I'll wait another 30 seconds
for somebody that's late. Would you turn to John chapter
6. John chapter six I want to begin
reading in verse fifty nine. John chapter six verse fifty
nine. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard, said, this is an hard saying,
harsh, austere, dry, unsympathetic, unloving. Now it wasn't that, but this
is how they took it. Who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you? What 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, the words that you're offended by is what he's referring
to. These very words that you call
harsh, austere, unsympathetic, unloving, hard, mean words. 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 of my father. From that time,
many of his disciples went back. Now let me repeat, many of his
disciples. These were people who claimed
to be his followers, his disciples. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him I think it is so sobering that
when they went back, the Lord did not say, well, wait a minute,
listen to this again. He just watched them leave, not
unsympathetically. I'm not saying in a hardness,
but he didn't say, let me rephrase this. Maybe you'll hear it better.
He watched them leave. No comment. Then said Jesus unto the 12, will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Now that's very important. He
didn't say, where shall we go? He said, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal
life and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the
son of the living God. Jesus answered them, have not
I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas
Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he that should betray
him being one of the 12. Let's pray. Lord, how we desire that you
would meet with us and speak to our hearts from
your word. Grant us this for Christ's sake,
in his name we pray, amen. Many therefore of his disciples,
verse 60, these were people who were fed miraculously and they
were looking for a welfare state. If he's the king, We'll get free
food. We won't have to work. And they
were excited about him. They even tried to make him king.
And then he brought this message at Capernaum. These things said
he at Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples
when they had heard They heard, you notice this is in the italics. It was translated by the, placed there by the translators.
It's really not necessary. When they heard. Now, what did
they hear? Real brief synopsis of what they
heard. Look in verse 29, verse 28. They said unto him, what shall
we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he has sent. There it is. Five times during
the course of this sermon, he spoke of himself being the one
who came down from heaven. Five times. Look in verse 41. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
What's he talking about? He came down from heaven. If
I said to you, I've come down from heaven to give you a message,
you would be so offended. You would think, this guy's crazy. Who does he think he is saying
I've come down from heaven? Yet the Lord came down from heaven
saying, I'm not a mere man. I'm the God man. He's speaking
of his pre-existence, before he came. And they were offended
by this. Look in verse 37, he talked about
election. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That is God's elect. All of them
shall come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he spoke of,
verse 39, his work in behalf of the elect. Verse 39, this
is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all which he
hath given me, that's the elect, I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day. And then in verse 40, I
love this, 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'll raise him up at the last day. Now he's saying, Seeing
who I am is what faith is. Believing who I am is what faith
is. Faith is in a person. It's not
simply believing certain propositions. It's believing who he is. That is the essence of faith. Believing who he is. He that seeth the sun. and believeth
on him. If you see who he is, you will
believe. And if you do not believe, you
have never seen who he is. Everyone that seeth the Son and
believeth on him. Look in verse 44. He says to these same people
who were murmuring at what he had said, Look what he says to
him. No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me
draw him. Now he looks at these people
and says, you are unable to come to me unless my Father draws
you. Now that's quite a statement
to these people. I'm sure they're thinking, what in the world is
he talking about? Look in verse 45, it's written
in the prophets, and they shall all be taught of God. Every man
therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh
unto me. The only way you're gonna come to me is if God is
your teacher. And if he teaches you, you will come to me. Verse 46, not that any man has
seen the Father save he which is of God. He has seen the Father,
you're gonna have to be of God. Now what in the world does that
mean? Well, he said in John chapter eight, verse 47, he that's of
God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them not because
you're not of God. That's what he says to them.
Now this is the preaching they were listening to. And then he
says in verse 48, I am the bread of life. And what he said with
regard to that, eating my flesh and drinking my blood. That's
the life of faith. This is what you eat. This is
what you drink. This is all that gives you spiritual
nourishment. Jesus Christ and him crucified.
This is what you must have daily. Now this is what they heard.
This is the message he delivered at Capernaum and look at their
response. Many therefore, verse 60, of
his disciples, when they had heard, said, this is an hard,
harsh, austere saying. Nay, it wasn't. It was glorious. It was wonderful. Everything
he said, lovely, beautiful, but that's not how they took it.
