Would you turn back to John 6
while you're turning there, we will observe the Lord's table
tonight. The last phrase of verse 60. This is an hard saying. Who can hear it? The last. Part of verse 63, the
words that I speak unto you, and these are the words that
they were calling hard sayings, the words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. These words that you call hard
sayings These words are spirit, and these words are life. I've entitled this message, Hard
Sayings or Words of Life. Now, I want you to attempt to
listen to this message Like you've never heard the gospel before. Listen to this message. Listen
to what's being said. Like you've never heard the gospel
before. This is the first time. And see
if you find these words to be hard sayings or words of life. Let me read you the amplified
Bible translation of verse 60. When his disciples heard this,
they heard this message he delivered in John chapter six. Many of
them said, this is a hard and difficult and strange saying. an offensive and unbearable message,
who can stand to hear it? Who can be expected to listen
to such teaching? Verse 61, when Jesus knew in
himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth
this offend? Now that word offend is where
we get the word scandal from. They found this to be not only
an offensive message, but a scandalous message. Doth this offend you? The Lord could see in their hearts.
Now question, when is the last time that you heard a message
that you personally found to be offensive. I'm not talking about being offended
by the offensive behavior of the one bringing the message. A preacher can be self-righteous,
arrogant, condescending, and you'd be offended by anything
they said, whether it was true or not, because of the arrogant
way the message is delivered. Now, I'm not talking about being
offended by offensive behavior. I'm talking about being offended
by the actual content of the message. by the words which were
spoken. These people found what they
heard to be offensive, scandalous. This word hard sayings is also
translated austere. They found these words to be
austere. That means dry, rough to the
touch. We don't like what you've said. As a matter of fact, we read
in verse 66 of our text, from that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. They said, we've had
it with this. We're not going this direction. Now, who is the group that he
was speaking to that had this response? Well, if we read the
entire chapter, we know this is the group of 5,000 men that
he fed miraculously. Now at this time, Jesus of Nazareth
did what only God can do. He brought matter into existence,
into the universe that was not there before. He demonstrated
creative He fed 5,000 men with two sardines and five biscuits. And when they took the food up,
there were 12 complete baskets left. Jesus Christ is the creator. And he demonstrated at this time
when he did what only God can do. He brought matter into existence. He created something from nothing. Matter was brought into the universe
that was not there before. That's so glorious. Jesus Christ
is God. He is the mighty creator. Now
put yourself in these people's place. This man gave them food
and they didn't have to do anything for it. Wow, we won't have to work. We won't have to scrape. What
we can do is make this man king and we'll have it made. This
is good stuff. I'm sure the food was good. I'm
sure the sardines tasted good. And they were thinking, let's
put this man into office to take care of us. Now look in verse
14. of John chapter six. Then those
men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, this is
of a truth, that prophet that should come into the world. This
is that prophet Moses promised. That prophet made like unto me.
This is that prophet. And you know, they were right. They were right. You know, you
can be right in your doctrine and miss Christ altogether. They
were right. This was indeed that prophet
that should come into the world. Verse 15, when Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and take him by force to make
him a king. I love this. He departed. He left that crowd and went by
himself to a mountain alone. Now why did the Lord depart? He could have been made king.
Because he already was king. And no man is going to make him
king. He is king. You don't vote him into office.
