this morning, chapter 20 of the
Gospel of Saint John. I want to read this morning beginning
with verse 24 and I want to read down to verse 29. Verse 24 through
29, but Thomas, one of the 12, one of those chosen of God, his
name was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. He was absent from church on
resurrection morning, and he was not there when the Lord Jesus
came. What a tragedy, what a tragedy
that he was not there. The other disciples therefore
said unto him, we have seen the Lord. We've seen the Lord, can
you imagine? But he said unto them, except
I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my
finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into
his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again, his
disciples were within, and Thomas went to church that Sunday. Then
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 fingers. You see, the Lord knew about
his heart, and the Lord knew what he had said a week before,
even though he was not there. And so he said, Thomas, you reach
forth your finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand, thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. Be not faithless, but believing.
And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, and watch
this, 29th verse, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast
believed, Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Now as I begin this message this
morning on faith without sight, I want to say a few things that
I believe very important at the outset. Most of you that have
heard us preach a number of times knows that we believe that saving
faith is not the act of the will of the natural man, but that
saving faith is a gift from God. We're told in Ephesians chapter
2 verse 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith and
that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We're told in Philippians chapter
1 that it is given on our behalf not only to suffer for the name
of Jesus Christ, but also it is given for us to believe on
the name of the Son of God. It is given, meaning that our
faith is a gift of God and it has been given to us to believe. We preached last Sunday morning
on concealing and revealing and we tried to explain to you how
the truth of God is hid from some and revealed unto others. It's hid from the wise and the
prudent and revealed unto babes. And so it is given. That is an
act of grace. That's grace, pure grace that
God has enabled us to believe and we have received that gift
from God. Now, I recognize that no man
can come unto Christ except to be drawn by the Holy Spirit,
and nobody can exercise saving faith unless Jesus Christ, who
is seated at the right hand of God there to give repentance
and faith, unless he gives that gift, nobody is going to believe
on the Lord Jesus. But I also know this. that the
Spirit of God is not going to believe for you. The Spirit of
God will not believe for you. I know that a man will exercise
faith when God puts it in him. A man will exercise faith. He
will. He'll believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Throughout the Word of God, it
is spelled out clearly that there's no salvation apart from faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the Philippian jailer
in Acts chapter 16. It is said that after the earthquake,
and after he saw the power of God, and after God came down
and shook the foundation of that prison and opened up all the
doors, he come in crying, what must I do to be saved? And the
brethren said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall
be saved. That was their message to him.
And over and over again in the word of God, it's believe, believe,
believe on the Lord Jesus. You remember the Ethiopian eunuch.
in Acts chapter 8. And he said, well, what doth
hinder me to be baptized? They were him and Philip was
riding along in the chariot. And Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. And so we know that the Spirit
of God is not going to believe for us that we will exercise
faith if we're one of God's elect. We'll come to the hour. We'll
come to the day. There'll come a time When we
will exercise faith somewhere between the cradle and the grave,
you're going to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you're one
of God's elect. It'll happen and you'll believe
on him. But this morning we want to talk
a little bit about faith without sight. Now we count those people
blessed who lived in our Savior's day and saw Him when He dwelt
among men. We count them blessed. They got
to fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. They got to speak with
Him. They got to commune with Him.
and they got to walk with him daily. And we count them to be
blessed and truly blessed with their eyes for they saw and their
ears for they heard what kings and prophets had long desired
to see and hear yet did not. They got to hear these things
from the lips of our Lord Jesus and see the miracles which he
wrought. What a blessed, blessed privilege
that was. But we who now believe in our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we have a blessing that is superior
to theirs because of the benediction of our text. And by the way,
that's verse 29. It says, Thomas, because thou
hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. So according to the benediction
of the text, It is not those who saw and believed that are
the most blessed, but those who have not seen and yet have believed. And so, isn't that a marvelous
thing? Isn't that a wonderful thing? That those of us who've
not seen, we were not there. We did not hear the words coming
from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. We did not see the miracles
that He wrought with His hands, yet we're the most blessed because
we've not seen, yet have been enabled to believe. Now, no doubt
Thomas was highly favored when his Lord said to him, reach hither
thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and
thrust it into my sight. That was a blessed privilege.
