Alright, good morning. Good to
have Cheryl and Lenore back. Glad to have our snowbirds back
for the spring and summer. Let's turn to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. Let's begin reading in verse
66. From that time, Many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Let's ask God to bless the service. Our Father, we ask you now that
you would bless us with the presence of our Lord, with the presence
of your Spirit. Lord, speak the words of eternal
life. We ask You, Lord, by Your faithfulness,
according to Your holiness, according to Your power, Lord, truly speak to us. Make
us truly hear You. For Christ's sake, for the sake
of His precious blood, His person, for your honor, for your glory,
for the good of those you've everlastingly loved that are
sitting here now. Lord, we ask this in the name
of our great Redeemer, for his sake. Amen. Now, it says here, from that
time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. Our Lord had clearly declared the gospel. He's the only man
that stood on this earth that could rightfully and truthfully
preach Christ. He preached Himself. He declared
to them He's the bread of life. He declared to them that except
they eat His flesh and drink His blood, except they believe
on Him, they have no life. He declared to them that no man
can come to Him except the Father which has sent Him draw him.
He declared that he will not lose one of his people, he will
lose nothing. He will raise it up at the last
day. And he declared to them when they began to murmur, and
they were offended at his doctrine, he told them he knew they didn't
believe. He knew who were his, and he
said, this is why I said to you, no man can accept my father's
drawing. He must be taught of my father,
and this greatly offended them. and they went back and they walked
no more with him. And then our Lord asked his true
disciples and Judas, he said, will you go away also? And Peter spoke up and he said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal
life. We're sure you are that Christ, the son of the living
God. We believe you and we're sure
you're that Christ, the son of the living God. Why is it that
God's people, Christ's true disciples, cannot depart from Christ? The Lord promised that in the
covenant. He said, I'll put my word in
you and you shall not depart from me. But it's a willingness,
our Lord wasn't, making them stay, he wasn't forcing them
to do anything. He turned to them and openly
said, will you go away also? And they willingly had no desire
to depart from him. How is that? Why is that? Well,
first of all, those born and taught of God have no option.
And we want no option. We have no choice. We want no
choice. You know, the word heresies means
choice. If a man still has choices to
make, he hasn't heard God yet. When you've heard God, you don't
have a choice. You don't want a choice. You
don't have an option. Christ is all. They said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? It's important here that Peter
addresses our Savior as Lord. For the child born of God, that's
a title of respect and reverence. That's owning Him to be our God,
to be our King, our sovereign Savior, our Master, our all. And only those born of the Spirit
can own Him as Lord and truly, truly submit to Him as Lord from
a true heart, from an inward man. He said over in 1 Corinthians
12.3, I give you to understand no man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed. Can't call his person accursed. Can't call his blood common.
Can't say it was shed for everybody on this world. You can't do that. You can't call him accursed,
speaking by the Spirit of God. And no man, he says, and no man
can say Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. There's a
lot of men named Jesus. To the believer, he's the Lord
Jesus. And that's in our heart. Those
that went back, they wanted to take him and make him a king.
They wanted to make him their Lord. And they would have done
that if he would have submitted to their will to make him king. And our Lord declared to them that they had to submit to him.
They had to bow to him. They had to believe on Him. They
had to trust Him to do everything necessary to save them. Because
the sovereign God of heaven and earth, it's His will. He sent
His Son to work His will, and His will is that He's going to
get all the glory for salvation. We're going to have to bow to
Him. And so they went back. And here's the thing. They didn't
just go back. They walked no more with Him. These were disciples who had
been with him. Some of them may have been baptized
by John the Baptist, some may have been baptized by his apostles
and following him, but they followed him for a while. And they went
back and they walked no more with him. But those born of the
spirit, they're made willing by his power. to bow to Jesus
of Nazareth, this one who is a man, this one who walked this
earth, this one who hung on the cursed cross. We're made to bow
to Jesus of Nazareth as Lord, confessing him to be the Lord,
to be the Lord and the Christ, our sovereign redeemer. And notice
it's Christ himself who is our salvation. They said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? We rejoice in what Christ did.
We rejoice in all his benefits, all the blessings we have in
him. We're thankful for him and what he's done for us. But brethren,
the Lord Jesus himself is salvation to his true disciples. It's him. And back up there in verse 35,
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. He is complete satisfaction to
God and complete satisfaction in the hearts of his people.
We're not looking for something else. We found him. He's brought
us to him. And He is that bread of life.