He is Lord. You don't make him Lord. He's
your Lord and he's your king whether you know it or not. And
your eternal destiny is in his hand. where you spend eternity,
heaven or hell is determined not by you, but by him. And whenever he sees
this kind of foolishness going on, let's make him king. Let's
make him Lord. He leaves. He's not going to
have anything to do with that kind of foolishness. Now, what
happened next? Verse 16, and when even was now
come, his disciples went down into the sea and entered into
a ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was
now dark and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by
reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed about
five and 20 or 30 furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea. Now here he once again demonstrates
his deity by rescinding the law of physics and walking on the
water. You know, he can tell the sun
to stop and hold still. He did that once. Stayed light
for 24 hours. You know, the laws of physics
are totally in his hand. Then they willingly received
him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land where
they went. Now, they crossed the sea, And as far as those
people who had that meal, they thought he was still there because
they didn't see him getting a shift. They didn't see him walk across
the sea at night. So they went looking for him
because they thought, we need to have this man to get us another
meal. Now, if you had a cash cow, You'd want to milk it, wouldn't
you? And that's what they thought
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They thought of him as a cash
cow. We can get all the meals we want. You see, no one objected
to the miracles of Christ, did they? Everybody was fine with
him providing them things and healing their sick. Everybody
was happy with that. What rubbed him wrong was what
he said. Now, beginning in verse 25 of
John chapter six, and when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, Not because you
saw the miracles, not because of some conviction of who I am,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth, that lasts unto
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For
him hath God the Father sealed. Now they heard that word labor. Labor not for the meat which
perishes, but for the meat which endures to everlasting life.
They heard that word labor. So what was their response? Verse
28, then said they unto him, what shall we do? You talk about labor. What shall
we do? that we might work the works. Notice it's in the plural. What shall we do that we might
work the works of God? What a question. And what an answer. Verse 29,
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work. Notice he doesn't say this is
one of the works. He says this is the work of God that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. Now if you go on reading in this
passage of scripture, in this sermon, three times he says,
I came down from heaven. Three times. As a matter of fact,
one time I said, what's this? He's saying he came down from
heaven. We know his mom and dad. What if I looked at you and said,
I came down from heaven. How would you respond to that?
You'd say, you're crazy. You're saying something that's just
not so. Well, they had the same response to our Lord, but he
said, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he has sent. Now, first of all, you believe
he was before he was sent. You don't believe his existence
began then. You believe he was before He was sent. And you believe the Father sent
Him. The Word was made flesh. God sent His Son. And you believe, if you believe
on Him, you believe He actually did whatever it was the Father
sent Him to do. He can be no failure. He's God.
He's all-powerful. Whatever it was the Father sent
Him to do, that's precisely what He This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. Period. Now the hardest thing there is
to do is nothing. to be shut up to faith in Christ. And that's what the Lord does
at this time. He shuts these people up to faith in Himself. This is the work of God! That
you believe on Him whom He hath sent. You know the hardest thing there
is to do is to trust Christ alone. Nothing else. To trust Christ alone. Verse 30, they said therefore
unto him, What sign shows thou thee? Give
us something that we can see. Perform some kind of miracle
again that we may see and believe. What does thou work? You talk
about the work of God. Well, what do you do? And they
go back to this thing of eating. Our fathers that eat manna in
the desert, as it's written, he gave them bread from heaven
to eat. Now, Moses did that. You do it. Give us another meal. That's all they were thinking
about at this time. Give us another meal. Moses did
that. If you want us to believe you,
prove yourself, show us this sign, give us something else
to eat. Then we'll be your disciple. Still, all they're thinking about
is physical bread. Verse 32. Then Jesus said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that
bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from
heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord,
Evermore give us this bread. They were still thinking of physical
bread. They were still thinking of material things. They were
still thinking of providing for their needs. They didn't hear
what he said. Verse 35, and Jesus said unto
them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth in me shall
never thirst. Now, while I was reading that,
I felt a hunger pain. I'm hungry. I really am. I mean,
I'm hungry. Says you'll never hunger. What's
that talking about then? If you ever believe on Christ,
you'll be completely satisfied to be saved by Him only. You find complete satisfaction. You're not hungering for anything
or thirsting for anything. Just being found in Him. In Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete. You lack nothing. Find that satisfying? Oh, that's good bread, isn't
it? That's the bread that comes down from heaven. And I love
the way he says, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and
he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Preacher, what
do you mean when you say come to Christ? Believe on Him. Same
thing. You believe on Christ, you come
to Christ. You come to Christ, you believe
on Christ. And I know what you come to Him
for. When you come to Him, you come and say, Lord, save me.
