James Merritt - The Benefit of the Doubt
A few years ago, the Barna Research Group conducted a poll that found that spiritual doubt is much more common among Christians than we might have considered. About 65% of Christians said they had questioned what they believed about religion and about God. Now, that didn't discourage me, but here's what did discourage me. 45% left the church because of their doubt. They finally came to the conclusion that the evidence for their doubt was greater than the evidence for their faith. And so, they just checked out with their doubt.
Now, in a way, that's kind of good news for all of us because at our church, I wanna tell you, we do not want people to check their doubts at the door. I don't want you to pretend that you don't doubt. I wanna be a church that welcomes doubters. That's who we're after. That's who I'm looking for. And if you're doubting some aspect of your faith this morning, just look around where your people around, where you're sitting, because two outta three people are just like you.
Matter of fact, I wanna be very transparent and tell you something that may kind of surprise some of you. I don't want you to raise your hand when I ask these questions. Just pretend you are so don't raise your hand, but have you ever doubted that there's even a God? Because I have. Have you ever doubted that this book is unlike any other book, that it really is the Word of God and the Word from God? Have you ever doubted that I went through a time in my college life, a crisis of faith that I hope I never go through again? And I finally became convinced there's nothing to this book. Have you ever doubted that God's good?
I see the same world you see. Innocent babies get killed, drunk drivers kill teenagers. I see it just like you do, but yet, we believe God is good. You ever doubted it? I have. You ever doubt that God answers prayer? You have prayed for something over and over and over, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, and nothing happened? I have. I wondered, you even listening? Is there even a God up there to hear me? You ever doubted that there's anything after this life? Have you ever doubted this place called heaven? Well, if you have, get in line because so have I. And I may surprise you, and I hope it doesn't because to be honest, there are some people that think and they're wrong, that faith eliminates all doubt.
As a matter of fact, that is simply not true. Lemme just tell you something I bet you've never heard. Faith presupposes doubt. If there's no room for doubt, there's really no place for faith. As the German novelist, Hermann Hesse, once said, "Faith and doubt go hand in hand. They are complimentary. One who never doubts will never truly believe". Now, that may sound counterintuitive, but it really is true. That's why we're starting a series today that we're calling, "I doubt it". And this series is both for believers and unbelievers. It's for those people who believe in spite of their doubts. And it's for those who don't believe because of their doubts, they just can't get there. And I've gotten news from both groups.
If you've got doubts, I'm glad you've joined the rest of us because even the strongest believers in the Bible had doubts. Do you know what Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, and that John the Baptist had in common? They were all doubters. Listen, Jesus' own brothers and sisters thought He was a whack job. They thought He was nuts. They thought He was crazy. They thought He needed to go see a psychiatrist. The Bible is full of people who doubted. And I got news for you that you probably don't even know unless you're on a secret. Go back and study church history. The church has always been afflicted with this virus called doubt ever since it got started. There's an entire book in the Bible, five chapters.
First John was written for one reason, for doubters. Lee Strobel. You may have heard of Lee Strobel. He was a former atheist and he put doubt, he, one time, even doubted the existence of God. He put it this way, boy, this is so good. Listen to what he said. "We could divide Christians into three groups. The first were consists of those who have doubted. The second would be those who haven't doubted yet, but who will. The third group would be for those who are brain dead".
Now, you're one of those people that wanna be high and mighty and say, well, I've never doubted. Live long enough. Pray long enough. Hang around long enough. You will. It's a part of faith. I say it again. If there's no room for doubt, there's no place for faith. Now, I know what some people would say. Somebody would walk up to me around there, say, now wait a minute, time out. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. I agree with that, but I would've had one of the statement. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. But without doubt, it's impossible to have true faith. True faith presupposes doubt.
Now, I you to understand, when I talk about doubt, I'm not talking about unbelief. Those are two different things. So what is the difference? Doubt asks questions where unbelief won't even listen to answers. So there's a difference between what I call uncertainty and what I call unbelief. So I want you to take your Bibles right now, and I want you to turn to the gospel of John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And I want you to turn to the 20th chapter of John. We're gonna study a man today who, as a matter of fact, had such a problem with doubt, we've even got a nickname for him we still use it today. How many of you know what that nickname is? Doubting Thomas, man in the Bible, so famous for his doubt.
