Good evening. I always like how
Peter says he's writing this so he can stir up our pure minds
by way of remembrance. I hope we can have our pure minds
stirred up. It's easy to get our old minds
stirred up. It don't take much, does it? We'll get riled right
up. Boy, if the Lord moves and breathes on us and our pure mind
is stirred up, that's why we're here. It's all gonna burn. And
as we'll see, what our poor brother Thomas went through in this scripture
we're gonna look at tonight, ain't nothing more important
than what we're doing right now. And if we come here to get a warm
fuzzy, or we come here to have some much needed relief, or this
is what we do on Wednesdays, God help us. We can come to learn
something of our Lord and worship Him. That'll be a benefit to
God's people, won't it? Let's turn to John chapter 20.
John chapter 20. I have a unique title. I think it'll make good sense
by the end of it. From But to And. From But to And. Only God can do that. I hope we remember this. This
might be real beneficial to us, both a blessing and instructive. We're going to look at 11 verses
here, verses 19 through 29. And in the 11 verses, John records
what takes place in two church services. This is probably the
first two church services after the ascension or the resurrection
of our Lord. If we got any business needs
took care of, we can learn it from this. If there's anything
that we need to know how to do, we can learn it from this. If
God's gonna save sinners, this is gonna be how he does it. If
he's gonna comfort his sheep, he's heading up the services.
He said, I'm gonna do the first two. Y'all watch it. That's what
we're gonna read here. This is interesting. But look
down first at verse 30. There's some sharp arrows in
this text. I apologize, but I know they're sharp arrows. Do you
know how I know that the arrows? I preach puradventure. I don't
know who's going to show up here tonight, but the Lord does. And
I know that the arrows that may be in this text may be sharp.
And you know how I know that? I've been shot by them arrows.
I have personal experience with these arrows. I've been hit by
them. And so if the Lord hits some of his people, it's gonna
sting, but you'll be all right. It's his arrows, you'll be fine.
You're his, it's fine. Verse 30 says, many of the signs
truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not
written in this book, but these are written. What we're getting
ready to look at, it said, these are written, verse 31, John 20.
These are written. That ye, who's that? You. Me. That ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. You mean through these 11 verses
the Lord might save some folks and give you life through his
name? If he's pleased to do so, he will. And I pray he is. I pray he'll be with us tonight
and breathe on us tonight. The Lord had put it into the
hearts of these disciples. Remember, he had went to Calvary
and John and Joseph had come and anointed the body and put
it in Joseph's tomb. They'd sealed it. And then three
days later, it was opened. An angel was sitting there. Mary
came, just saw the stone moved, didn't see nothing else. Ran
back, got Peter and John. They come running. John beat
him there, but didn't go in. Peter finally showed up, went
all the way in. They saw those linen clothes exactly where they
were supposed to be. Appointed is the word. There
was no struggle. This wasn't done in haste. The
king left at the appropriate time, right on time. And they
went back home, and then Mary started peeking in. And she saw
those two angels, one at the head and one at the foot, just
like at mercy seat. Christ, our mercy seat, had been accepted.
And she turned around, and there he was. He said, now you go tell
your brothers and your sisters, I'm going to meet them in Galilee.
Now go on. And so she did. And they're met up. He gathered
them together. He put it in their hearts and
drew them together, and he was in the midst of them. This is
thrown around. The Lord said, Lo, I'm with you
always. He's always with his people.
They said, Well, we're two or three are gathered. We take that as if I can just
get somebody else with me, we can get him here. That is not
the context of what Matthew 18 is talking about. That's when
a brother's done something wrong. You go talk to him one on one.
And if they won't hear you, then you go with two or three. And
if they won't hear you, then you take in front of the church,
you know, if they're preaching a heresy or something. And the
Lord said, now when you're doing this, if there's two or three
of you together, I'm gonna be with you. And that ain't about
conflict resolution and church punishment. That's when this
old man's fighting this new man. He ain't left me to myself. That's
good news. That's good news. But he's with
them. He's there with them. What a thought. What a thought. If I said that the Lord Jesus
Christ is gonna be at Tractor Supply over across the street
tomorrow at noon, where would we be? Well, I got an appointment
at In-N-Out's right down the road. I'll get something to eat.
