Let's open again to John chapter 20. We'll try to finish most of the chapter this afternoon briefly. We are considering good tidings of great joy. Is this really good tidings? And we looked at the slow of heart, Peter and John, because they weren't considering the facts in light of Scripture. And so they did not yet know the Scripture, which He was to rise from the dead. And once since they knew it, they knew what it said and Jesus had told them. in the sense of finding hope and joy and communion with Christ, they didn't yet know the meaning until Christ appeared to them. Secondly, we considered the fact that the empty tomb is personal news. So John answers the question with Jesus' appearance first to Mary, called her by name, one of his sheep. He knows all of his sheep by name, but he called her by name and he said to her, go to my brethren. He is not only My Father, He's your Father. My God and your God. Personal pronouns. She said, He's my Lord. And if He's your Lord today, then you will seek personal relationship with Him through the Word, through prayer. through obedience as that abiding in him leads you to bear fruit to the glory of God by the Holy Comforter sent to you, the Spirit of Christ in you and by diligence being obedient to Jesus Christ. And now we look to is this confident news. Can it really make you confident? today, and we look now at Doubting Thomas. So let's read beginning in verse 19. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. Now, the door is shut and Jesus just comes through and appears. Again, he's moving through walls, moving in ways that he did not do with his pre-resurrection body. Not that he could not have, but now he's the same yet different. Paul would say there's a continuity in the resurrection. The seed you put into the ground bears corn or wheat. It's a corn seed that produces corn. But what goes into the ground comes up the same, but different. There's continuity in the resurrection body. It's you, but it's a difference. There's a difference in the resurrection body. And Jesus now is appearing and moving in ways that he did not prior to his resurrection. He said peace unto them. And in verse 20, we had so said he showed unto them his hand in his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, they saw him. Now, Luke 24, they didn't believe the women that said he wasn't there. They didn't leave another report. Finally, when the Lord appears and says, see my hands, my feet, my side, they were glad. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you as my father has sent me, even so send I you. Now they're getting to the mission of Jesus resurrection. They're to be ambassadors for Christ. They are to now spread the good tidings. They're not to keep it bottled up within them. They are to enjoy it. They are to commune with Christ and out of that, They are to be sent as apostles, messengers of Christ in the same way that God sent his son, albeit different results. They are not being sent to redeem people, to atone for sin, but in a similar way that the father sent him. Even so, Christ sends the apostles of the church, which in fact we are sent today as churches, as a church. We are sent to spread the good tidings of great joy that's independent of what you may not or may get in this season. But it's dependent on trusting in Jesus Christ. And when he had said this in verse twenty two, he breathed on them and saith, receive the Holy Ghost, whosoever sins you remit, they remitted unto them and whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. Now, here are the apostles. do not have the authority to forgive sins like Christ does. Even the Pharisees knew that only God could forgive sins when they heard Jesus, who is God, say, Be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee. But the apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, would record for us the complete canon of Scripture, and they would provide in Scripture the conditions and the characteristics of forgiven people. So by their pens, what they have written, we see that who they've written about, who have received forgiveness, these are in fact the people that Christ has forgiven. And what kind of persons are they? The humble. The repentant, the believer, The broken. The needy. All that they wrote about the poor in spirit, the meek that manifest the characteristics of those in the kingdom they wrote, they told us what Jesus told them, and in that way they are giving us the written word on who God is forgiving and that is certain. kinds of people with certain heart dispositions in relationship to Jesus Christ. Now, here's a transition. Verse twenty four. But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, Saxony's twin. Apparently he was. One of the set of twins. 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. We often take from this familiar terminology, doubting Thomas, the doubter is one who lacks confidence, who's not sure, who's not certain. Now, be sure there are certain kinds of people who are doubters and skeptics because they just intend to hide the lifestyle of sin. They just doubt and they'll keep on doubting because they really aren't interested in a relationship with Jesus Christ. They aren't interested in following Christ. So once you work through one of their doubts, they'll have a whole new set of doubts because they know to clear up all the doubts leaves them with the confrontation of what do you think of Christ? Do you believe or no? There are doubters who are not sincere doubters, but just want to use doubt as a cloak for sin. I'm doubting who Christ is. Therefore, I'm not sure