The Father's House John14: — John W. Bramhall

I'm sure it's been a real personal joy and blessing for my soul to be him. The only reason for coming is to exalt the Lord Jesus, and to speak well of him, and to bless your heart in the ministry of that blessed person, and we've had real joy in speaking of his father too, and we thank God for the blessings that the father has given.

The Believer’s Life and the Book “Living His Life”

I would like to say just a brief word concerning the book. I was constrained rather against my willingness to write the book by some dear friend in St. Louis. We worked together on it, though I did all the writing and the planning, and we worked together to put it into an edition, and the brethren in St. Louis very kindly financed the complete publication.

5 ,000 books were printed and came out in August, at the end of August. By the end of November, those 5 ,000 books were gone, and they've printed another edition which has just come out, and 2 ,000 of those were waiting when they came out, and they will soon be gone.

But, we do trust that God will continue to bless the ministry that is being used by him. It's more of a study book for the believers, and many young people, as well as all the people in the assemblies I understand, are using it for a certain book of study in relation to the life of a believer, and his and her responsibilities as the scripture guides us in the pattern of the word of God from the beginning to the end of one's Christian life.

The title of the book is Living His Life, and I do say that you will remember it before the Holy Grail, and when the book comes, I trust you will avail yourself of that as well. Tonight's and our closing message shall be brief from John chapter 14.

The Father’s House in John 14

John chapter 14 and the first six verses. It has been a great joy, and I can tell you, to speak this week concerning the Father. We have touched upon the person who reveals the Father through the morning session, and we have the privilege of seeing at the commencement of our night study that it was the coming of the Son of God, and his coming into the world, to reveal the Father that ever has made him known to mankind.

We have the privilege of seeing he not only came to reveal the Father, he came to gather the children for the Father, and what joy it is that his children propose to their cousins of the family to him even tonight.

We also saw something of the divisions of the family that brought to the brink the development of growth spiritually as being fathers, young men, and little children. We also noted some of the desires of the Father's heart to be like him, and particularly that he excites us under his own governmental authority, and that he deals with us day by day in governmental and disciplinary actions to make us more like himself.

Last night, we had the great joy of looking at some of the privileges of the Father to monitor the family. He cares over us, protecting us, feeding us, closing us, and the great privilege that we are able to come to him asking knowing that he can do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or even think.

Tonight, before we were seen that we could close with as a final message, and that is the Father's house, the blessed home to which the children shall be taken. We read the first six verses of John 14.

The Lord Jesus saying, let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house of any mansion, 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, or I am coming 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 said unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, known and promised unto the Father, but by me.

May God bless the reading of his words. May the Holy Spirit illumine the world, and illumine our hearts and our minds as we meditate tonight upon the final message, the Father's home. I'm sure that many others are well acquainted with the second of these words which we have read, and that great section of the word is gone, beginning with John 13, and closing with John 17.

This is one of the most marvelous portions of Scripture. I've often thought there is suspicion within that portion of Scripture to keep the child at God's house all along the pathway of life until we reach the Father's home.

John 13–17: Christ’s Final Ministry to His Own

Let me give you just a brief outline of the whole section. In chapter 13, you have the last great act that our savior did when he was busy going in that upper room on the night of his betrayal. That last great act of him was to disrobe himself of his undergarments, gird himself with an anvil, take a basin of water, and wash the disciple's feet.

That last great act that he performed for his disciple was significant of what he would be doing, and what he is now doing from heaven above. That by the basin of water which is the way to God, he is caring for the feet of his saints as we travel through this wilderness.

He's keeping the feet of his saints as we saw yesterday in our morning study. All his saints are in my hands, and that blessed one, how he ministers to the feet of his beloved people as we go through this present scene.

He would wash our feet daily in the water of the word, and the best place for the believer to keep him and her feet is in the hands of his and her blessed Lord, and be daily washed in the labor of his precious book.

Chapters 14, 15, and 16, we could call them the last words of the martyrs, or how we value the last words of those who made these dearest to us. And, I believe that every believer should, indeed, should noticeably cling with devotion and interest to the last words that our saint is plainly known when you read them in John 14, 15, and 16.

