Thank you. No. No. I'll go over here and set it
down. th th th All right. Well, you might have heard something,
but I didn't know. Yeah, he did. Thank you. But they don't know
that. They don't know that. But they don't know that. My
head was buzzing. I couldn't work it. It doesn't
work. But she smelled it. She said, I smelled it. And the top part wouldn't work.
The can opener wouldn't work. The dishwasher wouldn't work. Well, I've got to put over there
now. Mom's going to make me some coffee. Just go home and get
ready. I'll be in a minute. I'll be in a minute. I'll be in a minute. I'll be
in a minute. You're not ready for it. You're
not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not
ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready
for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're
not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it.
You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're
not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're
not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're
not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready
for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it.
You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready
for it. You're not ready for it. You're not ready for it. We was all standing in
the basement. Mom. Mom. Mom. You think he'll
come in? Okay, great. I turned it up a little bit. It's very chilly if you don't... Trying to keep the humidity down,
ain't it? Helps you keep the humidifiers
warm. That's why it's keeping it so
cool. Keeps the humidity down. The humidifier's shocking, isn't it? It is. It works for a long
time. The only way you can bring that humidity down is to run
off the frost level, ain't it? Well, maybe one time in the winter
we didn't do it properly. That was during the colonel time. Yeah, we're lucky to get you. He opened up that door. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Locked and strapped on. Strapped around. Back in there. I respect your happiness. You
care for anything? No, I don't have anything. I don't have anything.
She's got her dishwasher. She's got her dishwasher. She's got her dishwasher. In
her arms. I've had her since I was a little
girl. I've had her since I was a little
girl. I had a headache. I had nausea. I was telling the doctor. But
I'm not recovering today. It was a bad day on set in some
way. I've got a coughing cough. I'll wait here. Sweet for my soul. Sweet for my soul. When I sit at His feet, sweet,
sweet, sweet Lord, my soul. Sleep over my soul. Sleep over my soul. Sweet Spirit, sleep over my soul. Good evening, let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. O the deep, deep
love of Jesus, fast unmeasured, boundless stream rolling as a
mighty ocean in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of Thy love leading onward, leading onward to my
glorious rest above. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread His praise from shore to shore How He loved and ever
loved and changed and never Nevermore have he watches for his loved
ones, died to call them home. of His own. Now for them He interceded, watching
for them from the throne. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every, love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven sweet of rest. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Tis of heaven, of heavens to me. And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me Good evening. I'd like us to turn to the book
of Psalms and let's read Psalm 121 together. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy
foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord
is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee
by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee
from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The
Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this
time forth and even forevermore. Let's pray. Kind and gracious and merciful
Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together tonight, first
of all, to give you thanks, all you're worthy to be thanked.
You've given and provided everything that we have, provided this time of gathering
together to worship, this time of gathering together to open
your word, to hear it preached, to instruct us in your word,
bind through these gospel preachers that you've sent to preach and
tell the truth to this generation. Bless them tonight as they stand
before us, enliven their hearts, liberate their minds, give them
liberty in the word. May the gospel go forth in power.
May Christ be lifted up. Oh, how we thank you for our
dear Savior, Oh, we've heard of him preached his last two
services, Lord, and our hearts have been so encouraged. And
we've learned that he can bear us up. He's a successful savior. We can fully trust him. And we
can trust him with all of our hearts. And we endeavor to do
that tonight. Set him forth in our midst. May
we see more clearly, fill our vision with him and him only.
He alone who can help. He alone who can save. He alone
who can give life. He alone who has saved, has affected
our salvation. His death and his doing and his
dying brought in salvation for all his people. Thank you for
him. He alone is worthy to be praised.
