Okay, turn to John and the first
chapter, and I want to look at the verses 35 to 51, particularly
focusing on Nathanael, but also the calling of the other disciples
that we read of here. The title of the message is Biblical
Witnessing, and in a nutshell, if you want me to put it in a
nutshell, I'll try, it's this, that Biblical Witnessing is saying,
come and see, come and see. Come and see what I've experienced
and what I've heard. Because if God gives you faith,
if God gives you a grain of mustard seed, so tiny, so long as it's
genuine faith, genuine, the real thing, then it will grow. And
you know, Jesus said that faith, true faith, is like that mustard
seed, the smallest of all the seeds of the herbs, that grows
into the biggest herb of all. Grows into a plant that has birds
nesting in its branches. Come and see. If God gives you
faith, genuine faith, I won't need to give you more complex
arguments as to why you should believe. God, the Holy Spirit,
will show you those things. Now we've seen John the Baptist
was pointing to the Lamb of God, Christ, the Lamb of God. John
the Baptist came saying, behold, look at the Lamb. That was his
message. He came as a witness for the
light, and he came and pointed to the Lamb of God. that takes
away the sin of the world, that takes away the sin of people
all over the world. Not every sin that was ever committed
by everybody that ever lived, because then nobody would be
in hell, but every... His sacrifice is sufficient for
people, whatever their nationality, wherever they're from, whatever
culture, whatever tongue they speak, He's the Savior for people
all over the world. That's what that means. irrespective
of race or culture. And so, the day after the events
that we saw last week, John stood with two of his disciples in
verse 35, and he saw Jesus again. And he pointed, and he said,
Behold the Lamb of God. That was his message. He didn't
say, well, I'll try something else now. That was his message,
the same message the next day. Behold the Lamb of God. What's
our message today? Behold the Lamb of God. What
will it be tomorrow? Behold the Lamb of God. We've
got nothing else to say. Behold the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And two of the disciples heard
him speak, and they followed. They followed Jesus. And Jesus
turned and saw them and said, What are you looking for? And
they said, Where do you dwell? I don't know why they said that,
perhaps. Just something to ask. Where do you dwell? And he said,
Come and see. And they went, and they abode
with him. And one of them, verse 40, which heard John, was Andrew,
Simon Peter's brother. The other one, we can infer,
we're pretty sure, was John, the writer of this gospel. So
the two that were called then were John, the writer of this
gospel, and Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. They spent a relatively
short time with Christ. We're not told how long. A relatively
short time in his presence, seeing really who he was, And what was
their reaction? We must go and tell others. We must go and tell Simon Peter,
Andrew's brother. We must go and tell him. And
what must we go and tell him? Verse 41, Andrew found his brother,
Simon, and said to him, We have found the Messiah, the one promised
in the Scriptures, who would deal with the sins of his people,
who would establish divine justice on behalf of his people, that
his people might live in eternity, that His people might not fall
under the curse of the law, that law which they couldn't possibly
keep, that law which because it was weak through the flesh
they couldn't possibly satisfy. But He had come, the one that
they were looking for, for God throughout the Scriptures had
promised that one would come to establish the righteousness
that all must have if they would see God. Pursue holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. And He would come and in Christ
He would establish that righteousness that is necessary to see God
and he would also pay the sin debt for his people that he might
be just and the justifier that he might remain God who cannot
overlook sin that he might make remain absolutely just and true
to his word regarding his holiness and regarding his law and regarding
the soul that sins it shall die but he did all that for his people
in this one who was promised the Messiah and they were looking
for him and they were expecting him They were expecting Him to
come. The one who in the Greek is the Christ. Messiah is the
Hebrew term. The Christ is the Greek term.
The one who would come as the substitute for sinners. We have
found Him. He's come. People were expecting
Him to come. He was the promised one. The
scriptures were all pointing to Him. One is coming. Say unto
the cities of Judah, behold your God. There had been the voice
of one crying in the wilderness. That was John the Baptist saying,
prepare the way of the Lord. Get ready. He's coming. They
were expecting and now they found him. They must go and tell others.
