I want us to turn back to John
chapter 6 and examine these The situation that the Lord found
himself in, these people said in response to the Lord Jesus
Christ making these remarkable promises. Whoso eateth, verse
54, eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath. It's in their
possession. They have eternal life. And I will raise them up at the
last day. As the Living Father has sent
me, I live by the Father, and so that he that eateth me shall
live by me. This is the bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead, but he that eateth this bread shall live forever. And these disciples who had heard
these words, verse 60, and many therefore of his disciples."
The word disciples means learner, it means they followed the Lord
Jesus Christ and very evidently as you'll see in other parts
of John's Gospel these weren't true disciples at all, they weren't
the chosen ones they could leave. They said, who can hear it? This is a difficult,
this is a strange saying, this is an unbearable message. Who can be expected to listen
to teaching such as you? And the Lord knew their thoughts. And he says in verse 61, he knew
in himself that they murmured at it. They gathered in little
groups and started murmuring against it. They murmured against
him. They murmured against his word. And he said unto them, does this
offend you? That word offend is the word
we get, our word scandal. This is a scandalous message. Is this scandalizing you? The
Lord sees in their hearts And he sees that they are thinking
that what he's just said is offensive, it's strange, it's too hard to
hear, it's too hard to believe. These are hard sayings. They're saying these are austere
sayings, these are dry sayings, this is rough teaching. In verse 66, and many, many went
back and walked no more with him. You know the story of these
people, don't you? These are the people that followed
the Lord Jesus Christ and saw the remarkable miracles that
he performed when he took those lives. Just a couple of little
fish and a few little bread rolls. and he fed 5,000 people and there
were 12 basketfuls left over, they saw the most remarkable
miracle. They saw God in human flesh doing
what God alone can do. He created matter that didn't
exist beforehand. In the face of 5,000 people,
we don't know how many women and children and younger people
were there, but 5,000, so there could have, it may have been
10,000, they were all fed miraculously and their response was they wanted
to make him king. They wanted to make him king. They said also in verse 14 of
this chapter that this man, this is of a truth, that prophet that
should come into the world. And there was a prophet that
was promised in Deuteronomy 18, a prophet like unto Moses, a
prophet that was promised to speak to people and a prophet
that the people were promised to hear speak. And so this goes
to show us so many things, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ won't
be made king because He already is king. You don't make the Lord
Jesus Christ king. He is Lord and King. And you
can be right about Him and miss Him altogether. They were right
about the fact that He was a prophet. He was the prophet that was to
come into the world. He was the prophet. They wanted
to make Him a king and they acknowledged that He was a prophet. And of
course the story goes on. There is a miracle on top of
a miracle on top of a miracle in this story. The next story
in the passage of scripture in verse 16, he walked on the sea. He sent his disciples across
the sea and he came and met with them on the sea. And then they
follow him and they go asking, how on earth did you get over
here? Verse 29, he says, and earlier
he says to them, labor not, I love what he says, labor not, verse
27, labor not for the meat which perishes, but for the meat which
endureth under everlasting life, which the son of man shall give
unto you, for he is the one God has sealed. See, they were impressed
by his word. What offends? What offends? What
offends is his teaching. It's not the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. People are very happy to have
him as a miracle worker. They're happy to have him in
all sorts of other ways. But it's his teaching that offends. And I love what he says. They
ask, what must they do? What shall we do to do the works
of God? That's a good question, isn't
it? And the answer is even better,
isn't it? They are asking about works, and he says one thing,
doesn't he? This is THE work, singular, of
God. The work of God is you believe. You believe on Him who He has
sent. He says, I've come down from
heaven. I've come down from heaven. Again and again and again in
this passage of Scripture he says, I've come down from heaven.
Verse 33, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and gives life unto the world. He comes down from heaven. I came down from heaven, verse
38, not to do mine own will but the will of him who sent me.
