Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter six, the gospel of John chapter six. There are always one of two responses
to the gospel. One response is to be offended
by it and not want to hear it. The other response is to have
to have it, to love it as words of life and to not be able to
live without it. Now there may be some who, like
the philosophers on Mars Hill, would say in response to the
gospel, come another day and we'll listen to you again. In
other words, there may be some that appear to be indifferent,
but make no mistake about it, the Lord makes it clear that
indifference is enmity. The Lord himself said, if you're
not for me, you're against me. So those who are overtly offended
and respond in anger, and those who would be indifferent toward
it, stand in stark contrast to those who love it and those who
have to have it. And we see in John chapter six,
a sermon that our Lord preached. He preached it in the synagogue
in Capernaum. And the result of this message
was just that. There were some who said in John
6, verse 60, these are hard words. Who can hear it? These are harsh, unkind words that are intolerable. Who can stand to listen to this
any longer? Like the apostles after that
group left said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. Lord, we've got to
have these words. Now in John chapter six, if you'll
look with me at verse 60, many therefore of his disciples, and
that word disciple is not believers, certainly not the apostles. The
word disciple here just means follower. Those who were seeking
to learn something. Most of them are the crowd that
our Lord fed at the beginning of John chapter six when He miraculously
took five loaves of bread and two fish and fed 5,000 men, not
counting the women and children. And so these disciples were those,
and imagine with me now, we work in order to provide a lot of
stuff in our lives. The majority of these people
were working to eat. They were working to get their
next day's meal and to have some shelter over their head. So free
food, that was a big deal. That was a big deal for them.
And these are people that are following Christ. The Lord said,
you're not following me because you saw the miracle. You're not
following me because you understood what it was I was doing and revealing
myself as the bread of life. You're following me so that you
can have your bellies full. And so these people had one thing
in mind, a free meal. And when they heard the words
that the Lord Jesus spoke in verse 60, Many therefore of his
disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? This message
offends me. I'll not listen to it any longer.
Now, sometimes we might be offended
by the manner in which a person speaks so that we really can't
hear what they're saying. I've had people tell me that
I, offended them in the manner in which I spoke, and I'm sorry
for that. I pray the Lord will give me
grace to speak as the Lord spoke. But that accusation can never
be made about Him. He looked over Jerusalem and
He wept over Jerusalem. Ezekiel chapter 33 says that
He takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. He is the meek
and the mild and the gentle one. Every word that he spoke was
nothing less than the pure, loving word of God. So it had nothing
to do with the manner in which he spoke. It was the words he
was speaking that offended them. It was the message. It was the
content of the message. And if someone gets offended
by that, then so be it. I expect it. Matter of fact,
I would prefer that people get mad or get glad. but don't just
sit there and act like we're saying the same thing everybody
else is saying and don't be indifferent about it. The gospel when preached,
when the message is preached as it ought to be preached, you
can hear a man preach and he'll say a lot of true things, nothing
that you disagree with, but that message could be preached anywhere
and people would not be offended by it. It's not what he said,
it's what he didn't say. And so if the gospel in its entirety
is preached, men are gonna have this response. We expect it and it is the natural
man's response to the truth. They understood perfectly exactly
what he was saying. It wasn't when they said, these
are hard words, they weren't talking about hard to understand.
They were saying that these words are harsh, they're offensive. We know exactly what he's saying,
and we don't agree with him. The gospel's not complicated.
