Thank you, Brother Art. That's one of my scripture references
for the message tonight. It's actually Psalm 138. And
I want you to turn to John, back to John chapter 4. Let's just read a little bit
here as we go. It says in verse 43, now after
two days, The Lord Jesus departed from
Samaria and he went into Galilee. Now we're going to see here he
went to Cana, he didn't go to Nazareth where he was brought
up. For Jesus himself testified that
a prophet hath no honor in his own country. You know, they knew
Joseph, and they knew Mary, and they knew all his kinsmen after
the flesh. And they kept saying, is this
not Joseph's son? Don't we know his mother and
his father? This is the carpenter's son.
And when he stood up and preached that day in Nazareth, and he
told them he's the Messiah, and they began to look at one another,
and we know him. And then he told them why they
couldn't receive it. He said, it's only God's elect
that he sends the word to and gives them ears to hear. And
they want to take him up, throw him off a hill, off a cliff. And that's common. He said, a
prophet hath no honor in his own country. They were too familiar
with him, it bred contempt. We know that with Joseph's brothers. Joseph's brothers despised Joseph
when the Lord called him to be a prophet. And David's brothers
despised him. And our Lord's near kinsmen,
they not only didn't believe on him, they said he is beside
himself. A prophet is not with honor saving his own country. May the Lord keep us low. We
need to be kept low. We need Christ to be our prophet,
priest, and king. And we need his word. And we
need to be kept low so that we esteem others better. That was
their problem. They esteemed him beneath them.
And it's so easy to become gospel hardened. It's so easy to hear
the word and think, well, I've heard that. I know that. But
the scripture tells us, if any man think he knows anything,
he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. So we need to continually
be taught and we need to be brought to continually be revived and
refreshed. And that's what the Lord does.
He keeps the gospel new. He keeps it new in your heart,
revived in your heart, keeps the scriptures fresh and the
word speaking into you effectually. So he went to Cana of Galilee. Now, they had not received him
really anywhere in Galilee. This was his country, you know.
They surely didn't receive him in Nazareth, but they really
didn't receive him anywhere. But then after he'd gone up to
Jerusalem and come back, now they received him. Because they'd
heard about the things he did, they'd seen the things he did.
It says in verse 45, when he was coming to Galilee, the Galileans
received him, having seen all the things that he did at Jerusalem
at the feast. for they also went unto the feast.
So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the
water wine, and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at
Capernaum. Now there's some contrast here,
we'll just briefly touch on them, but you had the Samaritans who
heard his word, they heard him speak the word, and they believed
him, they gave him faith to believe him. And you had these Galileans
who received him because And it's commendable in that they
went all the way to Jerusalem to the feast. The Lord said,
this is where I'll meet with you over the mercy seat. And
so they did go there. But the reason they received
Him is they saw all those things He did there. The signs and the
wonders and the things that He did there. When He gives you
faith and He really speaks His Word into your heart, we see
all things that He did at Jerusalem by faith. We see him by faith. We see all things he did at Jerusalem
on the cross, how he justified his people and made us righteous
by his precious blood. But we see by faith, not by signs
and wonders. God's people don't need signs
and wonders. That's what you see these evangelists
who are trying to do these signs and wonders like they can heal
people in different things they do. Remember the rich man in
hell, he prayed to just have somebody go back from the dead
and they'll believe him. Remember our Lord, when those
that guarded Him, when they put Him in that tomb, they came back
and they said, He's risen. Did they believe? Did the Pharisees
and the scribes, did they believe? He rose from the dead. They said,
don't tell anybody. If anybody says anything, you
tell them that somebody came and stole his body. What do they
have? We have the Word. We have His
Word. And He speaks this Word, and
we saw through the Samaritans, He said, when He speaks that
Word, He gives you faith. And we believe on Him through
His Word. When Christ speaks effectually
in the Gospel, He gives us faith in Him, and by faith we see all
things that He did at Jerusalem. So we're going to see in this
nobleman here what the true sign and the true wonder is. He told
them one day they wanted to see a sign and a wonder. And he said,
there'll be no sign. It's an adulterous generation
that seeks signs and wonders. He said, none will be given but
the sign of the prophet Jonas. He was three days and three nights
in the belly of the earth and in the sea. And he said, so shall
the son of man be three days and three nights in the earth.
