Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 4. We'll go back to John chapter
4 and hopefully we'll finish up with this chapter this evening
and then we'll go into chapter 5 next Wednesday. I've got a couple of verses that
I would like for you to look at to begin with. The first one
is verse number 3. Chapter 4, verse 3, speaking
of our Lord Jesus, He left Judea and departed again into Galilee. And then, if you would, look
over into verse 43. Now, after two days, He departed
thence, that is, He departed from Samaria and He went into
Galilee. And that which we have recorded
from chapter 4 verse 4 through chapter 4 verse 42 is kind of
a parenthesis. Our Lord stops in Samaria. And we know He spent most of
His ministry preaching and teaching either in the southern area,
which was Judea, or in the northern area, which was Galilee. But
he did go into Samaria, and he went there to seek and to find
his lost sheep. Finding those lost sheep, he
spends two days with them. And you know those were two blessed
days. Those were a couple of glorious
days for those people. And they were joyful days for
the Savior. And I would say this, oh how
blessed is that people with whom the Lord is pleased to spend
time. Oh how blessed are those people
when the Lord Jesus meets with them. Because they are the recipients
of His mercies. You know, the scripture says
where two or three are gathered together in the Lord's name,
He says He'll be with us. And this is what a great honor
for us this evening. As we've been gathered by the
Spirit of God, gathered according to God's purpose, gathered to
listen to the gospel of God's free grace, the Lord has gathered
us and He gives us His own word. I'm with you. In fact, he told
his disciples, Lo, I am with you even to the end of the world. This is a great privilege we
have this evening for the Savior to meet with us. For the Master
to join with us as we seek to worship Him. And we do know this,
the Lord will be where those meet to brag on Him. where those
meet to magnify His name, where those meet to set forth His gospel,
wherever men and women and young people meet across the world,
when they gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus in
order to exalt the blessed Savior, in order to set forth His gospel
of substitution, His gospel of saving grace, His gospel of the
satisfaction of God's offended law. Whenever God's people meet
together to worship the Lord by the Spirit of His grace, we
have His Word. He's with us and He's with us
this evening. What a privilege! Now, if you're
not here, we'll miss you. And if I'm not here, I hope you
miss me. But I'll tell you, the worship
service, it can continue without you and it can continue without
me, but it can't continue without Him. There's no worship. There's going to be no presence
of the Spirit of God. There's going to be no mighty
workings of God's grace within the hearts of sinners unless
the Lord Jesus is here. And the Lord Jesus will only
be here as we exalt Him, as we lift Him up in His glorious person. as we exalt Him in His work,
as we speak of His redemption by blood, as we speak of His
righteousness freely imputed to His people, that's where the
Lord Jesus is sure to be found. So He gathers with these lost
sheep that He's gathered into the fold of salvation, He meets
with them here and He speaks to them, He preaches to them,
He teaches them for two blessed, blessed days. You think of it,
they're being taught of God. Look over in chapter 6. Chapter 6 verses 44 and 45. The Savior said, ìNo man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and
I will raise him up at the last day.î It is written in the prophets,
and that is in Isaiah chapter 54, ìAnd they shall all be taught
of God.î Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned
of the Father cometh unto me." And here these saints of God,
back here in John chapter 4, they have been instructed by
the Master Himself. They have been taught of God. And those who are taught of God,
they will learn the Gospel. They will learn the Gospel. You
know, we can speak to people, we do speak to people, preachers
of the gospel. We set forth the very truth of
God's Word. And you know, some people get
it and some don't. Some people receive the message
and others don't. But those who, through the preaching
of the Word, are enabled to hear more than the voice of a man,
but are unable to hear the voice of God speaking through His Word,
those people shall be well taught, and that which they learn, no
man can unlearn it from them." When God teaches us His Gospel,
we will indeed be well taught. So hear these Samaritans. Our Lord spends a couple of days
with them. And then he leaves. He leaves. It says in the next verse, verse
44, For Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor
in his own country. We're back into John 4 now. And
verse 44, For Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor
in his own country. Our Lord is the prophet. We know
that He holds a three-fold office, prophet, priest, and king. He
is the prophet who speaks God's Word to us. In fact, we read
in Hebrews, the first chapter, He is God's final Word. God hath in these last days spoken
unto us through His Son and by His Son. He is God's prophet. He is God's spokesman. Indeed,
the book of John begins this way as John introduces the Savior
as being the Word. The Word. He is the full expression
of God. It is the Lord Jesus who reveals
to us and speaks to us of the Word of God and the will of God
and the way of God. He is the living Word. He is
the incarnate Word. He is God's prophet to us. Thank God we have somebody to
teach us. We're not left in the dark. We're
not left in ignorance. We're not left in spiritual blindness. We have the greatest teacher,
the greatest prophet who has ever lived, even God's own Son,
the Lord Jesus. In the book of Deuteronomy chapter
18, God tells Israel through the lips of Moses, God says,
I'm going to send a prophet. I'll raise him up. I'll raise
him up. In fact, look back there in Deuteronomy
chapter 18 with me. Deuteronomy chapter 18, the Lord
is speaking to Moses. Notice what he says, Deuteronomy
18.15. He says, The Lord thy God will raise
up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren,
like unto me. Unto him you shall hearken according
to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in
the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice
of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great fire anymore
that I die not. And the Lord said unto me, Moses
continues, they have well spoken that which they have spoken.