Oh, what condescension on the part of our blessed Lord that
he would allow this unbelieving disciple, and oh, how he treated
this doubting disciple with great tenderness, allowing him to do
that. Nevertheless, though Thomas was
greatly privileged, There's a superior blessing, as his master told
him, and that blessing, I hope, beloved, belongs to many of us
here this morning. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. Blessed are they that have not
seen and yet have believed. So we must wait for the blessing
of sight till the by and by in the land of the hereafter. If
we're here today and we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
if we hope in Him, we trust in Him, there will come a day of
seeing. There'll come a day when we'll
see our blessed Lord, when we'll walk with Him, and when we'll
hear Him, and when our Lord will explain and teach and will instruct
us in his blessed word and truth. But may the Lord bless us with
joy this morning as we endeavor this morning to take into our
souls this message of our Master. Now this blessing does not belong
to all here present. This blessedness for believing,
even though you don't see anything, It doesn't belong to all here.
I'm sure that there's some here that are steeped in unbelief.
You're in unbelief. You're in a state of nature.
You're lost and undone before God and His Son for the want
of faith and love toward Christ. And you're dead in sin, and you're
separated from God for the want of faith toward Christ. And so
this blessedness, and you haven't believed. You're like Thomas,
he said, I will not believe. And some of you here possibly,
I'd like for you to write that down on a piece of paper and
say, dear Lord Jesus, I will not believe. Because that's exactly
where you stand. You're an unbelief and you won't
believe on the Lord. Would you send him a letter?
Would you send him a letter? I will not believe. I'm not going
to do it unless I see something. Something must happen. I've got
to look at something. Something must appear. I've got
to hear a voice. Something must be given, a vision
or a revelation. Something must be given to me.
I will not believe. Now then, if you're here this
morning and you're one of those unbelievers, I want you to wake
up to your soul's need. You need to listen to what we
have to say today. The Lord have mercy on you. The
Lord have mercy on you and bring you out of your death in sin
and that deadly danger in which you live by hour, hour by hour
in this world. My friend, you're on very slippery
ground. You're on very slippery ground.
You're on that board that we've talked about that's over hell,
and it's a rotten board, and any time you can plunge to your
everlasting misery. Well, first of all, I want to
say to those who are partakers of this blessedness, those who
have believed and yet have never seen, I want to say to them that
we ought never try to diminish the blessedness that we have
as though seeing was preferable to faith alone. You know, many,
many times we say, well, you know, we're just not blessed
like others, like those that were with our Lord before. Well,
we're more blessed according to what Jesus said than what
they were. How can we do this? Well, first
of all, we can do this by asking for a sign, by asking for a voice,
by asking for a vision or a revelation. Sometimes people say, Lord, if
you just appear to me, just appear to me, and if something unusual
would happen, then I would believe. Sometimes when living by faith
alone, we would like for God perhaps to reveal Himself to
us in such a way that our very senses might assist us in believing. Our very fleshly senses would
assist us in believing. If I might but see some miracle
so I could be sure it was the hand of God. I would be impressed,
you say, preacher, for life. I would never doubt again, preacher.
I would believe God unto all eternity. Well, don't ask for
it as if seeing was better than faith because our Lord tells
us it's not. The higher blessing and the cream
of the blessing belongs to those who have not seen and yet have
believed on the Lord Jesus. Well, second, I'd like to say
that we can diminish the blessing that our Lord talked about here
by looking on, by looking, and look down on that blessing by
exalting the characters of scripture too highly. Now I want you to
listen very carefully to this part of the message. We have
a tendency to exalt the characters of scripture sometime more highly
than what we ought to. Let us look at a few examples.
First of all, let's look at old Thomas here. As we said earlier,
he was absent from church on Resurrection Day, and he was
told later that the disciples had seen the Lord. And the next
Lord's Day, he was there. Well, should we give him all
the credit for what he said, my Lord and my God? Should we
give him credit? Is he due some kind of honor
and some kind of praise because he felt of the wounds of our
blessed Lord and then said, my Lord and my God? Was he something
more than what we would have done? Was that something more
than what we would have done if we'd have been there? I think
he was a good man. I believe he was a saved man.
He certainly was one of the chosen twelve. But look what he saw.
