Let's open our Bibles again to
John chapter 6. I want to make very, very plain
this morning that salvation, eternal life, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is eternal life. Knowing Christ and believing
Christ, we have salvation, eternal life in Him. So, we preach Christ. We preach Him, who He is, what
He did, why He did it, and where He is now. That's the issue in
salvation, is Christ. He's so much the issue that everyone
who believes Christ has eternal life. And everyone who does not
believe Christ is damned. That's how essential to salvation
Christ is, and that's how simple the gospel is. If you believe
Christ, you have eternal life. If you don't believe Him, you're
damned. And what I want us to see this morning in our Lord's
conversation with these disciples, and when we read here of His
disciples, these are not just referring to the twelve, it's
referring to learners, those who have followed our Lord. I
want us to see in this conversation our Lord has with them, how He
teaches us that He is salvation. and how we lay hold of salvation
through faith in him. That's what I want us to see
this morning. Now, my first point is this. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God. He's not like God. He is God. He's not a reformer. He's not
a good man. He didn't come here as an example
to people. He is God. He says in verse 48, I am that
bread of life. Now look back in Exodus chapter
3. I am, the Lord says, that bread of life. Now I am is a
very important name of God. Here Moses is speaking to the
Lord, or the Lord is speaking to Moses at the burning bush.
And he's told Moses, you go down to Egypt and you tell Pharaoh,
let my people go. You bring my people out of Egypt,
out of bondage. And verse 13, Exodus chapter
3. Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you. And they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, Thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. This is the name of God. And our Lord Jesus took this
name, I Am, to himself many times in his earthly ministry. He said,
I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the true vine. I am the
resurrection and the life. I am God. He's very plain about
that. I'm God. And these Jews understood
exactly what our Lord was saying about himself. Now you see this.
As we finish up this chapter, they don't believe him, but they
understand exactly what he's saying. Here are a few chapters
in John chapter 10. They'll take up stones to stone
him. He said, well, I've done all these wonderful works. What
work are you stoning me for? He says, not for one of your
miracles, not for one of your works. It's because you make
yourself to be God. Well, he made himself to be God
because he is God. I am, he said. Lord Jesus Christ
is God. But second, the Lord Jesus Christ
is also man. He is the God-man. He said, I
am that bread of life. Now, our Lord uses an earthly
picture of bread and eating here to illustrate a spiritual truth.
When he calls himself bread, He's using bread as a picture
of his humanity, how God became a man. I know that's exactly
what he means when he's talking about bread. He's talking about
his humanity. Because at the end of verse 51, he said, the
bread that I will give is my flesh. He's saying that God became
a man. The Son of God took on him flesh
and blood and he became a real man. Brother Scott said he became
as much God as if he were not man. As much man as if he were
not God. The God-man. Now why did he do
that? Why did the Son of God become
man? That's my third point. Christ
the God-man is essential to salvation. God became a man because there
is no salvation without the Lord Jesus Christ. That bread, he
said. Not just any bread, that bread. There's no salvation apart from
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 48, I am that bread of
life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven. The man may eat thereof and not
die. A Christ is what every sinner
needs. He's that bread. Just like every
human being needs bread. And you can substitute food for
bread. Every human being needs food.
Every sinner needs the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't live without him.
Christ is the exclusive Savior. There's one way of salvation.
There's not many ways. You know, you go your way and
I'll go my way. We both end up in the same place. No, sir. There's
one Savior. He's the exclusive Savior. He
is that bread. There's no other bread, no other
Savior, no other sacrifice that will give spiritual life. None.
These Jews were so caught up with the manna. The manna won't
give life. Everybody ate, it's dead. It
can't give life. Well, just like the manna can't
give life, there's no other bread. There's no other Savior other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only way of salvation. If you look over in Galatians
chapter one, because there's no other Savior, there's no other
gospel. If there's just one Savior, then
there's just one gospel, right? Gospel means good news. If there's
just one Savior, then there's just one message of good news. In Galatians 1 verse 6, I marvel
that you are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another. It's not another, but there be
some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we
preached unto you, let him be accursed. Let him be damned to
hell when Christ comes. As I said before, so say I now
again. In case you didn't hear me, let
me tell you again. If any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you have received, let him be accursed. There's
just one gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any other
gospel other than salvation in Christ alone without any contribution
from the sinner in any way. Any other gospel other than Christ
alone is a perversion of the truth. And people who preach
it and people who believe it will be damned when Christ returns.
