This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at www.gracetruth.org and www.anchoringfaith.org. A
people for His glory, by His grace. Let's pray. Fathers, we hear the words from
John's Gospel this morning. We are reminded of what a glorious
and powerful Gospel You have given us. Lord, You have saved
us apart from our flesh, apart from our will, apart from certain
judgment. Lord, You gathered Your people
under the hearing of Your Word this day. And I pray that we
would be encouraged, that we would be admonished, that we
would be set free. Father, that we would be corrected
and taught and everything else that has promised us through
the profitability of teaching Your Word. Father, we pray, we
pray, Lord, that if there is a sheep among us who is doubting,
who is fearful, who is waning, that Your Word today would give
them the grace to see. Father, we pray that this gospel
that is so richly given to us would be empowering to us to
go out and to share it in the world, share it in the darkness. And Father, the darkness will
not overcome the light, for Your Son shines perfectly in the eyes
and the hearts of all whom You've given to Him. They all come. Let us proclaim it. Father, we
pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Today, as we look at John 6, we've got several more weeks
here in this. When you see verse 60, which
is where we are today, it says, When many of his disciples heard
it, they said... This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? And in
all seriousness, I will teach that text today and Jesus explains
Himself again and He explains what it is that they are not
hearing, but it's what they did hear. There's many things being taught
every moment of our lives. Everywhere we go, everywhere
we look, everything we hear, something is being taught to
us. So when we're listening, just vacantly listening, passively
listening, we are learning something. And most of us, we can listen
to something on the radio in our commute, we can watch something
on television, we can read a book, we can hear someone speak or
talk or teach, and we can glean some information and thus learn
something from what we hear. Most of us who never have the
opportunity to do anything related to physics or medicine, etc.,
could learn a little bit about those topics if we listened intently,
if we heard someone teach on them. But see, here in Jesus'
presence at the synagogue, because if you'll notice in verse 59,
it says, Jesus said these things in the synagogue as He taught
at Capernaum. He's at the religious center
of Capernaum where the Jews who had come for the Passover, they
gathered as was their duty and as was their heart to come and
hear the teaching of the rabbis. And here is Jesus teaching these
things about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, being
given to the Father. And they could not hear it. Though they heard it, they could
not hear it. And see, that's what we have
happening here. We have a dual use of certain
words. For example, we hear the word
believe all the time in the New Testament, but many believed,
but they were not believing. We see the idea that people have
faith, but they have faith, but they don't have faith. People
hear, but they don't hear. And now we have people who are
disciples who are not disciples. And so it can get very confusing.
That's why it's important to understand the context of Scripture.
It's important to read it as it's given. That's why we spent
so much time this morning going back through all of those weeks
of teaching just in the text so that it would be fresh in
your minds. Teaching is everywhere. Few grasp
truth. We can glean a lot, we can learn
a lot, but few grasp truth. In this crowd, as it's gathered
here in Capernaum, we find a great deal of different people that
are identified in certain ways. In the text, we have the 12,
which are the disciples of Christ. We have the Jews, which are the
leaders, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, etc. We have the disciples, plural,
which are some of the masses who actually have been following
Christ. And then we have the crowd who
does not follow Christ. So in this, you might find that
it can be confusing if you don't pay close attention because John
is not giving us a full explanation of the narrative. He's not saying
that this happened and this happened and this happened and this happened.
I mean, we wouldn't have enough paper just for that particular
discourse probably to explain everything that happened. John's
gospel would be the size of the Bible. if he did that. And then
it would be missing something. So we have to pay attention.
When he was on the hillside, now he's in the synagogue. And
he's teaching these things. The point is not for us to get
and gather all the details of the ins and outs of the timeline,
but it is for us to hear the truth of Christ, and in so hearing,
have life. To believe in His name, to believe
He is the Son of God, the Christ, and by believing we have life. This crowd claimed to know the
Bible. This crowd claimed to know Scripture. This crowd claimed to be religious. This crowd claimed to know the
gospel. But you know what? Few of them did. Very few of
them actually knew the gospel at all. This crowd in Capernaum
were religious students. And Jesus was just another teacher
in the arsenal of their desire to know stuff. Now think about that in our day.
How many people do we come across who are continually listening
to pastors and reading theologians and reading articles and subscribing
to blogs, interestingly of which all I am, of all the above. You
can read my blog, you can listen to my teaching, etc. But it's
funny that as people begin to listen to teaching, what do we
begin to do to the teacher? We begin to idolize the teacher. We begin to esteem the teacher.
And this is no different in Jesus' day. Even though Jesus was the
right object of esteem, the right object of worship, the right
object of praise, they didn't see Him in those eyes. They saw
Him as just another teacher to give them something else to see. To give them a cooler sense,
a more intimate look, a more headier understanding. And not
only did Jesus come speaking wisdom in such a way that they
had never heard, but He began to do things that they'd never
seen. So He came and He preached a message that was different.
