Title of this message, why do
we have the word of God? Why do we have this book? This
precious book, which is called the word of God. Well, that is
exactly what it is. This is God's word. The Bible
is God's word. It is the only book where God
has revealed Himself. How many books you reckon have
been written? It's got to be in the billions
probably, since the beginning. It's got to be in the billions.
But there's only one written by God. God used men, but He's
the one who moved them to write what they wrote. And in this
book, this book, God has revealed Himself. There is no KNOWING
the Lord Jesus Christ or God apart from this book. There is
no being SAVED apart from the Word of God. It is written in James 1.18,
"...of his own will begat he us WITH the word of truth." 1
Peter 1.23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God. This is the seed, and
who knows when that seed is planted? Who knows? It may be planted
this morning and twenty years down the road God will give the
increase. You know, you bring, you know, when I, of course,
brought the boys when they were younger, you bring your children
and you bring friends and family and you bring them. You don't
know if God plants that seed. I may not be alive and on this
earth when he gives the increase, but I believe God. I believe God, and I believe
that if God's gonna save my boys, my grandchildren, He's gonna
do it by His Word. He's gonna do it by His Word.
He's gonna be involved. It's the seed. Every birth has
a seed, doesn't it? I mean, a tree grows from a seed.
You and I came from a seed. And the seed that God uses is
His Word. I can't stress the importance of that. Verse 19, Then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the week, Sunday. It's interesting, don't just
over read that, the old Sabbath is gone. The old Sabbath has
been done away with now. It's a new day, it's a new beginning. The old ceremonies, All those
types that have been kept for a few thousand years, that Sabbath,
a Saturday that they had kept, it's over with. It's over with. And the Lord meets with them
on Sunday. It's a new day and a new Sabbath. And the Sabbath is not Sunday.
It's Jesus Christ. Christ is our Sabbath. Sabbath
means rest, doesn't it? Christ is our rest. Sunday's
not my rest. I thank God for this day, I do.
Most of us have off work, except me, obviously. This is my work
day. But for the most part, people
are off on Sundays. And the Lord has made it to where
we can gather together here the first day of the week. And this
is the best way to start. Monday's not the first day of
the week. Sunday is. And this is the best way to start
the week. Right here, sitting under the
Word of God. Preparing you to go out and work
in that world again on Monday. But being the first day of the
week, when the doors were shut, All these doors are shut. I thought
about this this morning. All these doors are shut. And
the Lord met with them. You reckon the Lord's here meeting
with us this morning? I do. If I didn't, I wouldn't
want to be here. And the doors were shut. The
world shut out. The world is shut. If as much
as possible, shut the world out right now. Forget about work. Forget about what you're going
to do. Just listen to God's Word. When the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled, here's some of His disciples
assembled here this morning. Now they did so out of fear of
the Jews, but we're not assembled here out of fear of anybody,
are we? Our fear is God. We fear God.
If you fear God, you don't need to fear anybody else. It says,
came Jesus and He stood in the midst of them. I don't think
He came in the door. I don't think He opened the door
because He is the door. He just appeared in the midst
of them. He appeared in the midst of them.
And He said to them, the first thing He said to them, peace
be unto you, peace. The first words our Lord spoke
to His disciples were words of peace, not a word of rebuke for
their faithlessness in leaving Him. Nothing said about that,
just words of peace. PEACE! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED
FOR YOU! AND I GIVE IT TO YOU! You know,
if the Lord speaks peace to your heart, you're going to have peace.
You know that? You're going to have peace. If He speaks peace
to your heart, you're going to have it. And He says, Peace be
unto you. We have peace with God through
the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and He
gives us peace of heart. Quietness of conscience. Peace in the heart when the Holy
Spirit applies the blood of Christ to our hearts and grants to us
faith and repentance. And the Lord comes and the Lord
speaks peace. And I was telling this to someone
here not too long ago. It was talking to me about the
gospel. And this person was evidently
under some real conviction. And I said, I'm not going to
give you peace. The Lord give you peace. I'm not going to say,
well, I believe you're saved. I'm not going to tell you that.
