To Whom Shall We Go? Clinging to Christ in the Face of Hard Truths

• The Mixed Multitude / False Professors [00:06:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that not everyone hearing the sermon or Jesus' teaching is a genuine follower, using the concept of a 'mixed multitude' where some are true disciples and others are merely interested pupils.
• Metaphorical Language of Christ [00:02:43 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor clarifies that Jesus' statements about eating flesh and drinking blood are metaphoric, similar to calling Himself the 'door' or 'living water,' intended to convey spiritual truth rather than literal physical acts.
• Parable of the Weeds [00:09:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor introduces Matthew 13 to illustrate how the enemy sows 'weeds' (false believers) among the 'wheat' (genuine believers), explaining that both grow together until the final judgment.
• Definition of Disciple [00:11:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor defines the Greek word 'mathetes' as a pupil or student, noting that in Scripture it applies to both genuine believers and those who are merely listening or interested without true saving faith.
• Definition of Discipleship and Genuine Faith [00:12:19 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between genuine followers who have entered into covenant with Christ and those who merely claim interest or listen to teachings without genuine faith.
• Perseverance of the Saints vs. Falling Away [00:14:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that true believers cannot fall away; those who depart reveal they were never truly regenerate, citing the concept of 'deconstruction' and leaving Christian music artists as examples.
• The Hard Saying and Scandal [00:16:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Jesus' 'hard saying' about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, interpreting it not just as literal cannibalism but as the scandalous claim of Jesus' divinity and exclusive role as the source of life.
• Christ as Cornerstone and Stumbling Block [00:21:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using 1 Peter 2, the pastor explains that Jesus is both the precious cornerstone for believers and a stone of stumbling for those who do not believe, dividing humanity into those built upon Him and those crushed by Him.
• The Stone of Stumbling and Christ's Glory [00:25:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that Christ is a stone of stumbling to those who disobey, highlighting His ascension to glory and power (Daniel 7, Revelation 5) as a point of offense to the natural mind.
• Spiritual Discernment and Regeneration [00:30:06 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the flesh cannot understand spiritual truths; only the Holy Spirit grants life and opens the mind to believe, making salvation a triune act of God.
• The Departure of Disciples and Human Limitations [00:32:38 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reflects on the disciples who walked away, noting that Jesus did not chase them or water down the message, and that humans are not judges of who will ultimately come to faith.
• Clinging to Christ Despite Lack of Understanding [00:36:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Peter's confession, the pastor illustrates that true discipleship begins with trusting Christ as the source of eternal life, even if one is a 'baby' in faith and does not understand all doctrines.
• Discipleship and Spiritual Maturity [00:38:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that becoming a follower of Christ is the beginning of discipleship, not the end, comparing new believers to babies who must grow and mature in the faith.
• Sovereignty and Election [00:40:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor analyzes Jesus' choice of the twelve apostles, including Judas, to illustrate God's sovereignty over both vessels for honor and dishonor, fulfilling His divine plan.
• Evangelistic Appeal [00:41:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor issues a direct appeal to those in the room who have not trusted in Jesus, urging them to believe in Him for eternal life, and to believers to cling to Christ amidst worldly confusion.

• Sermon Illustration [00:08:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal anecdote about meeting with an elder named Bill on a Friday morning, while another elder, Ryan, was camping with his family, to illustrate the pastoral context and preparation for the sermon.
• Sermon Illustration [00:09:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the agrarian parable of the man who sowed good seed but had weeds sown among them by an enemy, which Jesus explains as the Kingdom of Heaven containing both genuine sons of the kingdom and sons of the evil one until the harvest.
• Sermon Illustration [00:15:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references the 'deconstruction' of faith among former Christian rock artists, specifically mentioning Reliant K and DC Talk as examples of those who walked away, contrasting them with Skillet's lead singer who remained faithful.
• Sermon Illustration [00:36:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about Simon Peter 'putting his foot in his mouth' often, which gives the pastor hope because it reminds him that he is not the only 'idiot' in the crowd who makes blunders, yet God still uses imperfect people.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references his own spiritual journey, noting that despite walking with the Lord for 26 years, he still does not have everything figured out, illustrating that new believers start as 'babies' and must grow in faith.
• Sermon Illustration [00:38:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares his personal testimony of walking with the Lord for 26 years, admitting that he still does not have everything figured out, to illustrate that spiritual maturity is a process of growth from infancy.