We ask that you'd speak to the lost that may be among us. We
ask you to remember our lost children and our grandchildren,
those that we love. Lord, intervene in their lives. Leave them not to their own will
and their own way. Give them a need. Give them a
need to come and kneel at thy feet and sue for mercy. Thank
you once again for this gathering. We're thankful that you've brought
us here. It's a privilege to be among thy people, to hear
your word preached. May we never forget that. What
a blessing it is to hear the truth, to hear the gospel, to
sit under a gospel preacher. Not just once, but many times,
how we have been blessed. We ask you to go with us through
the remainder of this service. And honor your son as we sit
and hear him preached. We ask these things in Christ's
dear name. Amen. Hymn number 125. If you
heard it in Brother Todd's message this morning, he quoted this
song a little bit different. He said, Jesus paid it all, all
the debt I owed. Let's sing it like that. 125
in our hymnals. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, Child of weakness, watch and pray, Find in me thy
holy home. Jesus paid it all, all the debt
I owed. Sin had left a crimson stain
he'd washed in white as snow. For now indeed I find Thy power
and Thine alone Can change the leper's thoughts And melt the
heart of stone Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin hath left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I Whereby
thy grace to claim I'll wash the garments white In the blood
of Calvary's Lamb Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne I
stand in hymn complete Jesus died my soul to save My lips
shall still repeat Jesus paid it all All the debt I owe Sin
hath left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We're so blessed to have Pastor
Graham Elmquist and his wife, Trish, with us. He pastors the
Grace Gospel Church in Apopka, Florida. Been to his home lots
of times and I think he feels so welcome. You come and bring
the message, Lord, right on your heart, Brother Greg. Thank you, Donnie. Tricia and
I want to thank you for receiving us so lovingly. And it's a blessing to be here
with you. I love you, Pastor. Donnie, I
was thinking about it. I think it was about 30 years
ago when we met. And I don't know where he went. There you
are. Been such a precious, dear friend to me over these years. Shirley, thank you for taking
such good care of us in your home. If you'd like to open your
Bibles with me, we'll be looking at some passages of scripture
from John chapter six, the gospel of John chapter six. After our Lord took those five
loaves and two small fish and fed miraculously 5,000, and then
saved the disciples in the Sea of Galilee. All those things
happened at the beginning of John chapter six. Now he's in
Capernaum. And in Capernaum, we have recorded
in God's word, a sermon that our Lord preached. And at the end of this message,
there were some that listened to what he had to say, and responded
by saying, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? There were others
that heard what he had to say and said, these are the words
of eternal life. I've titled this message, Hard
Sayings or Spiritual Words of Life. Everything that we need
to know about ourselves can be determined by how we respond
to and how we hear what our Lord says, what God says, how we respond
to the gospel. When the gospel of God's free
grace in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ is preached,
men always respond one of two ways. They either say, these
are hard sayings. This is intolerable speech. I
don't want to hear any more of it. Or they will say, these are
spiritual words of life. I've got to have them. I've got
to have them. Men either hate the gospel or
they love the gospel. Those who have their righteousness
taken away from them by the gospel, of course, hate it. And those
who have no righteousness of their own, they love it. They
love it. Before we look at the contents
of this message, I'd like to consider what the scriptures
have to say about the matter of faith. What is it that caused this drastic
difference in response to the gospel? We'll look at that and
we'll consider the verses. But before we do, God's word
tells us that without faith, it is impossible to please him,
that they that come to him must believe that he is, and they
must believe that he's the rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. And so without saving faith, it's impossible to respond to
the gospel happily. We also know from God's word
that saving faith is a gift from God, for by grace are you saved
through faith, and that faith is not of your own. It's not
of your own. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. If we're gonna have faith, God
must give it to us. Faith is not our contribution
to salvation. Faith is not the cause of our
being saved. Faith is the evidence of it.
The scriptures tell us in Hebrews chapter 11 that faith is the
evidence of things hoped for. And so we don't bring our faith
to God in order to make effectual what the Lord Jesus did. God
gives us faith to rest in what it is that he did. The Lord said when they when
the disciples wanted to turn some Children away, the Lord
said, suffer the little Children to come unto me for such is the
kingdom of heaven. Um, that That word, little children,
is not a reference to small children running around. It's a reference
to infants. We have a new infant in our family. And she is completely dependent
on others to care for her, her mother to feed her, to change
her diapers, to help. She can't do anything for herself.
