Turning to John chapter 4. I realize that we're going through
this at quite a pace, but then that's more my style. I want to come today to look
at the verses from 43 down to the end of the chapter when Jesus
had arrived back in Cana of Galilee and he met this certain nobleman. forget why it is that Christ
came. Why did Christ come to earth?
There's so many people that are really confused and they totally
miss the point of the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
think he came to be an example. Well, yes he did, but that isn't
the reason he came. He came to do all sorts of things,
yes he did, but he came with a specific purpose and that was
to fulfill all of the Old Testament prophecies that spoke of God
coming as the Savior of a people. That's what it's about. This
is why Jesus said, you search the Scriptures, these are they
which speak of me. They spoke of Him coming. Not
just the odd one here and there, but the whole message of the
book is that He is coming. God is coming as the Savior substitute
for men to save them from their sins, to save them from the justice
of God, to establish justice, that He might be just and the
Justifier, to make peace with God. Blessed are the peacemakers. We read that in the Beatitudes
and the world is all the time about the peace process, the
peace process in the Middle East, the peace process in Northern
Ireland, the peace process in Afghanistan, the peace process
everywhere. But to be at peace with God, at peace with the Living
God. And there's a lot of confusion
about miracles in Jesus' ministry. Do you know that the Lord Jesus
Christ did not come to perform miracles he didn't come, I mean
some people have this idea that Jesus came to this earth to be
like a traveling magician show doing miracles all over the place
not at all he didn't come with the purpose of healing the sick
and of feeding the poor he didn't come with that purpose but he
did do lots of miracles He did perform lots of miracles. And
why did He perform lots of miracles? He performed miracles to show
who He was. And to illustrate with physical
things, like food, physical food, to illustrate with physical things,
like health, the power over leprosy, His power over spiritual things. That He is that bread from heaven
which we must feed on if we're to know God and to know eternal
life. That He has the power to heal from that spiritual sickness
which is so like the physical sickness of leprosy, that sickness
of sin, the sickness of sin. He came to deal with that and
the miracles demonstrate, they attest, they are signs of authentication
that what He said was true, that when He spoke it was true. I
might tell you certain things, say I don't believe you, But
if we went down to the cemetery in Nebworth, and I raised someone
from the dead, you'd start believing the word I said, wouldn't you?
You would. He performed miracles to attest that what he was speaking,
the words of eternal life that he was speaking, were true words
of eternal life. In these days, there's such a
focus on miracles. Such a focus on miracles. It's
all around us, this focus on miracles in religious things.
Do you know what Paul says about them? Paul says this in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2 and verse 9 he says that these things that people
jig in the aisles about and they get so enthusiastic about are
after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders. Oh no we're not, we're a Christian
church. No, the Word of God says this after the working of Satan
with all power and signs and lying wonders. Oh, but they speak
about Jesus. Yes, lots of people speak about
Jesus, but beware. I tell you, I think one of the
greatest dangers in our society today, in the United States of
America, they've had it for a lot longer than we have here, but
you watch the God Channel. No, don't watch the God Channel.
Don't watch the God Channel. But if you were to, you would
hear some stand up and they'd say things that sound like the
gospel. Don't be drawn in by it. I'm telling you the whole
basis of everything that is on there is this absolutely wicked
delusion of chasing after false miracles. It really is. It is
after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying
wonders. You know you get the impression
that Jesus went around constantly doing miracles. Did you notice
last week when we were looking when he was waiting at the well
of Samaria and he was tired and he was weary and he was hungry
in the heat of the day. He sat on the edge of the well
and he didn't perform a miracle. He most definitely didn't perform
a miracle. He sent the disciples off to
do things as the normal routine of this world is. They took money
and they went into the town to buy food. That's what happened. The miracles were the exception
to prove that what he was saying was the truth. You see, to focus
on the miracle is to miss the message that the miracles confirm. You don't just focus on the miracle.
Focus on the message that the miracles confirm, and that message
is salvation in the God-man, in what He did as the substitute
for His people. Don't focus on the miracles He
performed, but focus on what it says about who it is that's
doing these things. You know what John chapter 20
says? You might like to turn to this. At the end of John chapter
20, verses 30 and 31, these are Key texts. All scripture is by
inspiration of God, but there are some that stand out as pinnacle. You ought to hang your thoughts
on them. John chapter 20. You learn this.
