Let me read one other scripture
in reference to this subject. You'll find it in John 7, beginning with verse 40. John
7, beginning with verse 40. Many of the people, therefore,
when they heard this saying, Now, you're going to find all
the way through this message, the division was not over what
Christ did, but what he said. That was what was causing the
division. There was a division because
of these sayings, his doctrine. There was a division, a division
because of these sayings, when they heard this saying. And they
said of a truth, this is the prophet. Many of the people,
when they heard this saying, said of a truth, this is the
prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. But some said, shall
Christ come out of Galilee? Hath not the scripture said that
Christ cometh out of the seed of David, out of the town of
Bethlehem, where David was? So there was a division among
the people because of him, and some would have taken him, but
no man laid hold on him, laid hands on him. Now, when our Lord
walked on this earth, there was a day when Christ the Lord God
himself walked on this earth in human flesh. And when he walked
on this earth, he was literally despised and hated and rejected. by men religious and profane,
religious and otherwise, in the pulpit, in the pew, and in the
world. They despised him. Isaiah 53
said this, he's a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We
hid, as it were, our faces from him. We despised him and esteemed
him not. There was no comeliness about
him that we should desire him. John 1 says he was in the world,
and he made the world, and the world knew him not, and he came
unto his own. He came unto his own people.
He came to his own temple. He came to his own sacrifices,
and his own received him not. And then in John 15, he said,
My brethren, marvel not if the world hate you. It hated me before
it hated you. It cursed him, called him a devil. They called him a winebibber.
They called him a gluttonous man. They called him the friend
of publicans and sinners. In one place they even asked
him to leave their city, just get out and don't come back.
They tried to throw him off a cliff. They spat upon him. They scourged
him with a cat of nine tails. They hired false witnesses against
him. Finally they crucified him. Now
those things are true. That's when Jesus Christ walked
this earth. That was the treatment he received.
That was the attitude of the people. Anybody, everybody that
was anybody turned thumbs down on him. Religion as a whole rejected
him. One here, one there, and one
yonder believed on him. But religion as a whole turned
thumbs down on him. Now here's my question. Would
he, Christ himself, with his message, with his truth, his
doctrine, what he preached about God, what he preached about men,
what he preached about redemption, what he said about himself, if
he were walking in the flesh, I didn't say if he were here
today, he's here, he's everywhere. But I'm saying if he occupied
a pulpit or preached on the streets today, would he fare better today? Ancient religion rejected and
hated him, right? Would modern religion receive
him, wouldn't it? Well, now, ancient religion was
modern religion when he was here, right? Sure. We call ourselves
modern religion, but when Christ was on the earth, that ancient
religion known in the days of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham
was modern religion. And modern religion rejected
Him just like all religion rejects Him. Turn to Matthew 23. Let me show you something. This
was their excuse. These religious fellows, these
Pharisees, this was their reasoning. Our Lord said in verse 29, he
said, Woe unto you scribes, those were the fellows that did the
writing, that took the old scriptures and manuscripts and wrote them.
And Pharisees, religious leaders, preachers, you're hypocrites. He called them both hypocrites.
because you build the tombs of prophets, and garnish the sepulchres
of the righteous." What's he talking about? He's saying you
scribes and Pharisees are building monuments to Abraham and Moses, and to Daniel and Isaiah, and
you're going down to visit the sepulchres of these great prophets
of God, of bygone days, and taking your claws and polishing on writing
books about them. That's what they're doing today.
They're building monuments to Calvin and Luther and Zwingli
and Huss. Everybody's bragging on Spurgeon.
When those men were here, they hated them. They killed them.
They tried their best to kill Luther every time he got up in
the morning. He had to hide here and hide there and hide in the
yard. And today they named their sons Martin after him. And they said, not us, not us. But I said, not us, not us. If we had been in the days of
our fathers, if we had been in ancient religion, we would not
have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
We would have heard Mr. Luther. That's what we're saying
here today. That's what the modern Lutherans
are saying. That's what the modern Presbyterians, they would have
heard Calvin. We would have heard Mr. Spurgeon. We would have heard
Mr. Gill. We would have sat at their
feet. We would have heard them. That's what these fellows said.
