And we'll read just a very few
verses here from the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And we continue to ask God to
bless the sick of our congregation, those who are having afflictions
of the flesh. We're thankful that God governs
all things. And He will always do what's
best for each of His children. And we ask the Lord to keep us
all safe in the midst of this virus. And may He watch over
us, which He does. Thankful that he does and he
will work all things together for good to his dear children Let me read just a few verses
now to you from this portion of scripture, which is the resurrection
chapter and I'll begin at the first verse and Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel. Not a gospel, but the gospel. It's a specific message of a
specific person and his very specific work. The gospel which
I preached unto you, which also you have received, wherein ye
stand, by which by this gospel also ye are saved, if ye keep
in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. For I delivered unto you, first
of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that
he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he
was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen
of above five hundred brethren at once. of whom the greater
part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep."
After that, he was seen of James, then of all the apostles, and
last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due
time. And we'll start by reading there
with verse eight, Let's ask the Lord to bless as we go through
the message this evening, and as you also draw near to God's
precious throne of grace, be mindful, especially those of
you of our congregation, of the elderly, of those who are in
the nursing home. And then, if you would, remember
Phyllis of our congregation, her brother Billy, passed away
this past Lord's Day. There will be no service, maybe
a memorial service, after the virus has passed. But we ask
that the Lord would bless Phyllis and the rest of the family at
this particular time of sorrow. Let's see God's face. Lord, as Moses said, Thou hast
been our dwelling place in all generations. We're thankful that
we have a safe refuge from every storm of life. That refuge is
a living refuge, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you
have revealed him to us as that one whom, if we know him, we have everlasting
life. Lord, I'm speaking to people,
though not just a very few here in the building, but to very
many on the internet who, they do know you. They do believe
you. They rest their soul's salvation
in Christ Jesus. Lord, I especially pray for your
people. These are crying days in which
we find ourselves. And indeed, we've never experienced
anything quite like the things that are going on about us. For our dear brothers and sisters
in the Lord Jesus, we ask, oh God, that you would protect our
spiritual family Lord, provide for those whose jobs have been
either cut back or even they've been laid off. We're thankful
that You've said that You will meet our needs, and we rest in
You, Father, to take care of us. We're instructed by the Savior
to be anxious for nothing, knowing that you feed the fowls of the
air, you feed the beasts of the field, you robe and clothe the
lilies with beauty. Lord, we're much more precious
to you than any of these other creations that came forth from
your hands. We're your blood-bought people. We're the ones that you chose
unto salvation for no reason to be found in us, but just merely
from the goodness and the graciousness of your own heart. You set your
love on us from eternity. You gave us to the Lord Jesus
the great surety of the covenant. And in Him we've always been
hidden. In Him we have found a mighty
refuge. No judgment awaits us because
the Lord Jesus bore the judgment for all of our sins. And He who
lived for us and died for us arose for us and He ever lives. And He makes intercession for
us. Lord, speak words of great compassion and comfort
to each of your dear children. And Lord, remind us that we have
a Mediator. We have one who stands before
God And He represents us. And He prays for us. We do ask,
because we're instructed in the Scriptures, to remember each
other, and we ask folks to pray for their brethren and sisters. But there is One who's far greater
than we are. and He bears this upon His heart,
and He is the one who is always praying for us. Just as our Savior said to Simon
Peter when He told him that Simon would deny, and that Satan sought him, to
sift Him like wheat. The Lord Jesus said to him, But
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And dear Lord, we're thankful
that He likewise prays for us, that our faith fail not. And though our faith sometimes
is weak, and sometimes it would seem that we don't even have
faith, yet it is there, because it's a gift of God. And we ask,
O Lord, that You would cause us to rest in You more fully,
and to have a great abiding confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ. We
do ask for our neighbors, the citizens of this city and county
and state, and for those of this great country, and those, Lord,
around the world, We ask that you would, if it would be your
will, to lessen the severity of the virus. We know it's a
quite serious thing. And yet, Lord, though this unseen
enemy is taking so many lives, yet it is in the hands of our
God. And you send it where you will.
For all of the issues of life and death belong to the Lord.
