Doubting Thomas

We haven't stood here today yet. In John chapter 20, let's read this passage. Why don't we stand and I'm going to read down through some of the verses we're going to look at here.

We're going to finish the chapter and then we're going to get into chapter 21 next week which probably is going to be only two messages and we'll have finished up the Gospel of John. What I'd like to do, and some have mentioned this, oftentimes when we've finished a book, we will open it up to anyone who'd like to offer a subject matter that we could share on some Sunday. So generally what we did is we put maybe 10 numbers up here and anyone at any time can come up here and write a subject you'd like to have a message on or like to hear a message on.

So before we start with the next book, the Book of Acts, we'll take a number of weeks in between to touch on some areas that you're sitting here and thinking we need to have a message on this subject. And so that gives everyone the privilege to share what they think that we could talk about and have a message on. So we'll do that.

Up here on the board you can write down. You don't have to let anybody see you, but if you want to it's fine. But if you have a subject matter on your heart that you'd like to hear preached on on Sunday, then put it on the list and we'll try to get to all those before we get into Acts in a few more months here.

So John chapter 20. I'm going to start reading in verse number 24 and we're going to go down through the rest of the chapter here. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. 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 with them.

Then came Jesus at the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he 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.

Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. And Lord, we want to acknowledge as we learn here this morning that this is the truth. We believe in the truth, and Lord, we want to direct our hearts in accordance with truth.

Have faith, confidence in the truth. So Lord, as we consider these words that are truth, may you minister them to each one of us in whatever place we are in our life, Lord. We honor you today.

We lift up your word. It's the only thing that is true in this wicked and deceitful and world that is full of lies and deception. We want to give truth a place in our heart, Lord.

We pray your blessing on our time. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, you can be seated.

Well, I'd like to start off here at the end and then jump back with Thomas and some of the testimonies here, some of the things that we can learn from Thomas. But I think it's always important to remind all of us of the importance of verse number 31, and that is John writes that these are written, the gospel of John was written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Now I think if we would go and look into your hearts and we could see that, and I know that we cannot see that, but only God can see the hearts of all men.

There are many people who are sitting here this morning who at the depth of their heart, at the depth of their being, they truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. They truly believe that Jesus died for their sins. They truly believe He was buried.

They truly believe He rose again. They truly believe He is at the right hand of God. And in their heart there is no doubt, there is no question.

They're like Peter who testified, I believe and am sure that Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you all know where you're at and I cannot see your hearts, but no doubt there are some here that are doubtful, much like maybe Thomas was, and just not really sure when they look at life like I did as a 19-year-old and they realized all the pleasures of life and all the things they could enjoy and all the sin they could get involved with and all the pursuits that they could have and looking at life and saying, boy, if I become a Christian then I'm going to acknowledge the truth and I can't pursue all that stuff because it's not according to the truth. And so truly if you make that decision and do not pursue the things of this world, truly you must have a strong faith that what God speaks and what He affirms is true is actually true.

And I'm sure there are people here today who struggle with belief and struggle with faith. You're not sure that Jesus is the Christ. And you're willing to take a chance on eternity.

And it's a hard situation, I mean, deciding how to go through life and I can just appeal to you every week and others who get up here and just to appeal to you that Jesus is the Christ and I've been preaching through the book of John and John says I wrote this so that you could see that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and he says in verse 31, and that believing you might have life through his name. That belief that is in your heart that Jesus truly is the Son of God is the very thing that connects you to eternal life. It's the very thing that gives you life eternal and gives you what we call salvation and gives you what we call heaven.

Many verses teach this. I just want to stick to the book of John here, but John 8, 24, Jesus said if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins. There you go.

Now if we go through the crowd here today and God could open up the heart and say here's a believer, here's not a believer, here's one who believes, here's one who doesn't, I can assure you this, that those who believe they're going to spend an eternity and have eternal life with the Lord in heaven. Those who believe not, you're going to die in your sins. Do you know what that means? That means you're going to sink down, you're going to descend into hell.

So that believing, you know the word of God is to give a testimony that you could say I believe truly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that in my believing I might have life through His name. John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so what is in your heart this morning about this person of Jesus Christ? Who is He? And that's why it's important to not believe He was some prophet, not believe He's some angel, but to believe He was the Son of God, a human being who came, God in the flesh to die for our sin.

