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In the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus speaking to his disciples says, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house or many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you. 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. These verses are very familiar to us. I quote them to myself quite often. They're very precious words. As you read, there's a lot going on. When you read to the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John, I mean a lot going on very quickly. John chapter 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 are all compressed in a very short amount of time. The word let not means the disciples had some control over their heart. I despise the idea that people have that we can't control what we feel and we can't control what we think. That's just not true. But they must be guided by the truth of God's word. So when Jesus said let not, that means they had some ability to control where their hearts were in that moment. Now I understand why they were troubled. Jesus has told them that there's a traitor among them. He has told them he's going away. He has let them know things that were greatly difficult for them to take in and not be troubled by. Several weeks ago, on Friday nights, we have a little uh tradition at home. Uh Adie Paul, my six-year-old boy, he gets to have a slumber party with me. We watch TV late, and he gets to stay in the bed with me, and Hile Ann stays with her mother, and so that's a big night for them. And so one evening he loves watching the three stooges with me. So we we we and so we're laughing, and then it's time to turn that off, and I look over, and this little six-year-old boy is weeping. And I said, What's the matter? And he he said, uh Daddy, I'm worried about those people who die. Are they okay? I mean the question stunned me. I just wasn't I wasn't expecting that. I thought maybe he wanted his mama and he wanted That little six-year-old man was contemplating some very significant things. And I didn't say, well, just don't be afraid. I had to give him more than that. I could explain heaven and God's care for saints, so I'm thankful for a little heart like his that was contemplating these things. It told me a lot about him. And so I try to give them reasons not to fear. The Lord's the same, but better. I love in Genesis 15 when Abraham, still called Abram, he comes back from the slaughter of the kings, and as he comes back, the Lord meets him and he says, Abram, fear not. Why? He says, For I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Over and over throughout the Word of God, we're told not to fear. I don't know how many times, I've heard it said it's there 365 times. I've never counted to see if that's actually accurate or not, but I know it's there a lot. God has told us repeatedly commanded us that we're not to be governed by fear. Well, here the Lord is understanding that their hearts are. He didn't just say this because he thought, well, they might be disturbed right now. He knew they were disturbed. He knows the thoughts and the intents of our heart. That scares me to know that I could maybe trick you about what my intentions are. I cannot trick God. He always knows the thoughts and the intents of my heart. I cannot shield that from him. Uh I may from you, but I can't from him. And then yet there's a part of me that takes solace to know that he knows my heart. But he didn't just say this to fill up scripture for us. He said it because he knew their hearts were troubled. He said, You believe in God. Here's why you should not be troubled. He said, believe. He doesn't just say, believe me. Believe also, in other words, as much as you believe that the Father is God, believe also that I am God. Understand, comprehend, embrace that I am the eternal one. And so as he's ready to depart this world, it's not going to be long. It's the same night that he speaks, John 14, 15, and 16, that he then prays in uh John 17, then he goes into the Garden of Gethsemane, and then he's arrested, and then he'll be tried through the night illegally, and then the next day he'll be tried by the courts of uh Israel and then the courts of Rome and then ultimately condemned to be put to death. He knows all of this is coming. He knows what the disciples are going to see, he knows what they're going to experience, and so before they're going through this, he lets them know. In fact, multiple times the Lord Jesus Christ was very upfront with what was going to occur. He told them in Matthew 16, after he said, Whom say uh whom say men that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Well, some say. And he said, Well, whom say ye? And Peter, you know, said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. He said, Blessed art thou, Simon, for Jonah, for flesh and blood had not revealed this unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven, in that same chapter. Same chapter, presumably the same day. He lets them know that he's going to be crucified, he will die, but he'll rise the third day. And Peter took him and rebuked him. Think about that. Peter takes Jesus. Now, that word took indicates to me that he literally grabbed onto the clothing of Jesus, like he's trying to shake sense into Jesus. That what Jesus is saying is so contrary to what Peter can comprehend. It's like, see, Peter's saying, I've got to shake sense into the Lord so that he uh gets rid of this idea. And Peter said, be it far from thee that this should happen unto thee. And what did Jesus say? He said, get thee behind me, Satan. Now an offense to me. He says, You savor not the things that be of God, but those things that be of men. Imagine he just said, blessed art. Now he says, get behind me, Satan. I mean, what a contrast of how you and I can be. And so here he says, You believe in God. Here's how to keep from being troubled. Believe also in me. Understand that I am God. And then he goes further. He says, In my father's house. I love that. My father's house. Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 5, he says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, which is going to happen unless the Lord comes back, we will see the dissolving. That means the unloosing, the faltering of this body that's going to occur. He says, We know that if this earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That day's coming that you and I will leave this tabernacle in which we dwell to go to the Father's house. But notice what Jesus said. He says, In my father's house are many, and the reason there's many is because there's going to be many to occupy. He says, In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I love the disclosure and the transparency of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was just, he was very real. He never sugarcoated. He never downplayed. He was very authentic, very transparent, and very honest with the disciples. He would tell them in the same message in the 16th chapter, he said, in the world ye shall have tribulations. He said, but be of good cheer for overcome the world. Now, somebody who's trying to get in a following in this world typically is not going to say this and following me, and I'm going to tell you all the troubles, but following me. Let's look at the woman following in this world. I mean, if you're trying to be in social media in the kind of opening message, following me, and promise you, you're gonna go and have so many troubles and tribulations, burdens, and troubles, and big and horrible marketing, would it not? But the Lord Jesus Christ was honest with us. He let us know that following Him comes at a cost. It comes with difficulty and trial. That's just the reality. And listen, just being a follower of Jesus never, and he never said it would, exempts us from trouble. In fact, it gives us more trouble. But it certainly provides a lot of richness along the way. And it makes the troubles bearable. And sometimes looking back, even sweet. Elder Ronald Lawrence, he has a saying, our troubles will either make us one of two things bitter or better. That's very simple, but it's true. You'll either get bitter by them or better. I try to be better. Sometimes the other happens. But he says, In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. Now listen, when Jesus says this in verse 2, that I go to prepare a place, he's not saying I'm gonna go to heaven to the Father's house, and like the carpenter's son I am here on this earth, I'm gonna be building you that mansion in glory. Quick word back to that word mansion. That just simply means a dwelling place. Here in this world, we tabernacle. That means we're here for a time. That word mansion indicates a permanent place. Jesus says, I'm going to prepare a permanent place for you. Now he doesn't mean that when I get to heaven, I'll be busy because I need to build a mansion for this one, and one for this one, and one for that one for all the elect family. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, I'm going to the cross. And in the cross, I will prepare. The disciples needed to understand that the cross was not a calamity. It was not an accident. It was not something that was chaos outside of the purpose of God. They needed to understand that there was intent with the cross, there was purpose of the cross, that there was something that God would accomplish through the cross. As I mentioned through one of the messages last night and this morning, and it runs together after a while, but it's just the cross despising. There's no doubt about that. It was a horrible experience for the Son of God to experience, but it's going to know to understand and comprehend that this was not just kind of that it has been brought up in heaven. Now understand that those men that did those things, they were liable for the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, the Apostle Peter would indict them with the death of the Savior there on the day of Pentecost. And multiple times throughout the book of Acts, we'll find where those wicked men were charged with the death of Jesus Christ. But Jesus, he says, I go. Not that he says, I was drugged. He says, I go. He was willing. Some have the idea that Jesus came and when he prayed in the garden, Father, if it be possible, let this cup, you know, if there's some other way, bring it in right now. Father, we're here at the very end. You're gonna have to, if there's another way for this to occur, you better hurry up. That was never the mindset of the Lord Jesus Christ. He made it clear to Pilate that it was for this cause that he came to the world. He sent his face the word sinners as a flip, as he looked toward Jerusalem. That means that he was spiritually focused upon the woman with a curved calorie, only under redemption, that Jesus came into this world of women that the only woman for us to be in glory was in his death at Calvary. There was nothing, let's hope there might be some other method that God the Father in heaven with a dream upon here and on the earth. He came here under the promise of the everlasting covenant that he would die for our sins. The blood of bulls and goats was not sufficient, it's already been mentioned. Hebrews 10. If that could have taken away sins, God would have used that, but it never could. Jesus did not go to Calvary as an accident. He did not go to Calvary saying, Well, I've exhausted all other means, so I guess that's what I'll do. He came to this earth specifically for Calvary. Every once in a while I'll hear somebody say that, you know, Jesus wanted out of that. He was when he said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. I've heard different thoughts on what he was saying there. Some say, well, he was saying, Lord, I'm ready to go. His hour was come. There's no doubt he was ready for that to be behind me. Some would say, well, he was in his humanity saying, Father, I'll do it, but he wasn't saying that. I believe he was saying, take the eternal punishment that's infinite and bring it into finite. Take what they deserve eternally, and because what was the penalty of our sin? An eternal separation