The Lord tell you that. If He gives you peace, you're
not gonna lose it. I mean, it's His peace. My peace,
He said in one place, I give to you. Not as the world giveth,
give I unto you. You know, the world gives temporary
peace. They sign peace treaties. How long do they last? I'll tell
you how long a peace treaty lasts. Until the side that loses gets
strong enough to whip you. Then that peace treaty's over
with. But the Lord says, I give you peace, and it's everlasting
peace. Everlasting peace, everlasting joy. And notice what He does here. He shows them His hands and His
side. You remember going through the
gospel here, how ignorant they were of many of the things our
Lord said. It was just right over the top
of their heads. But now, now that He has accomplished
what He came to accomplish, now that He has gone to the cross
and died and He's risen again, now they're going to understand.
Now they're going to have a clear understanding of the gospel they
are preaching. They are going to have a clear
understanding that their message is Christ crucified. He shows
them His hands and His feet, His side. He shows them His side.
You know that in heaven, we're going to have a new body. We're
going to have a new body. When our Lord arose from the
grave, He didn't look like that mutilated mess that was hanging
on the cross. But I tell you what He did have, those nail
prints in His hands, and that spear in His side, hole in His
side. And He's going to have that. He's the only one who's
going to have a scar throughout eternity. We're not going to
have any. We're going to have a perfect
body, but he's always going to have that. And every time we
see his hands and we see his feet and his side, we want to
know that's for me. That's why I'm here. Because
of what he did for me. That's why. And then He showed them His hands
and His feet, because they were to be eyewitnesses and earwitnesses
to His resurrection. These men saw the Lord. Now this
Bible, like I said before, it's either true or not true. If it's
true, believe it. If it's not true, throw it in
the trash, one or the other. There's no halfway, there's no
in-between. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. You know why I think he said
that again? He says it three times to them. He says it to
them again. I thought of Joseph. You know,
when his brethren, they had sold him. These men, these disciples,
they scattered. They left him alone with that
mob and they ran, they ran. And now here he is. And they
remember that, they know that. Peter remembers denying Him,
and he says, PEACE! I'm not here fault-finding. I'm not here to beat up on you. Peace. Just nothing but peace. How wonderful to hear Him speak
peace to our souls when He meets with us. He's the Prince of Peace and
all true peace comes from Him. And then He sends them out to
preach. He said, As my Father sent me, even so send I you. He sends them out to preach the
Gospel of Peace. They only can preach whom the
Lord sends. Now don't call everyone a preacher
that stands in a pulpit. Don't fall for that. My pastor
told us that in the preacher school. He said, don't call a
man a preacher because he stands in a pulpit. A preacher is one
separated by God, SIN of God, and that's his calling and that's
his life. And he says, I send you to preach
the gospel and you don't do anything else. He that woreth entangles
not himself again with the affairs of this life. I was talking to a man last night,
and he was talking about business, and he was talking to me about
money and stuff, and I said to him, I said, when the Lord puts
a man in the ministry, money's over with. I know he didn't understand
what I was saying, but I said, that's over with. It's not a
concern no more. Whatever the Lord provides is
what you live on. If He calls a man to preach,
he's called to preach. He's not a part-time preacher
either. There are no part-time preachers. He's a preacher. And there's not many of them.
