John chapter 4. This morning
we'll be looking at verses 43 through verse 45. The title of the message this morning
is the honor of God's preachers. The honor of God's preachers. Verse 43. Scripture says now After two
days, he departed thence and went unto Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that
a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Then when he was
come into Galilee, The Galileans received him, having seen all
the things which he did at Jerusalem at the feast. For they also went
unto the feast." Now Jesus, Jesus knowing that he had many
of his lost sheep that needed to hear the gospel in Samaria,
we read in John chapter 4 at the early part that he must need,
he was departing from Galilee and he must needs go through
Samaria. He was going from Judea and he was headed to Galilee
which was a province of several cities One of those cities was
Nazareth, where he was brought up as a child. And Jesus, as
He was heading to Galilee, went through a very different way
than most Jews. Most Jews would have not gone
through Samaria. But the Scripture says Jesus
must needs go through Samaria because there was a woman there
at a well that He must meet. There were several in that city
that he must save. And so, by divine grace and providence,
he met that woman there at the well, and he revealed himself
to her. Now that woman had no idea what
was going to happen to her that day. She had no intention of
meeting the Savior. She had no intention, no desire
to worship God, no knowledge of God. And yet God met her. God met her. Isn't this the experience
of every one of us? I tell you, I went to church
for many years, never expecting to meet Him. Why? I already thought
I knew Him. I thought it was all done. I
had it all figured out. But God had an appointed time
for me, that He would meet me. And all the sheep of Christ are
chosen of God. Is this not a miraculous thing
that sheep are always sheep? And goats are always goats. God's
people, if you're God's people, you have always been a sheep.
You've been a lost sheep, but you've always been a sheep. God's
not in the business of changing goats into sheep. He's in the
business of calling His sheep. This was His sheep. She was lost. And He must needs, as the shepherd,
go and find her and he did find her just like he found me. I was always his sheep. I didn't know anything about
it. I hung out with all the goats. You couldn't tell me from anyone
else. But I know this, this is what
Christ has done. God has chosen His people from
eternity. He has loved His church. And
according to His everlasting covenant of grace, He was made
the surety, the guarantee of the salvation of all that the
Father gave Him. All the sheep, all the brides, All the elect
were given to the Son. The Son knew them from eternity. By name, He knew them. My parents, no doubt, did not
know me until after I was born. But my Savior knew me long before
that. He knew me by name because He
was my guarantee. He guaranteed that He would save
me. This is the wonder, the wonder
of this truth that God's church was made accepted. When were
you made accepted? When were you accepted of God?
You were accepted. The sheep were accepted in Christ
before the world began. We were accepted in Christ, the
Son, and according to as Christ agreed to be our surety, He agreed
to be our Redeemer, even so He agreed to come and die in our
place. The good shepherd lays down his life. For who? The sheep. The sheep. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Son of God was made flesh
so that He would honor the Law of God. Do you realize that you
and I would never be accepted, never be saved if God's Law had
been neglected in any part? God's Law is holy. God's Law
is just. You and I, even as we are sinners,
the Law of God is written on our hearts to know that sin is wrong. When someone does a very wicked
thing, what do we do? We cry out for justice, don't
we? We say, that person needs to
suffer. Yet we do the same things. And
we say, oh, well, you know, maybe I need to be excused. But that
person needs to go. No. God's law is going to be
honored. The only way for any of us to
be saved is that God's law be satisfied, that righteousness
be accomplished. And the only way that's going
to happen is by a substitute, by a representative. Man, we
have already failed to honor God's law. How foolish is it
for men to think that they can please God by their obedience. Well, from now on, I'm just,
from now on, I'm just gonna do my best and honor God's law.
I'm gonna try my, what are you gonna do even if from now on
you obey it? What are you gonna do with all
your other sins you've already committed? No, God demands perfect obedience. This is why Jesus Christ had
to come in the flesh so that he might obey the law of God
in our place, so that he could honor God. He was the only one
that could. When Christ comes, what a great
mystery this is. And this woman and these Samaritans,
who would have never known of God's grace, who would have never
believed on Christ as the Son of God, except Christ came to
them. A miracle of miracles that Christ
would come into this world. But even greater than this, that
He would come to sinners. And even so it was with us, we
were lost and without God in this world, blind and could not
see the salvation of God. We were deaf and could not hear
the call of God. We were dead and could not save
ourselves. But God, who is rich in mercy,
the only reason that we believe on Christ is because of the richness
of his mercy. because he came to us, because
he revealed himself to us. This is a great mystery. God, who is rich in mercy, came
and had His gospel preached to us, and the Holy Spirit made
it effectual, made it powerful, accomplished the work that God
sent Him to do. The Holy Spirit has a purpose,
and His purpose is to apply the gospel, is to take the gospel
from the lips of the man sent of God and to apply that to the
heart and give life and faith in Christ alone. This is the
work of the Spirit. It's not the work of the preacher.