He's the wonder, He's the sign and the work He works in a dead
center where He gives you life and brings you to believe Him
and trust Him. That's the miracle, that's the sign and the wonder
of all wonders. His sovereign grace. His regenerating,
calling, saving grace. Now I want to see first here,
the faith is given first of all by God giving us a need. We have
to have a need. He says in verse 6, And there
was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. And
when he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee,
he went unto him. Now this was one of God's elect.
Somebody chosen from before the foundation of the world in Christ,
trusted to Christ. Christ was surety for him. Christ
is going to save him. He is going to call him right
here. Give him faith. Give him faith. He is a certain
nobleman. You start seeing that certain man. He's a particular
certain one that God loved from everlasting. And everyone that
God chose in Christ, he ordained his people to be sanctified by
the Spirit of God and brought to a belief of the truth. And
so he's going to call his people by the word, by the gospel. by Christ speaking. Now, to draw
us to Christ, God gives us a need. The Lord gave this nobleman a
need. And this is so in the beginning, this is so throughout the life
of faith. He gives you a need. He keeps
you needing Him. He keeps us needing Him. He gave
him a sick son who was at the point of death. So, he had a
need that was desperate and nobody else could help him. Nobody else
could help him. Nobody could do anything for
this sick child. This was desperation. Desperation. He couldn't help himself and
nobody else could help him. That's the kind of need we have
to be given. To look to Christ only. A need
where we can't help ourselves and nobody else can help. We
need Him. We need Him. Now this need was only physical
as far as the nobleman knew. It was his son, no doubt it was
a desperate need. It was his son who he loved,
but it was only physical and he wanted Christ to save his
son from physical death. But the nobleman didn't know
this. He didn't know that he's the one who was sick spiritually. He's the one who Like this child
who's at the point of death, the nobleman needed faith spiritually. He needed to be given life spiritually. And he's the one the Lord's gonna
heal. He thought the only one in his house who was sick was
his son. He didn't know that there was
a bunch more in his house that were sick unto death spiritually.
That all in his house, his whole house was made up of God's elect.
And God's gonna call him. But he's come just for physical
healing. But the Lord has to teach us
we need spiritual healing. Now this is how the Lord draws
his people to where his gospel is preached very often. He'll
give a reason for coming. It's not a spiritual need. It
may be something like this, a sickness or some kind of trouble. And
folks hear and you say, come with us. And they end up coming
to hear and this be the way the Lord brings them to hear the
gospel. by giving them a physical need like this. But the Lord
does this with you and I who already have been given faith
in Christ. He does the same thing with us.
He sends a trial. He gives us a need to draw His
child to Christ. When there's no need, a sinner
doesn't come to Christ. We have to have a need. We have
to constantly see our need of Him to constantly be drawn to
Him. And He's faithful to do that.
