I'll be looking at a few things.
It would be easy for me to say this is a hard saying, would
be the title, but I think it would be God's ultimatums. God's
ultimatums. It's what He gives us. We ought
to pay attention to that. Here in verse 60, it says, "...many
therefore of His disciples..." John 6. Wait until you get there.
We need to read it. John 6, verse 60. Many, therefore,
of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is a hard
saying. Who can hear it? Who can hear
it? What had He said that was so
hard? Most recently, He had spoke to these people. There are so
many there within 48 hours of the fish and the loaves. So many
there that saw so many miracles and they had their bellies fed.
And they heard him preach. You think that counts for something?
My head's shaking, no. God Almighty's Spirit has to
come to us. He had some things to say. And he says, except you
eat my flesh and you drink my blood, and then I'll dwell in
you and you'll dwell in me, and we'll be made one. You're going
to die. Unless that happens, you're going
to die. And they said, this is some hard sayings. What is he
talking about? What's that mean? What's that
mean, hard sayings? When he says, you gotta eat my
flesh, you gotta drink my blood. Does that mean he's a cannibal? Out of 15,000 people sitting
there, could you imagine a few of them would think that? What's
he talking about? I have to understand the workings
of this. I have to know how it happens.
How, how, how? There's some of those. What if
those just, they flat didn't know what he meant? Can you tell
me what he just meant? I don't know. I have no idea. I can't even imagine. I don't
know what he's getting at. That's hard. Hard to figure out,
isn't it? Why is it hard to figure out?
Because it's impossible for the flesh to perceive it. God's got
to teach his people. God's got to do a work in them.
It's hard for them. It's offensive to them. It's
difficult for them to understand because they can't. Who can hear
it? Who can? They can't. If I get
hard up where I can't do something and I say, who can do it? You
know what I'm saying? Because I'm a proud, and I think
I'm capable, I'm saying nobody can. That's what I'm saying.
And they speak in truth, don't they? And he's got these people
so whipped up and riled up, and they don't know which way to
turn, and he finally, the camel's back's been broken with this
straw. He said, you've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood.
What do you say to them? Verse 61. When Jesus knew in
himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, does
this offend you? Who's his disciples? This ain't
his sheep. These are people that studied him. They read all they
could of him. They looked for him in the scriptures.
They went to every church service, never missed one. They proclaimed
to be a member of the church in word only. Sometimes that
lasts a long time. Decades and decades. And it breaks
my heart. I've seen that happen. People
say, that's a faithful child of God. Look what God's done
in them. And it wasn't. They could throw it away like
it was yesterday's newspaper. All of a sudden, one day, it's
old. There's a whole lot of people that used to preach the gospel,
a whole lot of people that used to sit and listen to the gospel.
We're needy. We're poor, needy sinners, aren't
we? They said these disciples, they murmured at it. They murmured
at His words. And He said unto them, doth this
offend you? Does that offend you? And what if you shall see
the Son of Man ascend up to where He was before? You think me saying
that you've got to eat my flesh, me saying you've got to drink
my blood, you think that's offensive? That was the first verily, verily
we looked at in John. He said He's going to ascend
on high. He's declaring the end from the beginning, isn't He?
Because He's God. And He said, do you think these words offend
you? What if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up to where
He was before? It's the Spirit that quickeneth.
Who can hear it? These are hard. Who can tell?
It's the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they're Spirit and they're life.
How's somebody going to be saved? God's going to speak it. How
are they going to understand something? He's going to speak
it. That's a hard saying, isn't it? People get offended. Does
that offend you? How does God do that in His day? He said so.
Through the foolishness of preaching. He's going to take the jawbone
of an ass, right there, and use some poor hillbilly from Meathouse,
Kentucky to say out loud what His Word says to tell you what
He's already said. He's going to use that to bring
life into somebody. Give them repentance. Convert
them. Turn them to Him. Give them righteousness. They're
going to know what righteousness is. They're going to know the
Lord has righteousness. And they're going to eat His flesh and drink
His blood. all ultimatums end in the affirmative. I hope we
can see what that means. He said, but there are some of
you, verse 64, 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 said unto you, this is why He said this
just before, that no man can come unto Me except it were given
unto him of My Father. And from that time, many of His
disciples, those that said they loved Him, those that said they
knew Him, those that sat and listened to Him, they went back
and walked no more with Him. No more with Him. He gave them
an ultimatum. He gave them an ultimatum. What's that mean?
