In John chapter 1, verse 47,
the Lord Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him. And he says something about Nathanael
that just demands our attention. Now remember who's speaking.
This is the Son of God. He before whom all things are
naked and open. He who sees all and knows all
perfectly. He says of this man Nathanael,
behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Now that's where I'm headed in
this message. Our Savior says in Nathanael, here's a man in
whom is no guile. And when our Savior says concerning
this man in him there is no guile, that is no exaggeration. Only four times in the Word of
God do we read of people being free of guile. Here in John 147
in Psalm 32 verse 2 where the psalmist speaks of the forgiven
man in whose spirit there is no guile. In 1 Peter 2, 22, where
the Holy Spirit describes our Lord Jesus Christ, our sin bearer,
he describes him as that one who is without guile. And then
in Revelation 14, 5, all those standing before the throne of
God in heaven are described as virgins and people with no guile. The thing that I want to show
you this morning is that all who are accepted of God, all
who are saved by the grace of God, all who enter into heaven's
glory are people in whom and with whom there is no guile. Can that be true? Is that indeed
true? We read in Revelation 21-27 that
none will enter into that city who have guile, who make a lie,
who perform a lie. Guile is deceit, hypocrisy, simulation, lying, duplicity, Guile is covering
up. Guile is pretense. Guile is falsehood. Guile is being fake. But all those who enter into
glory are a people in whom and with whom there is no guile. Now let's begin at John 1 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 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 saith unto him,
Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith
unto him, come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to
him and saith of him, behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom
is no guile. Now watch this. Nathanael saith
unto the Lord Jesus. Whence knowest thou me? How do you know me? He heard
the master say, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. He heard the master say that
and he turns and says, How do you know me? How do you know
me? Nobody can know that about me
except me and God. Nathaniel is a man who worshiped
God in a day when few people worshiped God. He's like those
Simeon and Anna named in the temple who was waiting for the
consolation of Israel. He and Philip are both men who
were looking for the Messiah, him of whom Moses and the law
and the prophets did speak. And Nathanael, worshiping God,
knew himself to be a man standing before God in the perfect righteousness
of a divinely appointed substitute whom he was looking for. And
he says to the Lord Jesus, how do you know me? How do you know
me? Philip couldn't know that about
me. Nobody can know that about me, just me and God. How is it you know that I am
truly an Israelite, not just one of Abraham's physical descendants?
How is it that you know I am accepted of God without God? How can you know that? Read on. The Lord Jesus answered and said
unto him, before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. I saw you there worshiping God.
Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, master, Thou
art the Son of God. You're the one I've been looking
for. You're the Messiah. Thou art the King of Israel.
You're the Redeemer. You're the Savior. 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 saith unto him, Verily,
verily, of a truth, of a truth. For sure, for sure. Amen, amen,
I say unto you. Hereafter, ye shall see heaven
opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon
the Son of Man. Now here the Spirit of God tells
us about the Lord Jesus calling two of his early disciples, Philip
and Nathanael. Everything in these verses is
sweet and it is instructive. I pray that God the Holy Spirit
will give us his instruction from them. Here's the first thing. We're told that the Lord Jesus
came to Galilee because he would. The day following, verse 43,
Jesus would go forth into Galilee. Why? Why? Why did he go to Galilee? It
was his will, his resolution, his determination to return to
Galilee. That's why he went to Galilee.
Everything our Lord did Everything he does and everything he shall
do is exactly according to his purpose that cannot and will
not be altered or changed in any way. Jesus Christ is one
who is the God of purpose and his purpose is always right.
When he walked on this earth, everything he did, every move
he made, every step he took, everywhere he went and the time
he did so was exactly according to divine arrangement, according
to his own will, fixed in eternity in his sovereign decree as our
God and as God, the God-man, our mediator and our substitute,
Christ Jesus, the Lord, everything. Would to God we could grasp this. It was his will. His determined
purpose, nothing else that moved Him. And it is His will, His
determined purpose for the saving of His people that moves Him
now and nothing else. God teach me that and teach me
to rest in it. He came to Galilee to fulfill
the scriptures because in Isaiah 9, 2, the prophet said he would
go to Galilee. There he began his public ministry
and there he began to display his mighty miracles of mercy,
showing forth his mighty wondrous works of grace. But he went to
Galilee because there lived a man by the name of Philip and another
by the name of Nathanael. And the time had come for him
to reveal himself to them. Oh son of God, will you come
here today and make yourself known here today. Now look at
verses 43, 44, and 45. We're told plainly that the Lord
Jesus found Philip in verse 43. You see that? He found Philip. But look at verse 45. Philip
told Nathanael We have found the Messiah. We found him of
whom Moses and the prophets did speak. We found him who's the
king of Israel. Which is true. Did the Lord Jesus
find Philip? Or did Philip find him? Both
are true. The Lord Jesus found Philip. And Philip found him. Sometimes
some of my friends who will catch on the songs and they know how
insistent I am that we sing what we believe. And someone will
say, should we sing that? Say, hallelujah, I found him.