In the 14th chapter, they are words of comfort for their hearts as they quarrel when thinking of him leaving and going back to the father. In the 16, 15th chapter, they are words whereby he might strengthen and empower their lips to speak for him, and to be truthful for him during his actions.

In the 16th chapter, they are words that tell how he would instruct their minds by the signing of the Holy Spirit, and so to comfort their hearts, to empower their lips, and to instruct their minds, he speaks those lovely words of John 14, 15, and 16.

And, in the last section, the 17th chapter, we have his last great prayer. Oh, what a prayer! One that he is constantly praying at the right hand of the father of love, on behalf of his own. The thing I remind you is that all of it had a great motive, and there was the greatest of motives behind all this section.

And, in the opening verse of John 13, you have the motive revealed where the Lord Jesus we read of him. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour would come, that he should depart unto this world unto the father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end.

And, that great motive is never wavered, it never changes. Not even you and I may do, serious and offensive as it may be to his dear heart, to never sway him, nor be at the point of a disaffection for every one of us.

For that motive is love. And, out of the great heart of his own love for his dear children, the ones whom he has redeemed, the Lord Jesus got free, and does the work that we read in this section of John.

Don't you love it? May I point out to you? Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them to the end. And, may I make a distinct declaration as to the meaning of that end? It is not that there will ever be an end to his life.

That we know could never be true. Neither does it mean that there is an end to what he is going to do, for what he will then do will go on through the endless ages of eternity. But, I believe the meaning, simply and clearly, is that his love to his own is such that he is determined he will win, such as a final objective, his loving heart's purposes.

And, thank God, what that objective is, is to bring them all to the heart of his own, and into the promised present, and present them to the Father above in that glorious moment. Oh, what an objective!

My, I can almost see his face! And, here's the joy of his one, when in that great day he gathers them out of all the earth, sons from earth, the glory sons, and the kiddie pups, the kiddie pups. He's going to gather them all together, the bread in Christ, the white bread, that he, we saw the light of his name, shall be called up together in the crown to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with them all.

And, it will be his joy, and the objective of his one, to bring them into the Father's presence, and say, Father, behold I am the children which thou hast given me. That is objective, because I know I'm going to get through.

He's going to bring me through. He's going to bring all of them into that Father's house. When he spoke to the disciples in the six verses we have read in John 14, he was telling them of that Father's house, Father's house, and who but the Lord Jesus could ever give us anything, unimparably knowledge regarding the Father's home.

Look in John 13, please. May I point out to you in verse three, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and he went to God, and he was the only person that can give us any information about the Father's home.

He came from there, and he did the Father's work completely on the earth, and then he returned back home, and so we have every confidence our Lord Jesus can tell us something about the Father's home. And, I wish that you would follow me carefully and prayerfully, as well as joyfully, to consider that Father's home from the words he spoke in John 14, as the old moon does.

The Reality of the Father’s House

First, consider with me its reality. Its reality, the Father's home, the reality of that home in the heavens above, the reality of being in a home yonder in the Galway, far from this earth. None of us have ever traveled very far, not in relation to the universe, but have any of you ever been to the moon yet, have you?

And, I'm not expecting to, but to love and listen in the glory of God. It is real, it is real, and let me tell you why I believe it is real. I'll give you three reasons why I believe in the reality of that home, but first of all let me point out what the Lord Jesus said, and that's most important.

Right in the middle of verse two, he says, he says, I'm not sure I would oppose you, but let me give you the three reasons which will, which also will bring you back. First of all, may I say, in God brings to my heart, and my soul, the reality of that home.

Look those words which Jesus spoke in verse one, when he told his disciples, you believe in God, but I believe in God. We have too many atheists today. I believe in God, in his spiritual glory, as the creator of the universe, and the great God of the universe.

I believe in his existence, I believe in his personality, but I not only believe in God, I believe in Christ, and Jesus said, believe also in me, and I believe in Christ. I believe in his pre-existence, I believe in his incarnation, I believe in his sinless, spotless, pure and holy life.