We have found the one who is promised in the Scriptures. We
have found the Messiah. We have found the Christ. We
have found the Redeemer. We have found in Him liberty
from that law curse which is upon us all by nature. Just a
few hours and they knew this is Him. I must tell somebody
else." They went looking. They went looking for others.
This is what we do in evangelism, in biblical witnessing. We're
on the trail of God's elect. He has his elect. In all generations,
we don't know who they are, we don't know how many there are,
but he has his people, his promise. And we're on the trail of his
elect. And how do we find them? We just announce the gospel of
his sovereign grace and particular redemption. of His eternal accomplishments
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is also looking for
His sheep. We just sung that hymn, I sought
the Lord and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek Him,
seeking me. It's all of His initiation. Christ is on the trail of His
sheep. He's on the trail of the lost
sheep of the house of Israel. He's looking for His sheep. He
goes out of His way to find them. We'll see later in John chapter
4 He must needs go through Samaria. You look at the map. No, he didn't.
Could have easily gone straight. No, he must needs go through.
Why must he needs go through Samaria? Because there's a woman
there. One of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She's
a Samaritan. No, she's one of the lost sheep of the house of
Israel. And he's on the trail of that woman and others like
her and those people that came out of that city. He's on the
trail of his sheep. And so, he must go out of his
way in Galilee. And when we get to verse 43,
the day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee. So he
goes out of his way into Galilee. Why? Because he's looking for
his sheep. And he finds them. He finds one
of them anyway. He finds Philip. And he says
to him, follow me. We don't read of a solitary murmur
of objection. We don't read of a solitary murmur
of questioning that call to follow. What does Philip do? He follows
him. He just goes. Why does he go? Because as Psalm
110 verse 3 says, the Lord makes his people, his sheep, willing
in the day of his power. This is all of sovereign grace,
but I tell you, there is not one person who is Christ's who
does not come to Christ of his own volition, because the Lord
makes him willing in the day of his power. The Lord removes
that objection and that resistance and that rejection of the rule
of Christ and makes him willing in the day of his power so that
that which yesterday seemed such an objectionable message is now
as clear as daylight and I must follow him and I must go. And
so he goes. And Philip again spends a short
time in the presence of Jesus and what must he do? He must
go looking for somebody else. And there's his friend Nathanael,
I assume he was his friend, he knew him, He knew that he was
a devout man. He knew that he was seeking and
he must go and find him. So in verse 45, Philip finds
Nathanael and says to him, we have found him of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. He goes looking for Nathanael.
Nathanael might be the same one that in the other Gospels is
referred to as Bartholomew. I don't know. I just saw that
in one of the commentators yesterday when I was looking at this. But
he goes to him, Nathanael, Philip goes to Nathanael and he says,
he who we are looking for, the one that we're looking for is
here. They were all looking, the devout
ones were looking, they knew the time was right. They'd read
the prophecy of Daniel, they knew it must be about now. They'd
seen all of these things, they knew it must be about the time.
They'd heard the voice of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness,
prepare the way of the Lord. They knew it was about now. They
were looking, and so Philip comes and says, we found him. Who have
we found? The one of whom Moses wrote in
the law. The one of whom the prophets
did write. You know, Moses wrote of Jesus. He said, speaking the
word of God to the people, I will send you another prophet like
Moses, and he will speak to you. He's the one, that one that was
promised in Genesis, no, Deuteronomy, I think it is, 28. But he said
that Moses spoke of him, And the other prophets wrote about
him. All of the prophets, what did they write for? What were
the words of the Old Testament for? These are they, said Jesus,
which speak of me. Beginning at Moses and the prophets
to those disciples on the Emmaus road after the resurrection,
Jesus beginning at Moses and the prophets expounded to them
in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Now he's
either incredibly egotistic And that's a characteristic that
we don't like. Oh, he's God. Who he says he is. He expounded
to them all the things in the scriptures concerning himself.
