Take your Bibles and turn with
me to John 6. We've been looking at various
things in this chapter, but the lesson this morning I've taken
from John 6, verse 60. It reads, Many therefore of his
disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can hear
it? Now, the subject of John chapter
6 is the gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ. That's the subject
of John chapter 6, John chapter 1, John chapter 2. It's the subject
of this book, Cover to Cover. But it is especially clear here
in John chapter 6. And it is a difficult thing for
a world full of religious superstition and denominational tradition
to submit themselves to a concept that the gospel is a person. I don't care what church they
go to, if it's an Episcopal church or a Nazarene church or a Baptist
church or a Pentecostal church, it really doesn't make any difference.
When you talk to them about what they believe, they'll start reciting
all these doctrines. They're going to get into these
doctrines where we don't believe in a pastor, we believe in a
presbyter. We don't believe in a pasture
form of government. And they'll start telling you,
well, you know, we believe in this and we believe in that.
We believe in the Nazarene church that I grew up in. They believed
in a sanctification by a second definite work of grace. Sometime
in the believer's life, he attains to this plateau and he reaches
sinless perfection. And so they start telling you
all these doctrines about what they believe and what their foundation
is and all these things. And it's very difficult when
you talk to them to get them to understand that the message
of this book is a person. God's talking about a person. Now, for years, I built homes. And when people would ask who
to get to build their house, somebody would say, well, you
need to get him. And then they start in, well, where has he
built any houses? Is he a good carpenter? And so they begin to describe
me. But the description had nothing
to do with the person. The description is not going
to build your house. The person has to build your house. The
description is of him. And so when we get into these
things of doctrines, they're just descriptions. But what we're
doing is pointing you to Him. But we don't want you to get
Him confused with another Jesus. Because this world is full of
other Jesuses. We don't want you to get confused
with that. And so all the way through the Scriptures, they
declare who He is in particular. And they tell you this, and this,
and this. The doctrines are not just merely
called doctrines, but it's called the doctrine of Christ. The doctrine
of Christ. And it's a very difficult thing
for a world full of religious superstition and denominational
tradition to wrap themselves around this concept of the gospel
being a person. Being a person. that the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And you go back in the book
of John and see if I'm not telling you the truth. From the very
first verse all the way through the book of John, John just keeps
pointing to him. He was in eternity. He was the
Word. He was with God. He was God.
He was in the beginning with God. Without Him was not anything
made that was made, and so on and so on, all the way down through
all these verses of Scripture. And he tells us that the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us and that he as a man accomplished
the will of God in his faithful obedience and sinless sacrifice.
And he sits in the heavens interceding for the saints. That there is
a man in glory with all power and all authority who alone has
the right to unveil the glory of the uncorruptible God. Do
you believe that? There is a man, flesh of my flesh,
bone of my bones, Seated at the right hand of God with all authority. He said, all authority is given
unto me. Go ye therefore and preach. Don't go without that. Because
all you are going to do is go. But because all power. I believe
there is a man, a Redeemer, promised of God from the garden. purposed
of God from eternity, made known of God in His incarnation, established
as the God-man in all that He did, in the miracles that God
did by Him in our midst, by the message He preached, by the providence
of God that He foretold thousands of years before He come, sometimes
in the very words that He spoke, manifested Himself in His death
and His life and His suffering, and God accepted him and raised
him from the dead before witnesses, hundreds of witnesses, not one
or two, hundreds of witnesses, undeniable resurrection. And
the disciples, those who wrote this New Testament, stood out
on the brow of the hill and watched him ascend into glory. There
is a man in glory with all power in his hand, all power. Power over providence, power
over your corruptible heart and mind, power over everything that
is. And he alone has been given the
right to unveil the glory of the uncorruptible God. Now, this
is what he's preaching here in John chapter 6, the gospel. As he is set forth of God, declares
the righteousness of God in the salvation of sinners, that God
is just and justifier, that is just and is justification of
all those that believe, that we are complete in him, need
nothing but him, that like the bread from heaven, he is sufficient
to sustain all who look to God and see that God has sent him
down in this wilderness where there is no other food. When the gospel's delivered as
it's purposed of God and comes in the power of God's Holy Spirit,
men and women are shut up to Christ. Now, that's my desire
when I preach. I used to watch these old westerns,
and when they chased the outlaws, they'd try to box them in. They
called it a box canyon. They'd run them up in that box
canyon, and they was done. There was nowhere else to go.