And by the way, we'll just call him DT for short, okay? John, chapter 20. Now, lemme just say this about Thomas, right quick. I feel sorry for DT, and I'll tell you why. He gets a bad rap. I've heard preachers just rip John, Thomas one, upside down and, "Shame on John. He doubted Jesus. He doubted the river. Shame on John". Wait a minute, timeout. At least Thomas can illustrate for us and teaches us how to deal with doubt. As a matter of fact, Thomas illustrates this truth. This is my sermon in a sentence, okay? Here's what we're gonna learn from Thomas. Without doubt, faith is out. Without doubt, faith is out.
So if you're one of those people right now, and you'd say, and listen, I know we've got people like this, man, I wouldn't never anybody to know that I'm having doubts. I sing on the praise team. I play in the band. I lead a small group. I take care of babies in the nursery. I help park cars. I hold doors open. I greet people. I work with teenagers. I don't want anybody to know that I've got a doubt. Shame on you. I wanna know. We wanna know. And God already knows and what we're gonna learn today, and this is gonna really be great for some of you, if you're struggling with doubt in your life right now, something about God, something about your relationship with God, what Thomas is going to show us is the steps you take on how to handle about with doubt. Because what Thomas was able to do, and you can do, he was able to starve his doubt. He was able to feed his faith.
So I would encourage you to write down these five steps I'm going to give you. Because if you don't doubt, if you're not struggling with doubt now, one day you will. One day your children will. One day your grandchildren will, and you'll be able to help them with their doubt. So five quick steps. We're gonna go fast. Number one, if you're a doubter, first thing you need to do is identify the cause. Identify the cause. So you're a doubter, okay? First thing I would ask, if you came to me and you said, boy, I'm really struggling with my faith. I don't believe God loves me. I don't believe God cares. I don't believe this. I don't believe that. My first question I would ask you is this, so why are you doubting. Gotta be a reason.
What is the cause of your doubt? Now, watch, we're filled in. We know why Thomas doubted. Here's why. A week before what we're about to read happened, Jesus had physically appeared to the other disciples. So we read this beginning in verse 19 of John 20. "On the evening of that first day of the week," that is Sunday night, "when the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you.' After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I'm sending you.' And with that, He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.'"
Now, here's what happened. The disciples saw Jesus. They heard Jesus. They talked to Jesus. They experienced Jesus. They spent time with Jesus. You say, well, okay, well why did Thomas doubt? Well, keep reading. "Now, Thomas also known as Didymus one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came". Now, we know why he doubted. And for those of you watching online, listen carefully, you know why he doubted? He didn't go to church that Sunday. He missed church. Everybody else was there. All the other disciples. I don't know what he was doing. By the way, that phrase, "one of the 12," that phrase is only used one of the time in the gospel of John. And it's used in the gospel of John in connection with Judas.
Now, everybody, you know why Judas wasn't there, right? Okay. He was hanging around somewhere else, okay? That's a joke. Go read your Bible. You'll get it, all right? He had something else going. But the point is this, Judas couldn't come, but Thomas didn't come. And by the way, while we're in the neighborhood, Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them".
Lemme tell you what that means. Every time you miss church, you miss Jesus. Every time you miss church, you miss a meeting with Jesus. Every time you miss church, you miss a word from Jesus. Every time you miss church, you miss a family reunion with Jesus. But at least now, we know one reason why Thomas doubted. He hadn't seen what the other disciples had seen. He hadn't heard what the other disciples had heard. He had not experienced what the other disciples had experienced. Here's all Thomas knew at this point. I spent three years of my life with a guy that told me, "I'm the Messiah. I'm the Son of God. I am God". And all I know is He got Himself crucified, and I hadn't seen Him since. That's all I know. Well, he's being honest, and so here's his attitude. And you really can't blame him, right? Shame me once, shame on you. Shame me twice, shame on me.
So if you're doubting, and lemme just be honest with you, at least identify the cause of your doubt. You know why some of you are doubting? 'Cause you had an unexpected tragedy come into your life, and you asked God to take care of it, do what you wanted Him to do, and He didn't do it. So you doubt His goodness. And then there are some of you, and you prayed for something over and over and over, but God didn't answer the prayer the way you wanted Him to answer the prayer, so you doubt God's power. And then there's some of you, and you've dotted every I, and you've crossed every T, and you've kept your life clean and pure, and you've lived by the rules, and you still got it stuck to you. You still lost the job. Somebody still took advantage of you, so you doubt God's justice.
