The document discusses Jesus' comforting words to His disciples in John 14:1-4, emphasizing the importance of faith in God and Christ. It highlights the promise of eternal dwelling places prepared by Jesus for His followers and offers solace in times of trouble by encouraging unwavering trust in Him. The text underscores that true peace comes from faith in Christ, reassuring the faithful that even amidst hardship, they have the hope of divine fellowship and eternal life.

1. JESUS WAS COMFORTING
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 14:1 1
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You
believein God; believealso in me.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The RevelationMade To Faith
John 14:1-3
J.R. ThomsonThe dark shadow of our Lord's approaching agonyand death
was now upon his heart. Yet he thought tenderly of the sorrow of his disciples
on their own account. Hence the sympathizing and consolatory tone of his last
sustainedand leisurely conversationwith them. Hence the specialrevelation
with which they were on this occasionfavored. And hence, too, the
intercessoryprayer which was at that juncture of their need offered so
fervently on their behalf. The words which comforted them have proved
consolatoryto Christ's people in every age, and especiallyto those in affliction
of spirit.
I. THE OBJECTOF FAITH, AS ENJOINEDBY CHRIST. Faith was the
condition of receiving the revelation and enjoying the promise which the Lord
Jesus had to communicate. Now, it is a very common thing in our days for
men to eulogize faith. But it is not infrequently forgottenthat the virtue of
faith depends upon its object. To believe is good, if we believe what is worthy
of credit. To trust is good, if we trust one deserving of confidence. Our Lord
enjoins faith:
1. In God. If there be a God, surely we canneed no argument, no persuasion,
to induce us to believe in him. We believe in our imperfect earthly friends;
how much more reasonhave we to believe in our perfect God? Especiallydoes
this appearwhen we consider, not only what God is, but what he has done to
justify and to elicit our faith.

2. 2. In Christ. How shall we connectfaith in the Savior with faith in the Father?
Probably thus: we need some faith in God in order to believe in Jesus whom
he sent, and then, trusting in Christ, we attain to a fuller, strongerfaith in the
Father. The apostles and disciples, whom Jesus gatheredround him in his
earthly ministry, had such experience of his truth, his tenderness, his fidelity,
that they might well trust him entirely and always - trust him so as to receive
his declarations, to rely upon his promises, to do his will. How natural and
proper is it for the Christian, who knows alike his own need and the
sufficiency of his Savior, to place in him an absolute and unfaltering trust! If
such trust was becoming on the part of those who knew Jesus in his ministry,
how far strongerare the inducements which our experience of our Savior's
grace and powerfurnish to our confidence!We took back upon what Jesus
suffered for us, upon his victory as our Representative, andupon his long
unseen ministry of grace;and we respond to his summons, and renew our
faith in his words and in his work.
II. THE REVELATION CHRIST MAKES TO FAITH. This unfolding of
Divine counsels has reference to man's life and history as a whole;not only to
the seen, but to the unseen, the eternal. Temporary sorrows and difficulties all
but disappearwhen they take their place as incidents in an immortal
existence.
1. The universe is our Father's house and temple. How far otherwise is it
regardedby many, even of the inquiring and intelligent! To not a few the
world is mindless, loveless, has no origin that can he understood, and no aim;
and has, therefore, a very feeble interest. As God's house, it has been built and
furnished by the Divine Architect, who has arrangedit to suit the needs of all
his children. As God's temple, it is the scene of his indwelling and
manifestation, of his holy service and his spiritual glory. It is the place where
he dwells and where he is worshipped, who is Christ's Father and ours. What
sweetand hallowedassociations are wontto gather around the house of the
human father! Similarly to the Christian the universe is dear, because there
the Divine Father displays his presence, exercises his care, utters his love.
That rebellious and profane voices are heard in the house which is
consecratedto obedience, reverence, andpraise, is indeed too true. Yet the
Christian can never lose sight of the true purpose, the proper destination, of
the world; in his apprehensionit has been formed for the Divine glory, and it
is consecratedby the Divine love.
2. The universe is further represented by Jesus as containing many and varied
abodes for the spiritual children of God. Why is the greathouse so spacious
and commodious? Because itis constructedto contain multitudes of

3. inhabitants, and to afford to all a scene ofservice and of development. "Many
abiding-places" are for the use of many guests, ofmany children. There are
many citizens in the city, many subjects in the kingdom, many children in the
household, many worshippers in the temple. Among those of whom we have
little knowledge are the angels, thrones, principalities, and powers. Among
those known to us by the records of the past are patriarchs and prophets,
apostles, saints, andmartyrs. There is room for all - for the young and the old,
the ignorant and the learned, the greatand the despised. No readerof Christ's
words can doubt that his purpose and his promise included untold myriads of
mankind. His life was given a ransom "for many." He designedto "draw all
men unto himself." He foresaw that many should enter his kingdom, from the
Eastand from the West. In the Book ofhis Revelationby John, it is foretold
that "a greatmultitude, whom no man can number," shall assemble before
the throne of glory. The pilgrim shall leave his tent, the captive his prison, the
voyagerhis ship, the warriorhis camp, and all alike shall repair to "the house
which hath foundations, whose Builder and Makeris God." It is a glorious
spectacle,one which reasonis too dim-sighted to behold, but which is clearto
the eye of faith.
III. THE PROMISE CHRIST GIVES TO FAITH. Many of our Lord's earlier
sayings had been vague;now, in anticipation of his departure, his language is
plain and clear.
1. Jesus has gone to prepare. Not indeed for himself, but for his people. When
earth has no longer a place for them, a home will be found to have been made
ready for their receptionelsewhere. There is much that is mysterious in the
exercise ofour Savior's mediatorial grace in the sphere of his present action;
but we have no difficulty in believing that he concerns himself above with the
work which he commencedbelow.
2. He will come againto receive. Shallwe take this assurance to refer to his
resurrection, or to his secondcoming yet in the future? Of has it not rather
reference to that perpetual coming of Christ unto his own, of which his
Church has always and everywhere had experience? Whenthe earthly service
of a faithful disciple is finished, then Jesus comes to welcome thatbeloved and
approved one to rest and recompense. Concerning our dear ones who are
dead to earth, we have the assurance that they have not been overlookedby
the Divine and tender Friend of souls.
3. He assures his people of his blessedfellowship. The language in which Jesus
conveyedthe assurance must have been peculiarly affecting to those who had
been with him during his earthly ministry. They knew by experience the
charm of their Lord's society, and the strength it gave them for work and for

4. endurance. What more attractive and glorious prospectcould the future have
for them than this - the renewaland the perpetuation of that fellowshipwhich
had been the joy and the blessing of their life on earth? But the same is in a
measure true of every Christian. What representationof future happiness is
so congenialand so inspiring as this - the being "everwith the Lord"?
IV. THE PEACE WHICH IS THE FRUIT OF FAITH. Much was at hand
which was likely to occasionalarmand dismay. Events were about to happen
which would crush many hopes and cloud many hearts. This was well known
to the Master. Hence his admonition to his disciples, "Let not your heart be
troubled." An admonition such as this, when it comes alone, is powerless. But
Christ, by revealing himself and his purposes to the minds of his brethren,
supported the precept he addressedto them. What might welldistress and
even overwhelm those who were without the support and consolationofa
sustaining and inspiring faith, would be powerless to shake suchas built their
hopes upon the sure foundation of unchanging faithfulness, immortal love.
Those who have faith in Christ are the possessorsoftrue peace - the peace
which "passethunderstanding," the peace which the world canneither give
nor take away. - T.
Biblical Illustrator
Let not your heart be troubled.
John 14:1-4
Let not your heart be troubled
C. H. Spurgeon.We may well feelglad that God's people of old were men of
like passions with ourselves. It is not the will of God that His people should
"be troubled" in heart; hence these blessedwords.
I. LET US TASTE OF THE BITTER WATERS.
1. Jesus was to die. It had finally dawnedon them that they were to be left like
sheepwithout a shepherd, and they were inconsolable.

5. 2. He was to be betrayed by one of their own number. This piercedthe hearts
of the faithful. Of this bitter waterthe faithful at this hour are also made to
drink. Reputed ministers under the banner of "advancedthought" make war
upon those eternal truths for which confessorscontendedand martyrs bled,
and the saints in past ages have been sustainedin their dying hours.
3. Peter's denial was to cause anotherpang to the faithful.
II. LET US DRINK OF THE SWEET WATERS, TO REFRESHUS. Our
Masterindicates the true means of comfort under every sortof disquietude.
1. "Believe"not only My doctrine but in Me — a personal, living, ever-
present, omnipotent Saviour.
2. Though He was going from them, He was only going to His Father's house.
3. A greatmany would follow Him to the Father's house.
4. "I go to prepare a place for you," not only "many mansions" for our
spirits, but an ultimate place of our risen bodies. We are apt to entertain
cloudy ideas of the ultimate inheritance of the saints. Christ went awayin
body — not as a disembodied spirit, but as One who had eatenwith His
disciples, and whose body had been handled by them. His body needed a
place.
5. The promise of His sure return — "If I go," etc.
6. And then He will "receive"us. It will be —
(1)A courtly reception.
(2)A marriage reception.
7. He will place us eternally where He is that we may be with Him. Can we not
now, once for all, dismiss every fear in prospectof the endless bliss reserved
for us?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Let not your hearts be troubled
C. H. Spurgeon.The disciples had been like lambs carried in the bosomof a
loving shepherd. They were now about to be left by Him, and would be among
the wolves and the terrors of the snowstorm. Frequently after conversionGod,
who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, gives a period of repose;but for all
of us there will come a time of trouble. Albeit that bark so lately launched
upon a glassysea has all her streamers flying, and rejoices in a favourable
wind, let her captain remember that the sea is treacherous and that the
stoutestvesselmay find it more than difficult to outride a hurricane. But

6. without due trial where would be our experience, and without the experience
where increase of faith and triumph of love? We have each —
1. A share of home trials.
2. Trials arising from the Church of God. In the best-orderedChurch it must
needs be that offences come.
3. Worstof all are soul troubles. Note that the advice of the text is —
I. TIMELY AND WISE. There is no need to say, "Let not your heart be
troubled," when you are not in affliction. When all things go well with you,
you will need, "Let not your heart be exalted." Now, it is the easiestthing in
times of difficulty to let the heart be troubled, to give up and drift with the
stream. Our Lord bids us pluck up heart, and here is the wisdomof His
advice, namely —
1. That a troubled heart will not help us in our difficulties or out of them. In
time of drought lamentations have never brought showers. A man whose
business was declining never multiplied his customers by unbelief. It is a dark
night, but the darkness of your heart will not light a candle for you.
2. A doubting, fretful spirit takes from us the joys we have. You have not all
you could wish, but you have still more than you deserve, and far more than
some others; health perhaps, God certainly. There are flowers that bloom in
winter if we have but grace to see them.
3. A troubled heart makes that which is bad worse. It magnifies, aggravates,
caricatures. Unbelief makes out our difficulties to be most gigantic, and then it
leads us to suppose that never soul had such difficulties before. But think of
Baxter, Calvin, the martyrs, St. Paul, Christ.
4. A troubled heart is most dishonourable to God. It makes the Christian
suspecteternalfaithfulness and to doubt unchangeable love. Is this a little
thing? The mischief of the Christian Church at large is a want of holy
confidence in God. When once an army is demoralized by a want of spirit and
the soldierassuredthat he cannot win the day, then the conclusionis that
every man had better take care of himself and fly. But as long as we do not
lose heart we have not lost the day.
II. PRACTICABLE. "Letnot your heart be troubled." "Oh," says somebody,
"that's easyto saybut hard to do." Here's a man who has fallen into a deep
ditch, and you say to him, "Don'tbe troubled about it." "Ah," says he, "that's
very pretty for you that are standing up there, but how am I to be at ease
while up to my neck in mire?" But if Jesus says it our heart need not be
troubled.

7. 1. He indicates that our resortmust be to faith. If in thy worsttimes thou
wouldst keepthy head above water, the swimming belt must be faith. In the
olden times how were men kept from perishing but by faith (Hebrews 11)?
There is nothing which it cannot do, but what can you do if you do not trust
your God? and surely it ought not to be difficult for a child to believe his
father.
2. The Saviour goes on to say, "You believe in God"; exercise that same faith
with regard to the case in hand. The case in hand was this — could they rest
upon One who was about to be crucified? "You have believed God about
other things, exercise that same faith about this." You have believed God
concerning pardon, believe God about the child, the wife, the money.
3. It ought to be a greatdeal easierfor us to live above heart trouble than it
was to the apostles.
(1)You have experience.
(2)You have receivedthe Holy Spirit.
(3)You have the whole of Scripture, which they had not.
III. PRECIOUS. Rememberthat the loving advice —
1. Came from Jesus. The mother says to the child, "Do not cry, child; be
patient." That sounds very differently from what it would have done if the
schoolmasteror a strangerhad spoken. His own face was towards the Cross,
He was about to be troubled as never man was troubled. It is as if He wanted
to monopolize all tears.
2. It points to Jesus. If you want comfort you must hear Jesus say, "Believe
also in Me." No place for a child's aching head like its mother's bosom. No
shadow of a greatrock in this weary land like our Saviour's love consciously
overshadowing us.
3. It speaks ofJesus. "InMy Father's house," etc. Jesus is here seenin action.
Think of all He saidand did, and what He is doing for us now.
4. It hints that we are to be with Jesus forever. "An hour with my God," says
the hymn, "will make up for it all." So it will; but what will an eternity with
our God be?
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Trouble not
W. M. Statham.The words are —

8. I. NOT SENTIMENTAL. Theyare not spokenby one who wishes to silence
sorrow by superficial kindliness. Christ does not say we are to disarm
ourselves of prudence and energy; but He does saywhere all these work
torture and misery you are faithless. There is a Providence that goes before
you. Your Heavenly Father knowethwhat things you have need of. There is
more than sorrow in this world. Sin is here, but even over it we triumph by a
salvationwhich makes a redeemed life the most glorious life of all. From the
lips of Christ this is a reasonable comfort, because He is able to make all grace
abound towards us, and because sorrow goesforth as His angelto make us
meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
II. NOT EXHAUSTIBLE. This comfort is not exhaustible in time; nor can
you exhaust its adaptation to the variety and specialityof personalsorrow.
Does not Christ know your sorrow? We could gain no true comfortif Christ
were merely a figure in history. If Christ had not risen the words are
exhaustible. But Christ Himself has said, "I am He that liveth," etc. The value
even of an earthly friend is in the inexhaustibility of sympathy. But at the best
human friendship is shallow, but it is different with Christ's. His passeth
knowledge. He who changes notand abideth always says, "Letnot your heart
be troubled."
III. NOT LIMITABLE. These are words of consolationfor all the brothers
and sisters ofJesus.
1. No little community has any specialprivilege of excommunicating, nor has
any large one.
2. All through the ranges of experience, as wellas through all the ages oftime,
Christ bids us take these words of comfort. First of all they should be applied
to the heaviestsorrows. Here at Christ's Cross the most burdened may find
release.
IV. NOT ALONE TEMPORAL. They do not simply relate to this time world
or to our human and spiritual experiences here. Christ was comforting men
concerning the rest that remaineth. And the spirit of man had never been so
comforted before. He knew that hearts like ours would graspevery promise
concerning the blesseddead. So these words should be takenup into the
highest sphere to comfortus concerning those who sleepin Jesus that we
sorrow not as those without hope, remembering that the risen Christ went
back whence He came, to prepare a place for us.
V. NOT ALONE RETROSPECTIVE. Christdoes not say, "Do not trouble
about past sins, they are forgiven you." No. He looks forwardand comforts
them in relation to their earthly future here and their home hereafter. And yet

9. what did He see in the near perspective for many of them? On the edge of the
horizon stand their crossesin the grey light of tomorrow. "The time cometh
that whosoeverkillethyou will think that he doeth God service." Still He says,
"Do not trouble." Let us take Christ at His word as they did.
(W. M. Statham.)
Christ's cure for trouble
C. F. Deems, LL. D.I. THE SORE OF THE WORLD IS TROUBLE AND ITS
CURE IN FAITH. The seatof trouble is not in anything outside of us. It is the
passions. Work, wakefulness, losses, bereavements,life's burdens and battles
are not troubles. They are discipline. While the passions are in right and
healthful play all these things may befall a man, and yet he may be wholly
untroubled. On the other hand, a man may be surrounded by all that can
minister to his comfort and dignity, and yet be troubled. In the latter case the
man's passions are tossedabout as the sea is when a tempest is on it; in the
other case, they are serene as the lake in the fastnessesofa mountain.
1. The cause of all our trouble is the want of harmony betweenour wills and
God's will. Let them accord, and then nothing in heavenor earth or hell can
trouble us. But when we beat ourselves againstthe barriers erectedby
Omnipotence for our safetyand good, then there is trouble.
2. Our trouble arises from our want of faith in the rightfulness and
paramount authority of God's law. Men would not fight againstGod's law of
morals if they could perceive that the law is perfectly goodand right. Men
have an impression that the law of Godis a kind of Procrustes'bed, cutting
long men short and stretching short men long for arbitrary reasons, andnot
that every regulation is for man's sake andthat of other creatures. And
because men do not believe that the law of God is goodthey do not believe it is
paramount. The origin of the trouble of every heart from the beginning is to
be found in this failure of faith in God. It was so with Adam and Eve. There
was no trouble while they trusted their Heavenly Father. You cannot seduce a
man into wrong-doing until you shake his faith in God. It is this fundamental
principle of which Jesus seems to have thought. This seems to me to mean two
things —(1) That belief in God is necessaryto belief in Jesus. Jesus,then, is
something more than a mere extraordinary specimenof humanity.(2) Simple
belief in God has never cured trouble. It might have kept all trouble from the
human heart if originally perseveredin. But after sin had come into the world
something else was necessary. And for this we can appealto every man's
experience. Do you not often feel that you would be freer and happier if God
would throw His laws away, or still better, cease to exist? The fact is, that

10. until we came to distinguish betweencreatures and children, our belief in God
can produce no agreeable feelings towardHim.(a) We must hare some distinct
evidence of His loving us. Of such love Jesus is the Demonstration. Beliefin
Jesus is belief in God incarnating Himself; putting Himself thus into most
complete sympathy with us, making us feel that if any disasters should happen
to us He would be the Personwho most should feelit. This breaks down the
opposition of our hearts to God.(b) Jesus declaresHimself the Governor of the
world. Providence is in the hands of my Brother. He manages the universe for
the purposes of the atonement. Why should my heart be troubled? Is not the
King of eternity my Friend?(3) Christ is my Leaderthrough all places,
narrow and dark and frightful, or large and wealthy and seductive. If I
believe this and yield my heart to it, how my troubles disappear! Without
Jesus, my heart is like the Galileanlake, night-bound and storm-lashed;when
He says "Peace,"there is a greatcalm.
II. THEN FROM HIMSELF AS FROM A CENTRE HE SWEEPSTHE
UNIVERSE OF SPACE AND DURATION, AND FOLDS IT ALL DOWN
UPON EVERY TRUSTING HEART AS A MEASURELESS
BENEDICTION.
1. "In My Father's house are many mansions." How this takes the vagueness
out of our ideas of God! How our recently constructedscientific instruments
enlarge and deepenthis saying of Jesus!It is to be noticed that our intellects
gravitate toward a common centre. There, in that centre, we seemto feel must
be the chief place of God. There is an unhealthy fear of God which is not
humble reverence. Mendread to think of Him. In our catechisms we put Him
just as far awayfrom our children as we can. Jesus does no such thing. God is
a Person. He has a house and a household. He makes homes for His children.
Why, then, should I be troubled that I am to die? My removal will be like the
progress ofa prince from castle to castle of his father's dominions. In eachI
shall find new work and new delights.
2. One of the phases of man's unbelief is that he does not seem to have space
and time enoughto carry forward to completion the grand projects of his
intellect. But if you will believe in Jesus, this trouble shall disappear. In the
boundless field of the universe, in the perpetual cycles of eternity, you shall
find space and time enough to do all that you desire now or may desire
hereafter.
3. Another thing Jesus utters to be a heart cure: "If it were not so, I would
have told you." He will not only correctour thoughts of God, He will not let us
have a false hope. Those men loved Him, and in some blind way had believed
in Him. He knew that they had aspirations higher than the Temple and wider

11. than the spangledtent that spread all night above the Holy Land. He would
not go awayand leave them cherishing a fond delusion. He would tell them if
the things they hoped were an idle dream. In this there ought to be a happy
lessonfor every earnestheart. There is a gloomy infidelity in us which says of
happiest things that they are "too goodto be true." If you have any hope for
eternity, and Jesus Christ has not contradicted it, you may reasonablyindulge
it. See whata field that flings open to us. This is comforting, but grandly
vague.
4. He goes further and tells us that He departs in order to "prepare a place for
us." This meets another phase of trouble. Our wills conflict with the will of
God because we never feelat home totally suited in our surroundings on
earth. Think how much is necessaryfor perfectcomfort. There must be a
suitable physique, agreeable in all the particulars of size, beauty, and health.
There must be perfectly-fitting clothes;a collartoo tight, a boot too small
breaks one's comfort. Then our house must be in everything complete;nay, it
must be an elastic house, expanding or shrinking to our wants at different
times. When the residence is complete, there is the absence ofthe beloved or
the presence ofan unpleasant neighbourhood. It is not an unamiable
discontentedness in human nature which makes us dissatisfiedor unsatisfied:
it is the inability of this present world, with all its resources, to fill the soul;
and this argues the soul's greatness.Jesus says, "Igo to prepare a place for
you." He knows what is in us and what we need about us. He is putting all His
resources to the work of fitting up for us mansions in the spiritual world. Our
place will be complete. How that abates our troubles! There shall be nothing
wanting in the place when Jesus pronounces it ready.
5. "Ready?" Thenwhen it is ready we must go to it. There is to be a removal.
But still there is something to try one in any change of residence, but Christ
says, "I will come for you and take you," and that "unto Myself."
(C. F. Deems, LL. D.)
Trouble and its cordialI. GOD'S MOST FAITHFUL SERVANTS ARE
SUBJECT TO TROUBLES OF HEART.
1. What troubles?(1)Inward, arising from —
(a)Sin (Psalm 51:4-8).
(b)Corruption (Romans 7:24).(2) Outward, which are —
(a)Spiritual: Christ's absence.
(b)Temporal: outward afflictions (Lamentations 1:4).
2. The reason.

12. (1)Weakness offaith.
(2)Imperfection of other graces.
II. FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST IS THE BEST CORDIALTO A
TROUBLED HEART.
1. It is the surestand most infallible (Matthew 11:28).
2. The strongest(Isaiah59:1).
3. The pleasantest(1 Peter1:8).
4. The readiest(Psalm 46:1).
5. The most suitable (Isaiah 43:2, 3).
6. The most constant(Hebrews 13:5).
7. The most universal.
III. APPLY THIS to —
1. Temporaltroubles. Art thou troubled with —(1) Poverty?
(a)Faith is the best riches (James 2:5).
(b)It will turn thy very poverty into a blessing (Romans 8:28).(2) Disgrace?
(a)By faith thou mayest see the emptiness of honour (Psalm42:11).
(b)Faith will procure thee honour (Hebrews 1:14; 1 Samuel 2:30).(3)Sickness
and pains.? By faith —
(a)Thou mayest see God's love in them (Hebrews 12:6).
(b)Thou mayest getgoodby them (Psalm119:71).
(c)Thou mayest receive more comfort in them than in health.(4) Losses and
crosses?
(a)Faith will show thee from whence they came (Job 1:21).
(b)Why (Hebrews 12:10).
(c)And so turn them to thy gain (2 Corinthians 4:17).(5) Fears ofdeath? Faith
will show thee —
(a)That the sting is out (1 Corinthians 15:55).
(b)That death is but the entrance of life.
(c)And so turn thy fears into hopes (Philippians 1:23).
2. In spiritual troubles. Art thou troubled —(1) Forthy sins?
(a)God is merciful (Psalm 103:8;Isaiah43:25).

13. (b)Christ is all-sufficient (1 John 2:1).(2) With thy lusts?
(a)God is almighty.
(b)Christ will send His Spirit (chap. John 16:7).
(c)Faith conquers them (1 John 5:4).(3) With desertions? If thou believest —
(a)God will never forsake thee wholly (John 13:1; Hebrews 13:5).
(b)Christ will pray that thy faith fail not (Luke 22:31, 32).
(Bp. Beveridge.)
Christ's word to the troubled
A. T. Pierson, D. D.This is a discourse showing the disciple his refuge from
trouble. The refuge —
I. OF FAITH. "Believe in God: believe also in Me," etc. Three grand truths
are at the basis of Christianity: God, Christ, Immortality. They are the
antidotes to atheism, the helplessnessofguilt, and the hopelessness ofdeath.
II. OF LOVE. A personalrelation to Christ, He is the wayof God to man and
of man to God; the truth, about all the soul needs to know and which natural
theologyfails to answer;and the life, eternal and blissful.
III. OF HOPE. Here was a personalbereavement. He was about to withdraw,
and the loss was the more inconsolable becauseHe was the objectof faith and
love. But He compensatesthis loss by the promise of the Holy Ghost, through
whom they should do greaterworks, by whom God is manifest in the believer,
etc., and who should abide with them forever. And He promises that He will
personally intercede for believers above, while the Spirit intercedes in them
below. And so He who goes awayactually does not leave them orphans, but
comes to them, dwells in them, manifests Himself to them, and is seenby
them. And so this part of the discourse ends as it began, with peace. Peace —
1. Forthe mind harassedwith doubt, by establishing the certainties of faith.
2. Forthe heart harassedwith unsatisfied cravings, by establishing it upon
God.
(A. T. Pierson, D. D.)
Christ's remedy for a troubled heart
W. Andersen, LL. D.I. THE TROUBLED HEART. Trouble in estate is bad,
but heart trouble is worst. The mariner cares not for the howling tempest, but
matters are serious when the sea gains entrance. Causes.
1. Unpardoned sin.

14. (1)We cannot ignore it.
(2)Dare not excuse it.
(3)Are unable to expiate it.
2. Separationfrom belovedfriends.
(1)By absence;
(2)by death.
3. Persecution.
4. Disappointedhopes. So the disciples have trials. Sometimes from a clearsky
the thunder peals;from richest verdure the venomous serpenthisses.
II. THE QUIET HEART.
1. We acknowledgethe authority of the decalogue;but our Lord's command is
equally binding.
2. This is the purpose of God. Every apparent discord leads up to the final
harmony.
3. The quiet heart is the best learner, worker, warrior.
4. The quiet heart is a mirror of heaven.
III. HOW CAN THE TROUBLED HEART BE MADE INTO THE QUIET
HEART.
1. The old belief in God. The Jews had fallen into polytheism, but the captivity
cured them. Christ points to the old well of comfort — a firm belief in one
ever-living God.
(1)God will smite all wrong.
(2)He will bring forth the righteous as the sun.
2. The new belief in Christ. Inferentially a proof of Christ's Divinity.
(1)As the greatatoning Substitute. There is nothing in the new philosophy to
calm the troubled heart.
(2)As our sympathizing Brother and High Priest.
(3)As alive forever more.
(4)As our Representative and Forerunner — "I go to prepare a place," etc.We
need not shrink from "Worlds unknown." He has made them well known;
"brought life and immortality to light," and will come againand receive us
unto Himself.
(W. Andersen, LL. D.)

15. Christ comforting
R. Sibbes, D. D.There was some goodin the disciples' trouble.
1. There was natural trouble at the departure of such a friend. For we are
flesh, not steel;and in that sense, Christ was troubled Himself to show the
truth of His manhood. Nay, trouble is the seasoning ofall heavenly comforts;
there were no comforts if there were no trouble; and therefore this natural
trouble was not disallowedby Christ.
2. There was likewise something spiritually goodin this trouble. They loved
their Master, who they saw was going away. They were right in this principle,
that all comfort depends on the presence of Christ. Foras all heavenly light,
and heat, and influence come from the sun, so all heavenly comforts must
come to us from Christ's presence. Theirerror was in tying all comfortto a
bodily presence;as if it were necessary for the sun to come down and abide
upon the earth, to bestow its heat and influence.
I. THE BEST CHRISTIANS ARE SUBJECT TO BE TROUBLED MORE
THAN SHOULD BE. Christ was troubled, but His trouble was like the
shaking of clearwater in a crystalglass. There was no mud in the bottom. But
our trouble is of another kind, and apt to be inordinate (1 Samuel 1:13; Isaiah
38:14;Psalm 77:3; Jonah2:2).
1. God permits us to be troubled —(1) Forconformity to our Head.(2) That
we may be knownto ourselves;that we may discern where our weaknesslieth,
and so be better instructed to seek Him in whom our strength lieth.(3) For the
preventing of spiritual sins.(4)In regardof others, that we maybe pitiful.
2. But how shall we know that our hearts are more troubled than they should
be? We may sin in being overmuch troubled at things for which it is a sin not
to be troubled. If they had not been at all affectedwith the absence ofChrist,
it had been a sin, and no less than stupidity; yet it was their sin to be
overmuch troubled. A trouble is sinful when it hinders us in duties; or from
duty, when the soul is like an instrument out of tune, or a limb out of joint.
Naturally, affections should be helps to duty, they being the winds that carry
the soulon, and the spiritual wings of the soul. But then they must be
regulatedand ordered at the command of a spiritual understanding. Now,
besides the hurt that is in such affections themselves, Satanloves to fish in
these troubled waters (Ephesians 4:26). That was Saul's case (1 Samuel 16:23).
3. We should not yield to excess oftrouble. And the reasons are:(1) We wrong
our ownselves.We make actions difficult unto us. The wheels of the soulare
thereby takenoff (Nehemiah8:10).(2) We do dishonour to God, mistaking His
goodness,murmuring at tits providence, wronging His graciousnessand

16. nursing a rebellious pride.(3) We dishonour Christ, and the love of God in
Christ; for it is as if we had not in Him a sufficient remedy for that great
malady.(4) Christ hath forbidden it, "Let not," etc.
II. THE WAYS WHEREBYWE MUST LABOUR TO COMFORTOUR
HEARTS.
1. There must be a due searchinto the heart of the grounds of our trouble; for
often Christians are troubled, they cannot tell wherefore;as children that will
complain they know not why. See if there be not some Achan in the camp.
2. And when you have found out your sin give it vent by confessionofit to
God, and in some casesto others.
3. And when we have done so, considerwhat promises, and comforts, in that
Word of God are fitted to that condition. And therefore we ought to be skilful
in the Word of God, that we may store up comforts beforehand.
4. When we have these promises, let us labour to understand them thoroughly,
and then to digestthem in our affections, and so make them our own, and
then to walk in the strength and comfort of them.
5. Labour likewise to have them fresh in memory. It is a greatdefect of
Christians that they forget their consolation(Hebrews 12:5).
6. Labour to keepunspotted consciences.
7. And because there canbe no more comfort than there is care of duty,
therefore, togetherwith innocency, let us be careful of all duties in all our
severalrelations.
8. But above all let us labour for a spirit of faith. "You believe in God," etc.
How cloth faith in Christ ease the soul in trouble?(1) It banishes troubles, and
brings in comfort, because it is an emptying grace. It empties us of ourselves,
and so makes us cleave to another, and thereby becomes a grace ofunion. It
makes us one with the fountain of comfort, and by its repeated acts derives
fresh comfort.(2)It establishes the heart.(3) It stirs up such graces as comfort
the soul, as hope in all goodthings promised. "In My Father's house are many
mansions."
(R. Sibbes, D. D.)
Christ comforting the disciples
W. Roberts.I. THE HEROIC ATTITUDE CHRIST ASSUMES. He had just
dismissedJudas, knew what was transpiring outside, and what would follow.
And yet He satamongst His disciples perfectly composed, and was able to
counseldeliberate composure in the prospectof affliction. This was not from

17. any insensibility to pain, nor superiority to it (John 11:33;John 12:27; John
13:21). It was a wonderful manifestationof spiritual strength, and as an
example was more forcible than even His counselfor the production of a like
spirit.
II. THE HEROIC SPIRIT CHRIST COMMANDS HIS DISCIPLES TO
CULTIVATE. They were in a grievous plight. They had been drawn into
fellowship with Christ. He had led them stepby step, and they had learned to
lean upon Him utterly. And now He was about to be takenfrom them by a
cruel death, and leave them exposedto persecutionfor His sake. An hour ago
there had been a strife among them which of them should be greatest.How
vain all these ambitions seemednow! And yet our Lord counsels calmness.
Then —
1. It is possible to overmastertrouble, however hard the lot in life may be.
2. It is important to overmasterit; a troubled heart is our agitatedmedium
and cannotsee things clearly, and our enfeebledagent impotent to do them
adequately.
III. THE SECRET OF A HEROIC SPIRIT WHICH CHRIST
COMMUNICATED TO THEM.
1. Faith in God. The Old Testamentsaints found in this a panacea forall their
cares. "Thouwilt keepHim in perfect peace," etc.,There were resourcesin
Omnipotence which they felt to be equal to all human exigency(Isaiah26:3,
4). Something of this the disciples knew.
2. Our Lord argues from the Fatherto Himself, and particularly recommends
them to have such faith in Him as they have in God.
3. The advantage of this two-fold trust. Although the disciples had a certain
faith in God, it left them far from satisfied with it. Hence Philip's request. God
was more or less remote from and incomprehensible to them; but Christ
brought them near. "He that hath seenMe," etc. This sufficed.
(W. Roberts.)
Grounds of comfort
Prof. Hengstenberg.I. HEAVEN IS SURE (vers. 2, 3).
II. THERE IS A CERTAIN WAY TO HEAVEN (vers. 4-11).
III. CHRIST'S WORK DOES NOT CEASE WITH CHRIST'S DEPARTURE
(vers. 12-14).
IV. THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT IS VOUCHSAFED in the absence ofChrist
(vers. 15-17).

18. V. CHRIST'S ABSENCE IS ONLY TEMPORARY(vers. 18-24).
VI. THE SPIRIT WILL TEACH THE DISCIPLES, and supply their want of
understanding when left alone (vers. 25, 26).
VII. THE LEGACY OF PEACE to cheerin the Master's absence(ver. 27).
(Prof. Hengstenberg.)
Sources ofChristian comfort
W. Brooks.Thereis a class of words the meaning of which is known to all, and
without consulting a dictionary most people know what the word "trouble"
means. The man who should attempt to constructa theory of life and leave
trouble out of the accountwould be no philosopher. How to deal with it, and
not how to ignore it, becomes the greatproblem. From both ancients and
moderns proposals of alleviation and help are forthcoming. But He who
boldly cries, "Let not your heart be troubled" must possessinfallible
antidotes. What are they? Faith and Hope directed to their proper objects.
We propose, then, to examine —
I. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH CHRIST SOLICITS OUR FAITH. Relief
comes by belief. To be able in some overpowering griefto throw the weightof
one's care upon another and to trust wholly in that other's help is an
eminently satisfying process;while the trustless soul is without the leastgleam
of comfort. In these times of daring denial and of timid doubt it is wellto be
reminded that in the greatcrises of life — poverty, bereavement, affliction —
denial is mockeryand doubt is impotence, and that only an honest and hearty
belief will secure sufficient solace. Christsolicits our faith on the ground of —
1. A prior acknowledgmentof the Divine. "Ye believe in God." Christ desires
nothing contrary to already existing and inborn Godward conceptions ofthe
soul, but merely that we enlarge those conceptions so as to include Him.
2. The defectiveness ofour belief apart from Him. "Ye believe in God;" yes,
but that is inadequate, it needs supplementing. The most anxious moments of
humanity have been spent in searchings aftersuch a view of God as would
enable man to approachHim without dread. Humanity's greatlonging has
waited until Christ for its complete satisfaction. He has extractedfrom the
thought of God all that is calculatedto give pain and introduced everything
calculatedto give comfort. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
Himself."
3. His personality. Trust must repose on a person to be trust at all. Christian
apologists oftenbegin with the proofs of superhuman skilland power, and so
lead up to the central objectof Christian faith. But Christ askedfor

19. immediate trust in Himself, for with that would come a hearty belief in all He
said and did.
II. THE MOTIVES BY WHICH HE ENCOURAGES OUR HOPE. By "two
immutable things," Christ intends us to have "strong consolation."Hope is as
important a contribution to comfort as faith; the two together, exercised
rightly, never fail. Without a future what is the present worth? An English
nobleman once askedhimself why there should be a future existence, and
answered, "Because,onany other hypothesis, the world would be a piece of
magnificent nonsense."
1. Christ, implying human immortality, reveals heaven. He bids the troubled
be comforted by directing their hope to the positive existence of an absolutely
untroubled state. Heavenis rendered attractive to us as much by its
exemptions as by its possessions(Revelation21:4). Christ does present also a
positive view. Heavenis a home. "In My Father's house!" A house is not
necessarilya home, but a father's house always is, or ought to be. A happy
earthly home is the nearestapproachto an adequate conceptionof the life of
heaven. "My Father's house" is a happier home than the happiest of earthly
ones.
2. Hope is encouragedby the variety of heavenly enjoyments. "Many
mansions," many methods of enjoyment, various fields of occupation,
unexhausted resources ofinterest and pleasure. An endless uniformity of type
would be fatal to perfect happiness.
3. Hope is further encouragedby Christ's guarantee of its realization. "If it
were not so I would have told you," etc. What security this! He could not
countenance a delusion. Conclusion:We read of a Roman army, when eagerly
engagedin battle with their country's enemies, being unconscious ofan
earthquake which made the ground beneath their feet to tremble; and so will
a high faith in God and Christ, and a holy hope of immortality and heaven,
cause the true Christian to be insensible to the tossings to and fro of the life
that now is.
(W. Brooks.)
The Christian not afraid of unseen dangersGeneralShermanis reported to
have said: "One difference betweenGeneralGrant and myself is this: I am
not afraid of dangers that I can see, but he is not afraid of dangers that he
cannot see." Any goodsoldier of Jesus Christ has a right to absolute
confidence as he goes forward, even in the dark. For the Saviour says to him,
Whatevercomes, "Let not your heart be troubled."

20. Men seemunwilling to be without troubleMen do not avail themselves of the
riches of God's grace. Theylove to nurse their cares, and seemas uneasy
without some fret as an old friar would be without his hair girdle. They are
commanded to casttheir cares upon the Lord; but, even when they attempt it,
they do not fail to catchthem up again, and think it meritorious to walk
burdened. They take God's ticketto heaven, and then put their baggageon
their shoulders, and tramp, tramp, the whole way there afoot.
Christ will relieve our troubles
C. H. Spurgeon.Iheard of a man who was walking along the high road, with a
pack on his back:he was growing weary, and was, therefore, glad when a
gentleman came along in a chaise, and askedhim to take a seatwith him. The
gentleman noticedthat he kept his pack strapped to his shoulders, and so he
said, "Why do you not put your pack down?" "Why, sir," said the traveller,
"I did not venture, to intrude. It was very kind of you to take me up, and I
could not expectyou to carry my pack as well." "Why," said his friend, "do
you not see that whether your pack is on your back, or off your back, I have to
carry it?" My hearer, it is so with your trouble: whether you care, or do not
care, it is the Lord who must care for you.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The consolationofthe gospelunique
Canon Liddon.In this I say the gospeldiffers sharply from the most cultivated
paganthought of the age in which it appearedin the world. When Seneca is
trying to console a lady who is suffering agonies ofmind under a severe
bereavement, he can only suggestto her that she had better try as soonas
possible to forget her trouble. She has, he says, goodexamples around her in
the birds and in the beasts. They too love their relations, but after a
momentary spasmwhen they lose them they take life easilyagain; and in
doing this they show man an example which he would do well to imitate. As if
the mental pain which means to man so much more than to the beast,
preciselybecause he is man and not beast, could be conjured out of him by a
philosophy which talks incessantlyof his dignity and can only make him
comfortable, if at all, at the costof forgetting it!
(Canon Liddon.)
Religionhas many comforts
H. W. Beecher.Whyshould you carry troubles and sorrows unhealed? There
is no bodily wound for which some herb doth not grow, and heavenly plants
are more medicinal. Bind up your hearts in them, and they shall give you not

21. only healing, but leave with you the perfume of the blessedgardens where
they grew. Thus it may be that sorrows shallturn to riches; for heart troubles,
in God's husbandry, are not wounds, but the putting in of the spade before the
planting of seeds.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Glimpses of our heavenly home
C. Stanford, D. D.I. THE TROUBLE IN THE HEART OF THE DISCIPLES.
The trouble —
1. Of agonizedignorance and blank bewilderment. Long before, Jesus had
dropped hints of a mysterious journey that He had to take. As the time went
on, He spoke ofit more frequently, and in terms more and more darkly
suggestive ofhorror. This had not seemedto trouble their heart at first; they
regardedHis language as metaphoricalProbably they had the impressionthat
first some greatbattle had to be fought, or some unknown trial to be gone
through; that would lastthree days. So just before, Peterasks, "Whither goest
thou?"
2. Of bereavedlove. "Do I love the Lord, or no?" was not a question in any
heart there. Jesus had poured upon them all the very essenceofkindness, and
had receivedthem into the very sanctuary of His heart. Naturally, it was this
mighty love that made bereavementof its objectso intolerable. Christ had not
yet left them; but love may feela bereavement before it is bereaved.
3. From the thought of having no share in the lastpassionof their Lord. "Why
cannot I follow Thee now?" Love said then, as love says now, "Give me some
work to do; some cross to carry; some block to lay nay head upon." It is
impossible to stand idly by while Christ gives and suffers all.
II. THE ANTIDOTE.
1. A peculiar, most tranquillizing revelation of the heavento which He is going
— "a place." Along with other elements of comfort, our nature needs this. We
have been told that this is a doctrine of Materialism, and that heaven is in
characterrather than in condition. This is only a half-truth, and we want the
whole. "Heavenis principle," said Confucius;but a house to live in must be
built of something besides principle. Heavenis for the complete man, body
and soul; and a body asks fora place, understanding that heavenis at leasta
place, we are ready to ask a thousand questions about it as such; and one of
the first will be, "Where is it in the map of the universe?" In times not a few
has this been made a question of astronomy, and to suggestthe possibility of
some central heavenamongst the stars. Well, the inquiry must start from our

22. own solarsystem. This, with its circle of at least5,000,000,000miles in
diameter, is but a speck in the creation. Its stars burn and roll round the sun,
their centre. The sun, carrying all these his satellites with him, is moving
round another centre, with its system; that, about another; that, about
another; and where is the fixed ultimate centre round which all the other
centres are wheeling and moving? The only One who could have settled this
question was silent about it. He says nothing of its whereabouts, ofits beauty,
of its music, exceptin signs that are manifestly but hieroglyphic. He knew that
the most exactprecisionof statement and the most dazzling magic of
description would leave the greatestas wellas the leastof mortals as much in
the dark as ever. Therefore Christ, aiming at our spiritual profit rather than
at our scientific enlightenment, leaves forfuture solution all problems that
have only to do with place.
2. That the heavenly place is His home and theirs. He has just addressedthem
in the language offamily affectionas His "little children." With this word of
love still in the air, He proceeds to speak of heaven as "My Father's house." A
little child looks upon his father's house as his own, and so would Christ have
us look upon heaven. Even on earth, a father's house is his child's home; and
the dearestplace to the best man, woman, child, is home. "Home, sweet
home." Earth is one of My Father's battlefields, farms, foundries, factories,
roads that He travels on; but heaven is our "Father's house," and therefore
the home of all His family.
3. That in that home are many mansions, i.e., settled abodes;the same word as
in ver. 23. Emphasis resting on the idea of permanence. Jesus was speaking to
the sadthoughts then stirring in the hearts of His mourners on accountof the
shortness of the time they had spent with Him, and which seemed, in the
review, only like a dream. "What does this lack to make it perfect?" askedan
old Romanof his companion, as they were togetherlooking on some imperial
show;and the answerwas, "Permanence." "Permanenceadds bliss to bliss."
In the word "many," He spoke to the thoughts of the company. When one of
the disciples, on the notice of His near departure, askedif he might go with
Him, the virtual answerwas "No." This refusalto the "one" was a blow to
"the many." If the happiness of going with the Lord is not to be given even to
Peter, what is to become of the many? We had all expectedthat we should go
with Him into His kingdom. If these happy dreams of ours are all to melt into
misery, why were we not informed of this before? Before now, on some festive
day, when a man has askedhis friends to his house, he has been forcedto ask
only a few, because, though his heart was large enough for many, his house
was not. Before now, in the straits of some war, some iron captain has spared

23. the lives of only a few prisoners, simply on the ground of lacking room to
accommodate the many. God has room in His purpose, in His heart, in His
house, for all His captives. By the miracle of His grace He first changes all His
captives into children, then welcomes them all home. No limitation is
suggestedby the indefinite plural, "many." "Many" simply stands for all the
children, "a greatmultitude which no man cannumber," "and yet there is
room!"
4. That He is going "to prepare a place" for them. While man is asleepin the
night, the sun goes before him, that he may prepare the day for him to wake
in. Thus he prepares light for him to see by, powerfor him to work with, and
the spirit of gladness. So does Christ prepare heavenfor the heirs of heaven.
There can be no heavenwithout the revelationof God, and there can be no
revelation of God without Christ. He prepares heaven for them, not only by
preparing their right to the place, but by preparing their fitness for it. "Why
cannot I go with Thee now?" askedPeter;and the saying, "I go to prepare a
place for you," is an answerto this "Why?" Christ was going to prepare a
place for them; first, by His Cross;next, by the Spirit, who would change their
hearts and train their natures for the rank they would inherit, as well as for
the work they had to do.
5. That He would come again, and receive them unto Himself. Dying may be
regardedas a mode in which Christ comes for His people, one by one. Death is
not coming; death is not a person, only a door, to which Christ, the sovereign
Lord who has at His girdle the keys of death and the unseen state, comes.
(C. Stanford, D. D.)
Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
Beliefin Christ
C. Hodge, D. D.I. WHAT IS IT TO BELIEVE? Faith includes two things.
1. The submission of the reasonto all Christ has revealed.
2. The trust of the heart in all He has promised. Both of these are difficult
duties. To receive as true what we cannotunderstand, on God's testimony is
declaredto be irrational. But remember that faith is rational, and that the
testimony of God is informing. To trust that we shall be pardoned, saved,
preserved, is equally difficult for unbelieving hearts.
II. THE OBJECT OF FAITH IS CHRIST — i.e., the things to which we are to
assentare truths concerning Christ, and these things in which we are to trust
are His promises. This is the only form in which we can exercise faith in God.
If we believe not God, as seen, how can we believe in Him as not seen.

