Let's open the scriptures to
the Gospel of John chapter 6. Going back to the book of John
chapter 6. The subject of the sixth chapter
is Jesus who is the bread of life. And this is certainly the
theme that runs through most of the chapter. If you look at verse 35 of John
6, Jesus said unto them, He said to the Jews who followed Him,
He said to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. Go over to verse 48. He makes again this tremendous
statement, I am that bread of life. He says, your fathers did
eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which
comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not
die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." He
goes on to say, the Jews Therefore strove among
themselves, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And then our Lord goes into the
matter of believing him that is illustrated by feasting on
the Savior. Believing is the eating of his
own flesh. As he says, this is symbolic
language for feasting on the living bread that God has sent
down from heaven. You'll notice though in the 52nd
verse, the Jews therefore, they strove among themselves saying,
how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They just didn't
understand what the Savior was speaking about. Here's a man
that they thought they knew who he was. They said, this is Joseph
and Mary's son, and now he speaks about coming down from heaven. He says, he's the bread of life. He says, you've got to feast
on me. You've got to eat of me. And
they're confused. They don't understand why they
find this so confusing. What was the reason for their
lack of understanding? Well, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Scripture says there
in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14, there is foolishness
to him. Neither indeed can he know them
because they are spiritually discerned. Our Savior is speaking
of spiritual feasting, a spiritual eating. But He is speaking to
men, most of them, were yet dead in trespasses and in their sins,
and this just went right over their heads. They had no comprehension
of what he was talking about. They heard him say he was the
bread. They heard him say that they
must eat of him. They're absolutely confused.
They're confounded. And even more, they're offended
by what he had to say. They can only understand things
in a very fleshly way. Because they had no spiritual
ability, they had no spiritual understanding, there was the
absence of spiritual life, and therefore the absence of spiritual
discernment, the absence of spiritual understanding. Just as they could
not understand later when He says, I am the way, He would
say, I am the door, He would say, I am the vine. They could
not understand those things. They could only see them in a
visual way or in a literal way, and no spiritual comprehension.
Well, this is indeed the theme that runs through most of the
chapter, that the Lord Jesus is the bread of life. But, though
this is certainly the most obvious theme of John chapter 6, there's
another subject that goes throughout the chapter. And this is the
subject we'd like to look at this evening. And I'll give this
message this title, False Disciples and True Disciples. Now as you begin chapter 6, you
don't really pick up on this theme. You really don't perceive
it. It isn't until you get to the
end of the chapter that then you realize, oh, He's been speaking
first of all of false disciples. And then He identifies those
who are His true disciples. So this is really the Maybe we
call it the hidden thing that goes through John chapter 6.
You'll notice that the chapter begins with this way, chapter
6 and verse 1. After these things, Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a
great multitude, they followed Him. They followed Him. He has
many followers. And we know these are disciples.
Now, let's define the word disciple. It doesn't mean a true believer. Though every believer is a disciple
of the Lord Jesus, yet every disciple is not a believer. Let me say that again. Every
believer is a disciple. Every believer, everyone who
rests in the Lord Jesus, everyone who has fled to Him for life
everlasting. Everyone who is washed in His
blood, everyone who is robed in His righteousness is indeed
a disciple of the Lord Jesus. We are students of the Savior. But every disciple is not a believer. Every student is not a believer.
Everyone who sits at the feet of the Lord Jesus is not a believer. And that is obvious as we get
to the end of the chapter. Because as you get to the end
of John chapter 6, you read in verse 66, and I always remember
this scripture because it's John 6, 66. There are three sixes. 666. I'll tell you what 666 stands
for. Failure, failure, failure. Because in the Bible, six is
the number of man. And man is a failure. He is absolutely
a failure. God made man on the sixth day. And man failed before God. Man failed in the transgression. We are failures. So I always
remember this reference, and that is kind of the hook that
I... You know, it is always good to have a little hook to remember
things by. So 666, John chapter 6 and verse
66, here is the failure of man. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. The chapter begins
with many disciples. Lots of disciples. In fact, a
multitude of disciples and it looks so wonderful. He's never
had this many disciples throughout His public ministry, and He's
winding up His second year of His public ministry. In about
a year, He will give His life a ransom for His people. It looks so good at the beginning
of the chapter, but at the end of the chapter, we realize that
all of these people who said they were disciples, All of these
folks who listened to Him, learned from Him, they sat at His feet.
