THE VALUE OF BEING A BELIEVER
D. C. Brown
John 20: 27—“and be not unbelieving, but believing”
It is vital that you should be a believer on the Lord Jesus. This world has many different classes of people but there is one thing that distinguishes two classes of people—those who are believing and those who are
unbelieving. Some may be actively opposed to God and His word and speak against it; some may simply ignore the word and may occupy themselves only in their own things, but both of these categories are marked by unbelief.
Now, the man that we have in this scripture, Thomas, was given the word, “be not unbelieving, but believing”. That was the word of the Lord Jesus, and it is the word of the Lord Jesus to you today. The word comes in the gospel; it comes from Christ; it speaks of a glorified and ascended Man. What had been presented was a risen Man. His friends, the disciples, had spoken to Thomas and said, “We have seen the Lord” (John 20: 25)—a risen Man. We would tell you that there is a risen Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been into death and He has come out of death in triumph, and we would challenge you, Do not be unbelieving but believing. What a great difference it makes to men, to souls, what a difference it would make to your soul if you found yourself as one who was believing. A man in great extremity, he had even drawn a sword to kill himself, received the word, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved”, Acts 16: 31. Whatever your extremity, whatever your distress, whatever your need, there is an answer to it, and that answer is, very simply, in believing; in finding the Lord Jesus Christ as the Object of your faith, in finding Him as the One who is the Man for your heart. Do you know the Man for your heart, a glorious risen Man?
Now the word came at other times, the Lord Jesus Himself said, “Have faith in God”, Mark 11: 22. Do you have faith in God? God has come out, to be made known, to be understood, to be One who can be spoken to, One who can speak to you, One who can affect your heart, One who would long to draw you into His company and enjoy His things; and the word would be, “Have faith in God”. God has spoken, He has spoken in Christ; He has spoken in His Son. He has spoken in prophets,
He has spoken in preachers, He has spoken in the glad tidings; greatest of all, of course, He has spoken, He has made His mind known in Son, in Christ. He has spoken to you in the glad tidings, and He has spoken in the Scriptures. If you want the word of God, you will find it, and the important thing as you look into the Scriptures is, “be not unbelieving, but believing”.
Men, even men who call themselves Christians, are speaking of things that are in the Scriptures, and doubting them. They may even be arguing about them and coming to the right conclusions, but the word from God is “be not unbelieving, but believing”.
What is your attitude of mind as you have the Scriptures before you? They speak of the incoming of Jesus, the glory and majesty of the incoming of Jesus, how God has come into manhood; God Himself coming in nearness, in smallness as a babe; growing up as a child. In what a wonderful way God has acted in coming near to men; not how we may have imagined God coming near—
Nor yet in triumph passing,
But human infancy!’ (Hymn 188)
He was an infant in a manger, in the kind of receptacle that is normally used for the food for the cattle; that is where they put Him; that is the best that this world provided, and men say, This is a myth. Beloved, as we have these things before us, “be not unbelieving, but believing”, accept it because it is the word of God. He was born of a virgin, born as no other man has ever been born. We can be thankful for every one who accepts it. Accept it, not because you have weighed various things up, but because the Scripture says it, because the word of God comes and presents itself to you, and you accept it. In a certain way you do have to weigh it, you have to weigh it in your mind and let it have its effect on your heart, but without doubt, without any lack of belief. The Bereans are spoken of who heard the gospel, and searched the Scriptures, with that believing attitude, to find if these things were so. They would have said, This
is the truth that has come to us, and where does the Scripture confirm it? Is that your attitude as you come to the gospel preaching? Are you one who believes?
Think of the glory of what is spoken of in this pathway of Jesus. We often go over it. It is one thing that affects you, the way the saints go over the pathway of Jesus. How often have you known the gospels to be read? How often have we read them? Read them as gathered with the saints; read them in the household; read them on our own? Let us go over the gospels.
The life of Jesus—how precious every detail of it and every moment of it is. Do you love to go over it with the attitude of one who is a believer? Think of what He did and the way He went; think of how He touched persons; think of what health and strength He gave them, and what food He gave them. All these things show the way the Lord Jesus was on earth.
Yet all that had one objective and one end, so that He could say, “the things concerning me have an end”, Luke 22: 37. Something there that was of pleasure and delight to God had to be ended if you or I were to be saved. Something was there that God delighted in, in every moment, every second of the life of Jesus. Think of it, action by action, detail after detail, of His life God treasured it: Man in perfection in flesh and blood in Jesus. What glory! What delight to God! He was a Man in perfection, never seen before, never seen since. Man in perfection in flesh and blood, for God. And for God that was the One, the perfect, holy, harmless, sinless One, to be the perfect sacrifice; the perfect offering.
