I don't want them to be able
to get up. You're just having fun. Are you
having fun? And if you can, if you think
it's a good time, just send it to me. Like whenever, just say,
hey, I didn't know if you'd hit it this time on Monday or Tuesday
or something like that. Thank you. You know where it
is, right? My tea, no sugar this morning. I think it's a CBD based mix,
so it has CBD in it, and I just, so I'm almost that way. I mean,
I use CBD all the time. I love... I was working all morning. We
had to do the training, so I was at work until 7 a.m. on a Saturday, and we were there
until 11. Pretty close. Yeah. Usually,
I just sit there for a couple minutes, but all the time, I'm
in this one. I'm gonna take the boys. You can go play with Lala in
the back. Let's go play. Go show her the
animals. Alright, I just want to open
with our text, because sometimes it's good just to read through
it so you see it and know what I'm saying if I speak ahead on
anything. John 4 is our text. John 4, and
I'm going to read from verse 43 down to the end of the chapter,
which is verse 54. Now after two days Christ departed
thence from Samaria, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself
testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Then when he was come into 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. 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
ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman
saith unto him, Sir, come down, ere my child die. Jesus saith
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 as he was now going down,
his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. 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 the father knew
that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto
him, thy son liveth, and himself believed, and his whole house."
This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come
out of Judea into Galilee. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you, Father. We thank you for gathering this
people together here this morning to hear your word. Lord, have
mercy upon us. Lord, we pray that Your Spirit
would join with us, that You would fall upon us, Lord, with
blessings and grace, that we may hear Your Word, that we may
indeed be fed and taught and blessed by our God to know You,
to worship You, Rejoice in God our salvation Lord help us to
hear help us to believe Lord help us to know our God who created
us Lord we ask for your grace and mercy in this hour That we
may glory in your name It's in the name of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ that we pray these things Amen Stand with me and let's sing
290. Be still my soul, 290. 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 Be 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. My hope, thy confidence, let
nothing shake. All now mysterious shall be bright
at last. He's still my soul, the waves
and winds still know, his voice to rule 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 restore. Be still, my soul, when change
and tears are past. All safe and blessed, said we
shall be at last. We would turn to page 298. God leads us along, 298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads his dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads his dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Sometimes on a mountain where
the sun shines so bright, God leads his dear children along. Sometimes in a valley in darkest
of night, God leads his dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood, some through the fire, but all through the
blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. When sorrows befall us and Satan
oppose, God leaves his dear children alone. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leaves his dear children alone. Some through the water, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Away from the mire and away from
the clay, God leads His dear children along. Away up in glory, eternity's
day, God leads His dear children along. Some through the water, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives us all in the night season and all the day long. Thank you. I would like to read Psalm 2.
Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed saying. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall
he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree the
Lord had said unto me, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye
judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way. When his wrath is kindled but
a little, blessed are all they that put their trust in him. O Lord God Almighty, we thank
you again, Lord, for gathering us together in this local assembly. Father, we thank you for also
accomplishing what we could never accomplish. You have saved our
souls. Father, we thank you for choosing
a people and calling us out of nature's darkness into your marvelous
light. Father, allow us to rejoice and
to receive comfort for our souls once again in this day. Remember
Brother Eric, Lord, as he stands before us. Give him the words
to speak. Pour out your spirit upon him
and also us as we hope to listen. Father, will you grant us comfort,
which only you can give, that we may once again be turned to
the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may rejoice and that we may see
his glory. Lord, will you do this for us? Have mercy upon us as a people.
and remember us, Lord, as a local assembly. Continue, Lord, to
allow us to gather together, that we may be united in this
glorious gospel. Father, continue to give us an
appetite, and will you remember our loved ones, our children? You know all things perfectly.
Lord, will you give them also a desire to hear the gospel? Everything is possible with you.