I looked this up and I love this definition. I was asked this
recently. What's an ultimatum? You ready? Go back and listen
to this and write it down. It's a final proposition. It's the end. This is it. This really is. It's life and
death. You ready? It's a final proposition,
condition, or demand. Especially especially one whose
rejection will end negotiation and cause resort to force or
other direct action." That's military right there. What are
they saying? How can I put that in layman's
terms? Surrender or die? Well, give me a week to think
about it. Dead. You get it? Right now. Put down
your guns, quit working, bow to the one that finished the
work, or die. That's an ultimatum. Our Lord
gives us ultimatums, you know that? Let's look at a few of
them. Here in John chapter 3, over
just a couple of pages. We looked at this before. John
chapter 3. The Lord's talking to Nicodemus here.
He says, John 3, 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, truly, truly, of a truth I say unto you, except
this or that, one or the other, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. You want to see the kingdom of
God? You're going to have to be born again. What about option
B or C? There ain't one. If you're going
to see the Kingdom of God, you're going to have to be born again.
Now in verse 5, Jesus answered and said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, the
working of God the Holy Ghost, and through His Word, he cannot
enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. This has to do with birth, doesn't it? That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. What's born of the spirit? What's
born of the flesh? Do you know what born of the
flesh is? Well, I'm here. Are you here? We know how this
works, don't we? You can watch a documentary on
it if you didn't grow up on a farm. If things weren't there, then
they are. There's a lot of pain with it.
It's bloody. It's messy. It ain't pretty. And then all of a sudden the
pain goes away. You clean it up. We understand
what being born is. Our Lord doesn't speak to us
in complicated terms. Except you're born of the Spirit. He
said, now the flesh, you understand that flesh is flesh. What's in
front of you ain't nothing but dirt that's been erected and
reanimated by God. And this is going to go away.
This is going to go back to dirt. And He said, if I born of you
in the Spirit, now you something new. What's born of the Spirit?
We're told over in John 1, He said, being born, not of blood.
Well, that ain't who mommy and daddy is. Don't matter what your
genealogy is, but what about those people that's of a nation
over in the Middle East? What about not of blood? There's
some of those that had hard work. Just the same as us Gentiles.
Not of the will of flesh. I chose to accept Jesus. You're
lying and you're going to die and go to hell thinking that. It ain't your will. Why? God
says so. He bores them. He gives them life. His Spirit
comes and does it. But what about, they're already
dead and we're going to give somebody, a man, obviously a
bunch of money. That's always how that works, isn't it? And now that they're dead, they're
in a holding pattern, and we're going to get them out of that
place and get them back into heaven. I'm going to pray through. I'll pray
for you and tell you God's going to do something in you. You ain't
going to be in His arms. It ain't the will of man. Not of somebody else, but
of God. How's people born? They're born
of God. How was you born the first time? What a picture he
gives us. That one man is up in his twenties,
sued his parents for giving him life. I said, well, first off,
they didn't want to give it to you. What a fool. Give it back to
them. We understand that. Same thing
with the Spirit. We prove our spirits alive. How
do we prove that a flesh is alive? How do you know that somebody
is alive? You eat and drink. That's when our Lord came back
to his disciples and said, you got any meat with you? He never
asked them for food. Why do you eat that fish? They
eat more so fish. Why? So they knew he's a man.
That's who saved them and they knew he was real and he's right
in front of them. This wasn't some figment of their imagination.
He was standing there with them. How do you know you're spiritually
alive? You eat his flesh and you drink his blood. Same as
you get up in the morning and eat breakfast. Why? Because you're
alive. Why do you have to have Him?
Because you're spiritually alive. If you ain't, you ain't got to
eat it. You can do without it. You can do something else. Peter told us that. He said,
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. James told
us, Of his own will begat he us, with the word of truth, not
with the word of a lie, He said, well, I was saved and then I
come to know the doctrines of grace and then the Lord showed
me about Jesus and the election. That ain't how He saves you.
