In the Kingdom of Heaven, faith is the medium of exchange. Whatever we receive from God is according to our faith.

Adrian Rogers says, “The greater your faith, the greater glory God gets; by faith man gives God pleasure and by faith God gives man treasure.”

John 4 tells the story of a man whose superficial, superstitious faith was transformed into a strong, saving faith.

“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’” (John 4:46-48).

First, we must see the problem of superficial faith.

In this passage, the nobleman had heard about Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine, and was blown away. But Jesus knew that signs and wonders do not truly help in developing a strong faith.

We must also consider the problem of superstitious faith.

God performed miracles through Jesus to authenticate His ministry. It is dishonoring to demand a sign from God in order to believe in Him. It is also self-deceiving; signs and wonders can easily deceive; it is how our enemy leads others astray.

This passage also shows the progression of strong faith. There are steps in developing this sort of saving faith, the first being hearing the Word of God, and then believing it. What we believe is not contrary to reason; it goes beyond reason. We must obey the Word of God, and then rest in it.

Adrian Rogers says, “Faith is not seeing signs and wonders, rather, it is a response to the character of God.”

Finally, this passage shows the provision of saving faith. After the nobleman’s son was healed, he not only believed in a miracle worker but in a Messiah.

All of Jesus’ miracles point to the greater miracle, which is the new life in Him.
Life Application
If you want to strengthen your faith, get a good grip on the Word of God. Don’t look to the miracles, but to the Messiah; do not follow the signs, but the Savior.

Adrianisms: “In the Kingdom of Heaven, faith is the medium of exchange.”
“The greater your faith, the greater glory God gets; by faith man gives God pleasure and by faith God gives man treasure.”
“Faith is not naming it and claiming it; faith is not receiving from God what you want. Faith is accepting from God what He gives; hear the Word of God.”
“Faith is not seeing signs and wonders, rather, it is a response to the character of God.”
“Real faith is belief with legs on it.”
“Jesus did not come as a healer; Jesus came as a Savior.”

