FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF VILLA RICA, PCA

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No Guile Nathanael

By

Rev. Todd W. Allen

 Villa Rica 2/29/04

John 1: 41-51 ⁴⁵Philip found^* Nathanael and said^* to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ⁴⁶Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said^* to him, “Come and see.” ⁴⁷Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him, and said^* of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” ⁴⁸Nathanael said^* to Him, “How do You know me?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” ⁴⁹Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” ⁵⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And He said^* to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:45-51 (NASB)
 

         I have a news clipping I saved about the legendary con artist Joseph (Yellow kid) Weil who when he was 100 years old and living as a welfare patient in a Chicago convalescent home, was interviewed by the press. They called him (yellow kid) because he had yellowish red hair and golden whiskers, he wore yellow kid gloves and drove yellow cars and had canary yellow calling cards. Mr. Weil had concocted schemes that had netted him an estimated 8 million dollars. In his interview with the press he said that he would do it all over again. He is quoted as saying, "If I were younger I would be doing today what I did then and if anything I would be raking in more money."

I clipped out that story about Mr. Weil because it verifies the Scripture so decisively that says,  “Can the Ethiopian change his skin    Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil. Jer. 13:23   

 I believe Mr. Weil confirms that scripture and speaks for every unrepentant sinner. At 100 years of age he stated that if he had his life to live over he would have the same goals and arm himself with the same deceit in order to succeed in life. Oh, he might avoid the slipups and miscalculations. There might be greater cunning, more careful planning. But few criminals truly repent. The percentage of repeat offenders is very high and usually it will be for the same or similar crimes. The sinner returns again and again to his same sin.

But we ought not regard all mankind as being equally gross. Not all men turn to crime. The Bible says all have sinned but sinners differ greatly in the manner of life they choose. It would be unfair to put all men in the same category. Many unconverted men live highly respectable lives.

God has put many restraints into effect to discourage sin. A man’s mind is a valuable restraint for it tells a man most clearly that sin has consequences. A life of dissipation takes its toll for all to see. Skid row stands as a grim reminder that the way of the transgressor is hard. Crowded prisons help keep men honest. There is much inducement to live the way God tells us to in the Good Book so that we may avoid frustration and anguish and misery. And many people do live wholesome, upright, respectable lives for no other reason than that its sensible.  But even respectable men are sinners. All need the salvation Christ alone can give.

 Our Lord taught that when the sower went forth to sow that before the good seed fell upon the field at all there was a difference in the various soils; some of it fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured the seed, some fell on stony ground without much depth and the seed sprouted but when the sun came the growth was scorched and withered, another soil was thorny and when the seed sprouted the thorns choked the planting, but there was another soil described by our Lord as honest and good ground where the seed yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty.

Although in every case the carnal mind is at enmity against God, yet there are influences at work, which in many cases have mitigated, if not subdued that enmity. While many took up stones to kill our Lord there were others who heard him gladly. 

There is a grace of God at work in this world, which while not the grace that bestows salvation, yet restrains wickedness and prepares the way for grace to flourish. Like the Scripture tells us it was in the beginning that the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light: and there was light. Before the light came, God was moving by His Spirit upon the face of the waters. This was the Spirit's preparatory work before the Word came to let there be light.

Sin darkened souls may not be aware of the Spirit moving nor of the restraining hand of God which hinders them from indulging in gross sin. Even the need to work for a living will keep many from a life of sin. They just don't have the time or strength to give themselves over to a sinful life. Is this not the grace of God? 1 can honestly say that I sinned far less as an unconverted man than would have been the case if God had not kept me so busy. Well has it been said, "An idle mind is the Devil's workshop” 

I.   A Guileless Is Man Is Hard To Find

So rare is the unconverted man without deceit that our Lord took special note of it in Nathanael's case. As Nathanael responded to Philip's invitation to come and see Jesus when Jesus saw him coming to him made the statement,  “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”   

All men are sinners and the taproot of sin is pride-employing guile. Guile is defined as the act of deceiving or the disposition to deceive. It means craft, duplicity and treachery. Joseph (Yellow Kid) Weil was proud of his ability to dupe people. He believed he was clever, smooth and successful in deceiving his victims.    

            Think back to the first sin. What did Satan arm himself with? Was it not with deceit? Satan is called a liar and the father of liars. His smooth words to Eve were slippery, serpentine, subtle, cunning and deceitful. He proposed a doubt, proffered a lie. He made it all look profitable and elevating. Eat the forbidden fruit and instead of dying you will be like God knowing good and evil.

Isn't that the way all con men operate? Yellow Kid Weil said, "The most gullible of all were bankers and lawyers. Isn't that funny? The reason is that they felt so secure in their knowledge that they didn't think anyone would dare sell them a bill of goods."

But guile is a two-way street. Unless there is someone to beguile it is harmless. The deception of Satan needed a victim. The fangs of the serpent must bury themselves in unwary flesh before the poison can do its work.  There must be some secret fascination or hope for  enjoyment or gain in the ear of the listener before guile can find a susceptible victim.

We learn in the holy Scriptures that the day is coming on this earth when men will worship a false god, a man will come on the scene who claims to be God, who will perform signs and lying wonders. He will be the con man of all con men, the prince of con men, the master deceiver, ⁹that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, ¹⁰and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. ¹¹For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, ¹²in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness. 2 Thess. 2:9-12                           Nathanael was that rare type of individual who, though unconverted and still outside the circle of grace, was honest, straightforward and guileless.          

