Let's go back to that passage
in the Gospel of John, Chapter 1. All right, the Book of John,
Chapter 1. In this scripture that has been
read to us. We have five conversions. That's our subject this evening. Here are five conversions. Here's the conversion of Andrew,
and then the conversion of John, that is, John the Apostle, And
though he isn't named, most believe that that's the other one of
John's disciples, John the Apostle. And then there's the conversion
of Cephas, and then Philip, and then Nathanael. Now as we go
through these, I just want you to keep this in your memory. that their experience of grace
was different. But the grace that saved them
was the same. That is every individual who
is God's elect. Each was selected, elected, chosen
in the very same covenant of grace. in the election of grace. So of every believer, we know
this, each of us, God chose us unto salvation. And we were each
redeemed. And we were redeemed by the same
price, that being the blood of the Lord Jesus. And each of us
who were selected in grace and redeemed by the blood of the
Savior, we were each of us irresistibly brought into the fold of salvation
by the Spirit of God. So there's much that we have
in common. In fact, in the book of Jude,
we read of a common salvation. That is, the salvation that you
have, that's the same salvation I have. The grace that saved
you is the same grace that saved me. The same blood of the Savior
that washed me from all of my sins washed you from all of your
sins. That robe of righteousness that
I wear, the righteousness of the Savior, that's the same robe
that you wear. So we have much in common as
the people of God. However, in our experience of
grace, it's different. In other words, you go back to
your conversion, and I'm not saying that you need to go back
and visit your conversion for any sort of assurance or anything
like that, because our assurance is the Word of God. Our assurance
is the Lord Jesus Himself. But as to the way that God dealt
with you, it was different than the way He dealt with me. And
as you look at these conversions in John chapter 1, the Lord didn't
deal the same way with each of these men. He dealt with them
differently. Which leads me to say this, don't
judge somebody else's salvation by your own salvation experience. And they shouldn't do that to
you either. I remember years ago, I was listening
to a preacher in Winston-Salem and there was a man visiting
with us and I'd never heard him before and I don't think I've
ever heard him since, really. And he got up and he spoke and
he was speaking on conversion. And he said, the only way you
can know if you've been converted is you felt the exact same way
I felt. He said, this is how I felt and
every child of God feels this way in conversion. He said, I
felt like somebody hit me with a baseball bat. And I thought
to myself, I didn't feel that way. I don't want to be hit with
a baseball bat. But that's what he said. He said,
everyone who is convicted by the Spirit, everyone who experiences
God's saving grace, you will feel this awful, awful pressure
within you. And then the Lord will remove
that pressure by His saving grace. I disagree with that. The Lord deals with us individually. And no two salvation experiences
are alike. There is a diversity in the way
that God deals with us in salvation. There is a diversity in God's
great creation. There is a diversity in God's
great work of providence. There is a diversity in our walks
of life. You don't have the same walk
that I have. You don't follow the same path
that I follow. Now we all go to glory because
we are all going the way of grace. We know Christ Jesus the Lord
who is the only way to God. We understand that. But as to
the route that God will take us through this world, as to
the individual troubles and trials and afflictions and sicknesses
and so forth, all those lows and highs of life, the experiences
of life, there are no two people who follow the same path. There's
a diversity in God's providence. No two individuals are given
everything exactly alike. No two individuals have exactly
the same gifts and the same talents. There is a diversity in creation,
there is a diversity in God's providence, and there is a diversity
in our experience of His grace. Now again I stress this, it is
the same grace. It is grace that saves. It is
grace, God in His grace, set us apart to be His own. And I
might say this in addition to that. It wasn't that God chose
us as a great big group. No, He chose us individually. It was not a random choice. It was not an eeny, meeny, miny,
moe choice. It was God who set His love on
individuals in old eternity. In fact, He has always loved
you. If you are loved tonight, He
has always loved you with an everlasting love. And He chose
you individually. And He chose me. No wonder the
songwriter said, why was I made to hear thy voice? I was made
to hear thy voice. And I entered Father's room.
Why was it that I chose the Lord? I did choose Him, but I chose
Him because He chose me. He set His affection on me. Do
I love the Lord? Yes, I love the Lord. Do I know
the Lord? Yes, I know the Lord. But I love
Him and I know Him because He loved me and He knew me first. And it was an individual election
of me by God. But I'm saved by the same grace. And as to my Redeemer, I have
the same Redeemer you have. I have the same Savior you have.
