Take my goodness like a pear,
Find my wandering heart to Thee. Come with wonder, for I hear
it, Come to me, for I'm struck by love. Here's my heart, oh,
take and feel it, Feel it for thine own. Alright, go back with me to John
20. John 20. Read again verses 26-29 with me. John 20 verses 26-29. After eight
days, again, his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. came Jesus, the doors being shut,
and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith
he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand, thrust
it into my side. Be not faithless, but believe
him. Thomas answered, and said unto
him, My Lord and my God. And Jesus saith unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they
that have not seen, yet have believed. Three times our Lord
said, Peace be unto thee. You noticed that, didn't you? Peace be unto thee. To his disciples,
those that believed him. Those that heard His voice. Those
whom He chose. Those whom He called. Those whom
He loved. Those whom He revealed Himself
to. Those whom He redeemed. Whom He died for. Whom He rose
again for. Whom He now reappears to. And
He says to them, not once, not twice, but three times, again
and again and again, First thing he said, peace be
unto death. Peace. He said over in chapter
14, peace I leave with you. Peace with God. Peace by my blood. God's not angry with you. He
is not. No, sir. Peace by my blood. Peace of conscience. Though your
sins are ever before you, The blood is ever before Him. That
ought to instill your conscience. Peace. I'd love to get a hold of this.
You know that? If I don't get a hold of anything
else, I'd love to get a hold of this. Lord, speak to me. Say to me, my heart, peace. Be unto you. For what? What for? Believe Him. You don't have to do anything
to have it. Just believe. Peace by believing. Not as the world giveth, he says.
The world promises peace. They don't have it to give. They
can't give it. Our Lord said there will be no
rest, no peace to the wicked. The wicked being those that don't
think on God, don't care for God, don't care for God's Son,
don't worship God, don't rejoice and cry. That's the wicked. The
righteous, those that believe Christ, are righteous. And God
said, peace. Christ said, peace. Not as the
world thinks peace is in things, don't they? If you could just
have more money, that will give you peace, won't it? Peace of
mind. Health. You know, just have health.
Then you'll have peace. Won't you be happy and get peace
and nothing will trouble you if you have your money and you
have your health? Not so. Not so. Because it won't last. It won't last. The world thinks it can have
peace between people. If we can just give peace a chance. They all sing about it. Let's
just have peace. You can't. It won't happen. It
never will happen between people. Why? Because people hate God. When people hate God, God's not
going to let them have any peace. When people hate God's Son, there
is no peace. No peace. He's not going to let
it happen. But for that person who loves
Him, for that person who loves God's Son, who bows to and rejoices
in God's Son, who worships God's Son, who loves His glory and
His honor and His salvation and honors Him for such, peace be
unto you. Peace. But believe me, I believed. There was a time when I didn't.
There was a time when I didn't care, like most people don't
care. But now I do. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. You see what a wonderful thing
faith is. It really is. It's a gift of God. It's a miracle. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Can you not say that you love
God as God? We don't walk around telling
people that. We don't walk around boasting of that, because we're
ashamed. But I do. Don't you? Do you not love this
Word? Oh, I know we neglect it. I know
we don't esteem it as we should. We don't do what He said. I know
that, but don't you love it? God's Son. Peace be unto you. Who? Believers. Our Lord so often admonished
His disciples, rebuked them gently, exhorted them too. He said things like, Oh, ye of
little faith. Didn't He? He was constantly
saying that to them. Why do thoughts arise in your
hearts? That was when He came walking on the water in that
storm, and they thought, oh, it's the Spirit. It's like we
do. He knows our frame, yet He said,
why do you imagine the worst? Why do all kinds of crazy thoughts
run through your head all the time? Have I been so long time with
you, He said? Have I been so long time with you? and you haven't
known me, peace be unto you." Why, at one time he said,
why is it that you have no faith? You don't have any right now. I need this, don't you? The word
that caught my attention was what he said to Thomas, be not
faithless, but believing. Be not faithless. Thomas was
the one he said that to. Thomas was not with them. Now, this is so needful. Such a needed admonition and
warning. Thomas was not with them when
the Lord appeared to them, when the Lord spoke to them. He was
not with them. Why? What was it that kept him
from them. They all were together. They
had the same problems, didn't they? Was Thomas married? Did he have a family? Maybe.
