Alright, brethren, John chapter
20. Our subject is the blessing of
believing. The blessing of the believing. Our Lord told Thomas down in Verse 29, he said, Thomas, because
thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that
have not seen me, yet have believed. We have a very difficult time,
very troubling time in that we are carnal and yet We are called
and we are being saved by God who is spirit. And all worship
is in spirit. When the rich young ruler came
to our Lord and he was rich, he had many temporal things,
but he's really an example of all of us that God saved because
we're all rich. We're rich in carnal things. The apostles asked, how can a
rich man enter into heaven? And the Lord said, with men it's
impossible. But he said, with God all things are possible.
And this is what we have as carnal creatures, we have a difficulty
understanding, is with God all things are possible. All things
are possible. The Lord Jesus had borne the
sin of his people. He had borne the curse, and he
had redeemed his people, and he had been buried in the tomb.
Our Lord knew this was going to be a great stumbling block
for his disciples. He knew that. And so he told
them many times before it was expedient, it was necessary that
he go and suffer that cross and die and raise again the third
day. He told them that many times. He knew this was going to be
a stumbling block. In one of the Psalms, he prayed
to the Father. Lord, don't let them be offended
at this because it is a difficult thing. It's why we couldn't believe
the gospel. Because you see a man who died
on a cross and who was buried and natural reason says, who
would believe that? He arose, who would believe that?
And he's salvation and he's in glory right now, seated in glory. Who would believe that? That's
beyond all carnal, natural reason. But the Lord knew that was how
they were going to feel, even those He had given faith. And
He worked these miracles to show them that nothing with Him was
impossible. He gave blind men sight. He healed
lame men. He raised Lazarus who'd been
in a grave four days. He was preparing them. He not
only was doing that to show us pictures of what He does for
sinners when He saves us, He was doing that to prepare them
for when He went to the cross and laid down His life. And He gave them many facts of
the gospel, the truth of the gospel. He showed them many signs
and wonders. But when they saw Him with their
carnal eye, die. and be buried. And then they
came to that tomb and his body wasn't there. They thought somebody
stole the body of our Lord Jesus. And our Lord said, you go to
my brethren and tell them I send to my father and your father,
my God and your God, declaring the oneness he has with his people. Nothing had changed. And Mary
went and told them. Now that morning they had come
to that tomb, and they looked in there, and then they left
the tomb, and that evening they gathered together. And they gathered together, it
says there, let's read this, it says, then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were
shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.
Mary had come there, that was brave of them to assemble, but
they were so fearful. And they were in great unbelief,
and they had their doors locked. And we can picture them, you
know, like we stand back here when the service is over, and
you have a group here and a group here, and we're all talking,
you know, two or three here, two or three there. And Mary
Magdalene had come, and she had told them she saw that he had
arisen. The other women would say they
had seen him, that he had arisen. The two on the road to Emmaus
were telling them he had arisen. But the scripture says the other
apostles and the others that were there with them, that when
the women spoke these things, they were like idle tales to
them, and they believed not. They had all forsaken the Lord
Jesus in the hour of his greatest need. They left him in the hour
of his greatest need. Peter had denied him three times,
cussed, and said, I don't even know the man. And you can imagine
the guilt they feel now. They're in unbelief. They're
shamed, they're fearful, they're overwhelmed. They've trusted
this one, and now they think it was all for nothing. Mark says they mourned and they
wept. They felt misery. It was real,
true misery. And every bit of it was due to
unbelief. Every bit of it. The locked door
there, them fearing the Jews and locking that door, that's
an example of how we fear men and turn to carnal means to save
ourselves when we're in unbelief. And we all do this. We all do
this. What's the only way they can
be saved from this and their faith restored? What's the only
way? Verse 19 says, then came Jesus
and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be unto you. That's the only way. That's the
only way. Christ is the Prince of Peace.