And all I'm simply saying to you right now, whether you're watching online or in this building, if you're struggling with doubts right now, at least do this, ask the question, why am I doubting? Identify the cause. What's caused my doubt? 'Cause here's what you're gonna find over the next nine or 10 weeks. You're gonna find either the reason that you're doubting is really not a good reason to doubt, or you're gonna find, well, it may, you may have a good reason, but there's also a really good answer. So you're a doubter. At least be honest with yourself and identify the cause. Why am I doubting? Then you take step two, after you identify the cause, you specify the problem.
Now, if you're one of those people who sit silently in the dark room in doubt, and you're too ashamed to let anybody know it, Please don't be. If you're one of those people and you're afraid, man, I would never want my pastor to know I doubt even God exists. I would never want my pastor to know I sometimes doubt the Bible. I would never want my pastor to know that I doubt God is good or God is loving, or God is kind. I would never want my pastor to know that. Please don't have that attitude. Please don't do that. You should not, don't listen. Too many believers have written four words across their struggles with doubt and faith. Don't ask. Don't tell, you know? I don't want anybody to know. I wanna put on this big front.
I wanna come to church and act like I've got my spiritual act together. I don't want anybody to know. But I wonder, is there this or is this true or is this right or whatever? So listen, I wanna tell you two things about your doubt. Put you at ease. Number one, the church ought to be a place where doubts go to die. I want doubters. I really do. Mike Daniels, my executive pastor is a chaplain for the Gwinnett County Police Department. He called me yesterday and told me about a conversation he had with one of the police officers there. And this police officer, he's an atheist. When he asked this police officer, "Why are you an atheist"?
Classic answer, "I just can't believe in a God that would allow innocent people, do you never realize what I see as a police officer all the time, and I see all these terrible things happen? I just can't believe in a God that will let all of these bad things happen. I just can't believe there's a God that says He loves the world, but I can't believe He loves the world. 'Cause if He loved the world, all of these things wouldn't go on". And guess what? I'm gonna be dealing with every one of those doubts and more in this series that's coming up. But the point I'm making is the church ought to be a place where doubts go to die. And I'm hoping that this officer will come.
The second thing is, here's the good news. You will never bring a doubt to God that God can't answer. Have you ever thought about this? There's three words that God's never said in eternity past and never will say in eternity present. Three words, I don't know. God's never said that, and He never will. You can't bring any question to God. And he goes, "I never thought about that. Really? Wow. I gotta go to the library". No, you can't bring a doubt to God that God cannot answer. So I wanna give DT some credit. Everybody believes that if you walked into that room and you said, okay, how many of you believe that Jesus is alive? How many of you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?
Give DT some credit. He's the one guy that kept his hand in his pocket. Or if you'd have said, okay, is there anybody here that doubts Jesus? He'd raise his hand. Yeah, I doubted. No, I'm not a believer. Yeah, don't count me in. I, you know. And he was willing, at least to say, "Not so fast my friends". So verse 25, "The other disciples told him, 'But we've seen the Lord.' But he said to them, 'Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into His side,'" now watch what he said, "I will not believe". This is kind of funny. Do you realize what an insult he had just given to those 10 guys? He said, "You know, I know we spent three years together, and I know we become best friends, but just because you believe it, doesn't mean I believe".
And again, I wanna give DT some credit because I can tell you right now, you ask any attorney, any attorney would be thrilled to have 10 witnesses on his side, any attorney. But Thomas said, "Hey, I don't care what you've seen. I don't care what you've heard. I'm not taking anybody's word for anything". And here's why I wanna give DT credit. Look how honest he was. Because you know what? There's a lot of skeptics out there. They're not honest doubters. There are a lot of critics out there. They're not honest doubters. 'Cause listen to what Thomas said. He was being honest. He said four words, "I will not believe".
Now, that's huge. You say, why? Well, it'd been one thing if he had said, I can't believe, he didn't say that. He didn't say, I can't believe. He said, I won't believe. Now, there's a big difference between those two things. You say, well what's the difference? If you walk up to me and you say, hey, I've got some doubts. Okay, let's deal with 'em. No, don't bother. I can't believe. You're being a dishonest doubter 'cause you can. Now, if you walk up to me and say, well, I won't believe, at least, you're being an honest doubter. Because listen to what Thomas said. He said, "I will not believe unless".
