yet white as snow. That's what God's people are
when they're washed in the blood of the Savior, the Lord Jesus. If you try with your own blood,
you're just going to end up red, and stinking, and ugly, and out
of sorts. But if Christ washes you in His
blood, His perfect, righteous blood, You will be white as snow. I want to read an article for you
from a brother, Don Fortner, in a book that he wrote, Today's
Grace for Today. He takes a couple of words from
Mark chapter 5, verse 36. Only believe. If you only believe, talking
to a leader, a magistrate, about their sick daughter, one who
was so sick that they thought she had died. And the Lord said,
if you would only believe. Don writes this. He says, self-righteousness
is like a mole. You drive it out of one hole,
and it'll quickly find another in which to make its den. I've
experienced that right out here in our own yard. That might be
why when I read that this morning, I said, I gotta read that for
today's message. He goes on to say this, we fairly
well beaten it out of the den of good works. as a ground of
hope before God, but it has found another hiding place. Self-righteousness. The dark den where self-righteousness
hides with little possibility of detection is called by many
names. Some call it fitness of faith.
Others call it conditions of conversion. Some even use the
word suitability for salvation. Or maybe qualifications for grace. No matter what name you hang
over the hole, it is a den of iniquity. It teaches sinners
that in order to have true faith in Christ, there are certain
conditions that must be met. The doctrines go like this. Salvation is by grace alone.
It is not what you do, but what Christ has done that saves you.
But before you can truly trust Christ and be saved, you must
be terrified with conviction. You must weep and mourn over
your sin. You must desire holiness. You
must repent. You must long for Christ. You
must come to see yourself as a lost sinner and then earnestly
seek the Lord. That's what the doctrines of
works may be just like that. This doctrine may sound good
on the surface, but it is only a roundabout way of preaching
salvation by works. There are no prerequisites, no
conditions, no qualifications to be met by sinners before they
trust Christ. The gospel of Christ is addressed
to sinners as sinners. Not awakened sinners, not sensible
sinners, not convicted sinners, not lost sinners, not repentant
sinners, just sinners. God does not command sinners
to feel a certain way, experience something, or come to realize
something about themselves. God commands sinners to do what? Believe on His Son, Jesus Christ. And even that we cannot do without
God. The moment a preacher places
any condition or qualification of any kind upon the sinner before
he can trust Christ and be saved, he ceases to preach the true
gospel of pure grace. Repentance, conviction of sin,
lamentation and sorrow over sin are not prerequisites, I may
have to hard word say, prerequisites for coming to Christ and trusting
him. These things do not precede faith, they are the results of
faith. Why are you sharing that with us today, John? It is your responsibility. holds
whoever stands in this pulpit, and that is especially me. To
that very point right there. What is John preaching today? Folks, I'm just as guilty of
sin as anybody else. I'm just as weak to my sinful
desires, my sinful flesh, as anybody else is, as you are. I encourage you to be as the
Bereans. Noble Bereans is what the scripture
calls them. Why? What made them so noble?
They search the scriptures daily to make sure what the man standing
before them said came from that. Would you turn your Bibles this morning
to the 20th chapter of John. John chapter 20. In verse 24 through the end of
this chapter we see a man who walked with Jesus, saw the miracles
that Christ had done, heard the teachings and at least knew of the crucifixion. He might have been one who, scriptures
don't tell us, so he might, I say, he at least knew about it, but
he may have been one of the ones who left before. Remember, all
of his disciples eventually left him. All of the apostles walked
away from him. He may have known, he at least
knew about it. But for some reason, he had not
returned to the group when our Lord first revealed himself to
the disciples. Look here at verse 18. Begin
reading with me if you would, verse 18. Mary Magdalene came. and told
the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken
these things unto her. Now, I want you to notice the
Lord revealed Himself first to a woman. Now, I want to point
this out because since the Lord has called Kathy
out of darkness, I haven't heard anything about this, but I remember
one of the things that she really was against before the Lord shined
his grace in her heart. She just could not bear the fact
that women aren't equal with men. She felt like because the
Lord took the order of things, men, women, and children, and
because women weren't equal in what some people feel in their
eyes in scriptures, And so she was like, no, that's way too
far out there. I can't handle that. So if there's
anybody who may think that today, I want to express to you that
the Lord has a very strong order of things and how they should
go. He's given us an order to follow,
not an order as in a military order, but as an opposite of
chaotic. One of the biggest problems we
have in this country is the fact that we have lost order of what
God has given to this world. Men do whatever they want. Women
do whatever they think is right. People do what they think is
right. And that's why we have such a
chaotic world that we live in today. The truths of God have order
in them. The head rules the body. Is that
not true? If your hand started ruling your
body, there'd be something wrong, wouldn't there? That's all that's
talking about. That does not make any of our
members less important in their function. It's just an order
of creation. And notice who he comes to first. He came to Mary Magdalene first
upon his resurrection. He came to her and here we see
she comes to the disciples and tells them. Now look at verse
19 if you would. Then the same day at that evening
being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus
and stood in their midst and saith unto them, Peace be unto
you. I can picture it. I can picture,
they're all kind of huddled in, all the windows are covered up,
kind of like, you know, kind of like we've got the plastic
covering up the windows of the house next door right now. A bunch of men sitting around in
a little group, maybe a fire in the middle. Low in the room,
the door shuts, nobody can see in. One might be thinking, whoa,
whoa are we. For we are known to be followers.