You see, ancient religion was modern religion in the day of
Christ when Christ was here in the flesh. And this modern religionists,
they hated Christ. They despised him. They said,
we don't want to do anything with you. We've got Abraham. We don't want anything
to do with you. We've got Moses. We don't want
anything to do with you. We've got Isaiah. Oh, he said, I know
you. You're going down there building
monuments to these old prophets because they're dead. And you're
garnishing their sepulchers. Oh, no, no, not us. They said
if we had lived, we'd have heard them. We'd have heard them. Don't be deceived by the monuments
and honors given to dead prophets. It's a whole lot easier to follow
a dead prophet than a living prophet. It's a whole lot easier
to brag on Mr. Spurgeon than to brag on Mr.
Mahan. He's alive today. Mr. Spurgeon's
dead. It's a whole lot easier to follow
him. It's a whole lot easier. It's
so simple. It's one generation covering
the crimes of their daddies. They've always hated God's prophet
because they hate God's Word. They hate God's Word. You don't
hate the prophet, you hate God's Word. You hate what the prophet's
preaching because the prophet is his message. He ain't nothing
without his message. Johnson, they said, who are you?
He said, nobody, I'm a voice. I'm just a voice. You don't hate
a record, you hate what that thing says. Records all look
alike, men all look alike. The record is just a black disc
that you spin on a phonograph. But you take it off and bust
it. Why, you don't like what it said. Huh? You don't like
what it said. And this fellow stands in the
pulpit with the Word of God. He ain't nothing but a man. That's
all. And you bust him in the mouth.
It's what he said. You didn't lie. It's what it
said. And Christ, it's what he said.
They hated what he said. What did he say? When Moses was
here, they hated him. He went up in the mountain and
stayed 40 days, that wasn't very long. And they said, let's get
us a new leader. This man Moses, we don't know
where he is. They bragged on Abraham. Because Abraham was dead. When
Moses was here, they hated him and bragged on Abraham. When
Christ was here, they hated Christ and bragged on Moses. See, Moses
was dead. When the apostles preached, they
hated the apostles and bragged on Christ. He had gone back to
glory. When the Reformers preached,
they hated the Reformers and bragged on the apostles. They
called them St. John and St. Matthew and St.
Luke. and St. Jude. But now those Reformers
are dead, and today's preachers are preaching the same message,
and we won't hear them. We go dust off our old books
and say, Calvin said this, but he's dead. He's dead. He's dead. The critical issues
are always the same. The dividing issues are always
the same, but when a prophet's dead, when a prophet's gone,
men have a way of taking the edge off his message and making
him say what he didn't say. That's exactly right. They have
a way of remembering what they want to remember about him. I have fellows today that are
just Crazy about Brother Barnard. Well, I remember when he was
here, they weren't too crazy about him. 13th Street Baptist
Church, about the only church that helped that fella. Where
were these fellas when he was living? He's dead now. A fella came up to me not long
ago. I was standing out in the churchyard
in the Bible conference, and he came up with one of Brother
Barnard's books. He said, you knew Brother Barnard, I said,
as well as anybody knew him, 19 years, preached his funeral,
knew him well, in his home, in my home every year. Preached
with him. He said, well, he said, there's
not any like him today, is there? I said, oh yes, yes. No, he said,
not much preaching like he did. I said, now hold on here a minute. There's men today preaching better
than Barnard ever preached. That's exactly right. But I know
what that young man wants to do. He wants to resurrect the
dead prophet and brag on him and not support a living prophet.
Cheaper. Dead prophets don't eat. They
don't drive cars or wear clothes. It's cheap. They can buy a book
for $3.95. And they can worship their dead
preachers. But if he were here today, If
Barnard were here today, preaching what he had preached, it would
be the same thing. I know it, because I feel it. And I'll tell you, all these
folks that have adopted Spurgeon, you know what Spurgeon said out
of his own mouth when he walked on this earth, when he lived
here? He said this, "...is scarcely a preacher of any renown." a
recognition that will have anything to do with me." He said that
when he was alive, but he's dead now, Richard. And the longer
they're dead, the sweeter they smell. The longer they're dead,
the more we love them. The longer they're dead, the
more we brag on them. The longer they're dead, the
more we say, if we had lived, well, you're living now. And
your treatment of God's word reveals just what it would have
been if you had lived then. I'm telling you the truth. Telling
you the truth. Because we take these dead men
and we write loving biographies of them, and beautiful pictures
of them, and we just scratch out what we don't like about
them and what they said, and we remember what we want to remember,
and we just elevate them and brag on them. But I'll tell you
this, the man that hears God's messenger and God's hour is of
God. Because our Lord, his disciples,
he said, he that heareth you, heareth me. And he that rejecteth
you, rejecteth him that sent me. That's true. What's the cause of this extreme
hatred? What are these critical issues?
