A Hard Saying -- Who Can Hear It?

I'm going to speak to you today
on this subject. This is a hard saying. Who can
hear it? My text is found in John 6, verse
60. The sixth chapter of John, verse
60. You follow in your Bible as I
read, if you will. Many, therefore, are his disciples. We're not talking about the twelve
disciples. We're talking about those who
followed him. Disciples, many times, are learners
or followers of Christ. In this case, most of the people
had followed him because of the miracles which they saw, because
of the teachings of Christ, because of the loaves and fishes which
they ate. But many of his disciples, when
they heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? Now, in another translation,
the Amplified Version, that verse of Scripture is translated in
this manner. When his disciples heard this,
many of them said, this is a difficult and strange thing. This is an
offensive and unbearable message. Who can stand to hear it? Who
can be expected to listen to such teachings? So they went
back and walked no more with him. Now what had the Lord said
or taught that caused this division and rebellion among these people
who saw the miracles, who ate the loaves and fishes, who listened
to his teachings, who said, this man speaks with authority not
as described in Pharisees, what had he said that caused them
to exclaim, this is a hard and difficult thing? Who can be expected
to listen to such teachings? What had offended these people?
Well, he had said in the verses before this, except you eat the
flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life
in you, except you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son
of Man, you have no life in you." Now, one great old preacher of
the past said this. This is one of the Lord's ultimatums. This is one of the Lord's ultimatums. Several times our Lord set forth
a scripture using the word, Now I want to look at six of
them today. This may be the most important message you'll ever
hear. And I want, I'm confident that
if you listen carefully, and if God leads you to write some
of these things down and write down the references, the scriptures,
and later on look it up and study to see if these things are so,
I'm confident, I'm fully persuaded that God will use this message
to help you to understand the way of life. Now, here are six
ultimatums. These are called hard sayings.
These are called difficult and offensive sayings, and many people
exclaim, who can hear this? Who can listen to such a message?
Who can be expected to receive a message of this sort? Now,
here are six of them. First of all, in John chapter
3, verse 3, our Lord said, except the man be born again. Now, there's
that word again. It's the Lord's ultimatum. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now,
there's no possibility of misunderstanding his words. He said, except a
man be born again, he cannot, he cannot enter or see the kingdom
of God. Now, whatever the new birth is,
it's essential to salvation. Whatever the new birth is, it's
essential to being saved. Now, is this a hard thing to
you? Would you be like those people when our Lord said, except
you eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you
have no life in you? And they say, this is an offensive
thing. This is a hard thing. Who can
be expected to listen to this? Would you say that? Or are you
going to inquire into the new birth and find out what it is?
What's our Lord talking about? What is he saying? Except the
man be born again, He cannot enter or see the kingdom of God. It would be well for us to find
out what the new birth is. What is the new birth? Well,
the Bible has some answers. Now, first of all, this new birth,
and remember as we go through this statement that our Lord
said, except you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of
God. Now, you can ridicule it, you can make fun of it, you can
make fun and mock people who say they have been born again,
but you better listen. Because the master himself said,
except you are born again, you won't enter the kingdom of God.
Well now, the first thing I know about the new birth is this.
It is of God. I know that. It is of God. Jot
this down. John 1, 11 through 13. He came
into his own. That's the Jewish nation, the
Jewish people, the Jewish prophecies, the Jewish ceremony. Our Lord
was a Jew. He was the fulfillment of all
of the prophecies. and the prophets given to the
Jews, the tabernacle, the priesthood. He came into his own, and his
own received him not. They said, we have no king but
Caesar. We will not have this man reign over us. Don't write
on that cross, he's the king of the Jews. Write on that cross,
he said he was the king of the Jews. They rejected him. But
as many as received him, To them gave he the power, Jew or Gentile,
to become sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born, which were born, not of blood. That is, not of
family inheritance. You don't inherit salvation.
It's the gift of God. You don't get salvation from
your parents, like a king gets a throne from his daddy. It's
not of blood. It's not of the will of the flesh.
It's not of the will of man. It is of God. The new birth is
of God. The new birth is of God. Only
God can give spiritual life. You have be quickened who were
dead in setbacks and sin. So, here's the first thing I
know about the new birth. It is of God. And secondly, it
is the work of the Holy Spirit. For our Lord said in John 3,
6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Now, when I was
born the first time, I was born of an earthly father and an earthly
mother. And I'm flesh and blood. I received
it from them. When I was conceived, when I
was begotten, when I was shaped in the womb, when I came forth,
I was born of the flesh. And that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit in the
new birth is Spirit. And the wind bloweth where it
lifteth, and you hear the sound thereof. You cannot tell from
whence it cometh or whither it goeth. Even so are they who are
born of the Spirit. We're born of the water and of
the Spirit. It's a miracle. It's mysterious,
but it's of God, and it's by the agency of the Holy Spirit.