John 3, 36, he that believeth on Him or on the Son has everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. And so the wrath of God is even now abiding upon those who are unwilling to believe the records that God gave of His Son. Now why is this important? Just think about this for a minute.

I've talked about these things in the past, but when the Lord looked down on the world's condition, He saw that there was no way to save man based upon man's goodness, based upon man's righteousness, based upon man's merit. He says in the book of Romans, there is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So God looked down in a sense and says, I cannot save man based upon himself. There is nothing good. There is nothing meritorious in man.

I have to devise a plan where I can save man outside of man's merit. So, the Lord devised the salvation that He offers us and it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's according to His mercy. For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is by faith, it is by what you believe.

Like I was sharing this morning, do you believe what God says is in His Word? Do you believe what I said was in that can? Do you believe God? The Bible says if you don't believe God, you make Him a liar. Right? Last thing I want to do is say, God, you're a liar. I want to read to you here.

You don't have to turn there. Paul deals with salvation here in Romans, but Romans chapter 3 verse 19, it says, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be guilty before God. So you look down, God says, everybody's guilty, everybody's condemned, everybody's in damn.

There's just no one that's righteous. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, by merit, by goodness, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ.

Unto all and upon all them that, what's the next word, believe. All that will believe, for there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

So God looks down and sees everyone sinful, everyone has fallen short of the glory of God, and everyone deserves to go to hell, and God says there's no merit in humanity. I've got to save humanity some other way, and I'm going to save them through believing the record of my Son, and those who believe on my Son, I'll save them on that basis. That basis alone.

That's why works are not a part of salvation. There is no merit in humanity. Now I realize that faith, if you have faith here this morning, if you believe that Jesus is who he says he was, and the Bible is true, that it's going to affect your life.

Would you agree with me on that? It'll affect your life. Not only that, it says that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truthfully, God bears witness to, he knows your heart, God bears witness to that heart, and he gives that heart the Spirit of God, and through the Spirit of God and the belief that a person has, the life is changed to become a new creation. And that is why the Scriptures caution us that a man who says he has faith, well, he ought to have some works, amen? There ought to be a change.

And so faith, James says, without works is dead. But I want to caution us because I see this happening oftentimes. We tend to get out of balance.

You know, the Bible talks about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ probably a hundred times. It shows us that believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is what's salvation or how we find salvation. And then some people take a verse in the book of James that talks about faith without works is dead.

And by the way, James says faith, if it has not works, is dead. What is dead? He says faith is dead. If faith is not accompanied by works, that faith is dead.

In other words, God is trying to tell you, you say you have faith, but you don't have works. I'm telling you, your faith is not real faith. You better wake up because your faith is nonexistent.

It's going to send you to hell because it's not faith. It's as dead as dead. But he's not teaching faith plus works.

He's just telling you if you don't have works, it comes out of your faith. That faith is as dead as a doornail. So don't go to hell thinking you have faith when really you don't.

Well, let's look here at Thomas because it's through believing that we find salvation. I want to go back here and look at verse number 24. Just a little bit here this morning.

Thomas, the account here of Thomas. Thomas is not a great example of faith. I don't lift him up here, neither does Jesus lift him up.

Matter of fact, there are people here that have much greater faith than Thomas. And I'll show you that here in just a minute. Verse 24 says, but Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. 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. Now these disciples are also very faithless in many ways because they did not believe the testimony of the Lord.

They also needed to see. As a matter of fact, when Jesus was walking with those two on the road to Emmaus, he says this to them. They are two of the inner circle.

He says, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. O you foolish men, and you are slow to believe. And you did not believe what the prophets have spoken.

You did not believe the word of God. And many of those disciples heard Jesus say often, he preached to the people, I am going to be crucified, I am going to be buried, I am going to be raised from the dead three days later, and just went over their heads. They did not believe it.

But when it happened, they were bewildered, confused. Because they needed to see Jesus in his glorified body in the same way Thomas. So I guess I shouldn't be too hard on Thomas.

Thomas just wasn't there the first time that Jesus appeared to them. And so Thomas makes this bold statement. He says, I will not believe unless I can see.

