I'm happy being here with you. I enjoyed our fellowship the
last couple of days. It's been such a blessing. uh... right so what's true for him
when you do not want to do much for you to talk to each other
you take it up just like it uh... bingo on every day of your life
so that's been a blessing to me john chapter four and i'm
entitled to this message what he is John chapter 4, beginning in
verse 46. This passage of scripture answers
that question. What is faith? Verse 46, So Jesus came again
into Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water white. 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
you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. Now that seemed
almost cruel, doesn't it? He comes with this great need,
my son's dying, And his reply, except you see signs and wonders,
you will not believe. That seems on some levels a harsh
way to deal with a man with this great need. Verse 49, 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, their faith. That's it. And he went his way. And as he was now going down,
this was the next day, the next day. And as he was now going
down, his servants met him and told him, saying, thy son liveth. Then inquired he of him the hour
when he began to amend. And they said unto him, yesterday
at the seventh hour, 1 p.m., the fever left him. He didn't
just begin to mend, it left. It was gone. 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." This is again the
second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea
into Galilee. Have you asked yourself the question,
what does it mean to believe? i hear the exhortation believe
maybe i have some vague notion of that but what does it mean
to believe in ephesians chapter two verse
eight paul said for by grace are ye saved through faith and
that not of yourselves is the gift of God God of works lest
any man should boast. I know some things about faith. Faith is the saving grace. You and I will not be saved unless
we for ourselves believe. No one can believe for you. You
yourself must believe. Faith is the saving grace. Without faith, it is impossible. Not highly unlikely, not hard,
it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is. Also know this about faith. It's
the gift of God, and if you have faith, you know it. You didn't
decide to believe. You found yourself believing.
And you know the reason you believe is because God gave you this
gift. You know that. I don't have to
convince anybody that you believe. By grace, you say, through faith,
and that, it's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works. If you don't believe it's the
gift of God, you believe salvation by works. Not works, lest any
man should boast. Now I've said some things about
faith, but what is faith? I suppose you could say this
about every other doctrine of the Bible, but there is no subject
that has more wrong conceptions and misunderstandings than there
is with regard to this thing we call faith, or what the Bible
calls faith. Now, I hope and pray that through
this scripture that I just read, the Lord will teach each one
of us what faith is. And even more than that, I want
every one of us to believe. To believe the gospel, just like
this man did. What is faith? Let me tell you
a story. The Lord entered Canaan. That's the place where he had
made water wine. And about 15 or 20 miles away,
there was a town called Capernaum. It would have been a six or seven
hour walk. If you went on horseback, it
would have been quicker, obviously. But this man in this town of
Capernaum, he was a nobleman. That means he was a courtier
in the court there. He was a Gentile, probably wealthy
and influential, a nobleman, a certain nobleman. You know,
the Lord always saves certain people, doesn't he? I love that
word, certain. A certain man. Well, here we
have a certain nobleman whose son was sick. Now you got to remember that
the Lord had performed many of his miracles in Capernaum. You
remember when he said, Capernaum, you're going to be brought into
hell for the mighty things done and you'd been done somewhere
else. They would have repented. A lot of miracles have been done
in Capernaum. I mean real miracles. I don't
know what the closest hospital is here, but what if somebody
went into the cancer ward at the closest hospital and came
in and started healing people who were dying of cancer, and
all of a sudden, perfect, help! You reckon you'd hear about it?
Well, sure you would. It'd be all in the newspapers
that something like this was happening. This man had heard
of the mighty miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ, his miracles
of healing. And I don't know what he thought
about them. He'd heard about them. Perhaps he'd never seen
one. Perhaps he was skeptical. I don't know if that really happened.
uh... perhaps he thought maybe it didn't happen. That's a good
thing. I'm glad it happened. We don't
really know what he was thinking about these miracles. But now
he has a need. And he hears differently. He had a son who was at the point
of death. And I'm sure when he heard of
the Lord being in the town of Cana, which was only 15 miles
away, he thought, would he? Could he heal my son? He saw things in a completely
different light from this state of need. The whole need not a
physician, but they that are sick. He healed them that had
need of healing. And this man is now hearing with
a need, a great need. So what did this man do? He left Capernaum. probably at six o'clock in the
morning, and took this trip to Canaan to be where the Lord was. If you have a great need, somehow
you're going to get to where He is. You might not know how
you're going to do it, but you're going to do it. And this man
walked this six or seven hour journey. I don't know if he had
a horse or if he walked, but let's say he walked. One o'clock
in the afternoon is when he was healed, so I would imagine he
left at about six o'clock in the morning, and he came to the
Lord with this great knee. Verse 47, when he heard that
Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto him and
besought him. He didn't have a sense of entitlement.