And their response is that this man has lost his mind. I came down from heaven, says
the Lord Jesus Christ, which means that you who believe, believe
that He was before He was sent. He was God Almighty before He
came down. He was God the Son before He
came down. You believe that God the Father
sent Him. And if you believe Him, you believe that all He
came to do, He achieved perfectly and completely. This is the work
of God that you believe on Him that has come down from heaven. The work of God is to trust the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. Men are very happy to be put
to be doing anything whatsoever. It doesn't matter what it is
in religion, the hardest thing of all is to just simply rely
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. They wanted a sign in verse 13.
They said, What sign showest thou then that we may see and
believe thee? How many signs do you need? If
you're seeking for signs, you'll never have enough signs, won't
you? Feeding 5,000 should have been enough. Walking on the water
should have been enough. Matthew's account says that when he got
to the other side that morning, when that boat arrived, he didn't
just sit down and have breakfast. He healed all those that came
to him, Matthew chapter 14. He was always about his father's
work. He was always about his father's
work. Just shows you the deadness, the deadness of man. What sign
will you give us? They were looking back to bread
and they wanted another meal. They thought that this is a pretty
good king. If he can provide all my food,
I don't have to work anymore, do I? just the sort of king that
men would want to have over them. And he goes on to say in verse
32, these are the offensive words, these are the scandalous words,
isn't he? He says, Verily I say unto you, Moses gave you not
that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread
from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
came down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. And they
say, well, I want some of this bread. And he says, I am the
bread of life. I am the bread of life. He's saying, I am God, and as
God, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. To believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ is to find complete satisfaction in Him, in who He is and what
He's done. We are, as the scriptures say,
we are complete in Him and we lack absolutely nothing. This is the bread from God. So
to come is to believe, to come is to rest, to come is to come
as someone who is hungry and in need. Peter cried out that
great prayer, didn't he? Lord, the previous night he called
out the best prayer in the Bible, isn't it? Lord, save me. Lord, save me. That's a prayer that the children
of God pray and can pray continually. You have to save me, you have
to do all of the saving. Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. So that's how we come, that's
how we eat, that's how we drink. Verse 36, he says, you also have
seen me and believe not. You've seen me. You've seen me
perform miracles. You've seen me doing what only
God can do. Let's remember again and again
and again, brothers and sisters, that faith does not come from
seeing miracles. Faith, true saving faith, is
the revelation of God. Believing is not a choice. It is the result of God giving
life and God giving life in revealing His Son. Believing not is a choice. These people had a choice. God's
people don't have a choice. He says, you don't believe, but
I know who shall believe. Listen to what he goes on to
say. He says in verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me, him that is hungry, him
that is thirsty, him that believe, I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will that which he sent me, that all
of which he has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the sun really sees him. These people saw him and didn't
see him, did they? They didn't see him for who he
was. Everyone that seeth the sun and believeth on him may
have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day. These are words of eternal life.
Just remember what these men saw and what these men witnessed
was for them hard sayings. And listen to how the Lord describes
these very words that we've just been reading. He says in verse
63, it's the spirit that gives life, the spirit quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. These are the words of
life from God Almighty. And men who saw the most amazing
miracles didn't believe them. He says effectively to them,
you don't believe. You've seen all these things
and you don't believe, but I know who will. There are people who
must believe. He's speaking of the elect children
of God in John 17. He says, you've given me power
over all flesh. I do love John 17. I love his
petitions. It's so good to go and read John
17 and read his requests of his father and then put a great big
tick next to them in your Bible and say, done, because that's
exactly what he said on the cross, isn't it? Thou hast given him
power over all flesh that he should give eternal life. to
as many as thou hast given him. In verse nine he says, I'm praying
not for the world, I pray for them, I pray not for the world,
but for them which thou hast given me, because they are thine. The Lord Jesus Christ has no
embarrassment about describing himself as the elect one of God,
and describing himself and all his as the elect of God. I do love his description in
Isaiah 42. People who object to the doctrine
of election are finding the Lord Jesus Christ's words to be hard
words, that he had a people that the Father gave him before the
foundation of the world, and all of them will come and believe.