This is where he's at. What did he say to these brothers
and sisters of ours? Look here in verse 19, John 20,
verse 19. The same day at evening being
the first day of the week, This is the day after the Sabbath,
this is Sunday. Christ our Sabbath was with them.
When the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled
for fear of the Jews, they closed the door and locked them. Came
Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be
unto you, peace be unto you. They locked the doors and he
was there anyway. Growing up, I had a lot of friends
said, the Lord's knocking on your heart, won't you let him
in? He is the door. He's in there, he goes where
he wants, he's God. He gathered these people there
and he was in the midst of them. And he came to them and he said,
peace unto you. Peace unto you. Do you see what
picture we're painting here? You all come here tonight, the
Lord put it in your heart to come here. The Lord be with us
and he's gonna speak peace. Peace. Why do we need to hear
the word peace? Why do we have to have peace
sent to us? Why did they need peace? They weren't at peace.
They weren't. Been a long weekend. Been a rough
weekend, hadn't it? They were locked up in that room
for fear of the Jews. That's one reason they weren't
at peace, right? They had the door locked. They
just crucified the Lord. What do you think they're going
to do to you? You talk about a tough government.
That'd make you uneasy, wouldn't it? But they'd just watched their
Lord be crucified. And they didn't understand what
all was happening. And they knew what He'd said,
but it hadn't sunk in yet. The Lord hadn't revealed it to
them yet. And they saw Him give up the ghost. And they may have
saw Him laid in that tomb. And they saw Him anointed. And
they'd heard the report of Mary and Peter and John and about
the linens and that appointed place. And they'd heard all these
things. And it just troubled them. They weren't at peace. I wouldn't have been at peace
either. Don't look down on them and say, well, them poor little
fellas, they just didn't know no better. I wouldn't have known
no better either. I'd have been tore all to pieces. They were
troubled. They were troubled. But in this
church service, in this recorded church service, the Lord's with
them and he speaks to them and he says, peace unto you. Peace. Calm down. Peace. You know only
he can make that effectual. You know what effectual means?
That means it gets the job done. If he says peace, there'll be
peace. It's a command. I can say it
and it's one thing for me to say it and say it and say it.
It's another thing to have it. It's one thing to hear about
it. It's another thing to possess it. And only he can do that.
He must speak it. Now he's going to do that through
somebody that had peace spoke to him standing up on her hind
two legs and telling you about crossed our peace. That's how
he's going to do it. But only he can do that. How can we know
that we need peace? And at the same time, how can
we know that we rightly have it? Peace is handy. That'd be good insurance policy,
but I'm doing okay. That's how most of the world
is, isn't it? Well, I need to check that block before it's
like buying life insurance. I have a heaven insurance policy.
I've heard people say that. That's terrible. You have no idea that you need
peace. And you have no idea that it's
right. If you know that you need peace, you're going to have to
make sure this peace is legitimate. This is without error. This is
up and up. This is important. How are we
going to know that? In one action, we can know both of those. We
can know that we need peace, and we can know that peace is
right. that it's holy, that it's just peace that we're given.
Look here at verse 20. till God saves us and shows us
his hand. What hand does it show us? Same
one he showed Nebuchadnezzar's boy. Remember Belshazzar's down
there, they had a big drunken party and they went and got the
things out of the temple and they saw what they see writing on
the wall? A hand. Whose hand was that? That was
God's hand. It was writing on the wall and it said something
and Daniel came down to interpret it. He said, I'll tell you what's
written on this wall. Meanie, meanie, tickle, ups,
harrying. That's interpretation. Meanie,
meanie, God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Everything
you have, everything I have, everything, everything that's
ever set before me in my life and providence, God came to me
and I realized he's sovereign and he had set those things.
I'm not dealing with somebody that changes his mind and I can
persuade and maybe I can get the upper hand on or I can figure
out. He's God. He's a holy God and he's a sovereign
God. And that next thing interpreted
was tequil. Thou art weighed into balances and thou art found
wanting. That hand of God comes to us and reveals to us we've
been weighed into balances and we ain't worth nothing. We can't
make payment. We can't do it. We're in need.