What are these critical issues? What brought this hatred? I read
a while ago they literally took up stones to stone him, to stone
him. And you say, if I'd lived then
I wouldn't have done that. Well, here are four issues that
our Lord dealt with that the natural man just cannot take
And we'll read these old writers on prayer and the unpardonable
sin and the gift of the Holy Ghost and the true Church and
the Millenniums and all these, there's no minor issue, but all
these things that are not critical, that are not of substantial value
concerning a man's relationship with God. But now these men had
something to say on these four critical issues, as did our Lord.
And here's the four things. Number one is the absolute, unchangeable
sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Natural men never
have, do not now, never will, like that message. Number two
is the perfect deity, the perfect deity and the perfect humanity,
sinlessness of Jesus Christ. They never liked it then, they
don't like it now. And number three is the total, absolute
fall and depravity and corruption of all flesh when it's spelled
out. When it's spelled out in clear
terms, natural men won't have it. And fourthly is salvation
is not something I do for God. It's not a mental acceptance
or agreement with facts. It is not a decision. Salvation
is a new birth. It is a living personal union
with Jesus Christ. Now, that's what those old men,
that's what our Lord preached, that's what those old fellows
preached. Let me show you that. Turn the Luke forward. I'll give
you those four things. And this is what raised their
ire, this is what raised their wrath. My friends, abortion is bad.
I'm against it as much as any man in America. But that's not
the critical issue. They've been killing babies ever
since man lived on this earth. King killed his brother, scarcely
out of the Garden of Eden. I tell you, pornography is not
the issue. I think it's bad. It's terrible
that our televisions and newspapers and magazines excite the lust
of men and women like they do. It's a shame. But that's not
the critical issue. Communism and capitalism is not
the issue. If you want to succeed in religion
on television or a big church, a big following, get four or
five issues of which your crowd is not guilty. That's right. Now, don't start with what they
are guilty of. You are going to lose them. You are going to run
them all. Anybody has a better sense than that. I'm going to
preach against abortion, pornography, and prostitution and homosexuality. Ain't nobody here guilty of any
of it. And everybody says, Amen! Give it to them, preacher. I'll
pay you to get on television and tell them all how wicked
they are. How wicked they are. Everybody's against that stuff.
It's got good sense. But those aren't the issues.
Those aren't the issues. These are the issues. This is
what stirs the ire and the wrath. Look at Luke 4. Verse 18, Our
Lord came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as
his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day, and he stood up to read. It was delivered to him the book
of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book and he
found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. This is the Messianic scripture
he's reading, Messianic prophecies. He's taking that which was written
in the Old Testament about the Messiah and claiming it's fulfilled
in himself. That's what he's doing. And those
fellows weren't dummies. They knew what he was doing.
They knew what he was saying. And he said, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me, he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent, God has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovery of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them
that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and he handed it over to the minister,
and he sat down. And all of them that were in
the synagogue, they fastened their eyes on him. Boy, you talk
about looking a fellow over, that bunch of religious folk
looked him over. And he broke the silence, and
he said, this day, not in the days of David your
father, not in the days of Abraham or Moses, not in the days of
the glorious Isaiah, But this day the scriptures fulfill right
in your ears. And they bear him witness and
wonder at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth.
And they looked around and said, isn't this Joseph's son? Isn't
this the carpenter? Is this Joseph's son, claiming
to be the Messiah, claiming to be the Christ, claiming to be
the Savior? We don't believe that. And he
said unto them, Ye shall say, Physician, heal yourself. What
we heard you do that you did in Capernaum, do here in your
hometown. And he said, No profit. I say
unto you, No profit is accepted in his own country. But I'm going
to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you the truth.
That there were many lepers, there were many widows in Israel
in the days of Elias. when it didn't rain for three
years and six months, and famine was throughout the land, and
unto none of them, not one widow in Israel, was allowed sin except
unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a Gentile city, unto a woman
that was a widow." And that's not all. But there were many
lepers in Israel in the days of Eliseas the prophet, and none
of them were cleansed. There were many lepers in the
land of Israel, in that nation that claimed to be God's nation,
and claimed to be God's people, and claimed to have special favors
from God, and had the prophets and the sacrifices, and not one
of them was healed except a Gentile called Naaman. How are they going
to react to that? Well, what's he saying? The Lord
saves whom he will. He's saying, as he said to Moses,
I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. These people said, we heard you
heal some blind people at Capernaum, heal some blind people here.