• Sermon Illustration [00:40:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the biblical narrative of Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve chosen by Jesus who betrayed Him, to illustrate the theological concept that God ordains both vessels for honor and dishonor to fulfill His sovereign purposes.

• Pastoral Charge [00:34:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > Continue preaching, praying, and hoping for God's providential work in salvation.
• Pastoral Charge [00:42:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > To come to one's senses, believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and receive eternal life.

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[00:00:00] Well, good morning. As you are being seated, would you please turn with me to the Gospel according to John, chapter 6 is where we're going to be this morning.
[00:00:10] Gospel of John, chapter 6. We actually will complete chapter 6 today. Huzzah, right? We have been in chapter 6 ever since the beginning of April.
[00:00:30] just a really important thing. So I'm very excited about it this morning, about wrapping this up and then moving on also. So the name of the message this morning, the title of the sermon I called
[00:00:42] Lord, to whom shall we go? Because it's a picture of the statement that's made at the end of the chapter of the recognition of the exclusivity of Christ and that believing in him is the whole
[00:00:58] focus of all that is the chapter. And so, so it's all about believing in Jesus. This chapter, remember, began with the feeding of the 5,000, that it began with, with Christ performing his greatest miracle, uh, created one up to that time, so to speak. Um, and the one that's recorded in
[00:01:16] all four gospels, that, that outside of the resurrection, there's only one work of Christ, that one miracle of Christ that's, uh, uh, written in all four gospels. And that is the feeding of the 5,000s. It was that so impactful of a sign that Christ made that it was recorded in all four
[00:01:34] gospels, which led to Christ walking on the sea and the people getting in boats the next day and following him over. And we see a number of interactions between Jesus and these people.
[00:01:48] There's a point in time where it turns in the chapter to where it becomes Jesus answering quote-unquote the Jews as John often writes whenever he begins to turn it from more than just common disciples so to speak or common followers and now he's talking about the religious
[00:02:06] leaders that were actively opposing Christ and that begins a little bit more of a of a dialogue or even a debate that sent that begins to happen between the Lord Jesus Christ to the point where
[00:02:17] Jesus then gets to the point where he will start to describe himself as the bread of life and then And unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, then you have no fellowship with him.
[00:02:30] You have no, that you cannot come unless you see Jesus Christ as the one who brings about life.
[00:02:36] We talked about last week that Jesus, of course, was using metaphoric language like he's done so many other times.
[00:02:43] He also calls himself the door, and we know that he's not a door, right?
[00:02:47] So he also says that the Holy Spirit brings a new birth.
[00:02:51] And when he's using that, he's not talking about a new physical birth.
[00:02:54] He talks to the woman in the well and says that he can give her living water, and that's more than just physical water. He's talking about eternal life. So the next metaphor he uses is the bread.
[00:03:05] But of course, people miss it. Either that or they get it, and they don't like what he has to say.
[00:03:10] And both of these things, I think, are true. And we're going to see that today that there's a great exodus that happens from Christ because they refuse to believe that they would find all of
[00:03:21] their hope, their salvation, their filling, and their food in him. So stand with me this morning as we read the last few verses, chapter 6, verses 60 through 71. It's a long chapter, and we'll complete it this morning. Thus says the word of God. When many of his disciples heard it,
[00:03:43] they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were
[00:03:56] to see the son of man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you
[00:04:08] who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those who were, those who, who those were who he did not who did not believe sorry and who it was who would betray him and he
[00:04:23] said this is why i told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the father after this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him so jesus said to the 12
[00:04:34] do you want to go away as well simon peter answered him lord to whom shall we go you have the words of eternal life. And we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One
[00:04:47] of God. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.
[00:04:54] He spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.
[00:05:01] These are the very words of the living God. Please accept them that they carry, because this is the word of God.
[00:05:10] You may be seated.
[00:05:14] Let us pray.
[00:05:15] Our heavenly father, I pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word and the time of the preaching of your word.
[00:05:24] And I would remember that I am nothing, Lord, and that we in this room are nothing, but we are all desperate for receiving the bread of life this morning, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted above all things
[00:05:36] and that you would be glorified, Lord.
[00:05:39] May you draw sinners to yourself and may you bring people to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:05:47] For those of us who are in Christ, may we be encouraged, Lord, through the proclamation of your word.
[00:05:52] And the Holy Spirit would take the words of this scripture this morning and implant them in our hearts and our minds and draw us closer to you, Lord.
