Hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, bind the glory, revive
us again. Revive us again, fill each heart
with Thy love. May each soul be rekindled with
fire from above. Hallelujah, Thine the glory,
hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, Thine door of glory,
revive us again. Thank you, Rob and John, and
John Jr. for praying for us, for me. Go back to John 6 now. John chapter 6, read with me
two verses again. This is the title of the message,
and a question we need to be asked. John 6, verse 60 and 61. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, all that he said, They said, This
isn't hard saying. Who can hear it? Remember, Isaiah
said, Who hath believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? And when Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured that it, he said unto them, he asked
them, Doth this offend you? Doth this offend you? And I want
us to ask ourselves. May the Lord ask us this question.
The Spirit of God asks each of us this question as we go through
what he said. Doth this offend you? Because our Lord said, Blessed
is he that is not offended. Amen. And if you can say at the end
of this, Simon Peter said, Go away. You're my life. Not one word you say offends
me, I hang on it. I hang my soul on everything
you say. Everything you say is the truth.
You are the truth. You're the way. You're my life. Offended? Everything about me
is offensive, but nothing about you is offensive. Nothing about
the truth is offensive. Can you say that? There's not
one word in this book that offends me. Well, it offends my nature.
It offends my natural man. It offends my pride. It offends
my old self-righteous man. But, boy, the truth, this new
man, he doesn't offend me at all. Now, no man spake like this man. No one spake with more kindness. No one spake with more mercy. No one spake with more tenderness. No one spake with more compassion.
No one ever spake as he did. There was no real anger or fury in him. No one's faith like Him. Meek
and lowly, none so merciful, none so gracious, sweet, sweetness,
tenderness, kindness, authority, meekness, strength, yes, but
never unkind, never untruthful, never with God, never but total,
complete honesty, and mercy and kindness and compassion to those
He was speaking. But they hated Him. They hated what He said. It's
not this ultimate proof. It doesn't matter how you say
it. It doesn't matter who's saying
it. Men hate the truth. The carnal mind is imitating
it's God. The truth is an offense to man. Everything about the truth is
an offense to man. It offends his self-worth, he
thinks he's worth something. It offends his works, all that
he's done. It offends his righteousness.
It offends his religion. It offends his wisdom. It offends
his ability. It all offends it to him. Our
Lord, everything he said was true. And they said, we can't
take this. That's proof, is it not, that
you must be born again. You must be born from above.
You must be given a new heart to love the truth, or else you
hate it. You must be given the spiritual eyes to see the truth,
or you won't see it. It's as plain as the day till
you won't see it. You must be given ears to hear. You have
ears, but you can't hear unless He gives you an ear to hear. Now, take great comfort, people,
if what we're looking at is not an offense to you. If everything
He says you glory in and you say, yes, yes, yes, yes, and
don't murmur, but rather say, yes, yes. Had not I chosen you, He said.
All right, look at verse, now back in chapter 2, From the beginning, thousands
followed him, thousands followed him, wherever Jesus, the rabbi,
the teacher, the young Jewish rabbi, whom no man has faked
like, even his enemies said, no man has faked like this. And
the crowds, they were drawn to him. He didn't draw them. They were a curiosity seeker,
they were a miracle seeker, they wanted to get food and all that.
He didn't draw them because they came to him and he said, He that
cometh to me. Well, they were there. They didn't
come to him. He didn't draw them. It was these
things that drew them, just like religion today, most people.
Thousands, millions have drawn to Jesus the miracle worker,
Jesus the teacher, Jesus the healer, Jesus this and Jesus
that. And our Lord said He didn't commit
to it. He knew what was in them. Look at chapter 6, verse 26. Do you remember this? He said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, Not because you
saw the miracles. Many came for that reason. Because
you did even the loaves and were filled. Verse 36, look at verse
36. Now there he was standing in
front of them. And he said to them, you have seen me, but believe
not. They were looking right at him.
And he said, you see me, but you don't believe me. He said,
this is the Father's will, everyone that seeth the Son. What's he talking about? He's seeing him with different
eyes than this. Seeing him as more than just a man. Seeing
him as more than just a miracle worker. You've got to see someone
other than that man that walked on this earth. He's got to give you eyes to
see. He rebuked the majority as being
false. Does this offend you? But this opinion, our Lord said
the majority of people are false. He said many were saying to me
in that day, Lord, Lord. He said I never knew you. He
said straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads
unto eternal life and few there be that find it. He said broad
is the gate and wide is the way that lead up to destruction,
and many go therein. He said most people go in there.