24. III. WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE CONCERNING CHRIST AND WHAT
ARE THE PROMISES WHICH WE ARE TO TRUST?
1. We must believe that He is the Way, i.e., that He brings us to God. We are
separatedfrom God—(1) By our ignorance. Christbrings us near to God as
an object of knowledge. He is the Loges orRevealer. He is God in our
nature.(2) By our guilt. Christ brings us near to God by reconciliation
through His blood. He atones for our sins. Through Him we are able to draw
near to God with hope of acceptance.(3)Byour enmity. Christ, by revealing
the knowledge ofGod, and reconciling us to Him, removes our enmity.
2. That He is the Truth, i.e. —(1) That He is real; the true God; true Prophet,
Priest, King.(2) That in Him is all truth and excellence.
3. That He is the Life — the source ofuniversal, intellectual, spiritual and
eternal life. It is not we that live, but Christ that lives in us.
IV. WHAT PROMISESARE WE TO TRUST TO? The promises of the
Spirit.
1. That His presence is permanent and internal.
2. That He will revealChrist.
3. That He will be our Paraclete.
(C. Hodge, D. D.)
Believe also in Me
DeanVaughan.1. It might have been urged that the disciples are addressedby
our Lord as already believing, not in God only, but in Himself. But the Bible,
and He who speaks therein, is truer to nature and experience than many who
profess to interpret it. Are there not many in Christian Churches needing still
the voice which shall say, Believer, believe; Christian, come to Christ; disciple
of three or of thirty years, still, as for the first time, behold Him!
2. There are those, evenamong Christian people who confide to us, in the tone
of sincere and humble regret — "I cannotsee why a Saviour was needed. If I,
being evil, know how to forgive, how much more shall a Fatherin heaven
acceptthe first sigh and bestow the unpurchased grace? Is it not enoughif I
believe in God my Father? Why must I be encumbered with a revelationof
sacrifice whichrather repels me than reassures? I believe in God — why must
I believe also in Christ?" Let us endeavour to answerthis question.
I. Now, someone might say, Look at the saints of the Old Testament. What
grace, ofreverence, ofaffiance, of holy aspiration, was lacking in the
patriarch Abraham, or to the poet-king of the Psalms? Christwas not

25. manifested when those thoughts of eternalfulness glowedand throbbed in the
big heart of David. We venture to dispute the very fact takenfor granted.
Abraham, "saw Christ's day," and walkedin the light of it. David was reared
amidst promises which made Christ a household word in Israel, and sacrifices
which brought to the very senses the need and hope of propitiation.
II. Or you might speak of men who, in this century, have not only led good
lives, but have had pious feelings, and done beneficentworks, without
realizing what we should call the fulness of the Christian faith — avowed
Unitarians, e.g. But it is only truth to remember that men thus dispensing
with Christ are yet unspeakablyindebted to Him. The very idea of God as our
Father comes from His revelation.
III. Still, you might say, having made this greatrevelation, may not Christ
Himself disappear? Having taught that God is our Father, must He remain in
sight to confuse or divide our allegiance? Believing in God by Christ's help,
why go on further to believe in Christ? Now, it is an obvious answer, and
surely a just one. We cannot take Christ by halves. If Christ said one thing
from God, He said all things: we must look to see whatHe said, and not, after
catching one isolatedword, presume to declare that one word all.
IV. Observe, too, how the particular truth received, no less than the
accompanying doctrines objectedto, runs up into matters which we can
neither dispute as facts, nor yet, apart from God, settle. Sin — you see it, you
feel it; all religions pre-suppose it. Evidently sin has made a greatrent and
breach in God's work. Listen to this new Teacher, crying in the hearing of the
dislocatedand disorganized creation, "Whenye pray, say, Our Father." Yes,
we say, something within tells me that I had a Fatheronce — but long, long
have I lost Him. Tell me the processesby which it has been recovered — the
marvellous mystery of restoredsonship and reawakenedlove. Shall we accept
the bare fact, and ask nothing as to the proofs and the instrumentalities? Shall
we let Christ say, "Godis your Father," and never question Him once as to
anything further? They who believe the mighty intelligence must hearken
what the same Lord bus to say concerning it. May it be, perhaps, that there
was that in the Divine holiness which made sin a fatal bar to man's
acceptance, exceptonsome condition which God only can perform? Shall we
dare, we the guilty and helpless ones, to saythat, with nothing but poor
human tears and cries and paltry efforts, the stain of sin can be wiped out?
Shall we dare to repose upon a feeble bureau analogy, and rest the whole
weight of eternity upon the impulses and instincts (not always, even here,
prevailing) of family love and parental tenderness? What if there lurked in
the backgroundof Deity an obstacle whichCalvary alone could take away? It

26. was, no doubt, with specialreference to His sacrifice andits consequences that
Christ spoke ofHis disciples, in the text, as having (in some sense)still to
believe. They knew Him for the Messiah;what they had still to learn, still to
believe in, was the death as itself the life. It is, indeed, the crucial testof faith.
He who believes in Christ's atonement believes Christ; believes that He came
from God, and came with a message.
V. But, although we thus stand upon the dignity of the Cross as a mystery, we
do find, as a matter of experience, that no man dispenses with it without being
a definite loserin some feature of the Christian character.
1. There is often a feeble sense ofthe sinfulness of sin. A man cannotreally see
Himself a sinner, and not cry out for a Saviour.
2. There is often a want of true tenderness towards sinners. Benevolencethere
may be; but the discoveryof unworthiness in the objectof the philanthropy is
often the death blow of charity. Or, again, there may be an easinessofgood
nature ready enough to see excuses:there will not be that unique combination,
which was in the cross itself, and which is in the true family of the Crucified
— tenderness towards the sinner, with displeasure againstthe sin.
VI. God, in arranging that we should receive this greatestofHis gifts —
reconciliationthrough His Son — has given a charm and pathos to the gospel
which it could not otherwise have possessed. Whatpossessiondo you not value
tenfold if it is yours through love? That book, that trinket, why is it dearto
you? It was the keepsakeofa loving friend. And do you not think that God
was appealing, perhaps, to some such instinct of your nature, when He would
not only send word to you that you were pardoned, but bid you to receive the
blessing through the willing self-gift of One who, sharing every emotion of
God's love for the self-ruined one, came Himself to plead, and at lastto die,
because thus He could effectually"roll awaythe greatstone" sin, move the
obdurate, and win back the lost? Conclusion:Try the charge, "Believealso in
me." Lean your whole weight of guilt, of sin, of weakness, ofsorrow, upon
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. See whether, in proportion as you trust
Christ more, you become not, in yourself, happier, holier, stronger, gentler.
Thus, in time, you shall have a witness within. You life shall be one echo to the
sweetpersuasive expostulation," Letnot your heart be troubled: ye believe in
God; believe also in Me."
(DeanVaughan.)
Faith in God one with faith in Christ
A. Maclaren, D. D.We geta more true and appropriate meaning if we keep
both clauses in the imperative, "Believe in God, believe also in me."

27. I. CHRIST HERE POINTS TO HIMSELF AS THE OBJECT OF
PRECISELYTHE SAME RELIGIOUS TRUST WHICH IS TO BE GIVEN
TO GOD.
1. It is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their
wonderfulness. Try to hear them for the first time, and to remember the
circumstances. Here is a man amongsta handful of friends, within four-and-
twenty hours of a shameful death, that to all appearance was the annihilation
of all His claims and hopes. And He says, "Trustin God, and trust in Me!"
2. What is it that Christ offers us? A very low and inadequate interpretation
is, "Believe that God is, that I am." But it is scarcelyless so to suppose that
the mere assentofthe understanding to His teaching is all that Christ is
asking for. Faith grasps not a doctrine, but a heart. The trust which Christ
requires is entire committal to Him in all my relations and for all my needs.
3. Further, note that this believing in Him is precisely the same thing which
He bids us render to God. The two clauses in the original bring out that idea
even more vividly — "Believe in God, in Me also believe." And so He here
proposes Himself as the worthy and adequate recipient of all that makes up
religion in its deepestsense. Thattone is the uniform characteristic ofour
Lord's teaching. What did He think of Himself Who stoodup before the
world, and with arms outstretched, like that greatwhite Christ in
Thorwaldsen's lovelystatue, said to all the troop of languid and burdened
ones crowding at His feet: — "Come unto Me all ye that are weary," etc. That
surely is a Divine prerogative. What did He think of Himself Who said, "All
men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father"? You cannot
eliminate the fact that Christ claimed as His own the emotions of the heart, to
which only God has a right and which only God can satisfy.
4. We have to take that into accountif we would estimate the characterof
Jesus Christ as a teacherand as a man. What separatesHim from all other
teachers is not the clearness orthe tenderness with which He reiterated the
truths about the Father's love, and morality and goodness;but the peculiarity
of His call to the world is, Believe in Me. And if He said that, why, then, one of
two things. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy enthusiast, only
acquitted of blasphemy because convictedof insanity; or else He was "God,
manifest in the flesh."
II. FAITH IN CHRIST AND FAITH IN GOD ARE NOT TWO, BUT ONE.
These two clauses onthe surface presentjuxtaposition. Lookedat more
closelythey present interpretation and identity.

28. 1. What is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two
objects blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope?(1)This, that Jesus
Christ Himself Divine, is the Divine RevealerofGod. There is no real
knowledge ofthe realGod outside of Jesus. He showing us a Father, has
brought a God to our hearts that we canlove, and of whom we canbe sure.
Very significant is it that Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in
the actof trust. Other religions put it in dread worship, service, and the
like.(2)On the other hand, the truth that underlies this is that Jesus is Divine.
The light shines through a window, but the light and the glass that make it
visible have nothing in common with one another. The Godheadshines
through Christ, but He is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself that
He is showing us when He is showing us God. "He that hath seenMe hath
seenthe Father." And because He is Himself Divine and the Divine Revealer,
therefore the faith that grasps Him is inseparably one with the faith that
grasps God. Men could look upon a Moses, anIsaiah, or a Paul, and in them
recognize the irradiation of the Divinity that imparted itself through them,
but the medium was forgottenin proportion as that which it revealedwas
behind. You cannot forgetChrist in order to see God more clearly, but to
behold Him is to behold God.
2. And if that be true, these two things follow.(1)One is that all imperfect
revelation of God is prophetic of and leads up towards the perfect revelation
in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1-3). And in like manner all the imperfect faith
that, laying hold of other fragmentary means of knowing God, has
tremulously tried to trust Him, finds its climax and consummate flower in the
full-blossomed faith that lays hold upon Jesus Christ.(2)That without faith in
Christ such faith in God as is possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long
last. Historically a pure theism is all but impotent. There is only one example
of it on a large scale in the world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity —
Mohammedanism; and we all know what goodthat is as a religion. The God
that men know outside of Jesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a
reality. It has little powerto restrain. It has less powerto inspire and impel. It
has still less to comfort; it has leastof all to satisfythe heart.
III. THIS TRUST IN CHRIST IS THE SECRETOF A QUIET HEART.
1. It is no use saying to men, "Let not your hearts be troubled," unless you
finish the verse. The state of man is like that of some of those sunny islands in
southern seas, around which there often rave the wildestcyclones, and which
carry in their bosoms, beneath all their riotous luxuriance of verdant beauty,
hidden fires, which ever and anon shake the solid earth and spread
destruction. And where is the "rest" to come from? All other defences are

29. weak and poor. We have heard about "pills againstearthquakes." Thatis
what the comforts which the world supplies may fairly be likenedto. Unless
we trust we are, and shall be, "troubled."
2. If we trust we may be quiet. To casta burden off myself on other's
shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christbrings infinitude on my
side. Submission is repose. Whenwe ceaseto kick againstthe pricks they
ceaseto stick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the windows of the
Ark, tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of the peaceful
dove with the olive branch in its mouth. But "the wickedis like the troubled
sea which cannot rest."
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Faith in God
R. S. Storrs, D. D.1. Why should it have been needful to give such a command
as this to any intelligent person? In one sense all men believe in God. We
acknowledge andrecognize a powerwhich passes allcontrol, measurement, or
thought. We recognize an authority to which we are responsible. As the moral
nature is cultivated, we recognize a moral order in the universe, a law of
righteousness, andtherefore a Lawgiver and a Judge. In the time of calamity
or death all men call upon God. Why, then, teachmen to believe in God, and
command it? and especiallythe disciples who had been trained under the
ancient system.
2. Of course the answeris that belief may be real and yet wholly ineffective.
You see the vapour issuing from the kettle and disappearing through the air.
It is steam power, but not enough to drive the train. You step upon the beach
and find the little puddles of water, but there is not enough to float the boat
and keepalive the fish. So belief may be realin the mind and yet be entirely
insufficient for any useful and inspiring purpose. The master would have us
carry our belief in God to a point where it shall involve every spiritual force
within us. Believe to the roots of your nature; with all your strength and life:
and your heart shall not be troubled. What is it thus to believe in God? It is to
affirm —
I. HIS ABSOLUTE ORIGINAL PERSONALITYOF EXISTENCE. And yet
this it is not easyfor us to do. If we searchinto our thoughts we shall find very
often that He is to us rather a force without affection, intelligence, and life. So
multitudes of men conceive ofGod, and scientific investigationoften comes in
to encourage this tendency of thought. On the other hand, the Scripture
everywhere manifests to us God as a person. Our own personalconstitution
reflects and demonstrates that personality. As impossible as that the clod of

30. the valley should generate a human soul, as that the blossoming branch of the
tree should bring forth living intelligence;so impossible is it that personality
in you and me should come from impersonal forces and mechanicallaws. We
see the indications of it in His works, where intelligent contrivances present
themselves to us in the adjustment of force to force, in the relations of one
objectto another; and in Christ, who said, "I and My Father are one." And
this is to be affirmed, with all energyof conviction, and intensity of feeling, as
the absolute and everlasting truth.
II. HIS PRESENCEWITH US in every hour and every place. Amazing! Yes,
God is amazing in every attribute. The soul is amazing because it has
something of God within it. Even natural theologyaffirms this; for it would
imply Divine imperfection if God were not everywhere. The recognitionof a
moral order in the universe implies that; for otherwise the administration of
that order would be necessarilyimperfect. The constitution of the universe
implies that, since otherwise there would be parts of the universe self-
supporting and independent of God. His omnipresence shines throughout the
whole Scriptures. There are times in spiritual experience when we feelit. But
you say, We do not see Him I Do we see the air, magnetism, the productive
force in nature, music, fragrance, the voice of a friend? We see the result.
III. HIS CHARACTER OF PERFECT HOLINESS AND PERFECT
TENDERNESS.Undoubtedly there is much to perplex us in the prevalence of
sin, and the long delay of punishment. These facts disturb our impressionof
the Divine holiness. And yet we do not doubt the sun when for a time obscured
by cloud. The holiness of God must be recognizedby anyone who would for a
moment feel safe in the universe. If God were otherwise than holy, what could
restrain any arbitrary exercise ofHis power? He could not properly be
worshipped except He were holy. Worship mere power, and it demoralizes
and demonizes. Worship intellect, and it degrades the moral nature. Worship
can only be offered to absolute and sovereignpurity of character;and that
must be God's character, orelse let every harp on high be silent and every
heart on earth be dumb. God's holiness shines upon us through His law in our
own reasonand conscienceand in the personof Christ. But then, with this
holiness is united tenderness;and it is that which it seems harder still to
recognize, for we associate withabsolute justice absolute sovereigntyrather
than absolute tenderness:and yet there is in His Word the declarationof His
tenderness. There is a reflectionof that tenderness in our own hearts. Whence
did these tender loves within us spring? It is idle to say they are transmitted.
From whence did they come to our parents? We see them illustrated most

31. perfectly in Christ, whose missionit was to so reveal the Father that we might
not be afraid of His holiness.
IV. AFFECTIONATESOLICITUDE FOR EVERYONE WHO SEEKS
HIM. And this is the most difficult. He is so infinite and we are so weak. Yet
even here we find instruction from those who are nearestto Him in spirit and
character. We getour clearestview of it from Christ, again, always so
welcoming to all who sought Him, so tender towards those who trusted and
loved Him. Conclusion:If thus we believe in God, then —
1. There is peace for us and in us. We shall no more be afraid of any real
harm while we are affiliated with God in spirit.
2. There is power, the powerwhich sent forth the disciples on their errands of
love.
3. Creationreveals its mystery of majesty and loveliness to us, and redemption
its higher glories both of majesty and beauty.
4. We anticipate the promises and the provisions of grace.
5. We are assuredof the victory of righteousness in the world.
(R. S. Storrs, D. D.)
Beliefin Godemotional as well as intellectual
H. W. Beecher.Truththat touches a man not merely through a cold
perception, but through some warm feeling, is the kind of truth the Scripture
teaches to constitute belief. It may be intellectually conceived, but no moral
nor socialtruth is ever presented so as to be believed, unless it be presented in
such a way as to carry sympathy and feeling with it; and that is not the case
with all kinds of truth. Physical, scientific truths, do not touch the feelings,
and do not need to. Arithmetic deals with truths that have no relation directly
exceptwith the understanding. They never come with desire, sorrow, pity, or
emotion of any sort. But all truths that relate to dispositions in men, to moral
duties — they never stop with the understanding, but touch the feeling as well.
A man cannot be said to believe a moral truth unless he believes it so that it
carries some emotion with it. And, in this respect, it makes a greatdifference
what a man believes.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Beliefin Godbased on the knowledge ofHis character
John K. Shaw.Abanknote is tendered to me — it is a promise to pay, but by
whom? The Oriental Bank Corporation. I should not have it; that institution
has lostits character. I could not trust it. Another note is handed to me; this

32. bears the name of the Bank of England. Ah! that is a different matter. I know
that bank has a name for solvency and stability. So, without any hesitation, I
take the note just for what it stands. I do not ask for any discount off its
amount, as I might if there was a shade of suspicionattaching to its name. I
just take it for what it appears on its face to be worth, so confident am I that it
will be paid to the full in the sterling coin of the realm. So a knowledge ofthe
characterof God will lead us to be fully persuaded "that what He hath
promised He will be able also to perform."
(John K. Shaw.)
Beliefin Godinextinguishable
H. W. Beecher.Whatevermen may scientificallyagree to believe in, there is in
men of noble nature something which science canneither illumine nor darken.
When Tyndall was walking among the clouds during a sunset upon the Alps
his companionsaid to him, "canyou behold such a sublime scene as this and
not feelthat there is a God?" "Oh," said he, "I feel it. I feel it as much as any
man can feelit; and I rejoice in it, if you do not tell me I canprove it." The
moment you undertake to bring the evidence with which he dealt with matter
to the ineffable and the hereafter, then, he says, "I am agnostic. Idon't know.
It isn't true;" but the moment you leave the mind under the gracious influence
of such a scene it rises above the sphere of doubt or proof, and he says, "I
acceptit."
(H. W. Beecher.)
Beliefin Godencouraging
WashingtonIrving.When menacedby Indian war and domestic rebellion,
when distrustful of those around him, and apprehensive of disgrace at court,
Columbus sank for a time into complete despondency. In this hour of gloom,
when abandoned to despair, he heard in the night a voice addressing him in
words of comfort, "O man of little faith! why art thou castdown? Fear
nothing, I will provide for thee. The sevenyears of the term of gold are not
expired; in that, and in all other things, I will take care of thee."
(WashingtonIrving.)
Beliefin Godshould inspire confidence
Der Glaubensbote.Ina small town there lived the widow of a preacher, a God-
fearing woman, who in days of trouble used to sayto her children and friends,
"Fearnot, God lives." Her trials were sometimes great, but she strove to bear
all with cheerfulness and patience. One day her difficulty was greaterthan she
could bear, and she sat down with a feeling of hopelessness, and allowedher

33. tears to flow unchecked. Her little son saw her weeping; he put his little hand
in hers, and said, while he lookedinto her face sorrowfully, "Mother, is God
dead?" "No, my son," she said, taking him on her lap. "I thank thee for thy
question. He ever liveth; He is near to help in all trouble; He will help us." She
wiped away her tears and continued her work. She soughtand found help in
Jesus.
(Der Glaubensbote.)
Beliefin GodstimulatingThe late ProfessorAgassizonce saidto a friend, "I
will frankly tell you that my experience in prolonged scientific investigations
convinces me that a belief in God — a Godwho is behind and within the chaos
of vanishing points of human knowledge — adds a wonderful stimulus to the
man who attempts to penetrate into the regions of the unknown. Of myself, I
may say that I never make the preparations for penetrating into some small
province of nature hitherto undiscoveredwithout breathing a prayer to the
Being who hides His secrets from me only to allure me graciouslyon to the
unfolding of them."
The revealing power of faith
Bp. Porteous.Christianfaith is like a grand cathedralwith divinely pictured
windows. Standing without you see no glory, nor can possibly imagine any;
standing within, every ray of light reveals a harmony of unspeakable
splendour.
(Bp. Porteous.)
Believing in Jesus is laying hold of Him
J. H. Wilson.Avesselis wrecked:one after another of her crew is sweptaway,
and disappears. As she heaves to and fro, it seems as if every moment she
would break up, and send her shivering passengers downinto the deep. There
is the cabin boy, thinking of his mother and his home, and praying, though
scarcelyhoping to be saved, when a plank floats past. Eagerlyhe lays hold of
it, rests his whole weightupon it; and, while others perish, he is safe. That
describes you. As you are just about to go down, the plank floats along, comes
near you — within reach, within arm's length. That plank is Christ. Lay hold
of Him, rest yourself upon Him. He can bearyour whole weight — the whole
weight of your sins, which would have sank you to perdition — the whole
weight of your soul. Try Him; and, like a sailor who tried Him, you'll be able
joyfully to say even in dying, "The plank bears, the plank bears!"
(J. H. Wilson.)
Believing is looking to Jesus

34. J. H. Wilson.Believing onJesus is looking to Him for salvation. You see that
poor widow with a young family, weeping as if her heart would break. When I
ask her what ails her, she tells me she is behind with her rent, and her
landlord threatens to turn her to the door, unless she can pay her debt, and
find security for the next six months. So I tell her to dry her tears, and do her
best to work for her children, and just look to me for her rent. How full of joy
she is all at once! How cheerfully she works!and, though she has not a penny
laid past for the term, she has no fear; and when asked, Why? she says," I am
looking to him, for he bade me; and I know he will not fail me. What he
promised is just as sure as if I had it in my hand." Now, believing on Jesus is
something like this. If I might so speak, it is the heart's look to Jesus — a
single glance, indeed, at first, and yet a constantlooking to Him ever after.
(J. H. Wilson.)
Believing is trusting in Jesus
J. H. Wilson.There is a boy whose father was buried yesterday. Todayhe is
wearing his father's gold watch. Some wickedlads are trying to take it from
him. He is struggling to keepit; but they are too strong for him. He is just
about to lose it, when I come up, and say, "Give it to me, my boy, and I'll keep
it safe for you." For a moment he looks at me with doubtful eye; but as I say
to him, "Trustme!" and he sees thatI am earnestand sincere, he hands it
over to me, and I prevent him from being robbed. That is just what the
apostle Paul says of himself. He had, as you have, something far more
precious than a gold watch — an immortal soul; and he was afraid of losing it:
he could not keepit himself. Jesus said, "Give it to Me," and he gave it to
Him; and then you hear him saying rejoicingly, "I know whom I have
believed" (which is the same thing as whom I have trusted), "and am
persuaded that He will keepthat which I have committed to Him againstthat
day."
(J. H. Wilson.)
The comfort of believing in Christ"What do you do without a mother to tell
all your troubles to?" askeda child who had a mother, of one who had none.
"Mothertold me whom to go to before she died," answeredthe little orphan.
"I go to the Lord Jesus:He was mother's friend, and He's mine." "Jesus
Christ is in the sky. He is away off, and He has a greatmany things to attend
to in heaven. It is not likely He can stop to mind you." "I do not know
anything about that," said the orphan. "All I know, He says He will; and
that's enough for me."
Untroubled faith

35. R. D. Hitchcock, D. D.Whatthe Caliph Omar is reported to have written to
Amru, his generalcommanding in Egypt, has a grand moral. If those books
contradictedthe Koran, they were false, and ought to be destroyed. If they
agreedwith the Koran, they were of no use, and might well be spared. One
book was enough for Mohammedans. So, when Sir WalterScott lay dying, he
said to his son-in-law one day, "Lockhart, read to me." "Whatbook shall it
be?" said Lockhart. "Why do you ask? there is but one," said Scott. Now, if
this Book itselfwere in danger of being destroyed, and I might have only one
chapter out of it, I rather think it would be this which Scottaskedto be read
to him. Probably no single chapter is read so much to the dying, over the
dead. It was the Speakerwho was about to die. His hearers were about to be
launched into a lifelong service, and their last necessitywas absolute, child-
like faith.
I. LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED. Certainly they were troubled.
And they had reasonto be. Many times over Judas betrays his Lord, and
hangs himself. Many times over Peterdenies his Lord and repents. Many
times over the Lord Himself is crucified, and buried, rises and goes away and
comes againunseen. It is the same old story always;and always with the old
refrain: "Let not your heart be troubled."
1. Today, as related to heathen peoples and religions, the Judas Iscariotof
Christianity is Christendom itself. At first, Christianity had behind it only the
incomparable personality and teachings of Jesus ofNazareth. If Christendom
were only Christian really, how much longerwould China probably be
Confucian? or India Brahmanic? These are painful questions. But let not your
heart be troubled. Inside of Christendom I see another betrayal of
Christianity, which also is very painful. We behold a Christian civilization,
incontestably and immensely superior to any heathen pattern. By and by this
Christian civilization forgets its Christian parentage;or denies it, and claims
for itself anotherpedigree. Scholarly men analyze and compare the great
historic religions, allowing little preeminence to Christianity. Then after a
while the conclusionis reachedthat we really need no religionat all, only
science. Takeyoursop, Judas, and be gone. As for the eleven, let not their
hearts be troubled.
2. Peter's denial of the Lord also repeats itself. Scandals and offences are sure
to come. Goodmen are tempted, stumble and fall. Let not your heart be
troubled. Peterdenied his Masterwith an oath. Whole communions
apostatize. Verily, powers of darkness are busy; and the night is long. But let
not your heart be troubled. The morning cometh. Peter repented.

36. 3. As for what Christ said about going awayand coming again, changing the
economyfrom flesh to spirit, from sight to faith, it seems strange to us that
His apostles shouldhave been so staggeredby it. Those apostles,for three
years had been under marvellous tuition; and we wonder they got so little out
of it. The day of Pentecosthad not yet come. By and by men will be looking
back and wondering that we so poorly understood the gospel, overlaying it,
some of us with ritual, others with dogma. We have much to be ashamedof.
But let not your heart be troubled. More Pentecoststhan one have come
already. And more are yet to come.
II. BELIEVE IN GOD.
1. Commanded belief implies always the possibility of honest unbelief. Such
unbelief has increasedgreatlyof late. Partly, it seems like a reactionagainst
outward authority, and traditional opinions, or againsta superstitious theism.
Partly it is sheerscience, clear-eyedand dispassionate, unable to help
multiplying secondcauses.
2. I have no fear of any very long reign of Atheism. In the poor, apathetic
Orient, there may be morality enough to conserve society, with little or no
religion, as in China. But not in Europe and America, fall of vitality, greedy,
rich and restless.With us, irreligion today is immorality tomorrow, and after
that the deluge.
3. Much of what passes forbelie! in God is mere scholastic assentto the
proposition that God exists. Or the attributes most emphasized are those
pertaining rather to the Divine essence.Whatwe need is a vivid sense ofthe
personality of God. He must come very close, and be very real, to us, in our
whole experience of life. Mankind must be His offspring; and human history,
from first to last, the working out of His own eternaland righteous purposes.
"We are but two," said Abu Bakrto Mohammed as they were flying, hunted,
from Mecca to Medina. "Nay," answeredMohammed, "we are three; Godis
with us." And so belief in God is not mere assent, nor mere conviction, but
absolute personaltrust, submission, and service.
4. You and I know very well what troubles us in thinking of God — sin. But if
He had no hatred of sin, how much worse it would be for us. We might be in
the powerof evil spirits strongerthan we are, from whose hideous tyranny we
should feelit a mercy to be delivered over to the righteous judgment of a pure
and holy God. You say you are afraid of God. But what human imagination
can picture the horrors of a universe given over to the rioting of evil
unrestrained? Thank God for His holiness. Though He slayus, we had better
trust in Him.

37. III. BELIEVE ALSO IN ME.
1. In me, not as a secondrival objectof trust, but as God manifest in the flesh,
rounded out and historic. This takes us back into bewildering depths. Sin is a
tremendous mystery. But for sin, however, we might never have known, in
this world, the sublime Triunity of God. Triunity, as we have to study it, is the
whole Godhead, dealing with the problem of moral evil.
2. "Believe also in Me." The work of atonementis done, was done centuries
ago in time, ages agoin eternity. God in Christ now stands pledged to the
forgiveness ofsin on the condition of repentance.
3. "Believe also in Me." Human history is God's judgment day. Nations are
rising and falling. Human history is also God's day of grace. The kingdom
beganin an upper chamber. From then till now the kingdom has steadily
advanced. The steadyprogress of Christianity has no parallel in the history of
any other religion. The problem demands solution. And only one is possible.
But for the magnetism of the felt divinity of Christ, Christianity could not
have started at all as it did, or continued as it has. It stands today the old solid
bulwark of liberty and order againstlicense and chaos.
(R. D. Hitchcock, D. D.)
In My Father's house are many mansions.
The Father's house
W. H. Burton.I. CHRIST SITS AND DISCOVERS HEAVEN TO US.
1. Its nature. His home. "This is not your rest."
2. Its extent. "Many mansions." "Yetthere is room."
3. Its reality. "If it were not so I would have told you." Christ knew it — came
from it — went to it. Stephen saw its open door and its glory when his breath
was being beaten out of his body.
II. CHRIST ASCENDS AND PREPARES HEAVEN FOR US. "I go to
prepare a place for you." He prepares heaven for us —
1. By making it accessible. The angelwith the flaming swordno longer guards
the tree of life, and the veil of the Temple no longerhinders man's approach
to God.
2. By gathering its people. Heaven becomes richerto us as Christians die. It is
daily more home-like.
3. By supplying its blessings. Who knows so well as He the kind of heaven that
will meet our needs? Yes, and He prepares it all.

38. III. CHRIST RETURNS AND ENTERS HEAVEN WITH US. "If I go," etc.
This applies to —
1. All the journey of life. "My presence shallgo with thee and I will give thee
rest."
2. All the labours of life. "Go ye into all the world and preach, etc....andlo I
am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
3. All the trials of life. "When thou passeththrough the waters I will be with
thee," etc.
4. The close of life. He is there with the dying saint.
IV. CHRIST ABIDES AND BECOMESHEAVEN TO US. "That where I am
there ye may be also." This was Paul's idea of heaven — having a desire to
depart and to be with Christ.
(W. H. Burton.)
My Father's house
J. B. Brown, B. A.The very term changed the whole characterand aspectof
Hades. The invisible became visible in the form of the most benign and
beautiful of all the institutions that lend charm and joy to life. My Father's
house! then for the first time men dared to think of death as a going home. It
seems a vast, awful world, this invisible which stretches out to the infinite all
round us; the trembling soul may well shudder as it goes forth to meet its
destiny. But the thought "My Father's house," dissipates alldread. Be it what
it may, and where it may, this vast unknown, it is filled with that nameless
benediction, a Father's presence and lit with the light of a Father's smile. It is
this sense ofa loving Presence, meeting us at life's outer gate, and bringing us
into a bright home full of light and beauty and living joy, which, for the
Christian, has so utterly dissipatedthe terror; and this made death seemto St.
Francis a sisterto take him by the hand and conduct him home. It is the
activity, the animation, the joyful tasks, the abounding interest, of the life of
the invisible world unveiled by Christ, which is the characteristic revelationof
the gospel. It is not a world of shades, but a world of sons in strong immortal
forms, instinct with energy, rich in faculty, busy with the tasks that occupy the
angels;a world glad with work and bright with song.
(J. B. Brown, B. A.)
My Father's house magnificent
W. Baxendale.ANew Zealand chief who visited England was remarkable for
the deep spirituality of his mind and his constantdelight in the word of God.

39. One day he was takento see a beautiful mansion near London. The gentleman
who took him expectedto see him greatly astonishedand charmed with its
magnificence, but it seemedto excite little or no admiration in his mind.
Wondering how this could be, he began to point out to him its grandeur.
Tamahana heard all silently, then, looking round, said, "My Father's house is
finer than this." "Your father's house!" thought the gentleman, who knew
that his father's home was but a poor mud cottage. ButTamahana went on to
speak in his own touching strain of the "many mansions" of the redeemed.
(W. Baxendale.)
Entering the Father's houseIt was the quaint saying of a dying man, who
exclaimed: "I have no fear of going home. God's finger is on the latch, and I
am ready for Him to open the door. It is but the entrance to my Father's
house.
The house of many mansions
A. Raleigh, D. D.From these words we learn —
I. The MAGNITUDE of heaven. Christ's going awaywould naturally seemto
them pure loss. Death, as a natural event, always seems so. ButChrist says
death is not a closing so much as an opening — not a going awayso much as a
coming home. It is the passing of a pilgrim from one mansion to another, from
the winter to the summer residence, from one of the outlying provinces up
nearer the central home. This is not a chance expression, far less a mere figure
of speech. There are many others. "The third heavens";Christ has "passed
through all heavens"; "heaven, even the heaven of heavens," a place evidently
of inconceivable grandeur, for even that cannot contain the infinite presence
of God. This idea of immense capacityis a real relief from some of the more
popular conceptions ofthe future life, as that of a temple, etc. The population
of this world is something tremendous. It has been yielding immense numbers
to heaven in every age. Thus "a greatmultitude which no man cannumber,"
has been passing, and will pass, in ceaselessprocession. And we cannot help
wondering how they are all to be provided for!
II. Out of the idea of vastness arisesthat of an endless VARIETY. The variety
existing in God's works here is one of the principal charms of the natural
world. So as there are "many mansions," the adorning of them will be very
various. One will not be as another. We do not go to heaven to lose our
natural tastes, oursinless preferences, but rather to have all these gratified in
a far higher degree. Otherwise heavenwould be plainer, poorer, and less
interesting than earth. And unless our own nature were presseddown into
some kind of mechanicalexactness andshape, weariness wouldensue. There

40. would be a sighing for the lostseasonsofthe earth, its withered flowers, its
light and shade, its many countries, and its encircling seas. Butno! There will
be places, pursuits, and enjoyments for all.
III. Then, lest this vastness and variety should seem too large to our thought,
we have also in these words a sweetassuranceas to the HOMELINESS of
heaven.
IV. REALITY. ''If it were not so, I would have told you." This life in itself is
shadowyenough. We speak of "long days," and of "long years." But when the
awakenedimmortal soul looks atthose spaces oftime in the light of its own
eternity, how short and shadowy they seem I In those times we feelthat
everything depends on the reality and permanence of the future life! No man
who has not long been untrue to himself and to his God can be pleasedwith
the thought of annihilation. But who can tell him firmly where lies the realm
of life, or whether anywhere? He asks philosophy, and she answers, "Isee
something like it, but I cannotsurely tell. It may be land or it may be cloud."
He asks his own reason, and the instincts of his heart, and they answer"yes"
today and "no" tomorrow, according to the mood, and the aspects ofoutward
life. Then, turning to Jesus Christ, he asks by his sorrow, by his hopes, by all
the struggling instincts that will not die, by that upward look in which the soul
is "seeking a city with foundations," whether such a city is builded — whether
such a life is secure. And the answeris here. Conclusion:The love of heaven
has been derided by some as a selfish passion. No doubt heaven may be
representedand desired by the mind as a place of escape from conflict, of
mere ignoble rest. But if we take it just as it is projectedto our view in the
Scriptures — in its relations to earthly labour, and suffering, and desire; and
as the place where our higher toils and nobler enjoyments shall begin: — then
the desire of heaven is the noblestand purest passionwe cherish.
(A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Many mansions
A. Maclaren, D. D.Sorrow needs simple words for its consolation;and simple
words are the bestclothing for the largesttruths. Note in these words —
I. THE "FATHER'S HOUSE," AND ITS AMPLE ROOM. There is only one
other occasionin which our Lord used this expression:"Make not My
Father's house a house of merchandise." Its courts, its many chambers, its
ample porches, with room for thronging worshippers, representedin some
poor way the wide sweepand space ofthat higher house.
1. How sweetand familiar this conceptionof heaven!(1) There is something
awful, even to the best souls, in the thought even of the glories beyond. But

41. how it is all softened when we say, "My Father's house." Mostofus have left
behind us the sweetsecuritywhich used to be ours when we lived as children
in a father's house here. But we may all look forwardto the renewal, in far
nobler form, of these early days, where the shyest and timidest child shall feel
at ease and secure.(2)And considerhow this conceptionsuggests answers to so
many of our questions about the relationship of the inmates to one another.
Are they to dwell isolatedin their severalmansions? Surely if He be the
Father, and Heaven be His house, the relation of the redeemed to one another
must have in it more than all the sweetfamiliarity and unrestrained frankness
which subsists in the families of earth.(3) But, further, this great and tender
name has its deepestmeaning in a spiritual state of which the essential
elements are the loving manifestationof God as Father, the perfect
consciousnessofsonship, the happy union of all the children in one great
family, and the derivation of all their blessednessfrom their elder Brother.
2. The ample room in this greathouse.(1)There was room where Christ went
for elevenpoor men. But Christ's prescient eye lookeddown the ages,and
some glow of satisfactionflitted acrossHis sorrow as He saw from afar the
result of the impending travail of His soul in the multitudes by whom God's
heavenly house should yet be filled. Perhaps that upper room, like the most of
the roofchambers in Jewishhouses, was opento the skies, andwhilst He
spoke the innumerable lights that blaze in that clearheavenshone down upon
them, and He may have pointed to these as He spoke. Ah! brethren, if we
could only widen our measurement of the walls of the New Jerusalemto that
of the "goldenrod which the man, that is, the angel" applied to it, we should
understand how much bigger it is than any of these poor communities on
earth. If we would lay to heart, as we ought to do, the deep meaning of that
indefinite "many" in my text it would rebuke our narrowness.(2)Thatone
word may also be used to heighten our own confidence as to our own poor
selves. A chamber in the greattemple waits for eachof us, and the question is,
Shall we occupyit or shall we not? The old rabbis said that, howevermany
the throngs of worshippers who came up to Jerusalematthe Passover, the
streets and the courts were never crowded. And so it is with that greatcity.
There are throngs, but no crowds. Eachfinds a place in the ample sweepof
the Father's house, like some of the greatpalaces that barbaric Easternkings
used to build, in whose courts armies might encamp, and the chambers of
which were counted by the thousand.(3) There is only another occasionin this
Gospelin which the word here translated "mansions" is employed — "We
will come and make our abode with Him." Our mansion is in God; God's
dwelling place is in us. When prodigal children go awayfrom the father's

42. house sometimes a heartbrokenparent will keepthe boy's room just as it used
to be when he was young and pure, and will hope and weary through long
days for him to come back and occupyit again. God is keeping a room for you
in His house;do you see that you fill it.
II. THE SUFFICIENCYOF CHRIST'S REVELATION FOR OUR NEEDS.
"If it were not so, I would have told you."
1. He sets Himself forward in very august fashionas being the Revealerand
the Openerof that house for us. There is a singular tone about all our Lord's
few references to the future — a tone of decisiveness. He stands like one on a
mountain top, looking down into the valleys beyond, and telling His comrades
in the plain behind Him what He sees. He speaks ofthat unseenworld always
as one who had been in it, and who was reporting experiences, and not giving
forth opinions. Very remarkable, therefore, is it that with this tone there
should be such reticence in Christ's references to the future. But my text
suggeststo us that we have gotas much as we need, and, for the rest, if we
needed to have heard it, He would have told us. Let the gaps remain. The gaps
are part of the revelation, and we know enough for faith and hope.
2. May we not widen the application of that thought to other matters? In times
like the present, of doubt and unrest, it is a greatpiece of Christian wisdom to
recognize the limitations of our knowledge andthe sufficiencyof the
fragments that we have. What do we geta revelation for? To solve theological
puzzles and dogmatic difficulties; to inflate us with the pride of quasi-
omniscience:or to present to us God in Christ for faith, for love, for
obedience, for imitation? Surely the latter, and for such purposes we have
enough.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Many mansionsI. HEAVEN IS GOD'S HOUSE.
1. God is infinite (Psalm 147:5).
2. Therefore, notcomprehended, or included anywhere (Isaiah 66:1).
3. But is presenteverywhere (Psalm 139:7).
4. But yet in some places unveils Himself, and discovers His glory more than
in others.
5. Where God is pleasedto reveal Himself most, is calledHis house. He has a
two-fold house.(1)A house of grace.
(a)The Church in general(Mark 3:35).

43. (b)A believer's heart in particular (Isaiah 57:15; Revelation3:20).(2)A house
of glory, where He manifests most clearly the glory (1 Corinthians 13:12) of
His power, goodness, mercy, wisdom.
6. Hence, observe that they who come to heaven —(1) Dwell with God, and so
with the fountain of light (Psalm 104:2):life (Psalm36:9), love, joy (Psalm
16:11).(2)And so are secure from enemies.(3)And enjoy true happiness
(Psalm 16:11;Psalm 17:15).
II. IT IS CHRIST'S FATHER'S HOUSE. And this adds greatcomfort; for —
1. We may be sure of entertainment, though not for our own, yet for Christ's
sake.
2. We shall dwell with Christ (ver. 3).
3. In Christ: it is our Father's house too (chap. John 20:17).
III. THESE MANSIONS ARE CONVENIENTAND SUITABLE —
1. Forour natures and capacities(2 Peter 1:4).
2. Forour wants and necessities:being —(1) Void of all troubles —(a)
Spiritual: as of the sense ofGod's displeasure (Ezekiel16:42); doubts about
our estate;Satan's temptations (1 Peter5:8); the delusions of this world; our
own corruptions (Ephesians 5:27; Hebrews 4:10).(b) Temporal(Revelation
7:17); for here is no want in our estates (Psalm34:9; Psalm84:11), no crosses
in our enjoyments, no disgrace upon our names (Psalm 119:39), no sicknessin
our bodies (Mark 12:25), no cares in our minds (Matthew 13:22; Philippians
4:6), no death (Revelation21:4).
2. Furnished with all delightsome furniture.(1) Forour souls.
(a)Our understandings.
(b)Our wills and affections (Psalm 16:11).(2)Forour bodies (Philippians
3:21), robes (Revelation6:11), crowns (James 1:12;2 Timothy 4:8), thrones
(Luke 22:30), banquets (Isaiah 25:6; Romans 14:17;Revelation7:17), the
most pleasing objects (1 Corinthians 13:12), the most celestialmelodies
(Revelation4:8-11).
3. They are everlasting (Matthew 25:46;Romans 6:23; 2 Corinthians 5:1).
IV. IN HEAVEN THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS.
1. What is the purport of this expression? Notdistinct cells, but —(1) That
there is room enough for many.(2) That many shall be saved (Revelation7:9;
James 2:5); but not irrespectively(1 Corinthians 1:26-28).