The gospel does not require a seminary degree. It's not for Bible scholars. The gospel is not some deep,
secret that is complicated or mysterious. It's simple. It's
simple. It doesn't require an IQ. It requires an I will. And man will not come to Him. He must make us willing in the
day of His power. that's what our Lord said in
this sermon that he preaches in Capernaum no man can come
to me except the Father which sent me draw him that's a hard
saying what do you mean I can't no you're not able you're not
able you're not willing and you won't be willing unless I make
you willing and when he makes you willing oh they're not hard
sayings anymore they're not harsh words they are In fact, the words
of life. The Lord asked these people who
said, this is a hard saying, we can't tolerate this. He asked
them, he said, does this offend you? Does this offend you? Look at, look at the, it's right
here in our text. Verse 61, and Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured at it. And he said unto them, doth
this offend you? The offense of the gospel. The
Lord speaks of the offense of the gospel in Galatians chapter
five, when Paul said, if I still preach circumcision, then why
am I being persecuted? For if I still preach circumcision,
then would the offense of the cross cease? Now, circumcision
is an act of man's work. We are the true circumcision,
which had been circumcised by the spirit in the heart. What
does that mean? That means that when the Lord
reveals himself to us, he cuts from our heart any hope that
we might have in our works married in us favor with God. He takes
from us our righteousness and it is man's righteousness that
keeps him from Christ and that's why these men said this is a
hard saying, we'll not listen to this anymore. He's robbing
from us our righteousness. And let this offend you, the
offense of the cross ceases As long as we preach circumcision,
as long as we give men something to do, even if it's just to make a decision,
that's something to do. As long as we give men something
to do, the unbeliever is not going to be offended. they're
going to be very happy that they've been able to make some contribution
to their salvation but salvation that is of the Lord salvation
that he gets all the glory for they'll not will not have that
will not have that the offense of the cross ceases
when circumcision is preached but when circumcision is of the
flesh is not preached and it's all a work of God's spirit, then
men are offended and the cross becomes, well, Christ becomes
a stumbling block. It's how he's the stone which
the builders rejected, which men stumbled over. It's not because
they didn't understand the gospel. It's because they didn't like
it. And nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. And here's
our hope. Here's our hope, brethren. Our
response to the gospel tells us a lot about where we are,
where God has us, what God has done for us. If it's a message
of life, if it's words of life, if it's a message that we've
got to have, we can't live without, Oh, what comfort we have in that. Because that is the evidence
that we've been taught of God. Does this offend you? Look what
our Lord says in verse 62. What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? You think the gospel
of God's free grace in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
which robs you of all of your righteousness is offensive? Wait until you stand before the
judgment seat of God and you hear the voice of God say unto
you, When you declare your works, depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. That's what our Lord's saying.
You think the gospel is offensive to you now? Wait until you see
the Son of Man sitting in his throne, saying to you in response
to, but Lord, we did many wonderful works in thy name. Wait until
you hear him say, Depart from me, you workers of iniquity,
I never knew you. That's when you'll know something
about being offended. The gospel is offensive to the flesh, but
oh, those words, those dreaded words of wrath and judgment will
be offensive for all eternity. What is our Lord saying? Believe. Believe the gospel. These are
words of life. These aren't hard words. These are loving. These are words
of grace and words of truth. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. If we don't have the Holy
Spirit, we'll never hear them. So, John chapter six, as we've
already said, begins with the feeding of the 5,000. And then
we have the story of the Lord crossing the Sea of Galilee and
meeting the disciples in the middle of the night in a storm.
They thought they were gonna die and he calms the storm and
immediately they're on the other side. And now they're in Capernaum and beginning In John chapter
six at verse 28, we have our Lord, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter. I was lost there for a second.
We have our Lord in Capernaum preaching this gospel that they
responded to by saying, this is a hard saying, what exactly
did our Lord say that offended them so much? What exactly did
our Lord say that gave hope to the apostles and to those who
believed because We need to hear these words. And so in John chapter six, our Lord says to
this crowd in verse 26, barely, barely, I say unto you, seek
me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. And then he says to them, labor
not for the meat, which perisheth. but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you, for him hath God the Father sealed. Seek Christ with all of your
heart. Seek him, the meat which perisheth. He wasn't talking about don't
go to work Labor for your family and provide for your family.
A man that doesn't work is worse than a man that doesn't provide
for his family is worse than an infidel. Work is an honorable
thing. It's a good thing. He was talking
about laboring for that spiritual meat that you thought you could
buy. That's what Isaiah was talking
about when he said, why do you spend money for that which is
not meat? Why do you labor for that which
satisfies not? Come unto me. This wine is free. Men won't have a free gospel.
