John chapter 20, John 20. It occurred to me today that
I didn't, Sunday I didn't deal with the last two verses. John 20, I know you know this,
this little back repeat that is in front of some of these
verses is the beginning of a paragraph or some time lapsed, some time
went by. And we generally take things
in that order. We go down and stop. That's a good stopping point.
But verses 19 and following, I didn't deal with verses 21
through 23, and I don't like to just pass over or neglect
one single verse. It's all important. So, let's
just briefly look at this a minute. The Lord said to the disciples,
verse 21, He appeared to them, Peace be unto you. As my Father
sent me, even so send I you. He sent them out as preachers of
the gospel. And when he said this, he breathes on them, and
saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Now, verses like
this are so misunderstood and misapplied and abused by charlatans
everywhere. They talk about a second work
of the Holy Spirit. There's no such thing. Anybody born of God is born of
His Spirit, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God who takes
the Gospel of Christ and you're born again by that Gospel. The
disciples now, the apostles were given gifts unlike any men before
or since. There are no more apostles. gave
them special gifts and abilities that he gave to no other human
beings ever. These men wrote the scriptures.
What they wrote was the Word of God. These men gave sight
to the blind, hearing to the deaf, lepers were cleansed, they
raised the dead. Peter, a man was killed when
he said so, a man and his wife, had an ice and spire. Remember
that? So the Lord gave these men, you know, they're going
out as the Word of God, as the apostles of Christ, and they
had special powers. They weren't special men. They're
just sinners saved by grace, but God gave them special power.
You understand that? Verse 23, and again, you know,
false religion uses these things, and as false apostles say, I've
got this gift. No, you don't. Verse 23, whosoever
sins you remit, they're remitted unto them. Whosoever sins you
retain, they're retained. God's Scripture is not confusing,
not contradicting. God forgives sin. There's no
human being that can't forgive sin, right? That's not what he's
saying. He's saying that they had the
discernment to tell who was true and who was false. Like Ananias
and Sapphira, they came in, they said one thing, and everybody
believed them, but Peter said, you lied to the Spirit. And God
killed them both like that. Paul, there was a man named Elymas
the sorcerer. God threw Paul. Paul said, you're
false. And a man in another passage
of 1 Corinthians, he said he gave him over to Satan that he
might learn and hopefully not be damned from. So, that's what
that's saying. All right? And we need to know
that in case anybody uses that. All right. But Thomas. Now here's our story tonight.
Poor old Thomas. But Thomas. Thomas, you really
got a good name. I'm going to pick on Thomas.
We don't need to pick on Thomas or pick on any of the disciples.
You know what we'd do if we were them? It's exactly like that. We've got an advantage over these
men. They didn't know the end. They didn't see Christ risen.
We know the end. They didn't. And we would have
been scared just like them. We have never lived in a hostile
environment like that, ever. I mean, their lives were in danger
all the time. So they were afraid. They met
for fear the Jews, and we would have been too. But they were
meeting. But Thomas was not with them.
Thomas. And I'm glad the Lord allowed
this to happen. I'm glad He wrote this down for
our admonition. He used Thomas as an example
of what not to do. Don't forsake the assembly. And
then, how not to be? Be not faithless, Thomas. I need
both those admonitions, don't you? Those reproofs. As I said, we have an advantage
over them. We see and read the end. Our
unbelief is worse than theirs. We know. We know. We see. Our unbelief, there's
no excuse for our unbelief. None whatsoever. I empathize
with these men, sympathize with them. But the fact is, the sad
fact is, Thomas was not with them when our Lord came, verse
24. He was not there, in spite of
the fact that Mary came and told him and all of them. He's arisen, I've seen him. What
reason would they have to not believe Mary? She was at his
feet all the time. She's not mistaking him. There's
no mistaking identity. Why wouldn't Thomas and these
men believe it? Well, she's just a woman. And she's just a silly
woman, and she's imagining things. No, she's not Thomas. No, she's
not Simon Peter. You're the one that's acting
like it. a believer, not her. But, you
know, Mary had greater faith than all of them did at this
time. Didn't she? She never left our Lord. She
stayed there at the cross. She came to the grave. So who
did the Lord appear to? That's who He's going to speak
to today. Be not faithless, but believe Him. And our Lord chooses
the weak thing. They may have thought, this weaker
vessel, what does she know? Well, the Lord chooses the weak
things to confound the mighty. Poor, weak. But Thomas was not
with them when our Lord came. Now, our Lord told him and them
all that he would arise from the grave over and over and over
again, didn't he? He told them exactly what was
going to happen to him in Jerusalem. He told them exactly what the
scribes and Pharisees and the people were going to do to him.
