with me to John Gospel Chapter
1. While you're turning, we certainly
want to remember Kathleen. James always finds this stuff
and gives it to me. He gets off of bulletin boards
at churches. You just can't make it up. Prayer
is the best wireless connection. This week's sermon, The Necessity
of Future Thinking. Faith is like a muscle, it gets
stronger with exercise. Oh boy, it's awful, ain't it?
And then they had the Pope on all day, like he's somebody. That goes to show you the power
of Catholicism in this world. That just goes to show you. Now,
I guarantee you, they ain't going to put nobody else on there for
as long as they did him. Would they? Can you think of
any preacher, any preacher, that they'd put on television
and leave them on there for hours while they preached the gospel?
Could you think of one? They won't do it. They won't
do it. But they'll let them fellas get
up there with their hocus pocus, their fishhands, and their strange
songs. Well, enough of that. Start reading here in verse 35
down through the end of the chapter. Again, the next day, after John
stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus, he walked.
He saith, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard
him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned, and
saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? They
said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master,
where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and
see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him
that day. For it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John,
and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first
findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found
the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him
to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, He
said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. The day following, Jesus
would go forth into Galilee and find Philip, and saith unto him,
Follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
saith unto 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 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 God. Nathanael saith unto him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael 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 he said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Hereafter you shall see heaven open and
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Our father, oh gracious God in
heaven, our blessed holy father. You are our father because you called us to be your children.
You brought us into the family of God. Not only did you take
us into the family of God in adoption, but you gave us of
your nature and made us heirs with your blessed son. Oh, what
a blessed privilege we have as the children of God. And our
Lord, I pray for those who are not with us through sickness,
through providence, whatever it is that keeps them from coming
tonight. I ask that you'd be merciful and gracious and kind,
pitiful towards them. And Lord, we pray for Kathleen
again. Oh God, she needs strength. She needs strength. She needs
you to be her strength, cause her body to get strong. And Lord,
we bring her to you knowing, knowing Lord, that you'll do
what needs to be done for her. And Lord, we know that you'll
do what needs to be done for us tonight in this message that
we're fixing to deliver. And so we bless your name that
we know that we've committed this service and all it's in
it. into your hands and deliver it up to you. And you do with
it as it seems good in your own sight. We ask these things in
Christ's name. Amen. In John's Gospel. You know, John the Baptist was
the last Old Testament prophet. He is the last Old Testament
prophet. And he came as a forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
came to, and he himself said, there cometh one after me, that's
before me, existed before me. Everything about him is before
me. And what we have in these verses is how the first disciples
were brought into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. How
the first disciples were brought into a saving relationship with
him. And there are four cases of conversions in this verses
that I read to you tonight. Four cases, there were two disciples,
verse 35, The next day after John stood and two of his disciples,
two of them, they were disciples of John. And these four conversions
in our study as we look at them tonight and not one of them was
alike. No two of them was alike. Every
one of them's conversion was a little different. Then there's
Simon, his conversion. Philip's conversion and Nathanael's
conversion. And they didn't all come to Christ
the same way. God doesn't confine Himself to
any particular method. He is sovereign. You know, He
healed one blind man by spitting in his eyes, another by putting
mud on his eyes, and another when He just told him to see.
So our Lord has His way of doing things. And if you ever try to
make your conversion look like somebody else's conversion, Everybody's
is not the same. Very few people have a conversion
like Saul of Tarsus. And the first two, these first
two heard a preacher proclaim Christ the Lamb of God, and they
sought the Savior. Simon Peter was brought to the
Lord Jesus Christ by his brother Andrew. Philip, no one brought
him to Christ. Christ just called him. No one
seemed to help him or care for him. And Nathanael was encouraged
to come to Christ by Philip, and Christ came and met him.
And you put the four of these conversions together, and we'll
see how God works in a lot of ways that he saves his people.
