Good morning. Our scripture reading
for the call of worship is found in Psalm 67. Psalm 67. God be merciful to us and bless
us and cause his face to shine upon us. Selah. This face is, of course, the
Lord Jesus Christ's face to shine upon us. That your way may be
known upon earth, your saving health among all the nations,
saving health will be salvation. Let the people praise you, oh
God, let all the people praise you. or let the nations be glad
and sing for joy, for you shall judge the people righteously
and govern the nations upon the earth. Salah. Salah means pause
and consider what was just said. If we go to Revelations and we
see this taking place, we see all the nations, believers from
all the nations, praising God. So this prayer to God is answered. Let the people praise you, oh
God, let all the people praise you. Then shall the earth yield
her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God
shall bless us, and all the ends of earth shall fear him. Father God, we come before you
only by the blood of Christ. We dare come before you giving
you thanks and praise, For you have blessed us. All the blessings
are in Christ, in Christ alone. Father, thank you for him. Thank
you for the salvation there is in him alone. Thank you for the
gospel. We pray that this gospel may
be preached clearly this morning by your servant. We also pray
for all the other gospel churches that are preaching Christ. Give
a clear message. And also, we recognize that we
are a needed people. We need your Holy Spirit to open
our eyes and to open our ears to hear of your wonderful grace
in Christ Jesus. We also pray for the sick. We
ask that you may heal them according to your will, Father, and that
you may make them look to Christ and comfort them in their time
of need, Father. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 290 in your hardback timbrel, 290. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently the cross of grief
or pain. ♪ Leave to thy God to order and
provide ♪ In every change he faithful will remain ♪ Be still,
my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend through thorny ways leads
to a joyful end. Be still, my soul, thy God doth
undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence, let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. Be still, my soul. The waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. Be still, my soul, the hour is
hastening on. when we shall be forever with
the Lord. ♪ When disappointment, grief and
fear are gone ♪ ♪ Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored ♪
♪ Be still my soul when change and tears are past ♪ All safe
and blessed we shall meet at last. Please be seated. Rebecca Vincent
is going to bring special music now. She's visiting this weekend.
Rebecca. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock, where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the dance
of his love, and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, He taketh my burden away. He holdeth me up and I shall
not be moved. He giveth me strength as my day. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, and covers me there with his hand, and covers me
there with his hand. With numberless blessings each
moment he crowns and filled with his fullness divine. I sing in my rapture a glory
to God for such a Redeemer as mine. He hideth my soul in the
cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. if my life in the depths of his
love and covers me there with his hand and covers me there
with his hand When clothed in his brightness
transported, I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation His wonderful
love I'll shout with the millions on high He hideth my soul in
the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry, thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, and covers me there with his hand. And covers me there with his
hand. Thank you so much, Rebecca. That
was truly, truly a blessing. Struggling to hear sometimes.
It helps me to be able to listen to singing that I can understand
every word. I got every word of that. That's
not usually the case. All right, let's open our Bibles
to John chapter four. John chapter four, I've titled
this message, The Evidence of Things Not Seen. The Evidence
of Things Not Seen. They that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit,
the things of the spirit, we look on those things which are
not seen. How do we look on them? By faith.
by faith. We cannot trust the hope of our
salvation in our experiences or in our circumstances. We have
to look through the eyes of faith and that can only come from God.