44. 2. Whether in these mansions will there be degrees ofglory?(1)Negatively. All
shall be alike in respectof —
(a)Their freedom from evil (Revelation21:4).
(b)God's love.
(c)Duration.
(d)Their capacities, i.e., everyone shallenjoy as much as he is capable of
(Psalm 16:11).(2)Positively. One will be more capable, and so enjoy more
than another. This appears —
(a)From Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:41, 42;Matthew 19:28).
(b)There are degrees oftorments in hell (Luke 12:47, 48; Matthew 11:21, 22;
Romans 2:9).
(c)There are degrees ofangelicalglory(1 Thessalonians4:16;Jude 1:9).
(d)There are degrees ofgrace and goodworks here (Romans 2:6; 2
Corinthians 5:10; Luke 19:16-18).
3. There are many mansions. Then —(1) Despairnot of room for you there.(2)
Labour to have one of them. There are degrees in glory — then strive to be
eminent in grace that you may be eminent in glory (Matthew 15:28).
(Bp. Beveridge.)
The heavenly home
J. Ker, D. D.The text is suggestedof —
I. PERMANENCE.
1. "All things change, and we with them." The earth and sun and stars are
moving from their old forms into new, but their slow, stern cycles seemto us
changelesswhenwe think of ourselves. Letanyone who has advancedbut a
short way in life look round. Old times are away, old interests, old aims: the
haunts, the friends, the faces ofour youth, where are they? Gone, or so
changedthat we dare not think to recall them. And we are changing within. If
we could keepup the life and freshness there it would be less sad. There is
compensationfor this, if we will seek it. If we have a home in Godthrough
Christ, it brings in something better than youthful brightness. But here, too,
there is frequently change. The anchor of our hope seems to lose its hold, our
sense ofpardon and peace may be broken, and the face of God, if seenat all,
may look dim and distant.
2. It is from such changes that the promise of Christ carries us to a fixed place
of abode. The permanence of the dwelling shall ensure permanence in all that

45. belongs to the dwellers in it. There must be, indeed, the change of progress:it
is the permanence not of death but of life; and so the changes ofdecay, of loss,
of bereavement, of the unretiring past, these are gone with the last great
change, which ends the perishing and opens the eternal. There shall be no
wavering of faith, no waning of hope, no chill of love. Here, change at every
step leaves some lostgoodbehind it; there change shall take all its goodthings
forward into fuller possession, and thus become a growing performance. The
way to be sure of a permanent home is to keepfast hold of Him who is the
same yesterday, today, and forever.
II. EXTENT. Our present life is related to it as that of childhood to manhood.
Let us think of the dwelling of the child, where it looks from its little window
on the few houses or fields which make up its world, and then let us compare
it with what the man knows ofhis present world residence, whenhe has
surveyed with his eye or his mind the breadth of the earth with its oceans and
lands that stretch over continents by Alps and Andes. There enter at the
wicketgate Christiana and also the children, many Ready-to-halts and Feeble-
minds, and far-off pilgrims, for whom we canfind no names, but who are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Infants are carriedthrough the door
sleeping;and it is not for us to sayby what far-off rays in dark nights, by
what doubtful paths amid many imperfections, hearts have been yearning to
this home. The notices of Rahab and Ruth, of Ittai and Naaman, of the wise
men of the East, and the Greeks who came up to the Passover, ofthe
Ethiopian eunuch and the devout Cornelius, are hints for the enlargement of
our hopes about many who had the same yearning in their hearts, though they
did not see the walls of any earthly Jerusalem. And, if we believe the Bible,
there are long eras to run, when the flow shall be toward God more than it
ever has been awayfrom Him. And then there is to be a gathering togetherof
all things in Christ, and the holy angels have relations to Him which will give
them their share in His home. When we think of this, how the extent of the
heavenly world grows I and the discoveries ofscience may help us to extend
our hopes.
III. VARIETY. In all God's works the many means the manifold.
IV. UNITY. These abodes ofthe future, manifold as they are, have walls
around, and an over-arching roof, which make them one house, and that
house a home. The chambers of a house have their communication with one
another, and the heavenly world, wide as it is, shall have a unity of fellowship.
In the present world the children of God are far apart, separatedby the
emergenciesoflife, by death, by misunderstandings and prejudices, by chills
of heart and jealousies;and they reartheir many little mansions, forgetful of

46. the one house. The word of the Saviour promises a reversalof this long, sad
history. Conclusion:
1. Something is neededto secure all this, and our Lord teaches us to carry to
the thought of heavena filial heart. It is "the Father's" house. This is needed
to make it a home in any sense;needed to give the heart resteither on earth or
in heaven. Men who inquire into the facts and laws of the world, and find no
God in it, have made themselves homeless. Menwho have found human
affection, but no God beneath it, have found only the shadow of a home. It is
to teachus this that God has made a father's love the bond of a true human
household. If it were possible to enter heaven and find no Fatherthere, heaven
would be the grave of hope.
2. Our Lord has taught us to connectheaven with the thought of Himself —
"My" Father's house. Heaven is the house of Christ's Father.(1) It is as when
a palace has been raised with all its rooms and their furniture complete, but it
is dark or dimly seenby lights carried from place to place. The sun arises, and
by the central dome the light is poured into all the corridors and chambers,
and by the windows there are prospects overhill and valley and river. Christ
is the sun of this house.(2)If we think of its mansions, and wonder where the
final resting place shall be, it is where Christ takes up His dwelling, "that they
may be with Me where I am."(3) If we think of its extent and variety, our
imagination might be bewildered, and our soul chilled by boundless fields of
knowledge, whichstir the intellect and famish the heart; but where He is,
knowledge becomesthe wisdom of love — the daylight softened; and a heart
beats in the universe which throbs to its remotestand minutest fibre; for "in
Him is life, and the life is the light of men."(4) If we think of heaven in its
unity of fellowship, it is in Him that it is maintained and felt. "That they all
may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me," etc.(5)And if we think of a Father in
heaven, it is Christ who has revealedHim. "No man hath seenGod at any
time," etc.(6)But beyond all this, it is Christ's Father's house because He
alone is the way and the door to it.
(J. Ker, D. D.)
Home in heaven
C. Bradley, M. A.I. A DESCRIPTIONOF HEAVEN.
1. A house, not a tent, put up today, and takendown to morrow; but the home
we come to at the end of all our travels;fitted up for rest, security and
enjoyment.
2. God's own house. Not merely the place where His people are to dwell, but
the place where He Himself dwells, and enjoys His unutterable happiness and

47. rest. It is not simply, "the kingdom" — it is "the palace ofthe greatKing."
What, therefore, we may ask, may we not expectin heaven? We do not go
there as strangers or foreigners;we go to the richest house in the universe as
the children of the owner of it. The very bestthings it can afford will be ours.
The astonishedprodigal had the best provisions, and the bestrobe, brought
forth for him, when he gothome.
3. A house with "many mansions" in it, large, spacious,having many rooms,
fitted up for the receptionof many guests.
II. AN ASSURANCE OF ITS TRUTH.
1. Here is greatness.He speaks ofheaven as none other: like One who had
been familiar with it.
2. Here, too, is His love; "If it were not so, He would have told them." They
had left all to follow Him, with some earthly expectations, perhaps, but yet
chiefly in the expectationof a future recompense.
III. THE END OF OUR LORD'S DEPARTURE TO THE HEAVEN HE HAS
BEEN DESCRIBING. And here is love again. Had we been askedwhat He
was going to heaven for, we should have said — To getaway from this evil
world; to enter into His joy, etc. But He says, No;"I go there to prepare a
place for you." He left His Father's house for us; He now returns to it for us.
By this we must understand, not His creating heavenfor us, or enlarging or
adorning it, but removing out of the wayall things which would prevent our
entering into it. He goes there to prove our title to it; to show, in His wounded
hands and pierced side, that He has paid for us its stipulated price. He goes to
claim it on our behalf; to take possessionofit in our name and stead. Hence
He is saidto have entered it as our Forerunner.
IV. THE WAY IN WHICH CHRIST WILL PUT US IN POSSESSIONOF
THE HEAVEN HE HAS PREPARED FOR US. "He will send death to us,"
you may say, "to summon us to His kingdom." No: "I will come again, and
receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." It does not
satisfy Him to snatchus from destruction, to open heavenfor us, to bring us
into the way to it, to make us meet for it; He will come Himself, and take us to
it. And when we are there, He will not say— "There is the door of My
Father's house open for you; you may now enter in;" He will not leave angels
to welcome us, or our holy ministers and friends, who have gone before, to
receive us; He Himself will come like a parent to his door to receive there his
long expectedand beloved child. He seems to regardthis as the very summit
of the heavenly happiness. And so every realbeliever feels that nothing higher
can be promised him, than that he should "be ever with his Lord."

48. (C. Bradley, M. A.)
Heaven the Christian's home
J. Carter.Itis impossible wholly to estimate the value of the gospel. It is not
only that it brings the knowledge ofsalvationto us; but it makes revelations
that no other book on earth ever made with reference to a future state of
existence.
I. You find in the text, then, first, the idea of COMFORT. Youwill remark
that it was Christ's intention, by this description of heaven, to administer
comfort to the disciples. Then mark the consolations ofreligion, and the
consolatoryhope of heaven, belong to a certain class — to those that believe in
God and believe also in Christ. But now, what is the comfort that the idea of a
father's house, or home, conveys to the mind? First of all, Christ speaks ofHis
Father's house, and therefore we callit our Father's house — just because he
says, "My Fatherand your Father, my God and your God." Of all the ideas of
comfort that we can form, "home" conveys the sweetest.
1. Now the first thing that strikes us here is a wonder certainly — but it is the
truth — that we shall feelperfectly at home in our Father's house. When we
think of our own weakness andsinfulness here, and then think of the glory of
God, the glory of Christ, the glory of angels, and the glory of the spirits of just
men made perfect, it requires no slight effort of mind to fancy that we shall be
at home there: but we shall.
2. To constitute a home there must be familiarity and confidence. We can talk
with the folks at home with a confidence that we cannot use towards
strangers. Now imagine yourself in familiar conversation, in love, with
patriarchs, and with prophets, and with Christ Himself — for He will be
there. It requires an elevation of faith and confidence, and spirituality of
mind.
3. But, of course, this supposes anotherthing with regardto home — that it is
all love there. Here we are strangers — it may be, perhaps, surrounded by
enemies;there all is love. Evil tempers, crabbed dispositions, restless
fretfulness, that even some goodmen manifest, will not be there. There will be
perfect love; and everyone will weara cheerful countenance;and it will be a
glorious home. Well, that is what you are to think about; that is what it will
be. Don't let your hearts be troubled. If troubles come, think of your home, as
a strangerdoes who has long journeyed, and not had a very comfortable berth
to rest in at night.

49. II. In the secondplace, we have the idea of PERMANENCE. There is a
permanence about heaventhat we can well understand, if we cannot fully
comprehend.
1. The first thing is this, that when we getthere nobody can turn us out again.
2. Then you will further observe, that as to this permanence, there will be
ample sources ofjoy for us throughout eternity.
III. The third idea in our text is PREPARATION.Observe it is prepared for
us, and the preparation is made by Christ Himself. And you will notice that
preparation made for us testifies to the kindness and love of Him who
prepares it.
1. Now whilst this shows the love of Christ to His people, the simple factof His
going to prepare a place for us you see involves too His knowledge ofour love
to Him. It is really as though He had said, "Heavenwon't be a complete home
to Me till you are there, and I am sure it will not be to you till I am there; we
must be together."
2. But, moreover, this preparation shows the adaptation of our presentstate to
that home that He is gone to prepare for us. "He that hath wrought us for the
self-same thing is God, who bath also given us the earnestof the Spirit."
IV. But in the next place we have the idea of RECEPTION. "Iwill come again
and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also." You
immediately catchthe idea of home here. The receptionone will meet with
from wife and children is one of the delightful anticipations of returning
home. The moment the spirit is out of the body the first objecton which it will
fix its sight is Christ, with smiles on His face and glory on His brow. For,
mark you, Christ would not trust the safetyof one of His redeemedspirits in
the hands of all the angels of heaven. He will be there Himself to take care of
it. We do not know what death is: He does. Observe, there is a two-fold
receptionwhich Christ will give us — first, that which we may callour
personalreceptionin heaven; and next that public, glorious reception that He
will give us at the lastgreatday, when He shall come a secondtime without sin
unto salvation.
V. Now, in the last place, here is CERTAINTY. "If it were not so, I would
have told you."
1. Christ is already there in possession.
2. Next, Christ says He would have told us if there had been no heaven.
Further, our hopes of heaven should guard us againsttwo evils that we are
subject to. The first is that which Christ has setbefore you. Don't be unduly

50. troubled about earthly things. Then, on the other hand, do not be too
delighted with earthly things.
(J. Carter.)
Heaven -- home
D. L. Moody.Someone askeda Scotchmanif he was on his way to heaven.
"Why, man," he said, "I live there." He was only a pilgrim here. Heaven was
his home.
(D. L. Moody.)
Heaven -- homeDeathcame unexpectedly to a man of wealth, as it almost
always does;and he sent out for his lawyer to draw his will. He went on
willing awayhis property; and when he came to his wife and child, he said he
wanted his wife and child to have the home. The little child didn't understand
what death was. She was standing near, and she said, "Papa, have you got a
home in that land you are going to?" The arrow reachedthat heart; but it was
too late. He saw his mistake. He had gotno home beyond the grave.
Heaven -- home
T. Guthrie."Home" — oh, how sweetis that word! What beautiful and tender
associationsclusterthick around it! Compared with it, house, mansion,
palace, are cold, heartless terms. But "home!" that word quickens the pulse,
warms the heart, stirs the soul to its depths, makes age feelyoung again,
rouses apathy into energy, sustains the sailorin his midnight watch, inspires
the soldierwith courage onthe field of battle, and imparts patient endurance
to the worn-down sons of toil. The thought of it has proved a sevenfoldshield
to virtue: the very name of it has been a spell to callback the wandererfrom
the paths of vice. And far away, where myrtles bloom and palm trees wave,
and the oceansleeps upon coralstrands, to the exile's fond fancy it clothes the
nakedrock, or stormy shore, or barren moor, or wild highland mountain,
with charms he weeps to think of, and longs once more to see. Grace sanctifies
these lovely affections, and imparts a sacrednessto the homes of earth by
making them types of heaven. As a home the believer delights to think of it.
Thus, when lately bending over a dying saint, and expressing our sorrow to
see him lay so low, with the radiant countenance rather of one who had just
left heaventhan of one about to enter it, he raisedand claspedhis hands, and
exclaimed in ecstasy, "Iam going home."
(T. Guthrie.)
Heaven, our home

51. T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.In our last dreadful war the Federals and the
Confederates were encampedonopposite sides of the Rappahannock, and one
morning the brass band of the Northern troops played the national air, and all
the Northern troops cheeredand cheered. Then, on the opposite side of the
Rappahannock, the brass band of the Confederatesplayed "My Maryland"
and "Dixie," and then all the Southern troops cheeredand cheered. But after
a while one of the bands struck up "Home, SweetHome," and the band on the
opposite side of the river took up the strain, and when the tune was done the
Confederates andthe Federals alltogetherunited, as the tears rolled down
their cheeks, in one great"Huzza! huzza!" Well, my friends, heaven comes
very near today. It is only a stream that divides us — the narrow stream of
death; and the voices there and the voices here seemto commingle, and we
join trumpets and hosannahs and hallelujahs, and the chorus of the united
song of earth and heaven is, "Home, SweetHome."
(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
A goodhome to go toMr. Mead, an agedChristian, when askedhow he did,
answered, "Iam going home as fastas I can, as every honest man ought to do
when his day's work is over, and I bless God I have a good home to go to."
Nearing home
H. W. Beecher.Itwas stormyfrom shore to shore, without a single fair day.
But the place to which we were going was my home; there was my family;
there was my church; there were my friends, who were as dear to me as my
own life. And I lay perfectly happy in the midst of sicknessandnausea. All
that the boat could do to me could not keepdown the exultation and joy which
rose up in me. Forevery single hour was carrying me nearer and nearerto the
spot where was all that I loved in the world. It was deep, dark midnight when
we ran into Halifax. I could see nothing. Yet the moment we came into still
waterI rose from my berth and gotup on deck. And as I satnear the smoke
stack while they were unloading the cargo, upon the wharf I saw the shadow
of a person, apparently, going backwardand forward near me. At last the
thought occurredto me, "Am I watched?" Justthen the personaddressedme,
saying, "Is this Mr. Beecher?" "Itis," I replied. "I have a telegramfor you
from your wife." I had not realized that I had struck the continent where my
family were. There, in the middle of the night, and in darkness, the
intelligence that I had a telegram from home — I cannot tell you what a thrill
it sent through me! We are all sailing home; and by and by, when we are not
thinking of it, some shadowything (men callit death), at midnight, will pass
by, and will callus by name, and will say, "I have a messagefor you from
home; God waits for you." Are they worthy of anything but pity who are not

52. able to bear the hardships of the voyage? It will not be long before you, and I,
and every one of us will hear the messengersentto bring us back to heaven. It
is pleasantto me to think that we are wanted there. I am thankful to think
that God loves in such a way that He yearns for me — yes, a great dealmore
than I do for Him.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Diverted from thoughts of home
R. Sibbes, D. D.Why do we not go home? Why are we like a silly child, that
when his father sends him forth, and bids him hie him home again, every
flowerthat he meets with in the field, every signhe sees in the street, every
companion that meets him in the way, stops him, and hinders him from
repairing to his father? So it is with us for the most part: every trifle, every
profit, every bauble, every matter of pleasure, every delight, is enough to
divert and turn aside our thoughts from death, from home, from heaven, from
our God; and we are takenup and lose ourselves, I know not where.
(R. Sibbes, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English ReadersXIV.
(1) Let not your heart be troubled.—The division of chapters is unfortunate,
as it breaks the close connectionbetweenthese words and those which have
gone immediately before. The prophecy of St. Peter’s denial had followed
upon the indication of Judas as the traitor, and upon the announcement of the
Lord’s departure. These thoughts may well have brought troubled hearts. The
Lord had Himself been troubled as the darkness drew on (John 12:27;John
13:21), and He calms the anxious thoughts that He reads in the souls of the
disciples.
Ye believe in God, believe also in me.—It is more natural to take both these
clauses as imperative—Believe in God, believe also in Me. Our English version
reads the first and last clauses ofthe verse as imperative, and the secondas an
indicative, but there is no good reasonfor doing so;and a sense more in
harmony with the context is gotby reading them all as imperatives. As a
matter of fact, the present trouble of the hearts of the disciples arose from a
want of a true belief in God; and the command is to exercise a true belief, and
to realise the presence of the Father, as manifested in the person of the Son.
There was a sense in which every Jew believed in God. That belief lay at the

53. very foundation of the theocracy;but like all the axioms of creeds, it was
acceptedas a matter of course, and too often had no real poweron the life.
What our Lord here teaches the disciples is the reality of the Fatherhood of
God as a living power, ever presentwith them and in them; and He teaches
them that the love of Godis revealedin the person of the Word made flesh.
This faith is the simplest article of the Christian’s creed. We teach children to
say, we ourselves constantlysay, “I believe in God the Father.” Did we but
fully graspthe meaning of what we say, the troubles of our hearts would be
hushed to silence;and our religion would be a real powerover the whole life,
and would be also, in a fulness in which it never has been, a real power over
the life of the world.
MacLaren's ExpositionsJohn
FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST
John 14:1.
The twelve were sitting in the upper chamber, stupefied with the dreary, half-
understood prospect of Christ’s departure. He, forgetting His own burden,
turns to comfort and encourage them. These sweetand greatwords most
singularly blend gentleness anddignity. Who canreproduce the cadence of
soothing tenderness, softas a mother’s hand, in that ‘Let not your heart be
troubled’? And who canfail to feel the tone of majesty in that ‘Believe in God,
believe also in Me’?
The Greek presents an ambiguity in the latter half of the verse, for the verb
may be either indicative or imperative, and so we may read four different
ways, according as we render eachof the two ‘believes’in either of these two
fashions. Our Authorised and RevisedVersions concur in adopting the
indicative ‘Ye believe’ in the former clause and the imperative in the latter.
But I venture to think that we get a more true and appropriate meaning if we
keepboth clauses in the same mood, and read them both as imperatives:
‘Believe in God, believe also in Me.’ It would be harsh, I think, to take one as
an affirmation and the other as a command. It would be irrelevant, I think, to
remind the disciples of their belief in God. It would break the unity of the
verse and destroy the relation of the latter half to the former, the former being
a negative precept: ‘Let not your heart be troubled’; and the latter being a
positive one: ‘Instead of being troubled, believe in God, and believe in Me.’
So, for all these reasons, I venture to adopt the reading I have indicated.

54. I. Now in these words the first thing that strikes me is that Christ here points
to Himself as the objectof preciselythe same religious trust which is to be
given to God.
It is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their
wonderfulness and their greatness. Tryto hear them for the first time, and to
bring into remembrance the circumstances in which they were spoken. Here is
a man sitting among a handful of His friends, who is within four-and-twenty
hours of a shameful death, which to all appearance was the utter annihilation
of all His claims and hopes, and He says, ‘Trust in God, and trust in Me’! I
think that if we had heard that for the first time, we should have understood a
little better than some of us do the depth of its meaning.
What is it that Christ asks forhere? Or rather let me say, What is it that
Christ offers to us here? Forwe must not look at the words as a demand or as
a command, but rather as a merciful invitation to do what it is life and
blessing to do. It is a very low and inadequate interpretation of these words
which takes them as meaning little more than ‘Believe in God, believe that He
is; believe in Me, believe that I am.’ But it is scarcelyless so to suppose that
the mere assentofthe understanding to His teaching is all that Christ is
asking for here. By no means;what He invites us to goes a greatdeal deeper
than that. The essenceofit is an actof the will and of the heart, not of the
understanding at all. A man may believe in Him as a historical person, may
acceptall that is said about Him here, and yet not be within sight of the trust
in Him of which He here speaks. Forthe essenceofthe whole is not the
intellectual process ofassentto a proposition, but the intensely personalactof
yielding up will and heart to a living person. Faith does not graspa doctrine,
but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is the bond that unites souls with
Him; and the very life of it is entire committal of myself to Him in all my
relations and for all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as all-
sufficient for everything that I can require. Let us get awayfrom the cold
intellectualism of ‘belief’ into the warm atmosphere of ‘trust,’ and we shall
understand better than by many volumes what Christ here means and the
sphere and the powerand the blessednessofthat faith which Christ requires.
Further, note that, whatevermay be this believing in Him which He asks from
us or invites us to render, it is preciselythe same thing which He bids us
render to God. The two clauses in the original bring out that idea even more
vividly than in our version, because the order of the words in the latter clause

55. is inverted; and they read literally thus: ‘Believe in God, in Me also believe.’
The purpose of the inversion is to put these two, God and Christ, as close
togetheras possible; and to put the two identical emotions at the beginning
and at the end, at the two extremes and outsides of the whole sentence. Could
language be more deliberately adopted and moulded, even in its consecution
and arrangement, to enforce this thought, that whateverit is that we give to
Christ, it is the very same thing that we give to God? And so He here proposes
Himself as the worthy and adequate recipient of all these emotions of
confidence, submission, resignation, which make up religion in its deepest
sense.
That tone is by no means singular in this place. It is the uniform tone and
characteristic ofour Lord’s teaching. Let me remind you just in a sentence of
one or two instances. Whatdid He think of Himself who stood up before the
world and, with arms outstretched, like that greatwhite Christ in
Thorwaldsen’s lovelystatue, said to all the troop of languid and burdened and
fatigued ones crowding at His feet: ‘Come unto Me all ye that are weary and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’? That surely is a divine prerogative.
What did He think of Himself who said, ‘All men should honour the Son even
as they honour the Father’? What did He think of Himself who, in that very
Sermon on the Mount {to which the advocates ofa maimed and mutilated
Christianity tell us they pin their faith, instead of to mystical doctrines}
declaredthat He Himself was the Judge of humanity, and that all men should
stand at His bar and receive from Him ‘according to the deeds done in their
body’? Upon any honestprinciple of interpreting these Gospels, andunless
you avowedlygo picking and choosing amongstHis words, accepting this and
rejecting that, you cannot eliminate from the scriptural representationof
Jesus Christ the fact that He claimed as His own the emotions of the heart to
which only God has a right and only God cansatisfy.
I do not dwell upon that point, but I say, in one sentence, we have to take that
into accountif we would estimate the characterof Jesus Christ as a Teacher
and as a Man. I would not turn awayfrom Him any imperfect conceptions, as
they seemto me, of His nature and His work-ratherwould I fosterthem, and
lead them on to a fuller recognitionof the full Christ-but this I am bound to
say, that for my part I believe that nothing but the wildestcaprice, dealing
with the Gospels according to one’s own subjective fancies, irrespective
altogetherof the evidence, can strike out from the teaching of Christ this its
characteristic difference. Whatsignalises Him, and separatesHim from all
other religious teachers, is not the clearness orthe tenderness with which He

56. reiteratedthe truths about the divine Father’s love, or about morality, and
justice, and truth, and goodness;but the peculiarity of His call to the world is,
‘Believe in Me.’ And if He said that, or anything like it, and if the
representations ofHis teaching in these four Gospels, whichare the only
source from which we get any notion of Him at all, are to be accepted, why,
then, one of two things follows. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy
enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because convictedofinsanity; or else-
or else-He was ‘God, manifest in the flesh.’It is vain to bow down before a
fancy portrait of a bit of Christ, and to exalt the humble sage ofNazareth, and
to leave out the very thing that makes the difference betweenHim and all
others, namely, these either audacious or most true claims to be the Son of
God, the worthy Recipientand the adequate Object of man’s religious
emotions. ‘Believe in God, in Me also believe.’
II. Now, secondly, notice that faith in Christ and faith in God are not two, but
one.
These two clauses onthe surface presentjuxtaposition. Lookedat more
closelythey present interpenetration and identity. Jesus Christ does not
merely setHimself up by the side of God, nor are we worshippers of two Gods
when we bow before Jesus and bow before the Father; but faith in Christ is
faith in God, and faith in God which is not faith in Christ is imperfect,
incomplete, and will not long last. To trust in Him is to trust in the Father; to
trust in the Fatheris to trust in Him.
What is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two objects
blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope;and that the faith which flows
to Jesus Christ rests upon God? This is the underlying truth, that Jesus
Christ, Himself divine, is the divine Revealerof God. I need not dwell upon
the latter of these two thoughts: how there is no real knowledge ofthe real
God in the depth of His love, the tenderness of His nature or the lustrousness
of His holiness;how there is no certitude; how the Godthat we see outside of
Jesus Christ is sometimes doubt, sometimes hope, sometimes fear, always far-
off and vague, an abstractionrather than a person, ‘a streamof tendency’
without us, that which is unnameable, and the like. I need not dwell upon the
thought that Jesus Christ has showedus a Father, has brought a God to our
hearts whom we can love, whom we can know really though not fully, of
whom we can be sure with a certitude which is as deep as the certitude of our
own personalbeing; that He has brought to us a God before whom we do not
need to crouch far off, that He has brought to us a God whom we can trust.

57. Very significant is it that Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in
the actof trust. Other religions put it in dread, worship, service, and the like.
Jesus Christ alone says, the bond betweenmen and God is that blessedone of
trust. And He says so because He alone brings us a God whom it is not
ridiculous to tell men to trust.
And, on the other hand, the truth that underlies this is not only that Jesus
Christ is the Revealerof God, but that He Himself is divine. Light shines
through a window, but the light and the glass that makes it visible have
nothing in common with one another. The Godhead shines through Christ,
but He is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself that He is showing us
when He is showing us God. ‘He that hath seenMe hath seen’-notthe light
that streams through Me-but ‘hath seen,’in Me, ‘the Father.’And because He
is Himself divine and the divine Revealer, therefore the faith that grasps Him
is inseparably one with the faith that grasps God. Men could look upon a
Moses,an Isaiah, or a Paul, and in them recognisethe eradiationof the
divinity that imparted itself through them, but the medium was forgottenin
proportion as that which it revealedwas beheld. You cannot forgetChrist in
order to see God more clearly, but to behold Him is to behold God.
And if that be true, these two things follow. One is that all imperfect
revelation of God is prophetic of, and leads up towards, the perfectrevelation
in Jesus Christ. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives that truth in a
very striking fashion. He compares all other means of knowing God to
fragmentary syllables of a greatword, of which one was given to one man and
another to another. God ‘spoke atsundry times and in manifold portions to
the fathers by the prophets’; but the whole word is articulately uttered by the
Son, in whom He has ‘spokenunto us in these last times.’ The imperfect
revelation, by means of those who were merely mediums for the revelation
leads up to Him who is Himself the Revelation, the Revealer, and the
Revealed.
And in like manner, all the imperfect faith that, laying hold of other
fragmentary means of knowing God, has tremulously tried to trust Him, finds
its climax and consummate flowerin the full-blossomed faith that lays hold
upon Jesus Christ. The unconscious prophecies of heathendom; the trust that
selectsouls up and down the world have put in One whom they dimly
apprehended; the faith of the Old Testamentsaints;the rudimentary
beginnings of a knowledge ofGod and of a trust in Him which are found in
men to-day, and amongstus, outside of the circle of Christianity-all these

58. things are as manifestly incomplete as a building reared half its height, and
waiting for the corner-stone to be brought forth, the full revelationof Godin
Jesus Christ, and the intelligent and full acceptanceofHim and faith in Him.
And another thing is true, that without faith in Christ such faith in God as is
possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long last. Historically a pure theism
is all but impotent. There is only one example of it on a large scale in the
world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity-Mohammedanism; and we
all know what goodthat is as a religion. There are plenty of people amongstus
nowadays who claim to be very advanced thinkers, and who call themselves
Theists, and not Christians. Well, I venture to saythat that is a phase that will
not last. There is little substance in it. The God whom men know outside of
Jesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. He, or rather It,
is a film of cloud shaped into a vague form, through which you can see the
stars. It has little power to restrain. It has less to inspire and impel. It has still
less to comfort; it has leastof all to satisfythe heart. You will have to get
something more substantial than the far-off godof an unchristian Theism if
you mean to swaythe world and to satisfy men’s hearts.
And so, dear brethren, I come to this-perhaps the word may be fitting for
some that listen to me-’Believe in God,’and that you may, ‘believe also in
Christ.’ For sure I am that when the stress comes, andyou want a god, unless
your god is the God revealedin Jesus Christ, he will be a powerless deity. If
you have not faith in Christ, you will not long have faith in God that is vital
and worth anything.
III. Lastly, this trust in Christ is the secretofa quiet heart.
It is of no use to sayto men, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled,’ unless you
finish the verse and say, ‘Believe in God, believe also in Christ.’ For unless we
trust we shall certainly be troubled. The state of man in this world is like that
of some of those sunny islands in southern seas, around which there often rave
the wildestcyclones, and which carry in their bosoms, beneathall their
riotous luxuriance of verdant beauty, hidden fires, which everand anon shake
the solid earth and spreaddestruction. Storms without and earthquakes
within-that is the condition of humanity. And where is the ‘rest’ to come
from? All other defences are weak and poor. We have heard about ‘pills
againstearthquakes.’Thatis what the comforts and tranquillising which the
world supplies may fairly be likened to. Unless we trust we are, and we shall
be, and should be, ‘troubled.’

59. If we trust we may be quiet. Trust is always tranquillity. To casta burden off
myself on others’ shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christ brings
infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When we cease to kick againstthe
pricks they cease to prick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the
windows of the Ark tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of
the peacefuldove with the olive branch in its mouth. Trust brings Christ to
my side in all His tenderness and greatness andsweetness. If I trust, ‘all is
right that seems mostwrong.’ If I trust, conscience is quiet. If I trust, life
becomes ‘a solemn scornof ills.’ If I trust, inward unrest is changedinto
tranquillity, and mad passions are castout from him that sits ‘clothed and in
his right mind’ at the feetof Jesus.
‘The wickedis like the troubled sea which cannot rest.’ But if I trust, my soul
will become like the glassyoceanwhen all the storms sleep, and ‘birds of
peace sit brooding on the charmed wave.’‘Peace I leave with you.’ ‘Let not
your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.’
Help us, O Lord! to yield our hearts to Thy dear Son, and in Him to find
Thyself and eternalrest.
BensonCommentaryHYPERLINK "/john/14-1.htm"John14:1. Let not your
hearts be troubled — At the thoughts of my departure from you, and leaving
you in a world where you are likely to meet with many temptations, trials, and
troubles, and to become a helpless prey to the rage and powerof your
enemies. Ye believe in God — The Almighty Preserverand Governorof the
universe, who is able to support you under, and deliver you out of, all your
distresses;believe also in me — Who am sent by God, not only to teach, but to
redeem and save you; and who can both protectyou from evil, and reward
you abundantly for whatever lossesand sufferings you sustain on my account.
But the original words, πιστευετε εις τον Θεον και εις εμε πιστευετε, it seems,
ought rather to be rendered, Believe in God, believe also in me; that is,
Confide in the being, perfections, and superintending providence of God: or,
Rely on the greatacknowledgedprinciples of natural religion, that the
glorious Makerand Governor of the world is most wise, mighty, holy, just,
and good, and the sovereigndisposerof all events; and comfort yourselves
likewise with the peculiar doctrines of that holy religion which I have taught
you. Or, as Dr. Doddridge interprets the clause, “Believein God, the Almighty
Guardian of his faithful servants, who has made such glorious promises to
prosper and succeedthe cause in which you are engaged;and believe also in

60. me, as the promised Messiah, who, whether presentor absentin body, shall
always be mindful of your concerns, as wellas ever able to help you.” It
appears most natural, as he justly observes, to render the same word,
πιστευετε, alike in both places;and it is certain an exhortation to faith in God
and in Christ would be very seasonable, considering how weak and defective
their faith was. Thus Dr. Campbell: “The two clauses are so similarly
expressedand linked togetherby the copulative [και, and, or also]that it is, I
suspect, unprecedented, to make the verb in one an indicative, and the same
verb repeatedin the other an imperative. The simple and natural way is, to
render similarly what is similarly expressed:nor ought this rule everto be
departed from, unless something absurd or incongruous should follow from
the observance ofit, which is so far from being the case here, that by
rendering both in the imperative, the sense is not only good, but apposite.”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary14:1-11 Here are three words, upon
any of which stress may be laid. Upon the word troubled. Be not castdown
and disquieted. The word heart. Let your heart be kept with full trust in God.
The word your. Howeverothers are overwhelmedwith the sorrows ofthis
present time, be not you so. Christ's disciples, more than others, should keep
their minds quiet, when everything else is unquiet. Here is the remedy against
this trouble of mind, Believe. Bybelieving in Christ as the Mediator between
God and man, we gain comfort. The happiness of heaven is spokenof as in a
father's house. There are many mansions, for there are many sons to be
brought to glory. Mansions are lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of
that of which he is the Author or Beginner;if he have prepared the place for
us, he will prepare us for it. Christ is the sinner's Way to the Fatherand to
heaven, in his person as God manifest in the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and
as our Advocate. He is the Truth, as fulfilling all the prophecies of a Saviour;
believing which, sinners come by him the Way. He is the Life, by whose life-
giving Spirit the dead in sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God
as a Father, who is not quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as
the Truth, to come by Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go
to God, and his blessings come to us; this is the Way that leads to rest, the
goodold Way. He is the Resurrectionand the Life. All that saw Christ by
faith, saw the Father in Him. In the light of Christ's doctrine, they saw God as
the Fatherof lights; and in Christ's miracles, they saw Godas the God of
power. The holiness of God shone in the spotless purity of Christ's life. We are
to believe the revelation of God to man in Christ; for the works of the
Redeemershow forth his own glory, and God in him.

61. Barnes'Notes on the BibleLet not your heart be troubled - The disciples had
been greatly distressedatwhat Jesus had saidabout leaving them. Compare
John 16:6, John 16:22. Perhaps they had indicated their distress to him in
some manner by their countenance or their expressions, and he proceeds new
to administer to them such consolations as their circumstances made proper.
The discourse in this chapter was delivered, doubtless, while they were sitting
at the table partaking of the Lord's Supper (see John14:31); that in John 15-
16, and the prayer in John 17, were while they were on their way to the Mount
of Olives. There is nowhere to be found a discourse so beautiful, so tender, so
full of weighty thoughts, and so adapted to produce comfort, as that which
occurs in these three chapters of John. It is the consolatorypart of our
religion, where Christ brings to bear on the mind full of anxiety, and
perplexity, and care, the tender and inimitably beautiful truths of his gospel -
truths fitted to allay every fear, silence everycomplaint, and give every
needed consolationto the soul. In the case ofthe disciples there was much to
trouble them. They were about to part with their beloved, tender friend. They
were to be left alone to meet persecutions and trials. They were without
wealth, without friends, without honors. And it is not improbable that they
felt that his death would demolish all their schemes, for they had not yet fully
learned the doctrine that the Messiahmust suffer and die, Luke 24:21.
Ye believe in God - This may be read either in the indicative mood or the
imperative. Probably it should be read in the imperative - "Believe on God,
and believe on me." If there were no other reasonfor it, this is sufficient, that
there was no more evidence that they did believe in God than that they
believed in Jesus. All the ancient versions except the Latin read it thus. The
Saviour told them that their consolationwas to be found at this time in
confidence in God and in him; and he intimated what he had so often told
them and the Jews, that there was an indissoluble union betweenhim and the
Father. This union he takes occasionto explain to them more fully, John 14:7-
12.
Believe in - Put confidence in, rely on for support and consolation.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible CommentaryCHAPTER 14
Joh 14:1-31. Discourseatthe Table, after Supper.
We now come to that portion of the evangelicalhistory which we may with
propriety call its Holy of Holies. Our Evangelist, like a consecratedpriest,
alone opens up to us the view into this sanctuary. It is the recordof the last
moments spent by the Lord in the midst of His disciples before His passion,
when words full of heavenly thought flowedfrom His sacredlips. All that His

62. heart, glowing with love, had still to say to His friends, was compressedinto
this short season. At first (from Joh13:31) the intercourse took the form of
conversation;sitting at table, they talkedfamiliarly together. But when (Joh
14:31)the repastwas finished, the language of Christ assumed a loftier strain;
the disciples, assembledaround their Master, listenedto the words of life, and
seldom spoke a word (only Joh 16:17, 29). "At length, in the Redeemer's
sublime intercessoryprayer, His full soulwas poured forth in express
petitions to His heavenly Father on behalf of those who were His own. It is a
peculiarity of these last chapters, that they treat almost exclusively of the most
profound relations—as that of the Son to the Father, and of both to the Spirit,
that of Christ to the Church, of the Church to the world, and so forth.
Moreover, a considerable portion of these sublime communications surpassed
the point of view to which the disciples had at that time attained; hence the
Redeemerfrequently repeats the same sentiments in order to impress them
more deeply upon their minds, and, because of what they still did not
understand, points them to the Holy Spirit, who would remind them of all His
sayings, and lead them into all truth (Joh 14:26)" [Olshausen].
1. Let not your heart be troubled, &c.—Whatmyriads of souls have not these
opening words cheered, in deepestgloom, since first they were uttered!
ye believe in God—absolutely.
believe also in me—that is, Have the same trust in Me. What less, and what
else, canthese words mean? And if so, what a demand to make by one sitting
familiarly with them at the supper table! Compare the saying in Joh 5:17, for
which the Jews took up stones to stone Him, as "making himself equal with
God" (Joh 14:18). But it is no transfer of our trust from its proper Object; it
is but the concentrationof our trust in the Unseen and Impalpable One upon
His Own Incarnate Son, by which that trust, instead of the distant, unsteady,
and too often cold and scarce realthing it otherwise is, acquires a conscious
reality, warmth, and power, which makes all things new. This is Christianity
in brief.John 14:1-4 Christ comforteth his disciples with the promise of
a heavenly mansion.
John 14:5-7 He professes himselfthe way, the truth, and the life,
John 14:8-11 and that he is one with the Father.
John 14:12-14 He promises them power to do greaterworks than his own,

63. and the grant of all that they should ask in his name.
John 14:15-26 He requireth their obedience as a proof of their love,
and giveth them a promise of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost.
John 14:27-31 He leavethhis peace with them.
Chapter Introduction
The three ensuing chapters contain either one or more consolatory discourses
of our Saviour to his disciples, (as appearethfrom John 14:1), made, as is
probable, to them in the guestchamber (at leastthat part of them which we
have in this chapter); for we read of no motion of our Saviour’s till we come to
the lastverse of this chapter. That which troubled them was, whathe had told
them in the close ofthe former chapter, that he was going from them. By our
Saviour’s discourse in this and the two following chapters, it should seemthat
there were three things that troubled them.
1. The sense of their loss as to his bodily presence.
2. The fear, that with the loss of that they should also lose those spiritual
influences which they had receivedfrom him, and upon which their souls had
lived.
3. The prospect of those storms of troubles and persecutions, whichwere
likely to follow his departure from them; for if we wisely considerwhat our
Saviour saith in these three following chapters, it all tends to comfortthem as
to troubles that might arise in their spirits, upon one or other of these
accounts:the generalproposition is laid down in John 14:1.
Let not your heart be troubled, through grief, or fear, which are the two
passions which ordinarily most disturb our minds. Our Saviour himself was
troubled, but not sinfully; his trouble neither arose from unbelief, nor yet was
in an undue measure;it was (as one well expresses it) like the mere agitation
of clearwater, where was no mud at the bottom: but our trouble is like the
stirring of waterthat hath a greatdeal of mud at the bottom, which upon the
roiling, riseth up, and maketh it the whole body of the water in the vessel
impure, roiled and muddy. It is this sinful trouble, causedfrom these two
passions, and rising up to an immoderate degree, and mixed with a great deal

64. of unbelief and distrust in God, againstwhich our Saviour here cautions his
disciples;and the remedy he prescribes againstthose afflicting passions, is a
believing in God, and a believing on him. The two latter passagesin the verse
are so penned in the Greek, that they may be read four ways; for the verb
believe, twice repeated, may be readeither indicatively or imperatively, or the
one may be read indicatively and the other imperatively; so as they may be
translated, You believe in God, you believe also in me. And so they teach us,
that there is no such remedy for inward troubles, as a believing in God, and a
believing in Jesus Christ;and those that do so, have no just reasonfor any
excessive hearttroubles. Or else they may be read, Believe in God, believe in
me: or else as we read them,
Ye believe in God, believe also in me: or, Believe in God, ye believe in me. But
the disciples’faith in Christ as Mediator, and God man, being yet weak, and
their weakness being what our Saviour hath ordinarily blamed, not
magnified, or commended, the best interpreters judge the sense whichour
translators give to be the best sense;and judge that our Saviour doth inculcate
to them his Divine nature, and again offer himself to them as the proper
objectof their faith. You (saith he) own it for your duty to trust in God, as
your Creator, and he that provideth for you: believe also in me, as God equal
with my Father;and in me, as the Messiah, your Mediatorand Redeemer:so
as you have one to take care or all your concerns, both those of your bodies,
and those of your souls also, so as you have nothing to be immoderately and
excessively, ordistrustfully, troubled for; therefore let not your hearts be
troubled; only, without care or distrust, commit yourselves to me.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleLet not your heart be troubled,.... In some
copies this verse begins thus, and he said to his disciples;and certain it is, that
these words are addressedto them in general, Peterbeing only the personour
Lord was discoursing with in the latter part of the preceding chapter; but
turning, as it were, from him, he directs his speechto them all. There were
many things which must needs lie heavy upon, and greatly depress the minds
of the disciples;most of all the loss of Christ's bodily presence, his speedy
departure from them, of which he had given them notice in the preceding
chapter; also the manner in which he should be removed from them, and the
circumstances that should attend the same, as that he should be betrayed by
one of them, and denied by another; likewise the poor and uncomfortable
situation they were likely to be left in, without any sight or hope of that
temporal kingdom being erected, which they had been in expectationof; and

65. also the issue and consequence ofall this, that they would be exposedto the
hatred and persecutions of men. Now in the multitude of these thoughts within
them, Christ comforts them, bids them be of goodheart, and exhorts them to
all exercise of faith on God, and on himself, as the best way to be rid of heart
troubles, and to have peace:
ye believe in God, believe also in me; which words may be read and
interpreted different ways:either thus, "ye believe in God, and ye believe in
me"; and so are both propositions alike, and express Godand Christ to be
equally the object of their faith; and since therefore they had so gooda
foundation for their faith and confidence, they had no reasonto be uneasy: or
thus, "believe in God, and believe in me"; and so both are exhortations to
exercise faith alike on them both, as being the best antidote they could make
use of againstheart troubles: or thus, "believe in God, and ye believe in me";
and so the former is an exhortation, the latter a proposition: and the sense is,
put your trust in God, and you will also trust in me, for I am of the same
nature and essencewith him; I and my Father are one;so that if you believe
in one, you must believe in the other: or thus, and so our translators render
them, "ye believe in God, believe also in me"; and so the former is a
proposition, or an assertion, and the latter is an exhortation grounded upon it:
you have believed in God as faithful and true in all his promises, though yon
have not seenhim; believe in me also, though I am going from you, and shall
be absent for a while; this you may be assuredof, that whateverI have said
shall be accomplished. The words consideredeither way are a full proof of the
true deity of Christ, since he is representedas equally the objectof faith with
God the Father, and lay a foundation for solid peace and comfortin a view of
afflictions and persecutions in the world.
Geneva Study BibleLet {1} not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God,
believe also in me.
(1) He believes in God who believes in Christ, and there is no other way to
strengthen and encourageour minds during the greatestdistresses.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT CommentaryHYPERLINK "/john/14-1.htm"John14:1.[138]
From PeterJesus now turns, with consolatoryaddress in reference to His near
departure, to the disciples generally; hence D. and a few Verss. prefix καὶ
εἶπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ (so also Luther, following Erasmus). But the cause
of the address itself is fully explained in John’s narrative by the situation, and
by no means requires the reference, arbitrarily assumedby Hengstenberg, to
Luke 22:35-38. The whole of the following farewelldiscourses, downto John

66. 17:26, must have grown out of the profoundest recollections ofthe apostle,
which, in a highly intellectual manner, are vividly recalled, and further
expanded. It coheres with the entire peculiarity of the Johanneannarrative of
the lastSupper, that the Synoptics offer no parallels to these farewell
discourses. Hence it is not satisfactory, and is not in keeping with the
necessarypersonalrecollectionof John, to regardhim as taking his start from
certain primary words of earlier gospels, whichhe, like an artist of powerful
genius, has transfigured by a great, but, at the same time, most appropriate
and enchanting transformation (Ewald).
μὴ ταρασσ.]by anxiety and apprehension. Comp. John 12:27. It points to
what He had spokenin the preceding chapters of His departure, not, as
Chrysostom, Theodore ofMopsuestia, Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, and
many thought, to Peter’s denial, after the prediction of which the rest of the
disciples also might have become anxious about their constancy. This is
erroneous, becausethe following discourse bears no relation to it.
πιστεύετε, κ.τ.λ.]By these words Jesus exhorts them not to faith generally
(which they certainly had), but to that confident assurance by which the μὴ
ταράσσεσθαι was conditioned: trust in God, and trust in me. To take, in both
cases, πιστεύετε as imperatives (Cyril., Gothic, Nonnus, Theophylact, Euth.
Zigabenus, Bengel, and severalothers, including most moderns, from Lücke
to Hengstenberg and Godet)appears most in conformity with the preceding
imperative and the direct characterof the address.[139]Others:the first πιστ.
is indicative, and the secondimperative: ye believe on God, believe therefore
on me (Vulgate, Erasmus, Luther in his Exposition, Castalio, Beza, Calvin,
Aretius, Maldonatus, Grotius, and severalothers). Luther, who takes the first
sentence as a hypothetical statement, which in itself is admissible (Bernhardy,
p. 385;Pflugk, ad Eur. Med. 386, comp. on John 1:51), has in his translation
takenπιστεύετε, in both cases, as indicatives. According to any rendering,
however, the inseparable coherence ofthe two movements (God in Christ
manifest and near) is to be noted. Comp. Romans 5:2.
[138]Luther’s exposition of chap. 14, 15, 16 belongs to the year 1538. He
terms these discourses “the best and most consoling sermons that the Lord
Christ delivered on earth,” and “a treasure and jewel, not to be purchased
with the world’s goods.”—Luther’s book (which originatedin sermons, which
Casp. Crucigertook down) is among his most spirited and lively writings.
How highly he himself esteemedit, see in Matthesius, eilfte Pred. (ed. Nürnb.
1592, p. 119a).