And you think about this. He had already made atonement
already for their sins. Their sins and all the sins of
his elect had been punished and put away by our Lord Jesus already. So he came to them and he said,
Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. This is how
he does it. This is how he does it. When
we're locked in our little room, and we're fearful, and we're
in our unbelief, and we're ashamed of our sins, and we're, we just,
it's over. He comes, the door can't lock
him out. He comes right into the midst,
right into the heart and says, peace be unto you. The Lord Jesus
was sent into the world by God the Father to give light to them
that sit in darkness. Here they sit. And in the shadow
of death, here they sit. They're in the shadow of his
death. And they're in their own death. And he came to guide our
feet into the way of peace. That's what he's doing for these
believing, unbelieving disciples. Verse 20. And when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands in his side, and then were
the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. When they saw the
Lord. Now he had a real body. That's
what we see here. He had a real body. His body
was not a spirit. It was not a ghost. He told them,
handle me and see. A spirit doesn't have a flesh
and bone as you see me to have. When he went back to glory, he
went back a real man. This was great condescension. This was mercy. This was grace. They're in unbelief. Just like
if you're falling in sin, whatever your condition as a child of
God, He comes in grace and condescension and mercy, and He meets you right
where your need is. That's what He's doing for them.
He showed them His hands. He showed them His body, and
He spoke, Peace be unto you. And now he's appeared in the
presence of the Father with those same wounds, declaring his victory
for his people, and he's there making intercession for us. When
John looked into glory, he said, I beheld, and low in the midst
of the throne stood a lamb as it had been slain. Still got
those wounds to show what he accomplished. Now verse 21. Then
said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you, as my father sent
me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he
breathed on them and said to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
That's how we receive the Holy Spirit. When he makes you to
be born again, that's how you receive the Holy Spirit. They
didn't do anything. The Lord filled them with the
Holy Spirit just like dead Adam who was just a form, God breathed
into him the breath of life and he became alive. That's how you
receive the Spirit of God right there. And the river comes into
the empty vessel just like oil comes into a lamp. The river
runs into the valley. There you are low and despondent
even when you're a believer. You're low and the river runs
into the valley and the water comes down to where you are and
runs into you and fills you up. And then with the spirit and
the word that enters, immediately there's life and there's a willingness
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, verse 23,
to him, he sent him as the Father sent him. He said, I'm giving
you this commission to go forth. He's speaking to the whole church. And he said, as my Father sent
me, I send you. And he said, verse 23, whosoever
sins you remit, they're remitted unto them, and whosoever sins
you retain, they're retained. He did not give his apostles,
nor any believer, the ability to absolve sins, like the Pope
claims. Nor was this merely given to
the apostles or to preachers. This is the Lord's commission
to his born-again church is what this is. Together we preach the
good news that Jesus Christ was manifested to take away sin. That's our message. We preach
he put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. We're preaching behold
the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world. We preach
through this man is preach forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe
are justified. That's what, that's how you fulfill
this commission. And to him who believes on Christ,
the gospel declares, thy sins are forgiven. That's what we
preach, that's what we declare. And the gospel declares, whoever
believes not the Lord Jesus Christ, thy sins remain. Paul gives the best commentary.
He said, Thanks be to God, which always causeth us to triumph
in Christ. And God maketh manifest the saviour
of his knowledge by us in every place. We're unto God a sweet
saviour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To one their sins are remitted
by Christ, to the other their sins remain. To the one we're
the saviour of death unto death, and to the other the saviour
of life unto life, and who is sufficient for these things.
Now verse 24, but Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus, was
not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore
said to him, we've seen the Lord. But he said to them, except I
shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger
into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side,
I will not believe. Didymus means the twin. I can
tell you who his twin brother is. You're looking at him. You're looking at him. Thomas
was not the only one with that problem of unbelief. The others
believed not when they were told he was risen too. We can all
take our place as Thomas' twin. But the fact that none believed
that he arose at first, that's a testimony he did arise. Because
they weren't just a bunch of deluded folks who just believed
anything they were told. They did not believe at first.
He came to them and gave them faith to believe. That shows
you he really did rise. Now we don't know why Thomas
did not assemble with them, but he was not there. But that's
the very worst thing anybody can do when they're cast down.
is not assembled with God's people. That's the very worst thing.