You take it in and digest it and learn this. And it will protect
you from so many errors. It will protect you from so much
danger spiritually. He says this. John the writer. Many other signs, many other
miracles truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples. He
did lots of miracles, which are not written in this book. John
wrote about lots of miracles, but there were many more that
were not written in this book. But these are written. These
are written in the Gospel of John. Why? Why are they written? To show what a powerful trickster
Jesus? No! These are written that you
might believe that Jesus is the Christ. the sin-bearing substitute,
that's the Christ, the promised one, the anointed one, the sin-bearing
substitute of his people, that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, God become man, and that believing,
so what? I might believe it. You know,
I might believe that Henry VIII had six wives. I might believe
that Shakespeare wrote lots of plays. They make no difference
to me apart from the entertainment that the knowledge gives me.
No, that believing You might have life through His name. This is about life. Life. You've heard things that are
said to be a matter of life and death. You know, somebody's in
an accident. Can the paramedics get to them
before it's too late? It's a matter of life and death
that the paramedics get to them. We mustn't block the road when
we hear the sirens. We must let the ambulance through
so the paramedics can get there because it's a matter of life
and death. Well, I tell you, if anything was a matter of life
and death, these things of eternity, are a matter of life and death.
Oh, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God, the one who came to save his people from their sins and
that in believing you might have life because your believing will
be because you are amongst those for whom he came to live and
die and rise again. It's so that you might believe
who he is and so have life. So the purpose of the miracles
let's not get stuck on the miracles themselves but look beyond to
what the message is that they're teaching us now let's come to
this passage John chapter 4 verses 43 down to the end Jesus had
been traveling he'd been to that feast where he turned over the
tables in the temple and that miraculous driving out of all
of those traders before him just with a small whip made out of
cords and he drove them out and the people saw dramatic things
and the powers and the authorities could do nothing about it. They
were absolutely impotent to do anything about it in terms of
stopping him doing what he wanted to do. And then there was lots
of opposition and we had that passage about John the Baptist
and his disciples and who was baptizing the most and so he
leaves Judea and goes to Galilee but on the way he goes via Samaria
and meets that Samaritan woman And he meets many other Samaritans,
because she went and said, come see a man who told me all things
that I ever did. Could this be the Christ? Could
this be the one that we have been waiting for, for eternity,
for eternal life? Could this be the one? And many
Samaritans were called into his marvelous light. Peter calls
it this, he says, talking of Christians, if you've believed
the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been called out of darkness.
because naturally as you are you're in a state of spiritual
darkness you're in a state of confusion you don't know what
this life is about or for you're in a state of blindness and the
philosophers of this world have struggled with it and none of
them have got any closer you're in darkness but you've been called
in the Lord Jesus Christ out of that darkness into his marvelous
light marvelous light is what the scriptures call it wonderful
light the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. So he'd had that great harvest
in Samaria. And he likened the people coming
as to white fields at the time of harvest, just ready for the
harvester to go in and to reap the harvest. And so it will be. I know we live in days of very,
very small things and it's as if nobody believes. I honestly
believe. I'm telling you, I honestly believe.
I don't know when it will be, I don't know whether it will
be in my lifetime or not but I really sincerely do believe
that all of the signs, you know Jesus said look at the fig tree
and look at the signs of nature, you know when the seasons are
changing you know we can see the days getting longer can't
we, we can see the sun's not setting as early as it did we
can see that you can still be out walking at six o'clock in
the evening and see where you're going we see these things and
the signs are there I believe for the scripture to be fulfilled,
I believe there will be a great gathering in of the people of
God from amongst those who you would look at and to us would
say no they'll never believe. Oh I'm telling you he's done
he's done greater things in the past he's done greater things
calling in people out of darkness into his marvelous light. So
he comes to Galilee again and he comes to Galilee and he goes
to Cana of Galilee where that wedding was where he made water
wine that's that's where he goes to he didn't go to Nazareth verse
44 he knew that a prophet hath no honor in his own country."