67. [139]So also Ebrard, who, however, in conformity with a supposed Hebraism
(see on Ephesians 4:26), finds the inappropriate meaning: “Believe on God, so
ye believe on me.” Thus the emotionaladdress becomes a reflection.
Olshausenarrives at the same sense, taking the first πιστ. as imperative, the
secondas indicative.
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK"/john/14-1.htm"John14:1. But
as they sat astoundedand perplexed, He continues, Μὴ ταρασσέσθω ὑμῶν ἡ
καρδία. Let not your heart be tossedand agitatedlike waterdriven by winds;
cf. Liddell and S. and Thayer. He not only commands them to dismiss their
agitation, but gives them reason:πιστεύετε … πιστεύετε. “Trust God, yea,
trust me.” Trust Him who overrules all events, He will bring you through this
crisis for which you feelyourselves incompetent; or if in your present
circumstances that faith is too difficult, trust me whom you see and know and
whose word you cannot doubt. It is legitimate to construe the first πιστεύετε
as an indicative, and the secondas imperative: but this gives scarcelyso
appropriate a sense.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges1. Letnot your heart be troubled]
There had been much to cause anxiety and alarm; the denouncing of the
traitor, the declarationof Christ’s approaching departure, the prediction of S.
Peter’s denial. The lastas being nearestmight seemto be speciallyindicated;
but what follows shews that ‘let not your heart be troubled’ refers primarily
to ‘whither I go, ye cannotcome’ (John 13:33).
ye believe in God, believe also]The Greek for ‘ye believe’ and ‘believe’ is the
same, and there is nothing to indicate that one is indicative and the other
imperative. Both may be indicative; but probably both are imperative: believe
in God, and believe in Me; or perhaps, trust in God, and trust in Me. It
implies the belief which moves towards and reposes onits object(see last note
on John 1:12). In any case a genuine belief in God leads to a belief in His Son.
1. This Judas, who was the son of a certainJames (Luke 6:16; Acts 1:13): he is
commonly identified with Lebbaeus or Thaddaeus (see on Matthew 10:3). 2.
Judas Iscariot3. The brother of Jesus Christ, and of James, Joses, andSimon
(Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). 4. Judas, surnamed Barsabas (Acts 15:22;Acts
15:27;Acts 15:32). 5. Judas of Galilee (Acts 5:37). 6. Judas of Damascus (Acts
9:11). Of these six the third is probably the author of the Epistle; so that this
remark is the only thing recordedin the N.T. of Judas the Apostle as distinct
from the other Apostles. Noris anything really known of him from other

68. sources.
how is it] Literally, What hath come to pass;‘what has happened to determine
Thee?’
manifest thyself] The word ‘manifest’ rouses S. Judas just as the word ‘see’
roused S. Philip (John 14:7). Both go wrong from the same cause, inability to
see the spiritual meaning of Christ’s words, but they go wrong in different
ways. Philip wishes for a vision of the Father, a Theophany, a suitable
inauguration of the Messiah’s kingdom. Judas supposes with the rest of his
countrymen that the manifestationof the Messiahmeans a bodily appearance
in glory before the whole world, to judge the Gentiles and restore the kingdom
to the Jews. Once more we have the Jewishpoint of view given with
convincing precision. Comp. John 7:4.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK"/john/14-1.htm"John14:1. Μή) In some
copies there is prefixed this clause, καὶ εἶπε τοῖς μαθηταῖς αὐτοῦ·and this the
distinguished D. Hauber supports, especiallyin den harmonischen
Anmerkungen, p. 206. Erasmus was the first to edit the passage so;and
Luther, following either Erasmus, or the Vulgate, which contains a similar
interpolation, translates it so. The whole voice of antiquity refutes this
addition, as I had shownin my Apparatus, p. 595 [Ed. ii. 263]. The principle
of an adequate reason, which D. Hauber uses as if favouring its insertion, I
will use on the other side, so as to saywith Erasmus himself, Lucas Brugensis,
and Mill, that one or two transcribers, at the commencement of a Pericopa, or
portion appointed for Church reading, prefixed this formula, as they most
frequently have done.[343]—μὴ ταρασσέσθω, letnot—be troubled) on
accountof My departure: ch. John 13:33, “Yet a little while I am with you: ye
shall seek Me,” etc.;John 16:6, “BecauseI have said these things unto you,
sorrow hath filled your heart.” He takes awayfrom the disciples their trouble
of heart before that He alludes to the causes ofthat trouble. The Lord knew
what these were in the case ofthe disciples, ch. John 13:33, and unfolds them
in detail more openly in the following parts of His discourse. This [comforting
of the disciples]is repeated, and with additional emphasis, at John 14:27.
[And it is not merely in ch. 13., but further also in ch. 14., a reply is given to
the question proposedby Peter, ch. John 13:36, “Lord, whither goest
Thou?”—V. g.]—πιστεύετε—πιστεύετε, believe ye—believe ye) The
Imperative, just as in the parallel expression, μὴ ταράσσεσθω, let not—be
troubled. The sum and substance of this sermon is this, Believe ye: and this
exhortation, Believe, at John 14:11, and subsequently, is urged until [His

69. exhortation becoming effectual] it is made into the Indicative, ch. John 16:31;
John 16:30, “Do ye now believe? By this we believe that Thou camestforth
from God:” and when this was effected, the Saviour prays and departs.
[Hence is evident the very close connectionwhichthere is of the chapters 14.,
15., 16., betweenone another.—Harm., p. 506.]It might be thus punctuated,
πιστεύετε· εἰς τὸν Θεὸν καὶ εἰς ἐμὲ πιστεύετε· whereby the verb would first be
placed by itself, equivalent to a summary of what follows, as in ch. John 16:31;
then next the same would be repeatedwith an explanation; with which comp.
ch. John 13:34, note [That ye love, first put simply, then repeatedwith
Epitasis, or explanatory augmentation]. But the receivedpunctuation seems to
me preferable, and moreoverto be understood so as that the accentin
pronunciation should in the former clause fall chiefly on the words believe ye;
in the secondclause, onin Me: so that the ancientfaith in God, may be as it
were seasoned[dyed] with a new colour, by their believing in Jesus Christ.—
εἰς ἐμέ, in Me) who am come from God; ch. John 16:27, “The Father Himself
loveth you, because ye—have believedthat I came out from God.”
[343]Dabcd and some copies ofthe Vulg. support the words. But the mass of
authorities is againstthem.—E. and T.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 1. - It is not necessaryto follow Codex D and some
of the versions, and here introduce into the text καὶ εϊπεν τοῖς μαθηταῖς
αὐτοῦ. It is enough that the awful warning to Peter, which followed the
announcement of the treacheryof Judas and his departure, the solemnity of
the Lord, and the clearannouncement of his approaching death, had fallen
like a thunderbolt into their company. Judas held the bag, and was their
treasurer, their ἐπίσκοπος (see Hatch's 'Bampt. Lect.'), and a referee on all
practicalsubjects and details. He had turned againstthe Lord; and now their
spokesman, their rock of strength, their most prominent and their boldest
brother, the senior of the group, and with one exceptionthe disciple most
beloved and trusted by the Master, was actuallywarned againstthe most
deadly sin - nay, more, a course of conduct is predicted of him enough to
scatterthem all to the four winds. Is it possible to exaggeratethe
consternationand distraction, the shrieks of fear, the bitter sobs of reckless
grief that convulsedthe upper chamber? In the agonyof despair, and amid
the awful pause that followedthe outburst of their confusion and grief, words
fell upon their ears which Luther describedas "the best and most consoling
sermons that the Lord Christ delivered on earth," "a treasure and jewelnot
to be purchasedwith the world's goods."Hengstenberg has arguedat length
that the opening words of the chapterdo not point to this scene ofdeep

70. dejection, but to the conversationrecordedin Luke 22:35-38, where our Lord
warned his disciples of the careerof anxiety and dependence and struggle
through which they would have to pass. They must be ready evento part with
their garment to procure a sword, i.e. they must be prepared to defend
themselves againstmany enemies. With his characteristic impetuosity Peter
says, "Here are two swords;" and Jesus said, "It is enough." He could not
have meant that two swords were a match for the weapons of the high priests,
or the powerof the Roman empire, but that the disciple had once again
misunderstood the figurative teaching of Christ, and, like a child (as he was),
had, in the intensity of his present feeling, lost all apperception of the future.
True, the language of Luke 22:35-38 suggests ananswerto the question,
"Why cannot I follow thee now?" But these words in John 14. more certainly
contemplate that query, coupled with the other occasionsthat had arisenfor
bitter tribulation. To the faithful ones, to Peter's own nobler nature, and to
them all alike in view of their unparalleled grief and dismay at the immediate
prospectof his departure, he says, Let not your heart be troubled - the one
heart of you all; for, after all, it is one heart, and for the moment it was in
uttermost exacerbationand distress, lie repeated the words at the close of the
first part of the discourse (Ver. 27), after he had uttered his words of
consolation. The "trouble" from which that one heart of theirs is breaking is
not the mere sentimental sorrow of parting with a friend, but the perplexity
arising from distracting cares andconflicting passions. The work of love and
sacrifice means trouble that nothing but supernatural aid and Divine strength
can touch. The heartache of those who are wakenedup to any due sense of the
eternal is one that nothing but the hand that moves all things cansoothe or
remedy. Faith in the absolute goodnessofGod can alone sustain the mind in
these deep places of fear, and under the shadow of death. But he gives a
reasonfor their consolation. This is, Believe in God, i.e. the eternal God in all
his revelations of himself in the past - in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
who has most completelybeen unveiled to you now in the word and light and
life that have been given to you in me. Your faith in God will be equal to your
emergencies, and, if you live up to such fairly, you will bear all that befalls you
(cf. Mark 11:22). But, he adds, as I have been in the bosom of God and have
declaredhim to you, believe also in me, as his highest and most complete
Revelation. He claimed from them thus the same kind of sentiment, as by
right of creationand infinite perfectionGod Almighty had demanded from
them. There are three other ways in which this ambiguous sentence may be
translated, according as both the πιστεύετε are takeneither as indicatives or
imperatives, but the above method is approved by the greatmajority of
interpreters from the early Fathers to Meyerand Godet. The Vulgate and

71. Authorized Version and RevisedVersionmake the secondonly of the
πιστεύετε imperative, and consequentlyread, "Ye believe in God, believe also
in me," which, in the revelationthey had just given of their wretchedness and
lack of adequate courage and faithfulness, was almostmore than the Lord, in
the deep and comprehensive sense in which he was using the word "God,"
would have attributed to them. The different order of the words in the Greek,
bringing the two clauses, "inGod" and "in me," together, gives potencyto the
argument of the verse, which is that of the entire Gospel.
Vincent's Word StudiesHeart(καρδία)
Neverused in the New Testament, as in the Septuagint, of the mere physical
organ, though sometimes of the vigor and sense of physical life (Acts 14:17;
James 5:5; Luke 21:34). Generally, the center of our complex being - physical,
moral, spiritual, and intellectual. See on Mark 12:30. The immediate organby
which man lives his personallife, and where that entire personallife
concentrates itself. It is thus used sometimes as parallel to ψυχή, the
individual life, and to πνεῦμα the principle of life, which manifests itself in the
ψυχή. Strictly, καρδία is the immediate organ of ψυχή, occupying a mediating
position betweenit and πνεῦμα. In the heart (καρδία) the spirit (πνεῦμα),
which is the distinctive principle of the life or soul (ψυχή), has the seatof its
activity.
Emotions of joy or sorrow are thus ascribedboth to the heart and to the soul.
Compare John 14:27, "Let not your heart (καρδιά) be troubled;" and John
12:27, "Now is my soul (ψυχή) troubled." The heart is the focus of the
religious life (Matthew 22:37; Luke 6:45; 2 Timothy 2:22). It is the sphere of
the operationof grace (Matthew 13:19;Luke 8:15; Luke 24:32;Acts 2:37;
Romans 10:9, Romans 10:10). Also of the opposite principle (John 13:2; Acts
5:3). Used also as the seatof the understanding; the faculty of intelligence as
applied to divine things (Matthew 13:15; Romans 1:21; Mark 8:17).
Ye believe - believe also (πιστεύετε καὶ πιστεύετε)
The verbs may be taken either as indicatives or as imperatives. Thus we may
render: ye believe in God, ye believe also in me; or, believe in God and ye
believe in me; or, believe in God and believe in me; or again, as A.V. The third
of these renderings corresponds bestwith the hortatory characterof the
discourse.
The Cure forHeart Trouble Sunday,November29th,1992 John14:1-6 Letnot your heartbe troubled:ye
believeinGod,believe alsoinme.InmyFather'shouse are many mansions:if itwere notso,I would

72. have toldyou.I go to prepare a place for you.Andif I go and prepare a place foryou,I will come again,
and receive youuntomyself;thatwhere Iam, there ye may be also.And whitherIgoye know,andthe
wayye know.Thomassaithuntohim,Lord, we know notwhitherthougoest;andhow can we knowthe
way?Jesussaithuntohim,I am the way,the truth,and the life:nomancomethunto the Father,butby
me.
I’mgoingto be speakingtoyoutodayon thissubject:“The Cure for Heart Trouble.”Now,mytextisan
oldfamiliarpassage of scripture foundinJohnChapter14: verses1 through6. I’dlike foryouto take
your Bible andplantofollowme asI read the scripture todayand preachfromthis passage,John14:
verses1 through6.
An oldpreachersaidto me one time,“Throughlife’sjourneywe have plentyof troubles,trialsand
tribulations,butourgreatestproblemishearttrouble.” He said,“The onlyremedyforhearttrouble is
faith.” We have to have faithinour Lord JesusChrist. OurLord saidin thispassage of scripture (John
14:1), “Let notyour heartbe troubled.”
Now,hearttrouble isthe mostcommonthingin the world. Everybodyhashearttrouble. There isno
rank, classor conditionthatisexemptfromhearttrouble. Richpeople have hearttroubleandsodo the
poor people. The greatheart istroubledandthe unknownheartis troubled. Noboltsnorbars nor locks
can keepoutheart trouble. Ithas to be dealtwith. Hearttrouble hasto be consideredanddealtwith.
The onlyremedyforhearttrouble isfaithinChrist.
Thisheart trouble comesfrommanycauses. It comespartlyfrominwardcausesand partlyfrom
outwardcauses. It ispartly fromwhatwe do and partlyfromwhat we don’tdo. It ispartlyfrom what
we love andpartlyfrom whatwe hate. Itis partlyfrom those thingsinwhichwe delightandpartlyfrom
those thingsthatwe fear.
There are twothingsthat cause hearttrouble,a troubledbodyanda troubledmind. There isaremedy;
there isa cure for hearttrouble. Ihave right here,inmyhand,the cure for hearttrouble. The cure isin
believingthe Wordof God. There isa remedy. OurLord givesitto us here inthistext. He says,“Let not
your heartbe troubled,youbelieveinGod,believe alsoinMe.” The cure for hearttrouble istobelieve.
The remedyfora troubled,fearful anddistressedbrokenheartistobelieve. Youhave tobelieveinthe
Lord JesusChrist.Isyour hearttroubled? Letitnot be troubled. He says,“Believe in
me.” He’sthe onlyone whocan say that. Is yourheart troubled? He says,“Believeinme.”

73. If youwill lookhere,inChapter13 of the Bookof John,youwill see achapterdivisionthatreally
shouldn’tbe there. Chapter13 and14 go righttogetherandI thinkI can show youthat. In Chapter13
our Lord had supperwithHisdisciplesandHe had washedtheirfeet(Iknow yourememberandhave
readit before). He begantotalk tothemabout Hisdeathand about Hisdeparture. He toldthemafter
thissupper,thattheirideaof an earthlykingdomwaswrong. Theyhad an ideathatthe Lord was going
to setup an earthlyJewishkingdomhere onthisearth.TheythoughtthatHe wouldreignandthatthey
wouldbe sittingonHisright handand on Hislefthandand theywouldbe greatofficialsinthiskingdom.
He toldthemthat thisideaof an earthlykingdomwaswrong. Hiskingdomwasnotof thisworld. His
kingdomwasnotgoingto be of meatand drinkbut itwas to be of righteousnessandgodliness. He told
themthat He mustby righteousnessandblood,redeemHispeople,thatHe mustleave themandgo to
Jerusalemandsufferanddie. He alsotoldthemthat theywouldbe offended. He said,“Youwill all be
offendedbecause of Me thisnight.”
He said,“One of you will betrayme.” He toldPeterthat he woulddenyHim. He toldthemthat the
worldwouldhate them,thattheywouldbe persecutedandcastoutof the synagogues. He toldthem
that people wouldkill themandthinkthattheywere doingGoda service. Theywere tohave greattrials
inthisworld,troublesandtribulations. Theywere frightened. These discipleswere greatlytroubledin
heart.Theywere worriedaboutthe Lord dyingandbeingburied. Theywere worriedaboutChrist
leavingthemandhowthattheywouldbe offendedbecause of Him. The Lord saidthat theywoulddeny
Him andevenbetrayHim. Theywere greatlytroubled. ThatiswhenChristsaid,“Letnot yourheart be
troubled.” Theywere troubledandtheywere distressedandfearful. He said,“Letnotyour heartbe
troubled.”
Now,listen,He’snotaskingthese menif theybelievedinGod;He knew theybelievedinGod. He said,
“You do believe inGod.” Rightnow,yourheartsare downcastand troubled,brokenanddistressed. But
He says,“Don’tletyour heartsbe troubled.” “Youbelieve inGod;youdobelieveinGod,of course you
do. You believe inGodthe Father,thenbelieve inMe.”
Now,listentome carefullyhere;ChristissayingthatGodthe FathersentMe, and He sentMe to deliver
youfrom trouble. He sent Me to deliveryoufromcondemnationandthe curse andto bringyou to Him.
He’sto justifyyou,sanctifyyouandredeemyouand
make yourighteous. The FathersentMe to youto redeemyouandto deliveryou. If youbelieve in
Him,you have nocause to be troubledatthoughtsof God and His justice,Hisjudgment,Hislaw,orHis

74. condemnation,if youbelieve inMe. Youdo believeinGod. You believe inthe holinessof God,the
majestyof God,the greatnessof God.
Martin Lutheronce saidthis,“I wantnothingtodo withan absolute God,Elohim!” Imust have a
Mediator. I musthave an Intercessor,someone betweenGodandme. I needsomeone togoto God for
me. I also needsomeonetocome to me withthe goodnewsof reconciliationwithGod. That iswhat
Davidsaid,“Lord, don’tbringme intojudgmentwithThee. Don’tbringme nakedbefore yournaked
throne of justice andrighteousnessandjudgment;Icannotstand.” God saidto Moses,“No man can
lookon Me and live.”
StephenCharnockwasa great writerandpreacherof a centuryago. He said,“The mightyGod,the holy
absolute Godapart fromChristthe Mediator,apartfrom a High Priestwithasuitable sacrifice isan
angry God. He’san offendedGod;He’saholy,holy,holy,sovereignGod.” Charnockalsosaid,“The
terror of His majesty,holinessandpresence wouldhave toconsume usandoverwhelmus.”
That is right,unlesswe cancome intoHis presence andcome before HimandapproachHim inand
throughHis chosenMediator,unlessthere issomeone betweenusandGod,whomGod sent,with
whomGod iswell pleased,unlessGodissatisfied,unlessthere issomeone betweenus,(sinnersand
that offended,nakedjustice of God),we mustforeverjustlyperishunderHiswrath.
Thisis whatChristis sayingtothese disciples. He’spointedouttheirweaknesses. He’spointedouttheir
inabilities. He’spointedouttheirfrailties.He knowsourfrailties;He knowsourframe andHe knowswe
are dust,“man at hisbeststate is altogethervanity.” He has toldthemthat He is leavingandHe told
themthat theywouldbe offendedandthattheywouldbetrayHimanddenyHim. Theywere troubled.
Christsays,“Wait a minute;don’tletyourselvesbe troubled,thereisananswer.” There isa remedy for
ruin. There is mercyfor the miserable. There’sgrace forthe guilty,there’ssalvationforsinners. The
answerisnot yougoingto God; it isyou goingtoGod through Me (Christ). Now,“Youbelieve inGod,
youhave to believe inMe.” Youhave to put yourconfidence andyourtrustin Me. You have to lean
uponMe. You have to lookuponMe.
What isthere about God thatcausesa man’sheartto be troubled,youwhounderstandthe true
character of God? What isthere aboutGod that causesyour heartto be troubled? Well,there are alot
of things. First,there isHispresence. Isaiahsaw the Lord. He said,

75. “That in the yearwhenkingIsaiahdied,Isaw the Lord,highand liftedupandHis trainfilledthe
temple.” The seraphims,andthe creaturesinglory,coveredtheirfacesinthe presence of God. They
coveredtheirfeetandtheycoveredtheirmouths. Theycried,“Holy,Holy,Holy,LordGod Almighty.”
These are unfallencreatures.
What can you doabout that? In Christ,youcan come boldlyintoHispresence. Thatiswhatthe
scripture says. It says,“Seeingthatwe have a great HighPriest;letuscome boldlybefore the throne of
grace. If you believe inGod,believeinMe.” Christis the HighPriest;Christisthe Intercessor. “If any
man sin,we have an advocate withthe Father,JesusChrist.” Whatis there aboutGod forus to fear? It
isnot onlythe presence of Godbut alsoHis Holiness,andHisrighteousnessthatshouldbe feared.
“Exceptyour righteousnessexceedsthe righteousnessof the bestmanwhoeverlived,youwill inno
wise enterthe kingdomof heaven.”
What are we goingto do forour righteousness? Well,the scripturesays,“He thatknew no sin,was
made sinfor us,that we mightbe made the righteousnessof God inHim. Do youbelieveGod,then
believeMe?” Christissaying,“I’myour righteousness. I’mthe wayintoGod’spresence. I’mthe new
and livingway.”
What aboutGod’s law? Have youfoundanywhere inthe scriptureswhereGodhastakenback the
commandment,“Dothisandlive?” “Do thisand live”still holdstrue;itiswhatthe law says. Paul asked
thisinRomans,“What saith the law?Hisreply:“Do thisand live;”meaningthe manwholivesbythe law
mustdo it. Noman is capable. Noman hasthe holinessorthe powerto keepthe law.What,then,are
we goingto do?
By the disobedience of one man(Adam),we became sinners. Bythe obedienceof Christ,we have been
made righteous. He says,“Believe inMe. Christisthe endof the law forrighteousnesstoeveryone that
believeth.”
What aboutGod’s justice? “It’sappointeduntomen,once todie,andafterthat the judgment.” What
are we goingto do aboutGod’sjustice andjudgment? “The soul that sinnethshall surelydie.” Christ
said, “You believeGod.” If youbelieve God,andyoubelieve Hisholiness,Hisrighteousness,Hislaw,and
His justice,“Believe inMe.” He said,“I die that youmay live. He diedthe justforthe unjusttobringus
to God. He bore our sinsinHis bodyon the tree. He waswoundedforourtransgressions,bruisedfor
our iniquity;the chastisementof ourpeace waslaidon Him;by Hisstripeswe are healed.”

76. “Do you believe God?Youhave to believe Me also!” If youbelieve Godanddon’thave a Mediator,itis
justyou andGod. You have a rightto be troubled. Youhave a right to be fearful andyouhave a right to
be afraid. I can’t say to you,“Don’t be afraidand don’t
be troubled;youhave tobe afraid.” If youbelieveGodandyoubelieve Christ,youhave areasonto
rest.
What aboutour nature? “Fleshandbloodcan’tenterthe kingdomof God. Fleshandbloodcan’tinherit
the kingdomof God.” Well,howare we goingto be changed? He’sable tochange us. He’s able todo
all that He promised. Whoare we speakingof?The answerisChrist. We’ve beenturnedovertoChrist.
“He’sable to do all that He has promised. He’sable tosave to the uttermostthemthatcome to God by
Him.”
Don’t come to God by the church. Don’tcome toGod byyour sacraments. Don’ttry to come to God by
your religiousworks. Don’ttryto come to God by yourbaptismor your church membership. Docome
to God by Christ,“He’sable tokeepusfrom falling. He’sable topresentus faultlessbefore Hispresence
withexceedinggloryandHe’sable toraise our vile bodiesandmake themlikeHisgloriousbody.” He is
able!
Do youbelieve God? Doyouhave some understandingof the majestyof God? Do youunderstandHis
holiness, the justice of God,andthe righteousnessof God? Do you? What aboutthe judgmentof God?
Then,He said,“You’ve gotto believeMe. There isone God and one MediatorbetweenGodandmen.”
Thank God thatHe is betweenGodandmen! ThankGod He’sbetweenus. GodsentHim. “God sent
His Sonintothe world,notto condemnthe world,(we’re alreadycondemned),butthatthe world
throughHim mightbe saved.” It isthroughHim!
“Don’t letyourheart be troubled;youbelieveGod,believeMe.” That is your onlyrest. That is your
onlyhope “BelieveMe.” He’sthe onlyMediator,there isonlyone!
He saidinverse 2, “In My Father’shouse are manymansions”(that’sMyFather’shouse andit’sMy
Father’sfamilyandMy Father’skingdomanditisMy Father’sheaven.He rulesitandHe reignsoverit;it
isHis house). Thatword“mansions”means,“dwellingplaces.” There are manyof them(dwelling
places) andthere issufficientroomforall. There’sroomfor all (there are novacancies,butplentyof

77. room). A people likeChristwillpopulate Heaven. There are many,manydwellingplaces. Thatiswhere
we will foreverabide.
We are not goingto be guests. We are not goingto be just passingthrough,we are notjust visitors;we
are goingto dwell there. Davidsaid,“Surelygoodnessandmercyshall follow me all the daysof mylife
and I shall dwell inthe house of the Lordforever. InmyFather’shouse are manydwellingplaces.”
What isa place? It isa real place. Heavenisa real place. “There’sa new heavenanda new earth
whereindwellethrighteousness.” The scripture says,“Letnot yourheart be troubled:ye believeinGod,
believealsoinme.InmyFather'shouse are manymansions:if itwere notso, I wouldhave toldyou.Igo
to prepare a place foryou.”
I’ve heardpreacherssaythingslike thisandI know itmakesfor veryentertainingpreaching,butthere’s
not muchtruth to it. I’ve heardpreacherssay,“Well,the Lordcreatedheaveninsix daysandHe’sbeen
up inheavenfortwothousandyearspreparingheaven. Oh,whataplace that must be.” Well,thatis
justnot so. What our Lord issayinghere isthat He createdthe heavenandthe earthin six days;that is
true,but He’ssaying,“Igo to prepare a place for you.”
You see,youandI have no right toheaven. Youdon’thave any rightto heaven. Whatclaimdo you or I
have on heaven? None!We are sinners,fallensonsanddaughtersof Adam;we don’thave anyrightto
heaven. We’ve ruinedourworld,andGod isn’tgoingtoletyou ruinheavenlike we have ruinedthis
world. Thiswouldbe a wonderful worldif youwouldtake peopleoutof it. Let’sjustget ridof all the
people andthisworldwouldbe awonderful place. There’stoomuchsin(people).
You and I don’tbelonginheaven. YouandI are fallencreatures. We’ve fallenfromaheavenlynature.
If you and I are receivedintoheaven,the LordJesushasto prepare usfor heavenandheavenforus.
He’sgot to go to heavenandprepare forus a place. We don’tbelongthere. We don’townanything
there.
I hearpeople say,“Heaven’smyhome.” Heavenisnotourhome! It’s notby yourworks;it’snot by
your deeds. Youdidn’tbuyanythingupthere,how come youhave a claimon heaven? Well,youdon’t;
He establishedaclaimforyou. “He, our forerunnerhasenteredinwithinthe veil”andHe has staked
the claim! It’s justlike whenourforefathersmovedoutWest,theywentoutthere andstakedaclaim
on the land,saying,“Thisismy land!” You see,theystakedaclaim. Are you goingto stake a claimup

78. there? Nosir, butHe can; He’sthe perfectRighteousness,the perfectRedeemer,the perfectLord,the
perfectSubstitute,Sacrifice,Representative,Holyman,andGod-manwhocan go up there representing
you. It is on Hisauthority,Hiswork,and isbasedon HisHoliness. If Godwill acceptHimin yourplace,
thenHe can go up there andestablishaclaim. He is preparingaplace for you. He is guaranteeingyou
that place inGod’s heaven.
Do youhave any guaranteesof heaven? Doyouhave any assurance? There isonlyone guarantee and
that isChrist. If God the Fatherwill acceptHisrighteousness,Hisobedience,HisdeathandHisbloodin
your place,He can get youin. You’ll have to go
in,inHim. WhenHe said,“I go to prepare a place foryou,” He’ssayingthatHe wentto Jerusalemand
He wastriedinour place. He wentto the cross and diedinourplace. He paidthe sin debt. He wentto
the tomb as our Scapegoatinour place. He ascendedtoheaven,“He isthe Lord of Host, and he
appearedinthe presence of Godfor us inour steadand we are complete inHim.”
Can youget a holdof that? We have hearttrouble anddistress. Ihave sinnedagainstGod. I’m not
worthyto be calledThySon. I have no claimonheaven. Ihave no right andI have no home there.
Do youbelieve inGod(Ido)? I knowwhatI am by nature;I have to have a Mediator.
He said,“BelieveinGod,believe alsoinme.” InMy Father’shouse are manymansions.Who’sFather’s
house? He says, “My Father’shouse”.“I’ll goandI will prepare aplace for you.”
Now,listen,inverse three: “Andif Igo and prepare a place for you,I will come again,andreceive you
untomyself;thatwhere Iam, there ye maybe also.”Thisisthe certaintyof Hisredeemingwork. Christ
cannot fail tobringHis people toglory.
Suppose thatsome fatherleaveshome,andtellshiswife andchildrenthathe isgoingoutto Kentucky,
IllinoisorKansas(like waybackwhenourforefatherswere goingoutwest).He’sgoingtogetsome land
and buildaplace,and he tellsthem“Iwill be backto get you.” He’ssaying,“Where I am there youare
goingto be.”

79. The Father gave HisSon a people. He made ChristtheirSuretyfromall eternity.Christbecame
responsible forHispeople,fortheirjustification,righteousness,sanctificationandall theirsalvation. He
came intothisworldandpurchasedusthe rightto glory. He wentback to gloryandHe said,“I go to
prepare a place,if I go andprepare a place for you,(Iwill guarantee you) thatIwill come againand
receive youuntoMyself thatwhere Iam, there youare goingto be.”
He prayedthatin John17: He said,“FatherI will thatthose whomThouhast givenMe,be withMe
where Iam.” Not a one of themwill be lost.
He alsodeclaredinJohn6: verses37-40 “All that My FathergivethMe will come to Me and he that
comethto Me, I will innowise castout. I came downfrom heavennottodo My will butthe will of Him
that sentMe and thisisthe will of HimthatsentMe, that of all whichHe hath givenme;I’ll lose nothing
but I’ll raise itupat the lastday. Thisis the
will of Himthat sentMe. He that seeththe SonandbelievethonHimwill have everlastinglifeandIwill
raise himup at the last day.” I will!
I knowthat we spendall of our time talkingaboutthe secondcomingof Christ. He’scomingagain,no
doubtabout it. The angelssaidwhenHe wentaway,“That same Jesuswhoistakenup fromyouup into
heavenshall socome inlike mannerasyousee Him go.” He’stalkingaboutwhenHe comesfor you. It
doesn’tmatterif itis indeathor whetheritisthe secondcoming. Wheneveritis,He said,“I love you
and I’myour Mediator. My FathersentMe toredeemyouandI guarantee that I am goingto doit and
I’mgoingto prepare a place for you. I’m goingto the Father,My Fatherand your Father. I’mgoingto
sitat Hisrighthand and I’mgoingto enterwithinthe veil andI’ll be backforyou. I’m comingback for
youthat where I am,there youmay be also.” I guarantee it!
In verse fourHe said,“AndwhitherIgo ye know,andthe way ye know.” You know the way I go,you
knowwhere Igo, and youknowthe way I go. Now,here we are! Thisis as plainasI can preachthisand
thisisas plainasI can make it inplainoldWestVirginiatalk,KentuckytalkandOhiotalk. Thisisas plain
as I can make it. Do you believe inGod? Doyou believeinMe? Christsaid,“I’myour onlyhope,I’m
your onlyRedeemer.” There’sonlyone Mediator. Now,believe inMe andrestin Me, trustin Me and
lookto Me. Do youunderstand? “I’mgoingto go and prepare a place foryou andI will be back for
you.” Theysaidto Him,“So, youknowthe way?”

80. Thomaslookedat Himand said,“Lord,we know notwhitherthougoest;andhow can we know the
way?”Thomas,I just toldyou. I’ll tell youagain,“Thomas,I’mthe way,I’m the truth,I’m the life;no
man comesto the Father,(that’swhere Iam going;I go to My Father);noman comesto the Father but
by Me.”
You see,whenAdamfell inthe Gardenof Eden,he lostthe truth andhe lostlife andhe lostthe way to
God. Christcame to restore it. He wasthe secondAdam. “I’m the way; I’mthe truth; and I’mthe life.
So,letnot your heartbe troubled.”
Thisis the cure andthe remedyforall hearttrouble,He says,“BelieveinMe and rest.”
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled
BY SPURGEON
“Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in
Me.”
John 14:1
Their Master, their Head, was to be takenfrom them. Well might they cry
with Elisha, “My Father, my Father, the chariotof Israeland the horsemen
thereof!” We too, dear Friends, though we have not enjoyed, perhaps, so
entire an immunity as did the Apostles, were at one time very graciously
shielded from trouble. We had a summertime of joy and an autumn of peace
far different than this present winter of our discontent. It frequently happens
that after conversion, God, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, gives to
the weaklingsofthe flock a period of repose during which they rejoice with
David, “He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the
still waters.” Butfor all of us there will come a time of trouble similar to that
sorrowfuloccasionwhichled the Savior to utter these memorable
heartcheering words.
If our conscious communionwith Jesus should not be interrupted, yet some
other form of tribulation awaits us, for the testimony of earth’s poet that,
“man is made to mourn,” is wellborne out by the inspired declaration, “man
is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards.” We must not expectthat we

81. shall be exceptions to the generallot of our race!There is no discharge in this
war. We must all be conscripts in the armies of grief. We, too, shall do battle
with strong temptations and feel the wounds of adversity. Albeit that yonder
ship so lately launched upon a glassysea has all her streamers flying, and
rejoices in a favorable wind–let her captain remember that the sea is
treacherous, that winds are variable, and that the stoutestvesselmay find it
more than difficult to outride a hurricane.
I rejoice to see the courage ofthat young man who has but just joined the
army of the Church militant, and is buckling on the glittering armor of faith!
As yet there are no dents and bruises on that fair helmet and burnished
breastplate. But let the wearerreckonupon blows, and bruises, and
bloodstains!No, let him rejoice if he endure hardness as a goodsoldier, for
without the fight where would be the victory? Brethren in our Lord Jesus,
without due trial, where would be our experience? And without the
experience, where would be the holy increase ofour faith, and the joyful
triumph of our love through the manifested power of Christ?
We must expect, then, to walk with our Lord to the gates of Gethsemane–both
His and ours! We must expect to cross the Brook Kedron in company with
our Master, and it will be well if we hear Him say to us as He did to His
disciples on that eventful night, “Let not your hearts be troubled: you believe
in God, believe also in Me.” My Brothers and Sisters, some ofus live at this
hour in the midst of trouble. We do not remember any period more dark with
portents of evil than the presentwatch of earth’s long night. Few events have
occurredof late to cheer the generalgloom. Our hopeful spirit has been
accustomedto say, all things considered, there are no times like the times
present. Think about whether any times have been more vexatious and
troublesome than those which just now are passing over our head.
The political atmosphere is far from being clear, no, it is thick and heavy with
death-damps of mutual distrust which bring no increase to England’s
greatness,but greatlythe reverse. There are those who think that our trade,
especiallyin its more speculative department, has become thoroughly rotten.
And one thing is quite certain–many well-knowninfamous transactions have
sapped the foundations of credit and stainedour national honor. Is all
England bankrupt, and our wealtha sham? Let us hope not.
But who cansee without alarm the greatportion of our trade which is going
from us through the folly of the many who combine to regulate what ought to
be left perfectly free? If our trade continues much longerto depart from us,
we shall become a generationof beggars who will deserve no pity because we
brought our poverty upon ourselves. There are, we fear, dark days coming

82. upon this land. In fact, the dark days are here, for in no year of the last twenty
has there been, Brethren, such deep and wide-spreaddistress in London as at
the presentmoment.
I am far from endorsing all the fears of the timid, yet I do see much ground
for pleading earnestlywith God to send to our rulers political wisdom to end
the bitter disputes of class with class, and to grant to our whole nation Divine
Grace to repent of its many sins, that the chastening rod may be withdrawn.
Apart from these, we have eacha share of home-trials. Is there one here who
is happy enoughto wholly escape from the troubles of the earth? Some have
the wolfat the door–shortness ofbread just now is felt in the houses of many a
Christian–some ofyou are compelledto eatyour bread with carefulness. You
go to your God in the morning and ask Him to provide for you your daily
food, and repeat that prayer with more meaning than usual, for just now God
is making us feel that He can break the staff of bread and send a famine in the
land if He so wills it.
Many who are not altogetherpoor are, nevertheless, in sorrow, for reverses in
business have, during the last few months, brought the affairs of many of the
Lord’s people into a very perilous state, so that they cannotbut be troubled in
spirit. Vexatious abound and many a path is strewn with thorns. If this is not
the shape of our trouble, sickness maybe raging where penury has not
entered. Beyond all these there may be afflictions which it were not well to
mention–griefs which must be carried by the mother alone–trials which the
father alone must bear, or sorrows in which none but the daughter can share.
We all have our homes full of trials. Day by day this bitter manna falls around
the camp. Trials arising among the Church of God are many, and we might
add, that to the genuine Christian they are as heavy as any which he has to
bear. I am sure, to those of us who have to look upon the Church with the
anxious eye of loving shepherds, to those of us who are setby God for the
guidance and rule of His people, there are troubles enough, and more than
enough, to bow us to the earth. In the best-ordered Church, such as this is and
long has been, it must needs be that offenses come. Sometimes it is a jealousy
betweenBrothers. At another time a strife betweenSisters.
Sometimes it is this one who has fallen into gross sin (God forgive these who
have pierced us through with many sorrows!) and anothertime it is a gradual
backsliding which the pastorcan detect, but which the subject of it cannot
discern. Sometimes it is a heresy, which, springing up, troubles us. At another
time it is a slander, which, like a deadly serpent, creeps through the grass. I
have had little enough to complain of in these respects, but still such things are

83. with us, even with us, and we must not count them strange, as though some
strange thing had happened to us. While men are imperfect there will be sins
among the best of them which will cause sorrow both to themselves and to
those of the Lord’s people who are in fellowshipwith them.
Worstof all are soul troubles. God save you from these!Oh the grief of being
conscious ofhaving fallen from high places ofenjoyment! Conscious ofhaving
wastedopportunities for eminent usefulness!Consciousofhaving been lax in
prayer, of having been negligentin study, of having been–alas, thatwe should
have to add it–unguarded in word and act! Ah, Friends, when the soul feels all
this and cannotget to the blood of sprinkling as it would–cannotreturn to the
light of God’s countenance as it would desire–itis trouble, indeed! It is
terrible to be compelled to sit and sing–
“Where is the blessednessI knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word?”
But my tale is all too long. It is clearthat this mortal life has troubles enough.
Suppose that these should meet andthat the man, as a patriot, is oppressed
with the ills of his country? Suppose, as a father and a husband, he is
depressedwith the cares ofhome? Or as a Christian he is afflicted with the
troubles in the Church, and as a saint made to walk heavily before the Lord
because ofinward afflictions? “Why, then, he is in a sorry plight,” you say.
Indeed he is! But, blessedbe God, he is in a plight in which the words of the
text are still applicable to him–“Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in
God, believe also in Me.”
Ceasing from this dolorous prelude, let us observe that the advice of the text is
very timely and wise. Secondly, let us notice that the advice of the text is
practicable. It is not given us to mock us–we must seek to carry it out! And
lastly, and perhaps that lastmay yield us good cheer, the advice of the text is
very precious.
1. FIRST, THEN, THE ADVICE OF THE TEXT IS VERY TIMELY
AND WISE. There is no need to say, “Let not your heart be troubled,”
when you are not in affliction. When all things go well with you, you will
need another caution– “Let not your heart be exalted above measure: if
riches increase, setnot your heart upon them.” The word, “Let not your
heart be troubled,” is timely, and it is wise.
A few minutes thought will lead you to see it. It is the easiestthing in the
world, in times of difficulty, to let the heart such “a sea of trouble”–that it is

84. better to lie passive and to say, “If one must be ruined, so let it be.” Despairing
idleness is easyenough, especiallyto evil rebellious spirits who are willing
enough to get into further mischief that they may have more with which to
blame God, againstwhose Providence they have quarreled. Our Lord will not
have us be so rebellious. He bids us pluck up heart and be of goodcourage in
the worstpossible condition–and here is the wisdom of His advice, namely,
that a troubled heart will not help us in our difficulties or out of them.
It has never been perceived in time of drought that lamentations have brought
showers ofrain, or that in seasonsoffrost, doubts, fears, and
discouragements,have produced a thaw. We have never heard of a man,
whose business was declining, who managedto multiply the number of his
customers by unbelief in God. I do not remember reading of a person, whose
wife or child was sick, who discoveredany miraculous healing powerin
rebellion againstthe MostHigh. It is a dark night, but the darkness ofyour
heart will not light a candle for you. It is a terrible tempest, but to quench the
fires of comfort and open the doors to admit the howling winds into the
chambers of your spirit will not stay the storm.
No good comes out of fretful, petulant, unbelieving heart-trouble. This lion
yields no honey. If it would help you, you might reasonablysit down and weep
till the tears had washedawayyour woe. If it were really to some practical
benefit to be suspicious of God and distrustful of Providence, why, then, you
might have a shadow of excuse–butas this is a mine out of which no one ever
dug any silver, as this is a fishery out of which the diver never brought up a
pearl–we would say, “Renounce that which cannot be of service to you, for as
it can do no good, it is certain that it does much mischief.”
A doubting, fretful spirit takes from us the joys we have. You have not all you
could wish, but you still have more than you deserve. Your circumstances are
not what they might be, but still they are not even now so bad as the
circumstances ofsome others. Your unbelief makes you forgetthat health still
remains for you if poverty oppresses you. And if both health and abundance
have departed, you are still a child of God and your name is not blotted out
from the roll of the chosen!Why, Brothers and Sisters, there are flowers that
bloom in winter, if we have but grace to see them! Never was there a night so
dark for the soul but what some lone star of hope might be discerned!And
never a spiritual tempest so terrible but what there was a haven into which
the soulcould dock if it had but enough confidence in God to make a run for
it.
Restassuredthat though you have fallen very low, you might have fallen
lowerif it were not that underneath are the everlasting arms. A doubting,

85. distrustful spirit will wither the few blossoms which remain upon your bough,
and if half the wells are frozen by affliction, unbelief will freeze the other half
by its despondency. Brothers and Sisters, you will win no good, but you may
get incalculable mischief by a troubled heart–it is a root which bears no fruit
exceptwormwood!
A troubled heart makes that which is bad worse. It magnifies, aggravates,
caricatures, misrepresents.If but an ordinary foe is in your way, a troubled
heart makes him swell into a giant. “We were in their sight but as
grasshoppers,”saidthe ten evil spies. “Yes, and we were but as grasshoppers
in our own sight when we saw them.” But it was not so. No doubt the men
were very tall, but they were not so big, after all, as to make an ordinary six-
foot man look like a grasshopper!Their fears made them grasshoppersby
first making them fools. If they had possessedbut ordinary courage they
would have been men–but being cowardlythey subsided into grasshoppers.
After all, what is an extra three, four, or five feet of flesh to a man? Is not the
bravest soul the tallest? If he of shorterstature is but nimble and courageous,
he will have the bestof it. Little David made short work of greatGoliath. Yet
so it is–unbelief makes out our difficulties to be most gigantic and then it leads
us to suppose that never a soulhad such difficulties before–andso we
egotisticallylament, “I am the man that has seenaffliction.” We claim to be
peers in the realm of misery, if not the emperors of the kingdom of grief. Yet
it is not so. Why? What ails you? The headache is excruciating? Well, it is bad
enough, but what would you say if you had sevensuch aches atonce, and cold
and nakedness to back them?
The twitches of rheumatism are horrible? Right well can I endorse that
statement! But what then? Why there have been men who have lived with
such tortures thrice told all their lives–like Baxter–whocouldtell all his bones
because eachone had made itself heard by its own peculiar pain. I know that
you and I often suffer under depressionof spirit and physical pain, but what is
our complaint compared with the diseases ofCalvin, the man who preachedat
the break of every day to the students in the cathedral, and workedon till long
past midnight, and was all the while a mass of disease–a complicatedagony?
You are poor? Ah yes, but you have your own room, scantyas it is, and there
are hundreds in the workhouse who find sorry comfort there. It is true you
have to work hard! Yes, but think of the Huguenot galley slave in the olden
times, who for the love of Christ was bound with chains to the oar, and
scarcelyknew restday nor night. Think of the sufferings of the martyrs of
Smithfield, or of the saints who rotted in their prisons. Above all, let your eyes
turn to the greatApostle and High priest of your profession, and “consider

86. Him who endured such contradictionof sinners againstHimself, lestyou be
wearyand faint in your mind.”–
“His way was much rougher and darkerthan mine,
Did Christ, my Lord, suffer, and shall I repine?”
Yet this is the habit of Unbelief–to draw our picture in the blackestpossible
colors–to tellus that the road is unusually rough and utterly impassable. He
tells us that the storm is such a tornado as never blew before, and that our
name will be down in the wreck register–thatit is impossible that we should
ever reachthe haven.
Moreover, a troubled heart is most dishonorable to God. It makes the
Christian think very harshly of his tender heavenly Friend. It leads him to
suspecteternalfaithfulness and to doubt unchangeable love. Is this a little
thing? It breathes into the Christian a proud rebellious spirit. He judges his
Judge, and misjudges. He has not learned Job’s philosophy. He cannot say,
“Shallwe receive goodfrom the hand of the Lord, and shall we not also
receive evil? The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, and blessedbe the
name of the Lord.”
Inward distress makes the humble, meek, teachable child of God to become a
willful, wicked, rebellious offender in spirit. Is this a little thing? And
meanwhile it makes the family and the outsiders who know the Christian to
doubt the reality of those Truths of God of which the Christian used to boast
in his brighter days. Satan suggeststo them, “You see, these Christian people
are no better sustained than others. The props which they leaned upon when
they did not want them are of no service to them now that they do require
them.”
“See,”says the Fiend, “they are as petulant, as unbelieving, and as rebellious
as the rest of mankind! It is all a sham, a piece of enthusiasm which will not
endure an ordinary trial.” Is this a small matter? Surely there are mouths
enough to revile the Throne of God! There are lips enoughto utter blasphemy
againstHim without His own dear children turning againstHim because He
frowns upon them. Surely they should be bowed to the earth at the mere
suspicionthat they could do such a thing, and cry to God to save them from a
troubled heart lest they should rebel againstHim!
I feel, with regard to the Christian Church, that the truth which I am
endeavoring to bring forward is above all things essential. The mischief of the
Christian Church at large is a lack of holy confidence in God. The reasonwhy
we have had, as a Church, I believe, unprecedented prosperity has been that
on the whole we have been a courageous, hopeful, and joyous body of

87. Christian people who have believed in our own principles most intensely, and
have endeavoredto propagate them with the most vehement earnestness.
Now I can suppose the devil coming in among us and endeavoring to
dishearten us by this or that supposed failure or difficulty. “Oh,” says he,
“will you ever win the victory? See!Sin still abounds, notwithstanding all the
preaching and all the praying. Are not the jails full? Do you see any great
moral change workedafter all? Surely you will not make the advances you
expected–youmay as well give it up.” Yes, and when once an army can be
demoralized by a lack of spirit–when once the British soldier canbe assured
that he cannot win the day–that even at the push of the bayonet nothing can
awaithim but defeat, then the rational conclusionhe draws is that every man
had better take care of himself, and look to his heels and fly to his home.
But oh, if we can feel that the victory is not precarious nor even doubtful but
absolutely certain!If eachone of us can restassuredthat the Lord of Hosts is
with us! That the God of Jacobis our refuge. That the most discouraging
circumstances whichcan possibly occurare only mere incidents in the great
struggle–mere eddies in the mighty current that is bearing everything before
it. If we can but feelthat soonershould Heaven and earth pass awaythan
God’s promise be broken! I say, if we can keepour courage up at all times–if
from the youngestof us who have lately joined, to the venerable veterans who
have for years fought at our side we can feel that we must win, that the
purposes of Godmust be fulfilled, that the kingdoms of this world must
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ–then we shall see bright
and glorious things! Some of you grow discouragedbecauseyou have taught
in the Sunday schooland you have seenno conversions inyour class, andyou
want to sneak awayamong the baggage. Others of you have tried to preachin
the streets and you did not geton, and you feel half inclined not to do anything
more. Isn’t this right? Some of you have not felt as happy with other Christian
people as you would like to be. You do not think others respectyou quite up to
the mark that you have marked for yourselves on your thermometer of
dignity, and you are inclined to run away. Isn’t this right?
Now I will boldly say to those of you who are inclined to run, run–for our
resolution is to stand fast. Those who are afraid, let them go to their homes–
for our eyes are on the battle and the crown. Those of you who cannotbear a
little roughness and cannot fight for Christ, I had almost said, we shall be
better without your cowardly spirits–but I would rather pray for you, that
you may pluck up heart and cry with holy boldness, “Nothing shall discourage
us.” If all the devils in Hell should appear visibly before us, and show their
teeth with flame pouring from their mouths as from ten thousand ovens, yet

88. so long as the Lord of Hosts lives, by His Grace we will not fear, but lift up
our banners and laugh our enemies to scorn!–
“We will in life and death
His steadfasttruth declare,
And publish with our latest breath
His love and guardian care.”
There is a greatdeal more to say, but we cannot say it. Perhaps you will think
it over, and perhaps you will perceive that of all the mischiefs that might
happen to a goodman, it is certainly one of the greatestto let his heart be
troubled. And that of all the goodthings that belong to a Christian soldier, a
bold heart and confidence in God are not the least!As long as we do not lose
heart we have not lost the day. But if confidence in God departs, then the
floods have burst into the vessel, and what can save it? What indeed, but that
eternal love which comes in to the rescue even at our extremity?
II. In the secondplace, THE ADVICE THAT IS GIVEN IS PRACTICABLE–
it can be carried out. “Let not your heart be troubled.” “Oh,” says somebody,
“that’s very easyto say, but very hard to do.” Here’s a man who has fallen
into a deep ditch and you lean over the hurdle and say to him,“ Don’t be
troubled about it.” “Ah,” he says, “that’s very pretty for you that are standing
up there, but how am I to be at ease while up to my neck in mire?”
There is a noble ship stranded and liable to be brokenup by the breakers, and
we speak from a trumpet and sayto the mariners on board, “Don’tbe
alarmed.” “Oh,” they say, “very likely not, when every timber is shivering
and the vesselis going to pieces!” But when He who speaksis full of love, pity,
and might, and has it in His own power to make His advice become prophetic
of deliverance, we need not raise difficulties, but we may conclude that if Jesus
says, “Let not your heart be troubled,” our heart need not be troubled!
There is a wayof keeping the heart out of trouble, and the Saviorprescribes
the method. First, He indicates that our resortmust be to faith. If in your
worsttimes you would keepyour head above water, the life belt must be faith.
Now, Christian, do you not know this? In the olden times how were men kept
from perishing but by faith? Readthat mighty chapterin Hebrews, and see
what faith did–how Believers overcame armies, put to flight the army of
aliens, quenched the violence of fire–and stopped the mouths of lions! There is
nothing which faith has not done or cannot do! Faith is girdled about with the
Omnipotence of God for her girdle. She is the greatwonder-worker.
Why, there were men in the olden times whose troubles were greaterthan
yours, whose discouragement’s and difficulties in serving God were a great

89. deal more severe than any you and I have known, yet they trusted God! They
trusted God, and they were not confounded. They restedin Him, and they
were not ashamed. Their puny arms workedmiracles, and their uplifted
voices in prayer brought blessings from on high. What God did of old He will
do now–He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Christian, betake yourself to faith. Did not faith bring your first comfort to
you? Remember when you were in despair under a sense of sin? What
brought you joy? Was it goodworks? Was it your inward feelings? The first
ray of light that came to your poor dark spirit, did it not come from the Cross
through believing? Oh, that blessedday when first I castmyself on Jesus and
saw my sins numbered on the scapegoat’s headof old! What a flood of light
faith brought then! Open the same window, for the sun is in the same place
and you will get light from it. Go not, I pray you, to any other well but to this
well of your spiritual Bethlehem which is within the gate, the waterof which is
still sweetand still free to you.
Ah, dear Friends, there is one reasonwhy you should resortto faith, namely,
that it is the only thing you have to resortto! What canyou do if you do not
trust your God? Under many troubles, when they are realtroubles, the
creature is evidently put to a nonplus and human ingenuity, itself, fails. We
are like the seamenin a storm who reel to and fro and staggerlike drunken
men and are at their wits end. Oh let us, now that every other anchor is drug,
castout the greatsheetanchor, for that will hold. Now that every refuge has
failed, let us fly to the Strong for strength, for God will be our helper!
Surely it ought not to be difficult for a child to believe his father! It should
not, therefore, be difficult for us to trust in our God, and so to lift our spirits
out of the tumult of their doubts. Somebodywill say, “Well, I can understand
that faith is a practicalway of getting out of trouble, but I cannotunderstand
how we are to have faith.” Well, in this the Savior helps us. You remember
what He saidwhen the people were hungry–“Give you them to eat.” “Ah,”
they said, “there are so many! How can we feed them?”
The Masterbeganby saying, “How many loaves have you?” That is just what
He says here. He says, “It is faith that will get you out of trouble, but how
much faith have you?” He answers for them, “You believe in God.” I must do
the same by you. Faith is that which will deliver you. You say, “Where am I to
get it?” Well, you have some already, have you not? You have five barley
loaves and a few small fishes. You are unbelieving creatures but you have
some measure of faith. You believe that there is a God.