We're wanting. We've sinned against the holy
God. And thy kingdom's divided and given to the Medes and Persians.
You might as well just chop me up and throw me to the enemy.
I ain't nothing but dog food. That's the first time we see
that hand. If we haven't seen that hand, we have not seen the
second one. We have no need for the second one. We may have heard
about it, read a book about it, but we have no need for it. There
ain't no war yet that's been established that he can declare
peace for. He shows us that hand, we ain't nothing, and we're in
trouble. I don't mean this is kind of bad. I mean, this is
terrifying. It'll consume your life trouble.
We're in trouble. We're not at peace. We're found
wanting. We're born of Adam. We're nothing but sin. But God
provided himself a lamb. Something had to die. Without
blood, there's no remission of sin. And my blood ain't worth
nothing. It's already been weighed. So he provided himself and all
the work of these hands, these two hands right here. either
in thought or in deed. Everything I've done has been
evil and it's committed against God and Him only. Either in commission
or omission, you can get you a magnifying glass and set on
that scale and be found wanting and divide that into however
many little tiny pieces you want to. Name it what you want. Death,
that's what it's called. And because of my hands and everything
I did, He took it in His hands and His hands were nailed to
a cross and He took care of all of it. He bore the wrath of God,
turned his back on God because of me. Because he was right,
and the first time he wrote with that hand on the wall. I needed
him, I wasn't at peace. He's the only one that can make
it, because I can't make peace, and nobody else can make peace.
Mom and Daddy can't make peace. Grandma and Grandpa can't make
peace. Only he can. Said in Psalm 103, he hath not
dealt with us after our sin, nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above earth, so great
is his mercy toward us that fear him. This is mercy that's took
place. Grace has come to us. That's
how this peace came. As far as the east is from the
west, so far he has removed our transgressions from us. How?
How did his hands being pierced remove our sins? Paul said, and
you being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven all
your trespasses, blotting out the handwritings of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing
it to his cross. If the Lord ever comes to us
and shows us that firsthand, that we've been waiting to balance
us, we're gonna need to see that second hand, that he took care
of it, that he was pierced for us. That's another thing I heard
growing up a whole bunch, in the buckle of the Bible belt,
that whole belt's nothing but buckles. That's he has no, God
has no hands but your hands. My Lord has hands and I wanna
see them. I have to, I have to know this is legitimate. I have
to know that he did it, he did it. He showed him his hands. Verse 20 says, when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Remember that side? That Roman
soldier come by with a spear, just to see if he was dead, if
he'd wiggle, and he pierced him. He pierced him. Water and blood
come out. Water and blood come out. Now
people can argue that and they can get scientific on it just
with the hands. I've heard folks, well it went through here instead
of here. I'll tell you when I get to glory. Did it go through? Was it for me? That's what I
need to know. What about that side? They pierced him, water,
blood come out. You know how I know that happened?
Because God said it did. That's good enough for me. What come
out? Two things, wasn't it? Machpelah.
That's where Jacob was buried. It means both, doesn't it? Double,
double. When the Lord said, comfort ye,
comfort ye, my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably,
speak to the hearts of Jerusalem. Lord, I can't, but you can. I'll
tell you it anyway. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, her iniquities pardoned, she is received of
the Lord's hand. Machpelah, double. Am I broke
even? You got double. You got double. You got purchased by the blood.
You are not your own. You are bought with a price.
You are a purchased possession. His hands was pierced for us
to cover that sin, to bear the punishment and his blood was
shed and he bought us. And then we're washed with water,
made holy, holy, set apart, sanctified, clean, unable to sin right then
and forever because Christ is our sanctification. made holy,
unreprovable before him in love." Aren't we? Or in Acts 20, it
says, he hath purchased us with his blood. We're bought. We're
bought. Paul listed a whole bunch of
sins over in 1 Corinthians 6. Bunch of bad things, wasn't it?