Yeah, it's all right. I found him. I found him. And if you have him, you found
him too. You found him too. But we understand
something. We understand that we found him
because he found us. Sometimes people have problem
with responsibility and keep pressing. You need to talk more
about man's responsibility. And in doing so, they want you
to talk about man's part in salvation. Well, insofar as responsibility
is concerned, in that regard, Bill, our responsibility is our
response to his ability. And it is the response that he
gives. Philip found the master because the master came seeking
him. And you find the savior when
you seek for him and search for him with all your heart. And
you will not find him except you personally seek for him and
search for him with all your heart. But hear me, You will
never seek for him and you will never search for him until he
comes seeking you and he finds you by his grace. The hymn writer
put it this way, I sought the Lord and afterward I knew. He moved my soul to seek him,
seeking me. It was not I that found old Savior
true. No, no, I was found of thee. Thou didst reach forth thy hand
and mine in fold. I walked and sank not on the
storm-vexed sea. T'was not so much that I on thee
took hold, O no, but thou, dear Lord, on me. I find, I walk,
I love, but, oh, the whole of love is but my answer, Lord,
to thee. For thou wert long beforehand
with my soul. Always thou lovest me. Yes, we call him, and you will
not be saved except you call upon the name of the Lord. But
if you call on the name of the Lord, you will do so because
he's called you. Yes, we love him. But we love him because he first
loved us. You understand this. It is not
of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Our Savior said to his disciples,
ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth much fruit and that your fruit
should remain. All right, now here's the second
thing back in our text. We see in the experience here
of Philip and Nathaniel. That though God's elect experience
the same saving operations of His grace, our experience is
somewhat different. Every saved sinner experiences
the same grace. You and I, if we are saved by
God's grace, we have been redeemed with the same blood. chosen in
the same election, called by the same spirit, trust the same
Savior, believe the same gospel, worship the same Redeemer, and
are children of the same Heavenly Father, and we are possessors
of the same heavenly inheritance. We recognize that all God's people
in this regard see eye to eye. Every believer believes the gospel
of God's grace. Don't misunderstand me. But God's
people, God's people, All of them experience grace differently. You're fully aware that if I
should take my hand and put it right there, leave my fingerprints,
and all of you come along and put yours on this pulpit, somebody
can come along a long time from now, dust this thing, take the
fingerprints and compare them and say, well, that's Don Fortner.
Put that right there. Because those fingerprints are distinct
from everybody else's. And your experience of grace
is just that distinct. Just that distinct. Now I'm stressing
this for a reason. There is a terrible tendency
among us all to compare ourselves with one another. And we tend
to look for assurance of our salvation by comparing our experience
of grace with another's experience of grace. That's a terrible mistake. It's a terrible mistake. We tend
to look back on past experience and say, well, am I a child of
God? Because this is what I experienced
yesterday or last year or 20 years ago or 40 years ago. Well, that's that's not what
I experienced. It must be something wrong with
me or something wrong with you. Not necessarily. But we ought
not look back to yesterday. If you've got to look back to
this morning to determine whether or not you know God, you don't. If you've got to look back to
yesterday to decide whether or not you're saved, you're not.
It's just that simple. It's just that simple. There's
just one question that matters. Dost thou believe on the Son
of God? Do you? Do you believe the Christ
of God? Do you believe this Redeemer
who's revealed in this book? Do you believe Jesus Christ the
Lord? If you now believe, if right
now you find yourself believing Him, it doesn't matter what went
on yesterday. Would to God we could learn that.
Would the God we learn it and quit trying to judge ourselves
or judge one another by comparing ourselves with ourselves. Let's
see if I can illustrate it. Merle Hart sitting back there
was raised in a morally upright family environment. Is that correct,
Merle? Just morally his whole family. I don't I don't know much about
family, but I've been down Harrodburg a few times mentioned the name.
