We're going to read from the
scripture now if you want to turn in your Bibles to John,
the book of John chapter 5. We're going to begin at verse
17 and I want to read through the end of this chapter, verse
17 of John chapter 5 to the end of the chapter. What we're about
to read are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ spoken when
those who were confident in their own righteousness before God
and trusted in their own obedience to God's law and were therefore
arrogant and judged the Lord Jesus Christ for healing a man
on the Sabbath day. These who opposed him were those
to whom the Lord speaks here. And yet he didn't speak just
to them, but to us also. And so these words are very,
very important. And I have chosen this particular
text of scripture because it helps us in our subject today,
which is from John chapter one. So here we're going to read,
and this should help prep us for that. Verse 17 of John chapter
5, But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and
I work. Therefore the Jews sought the
Moor to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal
with God. Then answered Jesus, and said
to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, the Son can do nothing
of himself but what he seeth the Father do. For what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father
loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater
works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them, gives them life, even so the
Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judges no man,
but has committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. Verily,
verily, I say to you, he that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Verily, verily,
I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. and hath given him authority
to execute judgment also, because he is the son of man. Marvel
not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that
are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,
they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.
I can of mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment
is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the
Father which has sent me. If I bear witness of myself,
my witness is not true. There is another that beareth
witness of me, and I know that the witness which he witnesseth
of me is true. You sent to John, and he bear
witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from
man, but these things I say, that you might be saved. He was
a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season
to rejoice in His light. But I have greater witness than
that of John, for the works which the Father hath given me to finish,
the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father
has sent me. And the Father Himself which
hath sent me hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard
His voice at any time, nor seen His shape, and you have not His
word abiding in you, for whom He has sent Him you believe not. Search the Scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which
testify of me. And you will not come to me that
you might have life. I receive not honor from men,
but I know you that you have not the love of God in you. I
am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not. If another
shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you
believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the
honor that cometh from God only? Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one. that accuseth you
even Moses in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you
would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe
not his writings, how shall you believe my words? All right,
I just wanted to read that without comment to you, although it deserves
a ton of comment. I wanted to read that in preparation
for our sermon from John chapter one, let's pray. Father, thank
you for these words from the Lord Jesus Christ, your only
begotten Son. Thank you that they carry such
authority, the authority of God himself, the authority of the
Son of Man, whom you have appointed as the judge of all, that all
men should honor him even as they honor the Father. Thank
you for his authority, and even though we are as sinners intimidated
and cannot even Consider that we would be allowed into his
presence, yet he himself has given us warrant, instructing
us to look to him and come to him. And so we find all that
we need as sinners to come to the Lord Jesus in his own words,
and what a blessing that is. Now we pray you'd bless your
word to our hearts, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. John chapter
one. I wanna begin in John chapter
one with verse 45. It says, Philip findeth Nathanael,
and I've entitled this message, Nathanael as Every Believer. And we'll get into this, hopefully,
and you will be so comforted and encouraged by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, by what we read here. Verse 45, Philip
findeth Nathanael, and saith to him, We have found him of
whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said to him, Can
there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said
to him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him and saith of him, This is Jesus speaking about Nathanael,
behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathanael
saith to him, whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said
to him, before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith
to him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of
Israel. Jesus answered and said to him,
because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest
thou? Thou shalt see greater things
than these. And he saith to him, verily, verily, I say to you,
hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. All right. So I want to
point out a few things here from this text of scripture, which
I say are spoken concerning Nathaniel, but yet it's not spoken concerning
Nathaniel only, but of every believer. That's why we find
it greatly comforting to us. Nathaniel. The name Nathaniel
is also used in the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament it's
called Nethaniel. And several men in the Old Testament
had the name Nethaniel or Nathaniel as it says in the New Testament.
And the name means gift of God, gift of God. And we're gonna
see here how Nathanael himself was a gift of God and how Nathanael
learned who the gift of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
Nathanael means gift of God. And you can see in verse 46 that
Nathanael was skeptic. He said, can any good thing come
out of Nazareth? And I love the answer that Philip
gave to him by the inspiration of God, come and see, come for
yourself, come see for yourself, come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
see if his word doesn't convince you, see if you're not drawn
to him. And so he's told just like we
are, you come, you come and see the Lord Jesus Christ, see him
for yourself and see if the Lord doesn't by his grace convince
you of who he is. And then I want you to see at
least six things here in this text of scripture. First of all,
in verse 45, Philip said that we have found him of whom Moses
in the Law and the Prophets did write. And so I wanna look at
that. This is the word of God written.