90. “Yes,” you say. You believe He is unchangeable. You believe that He is full of
love, good and kind, and true and faithful. Now really, that is a greatdeal to
begin with! You believe in God–the most of us believe in a greatdeal more
than that–we not only believe in a God, and in the excellenceofHis Character,
but we believe that He has a chosenpeople. We believe that He has made a
Covenantwith them, ordered in all things and sure. We believe that the
promises of His Covenant will be fulfilled, that He never puts awayHis
people. We believe that all things work togetherfor goodto them that love
God. We believe that the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. We believe that the Holy Spirit is given to dwell in His people.
Now this is a greatdeal, a solid fulcrum upon which to place the lever. If you
believe all that, you have only properly to employ this faith in order to lift
your soul out of the horrible ditch of doubt and fear into which it has
stumbled. You believe all this? Surely, then, there is some room for hope and
confidence!The Saviorgoes on to say, “You believe in God,” very well,
exercise that same faith with regardto the case in hand. The case in hand was
this–could they trust a dying Savior? Could they rest upon One who was
about to be crucified, dead and buried–who would be gone from them except
that His poor mangled body would remain in their midst?
“Now,” says Jesus,“yousee you have had enough of faith to believe in God.
Now exercise that same faith upon Me. Trust Me as you trust God.” From this
I infer that the drift of the exhortation I am to give you this morning is this.
“You have believed God about other things. Exercise that same faith about
this thing whateverit may be. You have believed God concerning the pardon
of your soul, believe God about the child, about the wife, about the money,
about the present difficulty. You have believed, concerning God, the great
invisible One, and His greatspiritual promises–now believe concerning this
visible thing, this loss of yours, this cross ofyours, this trial, this present
affliction–exercisefaith about that.
Jesus Christ did, in effect, say to His people, “It is true I am going from you,
but I want you to believe that I am not going far. I shall be in the same house
as you are in, for my Father’s house has many rooms in it. And though you
will be here in these earthly mansions and I shall be in the heavenly mansions,
yet they are all in the Father’s house, for in My Father’s house are many
dwelling places.” “Iwant you to believe,” says Jesus, “thatwhen I am away
from you I am about your interests, I am preparing a place for you, and
moreoverthat I intend coming back to you. My heart will be with you, and
My Personshallsoonreturn to you.”

91. Now then, the drift of that applied to our case is this–believe that the present
loss you sustain, or the present discouragementwhich threatens to overwhelm
you–believe that God has a high design in it! That as Christ’s departure was
to prepare eternal mansions for His people, so your present loss is to prepare
you for a spiritual gain. I like that word of Christ when He says, “If it were
not so I would have told you.” When a man makes a generalstatement, if he
knows an exceptionhe ought to mention it. And if he does not mention it his
statementis not strictly true. Jesus says, “If it were not so I would have told
you.”
There is a greatword of His which says, “All things work togetherfor goodto
them that love God.” A very awkwardthing has happened to you. The trouble
which you are now suffering is a very singular one. Now, if ever there had
been any exceptionto the rule which we have quoted, God, in honor, would
have told it to you when He made the generalstatement, “All things work
togetherfor goodto them that love God.” Such is His love and wisdom that if
there had been one trial that could happen to one of His people which would
not work for the goodof that child of His, He would have said, “Dearchild,
there is an exception–one trouble will happen to you which will not work for
your good.”
I am positive that there is no exceptionto the statement that all things work
togetherfor goodto them that love God, because if there had been an
exceptionHe would have put it in–He would have told us of it that we might
know how far to trust and when to leave off trusting–how far to rejoice and
when to be castdown. Your case, then, is no exception to the rule! All that is
happening is working for your everlasting benefit!
Another place, however, another place will reveal this to you. Think of your
Father’s house and its mansions, and it will mitigate your griefs. “Alas for us
if you were all, and nothing beyond, O earth!” There is another and a better
land, and in your Father’s house, where the many mansions are, it may be you
shall be privileged to understand how these light afflictions, which are but for
a moment, have workedout for you a far more exceedinglyand eternal weight
of glory.
Before I close this point, let me say it ought to be a greatdeal easierforyou
and me to live above heart-trouble than it was to the Apostles. I mean easier
than it was to the Apostles at the time when the Savior spoke to them and for
forty days afterwards. You say, “How was that?” Why because you have three
things which they had not. You have experience of many past troubles out of
which you have been delivered. They had only been converted at the outside

92. of three years. They had not knownmuch trouble, for Jesus in the flesh had
dwelt among them to screenoff troubles from them.
Some of you have been converted 30, 40–whatif I say60 years? And you have
had abundance of trouble–you have not been screenedfrom it. Now all this
experience ought to make it easierforyou to say, “My heart shall not be
troubled.” Again, you have receivedthe Holy Spirit, and they had not. The
Holy Spirit was not given, as you remember, until the day of Pentecost. His
direct government in the Church was not required while Christ was here. You
have the Spirit, the Comforter to abide with you forever! Surely you ought to
be less distracted than they were!
Thirdly, you have the whole of Scripture–they had but a part. They certainly
had not the richest Scriptures of all, for they had not the Evangelists norany
of the New Testament, and having, as we have, all that store of promise and
comfort, we ought, surely, to find it no hard work to obey the sweetprecept,
“Let not your heart be troubled.”
III. THE EXHORTATION OF THE TEXT OUGHT TO BE VERY
PRECIOUS TO ALL OF US THIS MORNING, and we should make a point
of pleading for the Holy Spirit’s aid to enable us to carry it out. Remember
that the loving advice came from Him who said, “Let not your heart be
troubled.” Who could have saidit but the Lord Jesus, the Man of Sorrows,
and acquainted with grief?
The mother says to the child, “Do not cry, child, be patient.” That sounds very
differently from what it would have done if the schoolmasterhadsaid it. Or if
a strangerin the streethad spoken. “Do not let your heart be troubled,” might
be a stinging remark from a stranger! But coming from the Savior, who
“knows whatstrong temptations mean, for He has felt the same,” it drops like
virgin honey for sweetness, andlike the balm of Gileadfor healing power.
Jesus says, “Letnot your heart be troubled.” His own face was towards the
Cross. He was hard by the olivepress of Gethsemane. He was about to be
troubled as never man was troubled, and yet among His lastwords were these,
“Let not your hearts be troubled,” as if He wanted to monopolize all tears and
would not have them shed so much as one!
He said it as if He longed to take all the heart-trouble Himself and remove it
far from them. He said it as if He would have them exercise their hearts so
much with believing that they would not have the smallestroom left for grief!
As if He would have them so much takenup with the glorious result of His
sufferings in procuring for them eternal mansions that they would not think
about their own present losses,but let them be swallowedup in a mighty sea

93. of joyful expectation. Oh the tenderness of Christ! “Let not your hearts be
troubled.”
He is not here, this morning, in Person, (would God He were!) but oh, if He
will but look at us out of those eyes of His which wept, and make us feel that
this cheering word wells up from that heart which was pierced with the spear,
we shall find it to be a blessedword to our soul! Say it, sweetJesus!Say to
every mourner, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Brothers and Sisters, the
text should have to us the dignity of a command as well as the sweetness of
counsel. Shall we be tormented with trouble after the Captain has said, “Let
not your heart be troubled”?
The Masterof your spirit, who has bought you with His precious blood,
demands that the harp strings of your heart should resound to the touch of
His love, and of His love, alone. And will you surrender those strings to be
dolorously smitten by grief and unbelief? No, rather like George Herbert, say,
“My harp shall find You, and every string shall have its attribute to sing. At
Your Word, instead of mourning, I will bring forth joy! As You bid me I will
put off my sackclothand castawaymy ashes and I will rejoice in the Lord
always, and yet againI will rejoice.”
Prize the counsel, becauseit comes from the Well-Beloved. Prize it, next,
because it points to Him. He says, “You believe in God, believe also in Me.”
You know, if it were not for the connectionwhich requires the particular
constructionhere used, one would have lookedto find these words, “You
believe in Me, believe also in God.” Jesus was speaking to Jews–disciples, who
from their youth up had learned to believe in Emmanuel–believe in Me.
There, there–there is the very creamof the whole matter! If you want
comfort, Christian, you must hear Jesus say, Believe also in Me. You must
approachafresh to the Fountain, and believe in the powerof the blood! You
must take that fair linen of His righteousnessand put it on, and believe that–
“With His spotless vesture on,
You’re holy as the Holy One.”
You must see Jesus deadin His grave and believe that you died there in Him,
and that your sin was buried there in Him. You must see Him rise, and you
must believe also in Him, that His resurrectionwas your resurrection, that
you are risen in Him! You must mark Him as He climbs the starry way up to
the appointed throne of His reward! This must be your belief, also, in Him,
that He has raisedus up togetherand made us sit togetherin heavenly places
in Himself. You must see Him far above all principalities and powers–the

94. ever-living and reigning Lord–and you must believe that because He lives you
shall live, also.
You must see Him with all things put under His feet, and you must believe
that all things are under His feet for you–sin, death, Hell, things present and
things to come–allsubjectunto the Son that He may give to you and to as
many as the Father has given Him, eternal life! Oh, this is comfort! No place
for a child’s aching head like its mother’s bosom! No shadow of a great rock
in this wearyland like our Savior’s love consciouslyovershadowing us!His
own side is the place where He does from the sun protectHis flock. This is the
pasture where He makes them lie down! This is the river from which He gives
them drink, namely, Himself. Communion with Jesus is glory!
The saints feast, but it is upon His flesh! They drink, but it is of His blood!
They triumph, but it is in His shame!They rejoice, but it is in His grief! They
live, but it is with His life! And they reign, but it is through His power!It is
precious advice, then, because it comes from Him and points to Him.
Once more, it is precious advice because it speaks ofHim. It says. “In My
Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you: I
go to prepare a place for you.” Jesus is here seenin action–anything which
makes us remember Christ should be prized. Jesus Christ comes to comfort
us–and that comfort is all about Himself. We should greatly prize it. We want
to know more of Jesus. One greatdeficiencyis our ignorance of Him, and if
the advice of this morning is calculatedto make us know Him better and value
Him more, let us prize it! Think of all He said and did, and what He is doing
for us now.
Now let your thoughts see Him beyond the glittering starry sky with the many
crowns upon His head. See Him as your Representative, claiming your rights,
pleading before the Throne for you, scattering blessings foryou on earth, and
preparing joys for you above!That is the last thought, namely, that the advice
is precious, because it hints that we are to be with Him forever. “An hour with
my God,” says the hymn, “will make up for it all.” So it will. But what will an
eternity with our Godbe? Foreverto behold Him smiling! Foreverto dwell in
Him! “Abide in Me.” That is Heaven on earth. “Abide in Me” is all the
Heaven we shall want in Heaven!
He is preparing the place now, making it ready for us above, and here below
making us ready for it. Courage, then, Brothers and Sisters, courage!Let us
not fret about the way–ourheads are towards home. We are not outward-
bound vessels, thank God. Every wind that blows is bringing us nearer to our

95. native land. Our tents are frail, we often pitch and strike them, but we nightly
pitch them–
“A day’s march nearer home.”
Be of goodcheer, soldier!The battle must soonend. And that bloodstained
banner, when it shall wave so high, and that shout of triumph, when it shall
thrill from so many thousand lips, and that grand assemblyof heroes–allof
them made more than conquerors, and the sight of the King in His beauty,
riding in the chariot of His triumph, paved with love for the daughters of
Jerusalem, and the acclamationsofspirits glorified, and the shouts and joyful
music of cherubims and seraphims–allthese shall make up for all the battles
of today–
“And they who, with their Master,
Have conquered in the fight,
Foreverand forever
Are clad in robes of light.”
Be that, by God’s Grace, ours. Amen.
PRECEPT AUSTIN RESOURCES
CALVIN
1.Let not your heart be troubled. Notwithout goodreasondoes Christ confirm
his disciples by so many words, since a contestso arduous and so terrible
awaitedthem; for it was no ordinary temptation, that soonafterwards they
would see him hanging on the cross;a spectacle in which nothing was to be
seenbut ground for the lowestdespair. The seasonofso greatdistress being at
hand, he points out the remedy, that they may not be vanquished and
overwhelmed; for he does not simply exhort and encourage them to be
steadfast, but likewise informs them where they must go to obtain courage;
that is, by faith, when he is acknowledgedto be the Son of God, who has in
himself a sufficiency of strength for maintaining the safetyof his followers.
We ought always to attend to the time when these words were spoken, that
Christ wishedhis disciples to remain brave and courageous, whenthey might
think that every thing was in the greatestconfusion;and therefore we ought to
employ the same shield for warding off such assaults. It is impossible for us,

96. indeed, to avoid feeling various emotions, but though we are shaken, we must
not fall down. Thus it is saidof believers, that they are not troubled, because,
relying on the word of God, though very greatdifficulties press hard upon
them, still they remain steadfastand upright.
You believein God. It might also be read in the imperative mood, Believein
God, and believein me;but the former reading agrees better, and has been
more generallyreceived. Here he points out the method of remaining
steadfast, as I have already said; that is, if our faith rest on Christ, and view
him in no other light than as being present and stretching out his hand to
assistus. But it is wonderful that faith in the Father is here placed first in
order, for he ought rather to have told his disciples that they ought to believe
in God, since they had believed in Christ;because, as Christ is the lively image
of the Father, so we ought first to castour eyes on him; and for this reason,
too, he descends to us, that our faith, beginning with him, may rise to God.
But Christ had a different object in view, for all acknowledgethat we ought to
believein God, and this is an admitted principle to which all assentwithout
contradiction; and yet there is scarce one in a hundred who actually believes
it, not only because the nakedmajesty of God is at too greata distance from
us, but also because Sataninterposes clouds ofevery description to hinder us
from contemplating God. The consequence is, that our faith, seeking Godin
his heavenly glory and inaccessible light, vanishes away;and even the flesh, of
its own accord, suggests a thousand imaginations, to turn awayour eyes from
beholding Godin a proper manner.
The Son of God, then, who is Jesus Christ, (61) holds out himself as the object
to which our faith ought to be directed, and by means of which it will easily
find that on which it canrest; for he is the true Immanuel, who answers us
within, as soonas we seek him by faith. It is one of the leading articles ofour
faith, that our faith ought to be directed to Christ alone, that it may not
wander through long windings; and that it ought to be fixed on him, that it
may not waverin the midst of temptations. And this is the true proof of faith,
when we never suffer ourselves to be torn awayfrom Christ, and from the
promises which have been made to us in him. When Popishdivines dispute,
or, I should rather say, chatter, about the objectof faith, they mention God
only, and pay no attention to Christ. They who derive their instruction from
the notions of such men, must be shakenby the slightestgale of wind that
blows. Proud men are ashamedof Christ’s humiliation, and, therefore, they
fly to God’s incomprehensible Divinity. But faith will never reachheaven
unless it submit to Christ, who appears to be a low and contemptible God, and
will never be firm if it do not seek a foundation in the weakness ofChrist.

97. ALAN CARR
John 14:1-31 JESUS:THE GREAT ENCOURAGER
Intro: Notice the first phrase found in verse 1. Jesus says to His Disciples, "Let
not your heart be troubled..." Onthe surface, that may not appear to be such a
greatblessing, but when you consider that at this moment, Jesus is on the eve
of His death and is standing in the very shadow of Calvary, yet He takes the
time to encourage His Disciples. Were their hearts troubled? Certainly! Jesus
has just told them of His impending death, 13:31-33;they had just learned
that one of their number is going to betray Jesus into the hands of the enemy,
13:21;even Simon Peterhas just been notified that he will deny Jesus three
times before the morning comes. Yes, their hearts are heavy with sorrow and
burdened with grief and questions. But, even in the hour of His greatesttrial,
Jesus still loved His own, 13:2, and reachedout to them to comfort them and
encourage them.
Now, it would be impossible to adequately cover every detail of the glorious
chapter in one message. However, Iwould like to dive right into these verses
this morning and lift out a portrait of Jesus:The Great Encourager. In this
greatchapter, Jesus addresses some veryimportant areas oflife and offers us
hope in eachof them today. In the hour of His greatestneed, He takes the time
to encourage the hearts of His Disciples, andof every personwho takes the
time to read and heed these words from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Join me this morning as we encounter Jesus:The GreatEncourager.
I. V. 2-3 THERE IS HOPE FOR TOMORROW
He Speaks Of:
A. v. 2 A Heavenly Home - Jesus tells us about a prepared place for a
prepared people! While we cannot go into greatdetail about the
wonders of that Heavenly City this morning, I can tell you that when we
arrive there, we will be home! We will dwell in the Father's House, in
the Father's presence free from sin, sorrow, suffering, separationor any
other thing that would hinder the glory of Heaven, Rev. 21:4; 27. Try as
I might, I could never adequately describe the glories of that place. I
think Paul summed up the conceptpretty wellin 1 Cor. 2:9. I look
forward to entering that city some day!
(Ill. Barring the return of Jesus in the Rapture, the only way to getto
Heaven is through the avenue of death. Isn't it interesting that Jesus
would speak of Heaven as "Home"? Often people are frightened by the

98. prospectof dying. Yet, for the child of God, death is not the end, it is
simply a time to go home! This was the attitude of Paul - 2 Cor. 12:2-4.
Paul had seenit, couldn't find the vocabulary to describe what he had
seen, therefore he was reduced to telling us that whateverwas over
there was "far better" than what we have down here, Phil. 1:23.)
B. V. 3 A Heavenly Hope - In this verse, Jesus reminds us that there will
come a day when He will return for His people. There are some who do
not believe in the Rapture of the church, howeverthe Lord does and I'll
just stick with Him! Paul sheds a little more light on this monumental
event in 1 Cor. 15:51-52;1 Thes. 4:16-17. Menmay doubt it, and men
may mock it, but Jesus is going to come againand the best advise I have
for you is for you to be ready, Matt. 24:44!
(Ill. The story is told of British House Of Commons member Benjamin
Disraeli. It is said that when Disraeliwas electedto Parliament, he was
consideredsomewhatof an odd fellow. In his mannerisms and in his
attire, he stoodout from the restof the members. Added to this was the
fact that he was a Jew. When he arose to make his first speechbefore
Parliament, he was mockedso loudly and so uproariously by the others
Members of Parliamentthat he was forcedto sit down. Before he sat
down, however, he said this, "I will sit down now, but you will hear
from me again."
In a very real sense, this is what Jesus is saying. He is telling these men,
"I am going away, but you will hear from me again." In fact, the last
recordedwords of our Lord were given to John on the Isle of Patmos. In
that statement, Jesus saidthis, "Surely, I come quickly.", Rev. 22:20.)
C. V. 3 A Heavenly Homecoming - Now, the Disciples are upset with the
notion that Jesus is going away. Therefore, He tells them that where He
is going, they can come also. Thank God this morning, the greatestglory
of Heaven will not be goldenstreets, jasperwalls, angelic hosts, crystal
rivers, an endless day, or even seeing those who have gone on before.
Even the thought of all these wonders pales when placedalongside that
which will thrill our hearts more than anything else. Thatthing that
excites me more than anything else. That one wonderthat I most
anticipate is the day when I shall at last look upon the face of the One
who dies for my sins on Calvary, when I shall at last have the
opportunity to bow at His nail riven feet and shout His praises in that
Heavenly City on High.
What a day that will be,

99. when my Jesus I shall see.
When I look upon His face,
the One who saved me by His grace.
When He takes me by the hand,
and leads me through that promised land,
What a day, glorious day, that will be!
John saw Him and describedHim this way, Rev. 1:13-19. However, the
greatestdescriptionever penned about our risen Lord is found in Rev. 5:6.
That is the Jesus we will behold in glory!
I. There Is Hope For Tomorrow
II. V. 4-31 THERE IS HELP FOR TODAY
There is a help from Jesus in the matter of:
A. V. 4-11 Salvation- In these verses, Jesus tells the Disciples that there
is only one plan of salvationfor all men. He tells Thomas that He is the
Way, the Truth and the Life. He declares Himself to be the only access
to God for any man! He goes beyond that revelationand says that He is
in fact the very physical representationof Almighty God, v. 9. Boiled
down to its very simplest terms, Jesus is the only means of salvation for
all humanity! Acts 4:12 Acts 16:31;John 3:16, all bear testimony to the
truth that salvationis found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.
(Ill. I realize that this is a pretty narrow view for our day and time, but
it is a view that is taught by the Bible. Many feel that there are various
routes one can take to reachGod. Yet the Bible makes it clearthat there
is but one way for all men and that way is through faith in finished
work of Jesus Christ at Calvary! Jesus blazedthe trail from earth to
Heaven so that sinners might come to him by faith ane be saved.)
(Ill. A pioneer missionary in Africa tells how he was taking the gospelto
a new tribe, far to the north. With his bearers, he arrived at a village, a
point beyond which his porters refusedto go. The missionary appealed
to the localchief . Was there someone in his village who could actas his
guide to the distant northern tribe? The chief summoned a man, tall,
battle scarred, carrying a large axe. A bargain was made and the next
morning the missionary setoff through the bush, following his new
guide. The way became increasinglyrough and the path had all,? but
disappeared. There was an occasionalmark blazed on a tree,

100. occasionallya narrow path. Finally the missionary calleda halt. He
askedthe guide if he was sure he knew the way. The man pulled himself
up to his full height. "White man," he said, "you see this axe in my
hand? You see these scars on my body? With this axe I blazed the trail
to the tribal village to which we go. I came from there. These scarsI
receivedwhen I made the way You ask me if I know the way? Before I
came, there was no way. I am the way!"(1)
)
In this passage, Jesusgives us a threefold assurance:
1. How canI be saved? He is the Way!
2. How canI be sure? He is the Truth!
3. How canI be satisfied? He is the Life!
Thank God, Jesus is all you will ever need in the matter of your
soul's salvation!
B. V. 12-14 Service -As we live in the here and now, we canrest assured
that Jesus will aid us in His work. He gives us a threefold promise
related to the matter of our service.
1. V. 12 He will Honor Us - Jesus declaresthat we will be able to
do greaterworks than those which He did. What He means is that
they will be greaterin quantity, but not in quality! When Jesus
was here, He was limited to one geographicallocality. However,
when He ascendedback to Heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to
indwell His people, He has the ability to be in many places
working at the same time. While Jesus was on the earth, many of
His miracles were physical in nature. Now, He uses His children
to bring the Word of salvationto lost men. That is a tremendous
miracle! For that which is spiritual is always greaterthan that
which is physical!
2. V. 13-14 He Will Hear Us - Here we are given the blessed
assurance thatwhen we call upon the name of the Lord, He will
hear us and will move in the time of our need. It makes serving
Jesus much easierto know that we do not serve alone, but that we
have His presence and His attention to our prayers. We serve a
prayer hearing and prayer answering God, Jer. 33:3.
3. V. 13-14 He Will Help Us - Notonly does Jesus promise to hear
our prayers, but He also promises to move in such a way as to
bring about and answer. He listens than He goes to work on our
behalf! I am glad that we do not serve a Godwho has left us to

101. make it the best way we can. No! We serve a Lord who is able to
help us by giving us that which we need day by day! (Ill. Matt.
7:7-8)
C. V. 15, 19-24 Surrender - In these verses, Jesus speaksofabout the
area of our surrender to His authority. He declares that our surrender
to Him should be basedin love! He tells us that 2 greattruths that must
not go unnoticed.
1. V. 15, 21, 24 The ProofOf Love - Jesus makes it crystal clear
that our obedience to Him and His word is the absolute proof of
our love to Him. Our lips can saywhat they please, but until our
lives match our lips, we are only deceiving ourselves!
2. V. 21, 23 The Promise Of Love - The promise to those who are
obedient to the Lord Jesus and His will for their lives is that He
and the Father will manifest themselves to them. That is, the
believer who walks in obedient, surrendered love will experience
and influx of power from on high. The promise of love is that
surrender bring with it greatauthority in the work of Christ.
Matt. 25:21.
D. V. 16-18, 26 The Spirit - These verses tellof the coming of the Holy
Spirit. We are given severaltruths about Him and His ministry to
believers that need to be lookedinto today.
1. V. 16a, 18 His Person - Jesus promised the Disciples that when
He went to the Father, He would ask the Fatherto send the
"Comforter." This Comforter is none other than the Holy Spirit.
There are some facts about this divine Personthat we need to
acknowledge.
A. His Title - Comforter - "paraklete"- One who comes
alongside anotherto offer protectionand counsel. It carries
the idea of and advocate, or a lawyer. The Holy Spirit is our
divine "paraklete."
B. His Personality- Another - "allos" - Literally another of
the same kind or quality. Jesus was a Comforter Himself,
but the Spirit of God is Another Comforter. One just like
Jesus.
C. His Ability - v. 17 - Jesus was able to abide with the
Disciples and had been for 3 years. Now, through the
coming of the Holy Spirit, He will not abide with them, but

102. He shall abide in them. Hence, Jesus has the ability to
promise every child of Godthat He will never leave them
nor forsake them, but that He will be with always, Heb.
13:5; Matt. 28:20.
2. V. 16bHis Permanence - When the Spirit of God takes up
residence in the heart of the believer, He comes in to stay forever!
As long as this life lasts here on earth, the Spirit of God will never
desertthe child of God. He will ever be present and ever be
guiding us as we walk through this wicked, sin cursedworld!
3. V. 17, 21, 26 His Purpose - The purpose of the Spirit in the
believer's life is manifold. These verses tellus all about His plans
for us and His purpose in coming into us at conversion.
A. To Indwell - v. 17 - At the moment of salvation, the
believer literally becomes the Temple of God. God, in the
form of His Spirit, comes in and takes up permanent
residence. He dwells in the life of the believer! Just take a
minute and let that truth sink in! Our problem is that we
have become so familiar with the deep truths of the Bible
that they no long hold much luster for us. We fail to see the
glory in the thought that God lives in our hearts!
B. To Invest - v. 21 - That is, He fills us with the power to
live and to labor for the Lord. Without Him, we would be
able to accomplishnothing of glory for Jesus sake.
However, with Him filling us and leading us we have the
ability to accomplishthings that would otherwise be
impossible - Phil. 4:13.
C. To Instruct - v. 26 - One purpose of the Holy Spirit in
our lives is to instruct us in the things of God. It is the Holy
Spirit who teaches aboutthe Bible. It is the Holy Spirit who
reveals the deep things of God unto us. It is He the Holy
Spirit who teaches us how to reach our fullest potential for
the glory of God. He is a divine Instructor!
D. To Inspire - v. 26 - Again, we are reminded that He is an
encourager. Whenwe become discouraged, the Holy Spirit
in our soul rises up and wraps the comforting arms of
Heavenly love and protection around us and reminds that
we belong to Him. He encourages us to keepon running, to

103. keepon going, to keepon living for Jesus. He inspires us to
press forward for the glory of the Lord.
E. V. 27-31 Stillness - As Jesus brings the thoughts of chapter 14 to a
close, He speaks to the Disciples troubled hearts once again. He reminds
them that He is still the Prince of Peaceand that just because He is
leaving, that doesn't mean that He will remove His peace. Here, Jesus
tells the Disciples that even though their world is about to be shattered,
they can face it with the assurance thatthey have His peace to keep
them during the difficult hours ahead.
(Ill. May I remind you that we have the same assurancetoday? Our
world is in turmoil, there is uncertainty all around. Yet, through it all,
the saints of God are possessedofa peace that defies all description.
According to Jesus this peace is Heavenly in origin, therefore it cannot
be affectedby the events of earth. Our response in times of trouble is to
lean on the peace ofJesus and trust Him to take care of His own - Phil.
4:6-7; Isa. 26:3)
Conc:I thank the Lord today for Jesus:The Great Encourager!I am glad
that when I do not understand what is going to happen, when it seems that
everything is falling apart, when I don't know which way to turn, I can count
on Jesus!He has given us all we need today. Whether the need is for salvation
of for peace ofheart, the remedy will be found in Him. I invite you to come to
Jesus today and castyour cares upon Him. Whatever you face today, you do
not have to face it alone. Will you come to Jesus:The GreatEncouragerright
now and find the help you need?
STEVEN COLE
Comfort for Troubled Hearts (John 14:1-11)
December7, 2014
According to U.S.A. Today(11/16/11), “Morethan 20 percent of American
adults took at leastone drug for conditions like anxiety and depressionin 2010
… including more than one in four women.” The Anxiety and Depression
AssociationofAmerica reports (adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-
statistics, bold type theirs), “Anxiety disorders are the most common mental
illness in the U.S., affecting 40 million adults in the United States age 18 and
older (18% of U.S. population).”

104. I realize that some of you have taken or are currently taking medication for
anxiety or depression. I am not a doctorand I recognize that there are
complex factors that affectour mental condition. I would not recommend that
you go off any medication without your doctor’s consent. But at the same
time, I would urge you to think carefully about whether or not you have truly
laid hold of the cure for troubled hearts that Jesus promises in our text:
Faith in Christ’s person and hope in Christ’s promise will comfort your
troubled heart.
You may think, “That’s overly simplistic! That’s a nice thought, but it’s
impractical and out of touch with reality!” But these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ to troubled hearts. Either His words are true or they’re not.
So I would ask you to consider whether perhaps you just haven’t applied these
words before you conclude that they are simplistic or impractical. And I also
point out that Jesus’words have given genuine comfort to countless believers
in the midst of horrible trials overthe past 2000 years ofchurch history. So
before you shrug them off, considerwhether or not you have truly applied
them to your troubled heart.
Jesus is in the Upper Roomwith the elevendisciples after Judas has left to
betray Him. Except for John and perhaps Peter, the others didn’t know yet
who the betrayer was, but they were troubled by the news that one of the
twelve would betray Jesus. The Lord has also announced that He is leaving
them and that they cannotfollow Him. These are men who had left their jobs
and families to follow Jesus in the hope that He was the promised Messiah.
They were ecstatic a few days before when He rode into Jerusalemto the
cheers of the crowd. But now He was talking about His death, not about His
messianic kingdom. And to top it off, He had just told Peterthat before
daybreak, he would deny Jesus three times. So these men were anxious and
troubled! And so the Lord’s emphasis in of all of John 14, not just in our text,
is to comfort their troubled hearts, especiallyas they witnessedHis brutal
executionthe next day. If you apply them, these words will also comfortyour
troubled heart.
1. Faith in Christ’s person will comfort your troubled heart (John 14:1, 4-11).
Faith is only as goodas its object. Trusting in a faulty airplaine won’t make it
fly! As we’ve seenrepeatedly, everything in the Christian life depends on the
correctanswerto Jesus’question(Matt. 16:15), “Who do you saythat I am?”
If Jesus is who He claimed to be and who all of Scripture proclaims Him to be,
then He is absolutelytrustworthy in every trial that you encounter. If He is
not who He claimed to be, then eat and drink, for tomorrow you will die (see 1

105. Cor. 15:12-19, 32). Or, as church historian JaroslavPelikansaidjust before
he died, “If Christ is raised, nothing else matters. If Christ is not raised,
nothing matters.” (Cited by David Calhoun, in Heaven [Crossway], ed. by
Christopher Morganand Robert Peterson,
worldmag.com/2014/11/the_hope_of_heaven.)In our text, Jesus makes four
claims that show that He is trustworthy:
A. Jesus claims to deserve equal faith with God (John 14:1).
John 14:1: “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in
Me.” There are severallegitimate ways to translate that verse because in
Greek, “believe” in both instances canbe either indicative or imperative. A
few versions translate the first verb as indicative, “you believe in God,” and
the secondas imperative, “believe also in Me.” But most versions translate
them both as imperatives: “believe in God, believe also in Me.” Since Jesus’
opening words are an imperative, “Do not let your heart be troubled,” it’s
likely that He is commanding them both to believe in God and to believe in
Him.
But either way that you translate it, Jesus is claiming to be on exactly the
same level as God when it comes to trusting Him! What mere man could
claim, “You need to trust in God, and to the same degree, you need to trust in
Me”? Alexander Maclarenwrote (Expositionsof Holy Scripture [Baker], on
John 14:1, p. 257, italics his):
The peculiarity of His call to the world is, “Believe in Me.” And if He said
that, or anything like it … then, one of two things follows. Either He was
wrong, and then He was a crazy enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy
because convictedof insanity; or else—orelse—He was“Godmanifestin the
flesh.”
As Jesus will go on to affirm, because to see Him is to see the Father, you
cannot separate faith in God from faith in Jesus. And since Jesus is the eternal
Son of God, who createdall things (John 1:3), and who was in controlover all
the events surrounding His death, then you cantrust Him in whatever
overwhelming circumstances youare facing. Nothing is too difficult for Him
and no one can thwart His sovereignwill (Jer. 32:17; Job 42:2).
B. Jesus claims to be the exclusive way to God (John 14:4-6).
We’ll come back to verses 2 & 3, where Jesus promises that He is going to
prepare a place for us and that He will come again. Then, He says (John 14:4-
6),

106. “And you know the way where I am going.” Thomas saidto Him, “Lord, we
do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?” Jesus saidto
him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but
through Me.”
I’m glad for the disciples’dense comments and questions (we’ll see another
one from Philip in verse 8), because they resulted in some wonderful answers
from Jesus that we otherwise might not have! The word “way” is emphasized
by being repeatedin verses 4, 5, & 6; it refers to the way to heavenor to the
Father (John 14:3, 6). Significantly, Jesus doesn’tsay, “I know the way to
heaven and I can point you to it.” Rather, He says, “I am the way.”
A missionary hired a guide to take him across a vast desert. When they
arrived at the edge of the desert, the missionary saw before him trackless
sands without a single footprint or road of any kind. He askedhis guide with a
tone of surprise, “Where is the road?” With a reproving glance, the guide
replied, “I am the road.” Jesus is the way to heaven. We must trust Him to
take us there.
This is the sixth of Jesus’seven“I am” statements in John (6:48; 8:12; 10:9,
11; 11:25;15:1). It’s another claim to deity. Jesus is saying that we canhave
access to God only through Him. Just as in the Old Testament, the only way
for the Jews to come to God was through the high priest, who could only enter
the holy of holies on the Day of Atonement, so Jesus is our high priest through
whose sacrifice ofHimself we can come into God’s very presence without fear
of being consumed. He Himself is the way.
Jesus also claimed, “I am the truth.” Again, He did not say, “I canteachyou
the truth,” although He did that. He said, “I am the truth.” In this context, He
means not only that He is totally dependable, but also that He Himself is the
only true way of salvation(Leon Morris, The Gospel According to John
[Eerdmans], p. 641). He alone is the manifestation of the eternalGod of truth.
We canonly know ultimate reality through knowing Jesus as Saviorand
Lord.
Jesus also claimed, “I am the life.” Again, He doesn’t say, “I can tell you how
to have life,” but rather, “I am the life.” In John 5:26, Jesus claimed, “Forjust
as the Fatherhas life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in
Himself.” Having life in Himself, Jesus “gives life to whom He wishes” (John
5:21). Becauseofsin, the entire human race is under the curse of eternal
death, or separationfrom God. We can have eternal life only in Christ.
Eternal life means knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent
(John 17:3).

107. The three articles, the way, the truth, and the life imply the exclusivity of
Christ’s claims. But His final statementcinches it (John 14:6b): “no one comes
to the Fatherbut through Me.” He is the only way to God. Peterunderscored
this factto the JewishSanhedrin (Acts 4:12), “And there is salvationin no one
else;for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men
by which we must be saved.” (See, also,1 Tim. 2:5).
Jesus’claim to be the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to the Father,
confronts our postmodern era in two ways:First, there is such a thing as
absolute truth in the spiritual realm; second, Jesus onlyis the absolute truth;
all other ways are wrong. People today don’t have a problem if you say that
Jesus is a way to God or that you personally believe in Him, as long as you
don’t say that all other beliefs are false. But when you claim that Jesus is the
exclusive way to God; that He is the only spiritual truth, so that all other
beliefs are false;and that He alone canimpart eternal life—you will be
accusedofbeing intolerant and arrogant!
R. C. Sproul (in Tabletalk, date unknown) points out that the notion that all
religions are valid is logicallyimpossible because, ifall religions are valid,
then Christianity is valid. But Jesus saidthat He is the only way to God, which
eliminates all other ways. So either He was right or He was wrong. Sproul
concludes, “If He was wrong, then Christianity has no validity at all. If He was
right, then there is no other way.”
Here’s how Jesus’claim in verse 6 can comfort you when you’re troubled:
Believing that Jesus is the waywill comfortyour troubled heart because you
have access to the gracious Fatherthrough Him. Through Jesus you canbring
all your troubles into the very presence ofthe God who spoke the universe
into existence. Believing that Jesus is the truth will comfortyour troubled
heart because allelse is subjective, shifting, and uncertain. You can stand
securelyin the truth of who Jesus is. Believing that Jesus is the life will
comfort your troubled heart because trusting in Him gives assurance of
eternal life and escape from the seconddeath.
Thus Jesus claims to deserve equal faith with God. He claims to be the
exclusive way to God.
C. Jesus claims to be the unique revealerof God(John 14:7-9).
John 14:7-9:
“If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;from now on
you know Him, and have seenHim.” Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the
Father, and it is enough for us.” Jesus saidto him, “Have I been so long with

108. you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seenMe has
seenthe Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
There is a variant in verse 7 supported by some early manuscripts, which
reads, “If you have come to know Me [as you do], you shall know My Father
also.” If this is the original reading, then Jesus is emphasizing the truth of
John 1:18, “No one has seenGod at any time; the only begottenGod who is in
the bosomof the Father, He has explained Him.”To know Jesus is to know
the Father. Jesus alone reveals the Father to us. Jesus’words, “from now on,”
refer to the events that will transpire shortly, especiallyto the pouring out of
the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The Spirit will guide them into all the
truth (John 14:17, 26).
But Jesus’commentthat the disciples have seenthe Father prompts Philip to
ask (John 14:8), “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” He may
have been thinking that if Jesus was going to leave them, some vision of God
such as Moses had on Mount Sinai would sustain them in Jesus’absence.
Jesus’reply is a rebuke that reflects some personalgrief (John 14:9), “Have I
been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who
has seenMe has seenthe Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
Again, I’m thankful for Philip’s inappropriate request, because Jesus’reply is
another clearclaim to be God. As Leon Morris states (p. 644), “Theseare
words which no mere man has a right to use.” Jesus is the visible
representationof the invisible God. As Paul wrote (Col. 2:9), “Forin Him all
the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.” This claim of Christ can comfort
your troubled heart because oftenin a time of trouble, God seems distant. The
fact that He is invisible makes it difficult to trust in Him. At such times, look
to Jesus, who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15).
He reveals to us the tender mercies of the Father.
D. Jesus claims to be in intimate union with the Father (John 14:10-11).
John 14:10-11:“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is
in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak onMy own initiative, but
the Fatherabiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father
and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because ofthe works themselves.”
This brings us back full circle to verse 1: To believe in Jesus is to believe in the
Father, because the two are in inseparable union. God is one God who subsists
in three co-equal, eternal persons:the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
(John 14:10, 17). Jesus reveals the Father to us. The Spirit reveals Christ to us
(John 16:13-15). To know Jesus is to know God.