They'll all come hungry and thirsty and they'll all be fed by them. He is the elect one of God. He says in Isaiah 42, Behold,
you look upon him, you behold the servant of God, behold my
servant, you behold the one that I uphold, you behold mine elect. God the Father describes his
son as the elect one and all of the elect children of God
are elected in the elect one. That's what election is, isn't
it? Election is nothing other than God being God. And that
was the objection of these people. That's what they found hard.
For the children of God, these are words of life. It's God choosing
salvation before the foundation of the world. You can read that
Paul in Ephesians chapter 1 declares this as something that is to
be paraded before the people of God. It wasn't a doctrine
that was hidden in the early church. It was something that
they spoke to each other of. They spoke to each other as the
elect children of God. Blessed be the God. It's a word
of praise, these verses, aren't they? Blessed be the Lord God,
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him. The choosing was the
choosing of Christ and the choosing of the bride of Christ, the choosing
of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the choosing of that
church. He's chosen us in him before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. It's a doctrine of love. It's
a doctrine of the glory of God having predestinated us under
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his It pleased the Father to give
these people to His Son. Election is nothing other than
God being God. Election is a great comforting
doctrine, isn't it? It's a doctrine of love that
says that salvation is in His hands. It says that salvation
is all of grace and not of works. election tells me that if the
Lord Jesus Christ, if God the Father gave me to the Lord Jesus
Christ and I was put in the Lord Jesus Christ from before the
foundation of the world, none of my good works recommend me
to God. It's all of grace. And none of
my bad works can disqualify me, because he knew about them all
before the foundation of the world. And the land was slain
from the foundation of the world, and they are put away by God. He has mercy. He has mercy on
whom he'll have mercy, and whom he hardeneth, he hardens. God
is God. The Lord Jesus Christ confronts
these people with the fact that he is God. Election is great
news, isn't it? It's glad tidings for sinners.
It's glad tidings for people who can't do anything to help
themselves. It's glad tidings for those who are captive. It's
glad tidings for those who are in prison. It's glad tidings
for those who are in the dungeon that is so deep and so dark and
the bars are so strong that we need a sovereign hand, not just
to tell us how to get out, but a sovereign hand that comes and
takes us out completely and sets us free. It sets us free. Now
great God, I came down from heaven and I'll lose nothing. I'll lose
nothing. I'll lose nothing of all that
the Father gave me. I'll lose nothing. This is the
will of God the Father. Oh, there's nothing. I'll save
all that he has given me. That's his intention. He came
to save those given him, and that's exactly what happened
on the cross at Calvary. He saved his people. He didn't
make salvation possible. He didn't create an opportunity
for you to save yourself by your work. He saved you. He was a
successful substitutionary sacrifice. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. And the name of the Lord is the
character of God, and the character of God is revealed by what he
did on the cross. That great declaration, it is
finished, it is paid in full. All of them, all of them are
saved. If the Lord Jesus died for people
who are in heaven, and he died for those in hell, then there
is no gospel. There is no gospel. We don't
have a God who reigns supreme. We don't have a God who is successful. We have a reigning, ruling God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
confronts people, wherever you are in the scriptures, he confronts
them as God. When he meets Isaiah, he says,
I am God. You'll see me high and lifted
up and holy. When Ezekiel meets him, you'll
see him high and lifted up. Whenever the people of God meet
the Lord Jesus Christ, they're going to meet him as a sovereign
ruler of this world and a sovereign ruler of all creation. So that's why, seeing the sun,
it says, verse 40, this is the will of him that sent me. These
are the hard sayings. These are the words of life for
the children of God. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the sun, Lord, show Lord, cause me to believe. Believe
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. We come as mercy beggars to a
God who is absolutely sovereign, a God who is a creator, a God
who is able. We come to him as a mercy beggar. He came down from heaven. He came down from heaven. Verse 41, I am the bread which
came down from heaven. I came down from heaven." And
listen to what he says about us. He said, "'No man can come
to me,' verse 44, "'except the Father which has sent me, draw
him.'" Draw him. Now one of the Shulamites in
the Song of Solomon said, draw me, Lord, draw me to yourself
and I'll run after you. That word draw is just a really
simple, strong word, isn't it? It's what Peter did when he drew
his sword out to cut off Malchus's ear in the garden. Did the sword
have any option about coming? James speaks of being drawn into
court. When you're drawn into court,
you don't have any choice about whether you're drawn in there.