Why is it so important that the Lord has given us the message
of Christ in the Old Testament? And secondly, I want you to see
in Nathaniel that he himself as a gift of God is a prototype
of every believer. What is said of him is said to
all of God's people and it's true of all of them. All of God's
people are given to the Lord Jesus Christ by God the Father.
And third, I want you to see how that when the Lord Jesus
Christ sees his people, he sees us as we are before we know him. He sees us and knows us before
we see and know him. And fourth, I want you to see
that when the Lord knows us, he makes himself known to us,
and therefore we know him and we believe on him. And that's
seen when Nathaniel said, thou art the son of God, thou art
the king of Israel. And then fifth, I want you to
see that the Lord Jesus speaks of Nathanael as he sees all of
his people. What's true of him and spoken
of him is true of them. He was an Israelite indeed, a
person in whom is no guile. And then sixth, and then finally,
the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.
I want you to look with me at that when we get there to see
how God has blessed his people through the Lord Jesus Christ.
First of all, notice in verse 45 that Philip told Nathanael,
we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did
write. When we read that, we as believers
who have been used to hearing the word of God, that the Old
Testament speaks of Christ, we kind of let that pass over us,
don't we? It just almost rolls off of our
back, as it were, when we hear the words, the scriptures speak
of Christ. But we need to let those words
sink deeply into our thoughts and into our minds to realize
the significance of them. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
speak these things, I mean, these things weren't spoken by God
of him, coincidentally or without significance. But it's always
the case that when God speaks to us concerning what he's written
in his word, there's a great importance of that. So here we
see that when God says that the Old Testament prophets speak
of Christ, that this is the message of the Old Testament, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jesus himself said in John 5,
where we just read a moment ago, that the scriptures speak of
him. They speak of Christ. In them,
Jesus said, you think you have eternal life, but these are they
which speak of me. They speak of him. So this is
the first thing. All of the Bible, all of the
Bible speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing.
And this is very important. The authority that we have to
claim, to make any claim about our relationship to God, about
the truth of who God is, about the truth of who we are, and
about the truth of God's salvation is only found in the Word of
God, the Bible. You can't discover the things
of God by looking out into space, or by looking inside yourself,
or by examining history, or by listening to the man's philosophy,
or looking in a microscope, or looking at measuring instruments,
or considering the religions of man. You cannot discover the
truth of God in any other way than God has revealed it in the
written word of God. Very important. Jesus said, search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life,
and they are they which testify of me. So when Philip told Nathaniel
that they found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write, he's given us what we understand then is the truth
of the way things are. This is God's mind written, God's
own mind revealed to us in the written word of God. It's so
significant, so important. In school, you've probably learned
the term axiom, and it means something that can't be proved
but is the starting point of all other proofs. Scripture is
the axiom. It's the beginning point. It's
the foundation on which everything we know about God and ourselves
and about Christ is the only authority. You can't prove the
Bible, can you? God has spoken. God is true. To doubt what God has said is
to call God into question. I'm not sure he speaks the truth.