Peter did too. They all did. Mary and all of
them. They had the same worldly problems
and cares. Did Thomas have financial problems
he had to deal with? He'd have something he had to
tend to. Why wasn't he with? It doesn't
matter, does it? It doesn't matter what it was. He heard himself. He heard himself. They that regard
lying vanities, the world, things, people, family. That's what,
remember? We just looked at that. We need
you. Yeah, but there's one thing they
need. There's time to tend to these other things. There's plenty
of time. This is the one thing that dropped everything. Thomas wasn't with them. He wasn't
with them. And he was full for eight days. Did you notice that? Eight days. He was distraught. It doesn't
matter what anybody told him, did it? They all told him. They
tried to convince him, didn't they? They all tried to convince
him. They all spoke to him. But no man could speak to him
and give him peace. No person could convince him
that the Lord was alive. Not one of them could do anything
to allay his fear. He's full of doubts. He's full
of fears. He's full of worries. He's full of unbelief. He's full
of bitterness. That's what he said. He said,
I will not believe. I've got to see it for myself.
I don't care what you say. Nobody could do it but the Lord.
Well, he should have been with them. And he'd be rejoicing instead
of full of doubts and fears. You see, faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the Word. Faith gives peace. Faith gives peace. Believe who He is. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing
how? By the Word of God. What's the
rest of that chapter? Romans 10. How shall they hear? Without preaching. It's just
the way the Lord Intended it and purposed it. And I'm glad.
I'm glad. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Please God by the foolishness of preaching. The world does
not believe. The world does not believe this
is God's Word. They're not hearing it. The world just mocks and
scoffs and thinks what I'm doing right now is utter foolishness.
They think I'm a fool. They think you're a fool for
listening to me. And they don't believe. They don't believe. They reject it thumbs down. I
saw a sign in one of these major cities recently, a billboard.
You're not going to believe it. But this is not new. This is
not new at all. It just shocks us here in the
Bible Belt. We would never see anything like this in Virginia.
But it said, big, bold, big billboard, it said, You don't need Christ. It's a big campaign. It's a concerted
effort by liberal modern society to get rid of religion. You don't
need Christ. They don't believe this. Boy,
I need Christ. You know why I know I need Christ? I heard it in the Word. And I keep hearing it, thank
God. Faith cometh by hearing. And so they don't have any peace,
you know. So the world doesn't have any peace. They're not hearing
the Word of peace. Christ is not telling them, peace
be unto you. Is it? The Lord Jesus Christ
is not telling them, peace unto you. I died for you. I love you. I live for you. He's not telling
that to them. Go with me to Hebrews 11. What
is faith? What is faith? Scripture speaks
so much of faith. What is it? It's not a what. Faith is not a concept. Faith is not a mere intellectual
understanding of some facts. Faith is not just believing facts or coming to
understand some things and be convinced of some things in your
head. Oh no, it's a miracle. It's a miracle. Hebrews 11 says,
Faith, verse 1, is the substance, the confidence of things hoped
for. What do we hope for? Well, we hope for eternal life. in hope of eternal life, which
God promised. I hope for eternal life. I hope
to live forever. I hope to see God. Don't you?
I hope to see Christ. I hope to be with Him, live with
Him forever. Don't you? Christ. Hope for eternal
life, peace, red. The things hoped for, the evidence,
it's the evidence of things not seen. Faith is evident. To believe, someone you've never seen. Then
our Lord said, Oh, blessed is he that hath not seen yet believe. Faith is evident. To love someone
you've never met in person. I mean, really love that person.
Really love them. To hear his voice and yet you
never heard it. To see his face, but you can't
see it. To see things unseen as being
real and things seen as not real. It's a miracle. That's exactly
what we do. It's evidence of things not seen.
