“BE NOT UNBELIEVING, BUT BELIEVING”

John 20:19,20,24-28; 19:28-35; 6:66-69; 7:37-39

Looking around in the preaching last week, I observed that there were some empty seats in the hall where we were, and it made me think that it is disappointing that there are not more to hear the gospel. But then I thought – we can trust God to take care of that. He would see the seats that were filled, He would see those who were there. That is my burden, to communicate that to you. In the gospel the Lord speaks, and it is the most important speaking you will ever hear because it concerns your eternal safety. What is offered in the glad tidings is eternal salvation. No other message in the world is like that. No other message in the world can go beyond what there is in this life, but the gospel does.

God’s offer is one of eternal salvation, and what I have in mind to impress on each one of you, because the gospel is so intensely personal, is that you are here tonight. I thought of Thomas. For some reason, and we are not told why, he was not there when the disciples first gathered after the resurrection of Jesus. The Lord came to that little company, and they had the blessing of having the Lord with them. Thomas was not there, and he said later to the others, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”. But a week later, he was there. I do not know anything about what you were doing last week, but tonight you are here. That is something which I want to emphasise so that you grasp the importance of it, the privilege of it. God has seen fit to bring you tonight to this preaching to hear about His Son, about the Saviour, to hear about the availability of eternal salvation and blessing, and forgiveness of sins in the Saviour’s name. These things are offered to you tonight because you came here. Thomas became the focus of what Jesus said: “he says to Thomas …”. You may be the focus of the Lord’s speaking tonight, the one who He is calling. It is your heart that He is after, if He has not had it before.

We read another verse in John recently at home, where the Lord addresses the crowd and He says, Some of you do not believe (John 6:64). Is that the case tonight in this company, that there is someone who does not believe? Are you like Thomas; would you say, ‘I will not believe’? Tonight there is an opportunity of a lifetime. Do not think that you can just come next week and hear the word again. There may never be another opportunity; you may never have one again. And so the Lord Jesus says to Thomas, “Bring thy finger here and see my hands; and bring thy hand and put it into my side”. The Lord Jesus would say to you, ‘These marks in My hands, the marks of My crucifixion, the marks of My sorrow and My suffering are there. I went that way for you, I suffered for you. The blood that poured out of My side is available for you, that your sins might be paid for’. Eternal salvation is available for you if you believe. Jesus paid the price for my sins in their totality. The judgment that I deserved has been borne, He did it for me. Now He would say to you, “be not unbelieving, but believing”. That is my message to you tonight, to every one of us: “be not unbelieving, but believing”. In the gospel, the difference between believing and not believing is everything. If you do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and put your faith and your trust in Him and His shed blood, there is no other way of salvation for you. This is the only way; the only way to salvation is to “be not unbelieving, but believing”.

In chapter 19, John gives his witness of what he saw and what we ask you to believe in; he gives his witness to the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus. He witnessed the Lord on the cross and he witnessed this moment in verse 30 when the Lord Jesus delivered up His spirit. If we believe on the Lord Jesus, what is meant is that we believe that He gave Himself for us. Do you believe that? Do you believe that He gave His life for you? It is your life which is forfeit. “The wages of sin is death”, Rom.6:23. God pronounces the sentence and it hangs over you as a sinner just as it does over me and over every man. The scripture says, “There is not a righteous man, not even one”, Rom.3:10. But Jesus stood in the breach. If you believe on Him, then He took your place, and this is what John saw. John saw the Lord there on the cross; he was an observer here in this passage, and that is all we can be. In relation to this great work of Christ, that is all we can be – observers. There is nothing you can add, there is nothing you can volunteer, nothing you can contribute to your salvation. Jesus in His love has done all that God required, and He did it by putting Himself into your place and suffering for you.

It comes to the point here where Jesus says, “It is finished”. The soldiers thought they were in control, but they had no control over this whatever. The Lord Jesus laid down His life voluntarily because He loved you and He loved me. He loved men, He wanted to save them, He wanted to set them free from the judgment that we deserve because of sin, so He went to the cross and He suffered there. He said, “It is finished; and having bowed his head, he delivered up his spirit”. His life was not forfeit through sin; He was “sin apart” Heb.4:15. My life is the one that is forfeit through what I have done and what I have become through sin. But this Man, this perfect One, became the offering to God for sin and sins. The scripture says elsewhere, He “offered himself spotless to God” (Heb.9:14) as a payment for my sins and yours, if you believe. There is enough power in this sacrifice to save the whole world.

