you'd open your Bibles to the
fourth chapter of John, John chapter four. I had a good time
preaching for the church in Dune, the United Methodist Church there.
They're presently without a pastor. And Bonnie works, well, her supervisor
at work is a member at that church, so she asked Bonnie, do I go
other places and preach? And I said, well, as long as
it doesn't conflict with here. Well, they meet at nine. So,
I agreed, and I preached to them from Isaiah 45, 22, Look unto
me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, for I am God,
and there is no other. And I preached from that text
for two reasons. One, it's a great text of Scripture,
declaring the Gospel with clarity and simplicity. But also because
that is the text of Scripture that was preached when Brother
Spurgeon was converted by the grace of God. He had been on
trying to go to his church but couldn't make it because it was
snowing so badly and he turned into just a church that was nearby.
The preacher couldn't come. The pastor was unable to make
it because of the storm. And so just one of the men of
the congregation stood up and he turned to that scripture and
Spurgeon went on to say that He could hardly make any comment.
He just was not really a preacher. And he said he just more or less
repeated the thing over and over again. You know, he'd say a few
words and then repeat the text again. And he said, and that
was good. He said, because that's what I needed to hear. But he
did make the points that it doesn't take much to look. You know,
you don't have to have intelligence to look. You don't have to have
strength. He said, not so much as to wiggle
a finger. And then he said, after about 10 minutes, he kind of
spent himself. That's all he had to say. And he looked back
there and Spurgeon was under a great sense of guilt. And he
said, young man, you're miserable and you will be miserable until
you look to him. And, uh, Spurgeon says the Lord
opened his eyes to, to understand what was being said. And he looked
to Christ and found his salvation. But the reason I bring that up
is, uh, Even though he was raised a Congregationalist and went
on to become probably the greatest Baptist preacher that ever lived,
the church where he heard the gospel to the saving of his soul
was a Methodist church. Artillery Street Primitive Methodist
Church. So that gave me a little point of contact with the group
I was preaching to this morning. And I told them, I said, seeing
that you all delivered that text to the patron saint of Baptists,
I said, I thought it only fitting that I should bring it back to
you. I preached, I believe the Lord blessed the preaching, at
least I felt I had liberty to preach with clarity. I left right away because they
had more to their worship service and I didn't have time to sit
around for that and make it back here in time. They understood
that and a few of them thanked me as I was making my way out.
But someone asked me before the service here, how'd it go over
there? I said, well, I believe this preaching was blessed. It's
yet to be seen with the hearing. Because God must bless both the
preacher and the hearer. And that's not just true there,
that's true here, you know. We always need that blessing.
That song was perfect, Terry, I Need Thee Every Hour. You know,
just because we're saved doesn't mean we don't need Him anymore.
You know, like, well, He's done what's needed and we'll see Him
after life's done. No, we've got to have Him all
the time. John 4, verse 50. Actually, let's begin reading
in verse 43. After the two days, that is a couple of days he spent
there in the town where that Samaritan woman lived, he left
for Galilee. Now, Jesus himself had pointed
out that a prophet has no honor in his own country. When he arrived
in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all he had
done in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, for they also had been
there. And if you go back to chapter
2, I believe it is, you can see the things he did there. One
of the more notable things, and I'm sure one of the things that
was spoken of quite a bit in the
town, was he went into the temple and there were people there selling
sacrificial animals. Sheep, goats, pigeons, things
like that. And while there's nothing wrong
with selling sacrificial animals, that was an invasion on that
holy place. And our Lord took a whip of cords,
it says, and I don't think he whipped the people, he whipped
the animals, you know, just like you do to get animals moving.
And he herded them out of the temple. And there were those
that were money changers. And what they did was every time
you went to the temple like that, you had to pay a certain amount
of money, the redemption price. And it was so much money and
not everybody had the right change. So you could go to the money
changers and you give them your dollar and they give you back,
you know, whatever. But they, of course, they kept the little,
you know, they charged interest on making change. And the Lord
drove out the animals, overturned the tables of the money changers,
and then he rebuked them. He said, is it not written, my
house shall be called of all nations a house of prayer, but
you have made it a den of thieves. Now you can imagine that would
stir up things, wouldn't it? I mean, things have been going
on that way for who knows how many generations. Nobody ever
said anything about it. But I'm sure that there were
some people who did love God, who believed God, and rejoiced
in the worship of God, and they would go to worship, and they
would see that going on in God's house. And it would grieve them. And then here comes this one
fellow with courage enough to do something about it. And then he'd worked some miracles.
