With the Lord's help I'd like
to draw your attention to that chapter that we read together
from the Gospel according to John, John chapter 1 and to particularly
base our thoughts today around the latter part of verse 47 of
this chapter, the whole verse reads, Jesus saw Nathanael coming
to him, and said of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. And to base our thoughts today
on this last clause, or the last two clauses, Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. John's Gospel is somewhat different
from the other three Gospels that are here in the New Testament.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they follow a distinctive
pattern. They are mainly narrative, but
John's Gospel is mainly theological. There is interpretation put in
by John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and we believe
all of the Gospels and the rest of the Scriptures of Truth are
inspired by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture, says the Apostle
Paul, is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man
of God may be throughly furnished unto all good works. Matthew
speaks in his narrative about the kingship. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Mark speaks about the immediacy
of salvation wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's as if Mark
is in a hurry to get through his 16 chapters to speak of the
passion and the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the procurement of salvation for a multitude that
no man can number. And Luke, the beloved doctor,
is speaking particularly to the Gentiles. He is writing for the
Gentiles of the Roman Empire. and he is speaking of why the
Lord Jesus Christ came, setting forth the history of the Lord
Jesus, and then he continues in the Book of Acts, speaking,
he says, about the things that Jesus began to do and teach and
then he goes on to speak about the work of the Holy Ghost and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ in the early history of the church,
particularly dealing with the missionary journeys and then
the journey of Paul to Rome itself. But John is somewhat different.
He is speaking about the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter,
in his first epistle, speaks of the sufferings of Christ and
the glory that should follow. But here John is speaking about
the glory of the eternal Son of God. And in this chapter he's
speaking about the eternity of the Lord Jesus Christ. First
of all, he speaks about Him as the Creator. we go back into
the book of Genesis and we see the opening words of the Bible
Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1 where we read in the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth the scientists are squabbling
and bringing forth their theories as to what happened in the beginning
well, the book of Genesis tells us what happened in the beginning
there was nothing the scientists say there was a big bang or some
other cataclysmic event which brought our solar system into
being well for there to be a big bang there must be some combustible
material and there must be oxygen and there must be electricity
or some kind of spark that would cause that big bang but the scriptures
of truth they go back even further than that and they go right back
to the very beginning And in the beginning, he says, God created
the heaven and the earth. And here in the opening verses,
in the prologue of John's Gospel, we are told that the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who created all things. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made
by him, and without him was not anything made. that was made.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity, he
is the one who formed this world and formed the whole of the solar
system and all of those planets that are out there and are out
there waiting for scientists with their electro telescopes
to to actually find and trace but we're quite clear here in
the scriptures of truth that God made all things and that
the Lord Jesus Christ was the creator of these things and of
course the logical conclusion from that is that if God created
all things and if the Lord Jesus Christ created all things then
the Lord Jesus Christ is divine he's not a god He is God. He
is part of the everlasting trinity, part of the eternal trinity.
We worship and serve a triune God. God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Ghost. A trinity of persons in the one
Godhead. Not a minor God, not an inferior
God, not a God created by man. but a God that existed forever. The very nature of God is that
he is eternal, and so God existed forever, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
he existed in eternity past. And John goes on to say that that the Lord Jesus existed before
all worlds. Verse 27 of this chapter, here
it is, who coming after me, this is John the Baptist speaking,
here it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose
shoes latches I am not worthy to unloose. Why is the Lord Jesus preferred before his cousin John
the Baptist. Well, it is there here in verse
30. This is he of whom I said, and
again this is John the Baptist speaking, after me cometh a man
which is preferred before me, before he was before me. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
neither beginning of days nor ending of days. John writes in
his book of the Revelation in chapter 1 concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ that he is the one that is alive. Indeed, the Lord
Jesus appeared to John in the Isle of Patmos on that Lord's
Day many years ago, and the Lord Jesus said to John the Apostle,
I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen, and have the keys of hell
and of death. This is confirmed by the Apostle
Paul in that great chapter in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, in
which the Apostle Paul brings forth the proof of the resurrection. He says that there are many witnesses.
He says Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. that he was seen of Cephas then
of the twelve and after that he was seen of about five hundred
brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this
present that is when Paul was writing but some he says are
fallen asleep the Lord Jesus Christ is alive and he is the
eternal son of God, the one who came down to this earth, who
came incarnate. He was found in fashion as a
man, says the Apostle Paul. He humbled himself and became
obedient unto death, even the death. of the cross. And then
the third person of course in the Trinity is the Holy Ghost.
