Well, to all who hear this message,
either now live as it's preached, or watching the recording, or
listening to the recording on Sermon Audio, all of you listening,
I am speaking to people who are in this world. Every one of us
is in this world. If we're alive, we're in this
world. But some, are of this world's kingdom, in it and of
it, whereas some are in it but of God's kingdom. Which are you? Well, perhaps you see little
difference, but those that are in the world and the kingdom
of the world adopt the culture of the world. They follow the
philosophy of the world. They share its values, the things
that it values, the things that it praises and that it aspires
to. They follow its ideas, its ideas
of what life is really about. They share the ambitions of the
world, and they live like others in it. They seek for a life of
happiness in all that the world has to offer. And you know there's
that hymn, I tried the broken cisterns, Lord, but ah, the waters
failed. And even as I stooped to drink,
they mocked me as I wailed. But people still seek after their
life happiness in all that the world offers, and yet there is
this nagging dissatisfaction with it. We were reading the
other morning the opening chapters of Ecclesiastes, and you know,
what does it say? What's the word again and again?
Vanity, vanity. All is vanity. People keep going
and doing their thing, and they go to work, and they get up,
and they go to bed, and they grow old, and You know, children
are born and all the rest of it, but vanity of vanity, says
the preacher Solomon, the wise man. Vanity of vanity. Without
God, all is vanity in this world. Whereas those who are in the
kingdom of God, they're still in this world, but they're of
the kingdom of God. Their hearts are set in eternity. That's where their hearts are
set. You know, set your hearts on things above, your minds on
things above, says Paul. Hearts are set in eternity. They
have a hope, a hope. You know, the world's hope is
a hope that something might happen, but then again, probably it won't.
I hope I might win a lot of money, but probably, almost certainly,
I won't. But the hope of the person who is a citizen of the
kingdom of God is different to the world's hope, in that it
is a confident expectation. It is an expectation. It's not
like, maybe we will, maybe we won't. It's certainly we will.
It's an expectation. And it's confident because it's
based on what God has done in Christ. When God raised Christ
from the dead, that's it, it's guaranteed. The God who called
all things into being cannot lie, cannot fail. He shall not
fail, says Isaiah 42, of Christ's work. He shall not fail. We have
an absolute confidence that God will accomplish everything. that
he has said concerning taking his people who believe in him
to be with him. In my house, in my father's house,
he said to those disciples the night before his crucifixion,
in my father's house there are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. But he's telling us, he's gone
to prepare a place for his people in heaven. This is our hope.
We love the precepts of God's kingdom. The standards of it. The morality of it. We love it. We love it. That God is holy.
God is just. God is righteous. We hate sin. We are sinners. We sin every
day. But we hate sin. We love righteousness. We believe
the Word of God. For you know what the biggest
sin of all is, don't you? To call God a liar. How do you
call God a liar? You say, I don't believe His
Word. I don't believe it when it says this. I don't believe
it when it... You're calling God a liar. That's the biggest
sin of all, believing God's Word. Trusting, trusting the redemption,
the payment of the liberty, the payment of the ransom for release
of the people of God in bondage to sin. Christ has accomplished
that. We trust that redemption that Christ has accomplished.