There's a way that seems right to man, the end is destruction.
And the vast majority of people are in that broad way of destruction. Does this offend you? Those who have been chosen know
that if it wasn't by His grace, we'd be in that way too. That
we were in that way. But He brought us out of that
way. We were plucked as brands from the burning. Right? They all know that. He said in Luke 13, I was going
to have you turn to this. Listen to this. Does this offend
you? Listen. It's serious. Our Lord said, one day many will
seek to enter in and will not be able. That's what he said. Like when the door of that ark
was shut. You know, everybody, when the rain started falling,
everybody was clawing at that boat, at that door. And God wasn't
going to open it. And our Lord said, many will
seek to enter in that day when the door is closed. When this
gospel ceases to be preached, many will beg to hear one more. He said, they won't be able to.
They're not going to hear them. Does this offend you? Does this
offend you? As I said, none of us deserve
to hear this. We were blind. We were dead. But God. There was a day when He opened
our blind eyes, many of you in here. Opened your deaf ears,
didn't He? Chose you and called you by His grace. Gave you life. If He hadn't done this, you would
never have come. No man can come except the Father
God. Oh, my. Does this offend you?
Offend me? It's my life. Doctrine? The fact that God chose me is
my life. My life. I have life because
He gave me life. I'm here because He chose me. I'm here because He brought me. I know whom I believe. Why? Because He taught me. Flesh and
blood didn't reveal that to me. God sent a preacher, yes, and
I blessed God for that preacher. But it wasn't the preacher, it
was God. It's just so... Oh, preacher,
you're just a glory unto the Lord, what
He's done. Look at, where am I? Look at
verse 28. They said unto Him, What shall
we do that we might work the works of God? And our Lord answered
and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said, What can we do to
get to heaven? What can we do to work the works of God? He
says, Nothing you can do. Nothing. You can't do anything
to get to God. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. There's none righteous. No, not one. It shall be imperfect
to be accepted. In fact, Isaiah 64, 6 says this. Listen. See if this offends you. See if this offends you. Isaiah
64, 6 says, all our righteousnesses, all our works of righteousness
and religious works are minstrel's cloths. That's what that says. God doesn't
pull any punches. He doesn't mince words. Paul
said, done. Done. Everything I did in my
life is done, he said. Does that offend you? Does it? It's just true. Paul said that. He said, I count everything I've
ever done, everything I've ever been, everything I've ever known,
all my religion, everything I thought I did for God, I was lost. There
was no man as moral as the Saul of Tarsus. There was no man as
knowledgeable of the Scripture. No man more zealous than Saul. No one more zealous. No witness
for God ever like Saul of Tarsus. And when Christ came and revealed
Himself to him, the truth to him, Paul said, that's all dumb. All my righteousness, mistress
cloth, be cast out, filthy, vile in the sight of God. Only that
righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's when I want to be clothed
in. That's when I want to be found in Paul. That's where I
want to be found. I want to be hidden. I want to
be covered under the blood. I want to be robed in His pristine
righteousness, because mine are rags. Does that offend you? My brother William Hodges used
to love me. He used to love me. He'd hear
me say this. I said, you know, our religion,
our righteousness, our works and all that that we work up
to try to put on a good front, they're like those hospital gowns.
Anybody worn one? Everybody's been in a hospital,
wears one. We look pretty good up front. Don't turn around. You'll reveal He used to love me. You hear
me say that. But it so ended. We need to be
covered. Hide me, O my Savior, hide me. This is what Paul meant. Oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in Him in that ark, shut
up by faith, closed, pinched with an overflowing scourge of
God who comes by when he sees and looks on the heart. Oh, may
my heart be covered with the blood And all my best deeds,
Scripture says everything in Scripture, the people, the blood,
the book, everything was covered with blood. Oh Lord, cover everything
about me with blood that my sins don't show through. It must be
perfect. Does this offend you? This is the work of God. He says,
it's not your work. You didn't decide to believe
on Me. No one decides to believe on Me. Faith's not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. It's the
work of God. It's according to the working of His mighty power.