I have the same substitute you have. I have the same surety
that you have. In this great salvation of God,
there are many things that we have that are identical. When God came to us in that hour
of regeneration, He used the same word, He used the same kind of power,
effectual power, resurrecting power. But as to the way we experienced
that grace, as to the way that God brought us to the Lord Jesus,
there's a great diversity. And I could speak with each of
you individually, and you could most likely articulate to me,
you know, this is the way God dealt with me. And then I would
say, well, he dealt with me, but he didn't deal with me like
that. Let's be very careful. We're
not trying to follow the pattern or fit the mold of another one's
salvation experience. God deals with us individually. And I know there are some in
the scriptures like the Apostle Paul. It was a wow experience. And there's not another one like
that. But mine wasn't like that. There are others who, to them,
their salvation experience was almost like this. You know, it's
like I gradually was brought to the light. So that I really
can't specifically tell you the day or the hour when I was brought
to believe the gospel of Christ Jesus. But you don't have to
know the day or the hour. In fact, I hope that's not your
assurance if you do know the day and the hour. I can perceive
from this passage of Scripture in verse 39, and this is Andrew
and the Apostle John. And it is the apostle John writing. And it stands out in John's mind,
and the Spirit of God brought this to his memory, that when
he was brought to the Lord Jesus, when the Lord Jesus said to him
and to Andrew, come and see, John said, it's about the tenth
hour. In other words, it's four o'clock
in the afternoon. Well, that's wonderful, John. I'm glad you know about what
time it was when the Lord brought you unto Himself. But there are
many of us who don't know the hour. But you don't have to. In fact, I would say this, if
you've got to go back through an experience a few years ago
as to answer the question, well, are you a child of God? Are you
saved by God's grace? Oh yes, because I remember what
happened years ago. Oh, you're in trouble. You're
in trouble. Because really, and I'm Boy,
I hope I'm saying this right. I'm not saying that it wasn't
important God dealing with you then. But I will say right now
is all we've got. It's right now. So right now
do you believe? Right now do you look to Christ
Jesus? Right now is He your only hope?
It doesn't really matter what happened 5, 10, or 50 years ago. All that matters right now is
Jesus Christ your all. Is He your hope? Is He your wisdom? Is He your righteousness? Is
He your sanctification? And is He your redemption? That's
all that matters. What think ye of Christ right
now? That's what matters. I look at these. different conversions. They've got a lot of similarities. Because in each of these, it
is the same Savior. And that's, that's a fact, that's
a true, true of everybody who believes Christ Jesus. We look
to the same one. What is your hope of glory? What is your hope of being with
our Lord forever? Why do you say, why do you say,
well, you know, when I die, I know it's okay with my soul. It is
well with my soul. Well, on what basis do you say
that? And all of God's people, we have
the same answer to that. And the answer is, my hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. Isn't that right? And that's
worldwide. It doesn't matter what language
people speak. It doesn't matter what culture
they live in. That is of no consequence. people
around the world who don't speak our language, who have no understanding
of English, but who have heard the gospel in their own language
and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, God saved them by His
grace just exactly like He saved us by His grace. There's not
one way of salvation for the Jews and another way for the
Gentiles. There's not one gospel for one
group and another gospel for another group. There's only one
gospel for time and for eternity. And it's the gospel of God's
free grace to sinners through the doing and the dying and the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One gospel for everybody. So those folks at Brother Suyo
Ministers too, over in Africa, they got a different culture,
they speak a different language, but guess what? They believe
the same gospel. Because there's just one gospel,
right? The Apostle Paul says, if any
man preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. There's
just one gospel. So let's look down through here.