So he didn't go to Nazareth. He did on another occasion, and
you remember they ended up almost lynching him, trying to throw
him off the cliff at the edge of the town. So he didn't go
there, but he did go to Cana of Galilee, and they welcomed
him. It says, verse 45, that they received him, and they'd
seen the things that he did at Jerusalem at the feast, and they
also had been at the feast, and they'd seen those things, and
they actually welcomed him. they wanted to hear what he had
to say and it says that news of him being there got around
and there was a certain nobleman look in verse 46 he came to Cana
of Galilee where he made the water wine and there was a certain
nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum that's about 15 to
20 miles away down on the coast of the Lake of Galilee and This
certain nobleman, this kind of junior or petty aristocrat I
think you might call it without being too disrespectful to him.
He was somebody of status in the society so he'll have had
a household and he'll probably have owned property and he heard
that Jesus was there and his son was sick. We know nothing
about his son apart from the fact that he was seriously, seriously,
dangerously ill. dangerously ill and uh... he was at Capernaum and he heard
that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee and he went to him
verse forty seven and besought him he pleaded with him that
he would come down to Capernaum and heal his son for he was on
the point of death he was in great great anxiety this certain
nobleman did you notice as the scriptures so often say a certain
nobleman. There was a certain nobleman.
Again and again we read of these things. A certain person here.
There was that certain woman at the well in Samaria. There
was a certain person here. We read of them. We read of Zacchaeus
who was up in the tree and there was a great crowd and Jesus said,
Zacchaeus come down. You come down. I'm coming to
your house for tea as the chorus goes. A certain man, a certain
nobleman who was predestined he was predestined in the eternal
purposes of God to meet the Lord Jesus Christ he physically crossed
his path here the need arose and he physically crossed the
path of the Son of God as he went about his ministry I wonder
if any might listen to this message online or other messages like
it online in the predestinating purposes of God to meet the Lord
Jesus Christ as the gospel of His grace is preached. You see,
God is a God of election. God is a God of sovereign grace. He is. That's the way He is.
That's the way He works. Jesus, when He did go to Nazareth,
He absolutely infuriated the people there because He talked
of the sovereign electing purposes of God. Because in Nazareth,
He mentioned Naaman, the Syrian. He said there were many lepers
in Israel in the days of Elisha the prophet but he said to none
of those lepers in Israel was Elisha sent but to Naaman the
Syrian your avowed enemy he sent him to him God is a God of sovereign
grace and electing purposes he went specifically to call a woman
of Samaria whom the Jews hated specific people God is a God
of purpose a God of sovereign grace he said that Elijah There
were many widows in Israel in the days of the famine, and it
wasn't to those that Elijah was sent to be fed and sustained
and kept in that three and a half years of famine, but it was to
the widow of Serapta. That's where he was sent. Not
a Jew, outside of the land of Israel. That's where he was sent.
This is God's way. It's God's way that, as Paul
says in Romans 8, 29 and 30, those whom he foreknew he also predestined, he foreknew
in electing grace and he predestined and he called them and those
he called he also justified and those he justified he also glorified
and that message of salvation is God's way it's not man's way
and so it's foolishness to Greeks it's foolishness to Gentile thinking
to irreligious thinking it's a stumbling block to religious
thinking to the Jews they trip over it This doesn't make sense.
We cannot understand this. It doesn't work the way we think
things should be. But it's God's way. He's a God
of electing grace. Oh, that we might believe Him
at His Word. You know, the flesh struggles,
doesn't it? When Paul says the flesh wars against the Spirit
and the Spirit against the flesh, it wars in this realm too. Because
your flesh and my flesh, if you're a child of God, I'm telling you,
you'll struggle in your flesh with the sovereignty of God,
but in your spirit you believe and delight in the law of God,
in the purposes, in the testimony of God concerning His electing
purposes. It's not of Him who wills, nor
of Him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. He is the potter,
we are the clay. If you do pottery at school,
you children, you get a lump of clay and who decides what
happens to it? You do. That's what the scripture
says about God and all of us. but oh that we would believe
him at his word when he speaks and oh that we would believe
him when he says he is absolutely just and holy and right and in
the end in the day of judgment in eternity we will see that
everything he has done has been perfect and true and honest and
absolutely just there will not be one person in hell who will
not consider that they are justly there there will not be one So
this man comes to him and he pleads for help. He's got no
other place he can go. He's got no other hope. He's
tried all the doctors and all the medicines of the day and
none of them are going to work and his son is going to die.
