There in that first chapter of
the book of John, let us read there in verse 34 of this first
chapter. This is John's witness and testimony
of the Messiah, of the Savior, of His deliverer, of His salvation. He said in verse 33, And I knew
him not, but he that sent me to baptize
with water, the same said unto me. upon whom thou shalt see
the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which
baptizes with the Holy Ghost." And John said, I saw and bear
record that this is the Son of God. And the next day after John stood
and two of his disciples And looking upon Jesus as he walked,
this is John speaking, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the
two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. They
heard what he said when he said, Behold the Lamb of God. And they
followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them
following, and said unto them, what seek ye?" And they said
unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master,
where dwellest thou? And he said unto them, Come and
see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth
hour. And one of them which heard John
speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother
Simon. And he said unto him, We have
found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ, the anointed
one, the sent one. And he brought him to Jesus. Andrew did. Brought his brother,
Peter, to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he
said, Thou art Simon, son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
which is by interpretation a stone, or Peter. The day following,
Jesus would go forth into Galilee and find Philip, and saith unto
him, Follow me. Let me talk to you. a little
bit here this evening about a man named Philip. A man named Philip. The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee
and find Philip. And he said unto Philip, Follow
me. Now this man Name Philip was
added to this little company of the Lord's disciples. Wasn't
many here. Well, there wasn't many really when our Lord was crucified.
Wasn't too many. In fact, they said in the day
of Pentecost there's only 120 on the road. So there wasn't many. He didn't
make many disciples for those three years of his ministry. But here is one of the first,
Philip. He is added to this little company
of the Lord's disciples. And it does not appear from what
I've read, it doesn't appear that Philip had been moved like
Andrew and the others by the testimony of John the Baptist.
Now, Andrew and some of the others were convinced as to who the
Christ of God was by the witness of John the Baptist. But Philip
here didn't seem to be drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ in that
manner. Now, you know, Simon Peter, he was brought, according to
what we read, He was brought to the Lord Jesus through the
means of his brother, his brother declaring, We have found a Messiah. And he brought Simon Peter, Andrew,
to the Lord Jesus. But Philip here seems to have
been called directly by the Lord himself. It says, The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee and find Philip and say unto him, Follow
me. He seems to have been called
directly by the Lord Himself. Now, all true believers from
that day until this, true believers in Christ Jesus, they are all
led by one Spirit. They are all washed in one blood.
They all serve one Lord. They all lean on one Savior. They all believe one truth, and
they all walk by one general rule. But all are not converted
the same way. They are not all converted in
the same manner or the same way. In the conversion of a sinner,
the Holy Spirit, who is the author of regeneration,
who quickens sinners, He is sovereign in the dispensing of His power
to that end. So He calls Whomsoever he pleases in that respect, he
is sovereign in his giving life to dead sinners. So all of us,
for the most part, we attribute the good news of
the gospel coming to us, or the means of
that gospel coming to us through another man, through a preacher.
How can they preach except they be sent? And so forth. But here
in this case, it pleased God, the Holy Spirit, not to use a
means, but He called Philip himself. Which leads me to say this, we
need to be careful or beware of making the experience of other
believers the measure of our own. We need to be careful not to
set in on judgment of someone else because they didn't have
the same experience that we had. Philip didn't have the same experience
as some of the others had. But he had an experience he'd
never forget, and there's no doubt in my mind that Philip
was a child of the living God. Christ called him Himself. So
the only question that should concern us is, is he or she a
true believer? and a follower of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I read here that when Philip, whom the Lord hath found, and
he came from the same city of Andrew and Peter, Bethsaida,
verse 45, Philip finds Nathanael. And this is what he says unto
Nathanael, We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and
the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now, you can find the Lord Jesus
Christ in the Old Testament. He is all through the Old Testament,
although The name Jesus is not there. There is, in one place,
the name Joshua, which means Jesus. But the name Jesus, in
the sense that he's found in the New Testament, is not found
in the Old Testament. But from the time of Adam through
Enoch and Noah, and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
every sacrifice in the Old Testament pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ
and spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. Moses wrote of Him. He says here,
We have found Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did
write. Who did we find? We found Jesus
of Nazareth. He's all through the Old Testament.
