[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the preaching ministry of the Agopic Baptist Church in George, South Africa.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good to see you here today.
[SPEAKER_00]: I invite you to open your vibles to John chapter 20.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll be looking at the last section from verse 24 to verse 29.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd like to read beginning there in verse 24 in John chapter 20 in beginning of verse 24.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe eight days later.
[SPEAKER_00]: His disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then He said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put your hand and sorry, and put out your hand and place it in my side.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do not disbelieve, but believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas answered him,
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Father, as we come to Your Word this morning, I pray that you would unite our hearts to worship you.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we hear Your Word, Father may, our hearts, minds be open to receive Your Word into a
[SPEAKER_00]: and use your word to encourage us, to harmonious, to accomplish your purpose, Father, in each heart this is day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, some of you can remember the days when you didn't have a GPS on your phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you had to actually use a paper map to plan your trip.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as one of those occasions several years ago back in the States, this year and I were traveling somewhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we were headed out on the expressway.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I headed all trip all planned out.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I got distracted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't make an exit onto another freeway or expressway when I was supposed to, and so we were just traveling along, making good time, but going in the wrong direction, and we started seeing some signs and realized that we were in the wrong place, and so there was nothing
[SPEAKER_00]: in the other direction, back to where we had left the right path.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in this passage today, we see Thomas on the wrong path.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's on a path of unbelief and he's there for a whole week,
[SPEAKER_00]: to meet with them again, or to appear to them again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But God did come in His grace, and He sets Thomas back on the right path, the path of faith and trust.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in so doing, we see one of the great confessions of faith in this gospel,
[SPEAKER_00]: my Lord and my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, there may be some here this morning that are on the wrong path.
[SPEAKER_00]: A detour you could say of the path of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe someone is not yet put their faith in trust in the Lord Jesus Christ or Savior.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this morning that this is a John's purpose for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we'll wait till next week to get into John's purpose statement from verse 30 and 31, but it is the Lord's purpose that you might not be unbelieving but believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that statement there in verse 29 is, in fact, the command that the Lord says in the first
[SPEAKER_00]: So we read in verse 29 to Amas was not with the other disciples when Jesus came to them on that resurrection Sunday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're not told where Thomas was.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, where was he and why wasn't he with the other disciples?
[SPEAKER_00]: We just don't know, and he may have had a good reason for not being there, but we can imagine that he wasn't where he should have been, at least where he needed to be.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we find ourselves in that situation where, for whatever reason, we're not where
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, in times of doubt and discouragement, sometimes we just want to be alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: But usually, that's not the best for us, it's not what we feel like, but it's not really what we need.
[SPEAKER_00]: As believers in Christ, we need other believers that are walking with the Lord and can encourage us,
[SPEAKER_00]: can help us to think biblically because sometimes in our troubles and our discouragement we just don't think very biblically.
[SPEAKER_00]: We begin to become self-focused and think about all of our problems and troubles and it becomes magnified in our own thinking or we just imagine the worst and don't really see the reality and so we need each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, whatever reason Thomas wasn't there with the others.
[SPEAKER_00]: He missed out on the great blessing, didn't he?
[SPEAKER_00]: He missed out on seeing the Lord as the other disciples did.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when he got back together with them, they're all excited.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they're telling him how that they had seen the risen Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Thomas is he's not more inclined to believe their testimony.
[SPEAKER_00]: then they were inclined to believe the testimony of the women.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he just would not be convinced.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the statement that we see in verse 25, at least in part be the result of becoming weary with their trying to convince him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, if you've been there, verses, you just don't want to believe something,
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see Thomas, in my mind, it's kind of he kind of blurt's this out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I doubt it was a pre-planned kind of statement.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it seems that
[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas had allowed it's hard to be hardened against the possibility of Christ's resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: And from that statement, down through the centuries, he's become known as doubting Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's probably a harsh assessment of Thomas because in reality, I doubt that he was more doubting than the other disciples were.