That's just so. That's how essential to salvation
Christ is. Now salvation is not in doing
any fleshly activity. Just like doing the fleshly activity
of gathering the manna and eating the manna didn't give the children
of Israel eternal life. They ate that manna every day
for 40 years. All eating that manna did was
give them physical life for a while. Just for a while. They had the
manna every day. What happened to them? Most of
them died in the wilderness. Why did they die in the wilderness?
Because the manna ran out? No. Unbelief. Unbelief is why they died in
the wilderness. The manna can't give eternal life. Christ is
that bread which gives eternal life. There's just one Savior.
And the lesson for us here, we don't have manna, but we have
manna. In our day we have plenty of
fleshly activity to do that men call religion. And the lesson
for us is don't get caught up in that junk. The fleshly motions
of religion. It cannot give life. Can't do it. Now, I'll give you
a little funny illustration of that. My grandfather, my mom's
dad, he was famous in my family for making this statement. He
always said, doing the dishes will fix whatever's wrong with
you. Now, I never heard him say that. He had a stroke when I
was a newborn, and he never could speak, and I didn't really get
to know him well. He died when I was a boy, but I never heard
him say it. But I'm telling you, I can't
tell you how many times I heard, doing the dishes will fix whatever's
wrong with you. After dinner, oh, my stomach's
hurting, I can't do the dishes. Well, doing the dishes will fix
whatever's wrong with you. This was the saying that was
supposed to eliminate the objections to doing the dishes after dinner.
Well, I became a parent, and I used the same statement on
my children in an effort to eliminate the objections to doing the dishes
after dinner. Whatever's wrong with you, doing
the dishes will fix it. Well, one day, Savannah, I said
something about my grandfather. Grandpa Livingston always said,
and Savannah said, yeah, but he's dead. It didn't fix what
was wrong with him. Eventually, it did it. Doing
the dishes is a good idea. Can't give you life. Can't give
you life. And man, I can't eat. Bless the
activity of religion sounds like a good idea. Can't give life. See, these Jews, our Lord was
talking to. He's talking to them about this manna because they're
still hung up on this idea of a free lunch. Remember, the Lord
fed them with the miracle of the loaves and the fishes, and
they want more of that free food. And remember, they told him,
now, we'll believe you, but you got to prove to us you're greater
than Moses. Moses gave the children of Israel free food for 40 years.
You just give it to us once. You know, trying to manipulate
him into giving him more free food, more free lunches, more
earthly blessings. And it's like our Lord is telling
him, yes, that's true, but they're dead. Don't you want something
better than manna? Your father's had manna in the
wilderness and they all died in unbelief. Don't you want something
better than manna? Don't you want living bread,
bread that'll give you life? The people that ate the manna
are dead because there's no saving power in it. It's just bread
for the flesh. In all what the world calls religious
fleshly activity, there's no saving power in it, just like
the manna. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal life. It's not in
these fleshly motions of religion. Christ is that bread of life.
Now, do you want, do you need life? Do you need eternal life? Then go to Christ. He is eternal
life. Trust Him. Take Him. Come to
Christ and lay hold on Him. Believe Him. Trust Him for all
your salvation and you'll have eternal life. That's the only
place you find salvation is in Christ. There's salvation in
no other. Now, our Lord uses this example,
this earthly example of bread to show us, to teach us a spiritual
truth. Well, here's my fourth point.
Before bread, can give life to anybody. Grain's got to go through
a certain process, doesn't it, before it becomes bread that's
useful. Well, before Christ can give life, before He can give
eternal life, Christ the God-man must die. Verse 51, our text,
John 6. The Lord says, 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,
here's specifically what I'm talking about. That I will give
is my flesh, which I will give, which I will sacrifice, freely
give for the life of the world. Not just the Jew, but the Jew
and Gentile alike. Now before grain can be eaten
as bread, it's got to grow until it's ripe, doesn't it? Well,
that's our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53 said he should grow
up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.