[00:06:01] Give me grace to speak your word.
[00:06:03] And when you're finished with me, shut my mouth, I pray in Jesus' name.
[00:06:06] Amen.
[00:06:08] To whom shall we go?
[00:06:09] Lord, to whom shall we go?
[00:06:12] I never take for granted that any time that I am proclaiming the gospel or the scriptures in general to anybody, any sort of crowd in which I find myself having the opportunity by God's grace to be able to preach, I never take for granted that every person within the room
[00:06:32] or the audience hearing me preach is a follower of Christ. I have no idea. I have no idea the hearts or the minds of any person in this room. For most of you that I know, I've seen plenty of
[00:06:44] fruit that gives evidence for sure. But the fact of the matter is, is that me, as I'm preaching, Jesus, as he's teaching here, and every pastor, every preacher, every evangelist, every person who's preaching in the open air, anytime anyone is ever preaching in any particular crowd,
[00:07:02] it is not certain that every person within the hearing of that preacher is genuinely a follower of Christ. I don't know whether anybody in this room is genuinely a follower or not.
[00:07:15] And so I'm preaching potentially to a mixed multitude of people. And that's what Jesus is doing. He's preaching to a mixed multitude of people. Some of the people within the range of his preaching in this discourse in John chapter 6 are people who are legitimate followers of the
[00:07:34] Lord Jesus Christ. We know that there are some people that remain with him, that continue to walk with him, even as he's preaching these very difficult things, that there's nothing that's going to separate them from following Christ. That he can say pretty much anything like,
[00:07:51] unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part of me, you know. That they're going to hear that and they're going to say, I don't necessarily understand what he means right now,
[00:08:03] but I do believe it. And I'm going to cling to Christ and remain faithful to him. But the other thing that we're going to see within this passage this morning is that the vast majority of the
[00:08:15] people depart. That unfortunately, most of the people hearing the Lord Jesus Christ preach, as he's preaching these very difficult sayings that he is making, they don't remain.
[00:08:28] They depart. They take off, okay? I want us really quickly to turn over to Matthew chapter 13, if you would. We are going to turn to a couple of different passages this morning, but I wanted to remind us of this parable that as I was meeting with Bill on Friday,
[00:08:45] we had our elders meeting. Ryan is out of town this weekend enjoying some time with his family camping, and I'm very thankful that they're going to take some, they have some time for themselves.
[00:08:55] but Bill and I were meeting on Friday morning and this was just something that was in my heart and in my mind as as we were as we were considering some things as we were talking and particularly
[00:09:08] Matthew chapter 13 beginning in verse 24 we're going to lead read two sections one is the parable itself and the second is the explanation of the parable in verse 24 of Matthew 13 the Lord Jesus
[00:09:23] Christ as teaching. And he says this, he put another parable before them saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in the field. While his men were sleeping,
[00:09:36] his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said
[00:09:49] to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, then do you want us to go and gather them?
[00:10:03] He said, no, lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first
[00:10:14] and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. An interesting parable in agrarian culture using something that they would understand. Some people are not understanding, so later on Jesus gives an explanation to this parable that he told, and that's given
[00:10:32] beginning in verse 36. It says this, then he left the crowds and went into the house, And the disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.
[00:10:46] And he answered, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man.
[00:10:51] The field is the world and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
[00:10:55] The weeds are the sons of the evil one.
[00:10:58] And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
[00:11:00] The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels.
[00:11:04] just as weeds are gathered the weeds are gathered and burned with fire so it will be at the end of the age so the son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of
[00:11:16] sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father
[00:11:28] He who has ears, let him hear. You may turn back to John chapter 6. Every person who is a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ is called a mathetes, as it says in the Greek, a disciple, okay? A disciple
[00:11:46] can mean a multitude of things. A disciple can be someone who is a genuine follower or something along those lines, but really when you boil it down to its smallest sort of definition, it just
[00:11:57] means like a pupil, a student, a learner, somebody who is listening and learning. And so we see the word disciple used both to describe those who are the genuine, legitimate followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, right? All of the people who have entered into covenant with Christ through faith,
[00:12:19] who have believed on him for salvation, who are legitimately following the Lord Jesus Christ are called disciples. But anybody who makes a claim to follow Jesus or anybody who says that they're interested in the teachings of Christ, they're also learning whether they're genuine or not.