Okay, we've got John preaching. John the Baptist. He's preaching. And he's got a couple of his
disciples with him. And we know that one of his disciples
there in verse 40 is identified as Andrew. Andrew. Most likely the other one was
John. And as he's preaching that day,
he says, Behold the Lamb of God. And notice verse 37. And these
two disciples, they heard him and followed Jesus. That's what
every preacher of the gospel wants. I want you to hear me
and follow him. Hear him, hear me, hear the preacher,
whoever it is preaching the gospel of God's free grace. You've got
to hear a preacher. Our brother read to us from Romans
chapter 10. How shall they hear without a
preacher? Old Philip, the Lord sent him from Samaria out there
in the desert to an Ethiopian eunuch. riding along reading
Isaiah chapter 53, and Philip said, do you understand what
you're reading? How can I accept some man? Show me. I need a preacher. That's basically what he was
saying. I need a preacher. And he began to read to Philip
the words of Isaiah chapter 53, and he said, who's the prophet
speaking of? Himself or some other man? And Philip began to speak to
him about some other man. Jesus. Jesus Christ. That's the subject. That's the
subject. The Lord Jesus Christ. We've got to hear. We've got
to hear. That's the reason we want people
to come and listen. Oh, come and listen to the Gospel.
You tell your children and your your grandparents and your brothers
and your sisters, whoever, just invite them. You can't pressure
them, I know, and you say, well, you know, they just won't come
and listen. Well, every once in a while,
just give them a gentle reminder. I sure would like for you to
come and hear the pastor preach. They've got to hear. I mean,
if words mean anything in the Scriptures, There's got to be
somebody that's going to tell you of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His work of redemption. Here's John the Baptist, and
these men hear Him. They hear Him. And you know,
I'll take that two ways, if it's okay with you. I think they heard
Him with these ears, And then they heard Him with a spiritual
ear. They heard Him! They heard Him
say, Behold the Lamb of God! There's the promised Messiah! There's God's Lamb! And these
are Jewish men! They knew the story about Abraham
and Isaac. Where's the Lamb? God will provide
Himself a Lamb! And John now says, Behold the
Lamb of God. There He is and they heard, really
for the very first time they heard. And when they heard, they
followed Christ. And if we really, if we really
hear, I mean, if we really, if we hear by the power of the Spirit,
if the Spirit of God takes the wax out of our ears, if He
opens up our ears and lets us hear, hear of Christ Jesus and
His work of redemption, when we hear of Him, from somebody,
we'll follow Him. In the book of Revelation chapter
14, these are those that follow the Lamb whithersoever He went. The Savior sent my sheep. They
hear my voice. They hear my voice. They hear
it in the gospel preaching. They hear my voice and I know
them. I've always known them. You only
have I known of all the nations of the earth, God said to Israel.
God knows His people. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and here's the result of His knowledge of us. They
follow me. And another shepherd they won't
follow. God's preacher has identified
the one to follow. And God's Spirit has enabled
these two men to understand the message. Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. He's the one that came
to save, to take sin away. And now they follow Jesus. I tell you, that's the goal of
every preacher. I want you to hear. I want you
to hear us. Give us a hearing. That's all
I ask. Just give me a hearing. And follow
Him. Follow Him. So they followed
Jesus. Look at verse 38. Jesus, He turned. He turned. Here's what I take away from
this. Behold the Lamb of God, here
He comes. And there He goes. I tell you, in order to, if He's
going to turn to face them, He must be going away from them.
Does that make sense? He turned. He turned. Oh, thank God He turned toward
us. Thank God He didn't pass us by.
He didn't walk on away. He turned toward us. He turned
and saw them follow. He saw them. He's always seen
them. He saw them in the covenant of
grace. Just like He saw you. He saw us when He was on the
cross. He's always had His eye on us. And he saith unto them, What
seek ye? What seek ye? What do you want? What do you
want? Here you are. Ask me. What is your petition? What do
you want? Do you want riches? Do you want
health? What do you want? Others, after
he feeds, after he has fed the 5,000 over in John chapter 6,
they follow him for the bread and the fishes. What do you want?
You want bread and fishes? What do you want? You want gold? You want silver?
What do you want? And I would ask each one of us
tonight and everybody who is watching, what do you want? What
is your real heart's desire? I mean deep down inside of you. Don't answer me. Just may God
give you honesty to answer in your own soul. What is it that
you want more than anything in the world? That's what the Savior
is asking. What do you want? What seek ye? They said, Rabbi,
Master, Teacher. In other words, they're saying,
we're here to learn. Where dwellest thou? Where do
you dwell? We're interested in you. That's
what they said. We're interested in you. We want
to spend time with you. What do you want? What do you
want? Oh Lord, I want to spend time
with you. I want to know you and the power of your resurrection.
I want to love you more. I want to follow you more closely.
Where dwellest thou? He said to them, well, come and
see. Come and see. Come and see. John has just said, look to the
Lamb of God, or behold the Lamb of God. What is it to behold?
