Don't you love to hear the scriptures
read, especially those scriptures that make it so clear that by
the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of glory, we who are
burdened by our sin are commanded to come to Him. Amazing grace. The songs we sang today were
all about His grace, and I loved it. I don't know if I meant to
do that or not, but when I was choosing the songs, I found that
every one I chose was about grace. I guess I need grace. I know
that I do. One thing I wanted to clear up,
this coming Thursday, there will be no Bible study. Our children
will be here, and our grandchildren, and they're coming. They all
do this every Christmas season. They come before Christmas so
that they don't have to be traveling during that time. So we have
an early time we get together, and that will be this week. So
no Bible study this week, and I also expect none the week after
that. So two weeks we'll skip Bible
study. If you wanna turn in your Bibles
to the book of John with me, John chapter one, we're working
our way through the gospel of John on Sunday mornings. And
on our Bible study, we're working our way through the Psalms. And I really appreciate the word
of God. That's such a... an insignificant
compliment to God's Word. He doesn't need my compliments,
but I so need Him to speak to me. So I'm very, very thankful
for these texts of Scripture that we are able to go through
from week to week. Now, I wanna focus this morning
on verses 43 and through verse 46 of John chapter one. And I've entitled today's message,
the sermon that Philip preached to a skeptic, which was Nathanael,
a skeptical disciple named Nathanael. And Philip preached a sermon
to him, a very simple sermon. And that's what we want to look
at today, the title of Philip's sermon, which is the title of
my sermon, Come and See. That was the extent of it, really,
come and see. And we're going to read these
verses starting with verse 43 of John chapter 1. It says the
day following, which was the day following when Andrew brought
Peter to the Lord Jesus Christ, it says the day following Jesus
would go forth into Galilee. And he findeth Philip and said
to him, follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida. We just read about that city,
didn't we? Bethsaida, one of those cities in Matthew 11, Jesus
proclaimed was a great woe upon them here. Now Philip was of
that city, Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. So these
three men, these disciples, were from that one city, Bethsaida.
Philip findeth Nathanael. and said 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? Philip said to him,
come and see. Come and see. And that's where
I want to stop next week. Or maybe next week, I'm not sure. We'll go through the remainder
of this chapter. Notice here in the very beginning, the day
following, Jesus went forth to Galilee in verse 43, and he found
Philip, and he said to Philip, follow me. Now, Philip became
a disciple of Christ. He became a disciple because
the Lord Jesus called him and told him, follow me. And this
is very important. What we're seeing here is in
the disciples, we're seeing two things. Number one, how the Lord
makes disciples. Number two, the character of
those he makes disciples. And so we can find our need met
here in how the Lord makes disciples. Notice the first thing here is
that the Lord Jesus called him. If we believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, we follow Christ. And if we believe and follow
Him in believing Him, then it's His work, not our own. I remember
in the book of Genesis, the first two boys born into this world,
Cain, the oldest, and Abel. And if you remember, in the account
in Genesis 4 that Abel brought an offering to the Lord. It was
a lamb from the flock, the firstling of his flock. And God had respect
to Abel and to his offering. That's an amazing statement.
