Dear friends, I count it a privilege to be here this afternoon and to speak to you the Word of the Lord. I've been very encouraged to hear the work of the local auxiliary and certainly would like to take some of those ideas back to Kent. We don't have an auxiliary, local auxiliary there, but we do have work from our own church and I was only just this last Tuesday into the schools giving Bibles and talking to the students. But I think with an auxiliary behind us we'd be able to do a lot more than an individual church. I would desire now to bring the Word of God before you, direct your prayerful attention to the passage that we read and the last verse. That's Gospel according to John chapter 20, But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. It is the Lord's way of dealing with his people to deal with them in an individual way, a personal way, so that they personally might know the Saviour and His Word to be precious in their hearts. And we find this in the writing, the evangelists in the Gospels, they speak of different aspects of the truth of God. Now we know all of Scripture is precious, all is needful, But when the Lord blesses a text or a particular truth, then that will be more special to His dear people. You may often think of those you hear, your pastor or someone who would pray regularly in your assemblies, and you think, why do they mention that text so often? Why are they referring to that passage? And if you were to ask them, you'd find that the Lord had blessed that to them, And though other texts also are precious in the Word, the Lord has made those particular texts precious, or those aspects of truth precious. Now when we come to the Scriptures and we have the inspired Word of God, men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, but they wrote as men, as they felt, as they were taught by God, and yet the very words written were the words of God. So you find in Matthew what Matthew dwells upon and he comes with the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ. He brings the line, the genealogy from Abraham through to Joseph and pointing unto Christ. And then likewise we see the case with Mark. Now Mark, the shortest of the Gospels, and he seeks to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God through his works, show forth his miracles, show forth what he has done and let them speak of his Godhead, of him being the Son of God. When we come to Luke we find him, he goes right back and he goes from Christ down to Adam and to God tracing out the full lineage. Here is the promised seed, the seed of the woman. And one thing that also really strikes you in Luke, he speaks much on prayer, and you cover that through with Acts as well. And if you do a search through in the verses of the Gospels, looking for prayer or the words similar to that, you find Luke He mentions, he has 30 verses that mention prayer. But when you come to, like Matthew, you've only got 19, Mark is 16 and John only 6. Did it mean that they didn't hold to the value of prayer? Of course they did. But for Luke he felt this especially so. But when we come to John, what John emphasises on is believing and is specifically believing that Jesus is the Son of God. And when we look then through the Gospel according to John and we research then what words does he use in believing and we compare that with the other Gospels and we find that the other Gospels we have in Matthew just eight references to believe, believing. Mark only 15 and Luke only 12. But how means John 85 with the same search? And it really emphasises what John really sees as so vitally important, is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. He is the Christ. It's not that the others didn't feel that important too, but this is what he felt. Now I say this to the encouragement, you dear friends here, Are all the parts of the Word of God of equal preciousness to you? Or has the Lord made one or two texts and passages or themes very precious, and in that he has set a seal of his teaching, and his application of that word is not a dry word but a living word. that is individual to you, even your next church member, those in your family might not view those words as you do. And there's a reason why they're precious. I say that to the encouragement of dear friends here. It is a token for good, a special thing that the Lord has given to you. Well, John, he says, here's the reason why he's writing. He says that there were many other things, many other signs that Jesus did in the presence of his disciples. They're not written in this book, but these are written, and then he comes in with his special theme and what he feels so important These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. Now we have Thomas mentioned here and we need to be very careful that we keep closely to what the scripture sets before us as what is needful as a way of blessing and for salvation. Before mentioning Thomas' case you think of Naaman who was a leper, he wanted to be healed but he had an idea how it would be. And when he comes to the Prophet and it's not how he thought it should be, he goes away in a rage. He says, I thought, and he had a whole list of things that he thought would happen for him to be healed. Now how many of you are here perhaps? and how many of the Lord's dear people started off in this way, I thought the Lord would bless me in this way. It would happen like this and like this and this, but the Lord doesn't work in that way. And so you don't recognise the Lord's hand or what he is doing. And we need to keep very close to the scripture is how the Lord will bless his people. And you think of Thomas here in the part just before our text, where he says that unless this happens, unless he sees this, the wounds in his hands and in his side, I will not believe. He's laying out these things. Are