from God. And what he's saying, let this cup pass. In other words, let your wrath come, let it be satisfied, and then let it pass away. That's what he's saying in that prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Three times he goes into the midst of the garden and he prays that prayer. He's saying, take your infinite wrath of the everlasting punishment and bring them into a time and let me bend them to the fullest. That's what I believe the Lord Jesus Christ said. So now he says, I go to prepare a place for you. I am going to Calvary. I'm not being carried there by men, even though on the surface it may appear to be that way. He wanted the disciples to understand this is not chaos going on. This has been designed by the Father in glory for your redemption. So he says, 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. Now ultimately he's talking about the second coming. But I also believe that every time that one is about to draw their last breath, Jesus comes. I believe he comes to that place where we are in that moment that gives us grace. And I believe he says, at least in our spirit, child, come on. And so when death comes, why do we mourn departing friends? Or shake at death alarms? Death to us is horrific at times, but Psalm 116, verse 15 says, Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, because that's another child going home. So Jesus then says, and whither or where I go, you know, and the way you know. Poor Thomas. You know, he gets a bad rap. I feel sorry for Thomas. Here he's but you know, again, he was authentic. He was being honest. He he didn't understand. I wouldn't have. You wouldn't have. You know, later when he wasn't there when the Lord appeared after his resurrection, you know, he he wanted evidence. Well, the others had had it, but he didn't have it, but he he wanted to see what they saw. He said, Until I do, I'm not gonna set up back. I I need more than seeing. I I want to feel when the Lord came, he didn't need to do that. He said, My Lord and my God. But there's another occasion that Thomas Jesus was going back into Judea and it was dangerous. And they tried to restrain the Lord, constrain him, said, No, we can't the Lord was I'm going. You know the one who spoke up? It was Thomas. He said, Let us go with him and die with him. Here was a man who we called doubting Thomas who was saying to the other disciples, if he's gonna go, then we're gonna go with him, and if he's gonna die, we're gonna die with him. So, you know, sometimes we see these little snippets of these men, and we think that that is the defining uh feature of their life, and they had no other complexities. They did. We can't define these men by the little bit that we see of them in the Word of God. So here, Thomas, he's, you know, they've traveled all over. They've been in Galilee, they've been in Jerusalem, they've been in Samaria, they've gone all. So I'm sure Thomas is thinking, well, we're just gonna go to some other place, but we don't know where he's directing us next. And so he says, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? Think about that for a moment. If you don't know the destination, how do you know the way to get there? If I was going to drive to Snyder, Texas from uh uh Lithia, Florida, I know the way. I've driven uh I-75 to I-10, uh, then join up to I-20. I know how to get to that path to make that work. But I know that because I've done it. I would still use GPS even today in today's world because number one will tell me if there's an accident, reroute me so I don't get caught up in that. But you know, I don't just get in my vehicle and just wander around. I just don't do that. I when I get in my vehicle when gas is about $4 a gallon, I have a purpose, I have a destination, and I know the way. Thomas, and I guarantee the rest were just as perplexed as Thomas was. He's just the one that happened to speak up. I love Jesus' response. He doesn't rebuke him, he's not harsh, but he's direct. I love what Jesus says. He says, I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So Jesus just says, Thomas, you don't need to know the path because you know the one who is setting the path. You don't need to know all the information, you know me, so you know the truth. You know me, so you know the source of life. He says, I am the way. Not that I'll show you the way. He says, I am the way. Thomas, you already know because you know me. You know, as we come to my home baby, we don't want to water the savior because I know the savor, I don't know the honey, I don't know how death is gonna be. I don't know, I've not been there before. I don't want to I don't know what heaven's gonna be like. I don't know what that experience of leaving this world and going to the world to come is going to be like. I had an experience about uh ten and a half, almost 11 years ago, where um I had a massive seizure. We were on our way to my uh we were in Miami, Florida, and we were on our way to uh Key West. And standing in a Bass Pro shop, a massive seizure hit me. And as it was coming on, I knew something was not right. I thought I was having a stroke, and I didn't know if that was the last thing. I I did not know. I thought I was leaving this world, and all that happened very but one of the things that has remained with me all these years is in that moment when things were going haywire, I just had a perfect calm. I was at peace. Now, thankfully at the point. I mean, it wasn't the end of my life, obviously, but uh but I still, even in that, I I don't know what death will be like. I I I trust the Savior will come and he'll make the dying bed feel soft as downy pillows are. I trust that. But I I I don't know what it's going to be like. But it's okay because I know him. And I know he'll take care of that. So I don't need to know all the intricacies and the details and the I don't need to know when it'll be. I don't need to know how it'll be. If I knew all of that, uh you know, I I I wouldn't be able to live in peace, I'm sure. But thankfully, I know as much as I need to know, I know him. And knowing him, that