That is the greatness of what Christ has done, and John bears witness to it in that he gives us this detail about the blood. There is this act of cold hatred. He says, “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear”. We know the description of all that happened to Jesus. It is very distressing; it represents the world out there. We speak very reverently, but the dead body of the Lord Jesus was an embarrassment to the world. The Jews asked for the bodies to be taken away so that they would not be an embarrassment to them on their sabbath. It represents what the world is. It speaks to us of how far sin takes man away from God that they would treat the Saviour in this way, but there is a hymn that says,

‘Thy blood love’s answer gave’.      (Hymn 230)

John bears witness to the blood being shed; “one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water”. John saw this remarkable thing, he saw there a demonstration of the love of God in its fulness and in the most extreme circumstances – under, you might say, its most extreme test. John saw a demonstration of God’s love in the blood poured out, and he says, “And he who saw it bears witness, and his witness is true, and he knows that he says true”. He emphasises, and emphasises, and re-emphasises that this witness is there for us; and why? He ends by saying, “that ye also may believe”. This is something for you to believe on, and John in his writing wants you to believe, “that ye also may believe”. He saw it, he knew that it was true, he believed on it. He believed on the Lord Jesus and what this blood meant but John wants you to do so also. That applies to us in this room tonight. You have come, you are sitting in one of these seats. This word applies to you, “that ye also may believe”.

There is power in the blood to save you. Do you believe that? Do you believe the fact that Jesus gave His life for you? What happened at Calvary was that God received a sacrifice for sin that has satisfied Him for time and eternity. But for our part, we all have a responsibility to answer the appeal to believe. What is your response going to be? Your response must be that you also believe. God is reaching out to you tonight in His love and He wants you to believe. He wants you to put your faith and your trust in Jesus.

I read this verse in chapter 6. The Lord says to the disciples, “Will ye also go away?” It was a testing time and He had given a testing ministry. Simon Peter says, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”. What is your answer? What is your idea? Think about yourself and God; what is your plan? Do you have one? Have you thought about it? Have you thought about how you will meet a holy and righteous God? Job said, “If I justified myself, mine own mouth would condemn me”, Job 9:20. That is where we would be. So Peter says, “to whom shall we go?”. Where will you go? To whom will you go? There is no other with an offer of salvation tonight but Jesus. There is no one else who can save you. There is only One who has paid that price for you, and that is Jesus. Peter says, “we have believed”. That is a great thing; here is someone who is saying, “we have believed”. Can you join with Peter in saying, “we have believed”? Can you put yourself in that company? That is the critical point in the gospel: “be not unbelieving, but believing”. You must be a believer, able to say, ‘I have believed’.

Then Peter adds, “we have believed and known”. I wondered about that. The jailor said, “what must I do that I may be saved”, Acts 16.30. It was life or death and there was no time left. That is like the gospel, and that is what you must do, you must reach out and take hold of Jesus. Even if you do not fully understand, but you feel your need of a Saviour, He is available. Reach out and take Him, take hold of the offer of salvation. Believe, become a believer. But then I think when Peter says, “and known”, there is more to know. There was a deep conviction with Peter that not only had he reached out and held on to something that he did not understand fully, but he had found someone in Jesus Who he loved. Peter had a deep conviction that He is “the holy one of God”. That is what is on offer to you as well, that having believed, you might come to know the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One into whose hand God has put everything, the One who is coming again for those who believe to take us to be with Himself for ever, the One who is coming to take up His rights in this poor world – coming to reign, coming to put everything right.

Have you believed and known that He is “the holy one of God”? I wish I could speak better of the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The chaos that we get used to reading about in this world will soon all be over. It will all be solved in a moment when Jesus comes to reign over this world. He will come with the answers, He will come with everything that this poor world needs; “we have believed and known”. It is what every one of us must do, we must take the first step; you must be believing. But having become a believer, there is more to learn about Jesus. Can you join with Peter and say, ‘I have believed and known that He is the Holy One of God’? There is no one to compare with Jesus; there is no friend you can have like Jesus. I commend Him to you, I commend Him to you as Saviour, as Friend, as King, as Lord; there are so many titles that He has. All this is available to you if you will only give your heart to Him tonight.

Then I just finish with that verse we read yesterday in chapter 7. It speaks about the Holy Spirit. This is addressed to believers. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you already have your trust and faith in Him, then His proposal to you is that He is ready to give you the power of the Holy Spirit, which is a great blessing. His proposal to you tonight is that if you believe, not only will He save you, not only will He give you the conviction of your sins being forgiven and eternal salvation, a promise of a blissful future with Him in the presence of God. Not only that, but in the meantime, He proposes to give you power on earth. That is what the Holy Spirit would give. The Lord Jesus is in glory; it reminds us of that here. It was needful for the Spirit coming that Jesus should be glorified. That is where He is. Our Head, praise His name, is in heaven, my Saviour is there. He is waiting to come, waiting to take up His rights here, but His rights are accorded to Him there already. And not only is there a Head in heaven, but there is power available in the Holy Spirit down here. That is the proposal of God’s grace and blessing to you tonight, that you might have that power, that you might be able to live here in triumph over the flesh and over the power of the world. What a wonderful thing that is!

How are these things possible? Only in the strength of divine power, and only because the Lord is ready to give the precious gift of the Holy Spirit. If it sounds appealing to you, that is a good thing, but you cannot have it unless you are a believer, unless you believe on the Lord Jesus. He says here, “He that believes on me”; that is the test. “He that believes on me”; such persons can know the power of these “rivers of living water” that are available to us in the gift of the Spirit. These things are very blessed. It is a blessed opportunity, and I leave the word with you which the Lord Jesus said to Thomas: “be not unbelieving, but believing”.

May He bless the word.

Preaching of the gospel, Strood

20 January 2019

G. McKay