And he taught some things that they had never heard before. And some of them that were there
that day were from Galilee, because it was required that the men
show up at the temple three times a year. Passover was one of the
times. And they went back to Galilee,
and our Lord went up to Galilee, eventually got up there, and
when they heard that the Lord was in Galilee, they thought,
well, we need to hear some more about him. Once more he visited Cana in
Galilee where he had turned the water into wine and there was
a certain royal officials whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus
had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him
to come and heal his son who was close to death. Unless you
people see miraculous signs and wonders, Jesus told him, you
will never believe. The royal official said, sir,
come down before my child dies. Jesus replied, you may go, your
son will live. The man took Jesus at his word
and departed. While he was still on the way,
his servants met him with the news that his boy was living.
When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they
said to him, the fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour. Then the father realized that
this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, your son
will live. So he and all his house relieved. This was the second miraculous
sign that Jesus performed having come from Judea to Galilee. Now Cana was a blessed city for
the Lord worked his very first miracle there in changing the
water into wine. And now he will heal a dying
child. Now, this miracle, like other
miracles that the Lord did, it performs three functions. First, it displays the love and
kindness of our Lord. This was likely an official of
Herod's court. He's a royal official. Well,
there's only one royal in Israel, and that would have been King
Herod. Herod, who wasn't even a Jew, what's he doing being
king of the Jews? Herod, godless man. Herod, the man who ordered the
execution of John the Baptist. Herod, who acted as corrupt as
any man could act. And he was sitting on the throne
that, strictly speaking, belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here is someone from Herod's court that comes to our Lord
and asks for a blessing. So it displayed his love and
kindness. It also demonstrated his power
to testify that he is exactly who he said he was. Look over
here at the 14th chapter, John chapter 14, verse 11. He says, believe me when I say
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least
believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. The best faith is that faith
which believes simply because the Lord says so. And that's
actually what the title of this message is, taking Jesus at his
word. Because that's what this royal
official did. Once the Lord told him, your
child will not die, you can go. He took the Lord Jesus at his
word. And so the Lord says, believe what I say. And we should. We should, if the Lord says something,
that settles it. Years ago, probably clear back
when I was a teenager, at least in my early 20s, a bumper sticker
came out that was rather popular and it says, God says it, I believe
it, that settles it. I'm sorry, you got that out of
order. God says it, that settles it, I believe it. That ought
to be our attitude. Whether or not we believe something
that the Lord said has nothing to do with whether or not it's
true. Nothing. If we disbelieve God,
it just means we're wrong. That's all it means. That's why
I think it's so funny when people proudly and arrogantly stand
against the Word of God as though their proud and arrogant stand
against the Word of God is going to have any effect on the Word
of God. Paul says that the Gospel was preached to the Jews, and
for the most part, they didn't believe it. But it says, does
this make the Word of God of no effect? He said, no. He said, the Word went out to
all of them. He said, and those whom God foreknew, they believed
it. And that's the way it is today. We preach the Gospel.
