A Test of Faith

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don
Noble of Pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today
with exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy. Well, it's great to
be with you this evening. I'm going to be talking
to you this evening about a test of faith. I'm
going to start by sharing scriptures, and then I'm going

(00:23):
to conclude the message with a personal story. So I
hope you have your bibles ready to open. I will
be reading out of the Amplified Classic, and we're going
to start in the Gospel of Mark. So turn to
the Gospel of Mark, chapter two, and I'll be reading

(00:47):
verses one through twelve. And Jesus having returned to Capernaum
after some days, it was rumored about that he was
in the house, probably Peters, and so many people gathered
together there that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door, and he was discussing the word.

(01:10):
Then they came bringing a paralytic to him, who had
been picked up and was being carried by four men.
And when they could not get him to a place
in front of Jesus because of the throng, they dug
through the roof above him, And when they had scooped
out an opening, they let down the thick, thickly padded

(01:32):
quilt or matt upon which the paralyzed man lay. And
when Jesus saw their faith their confidence in God through him,
he said to the paralyzed man, son, your sins are
forgiven you and put away. That is, the penalty is remitted,
the sense of guilt removed, and you are made upright

(01:54):
and in right standing with God. Now, some of the
scribes were sitting there, holding a dialogue within themselves, as
they questioned in their hearts, why does this man talk
like this? He is blaspheming Who can forgive sins, who
can move guilt, remit the penalty and bestow righteousness instead?

(02:17):
Except God alone? And at once Jesus, becoming fully aware
in his spirit that they thus debated within themselves, said
to them, why do you argue, debate and reason about
all this in your hearts? Which is easier to say

(02:41):
to the paralyzed man, your sins are forgiven and put away?
Or to say, rise, take up your sleeping powder mat,
and start walking about and keep on walking, But that
you may know positively and beyond a doubt, that the

(03:02):
Son of Man has right and authority and power on
earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralyzed man,
I say to you, arise, pick up and carry your
sleeping powder mat, and be going on home. And the
man arose at once and picked up the sleeping pad

(03:24):
or matt, and went out before them all, so that
they were all amazed and recognized, and praised and thanked God, saying,
we have never seen anything like this before. So turn
over now to the Gospel of Luke chapter five. Luke

(03:52):
chapter five, again, I'm reading out of the amplified Classic
verse of the Bible, starting with verse fifteen through twenty six.
But so much more the news spread abroad concerning him Jesus,
and great crowds kept coming together to hear him and

(04:14):
to be healed by him of their infirmities. But he
himself withdrew to the wilderness that desert and prayed. One
of those days, as he was teaching, there were pharisees
and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come
from every village and town of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem.

(04:40):
And the power of the Lord was present with him
to heal them, and behold, some men were bringing on
a stretcher a man who was paralyzed, and they tried
to carry him in and lay him before Jesus, but
finding no way to bring him because of the crowd,

(05:02):
they went up on the roof and lowered him with
his stretcher through the tiles into the midst in front
of Jesus. And when he saw their confidence in him,
springing from their faith, he said, man, your sins are
forgiven you. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to

(05:23):
reason and question and argue, saying, who is this man
who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins? But God alone?
But Jesus, knowing their thoughts and their questionings, answered them,
why do you question in your hearts? Which is easier

(05:46):
to say your sins are forgiven, forgiven you, or to say,
arise and walk about, But that you may know that
the Son of Man has the power, authority and right
on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralyzed man,

(06:07):
I say to you, arise, pick up your stretcher, and
go to your own house. And instantly the man stood
up before them and picked up what he had been
lying on and went away to his house, recognizing and
praising and thanking God, and overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy seized

(06:32):
them all, and they recognized and praised and thanked God,
and they were filled with and controlled by reverential fear,
and kept saying, we have seen wonderful and strange and
incredible and unthinkable things today. So I'm just going to

(06:55):
tear this apart a bit. The religious leadership of Israel
had had been. They began to watch Jesus very closely,
just right from the get go, so you know wherever
he was going, they were paying attention to what he
was saying. And notice that scripture says that these Pharisees

(07:16):
had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.
I mean to tell you they were about to try
to catch him in something, because why would they come
all the way from Jerusalem to Galilee, from Jerusalem toe,

(07:38):
from Jerusalem to Capernaum. Capernaum is a little town in Galilee.
From Jerusalem to Capernaum, the town where the miracle took place,
was one hundred and twenty five miles away, one hundred
and twenty five miles away, and it was over winding
paths through Samaria, Jericho, and Bethany. Jesus walked this many times.