Remember, Lord, those that are traveling, and we think of our
son Andrew also, and our daughter-in-law that hope to come in the near
future. Lord, continue to be with them
that this may also occur. And Father, once again, we remember
those that are sick, Scott and Ron, and perhaps others. Lord, continue to be with them
and give them strength that they may once again return here. Remember,
Lord, all your servants, wherever they are, for Jesus' sake alone,
amen. Give me a moment. Allergies are hitting me pretty
good recently. All right, brethren, let's turn
to our text, which is John chapter four. We'll be starting in verse
43, working our way to the end of the chapter with verse 54.
Now, The text here regards the healing
of a boy. He's the son of a nobleman, someone
who is a royal ruler or officer there, and he dwells in Capernaum.
Now, we're told here by John that this is the second miracle
that Christ did in Galilee. Galilee right he did many miracles
especially down there in Jerusalem so far but this is the second
one done in Galilee look at verse 54 this is again the second miracle
that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee and
we know that the first one was when he went to Cana and now
he's going to come back there to Cana and that first one was
at the wedding when he changed the water into wine. The thing about this miracle
that really catches my eye about it, and what John is highlighting
here for us, is really the healing of this nobleman. There's a healing
of his son, and that is the miracle that John references. But what
we see here is the healing of this nobleman. And what I mean
by that is our Lord grows this man's faith. This man is looking
to this Jesus of Nazareth as the miracle worker. He's a worker
of miracles, this guy is, right? And so he's coming to him that
his son would be saved. But what the Lord does for this
man is that he turns him from beholding him as a miracle worker
to know and understand that this is the prophet of God whom Moses
said, I am to hear. And he hears his word and he
believes. He turns them from being dependent
upon signs and wonders, as the evil generation requires, to
being one who hears the word of Christ and believes His word,
trusts Him, and rests in Him. I've titled this message, He
Believed the Word. And what I first want to look
at with you is, what is a prophet's honor? What is it to honor a
prophet? Well, it's to hear their word
and to believe, to obey the word of this prophet, that God has
spoken to this one and he comes with that word from the Lord
and it's an honor to him that we hear his word and believe
him. Now, interestingly, as I was
thinking about this, you know, sometimes seeing, right, which
they saw the miracle, sometimes seeing is, seems to be prioritized
over hearing in the scriptures. And I was thinking of Job, who
was taught of the Lord. We know that he was tried and
exercised. His faith, the faith that God
had given him was proved by the Lord. to show Job what he had
need of seeing. And we know that at the end of
the book of Job in 42, verse five and six, he says, I have
heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now, mind, I
seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself and
repent in dust and ashes. All right, so we see where seeing
was necessary. He heard, but he needed to see.
showing that we see our Lord. We hear in a classroom, for example,
you hear the text and you hear the lecture of the teacher, but
it's when you go out into the world and you put to practice
what you've heard that you begin to really know it by experience. You see it in action. the truth
of what's been told to you. And another example would be
Isaiah, right? In Isaiah 6, he's a prophet of the Lord, but then
he sees the Lord in his temple, and his train gloriously fills
the temple, and he says, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean
lips, because he saw the Lord, and he saw now what he was, right? And then he was able to hear
the Lord, all right? These people in our text, they've
seen a lot of things, but they are not hearing God's word by
His prophet, our Lord and Savior, the prophet of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. So our text begins with verse
43. I want to talk about this honor
of a prophet. It says, now after two days,
Christ departed thence, or from there. Where was he coming from?