According to Thomas, his faith depended on what he could see. And of course, I've already shared with you in the children's lesson here this morning, what faith is. Let me read to you again in Hebrews chapter 11.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for. By the way, something it is hoped for is something that is out there in the future. I don't have it in my hand.

But faith is the substance of something hoped for. Do you ever get around someone who has a lot of faith? And they say, I am praying for something out there in the future. I am hoping for something.

But as far as I am concerned, it is already in my hand. I have already got the substance. I hope that is the way you feel about salvation and heaven.

Heaven is something out there in the future. I have still not seen the place. But the Bible is so real to me that it is as good as being in my possession right now.

It is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. Again, the idea of not seen.

For by it the elders obtained a good report. That is the men of great faith. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God.

Is anybody here, were you there when God made the earth and the heavens in a six-day creation? No, you weren't. You never saw it. The only way that you would believe it is if you believed the record from God's Word.

By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which do appear. One of the best examples I like is the example of Noah. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet.

Not seen. You know when God came to Noah and said, Noah, I am going to bring a flood. Noah said, what is that? There is going to be some rain come down from the sky.

What is that? You know, it had not rained. And these are new things. I had never seen this before.

But God said it is going to happen. And Noah believed it so much that he gave the rest of his entire life to build an ark to prepare for it. Boy, that is faith, isn't it? You want to have the same faith? Noah did.

Noah does. I will tell you something. Ahead of time there is not going to be a flood coming here in the future, but in the near future there is going to be fire come, and this whole place is going to be destroyed by fire.

Why don't you like Noah take your whole life to prepare for it? That would be an act of faith, right? By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet. He moved with fear. I like to see people move with fear.

Why are you so energized about it? Why are you moving about serving God like you are? Because God is going to destroy the world. He is going to destroy it with fire. What do you mean? Don't you believe God's testimony? I believe it and I'm going to move with fear.

We need some more of those kind of movers. Amen? He moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house. He condemned the world.

I don't want to do that. It's going to go up in flames. So this is one of Thomas' problems.

He has to see. Noah didn't have to see. And faith actually doesn't require seeing.

Now I'm going to just share with you here, I see this in the Bible here, that we have people who have no faith, people who have little faith, and then there's these people, and I hope some of you are here, who have great faith. Great faith. I want to look at these three here because they're exemplified throughout the Scriptures.

First of all, the no-faithers. The no-faithers in the Bible, and I'm going to stay right here in the Gospel of John, the no-faithers are those who even see great things, but it doesn't cause them to believe. For example, there were people around the resurrection of Lazarus who stood at the grave, heard Jesus call Lazarus out of the grave, saw an incredible miracle.

The guy was stinking for four days in the grave, and they see him come out with the grave closed, and they walk away still unbelieving. That's amazing. That's no faith.

And John 12, you don't have to turn there, but John gives a testimony here in verse 37. He says, but though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him. Though He had done so many miracles, yet they believed not on Him.

That's this no-faith crowd. I thought of Pharaoh of Egypt who amazingly had just a hard, wicked heart as he saw God do incredible miracles in the plagues of Egypt and the suffering that the nation went through at His hand, and yet he continued to be an unbeliever. Amazing.

Well, there's another group called those who have the small faith, and that's Thomas. I have to see something. Do you know there were people who watched Lazarus come out of the grave? It says that... Well, I'll just read it to you.

John 11, verse 43, And when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on Him. See, that's exciting. You know, I would be a believer probably if I were there that day and Lazarus comes out of the grave, I'd look at my buddy and say, This is real! I mean, this is real! I've never seen anything like this! This guy must be the Son of God! I'm a believer! Because he saw.

We're going to see here in a minute that Jesus doesn't really elevate that faith, although it's accepted. Thomas, don't be faithless. Thomas, don't be down here.

At least you can see me and believe me. Well, I'd like to come up here to the great faith. The great faith.

Look here at John 20 again. And I want to encourage some of you here this morning. In John 20, verse 29, Jesus tells Thomas this.

By the way, this is after Thomas in verse 28 says, My Lord and my God. I think if we were there we'd say, Praise God for Thomas! Thomas, you're a great man! My Lord and my God! And you made a great confession there. But you know what Jesus says to Thomas? Look what he says.