Remember? They knew who Peter was. How
many people stepped up and said, hey, that's one of the guys that
was following the Lord Jesus that's being crucified right
now. Oh, no, no, no, not me. Maybe they were feeling a little
guilty. Maybe they were feeling a little guilty in hiding because
they had abandoned their Christ in his time of death. Whatever
the case was, our great God had compassion on them. Notice what
it was he said to them. Peace be unto you. This is the one who was just
hung on a tree for his people. The very one who was the creator
who put all of those people in their mother's womb. Yet those who were closest to
him left him. Left him alone. And he knew they
would. He knew they would. Yet he says,
peace unto you. Hold your spot here for just
a moment. I want you to turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Two verses with me if you would.
In Ephesians chapter 2. After reading in verses 1, 2,
and 3, well I'll just read verse 3, among whom also we all had
our conversations, speaking of those who were children of disobedience. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others, but God, who is rich
in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together, with Christ, by
the grace of your Savior. Back in our text. Peace be unto you. I cannot help but recall the
storm that arose while our Lord and Savior slept in the bottom
of the boat. What a wonder it was that we
see when our Lord tells us, peace unto you. Oh, ye of little faith. That's John. That's me. My Lord speaks peace unto me. He says, I got your troubles,
John. It may be tough for you to walk
through this world, you think, but I got it covered. The end result is going to be
this. It's going to be for your good and for my glory. Isn't that what happened to Jonah? It still boggles my mind how
much trouble that brought upon himself. yet it turned out to
be for our good and our Lord's glory. We don't know the results
of what it is we go through in this world, but we do know one
thing, and that's according to our God's word, it's for our
good and for His glory. You may not always see the good
and what it's about, what's going on about us, yet our God has
promised it, promised it, and that's good enough for me, I
believe. Look at verse 20. And when he
had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side, then
were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Don't overlook
this. Don't overlook this. It's an
important point. They saw before they were glad. They saw His signs. The disciples saw the wounds
of our Lord, and they incurred, and before they were glad, they
needed proof. They could see. Before they would
believe, the Lord liveth is what they needed to see. I point this
out because many think the Apostle Thomas was the only one who doubted,
yet we just read right there that every single one of them
needed proof to believe. Look at verses 24 through 28.
But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymeth, was not with
them when Jesus came. Remember I spoke with you a moment,
I mentioned him a moment ago. The other disciples therefore
said unto him, we have seen the Lord, but he said unto them,
except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, put my
finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into
his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, again his
disciples were with them, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus,
the door being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace
be unto you. Then said he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hand, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. Now I ask you, Was it only the
fact that he could see it plainly that made him to believe? How many saw the miracles of
God feeding 5,000 people on a hill? At least 5,000, right? Or another
time after that, 4,000. And their wives and their children.
So we know it was way over 4,000 for that. How many were standing on the seashore
when they saw God open up the seas. Do you think that's not
a story that would go down forever like it is right now to now? Are we not familiar with that
story today? It's gone on for a long time,
hasn't it? Yet how many did not believe? Turn over to John chapter 10. We'll come back to John 21 if
you want to mark that spot. We'll come back to it in a moment. Peace, be still. Thomas, because thou hast seen
me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they. Oh, wait a
minute. I jumped too far ahead of myself. Reach hither thy finger,
and behold my hand, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it
into my side. Be not faithless, unbelieving,
but believing. Look here at What our Lord's
doing here is he's teaching this very thing. He's teaching that
God was manifest in the flesh. Here I am standing before you,
risen from the grave, the very same man that you walked with
and went from place to place with and listened and learned
what I was teaching. Here I am, the same one, the
one who created all that is. He's teaching that he provided
himself a sacrifice. You see the holes. I was sacrificed
on the tree. I'm the very one that you ran
from. He's teaching his chosen people. He's teaching that he sees his
people in his righteous son. He's teaching that he will lose
none for whom he died. Look here at verse 23 of John
chapter 10. And Jesus walked in the temple
of Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Now my question a moment ago
was this. Was it only the fact that he saw The holes and the
marks in the Lord Jesus Christ, was it only the fact that he
put his hand in his side that made him believe? And I'm telling
you, no. It takes more than that. How
long have you been hearing the story of who Christ is? I don't
know about you folks, but I've heard about it since I was a
little kid. We were celebrating Christmas for as long as I can
remember. Was it the true and living God I knew about? No.