It attached itself to what they knew, but now all of a sudden
there was an illumination. There was something more to what
they had heard. They realized that there was
a greater wisdom with Jesus. So they wanted more. But they
also saw His power. They saw Him feed people miraculously. They saw Him come to the table
of healing. Come to the table of sickness
with healing. They saw Him raise a man from the dead. And so it
intrigued them. Before any of that really got
started, though, we see here in John 6 that these multitudes
who were at the Passover, which pointed to Jesus, actually could
not see Jesus as the Passover. They could not see Him at all. And in John 6, as we've already
heard in 52 through 58, as a way of reminder, these Jews disputed
there in verse 52. Now in verse 60, they're grumbling.
The same idea. They're murmuring, they're talking
amongst themselves, they're having thoughts. So here is this teacher,
Jesus, who's also powerful and they follow after him and they
say publicly, I'm following Jesus, I'm a disciple of Christ. See,
no one that just follows in the peripheral are considered a disciple. But those who walked from city
to city, those who stayed there, those who would say, oh yeah,
I'm with Jesus. Yeah, I'm part of this. I'm part
of this entourage. I'm part of the way. I'm part of the church.
We're all doing this together. This is my rabbi here. This is my teacher. This is my
pastor. I'm following what he says. Well, Jesus puts all this
to the test here in Capernaum. And it blows away all the realization
that we see in our world from finny to present. that seems
so practical and so special and so supernatural, but it shows
you just how tricky the devil is. How deceitful, how wise,
and I say wise in a bad way in that sense, but he is not a fool in his tactics. Some years ago I preached a series
called The Devil in the Pulpit. I don't know if it was worth
anything or not, but I just remember it. and how the enemy uses the
Word of God more than anything to deceive. As a matter of fact,
in Paul's teaching to the Thessalonians in his second letter, he even
says that God will, with all signs and wonders and all power,
permit the evil one, the devil, to preach and do signs and wonders
in order that the reprobate be deceived. How is he going to
do that? Pull out the satanic Bible? No, he's going to pull
out this life. Friends, be very careful. When
I was 20 years old, there was a very wealthy, well-to-do, engaging,
charismatic man who was never even professing to be a Christian,
but he was talking about the things that could be done if
I just had wealth, and if I just sought after wealth. And I'm
going, yeah, he's blowing smoke. He's deceiving me. But he walked
over to a stool and he picked up the fattest Bible I've ever
seen in my life. And he said, some of you are
going, I don't need wealth, but what could you do for God if
you didn't have to work so hard? And I signed up. You see? Even believers can be deceived. Look at the letter to the Galatians. Not permanently, not grossly,
not to the neglect of their faith, but we can be led astray. Why? Because we follow after teachers.
We follow after principles. We follow after that which is,
if we're not careful, we can even gather up teachers for ourselves.
Well, I like this particular doctrine, so I'm going to listen
to those people who teach this particular doctrine to reinforce
my belief. Well, how about we learn that we must listen to
Christ? And that when we listen to Christ through the Scripture,
we will have a very serious confrontation when it comes to what we believe.
I don't care how long we've been a believer, how many years we've
been a pastor, how many years we've been a Bible translator,
when we read the Word of God, it will confront, and I've been
saying that for months, it will confront our theology. And it
should. Because against all of our best
intentions, there is no way to escape The prior learning. No way to escape the way the
culture massages little things inside of us. No way to escape
those nice old grandma anecdotes that supposedly teach us about
God. But how do we overcome them?
Because we are taught by God. We hear the voice of God. We
hear the Scripture. We don't read it in light of
what we want it to say. We read it in light of what it
is saying. But here, Jesus, speaking to
those people who thought He was the best thing ever, all of a
sudden their attitude changed toward Christ. Isn't this the
man that we know? whose father is Joseph? How dare
he? He say, he came from heaven.
See, that's what struck him. Oh, praise the Lord. Oh, wow.
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Yes. All right.
Life eternal. Bread of life. We're with you.
Teach on preacher. Amen. Amen. Wait a minute. You
came from where? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. We're
not going there. We were with you up until you
came from heaven. I want to think that sometimes
the Jews got together and said, he thinks he came from heaven,
let's send him back. We have him killed. He wants to go back
to the Father? We'll make it happen for him." And they probably rejoiced in
the day of Jesus' death. They couldn't believe The Jews
disputed earlier, they're disputing again, and now the crowds and
the disciples of the crowds are disputing. They could not fathom
this offer that Christ would give His body and His blood,
etc. They could not attend to the
reality that Jesus and the gospel of grace, this message and story,
this good news of grace alone, was necessary for them. After
all, look at how good they looked, look at what they were doing.