Kevin, I just think we disagree on that. You don't disagree with
Kevin, you disagree with God. He said so. By His own will begat
He us of the word of truth that we should be a kind of first
fruits of His creatures. That's the first fruit. Why?
Because it's going to be made just like Him. We're made just like Him. Something born does something
different than something's dead, doesn't it? There's different
actions, different things take place in something's dead. We're
a new creation. We're a new creation. That's
what He makes in us. It doesn't do what the old creation did
for the first time ever. For the first time ever, when
God gives life, something new happens. There might be some
motions you went through before, but bodily exercise profiteth
little for the first time ever. Here's a second ultimatum. Turn
over to Luke 13. You must be born again. That's
God's doing. He purposed it and it's the Spirit's
work in you. And second, that new creation,
it's going to repent. Here in Luke 13. We'll look in
verse 1. Luke 13, 1. They were present
at that season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifice. And Jesus answered
and said to them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? He's
saying these Galileans were down there and they were so upsetting
to Pilate. They made him so mad that he
went beyond a warrant to get them. This wasn't the 10 most
wanted. They went down and personally
killed them to make a mockery of them. They've spilt their
blood in with the sacrifice blood. And our Lord says, do you think
that they were just so much sinners above the other sinners that
were down there? That's why they died in such a manner? Do you
think that's the reason? He says in verse 3, I tell you,
nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Except
you repent, you're going to perish the same way as they did. What
about good people? Are they any different? Or those 18, verse
4, or those 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew
them, thank ye that they were sinners above all the men that
dwelt in Jerusalem at that pool of Siloam. That's what the Lord
told that man, go wash. There was a tower built next
to it and there was people down there washing. They were going through
bodily exercise. They were real religious. They
were saying the things that all the other religious folks said.
And they were down there washing. Well, look at me. It's Sunday.
Look how clean I am. And the tower fell on them. And
it killed them. Eighteen of them died right there.
Well, do you think they, do you think they was a little better
off? Because they was doing something religious. They was going through
the exercises. How are you going to be when
Jesus comes? I was asked that 50 times a week
growing up. Is that how you want to be when
Jesus comes? Are you going to be doing something good? Do you
think that's better for somebody? Verse 5, I tell you nay, but
except you repent, you shall likewise perish. Outside of repentance,
there's death. The Lord says so. Except there's
a new creation that's put in and except there's a turning,
a turning from what we were to Him, you're going to die. That's
it. That's how it works. Isaiah told
it. This isn't a New Testament thing. This isn't an Old Testament
God and a New Testament God and now we've got to figure everything
out. This always has been. Isaiah said, let the wicked forsake
his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
unto the Lord. He will have mercy on him. What
if I repent and God don't care? You turn to Him from your idol. From you to Him. And He will
have mercy on him. And to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon. What if He only does it halfway?
No. He's going to abundantly pardon. That's necessary. You have to repent. Turn to Him.
He gives life, and then there's repentance. In other words, there's
a change of manner, a change of mind, and a change of masters.
My pastor wrote that a long time ago, back in 1978. Whenever we
repent, we have a change of manners, a change of mind, and a change
of masters. We'll change our thoughts. I'll
quit thinking I just know everything, and I'm an expert in every little
tidbit that there could ever be, and I know what's right,
and we all do it my way. That's going to stop if God doesn't
work. It's going to. We're going to
go from our manners and our mind, thinking I'm right, and our masters. What's ruling us whenever we
bite and devour one another and whenever we sow discord among
the brethren? Who's ruling you when you say those bad things?
You're going to have a different master if God works in you. That's
going to change. There's going to be a humble
and contrite heart. That brother sinned against me.
