Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In John chapter 20, verse 24,
we read, But Thomas, one of the 12, he was one of the 12 apostles,
called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. This is
talking about our Lord's appearance after his resurrection to the
apostles. He appeared to them and spoke
to them, and Thomas was not there. We don't know why he wasn't there,
but he was not there. The other disciples therefore
said unto him, we have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, except
I shall see in his hand 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. I've entitled this message, Who
was Thomas' twin? Now, someone may ask, why are
you asking a question like that? Well, Thomas is Aramic for twin. Didymus is Greek for twin. It seems that Thomas had a twin. We don't know if he was a male
or a female, but Thomas had a twin, and I know who that twin is.
If you're a believer, it's you. If I'm a believer, it's me. Thomas is our twin. Now, in word association, if
I mention the name Thomas, what is the first word that comes
to your mind? I dare say it would be doubting
Thomas. That's what Thomas is known for,
the disciple who doubted. Well, we know from Matthew's
account, Matthew chapter 28, that they all doubted even when
they saw the Lord Jesus Christ in the flesh. They worshiped
and the scripture says some doubted. I don't know why the word some
is put in the translation because it's not in the original. Even
while they looked upon him, they doubted. Now, somebody says,
how could that be? If you're a believer, you understand
how that can be. You know what that man meant
who said, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. That is always
the case with a believer. They have a nature that believes,
and they still have the old nature that does not believe. But when we think of Thomas,
we think of doubting Thomas. And we give him that name from
this. Verse 25, I've already read it.
The other disciples therefore said unto him, we've seen the
Lord. And they had. But he said unto them, except
I shall see in his hands the print of the nails. Do you know
the Lord Jesus Christ still has his scars in heaven right now? When John saw him as the lamb
having been slain, that doesn't mean he saw him as a lamb with
wool and horns and so on. He's the lamb of God, the lamb
of God's providing as a sacrifice for his people, and he still
has those scars. And the reason he still has those
scars is because in heaven, we won't remember what it's like
to be a sinner. We won't have any experience
of sin, but when we look upon him and see his scars, if we're
in heaven, we'll know the only reason we're there is him. Those scars will remind us of
that. He is the reason we're there.
But Thomas said, except I shall see in his hand 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. I need to have physical, empirical,
tangible evidence for me to believe. I've got to have an experience
before I will believe. I've got to touch, I've got to
see, I've got to feel, I've got to experience. before I will
believe. I will not believe unless I'm
given these things. Now this reminds me that unbelief
is a choice. If you don't believe, it's because
you choose not to believe. You don't choose to believe.
You only believe when you have no other choice, no other option. I think of what the Lord said
to His disciples in John chapter 6 when He saw the multitudes
going away. He said, Will you also go away? Peter said, To
whom shall we go? It's not like we have any option.
He wants to go back to the law, go back to works. To whom shall
we go? Unbelief is a choice. Faith is because you have no
choice. So right now, In Thomas's mind,
he has a choice. Now, Thomas is listed in the
four formal lists of the apostles, but only in John are we given
some biographical information about Thomas, and we can learn
something about him and learn something about what faith is
and what unbelief is through this man, Thomas. Now, the first
time he's mentioned, is in John chapter 11. Now that is the story
of the Lord Jesus Christ raising Lazarus from the dead. And after
the Lord raised Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders
plotted from that time forth to put him to death, because
they didn't want men to believe on him, because if they believed
on him, that would take away their place of authority. So
they plotted his death from that day forward. Now, there was a
man named Lazarus, lived very near to Jerusalem. And the last
time that the Lord had been in Jerusalem, they attempted to
stone him. They hated him. And he left Jerusalem. And now, in order to get back
to Lazarus, after he's been told that he's dead, he's going to
go back to Jerusalem. And the disciples were very concerned
about this. As a matter of fact, we read
in verse 8 of John 11, when he said, we're going to go back
after Lazarus, his disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews
of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou there again? He
thought, you'll be put to death if you go back there. Well, he's
going back, and then we read when he lets them know he's going
back after Lazarus. Verse 16 of John 11, then said
Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let
us also go. that we may die with Him. Now, Thomas was very sincere
when he said that. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, if he goes back
there to die, I want to identify with him and I want to die with
him. And he says this out of love
to his person. He says to all the other disciples,
let's go die with him. Now, while I admire that, I can
remember somebody else who spoke that way. His name was Peter.