And that's what the Lord said faith was. It's not, it's not, faith is
not us insisting that God do something or making God do something
because we believed it. Faith is what God gives us when
we're able by His grace to hear the gospel. Someone might say, well, doesn't
the scripture say that you must receive? Well, it does. Turn with me in your Bibles,
if you will, to John chapter one. John chapter one. Look with me at verse 11. He
came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many
as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of
God, even to them that believe on his name." We have to receive
Christ. We have to believe on his name.
Don't miss the next verse. Which were born. Which were born. The Lord had
already told Nicodemus, Or he's going to tell Nicodemus, he said,
Nicodemus, you can't, you can't see the kingdom of God until
you're born from above. You must be born of the spirit.
This is a miraculous work of grace that God has to do. And
so, yes, he came into his own, his own received him not. And
as many as received him, to them gave he the right to become the
sons of God, which were born. And look how they were born,
not of blood, not of descent, Not of the will of flesh, not
of determination, not of the will of man, not by decision. We're not born by any of those
things. We're born by the spirit of God.
And and the evidence of our new birth, the evidence of our new
birth is that we believe. That we believe. And If in hearing the gospel, we're
able to respond with faith, then that is the evidence. That is
the evidence that we have a good hope. We have a good hope of
salvation, eternal life. Turn with me, if you will, to
John chapter six. And notice in verse 60, many
therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, when they
heard the message that the Lord had just preached, they said
in response to what they heard, this is a hard saying, who can
hear it? This is an offensive message.
These are hard words. This is an intolerable message
that we refuse to listen to any longer. And they left. Our Lord turned to his disciples
and he said, will you lead me also? Lord, to whom shall we
go? We've got no place else to go.
You've shut us up to yourself. You alone have the words of eternal
life. We know and are sure that the
art the Christ, the son of the living God. Two extreme responses
to the same message. These people were saying, I'm
not going to listen to it anymore. And they weren't offended. By
the manner in which the words were spoken. You know, sometimes
you might hear a person preach or a person talk and you're not
able to hear what they say because of the manner in which they say
it. That certainly was not true of
our Lord. He spoke with such with such
compassion. He's the one that wept over Jerusalem. He's the one of whom the scripture
says he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked.
He spoke with such love and compassion that they could not be offended
by how he said it. It was, in fact, what he said.
It was the content of his message that they were so offended by. They understood perfectly what
our Lord was saying. The gospel is not complicated.
It doesn't require an IQ. It requires an I will. And left
to ourselves, we will not come to him. We must be made willing
in the day of his power. Notice in verse 61, The disciples,
by the way, that are made reference to in verse 60, that word disciples
just simply means followers. These were the same people that
the Lord had fed and that were following after Christ, looking
for another free meal. And so verse 61, when Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, doth this offend you? What, and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before. If you're offended
by this message now, how offended you will be when
you see me sitting upon my throne and are brought before the judgment
seat of God. How needful we are. That the
Lord will cause us to hear these words as words of life. Because left ourselves, we will
be offended by them. Verse 63, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and They are life. These words can only be received
in the power of the Holy Spirit. What did our Lord tell us about
that? If you being evil know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more will your heavenly father give the
Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Lord, I need your spirit. I can't understand. I can't receive
the gospel. I can't rejoice in Christ without
Your spirit. These words are spirit, and these
words are life. There's no life apart from these
words. That which is of the flesh is
flesh. The flesh profit is nothing. It is the spirit that giveth
life. Verse 64, but there are some
of you 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 say unto you that no man can come unto
me except it were given to him of my father. I can remember
as a young boy in school asking my teacher if I can do something. I don't know what it was, go
to the restroom or something. And she looked at me and she
said, I don't know, can you? And I learned that lesson very
quickly, that there's a difference between ability and permission. She wanted me to learn that lesson.
And from then on, it was may I, may I. Our Lord is saying
to us that we have no ability. We have no ability, no man can. This is the message that was
so offensive, that men would be left without any decision
to make, without any contribution to make, without any faith to
contribute, that they would be completely dependent upon him.
If I was gonna title this message, I would title it with Jonah's
words from Jonah chapter two, salvation is of the Lord. And that is exactly what they
were offended by. And nothing's changed. Men are still offended by that.