You see what that means? The implications are if we doubt
God's word, we doubt God himself. We make God a liar and we prove
ourselves to be liars when we doubt God's word. That's how
significant this is. And the fact that God's word
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and our salvation by him is incomprehensibly
wonderful that God would stoop so low as to speak to sinners
like ourselves about our only salvation. God is intimidating
to us and should be because we're sinful, but he has spoken of
his son and he has set him forth and sent him into the world to
save his people from their sins. What could be more wonderful
than that? All right, so I won't belabor this point, but just
take those words. In the law and the prophets,
God has spoken of his son and realize this is the foundation
of our faith. This is the foundation of all
that we believe that God has spoken concerning his son. All
right, the second thing I want you to see here. is that Nathaniel's
name, which means gift of God, shows that he himself was given
in this text of scripture and highlighted here to teach us
two things. First of all, that what he said
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ was taken by the Holy Spirit
through the Apostle John in order to support his main goal of writing
this book. In John's gospel, he said, these
things were written that you might believe, that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing
you might have life through his name. And so it's no wonder that
John takes the testimony of Nathanael when he said, thou art the Son
of God, thou art the King of Israel, and records this historical
account of Jesus bringing Nathanael to himself through Philip, and
taking that testimony of his, of Nathanael's, to prove what
John, by the Spirit of God, was trying to do for all of us, which
was to convince us that Jesus is the Son of God. He's the Son of God. And so that's
the first thing in Nathanael that we see. But his name, which
means gift of God, also shows that he was used to show us that
he is a prototype, a representative of all of God's people. That
what he said and what Jesus said about him is true of all of us
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. No one belongs to the
Lord Jesus Christ but those who believe on him. And that faith
is given to us. We don't generate it. We can't
produce it from ourselves. We're utterly dependent upon
God to give us this grace of faith, to trust Christ, to understand
who He is. And that faith comes to us when
God convinces us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
God's Christ, the King of Israel, the one sent by God to save His
people from their sins. And we ourselves trust Him. When I read the Bible as a sinner,
it intimidates me because I find there a description of people
that I can't say I conform to that. I don't measure up to that. I can't say I'm like that good
ground in the parable of the four grounds where one, the seed
fell by the wayside and the birds of the air picked it up and took
it away, or the ground that had no depth and the the plant sprung
up and withered away because its roots were withered by the
sun or the one that was choked by thorns. I can't find myself
in that good ground, not myself, unless God shows me that I'm
just like the first three grounds and he convinces me that only
by the Lord Jesus Christ can I receive his word. And then
I plead with him, Lord, put your word deep in my heart and give
me what I can't produce and do not have, grace to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Nathaniel's name here
means gift of God. And if you look at John chapter
six, In verse 37, I'll just read this to you, in John 6, 37, Jesus
says, the Father himself which has sent me, I'm sorry, in verse
37 of John 6, I was reading the wrong chapter. He says, all that
the Father, notice, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. Nathanael's name means gift of
God. God the Father has given to his
son a people. Every one of them are God's gift
to his son. Now, the Lord Jesus is God the
Son, and God the Father has given these people to his son, and
he has given these people to him to save them, to have them
as his own. And so we are the gift of God
to his son. Look at John chapter 17 in the
same gospel, John's gospel, John chapter 17 in verse two, Jesus
says, he's praying to his father. He says, as thou has given him,
speaking of himself, power over all flesh, over everybody in
the world, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. So God the Father has given to
the Lord Jesus Christ his Son a people, and he has given them
to Christ that he would give them eternal life. Look at verse
6. In the same chapter, John 17,
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. See, they were given to him.
Look at verse nine. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them. You see that? He says
in verse 11, Now I am no more in the world, but these are in
the world, and I am come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me. I could go on and on. You see, every believer is given
by the father to the son that the son would give them eternal
life and the way he would do that is he would give himself
as a sin offering for their sins, offering himself to God in sacrifice
that he might obtain for them a righteousness and through that
righteousness give them everlasting life. All right, so we see in
Nathanael here that he is a prototype of every believer, and we're
gonna see more of that in a moment here. But then we see in verse
48, it says, Nathanael said to Philip, to the Lord Jesus Christ,
when he came to him, he says, whence knowest thou me? Jesus
had said in verse 47, you're an Israelite indeed, and Nathanael
said, Since when do you know me? And Jesus answered and said
to him, before Philip called thee, when thou was under the
fig tree, I saw thee. So clearly before Nathanael came
to Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ saw Nathanael. And this was what
caused Nathanael to exclaim in the next verse, you were the
son of God. You were the king of Israel.
Christ sees his people and he sees them wherever they are.
And he not only sees them like I see Mary or I see Francis,
but he sees them as he sees those whom he loves because they were
given to him by his father. He sees them as his sheep, those
he came to find, to search for and find and bring and save and
feed. He sees them as his beloved bride
whom he came to give himself for and then he gives himself
to in everlasting life. He gave himself for them and
sacrificed that he might give himself to them for eternal life. So the Lord Jesus Christ sees
his people and it's because he sees us that he makes himself
known to us. We don't first know the Lord
and then he says, oh look, here's a poor sinner seeking for me.