The first found Christ as the result of a preacher's message. A preacher's message. The second,
Simon Peter, through his brother. Nathanael because of a personal
witness of another believer. And in the third, for Philip,
no human instrument was used by God at all. And our Lord dealt
differently with every single one of them. The first two that
came to Him, He asked them, What are you looking for? What are
you seeking? Christ told Simon Peter He knew all about him in
verse 42. You are Simon, son of Jonas. And yet He gave him
a gracious, gracious promise. And all he said to Philip, he
just said two words, just said two words, follow me. Just follow
me. Follow me. Wouldn't you love
to be able to say that to somebody, follow me? You know, and our
Lord, but that's what happens. If he ever says, follow me, I
guarantee you, he'll follow him. I know you will. And Nathaniel,
our Lord spoke graciously to him to dispel his great prejudice
that he had. And He was ready to receive him
in spite of what he said and what he felt. And I'll tell you
something else we see here, not how these people were converted,
all these four conversions and difference in them. We see the
suitability of our Lord Jesus Christ for all kinds of men,
all kinds of men. The Savior drew to Himself men
of wildly different types and temperaments. Every one of these
fellows was just a little different. Every single one of them. We
see it as we look at them. Now look at John. What was John's
message? Let's look in verse 35. Look
at John's message. And the next day, after John
stood, and two of his disciples, two of his disciples, And looking
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. Now this was after the baptism
when he knew he was the Lamb of God. And he told them there
he was the Lamb of God. And again the next day, John
stood, two of his disciples, and we see the fruits of John's
ministry. And you know what the fruits
of his ministry were? that he just bore a faithful witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore a faithful, faithful
witness to his master. He said, he must increase, I
must decrease. He said, there's coming one after
me, I'm not fit to get down and loosen the latchet on his shoe. Said, he's before me and he's
preferred before me. I'm just, what, who are you,
John? I'm just a voice. Just a voice, that's all I am.
a voice crying in the wilderness. And on John and the religious
leaders of his day rejected the testimony of God. You keep this
and look with me over in Luke 7, 29. The religious leaders
of his day and they always reject, men always reject the true preacher
of God. And they religious leaders of
his day rejected the testimony of God through John the Baptist. Our Lord Jesus says this about
John in verse 28, for I say unto you among those that are born
of women, there's not a greater prophet than John the Baptist,
not a greater. And in verse 29, and all the
people that heard him and the publicans justified God being
baptized with the baptism of John. They justified God. They cleared God that John come
preaching repentance, flee from the wrath to come. And God himself,
if you don't flee from the wrath to come and bring forth fruit
meat for repentance, there's no hope for you. And that's what
he preached. And all these people that believed,
they justified God by John's message and ministry. Just being
baptized with the baptism of John. But listen to this, but
the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against
themselves being not baptized of him. He ain't nobody. He ain't nobody. And all great
crowds and men of all sorts came to hear John. Oh, they came from
all over to hear John. But only a few, only a few were
really affected by His message. Only a few. And they were ready
to receive the Messiah when He came. He told them who He was
coming and what it would be like when He got here. And yet he
was treated the way all preachers are treated. Some believe, some
believe not. Some rejoice in his message and
some despise it. But he was roughly, roughly treated
by men. But he says again, look what
happened. He said, behold the Lamb of God,
there in verse 36. And that's the message we need
to repeat, the message. The message, the central vital
truth of the gospel, the central vital truth of the message is
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. The substitutionary death
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Two things about our Lord Jesus
that we can never lose sight of. And Scott Richardson, I don't
know that I ever heard him preach that he did not say something
about substitution. But I do know this, that we must
preach Christ as a substitute. When He was the Lamb of God,
what were lambs used for? To be a sacrifice. To be offered. They had to be without spot.