He grew. He's ripe to the right time of
God's appointing. And then at that time, the grain
has got to be cut down. When it's ripe, it's got to be
cut down and harvested. The Lord Jesus was cut down in
the prime of life. He didn't die of old age. In
the prime of life, about 33 and a half years old, he was cut
down. After the grain's harvested,
it's got to be beaten to separate the wheat and the chaff. The
Lord Jesus Christ was beaten, and not just by the Roman soldiers.
The Roman soldiers' beating of the body, the flesh of our Lord
Jesus Christ gave us a hint about how his soul was being beaten
by the Father for the sin that was laid on him. He made his
soul, he makes his flesh an offering for sin, but he made his soul
an offering to sin for God. The wheat and the chaff are separated.
The grain has got to be combined with the necessary ingredients
and baked in an oven before it will be bread that will give
life. Christ must be made sin for his people. He was combined
with the sin of his people. And the Father caused all the
sin of God's elect to be charged to him. He became guilty of it.
He was combined with that sin and Christ suffered for that
sin in the fiery furnace of God's holy hatred of sin. That's the bread of salvation.
Christ our Savior freely gave his flesh as a sacrifice for
the sin of his people. And his sacrifice accomplished
the redemption of his people. His sacrifice gives life to everyone
for whom he died. But now he's got to die. He must
die. If Christ does not die, there's
no salvation. If Christ comes, God the Son
made flesh. He walks this earth. He reveals
the Father to men. He reveals the Father's will.
We see him on the Mount of Transfiguration, how he glistened. Pulled back
that curtain and showed the glory of God behind that flesh. And
then he sent it back to the Father. There'd be no salvation. In order
for there to be salvation, the sacrifice must die. The grain must die. Christ must
die for the sin of His people. He must shed His blood as remission
for the sins of His people. For Scripture says without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission. There's no other payment.
The holiness of God demands that before a sinner can receive eternal
life, Christ must die. as a substitute for his people
and shed his blood to satisfy God's justice. And he freely
gave that sacrifice as an offering to God for the sins of his people.
But now fifth, Lord Jesus Christ is God. He
became a man. And that God-man is essential
to salvation. There's no salvation apart from
him. Faith in Christ is also essential
to salvation. Look at verse 53. Then Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, 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 again, our Lord is using
a picture here of earthly things, of eating food to picture a spiritual
truth, saving faith. Eating is the way our bodies.
Our flesh gets the nourishment that it needs to live. Faith
is the way we receive Christ into our souls to give eternal
life to our soul. Now man fell by eating, didn't
he? Adam ate that fruit. He fell. He died. All the human
race died in him. Men fell by eating. Man fell
by eating. Men will be saved by eating. Adam fell when he ate that forbidden
fruit and men will be saved by eating the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, this is not actual eating in either case. It wasn't the
bite of the forbidden fruit that caused Adam to die, is it? And
it's not physically eating the body of Christ that's going to
cause us to live either. Adam didn't die because the fruit
that he ate was poison. Adam died because he rebelled
against God in his heart. He sinned against God in his
heart. And sinners are saved when we believe Christ in the
heart. It's saving faith, not when we
eat the actual body of Christ. That's just a fleshly activity.
It's believing Christ in the heart. Now, our Lord here is
teaching saving faith in Him. You must believe Christ. Now,
bread, green food, what's going to do you any good? You've got
to eat it. It must be eaten. You know, you
could come to, or get ready to come up to Thanksgiving. Buddy,
there's going to be spread on the table, isn't there? You can
admire that table. The best china set out on Thanksgiving. Best china. You can admire the
china. You can admire the fancy napkins. Maybe somebody knows
how to fold napkins in the shape of an animal or something. You
can admire that. You can admire there's a variety of silverware
on this table. There's a lot of it. I don't have any idea
how to use it. When are you supposed to use
when? But I can admire it. It sure is pretty. You can even
know how to fold the fancy napkins. You can even know when to use
what silverware when. You can know how the food was
prepared. You can know the best ingredients
to use. You can know how those ingredients
work the best under specific cooking temperatures and specific
cooking times. You can know all that and starve
to death. You sure can. You can admire all that and starve
to death. Now, I know this makes me sound
like a typical man. I don't know most of what Jant
does in the kitchen. I really don't. A lot of it's
a mystery to me. But I'm not going to starve.