Verse 29, Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. No big thing, Tom. No big thing.

But, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Now there is a group of people up here. These people need to see something.

The beings. There is a group of people up here that God says have a great faith. They don't need to see anything.

They just believe the testimony of God's Word. They don't need the evidence. What they see, they just need God to say it and they'll believe it.

Look with me back to Matthew once. Matthew chapter 8. In verse number 5, there's a story here of a man and you're probably very familiar with it. It's a story of a man with great faith and this very same principle is applied to him.

In Matthew chapter 8 verse 5, And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. This man could have been 10 miles away, 20 miles away. We're not told how far.

I do know that this centurion walked a great distance to come to Jesus, so it's many miles. Verse 7, And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. Now, sir, I'll come with you and I'll heal him and you can see Me do it.

Look what the centurion says. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worded that Thou shouldst come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. In other words, I don't need to see anything.

You just speak the Word and I'll believe it's done. When I hear you speak the Word, when I hear you testify it's done, it's done. In my heart.

Verse 20, When Jesus heard it, He marveled and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. So here is where the great faith is. I don't have to see anything.

I don't have to go with you back to the house. You don't have to come back to the house. All you've got to do is just speak the Word and I'll take off rejoicing and He did.

He didn't question it. He said, My servant is healed. I'm going back home.

Ever saw the servant better? He just believed Jesus' Word. The testimony. Great faith depends only on the testimony of the Lord.

His Word. Great faith does not require signs, wonders. Great faith only says God said, I therefore will believe it.

And so Romans 10.17 says, So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And that's why faith comes by hearing because God wants us to all come up here. He doesn't want us down here.

You say, I need to see something. Well, that's little faith. Come up here where you believe things because of what you've heard.

Because of you hearing the Word of God, you hear God's voice through His Word and you believe it in your heart. And by the way, that's why the Bible says go into all the world and preach the Gospel. Do you know why it says that? Because great faith comes by hearing.

And that is why the Lord didn't say go into all the world and show them great wonders and signs and that will give them great faith. No, that's not what He said. He said you go preach the Gospel and I'll come behind you with signs and wonders affirming that faith.

And I know I'll get in trouble when I say this, but you know what I mean when I say it. He didn't say go into all the world and live the Gospel in front of people so they can see you. A lot of people have that theology.

I'll just live silently before people and they'll see me with their eyes. And I think that's a good thing. I don't downplay the fact that we need to be seen, but faith comes out of a testimony.

Faith comes out of hearing the testimony of the Lord. This great faith. God wants you to respond to His Word.

And so showing people the Gospel is a very good thing, but it's not the way we encourage great faith. In the very same way signs and wonders are good things, but they're not the way that we encourage great faith. Now, here's something.

If you've been around Christianity long enough, you've seen this happen many times. People look at an example. I used to kind of look up to a preacher and his example was a great testimony to me.

My faith rode a lot on his example. One day it came to pass that we found out he was in sin and his testimony was destroyed. A lot of people walked away from the Lord.

You know why God doesn't want you to have your faith built upon examples? Because sometimes those examples fail you. Oftentimes, these great religious preachers and leaders, they will fall, and people who are putting their faith in this beautiful example of Christianity, I'm a Christian because of this person and their example, when those babes fall with them, what we need is to have a faith in something that's never failing and never changing. You know what that is? It's the testimony of the Lord.

It's the Word of God. The devil is good at making counterfeit apostles, counterfeit ministers, counterfeit prophets, and I've seen many a young people just pull away from the faith because of an example that fell. I would never want to encourage people to be a Christian because of my example or a Christian because of another brother's example.

I want to encourage you to have faith in God because of His Word, His testimony. That will never fail you. There's something else I think is important and we're going to see this in the end.

A lot of this stuff is going to come tumbling down and Matthew 24 shares the testimony of this, but our faith should not be in signs and wonders. Oftentimes, the religious people in Jesus' day would come to Him and say, show us a sign and we'll believe. And you know what the Lord would always do? Sorry.

Do you know how many believers there would be if He just did some great thing like, okay, now watch this! Fire come down from Heaven! Wow! You know, if your faith is in signs and wonders, what has to continue to happen for you to continue in the faith? Signs and wonders. Well, what's going to happen in the end? And just be prepared for this. God is going to allow all kinds of signs and wonders to come.

