John chapter 6, we'll begin reading
at verse 60. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can
hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it. He said unto them, doth this
offend you? What and if you shall see the
son of man ascend up where he was before? 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 believe not and who should betray him. And
he said, therefore, therefore, because I know who will believe
and who will not, because I have ordained who will believe and
who will not, therefore said I unto you, that no man can come
unto me, except it were given unto him of my father. From that
time, many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the 12,
will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the
son of the living God. Jesus answered them. Have I not
chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon. For he it was that should. Is that right? That should? That should? That should betray
him? Was it right that he should betray
him? That's what he said. Should for
thus he was created for that purpose. Should for thus the
purpose of God in the salvation of his people and the glory of
his son would be accomplished. he it was that should betray
him, being one of the twelve." Now note these words in verse
66, from that time, from that time. This was a time of great
importance in the history of our Lord's earthly ministry.
It was a time when the vast majority of those who had been following
him forsook him. There were apparently multiplied
thousands who followed him after experiencing the miracle of the
loaves and fishes. And now as he began to instruct
them in the gospel, they got weeded out. That always happens. The preaching of the gospel separates
sheep from goats. It separates tares from wheat.
It is that fan by which the Lord winnows his floor and gathers
his precious grain into the garner. The Lord Jesus is here preaching
the gospel with simplicity. with power, with clarity, with
such clarity that his words could not be misunderstood by those
who stood before him, and they considered his doctrine difficult
and hard, unbearable, so unbearable that before they would take his
doctrine, they would forsake the loaves and fishes and the
miracles and the wonders. It's a time when those who who
wanted a miracle, but not to master, who wanted a wonder worker,
but not a sovereign, who wanted someone to be a protector for
them and a provider for them, but not a master over them, left
him. It's a time of great importance
in the Jewish nation. God's Messiah had come. These
people who are standing before the Lord Jesus here had been
looking for the coming of the Messiah. How many people do you
know today who are all excited about the possibility of the
Lord Jesus coming at any time? And the folks who aren't too
well instructed in the scriptures. You know, they're all excited
about the possibility of being raptured out before trouble comes.
Just excited. You get books on it and prophecy
experts and meetings and folks gathering. They're mysterious
things. But everybody's excited, looking for the Lord to come.
That's just exactly where these Jews were at this time. They
were anticipating just like that the coming of the Messiah. And
here he is right in front of them. and they don't have a clue.
They don't have a clue. God's standing before them in
human flesh. The incarnate God come to accomplish
the will and purpose of God, but he's despised and rejected
men hung up upon the cross and there hung up to die while these
very men who had eaten the loaves and fishes who had seen the power
of his hand threw a hellish party and laughed while the Son of
God died upon the tree. Therefore God removed all light
from that nation. Ron, that's about as sober as
I can imagine saying it. All lights go. To this day, to this day, there's
a veil over their faces when Moses is read. They read the
law, they observe the ceremonies, they observe the holy days, they
keep the Sabbath days, and they don't have a slight clue what
the light of God is. When God sends darkness, oh God
don't send darkness to you. When God sends darkness, you're
in the dark. You're in the dark and nobody's
gonna get you out. And this proved to be a time
of great importance to the church and kingdom of our Lord Jesus.
This new thing, this newly made thing, this new life form that's
in the world called the Church of God, formed to these original
disciples, has now experienced her first trial. Just imagine
what it'd be like for you and me in this place, this little
band of believers here. If suddenly we're bursting out
at the seams, People are all excited, folks all over town,
all over the county are bursting out at the seams trying to get
in here. We've got to tear this thing down and build a bigger
place. And then and that much time, we're back down to here
we are. That'd be kind of tough. What's
happened? Well, Don must have done something.
What's what's going wrong? Many who had joined themselves
to God's church, giving the church some sense of respectability,
some sense of accomplishment, some sense of power in the society
in which they lived, had left it suddenly. And now, from that
time we read, many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. What was this time? What was
this time? This time of great importance
in our Lord's earthly ministry. This time of great importance
in the life of the Jewish nation. This time of great trial to God's
church. It was a time of solemn declaration. Our Lord Jesus had plainly declared
the gospel to these men and women. He had told them many spiritual
things concerning himself and them and the kingdom of God.