He's got no other hope other than what he's heard or seen
of this Jesus of Nazareth who he knows has the power to heal
the sick and perhaps he will have the power to heal his son.
And so he says, come down and heal my son. He's at the point
of death. I've got no other hope. And look
at Jesus' answer to him in verse 48. How would we respond? How would we respond given such
a request? Oh, wouldn't we go scurrying
around in a fit to try and do absolutely everything we could?
Get me a camel quick. Come on, get me a camel. I must
get down there now. There's a man here who's got
a little bit of interest in me. I mustn't do anything that stops
him from thinking that I'm the right person. He might go away
and we'll never see him again. I better get a camel and go down
to Capernaum and heal his son quickly. No, he didn't do that. Look how Jesus responded. He
said to him, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,
you people. Unless you see signs and wonders,
you will... That's a harsh response, isn't
it? Isn't that a harsh response? Shouldn't he have been a bit
more sympathetic to the poor man? It's a little bit like the
response he gave to that woman. Turn over to Matthew 15. Matthew's
Gospel, Chapter 15. Do you know something? I know I've said that Jesus is
an example, but that isn't his primary purpose for coming, and
that's true. But you know, in terms of Jesus as an example,
there's some lessons to learn here in preaching the Gospel. I remember I remember hearing
Henry say years ago when I first started listening to Henry and
he was talking about Rolf Barnard in his preaching and somebody
had said to Rolf Barnard following one meeting that somebody was
highly interested in the gospel so this important person in the
community was and Rolf had better go down and see this person because
you know this person was really interested and Rolf Barnard said
if he's got any interest in the gospel he'd get himself out of
his house and he'll come down here He'll come down here and
hear it. I'm not going groveling around
Him. He'll come here. Isn't that the example that Jesus
gives? He does. He works in sovereign
grace, but He works in His way. Look in chapter 15 and verse
21. Jesus went thence. He went from
there and departed to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. So He's going
out of the area of Israel where the Jews were. And behold, a
woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts so she wasn't a Jew
and cried to him saying have mercy on me oh Lord thou son
of David my daughter is grievously vexed with the devil here's a
woman who's not of the Jews and she's interested in this man
have mercy on me my daughter is grievously vexed with the
devil so he made a great big fuss of her no he didn't verse
23 he answered her not a word and his disciples came and besought
him saying send her away for she cries after us. She didn't
just say it once. She was making a nuisance of
herself. She was making a fuss and the disciples, send her away,
get rid of her. She's crying after us. But he
answered and said, again, what a put down. Verse 24, I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So what's
her response to that? She came and worshipped him saying,
Lord, help me. so many things I don't understand
but Lord help me I know you are the one who has the power to
help me and he answered and said again look at this put down it's
not meat it's not fitting it's not right to take the children's
bread the word I have for the Jews and cast it to dogs because
you're a gentile dog you're not one of the Jews what a put down
what a harsh response and she said that's true Lord I am. I am a Gentile dog. I am a sinner. I am worthless. Yet I bet Rebecca knows this
about little dogs. See what it says in verse 27.
The dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
I bet you've got a little dog that would love to eat the crumbs
that fall from the table when you're eating. Yeah? So that's
what this woman is saying. This woman of Cana of Galilee.