there those of you who say, unless this happens, unless I have this, then I will not believe. Well, may we come to the word of God as to what John here brings before us as to what is vital for a true token and a true blessing from the Lord. Now there's three points I desire, with the Lord's help, to bring before you and the text naturally opens up to these. The first is the means to believing. We are told that the means are these things written, but these are written that you might believe. The written work is the means to believing. And then secondly, we have set before us what is actually to be believed, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And then thirdly, we have set before us what is joined to believing, that believing ye might have life through his name. So firstly the means to believing. Our text tells us that these are written that you might believe. Just think for a moment on the use of means. If we had a flat tyre on our car and we need to remove the wheel, we'd need to have a spanner. The spanner would be the means to removing that nut, but the spanner on its own is quite useless. It needs someone that knows to use it, to pick up that spanner and to use it. Without the means you would not be able to take off that wheel. If we bring it to a more close analogy to the Word of God, if we want to communicate with someone at a distance, when my wife and I, when we were courting, I was in Australia and she was over here, we used several means. letters and we used a very expensive means of phone calling those days 27 years ago, but they were means of communicating. Now if you think of a letter, and I'm especially using this because in the scriptures we have many epistles, we have many letters and they are part of the inspired word of God. So we have those things that are written The person that wants to use the means of writing to communicate writes it down. They then send that letter. The person that receives it, they need to read it. If the letter is just sitting on the table and not read, it's no use. So they need to read it. And then the message is conveyed. Now there's something when we bring that analogy to the Word of God that is very, very different. We have God inspiring the means, the Word of God, the brief Word of God. And we have that Word given to us in the Word of God. Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. The very words are the words of God. And yet we know that it also needs to be translated into a language that we can read. Again, it's no use if we have a language that we cannot understand. We need to have that which the Sama says, that thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. word that is to dwell richly in us is not in some strange language but is in a language that we understand. But the difference then is with the letter, really the word of God is where God meets and the sinner meets. God sends his word and like the person receiving the letter, we need to use that means of knowing the will of God, the purposes of God, the blessings of God. But we also know as we use that, as we read that, that God uses that same means and that is absolutely vital. That is what is so different than us just getting a letter and it depends on us. We need to use the means and read it but we depend upon the author of it, the Holy Spirit, to bless it and to apply it to our hearts, to convey that to us. May we be very clear then that God has intended to use and always intends to use the scripture as the means, the written word of God. Then we think of the preached word of God, but what is the command? The Lord's servants is not to just preach their own thoughts or their own experience or their own ideas, but to preach the word. And so the same word is going forth. It's being conveyed in a lively way. We get a beautiful illustration of this with the case of the eunuch. The eunuch was reading the Word of God. Now he's reading in a part that he could not understand. I always think when we come to this, in the Word of God there's some of the most choiceless blessings attendant on where the Word was at first not understood. The eunuch is one of them. We have that with those two on the way to Emmaus as well. Think of that. When you read a part of the Word of God and you say you can't understand it, you think this may be the very portion that God will bless to my soul. But on the other hand, we have Peter warning concerning Paul's writings. In them, are some things hard to be understood which they that are unstable rest to their own destruction. We have those, when our Lord was teaching in John 6, who said this is a hard saying, who can hear it, they couldn't understand it. What did it result in? They went back, they walked no more with them. So when you get a passage you can't understand, you think some have made absolute shipwreck here, Some have been wonderfully blessed here. May you pray, may I pray to be amongst those that are blessed and not offended. If you think you've come across something and you say, I can prove the Bible wrong there, then think of this illustration. When I took my wife firstly over to Australia, and on one day there in December, a very hot day in summer time, She noticed the wind outside was blowing north and she said, open the doors and let the nice cool breeze in. So I just smiled and opened the door and in howled the north wind as hot as anything from the equator and the deserts of Australia. The word of God in Job says that cold comes out of the north and you in England know that that is so. But in Australia you could say I can prove the word of God is wrong. But you get to the right circumstances and the right place and the Word of God is right. And I often think of that. If there's something that we think we can actually prove is wrong, then if we get the right place, right