109. Jesus gives two reasons to believe that He is in intimate union with the Father:
His words and His works. Jesussays that He didn’t make up what He taught,
but rather His words came directly from the Father. This is a repetition of
Jesus’earlierclaims. In John 8:26, He told His enemies, “I have many things
to speak and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and the
things which I heard from Him, these I speak to the world.” He repeated
(John 8:28), “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am
He, and I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the
Father taught Me.” (See, also, John5:19, 30.) Jesus’words confirm that He is
in intimate union with the Father.
But also Jesus’works prove that He is in intimate union with the Father. This
refers to all that He did, but especiallyto His miracles. Skeptics,ofcourse,
challenge Jesus’ miracles becausethey claim that they have never seena
miracle. But Jesus’miracles are reported by credible eyewitnesses, mostof
whom were willing to lose their lives because they believed Jesus to be the
truth. At the heart of a skeptic’s rejectionof Jesus’miracles is not science, but
rather his love of his sin and his refusal to submit to Jesus as Lord.
Note that Jesus challengesus (John 14:11), “Believe Me that …” Faith in Jesus
isn’t a vague, “I believe for every starthat falls, a flowergrows.” Rather, we
are to believe specificallywhat Jesus claimed: that He deserves equalfaith
with God; that He is the exclusive way to God; that He is the unique revealer
of God; and that He is in intimate union with the Father. Jesus adds that if
you can’t believe His words alone, at leastbelieve because ofHis works.
Believing in the person of Christ will comfort your troubled heart.
2. Hope in Christ’s promise will comfort your troubled heart (John 14:2-3).
John 14:2-3: “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places;if it were not
so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and
prepare a place for you, I will come againand receive you to Myself, that
where I am, there you may be also.”
Biblical hope is closelyallied with faith. Someone has describedit as faith
standing on tiptoe. It looks aheadto the promised, but yet unrealized future.
It’s not like saying, “I hope my favorite team wins their big game today.” You
don’t know whether they will win or lose. Biblicalhope is like watching the
video replay of the game after your team won. You know the outcome, but
you eagerlywatchthe game unfold. Here Jesus makes two promises that are
certain because He is the truth:

110. A. Christ is making a reservationfor us in heaven.
The picture is an Oriental house where the father would add rooms to
accommodate his grown children and their families so that they all lived in the
same compound. There are severalcomforting truths in this picture. First,
heaven is a real place, not just an immaterial state of being.
Second, going to heaven is like going home. It’s not like traveling to a foreign
country, where you don’t know the language, geography, people, or customs.
It’s like going to a familiar, comfortable place where you are welcomedby a
Father who loves you and by brothers and sisters whom you know.
Third, Jesus is there right now preparing a place for us. This doesn’tmean
that He is working with His carpenter’s tools to add rooms for us. Rather, it
looks atHis present ministry of intercessionfor us, of being our advocate, and
of keeping us for that day.
It’s always comforting when you travel to know that you have a confirmed
reservationwhen you arrive. Jesus promises that if you believe in Him, you
have such a reservationin heaven.
B. Christ will make a return for us on earth.
He promises to come againand receive us to Himself, that where He is, there
we will be also. WhenChrist comes or when we go to heaven, we will be
reunited with our loved ones who have gone before us. But being with Jesus
Himself will be the bestpart of His coming and our going to heaven. As
Martin Luther said (cited by Randy Alcorn, Heaven [Tyndale], p. 187), “Ihad
rather be in hell with Christ, than be in heavenwithout him.”
The certainty of Christ’s bodily return means terror for those who rejectHim,
because He will come to “tread the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the
Almighty” (Rev. 19:15). But His return means comfort for all that believe in
Him, because we will always be with the Lord. Paul concludes his discussion
of Christ’s return by saying (1 Thess. 4:18), “Therefore comfortone another
with these words.”
Conclusion
Jesus’words (John 14:1), “Do not let your heart be troubled,” mean that we
can do something about our troubled hearts. It’s a command, indicating that
we have volitional control overour emotions. We don’t need to be victimized
by our feelings. We can do something to deal with anxiety or a troubled heart,
namely, believe in Jesus as God and hope in His promise of heaven. As the
psalmist told himself when he was in despair (Ps. 43:5), “Hope in God, for I
shall againpraise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” And, since

111. Jesus was troubled on our behalf (John 14:21), we don’t need to be troubled
by life’s problems. God is now on our side!
So the next time you’re troubled and anxious, before you do what the world
does and pop a pill to calm your soul, do something radical: Believe in God;
believe also in Jesus Christ. Faith in His person and His promise will comfort
your troubled heart.
Application Questions
1. What are the practical implications of the statement:“Faith is only as
goodas its object”?
2. Discuss:Is it okayfor Christians to take psychotropic medications to
deal with anxiety and depression? Why/why not?
3. A person you witness to says, “It’s fine that you believe in Jesus, but I
have my ownspiritual beliefs that work for me.” Your reply?
4. In light of Psalms 42 & 43, is it wrong to be troubled by trials or is it
just wrong to remain troubled? How does the psalmist deal with his
despair and trouble?
Copyright, Steven J. Cole, 2014,All Rights Reserved.
GreatTexts of the Bible
The Secretofthe Untroubled Heart
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.—John
14:1.
1. There is one chapter in the biography of distinguished persons—inthe
biography of greatgeniuses, orof eminent saints or seers—whichhas for us
specialinterest, the chapter entitled “Closing Days.” We are curious to learn
how the great man bore himself, or what fell from his lips, during those days,
in the shadow of the approaching end; to see something of the thoughts which
then occupiedhis mind, or to hear something of his latest words. What of his
behaviour, his expression, we ask, in his latesthours? The favourite pursuit—
was its influence upon him then exemplified? The ruling passion—wasit
strong with him in death? GeoffreyChaucer died making a ballad; Waller,
reciting verses from his beloved Virgil; Haller, the famous physician,
fingering his pulse and murmuring, when he found it almostgone, “Yes, the

112. artery ceasesto beat”; John Keats, whispering low in reply to a friend who
inquired how he felt, “Better, better. I feel the daisies growing over me.” “Let
me hearonce more,” sighedMozart, “those notes, so long my solaceand
delight.” Rousseau, whendying, bade his attendants place him before the
open window, that he might take a final look at his garden, and bid adieu to
Nature.
In this scene we have the beating of Christ’s heart and the vision of His soul.
Here He is, we may say, in His habitual consideratenessand sympathy, in the
quick, tender consideratenessandsympathy that characterizedHim all
through His course, from the moment when, at the beginning of His ministry,
He was filled with compassionfor the multitude because they were as sheep
without a shepherd, to the moment when, in the night of His betrayal, He
pleaded, “If ye seek me, let these go their way.”
2. Night had fallen with Oriental swiftness upon Jerusalem;and there, in the
guest-chamberof a friend’s house, Jesus was partaking of the Passover
Supper with His disciples. Not with all of them. Judas had gone on his mission
of darkness. The shadow of some boding treacheryhad fallen on these men
and chilled their hearts. “One of you shall betray me.” In the intense quiet
that had followedthose words, they had lookedatone another and doubted
one another; they had searchedtheir own hearts and almostdoubted
themselves. Only one of them had been free from doubt, and he had
something worse—he knew. Buthe had gone;and after his departure the cup
of foreboding was filled to the brim by Jesus Himself. Quietly, but with an
awful intensity of meaning, He told them that He too was going away—going
where they could not follow Him then. Not by any dusty Syrian highway was
He going from them.
No farewellin history approaches this in bitterness. Before another sun had
setJesus was lying low in death. His disciples were orphaned. No wonder that
they were troubled. Their universe seemedshaken. Every ambition, every
hope, was takenfrom them. Failure appeared to be written on their Lord’s
mission and on their own. Such trouble is not mere sorrow. That may be hard
to bear, but this is the collapse ofall plans of service, all visions of future good
and blessing. The sky was falling; all the lights in the firmament were being
put out. Their life had become like a heaving sea, and even Jesus seemed
powerless to quiet it. Their Masterbids them conquer that passionof anxiety,
of fear, of bitter disappointment. They are not to yield to it, for yielding means
despair; it is paralysis for every hope of influence and usefulness. There is a

113. glorious picture in St. John’s Apocalypse:God “shallwipe awayevery tear
from their eyes.” Thatis a golden promise. Here is something still more
suggestive. The disciples are themselves to dry up the fountain of tears;they
are to quiet their own heaving breasts. Trouble has come, but Jesus bids them
master it.
3. How does He comfort them? Notby commonplace ethics or moralizings,
but by drawing aside the veil that conceals the spiritual world, and revealing
to them entirely new conceptions concerning the Father Himself, the future
life, and their own relations to it. He, their Lord, is the Lord of life, and He
will prepare for them a place in the glorious world which He Himself is about
to enter. He does not so much teachtruths as revealfacts about the future life.
He “brings life and immortality to light.” He is to depart, they are to remain.
More remains concealedthan even He can revealto them. They can only trust
Him, their loving Lord, and wait for the heavenly life of which He assures
them. His chief urgency is that they should implicitly trust in Him—trust Him
even as they trusted God Himself: “Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
My lastlessonwas the fullest revelation of the master(James Prince Lee). I
was staying with him for a day or two at Mauldeth, a short time before his
death. We were alone. After dinner I turned the conversationfrom work at
Manchesterto work at Birmingham. He was glad, I think, to go back to the
old days. He spoke with proud delight of his favourite classicalauthors, as if
they were still his familiar companions. He poured out quotation after
quotation as we used to hear them at school, and dwelt on that finest single
line, as he said, in Latin literature, “Virtutem videant intabescantque relicta.”
Graver, sadder subjects followed;memories of failures and disappointments.
Then came a long silence. It was growing dark. Suddenly he turned to me and
said, “Ah, Westcott, fearnot, only believe.” In those four words—no more was
spoken—there was a true interpretation of life as the teachersaw it, and as he
prepared his scholars to see it: Work to be done, work to be done in the face
of formidable difficulties, work to be done in faith on God.1 [Note:Life and
Letters of Brooke FossWestcott, i. 28.]
I
Faith in God
“Ye believe in God.”

114. “As ye believe in God, so believe in me.” This seems to be the true relationof
the two clauses ofour Lord’s command. The words of the original are capable
of a fourfold interpretation, but this seems to be the simplest, and most
consistentwith the moral and spiritual truth of our Lord’s teaching.
He would not callthem to believe in God as they believed in Himself, for that
would really be setting forth His createdmanifestation as more trustworthy
than the Divine reality.
Neither would He bid them practise a double faith, believing in God and
believing in Himself. Such a command would imply the insufficiency of
believing in God. We are not to believe in God as an abstractobject, and in
Christ as a collateralobject;not in God as an eternal object, and in Christ as
a distinct objectmore available as being within the reach of our natural
senses.
We are to believe in God with a supreme all-absorbing faith, and because we
do so, we are to believe in Christ as the manifestationof His eternal love, not
separate, collateral, instrumental, but identical, co-essential, indissolubly one
with Himself. The belief which we have in God will be the measure of our true
belief in Christ. As God is independent of all outward circumstance, so are we
to believe in Christ with an entire independence of all outward circumstance.
The events of the world do not shake our belief in God. Neither must they
shake our belief in Christ.
1. Faith in God implies an act of the will.—Faith in God is a moral act; it is
not an emotion, an impression, the result of considerations whichactupon a
man from without; it is an actin which he exercises moralchoice. To have
faith we must will to have it. This is not to say that there canbe a true faith
apart from reasonable grounds of faith. But these grounds may exist, they
may be apparent, and yet faith may be absent, because the temper and spirit
of the man make him reluctant to exert his will, or because he misconceives
the nature of the act. Men confound faith and opinion; even in opinion a
man’s moral habits and tendencies count for a greatdeal; and we often
predict what a man’s opinions will be from what we know of his character.
But in the formation of opinion the will has no direct function exceptto
compel the intellect to investigate the facts by which opinion should be
determined. In faith the case is wholly different. When the facts which should
command faith are present and seen, faith may be withheld. Faith is an act of
the will; and if we suppose that we shall come to believe in God and in Christ

115. as the result of external forces which compel belief, we shall not believe at all.
And when faith, resting on adequate grounds, is assaultedby doubt, the doubt
must be met by a resolute decision.
No man can ever estimate the powerof the will. It is a part of the Divine
nature, all of a piece with the power of creation. We speak of God’s fiat. “Fiat
lux et lux erat” (Let light be and light was). Man has his fiat. The
achievements of history have been the choices, the determinations, the
creations of the human will.1 [Note:M. D. Babcock, Thoughts for Every-Day
Living, 1.]
2. Beliefin God precedes belief in Christ.—Manifestly, everybody must
believe in God before he canbelieve in Jesus Christ in any deep sense;for to
say that “Jesus is the Sonof God” already implies a belief in God. This was
clearly true of the Christian converts from among the Jews, who were already
worshippers of Jehovah; and it was true also, though to a less extent, of the
Greeks, as St. Paul recognizedin his famous speechat Athens; and it remains
true of the converts from heathendom to-day. In the mind of all men there is
some recognitionof a CreatorSpirit, with whom they are led to identify the
Spirit of Jesus. And so the progress of belief is logicallyfrom the first article
of the Creedto the second, from belief in God the Father and Creatorto belief
in Him whom the Father sent. At the same time, the belief in Jesus atonce
reacts upon the belief in God. The heathen convert, though he may employ the
same word for God as before, has very different thoughts about Him; he is
taught to believe that the holiness and loving-kindness of Jesus are the
holiness and loving-kindness of the CreatorGod; and even the pious Jew
gained a new insight into what these greatqualities meant—the mercy and
truth which he had always held to be the attributes of Jehovah. The two
beliefs therefore go together. First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who
has made me, and all the world; secondly, in God the Son, who has redeemed
me, and all mankind.
It would hardly be an exaggerationto saythat modern Christians have
inverted the order of the text. They believe in Christ, and therefore they
believe in God. Indeed, this would seemto be the inevitable order of
discipleship. Christ calls men to Himself. “Come unto me,” “Follow me,” and
in obedience to His summons men come also to God; but Christian Apologetic
is concernednot with disciples, as such, but with those who are not disciples,
but, at most, friendly inquirers. Therefore the order of reasonis the order of
Apologetic. FirstTheism, then Christianity. “Ye believe in God, believe also in

116. me.” Every Theistis to that extent Christian, that is to say, Christianity is the
logicalinference from his Theistic belief. A Christianity which violates Theism
is a contradiction in terms.1 [Note: H. HensleyHenson, The Value of the
Bible, 143.]
II
Faith in Christ
“Believe also in me.”
Christ makes for Himself the most majestic claim. “Believe in Me,” He says,
“as you believe in God, and so you will believe in God in a richer and fuller
form.” “Ye believe in God—as allyour Jewishancestors believedin Him—
add to that faith all the things I have shown you and taught you. Believe in
God, as He has spokento you with My lips, and dwelt with you in My
fellowship with you, and loved you with My heart. You know I have dwelt
with you and loved you. Do you know why? It is that you may know that God
is love. It is that you may come to know that beyond the darkness of the hour
and the loneliness of the years—alikein the starlight and in the storm—there
is but one thing: the breath, the light, the end of being; and that thing is the
love wherewith Godloves you.”
There is a clearclaim put forward by Christ that His disciples shall repose in
Him the same absolute, unquestioning, unlimited faith that they repose in
God. It is not merely that Jesus claims absolute infallibility for His teaching
concerning God and man, though this is necessarilyincluded; and, if there
were no clearassertionbeyond this, we should still be driven to seek a deeper
explanation of it. Even if we had nothing to direct us beyond our Saviour’s
repeatedassertions that the words He spoke were without any exceptionor
qualification the words of God, that not the slightesttaint of imperfection
marked His presentationof eternal truth, that His union with God was so
perfect that He could say: The Fatherloveth the Son, and showethHim all
things that Himself doeth;—even if there were nothing more than this we
should find it utterly impossible to explain Jesus Christ by any principles of
human development, or by any conceivable communicationof the Divine
Spirit to one who was a son of Adam and nothing more. Nowhere exceptout
of the very bosomof the Father could He come who was the effulgence of the
Father’s glory, and the express image of His person.

117. Is not Christendom built on the “also” ofChrist’s supper table? Luther has
remarkedthat in this fourteenth chapter “we have the greatarticles of
Christian doctrine in most impressive exhibition, and fundamentally
establishedas in hardly another place of Scripture.” This is true. Sometimes
we turn with a sigh from the elaborate confessionsoflater ages to the
confessionsummed up in the short saying of the Lord. Less than this there
may not be, more than this there need not be, in the faith of a Christian. The
“also” must stand out in bold relief, rightly apprehended and firmly grasped;
but when it is so graspedthe mind holds the essentialChristianverity. It is the
plus in respectof which the faith of the Christian Church is apart from and
more than every mere theistic religion—a plus that is not an addition only,
but a new faith. For the trust in God, which is “also “withtrust in Christ, is
not the same as the trust which is without.1 [Note:J. M. Laing.]
1. Christ is the RevealerofGod.—JesusChrist is the Divine RevealerofGod.
Without Christ there is no real knowledge ofGod in the depth of His love, the
tenderness of His nature or the lustrousness of His holiness;there is no
certitude; the God that we see outside of Jesus Christis sometimes doubt,
sometimes hope, sometimes fear, always far-off and vague, an abstraction
rather than a person, “a stream of tendency” without us, that which is
unnameable, and the like. Jesus Christhas showedus a Father, has brought a
God to our hearts whom we can love, whom we can know really though not
fully, of whom we canbe sure with a certitude which is as deep as the
certitude of our own personalbeing; He has brought to us a God before whom
we do not need to crouchfar off, He has brought to us a God whom we can
trust. Very significantis it that Christianity alone puts the very heart of
religion in the actof trust. Other religions put it in dread, worship, service,
and the like. Jesus Christalone says that the bond betweenmen and God is
that blessedone of trust. And He says so because He alone brings us a God
whom it is not ridiculous to tell men to trust.
To those who canreceive this heavenly vision all human life is altered. We
have dimly seenthe heart of God, and we are no longer scaredby the
strangenessofHis vesture or by the rough voice with which He sometimes
seems to speak to us in the course of the world. We believe that His very
nature and property is to forgive and pity, that the central core of His ethical
being is love, that He withdraws Himself from us at times, only in order to
increase our hunger and thirst for His presence, thatthough for a small
moment He may forsake us, yet with everlasting kindness will He have mercy
upon us. And thus by His sublime anthropomorphism Jesus assuagesforHis

118. followers all the worstterrors and sorrows that Nature brings upon us.
Through Him we have learnt that love, and even self-sacrificing love, is no
localand transient product, but something at the very root of the universe, as
it were, “the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” a partial
manifestation of that which was in the beginning with God, of the very soul of
God. The God disclosedto us by Christ is not one who regards the terrible
drama of human suffering from afar, but one who Himself shares our strife
and bears our woes. Christgave us the conceptionof a God who actually leads
struggling souls on personally, and is not content with merely pointing out the
road to them.
St. Philip and other anxious and sorrowing spirits need no longergo about
groping for guidance and crying mournfully, “Show us the Father, and it
sufficeth us.” Jesus has already shown us the Father. Those who have really
seenHim have seenthe Father so far as it is possible or necessarythat we
should see Him in this life. God has fulfilled to man that old gladdening
promise, “I will make all my goodnesspass before thee.”
Christ is the ladder betweenGod and man. In His humanity He touches the
earth; in His Divinity He touches the heaven, and on Jesus Christas a ladder
God comes down from heavento earth and makes Himself known to man; on
Jesus Christ as a ladder man climbs up from earth to heaven and is joined to
God. Wonderful is the comprehensiveness ofthis short creed which Jesus
Christ taught us: “Believe in God,”—thatsolves allthe problems of creation;
“Believe in me”—that solves all the problems of redemption.1 [Note:A. T.
Pierson, The Hopes of the Gospel, 130.]
2. Christ is Himself Divine.—Notonly is Jesus Christ the Revealerof God, but
He Himself is God. Light shines through a window, but the light and the glass
that makes it visible have nothing in common with one another. The Godhead
shines through Christ, but He is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself
that He is showing us when He is showing us God. “He that hath seenme hath
seen”—notthe light that streams through Me—but “hath seen,” in Me, “the
Father.” And because He is Himself Divine and the Divine Revealer, therefore
the faith that grasps Him is inseparably one with the faith that grasps God.
Men could look upon a Moses, anIsaiah, or a Paul, and in them recognize the
irradiation of the divinity that imparted itself through them, but the medium
was forgottenin proportion as that which it revealedwas beheld. You cannot
forgetChrist in order to see Godmore clearly; to behold Him is to behold
God.

119. This was reachedat a very early stage ofChristian thought by a writer of
inspired insight who seizedhis pen and, without argument or explanation,
wrote: the Word was God. The criticalpenetrativeness of that writer is too
little recognized. He overleaptcenturies of controversy. He saw at the first
glance, whatall history has abundantly demonstrated, that all intermediate
compromises, suchas the Arian, were neither historically nor logically
tenable, and that, therefore, the issue was cleanand clearbetweenmere
humanity and very Deity. With that issue before him, he wrote, not so much
the bestor highestbut the only descriptionof Jesus that he could write. As a
Christian, he could not describe Christ as mere man; nor can we. As a thinker
he could not describe Him as an intermediate divinity; nor can we. If then he
was to write at all he could write but one thing, and if we are to sayat all what
Christ is, we cansay but that one thing too. It is savedfrom being quite
incredible only by being quite inevitable.2 [Note:P. C. Simpson, The Factof
Christ, 111.]
3. All imperfect revelationof God is prophetic of, and leads up towards, the
perfect revelationin Jesus Christ.—The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews
gives that truth in a very striking fashion. He compares all other means of
knowing God to fragmentary syllables of a greatword, of which one was given
to one man and another to another. God “spoke atsundry times and in
manifold portions to the fathers by the prophets”; but the whole word is
articulately uttered by the Son, in whom He has “spokenunto us in these last
times.” The imperfect revelation, by means of those who were merely
mediums for the revelation, leads up to Him who is Himself the Revelation,
the Revealer, andthe Revealed. And in like manner, all the imperfect faith
that, laying hold of other fragmentary means of knowing God, has
tremulously tried to trust Him, finds its climax and consummate flower in the
full-blossomed faith that lays hold upon Jesus Christ. The unconscious
prophecies of heathendom; the trust that selectsouls up and down the world
have put in One whom they dimly apprehended; the faith of the Old
Testamentsaints;the rudimentary beginnings of a knowledge ofGod and of a
trust in Him which are found in men to-day, and amongstus, outside of the
circle of Christianity—all these things are as manifestly incomplete as a
building reared half its height, and waiting for the corner-stone to be brought
forth, the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ, and the intelligent and full
acceptanceofHim and faith in Him.
As ideas, the centralpoints of Christian faith—such as a trust in the Divine

120. Fatherhoodand a hope beyond the grave—are not altogethernew. Many
earnestand noble souls have stretchedout their minds towards them. What,
then, was lacking for faith? Just that, after all, there were but ideas,
speculations, yearnings;and our thoughts on these matters are not the sure
measure of what really is. Before the stern unyielding facts of life and
especiallybefore life’s final fact of death, how easilysuch thoughts falter and
fail.
Man is of dust: etherealhopes are his,
Which, when they should sustain themselves aloft,
Want due consistence;like a pillar of smoke,
That with majestic energy from earth
Rises;but, having reachedthe thinner air,
Melts, and dissolves, andis no longerseen.
Who will assure us, in face of “the thinner air” that is the breath of death, that
these hopes and speculations are the sure “pillar of cloud” leading us truly to
a promised land, and are not but a “pillar of smoke” from the fires of human
fancy? A faith thus founded will always be cherishable by certain
temperaments—and it is largelya matter of temperament—but it will never
really grip the mass of men, simply because it is a mere edifice of conceptions
insecurely founded on the bed-rock of fact. But it is just this that Christian
faith possesses.Its basis is not the ideas of Jesus but the fact. It brings, not a
new doctrine merely, but new data. It comes not with the theory of a fatherly
God, but with a phenomenon, in history and experience, which means that.
Now all this is preciselywhat faith needs. Faith—as indeed may be said of all
truth—is like Antaeus in Greek legend, who was invincible when touching
mother-earth; and the mother-earth of faith is fact—the fact of Christ.
It was as if God had a revelation to make to the world, a word to teachit, His
own name; and He taught it as we teacha little child, letter by letter. To one
nation came a messageby Buddha, to another by Zoroaster, to another by
Confucius, to anotherby Moses,until at last the full Word was revealed, the
Word that was made flesh and dwelt with us.… No truth canbe taught until
the world is prepared for it.… To me it seems I canread my Bible with a

121. greaterreverence and interest now I see in it a continuous record of a
continuous revelation, wherein God appears ever growinglymore tender,
more merciful, where the false human ideas of Him as held by Abraham,
Joshua and Saulare softeneddown in the tenderness of Isaiah, and finally in
the life of our Lord Jesus.1 [Note:Quintin Hogg, 307.]
4. Without faith in Christ, faith in God is incomplete.—Withoutfaith in
Christ such faith in God as is possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not last
long. Historically a pure Theismis all but impotent. There is only one example
of it on a large scale in the world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity—
Mohammedanism; and we all know what value that has as a religion. There
are many among us who claim to be very advanced thinkers, and who call
themselves Theists, and not Christians. That is a phase that will not last.
There is little substance in it. The God whom men know outside of Jesus
Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. He, or rather It, is a
film of cloud shaped into a vague form, through which you can see the stars. It
has little powerto restrain. It has less to inspire and impel. It has still less to
comfort; it has leastof all to satisfythe heart. You will have to get something
more substantial than the far-off God of an unchristian Theismif you mean to
swaythe world and to satisfy men’s hearts.
Mr. Fujimoto was led to tell us some of his early difficulties in the Dôshisha
University at Kyoto. He had been baptized, but had adopted extreme views on
Higher Criticism. He could acknowledgethe one God and Father, but beyond
that he could not see. Various “holiness” and other meetings were held, but he
found no comfort in them. Mr. BarclayBuxton tried hard to help him, but
still he had no real light. One day having been pressedhard to attend one of
these meetings, he said to himself, “No, I am going instead into the country
alone to fight it out with myself and God!” He went and spent four hours in
agonizing prayer to the God and Fatherfor further light, if such light was
really to be had. It was about 1.30 p.m. (halfway through the four hours) that
a moment came which he says he shall always distinctly remember. He seemed
to hear a voice saying in the concluding words of St. John 14:1, “Believe also
in me.” He instantly took out his Testamentand read straight through the
chapter and on to the end of chapter 16, and he returned from that four hours
a believer in our Lord Jesus Christ.1 [Note:Bishop Ingham, From Japanto
Jerusalem, 48.]
III

122. The Secretofa Quiet Heart
“Let not your heart be troubled.”
The word used here by our Saviour and translated“be troubled” does not
signify any kind of sadness orsorrow;nor are we to understand that it is
either desirable or possible to banish all sadness and sorrow from the mind of
any sonof man under the conditions that prevail upon this earth. The word
used by Jesus signifies to be agitated, perplexed, and thrown into confusion. It
is the description of a life thrown as it were off its centre, and tossedhither
and thither by the force of perplexing and adverse circumstances.
It is the antithesis of that state which Christ described as peace, the rocky
strength that is not exempt from sorrow, but remains unshaken by it. For we
must remember that Jesus ChristHimself, though He spoke of giving His
peace to His disciples, was “a man of sorrows, and acquaintedwith grief.”
“Troubled” is the best Englishequivalent we cangive for the Greek;but, as
generallyemployed, its force is fainter. The original verb—used often of the
agitationof waters, the heaving and surging of the sea—aptlyrepresents the
deeper agitations ofthe soul, painful to strong natures, dangerous to the weak.
Thrice it is used of our Lord Himself in some accessofvehement emotion. So
He shared the experiences whichin us He would comfortand control. Such a
condition needs control, tending as it does to confusion of judgment and
suspensionof faith. “Let not your heart be troubled” was then not only a word
of sympathetic kindness, but a needful counsel;and it is so still, falling with
composing poweron many an agitatedmind.1 [Note: T. D. Bernard, The
Central Teaching ofJesus Christ, 125.]
I happened to read, one immediately after the other, the lives of two women
written by themselves;the one was Sarah Bernhardt’s, the other Marianne
Farningham’s. I gathered little in the way of help from Sarah Bernhardt’s.
She is a woman with a kind heart. That at leastcanbe said of her. At the siege
of Paris she got all her friends safely out of the city, but remained herself, and
turned her house into a hospital where she nursed the wounded soldiers. But
in looking for any guiding principle of her life, it seemedto be chiefly this—
that whatevershe was thwarted in, whatevershe was askedorrecommended
not to do, that was the very thing she would set herselfto do with all the
somewhathystericalenergy of her nature.

123. It was refreshing to turn to Marianne Farningham’s. In quoting what have
been the two mottoes of her life, she says, “We change our mottoes as we
proceedthrough life. Mine is now ‘Let not your heart be troubled,’ but
through all my working years my favourite was ‘I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me.’ ” One can understand why she changedher
motto in later life, from a remark she made in reply to an Address presented
to her—“The beauty of getting old is that not so much is expected of one, and
one has time to sit and think.” In her strenuous years she had the earlier
motto. For the “doing” we need Christ’s strength, for the “thinking” we need
Christ’s comfort. The evening of her days had come, when the hands had to
be folded from much labour, and she had to face the approaching night. We
are so helpless, so ignorant, in view of the greatunseenrealities which each
day’s journey is bringing us nearerto, We need hope and comfort, and
Christ’s words are speciallysuited to such conditions and such times.1 [Note:
John S. Maver.]
1. Christ does not offer exemption from sorrow.—Ithas been a mistake of
most of the remedies proposedfor a troubled heart that they have aimed at
eliminating sorrow from the earth. In this they have aimed, not only at what is
impossible, but at what is, as a primary aim, undesirable also. Ancient
Epicureanism, for example, soughtto banish sorrow as far as possible by
avoiding excess ofpleasurable excitement, by making the tenor of life so even
that extravagantexcessesin pleasure should not occur to plunge men into
consequentexcess ofpain. Modern Epicureanism, a more wretchedfallacy
still, adopts as its watchword:“A short life and a merry one; let us eatand
drink, for to-morrow we die.” It endeavours by the constantinoculation of
pleasure in its most feverish form to exclude the possibility of pain, and to
drive life’s pulse at its hottest pace, let the end come when it will. Stoicism
sought to remove sorrow by the destruction of feeling, to create men who
should not be flesh and blood, but iron and brass. It tried to crush and destroy
the emotionalside of life by such tremendous acts of self-conquest, or rather
of self-mutilation, as to make man a monster—a “reason” with an iron will
and no heart. And Buddhism, with all its beauty, has at the very centre of it a
feminine anguish to be releasedfrom sorrow, and knows no way to cure
earth’s heart-break exceptin an unmanly longing for extinction, in giving up
the life, not in the Christian wayso as to find it again, but in such a way that it
disappears altogetherinto the greatabyss of the Infinite.
Securelycabined in the ship below,

124. Through darkness and through storm I cross the sea,
A pathless wilderness of waves to me:
But yet I do not fear, because I know
That he who guides the goodship o’er that waste
Sees in the stars her shining pathway traced.
Blindfold I walk this life’s bewildering maze;
Up flinty steep, through frozen mountain pass,
Through thorn-set barren and through deep morass;
But strong in faith I tread the uneven ways,
And bare my head unshrinking to the blast,
Becausemy Father’s arm is round me cast;
And if the wayseems rough, I only clasp
The hand that leads me with a firmer grasp.1 [Note:Anne Charlotte Lynch
Botta.]
2. The world cannotgive us heartsease.—The worldling says “Come with me,
and we will go where there is the lilt of merry music and the twinkle of
dancing feet. Once at the feast, you will forget your sadness.”We know how
little this man’s advice is worth. We have heard and, it may be, yielded to this
plea for a little diversion; and we know that a troubled heart cannotbe sung
and danced and fooled out of its grieving. The world’s music may getinto
your feet; but only the music of heaven, of the Divine promises, can getinto a
troubled heart. In this world of problem and passion, and fear and distress,
where the shadow of separationveils from us much that once was ours and
lies softand silent upon all that we do now possess, there is but one way to the
quiet heart. It lies, not in the wisdom that would know all, or in the folly that
would forget all, but in the faith that trusts the love of God the Fatherin the
face of Jesus Christ—the faith that leads a man, in all the trouble of his days,

125. to shelter his soul in the promise, yes, and in the silence of the Infinite Mercy.
“Ye believe in God, believe also in me.”
Some think that the secretofpeace is in the vision of science. There is a
tendency to approach every experience of life along the line of the intellect.
Faith in some quarters is depreciated. But, howevermen may slight it, they
learn soonor late that they cannot live without it. These scientists,with their
delicate instruments and their subtle treatises cansay a greatmany things to
us, but they cannotsay all we need to hear. During the last fifteen years I have
read many of their books. I honour them, and the service they have wrought;
but I have missedone note in them all—the note of comfort. There is one
thing they cannot in all their wisdom say to us: “Let not your heart be
troubled.” They cannot say that. They can teachus to talk wisely, but they
cannot help us to live quietly. They do not give any help in the day of a
troubled heart. In that day I do not want to be reasonedwith, I want to be
comforted. I do not want learning, I want love. I do not want man, I want
God. I do not want science,I want faith.2 [Note:P. C. Ainsworth, A Thornless
World, 90.]
3. Jesus unfolds the secret.—He says thatpersonal faith will keepthe heart at
peace. We may not be able to rule the storm, but we can keepthe storm from
ruling us. Christ tells of the man who built his house upon a rock; and flood
and tempest came and beat upon the house, but it fell not, for it was founded
upon a rock. God has not taught us how to rule tempests, but He has taught us
how to build houses that will defy these tempests. He has not given us lordship
over life’s stressfulweather, but He has given us the lordship of our hearts. If
we trust we may be quiet. Trust is always tranquillity. To casta burden off
myself on others’ shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christ brings
infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When we cease to kick againstthe
pricks they cease to prick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the
windows of the Ark tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of
the peacefuldove with the olive branch in its mouth. Trust brings Christ to
my side in all His tenderness and greatness andsweetness. If I trust, “all is
right that seems mostwrong.” If I trust, conscience is quiet. If I trust, life
becomes “a solemnscornof ills.” If I trust, inward unrest is changedinto
tranquillity, and mad passions are castout from him that sits “clothedand in
his right mind” at the feet of Jesus.
There is a beautiful figure employed in the Apocalypse to denote the calmness
of the soul which arises from the consciousnessofGod’s presence. Before the

126. throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. The idea conveyedto our
minds by this emblem is that of a sea, not of glass, but like glass, a sea the
glassysurface ofwhose waters is ruffled by not so much as a passing breeze,
and whose crystaldepths are lit up with sunshine, a sea smoothand clearas
crystal. The beauty of the emblem is that it combines the most restless,
unstable thing in nature with the idea of perfectrepose and tranquillity. The
sea in its restlessnessis a true likeness ofthe human heart. Every breath of
wind disturbs the one, every breath of adversity troubles the other. But there
is something which can bring perfect repose to the soul—the presence ofGod.
This is the truth which is taught by this sublime image of the sea like glass
before the throne. It represents the calm of a soul which dwells in the presence
of God. We think of heaven as calm because it is out of reachof the storms of
earth, but this is not the idea conveyed by the vision. The heavenwhich it
reveals is a heavenon earth. The scene ofthe Apocalypse is laid, not in some
far-off sphere, some fabled Elysium, but here on earth. Heaven is within the
goodman’s heart. The sea which is before the throne is smooth and clearas
crystal, not because it is remote from earthly storms, but because the Spirit of
God moves upon the face of the waters.
I knew a man, since gone to his rest, who carried on an active service for his
Masterin the busiestof all cities, and who selectedfor himself a telegraphic
address which might stand at the head of his notepaper. What do you think
this busy man’s address was? It was this:—“Undisturbed, London.” And it
always found him at home—that is to say, in God—so far as I could judge of
his dwelling-place in the days when I knew him, before he had run out his
leaseholdin the Church militant and takenup his freehold in the Church
triumphant. Such an one, living at such an address, verifies the truth of the
Scripture which says of the good man that—
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.1 [Note:J. RendelHarris, Aaron’s
Breastplate, 44.]
Oh! the bells rang out for Easter, rang strong and sweetand shrill,
And the organ’s rolling thunder pealedthrough the long church aisle,
And the children fluttered with flowers, and I satmute and still,

127. I who had cleanforgottenboth how to pray and to smile.
And I murmured in fierce rebellion: “There is nought that endures below,
Nought but the lamentations that are rent from souls in pain”;
And the joy of the Eastermusic, it struck on my ears like a blow,
For I knew that my day was over, I could never be glad again!
And then—how it happened I know not—there was One in my sight who
stood,
And lo! on His brow was the thorn-print, in His hands were the nails’ rough
scars,
And the shadow that lay before Him was the shade of the holy rood,
But the glow in His eyes was deeperthan the light of the morning stars.
“Daughter,” He said, “have comfort! Arise! keepEaster-tide!
I, for thy sins who suffered and died on the cruel tree,
I, who was dead, am living; no evil shall e’er betide
Those who, beyond or waiting, are pledged unto life with Me.”
Now I wake to a holier Easter, happier than of old,
And againmy voice is lifted in Te Deums sweetand strong;
I send it to join the anthem in the wonderful city of gold,
Where the hymns of the ransomedfor everare timed to the Eastersong.
And I can he glad with the gladness that is born of a perfectpeace;
On the strength of the Strong I am resting; I know that His will is best,

128. And who that has found that secretfrom darkness has won release,
And even in sorrow’s exile may lift up her eyes and be blessed.
The Secretofthe Untroubled Heart
A. MACLAREN
FAITH IN GOD AND CHRIST
John 14:1.
The twelve were sitting in the upper chamber, stupefied with the dreary, half-
understood prospectof Christ’s departure. He, forgetting His own burden,
turns to comfort and encourage them. These sweetand greatwords most
singularly blend gentleness anddignity. Who canreproduce the cadence of
soothing tenderness, softas a mother’s hand, in that ‘Let not your heart be
troubled’? And who canfail to feel the tone of majesty in that ‘Believe in God,
believe also in Me’?
The Greek presents an ambiguity in the latter half of the verse, for the verb
may be either indicative or imperative, and so we may read four different
ways, according as we render eachof the two ‘believes’in either of these two
fashions. Our Authorised and RevisedVersions concur in adopting the
indicative ‘Ye believe’ in the former clause and the imperative in the latter.
But I venture to think that we get a more true and appropriate meaning if we
keepboth clauses in the same mood, and read them both as imperatives:
‘Believe in God, believe also in Me.’ It would be harsh, I think, to take one as
an affirmation and the other as a command. It would be irrelevant, I think, to
remind the disciples of their belief in God. It would break the unity of the
verse and destroy the relation of the latter half to the former, the former being
a negative precept: ‘Let not your heart be troubled’; and the latter being a
positive one: ‘Instead of being troubled, believe in God, and believe in Me.’
So, for all these reasons, I venture to adopt the reading I have indicated.
I. Now in these words the first thing that strikes me is that Christ here points
to Himself as the objectof preciselythe same religious trust which is to be
given to God.
It is only our familiarity with these words that blinds us to their
wonderfulness and their greatness. Tryto hear them for the first time, and to

129. bring into remembrance the circumstances in which they were spoken. Here is
a man sitting among a handful of His friends, who is within four-and-twenty
hours of a shameful death, which to all appearance was the utter annihilation
of all His claims and hopes, and He says, ‘Trust in God, and trust in Me’! I
think that if we had heard that for the first time, we should have understood a
little better than some of us do the depth of its meaning.
What is it that Christ asks forhere? Or rather let me say, What is it that
Christ offers to us here? Forwe must not look at the words as a demand or as
a command, but rather as a merciful invitation to do what it is life and
blessing to do. It is a very low and inadequate interpretation of these words
which takes them as meaning little more than ‘Believe in God, believe that He
is; believe in Me, believe that I am.’ But it is scarcelyless so to suppose that
the mere assentofthe understanding to His teaching is all that Christ is
asking for here. By no means;what He invites us to goes a greatdeal deeper
than that. The essenceofit is an act of the will and of the heart, not of the
understanding at all. A man may believe in Him as a historical person, may
acceptall that is said about Him here, and yet not be within sight of the trust
in Him of which He here speaks. Forthe essenceofthe whole is not the
intellectual process ofassentto a proposition, but the intensely personalactof
yielding up will and heart to a living person. Faith does not graspa doctrine,
but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is the bond that unites souls with
Him; and the very life of it is entire committal of myself to Him in all my
relations and for all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as all-
sufficient for everything that I can require. Let us get awayfrom the cold
intellectualism of ‘belief’ into the warm atmosphere of ‘trust,’ and we shall
understand better than by many volumes what Christ here means and the
sphere and the powerand the blessednessofthat faith which Christ requires.
Further, note that, whatevermay be this believing in Him which He asks from
us or invites us to render, it is preciselythe same thing which He bids us
render to God. The two clauses in the original bring out that idea even more
vividly than in our version, because the order of the words in the latter clause
is inverted; and they read literally thus: ‘Believe in God, in Me also believe.’
The purpose of the inversion is to put these two, God and Christ, as close
togetheras possible; and to put the two identical emotions at the beginning
and at the end, at the two extremes and outsides of the whole sentence. Could
language be more deliberately adopted and moulded, even in its consecution
and arrangement, to enforce this thought, that whateverit is that we give to
Christ, it is the very same thing that we give to God? And so He here proposes
Himself as the worthy and adequate recipient of all these emotions of

130. confidence, submission, resignation, which make up religion in its deepest
sense.
That tone is by no means singular in this place. It is the uniform tone and
characteristic ofour Lord’s teaching. Let me remind you just in a sentence of
one or two instances. Whatdid He think of Himself who stood up before the
world and, with arms outstretched, like that greatwhite Christ in
Thorwaldsen’s lovelystatue, said to all the troop of languid and burdened and
fatigued ones crowding at His feet: ‘Come unto Me all ye that are weary and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’? That surely is a divine prerogative.
What did He think of Himself who said, ‘All men should honour the Son even
as they honour the Father’? What did He think of Himself who, in that very
Sermon on the Mount {to which the advocates ofa maimed and mutilated
Christianity tell us they pin their faith, instead of to mystical doctrines}
declaredthat He Himself was the Judge of humanity, and that all men should
stand at His bar and receive from Him ‘according to the deeds done in their
body’? Upon any honestprinciple of interpreting these Gospels, andunless
you avowedlygo picking and choosing amongstHis words, accepting this and
rejecting that, you cannot eliminate from the scriptural representationof
Jesus Christ the fact that He claimed as His own the emotions of the heart to
which only God has a right and only God cansatisfy.
I do not dwell upon that point, but I say, in one sentence, we have to take that
into accountif we would estimate the characterof Jesus Christ as a Teacher
and as a Man. I would not turn awayfrom Him any imperfect conceptions, as
they seemto me, of His nature and His work-ratherwould I fosterthem, and
lead them on to a fuller recognitionof the full Christ-but this I am bound to
say, that for my part I believe that nothing but the wildestcaprice, dealing
with the Gospels according to one’s own subjective fancies, irrespective
altogetherof the evidence, can strike out from the teaching of Christ this its
characteristic difference. Whatsignalises Him, and separatesHim from all
other religious teachers, is not the clearness orthe tenderness with which He
reiteratedthe truths about the divine Father’s love, or about morality, and
justice, and truth, and goodness;but the peculiarity of His call to the world is,
‘Believe in Me.’ And if He said that, or anything like it, and if the
representations ofHis teaching in these four Gospels, whichare the only
source from which we get any notion of Him at all, are to be accepted, why,
then, one of two things follows. Either He was wrong, and then He was a crazy
enthusiast, only acquitted of blasphemy because convictedofinsanity; or else-
or else-He was ‘God, manifest in the flesh.’It is vain to bow down before a
fancy portrait of a bit of Christ, and to exalt the humble sage ofNazareth, and

131. to leave out the very thing that makes the difference betweenHim and all
others, namely, these either audacious or most true claims to be the Son of
God, the worthy Recipientand the adequate Object of man’s religious
emotions. ‘Believe in God, in Me also believe.’
II. Now, secondly, notice that faith in Christ and faith in God are not two, but
one.
These two clauses onthe surface presentjuxtaposition. Lookedat more
closelythey present interpenetration and identity. Jesus Christ does not
merely setHimself up by the side of God, nor are we worshippers of two Gods
when we bow before Jesus and bow before the Father; but faith in Christ is
faith in God, and faith in God which is not faith in Christ is imperfect,
incomplete, and will not long last. To trust in Him is to trust in the Father; to
trust in the Fatheris to trust in Him.
What is the underlying truth that is here? How comes it that these two objects
blend into one, like two figures in a stereoscope;and that the faith which flows
to Jesus Christ rests upon God? This is the underlying truth, that Jesus
Christ, Himself divine, is the divine Revealerof God. I need not dwell upon
the latter of these two thoughts: how there is no real knowledge ofthe real
God in the depth of His love, the tenderness of His nature or the lustrousness
of His holiness;how there is no certitude; how the Godthat we see outside of
Jesus Christ is sometimes doubt, sometimes hope, sometimes fear, always far-
off and vague, an abstractionrather than a person, ‘a streamof tendency’
without us, that which is unnameable, and the like. I need not dwell upon the
thought that Jesus Christ has showedus a Father, has brought a God to our
hearts whom we can love, whom we can know really though not fully, of
whom we can be sure with a certitude which is as deep as the certitude of our
own personalbeing; that He has brought to us a God before whom we do not
need to crouch far off, that He has brought to us a God whom we can trust.
Very significant is it that Christianity alone puts the very heart of religion in
the actof trust. Other religions put it in dread, worship, service, and the like.
Jesus Christ alone says, the bond betweenmen and God is that blessedone of
trust. And He says so because He alone brings us a God whom it is not
ridiculous to tell men to trust.
And, on the other hand, the truth that underlies this is not only that Jesus
Christ is the Revealerof God, but that He Himself is divine. Light shines
through a window, but the light and the glass that makes it visible have
nothing in common with one another. The Godhead shines through Christ,
but He is not a mere transparent medium. It is Himself that He is showing us
when He is showing us God. ‘He that hath seenMe hath seen’-notthe light

132. that streams through Me-but ‘hath seen,’in Me, ‘the Father.’And because He
is Himself divine and the divine Revealer, therefore the faith that grasps Him
is inseparably one with the faith that grasps God. Men could look upon a
Moses,an Isaiah, or a Paul, and in them recognisethe eradiationof the
divinity that imparted itself through them, but the medium was forgottenin
proportion as that which it revealedwas beheld. You cannot forgetChrist in
order to see God more clearly, but to behold Him is to behold God.
And if that be true, these two things follow. One is that all imperfect
revelation of God is prophetic of, and leads up towards, the perfectrevelation
in Jesus Christ. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews gives that truth in a
very striking fashion. He compares all other means of knowing God to
fragmentary syllables of a greatword, of which one was given to one man and
another to another. God ‘spoke atsundry times and in manifold portions to
the fathers by the prophets’; but the whole word is articulately uttered by the
Son, in whom He has ‘spokenunto us in these last times.’ The imperfect
revelation, by means of those who were merely mediums for the revelation
leads up to Him who is Himself the Revelation, the Revealer, and the
Revealed.
And in like manner, all the imperfect faith that, laying hold of other
fragmentary means of knowing God, has tremulously tried to trust Him, finds
its climax and consummate flowerin the full-blossomed faith that lays hold
upon Jesus Christ. The unconscious prophecies of heathendom; the trust that
selectsouls up and down the world have put in One whom they dimly
apprehended; the faith of the Old Testamentsaints;the rudimentary
beginnings of a knowledge ofGod and of a trust in Him which are found in
men to-day, and amongstus, outside of the circle of Christianity-all these
things are as manifestly incomplete as a building reared half its height, and
waiting for the corner-stone to be brought forth, the full revelationof Godin
Jesus Christ, and the intelligent and full acceptanceofHim and faith in Him.
And another thing is true, that without faith in Christ such faith in God as is
possible is feeble, incomplete, and will not long last. Historically a pure theism
is all but impotent. There is only one example of it on a large scale in the
world, and that is a kind of bastard Christianity-Mohammedanism; and we
all know what goodthat is as a religion. There are plenty of people amongstus
nowadays who claim to be very advanced thinkers, and who call themselves
Theists, and not Christians. Well, I venture to saythat that is a phase that will
not last. There is little substance in it. The God whom men know outside of
Jesus Christ is a poor, nebulous thing; an idea, not a reality. He, or rather It,
is a film of cloud shaped into a vague form, through which you can see the

133. stars. It has little power to restrain. It has less to inspire and impel. It has still
less to comfort; it has leastof all to satisfythe heart. You will have to get
something more substantial than the far-off godof an unchristian Theism if
you mean to swaythe world and to satisfy men’s hearts.
And so, dear brethren, I come to this-perhaps the word may be fitting for
some that listen to me-’Believe in God,’and that you may, ‘believe also in
Christ.’ For sure I am that when the stress comes, andyou want a god, unless
your god is the God revealedin Jesus Christ, he will be a powerless deity. If
you have not faith in Christ, you will not long have faith in God that is vital
and worth anything.
III. Lastly, this trust in Christ is the secretofa quiet heart.
It is of no use to sayto men, ‘Let not your hearts be troubled,’ unless you
finish the verse and say, ‘Believe in God, believe also in Christ.’ For unless we
trust we shall certainly be troubled. The state of man in this world is like that
of some of those sunny islands in southern seas, around which there often rave
the wildestcyclones, and which carry in their bosoms, beneathall their
riotous luxuriance of verdant beauty, hidden fires, which everand anon shake
the solid earth and spreaddestruction. Storms without and earthquakes
within-that is the condition of humanity. And where is the ‘rest’ to come
from? All other defences are weak and poor. We have heard about ‘pills
againstearthquakes.’Thatis what the comforts and tranquillising which the
world supplies may fairly be likened to. Unless we trust we are, and we shall
be, and should be, ‘troubled.’
If we trust we may be quiet. Trust is always tranquillity. To casta burden off
myself on others’ shoulders is always a rest. But trust in Jesus Christ brings
infinitude on my side. Submission is repose. When we cease to kick againstthe
pricks they cease to prick and wound us. Trust opens the heart, like the
windows of the Ark tossing upon the black and fatal flood, for the entrance of
the peacefuldove with the olive branch in its mouth. Trust brings Christ to
my side in all His tenderness and greatness andsweetness. If I trust, ‘all is
right that seems mostwrong.’ If I trust, conscience is quiet. If I trust, life
becomes ‘a solemn scornof ills.’ If I trust, inward unrest is changedinto
tranquillity, and mad passions are castout from him that sits ‘clothed and in
his right mind’ at the feetof Jesus.
‘The wickedis like the troubled sea which cannot rest.’ But if I trust, my soul
will become like the glassyoceanwhen all the storms sleep, and ‘birds of
peace sit brooding on the charmed wave.’‘Peace I leave with you.’ ‘Let not
your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me.’

