We may look at, well, 43 through
51. The day following, Jesus would
go forth into Galilee and findeth Philip and saith unto him, follow
me. Now, Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, who
was apparently from there. saith unto him, We have found
him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did write, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, he thought. And Nathanael said
unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip
saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him, and saith of him, Behold, An Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. And Nathanael said unto him,
Whence knowest thou me? How do you know me? And Jesus
answered, said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. And I just imagine
Nathanael, The blood drained out of his face. He turned white. His jaw dropped. And he answered
and said unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art
the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou, thou shalt see greater things than these. And
the Lord said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter
you shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending
and descending upon the Son of Man. Now, we're still here in
this first chapter because there's much here, very much. I may deal with verse 51 on Wednesday
night. But then again, I may deal with
1 Corinthians 10, 31, Wednesday night. One of the two. But verse
43 says, the Lord found Philip and said unto him, follow me. This is the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Good Shepherd who said in John chapter 10, He said,
I am the good shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. And he said, I give unto them
eternal life. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me. The Lord found Philip and he
simply said, powerfully said, follow me. And he followed him. This is one of His lost sheep.
The Lord came into the world, He said, to seek and save the
lost. Not to try to save, but to save. Not to save everyone, but to
save His lost sheep. And He finds them all where He
puts them, when He pleases. When He pleases. This gives me
hope for everyone that I would like to see saved. It gives me
hope. That if they are one of the Lord's
elect, one of His chosen, if they are one of His sheep, He
is going to call them and they are going to follow Him. It's
as certain as the Lord is on the throne. Now remember, Bethsaida
is a city, a very mean or common, ordinary, low esteemed city. The name means a fish house.
And that's by design. The Lord spent much time there
and He called out His disciples there in this fish house. Why? Because He is the great fisher
of men. Now remember, He called these
fishermen, at least four or five of them were fishermen, and He
said, I'm going to make you fishers of men like Me. He was the great fisher of men. And unlike fishing tactics today,
I know a little bit, I know very little bit about fishing, but
fishing the way we know it in this modern day generally uses
artificial bait. We try to, or even live bait,
but we try to lure fish. We try to, that's why they're
called a lure. We try to trick them into taking
the bait. We try to get them to come to
us. And I went yesterday, and ask
me later. Anyway, our Lord doesn't use
artificial bait. He doesn't use lures. He doesn't
try to get anyone to come to Him. In fact, He said the gospel
is a net. A net. I have a net to catch
men who's in. And I don't try to lure them.
I capture them. I capture them. And the gospel
net is the power of God. We're going to see in the next
message. The power of God. And he sends this gospel out
through preachers. He himself was a preacher. And
he captures. He lays hold of his fish, as
it were, his sheep. And they come. They're coming.
They have no choice. And when they come, they're sure glad
that he laid hold of them. So he's a great fisher of men,
and he came to this fish house, Bethsaida. And Philip and Andrew
and Peter and James and John, Nathaniel, if he wasn't a fisherman,
he was a family member or somebody. All Galileans, all common, ordinary,
well, fishermen. Common, ordinary sinners. Not
high, mighty, noble, but very ordinary. people from a place
that was looked down upon by most places. Nathanael means,
now look at verse 45, Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto
him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, son of Joseph. How ignorant Philip
is right now. We found him. And that's what
everybody says until they learn the truth and until they find,
until the Lord reveals himself to them. And he says he's the
son of Joseph. He's not the son of Joseph. He's
not the son of Adam. He's not the son of Adam. He's
the son of God. He's the sinless son of God.
Well, Nathanael said in verse 46, and any good thing come out
of Nazareth, Philip said unto him, Come and see. The word,
the name Nathanael, the Old Testament word is Nathan, but here it's
called Nathanael, it means given of God. What's the name? Given of God. Now I'm quite sure
that Nathanael's parents, when they had this baby boy, when
he was born, Maybe they were religious and maybe they named
him given of God. Maybe she was barren or wanted
a child, the Lord gave her a child. They named him given of God,
but not knowing that this boy was given of God to Christ before
the world began. All that the Father giveth me,
Christ said, shall come unto me. and him that cometh to man,
I will no wise cast out." All of God's elect, all of God's
chosen, all of God's people, all of God's sheep, all of God's
fish, if you will, were given of God to Christ before the world
began for Him to come and save them. And they will come, all
of them. All of them are given to Him.