Samaria. He had been in Samaria for two
days, and now he goes into Galilee. And what John, what I understand
John wants us to understand is that he went into the countryside
of Galilee. He went to the countryside. He
did not go to Nazareth. Nazareth is where he grew up. He was brought up there and they
knew him. and his family there, and so
why? Why did he not go to Nazareth
in Galilee, right? Because Nazareth was part of
Galilee, but he goes to Galilee, and I'm telling you, he went
to the countryside. Well, John tells us in verse
44, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor
in his own country, right? He's not going to have honor
in Nazareth. And when the Lord testifies something
to us, He shows it. He shows you what He means in
His testimony that a prophet hath no honor. Now I believe
we can see what John is talking about here if you go over to
Luke chapter 4. Look there in Luke chapter 4
because he captures what happened in Nazareth that where Christ
said a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Alright,
so Luke 4 and we'll pick up in verse 14. Now this is after Christ
was baptized. by John the Baptist, and the
Spirit of God testified, this is the Lamb of God, right? The
Spirit as a dove rested upon him. And John the Baptist testified,
this is the Lamb of God sent to take away the sin of the world. And immediately after that, we
read in the Gospels that he was taken off into the wilderness
for 40 days and nights, and there tempted the devil right so now
this is after that temptation and verse 14 says in Jesus returned
in the power of the Spirit into Galilee and there went out a
fame of him through all the region round about and he taught in
their synagogues being glorified of all and he came to Nazareth
where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And we know that he read from
Isaiah 61. Chapter 61, speaking of the Christ,
and then tells them, this day is this word fulfilled in your
ears. And all bear him witness, verse
22, all bear witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's
son?" So for a moment there, they're amazed, listening to
the words that are coming out of his mouth. And then they realized,
then they stumbled over the fact that, wait a minute, isn't this
Joseph's son? Right? They were wondering for
a while there. And so Christ responds to them
of Nazareth on this very point in verse 23. Luke 4, 23, he said
unto them, ye will surely say unto me this proverb, physician,
heal thyself. Whatsoever we have heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. All right, so this is what John
is referring to when Christ said to those of Nazareth that no
prophet is not without honor except in his own country. And that's because his gracious
words, the words of this prophet, the prophet of the Lord who was
sent to save his people, they were not enough for him. They
would need to see signs and wonders. They needed to see something
from this one before they would hear his words. Our Lord, he
would declare the truth of God. He was gonna now show them what
he means by, you're not going to honor me. You're not going
to hear what I have to say. How does he do that? Well, he
begins to declare the sovereign grace of God, where God will
have mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he will have compassion
on whom he will have compassion. So he declared, what did he tell
them? He tells them, of Elijah and
Elisha, how the Lord sent them to Gentiles, or ministered, they
ministered to Gentiles, right? He said there was many widows
in Israel in the day of Elijah, but the Lord didn't send Elijah
to any of them, save to a Gentile woman in Sidonia. And there she
heard his word and obeyed the word and she lived. And there
were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha, but he didn't
send Elisha to any of them, but rather he brought Naaman, the
leper, who was from Syria, a Gentile. And they both heard the prophet
speak, and they believed. What happens, verse 28 and 29? All they in the synagogue there
in Nazareth, when they heard these things, were filled with
wrath, and rose up and thrust him out of the city. And they
would have killed him if they had power to do it. But they
had no power. It wasn't his time. So he walked
through the midst of them and went his way. And he didn't go
back there. He didn't go back there. And
what John is doing is he's showing us this. He's teaching us this.
He's bringing this out. Verse 43 says, after two days,
he departed from Samaria, which is where the Gentiles were, the
half-Jews. They weren't Jewish people. And
Christ spent two whole days there. And we're told in verse 41 that
many believed because of his own His word. We don't read of any real miracles
being done there by Christ that impressed them. They heard his
word and believe this is the prophet here. And these are Gentiles. Now he goes back to the Jews
and he doesn't even go to Nazareth because he receives no honor
from them. They needed signs and wonders
that they would receive the miracle worker. And that's actually what
we're gonna see with those of Galilee, these Jews there, they
were receiving Christ the Miracle Worker, or rather Jesus the Miracle
Worker, and they didn't want to hear the word of God's prophet,
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the very Lamb of God sent
to take away the sin of his people scattered throughout the world.