Look what he witnessed. Look what he heard. Look in verse
27. Then saith he to Thomas, now
these are the words of our Lord. He said, the Lord Jesus, reach
hither thy finger, behold my hands, reach hither thy hand,
thrust it into my side. Be not faithless, but believing. So listen to the words that he
heard. Now should we give him Great credit should we lift him
high on a pedestal because he said my lord and my god This
is the same man who said I will not believe if he was here living
in our day He'd say I will not believe he'd went to hell if
he lived in our day And he wouldn't believe the report of the gospel.
He had to see something with his eyes Now then think with
me of the Apostle Paul You know the Apostle Paul Saul of Tarsus,
a run of a man, a bald-headed man, a run of a man, and yet
here this man, his speech, the Bible says, was contemptible,
means that it was no count. He couldn't talk good. He just
didn't have the ability to stand up and express himself in such
a way that people would say, oh, there's an orator indeed.
Now, he knew the truth and he preached with heavenly wisdom
and with the power of God come down from heaven, but he wasn't
one of them oratorical sort of fellas that, you know, could
just set everything out, drive around, plug in a square hole,
not leave any shavings. He wasn't that kind of a fella.
His speech was contemptible, of no account is what that word
means. And his bodily presence was weak.
It's very weak. If he got up to preach, somebody
said, who is that getting up in front of this congregation?
Well, who in the world is that? He's just like a bent-over man,
bald-headed run-of-a-man. Get up to preach, you know. Everybody
wants a preacher to be a handsome fella. He wants him about six
foot four and to have a booming voice. He wants his bodily presence
to be strong and powerful. But old Paul wasn't that kind
of a fella. But one day on the road to Damascus, you know, when
he was Saul of Tarsus, the light shined on him and struck him
blind. Now I'm going to show you this
man, this character, and I just wonder how we feel about him.
The light shined on, struck him blind, and he fell there in the
road. And Jesus spoke to him and said,
Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And Osaul said, who art thou,
Lord? And Jesus said, well, I'm Jesus
whom thou persecutest. You've been persecuting my people.
When you persecute them, you persecute me. And you've been
persecuting my people. Well, this man was struck down
on the road to Damascus and God saved him. And he became the
greatest missionary that ever lived in this world. And he turned
the heathen world upside down and pointed them toward God and
pointed the gospel toward the West. This was a man indeed,
a spiritual man. But wait a minute. Should he
get all the credit for what happened? Should he get all the credit
that we give him? We hold him on a high pedestal and it's fine
to reverence this disciple. It's fine to do that. But did
Paul have anything to do with that miraculous experience on
the road to Damascus? Did he have anything to do with
it? Well, I tell you this morning, did he ask or did he request
to see Jesus? Did he ask that Jesus be revealed
to his heart? Did he ask that he would be brought
out of his death in sin into the light and liberty of the
gospel? Did he ask for that? Well, absolutely not. Through
no merit of his own he was struck down. no goodness of his own,
no purpose of his own. It was the purpose of God that
arrested him on the road to Damascus. It was God, the God of our fathers,
he said, that chose me and brought me out of sin's death into the
light of the gospel. So now, should we brag on Paul
for this? Well, I don't think so. because
it was sovereign grace alone who stopped him and turned him
out of the way of rebellion and turned him away from the persecuting
of the church of God. It was sovereign grace alone. And then was he not caught up
into the third heaven and did he not see things that he could
not talk about in the body or out of the body? He said, I don't
know which. But I saw things that I couldn't talk about. He
saw golden streets and gates of pearl, and surely he was a
blessed man, somebody said. But perhaps, perhaps I suggest
not the more blessed one. Because he saw all of these things.
Would you have not responded? at all if you had been so privileged
as this man, would you not have believed? If you were caught
up suddenly and been able to see these marvelous things, would
you not? And if Jesus was to speak to
you from heaven, I mean, would you not say, Lord, what would
thou have me to do? Would you not understand that
something was going on here that was bigger than you are? And
would you not believe? Well, think of the Apostle John,
the one who leaned on Jesus' breast, the one who loved Jesus. First John chapter one, if you
would turn there with me in your Bible. First John chapter one,
look at verse one. Where it says, that which was
from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have
handled of the word of life. Now isn't that a marvelous verse
of scripture? But this is the testimony of John the Beloved. And he says, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we've seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, 1 John 1, verse 1, which
we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. Now then, he got to touch the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's what I'm saying, he got to touch him. reach out
and touch him. He got to hear him. He got to
see him. He heard him say. in my father's
house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you so. He got to hear that from our
blessed Lord. That's a great verse of scripture.