They said, you are a rabbi, you are the master teacher. Most
all of them left, never followed Him again. These are false disciples. But, there were also some true
disciples. Because the Lord Jesus said in
verse 67, then He turned, or then He said under the twelve,
will ye also go away? There goes all of the disciples. There they go, most all of them,
except for you men. I mean, this is thousands and
thousands of people. I don't think we realize just
the extent of this. We don't realize what a multitude
has left Him. They had followed Him, they had
listened to Him, and now they will listen to Him no more. They
are offended by His teachings. They sat for, I don't know how
long, but for a certain period of time, they were willing to
listen to Him and they appeared to be followers of the Jesus
of Nazareth. But then His words, His words,
they offended. They were offensive to these
people and they left Him and followed Him no more. And so
then He turns to these twelve men and He says to them in verse
67, will you also go away? You men are disciples as well,
just like all of these. You have sat at my feet. You
have listened to my teaching. You have called me rabbi. Now
will you also go away as these are going?" And there they left,
a big crowd of people. And then Simon Peter answered
and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words. The words. These other people
were offended by His words. What He had to say, His teachings,
His doctrine, His words. Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that Christ, the Son of the living
God. Of course, of those twelve disciples,
there was still a false disciple. And he begins to speak then in
verse 70, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? So out of all the multitude of
the disciples, only eleven are true disciples. So here is really
a breakdown of all the chapter, John chapter 6. False disciples,
true disciples. What about these disciples? These
false disciples. What are some of their characteristics?
Let me give you several things here. Number one, these false
disciples. Number one, false disciples are
influenced by the crowds. By the crowds. It starts off
a great multitude. You know what will draw a crowd?
A crowd will grow up. A crowd, right? You have a bunch
of people get together and other people drive by or back in these
days they walk by and they wonder what's going on over there. It's
a crowd that draws a crowd. And here are these multitudes
that follow the Lord Jesus. And on the surface this seems
so exciting. This is absolutely thrilling.
He's never had this many before. And I expect of these 12 men
that we know as the 12 apostles? Don't you know when they saw
all of these people beginning to follow their Master Jesus
of Nazareth, these men are so encouraged, they say, the Lord
is really blessing us. Oh brethren, the Lord is blessing
us today. Look how many we have! Look at
the multitudes! Look at the crowds! And as more
people came, that drew even more people! All of these! This multitude is what John says. Look at Matthew chapter 4. And
I'm going to send you to several different scripture locations
this evening. We know a crowd draws a crowd. And look at Matthew chapter 4
and verse 23. And Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom. And he went about healing all
manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
His fame went out. He becomes famous. Went out through all Syria. They
brought unto him all sick people that were taken with all kinds
of diseases and torments and those which were possessed with
devils and those that were lunatics and those that had the palsy,
and He healed them, and they are following Him. Great multitudes. Now there are great multitudes
following Him. Now there are people from Galilee,
they are from Decapolis, they are from Jerusalem, they are
from Judea, from beyond Jordan, they are from everywhere. Multitudes
of people were following Him because a crowd draws a crowd. Go back to John chapter 6. Surely something Good is going
to happen here. At least we would seem to think
that way from the evidence before us, a great multitude. Something
is going on. Look at all the crowds. Even
after the Lord fed the thousands of people, 5,000 men plus women
and children, the next day there were still many more people who
were following Him. They took to their boats to find
Him. Here in John chapter 6, look at the 22nd verse. The day
following. This is following after our Lord
had fed the multitudes. The day following, when the people
which stood on the other side of the sea, they saw that there
was none other boat there, save the one wherein to His disciples
were entered. And that Jesus went not with
His disciples into the boat, but that His disciples were gone
away alone. John tells us, "...howbeit there
came other boats from Tiberias, nine to the place where they
did eat bread. After that the Lord had given
thanks." Verse 24, "...when the people therefore saw that Jesus
was not there, neither His disciples, they also took shipping." Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of them. And they came to Capernaum seeking
for Jesus. And when they found Him, they
found Him. These multitudes of people, they
finally found Him. They're looking for Him. And then they began to have a
little conversation with Him. Then our Lord broke out in a
lengthy sermon. Which in the end, we know, greatly
offended them. And the vast numbers that had
begun to follow him, they began to leave. Must have been something he said.