They were following the Will of God now. Why would they need
some other mediator who was really a nobody? We just tolerated him
because he taught us some stuff, but now he's talking out of his
mind. He's nonsense. That's really how they put it.
Now all of us think, well, I'm thankful that we don't believe
that Jesus is nonsense, but friends, some of us may. Some of us may
think that Jesus is nonsense when we refuse the very high
theology that he teaches in this very chapter of John's Gospel.
When we refuse the idea that particular redemption, limited
atonement, is the gospel of grace. It is the work of God through
which He has saved His elect people. And the hearing of that
is not something that people come to a place and go, wow,
I understand the academics of all this now. I think I'm a believer.
Notice their eyes are awakened by the Holy Spirit and they see
and they cannot imagine any other way but Christ, any other purpose
but Christ, any other gospel but the gospel of grace. But
people hate the gospel of grace and most of the people who hate
the gospel of grace are professing believers. They couldn't grasp that Jesus
who stood before them was really their hope. They could not attend to the
reality that they could not believe in Jesus. When He says, I'm the
bread of life, whoever comes to Me, you will no longer hunger,
you will never thirst. But I say to you that you do
not come to Me, you have seen Me, but you will
not believe. That's what He says. And then He says why that's possible,
verse 37. Because all that the Father gives Me will come. And
whoever comes, I'll never cast out. Can you imagine talking
to the Pharisees and telling them that they won't be cast
out if they just come to Jesus? How dare you speak to us that
way? Who do you think you are, weirdo, to tell me that you're
not going to cast me out? Remember in John 5, when Jesus
says, you search the Scriptures because in them you think you
find salvation, but they speak of me? And he says, I'm not going
to indict you before the Father Moses will, for he wrote of me. This is the will of my Father.
Everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life
and I will, that's an imperative, it's an absolute, it's a promise,
I will raise Him up in the last day. He will have life forever
if the Father gives Him. He will come and He will have
life. Can you see and believe? They could not attend to this
reality that because the Father had not given them to Jesus the
Son, they could not believe. They could not hear that if they
rejected the work of Jesus, that they were rejecting God. They
could not hear that He had come down from heaven, much less as
the true bread of God that gives life. They could not hear that
life at the judgment was found only in Jesus Christ, that only
in Christ would they be raised up again. They could not hear
that God had no respect for their work and their religion and their
piety. They could not hear these words God had no respect for Israel
and the economy of justice. Oh well, I'm going to treat them
a little bit differently. No, He treats all men the same in respect to guilt and justice. Except for His elect whom He
loves, He gave Jesus Christ to die in their place. They could not hear this. They
could not hear that God cared not for their theology. No matter
how close it was. There's no such thing as close.
There's no such thing as inconsistent truth. That's oxymoronic. That's absurd. That's a logical
absurdity. Well, I'm alive and dead. I'm a little bit hungry, but
I'm full. I can't be inconsistent in my
truth. I can't be almost true. I can't be almost there. I can't
have almost the gospel. Almost the gospel is no gospel.
99% faith in Jesus Christ alone and
1% faith in me is no faith in Christ. See, we have played the
game of fairness doctrine when it comes to God and how He deals
with people, and we played the game of fairness and logic when
it comes to how we respond to Christ. Well, I'm almost there. I mean, I've said those very
same things. Well, so-and-so I've been praying
for, he's almost saved. What's that mean? He's almost
saved, he's condemned. Why do I want to put it in the
positive? Because it helps my mind. But is it better to pretend like
nothing's going wrong and just crash and burn in the end, or
is it better to know the truth and labor at the face of God
for His work to be done? It's like when we had that big
excursion where we drove most of the time when we traveled
back and to between here and the West Coast, but we flew once,
all of us. And the plane was going through
some kind of rip turbulence and it was shaking and it was scary. We've flown a lot, the children,
you know, we've never all flown together as a family. And all
of a sudden we lose 3,000 or 4,000, 6,000, 8,000 feet, just
the bins open up, the luggage is falling out. shaking, da-da-da-da-da-da-da,
and Jacob's going, whee! You know? Robin's sitting back
here by the window, I'm sitting in the aisle, two kids here,
two kids here, and I just reach over, I grab her hand, I said,
just make them happy, baby, let them have fun. We were gonna die.
You could sort of see it, you know? You ever had that look?
Just, I love you, I'll see you on the other side. Let the kids
think it's a ride. Well, that's well and good when
an airplane's crashing. It's not well and good when eternity
is in phase. Let's stop playing with the souls
of men by trying to say that they're okay, because they're
almost there. They're in church, they're praying. They bought
a Bible. They still don't even have the
righteousness of the Jews, and they were condemned. There is
no such thing as anything but Christ alone who saves. They could not stand to hear
that Jesus was the mediator of truth and life, that they dare
would need His mercy. After all, they've even asked,
what is it that we should be doing to do the work of God?
