Would you turn back to John chapter
14, and we're going to have preacher's class this Saturday morning. And we've already considered
Peter and James and John and Andrew, and tonight we're going
to consider Philip. Philip is most known for this
dull and sluggish request that he makes. Lord, show us the Father
and we'll be satisfied. Now, Philip had been with the
Lord for three years. Philip had seen the miracles
that the Lord had done that only God could do. He had heard the
teaching and preaching of Christ every day for three years. He
saw his holy, spotless life, a life that only God could live
in the flesh. And he says, Lord, show us the
Father and we'll be satisfied. Really? Look at the way the Lord answers
this question. Verse nine, Jesus saith unto
him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not
known me, Philip? That's what I've entitled this
message. Yet has thou not known me. Now, the Lord lets us know
in the way he answers this request, how dull and unspiritual and
ignorant and what low views he had of Christ when he makes this
request. Lord, show us the Father and
we'll be satisfied. Now, I'm thankful for, and I
don't know what other word to use, but I'm thankful for this
stupid request. And that's what it is. And I'm
not saying that in a judgmental way because I know the Lord could
say the same thing to me and you every single day. But I'm
very thankful for this request. And as a matter of fact, I don't
have any doubt that the Lord is sovereign over this request.
Philip was wrong in saying this. He should have had a much higher
view of Christ than to ask a question like this. But through this stupid
request, I put this right up there with Peter saying, let's
make three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses and one
for Elijah. I put it right up with that.
Through this stupid, dull, unspiritual, Request. The Lord gives us one
of the greatest statements he ever makes concerning his own
person. Have I been so long time with you? And yet has thou not
known me, Philip? Listen to this. He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. Now we're gonna come back to
that in just a moment, but I want us to look some about Philip
before this. In every list of the apostles,
Philip is named fifth. And he is the only one of the
12 who is never given a Hebrew name. He's only been given a
Greek name. Now he might've had a Hebrew
name, but he's the only one of the 12 who had only a Greek name. Look in John chapter one. I love
this verse of scripture. John chapter one, verse 43. The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip. You see, he chose Philip
before the foundation of the world. He loved Philip. He knew
he would go to the cross for Philip and put away his sins.
And he went and found him. The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which was lost. That was Philip. And the Lord
comes after him. and finds him, and I want the
Lord coming after me, don't you? The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee and he'd find a Philip and saith unto
him, follow me. I want the Lord to say that to
me too. I know everyone he says this to, they do what he says. They follow him. He never commands
in this sense and is disobeyed. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael and
saith unto him, and here we see a lot of shallowness really on
Philip's part, we found him. We found him. Now we're expressly
told he found Philip. But Philip turns us around and
says, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We've found him. Look at John chapter six. I think
this is another statement with regard to Philip. Verse five, John chapter six,
verse five. When Jesus then lifted up his
eyes, he saw a great company come unto him. And we know how
large this company was. It was the feeding of the 5,000,
5,000 men, not including women and children. So we don't really
know how many, but it was thousands of people. And he says to Philip, whence
shall we buy bread that these may eat? Now, the Lord never
asked questions for information. He has a purpose in this. Let's
go on reading. And this he said to prove him,
to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. He knew exactly
what he was going to do. He wasn't asking Philip this, what are
we going to do about this? Philip answered him, 200 penny worth
of bread is not sufficient for them that every one of them may
take a little. You know, maybe we got 200 pennies. I don't know
how much money that is, but that's all the money we have in the
treasury that we can buy 200 pennies worth of bread. That's not enough
for this group. Now, what we're seeing by that
is Philip looking at things according to his resources and not according
to Christ's resources. He thought, well, 200 pennies
worth, he couldn't think beyond that. That's all we can do. And then he was going to see
Christ demonstrate his deity by bringing bread into existence
that was not there before, doing only what he could do. He himself
knew what he would do. But here again, we have Philip
like us. looking at our ability rather
than Christ's ability. And that is so foolish, yet it
is something I'm afraid we practice daily and hourly. And then look
in our text, John 14. No, let's look at John 12 first,
John 12. And there were certain Greeks
among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came,
therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and
desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. They came to
Philip. Now, why did they come to Philip? We have 12 disciples,
but they come to Philip. Well, maybe it's because Philip
had a Greek name, and they felt comfortable with it. He didn't
have a Hebrew name. He had a Greek name, but it may
be that Philip was the most approachable. You know, the disciples, Look at the way they did Bartimaeus.
Hold your peace. Quit crying. He cried the more
a great deal. Look at the way they did the
Syrophoenician woman. Send her away. She crieth after
us. She wasn't crying after them,
but that's what they said. Send her away. They're so hard-hearted.