Didn't he? Scriptures full of descriptions
of it. You know he showed them that.
All the things, you know he said, this is me. This is the scriptures
fulfilled. They're going to be fulfilled.
I'm going to... And they didn't want to hear it. Remember? It
was too unpleasant to think about. But he kept telling them. I kept
telling them, so they had no excuse for their unbelief. He
said, no man taketh my life from me, didn't he? No man taketh
my life. I lay it down, and I have the
power to take it up, and he said, I'm going to. And he said, fear not them that
kill the body. He wasn't. Fear him who kills,
after he kills the body, and casts the body, and so on. But
yet Thomas and the others were afraid. Thomas was so afraid
that he didn't meet with them, he stayed at home. What's he
thinking? Is he safer at home? Does that
sound familiar? He didn't meet with them, it's
safer at home. Oh really? It's more dangerous at home and
out there in the world than it is to meet in God's house. The
dangers are more at home, at your fingertips, at your disposal,
and out in the world, than in God's house. You're sitting in
God's house, hearing God's Word, calling on the Lord with God's
people, and Christ is in the middle of you, and we have nothing
to be afraid of. Nothing and no one to be afraid
of. God is in the midst of everything.
We will not be moved. Psalm 46. Till the mountains fall into
the sea. This is the safest place on earth. I told you in 2020 that Martin
Lloyd-Jones was preacher at Westminster Cathedral in London, England,
downtown London, England. And he was a preacher when the
Second World War was going on. And right in the middle of that
war, you remember when they were bombing London, England? I mean,
they bombed London, England indiscriminately. There were bombs falling everywhere,
destroying London, England. And Martin Lloyd-Jones was preaching
to his congregation right in the middle of that. Bombs are
falling. And part of the ceiling fell
while he was praying. After he looked up and everybody
looked up and he said, let's keep praying. And they went on
and had their worship service. Not one person had one thing
fall on their head. Where was Thomas? Where was Thomas? Where is everyone? How long was
he recreating? Instead of worshiping Christ? Who was he with? With his family? You know Didymus? You know what
Didymus means? Thomas Didymus? You know what
that means? Twin. He's a twin brother. He has a
twin brother. And God in great love and mercy
and grace chose him and not his twin. Does that sound familiar?
Jacob that I love. Oh, Thomas. How could you ever
forsake when he chose you and not your twin brother? Who are
you with? Who's he with? Family? His wife?
Was he married? Most of the disciples were married.
Significantly, they never mentioned their family. Why? Because Christ put a love in
them for him that surpasses the love of women, like David and
Jonathan. This is supernatural love. This
is real love. This is God-given love. This
is how you know you love God. You love the brethren. You love
God more than family. So he was married. So who was
he home with? His wife? I told most of you
this, somebody hasn't heard this. Years and years and years ago,
probably 60-some years ago, when Dad was first starting to preach
at, well, 13th Street was formed the year I was born, 55. So that's
60 some years. There was a, at that time, a
young man married a Lord that revealed himself to this man. His name was James. And he revealed
himself to him through Henry Mahan's preaching. He was faithful.
He loved the gospel. He loved the Lord. He loves God's
people. But his wife was an unbeliever. His wife did not. She hated the
gospel. I mean, she hated it. And one Sunday morning, he's
getting ready to go to worship the Lord with God's people, like
he always did. He can't stay away. She barred
the door. They had a little child. They
had a young boy, their first child, a young boy, a baby in
the arm. And she stood in front of the
door and said, You don't have to go to worship the Lord today.
You stay here with me. He said, I know I don't have
to go worship the Lord, but today I do. I go because I want to. And you
have given me an ultimatum. You or him. He said, I've got
to go now. She said, if you go, we'll be
gone when you get back. And she took that boy, and he
didn't see him for years. That man died recently, my dad's
age. They were good friends until
the day they both went to be with the Lord. He died in the
faith. That's the way I want to die.