circumstances, it is not. There's no contradiction in the Word of God. It's all pure. It's all right. It's God's means of bringing the Word. with the eunuch, he is reading the word, he cannot understand that word, but God sends him one of his servants, Philip, and Philip begins at the very scripture, he's been given his text, a bringing together of minister and hearer, and he begins at the same scripture and preaches unto him Jesus. And that man went from not knowing who is being spoken of, the prophet or some other man, to believing in the Lord. And you think that Philip, after he had the disappointment of Simon, who proved to be a castaway, that he had put him through a great grilling as to was this a real conversion or not. He said, if thou believest thou mayest, when he desired to be baptised. And his testimony that I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, The very thing, the very reason that John here is setting forth before us here. The vital necessity of revealing to a sinner who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And so we find the Word of God being the means there, not only the red word but also the preached word. How do we view the Word of God, dear friends? Is it to us the means? When we come to it, when we come to the preached Word, are we looking upon that this is what God will use as the means to bless my soul? And if we are, are we looking for it and expecting the right way? How will God What will He do? What will He actually speak to us? Some people might be saying, well, I desire the Lord would tell me that my sins are forgiven. He did tell that to one dear man, the man that was laid on a bed and sick of the palsy and then said that the Son of Man hath power to forgive sins on earth and then gave the miracle of healing to prove that. Very few of the Lord's dear people have actually had the Lord to impress upon them and speak to them in that way. But what is absolutely vital and what is set before us here by John is that when God saves his dear children he will reveal to them the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. He will magnify him, lift him up, make him precious to that soul. You have in the fourth chapter of Ephesians this statement where it begins with an as, but really I'd like to take off the as and just come with a statement. The truth is in Jesus. It's a beautiful statement. And that is the key, the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. Now the Jews knew Jesus, they saw him as the man, Jesus of Nazareth. knew that there was to be the seed of the woman, they knew that there was to be Emmanuel, they knew Job's writings, that his Redeemer lived and that he should stand at the latter day upon the earth. But where they really stumbled was the carpenter's son, Jesus of Nazareth. Was this the Messiah? Was this the Christ? This is what they were so offended at. This is what Saul of Tarsus, he knew the Lord Jesus, he didn't know him as the eternal son of God. And we read that he persecuted those that called on this name. And then the wonderful thing when he was converted was that he was calling on that name and who was it that revealed himself to him from heaven? The Lord Jesus Christ. the eternal Son of God and we read that immediately he preached that Jesus is the Son of God. That was the revelation, the wonder that took hold of his heart, the majesty, the divinity, the greatness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the type in the Old Testament of the Ark which is in there of the Covenant. which is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that ark was all overlaid by gold. But men didn't see that gold. They didn't see it. It was behind the veil. And when they moved from place to place, when they took down the tabernacle, they had to lay the veil over top of the ark. So yes, they would have seen that it moved more the shape of the ark than ever they did when it was behind the curtain. But still all they saw was the badger skins. In fact, over top of it was blue robe which sets forth the grace of the Lord. And many, even the enemies of the Lord, they couldn't deny his grace. But when they saw below the badger skins, even his brethren were offended at him. They didn't believe that he was the Christ. that when they, if you were to lift up the veil, there's the gold underneath, one of the hymns says that God shines gracious through the man. And those times when he was asleep in the ship and then he arose and stilled the winds and the waves, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the waves obey him? And they are able to see that this is the blessing This is the revelation that is absolutely vital. And you think of how John, he sets it forth in his Gospel. You'd expect this. He speaks of John the Baptist. Of course, John the Baptist, he points out the Lord, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And then he points to the Lord, This is he of whom I say, Jesus, the Son of God. And he testifies of him. What was it the case with Nathaniel when Philip calls him when he's under the fig tree? You couldn't see someone under a fig tree. In Australia in our garden we had a fig tree. It was like a great big umbrella with the leaves on it. You could take a chair, you could sit underneath it. Someone walked right past it, you wouldn't see it. Nathaniel knew no natural man would ever see him there. But when he comes to the Lord and the Lord says to him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile, Nathanael says once, Knowest thou me? He said, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the victory, I saw thee. Immediately, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Immediately he sees in this, here Jesus is the Son of God. We have the same with the woman at the well of Samaria. The one thing that she knew about Messiah