Will you open your Bibles again
to John 20? Did you start the recording?
Good. John 20. We'll pick up where
we left off with John 24. That is John chapter 20, verse
24. Now Thomas, called Didymus, one
of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other
disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them,
unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where
the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe
it. A week later, his disciples were
in the house again. And Thomas was with them. Though
the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and
said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your
finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into
my side. Stop doubting and believe. Thomas said to him, my Lord and
my God. Then Jesus told him, because
you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not
seen and yet have believed. Jesus did many other miraculous
signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded
in this book. But these are written that you
may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
by believing you may have life in his name. Now this message
is called The Cure for Doubt. We do not know much about Thomas. the Apostle Thomas. This is the
last thing that I can recall that's recorded about him in
the Scriptures. We know he was one of the original
twelve. We know that when the Lord said,
let's go to Bethany, And that's when he was going to raise Lazarus
from the dead. Thomas said, well, we may as
well go die with him. He sounded like a, you know,
we don't have much to go on here, but he sounds like one of those
guys that tends to see the darker side of everything, kind of cynical. And, you know, the disciples
our Lord chose, they're all kinds of people. You know, Paul was
one way, Peter was another, James was a different kind of person.
There were two people named Judas and one turned out to be a traitor
and the other evidently remained faithful. And John was another. There is not a single personality
or personality trait that signifies that someone is a child of God,
or even that they are a devout follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I pointed out to someone here not long ago about a television series about the life
of Christ. I watched it, I'm always curious
about those things. And I said to someone, the interesting
thing is, I said, the portrayal they made of Christ, you could
not describe him as being any particular kind of person. And
I've often wondered that. You know, when you read in the
Bible about the Lord Jesus, what kind of person do you think he
was? What was his personality? You really can't pin it down.
I can tell you what I think Paul was like. I can tell you what
Peter was like, kind of brash. You know, if a thought came into
his mind, it wasn't long, it was coming out of his mouth.
John seemed to be a much gentler person. But what do you say of
the Lord Jesus? And I wonder, why is it you can't
come up with a personality? Well, when we talk about someone's
personality and describe it, what we're describing is what
stands out about them and is not in proportion to the rest
of them. We say, well, he's an upbeat
guy. That's a happy woman, or that's
a sad person. Why do we say that? Well, we're
talking about really, What's out of place in the person? But there's nothing out of place
in our Lord. Everything is in its proper proportion. Consequently,
nothing particular about him sticks out. He was angry when
it was right to be angry. He was happy when it was right
to be happy. He was sad when it was right to be sad. So there
was no particular aspect of human character that stood out with
him that you would say, well, that's
the kind of person he was. What he was was the perfect kind
of person. But the Lord's disciples are not like that. And Thomas,
we get this idea that he was just a little bit, or maybe a
whole lot cynical, and that made him question things. He was not easily convinced. Now, they call him Doubting Thomas,
and I suppose it is right to call him that, but he was no
more doubting than the other disciples were. What did we read in the previous
verses when we opened up the worship service this morning?
on the evening of the first day. Now this is the day after our
Lord had raised from the dead. They had seen the empty tomb.
They had heard the report of the women who had seen a vision
of angels, heard the report of Mary who touched the Lord. But
here they are, they're in a room and the door's locked. And why
is the door locked? They're scared. That doesn't
sound like people with a lot of faith to me. They're afraid. And then the Lord came in and
stood among them and said, peace be with you. And after he said
that, he showed them his hands and his feet, excuse me, hands
on his side. The disciples were overjoyed
when they saw the Lord. Now notice, their joy did not
rise up within them at the point that he stood among them. In
fact, I imagine that scared them because the Lord's first words
were, peace, peace be with you. His sudden appearance among them
scared them. It wasn't until he showed them
his hands and his side that they were filled with joy and peace
settled in their hearts. And so Thomas wasn't there on
the evening of the first day of our Lord's new life, shall
we say. He hadn't had the benefit of
seeing the Lord He had not had the benefit of seeing the nail
prints in his hand and the spear wound in his side. A week later, he's with the 12. They're still
calling them the 12, even though there's only 11 of them right
now. With the 12. And then the Lord appeared again. And the doors, of course, were once
again locked. What does that show you? Even
though the Lord had appeared to those ten disciples, they
still had the fear that comes from doubt. They're still locking the doors
out of fear. But the Lord, our fears do not
keep him out. Our locks cannot keep him out.