You know, Scripture says not even a sparrow falls to the ground
without our Heavenly Father's consent. He's the one ruling
everything in this world. And here's the truth of it. If
a sparrow falls to the ground by His will, He's working that
together somehow with everything else that's coming to pass to
bring His elect to Christ. Everything's being worked together
for us, for His people. That's right. It's to bring you
to Christ. We know all things work together. That's everything. Everything. He's working everything
together for the good of them that love God to them who are
the called according to His purpose. He called us in eternity and
He's calling us. He called us by His grace and
He keeps calling us. To whom coming? We keep coming
to Christ. And those He called, He works
according to His purpose, working everything. Because here's what
He determined. Who He foreknew, who He foreordained,
He predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. And
He shall succeed in conforming us to the image of His Son. And so He continues to give us
a need and call us to Himself. Now, the second thing I want
to show you here, not only did He give them a need, Faith is
given an increase by Christ making us know that we're the one with
the need, that it's spiritual. We're the one who has the need
and it's spiritual. He says here in verse 47, the
nobleman besought him that he would come down and heal his
son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to
him, except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Christ is declaring to this nobleman
that he's the one that's sick. He's saying this about all the
Galileans too because they all were big on signs and wonders. But this nobleman didn't have... He had heard and he came there. He had heard and he came there
because his son was sick. But he didn't have faith in Christ
Himself. He wasn't believing on Christ
for Himself, for salvation. And our Lord said here, except
you see signs and wonders, you'll not believe. He came there and
He had His thoughts of how Christ would save His Son. He had those
thoughts. He had thoughts in His mind,
pictured out how the Lord would do this. He thought Christ would
come down and heal His Son. He thought the Lord would, He
had to, He thought the Lord had to come down there and be bodily
present to heal His Son. If Christ did that, if he came
down there and did that without giving him true saving faith, and he would be no different
than the Galileans who believed on him just because they saw
signs and wonders. They really didn't believe on it. They just
believed because they saw these miracles. And many followed him
just because of what they could get out of him. And if he had
went down there and healed him, Would he really believe Christ
had power to save? Is that real faith to believe
he had the power to save only after you see him do it? The
Lord is going to show him something better. He is going to make him
believe before he goes and do it. He is going to show him he
does not have to be there in body. He can do it just by speaking
the word. He is going to begin in this nobleman. Christ declares
it is the sinner who has got to come down. The sinner has
got to come down. Christ said to him, except you
see signs, except you physically see signs and wonders, you will
not believe. Faith is the evidence. Faith
is the substance of things not seen. With that word, Christ
revealed the true need for which he sent that sickness to his
son. He is declaring here, this is
the reason I sent the sickness to your son. Right here. This is why you have been drawn
to me. It's to make you and I who are the sinner, when He gives
you something and draws you to Him, a need and draws you to
Him, is to make us come down. He already came down. He's going
to bring us down to believe on Him. We've got to come down from
our thoughts of how we think He's going to do things and trust
Christ. Believe Him. Trust Him. We have
to be brought down from our ways, our vain ways, our sinful ways,
our prideful ways, our self-righteous ways, all our ways and thoughts
have got to be brought down to trust Christ the way. Down from
how we think Christ saves to believe on Christ, to trust Him
to save in His time according to His will, in due time. Isn't that what the Scripture
says? Humble ourselves under His mighty hand that He may exalt
you in due time. He came when we were without
strength, ungodly sinners, in due time. It was His time. It
was the right time. And He has us come to Him, bowed
down, trust in Him, humbled at His feet, and in due time. He works in his time, in due
time. You remember Naaman the leper?
Naaman was so proud. He was so proud and he thought
he was a king, thought he was a king who just happened to be
a leper. And in our pride, we start thinking that we're a king
and we just happen to be a sinner. But he was a sinner who God raised
up for the purpose of bringing him down. And Naaman came in his pride,
he had his entourage, he had his followers, he had his yes-men
with him. And he comes there to the prophet.
He's got leprosy. He comes there to the prophet.
He's got in his mind all figured out what the prophet's going
to do. The prophet's going to come out to him. The prophet's
going to come out to him and he's going to bow to him, he's
going to say some words and he's going to heal him. That's how
he had it envisioned. He'd come down. He'd come down
to him. That's what Naaman thought. But
the prophet humiliated him. He didn't come out to him. He sent a messenger and he said,
told Naaman, this mighty king, he told him, he said, come down. Go dip in the Jordan seven times. And Naaman was offended by that.
That was offensive to him. You want me to come down and
go wash in this muddy Jordan River? The gospel is offensive. The gospel declares we can't
save ourselves. We can't bat our eye without
him giving us the ability to do so. much less fulfill His
law and bring in an everlasting righteousness and purge our sins
and preserve ourselves in this walk of faith. We need Him all
the time to do everything, to be the author and the finisher.