We speak of the offerings in the Old Testament. If something was to be offered it had to be completely flawless, completely spotless; that is Jesus. It cannot portray any man but Jesus. If you read about a spotless lamb, if you read about a flawless offering, it could be only Jesus. If you can speak about the fine flour
mingled with oil, it typifies Jesus, the only One who could be totally satisfying to God. We read of these different offerings, all perfectly pleasurable to God. So that is the way that He went; He went the way of the cross. Think of the pleasure that He had in doing the will of God; the pleasure He had in those days. He was a Man of sorrows. Yes, yet conscious that He was giving His Father delight. It came to the time when the cross had to be endured, and righteously, and in a holy way. The Lord Jesus, as we see Him in Gethsemane, recoiled from what it was to have to go into death, recoiled from what it was to be made sin. What it was, a holy blessed Man could only recoil from, but as loathing sin. He consciously went forward to it, subject to His Father’s will, saying, “not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42.
Does it affect your heart? Does it affect your soul that that is the way that Jesus went? Do you believe what is presented to you? Do not be unbelieving; do not turn from the effect of it on your conscience, because that is the way He has gone—gone to the cross. What has He done on the cross? He has borne sin and sins; He has satisfied the righteousness of God; He has secured redemption; He has given Himself a ransom; He has shed His precious blood; He has taken away the penalty of sin. How full and grand the work of Jesus upon the cross! He totally defeated the power of sin and of Satan; the enemy of your soul has been defeated at the cross of Jesus. The fulness and the blessing of the love of God towards you is free—and it could never otherwise have been free—because of the work of Jesus at the cross. Are you a believer? Have you trusted in Him? Is He your Saviour? Can you claim Him for yourself? He suffered and He died; He shed His precious blood, and He has been buried. If He had remained there in that tomb, you would still be in your sins, but in the blessedness of His glory, and the blessedness of the Father’s glory, He is raised. God has brought again from the dead the great Shepherd of the
sheep. How glorious that is! God has brought Him again from the dead, and He has risen. He has come out in the power of life, and now He would present Himself. He came and presented Himself to these, His own, after His resurrection. So you come to the gospel meeting and brothers preach; they can preach because in faith they have had an experience with Jesus, and they can tell you, ‘We have seen the Lord’. If someone attempted to preach who could not say that, it would be a poor preaching, but we can tell you this first gospel message that these disciples had; these ten disciples could say to Thomas, “We have seen the Lord”. We can come here and say, We have seen Him; as a risen Man we know Him; by faith He has come into our hearts to take possession there. We have seen the Lord, we know His power, we know His glory as risen. Do not be like Thomas, saying, “I will not believe”. He said that unless he did various things he would not believe. What is your attitude as the gospel comes to you? We can say there is a risen Man, we have seen the Lord. Do you accept that? Are you believing? There is an important scripture in Romans 10, “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from among the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10: 9). Are you a believer? Have you accepted it? Have you believed in your heart? Has your conscience been cleared? Has your heart being affected? Has it changed your mind and your life so that you can be like Thomas at this time when the Lord speaks to him? What is his response? Thomas says, “My Lord and my God”. He believed: the Lord presented Himself and he believed. No longer unbelieving, he believed that God had raised Him from among the dead and confessed with his mouth Jesus as Lord—“My Lord and my God”.
Beloved, do not be unbelieving, but believing. In every word of these wonderful Holy Scriptures be believing. In everything that is presented to you from
God be believing. Have faith in Christ. Have faith in His work. Have faith in His blood. Have a link with the Man who is at the Father’s right hand. It does not go on to that in detail in John’s gospel, it does not give us the ascension in the way that it does in other passages, but there is an ascended Man. This same Jesus is ascended. Where is He? He is at the right hand of God. Do you believe it? Is that what you would cling to? What difference has it made to you? Do you know something in yourself that is distinct and different because you know in yourself the work of God? God’s work is distinct, different from any other work, it is something that God has put there. If you are a believer you would know that there is something that God has worked in you, and it will grow, there will be fruit to God. For that is God’s thought that as we are believing things increase in our minds and in our hearts, so that there is something in response to God. This initial reaction of Thomas is worship, it is homage, “Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God”. Is there a response, worship from your heart? Are you a believer, and has that had its effect so that you are a worshipper? There is not a long distance from a believer to a worshipper, one who responds to God and responds to the Lord Jesus, the One who is in glory and is coming again.
There are many who have some link with the Lord Jesus who are not clear, who have not really got that belief that there is a Man coming to take them, to catch them up to meet Him in the air. But that is important too; there is One who is coming, the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe that? What difference does it make to you? The Lord Jesus is going to come in the cloud, and you are going to be caught up to be with Him—if you are a believer. Think of the glory of all that He will catch up to Himself, every one, the dead in Christ rising first and the living who remain caught up together to be with Him, changed to be like Him, suitable for Him, caught up, given the ability to enjoy eternally the presence of the Lord Jesus.
Wonderful! That is what
your prospect is if you are a believer. God will bring you into that wonderful eternal sphere where you can be in the enjoyment of all that is for Him.