Matthew says this Antichrist will arise. He'll be a beautiful example of Christ. Antichrist.

He's coming in the place of Christ. People will put their faith in Him. They'll put their faith in the signs and wonders.

And they'll lay aside the testimony of the Word of God. They'll lay aside this. They'll lay aside hearing and believing.

And a lot of people will get sifted and they'll just fall. For the sake of time, I won't read it, but you know 2 Thessalonians 2.18. It says, Then shall that wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even Him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, with all signs, with all lying wonders.

And He'll deceive those who did not receive the love of the truth, the love of the testimony of God's Word. So I want to encourage you to have a great faith. You know, people saw the miracles of Jesus and they walked away.

I still don't believe. You know, Thomas comes up here and the Lord says don't be faithless. Believe.

If I see, I'll believe. Well, Thomas, that's great. You know, you come up a step.

But Thomas, I'll tell you who really is good. Those who have not seen and yet they believe. Let's keep reading here in John 20.

In verse number 26, And after eight days again the disciples were within and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus and the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then said He 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 this seeing brought Thomas to a reality. He had a reality of faith.

But then Jesus gives him a gentle rebuke here in verse 29. Jesus says unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. That's okay.

But blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Here are the blessed people. Here are the people that really bless me.

By the way, without faith it's impossible to please God. Here are the people that really bless me. You know, sitting here with these children this morning, with this, and I asked them the question, you know, I told them there's beans in the can.

How did you believe there's beans in the can? Because I said so. It was pleasing to me that some of them raised their hands. It would have been really pleasing if they all raised their hands.

I'm sure they didn't understand what was going on. But you know, one of the things that pleases God is that we would believe His Word. Just believe His Word.

And that's very pleasing. When people believe you without faith, it is impossible to please Him. And so here are some blessed people, those who believe the testimony of God's Word.

Without having to see, I think there are people here today who are blessed. As a matter of fact, there are people here today, and the Lord knows their hearts, but there are people here today who are actually willing to die for that thing. Right? I mean, there are people who are willing to say, I not only believe that Jesus is the Christ, I'm willing to go to my grave, I'm willing to have my head knocked off, I'm willing to sit in a prison for years and years and years.

I'm willing to do that because that's how much I believe. I haven't seen it. I haven't even seen it.

You know, it is kind of an amazing thing. Someone said this. How can you believe someone you've never seen or love someone you've never really met? There are people here today who are blessed.

When Jesus says, blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. There are people here today who will die for Jesus' sake. I believe that.

I want to be one of them, because I believe it. Well, let me read to you one verse here. You don't have to turn there.

1 Peter said it this way, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes though it be tried with fire might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love. How can you love someone you've never seen? Some of you girls think about courtship. How do you love someone you've never seen? You know, I fell in love with the Lord.

You know how I did it? He never came and visited my place of residence. He never physically knocked on my door. I still to this day haven't seen Him in person.

But I love Him. Do you know how I fell in love with Him? I read His testimony. I read His Word.

And I just fell in love with Him. Whom having not seen, you love, in whom though you now see Him not yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul. So it's faith.

Believing the testimony. You can go a long way if you have faith. You can go a long way.

You can get saved by faith. You can live victorious Christianity by faith. You can do incredible things above that which we can even think or speak, the Bible says, if we have faith.

Right? And that's what pleases God. He's up there in heaven. I've never been up there.

But from what I understand, He's up there saying, I love to see my children express faith. Now, somebody came to me this week and was sharing with me about faith. I want to just share this with you real quick, and I'll close here in a minute.

Sometimes we think of faith as God, I want something, and if God doesn't give it to me today, then something's not right. But I want you to realize that in the Bible, faith, it says there in Peter, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul, that faith, God oftentimes stretches out. For example, God comes to Abraham and Sarah and says, I want you to have faith, and I want you to believe Me that I'm going to give you a son.