Now when anybody says, unless I can work with that person. Because what he was saying was, I won't believe, unless I'm confronted with the facts that make me realize that I ought to change my mind. Now, that's being honest. Dishonest doubt is when you say this, I don't care what the evidence is, I will not believe. You know, the old saying goes, "Convince a man against his will, he'll be of the same opinion still. And lemme tell you something, I love dealing with doubters". I've told Mike, "Man," I said, "I hope I get a chance to meet with this officer".
And I'll be honest with you, if I could, don't take this the wrong way, I'd like to spend most of my days not with believers. I like to spend most of my days with unbelievers. I love to engage with atheists and agnostics, and skeptics, and people of other faiths. I just do. It's just a, it's a passion. It's a gift. And I really do. But I'll tell you what I have learned in my ministry. I will spend all the time that I can with an honest doubter. I won't waste a second with a dishonest doubter. I can't believe, I can work with that. I won't believe, don't waste my time. I'll give you an illustration. I heard a story the other day about a man who was absolutely convinced he was dead. I mean, he was absolutely convinced he was dead.
So he goes to see a psychiatrist and he walks in, the psychiatrist says, "What's your problem"? He said, "I'm dead". He said, "What do you mean you're dead"? He said, "I'm dead". "No, you're not dead". He said, "Yeah, I'm dead". He said, "Man, you gotta quit believing you're dead". He said, "Well, how do I do that"? And so, the psychiatrist said, "I want you to repeat four words after me, dead men don't bleed". So he said, "Okay, dead men don't bleed". He said, "Say it again. Dead men don't bleed. Say again. Dead men don't bleed". He said, "Okay, I want you to go home". He said, "I want you to repeat that 12 times a day, once an hour, 12 hours, 12 times a day, two weeks, don't come back. Then after two weeks, come back see me".
So two weeks went by and the man came back to the appointment and he walked in. Psychiatrist said, "Okay, what do you have to say"? He said, "Dead men don't bleed". He said, "Say it again". He said, "Dead men don't bleed". He said it a third time, "Dead men don't bleed". He said, "Okay, I got a question for you". He said, "Do you understand it"? He said, "I do". He said, "Okay, great". The man took out a needle. The psychiatrist took out a needle and pricked that man's finger and blood starts dripping out of his finger. The man looked at his finger and looked back at him and said, "Well, what do you knew? What do you know? Dead men bleed".
Now, there's a difference. You like that, didn't you honey? There's a difference. There's a, if Theresa laughs, I'm in good shape. There's a difference when you say, I can't believe and I won't believe. This man, he was a dishonest doubter. He said, "I don't care if I'm bleeding, I'm still dead". And I'm simply saying to you, there's a difference between can't believe and won't believe. Now, here's what I love about Jesus. Don't miss the way that Jesus handled Thomas's doubt. He didn't rebuke him. He didn't shame him. He didn't attack him. I mean, Jesus would've been well within His right to say, you moron, you idiot. For goodness sakes, Thomas, you spent three years with me. You saw me walk on water. You saw me feed thousands of, with few loaves and a few fish. You saw me raise a guy from the dead, for Pete's sake! He didn't do that. He did not do that at all. Jesus appreciated an honest question. He thought it deserved an honest answer.
So one week later this happened. Watch this. "A week later, His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and he said, 'Peace be with you!' And then He said to Thomas," and I guarantee you the disciples went, "Uh-oh, here it comes". But what does it say to Thomas? Listen to this. "Put your finger here, see my hands. Reach out your hand. Put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe".
Now, we're gonna come back to this in just a moment, but I just want you to understand God is big enough to handle any question you wanna ask. And God is big enough to handle any doubt that you might be struggling with, and He is not offended by your doubts. Lemme tell you what offends God is when you try to lie to Him. That offends God. When you're not honest with God. That's what offends God. And I'm telling you, God would rather you be honest with Him and communicate a real doubt than to try to live a lie and confess a phony faith. So whatever problem you're having right now that's causing your doubt, specify it, all right? So what is step one? Identify the cause. Why am I doubting? Specify the problem, all right? We see that he's done that.
All right, now what's the third step? Certify the facts. Certify the facts. Doubt is a feeling. Doubt's a feeling. What do you do with feelings? There's only one thing you can do with a feeling. Confront it with facts, right? We talked about that last week. Confront it with facts. Somebody said it this way, "When does doubt become unbelief? Answer, when you let it". When you let it. If you don't certify the facts, you just said, okay, I'm just gonna let my doubt be on belief. Because the only way you can ever justify whether a doubt is real and should be or not is you've got to certify the facts.