They had to be without blemish. They had to be, God himself had
a morning lamb and an evening lamb. And God told his Abraham,
he said, when Isaac said, father, where's the lamb? He said, my
son, God will provide himself a lamb. And God did. He provided
a lamb equal with himself. And in that substitutionary death
of Christ as the Lamb of God, He Himself, by Himself, rendered
satisfaction to everything God required of the human race and
the person of His blessed Son. God cannot ask any more than
what He gave when He gave the Son as the Lamb of God. God cannot
accept any more than what He Himself provided. And if He provided
it, then bless His name, He'll accept everyone who comes to
Him on the basis of what He provided, which is, blessed Son, our substitution
and our satisfaction. Never forget that, substitution
and satisfaction. And I believe self-satisfaction
comes first. God must be satisfied. Everything about Him must be
His perfection, His holiness, His righteousness, His justice.
Every attribute must be honored and satisfied. Every one of them,
justice and wrath, grace and mercy, love and pity, all must
be in the Son of God. And our Lord Jesus, to meet all
of that, offered himself. And God said, this is a sweet-smelling
savor to me. Oh, that smells so good. Oh,
my son's a sweet-smelling savor. Like that incense in that altar
of incense, it went up into the tabernacle. And oh, beloved,
I tell you what, he's a sweet-smelling savor to me too. oh he satisfies my heart my soul
but oh listen he said and look what he says it says there in
verse 35 and John stood John stood he was standing and it
says there and and in verse 36 and looking
upon Jesus as he walked the Lord Jesus Christ was walking on walking along, just walking along. And old John
looked up and said, behold the Lamb of God. Our Lord was just
walking. And oh, if we would see the Lord
Jesus Christ and look upon Him and see and behold God's Lamb,
we're going to have to be like John. We're going to have to
stand still. Just stand real still and see His blessed face. See Him. All fleshly, listen
to me now, all fleshly activity must stop. Those two disciples
weren't doing anything and John wasn't doing anything but just
standing there. And if we're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ,
all fleshly activity must stop. Nothing must be done. We must
come to the end of ourselves. We got to be like Moses at the
Red Sea. When everybody was fixing to
just crowd him and destroy him, he said, stand still. Just stand
still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. And that's what John did. He
just stood still and he saw the salvation of the Lord. He saw
God's blessed Lamb. And the two disciples, look what
it says, and the two disciples heard him speak. It says in verse
37, two disciples heard him speak. They heard this man's message.
that heard this man's message about the Lamb of God. Now, these
two disciples were John, one of them who's writing this book,
and Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And John later described this
encounter right here in 1 John 1 and 1 through 4. And Christ
here, when these disciples heard him speak, heard John speak,
Christ then became a living reality to them. And they started following
the Lord Jesus Christ. They was like Job. They heard
about Him with the hearing of the ear. Then their eyes saw
Him. And they said, Oh Lord, have
mercy on me. And I mean, they heard John speak. And look what happens in verse
38. And they followed Jesus. Look what it says, you know,
they heard John speak, and our Lord's walking now. He didn't
stop when he heard John speak. He didn't stop and say, yes,
you're right, John. Everything you say is right,
John. I'm exactly who you say I am, John. He never stopped
and said any of those things. He just kept walking. And John and Andrew just fell
in behind him, just started walking up behind him, started walking
along with him. And then Jesus, in verse 38,
then Jesus turned and saw them following. He turned and looked
at them. Oh my, turned and looked at John
and Andrew and said, look what he said here. He said, what are
you looking for? What are you seeking? Huh? And
oh, listen, our Lord is testing the motives of these men. What's
your purpose of following me? What's the reason you're following
me? Multitudes followed our Lord
Jesus Christ, but to what purpose? To what purpose? And he said,
what are you looking for? If you're following me, what
are you seeking? If you're following me, what's the reason you're
following me? He told a bunch one day, the only reason you
follow me is because I put bread in your belly. That's the only
reason in the world you follow me. And he said, and that's all