Father, we pray for our president. We pray for those advisors who
are around him. decisions that have been made
and are being made, we ask, oh Lord, that you would give to
these men and women wisdom and knowledge as to what is best
for the safety of the citizens of this nation. We ask for those
who are, Lord, battling this disease right up front, We ask
for their protection and we're thankful for the willingness
of so many to stand and minister to those who are sick and to
many who are dying. I pray that you'll give them
strength and protection if it would be your will. Lord, keep
us safe till this storm passes by. And we're thankful that all
of your dear children, we fled to Christ Jesus who is a strong
refuge for us. He is indeed the shelter in the
time of storm. We thank you. Now as we open
up the Word of God tonight, we ask that you would bless us from
the Scriptures, We're thankful that we have this opportunity
to speak to our loved ones, our spiritual family, both near and
far. And I pray for each one of them
that they may find encouragement in Christ, knowing that our sins
are under the blood of the Savior. We're saved by the grace of God.
The Lord keeps us from falling. And no matter what may happen
to our bodies, our souls are safe. And at some due date in
the future, we know not when, it will be our delight to be
taken home into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. Bless all of your servants, all
of your preachers. Some we know, many we don't know. Lord, bless these faithful servants
who still minister by way of the internet, by way of writing
through bulletins and CDs and DVDs and all the means that you
have made available for us to get forth your gospel. And so
with thanksgiving for all the blessings you are continually
giving us, we continue with this service. May the name of our
great God and Savior be magnified. And Lord, I pray that you will
soothe our hearts and give comfort to us through the Scriptures
this evening. We ask in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and for His sake, Amen. Well, if you would, go back with
me to the book of John. And, you know, my wife asked
me a couple of days ago, she said, are you going to finish
the book of John? I've been thinking about that
ever since she mentioned it, and I'll go back to the Psalms.
I'll go back to Psalm 91, the Lord willing, on the Lord's Day,
but I thought I think I will go back to the book of John.
After all, it's getting toward Easter, and though we don't observe
any special holy days, it is that time of the year when people
are thinking about the week of our Lord's passion, that is,
His sufferings, and His death, and His resurrection. And so
I thought I'd come back to this, and so I appreciate my wife mentioning
that to me. The Lord used her few words to,
I believe, send me to John chapter 20, and to give you the message
that I think and believe that He has laid upon my heart. You'll remember that two days
before our Lord died, He said to His disciples, and
I'll not turn to this passage, it's in Matthew chapter 26, it
says, and it came to pass when Jesus had finished all these
sayings, He said unto His disciples, you'd know that after two days
is the feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is betrayed
to be crucified. Our Lord Jesus was very careful
to keep this subject before the minds and the hearts of his disciples. You'll remember even from the
very beginning of his public ministry in the second chapter
of John, and this was the very first of the Lord's visit to
the Passover in Jerusalem in his public ministry, he went
to four of them, he did speak to his disciples then about his
sin-atoning death. And he said, destroy this temple,
meaning his body. And he said, in three days I
will raise it up. Now, it didn't dawn on them at
that time exactly what he was speaking about, but after his
resurrection, we read there in John chapter 2, that they did
remember. They remembered his words. So he frequently spoke to them
about the necessity of his death upon the cross of Calvary. Now,
let me say this, we can never, we can never give too much attention
to his redemptive work upon the cross of Calvary. This is the
very focal point of all of the scriptures, as you well know,
and our minds and our hearts ought to always be fixed upon
the death of our Lord Jesus. After all, without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. There was no putting
away of our guilt. There was no bringing in of everlasting
righteousness without the death of the Lord Jesus. This is indeed
the foundation doctrine of all of the Word of God. Without the death of our Lord
Jesus, there would be no gospel. Without the doctrine of the cross
of Calvary, the Word of God is really a meaningless book. And
all of the Old Testament, without His death, would defy understanding. After all, what was the reason
for all the sacrifices, all of the offerings, all of the lambs,
all of the turtle doves, all of the bullocks that died, all
of the goats that died, all the rivers of blood that literally
flowed through the Old Testament, they are absolutely meaningless
without the death of the Lord Jesus. And there's no salvation
for us apart from his death. There's no fulfillment of the
covenant of grace without the... crucifixion of our Lord Jesus. There's no fulfillment of God's
eternal love and grace extended to His people from old eternity,
because in order to save us, there had to be the death of
a suitable substitute. That's the Lord Jesus. He had
to be God, He had to be man, but if He didn't die, then there's
no salvation for us. I would never minimize the birth
of our Lord Jesus. That was necessary and we're
thankful for his birth. And we're thankful for his life
of perfection. That showed his great qualification
to be the Passover Lamb. It showed his life of perfection,
his life of obedience to the Law of God. It showed that he
was himself without spot and without blemish. You'll remember
in the Old Testament, in the book of Exodus chapter 12, the
Lord gave to Moses instructions pertaining to the Passover Lamb. a male of the first year, a male
in the very strength of its days, without any spot, without any
blemish, without anything wrong with it, and that lamb, after
it was picked out, it had to be put up for four days. What