They're offended by the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace
in the glorious person and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
because it robs them of their righteousness. I was telling Donnie I had a
A couple of cousins come to me recently. They're older than
I am, which makes them pretty old. And they're coming, they
confessed to me, we're coming to the end of our lives and we
really don't have any hope. And we know that you're a preacher,
would you tell us? I was amazed. And we sat for
hours and talked. We sat for hours. And at the
end of the conversation, they agreed that the Bible was the
Word of God. They didn't believe it, but they
believed that it was. They believed that Jesus Christ
was the incarnate Son of God. What they could not accept is
that they were sinners. They could not accept that they
had no righteousness whatsoever. And they walked away like that
rich young ruler, sad. And no one was more sad when
he was sad than the Lord, and no one was more sad for them
than I was. But that's what it came down
to. We cannot accept the fact that something that we have done
doesn't give us some merit and favor with God. It's really not
man's badness that keeps them from the gospel, it's their goodness.
It's not their sin, it's their righteousness. And it's really
the same for everyone. These are hard words. What do
you mean we can't come? These are hard words. Who can
bear this message? You've told you you're telling
me that I have no ability to do anything. Yes. Yes. And then what did the Peter say?
When the Lord looked at them and said, aren't you going to
go with them? Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? These are
words of life to us. That salvation is all of God,
that we can't do anything to save
ourselves, that's our hope. Lord, if you leave anything up
to me to do in order for you to be able to save me, I'm not
gonna be able to do it right. I find no hope, I find no comfort
in a message of salvation that depends upon me to make some
contribution. So what was the content of this
message? Turn with me back to verse 26. Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw
the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were
filled. You listen to most preachers
today. And they present God as someone
who's going to make your life better, someone that's going
to help you have more in this life. Why? Because they that
are after the flesh, they do mind the things of the flesh.
And a man who's only concerned with fleshly things is looking
to God for what he might get. But they that are after the spirit,
they mind the things of the spirit. We spend enough of our lives
minding the things of the flesh, don't we? When it comes to salvation,
the Lord's got to make us mind the things of the spirit. He's
got to cause us to hear. And we know that the hearing
ear and the seeing eye both come from him. We're born into this
world deaf and blind. Salvation is of the Lord. Verse 27, labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give you. For him hath God the
Father sealed. All salvation is in Christ. He's all and he's in all. And
if we're going to be saved, he's going to have to do it all. And the message of the gospel
is I'll do it all and I'll get all the glory. I won't do it
at all. This is offensive to the natural
man. But these are words of life to those who have been made to
be sinners, those who have no righteousness of their own. They
need a savior. They need one who can stand in
their stead before God and present himself on their behalf. They
need one that can make them righteous in the sight of God. To them,
this message is a message of life. To the self-righteous,
they're hard words, unbearable words, intolerable words, words
that will not be listened to. We see the same thing in our
Lord's experience in Galilee, Nazareth, I'm sorry, of Galilee
in Luke chapter four, when he when he began his public ministry,
he went into the synagogue. Now, Nazareth was a very small
town and our Lord lived there all his life, 30 years. These
were all friends and family members. These were people that he that
he dealt with every day. And he stood up, as was his custom,
and he took the scriptures, and he opened them up into Isaiah
61, and he read that passage of scripture. The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, and the rest of that verse. And all eyes were on him, because
after he closed the scroll, he said, this day, this scripture
has been fulfilled. in thy sight. They must have
known that there was something very special about him. How could
you live 30 years with the incarnate son of God and not be impressed
by him? And they thought they wondered,
the scripture said, at the at the gracious words that proceeded
out of his mouth, and they thought this is the son of Joseph, because
they knew that that was a prophecy of the Messiah. And they thought,
perhaps, could it be possible that this one that we've known
and been around, that he's the Messiah? And then the Lord Jesus
said to them, a prophet is not without honor, saving his own
country. And then he said to them, you're
going to say, physician, heal thyself. You're not gonna hear
the words that I have to say to you. Then he interpreted what
it was to be the Christ, the anointed one, the sovereign one
in salvation. And he said to them, he said,
in the days of Elijah, there were many widows in Israel, but
