Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to John chapter 1. Our subject is Israelites with
Nogal. Israelites with Nogal. Verse
45 says, Philip findeth Nathanael and said unto him, We found him
of whom Moses in 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. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him, and he saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou was under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered, and saith
unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King
of Israel. And when the Lord saw Nathanael,
he said something amazing. He said, behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. Now this is the all-knowing,
all-seeing God, our Savior, who says this. This is God, our Savior,
before whose eyes all things are open. Our hearts are right
as clear as the noonday sun before Him. Nathaniel, just like all
Adam's children, just like you and I, was a sinner. He was a
sinner. He had a sin nature in which
was nothing but sin. Only guile, only hypocrisy, only
deceit, only craftiness. And yet our all-knowing, all-seeing
Savior said of Nathaniel, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is
no guile. Now here's the good news. For
every true child of God that's been born of God the Holy Spirit,
Our Lord Jesus Christ says this of you, exactly as he said of
Nathanael. Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. That's what our Redeemer says
of each child he's redeemed who's born of his spirit. You're an
Israelite indeed, and in you is no guile. Now first of all,
what does Christ mean by calling Nathanael an Israelite indeed? Well, to be an Israelite is to
be of God's elect Israel, is to be of God's elect Israel,
is to be of the true spiritual Israel of God, His holy nation,
which is made up of king-priests, by Christ our king, by Christ
our priest, by His blood. This is His holy nation. Nathanael
was born in political Israel, but that didn't make him an Israelite
indeed. Our carnal birth's not what determines
if we are an Israelite indeed. Our race has nothing to do with
if we're an Israelite indeed. Our Lord said, through Paul,
he said, they are not all Israel which are of Israel. It'd be
helpful in understanding the scriptures. If we could read
these scriptures and forget about political Israel, and just view
everybody you read about in the scriptures as being just like
a sinner fallen in Adam, in need of God's grace. That'll help
us understand something of these promises God makes in the scripture.
Only God makes an Israelite indeed. It's only when we're born again
of God and circumcised in the heart that we become an Israelite
indeed, a true Jew. Go to Romans 2, and let me show
you this. Romans 2 verse 28 says, he's
not a Jew which is one outwardly, just because he's born into Israel,
just because he outwardly professes to be a child of Abraham or is
naturally. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. He's a Jew which is one inwardly.
circumcisions that of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise, whose commendation is not of men, but of God. Christ looked at, he looked at
Nathanael and he commended him. He said, an Israelite indeed
in whom is no God. What's he commending? He commending
what he created, what he did. what Christ did in Nathanael.
That outward sign of circumcision typified what God does in the
heart. It was given to Abraham long
after God had worked this in his heart, and it was a picture
of what he did in his heart. He creates a new heart whereby
he births us into his kingdom. Not a political kingdom, a spiritual
kingdom. Our Lord Jesus told Nicodemus,
verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. He can't enter into the kingdom
of God. You have to be born into this kingdom to be an Israelite
indeed. And it's the work of God alone.
He alone does this work, it's not of us. We're at the mercy,
we're sinners. We're at the mercy of God to
come to us with his gospel, by his spirit, and work this in
our heart. We can't work this in our heart. But the Lord's
promised this. He said in Deuteronomy 30 verse
6, the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart. He's speaking of
his elect, he's speaking of those Christ's redeemed. The Lord thy
God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed. that
is your spiritual children. Those elect children that'll
be born through your work. He'll circumcise their heart
to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy
soul that thou mayest live. That's what you do when he sheds
abroad in our heart the love of God. He makes you love God.
He makes you love God's command. He makes you love God's gospel
and God's way of salvation. Turn over to Jeremiah 9. The
Pharisees were born in Israel. They were natural sons of Abraham
and they had been circumcised outward in the flesh by men.