What did he say? We'll get to that in a little
bit. But here's the first thing, false disciples are influenced
by the crowds. Even as they came, they went. And you know, I suspect that
as the people left, a lot of them, they left because others
left. Because, once again, crowd follows
a crowd. I wonder where they're all going. Why are they leaving? I don't
know, but if they're leaving, I'm leaving as well. That's the
way it usually happens. I don't know what happened. I'm
not exactly sure of what he said, but hey, listen, these people
are more learned than I am, and if they see the need to leave
and desert this teacher, hey, I'm going with them. And so as
quickly as the crowds were drawn to him, that's how quickly they
left him, and the reason was what he said. What he said. Not what he did. But what he
said. Now here's the second thing about
false disciples. False disciples are attracted
by the unusual. What was it that motivated so
many people to follow Jesus of Nazareth? Well again, go back
to the beginning of John chapter 6, the second verse. And a great
multitude, they followed Him Because they saw His miracles.
They saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased.
The miracles. Look at verse 26. This is the next day, the Lord
speaks to all of these people. They wanted to know how He got
there. Verse 25, when they found Him on the other side of the
sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? And
He didn't answer them. Now we know how He got there.
He walked on the sea, then He got into the ship with His disciples,
and interestingly enough, in another passage of Scripture,
immediately they were at the other side. immediately and miraculously
they were on the other side. But He doesn't tell them how
He got there. But He shows, He sees their hearts. He knows them. Jesus answered
them and He answered them this way and it wasn't the answer
that they were looking for. I tell you, you can ask the Lord
some questions Oftentimes, He won't give you the answer that
you expect to hear. It will be another answer. It
will be an answer that you need to hear. They said, whence came this thou
hither, Rabbi? Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek Me not because you saw
the miracles, and if I could just stop right there, He's saying,
not because you saw the miracles and now you believe Me. Now you
believe that I am who I've said I am. I'm the Son of God. You seek Me not because you saw
the miracles and now you've come to this conclusion. This man
is indeed the Son of God. This is the Savior we need. This
is the promised Messiah who will save sinners from their sins.
You seek Me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. In other words, You're looking
for another miracle. You're looking for more excitement.
You're looking for something else unusual to happen. He knew their secret motives.
They were not attracted to him because they needed him. It wasn't
because they needed him to save them. It wasn't because They
needed Him to make them righteous. It wasn't that they needed Him
to forgive their transgressions through His substitutionary death. But only because they did eat
of the loaves. And they wanted to be eyewitnesses
to more miracles. Because that which is unusual
is what draws the false disciples. They did eat of the loaves. It
reminds you of what happened back in the second chapter. Go
back to John chapter 2. It's virtually the same situation.
In John chapter 2, and look at verse 23. Now when he was in
Jerusalem, John chapter 2 verse 23, now when he was in Jerusalem
at the Passover, In the feast day, many believed in His name,
many. Here are the multitudes again. They believed in His name when
they saw the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit
Himself unto them because He knew all men. And the word men
is italicized which means that our translators who who did such
a good job on the scriptures, there's no question about that,
and I believe that the authorized version is the best translation
that there is, King James Version. But there were some times when
these men, they were trying to make completed sentences and
that sort of thing, kind of finish a thought, they went ahead and
put another word in, and when they did that, they did do us
a favor in italicizing it. And really, here's the idea,
but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all.