I can't save myself. If you don't do something for
me, it's over for me. That's the way you come to Christ.
You come to him as like the leopard did. Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. That's the way you come to Christ.
Same way that leopard did. But verse 36, I said unto you
that you also have seen me and believe not. Now the Lord is
omniscient. The Lord can look into the hearts
of all men and he said, you've seen me and you believe not. What that tells me a couple of
things. Number one, faith doesn't come
by seeing miracles. You can see all the miracles
in the world and it won't do you a bit of good. Faith comes
from the revelation of his person. He said, you've seen me and you
believe not. Let me say this. If you believe not, that's the
choice you make. If you believe, you don't choose
to believe. You believe something because
it's the truth. You know, some people could see Christ, we gotta
believe Him, He's the truth. But to not believe Him, you had
to choose not to believe Him in spite of all this evidence,
in spite of Him doing what only God can do, we're still not gonna
believe. You see me, and you believe not. But it's almost
like He says, you don't believe, but I know who will. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. The fact that you do not believe
is not a discouragement to me. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Who are the ones the Father gave
him? Why, they're the elect. That's
exactly what he's talking about. John chapter 17, verse two, thou
has given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou has given him. It's the elect. John 17,
nine, he said, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me. All that the father giveth
me shall come to me. Now what is election? Election
is God, listen real carefully. Don't miss this. Election is
God choosing who would be saved before the foundation of the
world. Now, if you're saved, it's because
God chose you before time began. And let me tell you this, it
didn't have anything to do with your works. Romans 9, 11 says 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. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Now let me tell you two things
about election. All election is, is God being God. I love
saying that. All election is, is God being
who He is. He's in charge. He's in absolute
control. And your salvation is in His
hands. It's not in your hands. It's
in His hands. It's up to Him. He's God. Somebody says, I don't like that.
Well, I do. I do. I love it. Election is God being
God, and election tells us that salvation really is all of grace. His reason for choosing who he
chose has nothing to do with their works, nothing to do that
he foresaw. I foresaw they believed, therefore
I chose them. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. That's all
that is. Election tells me that my good works can't recommend
me, my evil works can't disqualify me. It's in God's sovereign hand. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy. And whom He will, He hardens. Now the Lord confronts
these people with election. You don't believe. I know who
will. All the Father giveth me shall
come to me. and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Verse 38, for I came down from
heaven. There he is saying that. I came
down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him
that sent me. And this is the father's will,
which has sent me that of all which he has given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it again at the last day. Now it's God's will that I save
all he has given me. Now that's not hard to understand. What was Christ's intention when
he came? To save those that the Father
gave him. That was his intention. Now listen real carefully. On
the cross, Christ was not making salvation possible. He saved. He saved. You know, whenever
I think of that, my body, the tension leaves. I'm just so relaxed. It doesn't have anything to do
with my works. He saved me. He paid for my sins on Calvary's
tree and he saved me. Now, if you tell me that Christ
could die for someone and pay for their sins and they wind
up in hell anyway, you're taking away the only hope I have. The
only hope I have is that Christ died for me and accomplished
my salvation. That's the only hope that I have. And if you tell me that there's
people in heaven that Christ died for, and there's people
in hell that Christ died for. You're telling me that his blood
has nothing to do with salvation, but it's what you do with it.
You're making salvation dependent upon works. You can have that
gospel. It's worthless. It couldn't save
a fly. It doesn't bring any glory to
God. I despise that. I despise that. This is the will of him that
sent me. that of all, every single one of them which he hath given
me, I won't lose one of them. Salvation accomplished by the
Lord Jesus. Verse 40, 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. Now, if you see the Son, you know that doesn't mean see
him physically. Somebody says, Jesus appeared to me and talked
with me. Anytime I hear something like that, I want to say, you're
a liar. You know better than that. I mean, you're making that
up, trying to impress people. Nobody wants to hear that. But
there is someone who has actually seen the Son, every believer. That means they've seen who He
is. If you ever see who He is, you will believe. No question
about that. If you see who He is, you won't
have any choice. You will believe. Everyone that seeth the Son,
do you see He's the Creator? Do you see He's God? Do you see
He's incapable of failure? Do you believe He is able to
save you? Everyone that seeth the Son will
believe on Him. Somebody says, well, I'd believe
if I knew I was one of the elect. You don't come to Christ as elect.