God showed mercy upon none of them except for the widow of
Sarepta, of Sidon. She was a Gentile. And then he
said, in the days of the prophet Elisha, there were many lepers
in Israel, but God showed mercy upon none of them except for
Naaman the Syrian. Oh, that hope that they had was
now turned to rage. Those were hard words. Our Lord
was saying to them, salvations of the Lord. God has mercy upon
him who will have mercy and whom he will, he hardened. And they. Tried to murder him. They tried to murder him. And he. Looked away, went his
way, the scripture said. He just went his way. The gospel always has one of
everything we need to know about ourselves, we can see in what
the responses that we have to this glorious message of salvation. I don't want a message of salvation
that depends upon me to do something. I'll never be saved if I've got
to do something. If God doesn't do it all, if
he doesn't do it all, in election, in redemption, in regeneration
and sanctification and glorification. If he doesn't do it all, I won't
be saved. I won't be saved. Look at verse 28. The Lord rebukes
them because he says to them, you're just interested in in
a free now. Think with me for a moment that
You know, the Lord's not talking about physical labor for material
needs that we have in this world. Labor's an honorable thing, and
a man that doesn't provide for his family is worse than an infidel,
and God gave us work, and we do that. He's talking about laboring
for God to give us only the physical needs to feed the body and not
the soul. These were poor people. The work
that they did, they worked just to be able to eat and just to
have a, so a free, a welfare system that would provide them
free food all the time. That was very appealing to them.
But when they heard the message, they were willing to forfeit
any hope of having free meals every day rather than having
to listen to that. Verse 28, then said they unto
him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God?
They heard labor, so what labor can we do that we might work
the works of God? How can we do something for God? And Jesus answered and said unto
them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he has sent. Now, our Lord's not saying to
us or to them. You want to do God's work? Have
faith and that will be that will be your work for God. No. No, this is the work of God that
you believe. If you believe, then that's the
evidence that God's done a work for you. The faith is not the
cause of our salvation. Our Great granddaughter was just
born a few weeks ago and. Thankfully, she was born alive. And as a evidence of that, she
breathed. She breathed. Breathing was not
the cause of her life. Breathing was the evidence of
her life. This is the work of God. that
you believe. If you believe, that's the evidence
that God's done a work for you. If you're able to say with Peter,
Lord, we've got no place else to go and we've got no one else
to go to. These are words of life to us. It's all we've got. We've got no place else. We love this message. We love
a message of salvation that takes us out of the equation when it
comes to being saved. A message of salvation that is
done completely by God from start to finish. A Savior who is the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last. That's what we need. Verse 30, then said they therefore
unto him, what signs showeth us then that we may see and believe
thee? What doest thou work? What are
you going to do to prove to us? Our father, you see, they're
still thinking physical food. They're hoping that he's going
to do for them what God did for the children of Israel in the
wilderness, provide manna every day. Our fathers did eat man
in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, barely, barely, I say unto
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father
gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread.
They're still thinking about physical food. And Jesus said unto them, now
here's where it gets very offensive to them. Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth in me shall never thirst. Reminds
us of the woman at the well, doesn't it? Lord, give me that
water. Give me that water. But I said unto you, verse 36,
that you have seen me, also have seen me, and believe not. All
that the Father giveth me. Don't miss that. All that the Father giveth me.
There's election. Shall come to me. I'm not going to lose one. Everyone that my father chose
In the eternal covenant of grace, they will come. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out, you know, for a long time, I thought
that that meant if you come to Christ, he won't turn you away.
I understand this verse a lot better now, I think. Once you
come to Christ. Through the faith that he gives
you, you can never be turned away. He that cometh to me shall never
be cast out. What a hope. I didn't do anything
to earn it, and I can't do anything to lose it. Kept by the power
of God. Or I came down not from heaven
to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. He came to save his people. And
he accomplished the work that he came to do. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am
the bread which came down from heaven. They're offended because
he's claiming to be God. For what work? For what good work, the Lord
said to the Pharisees, do you stone me? And they said, what?