So Thomas was taking the right step. He said, hey, before I believe, I wanna see the hands, show me your hands. I wanna put my finger into the side. I've gotta touch it. I've gotta feel it. I've got to experience it. Or I'm not going to believe. In other words, give Thomas credit, DT credit, I'm gonna investigate. I'm gonna do my homework. This is something I said just a while ago. If you're an an honest doubter, here's what you say. You know, I'm doubting whether something is true or not. I'm doubting whether God exists. I'm doubting whether the Bible is the word of God or not. I'm doubting whether God is good. I'm doubting whether God loves me. I'm doubting whether Jesus is the only way to heaven or not. But I'm willing to investigate the facts to see if my doubt should be justified.
Now, if you're a dishonest doubter, here's what you're gonna say. My mind's made up. Don't confuse me with the facts. I don't care what you say. I will not believe. Honest doubt ignores the fact. Honest doubt never ignores the facts. It stubbornly pursues the truth. And oh, by the way, lemme tell you something else I love about DT. He looked at those 10 men and he said, "You know, man, I appreciate the fact that you have faith, but your faith won't cut it for my faith. I gotta have my own". And it's something some of you need to hear right now. Your faith better be your faith. Not your parents' faith, not your pastor's faith, not your brother's faith, not your sister's faith, not your buddy's faith. Your faith better be your faith.
I'll give you a great example of what I'm talking about right now. I hope you know after some of y'all, I've been your pastor here. I've been your pastor almost 40 years. And I hope, you know, I try by the grace of God and the power of God to be a man of God. And I always try to preach what I believe is the truth of God, by the spirit of God. I tried, I give my best to do that for you every single week. But I have said this to you before. I will say it again and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Don't you ever believe one thing I say just because I say it.
I want you to believe what I say because He says it. That's all that matters. At the end of the day, Jackie, it doesn't matter what I think. It doesn't matter what I believe. It doesn't matter what I say. At the end of the day, what matters is, so what does He say? Because I want your faith to be your faith. See, I'm not amazed. Here's the thing people don't get. I am not at all amazed that people doubt that there's a God. That doesn't amaze me. I don't at all, I'm not at all amazed that people say this is just another book. This is just a book of myths. You can't believe that book. I am not at all amazed that people doubt that God is good or God is love.
That doesn't amaze me. I'm not at all amazed that people don't believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, and He's still graveyard dead. I don't have any, that never ever amazes me. What amazes me is all these people who doubt, but they won't even investigate the facts. They won't even check it out. They won't even see whether or not, maybe if there's something to it. They will not certify the facts, and that's why we give DT credit. Because in the timeline of the story, this seems the same room where Jesus had met with the disciples earlier.
Now, eight days have passed, but here's what I love about Thomas. For more than a week, he hung around. He didn't leave the church. He didn't forsake anything. He said, "You know what, I'm gonna hang around. I'm gonna go back. I'm gonna investigate. I'm gonna certify the facts". And that's exactly what honest doubt does. It says, I'm gonna find the facts. Uncertainty says, if there's a reason I ought to believe, I wanna know it. Unbelief says, you believe whatever you wanna believe, I'm outta here. Don't bother me. I don't wanna hear anything. And by the way, I do need to say this. If you are a Christian, you should believe simply. But you should not just simply believe.
Lemme tell you why. Somebody, somewhere, some place, somehow is gonna challenge your faith. They're gonna challenge what you say you believe. And when they do, it won't be enough to tell them what you believe. You better know why you believe it. You better know your stuff. You better have done your homework. Because when you identify the cause and you specify the problem, then you certify the facts without even realizing it, you know what you're doing? You're strengthening your case for faith, and you're weakening the case for doubt. Then you can take the next step to realize the benefit of the doubt. You identify the cause. You specify the problem. You certify the facts.