That's what the gospel does when it comes in power. It takes away
all these avenues of escape, and it shuts you up to Christ.
You have Christ or nothing. You love him or despise him.
You embrace him or you walk away. That's what's going on in John
chapter 6. It's to be shut up to Christ, to expose our sinful
self and to give us eternal life. The gospel is a person. It's
a person. And I'll tell you this, it's
His person alone. It ain't His person and your
good will. It's His person. It's His person. He is the fulfillment of all
ceremonies, all of the patterns, all of the pictures. We don't
have a cross up in here. We've got something carved in
the pulpit that I can't do anything about, but if I could, they'd
be gone. We don't have any of those things
because Christ has fulfilled those things. I don't have a reason for them.
I can look to Him and see a whole lot better than I can that carving
in the wood. I can look at Him and I can see
God's glory. He's the fulfillment of all the
Old Testament patterns and pictures. I've got no need of a priesthood.
The Bible says our high priest has entered in one time into
the holy place and obtained eternal redemption for us. He has it. I want it. He has it. It is in
his hands. He can give it. It belongs to
him. He earned it. He bought it. He
purchased it, and he obtained it. He ever liveth, the Scripture
said, to make intercession for the same. He is our Sabbath of
rest, and he that has entered into his rest has ceased from
his own works as God did from his. He is our peace. Seeing
that satisfaction of God with his righteousness and his suffering
and his death on the cross and his resurrection, declaring that
justification, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through. our Lord Jesus Christ. You see
what I'm saying? He is the gospel. I don't care what aspect you
want to talk. Christ is the message of this book. He's the key to
all the mysteries of God. He's the ruler of all providence,
creation and salvation. He alone is the gospel. And to
know Him is to know God. I hear folks talk about embracing
Christ and then trying to know God. You can't know God apart
from knowing Christ. And if you know Him, you know
the Father. You may not be aware of it. One of His own disciples
said, show us the Father. He said, have you been so long
time with me? Have you not seen the Father? I'm the Father. Christ is the message of this
book, the key to all the mysteries of God, the ruler of all providence.
He alone is the Gospel. And to know Him is to know God.
John wrote in his general epistle to believers in all those nations,
sitting out there in their little groups alone, sitting out there
in their ignorance and traditions and all those things, and he
wrote to them and he said, we know that we are of God and the
whole world, life and wickedness, we know that. We know that. Because the Son of God has come
and given to us an understanding that we may know him that is
true, and that we are in him that is true, even in his Son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. To know him is to have life. That's it. It's to have life. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God, whatever else he has,
he hath not life. Now, let me tell you something,
traditional religion, that's what these folks have. Multitudes
of them, thousands of them, all around them, willing to take
him and make him king in their own concepts of what that king
should be. Willing to fall down at his feet
as the Messiah according to their concept of who the Messiah might
be. Traditional religion is the religion
of antichrist. Everything they say is contrary
to who he is. It's contrary. It's against him. Why he came, what he did, where
he is, traditional religion, cannot produce life. It cannot
produce life. We like to think it does because
we see folks in there who attend regular and they give and they
live a good moral life among their neighbors and things, we
want to think that it does. But the scripture says it doesn't.
It doesn't. It gives a false assurance and
a false hope, a refuge of lies. It cries, peace, peace, where
there is no peace. It glorifies man, not God. It reveals man's will, not God's. It appeals to man's decisions,
not God's eternal declaration. It rests in their accomplishments,
not his. It finds confidence in their
feelings and experiences, not in the person of the Redeemer.