They want something that they can take pride in. So our Lord's
saying, don't labor for that meat which is going to perish.
Labor for that meat which leadeth unto everlasting life. which
my father will give you. All they heard was the word labor.
So in verse 28, they said unto him, what shall we do that we
might work the works of God? Okay, he's talking about laboring
for work. Okay, what kind of work can we
do? And Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Now the Lord wasn't
saying you want to do the work of God then you have to make
a decision to believe and that will be your work for God. That's
not what he's saying. He's saying this is the work
of God that you believe. If you believe it's because God
did a work. He did a work of grace in your
heart. He gave you faith to believe. The evidence that God has saved
you is that you have believed. Faith is not the cause of our
salvation, it's the evidence of it. It's the evidence of it. We don't bring faith to God in
order to finish the work that He finished, that He performed.
He's not looking for a final work. No, the work is finished.
Faith is the evidence that He has done a work for us. They
didn't want to hear that. They said, therefore unto him,
what signs show with us that we may see and believe thou? What does thou work? We want
another free meal. We want another miracle. We want
a sign. We want some outward evidence. No amount of sign. No amount
of miracles will ever convince a person to believe. If a person who died with their
fist raised to heaven saying, I'll not have that man reign
over me. These are harsh words. They're intolerable words. I
don't believe them. I can't listen to them. If a
person died in that state and went to hell and came back today
and heard the gospel, they wouldn't believe it. That experience would
not be sufficient. A work of grace in the heart
is the only way that anyone is ever going to believe. No miracle
will convince a person. Show us a sign. The Lord said,
a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. No sign
will be shown to it except for the sign of Jonah. The sign of
Jonah, who spent three days and three nights in the belly of
the whale, so shall the Son of Man spend three days and three
nights in the heart of the earth. God is gonna raise him up from
the dead in order, Don, you wrote it, you read it. He was offered
up for our offenses and raised again. And in the King James,
it says, for our justification. And that word for is oftentimes,
and I think better in that verse, translated because of. He wasn't
raised again in order to justify us. He was raised again because
we are justified. And to be justified means that
we are without sin, perfectly holy before God, no sin whatsoever. What the Lord accomplished on
Calvary's cross was successful in putting away all the sins
of all of God's people once and for all. He was offered up for
our offenses and raised again because of our justification. No other sign is necessary other
than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's our
proof, there's our hope. What sign are you gonna, our
fathers did eat manna, so what are they asking for? These are
poor people asking for another free meal. Verse 31, our fathers did eat
manna in the desert, as it's written, he gave them food from
heaven to eat. And they knew that manna came every day. We
want you to feed us every day. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven. The true bread. Oh, that manna
was sweet and it was white and it was round and everything about
it points us to Christ. And it was there every day, but
it couldn't be spared to the next day. It had to be gathered
every day. And when the Lord taught us to
pray, what did he say? Lord, give us our daily bread. Lord, the manna of grace that
I got yesterday is not good today. I've got to have a fresh measure
of manna. I've got to have a word of life.
Lord, you're going to have to reveal yourself again and save
me again and show me again your mercy and your grace. I am the true bread that came
from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him,
Lord evermore give us this bread. They're still thinking about
physical bread. They haven't, the words are still
not understood. They're gonna be understood by
the time our Lord finishes. But they're still thinking about
that free meal they got. And they ate to their full. There
were 12 baskets of fragments left over. and nobody could eat
another bite, never been so full. Give us this bread. And Jesus
said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me
shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
But I said unto you that you also have seen me and believe
not. The Lord knew their hearts. He
knew they weren't believing on Him. They weren't looking to
Him. They were looking for a handout. Men, nothing's changed. People
get religious, and people pray, and people come to God for what
He can offer them. And you listen to preachers today,
and it's all about what God can do to make your life better. We're talking about a God who
gives Eternal life. Everlasting life. Here's where the offense begins. Look at verse 37. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. What is our Lord saying? He's saying what we know to be
true. All that the father foreknew, he did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son. And all that he predestinated,
he called. And all that he called, he justified.