Like the angel said to Mary when he told her she would bear a
son, and he should be the Savior, the Messiah. And she said, well,
I can't bear a son. I don't know a man. And he said, the Holy
Ghost will come upon you, and the power of the highest will
overshadow you. And that which shall be born
of you shall be called the Son of God. And this is the same
thing that happens when a sinner is born again. The Holy Ghost
comes upon him. What is the seed? Well, the seed
is the Word of God. The seed is the Word of God,
being born again. Look at 1 Peter 1.23. Write that
down, 1 Peter 1.23. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And then James 1.18 says, Of
his own will begat he us through the word of truth. So it's the
Holy Spirit. This new birth is of God. It
is by the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is by the instrumentality
of the Word of God. And this new birth is a new creation.
It's not just giving religion. It's not just form and ceremony
and doctrine and rules and laws and regulations and doing this
on Sunday and something else on Saturday. The new birth is
a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's a new creation. He's born
of God. He's begotten of the Holy Spirit.
He's begotten of the Word of God. And he's a new creature
in Christ Jesus. This is mysterious. This is a
miracle. It is God creating something
out of nothing. It is God bringing into existence
a life that prior to this time did not exist. It's God making
you a new man. The new man which is created
in Christ Jesus. in opposition to the old man
which is of the flesh, except a man is born again, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. That's clear. And if words mean
anything at all, if you can understand words, that's the Lord's ultimatum.
You can't change it. All right, here's another one,
the second, Luke 13, verse 1 through 5. And twice in this picture,
our Lord says this, except you repent, you shall all Likewise
paid this takes in all of us Jew and Gentile Catholic and
Protestant and Jew rich or poor older young black or white Christ
said except you Repent you shall all likewise pay Now I could
spend a lot of time today arguing about what is repentance and
trying to define? Repentance and arguing about
whether repentance is for that day or this day or another day,
but our Lord makes it quite clear Except the man repent whatever
it means He will perish except you repent you shall all like
I've heard some good definition Repentance is a turning but somebody
said oh what a turning Repentance is a change, but oh what a change
I think a good definition is found in Isaiah 55 That the wicked
forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him
return unto the Lord In other words, that's a change of manner
a change of mind and a change of manner That's a pretty good
definition of repentance. Let him change his thoughts.
Let him change his ways. Let him change his master. Let
him return to the Lord. That's repentance. But repentance
is more than that. And when you try to define repentance,
you kill it, somebody says. Repentance is not a definition.
It's an experience. It's an experience. It's a hard
experience. But let me tell you where it comes from. First of
all, repentance is the gift of God. That's right. If you look
at Acts 11, verse 18, the scripture says, God has granted repentance
to the Gentiles. God granted repentance. And then
if you'll turn to Romans 2, 4, you'll find this speaking to
the Gentiles. The goodness of God leadeth you
to repentance. You don't repent of your own.
You repent by the grace of God. You repent by the mercy of God.
It's the gift of God. God has granted repentance. The
goodness of God led you to repentance. The work of God preceded your
conviction. It preceded your mourning. It
preceded your turning. It preceded your repentance.
And then, secondly, repentance is born of godless sorrow. Now,
there are a lot of people who feel real bad when they get caught
in sin. They go on in sin and pay no
attention to it. and to their relationship with
God until somebody catches them, and then they start crying, and
then they start begging, and then they start deciding to change,
and when somebody catches us. But now, wait a minute, that's
not genuine repentance. That's an earthly sorrow that
works its best. If you read 2 Corinthians 7,
verse 9 through 10, you'll find that godly sorrow works its repentance. What do we mean by godly sorrow?
We mean just this, that we're sorry for our sins before God. and that we recognize our sins
in the light of God's holiness, in the light of God's law, that
we realize our sins are not against men, our sins are against God. We have violated His law and
His righteousness. It's godly sorrow that leadeth
to repentance. For example, David said in Psalm
51, O Lord, against thee and thee only have I sinned, and
done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou chargest And that thou mightest be clear when thou pronounce,
when you pronounce judgment upon me. It is godly sorrow that leads
to true mourning and true repentance. And then repentance is to acknowledge
the truth. Listen to 2 Timothy 2.25. If God will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth. That's right. Repentance acknowledges
the truth. Repentance does not alibi. True
repentance does not excuse my sins. True repentance does not
try to justify myself. I don't say, yeah, I did this,
but somebody else was responsible. Yeah, well, I'm guilty, but I
wouldn't have done it if certain circumstances had not prevailed
and certain environmental forces had not been operating upon me.