he has gone from a superficial faith to a strong faith. He hears the word of God. He believes the word of God. He obeys the word of God. He rests in the word of God. And if you don’t learn how to do that, you listen to pastor now you’re gonna be blown about, you’re gonna be stampeded by all kinds of things. You get a bulldog grip on the word of God and don’t be trying to live by emotions and feelings and visions and dreams, signs and wonders. For over 50 years. Pastor teacher and author Adrian Rogers preached to audiences and touched lives all over the world with his unique brand of solid biblical teaching. His teaching has been described as profound truth stated so simply a five year old can understand it and yet it still touches the heart of a 50 year old and you’ll hear that. And these messages on the basics of the Christian faith have your bibles ready and join us for today’s message. Before we begin. Remember you can follow along with pastor Rogers outline and notes on today’s message at L WF dot org or the my L WF app. Now let’s join Adrian Rogers, Would you take God’s word and turn please to John Chapter four, the gospel of John and I want to speak to you today about faith. Having strong faith now in our economy, the dollar is the medium of exchange, but in the kingdom of Heaven. Faith is the medium of exchange. The bible says according to your faith, be it unto you, whatever we receive from God is according to our faith, not according to our friends, Not according to our family, not according to our fortune. Not according to our feelings. Not according to our faith. F A t E. I hope you’re not watching the horoscope, but according to our faith, according to your faith, be it unto you. Not only do we need uh to possess a faith. What we need is for faith to possess us. We need a mighty faith. Because we have a mighty God doubt sees the obstacles. Faith sees the way doubt sees the darkest night. Faith sees the day doubt dreads to take a step. Faith soars on high doubt questions who believes faith answers, I I believe. But you know, we need a strong faith, not a weak faith but a strong faith. And I’m going to share with you from the word of God, a story about a man who came to jesus and this man had a weak faith. I would call it a superficial faith. Even worse, a superstitious faith. But he went from that uh superstitious faith to a strong faith, to a saving faith. And that’s what I want us to see today. And I hope that you today will grow in faith. Now this man. Uh the story we’re gonna read about was a nobleman that is, he had much to uh commend him. He had many resources at his hand, but he had a problem. And you know many of us, no matter what we have in our bank accounts and what we have on our um biographical sketch we have problems that only God can solve. This man had a problem. That was a son that was sick. And this nobleman wanted jesus to heal his son. And the dark soil of that problem was the soil in which the seed of faith would grow. Do you want a strong faith? Do you really, would you like to really believe God and please God? If you know the bible says without faith, it’s impossible to please God. No matter what else you do. I don’t care how beautifully you sing this morning. How sacrificial eu give how uh circumspect lee you walk, how faithfully you serve. If you’re not believing God, you’re not pleasing God without faith, it is impossible to please God. And the greater faith, the greater glory God gets the more pleased is with it. And by by faith man gives God pleasure. And by faith God gives man treasure real treasure. So let’s see here something about a strong faith, begin reading with me. And um verse 46 chapter four verse 46. So jesus came again into canna 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 under him and be sought him. That he would come down and heal his son, for he, that is the sun was at the point of death. Then, said jesus unto him, except gc signs and wonders, Ye will not believe now, Jesus was not giving that just simply as a statement of fact, he was giving that as a rebuke to this man. Jesus is rebuking this man who was looking for signs and wonders. The nobleman saith unto him, sir, come down ere my child, die, Jesus said unto him. Go thy way, thy son Liveth! And the man believed the word. Now. If you don’t mind marking your bible, would you underscore that? Would you underscore that? And the man believed the word now. What we have here is in opposition signs and wonders, and the word, that’s what we have first jesus rebukes him except you see signs and wonders, you’ll not believe. And then Jesus speaks to him and there’s a transformation and now it says. And the man believed the word what you have on the one side of wonders and what you have on the other side is the word. Now, that’s very key. So I hope you’ll keep your heart and mind on that. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way, and when he was now going down his servants met him and told him saying, my son live, then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him yesterday, that’s very interesting to market right now. Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. That’s probably according to their time, about one p.m. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, into which Jesus said unto him by sun living and himself believed and his whole house. Well, I thought he’d already believe now. It mentions he believes again. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out of judea into galilee. Now, are you ready to have a strong faith? Would you really like to have a strong faith? Would you like to be able to believe God? And lay believing hands on the promises of God? Well, let me lay three things on your heart this morning. First of all, what I want to call the problem of a superstitious faith. Or if you rather problem of a superficial faith, it makes no difference how you say it. Uh At first, when this man first met jesus, his faith was almost non existent. Look again in verse 48. Go back and look at it, then, said jesus unto him. Except you see signs and wonders. He will not believe this man of faith that was based on signs and wonders evidently his motto was seeing is believing God. If you just give Give me a sign. If you just give me a wonder, then I can’t believe. And what had happened to this man, therefore is he is dependent upon his five senses. He’s not dependent upon the word of God. Now doubtless, this man had heard that Jesus had turned water into wine. Look if you will, in verse 46 is not put there just by happenstance. So Jesus can again and economy of galilee where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. Now Jesus had done a miracle, the first miracle that Jesus performed was turning water into wine. This man had heard about this and he was taken with this and so he was kind of, as we would say in the vernacular today, he was blown away by this miracle. Here was somebody who could turn water into wine. But Jesus knew that miracles, signs and wonders are really very little good in strong faith. Now Jesus did perform miracles and no ifs ands and buts about that and why did he do it? If you were to fast forward to John Chapter 20 and look in verses 30 and 31, you’d read and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written now listen, listen, listen carefully. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God and that believing you might have life through his name. Now, God did miracles to authenticate the ministry of jesus. But the miracle was not for the miracle sake. The miracle was that you might believe on jesus and have eternal life, not that you might seek a miracle but a messiah, not a sign, but a savior. Now it’s also clear that the apostles did signs and wonders. Some people think that we ought to do signs and wonders because they were done in the new testament. But these were the signs and wonders done by the apostles. Put this first down. Second Corinthians 12 verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patients in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Now the apostle Paul had power to do miracles, signs and wonders and mighty deeds and God authenticated the Ministry of the apostles with signs and wonders. Hebrews. Chapter two verse four put that verse down, God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. Now they did not have the power to do signs and wonders according their own will. But God took the apostles and because they were apostles and they were setting the foundation of our faith, God authenticated their ministry with signs and wonders. But folks that is not the program for the whole age, God has given us something better than signs and wonders as a matter of fact, Jesus said, an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign boy, that’s pretty uh that’s pretty strong and evil. And an adulterous generation seeks a sign. Well why is it so bad? Well, first of all it’s dishonoring to God. Why is it dishonoring to God for you to say God, Give me a sign. Give me a wonder so I can believe. Well, we have his word. Suppose I come to my son. I say now son, I want you to know that I love you and I have deposited $1,000 in the bank for you. It’s in your account. I’ve opened up an account for you. It and I’ve done that for you son. You’ve got $1000 in the bank. Suppose. He says to me dad, how do I know? I have $1000 in the bank? So I just told you well dad, you know daddy. It sure wouldn’t mean a whole lot to me. If you would show me the deposit slip. I mean if somewhere or you could just take me down there to the bank and let me see it. So I would know it. I said son, I just told you no, but but I want to sign. I wanna wonder, I want something that I can see. I want something I can touch. I want something. I can taste I want something. I can smell. Don’t just give me your word. You know the Bible says he that believes that God has made him a liar. Now I want you to go John 20 and look at it. Look in John 20, just turn over to it, John 20 verse 29, jesus appeared to him and said, OK, tom put your hand there, go ahead, thrust your hand into my side. And notice in verse 29 jesus saith unto him thomas because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Did thomas get a lot of credit for that? Notice what Jesus said, Blessed are they which have not seen and yet have believed and many other signs truly did jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you might believe that jesus is the christ, the son of God and that believing you might have life through his name. You see, is it was it good for thomas to believe after he’s had a sign or wonder after he’s felt with his hands. But it was okay, but he missed the blessing of simply believing the word of our Lord and savior. Jesus christ. Why? Why are seeking signs and wonders dangerous. Number one, it dishonors God. Number two, it can be deceiving to you. It can be very, very deceiving signs and wonders can easily deceive. Now let’s move to the second point. I want you to see not only the problem of superficial faith uh superstitious faith, but notice the progression of strong faith. I want you to see how this man moved from a weak faith to a very strong, solid substantive faith. And I want to give you the steps because the progressive steps here, he he moves from signs and wonders to the word. And let me give you these steps. Step number one. He heard the Word of God. Look if you will in in verse 50. And so jesus saith unto him, jesus saith unto him. Go thy way, thy son Liveth. And the man believed the word number one. He heard the word of God. Now let me tell you what faith is. Faith is not naming it and claiming it. Faith is not receiving from God. What do you want? Faith is accepting from God, what he gives, hear the word of God. Uh notice this man, he’s a nobleman. He’s trying, he’s trying to tell jesus what to do. The nobleman saith unto him, sir, come