Everybody down there respected your daddy. Everybody down there
respected your brother and respects him. And God saved him out of
that environment by his grace. I was raised in a hell hole, a rebel. If there's anybody in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, who is expected to be in prison, I'm the man. I'm the man. And God saved me
by that same grace. That same grace. We trust the
same Savior. We wear the same garments of
righteousness. But he hadn't experienced what
I've experienced. And I haven't experienced what
he's experienced. And there's no point in trying to pretend
we have. Oh, I just, boy, I wish I'd have, I wish I'd have gone
through that. Something wrong with me because I'd, no, no,
no. God brings his own in the path he would bring them by which
best they can honor him and by which best they can serve him
and by which best he is glorified. And it does everything exactly
as he would, just as he would. And it brings them to the Savior,
each one distinctly in his own experience so that some like
Saul of Tarsus, are suddenly unhorsed and see a bright shining
light and immediately, I'm talking about just right now, learn the things of God and grow
and mature and they grow suddenly from a newborn infant to a full
grown adult preaching the gospel of God's grace to men everywhere.
And others, they're born again, and they grow a little, and they
shrivel a little, and they grow a little more, and they shrivel
a little more, and they grow a little more, and they shrivel
a little more. Well, that must not be real, or that must not
be real. No, they're both real. They're
both real. They're both God's children, and he brings them
as he will into his kingdom. and brings them up in his kingdom
as he will and uses them in his kingdom as he will. Now, here's
the third thing. The Holy Spirit reminds us that
the message of the Old Testament and the message of the new is
exactly the same. How often do you quote something
from the Old Testament and some old cards you'll say, well, that's
in the old Bible. That's not the old Bible I'm
holding here. And this is not the new Bible. This is the Bible. The whole word of God. Old Testament
and new is the book of God. And in the Old Testament scriptures,
Moses, that's the five books of the law, the Pentateuch we
commonly call it, spoke of him. And the prophets, that's everybody
else, spoke of him. Now notice what it says here.
All the Old Testament scriptures spoke of this man most distinctly. That's not what it says. All
the Old Testament Scriptures spoke primarily of this man. That's not what it says. That's
not what it says. Well, the Old Testament Scriptures talked about
this and that and the other thing. And they instructed us in law
and in ordinances and in ceremonies and in the ways of the children
of Israel in the wilderness. And they're inhabiting the promised
land in Canaan and then possessing all the promises of God, being
the people of God distinctly above all other people. And then
it talked about him too. That's not what this says. Now,
what does it say? We have found him. You see that? Verse 45. We have
found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write. We found him. Rex, if language
means anything, either that's miswritten are Moses and the
prophets spoke of just one person. One of the two. Either John did
not write correctly or the Old Testament scriptures spoke only
of him. Altogether about him. Oh, but Brother Don, Moses talked
about Noah and Enoch and Adam and Abraham? No, he didn't. No,
he didn't. No, he didn't. Well, I can show
you their names. I know. I know. But you're still
reading with a veil over your face. But Moses and the prophets, they
talked about David and they talked about Elijah and Elisha. And
they talked about Solomon and Manasseh. And they talked about
all the struggles and difficulties Israel had. They talked about
Israel's enemies and their conquest and their defeats. They talked
about the judges. No, they didn't. Darwin, they did not talk about
those things. They didn't talk about them. They didn't talk
about them. Well, now, wait a minute. I can
show you that right there. I see his name. There's Saul.
He reigned in Israel. That's not what he's talking
about. That's not what they wrote about. That's not what they wrote
about. They wrote about Him. All about Him. And if all you
see in the Old Testament scriptures is history and men and events
and ceremonies and laws, you're still reading with a veil over
your face. And it's hard to read with a veil over your face. It's
hard to read with your eyes covered. If you have trouble seeing him
in the Old Testament, when you open the book, ask God to take
the veil away and let you see him of whom the book speaks. He is that one Moses described
as the seed of woman who will crush the serpent's head. He is that one who was promised
Abraham's seed. in whom and by whom all the nations
of the earth would be blessed. Who is this him? He is that one
whom David worshiped as his Lord, who is David's son. Who is this
him? He is the one Isaiah saw when
he said, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and his train filled
the temple. He's the same one Isaiah saw when he saw him smitten,
afflicted of God. bruised for our iniquities, made
an offering for sin. This is he of whom the scriptures
speak. All the scriptures speak of him. All right, notice something else. When Philip said to Nathanael,
we have found him of whom Moses and the law did write. Isn't
it interesting? that Nathanael knew immediately
who he was talking about. Nathanael knew immediately. He
said, we found him of whom Moses and the prophets did write Jesus
of Nazareth. Nathanael said, how could he
come from Nazareth? How can any good thing come from Nazareth?