Who knows what I've done to you? So many times I look back and
I think, what stupid thing have I said now? Oh, if I could just
erase it. If I could get a big old eraser
and go back and undo it, please. And I beg for mercy. Like someone
that's had been shown mercy ain't going to show me mercy. Then
they're crying too. I don't even know what you're
talking about. It's fine. Good way to be and we have different
masters. That's repentance. Repentance is more than that
though. You can't try to define it. Somebody said if you define
it, you'll kill it. This isn't a definition. There's five meanings
of repentance in the scriptures, but it's not a definition. This
is an experience. It's something God gives his
people and it happens. It's a hard experience. But where
does it come from? Where does this experience, this
heart experience come from? Can you go buy it at Walmart?
No, you can't. Can you copy somebody else's
story? Because that sounds like it's pretty solid. I'll just
say what they said. No. This is an individual experience
and God gives it. We read that in Acts 11. It says,
Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. How are you going to live? You're
going to have to be given life. You're going to have to repent. Where are we
going to get that from? God's going to grant it. He's
going to give it. Isn't that wonderful? Does that
offend you? Don't offend me. If you're mad,
that's good. You're paying attention. You
might be listening and down the road you may hear something.
What leads us to where God will grant repentance? Do I have to
do something to work my way up? Do I have to be in a certain
arena and position and then God will grant me repentance? Do
I have to be at the football stadium downtown? Do I have to travel
a ways? Do I have to do something, say something? Think a certain
way before and then once I do something, then God will grant
repentance? No, no. Paul said, don't you know that
the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? What's going to
take me by the hand and lead me to where God will give me
repentance? God's grace is. Take me right where I need to
be. He put me right underneath the sound of the gospel. People
always say, well, if it's somebody that's the Lord's and they're
on an island. I said, well, God will shipwreck one of his prophets
on that island. Brother Clay said, God will move
the island if he has to. There ain't no boats. Somebody
has a rebuttal. Well, if there ain't no boats,
God will move the island. He'll drive up the seas and do
whatever he needs. He'll grant it. Repentance comes from godly
sorrow. If you don't repent on your own,
you repent by the grace of God. He grants repentance, and that
repentance comes from godly sorrow. That's the grounds that it takes
place on. Boy, now the rubber's meeting the road. We're getting
past definitions, ain't we? Turn over to 2 Corinthians 7.
2 Corinthians 7. I got a real big splinter in
my right thumb today, and I'm trying my best to turn with my
left hand and it ain't working. 2 Corinthians 7, we'll look in
verse 9. Paul writes to the church at
Corinth, now I rejoice, 2 Corinthians 7, 9, now I rejoice, not that
you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. You
ever been sorry? There's a whole lot of people
I've met that ain't ever been sorry for nothing. They do things and say horrible
things to people and have horrible actions to people that a child
knows is wrong and they don't even say they're sorry. A heathen
knows better than that. Paul says, not that you were
made sorry, we know what that is, but that you sorrowed to
repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of. That repentance that God
gives, He leads us to, He gives works in our heart, that ain't
going to be repented of, that ain't going to be turned back
on. But the sorrow of the world worketh death." That just feeling
bad about something, that's death. That's perishing. Except you
repent. Except you repent. Who's going
to do that? God's going to have to. Who's going to give us life?
God's going to have to. David wrote in Psalm 50 that
repentance is a gift of God. Repentance comes from godly sorrow.
And he said, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse
me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is
ever before me. against thee, and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil on thy side, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest."
When God gives repentance, who do you sin against? If you sin against a holy God
and He gave you that knowledge, who's out in the parking lot?
I don't care! A helicopter just landed out
there on the road. Let it land. I don't care. Forest fires coming
down the hill. I don't care. I sinned against
the Holy God. You saw it. I sinned against
Him. Boy, now it's real. He brings us that understanding
and we acknowledge the truth. Repentance is to acknowledge
the truth. I sinned against Him. I did it. What He make you do,
I did it willingly. Was you willingly at war with
God? We acknowledge the truth. Paul
wrote to Timothy, he said, "...and the servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, must be
patient, and in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves." People oppose me. You know what
they're opposing? They oppose themselves. They oppose themselves if God.
His servant must be meek, instructing those that oppose themselves,
if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. If somebody gets mad at me because
I tell them what God says, they can take it out on me all they
want. His Word tells me they ain't mad at me, they're mad
at Him. And I don't want to be meek about it, I don't want to
be long-suffering about it, because God just might save somebody.