But Cain brought the fruit of the ground, and God did not have
respect unto Cain and to his offering. And Cain was angry. He envied Abel. And he rose up,
and he killed his brother Abel in the field. And after that,
God came to Cain and asked him, what did you do? And he, where
is your brother Abel? And Cain said, am I my brother's
keeper? And then the Lord said, he asked
him what he did, and he says, the blood of your brother cries
to me from the ground. And then God pronounced a curse
on Cain, and Cain said this, my punishment is greater than
I can bear. Now those are chilling words,
aren't they? They're chilling words for two
reasons. Number one, they're chilling
because the punishment for his sin came upon Cain. The punishment of God for his
sin came upon him, upon Cain. But the other thing that's chilling
about those words is that Cain said, it's greater than I can
bear. Now in those words, we see that
the punishment was great. He couldn't bear it. But we see
something else that's even more disturbing than that, is that
God gave Cain no hope. He didn't give him what he had
given to Abel, which was an offering by which Abel came and by which
God had respect unto Abel and to his offering. In Cain, what
we saw in Genesis 4 is that he had no faith. He had never entered
into his mind or into his heart that God, in His grace, was greater
than his sin. And never occurred to him that
there was an offering that God had provided and that God would
accept for sinners. And that's a chilling fact, isn't
it? Therefore, he faced that punishment. Therefore, if we
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we know that God has spoken to
us from his word concerning his son. And that's what we're seeing
here, is that what the Lord said to Philip, he says to all of
his disciples, follow me. What he said to those in Matthew
11, come unto me. And what he says to all in Isaiah
45, 22, he says, look unto me all the ends of the earth and
be ye saved for I am God and there is none else. Here he says
this to Philip, follow me. And with those words came the
life, the spiritual life and the grace with faith given to
Philip to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That is grace, isn't
it? All the Lord calls hear. All who hear his call obey. And the obedience of the believer
is to look to the one who is all from God to his people for
them. And that's what we see here,
is that Christ called Philip Philip heard, Philip followed
him, and this is what he says, the Lord says in John chapter
10, where he says in verse 27, my sheep hear my voice, I know
them and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. What grace we see here in the
call Christ gave to Philip, and it's the same call. It says in
Ezekiel 16, verse 6, when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted
in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood,
live, yea. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. That's why we have life, because
the Lord spoke. When He makes His love known
to us in the gospel, in His grace, in His sin-atoning death, then
we believe Him. Then we love Him. He speaks His
words of eternal life to us, and we cannot leave Him. And
when He forgives us, then we forgive those who've sinned against
us. All is because of His word, a word that accomplishes His
will, effectual. given to us by his almighty gracious
hand, life-giving word, and life-giving spirit. This is the call of Christ.
The next thing we see here is that Philip, having heard from
Christ and following him himself, he tells his friend Nathanael. He wants Nathanael to know the
one who made himself known to him in his saving mercy. So it
says here in John chapter 1 in verse 44, Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael and
said to him, We have found him of whom Moses in the law and
in the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth. Whenever we know
the Lord, we want others to know Him, don't we? There's nothing
we want more than for others to hear. You'll hear a sermon,
for example. You'll hear a sermon, and by
that sermon, God illuminates your mind and heart to the truth
of the gospel, that as a sinner, you can come to Christ. As a
sinner, you can trust Him, and what do you do? I want others
to hear this sermon too. You text somebody or you send
it to them. You say, you need to hear this
sermon. This is really good. As a sinner, I hear that God
is gracious to sinners and that all of my salvation is in Christ.
And so we tell them because we want them to know the Savior,
don't we? And this is the way God works. As many as the Lord
calls, they hear him. In Romans chapter 8, he says,
as many as he foreknew, he predestined. As many as he predestined, he
called. As many as he called, he justified. As many as he justified,
he glorified. There's no break in the chain
of God's grace. Once that chain is formed in
eternity, it's fulfilled in time, and it sustains its links throughout
all everlasting ages. God saves sinners and it's his
work and he doesn't fail. He doesn't take back his grace
once given. His people hear it and they come.
Christ reveals himself to his sheep, to his brethren, to his
bride, to his elect, and they therefore rise and they come
to him. And then what we see here is
every disciple here, when we're looking at Philip, for example,
and we're looking at Nathanael, and we look at Peter, every disciple
here who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, believes on him
as the Son of God. They believe this is the Christ,
this is the Son of God. This is the one who has the words
of eternal life. This is my Savior. This is my
God and my Lord. And yet, I want you to hear this.
Every disciple called by Christ also has a mixture of doubting
with that faith. There's a mixture in the hearts
of his people, and you see it in these men, a mixture of doubting
and unbelief where there is also faith in the strongest possible
way. And you can see this last week
when we looked at Peter. We saw in Matthew 16, right there
in that context in Matthew 16, where Jesus asked his disciples,
whom do you say that I am? And Peter gave that confession,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Immediately
after that, in Matthew 16 verse 21, it says that from that time
forth, showed his disciples how that he must go to Jerusalem,
suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed and be raised again the third day. He's talking about
his reason for coming into this world, to accomplish the atonement
for his people as our high priest, as the sacrifice given to God
for their sins, and to overcome their sins, and to cast their
sins into the depths of the sea. And yet, in the next verse, The
very disciple, Peter, who had just confessed him as the Christ
and Son of God, took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Jesus and
told him, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto
thee. But Jesus turned and said to
Peter, get behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense to me, for
thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. So you see in Peter. this propensity
to have this mixture of faith and unbelief. And you can see
this throughout Peter's life. Remember when he was, when Jesus
rose from the dead and the disciples were by the seashore, Peter said,
I'm going fishing at the end in John chapter 21. He says,
I'm going fishing. The rest of the disciples, because
Peter said, I'm going fishing, they said, we're going, we're
going with you. They were basically saying, we're
returning to our occupation as fishermen. And so they go out
into the ship, they cast the nets, they caught nothing, and
Jesus shows up on the shore. And he stands there and he says,
children, have you any meat? No, haven't caught anything.