down, that is you, come with me. Come on Lord, I’m gonna take you to Capernaum. Now notice verse 50 jesus saith unto him. Go thy way. He says. You come, jesus said, you go, you go. You’re not here to tell me what to do. You’re not here to demand me. You’re not here to command me. You’re here to hear me to listen to me to get a word from me. Now, folks, if you want. Strong faith, you’ve got to hear the word of God. Let me tell you what faith is. Listen to me. Faith is taking God at his word. Did that sink in. Faith is taking God at his word, the man believed the word jesus said to him, and he heard jesus, that’s it’s very important that if you would have faith, number one, you must know what God has said. And if you want others to have faith, you must tell them what God has said. And that’s the reason paul said, how can they hear without a preacher? This church that is so blessed of God is blessed of God because of this sacred desk, not the man behind it. But from the inception of this church in 1903, this church has been based on the word of God The preaching of the Word of God, not signs, not wonders, not ecstasies, not supposed miracles. We have a lot of churches who, who advertise signs and miracles and wonders. They advertise them and don’t do them, Jesus did them, didn’t advertise them. The Word of God. Step number one. And having a strong faith. Number one, is to hear the Word of God. Number two, is to believe the word of God. Now look, if you were in verse four in verse 50 and the man believed the word, Do you see that jesus said unto him, go thy way, thy son liveth. And the man believed the word That’s Step number two and faith, it’s not enough to hear the Word of God, you can sit here and listen to me preach this morning. But if you don’t believe the word of God, you’re not gonna have faith. You have to believe the word of God. Well, you say Adrian, I can’t believe that’s my problem. I just can’t believe. May I tell you, Sir, may I tell you madam that you can believe if you want to. The bible says he that believes not God has made him a liar. Listen, when your heart is right, your heart will respond to the Word of God in faith, just like my eye responds to light when my eyes right and my ear responds to sound when my ear is right. Your heart will respond to God when your heart is right. And that heart response is faith. Now you’re not there yet here’s the third step. Not only must you hear the word of God? Not only must you believe the Word of God, you must obey the word of God. Begin Now in verse 15, look at it, jesus saith unto him, Go thy way, Now watch this. And the man believed the word that jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way, he went his way and and as he was now going down and so forth, he does exactly what jesus tells him to do. This is what the bible calls. The obedience of faith in romans 16 verse 26. You know what Real real faith is. Real faith is belief. With legs on it. Real faith don’t miss that? It is belief with legs on it, James told us. And James, chapter two verse 26 For as the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is dead. You don’t have strong faith. If you do not obey the Word of God, you hear the Word of God, you believe the Word of God and then you obey the Word of God. Had this man still had his superficial superstitious faith, he would have still been there begging jesus for a sign of wonder. But no, he just leaves it with jesus. He does exactly what jesus tells him to do. And he believes the word of God. Now I want you to notice something very interesting now concerning faith. After he believes the Word of God, here’s the fourth and the final step which shows he has a strong faith. He is resting in the Word of God. Look if you will Now, in verse 51. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him saying, Bye son. Live with. Then inquired he of them. The hour in which he began to amend. Don’t miss this. And he said unto them yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew it was at the same hour into which jesus saith on him. Thy son Liveth! Now The point is this, it has been 24 hours. 24 hours. When did your son get well? When did my son get well? Yesterday? At what time? Well it at about 1:00 PM. And the man said, well, that’s just when I was talking to jesus, that’s just when jesus said to me, Go thy way thy son lives. I wanna ask you a question. If you if you had a son that was 17 miles away. And Jesus had said, go thy way, thy son lives, what would you have done? You’re going straight home? Most of us would straight home, wife, to see, to see. Now. This is about 17 miles. He could have been there in five or eight hours by foot. He had been there two hours by chariot. He’s a nobleman. He certainly wouldn’t be on his feet. But 24 hours have passed, 24 hours have passed, and he’s not going home yet. Tell me why, I really don’t know why. Maybe he’s so tired. He’s been sitting up by his son’s bedside all this time, and his sons, at the point of death. Now, Jesus says, your son is alive, he says, fine, thank you. He is resting in what our Lord has done, and it is what I want to call the rest of faith. Here’s a scripture that I copied out for you psalm 37 verses five through seven, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment, as the noonday rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Now he’s not he’s not demanding proof, he’s not even hot footing it home to see if it if it has happened. The rest of faith is the mark of real faith, of real faith. You know, he says he’s going to bring forth your righteousness as the noonday. Have you ever thought about that? The Lord says, you just rest in me. It’s just like the sun coming up, friend, You can’t hurry the sunrise, but you can’t stop it and you can’t hurry God and you can’t you can’t stop him. The bible says he believes in him shall not make haste. And here’s this man. He’s just he has gone from a superficial faith to a strong faith. He