Some minds cannot think except in curves; their motives are involved and intricate and they are of a double heart. They practice the delicate art of doublethink and double talk. They bow at the shrine of the two-faced god Janus and try to imitate him as best they can.

Such men will scarcely speak up plainly or look you in the face when they talk to you. They are careful in all they say and usually give everything a vagueness or blurriness so that you can never be sure of what they said.

Nathanael was a man who said what he meant and meant what he said. His doubts and prejudices were honest ones. He would evaluate what was said to him in a matter of fact way. If it was true he was quite willing to believe it. If it was not true it was not worthy of' his   attention.

            Let it be said here that the Gospel calls men to guilelessness. Christ claimed that He was the way, the truth and the light and that no man could come to the Father but by him. A man coming to Christ must be willing to submit to the truth and then must be willing to put away all deceit in his life.

II. Nathanael's Readiness To Believe The Gospel Was Due To This Basic Quality Of Honesty And Guilelessness

Many men erect barriers to the Gospel, which, if carefully examined are found to be nothing more than subterfuges and excuses to enable them to continue in sin. They are self-deceived because they want to cling to their life of sin and so arm themselves with whatever weapon comes to hand to fend off the Gospel. It is easy enough to find fault with the church or with some preacher, or some backslidden member of the church.  Usually, when pressed for a reason why they don't believe the Gospel or go to church they will bring out their time-worm, dog-eared excuses. They will cite some incident that happened long ago, some short shrift they got from someone in the church, or some bad taste they got in their mouth either at church or by some person who attended church. Or they claim there is some contradiction in the Bible or cite some confusion they have conjured up in their mind that they say makes the Bible unbelievable to them. But underneath it all is just a plain old simple refusal to repent of sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and mercy. It's really the sin they won't give up and won't confess that is keeping them, not the shabby excuses they bring out.

            Nathanael had a natural prejudice, but it was not conceived in order to evade the claims of Christ. When Philip witnessed to Nathanael and told him, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, Nathanael’s reply was can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip might have spent the next hour or two trying to deal with Nathanael’s prejudice about Nazareth  but instead he simply challenged Nathanael to seek the truth. He said, Come and see.  

To all who will investigate Christ with an open and an honest heart as Nathanael did there is bound to come the knowledge of the truth of who Jesus Christ really is, the Savior of mankind.        

III. Nathanael's Simple And Honest Seeking Transformed His Life

            Christ's omniscience quickly became apparent to Nathanael. Nathanael did not regard Christ’s appraisal of him as a light thing. He was prepared to believe in Christ if there was sufficient proof exhibited. This Christ gave   to Nathanael in his first words as he was coming to him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!”

            This statement must have struck Nathanael as quite unusual. How could this stranger know anything about him? But perhaps Christ was just guessing. Perhaps it was only a chance remark. Nathanael did not deny the evaluation Christ made of him. Perhaps he prided himself on his honesty. Many people do. And it could be that Philip had told him something. Who knows what passed through his mind at that moment. But Nathanael's question to Christ was designed to find that out.  “How do You know me?” Where have we met? Christ replied,  “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

            Immediately Nathanael confessed, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” ⁵⁰Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” ⁵¹And He said^* to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”

Obviously, Jesus told Nathanael something that convinced him that he was no ordinary mortal. We do not know what Nathanael had been doing under that fig tree. It may have been a sacred spot to him. Perhaps there he had confessed his sins to God. He may have had a Bethel experience there, which only he and God knew about. But it was because of Christ's knowledge of that time and space experience in his life that Nathanael was absolutely convinced of the divinity of Christ. His guilelessness served him well at this point. He was not looking for an angle. He simply comprehended the truth -- that only a supernatural knowledge of his movements and thoughts could have enabled Christ to say what he did. No other mortal knew what had transpired beneath that fig tree but himself and God.

Having already been told that Jesus was the Messiah, the Christ, he immediately was convinced that it was so.

The woman at the well was similarly convinced of Christ's divinity by his intimate knowledge of her past life. After he had revealed to her that she had had five husbands and that the man she was now living with was not her husband she went into the city and said to the people, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

Any person who will seek to find out who Christ is with an open and an honest heart shall soon have sufficient proof of his divinity to confess him as Savior and Lord, even as Nathanael did.

Christ gave Nathanael a promise that was not for him alone. It is to all who confess him. You will see greater things than these.”

Once a person confesses Christ the light will continue to come, more revelation will come. The Word of God is a source of illumination. You will see prayers answered, The Lord adds to your faith once you confess Him.

1. Today I invite you to look at the sinless life of Jesus and see if you can find any fault in him.

2. I urge you to look at how he died and what reason he gave for his death on the cross.

3. I urge you to look at the facts concerning his resurrection          and his victory over death, how it transformed that small band of discouraged and disheartened followers into mighty evangelists and martyrs.

4. I urge you to examine carefully his free offer of mercy and life on the basis of faith in him and repentance concerning your sins.

5. Lastly, I ask you to look at the result of his offer when men sincerely receive him and act honestly toward him in accepting his offer of forgiveness and life.

Be a Nathanael today. Come to Christ and ask him to be your Savior and Lord.

Hymn #468  “My Faith has Found a Resting Place”