Not for a good work, but because you being a man have made yourself
out to be God. Men are offended. We'll not have
that man reign over us. Those that have been given faith,
Lord reign over me, reign over me. And they said, is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? See, they're
looking at his humanity. And they know that what he just
said was that he came down from heaven. How is it that he said, I came
down from heaven? How can that be? He's like us. And Jesus, therefore, had answered
and said unto them, murmur not among yourself, no man can Come
to me, except the father which hath sent me, draw him, and I
will raise him up at the last day. For it is written in the
prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the father cometh unto me.
What's the evidence that I've heard from God, that I've heard
the gospel? What's the evidence that I've
been taught of God? I've come to Christ. Come to Christ. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. How do we come? Come with an empty hand. Come,
we come as babes, dependent upon him for everything. Verse 46, not that any man has
seen the Father, save he which is of God. He has seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me, don't miss that verb, hath everlasting
life. Again, the Lord is saying that
the evidence of having everlasting life is that you believe. He
didn't say, he that believeth on me will have everlasting life.
He says, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. It's
the only evidence we have, brethren, that we believe. When our Lord said to Martha
in John chapter 11, there in Bethany, after her brother had
been dead four days, Martha said, Lord, I know my brother will
rise in the resurrection. And the Lord Jesus said, Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me
shall never die. And he that he that dies and
believeth in me or he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. And then our Lord said to Martha, Believest thou this?
Believest thou this? What did Martha say? Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ that should come into the world.
Thou art the Christ that should come into the world. Verse 48, I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat man in the
wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
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. Then
the Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this
man give us his flesh to eat? They couldn't hear. Most offensive thing that a Jew
could ever hear would be a suggestion of drinking blood and cannibalizing
the flesh of a human. And that's what they're hearing.
Why? Because they're not hearing the
words that I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are
life. They were hearing them only as natural words and making
interpretation of them to their natural life. Then Jesus said
to them, barely, barely, I say unto you, except you eat the
flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in
you. Now, the flesh of the Lord Jesus
Christ is his life. It's his life. And it's like
we were we were reminded this morning that we have a new history
because his life becomes our life. So. Everything that he did in
the perfect obedience to his father. Becomes our life when
we look to him for all of our righteousness. and everything
that he did in shedding his precious blood as an atoning sacrifice
for our sins. We drink his blood when we look
to his death on Calvary's cross as the only hope of being justified
in the sight of God. So all of our righteousness is
by his perfect obedience, and all of our justification is by
his perfect death. And without The life and death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have no life in it. He's talking
about believing on the life and death of Christ. Who so eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. John puts it like this, this
is our boldness in the day of judgment. What boldness do I
have to stand in the presence? The Lord, we've already read,
the Lord said to those who said, these are hard sayings, who can
hear them, you think this is offensive, wait until you see
the son of man sitting upon his throne and you have to stand
before him in the day of judgment. What boldness can we have? in
the Day of Judgment. John tells us this is our boldness
in the Day of Judgment. For as he is, so are we. Our union with Christ is our
boldness in the Day of Judgment. He is his life and his death.
That's what our Lord's saying. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, I am in him and he's in me. Here's our life before
God. Men don't want to hear this message. If the life of Christ is not
all of my righteousness before God, I have no righteousness.
If the death of the Lord Jesus Christ is not all of my justification
before God, I will not be justified. That's this message. That's the
whole sermon in the synagogue at Capernaum. Salvation is of
the Lord. And he gets all the glory. And
he's done all the work and his people love it. And the unbeliever
hates it. There's no middle ground. Verse 57. As the father, as the
living father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that
eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which
came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can hear
it? They knew exactly now what the
Lord say, and it's we we can't tolerate this. It is the spirit, verse 63, that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, it is of God that showeth mercy. We
can't hear this gospel message and think, okay, I'll do that.
I'll believe that. But there are some of you that
believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore say
unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus to
the twelve. Aren't you going to go with him? I've learned over the years.