I've seen people respond to the gospel, that's harsh, that's
dry, dry doctrine. Well, it is to them, I realize
that, but it's not dry. These are the very words of Jesus
Christ, the Lord. Now, let's go on reading verse
61. This is a hard saying, who can
hear it? Verse 61, when Jesus knew I love this, in himself, that the disciples murmured at
it. Now, I love thinking about this. Right now, he knows exactly
what's going on in my heart and your heart. He's looking. He sees. And not only in this
room, but everybody outside of this room. He's God. He's omniscient. He knows the thoughts of my heart
right now. He sees exactly what I am. He knows what I am much more
clearly than I know what I am. I know that. He knows exactly
what I am and what's going on in my heart, my response toward
him. He asked them this question,
verse 61, Does this offend you? What you've just heard, you're
actually offended by this. You find it offensive. You do
not like what I'm saying. You know, the gospel is offensive
to the natural man. And if the message we preach
does not offend the natural man, we're not preaching the gospel.
It's that clear. Paul spoke of the offense of
the cross. When the cross is preached, when
the gospel is preached, the natural man will be offended. And the Lord says, does this
offend you? Are you offended by what you
just heard? Verse 62, what and if you shall see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before? Remember I talked about coming
down from heaven? What are you gonna think when you see me ascend
back up into heaven? You hear me speaking as the absolute
sovereign authority of the universe. You're offended now, you'll really
be offended then is what he's saying. You'll really be offended
then when you finally see who I really am in the glory of my
person, you'll be offended then. Verse 63, it is the spirit God the Holy Spirit that gives
life, that quickeneth. You know, you have to have spiritual
life to hear what I'm saying. You're dead in sins and you can't
hear except God the Holy Spirit quickens you and gives you life. It is the Spirit that gives life,
God the Holy Spirit. You can't hear these words unless
God the Holy Spirit gives you life. Now listen to this. If
you do hear these words, God the Holy Spirit has given you
life, spiritual life, life from the dead. It's the Spirit that
gives life. The flesh profits nothing. We are the circumcision which
rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The
flesh profits nothing. How much of what you were when
you were born into this world, how much of that has anything
profited in spiritual life? Nothing. Nothing. The words, verse 63, the words
that I speak unto you, these words that you find harsh and
austere and hard, dry doctrine, they're words of spirit. These
are the words of God, the spirit, and these are the words of life.
There is no spiritual life apart from these very words. It's quite a statement, isn't
it? Verses 64, but. There are some of you that believe
not. Actually, most of them. Remember,
he fed 5,000 men, not counting women and children. This was a big group. And they
all left except for the 12. Straight is the gate, and narrow
is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it. There are some of you that believe
not, for Jesus, this is verse 64, for Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were. that believe not and who should
betray him. He knew all that stuff before
it ever happened. He knew from the beginning he's
God. He knows everything. There isn't anything he doesn't
know. He knows me. He knows you all together. And he knew from the beginning
who they were that would not believe. Verse 65, and he said,
therefore, this is why I said unto you, he re-quotes what he
said in verse 64. He quotes it once again. This
is why I said unto you that no man can come to me, except it
were given unto him of my father. No man can. No man has the ability
to come to me. Coming to Christ is salvation. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, as far as our experience goes. Coming to Christ
is salvation. And we can't do it unless it's
given to us. Now those words are so plain. From that time, verse 66, from
that time upon that, many, not just a few, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Now it was at this
statement, they said, this is the last straw. I'm not going
to listen to this anymore. We're out of here. At what? He said, you cannot come to me
except it be given you. And they left over that. You
see, when he made that statement, he was saying to them, you are
so sinful and depraved that you cannot come to me except it be
given you of my father. You're unable to come. You know,
the problem we have is that we don't really believe
that. Now we do if God teaches us, but no natural man believes
this about himself, that he is this sinful, that he cannot come. He is unable to come. Do you
believe this about yourself? Do you believe that you are so
sinful that you cannot come to Christ except He gives you the
grace to come. And if He doesn't, you won't.
Do you believe this about yourself? Do you believe you are a sinner? Sin, the scripture says, is the
transgression of the law. Now let's be real plain about
this. Sin, 1 John 3, verse 4, sin is
the transgression of the law. He's talking about the Ten Commandments. Do you believe you can keep one
of those commandments? Now, if you do, you don't know what commandments
even mean in the first place. You just don't really understand.
It was Paul who said, we know that the law is spiritual, but
I am carnal. And he's saying this as a believer.
Not as an unbeliever, no unbeliever has any understanding of the
law. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold
under sin. I have never kept one commandment,
nor do I have the ability to keep one commandment. And that's
a sinner. All they do is break the law
and they cannot not break the law. When you see that about
yourself, you see that you are in fact a sinner. Every sinner Jesus Christ saves.