That's a powerful verse of scripture. Many mansions, I have many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you so. And in Matthew chapter 17, turn back there quickly,
and let me show you what else that this John, the beloved,
who we think was such a outstanding disciple, and he was. But I wanna
show you something here. Chapter 17, let me begin with
verse one. And after six days, Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John, there he is, his brother, and bringeth
them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before
them. And his face did shine as the
sun, and his raiment white as the light. And behold, there
appeared unto them Moses and Elias, talking with them. Then
answered Peter and said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be
here. If thou will, let us make here
three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one for
Elias. I read these verses to show you
that John was present and saw the transfiguration of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He saw the glorified body of
Jesus Christ. Now then, he was a faithful child
of God, I doubt not, but we have not, or have we elevated him
above what we should. My soul, my soul, I feel that
we have. We elevate these characters of
Scripture above what we ought to. We ought to be realistic.
These people seen and heard and touched and their hearts were
affected by this and enabled by this to lay hold of this one. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now next
there's Peter, that loudmouth cussing Peter. It seems that
God gave him two tongues in one ear because he was always talking
more than he listened. He saw Jesus walk on water, you
know. He did. He saw his own mother-in-law
healed. Saw Jesus heal his own mother-in-law
of a fever. He saw the woman with the issue
of blood healed. saw it happen. He was on the
mount and saw, along with John, he saw the glorified body of
the Lord Jesus. I haven't seen that body, have
you? No, you haven't. But we're gonna see it one of
these days, and we're gonna have one just like it. But we didn't see
it, but Peter saw it. I think we exaggerate the honor
that we give unto Peter. Now, Matthew chapter 16, you
remember that Peter When the Lord asked him, said, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? I quoted this verse last
week. And Peter said, well, thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God. And Jesus said to him, blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but
my Father, which is in heaven. Now, does he get the credit for
that? Does he get the credit? No, no, no, no, no. Oh, so he
believed. But Christ was revealed to him
by the Father in heaven. He don't get the credit for that.
He saw Jesus raise the dead. He felt his hands on his feet.
In John 13, verse 8 and 9, remember when Jesus washed the disciples'
feet? And old Peter said, you're not gonna wash my feet. And Jesus
said, if I don't wash your feet, you don't have any part with
me. And so old Peter said, you go ahead and wash my feet. And
not only my feet, but all of me. You just wash me. And so
he felt the hands. Now get this now. He felt the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ on his feet. Peter. And do you
think that this didn't affect him? Bound to have affected him,
this virtue in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Virtue in
those hands. You remember when that woman
was trying to get to Jesus and the crowd was all around him,
pressing against him? And finally she got through and
just touched the hem of his garment. The Lord Jesus stopped. Disciples
he said who touched me the disciples said well, oh all this crowd
around here Why what do you mean who touched you and Jesus said
virtue has gone out of me Somebody touched me and they touched me
with faith and they touched me believing and virtue went out
of me So you see beloved here's this man Peter and the Lord Jesus
took his feet into his hands and washed his feet Now that
is a marvelous thing. He was a blessed man. But I'm
not sure he was one of the more blessed ones. I'm not sure. Because
he had to see, he did see all these things. Then let me say
a word about Elijah. Elijah, he saw fire fall from
heaven, you remember. Fire fell down from heaven. And
cut, he cut the heads off of false prophets. Oh boy, I'm telling
you what, this guy who's living in our day and time, if God put
a bounty on the heads of false prophets, this guy would have
made some money. He cut the heads off of 400 of the prophets of
Baal. And he saw seven, at least seven
miracles in his lifetime. Outstanding miracles, he saw
them. But maybe we have over-exalted
him. Say I were to pray right now
that fire would come down from heaven, either inside or outside
this building, and fire was to come down. A ball of fire just
come down from heaven in answer to my prayer. Would you not believe? Would you not believe? Who wouldn't
believe? Who wouldn't? Is there anybody
here say, I wouldn't believe? Well, I think you would. Now,
I like Elijah. I like him. I do. He's my kind
of man. I like Elijah. And he stood fast,
was faithful when others turned away. But he also saw fire fall
from heaven. He also sought rain. After he
had prayed early, saw the ground dry up and saw the heavens dry
up, prayed again and it rained. He saw many, many things. As
we said, at least seven distinct miracles in his lifetime. And
then Moses. Let's think about him a little
bit. I like Moses. His birth, a blessed birth, and he saw the
burning bush, he saw Aaron's rod, can you imagine that rod?