Where was Thomas? Who was he with? Whoever it was,
it wasn't worth it. It wasn't worth it. What was
he doing? He wouldn't call on the Lord
if he had, if he'd been there with them. And whoever you get
with other than God's people, you'll become a skeptic, you'll
become full of doubts and fears. Whoever you listen to other than
God, you'll become full of doubts and fears and worries and skeptical
and cynical and sit in the seat of the scorner. That's what you
do. He said, I will not believe. Didn't he? I will not believe.
Except I touch the print of his nails and his hand and his sight. I will not believe. Well, can you hear the others? Can you hear the other ones talking
to Thomas? Can you hear Simon Peter and
Matthew? The Lord appeared to us and said,
He's alive, Thomas. You missed Him. You should have
heard Him. We were so full of it. Have you
not done the same thing? You come and heard the gospel
and go and somebody said, You should have heard that. You should
have been there. Well, I heard it on Michel. No. Now, who was it that said,
oh, dear sister said the other day, it's like, you know, Mixler
is fine, but it's not like being there. You can't feel the warmth
of living bodies. The Spirit of God is literally
present. Well, I can hear the other ones. Thomas, you need to come back
with it. He did. He did. That's how you know he's one
of the Lord's. You know, we're all sheep, and
we're prone to wandering. That's the nature of them, prone
to wander. Sheep are dumb animals. Sheep
have to have a shepherd. And they'll just, you know, they
got their heads down. They never look up and say, what a beautiful
sky. Oh, what a beautiful day. Boy, didn't God create a wonderful
day. Never, ever. They're just eating. And they'll just keep eating
and follow each other until they fall over a cliff. They've got
to have a shepherd. And we have one. The Lord is
our shepherd. And how you know that you are one of His sheep
and He is your shepherd is if you wander off He will come get you. And He'll
bring you back. Where's He bring you? Where did
He bring the sheep every time? Off to the side, by Himself,
saying, now you stay right here. Into the fold with the other
sheep. What'd He say to them then? Now,
now Doris, you stay right there. Don't you see what happened when
you got away from Him? You stay right there with the
rest of the sheep now. The rest of us are like, yeah, yeah. Stay
here. Isn't that right? We come back
with our tail between our legs. You've heard that, I know. Brother
Bill Clark, an Africa missionary, he said there are goats and sheep
that look just alike. The only way you can tell them
apart is the goats have their tails
sticking straight up all the time, like unbelievers. You see their tail all the time.
Sheep have their tails between their legs. Humility. No, really. Really. Humility. These things humble us. There's
a humbling spirit for Thomas. We need him. He that is humble,
the Lord shall exalt. The Lord loved Thomas. It says,
but Thomas was not with them. But the Lord was with Thomas.
But the Lord loved Thomas, he said. But the Lord chose Thomas,
and the Lord would not let him go, like old Ephraim. Don't you
love that? We love that, don't we, Kelly? In the beginning of
Hosea, the Lord said of old Ephraim, He said, Leave him alone. He's
joined his idols. He's out there in the world. That's what he
cares about. That's what he's thinking about. He's not thinking
about me. He said, Leave him alone. A few chapters later, the Lord
said, How can I give you up, Ephraim? I'm not going to give
you that. He belonged to me. And He brought
Him back. That's how you know. So, they
were together again. Verse 26, after eight days again,
His disciples were with Him. Where were they? Together. Again. And again. They were never together. The
Lord didn't come to them. No, even out on the sea in a
boat. The Lord came to him. He said,
David said, Whither shall I flee from thy presence? I go down to the depths, ask
Jonah. He pulled him out. So they were together again.
Where were they? Were they in that upper room? It doesn't say
exactly where they were. Were they in that upper room?
You remember that? The upper room. Acts 1. Thomas was with
them. Bless the Lord. Blessed be His
holy name. Thomas is back with them. Then
came Jesus. The doors being shut. Once again,
the doors were shut. And our Lord walked through it.