[SPEAKER_00]: because we see similar kinds of reactions to the news of the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a couple of other times we hear from Thomas, just briefly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what does this in John chapter 11?
[SPEAKER_00]: And you will remember that occasion when Lazarus had died,
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus had purposely waited where He was until He had died, and then He says, we're going to visit and going there to the family, but they lived in that region of Judeo where they had just come from and the Jews there had tried to kill Jesus or wanted to kill Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then in verse 16, Thomas speaks up and we have the record of him saying to the other disciples, let us also go that we might die with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can see from just that statement that Thomas was loyal to the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean he was willing to risk his life to be with Jesus and to return there with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that statement also reveals, in Thomas, a pessimistic of attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, at this stage, they've been with Christ long enough to see the power of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, for him, he might be somebody just, we're reading between lines a bit, but he may be somebody who just assumes the worst until he's proven different.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, we can relate to that sometimes, can't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think about Eor, the donkey, and we need the poop tails, and how that, some of you might not know Eor about him, but if you have kids or grandkids, you probably do.
[SPEAKER_00]: friend, but he's also someone who's usually downcast and pessimistic about whatever the situation is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you or we'll say things like, I was so upset, I forgot to be happy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or he would say, it could be worse, not sure how.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it could be, you know, it's that kind of attitude, now you might be able to identify with the ear or you might be totally on the other end of the emotional spectrum in your normal attitude about things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But regardless, we all need to be careful, don't worry, we all need to be on our guard against doubt.
[SPEAKER_00]: And against the danger of having an unbelieving attitude towards God and God's Word, it is a danger.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want us to think about, I've listed three, as I thought about this, three causes of unbelief, three causes of unbelief.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there could be many others, I mean, there could be things as simple as just health,
[SPEAKER_00]: problems or emotional strains in our life, the can factor into that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I've listed some of your, I think, our real problems.
[SPEAKER_00]: And first of all, I want us to think about the lack of understanding of God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you could also, in this category, list misinformation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you can be sincere.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you're desire to believe and follow God, but you could be misinformed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You could have learned things that are just not accurate.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have seen the disciples really fitting into this category, they are believers, but they're on the journey of belief and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: they just don't understand yet fully.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who Christ is and what He came to do up not until after the resurrection that they're just now beginning to grasp who Christ is in his purpose and coming to die for them and to die for us as our Redeemer.
[SPEAKER_00]: to obey God's Word, the hardest submission to the Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to add that and make sure you get that point.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just knowing more about God's Word.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's as we learn that we intentionally purposely seek to obey it and to apply it to our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, we can become like the Pharisees.
[SPEAKER_00]: but they didn't really intend to obey it, not from the heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we do grow in the knowledge and obedience of God's Word, we grow in our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Word of God becomes to us a insulation, you could say, from unbelief, it protects us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you think back to John 17, where Jesus there and His high-poreasely prayer talked about how the
[SPEAKER_00]: and he prays that the Lord would sanctify them, or set them apart in the Word of God or by the Word of God, to go back to early in Christ's ministry in John chapter 6.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we read there in John chapter 6 that many had turned away from following Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Jesus was teaching some things that were hard to understand, things that were hard to believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 67, Jesus says to the 12, do you also want to go?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love Peter's answer and verse 68 and 69.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we know as we have the record of things that happen in things that even Peter would later say that he doesn't fully understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's growing and he's learning.
[SPEAKER_00]: is that the Lord is the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that He's going to follow Him, He's going to believe Him, even though He doesn't understand everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we think about our own situation with the full revelation of God's Word, the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, we have so much more don't we?
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the completed revelation that God has given us,
[SPEAKER_00]: on paper that we can personally have and refer to, and we have all the tools, we have you know, sermons that we can listen to on the podcast and the different means of media that are available, and we have commentaries and study aids and all kinds of ways in which we can grow and our understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so God has given us plenty evidence to believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, there's some things that are still difficult to fully understand, to fully grasp from about who God is and what He is doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it requires from us a degree of humility.