about Him. Therefore, I'll just continue on my merry way. I hope that's not the doubter you are today. But there are people like Thomas who sincerely doubt, sincerely love Jesus Christ, and they struggle often. With doubt in Jude, we are told, keep yourself in the love of God and in the mercy of God on some having compassion, making a difference. The terminology there means you're helping a doubter. The way you approach them, someone that's struggling with doubt, struggling with confidence in Jesus Christ, struggling. Over issues concerning the love of Christ, does he really love me? Am I really one of his? Do I truly believe certainly at some time or another you've had such questions perhaps move across the scene of your mind? But I want you to see first of all four or five characteristics of a doubter and what may produce doubt in your life as we see it in the life of Thomas. The first thing that can cause doubt is personal failure and sometimes personality, personal failure. You see, what is often overlooked about Thomas is that he was as outspoken as Peter was concerning dying with Christ. Look back at John chapter 11. Of course, Thomas is not as well known as Peter, and so Peter, we often know about his denials. We know about his outspokenness, but Thomas made a declaration very similar to Peter's. In chapter 11. In the resurrection of Lazarus, where. Jesus says in verse seven. After that, saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples said to him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? It's not safe. In fact, it's dangerous if we're going to go down into Jerusalem again. Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. These things said he. And after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. But I go that I may awake him out of his sleep. Then his disciples said in verse twelve, If he sleep, he shall do well. Albeit, Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. It's a bold declaration. But we know that Thomas was also with the others that fled at the night of the trial of Jesus Christ. When the Romans came, and the soldiers came, and the great band of soldiers came into the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus looked back, Thomas was running as fast as the rest of them. You see, Thomas is doubting because of his own personal failure. He made this bold declaration. He would go down and let us all go down and die with Christ. And yet he, along with the rest of the disciples, fled at the presence of danger. Have you ever doubted because of your own personal failure? Maybe something you said, a commitment you made, something you had said you would be to the church and to Jesus Christ, and then you failed miserably. Maybe that's caused you to doubt. Furthermore, Thomas could be the kind of personality that was rather pessimistic. You know, Jesus is speaking positively here. He's dead and I'm going to wake him up and I'm doing this so that you'll believe. And often a pessimistic type of personality will put the gloomiest side on things. Have you ever met anybody like that? Always seeing things from the gloomiest possible viewpoint. I've worked with people like that in the past and I thought if I could just have a moment away from this person because I start to sink and get gloomy as well. Now Peter failed just like Thomas. But when you look at Peter in the scripture, he repented, he grieved over. But Peter was that kind of personality that sort of bounced back. I mean, he was the one that spoke quickly. He was the one that shot into the tomb. He was the one that repented. He was the one that wept bitterly. But you can see his personality is perhaps the kind that would keep moving, keep going forward. Now, the point here is not that personality gives you an excuse. We all have different personalities, don't we? And sometimes people just live within their personality and they make excuses because of their personality. They say things like, you know, I'm just not a morning person, as if Jesus said, if it could be found in Scripture and it's not, I'm making a point. You must rise up at 5 a.m. that you could simply put off the command and say, well, obviously I've got an excuse because I'm not a morning person. Some people use that to excuse their grouchiness. It's just, you know, I inherited this from my parents. It's in a long line of people. I mean, my dad, my granddad, just grouchy people. And I'm grouchy. So you just got to live with that. Well, beloved, the gospel is about change. The resurrection is about change. And so you are the kind of personality here today that just tends for no reason. You can put your finger on. You just tend to have a gloomy outlook, maybe a melancholy attitude, maybe even get depressed easier than other people, because that may be your inclinations is no excuse. To stay there. You see, Thomas is doubting because of personal failure, and perhaps he tended to be down at times as we find him in John chapter 20. But we see as Jesus is going to speak to him that the message of the resurrection is confidence, even in personal failure, confidence through faith and repentance, confidence, not in yourself, not in your personality, not even in your failure, your own faith, but a confidence in Jesus Christ and his resurrection. The second thing we might note about Thomas's failed expectations. I mean, listen to the words he says in verse 25 again, except I shall see in his hands the prints 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 won't be disappointed again. I won't let my expectations. be pulled out from under me again. I'll never