And being saved, we love the brethren. He that loveth God,
loves his brother also. He that loves God, loves his
brother also. We love the brethren. And you
know that. I know we're not allowed to travel
around the world these days, but in the times when we did,
You'd go and you'd find believers who believe this gospel that
you've never met before, and your hearts are instantly knit
together in bonds of love in the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we enjoy the eternal benefits of the citizenship of
God's kingdom. As that old chorus, I'm getting
quite fond of quoting old choruses, aren't I? But it says, the things
of this world grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory
and grace. You know, somebody, I can think
of testimonies of people who came out of the darkness of the
world into the marvelous light of the gospel of grace. And who
twisted their arm to give up this, that, and the other? I'll
tell you, absolutely nobody. But the things of this world
that they used to find so stimulating to their senses, the things of
this world that they used to love to seek for, couldn't wait
for Friday or Saturday evening to go and indulge in it, those
things grew strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. For there was something that
was much more valuable. There was something that was
eternally valuable. Something which was treasure
laid up in heaven, where moth and rust doth not corrupt, where
it lasts for eternity. Lay up treasure in heaven. Maybe
you know that although you're in this world, you're not in
the kingdom of God. And you see the confidence regarding eternity
of those that are in the kingdom of God, their lack of the fear
of death, their confidence about heaven, their trust in God, their
love for Christ and his people. And maybe you want that for yourself,
but how, how to cross from the world's kingdom to God's kingdom? In the passage that Stephen read
to us earlier in the last part of John's Gospel, chapter 1,
from verse 35 to 51, here we have five disciples being translated,
converted, good old-fashioned word, converted. They're converted
from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God. Please
don't be confused if you read other accounts in Matthew, Mark
and Luke about the calling of disciples. It's not a contradiction,
it isn't a conflict. Those Gospels are talking about
other incidents, like the commission to preach. So don't confuse that.
This is how these were called. Here are five different men. living and working in the world,
brought into the experience of God's kingdom. And that's what
I want us to think about this morning. First of all, let's
look at John and Andrew, because their case is the same. In verse
35, We see again the next day after John, that's John the Baptist
stood, and two of his disciples, now, two of his disciples, we
know that one of them was Andrew, verse 40, one of the two which
heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, the brother of
Simon, Peter, Peter the apostle, as he became. This was Andrew,
his brother, that was one of the two. Who was the other one?
It's almost certain. It's 99% plus certain. It was
John the Apostle, the writer of this Gospel. He was always
retiring about who he was. He talked of himself as the disciple
whom Jesus loved. That's, you know, what are you?
Just as William Huntington said, had it put on his grave. You're
not William Huntington, Doctor of Divinity. No, no, no, no.
William Huntington, SS. SS? sinner saved. That was the best he could say
about himself, sinner saved, and really the best he could
say about himself. This is John the Apostle and
Andrew, these two, and this is the second time they've heard
John the Baptist say, behold the Lamb of God. Look in verse
29, the next day John The Baptist seeth Jesus coming to him, and
says, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. Then again, the next day, verse 35, again the next
day, John stood with two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus,
as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God. Look at the
Lamb of God. Look at the Lamb of God. But
this second time, he said it, this second time they heard it,
they followed. You know, maybe you've heard,
behold, the Lamb of God, more than once. Maybe you have, but
there comes a time when the Holy Spirit says, now is the day of
salvation. Now is the day to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the day to look, to believe,
to follow in His steps. John the Baptist preached Christ
to them. He preached, behold the Lamb
of God, as we were looking at last week. He preached, simply
look at the substitute for the people of God. Look at who He
is. God come down from heaven to
be man. God come, because only the infinite
God has the capacity to save a multitude. But only as a man
can God suffer and pay the penalty that the justice of God requires
for the sin of man. And so God became man to be an
acceptable sacrifice, a substitute for His people, to redeem His
people from the curse of the law. And what do we do? What
do believers do? What do disciples do? Look, Look,
behold, just look at him, look at him, just stand still and
look at him, for he has done all, as when the Israelites came
out of Egypt. after that night of the Passover,
and they're being pursued by the Egyptians the next day, and
they come to the Red Sea, and they're in great terror, a great
company of Israelites, and they're trapped between the pursuing
army of the Egyptians and Pharaoh, and the Red Sea, which will definitely
drown them all, and they just cannot see what to do, and the
message that God gives by Moses is this, stand still. Don't do anything. Don't pick
up arms to fight. Don't try to swim. Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. That's it. Behold the Lamb
of God. Stand still and look at the Lamb
of God. There's no works required. For
God in Christ has done all that is needed. This is the work of
God. What must we do that we do the
works of God, they asked Jesus in John chapter 6. This is the
work of God that you believe. Look in faith at him. You believe on the one whom he
has sent. No ropes required. God has done
all the works that are needed. As we read in Isaiah 45 verse
22, God says, look unto me and be ye saved. all the ends of
the earth, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter where
you're from, not just Israelites, but the whole world, God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son. Sinners throughout
the world of every nationality, all the ends of the earth, look
unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God and there is none else. Don't look anywhere else, here
he is, in Christ. There isn't a strange God amongst
you. When Christ walked this earth, this is God in flesh come
to redeem his people from the curse of the law. And they looked,
John and Andrew, John the apostle and Andrew, they looked and they
followed. Verse 37, the two disciples heard
him speak. And whereas the day before they'd
looked and thought, I wonder what that could mean. Today,
The Holy Spirit opens their eyes and they look and he reveals
to them Christ in all of his saving power. This is God. This is the promised Messiah.