You come to Christ as a sinner. needing Him. You see, you will believe, and
you will come to Him as a sinner, needing His salvation. Verse 41, the Jews then murmured
at Him, because they said, I'm the bread which came down from
heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He saith,
I came down from heaven? We know his mom and dad, what's
this about? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves, no man can come to me. No man has the ability to come
to me, except the father which has sent me draw him. Now that word draw, is the same
word James uses when he says, do not rich men draw you before
their judgment seats. They draw you into their court. Now that doesn't mean they're
inviting you, why don't you come in and be judged by our court? No, they drag you in. That's
what the word means. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me, dragging. Do you object to that? I don't. You know what it makes
me do? Lord, drag me. I want to be drawn irresistibly
and invincibly to himself. But what that passage of scripture
says is no man can come to Christ. No man has the ability to come
to Christ. What that means is if God doesn't
do something for you, you'll go to hell. That's exactly what
that means. Men are dead. dead in trespasses
and sins, and you cannot come to Christ. And that's your crime. You know, the idea of free will
is the, there's no truth to it. Your will is controlled by your
nature. You have an evil nature. And that's why you won't come
to Christ. And that's your crime. That's not something to feel
sorry for you for. That's your crime. That's my
crime. That our will is so evil that we will not come to Christ
because we cannot. And we cannot because we will
not. And that is your crime. That is my crime. No man can
come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. and I will raise him up at the
last day. Verse 45, it's 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 unto me. Now all
the father gave him, all he died for, all that the father draws,
you know what they'll do? They've heard and they've learned
of the father, and they come to Christ for salvation. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Every one of them will be saved.
Now, that's what God does. Verse 46, not that any man has
seen God save he which is of God, he has seen the Father.
You know, not everybody's of God. You remember when the Lord
said, In John chapter 8, he that's
of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them not,
because you are not of God. Only those who are of God, those
the Father elected, those that Christ died for, those that are
drawn to the Father by the invincible work of the Holy Spirit, they're
the ones who are of God. They're the ones who will hear
and believe. Verily I say unto you, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers that eat man in
the wilderness are dead. This is the bread from 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. For the bread that
I'll give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world."
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, how can this
man give us his flesh to eat? All they could hear was cannibalism.
Verse 53, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,
Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life. And I raise him up at the last
day. Now his flesh is his life. His blood is his death. And my
only way of living is feeding on His life as my life before
God. And His blood as my only sin
payment. I can't live without that. I've
got to have that continually before me. You know, we observed
the Lord's table tonight. We're doing this in remembrance
of Him. We're celebrating His flesh and His blood, His broken
body and His shed blood. That's my necessary food. That's
the only way I have life. His righteousness is my righteousness. His blood as my sin payment. That is my life. Really? Really. Really. That is my life. Verse 55, 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 has 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. He will never fall away. He'll
persevere all the way to the end. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard, said, we don't like this. This is a hard saying. This is
a harsh, unbearable, inhumane saying. Who can be expected to
listen to such teaching as this? They did not like what they heard. I wonder, is there anybody this
morning that does not like what they're hearing? Well, let's see what the Lord
said. Verse 61, when Jesus knew in
Himself that His disciples murmured at it, He said unto them, Does this offend you? Do you
find this a scandalous message? What I just said about being
shut up to faith in Christ, About God electing a people. And they
will come to Me. About Christ dying for the elect. About being unable to come to
Christ unless drawn by the Father with irresistible and invincible
grace to where you find Christ to be irresistible. about living
off his flesh and drinking his blood as your only sustenance
of life. Are you offended by this? Verse 62, I love this. What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? You know what he
means by that? If you're offended now with me
speaking to you on earth, what's it gonna be like when you see
me ascend back where I was before? At the right hand of the Father
in absolute control. If you're offended now, you'll
really be offended then. You'll really be upset then.
