I want to begin reading here
again in verse 39. Let's begin there and read a
few verses. This is John, John the Baptist,
speaking. John chapter 1 and verse 29.
The next day John saith, Jesus cometh unto him, and said, Behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This
is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man. which is preferred
before me. For he was before me, not in
age, but in rank. And in age too, wasn't he? He's
from eternity. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore am I come baptizing
with water. And John Burr Records say it,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, the same
is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bear
record, that this is the Son of God, again the next day after
John stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he
walked, he said, Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples
heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw
them following, and said unto them, What seek ye? And they
said unto him, Rabbi, that is to say, being interpreted, Master,
where dwellest thou? And he said unto them, Come and
see. And they came and saw where he dwelt. And it bowed with him
that day, for it was about the tenth hour." I love this phrase
here in verse 34. I saw the Son of God. I saw the Son of God. And that's
amazing because he had just admitted in verse 33 that he didn't know
who he was. I didn't know who he was, he
said. I had no idea how to recognize him when I saw him. It may seem
amazing that these men were cousins. Both of them now were about 30
years old or so, and John had never seen him. Never seen him. And he didn't know how to recognize
him. And the Spirit came down from heaven in the form of a
dove. And it had been revealed to John, upon whom you see the
Spirit descending and remaining on him, That's Him. That's the
Son of God. So John said here, I knew Him
not. How then did he know Him? He
was revealed to him, wasn't He? Was made known unto Him. Now
this is amazing. Here's a man. And if you'd have
saw this man, you'd have thought probably he looked something
like a wild man. I picture him as having a beard.
He dwelt in the wilderness. He wore camel's hair. He ate
locusts and wild honey. And he knew something. He knew somebody that kings desired
to know. And great and mighty men for
4,000 years had desired to see Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
incarnate. And they had never seen Him.
And here this man is, dressed in his garb and his hair. Eden is locusts and wild honey. And here this poor man, he knew
the Son of God. I saw the Son of God. I saw it. I want you to hold
that there for just a minute, and I want you to look over in
1 John. John wrote another little book,
Epistle, over in 1 John, all the way over to your right. all
the way over past James and past Peter to 1 John. And John tells
us something here about himself. Now, this isn't John the Baptist.
This is John the Apostle. And he tells us something amazing
about the very same thing that he experienced with Jesus of
Nazareth. That he was revealed to him,
too. And look here how he says it
in 1 John 1 and look in verse 1 and verse 2. 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." Christ said, I'm the life, didn't
He? He's the Word. In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was made flesh. And John said, we saw the Word. We handled the very Word of life. How did they do that? How did
they know it was the Word of Life? How did they know who He
was? Well, verse 2, For the life was revealed, it was manifested,
it was made known, and we seen it and bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father before the
world was. He was with the Father and was
manifest unto us. They knew Him. They knew Him
to be the Son of God. Now, what's so amazing about
that is that you can't know Him. Nobody can know Him apart from
a revelation. They saw Him. People handled
Him. They watched the miracles which
He did. And they didn't know who He was.
When the Lord asked His apostles, who are men saying that I am? And they said, well, some of
them say that you're Jeremiah, that he's reincarnated, or you're
Isaiah or one of the other prophets, and you're doing all of these
mighty miracles because God is doing it through you just like
He did the old prophets. Just like He did Elijah when
he called down far out of heaven, or raised the widow's son. God
is working through you. But you know something? They
never knew Jesus of Nazareth to be the Son of God. They never recognized that. Even
Nicodemus that came to Jesus by night, what did he say about
Him? We know you're a teacher, and
you come from God, but you're a teacher. But Nicodemus did
not know Him to be the Son of God. The three apostles, James
and Peter and John, was taken upon the Mount of Transfiguration. And you remember that occasion?
Christ's face, His skin began to shine. He just glowed. He was glorified before them.
His clothes became exceedingly white. And He outshined the noonday
sun. What did they think about that?
They didn't know what to think. They were scared to death. Peter
made some ridiculous statement. Let us make three tabernacles.
One for you and one for Elias and one for Moses. Then there
came this cloud overhead and a voice spake out of this cloud
and identified him. And what did he say about it?
This is my beloved Son. This is my Son. My Son. In spite of all of Jesus' miracles,
all of His miracles, And he did some amazing things, didn't he?
Remember when he was asleep on the ship? And the waves were
covering the ship? And he stood up and just spake
and there was a calm? They had never seen such a thing.