you're interested in is what you can get in your belly. He
said, but I'm telling you, you look for the bread that cometh
down from heaven, the bread of life that'll give you life in
your heart and in your soul. And what our Lord is saying here,
what seek ye? What's the purpose of you following
me? And our Lord, I'm telling you, beloved, our Lord will be
followed intelligently or he won't be followed at all. And
this right here of all the things I read to you tonight shows you
that there's people that has not a clue who Jesus Christ is. Not the first clue. I think I'll
start taking a bunch of these things and using them for newspaper
articles. This is what I found on bulletin boards. And I'm going
to start out with Isaiah 57, 15. The high and lofty one who
inhabits eternity. and then talk about how that
he measures the waters in the heart of his hands, and counts
all the nations as drops in the bucket, and the dust of the balance
is just, the dust is just, all the dust is just a little bit
of dust on the balance. And then say, this is what people
say about him. This is what people, how they
describe him. This is all the foolishness they got to say about
him. This is all the ignorance. This is ignorance in its utmost
degree. To talk about God, to talk about
Christ, to talk about the scriptures and describe God in the dumbest,
ignorant way. Oh, the best prayers, the best
wireless connection in the world. What an idiot. And I tell you,
that's why our Lord said, why are you seeking me? He'll be followed intelligently
or not at all. He won't accept formal or superstitious
worship, and that's what this is, superstition. We see superstition
in this hocus-pocus of the Catholic Church, superstition. And what
our Lord Jesus will have, He'll have the heart Heart. He'll have the heart. What seek
ye? What seek ye? Every heart. Every heart. Now you listen to
me. Converted or unconverted. Every heart has its object. Every
heart has its object. Huh? Every heart has something
that's the object of that heart. that that heart goes out after,
that that heart seeks, that that heart has its affections on,
that heart desires. Every heart has its object. And look what the psalmist said
over in Psalm 27. Psalm 27. I know David says, you know,
my heart panteth after thee as the heart panteth after the water
brook. Look in Psalm 27 in verse four. Every heart has its object. And beloved, that's why our Lord
Jesus Christ, you know, he goes after the heart. He says, you
know, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is way over
yonder. And he said here in verse four,
Psalm 27, one thing have I desired of the Lord that I'll seek after. I'm going to seek after this,
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my
life. Oh, to dwell with the Lord forever
and ever and ever, huh? To behold the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire where he dwells in his temple. And I tell you,
if He has your heart, whatever happens in this world, whatever
happens in this world, it does not destroy that Christ as an
object. It makes the Lord Jesus Christ
more precious. It makes Him more powerful. It
makes Him more desirous. And then look what He said in
verse 38, Then Jesus turned and saw them fall, and said unto
them, Watch, seek ye. They said unto him, Master, Rabbi,
Master, where you live, where do you dwell? Now, they wasn't
interested in where his house was. They were interested in
wherever you go and wherever you living at, that's where we
want to go. We want to go where you go. You know, and if you got a place
to live, we want to come over there and live with you. That's
what they're saying. We want to go with you, we want to be
with you, we desire your fellowship. You see, they weren't seeking
a what, they were seeking a who. Where do you live? And our Lord
Jesus Christ, where do you dwell? Where do you abide at? And they
were wanting to go be with the Lord Jesus Christ, spend the
night with Him, the evening with Him. And look what our Master
said to them. He, you know, instead of saying,
well, fellas, it's a long way to my house. No, no, look what
he said unto them. Come and see where I stay. Come and see where I dwell. I
tell you what, you know where he dwells now? It's the right
hand of the majesty on high. Come and see. He never, ever
disappoints those who want to know where he's at. want to know
where he's at, what he's like, to spend time with him and fellowship
with him. He says, come and you're welcome. Come and see, come and look.
And that's what we're trying to tell people, come and see,
come and look, see where he dwells. Oh my. And look what it says
in verse 39, the last part, they came and saw. They came and saw where he dwelt.