Verse 6, without faith it's impossible to please God. Faith is to believe Him. You can't please God if you don't
believe Him, if you don't hear Him, if you don't trust If you
don't believe His Son, worship His Son, you can't please God.
He's angry with you. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is. Hear Him. Worship Him. Bow to
Him. Reverence Him. Thank Him. Ask
His forgiveness. Repent. Believe that His Son
is God. The only Mediator. The only Messiah. The only Righteousness. You must
believe He is. I do. I do. Don't you? I do. When I come to God, I dare not
come to God as I would an ordinary man. I dare not come to God presumptuously
or flippantly or carelessly. Do you? Well, who did that? God did that. I dare not come
to God except through Christ, pleading His righteousness, pleading
His blood. Do you? Well, who told you that? Who gave you that? It's a miracle. Not many do. Not many do. Just a remnant. Oh, my. He's a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. Well, go back to our texts again. John 20. Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing the Word of God. Faith, peace cometh by hearing
the Word of God. They heard Christ say to them, Peace comes from hearing His
Word and looking to Him. Turmoil and trouble and anxiety
and worry and fears and doubts and depression and being downcast
comes when you don't hear it. When you don't hear it and you
start listening to the world. When you don't hear Him speak,
you'll be full of doubts and fears. When you do hear Him speak,
And this is why every time we say, Lord, I know it's just a
man standing there, but would you please speak to him? This
is what you use. This is how you speak to your
people. It just is. I'm sorry. No, I'm not. It's God's will. I'm not sorry. Peace, peace, hearing His Word.
Thomas wasn't there. Hear His Word. There will be
no peace if you don't hear His Word. And you can sit at home
and read it. Tell me if it's not so. You can
sit at home and read it all you can, all you will, but you won't
get the peace that there is when God's people are met together,
where two or three are gathered. That's what He promised. He has
promised to be there every time. Surely in a crowd like this,
there's got to be two or three. Surely! Lord, say this, let me
be one of those two or three. I need you to speak to me. I need peace. And He'll speak
to you through His Word, where two or three are gathered to
hearing of His Word. And that's when we're looking
to Him. That's when we sing. When the Word is preached with
the eye of faith, God gives it. Sometimes, gloriously, bless
His name, we're able to sing. Who's invisible, aren't we? We're
able to hear His voice. Oh, it's a Kentucky boy standing
up here. He'll never be anything but that.
But sometimes we'll hear the blessed voice of the Son of God
through that poor, pitiful vessel. Yes! Yes, that's how we know
He lives. We can take an ordinary vessel. Like a donkey spoke to Balaam,
huh? Balaam knew it was the Lord speaking
to him. Donkeys can't talk. And then when we don't hear His
Word, and we start looking at things around us, no peace. No peace. Nothing but trouble. Nothing
but trouble. Hey, peace cometh by hearing His Word, hearing
of Christ. It's a one thing needful. One thing. One thing. And look
at this in verse 27 again. He said, "...reach hither thy
finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and
thrust it in my side, and be not faithless, but believing."
Why don't you have anything? Why don't I have anything? He's
talking to me. He's speaking to me. Why don't
I have anything? Why do I act like I don't have
anything? We used to sing a song, Reach
Out and Touch the Lord. Thomas, reach ahead of that finger
and touch my hand. Reach out and touch the Lord
as he passes by. You'll find he's not too busy
to hear his heart's cry. So many times people would come
reaching for him, didn't they? A big, vast crowd of people.