means I know the way because he is the way. Because I am the truth. Brother James spoke this afternoon about wisdom and how the wisdom of this world speaks of, and I hate this phraseology. I hear it at work sometimes. We're talking about things going on in people's perspective, and you'll hear me say, well, that's their truth. Or this is my truth. And I'm like, what? How does that even begin to make sense? If truth is something that I can build upon, rely upon, it's not my truth or your truth. Now I understand I have a perspective, and you have a perspective of things. I get that, but I despise, and someone I work closely with said that to me here recently. I said, please don't say that to me anymore. And she said, Well, why? And I explain why from the scriptures. Truth has to be objective, it has to be foundational, it has to be certain, it cannot be wavering, it cannot shift and change over time, or it's not drastic. Exactly. So please don't say it's their truth in my presence anymore. I don't know if I got that across. I think I did. But anyway, and I knew what she meant, but still, it just it was the wisdom of this world. He is, he said, I am the way. That means there's no other way. He didn't say I am a way. He said, I am the way. He didn't say I am a truth, he says, I am the truth. He didn't say I am a source of life. He says, I am the life. And then notice where I close. He says, No man cometh unto the Father but by me. You know, there's a paradox in the Bible. Because earlier in this same chapter, or in the same book, in the sixth chapter, the 44th verse, he says, No man can come unto the Father. No, excuse me, no man can come unto me except the Father which has sent me, draw him. It's getting late, I'm tired. So John 6.44 says, No man can come to me except the Father, which has sent me, draw him. Now he tells them, No man can come to the Father but by me. Well, which one is it? Jesus? Both. It's both. You know how you come to the Father? By Jesus. How do you come to Jesus? By the Father. You come to him in life by the power of the Father, through the voice of the Son of God applied by the Holy Spirit. And so Jesus is not trying to confuse us there. He's just letting us know the unity of the person of the Godhead. He's letting them know that I am here, and the reason I am here is so that you have a way to heaven. As Brother Bill was preaching to us tonight about full assurance and having confidence in the promises of God, I don't know any more straightforward promises than found right here in the 14th chapter of John's gospel to let us know that we don't need to have a troubled heart. Why? Because if we believe in God, we can also then understand that the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Jehovah, the self-existent, eternal one. And in trusting him, believing him, we know that he has already trod the way for us so that now when we meet death's door, we know that he will come again and receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also. We don't have to have it all figured out. We just know him and know he is the way, he's the truth, he's the life, and he is the way where we have access to the Father. He's taking care of all that. Listen, I needed a lot of help just to get here this weekend. I had to rely on pilots, I had to rely on mechanics, I had to rely on my own automobile to get me to the, which meant I had to depend on engineers at General Motors to uh to build that car, people in an assembly lot, I had to trust that there were going to be TSA agents there that could get me through, which y'all all know that circumstance at the moment. I had to rely on a whole lot to get here. Uh just to travel in this world. How much now think about the complexity of that? All that went in just for me to go from Florida to Texas. Now think about trying to get from here to heaven. Think about how hard that. I mean, it's impossible. It's not, though, because Jesus says, I am the way, I've taken care of it. I go to prepare a place. It's provided, it's taken care of. And so, in what seems to be the chaos of life, it was not the chaos of the cross. There was precision there, there was purpose there, there was design there. And I do not at all believe that the events of our lives are preordained and fixed. I don't believe that. But I do believe in the overruling providence of God. I do, I am not a deist. A deist is one that believes that God just set everything up and then just sits back and lets the world just play out and he just observes it as someone who's entertained by I do not believe in a God like that. I don't believe in a God who uh has a remote control in his hand and is controlling every single thing that's going on in this world, but he's also not the other extreme of one who he does intervene, he steps in, and he overrules and he reigns and he rules, and thank God that he does. And I do believe that he uh intertwines himself in the daily experiences of our life, and he is present as we heard, he is with us all, and that means every single moment of every single day, the Lord Jesus Christ is there with us. That encourages me. This world seems chaotic, it's not out of control, it's very much under the control of a sovereign God in heaven. And the Lord Jesus Christ just told the disciples, what all you're about to experience, the chaos that's going to seem to be going on all around you, understand. I'm going. I know what I'm doing. It has a purpose, and that purpose is that where I am, there he may be also. As you read what seems to be the chaos of the cross, just understand it wasn't at all. That was Jesus taking care of everything you needed to be brought into the presence of the Father. And thank God, because like I said, I couldn't even get Texas if it wasn't for the help of so many. And there is no human agent that could ever get me from here to heaven. But thank God I don't have to worry about that because the Lord Jesus Christ says, I am the way. I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. But by him we do have access unto our Father. Thank God. May God bless you.