And stood in the midst. Where is He? In the midst of
His people. And He said the same thing that
He says every time to His people. Because we're so full of doubts
and fears and unbelief. He says, Peace be unto you. Peace. Are there 21 epistles
altogether? 21 epistles, I think. All but
two or three begin with peace, grace and peace. You know, every
single one, all of Paul's epistles and Peter's epistles and most
of John, you begin with, they start out by saying, they learned
well, didn't they? They learned from the Lord and
told his people who are in this world full of troubles and darkness
and dimness and anguish and spirit, and it fills us full of doubt
and fear. And so the first thing he tells
all his people, his church, is peace, peace. Peace, thou wilt keep him in
perfect peace, his mind has stayed on thee. Trust in the Lord Jehovah. He's the Rock of Ages, and you're
in him. Well, it says here in verse 26,
he said, Peace be unto you. Then he said to Thomas what he
showed to all the other ones. Did you remember Sunday's message? Reach hither thy finger, and
behold my hands." Thomas, look. It's me. I got such a blessing
out of that. His hands, all that that means,
his hands. These hands, those hands. They
saw his hands do everything for them. Everything. He fed them,
he led them, he guided them, he fought off their enemies.
He put his hand on their shoulder and consoled them like little
children and picked them up. Old Simon Peat will never forget
those hands. He was drowning, and the Lord reached down with
those strong hands. One hand! Could you pull up a
170-pound man out of the water with one hand? Our Lord didn't.
Come here, son. Oh, man, did he grab those hands
and hold those hands? Mary, did she kiss those hands,
kiss those feet? You know she did. They loved
those hands. He tells him, shows him what
he told and showed. See these scars, Thomas? I was
crucified. You saw it. But I'm alive. I told you. And I paid for your sins, Thomas.
I paid for your sins by the sacrifice of my sin. The blood is before
the Lord now. And God accept you on my behalf. Behold my hand. Reach hither
thy hand and thrust it into my side. Touch my side. See my wounded,
my riven side cleft for thee. Out of which came water and blood,
your justification, your sanctification. Sanctification, justification.
And be not faithless. Be not faithless, but believe
in it. There's no reason for us to have
any doubt in our Lord. Sure, we doubt ourselves. Don't believe in yourself. Whatever
you do, don't believe in yourself. Don't trust yourself. Don't do
it. But you can trust the Lord implicitly. Inspire yourself. That's what it means. Inspire
yourself. What did Thomas say? We said,
be not faithless, but believe it. Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That means more than just saved
from sin. That means saved from doubts
and fears and worries and depression and being downcast and full of
despair and saved from... Who's he that overcometh the
world? He'd be saved from the world by not listening to the
world, but believe in him. Don't believe what the world
says. Don't do it. But the Lord called it foolishness,
didn't He? Don't believe Him. Be not faithless. The world will fill you full
of unbelief. But believe Him. Believe Him. And Thomas answered and said
unto Him, My Lord... I believe He hit His
knees. Don't you? I just believe He
hit His knees. My Lord... And what? My God. My Lord and my God. Every person in this room, old
and young, believes that God is sovereign. Now ask these young
people, do you believe God is God, God is suffering? They would
all say, every one of them, even Josh knows it by now, that God
is suffering. Right? God is God. He does all, He works all things.
He is sovereign over everything and everyone. You know what I
look forward to? You know what I pray for? You
know what I hope and pray to our Lord that He will do for
every single person in this room? Make them one day say, He's my
Lord and my God. That's the saving difference.
The devils believe God is sovereign and tremble. That's not salvation. But when you come to really believe,
He's my Lord and my God. And I love to have it so. That's what I hope for. Then
in verse 29, look at this. Jesus saith unto him and us,
Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen, and yet have believed." Thomas, you see and you believe
because you see, but blessed, blessed are all they that have
not seen and yet have believed. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. 1
Peter 1. Blessed believers. Blessed are
they that believe. Do you know that the disciples
believed our Lord more fully when he left? Do you know that? They were all full of fear and
doubt, and Peter denied Him and all when He was here. But then
when He left, they all laid down their lives for Him. They were
never afraid, ever, of anybody or anything. They believed Him.