was the reason for that? Inspection. To make sure that
this was qualified to die in the stead of the firstborn. Well, our Lord Jesus lived on
this earth in perfection, keeping man's law, keeping God's law. It showed he's qualified to be
the Passover lamb, to die in our stead. But listen, his life
of perfection, though absolutely necessary, didn't put anybody's
sins away. It didn't satisfy the demands
of God for justice that had been offended because of our sins. His life didn't do the job. He had to die for us. That's
the reason I read to you from 1 Corinthians chapter 15. He
said, I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
and how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He died for our sins. All of the Old Testament spoke
to that truth. And our Lord Jesus, when He opened
up to His disciples the meaning of the 39 books of the Old Testament,
He said, these are they that testify of Me. You see, this is the message
that God has given to His servants to preach. I preach to you Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. This sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
is the result of the covenant of grace. He was appointed to
die. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus,
that's the message of the Old Testament. All the prophecies,
all the pictures, all of the illustrations, all of those,
they point it to the death of the Son of God. The sacrifice
of our Savior glorified and magnified the Father. the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus. Listen, this is our motive for
godly living, for obedience, for devotion to God, for faith,
and for worship. This is our motivation. In fact,
we read in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14 that like the
apostle, we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus. We are always
emphasizing His death, but without the resurrection, the
story of redemption is not complete. He must conquer every enemy. When he died, he conquered our
sin. When he died, he satisfied the
law. When he died, he crushed the
head of the serpent. But he must also conquer the
grave. He must also defeat that great
enemy, death. And he did. He arose again the
third day according to the Scriptures. And our Lord Jesus, here in John
chapter 20, where we see Him revealing Himself to His dear
people, to some of His dear people, He presents Himself as the one
who still cares for His children, This is the same Lord Jesus. He hasn't changed. Do we not
read in the book of Hebrews, Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, forever. And He loved these men, these
apostles, He loved them after His resurrection as much as He
did before He died, as much as He did before the foundation
of the world. And I emphasize that He loved
them just as much after His resurrection as before, even though they had
proved themselves to be very sinful men. they had proved themselves
to be unbelieving. One of them, Simon Peter, had
denied the Lord three times. But when the Lord Jesus reveals
Himself to the disciples, and specifically to Simon Peter,
He did not harshly rebuke him. He still loved him. He was very
compassionate toward Peter and the rest of the disciples, because
as it says in the book of Zechariah, smite the shepherd and the sheep
shall be scattered. And indeed the sheep were scattered.
These men, they just went their separate ways. And now they've
come back together in the text here, because our text is in
John chapter 20 beginning in verse 19, they've come back together
on on the Lord's day. And He's going to reveal Himself
to them. He's going to appear to them.
Not to be harsh with them. Not to be cruel with them. Not
to be vindictive, well you forsook me, I'll just forsake you. No,
the Savior wasn't like that. You know, it reads in 1 Peter
chapter 2, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. And though
these men forsook him, he didn't forsake them. He bore with their weak faith. And you know, those of us who
know God, we must bear with one another even when we manifest
the weakness of our own faith. We must remember that our Lord
was very tender toward His children. He was very compassionate. He
didn't rape them over the coals. That's what we might would tend
to do. He didn't say, you men never
loved me to begin with. That's what we're ready to do.
We're ready to write people off if they disappoint us. I'm thankful he doesn't write
us off, that he doesn't forsake us. We read here in John chapter 20, look at verse
18. Well, Mary Magdalene, to whom
the Lord had revealed himself, she came and told the disciples
that she had seen the Lord. And she just bubbling over. and
that he had spoken these things unto her. What things? Well,
specifically that he had said in verse 17, go to my brethren
and say to them, I sinned unto my father and your father and
to my God and your God. And she's so anxious, she's joyful,
she's bubbling over with thanksgiving. She's seen the resurrected Savior. He lives! He revealed Himself
to her, and so she goes to give this wonderful information to
the disciples. But as we read in Mark chapter
16 and verse 11, when they received word that Mary had seen the Savior,
that he had indeed revealed himself to her, the scripture says, Mark
16, 11, they believed not. Well, that brings us to verse
19. Then the same day at evening, the same day, resurrection day, This is the Sunday that our Lord
arose. The same day at evening, being
the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the
disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, they had locked
the doors, they met in what they felt was a very secure place. They locked and bolted the doors. probably put a bar across it,
didn't tell anybody where they were meeting. They're in there
just these 11 men. The reason they did all of this
was for fear of the Jews. After all, The Jewish leaders
had seen to it that their master was crucified. And these men
are now fearful that the Jews will send soldiers after them
if they found out where they were meeting. So they're behind
locked doors. And then something wonderful
happened. Then came Jesus and stood in
the midst And he saith unto them, Peace be unto you. What somebody said, did he pass
through the door? I don't know, he could have.