But I've heard about Jesus since I was a little kid. Well, what
made me all of a sudden start believing in Him? Well, our Lord
addresses this very thing right here. Verse 25, And Jesus answered
them, He says, I told you, and ye believed not. And then he
says this, the works that I do. This is what I was talking about
a minute ago. How many people saw the sea open up? How many
people saw him feed 5,000? How many people were there the
day that Lazarus came out of the grave? They moved the stone
sideways. They hadn't even unwrapped him.
Came out of the grave and came to the Lord Jesus. Come forth.
And he came forth. It's the same story with you
and I, is it not? How often had we seen or heard
about this one called Jesus till we believed? I have an aunt who was so glad
that she made a decision for Jesus when she did, a little
teeny girl. Even after pointing out to her
in scriptures That it is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. She
still can't get past the fact that it's your decision to follow
Christ. No, my decision is to not follow
Christ. Our decisions would have been
to go the way of the world that we were all walking in. Am I
not right about that? I told you, he says, and ye believed
not. That was each and every one of
us until God came to us, just like he did Thomas, and gave
him the ability to believe what he was seeing, touching, and
feeling at that moment. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but ye believe not because ye
are not my sheep. You can stop right there. They saw the wounds of our Lord,
and they were glad. They needed proof, just as Thomas
did. God was manifest in the flesh
right before them. Now, I want to go back to our
text, if you would please. Our Lord tells Peter, Blessed
art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. That's exactly
how God saves his people. He reveals to his people in the
day of his power, in the day of his love. The true knowledge
of who this man called Jesus is can only be revealed to one's
heart by God the Spirit. It is God who speaks to the hearts
of men. Our Lord tells us in John 3,
verse 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Now look with me at the last
three verses of John chapter 20. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. We haven't seen anything,
have we? Except through the eye of what? God of faith. The belief. Verse 30, And many other signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe. How does God call His children
from darkness? Through the preaching of the
gospel. These things are written, these are written that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
ye might have life through His name. My title for today's message
is written that ye might believe. Listen to Romans chapter 10 verse
11. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they
call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings. Our Lord tells his preachers,
comfort ye my people. It is my intent to share with
you a comfort that can only come from God. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You must believe, though, as
he is revealed in scripture. In our natural state, a state
of deadness and trespasses in sin, as we read a moment ago
in Ephesians, we cannot perceive the kingdom of heaven. You cannot
understand the things of heaven, for they are spiritual, and we
are dead spiritually in Adam. For one to understand the things
of God, one must be given life. In our natural state, we hide
ourselves from God as Adam hid his nakedness by sowing
leaves. We come into this world sowing
our own leaves of self-righteousness. And the righteous self-righteousness
that I read about there in Don's article, a righteousness that
is No better than filthy rags, as the scriptures declare it,
a righteousness of our own imagination. Look over at the first chapter
of John. Again, we'll come back to John chapter 20, I believe,
in a moment. Look over at the first chapter of John. John chapter 1. These things are written. that
the world would see the truth. Thank you. In John 17, verse 17, we read
this, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. The comfort I speak of is a comfort
that can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is life
itself. Life can only come from Him. Look at verses 1 through 4 of
John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Do you know
what that's talking about? That's talking about this thing
right here that we hold in our hands. The Word of God. The Word
about God. The love letter of God to His
people. Speaking about His Son, the Lord
Jesus. He, the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. Remember right just a moment
ago, Christ is life. And the life was the light of
men. He is life, and life can only
come through Him. The declaration of who Christ
is, is here in verse 5, and the light shineth in darkness. And
darkness comprehended it not. That's the declaration of men.
Look at verses six through eight. There was a man sent of God whose
name was John. The same came for a witness to
bear witness. Remember what we read a moment
ago about in John chapter 10. How are you going to call on
him if you've never heard of him? The same came for a witness to
bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was
sent to bear witness of it. That's the declaration of the
gospel. That's the declaration of gospel preaching. Now look
at verses 9-11. That was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the
world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him
not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. There's a confirmation of his
previous declarations right there now, verses 12 and 13. But as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. I shared that same verse with
my aunt. And to this day, she sends out articles about the
decision of man. It is our choice. Please choose
God is her cry. We just read there. You can sum
that up, both of those verses in this one phrase, salvation
is of the Lord, period. Our last verse, and I'll close,
turn to the 8th chapter of Romans, Romans chapter 8. These things, remember this is
our subject, these things were written that ye might believe. Were they written to convince
you? How many people do you think have
read these very same verses that we've read? You think the Pope? I'm sorry
to hear he's not doing well. I don't wish those kind of things
on anybody, even the enemies of God. But do you think he doesn't
know every word, almost, by memory? They gotta pass all kinds of
tests, you know that? They gotta do all kinds of things.
