I die, my sins. Billy, come preach to us. That's a good song to have stuck in your head. All right. If you'll turn in your Bibles to John 6, John chapter 6. Our text will be in verse 59 through 61. And the title of the message tonight is, Does This Offend You? It's about 500 men, plus the women and children. And they had seen Christ Jesus perform his miracle. He fed them till their bellies were full. Fragments of 12 baskets and five barley loaves remained out of the five loaves and two small fishes that a young lad had. They saw his miracles. Their bellies were full and they wanted him to be their king. They wanted him to make him their king. He left that multitude of people, and they took off after him, seeking him. They came to Capernaum, and Christ preached to them. And after his message, this is what happened. If you look in John chapter six, verse 59, So these things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, this is an hard saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured, he said unto them, doth this offend you? What did Christ teach that was so hard, so offensive to some of these people? In verse 66, we read, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. The Holy Spirit guide us and teach us. Let's hear what the Lord says. Let's hear the message of the Lord that was so offensive to some of these people. And ask yourself, does this offend you? Does this offend me? Let's look at verse 24. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? And Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, Not because you saw all the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perish, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. He told them, you don't seek me because of the miracles that show my power, my deity. You got your bellies full and you wanted more. They didn't seek him for his mercy. This one sin of the Father to save his elect from their sins, the anointed, sealed of God the Father from eternity, who has the power to save They were seeking temporal things, not meat for their souls. They were looking for meat for their bellies, pleasures for the body. Luke 12, verse 51, Lord said, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. The Lord knows the hearts. He looks to the heart. He knows who are his and he knows who are not his. Those the Father has given him shall come to him, but they come by faith. God's gift of faith, by faith alone. Those in Christ quickened by his Holy Spirit seek and know that they have a need. for that meat for their souls, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 28, then said they unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? Natural man is totally depraved. He's born that way. We're all born that way. Sinful. In our nature, we want to do things. We want to do things. We want to work with our own filthy hands to try to please God. In some way, be good, be good enough that God will accept us. And they said this to the Lord Jesus Christ. They said this to God manifest in flesh. That's how depraved we are. The one who gives life to whom he will. Romans 8, 8 tells us So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Couldn't make it any simpler. Couldn't say it any better. And then Christ answered them. In verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him who he hath sent. Believe on him who he has sent. It can only be done by faith. Spirit of God must dwell in you. Salvation is God's work alone. It's Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone. God the Father chose a people in his son before the foundation of the world. Christ came and accomplished redemption for those elect that God chose in him. The Holy Spirit quickens them. Man has no part in God's salvation. That's done in eternity. By grace you are saved through faith. They're not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It's not of works, lest any man should boast. Does this offend you? That faith is the gift of God. It's not a decision that you make. It's not a choice. It's not a feeling. It's not your faith. You don't muster up this faith. It's a gift of God. Look in Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews 11, verse six. But without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. We don't seek after God. Natural man doesn't seek God. Look in verse 38. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine 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 raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." To save his elect. Christ came to save sinners. he came to save those that God had given him in eternity. He fulfilled the covenant of grace. All the types and all the law, the prophets, all the scriptures concerning him, he accomplished our salvation, appeased God's holy justice, delivered us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, saved us from God's wrath, reconciled us to God, If God has revealed himself to you in the face of his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, you will believe on him. You will believe on the one that the father has sent. It is the faith of Jesus Christ, the gift of God, and he only gives it to his elect. By his grace and by his spirit, by his power, because man is totally depraved. He's helpless. He is spiritually dead with Adam's fallen nature as our first representative head. When he fell in the garden, we were in him and we fell in him. That was way before we were born. We don't glory in Adam's righteousness. God purposed him to fall. in that garden. And all of us fell into him. Man doesn't seek God. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14, the Lord tells us, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. We're born spiritually dead. We are led by our nature. We are sinful, born in sin, bound in sin, at enmity with God. We are born with Adam's sinful nature, and that nature in our old man hates God. Does this offend you? That natural man can do nothing to please God. Christ had to come. God manifest in flesh to redeem with his own blood. We fail in our substitute Adam. And we need Christ the sinner substitute to save us. We need God's mercy, we need God's grace, and we need Christ Jesus, the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Look at verses 36 and 37. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. They saw him, they heard him, but they believed not. Every sinner that comes to him, he will not cast out. The same saw him and believed not. But all the Father giveth me shall come to me. Those unconditionally elected in Christ, they're the ones, the only ones, by faith, by God's grace, that can come to Him, seeking Him and knowing who He is. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And the law, it wasn't given to save, it was added. to shut man's mouth and to make sin more sinful, for you to say that I stand guilty before a thrice holy God, a sinner. All natural born men are sinful, but the Father hath given His Son a people in eternity, a chosen elect people, And God has predestinated those people unto the adoption of children, to be conformed to the image of his own dear son. We are solely at the mercy and the free sovereign grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. God does not love everybody. He only loves those that He chose in His Son before the foundation of the world. All men are already condemned. We fell in Adam. But He shows mercy to that people that He chose in Christ. If you turn to Romans 9 verse 11, Romans 9 verse 11. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. Not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, But Esau have I hated. What shall we say then, is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. Beloved, it is our sin that separated us from God. And the wages of sin are death. Christ came to take away the sins of his people. We have a need for Christ Jesus, the sinner substitute, the chosen lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Doth this offend you? That we merit nothing God's salvation is not conditioned nor contingent on us. Nothing that we do, nothing that we say. He chose us by electing grace in Christ Jesus in eternity. He saved us when we were yet in our sins. Christ came, the just, and he died for the unjust. God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made to righteousness of God in him. Doth this offend you? That God made a way to be just and justify the ungodly? That Christ's atoning blood was not shed for everyone? And His blood was shed for His chosen elect, those given to Him by the Father. It is in an effectual, limited atonement. Let's look in verse 39 for you. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that all of them which he hath given me I should lose nothing but raise them up again in the last day. And this is the Father's will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up again at the last day. Those God has chosen in his Son, those Christ redeemed those God the Holy Spirit hath quickened and made new creatures in Jesus Christ, we are sanctified and made perfect in Him. You'll never be any more righteous. You'll never be any more holy. You're sanctified in Him. You're made perfect in Christ Jesus. That new creation that He created from nothing, just like those fishes and those loaves. He created something from nothing. There was nothing there. It's just like in the natural sinful man, there is nothing there. He creates a new creature in you. That's Christ's seed. We were with Him from eternity, that seed of Christ. And it is by His suffering, by His sin-atoning blood, once and for all. Look over in Hebrews 10, again, 14. Hebrews 10, 14. By the witch will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stand at daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. It's not a progression. He made you holy, he made you righteous. It's because he's holy and he's righteous. He sanctified you in his son. Those God had chosen in his son, those Christ redeemed. Does this offend you? Over in Jeremiah 31, verse 33. Behold, the day has come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was in husband unto them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant. that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I'll remember their sins no more. He puts your sins away. God's electing his son, that's who Christ shed his blood, his sin-atoning blood for. For the remission of sins, he laid down his life for us, that we should have life in him. Back in John, verse 44. No man, well, let's go to 43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not amongst yourselves, 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. 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 to me. Those are the only ones that seek God. Born again by the power of God and by his spirit, by the free and sovereign omnipotent, irresistible grace in his son, Jesus Christ. God's irresistible grace. God draws you. Only God can draw you to his son. There is no other way of salvation. Salvation is the person and the finished, accomplished works of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the prophet, the priest, God's king over all, anointed of God. If God has chosen you in him before the foundation of the world unto salvation, you shall be saved. You can't resist his grace. You will be called by his gospel preached. He will send a man to preach the gospel to his elect. He predestinated you to become, to be conformed to the image of his son. And he called you by his grace. He justified you and he glorified you. And you know exactly where I'm going. Romans 828. You can't get enough of it. You can't say it too much. If I can find it. Romans 828 and we know We know, because we're taught of God, that all things work together for the good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What can you say? If God's for you, nobody can be against you. This was done in eternity. This was done before you were born. Before you were born again. His Son came voluntarily, sent of the Father to accomplish your salvation in full. And at God's appointed time of love for you, God the Holy Spirit will give you life and faith to believe on His Son. God's irresistible grace. He makes you a new creation in Christ. He reveals Christ in you, the hope of glory. that seed that remaineth in you. You who did not and could not believe, now find yourself believing, knowing, taught of God, taught by His Spirit, that you are the children of God, and that you are sin, and you continually sin, and that He is holy. He's all that's holy and righteous and you need Him. You have a need for Christ. Your surety, your substitute. Because God requires, He is holy and righteous and He requires perfection. God requires a perfect righteousness and a perfect holiness. That you obey from birth to death. You failed in every one of them. You don't have any righteousness. We don't have any holiness. And we're sinners. We're born sinners. We're born in sin. You have none of this and you can't get it. You can't buy it. It's not of the law. It's not of your works. But what God requires, he hath provided in his son. Everything is in his son. Everything. For your salvation is in Christ Jesus. Your salvation is Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness, he who shows you your continual need of Jesus Christ. By his grace, you are saved. Christ Jesus, the mediator of the covenant, the surety. God gave him gave him a people. And Christ voluntarily became responsible. For those people, for their salvation, his glory is wrapped up in He's our all. It's all of God's grace in his son, all for his glory, all for Christ's sake, and all for your salvation. His justice demands our salvation. And salvation is God's work alone. You contribute it and you merit nothing. It's grace alone, Christ alone, faith alone. Let's look in verse 65. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. Does this offend you? Does this offend you that God's grace is free, sovereign, and irresistible, that he is in control of everything? That those he chose in Christ, our surety, shall be saved, and they're the only ones that will be saved. That you have no choice, and you have no decision to make, and that you can't resist His grace and His Son, Jesus Christ, even if you wanted to. And natural man wants to, but that new man he creates in you He loves Christ. He knows his need for Christ. God taught him. You're bought with a price and you belong to God. His blood paid the ransom for you. Paid your sin debt in full. You are only a recipient. God loved you in Christ from eternity and his love never changes and you can't do anything. Praise God to mess it up. Because if anything was left to us, nobody'd be saved. We all fall short. Look in verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 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 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. God's world. It's God's kingdom. We are not of this world. or of the heavenly Jerusalem in Christ. In John 17 verse 9, Jesus said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them, which thou has given me, for they are thine. He's made us citizens of the new Jerusalem in Christ. That new man is not of this world. He preserves us. He makes us to persevere. He endures us to the end. For eternity. God keeps us. Christ is the faithful one. His grace is sufficient. Christ's love constrains us. He's all our salvation. God's made him all of our wisdom. He's made him all of our righteousness. He's made him all of our sanctification. And He's made Him all our redemption. Bless God. Oh, and He's put us under grace. And we are in Christ and He is in us. And we glory in the Lord. We rejoice in Him. He is that bread for our souls. Our souls nourishment. He keeps us alive looking to Him. for everything. We glory in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, our savior. We're taught by his spirit. He's made us one in Christ and he's one with the father. He is our head and we make up his body. Look in Ephesians four, Ephesians 4 verse 15. Or 14. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of man and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie and wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supply, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. He loved us from eternity. If he loved you from eternity, he loves you now. He loves you on purpose and he's gonna love you for eternity. You're in his son. Look at verse 52 in John 6. The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus answered, or said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso 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. As the living Father hath 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. We endure in him. Our life is in him. He has made us partakers of that divine nature. We are new creatures in him. We feed off of his word, off of his gospel. We feed off of him. He took our sins away. He came, he suffered, he bled, he died, and he rose again for our justification. He bore all our sins in his own body on that cursed tree. He walked in perfect obedience to the will of God unto death. He became a curse for us. He bore the wrath of God that we deserve all in his own body. And we were in it. He ascended back up into heaven. God accepted his sacrifice. Therefore he accepts that he gave him all his elect. He, the high priest, and the sacrifice anointed of God, his blood, his one time sacrifice appeased the holy justice of God for us all to the glory of God and to the saving of his people. And God highly exalted him above all, over all. He says now, right now, he's up there. The king is sitting right now on his throne. And we are made princes. He sits on his throne right now. That majesty on high till all his enemies be made his footstool. And he rules. And he reigns, sitting on his throne, because his work's done, it's finished. There's nothing else to do. And he ever lives to intercede for us, and he suckers us. He was tempted with every temptation, and more than we will ever be tempted with. He overcome because he's God. What he did in his flesh, what he came and did, God manifest in flesh, is our only righteousness. It's our only holiness. It's our only hope of glory. What he did is our substitute. He's our only acceptance before God. His blood makes us clean. His flesh gives us life. We feast on Christ as we sit at the king's table. Amen. Because if he don't serve you, he came to minister, not to be ministered to. That means a servant. God Almighty, if he don't serve you, his flesh and his blood, you'll die. You're dead already. He said, if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, You have life. You have life eternal. His works are life. His words are life in their spirit. He keeps us by his power. And he, as he said so many times in the scripture, he will raise us up in the last day. Does this offend you? I hope not. I pray it doesn't. Look in verse 61 of John. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured, he said unto them, doth this offend you? What in if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Because if this offends you, this is really going to offend you. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are 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 betray him. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me except it were given unto him by my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the 12, And to his disciples, will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter, thank God for Simon Peter. Simon Peter answered him and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. And notice Jesus didn't pat him on the back for this. Look what he tells them. Jesus answered them, have not I chosen you twelve? And one of you is a devil. And of course he spake of Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, for it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. We as the disciples have nothing to glory in. Everything we know is taught of God. We only glory in Christ Jesus, for we believe as they believed, because Jesus said, have not I chosen you? You believe because I chose you. My father chose you and me for the foundation of the world. Salvation is the work of the Lord. Wrap this up. The Lord said in John 8, 47, he that is of God, heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God. And let's look over in Luke 10. This is, this is precious. Go over in Luke 10, verse 21 and 22. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me of my father, and no man knoweth who the son is but the father, and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal him. And he turned him and to his disciples and said privately, Oh, blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them. God knows who his people are. And he knows who are not his people. And those who are not, they're offended. Those who are of God, we delight in his message. We delight in this message, the gospel of God. Because we can only look to Christ alone. And we can only glory in him. Because as Peter said, to whom shall we go? So did you hear? Did you hear by grace alone, by faith alone, by Christ alone? Did you hear total depravity? Did you hear unconditional election? Did you hear limited atonement? Did you hear irresistible grace of God? Did you hear preservation and perseverance of the saints? The elect of God, by the power of God, all by the free and sovereign grace of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Those weren't Calvin's points, those were Christ's points. He preached them here in this message to them. Did you hear Christ's message? Do you eat of His flesh and drink of His blood? Or are you offended? You believe on the Son of God by faith, and you have eternal life in Christ. His seed remaineth in you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.