She's saying, ah, but if I could just have some of the crumbs,
that bread that you're serving up for your people, the Jews,
if I can just have some of the crumbs. I know I'm a Gentile
dog, but if I can just have some of the crumbs. Oh, what good
that will do me. And Jesus answered and said to
her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee, even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour. You see, it was an apparently
harsh response. But he's trying to get beyond
the immediate thing. Do you only want to see miracles? Are you only interested in short-term
benefit and ease? Is it just your immediate circumstances
that you're concerned with, or are you looking beyond to the
salvation and the eternity and the eternal life that is in this
one, the Lord Jesus Christ? In John 6, 26, well in the first
part of John 6, as we'll see if we keep in John in a few weeks
time Jesus fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes you
know the story well he fed 5,000 people miraculous absolutely
miraculous absolutely miraculous and in John 6 26 there's a great
crowd following him oh wow we must come and see this man this
is great let's let's follow this man if only everybody could do
things for us like this man can and Jesus says to them you seek
me not because you saw the miracles and implying what the miracles
taught you but because you did eat the loaves and were filled
you had a good meal and you're hoping for another free meal
you're hoping for another meal that you don't have to work for
you're hoping for another meal that you don't have to prepare
that's why you're here you didn't see beyond what the miracle taught
you the feeding of the five thousand should have taught you that here
is the one who has the power and the words of eternal life,
therefore hear Him, listen to Him. This is the beloved Son
of God, hear Him. This is what it should have told
you, but all it told you was, here's a free meal ticket, here's
an easy life, here's a comfortable existence doing exactly what
I want to do. You see, they were simply chasing
free food, not the eternal life that He had shown He alone was
able to give by feeding the 5,000. So seeking for signs as opposed
to seeking for salvation. It's such a danger that so many
fall into. It's such a danger that we must
avoid falling into. Seeking for signs rather than
the salvation of which the signs speak. I want you to turn to
Matthew chapter 12, the passage that we read earlier on in the
service. Matthew chapter 12 and verse 38. Because this teaches us something
about signs and wonders and the message that they speak. You
see, remember, we're still dealing with Jesus' response to this
man who sincerely just asked for help regarding his son who
was sick. And Jesus had said to him, unless
you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. In other words,
what he's saying is, what are you really looking for? Are you
just looking for me to heal your son and that gets that gets you
off the hook of your worry and then you can just carry on your
life as if nothing had happened or are you looking beyond that
to what I can truly give which is eternal life that's the key
well look in verse thirty eight certain of the scribes and pharisees
answered saying master we would see a sign from you come on give
us a sign we're all here you you're giving us a message but
You know, we want to see a sign and then we'll believe you are
who you are. And, you know, they probably had some perverse scriptural
authority for what they said. Because regarding a prophet,
God had said quite clearly in Deuteronomy that you shall examine
what the prophet says. And you shall examine to see
whether the signs that go with it are real signs or not. And
so in their religious blindness, they're using scripture to their
own damnation by putting the Son of God under the microscope
and saying, we would see a sign from you. But he knew their hearts.
And in verse 39, look how he answers. He answered and said
unto them, can you imagine? You stand up in front of a crowd
of people to preach to them. I read, I read sermons from the
past and I know some people had the nerve and audacity to speak
like this, but look how Jesus spoke to these people, an evil
and adulterous generation. This is what he's calling them.
an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign and there
shall no sign be given to it you can seek for signs all you
want but you're not going to get one you're not going to get
a true one the only sign you'll get he says is the sign of the
prophet Jonas in the New Testament when it calls Jonah Jonas it's
just simply because the Old Testament was written in Hebrew and the
New Testament in Greek it's just the different just the different
spelling of the word it's like Joshua and Jesus, they're the
same name, the Hebrew and the Greek. And he says, for as Jonas,
verse 40, for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the
whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. I just want to clear one thing
up. When he says three days and three
nights and you think, no, hold on a minute, no, Jesus wasn't
in the tomb three times twenty-four hours. Well, it's because the
translation into English, even this old English, finds it difficult
to capture what it really said. It's part of three days. So, he was in the tomb on the
Friday on which he was crucified, before sunset. He was in the
tomb for the whole of the Saturday and he was in the tomb on the
Sunday morning before he rose from the dead, early in the morning.
That's what it means, that's the three days. It's not three
times 24 hours, therefore the Bible's wrong. It's just the
way the language translates from the original is difficult to
convey. That's what that means. And he says, just as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. This is the only sign you're
going to get. I'm not going to give any signs of miracles to
you evil and adulterous generation. I'm just going to give you the
sign of the Prophet Jonas. What was the sign of the Prophet
Jonas? We read it in Jonah chapter 2. where in the whale's belly
he comes to his senses concerning God's eternal purposes he looks
in verse four of chapter two towards thy holy temple he looks
to that holy temple which is the symbol in everything of the
gospel of his grace is the symbol in everything of how God makes
peace with sinners holy God makes peace with sinful man whom he
must judge on the basis of a substitute I will look to that holy temple
because that's what was preached there Every day that those things
were enacted, the Gospel of God's grace was preached. Salvation
is of the Lord. Sovereign grace. On the basis
of the Son of Man living and dying and rising for His people,
just as Jonah was three days in that tomb of the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man die and rise again for His people. And
so the message is this. Therefore, repent. Repent. Turn around. Rethink. and come
to Him for peace and forgiveness. That's the sign that will be
given. The preaching of the gospel of grace is the sign that will
be given. And you know those men that Jonah
went to preach to? The men of Nineveh, that great
city. That great city. And the Queen of the South it
talks about in verses 41 and 42. The Queen of Ethiopia and
Egypt, somewhere down there. The Queen of the South. Great
riches. Great civilization. But she came
to Jerusalem. to Solomon, seeking the wisdom
of God. For she'd heard of Solomon. She
came to seek the wisdom of God. And he says, a greater than Solomon
is here. He is here. He in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He who is made unto us of God,
wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. All of those things are in Christ.