This is not my work to make this effectual. I can't make this
effectual. I can't make it real to you. I can't make you love
this gospel. All I can do is preach this gospel
and only the Holy Spirit can make this effectual. But I want us to notice this,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, even after He had revealed Himself
and showed His grace and manifest Himself to these people, it says
now, after two days He departed thence and went to Galilee. You
know, I suppose these people were sad. I really do believe
they were. They didn't want to see Him go.
Would you? I wouldn't want to see Him go.
But He must depart. He must go. He didn't tarry long with these
new believers. Why? Because he must preach the
gospel to others. He must call others to himself. I know that Jesus did not leave
these saints eventually without a preacher. Even as He has given all the
children of God pastors after His own heart, wherever there
is a people of God, I know this, there is going to be a pastor.
God will send them a man to preach the gospel. I think we live in
a day, a very lethargic day, to where men will not give up
this world for the gospel. Now, I know we have several preachers. I know of several preachers of
the gospel. And I know people that are clamoring
for pastors to come where they are. But how many would give
up what they have to go where a man of God is? God says, I've sent a man here.
Why would you keep all this stuff here and not move to where God
has a man? We live in a day where we're
not trapped. We're not confined like under Soviet or communist. We can move where we want to.
We can go where we please. And yet, men just stand there
and want a pastor, but they say, well, there's a pastor over there,
but I'm just trusting God for one here. Well, there's one there.
Go over there. God gave you one. God will give
pastors, and God's people should go to wherever the gospel is
preached. That doesn't matter where it
is. God sent pastors. In Jeremiah
chapter 3 and verse 14 it says, Turn, O backsliding children,
saith the Lord, for I am married unto you, and I will take one
of a city and two of a family. and I will bring you to Zion.
Isn't that election? Isn't that how it works? I'll
bring one of a city. Isn't that one of a city? That's what he said. I'll bring
one of a city. And I'll bring two of a family. One thing about this, God knows
where His people are and He will bring them. He will bring them
to Himself. And He says, I will give you
pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Hear this blessed promise to
the people of God that He will not leave us without someone
to instruct us. The blessed promise of God to
His people is that not only will He call them by His grace, but
along this journey in this world, He will give them pastors, preachers
after His own heart. Pastors who will care for God's
people like God cares for His people. Pastors are given to
the church by God. They are chosen men that are
given the heart of God, the love of God for His church. Pastors are not called to use
whips. A preacher once told me, he said,
The whip of the law will feel good in your hands, and it will
feel good to the backs of your people. Don't use it. Don't use it. We're not here to use whips,
but rather to feed the flock of God. That's what I'm here
to do. I'm a feed. I'm a person that
feeds the sheep. That's all I do. I feed God's
people with God's word. That's what we're called to do. Ephesians 4, He said, When he
hath ascended on high and led captivity captive. When Jesus
departed this world, when Jesus ascended on high in heaven itself,
what did He do? He said, And He gave gifts unto
man. What is the gift that God has
given to His people? Some apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. In that passage,
the word some is the division. Some apostles. Now there were
some apostles. These people have died. These
people who have sealed the canon of Scripture, sealed the vision
as it says in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24. They sealed the
prophecy. These men have died and these
prophets of old who prophesied of Christ They're no longer needed
because we have the full Word of God. Evangelists. Evangelists,
we say that they're missionaries, but these men were like Philip
who received the Holy Spirit and were not able to transfer
it. They received the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, but these men were not able to give that gift to
the next person. That only could come from the
apostles. And some pastors and teachers. Notice not some pastors
and some teachers. Pastor-teachers. That's what
pastors are. And what do we teach? You kids
go to school and you have how many different classes? You have
math, English, and science and all these different classes.
Well, I have one class. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I have one subject, one message for you that is good for your
souls. It is the message of a person.
It is the message of the King, Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. And these pastors and teachers,
what are they here for? What am I here for? The Scripture
says, "...for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ." the perfecting of the saints,
maturity. Have you grown fully in the faith
of Jesus Christ? Is your love so full it can't
reach anymore? Are you full of the graces of
God? Have you grown to a point and said, Lord, I just can't
go anymore. I've reached the highest pinnacle,
and I don't need anything else. At that point, then, you should
stop coming and hearing me. When you've reached that point,
you should just leave off and go on. That's why many don't
come. They think they've reached the pinnacle. They don't need
this. Well, how long are we to do this?
How long are we to preach it? I was thinking of Isaiah. Isaiah
said, hear my, Lord, send me. I want to go. And when God gave
him the message, he said, man, Lord, how long? How long am I
going to preach this? He gave him a very somber message.