We look through the eyes of faith by the scriptures to the Lord
Jesus Christ and find our hope in him. We walk by faith. not
by sight, faith. Faith, the scripture says, is
the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence of
things not seen. We know that without faith it
is impossible to please God for they that come to him must believe
that he is and that he's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. And we know that faith comes
by hearing. Hearing comes by the word of
God. We know that faith is not our contribution to salvation. It is a work of grace in the
heart, is a miracle of grace, whereby God enables us to believe
him, to just believe him. We have this morning in God's
word in John chapter four, a story of a man who had nothing more
than you and I have. All he had was a word from God. He didn't have any circumstances
or any other evidence to prove what he believed. All he had
was God's word. And he obviously had the spirit
of God because without the spirit of God, we can't believe. If
a man have not the Spirit of God, he's none of his. It is
the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and applies it to
the hearts of God's people and enables them to believe on the
Son of God. So, what did this man have? He's called a nobleman. A nobleman is a person of royalty. He was royalty. He was He was
part of the King's court and had a very prominent position
in society. Obviously a man of well-means,
but he had a problem. He had a problem that only the
Lord could help him with. And I hope the Lord will encourage
us and enable us this morning to take him at his word and to
rest all the hope of our own immortal souls on his precious
promises, to rest our hope in Christ and to leave here this
morning with confidence, boldness in him. We have a beautiful example of
God-given faith. The Bible says Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. And Abraham's
called the father of the faithful and so Abraham's faith is an
example of all believers' faith. Abraham was 90 years old. hundred
years old, his wife was 90 years old, and God said you go have
a child. There was nothing in his circumstances to assure him
of that. Matter of fact, everything in
his circumstances were contrary to that promise. But the Bible
says that he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. I think about that thief on the
cross. Everything in his circumstances was contrary to the fact that
the man hanging next to him was Lord, that he was the sovereign
ruler, sustainer of all of life and savior of sinners. There's
nothing in the circumstances to convince him of that. There
was nothing in his circumstances to convince him that that man
dying on a cross next to him had an eternal kingdom. He had an eternal kingdom and
yet he cried, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. What did he have? He had the same thing you have,
same thing I have. He had the Word of God and he
had the Spirit of God. That's all we have. And it's
all we need. And if we look anywhere else,
if we look anywhere else for the hope of our salvation, we're
walking by faith. We're walking by sight, not by
faith. Let's read these verses together. begin in verse 46 of
John chapter four. So Jesus came again into Cana
of Galilee, where he made the water wine. This is the second
recorded miracle that the Lord performs. He had performed miracles
in Jerusalem, but none of the gospel writers tell us what those
miracles were. And John concludes his letter
by telling us that many other signs did Jesus in the presence
of his disciples that are not recorded in this book. So we
know that our Lord performed a lot of things that aren't given
to us in scripture. But then John goes on to say,
but these have been written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. So the Lord's given us
a record of this miracle and other miracles to show us who
he is and what he does to save sinners. Oh, I hope that he'll
be pleased to give faith to our hearts this morning. Jesus came again into Cana of
Galilee, verse 46, where he had made the water wine. And there
was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. And depending on where in those
two cities you might be, would be anywhere from 15 to 20 miles
away. Capernaum to Cana. So he was
in Capernaum with his son and He heard that Jesus had come
out of Judea into Galilee and that he was in Cana and he traveled
those miles over to Cana. Look at verse 47. When he heard that Jesus was
come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought
him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the
point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, except
you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. The Lord rebuffs
him. And we dealt with this in the
first hour. Oftentimes the Lord tries our
faith like he did with that Syrophoenician woman when he called her a dog,
when he ignored her, when he didn't speak to her. What are
you gonna do when the Lord responds to your request in this way. The nobleman is trying this nobleman's
faith. As we saw previously, an untried
faith is an unproven faith. When God is silent or when God
rebuffs us, if we If we go somewhere else, we've only proven ourselves
to not have God-given faith. God-given faith just stays right
there. And so the nobleman saith unto
him, and I'm so thankful in the English
language, we have a different word for Lord than for sir. those brethren that are here
this morning that speak Spanish. It's always been a little confusing
to me that Señor in the Spanish language can be translated Sir
or it can be translated Lord. The same word is used, am I not
right, Yugo? Señor means Lord or means Sir.
And so it is in the Greek language. The word Kyrios can be translated
Lord or Sir. Why the translators, it's translated
Lord, the word kurios in the New Testament is translated Lord
I think 670 times and it's translated Sir just a hand maybe six times. Why the translators chose to
put Sir here when I believe this man was saying Lord, I don't
know. Maybe they didn't think he believed
until the last verse, but I think the word Lord needs to
be here. In the original, we know God's word's infallible,
but here I've given you a clear explanation. It's the same word. Lord, come down, ere my child
die. Oh, he was desperate. He had
a life and death situation here. And he addresses the Lord Jesus
as Lord. Jesus said unto him, go thy way,
thy son liveth. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way. There's
the message this morning for you and me. God has spoken. The man believed it and he went
his way." Now you would think the Bible
tells us that this took place the seventh hour of the day.
Now the Jewish reckoning of time starts at six o'clock in the
morning so the seventh hour is one o'clock in the afternoon.
