“Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled”

"Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled"

(No. 1741)

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 where 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 Spirit 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 most tender 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 "exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death."
He knew that He would soon be in an agony through bearing "the
chastisement of our peace." But before He plunged into the deep, He
must dry the tears of those He loved so well and, therefore, He said
most touchingly, "Let not your heart be troubled."

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 Him implicitly. The
black darkness of the awful midnight was beginning to surround Him, yet
how brave His Words–"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
confi-

dence as Man, we also feel that this is not a speech which a mere man
would have uttered, even 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 is 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. Pray 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 the Truth of God–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 where 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 enquire 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 before 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 in which 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 heard Him cry,
"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" A bitter drink was 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 stumbling block
and the preaching of it foolishness. Ah me! How is Christ still
misunderstood, misrepresented, 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 and
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 a zeal for the Crucified and for His saving
Truth, it is wormwood and gall to give 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. Nearly 2,000 years have rolled away since He
departed–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 and 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 them! The 12 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 30 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 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 be to undermine our holy faith and batter down the
Truths of God 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 is he doing
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 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 coward 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 does He put
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 11th 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 11 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 are still troubled,
believe in Him

again–yet more thoroughly and heartily. If even that should not take
away the disquiet 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 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, 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 in that 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 with 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 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. Yes, 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." Yes, and this was sweet comfort. "I am going," He said, "and
on My way you will see Me scourged, bleeding, mocked and buffeted. But
I shall pass through all this to the joy, 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 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 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 delight! 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 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 rebel-liously
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." 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 unto 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 and, 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 whom He had
purchased with His blood, if His conquering right arm 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. It matters little how men fight
against the Gospel, for the Lord knows them that are His–and He will
ransom, by power, those redeemed by His blood! He has a multitude
according to the Election of Grace whom 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 they? "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 despis-ers of Christ the
scorn which they pour upon Him and remind them that those who despise
Him shall be lightly es-teemed–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! 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 is lifted up, He
will draw all men to 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 His blood, He will not
lose! What He died to accomplish shall surely be performed! And what He
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 seems
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 He has opened
every iron gate. 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–no sin can enter
the Holy City! 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 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 Heaven 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 of God 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 so 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 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, 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 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 only my spirit, 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!

Heaven 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. There will be a place for their spirits, if spirits need a
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–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 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 of
God into one sen-tence–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, nor 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." His enemies 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 who 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 separated 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 for us. 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 and 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! There
in majesty transcendent, Jesus reigns, the King of saints!

Spread your 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 your 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, "Where I go you know." He is
not gone to a place unknown, remote, dangerous. He has only gone home.
"Where 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 necessary.
So the Savior says, "Where I go you know." As much as to say–"I told
you, I am going to your own Father's house, to the mansions where 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! 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, nor His mediatorial Glory except
by death! And 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! You shall soon be with Him. "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, by Your Grace, and we also grow confident!

O, my Master, Your undisturbed serenity of faith infuses itself into
our souls and we are made strong! When we hear You bravely talking of
Your death 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! Come quickly! Amen.