If you're one of those people, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Now, does that describe you? I hope it does. It does, whether
you know it or not. But for those who know it, those
are the ones God has taught, and those are the ones that come
to Christ for salvation. But from that time, Many of his
disciples went back and walked no more with him. We've had it with this. And I
think it is so sobering that when the Lord was watching that
crowd leave him, And I'm sure the 12 disciples were discouraged
over this. Man, we're finally getting somewhere. People seem
to really want to hear what you have to say. And now they're
leaving and you're not doing anything to try to get them to
come back. You're just watching them leave. And the Lord watched
them leave. Then said Jesus, verse 67, then
said Jesus unto the 12, will you also go away? Now, put yourself in their place. You all want to leave too? You
know, the Lord is not going to have any unwilling disciples.
You can just write that down. He's not going to have any unwilling
disciples. There's the door if you want
to go as well. Will you also go away? Is that what you want? There's the door. And look at
Peter's reply, verse 68. Then Simon Peter answered him. You know, Simon Peter always
answered. Sometimes it wasn't a very good answer. Sometimes
it was. Here's one of the times where
it was the glorious answer. I couldn't help but think when
I saw that, think about on the Mount of Transfiguration, when
they saw the Lord transformed and Simon Peter answered, nobody
asked him anything. He still had to answer. And he
answers here. He's the one that always was
ready to speak. And he answered, but what an
answer. Then Simon Peter answered unto
him, Lord, Oh, he knew he's the Lord, didn't he? You know that
he's the Lord. He's the dictator. He's in control
of everything. He's the Lord. Oh, don't you
love his lordship? I've heard of a lordship issue. No issue to a believer. He's the Lord. And Peter knew
that. Lord, it's not like we have any
options. Notice he didn't say, where shall
we go? But he says, to whom shall we go? It's not like we have
a choice. It's not like there are other
options we can consider. To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. These words that they found to
be harsh, austere words, you know how we find them? We find
them to be words of eternal life. We love everything you say, and
there is no life apart from these words that you just spoke. I
know that they find them harsh sayings, or we don't. These are
words of eternal life. You know, the gospel is not for
everybody. It's for somebody though. And
it's for anybody. Not everybody, but anybody. Anybody
who finds these words to be words of eternal life. Verse 69. And we believe and are sure that we're saved, that we're one of the elect,
that we've been born again. That's all he says. I wish we could get this. Faith
doesn't have anything to do with what you think about yourself.
May the Lord give us grace to lay hold upon this. Faith doesn't
have anything to do about your self thoughts. Forget yourself
for a second. Do you believe this? We believe
and are sure that thou art that Christ, the son of the living
God. Now this is what we believe and
this is what we're sure about. You're God's Christ. You're the
Christ of God. You're the Messiah. You're God's
prophet. Oh, don't you love the fact that
I love saying this, the Lord never said, thus saith the Lord.
He said, I say unto you, he's the word of God. He's God's prophet. He's God's priest. If he brings
you to the father, you must be saved. Peter, I've prayed for
you. Anything else need to be said?
What about the thief on the cross? Lord, remember me. If he remembers
me, everything's fine. The priest, God's king, God's
absolute monarch, God's ruler, the one whose will must be done. That's what a king is. His will
must be done. Whatever he wills, it must take
place. Thou art the Christ, the Son,
of the living God. God, the son, in the beginning
was the word. You see, he was before the beginning.
Don't you love to ... I know it blows and boggles our
mind, but he never began to be. He's the eternal son. Before Abraham was, I am In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. You fellas want to leave? Oh,
where would we go? To whom should we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Verse 70,
Jesus answered them, now I'm not gonna read, well, good for
you. I'm glad you believe that way.
I'm glad you do it. No, he says, have not I chosen
you? That's why you believe. He's
not congratulating them, saying, well, you've been different from
everything. No, have not I chosen you? That's the only reason you believe. That's overwhelming. Have not
I chosen you? Have not I chosen you twelve,
he says, and one of you is a devil. Now, the one that doesn't really
believe. The twelve were there, but one's not going to continue
in the faith. And he calls Judas Iscariot a devil. One of you
is a devil. The one that doesn't end up believing
and doesn't continue in the faith, he says, one of you is a devil. But the reason you do believe
is because I chose you. He said in John chapter 15, verse
16, you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. Verse 71, he spake of Judas Iscariot,
the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being
one of the 12. What a message, the message of
Capernaum. And this message, I believe,
is there are no messages that are more significant than this.
But Lord willing next week we'll pick back up in Psalms.