We'll preach it to anybody. Anybody that'll sit still and
listen, we'll be glad to preach it to them. And many times when we preach
it to them, preach it to someone, they're going to reject it. Does
that mean that the Word of God is without effect? No. What it
means is, at least on that day, God did not send the Word to
have the effect of salvation on that person. And He might
not ever. Now that's a sobering thought,
and I hope you take it to heart to realize just because you're
a human being doesn't mean that God owes you His Word. It doesn't mean that God owes
you faith. He may send you His Word and
yet allow it or make it so that you won't receive it, not give
you the grace necessary to receive the Word of God and believe it
to the saving of your soul. But this we do know. The Bible
says those whom God foreknew, they believed. Those whom God
had chosen, those whom Christ came to redeem, all those that
the Holy Spirit calls, they do believe. Our Lord said his word would
never return to him void, useless. When I preach like this this
morning, this word is going to do everything God intended it
to do. It may find a lost person here
this morning and save him. It may find a believing person
and encourage them in their faith. And it may find an unbelieving
person and harden them in their unbelief. One thing the Word
of God does, or one thing it never does, is leave a person
unchanged. Now you think on that. Today,
you hear this message. You will go away from here either
encouraged or hardened, one or the other. You will go away from
here embracing Christ more, or maybe for the first time, or
you will go away from here even harder toward the gospel, because
the gospel never leaves a person alone. It always has power, divine
power, to accomplish whatever purpose God sent it for. But our Lord Said, if you can't
believe the simple word, at least believe it based on what you've
seen me do. Because the Old Testament had
made prophecies about the things that Messiah would do, and Jesus
did them. And that should have been testimony
to them that he was exactly who he claimed to be. And if they
rejected His claims, what they were doing was blaspheming the
Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit was in Christ to do those
miracles and to testify that indeed Jesus is the Christ. To reject Christ in that day,
in the face of such undeniable evidence that what He was saying
was true, that was, our Lord said, that is to blaspheme the
Holy Spirit. And there is no forgiveness for that, not in
this age, not in the age to come. I cannot say with certainty because
the scriptures never follow up on that particular announcement
of our Lord, but if I understand what our Lord was saying, those
people, particularly those religious leaders to whom He was speaking,
who heard the word he taught, and saw the works that he did,
and would not believe, they remained unforgiven then, and even after
he died, and risen again, and ascended to the right hand of
the Father, they would never be given grace to believe, they
would never be forgiven, they had committed what is commonly
called the unpardonable sin. Now people ask, is it possible
to commit the unpardonable sin? As I understand it, not today.
Why is that? Because Christ isn't right here
today. He's not here doing these things. But those that saw Him, saw the
works that He did, and not only wouldn't believe His word, but
would not even believe the works, oh, that was doing such spite
to the Spirit of God. That was to take the things that
he did, they attributed his works to the devil. And so the Lord said, all right,
no forgiveness for you now. And even when the gospel is completely
fulfilled by my work, there will still be no forgiveness for you. If you won't have me now, you
won't get me then. But while I do not believe that
there is the possibility in this day and age to commit what is
called the unpardonable sin, let me say this to you. Whenever
you hear the word of Christ, do not harden your hearts against
it. Seriously. I often quote that line, I preach
as one never sure to preach again. I preach as a dying man to dying
men. This morning, may you be given
grace to apply that in some way to yourself and say, I hear as
one who has no assurance that he'll ever get to hear again.
Let me listen as a dying man, as a dying woman, as one in desperate
need of the grace of God, in desperate need of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Believe me, If you want to believe,
that is, if you wish, as it were, that your heart was soft to the
Word of God, I will warn you right now that Satan will do
all he can to take this Word that's being preached out of
your heart, that it not bear fruit. And if he is not successful
in that, you will face the world and all the cares of the world,
which will try to choke out the Word of God. If you have a desire to know
and understand what God says to sinners, even now, ask him. Lord God, speak to me with power. Speak to me in such a way as
I cannot refuse what you say. Thirdly, this miracle was done
to provide a picture or an illustration of the manner in which God saves
people. Our Lord never did a miraculous
work simply to impress people. As we see the false prophets
in our day, that's what they do. It's a miracle show. That's
how they get big crowds. I'll tell you right now, they're
phony miracles. But they're good enough that they can deceive
enough people. And that becomes the focus and
that's what they use to draw people to themselves. And so, what's the primary purpose
of the miracle? Or the primary, let's put it
this way, what's the primary focus of their meetings? The
miracles. Our Lord Jesus Christ worked
miracles really just to prove who he was and also to serve
as illustrations for you and me as to how it is he's going
to do the greatest miracle of all. which is save our souls
from sin, save our souls from judgment. And I believe most of you would
agree with me on this. As much as we might enjoy seeing
some remarkable miracles in giving health to those that are sick,
providing for those in need, I'm not going to act as though
I wouldn't like them if God did them. I think that'd be wonderful.