He said in verse 47, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. He is. Christ is life. He's bred for our soul better
in a more eternal and all-encompassing way than earthly bread is to
our bodies. Earthly bread is not alive, and
earthly bread is only sustained in these earthly bodies, and
we shall perish. That man in the wilderness, if
it stayed overnight, it bred worms and it stank. Christ is
the living bread. He's the living bread, He's life. And when He enters in, He gives
life and brings you to cast your care on Him. He is the everlasting
life of His people, the eternal life. His blood's effectual to
put away sin. He put away sin. His blood accomplished
the redemption of His people. But why is it effectual? Why
is it eternal? It's because of Him and who He
is, His person, the Lord, our righteousness. Paul said in Colossians,
please the Lord that in him should all fullness dwell. He's all
fullness. He made peace through the blood
of his cross by him, by him to reconcile all things to himself. By him, I say, whether they're
his people in heaven or earth, he's reconciled them all to him,
it's by him. unto you therefore which believe,
he is precious. He is precious. He's our all
in all. Whenever Haggai spoke of Christ's
coming, what did he call him? What did he call Christ himself?
He said, I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations
shall come. That's Christ himself. The psalmist
said, whom have I in heaven but thee? Who, what's heaven to us? It's him. And there's none upon earth that
I desire besides thee. He's the pearl of great price.
He's the treasure. Go over to Philippians 3. Paul said, the things which were
gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ, for Him. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count
them but done that I may win Christ, Christ Himself. Be found
in Him, in Him. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, a righteousness which is of God by faith that I might
know him. Lord, to whom shall we go? We know you and want to know
you, want to know more of you, that I might attain to the resurrection,
the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his
death. In Song of Solomon, whenever the bride is describing her beloved,
She's describing him as the chiefest among 10,000. She describes his
head. His head is his most fine gold. His locks, his hair is bushy
and black as a raven. His eyes are as the eyes of doves
by the rivers of water. She's describing him, his cheeks,
his lips, his hands, his belly, his legs, his countenance, his
mouth. And then she ends up, she says,
he is altogether lovely. To whom shall we go? Having him,
we have all. Having him, we have all. In us,
we have nothing. In ourselves, we have nothing
apart from him. In him, we have. all. And we need no other. We want
no other. We have no other choice but Christ.
To whom shall we go? Who would you go to? Do you ever
think about how you would go through this life and what it
would be like if you didn't know Christ and have Christ? There'd be no meaning, there'd
be no purpose. If you didn't understand he's
ruling everything and he's doing it for the good of his people
to bring us to see more of him, that would not, nothing would
be of any value in this life. Who shall we go to? We're gonna
turn to the law? We're gonna turn to our own righteousnesses? That's just a curse upon our
filthy rags. Who did He make sin for us? He
made Him sin for us who knew no sin. That we might be made
to righteousness of God in Him, the Lord our righteousness. Shall
we turn to a form of religion? Religion would be nothing without
Him. He's the power of God. He's the
wisdom of God. He's the gospel. You can't sit and hear messages
that don't have Him in them, that don't point us to Him and
don't show you He's your everything and your all. You can't stand
to hear Him not declared and His works not declared. We're
going to turn to our wisdom, we're going to turn to the riches
of this world. Would they satisfy you now that you've known Christ?
In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. So we can't depart from Him because
to whom shall we go? And then secondly, true disciples
must have His words. We have to have His words. He
says, thou hast the words of eternal life. Now He is the word
of life Himself. John, over in 1 John 1, 1, he
said, that which was from the beginning, which we've heard,
which we've seen with our eyes, which we've looked upon and our
hands have handled, of the Word of Life, capital W, the Word
of Life, speaking of Christ. We've seen him. The Word of Life. The Life was manifested, he said. Life was manifested. We've seen
Him. We bear witness. We show unto
you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
to us. That's how He described Christ.
He's the Word of Life. He is eternal life. He was with
the Father. He came and was manifested to
us. And the words that Christ speaks, they're the quickening words.
their spirit, their life, and he continues to quicken and renew
by his words. John 6 there in verse 63, he
says, it's the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profits nothing, and
he tells us what he means by spirit. The words that I speak
unto you are spirit, and they're life. the words He speaks. Eternal life, they said. Thou
hast the words of eternal life. Those that went back and walked
and were with Him, what were they looking for? This life. They wanted something better
in this life. They wanted to have temporal bread and they
wanted to have a temporal kingdom and they wanted to have health
and they wanted to have wealth and they wanted to have prosperity
in this life. That's not what it It's about,
he may not give us health, he may not give you wealth, he may
not give you prosperity in his life in any way. His words are
words of eternal life. Eternal life. He adds these secondary
things to you and makes you enjoy this life, but it's to teach
us more of him who is our eternal life. He's eternal life. He speaks life and he continues
to quicken us all our day. Paul says there's one reason
we don't faint. Our outward man is perishing
day by day. We're getting older, we're getting
more wrinkled, we're getting more gray, and we're just going
to go weaker, weaker, weaker until we're going to lay off
this body of death in the grave. But the inward man is renewed
day by day. How come? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. The psalmist said, he satisfied
thy mouth with good things, and thy youth is renewed like the
eagles. So we need his words, don't we?