Cast your net on the other side. They did, and they had more fish
than they could get, and the nets were breaking, and they,
They brought them to shore, and when they got to shore, Jesus
is there. He already had prepared for them bread and fish. He had
served them, serving them in this meal, and he fed them. And
then they knew him. It's the Lord. It's the Lord.
And after they had finished eating, Jesus turns to Peter. He says,
Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me? And this is the one who had
told his fellow disciples, I'm going fishing. And Peter said,
Lord, You know that I love you. And he asked him three times.
And it frustrated Peter that he would ask him three times.
And every time, Jesus tells Peter, feed my lambs, feed my sheep,
feed my sheep, follow me. That's what he gave him to do.
But you can see in Peter this mixture of unbelief wherever
there was faith. And what does that say to us?
Well, that says many things to us. First of all, it says we
We only know the truth because the Lord Jesus Christ is gracious. And we know the truth and are
upheld in trusting him because he is faithful in his grace towards
us. We never are to boast in our
own understanding. Because notice how Peter, he
was all over the map. Remember Philip also in John
chapter 14. What did Philip say in John 14? He said, Lord, show us the Father
and it'll be sufficient. It will suffice us. And Jesus
said, Philip, have I been such a long time with you and have
you not seen me? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. And why do you say, show us the
Father? And so you can see in Philip
also this ignorance of who Christ really was, this mixture of ignorance
with understanding, of unbelief with faith. So we should never
boast in our understanding. We should never expect others
that there are any less in need as we are. Expect others to need
the same grace that you need, and therefore what? To be patient
with them. Can you be patient with others
when you find yourself like Peter being rebuked by the Lord, like
Peter going back to his fishing nest, like Peter in the book
of Galatians who stepped away from the table of the Gentiles
and acted like the Jews as if he was gonna trust in his own
obedience to the law again, having been delivered from that curse
of the law and the bondage of the law and trusting Christ alone,
having gone back to the law, Peter, the apostle, sometimes
we think the apostles were immune to error, that they were unable
to make mistakes. And yet we see in the account
of the New Testament, they did make mistakes. Peter is held
up as the prominent disciple and the apostle, and yet he was
all over the map, and even Paul. when he got his head shaved and
offered gifts and offerings there in accordance with the Jewish
laws in the book of Acts. These men were not like the Catholic
religion tries to make the Pope out to be, without error. They were subject to sin just
like we are. And so the apostle Paul said,
oh, wretched man that I am. who shall deliver me from the
body of this death." So never boast in your understanding,
and always expect others to need the same grace that you need.
Expect this. Expect yourself to learn from
Christ's least saints. If you do, then you will learn
something, won't you? How many times have you been,
someone has said something and you just floored at the fact
that it hadn't occurred to you before and it came out so simply
from the mouths of little children, those that you wouldn't expect
it to come from. So we need to humble ourselves
and pray the Lord will forgive your ignorance and your doubting.
Shouldn't we do that? Pray to him to be gracious and
make himself known to you and pray to him for one another in
love because we're so frail and so subject to error. Pray that
the same grace you have such a great need of be granted to
them and to you with them as Peter said in Acts 15, but we
believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall
be saved even as they, the Gentiles. He didn't arrogate himself above
them. He put himself below them in
need of greater grace. He understood something about
his need for grace. And we are to be eternally thankful
to the Lord who called us by his gospel that we even see these
things about ourselves and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
praise him, praise our Savior with his people for his saving
mercy to us. We did not trust Christ by our
own wisdom or virtue, but in spite of our thick head and impenetrable
hearts. This is the way we were saved.