when he came, he will tell us all things. That's one thing she knew. The Lord knew she knew that and that's exactly where he began with her and when she wanted that water of life then he begins by telling her the things in her life she knew, no one. but a prophet." She said, I perceive that thou art a prophet. He had told her those things in her life. And she says to the Samaritans, come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ? The way the Lord led her was straight to this same truth as what John is setting forth before us here. of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. We have the same thing with Martha in the account with her brother Lazarus. And she had those clear views and able to testify that the Lord Jesus was the Son of God, even in the midst of the trial and all that she was going through. the enemies of Christ as well bearing the same witness. We read in John chapter 10, that beautiful chapter of our Lord as the Good Shepherd, that they charged him with blasphemy. They said they were blasphemous because they said that God is thy Father making thyself the Son of God. They owned that he claimed that. And then later on in the 19th chapter, They said that he ought to die because he, being a man, made himself the son of God. So even the enemies of our Lord, they saw this as a crucial point, not as a point that they received, believingly, lovingly, joyfully, rejoicing that this was the promised seed, but with enmity and hatred. on the same point as others gladly received him and rejoiced? A division here? But what does Satan say? When our Lord comes, the second Adam, is he just tempted once as we read of the first Adam? No. He's led by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil in the wilderness. What is the theme? What is revealed of Satan attacking our Lord? If thou art the Son of God, Again and again this was the question and each time our Lord answered by this means, the Word of God, it is written. So Satan starts to use the Word of God as well but then our Lord said it is written again. It's a good thing for us to remember when Satan uses the scripture then we compare scripture with scripture and in that way you defeat him. The Word of God. does not lead away from Christ, it leads to him. And Satan will never lead a soul, never encourage one to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We think of the two on the way to Emmaus. They had trusted that the Lord who was being crucified, that it was he that should have redeemed Israel. They had seen the Lord, they had seen his miracles. and they had seen him crucified. But now this that had happened. And as they walk and as they stand, our Lord draws near to them. And what does he do? If he proves them, then he brings in all the scriptures, that which was written aforetime, written for our learning, What does he show? In all the scriptures, the things concerning himself, a crucified, a suffering saviour, the sacrifices, the bloodshed, the pointing to he that should come. And so as he talked to them, as he really preached to them, bringing the word of God to them, their heart burned within them. The subject himself, the son of God, Them starting that journey so sad because he who they had believed was the Son of God. They thought it was finished, they couldn't see the Scriptures fulfilled. But our Lord shows it was fulfilled. And then following straight on from their heart, burning within them, the Lord revealed himself to them, vanished out of their sight. They immediately went back to the disciples And there it was, the Lord met himself with them in the upper room, opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. It's not just a cold, naked assent that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. If that is revealed to you and I by the Holy Spirit, you'll see the pearl of great price. the treasure in the field, you'll see the altogether lovely. The effect will not leave us hard and cold, it softens hearts, it draws out love to him. We have in Ezekiel 36 when the Lord will do for his people, for his own great namesake, removing their hard heart, changing their spirit, giving them a new spirit, He says, when these things are done, then you shall loathe yourselves. And when the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to you, then you will loathe yourselves. You will see your sin in a way that is never seen at Calvary. You will see yourself as seen in the light of one who has suffered for you and bled and died upon Calvary's tree. And dear friends, may we be very clear of this, that no man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. And the Lord only reveals himself to those who are his people. Many give assent to it. But the sweetness, the preciousness, the loveliness of Christ, the drawing to him, is done by the Spirit. He shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. And so in that very revelation of Christ, in the highness of it, the preciousness and greatness of it, is a real blessing and real token. And I do want to really convey this to you. Those that are looking for this or that, this is what the scripture says before you. If you are a child, God will reveal his beloved son to you in a way he never does to the world, and you will see him as precious in a way that the world will never see him as precious. We have unto you which believe, he is precious. There is a real difference. Those of you here that the Lord has shown this to, and you can look in your lives before it was shown to you, and He was nothing to you. And afterwards, what a difference He is to you. What is Christ to you this afternoon? Is He the altogether lovely? Is He your Redeemer, your Saviour, the One who on Calvary's cross shed His precious blood for you? I, if I be lifted up above the earth, would roar all men unto you, It is the