We need him speaking to us constantly. Turn me, Lord, and I'll be turned.
How are we going to be turned? He's going to speak. He said,
if you turn to the left or to the right, you're going to hear
that still small voice speak, say, this is the way, walk in
it. And He's the only one that can speak that effectually. Calm
the sea. Be still. And make you follow
Him. That's so. He has the words of
eternal life. The words that lead to Him. The
words that feed us Him. The word that edifies by Him.
And keep us looking to Him. He's the Word, and He speaks
the Word. And when He speaks the Word,
they're effectual, they quicken, they give life, and they turn
us to Him who is the Word. And then lastly, by Christ's
grace, His true disciples cannot depart because His Word has given
us faith and assurance. This thing's beyond Beyond doubt,
we have plenty of unbelief in our flesh, but He's going to
keep you believing Him and assured in Him. They said, we believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living
God. Now notice this order. We believe and are sure. That's God's order. Those who
went back were carnal. and here's what they wanted.
And this is our carnal fleshly way. Make us sure and then we'll
believe you. Show us a sign to assure us you
are who you say you are, then we'll believe you. Show us the
way's gonna be plain and our way's gonna be prosperous and
providentially we can see everything's going our way and then we'll
believe you, Lord. The true order is, We believe,
believe Him. Believe in Him, we have some
assurance. He's our assurance. We know what
He does is gonna be right. What He does is gonna be according
to His purpose and His promise and His glory, and it'll be for
our good. What He does, we believe Him,
and that's why we're sure. The psalmist said, I had fainted
unless I had believed. Then I'll see the goodness of
the Lord in the land of the living. He doesn't give you heaven first
in the land of the living and then say, now see, here it is.
What I said to you was true, now believe me. No, he brings
us and gives us faith now to believe him. And then we're gonna
enter into the goodness in the land of the living. We believe,
and believe in Him, we're sure. He says in the next chapter,
if you do the will of the Father, He told us what that will is,
come to Him, believe on Him, trust Him to do the works. He
said, you do the will of the Father, then you'll know the
doctrine. That's not how they wanted it. They wanted to know,
this is a hard saying, you gotta explain this to us and make us
sure what you're saying, then we'll believe on you. We believe. that thou art that
Christ. We believe and we're sure thou
art that Christ. Christ means the anointed Savior,
chosen and anointed of God. We believe thou art that Christ,
that one anointed by God the Father from before the world
was made. We believe and are sure that you're the one that
was prophesied of, the one that was promised, the one that was
pictured throughout the Old Testament. You're that prophet God promised
through Moses, where Moses said, He's going to raise up unto you
a prophet like me. We believe you're that prophet,
Lord. You're that prophet. We believe, we're sure God the
Father appointed and authorized and anointed the Lord Jesus to
be the Savior of His people. He chose Him, He anointed Him,
He equipped Him, He sent Him according to His will. He's the
anointed Savior of His people, Him alone. John 6.27 there, he told them,
labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which
endureth into everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. He sealed him. He anointed him.
He sealed him. He put his stamp of approval
on him. When something's sealed, it's sacred. It's precious to
the one who chose it and anointed it. That's him. On the bank of
the Jordan the Spirit came down upon him and the Lord said, this
is He, this is He. The Spirit came upon Him without
measure. Just like He promised in Isaiah when He said, the Spirit
of the Lord is upon Me because He hath anointed Me to preach
good tidings. He's the preacher. He's the one
that's gonna get the glory for teaching his people. The Lord
anointed him. Peter announced to the house
of Cornelius when he went to see him over in Acts 10.38, he
said, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power. You mean Jesus, that one we know, Joseph? Worked with
Joseph in the carpenter's shop of Nazareth? Can any good thing
come out of Nazareth? Yes. God hath anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. Why was he anointed? He was anointed to lay down his
life for his people, accomplishing the Father's glory and his people's
salvation. He said in Acts 4.27 of a truth,
Against thy holy child Jesus, holy, because he was anointed
and set apart for the work, and holy and perfect within himself.
That holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, they
were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy
counsel determined before to be done. That's what he was anointed
for. Lord, you've given me a body
to do your will. He said, I came to do his will,
the will of him that sent me. What was that will? It was to
glorify God in the salvation of a people through that bloody
death on the cross. To declare God the righteous
God, the merciful God, the God who saves. So everything that
took place toward Him and putting Him on that cross was all of
God because He was the anointed Savior to lay down His life for
His people. And that's what the psalmist was declaring in Psalm
2. The kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers take counsel
together against the Lord and against His anointed. That's a deadly game. But that's what they did to our
Lord. They set themselves. They took counsel together. They
went against Him. They went against His anointed.