[00:12:36] Whether they're really placing their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation, they're still considered to be a disciple. And so we see in the parable what we're going to see illustrated in the passage this morning, and that is that some of the people who were disciples of
[00:12:57] Jesus, following him, pupils, students, people listening to him, listening to what he had to say, when they get to this point in time, they're going to walk away. They're going to follow him no more. And the reason why is that though they were pupils of Christ, though they listened to
[00:13:16] what he had to say, though they sat under his teaching, so they were interested in what Jesus was saying up to this point in time. They were not genuine believers in Jesus Christ. They were what
[00:13:29] Matthew says, tares mixed in among the wheat, you see. But they were not genuine. And the fact of the matter is, is that many people in the world, many people throughout this nation and through
[00:13:42] all the nations of the world make a claim of following Christ, claim to be disciples of Jesus, claim to love Jesus, claim to be his follower who are not genuine followers of Christ.
[00:13:56] So then this begs the question, does this mean that they once were regenerate and following after Christ and then lost their salvation, fell away from grace, so to speak? Or is it true that they never actually were followers of Christ to begin with. And the answer is they never were.
[00:14:16] You see, because someone who comes to faith in Christ cannot fall away. We're going to look at that as we look at this passage of scripture. But what they do is they reveal themselves to be
[00:14:23] never having genuinely been regenerate. We live in a day and age that, I don't know if you've ever heard the term spoken before, but this word called deconstruction. Have you ever heard that?
[00:14:35] Christians deconstructing their faith. What it means is that it's a number of people who maybe grew up in a Christian household, believed all the things according to the Christian household in which they grew up in, but then later on departed from the faith. Or the deconstruction
[00:14:53] means that they gave up the sort of conservative or traditional or biblical understanding of what was taught, and so they walk away from the genuine Christian faith. And the question is, is that, well, were they genuine believers who walked away or fell away or were they not really the
[00:15:08] disciples of Christ? And I think that today's message is going to answer that. But the point is that we see this happen. You might be aware that a number of like the early 2000s, late 90s,
[00:15:23] a lot of those like sort of quote unquote Christian rock bands and Christian artists that so many of these people have walked away. I used to love listening to the Reliant K. I thought that
[00:15:33] was a fun band and they had a lot of great songs and now they're just completely deconstructed liberals now we've heard of people from dc talk and all the nonsense that have come from that and
[00:15:44] other and other people that's why i love i never really was a big fan of skillet's music but i really appreciated the fact that their lead singer i mean he has remained like he's even harder
[00:15:56] following after christ now and he shows himself to be great great faithful you know a lot of faithfulness there. But the thing is, is that people sometimes who claim to follow Christ walk away. So let's get into the text. Number one, we're going to see that this statement of a hard
[00:16:13] statement is going to come up, this hard saying. And so the first point I want to make is that the hard word of Christ exposes false disciples. The hard word of Christ exposes false disciples.
[00:16:30] let's look again in verses 60 through 64. It says this, when many of his disciples heard it, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples
[00:16:44] were grumbling about this, said to them, do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. The
[00:16:55] flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not
[00:17:08] believe and who it was who would betray him. So we see the hard saying, the hard word of Christ exposes false disciples. In verse 60, when many of his disciples, that's that word mathetes that I
[00:17:22] mentioned before. This can mean multiple things, as I mentioned, pupils, learners, students, also genuine followers. We're going to, in fact, see that Jesus makes a distinction in verse 64. He says straight up, there are some of you who do not believe. He's saying, you are acting as a disciple,
[00:17:41] but I know that you don't believe, because I know that your heart. So Jesus answers the question.
[00:17:46] There are people there, though they are following him and sitting under him as a disciple, are not genuine believers. So they walk away because they're not genuine believers, not because they lost something that they had, but because they never had the thing to begin with. In fact, it
[00:18:06] says later in John, first John, he mentions things like they went out from us because they were not of us. For if they were of us, they surely would have remained with us. So when he talks about
[00:18:18] disciples here, this is that generic term, that generic category of all kinds of learners and pupils that are sitting. And so these disciples, when they heard, when they said, when they heard it, what's the it? Well, they anteceded to this. What they heard was when Jesus started to say
[00:18:36] things like, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, right? That's the hard saying. That's the difficult thing that trips them up, that they're like, whoa, what is this guy
[00:18:49] talking about? So this hard saying, the word hard here in the Greek means harsh or rough or demanding or severe, okay? It's a severe saying to them. And why is it severe? Is it severe because they
[00:19:04] didn't get that he wasn't literally talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and that maybe they really did understand what he was saying that they were he was saying no no no no no i am the only one who can give you life i am the only one who can feed you
[00:19:22] into eternity so to speak and i would argue to say that based upon what i think is happening here i actually think they're not so much tripped up on i know at one point they say can this man give
[00:19:33] us his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. So maybe some of them are, but I think others are thinking to themselves, wow, he's saying he is the source of life. That we must place all of our
[00:19:44] belief and all of our faith and all of our trust in him. That's hard. Who does this guy think he is?