This is the one of whom the scriptures speak. Here he is come down to
earth to redeem his people from the curse of the law. Here He
is, we must know Him. He is the One. How should a man
be just with God? They will have known from Job's
book, chapter 9, verse 2, and other places in that book. How
should a man be just with God? And now they see it. There He
is, in flesh, walking before us. And they followed Jesus.
Yes, if I would have eternal life, if I would see heaven,
If I would enjoy the bliss of fellowship with the eternal God
for eternity, I must follow Jesus. I mustn't stay where I am and
just observe, I must follow Jesus. Why? Why must they do that? John
had preached repentance for sin. John had baptized in the river
Jordan, which symbolized the death. You know, when Jordan
flooded and overflowed its banks, it was a terrifying sight. I'm
sure it was a river much more awesome to look at than it is
in these days. In its flooding, it was a terrifying
thing. It symbolized death, the death
that sin deserved. But here's the Lamb of God, who
alone could take away sins. Jordan's water couldn't take
away sins. The washing of the external part
of the flesh in Jordan's water couldn't take away sins. No,
not at all. It's Christ, the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sins of the world. As the temple sacrifices
throughout the Old Testament, in the tabernacle first, they
pictured the payment of the penalty for sin, God's just penalty for
sin, the Lamb that died. on the altar, regularly, again
and again, sacrificed as God had specified. And the scapegoat
on which the sins of the people were symbolically placed by the
priest's hands on the head of the scapegoat. I would lay my
hands on this head, as that hymn says, of Top Lady. The scapegoat. It's all pictures, pictures of
Christ. Here was how to be right with
God in picture. But the Messiah, the Christ,
must come. The seed of the woman must come
and really fulfill the pictures. And John says, there he is. Look
at him. Everything that the scripture
spoke of, there he is. God has shown John the Baptist
when he saw that spirit like a dove coming down and resting
upon him. He says, I didn't know him, but then he knew him. God
said, this is him. This is the one, your cousin.
He is the one. He is the one. And he tells his
disciples, John the Baptist tells his disciples, this is he in
whom alone you will find peace with God. The Christ, the seed
of the woman that was promised in Genesis 3. They saw, with
the eye of faith, what others didn't see. For the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
to him, neither can he know them. Why? For they are spiritually
discerned. As John later wrote what they saw, in his first epistle
John says this, right at the very start of 1 John chapter
1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested
and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto
you. He's speaking of Christ. Here's
John coming to Christ and he says, this was it. Well, surely,
was it a flash in the pan, you know, were you not looking through
rose-coloured spectacles and you soon discovered he wasn't
what he said? No, the longer he was with him, the more Certainly,
he believed. He believed and followed Christ.