It's only by His strength that we'll have the strength to actually
fight against what we are by nature. We need Him to strengthen
us and keep us doing this. Look into Him. So he brought
Naaman down and his servant told him, if he had told you to do
some great thing, you would have done that. Why not believe? Men will do anything. They will do whatever and try
to work everything they can work
out to do, except just believe on Him. Trust Him. Trust Him. Salvation is believing on Christ
to save all the time. At the cross, from our mother's
womb, throughout the days we didn't know Him, He was saving
us. When He brought us under the gospel, He saved us. Since
the day we've known Him, He's been saving us. He has saved
us, He is saving us, and He shall save us. But he's going to get
the glory and we're going to have to be continually kept with
this need of knowing he's got to have the honor. I'm nothing. I need him to save me. And stay
at his feet, trust in him. So he reveals the need is spiritual. Except you see signs and wonders
you'll not believe. Now get this, this here I think
is very needful. This nobleman. He had this trial,
and his son was sick, but the truth of the matter is, the outward
trial that God sent to him was not the true need. It wasn't
the true need. And you think of this, the outward
trials never are true need. It's not. If a believer, if you're
a believer, if you're brought to the point of death like this
nobleman's son was, and you're a believer, and we want our loved
ones to stay with us, we want to see the Lord spare them, but
if you're a believer and the Lord brings you to the point
of death like he did to this child, and the Lord did not heal
you, you're going to be fine. No harm has come to you. It's
better. It's better for you. You're in
the presence of the Lord. The need is not a cure from the
physical trial that he sins, whatever it is. That's not the
need. The trial's always to teach us
our spiritual need. That's always the purpose. A
trial is to focus, is not to focus on the physical problems.
When we pray for just the physical trial to end, and that's fine
to do, it's okay, and we should, we wanna see the Lord's will
you know, to bring us through whatever trial. But when that's
just what we're focused on, brethren, just the physical trial, that's
dealing superficially. The need's not the trial, it's
not the physical. The need is spiritual and the
cure is spiritual. It's always to bring his elect
down from our thoughts, to grant repentance, to turn us from our
ways. That's always the case. From
the first hour, that was the case, and every instant since
then, He's constantly turning us from our ways, whatever the
trial is. He has everything at His disposal
to use. It's to bring us into submission
to Christ, believe in Him, trust in Him. To see He's everything,
to trust Him to save us. Not just from the trial, to save
us. That's always the purpose. Believers who already have faith,
it's the same. What's he doing in every trial?
He's purging our draws. That's what he's doing in every
trial. He's purging our draws. He's taking away from us that
which is not honoring to him, that which would destroy us if
he let us keep going. He's turning us from it and he's
bringing us to him to believe on him. Peter talked about how
we've been born again to this living hope. And he said, and
you greatly rejoice. He's going to keep you by the
power, by his power, he's going to keep you in faith to the end.
And he's going to come and take you to that inheritance incorruptible
that fadeth not away. And he says, and we greatly rejoice
in that, though now for a season, if need be, you're in heaviness
through manifold temptations, multiple trials. heaviness, the
trial of your faith, that faith that is much more precious than
gold that perishes, that it may be tried with fire, that it might
be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. How is it going to be under praise
and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ? It is faith
that is just looking to Him only. no confidence anywhere but him
only. That's what every single trial
and trouble and everything is in this earth, that's what he
was doing right here with this nobleman. He gave his son sickness
to bring this nobleman to him, to bring him to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. And that's the purpose every
time. Now, Christ alone is the physician. And He's the only
one that can cure, and the only one that can heal, and He's going
to bring His child into the submission of faith, and He's going to do
it by speaking His Word into our heart. That's how he's going
to do it. He said, verse 49, the nobleman
said to him, sir, after he said it, he said, except you, you
just think of this. This man comes to him and asks
him to come down. His son is sick at the point
of death. And our Lord responds with, unless you see signs and
wonders, you won't believe. And this man, he prayed, he called
on him more earnestly. He said, sir, come down ere my
child die. And 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. And when
our Lord said, Except you see signs and wonders you won't believe,
this man did what any natural man would do. He cried out more
earnestly for him, Sir, come down, my child is dying. Christ
didn't ask him what made his son sick. He didn't get into the secondary
college. He knew what made his son sick.