Why? Why is that? Because we walk
by faith and not by sight. Seeing is not believing. Believing
is seeing. Our Lord said, didn't I say unto
you, if you believe, you see? Everybody that sees, believes,
look, that's a piano. Isn't it? What if you're blind? I tell you, it's a piano. And
I play it for you. That's a piano. I believe it. Maybe a bad illustration, but
We take our Lord faith is to take our Lord at His word and
that honors Him and those that honor Him, He'll honor with faith
that passes understanding. Most people in the Bible, very
few people really saw the Lord in the Old Testament. David,
I think David only saw Him one time his whole life. The rest
of the time, he's listening to Nathan, the prophet. The rest
of the time, he's reading God's Word. He's listening to the prophet,
Nathan, and on and on it goes. The Lord sent these prophets,
and people believed through the prophets. And then, after our
Lord left, He sent the apostles, and pastors, and teachers, and
people believed. I believe. What a blessing. What a blessing. 1 Peter 1. This
is one of my favorite passages, and I'll close with this. Peter
writes to the strangers scattered. That's us. That's us. Scattered
throughout the world. First thing, verse 2, elect. Elect. You wouldn't believe if
He hadn't chosen you to believe. Elect according to the four knowledges
of God. That's the four love of God. For whom He did four
know, that is, four love. Psalm 139 is a whole psalm about
four love and four knowledge. Thou hast known me. That's what
David meant by that. Elect according to the four knowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of spirit. This is the three
that John talked about. The Father, Spirit, and the Son
bearing witness. All in this work of salvation. Setting apart of the Holy Spirit
under obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ,
that means we see the obedience of Christ as ours and sprinkling
of the blood of Christ upon us, the blood shed for the remission
of our sins, and we're obedient unto the faith, gracing. Oh, grace unto you and peace
be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again, born again into a living, lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. We have
a living Lord. In Him we live and move and have
our being to an inheritance, verse 4, incorruptible and undefiled. Brothers and sisters, there's
not going to be one stone left standing on another in this building,
or your housing, or anything on this earth. Nothing. It's
all going to be destroyed. Everything, it's all going to
be dissolved. But we have a building made,
not made with hands, in the heaven. Interruptible, undefiled, it
fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who's he talking
to? We always say you. Who's he talking
to? Look at the next verse. You're
kept by the power of God through faith unsalvated. Do you keep yourself? Is there not your hope of salvation
as the Lord is keeping you? The Lord chose you. The Lord
redeemed you by His blood. The Lord will keep you and not
lose you. I'm talking to you. You're kept by the power of God
through faith. Brothers and sisters, I can't
believe in anything or anyone else. I can't. I can't. I esteem all His precepts concerning
all things to be right, and I hate every false way. I don't trust
anybody but Him. I said in my haste, all men are
liars. Let God be true in every man a liar. Did you say that?
God's people are not liars, but that's because Christ is in them.
Kept by the power of God through faith. This is how He keeps us,
through faith. Faith cometh by hearing, unto
salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, and ready and
waiting. Are you ready? It's soon. Now is your salvation
nearer than when you first began. Where in verse 6, stay with me
now, just a couple more minutes. Wherein you greatly rejoice.
Some of you are smiling over this thing. Greatly rejoice. Though, but now for a season.
If need be. If it be, it need be or it wouldn't
be. You're in heaviness through manifold
different temptations, trials and troubles. This is the trial
of your faith, you see. This is how God really makes
himself known to us, and his presence felt, and his word is
so precious to us, how he really speaks. He really speaks to us
when we're going through a trial. It's more precious. His faith
is more precious than gold, it perishes. Though it be tried
with fire, verse 7, that faith is tried with fire, it's going
to be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. Every one of us that believe
will say, there he is. I believed him, though I couldn't
see him, but now mine eye seeth thee. And all eyes are going to see
it. Somebody is going to cast out
because they didn't believe Him. And why do you believe Him? Faith is not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. He chose you like Thomas. And it says, you
are going to receive the end of your faith, the salvation
of your soul. I need two more hours on what
that means. Salvation of our soul. dwelling
in holiness and righteousness and peace and joy and happiness
and eternal bliss and rest. I haven't been there, I don't
remember. Of which salvation, I'm sorry,
verse 8, whom having not seen. Here it is. Whom having not seen,
ye love. Do you? Though we're ashamed
of our love, we have to say with Simon Peter, Lord, you know I
love you. in whom, though now you see Him not, you believe.
Believe Him, and you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. There are times when, you know,
we can't express what the Lord means to us and His Word means
to us. Joy unspeakable and full of glory. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, be not faithless. Believe Him. He's given us every
reason to trust Him. Innumerable proofs. No cap. Stand with Him.