Not assembling with God's saints to hear the gospel will always
do for us what it did for Thomas. His unbelief and his doubt had
increased even to the point of obstinacy. He said, except I
shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger
into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side,
I will not believe. We've all heard that expression,
we've probably said it, I will believe it when I see it. Thomas had not only two or three
witnesses, he had the ten other apostles, and he had the women. But he declared he would not
believe unless he saw the Lord with his own eyes and touched
the wounds himself. I will not believe unless my
carnal senses are satisfied that this is so. That's what he's
saying. What pride for you and me to
lay down conditions on which we will or will not believe. This nonsense of accepting or
rejecting Christ, that ain't your arena. That ain't my arena. We need God to accept us, and
we need to give Him the ability to believe Him. But what a grace
and what tender condescension for our Lord Jesus to come to
us in our unbelief, like He did the first hour, and then when
we're in it again, and restore us. and our sin and whatever
it is that our unbelief is involved with, He comes and restores you
again. Where sin abounds, His grace
much more abounds. If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful, He cannot deny Himself. He can't. Child of God, you're
His body. You're His flesh. You're His
bones. He laid down His life for you. He will not deny one
of His children. Aren't you thankful for that?
Are you, Thomas? And after eight days again, his
disciples were within and Thomas was with them. Then came Jesus,
the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace
be unto you. Peace be unto you. The Lord didn't appear for eight
days. He didn't come back again and
appear to them for eight days. You remember why he didn't go
immediately to Lazarus's tomb when he heard that Lazarus was
in the grave or was dead? He loved him. He loved him. Soon, they're not going to have
his bodily presence. And you know, a mother, when
she's teaching her child to walk, she'll teach him to walk and
then she'll step back from him. So they have to walk on their
own a little bit. He came and he revealed himself. And he stood, let them walk a
little bit on their own. Let them think about what he
was teaching them. He's teaching them in this new
spirit to believe him. This is the truth of the matter.
This is what Paul was declaring in 2 Corinthians 5.16. He's made
everything new. Henceforth know we no man after
the flesh. That's right. We worship God
in spirit, and we know each other after the spirit. Henceforth
know we no man after the flesh, though we've known Christ after
the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more, no more
after the flesh. You're not worshiping Christ
just because you know some facts. Not his people. And we're not
worshiping him in any way but in spirit, by his spirit. We are the circumcision, been
circumcised in the heart, which worship God in the Spirit. That's a little S. That's the
Spirit He's given to you that you didn't have before. We worship
Him in the Spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have
no confidence in the flesh. And we see why that's so important
right here, because what put them where they were? The flesh. The senses. what they saw. This time Thomas was present
and again our Lord said to him, peace be unto you. And in verse
27, then said he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold
my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side
and be not faithless but believing. And Thomas reached forth his
finger. Uh-uh. Thomas answered and said
unto him, my Lord and my God, what happened? What happened? The Lord walks in or appears
in that room and he speaks the words to Thomas that Thomas had
said when he was somewhere else with his brethren. If I don't touch his wounds and
put my finger in, I'm not going to believe him. And the Lord
appears. He didn't say anything else to
Thomas. He just said, Thomas, reach your hand here and touch
my wounds. And Thomas immediately believed. We've seen this before. Thomas
knew when he said that, Thomas knew he knows all things. He knows my wretched unbelief.
He knows my sin. He knows everything about me
and He's come to me in mercy and in grace and He's revealed
Himself to me. He's my Lord and He's my God. The Lord told Nathaniel, I saw
you when you were under the fig tree. Here's an Israelite indeed
in whom is no God. And the response was, Nathaniel
said, Rabbi, thou art the son of God. He came to that woman
at the well, and he told her her sins. And he said, told her,
you believe on me, and I'll give you the water of life. And he
did. And she ran home and she started
telling her neighbors, come see a man that told me everything
about me. He knows all my sins and he had
mercy on me. Is this not the Christ? The Lord told Peter, you're going
to deny me, Peter. Peter. looking at himself, looking
at his deeds and what he had done and how he had followed
the Lord and all his carnal reasoning and evidences he had, said, that
will never happen, Lord. Now they will, but I love you
more than they do. And then after Peter denied him
three times, and went away weeping, and the Lord appeared to him.