And so they thought they were Israelites indeed. And they thought
they were better than the Gentiles because the Gentiles were born
outside of Israel and they hadn't been circumcised. Listen to what
the Lord says here. He says, because you haven't
been circumcised in the heart, there's no difference in you
and the Gentile. Listen to this. Jeremiah 9 verse
25, he said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised. He's talking about in the flesh,
those that are circumcised and those that aren't. I'll punish
all of them. There's the Gentile, Judah, there's Israel, Edom,
there's Gentile, the children of Ammon and Moab and all that
are in the utmost corners that dwell in the wilderness for all
these nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel are
uncircumcised in the heart. That's what he's talking about,
in the heart. So until God works this work, there's no different
than in any of us. But when he works this work,
this is how he unites us. He said in Jeremiah 32, 39, I
will give them one heart. We're born of one spirit and
he gives you one heart. And one way, Christ the way,
that they may fear me forever. for the good of them and of their
children after them, and I will make an everlasting covenant
with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good,
but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart
from me. The true Israel of God are born
again of God, circumcised in heart by God, birthed into his
spiritual kingdom, and it's all of God's grace. That's how we're
Israelites indeed. Now secondly, what did Christ
mean when he said of Nathanael, in whom is no guile? In whom
is no guile? This is the new nature he's speaking
about. He's talking about it's called
in scripture the new heart, the new spirit, the new man, the
inward man is created of the Holy Spirit. In the new man is
no guile. no deceit, no craftiness, no
dishonesty, only pure singleness of heart for Christ. That's in
the new man. This is not something we arrive
at by our doing or gradually. This is something entirely of
the Spirit of Christ. His creation is as much the glory
of Christ as His work on the cross is, and it's as necessary. We have to be redeemed from our
sins, justified from our sin and we have to be born again
and a new man has to be created within us or we can't worship
God. God's elect were crucified with Christ. We were justified
from all our sins. Our old man of sin died in Christ
and was slain and was buried and God remembers him no more. God says his sin, our sin is
put away. He says I'll remember their sin
no more. But just as necessary, we have to be born of the Spirit
of Christ. Christ has to abide in us, and
by His abiding in us, by His righteousness, we're made alive. Righteousness is life. We're
made alive by His righteousness abiding in us, and this new man
must be created within us. It must be created in Christ's
righteousness and Christ's holiness. This is why David said, blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. By Christ's
work on the cross, we have no iniquity to impute before God. And he said this too, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. That's only of the Lord. That's
only the new man created of the Lord. Go to Revelation 14.4,
let me show you. Revelation 14.4. He speaks of the elect in heaven
who were with Christ, and listen to what he says. Verse 4, these
are they which were not defiled with women. We're not defiled
with false religion, with Will Work's religion, with the harlot
Babylon. for they are virgins. We saw the other day the jealous
God, he makes us chaste virgins. Christ makes us chaste. He makes
us holy by his blood and his spirit, by his work for us and
his work in us. And this is the result. These
are they which follow the Lamb with whithersoever he goeth.
These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto
God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found
no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God."
You see, first and foremost, this is in Christ. This is before
God's holy law. When you have no sin, God says,
there's no guile. They're without fault. There's
no guile. There's no maliciousness. There's no hypocrisy. But my
old man is nothing but malice and hypocrisy. Yeah, but he died. He was crucified. Unless that
old man of ours has died to the law, we can't worship God. That
old man has got to be dead or God won't receive us to himself. That man's got to be condemned,
he's got to be crucified, he's got to be dead. And then, by
the spirit of Christ creating this new man, then we can approach
God. And so by Christ abiding in us,
we have this new spirit, which is nogal. Peter said, it's being
born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. When we
were born the first time, we were born of corruptible seeds,
so our nature is corrupt. Our sin nature from Adam is corrupt. But being born of the seed, the
incorruptible seed, there's a new man created that is incorruptible. Peter said, there's within us
the hidden man of the heart which is not corruptible. He's a meek
and a quiet spirit, listen, which in the sight of God is of great
price. That's what Christ was teaching.