And a woman with an issue of blood had it a long time. She
said, if I could just touch the hand of his garment, I don't
even have to touch Him. Just as Him. The Him of Him. And I can just touch Him. She
crawled. Get to Him. No matter what it
takes. She crawled. I can touch Him. Amazing. Reach out and touch
the Lord. Can we touch Him? Yeah. Yes,
He lives. Rich is thy hand. Behold my hands. Do we not behold His hands? Can
you not look everywhere and behold His hands? Huh? All religion
says He has no hands but your hands. Well, you can have that
Jesus. I don't need Him. He can't save
a flea. I see His hands everywhere, don't
you? Don't you see the hand of God in everything? And bless
God, I believe I'm in His hands. I know I am. I know I am. Did you notice the door was shut
both times that they were within? The door was shut. The Lord wrote
that for our peace and benefit, to distinguish the true Christ
from the false one. They say their Jesus stands outside
their heart's door and can't come in unless they open the
door. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad,
old Shulamite maiden? that He came and knocked a hole
in your heart's door and left tokens there? Aren't you glad? We changed the words of the old
brother of Ed's song there, He Broke Down My Heart's Door. Aren't
you glad that He comes in? That He is the door? That He
is the door? Aren't you glad? And that's another
verse that tells us what the Lord shuts, no man can open. And with the Lord open, no man
can shut. If the Lord is going to get to one of his own, nothing
is going to shut the door, keep him from it. It's that way with
this old prodigal. Nothing is keeping me from coming.
There's not a shut door when the Lord is after, when the Lord
is going to speak. Oh, bless his holy name. But
he said, and look at this. It says in verse 29, he said
to Thomas, because you have seen, thou hast seen, thou hast believed. But did they? Did they really? Not really. Not really. We don't walk by sight. We walk
by faith. Many people saw the miracles
he did. They didn't believe. But he's saying, plainly to Thomas,
because you see me now alive, you believe that I'm alive. But
that's not Thomas' faith. It comes the way ours does by
hearing his word. But he said, Be not faithless,
but believe it. And he said, Blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. And many other signs
did our Lord in the presence of his disciples that are not
written in this And the very last verse of this book says,
if they had been, the world couldn't contain the books. But these
things are written. This is all that we need. And
you know how many false religions there are that say they've got
a new revelation, they've got new this and new that. Write
it off. It's not true. We don't need
that. We have all we need right here. All we need. We don't need
another testament like the Mormon set. This is it. This is the
record God had given us. And given us an understanding
that we might know Him. These things, verse 31, are written. You see where faith cometh from?
These things are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing, he might
have life through his name, eternal life. He that believeth on the
Son hath life. Believe. Not work it. Believe. Not change it. Believe. Not do it. Believe. I'd like to stand here
and keep saying that until everybody in here is smiling. If you believe,
he that believeth hath life. You thought it would feel so
dead? That's why you feel anything. You couldn't feel anything if
you weren't alive. I went years without feeling anything. I didn't
feel dead. I didn't feel hot. I didn't feel
cold. I saw no beauty in Him. I saw no ugliness in me. But
God came one day through this, through the preaching of the
Word, quickened me. I feel. Sometimes I feel dead.
Sometimes I feel alive. Sometimes I feel cold. Sometimes
I feel hot, quiet, alive. How? Born by the Word of God. Believe. I believe. Don't you? If you don't, why
don't you believe? I believe. The Lord helped my
husband. Well, this is how He helps us right here. You see, the one
we need to believe is Him. We need to see Him. who is invisible. We need to hear Him who does
not speak out loud. We need to feel His presence. We need to have Him speak to
us. We need to have Him lead us and
guide us and teach us and direct us and feed us and on and on. We need Him. We need to believe
and be sure for our peace and for our comfort that He is the
Son of God, that He lives, that He is the Christ, the Son of
God. And everything He said is true. Everything. And I believe
it, and it's for me. We need to believe that. And if you're like me, there
are times when you feel so sinful and so rotten and so wicked that
you think, well, this can't be for me. I'm too wicked. I'm too
sinful. Hold on now. Then you're not
believing what he said. You're not believing what he
said. Let me quote it one more time, okay?
And if I keep living, I'm going to quote it a thousand more times. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation. All sinners need to hear this.
That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. even the
chief, he that believeth. That's it. That's it. Oh, that's good news, good news,
good news. Comfort. The only peace there
is to be had is by believing, by looking to Him. Mercy. Those that trust in His mercy,
those that hope in His mercy. Most of the time, people, all
I have to fall back on is His mercy. I was reading, bless God,
I was reading Psalm 136 the other day. Psalm 136. Twenty-six verses. Twenty-six verses and twenty-six
times he says, His mercy endureth forever. The thing I need the
most is the thing that he stresses the most to us. Peace. Peace. You're not smiling. There you go. But I can't make
you do that. Only He can speak peace to us. Go to 1 Peter chapter 1 with
me, and I'll close with this. 1 Peter 1. Simon Peter was sitting
there when the Lord said all this. Simon Peter was sitting
there, and he was so thankful to be sitting there, wasn't he?