get my hopes up like that again. I will never believe it's true unless I see him with my own eyes, because I have been miserably disappointed. Failed expectations. Not only personal failure, Thomas, by his own words, you can see within the words his disappointment. He doesn't want this to ever happen again. And so he just will not even receive what his own close companions will say. We saw the Lord. We saw his prince. We saw his hands. No way, Thomas says. I'll never believe that again. Unless. I see it. With my own eyes, you ever had your hopes up like that expectations dashed against the stones. Well, part of the problem for Thomas and even the disciples on this day was not that Jesus failed their expectations, is that their expectations really were not on Jesus Christ, were they? That passage we read this morning in Luke 24, where those two on the road to Emmaus said, we trusted that it had been he that would deliver Israel and redeem them. Now, the word trusted is translated in the Greek, what is usually translated hope. Expectation, we expected. I mean, we had a confident expectation that he was the man that would redeem Israel. And after all this, it's the third day and he's dead. Failed expectations because of misplaced expectations. You see, what they all were expecting the Messiah to do was to rid them of Roman occupation. They knew the Scripture. I mean, perhaps they knew what Zacharias said when he burst out in doxology at the birth of John the Baptist concerning the Messiah, when he said, The day spring on high hath visited us, and he will deliver us from our enemies. And they probably just, you know, lifted that verse out and said, yeah, there it is. Have you ever done that with the Bible? You just take a verse that you really like, you just lift it up, you close the Bible, and you massage it and make it what you want it to be, and you don't even know what was said before and after, or where the period even ended. And you come away with the wrong conclusion of the Bible. Because really, your desires caused you to do an eisegesis, rather than what Jesus did in Luke 24, an exegesis. He expounded. Ex is out of. He just took out of the Scripture and brought it forward and said, here it is. Here's the diamond. Do you see it? We take our desires, we lift the passage and we do into the into the exit that we put into it. That's what they did. Part of Thomas's problem, his failed expectation is he has the wrong expectation. Jesus told him, I'm going to die, I'm not going to get the Romans out of here yet. There'll be a new heavens and the new earth where all the enemies will be subdued. The enemy I came to conquer was sin, your sin and the devil. And so Thomas is lacking confidence. He's all disappointed. He's lost hope because his expectation, what he really wanted, like the rest of the apostles, because they had taken the notion of the Pharisees was a Messiah that really served their own bent. Beloved, be careful. You can be doubting because you have lifted a text up because of your own desires. And this was your text. This is what you wanted to happen. This is what you were after. This is what you thought it should be. This is your vision. This is what you want. And all of a sudden, when people fail you, then you're miserable because you lifted an expectation that wasn't God's. It was your own. And so Thomas, Thomas is miserable because he had a failed expectation. Now Isaiah 49 will speak some positive words and then God himself will address the false expectations and the result of Israel. Isaiah 49 verse 9, speaking about the Messiah when he comes, what he'll do. God will give him as a covenant for the people. He will help the Messiah, in verse 8, and he will preserve him. He will give him for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Verse 9, that thou, the Messiah, mayest say to prisoners, go forth, and to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. Somebody's got a light and they're shining it on a prisoner saying, come out of the darkness. It's not usually good news. They usually got a gun in one hand and the prisoners hiding and say, show yourself criminal. They come out light shining in the face. But when Jesus says to the dark recesses of the soul, show yourself the light that's shining in the heart is his own light. It's himself. And what Jesus shows us in the darkness is what we've been feeding on. So He will feed you in the ways and He'll bring you to green pastures and feed you the right food. Because in the darkness you were eating on things that now make you nauseated. You're ashamed of. Now you think about prior to your conversion. Things that you fed on. Things that gave you pleasure. Are you not ashamed of those things wherein you did run to the excess of riot? Jesus brought you to the light and shined in the darkness and said, look what you're eating and look at me. And he brought you to himself. He brought the prisoner out. He feeds you. He carries you. He cares for you. He gives you good green pastures as the good shepherd. Verse 10, they shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains away and my highways shall be exalted. A pathway back to Jerusalem from Babylon spiritually, the highway of holiness, the way of fellowship with God, feeding, eating, nourished, sustained, living with God, living for God. Then there's a transition after these great hopeful promises. Israel responds in verse 14 like this, But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Now that's the attitude of Thomas, isn't it? He said all these things, but here I am. I'm still in Babylon, still weeping by the waters. The enemy is still saying, Play us a song of Zion. We're miserable. We're weeping. And yet God is Forgottenness. God is forsaken. They're despondent. They're downcast. They're doubting. I know it says it, but I just don't think God loves me. Now, God meets the despondency head on with His love. Verse 15, Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, she can. Yes, she has. Yes, she's placed child in a dumpster and forgotten him to be left for others to find. Yes, it happens all the time. No, God cannot. Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. Now the walls here are a reference to the walls of Jerusalem. Zion is the city, right? That's where they're going back. So they're thinking, walls? What do you mean walls? They're burned to the ground. The temple's gone. God says, your walls are always before me. I've already got a new plan drawn. I've got the blueprints. I'm the architect. I've already hired a master builder, someone to oversee the project. Now, his name's Nehemiah, but I haven't shared that with you yet. Now, we know that on the other side. I've got someone that's going to take care of introducing the law again to you. His name is Ezra. I say, well, fine. How are we going to get out of here? I've already appointed a man, my chosen. He doesn't even know me. His name is Cyrus. And he's not even born yet, but I'm going to give him the two-leaved gates. I'm going to open the gates to the enemies before him. I'm going to give him the nations. I'm going to raise him up. He's going to come in to Babylon. He's going to wipe them out. And he's going to read the decree where I mentioned his own name. He's going to say, you people can go. Here's money to fund your trip. Your walls are ever before me. Thomas, you were ever before God. He's ever watchful over you. The problem was it wasn't time for them to go back yet. And so in the last part of this chapter 49, he says, wait on me. See, you ever get despondent? You ever doubt? It doesn't seem like God loves me. It seems like everything's going wrong in my life. Go back to the Scripture and hear God say, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up. With wings as eagles over and over, God says, endure, wait, be patient. I've got a plan and it's going to be glorious when it unfolds in the future. Zion said the Lord has forsaken me. God said, no, I haven't. I've loved you with an everlasting love that had no origin, will have no end. And he will always love you, even when he chastens, even when he scourges. even when He reclaims. Even when we're doubting, He loves us. So Thomas is doubting because of failed expectations. Third, he's doubting because of lack of understanding. See this in John 14 where Thomas was quick to speak there at his lack of understanding. He didn't understand some things about what Jesus was saying. So, in John 14, verse 5, he says this, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Now, that wasn't a full explanation to Thomas' lack of understanding. But it's what Jesus gave him. It's what he needed to hang on. It's what he needed to rest on. How many times do you doubt because you don't understand something when, in fact, God either hasn't yet given you the understanding or it's something He wants to remain a secret. The secret things belong to the Lord, but these that are revealed belong to us. There are things about God's providence and His government that, quite frankly, you may be surprised I don't understand. I can't unpack them for you, explain in every detail why He allows some things in detail. We can only look at what He said in the ultimate big picture in the end as to what God is doing, what God is after in the exaltation of His glory. And we cling to the promises, we cling to what He has said, what we do understand. But there's a lot we don't understand. Thomas, I don't know what you're talking about. What do you mean? where you're going. How do we know the way? How do we get there? Sometimes a lack of understanding about how God may be working in your life can just cause you to doubt. But remember the proverb, Proverbs 3, 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don't lean on your own understanding. That's the first place to start. I can't tell you how many times I may talk to people and they say, I just don't understand how that could work that way. I don't understand how this could ever be something that would work out or something to be to my good. And so the first thing I try to remember says, well, that's right. And God says, don't try to understand it. He didn't say understand. He said, believe it. Believe the scripture. So don't be supported by your understanding. That is your human way of seeing it, like Mary did. As far as her understanding was concerned, somebody stole it. It wasn't true. It wasn't true. Sometimes you jump to conclusions. Sometimes you doubt. You lack confidence in the love of Christ because you have defined His love based on a human understanding. I know what it means when my mom and dad loved me in December. It means I get a lot of things for some people. So, I transfer that human kind of my experience of love on the human level, and I transfer that to God, and I say, God, You are giving me what I thought You would give me. In fact, we find God taking away. And we find it's His will to take away. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. You see, beloved, to remember this, that God will stop at nothing. The resurrection of Jesus Christ means that God will stop at nothing to show you who He is, to show you His mercy, to show you His glory. If it means He needs to take away your possessions, He'll take them away. If it means He needs to take away your job, He's going to take your job. He's going to take your job. If it means he needs to take Lazarus from you, Mary and Martha, so that you would see the glory of God, he'll do it. And he did it. Why did he do it? That the glory of God might be visible. So whenever you lack understanding, take yourself back to the word and rest in what Jesus said is what divine love is all about. You say, but I'm in pain. God is loving you. Because that's what he said in Scripture, I'm afflicted. God is loving you. In some way. He's loving you because he scourges and he chastens every son and daughter that he receives, and if you're without it, you're illegitimate, the Bible says, so he lacks understanding. Sometimes we lack that understanding of the kingdom. Sometimes people have the idea of the kingdom is that you come into the kingdom and everything just starts really clicking then. Everything you touch turns to gold. You get promoted. Things start happening really good. But Paul went around in Acts 14 after there were many conversions on his first missionary journey. He said, we've got to go back and strengthen these people and remember to tell them that we enter the kingdom through much tribulation. Now, why would Paul? Paul, that's top on your list. I mean, these people are rejoicing in Christ and you preach to them. And now the first trip back, your main point, one of the main points is I just want to remind you, it's through much tribulation we enter the kingdom. See, that's a reality check and it's a reality check for us, so we can't interpret, we can't try to understand, Thomas, what may be happening. Because of our failed expectations or because of our lack of understanding, we've got to go back to God and see what his expectations are, see what his love is all about. And then we'll be resting on a firm footing. We'll be resting strong on the word of God. And then the last thing you find. Could be a reason for Thomas doubting and others doubting is that when you separate yourselves from other believers and the Church of the living God. Where was Thomas when Jesus came to the assembly, to the eleven? He wasn't there. Verse 24, But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. He wasn't there. That was just the time Jesus determined to show up. You ever had an occasion like that? I have. But like you missed it at church, Jesus was so present. It's as if we saw the nail prints. It's as if we saw the spear wound in His side. Where were you? Well, I was somewhere else, not here. Now, there are enough reasons that you can't be here already that's going to happen that you can't prevent. That's just going to happen. We had enough foresight to put that in our covenant, didn't we? Unless you're providentially hindered, you're to assemble with the saints in this church. Because you may not be able to help it. There's going to be enough reason. But it may be that one time that you were doubting, you were despondent. You were downcast. You say, I'm just not going today. Like Thomas. I don't even want to be with those other apostles. I don't want to be with them. I just want to be alone. Now Jesus shows up. That's the place you needed to be more than any other place and you weren't there. You weren't there. There is a real movement today among people to suggest that they can worship Jesus alone as well as a church can. I deny it based on the authority of Scripture. It's not true. I'm not saying you can't have fellowship with Jesus Christ personally and by yourself. We tried to unpack that this morning. But if you want fellowship with the head, then you want fellowship with His body too. Because you can't cut His head off and say, I just want the head. I don't want these arms and feet and all these people to make up the body. You may say, well, what you think is that you're just better than everybody else, so you think you've got it in the church. No, I'm telling you, I am worse than everybody else. And I need you! I need you, brother! I can't live without you! Because you're the saints of God in whom I delight. It's just the opposite. I must be with the people of God. I need your exhortation. I need your help. I need your gift. I need your spiritual gift here. I need you to use it here on me. I need you to mutually edify me like Paul the Apostle said for the mutual edification of the saints at Rome. He needed the saints of God. No, it's not exalting the church above the head. It is the head and the body. And so sometimes we can become a little proud and think, you know, those people are so bad off. We don't need them. Well, I recognize that we're sinners, but look at the encouraging thing. Jesus is spending time with fugitives and doubting people, doubters. He has compassion. He goes to the doubter and he's going to address him personally. He wants to speak. To him, you see, sometimes doubting can be such introspection that our lack of confidence is we're really looking at our own failure, our own misunderstanding, our own expectations, our own isolation. It's me that I'm looking at. It's very deceptive. You can think, well, I think I'm doing the right thing, but ultimately the root is. Pride. Pride is so deceptive. Nobody here escapes the sin of pride. There may be sins in your life that you've not yet had an opportunity to do, even if you're still in your depravity. There may be sins in your past that your parents kept you from until God dealt with you. Praise the Lord. The one you're never kept from is pride. Pride of the human heart. When we start