It will not bow to his authority or obey his commandments. To
receive the gospel of Christ is to hang all your hopes on
him. Now, I want you to listen to
what God said back in the king's house in the days of Solomon.
They took a peg and they beat it into the wall. And on that
he hung those golden shields. And he hung the glory of the
king's house was on display hanging on there. God said, I'll fashion
him as a nail in a sure place. And upon him will I hang all
the glory of my father's house on him. That's where it's at. You don't find it anywhere else.
What you're going to find is a refuge of life. What you're
going to find is something to tickle your ears. You're going
to find something that's going to make you feel good. To receive
the gospel of Christ is to hang all our hopes on Him, sink or
swim, live or die, hell or heaven, all on Him. Can you do that? Can you do that? You can't apart
from the hand of God, you can't. You try it. You try it. I tell you, I clench my fist,
set my mind, I could go about two minutes. That's it. That's it. You can't do it. It takes the power of God to
bring you down. and point you to Him and cut
off all those things. Just cut them off until there's
nowhere else to go but Him. And then you'll hang those hopes
on Him. You'll hang them on Him. That's what it is to receive
Christ. It's to let go of everything else and lay hold on Him, finding
Him to be better than anything else you've ever seen. It is
to see in his face the glory of God and stand in awe of it
and rejoice in it and worship according to it. John chapter
6 is about the gospel of Christ and those who are brought to
believe on him. No man, he said, cometh unto
me except my Father draw him. Draw him. He took Naomi and drove her. just drove her into a faraway
place that he might draw her back to the kinsman-redeemer.
That is what he is talking about here in John chapter 6, being
drawn by the Father. He presented himself to them
as the essential bread of God, the only one sin of God to save,
the doer of the Father's will, the revealer of the Father's
will, the one object without which no man can be saved or
have life. to one whose person, the Father
himself, has trusted all things and draws all things to and gathers
all things in. And when they heard this, not that last little statement,
but when they heard this, they said, this is a hard saying.
This is a hard saying. Now, let me give you six things
this morning very quickly. that calls this gospel of Christ
to be a hard saying. First of all, it's a hard saying
for a self-righteous man to agree with God and justify God in his
own condemnation. That's a hard saying. That's
a hard saying. God does business in the heart.
You and I stand and look at each other in the eyes and in the
face and try to discern things. You look, he said, on the outward
countenance. God looks on the heart. It's
a hard saying for the heart to look into the eyes of God and
say, I agree with you. You ought to send me to hell
from your heart. That takes the power of God.
And it's a hard saying. I've been there and done that.
It's a hard saying. I'm talking about seeking the
Lord and being convinced of your sin. I'm not talking about stealing
a watermelon cheating on a test or running a stop sign. I'm talking
about that heart full of evil and adultery and idolatry and
that heart full of leprosy that contaminates everything you touch.
Contaminated head to toe. Paul talks about your tongue
and your throat and your feet and your eyes. He said destruction
and misery are in your ways. It's in your nature. It's in
your heart. It's the wellspring of it. It
just bubbles up with corruption. It just bubbles up. You can clean
up the outside of the cup all you want to on the inside full
of dead men's bones. That's what he says. I'll tell
you what we are. We're a rag on the mouth leper.