The Lord sent a special command to Simon Peter through the angel.
Go tell my disciples and be heard." And he's sitting there, he's
so thankful. He knows, he knows that Christ
came to save sinners. He knows that it's not his goodness. He knows with all his heart that
the only reason that he could possibly be included with the
sons of God. It's the mercy of God, the blood
of Jesus Christ. He knows that. And Christ said,
tell him to come back. He said, I'm going fishing. He
said, no, tell him to get in here and hear this message. Peace. Oh, he was so thankful. So thankful to be there. And
he wrote a letter to us. This is his letter to us. A bunch
of sinners like us. Alright? He was there when he
heard all this. And he said, verse 2, you are
elect according to the foreknowledge of God. He's writing to strangers.
That's me. That's us. Scattered. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God. That is, he chose you. He didn't
choose him. Through sanctification of the
Spirit, set apart Who made you to differ? The Spirit of God
through the preaching of the gospel and through obedience.
What's that? Believe. To believe, the obedience
of the faith. And the sprinkling of blood.
He chose you to sprinkle blood on you. Oh, thank the Lord. Grace unto you. And what? Peace. Be multiplied. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His
abundant mercy hath begotten us, born of God, unto a lively
hope, living hope, lively hope, a real hope, a hope experienced
because a real person lives by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We worship a living Lord, a living
person, to an inheritance incorruptible. There's something waiting on
us, someone waiting on us. Undefiled, a pure and heavenly
and holy and righteous inheritance that fadeth not away. Oh, we're
not going to squander this one. No, no. Reserved in heaven for
you. Who? Who? Who are kept. Look
at this. For you who are kept by the power
of God. What's the power of God? Christ is the power of God. What's
the power of God? The gospel. is the power of God
unto salvation. This will keep you. This will
keep you. Keep you what? Believing. Keep
you what? From fear. Keep you from distress. Keep you from doubts and fears
and worries and being overcome by the world. Keep you from the
world. This is it. Kept by the power
of God through faith. You see that? Through faith.
Unto salvation. That is, it's going to end wonderfully. Salvation from all this is going
to be saved someday. From all this, from me. It's
going to be saved from the God of this world, from this old
man inside, from this world, from perishing with it, from
this Titanic. It's going to be saved. Ready
to be revealed. It's almost there, Peter said. We're almost there. Ready to
be revealed. The glorious liberty of the sons
of God. The whole creation groaneth and
waited. Ready, it's ready. He said, I
stand at the door. He's near. Read on. Wherein ye
greatly rejoice. Do you? Do you rejoice in all
that you've heard thus far? Elect, blood, grace, lively hope
and inheritance? Gospel, word, do you rejoice? Though now for a season, it need
be, you're in heaviness, through manifold divers temptations. But James said, Blessed is he
that endureth divers temptations. It goes through divers temptations. But that's the Lord. That's the
Lord trying faith. That's the Lord proving Himself
to you. Thank Him for it. I know it causes pain and sorrow
and, you know, weighed down heaviness. Did you read Phil Pott this morning? Wasn't that wonderful? Heavy
burden of guilt and this and that and the other, and trials. But it need be. It's the Lord's
good purpose and will to keep us from wanting Hang on to these
things and keep us from perishing. That the trial of
your faith, the trial of your faith, and you know, Peter, after
the Lord left, Peter would live another, I forget how long he
lived, another 15 years or more, and ended up being crucified.
The Lord said he would. Horrible death. horrible death
that none of us, I doubt very seriously, any of us will ever
suffer that. The Lord kept telling me, He said, I'll go. The way I go, you can't go, but
you will. And He said, they're going to
carry you where you don't want to be carried. Peter heard that. Is he scared?