All right, so I want you to understand that we see the miracle of Christ's
grace being worked in this nobleman's heart. Nazareth was left, but
this nobleman, Christ was merciful and compassionate toward this
man. As it says in Luke 15, 10, there
is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth. And that's what Christ does.
He works repentance in this man's heart. So I'm just emphasizing
that because I want you to understand these little verses here, they
have bearing on our text. All right, and the next verse
is gonna have bearing on those. Look at verse 45, John 4, 45. Then when he was coming to Galilee,
the Galileans received him, and note, having seen all the things
that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went unto
the feast. So they were there in Jerusalem,
they saw the miracles that he did, and so they received him
having seen those miracles. Nothing about having heard the
things he spoke, the gracious words that he spoke, they received
him because of the miracles. So consider that it's one thing. to see miracles performed by
the Lord in your life, to be witness to and have experienced
miracles. Some of us, I'm sure, have seen
things and been witness to things unexplained other than that God.
did it and did this miracle which I cannot deny. But it's another
thing altogether to believe because of the word of your God. The miracles do get our attention.
but they're not the end in and of themselves. They're to lead
us to the one who gave the miracle, to hear what he has to say to
us and what he's saying, right? Like our Lord said in John 17,
in his high priestly prayer, he prayed for those that would
hear their testimony, right? His disciples that would go out
into the world, preaching the word and believe because of their
word, right? Because of the word that they
testified concerning So we need to hear the word of God and believe
what he said. You know, we're actually told
over in Revelation 13, 14, I'll read it, it's speaking of the
beast that comes out of the earth. And it says that he deceiveth
them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles,
which he had power to do in the sight of the beast. And I'm just
bringing that out to say the miracles in and of themselves
are not salvation. But what is he saying? He may
do miracles, but if he's blaspheming God, if he doesn't speak according
to the light of this word, it's because there's no light in him.
And if that one does speak according to this word, it's because there
is light in him. So, just because you can do miracles,
that's nothing to glory in, or to follow that one because of
it. Are they speaking according to this word that God has given
to us? what we're listening for, that's
what we're looking for, right? So the Samaritans, they believed
he was Christ because of his own word, whereas we saw in Nazareth,
the Jews were offended by the word that he spoke when he declared
the truth to him, but they were happy to follow him when he was
doing miracles and they were impressed when he fed some fleshly
need, some carnal need that they had of him, right? Remember when
he fed the 5,000? We'll get to it soon, but in
John chapter six, verse 26 and 27, Jesus answered them and said,
verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw
the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were
filled. And what does he do? He faithfully
moves to speak the word, instructing them, saying, labor not for the
meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For
him hath God the Father sealed. All right, I could stand here
and recount to you numerous ways in which God revealed himself
to me doing many wonderful things and answering prayers and things
I can't explain any other way. But those things fade from your
memory. Those things are forgotten. Those
experiences wither away and are soon forgotten. But the word
of your God endures forever. Christ never fades away, and
he stands ever, and he's the one who is the hope of our salvation. We don't glory in experiences
and witnessing of miracles. They're wonderful when they happen,
but we glory in our God who has promised us in his word salvation
by his son, and we that look to him shall never be ashamed. So that's our glory. We glory
in our God who spoke his word into our hearts, giving us life
and satisfaction with him. And there we stay, resting in
him, regardless of whether or not we see more miracles or not. We rejoice in him, all right?
