It's good to see you all out. I remember Randy. He's fading fast. The hospice lady told his wife that she'd be coming back every day until it's over. So it's been pretty close to him. Passed him away, so I remember him. And if that happens, we'll probably have to... We look out here pretty quickly, you know, whatever, and we find out the arrangements may involve not having a service on a Wednesday or something.

Okay, let's begin our worship service with hymn number 496, Victory in Jesus.

I heard about I knew him. He plunged me to victory beneath a crimson flood. I heard about His healing. On His face He's bowed, revealing How He made the lame to walk again And caused the blind to see And then I cried, Dear Jesus, come and heal my broken spirit Amen.

Who sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is to Him I heard about a man shunned He lived for me in glory Then I heard about him on the streets of gold Beyond the crystal sea But now the angel's singing, and the holy beast jumps in Oh, victory in Jesus, my Savior forever.

You sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him, and all my love is due Him. He plunged me into victory beneath the cleansing flood.

M6 Come Thou Almighty King

O come, Thou Almighty King! have us to praise. Father, all-glorious, O'er all victorious, come and reign over us each in our days. Come, Thou incarnate Word, gird of Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend. Come and Thy people bless, and give Thy word success, be reigned by the holiness on us each day.

Come, Lord, become our charter, Thy sacred witness bear, In this glad hour, Thou who Almighty art, Thou who liveth ever and evermore, From the Spirit of God To the Great One in Three Eternal praises be His evermore, His sovereign majesty In eternity, love and adore.

John chapter 7, and we begin reading verse 40.

John chapter 7. Many of his people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, of a truth, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh in the seed of David out of Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among the people because of him. And some of them would have taken him, but no man laid hands on him. Then came the officers to the chief priest of the Pharisees. They said to them, why have you not brought him? And the officers answered, never man spake like this man. Then answered them, the Pharisees, are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. Nicodemus saith unto them, he that came to Jesus by night being one of them, Doth our law judge any man before it heareth, and knoweth what he doeth? They answered and said, Art thou also Galilee? Search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet, and every man went into his own house.

Let us pray.

Our Father in heaven, holy and righteous is your name. You are God, and there is none beside you, none like unto you. You declare the end from the beginning, calling to existence things that are not. You purpose it and it shall stand, you speak it, it shall come to pass. You do your will throughout this entire universe and none can stop you or say unto you, what are you doing? We know, Lord, and are thankful that we can bow to you as our sovereign Knowing, as you have promised, that all things are working together for good. To them that love God, they were called according to his purpose. We are thankful, Father, that we can rest in this world of chaos, knowing who runs the show. Help us to be thankful, and with hearts filled with praise, But Thou has given us rest, having finished the work of redemption. And all that awaits now is our departure from this world to be with you forever. Help us, Lord.

Father, we pray for those who are sick, going through trial. We're glad it rains to come back to charity. Pray for his quick recovery. Also, Lord, we pray for Randy. Cheryl, as she ministers to him in these, what seems to be his last days. We know that he will leave this world at the appointed time, for man's days are numbered. His months are with thee. You have set his bounds and he cannot pass. But we ask you to relieve his suffering, be merciful to him, and be according to your will, according to your good pleasure. as you turn these eyes to Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer. For we, according to your plan and purpose, are brothers and sisters in Christ. We are the same Father in heaven, the same brother at thy right hand, the same spirit in the world to us all. and causes us to rejoice in Jesus Christ. Help us tonight to do the same.

In Christ's name, amen.

Now the words of our Lord that we looked at last week referring to himself as the one who will slake men's thirst and cause rivers of water to flow from them. That statement has stirred interest for This passage begins with the words, therefore. In verse 40, it says, many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the prophet.

He was telling men and commanding them to come to Him and believe on Him, and that piqued the interest of many, believing that His words had scriptural significance and sounded like a person describing God's Word. And to some degree, these folks were familiar with the scripture and the promise of the Messiah. We know that 400 years had passed without a prophet, and that had not diminished their that prophet because he was uniquely spoken in Deuteronomy. And of the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, because he was the promised one with many promises of what he would do when he came into this world.