They came and saw. They ought to come and see. They
came and saw. Come and see. If you come and see, you'll come
to see. You'll say, I came and I saw. And look what happens. And abode with him that day.
And here's about the 10th hour. You know what the 10th hour is?
It's 4 o'clock in the afternoon. 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Their day started at 6 o'clock
in the morning. And it was four o'clock in the afternoon. That's
when it was. They got to where he dwelt at
four o'clock in the afternoon. They came and saw and abode with
him. First day of meeting him. The first day of meeting him,
following him. Like anybody else that follows
him for the right reasons, they get to abide with him. They get
to stay where he's at. And he tells them to come and
do that. Come, be with me where I am.
Abide with me. And oh, and look what happens
now in verse 40 and 41. And one of the two which heard
John speak and followed him was Andrew. Now that's two of those
disciples, two disciples we spoke about. And one of them heard
and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. And look
what he said, he first findeth his own brother Simon and saith
unto him, we have found the Messiah. We found the Messiah. We found
the Christ. We found the one that God promised. This is the one that came to
save us. This is the Messiah. And oh,
and what did he found out when he found out who Christ was and
found out he was the anointed one of God, anointed to come
into this world, to do the will of his father, to save his people? And what did he do? He sought
out his brother. Oh, they were so satisfied with the Lord Jesus
Christ, so enamored by the Lord Jesus Christ, and enjoyed His
fellowship and union and being with Him so much, he had to go
tell somebody who this man was. And the first person he went
and told was his own brother, Simon. He had to tell what he
knew. He had to tell what he experienced.
He had to tell it. And oh, we found the Messiah. That's what that woman in John
chapter 4 said. The Messiah. I found the Messiah.
The Messiah. I know He's the Messiah. Come
see a man that told me everything that ever I did. And look what
happens in verse 42. And now John knew where the Lord
Jesus Christ was. And you know what he said? And
he brought Him to Jesus. He brought him to the Lord Jesus.
Huh? He brought him to the Lord Jesus.
Now our Lord Jesus is... You picture this. Our Lord Jesus
hasn't... You know, His ministry is just
getting started. And His baptism. And here's Simon, here's Andrew.
He just gets overwhelmed. He just gets... just overwhelmed,
abiding with Christ, and sitting, talking to Christ, and enjoying
Christ. And the first thing he did, he
went and told Simon, he said, Simon, we found the Messiah! The Christ! And he said, come
with me! Come see Him! And oh, he brought
him to Jesus. And you know, he never said a
word. Simon never said a word. You
know, our Lord spoke to him first. John, you know, no doubt Andrew
said, well, this is, this is, this is a Christ here. And for
Simon could say anything the scripture says here. And when
Jesus beheld him, he says, I know who you are. I know exactly who
you are. You're Simon, the son of Jonah. How did he know he was Simon,
the son of Jonah? Oh, and oh, listen, he said,
listen, our Lord Jesus Christ knows his own. He said, I know
my sheep and have known of mine. And he made a promise to this
hotheaded, impulsive Peter and Simon. And he said, here, you're
Simon, the son of Jonas. And from now on, you're going
to be called Cephas. You know what Cephas means? By
interpretation, you're a stone. You're a rock. You'll be called
Petra. You'll be called a stone. You'll
be called a rock. You'll be called Simon Peter,
Simon Cephas. That's who you'll be. And you'll
be called a stone. Simon, you vacillating, unstable. I know all there is to know about
you, but you're gonna get a new name. I'm gonna give you a new
name. I'm gonna give you a new name. and a rock, you're going
to be fixed and stable. That's what I'm going to make
you. And then look what happens in verse 43. The next day, they
get up, go about their business, and our Lord Jesus Christ, it
says in verse 43, the day following, the next day, Jesus would go,
he went forth into Galilee and findeth Philip, He found Philip. Nobody brought Philip to him.
