HAVING A HEART LIKE NATHANAEL.
During the sermon yesterday John 1:47 was one of the verses read. It is a well known verse, that I remember well from the KJV. Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no GUILE! Nathanael saith unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. The Lord Jesus Christ is both 100% God and 100% human, and here we see Him making a statement about Nathanael, and what a testimony it is. Right from the Book of Genesis, we see God working through people who He surely chose in eternity past to fulfil His purposes. Nathanael was a QUALITY PERSON Jesus chose to be a part of the Apostolic band. GUILE is a very old English word and we will see in more modern translations. My dictionary says to have no guile is to have no deceit or cunning in one’s life, the total opposite of someone like Jacob.
The NLT says Now here is a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity. The AMP N.T adds nor deceit nor falsehood nor duplicity. The MESSAGE says “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”
We know that Jer. 17:9 NKJV tells us “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked Who can know it. Yet even in the Old Testament God had men who were DIFFERENT. Think of King David described in 1 Samuel 13:14 NKJV The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart.
Look at some of the words that describe Nathanael
COMPLETE INTEGRITY
NO DECEIT
NO FALSEHOOD
NOT A FALSE BONE IN HIS BODY.
Just as King David was a man after God’s own heart, I want to suggest to you today, that by the Grace of God, as we seek the Lord and grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we can have that same sort of heart that we see in David & Nathanael.
Lord help us to maintain that attitude of repentance ever turning away from that which does not line up with the Word of God, so we sure need to know what the Word says then about being a man of God, and knowing what it means that we can truly be MORE THAN CONQUERERS. Rom. 9:37.