I'll take recognition of him and save that poor rascal. It's
not like that at all. We don't first come to God and
then he recognizes us. We don't first love him, he first
loved us. And it says in scripture in Romans
5 that he loved us even when we were enemies. Because that
love didn't come from us, it didn't come to us because of
anything in us. It came to us because of the
goodness that is in God himself. because of His grace. So the
Lord sees us, and because He sees us, then He brings us to
Himself. Then He makes Himself known.
So we're always, because of this, we are always indebted, and we
always should think in ourselves that whatever comes to me in
a way to turn me to the Lord Jesus Christ came from His hand. And His will, which was long
before I knew Him, before I was even born, He knew me and gave
Himself for me. because he's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. You see that God is bigger than
you are? Do you see that his thoughts
are before yours, that his goodness precedes anything in you? That
every blessing comes to us because of his will and his goodness
and his wisdom and his purpose of grace? The purpose of grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
according to 2 Timothy 1.9. So the Lord Jesus Christ saw
Nathanael. And that's why he said, before
that Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw
you. And so this is a wonderful thing.
Now, because the Lord sees us, he makes himself known to us.
In verse 49, Nathanael answered and said, because of this, because
of Christ's knowledge of him beforehand, he says, you are
the son of God. You are the king of Israel. The
king of Israel is the Christ. He's the one God promised in
Old Testament scripture, the son of God. And who is the son
of God? Well, he's the only begotten
of the Father. He's the one who was with the
Father from eternity. If I have a son and I have two
sons, my sons have my nature. They have my characteristics.
They have strengths and weaknesses like their father. They're every
bit as intelligent and more so because they also have Denise's
DNA, and strength as their father. They're as big as I am, approximately,
a little bigger. So you see that there's this
comparison between the son and the father. Now, when we talk
about the son of God, we have to understand that God means
by this that everything that the father is, the son also is. Everything that God is, is found
in the Son, because He is equal with God. In John chapter 5,
where we were a little bit ago, it said that the Jews said, because
He says He's the Son of God, He is equal with God. They were
right. To be the Son of God, as is spoken
of here, the Son of God is equal with God, because He is God.
Everything that God is, the Son is. And in Psalm 45 and in Hebrews
1, verse 8, God, speaking by the Holy Spirit in the scriptures,
said, unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever
and ever. This is what God the Father says
to His Son, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And in Hebrews
1, verse 2, He says that Christ the Son is the heir of all things. Now, when I have six children
and all of my children are my heirs, they all receive whatever
I have. When I'm no longer alive, they
will have all that I have. It'll all go to them. And the
Lord Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God. What does
the Father have? Everything. When we think of
everything, we think of creation. We kind of stop short, but there's
all of heaven. There's all the angels. There's
everything that God has created. Principalities and powers. Things
seen and things unseen. Everything, all authority, all
power, All glory, all honor, all holiness that is in the Father,
and all that He has created, the reason He did all that He
did, and the aim and purpose of the Father in all of eternity
is for His Son. He's the heir of all things. He gives life to whomsoever He
will, and He judges as it seems good to Him. He's the Son of
God. Now, when Nathanael says this,
he's looking at someone who outwardly you could not tell by looking
at him that he was any different than any other ordinary man.
He didn't have a glow around his head, as the Catholics like
to put him, or as other people do in art. He didn't have no
glow around his head. In fact, when they looked upon
him in Isaiah 53, it says, there was no form or comeliness that
we should desire him. He looked just like an ordinary
person. You knew he was the son of God by what he said and by
what he did. God's testimony of his son was
by what he did. And there was nothing more that
testified that he was the Son of God than when he raised himself
from the dead, when God himself raised Christ from the dead and
vindicated all that he said about himself that he was the Son of
God. The Son of God is infinite God. The Son of God is almighty God. He is holy, holy, holy. And when
Isaiah saw him, he fell on his face and he said, woe is me,
I am undone. Because I've seen the Lord, the
Lord of hosts, the armies of heaven report to him and they
are sent by him at his word and by his will. Everything was created
by his word and was created for him, for his glory. And he upholds
all things by the word of his power. The brightness of God's
glory is seen in the sun and he is the exact image. The exact
duplicate of the Father. He's the Son of God. Eternal
as the Father is eternal. There's never a beginning, never
an end with him. He's the Son of God. And Nathanael
looks upon him. You are the Son of God. That
is amazing, isn't it? No man can know this except God
make it known. And he did it from the scriptures. He did it when he saw Jesus.