And as soon as you start reading it, you start nodding like, yep,
that's bad. Oh, that's real bad. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. He says, and
such were some of you. Yeah, that's right too, Paul.
But you're washed. That's what you were. That's
what the Lord came to you. You used enemies with Him. You used
weight and balances. You found wanting. But He washed
you. You're washed. You are sanctified. You are justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by, here's the means, the
Spirit of our God. In Christ, you are washed. In
Christ, you're sanctified. And that was by the Spirit of
God coming and revealing this to you. And time passed, and
present time, and time to come. John 13 says, Peter came to him,
the Lord was washing their feet, and Peter said, you're never
gonna wash my feet. He knew so well, didn't he? And Jesus answered,
if I wash thee not, you have no part with me. If I don't do
the washing, man wants to wash himself. I clean up. You ain't
gonna wash my feet. I'll wash my own feet. I'm gonna
blot out them own curse words on the TV. I'll get a device
that bleeps them for me or whatever. I ain't going down that pool
hall no more. I'm gonna quit smoking and pick
something. Man thinks he can wash himself.
That's taking God's job. That's taking God's glory. He
said, I got to wash you, Peter. I got to. And Peter said, Lord
said, if I don't do the washing, you ain't part of me. Peter said,
wash my head, my hands, my feet, wash the whole lot. He said,
you'll wash, Peter, calm down. I'm showing you this because
you're going to have to cover up some sins. Your brother is going
to have to. That's why I told him to wash
each other's feet. There's a lot of bad things going on that I
do that everybody else does. Well, let's not talk about that.
But I need to know. No, you don't. You need to see
them hands with the scarred. We need to see his side and know
that we're bought with a price and we're washed. He did the
washing. That's what we need. We need Christ, don't we? Instead
of a good history lesson on bad things that people did, we need
Christ. What's taking place in this first church service? We're
going to get to the second one here in a minute. I'll try to go as quick as I
can. That's what's happening. That's what the Lord's preaching.
Come here, look. Look here, he showed them, didn't
he? He showed them. Rock of ages,
cleft for me. That's what that real old 38
year old fella, Augustus Toplady wrote a long time ago. Rock of
ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed. Be of sin the Machpelah cure,
the double cure. Save from wrath by me and make
me pure. That's what has to happen. The
Lord came to where His people were. He didn't come to everybody
in that place. He didn't come to all Jerusalem.
He didn't come to the Middle East. He didn't come to that
Europe or Africa or anywhere. He came to His people. He came
to them. He gathered them there and He
came to them, His people. And He spoke peace to them. And
He showed them His hands. He said, I have borne your griefs.
I have borne your sorrows. And He showed them His side.
We've been bought with a price, made holy forever. Well, don't
feel like it, do we? Don't look like it on the outside
or the inside, does it? God says so. He said, don't you
call something unclean. I've called clean, Peter. He
said so. It don't matter if I feel it
or I think so. It matters what he says. He came to him and that's
why he preached to him, didn't he? How does that make a scared,
frail group of believers that are hiding? They're hiding out,
locked in a room somewhere. How does that make them feel?
Feelings are involved. The Lord saves in the heart,
and it's got to go through the head. We've got to know something,
understand something. And there will be an emotional
response to that. I look people in the eye, we're
in the people business. And I'm not a fool, I don't know if I
lost somebody, and I see if the Lord's dealing with somebody
and encouraging them or hurting them, or if I'm up here, might
as well be quoting Seinfeld lyrics or something. Giving you tax
code. The Lord spoke to them, didn't
he? How did they feel? Look at verse 19 again. And the
same day at evening, beginning 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 the midst and said
unto them, Peace unto you. And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side. Then they were not at peace. They were tore out of pieces.
They were having a real bad week. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. They were glad. They were glad. Don't that make you happy? If he come to us, and he spoke
to us, and he showed us his scars, and he showed us his side, and
he said, peace, peace, wouldn't you be happy? The God of all peace and comfort
standing there, looking his people in the eye, talks into their
ears and says, peace unto you. Peace. They thought he was dead.