He didn't think, well, if I ask him, he's got to heal. He besought
him. He begged him. You know when
people beg when they don't have anything to bring to the table?
They beg. He besought him. He had no other options. He besought
him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the
point of death." Now picture this in your mind, the emotion
of this man as he tells the Lord about his son, and this horrible
state he's in, and that he could die any moment. Think of the
desperation of this man, and the way the Lord answers him
seems almost harsh. Then said Jesus unto him, except
you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. You won't believe
unless you see me heal your son. And it comes in the form of a
rebuke. Now, we're going to get back
to that in a moment. But one thing I want us to notice, if somebody
has a need, no rebuke's going to keep them from continuing
to seek his mercy. I think of Bartimaeus crying,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. What did the crowd
say? Hold your peace. And the scripture said he did.
He cried no more, a great deal. What about the Syrophoenician
woman? She had that demon-possessed daughter and she comes to the
Lord with this demon-possessed daughter. Jesus, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. What a need! He answered her
not a word. Now can you imagine? She comes
with this great need and the Lord ignores her. Well, I hate
to be ignored, don't you? He ignored her. But did she give
up? No, she continued crying to where
the disciples said, send her away, she cries after us. But
she didn't stop. She continued crying. And the
Lord said, after the disciples said, send her away. She cried
after us. They were so hard hearted. I'm not sent to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. I didn't come to save everybody.
I only came to save the elect. That's what this woman heard.
I didn't come to save everybody. I only came to save the elect,
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. You know what Scripture
says she did then? Then she came and worshipped
him. You see, you'll only worship
a sovereign. Not someone you can manipulate.
Not someone you can make him respond to what you want him
to do. You'll only worship a sovereign when you know you're in his hand
for him to do whatever he is pleased to do. Then came she
and worshipped him. And you know what he said next?
She said, help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. He said, it's not meat. It's not right. It's not
appropriate to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. Well,
if there's ever a time and thing she'd leave it to me then, what,
did he call me a dog? You know what she said? That's
the truth, Lord. If I ever heard the truth, that's
it. I'm a dog. I don't claim to be anything
other than that. But I'm your dog. and the dogs eat of the
crumbs that fall from the master's table. I'd be so grateful for
any crumbs of mercy." Here's the point. You can't be turned
away. The Lord rebuked this man. Except you see signs and wonders,
you've got to see miracles before you'll believe. And there's a
problem behind that. You see, if you have to see a
sign and wonder, that means you don't believe. If you believed, you
wouldn't need to see any signs. How does this man handle this,
verse 49? The nobleman saith unto him,
sir. Now I can't tell you why this
is, but that sir is the word generally translated Lord. It's
only translated sir six times in the New Testament, hundreds
of times it's translated Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ. Say it
more. You know what that tells me?
This fella, I don't know if it's just now, but he now knows who
he is. You know who he is when you know
he's the Lord. Remember the thief? Lord, remember
me? He knew who he was, didn't he? Let me tell you how much he knew
who he was. He said, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
I know you're not going to stay dead. You're going to come back
as a mighty reigning king, accomplishing whatever you intended to do.
Remember me. How did he know the Lord would
do that? Because he knew who he was. That's the key. If you know who
he is, you'll believe. Now he knew this is the Lord. Lord. Sir. Come down ere my child die."
If you don't come down now... Now, what I noticed about that
is this man did have some problems in his faith. When he said, come
down ere my child die, as if, if he didn't come down there,
his child would die. You remember the man that had
the greatest faith in Israel? That the Lord spoke of? You remember
that? He came to the Lord. He didn't come, he sent somebody.