He knew all about the people. He knew their thoughts even as
He knows us. He knows all. There isn't anything
that He doesn't know as God. And this again is the mystery
of the incarnation that we talked about Sunday night. Our Lord
learned. He learned obedience as a son
and as the son of man, as the man Christ Jesus. Indeed, He
did have to learn and He learned quite well. And he learned rapidly. But as the Son of God, there
wasn't anything he needed to learn because he knew all. He
knew all. He knew the hearts of men. Even
as he knows us tonight. He doesn't have to learn about
us. He doesn't have to wait until we do something and then investigate
our act and then determine the value of it or the uselessness
of it. No, He already knows. He knows
all. He knows all about you. He knows
all about me. He knows all about our motives.
He knows all about our thoughts. He knows all about our imaginations. He knows all. He knows if we
are false disciples or true disciples, He knows all. Because all things
are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do. His eyes of fire, they penetrate deep into our innermost
being and He sees us just as we are. He knew all. And He didn't commit Himself
unto them, because He knew all. He needed not that any should
testify of man, for He knew what was in man. He knew if there
was faith there, and He knew if there was an absence of faith.
He knows all. Well, these false disciples,
what is it that drew them to Jesus of Nazareth? What is it
that excited them about Him? It was just this. He did unusual
things. He performed miracles. I mean,
even Nicodemus said, no man can do the things that you do. No
man can do the things that you do. He did things that nobody
else had ever done. That drew the multitudes. And you see false disciples,
they love that which is unique and that which is different. Go to, look at Matthew chapter
13. Matthew chapter 13. Look at verse 53, Matthew 13,
53. You know the well-known parables
of Matthew chapter 13. Well, after He had finished them,
verse 53, it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these
parables, He departed thence. When He was coming to His own
country, He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they
were astonished and said, Whence hath this man this wisdom? and
these mighty works. Is not this the carpenter's son?
Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren James and Joseph
and Simon and Judas? And his sisters, are they not
all with us? Whence then hath this man all
these things? And they were offended in him.
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honor, saving
his own country and in his own house. And He did not their many
mighty works because of their unbelief. These people are looking for
things that are different. Things that are unique. Go back
to our text in John chapter 6. John chapter 6. We know that in verses 14 and
15, they were ready to make him the king. After this great miracle,
John 6, 14, then those men, when they had seen the miracle that
Jesus did, said, this is of a truth, that prophet that shall come
into the world. And then our Lord knew, He perceived, verse
15, that they would come and take Him by force to make Him
a king. He departed from them. He knew that this sort of activity,
this miracle specifically, filled them with a desire to anoint
Him as the new King of Israel and as the King who would implement
an earthly kingdom in Israel once again. This is the prophet
over to chapter 7. Let me show you this. Look at
John chapter 7. And by the way, when you get
to John chapter 7, and it's a good chapter division here. You know,
every once in a while we'll say as we're studying the Scriptures
that maybe it's unfortunate where a chapter division is, but it's
really, it's a good division here between John chapter 6 and
John chapter 7. And I wrote this in between those
chapters Because there's a gap between six and seven months. Between John 6 and John 7. So
you can just kind of, if you want to write that in your Bible
or remember that, there's a gap there between six and seven months. After these things, it says in
John 7 and verse 1. After these things. Months later. Months later. Jesus walked in
Galilee, for He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought
to kill Him. So this is months later. Things
had got so heated, the people in Jerusalem and in Judea had
become so angry He spent most of the rest of his ministry in
Galilee, except for brief visits into Jerusalem or into Judea.
However, here in John chapter 7, the Feast of Tabernacles was
drawing nigh, and our Lord was, He came to be obedient under
the law. He said, I didn't come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it. And part of his duties in being
made under the law was to obey every facet of the law which
required him to attend the three great feasts in Jerusalem. And
so he does go to the Feast of Tabernacles, but he doesn't go
in a real public way. Not like he will enter into Jerusalem
on his triumphant entry there just before his death where there
was a great parade for him. No, this time he kind of flies
in, not flies in, he goes in under the radar. He walks in
under the radar, so to speak. And then he goes to the temple.