Because these scriptures wrote of him. And Philip comes to Nathanael. We've found him! Of whom Moses
in the law and the prophets did write. Jesus of Nazareth, the
son of Joseph. Nathanael was devout. No doubt
about that. He was a person who was seeking. If you read down in verse 48,
where Jesus says to him, when you were under the fig tree,
I saw you. There's the implication there
that he was a devout man because apparently it was the practice
in those days. If you wanted to find somewhere
quiet and private and comfortable to pray alone, not on street
corners, not where you would be seen, not in the marketplaces,
not showing off your religion to those that really mattered,
but privately and in secret. If you wanted to take a scroll
of the scriptures and study it, that a fig tree, a mature fig
tree, was a very good place to go. I don't know if you've ever
seen a mature fig tree in Mediterranean lands, but they are very, very
leafy, and the leaves extend down to the ground. I bet Jill
knows where there's one, just around the corner in Herodotus
in Spain. There's a huge fig tree that
would fill this room and you could walk underneath its branches,
and once you were under there, nobody would see you. Nobody
nearby would see you. Very, very thick foliage, large
hands of leaves, and they would go there under the fig tree.
It's an indication that Nathanael was a devout and sincere man
who was really seeking for the things of the Messiah, the promised
one, the one who would come. And Philip, his friend, comes
to him and says, we found him. Okay. Okay, all right, who have
you found? We've found him. He's Jesus of
Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael is skeptical. He's incredulous. Really? You're telling me the Messiah
is somebody called Jesus? Well that's good because you
know what Jesus means? Savior, Joshua. Yes, I would expect the
Messiah to be called Jesus, that's for sure. I would expect the
Messiah to be called Savior, but from Nazareth, And the son
of Joseph in Nazareth, are you sure about this? Surely Bethlehem
is where the Messiah would come from. Micah chapter 5 and verse
2, not that he would quote that because the chapters and the
verses were put in only a few hundred years ago, but nevertheless
he would have referred to that scripture, O thou Bethlehem Ephrata,
Bethlehem in Judah, out of you shall come one who shall be ruler
in Israel. Surely it's Bethlehem. the city
of David, the lineage of David. Isn't this what the prophets
all say? Not Galilee, and not just not Galilee, but least of
all Nazareth. I mean, that's a dreadful place.
I remember once talking to a man, I think he was a cafe owner in
South Wales, and he'd just been to the rugby in Paris with the
Welsh national team, and we were just passing the time of day
while I had a cup of coffee, and what was it like? He said,
Oh, he said, I won't try and do the accent, he said, terrible
people. Terrible people, the people in Paris, awful people.
He said, they're nearly as bad as Pontypridd, which is a village
just down the road from where he was. You know how people talk
about those people over there? I don't know whether they do
in the south of England, but certainly in the north of England, there are
these reputations that, oh dear, you don't want to go to such
and such a place. Oh, terrible folks there. And this is what
it must have been like about Nazareth. What a terrible, do
you know how we know that they were as sinners go, as bad as
most sinners get when Jesus went and preached there in Luke chapter
4 verses 16 to 29 read it for yourself he went to the synagogue
in the place where he'd been brought up in the place where
he'd been apprenticed a carpenter to his earthly father Joseph
where he'd been brought up there where he knew all those people
and they handed him the scroll of the book of Isaiah and he
went to the place and he found about the prophecy of him coming
to set at liberty the captives, and to declare that year of jubilee
of salvation. And he went there, and he read
those things out, and then he talked about Naaman, the Syrian. And then he talked about the
widow in Elijah's day. To none of the Israelites did
he come, but to that widow, that Gentile widow. And the people
were so furious with Jesus, the son of that town as they saw
him, the lad that had grown up in the carpenter's shop, that
they aimed to lynch him. They formed a lynch mob to try
and kill him there and then. That's the sort of people that
they were and Nathanael and all in Galilee knew it and he said
can it possibly be that Messiah will come from here? But if you
read Matthew 2 and verse 23 we read why he grew up in Nazareth
because the Messiah must be called a Nazarene. That's why he grew
up in Nazareth. Yes he was born in Bethlehem
of Judea but he must grow up in Nazareth that he might be
called and Nazarene. We won't divert into the details
of that. Now what did Philip answer? So
you see, Nathanael came back with a clear question. Can the Messiah really be from
Nazareth? Can he be from such a place as
that? And Nathanael said to him, can there any good thing come
out of Nazareth? And Philip replied this. Now, what would you have
done? Well, we've got all of these
reasons and all of these arguments why this should be the Messiah,
and I can tell you all of these philosophical reasons why, and
I can present all of these arguments to you. No, he just says this.