No, sir, I'm guilty. It's nobody's fault but my own.
I acknowledge the truth, the truth about myself, the truth
about my sin, the truth about my guilt, the truth about God's
mercy, the truth about God's grace, the truth about God's
sovereignty, the truth about God's Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the truth about God's mercy. I acknowledge the truth.
That's real repentance. When a man faces his guilt and
admits his guilt and says to God, I repent. I'm guilty. I don't justify myself. I'm not
trying to clear myself. I'm not trying to play holier-than-thou.
God, I'm guilty." Now you're getting close to repentance.
I'll tell you something else about repentance. It's continual. It's
not an isolated act. Somebody said, well, I repented
one time. You never did, unless you still are. Somebody said,
well, I repented, and I believed, and I kind of drifted away. You
never did repent. Repentance is a state of being.
It's a continual attitude. We have repented, we are repenting,
we shall continue in repentance. Once we see our guilt, it remains. The guilt of it, the feeling
of it, the embarrassment over it, the mourning before God,
mourning apart, it continues and it grows stronger. That's
right. Guilt never leaves a true, honest
repentance. Never. It's there all the time,
because we see our hearts. We know what we think, what we
say, what we do, while others only look on the outward countenance.
But we know God looks on the heart. And our hearts are open
to God and understood by God. He remembers our frame. We know
it that we're dust. We ought to know it, too. David
said, My sins are ever before me. Ever before me. That's repentance, continuous.
Alright, here's the third thing. Our Lord said not except you
repent. You're all perished. We better find out what it's
all about. We better keep repentance Ask God to give us repentance
and then thirdly Matthew 18 3 now listen, don't leave me Matthew
18 3 our Lord said except you be converted and Become as a
little child You're not going to enter the kingdom of God This
theory said didn't you notice these ultimatums? Except the
man is born again, he'll never enter the kingdom of God. Except
the man repents, he'll perish. And now he said, except you be
converted and become as a little child, you shall in no wise enter
the kingdom of God. My friends, pride goes before
destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall. He that exalts
himself, God says, shall be obeyed. Do you know when our Lord listed
the seven things in the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, verse
17, that he hates above all things. He says, six things that the
Lord hates, yea, seven, are an abomination to him. You could
never guess, if you haven't read it, what's the first thing he
mentions. What's the first thing? Some
people say, well, murder. Somebody else say, well, profanity.
Somebody else say, well, adultery. Somebody else say, well, theft.
None of it. The first thing he mentions is
a proud look. Seven things God hates. Seven
things and an abomination to Him. Number one, a proud look. All the sacrifices of God are
a broken heart. A broken and a contrite spirit,
O Lord, thou wilt not despise. The Lord saveth such as be of
a contrite spirit. The Lord is known to them of
a broken heart. The sacrifices of God are a broken
heart. Let me tell you something. If
the Lord is not pleased to bring us low, bring us down at His
feet, in humility, in contrition, with a broken spirit, God will
have to judge us, because he will not save rebels. He will
break the wow as it's told, and he'll put the yoke upon him.
He'll put the harness upon him. He'll put the scepter of lordship
over him, or he'll never take him into his kingdom. You've
got to be broken. You've got to be converted. You've
got to be brought down. Your spirit, your proud human
spirit, has got to be submitted to the Lord. Now that's so, except
you be converted and become, as a little child, willing to
be taught, willing to be led, willing to be the servant of
God. You'll never enter the kingdom
of God. And then the fourth one, Matthew 5, 20. Our Lord has said,
except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter. the kingdom of God.
Now that shocked the disciples. They knew the Pharisees. Who
were the Pharisees? Well, the Pharisees were the
professional religionists. They were the people who read
the Bible, preached and prayed on the street corners. They were
the people who attended the synagogue and lived there, most of them.
They were there all the time. They were the people who taught,
and fasted, and prayed, and taught the scriptures, and went out
to proselyte converts. They were the people who were
professional religionists. They were in it all the time.
And our Lord said, unless your righteousness exceeds theirs,
you're not going to see the kingdom of God. They're not saved. They're
not God's children. And you're not either, unless
your righteousness exceeds theirs. And the disciples said, well,
who can be saved? If these men aren't saved, who is? And our
Lord said that which is impossible with me and is possible with
God. But let's look at these Pharisees. What kind of righteousness
did they have? Well, first of all, it was their
righteousness. Our Lord was careful to say that.