Tell us, we'll get it done. See how arrogant that is? Just
tell me what I need to do to be saved and I'll do it. And
Jesus says, believe on Me. And they're like, this guy, this
guy, They could not hear. Look on the Son. Eat, drink,
come, believe. That is what the Father is doing
through me. That's what Jesus was saying.
He's saving a people for Himself. You cannot see because you have
not been given to me. See, that's the stomachache. Why would God, our Father, they
would say, give us to you, son of Joseph, miracle man? Who do you think you are? And He says, I'm the bread of
life. I'm your ticket to eternity. I'm the only hope you have for
your sins to be atoned for. My body and my blood must be
shed so that you could have life. And if there's anything else
that you think you need, you are sorely blind, Jesus would
say. You are blind, and every way
that you have ends in death. Just like your forefathers, they
ate the bread that God gave and they still died. You want to
play games in the flesh? Keep eating dying bread. Isn't
that how this whole discourse started? Do not labor for the
bread that perishes, but labor for the bread that endures to
eternal life. I am that bread, you see? And many of His disciples heard
this as He taught there amongst these people. And they said,
this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can listen
to this? It reminds me of the very physical
actions of what happened in Acts chapter 7. When they accused
Stephen and brought false witnesses against him. Remember. It reminds me of that. Where
he began to preach the gospel from the Old Testament prophets.
He began to go and teach those things. And they were enraged. And he says, and then God sent
His Son, and it's a paraphrase here, and He grew and He was
a man and He was God and He died and He was raised to life. And
behold, I see Him standing at the right hand of the Father.
And the Bible says that they covered their ears and they screamed
out loud to cover the word that He was speaking. And they rushed
upon Him and threw Him over the cliff and stoned Him. So whether it be physical, I'm
not listening to you like our kids, you know, sometimes. Obstinance,
arrogance, pride, spiritual pride. I don't have to hear this. And
they don't. Our own children don't have to
listen. They can do that if they want to. Consequences come. We can
do that with our ears, with Jesus spiritually. The representation
that we see later in the history of the Christian church with
Stephen is the spiritual representation of what's happening here. They
couldn't stomach this. They could not listen to this,
so they could not see. What was their problem? What
is it that they didn't want to hear? All the stuff I just reviewed? They
don't want to hear Because they had their understanding of things.
They had their idea of who Jesus would be for them. See, Jesus
is going to be our King. He's also going to be a great
provider. If He can make food like that, what could He do for
us if He took us away from Rome? If He got Rome out of here, what
could He do? He could gather around the people and feed us
and prepare us. We could amass an army to overthrow
Rome. That's what Messiah is. That's
what they want. Remember the gospel account of
Luke? People were interested in who
John the Baptist would be. Why? Because they wanted freedom
nationally. They had nothing on their radar
that they needed freedom spiritually. What is it that they wanted?
Well, like I said in the beginning, we see this twofold meaning,
faith and faith, and believe and believe, and disciples and
disciples. Here are these people saying they have faith, saying
that they believe, saying that they're disciples, but they're not. They
have none of the above. They're neither of these things.
What could they not handle? Well, the material and the obvious. They wanted Jesus to give them
real bread. Where's the bread? He's talking
about bread. Where's the bread? I need bread. Jesus, you said
not labor that bread to go over there. Get the bacon, buddy.
I got a little bag of bread. Let's go. That's what they wanted.
That's what they were looking for, for Jesus to make more bread. And he's got the power to make
it out of a little bit of bread, make a bunch of bread. He's probably
got the power to make magic bread. Magic bread, and he takes it
out. If you eat of this bread, then that's what they thought.
And then they thought, well, maybe he's talking about manna.
Let's show the manna. What sign do you bring? Where's
the manna? He said, I am the manna. I am the bread." And they're
like, what? I can't handle this. This guy's
playing with my stomach. I want food. Give me bread. This guy's supposed to feed us.
That's the first thing, the material. They couldn't understand why
He wouldn't answer their material needs. The second was their magisterial
needs. What about our kingship, Jesus?
Are you going to be our king? You see, Jesus knew they wanted
to force Him to be king. And so what did He do? He vanished
supernaturally, walked through the crowd. How does that work? He's God. He calls them not to
see Him right there in plain sight. We don't know how that
works. It's not for us to understand how that... It's not like we
could replicate it. It's supernatural. It's divine. Just like God says,
let there be and poof, there's the universe. What's this? God was supposed
to free us. Why? He's supposed to make us bread.