Philip says to him, come and see. Come and see. Yes, you may well have all sorts
of objections rising up in your heart, but come and see. I've
been and seen, and that's why I'm coming to tell you. Come
and see. Come and see. Come and see for
yourself, then you'll know. This is our witness. Come and
see. This is what we're saying to people around us. Come and
see. Come and see what? What are we telling people to
come and see? A great big enthusiastic church where the singing is marvelous?
I don't think so. Really? No, not at all. A marvelous
church where there's glorious architecture and beautiful stained
glass windows and the organists, you should hear the organists.
No, I don't think so. Oh, such a social program. Such
a fantastic social program. You should see the children's
work in this church. It's enormous. Oh, the thousands
of children that come. Absolutely marvelous. No, I don't
think anybody would be impressed with that, do you? Oh, the ladies'
work. Wonderful, wonderful ladies. Don't get me wrong, ladies. You're
wonderful ladies, but the wonderful ladies' works, you know, all
these things that you see churches advertising. No, come and see
what? Come and see the Gospel set forth before your eyes. as
far as we're able to do, as far as we're able to do, to take
this word of the Lord Jesus Christ, this word of God, and to expound
the gospel of His sovereign grace, that in Christ God chose a people
from before the beginning of time, and that in Christ He absolutely
satisfied justice for every one of them, that every one of those
who are in Him might say with full confidence, it is well with
my soul, whatever happens to me, Whether I get a horrible
disease and I'm dead of it within a year, it is well with my soul.
Whether I meet with a terrible accident, whether I meet with
financial ruin, whatever it might be, whatever might happen in
this world, it is well with my eternal soul. That's riches. That's treasure. Stephen mentioned
it in his prayer. Treasure in heaven. You may have
treasure in the bank. We all try to be reasonably prudent
and make ourselves comfortable and that's all well and good.
But treasure in heaven is this spiritual treasure that is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. A material treasure can in no
way buy it, or make up for it, or compensate for it. If you
don't have this, you are poverty-stricken. But if you have this, you are
rich. You are blessed with every spiritual
blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our witness. Come and
see. Come and hear this Gospel. Oh, I don't want to go to a place
where... Well, listen to these sermons online. We've got that
now. Here's Free Grace Radio. Go and
listen to sermons. Have you got a computer? Go and
tune into this and go and listen to Free Grace Radio and listen
to men preaching who you can trust to preach the gospel of
God's sovereign grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to
them. Come and see. Come and see. You know we've done it recently
and God has blessed it. Come and see. Okay, I'll listen
to it. okay I'll listen to it and listening
finding eternal life so they come Nathanael is prepared to
take his friend at his word and so they come to Jesus and verse
47 approaching Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and he says of
him loudly so that they could all hear it behold an Israelite
indeed in whom is no guile an Israelite, indeed, in whom is
no guile." Guile is sin. Guile is corruption. Guile is
transgression of the law. An Israelite, indeed, in whom
is no guile. It's quite a statement to make.
Especially the Son of God making that statement of a man, of a
mere man coming to Him. And Nathanael was surprised and
Nathanael said to Him, How do you know me? Verse 48, Whence
knowest thou me? How do you know me? And Jesus
answered and said to him, before that Philip called you, before
Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree. How do you
know about the fig tree? How do you know I was under a
fig tree? Possibly Philip didn't even know he was under a fig
tree. He was possibly under a fig tree doing his studying and praying
about these things before Philip even found him. And he was nowhere
near the fig tree when Philip found him. And yet Jesus said,
when you were under the fig tree I saw you. When you were under
there, I saw you. On the basis of that, Nathanael
answered and said to him, verse 49, Rabbi, Master, Teacher, you
are the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. He was given faith to see in
that moment. You see, Jesus replied to that
first question I knew you because I saw you under that fig tree.
When you were under that fig tree, I saw you there. He knew
him. But this doesn't just mean that
he knew him in a sense that he'd seen him beforehand. You know,
I put in the bulletin, it wasn't as if Jesus had a spiritual webcam
underneath the fig tree and he could see what was going on.