You're drawn. We are, by the grace of God,
drawn into the very presence of God and have him revealed
himself to us. No wonder we cry out, Lord, draw
me. God must do something sovereignly
for us. Men are dead, which is what the
Lord Jesus Christ said to these people. You're dead and you cannot
come. You're dead and you will not
come. And the reality of it is you're not willing to come and
you're coming, not you cannot come, are signs of your crime,
not an excuse for your innocence. Why can't you come? Why will
you not come? Why did these 5,000 plus people
go away? You see, we are born into this
world dead, spiritually dead in trespasses and things. We
have no notion of the glory of God and we have no notion of
the depth of our depravity. We have no notion of the Saviour
that's speaking to these very people, the One who's performed
these remarkable miracles, and they see nothing. They don't
see Him. It is our not coming. You will
not come. It's a sign of the evil nature
that we inherited and performed in our father Adam in the garden. So it's not an excuse. brothers and sisters, except
the Father draw him and he will. Verse 45 should be the preacher's
favorite verse in all the Bible. It's written in the prophets.
God wrote it down and sealed it with the blood of his Son.
It's written in the prophets that they shall all be taught of God.
God will be the teacher. He shall teach and it'll all
be of grace that he teaches and all that are taught gospel and they will learn of
the Father. They will learn of the Father.
Every single last one of them will learn of the Father and
the end result they'll come to the Lord Jesus Christ and they'll
come for salvation. This is the work of God. These
are the words of God which are spirit and life to his people. These are the words of God which
are offensive, offensive to the natural man. They have everlasting
life. They eat his flesh and they drink
his blood. We live on the very righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he performed in his flesh. The
very righteousness that allowed him to be the perfect, sinless
sacrifice for sin. And his blood is real drink,
isn't it? It is my necessary food before God that I drink
his blood. It's the only sacrifice I have
for my sins. It's the only covering I have
for my sins. It's the only payment. My life,
my sin payment, is all in his doing, isn't it? And he says,
As we read earlier, He dwells in these people. He dwells in
them. He dwells in them. Listen to verse 56. He that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. It speaks of union, eternal covenant
union between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people, a union
that's sealed and signed in His blood. You live by Him, you live
on Him. And they didn't like what they
heard. And multitudes don't like what they
heard. I was with one of my students
from India who's had a troubled time for the last 12 years, and
I spent two days in San Diego preaching the gospel, because
gospel is the only power of God under salvation. And it was really sad because
she's offended by it. She's offended by God being God. She stayed especially in San
Diego for an extra several days to spend time with me, and the
end result of our conversation on Wednesday morning was just
extraordinarily painful. And I was just saying, this is
what God says. This is who he is. And she's
offended. Why is she offended? Firstly,
she's offended because her righteousness is tied up in her religious activities.
Her righteousness is tied up in the things that she has done,
the things that she has witnessed. And the other big problem is
she hasn't seen herself as a sinner. If you can do absolutely nothing,
and he is the giver, he is the drawer, he is the provider, and
sinners love that. Sinners love that. And our Lord's
response, does this offend you? Is this scandalous, being shut
up to faith in Christ, to God being God, for God dying for
his people? Is this offensive? What he goes
on to say is remarkable, isn't it? He says in verse 62, listen
to the Lord's response to these people that found it hard and
harsh and scandalous. He says, what and if you shall
see the Son of Man ascend up to where he was before? If you're
troubled about these words that I'm speaking now, you have a
much bigger day coming very, very, very soon. He says, verse 63, it is the
spirit that quickeneth. The spirit gives life. These
are words of spirit and life to God's people. The flesh profiteth
nothing. And that's why people are offended.