I mean, the disciples were not, you know, everybody thinks of
halos are over their head and everything. It wasn't like that
at all. Remember, right before the Lord died, they were having
an argument over which of them would be counted the greatest.
So that's the type of fellows these fellows were. And perhaps
Philip was the most approachable. I think that says something about
his character as we see them coming to him. But go to John
14, and this is the Lord's last sermon before he would be betrayed. This is his last 24 hours with
the disciples. And that's when Philip asks this
question, Lord, show us the father and it suffices us. And we know that this was a very
foolish question by the way the Lord answers it, because I know
the Lord cannot be exasperated. The Lord cannot be frustrated.
but he sounds it in this verse of scripture, doesn't he? Philip,
have I been so long time with you? Every day for three years,
you've heard my preaching. You've seen my miracles. You've
seen who I am. I haven't hid it from you. Have
I been so long time with you? And yet has thou not known me? Now, I realize that Christ never
gets frustrated and he never gets exasperated, but it almost
sounds that way there, doesn't it? But it's also true that the
Lord is in control of this question or this request. And through
this request, we're given this glorious statement concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. But still, when Philip makes
this request, he's demonstrating at that time how his views of
Christ are not high enough. However high you view Christ,
it's not high enough. It's too low. Here's We're just
like the Hebrews. Well, remember when the writer
of the Hebrews said, I've got many things to say about Melchizedek
and hard to be uttered, seeing you are dull of hearing. And that can be us. Our views
of Christ are so much lower than they ought to be. But here our
Lord makes the most high statement he could make concerning himself.
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou,
show us the Father? Verse 10, believest thou not
that I'm in the Father and the Father in me? The words that
I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that
dwelleth in me. He doeth the works. Believe me
that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe
me for the very works sake. Now, turn with me to Isaiah chapter
9. Clare, you were talking about,
I hope you don't get tired of me reading this scripture. I
don't. I love that scripture. And here's
a scripture that I was actually thinking. I quote this one a
lot. And I wonder if anybody gets tired of me quoting this.
I thought, well, I don't. I don't. So I hope you don't
either, but this is one of the most glorious statements concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ found in the scriptures. Isaiah 9, verse
6, unto us a child is born. Now this is that same child that
he said two chapters earlier, a virgin shall be with child
and shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. God with us. This is that child that was born,
born of a virgin. Unto us a child is born at a
particular time, in a particular place. Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, was made flesh and was born. Unto us a child is born,
but unto us a son is given. You see, that son wasn't born.
This is the eternal son of God. The ones who's going forth have
been of old, even of everlasting. He never had a beginning. He's
the eternal son of God, the only begotten and well-beloved son
of God. And I love to think of this.
So what do you mean begotten? Be honest with you, I don't know.
I know that this begetting is not an event of time. There's
not a time when the eternal son was begotten. It's a fact, irrespective
of time, that he's always the only begotten, the sole representative
of his father, his being and his character. That's who he
is. He is the eternal son. He was never born. He's always
been the eternal son. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder. Now that's not talking about
the government. We had an election to find out who's going to be
the governor. We're not talking about that. The government is
the absolute rule and dominion and control of all things. You know who won last night was
the one he ordained to win. Who lost was the one he ordained
to lose. Aren't you glad it's that way? The king's heart is
in the hand of the Lord. It's the rivers of water. He
turneth it wither so ever he will. The government Everything,
every event is under His direct control. Every person is under
His direct control. I find I love this Scripture
more and more the more I think about it. He's Lord of the dead
and living. He's Lord of those who live. My Lord and my God. But He's the Lord of those who
are dead in sins. They're His pawns doing His will. He's in complete control of them.
He's the Lord of the dead. He's the Lord of the living.
I don't know of anything I much more despise than hearing a preacher
say, won't you make Jesus Lord of your life? He is Lord of your
life. Whether you know it or not, he
is. He's in absolute sovereign control. The government is upon
his shoulders. Go on reading. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor. It's important for us to understand
this. This is not talking about a counselor you go and get good
advice from. Not at all. My counsel shall
stand and I will do all my pleasure. That's the council he's talking
about. That's talking about him decreeing every event and it
comes to pass exactly as he has decreed it. That rejoices my
heart. He's the Lord. He is the Wonderful
Counselor. Look what it says next. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, God Almighty, God Omnipotent. And
the next one, the Everlasting Father. Now I can't begin to
explain that. Not even gonna try to. Don't
need to. You know the only proper response
to this is, worship. That's who he is. All will ever
see of the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ. He that has seen
me has seen the Father. He is the Prince of Peace. of the increase of his government
and peace, there should be no end upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it, to establish it with judgment,
with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts shall perform this." Now, Jesus Christ, let me remind
you, he's not like God. He is God. And he that has seen me has seen
the Father. Turn with me to Colossians 2. Philip, why would you ask such
a dull question? Well, the same reason why we
would ask such a dull question. We're dull. We're dull. Colossians chapter 2, verse 9. For in him, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now, there's no way that we can
plumb the depths of what all that means, but all the fullness
of the Godhead. Now, what that's talking about
is all those attributes. He has fullness of holiness. He's the
holy one of Israel. He has fullness of sovereignty.