Because my question is not, what are you doing? How did you do
that? Here's my question, when do we eat? That man's not going
to starve if his question is, when do we eat? The exact same
thing is true spiritually. You can know all these things,
but the question is, when do we eat? You can claim to know
all the hows and wherefores of Scripture. You can claim to know
all the dark mysteries of Scripture. You probably don't, but you can
claim to know all those things. You can claim to know what it
means for sin to be imputed to Christ. You can claim to know
what it means in those three hours of darkness when Christ
offered his blood before the Father. You can claim to know
what that transaction, that mysterious transaction between the Father
and the Son was. You can claim to know that. You can claim to
know the exact moment a believer is made righteous. You can claim
to know what you got to believe about this, that, and that in
order to be saved. Like I said, you probably don't, but you can
claim to, and you can impress people with, you know, what you
think you know. You just write words and things.
You can impress people. You can know all that and perish
in hell. Here's the question. When do
we eat? When do we eat? When's Christ
going to be preached? God give me the ability to be
there and God give me faith to believe what I hear about Christ
preached. That man will never perish. When
do we eat? Because he's eating, he's believing
Christ the living bread. Now, it's important that we get
this thing of eating and living in the right order. It's important
we get this thing about believing and having eternal life in the
right order. You don't eat in order to get life, do you? You
eat because you're alive. Look what our Lord says in verse
54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life, and I raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat
indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. You eat because you have life.
If you tried to shove food in a dead corpse, You're not going
to give life to that dead corpse. You're just going to make a mess,
aren't you? You eat. That food that you put in the
mouth of a dead corpse can't give that corpse life. You only
eat because you already have life. And that eating sustains
the life that God's given you. The exact same thing is true
spiritually. Faith. Believe in Christ. That's
not the cause of eternal life. Our faith's not the cause of
life. Christ is the cause of eternal life, right? Faith is
the result of eternal life. You have a hunger for Christ.
You feed on him because you've been born again and God's given
you spiritual life. A newborn baby doesn't nurse
in order to get life. That newborn baby begins to nurse
right away because he has life and he eats to sustain that life.
Well, you'll never believe on Christ if God gives you life.
Ask God to give you life. Then you'll be able to feed on
Christ. Then you'll believe him. And the moment you're born again,
you'll begin feeding on Christ. You'll have a hunger for him.
He'll taste good. You won't want nothing else because
God's given you life. And you'll continue to feed on
Christ alone. Because you have life, not in
order to get life, but because you have life. If you stop eating,
it's because you're dead. If you lose your appetite and
stop eating real quickly, you're going to be dead physically.
Well, if you don't believe Christ, it's because you're already dead,
you're still dead and you just revealed you don't have saving
faith. But if you believe Christ, here's the mark of a person who
has life. You have an appetite for Christ. You need him. If you have life,
this is what you know. I need Christ to save me. I'm helpless. I'm lost. I'm dead. I need Him to give me life. I need Him to save me. And I
need Him to keep me. Oh, I'd wander off. Bob Hardtown, where I'd be. Remember
what you said? Hardtown, where I'd be. I need
Him to keep me. You know the mark of a person
that has life? You need to hear of Him. He just can't stay away
from the worship service too long. I need to hear and preach. I need to. The cry of a living
man is give me Christ or else I die. That's the mark of life. We eat because we have life. And in this about faith. Faith
is personal. I despise the term my personal
savior. It's like saying Jan's my personal
wife. I don't like that term, but faith is personal. Faith
in Christ is personal, and this is what I mean when I say that.
You must believe Christ, just like you must eat. When you go
to lunch today, you'd better eat, or you are going to starve. I can't eat for you. Your family
can't eat for you. You must eat. The same thing
is true of saving faith. You must believe. Pastor can't
believe for you. These other believers, they can't
believe for you. Your family can't believe for
you. You must believe. You must receive Christ. And
here's the preeminent example of that. Judas. Judas heard everything Peter
heard. Judas did everything Peter did. Judas saw all the miracles
just like Peter did. What's the difference? Judas
never believed. He never received Christ. And
then this about faith. It's not just eating that gives
us life. It's eating the right food that
gives us life. You know, if a man eats poison,
you can say, well, I ate. Yeah, but you're still going
to die because you ate the wrong food. You ate poison. And the
same thing is true spiritually. If you eat that other gospel
that Paul is talking about in Galatians 1, you're going to
die. You have to eat the right food. If you eat the wrong food, if
you don't eat right, you're going to be sick. Isn't that our nature?
