Found By Jesus, And Finding Jesus

7-30-05

FOUND BY JESUS, AND FINDING JESUS

"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." (John 1:43-45)

When a soul comes to Jesus, it is the most fantastic event in its history.

It is spiritually dead until that day; but on that day it begins to live, and a saved man can calculate his age from the time he first came to know the Lord.

That day is very important, because it affects all the man's past life by blotting out all of his past sin.

The day that a man comes to Christ is the very day his transgressions and iniquities are blotted out.

Isn’t it a great day when our sins are cast into the depths of the sea so that from now on it can be said of them, "They may be sought for, but they shall not be found; yea, they shall not be, saith the Lord"?

I think that the day a person is saved is the greatest day in his life, because it changes everything; past, present and future.

It’s a different life that a man begins to live on the day that he finds the Lord!

He begins to live in the light instead of being dead in the darkness; he begins to enjoy the privileges of liberty, instead of suffering the horrors of slavery; he is put on track to heaven, instead of continuing on the road to hell.

He is such a new creature that he can’t tell how changed he is.

One man that was just recently saved said to me, "Tom, the change in me makes me feel like either the whole world is different, or else I am."

That’s the way it is when you come to know Jesus; there is a real, total, radical change.

Many times it‘s a joyous change.

They feel like the man who had been lame, and who, when Peter spoke to him in the name of Jesus, and lifted him up, so that his feet and ankle bones received strength, was not satisfied with walking, for we read, "He leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God."

Could anyone wonder why he was walking, and leaping, and praising God?

If you had lost the use of your legs for a while, you would feel like leaping and praising God when you could use them again; and that’s the way it is when a person first finds the Savior.

What a happy day it is, when the hand of Jesus takes away the sickness of the soul, and makes the lame man to leap like a deer, and causes the tongue of the dumb to sing!

The day that a man comes to Christ is also a wonderful day, because of the effect it has upon all his future.

It’s like when a ship is turned around; the man now sails in a totally different direction.

His future will not be like his past.

He may have some faults, and there may be sickness and shortcomings; but there will never again be the old love of sin.

Doesn’t it say, "Sin shall not have dominion over you."

This is God's own promise to us, given through his servant Paul.

When Jesus saves a person, He breaks the neck of sin so that it lives a struggling, dying life, and yet it is doomed to die.

The cross of Christ has broken its back, and broken its neck, too, and it must die.

From now on, the man is destined for holiness, and bound for heaven.

Now, friends, have all of you come to Christ?

I know that most, if not all of you have, and I thank God for you.

But if there are any of you who have never come to the Savior, I wish that this might be the night when you will find him.

I am not a preacher, and it’s rare that I have the privilege to preach Christ to you, and like the poet said to--

"Tell to sinners round,

What a dear Savior I have found."

I do pray that anyone here without Christ, will be led by the Holy Spirit to seek and to find the Savior, and then it will be a happy day for you, as it has been for so many others.

I am going to talk to you about Philip's conversion, but first, I want you to notice, in our text, Philip’s own description of it: "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."