The Lord says, I will raise them up a prophet from among their
brethren, likened to thee, that is, likened to thee, Moses, and
will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them
all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall speak
in my name, I will require it of him. God tells the people
through Moses, I'm going to raise up a prophet. I'll put the words
in his mouth. We know that the Lord Jesus is
God's faithful servant. God chose him for the service
of saving His people, instructing His people, delivering His people
from every enemy. God ordained him from old eternity. A couple of thousand years ago,
God raised him up. He raised up this prophet. Here
is this prophet, he teaches the Samaritans. He instructs the
Samaritans in the things of God. And he instructs us. And I would
ask you, who is your teacher? Who is your prophet? Who is the
one that you listen to? You better be listening to God's
own Son. He's God's spokesman. He is God's
prophet to us. He has sent Him. Our Lord Jesus
is then, as you go back to John chapter 4, He is the prophet
who speaks for God to us. He is the priest who does business
with God on our behalf. He speaks to God on our behalf,
for He is the mediator. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. He is God's priest,
God's appointed priest. God authorized Him to offer the
sacrifice which would put away sin, and the only sacrifice that
could do that was the sacrifice of Himself. He is the great high
priest who offered to God that which God demanded and that which
God's law required, the sacrifice of Himself. He said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. And He did just that. And laying
down His life, He said there in John chapter 19, it is finished. And He bowed His head and gave
up the ghost. He finished that part of His
work as our Great High Priest. He saved us from our sins. He
washed us in His blood. He brought in everlasting righteousness. And then three days and three
nights later, He was raised from the grave. Forty days later,
He ascended back to heaven. And even now we have a Great
High Priest who represents us poor old sinners. We have somebody
who speaks to God for us. We have somebody who represents
us. John says in 1 John 2 and verse
1, My little children, these things write I unto you, that
you sin not. Oh, children, don't sin. Don't
sin. I don't want to sin, Lord. I
don't want to sin, but I do sin. Oh, listen! If any man sin, he
has an advocate with the Father. Who is He? Jesus Christ, the
Righteous. He's our Great High Priest. And
He's our King. He rules the world for the good
of His people. So here He is. In John chapter
4, here's the prophet. He is the prophet. But notice
what he says in verse 44 of John 4. Here's what the prophet says.
For Jesus himself testified, and by the way, he testified
this in Matthew, in Mark, in Luke, and in John. This is recorded by all four
gospel writers. For Jesus Himself testified that
a prophet hath no honor in his own country. Now, He is the prophet. You've got to consider this,
first of all, as regarding our Lord Jesus. He is the prophet
of God. And it's interesting, this word
honor. He hath no honor. The word honor
means that which is of great value, that which is exceedingly
precious, that which is of great worth. Our Lord Jesus is the
great prophet and He is worthy of great honor. He is infinitely
precious. Oh, how precious! Oh, how glorious
our Lord Jesus is, and He is to be highly valued and highly
prized. He is certainly highly valued
and prized by God. It says in 1 Peter 2 and verse
4, To whom coming as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men,
but chosen of God and precious. He is precious to God. We read
in 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 6, The Lord says, Behold, I lay
in Zion a cheap cornerstone, elect and precious. He's precious. He's the prophet who's worthy
of all honor. He is exceedingly to be prized. And yet, and yet, Jesus Himself
testified that He hath no honor in His own country. Now what
was his own country? What was his own city? Go over
to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. And look at verse 14. In Luke
chapter 4 and verse 14. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee. Now, we know that between verses
13 and 14, and of course verse 13 winds up our Lord's time of
temptation by Satan. We know that Luke is not led
to set forth our Lord's Judean ministry. But he just skips right
over our Lord's Judean ministry and it goes to his ministry in
Galilee. Now if you want to read about
his Judean ministry, you go back to John chapter 2 verses 13 into
right there at the beginning of chapter 4 of John. That's
where he goes to begin with. That's where his ministry really
began. And then after that, he went
into Galilee. And that's what we're studying
in John chapter 4 now, toward the end of the chapter. He goes
into Samaria, and then he goes into Galilee. But when he goes
into Galilee, and we're in... Luke chapter 4 and verse 14,
He returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And there
went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. He
taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And He came
to Nazareth. He came to Nazareth. That's where
He grew up. This is His hometown, we might
say. It says he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon him. Because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to
preach the acceptable year of the Lord." And of course he's
reading from Isaiah chapter 61. Verse 20 says he closed the book. He gave it again to the minister
and set down the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him. And you begin to say to them,
this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. In other words,
he says, when Isaiah wrote in chapter 61 about the Spirit of
the Lord being upon somebody, and that somebody being sent
into the world on a mission of mercy to fulfill God's purpose
of salvation, when Isaiah wrote that, he was writing about me.