The scripture says he quickens whom he will. He has fullness
of justice. He's called that just one. He
has fullness of omnipotence. He says all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. It's all mine. That's why it
kills me to think of people thinking we want power. You don't have
any power. You don't have any power at all.
Any power you do have is what he gave you to accomplish his
purpose. He has all power, every attribute
of God, fullness of wisdom. He is the wisdom of God, fullness
of omniscience. He knew their thoughts. He knew
their thoughts. They didn't say anything and
he knew exactly what they were thinking. He has fullness of
independence. He has no needs. He has fullness
of immutability. Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. All that God is, all that God
the Father is resides in the body of Jesus Christ. All that
God the Spirit is resides in the body of Jesus Christ. All
the eternal Son resides in the body of Jesus Christ. That's
how glorious this One is. And you say, show us the Father
and we'll be satisfied? The absolute fullness of every
attribute of the infinite transcendent God of glory dwells in his physical
body. The God-man, our mediator. Turn to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew 11. Verse 25. And at that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. And what's he thanking for? Because
thou has hid these things, the things of salvation. Thou has
hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. ignorant, helpless, dependent. And here's why. Even so father,
for so it seemed good in our sight. Is that enough to satisfy you?
He does what he does because it's good in his sight. And I,
If it's good in his sight, whatever it is, it's good in my sight
too. And the Lord says that. Now look what he says next, verse
27. All things are delivered unto me of my father, and no
man knoweth the son, but the father. And you know what he's
saying? I'm so great. I'm so infinite. I'm so incomprehensible. that no one is capable of knowing
me but the Father. Now we know him, but we don't
know him very well, do we? We see through a glass darkly.
We don't know him that well. We know him, I guess, somewhat
like a dog or pet dog knows us. They know us, but not very well. But he says, no man really knows
me. but the Father. And neither knows any man the
Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal
Him." And you know, I was thinking about knowing Christ. In this thing of knowing Christ,
eternity, we can't comprehend of eternity, I realize that.
But after Half of eternity is over, it's
never going to be over. I mean, trying to talk about eternity,
but this is what we're going to be saying every day, even after
eons of whatever eternity is, we're going to say, like the
queen of Sheba said of Solomon, the half has never been told.
Even eternity will not be sufficient for us to ever learn the depths
of the glories of his person. Turn to Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter one. I never
will forget a message Brother Henry Mahan brought from these
three verses on the excellency. Let me get these coughs out. He brought a message on these
first three verses of Hebrews entitled The Excellency and the
Glory of Jesus Christ. I love that title and I love
it. God, Hebrews one one. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manner spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days, ever since the death of Christ
until his coming again, now those are all the last days, hath in
these last days spoken unto us by his Son. An old preacher said to a young
preacher, I told the men this back in the back, preach a full
message. Christ and nothing more. Excuse
me. No water tonight. Thank you, Carla. Preach a full message, Christ
and nothing more. Preach a simple message, Christ
and nothing less. Preach a pure message, Christ
and nothing else. This is his word to us, Christ. hath in these last days spoken
to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things."
That means everything belongs to Him and everything's for His
glory. "...by whom also He made the worlds." He's the Creator.