He looked at Nathanael and in his sight, he wasn't looking
at sinful Nathanael, he was looking at what he had made. And he said,
behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. It was of great
price, his creation, what he had made. This is what John meant,
go to 1 John 3, 1 John 3.9, this is the new man
he's speaking about right here, listen. He said Christ came to
put an end to the works of the devil and this is, he did it
for us on the cross and then he does it in our heart. And
listen to what he said, whosoever is born of God does not commit
sin. Now listen to what he said, he
does not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin, because he's born of God." Now whatever this
not sinning is, whatever the sin he's talking about is that
a believer cannot commit, it's the one thing that is the manifest
difference between a child of God and a child of the devil.
Is there any sin you can't commit that a child of the devil can
commit? Any? There's just one. There's just
one, and it's by the Spirit of God. Here it is, whosoever doeth
not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother. Now did Christ mean when he looked
at Nathanael and he said he had no guile, did he mean that was
the tenor of his life? Now if you have no guile, you
know that is not what it could mean. if you're honest in your
heart. You know it can't mean that,
because you know that in your old man, you sin all the time. Whosoever says he's without sin
has deceived himself. You know that. Now, it is the
tenor of our life that we don't, the spirit won't let us do the
things our flesh would do. And that's solely to the glory
of God's grace. But he said here, this new man
is born of incorruptible seed and cannot sin, and it's such
a certainty that it manifests a difference between him and
the children of the devil. We have to have the new man to
know what this is, because then we'll be honest with ourselves.
You take a man who's in water, water's not heavy to him, he's
in it, he's in the water. But you take him out of that
water, and put a five-gallon bucket of water on his head,
and it's heavy. When the Spirit of God puts a new man in you,
in which is no guile, he brings you out of that being surrounded
in sin to where now your sin becomes exceedingly sinful to
you. It becomes heavy to you. And you're honest with God then.
The one manifest difference between a child of God and the child
of the devil is this. In our new man, we can't stop
keeping Christ's commandment. We can't. And Christ's commandment
is not the Ten Commandments. He satisfied that law and took
it out of the way, and He gives us His commandment. What is it? Well, He gave it to us in the
negative in verse 9. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. And then
He gives it to us in the positive down in verse 23. This is His
commandment. that we believe on the name of
His Son, Jesus Christ. That's doing righteousness. Because
through faith in Him, we've done the righteousness of God. We
are the righteousness of God. We're robed in His righteousness.
And here's the second part of it, and love one another as He
gave us commandment. Watch this now. He that keepeth
His commandments, is it our strength that we did it? No. You dwell
in Him and He in you. And hereby we know that He abides
in us. This is the only way you know
this, by the Spirit of God that He's given you. That's the only
way we know this. Now, you know that in this new
godless nature, Christ dwells in you and you dwell in Him.
And now, because He does so by the faithful one dwelling in
you, you believe on Him. By His faith, by the faith of
the Son of God, you believe on Him. And through faith in Him,
we've done righteousness. We've established righteousness.
There is no sin. God will not impute sin to us.
We're robed in His righteousness. And by the love of God being
shed abroad in our heart, we love Christ and we love His people. And we love all men. And this
is his work in the heart. And because he abides in you
and he'll never stop abiding in you, what did he say? When
I give them this one way and this one heart, they shall never
depart from me. And he makes it to where the
believer, the one thing a believer cannot do, the one sin you can't
commit is the sin of apostasy. You can't stop believing Christ
and you can't stop loving your brethren. And the result is we
worship God with no guile from the inner man. Philippians 3,
verse 2. This is what it is right here.
Philippians 3, 2. This is to worship God aright
now. And this is by his spirit. Philippians
3, verse 2. He says, beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision, for we are the circumcision. We're the Israelites indeed.
We're the true Jew. And we've been circumcised in
the heart. Now here's the result. We worship
God in the spirit, in that new spirit in which is no guile.
You don't worship God with your flesh. You worship God in spirit,
in this new spirit. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. He's all our salvation. He's
all our salvation. We walk by faith, looking to
him, knowing we're complete in him, and we look to him to receive
all provision that we need in this life. He gives it. And we
have no confidence in our flesh. Now we know, because he's made
us honest in the new man, now we know that our flesh is nothing
but sin. We can't put confidence in it.