This is God's sovereign, electing, predestination of His people
unto salvation. And this makes their salvation
certain, unchangeable. I have quoted it. All that He
hath given me shall come unto me. And I give unto them eternal
life. And He said, they shall never
perish. Let the world cry, unfair. Let the world cry, that's not
fair. and gnash their teeth at God's
sovereign electing, predestinating purpose and power, at God's elects,
ask Philip, ask Nathaniel, ask James, ask John, ask them all. They will tell you, oh, I praise
the glory of His sovereign electing grace. How I praise Him for choosing
me, if He hadn't chosen me. I would never have chosen him.
I wouldn't have come, Philip said, if he hadn't found me and
called me." Verse 46, Nathanael said, can anything good come
out of Nazareth? Nazareth was considered worse
than Bethsaida. It was a small town in South
Galilee. Israelites, particularly those
of the big city of Jerusalem and other big cities, Jericho,
they thought that Nazareth was the most crude and uncultured
and no good town. In fact, some say it had a bad
reputation for being immoral and just a bad place. Bad place. Well, that's fitting. That's
where the Lord chose to live. Why? Because this man came into
the world to save sinners. This man received the sinner.
This man, the Lord Jesus Christ, receiveth sinners and eateth
with them, liveth with them. That's why he came. And that's
who he came to. He lived there for thirty years. in that low-life place, just
working his job as a carpenter. And what did he do in the meantime?
Huh, served everybody. You know he did. You know he
did. Although, now hold on, Nazareth
was low, it was immoral, it was looked down upon by all the other
big cities, and even though the Lord Jesus Christ God manifest
in the flesh lived there, He came to His own. And his own
received him not, John said. He lived there. He grew up there.
They beheld him. They clearly saw that this young
man growing up here is not like us. He had a wonder and amazement
all about his character, his person, his countenance, everything
about him. His speech, everything. He was
holy, harmless, separate from sinner. Paul wrote, he's declared
to be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness. That is a sinless
life and character. These sinners, these Nazarenes
could clearly see. They'd look. He's different. But they still didn't receive
him. In fact, when he became 30 years old, he came back to
Nazareth. Remember? He came back to Nazareth, as
the custom was, and they delivered him a book to read, as the custom
was. Young man, he sure didn't need
that book. He wrote it. But he began to
preach from Isaiah 61. And the Spirit of the Lord is
upon me. It sent me. This day is the Scripture fulfilled
in your ear. And they beheld the wondrous
words that came out of his mouth. They were amazed by him, and
yet they still didn't believe him. Nor do men now. Nor do men
then. No one will until the Lord calls
you, until the Lord reveals Himself to you. And then he began to
tell them. He began to preach sovereign
election to his hometown. There were many widows in the
day of Elisha. But God didn't heal any of them
in Israel. God didn't heal any of them.
He healed a Gentile woman. Election. Election. And another story about feeding.
And they got angry. They got furious. His hometown. So he went about doing good.
And they grabbed him. This was a Sunday-go-to-meeting
religious crowd that grabbed him and took him to the brow
of a hill and wanted to throw him off and break his neck and
cast him. So he came to his own, the place
where he grew up, and they still didn't receive him. This is an
absolute sign or absolute proof that Christ must reveal Himself. He must reveal himself. And so
he preached sovereign election. Well, verse 47, Our Lord saw
Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no gap. Now, I cannot imitate the Lord's
voice. I'm not going to try to. The
power of it. where he put the emphasis and
how he did it. But it was, you know, the Lord
spoke like no man. It may be something like a great,
powerful King David when he sent his men to fetch Mephibosheth. And Mephibosheth, he knows he's
coming. He pitched it. And he's coming
in to hold. Here he is. An Israelite indeed. Now, this
is what I want us to look at. This is what I was taken with. And maybe you've never heard
this preached on. I have not. An Israelite indeed. Now, he doesn't mean a mere inhabitant
of Israel. He looks like a Jew. He sounds
like a Jew. That's not what our Lord meant.