All that he justified, he glorified. He's talking about election.
He's talking about predestination. He's talking about a God who
is sovereign, who chooses according to his own sovereign will and
purpose, whomsoever he wills. He will have mercy upon whom
he will have mercy. Men don't wanna hear, this is
hard saying. Not gonna listen to that. That's
harsh, that's intolerable. For I came Oh, all that the Father
gave of me shall come unto me. And he that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. And that doesn't just mean that
if you come to Christ, that the Lord won't turn you away. That
means that once we come to Christ, you'll never be turned away. That means that nothing you did
earned your salvation and nothing you can do will cause you to
lose it. Oh, you can't tell men that. That would give men a license
to sin. Not if they have the Holy Spirit,
it won't. Not if they know Christ, it won't.
Not if they love the words of eternal life, it won't. Verse 38. For I came down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. I'll let no wise cast them
out, I'm not gonna lose one of them, I'll save every one of
them. I'm a successful Savior. I'm going to accomplish their
salvation and no part of their eternal salvation is going to
be dependent upon anything that they do. And God's people say, these are
words of life. If the Lord doesn't elect me
and the Lord doesn't redeem me, and the Lord doesn't call me,
and the Lord doesn't give me irresistible grace and give me
faith, I won't be saved. These are words of life to me.
This is the only hope that I have. Don't tell me about a message
of salvation that depends upon me to do something. That robs
me of all my hope. The only hope that I have is
in a salvation where he did it all and he gets all the glory.
These are words of life. And the legalistic self-righteous
man says, these are harsh words. These are hard words. These are
intolerable words. I'll not listen to that. You see the same gospel message
robs from one man, his righteousness and gives to another man, his
righteousness. The same hot noonday sun will
turn a lump of clay into a stone, and sitting next to that lump
of clay will melt a block of wax. You see, the nature of the heart
is what determines the response to the gospel. The gospel is
the same, same song, same heat, same message. And to some it
is words of life and to others it is words of death. That's
what scripture says, savor of life unto some and to death unto
others. And this is the will of him that
sent me, verse 40, that everyone would see if the son and believeth
on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the
last day. The Jews there were murmured to him because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it that he say if I came down from heaven? This speech of coming down from
heaven, Coming down from his father. Well, it's the same thing that
offended the Jews later when they said, when he asked them,
for what works do you want to stone me? What good work have
I done that you want to stone me? They were taking up stones
to stone him. And what did they say? For the
good works, no, but because you being a man, make yourself out
to be God. And the only charge that they
had against Christ before he was crucified, when they asked
him, are you the Christ? And the Lord agreed that he was.
And the priest said, blasphemy, we've heard enough, crucify him. This man is claiming equality. with God and these people who
were offended by his deity were saying, well, he's just a man
like us, we know him. It's the same thing that happened
in Nazareth in Luke chapter four when he came and interpreted
Isaiah chapter 61. The spirit of God is upon me
and he anointed me to preach the gospel and then he defined
what he was in terms of having mercy upon whom he would have
mercy. You remember that story. And those that were amazed at
the words of grace that proceeded out of his mouth were now gnashing
at their teeth and wanting to kill him. Why? Because he robbed from them their
righteousness. He declared himself to be God. He declared salvation to be in
his hand. He declared himself to be the
one who gets all the glory for all men's salvation. These are
hard words. Who can hear it? Nothing's changed. And for the believer, these are
words of life. This is my only hope. If God
doesn't do all the saving, I'm not going to be saved. Verse 43, therefore, Jesus answered
and said unto them, murmur not amongst yourself. No man, now
it's getting, the Lord's defining all these words that they were
confused about. The bread of life, what do you,
no man can come to me. You don't have the ability to
come to me. It's not up to you. It's not
a decision that you make. No man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him. James uses this same
word in the book of James when he's rebuking the church because
they're giving the rich people a special place of honor and
putting the poor people in the back. And he's saying, don't
you know that it's the rich that drag you before the courts? Same
word. someone says well be drug you know what if God
has to drag me drag me Lord drag me don't let me have my way don't
leave me to myself now he makes his people willing there's a
whole lot of dragging that goes on in there and I Lord you gonna
have to You have to make me. You have to make me. And I will raise him up at the
last day. It is written in the prophets and they shall be all
taught of God. They're gonna be taught of God. And every man therefore that
hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me. The spirit of God gives us ears
to hear What God has said, we're gonna come to Christ. We're gonna
come as a mercy beggar. We're gonna come as a sinner
in need of salvation. We're gonna come as one who's
unable. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Mark, we read that
in a study this morning. Christ died for the ungodly,
without strength. Verily, verily, verse 47, I say
unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Past tense, faith is the evidence
of having everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread
which came down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not
die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except There's no other way that you
eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood. You have
no life in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up
at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and
my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him as the father As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me shall, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which
came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna.
