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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/larry-steers/i-will-come-again/
I had decided in my own soul what I was going to speak on before I got up here, but that hymn will go along with what I have before me. I want to read in John chapter 14. The 14th chapter of the Gospel of John.
We're reading the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 14. 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. That's all that we are going to read. Consider with me for a few moments a little word for the troubled heart.
The Lord Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. And then a word about the Father's house. For he said, in my Father's house. And then a word about the rapture. For he said, if I go away, I will come again.
That's a very clear, very definite promise that the Lord Jesus Christ made Himself. A word for the troubled heart. You notice that the word heart here is in the singular. Even though there are a group of His disciples around Him, yet He intended that the word be specifically for each of them in a very personal way.
And so in a very personal way, the words that He is speaking here in John 14 are intended for each of us who are saved. He said, let not your heart be troubled. That's a difficult thing to do, isn't it, at times?
The word for troubled here is the word which implies to be disquieted. To be disturbed. To be distressed. To be agitated. And I'm sure as face answers to face and water show the heart of man to man, that as we travel through this world, there are times when we have troubled hearts.
When we are disturbed. When we are distressed. When there are pressures that are brought to bear upon us. And sometimes they kind of get us down, don't they? I need to look at the words of the Lord Jesus here.
Let not your heart be troubled. He's speaking to a group of men, and they are going to know what troubled hearts are. He knows what is before them. He knows the circumstances that they are going to face.
He knows that there will be dark, dark clouds in their life. He knows it's not going to be easy after He is gone. One of them is going to arrive in the garden with a rabble crowd. One of them is going to step towards the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's going to plant a kiss of betrayal upon the face of the Savior Himself.
They're going to watch that. They're going to watch that act of betrayal. They're going to see that the traitor is one of them. It's going to trouble them. It's going to trouble them for some time after the act, Judas the betrayer.
It was one of them, numbered amongst them, that has betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. They're going to see one of them deny the Lord, the leader of them, so to speak, Peter. Peter, who had declared that he would never deny the Lord, will deny Him.
It will trouble them. But then it is also recorded about the rest of them that they all forsook Him and fled. When the pressure was really great, right at that moment, every one of them left the Lord Jesus Christ.
Troubled hearts. They would know about the mocking. They would know about the scourging that the Savior received from the hands of wicked men. Of course, the crucifixion would be very much upon their mind after it had taken place.
Troubled hearts. They would know what trouble was. The moment came when the Lord had risen from the dead. We have been hearing about that. And then He would lead them out to the slopes of the Mount of Olives.
And while He was speaking to them and His hands were uplifted in blessing, they watched as they went back to heaven. Interesting word that describes that moment. For the angel said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven so?
That word, gazing. That their eyes were glued upon the heavens where they last saw Him. And to us, that would have been a glad moment, but it would be troubling in some sense to them because they had anticipated that He would restore the kingdom to them.
And now He's gone. There is no kingdom. And then these particular men, these disciples that were surrounding Him, there would come a moment in their life when they would look into the eyes of the executioner.
Every one of them. Perhaps with one exception, and if there is that one exception, it would be John. Historically, and we can't base too much upon history, but historically, John is said to have died a natural death.
He was over 90 when he was on the Isle of Patmos. The historical record again, that he was likely liberated for a short time from the Isle of Patmos. But the rest of them faced the executioner. That would be a very troubling moment.
And so now the Lord Jesus is saying to them, let not your heart be troubled. Let me say this again. Experience, difficult words, aren't they? When you're passing through deep waters, when life is rough, when things are hard going, and for overseers in the assembly, when there are difficulties and decisions that have to be made, it's difficult.
And so the Lord Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. You will notice that this word for let not your heart be troubled, that this is an imperative command. That is, it is in the imperative sense.
And so it could be rendered, let not your heart be troubled, believe God. And so the Lord Jesus is giving a remedy for the troubled heart. And here is the remedy for the troubled heart. He said, believe God.
When I first went out into the Lord's work, I spent a number of weeks with an older man. Glad that I did that. He had a little expression that he used quite often. And that expression was simply this, there is nothing out of control.
We need to get a hold of that. There's nothing out of control. And so believe God. And so the details and the circumstances that come into our life are not out of control. And then the Lord Jesus said, here's the second remedy, believe also in Me.
Believe God. Believe also in Me. The remedy for a troubled heart. What did He mean when He said, believe also in Me? We have two things right now that the Old Testament saints never had. We have the presence of the Spirit of God.