He is the one who the Lord Jesus said was sent from the Father
and also the Son in that last discourse of the Lord Jesus in
John chapter 14, 15 and 16 the Lord Jesus said that the Spirit
proceeded from the Father and also from the Son the Trinity
working in unison together and working in covenants together
in what the theologians call the inter-Trinitarian covenants
whereby they resolve between themselves to save a multitude
that no man can number, and every one of those for whom Christ
died. Everyone, they will be brought to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and every one of them will be saved with an everlasting
salvation of God. Old William Parks, the old Calvinistic Anglican divine
of the 19th century, he preached a sermon with the title, everyone
of the lost family of God saved with an everlasting salvation.
And that's true. Everyone will be there. there
is not one soul in hell and there never will be one soul in hell
for whom Christ died there is not one that is given to Christ
who will fail of that salvation the devil will never be able
to parade round hell with a soul and say this is a soul for whom
Christ died who could not be saved it doesn't rest on man's
free will our salvation does not rest on man's free will it
does not rest upon our decision it rests upon what Christ and
what Christ alone has done and the application of that redemption
in the Lord Jesus Christ that redemption that he purchased
upon Calvary that he finished he is a complete saviour, the
Lord Jesus Christ And this is what John is writing about in
this first chapter and in this gospel that he wrote under the
inspiration of the Spirit of God. He is writing about that
complete salvation in Christ that the Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished. Remember how the Lord Jesus prayed
in the 17th chapter of John's gospel, it's recorded for us.
he says, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou
hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the
world and the Lord Jesus Christ's prayers we know are answered
and they are always answered the Lord Jesus said that his
prayers are always answered so when the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
for his church Those prayers are answered and every one of
them will be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every one will
be brought to him. We sang that hymn to commence
with, and I don't choose the hymns when I come here, but that's
hymn by Hearts. What comfort can a saviour bring
to those who never felt their woe? A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
New life from him we must receive, before for sin we rightly grieve. And that is the work of Christ,
and that is the work of the Holy Ghost, in that he brings us by
that way that we know not. He brings us to see that we're
sinners. He brings us to see that Christ
is the only way of salvation. He brings us to call upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. When we read those words repeated
twice in this chapter of John the Baptist, Behold the Lamb
of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and then verse
36, Behold the Lamb of God And again Pilate, when the Lord Jesus
stood by the side of Pilate on the pavement, Gabbatha, Pilate
points to him and says to the crowd, behold your king, behold
your king. And then he says, behold the
man. Have we been brought by the Spirit
of God to behold the Lord Jesus Christ? Have we been brought
to see him as the only saviour of sinners? The Lord Jesus Christ
did not put man in a salvable state. Remember how in Matthew's
Gospel the angel appeared to Joseph. and there he is told
that he will call the name of the child that Mary is carrying
that is conceived of the Holy Ghost and the angel says she
shall bring forth a son thou shalt call his name Jesus for
he shall save his people from their sins he is the saviour
he doesn't make salvation possible he actually accomplishes that
salvation. You see, our state is like that
of the psalmist, as spoken in Psalm 40. The psalmist said,
I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me, and
heard me, and I cried. He brought me up also out of
an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. It is, we are the sinner, we
are in that pit of sin, we're in the miry clay, and oh, how
sin stains! how sin corrupts and we can't
do anything about it the more we struggle the more smeared
with the miry clay we become and the religions of this world
they lean over the edge of the pit and they say well reach up
a little bit and I'll grab you by the hand and lift you out
of the miry pit and out of the clay and a great deal of Evangelical
religion is exactly the same reach up and the Lord will save
you but no, the Lord Jesus Christ came he came down to this sinful
world and he comes down to where we are and here it is that lifts
us up and puts us on that rock and he set my feet upon a rock
and established my goings. And we have that new song put
into our mouths. The Lord Jesus Christ is here
in this chapter, the eternal Son of God and the author of
eternal salvation. And then John goes on to write
about these two disciples. We're only told the name of one
of them, who is Andrew, but two of these disciples, they heard
John speaking about the Lord Jesus,
behold, the Lamb of God. and those two disciples followed
the Lord Jesus and the Lord Jesus asked them what do you want? what seek ye? and so they answer
Rabbi where dwellest thou? what a mercy it is to be brought
to ask that question to want to be with the Lord Jesus Christ
and with that desire do we have that real desire to be in the
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well the blessing is for the
child of God that Christ is with him. Paul speaks about the Lord
Jesus Christ being with his people. He says that we are rooted and
built up in him, established in the faith. This is from Paul's
epistle to the Colossians. where he is speaking of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the experience of the child of God. As ye have
therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him,
rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. And he speaks about the hope of the
child of God He has been Christ in you, the hope of glory. The parting words of the Lord
Jesus to his disciples were, Lo, I am with you always, even
to the end of the world. and so it is a mercy to be brought
to that place where we are brought to say where dwellers stand have
we been brought to that place where we desire to be with the
Lord Jesus Christ where we desire to be in the Lord Jesus Christ
and the Lord Jesus answers with those words come and see words
that are repeated by Philip to Nathanael in verse 46, come and
see. There are words that are taken
from the book of Psalms. 6 and verse 8. We know that psalm,
do we not? God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble. And in the third section of this
psalm, from verse 8, the psalmist is speaking about the works of
God, the works of the Lord. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. Come, behold,
or come and see. Come and see these things. See
the work of God. We've mentioned the work of creation.