The Lord said, Peter, do you love me more than these? And
Peter's response was, Lord, you know all things. You knew I'd
deny you. You told me. You know I love
you. You brought there, brethren,
that is a blessing to know God knows your heart. But see, our
flesh is deceitful above all things and wicked. You don't
know your flesh. You do not, as a believer, know
what you are in yourself. We have to ask God, save me from
secret sins. Save me from sins I don't even
know about myself. And he has to make all sin apparent
to us to see it. But when he does that, he makes
you know, I know your sin. But he also makes you know, and
I know the heart I put in you. And that makes you cry out, seeing
his mercy and his grace, and say, Lord, you're my Lord and
you're my God. It's Christ speaking, revealing
himself in our hearts, revealing that he knows all our sins and
all our unbelief, and yet speaking peace into our hearts, revealing
he loves us and has mercy on us. That's what makes you believe
him immediately. Immediately. And it has nothing
to do with your flesh, and nothing to do with your natural reason,
and nothing to do with any of your carnal senses. And he said to him, be not faithless
but believing. The literal word for that is
become not faithless but believing. Now, he's saying to Thomas, and
he's teaching us, this is not a question of evidences. Thomas
said, if I don't have some evidence, if I don't touch him and know
that he's risen, I will not believe. It's not a question of evidences.
It's not a question of feelings. It's not a question of the carnal
senses. Not at all. The problem is the
natural heart. That's the problem. The problem
is we have no ability to believe him ever, anytime, at all, period. That's the problem. Determination
not to believe is what we hear in Tom. I will not believe unless,
so it's blank, blank, blank, blank, blank. Determination not
to believe is the brave natural heart in every sinner. Thomas, you know, we refer to
Thomas as doubting Thomas. Well, Thomas was a whole lot
more than doubting Thomas. Thomas was willfully, I will
not believe except Thomas. That's what Thomas was. And that's
who me and you are too. And if God, he leaves us in that
place, that's all we'll be. That's all we'll be. That's so
is us as believers. The more we go on determined
not to believe, the more hardened we will become in unbelief. There
ain't but one cure for it. With man it's impossible. But
with the Lord all things is possible. It's only the Lord speaking peace
affectionately into our heart that makes us willingly believe. Willingly
believe. And the more the Lord quickens
us and delivers us despite our unbelief, the more he keeps showing
you his faithfulness to you, When you're completely unfaithful,
the more he shows you his mercy and grace. When you don't deserve
mercy and grace, the more he shows you forgiveness. When you
don't deserve forgiveness and you just flat out sin against
him, the more he makes that child, that faith childlike. I don't
need anything else. I just need you, Lord. I need
you to speak. That's all. Now hear the Lord's
next word. This is the word to us. It's
very important. This is the point of the whole
passage. Verse 29, Jesus said to him, Thomas, because thou
hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen, yet have believed. Our Lord Jesus declares, we will
not be more blessed. We would not be more blessed
if we saw Christ in person. and handled him, we would not
be more blessed. It's a blessing. Blessed are
they that have not seen and yet have believed. Our Lord teaches
us not to judge what he can or what he cannot do based on carnal
senses, but believe him. Believe his word. He promises
his child. This is what his word said. John
said all these things. He did a bunch more things than
this, but he wrote these things and recorded these things because
this is all me and you are going to get right here, this word.
And he wrote these things for us so we would believe. And he's
going to have to speak and make us willing, but this is what
we have is this word. Now here's his word to me and
you. He says, I will not fail thee nor forsake thee. Now when
everything is well with us, and we see all our temporal blessings
and all the things that we call blessings, and all that is good,
we believe that. He'll never leave us. He'll never
forsake us. He'll never fail us. He'll never
forsake us. But when he takes it all away, everything but that
promise, when he takes everything away but that promise, It's a
whole different story. We are troubled, we are in unbelief,
we can't bring ourselves to believe it. We think he lied, he's forsaken
us. The Lord teaches us to believe
him, believe his word. That's the only foundation we
have is Christ and his word. And these other things are sand. That's all they are. The Lord
promised the apostles the gates of hell shall not prevail against
this church. That's what he told them. Well,
while his bodily presence was with them, they believed that.