You have to twist a kid's arm to get him to eat broccoli and
lima beans. You don't have to twist your
boy's arms to get him to eat them cookies. You have to twist the arms to
get him to eat the vegetables. That's our nature. The same thing
is true spiritually. By nature, we love all that junk
that's poison. This fleshly activity that will
send us to hell. But there's one way of salvation,
and that's the way we must come. This is the bread we must eat.
There's one bread. Christ said, I'm that bread.
There's no other. We must believe him, not the
God of our imagination, but we must believe the Lord Jesus Christ
as he's revealed in God's word. Here's where you find out who
he is, not because somebody told you. but because he's revealed
here in his Word. Cannot separate Christ the incarnate
Word from Christ the written Word. You know, you can't even
be saved by believing there is a God. Satan believes there's
a God, doesn't he? He knows he's not saved. Salvation is believing Christ,
receiving Christ as he's revealed in his Word, and casting all
your hope on Him, all your hope of salvation without any contribution
from you whatsoever, saved by Christ and Christ alone. Saving
faith always says this. I'm saved by the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ without anything else. Sixth, salvation is a union. with Christ. A vital union with
Christ. It's vital. There's no salvation
without it. A vital union with Christ. Look
at verse 56 in our text. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As a living
Father has sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. is a union with Christ. The believer lives in union with
Christ, just like the branch lives in union with the vine. Now, I'll illustrate using a
biblical, our Lord's example here of a vital union with Christ
with the vine and the branch. The branch is in union with the
vine. The branch is everything The
vine is. The branch gets its life from
the vine. The branch and the vine have
the same properties because they're one. They're in a union together. Well, the believer is everything
Christ is. If you believe Christ, you are
everything Christ is. We get our life from him and
we have the same characteristics as he does because we're born
again in his image. Christ in us and us in Him. How can that be? I have no idea. But God's Word says it's so.
Christ in you, a hope of glory. There's no salvation other than
this union with Christ. Everything Christ is, the believer
is. And where He is, you are. Well,
where is He? He's seated in the heavenlies.
You are too in Him. The believer's life is inseparable
from Christ. The believer is one with Christ,
the same way the son is one with the father. Now, we can't explain
that, but we just believe it. It's union with Christ. God's elect were put in Christ,
our surety, in eternity. And that's never changed. God
has never seen his people outside of Christ. Salvation is a union
with Christ. When God sees you who believe,
He don't see you. He don't see your sin. He don't
see your failures. He sees His Son. And we're accepted
in the Beloved through union with Him. Now, the Jews had heard
this. They murmured. Look back at verse
52. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Now, they're only thinking in a fleshly plane. They're thinking
that the Lord meant people would be cannibals and eat his flesh. Now, that's just gross. And that's
not what our Lord means at all. I feel like I need to make this
point. Wicked men have taught this as
a truth, that you actually eat the body and drink the actual
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's called, in case you want
to hear a big word, the doctrine Transubstantiation. There's a
mouthful. Transubstantiation. When someone
believes that, this is what they teach. Someone does a magic hocus-pocus
over the wine and the bread of the Lord's table, and those elements
cease to be bread and wine and become the literal, actual body
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you take those things and
that sacrament, through that sacrament you're saved. Now,
that's not what our Lord's saying here about eating his flesh and
drinking his blood. And Scripture never teaches that.
If that were true, that would be slaying Christ afresh every
time we observe the Lord's table. And we looked at that Wednesday
night, the one sacrifice of sin is eternally put away the sin
of his people. There's no need for another sacrifice.
