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[0:00] So today we're going to talk about, consider his omniscience. Of course, last week we talked about the same passage and so forth. Any time you Google everything, it's a top.

[0:31] Yeah, AI is right at the top. Google AI comes right to the top, and we can check that. We can get information like that fast. In fact, if I want to, I can go into Chat or Grok or Granola or like 18 other names of weird AI systems, and I could type in something and say, hey, I have this idea.

[0:50] Give me more information. Now, I don't go search the web and give me all that information. The sad thing is it's not always that accurate. Like sometimes they get it back, and you check it and go, hold on, that is not what the manual says over here.

[1:05] Where did it get its source? And you look and you find that it used Wikipedia or the equivalency thereof too, right? And so perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of our Lord that sets them apart from mankind in AI and IT is his omniscience, is that he actually does know everything.

[1:24] I always appreciate one of my science teachers back when I was in high school would talk about science, obviously, because everything's, you know, you hear it on the web, we see the memes, it's science, man.

[1:36] Okay, washing your hands is not science. It's actually biblical. We go back to the Old Testament. It's biblical. You wash your hands. That's actually where that started at, not when the lady at the Red Cross figured out she, if you wash your hands, she could say babies.

[1:48] If we just washed our hands like the Israelites did up to that point in time, it was just good practice, right? But he always talked about how if one man was to know 10% of everything or 50% of everything in the vast volumes of the things that you could know, how little would that really be?

[2:09] I mean, an exciting kid out there. They're learning something. And I go back and think about how many of you guys had Encyclopedia Britannica or all those, those huge volume sets.

[2:23] And I don't know how many of you guys enjoyed reading through those. No, okay. There was a few topics in there I thought were great. So when I go to do reports like on the Civil War and stuff like that, I go grab these books, I pull them out, and I start to read.

[2:37] And I would read my 10 pages out of this huge volume of information. And I couldn't imagine somebody coming up to me saying, I know, I memorized the entire Encyclopedia.

[2:50] Okay, but now the next year comes and they have to replace that because the same salesman came every year to replace it with the new information. And how many of us have been around long enough to go around to the aspirin debate?

[3:03] Aspirin's good for you. Then aspirin's bad for you. Now a little aspirin's good for you. And now it's not. And where are we actually on this information? Well, we don't know. But God does, and that's what we're going to talk about today.

[3:16] So we're going to jump right into a passage of Scripture today. It takes a time in the earlier days of Christ's ministry when he had been baptized and he had begun teaching and preaching. And our text records him calling out a man named Philip.

[3:28] So John 1.43 says, The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and he findeth Philip, and he says unto him, Follow me. So to follow Christ means so much more than to go on a journey down a dirt trail.

[3:43] So how many of us ever played Follow Leader as a kid? Anybody? All right. Tim did. Joe did. I know that because we played it. Pastor. That game's been around for a long time.

[3:54] And we'd play Follow Leader. And Joe would go through the backyard, Tim, Aurora, and the others like in tow. They'd go up the swing set, down the swing set, over the thing, climb back over and through the loop, down around the slide, out the other side, run, climb up the side of the deck, and over the top of the deck.

[4:12] And you'd follow the leader, right? With no real understanding of the why. Right? Philip didn't ask why.

[4:23] He just went and followed Christ. Well, to follow Christ is more than... Following Christ meant believing that he was who he claimed to be.

[4:34] And those who followed Christ had to choose to turn from other avenues of belief, but to trust in Christ alone. And that's exactly what Philip did that day. So since this first man began following Christ, millions have joined saying, I choose the Lord Jesus Christ.

[4:50] One of the characteristics of a true follower of Jesus is they wanted others to follow Christ too. That is what Philip did when he decided to follow Jesus. Philip went to his friend Nathaniel to tell him about Christ.

[5:02] We'll look down there in verse 45 of John chapter 1. Philip findeth Nathaniel and says unto him, We found him! Of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[5:17] Well, that's great. Nathaniel did respond to Philip's gesture and eventually became an intimate disciple of Christ. So we consider Nathaniel's life.

[5:27] Let's consider the story of how he turned to Jesus Christ and became a follower of him. So I apologize. The intro takes you like halfway through some of the information that we're going to cover next.

[5:38] And I'm like trying not to jump ahead and go back and forth. So we'll get there. So number one, Nathaniel's outlook. So in John 1, 45-46, Philip findeth Nathaniel and saith unto him, We have found him!