You know, like remotely we put webcams all over the place in
this country and people sitting in centers observing the security,
can see people as they move. No, that's not what it means.
Jesus knew him, not just now, but Jesus knew him in eternity. Before Philip met him, while
he was under the fig tree, Jesus knew him. And before that, he
knew him. He knew him in eternity. Perhaps
Nathaniel was there under the fig tree. Perhaps he was studying
the passage we read earlier in Genesis 28. because of the reference
Jesus makes to it down in verse 51 perhaps he was studying that
passage and Jesus who knows the hearts of all could see and know
and knew the burden of his heart because that passage is about
reconciliation being made between a holy God and man a ladder between
earth and heaven and perhaps Nathaniel was studying that and
Jesus saw him there and he was asking for enlightenment as to
what it meant and to how it would be fulfilled and Jesus saw him
there And when Nathaniel knew that this man had definitely
seen him there, he knew this could only be God. Because only
God can have the omniscience, knowing all things, and the omnipresence,
being everywhere, to see everything that we do, to have that sight.
Only he, only God could have that. But it's not just that
current observation, it's everlasting knowledge from eternity. It's
sovereign electing grace. That's the way in which he knew
Nathanael. That's how he knew him. Sovereign
electing grace. Look at Romans chapter 8 and
verses 29 and 30. It's on the back of the bulletin.
For whom he did foreknow. For whom God did foreknow. And this is the knowledge I'm
talking about. This electing knowledge. This choosing out
of the sovereign grace and will of the Eternal God. Whom he did
foreknow, he also did predestinate. He put him under that fig tree.
He caused his path to cross that of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
did predestinate him to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
the Son might be the firstborn among many brethren, that there
might be many brethren who would be saved. Moreover, whom he did
predestinate, them he also called, follow me, follow me, come. And the gospel call goes out,
follow me. And whom he called, Then he also
justified. Not in that order. Not in that
order. But he justified his people in
Christ from before the beginning of time. And whom he justified,
then he also glorified. Oh, he's not in glory yet, but
he's as good as in glory. In the reckoning of God, he's
in glory. He's in glory because he's called. He's known of God
and he's called. Sovereign elect in grace. And
hence, Jesus was able to say of him, here is a true Israelite. Here is a true Israelite. By
sovereign grace, Nathanael, as all of God's people, are put
into those called the Israel of God. Galatians 6.16, the Israel
of God. The Israel of God consists of
those whom the Father gave to the Son from before the beginning
of time, those whom He ordained to eternal life. those whom He
calls out under the sound of the gospel of His grace, those
to whom He gives faith and a new nature, the rebirth, that new
birth of the Spirit of God to see the things of the living
God. And so being in Christ and being counted in Christ and being
judged in Christ, who is going to lay any charge to God's elect? Says that Romans 8 passage as
it goes on. Who is going to lay any charge
to God's elect? Christ has already died for whatever
they did. Christ has already done it. It's
already paid for. Who is going to lay any charge
there? And so he can say of Nathanael, here is an Israelite indeed in
whom there is no guile. He's righteous in Christ. He's
righteous by that righteousness that is imputed, that is accounted,
that is credited to the account of Nathanael. He's righteous
in him and he's righteous by that impartation of the righteousness
of Christ to all his people. That new nature that he puts
inside, that tendency, that desire for the things of the Living
God to serve Him, to do His will. And He's justified from eternity
because in Christ, Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Yes, He must come in time because
in time He must die. When the fullness of the time
was come, He must come to die and redeem those who are under
the law, to redeem His people. But He's the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world and so they're justified from eternity
in Him. in Adam we're all in Adam by
birth in Adam Nathanael like all of us was a sinner he was
as Paul says to the Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 3 a child
of wrath even as the others like everybody else a child of wrath
as he is as he's born Nathanael no doubt was sincere no doubt
compared with the religious hypocrisy around him he was sincere and
devout but he wasn't just with God he wasn't righteous with
God in Adam but in Christ the second Adam Nathanael is perfect
he's sinless turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 and verse 45 And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul. The last Adam, that's Christ,
was made a quickening spirit. How be it, that was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward,
that which is spiritual. See, a natural nature first,
and then a spiritual nature is given. The first man is of the
earth, earthy, that's Adam. The second man is the Lord from
heaven, that is Christ. And as is the earthy, Such are
they also that are earthy. As Adam, we're all sinners. In
Adam, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
In Christ, you are counted. If you're in Christ, you're counted
in the judgment of God as like Christ, as righteous like Him
and without sin like Him. But in Adam, as in Adam all die,
even so in Christ shall all His people be made alive. That's
why he could say, here is an Israelite indeed in whom is no
guile. And so Nathanael worships him
as the King of Heaven, the King of Israel, the Son of God. He
believed in that moment. He was given faith to see that
here was the promised Messiah. Here was God in human flesh come
to save his people from their sins. Nathanael answered, verse
49, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.