So they were interested in the words that he spoke because he says, come unto me, come unto me, believe on me and out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. And if you're thirsty, come unto me. Isaiah chapter 55 said, ho, everyone that thirsteth, come to the water and drink. Come, buy meat and milk without money. Come, if you're thirsty. That was something probably that piqued their thoughts. And he said, in the rivers of living water.

And they thought of perhaps in Isaiah chapter 35, verses 4 through 7, where it says, saying to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he will come to save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped, and the lame Man shall leap as an heart, and the tongue of dumb sing, where in the wilderness shall waters break forth, out in streams in the desert."

Maybe they were thinking when he said, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water, they were thinking about that character mentioned back in Isaiah chapter 35. They were saying maybe this is the Messiah. They began to believe that he was somehow mentioned in the Word of God.

There are three distinct opinions offered concerning him in this passage of scripture. Perhaps since they had been 400 years without a prophet, they thought he was that prophet. Perhaps they thought he was the Christ, the Anointed, the Son of God. These opinions are threefold.

The first opinion is that his words designated him as that prophet. The prophet. The one that Moses spoke of in Deuteronomy 18 and verses 18 and 19. You're familiar with the passage, but let's look at it anyway. Deuteronomy chapter 18. Verses 18 and 19. Because I will raise them up a prophet. Notice that the prophet is not in the small case, but it's the capitalized. A prophet from among their brethren, like unto them. That's the incarnation of Jesus Christ as God manifest in the flesh. And I will put my words in his mouth. Remember our Lord said, I say what the Lord, what God tells me to say, what the Father has sent me, tells me to say. And he shall speak unto them all that I command him, and it shall come to pass. And whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him. I will require it of him.

These men did not necessarily believe that that prophet was the Messiah. Though Peter in Acts chapter 3 and verse 22 and 23 declares that Moses spoke of that prophet being the Messiah. Or he quoted from Deuteronomy 18 when he was talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember the Lord said Moses wrote of me. And that's one of the passages he wrote of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Perhaps they thought that Jesus was that prophet that would answer the silence of God for the last four centuries. Maybe once again they would have a word from God, a new revelation, not knowing that the word was actually the one that had revealed himself to be the prophet with the words that he had spoke to them when he said, if you're thirsty, come unto me and drink. He was that prophet. He's the living word of God. The living word of God.

So many believe that he was that prophet, but not necessarily the Messiah. And we know that because of the next phrase, the next opinion that's given. Others said, this is the Christ. They said that. You think he's the prophet? He may be that prophet. A lot of religions think that Jesus Christ was a prophet. The Muslims think that he was a prophet. All the cults that began in the 1860s in the United States, from Mormonism to Seventh-day Adventists, all of these think he's a prophet. The Christian Scientist thinks he's a prophet.

But he's not a prophet, he's THE prophet. Remember, he is prophet, priest, and king. The prophet is the one that tells us the word of God and he is the word made flesh. He's the word of God. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. He's the living word of God. And he's the one that comes and teaches us the scripture by his spirit. Remember he took those disciples on the road to Emmaus and he opened up the Psalms and Moses and the Psalms and the prophets and showed them the things concerning himself and he says, Then he opened up the scriptures, and they began to understand what the scriptures were all about. So he is that prophet that speaks God's words, and we are accountable to God to hear his words. For God says, if you don't hear his words, I will require it of you.

Maybe once again they'll have a word from God. Maybe that's what they were thinking. We're going to have a prophet walking among us. Because they didn't have prophets then. 400 years they hadn't had a prophet. They had priests, and they had officers, and they had scribes, and they had Pharisees. These weren't prophets. A prophet of God was able to foretell what was going to happen, and it always came to pass. That's what he did.

Now, we are not prophets in this day. A lot of preachers in this world, they call themselves prophets, but there are no prophets today. The days of prophecy are gone. They ended with one man. You know who he was? A man spoken of in the very first chapter of this book. John the Baptist. Our Lord says he was greater than a prophet. He was a prophet, but he was greater than a prophet. He was like the reincarnation of Elijah. That's what he was, that's how the Lord described him in one of the passages of Scripture. So if you understand what Malachi said, you'll know that John the Baptist was becoming Elijah again, as he was promising Malachi in the last chapter of Malachi.