[5:50] Of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?

[6:02] And Philip said unto him, Come and see. So clearly, there was some bias towards Nazareth. I assume it's like going to Iowa when you're a Nebraska fan.

[6:13] Right? Or Kansas. I mean, for those people who spend a lot of time in Kansas. I mean, you know. We got past here. I mean, I guess something good comes out of Iowa. So it's an interesting note that Philip came to Thiel to tell them about the Messiah.

[6:27] Philip specifically mentioned the writings of Moses and the prophets. And if you want to be an effective witness, it's very important that you use Scripture while talking to others about Jesus. If all you give people is your opinion, you're not giving them a good enough reason to trust Christ.

[6:44] God's Word is what moves the hearts of men, not our opinion. Isaiah 55.11. Let's see. Somebody want to read that for me? Joe does.

[6:54] Excellent. And then I'll read Hebrews 4.12. Read. You want to grab that one? All right. Hebrews 4.12.

[7:05] Joe, you first. Isaiah 55.11. So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the things wheretoom I think.

[7:24] Read. Read. Thank you. Thank you.

[7:38] Even so, Nathaniel did not accept the word that Philip gave him. He was cautious. Cautious regarding the Scripture. That's A if you're taking notes. So as we consider the truths about God, the most important question we can ask is, what does the Bible say?

[7:53] The Bible is the infallible, inherent Word of God. Many people are quick to place their confidence in a vision or a dream or what somebody says, but placing full confidence in God's Word is what a life of faith is all about.

[8:09] When Philip shared Jesus' connection to the Old Testament prophecies, Nathaniel was not immediately convinced that this man, Jesus, was the Messiah. Jesus himself often had to remind people of writings in the Old Testament before they were convinced.

[8:23] So John 5, 46-47 says, For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words? Luke 24-27 says, And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scripture the things concerning himself.

[8:43] So in order for people to understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, it was important for Jesus to be linked with the writings of Moses and the prophets concerning the prophecies of the coming King and Messiah, the one that would come from the house in the lineage of David.

[8:58] And perhaps the main reason Nathaniel was cautious at first concerning the scriptural connection to Jesus, the Messiah, was he didn't have a favorable impression of Nazareth, I mean, where Jesus grew up. So, I mean, I guess we too could have the same thing, like, thank you very much, thank you.

[9:16] And it's cold. I like cold water. That's a good thing. So, B, callous regarding Nazareth. So, what almost kept Nathaniel from Jesus?

[9:30] A preconceived idea. So, I mean, we might have that when we hear guest speakers come, or maybe when we have people preach, like, maybe their background, maybe whatever it might be, might actually have some preconceived thoughts there.

[9:46] Now, verse 46, it says, And Nathaniel said to him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, Come and see. So, why? Why did he have a problem with Nazareth? Well, Nazareth was a really busy hustle and city.

[9:59] It was a trade route. You had the military come through. You had all sorts of people that go through. You had traders from foreign countries coming through there. Caravans passed. Traveled from Gilead to the south to the west.

[10:12] North of the city was the main road from Potomias to Decapolis, and a road that Roman legions frequently traveled. The reputation of the town for being military merchants added to the reputation of Nazareth was a wicked, immoral place.

[10:28] And Nazareth was not considered an important part of religious life, not like Jerusalem, where the temple was. So, what good thing comes from Nazareth? I mean, who knows? We do, because Jesus came from Nazareth.

[10:39] So, there we go. If you want to be rich, go to Nazareth. But if you want wisdom, go to Jerusalem. So, that was the preconceived motion there. No prophet would come from Nazareth, in Nathaniel's mind.

[10:53] The Messiah would have to come from somewhere else. Those that came from Nazareth were not expected to be prophets with great intuition or understanding. There was a prejudice that held Nathaniel back from putting his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[11:04] At that juncture, Philip could have tried to argue with Nathaniel by reminding him of the prophets, that they may come from unlikely places. Instead, Philip approached him and said, Come and see.

[11:16] Now, I find it interesting, because Philip, when Jesus said, Follow me, Philip was like, Okay, let's do this. And he believed, and he followed him. And he comes to his friend, Nathaniel.