[SPEAKER_00]: It requires us a humility to acknowledge that we don't know something.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't fully understand something, I mean that we have that desire, and it is a good desire to know what God has written to us and what He's doing, but God has chosen not to reveal everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is God and we are not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we must acknowledge that although we do not understand we believe because God has said it is so.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's times, there's things in the Scripture that can seem to be contradictory in our minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: For God has clearly said both things, and so we should hold firmly to both things that God has said.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we need to determine to trust God, even though we don't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this brings me to a second area of a problem for us or a cause of unbelief.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is intellectual pride, pride in general, but intellectual pride in particular can be a real problem because pride and faith just don't go together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Our pride keeps us from trusting God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And our pride can cause us to subtly resist God's word.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resist God's will, and it can cause people to have an attitude of, well, I just know better.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may not say it that way, but that's the way we can think.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just know better.
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of what we see in black and white, or regardless of what we are taught from God's Word, we just know better.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we need to be on our guard against that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to keep our hearts humble before God, acknowledging that this is what I believe is right.
[SPEAKER_00]: But humility will lead us to believe and understand that I could be wrong.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's some godly believers throughout the centuries that have believed otherwise.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so our hearts need to be open to trust God even when we don't understand.
[SPEAKER_00]: Proverbs 16, verse 18, is truly one of those Proverbs that we need to remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pride goes before destruction in a haughty spirit before stumbling.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you see someone who's just, is, you know, prideful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And haughty in the way, they may have truth, they may even have correct doctrine.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you're haughty about it, if you if you're full of pride because you know something Then the scriptures tells us that what's following that person is A stumble a fall Because it it doesn't lead us to follow God even though we have the truth We can go down the wrong path of unbelief
[SPEAKER_00]: with because of pride and what pride can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we must be on guard against this enemy of our faith, the sin of pride is always ready to take the upper hand in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: And James, in James chapter four, speaks of this, reality of who we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says in verse six, James four six,
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, it says, referring to the Scripture, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I'm sure you're with me and you want to be on the right side of that equation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be on the side that receives grace from God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not on the side that God opposes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we want to be pursuing humility and be on our guard against pride.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want to mention just a third thing, and that is living in unrepentant sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You see, a person comes to faith in Lord Jesus Christ through repentance and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repentance and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is a characteristic of a true believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we continue in repentance and faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not like we need to be saved again, but it is, it's repenting of our sins and continuing to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this in the scripture that as believers, this is something that we continue in, that we are continuing to seek the Lord
[SPEAKER_00]: from anything that just pleases him, anything that is opposed to him, so that we might have fellowship with him and live in the joy of a relationship with him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Hebrews, Slater, there's several warnings about those that would turn away from the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Hebrews chapter three and verse 12 to 14,
[SPEAKER_00]: We read, see to it, brothers, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, that falls away from the living God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called today, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: And truly, sin has the capacity to deceive us, doesn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: If we entertain sin, if we do not turn away from it and confess it very quickly, we can be deceived to our own sin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking that somehow it's excused, or that it's justified, and our sinfulness, we have the capacity to even say,
[SPEAKER_00]: He continues there in verse 14, before we have become protectors of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say we will be protectors of Christ, but we have become protectors of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end, and we speak about the perseverance of the saints.
[SPEAKER_00]: In other words, persevering in faith to the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's certainly true as believers, we can go through some ups and downs, and we can go through some times of turning away from God in disobedience or times where we are struggling in our faith, but the genuine believer is characterized by repentance in faith, turning
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, the genuine believer may go through times of doubt, discouragement, but a true believer will persevere in faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I want to look at the second part of this command that the Lord gives here, and that
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you noticed how much Jesus cares for the individual?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can see it in his post-resurrection appearances.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord certainly cares for the church collectively, for all believers, but He also cares for each one individually.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Jesus came,
[SPEAKER_00]: And made his appearances during those 40 days.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the record of some of those where he appears to groups up to 500 at one time, but he also appeared to individuals, didn't he?