So they were thinking, that prophet, things have been quiet. We have these Pharisees, they've given us all kinds of rules and regulations. These scribes, they're preaching to us or towards these officers that are running our lives and telling us how to live. and punishing us when we break the law. Do all these things. Maybe we got one coming that's going to tell us something. That's what we thought of Christ with the words he spoke. This is different, they think. This is different.

The fact that they didn't all hold to the promise by Moses was the Messiah seen in the response of others when they said, no, this is the Christ. This is the Christ. They declared that Jesus Christ was the Christ. Now that's the New Testament word, or the Old Testament word, anointed. Our Lord said, called the Messiah, not only the Messiah, but the anointed. They might have believed he was anointed, but not necessarily that prophet. So that was the distinction that they were making.

You compare Psalms 2 with Acts chapter 4 verse 26. Psalms 2 verse 2 says, all the kings were gathered together against the anointed of God. Against God and His anointing. Then when it's quoted in Acts chapter 4, it says, all the kings were gathered together against Christ. They were quoted as it is written in Psalm 2, against God and His Christ. So Christ and anointed are the same word, they mean the same thing, they speak of Christ.

Combined with the miracles that he did and the words he spake, they came to a conclusion that this man was the Christ, the Messiah, the one that was promised by God. And the third opinion, and would prove to be the major opinion at the cross, was that he was not the Christ at all. Find that in verse 41. Others said this is Christ, but some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? Had not the scripture said that Christ cometh from the seed of David out of the town of Bethlehem according to Micah chapter 5 and verse 2? They said this because of where the Messiah was born. They didn't say he can't be the Christ because he wasn't born in Galilee. But that's what they were thinking. They said he didn't come from Galilee. They knew he was from Galilee. That was the area that he was from. The scripture said that he was born in Bethlehem.

And Jewish writings declared that the Messiah would live and preach in Galilee. But those who refused to believe that Jesus was the Christ made this distinction. It really wasn't a good distinction, but they made it anyway. The truth is that he was born in Bethlehem. He was circumcised and purified and went through the purification ritual according to the law in Jerusalem. He resided in Egypt for six years. He came home to Nazareth of Galilee and made Capernaum his home. That was the town he lived in.

Now, men often use scripture like these did. Mary and Joseph both were in David's lineage, but Mary especially was in the lineage of David, the enemy that God had ordained to bear, the Son of God. Men use scripture sometimes in an effort to disprove the truth, and to cause confusion. Satan knows the Bible and avoids the context to deceive men, but he knows the Bible. His preachers are preachers of righteousness. They just don't come out here and give the strange things like if you brush your teeth you're righteous. They're talking about believing in Jesus and believing on God. That's what they're talking, that's the way they're talking. But they've always used the scripture. When David, when the Lord was tempted in the garden, after he was hungered 40 days and 49, and after we're hungered, the devil tempted him with scripture. Cassius sits down because the scripture says that God will not allow you to be devastated. So he quoted scripture. He said, look at all this stuff, and I'll give it all to you. Christ quoted scripture to him. Thou shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So Satan knows scripture. In fact, he uses the word of God to deceive men.

Say, how does he do it? Well, he uses what God says and just sort of twists it just a little bit, just a little bit. Remember what he said to Eve in the Garden of Eden? He didn't say God's a liar. God's not telling you the truth. He says, hath not God said you could eat of every tree? That's right. Well, yeah, he said if you can't eat that, but didn't he say you could eat of every tree? Well, yeah, he did say that. And she was the same. Men use the scripture to deny the scripture. They do it all the time. When you tell somebody that God has elected whom he would say from the foundation of the world, you know what they're going to say to you? Well, the Bible says, who so ever will. The Bible does say that one time in Revelation 22, who so ever will, where it stands alone there. It does say it, but that's how they're going to answer it. They used the Bible to confuse men, and so these did the same. They said, well, this can't be him, because he was born in Bethlehem, and they say he's from Galilee. It says from Galilee.