And they were utterly confused. Offended by his doctrine because
they could not receive it. So many of them turned away and
walked no more with him. What was it he told them? Look
in verse 37. He had declared to them. The
eternal purpose of God in grace. that he had said, God, the God
you worship, the God you claim to worship, the God of the prophets,
the God I am is the God of purpose who saves sinners not by accident,
but on purpose, not because of something they do, but because
of his purpose. All that the Father giveth me,
he says, shall come to me. No question about that. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will, the purpose
of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will,
this is my Father's purpose, which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. The Lord Jesus had in verse 46
declared his own deity, declaring himself to be that one, the only
one who has seen the Father. In the passage we read here,
he says, I'm going to tell you something. You think you've heard
hard things now? He said, what if you should see
the son of man ascending back into heaven where he was before? You think this is a hard saying?
I'm telling you, there's a day coming soon when you're going
to see this man ascend back into heaven where he was before. He's
saying this man standing in front of you is himself God the Son,
the divine Savior. He had declared also God's sovereignty. Look at verse 63. We'll look
at it again in a moment. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit and their life. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Salvation does not in any way depend upon you and what you
do. God's grace does not in any way
hang on your decision and your will. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. He said in verse 65, therefore
said I unto you, that no man can come to me except it were
given him of my father. And there repeats exactly what
it said in verse 44. He had also declared that salvation
is the work of God alone. In this whole passage, he's declaring
the salvation is that which comes to men by the choice of the father,
by the purchase of the son, and by the power of God the spirit.
He had declared salvation. This salvation that comes by
the quickening power of God the Holy Spirit is a divine revelation. If we could learn that, our business
is the preaching of the gospel, nothing else. That's the business
of God's church. Our business is the preaching
of the gospel. It is impossible for this preacher
or for this congregation or any other to make the gospel of God's
grace palatable to men by something we do. Churches everywhere compromise
the gospel. Preachers everywhere compromise
the gospel because they're convinced that somehow if we do something
else, if we will kindly fudge a little here. Don't declare
these truths. I just read a sermon Last night
my preacher I couldn't believe I couldn't believe what I was
reading man claimed to believe gospel of God's grace He said
he said first five years. I preached here. I I was kindly
Hesitant about how I ought to present these things because
I didn't know if you were ready to receive them I Can't make you ready to receive
anything and You will never be ready to receive anything until
God readies you and when God readies you you will receive
And it won't happen otherwise. Salvation is not something that
comes by my persuasion or my skill or by us entertaining you
and getting you to like us and join up with us. And now you
might be persuaded to believe what we believe. Salvation is
by divine revelation. Every man that hears by the father
and is taught of God cometh to me. And I'll raise him up at
the last day. And until you hear God teach
you, as only God can, you won't come. Brother Don, that looks
like this shuts us all together up to God. That shuts us up all
together to God. Salvation is God's gift. He alone
can make you a new creature in Christ. He alone can give life
to dead sinners. He alone can make you an heir
of eternal glory. Not only was this a time of declaration,
it was a time of decision. These men are pressed by our
Savior to eat His flesh and drink His blood, to believe on Him. I'm here pressing you to believe
on the Son of God. I press upon you the claims of
Jesus Christ the Lord. You must believe. You must choose
either to believe or not to believe. And you make that choice right
now. Every one of you, before you
leave those doors this morning, will make that choice. You will
either decide, I will not trust the Son of God, or I will trust
Him. Brother John, you just told us