Or did he just cause the bolts and the locks and the bars to
disengage and drop off so he could enter in? We're not told. The only thing we do know is
he suddenly appeared to them. Listen, as that stone rolled
in front of his tomb, as that stone could not keep him in, neither could a door keep him
out. You see, our Lord goes where
He will. And when he willed to take his
life again, as he said he would in John chapter 10, I have the
power to lay down my life, I have the power to take it up again.
He willed to come out of that tomb and he had an angel roll
that stone away. Did he need the stone to be rolled
away? No, he could have obliterated
himself. but it must not appear that he
had broken out of the tomb, but rather he was released because
the debt was paid. Justice had been satisfied. He
had served his time in the prison of death. He had paid all the
debt his people owed and he's released. No stone could keep
him in. And no bars or doors that were
locked could keep him out. And he just goes in among his
disciples. This idea that so many in so-called
evangelical churches, preachers say, open your heart's door to
him. Listen, if He's going to come
into your heart, He's going to come in, He'll break down the
bars, He'll break down all opposition. He's coming in. He's the King. He's got the key to your heart
and my heart. And no door can keep Him out
when He intends to come in. He's the omnipotent God. Do you
think that any mere mortal who is little more than a worm of
the dust can prohibit and hinder and keep out the mighty God? Can prevent the mighty God from
coming in with grace and salvation to reveal and give life to a
dead sinner? Nobody can keep him out if he's
of a mind to come in. And so he comes in among his
people and he says, peace be unto you. All these words I'm
sure were very meaningful to these men. Peace be unto you,
Simon Peter. You know he's embarrassed, he's
ashamed. He's already wept bitterly because
the Savior just caught his eye. And now the Lord Jesus comes
in and says, peace be unto you, Peter. And to the other men, I said
11 men are meeting, actually it's just 10 at this time. He
speaks to the other men. Peace be unto you. All health
and nourishment and joy be unto you. He didn't say to them, why'd
you men leave me alone? Peter, why did you deny me? Why did all you men forsake me?
He didn't say, brethren, after all I've done for you, How could
you treat me like this? No, nothing like that. Peace be unto you. And maybe I'm talking to one
of the Lord's people and you feel like I've denied Him. I should have spoken up, but
I didn't. I'm just embarrassed because of my sins. Listen, He
died for your sins. There's the divine affection
seen at the cross of Calvary. It's because of the love of God
that He died for you and your sins have been put away. Now,
does He chasten His people? Yes, He does. But it's not in
anger. It's instructive. Words of peace these are to these
troubled men. Their sins of denial, of forsaking,
they've all been paid for. And you who are the people of
God certainly confess your sins. The Bible says do that. But after
you confess your sins, don't mope around as though the Lord
holds a grudge against you because of your sins. He doesn't hold
grudges against His people. Our sins have been put away by
the blood of the cross of Calvary. He's not angry with you. Our Lord Jesus died for our sins
and He's come back from the grave. rejoicing the truth of full and
full forgiveness through the blood of the cross of Calvary.