He's supposed to set us free. Now what is He doing? The third
is they were all engaged in the mysterious. They couldn't stomach
the fact that they wanted to see more magic tricks, more miracles. Isn't he going to be our prophet?
What's this God's problem? He's supposed to fulfill us.
He's supposed to give us encouragement in our faith. We're supposed
to walk through life with this guy as our king and our prophet,
doing all sorts of magic, doing all sorts of magic bread baking.
And I use those little funny phrases because it shows you
the absurdity of the Jews and the crowds and the disciples
of Christ at this time. They could not tolerate this
type of teaching. The fourth thing that they couldn't
tolerate was the matters of faith. He came down from heaven? Why is He telling us that we
can't do things this way when that's what we've always done?
Who is this man to tell us how to live our faith, you see? Who
is Jesus to tell us how we should worship? Like he told the woman
in Sychar. Who is Jesus to tell us how we
must be born again? John 3. Who is Jesus to tell
us what the temple is all about? We've been in the temple longer
than Jesus. He came out of nowhere, 30 years.
Nowhere. Who is Jesus to tell us about
our manners of faith? What is wrong with this guy?
We should be teaching Him now. He's lost it. Another issue that they couldn't
tolerate was Jesus' view of Moses. Their patriarch, their prophet,
their lawgiver. Moses gave us the law and we
follow it. And oh, what a wonderful people
we are that God would be pleased with us in all of His glory.
He would shine down and say, look at my well done servants. Jesus said that He was greater
than Moses. He's going to give us eternal life and He rejects
Moses? Because Jesus said Moses didn't give your fathers the
bread, God did. God gave you that temporal bread and they
died, now God gives me the true bread and you live. They hated
that. But the most offensive thing
that finally, the straw, you never heard that, the straw that
breaks the camel's back, it's not that straw. That straw It's
all the other straws. It's all the weight of the other
straws. That's just the one that tips it over the edge. When Jesus
started talking about the meal of His own flesh and blood, that
was it for them. They're like, this man has offended
us. That is gross. That is out of place. This is
not what we want to hear. And now He's just, now He's mocking
us. We're not going to tolerate this.
Who can hear this type of teaching? This is difficult. They could
not see why. He was in the world, and the
world was made through Him, yet the world did not know Him. He
came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But
to all who did receive Him, that is, those who believed in His
name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born
of God, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will
of man. And so they couldn't hear it.
In verse 61, Jesus asked a question. Look at what it says there, though.
Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were grumbling
about this, He asked this of them. Do you take offense at
this? Now they didn't start fussing with him. Oh, oh, you're offended? No, Jesus knew they were offended.
He knew their hearts. Just like at the end of John
2, going into the discourse in John 3, many believed in his
name that day because of the signs and wonders they did, but
Jesus did not entrust himself to them, for he knew what was
in the heart of man. No one had to teach him about
man. Now there was a man in Nicodemus. Boom, here it is, lived out. We're not talking about people
living a debauched lifestyle. We're not talking about heathens
running around violating every aspect of good morality. We're
talking about the most pious, religious, obedient people that
walked the face of the earth in all of human history, and
they said they believed in Christ, but Jesus says everything they
were and every work they did was darkness. And everything they taught was
clouded by the darkness. But Christ is the light. The darkness will not overcome
it. But when you see this, it's bad news, isn't it? As we know
what's going to happen next week, they all leave. They all leave,
except the twelve, because where else are they going to go? They've
lost it all. And they've also been given eyes
to see, most of them. Jesus knew they were grumbling.
And this question that He asked is vital. Those, quote, disciples
were followers of Jesus in a public way. They weren't just fans or
folks wanting to see a miracle. They weren't following Him around
like a bunch of groupies. They were following Him so they
could continue to be taught by Him, so they could continue to
learn and to get what He had for them. They sincerely desired
to know more about this kingdom He spoke of. They sincerely desired
to have a true understanding of what it meant to have eternal
life. They wanted to be able to rightly understand what it
meant to be part of the kingdom of heaven. But now they grumbled. Jesus knew the grumbling was
about this doctrine, this teaching, about His high theology. And
specifically then, because it was about Him, they were grumbling
about Him. Many grumble in our day. As a
matter of fact, if we all would just tattoo some sense in our
minds, that teaching that Paul says to do all things without
grumbling and complaining, man, would our lives be a lot more
pleasant. But I find myself often grumbling
and complaining about the grumbling and complaining around me. Then I end up being just like
them. May the Lord, well, He is merciful. But Jesus knew this
grumble. Many grumble. They think they
know the truth because of the longevity of their understanding,
because of the hours in which they've spent learning the scripture
or the mass acceptance of their vision or their version of truth. Oh, we believe the same thing
we believed for 600 years. But friends, if that's a litmus
test of what is true, oh my goodness. I don't know what to say. Thank
God we don't use the same medicine we used 600 years ago. Thank
the Lord when somebody gets a little bit emotional, they don't burn
them at the stake because they're a witch. Or they find that they don't
want to read the Bible that day, they burn them as a heretic. Just because it's been believed
for a long, long time doesn't make it true. There's this idea
that if something's new, it's probably wrong. Well, what if
it's not new? What if it's just been hidden? That's why we listen to the words
of our Savior. That's why we become students of Scripture.