Behold, a true, a true Israelite. That's what he's saying. A true
son of Israel, a son of Jacob. Who is Israel? Jacob. Jacob. That's who Israel is. He was Jacob long before he became
Israel. All right? Now who this is speaking
is Jacob's Lord, Jacob's God, who said, you know, God calls
Himself, defines Himself this way more than any other. more
than any other. I am the God of Jacob. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know how much
time was spent on the life of Jacob? We went through it. Why? Because Jacob represents all
the sons of God. Jacob, his name means a sinner,
a cheat, a no good, A liar. He deceived his brother. He deceived
his father. He deceived his father-in-law.
And on and on it goes. But God chose Jacob. He said, Jacob have I loved. Before the world began. Before
the children were born. Before they had done any good
or evil. This is Romans 9, 11. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. Both boys deserve to be hated
by God, Jacob as well as Esau, but God. This is sovereign mercy. I will have mercy upon whom I
will. I'll be gracious to whom I will. I'll love whom I will. It must be so, because none are
worth loving. None are worth saving. How many
times have we heard that? But this is, behold, an Israelite
indeed, a son of Jacob indeed, one of my own, one that I've
chosen. He chose him, he called him, he
named him. This is the one who named Jacob,
Israel. He's sovereign, he's Lord over
all. Does everyone understand what
it means to be one of God's elect. Look at Romans chapter 2. Maybe
you don't. Romans chapter 2. You know, the
Lord chose Israel, but not the nation of Israel as His spiritual
people, but they were a type of God's sovereign choice of
people to save. And Israel represents professing
religionists, but not all Israelites are saved, but are remnant. Look
at Romans 2, verse 28. He is not a Jew, which is one
outwardly, neither is circumcision, which is outward in the flesh.
That was a sign, and I don't have time to go into it, but
that was a sign the Lord gave to differentiate a Jew from a
Gentile. But He said it's not true circumcision,
not in flesh. He is a Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision is of the heart. A Jew is one that God makes a
Jew in the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise
is not of men, but of God. Romans 3. Look at verse 9. Paul says to the Jews, are we
better than the Gentiles? No, and know why, as we before
proved, both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under sin, as it
is written, as none righteous, no, not one. Verse 19, we know
what things the law saith, it saith to them under the law,
every mouth may be stopped, all the world become guilty before
God, Jew and Gentile. See that? And so, now look at
Romans 9, that I just quoted to you, Romans 9. And so God
must choose. God had to choose, none righteous,
not one, none that doeth good. In fact, it says they hate God.
Hate God, but God. And great love and mercy and
grace chose a people. Look at Romans 9, verse 11. The
children, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil. This is talking about Jacob and Esau. That the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand. His choice. Not
of works. But of him, let's call it, it
was said unto Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Is that unfair? God forbid. He said to Moses, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, I'll have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So it's not of him that willeth
or of him that runneth, but it's of God to show with mercy. And
he went on to say, I raised Pharaoh up for the purpose of throwing
him in the river. The man deserved to be thrown
in the river. But God used him for his purpose. The wrath of
man, Scripture says, shall praise God according to his purpose,
and the remainder of wrath he'll restrain. He's Lord. He's Lord. But he chose all his people.
And all the sons of Jacob, when they find that out, they rejoice,
and they glorify His sovereign election of the people, the non-elect,
the Esau's, the Cain's, who think their works are why God should
choose them. They hate this. They hate it.
So our Lord is saying here, this is an Israelite indeed. It's
the Son of Jacob indeed. I chose Him. I loved Him before
the world began. I called Him. I brought Him. Here He is. Behold, here He is. I came for Him. I'm going to
die for Him. I'm going to redeem Him. I'm
His God and He'll never perish. And He'll not be consumed because
I change not. That's what he's saying. An Israelite
indeed. A true Jew. But I made him a
Jew. And look at this, verse 47. He says, "...in whom is no guile."
Hmm. That's always amazed me. No guile. Now, Nathanael doesn't yet know
the Lord. And yet the Lord calls him, says
he has no guile. That's amazing. Isn't that amazing?