He did it. He's God. God made this boy sick. To bring this nobleman right
where he was. Here's what the Lord did instead. Christ saith
unto him. Christ spoke to him. The sovereign prophet spoke effectually
and he said, he gave him a command, he said, go thy way and listen
to the good news, thy son liveth. Thy son liveth. Christ declared
to the nobleman good news. He declared to this nobleman
what Christ had done. Isn't that what he just said? Thy son liveth. How? Christ gave him life. He declared
to him what Christ had done. Christ declared to him what he'd
done. Your son lives. That's the saving message. Christ
and all his mighty works in saving his people. That's the message
we declare. This is a message whereby dead
sinners who were sitting in a pew hearing the gospel, this is the
message by whereby he's going to save them. The message of
what Christ has done. How that he's life. How that he is the life. He's the one who as the scapegoat
took the sins of his people away into a land not inhabited. He's
the one who honored God to the highest by what he did on Calvary's
cross so that the old man is dead and out of sight and God's
just and now God can be merciful and perfectly just to constantly
shower his people with nothing but mercy, mercy, mercy. And when he speaks that word
as the head of the church and gives his spirit, he's the one
that feels all in all. And just like our Lord had told
this man, your son lives. And before He ever told this
man his son lived, the Lord had already made him to live. And before He ever comes to you
and speaks to you and makes you know He's given you life, He's
already given you life. He's bringing us and He does
this throughout this life where He keeps making us know His works
on our behalf. This is why you live. What He's
done. And that's the message. That's
the only thing that's going to help depraved, helpless sinners
like us, brethren, in every hour. In every hour. Christ's word by His power. It
says here, this is what happened. When Christ spoke this word,
the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and
he went his way. Here he was before with these
thoughts and you just think of this as sin. Think of this as
just a false idea and a false conception and worshiping of
idols or whatever you want to think of it as. Think of it as
a man being turned and totally trying to save himself by himself.
When he came there and he said, come down, you've got to be present.
You've got to come down to make my boy live. And the Lord spoke
and he said, thy son liveth. And when he spoke that word,
that word granted him repentance. That word granted him a change
of mind so that he didn't think anymore, he's got to come down
there. He's got to be present down there. All that vain thought
he had of how Christ had to do this was gone now. He didn't
think of that no more. That wasn't, he thought he believed
him. He granted him repentance and
faith. A total changed mind towards whatever and made him believe
Him and submit to it. And he obeyed Him. He did things
the Lord's way. He gave him faith. Christ doesn't
have to be present in body. All He has to do is speak the
Word. And when He speaks the Word, by His presence, His Word
comes forth is His presence. That's what Brother Art just
read. Look back there, Psalm 138. Let me read it to you and
listen to this. His word is His presence. Isn't
that what the psalmist said? Psalm 138 and look at verse 1. I will praise Thee with my whole
heart, before the gods will I sing praise unto Thee. I will worship
toward Thy holy temple. and praise thy name for thy loving
kindness and for thy truth. Watch, for thou has magnified
thy word above all thy name in the day when I cried thou answered
me and strengthened me with strength in my soul. When your word came
into my soul and strengthened me, that word magnified above
all thy name. It magnified thy word. You've
magnified your word above all your name to me. It makes you see him and know
him and believe him and this is it. And this is what Christ has to
do to keep us and keep us following him. And when we turn, what does
he do? He gives you some, he just hedges
you up and makes you come to him with a need. And you have
all these ideas and you're praying for everything you think he needs
to do to fix this. And that's not the issue. That's
not the need. The need is being turned from
ourselves. and our way and our vanity to
submit to him in faith and trust him. That's not a one-time thing. That's a continual, nonstop work
that the Lord's going to do to the day we drop this body of
death. Now let me show you this last thing. I love this. I'll
be real quick. I'll be brief. When Christ gives
us this faith to believe on Him, and He renews it as you go, and He
strengthens you, and He turns you from your sin, He brings
you to cast all your care on Him, when He renews you, constantly
renews you and really brings you to behold Him just like you
did that first hour. We not only have peace with God
knowing we are justified from all our sins, we have peace believing
that in this life, knowing I am justified and knowing I have
peace with God, I know it's going to be just like the Lord said
it would be throughout the rest of this life. In this world,
I'm going after tribulation, He's overcome it, and He's our
peace. But we know everything's working
together for our good, and we have that peace of knowing that.