[11:29] And Nathaniel says, You know, I don't think, I don't think this doesn't sound right. Okay. So, instead of arguing with him, he said, Well, come and check him out. So, when you, when you weigh this to people, who seem cynical at first, rather than get in an argument, because, man, there are a lot of people who just want to get in an argument.

[11:46] I mean, we've all been there. I mean, whether it's politics, whether it's religion, whether it's marriage, whether it's correcting our children, like we just talked about a little ago. People are more than willing to jump into an argument about something.

[11:57] Sometimes, the best thing you do is tell of what Christ has done for you first, so, talk about your own testimony, which is really important, and then invite them to see what Jesus has done in the lives of others.

[12:09] Nowhere religion has the internal or external evidence that Christianity does. Nowhere religion can point to the empty tomb of the resurrected founder when you invite people to come and see, you've given them a chance to see how Christianity is different from anything else they have ever seen before.

[12:25] So, instead of arguing with Philip, I'm sorry, instead of Philip arguing with Nathaniel, and maybe Nathaniel would have put up a wall of defense, like, hey, you know what, I'm just going to stay here and keep doing my own study.

[12:38] We'll figure it out. Nathaniel became curious and decided to go see for himself. When he met Christ, he saw the Savior's omniscience. So, I have a note in here and I'll just read it here.

[12:52] Prejudice is deciding something is unworthy before honestly examining the truth, which we see in science, we see in government, we see in education, we see every day, wherever we go, that people have preconceived notions about how things ought to go without looking at the evidence.

[13:13] And, Nathaniel, he was willing to go look at the evidence. So, the Savior's omniscience, John 1, 47 through 48, and he volunteers to read that. Thank you, Darren.

[13:24] I saw Nathaniel coming to him and said unto him, Behold, Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Nathaniel said unto him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto him, Before that Philip called me, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.

[13:40] Christ's omniscience is an attribute of his deity. Nobody but God knows everything. Contrary to the teachings of other groups, Jesus was not just another man.

[13:53] Jesus Christ was the God-man, God in the flesh. So, in 2007, social media, this is an article that was written in the New York Times, published by Thomas Friedman.

[14:05] He wrote an article called, The Whole World is Watching. Now, the premise of this article was really simple. All of us, almost everybody in this room, has a cell phone. In fact, I would be really surprised if somebody didn't have a cell phone.

[14:18] And almost everybody's phone has a camera of some sort. All of these come because the phone has a microphone and a speaker on it. And his argument was, is that everybody, everybody, whether they choose it or not, is part of the knowledge database because you add to online information, whether it's Facebook, MySpace, if you're that old, whatever the other ones are out there, X, Twitter, whatever it is, those comments go out there.

[14:48] And all of us are reporters of information. So, if we were out and we saw an accident on I-29, I guess I-80 goes through Nebraska, I don't want to think I need a 29, I drive that all the time. See an accident, you might stop, snap a picture, upload it to the internet.

[15:02] You just became a media consultant. You just became a news reporter. You literally are reporting on what you've seen and shared it with the world. Now you have added to that knowledge that others don't have because you just testified of it and you just shared it.

[15:16] So, everyone has a cell phone, camera on it, everyone now is a paparazzo, and everyone can upload a video on YouTube. It's true, because it's free. I've done it. I've got some ridiculous videos up there, if you want to go check them out later.

[15:29] And that makes everyone a filmmaker. Well, everyone is a publisher or a filmmaker. Everyone else then becomes what? Audience? But if I take a picture of you and I, upload it, that would make you a...

[15:44] Yeah, that's right! A public figure. You are now a celebrity. So, that's right. So, when Daryl has done Sunday scroll and he has taught for pastor, he's online, he's on record, he's now a public figure.

[15:58] So, the application of this article teaches us that we need to be careful about the way we act, because anybody could be recording our actions. We also need to be careful about what we say, because anybody could post our words on a social media site.

[16:13] Nobody truly has complete privacy, because anyone could be a publisher. There's always somebody watching. As Christians, we have known for years, there's always somebody watching. We know the Lord sees everything, and we can never hide anything from Him.

[16:28] Proverbs 15, 3 says, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. If you've been saved for even a short time, you probably have already learned that God is all-knowing, and in the passage, we see Nathanael learning for the first time that Jesus, as God in the flesh, possesses the same attributes of omniscience as God.