We hear you heal some crippled folks in Capernaum, heal some
crippled folks here. We hear you did some marvelous
works in Bethsaida. Do it here. We want to see some
works. We like miracles. I believe in
miracles. I want to see somebody get out
of a wheelchair and run up and down the auditorium. That's fun. That's fun. You know, that's
exciting. Do that here." And he said, I'm
going to tell you something. There were many widows in Israel,
and God didn't feed one of them in three and a half years of
famine, but he fed this one he chose over him. And there were
many lepers in Israel, and God didn't heal one of them. He healed
this man who was a Syrian by the name of Naaman. How did they
react to it? And all that were in the synagogue
when they heard these things were filled with wrath. God can't
be God. We're God. We won't let God be
God. We won't let God be sovereign
and salvation. We won't let God show mercy to
whom he will be merciful and be gracious to whom he will be
gracious. We won't have that. We don't like that. We like religion. We're in the synagogue. We keep
a day. We like a Sabbath day. We like
that. We're all here. The place was
full. We're all here. We give our tithes. They were
strict tithers. They were pastors. They were
day keepers, they were law keepers, they were the people of religion. And they wanted to see some simple
miracles. And our Lord told them the truth
of redemption, the truth of God's sovereignty in dispensing his
grace or giving forth his mercy. And they said, we don't like
that. And they rose up and thrust him out of their city. and led him to the brow of the
hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down
headlong." They were going to throw him off a cliff. They went
from church to a lynch mob in five minutes. They went from
self-righteous Sabbath-keepers and thumb-twiddlers, and with
a smile on their face and their eyes rolled back in their head
toward heaven, to glaring, hateful murderers. He said, God's sovereign
in salvation. That's all he said. I had a young
man come down to where I was holding a meeting some time ago,
a young pastor of an independent Baptist church. He wanted me
to come preach a meeting for him. I said, I'll come, but I'm
going to ask you a question. I said, are there any folks in
your church that believe the sovereign grace of God, the sovereign
mercy of God? He said, no, not many. I said,
well, how many men? He said, none. Well, he has a
pretty good crowd. I said, well, I'm going to tell
you something before I come. Those sweet, lovely Sunday go-to-meeting
folks will turn into monsters when you preach this message.
And I said, you and your wife and children get ready to hit
the street. You get ready to find you some
way to make a living, because they're going to fire you. I've
had it happen too many times. They'll fire you. They'll put
you out on the sidewalk. They'll give you 30 days to get
out of the house. Your dearest friends will turn
into enemies. That's right, sis, they'll hate
you." He said, they will. I said, yes,
they'll hate you. They'll hate your children, they'll
mistreat your children in school. I know what I'm talking about.
We've had that. Grown teachers who attend some of these Southern
Baptist churches. Isn't that right, Becky? I made
it hard on my children. We love Pilate's Baptist church,
because I preach God's They're cruel, Richard. They're mean
as the devil. They hate God. They don't hate
their God, they hate the living God. They don't hate their concept
of God. They don't hate the God of their
imagination. They don't hate the peanut God
that's being preached today. They don't hate that God that
can and will if you let him. But they hate that God that doeth
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
this earth. They hate that God that says,
I've spoken and I'll do it. I'll purpose it and I'll bring
it to pass. And none can stay my hand or
say unto me, what doest thou? I'll be merciful to whom I will. when the children were not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. It
was said to her, The older shall serve the younger, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. I don't like that God. I know
they don't. And you don't dare preach that,
God. And when you do preach it, I told that young man, when you
do preach it, you're going on the streets now. And I said,
when you get red and you make up your mind that you're willing
to hit the streets, I'll come preach. And I want you to count the cost.
I know what will happen. If they hated me, Christ said,
they'll hate you. Well, when I go to Nazareth,
I wouldn't preach that doctrine. That's the thing to do, you know,
just don't preach it. They're all good people. They're
all nice folks. And the thing to do is just don't
preach it. That's deep. It ain't deep, that's
just so. Nothing deep about that, nothing
deep about telling who God is. He's on the throne. That's what
Christ said, and that's what made them hate him, or it turned
to John 10. Oh, that's the issue? Yes, that's
the issue. If you go to a place to praise,
tell them who God is and find out when they're singing how
much they love God, find out they really do. Tell them who
he is. Tell them who he is, and you'll
find out whether they love him or not. If they love him, they'll
love you. They love him, they love your
message. If they love him, they'll come up and say, that's the God
I worship. That's the God I love. That's the God in whom I find
comfort and peace and rest. That's the God of my salvation.