Not by our own will, not by our own works, or our worth, or our
sincerity, or our spirituality innate in us. No. Everything
we needed to come to Christ was given to us. In fact, when we
come to Christ, we come with our sins for forgiveness of our
sins, without faith, for faith. Let us ever know our utter dependence
on the unfailing compassion of Christ towards his people and
pray and patiently endure for those who have the same weaknesses
as ourselves, our brothers and sisters in Christ with kindness,
not trying to manipulate one another, but as those who are
in the greatest need of mercy and kindness. Remember when Joseph's
brothers in Genesis 45 came to Joseph and Joseph revealed himself
to them? This is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ coming to his people in all of their sin and making
himself known. And remember what he said there
in Genesis 45? He says, now, do not be angry
with yourselves that you sold me here. into Egypt to be a slave
and to suffer affliction, because God sent me before you to preserve
life. Therefore it was not you, but
God who sent me here. And so we come to the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're burdened by our own guilt and our sin and shame
and all the nakedness of our guilt and shame. And what do
we do? We hear his compassion tell us,
it was God who sent me here before you to the cross to bear your
sins and your shame and to take it away. So don't be angry with
yourselves. God sent me before you to preserve
your life. And what does this do? But endear
us to him. It makes us hear the words of
eternal life and want to follow him. And so we see this here. Peter confessed Christ to be
the son of God. And at the same time, he was
ready to rebuke him because he wanted to preserve what he had
with Jesus all the time. He was on earth as if this was
it. And Jesus said, no, I didn't come into the world to stay here
around the Sea of Galilee with you 12 disciples. I came here
by the will of God to give myself for the sins of my people throughout
time and across this wide world over. And so he did so. And what
a grace it is that the Lord overlooks our sinfulness and our unbelief
and he saves us anyway. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas?
Thomas says, after the resurrection, after he had seen the Lord crucified,
he says, I'm not going to believe until I can put my fingers right
there into the place in his hands where the nails pierced him and
in his side where the sword was thrust into him. I won't believe.
And Jesus said, Thomas. Reach hither your hand and thrust
it into my side and your fingers into my the nail prints of my
hands and be not faithless by believing, and Thomas said, my
Lord and my God, you see the patience of Christ, that he would
come to us Over and over again, our faith in Christ is something
he has to uphold and maintain and increase throughout our lives. We've never reached that place
where we can say, I believe and I have no need of grace. The
more we believe, the more grace we see we need. Such grace teaches
us that this is God's work. This is God's work, because He
has brought us to the feet of Christ with nothing in our hands. Nothing in my hands I bring,
only to the cross I cling. Now, I want you to notice this
also here in John chapter 1. It says here in verse 44, now
Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. If you look back at Matthew 11,
where Brad read for us in Matthew chapter 11, and recall the judgments
that Jesus pronounced on these cities. In verse 22, for example,
he shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgments than for you. And he was talking about Bethsaida. this city, Bethsaida and Chorazin,
because he had done these mighty works and these people, seeing
the mighty works of the Son of God in our nature on earth, performing
the very works of God in miracles that could not be denied, and
they just turned away as if they needed not and didn't believe
him. They rejected the word of God that he spoke and the miracles
that he did that verified his word. Such hard hearts we have,
and like Brad said, It's only by grace that we're not there.
Look at verse 25. Yeah, verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered.
All the things that he said, he's answering. He's giving the
explanation. This is why this is so. I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed
them unto babes. If God has made his grace known
to you, you know what you are? A baby, totally unable to do
anything that would contribute to anyone. You're in need of
help all the time. A babe, ignorant, needing to
be taught, helpless, needing to be held and comforted and
carried. and led along and had patience
toward all the time, a babe, he says. Someone who has been
humbled to the point where they have nothing more than a baby
has. And he says, Jesus says, it seemed
good to you. Verse 26, even so father, for
so it seemed good in thy sight. It seemed good to God the father.
That's the reason we're saved. We have one to credit for our
salvation, God himself. It seemed good to God. I used
to read by Charles Spurgeon, and he loved to quote this. He said, what was there in us
to merit, esteem, or give the creator delight? Nothing. It was even so, Father. We ever
must sing, for so it seemed good in thy sight." That's what Jesus
said here. We have no merit. There was nothing
in us that God would be able to find to give esteem to us. It had to be by His grace alone.