The person they saw afar off and worshipped from afar was
Christ the Redeemer. The Christ, the Messiah. Abraham, our Lord said, rejoiced
to see my day. Abraham believed on the Lord
Jesus Christ, just like you do, just like I do. He trusted Him
just as we do. Noah trusted the Son of God. Enoch trusted the surety. Adam
trusted the substitute. Brother Don, surely you don't
mean that they all understood that God was coming in human
flesh and was going to redeem them by the sacrifice of himself
at the appointed time and be king in Israel, king over all
his people. Oh, I do mean for you to understand
that. These fellows were not cavemen, and they were not ignoramuses,
neither spiritually nor physically. They were men and women taught
of God the Spirit, to whom the Lord God revealed Himself in
the person of Jesus Christ His Son. When Moses turned aside
and saw the bush burning, and he said, I'm going to turn aside
and see this great sight, why the bush is not consumed, When
he did, he heard a voice speak. Now, remember who wrote about
that. You can read it for yourself
again in Exodus chapter 3. It was Moses who wrote about it.
And do you know what he said about that voice? He said the
one speaking out of the voice is the angel of the Lord. It's
a man. It's a man. A messenger from
the Lord. And he said that angel of the
Lord, that man, he's the Lord Jehovah. Read the chapter. Read it for yourself. Moses knew
full well, I'm talking to one who is a man. He's standing right
here in front of me in human form. He's talking to me and
I'm talking to him and his name is Jehovah. He's my God. He's my God. He understood that. Jesus Christ is that one spoken
of here and Philip says to him, we found him of whom Moses and
the prophets did write. And Nathanael knew immediately. He was saying, we found the Christ.
We found the Christ. Children of God searched the
scriptures. Our Savior said, for in them
you think you have eternal life. And they are they which testify
of me. Then having given the general
account of him, Philip proceeds to give his name. He particularly
affirms that he is the Christ, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son of Joseph. His name is Jesus, Savior of
Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph. Turn over to Matthew 2, Matthew
2, verse 23. He came and dwelt in a city called
Nazareth. Now read the rest of the sentence.
Why is it that he came and dwelt here in this city called Nazareth?
Why did the Lord Jesus choose to come to this place called
Nazareth and dwell there? Why is it that his parents brought
him there? Why is he found in Nazareth? It is for this purpose that it
might be fulfilled, which was spoken in the prophets, he shall
be called a Nazarene. Now, Ron, I'll give you a homework
assignment. You go home, get on your computer and type in
those words, called a Nazarene, or he shall be called a Nazarene.
Type them in and find every place where you find that and bring
it back to me tonight. Every place you find it in the Old
Testament. He says here, now he came to Nazareth for this
purpose, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene. Well, Brother Don, it came up
zero references. It ain't that. Oh, well, there's
a mistake in the Gospel of John. Told you this book wasn't inspired.