Fifteen, twenty miles at the most, a nobleman, he wasn't limited
to means of transportation, he could have easily gotten a chariot
or a horse or some other means to run back home and to make
sure that what the Lord had said came to pass. So what I would
have done, I would have hot-heeled it back to Capernaum Verse 51, and as he was now going
down, his servants met him and told him, saying, thy son liveth. Then indeed he, I'm sorry, then
inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend, and they
said unto him, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
So we know he didn't immediately go back to Capernaum. It's the
next day. And his servants meet him as
he's going home the next day. And his child he knew was dying. What is my point here? He believed
God. He just believed God. He took
God at his word. That's all faith is. Faith is
just taking God at his word. So in the next day, he meets
his servants, they ask, he asked them, When did he begin? And
they said unto him, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever
left him. So the father knew that it was at that same hour
in which Jesus said unto him, thy son liveth and himself believed
and his whole house. His faith was grown from faith
to faith. He believed God when the Lord
spoke to him, clearly he believed. It went his way, didn't run home.
trusted God. He's like that centurion who
said, I'm not worthy that thou should come unto my household,
only speak the word and my servant shall be healed. He just took
God at his word. Now that he gets home and he
sees the evidence of God's Word, his faith is confirmed, strengthened. This is again the second miracle
that Jesus did when he was come down out of Judea into Galilee. What do we know about this nobleman
that might be an encouragement to you and me? First of all, his need was a
matter of life and death. He was urgent. It's critical. It's dire. He didn't just have a casual
interest in Christ. He wasn't interested in a passing
fad or just a fix for some temporal problem. This was life and death
for him. This was his child that was dying.
He wasn't looking for a better position in the government. He
didn't come to Christ to try to figure out how to be a better
father or a better husband or a better whatever. His need was
life and death. When God gives faith, it's always
that way. We come to him, we come to him
as sinners. We come to him with a, death
sentence hanging over us lest he remove it, lest he satisfy
the demands of God's justice and law, lest he stand in our
stead, lest he pronounce forgiveness for our sin. We will die in our
sins. We don't come to God with some
casual interest or some need for just a temporary fix for
something. We come to Him in need of life. Give me Christ lest I die. That's
always the sinner's plea. It is a sweet miracle of love
and of grace that God would cause our need
for Christ to be a matter of life and death. It's not that
way for most. Most can be satisfied with cleaning
up the outside of the cup and give no attention to the
fact that the inside of the cup is full of corruption, but when
God by His grace causes us to have a glimpse of His glory,
we're brought to that place that Isaiah was brought to when he
saw the Lord high and lifted up and he said, woe is me, I
am undone. I am a man of unclean lips. I live among a people of unclean
lips. Mine eyes have seen the King. This is life and death
for me. He must have mercy upon me. He
must forgive me. He must send that angel with
a hot coal from off the altar and touch my lips and purge my
sin. He must save me. This is a matter
of eternal salvation. Those that mind the things of
the flesh only are after the things of the flesh. If all we
have is our old Adamic nature, then all we see is the outside.
And we can be content with whitewashed tombs. But when God the Holy
Spirit shows us something of our sinfulness before God, we
know that the tomb is filled with the bones of dead men. We
know that, Lord, you're gonna have to give me life. You're
gonna have to speak truth to my heart. You're gonna have to
birth me into the kingdom of God. I'm spiritually dead without
you. This is a matter of life and
death. And it is a work of grace. It is a miracle of grace for
which the child of God is eternally grateful. that they would be
able to see beyond what the natural man can see and that they would
be concerned beyond what other men are concerned about. I'm
concerned about what God sees and I know that when God looks
at me, if He doesn't give me Christ and all He can see is
what's in me, well, I'm, I'm vile, Job said. What a, what a sweet blessing
it is when the Lord will not allow us to be content with a
reformed life. Oh, we believers want to be better
people than they are. They want to be more faithful,
they want to be less sinful. They desire that above everything. But they can't look to their
faithfulness or their obedience for the hope of their salvation.
They look at the outward appearances, they see that that's not gonna be sufficient.