(08:03):
Now this is I mean, you know, I'm trying to
imagine walking one hundred and twenty miles while just to
go hear this man, just try to prove that he's wrong. Capernaum,
this small town, and I've been there, is nestled on
the edge of the Sea of Galilee, and it was

(08:25):
a Roman trade route. Capernaum was home to the fishermen
brothers Peter and Andrew, and so it is thought, as
the scripture says there and that this probably took place
at Peter's house. Now, the Pharisees were a group of
about six thousand pious and influential teachers in the synagogues.

(08:49):
They were a group who meticulously followed the law. The
teachers of the law were officials trained in the law
of Moses, also known as scribes. These men were in
effect the religious lawyers of the Pharisees, and despite their

(09:09):
low numbers of their particular group compared to the Sadducees
and the Asines, they were very influential. Now, most likely
they showed up to this house not because they needed
healing or a miracle, but because they were observing Jesus

(09:31):
to see if he was going to break the law. Well,
they got what they came for. They charged Jesus with
blasphemy by saying among themselves, who is this who speaks blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins? But God alone? Ultimately, the charge

(09:54):
of blasphemy would be the charge that would lead Jesus
to being put on the cross. And this charge of
blasphemy was a serious charge because they believed that this
was dishonoring God. Now, according to the Old Testament, only

(10:15):
God was able to forgive sin. So it was just like, well,
who is this Jesus person? Who is this guy? How
can he say that he can forgive sin? Now, let's
go back to the story. Scripture says that when Jesus
saw their faith, the four men that carried the paralyzed

(10:36):
man and the paralyzed man on the stretcher, when Jesus
saw their faith, obviously it took some persevering faith to
pull the tiels off the roof and lower their friend
down into the crowd. Think about it, I know, because initially,
when you first read this story, you think, oh, this

(10:56):
is so crazy, I don't believe that. But this is
persevering faith. This is faith that goes way beyond determination
to get my healing. Now, the paralyzed man himself, he

(11:18):
had to believe that Jesus could heal him as well. Now,
who would be crazy enough to be let down through
someone's roof unless you believed that you were going to
be touched by Jesus. Now, of course we see in
the verse fifteen. You know, the crowds were coming, people

(11:41):
were hearing about Jesus. You know, word was spreading fast
about the miracles that were taking place. So you know,
if you're desperate, and I mean, being paralyzed is pretty desperate,
you're going to do what it takes. That is, if
you believe persevering faith. Okay, we can't get through the

(12:05):
front door, We certainly can't get in through the back door.
I think it took some ingenuity to figure out, okay,
we're gonna come through the roof, guys. Now in Luke's
account only, not in Mark's account, but in Luke's account only,
it says something important. And verse seventeen, the be portion says,

(12:32):
and the power of the Lord was present with Jesus
to heal them. So his anointing was ready and wheeling,
willing to heal them. Them is everyone who was there,
but who got healed. Seemingly only one person got healed.

(12:55):
Scripture does not mention anyone else. In fact, Scripture goes
on that he he moved right along, he moved to.
When he left there, he was you know, let me
see here It said, after this happened, he went out.

(13:15):
Jesus went out and uh looked at a tax collector
and called Matthew. Matthew to be one of his disciples.
So it wasn't like doesn't seem like he was staying
around to see how many people he could heal. But
the important thing is he was ready and willing. He

(13:36):
was that anointing that in healing anointing was present to
heal them. Every person there could have got healed. I doubt,
you know, maybe maybe some others got healed, But I

(13:57):
doubt that the Pharisees got healed because they were in
total unbelief. But these five men, they were full of faith.
They were full of belief in the power of Jesus
to heal anyone. So that news was spreading. Crowds were healed.