And then step four, you ratify the evidence. You ratify the evidence. Now, watch this. I hope you get this. I worked on this for weeks. When you take a question mark and you straighten it out, you know what you have left? An exclamation point. Now, wasn't that good? I worked on that for, come on, gimme some love here. If you take a question mark and you straighten it out, you have an exclamation point. That's what happens. Doubt is the question mark. Faith is the exclamation point. So after Thomas had certified the facts, he ratified the evidence. So watch what Jesus does. He says, "Okay, Thomas, you want me to put up or shut up? I'll put up". Verse 27, "Then He said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here. See my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'"
Now, we need to stop here. Let's be honest with each other. Do you know one of the reasons why a lot of people won't confront their doubts, they won't take these steps? You know why they won't? Because deep down, they're afraid maybe their doubts are true. Maybe their doubts are justified. Maybe their doubts are right. Maybe what you believed all these time, maybe it's wrong. Maybe there's no foundation to your faith. Well, let me help you out on a little something. The only faith that God wants you to have and me to have, and the only faith that God expects us to have is a faith that is fortified by the facts. And there is not a doubt that any skeptic or any critic, or any questioner can ever come up with that God hasn't already thought about and that God cannot address.
In other words, no, you don't have to check your brains at the door of Christianity in order to become a follower of Jesus. You know, we talked about Lee Strobel just a little bit while ago. You may not know his story. Lee Strobel was an atheist, didn't even believe in God, but he had a problem. When he married his wife, she didn't believe in God either. She was an atheist, but somebody presented the gospel to her and she became a believer. He didn't like it 'cause he didn't sign up for that. He didn't wanna be married to a Christian, hated Christian. In fact, it intensified his hatred for Christianity.
So he worked for the Chicago Tribune. He goes to his editor and he said, "I want you to allow me to do a series of articles on Christianity. I wanna expose what a fallacious religion it is". He said, "Go ahead. Go for it". He said, "Probably sell a lot of copies". There was only one problem. When he did his homework, he had to ratify the evidence. It came to the conclusion, there's only one rational, reasonable explanation that that tomb was empty. And that's because Jesus came back from the dead. And when he realized that, guess what happened to him? He went from uncertainty to faith. He went from unbelief to belief. He went from being against Jesus to being for Jesus.
And he learned Christianity is not a blind faith that believes in spite of the evidence. It is a bolstered faith and a bold faith, and a brilliant faith that believes because of the evidence. I wanna tell you something, I'm a Christian, not in spite of what I know. I'm a Christian because of what I know. And I get more convinced every single day, take everything else away. You cannot explain that empty tomb. You cannot explain it, apart from the physical, literal, visible resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't do it. It's impossible. So our faith is built on a solid foundation. So lemme tell you something.
You know why I'm not an atheist? I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. I don't have that kind of faith. I just don't have enough faith to believe that there was this big bang and something came out of nothing many years ago. And voila, here we are. I don't have that faith. I don't have enough faith to believe that my house is where it is today because there was an explosion at a Home Depot, and it just came together. I just, I don't have enough faith to believe that. I just don't have enough faith to believe that this Bible is a book of myths and not the Word of God.
It takes a whole lot more faith that believe that to believe that Jesus was just another dude than to believe He was the Son of God. And what I've learned about my faith and once I love it is this, once you identify the cause and once you specify the problem, and once you certify the facts, and once you ratify the evidence, here's what I've learned. Faith can handle any doubt. Faith has tremendous foundation. And you don't have to live in uncertainty all of your life.
But now, there's one last step you have to take. And so many people don't do it, and that's why they still always stay on shaky ground. Because once you take these four steps, you need to take one last step. You need to testify to the truth. Now, Thomas doesn't even bother touching His hands. He doesn't put his finger into His side. Jesus said, "Stop doubting and believe". That's all, okay, stop doubting and believe.
Now, look at his response. This is awesome. Thomas said, "My Lord and my God"! See, that's the first thing. Amen. That's the first, I love that lady. That's the first thing. That is the first thing you always do. Once you face the facts, confront the dilemma of doubt, Guess what you do? You confess your faith, and you conquer your doubt. Now look what he said. This is so good. This is so great. He just burst, I can't help it. "My Lord and my God".
You don't show what a great statement that was? Listen to what he did. When he said, "My Lord," He put Jesus on the throne of His heart. When he said, "My God," He put Jesus on the throne of the universe. He said, "You are my Lord". He said, "You are my God". Now, what's this? This is the best part of this whole thing to me. See, I know what some of you're saying right now. I know some of you, maybe you're watching right now by TV or wherever, and you're a skeptic, and you're a critic, and you're a doubter, and you're saying, wait a minute, buster. Hold on just a minute. That's easy for him to say. He saw Jesus. He heard Jesus. He talked to Jesus. He could have reached out and touched Jesus, but what about us?