I can't put confidence in anything I do, and neither can you. We
draw near to God not in word only, but we draw near to God
in spirit and in truth. because He put a new heart in
us. We have a single eye for Christ,
a single heart for Christ. We want Christ to receive all
the glory. And that's only of God. Now,
I want to show you something here at the end. Notice Christ
looked upon that new man. He looked upon the heart. He
said in verse, John 1, 48, He said unto him, Nathanael said,
Whence knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael was under the fig tree
out of sight. He wasn't doing what he was doing
before men. Now, it doesn't tell us specifically
what he was doing, I'm convinced he was praying to God. He was
reading scripture, probably, and he was communing with God,
and he was praying to God. He was pouring out his heart
to God. Scripture says the prayer of the upright, the prayer of
those without guile, is his delight. And Christ saw him. He wasn't
there physically. He saw him. He's the all-knowing
God. He saw him. He saw that new man
in whom he had communion, that new man he had created. And from
that new heart, the believer's honest with God. From the new
heart, we're honest about who God is and about what God requires. You come to God confessing, God,
you're holy. You require perfect righteousness.
You require perfect holiness. It's not good enough to just
give it your best shot. You require perfection without
sin. You're a holy God. You won't
receive less. And He makes you honest about
yourself. Lord, I'm nothing but sin. Don't you love to be able
to pray to God and just be honest and confess to God? He already
knows it. but he's gonna have you confess
to him what you are and what you've done. And you go to him
and you confess to him, I'm nothing, I'm nothing in myself. And you
mean it. I've never done one righteous
thing in myself ever, ever. Never had a righteous thought.
Never done a righteous deed, never. And He makes you honest
about what you need. Father, I need to be found in
Your Son. I need to be found in His righteousness. Not having a righteousness of
my own, which is of the law. I need to be found in His righteousness. Apart from Him, I have none.
I have nothing. And when He makes you honest
like this, and you pray unto Him, and you know your only rest
is in Him, it's only by His blood, it's in this new man that He's
looking upon you. This is where we have communion
with God. And it's here that He gives you
rest. Here that He makes you know you
have rest with Him. He keeps him in perfect peace,
whose mind is stayed upon Jehovah. And it's that new man that stayed
upon Him, that new heart that stayed upon Him. He keeps you
stayed upon Him. And so Christ saw him, but Christ
speaks here only of what Christ had made him. That's all He says. He doesn't talk about Nathanael's
sin. Was Nathanael a sinner? Of course he was. There was sin
in what he just said. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? He was calling Nazareth a poor, despised place full of
sinners and a place you wouldn't even buy property in. That's
a sketchy neighborhood. What is that? That's a respect
of persons. Of course he was sinful. Christ
don't mention that, does he? He looked on the new man. He
looked on who he had made him to be, robed in his righteousness. And as Paul said, whose praise,
whose commendation is not of men but of God, that inward man
is of great price in his sight. He made him. It took his blood
to make him. And Nathaniel, because he had
this heart of no God, he wasn't praying to be seen of men. He
wasn't doing what he was doing to be seen of men. His fig tree
was his closet where he went to pray out of sight just between
him and his God. And Christ saw him. And he said,
an Israelite indeed in whom is no God. Now brethren, We're not going to have any peace
with God until we understand and see that this is so of us
personally. Your old man is dead before God. You can't tell a sinner that
it'll make him sin. It's the only thing that will
make him not sin. Your old man's dead. There's
a new man, and it's God's creation. And God loves everything He's
created because it's good. It's like God. All you can say
is something's good in a sinner. You best say it is if God made
it, and God says He made it. The end is going to be we're
going to be perfectly righteous within and without. Why not give
Him the glory for what He's already begun in His people, in Spirit? But we also need to learn this
and look at our brethren this way. Paul said this, Romans 7, 17,
he said, when I sin, he said, now then it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me that is
in my flesh, in my sinful flesh dwells no good thing. To will
is present with me in the new man where is no guile. But how
to perform that which is good I find not due to my sinful nature. Do you think that sin nature
was in Nathaniel? Of course it was. But our Lord
Jesus spoke only of the inward man because that old man was
crucified. We need to remember when we see a brother sin, And
we need to remember this about ourselves when we sin. Paul said
of himself, that's not me. That's not the real me. The real
me is the new man. One with Christ. That's the me
that's dead and crucified. But we especially need to learn
this about our brethren because here's what it is. We look at
our brother and we say when they sin, that's not my brother. It's not. That's his sinful old
man of flesh. That's not my brother. And if
I have no doubt, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to
consider myself. I'm going to say to myself in
honesty, God's holding up a mirror for me to see myself in my brother's
sin. Because I'm guilty of that sin.