God's got to give me life. This man had a need that was
a matter of life and death. You have a need and I have a
need that's a matter of life and death. Turn with me to Romans chapter
four. I quoted this passage a moment ago. Romans chapter four. Most can find contentment and
false peace with a reformation of life. Just as I said, cleaning
up the outside of the cup, washing the tomb, you know, that would
be enough. That's all I see. That's all
other men see when they look at me. Verse one of chapter four in
Romans, what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining
to the flesh hath found? If Abraham were justified by
works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. If it was
just a matter of improving his life and reforming his behavior,
he would have reason to boast, but not before God. Why? Because God's looking at the
heart. God sees that the problem is much more serious, it's much
deeper than what the outward appearances portray. For what sayeth the scriptures,
Abraham believed God. Abraham was given a heart of
faith to trust God, to take God at his word. Abraham believed
that he was a sinner. Abraham believed that he was
in need of a sacrifice. Abraham believed the precious
promises that God had made him, that through him the Messiah
would come. That's what he believed. And it was accounted to him imputed
to him, reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now to him that
worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. If cleaning
up my life is somehow going to give me a good standing with
God, then I've earned God's favor. I've worked for it, I deserve
it. And that's a salvation by works,
not by grace. Verse five, but to him that worketh
not, Lord, there's nothing I can do to fix this problem. There's nothing I can do to put
away this sin. There's nothing I can do to justify
myself before thee. There's nothing I can do to redeem
myself. to reconcile myself with God.
There's nothing I can do. If the Lord Jesus Christ does
not do it for me, I will die in my sins. This is life and
death. And it's a miracle of grace that
is so wonderful and so rare and so precious. and believers so
very thankful for it. Lord, that you didn't leave me
to myself, that you caused me to see that I've got an eternal
problem with you that I can't fix. I can't repair this schism,
this breach. But to him that worketh not,
I can't work it out, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Let me remind you again what
that word ungodly means. It is the word worship with the
Greek alpha in front of it. And whenever you put an A in
front of the word, Just like in English, it reverses the meaning
of the word. So this word ungodly, though
when God shows us our sin, we come to the conclusion, behold,
I am vile. In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. O wretched man that I am, my
comeliness has been turned into corruption. We see a glimpse
of the wickedness of our sin, but we don't see the depths of
it like it really is. What I hope that we can see is
our complete inability to worship God apart from His grace. We
cannot come into the presence of God. We cannot rejoice in
Christ. We cannot believe on Him. We
cannot rejoice in Him. We cannot worship Him unless
He circumcises the heart. We are the true circumcision.
circumcised in the heart, that flesh has been cut away by the
Spirit of God. We have no more confidence in
the flesh. We worship God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Christ
Jesus. He's our rejoicing. And we have
no confidence in the flesh. That's a work of grace. We will
put all our confidence in the flesh, but for the grace of God. We'll do it. And we will die
in our sins thinking that God owes us something because we've
lived a good life. We'll do it. Lest God gives us
faith. Lest God does for us what he
did for this nobleman. Lest God does for us what he
did for this, for Abraham. Lord, I can't work. I can't fix
it. Oh, this nobleman, he had means. I can only imagine the means
that this man had. He was royalty. He could command
servants beyond number to care for. He could afford the best
doctors anywhere in Galilee or Judea for that matter. But he
had a problem that those, he couldn't fix it. Lord, I've got
a life and death situation here. and I can't do anything about
it. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, those who are unable
to worship God, those who are unable to approach the throne
of grace, apart from grace, his faith, his faith is counted for
righteousness. Nothing short of a complete regeneration. Nothing short of being put to
death in Christ. Nothing short of that lamb that
was slain before the foundation of the world and me dying in
him on Calvary's cross. Nothing short of my union with
Christ and his work of redemption and his righteousness and his
salvation will be able to save me. in this life and death situation. Only then will the grave be conquered. Only then will death lose its
sting. Only then can I have hope. of being with Him for all eternity. It is not of Him that willeth. Lord, I can't will myself into
the, this nobleman couldn't say, well, I just, no. Sir, help me. lest my son die. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. No amount of work or effort on
our part. It is of God that show of mercy.
This nobleman knew that he was completely dependent upon the
mercy of God. And that's what faith does. Faith
cast its care upon him, believing that he careth for me. Faith
puts all its apples in one basket. It just does. It doesn't diversify its
investments thinking, well, I've got to have Jesus, yes, but I
also have to have these other things going on in my life in
order to have a hope of salvation. Christ is all, and he's in all,
and he's all my hope and all my salvation, and if he doesn't
save me, I won't be saved. Lord, how do you say it? Come down,
ere my child die. Look with me back at our text
at verse 49. Come down. Lord, you're going to have to
come down to where I am. I can't come up to where you are. The
Lord's going to have to come to where we are. And that's exactly
what he did when he left his rightful place in heaven, came
down off his glorious throne and was born of a woman in the
likeness of sinful flesh, born under the law. born under a covenant of works
that you and I could not satisfy. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
under a covenant of grace, he was under a covenant of works.