After that, some said they wanted to, there was a great division because of what he had said. This is often said of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I've come to bring a sword. Some say, some it says wanted to take him or arrest him. But they didn't say that back in our text. It says there was a division and in verse 44 says, and some of them would have taken him but no man laid haughty hands on him. Now that means they wanted to. The officers had been assigned to do that by the Pharisees and the scribes, or the Pharisees and the priests had assigned the officers that job to go and get him. But something about him, something about this man, this man in a shepherd's cloak and not rich and fancy Not comely, that any man would desire him. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief had spoke to them all this time after the first incident, when if they had applied the law, he would already be dead. Because he healed that man on the Sabbath day. And all this is going on, probably for a day, a day and a half. All this has been going on. They've been talking, he's been talking to them and they haven't done it. I mean, he had broke the law. He had healed on the Sabbath day, but he showed them that they did the same thing, so they really couldn't fuss about it. But he had, and yet he's not dead yet. Men can't put their hands, for some reason they cannot do, they cannot act on their impulse to take him.

Then came the officers and the priests and the Pharisees, the unholy trinity it says, verse 45 and they had a question for the officers and the officers had been sent to arrest him that's what it says in verse 32 it says the pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning Christ and the pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him so the pharisees are now going to ask the officers who they sent to take him who had come back empty handed why they're empty handed

Now the police had not arrested him, not because of proximity. They were there in the crowd with him. Nor was it for lack of occasion. On several occasions they could have taken him. They didn't take him because of what he said. That was what made him different. The things that he spoke, perhaps the manner in which he spoke, but the things which he said.

The officers answered. When they said, why have you not brought him? The officers answered in verse 46, never man spake like this man. Never man, that's mankind. It's not a man, never man. You're looking at the men who spoke all the time about the scriptures, men who wrote the scriptures down. Men who did the ceremonies and the words. All those things. Men who were religious men who wore the robes. The priesthood. And they looked at them and they thought about the crowd and they thought about all the people who lived before that time and all the people who live all the way to the end of time and said, never in mankind has any man spoke like this man.

His words were different. The Pharisees were the great orators of the law, but this man Jesus spoke with authority and conviction.

Look over at Mark chapter 1. In verse 21 it says they went to Capernaum. And straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. Remember, our Lord said that the Father had given him authority over all things to give eternal life to as many as God had given him, and he spoke as one having authority. This was the difference. The other men, the scribes and the Pharisees had so long been talking about this Bible that it was just wrote, repeat, and ultimately wrought. But that's what they did. This man spake with authority. Why? He's the author of the book. Genesis to Malachi is the only book they had at this time when he wrote that book that was his book. He's the word He's the word of the living word his words. He said in chapter 6 my words My words They are spirit And they are life They are spirit and they are life.

I I remember a story of a preacher after he had preached eloquently and was full of himself, but he preached eloquently and the people were all enthralled by his ability. And one man came to him and said, I've got that whole sermon in the book at home. He said, no, sir, that sermon was original. He said, I wrote that myself or did the study? He said, no, I got that sermon in the book at home. And you come home with me, I'll show it to you. So the preacher went home with him and took him in his library and handed him a dictionary and opened it up and said, what you did was just words. Was just words. Probably was just words. But not with Christ. The Pharisees had plenty of words for people. The scribes had plenty of words for people. But he had the word. And his words were spirit. And they were life.

I don't fear preaching the gospel. Because that's the word of God. And I have nothing to do with its power or its influence or what it does once it leaves these lips. It's just out there. Whatever God does with it is his business. All I do is just say it. But having preached God's word, I'm handling things I'm not sufficient for. But what happens is that God takes that word and implants it in men's hearts and gives them life and makes them spiritual beings. And it's a wonder, it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. For the just shall live by faith. His words were spirit and they were like their words were the killing letter. The killing letter. That's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. When he was talking about the law and grace, preaching the gospel and preaching the law. In 2 Corinthians 3, verse 6, he said, we also have made us, who also have made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, that's the law, but of the spirit. For the letter killeth, and the spirit maketh alive.