He just might turn them to repentance, turn them from their lies to
His truth. The Lord's right. What He says about me is right.
I believe Him. This is true. What am I going to do? It says
turn to His Son. Can I tell you, Carol, believe
on Him. And you'll have everlasting life. I believe that too. And
then He gives us that grace and we cry out to Him and beg Him
to give us repentance. Oh, give me a repentant heart.
Once we have a new heart, we can finally see how wretched
this old heart is. And this isn't an isolated act.
Did you repent when you was 14? Well, what about this morning? I saved way back when. I got
saved. Well, what about now? David said,
my sin is ever before me, didn't he? Somebody repented one time,
you never did repent. And so I repented and I believed
and I kind of drifted away. No, you never did repent. God
didn't grant it. That was flesh. That was the
man doing that. You die and go to hell doing
that. Pray to God gives you true repentance. This guilt is ever before us. It's there all the time because
we see this heart. We now have a new heart that can recognize
this old heart. We now have a straight stick that shows that crooked
stick. We know what we think. We know what we say. We know
what we look like to other people. They watch us. But we know that
God looks on the heart. I pray He opens our heart to call
out to Him. He remembers our frame. He knoweth that we are
dust. We ought to know it too. Our Lord said, except you repent,
you will perish. We've got to find out what that
is. And we better seek repentance
and ask God to give us repentance. You must be born again. You must
repent. God gives both. It's a hard saying. He's the
source of it. Man can't go mine it out of the ground. What's
the third one? Turn over to Matthew 18. Matthew 18. Matthew 18, verse 3. You must be born again. You must
repent. It says in Matthew 18, verse 3, "...and verily, verily,
I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little
children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."
We have to be converted. We have to be changed from what
we were to what we shall be. What were we? What were you before
God saved you? Proud. Knowledgeable. You were wise.
You knew it all. Aren't you? Pride goeth before
destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall, Solomon told us.
Is there a time you didn't know everything? Pray God humble us. So these six things that the
Lord hate, Yea, seven are an abomination to Him. What's the
very first one? Proud look, isn't it? A true
broken heart over sin is easy to be around. That's one of the
most unredeemable qualities a person could ever have, if they know
everything, isn't it? If they're experts in everything
underneath the sun. I know that about myself. One fellow said,
he said, between me and my brother, we know everything. And I said,
what's the capital of Australia? He said, that's what my brother
knows. He's out of town right now. Oh, I suffer from that. Is Proudheart to be around? Sure
he is. What about a broken heart? That's
what David wrote too. He said, the sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
wilt thou not despise? Why won't he despise a broken
heart? First off, he gave it. He's the
one that broke it. And because he's near them. David wrote that in Psalm 34,
18. The Lord is nigh unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. If somebody's walking this earth
and they ain't never had a broken heart, and they've never repented
of themselves, they never took sides against themselves with
God, and they've never had any trials of these sins, they've
never had any corrections, and everything's just easy street, and everything's
so smooth. You're on a broad way that leadeth
to destruction. You think that's a bumpy road?
No, it ain't. It's brand new pavement. God
is going to break the heart of His children. If the Lord is
not pleased to bring us low, to bring us down to His feet
in humility and contrition with a broken spirit, God will have
to judge us because He ain't going to save rebels. We're going
to show up to Him still fighting and bucking and doing it our
way. It ain't going to happen. Judgment
won't fare well. Salvation is to know God in this
world. All knees will bow. All tongues will confess that
He's Lord. That's going to happen. Salvation
wins. God does it in us now while we're on this earth, not in judgment. I cried to Him. Oh, give me this.
Give me a broken and contrite heart. You've got to be broken.
You've got to be converted. You've got to be brought down.
Our proud human spirit's got to be submissive to the Lord.
And he says, accept ye be converted and become as a little child.
What's a little child? They're willing to be taught.
They're willing to be led. They're willing to be a servant
of God. I want you to take the trash
out. Okay. That's a little child, isn't
it? Unless you be like a little child, you'll never enter the
kingdom of God. Turn to Matthew chapter 5. The Lord must give
us a new birth, give us repentance, convert us, and fourthly, He's
going to have to give us the righteousness of Christ. And
that's going to be our desire. A man seeking his own righteousness
don't know God. A man seeking God's righteousness,
now he knows himself and God. Look here, Matthew 5, verse 20.