There's not many of them. Romans 10, 14, 15, How then shall
they call on Him in whom they've not believed? And how shall they
believe in Him in whom they've not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? They can't. I can't preach unless
God sent me. And if He sent me, He has equipped
me. He doesn't send somebody without
equipping them, just like the military doesn't send you to
the war without giving you ammunition and a gun and uniform and those
things to fight the war with. They don't join you up and say,
well, go figure it out. You wouldn't win anything. And
then in verse 22, And when he had said this, he breathed on
them and said to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. You see, Pentecost,
they received that power to preach. But if God saves, whomever God
saves, they have the Holy Spirit. Here though, they're given the
power of the Holy Spirit to preach. That's what they're called to
do. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who can give
that. He's the only one, and I know this, He's the only one
who can give power to this message. I can't do it. I can speak loud,
I can speak angry, I can just act like a nut up here. That
doesn't give power to anything. And I've seen plenty of them
do it too. I've seen him hold your ear and do that Baptist
grunt, and carry on like, that gives nothing. You know, Elijah, when he's in
that, I believe it was Elijah, when he's in that cave and there
was a whirlwind came by, the Lord wasn't in a whirlwind. Fire
came by and the Lord wasn't in the fire. You know what he was
in? Still small voice. It's that still small voice speaking
in you, in power. Power is when he speaks, not
how loud he speaks. I like what Doris said one time
concerning those TV preachers. She said, When in doubt, shout! That's what most of them do. Here is the power in preaching.
It's the Holy Spirit. He's the one who convinces of
sin, righteousness, and judgment. He's the one who takes the things
of Christ and shows them to us. He does that. He will not speak
of Himself, He will speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know
what Revelation 19.10 says? It says, Here is the Spirit of
Prophecy. Turn over there, let me show
it to you. I want you to read it. I've got it written, but
I want you to read it. You want to know what the Spirit of Prophecy
is? Well, it's not talking about Armageddon to tell you what's
going to happen in the book of Revelation. That's not the Spirit of Prophecy.
Let me show you what the Spirit of Prophecy is. In verse 10,
chapter 19, And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said
unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and
of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God,
for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. So if
I'm preaching Christ here this morning, I have the spirit of
prophecy right now. And here I can prophesy to you.
You want to hear it? The Lord's coming. The Lord's
coming again. That's the Spirit of Prophecy.
Now whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted unto them,
and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. Now that sounds
like a difficult verse. If you understand it, it's not. No one has the ability to forgive
sins but God only. Even the Jews said that to Christ.
They said no one can forgive sins but God only. You're exactly
right. The Pope doesn't have it. He
can't absolve you of anything. No one has that but the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only God can forgive sins through
the blood and righteousness of Christ. Now the apostles had
many gifts. that we don't have now, that
we don't have. But the gift to forgive sins
is not one of them, that's of God. Here, listen, the gospel
we preach, the gospel we preach gives life to some and has condemnation
to others. The gospel we preach, I can say
this to everybody in this room, if you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, thou shalt be saved. That's what that means. The gospel
that I'm preaching, if you believe, I can tell you this, I can tell
you without doubt, God will forgive you of your sins. If you don't
believe, guess what? You're going to perish. You're
going to perish. You're going to abide in your
sins and you are going to perish under the wrath of God. Matthew
16, or Mark 16, 15, 16. And He said unto them, Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Now here it is. Here is to me the explanation of that verse.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, and he that believes
not shall be damned. It's that simple. That's it.
We don't need to make these things harder. Just leave them where
they are. Just leave them where they are.
And then listen, THE OTHER DISCIPLES THEREFORE SAID TO HIM, WE HAVE
SEEN THE LORD. He's talking to verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus,
was not with them. Whoever is not with us this morning,
for whatever reason, missed the presence of Christ. was not with them when Jesus
came. Where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst." That's a promise. That's a promise. But Doubting Thomas, wouldn't
you hate to be stuck with that name? Doubting Thomas. We call him Doubting Thomas.
The Bible doesn't call him that, but we call him that because
of this verse. But what a blessing, listen,
now listen, what a blessing we miss when we miss the presence of the Lord. But here's something here, here's
a mercy of our Lord, here's mercy. I didn't realize it till I was
reading this, studying this again. The Lord knew Thomas, He knew
his faith was weak, He knew that. So he took this opportunity when
he was gone to expose the weakness of his faith that he may strengthen
his faith and ours too. That we would realize, I don't
want to miss the Lord when He shows up. I want to be there. I want to be there. And the other disciples therefore
said to Thomas, we have seen the Lord. We've seen Him. 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." You know the Lord said to the
Pharisees, you will not come to me that you may have life. When I read Thomas saying this,
Thomas you know better than the Pharisees. But you know what
the difference is? The grace of God. What's the
difference between Peter and Judas? The grace of God. That's the only difference. It
could have been Peter who betrayed him and Judas who denied him.