(14:19):
And so let's just speak a moment about the man's
sins being forgiven. Now, it's important to understand that Jesus
had to say the man's sins were forgiven first, because
he knew what the Pharisees were going to say ahead
of time, and it would seem easier to declare sins

(14:42):
forgiven than to actually heal a person. In reality, however,
one has to possess more authority to forgive sin than
to heal. Jesus had to demonstrate the truth of his
claim to forgive the man's sins, and that was something

(15:06):
only God could accomplish. So once he said that he
forgave the man's sins, now he had to demonstrate the
truth of that claim. Because anybody could say they had
the ability to forgive sins. There was no earthly way
of approving that statement. I could say, I forgive your sins.

(15:29):
How could I prove it? But for Jesus to say
to the paralyzed man, arise, take up your bed and
walk could be tested immediately by whether he walked or not.
So by healing the paralytic, Jesus made the pronouncement a

(15:51):
forgiveness much more credible. You see what I'm saying. So
those people then suddenly it's like, okay, he must be Messiah.
He forgave the man his sins, which only God could do.
But he also raised this man off his sick bed.

(16:15):
So the incredible faith of the five men was what
Jesus was looking for. Faith. He was looking for faith
in that room. And boy, it didn't take long before
the party started. I mean, this man comes down through
the roof. So remember what Jesus said, though in Mark

(16:37):
eleven twenty two he said have faith in God. God
was always looking for faith. Jesus was always looking for
faith in the people that he was ministering to. We
know the story of the woman with the issue of blood.
What great faith she had. He pushed through all those people.

(17:02):
She was going to get to Jesus one way or
the other, and no one was going to stop her. Now,
I want to share a testimony that happened this past
week was pretty pretty powerful. So I had friends in
from out of town, and one of my friends is

(17:24):
an international evangelist. So we were invited to a Bible
study and he was going to be the one ministering
God's word. And he did, and it was short, but
it was powerful, and he was talking about when the

(17:50):
storm came and Jesus was walking on the water, and
as he kept talking, he shared a few testimonies, and
I knew there was an individual within the group that

(18:11):
was struggling with vaping. And this individual just seem addicted
and could could not get free. Wanted to be free,
but just didn't seem to be able to get free.
And you know, I'm sure there's many people out there

(18:31):
who are Christians who struggle with all kinds of things
and they want to be set free. So we all
sat hearing the word of the Lord, hearing the gospel preached,
and after it was over, the minister friend of mine

(18:53):
called this specific person and said that he wanted to
pray for this individual. And this individual was like, oh
my gosh. She thought that her sister had shared with

(19:13):
the minister information about her. And the sister said, I
haven't said a word, I've never said anything to this minister,
but she she was so sure. She just couldn't believe it.
How could God, you know, all the things that he
was ministering about, and he was telling a testimony about

(19:36):
smoking and how this person was addicted to smoking and
how they got free, and so it was you know,
so she thought for sure her sister had kind of
told on her behind her back. But the sister said,
I never said a word anything, nothing alone. And behold,

(20:00):
the minister called her over and asked if he could
pray for her, And as he prayed for her, not
knowing anything about this addiction, knowing nothing about this addiction,
prayed a simple prayer, and the anointing was so strong

(20:23):
in the room. In fact, it did. It reminded me
of the scripture that I just shared with you, And
the power of the Lord was present to heal them.
And I really felt like, you know, the anointing, that
power was present in that room to heal anybody that
needed to get healed. It was, I mean, the presence

(20:46):
of the Lord was so so strong. And they were
probably on two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight nine,
so they are about thirteen of us in the room.