minister's privilege to lift up a precious Christ and it is the Lord's promise that he would draw all poor sinners to that Christ, to that one name given among men whereby we must be saved, to that one name that is a name which is above every name, the name of Jesus. Every knee should bow, not bowing to a mere man but to the God-man. the Saviour, the Christ, the Redeemer. Well what then is bound up, what is joined to believing? We have that in our text here as well, that believing he might have life through his name. We mentioned the very knowledge of it, what God reveals is actually a token of sonship, token. When Peter was asked by the Lord, first he asked, well what do men say that I the Son of Man am? And Peter said many things of what was being said. But then he said, but what say, who says thou that I am? And he said, thou art the Christ, the Son of God. And our Lord pronounced him blessed. He said, blessed art thou, silent by Jonah, for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee. that my Father which is in Heaven, never pass by that which has been revealed concerning the Son of God without knowing that precious truth. That has been revealed to you from Heaven. We have in the epistle of John, and John he carries the same thought through to his epistles. In the first epistle and chapter 5 we have the blessed things that are joined to believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, the benefits of it. We have, and some of you if you've got your Bibles you can follow with me, it's a beautiful chapter, and we read in the very opening verse, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. That really is what you might have been going on, Lord assure me that I am thy child, assure me that I am the new birth, that I am born of God. And the Lord hasn't answered in that way, but he's given you to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There's your token, you are born again of God. It is set before us so clearly here. Then we have in verse 5, Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? The world, the flesh, the devil, what power might have we against those? But in believing in the Lord Jesus Christ you have him that shall overcome the world. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. When we view that, we view it as authority and power, we don't see it round about us now, do we? But by faith, the view of the Lord, the Lord is in control. And then we have in verse 9, we have the witness of God. There might be some of you here thinking if I only had the witness of the Lord's people, if only they could speak some nice words to me and assure me that I'm one of the Lord's children, that we have here, if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He might say, Oh, there I have the token for good. a witness in my own self, in my own body, in my own experience, in my own path. What witness are you seeking for? The Word of God tells us that witness that is in himself is whoso believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God's witness. Then we have in the 13th verse, verse written to those that believe but don't think they believe. Those that believe but do not have assurance. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. This is what is joined, isn't it? What is joined to believing that ye may know that ye have, not will have in the future, you have it now, eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." A believer strengthened in their believing in the privileges and blessings that they have in that. And then in the 20th verse we have a verse of assurance there, and we know what a blessed thing assurance of the people of God, not a doubt, not an uncertainty, but we know. And what is it that we know? That the Son of God is come. Not only that He's come, but He has given us an understanding. How crucial that is. That's what the Lord did when He appeared in the Upper Room, He opened their understanding. That's the difference between the parable of the sower, the one that had the seed taken immediately away, who understood it not, the one that bore the fruit, who understood it, who opens the understanding, the Lord, the key, the secret, the truth is in Jesus. And the assurance of that is here, has given us an understanding of what follows from that, that we may know our sins forgiven, that we might know the peace of God. We may know these blessings but know that we may know Him that is true and in Him that is true even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. And you see these benefits and what then is joined to believing. and the Lord has blessed you, but you haven't known what is joined to that. You haven't realised the privileges and the blessings that the Lord has blessed you with. A revelation of Christ to the soul, a preciousness seen in him. When the Lord first blessed me or drew me to church membership, the attraction was in the Lord's Supper under the blessing of the Lord. because those emblems, and it was actually a few lines written in the cheering words, what think ye, humble believer, of the blood, of the bread and the wine, the emblems of Christ's broken body and shed blood. Why do you hesitate to partake of these? And under that blessing, I knew what I felt, and Christ was precious. And really every time the Lord's Supper is administered, we're told that in the service we do show forth the Lord's death till he comes. Do we find a drawing, an attraction to that? It's a reminder to the Church of God. Here is the Son of God. Here is he who has suffered, bled, died, risen again, ascended up into heaven. Here it is who is put away. your sins by the sacrifice of himself. May this word then be a blessed help and a blessing to you, and may your soul be drawn to this precious Jesus, that these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name. Amen.