He was required by the Father to fulfill and satisfy every
jot and tittle of the law. I came not to destroy the law,
I came to fulfill it. And he's the only one that ever
did that. If his law keeping is my law keeping. His death
is my death. Justice had to be satisfied.
Blood had to be shed. Sin had to be paid for. That's
what this nobleman is saying, come down. Come down to where
I am. There's no way I can come up
to where you are. There's one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. And he's the only man,
the God man, hanging on a tree between heaven and earth. He's
the only man who's able to reach to heaven and touch God without
being destroyed. You and I try to touch God, we're
gonna be destroyed by his holiness. And at the same time, he can
reach down and touch sinners without being defiled. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the mediator of sinners. That's what this
nobleman's saying. Oh Lord, come down, ere my child
die. I've got a life and death situation
here. You have to come to where I am.
I cannot get to where you are. I've tried. You like that? You remember the woman with the
issue of blood? The scripture says she had spent all that she
had on physicians and she was worse off than at the beginning. You can imagine, I mean, this
woman was anemic. She had a bleeding problem and
probably the doctor she went to practiced bloodletting. That would have been a common
practice. Well, that was the last thing she needed. You go
anywhere other than the Lord Jesus Christ, go to another physician,
go to the rich of Endor, go to a man-made works religion, and
what are they going to do? They're going to take you, already
anemic and dying, you've got an issue of blood, you inherited
this this leprosy which is a disease
of the blood from your father who inherited it from his father
and they're going to do nothing but bloodlet you and your condition
is going to be worse off in the end than it was in the beginning.
A works gospel only makes us more sinful. If a man embraces
a freewill works gospel and he thinks that somehow what he's
done is going to earn him favor with God, he's the woman with the issue of blood
who's been let out with more blood. He's become worse off. He's a worse sinner. Now he's
got his self-righteousness to go along with his violation of
the law. He's robbed Christ of his glory. Oh, this nobleman said, I've
got that. What, that one with the issue
of blood? Oh, if I could just touch the hem of his garment.
And she got on her hands and knees and crawled through the
crowd. Oh, she had one place to go. That's the only place
you and I have to go. That's the only place this nobleman
had to go. You know, I was a, teenager for a
summer, I was a lifeguard, went through lifeguard training. One
of the things they teach you is if you're in water over your
head, don't try to save someone one-on-one when they're flailing
frantically in the water. They will drown you and themselves.
Wait until they've given up. You can throw them a life ring
or whatever, If you're going to get out there and have one-on-one
contact with them, wait until they've exhausted themselves
and they have no more strength and they quit trying, then you
can save them. Oh, how many men are flailing
in water over their head, drowning in their own sin and self-righteousness,
but they won't give up. They won't give up. They won't
quit trying. What a miracle of grace it is
when the Lord causes us to stop trying and start trusting. That's what faith is. That's what this man did. Paul said, when I'm weak, then
I'm strong, for his strength is made perfect in my weakness. We're going to make any contribution
to our salvation, we're not going to be saved. Christ is going
to get all the glory and he's going to do all the work and believers love it that way.
Oh, if the hope of my salvation is
determined on one little contribution that I've made, I'm certain of
this, I didn't do it right. The gospel of God's free grace
and the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ can't be
messed up. He did it all. Go back with me
to our text in John chapter four. I want you to see something else
about this nobleman. Look in verse 47. When he heard,
what are the means by which the Lord brought this man to faith
in Christ? The first means was hearing. Faith comes not by seeing, faith
comes by hearing. And hearing comes by the word
of God. And the hearing ear is a work of grace. Oh Lord, enable
me to hear thy voice. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Call upon the name of the Lord
and thou shalt be. How shall they call upon him in whom they've
not believed? And how shall they believe on him in whom they've
not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they be sent? God's got to send a man declaring
God's word. And then he has to open my ears
and enable me to hear the truth. This man heard something. He
was back in Capernaum. He had heard that the Lord Jesus
had come out of Judea. Now the Judeans looked down their
nose at the Galileans. You remember when Philip went
to tell Nathanael in John chapter two, that he had found the Christ. He said, we found the one that
Moses speaks of. And Nathanael said, he said,
Jesus of Nazareth. And Nathanael said, what good
can come out of Nazareth? Nazareth's in Galilee. And then
when the disciples spoke, they said, he's a Galilean. His accent,
his accent gives him away. And the self-righteous Pharisees
of Judea thought that the Galileans Well, now this man, he lives
in Galilee and the Lord leaves Judea. He leaves the self-righteous. None of the miracles that the
Lord performed in Jerusalem are recorded anywhere in God's word.
