We'll tonight to John chapter
6, beginning with verse 60, through the end of this chapter. John chapter 6, beginning in
verse 60. Many therefore of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying, who can
hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you? What and if you shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are
some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
me, except it were given unto him of my father. From that time
many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast 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 twelve, and one of you is the devil?
He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For he it was that
should betray him, being one of the twelve. I have brought
several messages to us at this time from this chapter. You know,
it begins with a great multitude following Him. You look back
to verse 2, the chapter. It begins with a great multitude
following the Lord Jesus Christ. We read here, and a great multitude
followed Him. And then it ends with only 12. With only 12. We know that many
who were called disciples went back. and walk no more with him. Now the word disciple means learner. They heard what he said and they
said, this is a hard saying. Notice that in verse 61. When
Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured, well in verse
60, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? If you look at verse
66, notice that the word time has been added by the translators. And it could read, from that,
many of his disciples went back. It was at this time, but it could
be from what they considered that hard saying. As we look
at these verses tonight, just briefly, let's do so by asking
these four questions. First, who were these disciples that
went back? Who were these disciples that
went back? A great multitude, and they are
referred to as disciples, but then we see they went back, and
there were only 12 who remained. Who were, that's the first question,
who were these disciples that went back? Well, there's no question
that This number that went back, their background probably was
made up of many different backgrounds, many different reasons. But we
know this. We know that some of them, some
of these who turned back, they were those who sought Him for
the loaves and the fishes. And we know that from verse 26. Verse 26, Jesus answered them
and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me, not because
you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and
were filled. Who were these disciples who
went back? Well, many of them, no doubt,
were made up of those who sought him because of the loaves and
the fishes. Their interest, now think about
this, their interest, them following Christ. It was all based upon
their bodies, not their souls. It all had to do with their bodies,
bread and fish. It concerned their bodies, not
their souls, and that's important. In 2nd Corinthians 2 and verse
17, Paul He speaks of many, he said, that corrupt the word of
God. And you know preachers that present
the Lord Jesus Christ not as a savior of sinners, but as a
remedy for all kinds of problems. You're having trouble in your
marriage? Turn to Christ. Having trouble in your business,
your finances? Turn to Christ. All kinds of
motives are presented to men, but very few, very few look to
Christ because of their need, their sinful need. Would to God
that we could instill in our hearers a need, a need. Do you have a need? Most people
don't. Most people who live in this
country, everything's hunky-dory. Everything's okay. They do not
realize that they have a need because of their sins. Our country has been cursed with
this message of health and wealth. And when you listen to it, You
recognize that it appeals, this message of health and wealth,
it appeals to the flesh of all men. Everyone wants to be healthy
and everyone wants to be wealthy. That's the message that appeals
to the flesh and that's the message that is preached in so many places. But few people, and we see here
in this case, few of these people sought the Lord because they
had a need, a need because they were sinners before God. Now,
we can also say this, not only were many of them, some of them,
those who sought Him because they had eaten the loaves and
the fishes, but we recognize They were Jews, there may have
been some proselytes in the synagogue, but they had been taught, wrongly
taught, but taught to look for the Messiah, and the Messiah
who would come would usher in an earthly, glorious kingdom
here in this world. They were looking for a Messiah
who would make the nation of Israel great once again, as it
had been in the days of David. But they were not looking, they
had not been taught to expect a suffering Savior. A reigning
Messiah, yes, but not a suffering Messiah. So that's the first
question. Who were these disciples that
went back? A number of them were those who
were following him only because of the food, because of the bread
and the fish, things that appealed to the body. And then all of
them were wrongly taught as Jews to expect a Messiah, the Son
of Man, who would usher in a kingdom in this world, a kingdom in which
he would reign. We see that in these 12 even.
When they asked for the privilege of sitting on the right hand
or on the left hand when he came into his kingdom, what are they
thinking of? They're thinking of a worldly kingdom. Now, the
second question is this. What was it that they thought
a hard saying? What was it? They said, this
is an hard saying. Who can hear it? What was it
that they thought to be a hard saying? Well, I've looked at
this many times over the years. I've preached from it many times.