Can you imagine it turning into a serpent? and uh... that rod that buddy he led two
million jews through the wilderness he saw all the plagues in egypt
he saw the red sea open up can you imagine can you envision
that? standing over there on the red
sea god opening up that red sea and all them egyptians going
down in and then god just burying that whole egyptian army in the
red sea you imagine that? that make a believer out of you?
would that make a believer out of you? well anyway He took up
on Mount Sinai too, you know. And God gave him two tablets
of stone there with all of the Ten Commandments on them. But
wait a minute. Who wouldn't have walked with
God? Who wouldn't, after he saw what
he saw? After he had experienced what he saw? You know, he saw
the water come out of the rock. He saw water come out of a rock. You say, well, I don't know whether
I... I never can imagine such a thing. But it did. it came
out of the rock and so you see he was a highly favored man what
experiences what experiences man had but let me show you this
morning in my view according to our text who the more blessed
ones really are in this world these men were all blessed but
who the more blessed ones really are and I'll not take you to
the upper room anymore to talk to you about Thomas saying, my
Lord and my God, I'll not take you to the Isle of Patmos. I'll
not take you to Matthew 16 where Christ said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God, not to Mount Carmel where a fire
fell or to Sinai where the law was given. I'm not going to take
you there. Our Lord says the blessed ones are those who believe
and have never seen anything. never seen anything. Now let
me give you some examples of who they are. First of all, they're
those that just hear the report of the gospel. Nothing happens. There's no,
there's no, there's no particular, nothing particularly different
about the preacher. Just an old, ordinary, sob, plowing
preacher, or a preacher that's an old drywall hauler, or whatever
he might be. Nothing exceptional about him
at all. But he gives the report of the
gospel. Preaches the gospel. And you just believe it. I just
believe that Christ was crucified for me. I believe that when he
hung on that cross, I was in him. I believe when he suffered
there, that he was suffering on the behalf of my sin and my
guilt. I believe he paid my debt on
that cross. And I believe that God exacted
from him every, every sin I owe to divine justice, and it's been
paid, paid in the fall. I believe that. I just believe
that. I heard the word of God, I believe
it. I believe it. I believe salvation. I believe
He's the all-sufficient Savior. Preacher said He's able to save
to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. I believe it!
I just believe that. Oh, no, no, no, no, there's no,
no, no, no, there was no imitation on Him. Wasn't any pressure put
on by the preacher at the end. Wasn't any altar call, nothing!
I didn't move a muscle, I just heard the gospel, and I believed
it. I just believed it in my heart. I just know that something
happened in here. The old preacher Barnard used
to stay in a hotel sometime when he was off preaching in places,
and he went into a hotel one night after a meeting and started
up in an elevator. And there was a colored fellow
there running the elevator, and he said, You a preacher? Yeah,
I'm a preacher. He said, well, this thing of
salvation, where does it start at? Old Brother Barnard said,
it started with God before the foundation of the world. He said,
yeah, but what happened? I mean, what happens, what's
gonna happen with a man? And he said, well, Brother Barnard
said, something's gotta happen right in here. Gotta happen right
in here. You gotta believe with your heart
unto righteousness. That's what you believe with,
your heart. under righteousness. That's the only way you can get
righteous, you know. I've told you over and over again, you
must believe unto it. You can't work your way into
a righteous state with God. You believe under righteousness.