He followed behind. Look, the two disciples, verse
37, the two disciples heard him speak and they followed Jesus. They followed behind him. But
Jesus turned, verse 38, then Jesus turned and saw them following. They followed and he turned and
saw them following and he asked them a question. He said, what
seek ye? What are you looking for? What
is it you're looking for? What's your motive in following
me? Is the question that Jesus asks
these two disciples, John the Apostle and Andrew. What's your
motive? You see, Many people we read
of in the Gospels followed Jesus. Many followed Him because they
were so impressed when five loaves and two fishes fed thousands. And again when a different number
fed another number of thousands. The miracles that they saw, the
people with spirits and with palsy and terrible leprosy and
all of these things that Christ healed. Many, many followed Him
because they saw these miraculous things. but not because their
souls were crying out for fellowship with God. As the psalmist says,
Psalm 42 verse 1, Longing is the better word. Longing
to know God, to know fellowship with God. My soul thirsts for
God, for the living God. What's your motive? Is that your
motive in coming to Christ? Fellowship with the living God
because your soul is yearning to know Him. Oh, the blessings
of knowing the living God. And their answer was, he says,
what do you want? What are you seeking? And they
said, Where do you dwell? Where dwellest thou? Where? Where
dwellest thou? Just think about this. Think
about that. So simple. Where do you dwell?
This is the Son of Man. This is God in human flesh, come
to redeem his people. And nobody knew where he was. Where do you dwell? Where? Nobody
knew where the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,
the most important person that has ever lived, nobody knew where
the Lamb of God who redeems his people from the curse of the
Lord, nobody knew where he dwelt. All knew where Caesar dwelt in
Rome, all knew where the high priest dwelt in Jerusalem, all
knew the things of the important people of the world, But the
Lamb of God, where do you dwell? Think of the humiliation of the
God-man. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. laid aside His glory, came down,
and was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
He said that the Son of Man... Foxes have holes, and the birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay
His head. Where? Where? Think of the humiliation
of the Son of God coming to save His people from their sins. Where
dwellest thou? And the word that might be better
there is abidest, abide, to abide. You know the hymn, Abide With
Me? It doesn't mean just dwell in the same house as me, it means
come to me closely, intimately, abide with me. Abide with me
fast falls the even tides, says that hymn. Abide with me. Where
do you abide? I want to be with you. That we
might be with you. That we might enjoy communion
with you. That we might enjoy fellowship
with you. You know, God, throughout the Scriptures, talks about His
people, and He says, I will be to them a God, and they shall
be My people. They will be Mine, and I will
be theirs. Thou. Thou. Where do you abide? And
where do you abide? That question, where dwelleth
that? Where do you abide? You, not what. It's not what
are you seeking. It's not an inner feeling of
peace and satisfaction. It's whom are you seeking? Where
do you dwell? That we might come and enjoy
fellowship with you, is what they're saying. Not what they
sought, but whom they sought. Jesus said in John 14 verse 3,
that where I am, speaking about Him going to prepare a place
for His people, that where I am, this is it, Don't think, you
know, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. You
know, it's in heaven. That where I am, there ye may
be also. He prayed that again in his high
priestly prayer in John 17. That they may be with me where
I am. That the people may be with him.
And John beholds in Revelation 19 verse 1, And I beheld and
I saw in heaven much people, the people of God, around the
throne of God, with him. with Christ, beholding His face. So Jesus bids John and Andrew
come and see. And they came, and they abode
with Him. They abode with Him. They came
and they abode, physically, because He was in physical form on this
earth, but not now. It's His Spirit that we have
who takes of the things of Christ and reveals them to us and shows
them to us. And in our hearts and in our
souls, we know we have the presence of the living God. I and my Father
will come to Him and abide with Him and make our home with Him.
You are the temple of the living God. If you are in Christ, believing
Him and following Him, you are the temple of the living God.
And here they are, Andrew and John the Apostle, who were in
the world in the world, might have been sincerely seeking,
they might have been simple men of low education, but nevertheless
men who had thought about the things of eternity and the revelation
of the Messiah. And however sincere they might
have been, here they are now, they're confirmed in God's kingdom. For they have come, and they
have followed. And come and follow you must.