That's what the Savior said. He was writing about me. And in verse 22, "...and all
bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, Isn't this Joseph's
son? And he said unto me, Ye will
surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. whatsoever we were heard done
in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily
I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country."
Now he's in Nazareth. And then he began to speak to
them about God's distinguishing grace. He doesn't speak about
grace in general. He doesn't merely say God is
gracious. But it says God is gracious to
whoever He wants to be gracious. That's what He's teaching. Distinguishing
grace. This is sovereign grace. He says
in verse 25, but I'll tell you a truth. Many widows were in
Israel in the days of Elias, Elijah, when the heaven was shut
up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land. But unto none of them was Elijah
sent, but unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow." He is illustrating sovereign grace. This is sovereign
mercy. This is distinguishing grace,
distinguishing mercy. The Lord has mercy on whom He
will. He is gracious to whom He will
be gracious. He gives another illustration
in verse 27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of
Elisha the prophet. And none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they that were in the
synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath,
and rose up and thrust him out of the city, and laid him under
the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong, but he passing through the midst
of them went his way." Now that's the kind of reception he got
in Nazareth. That's the way they treated this
prophet of God. So as you go back to John chapter
4, here's what I want you to notice. He did not, he did not
again go to Nazareth. But instead he goes to where
he went before back in John chapter 2, Cana of Galilee. That's where he goes. The folks
in Cana of Galilee, they welcomed him. They were glad to see him. The folks over in Nazareth, they
didn't want to see Him again. And I'll tell you a truth. Our
Lord goes where He's welcomed. Where He's welcomed. And I hope
that you and I can honestly say from our hearts, O Sovereign
Redeemer, Almighty Son of God, you're welcome here. You're welcome
here. We have no argument with you
about who you save and who you don't save. We will not quarrel
with you about your sovereign right to show mercy to some and
not show mercy to others. We will not argue with you about
your prerogative to be gracious to one and not be gracious to
another. Oh great Redeemer, we just want
you to be with us. That's the way it was with these
folks in Cana of Galilee. Over in Nazareth, they said,
don't ever come back here again. You show your face here again,
we'll pick up stones and stone you, or we'll try to throw you
off the top of a hill like they tried to do there in Luke chapter
4. He goes to Cana of Galilee, and notice what it says in verse
45. Then when he was coming to Galilee,
the Galileans received him. because they saw the things that
he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast.
So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water
wine. And there was a certain nobleman
whose son was sick at Capernaum. So our Lord is in Cana of Galilee. And as he's visiting with the
people and talking with them and mingling with the crowds, As he was there, a certain nobleman
walked up to him. Have you ever noticed in the
New Testament how often we read of an individual as being a certain
person? The Spirit of God uses the word
certain. A certain person. For instance,
and we don't have time to look these up, of course, but in Matthew
chapter 9, there's a certain ruler by the name of Jarius to
whom the Lord was merciful. His daughter was dead. Nobody
could help him but the Lord Jesus. He's a certain ruler. As our
Lord was going to the house of Jarius, He was approached by
a certain woman who had an issue of blood. Later, we read in Matthew chapter
17 of a certain man whose son was a lunatic. He came to the
Savior. In Mark chapter 7, we read of
a Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile woman, and the scripture says
there was a certain woman there, this certain woman. In Luke chapter
7, there was a certain centurion's servant. who was at the point
of death. In Luke chapter 8 we read of
a certain man who dwelt among the tombs, he was possessed by
a bunch of devils, he was a wild man, an uncontrollable man, and
the scripture says he was a certain man. In Luke chapter 14 verse
2 we read of a certain man who had the dropsy. That is, he had
water around my heart. In Luke chapter 16, we read of
a certain beggar. His name was Lazarus. As our
Lord was coming near to Jericho, it says in Luke 18.35, there
was a certain blind man. When our Lord gave the parable
of the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10, our Lord described
this man who had been robbed, a certain man who was going down
from Jerusalem to Jericho. Let me tell you something, in
this world there are certain people, There are certain people,
not everybody, but there are certain people marked out from
old eternity who are the recipients of God's sovereign grace and
our Lord will bring them to a knowledge of Himself. There are certain
people. And if you love the Savior tonight
as He's revealed in the Word of God, if you love His method
of salvation by grace alone through the doing and the dying of Jesus
Christ alone, you know what? You're one of the certain ones.