(21:08):
And so anyway, this gal, you know, got prayed for,
and uh, you know, of course we didn't know anything,
you know, I mean, she got prayed for. And later
I remember looking at her and I thought, my my,
may something's really happened to her, because her eyes were

(21:31):
so clear, and she her demeanor was different. She was cheerful.
She was. I could just see. I saw a total
change in her from the week before, So I knew
something had happened, but I you know, I wasn't sure what.
And unfortunately, no one else asked to be healed, no one,

(22:00):
no one else asked for prayer for healing, which I
thought was interesting because I'm sure, in fact, I know
there were people there that needed healing, and I just thought,
you know, Gosha, just the story that I just shared
with you just reminds me of how important it is

(22:23):
when you're in the presence of the Lord and the
anointing is there, that you persevere that you you know,
you go for it, like whatever it is you need.
You know, if you need healing in your body, if
you need a financial breakthrough, if you need a relationship breakthrough,
whatever it is you need when the anointing is there,

(22:47):
don't draw back and be quiet. You know this paralyzed man,
you know he had great friends, let me tell you this,
or great friends. I mean, that took a lot of nerve,
it really did. You have to think about that, meditate
on it, and think about how that looked and how

(23:09):
that went down. That took a lot of faith. And
so you know, this woman had faith the other night
when she was prayed for, She had faith to believe
that whatever he was praying for, whatever her need was,
it was going to be answered. The great news is

(23:30):
the following morning, I get a text from the sister
saying that the gal her sister who was prayed for,
went out early in the morning to vape and got
immediately violently sick, so sick that she threw it in

(23:53):
the garbage can and she heard the Lord say, you
have no longer do you have needed that? It's over,
And she said she just felt the strength and the
release from it, and she said, that's it. You know,
I don't have a desire for that any longer. And

(24:17):
then she she actually had to take something because she
got so sick from do you know, vaping, It just
made her so sick at her stomach. So she was like,
I'm done with that. And so what a great testimony
that somebody got healed delivered from an addiction, a powerful addiction.

(24:39):
Nicotine is powerful. But see, the power of the Lord
was present to heal that night. The anointing was strong.
The power of the Lord was present to heal that night.
But only one person got healed, just like in the story.

(25:01):
So the moral of this story is that when you
have something that you are struggling with, whatever it is,
it could be an addiction, it could be an illness,
it could be broken relationships. Whatever it is, you persevere.

(25:21):
Have faith in God. That's what Jesus said. Have faith
in God. Believe that God will heal you, not that
he can heal you. He will heal you. It is
the will of God to heal you. And persevere, keep

(25:42):
pressing in to the Lord for your healing. Just like
I want you to think about the picture of the
man on the structure, the paralytic man on the structure.
Think about that when you're pressing in to the Lord
for whatever it is you're trying to get free from
or healed of, or whatever. Think of that man and

(26:06):
think of the friends that persevered, that took incredible faith
to pull that off. And immediately Jesus says, arise and
the man is up walking. So I hope this is
an encouragement to you. And I'm just trying to teach

(26:29):
you about faith because faith moves mountains, right Mark eleven,
twenty two and twenty three and twenty four. Have faith
in God. Jesus said, whoever speaks to this mountain and
cast it into the sea, it shall be removed. If

(26:52):
you don't doubt in your heart, and you believe what
you say, you shall have what you say. So we
speak to these mountains in our life. Amen. And this
is a great story and a great testimony. And so
I just want you to be blessed and don't forget it. Well,
this is Don Noble. You can go to www dot
pureheart dot today and listen to this podcast again. You

(27:14):
can download the iHeartRadio app and go to Pure Heart
Ministries and listen twenty four to seven. And I'd love
for you to sew a seed of any amount, please,
any amount, sew a seed into this ministry. You can
send a check to Pure Heart Ministries PO Box eighty five,

(27:37):
Vali Grove, West Virginia, two six zero six zero. That's
Pure Heart Ministries, Po Box eighty five, Vallei Grove, West Virginia,
two six six oh. Please email me. You can email
me all lowercase letters, all one word dawn Dawn down

(27:59):
at your heart dot today. Thanks for the prayers. I
always appreciate your prayers. Well, this is Don noble, I
look forward to being with you again next week. Shalloam
shalom peace be unto you