But what did they say about him? Behold the Son of God. You know
what they said? What manner of man is this? What
manner of man is this? In spite of Jesus? All that he
said, and I'm telling you, he said such gracious words, they
marveled at the gracious words that came out of his mouth. In
spite of the great miracles that he did, he healed a man that
was born blind. He cured lepers. He raised the
dead. In spite of the amount of transfiguration,
there was a vast difference in all his amazing miracles that
he did and all the amazing things that he spoke. and then making
this leap that this is the Son of God. This is the eternal Son
of God, equal with the Father, one with God. That would have
been a great leap, wouldn't it? To look upon a man, even though
he was doing all of these great miracles and speaking all of
these words and shining like the noonday sun, It would be
a great leap to say, there's the Son of God. You don't just
leap from a great man to God. That's almost blasphemy, ain't
it? And that's what these men here knew. Oh, he was a man. He was a great man. He was the
God-man. But, oh, it would be blasphemy.
They never even thought, who is this? Who could this be? Remember when he told the Pharisees,
I and my Father are one? I'm one with the Father. I'm
equal with Him. From all eternity I've been with
Him. Remember what they did? They
took up stones to stone Him. Why? You being a man, you make
yourself God. That was blasphemy to profess
such a thing. To recognize any man as God,
he should be stoned. If one thing was evident, it
was this, Jesus Christ was a man. And that was the problem, wasn't
it? He was such a real man, nobody could make the leap that this
is the eternal Son of God. Nobody would have thought such
a thing. He was a real man. Remember Mary when she brought
him into this world? If anybody knew that Jesus was
a man, it was his mother. She washed the afterbirth from
his body. She hung him upon her breast. She felt him sucking the milk
from her breast. She washed his body. She cleaned
his diapers. She fed him. He was dependent
upon her. She watched him grow up into
manhood. She could truly say, this is
my son. This is my child." And for three
and a half years, these disciples, these apostles, they were around
him almost on a daily basis. They knew him to be a man. They saw him sleep out of exhaustion. John leaned upon his breath and
he smelled his body, his manhood, his odor. They saw him so exhausted
that he fell asleep on that ship rocking and rolling in the storm.
They saw him so hungry one day that he got so upset with a fig
tree because it was barren. He cursed it and it died. He's
a man. He got so angry with those fellows
in the temple, he plaited him a whip and ran him out of the
temple. He was a man, wasn't he? He was a man. Jesus was a
man. So in spite of all these miracles
that they witnessed, it would have been a leap to go from his
manhood to his eternal sonship. It would have been impossible
to do such a thing. Now listen to this. If all the
evidence they had was with their natural eye and their human comprehension
and their human observation and their mental faculty, they would
have never reached this conclusion that this is the Son of God. You could not look at Jesus of
Nazareth and leap to that conclusion. He is the Son of God. Well, how
did they know Him then? How could they possibly know
that this Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God? Revelation. It was by the power
of the Holy Spirit. It was a revelation of God Himself
from heaven. And that's what John says here
in our text. I knew Him not. I knew Him not. Then how can you say He's the
Son of God? Because I know Him. But you said
you didn't know Him. I didn't. Then how can you say
He's the Son of God? He was revealed to me. He was
revealed to me. And what a revelation! Let me
show you some examples. Look over in John 9. I'll look
through the Scripture with me just a minute. Look in John 9. And look in verse 32. This is
a very familiar occasion where this man who was born blind,
never had salt from his mother's womb, the Lord Jesus, gave him his
sight on the Sabbath day. Remember that? The Pharisees
were so upset because Jesus had healed this man on the Sabbath
day. Can you imagine that now? My
wife doesn't want me to say this, but these men were stupid. Can
you imagine the stupidity? Here was a man who was born blind. 30 or 40 years old, and they
got mad at the Lord Jesus because He healed him on the Sabbath
day. So they called this man into
question, and they said, How did you receive your sight? Who
did this to you? He said, I don't know who he
was. His name was Jesus. That's all I know. They said,
How did He heal you? And He told them. He put clay
on my eye and sent me to the pool, and I wished I came to
see Him. And they said, we don't believe you. We don't believe
you. You're withholding something
from us. They called his parents and they questioned his parents.
Was this man born blind? They said he was. How is he seeing?
We don't know. Ask him. He's of age. They called
him back up again. They said, tell us again how
he healed you. And he told them again. They said, give God the
glory for it. This man is a sinner. And this
old boy had more common sense than all those fellows put together.