it's not by our will. It's not. But you're going to
make that choice. You're going to make that choice. You're responsible
to believe and you will either believe by God giving you grace
to believe or by your own obstinate, stubborn will. You'll go out
the doors and march straight to hell unless God stops you
by his grace. These men chose the dry husk
of empty religious ritualism and Judaism They chose to drink
from the polluted cistern of their own self-righteousness
rather than the bread of life and the water of life. And in
verse 66, we've read that this is a time of tremendous defection. Many of those who had followed
Christ some distance, they'd made a pretty good start. They
wanted to take the Lord Jesus and make him a king. That's pretty
good. They acknowledge that he's the
prophet that God has spoken of by Moses. He's that Messiah who
wants to come. And now they turn back and walk
no more with him. They went back to their old companions. They went back to their old heart's
lust. They went back to their old,
empty religion. The fact is, there are many who
follow Christ for a while and afterwards go back. But bless God, there are some
who, clinging to Christ with a steadfast faith, cannot leave
Him and will not. And the difference between the
two is not you. The difference between the two,
those who go back and go to hell and those who persevere to the
end, is the difference of God's distinguishing mercy, love, and
grace, who maketh thee to differ from another. Don't forget it. I want to keep pressing it as
God enables me. There's some obvious lessons
in this passage, and yet these obvious lessons are lessons that
are missed altogether by most people. So I want you to keep
your Bibles open on your lap, and I want you to listen carefully
as I show you five or six things very plainly set before us in
this chapter. First, understand this. The doctrine
of Christ is offensive to men. The doctrine of Christ, that
is, that which the Son of God taught, that which he teaches
in his word, the doctrine of Christ. Not part of it, all of
it. as it is understood in its context,
as it is understood as it fell from the lips of the Savior,
as it is understood in the place of its revelation in this book.
The doctrine of Christ is offensive to men. For that reason, there
are multitudes who claim to preach Christ and claim to believe Christ
and claim to worship Christ who bring not the doctrine of Christ. And John says, if any man bring
not the doctrine of Christ, don't you receive him into your house.
And don't you feed him along the way. Don't you pray for the
Lord to bless him. Treat him as he is a reprobate
man bringing others with him into everlasting destruction.
The doctrine of Christ is offensive to men. Both the religious fella
and the irreligious are offended by the things Christ taught.
Offended by the things Christ reveals. Specifically, that which
he taught in this passage was offensive to these people, and
it still is to men today. Look at verse 60. Our Lord Jesus
taught the doctrine of salvation finished by his obedience. Many,
therefore, of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this
is a hard saying. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew
in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto
them, does this offend you? Does this offend you? Living
by faith? Receiving the merit of my obedience
and my death by faith? Does that offend you? What and
if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Remember what the Lord Jesus
said when he speaks about Holy Spirit conviction He said when
the Spirit of truth has come he will convince you of sin of
righteousness and of judgment of sin Because you believe not
on the Son of God of righteousness Because I go to my father He
could not ascend up to heaven had he not finished the work
for which he came down here from heaven. He could not go back
as Jehovah's servant having performed his obedience as Jehovah's servant
had he not performed obedience. He could not go back had he not
brought in everlasting righteousness, obtaining eternal redemption
by the sacrifice of himself. That's exactly what the scriptures
tells us in Romans chapter 10. The law says, who's going to
come down from above? The law says, who's going to
ascend up into heaven? The gospel says it's done. Christ
came down from heaven, and Christ finished the work the father
gave him to do, and Christ now has ascended back to glory. But
salvation, salvation finished by Christ, is something that
men simply despise. They say, well, Brother Don,
everybody'd love that. Everybody'd love that. Oh, no.