But it wasn't. It was the grace of God. Faith,
now listen to me. IS NOT BELIEVING WHEN YOU SEE.
I want you to note the ORDER OF FAITH. Psalm 27, 13. David writes, I had fainted,
now listen, here it is, UNLESS I HAD BELIEVED TO SEE. You get
the order? UNLESS I HAD BELIEVED TO SEE
THE GOODNESS OF THE LORD AND THE LAND OF THE LIVING. I BELIEVED
TO SEE IT. I didn't see it in order to believe it, I believed
God And I believe I'm going to see it because I believe God
said it. God said so. God said he would
not forsake the righteous. David said, I have been young,
now I'm old. I've never seen the righteous
forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Do you want to understand more
of the Scriptures? Do you want to understand more
of the Word of God and to see more of God and to grow in grace
and knowledge of Christ? Believe Him! When you read, believe
Him! And you'll see! In thy light
we see light! It's just believing! I may not
know what this means, but I believe God! And in his time, I've seen
this with my own experience, in time, I say, I see. How many
times have you said that when you've been sitting under the
gospel and you say, I see. You know why you see? Because
you believe God. If you didn't believe, you wouldn't
see nothing. You'd be like a blind man. And after eight days, Well,
that's on the first day of the week again, isn't it? After eight
days. Again, His disciples were with Him, and Thomas this time
with Him. You see, He's not forgot about
Thomas. He's merciful to Thomas. Then came Jesus, the door being
shut again, just like our doors are shut, the world without.
And He stood in the midst. He appeared in the midst of them.
And here's what he said, peace be unto you. Peace, peace, peace. What's peace worth to you? Peace
with God, peace of conscience. Wouldn't you like to lay down
at night and just have just a clear conscience? You could get rid of two thirds
of the medical practice if you get rid of a guilty conscience. Here's abounding grace. Even
when we are faithless, our Lord is faithful. He's faithful. Even when we are faithless, he's
faithful. And Thomas answered and said
to him, my Lord and my God, you know, this is the first time
in the gospels that anyone called the Lord Jesus Christ, my God. The first time Thomas is the
one that said it, my Lord and my God. And here's evidence that
when the Lord breathed on them the Holy Spirit when they were
in that room and Thomas wasn't there, he still breathed on him
the Holy Spirit. Because no man could call him
Lord except by the Holy Spirit. He never forgot him. He never
pushed him aside. He blessed him just when he blessed
the others. How often has the Lord blessed
us even when we haven't been able to be here? He's blessed
us. He's blessed us. But here's something else here.
And this is why I'm saying, they're going to see the Lord in a new
light, in a new way. Thomas knew the Lord, but now he's going to know Him
in a different way. Before they looked to Him, His
physical presence, He was with them. But now physically, his
physical presence is not going to be with him anymore, but his
spirit is with us. That's just as real. That's just
as real. And Jesus said unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, you've seen me standing here. You see,
he told Thomas in verse 27, he said, Reach hither thy finger,
and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it
to my side. Because they were still there. BE NOT FAITHLESS, BUT BELIEVE
HIM, THOMAS. And then that's when Thomas said,
My Lord and my God. And then the Lord said, But Jesus
said to him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.
You're blessed. You know, you believe God. You
believe God. Some of you here believe God. You are so blessed. You're not blessed because you
have wealth or because you have health. I mean, that is a blessing. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's
not. Sometimes it leads us away. But to know God, to know that
the Lord Jesus Christ is God and He's your Savior. Paul said,
all men have not faith. WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT.