They didn't know what happened to the body. If they moved it,
he'd left. Well, they saw that linen, and they just tore all
to pieces. They were just confused. He's not the God of confusion.
He's the God of peace. He says, peace. They were glad.
That turned frowns upside down. David said, I was glad when they
said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. That's
where they are. Well, this is the Lord's day.
Every day is the Lord's day. Well, this is God's house. Well,
this is a brick and mortar building. He owns it. But if we was in
a tent outside, that'd be God's house too. I was glad when they said we're
going to get with his people and Christ is going to be revealed
to us and he's going to speak peace to our hearts. That makes me
happy. I'm glad to do that. And David went on and said, our
feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Our Lord was standing
and said he stood in the midst of them. Well, how are we going
to stand? We stand in him. I had a bunch of songs in here
today. I hope it works good for you. Sometimes the men sit on
these things for a long time and they can write songs and
I can't, so they do a good job at it. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean, completely lean on his name. On Christ the
solid rock I stand, all other ground sinking sand. That wasn't
enough, so he said it again. All other grounds sink in sand,
everything. In every rough and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. You don't see an anchor when
it's set down in the water, do you know that? You can dive an anchor,
but when you're on a boat, you don't see the anchor. But it's
set in him, within the veil. When all around my soul gives
way, when I'm absolutely distraught and tossed at sea, he then, just
like when it says the disciples, then they were glad, When we're
tore all to pieces and he speaks peace and reveals himself, he
then is all my hope and stay. If we ain't got no problems,
problems are coming, either in this life or eternity. The Lord
chastens his children. He's a good father, isn't he?
The Lord does something else in this church service. Look
here in verse 21. And said, Jesus unto them again,
peace be unto you. As my father has sent me, even
so I send you. He said, peace, now I'm gonna
send you out. You go in all the world, preach
the gospel, every creature, and you baptize them as they believe,
and you teach them all my commandments. You go teach them some things.
They ain't gonna wanna be taught, but you teach them anyway. And
they ain't gonna want it, you come in here and tell them that.
He said, you take charge over them. Not just ask pretty please
if you can. He said, go teach them. And that's gonna be hard.
Because I'm a person of other people's people too. People don't
like that. I don't like it. Lord's going
to have to do something with it, isn't he? He said, even as
the father has sent me, so I sent you. Barnard had a hard message,
man. Everybody liked him. I wouldn't
have sent her that far. He said, how do you fare? How are we holding
up? How do we measure up? God's made
us kings and priests. He made you a priest when he
saved you. Now, it ain't none of my business how he does with
his own and what he does with them. That ain't my business.
But how we measure up. If he's made us a priest to go
out and preach this gospel, how we doing? Supporting the work
and everything else. Well, that crushed me. I preached
three times a week and that crushed me, didn't it? That was hard.
If I'm left to myself in this business, I'm in trouble. Boy,
ain't you glad there's verse 22? And when he had said this,
he breathed on them. Or slow. I don't know how he
did it. I don't care how he does it. I want to breathe on me.
He breathed on them and he said to them, receive ye the Holy
Ghost. You can't be by yourself. You ain't going to make it. And
he said, I have to die, the Comforter won't come. And so he sent the
Holy Ghost to him. He said, receive him, receive
the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they're remitted unto
them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they're retained. People take
that and run with it all they want, and it's nonsense. You
go preach this gospel, and if the Lord does a saving, they're
saved. And if he ain't gonna save them, ain't nobody can save
them. You just go preach it. He breathed on him. He said,
receive the Holy Ghost. This is the Holy Ghost moving
like a wind, wasn't it? John recorded that back in John
3 when Nicodemus came to the Lord. And he said, just as the
wind blows for Hitler, you can't tell where it's going and you
can't control it. You don't even hear where it's coming from.
You don't know where it's going. He said, so is everyone that's
born of the Spirit. When the Lord comes and speaks, when this
gospel is preached, I don't know what he's doing. I have people
thank me for stuff I don't even remember saying. They say, you
know what happened this week, tell me. No, I didn't. He does.