Not only in the assembly, but the presence of the Spirit of God in us. They never had that in the sense that we have it. But we have another grand truth that they never had. We have a living Man in Heaven.
And the living Man in Heaven is our great High Priest. And a hymn writer so correct that He tends with sweet and weary care the flock for which He bled. It is likely that we could take the words of Isaiah in chapter 43 and take them as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in the second verse of that chapter.
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, for I am the Lord.
Believe God. Believe also in Me. You'll remember the moment when Stephen was facing death and the stones were being thrown at Stephen and he looked up to heaven and in that last few seconds of his life, he saw the heavens open and he saw the glory of God.
That's what the Scriptures say. And then he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. I take that to be a very encouraging statement. We are told when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.
Certainly, sitting down to the Savior in heaven indicates a work that is totally, completely finished. But in Stephen's case, he's standing because there's an aspect of his work that is not finished. And thank God for that.
He's our great high priest. And his eyes were upon Stephen. And he's succoring Stephen. He's giving Stephen strength in that last few moments of his life. What a sight met the eyes of Stephen as he spends his last few seconds upon this earth.
If we could take the words of Hebrews 13 again as the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And so he says, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God or believe God, believe also in me.
A word about the Father's house. He said, in my Father's house are many mansions. You will notice the tense again. Are. That is, as the Lord Jesus was standing upon earth, right at that moment, what he referred to as the mansions already existed in the Father's house.
He didn't go to heaven and spend 2 ,000 years preparing a place for us. He says, in my Father's house are many mansions.
He says, if it were not so, I would have told you.
He referred to the temple in John 2 as his Father's house. And here he's referring to his Father's house. Could I just make a simple statement about that? In the Father's house at the present moment, the Lord Jesus is present.
In the Father's house. But there are others at the present moment in the Father's house. And I'm sure that many here would respond the same as I would. My mother's in the Father's house. Brother Murray McCandless took her funeral.
My father is in the Father's house. We are told, absent from the body and at home with the Lord, present with the Lord. That's what gives a little note of encouragement when you're standing at the open grave of someone that you really love.
That they're absent from the body, but they're present with the Lord. They are in the Father's house. I'm not going to enlarge upon that. I'm going to sit down in a few moments. But I want you to notice what he said.
He said, 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. Many, many years ago, I sat in a Bible reading, and I've discussed this very briefly with one brother here already.
In that Bible reading, there was a man that was well known over in the British Isles, Mr. Condect. I listened to him for a few moments, and I felt I better listen to this man. I learned a lot from Mr. Condect in the Bible readings.
Mr. Condect made a statement that when the Lord said, I go to prepare a place for you, he was going to the cross. Now, I know that I'm facing some who won't accept that too well, but I would suggest that he was going to the cross.
And that to prepare the place involved his death, involved his burial, and involved his resurrection. He said, I will come again. That's a very clear, very plain statement. When you come to the Synoptic Gospels, I was saying in Blue River last week that in the Synoptic Gospels, it is His coming to the earth.
It helps us understand a little of references to the Lord's coming in the Synoptic Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But when I come to John, John is giving us the words of the Lord Jesus Christ relative to the rapture.
He said, I will receive you. What a reception. There's going to come a moment when we're going to stand in the presence of the Savior Himself. He says, I will receive you unto Myself that where I am, there ye may be also.
There were some here who were present at the meeting a while ago at a conference when I gave a little word on the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are told in I think it's chapter 22 in the book of Revelation that they shall see His face.
We're going to see the face of Christ. Wonder me something, if before I step off this platform here, I'm looking at the very face of Christ. When I sat down, a sister came to me and many here would know her.
Mrs. Vitale came to me. Mrs. Vitale had some tears in her eyes and she began to tell me about her grandson Jason. Now, you've all read the book I'm sure and many have Jason, my son. She was telling me that before Jason passed away, two weeks I think she said, she was standing at the bedside of her grandson.
And as Jason looked up at her, Jason said to me, Grandma, sing for me. I would find that hard to look into the face of a grandchild and to commence to sing. I don't know whether she sang the whole hymn, but she told me she began to sing.
She sang face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ who died for me. And however much of that hymn she sang, she said Jason looked up at her and said, Grandma, I'm soon going to see His face.
Wouldn't it be something just now if we were taken from this earth and into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and for those first few seconds to gaze upon His face. He said, I will come again.