[SPEAKER_00]: He came in and we saw how he appeared to Mary.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we read of how he appeared to Peter, and then the two on the road to Amas, and then here to Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: The following week he comes to the whole group there of the disciples that were in the house together and the scriptures specifically says that the door was closed or locked.
[SPEAKER_00]: But really you can see that he's there for Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because Thomas had a need in the Lord came to him, where he was at,
[SPEAKER_00]: in Medis need, verse 27 says, then he, then he said to Thomas, bring your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand here and put into my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Going back to Christ's prayer in chapter 17, I wanna read there a couple of verses in that prayer, and it really helps us to see the Lord's heart
[SPEAKER_00]: for each of us as his children.
[SPEAKER_00]: You praise from verse 11 and I am no longer in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, they themselves are in the world and I come to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name which you have given me that they may be one, even as we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: While I was with them, I kept them in your name,
[SPEAKER_00]: And I guarded them and not one of them has perished, but the son of perdition, speaking of Judas.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, so that the scriptures would be fulfilled.
[SPEAKER_00]: But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, so that they may have my joy, full in themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so too, with Thomas, the Lord comes to Him,
[SPEAKER_00]: and helps him in his weakness, and in his doubts.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 28, we see Thomas answering the Lord with that confession, my Lord and my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: From what we see there, what John has recorded for us, Thomas really didn't need all the evidence that he thought he needed, or that he said he needed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We may be reading between the lines of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see Thomas, you know, putting his hands in the nail prints in the scar in the side.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I see him as soon as he sees the Lord, he's like all of his doubts are gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of the requirements that he kind of listed gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord has allowed him to see the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a clear confession of the deity of the Lord that Thomas gives.
[SPEAKER_00]: This Greek word is curious.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's used of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's used to translate the Hebrew word Yahweh, and so in the U.T.S., you see the Lord, the capital AL, is listed there to help us to translate translators, help us to distinguish what it's referenced to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, a period I was also used in a general way, sometimes you'll see the Lord in the Lord case AL.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was used to refer to a master in general.
[SPEAKER_00]: But of the more than 700 times it's used in the New Testament, the vast majority is a reference to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And clearly, the God of the Old Testament, because that is the only scripture they had, the Jews, and the only God that they would acknowledge
[SPEAKER_00]: And we also see here it's used in combination with the word God, and that is the Greek word theos, and it was used in the Greek mind of all the gods, you know, the pantheon of gods that they imagined.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the New Testament and the Scriptures use it of the one and only Creator God.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the Septuagint translates the Hebrew Elohim.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a primary translation of the word Theos, the God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these words together, used together, and the Nutesma, always refer to the God of the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: They always refer to the one and only Creator God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you think about it here, as Thomas makes this declaration,
[SPEAKER_00]: of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, My Lord and my God, for a Jew with their understanding of the Old Testament scriptures, for them to call a man or even an angel for that fact, my Lord and my God would be considered blasphemy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They would never make such a declaration to anyone
[SPEAKER_00]: other than a person they recognize to be the God of the Old Testament and for Jesus to receive such a statement in worship would be blasphemy unless he was truly equal with the yaw way God of the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so John's gospel has come full, full, full circle for us, from his introduction in chapter one, where he says there in verse one, in the beginning, was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also in verse 14, and the word became fleshed, wealth among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: He comes full circle from that declaration now to the confession of Thomas, where we have such a testimony of the full deity of the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to read you a statement from J.C. Riley, you may not know that name, he was an English-conmission bishop of Liverpool some 150 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it kind of gives you an indication of how far the English Church has drifted since then, at least in England and many places as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he writes concerning the deity of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says quote, let us settle it firmly in our minds that the deity of Christ is one of the grand
[SPEAKER_00]: foundation truths of Christianity and let us be willing to go to the stake rather than to let it go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless our Lord Jesus is very God, very God, there is an end of His mediation.