Folks say, well, I know there's a whole denomination of thousands
and thousands of people that kind of scoff at the Old Testament,
say the Old Testament, we have nothing to do with it. As a matter
of fact, the only Bible they carry most of the time is just
the New Testament. They won't have a Bible that's
got all the books of the Bible in it. They say, nothing there
in the Old Testament. Well, they're kind of like the
fellow that said, I won't learn anything
until I know something. Well, he'll never learn anything,
will he? Most of them fellows is like that. But I won't learn
anything until I know something. And they never know anything,
because they never learn anything, and they never look for anything. The Old Testament is full of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's coming. He's coming. All
the sacrifice says He's coming. The Messiah. The King of Israel. The King of Kings. The Lord of
Lords. God's Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. He's
come. He's here. We found. We found Him. What Moses in the
Law and in the Prophets, they did right of Him. We found Him. Every sacrifice, every high priest
in the Old Testament was a type of the Lord Jesus, and every
judge and deliverer of Israel was a figure of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, notice then the good advice
that Philip gave to Nathanael. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the Law and
the Prophets did write, Jesus now the son of Joseph. And this
is what old Nathanael, Nathanael said, Can there be any good come
out of Nazareth? Now, Philip didn't argue with
him. Most of us would stop and argue a little bit about it.
But Nathanael didn't argue with him. I mean, Philip didn't argue
with him. Come and see." Nathanael said,
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him,
Come and see. Come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him, and He said of him, Behold, I am Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. Guile has to do with deceitfulness. There is none in this guy. That's
good advice that Philip gave to Nathanael. Now, Nathanael
in all probability was full of doubt and full of apathy concerning
the salvation which is in Christ Jesus. And old Philip, he said, well,
just come and see. Now, you notice here, what our
Lord says to him. Just soon as he seen him, he
said of Nathanael, Behold, behold, an Israelite indeed. He speaks
of high character of this man Nathanael. An Israelite indeed
in whom there is no God. And Nathanael said unto him,
Whence knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, I knew you before Philip
ever said a word to you. I had my eye on you. Before that
Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw
thee. Before Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." Nathanael, as an outburst of a consciousness
of whom the Lord Jesus Christ immediately answered and said
unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
of Israel. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? In other words, is there any
other reason for your believing except that I relayed that information
to you, that I saw you while you was under that fig
tree. I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? And evidently
he believed. He believed. And he saith unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven
opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man." Now, that was some experience, wasn't it? I think that what he said in
verse 51, I'm sure that was in the future. I don't know when
that took place or if it is yet to come. But surely it will take place. It's a promise of God to this
fellow here, Nathaniel. All right? If you look in this
first chapter, it's got how many verses? Fifty-one verses. And in this chapter, The writer here, John, the beloved,
the apostle, he refers to the Lord Jesus Christ twenty-one
times in this chapter under various descriptive names. Now, I'll just read them off
to you, and you can think about them as you read this chapter,
the 51 verses. Now, He's called the Word up
there in the first verse. In the beginning was the Word. He's referred to the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He's called the Word, and He's
called God in the first verse. Now, He's called the Word, He's
called God in this chapter now, He's called Life, He's called
Light, He's called the True Light, He's called the Only Begotten
of the Father. He's called full of grace, or
described full of grace and truth. He's referred to as Jesus Christ. He's referred to as the Only
Begotten Son. He's referred to as the Lord.