He didn't tell himself worthy to come. And he said, my servant
lost a fever, tormented, and so on. He didn't even tell him
what to do. He just let him know about it, as if he didn't know
about it already. He did, but this fellow was just
bringing this case to the Lord. And the Lord said, I'll come
down and heal him. He said, I didn't think myself
worthy to come to you, and that's why I sent somebody. And now
I'm not worthy to have you come under my roof. Speak the word
only. I don't need you to come down.
I understand authority. I say, I've got servants under
me. I say, one go, he goes, another
come, he comes. I say, do this, he does it. Whatever
I say goes, I understand authority. You speak the word only. That's
all it takes is for you to will it. And my servant shall be whole. And the Lord said, I say unto
you, I've not found a great faith, no, not in Israel. And this man
hadn't reached it. Your faith grows. Aren't you
thankful for that? You know, the disciples said,
increase our faith. That means faith grows. It's how I had faith,
because he knew who the Lord was. But he didn't understand
that the Lord could just will it, and it would take place.
And he said, come down, ere my child die. Now, verse 50. Jesus saith unto him, go thy
way. If you have enough faith, you're
something to live. Didn't say that at all, did he? He said,
go your way. Thy son liveth. He didn't say
he will if you do this. He will if he'll live with you.
No. Go thy way. Thy son liveth. And that's the announcement of
the gospel. Not what will happen if. What happens because I say
this. Go thy way. liveth. And here we have faith, and the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him in his way. That's a little too simple. No,
it's not. The man believed You see, he
knew who he was, that's why he believed. If you know a character,
what he says, you believe. Now, if you don't know who he
is, he might say something, maybe you won't believe him, but if
you know who he is, anything he says, you believe. The man
believed the word Jesus had spoken to him, he went his way. And
one of the ways we know that he He had no worries. I mean, he really did believe
what the Lord said because it was one o'clock in the afternoon.
He could have got home by seven or eight to see if it was so.
But he didn't. He just believed. Then we got
him a hotel room somewhere and he spent the night there somewhere
and came and thought, I'll drive and walk back tomorrow. He had
confidence that because the Lord said that, it was so. Same thing with Abraham. Abraham,
look at the stars. So shall I see be. Abraham didn't
have any kids yet at all, but he believed what God said, simply
because God said he had no evidence. Now this man had no evidence
that his son lived. other than the naked word of
Jesus Christ. And that's all he needed. He went to his, got a place to
stay that night, got up, started walking, they head back, verse
51. Next day, verse 51, as he was
now going down, his servants made him and told him, saying,
thy son liveth. He knew that. The Lord told him that. But what evidence did he have?
The Lord's word. Nothing else. And as he was now going down,
the servants told him, saying, thy son liveth. Then inquired
he of them the hour which he began to amend. When did he start
getting better? And they said unto him, yesterday
at the seventh hour, one p.m., the fever left. All of a sudden,
she's gone! He was totally, immediately back
to normal. It left him! So the father knew that it was
at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, thy son liveth.
You know when he lived? The exact time the Lord said,
thy son liveth. And himself believed in the whole
house? Somebody says, does that mean, if I believe my whole house
will believe too? I hope so, but not necessarily.
His house did. And you, Lord, you save these
people in their house, save the people in my house. We have every
reason to cry that and say it. But maybe, I hope he does. This is, again, the second miracle
that Jesus did when he was come out of Judea into Galilee. Now, I have no doubt that this
man had heard of the healings Christ performed, but now he
heard differently. You know, there was a time when
I heard the gospel, and it was the same message, and I heard
it differently. I didn't hear a different message. But I heard
differently. This man heard differently. And
there's a reason. He had a great need. I need thee, precious Jesus,
for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need the cleansing fountain
where I can always flee. The blood of Christ, most precious. The sinner's perfect flee. He was hearing with a need. Verse 47, when he heard. When he heard. Faith cometh by
what? hearing, and hearing by the Word
of God. When he heard that Jesus was
coming out of Judea into Galilee, he went unto Him. Now, of this
I'm positive, if you need Christ, you'll go to Him. And the reason
you'll go to Him is because the Father drew you. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. If you come to Christ, he won't
turn you away. It's never happened, and it never
will happen. You see, the reason you're coming
in the first place is because he calls you to come. He came
to him, and he besought him. He didn't have a sense of entitlement.