[00:19:53] You see? I think that they're tripping up. They're stumbling over the fact that he's really saying, and they're really getting it. Boy, this guy's talking like he's God or something.
[00:20:03] like he's the one that can give us life. God's the one that gives life. God's the one that forgives sins. God's the one that gives us salvation. He's saying he's the one doing that. That's a hard
[00:20:15] saying. That's a hard saying. That's a hard saying this day and age as well. It really is. I think of people that I know in my life right now, to this day, to this day, are still hoping that their
[00:20:28] religion is good enough. I'm still, I know people in my life right now that still think they're going to be okay when they are standing completely exposed before the holiness of the Lord God Almighty. And they think, I'm going to be all right. I'm a pretty good guy. And they think,
[00:20:49] to this day, it's a hard saying for them. It's scandalous to them to think, I have to believe even Jesus to be saved? I don't know about that. And people today are still tripped up by this
[00:21:04] hard saying. In fact, Jesus says that in the very next verse, verse 61. Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this. So that grumbling there is the same grumbling that was used earlier. I think it's around verse 40, 41, something like that, about this. He said to
[00:21:21] them, do you take offense at this? The word offense that's used here is the word scandalizo, okay?
[00:21:29] Or we get our word scandalous or scandal, okay? It means a stumbling block. What Jesus is saying is that, are you tripping over this stumbling block that I'm laying? Turn with me, if you will,
[00:21:41] over to 1 Peter chapter 2. I think this is really awesome. I love this passage of scripture. I always have from 1 Peter chapter 2. Jesus Christ is a scandalizo. He is a stumbling block. In verse 4
[00:22:09] of 1 Peter chapter 2, the apostle Peter writes this, so put away all malice. Sorry, that's verse 1. Verse 4, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God,
[00:22:26] chosen and precious. You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture, behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone,
[00:22:46] chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. Let's stop there for just a second. The stone of the Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the building of his kingdom.
[00:22:59] That it's built upon the law and the apostles and the prophets. It's built upon the word of God, Jesus being the cornerstone, and you and I are the bricks being built up in the kingdom of God.
[00:23:10] That's why there's no need for a tabernacle. That's why there's no need for a temple. Because you and I are the literal temple. We already are. It's an inaugurated eschatology of the presence of God is already with man, and it's leading up to that culminating point when the Lord Jesus
[00:23:27] Christ comes back, and then the fullness of the presence of God is with man. But even right now, you and I have the Holy Spirit residing in us if we are followers of Christ. And so what makes this
[00:23:39] place sacred, what makes this place holy, is not the wood, the stage, it's not the walls, it's not the cross. It's none of that. What makes this place holy is that you and I as living stones
[00:23:54] are constructed together in this beautiful consecrated place of worship. And the Holy Spirit is here in all of us. And that's what makes this place consecrated and holy and precious and glorious, okay? So first, be encouraged by that. And that's why, you know, we know that when
[00:24:15] we gather together the Lord is here with us because we are bringing here and here with us so to speak don't you know you know this anthropomorphic language don't go too crazy with it and we are we are building together his house and throughout the entirety of all of Christ's
[00:24:31] kingdom throughout the whole world until he returns he continues to build this sacred house for himself. So if you are the lover of the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in him and hoping in him for your salvation, you are built upon him, upon that glorious rock of Christ. But that rock is not
[00:24:55] merely a rock for building. It's also a rock for tripping. It's a rock for stumbling.