Why? Because they didn't believe.
And he comes up to Galilee and he performs a miracle for one
nobleman who was a Galilean. who in spite of all his material
means had no way to fix his problem. He had a life and death situation.
And he heard, he heard that Jesus had come up. Notice what else. When he heard
that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him. Come and see. Come and see a man who told me
all that I ever did. Remember what the woman at the
well said to those men back in Sychar? Come and see. And they came. They came. They didn't say, well, that woman doesn't know what
she's talking about. They came. And then, as a result of coming,
they made this declaration. Look at verse 42 of chapter 4. And they said unto the woman,
Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard
him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior
of the world. We came as a result of your testimony. to see what you were talking
about. But now we've heard from Him. If all we believe is a word that
we've heard from a man, we haven't heard, haven't heard savingly. Oh, that the Lord would take
the word and make it effectual to our hearts and that He would
cause us to say now, we know, we heard from Him. Many here but never come. What is it to come to Christ?
It's to believe on Him. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. So here's the means by which
this nobleman comes. Look, look with me again at verse
47. And when he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee,
he went unto him and he besought him. Now that word besought is
most often translated pray in the Bible. He prayed, he pled
with him. He heard, he believed, and he
called. Peter prayed, he was drowning
once, Lord save me, Lord save me. The publican would not so much
as even look up. The Pharisee prayed thus unto
himself, but the publican would not so much as even look up,
but smote himself on the breast and said, oh God, have mercy
upon me, I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner, I'm the one in
need of grace. You see, faith always involves prayer. You hear
people say, well, you know, I've heard, and I've thought about
it, and I've looked, and I understand. And they've never been brought
to that place of beseeching Him, seeking Him in prayer, Lord,
calling upon Him, crying out to Him, David said, I waited
patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and he heard
my cry. No one has ever heard and come
and prayed that the Lord hasn't saved. It's the means by which he brings
the nobleman to himself. All he had was all you have and all I have,
a word from God. Go thy way, thy son liveth. And
he believed the word that was spoken unto him. We believe that Jesus is the
Christ because he declared himself to be the Christ. And he proved
himself to be the successful savior of sinners by being raised
from the dead. We believe what God has said
in his word. We believe everything that God
has said. We can't not believe God. God gives faith, we just
believe him. We can't base the hope of our
salvation on our experiences or on our feelings or on our
faith. We have the Word of God and we
have the Spirit of God. In the book of Revelation, the
church is called a woman who's cast out into the wilderness,
into a place that's been prepared for her. Now you and I live in
a in a wilderness. We live in a land that's dry
and thirsty. We live in a land where there's
no life and no water. And the Lord has prepared a place
for us, an oasis where we can come and drink from the river
of life freely. That's how we drink. We drink
freely. So there's the picture that the
Lord has prepared for this woman, for this bride in the wilderness,
a place for her. And then the scripture says that
he has provided for her with a great eagle that has two wings
and this eagle with two great wings feeds her. What are the
two great wings of the eagle that brings the bread of life
to the children of God? Well, it's the word of God and
the spirit of God, that's it. You remember the two candlesticks
that had pipes that fed into the fire, the bowl of sacrifice? Those two candlesticks, that's
the word of God and that's the spirit of God. In the book of
Revelation also, the scripture speaks of two witnesses who lie
dead in the streets of Jerusalem. In other words, God has withdrawn
His Word and His Spirit from that pagan city. And the two
witnesses, the Spirit of God and the Word of God, lie dead in the place of man-made religion. It's all we have. And it's all
we need. It's all God's given us. He's getting off His Spirit and
His Word. And when the Spirit of God takes
the Word of God and gives to the children of God, faith in
the Son of God, they believe, they believe. Genesis chapter one, the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the deep and God said, let there
be light. He had the word of God and the
spirit of God right from the very beginning. The earth was
without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
There we are. We're without form and we're
without void. And the spirit of God and the
word of God came. And when God gives faith, that's
all we need. Verse 50. Go thy way, thy son liveth, and
the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and
he went his way. Our heavenly Father, we ask that
you would give saving faith to believe on Christ. Lord, we,
like this nobleman, have a need that we cannot meet. A life and death situation that
will bring eternal separation from thee, but for thy grace. Lord, help our unbelief, enable us to rest all the hope
of our salvation in Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 224, let's stand together, 224.