All things were created by Him and for Him. He's before Him,
all things, and by Him all things consist. Who being the brightness of His
glory and the express image of His person. That's exactly what
the Lord meant when He said, He that has seen me has seen
the Father. I'm the brightness of His glory. I'm the express
image, the transcript of His person. Lord knew who He was,
didn't He? You know, do you remember that
Jesus Christ superstar back so many years ago? He didn't know
who He was. No, Jesus Christ is no superstar. That's so derogatory
to His person. He's God. Who being the brightness
of His glory and the express image of His person and in upholding
all things by the Word of His power. That means He controls
providence. Everything that happens right
now is all according to His will. That breath you just now took,
it's because He willed you to take it. And the last breath
you take, it'll be according to His will. The last time your
heart quits beating, it'll be according to His will. He upholds
all things. Somebody once said, simply by
nod. Simply by nod. His will is always done. When He had by Himself purged
Our sins. Oh, what a... When it says, when
He did it by Himself, that means me and you didn't have anything
to do with this. He did it by Himself. When He had by Himself
purged, put away our sins, made us sinless. When He had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down On the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. You see, he that
has seen me has seen the Father. Turn to Colossians 1. Verse 12. Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light." Now, don't miss this. Right now, if
you're a believer, all you have that is needed to enter into
heaven and worship with the saints, you already have right now. You're not going to be any more
holy in heaven than you are right now. You're not going to be any
more righteous in heaven than you are right now. You know,
that's hard to believe, isn't it? But the reason it's hard to believe
is because we still have this thing called the flesh. And it's
not until we put off this flesh that we're going to realize this. Right now we have flesh and spirit,
but then we'll have only spirit. We won't have this body of flesh. And we'll meet right now to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light who have
delivered us. The Lord Jesus Christ has delivered
us from the power of darkness. The Father has delivered us from
the power of darkness. The Spirit has delivered us from
the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood.
Not we will have it, we have it. Even the forgiveness of sins. Now look at this description
of Christ. Remember He said, He that seeth me hath seen the Father,
who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Now, what is the point of Him
being the firstborn? It's the firstborn who gets all
the preeminence. It's the firstborn who gets all the inheritance.
He's the firstborn. He's the firstborn of creation.
I love that scripture, whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be
the firstborn among many brethren, us little brothers and sisters
of him. For, verse 16, for by him, were
all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones of men or demons
or whatever, dominions, principalities or powers, whatever it is, all
things were created by him and for him. The Lord hath made all
things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
And he is before all things. Whatever it is, he's before it.
You know what that means? He's the active cause of it.
He was before it. He's the eternal son of God.
And whatever happens, he's before it. By him all things consist,
are held together, and he is the head of the body, the church,
who is the beginning, The firstborn from the dead that in all things
he might have the preeminence for it pleased the father that
in him should all fullness dwell. Now turn to Philippians 2, a
couple more scriptures. Philippians 2. He that hath seen me hath seen
the father. Verse five, let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. Now that doesn't simply mean
think the way he thinks. You know, Paul said we have the
mind of Christ, the same mind. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery, thought it not a thing to be grasped
for or desired. But he was, he thought it not
robbery to be equal with God. Now that's the mind that was
in Christ. And that's in our mind too, isn't it? We know it's
not a thing he had to graft for to be equal with God. He is God.
The only one who can be equal with God is God. And that's who
he is. But verse seven, He made himself
of no reputation. And the best way you can understand
that is he made himself vanity. He made himself nothing. He made himself poverty stricken. And you know, I've used the example
of man at his best state is altogether vanity. Well, here, when Christ
was made sin for his people, here is man at his best state
being altogether vanity. And he willingly took this upon
himself. That's what he did for his people,
for the glory of his Father and for his people. He made himself
of no reputation. He took upon the form of a servant,
was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as
a man." What a humbling that was for the Word to be made flesh. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Wherefore God had also highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. And Philip says, show us the
Father and we'll be satisfied. Have I been so long time with
you? John chapter one. verse 18. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. All you're ever going to see,
all I'm ever going to see, all anybody's ever going to see of
God, the Father, is the man, Christ Jesus. Now back to John
1 verse 44. Now Philip was at Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael and
saith unto him, we found him of whom Moses and the law and
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
And Nathanael said unto him, can there any good thing come
out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, come and
see. Come and see for yourself. He
felt no need to try to defend him. You come and see for yourself.
And we know how he brought the Lord to Nathaniel. I guess that's
the next one we'll be considering. But Philip makes this dull request. Philip, like me and you, was
a sinful, flawed sinner saved by grace. And he made, I love the fact
that he, I don't know, I love the fact that he made his foolish
statement because of what we get out of it. And do you know
that this is another example of how everything that's done,
no matter what it is, God brings good out of evil. He always does. He's the only one who can do
this. And that's exactly what he does. Show us the Father. He that has seen me has seen Do you understand that? No. Do you believe it? With all my
heart, soul, and being. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel that reveals the glory and majesty of thy dear son. Lord, how we thank you that he
took flesh upon him. He never sinned. He kept your
law, took our sins and made them his very own and purged them
away so that we stand before you without sin. Lord, we give
thanks. We thank you for his glory, for
his majesty, for his greatness, for his excellency. Lord, truly
we know that we see through a glass darkly and we have never ever
thought of him as highly as we ought to think or said anything
of him as highly as we have ought to said it. But Lord, we do believe
that that one who has seen him has seen the Father. Bless these
words for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen. Matt, come listen closely.