but I'd trade them all for the salvation of one sinner, for
that miracle. I'd give them all up, wouldn't
you? To see God open the heart of someone who's dead in trespasses
and sins. Now this man that came to our
Lord Jesus, this royal official, he had an urgent need, that's
like us, we got an urgent need, don't we? This fellow, his son
was near death. And evidently so near death,
it was impossible by all natural means that he should live much
longer. And so we could say he's as good
as dead. And that provides a pretty good illustration of what we
are. In one sense, we're already dead. And yet in another sense,
we're near unto death. That is, we're near unto that
condition in which our death is irrevocable. That is our spiritual
death. Now God knows all things because
He's ordained all things, and so He sees the whole picture,
but you and I don't see that. We're experiencing history as
it happens. And so I can say this to you
right now, you may be near death, but you're not dead yet. Spiritually
speaking. God can yet intervene, if He's
of a mind to. And your loved ones who are yet
living, they may be near death. It may be that it's coming to
the time when indeed they shall be confirmed in whatever position
they are, such that it'll never be changed. The Bible says, by
way of illustration, as a tree falls, there it lies. And brethren,
when we fall, that is when these bodies die, when we go off into
eternity, whatever condition we were in when we died, that's
the way it stays forever. There is no remedy for our sin
after we die. You say, well, why is it like
that? Well, next time you see God, ask Him. I'm just telling
you how it is. He's the one that set everything
up the way it is. But so long as, what's the old
phrase? So long as there's life, there's hope. And that is, brethren,
I've got hope. There's not a person out there
walking the world today for which I would say, you know, No chance
that person's going to get saved. Friends, if it's to be determined
by the condition of a natural man, there's no chance that any
of them can be saved. But seeing that God has saved
anybody, I mean, if there was only one man that God had ever
saved, that means that there is the possibility that he will
save others. And if you've been saved by the
grace of God, you should probably be able to confess this. God
has saved me. I can't think of anybody He couldn't
save if He saved me. You know, the issue is not the
power. God has power to save everybody. He has authority to
save nobody. And He has authority and power
to save whomsoever He will. Don't ever give up in your prayers.
Don't ever give up in your testifying so long as you have opportunity.
Whatever the Lord puts in your hand to do for the cause of his
kingdom, do it knowing this, it will produce the fruit he
intended. And he may even produce the fruit
of the salvation of a soul through the labors that you do. But our condition is we're near
death. And the very nature of the problem
makes it urgent. miraculous help was needed, and
it was needed fast. How often do people put off believing? They hear the gospel, it says
some things that are interesting to them, there's maybe a certain
level of conviction in them that is true, and they say like that
other official, I get Agrippa and Festus mixed up so I can't
remember just which one it was, but one of them said this, He
said to Paul, come back at a more convenient time. Paul never got to go back. A
convenient time never came up. If you're dying, if you're having
a heart attack, do you call 911 and say, look, whenever you can
get here? Could you send an ambulance?
I mean, if they're not too busy, Now, if they just sat down to dinner,
you let them finish their dinner, and then they can come home.
No. You call. You're urgent. You gasp out with
whatever you are able, your address, and tell them, I'm having a heart
attack, get them here now, or I'm going to die. And it won't
matter if they get there after you die. They could be the best
doctor that's ever walked the face of the earth. If you're
dead when they show up, there's nothing they can do. And so he comes to the Lord here
and he's thinking, my son's about to die. I need help and I need
it now. Miraculous help is needed and
quick. And miraculous help is needed
for you and me. And we need it quick. You say,
well, I'm kind of young. Yes, you are. But in a blink of an eye, you're
gonna be where I and about half this congregation is, not so
young anymore. And let me tell this to you young
people, being young doesn't mean you won't die. I don't wanna scare you just
to control you. I want you to think what the
Bible calls soberly, to see things as they really are. You may be
young and full of the energy that we older people wish we
had, but your life hangs by a thread. And that thread is the will of
God. And you live right now because he wills it to be so. But if he ever withdraws that
will, you'll be gone. You might make it to 20 and that's
it. Maybe not even there. Infants die. There is no safety
in youth. It's urgent. You have a need. You have a need of a savior. You have a need of someone to
wash away your sins. Because the day will come sooner
than you think when you will stand before God. The actions of this man prove
the urgency. This was a royal official who
came. But notice this. He says, he went to Christ. He heard that
Christ was there in Judea, in Galilee, and he went to Him,
and he begged Him to come and heal his son, who was close to
death. Now, when was the last time you
ever heard of a royal official begging? Royal officials are
more of the kind that do some commanding and demanding, don't
they? They walk into town and they've got on the royal robes,
they've got the royal insignia or royal signet on their finger.