I'm not here to give you a free meal every day. I'm here to give
you myself, my life. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, but he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum." That we just read the whole sermon
that our Lord preached in the synagogue in Capernaum. These are the words that they
thought were so offensive. Eating his body. and drinking
his blood, except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood.
You have no life in you. The body of Christ is the life
of Christ. It is the God man. It is God
made flesh who dwelt among us. Great is the mystery of godliness for God. God was made a man. God was born of a woman, born
under the law to redeem them who are cursed by the law. God
Almighty became a man. God required a man to fulfill
the law, to satisfy righteousness, You and I have never been able
to keep any part of God's law. Not to God's satisfaction. Oh,
we may be able to impress one another with our goodness, but
before God, before God, Lord, we say with David, my sins ever
before me. In me that is in my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. The only righteousness I have
is in Christ. He is my righteousness. At my
very best state, I'm altogether vanity. All my righteousness
are as filthy rags. We say with our brother Job,
behold, when we see him, I am vile. We say with Daniel, my
comeliness, when I saw him, my comeliness, my beauty, my strength,
my goodness was turned in me into corruption. That's the important
part. It was turned in me. into corruption. Somebody else might have good
thoughts about me, but when I look at me, I see that everything
about me falls short of His glory, and everything about me is sinful. Job said, Behold, I am vile. Christ came to save sinners.
That's the gospel. That's what they didn't want
to hear. Eat of his flesh? Well, I've
got some... You remember the healing of the
leper in Leviticus chapter 13? If a man came before the priest
and from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet, he
was covered with leprosy, then the priest said to him, clean.
But if he had any clean flesh on him at all, Now, how do men
come to God today? Well, you know, I've got this
problem. I've got a sin here on my left
forearm. I've got a sin down here on my
right thigh. I've got this sin and that sin.
Lord, help me with this and help me with that. And men come to
God all the time thinking that sin is just a behavioral problem. They don't come to God believing
that sin is what they are. This is what makes the offense
of the gospel. That everything about me is sinful
before a holy God. That I have nothing that I can
offer to God. This is what it is to eat of
his flesh. I've got to have the body of
Christ. I've got to have him to stand in my stead for all
of my righteousness before God. and His blood, that's the covering
for my sin. God not only requires a perfect
righteousness, but He requires payment for my sin. He requires
justice. And I can't atone for one of
my sins. I can't make up for any of it. If the Lord put before
me what would be in my eyes the
least offensive thing I've ever done, and asked me to do something
to atone for that, I wouldn't be able to do it. I wouldn't be able to do it.
I've got to have the blood of Christ. If his blood doesn't cover all
my sin, I won't be justified before God. These words that he's speaking
are hard words They're harsh words. This is intolerable speech. We'll not have that. This kind
of message robs me of all my goodness. People think good of
me, and I think good of myself. I think I'm getting along OK. I'm getting a little better.