I believe in his substitutionary death upon the cross. I believe in his burial and resurrection, and his ascension to the right hand of the father. I believe in his priesthood at the right hand of God now.

I believe he's coming again. I believe he'll be the king of kings in the Lord of Lords, and I believe his kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom. I believe in Christ, hallelujah. What a joy it is to hold to my heart and my mind.

There is such a place as the Father. My faith in God, my faith in Christ, but my faith in the word of God. The word I read in this precious book, believing it from cover to cover to be the word of God, and I just as emphatically as the old college teacher when he said he would believe it is the word of God, all the way from generations and right through revolutions, and what he meant was what counted the most as he said it from his heart.

My faith in the word of God, the joy of believing this precious book is the word of God, and I know of no greater foundation than my faith in God, my faith in Christ, my faith in the word of God, to assure me of the reality of that blessed book.

You know, there's a lot of folks they just can't believe it's real. I had a wonderful group of colleagues ten years ago on one of the plantations in South Carolina, and I must have been enthusiastic as usual, telling him of my joy and hope of going to heaven, and suddenly he said, wait a minute Captain, you're going there so soon as you, and it took my breath away for a minute.

Many people, but my good luck, because as high as a garbage reel, I'm going to be mad at him in that room. Then, when you're finished with me please, I think this is a strange expression, but it's locality.

Heaven as a Definite Place

Locality. Now, not to say that it's a stupid thing. At the end of verse two, in the opening words of that statement, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, heaven is a place.

My father's home is a place. Many would say, oh, heaven's only a condition. Well, I grant you it is a condition, and I assure you it's one of the best conditions you'll ever find. As far as it being a condition alone, I'm not in agreement.

It is also a locality. It is a place. Astronomically, geographically, we are unable to comprehend this locality and the distance from the earth. So, that blessed home is a place. I know I read when Christ ascended, he went up into heaven.

He went into a place, and asked for the father, and sat down on the father's right hand. He's a place, and there I said I expect to be up at that place someday. It's stated better than trying to astronomical distance, which is impossible to creature mind, and this is what means much more to me.

The place where my father himself dwelt, whom the Lord Jesus is visible, my father dwells there. Further and further, my savior dwells there as already stated. He was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

It is the place where my savior is. I cannot find him in Bethlehem, I cannot find him in Nazareth, I cannot find him in Galilee, I cannot find him in Capernaum, I cannot find him in Jerusalem, I cannot find him at the cross, I cannot find him in the tomb, I cannot find him in Bethlehem.

He left Bethlehem, and he ascended up, and went into heaven, his father's home. My savior is there. You know, I'll tell you something, a place means a lot more to me when you know somebody who's there, and somebody who's present.

You know the old saying, ever so mortgaged, there's no place like home. Even on the earth, the young may throw it. It's not the house you live in, it's the people who live there. You'll give your home to them.

That makes home what it should be in age, to the appreciative heart. My savior is there. There are holy angels there. It's the place where Herod and his seraphim, holy angels of God in Israel, doing the ministry of God at Israel, or in the heavens above, and I've access to the throne, and to the confines of that glorious place.

They may come a little nearer, they may comfort your heart, as it would mine. My own dear father is there, my own mother, and you can name a lot of your own dear ones. In terms of army, the Lord, he's got in the head of us, the presence of his crown, a happy number of spirits who have gone to the presence of God, enjoying the sunshine of his presence, living upon the face of their savior, taking them home at the lunch, and in need of it, in the glory of his blessed life.

Lunch is where time falls, and then he encourages you to look family, even over the Lord, not only with the ease of its simplicity, its gracefulness, its joy, not the ending words of the chapter. He begins saying it, let not your trouble of the sad, that he was leaving this with hardly the need, and that he would see his face no more, was so difficult to comprehend, as he was a saddened villain, and then he begins to say, let not your heart be troubled, and when you recognize the meaning of these words, that they did not trouble, it was only because he knew something about that home, and he was to bring before them the place where he did live, in the father's house, and that in that father's house, there will be eternal blessing, and felicity beyond human comprehension.