They're probably surrounded with some helpers for them, even if
they're not the king. But they're far enough up the
ladder. They've got authority. They walk in town, people do
what they say. They don't beg anybody to do anything. They
come into town and they say, set up that motel room for me.
And it gets set up. They come into town and they
say, I need some food and here's what I want. And they go out
and they get it. This man is not accustomed to
begging, he's accustomed to giving commands. But now he is broken. Pride there on the high horse
of his high position in this world has suddenly been crumbled,
as that which is precious to him has now been put at risk,
and has been put at risk in a way that all of his authority can't
do anything about. It doesn't matter that he is
a royal official, his son's dying, and being a royal official can't
fix that. Why, if it was the king's own son, the king wouldn't
be able to do anything about it. Not all the kings joined
together could get around that poor boy's bed, and with all
their authority, they couldn't help him. And you know, that's
when a person comes to Christ, when they realize that all their
assembled powers, whatever they think they are, all their assembled
abilities, are not equal to the task of fixing the problem that
we have. We're dying, and we can't do
anything about it. When men realize they can't do
anything about it, they have nothing to pay with, and they
have nothing in power to do, that's when they begin to call
upon the name of the Lord. It's a sad truth, but it's actually
true. Jesus Christ is always people's
last resort. Really. People do not come to
Christ until they've exhausted everything else. So long as a
man thinks that there's something that he can do himself to remedy
his problem, he will not come to Christ. It's when we're empty.
I like it the way the Lord was talking about, and this is in
the Old Testament, telling all the things He does. And one of
the contrasts, He says, I kill and I make alive. And brethren,
that's what He does to every one of His people. He kills them,
then He makes them alive. Because they won't come to Him
until, so far as they're concerned, they see themselves as those
that are dead. Dead. Unable to do anything. He begged because despite all
of His wealth, He didn't have the one thing He felt He needed. Those who would be unwilling
to beg for God's grace have no real sense of how desperate their
case is. He begged for despite all of
his influence and power, he could not remedy his own case. And
how long will you try to be your own doctor? How long will you
try to be your own savior? How long will you go on saying,
well, I've done some wrong things, but I'm not as bad as my neighbor
is. I'm not as bad as that guy down the street. Surely God will
have me for that. How long will you go to church
week after week and say, surely God notices this and this will
count for something when I get before Him? How long before you're ready
to beg from the only one who can do what you need done. How vain and arrogant is man,
for he thinks that the remedy for his condition falls within
the scope of his abilities, and it's simply not true. He begged because he'd heard
of Christ, heard of Christ as he is, You've probably heard
word of what went on down there at Passover. Heard of the miracles
he'd done. Maybe heard of him changing the
water into wine in Cana of Galilee. The one who finds it difficult
to beg from Christ has little conception of who Christ is. You know, one reason we don't
like to beg is we know that the beggar is held as inferior to
the one who supplies his need. And our pride, we just don't
want that. But if you've ever seen Christ,
you'll already know He's superior and you're inferior. And there
won't be a problem with you begging Him. This man may be hurt of the water
being changed to wine, and we may think, well, changing water
to wine is not as difficult as healing someone about to die.
But think of it now, both are outside the realm of possibility.
I don't care who you are, you can't change water into wine
just by saying so. So the Lord has already proved
he can do that which is impossible. And if there's one thing, if
he's done one thing impossible, then friends, he can do any of
those supposedly impossible things. Just like we saw a few weeks
ago when Peter was walking on the water. Now he got disturbed
by the waves. But once you realize that walking
on water is a miracle in and of itself, then it doesn't matter
whether it's flat water or wavy water. It's all the same. It's
the miracle of God that enables you to do so. And so here, this
man has said, well, he changed water into wine. And someone
said, well, that's not as hard as healing someone. He said,
what do you mean it's not as hard? It's impossible to do that. And if he's done
the impossible at that wedding feast, maybe he'll do the impossible
at my house and heal my son. I know he can. Don't ever count your case to
be too hard for God. Don't think of it as outside
the reach of his power, and don't think you're outside
the reach of his grace. We were singing that song, the
middle one, Children of the Heavenly Father. If I can remember exactly how
it is, I think it's the third stanza, but little flock to God
then yield thee. Jacob's God will ever shield
thee. I had to stop singing. I'm so glad he's Jacob's God. If he said he was David's God,
David was a pretty good guy. He had some notable failures,
but all in all seemed like a pretty decent guy. If he said he was
Paul's God, well, we never hear of any real problems with Paul
after the Lord converted him. But he said, I'm Jacob's God.
