I don't believe that
we can truly appreciate how troubling that was to them. They had spent
three years of their life walking every day with one who was perfect. You know, we have some good friends
in this world, right? But none of them were perfect.
None of them are without sin. The Lord Jesus Christ never had
an evil thought, never said the wrong thing, never thought the
wrong thing, never did the wrong thing. That's the one that they
had been able to walk with. Your heart would be troubled
this way, wouldn't it? It would be as though if the
Lord allowed us to go to be with him in heaven for a period of
time and then we had to leave. But even worse, because there
we have eyes to know as we're known. And even though they couldn't
see perfectly, they could see that it was going to be a huge
loss for them to no longer be able to walk with the Lord Jesus
Christ. So what is the remedy that the
Lord Jesus, the great physician prescribed for them? For their
troubled hearts. Notice, we'll go on here with
this passage. He said, let not your hearts
be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. Who can fail to see that the
Lord Jesus Christ here puts himself on the same level as God the
Father? You believe in God? Believe in
me. That's clearly what he says. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Do you believe in him, then believe
in me. Do you trust in him, then trust
in me. Have the same trust in me, for
the Father and I are one, as he said in other places. We're
one in nature. If you trust the Father, trust
me. If you believe in the Father,
believe me. That was what he prescribed here
for their troubled hearts. Let not your hearts be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are
many mansions. In my father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places, many rooms. That's really what
it means. There's many rooms in my father's
house. Oh, what a big house. A house with millions or billions
of rooms. Someone says, well, how's that
possible? That's possible because God is
a great God. He is the Almighty. There's nothing
too hard for Him. Nothing impossible for him. If
we had just a little bit of understanding of just how vast his creation
is, this wouldn't even seem like a challenge. That he just spoke
the word and created millions and millions and millions of
stars. And we have no idea how many
galaxies and worlds. So for him to have a house with
enough rooms for all All his people should not. That should
not be troubling to us. That's not even hard. Not even
hard for him. He said, in my father's house
are many mansions, many dwelling places. And you know, our house
is not going to be crowded. It's not even going to be crowded.
There'll be plenty. Plenty of room for all that the
Father chose. Plenty of room for all that the
Lord Jesus Christ redeemed, and plenty of room for all who've
been born again of the Spirit of God. It won't even, it'll
be full, but it won't be overcrowded. There are many mansions. He said, if it were not so, I'd
have told you. He said, in my Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. You believe in God, believe in
me. You trust in God, trust in me. If there was not plenty of
room in my father's house, I would have told you. But there is plenty
of rooms. I go to prepare a place for you. I'm going to deal with this phrase
the way I know you've heard our pastor deal with it so many times,
and it never gets old to hear. The Lord said, I go to prepare
a place for you. He went to prepare a perfect
place, a wonderful place for us, a place that's so wonderful
that no one ever wants to leave. No one ever goes to heaven and
wants to leave there. Now, no one's ever unhappy with
their room. over at their neighbor's. People
go there and they want to stay forever. The Lord Jesus said,
I go to prepare a place for you. I go to the cross to prepare
a place for you. The Bible very plainly teaches
that God is a holy and righteous God. And as such, he will not
just overlook sin. Sin, every sin must be punished. If God didn't punish every single
sin, God would cease to be who he is, and that's not possible.
He's the unchangeable God. He's a holy God. And as such,
every sin, even of those whom the Lord Jesus Christ loved and
came into this world for, our sins had to be dealt with. It
wasn't as though God could just open up his house for us to enter
unless our sins be dealt with. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. I go to the cross to prepare
a place for you. And upon the cross, our Lord
Jesus Christ dealt with our sins. God made him guilty on behalf
of my sin and your sin, believer. And when God made him guilty
for our sins, he bore those sins upon the cross, and he bore the
punishment for those sins. And before he left that cross,
they were all paid for. When he cried, it is finished,
he had gone to prepare a place for us, a place upon the cross
where he put our sins away. I go to prepare a place for you."
That is, I go to the grave to prepare a place for you. Why
did he have to go to the grave? You say, I don't understand why
he had to go to the cross, because he had to suffer the punishment
for our sins, but why to the grave? Because that's where people
who die have to be taken, to the grave. And the Lord Jesus
Christ truly died. And therefore, he truly had to
be buried. And all the mercy and grace of
the glorious eternal son of God, to not only suffer the shame
of hanging upon the cross, but also the shame of having to be
buried. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to the grave. And thirdly,
and this is how you usually hear it dealt with, I go to heaven
to prepare a place for you. The Lord Jesus on the third day,
he came out of that tomb, out of that grave, and for 40 days, he stayed up
in this world and was seen of hundreds of people. You know,
there's so many people who don't know that. I believe there's
many Christians that don't even know that, that the Lord appeared
to many after his resurrection. But when that time was up, he
went back to heaven, didn't he, to prepare a place for us. You say, where is heaven? Where
is it? It's where the Lord Jesus Christ
is. You say, where is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's in heaven. Wherever he is, that's where
heaven is. It's a place where no sickness,
no sadness, no pain, no more death, no more separation, none
of those things can enter in there. It's a place where the
Lord Jesus continually makes all things new. all things new, ever new. Notice verse three. He said,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and
receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. You know, one of the prayers
of our Lord Jesus Christ from John 17 that's recorded for us,
he said, Father, I will that those whom you have given me
be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which I
had with you before the foundation of the world. And his prayers
are always answered. He prayed for his people that
we like him, would enter into the city of God, into the new
Jerusalem, into the place where the Lamb sits upon the throne.