Nobody is righteous before God except those who believe unto
it. Romans chapter 10, verse 9 and 10. All right, now those
also, now that's the first individual that's more blessed than all
these others that we talked about. Just heard the gospel and believed
it. Just believed it. Preacher didn't
have any unusual gift. He didn't have anything about
him that just make a person believe. God help us if we had a preacher
like that. We'd be in the worst fix we could
possibly be in. Somebody who's so slick, they
can give you the gospel pill and you swallow it and never
even know you swallowed it. First thing you know, you all
go off here and the preacher tells you you're saved. Well,
God help us if we got that kind of a preacher. Well, you don't
have that kind of a preacher. I ain't trying to slip you into
the kingdom of God with a shoe spoon. Trying to get you in without
you knowing you're in. I'm not trying to, I'm trying
to tell you what the facts of the gospel are. Now next, who
we talking about? We're talking about those who
believe, though they've never seen. Those who are subject to
great trials. They have great trials in this
life. many, many difficulties and struggles and trials, family
problems, marriage problems, great troubles in this life,
business problems, all kinds of trials in this life, and yet
no deliverance. They wait. They wait. They wait,
they pray, they wait. They cry to God, they cry to
God. They remind God of His promises
day by day, over and over. And they wait, and they wait,
and there's nothing happens. But they go on believing. Just
go on believing that what God does is right. and that somehow
or other the Lord is going to eventually avenge his elect that
cry unto him day and night and that when the Lord comes he will
find faith on the earth and it's going to be in them. They're
going to believe God until the day that the Lord takes them
out of this world. And then those who see their
life, their days slipping away, their hopes never realized, At
every turn of the road their hopes are dashed for themselves
and for their family and for the church and for the work of
God. They feel that in their day they
will never ever see God pour out floods on dry ground. You'll never see anybody that's
got any that's on fire for God that is a messenger of God, that's
somebody who has the Word of God burning in their soul and
will preach it unrelentlessly and will declare the Word of
God without fear or favor of man. I'll never see it, you say. And more and more we think that
it's about over with. We don't find any preachers.
We don't find anybody. that stand in our day and time.
And our hopes are all dashed. And there's many, many individual
desires that we have in our hearts. And we're just afraid that our
days are about over. Our time is slipping away. We
ain't gonna see it. But what are we gonna do? What
are we gonna do? Well, old Job said, though he
slay me, yet will I trust him. I'll just trust him. And that's
the more blessed one. I haven't seen anything. Haven't
seen any deliverance. But that's the more blessed one.
They have believed and they've never seen anything. Just kept
on believing God. Just kept on trusting Him. Now,
there are also those who are sick and afflicted unto death. They've got an incurable disease.
They're a believer. No cure, no relief. Pain. Live with it day and night. Know
that the only relief they're going to get is in death. Only
relief they're going to get is when they start administering
the morphine at the end. Right at the end. Right down
at the end. Get no relief. No relief. Sick. No hope of recovery. No hope. Facing certain eternity. But what are you going to do?
You're going to keep believing God. That's what you're going
to do if you're one of God's elect. You keep believing Him. You just
trust God. Say, I just put this old body in your hands, Lord.
Gotta lay it in your hands. My time's in your hands. Whatever
you do with me, it's alright. I just leave it with you. Just
leave it with you. That's the more blessed ones. They never
see no care. When nobody come along with anything
to help them, they just kept believing God to the end. Keep
on trusting. That's the more blessed one.
And oh my soul, if we can come to that. This blessedness, we
must believe it, is attainable. It is attainable. We must be
convinced that it is possible for us to believe, though we
do not see. First of all, God deserves to
be believed. You agree with that? Apart from every other consideration,
His own personal character is such that He ought to be believed,
whether we're ever deliberate or not. Whether we ever see anything
we want to see or not. that God ought to be believed.
For our part, we must be determined that if all of our senses were
to contradict God, we must deny every one of our senses and sooner
believe ourselves to be out of our minds than to believe that
God could ever lie. God will not lie. He cannot. His nature won't permit him to
do it. It's not that he won't lie, brother. It's that he cannot
lie. His nature will not allow it.