I can hear folks right now. I told you it's all a fake. I
told you there are contradictions in the book. You can't believe
everything just the way it was written. John didn't, he didn't
really write by absolute inspiration. Or when we believe, we believe
John wrote by inspiration, but he's just telling us something
he picked up by tradition from other folks, that the Messiah
is going to come from Nazareth. That doesn't sound much like
inspiration to me. Well, what what John did is he actually
he's actually telling us something that was written in one of those
Apocryphal books that the papist have and we don't recognize as
being part of the Bible That sure doesn't sound like inspiration
to me Well, what's he talking about? He came here to Nazareth
for this purpose that it might be fulfilled Which was written
in the prophets. He shall be called a Nazarene
Where is it written? everywhere in the Old Testament. Numbers chapter 6 speaks of a
law called the Law of the Nazarite. And at the end of that law, on
the basis of that law being fulfilled, God commands Aaron to go in and
come out and bless the people, saying the Lord bless thee, the
Lord make his face to shine upon thee, the Lord be with thee,
and so on. Now, who fulfilled that law? Who was it that was consecrated
to God, absolutely consecrated to God from the day of his birth
to the day of his death? One man. Just one man, the Messiah,
the Christ, our Redeemer. Just that one man. He is called
the Nazarene. Jesus, the one from Nazareth. We found him of whom Moses and
the prophets did write. Him who is the one from Nazareth,
Nathanael. That's the one we found. And
Bartimaeus, that blind man in Mark chapter 10, heard that Jesus
of Nazareth was passing by. Do you know who he thought it
was? Jesus, that man whose name is
Savior. Jesus, that man from Nazareth
is passing by. He said, Oh Lord, thou son of
David, have mercy on me. He knew immediately who they
were talking about. talking about Jesus, the one, the only one
who's a Nazirite unto God, consecrated to God, portrayed by another
Nazirite, one by the name of Samson, who in the hour of his
death crushed all the enemies of his people. and carried away
the gates of hell into Mount Hebron. Gone forever are our
sins and God's curse upon his people. Now, look at verse 46. Here's the fourth thing. Here's
the best reply you can give to skeptics. You go to witnessing
to folks, trying to tell them about the gospel of God's grace,
Nathanael said in verse 46, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said to him, well,
come and see. Come and see. Just come and see. I don't want
anything else to tell you, just come and see. Back up in verse
39, you'll remember Andrew and John, these two disciples of
John the Baptist, They said, where dwellest thou? And the
master said, come and see. Now in the English language,
in our translation, those three words seem to be exactly the
same, but they're not quite the same. They're the same basic
words, but when our master said to Andrew and John, come and
see, that's the son of God speaking with absolute authority. And
he says, come, and when you come, you shall see. Come and seeing
will be the result. No question about it. Here, when
Philip says to Nathaniel, come and see, Philip speaks as a man. And though he uses the same basic
word, he can't speak with such authority. He can't say, come,
and you dead you're going to see. But he does say, come, and
it's a pretty good shot you're going to see. Come, and this
is the way to see. Come, and coming, I hope you'll
see. I hope you'll see. the best way
on this earth to minister to the souls of men, children of
God. And I urge you to do it. Before you come back tonight,
find somebody who needs to see and find a way to bring them
with you. Find a way to bring them to hear the word. Come and
see. Don't argue with them and fuss
with them. You're not going to do anything of that. Don't. Don't. sit around and debate the things
of God. That just lowers the standard.
Don't do that. Don't do that. Tell folks what
God's done for you, and they say, well, I don't understand
that. Well, I can't explain it the
way my preacher can. Come down to church with me tonight.
I'll take you out to supper, and you come go to church with
me, and we'll, oh, maybe you'll see. Maybe you'll see. Come and see. Come. This is the way to see for faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And then
in the last verses of the chapter of verse 47, Jesus saw Nathaniel
coming to him and say it to him, behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. Nathaniel sayeth unto him, which
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him before that Philip called the When thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. And when the Lord Jesus said,
I saw you. I knew you. I proved of you, accepted you. I saw you under the fig tree
worshiping me and I received your worship. Nathaniel understood
what he was saying. Listen now. Nathaniel answered
and saith unto him. Master. Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.
Philip was right. Philip was right. Here's the
Christ, the Messiah. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree,
believest thou? Do you believe because I demonstrated
in an undeniable way, my omniscience as God. We hear folks these days talking
about miracle revivals. And the preacher is going to
hire some folks to sit out in the congregation and pretend
they're real sick and they're going to come up and bring their
wheelchair or their cane, he's gonna knock them in the head
and say, be healed. And they're gonna fall down and wiggle and
squirm a little bit and get up and say, oh, I'm healed. The
cancer's gone. The tumor's gone. I can't feel
that knot in my fin anymore. Oh, I'm healed. It's all God's
in it. God's in it. God's here. God's
here. That cause you to believe? That's nothing. That's nothing. The demons see the demonstrations
of Christ's divinity. They don't believe. They know
He's the Son of God. They know He's the Christ, the
Messiah. They don't believe a thing. They don't believe anything.