His blood does not need to be shed again. His body doesn't
need to be broken again. One sacrifice. got the job done. But this is their murmuring,
this is what they're thinking. So verse 58, our Lord answers
their murmuring. 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. Our Lord answers their question
in plain terms. He's not talking about physical
bread. Because salvation's not in physical
things and physical activity. Salvation is a spiritual artwork. The Lord's just using an earthly
picture to help us understand a spiritual truth. Christ is
received into the soul, just like bread is received into the
body by eating. Christ is received through faith,
by believing Him. Now that's the gospel. That is the gospel. That's how
God saves sinners, through the sacrifice. through the suffering
and the death of his son, who became a man. Those who are saved
are saved through faith in Christ. They believe Christ. They're
joined to him in a vital union with Christ. They're joined together
with Christ so closely, they become what he is. By God's grace
and power, they have become one with Christ, just like food that
you eat. becomes one with your flesh after
ye eat it. We become one with Christ through faith in Him. Now, does that sound hard? Does
that sound mean? Or is that to you the words of
life? Is it mean? Harsh? Or is it the
words of life? I promise you, every person in
this room is one or the other. You're not unaffected by the
gospel that you hear preached. To you, it's one or the other. It's hard words, or it's words
of life. Look at 2 Corinthians 2. I'll
show you this. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ. Every time we preach the gospel,
It's a triumph because it's accomplished God's purpose. That's what He's
going to show us here. And maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge
by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the
one we're the savor of death unto death and to the other the
savor of life unto life. And who's sufficient for these
things? Who's sufficient to preach these things? And who's sufficient
to hear these things? Who's sufficient? And that's
exactly what happened here. To one, what our Lord says, a
savor of death unto death. To the other, a savor of life
unto life. Look at verse 59. 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. You can hear it. And the word
hard they use here means stern. It's a hard, harsh saying. It's
offensive. That's the meanings of that word,
stern, harsh, and offensive. I don't like it. I won't have
it. That's hard. That's offensive. You know, we
usually say that about foods that are good for us. It's hard.
I don't want it. Now, I never want to be an offensive
person. I'd like for people to like me.
I really would. And I don't want people to be
offended because of what I do, how I conduct myself, the manner
in which I live my life. I don't want people to be offended
because of my flesh. But if we are not preaching the
gospel, if our message is not offensive to the flesh, I'm actually
happy if my message is offensive to the flesh. Now I'll make this
clear, not because of me, not because of the way I presented
it or what I did, I'm talking about the message. If someone
is offended at the message of Christ, we're preaching the gospel. That's a good sign. And I know
that's true because the gospel of Christ is always offensive
to the flesh. Look what our Lord says in verse
61. When Jesus knew it himself that his disciples murmured at
him, he said to them, does this offend you? What if you should
see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? If you think
God becoming a man and suffering and dying to give salvation to
his people, you think that's something, you think that's offensive. What are you going to think when
you see the glory of the ascended Christ when he comes back to
judge the earth in righteousness, gather his people to himself?
If you think that's offensive, you think that's glorious, you
ain't seen nothing yet. You just wait till you see him
in his glory. Verse 63, it's the spirit that quickens it.
The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they're spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should be trained. Now because of Adam's
sin, all men are dead in sins. And dead men can't do anything. They don't have any ability to
do anything. So no dead man can come to the Father. No spiritually
dead man can come to the Father. He's not talking about permission.
He's talking about ability. You don't have the ability to
come to God unless the Holy Spirit gives that man life. And then
you'll come to Christ. Dead flesh profits nothing. No
acts of the flesh profit anything in salvation. Even fleshly participation
in true religion. Even fleshly participation in
the true gospel won't save anybody. Salvation requires heart-faith,
not fleshly activity. Christ already did all the activity
that's necessary for salvation. We just believe Him. That's why
even if you could eat the actual flesh and drink the actual blood
of Christ, it wouldn't do you any good. I'm going to help you
a bit. It's flesh. The actual blood of Christ splattered
many around the cross, didn't it? It didn't do them any good. They perished. It's faith in
Christ, a spiritual union with Christ that gives eternal life.
That's why we preach the pure, unadulterated Word of God. I
go verse by verse through God's Word because it's the Word that
gives life to dead sinners. James chapter 1. You don't have
to turn to it. You know it well. I'll turn to
it and read it. This is why we only preach the Word of God.