The Felicity of the Father’s House

The felicity of that home, to carry in the blessing of his father, what is there to it? Oh, what a home that is! Will I find out first of all? Will there be a home of rest? Will there be a home of relationship?

Will there be anger from rest? As we sometimes say, let all mine languishes triumph all over, and I'm safe on that beautiful shore. The joy of knowing life is a struggle will be over. The struggle on earth, the struggle of life, the struggle against sin, the struggle against the one against the devil, and all the battles, and all the heartaches, and the trials, for when they're done, and there will be a home of rest.

Maybe some of us won't even get any rest until we get there, brother Bob, I don't know. Sometimes it seems that way, but that will be a home of rest. There was a good friend of mine, he's with the Lord now, and I remember at the closing of the Bible study I was having with some of the sisters of Christ in the meeting of Charlotte.

I took him along, he was teaching, in fact he was a very capable and confident teacher in his sphere of mathematics. He taught at the University of Maryland before the war for many years, and when the war came along, and finished, and the war became the New Year, and he had to come to Charlotte.

I saw him sitting in the circle in the little meeting. I looked at him and said, Fred, what in the world are we doing here? He said, teaching. I said, where? He named it. One of the smallest schools on the first floor of a building that is under the Christmas tree.

I said, what in the world did you leave the university for? He said, come down here. Then, since I was right here, I said I'd look at the world, and I was afraid I might find it. I said, I saw all those Eli's coming home.

He said, I got out. And, he taught the rest of his friends in the small school, and the only thing he did when he got out of the Bible study, he said, you know, he said to me at the close of this Bible study, he said, Brother Granholm, when I get to heaven, if I can't rest for the next 5 ,000 years, I'm going to be disappointed.

And, I looked at him, I said, Fred, I hope the Lord has you peacefully stalled around before night. He put you to rest, which he later done. And, to be at rest. Yes, in the Lord, we have rest of peace and conscience.

There's not even time to rest. I don't know what to say to you. That's going to be a home of rest. Bless your heart, you'll never be tired. Thanks the Lord. There's certainly a home of rest. Isn't it wonderful to think of my home even on Earth?

I said, sometimes it's hard. Sometimes I just hope to rest, and don't get it on the Earth. But, it will be rest day. But, it will also be a home of love. A home of love. Love should follow their hatred, their strife, where any people should grow ever below.

Love as the Character of the Father’s House

Now, here's that home of love. That's still in the love of the Father. That's still in the love of the Son, the love of the Spirit, the love of faith, and love will permeate the Father's house of Eden, which is forever and ever.

A home of love. Lord, your love has made me so thankful. That's really as pleasant as you can imagine. You're on the edge. It's tough, and how do you move it today? It's tougher than life. This is filled with hatred and grudges.

They're all in the family. Loving, thinking of the greatest importance among the children of God, the manifestation of love. And, when I show this, please, that all recruiting of the Word of God is one objective, and all proximity to peace and adversity, and changing the instruction in this first edition, chapter one, to end the Christian anger.

So, I'm speaking with the truth, the word of God says love. The objective of your church is to produce love out of a pure heart, and with a good conscience, and unshamed faith. And, may I say, my dear little believer, look, with my ministry, I can produce love in your heart, I'm saying.

But, love, that is the purpose of the ministry of the word of God is important. But, in God's own, truth will be first. You know, you go to weddings, and sometimes I'm a little bit amused. I ought not to be, but anyway, I get amused when I compare what people sing with the music of.

And, you hear somebody sing at a lovely wedding, same person loves. But, bless your heart, it doesn't last too long. You have to do what I have to do. A friend of mine, when we were married, about the same height, we were down in the basement of the chapel, one house, and we were completely lost.

And, he said to me, can I hear this strange affection there with somebody perfect? And, the person you found out, knew yourself were perfect. A home of love. I wish the Lord would come tonight, get us all there, to realize it will be a home of love.