And he just comes in, he shows up and says, peace be with you. But there's one among them who
has not had the benefit of seeing him as the crucified one. You know, they saw someone standing
there. He looked like Jesus. I'm sure
they recognized his face. But who knows, that might be
just some other guy that happens to look like Jesus. Or maybe,
maybe it's just some spiritual apparition trying to deceive. and draw them away. They don't
know what to make of it. What does the Lord do? He gives
them, as it were, his ID. He shows them his ID. He identifies himself not by
his face, not by the clothes he wears, but by the wounds that
he bears. They mark out the Lord Jesus
to be the real Lord Jesus. Back when I was a kid, they had
a show, a game show. I can't even remember what the
name of it was. But they would have three people
come in before the contestants. And the first woman would come
in and say, I am John Doe. And then he'd go sit down. Second
person would come in. I am John Doe." And then he'd
go sit down in the third one. So you had three people claiming
to be John Doe, and the contestants got to ask them questions in
the hope of being able to figure out who's the real John Doe.
And at the end, the game show host would say, will the real
John Doe please stand up? Well, here we have the real Jesus
Christ identifying himself. And by what has he identified? The wounds that he bears. The
story is told, and I'm not sure I'm getting exactly right, but
I think I'll get it right enough, you'll get the point. A man was near death, and a Roman
priest came to talked to him, and the priest said to him, you're
near death. The man said, yes. And he said,
well, I have here the wine and the bread, and I'll intercede
for you. And the man said, well, show
me your hands. And the priest said, why? He
said, well, just show me your hands. So the priest held out
his hands. He said, you're a fake. The priest
said, what do you mean? He said, you can't intercede
for me. Why not? There's no wounds in your hands. The one who can
intercede for me has got nail marks in his hands. You're a
fraud. That's how we know who Jesus
is. And that's the Jesus we must
look to and follow if our faith is to be a real faith and a strong
faith. Now, Thomas believed. We know
he believed. How do we know he believed? Well,
the Lord said so. He prayed to his father and he
said, I showed them your word and they believed what I said.
They didn't understand everything he said, but they believed it. And then the Lord said, of all
you've given me, I have not lost any except the son of perdition,
the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Well, that son of destruction wasn't Thomas, it was Judas,
Judas Iscariot. So our Lord had chosen him, had
called him, taught him, and Thomas had followed him. And the Lord
says, I didn't lose him. So with all the doubts that Thomas
had, he was still a believer. You know, we often let the fact
that we doubt make us doubt all the more. Isn't that true? We doubt, and then we say, well,
if I was a believer, I wouldn't doubt like this. It's true. We just doubt. That's
all there is to it. I hear people say, I'm 100% sure. I never have doubts. And that
makes me doubt something. It makes me doubt they're really
telling the truth. Why? It's human to doubt. And we happen to be humans. So here we have a case of a man. Oh, here's another evidence that
he believed. He might not have been there
the first day of the week, but a week later he was among the
disciples. Despite all of his doubts, these
were people with whom he identified, with whom he found fellowship. Maybe he could find fellowship
with them because despite the fact they believed, they also
doubted some. They were like him. And so he was among them. If
he'd been an unbeliever, I don't think he would have been with
them. Why? Because the death of the Lord Jesus Christ would
have been sufficient to completely erase any faith that might have
been there before. If it had merely been a natural
faith, merely had been an intellectual persuasion of certain facts concerning
Jesus Christ, all of that, would have been eliminated by the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there was something in Thomas
that didn't die. And the reason it didn't die
is because it was that faith which is given by God. It is
that faith which is simply the expression of spiritual life. We don't get spiritual life by
believing. we believe because we have been
given spiritual life. So he was, despite all his doubting,
he was a believer. And then we can also say, despite
the fact that he was a believer, he was filled with doubts. Now, why did he doubt? Well, the first reason is because
he was a human being. A human being. That is a human
being who's not yet been made perfect. Now there will be a
time when everyone who has believed shall be made perfect in every
aspect of his being and there will be no doubts at that time. But so long as we're in this
flesh, part of our thinking is going to be dominated by the
flesh, and our flesh doesn't believe anything unless it can