[SPEAKER_00]: His atonement, His advocacy, His priesthood, His whole work of redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: These glorious doctrines are useless
[SPEAKER_00]: For ever, let us bless God that the divinity of our Lord is taught everywhere in Scripture and stands on evidence that can never be overthrown in the quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Such is the command of God to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we look at this passage, He's not only speaking to Thomas, but He speaks to us all, do not be unbelieving, but believing.
[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 29,
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says to Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed, and blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, and that verse I read to is from the New King James, because I want you to see the variation there in how that first part of that phrase is worded.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because you have seen me, you have believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then some of the translations is a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have you believed?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it can go either way.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a way of translating the actual Greek text.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I tend to work to believe here that the statement is the better rendering.
[SPEAKER_00]: of what Jesus says, you have believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that Jesus is commending Thomas for his faith, not giving a kind of a light reprimand for have you believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So because of the context and you see following, although he's commending Thomas, he's saying how much better, how much more blessed is that
[SPEAKER_00]: to believe when you haven't seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, bless it or those who have not seen and yet have believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: The D.A.
[SPEAKER_00]: Carson explains it this way in his gospel according to John commentary.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, quote, it is better to understand the first part of Jesus' response as a statement and to that extent, a confirmation of Thomas' faith
[SPEAKER_00]: One that prepares the way for the vietitude that follows, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed in the quote.
[SPEAKER_00]: Peter would say something very similar later, much later, when he writes, to the believers in Asia Minor, and the
[SPEAKER_00]: in one Peter chapter one verse eight and nine he says though you have not seen him you love him and even though you do not see him now you believe in him in our field with an inexpressible and glorious joy or you are receiving the goal of your faith the salvation
[SPEAKER_00]: be believing when things are going well and you can you can see what God is doing and to be believing when everything seems to be going wrong and you can't see you can't understand what God is doing trust the Lord link conclusion this morning I want to read for you a passage from
[SPEAKER_00]: Spurgeon study notes, or from his study Bible, and it's based on verse 29, where Jesus said, because you have seen me, you have believed, blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to take the time to read it because it's a little bit, you know, like Spurgeon, maybe overstated or or belabored a bit, but bear with me, because I believe it's It's helpful for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, quote, we have a special and singular blessing through not having seen and yet having believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let us not diminish it by looking for a voice, or a vision, or a revelation, or something that is like sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that it could not be said of us that we have not seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Perhaps we have said to ourselves, oh, that God would in some way reveal himself to me so that my senses might assist my faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: that I might be hidden away in some cleft of the rock and might see the hem of y'all waste robe.
[SPEAKER_00]: In my here's some, or sorry, if I might hear some divine voice whisper that I am his, then I would indeed rejoice and never doubt again, or it might be some miracle or something
[SPEAKER_00]: I was sure was the finger of God so that I would never doubt again, what a grand thing it would be.
[SPEAKER_00]: He goes on to say, we should not ask for anything like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We should not wish to have it even if we could for blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: We would be wanting for something that is practically the same as sight.
[SPEAKER_00]: we would show that we do not feel content to swim in the pure sea of faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: After all, it is only vanity that we are wanting for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he will deny it to us and will say my child instead of wanting to see, believe, trust, follow me in the dark for it is better for you not to see.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if you did see and believed you would have obtained only an inferior gift for the higher blessing, the cream of blessing belongs to those who have not seen and yet have believed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, thank you this morning for your word to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the encouragement and the
[SPEAKER_00]: and that we would be on our guard against the enemies of our faith that would draw us of the joy of walking in fellowship with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray for someone here today or someone may be hearing this recording that is yet to trust you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray, Father, that you had breakdown the barriers
[SPEAKER_00]: And the blindness to their eyes is in their mind that they might turn to you and repentance and faith and be saved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the resurrection and Lord I pray that we might hold firmly to the confidence that you have given us in the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Word of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you in Jesus name, Amen.