Nobody said anything to him about him or nothing. He findeth Philip
and saith unto him, follow me. Just follow me. Just follow me. Nobody was, he didn't hear a
message. Nobody told him anything. But our Lord Jesus just walked
up to him Follow me, just follow me. He came to seek and to save
that which is lost. And whether the Lord uses a preacher
or a brother with a brother, it's still the Lord. It's still
the Lord who seeks and finds each and every one of his own,
no matter where they're at. Now look what happens in verse
44 and 45. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. And, oh, Philip's like his master.
He had compassion, full of compassion. And he finds Nathanael. And he
finds Nathanael. And you know, he says unto him,
you know what we have found? We have found him of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. Moses wrote about him. The prophets
wrote about him. This is who Moses was talking
about in Genesis 3.15. This is Moses. Talked about him
as the Lamb. Moses talked about him as the
Passover. Moses talked, oh, he talked about him being the prophet.
Talked about him being the one that would come and bruise the
serpent's head and have his heel crushed. And oh my, we have found
him whom Moses in the law, and see he describes him altogether
different. Andrew said, we found the Messiah, we found the Christ.
And he said, we found him that Moses talked about. We found the one Moses and the
prophets talked about. Jeremiah said, he is the Lord
our righteousness. Isaiah says that he was a lamb
led to the slaughter. And he goes on here, but look
what Nathaniel says. And Nathaniel said unto him,
and he objects. He says, oh my, you poor, poor
Philip. You don't know nothing, Philip. You absolutely don't know nothing.
He objects, and look what he says. And he raises a question. This
wasn't an evasion. It was an honest question. He
says, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Evidently, Nazareth was just
a little old village and Christ was supposed to come of Bethlehem
and He said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? What in
the world is good in Nazareth? I remember I was on a ferry one
time in Ireland, going on a ferry from Wales, or Swansea, Wales
over to Wexford Island, Waterford Island, Wexford Island. Got talking
to this fella about some things and I mentioned this town and
how that this guy made it famous in a song. He said, that's where
I'm from. And he couldn't possibly know
anything about where we live because there ain't nothing good
about it to write a song about. That's what he thought, there's
just nothing to the place. And that's what Nathaniel said,
there's nothing to Nazareth, there ain't nothing good could
come out of Nazareth. How could Christ come out of
Nazareth? And oh, and I'll tell you, you
know, if that had been me or you, we'd have started to argue
with him and said, well, he was actually born in Bethlehem and
they took him off into Egypt and then they brought him back
and then they moved into Nazareth, you know, and then we went through
a whole theological thing explaining it to him. But no, Philip didn't
do that. Philip had some sense. And look
what Philip says. And Nathanael says unto him, And Philip saith unto him, well,
just come and see. Just come and see. Come and see
if any good thing can come out of Nazareth. Just come and see. I told you we found, and he's
out of Nazareth, son of Joseph. Just come and see. Oh, we would
have had a time, wouldn't we, Brad, trying to explain everything
to him, you know. And we would have had him so
wore out, you know. And he would have said, man,
I wish that guy would shut up so I could go on about my business.
But he just said, well, come and see. Come and see if any
good thing can come out of Nazareth. Come and see if this is what
I'm telling you is right. Moses wrote of him and the prophets
wrote about him. And our Lord has said in verse
37, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and saith of him, spoke
to him while he was coming. Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in him whom is no guy. I don't go along to get along.
I say what I think, I say what I feel, I view things the way
that I view them. I didn't say anything to get
along with Philip, I didn't say anything more than what I felt
and what I believed. No guy. No hypocrisy. No phoniness in him. And then
look what happens. Boy, wouldn't you love the Lord
to say that about you, an Israelite, indeed, in whom is no God? He can't say that about me. I
know that without a shadow of a doubt. And Nathaniel asked
him, Nathaniel asked him, how in the world do you know me?