That's what we are. That old filthy rag and unclean. Unclean. Can you say that from
your heart? I know you can say it with your mouth. God has to bring you down. He
has to show you who you are. Polluted from within. Breathing
out corruption. Infecting everything you come
in contact with. In bondage to sin. In bondage
to possessions and lust. In bondage to ignorance. He talks
about being bound in chains of darkness. That's where we're
at. That's where we're at. And I tell you this, it's a hard
saying. for a self-righteous man to agree with God and justify
God in his own condemnation. You can read about it over in
Psalm 51. He confessed to God. He told
about his experience. And he said that thou mightest
be clear when thou judgest. I'll confess it. I'll confess
it. Paul says the same thing over
there early in Romans chapter 3. He says the same thing. Let
God be true. Every man a liar. Whew, it's
hard to take your place as a liar, ain't it? We've lied on God. All right, secondly, the gospel
is a hard saying for the lay out of sin, who's rich and increased
with goods, to go over there beside old blind Bartimaeus and
sit down on that stinking beggar's blanket. He can't do it. He just
can't do it. I can do this. I can believe. I have a will. You're a beggar. a beggar, and so am I. We're just beggars. That's why
the Lord had mercy on so many of them, because it's so difficult
for a proud man who thinks himself to be rich and increased with
goods. So, my soul, just take your ease. The barns are full this day. I require your soul. John told those Jews way back
in chapter 3, the same ones that are listening to him here, the
same ones that are in here murmuring and talking and trying to drag
down his ministry and trying to protest against his ministry. John told them way back in chapter
3 that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from above.
Nothing. What has thou gotten, Paul said,
that thou hast received? And if you have received it,
why do you glory like you didn't? Because you're proud. That's why. Salvation is the
gift of God. James said, Every good gift,
every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of light. And
Christ turned to these people and he said, I came down from
heaven. from the Father who gives the
good and perfect gifts. I come down from heaven not to
do my will, not to impress you, but to do the will of Him that
sent me. That is why I am here. He is the unspeakable gift of
God. And then thirdly, it is a hard
saying for the wise and prudent to accept what he knows, all
that he knows, to be foolishness and himself a fool. That's tough,
ain't it? Huh? That's tough. This gospel that Fred talked
about yesterday, he said in verse 19 of that same chapter, 1 Corinthians
1, just below his text, he said, I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding of
the prudent. You're going to be a fool before
him. I'm telling you right now. Not a little bit of what you
thought, but everything that you thought. What did Paul say over there?
He said, you think you got something to glory in? I'm over. And man,
he laid out a list that I couldn't touch with a ten-foot pole. And
he said, I just count it done now. Just old smelly burning
garbage. That's all it is. Fit for nothing. Why? Because he destroyed the
wisdom of the wise. That's why. Oh, it exposes him
as a fool. And then fourthly, it's a hard
saying for a man who loves this present world to believe he sold
his soul for a bowl of porridge. That's hard, ain't it? Huh? I love this world. I love my
house and my car and my job and my family and my this and my
that. Huh? You better not love it more
than you love him. God told Noah, he said, he looked
on man, looked on his heart, looked at him as he is, and he
said, man's got 120 years. That's it. Time's up. 120 years. Because I'm God and
because I'm long-suffering, because I'm merciful, I'm going to give
him 120 years. And for 120 years, They kept right on about this
world. Kept right on marrying and giving
and marriage and kept right on loving everything about it. Kept
loving that garden and loving that job and loving this and
loving that. Kept right on loving. Kept right
on loving right up to the time God shut the door. Then they
had a change of heart. And it said they did not know.
They did not know. Now listen. They continued on. Kept right
on going in the worldly wisdom, worldly lust. Kept right on with
their daily routine. Kept right on in their lives
until God closed the door of the ark and time run out. And
Peter said, the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same
word, are kept in store. We're in the same situation.
This world reserved unto fire, he said, and the day of judgment
and perdition of ungodly men, same as it was then. He said,
what are you doing? You're doing the same thing.