Fellowship and Joy in the Father’s House

But, not only that, the felicity of that home does anything. It will be a home of fellowship. All that's relevant. If you're just as nice and peaceful and nice as a pocket of pie, listen, we don't know anything yet.

So, we all bend to that hope, and know that fellowship it will be there. What a fellowship! Fellowship on breaking, squeezing homely with the father, fellowship forever with the son, fellowship forever with the husband, fellowship in the saints of God, and holy angels.

What a fellowship! Oh, the joy of knowing such a home like that, and the joy of knowing that if you're saved, that's where you're going. And, it will be a home of joy forevermore. Oh, we can go on, on speaking, to speak of the many things of felicitous and joyous collection that home will be.

But, let's go on. Look at the university, please, and I want you to see the intensity of that home. In my father's house are many answers. Many! Underscore the word, many. Speeches and sermons. You know, we sometimes used to sing a song, you used to meet that blissful soul, and a few days leave, and we'll get more.

I don't know whether they're old enough, but I know there's millions there. But, the immensely beautiful home, for nearly 2 ,000 years, the spirit of God and the son of God has been gathered to build it.

And, the house is not yet filled. Remember the parable of the great sufferer, Luke 18? And, how the parable of the lost soul, he said, as the as the Lord gave the servant to famine, at the end of the storm, he was of the hungry, hungry of the hungry, of the hungry, of hunger to come in.

Why? That my heart may be filled. Beloved, when can you see the size of the father's family? You've got to be surprised. Immensity of it. He didn't know the subject of it, but it's, that's his name. Do you know the words of Isaiah 53, sir?

Oh, they're so precious indeed. Unparalleled though, beginning by song, he had the ease to, over the season, take in his own beloved son, and sing in praise to come that rock. And, even God, he's God, brings again, it brings him over to bring him.

Then, thou shalt make his soul an offering to sin. You shall see it seen, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his heart. And, in that day, he shall see that the father of his soul, and he'll be satisfied.

I don't know how many servants you would like in your family, but I don't know how many servants God wants in his family, they're innumerable. But, he's got to be satisfied. His house will be filled. Let's go in.

His house will be filled. And, the enormity of it. My beloved family, I told you this. If you're not saved, you'd better hurry up and get in. You shall see. How much longer? Then, there's the next word.

Permanence and the Many Mansions

In my father's house are many. Actually, I'm grateful for this word, in our ordinary version. I'm not grateful for a word that's in one of the modern versions. But, someone said, I'll translate it. In my father's house are many rooms.

And, I take objection. This is not a rooming house. In a rooming house, you could call it a home. This is not a room, but I'm going to call it home. It's, in fact, our home, sir. My father's house are many rooms.

Use the wonderful meaning of the Greek word right here. This word means, justify that word. And, any of us that have come from the other side, will certainly understand how the English translators of King James say, put the word mansions in.

We've seen some of those mansions. We've seen some of those mansions. Thank you, Sir George, for your gift. To stand the test of storm and stormy and weather, and to carry out the promise of you, you may find some of those old buildings.

Some day, the gentleman that drove us sent them away. It's before, perhaps, that the very means, the permanent musical phrase alone, at last, I'm going to have a permanent home. I don't know where you live.

I don't care where you live. It's not your permanent home. But, meet my little dog. The privacy of your home is that one in glory. In my father's house are many, many. And, there's a joy of knowing it will be a home of permanence.

Now, you'll never want to leave it. You've built a home today. You've got it built upon, and recently you've had everything filled with life. We should have done this. We ought to do that. I went to dinner with a young married couple in Cleveland, I recall.

The sons were over there quite young. They'd been here quite a while before they got married. And, when I came to dinner, they had 900 at home. I said to my host, I said, well, so how do you get along?

Do you have to make any... Because, he bought the home himself, before his wife had ever seen it. I said, what? How do you get along by buying the home yourself, without your wife seeing it? He said, John, I've already put the dining room wall out.

Do you know what I mean? I'm so glad that the father of government and savior is giving you a home to be a permanent home. As we go on, in verse three, the savior says, if I go into heaven's place with you, I will come again.