It appears to me it wasn't one particular thing. I don't think
you can look at this passage of scripture and just pick out
one particular thing and say that was it. That was a hard
saying. But I believe it's a combination
of the whole message that he preached, which is the gospel. And the gospel is offensive to
the natural man. Let me point out a few things
here. They thought him saying that he came down from heaven.
That's a hard saying. Look in verses 41 and 42. That's
a hard saying. Here he is. And they looked at
him, and they could tell he was a man, just like they were, as
far as physically. He was a man. And not only that,
but they thought they knew his parents. And now he says he came down
from heaven. That's a hard saying. The Jews
then murmured at him because he said, I am 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? That's a hard saying. Here's a man standing in our
midst and he tells us that he came down from heaven. That's
a hard saying. Notice the second thing. They
thought him saying that he was the living bread, that if a man
ate, he would live forever. That's a hard saying. Verse 51,
I'm the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. That's a hard saying. Abraham, our father, he's dead. Moses, through whom the law was
given, he's dead. David, the great king, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, he's dead. Elijah, Elisha, and all of those
Old Testament prophets, they're dead. And here this man is saying
that if we eat this bread, we will never die. That's a hard
saying. A third thing, they thought Him
saying that He would give His flesh for the life of the world
a hard saying. Notice that in verse 51. I am
the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of
this bread, he shall live forever. And then down, if you will, to
verse 53. Verily, 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. That's a hard saying. He's telling
us that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood or we have
no life in us. How can we eat his flesh? How
can we drink his blood? That's a difficult, that's a
hard saying. And then lastly, they thought
him saying that no man can come to me except the father which
has sent me draw him. Now that's a hard saying. Now
you know today that saying would kill about 95% of the religious
world. Just that one statement. No man
can come. He didn't say no man may come
to me. He said no man can come to me. No man has the ability to come
to Christ except the Father which has sent me draw him. I believe
we mentioned when we looked at these verses a few weeks ago
that that's not to be taken in the sense to turn people away
from Christ, but it is to show men and women where the door
is. God. We need God. We need His help. We don't have
the ability in and of ourselves. You know, the truth of the gospel
offends a natural man. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world. And then
he said that the gospel, the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ
is offensive. The gospel is offensive to every
lost person. When a lost person really hears
the gospel, it's offensive. Most people believe, well, the
gospel is, smile, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for
your life. Well, if that was the gospel, that would not offend
anyone. What would be offensive about
that? Nothing. The gospel is offensive because
it declares in no uncertain terms that man, you, me, all of us
by nature, we are sinful, hopeless, helpless creatures. That's just us. Sinful, hopeless,
helpless creatures. We do not have the ability to
save ourselves. And apart from God's intervention,
There's no hope for man. There's no hope for you. There's
no hope for me. There's no hope for any fallen
son of Adam apart from God's intervention. And the truth of
the matter is he's free to intervene or not intervene. Now that's just so. Man is so
sinful that apart from... Now think about this. How sinful
is man? How far off is man from God by
nature? He s so far off, we were so far
off if we ve been brought nigh by the blood of Christ. Man by
nature is so far off that the only, the only way that we might
know God is for God Himself to come into this world as a man
and give Himself a sacrifice. Man is so dead in sins that apart
from the quickening power of God the Holy Spirit, he cannot
come to Christ. He cannot come to Christ. Well,
third, what is meant by our Lord's words being spirit and life? Notice that in verse 63 when
he speaks of his words. He said, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Now the words
here must mean those that he spoke about eating his flesh
and drinking his blood. These words must be taken in
a spiritual sense. And taken in that sense, they
are life-giving. Taken in a spiritual sense. These
words, except a man eat my flesh and drink my blood. Taken in
a spiritual sense, they are life-giving words. But taken in a natural
sense, and Many people, sad to say, do take these words in a
natural sense. And they think that when they
eat the bread and drink the cup in a service like this, the Lord's
Supper, or in their Mass, that they are literally eating the
flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. Now you take
the words in that sense, they're not life-giving, they're death. their death. If you understand
his words like that, because there is no profit in eating
and drinking. Actually, it seems that these
words illustrate the first part of that verse to me, where he
said, it is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profits nothing. Just
eating food, drinking wine, that doesn't profit. Taking food nourishment
into our body, That doesn't profit. When Christ spoke of eating his
flesh, he didn't mean the bodily act of eating literal flesh,
drinking literal blood, but he spoke of eating his flesh and
drinking his blood in a spiritual sense. It's not his literal flesh
that we must eat. You know, the law of God prohibited
what we would call cannibalism. And that's exactly, if you take
these in a literal sense, that's exactly what he would be saying.