Peter said, and believe this when he said it, he said, I am
both ready to go to prison with thee and to die with thee. That's when the Lord told him,
you're going to deny three times that you know me. Peter said,
no, I'm willing to go to prison with you, and I'm willing to
die with you. And I have no doubt that Peter
meant that from the depths of his heart, but we know what Peter
did. Peter denied he even knew the Lord. And Thomas is no different. Where was Thomas during the crucifixion? He was in hiding. Now, he speaks
very boldly here, and we admire that, but the fact of the matter
is, Thomas had way too high an opinion of himself. He should
have said, Lord, if you give us grace, will die with you. If you leave us to ourself and
we're left to our own power and our own strength, we will fail
you. We will deny you. We certainly
won't identify with you because he would have had enough understanding
of who he really was that he wouldn't have been speaking in
such lofty terms about himself. Lord, I want to die with you
right now by your grace. And if you give me the grace
to, I will go with you. But if I'm left to myself, I
know what I will do. Now, in Thomas, when you think
of his unbelief, the first thing I see is Thomas had too high
an opinion of himself. Now, what is meant by that? The
Apostle Paul made this statement in Galatians chapter 6, verse
3. When a man thinketh himself to
be something, When he is nothing, he deceives himself. Now, let me repeat that, and
I want you to listen to it, and think about what Paul is saying.
When a man thinketh himself to be something, when he is nothing,
he deceiveth himself. Now what does it mean to think
you're nothing? Does that mean you have a real
low self-image and you don't have any confidence in yourself
and you don't have any self-esteem and you just look at yourself
in the darkest of terms? That's really not what that's
talking about. When you see yourself as nothing, that means you see
yourself as nothing but sin. You do not have anything to bring
to the table in this thing of salvation. You have no righteousness. You have no merits. You have
nothing that could recommend you to God. Now, when you think
yourself to be something, you think you have some strength
and something to recommend you to God. When you see yourself
as nothing, that means you see that you have nothing to bring
to the table, that in and of yourself, you're nothing but
sin. Now, when you're nothing but
sin, Christ is all to you. It's easy to trust His righteousness
only when you have none of your own. Now, what Thomas demonstrated
at this time was way too high a view of himself. He should
have seen, I'm so sinful, I'm so weak, that I know I will fail
the Lord unless He prevents it and preserves me by His grace.
Now understand this. This is a great hindrance to
faith. Too high an opinion of yourself. If you or I see ourselves as
anything but full of sin, we have too high an opinion of ourself,
an opinion based on falsehood. If that's what you think of yourself,
if you think of yourself too highly, you're believing a lie
about yourself. It's not the truth. Now, the
second time we read of Thomas is in John chapter 14. The Lord
says to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to
prepare a place for you. And he's talking about going
to the cross to prepare this place. The reason I'm going to
have a place in heaven is because of what he did in my behalf on
Calvary Street when he accomplished my salvation, when he put away
my sins and gave me his righteousness. And if I go and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am, there you may be also. And whither I go, you know,
and the way you know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest. How can we know the way? Now,
Thomas was saying what everybody else was thinking. When the Lord
said, you know where I'm going, and you know the way I'm going,
Thomas is saying, I don't have any idea what you're talking
about. I don't know what you mean. And I understand that.