He said, these people are blind, but they'll see not. They got
eyes, but they won't see. You just keep preaching. And
he said, how long I got to do this? He said, till I come. That's
what he's saying here, until all come in the unity of faith.
We keep preaching until all come in the unity of faith. and of the knowledge of the Son
of God, and to the perfect man, and to the measure, the stature,
the fullness of Christ, that you be henceforth be no more
children tossed to and fro, carried about by every wind of doctrine,
the slight of men." Is that not where we were before the Spirit
of God came to us? Were we not tossed to and fro
by every slight hand of doctrine that came on? Were we not with
our ears always listening for something new, something fancy? Until when? Until Christ saved
us. And now then we desire nothing
else but the truth. We desire nothing else but the
gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We don't care about
being tossed about. I'll tell you, this old nature
can be tossed about. This is why pastors are necessary. We're necessary to point you
again and again and again and again to the Savior. So that you be not deceived by
these ministers of Satan. Pastors are given for the maturity
of the saints so that they're not tossed about. We have one
message, one thing to do. Preach the Word. Be instant in
season and out of season. What does that mean? When it's
fashionable and when it's not fashionable. When it's in season
or when it's out, we do the same thing over and over and over. Preach the Word of God. This
is what a pastor does. It's all a pastor does. Preach the Word. And truly, it is the Word. The only Word. There are not many gospels. There is only one. Go over to Galatians chapter
1. There's only one gospel. It is the same gospel that was
delivered to the Apostle Paul Same message delivered to the
other apostles is the message we have. Paul says in chapter
1 of Galatians, verse 6, he says, I marvel that you are so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
unto another gospel, which is not another. But there be some
that trouble you. and would pervert the gospel
of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we've
preached unto you, let him go to hell. As we said before, so say I now
again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that
which you have received, let him go to hell. Any message of free will, works,
religion, anyone who preaches that garbage, let him go to hell.
He is a messenger of Satan and not to be heard. He is no pastor of God. He is
not sin. And you who believe, don't be
troubled by them. They will accomplish nothing.
They'll come to nothing. They'll come to absolutely nothing.
Go over to Galatians 20, Jeremiah chapter 23. God promises they'll
come to nothing. Jeremiah chapter 23. Look at verse, let's begin in verse 26. It says, How long shall this
be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the
deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people to forget
my name by their dreams. which they tell every man to
his neighbor, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal. The prophets that hath a dream,
let them tell a dream. And he that hath my word, let
him speak my word faithfully. But what is the chaff to the
wheat, saith the Lord? is not my word like as a fire,
saith the Lord, like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord,
that steal my words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I
am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that use their tongues
and say, he saith, Behold, I am against them that prophesy false
dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and that cause my
people to err by their lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent
them not, nor commanded them, therefore they shall not profit
this people how much? At all. Anyone who preaches works religion
God will not profit that religion at all. His people will not be
profited by that religion at all. God's preachers are here to preach
one thing, one message. David said, one thing have I
desired and that will I seek after. One thing. We are here
to preach the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Christ.
It's our only purpose. This is what God has sent us
to do, to preach the Word, in season and out of season, to
preach the gospel. And it is the heart of every
one sent of the Father to do this work. It is the heart of
every man sent of God to preach the gospel of grace, that the
salvation of sinners is a miraculous work. Salvation is a miraculous work. Jesus said, how hardly shall
they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God. It is easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Take a needle and you take a
camel. How hardly shall the camel go
through? It's impossible. It's impossible. I tell you,
salvation for us is impossible. It's impossible. Salvation is
completely and absolutely a work of God alone. from start to finish. It's all
of God. If anyone is to be saved, it
is completely the work of God. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. We
preach that no man can come to Christ unless the Father draw
him. By the effectual work of the
Holy Spirit, we preach that all who believe on Jesus Christ are
not saved by their will, nor by their obedience, and not by
their merit, but according to the free grace of God alone. The apostle said in Romans 9,
So then, it is not of him that willeth, nor him that runneth,
but God that showeth mercy. You believe on Christ? That's a miracle. It's a miracle. It's a resurrection. The day
is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Not might live. They shall live. They shall live. And all God's
saints will never be moved from this message. How is it that you know this
message? Was it because you were smarter? Did you get a better
education than someone else? Is that why it is? No. God taught you. If you believe,
you were taught of God. For it is written, they shall
all be taught of God." Because of God's grace in Christ
who chose us, redeemed us, and called us, He has by His grace
given us preachers to preach this message. Secondly, go back
to your text. After Jesus had departed, In verse 44, chapter 4 of John,
verse 44, it says, For Jesus himself testified that a prophet
hath no honor in his own country. After Jesus left these believers
in Samaria, he went to Galilee, but he did not return to Nazareth
for this particular reason, because the people of his own country
did not honor him." Now this is not necessarily a
law, but more of a general rule that a prophet has no honor in
his country. Now we know Mary was in the country
of Christ, the Nazareth. She honored him. There were several
there that believed on him, but for the most part, they didn't
give him any honor. Let us mark this, believers in
Christ, that we do not miss the blessing and benefits of God
that come to us by those that are sent of God. Honor God's
man. Honor God's men. Not because
they are better than others, not because they're more spiritual
than others, not because they have more knowledge than others.