And all people around them constantly sing that new song, worthy is
the Lamb. And when a believer dies, the
Lord Jesus I believe this is true, the Lord Jesus sends his
angels to escort his child into his house and right into his
or her room. That he's prepared for us. He
went to prepare a place for us. And notice verse four and five.
And whither I go, you know, in the way you know, Thomas saith
unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know
the way? Don't you love the honesty of Thomas? If I were more honest
like Thomas in prayer or in going to the scripture, and in so many
ways, I would be so much better off than I am. Thomas said, Lord,
we don't even know where you're going. How in the world can we
know the way? He was honest, wasn't he? We
don't understand where you're going, so how can we know the
way? Notice verse six, and we'll finish
with this verse. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. Thomas said, I don't know the
way, Lord. I am the way, Thomas. I'm the
road. I'm the route. I'm the way. The Lord Jesus Christ is not
a way to the Father. He is the way. He said, I am the way. There's not many. There's one.
It's the Lord Jesus. You know, the Apostle Paul expounds
upon there's only one way of peace with God. There's only
one way, one way of peace with God, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Apostle Paul expounds
upon that. He's talking about the condition
of all of us, our awful condition by nature as we come into this
world. He says the way of peace they
have not known. That's all of us as we come into
this world. There's no difference. For there's
none good, no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. The way of peace we have not
known. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
way of peace, the way that is a peaceful way unto God for sinners. Are we trusting in him tonight?
Are we believing in him as our way? I'm thankful. I'm thankful that I have no other
hope than the way, the Lord Jesus Christ. And notice he said, I
am the way, the truth. I am the truth. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only person who's ever lived upon the face of God's
earth who was truth, that always spoke truth, did truth, he thought
truth. I am the way, I'm the truth. You know, we read various passages
in the gospels where his enemies came and they would try to flatter
him, you know, not knowing all along that they were saying something
that was true, but just wanting to, you know, somehow, you know,
build him up so that maybe he would make a mistake in his words. And they said, master, we know
that you're true. And you care for no man, for
thou regardest not the person of men, but teaches the way of
God in truth." And then they would go on to whatever else
they were going to say. But they were telling the truth.
He spoke the truth. He is the truth. The believer,
we say, let God be true. But every man a liar. And the
believer says, let the Lord Jesus Christ be true, and every man
a liar, including ourselves and our thoughts, for our thoughts
are not his thoughts, and our ways are not his ways. Did the
Lord Jesus say that a man must be born again? Did he say, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God? Did he say, unless a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God? You know that he did. Well, a lot of people find that
really comical, actually think that we're crazy and saying,
be born again? You don't hear this much anymore,
maybe just because I don't listen to it anymore. But people used
to make jokes about, oh yeah, he's a born-again Christian.
There's only one kind of Christian. Let the Lord Jesus Christ be
true in every man, a liar. Did he say that he was the only
way to the Father? We just read it. That's either
true or it's not. He's either truth or he's not.
What do we say? Let Jesus Christ be true, and
every man a liar, no matter who says it. He said there's one
way, and that he is that way. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth his voice. You remember when he appeared
before Pilate The Lord said unto Pilate, he said, for this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth
heareth my voice. You remember Pilate's response?
What is truth? He was standing right in front
of him, he couldn't see it. The Lord Jesus standing right
in front of him, the truth, and he could not, and neither could
we. unless God in his mercy had revealed
it unto us. And he said, I am the way, the
truth, and I am the life. The Bible teaches that in the
Lord Jesus Christ, our pastor told us this Sunday, that in
him we live and we move and we have our being. That is, every
breath that we have comes from him. The Lord Jesus, you remember,
he had three friends. I'm sure he had more, but three
that were told about in Bethany. Lazarus and Martha and Mary,
sisters, two sisters and a brother. If you remember, Lazarus died.
And when the Lord Jesus arrived in Bethany, the Lord Jesus told
Martha, he said, thy brother Lazarus shall rise again. Martha said, I know he will rise
again in the resurrection at the last day. You know, I don't
know if we stop and give enough credit to Martha for her faith. The faith, and faith's a gift
of God. She didn't say, Lord, I've heard,
or I've read, or the masters have said. No, she says, I know
that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, he said, Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believes in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes
in me shall never die. Do you believe that? He that
lives and believes in me shall never die. Our bodies die. The believer's
body, unless the Lord returns in our lifetime, our bodies are
going to die. That's just the truth, isn't
it? Our bodies die. But our souls never die. Not even for a split second.
Not even for a nanosecond. That's what the Lord said. Whosoever
lives and believes in me shall never die. shall never die forever. I believe the way it reads in
the Greek. That's kind of a double confirmation
there, isn't it? Shall never die forever. Yeah,
the bodies die, but not our spirits, not our souls. Why? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
is our life. When the believer's soul leaves
the body, it doesn't die. Why? Because the Lord Jesus is
our life. It's impossible for us to ever
die. Did you know that? It's literally
impossible that the believer could ever die. The Lord Jesus
Christ would have to die first. And he's not going to die again.
He came one time to put away sin and rose forever. And for the believer, this is
one reason why we should be able to walk through this world in
peace. Why? We see our bodies getting older,
don't we? And we see those that we love
that leave us here in this world. But yet, we can have peace in
knowing. that the Lord Jesus Christ is
not only the way and the truth, but he is our life. He is the
life. And he said, no man comes unto
the Father but by me. Now to him that's able to present
us flawless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
to him be glory and praise forever and ever. Aren't you glad the Holy Spirit
in his mercy gave us this passage? But I wonder just how many messages
have been preached from this passage over the years. How many funeral services have
been preached from this passage of scripture? It's a good hope. Brother Bill, if you would, come
and lead us in a song. And if you would, brother, call
on someone to dismiss us in prayer.