He's referred to as the Lamb of God. He's referred to as Jesus. And I made mention of this one
place where John the Baptist referred to him as a man, a man. He is referred to as the Son
of God. He is called the Rabbi. He is called Teacher. Nicodemus,
remember, said, We know that thou art a Teacher come from
God. He is called Messiah, which means
the Christ, the Anointed One. He's called Christ, He's called
the Son of Joseph, He's called the King of Israel, and He's
called the Son of Man, all here in one chapter. And when Philip
said to Nathanael, when Nathanael said, Can there any good thing
come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and
see. And that's what I say. That's
what I say here this evening. That's the message here this
evening. Come and see. Come and see. You
don't have far to go. I told you already that every
book of the Old Testament speaks of Him, points to Him. Every sacrifice, every lamb,
every bullock, every turtle dove, Every sacrifice, and there was
millions of sacrifices. Millions and millions of gallons
and barrels of blood were shed under the economy of Moses in
the Old Testament in the ceremonial sacrifices. And every drop of
that blood and every sacrifice that had its throat cut was pointing
to Him, the Lord Jesus Christ. Every priest and high priest
was a figure of Him. So I say, come and see. If any man is interested, interested
in finding out who He is, come and see. It's all wrote down
here. It's all wrote down. And even
in this first chapter, one chapter of the Bible here, speaks of
the Lord Jesus Christ twenty-one times. Well, you know and I know
that this world, This world is in darkness, and our Lord Jesus
Christ said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the
world. Now, when He said, I'm the light
of the world, now there's one meaning to that, and there's
some implications there. Certainly He is the light. He
is what the sun is to the solar system. The Lord Jesus Christ
is spiritually speaking to His people. I'm the light of the
world. These words imply that the world needs light. The world
needs light. It implies that the world is
naturally in a dark condition and has been so for 6,000 years. Did you know that? That this
world is in darkness and has been that way since Adam's fall. In darkness. Ancient Egypt, in Greece, in
Rome, in England, in France, in Germany, in every island in
the Pacific, every place in the Atlantic and the United States
of America, the U.S. obeyed. It is in darkness, darkness,
the vast majority. of the people on earth at any
given time. The majority of Adam's fallen
race don't see, nor do they understand the value of their souls. They don't understand the true
nature of God. They don't understand the reality
of the world to come. They are in darkness. That's
the reason I'm talking about Jesus Christ, the light of the
world. Come and see! Come and see! The man wants to see! Let him come to Christ, who is
the light of the world, and he'll find out something about the
value of his soul. He'll find out something in regard
to the true knowledge of who God is and the reality of the
world to come. Let him come. I say this, this
is a vast darkness that covers this world, vast darkness. Notwithstanding
all the discoveries of art and science, so-called, darkness
still covers the earth. He only is the light, and he
only can dispel the darkness, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
a lot of false lights on every side. They're false lights, and
they invite men's attention, such as this light of philosophy. And there's the light of reason,
there's the light of conscience, there's the light of liberalism,
there's the light of earnestness, there's the light of do the best
you can and it'll be all right. But I'll tell you, all these
lights, false lights, they have a voice and they cry out and
invite men to come to Come to them, we got the light, we got
the light. But I'm telling you, they ain't
got the light. He's the light, the true light
that lighteth up the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, oh,
Philip, he gave Nathaniel good advice. When Nathaniel said,
can any good thing come out of Nazareth, he didn't argue with
him. He didn't say your religion ain't no good. He didn't say
you need to be baptized or this and that. He said, come and see
and find out for yourself. That's what I say, come and see.
He's the light of the world. Know the value of your soul.
Know the reality of the world to come. Know something of God. Most of these people, absolutely,
they can argue certain questions of religion, but when it's all
said and done, they are absolutely ignorant of who God is. Absolutely
ignorant. And I'm not stretching the imagination
by describing them that way. God help them. But he won't.
But he won't. He'll leave them go, struggle
in their darkness and wind up. in the eternity of displeasure,
destroying their souls. God help us. Let's stand. We'll
be dismissed.