[16:48] It's convenient, because Jesus is God. That would make sense. So Jesus knew exactly who Nathanael was, and He understood His heart, and our Lord knows the heart of every man.

[17:02] That's letter A. So He knows the heart of man there. John 1, 47, Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him and saith of Him, Behold an Israelite indeed, and whom is no guile?

[17:15] Jesus Christ's ability to receive the hearts of all men, when He met Nathanael, He knew Nathanael was sincere. Nathanael was spiritually lost, but He was sincerely looking for the truth.

[17:28] He was not deceitful or seeking His own personal gain. He was a sinner, just as we all are, and He was looking for answers. And I would say we could see that pretty clearly in verse 45.

[17:41] It says, When Philip findeth Nathanael and saith unto him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did right, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

[17:54] Well, I mean, okay, where do I go with this? Okay, when I was in seventh grade, seventh grade? Sixth grade.

[18:05] Sixth grade, okay, we'll go back to sixth grade. I had to think about it for a second. My best friend, one of my friends, Bobby Blank and Justin Fisher, we were in the same grade together, and we as friends, we had our, Bobby was a nerd, Justin was a nerd, I was a nerd, we all played a band, if you picture that.

[18:21] I was playing the trumpet at the time, Justin was playing the bass clarinet, which by the way, if you've never seen the bass clarinet, it is huge. And Bobby, he played a regular clarinet, it was quite small.

[18:34] And so, we knew what we talked about all the time, like we would have conversations, we walk up, like if I talked to the beams, I know I could talk about trees and cutting it down, what's the weather been like, how much damage has people had, because they're going to know, so that's an easy conversation to have with the beams.

[18:47] With them, I talked about music, it was really easy. Or Star Trek, because Star Trek was big when I was in the sixth grade, and we'd talk about the Ford nacelles, and we'd talk about warp engines, and teleporters, and all this really nerdy stuff.

[19:01] We had a conversation that we had, and we knew that we could walk into each other's conversation at any point in time and bring up any one of these topics, and we would just talk about it, right? So Nathaniel and Phillip clearly had a relationship where they talked about God as Jewish men.

[19:17] They were seeking the truth, and pretty easy to see that when he walked up and he says, hey, we found him, of whom Moses and the law and the prophets did right, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, which makes it really easy, I mean, not easy, I guess, makes that correlation easy to understand that Nathaniel was looking, but he doubted because the guy was from Nazareth.

[19:43] But Jesus knows the heart of men. Isaiah 53, 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray, and we have turned everyone to his own way. Jesus always knows who is sincerely looking for truth, and he longs for them to come to him for salvation.

[19:58] Consider Nicodemus in John 3, who sincerely wanted to understand who exactly Jesus was. So Nicodemus in John chapter 3, over here, there was a man of the Pharisees, verse 1 there, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

[20:27] So, Nicodemus already came, and was already searching the mount, and already trying to understand it. We move down to verse 9, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

[20:39] And Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye received not our witness.

[20:53] If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

[21:19] For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Just as Jesus would eventually meet Nicodemus, and know he was a genuine in his search for truth, Jesus knew the same about Nathaniel.

[21:36] Jesus knew his heart, and knows your heart, too. He knows whether you have faith in him or not. He is the all-knowing God. I would also add here that even as Christians, obviously he knows our heart.

[21:50] He knows our struggles. He knows our desires. He knows our cares. He knows our concerns. He knows what our worries are. And my wife and I were actually talking about this the other day about what's the opposite of faith, and I kind of went, jokingly, I kind of said, well, worry.

[22:09] Worry is the opposite of faith, because, I mean, it's real easy to worry about something and say you have faith. It's kind of like they fight against each other. They're just not balanced in that conversation, right? So here's a little interaction thought process for you.

[22:24] So let's see how smart we are. How many hairs are on your head? No cheating. Some of you have already cheated and cut most of them off, so I should make it a little bit easier. All right.

[22:35] Another question there. What were you doing 479 days ago at 413? Okay, I'm super shocked. I really expected Tim to raise his hand and have an answer for me, because he has, I mean, I guarantee he has a general idea.

[22:50] So how about 479 days into the future at 413 p.m.? Well, that's a Sunday, so probably taking, I'm just kidding, I don't know what day that is.

[23:00] I didn't look it up. When you were in your mother's womb, how did it, what did it feel like when your eyes began to form? Fortunately, the Lord has blocked that one out. I don't know. The last time somebody wronged you, what was your immediate reaction?