134. Help us, O Lord! to yield our hearts to Thy dear Son, and in Him to find
Thyself and eternalrest.
F. B. MEYER
John 14:1
Believe also in Me.
Were we less familiar with these words, we should be more startled by their
immeasurable meaning. One who seems a man asks allmen to give Him
preciselythe same faith and confidence that they give to God. He would not
abate his claims, though He was the humblest and meekestofmen. And the
irresistible conclusionis forcedon us, that He was and knew Himself to be
“Godmanifest in the flesh.”
1. Faith in Jesus is the cure of heart trouble. — It is of little use to say, “Let
not your heart be troubled,” unless you canadd “Trust Christ.” Only if we
can trust canwe be still. Only if we can shift the responsibility of our life on
the care of our neverfailing Redeemercan weeping be exchangedfor radiant
and unspeakable joy.
2. Faith in Jesus conducts to the knowledge ofGod. “Believe Me that I am in
the Father, and the Father in Me.” Philip said, “Show us the Father.” Jesus
answered, “Believe, and thou dostbehold.” The world says, Seeing is
believing; Jesus says, Believing is seeing. The true way to know God is, not by
arguing about or seeking to verify his existence by intellectual processes,but
by obeying the precepts of Jesus;following the footsteps ofJesus;holding
fellowship with Jesus.
3. Faith in Jesus will make our lives the channel through which He can work.
— “He that believeth on Me, the works,” etc. (John14:12, 13, 14). The
Gospels are included in the one clause;the Acts and all the marvels of the
following ages in the other. Jesus is always the worker;and the man who
yields himself most utterly to Him in obedience and faith, will become the
channel through which He will work most mightily.
Comfort
Series:John

135. Sermon by Derek Thomas on Apr 6, 2003
John 14:1-14
Print
John 14:1-14
Comfort
Turn with me, if you would, in your Bibles, to the gospelof John. We are in
the upper room, and are following the words and actions of Jesus in these
final hours before He is arrestedand taken to be tried and crucified. He has
just, in chapter 13, predicted and prophesied the betrayal of Judas Iscariot,
and the denial of Simon Peter, two of His disciple band. And in that sense,
then, it's not surprising that His next words are the words of the first verse of
chapter 14, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Let's hear the word of God.
Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in Me. In My
Father's house are many dwelling places;if it were not so, I would have told
you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I
will come againand receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be
also. And you know the way where I am going." Thomas saidto Him, "Lord,
we do not know where You are going, how do we know the way?" Jesus said
to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father
but through Me. If you had knownMe, you would have knownMy Father
also;from now on you know Him, and have seenHim. Philip said to Him,
"Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." Jesus saidto him, "Have
I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He
who has seenMe has seenthe Father; how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The
words that I say to you I do not speak onMy own initiative, but the Father
abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Fatherand the
Father is in Me; otherwise believe because ofthe works themselves. Truly,
truly, I sayto you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also;
and greaterworks than these he will do; because I go to the Father. Whatever
you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the
Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
So far God's holy, inerrantword, mayHe add Hisblessing to the reading of it.
Let's pray together. OurFather, as wecome now to this extraordinary, well-
known portion o Scripture, we pray that by YourSpiritYou wouldmakeit
meaningfulto us. Once again illumineYourword in our hearts for Jesus’ sake,
Amen.

136. In 1553, Calvin was at the height of his power in Geneva, but in London, there
was a young man, 19 years of age, named William Hunter. Edward VI had
just died; his sister, Mary, Bloody Mary as she is called, had just come to the
throne—staunch RomanCatholic that she was. And William Hunter had been
discoveredreading a copy of the English Bible, the Bible in English. He was
arrestedand takento prison and he was to be there for about 18 months or so.
He was given many opportunities to make some kind of recantation, but on
the 26th
of March, 1555, the 21 year-old William Hunter was led to a place in
London known as Burntwood, and there he was chainedto a pole to be burnt
alive. His father and brother were in attendance. His brother recordedthe
event. His father urged him, spoke to him words of comfort, and the 21 year-
old William saidto his father, “God be with you, goodfather, and be of good
comfort, when we shall all meet againand we shall be merry.” And as the fires
were lit, the father urged him to think on the passionof Jesus, andnot to be
afraid, and from the flames came the words of a 21 year-old young man,
William Hunter, “I am not afraid, I am not afraid.” And then those words
from Acts 7, the words of Stephen, “Lord, receive my spirit.”
Well, these disciples were fearful, and to some extent, they were fearful of
their lives. They knew what was going on in Jerusalem. They’d heard Jesus
predicting His own demise. They’d just heard words of Jesus predicting the
betrayal of one and the denial of another of those among the disciple band,
and they were afraid, understandably afraid. And Jesus says to them, “Let not
your hearts be troubled. Believe in God” or perhaps, “You do believe in God;
keepon believing in Me.”
Now, this portion contains one of the most well knownverses in the New
Testament, I suppose. I've tried to think of the number of times I've quoted
John 14:1 in times of stress ordifficulty or trial. “Let not your hearts be
troubled. Do not be afraid.” And then again in verse 6, “I am the way and the
truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” And it's almost
impossible to read this narrative without these two verses, as it were, coming
out and focusing themselves upon us.
But I want us to see these verses in the context of what Jesus is saying here in
the upper room, and to find that actuallya central theme emerging here, and
that is that the way of comfort for the disciples of Jesus Christis to know and
realize that our Father in heaven cares forus—that we have a heavenly
Father who cares for us. Now, in these 14 verses there are 11 of them that are
the words of Jesus Himself, and on 12 occasionsin these 11 verses, Jesus
mentions the Father. It is, then, as one theologianhas calledthis section, “The
Father Sermon.” Jesus is speaking to His disciples who are afraid, who are

137. troubled, who are distressed, and He's saying to them, “Let not your hearts be
troubled.” This is Jesus’remedy for serious heart problems. This is Jesus the
spiritual cardiologist, if you like, pointing to heart trouble, and pointing to
how that heart trouble canbe alleviated.
There are two questions askedin this section, though there may have been
more, for you get the impression in this discourse that John has simply
selectedsome ofthe things that he could remember from the upper room, and
he selects two questions;one by Phillip and one by Thomas, because they
serve the purposes of his gospel. He writes this gospelin order that we might
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that believing that we might
have life in His name. And these two questions, from Phillip and Thomas,
serve that end in a remarkable way.
I. Thomas’question. We don't know the way.
I want us then to look the question of Thomas, and to see what Jesus is saying
by way of response. “Do you see that I am the only way to the Father?” Jesus
has just said, “And you know the way where I am going,” and the question
comes in verse 5, where Thomas says to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where
You are going.” Thomas is often portrayed, and probably rightly so, as a
pessimist, as someone who is by temperament gloomy and somewhatmorose,
perhaps. The kind of man who sees the glass is always half empty. “We do not
know the way,” he says. It's a lack of faith that brings him to ask these
questions. It's alright for You to say You’re going to the Father, but we don't
know the way. We don't know the way to the Father. And Jesus says, “Iam
the way, and the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father but by
Me.” I am the wayto the Father. I am the truth of the Father. I am the life
that the Father bestows. He is true, in the sense, thatthe Old Testament, and
this is peculiarly John; John uses this word true in contrastwith the Old
Testament, and Moses especially, in which the meaning was shadow, fleeting
shadow, just a picture of the salvationthat Jesus is going to bring. He is the
true, the real, the substantial, the fulfillment, all that had been pictured in the
Old Testamenthas come to fruition and flower now in Jesus Christ. He is the
life, because the life of the Father is constantlypresent in the ministry and
words of Jesus. He's enjoyedthe Father's life from all eternity, and He is the
only way to the Father.
You catch, of course, the exclusivity of what Jesus is saying here. There's no
escaping it. He is the only way to the Father. There is no other mediator.
There is no other way into the presence of the Father, to know the Father, to
have life form the Father. He's the only way. Not Mohammed. Not the way of
Buddhism. Not the wayof Shintoism. Not the way of all the great

138. sophisticatedreligions of the world; it's only through Jesus. Thomas
A’Kempis, the author of the book, The Imitationof Christ, puts it this way,
“Without the way, there is no going; and without the truth there is no
knowing;and without the life there is no living.” So in answerto Thomas’
question, “How can I come to know the Father,” the most important question
we can ask, Jesus points to Himself and says, “It's only through Me.” Unless
you come through the Son by faith in the Son you cannot come to know the
Father.
II. Phillip's question. Just show us the Father.
But that leads to a secondquestion, this time from Phillip. Not only is Jesus
the wayto the Father, but through Him we come to know the Father. Do you
see, He says to Phillip, that I am the revelationof the Father? It's the question
that Phillip puts in verse 8, and isn't it a disarming question, “Lord, show us
the father and it is enough for us.” Lord, just show us the Father. Lord, just
part the trappings of heaven and glory and give us a little glimpse of the
Father. That's all we need. That's all we ask for. It comes from Phillip, quiet,
deeply spiritual member of the disciple band, and yet Jesus receives Phillip's
question with a sense ofdisappointment. “Have you been so long with Me?
Have you been with Me for all this time, Phillip, and yet the penny hasn't
dropped? Still you don't understand. He who has seenMe, has seenthe
Father. I and My Fatherare One.” What an extraordinary thing to say.
Look at what He goes onto sayin verse 10. “Do you not believe that I am in
the Fatherand the Fatheris in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak
on My own initiative but the Father abiding in Me does His work. I am in the
Father; the Father is in Me.” Oh, you've gotto read the notes for this
evening's sermon. You know, in the bulletin. Extraordinary doctrine
emerging out of the early Church called perichoresis or circumincessio— the
Son in the Father;the Father in the Son. It's a picture of communion and
fellowship. It's like two people in love. Rememberthat? Gazing into one
another's eyes and lost, as it were, as they concentrate allof their energies and
beings as they just gaze at eachother. That's the kind of picture that Jesus is
using here. They have eye-to-eye contact — face to face. No one knows the
Father like the Son knows the Father, and no one knows the Son like the
Father knows the Son. Do you remember what John said back in chapter 1,
verse 18? This is how John puts it. “No man has seenGod at any time, the
only begottenGod. God the one and only who is in the bosom of the Father.
(John uses the word to exegete here.)He has exegetedHim; He has told us
what the Fatheris like.

139. You know, parents, children can ask the most disarming questions. And they
will ask you the question, “What is God like?” The best and most biblical
answeryou can give to that question is, “Godis like Jesus.” Godthe Fatheris
like Jesus becauseJesusreveals whatGod is like. There is nothing that is in
Jesus that isn't in God. How can we know the Father? Jesus makes Him
known.
Now, Jesus spells that out with three simple statements that confirm the fact
that through Him, we come to the Father. He says in verse 10, “I speak the
Father's words.” It's interesting that in the rest of the sectionJesus is
reminding them of what He's already said. He's reminding them of some of
the things He's said before in His ministry with them. In John 5, He had
spokenof what His relationship with the Father had been like. “I do the
Father's works, He said. “I speak the Father's words,” He said. It's as though
He's employing the way in which Jesus had grownup with Josephin the
carpenter's shop. He had watchedthe wayHis earthly stepfather, Joseph, had
workedwith all of the tools of the trade, and can you imagine Jesus going in
there and saying to Joseph, “What's this for? Show Me how to do what it is
that you are doing.” And Jesus is saying, “All the words that I speak, theyare
My Father's words.”
I love that verse in Isaiah50, when the prophet is picturing the coming of
Jesus as the suffering servant of the Lord. He speaks ofHim in this fashion,
“The sovereignLord has given me an instructed tongue as one being taught.”
As Jesus woke in the morning as a young boy, it's as though He's saying, “My
first thought in the morning is, “Whatis My Father teaching Me?” He speaks
as one who has learned perfectly in the years of apprenticeship. What He says
echoes the Father's heart. “I speak the Father's words.”
And not only the Father's words, but the Father's works. The signs in John's
gospel, whatare they? They are signs of what the Fatheris like. What is the
Father's purpose in this world? To restore one who was blind so that he may
see. To raise one who has died in order that he might live. To heal one that has
been crippled in order that he might walk properly. It is, if I can borrow a
word that has been on our lips and in our ears for the past two weeks, our
Father is in the business of reconstruction–reconstructing a fallen and broken
world. It's the heart of the heavenly Father that Jesus is making known. “I
speak the Father's words; I do the Father's works.”
And in verses 12-14, “Idisplay the Father's glory. The essenceofwho God is.
The transcendence ofHis being what makes Him God, I display all of that,”
Jesus is saying. He said it before in chapter 13, and He's repeating it now. He
goes onto saysomething quite extraordinary. And He says in verse 12, “And

140. greaterworks than these shall you do because I go to the Father.” I do these
works displaying the Father's glory, but when I go to the Fathergreater
things will be revealed. Yes, think of the day of Pentecostwhen3,000 souls
were converted in one day from all over the known world they had gathered–
Parthians and Medes and Elamites and dwellers in Mesopotamia–think of it.
Apart from when Jesus was a baby, He had never left Israel. He had never left
the land of Judah - Palestine. Yes, it was smallerthan Mississippi. He’d never
been to California. He’d never been to Siberia. He’d never been to Iraq or
Syria or Iran or Egypt as an adult. And as He goes to the Father, greater
works of the Father's heart will be made manifest through His disciples
through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
What Jesus is saying? “I'm telling you what the Father is like. My whole
business is to introduce you to the Father.” Jesus is saying that when you
come to know Jesus Christ, you come to know the Father. He wants to take us
by His hand and lead us and introduce us to His Fatherin heaven and say to
His Fatherin heaven, “Let me introduce John to you. Let me introduce Jane
to you. Let me introduce Phillip to you. Let me introduce Mary to you.”
There's a wonderful, wonderful picture in the secondvolume of Ian Murray's
biography of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. And Dr. Marjorie Blackey, who is the
physician to the Queen, is introducing Lloyd-Jones, the preacher, to Her
Majestythe Queen, and if you can ever getthat secondvolume biography just
look at that picture and look at the expressions on the Queen's face;on
Marjorie Blackey's face;on Lloyd-Jones’ face as he is being introduced to Her
Majesty. And Jesus is saying to Phillip and the restof the disciples, “When
you come to know Me, I am introducing you to the very heart of My Fatherin
heaven.”
III. Who is Jesus to you?
Do you know that's the test of whether you are a Christian or not, isn't that
so? What does the Father mean to you? When you find yourselves in trouble,
when you find yourselves in distress, whenyou find yourselves overtakenby
all kinds of trials, do you run to God and say, “My Fatherin heaven.” And
you know Him and He knows you.
There are two consequences.One, the possibility that you might miss this. He
says to Phillip, “Have I been so long with you and still you haven't gotit? The
possibility that you may be within the precincts of those who believe and still
not know the Father, and Jesus is saying to you, “Come to Me; believe in Me;
and trust in Me. Because Iam the way, and the life, and no one comes to the
Father but by Me.” The possibility that you may miss it. And secondly, and
finally, Jesus says to them, “I don't want you to be troubled. Let not your

141. hearts be troubled.” It's fascinating. The same word is used here as has been
used of Jesus’trouble. Jesus isn't speaking here of perhaps sinful trouble–
what we do with our trouble may become sinful, but the trouble itself is part
of the lot of living in a fallen world, and Jesus Himself in 11:33, 12:2 7, 13:21,
says His ownheart, His own Spirit is troubled.
Homer Lee Howie said to me a few weeks ago something I had entirely
missed. Here's the theologian. Can't tell you how many commentaries in John
I'd read, but I'd missed it. He said to me, “The reasonwhy we don't have to be
troubled is because Jesus has beentroubled for us.” It was so simple and I'd
missed it. The reasonwhy we don't have to be troubled is because He has
walkedin to the trouble for us. He's takenthat trouble on His own heart and
He's takenthat trouble on His own soul so that we need not be troubled. And
He says that the way out of trouble, whether it's the trouble of waterand mud
that has ruined your home and destroyed some of your most precious
possessions–andyou can identify with that now for yourself–thattrouble
that's on your heart and in your soul. Jesus says the way out of that trouble is
to come to know a Fatherin heavenwho cares for you, who cares enoughto
send Jesus to die for you, to go the cross for you, to walk into the fires of
trouble for you. “Where I am, there you will be also,” He says. “Becausein
My Father's house are many dwelling places, and where I am, there you will
be also.”
Where is Jesus tonight? He's at God's right hand gazing into the loving eyes of
His Father. And Jesus says that's where I'm going to bring you, to the same
point that I am that you may gaze into the Father's eyes. And as Augustine
says, “I see the depths, but I cannotsee the bottom.” There was a minister in
the eighteenthcentury, a product of the GreatAwakening and the preaching
of George Whitfield, one of the so-calledClaphamSect, a man by the name of
Henry Veen, a man important in gospelmissions and the propagationof the
gospelthroughout the world. He retired and came to live in Huddersfield near
where his son was and he was ill, dying, and it was said of him when he was
told that he was dying that the prospect make him so jubilant and high
spirited that his doctor said that his joy at dying kept him alive for another
two weeks. The joy of dying kept him alive for another two weeks!Isn't that
an extraordinary thing? And that's what Jesus is saying. You have no need to
be troubled because I will come againand I will receive you unto Myself that
where I am, there you may be also.” Let's pray together.
Our Father in heaven, wethank you for Yourword, familiarasit is to us, writeit
again upon ourhearts and giveus a blessing wepray as wegaze into our
Father's eyes. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.

142. ********************************************
A Guide to the Evening Service
Thoughts on Worship
Without submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, there can be no relationship
with the Fatherand no participation in the covenant. Without the Lord's
presence through the personof God the Holy Spirit in the hearts of his
submitted people, a service of worship finds no acceptancewith God. Worship
must not become enraptured with the worshiper's ambitions or experience. It
must move beyond mere deism or even theism in its statements about God and
praises to God. It must not be content with sentimentalism that
overemphasizes ormisrepresents the fullness of his character. Overallit must
see the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and focus on God through the covenant
establishedin the Incarnate Word. In this way, worship that is anything less
than Christocentric within the framework of Divine Triunity may be
something, but it is certainly not "Christian." (Timothy J. Ralston)
The Themes of the Service
Tonight's passage in the Gospelof John continues in the Upper Room. It
focuses onthe words of Jesus in the Upper Roomthat our hearts not be
troubled. The comforts of Christ to His people will be our focus tonight.
The Psalm, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
We Come, O Christ, to You
Our opening hymn is one of MargaretClarkson's.It speaks ofthe uniqueness
of Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. That no one comes to the
Father but by Jesus Christ.
Beneaththe Cross ofJesus
Another hymn, well known to our congregationand written by Elizabeth
Cecelia DouglasClephane in 1868. It “express the experiences, the hopes and
the longings of a young Christian lately released. Written on the very edge of
life, with the better land fully in view of faith, they seemto us footsteps
printed on the sands of time, where these sands touch the oceanofEternity.
These footprints of one whom the GoodShepherd led through the wilderness
into rest, may, with God's blessing, contribute to comfort and direct
succeeding pilgrims.”
From All That Dwellbelow the Skies (Psalm117)
“The classic ofEnglish doxologies,” a paraphrase of Psalm117 by Isaac
Watts, is a song that all our children should know. We’ll sing its first stanza
before the children's devotionaltonight.

143. God Will Take Care ofYou
The words to this hymn were written 99 years ago (in 1904)on a Sunday
afternoonby a preacher's wife, Civilla D. Martin. When her husband came
home that evening, he satdown at the organand composedthe tune! It has
been a favorite of many ever since. It seems appropriate to sing it this evening
as we considerthe words of comfort and cheerthat Jesus speaksto His
increasinglyfrightened disciples in the Upper Room.
The Sermon
In the midst of the most sublime reassuranceofJesus’love for His own, there
is uttered one of the most remarkable statements that Jesus evergave:‘Do
you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?’ (John 14:10
ESV). Jesus is ‘in’ the Father; the Fatheris ‘in’ the Son! It gave rise to a
doctrine. One of its exponents was John of Damascus (c. 674-749),and the
doctrine is variously knownas perichoresis, or circumincessio. In writing of
the waythe Son relates to the Father, he spoke of‘the perichoresis of the
subsistencies in one another’ (Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, 4:xviii). What
does it mean? Let's take the word perichoresis first: peri – ‘around’ and
choreo – ‘I dwell’. Crudely imagined, it means that the Son and the Father
(the same is true of the Holy Spirit) occupy the same space. Where One is, the
Other is. They co-inhere in eachother. They are constantly moving towards
eachother, around eachother, through eachother. They occupy the same
throne. All of this from the words Jesus expresses here!The point? In the
context of John 14 it is this: that we can trust the Son's word because He
speaks from the most intimate fellowship with the Father in heaven. No one
knows the Father like the Son. His knowledge ofthe Fatheris inexhaustible.
Remember, you can listen to today's sermons and many others right on your
computer. You can do this by visiting the First Presbyterianmedia site at
http://resources.christianity.com/fpcjackson/ or just click on the Life Audio
link on the library page of the church's web site. If you have any difficulty
please email JonathanStuckertat jstuckert@fpcjackson.org
DAVID LEGGE
We've been looking at a series onthe heart within the word of God, how we
understand the Biblicalterm 'the heart'. We've lookedat many
understandings of the heart, last week we lookedat the disorientated heart in
the characterofDavid, and today we're going to look, in John chapter 14, at
the lonely heart. The heart that feels lonely.

144. The gospelof John and chapter 14 is the passage ofthe word of God that we
will read togethertoday. John's gospeland chapter14 - very wellknown
words, but words that continue to thrill our soul and our heart, in the comfort
that the Lord brings. Verse 1: "Let not your heart be troubled:ye believein
God, believealsoin me", verse 16, "And I willpray the Father, and he shall give
you another Comforter, that he mayabidewithyou for ever; even the Spiritof
truth; whom the world cannotreceive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him:but ye know him;for he dwellethwithyou, and shall be in you. I willnot
leaveyou comfortless: I willcometo you. Yet a littlewhile, andthe world seeth
meno more; but ye see me:because I live, ye shall livealso", verse 25, "These
thingshave I spoken unto you, being yet present withyou. But the Comforter,
whichis the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in myname, he shall teach
you all things, and bringall thingsto your remembrance, whatsoeverI have said
unto you. Peace I leavewithyou, mypeace I giveunto you: not as the world
giveth, giveI unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid".
Let's bow in a moment's prayer: Our Father, we thank Thee for the words of
God. We thank Thee that we can be assuredthat these are Thine own
breathed words. Every word upon this page, we know is straight from Thy
heart. And Lord, as such, we pray that we would be in a fit state to receive it.
We pray that those who really need, at this time, to hear the messagefrom
God, that their heart would be prepared and goodground for the seedthat
goes forth. Help me by Thy Holy Spirit, that advocate divine, and give us a
portion of Him to satisfy our need. For we ask in Jesus name, Amen.
'The Lonely Heart' of the child of God. Loneliness is a greatproblem within
many of our lives. Chuck Swindoll, in one of his books, tells that when he was
in the Marine Corps, he one time went to sea for 17 days. On about the 10th
day of their voyage, they had removed from the body of any land in the whole
of the Pacific Ocean- and the sea, the greatocean, beganto swell, sometimes
to 30 or 40 feet at a time. And he accounts that the ship that lookedenormous
in that little dock, as they boarded it to go to sea, now lookedlike a little tooth
pick floating in the middle of the circle of that greathorizon. As he stood there
in the middle of that ocean, looking atgreattidal waves allaround him,
feeling like a drop in the ocean, he says that he remembered Samuel Taylor
Coleridge's words in his poem: 'The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner' - and this
verse came to his mind:
'Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide, wide sea.
Not a saint took pity on my soul
In agony'.

145. Someone has said that loneliness is one of the most universal sources ofhuman
suffering that there is
Someone has said that loneliness is one of the most universal sources ofhuman
suffering that there is. For millions in our world today it is almost a
permanent condition. It is no respecterofpersons. No matter what class
you're from, what colour or creed, how much money you have, or your age - it
doesn't matter, we all can experience the suffering of loneliness. It hits
everyone at some time within their life, and for a sadfew people it hits them
all of their life. It is a painful awareness, to realise that you're alone, to realise
that in your life there is a lack of meaningful contactwith other human
beings. Neill Straight (sp?) said that loneliness is spending your days alone
with your thoughts, your discouragements,and having no one to share them
with. Many feel empty, they feelthe sadness oftheir loneliness, they feel
discouragement, isolation - and perhaps the greatestanxiety of all is the desire
to be wantedand to feel needed, but that no longer seems to be there. For
many, they feel left out, they feel rejected - and even when surrounded by
many folk within family, or friends, or even within the assemblyof the church
of Jesus Christ, they canfeel unwanted at times - and there comes, within
their very soul and being, this feeling of hopelessness thatdrives them to find
companionship of any kind.
It is terrible to experience the feeling of worthlessness. And often loneliness
leads to worthlessness - there often is, within the mind and the heart of a
lonely person, the conviction that since no one wants to be with me, perhaps
I'm not the kind of person anyone would want. In the world around we see
many lonely people going to pubs and to clubs - and it's the same scenario,
believe it or not, within the church of Jesus Christ, for among us are many
lonely people, some of them just seeking companionshipand friendship -
coming among where there are people. The Christian psychologist, Craig
Ellison (sp?), says that there are three kinds of loneliness:first of all there is
emotional loneliness. Thatis a lack, or a loss, ofpsychological, intimate
relationship with another human being on an intimate level. Secondly there is
socialloneliness:a feeling of aimlessness, anxiety, of being 'out of it', of being
on the margins of sociallife - and the need for a personlike that, is to be found
within a group that loves them for who they are and meets their needs deep in
their soul. Thirdly, he says that there is spiritual loneliness:that is to be
separate from God. No meaning in life, no purpose - and what a person like
that needs is Christ. They need an intimate, personalrelationship with the
Lord Jesus Christ and they need to be baptised into His body, into the
Christian community.

146. Now I'm not talking about solitude. For solitude is something that is
voluntarily - where we withdraw from the crowdat times, and it can be very
refreshing
Now I'm not talking about solitude. For solitude is something that is
voluntarily - where we withdraw from the crowdat times, and it can be very
refreshing, it can be very helpful. But I'm talking about loneliness, something
that is involuntary, something that comes upon people - they do not choose it -
and it brings great pain, greatfrustration and greatdistress. We can look
around the world that we live in and ask:'What is the cause forsuch
loneliness in the age in which we live?'. Some would sayit is technology - how
you no longer visit a person, you lift the phone and talk to them. Some sayit's
mobility - the factthat we candrive, one personin one car to our work, and
not have to interact with anyone else until we come home. Some say it's a lack
of neighbourliness - and some of you can remember days gone by [when] you
used to fall in and out of other neighbours homes like your own home, and
there was that camaraderie, thatneighbourliness, that seemedto protect
againstloneliness. Whetherit be low self-esteem, aninability to connect - the
effects of loneliness are isolation, poor self-esteem, discouragement, self-
centredness, the 'poor little me' syndrome, and at times - at its very worst - a
hopelessness anda despair that leads many, even in the church of Jesus
Christ, to alcoholism, to suicide and to domestic violence.
In John chapter 14, believe it or not, the disciples are in quite a similar
situation. And I want you to put yourself in their situation for a moment, and
think of the words that they had been hearing, very distressing words from
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. What did He said to them? 'One of you
shall betray Me...whatthou doest, do quickly...whither I go, you cannotfollow
me...I go to prepare a place for you...yet a little while and you will see Me no
more', and for them the light that was the MessiahofGod, the hope that was
their Redeemer, their Saviour and their Deliverer - as far as they could see,
that light was about to go out. The supporting presence of who He was, of
what had drawn them awayfrom their business, their occupation, some of
them their families and their friends - that supporting presence was going to
go from under them and they would be left all alone.
The surprising thing about it is this: that He said to them, 'It is expedient for
Me to go...Itell you the truth, it is necessaryfor Me to go from you'. And I'm
sure the disciples were thinking in their mind, 'It's not necessary!It is
necessarythat You stay with us! If You go, we could be slain as sheep. If You
go, we will be persecutedby the Romans and the Jews. If You go, we will be
like a huddle of frightened children in an upper room, behind shut doors and

147. windows, fearing for our lives! It is not necessary!It is not expedient that You
go!'. But of course, the Lord Jesus always knows best - but it doesn't always
make sense to us, does it? As far as they were concernedit was not expedient
that He go, in their mind it was like the mother seeing her death as being
beneficialto her own children's interest - it just does not make sense. And my
friend, I am consciousthat there are many in this place today and you have
experiencedloneliness in a similar way to the disciples. Someone, or
something, that you held so dear in your heart has been takenfrom you and it
doesn't seemright! It does not seemexpedient - and you have been left with a
void, left with a loneliness and an emptiness that, it seems, nothing canfill -
not even God!
The problem was the fall...and sin broke the relationship and loneliness was
possible now within the relationship betweena man and a woman, and man
with his fellow-man in friendship
And as they thought of their Lord's departure, the icy hand of despair
gripped their lonely hearts. They wondered, 'What will fill our emptiness?
What will come and take the place and the space that this man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has left? Is there anything?' - and they faced, as a group of twelve, the
orphans prospectof loneliness and emptiness. The first question I want to ask
you is: do you feel like an orphan? Do you feel like an orphan? The Bible, you
know, is full of emptiness, full of loneliness - it describes Adam in a perfect
creation, and God saw everything and saidit was good. Yet in Genesis chapter
2 and verse 18 He said, 'It is not goodthat the man should be alone', because
God knew - and I want to say this within the contextof church, and of service
within church - that the companionship of God for we, as human beings as we
are, is not enough! God recognisedthatit was not enough, that is why He
made a help-meet for the man in the personof woman. But the problem was
the fall, as the problem always is the fall, and sin broke the relationship and
loneliness was possible now within the relationship betweena man and a
woman, and man with his fellow-man in friendship.
Go to all the characters thatyou like within the Bible, you have Jacob, you
have Moses,Job, Nehemiah, Elijah, Jeremiah, David - so many Old
Testamentcharacters who experiencedthis awful void and aching pain of
loneliness within their heart! I want to be careful in treading on this
ground...but within the New Testament, in the garden of Gethsemane, it
strikes me that there was an insight of the Lord Jesus Christ into the future
loneliness that He would experience in God forsaking Him at the cross. And
even there, our Lord Jesus Christhad those aching pains of loneliness!John
the apostle, we readof him - as far as we canunderstand - that at the very end

148. of his life, he finished his whole life in a prison on the Isle of Patmos all alone.
Paul, in prison also, he said to Timothy, 'They have all left me, many have
forsakenme. Please come to me and don't tarry! Make every effort to come
and come soon!'.
Have you experiencedthe orphanhood of loneliness?
Have you experiencedthe orphanhood of loneliness? Look atverse 18 with me
of this wonderful chapterof Scripture - and these are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ: 'I will not leave you orphaned', and that is the word, 'orphaned'.
But we can feel like orphans, can't we? What is an orphan? An orphan is a
person, possibly, that at some time in their life has knowna father and a
mother, a sweethome of love and friendship together - but they have lost that
love, they have experienced having it and now it is gone, and they are
experiencing the feeling of abandonment and desolationthat orphanhood
brings. The poet, Natalie Ray(sp?), put it very succinctlyfrom her heart - it
doesn't matter whether it be the death of a husband or a wife, it doesn't
matter whether it be the orphanhood of divorce, separation, a prodigal child
that has run from home in distress - she put it in her poem:
'No lover makes my kiss his daily quest.
No hand acrossthe table reaches mine.
No precious baby nestles at my breast.
No one to need my love.
Where is the sign that God my Father loves me?
Surely He createdthis wealthof love to overflow.
How can it be that none who wanted me
Has become mine? Why did I tell them 'No'?
But do they really matter, all the 'whys'?
Could all the answers take awaymy pain?
Or all the reasons dry my eyes,
Though from heaven's court? No!I would weepagain!
My God, You have savedme from hell's black abyss,
Oh, save me from the tyranny of bitterness!'
We were not made to walk alone, we were not made to plough a lonely path
I wonder how many in our gathering feel like Mary, as she stoodin the garden
tomb and cried: 'They have takenawaymy Lord and I know not where they
have laid Him!'. If you feellike an orphan you need help - and, my friend,
what one of us here today does not need the help of God in our lives? We were
not made to walk alone, we were not made to plough a lonely path - we saw it

149. last Lord's Day in the gospelmessage:that the yoke is always there for his
human beings, we were made to live, enjoy God, glorify Him in a relationship
with God and we are not to walk alone!Therefore, the word of God to your
heart today my friend is: 'I will not leave you an orphan'. We are Christ's
brethren, we are the children of God - in John 13 and 33 He describes His
disciples, and addressesthem as 'little children'. We are not sheep without a
shepherd, we are not scatteredand left to the mercy of strangers - listen: we
are God's people! Do you feel an orphan?
The secondquestion I want to ask you is: do you know the Comforter? Do you
know the Comforter? Look at verse 17: 'Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because itseethhim not, neither knowethhim: but ye
know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you', verse 16, 'And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you anotherComforter'. [That] Spirit that
will be with you, that Comforter that will come to be beside you - isn't it
wonderful and amazing to think that Christ has prayed for Him for us! The
word of God says that in His lifetime, He offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears - and what were they all about? Some of them
were for us! Some of them were that we would know the comforting influence
of the third Personof the blessedTrinity, the Holy Spirit. It's a joy to stand at
Lazarus' tomb and to think of one, dead four days, and to see the Saviour's
head lifted high, looking to glory and saying: 'FatherI thank Thee that Thou
hast heard Me, and I know that Thou hearestMe always!'.
Yes, you may be shut off from others because ofyour predicament - but
nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!
If you feel like an orphan today, the Friend of friends has prayed for you - and
never you forgetthat nothing can interfere with your communion with
heaven. Yes, you may be shut off from others because ofyour predicament -
but nothing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus!And
because ofthat He prayed that we would have another Comforter, verse 16: 'I
pray the Father...he shallgive you another Comforter'. Their comforter had
gone!The one they had invested all their hopes in had gone!But He had
promised them, 'I am going but I will not leave you comfortless, Iwill not
leave you as an orphan. I will send to you another comforter'. The Greek
word for 'comforter' that you find within the New Testamentis the Greek
word 'parakletos' - do you know what it literally means? Listen: 'called
alongside to help'. Called alongside to help!
Now the Englishword, that the AV translators have translated that word by,
is the word 'comforter' in its old English meaning. And in its old English
meaning it's a goodequivalent, because it's made up of two Latin words; the

150. word 'com' and the word 'fortis' (sp?) - the word 'com' meaning 'to be in
company with', and the word 'fortis' meaning 'to strengthen'. Exactly the
same meaning! But that meaning, 'comfort', has changedfrom the fourteenth
century meaning of it right to now, and we think of comfort as being consoled
in sorrow, and being consoledin our distress. But in this day and age, when
the authorisedversion was translated, it meant 'to strengthen through
comfort', to encourage, to come alongside, andto lift up and to strengthen
with the strength of God. We can see that because Wycliffe translated
Philippians 4 and verse 13 like this: 'I can do all things through Christ who
comforts me' - do you see the meaning? Comfort and strength. Christ says, 'I
am going awayand, as far as you're concerned, My strength will be deprived
of you - but I will send another Comforter' - and that word 'another' simply
means this: 'another of the same kind'.
The word 'comforter' is the same word translatedin 1 John 2 and verse 1 as
'advocate':'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous'. And an advocate is a barrister, and those who are in legal
difficulty, in crisis, need a man of legalaptitude and ability to pull them out of
their morass of a hole - and we have one! We have Jesus Christthe righteous,
but He said to His disciples:'I'm going away, I as your advocate will go - but
if I go I will send another advocate unto you'. Do you know that there is one
Personof the Trinity that has been given for your distress? There's one who
has been given by God for all the needs that you have in life, He is the
advocate, the one who makes intercessionforus with strong groanings, which
cannot be uttered within our very selves!
Look at verse 16:'I pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world
cannot receive, becauseit seethhim not, neither knowethhim: but ye know
him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you'. In the Old Testamentthe
Holy Spirit dwelt with them, He came upon Samson, with Samson, He
preachedthrough Noah before the flood, and He was with them all. We see it
primarily in David, where he cries in his sin, in Psalm51: 'Take not Thy Holy
Spirit from me' - the Spirit was with them, but do you see what He's saying?
The blessedLord Jesus Christis saying:'The Spirit was with you, but when I
go He will be in you'.
Are you aware of the Friend in the Holy Spirit that you have within you at
this moment?
Are you aware of the Friend in the Holy Spirit that you have within you at
this moment? Are you living in the consciousreality that there is a Helper,
there is an Advocate, there is an Encourager, a Strengthener, and a

151. Comforter that is with you every moment of the day in the Personof the Holy
Ghostof God? Are you recognising that source of powerthat is within you?
'What, though His footsteps lingerno longer?
Still through His Spirit's presence Jesus is ever near!
What, though your heart be lonely? What, though your friends be few?
He will not leave you oprhans, Jesus will come to you!'
Though He is gone - and there's many a time I think 'Oh! I wish I'd been
there in the gospelscenes!I wish I'd witnessedHis miracles and heard His
golden words falling from His ruby lips. I wish I could have been there! I wish
now, in my problems, in my trials, I could know to be near the physical Christ
and what it is for Him to reachout and touch me and make me whole!' - I've
finished with that! Do you know why? Becausewe have something greater -
do you believe that? He said, 'When I go you will do greaterthings, and you
will experience greaterthings' - for, if you imagine it, if you were in the wrong
town one day when the Lord Jesus was visiting Capernaum, and you were in
Jerusalem, you would be deprived of His glorious presence!If He was with
John and James, Petercouldnot enjoy the comfort of His words or His touch
- and all He could do at that moment of time, in the will of God, was to affect
those disciples from an external way. But He says, 'When I go to be with My
Father, that Spirit that was with you will be in you!' - and that means when
I'm in distress and you're in distress at the same time, we have a Saviour that
is able for both. Isn't that marvellous? Isn't that wonderful to know the
Advocate that we have? We have one like He! And they realisedit -
remember, they were in their distress, but on the night that He came to them
and He breathed on them and said: 'Receive ye the Holy Spirit' - they knew
that they were better off!
Do you know that you have another Comforter? Do you know that you have
another Comforter, who says:'I will come to you'? 'I will come to you', look at
verse 18: 'I will not leave you comfortless:I will come to you'. In another
verse, further up the chapterHe said: 'I will abide with you forever!'. 'I will
come to you' - yes, He came to the disciples, after the resurrectionHe
appearedto them; yes, He came in the Personofthe Holy Spirit on the Day of
Pentecost;yes, He will come againand receive us unto Himself at the second
coming of the Lord - but what is being said here is this: 'I will come to you
now'!
Some of you need Him to come to you. In the dark and the lonely hours you
need Him

152. Some of you need Him to come to you. In the dark and the lonely hours you
need Him. When you're in most need of Him, He will come to you. In the
storm, when the boat is getting full of the waterand almost ready to sink, and
you have no hope - He will come to you. When the home is empty that was
once filled with that love, and that character, and that voice that you knew so
well and filled that home with the love that it [had] - He will come to you!
When Jericho has to be attackedon the morrow, when the Jordan must be
crossed- He will come to you! When family and friends stand aloof, and when
the lastcoalof life turns to grey, ashencolour - listen: 'I will come to you'.
At times He comes in the quiet of night, He comes and we hear Him not - and
He speaks to our souls 'Arise! Arise My love and come away'. Do you know
what it is to stand at the tomb of Lazarus and to realise that one is rotting in
the grave four days now? And all of a sudden, into the ears of a loved one of
Lazarus is whispered this wonderful phrase: 'The Masterhas come'. My
friend, He wants to come to you today, He wants to come to you in comfort -
but you're going to have to put yourself on His way. There are certain beaten
tracks that you must walk along, that are wellworn by the Saviour, you've got
to draw near to God and He will draw nigh to you - and you must come across
His path! You must meditate and visit Olivet, where He prayed, and you must
pray to Him. You must visit Calvary, where He bled. You must visit Joseph's
tomb, where He rose from the dead. Gethsemane, where He wept - all these
places that were dear to Him, get to them, think upon them and immediately
the Spirit of God will unite your heart with His! And the Spirit will whisper
into your heart, 'To them that look for Him shall He appear'.
'For warm, sweet, tendereven yet,
A present help is He.
And faith has still its Olivet,
And love its Galilee.
The healing of His seamless dress
Is by our beds of pain.
We touch him in life's throng and press,
And we are whole again'.
Will you recognisethat He wants to come to you today in all your distress, in
all of your lonely heart, for He is the one who has said: 'I will never leave you
nor forsake you'!
Behold the Bridegroomcometh, will you go out to meet Him? Will you take
the path that He is sure to take and touch you? Will you be in the upper room
with the restof the disciples, not like Thomas and miss the Saviour when He

153. comes? Myfriend, He wants to touch your heart, He has said: 'I will come to
you'. Will you recognise thatHe wants to come to you today in all your
distress, in all of your lonely heart, for He is the one who has said: 'Lo, I am
with you always evenunto the end of the world'. He is the one who said: 'I will
never leave you nor forsake you'!
It is a very hard thing to understand how this man said what I am about to
quote, but he did. F.B. Meyer saidthis concerning this passage:'Oh, blessed
orphanhood, it were well to bereavedto have such comforting'. Let us realise
today, that Christ was forsakenthat we might never be. One missionary
translator of the Bible was labouring in a tribe in Mexico, and he found it
hard to get the specific word for this word 'comforter' within this passageof
Scripture. One day his helper came to him asking for a week's leave, andhe
explained that his uncle had died and he wanted some days off to visit his
bereavedaunt - and he said this: 'I want to help her heart around the corner'.
That was the word he needed. My friend, is that the word you need? Do you
need the Holy Spirit to help your heart around the corner? Well, let your
spirit hear Him say today, 'I will not leave you an orphan. I will come to you.
Don't be troubled and don't be afraid'.
Let us bow our heads, and I am very consciousthat there may be those who
are lonely because ofthat spiritual loneliness that comes in not knowing
Christ. The only solution to your problem is being savedby the grace ofGod -
and you must do that if you want the friendship of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are saints in this place whose hearts are breaking more than tongue can
tell, cry out to the Saviour now from your heart, that that Comfortermay
spring up within your souland carry you, and strengthenyou through life's
trial. Our Father, we thank Thee that we are not left alone. We thank Thee
that Thy Sondid not leave us orphans, but senta Comforter - and through
that Comforter, greaterthings could be done, and a greaterexperience could
be known. And at Pentecost, we remember how He came, and how He took up
residence within His church. Lord, let us know and recognise His presence in
our lives, the Lord God the Holy Spirit. May He come to us, in Jesus name,
Amen.
Don't miss Part 5 of 'The Heart Of The Matter': "The Seeking Heart"
------------------------Back to Top
Transcribedby:
PreachThe Word.
October2000
www.preachtheword.com

154. This sermon was delivered at The Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, by PastorDavid Legge. It was transcribed from the fourth tape in his
'The Heart Of The Matter'series, titled "The Lonely Heart" - Transcribedby
PreachThe Word.
The Cure for Heart Trouble Sunday, November 29th, 1992 John14:1-6 Let
not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my
Father's house are many mansions: 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 will
come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be
also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him,
Lord, we know not whither thou goest;and how can we know the way? Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the
Father, but by me.
I’m going to be speaking to you today on this subject: “The Cure for Heart
Trouble.” Now, my text is an old familiar passageofscripture found in John
Chapter 14: verses 1 through 6. I’d like for you to take your Bible and plan to
follow me as I read the scripture today and preach from this passage,John14:
verses 1 through 6.
An old preachersaid to me one time, “Through life’s journey we have plenty
of troubles, trials and tribulations, but our greatestproblem is heart trouble.”
He said, “The only remedy for heart trouble is faith.” We have to have faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said in this passageofscripture (John
14:1), “Let not your heart be troubled.”
Now, heart trouble is the most common thing in the world. Everybody has
heart trouble. There is no rank, class orcondition that is exempt from heart
trouble. Rich people have heart trouble and so do the poor people. The great
heart is troubled and the unknown heart is troubled. No bolts nor bars nor
locks cankeepout heart trouble. It has to be dealt with. Heart trouble has to
be consideredand dealt with. The only remedy for heart trouble is faith in
Christ.