It, verse 63, is the spirit that gives life. The flesh profits
nothing. How much does your flesh have
to do with spiritual life? Nothing. It profits, it benefits,
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
these words that you find to be harsh and disagreeable, the
words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. and they are
life. Now I know this, this sinner talking to you, the only way I can be saved is
if God chooses me to be saved. Because I know if he doesn't
do that, I know what I'll do, I'll reject him. The only way
I can be saved is if Christ died for me and was successful in
that death and accomplished my salvation. The only way I can
be saved is if the grace of the Holy Spirit invincibly draws
me to the Son and causes me to come to Him. The only way I can
be saved is by feeding on Him. These are not harsh words to
me. These are words of Spirit Spiritual. The Word of God. These are God's
words. And these are words of life.
Not death. Not harsh, unbearable sayings.
They're words of life. This is the Gospel. You know you've just heard the
Gospel? This is God's Gospel. And these are words of spirit,
and these are words of life. But, verse 64, 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. You
know, the Lord's never surprised about anything. How many times
have you been surprised over something? Not the Lord. Nothing
new to him. Verse 65, and he said, therefore,
this is why I said unto you that no man can come to me. He repeats
himself. No man can come to me except
it were given him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. Now, when he made those statements,
they said, we've had it. They went back. And they walked
no more with him. Well, were they real disciples?
Well, didn't the Lord say, if you continue in my word, then
are you my disciples? Indeed. These people did not
continue in the word, did they? They went back. And they walked
no more with him. And one of the most sobering
things in the scripture is to think of him watching the multitudes
leave. And he didn't say, let me restate
that. Maybe I could say that in such a way where you're more
likely to receive it. He didn't say anything like that. He watched
them leave. And he didn't ask them to come
back. That's a sobering thought, isn't
it? He watched them leave. He didn't ask them to come back.
Verse 67, then said, Jesus under the 12, will you also go away? Would you like to leave also?
Here's your opportunity. You can go with them. There they
go. You can go too. Nobody will notice. Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered, Lord, Where would we go? It's not like
we have an option. It's not like we have another
place to go. You have the words of eternal
life. We have no option. Now, remember, you only believe
when you believe because you have no choice. And that's up. You only believe
when you don't have anywhere else to go. Peter speaks as the
spokesman for all of God's elect. And he says, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that we are saved. Doesn't
say that, does it? We believe and are sure. Now
here's what faith is. Faith isn't believing that you're
saved. Faith is not believing that Jesus
Christ died for you. Faith is not believing you're
one of the elect. We believe and are sure that thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. Now that's what we're sure
of. You're God's Christ. You're the Son of God. Jesus
answered them, Well, I'm so happy that you guys believe that way. I'm relieved. No, he looks at
him and said, have not I chosen you? That's the reason you believe
I've chosen you. And the one that doesn't believe
he's a devil. Talking about Judas. Judas was chosen to be an apostle,
but he was never chosen to salvation, was he? He was a son of perdition,
but I love the way he ends that up. We believe! Oh, here's why. I have chosen
you. Hard sayings or words of eternal
life. Now the issue here, Here's my
closing statement. The issue here is not does the
Bible teach these things, because it does, obviously. The issue
is these things are not hard to understand because they're
not hard to understand. Everybody believed they knew exactly what they were
saying. That's why they left. The issue is can the gospel be
preached and this not be preached? The answer is no. This is the gospel. Let's pray. Lord, we, by your grace, find
these words to be spirit and life. the words of eternal life. And Lord, we say, to whom shall
we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. And Lord, we believe
and are sure that the one called Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the son of the living God. And
we look to him only for everything in salvation. We thank you for
him. In his name we pray, amen.