That if it's possible. To leave the gospel. Eventually
you will. How many people we've seen come
and go. And our Lord's invitation, you
know. I was part of a. False religion that we used to
have invitations. We get people to come out of
the pew and come down front and pray a prayer and that sort of
foolishness. What is our invitation? What's
the Lord's invitation here? Leave if you can. Leave if you can, and if you
can, you will. And what did Peter say? Lord,
to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? Lord, you alone have the words
of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. We love this message. It's good news to us. That salvation is of the Lord,
that's that's the most wonderful message I could ever hear. That
I can trust his life for my righteousness and his death for my justification
before God and that God's not looking for me to make some contribution
to that. Oh, I can rest there. I can rest. But if there's something I've
got to do to make what he did work for me, I have no rest. I have no rest because I'm sure
of this. I wouldn't do it right. I wouldn't
do it long enough. I wouldn't do it good enough.
I wouldn't do it sincere enough. And I'd be damned for my part. And notice in verse 70. Jesus
answered. Have not I chosen you, twelve? And one of you is a devil. He knew. When Paul went to Rome in Acts
28 and preached the gospel, the scripture says some believed. And some believe not. Some believed
and some believe not. That always happens every time
the gospel is preached. Some believe, some believe not. Years ago, I was taught and I taught that
these doctrines of election, predestination, Particular redemption,
irresistible grace. These doctrines of Calvinism
were only for the well-trained, the theologian,
the one who could. These were things that could
only be debated among the knowledgeable. These were the meat of the gospel
is what we used to say. Oh, I don't believe that for
a moment. This is the this is the milk of the Gospel. This
is the milk of the Gospel. You know what the meat of the
Gospel is? The meat of the Gospels love. That's what the meat of
the Gospel is. These precious doc. Oh, a brand
new baby in Christ might not be able to define them. But you
ask them, do you believe? Do you believe that God? reigns sovereign over all men. And in order for anyone to believe
that he has to choose them and make them willing in the day
of his power. You believe that? Oh, well, if he doesn't, I won't
be saved. That's what every child of God
would say. Do you believe that when the Lord
Jesus died on Calvary's cross? That he was successful in accomplishing
the redemption of all of his people. And that it was purposed
to save God's elect. Well, yeah. How could he fail?
How could he fail? Do you believe that if you're
going to be kept in the faith that he's going to have to keep
you? You're just as dependent upon him now to be kept as you
were to believe. Yeah. Yeah. These are words of
life to me. I've got to have them. This is
all my hope. And what David said. Though my
house be not so with God. David made a mess of his house,
but he's also talking about the tabernacle of his flesh. Though
my house be not like it ought to be. Yet he has made with me
an everlasting covenant and that covenant is ordered in all things
and that covenant is sure. And David said, this is all my
salvation and this is all my desire. My only hope. These are words of life. Brethren, faith, believing this
message of salvation that gives to Christ all the glory that
heralds our God as sovereign and successful. Is the message of life to the
sinner, to the self-righteous? Hard words. Not going to tolerate
them. Nothing's changed. Most preachers, they set a hat
out here and say, this is Jesus. And if you want him, you bring
your faith, put it in that hat. Bring your obedience, put it
in that hat. Bring your tears and put it in that hat. Bring
your sincerity and put it in that hat. And then all that will
make what Jesus Christ did for you effectual. But Christ, what
he did for us was effectual before I was ever born. Thou shalt call
his name Jesus. and he shall save his people
from their sin. That in and of itself tells us
that he's successful. He shall save his people from
what? Worst enemy they got, sin. Thank
you, Greg. Oh, that's so good. That's so
good. Listen, amen and amen and amen. All right, let's see. And Rebecca,
Mary's gonna sing, is that right? Y'all come on. Keep the Father's love for us. I'll ask beyond all measure that
He should give His only Son. The pain of searing loss, the
father turns his face away. As wounds which fire the chosen
ones bring many sons to glory. My sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed I hear my mocking voice. How loud among the scoffers. It was my sin I held him. until it was accomplished. This dying path has brought me
life. I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. But this I know with all my heart. His wounds have paid my ransom. But should I gain from his reward,
I cannot give an answer. But this I know it was. His wounds of pain my ransom. Well, Roosie, you know me and him met in 1976. He even had hair back then. Came up