be seen, heard, tasted, smelled, or touched. We have five senses. I read somewhere
someone said we might have six, a sense of balance. Okay, I don't
know how that would contribute to the knowledge of anything
other than which way is up, but it's a sense. But the other ones
can tell us all kinds of things. And our flesh relies on those
senses to give it information upon which it founds our beliefs. And it can't ever do anything
other than that. The flesh cannot believe what
it cannot see. Also, why did he doubt? He was living by sight. Look over at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. He was walking. Actually, that's the word that
the scriptures use, walking. And that's just an indication
of day-to-day living. He was walking by sight. 2 Corinthians 5.7, that's why I'm
not reading it. 2 Corinthians 5.7. We live, we walk by faith. not by sight. Now, Paul said
that, and he didn't mean by that that we never find ourselves
walking by sight rather than faith. We often do. I mean, you know, if you're in
a city and you want to cross the street, you look. You look this way and you look
that way, or you watch the signals. Now I watch the signals, and
when it says walk, I don't believe them that it's safe to walk. I believe the sign that it's
okay, legally, to walk across the crosswalk, but when it comes
to entrusting my safety, I don't believe that sign. I look. Why? Well, there might be somebody
driving that's not paying attention to the lights. And despite the
fact that I've got the green light to cross, they come through
and, you know, I'm dead. And it won't matter if someone
takes such a person to court and they're found guilty of vehicular
homicide negligence, I'm still dead. So I always look. We live
most of our lives according to what we see. When he says we
live by faith, not by sight, he means pertaining those things
which we might call spiritual, things pertaining to the life
to come. And yet as much as from our spirits
we live by the kind of sight that faith has, our flesh is
still putting its input. I don't see Jesus. I've never
seen heaven. Look at you, you're not living
like a Christian would. That's what the flesh keeps telling
us. You've seen, you've known people
that have died. You have no idea what became
of them. Did you see their spirit leave their body and go to heaven?
Did you see the Lord Jesus Christ intervene for them at that moment
that they not be dragged down to the pit? Have you ever heard,
you know, the Bible says we're in the company of thousands upon
thousands of angels in joyful assembly. Have you ever heard
their joyful song? I haven't. Have you ever seen
any? I haven't. And the flesh keeps
saying that. And so we've got these conflicting
reports coming into our consciousness. And we must be careful that certainly
with regard to spiritual things. We must walk by faith, not by
sight. We live our lives in terms of
hope of things to come. We live our lives not looking
around to find evidence for things to come. We live our lives believing
what we've been told. So at this point, and I'm not
judging Thomas here, I'm just pointing out this is what believers
can do. He was walking by what he could see, not by what he
had been told. You say, well, wait, he hadn't
been told anything about the resurrection. Well, the disciples had told
him. But more than that, the Lord Jesus told all of his disciples
what was going to happen before it ever happened. He said, the Son of Man will
be betrayed into the hands of men and he will be put to death.
And on the third day, he will rise again. He told them that's
what's going to happen. And when it happened, they were
surprised. And even though Thomas had had
that testimony repeated to him, the disciples said to Thomas,
we've seen the Lord. He said, well, I'm not going
to believe that. You saw something, but I'm not going to believe
you saw the Lord. I'm not going to believe the Lord rose from
the dead. I saw him die. I know that's true. I'm not going
to believe he rose from the dead till I see, not somebody that
looks like Jesus. So when I see the nail prints
and when I see that spear wound in his side, then I'll believe. Here's another reason that at
this point he was still so bound up in doubts. He had not been with the other
disciples when the Lord appeared to them a week previous. Faith is strengthened and built
up first by the Word of God and secondly by active fellowship
with other believers. I go through the week, I study,
I got the scriptures in front of me. And I read them, and this is
gonna sound awful for a preacher to say, but I've learned, may
as well be honest. I read them and I sort of believe
them. I spend Monday through Saturday
feeling pretty much like that fellow who said to the Lord,
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. I look forward to these meetings
because when I am among you, that is when my faith is strongest,
when its voice is loudest within my consciousness. It's not magic. Some would say,
well, it's just psychological. I'm sure there's psychology involved.