Who do you know me from? Where do you know me from? How
do you know me? How in the world do you know
me? And our Lord answered and said
unto him, and all you saw about our Lord's omniscience. Our Lord
knows his people, where they are and what they're doing and
everything about them. And look what he said, before that Philip
called you, before that Philip went over and told you, look
who we found. Before Philip called thee, when
thou was setting down under that fig tree, I saw you." Now, I
shouldn't say, I don't know if he's setting down, he might have
been under that fig tree trying to get some figs. I don't know
what he's doing, but he is under a fig tree. Now, the Lord said,
before Philip called you, I seen you under that fig tree. I seen
you. I seen you. I know who you are.
Oh, my. And I tell you what. Our Lord
Jesus Christ read his heart before he came to him. So who can deceive
our Lord Jesus? Who can hide from him? Who can
play the hypocrite and Christ not know it? Now for me, and
I've told you this and I believe you the same way, I find great
comfort and assurance in Christ knowing me. I find great, and
even at my very worst, at my very worst, I find comfort that He knows
me because He knows what I've thought, what I've felt, and
what I've done, and I have to come to Him the way I am. I don't
try to get myself better. I just come to Him the way that
I am. And, oh, listen, Nathanael answered,
and what else could he say? In verse 49, Nathanael answered,
and what else could he say? The answer said unto him, Rabbi,
Thou art the Son of God. You're the King of Israel. One
of them started out, he's the Messiah, the Christ. The next
one said Moses and the prophets told about him. Now he said,
you're the Son of God and the King of Israel. Every one of
them just said something different about him and described him in
every one of his offices and everything the scripture said
about him. Every one of them said something,
said something different. And I tell you, a man won't answer
this way and call him the Son of God, the King of Israel, without
a work of God upon his heart and upon his soul. Oh, he opened
the eyes of his understanding. Now let me tell you this in clothing.
Here, this is the first time he's called the Son of God. And
there's, well, John the Baptist called him the Son of God. I
shouldn't say that. John the Baptist was the first. Seven
times, seven bear witness, seven in all of John's gospel. Seven,
that perfection. Bear witness to our Lord being
the Son of God. John the Baptist was the first.
Nathanael was the second. Peter was the third when he says,
Oh, we know that thou art the Son of God, to whom shall we
turn? And the Lord himself called himself
the Son of God. Martha said, we know that thou
art the Son of God, and God heareth thee. Thomas says, my Lord and
my God. And John, the writer of this
gospel, said, all these things are written that you may believe
that the Christ is the Son of God, and that believing you may
have life through him. And then look what our Lord said
in verse 50. And our Lord answered and said unto him, Because I
said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, do you believe? And that's something, that's
a pretty great thing for the Lord to tell you where you've
been and what you've been doing. That caught him to be a believer. But he said, if you think that's
something, you're going to see greater things than this. You
think me seeing you under that fig tree was something? You're
gonna see something a heapsight better than that. You're gonna
see a heapsight more than that. You're gonna see some things
beside that. And our Lord said unto him, I tell you that you'll
see heaven open. You yourself will see heaven
open. And you'll see the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man. You'll see that in your life.
You'll see it. Oh, our Father, thank you for
this evening. Thank you for the truth. Thank
you for these ways of saving your people and how everybody
has a different way of that you dealt with them and everyone
had a different response. Lord, I bless you for your sovereignty.
And I thank you that you deal with people as people, as individuals,
deal with them as they are, where they are. and you know everything
about us, and we thank you for that. God bless you, dear saints,
as they go to their jobs, their homes. Strengthen, encourage
them, and cause them to be strong in the grace and knowledge of
Christ. Cause us all to be strong in the grace and knowledge of
Christ. Give us that wisdom that comes down from above. It's peaceable,
easily entreated, gentle. Give us that understanding and
knowledge of the scriptures that gives us the knowledge of you
as we seek this knowledge and understanding that comes down
from God himself. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.