And as the men of Nineveh repented, and as the queen of the south
came for that wisdom from God which alone is found in Christ
and the gospel of His grace. He says they will rise up in
judgment against this generation, this unbelieving generation,
evil and adulterous generation who are just seeking nothing
other than signs and comfort of life. They sought salvation,
these men of Nineveh and this Queen of the South. They sought
salvation. They sought eternal life. They
looked beyond any signs to the giver of life. What do you seek? What do I seek? What are we seeking? Are we seeking signs and wonders
which might not just be in a religious meeting but might be ease in
the physical trials or an easier life or more money or better
living conditions or do you seek first? Because this is what Jesus
said in the Sermon on the Mount. Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these other things will be added
to you. One thing that will be added to you is contentment with
godliness, which is great gain. Contentment with godliness, great
gain. Seek first the kingdom of God. Seek first eternal life in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Not in the noise of
the miracles, the noise and the excitement of those things. Do
you remember Elijah when he fled from Jezebel and he fled into
a wilderness and he set himself down under a juniper tree and
then he went into a cave and he was seeking that God might
speak to him. Oh Lord, now take away my life. It is enough. I've
had enough. I can't go on. And God sends
an earthquake. And the Lord was not in the earthquake. Oh, great, great razzmatazz.
Earthquake. And then God sent a great wind.
Howling wind. Great dramatic thing. But God
was not in the great dramatic thing. And then God sent a fire. And God was not in the fire.
But you know where God was? In the still, small voice. That's
where God was. Oh, that He would speak to us
in a still, small voice concerning salvation. Concerning the good
of your eternal soul. Concerning where am I going when
I die? Concerning is it well with my
soul? Are my sins forgiven? Am I right
with God? That's it. That's it. This nobleman
persisted. He got put down, but he persisted. He persisted. He said in, let's
turn back to John. He said in verse 49, the noble
said to him, Sir, come down before my child dies. You are the only
one. You are the only one that can
do this. And Jesus said to him, despite that put down, go your
way. Your son's living. Go your way. He came pleading for his son.
He knew that Christ alone could heal his son. He knew that if
Christ would but speak the word, his son would be healed. And
so it was. He didn't need to come down.
There's an encouragement here for us as parents and grandparents
to continue to bring unbelieving children to Christ for salvation. You see, we're all sick by nature
with the sickness of sin. and with the fatal disease of
sin, but come to Christ that they might be healed. I know
some of you have for years and years and years prayed, prayed,
but be encouraged to continue to keep praying for them. Come
down or else my child will die before he dies. Be encouraged
to pray for them, to pray for them. What else can we do other
than pray for them and preach the gospel of grace as the opportunity
is presented. So anyway the man believed and
he went down and his servants met him and it was a long journey
I mean in our days you just jump in your car and half an hour
later you'd be there on good roads but in those days if he'd
left in the middle of the afternoon which it seems he probably did
it would be well into the next morning before he got home you'd
have to have an overnight stop somewhere and the servants met
him and they said you didn't need to worry he's better he's
completely healed And he said, what time was it? What time was
it when he got better? Oh, about one o'clock in the
afternoon, the seventh hour. That's exactly when he said to
me, go your way, your son's living. And he believed. What did he
believe? Did he believe he is a great miracle doer, let's follow
him again and get some more miracles done? No. He believed, and his
household, that truly this Jesus was the Messiah, the promised
one. the substitute who alone was
able to save his people from their sins and grant them eternal
life. Amen.