It's to look, it's to see. And now the Lamb of God says,
come and see, come and look. And I think of the verse in Isaiah,
the Lord said, come unto me, or the Lord said, look unto me
and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God. I'm
the God that saves. I'm the God that has all the
authority. I'm the God of free grace. Look
unto me and be ye saved. They came, they saw him, saw where he dwelt,
they abode with him that day is about the tenth hour. John
says about four o'clock in the afternoon. Now look at verse
forty. One of the two which heard John
speak, heard John the Baptist speak, and followed him was Andrew. Andrew, Simon, Peter's brother. And I'll tell you, as soon as
he found out who Christ was, as soon as he saw Christ's glory,
the wonders of this lamp of God, as soon as he saw for himself,
well, he's interested in his brother. Oh, I want something
to be done for my brother. I want my brother to see the
same glorious Savior that I've seen. And you know, when the
Lord does the work of grace, then you just automatically,
you're just concerned about people you love. Right? You're just
concerned about it. I mean, those of us who, we have
some understanding of God's election of grace, in particular redemption,
the effectual call, and we know God's gonna save His people,
but that doesn't, that doesn't in any way water down or quench
our desire to see people come to know Christ. We want people
to know Him. So that's why we tell people,
we go to our loved one. Like Andrew went to his brother. He first finds his own brother,
Simon. He said, we found the Messiah,
which is being interpreted to Christ. Oh! He says, oh! Simon! I've got to tell you who I met
today. I met the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
own Son. You know, Simon, the one prophesied
through the Old Testament, the one of whom all the sacrifice,
the one that was typified in all the deaths of those animals.
Oh, Simon! I saw him today. He had time for me. And I've learned of His great
salvation. Oh Simon! Oh Simon! You've got to come with me. You've
got to come with me. And look in verse 42. He brought
him to the only one who could help him. He brought him to Jesus. Now Andrew can't save Simon.
He can't do a work of grace for Simon. He can't regenerate Simon. But boy, he can bring him to
the one who can do something for him. And I tell you, you can't save,
you can't regenerate, you can't quicken, you can't reveal, and
neither can I. But maybe God would enable us
to bring some of our Simons in the family Just tell them, I
found out who Messiah is. I found out who the Lord is.
I want you to come hear about Him. Come hear about Him. So he brought him to Jesus, and
when Jesus beheld him, it's a look of love. He said, Thou art Simon
the son of Jonah. You'll be called Cephas, which
is by interpretation a stone. And you know, every one of God's
elect were made living stones in Christ Jesus. The Lord goes
out into the vast quarry of the world. Oh, what a quarry it is
out there. And He digs out these stones. And He fits us for this glorious
temple He's building. He's building this glorious temple.
And He fits us for it and He brings us in. It's just like
all the stones of Solomon's temple. You know they fitted them for
that temple? And when they brought those stones
in, they fit right in place. It's like it was made for it. And you know when God saves us
by His grace, He makes us alive, we're living stones, He puts
us into the building and guess what? It's just an exact fit. You know why? Because He ordained
us to be in that temple from before the foundation of the
world and He fitted us for it. We're living stones. Well, the
next day, verse 43, the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee. He would. That's His will. That's His sovereign will. He
willed to go forth into Galilee. It was His purpose. It's also
the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 9, verses
1 and 2. He is going into Galilee. He
would go. He is going. He is determined
to go. Nothing is going to keep him
from going into Galilee. And when he gets to Galilee,
he is going to find somebody else. He finds Philip. And he says to him in life-giving
power, follow me. Two words. Follow me. Well, those words,
if I say it, I can't make anybody follow me, but I tell you what,
when the Master speaks in that effectual power of His, follow
me wherever you are, you're going to follow. You're going to follow
in the way of grace. You're going to follow in the
way of righteousness. You're going to follow in the
way of salvation. Follow me! Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
and that's where Andrew and Peter lived. And then Philip findeth
Nathanael. This is, by the way, this is
most likely Bartholomew. In the other gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, he's spoken of as being Bartholomew. Here he's
spoken of as being Nathanael, and the same fellow. Philip finds Nathanael. And you'll
notice, by the way, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, it's Philip and
Bartholomew, and here it's Philip and Nathanael. These two are
always together. It seemed the Lord, He sent these
disciples out two by two. But Philip finds Nathanael and
he says to him, we have found him, watch this, of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. Philip says this to Nathanael.