Oh, no. Men love something to do. Men love something to do. If I could convince you, if I
could convince you, every one of you, if I could convince any
single man anywhere in the world that he could obtain forgiveness
of sin by walking across burning coals barefoot He'd pull off
his shoes and start walking. I can prove it to you throughout
history. If I could convince you that you could obtain forgiveness
by sacrificing your own sons and daughters, you'd start sacrificing
them. I can prove it to you by historic
fact. You're no different from your
fathers. Well, brother Don, we're not barbarians. We know better
than that. I know you're so smart. Yes, they're smart. So all you
do is, well, we wouldn't think about sacrificing our babies,
so we will bring them to the altar and slosh a little water
on their face and call them dedicated to God and take them to hell
in religion. We'll teach them that good boys
go to heaven, bad boys go to hell and take them to hell in
their works. We'll teach them that if they'll
just eat the bread, drink the wine, and keep their business
and not live too bad, then believe in your own Jesus, they'll be
all right. And take them to hell by their works. You see, salvation
is altogether God's work. It's determined by God's decree,
as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. I listened to Jerry
Falwell preach from that text one time. Acts 13, 48. Shelby will listen
to it with me. I think she'll remember. Every
single time he read the text. Every time. I bet he read it
50 times in 30 minutes. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed he read it this way. As many as believed were
ordained to eternal life. every single time. How come? Because that's exactly what he
believed. He believed salvation by your will. But the book says
as many as were ordained to eternal life believe. Salvation is that
which is determined by God's eternal decree and election and
determined by Christ's shed blood at Calvary. He, by the sacrifice
of himself, obtained eternal redemption for us. And it is
by his faith that we have faith, by his faithful obedience as
our substitute, that we have the gift of faith by his spirit. Salvation determined. by the
gift and call of God the Holy Spirit. It's the spirit that
quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
It was the spirit that quickened the dead body of our crucified
Savior. When he was made sin for us,
Bobby, he was put to death by the sword of justice. And his
dead body could not bring itself to life again. But when he was
justified in the spirit, the spirit quickened his flesh and
the flesh profits nothing. It was the spirit of God that
makes the word of God preached to you to have quickening power
in your soul and the flesh profits nothing. So that as I preach
right now, I'm preaching this message. And for some of you. The word. Reaches your heart. And for some of you, it's like
pouring water on a duck's back. It makes no difference at all
because the flesh profits nothing. It's the spirit of God that quickens
the dead center and gives him life. The flesh profits nothing. In verses 63, 64 and 65, our
Lord teaches again man's utter inability. We've seen this before,
but I want to stretch it a little bit. In verse 65, our Savior
said, Therefore said I unto you that no man can come to me. Remember, it's the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profits nothing. Therefore, I said to
you, no man can come to me. Human beings have no ability
with regard to anything spiritual. Human beings have no ability
with regard to anything spiritual. That means, Wes, you cannot understand
anything taught in this book unless God causes you to understand
it. You can't believe on the Son
of God unless God, the Holy Spirit, causes you to believe. You can't
do it. You can't do it. God commands you to awake, arise
from the dead. Christ will give you life. Problem
is you can't awake. You cannot arise from the dead
unless Christ has given you life. Can't do it. Can't do it. Well,
in this place, you understand that. You understand that. But
there's more to it than that. No man has in his ability the
power to revive his languishing soul. Does anyone here need convincing
of that? It's the voice of my beloved.
He knocks, saying, open to me, my love, my sister, my dove,
my undefiled. My head's full of dew, my locks
with the drops of the night. I've been working for you. Open
the door to me." And my heart's moved toward him. Don't bother me now. I'm resting
pretty good. He puts his hand in by the hole
of the door and your bowels move for him and you rise up to open
to him. but he's gone and you can't find
him. You go to the preacher, you go
to the church of God, you go to the house of God in Jerusalem
streets and the veil's taken away and your guilt's exposed
and you know what it is, but you can't find it. Unless the
spirit quickens you. And the flesh profits nothing.
You can't keep yourself from any evil unless God the Holy Spirit keeps
you, you can't do it. The Lord told Peter when Peter
boasted and said, all these may forsake you, but not me, buddy.
I've been there for the long haul. I'll be with you. I don't.
I'll go with you to death and to judgment. And he meant it.
He went with him to judgment and to death. But he had to be
stripped. And Lord said, Peter, Before
you hear the rooster crow the second time tomorrow morning,
you will have denied me three times. And Peter denied him,
you remember? And then he denied him the second
time. And immediately, Larry, he heard a rooster crow. Can you imagine the thoughts
that must have flooded his heart? Can you imagine the terror that
must have flooded his soul? Can you imagine? Master said,
before I hear that rooster crow the second time, I'll deny him
three times. I've already denied him twice.