He knows. He ain't going to fail. It gives
me confidence. And they were there. They were there. And it happened to the ones that
weren't there. You're all here. This is God the Holy Ghost coming
to them. Convicting them of sin, of righteousness, of judgment,
and that's the comforter. That's the comforter. Do you
need comfort? Do you need peace? Well, the Holy Ghost is gonna
have to come and reveal Christ to us and show us his hands and
his side. Show us what's been done. That's
what the Lord told us. He said, when that comforter
comes, spirit of truth come, he'll guide you all truth and
he shall not speak of himself. We're not going to come down
here and get the Holy Ghost, start pew-jumping, and waver our hands off through
the air. So He shall glorify me. He shall glorify me. And that's a command. The Lord
said, receive that. Receive it. Just like that cup, if I pour
water in it, it's going to receive it. If He talks to us earthen
vessels that He's made out of His workmanship, we're going
to receive it. He'll glorify Himself in our
hearts. I said this before a friend of
mine had told me, uh, I asked him how a conference went and
he said, buddy, it was, it was really good. He said, you can
go listen. He said, boy, you should have been there when a
spirit was there. I would have liked to been there
when that spirit was there, when the Lord breathed his spirit
onto them and said, receive the Holy ghost. What do you think's
happening tonight? What do you think's happening
right now? Breathe on me, breath of God.
Fill me with life anew that I may love the way you love and do
what you do. Verse 24, that's what took place. This was the first church service,
wasn't it? Lord came down, preached Christ to them. Wasn't fancy. It was good, because he did it.
Verse 24, but Thomas. Does that say Ann Thomas? It
don't say Ann Thomas, it says Butt Thomas. Butt Thomas, that
unbelieving no good. No, that's not what it says either.
Butt Thomas, one of the 12. This is one of the apostles. Called Didymus, that was his
Greek name, was not with them when Jesus came. The disciples,
when they were there, were full of fear, they were full of unease
when they met, angst, probably anger. And they're arguing, well
you saw this, well I saw that, well I think, Here's what I think,
ugh, that's bad. If I'm telling what I think,
we're all in trouble. Disciples were there, they were uneasy
when they met, and the Lord comforted him, and his hands and his side,
they were declared. It wasn't up for debate. It wasn't
positioned that, well, here's a point of view. No, it wasn't.
It was just laid out there, and they rejoiced in it, and the
Holy Spirit was breathed into them. But Thomas wasn't there. He was just tore up as they was.
He's a man of like passions as they were, weren't he? He knew
what was going on, but he wasn't there. Well, he was doing something
important. I thought all week, what would
be more important than being there when God breathed on his
people? I mean it. I was thinking, well,
what if his dad was dying? 2,000 years later, what's that
matter? Well, if you had to file taxes. There's a deadline. You see the
government's rough. There's absolutely no one and
nothing that would have been more important than being there. Well, I could have died going
there. You could die from not going there. Ain't that true? Well, my family's down there
and they won't come, so I had to sit down there with them.
They can go to hell all by themselves. Ain't nothing more important
than being there. Absolutely nothing. What did having that fear that
the other apostles had and having that angst and not having peace,
anything, you just pick a word, it's opposite of peace. Thomas
had that just like they had it. But waiting that whole week,
and not being there and missing Christ. Not missing the message,
not missing the saying, not missing it. Worshipping the holy God
and creator of heaven above owns the windows of heaven and churchy,
churchy, word, word. Not that. Missing Christ and
having him speak to their hearts. What did that result in? Verse
25. And the other disciples therefore
said unto them, they came to where Thomas was. How? I don't
know. They bumped into him in town or something. And they said,
we've seen the Lord. We've seen him, Thomas. But he
said unto them, Except I shall see his hands, the print of the
nails, and put my finger in the print of the nails, and thrust
my hand into his side, I will not believe." That's the opposite
of faith. That's unbelief. That's anger. That's demanding
signs. The Lord told them, Pharisees,
that's a child of God. Here's sonship. And he said,
I demand a sign. I said, them Pharisees and the
Lord said, you ain't getting no sign of Jonah. He'd been in the belly of the
ground three days and now he's risen, hadn't he? But Thomas
had missed out, he missed one church service. He was more tore
up, wasn't he? And now he's angry, now he's
bitter, now he's attacking his brethren. 49 months, that's how
long we've been doing this. Do you know that? Been here 49
months, 4.3 weeks in a month, but who's counting hairs, right?