And Jesus answered and said to him, because I said unto thee,
I saw thee under the fig tree, you believe, believest thou,
you shall see greater things than these. And he said to him,
verily, verily, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven
open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. He'd been given faith. He'd been
given that gift of God. You're saved by faith, by grace,
through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of
God, Ephesians 2 verse 8. That faith is the possession
of all gods elect when they're called in time. They're called
in time to see and to believe and they're given the faith to
believe because without it you cannot see. They're justified
from all eternity by the works of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. but they're born of God in time
when they hear the gospel of His grace calling them and they're
given the faith to see the things of God. What do I mean by the
things of God? I mean His power. I mean something
of the nature of who He is with whom we have to do. That He is
the dreadful judge of all the earth with whom we have to do.
The one who is all-powerful, the creator. The one who is holy. The one who is just. the one
who must judge sin the reality of our sin and how it places
us in the hands of the living God for it is a fearful thing
a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God but
the story of redemption for in the Lord Jesus Christ God loves
to show mercy to sinners he has redeemed his people he has bought
back he has paid the sin debt of his people in the Lord Jesus
Christ and he's the giver of eternal life, the source of eternal
life. And the natural man, says Paul
to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. You see, they may seem,
if you're a child of God, these things may seem the most reasonable
propositions ever, but you have the faith of the children of
God. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, for they're spiritually discerned.
And without spiritual discernment, spiritual sight. You cannot see
them. When Jesus asked the disciples
in Matthew 16, who men said they were, they said, well, some say
you're John the Baptist, and some say you're Elijah, and others
say you're Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. This is what
they say, and he said, but who do you say that I am? And you
know this well, Matthew 16, 17. Peter replies, you are the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And Jesus replied this, he said,
blessed are you Peter blessed are you for it isn't flesh and
blood that has revealed these things to you it's not natural
reasoning that's revealed these things to you but my father which
is in heaven you see this is the thing that faith given by
God is as a mustard seed Matthew 17 verse 20 talks about faith
as a mustard seed even the tiniest bit of it if it's genuine it
grows it grows And he says, therefore, to him, hence you will see greater
things. He's believed based on the tiniest
thing he's seen, but nevertheless, because it was genuine, he's
believed it. He says, now you're going to see greater things.
What are you going to see? Hereinafter you shall see heaven
open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. In Jacob's dream, in Genesis
28, he dreamed a dream about a ladder that was set upon the
earth, where man is in his sin, in his hopelessness, in his lostness
for all eternity. And that ladder reaches up to
the top in heaven. And the angels of God, the messengers
of God are going up and down that ladder. And that ladder
pictures Christ. That ladder pictures the Lord
Jesus Christ. That ladder pictures the Son
of Man. And instead of the angels of
God going up and down a ladder, Nathaniel, you're going to see
the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man. who has
bridged, who has reconciled, who has made reconciliation between
a holy God and sinful man. You're going to see that which
you were studying under that fig tree, perhaps, I hope I'm
not making too much conjecture, but perhaps that's what he was
studying. You're going to see that fulfilled in the Son of
Man. You're going to see God reconciling
sinners because as Paul tells us in 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse
19, God was in Christ. reconciling the world to himself. So what's our message? What's
biblical witnessing? Come and see. Come and see for
yourself. Come and see what? Come and see
the true gospel preached and set before you. Come and see.
That's all we've got to say. No more complicated arguments.
No more philosophical arguments and reasoning. Come and see. Well, we'll close with 573. 573.