Of His own will begat He us. How did He give us life? With
the Word of Truth. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. It's the Word that gives life. Now, verse 66. From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. They went back and
walked no more with our Lord. Because they said it's a hard
thing. It's harsh. It's offensive. It's stern. I
can't hear that. I can't believe that. Henry used
to say this often. I remember he'd get done preaching.
I'd go back to greet him at the back door. He'd say, is that
hard? That's me. I didn't think it was hard. I
thought it was life. It was a blessing to me. Don't
mistake hard for plain. I need plain. Don't leave me
any doubt. Don't leave me any wriggle room.
Make it plain. There's a big difference between
hard and plain. Make it plain so I can understand.
I can believe. The reason the flesh thinks the
gospel is too hard. Do you think that's too hard?
Because the flesh says salvation by Christ alone. That's too narrow. You're saying there's only one
way? Oh, that's too narrow. That's hard. Well, it's true. The gospel gives one way of salvation
because God gives one way of salvation. He sent his son to
have salvation through belief in him, through his sacrifice.
Fallen flesh says that's too narrow. I say that's mercy. That's
words of life. So these went away. Verse 67,
Jesus said unto the twelve. Will you also go away? You're
free to go. Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and we are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. Peter, sir, I'm not going anywhere.
This is words of life. And this is such a comfort to
me. The disciples didn't fully understand what the Lord was
saying about this bread, about Him giving His flesh as a sacrifice. They didn't understand what He
was saying, but they believed. I know they didn't understand
what He was saying, because when the Lord told them plainly, I'm
going to go to Jerusalem and suffer and die, Peter said, as
far be it from you, don't go. He didn't understand, did he? But he believed. I'm telling
you, I read and I read and I read and I read. I study, I study,
I study, and I don't understand that. I understand a little bit
of it. You don't have to understand
it. Believe. Just rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. What's the difference between
Peter? He said, I'm not going anywhere.
We believe. And these that said this is a
hard saying, you can hear it. Verse 65. Therefore said I unto
you that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto
him of my Father. Salvation is of the Lord. And as if to prove that, look
at what our Lord says in verse 70. Jesus answered them, Have
not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake
of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for he it was that should
betray him, being one of the twelve. Everyone in this room. has heard
the gospel. Everyone in this room is not
saved. There are always heirs among the weak. We don't know
who they are, but they're there always. Peter didn't know that.
Peter said, we believe. He'd be the spokesman for all
12 of them. Lord, we believe. You're the
Christ. You're that Christ. You're the
son of living God. You're that bread. You have the
words of life. We're not going anywhere. The
only place we can live is in you. We believe this, Peter said. The Lord said, Peter, not everyone.
One of you don't. One of you is surrounded by true
religion. One of you have touched and handled
the Savior Himself. One of you is a devil. They didn't
know who it was. When the Lord told them later
on plainly, one of you is going to betray me. They all didn't
look at Judas and say, I knew it. I knew that guy. Not one
of them did. They all said, Lord, is that
I? Is it I? That's life. Dead men don't know
it could be me that's a devil. A man who's got life sees it. The man that has life hears the
gospel and says, well, I hope he heard that. Lord, is it I? Have mercy on me or it will be
me. That's what they're saying. Oh,
I pray to Lord. will keep you and me both from
being pretenders. I don't want to be a religious
pretender. I pray God will give us life to call us to his son
and cause us to continually feed on Christ crucified because eternal
life is in Christ and is sustained by feeding on him. Everyone who's
got life feeds on him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, How we thank You
for the unspeakable gift of Thy Son, that You send Your Son to
be a man, to suffer and die as a sacrifice for the sins of Thy
people. And Father, we beg of Thee, saving
faith, grant us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us life.
Oh, we beg of Thee, You give us life to look to Him to run
to Him. If we haven't believed yet, Father,
don't let us alone. Reveal Yourself to us today. Would You please, through Your
mercy and Your grace. We know we ask a great blessing. This is a great blessing that
we ask. Life for the dead. Forgiveness
of sins for the vile. But Thou art a great God. Thou
art able. We're sure, we're convinced,
thou art that Christ. This is the only Savior. Father,
we know thou art able. Would you reveal your Son to
us and in us. For thy glory we pray. Amen.