looking at ourselves, we're not looking by faith anymore. And the opposite of faith is pride. Humility is looking away from myself to God, to Christ. Pride is all I can see is me. Even when I feel bad, all I can see is me. I'm not saying every case is because of this. We just need to be aware that sometimes it could be that I'm just pitying myself. Could be, may not be, but it could be. Thomas may have a little bit of that. because of the way he speaks here. I'll never, I'll never believe unless I see it myself. I'll never go through that again. I will not believe unless I see I, I, I can be the problem. And so now let's just take a minute or two to see how Jesus is going to help Thomas overcome doubt. So verse 26, 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. And you can almost see Jesus just almost saying, excuse me, excuse me, I need to get to this man back here. He saith 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. Now what's Thomas' problem? Oh, ye of little faith. And Thomas answered, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Now that gets back to the first point this morning, doesn't it? You don't have any facts before you? I'd like to see those hands. I mean, if I could really just see a sigh, all my doubts would be gone. If I could have walked into that tomb, if I had seen the napkin rolled and the linen cloth stretched out, if I could have heard those angels speak, You might have just seen and believed and gone home, just like Peter and John. But Jesus said, blessed is the man who's not seen my hands, never seen my feet, never put their hand into the gash in my side. And yet they believe. I find it interesting that Peter, the one who we spoke about in this chapter this morning, is the one who wrote in First Peter, chapter one, in about the 8th and 9th verse. He said, though you've seen Him not, yet you believe. You never have touched Him. You never have seen Him, but you love Him. And you what? Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Jesus is going to speak to Thomas and bring him to confidence. Confidence in Christ, not confidence in himself. Looking away from Thomas. Looking away from his expectations that he created. Looking away from his own human understanding. Looking away from his isolation. Looking away from his own personality, his own personal failure, and finding in Christ everything he needs for hope, joy, peace, and communion with Jesus Christ. Are you blessed today having never seen Christ? Have you seen Him? Having never spoken to Him physically, have you spoken to Him? Have you seen His glory? Have you seen Christ? And the reality that His nail-pierced hands and His feet and the gash in His side are all there because of you, because of your sin, because you nailed Him there. Then fight against your doubts. If you feel like you're overcoming doubt today, that they'll never come back. But we fight against the doubt, the doubt of salvation, the doubt of our faith is real. The doubts that we have by looking away from ourselves and looking confidently at the righteousness of Jesus Christ. John said, and now little children. Abide in him so that when he appears, you may have confidence at his coming. confidence at His coming. For you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of Him and is righteous as He is. 1 John 2.28. Now that's just the time I lose confidence when I read those words of John. Let me get this straight, John. You're saying I ought to be confident of the coming of Christ. Then all of a sudden I start to lose my confidence. I've often thought, or at least occasionally, I thought the devil is going to wage an all-out war against me on my deathbed. If I have a deathbed. If I know I'm dying, I just see Him pulling up all my sins and saying, you really think that the moment you close your eyes with this kind of sin in your life, from your past, you really think you've got confidence that when you close your eyes, Jesus is going to welcome you in. And quite frankly, I start to lose confidence. I get troubled. But you see, the text says this in 1 John 3, connected to 1 John 2.28, Little children, let no man deceive you. You know that he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. You see, doing righteous doesn't make me righteous. Doing prayer doesn't make me righteous. Doing works never makes me righteous. I am righteous because it's been imputed to me. So get behind me, devil. I have a advocate with God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one who is righteous for me. And so the pursuit of righteousness has nothing to do with righteousness legally in my standing with God. Boy, that's important. Zero. I'd say it louder if I could. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing you do. But here's the connection. When you abide in Christ, like we talked about this morning, and you love Him and communion with Him and join Him, the upshot is you're practicing the righteousness that doesn't make you righteous. Isn't that amazing? He said, when you talk like that, you're just promoting a sinful lifestyle. I'm not. Because he said, abide in Him. Stay connected. You're trusting in Him. Look away from yourself. Live with Christ. And out of that life, holiness begins to happen. Oh, when you start to look at your lack of holiness, you lose confidence. Look what I've done. I'm looking at Christ and I see one that is atoned for my sin. And out of that joy and that love, and that hope, then he that hath this hope purifies himself even as he is already pure. That's the gospel that we love and that's the gospel that we proclaim. Let's pray.