Good morning to everyone. Good song we just sang, "There is a Wound that Has Paid My Ransom." That's kind of what we're going to talk about this morning—the truth of salvation by God's grace through faith. 

As I was looking at this text, it's really a simple story—an historical account of something that happened in Jesus' ministry. One of many things that happened; only some of them are recorded for us. But I was thinking that each and every one of us who believes in Jesus has a story, has a testimony of how we came to faith in Christ, how God saved us by His grace through faith in His word, in His Son. 

So we're going to study one such story this morning in John 4. I was going to share a little bit from my story; most of you have heard this. But I was 26 years old the first time that I ever heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. I grew up in religion. I attended church six days a week for the first 12 years of my life. I was taught catechism, religious right and ritual, to be good, to follow the law, to love my neighbor, and all those rules of the religion. 

When Bobby and I moved up to Crab Lake in the summer of 1997, we had no knowledge or understanding. I don't believe I had ever heard the biblical truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the man we met—some of you know Guy Folsom, who was the caretaker before us—was a Christian, a fervent believer who was anxious to share his faith with us. He gave me tapes from a little church down the road from a man named Richard Krenz, who preached the clear gospel of grace—salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Over the next year or so, I listened, I pondered, and I was drawn by the Holy Spirit through the power of the simple gospel. 

But it was some time later when I was invited to a Bible study up in Montreal, Wisconsin, at the home of Brian and Bess Max and Oski, and they were studying in the book of Ephesians. Interesting that Mark would choose that passage this morning; we're going to look at that. After a few studies, we came to the second chapter and particularly verses 8 and 9. I'd like for you just to turn to that as we begin—Ephesians 2. 

We'll begin at verse 1, such a clear passage. It says, "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." 

"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." 

"That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." 

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." 

Well, it was in this passage of Scripture that God opened my eyes and the truth became evident to me. "For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." What a clear statement! What amazing, profound truth! I didn't understand much at this point, but I understood the gospel, and I placed my faith in Jesus alone and what He accomplished on my behalf at the cross and His death, burial, and resurrection. And I was saved by God through faith in Jesus Christ. 

It seems a simple message, a wonderful truth, an indescribable gift offered by God to everyone who will believe. Yet, as I say, in all my religion, in all my living and interacting with people, and all my education, I had never heard this message. Thus, at 26 years old, I was lost—believing really only in myself. 

We're looking at a passage in our text today where a Herodian, a man who served Herod, a man who is lost, who had no understanding of who Jesus is or why He has come—a most unlikely man—comes to this same faith that I came to in Jesus. This man, like me, is saved, and what I'd like to do this morning in this very straightforward and clear historical account in the gospel of John is to explore what it means to believe.

John's gospel is all about believing Jesus for eternal life. He states his intent in writing this book in John 20:31. He says, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." John uses this term "believe" precisely 100 times in this gospel alone. He is concerned with believing, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may be saved from the wrath to come for your sins.

So what does it mean to believe? Well, there's so much confusion concerning this in our world and in the world of Christendom. If you would have asked me before I moved up here to Crab Lake if I believed, I would have said yes. If you would have asked me if I believe in Jesus, I would have said yes. If you would have asked me if I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross and was raised on the third day, I would have said, "Of course!" Yet I didn't know the gospel. I never heard the gospel, and at the end of the day, what I really believed in was myself. 

What does it mean to believe unto salvation, to believe in Jesus? This is what we will consider in our text this morning. John 4:46 states, "So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine, and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum." 

"When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.'" 

"The nobleman said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your son lives.' So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way." 

"And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, 'Your son lives.' Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better, and they said to him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.' So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, 'Your son lives.' And he himself believed—and his whole household." 

This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. I've given you four points on your outline. I think some of you got the wrong outline; I apologize for that. There was a pile from last week laying in there.

First, because of the signs. Second, faith in faith. Third, believe in yourself. And fourth, saving faith—believe Him. 

Well, it's clear from the Gospel of John, as well as the rest of Scripture, that justification is by faith. A man is saved by believing, and he is condemned because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. We saw this clearly back in John 3. Remember, this was Jesus' conversation with the teacher of Israel, the Pharisee Nicodemus. 

He'd come asking Jesus, "What work is it that he lacks to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus tells him, in essence, there is no work. In fact, in order to inherit eternal life, you must start over completely; you must be made new, regenerated. You must be born again.