Why? Well, everything about us is
psychological. The word psychology comes from
the Greek word for soul. And so, of course, there's psychological
aspects to it. When we gather, It's not as though
then our spirit becomes strong. What happens when we gather together
like this in a common faith, worshiping a common Lord, calling
upon a common Father through a common spirit, when we do all
of this together, that fellowship together has the effect of at
least for a little while drowning out the noisy unbelief of our
flesh. It's not magic, but it's miraculous. Hebrews 10, verse 25. The Jews, Jewish believers, they
were afraid, they were being persecuted. And because of their
fear, some of them had quit meeting
with other believers. They said, well, I can go on
believing in Jesus, but if I just don't go to meet with them, with
the others that do, then nobody will persecute me. That's exactly the wrong thing
to do. If, for reasons of persecution,
you feel as though it might be wise to separate yourself from
the assembly of God's people. That's the public, visible meeting
together with God's people. If you ever feel like that's
the wise thing to do, to depart from that, that's the exact time
when you should say, because I feel it'd be wise not to go,
I better go. If we ever get to the point when
we think it would be a good idea not to meet, that's when we need
to meet most of all. Why? Because it's in meeting with
our brethren that we are strengthened. I am glad. for what technology
enables us to do. I'm sure when printing first
became available, there were those who were happy, particularly
those who were very far from any actual church that believed,
yet they could get a hold of books and read concerning the
truth. Spurgeon put out what in those
days was called a penny pulpit. On Monday morning, he would go
in and he would take the manuscript. They had stenographers that wrote
down everything he said and wrote it in shorthand. And he would
go in the next day and he would make an edited version of one
of the messages he preached on Sunday, the previous day. And
then that printing house, Pasmore and Alabaster Printing House,
would print up thousands of copies of it. And for a penny, you could
get a copy. And so, they called them Penny
Pulpit, and thousands of people would buy it, and I'm sure it
was a blessing to them. And they would read that, and
they would be able to hear the word of the Lord. But for whatever
reason, they weren't able to go to Metropolitan Tabernacle
and sit among the people of God and hear his word. There are people who for whatever
reason cannot attend, cannot actually physically gather with
God's people. I'm glad we got the live stream
set up for them. But God's means of building one
another up has not changed. It's by meeting together. I think that's one reason that
it's so important that those who cannot come to us, that we
do what we can to go to them and visit with them and encourage
them face to face. Why? It's good for them. It's good for us when we do it.
Why? The Lord said, where two or three
are gathered together in my name. You go visit one of your brothers
or sisters that is homebound for some reason or whatever.
You go visit them. There's a little tiny church there made out of
two people. And the Lord's there with them. And they're strengthened
in one another, or as they are with one another. Well, Thomas
had thought one a week before. that it was wise not to meet,
and therefore he missed what would have been beneficial to
him. Well, when the Lord comes, when
the Lord came and showed himself to Thomas, what did Christ do
to strengthen Thomas? He walks in, all 11 of them see
him, and he says generally to all of them, peace be with you. But there's one among them that
needs some extra help. Help that he could have had a
week before. But the Lord, and blessed be
His name for this, He's much more patient with us than we
are with each other. He knew Thomas should have been there
a week ago. He knew that it was Thomas' doubts and fears that
kept him from being there a week ago. Do you see the Lord Dress
him down. Do you see the Lord look at the
other 10 and kind of keep Thomas over here? No, that's not our
Lord's way. He restores those who need restoration. So he looks right at Thomas.
He knows what Thomas needs and he says, put your finger here. Reach out your hand and put it
into my side. Stop doubting and believe. He showed to Thomas what he'd
showed to all the other disciples a week before. Why would something like that
have such a powerful effect? Our Lord did not come to him
and merely display to Thomas his person. He did not take Thomas
to the empty tomb. Thomas was already aware the
tomb was empty. He didn't say, Peter, you tell
Thomas this is really me. He showed him the marks of his
work. He showed him an undeniable testimony of what
made it valuable to believe in. In other words, you have there
with our Lord standing there with the wounds of his death
upon him, you have in literal form Christ and him crucified. Now I've been saying this for
ever since I got here, that our message beginning to end is Christ
in him crucified. And yet I still find new evidences
of that truth in the scriptures all the time. This is what was
always set before God's people. Whatever their need may be, whatever
state of grace they may be in, whatever state of maturity they
may be in at any moment, the right message for them is Christ
in him crucified. It's not just Christ the person,
it's Christ his person and his work. There are many aspects of our
Lord which strengthen our faith. Many things in which we rejoice.