Does that offend you? It offends those who say, well,
I made my decision, you know, I decided for Jesus. He was outside
my door one day and I let Him in. That's offensive to God. God's not going to let that person
in His door. Christ said, I am the door. Not standing outside your heart,
He is the door. Maybe He'll let you go through
it. It's His choice. Does this offend you? It offends
the majority of people. Christ came to save sinners. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. I didn't come to call good people. I didn't
come to help those who helped themselves. I came to help the
helpless. I came to save sinners. That's
why I came. Sinners means hell-deserving
sinners. Sinners means Romans 7 sinners that say, in my flesh
let us know good things. He says, what I want to do, I
can't do. What I do, I don't want to do. Oh, wretched man
that I am. Who shall deliver me? That's a sinner. And Christ said,
I'm the deliverer. That's who I came for. Is that
you? Does that offend you? Huh? I see some smiles. Do you know
how blessed you are? This is the work of God. If you
believed on me, you wouldn't. If you didn't, if you didn't,
Verse 37, we looked at this verse, "'All the Father giveth me shall
come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out.'" What he's talking about is divine election. He's talking
about divine predestination. He's talking about God having
chosen a people before the foundation of the world. This is it. The foundation of God standeth
sure. Here it is. Here's where it all
started. The Lord knoweth them that are His. That's where it
all started. God chose a people before the foundation of the
world and gave them to Jesus Christ. Does that offend you?
If He hadn't done that, nobody would be saved. Christ said, All that the Father
chose He gave to me in a covenant, and I came to do for them. Do it all. We're saying, yes, yes, yes,
aren't we? That's my hope that I was given
to Christ. And that Christ came and, buddy,
if He didn't get the job done, I'm gone. If He didn't pay for
my sins, I've got them. If He doesn't present me faultless,
I won't make it. Huh? Does this offend you? Not sinners. Not sinners. See, this gospel is for sinners.
Sinners keep coming to hear it. It never offends them. They never
get tired of it. Say it again. Say it again. Self-conscious people. Let's
go on to other things. Other things. Christ is all. He's the song of heaven. Everybody
in heaven is doing one thing right now. Praising Jesus Christ. Does this offend you? That's
what Christ said. There's the door if anybody wants
to hear something else. There's the door. He said if
anybody loves this, I'm the door. Predestination, verse 38 and
39. I came down from heaven not to
do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me. This is
the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He
hath given me I should lose nothing. He chose them, God chose them
and gave them to me, and His will is, and He does all things
after the counsel of His own will. Man doesn't have a will,
a free will. God has only free will. Only
God has free will. Does this offend you? I'm telling
you this offends ninety-nine out of a hundred people. Why? Because they really don't say,
Thy will be done. They really don't believe that.
They really don't want God's will be done. They want our will,
my will, my will, my will. Give me some credit now. They really don't believe man's
dead. They really don't believe that. They don't believe they're
dead. I'm not that bad. God's not that holy. I'm not
that bad. Just let me accept Jesus. Just
let me have some part of this. No, God says you won't have any
part of this. Does this offend you? The Jews murmured. They kept
murmuring, murmuring. Everything he said, they murmured
at it. The religious Jews, they murmured. The common people,
sinners, harlots and publicans, brother, they loved everything
he said. Mary Magdalene said, yes, yes,
yes, I was dead! I was dead! Not that I loved him! I love sin. Bless God, he loved
me and I wouldn't be here, she said, if he hadn't loved me. Who's getting the glory? Does
this offend you? This is the... If God were to
ask anybody, if he's not going to, because he knows who he is,
if he were to ask everybody that came to heaven's door, why should
I let you in here? Give me one good reason why I
should let you into my heaven. What would you say? Huh? If it starts with I, you're not
coming in. But out of the abundance of your
heart, a heart redeemed by sovereign grace, this mind is in you. If you say,
Christ died, Christ is my hope, Christ is my righteousness, Christ
is my high priest, Christ is my sin payment, Christ is my
only hope. Father, I don't have any hope
in myself whatsoever. Everything I've ever done is
full of sin. My hope is built on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Would you let me in? Come on in. An abundance entrance. Come on in here with the rest
of these sinners. All you good people, cast them
into outer darkness. Is that right? Am I telling the
truth? Does this offend you? I don't
have any rights. I don't deserve a chance to be
saved. I'm sure thankful salvation is
not sovereign mercy. He said in verse, look at verse
43, the jury Jews murmured. He said in verse 44, no man come
to me except the Father which has sent me draw him. And I will
raise him up at the last day. And all the Father giveth me,
all who come, all whom the Holy Spirit draws. He said in verse, look at verse
45, it's written in the Prophets. Verse, yeah, 45, it's written
in the Prophets. They shall be all taught of God.