hears the word of God. He believes the word of God. He obeys the word of God. He rests in the word of God. And if you don’t learn how to do that, you listen to your pastor now you’re gonna be blown about, you’re gonna be stampeded by all kinds of things. You get a bulldog grip on the word of God and don’t be trying to live by emotions and feelings and visions and dreams signs and wonders they had their purpose. Now if I get sick or I have a loved one that’s sick. Can I pray and ask God to heal that loved one, of course, of course, and does God heal and answer the prayer? Of course, could that be a sign and wonder? Of course, but it’s not something that causes me to believe in him. God doesn’t always heal the sick. I I come to him and I asked him and and I thank God that he heals and I believe he has healed me, is it wrong to go to a doctor? Not at all, Jesus said in Matthew nine verse 12, uh they that are sick are they that are whole, don’t need a doctor, but they that are sick what he’s talking about spiritual things yet, but he used the truth to illustrate spiritual things with, he wouldn’t have illustrated spiritual things with a lie, Jesus said sick, people need a doctor. So what do you do if you get sick, you pray and then you go to the doctor and and and do what the doctor tells you to do. Now here’s the last thing and and we really gotta hurry here. I want you to see now the provision of saving faith, We talked about superficial faith, strong faith, and now it moves to saving faith. Look in 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. Well wait a minute, I thought he already believed, well no, this is a different kind, he’s moving up another notch. The man believes now not in a miracle worker but in a messiah. This time the man is born again. He believes in Jesus as his lord and savior. Can you imagine him getting home? What a time of rejoicing there must have been as the hug, he sees his son as well and so forth. And then this man says, now wait a minute, let me tell you, let me tell you about jesus, let me tell you about the messiah. And uh and uh and they come to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because that’s what the gospel of John has written about these things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and believing you might have life through his name, Jesus did not come as a healer, Jesus came as a savior Luke 1910, Jesus said the son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost and and so he didn’t heal everybody. He went to pull up a tester, there were many sick people there, he just healed one as we’re gonna see in another chapter, know all of these are miracles that point to the greater miracle, which is the new birth. I wrote a book called, believe in miracles, but trust in Jesus, Trust in Jesus, don’t put your faith in miracles, the only reason for signs and miracles and wonders are to trust in jesus now, suppose suppose this boy had gotten healed and he never got saved? Think about it, suppose he got healed and he never got saved. Then he live a few more years and die and go to hell. That’s the reason so many people are there seeking the wrong thing. Don’t be looking for some sign, some wonder, some miracle that’s gonna get you out. Let me tell you something, Jesus is the savior he suffered, lived bled and died for you. Rose from the dead. And if you’ll trust him, I promise you, according to his word, he will save you and he will keep you. And one day we’ll be gathered around the throne to give him praise forever and ever and ever believe in miracles. But trust in jesus and you go from a superficial failure to a strong faith to a saving faith. That’s what matters value. Heads in prayer. Friend, may I say another word to those of you who are watching if you would like to do what these are doing this morning in our worship center, I invite you to pray a prayer like this. Dear God, I’m a sinner and I’m lost. I need to be saved and I want to be saved. Lord jesus come into my heart, forgive my sin, save me. Lord jesus. Now you don’t have to remember all of those words, you can just pray save me Lord jesus and if you’ve done that, would you write to us and let us know and we’ll send you some literature to help you get started in your christian life. We hope that today’s message has been an encouragement to you as we explore these fundamentals of the christian faith with Adrian Rogers. You can stream this message again and download Pastor Rogers outlines and notes on this message all at L WF dot org or the my L WF app. While you’re there, be sure to check out our new bible studies on these same topics as well as Pastor Rogers audio series. Back to the basics also available at L Wf dot org at L Wf dot org. You can also sign up to receive our daily heartbeat email which includes a written devotional and a nine, the second inspirational audio clip, both from Adrian Rogers as well as a link to our daily radio program delivered directly to your computer or mobile device each morning. And don’t forget you can catch up with our program each week on our facebook page or Youtube channel or on the my L WF app. Thanks for joining us for our program today, we’ll see you next time Jesus. The name literally means Jehovah saves that baby born in Bethlehem was the Mighty God of Genesis 1 1 Their names. God gives us for himself, names that spirit inspired writers called him and symbolic names used to describe him in scripture, this Christmas, we’ve made 25 of these names and their meanings into beautifully illustrated ornaments. For you to display each ornament reveals insight into a name of God given to us in scripture and shares what that name says about his character. The names of God ornament set also includes an advent devotional booklet that shares thoughts on each name for your gift. This month we’d like to send you the names of God ornaments set, request yours when you call 1 806 47 94 100. Or you can give online at L WF dot org.