I won't do that. And it stays right there. I won't
do it. I won't do it. I will not deny
him. I won't do it. And a third time. He denies him and cusses. I don't know the man. Denies
him more vehemently and more pointedly and more thoroughly
than ever he had before. And the rooster crowed. And Peter's
heart broke within him. And he said, it's all over for
me. I'm a lost man. Fellas, I'm going
fishing. I'm going back to where I was.
when I first heard his voice. I'm just like these fellows right
here. I'm going back to walk no more with him. And the master
rose from the dead and he sent his messenger to the empty tomb
to meet those two women. He said, go tell my disciples
I'll meet them by Galilee just like I said I would. And be sure
to tell Peter. And he went down and found Peter
at Galilee. You know what Peter was doing?
He had gone back fishing. He had thrown up his hands. He'd
given up. And the master came and fixed
him breakfast and tugged at his heart and wrung from him a confession
that Peter had no idea he could ever make again. You know all things. You know
that I love you. Many. Who seem to be Christ's disciples.
Go back and walk no more with him. But bless God. There are those like Peter. Many. Who are the masters disciples? and they can't go back. The Lord
Jesus turns and looks at his disciples and he said, will ye
also go away? Isn't that wonderful? These thousands turned Rex and
walked no more with him. Thousands. They're gone. And you know what was lost? Nothing. The master didn't say a word.
He didn't reach out a hand and say, y'all, y'all think about
this now. He didn't ask him, where are
you going? He knew who believed on him who didn't. But he turned
to his disciples as these fellows gathered up what they could and
went back to their ways. And he said, will you lead me? And Peter, speaking for the rest,
says, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Lord, we've
got nowhere else to go. We've cast everything on you.
We've leaned everything on you. We've ventured everything on
you. We believe and we're sure thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. We can't, we can't go because
we've got nowhere to go. We burned all our bridges behind
us. We got nowhere to go. I got a,
for the Moose Parks Bulletin late last night, actually earlier
this morning, and he had a little article in there that said, what
do you know about shamrocks? There was a preacher preaching in London
during the shamrock races, and he was preaching on the streets.
And this ruffian wanted to give him a tough time. He tried to
silence the preacher, and he said, preacher, what do you know
about shamrocks? And the preacher just ignored
him and went on preaching. And he screamed out again, preacher,
I want to know what you know about shamrocks. And the preacher
ignored him and went on preaching. Wasn't going to be detracted
by him. And the third time, the fellow screamed out real loud,
what do you know about shamrocks? And the preacher paused. And
he looked at him. And there was just deathly silence.
He said, on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other rocks
are shamrocks. We've got nowhere else to go.
Everything else, just shamrocks. Just pretend rocks. Fake rocks. Here's something else. These can't go back and they
won't go back because they're kept by God's free grace. But the true believer being kept by God's grace perseveres
and continues to the end because God says, I will not let you
go." And then verses 70 and 71, I'll
give it to you very quickly. Even the most evil deeds performed
by men under the influence of hell itself are ordained of God
and overruled by our great God for the salvation of our souls
and the glory of his son. Jesus answered them, have I not
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, according to God's decree,
according to God's purpose, betray him, being one of the 12. Our Lord Jesus was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God to be crucified
upon the cursed tree as our substitute. And he was delivered by men who
with their wicked hands and wicked hearts and wicked wills did exactly
what they wanted to do, because they hated him. But those men, beginning with
Judas, and with the high priest, and with the Roman soldiers,
and with Pilate, and with the Jewish multitudes, and the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and the Herodians and the harlots and the drunks
and the street people all gathered together spitting on him and
laughing at him all doing what they did because of their hatred
of the Son of God were just contributing their
part to the redemption of our souls and his glory cause God rules
this world God rules this world even the hearts and the thoughts
and the deeds of wicked men intended to destroy his throne are used
by God for the establishment of His throne and the accomplishment
of His purpose. And this is the God and Savior
we trust. Oh, God make Himself yours as
only He can for Christ's sake. Amen.