Meaning, literally, I will come and begin to receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And, may I add, my beloved believers, this suggests the imminency of my home. It's imminency.

The Imminent Return of Christ

Oh, the joy of realizing. He said, I am coming. He knew, I'm the coming one. And, he said, Lord, when are you coming? He said, I'm coming any day. I'm coming at any moment. I remember years ago, it was like 35 or more, when in the city of Miami, preaching at the close of the meeting one night, speaking for some time on the coming of the Lord.

And, the governor at the door said, Dr. Bramble, I can tell you the hour the Lord's coming. Well, I gave him a very soft look, and I said, well, go ahead. And, he said, in an hour, they said, think not.

I had to agree. I don't know, but I am a firm believer, I don't know if you are, that I had told you to do something. I am a firm believer in the imminent return of my Lord Jesus. The very moment, in the speaking of an hour, he had come to take his own, to the father's house.

That when you may be also. May I point out, is not this the objective of this love? He wants it where the father lives. He wants it in his father's home, where he is. He wants Christ to enjoy the father's home forevermore, where he has always been, and ever will be.

And, he said, I can encourage you to bring me where I am, that we may be here within the house. If you go without diamonds, no secrets, no sadness, no dread, and no fright, cornered in the ground with our Lord of the Glories, when Jesus received his own, and we sing, O Lord Jesus, how long?

How long will we shout the glad song, Christ returneth, hallelujah, amen, the imminence to your back home, so that you feel fortunate that you're back home before you get back to your home in the north, and I'm sure you'll never regret it, to see that it comes.

Access to the Father Through Christ Alone

But, last of all, you'll be promised that, Lord, we know not this is our lowest house, as we know today, and Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the father, but that he would desist because of the accessibility to that home.

It's accessibility. We've told them of its blessed reality, and we've told them of its locality, we've told them of its felicity, and of its immensity, and of its permanency, and of its immensity, and God is telling how to get there.

If you don't know, it's accessibility. I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the father except by me. For when man sinned, asked the way to God, and he wandered into darkness. When man sinned, he gave up the truth of God, and wandered into error.

When man sinned, he lost the life of God, and he wandered into death. But, our Lord Jesus, the blessed son of God, came from that home, and he went on to enter Calvary to restore the way, and the truth, and the life, and he said, then restored I was, I took not away.

For when he died for us, he restored the ways of God. When he died for us, he restored the truth of God, and when he died for us, he restored the life of God. It is accessibility. For when Manson brought in an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance of his home, and he said, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the father but by me.

My beloved, if you're not going to that home tonight, you can if you will. Accessibility is yours if you take the Lord Jesus, and come as you only come by him. Only God, by his grace, not only cause the father to glorify him, and the son, the beloved, who glorifies the father, but may every heart belong unto him tonight.

Cry out, trust, love, truth, and focus to the home of thy father above, and may God rest, that any sinner unsaved may not be left behind for his answer. Shall we pray? They might be blessed at father for the truth.

Perhaps they may not be new, they do not have to be new, but even out of the treasures old and new of this precious book, the spirit can bless and can bring to our hearts eternal merriment. We wish to find thee, father.

Thou hast been the great theme of these meetings each night. We thank thee, Lord Jesus. Thou hast been the great subject of the morning meditations, and what more could we say than as we close tonight but to pray that God the father may be more precious to his children, God the son more deep to our hearts, and by the Holy Spirit's power, the days we may have less to live will be done for his Lord and live for his honor to be seen face to face.

Father, we ask that we shall soon be in thy home. Sometimes we get quite weary down here, we would indeed say, I'll be so glad when day is done. I'll be so glad when victory is won. There'll be no sorrow in God's commandment.

Yes, yes, blessed Lord, we shall thus press on till we see thee soon, and then shall the wondrous story of thy great, splendor so good have been fulfilled in that eternal home. May the grace of our Lord Jesus in his great abundance, the love of our Father God in great measure, the power and the blessing and the conviction or the communion of the Holy Spirit be upon us.