That's why we gather here that through the teaching of the Bible,
we might be cohesive in our faith. And yes, we're all going to be
challenged from time to time. Even me. Especially me. Many grumble. They trust in their
philosophy, not Scripture. They trust in their logic, not
Scripture. And quite honestly, philosophy,
not scripture, has created much of what we know as truth in our
culture. Well, see, if God does this,
then it must be true that he does this. But the Bible says
he does that. Well, God must be this because
if this is the way God is and this is the way God is, then
this might not be good for God. But God says he is this. Why do we try to make God into
something that He's not? Because it has been the disease
of man since Adam. Did God surely say, the devil
said, you would die? You know what God's doing? God
is actually keeping something from you. Which was true. Death. And I know you've been looking
at that fruit. And I know you've been wondering, why is that fruit
any different than that fruit? Why can't I have that fruit?
Why? Because it was holy. What does that mean? It was set
apart for God's purpose, and He said not to touch it. No difference. Somebody said, well, if they'd
ate of the other tree, they'd have lived forever as sinners.
No power in the fruit, folks. Philosophy has created a caricature
of God But friends, we've already learned this morning through
the hearing of the Scripture that God does teach His people. He saves through
the hearing of the words of Christ. The question then is, can you
hear them? Are you listening to the words of Christ? Unregenerate
man, no matter their profession of faith, they hate the gospel
of grace. They hate it. Friends, if you just look at
the landscape of Christendom today and the major denominations,
you will see pocket after pocket after pocket after pocket of
mainstream people who absolutely abhor the grace of God. They
abhor the grace of God. They will even put sola gratia
on their walls and spit in it by the way they teach. And we're
not to get angry. It's not our mantle. God hasn't
called any of us to be the arbiter of putting these people on their
places. We're supposed to proclaim what
God has done. Let God fight His own battles.
If God needs us to fight His battles, we're in bad shape because
that is a bad God and He has no power. The positive correction that
comes through the teaching of the truth of Scripture and the
admonishment and the warnings and even the rebukes are all
for the sake of protecting and correcting the sheep of Christ. Not for call and foul when we
obviously see the ball go behind the batter's box. Or for out the sidelines. They hate the gospel, they find
ways to stomp their feet and curse and become bigoted and
hateful in their minds like little children. And this question,
it wasn't so that Jesus could have an inquiry with them, it
gave insight to Jesus in His divine ability to know all things
as God. And not only that, but He knew
particularly who were and who were not His intimately. He knew
that when He got on the cross, out of that crowd, who He would
die for. He knew who would be given to
Him by the Father. And they didn't ask Jesus, but
this gave a peek into the hearts of those, quote, disciples who
were not the genuine article. When we invest the time to proclaim
the sure and powerful truth of Christ, those who do not know
Him and will not know Him surely will hold fast to their caricature
of Jesus. These people here, just like
in our own day, are not open to being taught. You notice they
didn't say, Jesus, I don't understand this. It's not like Nicodemus
who said, I don't get this. What do you mean? And Jesus said,
you can't understand it, bro. But he didn't call him brother
because, I mean, he wasn't saved yet, but you see. You don't understand
this, Nicodemus. You're the teacher of all Israel,
yet you don't understand these things, and now all of a sudden here,
you can't understand this. You know why you can't understand
this? Because you're of the flesh, and only spiritual things can
understand spiritual things, so you must be reborn of the
Spirit. These people were not open to
being taught here. They were not seeking to inquire or to question or
to get clarity. They were murmuring amongst themselves.
Can you believe we've wasted all these months? Can you believe
we've been out here all day? Can you believe we had to eat
cold bread? and cold fish. I mean, if I were him and I could
do that, I'd at least warm it up. Microwave hands or something. I mean, you know, we find something
to complain about all the time when we have disdain for the
person speaking. We assume the worst. And these
people assume the worst of Jesus. They murmured amongst themselves.
They posted their opinions in the public venue. Facebook of
first century. You see that? Jesus, He's a heretic. Like, like, like, like, like,
and everybody was liking. Some people were loving. And that's what they've done
there. Nothing's different. It's just a different platform.
It's just a different article. It's just a different opportunity.