It seemed good in His sight. Therefore, we are eternally indebted
to God the Father for our salvation. And then in verse 27 of Matthew
11, all these things are delivered unto me, Jesus said, of my father. And no man knows the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Not only is
it the will, because it seemed good to the father that we be
made his children, but it is the will of Christ to whomsoever
the son will reveal him, reveal the father in revealing himself. And so what does he say in verse
28? Come unto me, come unto me, all ye that labor. and are heavy
laden, heavy laden by our sin, our sin against God and the guilt
and shame that it brings. Heavy laden by the works that
we do not do, the faith that we do not have, the love for God that we don't
have. Heavy laden by these things and
the separation that it brings. Our ignorance, heavy laden by
that, the disease of sin. Come to me. Come to Christ. That
is the answer Christ gave to every sin laden sinner. This is what you're to do. Come
to Christ. He says, take my yoke upon you.
I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me. I am meek and lowly in heart. What could be more disarming
than that the Son of God would be found by us who have sinned
against God to be meek and lowly of heart? and would tell us,
come, come to me and you shall find rest for your souls. My
yoke is easy and my burden is light. So we see here that the
city where Philip was from and Andrew and Peter was a city of
destruction, a city where the people deserved to be separated
and were condemned by Christ himself, the Savior, And yet
we find ourselves represented by these disciples from this
city. Amazing grace. Those cities that
refused him and his words, where he did so many miracles. Sodom
and Gomorrah and Tyre and Sidon were considered less wicked than
they. And yet, from these cities, that's
where he calls his disciples. A remnant out of the wasteland
of wickedness and unbelief, the Lord saves a people. Is this
grace? This is grace. God found only
Lot to be righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah and wiped out those
cities, burnt them with brimstone and fire from heaven. And Tyre
and Sidon was left by God, destroyed by God. And yet, here in these
cities, three disciples, the apostles of Christ, are called
out, worthy of condemnation, worthy to be judged, And why
not? Many more, as we would expect. Why weren't more people in Bethsaida
and Chorazin and Capernaum saved? Because it seemed good to God
to save a people out of those cities, his people, to bring
them to Christ. And this is what the Lord is
doing here in John chapter one. Now, Philip told Nathanael, if
you could look back at John chapter one in verse 45, Philip told
Nathanael and said, found Nathanael and said to him, we have found
him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Now here what we see is that
when Philip told Nathanael about Christ, he tells him why, who
he is, and why he had warrant to claim that he was the Christ. of whom scripture has spoken,
Jesus of Nazareth. There's only one who fits all
that scripture has written about Christ, the promised Christ.
It's Jesus of Nazareth. That's what he's saying. Nathaniel,
I want to convince you this is the one. You need to come and
see him. because he's the one God has
written about in scripture. Moses and prophets wrote, and
the prophets wrote of him. And he's the only one who fits
what they wrote. And so we see here that God,
when he speaks to his children, he speaks to them on the foundation
of his word alone. Scripture alone is the only source
of truth that we have. The only way we know. How a sinner
can be saved without any works from himself, but by the grace
of God through the blood of Christ, is Scripture alone. That's the
only way. And the warrant we have is God's
own word. God who cannot lie, God who cannot
fail, has spoken. And we are to take his word.
And like David said, when he heard Nathan, the prophet, speaking
of all that God had promised him, he said, Lord, do as you
have said. Do as you have said. And so as
sinners, we come like the publican. God, be merciful. Look upon the
propitiation you have provided and offered and received. Do
as you have said. That's where we come, as Scripture
says. Look at the book of Hebrews with me. In Hebrews chapter 10,
I want you to see the message of the prophets, the law and
the prophets. This is it. Hebrews chapter 10. We could go back through the
Old Testament and catalog all those places, but here it's condensed
for us. In Hebrews chapter 10, it says
in verse In chapter 10 verse 1, for the law, so this is the
law now, having a shadow of good things to come and not the very
image or the substance of the things, can never, with those
sacrifices which they offered year by year continually, make
the comers thereunto perfect. Because they kept being offered,
they couldn't make them perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered, because that the worshipers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins? If they had been effectual
to purge the sins of the people, they would have only been offered
once. But they weren't. They were offered all the time.