I would have been saying the same thing. But through Thomas
making this statement, which demonstrated his ignorance of
Christ, his way too low view of Christ, the Lord gives us
this glorious statement. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Now, in Thomas' speech, we don't
know where you're going. How can we know the way? He was
demonstrating far too low of view and opinion of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And he says, Thomas, I am the
way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Now if I said to you, I'm the
way to God, what a blasphemous, impious, irreverent, wicked statement
that I would be making. I'm the way to God? Any man,
mere man, that would make a statement like that would be making a horribly
evil statement that just isn't true. But when Jesus Christ says,
I am the way, every believer knows He is the way. He's God's way. HE IS THE ONLY
WAY. THERE ARE NO OTHER WAYS TO GOD
BUT BY HIM. AND THAT DOESN'T MEAN WHEN HE
SAYS, I'M THE WAY TO THE FATHER, THAT DOESN'T MEAN YOU COME ALONGSIDE
HIM OR PLEAD HIM. IT MEANS YOU'RE IN HIM. AND YOU
COME BY HIM. WHEN HE COMES TO THE FATHER,
YOU COME TO THE FATHER. AND YOU KNOW THAT'S THE ONLY
WAY YOU CAN COME, NOT BY YOUR WORKS OR BY YOUR RELIGION OR
BY YOUR EFFORTS, BUT SIMPLY BY HIM. WHEN HE COMES TO THE FATHER,
YOU'RE IN HIM. YOU COME TO THE FATHER. way to
the Father. He's the sure way. If He brings
you the Father, you're there. He's the free way. He that hath
no money, let him come buy wine and milk without money and without
price. He's the free way. Now, you have
to pay to be on this way. I am the way. I'm the truth. The truth is that I'm the only
way to the Father. I am the life. That means His
life, His perfect life is my life before God. That's the righteousness
that He worked out. When I stand before God on Judgment
Day, it's called justification. When I stand before God on Judgment
Day, I'm going to stand before Him without sin. He is the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Him. So, Thomas had too low a view
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way to the Father. Now, here's the third thing I
see about Thomas. First, he had too high an opinion of himself
And that was from having too low opinion of Christ. The lower
your opinion of Christ is, the higher your opinion of yourself
will be. And it's the other way around, too. The higher view
you have of Christ, the lower view you'll have of yourself.
You know, the reason people don't see their sinfulness is they
don't know who Jesus Christ is. If you know who Jesus Christ
is, you'll know you're a sinner, and you'll know you're weak and
without strength. Now, the third thing that I would
notice about Thomas is found in our text in John chapter 20.
Look what he says in verse 25. Except I shall see in his hand
the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe. In Thomas, we see one who had
far too high a view of experience. His personal experience. I've
got to see this. I've got to experience this.
I've got to touch this. I've got to feel this, or I will
not believe. Somebody may be thinking, oh,
I could believe that I was saved if Christ died. Oh, no. I believe
in the success of Christ's death, but I could believe I was saved
if I felt more. If I knew more, if I experienced
more victory over sin in my life, if I had more joy in my life,
I could believe I was saved. That's not believing in Christ,
that's believing in yourself. That's putting experience over
Him. Thomas had to have this experience,
I need to feel this, I need to see this, I need to experience
this, or I will not believe. Now look at the way the Lord
replied to him. In verse 26, After eight days again his disciples
were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors
being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto
you. Then said he to Thomas. You see, he heard when Thomas
said that eight days before, he'd heard that. And he says
to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach
hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and be not faithless,
but believing. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, my Lord and my God. Now that is the answer of everyone
upon the revelation of his person. When the Lord Demonstrated to
Thomas who he is, Thomas said, my Lord and my God. Jesus said unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed, blessed are they
that have not seen and yet have believed. Now, faith is not what
you see. Faith is what you believe. What
do you mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. I'm
justified before God because of what Christ did for me. That
means I stand before God without guilt. Now, I cannot see that
by looking at myself. I'm still a sinner, and you are
too. But I believe because God tells me in his word that the
one that believes is justified. I believe that I am. I can't
see that I'm perfectly holy before God. I look at myself and I see
nothing but sin. But I believe I am because it
says by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
I believe I am. I can't see that I'm glorified.