You're a certain man. You're a certain woman that God
ordained for Himself before He ever made the world. And back
here in John chapter 4, There was a certain nobleman, a certain
nobleman, his son was sick at Capernaum. Look at verse 47. When he heard that Jesus would
come, he was coming out of Judea unto Galilee, somebody told him. Somebody told him about Jesus.
Isn't that wonderful? Somebody told him about the Savior. Somebody told Him about the Son
of God. Somebody told Him about the Son
of Man. When He heard, oh blessed day,
when God crosses our path with a voice that says, let me tell
you about the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me tell you about the Savior. Let me tell you about the blessed
Redeemer. He heard. He heard. Faith comes
by what? Hearing. Hearing by the Word
of God. When he heard that Jesus was
come out of Judea and the Galilee, he went to Him. He went to Him. Now wait, he lived in Capernaum. That was 16 miles from Canaan. You know 16 miles today, you
jump in your car, you can cover 16 miles pretty quick. But back
then, that was a pretty good distance. In fact, this man,
it's the next day before he goes home. He's traveled from Capernaum
over to Cana, talks with the Savior, and then it's such a
long journey, he doesn't go back to the next day. Let me ask you
this, is 16 miles too far to go to meet the Lord Jesus Christ? I talk to people who travel a
great distance to hear the gospel, and they all pretty much have
the same story. Somebody will say, where do you
go to church? And they will tell them where they go to church.
Man alive, you pass so many churches on your way. Why do you go way
over there? I'll tell you why we go way over there. Because
we want to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to see
Him. We want to meet Him. That's why
we go by all of these anti-Christ churches. We go by all of these
goat pastures to go somewhere where we can hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here's this man. He's desperate.
I tell you, if you get desperate, what is it? Desperate people
go to desperate measures. They do desperate things. This
man is desperate. Why? What is the reason for that?
Because his son is at the point of death. And he heard about
Jesus and His miracles. So he goes from Capernaum down
to Canaan. He besought Him, it says in verse
47, would you come down and heal my son? And when it says besought
Him, He begged Him. Oh please, oh please, my son's
dying. There's no hope for my son. But
I believe You can raise him up. Please, oh please come with me. And Jesus said in verse 48, except
ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." Now, our Lord
often brought this accusation against the Jews, that they would
not believe apart from signs and wonders. And it's the same with this man.
Our Lord said on another occasion, an evil and adulterous generation
seeketh after a sign. This was stubborn unbelief. That's what this was. To refuse
to acknowledge the Son of God unless He performed more miracles
and more signs were seen. But then something happened to
this man. See, notwithstanding the Lord's
rebuke, the nobleman said to him in verse
49, He said, Sir, come down ere my son die. And the Savior responds in verse
50. Jesus saith unto him, Go thy
way, thy son liveth. And guess what? The man believed
the word that Jesus had spoken unto him and he went his way. He just believed the bare, naked,
absolutely pure Word of the Son of God. That's all he needed. And he went on his way rejoicing. This One who is the Great I Am,
He said, He said that my Son lives. He just believed the Word of
God. You know what faith is? It's just taking God at His Word. It's just believing what He says. And then look at verse 51. And
as He was going down, His servants met Him. They got good news. Saying, Thy son liveth, your
son dwelleth. And then inquired he of them
the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday,
about the seventh hour the fever left him." About one o'clock.
About one o'clock in the afternoon the fever left him. And so the
father knew it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto
him, Thy son liveth. and himself believed, that is,
he believed even more fully. But not only did this man believe,
his whole house. God granted faith to his whole
house. Because faith has to be granted. Faith has to be given. Faith
is a gift of God. For by grace you say through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works. lest any man should boast. His
whole house believed. God was gracious to all of them.
Isn't that wonderful? Every once in a while, I run
across the family, the whole household, where everybody believes
and loves the gospel. That's just wonderful. Of course,
it's wonderful if just one in a household believes. It's a
special blessing if husband and wife believe the gospel. And
husband and wife and children believe the gospel. Oh, how wonderful
that is. But it's a miracle that any of
us believe the gospel in. It's a miracle of grace. And then verse 54 says, this
is again the second miracle that Jesus did when he was come out
of Judea into Galilee. He healed the nobleman's son. Thank God for the mercy and the
grace of King Jesus Christ. I hope he doesn't pass us by
with his mercy. 235 is our final song for this
evening, number 235, Pass Me Not. O gentle Savior, hear my
humble cry. While on others Thou art calling,
Do not pass me by. This guy, he kept calling, Lord,
my son needs you. Don't pass us by. Don't pass
us by. All right, let's stand and sing
this together.