You're doing the same thing. You're loving this world. You're
sleeping in the dreams of worldly pleasure and gain. No, no concern
about God. No concern about eternity. No
concern about faith. No concern about your understanding. And he said, when the day comes,
it's going to come like a thief in the night, unexpected, unprepared
for, not looked at. He's going to come. And his glory,
he said, there's going to be a noise, a great noise, and the
elements are going to burn with a fervent heat. Everything's
gone, God's going to burn it up. Everything that's not in
his Son, everything that's not in that ark, he's going to destroy
it. Gone. That's a hard saying. It's a hard saying for the man
who loves this world to believe he sold his soul for the temporary
blessings of this world. And then, fifthly, it's a hard
saying for a carnal mind to accept that it's in all of its principles
and in all of its fundamental ideas at war with God. You haven't met anybody who's
at war with God. They're all at peace. Oh, I'm
not upset at God now. I just disagree with your old
doctrine. I'm not upset. Yeah, you are. You're an enemy
of God. Now, either God's on the throne
or He's not. If God's on the throne, He rules. What He says goes. He doesn't
say it and then you discuss it and share it and vote on it and
figure out what it is you want to believe and then come let
Him know. He's God. He says that that's it. That's
it. And he says the carnal mind,
now listen to what Paul says, that carnal mind in all of its
reasoning and logic and understanding and all of its traditional concept
is enmity with God. What's that mean? That means
it's opposed to everything God says. It doesn't matter what
he says. The gospel is the gospel of God's
grace. His mercy, His free gift to men. He did the work. He accepted
the work. He sent the Spirit. That's what
Christ is telling these men. I don't come down here. He sent
me down here. And when He did, the angels cried
to you and told you I was here. Peace on earth, good will toward
men. You're going to hear that a lot
in these coming days. But you're going to be opposed
to Him. Why? Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. I'll tell you the evidence of
it. It won't receive His grace. All you have to do is receive
it. He doesn't require anything of you. Receive it. You thirsty? Come drink. You hungry? Come eat the bread. What's your
problem? You won't receive his grace.
That's what the problem is, because the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's opposed to his grace, and
it tends to works. It's opposed to his perfection,
and it leans to its good intentions. It's opposed to the wisdom of
God in Christ, and it leans to natural reasoning and philosophy,
all these things to men. It's opposed to preaching. It
prefers catechism. audience participation, religious
schools. It's opposed to regeneration.
It looks to its decisions. It's opposed to the love of God.
It looks to the law and the threats of punishment to motivate us
in our daily lives. No common ground in the fallen
nature of which to build the temple of the living God. Your
thoughts are not my thoughts, he said, and your ways are not
my ways. The carnal mind is enmity against God. takes a new mind, a new birth,
and a new creation in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. That's what Paul said. We'll
just forget the rest of it. He's a new creature. All right. Here's the last thing. The gospel is a hard saying to
the man who has committed himself to religion, who has made his
decision who has accepted Jesus as his personal Savior and committed
his life and sacrificed himself. It is a hard saying for him to
believe that all he has accomplished in all of these things is to
make a refuge of lies. That is a hard saying. These
folks were not going to swallow that. They were not going to
swallow that. Now, wait a minute. Satan is
not our father. Oh, yes. He's a liar from the
beginning. He's the father of lies. He's
your father. He said, I know who your father
is. Right down here he said, in verse 64 of John chapter 6,
he said, but there are some of you that believe not. For he
knew who they were. Listen to this, Isaiah 28, 15,
and I'll close. Because you said we had made
a covenant with death. And with hell we're at agreement.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall
not come nigh unto us, for we made lies our refuge, and under
falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tridestone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste, and shall not be ashamed. And judgment,
judgment by this stone that He put there. Judgment will I lay
to the lion, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail
will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? Many, therefore, of His disciples
walked away. They walked away. And He turned
to the twelve. And he said, what are you going
to do? Huh? What are you going to do? You
going to leave too? The door was open. The door was
open. You know what they said? See,
he shut them up to Christ. They said, where are we going
to go? Huh? Where are we going to go? I've
got nowhere to go. Where can we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. Brethren, that's what we're trying
to do here. I'm trying to point you to Christ. Point you to Christ.
Lord willing, He'll take His Spirit and shut you up to Christ.
I hope He does. I hope He does. I hope He leads
me right there at His feet. Right there. Where am I going
to go? If He speaks, I listen. If He doesn't, I'll wait. I'll
wait. Because He has the words of eternal
life. If I understand Him or if I don't understand Him, I
better wait until He gives me an understanding. Instead of filing back in that
old satisfaction, why don't I ask? Lord, give me some understanding.
Give me life, lest I perish. Lord, bless that through your
heart.