So what then is the prophet's honor but that we hear his word
and believe his word. That's honoring him, to believe
his word, right? Even when the Jews all left Christ,
all being offended at his word there in John 6, Peter says,
Lord, and the Lord asked him, will you also go away? He says,
Lord, to whom shall we go? you have the words of eternal
life. So we stay looking to Christ
our Lord. All right, so now on to faith
grown. This is our second and final
point here. Look at verse 45 again, John 4, 45. The Galileans
received him, having seen all the miracles that he did at Jerusalem
at the feast, for they also went unto the feast. All right, well,
what did he do there at this Passover feast? Look back in
John chapter two. John two, verse 23 through 25
tells us that when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in
the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the
miracles which he did. And then John makes a point to
tell us, verse 24 and five, but Jesus did not commit himself
unto them because he knew all men and he did not that any should
testify of man for he knew what was in man. So again, John is making this
point here. Think about when John wrote this,
this is later. at the end there of the apostles,
right, when many miracles had been done in establishing the
word, right, and getting the attention of the people to see,
guys, wake up, you're trusting in dead letter religion, and
so these miracles came, and then they, those that were the lords,
listened to what they were saying when they heard the word and
were settled in the gospel word, and so John's writing this now,
it's the last gospel to be written, and he's now listening, I mean,
he's now, now writing this gospel to establish us in the word. He's taking us off of hoping
in and looking for miracles right because we're not seeing those
things where other men are just walking by and people just have
to touch the hem of their garment and they're healed right we're
not seeing that today but we know them by the fruit by the
words that they're speaking right even even that when christ said
you'll know them by their fruit What is it? The false teacher
is trying to bring forth fruit from that corrupt dead flesh. That's really what he's saying
there in Matthew. You don't bring forth grapes and figs from thistles
and thorns, which is the flesh, the cursed flesh. And so, are
they speaking the truth? Are they glorifying God and the
salvation of his people by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ? Even
Nicodemus. When Nicodemus came to Christ,
he said, we know thou art a teacher come from God, because no man
could do the miracles that you do, except he be sent from God. And Christ said to him, what?
Nicodemus, you've seen the miracles, but you must be born again. You've got to hear the voice
of the son of God, and they that hear his voice, they shall live.
All right, you've got to be born Again, which is a work of the
Father. It's a work of the Spirit of God, which He does for the
sinner as it pleases Him in the time that it pleases Him to do
it. All right, so that we're delivered
from having a confidence in this dead, filthy flesh. All right,
now verse 46 and 47. 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, 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." All right, so this nobleman was either
at Jerusalem and saw these miracles himself or he heard from others
that he trusted that these miracles were done by this Jesus of Nazareth,
all right, and so he believed. and he believed because of the
miracles that were shown to him or revealed to him and he comes
to Christ believing that Christ can heal his sick son if only
he would just come back to Capernaum with him and stand by his son's
bedside and heal him. So at this point you could say
his confidence is in this Jesus the miracle worker. He has confidence
that he is a miracle worker. But I don't know how much he
understood that this is Christ the Word of God, that this is
the prophet whom God said he would send, whom Moses spoke
of. Our Lord, he faithfully rebukes
him with the word, but not to drive him away, but to instruct
him and to instruct us who are here reading his word even now. Because what we'll see is the
fruit of our Savior is he produces the fruit of faith, true living
faith. And if he had faith, he's growing
that faith in the Lord. He's teaching him, he's instructing
him so that he understands more and more Oh, you're not just
a miracle worker. You're the one who saves his
people. You are the prophet. Nay, you
are the word of God himself whom I'm to hear. All right, so verse
48, then Jesus said unto him, except ye see signs and wonders,
ye will not believe. You're still carnal and natural
and very fleshly and you require signs and wonders to believe. And that's reminiscent of what
he said to them in Nazareth. When he said, you're going to
say this prophet unto me, physician heal thyself. We want to see
the things we heard that you did in Capernaum. We want to
see the things that we're told of that you did elsewhere. We
want to see signs and wonders that we may believe, and Christ
isn't giving it to them. He left them, but here, he's
gracious. Here, he's going to be gracious
to this man. He's not going to leave this
man in sin and darkness. He's going to deliver him in
grace and mercy. This Jewish nobleman, you know, he didn't even have
the faith of that Roman centurion. Remember, the Roman centurion
just came up to Christ and asked him, Lord, heal my servant. And Christ was gonna go with
him, and he said, no, I'm not worthy for you to come into my