And as I quoted Isaiah 54, it says, all thy children shall
be taught of the Lord. And he said every man, every
one of his children, his born-again sons that have heard and learned
of the Father, what do they do? They come to Christ. He cometh unto me. Now, you know, all people, all, even
as sheep, come to church at first for the wrong reasons. Like these
people who came because of the miracles, who came to get this
or get that from God, and everybody, until they're born again, they
come for the wrong reason. materialistic reasons, or for
gain. I did. I came to get a good job. I was
a young fella, and you heard my story. You know, I cleaned
up my act a little bit. I needed a good job, and there
was a man who was a contractor, a construction owner, and I knew
he loved my dad, loved the gospel, and I thought he might give me
a job, and he did. That's why I came. Plus, just
happened to be a pretty little girl going there at the time,
too. I came for that. I came for the
wrong reason. All the wrong reason. Until you're
born again, you won't come for the right reason. You won't come
to worship God. You won't come to see Christ.
You won't come. But He draws you. Like we were talking last
night, weren't we, that in that cave where David was, it says
all the men that came to David were in debt, in distress, and
discontent. They were all under that bondage
of King Saul, and the Lord made them discontent. And they ran
up all these debts, and they were in distress. And they came
to David in that cave. He says, he became a captain
over him. He became a captain over him. They came for those
reasons. But then David became captain
over him. He said, alright, I love this story. David said, first thing I'm going
to do, everyone that's come to me, wipe out your debts. Nobody owes a dime right now.
Nobody owes a dime. And he said, you in distress,
peace. I am now your captain. I am now
your captain. No harm will come to you. And
he said, if you're discontent under that King Saul, who's a
taker, a taker, a taker, be happy. I'm here to give. I'm here to
give. I'm here to do for you. I am
now your captain. I have now assumed all to be
all to you. That's our Christ, the captain
of our salvation. He said, O Darius, none hath
seen God at any time. What does that say about all
these Jesus sightings? They're all Paul's. They're all
Paul's. Does that offend you? He said,
look at verse, I've got to hurry, now in verse 53, it says, he
said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat my flesh,
and eat the flesh of the Son of God, and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day." What the Lord is saying here is, unless there's a living,
vital union with Christ, unless Christ is your very bread and
water, unless you hunger for Him like you hunger for food,
you don't have life. Unless his gospel and everything
he says is your very life, you hang upon it. You have to have
it like you have bread, like you must have bread. That you
must eat this gospel and partake of the truth of God's Word. You
must have it. You must, like breathing. If
you're alive, you're going to breathe. You're going to call
on God. He said unless there's this living, vital union with
Christ, you don't have any life. You don't have any life. It's not a bare profession. It's
not a mental assent doctrine. It's not a once a week, part-time
thing. Jesus is a part of my life. That's
not it. Christ said, if you don't live on me, you don't have life.
If this gospel ever ceases to be your necessary food, if you
ever quit hungering and thirsting after hearing of Christ and Him
crucified, you don't have life. You don't have life. This separates the truth from
the fall. It's hard, isn't it? Does this
offend you? Can you say from your heart, I've got to hear this? Can you say, take away everything
and everyone but the gospel? Can you? If not, there's no life
there. Our Lord plainly said this. Does
this offend you? He said if you hate not your
father, your mother, your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter,
your own life also, you cannot be my disciple. Because it's
idolatry. Because you will betray him like
Judas who loved money. You will betray him. You'll sell
him out for someone or something else, and you'll leave. But not
if he's your life, not if he's your husband, not if he's everything
to you. Can you say that? Well, that cuts nothing. It separates
the joints from the marrow. Doesn't it? It separates the
truth. It separates... Oh, Lord. But this offends you? Moses one time stood up, and
all those people, and he said, Who is on the Lord's side? Thank goodness. And the sons of Levi. That's
who came. That's the priest. That's the
truth. They all came. And then Moses said, you know what he said? Strap
on your swords and go kill your brothers. And then he... And who's on the Lord's side?
Now, we're not under the Old Testament law, thank God. We're
not told to do that. We're told to love our brethren.
But when it comes to the truth, when it comes to the gospel,
we justify God, not my dad, not my mom. We justify the truth,
and not my son, not my daughter. It says the Pharisees rejected
the counsel of God against themselves. It says the common people justified
God. And they were baptized with the
baptism of repentance. What they were saying was every
one of us deserved to die, and our hope was in Christ and Him
crucified. In any other way, it's false. And the Scripture says that the
people of God, the true people of God, in the Revelation says,
they love not their lives unto death. And in that story in the
beginning, this morning, we saw that every one of them being
persecuted, it started with Abel. It started with Abel. Cain, two brothers heard the
truth together. Abel, why did he believe it?