Oh, what a scoundrel. You and I would not have liked
him. You and I would not have wanted to have anything to do
with him. And if we'd have seen his riches and thought, I want
to rub up against this guy, become one of his close friends, and
maybe I can get ahold of those riches after your first round
with him, you wouldn't want to have anything to do with him
again. Because somehow or another, in business things, he always
came out on top. And quite often it was through some tricky dealings
on his part. And yet God said, he's mine. Don't despair of your soul's
salvation because you think you have sinned beyond the willingness
of God to save you. Your sin will never be an obstacle
to your salvation. The only thing that will prove
an obstacle to your salvation is your righteousness. Do you
believe that? I know it's what they call counterintuitive,
but in the Old Testament it says your sin shall separate you from
your God. or your sins have separated you
from your God. But what we find out in the gospel
is, it's our righteousness that's keeping us from finding salvation
in Him. Now, when I say our righteousness,
I don't mean that we actually have any, but we do have things
that we tend to think are righteous, things that God would be pleased
with. And that gets in the way of us simply trusting Christ. So long as we're trusting what
we do, we cannot trust what Christ has done. You say, well, I've gone to God
and I've told him I've done the best I can. No wonder you haven't
found his mercy. You're telling him the wrong
thing. You might wanna say, Lord, I've
done the best I can and it's a miserable mess. Lord, I've
done the best I can and the best I can is nothing good. But if you believe that your
efforts to do the best you can, somehow or another are gonna
gain The eye of God's mercy. You don't understand God. God
delights to show mercy. That means He delights to be
kind to those who do not deserve kindness, but deserve His wrath. And if you want His mercy, tell
Him about your sin. Don't tell Him about your righteousness.
Tell Him how poor you are. Tell Him how sick you are, that
you're nigh unto death. Tell him how you've tried to
believe but can't. Tell him you've tried to come
before but you can't. Lay before him the desperation of your case,
for the Lord loves to save from desperate cases. Desperate situations. He delights in it. This man came to Christ. He did
not come to Christ's mother. Our sister, I don't think she'll
mind me telling this story, but our sister who was raised in
the Roman Catholic Church, she sent me an email and said that
someone had posted a picture of her when she was about 10
years old in her school. And I take it she went to Catholic
school. And so there's all the little kids and she says, and
I saw a sign on the wall behind us. And it says, if you try to
go to Christ without Mary, you will fail, or something like
that. She says, I'm so glad to have been delivered from that.
This man, these people did not go, or this man did not go to
Christ's mother. He went to Christ. He did not
go to Christ's disciples. Now there's others who did that.
Those at the wedding at Cana, they first went to his mother. And then there were some who
went to his disciples first, but the disciples couldn't help
him. This man wisely went directly
to Christ. And I tell you this morning,
are you in need of God's salvation? Just go directly to Christ. There's
one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, but
there are no mediators between you and Christ Jesus. You don't
need a mediator between you and Christ. You need Christ to be
your mediator between you and God. So go directly to him. Be assured of this, that all
my spiritual counsel shall consist of this. Go to Christ. Go to Christ. And he begged. He did not let Christ heal his
son as though Christ was anxious to do so and was simply waiting
for this fellow to show up and give him permission. He begged. because he realized Christ was
under no obligation to do it. I can tell you this, and I encourage
you with these words, Christ has promised that he will save
all that come to God through him. But understand this, he's
under no obligation other than his own word to do so. When Adam sinned, he could have
let the whole world go to hell, and he'd have been righteous
in doing it. And when you came into this world, like David said,
I came forth from the womb speaking lies. We came into this world as sinners
and you want to know something? God could have just left you
alone and let you drop into everlasting judgment. And he'd have been
right in doing it. You couldn't bring a charge against
him for doing it. So he's under no obligation to do it, but oh,
what mercy that he does. Furthermore, we see this man's
urgency demonstrated in this. Christ rebuked him and everybody
around him. People talk about Jesus being
so sweet and nice, not all the time. Now, he had loving purposes
in mind, but the words were harsh. Look at here. He says, Verse
47, when this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee
from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his
son who was close to death. And the Lord says, unless you
people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe. Now there's a lot of people,
there's such sensitive emotions or whatever. They think that
preachers are always just supposed to say something nice to them.