Or how many other men in this world that we could say probably
knows more about scripture than any of the rest of us do, but
do you think it convinces men of salvation? Well, if it did,
wouldn't there be more? If it did, would there still
be all these false religions out there preaching about man's
works instead of God's grace? Absolutely not. These things
were written for God's people that they might believe and it
takes God the Holy Spirit to speak it to your heart. It takes
God the Holy Spirit to convince men that Christ died for a people. It takes God the Holy Spirit
to convince men that the precious blood of Christ that was shed
on that cross did the job. It's finished. Isn't that what
He said? Well, how many people are convinced
of that? I wasn't. Not until God the Spirit
spoke to my heart, a new heart that He gave me after cutting
out that old stony heart that said, I will not have Him to
be Lord over me. Now I cry out, He is Lord. Not just of me, but of everything.
And you do the same. Am I not correct? People are
shaking their heads. Christ has made himself your
Lord. What grace! What mercy! He didn't have to. He could have
left just like he did after he fed those 5,000 people. He just
got up and he left. Left them to themselves. They
followed after him because they were hungry from their belly.
Not because he had done the miracles. Not because he had done what
he did. It takes Christ. You can see all those miracles
that he's done in the scriptures and you're not going to believe
until God does his work in your heart. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2.
The subject is these things were written that ye might believe
that in the ages to come it says in verse 7 He might show exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness Towards us through Christ Jesus
for by grace are you saved? through I Know you're saying it I hear
you Your lips aren't moving, but I know you're thinking it.
We're saved by grace through faith, through believing. And
that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
which man should boast. Here is comfort to a sinner.
who knows there is nothing, absolutely nothing I can do to earn or deserve
what God has done for me. Here is comfort, especially when
we feel the doubts of our flesh. He who gave himself for us shall
never leave us. His name is called Jesus. for
he shall save his people, not maybe, not might, but shall save
his people. Here is comfort. The words that
our Lord says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
those that come to me I shall in no wise cast out. Isn't that
comforting words? Coming to the Savior is not a
one-time thing. It's something we do over and
over and over again. I was talking with Kathy this
morning about trusting the Lord. Am I the only one, or do you
guys find that a lot tougher than it sounds? I hope that the Lord is... I hope that I'm a work in progress. Right now, it's not very good.
I tell you, my trust in the Lord is way below anybody else's as
far as I'm concerned. I want to trust Him more. I believe... I pray, Lord, help thou my unbelief. But my pastor... Pastor Gene,
he went through three weeks of sickness. He goes through taking
care of his wife. Sometimes she doesn't feel like
getting out of bed until later in the afternoon because her
body just doesn't have the energy it should anymore. And they just
get in trouble of some form. And every time I talk to him,
it's this. Well, we just trust him. This is what the Lord has for
us today, John. We just trust the Lord. What encouraging words. I hope someday I can get to that.
Everything that crosses my way, I just, I don't get all excited
about it anymore. I do, but I can't wait until
the day I don't. I don't get all upset about it.
I don't get all worried about it. Where's the money going to
come from? I don't know. I just trust in the Lord. These things are written that ye might believe, trust
that ye might trust. These things are written that
God might speak to our hearts through the preaching of his
word and bring peace to us. When sin has raised up its ugly
head, when self-righteousness, as we read from Brother Don,
how it hides in another mole's hole. Especially when that rears
up its ugly head. God give us peace by trusting
in Him. Look at verse 31 if you would.
Romans chapter 8. What shall we say? What shall
we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son.
And I pray, I pray you're reading these very words that you've
read many, many times before, and that God, once again, is
using His Word to bring peace to your heart. These things are
written that ye might believe. He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us. How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who? Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. This
is his word to you and I, folks. This is his word that he gives
us that we might believe. Who is even condemned as Christ
that died, he rather than is risen again. Who is even at the
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ. Will your tribulation separate
you from God? Can't do it. Not if you belong
to Him. Will it give you trouble? Oh
yeah. Oh yeah. How much trouble was
our dear brother Jonah in for running from the Lord? His life, his soul, was not in
trouble at all. But his body had a lot of trouble.