I multiplied that out. Bob, you're responsible about
a hundred of them, but five or 636 messages have been preached
from this pulpit since we showed up in 2020. 636 messages. What if we missed just one a
month? That's 49 messages. What if we
missed just one? Y'all here on Wednesdays, a small
group of us, and you're faithful to be here, but I gotta preach
what the Lord gives me. Maybe somebody will hear this
from another state or something, I don't know. My pastor said
that one time. He said, I've been preaching
here 10 years. He said, what if you just missed Thursday nights? That's 520 messages
you missed. Do you think God would have breathed
on you in 520 messages? Buddy. But physically being there
don't mean everything. You can be in the right building
with the right preacher with the best preacher that this nation's
ever seen. And if God ain't breathing on
you, it don't make a difference. How many times have we been in
a worship service and not been there? How many times have we showed
up to church and not been there? How many times have we been through
a message and not been there? How many times have I preached a message and
couldn't remember the last five sentences I've said? That's shameful, isn't
it? Thomas missed a week. David missed
several months. I missed a year and a half one
time. I could have either missed out of prison, or I could have
went to one and spent the next year and a half in prison. I
was contractually bound. It was absolute misery. Absolute
misery. It says in verse 26, and after
eight days, again, his disciples were within. You think that was
a long week for Thomas? He was already tore to pieces,
and that evening they talked to him, he just barked right
back at them. How do you think the next six days went? Terrible. Terrible, wasn't it? And after
eight days, again, his disciples were within. They're gathered
back together, weren't they? But Thomas with them. I don't
know what it says. And Thomas. and thomas and thomas
not buts thomas did he come around to his senses did he decide to
put jesus first did he see a bumper sticker that says he is the alligator
eaten one way that greater than less than sign always got me
i'm good at math he's greater than i lowercase did a bumper
sticker get him and he decided you know what i'm just going
to be more diligent and disciplined in my life and have a better
routine The Lord talked to Israel in
Hosea 14. He says, O Israel, return unto
the Lord thy God. That means they weren't with
the Lord thy God. They'd left him. For thou hast fallen by
thine iniquity. Sin's got a hold of you. Unbelief's
got a hold of you. How are they going to get back?
Hosea 14, 4. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them
freely. Will they heal their backsliding?
Will they love the Lord more and start attending more? He
said, I'll do it. I'll heal their backsliding.
I'll love them freely for my anger is turned away from him
because of those wounded hands. Because of that wounded side,
the Lord said, I've loved you freely. And I'm just going to
with loving kindness allure her. That's how he says it begins,
Hosea. I'm going to head you up. I'm going to put thorn bushes
on either side of you. And you'll think it's all you
walking, but it ain't you walking. I'm guiding you right where I
want you. and you won't come right to me, and I'm gonna meet
you there where I put you." That's grace. It's a good thing, isn't
it? It went from a but to an and.
But Thomas. But Thomas wasn't there. And
then and Thomas. And Thomas is there. You know,
the same thing happened to Ruth. Same thing happened to Ruth.
She told Naomi, her mother-in-law, she said, entreat me not to leave
thee or to return from following after thee. For whether thou
goest, I will go. It's an and. We're together. There's unity. And where there
are lodges, I'll lodge. If you're sleeping over there,
that's where I'm sleeping. And thy people shall be my people.