And they believe that it ought to be preached to them that Jesus
Christ is just champing at the bit to save them. And if He in
any way said some kind of word that made them feel uneasy or
uncomfortable, that they're just going to leave. And you know
there are some that do that. Our Lord would speak like this
sometimes just to prove the sincerity of the one who is coming to Him.
And notice what the royal official says. Sir, come down before my
child dies. The words meant nothing to him.
Why? His case was more desperate than his pride. Now think of
that. His desire was greater than his
pride. And it wouldn't have mattered
what Christ said to him. We have a similar situation with that
Syrophoenician woman that came to the Lord Jesus. And she says,
You're my daughter." And the Lord looked at her, and oh boy,
they'd have called the Lord a racist this time. He looked at her and
said, it's not good to give the children's bread to dogs. I've
not come but for the house of Israel. That doesn't sound very nice,
does it? Doesn't sound welcoming. You know what this woman did?
And I love her for doing it. And the Lord loved her too. And
he's putting her to the test. Yep, she wasn't of the house
of Israel. She was a Gentile dog. And the
Lord says, it's not fit that you give the children's bread
to dogs. And she said, that's fine, but I'm your dog and dogs
get to eat the scraps. Would you throw a scrap on the
floor for me? And I'm sure the Lord smiled. I've not seen this kind of faith
in all of Israel. There was a woman desperate enough
that you could call her a dog, and she wasn't gonna leave. She
said, okay, dog I am, but I'm your dog. And here's a royal official,
and the Lord rebuked him that he wouldn't believe unless Christ
did some miraculous work. And this royal official just
kept on plowing in, sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus replied, you may go. Your son will live. And then it says these words,
the man took Jesus at his word. And brethren, that's all that
faith is. Taking the Lord at his word.
Faith is not necessarily an emotional experience. Though often, when
a person first believes, there's strong emotions that attend that,
but not with everybody. There are people who have some
very strong emotions that never had faith. To believe Christ, to believe
God, means nothing more than this. to simply take him at his
word. I read this, and oh, it was such
comfort to my heart, because so often I feel I am no believer. I don't feel like I believe.
If I spend too much time letting thoughts run around in my head,
you know how you do, you just kind of sit there and let your
mind run. Well, it runs, atheism, right away. Doesn't take long.
I try to think of the things of God and it's kind of like
it in my mind is that I there's nothing to that. But I take the Lord Jesus at
his word and when he took the Lord Jesus at his word it says
as he took him at his word and departed that was the proof of
it that he took Christ at his word. The Lord says you may go
your son will live and that was enough to move that royal official
to leave. He believed that he had gotten
what he came for. Now if you're desperate you don't
leave until you get what you come for. So this man did believe
that the word of the Lord was sufficient to bring it about
and he departed. And what was the reward of his
faith? He gets met by some people while he's on his way home. He
gets met by some of the people of his household. His servants. And they told him
the news that his boy was living. And he just wanted to make sure
it wasn't some kind of natural healing. You know how it is.
He said, when did he get better? Oh, yesterday about one in the
afternoon. You can just see that man shake his head. That's right
when the Lord said, you may go, your son will live. So let me tell you this, or urge
you to this, in all things, take the Lord at his word. Take the Lord at his word when
he said, he that comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. Take
him at his word. When he says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and all these things, your food, clothing,
and shelter, it'll be given to you as well. Take him at his word that in
the hour of your departure from this world, he will be with you
and no danger will come to you. Take him at his word that he
is always with you. He says, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. Just simply take him at his word.
His word is trustworthy. Eric.