[23:17] Wow, that one hurts a little bit more. That one I could think of. So, yeah, I need some help there. Number six, the last time the Lord spoke to your heart in a sermon, did you respond to the Holy Spirit's leading?

[23:32] We'll just leave that for you guys to think about there. God knows more about us than we know about ourselves. His knowledge has no limits. And that includes His knowledge of you.

[23:43] You cannot hide anything from Him. You may be carrying that heavy burden in your heart. You may be facing something today while feeling that nobody could understand the deep pain you feel. Your all-knowing Savior not only loves you so much that He would die to save you, but He also loves you enough to carry those burdens for you, even the burdens that nobody else knows about.

[24:04] Matthew 11, 28-30. Tim, can you read that for us? He says, no. Okay, looking for a second offer. David, Matthew 11, 28-30.

[24:18] Tim says yes now? Are you going to split them? He says no. He says, David, go ahead. Okay. Come unto me, only that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

[24:31] Take my hope upon you and learn of me. Fry of me, the lowly heart, and you shall find rest and your hope and you'll give me a human person. Yeah, He knows the heart of man.

[24:43] No, secondly, He knows the location of man, which I find interesting that he immediately said, dude, I knew where you were when you were thinking about what you were thinking about under that fig tree over there.

[24:54] So, B, He knows the location of man. John 1, 48. Nathaniel says unto him, Once knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said, Before Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Well, I wonder what he's doing under the fig tree.

[25:07] I assume he's sitting in the shade. But Nathaniel was surprised because he had never met Jesus, yet Jesus knew his heart and his location. Jesus knew that he was contemplating under a fig tree.

[25:18] God always sees us as we contemplate anything under our fig tree. So, just as Jesus saw Nathaniel under that tree and knew his need, he sees you wherever you are and he knows all of your needs.

[25:31] He knows where you are spiritually and he knows what weighs on your mind. 139, 1-4, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising.

[25:44] Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassed my path and my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together.

[25:57] I really like Psalms 139. It's one of my favorites. We actually sing a song out of there. Search me, O God, and know my heart and try me to know my thoughts. And he does. But are we willing to listen to him and make the changes that he calls for us to do?

[26:10] Jeremiah 16, 17 says, For mine eyes are upon all their ways. I see absolutely everything. No, Trump, you don't. But God does. For there is, they are not hid from my faith, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

[26:28] Imagine the Lord is meeting you, just like he met Nathaniel. I'm telling you, and then he tells you what you're thinking. He's taller than I thought he would be.

[26:39] I don't know that's what he would say. Jesus' knowledge of Nathaniel got his attention and led to a change in his beliefs. Jesus gave Nathaniel every opportunity to trust and follow him. The sinner's opportunity, number three.

[26:54] John 1, 49-51 says, Nathaniel answered and saith unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou?

[27:06] thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

[27:20] Even though Nathaniel was a good man seeking the truth, he was still a sinner, just like all of us. Romans 3, 23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[27:33] This world has one rudimentary problem, and that's sin. At the root of many problems, in some form, is sin. None of us are exempt from sin, because all of us have inherited a sin nature.

[27:45] I'm sure my kids could probably tell you one of the things that the pastor's talking about at home that we talk about a lot, you know, and there was always strife, and you remember what I used to always say about strife?

[28:03] About pride? Well, maybe it didn't sink in. There's still time! There's still time, right? So, yeah. You know, through pride comes strife.

[28:16] Anyways, and so, there are just those things, Lord, where there's sin, and there's sin like every day, and sometimes it's pride, sometimes it's other things, but it's really easy to find it there.

[28:31] Let's see, Romans 5, 12 says, Wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. As serious as he was, Nathaniel, like every other person, had a sin problem that only Christ could cure.

[28:48] Thankfully, there's an opportunity for sinners to find forgiveness through Jesus. To profess faith, as soon as Nathaniel realized that Jesus knew his heart, he realized that Jesus was the Son of God, and in all he confessed, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God.

[29:03] No one is saved until first believing the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, the next illustration is, there are over a billion Muslims in the world today.

[29:15] They all follow the teachings of Koran, and among those many teachings is that Jesus Christ was a person, but he was just a person.