I had an old man down in, I preached down in Big Stone Gap, Virginia
years ago, and I preached the sovereign grace of God. First
time I was ever in that church, it used to be a freewill Baptist
church, the Apostles started preaching some grace, and an
old man came down the aisle, a gray-headed old fellow, visted
there, and he had tears in his eyes, and he took me by the hand,
and he said, I never heard it that way. But he said, that's
the way God saved me. That's the way God saved me.
I never heard it put just like that, but that's the way God
saved me. That's one of his sheep. My sheep
will hear my voice. Here's the second thing, John
10. This is the issue. He said in John 10, verse 30,
I and my Father are one. What's he talking about? He's
saying he's a man, but he's God. God in human flesh. Now, he's
not just a representative or an ambassador of God. He's not
just a special heavenly message. Give him whatever honors you
choose in that respect. He's God himself. God among us. I'm a father of one. They understood
what he said. These Jews understood what he
said. For they took up stones to stone
him, for blasphemy. And he said, now wait a minute,
many good works have I showed you from my father, verse 32,
for which of these works are you stoning me? And the Jews
said, we're not stoning you for good works, we've got no objections
to these things, good works. The religious world will support
any good project feeding the hungry, I'm for feeding the hungry.
And they'll support that. You can show all the little bloated
children on television and tell how you're over there healing
their bodies and feeding them, and folks will shovel money in.
That's fine. Even drunkards will send you
money. Blasphemers, whoremongers, they're for good works. Religionists,
stop abortion. They're all for that. Homosexuality,
who in the world wants to be engaged in that? Promote that
stuff. They'll back you. Do good works. That's not why we're stoning
you. Here's the issue we've got with you. Blasphemy! You're a
man! You claim to be God. And brethren,
let me tell you something. That's the very foundation of
our confidence in Christ and our faith in Christ is he's not
just a man, he's the God-man. He's God in human flesh. Thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins, and this is fulfilled The fulfillment of the prophecy
of Isaiah, who said, Thou shalt call his name Immanuel, which
is God with us, God with us. Isaiah 9, 6, Under us a child
is born, under us a son is given, and thou shalt call his name
Wonderful, Counselor, what? The Mighty God. Call that baby's
name what? The Mighty God. What? The Everlasting Father. That's
right, one and the same. But there's a trinity. The Lord
our God is one God. I don't understand the trinity,
Jim. I believe it, but I know that Jesus Christ is God Almighty
who created the heavens and the earth for his glory, through
his power and sustains everything that moves, even the lightning
bugs and the eagles that pray and the men who march. and the
sun that shines, and the thunder that rolls, and the rain that
falls, and the snow that trickles down, and the birds that sit
on the bough, and the hairs of my head. Absolute, sovereign
God walking on this earth. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in human flesh. Or I turn to John 8. Here's another
illustration, John 8, 59. Listen to this. John 8, 59. Then took they up
stones to cast at him. There it is again. It's not the
same incident, it's another incident. Well, what brought that on? Why
this outburst? Why this wrath? Well, go back
to verse 41 and let's see what he said. He called them sinners. He said, ìYou do the deeds of
your father.î They said, ìWe be not born in sin. We be not
born of fornication. We donít believe in original
sin. We all have one Father, God.î You know what most people
believe, the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man? You
know what to believe? We have one Father, God. Now, I know
weíre supposed to love all men. Thereís a sense in which weíre
all brothers. that we came from one father,
Adam. That's right, we're all brothers. There's a sense by
creation in which God is the creator, the owner, and the originator,
and you might call the father in that sense of all men. But
he made the snakes, and the snakes are not sons of God, and he's
not the father of snakes. Is he? Orangutans? Well, he made them. And there's
a sense in which as the originator, everything, in the beginning
God, and then everything else came. So they said, God's our
Father and one God. And Jesus said, if God were your
Father, you would love me. That's the way. He that loveth
Christ is a son of God. You would love me. for I proceeded
forth and came from God, neither came I of myself, but he sent
me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Because you cannot hear my word, you are of your father
the devil." That's the reason. Well, preacher, that would make
anybody mad, not anybody. It won't make a believer mad.
That won't make a believer mad, that won't make a man who understands
his fallen condition mad. We are of the flesh, we are dead
in sin, we are corrupt, there is not anything about us for
God to love. Not a holy God, not a righteous
God. If we had to make anybody mad
for a preacher to stand up in front of a whole crowd of people
and say, God's not your father. God's not your father. Don't
call God your father. Don't talk about the fatherhood
of God. He's not the father of all men.