[00:25:04] and and as you continue on in verse or chapter two of first peter he says in verse seven so the honor is for you who believe but normally but is the other way around right you were dead in your
[00:25:19] trespasses and sins uh but god you know that's that's the normal case this one he's flipped you who believe are being built up as a spiritual house but to those who do not believe the stone
[00:25:35] that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone and a what a stone of stumbling a rock of offense they stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do but you are a chosen race royal priesthood a holy nation a people for his own possession
[00:25:56] that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's one of my favorite passages of all of the New Testament, being called out of darkness and into his marvelous light. But notice what he says, that that stone is also a stone of
[00:26:13] stumbling. It's a rock of offense. It's meant to divide. It's either all of Christ or nothing at all. Either you are built upon Christ or you're crushed by that stone of stumbling, that rock of offense. Turn with me back to chapter seven or six, please, of John chapter six. So Jesus says,
[00:26:39] do you stumble over this statement? Am I causing you offense? Is this too difficult for you to understand? Well, what is he going to do now? He's going to take it and he's going to dial it up to
[00:26:50] 11. I love this. Like Jesus doesn't like back down, doesn't change the message, doesn't water it down. He says, if you think that is a rock of stumbling, if you think that statement is enough for you to get mad at, let me tell you something that's really going to dial this in,
[00:27:07] okay? But then, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?
[00:27:15] Says, that statement's nothing. That statement's nothing. Wait until you see the glory of the Son of man revealed he's quoting uh or he's alluding to daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14 i'll just read it if you want to turn there you can but this is what he's alluding to he's saying in
[00:27:37] daniel 7 13 and 14 it says this i saw in the night visions to behold with the clouds of heaven there came like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him
[00:27:49] was given dominion and the glory and kingdom that all peoples nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed jesus is speaking of his ascension but not merely his ascension but his
[00:28:08] ascension to his place of glory and honor and power and kingdom and ruling and reigning you think this is hard wait until you see the lord jesus christ coming in the clouds of heaven with power and glory and executing his judgments you see that's what he's saying imagine this wait
[00:28:28] until you see this happen when the lord jesus christ takes his place of dominion and power like it says at the end of matthew 28 all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me
[00:28:41] that the power and the glory and the might of the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed and then it'll be a real place of stumbling for you.
[00:28:50] Revelation chapter five, if you just go there and read the whole thing, what's that all about?
[00:28:55] That's the Lord Jesus Christ having been granted, quote unquote, the title deed to all of creation, so to speak, and him being worthy to open its seals and he's the one who's worthy.
[00:29:06] He's the one that's overcome.
[00:29:08] He's the one that ascends to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. It's all about his glory and power and kingdom and Daniel 7 having been fulfilled with his ascending to the throne after his ascension. It's easy when he's portrayed
[00:29:28] as the weak little guy walking around in a dress and product in his hair as our culture often does instead of the king of glory, the lord of power and creation and the one who spoke all things
[00:29:42] into existence, going back to his place of ultimate power and authority and majesty. You think it's tripping up now, just wait. And then number four, Jesus' words are, sorry, next, Jesus' words are spiritually understood. In verse 63, it says, it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help
[00:30:06] at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. So what's he saying here? He's saying it only makes sense that you don't get it because you're not speaking, or you're not
[00:30:18] listening with spiritual ears. You're not, you're not seeing with spiritual eyes. You're not thinking with a spiritual mind. Why? Because it says in the next verse, sorry, I lost my place. Something happens. Anyway, this word spiritual means of the Holy Spirit, right? It is the Spirit who gives
[00:30:41] life. The flesh is no help at all. It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. Only by the Holy Spirit can it be discerned. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 14, it says this,
[00:30:54] the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. So Jesus says, the reason why you're not believing, the reason why you're not hearing is because you are not of
[00:31:12] the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit has not granted you that regeneration unto life. Remember we talked about this from the sort of the beginning of the chapter. It is God the Father who gives life.
[00:31:24] It is God the Son who gives life. It is God the Holy Spirit who gives life. Salvation is a triune act. It is an act of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. God purposes it. Jesus
[00:31:37] accomplishes it. The Holy Spirit applies it. So nobody can come to Christ unless the Holy Spirit grants him the ability to do so. No one is able to understand the words of Christ unless the Holy
[00:31:49] Spirit opens the mind and the heart and gives the ability for them to be able to understand.
[00:31:55] and so that's what he's saying here and then he sort of reiterates what he talked about earlier in the chapter look at the next couple verses and then he said this is why i told you i told you
[00:32:08] this already i'm saying it again no one can no one is able to come to me unless it is granted to him by the father so he just instead of watering it down instead of changing the subject instead of
[00:32:24] everything, he dials it in further and he says, you are not following me because it has not granted you, been granted you to be able to follow me. Verse 66, after this, many of his disciples
[00:32:38] turned back and no longer walked with him. That's an absolutely terrifying thing to think about.