But none of those things would mean anything were it not for
this one thing. Christ died for us. It's His cross work that creates
and strengthens faith. It's the testimony of His blood,
shed for sinners, that first brings us to faith, keeps us
from falling. and eventually presents us in
the presence, or in his presence, faultless and full of joy. You
say, then why is the Bible so thick? Because our skulls are
kind of thick. And the Lord has to say the same
thing over and over again in different ways. He said to the disciples that
first day, As he's walking with them to Emmaus, he said, how
dull of heart and slow to believe all that the prophets have written. And he began there and, well,
he opened up the scriptures to them of all the things pertaining
to Christ. They still didn't know who he
was. They're still a little bit flustered. But when they get
to the city of Emmaus and he acts like he's going to go on,
they said, no, stay with us. And so they stayed or he stayed
with them. And here's the interesting thing.
He's been talking with them. He's been teaching them. Why
didn't they recognize his face? Why didn't they recognize his
voice? Because that's not what was needed for their hearts. It says that when he broke the
bread. You know, we have two ceremonies.
One of them is the Lord's table. And that's when the Lord, remember,
took the bread and He broke it and passed the wine around. And what's that all a symbol
of? That's a symbol of His death. Peter said, by the celebration of the Lord's
table. We do show forth his death until he comes. What did our
Lord do? To open their eyes and to make
them understand who he was and all that he had taught them before.
He made a representation of his broken body for them and you're Jesus. You're the Savior. Then were their eyes opened,
then were their minds open. not just by the presence of the
person of Christ, but the presence of Christ and a testimony of
His death. What our Lord did for Thomas
is what we do. We preach the gospel, the message
of Christ and Him crucified. In 1 Corinthians 2, Verse 2,
Paul says, I resolve to know nothing among you other than
Christ and Him crucified. And Paul was there teaching them
a long time. He didn't just go there and initially tell them
about the, quote, gospel. And then once some of them believed
that, he said, all right, now I'm going to start teaching you
about Christian living. No. He continually set before
them Jesus Christ and Him crucified and then would tell them what
significance that would have on their lives and the way they
think. But He never preached anything
that was not founded upon the truth of Christ and Him crucified. He never preached anything as
though it would make sense and have any value apart from the
truth of Christ and Him crucified. The whole time He was there,
that was His message. It's the initial message we bring
to people. It's the sheep's continual food.
It's our weapon in times of trial and persecution. accusation,
the book of Revelation chapter 12, the believers suffering. And let me find, I'm thinking I've
written down the wrong verse, give me just a second here. I might just have to tell you
what it says. Well, it speaks of the devil and calls him the accuser of
the brethren. And it says that, oh, here it is. Okay. Verse 10,
Revelation 12, verse 10. Then I heard a loud voice in
heaven, now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom
of our God and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brothers who accuses them before God day and night has
been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood
of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Now it doesn't matter what troubles
we may have. It's the devil trying our faith,
and he continually accuses God's people in the very presence of
God. How do we deal with that? How
do we deal with the guilt in our conscience? How do we deal
with the fear that it might engender and the doubt that it might create? We simply recall and speak the testimony
of the blood of the Lamb. That's it. There is no more powerful
message. How do you overcome the devil?
I see these guys on TV, you know, and they, of course, they're
trying to attract attention to themselves. I must admit, even
on a human level, I find it hard Understand how people fall for
stuff like that, but they bought people on out of a hit Out of
their minds maybe they bought people on the head And say, you
know out out evil spirits, you know, and they go flailing backwards
and everybody thinks they're casting out demons. I Saw one guy Unbelievable one
guy he's up there and he's showing off. I And he's taking his, he
always wears white, I think, and he's got his white coat in
his hand, and he goes, like that, and everybody in the congregation
fell down. Is this power over the devil?
I saw on Facebook, says, when the preacher waves his hand and
everybody in the congregation falls down, how come the cameraman
doesn't fall down? But anyway. You've got this power over the
devil. Now you try to argue with him about theology, you try to
prove to him God exists, he'll twist you in knots and you'll
be a mess. You just show him the blood.