They were confident of that. But then we found them locked
away in a little upper room with the door locked because they
feared the Jews. That's when his bodily presence
wasn't with them. The Lord teaches us not to lean on carnal sense,
but believe Him. He shall not fail and He shall
not forsake us. That's the end of the story.
And here's the truth of it is, even when you don't believe that
promise, Carol, He will not fail and He will not forsake you.
We see that with Thomas. You know, people say, well, the
book says it and I believe it and that does it. No, no, no,
no, no, no. The book says it and God does
it. That seals it. He's going to make you believe
it. But there's going to be a lot of times you don't believe a
word of it. The Lord showed Ezekiel that valley of dry bones and
he said, Ezekiel, can these bones live? You know what Ezekiel said? Lord, you know. Lord, you know,
that's the best answer. When you don't understand something
and you see things going exactly opposite of how you thought they'd
go, the best thing you can do is call on Him and say, Lord,
you know. You know. And when Ezekiel preached like
God told him to and he asked God to send the Spirit, the Spirit
entered into him and they rose up alive, a great army. You know, the fact me and you
believe, have ever believed the gospel, That ought to tell us
that with God, nothing is impossible. There'll be no more doubt about
that at all, because if you believe and I believe, that ought to
be the whole... We ought to know it. But faith's
not without reason. Now, I'm not saying that now.
Faith's not without reason. When the Lord declares, I blot
out your transgression for my own sake, it's impossible to
believe that without some use of reason. He teaches us to be able to give
a reason of the hope that's in us. But the reason is Him. And the reason is the spiritual
discernment He gave you. The reason is God spoke it, promised
it, purposed it, Christ accomplished it, and the Spirit of God made
you understand it and believe it. That's the reason. Don't
put any confidence in the reason, in your being able to reason
that. Faith believes God's ability over natural reason and over
natural sight and doesn't look at things that look impossible
in nature and say, well that's impossible, that could never
be. There's people right now who don't believe the gospel
and that's why they don't believe it. Because everything we're
talking about that God does, man can't do any of this, man
can't put away sin. Man can't die and rise again
from the dead. Man can't ascend up into the clouds or sit down
at the right hand of God. But what we do depend on and
what we think is so true is these solid things and these temporal
things and this ground and things we can see. And he made all that
out of nothing. And one day it's going to dissolve
all that. And none of it will be anymore. You see, it's going to take God
making us believe. Sarah, she laughed when God said
she's going to have a child. She looked at her age, she looked
at the deadness of her womb, and she laughed. Abraham gave faith to believe. God gave Abraham faith to believe.
And Abraham was strong in faith, considering not his own body
being dead, nor the deadness of Sarah's womb. He gave God
glory. Faith stopped him from hearing
all the reasons that nature suggested to say, that can't ever happen,
that won't happen. Faith made him stop hearing those
reasons. That's what faith does. And it was the same when God
told him to offer up Isaac. And if God don't give you faith
and you hear about Abraham offering up Isaac, the only thing that
makes you know that is a work of faith is God said it is and
God gave you faith to believe it. Because there was heathens
all around them killing their children to try to come to God.
What makes that a work of faith and that heathenish? God made
Abraham do that and gave him faith to do it. And Abraham did
it believing God was able to raise his son from the grave.
Natural reason says a man that's going to be cast into fire is
going to be burnt up. God gave the three Hebrew children
faith to believe our God is able, He will deliver us, and He did. He did. Rather than taking them and saving
them from the fire, that's not what He did. He could have done
that. He didn't save them from the fire. Isn't it a whole lot
more Doesn't it teach you and me a whole lot more about what
God is able to do and strengthen your faith that he let them be
thrown in the fire? And that he appeared there with
them in the fire? And they didn't even have a hair singed. So Thomas and his others, they
didn't believe Christ arose because it appeared impossible naturally. and they'd seen him raise Lazarus
from the grave, that tells you that it don't matter what you
actually see that he's done. I know we can take some comfort
from the experiences we've experienced, what God's done for us, but only
if he gives you the grace to believe that he's doing it. If
you start depending on the experiences that you've experienced, you
won't believe him at all. Especially if he don't work the
same way or the same thing now. The Lord teaches us that it's
blessed to believe on Him without the encouragements or discouragements
that natural reason and natural senses suggest. And you know,
that really is what the Lord in grace is all about. He's teaching
you not to be discouraged about your sinful flesh and don't be
encouraged by that same sinful flesh when you do something good. That's what He's teaching you.