And I desire to feel that in every emotion of my spirit, every
throb of my heart, every thought of my brain, and if there's ever
anything that is contrary to the plain revealed truth of God,
I will count myself a fool and a madman and I'll reckon God
to be true. Let God be true and every man
a liar. Let it be that way. The saints
of God trusted in God. In old times, was he true to
them? Trace the record from Noah to the present hour. See what
it proves. Has he said anything he's not done? Has he failed
to keep his word? Has it ever been shown that it's
a foolish thing for a man to believe God? No! You believe
God, you'll never be confounded. Believe God. Was there ever a
man who truly believed God, who by so doing was made a fool in
God's sight? No! Maybe in the world's sight,
but not in God's sight. No, there's no such case, and
there never will be one. God is ever faithful, God is
ever sure. He deserves to be trusted, although
you cannot see Him, He deserves to be trusted. The history of
His whole church proves that He's worthy to be trusted, and
your own personal history proves it too. God is worthy of trust. Lastly, and I'll hurry here to
a conclusion. Well, why is it blessed to believe
when you cannot see? Why is it? Well, first of all,
because it's a sure mark of a spiritual and renewed mind. That's your
mark of it. If you can believe and never
saw anything stimulate or to assist you in believing, it's
certain, it's evidence that God's visited you and that you have
a spiritual mind and a renewed mind. Now, some who saw the Lord
Jesus physically, well, they said, crucify him, crucify him. We'll not have this man to rule
over us. But those who believe on him,
they love him. They adore Him. They bow their
knee to King Jesus. He's their Lord and their King. They worship Him, and that's
because they have a changed heart. They have a spiritual and a renewed
mind. But if any truly believes savingly,
it's a sure-marking evidence that they're a child of God and
are no longer in spiritual darkness, but have been brought out into
the light and made meat for the kingdom of heaven. Look at the
description of the people of God which is given by Peter in
1 Peter 1 verses 8 and 9. Listen to what he says, this
is a beautiful, beautiful, here are two verses, listen to it.
Whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him
not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation
of their souls. Now isn't that a marvel? So that
the people who have received the salvation of their souls
are those who love the one that they have never seen. Never seen
him, but they love and rejoice with joy unspeakable and full
of glory. So we may conclude that we're
a child of God, And we make certain of our election and of our adoption
into the Lord's family if we can truly say, I'm one of those
who have not seen the Lord Jesus, and yet I have believed Him.
Now we can say to Him, as the poet said, I love thee dearest
Lord, and will. Unseen, but not unknown. I do know the Lord, and so I
love you dear Lord. I love you. Next, that a believer
is truly blessed because his faith is proof that his heart
is right towards God. I do not know any better evidence
that two persons are agreed with one another than that they fully
trust each other. And when you trust God in spite
of all outward appearances and surrounding circumstances, it
is proof to yourself that you're on good terms with God. You're
not arguing with Him. You say, Lord, things don't look
right to me. Lord, I sure wish things were
different. But you're not going to argue with God. Lord, if I'm
wrong, then you just reckon me to agree with you. This thing
don't look right to me, but you just reckon that I'm in 100%
agreement with you. You just go on, just like I agree
with everything you've done, and everything you have done,
and everything you're going to do. Just reckon that it's so,
but I agree with you. You know my flesh, and you know
my old flesh is at enmity against the law of God, not subject to
the law of God, neither it can be. And you know, Lord, that
there's always murmuring and complaining in here. But you
just go ahead and do your will, because what you do is right,
and take no account of my murmuring and complaining. Go on and do
exactly as you would do. Now that's the kind of people
that worship God. That's the kind of people that's believing
God. God's right. Do what you will, Lord, with
your own. So then you're walking in fellowship with him. And that's
one of the most blessed facts in your whole history. If you've
ever walked with God a minute, that's one of the most blessed
facts. If you ever agreed with God five seconds in your life,
that's one of the most blessed times of your life. You agreed
with God. Isn't that something? How carnal
and wicked we are Very seldom were we ever in agreement with
him. Now you may be chastened, and you may be of heavy heart,
and you may have to come to the place where old Joe did when
he said, though he slay me yet will I trust him. But without
faith, it's impossible to please God, and he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he's a rewarder of those
who diligently seek him. This is acceptable with God,
that you believe him, that you trust him. Faith brings comfort
to our soul in this life. Brings comfort to your soul.