They said, let us break their bands of sonnets. Let us cast
their cords away from us. Not going to have this man reign
over us. He's anointed from the foundation of the world. Is there
any possibility he's not going to reign? None. He's God's choice. He's the one God elected to do
the saving and to receive all honor and glory. He's anointed
of God. He that sits in the heavens shall
laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. He'll speak unto them in His
wrath, vex them in His sword, His pleasure. Yet, now listen
to this. I didn't see this before this
week. He said, yet have I set my king. That word set means anointed. I've anointed my king on my holy
hill of Zion. Despite all that they tried to
do, God said all they did was accomplish what I determined
before to be done. And it all ended in me setting
my king on my holy hill of Zion. Peter said, we believe Lord,
we're sure you're that Christ, you're that anointed one. anointing
and sealing us with the Spirit is how we believe. And that's
how we're sure. The Spirit of God sealed us.
And so therefore, just like He's precious to the Father, He's
precious to you who believe. We believe, we're sure He's our
Savior, He's our salvation, He's our righteousness, He's our redemption,
He's our holiness, He's glory, He's our portion, He's our inheritance. He's all to His people. Is He
all to you? Without Him, we have nothing. Without Him, I have nothing.
He is all. He's the light of the Father's
heart and He seals us and makes Himself to be the delight of
our heart. We believe and sure you're the
Son of God. You're the son of God. He told
him, he said, you offended at this doctrine and I say you have
to believe on me or you can't be saved. He said, what's going
to happen when you see me ascend back to where I was? That's where I was with the father,
the son of God came down. accomplished a work, finished
a work, redeemed a people, everlastingly, eternally made a people righteous
by His blood and His doing and said it's finished and He went
back to the Father and all His people went back in Him. He's
the Son of God. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. And you're complete in Him. who
is the head of all principality and power. He's ruling everybody,
every ruler, every empire, in heaven and in earth. He's the
head of all. And you're complete in Him. And He is the fullness
of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the
God-man mediator. And that word means, when it
says complete, it's the same word as fullness. As fully as
he's the fullness of the Godhead in a body, that's how fully complete
you are in him. Our mediator is going to keep
us in faith. You know, later, Peter did what
this multitude did, or tried to do that. He walked away. He denied the Lord three times
and he walked away. Why didn't he apostatize like
they did? Only one reason. The Lord said,
I prayed for you that your faith fail not. That's the one reason.
He went to them. They were out there. They were
fishing. They went back. He led more with him. Led them away. The Lord went. He said, have
you caught any fish? No. Wonder why they didn't catch
any fish. He said, here's fire. Here's
some meat. Here's some fish. Come down.
He called Him to Himself. He fed Him. He fed Him. And He
spoke the words of eternal life into Peter's heart. And He brought
Peter to say, Lord, I believe and I'm sure. That's the only
reason He didn't go away. He's going to keep us. He's going
to keep us feeding on Him. The bread of life sustained and
strengthened because it's the will of the Father. Because it's
His own love and grace to do it. Because He has purchased
His people with His blood. So here's what He says to us,
Hebrews 10, verse 35. Cast not away therefore your
confidence. which hath great recompense of
reward. For you have need of patience,
and after you've done the will of God, you might receive the
promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come." It's him we're looking for. He's coming. He's the promise. He's the reward.
He's the recompense. A little while and he will come
and will not tarry. Now the just, those he's justified,
those that he's truly spoken to, they shall live by faith. They shall. But if any man draw
back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we're not of them
which draw back unto perdition, unto destruction, to apostasy.
We're not of them by his grace, by his words, by his power. were
of them that believe to the saving of the soul. That's what he said.
He that comes to me, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. I'm
gonna keep them. I will lose nothing, he said.
Not only not one of them, if they've lost a finger, if they've
had an organ removed, if they've had a whatever, I'm raising them
complete. I'm raising them perfect when
I raise them. I'm going to lose nothing that
belongs to me. He said not one of them and not one member of
them. They're going to be raised a
perfect body glorified by Him. That's we believe and we're sure
by Him. All right, brethren. Father,
we thank you for this word. Pray you bless it now. Make Christ
to be altogether lovely to us. Make yourself to be our all and
make us have no other option but to trust you and believe
you and walk through this life looking to you, feeding upon
you, sustained by you, robed by you, protected by you. and one day glorified by you.
Lord, don't take your spirit from us. Don't let us, don't
leave us to ourselves. We ask you, Lord, to keep us
for your namesake, for your glory, according to your covenant. It's
in his precious name we ask it. Amen.