but there is a greater work than that there is a new creation
that new creation in the heart of the sinner that work of conversion,
that work of redemption that was accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ in his active and in his passive obedience come,
behold the works of the Lord and then the psalmist goes on
to say, be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth." And the psalmist
goes on in Psalm 66, come and see the works of God. He is terrible
in his doing toward the children of men." And that word terrible,
in the original Hebrew, it literally means to be in awe of, to be
in awe of the work of God, to reverence God. his works are terrible in that
the work of God the Holy Ghost in the heart is that first of
all he brings us to see our state before God the rebel before God
that sinful state, that awful state that's standing in jeopardy
before a holy God and a holy judge the criminal stands in
the court, he's in the dock and he makes his plea whether it's
guilty or not guilty and then the evidence, if he pleads not
guilty, the evidence is brought before the court, before the
jury and his pleas of innocence are gradually winnowed away because
the evidence stacks up against him and then the jury goes out
and deliberates on the evidence and they come back and find the
prisoner guilty or not guilty and in a particular case where
the criminal is judged to be guilty the judge sits there and
he pronounces a sentence and the sinner is brought into
the court of Almighty God, as it were He is brought before
a living God. He is, I prouse, guilty. Guilty
before God. and the standard that is used
is that of the in the book of Exodus in chapter 20 where the
law is delineated I am the Lord thy God which hath brought thee
out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage thou
shalt have no other gods before me and so Moses goes on writing
those ten commandments which sum up the law of God and every
one of those commandments we have broken in either thought,
word or deed and when we are brought in before God we are
found guilty before God the law is good if a man uses it lawfully
Paul says that he had not known sin but by the law but when the
law came to him it wrote in him all manner of concupiscence and
he found that before God he was a guilty sinner and cries out,
O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body
of this death? then he goes on to say, I thank
my God through our Lord Jesus Christ he would come back again
to the second person of the Trinity the Lord Jesus Christ the psalmist
again speaks by terrible things in righteousness thou would answer
us, O God of our salvation who art the confidence of all the
ends of the earth and of them that are far off upon the sea
the sinner has been brought in guilty before God by that terrible
work he is terrible in his doing toward the children of men the
psalmist speaks about that terrible work things in righteousness
and we are brought to see the Lord Jesus Christ what a mercy
it is if we're brought to see the Lord Jesus Christ when we
see his hanging upon the cross by faith we look upon him hanging
upon the cross this man, this second person of the Holy Trinity
this eternal Son of God hanging there between heaven and earth
nailed to the cross He who is holy, harmless, undefiled and
separate from sinners. He who knew no sin was made sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We see that terrible justice
of God being poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. crying
out in anguish well before he cried out in anguish the night
before before he was taken by the temple guards he is there
in the garden and he is crying to his father with strong cryings
and tears we read in the book of Hebrews we read how the Lord
Jesus prayed to his father, Father if it be possible let this cup
pass from me nevertheless not what I will but what thou wilt
I think it's in Luke's gospel that we're told that he sweat
as it were great drops of blood and an angel came and strengthened
him in the garden we're not told what the angel said or how he
strengthened him but I like to think that the angel and it's
pure supposition on my part, but I like to think that the
angel referred the Lord Jesus to that wonderful chapter in
Isaiah 53 where he says, he pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath
put him to grief where thou shalt make his soul an offering for
sin he shall see his seed and shall prolong his days and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand he shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities and the
iniquity of the whole church was laid upon the Lord Jesus
Christ placed upon him and there he was taken from the garden
taken first of all to the Sanhedrin, taken to Pilate mocked and scourged
by the Roman soldiers and finally crucified upon the cross the
angel strengthened him that night before and as I say, I like to
think that it was with the promise with the promise of God his Father
that he shall justify many that he would rise from the dead triumphant
over death and hell by terrible things in righteousness wilt
thou answer us and the answer to our sin is in that work of
redemption accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ all my iniquities
on him were laid he nailed them all to the tree Jesus the debt
of my sinfully paid he paid the ransom for me can you say that? oh it's easy to sing it it is
easy to sing hymns and what we're doing really is singing the tunes
I like to listen to opera to some of the grand opera and I