155. This heart trouble comes from many causes. It comes partly from inward
causes andpartly from outward causes. It is partly from what we do and
partly from what we don’t do. It is partly from what we love and partly from
what we hate. It is partly from those things in which we delight and partly
from those things that we fear.
There are two things that cause hearttrouble, a troubled body and a troubled
mind. There is a remedy; there is a cure for heart trouble. I have right here,
in my hand, the cure for heart trouble. The cure is in believing the Word of
God. There is a remedy. Our Lord gives it to us here in this text. He says,
“Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.” The
cure for heart trouble is to believe. The remedy for a troubled, fearful and
distressedbrokenheart is to believe. You have to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Is your heart troubled? Let it not be troubled. He says, “Believe in
me.” He’s the only one who can say that. Is your heart troubled? He says,
“Believe in me.”
If you will look here, in Chapter 13 of the Book of John, you will see a
chapter division that really shouldn’t be there. Chapter13 and 14 go right
togetherand I think I can show you that. In Chapter 13 our Lord had supper
with His disciples and He had washedtheir feet(I know you remember and
have read it before). He beganto talk to them about His death and about His
departure. He told them after this supper, that their idea of an earthly
kingdom was wrong. They had an idea that the Lord was going to setup an
earthly Jewishkingdom here on this earth. They thought that He would reign
and that they would be sitting on His right hand and on His left hand and they
would be greatofficials in this kingdom.
He told them that this idea of an earthly kingdom was wrong. His kingdom
was not of this world. His kingdom was not going to be of meat and drink but
it was to be of righteousness andgodliness. He told them that He must by
righteousness andblood, redeem His people, that He must leave them and go
to Jerusalemand suffer and die. He also told them that they would be
offended. He said, “You will all be offended because of Me this night.”

156. He said, “One of you will betray me.” He told Peterthat he would deny Him.
He told them that the world would hate them, that they would be persecuted
and castout of the synagogues. He told them that people would kill them and
think that they were doing God a service. Theywere to have greattrials in
this world, troubles and tribulations. They were frightened. These disciples
were greatly troubled in heart. They were worried about the Lord dying and
being buried. They were worried about Christ leaving them and how that
they would be offended because ofHim. The Lord said that they would deny
Him and even betray Him. They were greatlytroubled. That is when Christ
said, “Letnot your heart be troubled.” They were troubled and they were
distressedand fearful. He said, “Let not your heart be troubled.”
Now, listen, He’s not asking these men if they believed in God; He knew they
believed in God. He said, “You do believe in God.” Right now, your hearts
are downcastand troubled, brokenand distressed. But He says, “Don’tlet
your hearts be troubled.” “You believe in God; you do believe in God, of
course you do. You believe in God the Father, then believe in Me.”
Now, listen to me carefully here; Christ is saying that God the Father sent Me,
and He sent Me to deliver you from trouble. He sent Me to deliver you from
condemnation and the curse and to bring you to Him. He’s to justify you,
sanctify you and redeem you and
make you righteous. The Father sent Me to you to redeemyou and to deliver
you. If you believe in Him, you have no cause to be troubled at thoughts of
God and His justice, His judgment, His law, or His condemnation, if you
believe in Me. You do believe in God. You believe in the holiness of God, the
majesty of God, the greatness ofGod.
Martin Luther once said this, “I want nothing to do with an absolute God,
Elohim!” I must have a Mediator. I must have an Intercessor, someone
betweenGod and me. I need someone to go to God for me. I also need
someone to come to me with the goodnews of reconciliationwith God. That is
what David said, “Lord, don’t bring me into judgment with Thee. Don’t
bring me nakedbefore your nakedthrone of justice and righteousness and
judgment; I cannotstand.” Godsaid to Moses, “Noman can look on Me and
live.”

157. Stephen Charnock was a greatwriter and preacherof a century ago. He said,
“The mighty God, the holy absolute God apart from Christ the Mediator,
apart from a High Priest with a suitable sacrifice is an angry God. He’s an
offended God; He’s a holy, holy, holy, sovereignGod.” Charnock also said,
“The terror of His majesty, holiness and presence wouldhave to consume us
and overwhelm us.”
That is right, unless we can come into His presence and come before Him and
approachHim in and through His chosenMediator, unless there is someone
betweenus and God, whom God sent, with whom God is well pleased, unless
God is satisfied, unless there is someone betweenus, (sinners and that
offended, nakedjustice of God), we must forever justly perish under His
wrath.
This is what Christ is saying to these disciples. He’s pointed out their
weaknesses. He’s pointed out their inabilities. He’s pointed out their frailties.
He knows our frailties; He knows our frame and He knows we are dust, “man
at his best state is altogethervanity.” He has told them that He is leaving and
He told them that they would be offended and that they would betray Him
and deny Him. They were troubled.
Christ says, “Waita minute; don’t let yourselves be troubled, there is an
answer.” There is a remedy for ruin. There is mercy for the miserable.
There’s grace for the guilty, there’s salvationfor sinners. The answeris not
you going to God; it is you going to God through Me (Christ). Now, “You
believe in God, you have to believe in Me.” You have to put your confidence
and your trust in Me. You have to lean upon Me. You have to look upon Me.
What is there about God that causesa man’s heart to be troubled, you who
understand the true characterof God? What is there about God that causes
your heart to be troubled? Well, there are a lot of things. First, there is His
presence. Isaiahsaw the Lord. He said,
“Thatin the year when king Isaiah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up
and His train filled the temple.” The seraphims, and the creatures in glory,
coveredtheir faces in the presence ofGod. They coveredtheir feetand they
coveredtheir mouths. They cried, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty.”
These are unfallen creatures.

158. What can you do about that? In Christ, you cancome boldly into His
presence. Thatis what the scripture says. It says, “Seeing thatwe have a
greatHigh Priest; let us come boldly before the throne of grace. If you believe
in God, believe in Me.” Christis the High Priest; Christ is the Intercessor.
“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ.” What is
there about God for us to fear? It is not only the presence ofGod but also His
Holiness, and His righteousness that should be feared. “Exceptyour
righteousness exceeds the righteousness ofthe best man whoeverlived, you
will in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven.”
What are we going to do for our righteousness? Well, the scripture says, “He
that knew no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness ofGod in Him. Do you believe God, then believe Me?” Christ
is saying, “I’m your righteousness. I’m the wayinto God’s presence. I’m the
new and living way.”
What about God’s law? Have you found anywhere in the scriptures where
God has takenback the commandment, “Do this and live?” “Do this and
live” still holds true; it is what the law says. Paulaskedthis in Romans,
“What saith the law? His reply: “Do this and live;” meaning the man who
lives by the law must do it. No man is capable. No man has the holiness or the
powerto keepthe law. What, then, are we going to do?
By the disobedience of one man (Adam), we became sinners. By the obedience
of Christ, we have been made righteous. He says, “Believe in Me. Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth.”
What about God’s justice? “It’s appointed unto men, once to die, and after
that the judgment.” What are we going to do about God’s justice and
judgment? “The soulthat sinneth shall surely die.” Christ said, “You believe
God.” If you believe God, and you believe His holiness, His righteousness,His
law, and His justice, “Believe in Me.” He said, “I die that you may live. He
died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. He was wounded for our transgressions, bruisedfor our iniquity;
the chastisementofour peace was laid on Him; by His stripes we are healed.”

159. “Do you believe God? You have to believe Me also!” If you believe God and
don’t have a Mediator, it is just you and God. You have a right to be
troubled. You have a right to be fearful and you have a right to be afraid. I
can’t say to you, “Don’t be afraid and don’t
be troubled; you have to be afraid.” If you believe God and you believe
Christ, you have a reasonto rest.
What about our nature? “Fleshand blood can’t enter the kingdom of God.
Fleshand blood can’t inherit the kingdom of God.” Well, how are we going to
be changed? He’s able to change us. He’s able to do all that He promised.
Who are we speaking of? The answeris Christ. We’ve been turned overto
Christ. “He’s able to do all that He has promised. He’s able to save to the
uttermost them that come to God by Him.”
Don’t come to God by the church. Don’t come to God by your sacraments.
Don’t try to come to God by your religious works. Don’ttry to come to God
by your baptism or your church membership. Do come to God by Christ,
“He’s able to keepus from falling. He’s able to present us faultless before His
presence with exceeding glory and He’s able to raise our vile bodies and make
them like His glorious body.” He is able!
Do you believe God? Do you have some understanding of the majesty of God?
Do you understand His holiness, the justice of God, and the righteousness of
God? Do you? What about the judgment of God? Then, He said, “You’ve
got to believe Me. There is one Godand one MediatorbetweenGod and
men.” Thank God that He is betweenGodand men! Thank God He’s
betweenus. God sentHim. “Godsent His Son into the world, not to condemn
the world, (we’re already condemned), but that the world through Him might
be saved.” It is through Him!
“Don’tlet your heart be troubled; you believe God, believe Me.” That is your
only rest. That is your only hope “Believe Me.” He’s the only Mediator, there
is only one!
He said in verse 2, “In My Father’s house are many mansions” (that’s My
Father’s house and it’s My Father’s family and My Father’s kingdom and it is

160. My Father’s heaven. He rules it and He reigns over it; it is His house). That
word “mansions” means, “dwelling places.” There are many of them
(dwelling places)and there is sufficient room for all. There’s room for all
(there are no vacancies, but plenty of room). A people like Christ will
populate Heaven. There are many, many dwelling places. Thatis where we
will foreverabide.
We are not going to be guests. We are not going to be just passing through,
we are not just visitors; we are going to dwell there. David said, “Surely
goodness andmercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in
the house of the Lord forever. In my Father’s house are many dwelling
places.”
What is a place? It is a real place. Heavenis a real place. “There’s a new
heaven and a new earth whereindwelleth righteousness.” The scripture says,
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my
Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I
go to prepare a place for you.”
I’ve heard preachers saythings like this and I know it makes for very
entertaining preaching, but there’s not much truth to it. I’ve heard preachers
say, “Well, the Lord createdheavenin six days and He’s been up in heaven
for two thousand years preparing heaven. Oh, what a place that must be.”
Well, that is just not so. What our Lord is saying here is that He createdthe
heaven and the earth in six days; that is true, but He’s saying, “I go to prepare
a place for you.”
You see, you and I have no right to heaven. You don’t have any right to
heaven. What claim do you or I have on heaven? None!We are sinners,
fallen sons and daughters of Adam; we don’t have any right to heaven. We’ve
ruined our world, and God isn’t going to let you ruin heaven like we have
ruined this world. This would be a wonderful world if you would take people
out of it. Let’s just get rid of all the people and this world would be a
wonderful place. There’s too much sin (people).
You and I don’t belong in heaven. You and I are fallen creatures. We’ve
fallen from a heavenly nature. If you and I are receivedinto heaven, the Lord

161. Jesus has to prepare us for heaven and heaven for us. He’s got to go to
heaven and prepare for us a place. We don’t belong there. We don’t own
anything there.
I hear people say, “Heaven’s my home.” Heaven is not our home! It’s not by
your works;it’s not by your deeds. You didn’t buy anything up there, how
come you have a claim on heaven? Well, you don’t; He establisheda claim for
you. “He, our forerunner has entered in within the veil” and He has staked
the claim! It’s just like when our forefathers moved out West, they went out
there and stakeda claim on the land, saying, “This is my land!” You see, they
stakeda claim. Are you going to stake a claim up there? No sir, but He can;
He’s the perfectRighteousness, the perfect Redeemer, the perfectLord, the
perfect Substitute, Sacrifice, Representative, Holyman, and God-man who
can go up there representing you. It is on His authority, His work, and is
basedon His Holiness. If God will acceptHim in your place, then He cango
up there and establish a claim. He is preparing a place for you. He is
guaranteeing you that place in God’s heaven.
Do you have any guarantees ofheaven? Do you have any assurance? There is
only one guarantee and that is Christ. If God the Father will acceptHis
righteousness, His obedience, His death and His blood in your place, He can
get you in. You’ll have to go
in, in Him. When He said, “I go to prepare a place for you,” He’s saying that
He went to Jerusalemand He was tried in our place. He went to the cross and
died in our place. He paid the sin debt. He went to the tomb as our Scapegoat
in our place. He ascendedto heaven, “He is the Lord of Host, and he
appearedin the presence of Godfor us in our steadand we are complete in
Him.”
Can you geta hold of that? We have heart trouble and distress. I have sinned
againstGod. I’m not worthy to be calledThy Son. I have no claim on heaven.
I have no right and I have no home there.
Do you believe in God (I do)? I know what I am by nature; I have to have a
Mediator.

162. He said, “Believe in God, believe also in me.” In My Father’s house are many
mansions. Who’s Father’s house? He says, “MyFather’s house”. “I’ll go and
I will prepare a place for you.”
Now, listen, in verse three: “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.” This is the certainty of His redeeming work. Christ cannot fail to bring
His people to glory.
Suppose that some father leaves home, and tells his wife and children that he
is going out to Kentucky, Illinois or Kansas (like way back when our
forefathers were going out west). He’s going to getsome land and build a
place, and he tells them “I will be back to getyou.” He’s saying, “Where I am
there you are going to be.”
The Fathergave His Son a people. He made Christ their Surety from all
eternity. Christ became responsible for His people, for their justification,
righteousness, sanctificationand all their salvation. He came into this world
and purchasedus the right to glory. He went back to glory and He said, “I go
to prepare a place, if I go and prepare a place for you, (I will guarantee you)
that I will come againand receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you
are going to be.”
He prayed that in John 17: He said, “FatherI will that those whom Thou hast
given Me, be with Me where I am.” Not a one of them will be lost.
He also declaredin John 6: verses 37-40 “All that My Father giveth Me will
come to Me and he that cometh to Me, I will in no wise castout. I came down
from heaven not to do My will but the will of Him that sent Me and this is the
will of Him that sent Me, that of all which He hath given me; I’ll lose nothing
but I’ll raise it up at the lastday. This is the
will of Him that sent Me. He that seeththe Son and believeth on Him will
have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.” I will!
I know that we spend all of our time talking about the secondcoming of
Christ. He’s coming again, no doubt about it. The angels saidwhen He went

163. away, “Thatsame Jesus who is takenup from you up into heaven shall so
come in like manner as you see Him go.” He’s talking about when He comes
for you. It doesn’t matter if it is in death or whether it is the secondcoming.
Whenever it is, He said, “I love you and I’m your Mediator. My Father sent
Me to redeem you and I guarantee that I am going to do it and I’m going to
prepare a place for you. I’m going to the Father, My Father and your Father.
I’m going to sit at His right hand and I’m going to enter within the veil and
I’ll be back for you. I’m coming back for you that where I am, there you may
be also.” I guarantee it!
In verse four He said, “And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
You know the way I go, you know where I go, and you know the way I go.
Now, here we are! This is as plain as I can preach this and this is as plain as I
can make it in plain old WestVirginia talk, Kentucky talk and Ohio talk.
This is as plain as I canmake it. Do you believe in God? Do you believe in
Me? Christ said, “I’m your only hope, I’m your only Redeemer.” There’s
only one Mediator. Now, believe in Me and rest in Me, trust in Me and look
to Me. Do you understand? “I’m going to go and prepare a place for you and
I will be back for you.” They said to Him, “So, you know the way?”
Thomas lookedat Him and said, “Lord, we know not whither thou goest;and
how can we know the way?” Thomas, I just told you. I’ll tell you again,
“Thomas, I’m the way, I’m the truth, I’m the life; no man comes to the
Father, (that’s where I am going;I go to My Father); no man comes to the
Father but by Me.”
You see, whenAdam fell in the Garden of Eden, he lost the truth and he lost
life and he lostthe way to God. Christ came to restore it. He was the second
Adam. “I’m the way; I’m the truth; and I’m the life. So, let not your heart be
troubled.”
This is the cure and the remedy for all heart trouble, He says, “Believe in Me
and rest.”
HENRY MAHAN

164. “LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED” NO. 1741
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 23, 1883, BY C. H.
SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
“Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are
many mansions: 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 will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am,
there you may be also. And whither I go you know, and the way you know.” John 14:1-4.
WE may well feel glad that God’s people, whose lives are recorded in the Old and New
Testaments, were men of like passions with ourselves. I have known many a poor sinner pluck
up hope as he has observed the sins and struggles of those who were saved by grace, and I have
known many of the heirs of heaven find consolation as they have observed how imperfect beings
like themselves have prevailed with God in prayer and have been delivered in their time of
distress. I am very glad that the apostles were not perfect men. They would then have understood
all that Jesus said at once, and we would have lost our Lord’s instructive explanations. They
would also have lived above all trouble of mind, and then the Master would not have said to
them these golden words, “Let not your heart be troubled.” It is, however, most evident from
our text that it is not according to our Lord’s mind that any of His servants should be troubled in
heart. He takes no delight in the doubt and disquietude of His people. When He saw that because
of what He had said to them, sorrow had filled the hearts of His apostles, He pleaded with them
in great love, and besought them to be comforted. As when a mother comforts her child, He
cried, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Jesus says the same to you, my friend, if you are one of
His downcast ones. He would not have you sad. “Comfort you, comfort you my people; speak
you comfortably to Jerusalem,” is a command even of the old dispensation, and I am quite sure
that under this clearer revelation, the Lord would have His people free from heartbreak. Has not
the Holy Ghost especially undertaken the work of comfort in order that it may be effectually
done? Trials depress the hearts of God’s children, for which the tenderest ministry fails to
afford consolation. And then it is most sweet for the failing comforter to remember the unfailing
Comforter, and to commit the case of the sorrowful spirit into divine hands. Seeing that one
Person of the blessed Trinity has undertaken to be the Comforter, we see how important it is that
our hearts should be filled with consolation. Happy religion in which it is our duty to be glad!
Blessed Gospel by which we are forbidden to be troubled in heart! Is it not a thing greatly to be
admired that the Lord Jesus should think so carefully of His friends at such a time? Great
personal sorrows may well be an excuse if the griefs of others are somewhat overlooked. Jesus
was going to His last bitter agony, and to death itself, and yet He overflowed with sympathy for
His followers. Had it been you or I, we would have asked for sympathy for ourselves. Our cry
would have been, “Have pity upon me, O my friends, for the hand of God has touched me!”
But, instead of that, our Lord cast His own crushing sorrows into the background, and bent His
mind to the work of sustaining His chosen under their far inferior griefs. He knew that He was
about to be “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” He knew that He should soon be in an
agony through bearing “the chastisement of our peace.” But ere He plunged into the deep, He

165. must needs dry the tears of those He loved so well, and therefore He said most touchingly, “Let
not your heart be troubled.”
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While I admire this condescending tenderness of love, at the same time I cannot help adoring the
marvelous confidence of our blessed Lord, who, though He knows that He is to be put to a
shameful death, yet feels no fear, but bids His disciples to trust implicitly to Him. The black
darkness of the awful midnight was beginning to surround Him, yet how brave His word—
“Believe also in me!” He knew in that threatening hour that He had come forth from the Father,
and that He was in the Father and the Father in Him, and so He says, “You believe in God,
believe also in me.” The calm bearing of their Master must have greatly tended to confirm His
servants in their faith. While we see here His confidence as man, we also feel that this is not a
speech which a mere man would ever have uttered had he been a good man, for no mere creature
would thus match Himself with God. That Jesus is a good man few question, that He must be
God is therefore proven by these words. Would Jesus bid us trust in an arm of flesh? Is it not
written—“Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm”? Yet the Holy Jesus
says, “You believe in God, believe also in me.” This association of Himself with God, as the
object of human confidence in the time of trouble, betokens a consciousness of His own divine
power and Godhead, and it is a mystery in whose difficulties faith takes pleasure, to see in our
Lord Jesus the faith of a man for Himself, and the faithfulness of God for others. Come then,
dear friends, close up to the text, and may the Spirit of God be with us! I will read the text again
very distinctly. Ask that you may feel the words even more powerfully than the apostles felt
them, for they had not yet received the Comforter, and so they were not yet led into all truth. In
this we excel them as they were that night. Let us therefore hopefully pray that we may know the
glory of our Lord’s words, and hear them spoken into our very soul by the Holy Spirit. “Let not
your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many
mansions: 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 will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am, there
you may be also. And whither I go you know, and the way you know.” These words are in
themselves much better than any sermon. What can our discourse be but a dilution of the
essential spirit of consolation which is contained in the words of the Lord Jesus? Now let us,
first, taste of the bitter waters of heart-trouble, and secondly, let us drink deep of the sweet
waters of divine consolation. I. First, then, LET US TASTE OF THE BITTER WATERS.
“Because I have said these things unto you, sorrow has filled your heart.” I would not confine the
comfort to any one form of affliction, for it is a balm for every wound. But still it will be well to
inquire, what was the particular trouble of the disciples? It may be that some of us are passing
through it now, or we may be plunged in it ere long. It was this—Jesus was to die. Their Lord,
whom they sincerely loved, was about to go from them by a shameful, painful death. What
tender heart could bear to think of that? Yet He had told them that it would be so, and they began
to remember His former words wherein He had said that the Son of man would be betrayed into
the hands of wicked men, and would be scourged and put to death. They were now to pass
through all the bitterness of seeing Him accused, condemned, and crucified. In a short time He
was actually seized, bound, carried to the high priest’s house, hurried to Pilate, then to Herod,
back to Pilate, stripped, scourged, mocked, insulted. They saw Him conducted through the streets
of Jerusalem bearing His cross. They beheld Him hanging on the tree between two thieves, and

166. heard Him cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” A bitter draught this! In
proportion as they loved their Lord, they must have deeply grieved for Him, and they needed that
He should say, “Let not your heart be troubled.” Today those who love the Lord Jesus have to
behold a spiritual repetition of His shameful treatment at the hands of men, for even now He is
crucified afresh by those who account His cross a stumblingblock and the preaching of it
foolishness. Ah me! How is Christ still misunderstood, misrepresented,
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despised, mocked, and rejected of men! They cannot touch Him really, for there He sits
enthroned in the heaven of heavens, but as far as they can, they slay Him over again. A
malignant spirit is manifested to the Gospel as once it was to Christ in person. Some with coarse
blasphemies, and not a few with cunning assaults upon this part of Scripture, and on that, are
doing their best to bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. It is a huge grief to see the mass of
mankind pass by the cross with averted eyes as if the Savior’s death was nothing—nothing at
least to them. In proportion as you feel zeal for the Crucified, and for His saving truth, it is
wormwood and gall to live in this age of unbelief. Christ Jesus is nailed up between the two
thieves of superstition and unbelief, while around Him still gathers the fierce opposition of the
rude and the polished, the ignorant and the wise. In addition to this, the apostles had for an
outlook the expectation that their Lord would be away from them. They did not at first
understand His saying, “A little while and you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you
shall see me, because I go to the Father.” Now it dawned upon them that they were to be left as
sheep without a shepherd, for their Master and head was to be taken from them. This was to them
a source of dread and dismay, for they said to themselves, “What shall we do without Him? We
are a little flock, how shall we be defended when He is gone, and the wolf is prowling? When the
Scribes and Pharisees gather about us, how shall we answer them? As for our Lord’s cause and
kingdom, how can it be safe in such trembling hands as ours. Alas for the Gospel of salvation,
when Jesus is not with us!” This was a bitter sorrow, and something of this kind of feeling often
crosses our own hearts as we tremble for the ark of the Lord. My heart is sad when I see the state
of religion among us. Oh for an hour of the Son of man in these darkening days! It is written,
“There shall come, in the last days, scoffers,” and they have come, but, oh, that the Lord Himself
were here in person! Oh, that the Lord would pluck His right hand out of His bosom, and show
us once again the wonders of Pentecost, to the confusion of His adversaries, and to the delight of
all His friends. He has not come as yet! Well-nigh two thousand years have rolled away since
He departed, and the night is dark, and there is no sign of dawn. The ship of the church is tossed
with tempest, and Jesus has not come to us. We know that He is with us in a spiritual sense, but,
oh, that we had Him in the glory of His power! Surely He knows our need, and the urgency of
the times, yet we are apt to cry, “It is time for you, LORD, to work, for they make void your
law.” But they felt a third grief, and it was this, that He was to be betrayed by one of
themselves. The twelve were chosen men, but one of them was a devil and sold his Lord. This
pierced the hearts of the faithful—“the Son of man is betrayed.” He is not taken by open seizure,
but He is sold for thirty pieces of silver by one whom He entrusted with His little store. He that
dipped with Him in the dish had sold Him for paltry gain. This cut them to the heart, even as it
did the Master Himself, for our Lord felt the treachery of His friend. Of this bitter water the
faithful at this hour are made to drink, for what do we see at this day? What do we see in various
places but persons that are reputed to be ministers of the Gospel whose main business seems to

167. be to undermine our holy faith, and batter down the truths which are commonly received in the
Christian church? Certain of them preach as if they were ordained not of God, but of the devil,
and anointed not by the Holy Spirit, but by the spirit of infidelity. Under the banner of
“advanced thought,” they make war upon those eternal truths for which confessors contended
and martyrs bled, and by which the saints of past ages have been sustained in their dying hours.
It is not an enemy—then we could have borne and answered it. If the outward and avowed
infidel attacks inspiration, let him do so. It is a free country, let him speak. But when a man
enters our pulpits, opens the sacred volume, and denies that it is inspired, what does he there?
How does his conscience allow him to assume an office which he perverts? To make him a
shepherd who is a wolf, to make him a dresser of the vineyard who, with his axe, cuts up the
very roots of the vines—this is an incomprehensible folly on the part of the churches. It is a
dagger to every believing heart that Judas
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should be represented in the Christian church by so many of the professed ministers of Christ.
They betray their Master with a kiss. Then there came another pang at the back of this, for one
of them, though true-hearted and loyal, would that night deny his Lord. Peter, in many respects
the leader of the little company, had been warned that he would act the craven and vehemently
deny his Lord. This is bitterness indeed, of which those that love the church of God are
compelled full often to drink, to see men whom we cannot but believe to be the disciples of Jesus
Christ carried away by temptation, by fear of man, or by the fashion of the times, so that Christ
and His Gospel are virtually denied by them. The fear of being thought dogmatic or labeled a
Puritan closes many a mouth which ought to be declaring Him to be the Son of God with power,
and extolling His glorious majesty in defiance of all that dare oppose Him. The hearts of some
who best love Jesus grow heavy at the sight of the worldliness and lukewarmness of many of His
professed followers. Hence it seems to me to be a most seasonable hour for introducing you to
the sweet waters of our text, of which I bid you drink till every trace of bitterness is gone from
your mouth, for the Master says to you, even to you, “Let not your heart be troubled: you believe
in God, believe also in me.” II. Under our second head LET US DRINK OF THE SWEET
WATERS and refresh our souls. First, in this wonderful text our Master indicates to us the true
means of comfort under every sort of disquietude. How puts He it? “Let not your heart be
troubled”—believe. Kindly look down your Bibles and you will see that this direction is
repeated. He says, in the opening of the eleventh verse, “Believe me,” and then, again, in the
second clause, “Believe me.” I thought, as I tried to enter into the meaning of this sacred
utterance that I heard Jesus at my side saying thrice to me, “Believe Me! Believe Me! Believe
Me!” Could any one of the eleven that were with Him have disbelieved their present Lord? He
says, “Believe Me! Believe Me! Believe Me!”—as if there was great need to urge them to faith
in Him. Is there no other cure, then, for a troubled heart? No other is required. This is all-
sufficient through God. If believing in Jesus you still are troubled, believe in Him again yet more
thoroughly and heartily. If even that should not take away the perturbation of your mind, believe
in Him to a third degree, and continue to do so with increasing simplicity and force. Regard this
as the one and only medicine for the disease of fear and trouble. Jesus prescribes, “Believe,
believe, believe in Me!” Believe not only in certain doctrines, but in Jesus Himself—in Him as
able to carry out every promise that He has made. Believe in Him as you believe in God. One has
been at times apt to think it easier to believe in Jesus than in God, but this is a thought of spiritual

168. infancy, more advanced believers find it not so. To a Jew, this was certainly the right way of
putting it, and I think to us Gentiles it is so also when we have been long in the faith, for we get
to believe in God as a matter of course, but faith in Jesus requires a further confidence. I believe
in God’s power in creation, He can make what He wills, and shape what He has made. I believe
in His power in providence, that He can bring to pass His eternal purposes, and do as He wills
among the armies in heaven and among the inhabitants of this lower world. I believe concerning
God, that all things are possible unto Him. Just in that way I am called upon to believe in Jesus,
that He is as omnipotent in power and as sure in His working as the Lord from whom come all
the forces of nature, and just as certain to accomplish His purposes as God is to achieve His
design in the works of providence. Relying upon the Savior with the implicit faith which every
right-minded man renders towards God, we shall only give our Lord the faith which He justly
claims. He is faithful and true, and His power can effect His promise. Let us depend trustfully
upon Him, and perfect peace shall come into our hearts. These disciples knew that the Savior
was to be away from them, so that they could not see Him nor hear His voice. What of that? Is it
not so with God, in whom we believe? “No man has seen God at any time”—yet you believe in
the invisible God working all things, sustaining all things. In the same manner believe in the
absent and invisible Christ, that He is still as mighty as though you could see Him walking
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the waves, or multiplying the loaves, or healing the sick, or raising the dead. Believe Him, and
sorrow and sighs will flee away. Believe in Him as always living, even as you believe in the
eternity of God. You believe in the eternal existence of the Most High whom you have not seen,
even so believe in the everlasting life of the Son of God. Ay, though you see Him die, though
you see Him laid in the grave, yet believe in Him that He has not ceased to be. Look for His
reappearance, even as you believe in God. Yes, and when He is gone from you, and a cloud has
received Him out of your sight, believe that He lives, even as God lives, and because He lives,
you shall live also. You believe in the wisdom of God, you believe in the faithfulness of God,
you believe in the goodness of God, “Even as you believe in God,” says Jesus, “believe also in
me.” Faith in Jesus Christ Himself, as an ever-living and divine Person, is the best quietus for
every kind of fear. He is the “King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible,” “The Wonderful, Counselor,
The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” and therefore you may safely rest
in Him. This is the first ingredient of this priceless comfort. But now our Lord proceeded to say
that though He was going from them, He was only going to His Father’s house. “In my Father’s
house are many mansions.” Ay, but this was sweet comfort. “I am going,” said He, “and on my
way you will see me scourged, bleeding, mocked, and buffeted. But I shall pass through all this
to the joy and rest, and honor of my Father’s house.” God is everywhere present, and yet as on
earth He had a tabernacle in which He specially manifested Himself, so there is a place where He
in a peculiar manner is revealed. The temple was a type of that matchless abode of God which
eye has not seen. We call it heaven, the pavilion of God, the home of holy angels and of those
pure spirits who dwell in His immediate presence. In heaven God may be said especially to have
His habitation, and Jesus was going there to be received on His return to all the honor which
awaited His finished service. He was, in fact, going home, as a son who is returning to his
father’s house, from which he had gone upon his father’s business. He was going where He
would be with the Father, where He would be perfectly at rest, where He would be above the
assaults of the wicked, where He would never suffer or die again. He was going to reassume the

169. glory which He had with the Father before the world was. Oh, if they had perfectly understood
this, they would have understood the Savior’s words, “If you loved me, you would rejoice,
because I said, I go unto the Father.” Imagination fails to picture the glory of our Lord’s return,
the honorable escort which heralded His approach to the Eternal City, the heartiness of the
welcome of the Conqueror to the skies. I think the Psalmist gives us liberty to believe that, when
our Lord ascended, the bright ones of the sky came to meet Him, and cried, “Lift up your heads,
O you gates; and be you lift up, you everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.” May
we not believe of bright seraphs and ministering angels that—
“They brought His chariot from on high To bear Him to His throne; Clapped their triumphant
wings and cried, ‘The glorious work is done!’”?
“He was seen of angels.” They beheld that “joyous re-entry,” the opening of the eternal doors to
the King of Glory, and the triumph through the celestial streets of Him who led captivity captive
and scattered gifts among men. They saw the enthronement of Jesus who was made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death, but was then and there crowned with glory and honor.
These are not things of which these stammering lips of mine can speak, but they are things for
you to consider when the Spirit of the Lord is upon you. Muse upon them for your delectation.
Jesus has gone by the way of Calvary up to His Father’s house. All His work and warfare done,
He is rewarded for His sojourn among men as man. All the shame which His work necessitated
is now lost
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in the splendor of His mediatorial reign. You people of God, be no more troubled, for your Lord
is King, your Savior reigns! Men may still scoff at Him, but they cannot rob Him of a ray of
glory! They may reject Him, but the Lord God omnipotent has crowned Him! They may deny
His existence, but He lives! They may rebelliously cry, “Let us break his bands asunder, and cast
his cords from us,” but the Lord has set His King upon His holy hill of Zion, and none can thrust
Him from His throne. Hallelujah! “God has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is
above every name: that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.” Wherefore let not your
hearts be troubled by the noise of controversy, and the blasphemy and rebuke of an evil age.
Though there is confusion as when the sea roars and the fullness thereof, and the wicked foam in
their rage against the Lord and against His anointed, yet the Lord sits upon the flood, the Lord
sits King forever. Again, let us say, “Hallelujah!” The Prince has come to His own again. He has
entered into His Father’s palace. The heavens have received Him. Why should we be troubled?
Thirdly, our Lord gave His servants comfort in another way, He gave them to understand by
implication that a great many would follow Him to His Father’s house. He did not only assure
them that He was going to His Father’s house, but He said, “In my Father’s house, are many
mansions.” These mansions are not built to stand empty. God does nothing in vain, therefore it is
natural to conclude that a multitude of spirits, innumerable beyond all count, will rise in due time
to occupy those many mansions in the Father’s house. Now, I see in this, great comfort to them,
because they doubtless feared that if their Lord was absent His kingdom might fail. How would
there be converts if He were crucified? How could they expect, poor creatures as they were, to
set up a kingdom of righteousness on the earth? How could they turn the world upside down and
bring multitudes to His feet that He had purchased with His blood, if His conquering right arm

170. was not seen at their head? The Lord Jesus in effect said, “I am going, but I shall lead the way
for a vast host who will come to the prepared abodes. Like the corn of wheat which is cast into
the ground to die, I shall bring forth much fruit, which shall be housed in the abiding resting-
places.” This is one part of our comfort at this hour. Little matters it how men fight against the
Gospel, for the Lord knows them that are His, and He will ransom by power those redeemed by
blood. He has a multitude according to the election of grace that He will bring in. Though they
seem today to be a small remnant, yet He will fill the many mansions. This stands fast as a
rock—“All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and him that comes to me I will in no wise
cast out.” They boast that “they will not come unto Christ,” but the Spirit of God foresaw that
they would reject the salvation of the Lord. What said Jesus to those like them? “You believe
not, because you are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know
them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life.” The wicked unbelief of men is their
own condemnation. But Jesus loses not the reward of His passion. We fling back into the faces
of the despisers of Christ the scorn which they pour upon Him, and remind them that those who
despise Him shall be lightly esteemed, their names shall be written in the earth. What if they
come not to Him? It is their own loss, and well did He say of them, “No man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw him.” Their wickedness is their inability and their
destruction. They betray by their opposition, the fact that they are not the chosen of the Most
High. But “the redeemed of the Lord shall come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads.” “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” This matter is not left
to the free will of man, so that Jesus may be disappointed after all. Oh no, “they will not come
unto him, that they may have life,” but they shall yet know that the eternal Spirit has power over
the human conscience and will, and can make men willing in the day of His power. If Jesus be
lifted up, He will draw all men unto Him. There shall be no failure as to the Lord’s redeeming
work, even though the froward reject the counsel of God against themselves. What Jesus has
bought with blood, He will not lose, what He died to accomplish shall surely be performed, and
what He
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rose again to carry out shall be effected though all the devils in hell and unbelievers upon earth
should join in league against Him. Oh, you enemy, rejoice not over the cause of the Messiah, for
though it seem to fall, it shall arise again! But our Lord went much further, for He said, “I go to
prepare a place for you.” I think He did not only refer to the many mansions for our spirits, but to
the ultimate place of our risen bodies, of which I will speak before long. In our Lord’s going
away, as well as in His continuance in His Father’s presence, He would be engaged in preparing
a place for His own. He was going that He might clear all impediment out of the way. Their sins
blocked the road, like mountains their iniquities opposed all passage, but now that He is gone, it
may be said, “The breaker is come up before them and the Lord on the head of them.” He has
broken down every wall of partition, and every iron gate He has opened. The way into the
kingdom is opened for all believers. He passed through death to resurrection and ascension to
remove every obstacle from our path. He went from us also to fulfill every condition, for it was
absolutely necessary that all who entered heaven should wear a perfect righteousness and should
be made perfect in character, seeing no sin can enter the holy city. Now the saints could not be
perfected without being washed in His precious blood, and renewed by the Holy Spirit, and so
the Savior endured the death of the cross. And when He arose, He sent us the sanctifying Spirit,

171. that we might be fitted for His rest. Thus He may be said to have prepared the place of our rest
by removing from its gateway the sin which blocked all entrance. He went away also that He
might be in a position to secure that place for all His people. He entered the glory land as our
Forerunner, to occupy the place in our name, to take possession of heaven as the representative
of all His people. He was going that He might in heaven itself act as Intercessor, pleading before
the throne, and therefore be able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him. He was
going there to assume the reins of Providence, having all things put under His feet, and having
all power given to Him in heaven and in earth He might bless His people abundantly. By being
in heaven, our Lord occupies a vantage-ground for the sure accomplishing of His purposes of
love. As Joseph went down into Egypt to store the granaries, to prepare for Israel a home in
Goshen, and to sit upon the throne for their protection, so has our Lord gone away into the glory
for our good, and He is doing for us upon His throne what could not so advantageously have
been done for us here. At the same time, I am inclined to think that there is a special sense in
these words over and above the preparing of heaven for us. I think our Lord Jesus meant to say,
“I go to prepare a place for you” in this sense—that there would in the end be a place found for
their entire manhood. Mark that word, “a place.” We are too apt to entertain cloudy ideas of the
ultimate inheritance of those who attain unto the resurrection of the dead. “Heaven is a state,”
says somebody. Yes, certainly it is a state, but it is a place too, and in the future it will be more
distinctly a place. Observe that our blessed Lord went away in body, not as a disembodied
spirit, but as one who had eaten with His disciples, and whose body had been handled by them.
His body needed a “place,” and He is gone to prepare a place for us, not only as we shall be for a
while, pure spirits, but as we are to be ultimately—body, and soul, and spirit. When a child of
God dies, where does his spirit go? There is no question about that matter, we are informed by
the inspired apostle—“absent from the body, present with the Lord.” But that is a spiritual
matter, and something yet remains. My spirit is not the whole of myself, for I am taught so to
respect my body as to regard it as a precious portion of my complete self—the temple of God.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not redeem my spirit alone, but my body too, and consequently He
means to have a “place” where I, this person who is here, in the wholeness of my individuality,
may rest forever. Jesus means to have a place made for the entire manhood of His chosen, that
they may be where He is and as He is. Our ultimate abode will be a state of blessedness, but it
must also be a place suited for our risen bodies. It is not, therefore, a cloud-land, an airy
something, impalpable and dreamy. Oh, no, it will be as really a place as this earth is a place.
Our glorious Lord has gone for the ultimate purpose of preparing a suitable place for His people.
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There will be a place for their spirits, if spirits want place, but He has gone to prepare a place for
them as body, soul, and spirit. I delight to remember that Jesus did not go as a spirit, but in His
risen body, bearing the scars of His wounds. Come, you that think you will never rise again, you
who imagine that the scattering of our dust forbids all hope of the restoration of our bodies. We
shall go where Christ has gone, and as He has gone. He leads the way in His body, and we shall
follow in ours. Ultimately there shall be the complete redemption of the purchased possession,
and not a bone shall be left in the regions of death, not a relic for the devil to glory over. Jesus
said to Mary, “Your brother shall rise again.” He did not need to say your brother’s spirit shall
live immortally, but your brother shall “rise again,” his body shall come forth out of the tomb.
Well might the apostles’ hearts be comforted when they learned the blessed errand upon which

172. their Lord was going! The next consolation was the promise of His sure return, “If I go away to
prepare a place for you, I will come again.” Listen, then! Jesus is coming again. In the same
manner as He ascended He will return—that is, really, literally, and in bodily form. He meant no
play upon words when He so plainly said, without proverb, “I will come again,” or more sweetly
still, “I go away and come again unto you.” This is our loudest note of joy, “Behold, He comes!”
This is our never-failing comfort. Observe that the Savior, in this place, says nothing about
death, nothing about the peace and rest of believers till He is come, for He looks on to the end. It
is not necessary to put every truth into one sentence, and so our Lord is content to mention the
brightest of our hopes, and leave other blessings for mention at other times. Here the consolation
is that He will come, come personally to gather us in. He will not send an angel, or even a host of
cherubim to fetch us up into our eternal state, but the Lord Himself will descend from heaven. It
is to be our marriage day, and the glorious Bridegroom will come in person. When the Bride is
prepared for her Husband, will He not come to fetch her to His home? O beloved, do you not see
where our Lord’s thoughts were? He was dwelling upon the happy day of His ultimate victory,
when He shall come to be admired in all them that believe. That is where He would have His
people’s thoughts be, but alas, they forget His advent. The Lord shall come. Let your hearts
anticipate that day of days. His enemies cannot stop His coming! “Let not your heart be
troubled.” They may hate Him, but they cannot hinder Him. They cannot impede His glorious
return, not by the twinkling of an eye. What an answer, will His coming be to every adversary!
How will they weep and wail because of Him! As surely as He lives He will come, and what
confusion this will bring upon the wise men that at this hour are reasoning against His deity and
ridiculing His atonement! Again I say, “Let not your heart be troubled” as to the present state of
religion, it will not last long. Do not worry yourselves into unbelief though this man may have
turned traitor, or the other may have become a backslider, for the wheels of time are hurrying on
the day of the glorious manifestation of the Lord from heaven! What will be the astonishment of
the whole world when with all the holy angels He shall descend from heaven and shall glorify
His people! For that is the next comfort—He will receive us. When He comes, He will receive
His followers with a courtly reception. It will be their marriage reception. It shall be the marriage
supper of the Son of God. Then shall descend out of heaven the new Jerusalem prepared as a
bride for her husband. Then shall come the day of the resurrection, and the dead in Christ shall
rise. Then all His people who are alive at the time of His coming shall be suddenly transformed,
so as to be delivered from all the frailties and imperfections of their mortal bodies, “The dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” Then we shall be presented spirit, soul,
and body “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” in the clear and absolute perfection of
our sanctified manhood, presented unto Christ Himself. This is the sweetest idea of heaven that
can be, that we shall be with Christ, that we shall see Him, that we shall speak to Him, that we
shall commune with Him most intimately, that we shall glorify Him, that He will glorify us, and
that we shall never be divided from Him forever and ever. “Let not your heart be troubled,” all
this is near at hand, and our Lord’s going away has secured it to us.
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For this was the last point of the consolation, that when He came and received His people to
Himself, He would place them eternally where He is, that they may be with Him. Oh, joy! Joy!
Joy! Unutterable joy! Can we not now, once for all, dismiss every fear in the prospect of the
endless bliss reserved for us? “See that glory, how resplendent! Brighter far than fancy paints!

173. There in majesty transcendent, Jesus reigns, the King of saints. Spread thy wings, my soul, and
fly Straight to yonder world of joy.
Joyful crowds, His throne surrounding, Sing with rapture of His love. Through the heavens His
praises sounding, Filling all the courts above. Spread thy wings, my soul, and fly Straight to
yonder world of joy.”
The Lord talks to us as if we now knew all about His goings and doings, and so we do as far as
all practical purposes are concerned. He says, “Whither I go you know.” He is not gone to a
place unknown, remote, dangerous. He has only gone home. “Whither I go you know.” When a
mother sends her boy to Australia, she is usually troubled because she may never see him again,
but he replies, “Dear mother, the distance is nothing now, we cross the ocean in a very few
weeks, and I shall speedily come back again.” Then the mother is cheered. She thinks of the
ocean as a little bit of blue between her and her son, and looks for him to return if need be. So
the Savior says, “Whither I go you know.” As much as to say—“I told you, I am going to your
own Father’s house, to the mansions whither your spirits will soon come, and I am going for the
blessed purpose of making it ready to receive you in the entirety of your nature. You are thus
made to know all about my departure and my business. I am going to a glorious place which eye
has not seen, but my Spirit will reveal it to you. You know where I am going, and you know also
the way by which I am going—I am going through suffering and death, through atonement and
righteousness. This is the way to heaven for you also, and you will find it all in me. You shall in
due time enter heaven by my atonement, by my death, by my sacrifice, for ‘I am the way.’ You
know the way, but remember it is only the way and not the end. Do not imagine that the wicked
can make an end of Me. But believe that Christ on the cross, Christ in the sepulcher, is not the
end, but the way.” This, beloved, is the way for us as well as for our Lord. He could not reach
His crown except by the cross, or His mediatorial glory except by death. But that way once made
in His own person is open for all who believe in Him. Thus you know where the Lord has gone,
and you know the road. Therefore, be encouraged, for He is not far away, He is not inaccessible,
and you shall be with Him soon. “Let not your heart be troubled.” Oh, brave Master, shall You
be followed by a tribe of cowards? No, we will not lose heart through the trials of the day. Oh,
holy Master, You did meet Your death with song, for “after supper they sang a hymn.” Shall not
we go through our griefs with joyful trust? Oh, confident Lord, bidding us believe in You as in
God Himself, we do believe in You, and we also grow confident. Your undisturbed serenity of
faith infuses itself into our souls and we are made strong. When we hear You bravely talking of
Your decease which You had to accomplish at Jerusalem, and then of Your after-glory, we also
think hopefully of all the opposition of ungodly men, and waiting for Your appearing, we solace
ourselves with that blessed hope. Make no tarrying, O our Lord! Amen.