He said, now listen, that don't make any sense to me. If he was
a sinner, why would God hear him? Why would God be with him? He just healed my eyes. Since
the world began, it's never been known that anybody that was born
blind was made to see, and yet he healed me. He must be of God. And they got mad and kicked him
out of the synagogue. They said, you were altogether born in sin.
You've got no business around us holy people. And they sent
him out in the street. And the Lord Jesus found him.
And look here in verse 32. He said, Since the world began,
it is not heard that any man open the eyes of him. If this
man were not of God, he could do nothing. They said unto him,
Thou wast altogether born in sin. This you teach us. And they
cast him out. And Jesus heard that they had
cast him out. And when he had found him, he
said unto him, Do you believe on the Son of God? Do you believe? Now, here was
the Son of God standing right before him. And here was the
man who had opened his eyes standing right before Him. But he don't
know Him. He doesn't know Him. If you had asked that man, who
is this standing before you? It's the one that opened my eyes.
Who is He? He's Jesus. But who is He really? He's Jesus. He's Jesus. But look at this. Verse 36. He answered and said
unto him, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" See,
he didn't know him, did he? And yet he opened his eyes. You
can't know Jesus Christ. You may believe in all the miracles
that He's done, but you cannot know Him as the Son of God apart
from a revelation. And look what He said in verse
37, Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen Him And it is
He that talketh with thee." And he said, Lord, I believe. And
he worshipped Him. Now, ain't that a revelation?
And look how easy it was. Look how silent. Look how calm. All of this took place. He wasn't
screaming and rolling and jumping. He wasn't out of his head. He
wasn't speaking in some unknown language. It happened so easy. In the stillness of this man's
soul, Jesus spoke to him and said, I'm the Son of God. And
he said, I believe you. I believe you. But I tell you
what, even after Christ had opened his eyes, he still didn't know
that he was the Son of God. And it's because we can't know
Him as the Son of God apart from Him revealing Himself. Look in another place with me.
Look just over to your right in Acts chapter 8. Look at this. This is strange. This is a strange
revelation of Christ to the heart. Look what he said in Acts chapter
8. You remember this account, a
man by the name of Philip. The angel spoke to him and said,
go down and preach the gospel to this man. And he went down
in the wilderness in this eunuch from Ethiopia. was writing in
his chariot, reading Isaiah chapter 53. And here's what he was reading. Look at this. In verse 32. The
place of the Scripture which he read was this. He was led
as a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb done before his
shearers, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation his
judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation? For his life was taken from Now
look what he asked Philip. And Eunuch answered Philip and
said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself
or of some other man? Whoever it is, it must be a man.
Well, of course it's a man. Look how he's suffering. He's
dying. His life is taken from the earth.
This is a man. He's doing something wonderful.
He's doing it as a man, but who is he? Verse 35, Philip opened
his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto him,
Jesus. And I don't know when exactly
it happened. Sometime after this preaching
began. But look what happened. Look
what a revelation to this man's heart in verse 36. And as they
went on their way, they came into a certain water, and the
eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me from being
baptized? And Philip said, If you believe with all your heart,
you must. And he answered and said, I believe
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, how in the world
did he leap from not even knowing who the man was to saying this
is the Son of God? Ain't that amazing? As Philip
was preaching substitution, as he was preaching Christ crucified
for the remission of our sins, the Holy Spirit revealed to this
man's heart, this is the Son of God. This is the Son of God. Now that's amazing. That's astounding
to me. But it happens all the time.
It's not unique to these people. I remember I was preaching a
few years ago, And I was preaching. I had no idea anything was going
on. And I remember a lady in the
congregation I was preaching to, she was sitting over here
close to where Sean is sitting. Then suddenly, just suddenly
out of the blue, God revealed Christ to her heart. And the
tears began to flow and her countenance lit up. He did something for
her that she couldn't do on her own. And nobody else could do
for her. A revelation, a divine revelation. And it's a wonderful thing. It's
an essential thing for us to be saved, to know that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. But only one way to know Him,
and that's a revelation. Before He's revealed, we have
to say with John, I knew Him not. I knew Him not. We're helpless. We're waiting upon the Holy Spirit
to make Jesus Christ known to our hearts. And here's what makes it so wonderful.
It's this sovereign Spirit that does it. It's this third person
of the blessed Trinity, the sovereign God the Spirit. There's no revealer
like Him. There's nobody that can take
Christ and show Him to you like He can. And when He does, it's
wonderful. And I tell you, when He does
it, He does it to the heart. That's what makes it so wonderful.
It's not just the ascent of the mind. I can teach you that. I can teach you who Christ is,
and you can get it in your head. But when the Spirit does it,
He does it, He reveals Christ to our innermost being. If you
believe with all your heart, your heart, your soul, your spirit,
that's where Christ is made real. That's why He becomes so precious
to us. All your heart. It takes Him to reveal Christ
to our heart. Here's what Paul said about it.
It was so precious to him. Here's what he said. I count
all loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord. I knew about Jesus all my life. I knew about Him. My dad was
a preacher. He told me what little he knew about Him. I'd read about
it. But oh, when He was made known, when He was revealed to
me, He became excellent. Excellent. To you that believe,
He's precious. That's why Wesley wrote that
old hymn, Die He for Me. He for me who caused His pain. Me who Him to death pursued. Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, hast died for me? My God, my Lord and my God, the
Son of God, has died for me. Oh, Paul said, The life I now
live, I live by faith in the Son of God. What a revelation. What a revelation. This is why
the Apostle Peter said, Lord, to whom shall I go? I believe
and I'm sure that you are the Christ, the Son of the living
God. How did Peter know that? How
did Peter know who he was? Revelation. A revelation. He was a man. By all appearance,
he was a man. Though he done great things that
nobody could do, yet he was a man. Without sin, yes, but he was
a man. But Peter said, You are the eternal Son of God. Oh, revelation,
revelation. This is what helped Mary up when
she almost sank in despair at the loss of her brother. Remember
that? Four days and she was still weeping.
But there was something that held her up that kept her from
sinking into despair. And the Lord Jesus said, Martha,
I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believes on me
shall never die. Do you believe this? She said,
Lord, I believe that you're the Son of God. I believe it. Oh,
that'll hold you up, won't it? That'll hold you up during your
hours of loss. During the hours when you're
bombarded by the gates of hell and Satan tempts your soul. This
will hold you up. It will support you against the
very gates of hell. Jesus is the Son of God. That's what the Master said. He said, Peter, who do you say
I am while you're the Son of the living God? Flesh and blood. It's not revealed this to you,
but my Father. And He said, upon this rock I'll
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. He reveals Christ. And against
that revelation, that knowledge, that faith, the gates of hell
cannot prevail. They cannot. Who is He that overcomes
this world? But He that believes that Jesus
is the Son of God. You know, that's saving faith.
That's saving knowledge. But it only comes by revelation. How did John know it? Revelation. I knew him not. until He was
made real, made known to me. And I look at this congregation,
I look at you, and I bet you if me and you could sit and talk,
you'd say the same thing, wouldn't you? There was a time. You may have been religious.
Most of us were. I've been baptized two or three
times myself. Most of us were religious. But
can all of us say there was a time when I didn't really know Him?
I didn't know Him. until He was revealed to my heart."
Old John Bunyan used to say, man, Christ is so hid in the
bosom of the Father, nobody can know Him until the Father unbosoms
Him to your conscience, to your understanding, and then we know
Him. Now look back right quickly,
and I'll just keep you a couple of more quick things. Look back
in my text. Look in John chapter 1 again. Look in verse 47. This is where the Lord was going
preaching, and He found a man by the name of Philip, and He
told him to follow Me. And Philip went and found his
brother Nathanael. And Nathanael came to the Lord,
and the Lord said to him here in verse 37, look at it. Jesus
saw Nathanael coming to Him and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile, no deceit, no hypocrisy. Nathanael said
unto him, Whence knowest thou Me? How do you know Me? And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee when
thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee." And I think he was
probably there praying and asking God to reveal Christ to him.
That is my opinion. Verse 49, And Nathanael answered
and said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, thou art the Son of God. You are the King of Israel. It doesn't matter what titles
or names the Lord Jesus Christ goes under. He may be called Rabbi, King
of Israel, Lord, Christ, whatever he's called, Redeemer, Prince
of Peace, Mighty God. All of them must be included
under this title, the Son of God. Thou art the Son of God. Yes, you're a teacher. Yes, you're
the Lord. Yes, you're the Christ. And you're
the Son of God. You're the Son of God. Before
He came to this earth, He was the Son of God. When He came
and was born of Mary, He was still the Son of God. When He
was tempted in the wilderness of Satan, He was the Son of God.