Read those articles, as I say, in this week's bulletin. Read
the articles about this because it's so important. There's an
excellent little one by Henry Mahan. Please read it, read what
it says. There's too many religious situations
where people in their enthusiasm to increase their numbers, and
we have experienced this ourselves, we know what this is talking
about. In their enthusiasm to increase their numbers, they
make such a fuss of people coming in, and they make such a fuss
to bend over backwards to do all sorts of things for them,
that they make them think that they're in the kingdom of God,
when they truly are not in the kingdom of God. And they need
to hear the gospel of peace, and they need to believe it for
themselves. And you need to leave it to the
Spirit of God to speak to those people. What it says in Colossians
1 verse 13 is true. For those who are converted,
who are brought into the kingdom of God, it says, who God has
delivered us, believing people. He's delivered his believing
people from the power of darkness. That's the power of Satan's kingdom,
which knows nothing of God and has, listen, translated us into
the kingdom of his dear son. Oh, what a blessed thing it is
to be translated from the kingdom of darkness, the power of darkness,
into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Thy kingdom come. The world's
kingdom to God's kingdom. Then let's think about Simon
Peter, the brother of Andrew. In verse 40, one of the two which
heard John speak 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 Christ. If you wonder why it says Messiahs
and things like that, it's because it's translating from the Greek.
This gospel was written in Greek. And it's that translation, whereas
the Messiah is from the Hebrew. That's why you've got Isaiah
and Isaiah. They're the same word really,
but just in different languages, like Paris and Paris. So verse
41, he findeth his own brother and he says, we've found the
Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him
to Jesus. He brought Peter to Jesus, his brother, Simon Peter.
And when Jesus beheld him, he said, thou art Simon, the son
of Jonah, the son of John. Thou shalt be called Cephas,
Peter, which by interpretation, a stone. You shall be called
a stone. John, the writer, was reluctant
to name himself, but Andrew includes him. We have found the Messiah. We have found. Andrew and John,
we have found the Messiah. They went looking for him. They
couldn't, you know, Another piece by Don Faulkner in there. Andrew,
we don't read, was a great preacher, not like Peter became. Nevertheless,
what did Andrew do? He testified. He testified. He says, look, we have found
him of whom the scriptures wrote. We found the Messiah. What they
had found in Jesus when they abode with him, was the physical
fulfillment of everything the Old Testament Scriptures said
of Messiah. Look at verse 45. We're jumping
ahead to Philip, but nevertheless the words apply. Philip finds
Nathanael and says to him, now this is the same thing. We have
found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write,
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. He even got his message
wrong, but nevertheless, he said we found the Messiah. I'll tell
you why in a moment. They had a heart acquaintance with him.
They had come to the assurance of faith. They trusted that he
would accomplish his mission. that He would save His people
from their sins, that He would take them to glory. He was the
fulfillment of everything that their Jewish religion had taught
them the Messiah would do. And they found Him, and He is
the One. We need look no further. He is the One. And therefore,
trusting Him, believing Him, we must tell others, starting
at home. You think about the trivia in
these days of social media. And don't worry, I'm not issuing
any sort of a rebuke here. We all participate in it. But
think of the trivia we are all keen to share on social media. If you have truly experienced
Christ, you must tell others. That's the important thing. You
must tell others. Here is Simon. the impetuous,
volatile character, who is the brother of Andrew. Here is Simon,
and Jesus says to him, you shall be called Cephas. Peter, a stable
stone. You are volatile by nature, but
you will be a stable stone in God's kingdom. Here he is in
the world, a fisherman, but he's translated into the kingdom of
God's dear son. Peter, who was so irrational
in so many ways, and he remained Simon right the way through his
life. But nevertheless, he took the lead in declaring, you are
the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas,
for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father which
is in heaven. You are the Christ. It was Peter, of all of them,
that said that. It was Peter who couldn't leave
Christ when the multitudes were leaving in John chapter 6, for
they said, his doctrine, this is a hard saying, who can take
it? Who can tolerate? He was talking
about, Jesus was talking there about the electing grace of God,
and that it's not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but
of God that shows mercy. And they said, this is a hard
saying, who can take it? And many walked no longer with
him. Many who claimed to be his disciples walked no longer with
him. And Jesus said to the others, to the 12, he said, Will you
also leave? And Peter says, To whom? It's
Peter that says it. Simon, the brother of Andrew.