Honor God's men because God has set honor on them. You who believe, you should honor
me because God has set it on me. There's no other reason.
I can't find any other reason. Not in me. The Apostle Paul said
he was called an apostle. He was called to be an apostle.
He didn't make himself one. And no man makes himself a pastor.
We are called of God to this office. I tell you, we live in
a wicked age where men see preaching as a career option. Preaching is not a career. They believe all a man needs
is a desire and an education. And then what they do is go about
to promote themselves at other places. They go from here and
here, and then they promote themselves saying, hey, look, here's my
degree. You should make me your pastor. I've told you this before. When
God called me here, I had no idea this church existed. Did
I come up here promoting myself, or did you call me? Yeah? Y'all were looking for
a pastor. I didn't know this church was
here. And can you not testify that
I preached the same gospel the first day I came here as the
same gospel I preach to you today? I have no other purpose. I have no other purpose to live
but to preach the gospel. What else have I? What else can
I do? I preach the gospel. And all those who will not honor
God's preachers and sit under God's men and neglect the worship
of God, they do so out of pride and because they seek the preeminence. Isn't it that God has chosen
the base things of the world to confound the things that are
mighty? You're looking at the base things. And people look
at me and say, how in the world could I sit under such a man?
Don't. God's people will because God
has set honor on this office. God set honor on this office.
The Apostle said we are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything
of ourselves. I don't think anything of myself.
I am nothing. But our sufficiency is of God. How do you think I've
lasted this long? My sufficiency is of God, who
hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the
letter, but of the Spirit. The letter killeth, the law killeth,
but the Spirit maketh alive. The preacher's sufficiency to
preach is of God, and God's people honor God's man because God has
called him. Paul says, let the elders that
rule well be counted worthy of double honor. Yet it is true
that there is nowhere that God's preachers are more despised than
their own homes, their own towns. Joseph, as soon as he began to
prophesy, was hated of his brethren. David was disdained by his brother. Jeremiah was maligned by his
people. Paul was betrayed by his own
countrymen. And even Christ our Lord was
dishonored by his own people. Came unto his own and his own
received him not. They said, is this not the carpenter's
son? Hey, we know you. We know you. You're nothing. Let us learn then not to be bothered
by a lack of honor. I know you that honor God's men are hurt just as much as those
who are dishonored, those pastors and preachers who are dishonored
by this world. But I shouldn't let it bother
me and you shouldn't let it bother you. It did not bother our Lord. He did not bother him at all.
Jesus was not concerned for their lack of honor for Him, neither
should God's men count it strange when they are mocked and scorned
even by their own. Thirdly, the saints of God will
hear and gladly receive God's preacher. Look at this in verse
45. Then, when He was come into Galilee,
The Galileans received him, having seen all the things which he
did at Jerusalem, for they also went unto the feast. Though there will always be some
who will not hear the gospel, I take great confidence in this,
there will be some who will hear. I remember my pastor's warning
to me. Be careful what you say. Somebody
somewhere will believe it. But God's people believe only
the gospel. They desire only to hear the
gospel. And God's men only desire to
preach the gospel. God has His people that He has
prepared the seed, the soil, by His Holy Spirit, just like
He did these Galileans. They went to that feast, they
saw the miracles that Christ had did, and what was God doing?
He was plowing the heart. He was using pervenient grace. He was preparing for the seed
to be planted. And now was the time of planting.
Christ had come to them. And now was the time where the
seed would be planted and they received Him. When the seed, when the ground
receives the seed, is that not passive? If it's plowed open,
what else can it do? I tell you, when God's people
are plowed open and sin is exposed, then I tell you there's nothing
else we can do but receive Him. Therefore, let us continue with
great confidence preaching the gospel. And this morning, as
a preacher of this gospel, I understand my insufficiency because I am
a saver of life unto life to some, and a saver of death unto
death to others. But my sufficiency and my authority
is this. Thus saith the Lord." My opinion does not matter. I'm a messenger, an ambassador, and I preach Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. and God's people honor that.
I pray Lord bless you.