We go about comparing ourselves to ourselves, thinking we're
getting better. We compare ourselves to other people, thinking, well,
at least I'm maybe a little above average. Put all that aside. Ask God to put you in His presence. Then you will find out that everything
about you is sinful. And the only way for you to be
saved is for the Lord Jesus Christ to stand in your stead, be your
righteousness, and put His blood over your sins. And for the disciples, these
same people, let's go to the end of the sermon. Well, we're
there, that's the whole message. Look, many therefore were his
disciples. Verse 60 said, this is a hard
saying. These are hard words. We're not
gonna stand it. We're not listening to this anymore. Well, you think you're offended
now? Wait till you have to stand before me in the day of judgment. That's when you're gonna find
out what really being offended is. That's what the Lord says
to them at verse 61. Verse 62, it is the spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
It's the spirit that giveth life. You're not gonna have these words
of words of life That's why I titled this message, Spiritual Words
of Life. These are spiritual words. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. The spirit of God, when
he gives us life. makes us love the same exact
words that the natural man hates. And the words that they hate
because it takes away from them the hope of their salvation are
the words that give us the hope of life. There are some of you that believe
not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
and who should betray him. And he said, therefore, I say
unto you that he's going to repeat what he's already said. None
of you can come to me. You're not able except it were
given unto him of my father. And from that time, these people, they're going to forfeit. a free
meal or the potential for free meals the rest of their life,
to not have to tolerate that kind of speech. I'm not going
to listen to it. This is the response of the natural
man. I won't have it. I'm not going
to hear it. It offends me. And the Lord looks at his disciples
and he says to them, aren't you going to go with him? Will you
go also? Peter said, Lord, we don't have
anybody to go to. You've shut us up to yourself.
To whom shall we go? You're the only one that has
the words of eternal life. And we know and we're sure that
you're the Christ. You're the anointed one. You're
the one that came down from heaven. You're the one that came and
was sent of his father to accomplish the salvation of his people.
Lord, if we're going to be saved, you're the only one that can
do it. We're not going anywhere. We've
got to have this. We've got to have you. And the Lord said in response
to Peter, it's because I chose you. Look, here it is. We believe
that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus
answered them, have not I chosen you 12? And yet one of you is
a devil, speaking of Judas. You wouldn't believe that. You
wouldn't have made that confession had I not chosen you. What's
the Lord saying? That confessing Christ, believing
on Him as a sinner who has no righteousness of their own and
is in need of having all their sins put away, making that confession
is the evidence that you've been chosen. Now, what's the flip side to
that? Don't worry about whether you've been chosen. Well, people
think, well, you know, election, how do I know if God chose me? I don't know if I'm one of God's
elect. The Lord never presents the gospel with that as an alternative. Figure out whether you're not
God's elect, figure out whether you're one of God's chosen. No,
he never does. The evidence that I'm one of
God's chosen is that I believe. That's that I believe. That I'm
a sinner saved by grace. At Ethiopian eunuch. What doth
here unto me to be baptized? If thou believest with all thine
heart, thou mayest. I believe, I believe. What did Ethiopian eunuch say?
I believe that that Jesus you've been preaching to me, that he's
the Messiah and I need a Messiah. I'm nothing but sin. I'm a hell
deserving sinner and I need him. And I believe that one you just
preached to me is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He didn't say, I believe I'm
saved. He didn't say, I believe I'm one of God's elect. He said,
I believe on Him. What I believe about myself is
that I'm a sinner incapable of saving myself. That's what I
believe about myself. And I believe it. He's the only
one who can save me. It's a hard saying. If you're trusting in your own
righteousness or in your own will, yeah, it's a hard saying. But if you've got no place else
to go, these are your words of life. This is the only hope you've
got. and you've got to have Christ. The gospel is always received
one way or the other. Our heavenly father, we pray that you would speak
by your spirit, these words of life to our hearts and give us
the grace to repent of our righteousness and to trust Christ alone for
all of our salvation. For it's in his name we pray, amen. Adam, 125 in the heart,
back 10, now let's stand together.