Everyone can read the scriptures. But only God can unfold them
to convince us this is the truth, and Christ is the Son of God. Everyone who believes Jesus is
the Son of God is born of God. All right, that's the next thing
I wanted to show you here. that because Christ knows His
people, He makes Himself known to them, the Son of God, the
Christ of God, the Savior of His people. But now notice when
Jesus saw Nathanael coming in verse 47. He says, Jesus saw
Nathanael coming to Him and He said to him, Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. Now, the Jews are Israelites. In other words, they're all born,
they can all trace their lineage back to Abraham. And they assumed,
the Jews assumed, that because they were born through Abraham,
therefore they're Jews. And on one level, that's true,
because they were physically descended from Abraham, they're
called Jews or Israelites. Abraham had a son named Isaac,
Isaac had a son named Jacob, and God called him Israel. All
of his descendants were called Israelites. But within that nation,
within that people who descended from Abraham, God says that not
all of them were true Israelites. It says in Romans 9, verse 6,
not everyone who is of Israel is truly an Israelite, but only
the children of promise. And he gives an example, Isaac
was born, he was considered the son of Abraham, but Ishmael also
who was born to Abraham was not his son, was not his true son.
Likewise, Esau and Jacob were twins, both born to Rebekah,
but only Jacob was chosen by God as a true Israelite. And
we can see this throughout scripture, but look at Romans chapter 2.
I want you to understand the difference here that God is making.
He's calling Nathanael a true Israelite indeed. He says in
Romans chapter 2 verse 28. Notice, these are God's words.
He says, he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. If you're just
born to Abraham, that doesn't make you a true Jew. Neither, he says, neither is
that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. The Jewish people
were required to circumcise their male children, and that was their
sign of showing that they were Jews. And Paul says, no, that
does not make you a Jew. Just because you were born and
your parents circumcised you in the flesh, you are not truly
circumcised. He goes on, he says, but he is
a Jew which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men, but of God. Notice two things here. First
of all, to be a true Israelite, God has to do something, and
he does it not on the outside, but on the inside of us. Secondly,
when God does this, he says, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. God always commends his own work. And what work is that? To make
us his people, to make us truly the children of Abraham. And
what is the evidence that we are God's people, that we've
been born of God, that we've been circumcised, as he says
here, in the heart, in the spirit? Well, he tells us in Galatians
chapter three that we are children of God through faith in Jesus
Christ. Everyone who belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ is a true son of Abraham. So when God, when Jesus
says to Nathanael and Israelite indeed, he's showing here that
he came into the world and he came to a people who were called
the Jews, but not all of them were truly God's people. He says,
many are called, but few are chosen. He told his disciples,
to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God,
but to them which are without, it is not given. So that God
himself has to give us eternal life. We're dependent upon him
as sinners to look upon us and to have mercy upon us and to
do so through the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, we cannot
save ourselves. We can't make a decision for
Christ in order to get ourselves into the kingdom of God. We can't
raise our hand and make it happen. We can't do something to make
it happen. It's not by our obedience. It's
not by our sincerity. God does this, and God alone,
and he does it through the Lord Jesus Christ, an Israelite indeed. Now he goes on, he says, he's
gonna tell us what happens when he does this. In the same verse,
verse 47, he says, in whom is no guile. The word guile means
trickery, double-mindedness. He says one thing, but he's really
a different way. In Psalm chapter 12, it says
it this way. Let me read this to you in Psalm
chapter 12 and verse two, he says, They speak vanity every
one with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart
do they speak. A double heart means there's
compromise. There's always like a double
entendre. There's another meaning behind
it. There's a real person, and then they're speaking one thing,
but the person speaking really is different than they say. Jesus said Nathanael was a man
who had no guile. Look at Isaiah 63. I want to show this to you, too.