He didn't say, you know, you need to do this. He was fine. They would come down and heal
his son. Now we've already noticed that
He had a defective faith, I do too, you do too. Our faith is
way too small. Compared to what it ought to
be, there's no question about that. But a small faith saves
just as surely as a large faith saves because it's not the faith
that saves, it's the object of the faith that saves, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He had too low a view of Christ.
He didn't realize that Christ just had to will it. Christ could
heal a fellow remotely. Just will it, and he's healed.
But he said, come down. Ere my child dies at the point
of death, Jesus saith unto him, except you see signs and wonders,
you will not believe. I could believe if, if what? If Christ died? No, I already
know that. I could believe if I had more
power in my life. I could believe if I saw more
victory over sin and I saw more faith and less unbelief, more
holiness, less sinfulness. If I could really see something
that God has done for me, I could believe. Yeah, if you believed
in yourself. That's all it is. You be believing
in yourself. That's not faith. You were with
that crowd in Matthew chapter 7. They heard something they
were shocked by. And they said, Lord, Lord, did
we not preach in your name? And in your name did we not cast
out demons? And in your name we did many
wonderful works. you see if you're looking for
sure about anything you've done you've missed christ they were
looking at something they had done and they had done those
things but what did the lord say to him? depart from me ye
that work iniquity i never knew you i don't want to be in that
crowd i want to be somebody who believes the gospel just like
this man did now signs and wonders You know, if you believe who
He is, you won't need a sign of wonder. If you believe who
He is, when you ask for a sign of wonder, you say, prove it,
give me something to prove. Do you need a sign of wonder to
believe what He said? Not if you know who He is. You see,
you know something of His character. He's incapable of lying. He's
incapable of the incapacity or inability to say whatever it
is He wills to do. He's the Lord! And you believe
that if He says it, it's so. Except ye see signs and wonders
ye will not believe, whether it be that old woman saith unto
him, Sir, come down, ere my child die. Jesus saith unto him, Go
thy way, thy son liveth. The gospel is a declaration I don't know if this is the right
way to say this, I'm gonna say it, of the fact of what Christ
accomplished. Your son lives! It's finished! There's nothing
for you to do! It's already done! It's accomplished! Your son lives! And what did
the man do when he heard this announcement of the Lord Jesus
Christ? and the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him. My dear friends, that is the
simplicity of faith. The man believed the word that
Jesus had spoken unto him. He didn't have the evidence,
did he? He couldn't look and see his son. He couldn't see
his son. He was blown away. He had no
evidence except that Christ said he lived. And he believed the
word that Jesus had spoken unto him. Now, don't overcomplicate
things. Quit looking to yourself. Quit
thinking about what you need to do. believe the word he spoke. Now, I love the end of this. And the man believed the word
that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. I like the
way the Lord said, go thy way. That's how I love it. You're not duty. You're a bunch
of boxes. Go thy way. Set free. Son of
Liz. He went his way. Now he finds a place to stay,
he believes the Lord, no worries. He's not in a rush to get home
and see if his son was alive. He believed the Lord, he spent
the night somewhere. He gets back up and starts and verse
51, as he was now going down, the servants met him and told
him, saying, thy son liveth. I love thinking this. I think
he thought, I already knew that. I already knew that. The Lord said
he lives. But he asked this question, and
this is so important. Then inquired he of them the
hour which he began to amend. What time? When did he begin
to amend? And they said, one being, be
collected, gone. And 53 says, so the father knew that
it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, thy son
liveth. He knew when he was saved. I know when i was sick and i'm talking about no one
i was saying i want to understand i'm not talking about calendar
date uh... i've heard preachers i've actually
heard a preacher say if you don't know the time you were saved
you're probably not saved uh... you break your leg you know when
it happens uh... so if you don't know when you
were saved and you can't remember that day and that time and that
experience uh... you're probably not saved I can't remember when I was born.