And I have no doubt that Abraham and Sarah woke up that next morning, and Abraham turns over to Sarah and says, Sarah, do you have a little morning sickness this morning? Sarah says, no. I should probably though, shouldn't I? But it was 15, 20 years later, and still no promise has been fulfilled, and God is stretching out His promise and saying, how long will you trust Me? It wasn't no problem for Abraham to say, I believe God. God said, oh, the stars in heaven, your children are going to be like those stars.

I believe it. No problem. Come home, Sarah, we're going to have a child.

I believe God. Great faith I have. God says, okay, I'm going to stretch it out.

Some of you are wondering why God is not fulfilling a promise. Maybe you have a desire for being perfect as a Christian and being delivered from every issue in your life. I want you to realize that God has designed Christianity as a growing process.

Right? It is a process. I cannot, in all the prayers I pray and all the faith I have, get Tommy from age 3 to age 20 in 20 minutes. There's a process he has to go through, and God says, I will deliver you.

I will keep you. I will set you free. But oftentimes that freedom doesn't come all at once.

So we continue to say, God, you said you'd set me free. I'm going to believe you. Right? I think of those dear men I was sharing with this individual, this Caleb and Joshua.

You think about these guys. They go up to that promised land, and they do the right thing. I mean, they have faith.

They go up there and say, we can overcome, and this is great. God is going to give us this land, and they've got ten unbelievers with them. These ten spies come back, and they say, no, no, no, no, no.

We're going to get eaten up by all these giants in the land, and the whole congregation weeps. And God says to Caleb and Joshua, because of your faith, I'm going to fulfill the promises, and I'm going to give you that mountain. I'm going to give you that land.

So here's Caleb, you know. All right. You're going to get the mountain.

Joshua, you're going to get the land. All right. But you've got to go 40 years and wander in circles for 40 years.

What? I'll promise it to you, but I want you to endure in faith. I want you to keep that in front of you, and I want you to wait on my promise, and trust me. And after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, and all these unbelievers were finally destroyed, then God says to Caleb and Joshua, now the promise is going to be fulfilled.

And He brings them in. Caleb says, I want that mountain. So I believe that God's promises will all come to pass.

It's just sometimes He stretches them out. Sometimes it looks pretty bleak. Just ask Abraham and Sarah.

But one of the things that He encourages us to do is to look to the end of our faith. By the way, salvation is that very same way. God has given you a promise that He'll bring you into heaven, into eternal life, and so you need to hold to that promise.

Right? Hold to it. So you need to please God by believing His Word without having to see anything. I don't need to see heaven.

I just believe God's Word. I don't need to see hell. I just believe God's Word.

When I read there what hell is like, that's enough for me. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to take me down there in an elevator, open the door and give me five minutes. I'm already a believer.

I don't need to see Jesus hanging on a cross, that which we remember today. I don't need to see Him raised from the dead. I believe it.

And here's something else for all of you. I don't need for Jesus to come to me and tell me, your sins are forgiven. I just believe what He told me in His Word.

Amen? My confidence that my sins are forgiven are not based upon Him coming and telling me and I get to see Him. My confidence that I'm forgiven and my sins are forgiven is based upon His Word, His testimony. Oftentimes God sets promises out in the future and tells us to hold to the promise.

Sometimes He says, ask and it shall be given to you, and you ask and the very same day, He gives it. I like those kinds. But oftentimes it's not that way.

Well, Thomas, you moved up a notch. But Thomas, you know the people who are really blessed, are they that are willing to even lose their life, lose their life and they've never even seen me. These people love me.

They've never met me. And how do they love me? Because they believe the testimony of my Word. And I know that there are many of you here that are that.

You love the Lord. And I'm sure in the next 10, 20 years if we get thrown into jails or prisons and we're sitting in there, I'm sure there will be many of you right here that are willing to say, hey, Brother Jerry, they're taking our heads off tomorrow. It's fine with me.

And we'll have brothers and sisters who will sit and go through and say, hey, I believe. I'm in. All in.

And so let me encourage you to believe the Word, the testimony of Jesus Christ, His life, His purpose. That's all you need. You don't need any signs and wonders.

It's wonderful to have signs and wonders. You don't need any wonderful examples. It's wonderful to have great examples.

Those things may end up falling to the wayside, but you're always going to have the Word of God. And it's unchanging. So let's make sure we put our faith in His Word and have great faith.

Let's pray and we'll open it up. Amen.