There's not a sin any of my brethren commit that I'm not guilty of
it. In thought, but a great deal of it indeed. And I have to remember that.
That's me. And I have to remember this.
I'm beholding the old man which was crucified on the cross. I'm
beholding the old man that God says he remembers no more, before
his law. Just like my old man is crucified,
that's what I'm beholding. And I'll remember that my brother's
the new man within, that is wearing his new gown, that one that believes
Christ is his all. and loves Christ and loves his
brethren and is honest about what he is and who he is and
that there's nothing outside of Christ. That's my brother.
When I see him do something good and Christ work, that's my brother. And you know what that'll help
me do? That'll help me go to him humbly
from the inward man without malice, without guile, and say, you're
the man. You're the man. You know what kind of humility
and faith it took for Nathan to say that to David? David could
have had his head taken off. And he went to him and he said,
you're the man, David. And then it'll help me quickly restore
my brother but your sin's forgiven. Why is there forgiveness with
God? That we might fear Him. What did Christ say we're gonna
get if we go to a brother with judgment? Judgment. But what
do we get when we go in mercy? Mercy. Forgiveness breaks your
heart. Forgiveness breaks your heart.
It's the only thing that mortifies the flesh. And then it will give me the
grace to leave him to God. To work in him. And to pray for
him as he does. And I'll show you this. Look,
it's Christ knowing our heart. It's Christ bearing witness with
our spirit that we're that He knows us, that we're His. That's
what mortifies our flesh and strengthens our inward man. As
soon as Christ said this to Nathanael, Nathanael, verse 49, answered
and said to him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art
the King of Israel. What happened? Beholding Christ,
the Spirit bore witness with Him. You're a child of God. Beholding
Christ, the Spirit mortified His flesh. brought forth from
the inward man a confession without guile that said, you are the
Son of God, you're the Master, you're the King. Here's what
I'm saying, look at Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 10. If Christ
be in you, the body's dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we're
debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. For if you live
after the flesh, you shall die. If you try to mortify flesh with
flesh, be it your own flesh or your brother's flesh, if you
try to mortify it with flesh, it's not going to happen. But
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall
live. How's that done? For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. You've
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. You've received
the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father, whereby
He makes you cry, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, you're the
King of Israel. The Spirit itself bears witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. That's
how He mortifies the flesh. That's exactly what He's telling
us. So remember, when you behold
your brother, he's an Israelite indeed, in whom is no God. That's
what Christ made him. That's what Christ made him.
I pray, Lord, help us treat each other that way. Let's stand together. Father, thank you for your grace. Thank you for tender mercies
to wretched, vile, self-righteous sinners that we
are. Lord, thank you for what you did for us on the cross and
what you've done in our heart. Lord, make us to see what you've
made us. Make us to remember what you've
made us. Make us truly worship you without
malice. Make us desire this sincere milk
of the word as we lay off that malicious man of guile and deceit
and hypocrisy. And make us worship you in spirit
and in truth. Don't let us leave. Don't let
us part from you. Lord, keep us looking to you. We just don't have any strength.
We don't have any righteousness. We don't have any faith. We don't
have love. We don't have anything except
what you give us. And Lord, we ask you, make Christ
everything in our hearts so that you, by your Spirit, mortify
the deeds of this sinful flesh. And make us be strengthened in
our inner man so we can truly enter in to this truth and rest
in Christ and not be in bondage and fear and not make each other
fearful. Make us help each other cry out
to God as children. Thank you, Lord, for your mercy.
Thank you for your grace. Thank you for free forgiveness.
We ask it in Christ's name, amen.