Here's another ultimatum. Matthew 5, 20. For I say unto
you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven." Now is he saying that them scribes and
pharisees are going to enter the kingdom of heaven? Nope.
He said yours has to exceed it. What's your holy living? Is that
good? You can clean up your act? What
are these pharisees? These were the top-notch religious people
of that day. Outwardly, you ain't going to
get something on them. They're good at hiding it. You know they
was doing it. How moral and how sincere they
were. They earnestly thought that they
were doing something good. They really did. They make good
neighbors. I mean, they gave it a college
try, buddy. I wish I had that zeal sometimes. I wish I had
that desire. Lord, give me that urgency. Paul wrote up and said,
for my brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. Those after the flesh, these
Pharisees, Paul said, I wish they were saved, for I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God. How would you like it if the
great apostle Paul came down and said, oh, you have a zeal
for God? Would your chest pop out? I'm
so proud. Isn't that wonderful? Did you
hear what Paul said about me? That's a good thing, buddy, if
you're outside of God. It's a horrible thing. They have a silver God,
but not according to knowledge. They don't know nothing with
it. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. Somebody's trying to
make themselves more holy. What's that? You don't know about
God's holiness. You don't know about His Son, and you're trying
to do it yourself. You're still in your sins. For they, being inherents of
God's righteousness, going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves in the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believeth. Well, what's our righteousness?
What's your righteousness in your own man? Before you was
born, before you was given repentance, before you were converted and
you were changed, to look to Him and lean to Him and call
on Him for mercy? For you know you needed His righteousness,
what was yours? Filthy rags. Is that right? What's the righteousness of which
our Lord said must exceed theirs? What's going to go deeper than
skin deep? And this outward appearance,
this whited sepulcher? What's He talking about? First
of all, it's not ours, it's His. That's Christ's righteousness
that he's speaking of. Paul said, Oh, that I may win
Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. Man's got to do it by law. I
broke that from birth. But the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. His faithfulness. Was he faithful? You betcha. I got something I
got to do. I hope not. I ain't going to
be able to do it. He said it's finished. I believe him. It's
not our obedience at all, it's His obedience. Finally, or fifthly,
what gives us spiritual birth, repentance, converts us, gives
us His righteousness. Now here in John 6, back in John
6 verse 44. John 6, verse 44. No man can
come to Me, or have to come to Him, except the Father which
hath sent Me draw him. No man or woman or child can
come to Christ to cry out for mercy, for repentance, for righteousness. You can't come to Him except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. You know what I've
been called because of that verse right there my whole life since
I was a young teenager. I was called a fatalist. A man
called me one time and said, you're a hyper-Calvinist. That's
why I guess I ain't a hypo-Calvinist. That was a scientific joke. I
was called an antinomian. You're without law. You just
put a name on whatever you want to call it. You know what it
is? It's God's Word. He said it. That ain't my ultimatum.
He said no man can come to me except the Father draw him. No
man. No matter what their talent is,
their intelligence, their domination, no matter what. No man can. You're not able, you don't have
the will, you don't have the desire to come to Him. To come
to Christ is to believe on Him, to receive Him, to have Him as
your all in all. We call on God, but you realize
it's because He called on us first. We cry out to Him. We call on Him because He called
us first. Why? We love Him. Why? Because He loved us first, didn't
He? Here in His love, not that you
love God. He loved us. He gave Himself for us. He gave
His Son for us. Lastly, all this leads to oneness
with Christ. Now is when people will leave. You have 15,000 people up to
me now and then because it's doctrine. We talked about the
experience. The believer is going to live
through it. You're going to have that experience. I was dead. I'm alive now. I
used to love me better than anything and now I don't like me no more.
I want Him. I want His righteousness. I need to be converted. I need
to be changed from my mind and my master and my way to His way. And I want that. I desire that.