Yet Romans 8, 29 says, Whom He justified, them He also glorified. And that's not talking about
in prophecy, a prophetic event that's going to happen in the
future. It's talking about right now. Every believer is glorified in
Him. I'm glorified. Everything I need
for heaven, I already have, and I already am. Now, do I see that? No. Do I believe it with all
my heart? Now, the next thing that I would
point out about Thomas is who was the one disciple that was
not there when the Lord appeared? Thomas. Now, he might have had
a good reason in his own mind, but he was not there when the
Lord appeared. Now, let me say this about public
worship, coming to the assembly of God's saints, leaving your
home, and coming and hearing. Now, I'm thankful for this opportunity
on TV to preach the gospel, and I hope you hear and benefit from
it. But if you would just stay home to watch TV when you could
be hearing the gospel of God's grace and meeting with God's
people, you're wrong. Public assembly of God's saints
is where he promises his presence. Where two or three, this is the
Lord's Word, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them. And to stay home when you could
be with God's people, hearing the gospel is wrong. Thomas was
wrong. And somebody says, well, maybe
he had a good excuse. Well, maybe he did. But if the Lord is there,
I want to be there. And Thomas was not there. Faith cometh by hearing. You
can't hear when you're not there. And so Thomas had too low a view
of public worship. Now, I want to end this message
by contrasting this. Now, Thomas had too high an opinion
of himself. He had too low opinion of Christ.
He had too high an opinion of his own personal subjective experience,
and he had too low an opinion of worship. Now in Matthew chapter
8, we read of one where the Lord said of this man, verily I say
unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel.
The Lord said of this man, this is the greatest faith I have
ever seen. And he's the only one that is
able to judge something like this. Somebody says, well, he's
a man of great faith. Well, maybe he is, maybe he's
not. I don't know. The Lord knows. The Lord knows how to judge who
has great faith and who doesn't. We're not able to make that judgment,
but he is. And he says, this is the greatest
faith I've ever seen. Now, that catches my attention. What was it about this man where
the Lord would say, you've got the greatest faith I've ever
seen? As a matter of fact, he actually marveled at it. Well,
let's look and see. Verse 5 of Matthew chapter 8,
when Jesus was entering into Capernaum, there came unto him
a centurion, he was not a Jew, he was a Roman centurion, beseeching
him and saying, Lord, my servant, lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. This man had a very low opinion
of himself, and that low opinion of himself was the reality of
his own sinfulness. I'm not worthy. I'm like Peter. When he saw who the Lord was,
he said, Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. You don't want
to have anything to do with somebody like me. That's the way this
Roman centurion was. He had a low opinion of himself. But look what he said. Lord,
I'm not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak
the word only. My servant shall be healed, for I'm a man under
authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, go,
and he goes. To another comes, he comes. And to my servant,
do this, and he does it. I understand authority. I know
what it is to give a command, and it's obeyed. And I know that
you have all authority, and whatever you will takes place. I know that. He had a high view
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed Jesus Christ was
the Lord. He believed He was God. He believed that He had
absolute sovereign authority and whatsoever He willed would
take place. Now, the next thing I would notice
about this man is that he didn't have a high view of personal
experience. He had a, look what he said.
Jesus saith unto him, I'll come and heal him. The sin-torn answered
and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my
roof. Speak the word only. That's all that's needed. I don't
need you to come under my roof. I don't need you to make some
kind of show. All you gotta do is speak it,
and my servant shall be healed. Now, if the Lord was gonna come,
I'd want him to come under my roof. What an experience that
would be. Can you imagine the Lord being
in your home? But this man says, All I need is for you to will
it, and it will take place. And notice this in verse 5, And
when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion
beseeching him. He came to where the Lord was. Now listen to me. You know where
the Lord is? He still walks among the seven
golden candlesticks, which are the churches. He still is where
two or three are gathered together in his name. He had a high view
of being where the Lord is, of worship. Now, Thomas, He had
a low opinion of Christ, too low, too high an opinion of himself,
too high a view of experience and too low a view of public
worship. And this man was the opposite. This man who had the
greatest faith in Israel, he had a low view of himself. a
high view of Christ, a low view of experience, and a high view
of worship. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church right
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God will be pleased to make himself known to you. That's our prayer.
Amen. ♪ Tis not that I did choose thee To receive a copy of the sermon
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