Isaiah 63. He says in Isaiah 63 and verse
9, the Lord says, speaking of his people, he said, verse 8,
I mean, he said, surely they are my people, children that
will not lie. So he was their savior. Now,
I don't know about you, but It's hard for me to find anything
close to that in my own self. Children who will not lie. I
know I've told a lie. I remember my dad told us not
to get on his camper shell that was sitting outside in our house
when I was about four or five years old. And then he drove
home from work and there I was climbing up on his camper shell.
And he said, what are you doing? I lied. I said I'm scratching
my leg. That's just a representative sample of my own lying foolishness
throughout my life. Lying is natural to us. In Romans 3, verse 4, it says,
let God be true, but every man a liar. And a moment ago, I said
that if we don't believe God's word, then we make God to be
a liar and we try to claim that we're true. Now that's the exact
reverse of the way things are. So by nature, we all are liars. We come from the womb speaking
lies, says in Psalm 58. So when the Lord says, thou shalt
not bear false witness, we find that all we're doing is deceitful,
right? In fact, it says in Jeremiah
17, verse 9, the heart of man, listen to this, the heart of
man, the very core of who we are, our character, our nature,
what we think, he says, the heart of man is deceitful above all
things. If you were to consider the one
characteristic that's more true of us in our core being than
any other, it would be this, deceitful. Then that's lying. So how could the Lord Jesus say
this about Nathanael, an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile, no
lying? Children that will not lie, as
he says in Isaiah 63. Well, look at Psalm 32. Here's
the answer. In Psalm 32, he gives us the reason. He says, in Psalm
32, verse one, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will, the Lord imputeth not iniquity, in whose spirit
there is no guile. Do you see what that says? God
is saying that the person who is justified before God, who
God can say he is righteous before me, he has no sin. That man is
truly blessed. And I would agree, that person
is truly blessed. But the fact of the matter is,
is that when God wrote these words through the mouth of David,
through the pen of David, He was trying to show us that we
are not declared by God to be right by our own work. Clearly, the person spoken of
here is a sinner. He has transgression that need
to be forgiven, sin that needs to be covered, and God needs
to not impute iniquity to them because they have iniquity. And yet God does not charge them
with that iniquity. And why does God do that? How
can God, who cannot do wrong and is only holy, how can he
not charge me, who am a sinner, with my own sin? And how could
he say that that person is blessed in whose spirit is no guile? How can anyone not have guile
if God said that we are all deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked? In Genesis 6 verse 5, he says,
the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did good. And there were none. And he says,
and all of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil and that
continually. Did Nathaniel somehow escape
that judgment of God? Did he somehow escape the scrutiny
that concluded that all men were desperately wicked and their
thoughts of their heart was only evil continually? Doesn't Romans
chapter 3 say all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God? And Romans 3 also says there's none righteous. No, not one. There's none that do with good.
They're all together become unprofitable. How is it that Christ could say
this? Well, because by His grace, He,
the Lord, charges us not with our sin, but credits us with
the obedience of His Son. In Romans chapter 4 is where
He explains Psalm 32. In Romans 4, I'll show you this.
Romans 4, He says in verse 5, To him that worketh
not, in other words, he doesn't go about trying to gain God's
favor by what he does, not by our work. To him that worketh
not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness. The faith we have is Christ.
The one we believe is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our faith.