It's just a different machine in which you can throw out our
ideas. I would say there were 20,000
people at a synagogue. We'd all be talking to each other on our
phone anyway. They put their opinions out.
They murmured against Jesus. They murmured against the disciples
of Jesus. This is one of the truest examples of what depravity
will do when it's confronted with the truth. It is not broken. It is not brought into a place
of repentance. It does not bring godly sorrow.
Depravity, unless it is killed and a new mind and a new heart
and a new spirit is put in the dead person, This is the outcome. We ridicule that which is true
because it doesn't fit with our understanding. It reveals an
affection for the darkness and builds a case for murder. Why
did God do this this way? Because the whole point of Jesus
being here is that He would be murdered. And He doesn't just ask that
question. Then He asks another question. Verse 62. Oh, you're offended by this?
He knew they were. And so to, in some sense, bring
the point home, he says, well, what are you going to feel? If
you're offended now, what are you going to feel when you see
me ascending into heaven? You take offense at the fact that
I say I come from heaven, and that I am the bread of life,
and that I'm doing the work of my Father, and I'm speaking the
words of my Father, and you don't know my Father because His words
are not in you. That's what Jesus already told
the Jews. You know this stuff got around. These people had meetings
about Jesus. It's the first iteration of deacons
meetings before there were deacons. You think that's bad? Wait till
you see me ascending to where I was before. Jesus adds fuel to the fire.
So you're offended at the good news of me? Wait till you see
this. How much more then will you be offended? Because if the
truth of who I am offends you and the truth of what I'm going
to do offends you, what will it do to you when I prove it? When I'm raised to life and I
ascend to the Father, what will it do to you when I prove it? Jesus says, hey, you're looking
at me, you see me, but you don't believe. You have your version
of my essence, that is of the flesh, but it's because of darkness. When He ascends back into heaven
with the Father, this is going to offend them even more. See,
seeing the miracles, the ascension, the resurrection doesn't save
people. I've heard people argue constantly, well, if we just
see God move, people will come to faith. If we just see this
happen, people will come to faith. If we just see this, people will
come to faith. No, they won't. They won't come to faith. Through
the Word of God, they cannot come to faith. We'll pray God will do this so
that they'll come to faith. They're not going to come to
faith except they hear the Word of God and the Spirit draw them
and give them and save them. seeing miracles, seeing the ascension,
seeing the resurrection of Lazarus, seeing the resurrection of Jesus
doesn't say because why. Because the depraved mind is
hostile to God, it hates Him. Even though it creates a caricature
of spirituality, a caricature of God, a caricature of worship,
it creates some sense whereby man can feel right with God.
Apart from Christ, it is not effectual unto eternal life.
God must regenerate us in order for our hearts and minds to see
and believe. How offended would they be? As
I've already alluded to, the fact that when He dies, I bet
some of them says, well, He's gone to the Father now. But they
wouldn't even joke that way because they probably would say, He's
in hell. When Jesus raised Lazarus in
John 11 and John 12, that's when they plotted to kill Him. What can we say? What can we
do? Nothing. Only God can do, verse
63. It is the Spirit who gives life.
The flesh is no help at all. The words that I've spoken to
you are Spirit and life. This is the last thing I'll teach
today. I'll pick up there next week. See, we cannot trust our senses.
We cannot trust our intellect. We cannot trust our reason. I
like to hear philosophers and apologists say, well, you know,
faith is not blind and faith is not this and faith is not
less, it is. It's blind except from what the
Scripture shows. If I have to undergird the narrative
of this text, it is not true saving faith. It doesn't matter how many manuscripts
that we have of the Greek. It doesn't matter how many bones
of the prophets that we dig up. It doesn't matter how many historical
accuracies, and there are bunches, that are given in the Old Testament.
It doesn't matter. What matters is that only the
Word of God will bring a man to life. The Spirit is the one
who gives life. Jesus is saying and answering
this thing, you think you're offended, you know why you're
offended, because you're gone alive, you have no life in you. The
Spirit must give you life. So he's added something to the
reality of how they can become born again, right? Not added,
but he's explained it. He's already told Nicodemus,
so the Jews, the leaders there, already heard this problem. The
Spirit who gives life. It's the Spirit. The flesh is
no help at all. Don't sit here and try to accumulate in your
mind, your senses, your brain. And then he says, the Spirit
gives life. The flesh is of no help. And
then he says, the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit
and life. What? The Bible The words that Jesus
is recorded saying is the means through which the Spirit of God
brings to life. That's what Paul means in Romans
10, 17. Faith comes through hearing.