You know he is. He's human. Human. But Peter said, It's a trial
that the Lord sent. His grace is sufficient. He's
promised. He who cannot lie is promised. And he who is all wise cannot
err. And it says it need be. If it
be, it need be. Or it wouldn't be. And this trial
of your faith, faith is more, verse 7, this faith is more precious
than gold. Gold, it perishes. Though it
be tried with fire, it's going to be found. unto praise and
honor and glory. His praise, not ours. His honor,
not ours. His glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ when the Lord, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, shall
come to be admired of them that believe. When He comes and the
whole world cries for the rocks and hills to fall on them and
hide them from the face of Him, God's people are going to say,
the whole world is going to say, oh my God, And all the people
of God are going to say, Oh, my God. That's right. Who? Those that believe. Not those that are better. Those
that believe. Those that love Him. Those that
love His appearing and wait for His appearing. That's what we're
doing here this morning. Oh, glory. And then verse 8,
he says, and I close with these two verses. Peter said, Whom
have you not seen? He remembers the Lord saying
that to Thomas. He was there. Blessed are those
that have not seen him. The Lord left, and most of the
people after that, well, all of the people after that, they
didn't see him. People in the church at Ephesus
and Philippi and Thyatira and Laodicea, they didn't see him.
None of them saw him, but they believed. Peter said, We have
not followed cunningly the devised fable, when we have made known
unto you the majesty, the coming, the power of our Lord. We were
there. We heard his voice. He said, We have a more sure
word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well to take heed, as a light
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, until it dawn on
you, until he, till you can see him without whom have you not
seen you love, in whom though now you see him not yet believing,
and you rejoice in him." You rejoice in the Lord
with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Full of glory. And here's, in closing, receiving
the end of your faith. Faith's going to end someday.
Now, by faith and hope, we believe, don't we? We live by it. We live
by faith. We believe His Word. We haven't
seen Him, but we believe He is. We hope to be with Him someday. We can't see Him, but we hope.
We hope. But now by the faith, hope, and
love, the greatest of these are love. Faith will end. Hope will end, but not love.
We're going to be with him, see him. The end of our faith is
going to be the salvation of our souls. Oh, my. And here it is. Listen to this.
Let me try to find it. I didn't write it down. Here
it is. The salvation of our soul. It says, it says, say to them
that are of fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your
God will come, even God. He'll come and He'll save you.
And then the ransom of the Lord shall return. Go back, the soul,
to the God who gave it. And come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain joy, never-ending
joy, and gladness. Joy unspeakable, and full of
glory, and gladness, and sorrow, and sighing. It's all gone. When the Lord shall wipe away
all tears, there'll be no more death, no more pain, no more
sorrow. The salvation of your soul. Body,
soul, and spirit. No more sin, no more sorrow,
no more death, no more pain. Salvation. That's why we'll be saying forever,
salvation to our God. Salvation to our God. But until
then, faith comes by hearing. Peace comes by hearing. Being together with God's people.
I bet you to say if you heard anything at all, you've got more
peace now than when you came. And then you're going, we're
all going to walk out of that door. Yesterday I got a bill from the
insurance company saying they might not pay all my medical
expenses reasonably. You ever got one of those? Who in here hasn't? Huh, Jennifer? Who in here hasn't? Oh, no. Oh,
no. How am I going to pay this? And
I woke up this morning thinking about it. Oh, no. Well, for about
45 minutes now, I haven't thought about it. I didn't worry a lick
about it. When I walk out that door, it's
going to come back again. I'm not going to worry about
it. Be not faithless. Did you forget
everything you preached? Yeah, Lord, you know my prayer.
So I'm about to come back with you Wednesday night and hear
these same things all over again. Thank God. And to shore up my
peace one more time. To shore it up. Until someday,
until finally He splits the sky open. And it will be over. Man, no more bills. Alright,
let's sing a closing hymn. I forget what it was. 327. 327?
Yes, sir. 327. It's all saying, turn to number
3.7 and we'll sing this to you. Am I a soldier of the cross?