In the world and now in the kingdom of God. revealed to him by the
Holy Spirit. He says, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. Nobody else does. You have
the words. We can't go anywhere else. Where
shall we go? Yes, you're right. These are
hard sayings to the flesh and the logic of human nature. These are hard sayings, but you
alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go? This
is Peter, who after the crucifixion and the ascension, Peter who
would preach to thousands at Pentecost in Jerusalem. Peter
who would preach with such boldness that there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Here
is Simon in the world, translated into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. Why does this world continue?
Answer, why does it continue now? Answer, because God yet
has his elect to call out. There are some who currently
are living in darkness, children of wrath even as others, who
are yet to come to Christ. And when the full number of the
elect is called out of darkness into his marvellous light, translated
into the kingdom of his Son, then shall come the end. So then
Philip, verse 43, briefly, verse 43, the day following, Jesus
would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith
unto him, follow me. Now Philip was of Bethsaida,
the same city of Andrew and Peter, so probably known to them. So
there's Philip, but Christ, with no other human agent, Christ
finds Philip and calls him. This is sovereign grace on display. God comes and calls this one
and that one. He came, it says, to seek and
to save that which is lost. Lost in the darkness of ignorance
in the kingdom of this world. But like a good shepherd, he
goes out. seeking one of his lost sheep.
You know the parable he told? Which of you, having 99, having
100 sheep, you've got 99 of them safe in the fold, but there's
one missing. You leave the 99 safe in the fold, and you go
out and find the one lost sheep, and you go and bring it back
safely. He goes and he finds his lost
sheep, Philip, and he has one message for him. one message,
follow me, for only in following Christ is there salvation from
sin, is there hope of eternal glory, is there the riches of
every spiritual blessing in Christ. only in Christ and in following
Him. In human character, Philip was
the careful, materialistic one. Go and buy bread to feed the
five. Where are we gonna get the money to do that? He was
the careful, materialistic one. He was the one that wanted everything
sorting out and putting into logical order. Lord, just show
us the Father and that will suffice. You know, just show us the Father.
Yet Christ calls such as him. All sorts, all of these five,
they're all different in personality. but he calls them, and he does.
He elects a multitude that no man can number, of every tribe
and tongue and kindred. And he follows, not as a robot,
but because he has seen and experienced divine truth, as we read about
John. We have seen and experienced
it. We have touched, we have handled. We have seen the Word
made flesh dwelling amongst us. He had found the pearl of greatest
price. And so every other pearl was
of so little value to him anymore that he didn't bother about them.
He'd found the pearl of greatest price. What's he going to do?
He must follow Jesus. He must follow Him. He must be
with, abiding with, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world. And he must tell his searching
friend, Nathanael. Oh, he's got a friend too. And
like Andrew goes and tells his brother, so Philip, having found
the Messiah, must tell his friend Nathanael, who is searching.
But Philip, too, was translated into the kingdom of God's dear
son. So then Nathanael, just briefly
as we close, verse 45, And 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. I'm not going to persuade you
with words, you must come and see. And in a sense, that's true
of all who preach and have witnessed. You know, I can tell you till
the cows come home, but unless you come and see, you're not
going to know. Come and see. Nathanael was devout. He was serious. He was searching
for God's promise to be fulfilled. He was sincerely interested,
but still on the outside. He was looking for the Messiah
to come. He was like, you know, when Paul
is on his missionary journeys, and he comes to Philippi, and
he goes down by the river on the Sabbath day, and he finds
a group of women. They're seeking God and seeking to worship, but
they don't know the truth, they don't know the gospel. And one
of them's called Lydia. And as he preached, it says,
the Holy Spirit opened Lydia's heart, and he came in, and she
believed. She believed the truth of the
gospel of grace. Sincerely interested, yes, but
not in until she believed. Looking for Messiah to come,
Philip testified, we have found him of whom the scriptures speak. We've found him. He's a man from
Nazareth. Wrong, wrong. He grew up in Nazareth. He's a man from Bethlehem. He's
Jesus of Bethlehem. The son of Joseph the carpenter.