I'm with you. It's not your country, and then
I got another country. We're together. And thy God,
my God. We're family. It's an and. Where
they're all dies, I will die. And wherever they put you in
the ground where you're buried, Naomi, I'm gonna be buried right next
to you. The Lord do so to me and more so if all but death
part me in thee. If anything but death tears us
apart, it's and. We're stuck together. Because Christ has brought us
together and we're stuck to him. That's why. He sticks closer
than a brother. And if we're stuck to him, we're gonna be
stuck together, ain't we? That's just so. That's what happened to each
of us, wasn't it? And it's going to happen and
keep happening until that last child is stuck on, until it went
from a but to an and. And then we get to go home. If
we ain't already there. Verse 26. And after eight days,
again, his disciples were within and Thomas with them. Just like
Paul says, if they went, Paul went with them. If they came,
Paul came with them. Which if he's coming or going, he was
with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in
the midst and said, Peace be unto you. And he saith to Thomas,
Thomas didn't say nothing. The Thomas get up and give his
rebuttals and his opinion. Well, here's what it was, causality
of it. He didn't say nothing. The Lord
came in, said peace. And then he declared the same
thing he declared the last church service. Reach hither thy finger
and behold my hands. Come here, Thomas. Now you got
to feel them. You won't feel them. and reach hither thy hand and thrust
it into my side." Thomas said, unless I thrust it in. He didn't
say unless I put it in. He said, unless I thrust in.
The Lord said, come here and thrust away. Thrust it into my side
and be not faithless, but believing. He commanded him. All that was,
was unbelief, Thomas. Now you believe, man. You believe. What took place at that first
church service and what took place in this church service
right here? Peace was declared. The gospel is not debated or
presented or shared. I ain't sharing nothing. I'm
declaring it. Because of the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, what he did, who he
is, where he is now. That's it. This is the Lord's
doing. Nobody's popped up. Nobody said
nothing. This is His choosing. This is His means. Verse 28,
Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God. Is he just kind of fumbling with
words and he didn't really know what to say? You gotta say something,
right? No. The Lord Jesus Christ is
everyone's God. Does that settle with us good? People can say it's Allah. You
can think whatever you want. You can think your God's a tree
out back. It don't matter. He's ruling
over everything. He makes it rain on the just
and the unjust. He makes their broccoli grow just like broccoli
for me grows. He's God, overall. But Thomas said, you're my Lord.
You're my Lord. You're the king, and I'm a servant. I'm in your kingdom. You're not
just God. You're my Lord and my God. And
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou
hast believed. Blessed are they which have not
seen, and yet have believed. These men attended this church
service, and the door was locked. I was going to tell us three
services. The first one, the door was locked, but Thomas wasn't
there. And they met again, and the door was locked, and Thomas
was there. The Lord's message was the same. And you know where
they went after this? Into the temple and into the
synagogues. There were no locks. They went bold-faced to them
after the Spirit of God was breathed into them. And you know what
they preached? His wounded hands, that hand
writing on the wall, he is wounded for us, his side pierced for
us, we're bought with a price, our sins are forgiven, and we're
washed clean. Nothing changed, was it? And
over half of them was crucified, the other half was stoned, and
John was exiled, died alone. Why did the Lord record all this
stuff? Verse 30, And many of the signs truly did Jesus in
the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this
book, but these are written, what he just wrote, is written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, this is Him, the
Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through His
name. The Lord said, I'm the Lord thy
God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. He brought
him there. He revealed himself to him, didn't he? He said, open
my mouth wide, and I'll fill it. If you're hungry for peace
and mercy and all those things, he said, open up, I'll fill it.
And I thought of that ark. Noah building it, Noah working
on it, Noah loading those animals up. The Lord's the one that closed
the door, wasn't it? Noah didn't close that door.
God closed that door, and he pitched it with him without.
How long is that door gonna be open? Right now, how long is
the door to this ark going to be open? I don't know. No man
knows. But I can tell you for sure right
now, it's open. Ten minutes from now, I don't
know. But I can tell you right now, it's open. Come to him. See his hands. See his side. I pray as a blessing to you.
Let's pray together. Father, be in our midst, send
your spirit, breathe on us. Speak peace to the hearts of
your people because our Lord and our God, our great Redeemer
was nailed for us to his cross. His side was pierced, he was
buried for us. He's risen for us and he intercedes
for us. Make us glad for these things,
Lord. Give our hearts contentment. Make us thankful and steady because
of our Lord and our God. Make us important to every one
of your people as you promised you will. Make us diligent. Make
us faithful servants. We're so unfaithful. Make us
profitable, Lord. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen.