Heaven’s Cure for Our Troubled Hearts—Part Two

“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.”

—John:14:1-6 [1] Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. [2] 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. [3] 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. [4] And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. [5] Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? [6] Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
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I believe that the great miracle that the unsaved world wants to see today is not the healing of a leper, not giving sight to the blind or hearing to the deaf. The great miracle that the unsaved want to see today is the miracle of a transformed life—people who've been saved from sin and defilement and corruption. They're new creatures in Christ Jesus, and they're really different persons! “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians:5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
See All...). And we're going to come to that just a little bit later in the chapter.

“…believe me for the very works’ sake.” The Lord Jesus came performing the works that were predicted of the Messiah in the Old Testament. He performed them all. It’s strange that the rabbis of His day didn't realize that and trust in Him.

He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” 

Well, that's something, isn't it? Greater works than the Savior? Yes, well, first of all, greater geographically. The farthest Jesus ever traveled, as far as we know, in Palestine [see this month’s Q&A] was up to Tyre and Sidon. Not very far. That's the farthest that's described. And when He finished His course here on earth, let's say He had about 120 disciples in Judea and maybe 500 up in Galilee. You think of people that travel the world today, you think of people who preach the gospel to thousands of people, you think of the outreach today by radio and by television and by the internet now, but I think there's something more.

Going back to what I just said, the greater works…the Lord Jesus performed healings, miracles of healing. He raised the dead, but those people died again, didn't they? I think it's a more wonderful work, a greater work, to witness to someone, to see that person led to Christ, and that person's going to worship the Lamb of God for all eternity. Life forever! That's greater, isn't it? I think it's greater. Blind eyes heal, yes, but I tell you, it's more wonderful to see people who are in the darkness of sin, held in the grip of some cult or false religion, to see them liberated by the grace of God, and they're going to be forever worshiping Him in heaven. To me, that's a greater work.

So I read the Gospel of Mark, and I see all these physical miracles that the Lord Jesus did, and I realize that there's a spiritual counterpart to every one of them, and that's our privilege. He healed a leper—leprosy speaks of the loathsomeness of sin. And can we see that? Yes, we can see the healing of lepers, moral lepers, sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Demoniacs, yes, once again sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in their right minds. Paralysis—He healed a paralytic. Well, that speaks of the paralysis of sin. And we can see that miracle performed by being faithful witnesses of the Lord Jesus and leading souls to Him.

So it's no exaggeration when the Lord said that “greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.” 

What does that mean, “because I go unto my Father”? Well, it means that when He goes to the Father, when He is glorified in heaven, the Holy Spirit is sent and the Holy Spirit empowers us in this ministry. We can't do it ourselves, but the Holy Spirit gives us the power. 

And I think you all know that the work of ministry today is not for a special class of people. It’s for all believers, right? If the evangelization of the world depends on a special class, the world will never be evangelized. But in Ephesians:4:12For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
See All..., it says that the gifts were given for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministry. Who are the saints? You and me. We are the saints, and the work of ministry is given to us for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

My Bible teaches every member evangelism, and of course the greatest is to know the Word of God and exemplify it in your life so that people say, “You've got something I don't have. I don't know what it is, but I want it.” I’ve heard of that happening within the last few weeks to someone: “You’ve got something I don't have. I don't know what it is.” But I tell you, it’s easy to lead a person like that to the Lord, isn't it? It really is. 

“Because I go unto my Father.” Going to the Father meant the coming of the Holy Spirit who empowers us. He's in us; He's with us forever. 

“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

“Oh,” you say, “that's a blank check, friends!” No, not exactly. It says “in my name,” and asking in the name of the Lord Jesus means asking according to His will. It means asking according to the principles that are laid down in the Word of God. For instance, can I get down on my knees and pray that the Lord will give me a million dollars tomorrow? Well, He won't! He loves me too much. He knows that could be the worst thing that could happen to me. God wants me to live a life of faith. He wants me to be dependent on Him, to look to Him for the supply of my needs. So it would be completely contrary to the principles of the Word of God for me to ask for a great sum of money like that. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth…But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven…” (Matthew:6:19-20 [19] Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: [20] But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
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So asking in His will really limits the prayers to prayers in accordance with the principles that He has taught us in His Word.

But I want to tell you, it’s a wonderful verse of Scripture: to ask the Lord according to His will is the same as asking God. It's the same as asking God, because when we pray to the Lord Jesus, our prayers go through Him, and they're purified through Him (Revelation:8:3-4 [3] And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. [4] And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.
See All...), and they go to God the Father and they're absolutely perfect. And I believe that God answers every prayer of mine, as I said before, in exactly the same way I would answer it if I had His wisdom, love, and power. God does nothing, nor suffers anything to be done, that you would not do yourself if you could see the end of all He does as well as He. That's a comfort to me. I'm a simple believer. I can pray with full assurance that my prayers go to the throne of God and that He answers them in the very best possible way, and one answer is “no.”

When I was a younger believer, there was a prayer I sent up and I insisted on it. And God gave me my request, but He sent leanness to my soul, and I wish today I'd never asked for it. It was a prideful prayer. I should never have asked for it. But we never come closer to omnipotence than when we pray in the name of Jesus. You and I will never be omnipotent; we'll never have all power. Only God has all power. But when we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, it's the closest we ever get to omnipotence. Wonderful! This should be a great inspiration to us to pray.

You say, “Well, Brother MacDonald, I've been praying for the salvation of a loved one, and as far as I know, that loved one has never been saved. This bothers me. How do you reconcile that? Isn’t it God's will to save?” Yes, it is God's will to save that person. But let me tell you something: God is not going to populate heaven with people who don't want to be there. And God has given each person a will, and God doesn't trample on the will of any person. He doesn't drag reluctant people to heaven. And my Bible and my experience tell me that there was a time in my life when by a simple act of faith I had to trust Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

When I was in the Navy, I started to pray for a fellow. We were friends in the Navy, and I think it was a year ago last January he died. I had prayed for about 50 years. As far as I know, he died without Christ, and his wife really read the Riot Act to me. She said, “You think yours is the only true religion?” after he died. Why? Fifty years of prayer, yeah, 50 years of prayer. I still believe that when I prayed for him, God brought the Word of God before him. Maybe he saw “Jesus Saves” on a rock as he traveled along the road. Maybe he turned on the radio by accident and heard some gospel. You know, maybe somebody passed him a tract.

I believe that when I pray for an unsaved person, God does something—God jiggles the conscience of that person in some way or other. But “whosoever will may come,” and the Lord Jesus taught that. He said to the Jewish people of His day, “[You] search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life” (John:5:39-40 [39] Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. [40] And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
See All...). He didn't put it to their intellect, He put it to their will. “Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

And if there's someone who's reading this who’s fighting the Lord on the issue of salvation, let me say quite clearly: There's nothing about Jesus that makes it impossible to believe in Him. Nothing! If there’s a problem, the problem is your will. That will has to be broken to come to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“If you ask anything in my name, I will do it,” the Lord Jesus said. But notice—“in my name.”

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” It's interesting the way prayer and obedience are linked together—prayer and obedience. Somebody might say to me, “Brother MacDonald…commandments? I thought we were under grace, not under law, and here in the New Testament I'm reading about commandments.” Yes. “We have commandments?”

Well, let me explain.

The New Testament is filled with commandments for the child of God, but they're not commandments like the Old Testament commandments with penalty attached. When God gave the commandments in the Old Testament, “This do and thou shalt live,” implied, “This fail to do and thou shalt die.” You know? It was law with penalty attached.

The commandments of the New Testament are commandments for the new nature. They are instructions in righteousness for God's people. God says to you and to me, “Look, I've saved you by My grace. Now ‘walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you were called’” (Ephesians:4:1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
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And I say to Him, “Lord, give me an example.” And so He gives me examples: the commandments, the New Testament commandments. “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good…” (Ephesians:4:28Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
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“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but [rather] that which is good to the use of edifying…” (v. 29), and so forth. 

“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land” (Exodus:20:12Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
See All...). This is the first commandment with a promise.

They're not given to me. He doesn't say, “Look, if you fail to do it, you're going to lose your salvation.” That's not the point at all. I've asked Him to let me know what a life that's consistent with my calling is, and so He gives me all these New Testament commandments. Let me say again: instruction in righteousness for God's people down here. So I have no trouble with New Testament commandments. We are under grace, we're not under law; but we still have these guidelines to go by.

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever.” And, of course, this is the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit of God. He came on the day of Pentecost. He indwells every true believer. Isn't that marvelous? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, that blows me away, friends! I say that reverently: to think that my body is the temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Corinthians:6:19What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
See All...)! I tell you, to me, that's one of the greatest motivations to a holy life that there can possibly be! That solves a lot of questions: Is it all right for me to do this? Is it all right for me to do that? Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And think of that—think of God designing in His grace to send one of the persons of the Trinity to indwell His people.

“…another Comforter [helper].” Another? Yeah, the Lord Jesus is a helper. This is another helper: the Holy Spirit.

A friend of mine went out from Half Moon Bay the other day. One of his customers had just bought a new boat and they went out fishing, and they began taking in water in a brand new boat! There was a hole where a hose is supposed to be. And they sent an SOS to the Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard telephoned Master Seaman there in Half Moon Bay, and he set out in his own boat to go to them. And pretty soon, he just pulled up alongside the sinking craft. He said, “Now, don't worry. Everything's all right. I'll get you to port safely.” A good illustration of the Holy Spirit—that's just what the Holy Spirit does! He comes alongside us in time of need—another helper just like the Lord Jesus is.

Notice: “that He may abide with you for ever.” The eternal security of the believer. Once in Christ, in Christ forever. Thus the eternal covenant stands.

“…even the Spirit of truth….” The Spirit of truth—He speaks the truth. He is the truth, just as Jesus is the truth. “…whom the world cannot receive.” Why can't the world receive Him? Because it can't see Him. The world says, “Show me and I'll believe.” For the Spirit of God is invisible. We can see His work, we can see Him acting in marvelous ways, but we do not see Him except with the eye of faith. It says that: “…whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you [the Lord Jesus said that to the disciples when He was here on earth], and shall be in you.” And that took place on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and indwelt believers for this whole church dispensation up to the Rapture of the church.

“And shall be in you.” And we really little know how much we owe to the Holy Spirit of God.

You know, the Christian life is a supernatural life. I don't know if you realize it, but to me it's like walking through a minefield, the Christian life. And I can think of many incidents in my life where, for instance, my life would have been taken, I think, if it weren't for the Ministry of the Holy Spirit. Many incidents. Conscious of His wonderful ministry in my life.

“I will not leave you comfortless [orphans]: I will come to you.” Well, that expression, “I will come to you,” has various meanings. It can mean, “I will come to you in the coming of the Holy Spirit.” There was a sense in which the Lord Jesus came back to us in the coming of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is the representative of Christ in the earth today. But, of course, He came back to us in the resurrection and He will come back to us at the Rapture, which we read about in the first verses of John 14.

Wonderful promise that the Lord Jesus said here: “I will not leave you [orphans],” and we're not orphans. We're never alone. The Lord is always with us and makes Himself very real to us. How does He make Himself real to us? Through the Word of God, by the Spirit of God.

You know, we know the Lord Jesus better today than the disciples knew Him when He was here on earth. Did you ever think of that? We know Jesus better today than the disciples knew Him when He was here on earth. For instance, Matthew saw Him through Matthew’s eyes. Mark saw Him through Mark’s eyes. Luke through Luke's eyes, and John through John's eyes. We see Him through all their eyes, don't we? And not only that, but if the Lord Jesus were here and was down there at the front, He'd be closer to these folks at the front than He would be to you at the back, but that's not true today. He’s just as close to any one of us as He is to the other. And this is all through the ministry of the Holy Spirit of God. What a blessing it is to know that we have such a wonderful revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just let me close with verse 27. We're not going to be able to get to all the verses. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” That's good, isn't it? There's the word “troubled” again. He began with, “Let not your heart be troubled,” and now He says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” This peace is a supernatural peace. It's nothing you can cook up yourself.

For instance, in some great trial in life (and I know many of you have had this experience) when you should have worried yourself sick, and yet you have the peace of the Lord in your heart.

I know a young fellow who went in for a kidney transplant. I could see the peace of the Lord throughout his demeanor. It wasn’t natural, it was supernatural. And the Lord Jesus left us that peace, just as His joy is supernatural, too. You can have joy in the midst of sorrow—not in the midst of sin, but in the midst of sorrow. And what a wonderful bequest he made to us: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” He had that peace Himself, didn't He, here in life when all the scaffolding was falling around Him, as it were? He could say, “Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Matthew:11:26Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
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Now, we can do that, too. We live in a day when the moral fiber of the nation is gone, when you think you've read every terrible thing that can happen, and you look at the newspaper and something worse has happened. And yet, it's possible in the midst of it all to have the peace of Christ monitoring in your heart. How? Staying close to the Word of God, spending time with God in prayer, walking in obedience to the Word of God, trusting the Lord, and all the changing circumstances of life. 

Let’s pray. 

Blessed God and Father, we just marvel at Your Word. We stand in awe of the holy Scriptures. We think of the marvel of the Bible, and we thank You especially tonight for these words of comfort for troubled hearts. Perhaps there are many here tonight who have broken hearts, maybe over wayward children. Maybe over broken homes. Maybe over some serious illness, Lord. We just pray that You'll come and speak peace to those troubled hearts that they may know that You are in control, and that the winds and waves still know Your voice “who ruled them while He dwelt below.” We give You thanks in the Savior's name. Amen. 

TBC