How do you know that? Because God didn't spare His
own Son. When sin was found on Him, He
didn't spare Him, but delivered Him up for all His people, and
thereby completely, thoroughly purchased us, bought us, justified
us, made us the righteousness of God in Him, and God says we're
accepted. You know what that means? Everything
else in this earth, the Lord is going to work it for our good.
And you have that peace. You know that. Even when you're
crying and your heart's breaking, you still have this peace. It's
not just a peace of all the sun's shining and I feel good today
because it's a cool breeze. It's peace of knowing my God's
reigning. He's working. And he is doing
this for me and all his people in this world to the glory of
his holy name. And you know that. Let me show
you this. Verse 51. Now this nobleman, he came to
Christ desperate, frantic. He was pleading for him to hurry
and get down to Capernaum. But now that he believed the
Lord, he is going back. Now watch this. Verse 51. As
he is now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying,
Thy son liveth. And he inquired of them the hour
when he began to amend. And they said, yesterday at the
seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was
at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth.
The seventh hour was about one o'clock in the afternoon. So
it was yesterday at 1 p.m. the fever left the boy. That's
when the Lord had said that. Yesterday at 1 p.m. It's about 25 miles from Cana,
where they were, where the Lord spoke this word to the snowmen,
from there to Capernaum. And what I read is about a 12-hour
camel ride from Cana to Capernaum, about 12 hours. Now, they said
it was yesterday. That was marked by the sun going
down. All right. So this is most likely the next
morning. And you think about it. The nobleman,
he started home as soon as at 1 o'clock, he started home when
Christ said your son lives. And the servants, as soon as
the fever broke at 1 o'clock, they said go tell our Lord. So they took off to go tell the
nobleman the fever broke. I don't know if the nobleman
made it over half the way and met them or what. But the nobleman
just wasn't in as big a rush to get back home. Because it
was yesterday at 1 o'clock that he left. And they're talking
like it's the next morning. And if it didn't take but 12
hours, if he just went nonstop You get what I'm saying? It was
like he wasn't in as big a rush to get home. Well, I know this so that Scripture says, Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a
tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that
believeth shall not make haste. He won't be troubled. He won't
be moved when trouble comes. Now, I don't have any doubt He
wanted to get home and see His Son. I'm not saying that. And
I'm sure He wasn't dilly-dallying to get there. But I'm just saying,
when the Lord has made you know it's well with your soul, He's
justified you. You're righteous. He receives
you. Then you can be a little more or less anxious in this
life and a little more or less hasty when trouble comes, then
you are before he gives you that faith. Isn't that right? Because
you know it's going to be well with you. You know it's going
to be well with you. And when he got back and they
said, he told them, I can just hear him tell them, I believed
him, I knew it, and he strengthened his faith when they told him
this. And he went to telling them what the Lord had done.
And the Lord saved the whole house. his people and gave him
faith to believe. Brethren, Christ is the physician
and the message that he's going to save dead, dying sinners is
the message that declares that he's life. He's the one
who speaks the word. He's the word who speaks the
word, who makes it effectual and who turns us to him. This
is the word to speak to one another. This is the word to constantly
speak to one another in every situation. And he says there,
this is the second miracle he did when he come out of Judea
into Galilee. The first one was that turning
water into wine. And when this word comes, he
gives you hearts to believe. He makes you a new, puts a new
spirit in you and makes you drink the wine of the gospel and believe
him. And this is the word we need
to speak to one another all the time. It's how he's going to
work this. And I believe Him. I believe
Him. No matter what happens to me,
there ain't a soul in this world can separate me from the love
of God in Christ Jesus. And that's true of you, believer.
That makes everything else. Whatever else is good He does,
that'll be gravy. That'll be good too. But if you
got Him, you got everything. Amen.