And then he says this, look at verse 20. And when he had so
said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Brethren,
it's me, he said. Look, and he showed them the
wounds. He showed them his side. And the Scripture says, then
were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. See, this
is exactly the way it works. We're made glad when we see Him. When we take our eyes off of
Him, that's when the gladness goes away. The joy is in seeing
Him. Oh, if He would enable us by
His grace to keep our eyes on Him all the time, oh, how glad
we would be. These are the evidences of His
death. By stripes we're healed. His
wounded by transgressions. You see His hands, His feet,
and His side. It shows the reality of His body. It was a glorified body, not
bound by the limitations of mortality any longer, but yet a real body. And we're going to have a body
like unto our Lord someday. Philippians chapter 3 verses
20 and 21, for our conversation, our citizenship is in heaven
from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like
unto His glorious body. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." They were
glad. They were glad. And in verse
21, he says to them again, peace be unto you. And then he gives them this commission,
as my father has sent me, even so send I you. And when he had
said this, he breathed on them. And he said to them, receive
ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit or forgive,
they are remitted or forgiven unto them. And whosoever sins
ye retain, they are retained. Now this doesn't mean that the
apostles had the power to grant forgiveness or to withhold forgiveness. But they did have unusual power. Now, the forgiveness of sins
is a work only God can do. Who can forgive sins but God
only? But these men had unusual discernment
and unusual abilities as we shall see or as we have seen in Acts
the second chapter. when the Spirit of God was given
to them in its fullness. And they began to speak the gospel,
preach the gospel in other languages. And of course, they had already
been gifted to heal the sick and that sort of thing. But they
were also given unusual discernment. So that like Simon Peter could
look at a man, Simon Magus, and discern his state before God
and say, your heart's not right with God. Oh, they had unusual discernment.
And then we get down in verse 24. Now, I wanna talk to you
about the Savior and Thomas, the rest of the time tonight,
the Savior and Thomas. Look here, first of all, we're
informed of the absence of Thomas when our Lord appeared to these
men. Here's the absence of Thomas.
I give you five or six things here as time allows. But Thomas,
one of the 12, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus
came. Why wasn't he there? I don't
know. No use guessing. No reason is
given for his absence. Maybe he was too fearful. Maybe
it was unbelief. We just don't know. But his being
absent cost him dearly. There's no question about that.
He missed a great blessing. For the Lord had appeared to
the rest of them, and the Lord had said with His own lips, Peace
be unto you. And Thomas was not there to receive
the message. He missed out. He sure could have used those
words. He would have loved to have heard
them, but he didn't. And then look at verse 25. Here's the second thing. The
witness of the others and the rashness of Thomas. Verse 25. The other disciples
therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. We have seen the Lord. Look unto
me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. That's what the Lord said. There's
life in a look at the Savior. We've seen him. We've seen him. John says we've looked upon him.
We've handled him, the word of life. We've seen him with our
eyes. Thomas, oh, I wish you'd have
been in church last Lord's day. That's kind of what they were
saying. We got such a blessing, but, The rest of verse 25, he
said unto them, except I see in his hands the print of the
nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust
my hand into his side, I will not believe. Well, those are
hard words. And they're dangerous words. He did several things here that
were wrong. First of all, he essentially
called his fellow disciples liars. He said it in so many words,
he kind of curbed it down a little bit to take the edge off of it. But he said, I don't believe
you. I don't believe you. And then the second thing, it's
obvious he didn't believe the Savior's words about his own
resurrection, about Christ's resurrection. The Savior had
spoken of his resurrection, but Thomas, old Thomas didn't believe
him. And then thirdly, he foolishly
lays out the only way he will believe. It's a very dangerous
thing. I'm going to have to put my fingers
in the print of the nails, and I'm going to have to thrust my
hands into his side. Otherwise, I'm not going to believe him. He laid down certain conditions
before God, before he would believe. And
what he demands is a sign. I'm not going to believe until
I see it for myself. You see, he's acting like the
man of the world that seeing is believing. That's not the way it is with
the children of God. Believing is seeing. That's what
our Lord said to Martha over in John chapter 11. Did I not
say unto you that if you would believe, you'd see the glory
of God? Believing is seeing. And here's
Thomas. Something happens when you miss
the worship service. You get to thinking like the
world. And all of a sudden he says, unless I see, I won't believe. I want to see a sign. Well, he's
like that wicked and adulterous generation the Lord spoke about.
He said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. That's the only way they'll believe. In Luke chapter 16, the rich
man, he died and went to hell, died Christless and graceless
and godless. And he said to Abraham, he said,
if you'll just send Lazarus back to my brother, they'll believe. Abraham said, they're not gonna
believe that way. Men don't believe because of
the sign. See, the thinking of the rich man was seeing is believing. That's what his thinking. If
his five brothers could see something unusual, something miraculous,
then they'd believe. Abraham said, they won't believe.
Your brothers are not gonna believe. In fact, he told them, he said,
they got Moses and the prophets. They got the word of God. Let
them hear them, hear the word of God. When our Lord Jesus was
on the cross of Calvary, here's what his mockers said, if you
be the son of God, come down from the cross, we
believe you. We demand a sign. And that's what brother Thomas
was doing. This is dangerous ground, dangerous
ground. But he lived to see another day.