THE JUSTICE, IT SAYS, SHALL LIVE BY FAITH. THE PHYSICAL PRESENCE
OF CHRIST WAS A HINDRANCE TO HIS FAITH. IT WAS A HINDRANCE.
WHEN HE COULDN'T SEE HIM, HE THOUGHT HE WAS GONE. HE THOUGHT
HE WAS DEAD. HE THOUGHT HE WAS STILL DEAD.
HE THOUGHT HE WAS STILL DEAD. GOD IS SPIRIT AND WE WORSHIP
HIM AS SPIRIT AND TRUTH. AND JESUS CHRIST IS THAT GOD
WE WORSHIP. People want pictures on the wall
so they can see who they're worshiping. That's an idol. It's an idol. And many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of His disciples which are not written
in this book. You know why they're not written in this book? We
don't need them. It's that simple. If you don't
believe what's written, why write more? Why write any more? As that Mormon said to me once,
I said, this is the word of God. It's complete. There's nothing
else to be added to it. He said, you mean that's all
God has to say? I said, well, if you believe
what he has said, if you haven't believed what he said, why would
he write more? And he was like, well, I said, you don't even
believe what he has said. Well, that went over like a lead
balloon. They called me in the office
and had a talk with me about that. Told me not to say anything
anymore. I thought, boy, you just sealed
your own doom. You just sealed your own doom. Don't tell me
that anymore. Don't preach the gospel to me
anymore. Okay. Like the Lord said to his disciples
concerning the Pharisees, leave them alone. You know, there comes
a time when you gotta just leave them alone. and not cast your pearls before
swine. We don't need no more signs.
We don't need no more miracles. We have His Word. We have our
Lord who's risen seated at God's right hand. We have the complete
Word of God. And last of all, but these are written, these from Genesis to Revelation. No excuse not to believe, no
excuse not to believe God. Look at this book, 66 books,
all about the same person, all about the same God. What is written
is written that we might be brought to faith in Christ. That's what
this is about this morning. Feed the sheep, feed the lambs,
And I pray that those who do not believe will be brought to
faith in Christ. That's why we take the Word of
God. And I tell you, I think as far as the church is concerned,
it's the best way to preach. You go verse by verse and keep
it in its context. We need no more than what He's
given to us in His Word. God's revealed Himself in His
Word. You'd think we'd want to know the Creator, wouldn't you?
Wouldn't you think that humanity, the whole human race, would want
to know the One who created them? Instead, when He came, the world
knew Him not, when His own received Him not, everybody turned thumbs
down on Him. Everybody turned thumbs down
on God. And yet God had mercy and God's going to save a multitude
of sinners out of this race, this human race. You know, there's
only one race. We don't have different races.
We have different nationalities, tongues and languages. We have
one race. It's called the human race. God
is made of one blood, all nations, all nations. Now we have different
nationalities and God's gonna save people out of every tongue,
kindred, tribe, and nation. That's so. Now if you truly want saving
faith, if you want it, get in God's Word, sit under God's Word,
preaching to God's Word. If you're really interested in
your soul, I guarantee if you're on your deathbed, you'd be interested
in your soul. I've seen that. I've seen people grab at anything.
I had a woman one time screaming for me to pray for her at the
end of her life. I never want to experience that
again. It's awful. Awful. If you desire to grow
in faith and in knowledge of Christ, get in His Word. Sit
under His Word, listen to the Gospel preached, and ask God. He said, knock and it'll be open. Seek and you'll find. God is
not a liar. God cannot lie. If you want Him,
He says, seek me, you'll find me. If you seek me with all your
heart, not out of just curiosity to see if I exist or see if I'll
bless you. But if you really want me, you really want to be
saved, seek the Lord. He'll make himself known to you.
That's what I said to that person that called me. I said, you seek
the Lord. He'll give you peace. I'm not
going to. I'm not going. It's not my business.
My business is to preach the gospel of peace and the Prince
of Peace give you peace. That's why we have this book.