People are offended when their flesh is put in its right and
proper place. The Lord says, I know you are
but dust. The Lord must do all the saving. He must come, He must draw, He
must reveal. And He does to His people. The Holy Spirit will invincibly
draw everyone that's taught of God to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And for all of those that have drawn, what I'm reading here
are what the Lord Jesus Christ describes as words of spirit
and in life. And what happens to those who
believe not? Verse 66, they went back and
walked no more with him. The first thing we need to know
is that in verse 64, nothing surprises the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is not surprised by unbelief. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. The
reality is that real disciples hunger and thirst, and hunger
and thirst, and come and believe, and keep coming and keep relying
upon, and keep coming to Him. And listen to what he goes on
to say. Verse 67 is remarkable, isn't
it? 5,000 people have left. And he doesn't go after them,
and he doesn't go pleading for them. And he turns to his disciples
and says to the twelve, will you go away also? The door is
wide open. Here you go as well. Here's your
opportunity, he's saying. This whole crowd has found me
offensive, found my words offensive. They love my miracles and they
love the food that they eat, but they find what I say about
myself, what I say about my father, and what I say about them and
salvation, they find it hard and harsh and scandalous. And I love what he says. We don't
have any option, brothers and sisters. We don't have any option. Salvation is the choice of God. And when he comes and reveals
himself to his people, it's not a decision that we make, it's
the decisions he made and he's revealed himself as glorious. You have nowhere else to go.
I love what Peter said. We believe and are sure. And this is a great description
of saving faith, isn't it? We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ. The Lord's answers to hard words. He says, I have chosen you. I
am God Almighty. That's why you believe, because
I've revealed myself to them. Sinners love the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners can feed upon the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sinners find the words that men
in religion find offensive to be the very food and drink of
their eternal souls. Hard sayings, are they hard sayings? Our words of eternal life to
all of his people is the spiritual bread that comes down from heaven. And the question is, of course,
isn't it, is not, does the Bible teach this? all the way through
all of the scriptures again and again and again. The question
is not, is it hard to believe? The children of God have believed
this from Abel and Adam through to the very last that has been
born. It is just the words of God. These
are the words of God. The question, is, can the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ be preached and these words not be preached?
Because this is the Lord Jesus Christ preaching the gospel.
And 11 men believed and he lost nothing of his glory, nothing
of his deity, nothing of his sovereign will in the hearts
of his people. He took all of those people in
himself and bore their sins on Calvary's tree. And their sins
are gone, brothers and sisters. The sin of unbelief. The sin
of an unrepentant heart. All of the sins of all of God's
people. they must be saved you shall
call his name jesus because he shall save his people from their
sins did he do it he did his great cry from the cross is it
is finished What a blessing it is for us to have the Lord Jesus
Christ preach the Gospel to us. And he preaches it clearly and
he preaches it powerfully and he preaches it effectually in
the hearts of his people. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you might do as you promised to be the teacher
of your people. that you would cause your people
to look to the Lord Jesus Christ, you would cause them to come,
you would cause them to hear the shepherd's voice, the voice
of the Good Shepherd, you would cause them to turn away from
the voice of strangers, Heavenly Father, that they might hear
you calling your people individually and powerfully and effectively
to you as you have revealed yourself in your word, our great God and
Saviour. We pray, Heavenly Father, that
you would bless us with the simplicity of faith that just believes what
you say. regardless of the circumstances
of our life and regardless of the opportunity to it, that you
might get glory, Heavenly Father, for your dear and precious Son
as you work faith in the hearts of your people. Quicken us, make
us alive by your Spirit, draw us to yourself, reveal your Son
in his glory to us, and we'll find his glorious gospel good
news of glad tidings to our souls. We pray these things in Christ's
name and for his glory. Amen.