Then Jesus tells him first with an illustration from Moses the way that we can be born again. In John 3:14, it says, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." 

"He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

Whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already. Why? Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Now the question comes: what does it mean to believe? 

Turn over to John 2 with me. We're going to look a little bit through the Gospel of John here—things we've already studied. John 2:23 says, "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did." 

That sounds good, doesn't it? They believed in His name. Verse 24 says, "But Jesus did not commit Himself to them because He knew all men and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." 

Interesting wording here where it says He did not commit Himself to them; this is the exact same word used before, believed. So what it says is, they believed His name, but He didn't believe them. Here we see a very interesting passage. These people believed because of the signs, it says—the many signs He did at Passover. This is common in the life and ministry of Jesus, but we see here clearly that this was not saving faith. It's not the believing of John 3 or Ephesians 2:8-9. 

Here we see that they believed because of the many signs that Jesus did. They believed that He was a miracle worker, that He could do signs and wonders. We saw in the case of Nicodemus that he even recognized that Jesus was from God. Remember he said, "Because no one could do the signs that He did unless God was with him." 

In our text, we see this as well. In verse 46, it says, "Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He turned the water to wine, and then there was this nobleman there whose son was sick at Capernaum." 

"When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down to heal his son, for he was at the point of death." 

Why did he go to Him? Because he knew He was a miracle worker. He believed that He could heal his son. It says, "Jesus said to him, 'Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.'" 

We see this illustrated in John 6 as well. Turn over to John 6 with me, verse 22. In the first part of John 6, we see the feeding of the 5,000, and then you remember, Jesus departs, the disciples go in the boat, and they get caught in the storm; Jesus walks on the water and calms the seas. 

Now in verse 22 it says, "On the following day, so after He had fed the 5,000, when the people who were standing on the other side of the sea saw that there was no other boat there except that one which His disciples had entered, that Jesus had not entered the boat with His disciples, but His disciples had gone away alone." 

"However, other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they ate bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, nor His disciples, they also got into boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus." 

"And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did You come here?'" 

Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly I say to you, you seek Me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." Do not labor for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set His seal on Him. 

Then they said to Him, "What shall we do that we may work the works of God?" Isn't that the question of man? What must I do to please you, God, to do the works that will make me acceptable to You? Look at Jesus' answer in verse 29. "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." 

Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe You? What work will you do for us?" implied there. "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'" 

Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." 

Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst." 

"But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." 

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day." 

"And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

Jesus' message is clear: believe in Him and receive everlasting life. But the crowds were only interested in signs and really truly getting their belly full. "Oh, give us this bread always!" Bread was hard to come by in those days; a man worked for his daily bread. And here they had found a man who could create bread, could fill their bellies, as He did on the other side of the sea the day before. 

But now they were hungry again. "What sign will you do that we might believe? What work will you do to entertain us, to fill us, to satisfy us?" But you see, my friends, this type of motive is never accompanied by saving faith. This understanding of Jesus is not the truth of who He is and why He came. 

He did multitudes of miracles and signs, more so in Capernaum than anywhere, but only to show who He was—to show that He is the King and the kingdom was at hand, offering Himself as Messiah to the Jews. But they were only interested in the signs, not in the person of Jesus Christ. Who He is, why He came, what He would do. 

And therefore, Jesus says to them, "You do not believe; you only come for the signs, for your selfish desire to fill your bellies." And signs will never be the way to salvation. The problem is not the lack of a sign or a wonder; it's the heart of man and his unwillingness to believe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God—not by signs and wonders. 

And we see this illustrated in the charismatic world today. So many are misled, so many disillusioned when they only believe the signs, when they come for the experience. And I'm always stunned to read of what is yet to come—when God will show Himself in the time of the tribulation through amazing signs and wonders and judgments. 

And even when they hide themselves from the wrath of the Lamb in the clefts of the rocks, even when they know that it is God pouring out His judgment on the earth, it says again and again, they would not repent. They would not. That's the problem. 

"I've longed to gather you under My wings as a hen gathers her chicks," Jesus said of Jerusalem, "but you were not willing." The heart of man is the problem, and seeking signs is not seeking Jesus. 

In Matthew 12, Jesus says to the Pharisees when they request of Him a sign—He'd done thousands of signs—He said to them, "You will receive no more signs except the sign of the prophet Jonah," referring to His death, burial, and resurrection. Believing the signs is not saving faith, as we see in John 2, John 3, John 4, John 6, and the book of the Revelation. 