[00:32:50] I don't know if in God's mercy and according to his grace, at another time or place that they may have heard the gospel and God at that time has granted them grace that they might be
[00:33:06] saved. I don't know what the ultimate destiny of these people were in the sense that I don't know the plan of God. History is silent about who these people were specifically and whether they walked
[00:33:17] away forever, but that seems to be the implication. And it's such a sad and horrible thing to think about the fact that people walk away from the life that is in Christ Jesus. What I think is
[00:33:30] interesting here is what we don't see Jesus doing here. He doesn't chase them. He doesn't change the message because they judged their past more worthy to pursue than Jesus. They decided their old life was more preferable, the new life in Jesus Christ. We are not Jesus, okay? In the sense that
[00:33:57] we don't see people's hearts like he does. We don't know if a person is a genuine follower or not. What I do know is this, though, that there are going to be some people who, though you may
[00:34:10] preach to them, though you may share with them, though you may, you know, come at it, all these different angles of understanding and everything, some people are just never going to trust in Christ. Some people never are, which is a horribly sad and terrible thing to think about. But it also,
[00:34:30] I guess what I want to say is, is you're also not the Lord. You're not the judge. You're not the Holy Spirit. It's not up to us to determine whenever a person is never going to come to
[00:34:43] Christ or not. It's up to God. And so what do we do? We continue to preach. We continue to pray.
[00:34:50] We continue to hope in the hopes that in according to the providential hand of God, that he may open somebody's heart and bring them to repentance and faith. So they all walk away.
[00:35:02] And now Jesus turns to those who are left. What's interesting is that even though the group has gotten extremely small, it's still a mixed group, which is also kind of terrifying.
[00:35:15] Here there are 12 people continuing to follow because it says this.
[00:35:18] So Jesus said to the 12, okay?
[00:35:24] That's all he's talking to.
[00:35:26] I mean, my guess is that there's probably some of the women there that have been following him we know that remain faithful to the end.
[00:35:32] But of the men that are left, it almost looks like in this particular context, there's like 12 people left.
[00:35:39] So we went from like 5,000 to like people getting in boats to come follow Jesus, which is a lesser number, to the number of people in the synagogue that we heard about last week, where Jesus was teaching all of these things in his synagogue, and now down to 12. 12. Jesus said
[00:36:00] to the 12, do you want to go away as well? Good old Simon Peter speaks up. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have
[00:36:14] come to know you are the Holy One. The true disciple clings to the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
[00:36:23] Here's my thought. There's a good chance, well, in fact, I know that it's true because we know the rest of the story. Simon Peter doesn't always get it right, does he? Like he puts his foot in
[00:36:34] his mouth a lot. He gives me a lot of hope because I blurt things out and I do stupid things a lot.
[00:36:40] And so I'm thankful that Simon Peter's in the Bible because it reminds me that, oh, thank goodness, I'm not the only idiot in this crowd right and so it's it's good to know that other people have
[00:36:51] made blunders and things like that but how wonderful it is that he speaks up and what does he say he says to whom shall we go first of all he recognizes that he has hope in no one else
[00:37:04] except for Jesus Christ I think that there's something helpful with that um that even if we were to get to the point where we are going through the difficulties of life, we're going through the tough things in life, that even if we come across difficult scriptures to understand,
[00:37:26] maybe this very message this morning is like, wow, this is tough stuff. This is heavy. You know, maybe I don't understand all of the things, but I do know the source of my life. And so I think we
[00:37:40] see Peter here probably not really understanding all that Jesus is saying, right? Eat my flesh and drink my blood. Wow, it's weird. I don't really understand that, but this is what I do understand.
[00:37:55] I know that I have nowhere else to go except to you, Jesus. I don't understand it all. I don't understand the deep things of God. I don't understand maybe even some of the small things
[00:38:08] of God. I don't understand, you know, why certain passages of scripture say the things that they do.
[00:38:14] I don't understand all of the things. In fact, in fact, I would argue that when we become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the beginning of our walk of discipleship. That's not the end.