You set before him Christ and him crucified. You say, get out
devil. Yes, well, Luther put it this
way, sometimes the devil comes to me and he says, Luther, you
are a sinner and you'll be damned. And Luther says, I responded
to him, devil, you're right, I am a sinner, though you have
no right to tell me that, but I will not be damned because
my savior has bled for me. That's the only thing that will
ever silence a guilty conscience. It's our one and only glory.
Paul said, may it never be that I glory in anything other than
the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. And then looking at Revelation
chapter five, we're still talking about the wounds our Lord bears
and what they symbolize. And these scars that he bears, they are
the crown that he wears. Revelation chapter 5. Verse 1, then I saw in the right
hand of him who sat on the throne, that's God, a scroll with writing
on both sides and sealed with seven seals. That's God's divine
purpose of salvation. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming
in a loud voice, who is worthy to break the seals and open the
scroll. But no one in heaven or on earth
or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside
it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy
to open the scroll and look inside. Then one of the elders said to
me, do not weep. See, the lion of the tribe of
Judah, the root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open
the scroll and its seven seals. So we might then get within ourselves,
in our minds, a vision of a king upon the throne. See, Judah was
the tribe of kings. And so that's what the angels
get. Now, there is a king, and not just any king, the lion among
the kings, and he has triumphed, and he is worthy to take that
scroll and bring it to reality. Well, that's an exciting thing
to think of. Verse 6, then I saw a lamb looking as if it had been
slain, standing in the center of the throne. By what does our Lord have authority
in heaven and on earth? His hands and His side. That's
his crown. That's the power of the line
of the tribe of Judah. That's why he sits on the throne.
That's why he's at his father's right hand. That's why the father
said to him, sit here at my right hand until I make all your enemies
a footstool for your fate. It's why when he ascended on
high and said, lift up ye gates and be ye Lift
up you everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in.
Why did the gates open to him? Why did they let him in as the
King of glory? Because he was going there as
the one who died. The lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Well, what was the result of
it? What effect did that have on Thomas? Thomas did not say, well, let
me think on this a while. He simply looked at our Lord
and said, my Lord and my God. My Lord and my God. He didn't even say my Savior.
I mean, nothing wrong with saying that. He is our Savior. But that broke through every
barrier and enabled Thomas to see Christ for who he really
is. Now, I can't press this too hard,
but I know this, that in those days when they would read the
Old Testament, they thought the name of God, Yahweh, was too
holy to speak. And so when they would read the
scriptures, when they got to that name, instead of saying Yahweh or however
it's actually pronounced, they would say Adonai, which means
my Lord. This is a Jew. And I believe Certainly legitimate
to take the viewpoint that what Thomas was saying was, you're
Jehovah, my God. What a declaration. You say,
well, wait a minute. Jesus didn't say anything about
being Jehovah. Yeah, he didn't say anything.
But the testimony of his wounds convinced Thomas of it. My Lord. Hebrew word that they
always used whenever they wanted to indicate the name of God,
Jehovah. My Lord. My Lord and my God. Adonai Eli. Why would that clear doubts? Because he believed, by the miraculous
work of the Spirit, he believed what couldn't be seen. Just like
the thief on the cross did. How could that thief ever see
the Lord Jesus as a king? Same way Thomas saw him as God. Do you have doubts? Well, I don't have any doubts
about the Lord Jesus Christ. I just have doubts about myself.
Well, what do you doubt? Do you doubt that you're a sinner? Well,
no, that's what troubles me. I'm a sinner. Well, good. I'm
glad you're not doubting that you're a sinner. Do you doubt
that you need a savior? No, I don't have any doubts about
that. I need a savior. I can't do this. Well, then what are you doubting
about yourself? Well, I'm doubting that I've believed right. Well,
do you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, He's God? Yeah, I believe that. Do you
believe that He gave His life a ransom for many and on the
third day raised? Yeah, I believe that. Well, the scriptures say if you
confess with your mouth Jesus to be Lord and believe in your
heart that God has raised Him from the dead, You will be saved. Now let me ask you again, what
are you doubting? I just doubt that I've come here.
Quit looking at yourself. Thomas quit looking at himself.
He quit looking at the things around. He saw Christ. And that
settled it. May God grant us a firm conviction
of who Christ is and what he's accomplished. and its application
to us, not by looking for something in ourselves or around us, but
looking at Him and Him crucified. For that's all the testimony
we need to clear up doubts. Father, bless Your Word as only
You can.