can't understand a word that is being sung I can't understand
the Italian or the French in which the operas are more often
than not written but what I like and what I do is I follow the
music and often when we sing hymns we're exactly the same
we don't understand a word that we sing in the hymn books we
sing the music that is played on the organ so that we might
be taught by the spirit of God to understand those things that
are written for us by terrible things in righteousness thou
wilt answer us and the Lord Jesus died upon the cross that he might
redeem and pay the price for our salvation where dwellest
thou? well they said come and see the
Lord Jesus said come and see and they abode with him for it
was about the tenth hour that's about four o'clock in the afternoon
the Jewish day began at six o'clock in the morning and ended at six
o'clock in the evening and then from six at night through to
six in the morning it was classed as the night so around about
four o'clock in the afternoon so these people came and lodged
with him these two disciples of John lodged with the Lord
Jesus they came to him and they stayed with him and again what
a mercy it is if we come if we are brought by the Spirit of
God to the Lord Jesus. What a mercy it is to stay with
the Lord Jesus Christ, to stay with Him all the days of our
life here upon earth and then to be with Him in glory. Thou will guide me, says the
psalmist, with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. And so we have then the account
of Peter being brought to the Lord
Jesus, verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus
beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou
shalt be called Cephas, or Cephas, which is, by interpretation,
a stone. Similar words were spoken by
the Lord Jesus Christ, to Peter, because Simon and Peter and Cephas
are all the same person, spoken by the Lord Jesus, recorded first
in the 16th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, and it says, And I say
unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
it is not true to say that the church is built upon Peter if
we look at the Greek in which the New Testament was originally
built there are two words used here one is petros and the other
is petra petros means a stone petra means a rock petros is
a stone What the Lord Jesus says here in verse 42, Thou art Simon,
the son of Jonah, and thou shalt be called Petros. A stone or a pebble, like the
pebbles you see on the beach, a little stone. And here in Matthew
16, verse 18, the Lord Jesus is saying the same, Thou art
Petros, and upon Petra I will build my church. in Matthew chapter 7 we have
the wise man building it the parable of the wise and foolish
man. And the wise man built his house
upon a rock. Therefore, says the Lord Jesus,
whoso heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will
liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon the rock.
We've referred already to Psalm 40, where the psalmist says that
he was brought out of the myrtle clay and set my feet upon a rock.
and established my goings. Well, what is this rock? The
Church says the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians is built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself
being the chief cornerstone. Elsewhere in the Psalms it says
that Christ is the rock, the stone that was rejected of men,
has become the head of the corner, which is reiterated in the early
part of the Book of Acts. a stone or a rock. Upon what
are we building? Are we building upon a stone?
Or are we building upon the rock? The rock Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
one upon whom the church is built. Upon that rock of revelation,
that revealing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the Simon Peter is brought to the
Lord Jesus Christ and then moving from verse 43 into this section
dealing with Philip and Andrew. Philip, first of all, was cold. The Lord Jesus said to him, and
then Philip finds Nathaniel and says unto him, We have found
him of whom Moses and the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel was not impressed that's
to say the least he says can any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Nazareth was regarded as a place the lowest of the low in Galilee
you just didn't live in Nazareth unless you had to you chose the
better parts of Galilee to live in it's the same, I come from
the city of Sheffield if you have the opportunity to live
where you want in Sheffield you will always go to the south of
Sheffield you'll never go to the north you'll never go down
Attercliffe and Tinsley which used to be the heavy industry
that was not considered to be a desirable place to live it
was always the south of Sheffield Woodseeds and Beechiff and other
places in that area and the property prices reflected that of course
and it was the same in Galilee, you didn't choose to live in
Nazareth and so Nathanael asks this question, can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? Philip repeats those words, come
and see And Jesus sees Nathanael coming and he says to him, Behold
an Israelite indeed in whom is no God. Well, our time is up
and so we'll continue with the Lord's help this evening, considering
the words of the Lord Jesus, Behold an Israelite indeed in
whom there is no Gael, and then the further words of the Lord
Jesus. Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. But in the meantime, I trust
the Lord will add his blessing to these few thoughts, and then
with his help, we'll continue this evening considering the
words of the Lord Jesus. The Lord add his blessing.