house. You just say the word, and I know it shall be done,
right? And so we see the power that
this is not some shaman, some miracle worker, this is God in
the flesh who doesn't even need to be there. You could be on
the other side of the world and he, as God, is able to do whatsoever
he wills and pleases to do, right? And so, but this nobleman here
in verse 49, saith unto him, sir, come down ere my son die,
my child die, right? His understanding of Christ is
certainly limited, right? It's certainly very limited,
but he did know that Christ could heal his son, and he begged him,
Lord, heal him. please give him life, Lord, because
if he didn't give him life, then his son was surely going to die. But our Lord does more than just
heal a son. He grows this man's faith. He gives him faith and grows
it. He instructs him with his word. He teaches him. He takes
him off of being dependent on signs and wonders and to believe
the word of God, which is what he's doing for all of his people. He's settling us in his word
and in the Son. All right, so verse 50, Jesus
saith 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. All right, so here we see the
grace of God being worked. He hears, he believes what Christ
says, and he believes him, right? He trusts what Christ says. And actually, as we read these
next verses, 51 through 53, notice it's the next day that he departs
to go back home. He didn't even go home immediately
after that. He trusted Christ so that whatever
business he had or if he was tired, he stayed the night there,
And then went back the next day, because it's really, it's about
15 to 20 miles away, depending on where you are in each side
of the city. And so it's about a four or five hour walk, maybe. He could have gone home. It's
1 o'clock in the afternoon, so he could have made it home by
then. But all right, 51, and as he
was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying,
thy son liveth. Then he inquired of them the
hour when he began to amend, and they said unto him, yesterday.
So he could have left after he spoke to Christ, but he stayed
there. Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. Remember,
in the Jewish clock, it starts at 6 a.m. typically when the
sun rises, and so that would be six hours to noon, and the
seventh hour is one o'clock. So it was one o'clock in the
afternoon about when it happened. All right, verse 53, so the father
knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto
him, thy son liveth and himself believed and his whole house. All right, so what are we to
hear from this? What are we to take away as,
you know, from what our Lord is teaching us here? Well, what
we've seen so far in John is the Lord turning the people,
delivering his people out of just the trappings of carnal,
fleshly religion. Vain, dead, letter religion. He's delivering us. He's showing
us the sham of man-made religion and how it's insufficient to
save any of us. It's not about a higher learning
of things. It's about a spiritual knowledge,
right? It's about salvation, being born
again of the Spirit of God, which is nothing that we can affect
for ourselves. He must do that. He must show
us gracious. And so he's delivering us from
depending on and resting upon experiences and feelings, right? Because feelings can be Awful,
right? Sometimes there's feelings that
we think of or experiences we remember and they make us feel
happy. And then there's other times where they can make us
feel sorrowful or sad, right? So we don't depend on these experiences. But our Lord, he actually says
in John 5, 24, when he said to those Jews there, he said, verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Right? And so, that's what our Father
worked in each of you that believe on Christ. Right? In grace, He
came to you, and He gave you spiritual life, whereby you were
bid with the poison and injected with the poison of sin, meaning
you came to a knowledge of your death, of your spiritual death,
and your awful predicament. And he showed you Christ, and
when you looked, you lived, which was all his work in you, all
his grace working mightily in you. So, you know, do you believe
Christ? Is he the savior of his people? Yes, he is. And you that believe
it, rest in Christ. Trust him. Believe his very word. Because all who believe on him,
when they believe, they are saved. They are delivered from death
unto life. And they that believe, we know, are testifying to the
work of God's grace working in them. because it's not by this
flesh that we believe, but by his grace and power. All right. The other thing that we see in
this is that we're encouraged to hear the word of God. All
right. It's a blessing to be gathered,
to hear the word of the Lord. That's why your son wants to
be here because he wants to be gathered with the sheep. He wants
to hear what the Lord is saying to his people. Because that's
where our Savior promises to meet His people, to bless His
people, to feed His people and nourish them, and to grow their
faith in Him, so that we're not so dependent on fleshly carnal
needs being met, but that whatever the trouble is, we believe Him
who spoke the word and promised that we are His, and we are settled
in Him. He does that through the preaching
of the word. As it says in Romans 10, we're
familiar with verse 17, but let me read verse 16 first. But they,
speaking of Israel, have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah
saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? The wicked don't
believe the report of God. They don't believe his word.