But in those sacrifices, because they were repeated, There is
a remembrance again made of sins every year, not a putting away,
but a calling to remembrance. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Now, that's a
summary of all of the law of God. The law of God cannot take
away sin. It can identify sin, but it cannot
put it away. Why would we then ever trust
the law? to make us right before God. Verse five, here is the
message of Moses and the prophets. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book, the scroll of scripture from the top to
the bottom. It is written of me to do thy
will, O God, not us, but Christ. Above, when he said, Sacrifice
and offerings and burnt offerings and offering for sin, now wouldest
not neither has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law.
Then said he, Right in the context of all of Old Testament Scripture,
after all of the years where the law had been established
and the sacrifices had been put in place and the priests were
doing their duties and animals were being offered, right there
God said, sacrifice and offerings, verse 8. Hebrews 10 verse 8,
Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin,
thou wouldest not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered
by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first. that
he may establish the second, the New Testament, by the which
will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. That's it. We are made holy to
God by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, which was offered
once. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifice which can
never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. Now here's the conclusion of all of the book of Hebrews.
This is the conclusion of the book of Hebrews and the Old Testament
law. For by one offering, he, Christ,
has perfected forever them that are made holy by his blood, sanctified. And this is, according to verse
15, this is the message of the Holy Spirit. Whereof the Holy
Ghost also is a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them. And their sins
and iniquities will I remember no more. Their sins, God, how can God
not remember? How can He not remember our sins
and our iniquities? Only one way, if there are no
sins and iniquities to remember. He by Himself purged our sins
and then He sat down. He, the Son of God, who cannot
fail, by Himself without our help, purged our sins and because
He finished the work, and actually did it, then he sat down on the
right hand of God. And the Holy Spirit of God from
Old Testament scripture says, their sins and iniquities will
I remember no more. Now, now, awesome indeed. This is the only thing really
that is awesome. The only thing that is awe-inspiring
to a sinner is what God says concerning what Christ did. Now,
where remission of these is, it's absolutely wiped clean. There's no more sin by the blood
of Christ. Where remission of these is,
there is no more offering for sin. Therefore, any offerings
for sin are an abomination to the Lord. We don't bring an offering
when we come. What do we do? We look to Christ
to offer Himself. By himself, the Son of God gave
himself for me, Galatians 2.20. He loved me and gave himself
for me. The work is done. Sins have been
made no more. We're justified. We have committed
no sin. God himself respects his people
because of the offering of the Son of God for them. He says,
verse 19, now, having therefore, brethren, boldness, joyful confidence,
openness, not hiding, to enter into the holiest, in the very
presence of God, in all of His glory, where there's no compromise. Boldness to enter, how? By the
blood of Jesus. Now, notice how wonderful that
phrase is. Nothing else is needed. Nothing
else is admitted. Only the blood of Jesus. And
because it is only his blood, therefore, what does he say? He says, verse 22, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Fully assured
that it's only by his blood. And this is the problem that
we have, this mixture of unbelief with faith and of understanding
and ignorance. This mixture of lack of love
with love is that we need God's grace to convince us that it's
only by the blood of Jesus. Therefore, we can come boldly.
Otherwise, we're not going to come in the right way. When we
come by the blood of Jesus, we come in the full assurance of
faith. God has spoken, Christ has come,
he has given himself, he has risen, he sits at God's right
hand. He sat down because the work
is done and our sins have been put away and the spirit of God
bears witness to this. Philip says, we have found him
of whom Moses and the prophets have spoke. Jesus of Nazareth,
the only one who could fit this description God gave throughout
scripture. And Nathaniel said to him, can
there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip preaches
this sermon to him now. He says, come and see. Come and
see. Scripture describes only one
who is Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and what he did. And we know
that we must be translated into this kingdom. We must come to
this king. We know that we have sin, and
yet our sin is the barrier, the separation between us and God.