Most saints of God will tell you that they were never happier
in their whole life as they were when they had nothing to trust
in but God. The barn was empty. The bank
account was gone. Everything looked like it was
all over. The brook dried up. Ravens no
more come back. Have nothing to trust except
God. And they trusted God. That's
when they were the happiest. when we have been in the water and
our feet wouldn't touch the bottom and we had to swim. That's when
we're the most blessed. That's when we had the most comfort.
When we had to swim, wasn't there anything we could do? Trust God
and swim! Now the best hours of my life,
and I give this as a personal testimony, have been those times
when I may have been thought very rash, unwise, imprudent,
but in which I have been enabled just to believe God and to leave
everything in His hands. Go to sleep. Just rest. Go to
sleep. Just leave it there. You ought
to be doing something about that. You ought to be doing something
about that. You ought to be up and about and getting... Why
don't you get to work on this thing? Just leave it with the
Lord. Rest in the Lord. Trust God. Be still my soul. Be still my
soul. Now, we're very likely coming
to a time, and I'm going to hurry right here and close, when we
shall need to believe without the use of our eyes. Now you
follow me. If Christ does not come back
soon, some of us are going to die, and we're going to be planted
in the grave. That's right. You'll have my
funeral one day. That's right. I don't know who
to get you. Right now, who'd tell you to call? I don't know,
but somebody will come along. Maybe you'll have to read a scripture
or something. But now, if our faith depends
on our eyesight, what will we do when our eyes are in the grave?
Well, we do. You cannot take these eyes to
heaven with you. And everybody that I ever buried still had
their eyes on their body. Everybody. We will commune with Christ in
a disembodied state, without our sense, our senses, and without
an intervention of the flesh. We're going to be communing with
God one of these days, and the body's not going to be involved
with it. Then do so right now. Do so right now by faith. Listen
to me. There are angels in this place
this morning, flying to and fro in this building while we're
preaching. You believe that? I believe it
with all my heart. Now I cannot see them. I can't
see. It's my eyes that make me blind. That's right, they're here. The
angels are listening to what's being said this morning. And
I believe that when the truth of God is expounded and preached,
I believe those angels are rejoicing. And they listen. They're moving
about in here. They're in this building. If
I didn't have any eyes, I could see them. could see. Now it's
my eyes that makes me blind. I'll see them when my eyes are
put out in death. I'll see the angels of God. Don't
you expect to? I do. Our Lord is here. He said
he wouldn't be long ago. I believe the Lord's here this
morning. I cannot see him. It is because
of these poor eyes. When they're gone, then I'll
see him. I'll see him face to face. These
eyes and ears are encumbrances. Is that alright? They're encumbrances. The poet
said, then shall I see and hear and know all I desire or wish
below and every power find sweet employ in that eternal world
of joy. Gonna see all that I wanted to
when I was in this life. We're soon to live in a world
where there will be no hands or eyes or ears until the resurrection
morning. We're gonna go there. Then we'll
get our bodies back again. But until then, we are to be
blessed at all. It must be in the way our Lord
says in the text, by faith without sight. We got to trust God. Now to you who do not know whether
you're converted or not, don't wait till you hear a voice, have
a dream, or see a vision. Romans 10, the verses I was talking
about a little earlier, says that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. Don't sit around and say, I gotta
see a vision. Something gotta happen unusual.
The gospel is preached. Believe on it. Say sink or swim,
heaven or hell, I'm gonna believe what I've heard about the Son
of God, I'm gonna believe it. By the grace of God, and I believe
if you take that attitude, I believe the Spirit of God's working in
you. And those of you who do not believe, consider what I
said, write a letter to Jesus. Tell him I will not believe. You can give it to me if you
want to. If you tell him, you won't believe unless you see
something. Your soul will be damned to eternity. You must
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ or perish. May God be pleased
to own his word. Let's pray. Father, in the name
of Jesus, enable us each one to, Lord, to hide this message
away, Lord, in our hearts. May it feed our souls in the
coming week. May it encourage us. May it give
us, our Father, the wisdom that we need to walk. And above all,
oh Lord, we remember the words of the disciples who said, we
believe, help thou our unbelief. Oh God. And you said to me, John,
will they believe without seeing? And I said, oh Lord, thou knowest,
thou knowest. May everyone believe, that's
here this morning, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray it in His
all-powerful name. Amen.