God chose him. What was Abel's faith? Blood. One thing, blood. And God accepted
him. Why? Blood. And Cain brought
the best. Cain may have been a nice fellow.
Cain may have been a moral fellow. Cain may have been an upstanding
fellow. Everybody liked Cain, you know. But he brought his
works. And God rejected him. And he got mad at Abel. Didn't
he? He got so mad at Abel, his own brother. His own brother. Why? He's telling him the truth.
Cain, you heard it too. Without the shedding of blood,
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass it over you. Cain,
it's not your word. Cain got mad at Abel. Not that. Cain,
I didn't say it. God said it. You heard it. And
Cain rose up and killed him. And that started in the very
beginning with Abel, and it's continued and will continue to
the end of time. Who's on the Lord's side? And though my flesh and blood
doesn't believe this, I can't say this, and I believe some
people say this, if God doesn't save my mother or my father or
my husband or my wife, I don't want this salvation. If he doesn't
save them, they're worthless. Oh, brother, you missed it. You missed it. Nobody worth saving. Now, does this offend you? He
had mercy on him. He will have mercy on whom he
will. He hardened him. Does this offend
you? I've got a brother that I love
him as much as you love your brother and sister, but he doesn't
believe the truth. And I hope he hears it. And I
hope the Lord will break his heart like he did mine. There's
no difference between him and me. None. We both heard the gospel
when we were raised up. We both heard the gospel. And
he doesn't love it. He hates it. But only by the
grace of God and the mercy of God and the electing grace of
God, he chose me to believe the gospel. Bless God. I know different
than him. I hope that God will break his
proud heart and cause him to believe the truth. I really,
really do. But if God doesn't, God's going to send him to hell. Does this offend you? And he said in verse, look at
verse, Where is it? Verse 63. He said, it's the Spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
That which is flesh is flesh, he said, unless God does something
for you. You're a goner. Does this offend
you? Well, go on now. It's said in
verse 65, he said, I said it to you before
and I'll say it again, that no man can come unto me except it
were given unto him, sovereignly given unto him of my father.
No man can. No man will. No man can unless
God chose him and gave him to me and I came to save him and
I did that. Does this offend you? Does it? From that time forward. Many. We can't take that. We
can't take that. And they said to a man, I'll
have you know I'm as good as the next man. That's right. He's
not good enough. I'll have you know I'm sincere.
Maybe. But that won't save you. I'll
have you know, I'll have you know, God said, Christ said,
verily, verily, I'll have you know. No man. Does this offend you? From that time, and in verse
67, he turned to the twelve and said, will you also go away?
And there's the door. They started filing out the door
about droves. Droves! The vast majority, Mac,
started heading out that door. And he turned to those twelve
and said, there's the door. What did they say? Simon Peter
spoke on behalf of all of them. James and John and Thomas
and Matthew say, tell him, son, Lord, we're not going anywhere. To
whom? Not quiet in and say, what? Where? Why? Because his salvation is
not in a what or where? His own. Lord, you're our salvation. Everything that you are and say,
our life depends on you. Is this you? Is this your salvation? Is this all your salvation? Really
now? Don't say it in your head. I
know Christ is all. Christ is all. Is He really? Is He your
life? Is He your love, your breath,
your hunger, your thirst? He already said that then. It's
not just saying Christ is all. It's Him being all. See, we're not going anywhere,
Lord. We believe, we believe. What do they believe? Not what,
but who. They believe in Jesus? No, they
believe on Him. on Him. They had cast all their
care. People, they had forsaken everybody
and everything. That's what it sounded to me.
We've forsaken all for You. And Christ said, I will never
forsake you. Never. And the only reason you
did that, Simon Peter, and the only reason you did that, John,
the only reason you did that, James, is because I chose Well, how do you think that made
Peter think? Did you hear that? James, John, amen, amen, amen. Does this offend us? It gives us the greatest peace
and comfort. That's the sweetest word we've
ever heard. I chose you. Do you like this or what? far from offended. This is just
glorious. And he chose his own devil. It's
the Lord. He's going to do what He will,
with whom He will. It's the Lord. That's what makes
Him Lord. Oh, but how our Lord, how gracious,
how merciful, how kind, how loving He is. Abundant in mercy. Delights to
show mercy. Abundant in pardoning. Saved
so many. Nondeservantly saved many. And there's still room. The door's
still open. Come to Christ. Okay. Brother John. Alright, so I'll stand and turn
to number 228.