They tremble, but they don't believe. Is there anything to
be gained by seeing the miraculous? Not one thing. Not one thing. Not, well, wouldn't you believe
you saw a man raised from the dead? I believe man was raised
from the dead. That's all. That's all. Well,
don't, don't, don't. Wouldn't that cause an unbeliever
to believe? No, no. Well, what you say here? Watch this. Thou shalt see greater
things than these. What greater things? What greater things? He saith
unto him, now watch this, verily, verily, surely, surely, amen,
amen, I say unto you, singular, I mean plural. Hereafter, ye, singular, shall
see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending
upon the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus says, to you,
all of you who are my disciples, all of you who believe me, ye,
each of you, personally, individually, each of you shall see the angels
of God, now listen how I put it, ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. Man, it looks to me like he ought
to have said descending and ascending. But that's not what he said.
That's exactly what Jacob saw at Bethel. When the Lord Jesus
revealed himself as the angel of God. In a ladder. Reaching from heaven to the earth.
And the blessings of God coming down on that ladder. and the
blessings of God going back up on that ladder. Here is the son of God revealed
in free grace to my soul. I see every blessing and demand
and require requirement that God Almighty has for this sinful
man. Ascending up to heaven in the
person of the God-man, my mediator, who has finished the work of
redemption, and there he sits on the right hand of the majesty
on high. And I see everything God has to give to a man. Coming
down here to me in that man. And I'd rather see that and see
him make another world. That's called the blessed experience
of his grace. Now, y'all give me just a few
minutes, four or five minutes, I want you to hear this. I want
to draw your attention to verse 47. Behold, an Israelite indeed. In whom is no guile. The Lord Jesus uses the very
same word that John the Baptist used when he saw him. John said,
behold, behold. The Lord Jesus says, behold,
there he is, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. John Trapp wrote a very brief
comment on this verse. He said, here Christ wondereth
at his own work of renovation. There he is. There he is. Look what I've done. Behold the
wonder of my grace. An Israelite indeed. That's not
difficult. He's saying this man, not just
of Abraham's physical seed, he's one of God's elect. He's one
of the promising. He is one circumcised in heart. He is one. He is one who is an
Israelite inwardly, not outwardly. He is a true worshiper of God,
one who worships God in spirit and rejoices in Christ Jesus
and has no confidence in the flesh. An Israelite, indeed,
in whom is no guile, no guile. no guile. Here is a man who has no duplicity, no cunning,
no craftiness, no pretense about him. And Nathaniel said it was so. He said, Lord, how'd you know
me? How'd you know me? How on this earth can Darwin
Pruitt pretend before God to have no guy? Because before God, it's not
a pretense. He's not talking about something
Nathaniel had earned. He's not talking about something Nathaniel
had merited. He's not talking about something that Nathanael
somehow had achieved for himself by his mighty works of grace.
He's not talking about Nathanael the natural man. He's talking
about Nathanael the new man. That new man whose sins had been
lifted up and taken away. Psalm 32 verse 2. In whom is
no guile. Isaiah said of them, speaking
for God, my children are children that will not lie. There's no
duplicity about them. There's no corruption in them.
What's he talking about? Christ in you. He's talking about that new man
that's born of God, that cannot sin, as John put it in 1 John
3.10. That new man, not flesh but spirit. That new man that's
created in righteousness and true holiness. That new man accepted
of God in Christ Jesus. There's a man who has no guile before God eternally. Because I chose him and I redeemed
him and I accepted him. He has no guile, representatively,
because he's one with Christ. One with Christ. One with Christ. Oh, how can I convey this? Really one. Really one. If you could sever this finger
from this body, I'd still be down for it. Well, you wouldn't
be complete. No, I'd be missing a finger.
But I'd still be Don Fortner. But if you can sever Don Fortner
from the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the surety, the substitute,
the mediator, he ceases to be the Christ. Can you give me scripture for
that? Ephesians 1, 23. We're the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. You mean our union with Christ,
Rod, is so real that He can't be complete without us? That's
it. That's it. An Israelite indeed in whom is
no guile by grace, because it's been made new. An Israelite indeed,
who is a new creature, in whom old things have passed away,
and behold, all things have become new. An Israelite indeed, in
whom is no guile in the record books of heaven, because God
says in Jeremiah 50 20, there is none. An Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile forever." Forever. The Lord Jesus looks down from
heaven and sees a sinner coming to Him, believing Him, trusting Him. And he sees this sinner, Don
Fortner, coming to him. And he says, Behold, an Israelite
indeed, in whom is no guile. And believing him, I lift my heart to heaven and
say, You know all things. You know. You know what no human
being on this earth can know. You know what is evident to no
other man. You know. I have no guile, because
you took it all away. Amen.