Look at verse 14. Now about the midst of the feast,
and this is the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus went up into the temple
and He began to teach, He taught. And the Jews marveled, the Jews. Now, we've run into this expression
before, and when you see those two words, the Jews, most of
the time it's talking about the Jewish religious leaders who
were very hostile against our Lord Jesus. They marveled saying,
how does this man know letters? How does he know the Scriptures?
The word letters is also translated Scriptures in 2 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 15. How does this man know the Scripture?
How does this man know the Word of God having never learned? He didn't go to our schools.
He's not accredited by us. He wasn't instructed by one of
our famous rabbis. So how does he know the Scriptures? And Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine, my doctrine is not mine, it didn't originate with
me, but it's His that sent me. If any man will do his will,
he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh
his own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the
same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. And then our Lord
continues, He says, Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none
of you keepeth the law? Why go ye about to kill me? The
people answered him and said, Thou hast a devil. Remember,
these are the Jewish leaders. They said, Thou hast a devil.
Who goeth about to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto
them, I have done one work, and ye all marvel." Let's stop right
there. Our Lord has done many works, right? He's done many
works. But He is specifically making
reference to one work that He did that really stirred them
up. What was it? The healing of the
man at Bethesda. on the Sabbath day. That's the
work. That's the one that really goaded
them. because He did it on the Sabbath
day. It's in John chapter 5. The man
who was lame for 38 years and our Lord walked through and this
was the only man that He healed. Our Lord healed him. He said,
rise, take up thy bed and walk. Gave him a threefold command.
The man rolled up his mat and he walked on his way. And the
Lord did it on the Sabbath day. It really stuck in their proverbial
crawl. And they were ready to kill him
because later he then said that God was his father and they picked
up stones to stone him. They wanted to put him out of
business because he not only did the work on the Sabbath day,
but he said God was his father, thereby making himself equal
with God. And now our Lord Jesus, He's
back in Jerusalem. This is months later. But they
hadn't forgot that. Legalists don't forget things
like this. This has irritated them so much,
it stuck with them. This man is a Sabbath day violator. And they didn't realize that
the one before them whom they said violated the Sabbath, He
is the Sabbath. He is the fulfillment of the
Sabbath. The law of the Sabbath is, thou
shalt do no work, rest. When it comes to salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt do no work. Rest in Him who finished
the work of redemption by His death upon the cross. Now watch
what he says. Watch his reasoning. Verse 22.
Moses therefore, he says, gave unto you circumcision. Gave him
the law of circumcision. Not because it's of Moses, but
of the fathers. And ye on the Sabbath day, you
circumcise a man. In other words, baby boy is born,
eight days later, he's got to be circumcised and named. Correct? Circumcised and named. And if the eighth day happens
to fall on the Sabbath, that's okay. That's okay, you take him
to the priest and the priest circumcises the little male boy. He says, you don't think anything
about that, but you're doing a work on the Sabbath day. Okay,
verse 23, if a man on the Sabbath day receives circumcision that
the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry at me because
I have made a man, watch it, every whit hole on the Sabbath
day. You don't get upset with one
of your brothers when he has a little boy, his wife has a
little boy, and they're joyful and everybody goes to the circumcision
of that little boy, and the day that he's to be circumcised is
on a Saturday. It's on a Sabbath. And you have
a festival, it's a celebratory time, that's when he's officially
given his name, and you're joyful at that, but you're still all
upset, you're still twisted out of joint because I performed
a miracle on the Sabbath day, and I made a man every way whole. And I take that to mean He made
him whole body and soul. Body and soul. I tell you, the word, a hole,
means salvation. I saved him. That's what Christ
says. I saved him. I rescued him. I delivered him. Not only from
a physical infirmity, but from a spiritual infirmity. I dealt
with him outwardly and inwardly. He's made every wet hole. And
yet you're upset. You can't get over that. He says in verse 24, Judge not
according to the appearance, but judge a righteous judgment.