I want to be made like a little child. Man doctrinally can understand
all those things. Now there's oneness. Oneness
with Christ. Here's where the doctrine meets
reality. Culmination of that birth, repentance, conversion,
the need of His righteousness, being drawn to Him, begged for
mercy, being drawn to Him to worship Him, to truly praise
Him. We come here to praise Him. We come into this house and gather
in His name to worship Him. We truly need Him. We truly must
have Him as our life. He says in verse 53, John 6,
53, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood,
you have no life in you. Unless He's your daily bread,
and He's your drink, His sacrifice is what you must have. It's death. That's where the
rubber meets the road. You take everything away from
you. Think that through. I mean, I thought it through
hard this week. What if God took everything from you? What if
he took your family from you? He took your job from you, your
livelihood, your home? What if he took your duties in
the church from you? What if he took... I'm a preacher. What
if he took that from me? I can't read scripture in public
no more, and I can't preach to nobody no more, and I don't wear
a tie no more. Whatever. What if we don't get to run the
soundboard no more? What if we don't get to lead singing no
more? What if we don't get to take trash out no more? What if all we had to
do was just come here and be with Him? Does this offend you? Or are
we clinging to something else? Are we clinging to lists? Or
are we clinging to Him? To be redeemed, to be saved by
God is not only to believe some facts about the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it's to receive Him. His person, not just the doctrine
or His church, but to receive Christ Himself. It says, to as
many as received Him, to them gave He the right, the power,
to become the sons of God. That's who He's worked in. That's
who He's given life to. That life's going to repent.
You're going to earn from your idols. Didn't Paul tell the church
at Thessalonica that? I know you're saved. I know your
election. You've turned from that. You ain't clinging that
garbage to Him anymore. And menstrual cloths, you let
it go. You've turned from it. And we
turn to Him. He converts us. Sin doesn't have dominion over
you anymore. And sin ain't down in a gutter shooting up heroin
that's in a church building somewhere, talking in high lofty voices
and being seen in public and recognized by men, isn't it?
That's what the Lord says. We need Him. We need to receive
Him and have the power to receive Him. That's what it culminated
in and everybody got mad. Does that offend you? You need
Him? That don't offend me none. I
enjoy the life the Lord gave me. I enjoy the situations He
gives me. I enjoy you. I need Him. I want to be with you all. I
want to have my family. I want to have my health or whatever.
I need him. I need him. Does that offend
you? It offended them. Well, did our
Lord chase them out in the parking lot? Was he a soul winner? He used taxidermy bait to hook.
Well, I mean, a little bit of that won't hurt nothing, Kevin.
Now, we'll see this whenever that King of Sodom comes to Abram
here soon. But it's happened. Talk about
temptations and increasing the church. Verse 66, from that time
many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, will you go away also? Fifteen
thousand people just left church. Twelve of them sitting there
looking at him. His twelve companions went everywhere he went. He said,
are you going to leave too? Are you going to leave too? And Simon
Peter answered him. a representative of the group,
an advocate for the other 11. And he said, Lord. Mullins didn't
call him Lord. He wasn't her Lord. The Lord
gives you life. The Lord repents you. He converts
you. Makes you beg for His righteousness.
Makes you come to Him. Makes you eat His flesh and drink
His blood. He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall
we go? Not to what. Not to where. Not
to what other denominations are available. It's a person. To
whom shall we go? We need you. Thou hast the words
of eternal life. I always thought, he says two.
Isn't that precious? How many hours do you spend on
thinking about that? I get two. That was wonderful. Peter says,
Thou hast the words of eternal life. Of eternal life. He didn't
say two. eternal life. He didn't say unto
eternal life. He didn't say, you've got the words that will
get us to eternal life. He said, you have the words of
eternal life. The words that you speak are life. And we believe
and are sure that they are to Christ. We believe and we know. We know. I believe you, but I
know. I'll be there Tuesday. I believe
you. When you show up Tuesday, I know. You get that? We believe and we know and are
sure that they are to Christ, the Son of the living God. I
pray we can know him. I pray that he puts a desire
in my heart and in yours that we have to have him. Have to
have him. More than our daily bread. More
than water. You can make it three days without
water. I need him more than that. I pray that's our need. Everyone's
need.