Hearing comes through the Word of Christ. The Spirit gives life. You're thinking too much. You're
seeking the wrong thing. You're refusing. You cannot see
Me and believe in Me except that you are born again. These words, the truth of Me
from the Father, full of grace and truth, these words are the
winds through which the Spirit brings your dead heart to life. Our flesh has no power in this
fight to see and eat or come to Jesus. Jesus' flesh, of course,
does profit everything for the sake of the elect, but no one
else. Of course, in His resurrection,
it gives us hope and promise and power. Perfectly, Jesus satisfies
the wrath of God for all those that are given to Him by the
Father. They will have no condemnation. The truth here as we close is
that the Spirit must give life or no man can believe. And the
Spirit gives life through the teaching of Jesus. And Jesus
has taught very clearly here in the multitudes, at Capernaum,
and in the synagogue, and every place else. I get invited to
many meetings and prayer vigils and things all over the place
of communities trying to get together to pray for revival. We don't need revival. We need
regeneration. And a lot good it does to pray
to a false god, a caricature of God. And a lot of good it
does to pray without ever preaching the Word because that's the way
God's going to bring regeneration. We get so overwhelmed with things
like social justice and cultural events and poverty and everything
else. We get so enamored by these things,
and I'm not saying they're not important to a degree, but it's
just like that shoelace I told you about several weeks ago that
I never think about. It's too short until I tie it,
and I think, I'm going to go get one, and I never think about
it again until I put the shoe back on a couple of days later.
On my Father's Day gift, I had a shoelace. So now I'll never
think about it again. The simplicity of what this world
the complexity of what this world offers, it needs the simplicity
of the gospel. Not this complex, powerful organization
of people. And certainly not praying together
and ecumenism to some God that we don't even know. Let us hold
fast to the gospel of grace, and let us remember that Christ
brings salvation for His people by His Word, through the Spirit
of God, because the Father has given them to Him. Verse 64,
I'll read it. There are some of you who do
not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who those who do
not believe, and who it was who would betray Him. And He says
in verse 65, This is why I told you, that no one can come to
Me unless it is granted to him by the Father. Let's pray. Lord,
I pray that as we close out our time today, Lord, as we prepare
for the Lord's table, that we would do so in such a way of
trembling. Father, in such a way of recognizing
that without Your work of divine mercy, without the finished work
of Christ, without the body and the blood of Jesus atoning for
our sins, without the Word being preserved and given to us, Lord,
without Your work fully and only, Your divine work, there would
be no salvation for anyone. But Father, because You have
done these things, You have perfectly saved Your people. Would You
draw them in? Would You draw Your sheep in? Would you cause them to come?
Would you put faith in their hearts and minds? Would you bring
them to a new spirit? Put your spirit, write your law
on their hearts, just as you have done us. Father, we pray
that for those around us in our lives. We pray that for our children.
We pray that for our enemies, that they would be yours, that
you would bring them in. And God, use us as we grow. Use us as we go out into the
world. Use us as we work together as a body for Your glory. And we pray these things in the
name of Jesus. Amen. We come to a time in our service
where we take the Lord's table and ask for you all to just be
in prayer and understand that the Lord's table for me, and
I've said this a thousand times, but it's always not good enough
It's not serious enough. It's not spiritual enough. The
point is it's supposed to be a normal thing. It's a natural
thing. Eating and drinking is a natural
thing that we do. Let us remember what Christ has
done for us through the eating and the drinking of these elements.
Paul reminds us that if we have unforgiveness in our heart, that
we need to let that go to offer forgiveness in our heart toward
others. If we need to make restitution, if we've really messed up, we
need to go and to fix that. Why? Because God has forgiven
us through the body of His Son, through the blood of His Son.
He's crushed Jesus Christ so that He would be just in forgiving
us of our sins. and we have offended Him greatly.
So if God can forgive us through the work of Christ, so can we
forgive each other through the work of Christ. Most of all,
just like we've learned over these last few months in John,
the gospel is ours by the grace and mercy of God, because of
the love of God. And God loved the world in this
way that He gave His only Son. He crushed His Son. He bled His
Son out to be the propitiation for His people. And that's what
we're remembering here. Young people, when you take the
elements of the Lord's table, don't just go, oh, I love this
juice. Think about it. Think about what Jesus did at
that day before He was arrested. And He was sitting at the table
with His twelve, and even the accuser who hated Him, was there and he said, remember
my body. You know, Judas remembered the
body of Christ and he remembered the blood of Christ and he took
his own life because there was no hope found in it for him. Not only is this a sign for us
to remember, it is a means of grace in that we are able to
benefit from the death of Christ. We are able to remember the death
of Christ. And most importantly, everything
that it brings, also because He is alive. Jesus is alive. That is our hope. That is our
assurance. That is our guarantee. Thank
you for listening. We hope that this message has
encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to these messages and
other teaching resources and podcasts at anchoringfaith.org. More information about the church
can be found at gracetruth.org.