Well then said some of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom
they seek to kill? But lo, he speaketh boldly, and
they say nothing unto him. Do the rulers know indeed that
this is the very Christ? How bid we know this man whence
he is? But when Christ cometh, no man
knoweth whence he is. Then cried Jesus in the temple
as He taught, saying, You both know Me, and you know whence
I am, because He had told them. And I have not come of Myself,
but He that sent Me is true, whom you know not. But I know
Him, for I am from Him, and He has
sent Me. Then they sought to take Him,
but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet
come." Now look at verse 31. And many of the people believed
on Him and said, when Christ is coming, will He do more miracles
than the miracles which this man has done? Our Lord has made
some bold claims here. I know God, He said. I came from
God. And He says at the last statement
of verse 28, Whom you know not, you don't
know God. Wow. You don't know God. This one who knows all, who sees
all, he looked at these bloodthirsty religionists, these self-righteous
religionists, these men who are trying to work themselves into
God's good favor, he looks at them, he says, I know God, I
came from God, but you men, You don't know God. And they
sought to take him, take hold of him. But many said they believed
on him. And it had to do with the miracles.
The miracles. You see, false religionists,
they like, they love, and they've got to have things that are exciting. Things that are unusual. Things
that are different. What do we have to offer here
at 13th Street Baptist Church? Well, this is exciting to us. The gospel is exciting. The gospel
of grace. But we don't offer what I hesitate
to call churches. They're really goat pastures.
But we don't offer what other religious establishments offer. They offer exciting things. Exciting things. Things that
appeal to the flesh. Things that grab the attention. And you know what? That's what
the world wants. False disciples flock to that. They love that. They love entertainment. One church here in town, I saw
in the newspaper the other day, once a week they show a family
movie for everybody. Just come on and get your popcorn
and your Coke. The world loves that. It's kind of exciting. You get to watch a free movie. Churches offer things like, we'll
bless your bikes. We'll bless your pets. Wow. A lady in Michigan told Nancy,
she said, her church, her priest, blesses her golf clubs. And Nancy said, well, does it
do any good? She said, no. Duh! What can you learn from
that? Oh, but it's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. It's exciting. Oh, He's going
to bless our bike, our motorcycles, our pits, our golf clubs, all
of these exciting things. Well, what do we have to offer?
The gospel of free grace. What are you doing for your young
people over there? Well, we're not entertaining
them on the way to hell. That's for sure. What we're trying
to do is preach the gospel to them. Tell them the truth. But false disciples, they thrive
on excitement. Excitement. I'll tell you something else.
False disciples, they're interested in the carnival rather than the
spiritual. Look back into chapter 6 and
look at verse... well, first of all in verse 15, I don't even have to read the
verse to you, but they are interested in Jesus establishing an earthly
kingdom. But He says to them, look at
verse 27, He says, labor not, or literally stop laboring for
the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life. In other words, labor for that.
You're only interested in that which is going to perish. You're
only interested in the carnal. You're only interested in the
things that are temporal. That's the natural man and that's
the false disciple. Interested in the carnal rather
than the spiritual. And you can sort of draw from
that last point that I gave. We know how to build a bigger
church or at least a bigger religious program. Offer things that appeal
to the natural man. He'll bring them in. Have a healing
service. Have a church ball team. Let's
build a family life center. Let's buy some property back
here and knock down the house and build a family life center
and put a gymnasium in it and a bowling alley and a swimming
pool and a week fill this place up. Because that appeals to the
natural man. That which is carnal appeals
to them, but not that which is spiritual. But I go quickly, fourthly, False
disciples are, by and by, offended by the Word of God. That's the
big thing. They're offended by the Word
of God. I don't know how long these people followed Jesus of
Nazareth, but I do know this, I know two things about them.
They found His Word offensive, and therefore they left. Because it says over here in
chapter 6, look at verse 15, Chapter 6, verse 60. Many therefore
of His disciples, when they heard all of His teachings, said, this
is a hard saying. This is an intolerable saying. This is offensive language. Who
can hear it? In other words, I don't have
to listen to this. I was preaching one time and
there was a man seated just about where you are, Ron. And he got
up, and he said, I don't have to listen to this. Stormed out
the door, didn't he, Nancy? Out the door he went. He was
a real hothead, too. And then we heard the door slam.