Also, we have in this time, this period, the grace and the help to sustain us to be suitable. That is the Holy Spirit, the blessed Holy Spirit, which those who are believers have room for in their hearts and in their souls. He is power to respond to God; power to give God what is for His pleasure. Have you received Him? If you are a believer then you are suitable, a suitable person to receive the Holy Spirit. May we all be helped in that to be suitable.
Are you a believer? Is there anyone here who does not know Jesus as Saviour? Is there anyone here who is not sure he or she is saved? The reason is simple, it is because you are unbelieving. If there is any lack of enjoyment of what you know, or what you should know as a believer, it is because you are allowing in your heart an element of unbelief. Somebody who is a believer may still allow these doubts and elements of unbelief in their heart. If you are going to come into the fulness of blessing you have to be fully in this as a believer. That is why John’s gospel was written, as we are told regarding the signs, “but these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name” (John 20: 31).
What is the way into it?—through believing. I would plead with every one here, “be not unbelieving, but believing”, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Kirkcaldy, 27 February 1994
SOBRIETY IN ALL THINGS
P. S. Chareyre
Recently I have been thinking about what Paul says to Timothy; and it seems to me that we need to be keenly aware that this is what is addressed particularly to us. They are simple things, but they are what might be called the apostle’s last injunctions. In the passage I have read, we have in a special way Paul’s last moral injunctions to Timothy. We come to the end of the second epistle, and he makes this last appeal to him, so to speak, “But thou, be sober in all things, bear evils, do the work of an evangelist, fill up the full measure of thy ministry”.
Our brother has just been speaking about the words of Haggai, relating them to Paul’s exercises in regard of the Corinthians. It is not a matter of any unfolding of doctrine, it is a matter of moral characteristics. I believe it was so in Haggai’s days; it was so in Paul’s days, it was so in the days of the Revelation, to which our brother also referred, and it is so in our days. We need to consider our ways. Each of us needs to be an overcomer.
Well, Paul says to Timothy, “be sober in all things”. Whether it be a question of the things that present themselves to us at the beginning of our lives, in relation to our individual paths, or in relation to the Lord’s interests, or whether it be the things that present themselves to us in the same way at the end of our lives, the word is—“be sober in all things”. The Scriptures are written for us to take them to heart, however elementary and however simple the teaching may be. Paul concludes his injunctions to Timothy with these simple exhortations. We should like to consider our ways. I should like to consider whether in every one of the details of them, I am sober in all things, in the smallest details of the way I conduct myself, amidst the
world and among the brethren; and the same would apply in the way I consider the things that concern God’s house.
Timothy was to know how to conduct himself in God’s house; that involved the way he walked in everyday circumstances; it also involved the way he considered the Lord’s rights in the assembly. We may be faced with assembly responsibilities, may have to take up our responsibility before the Lord in regard of things that concern Him among His people. Are we going to be sober in all things? We are put to the test, beloved brethren, all along the line, simply as to how far we have a sound judgment in ourselves. Whether we have much knowledge or very little, we are put to the test as to the extent to which we have a sound sober judgment in ourselves. Then it says, “bear evils”. It is a time for enduring suffering. It is perhaps not a time when we can expect to have much outward power for undertaking many things, but it is a time for enduring. We have to consider these two moral characteristics, being sober and enduring.
Next, Paul adds, “do the work of an evangelist”. Everything in its place, of course—you do not begin with the work of an evangelist in order to finish with sobriety—that would not succeed at all. You are sober in all things, you endure afflictions, then you can look for the work that has to be done; and as it has often been remarked, it is the work of an evangelist. I think that is a far-reaching suggestion to us about the way in which we conduct ourselves, the way in which we honour the gospel by our walk. Even to the Ephesians Paul says, “having ...
shod your feet with the preparation of the glad tidings of peace” (Ephesians 6: 15). It is not a question for us of stimulating great mass movements by resounding preachings; no doubt we would be incapable of that, but what we are exhorted to do is to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. May there be, in our walk, that which opens the way for the knowledge
of God’s grace to be brought to men for their salvation.
Paul concludes by saying, “fill up the full measure of thy ministry”. We should like to be complete, beloved brethren. We may be very small—we surely are—and our service is certainly very small, but the full measure of it may be filled up. We should like to aim at that from the beginning to the end. Paul says, It is the end for me; I am already being poured out as a libation, the time of my release is come—you, Timothy, take your place. Assuredly we can say that the time of apostolic power is finished. We are in the presence of all the consequences of departure; we should simply like to be marked by a submissive spirit in regard of the moral injunctions of the word of God. Beloved brethren, we know well—we are all thoroughly convinced of it—that it is moral deficiency that has brought about the breakdown. Well, we are not wanting to re-establish what has broken down, we know that that is not possible. But the word of God exhorts us to be morally consistent at the end. May the Lord help us to be so, each in our own responsibility, for His name’s sake.
Word in meeting for ministry, Valence, 6 May 1986
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