There are not many unregenerate people that don't have guile. In fact,
David said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Guile means
to be crafty, deceitful. Guile means to practice cunning
trickery to get your way with people, to get your way. to benefit you. That describes
the devil, doesn't it? Guile. Wily. Of whom Scripture says he holds
people captive at his will. With his guile. He does it with
trickery, with cunning, with deception. Now, by the grace of God, we
all are what we are. One hundred percent by the grace
of God. All people in some way are sovereignly restrained by
God. All people are sovereignly constrained
by God, by His sovereign grace to do this, to do that, to not
do this, to not do that. Do not attribute to anybody personal
holiness, or personal goodness. Our Lord said, there's none that
doeth good. No, not one. There's none righteous. No, not
one. No one is born better than somebody
else. If someone does not become… There's
not a woman in here who wouldn't be a harlot on the street right
now if it wasn't for the restraining grace of God. Right? I don't know who the oldest woman
is. And I'll ask you older women,
isn't it so? Would you still have some of
these thoughts? And if it wasn't, the restraining
grace of God keeping you from that. Not a man in here that would
have worked pervert on this earth. That's a fact. Is it not so?
My pastor said years ago, so many people mistake the restraining
grace of God for their own personal holiness. Now you and I know
some people that seem to be very kind, very gentle, very sweet,
very honest, very upright, don't you? And we think, well, this is what
we think. They must be a genuine, sincere,
they must be a good person. That's calling God a liar. And
that's giving glory where it's not due. Thank God He makes some people
kind, gentle, restraining. My neighbor next door from me
is one of the kindest, sweetest, most gentle human beings I've
ever known. She serves everybody. She's come
here, we've asked her, and she's come here to hear the gospel.
She has no use for our God and our grace. That's when the enmity
will come out when you start telling them about who God is,
about who they are really, about what God says about, oh no, no,
no, no, I'm not that. Oh no, no, no, people aren't
that bad. God's not that. Oh no, no, no. That's when the
enmity will come out. Brother Scott Richardson was
I was talking to a fellow one time. This fellow was talking
about his uncle or somebody. He had a burden for him. He said,
but he's such a kind fellow. He's such a sweet fellow. He's
such a gentle fellow. He's such a good father and a
good husband and a good brother and a good citizen and all that.
And Scott said, there's one big problem. The fellow said, what's
that? He said, he hates God. Oh no, not Uncle Bill. That's
calling God a liar. Romans 1. The restraining grace of God
gets the glory for anybody the way they are. Anybody. And even the wrath of
man, I've quoted it, shall praise him. In the ranger of wrath he
will restrain. He's sovereign over everything.
And it's His restraining and constraining. That means causing
people to do this and do that. Or else there would be room for
boasting. This is the fundamental of the
gospel. Man is dead in sin. Man is evil. That's what the world hates.
That's what the world has a problem with. That's why the world says,
Christ didn't even come to die as a substitute on the cross.
We're not that bad. God's not that holy. Do you understand
that? This is the gospel. It's for
sinners. And it takes the power of God
to convince a good, moral person that they're worthy of hell, as well as change a guttered
dweller into a pew dweller. It takes the same power of God,
the same Spirit of God. I was a prodigal son, I was a
rebel, a hippie and all that. My sister was a model child.
Took the same mercy and grace and spirit and gospel to save
us both. She was just as lost as I was.
Just as lost. Thank God she was moral. Thank
God she was a good citizen. Thank God. Boy, right now she's thanking
God. for His sovereign mercy to such a sinner as her." That's
what everybody in heaven said. God finally reveals to us what
we really are. Oh my. Oh my. Why did the Lord say He had no
guile? Two reasons. One, He had no guile. The Lord restrained Him. Doubtless
he's saying, here's an honest man, here's a straight up man,
here's a true man. Barnard used to say, I like old
brother Barnard, he used to say, honest people don't wind up in
hell. Meaning, that not if you're honest
and upright and you do good and sincere and you'll be a good
person, you'll go to heaven. No, no, what he means is, honest
before God, honest with yourself, honest with the Word, A true
seeker. Nathaniel said, there ain't nothing
good in Nazareth. Those people are a bunch of lowlifes.