We found the one spoken of in the Old Testament. Why, all the Old Testament is
filled with Christ Jesus. It's all about Him. You know
that. I know that. And Philip knew that. Philip
said, we found Him, the one that was written of in the Old Testament.
Moses and the Law and the Prophets. Who is he? Jesus of Nazareth.
And Nathanael is skeptical. He says, can there any good thing
come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him the same
thing that the Lord Jesus said to Andrew and John in verse 39,
come and see. Come and see. Come and see for
yourself. You know, we can speak to people
about the beauties of Christ Jesus and the glories of the
Son of God, the wonders of God's grace and His marvelous salvation,
but we just say, won't you come see for yourself? Won't you come
and see? You see if we're not telling
you the truth. See, religion is feeding you all these kinds
of lies. We are not setting things before you. We are setting somebody
before you. We are setting the Lord of Glory
before you. Well, is He really like that
preacher? Is He really like this gym? Is
He really forgiving? Will He welcome me? Will He take
me? I'm such a rotten scoundrel. I'm such an awful sinner. I'm
such a wretch. Will He take me? Will He forgive
me? Will He receive me? Come and
see. You come and see. And you come
and you'll see what the rest of us have seen. He came into
this world to save sinners. That's why He came. He said,
come and see. Well, Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to Him and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed. Now, He's an Israelite
in that He's related to Abraham, but this means something else.
He's spiritually related to Abraham. He's a spiritual Israelite in
whom is no guile. That expression, no guile, is
found, what, four times in the Bible. How in the world can it
be that you and I would be said to have no guile, no dishonesty,
no deception, No falseness. Why, we're full of deceit. We're
full of falseness. But wait. In our representative, we don't
have any guile. In our Savior, we don't have
any guile. And the Savior says of Nathanael,
he's a man, he's an Israelite indeed. In fact, he has no guile. And Nathanael
said unto him, How do you know me? How do you know me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when you was under the
fig tree, I saw you, I saw you. The Jews would gather under the
fig trees, thick boughed trees. lots of leaves, and they'd go
there and find a place to pray where nobody would see them.
But our Lord said, I saw you. I saw you. You saw me? I tell you, no mere
human eye could see me where I was. And then Nathanael knew who he
was dealing with. And he made that very obvious
in verse 49. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, you're the son of God. You're the son of God. Now remember, in the book of
John, this is the theme. This is what we're looking for.
Jesus is the son of God. And right out of the lips of
Nathanael, Thou art the Son of God. You're God in the flesh.
Thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? You're going to see greater things
than these. This is just the beginning for
you, Nathaniel. you're going to see a whole lot
more wondrous things. And you and I, you know, the
Lord, He opens our eyes, He opens our ears, we hear the sweet message
of the gospel of justification by imputed righteousness, salvation
altogether of grace, the washing away of our sins by the blood
of Christ Jesus, being robed with the garments of salvation. And every day, we still see great
things, don't we? I tell you, the life of a believer
is the life of somebody who experiences and who sees great things. Great
things. I'm talking about what God does
for you. We're talking about how He's
always with you and always protecting you and always providing for
you and always teaching you great things. And our Lord said to him in verse
51, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see
heaven opened. You'll see angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. In other words, you're going
to be seeing my glory. My glory. Angels ascending and descending.
Let me tell you something. He's Jacob's ladder. It's what
this passage reminds me of. Go back to Jacob's ladder. Angels
ascending and descending. Hey, there's one way to God.
Christ is the ladder. He's the way. By Him, God's grace
comes down to us, and by Him, our thanksgiving and our petitions
go up to God. All these conversions, they're
in many ways the same, but in many ways they're different.
So don't try to, you know, expect somebody else's experience to
fit the mold of yours. And it used to be a brand of
even sovereign grace people, and first thing they want to
ask you, tell me about your experience. Why? Why? I think that's rather
private. Right? That's rather private.
The way God dealt with me. I want to know how you felt. What business is that of yours? Are you just going to kind of
see if my experience fits the mold of yours? I'll just tell
you this, he saved me by his grace. Is that good enough? I
look to Christ Jesus for everything right now. Is that good enough?
I hope that's good enough for you. That's all you're going
to get. Alright, let's sing the closing song. Number 340.