In 1 Corinthians 1:22, Paul says, "For Jews request a sign and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block, and to the Greeks, foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 

And in fact, if you read 2 Thessalonians 2 at verse 9, it says the coming of the lawless one—now in our time, these last days—the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders. 

And with all unrighteous deception among those who perish—why? Because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. They perished because they did not receive the love of the truth; they were deceived by signs and wonders. 

So signs are not the key to saving faith. Next, we see faith in faith. This is a common teaching, a common belief in our world and in religion. I was listening to a podcast last week with Joe Rogan, and he had a guest on who was a Christian—a new Christian, he'd been a famous guy, and he got saved—and he was trying to witness to Joe Rogan. He was talking about how believing in Jesus and reading the Bible had changed his life. 

And then Joe Rogan went on to talk about how many studies have been done concerning religion and faith, and how beneficial it is to believe something—no matter what it is, just believe in believing. As long as I have faith in something, it will improve my life. 

Well, that may be; I don't know. And if improving your life is your goal, then maybe that will work. But if you'd like to avoid the wrath to come for your sins and an eternity in the lake of fire, then you might want to be sure that your faith is in the right thing, in the right person. 

All roads do not lead to Rome. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." There's no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. Jesus is the only way, and your faith must be in Him alone, and it must be in the right Jesus—the Jesus of the Bible. 

Paul was concerned about this for the church in Corinth. Listen to these powerful words in 2 Corinthians 11:1. "Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly, and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." 

Listen to Paul's concern here. He says, "I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it." 

There's another Jesus. Many—in fact, there's the Jesus of the New Age. I heard a woman yesterday talking about how Jesus is one of the gurus on the path. No, no, that's not true. There's another Jesus, the Jesus of the works-righteous Christian religions, the Jesus of universalism, the Jesus of Mormonism, the Jesus of Satan's brother, of Jehovah's Witnesses, of Seventh-day Adventists—and the list goes on and on. But none of these are the true Jesus, and none of these preach the true gospel of salvation by grace through faith apart from works. 

What Paul calls the simplicity of Christ—the simplicity of the gospel that man cannot be righteous, that he's a sinner by nature and deserves the wrath of God, that God would become a man and die a death that he did not deserve as a substitute in my place, taking the wrath that I deserved to pay my debt and satisfy the justice of God. And it's through faith alone that I receive the very righteousness of God and am reconciled to God, receiving the gift of eternal life. 

The simplicity of Christ—salvation by grace through faith alone. Compare this to the systems of men: the religions and gods that men create in their own image. The cathedrals, the pomp and circumstance, the endless rules and writings and decrees, the holy days and feasts and sacraments, the hierarchy and robes and big hats and incense and ritual—alms and giving and sacrifice, silver and gold. All true of every religion of man. Certainly of Judaism in John's time. 

Listen to the words of Peter in 1 Peter 1:18. "Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory so that your faith and hope are in God." 

As we studied last week in Philippians 3 in Paul's testimony, "We have no confidence in the flesh." Our hope, our confidence is in God. Our faith is in Jesus—not in ourselves, not in our works, not in our religion. 

The next type of faith that we see in our world, in religion, is faith in ourselves. "Believe in yourself." Verse 49: "The nobleman said to Him, 'Sir, come down before my child dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go your way; your son lives.'" 

Now at this point, he could have begged, right? "Come and see my son, come down." I read that it was at the seventh hour, one o'clock in the afternoon—that it was a conceivable walk for him to go home. But he didn't. He didn't go home until the next day. He stayed somewhere that night. 

It says, "The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way." This is a picture of salvation. The man believed—not just that he was from God, not just that he could do signs and wonders, not just that he was a good man or a good teacher, but that He is the one He claims to be, the Son of God. 

He believed the Word of God, the truth, and placed his faith in a person—in Jesus, he and his household, it says. 

And we're here this morning, my brothers and sisters, to remember what Jesus did at the cross, to proclaim His death until He comes, to thank Him and praise Him and remember our first love—Jesus, His grace, the gospel of our salvation. 

We need to think on that; we need to preach that gospel to ourselves every day and remember what He's done for us. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful—so thankful for the good news that there is a way for us to be made right with You, to deal with our sin which separates us from You. Thank You that You loved us so much that You gave Your only begotten Son to die in our place, to take that penalty that we deserved, satisfying Your wrath that You might remain just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. 

It's in His name we pray, amen.