[29:26] He wasn't the Son of God, he wasn't a deity, and he didn't have any deity in him. For a person who follows these teachings to have a relationship with the Lord, he needs to turn that conviction that God did indeed have a Son, and that his name is Jesus Christ.

[29:41] Nathaniel was a sinner without a Savior, but on this day, he turned to Jesus and believed him as the Messiah, God in the human flesh. That is exactly what Thomas said about Jesus in John chapter 20, verses 28 and 29.

[29:56] Anybody want to read that? for volunteers. There you go, Joe. Fire away. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed.

[30:11] Blessed are they that have seen, excuse me, blessed are they that have not seen, yet have believed. Notice that when Thomas called Jesus God, Jesus did not try to correct him, but rather Jesus blessed him.

[30:28] It's a wonderful thing to realize that God himself did come to earth and provide a way to bridge the chasm of sin between God and us. In our sinful human state, we could never earn our way into heaven, but because God came down to earth and became a man, we can have eternal life.

[30:45] Now, I've seen the preview for the skits for this week for Vacation Bible School, and that's a skit and it's coming. It's absolutely hilarious. And thank you, David.

[30:58] And he wrote the skits in case you guys didn't know that. So when you see them, you did a great job. But this is the direct application of it. There is that gulf of sin between God and us and something has to span that thing, that gulf between God and man.

[31:17] And there's only one way and that's Christ Jesus. He's the only one who could ever have filled that gap. So there's never been a time that you've received God's gift of eternal life believing that Jesus is the God-man who came to save you from your sins.

[31:30] Don't delay another day. So going back to the World Trade Center and the bombings back on September 11th, everything in hindsight is very different for everybody, right?

[31:43] You go back and you look at that day and you hear about the first plane that hit the first tower and then you know that another plane hit the second tower. But as you look back on it, they did an evaluation of those people who survived from that incident.

[31:58] And there was an interesting correlation. When the first plane hit, some people decided, hey, it's time to get out of here and others were like, you know, it's probably just a drill.

[32:09] It's probably just a fire they got under control. This tower is going to collapse. It's, you know, it's just, it'll be fine. I'm just going to keep doing my work, right? Well, when they went back and they looked at the numbers, the people who got out versus the numbers of people who died, the people who responded immediately and sought exit, they're the ones who lived.

[32:30] The ones who stayed and remained are the ones who were part of the casualty list from that day. The reason that's important is, or it's applicable here, salvation from sin is the same.

[32:43] those who put off being saved through Jesus Christ, many people wait until it's too late. I mean, I've heard stories of people on their deathbed, you know, that are, you know, witness to them at the end and they're like, no, and they still didn't choose at the end to choose Christ.

[33:05] That's a sad moment for all of us, but shouldn't wait then because we don't know how long our lives are. It is short. Nathaniel didn't wait. Once he saw the omniscience of Christ, he believed.

[33:17] He believed that Jesus was God and that he was Israel's Messiah. He said, thou art the king of Israel. Nathaniel would have known of the prophecies of the coming Messiah. As he considered Christ and considered what the prophets had to say, he knew that this was the Messiah, the king of Israel.

[33:33] Jeremiah 25, 5-6 says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch and a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

[33:46] In his days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord, our righteous. Zephaniah 3-15 says, The Lord hath taken away thy judgments.

[34:01] If cast out thine enemy, the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee, thou shalt not see evil anymore. By addressing Jesus as the king of Israel, Nathaniel was also acknowledging Jesus as his personal king.

[34:16] Nathaniel was a man who went from being biased to belief. The moment everything clicked in Nathaniel's mind, he believed on Christ and that is what all of us must do. 1 John 5-10-12 says, He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.

[34:32] He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God hath given us, given to us, eternal life and this life is in his Son.

[34:45] He that hath not the Son hath, sorry, He that hath the Son hath life and the that hath not the Son of God hath not life. A little larger print that probably would help there. God's word tells us that we can know that we have eternal life.

[34:58] Do not leave today without wondering about it or wondering about it but take care of it. B, to possess eternal life. 1 John 50-51 says, Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou?

[35:15] Thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

[35:25] Nathaniel's understanding of Christ's deity was before he had done any miracles. I mean, arguably, his first miracle was to tell Nathaniel what he was doing before he had met Nathaniel.

[35:38] I mean, so that was enough for Nathaniel to believe, but yet there was many more things to come. The passage is the first time in the New Testament uses that phrase, the Son of Man, to describe the Lord.