And the Lord, I'll tell you this, there are many illustrations
of men who sought signs and sought to see something unusual, then
they'd said they'd believed. It wasn't granted to them or
they didn't believe. Thomas, his is an unusual case. But that's what he said. By the way, the only place in
the New Testament right here where the nails are mentioned.
The nails. See, the Romans had two ways
of crucifying men, two ways of affixing the body to the cross. One was by ropes, tying the hands. to a cross and then tying the
feet. The other one, the more crueler
way, was by nails. This fulfilled a prophecy out
of Psalm 22. They pierced my hands and my
feet. Well, verse 26. And now we come to another appearance
of the Savior, the third thing. First of all, the absence of
Thomas. Secondly, the witness of the others and the rashness
of Thomas. Number three, another appearance
of the Savior, verse 26. And after eight days, again,
his disciples were within. This is the next Sunday. You
say, how can that be? It's only a week. Remember, with
the Jews, the way they counted days, Any portion of a day counted
as a whole day. So it's Sunday, then Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Eight
days. Eight days. After eight days
again, his disciples were within, and Thomas was with them. But you'll notice though this
is very much like verse 19 when they were meeting on the first
day of the week. I'll tell you what isn't said
for fear of the Jews. Perfect love casts out fear.
These men have seen the Savior, all of them except Thomas. And
that love for Christ Jesus, that confidence in Him, the fear is
gone. Are you fearful? Yes, I'm talking
to each one of you, and y'all, and I'm talking to me. Are we
fearful? A view of the Savior will help you with that. Yeah,
it really will. After eight days again, his disciples
were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus. The door is being shut and he
stood in the midst and said, peace be unto you. Verse 27, now the master speaks
to Thomas. Point number four. Then he said
to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. and reach
hither thy hand and thrust it into my side." That must have
been a big, gaping wound in his side for a man to be able to put his
whole hand in there. And he says, be not faithless,
but believing. Oh, he could have sharply rebuked
Thomas. But He's tender and He's kind. Like I say, let's don't get down
on one another when we reveal that our faith is pretty weak. Take it easy on each other. The
Lord didn't belittle Him in front of the other men. He didn't dress
Him down. He didn't scold Him. He wasn't
harsh toward him, though his words were full of instruction.
Be not faithless. Be not faithless, Thomas. Be
not faithless, Jim. You, be not faithless, but believe
him. Has he not shown himself to be
trustworthy? worthy of your confidence? Did
He not die for you? Did He not bear your sins? Has
He not risen again because He justified you by His bloody sacrifice? Has He not gone back to heaven
to make intercession for you? Be not faithless, but believe. Now, did Thomas reach out and
touch the wounds of the Savior? Well, we aren't told, but I doubt
it. I think his heart just melted
within him. And that brings us to verse 28,
the confession of Thomas. Here's his confession. The doubter
becomes a worshiper. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. My Lord to whom I will yield
obedience and my God to whom I will render worship. By the way, it's the only time
in the four Gospels that the Lord Jesus is called God. My
God. He's called the Son of God, Now
he's just called God. And our Lord Jesus did not rebuke
him either. And you know he would have if
he weren't God. Because our Lord obeyed the law
of God. Thou shalt worship no other God
but Me. Thomas called Him God and he
was right. My Lord. My God. He's lowered by virtue of his
successful death upon the cross of Calvary. God made him Lord. Romans 14.9, For to this end
Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord
both of the dead and the living. He's the Lord. You can't make
Him Lord. God made Him Lord. Acts chapter
2 says that. God's made this same Jesus, whom
you crucified, both Lord and Christ. And then, finally, the
response of the Lord. Verse 29, Jesus saith unto him,
Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. With a gentle rebuke, he tells Thomas, And He tells
us, the blessing is to believe, then you'll see. You see, the less need of faith,
the less evidence, I should say, that we need, the stronger faith
will be. May God give us grace to just
believe His bare, naked, unadorned Word. Just believe what God says. This is very pleasing to the
Lord. Because as it says in Hebrews chapter 11, without faith, it
is impossible to please God. May God give us grace to believe
Him. To rest in the Savior and find in Him all joy, all gladness,
and though there's a multitude of troubles going on around us,
we're safe in the refuge and in the shelter of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. May God bless you, is my prayer. Amen.