Well, you know, I love Jesus. Jesus is sharp. He's real sharp. He's perfectly sharp. Jesus knew that was coming. So watch this. He says to Thomas at effect, "Thomas, seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing". So listen to what his response was. Watch this. "Because you have seen me, you have believed". Now, watch this. "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed". Question. Who is Jesus talking about then? Who? Us. Yeah, raise your hand back there, sweet lady. I see that hand. He's talking about you. He's talking about me. He's talking about us. Jesus knew what He was doing. He said, "Hey, Thomas, I'm glad you believed because you saw, that's okay. But, Thomas, lemme teach you a lesson. Believing is not seeing".
You believe that? If you really believe believing is seeing, lemme prove it to you. You ever seen David Copperfield, the magician? Seeing's not believing, okay? He'll tell you. He can't make a car disappear. Can't do that. You can't, physically impossible. But you believe it 'cause you saw it. No, seeing's not believing. Believing is seeing. And Jesus said, "By the way, I know about Anderson, and I know about James, and I know about Theresa, and I know about Chris, and I know where you're gonna be in 2023. And you've never seen me, and you've never heard me, and you've never you know, talked to me. And you've never, you know, heard me talk to you. You've never touched me, but you believe".
You say, why do you believe? Same reason you do. The reason why I believe, and although I've never seen Jesus, there was one time I ate some bad Mexican food. I thought I might have heard from Jesus. Other than that, I've never heard Jesus. I've never reached out and I've never touched Jesus. But I'll tell you what has happened to me. Because of the power of the Word of God, and because of the conviction of the spirit of God, and because of the testimony of the people of God, like my mom and my dad, I believed. And I wanna tell you today, Jesus is more real to me than you are. Jesus is more real to me than the skin on my flesh and the blood in my veins and more real to me than the air that I breathe. 'Cause I don't believe because I see. I see because I believe, and I made up my mind. I'm going to doubt my doubt before I doubt my God. I'm gonna doubt my doubt before I doubt my God.
So, see, this is what we'll close with, and a lot of people miss this. And this is the most important part of this message. If you wanna conquer your doubts, you've gotta testify to the truth. You have got, listen, there is a power to testifying to your faith, confessing your faith, verbalizing your faith, speaking your faith, sharing your faith that fortifies your faith. We baptized a sixth grader this morning at 9:15. So excited. Y'all should have heard his testimony. It was awesome. And this is why being baptized is such a big deal. Some people, "Why do you want people to be baptized? Why do you have baptism, Pastor"?
See, run up the numbers? Has nothing to do with numbers. Seeing people get wet? Couldn't care less about that. But there's something about baptism and standing up there and professing your faith, and telling people you believe in the death, and the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus. There's something about that that strengthens your faith, seals your faith, destroys your doubts. There's something about sharing the gospel with people. There's something about telling people about Jesus. It's testifying to the truth.
So you're watching right now, you've got doubts. You're listening right now, you've got doubts. Tell you what you do. You bring your doubts to the word of God. You verbalize your doubts to the Son of God. You confess your doubts to the spirit of God. And if you're an honest doubter, you will see the benefit of the doubt because here's what will happen 'cause it happened to me 30 miles from here in a theater as a 9-year-old boy. When you do your homework and you check it out, you will not be able, but to help and say, huh, "My Lord and my God".
So would you pray with me today with heads bowed, with eyes closed? You may be watching online right now, and you may be a doubter, but maybe you've heard enough in this message. Maybe you're in this room right now. You've heard enough of this message. And you would say, "pastor, I believe. I wanna become a follower of Jesus. I'm tired of my doubts. It's time to quit. It's time to start doubting my doubts and quit doubting my God. And I want this Jesus to be my Lord. And I want this Jesus to be my God". You know what? All you gotta do is tell Him right now. You're in this room or you're watching right now. You could say right now:
Lord, I believe, I believe you're the Son of God. I believe you are born of a virgin. I believe you lived a perfect life. I believe you died on the cross for my sins. I believe God raised you for the dead. I believe you're alive right now. And I believe that if I repent of my sins and confess my sins and ask forgiveness of my sins, you'll save me. And that's what I'm doing right now. I'm asking you Lord Jesus to become my Lord, my God, my Savior. I'm asking you to forgive me of all my sins. I am taking you at your word that you're giving me and have given me eternal life. I wanna thank you for hearing my prayer.