Eating his flesh, drinking his blood. They're not life-giving. But
when you understand, you take these words in a spiritual sense
and you eat his flesh by faith, you drink his blood by faith,
they're life-giving. They're life-giving. In Him is life. Here's the last question. What
may we learn from our Lord's question to the 12 and Peter's
answer here in the last part of the chapter? What can we learn
from our Lord's question to them? Will you also go away? And then
Simon Peter answered Him, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that Thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Let me make just
a few observations here. First of all, all of Christ's
true disciples are willing disciples. Everyone. Will you also go away? If you do, you're not one of
his disciples. All of His disciples are willing
disciples. In Psalm 110, the verse of Scripture
tells us, Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. And when the gospel comes to
us, to God's people in power, He works upon our will. You know,
in John 5, he said, and you will not come to me that you might
have life. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have life, but they are they which testify
of me, and you will not come to me that you might have life. When a man is made willing, then
he comes. And it is God, the Holy Spirit,
that makes his people willing. But all of his disciples are
willing disciples. Everyone who names his name is
free to leave, just like these multitudes, to go away. And many
do. Many do. They follow Christ for
a while. If you've been saved any time
at all, you realize that we see this. People follow for a while
and then they turn away. But all of his disciples are
willing disciples. And then notice the second thing
here. All of Christ's true disciples believe and are sure that Christ
is the Son of God. Sometimes when we talk with people
they say, well I struggle with assurance. I struggle with assurance. I'm just not sure that I'm really
one of his people. And I always like to ask them
this. Are you saying that you're not
sure that Christ, that Jesus is not the Christ of God? Oh
no, I'm not saying that. I'm sure of that. Are you saying
that you're not sure that Jesus is the Son of God? Oh no, I'm
not saying that. I'm sure of that. That is assurance. That is assurance. That's just
what Peter said here. Here was his confession. He said,
We believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Now Peter made this confession
in another place, and our Lord said to him, Blessed art thou,
Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee, but my Father which is in heaven. If you can say tonight
in your heart, I know I believe, and I'm sure, I don't have a
doubt. I don't have a smidgen of a doubt
that Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, the Jesus of the Bible, the Lord
Jesus Christ, that He is the Christ. He's the one that God
promised all through the Old Testament. Promise after promise,
that's Him. I'm sure of that. I believe that. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that unto you. God the Father did, just like
he did to Simon Peter. And the last thing that we notice
here is Judas. He was one of the 12. He was
not suspected as a hypocrite. You notice how Peter says we.
You see that? Verse 69, he said, and we believe. He's not only speaking for himself,
but he's speaking for all the disciples, the other 11 disciples. We believe and are sure, but
the Lord Jesus Christ corrected him, didn't he? He corrected
him. It's not we, not every one of
the 12 apostles. Jesus answered them, have not
I chosen you twelve, and one of you is the devil. You know, Judas, he was not suspected
to be the hypocrite, the devil that he was by the disciples. He was sent out. No doubt he
preached. No doubt he wrought miracles.
And when our Lord told his disciples on that last night, one of you
shall betray me, No one looked at Judas and said, I knew it.
I knew it all the time. No, they all said, Lord, is it
I? Everyone except Judas. He didn't
question. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless these words to us here this evening. What a privilege
it is to join together again to observe the Lord's Supper.