When He suffered and died and rose and ascended back to heaven
on the right hand of God, He's still the Son of God. That never changed when He come
and never will change. He's the Son of God in our humanity. And the Apostle Paul said this
is the gospel of God concerning His Son. That's what the gospel is about.
His Son. Jehovah's Witnesses came by my
house the last week. They left some literature and
they usually don't leave anything. I think they marked my house.
They probably mark a lot of our houses and don't come back for
a while. Another generation comes along
or something, I guess, but they left a 16-page magazine on my
door. It dealt with all kinds of subjects. All kinds of subjects. Twice
in passing. Twice in passing. It meant nothing.
In passing. They used the name of Jesus.
Twice. And that's sixteen pages. Sixteen
pages. Not once was the Son of God mentioned. Not once was sin mentioned. Not once was forgiveness mentioned. What good is that magazine? Good to start a fire with. That's
about it. The Son of God is everything. The Gospel, the Word of God,
the Old and the New Testament, it's all concerning God's Son. There is no life apart from Him
who is the Prince of Life. There is no salvation apart from
Him who is our salvation. There is no righteousness apart
from Him who is called the Lord our righteousness. There's no
forgiveness of our sins apart from the blood of the Son of
God. He's everything. And to write a silly magazine
and never mention Him is not fit. I wish some of these tree
huggers would get ahold of them and make them quit writing on
the paper. Wasting the paper. Wasting the
paper. Look here in verse 37 right quickly,
and I'll close with this. John was speaking here of him
in verse 35. You stood and saw and behold
the Lamb of God. And these two disciples in verse
37 heard him speak and this is the way it always must be. You
hear the preacher and you follow him. You hear the preacher and
you look to him. You get your eyes off the preacher
and you get your eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ. They heard
John and they followed Jesus. And verse 38, he turned, and
boy, here's a great advantage for those who follow the Master.
Sometimes he turns and he says, what seek you? Oh, wouldn't it
be wonderful today if you went home to your child of God, and
he turned and said this to you. What do you want with me? What do you want from me? What are you seeking? Engage
you in a conversation. Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful?
And they asked him, Master, where do you dwell? Who are you dwelling? I don't know if he had a dwelling
place or not. He said he had no place to lay his head. He
either had borrowed one or rented one or something because he said,
come and see. And they went and saw. And don't
you imagine that was a humble, holy abode. Come and see. You want to know where I dwell?
Come and see. And they went and saw and dwelt with Him. Come and see. Where dwellest
thou? Lord Jesus, the Son of the living
God, where dwellest thou? You want to see for just a minute?
You want to see where He dwells? Isaiah said He dwells in eternity.
He inhabiteth eternity. Look. See Him? Go back before
the foundation of the world. Go back out into eternity. That's
where He dwells. He's there. Go out into eternity
that's to come when time is ended. When you and I are dead and the
earth is finished and time ceases to be in eternity. You know what? Right now while you and I are
sitting here in time, He's out in eternity already. He dwells
in eternity. O thou that inhabiteth eternity.
And listen to this. He dwells in the high and holy
places. He dwells in the heavenlies.
And listen to this, with Him also, that's of a contract and
broken spirit. I dwell with Him. He dwells in
the high and holy places. The world of that includes. He
dwells in heaven. Listen to this. Unto thee lift
up my eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. He's everywhere,
isn't He? He dwells in the heavens. The
heaven of heaven is His throne. He fills the heavens and the
earth. Where does He dwell? Everywhere. Everywhere. Where does He dwell? He dwells
in His church. You know He's right here, right
now. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is right in our midst. Where two or three are gathered
in My name, there am I in the midst. Listen today. For the
Lord hath chosen Zion. That's the church. He hath desired
it for his habitation. This is my rest forever, saith
the Lord, and here will I dwell, because I have desired it. He
desires his church. Come and see. Come and see. He's right here. Come and see. Fifthly, he dwells in the heart. He dwells in our heart by faith. I will dwell in them. I will
be their God and they shall be my people. No matter where you
go, dear child of God, He especially dwells in your heart. Can you
see Him? Come and see. He abides with
you and you abide with Him. And He dwells in heaven. This
afternoon he dwells in heaven on God's right hand. And you
know something? It won't be long until you and
I, by His grace, will abide there with Him. We'll be there with
Him. And never again will we be separated
from Him. Come and see. Come and see. God bless this Word.