No man spake like this man. And the Pharisees' response to what was spoken was typical of someone whose authority and status is challenged. They accused the officers of being deceived like the unlearned multitudes that gathered around the Lord Jesus Christ. They said this in verse 27, Are you also deceived? They were calling Christ a deceiver. If they were deceived, He must have deceived them. Their argument against the authors was an argument of contrast between the learning and the unlearning, the holy and the unwashed, the righteous and the unrighteous. The standard for believing someone to them was the status that that person held in religion. Doctors of theology. People say, are you a doctor of theology? No. Have you ever been a theological student? No. That means something to them. They think if a person has a doctor before their name or a theologian before their name, that that means that they are the authority and they can speak. But I say to you as a congregation that's heard the gospel for 47 years, there ain't a theological student anywhere in the world can hold account of what you know about Christ. But those titles, they mean something. They mean something. I've known several doctors of theology over the years. Some of them are actually giants of truth. But like when Henry Ray says, don't call me doctor, I ain't even a nurse. I ain't even a nurse.

Standard of believing someone to them was the status that that person held in religion. And Jesus Christ didn't have any status in religion. And all these people that were with him and his disciples were a bunch of fishermen and tax collectors and kind of the worst of the bunch. Shepherds, there wasn't much to them. Doctors of theology surely know better than the riffraff of society.

Some of the riffraff of society, one was named Tyndall, another named Zwingli, another named Huss. were burned at the stake for believing that the common man could read and understand the scriptures and the Bible. So they wrote the Bible, they translated the Bible, the Greek and the Aramaic and the Latin, and translated it into English. And the Roman Church and the Church of England put them on the stake and burned them alive. Because they were just, they were big dogs in religion. They weren't wise. They weren't learned men. They couldn't know these things. They couldn't know these things.

Remember what they said about Christ. How can he speak this way when he has no learning? That means so much to people. Intellectual prowess, being able to say big theological words like superlapsarian or ultralapsarian or something like that, some big thing. What is the study of the salvation? Well, that's soteriology. Oh, that's impressive. What about the study of the church? That's ecclesiology. We need to get a hold of that. What about the study of the last day? That's eschatology. Oh, my goodness. profound things that man has to say.

No, I have just the same stuff. Ecclesiology is the study of the church. Theology is the study of God. Soteriology is the study of salvation. That's all it is. But it sounds good. And so these said this, in verse 48, have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him? You say you believe on him. Has anybody of note, anybody of value, anybody of status believed on him? Because this people who knoweth not the law are cursed, are cursed. Their response was that Jesus and his followers are deceived and cursed because they didn't know the law.

The description of Jesus Christ in Genesis 49 is that he was shallow. He will move till shallow comes with a lawgiver between his feet. He's the lawgiver. He's the lawgiver. Nicodemus sought to present a positive case on behalf of Christ. It's in the case that he probably was a believer. Speaking to Christ in chapter 3 probably shook him up a little bit. So he tore down everything he thought he knew for sure if you read that context. So Nicodemus tries to calm the waters. But like many Jews, they kept silent for fear of the Pharisees.

The law said a man was allowed to face his accusers, but the Pharisees would not allow that. That's what Nicodemus said, doth our law judge any man before it hear him and knoweth what he doeth? And their answer was to accuse They said, are thou also Galilee? You up with him, you siding with him? Search and look, for out of Galilee arises no prophet. Well, that's not true. And they ought to know that. They ought to know that. They must have missed the fact that Jonah was from a city in Galilee.

The Pharisees most surely did not believe that the Messiah came to Galilee, but the Scriptures declared that he did. Look at a little bit of me in a few passages. Isaiah chapter 9. Verse 1 and 2 says, nevertheless the dimness shall not be as was in the vexation. He's talking about the deliverance of Israel. And about salvation. When the first, when the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Neptulon, those were both in Galilee by the way. And afterward did Paul grievously affect her by the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the nations. Now he's talking about something going to happen in Galilee.

Here's what happens. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light, and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. Now who's he talking about? What's he talking about? Look down at verse 6. For unto us a child is born, and unto us A son is below, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of his increase and government, or rule and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform these. Those that dwell in darkness shall see a great light. What light did that see? They saw the light. They saw the Lord Jesus Christ.

John chapter 1. John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. The Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, without him there was not anything made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men to him might believe. He's not that light. but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

You look over at John chapter 8, verse 12. Then spake Jesus again to them, saying, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. Some say he was a prophet. He was. Some say he was the Christ. He was. Some say he didn't come from Galilee, but he did. He's just Christ. He's the Messiah, the prophet, and the light of this world.

Father, bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.