Leave the word of God. John says these things are written
that we might believe. We need the Lord to open the
eye of faith that we might behold wondrous things out of his law. You see, these things are written
that we might believe. We need him. David said, Lord,
open my eyes that I might behold wondrous things out of your law.
Nobody can hear a word I'm saying. You can't read it in this book
and get anything from it until he does that. till he opens your
eyes to behold this book is spiritual, speaking spiritually to you in
a new spirit that he's given and making you worship him in
spirit. I'm about to wind it up. God does give us some great
blessings and seasons of refreshing and we have joy and we have peace,
but you know what it's called? Joy unspeakable. Peace that passes
understanding. You try to You try to tell somebody
what peace is like, that God gives you in these times of peace, you just can't hardly? You can't.
It passes understanding. You have it, you know it, but
what is it? It's Christ. Christ, the Prince
of Peace, speaking into your heart. But don't depend on those
feelings. Believe the Lord Jesus Christ
and believe his promises. We're thankful for health, we're
thankful for family, we're thankful if we got wealth, all temporal
blessings, but we have to trust Christ alone. David said this
in Psalm 30, 60. He said, in my prosperity, when
everything was good, my family was healthy, and I had everything
good, David said, in my prosperity, I said, I shall never be moved. My faith is strong. Lord, by thy favor, thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong. That's what he said. But thou
didst hide thy face, and I was troubled. Ask Job. Job had all those things. But here's the thing about Job.
Job's faith was in the Lord. Job said, though he slayed me,
I will trust him. That's what we're talking about.
Can you trust him and say when it's so bad that you think he's
going to slay you and say if he slays me, I trust him. I trust
him. We love assurance. And Christ
promises us light. He gives some assurance. But
you're going to hurt your weak brethren if you make assurance
a necessity for salvation. Because there's a lot of brethren
that don't have assurance. And they have a lot. They have
faith. They just don't. They look in the wrong place
for the assurance. But there's times you don't have
assurance either if you have true faith. But we're not trusting
our feelings. We're not trusting temporal things.
Faith trusts Christ. When that night season comes,
like David experienced, who is among you that walketh in darkness
and seeth no light? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord. That's what the Lord said. Who are you that walk in darkness
and see no light? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord. Martin Luther said, feelings
come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My want is the
word of God, nothing else is worth believing. Though all my
heart should feel condemned, now listen, though all my heart
should feel condemned for want of some sweet token, there is
one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust
in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever, for though
all things shall pass away, his word shall stand forever. Thomas thought it would be far
easier to believe Christ that he was risen if he saw him and
touched his body. Christ said, blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. When our Lord spoke,
immediately Thomas believed and he said, my Lord and my God. But he had the help of seeing
him. He had that extra aid of seeing him, saying, but you know,
Mary, Peter, the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Thomas,
they all had this in common. Christ spoke to them, and that's
what settled them. You know, in history, every other
name would be forgotten. And you could, you know, most
names, I'm talking about ancient, ancient names, we just, in time,
we just forget. Even if we try to, even if they've
been in history, after a little while, you got to, you know,
you forget. Somebody's got to fall off the
table so you can bring somebody else on the table. We just keep
forgetting people. And even if you hear their name,
they don't do much for you. But this name right here, this
person right here, when he speaks his name in your heart, it is
It is as real, his presence is as real right here, right now
as it was 2,000 years ago in that upper room for Thomas. There
is no other name that can do that, no other person. Faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Whom having not seen, you love. who though now you see him not,
yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving, now guess this, receiving right now the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls, Christ our salvation, right now,
that's what makes you rejoice, Christ right now. So believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and you have life
through his name. It's written here for that purpose. God help us to believe him. Amen.