How can anything good come out of Nazareth? This prophet come
out of Nazareth? There ain't nobody any good down
there. He was an upright man. And our
Lord said this too, and I think essentially He said this because
in His eyes, His chosen ones, in His eyes, John, While we were
yet sinners, He considered us holy, unblameable, unapprovable,
without spot, without blemish, no guile in His eyes. In fact, it says in Revelation
14, I wasn't going to preach on that. Look at it yourself.
It says all His people are presented to Him as virgins. Mary Magdalene. God says, you've
only had one man in all your life, and I'm it. Pure as a driven snow. And it
says, in their mouths is no guile. Listen to Psalm 32. Oh, this
is our testimony. Oh, blessed is the man to whom
the Lord Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, doesn't charge sin, and in whose
spirit there is no guile." No guile. No guile. And I'll tell you this. God's
true people. God's true people. And our Lord
called Nathanael, and this is a work in progress, okay? And he called Nathanael, and
he's coming to him. He's coming to him. And he's
going to reveal some things about him. The first thing he's going
to reveal to Nathanael is who he is. Who he is. I'm your Lord. I'm your son. I know you. But salvation, God's people,
It's a change that comes over them. God's true people are not
hypocrites. They're not hypocrites. When
the Lord brings His people to seek Him, and they sit down,
and they begin to hear, listen to Him, and He brings about this
change over them, they're not hypocrites. Hypocrite means an
actor. People say, I don't go to church,
too many hypocrites down there. Well, that's true of religion.
Our Lord said, well did Isaiah prophesy of this people they've
drawn near with their lips and their hearts are far from it.
They're acting. Scribes, Pharisees are hypocrites. But God's people
are not hypocrites. They don't play games. They're
not playing. They're not acting. No sir. No gal. No gal. Come and see. He did. He wanted
to see. He wanted to hear. Is this the
Christ? This is real. Not acting. They're not God's
people. They have a new heart. And Israelite
indeed. No God. He said, where do you
know me from? Whence knowest thou me? When?
When did you come to know me? I love that. When did you come
to know me? Have you seen me before? How do you know me? Don't you
love that? Oh my. I want you to look at
Zechariah 3 with me. The second to last book in the
Old Testament. Zechariah 3. You're going to
love this. You're going to love this. First time I've ever seen
it. The Lord said, before Philip called thee, when you were under
the fig tree, I saw thee. Do you have a private place that
you go to if you try to get away from your wife or husband or
somebody? Do you have a place you go? A private place, a getaway, a hideaway,
anybody? I used to have one up in a barn
and Mindy found me. I was napping between bales of
hay and she found me. Women are good at that. But anyway,
do you have a private place? Well, Nathaniel did. He planted him a little garden,
and he planted this big tree. Think about all this. He planted
this big tree like a sycamore tree that Zacchaeus was at. He planted
this big tree, and he loved to go out and sit under that tree.
It was a walled garden perhaps. He loved to sit there alone,
nobody around. Nobody knew where he was. Maybe
he meditates. Maybe he's a religious man, maybe.
And our Lord said, when you were sitting up in the fig tree, I
saw you. I heard you. I was there. There ain't no way you could know.
Nobody knows. He knows my thoughts. That's
what happened to Peter when the Lord called all those fish in
the net. He knows where all the fish are.
He knows where I've been. He knows what I've been thinking.
Look at Zechariah 3. I love this. It talks about the
branch in verse 8. The high priest, I'll bring forth
my servant the branch, the stone I've laid before Joshua. Verse
10, In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every
man his neighbor unto the vine and unto the fig tree. Under the fig tree. And Nathaniel said, You're the
Son of God. You're the King of Israel. And
our Lord said unto him, Because I said unto you, I saw you under
the fig tree, you believe? You're going to see greater things
than that. He said, Behold, verily, verily,
I say unto you, you're going to see heaven and hell. Like Psalm 24, the King of Glory
coming in. Heaven opened. And he said, you're
going to see the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man. Just like who? Just like who? Who saw that? What's that story
of? Jacob's Ladder. How many people know what Jacob's
Ladder really is? One in a million. A remnant. Jacob's ladder is Jesus Christ.
And we might just look at that Wednesday night. No problem.
Alright. Thank you.