Can you? Can you remember that first day
when you came out of your mother's womb? Of course you can't. Does
that mean you weren't born? Of course not. You lived then.
You lived. Now, this man knew when his son
lived. When the Lord said it. Now, I
know when I was saved. I want to give you three times
of my salvation. And if you're a believer, I believe
you'll identify with this totally. I know when I was saved. Just
like this man knew when his son was saved, I know when I was
saved. I was saved before the foundation of the world. 2 Timothy 1.9 says, He saved us
and called us. which came first, the saving
or the calling? He saved you before he called
you. This is salvation completely
outside of my personal subjective experience. He saved us And He
calls, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Every aspect of my salvation
was accomplished in eternity in the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. I love thinking about that. I
love thinking about the fact that the Lord created the universe
so His Son could come and be slain to save His people from
their sins and glorify His Father. That's God's purpose for everything.
I was saved before time began. I was saved when he died. I would have never been saved if
all I did was live and go back to heaven. I was saved when he
died. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. I'm saved by the death of Jesus
Christ. That's my only ground of assurance.
If you tell me that Christ could die for somebody, and they can
wind up in hell anyway, guess what? I'll wind up in hell. I
know that. My hope is that he died for me,
and that when he died, when he said, it is finished, I was saved. All my eggs are in that basket.
I don't have a playa in me. My only hope is that when he
died, my salvation was accomplished. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. That's the only answer needed. Yea, rather than this risen again,
who's even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession. Now, excuse me. I will say before time again,
I was saved when Christ died, and I was saved when I heard
and believed the gospel and not a minute before then. Now let me show you that. Turn
to Romans 10. Romans chapter 10. Brethren, verse one, brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now there are two things that
stand out in that verse of scripture. Number one, these people were
not saved. And number two, Paul wanted them to be saved. He loved
these people. He wanted them to be saved. Don't you want everybody you
come into contact with to know the living God to be saved by
the grace of... You want that. You know that
the Lord will save His people. He wanted these people saved.
It's my heart's desire, my prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Now they weren't saved. Paul
wanted them to be. Verse 2. For I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. And we're talking about the God
of the Bible. They're reading the same scriptures I'm reading.
They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Now there is such a thing as
saving knowledge. saving knowledge. And if I don't
have that knowledge, I am not saved. Repentance is called, if God
will grant them repentance, to the acknowledgment of the truth. Faith is defined as the faith
of God's elect, the acknowledging of the truth, which is after
godliness. When Paul describes salvation
in 1 Timothy 2, 2, 3, 4, or 5, it says he will have all men
to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. What about those
who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth? There's such a thing as saving
knowledge. No, your knowledge doesn't save
you. Christ saves you. You know that. That's what you
know. You know that. And let's go on
reading, verse three. Here's what they didn't know.
For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, no understanding
of his righteous character or his righteousness in their damnation
or his righteousness in their salvation. No concept of the
righteousness, the holiness, the unapproachableness of God.
Oh, the righteousness of God. They being ignorant of God's
righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God,
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. You know, when you have saving
faith, when you believe. Now somebody says, do you have
a date when you believed? There we go again. Yeah, I do. Right now. Right now, you're the two biggest
false refuges there are, are yesterday and tomorrow. If I had a date for my salvation,
you're not doing any time I'd kind of question, you know, lose
my assurance and sort of, well, how about I look back to that
experience and make an eye of it? That's a false refuge. When you're looking back to something
that took place yesterday, it's something you did, you experienced. What about tomorrow? That's something
that you will do. Tomorrow I'll believe, tomorrow
I'll, false refuges. Remember the manna? What happened
if you tried to eat yesterday's manna to get nourishment for
today? It would breed worms and stink. Faith is always in the present. I'm not asking you to look back
and see if you can figure out when it was you were saved. Do you trust Christ right now
as the end of the law for righteousness? That is saving faith. Believing His Word. Not believing you're saved. Believing He is the Savior. He's all I need. He's all I want. He's all God requires. I would
need nothing more. I need I want nothing less. Certainly nothing else. Christ
is all right now.