No, no, no, no, no. Supposedly, he's the son of God. He's the Son of God, conceived
of the Holy Spirit. And Nathanael on that testimony,
sincere though it was but wrong though it was, from Philip, Nathanael
doubted. Can there anything good come
out of Nazareth? It was a notorious place for
evil practice. We know that because later when
Jesus went there to the synagogue, the people of Nazareth, his own
hometown where he grew up, tried to kill Jesus for that which
he preached concerning the sovereign grace of God. I remember when
we lived in Barrow-in-Furness, there was an area of Barrow-in-Furness,
and if there's anybody from Barrow listening now and it's changed
itself, then please accept my apologies, but it was like this
in the 1980s. There was the Vulcan Estate,
which was regarded with dread and fear by anybody that lived
there. It was so notorious. Could there anything good come
out of the Vulcan? Same with Liverpool. The Dingle in the
Liverpool in the 1960s and 70s was regarded with fear. The Dingle
was a place where you don't go. A place of bad reputation. It
really was. And there are places like it
now. And Nathaniel says of Nazareth, can anything good come from there?
Come and see for yourself. And so he comes. And Jesus sees
him coming because Jesus knows all things and says, Behold an
Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Here's a sincere man who's
sincerely seeking fellowship with God. Christ knows all about
you long before you know anything about him. You know in Hagar,
was sent away from Abraham and Sarah, and she's there thinking
that she's going to die, and she's got Ishmael, her son, with
her. And Genesis 16 verse 13, Thou
God seest me. Thou God seest me. Whatever state
we're in, God sees us. God knows all things. And this
one was one of his sheep, and he calls his sheep by name. He'd
always been one of his sheep. My sheep hear my voice, he says.
He has a sheep from before the beginning of time, which are
the elect of God, the multitude that no man can number. And he
calls them by name. And God saw him praying, studying
secretly under the fig tree, out of the sight of Jesus, but
Jesus is God in flesh, his Son, the Son of God, who sees and
Nathanael believes this because how else could this man know
where he was and what he was doing except he be God himself. You are the Son of God. You are
God in flesh walking. And Jesus says, because I've
said that to you, you believe? You know, in a way, this is a
mystery. But the man, Christ Jesus, though
he were God in the fullest extent of God, yet he limited himself
in his flesh, and he was amazed in his flesh as the man Jesus
of the things that God did. He was amazed at unbelief, and
he was amazed at belief. Because you've seen, because
I just said that, you believe, you shall see greater things
than this. What will you see? You will see the dream of Jacob.
fulfilled. The ladder, with the angels of
God ascending and descending upon the ladder, and that ladder,
of course, was what we read in verse 51, the Son of Man. The angels of God ascending and
descending upon the Son of Man, upon this One who stands before
Him. So a devout religious man in
the world is translated into God's kingdom. But it doesn't
matter how devout he is, so long as he just remains an interested
observer, looking and seeking, that's all he'll remain. He must
come. He must come. He must come to
Christ, and he comes believing, and he follows Him. Are you in
the world, and of the world, the world of vanity and of pointless
existence, without God and without hope in this world? are in the
world and desirous of being in God's kingdom. If the latter,
then here's the gospel. You've heard it. Hear the gospel,
believe it. Hear the testimony of his witnesses.
Come and see, come and see. Hear his voice calling unto you. The good shepherd calling to
his sheep. Come unto me, all ye that labour and heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. But come, you must.