They're excited to see signs and wonders, but they don't want
to hear the word of Christ. But to you, he says, so then
faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So that just like this man's
faith that was so small and so tiny, he was ignorant of so many
things, yet Christ spoke that word with power into his heart
and he heard and believed and went away rejoicing, believing
that Christ had healed his son, and then he came to witness it.
He saw it later, but he already had the faith of God in him,
right? As he was there, sitting with
Christ, speaking with him, or standing before him, speaking
with him, Christ restored him, healed him, blessed him with
faith. And so that's what he does for
you, his people. He blesses you in hearing that
word, and he feeds you and teaches you, all right? And so the word
of our God declares that we are sinners incapable of saving ourselves. But the word of God also declares
to us him in whom is the hope of our salvation. and the joy
of all God's saints is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he
reveals that to you with power and glory by his Holy Spirit,
giving you life to behold him and to look to him and believe
on him, right? In Acts 10, 43 says, to him,
give all the prophets witness that whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins. I pray the Lord bless his word
to your heart and that he grow your faith and settle you in
his son just as he did for this nobleman, because that's what
it is, right? We need to hear his word and
believe. All right, let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your grace, your mercy, the display of your
power, Lord, in speaking your word. and blessing our hearts
with your word and sealing your word in our hearts with the faith
that you give to your children and blessing them and securing
their deliverance from darkness and from the kingdom of this
world and that you deliver us into the arms of our savior where
we are fed and nourished and comforted and rejoice forevermore. Lord, we pray that you would
bless this people and that you heal our hearts as you did this
nobleman, that we would be turned from needing and requiring sight
and things of this flesh, but that we would be blessed and
fed spiritually by your grace, glory, and power, that we may
stand in the evil day, trusting you and firmly set upon our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord, again, we lift up to you
your people. We think of Ron and Scott and
Abigail. Lord, that you heal their bodies,
that you comfort them and teach them and restore them again to
our fellowship. And Lord, all those that love
them dearly and mourn for for their pain and suffering, Lord,
that you would comfort us as well and help us to love them
and to be there for them, to be kind and gentle and to help
and an encouragement to them. It's in the name of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray these things, amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn, number 56. I am his and he is mine, 56. With everlasting love, Led by
grace that love to know, Spirit breathing from above, Thou hast
taught me, it is so. O this full and perfect peace,
O this transport all divine, In a love which cannot cease,
I am his and he is mine In a love which cannot cease I am his and
he is mine Heaven above is softer blue Earth around is sweeter
green ? Something lives in every hue ? ? Priceless eyes have never
seen ? ? Birds with gladder songs or flow ? ? Flowers with deeper
beauty shine ? ? Since I know, as now I know ? I am His and
He is mine. Since I know, as now I know,
I am His and He is mine. Things that once were wild alarms
cannot now disturb my rest. ? Flows in everlasting arms ?
Pillowed on the loving breast ? O to life forever here ? Doubt
and care and self resign ? While he whispers in my ear I am his
and he is mine. While he whispers in my ear,
I am his and he is mine. His forever, only his, who the
Lord and me shall part. Ah, with what a rest of bliss
Christ can fill the loving heart! Heaven and earth may fade and
flee, Firstborn light in gloom decline, But while God in I shall
be, I am his and he is mine. But while God and I shall be,
I am his and he is mine. Thank you.