[00:38:26] That's where it starts. We don't, none of us, what does the scripture call us when we first come to faith in Christ? It calls us babies. We're babies. We're little kids, and we're supposed to
[00:38:37] grow up in the faith. We're supposed to mature and grow and all those things. But all of us start out little babies. When we're born again, we all start out that way. We don't have it all figured
[00:38:46] out. I'm not even close to having it all figured out. And by God's grace, I've been walking with the Lord for 26 years, you know, now. Praise God. But I don't have it all figured out. And I'm not
[00:38:57] gonna have it all figured out. But what do I know for sure? Who else can I go to? Who else can I go to? Who else has the words of eternal life? Who else is the one who can forgive me of my sins
[00:39:14] and reconcile me to God? I don't have it all figured out, and you don't either. But you need to have this figured out, that Jesus Christ is the one who has the words of eternal life.
[00:39:28] When Peter says in 69, we have believed and have come to know, those are both perfect tense verbs, meaning he's we are now and will forever continue to believe and we are now come and will always
[00:39:44] continue coming to you because we know you are what the holy one of god what does he mean by that isaiah 40 25 to whom then will you compare me that i should be like him god is saying to israel
[00:40:00] says the holy one this is a declaration of their understanding of the belief in jesus as they're believing in jesus for who he is and so therefore they're putting their faith and trust in him believing in him because they know they have nowhere else to go and then lastly um jesus
[00:40:25] answered to them did i not choose you the 12 notice how he says i chose you the 11 he doesn't say, I chose you, the 11. He says, I chose you, the 12. And yet one of you is a devil. In the Greek,
[00:40:42] it says, and of you, one is the devil, meaning of you, of the 12. You see what I'm saying?
[00:40:51] He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon Iscariot, for he was one of the 12 who was going to betray him. See, what Jesus is saying here is that for the plans and the purposes of God,
[00:41:01] he chose the 11 who would remain faithful to him but he also chose the one that would betray him because he did it to fulfill the plans and the purposes of God Judas was always going to betray
[00:41:15] Christ and Judas never became a genuine follower of Christ and Judas was a person who acted in his own sinful will to do these things and yet Jesus chose him because exactly that would happen
[00:41:28] because God ordained the vessels for honor and he ordained the vessel for dishonor.
[00:41:36] And in all of these things, he was absolutely sovereign over it all.
[00:41:41] So Jesus knows who are his and who are not.
[00:41:45] And so my final appeal this morning as I close, I guess would be to say this.
[00:41:54] I wanna appeal the way that I began.
[00:41:57] Whenever I preach to any group of people, I never assume that every person within the group is a follower of Christ. There may be people in this very room right now who have not trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and my appeal to
[00:42:13] you is that you would come to your senses as Peter did or he would that you would say as he said to whom else shall I go? You have the words of eternal life that you would believe and come to
[00:42:30] know that Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God. That today you would have the Lord open your heart and your mind that you might believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and have eternal life
[00:42:46] through believing in his name. For those of us who are followers of Christ, genuine followers of Christ, may today be the day that you remember that Jesus is the one to whom we should go.
[00:43:02] that there is no other, that we would cling to the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:43:07] And as the world confuses and frustrates and pulls us in all these different directions with all these different philosophies and all of these different things that are happening in the world, that we would remember that ultimately,
[00:43:19] ultimately, we've been called to cling, hold on to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy One of Israel, to whom we should all go.
[00:43:29] Let us pray.
[00:43:31] Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this very difficult but amazing passage of scripture that reminds us how you are sovereign over all of salvation, Lord, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to be the Holy One of God
[00:43:46] who has descended to the earth to offer himself up for the sins of his people and then ascended back to the rightful place of glory, having accomplished salvation for all his elect, Lord.
[00:44:00] we acknowledge the lord jesus christ as lord we bow before him and confess that he is king of kings and lord of lords to the glory of god the father and i thank you lord that we by your grace
[00:44:14] have been granted grace to confess that now so our knees won't be driven to the ground by force one day but we gladly bow before you confessing you lord jesus christ as king of kings and lord
[00:44:29] of lords the glory of god the father jesus christ this lord heavenly father for those in here who have not yet trusted in christ bring them to salvation i pray have mercy upon them i pray
[00:44:41] that in the hearing of the gospel this morning they would repent of their sins and turn to christ jesus as lord clinging to him and him alone for their salvation i pray if anybody hearing my voice
[00:44:52] this morning is a false disciple that they would become a true disciple of christ jesus now we pray heavenly father that you would grant us grace to worship you and to fellowship with you as we dine
[00:45:06] at your table now share in this glorious sacrament lord we thank you and pray this in jesus name amen