Except their righteousness exceeded their righteousness. It was not
God's righteousness, it was theirs. They were going about to establish
their own righteousness. Read Romans 10, 1 through 3.
It was their righteousness, and it was an outward righteousness.
Our Lord said they're careful. These Pharisees, he called them
hypocrites. He said they're careful to make
clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but the inside
is full of envy and jealousy and strife and lust and all these
things. He said they appear indeed, they
appear outwardly beautiful to men, but on the inside they're
full of excess and extortion. And he said they're like whited
shoes. On the outside they're beautiful,
but on the inside they're full of dead men's bones. So their
righteousness was theirs, and it was outward, and it consisted
in two things. It consisted in quitting certain
sins and performing certain religious acts. Listen to the Pharisee
down at the temple. He said, God, I thank you. I'm
not like other men. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not
an extortionist. I'm not unjust those were his
outward that was his outward righteousness now watch he goes
on and I pass and I say And I give alms to the poor so he set forth
his religious religious duty He had quit certain things and
he was performing certain religious duties and our Lord said he was
a lost man Who did not know God and who was not justified? That's
what say their righteousness Well, what is our righteousness?
What is this righteousness of which our Lord said it must exceed
theirs? Well, first of all, it's not
ours at all. It's the Lord Jesus Christ's
righteousness. That's right. Paul said, Oh,
that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, which is filthy rag. But the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, is not our obedience
at all. It's his obedience. Read Romans
5, 19. By the disobedience of one Adam,
we became sinners. By the obedience of Christ, we
were made righteous. So this righteousness, which
does exceed the professional religion, Which does exceed the
works crowd, those that are going about to establish their own
righteousness and make themselves acceptable to God by what they
don't do and what they do. This righteousness is the righteousness
of God, which Christ worked out here on this earth in human flesh
by obeying every jot and tittle of the law as I represent it.
Going to the cross and dying and rising from the tomb and
interceding for us at the right hand of God He gives us a perfect
righteousness and it's in us and it's for us And it exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. All right number
five John 6 44 another ultimatum another except our Lord said
no man can come to me except My father which sent me draw
him except my father which sent me forth." Now you can call this
high doctrine or low doctrine, you can call it fatalistic, hyper-Calvinism,
antinomianism, just put any name you want to, but it's God's Word.
No man, whatever his talents or gifts or intelligence or disposition
or denomination or whatever. No man can, is able, has the
will, has the desire to come to me, to come to Christ just
to believe on him, to receive him. Except my Father, not excluding
the Son who purchased us and the Holy Spirit who calls us,
except my Father draw him, that is, call him, convict him, awaken
him, reveal Christ to us. We call on God, but you realize
it's because he called on us. We love him. Why? Because he
loved us. Here in his love, not that we
love God, he loved us and gave himself for us. Yes, the Abraham
came out of Ur of the Chaldees because God called him that.
Yes, Noah built an ark because he found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Yes, Paul on the road to Damascus tried, Lord, what
will you have me do? But it wasn't until the Lord
of Glory smote him down into the dust. We call because he
called. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
of the Lord. And no man can come to me except
my Father which sent me, draw him. And if we believe that,
we'd be like the old leper. When Christ came down from the
mountain, and the old leper ran to meet him, helpless, hopeless,
in desperate need, in desperate circumstances, and fell on his
face before the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ, and he said unto
him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Now I can't do
it myself, and my pastor can't do it, my mama can't do it, my
daddy can't do it, my wife and husband can't do it, my son and
daughter can't do it. You're the only one who can make
me clean. You're the only one who can give me repentance and
faith. You're the only one who can give
me the new birth. You're the only one who can give
me life eternal. Lord, that's what I want. That's
what I want. And I won't let you go till you
bless me. Now watch the sixth one and I close John 6 53 and
54 Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood you have no life in you This thing of salvation is not
just walking an hour. It's not just taking a preacher's
hand It's not just coming to the altar. It's not just coming
to the front. It's to partake of Christ It's
to take Christ into myself It's been thrown Christ in my heart.
It's to receive Christ into my mind It's to partake of Christ
as I partake of my food at the table, to make him a part of
myself. To be redeemed is not only to
believe some facts about the Lord Jesus Christ, but to receive
him, the person, not just his doctrine or his church, but himself. So as many as received him, to
them gave he the right to become the sons of God. Except you eat
the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of God to receive
Christ into yourself. You have no life

A Hard Saying -- Who Can Hear It?

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A Hard Saying -- Who Can Hear It?

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