Therefore, the Lord says, come. and see, come and see to sinners. You see, in the Old Testament,
men offered sacrifices. In the Old Testament, they ate
the sacrifice. They took of the sacrifice and
they ate of it. Abel offered to God. And people
came to the temple. They did all these things. But
in the New Testament, believing in Christ fulfills what those
people did then. Because when we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, He offered Himself, so we look to Him. We
take of Him by faith, we lay hold upon Him in believing Him,
and we receive from Him what He tells us. This is the way
things are. Oh, I see. I am persuaded this
is true. And we lay hold on it and embrace
it and trust Him for it. We come to Christ for all that
we need, and we ask Him to give us even Everything we have, none
of which we can provide. And so this believing Christ
fulfills what God has said in the Old Testament about offering
and eating and coming and entering. Christ is our access. His blood
is what gives us this assurance that God receives sinners for
his sake. And it's all sufficient. And
everyone who trusted Christ was received by him. So Nathaniel
expresses this skepticism and Philip tells him, you come, you
come, you see, you come. He's told to come and see. So
it is that the Lord calls his people. We find ourselves like
Adam, hiding in our shame because of our sin and our guilt, naked
in ourselves. And what do we hear? We hear
that the Lord has provided skins and clothed Adam and Eve, and
those skins of the Lord Jesus Christ offered to God. His righteousness
covering us by his offering of himself, fulfilling the law and
the prophets and everything that God requires. He tells us, you
come and you see. See what God has done. We think,
can Jesus save me? Come and see. I sin. I sin grievously. I sin often. I sin against light. I sin against
the holy and just God of truth and grace and life and love.
By my sin, I separate myself from God forever. Can he save
me? Here's Philip's message. Come
and see. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said this in the same chapter. He tells Andrew, In answer to
his question, where do you dwell? He said, come and see. See where
I dwell, at the right hand of God. See where I have gone and
accomplished and where I now dwell to receive sinners, the
King of glory. Come to Christ, come and see.
See if He will have you. See from His word what He says.
See that you who are a sinner can trust Him. Leave it all to
Him. Rest yourself in Him. If God
has received Christ, if God is satisfied with His
Son, you can be satisfied. If God requires nothing but his
son, then you need not require anything but Christ to come to
Christ. If God receives sinners for Christ's
sake, then as a sinner, you have warrant by God to come. Come
and see. God makes no compromise in admitting
sinners into his presence. God cannot compromise his justice. He will not allow anything less
than the perfection of perfect obedience to his law. And to
the onlooking universe, God himself challenges Satan and his kingdom
and this world, even our own conscience. He says, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And he gives the
answer, it is God who justifies. And what are you gonna say against
him? Did you not take care in justifying sinners? Was there
some compromise here? Did you cover up? Somehow did
you make an allowance for some to come and not others? No, God justifies, therefore
it is right. Who can condemn? It is Christ
that died. That's what God says in answer
to our conscience and against all of our accusers. Absolutely
silencing. the proud heart of sinful men
who would take a poor sinner and set them in the middle and
accuse them before their peers and before God and his law. And
the Lord himself answers, it's God who justifies, it's Christ
who died. In fact, He has risen again and
is seated at the right hand of God, the one who gave his blood
for his people. And what are you going to do?
Condemn one for whom he died? Come and see. Come and see the
Lord is well pleased in his son. If you are a sinner, you can
therefore come to him. And in so coming as a guilty
and utterly sinful and shameful and ignorant and helpless, person
by God's grace, you will find then in coming that Christ is
your all. There's nothing else you can
do. He's done it all. Amazing grace. But if you refuse,
if you say, I can't believe that God could love me, I can understand
why I can believe that, too. But that's not what God's word
asks you to do. He asks you to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord himself says, look unto
me and be ye saved. You that are heavy laden, you
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason we don't love one
another and forgive one another as we ought to is because we
don't come as we ought to, as sinners, and find what Christ
has done for us. He is our life, we wouldn't have
life but for Him. He is the propitiation for our
sins, therefore our sins have been propitiated. He is the righteousness
of His people, therefore we have all righteousness. He is salvation,
therefore in Him we are saved. There's nothing that God is that
Christ is not. All that He is as God, He is
for us, His people, who look to Him. And by the testimony of God's
word, God says, we are complete in him. Come and see. Come and
see. What a sermon Philip preached.
It was a sermon that Christ preached to Andrew. You come and you see. And don't leave. If you're the
Lord's, you have nowhere else to go. It's him who did it all. Let's pray. Lord, we're so thankful
that you are able to save to the uttermost all who come to
God by you. There's no other name under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. And you yourself have
said, come, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden.
Look unto me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved, saith
the Lord. Help us, Lord. Give us His grace. as those who have nothing to
contribute, as little babies, ignorant, needing to be taught,
needing to be held, and comforted, and kept, and led, and everything,
and fed. We need it all, and help us to
find our all in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. In his name we
pray, amen.