[35:50] The phrase refers to the sufferings of Jesus Christ and that the suffering was necessary for a substitutionary atonement. Only he, the perfect sinless Son of God, would be able to take our punishment as he made himself a man to take our place.

[36:04] He is the only way to God and to heaven. Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. So in conclusion, religion, obviously, we know this because we're here, the church does not give you access to heaven, neither does religion, although when we're out talking to people we often hear, I go to XYZ church and this is how I'm going to get to heaven.

[36:30] We also hear from people and we talk to them, so why do you think you're going to go to heaven? I'm a good guy. I do good things. I donate money to charities. I go work at the mission. I help out with whatever.

[36:43] And we get all sorts of reasoning and reasonings as to why people think that they're going to go to heaven. 1 Timothy 2, 5-6 says, For there is one God and one meteor between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom from all to be testified in due time.

[37:06] It meant you put your faith in Christ, you put your faith in the one who has conquered death and the grave. The Lord knows what you're thinking and he knows the philosophies that permeate your mind. He came to earth that you might hear of him and put your faith in him for the salvation of your soul.

[37:22] If you already know Christ is your saver, consider the omniscience of Christ. That he already knows that problem that you're thinking about. That thing that touches your heart.

[37:35] That worry, that trial, trouble, I mean, I guess, let me put it this way, personal testimony, right?

[37:45] So, people lose jobs, we don't know why we lose jobs. People get sick, we don't know why people get sick. We don't know what the solution is going to be. We don't know what the outcome is going to be.

[37:57] We don't know the why. And we talk about testimony and I don't know that I shared this with the church, but I shared it with some people, like, back in September, the end of September last year, I actually lost my job at SecureToss Technology and I didn't really understand the why.

[38:14] I was looking for a new job and I didn't understand which way God was going to take this or which way work was going to take this. I got to pay bills still, right? My mom, she had Alzheimer's, she passed away in December and I just didn't know what was going on.

[38:30] I had applied for jobs at several manufacturers that had interviews and things going on and I just, like, lost my job. It was a Friday, got on my conference call, my boss jumps on and then HR pops on and I go, oh, oh, ah, oh, ah.

[38:50] Maybe what I said in that meeting didn't go over it very well. No, no, whenever HR jumps on you, it's a bad call. And so, that was my last day at SecureToss Technology and then the next week I flew to Chicago for my final interview with Axis and I'm thinking, yes, Lord, this works out really well.

[39:08] I got a severance package for SecureToss Technology. I'm going to jump into my next job and I'm going to get to travel. That's not what I actually needed at the time. I didn't get that job. God said it was time for me to stay home because I didn't know my mom was going to fall and break her hip.

[39:23] I didn't know that she was going to go to a care center that doesn't take care of people. In fact, their same care center is being sued. I'm not going to use the name in case it gets online. It's already being sued because they've had several people die in their care due to negligence, right?

[39:36] So I suddenly had the availability. I was still getting paid by SecureToss Technology because I had a severance package and how many people get severance packages nowadays?

[39:47] I didn't plan this but God clearly did so that I could take time to take care of my mom before she passed away. And then, when I ran out of the severance package, the first day I flipped my thing over and said, yeah, I guess I'm looking for a job.

[40:01] Somebody I'd worked with before called me and said, you got a job! Start on Monday! Take care of your mom. Super nice about it. He paid me and helped me get through that and now I've moved on.

[40:13] But looking back, in the moment, I didn't understand the why. And I was kind of hurt by it. I thought I was doing a good job. I thought I was representing the company. Well, but God knows.

[40:25] And the omniscience of Christ doesn't end with what we think He knows. He does know and He does plan for us. We don't always see it in the moment.

[40:36] But as you go throughout your week, no matter what all goes on in your life, you have a God who understands it all. I kind of circled that and bolded it because it's real to me because I understand from what I've seen and like I said, at the time, it was hard because I didn't know.

[40:55] But looking back, that is. He knows your circumstances in your heart and He understands us more than even we can understand ourselves. He knows when we're carrying burdens.

[41:06] He knows when we are hiding sin. No friend or family member will ever know you as well as the omniscient Savior, Lord Jesus Christ. All right, let's pray. Let's pray.

[41:16]  Let's pray. Let's pray.