And the faith, the one we believe, is counted to us by God as our
own righteousness. Even though we do not do ourselves
anything to be righteous, but we believe on Him. as everything
God has given, everything God requires, all of the sacrifice
to God for our sins. And then in verse 6 he goes on
and he explains Psalm 32. Even as David also describes
the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness
without works. Without works, God considers
us righteous, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are
forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Okay, so this proves to us that
what Christ said about Nathanael was not because Nathanael in
himself was a good man, not because in himself he was honest and
sincere that that honesty and sincerity was so good that Jesus
said, he has no lying, nothing deceitful in him. Rather, what
the Lord is saying here is that he looked upon Christ for Nathanael
and credited Nathanael for the obedience and the blood of his
son. He didn't see his sin because
he looked upon the blood of his son and received payment for
his sin in the death of Christ. He covered his transgressions
with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and imputed to him, credited
him with the obedience of Christ and called it his own righteousness. So that in scripture, the Lord
is called the Lord our righteousness. And so what we see here is that
whenever the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the will of God, declares
us to be in Him and gives us His own righteousness and God
therefore justifies us for His obedience, not for our own, and
covers our sin by His blood and not by some payment we make in
tears or resolve to do better or promises to never do it again. But only for Christ's sake, for
His grace alone, God does this. that He also, in crediting us
with Christ's obedience and blood, He also gives us His Spirit. He gives us life, and in giving
us life, He births us. He creates in us a new spirit. He raises us from spiritual death,
and He creates in us a spirit born of God. And that spirit
in us that's born of God is a spirit without guile. That spirit is
born of God and that spirit cannot lie. This is the revelation here. This is spoken of everyone given
to Christ, every Nathanael. Okay, that's the second to the
last point and I want you to understand that it's very clear
from scripture. We, it says in Philippians 3.3, we are the true
circumcision which worship God in the spirit. In the spirit,
we worship God. and we rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's what all of God's people
do. Faith in Christ causes us to rejoice that the Lord Jesus
Christ, without our contribution, has saved us from our sins. And
we have no other confidence but that God look upon him and see
us in him. and find us in Him and bring
us to Him and reveal to us that He is the Son of God, the Christ
of God. Faith is the result of God's
operation of grace, faith in Christ. And then in the last
verse here, Jesus said, He said to him, verily, verily, verse
51 of John 1, verily, verily, this is the greater work. I say
to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of
God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." What is he
saying here? The angels of God? What are they? They're God's servants. They're
Christ's own servants. They do whatever He says. They're
constantly looking upon God to see what He wants them to do.
And they're going to do it. And they're mighty. And they're
holy. They're God's elect angels. These mighty servants of God.
who are swift as we can understand how a spirit moves from one place
to the other. They accomplish God's will, and
they're the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. and they're servants
of Christ to do His bidding to save His people, to keep them
throughout their life and through the period of their life until
they hear the gospel and they're brought to the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're His servants. But notice also that angels stand
in the presence of God. You are come, it says in Hebrews
12, to an innumerable company of angels. These are heaven's
citizens. These are those who are able
to stand in the presence of God and hear God's Word and look
upon Him. Now these angels ascend and descend
on the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Son of Man. Heaven is opened. And heaven
comes to us and we are allowed access into heaven on the Son
of Man. That's what he's saying here.
Every blessing of heaven is given to us because of the Son of Man. Do you see that? Not because
of our goodness. Not because of our our repentance,
not because we believe, but because of Christ only. And faith causes
us to see that all of God's blessings come to us entirely and only
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He did it. God spoke about it
in the Old Testament and he came and he fulfilled it. And everyone
born of God is enabled by God to see the truth about themselves. Now, I'm not a man without guile
in myself. In fact, the first shred of honesty
that anyone has is to realize that we are liars. and that God
alone is true, and that what God has said about His Son is
my only hope of salvation. And we come with a glad heart
that it does not depend on my sincerity, on my decision, on
my will, on my works, on my life, on anything in me, but entirely
and only upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that God would save me
and bless me. And so the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man is to bring heaven to us
and us to heaven because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you see
that? Do you see that God's message
to us is what he said to Nathanael? He's an Israelite indeed. He
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. A man, faith in Christ is not
a lie. Do you understand that? The faith
of God's elect is not a lie. Everyone who believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ is not lying when we believe on Him. When
we say, I'm a sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all, that is not a lie, is it? That's the first truth.
That's the only truth that we can say. This is all I know.
I was blind, but now I see. And who do I see? The Son of
God, who gave himself for me, who loved me and gave himself
for me. And I live my life by faith in
him. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
as Nathaniel was called the gift of God, we would be given to
Christ as he was an Israelite. Indeed, we would be found only
in the Lord Jesus Christ and being found in him, be given
all that is his so that we might be given even his spirit to live
to God, to know God, to see Christ, to trust him and not lie. not lie about ourselves, not
lie about God, not lie about His salvation, not lie about
the Lord Jesus Christ, but trust Him only for everything. And
help us to live by this grace, Lord. Forgive us for our sins,
which are so many. Overcome our sinful nature. Enable
us to worship Christ. through this grace of faith by
your spirit given to us from your word. Tell us the truth
from the gospel of your son. Convince us of it. Don't let
us leave here or leave life without him. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.