He went out. And then we heard the door open
again, and Nancy was afraid he was coming back with a gun. Offended. I don't have to listen
to this. And that's the way these people
were. We don't have to listen to this! Well, what offended them? Well,
several things in his doctrine. Number one, his divine commission. Over and over again, he said
the Father sent him. Number two, his own eternality. The Father sent him from heaven. It indicates his previous existence. Number three, divine election.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. There is divine
election and effectual calling. They got offended. The Father's
will of salvation. This is the Father's will. That
all those whom He has given me be with me. They come to me. Of all which He has given me
I should lose nothing but raise it up at the last day. What offended
them? His teaching on human inability. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me. Draw him, and I'll raise him
up the last day. What offended them? The necessity
of being taught of God. They shall all be taught of God.
What offended them? The necessity of believing on
the Lord Jesus. What offended them? The substitutionary
death of our Lord. They tripped over these truths. No wonder the Apostle Paul wrote
in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, we preach Christ crucified. To the
Jews, a stumbling block. They stumbled over His doctrine. Oh, the miracles, wow! They were
wowed by His great miracles. But He taught them as one having
authority. And they said, we don't have
to listen to this. We're out of here. We like seeing the miracles,
but we hate this doctrine so much, we're not going to stick
around to see any more miracles. We're gone. In short, what offended them?
Look at verse 63. He said, it's the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words. Ah, that's
what got them. The words that I speak unto you.
Their spirit. Their life. They don't want spirit
because they're carnal. And they don't want life because
they're dead. It's what He said that offended
them. It's His words. Which leads me to say this finally. False disciples will eventually
leave. They'll eventually leave. The water gets too hot for them,
they got to jump out. It's like we read, our brother
read to us in the reading from 1 John chapter 2, Terry read
for us, they went out from us, but they were not one of us.
If they had been one of us, they would no doubt have continued
with us. But they went out that they might be made manifest if
they were not all of us. They left. You remember what
the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter 4? He was writing to
Timothy and he said, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this
world. And then he said, and everybody
in Asia left me. They all forsook me. I tell you, Apostle Paul, that's
nothing new. Multitudes left the Savior. And I'll tell you some of the
saddest words in verse 66 of John 6. From that time, many
of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. There is such a finality to this. No more. I'm not going to listen
to Him anymore. I won't put up with that teaching
anymore. I'll not have that doctrine anymore! Goodbye God! Goodbye Jesus! We're gone. They signed their
own death sentence. Because they left Him who is
the life. Who is the way to God. What about
true disciples? Well, just go down the line.
True disciples are not influenced by the crowd. Whatever the crowds
do or don't do, that don't have any effect upon us. It's not the crowds, it's Christ
Jesus we want. True disciples are attracted
to the person of Christ, not what He does. Oh, we stand amazed at what He's
done, all of His miracles. We stand amazed at what He's
doing now. And we stand amazed at what He's going to do. But
mainly, we're amazed at Him. We're caught up with Him. His
glories. True disciples are interested
in the spiritual. Peter said in response to the
Lord's question, will you also go away? Peter said, well, where
are we going to go? You know what He said? Thou hast the words.
The same words that caused those other people to stumble and fall
and leave, Peter said, that message, that's what we want to hear.
They said, we'll stand right here and listen. Because you've got the words
of eternal life and we believe we're sure you're the Son of
God. And true disciples are not offended by the Word of God.
You can't offend God's people. Not with the Word of God, you
can't. You show them in the Scriptures, in the context of what the Word
of God said, they won't get mad at you. It may hurt God's people,
it may whip you a little bit, it may rebuke you a little bit,
but the child of God will come up to you and hug you and say,
thank you for telling me the truth. And I'll tell you one
last thing about a true disciple. He won't leave. He won't leave. Will you also go away? Where
are we going to go? Where are we going to go? You've
got the Word. It's your gospel. We'll just stay. We'll just stay. And our Lord said, well, eleven
of you will, but one of you is a devil. Peter said, we believe and are
sure you got the words of life. That's that last song. You got
the words of life. Wonderful words of life. What
is it? 234 wonderful words of life.