You are your father of the devil. The devil's your daddy. Well,
preach that and make anybody mad. I'm not a believer. That
don't make me mad. I know that so. I know that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. And it can't be anything else
but flesh, and flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom
of God." That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and they're
born of God. And you're not anybody's daddy
unless he's born of you. That's just right. I'm your friend,
David. I'm your buddy. I'm your brother. I ain't your daddy. Paul Edwards is my son, he's
my friend, he's my buddy, but he's my son, too. And a lot of
folks hear that the grace of God, the mercy of God is on all
his creation. It rains on your garden just
like it rains on anybody else's. But God is not your Father, not
unless you are in Christ. That's where God's sons are.
Now are we sons of God! Now, we are never with children
of wrath, even as others, but in Christ we are sons of God.
Now, friends, don't fidget under that. Christ said that. You don't
have to apologize for that. You don't have to slip up on
somebody and say it in the little class, but not preaching the
book. One preacher told me he preached grace a little bit on
Wednesday night and a tiny bit on Sunday night and none on Sunday
morning. Because he didn't want to split the church. Let me tell
you something. You don't need to do that. That's
not preaching. That's stealing. That's corn
game. Our Lord Jesus Christ just told
them the truth. Here's the way I preach, believe
me. I expect people to believe what I preach, because I read
it out of here. I expect them to. Like the fellow
said to Brother Barnard one time after he preached it, I didn't
like what you said. Ross said, well, apologize and
I'll forgive you. See, we'll settle this thing,
ain't no problem. And that's the way I think, apologize
and I'll forgive you. God's true, and everybody here
is a liar, but God's true. And I'm reading out of this book
here. You read out of what you want to read out of. If you don't
agree with me, you'll apologize after the service and I'll be
glad to forgive you. But that's right. Our Lord said,
you have your father the devil. And they got them some big rocks,
and they said, we're not taking that. We won't listen to that. No, I know they won't. All right,
here's the last one, John 6, and I'll let you go. John 6,
but as many as received him, to them gave he the right to
become sons of God. Oh, boy. I like that, Jimbo. As many as received him, to them
gave he the right. to become sons of God. I believe
there are some sons of God here this morning, but they are in
Christ. If you are afraid to preach God's
words, you don't know God. I hear people say, well, he knows
the doctrines of grace, but he won't preach them. He may mentally
have read about them somewhere, and like he knows the formula,
an algebraic formula or a geometrical formula. But he doesn't believe
it. If he believed it, he'd preach
it. That's right, if he believed it in his heart, he'd preach
it. Because we don't fear men, we fear God. No man, no way,
no way, he does not believe it. John 6, verse 66, listen to this. And from that time, many of his
disciples went back and walked no more with him. what happened. I mean, they quit. They walked off. Went through. It was because of what he said.
And you go back with me a little bit in verse 48. Now, here are
these Jews, you see, they put a lot of stock in the form and
the ceremony. They put a lot of stock in the
ritualistic part of religion, in the ceremony. They kept the
day and they didn't do this and didn't do that, and they went
to the synagogue and they kept the feast days and they brought
the sacrifice and they had their days of purifications and baptisms
and all these things. And the Lord Jesus said in verse
48, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers did eat mine undied. But I am the fulfillment of this
manna, and the fulfillment of the rock, and I am the fulfillment
of the Passover. I am the blood, I am the bread. Your fathers ate manna in the
wilderness, and they're dead. And this is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that if a man eats thereof, he shall not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat this bread, he
shall live forever. And the bread I'll give him is
my flesh that I'll give for the life of the world." And Jesus,
the Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, how can this
man give us his flesh to eat? They didn't understand that. And Christ said, Verily I say
unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink
his blood, ye have no life." You can go through the motions
of religion and the form of religion, you can come down and make your
decision, you can say, I believe in Jesus. The devil believes.
I believe he died on the cross, the devil believes that. I believe
he was buried and rose again, the devil believes that. But
when we personally, and I don't know how to explain this, it's
a mystery of God's But when we personally can somehow,
with the heart, lay hold of in such a way, lay hold of Christ
in such a way, that we receive not so much what he did, we receive
him. What he did is not effective
if he's not who he is. I hear people say, I'm trusting
the finished work. I'm not. I'm trusting Christ
who finished the work. But I'm trusting the blood. Now
don't, please don't get scared here. I'm trusting the one who
shed the blood. There's a difference, believe
me. There's a difference.