Jesus in Matthew chapter 11 in our scripture reading this morning. He's speaking to a group of people that heard all that he said, a group of people that saw all that he did, heard all that he said, experienced him in real time personally. and still rejected him. And he still gave the gospel. He still empowered the gospel, still preached gospel. Great example for us today, the gospel that he brought that came with God's guaranteed success. Matthew 11 verse 20 is where we will begin. Actually, we'll begin at 16. Jesus says, but to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to the other children and say, we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We sang a dirge and you did not mourn. For John came neither eating nor drinking and they say, he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will descend to Hades, For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. At that time, Jesus said, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things. from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to infants. Yes, father, for this way was well-pleasing in your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my father, and no one knows the son except the father, nor does anyone know the father except the son, and anyone to whom the son wills to reveal him. Come to me. all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Friends, the Lord Jesus Christ is a great Savior. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the day that you have given us to gather as your called out ones, to gather as the church, to gather on the Lord's day to proclaim the word of the Lord, to proclaim the word about the Lord, to lift our voices to you in singing your praise ascribing to you and you alone all of the glory and honor and praise, looking to you to accomplish the impossible as far as man is concerned in growing and sustaining your kingdom. We pray that the singing of your praise and the preaching of your word this day will bring you great satisfaction. Pray that you will oversee every moment of it in every heart here this day. And may our Savior that has opened the way to heaven for all of God's people, who still gives the call of the gospel through his people from the very throne of heaven, may that precious and tender A doting Savior received the glory and the honor that he is due in this house of worship on this day. And it is in that Savior, the only Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of God, the only mediator between God and man, the one who has provided a righteousness that you will accept on behalf of your people, the one who has provided the perpetuatory sacrifice that you will accept for eternity on behalf of your people. It is in the name of that Savior that we pray this day. Amen. It is now time for the preaching of the word in the meeting of the church on the Lord's Day. Take your copy of the Word of God and open it with me to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. You can meet me in verse 59. We'll read verses 59 through 65. Then we will go before the Lord and acknowledge our desperate need for his intervention here this day, that his word might be taught and that his word might be received in an honorable way before him. John said these things, he being Jesus, these things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, this is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling at this, said to them, does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the son of man ascending to where he was before? The spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him. And he was saying, for this reason I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted him from the Father. Pray with me. Father, we turn to your word now. Seeking you to make it as fruitful in every heart as you desire it to be this Lord's day. We are not here by happenstance. We are not here by accident. We are here in the sovereign plan of our creator. I pray that you will make this time that we spend beneficial and fruitful for us, fruitful for your kingdom, and honorable and pleasing to your heart. Make me your sufficient instrument here this day in this house of worship. These people will hear from you. I pray that you, Holy Spirit, will make my thoughts your own. Make my words what you would choose and desire to use in the hearts of these people. Lord Jesus, we thank you for making this day possible. It is your life and death and resurrection that makes the church the church. Father, be honored by our time as our prayer. In the Savior's name, amen. John chapter six, beloved, is the pivotal day in Christ's ministry. the pivotal day in his ministry. It changed on this day. It is a day that has been firmly etched into the mind of the Apostle John. John remembering the life and times of his Lord, the Savior of men. He remembers this day. He remembers even his own heart as he saw that afternoon on the hillside in Bethsaida. He saw that night in the boat and that next day in Capernaum as the crowds were gathering around and it seemed as though all of his dreams had come true. And then Jesus got to the real reason. for his coming here. Jesus got down to the true preaching of the gospel. The gospel is not merely about giving men hope in this life. The gospel is not about giving people comfort in this life. The gospel is about the glory of God through the Savior that he sent that is presented to people as their only hope in this life and their only reason for existence in eternity. John remembers that as this was conveyed to these people that the greatest, maybe the greatest rejection of the gospel that ever occurred happened here in Capernaum. on this pivotal day. What the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in John chapter 6 is coming to a head here in these verses. This is a call to give your answer to the gospel. What say you about Jesus Christ? That is the moment that all gospel ministry must come to, and that is the moment that all of gospel ministry is using as its initial goal and the launch point from which you move out into the world as a servant of the Savior. And in this portion in verses 59 to 65, the Savior himself, with his own words, is calling men and women, boys and girls. He is calling them to the end of their religious selves. Because if people are being honest when you confront them with their need for salvation, when you confront them about the end of their life, where is eternity going to take you? At that point, they all become very religious. One of my children was recently told on a sports team that they belong to, You're I see you're a very religious person because you go to church It's a strange day in the southern United States when going to church alone makes you a very religious person But those are the days in which we live We're going the way of all the earth. It's Romans chapter 1. It's not Romans chapter 1 about America. It's Romans chapter 1 about the world but people become very religious and they have some religious perspective. And Jesus is calling the most religious people that have ever walked the planet, in John chapter six, he is calling them to come to the end of their religious practices and attempts to meet God on their terms. He's calling them out of that into belief in him alone. as the Savior, the one that saves them from God, the one who has been sent by God to save them for God. And it is not received as well as a Hollywood production of this episode would want it to be. Jesus here sees this nearly innumerable crowd of people that all claim to be his disciples and his followers. They are enamored with him. He sees through it. Verse 64 says, he knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe. One thing that you can know for sure is that in this chapter, we, we, you and I, All of the external observers, the disciples themselves, the 11 in Judas themselves are watching this. They're learning in this. They are finding out who the true and who the false disciples are. But Jesus found out nothing this day. He garnered no information this day. This was not a project. This was not an experiment. He didn't try this. Let's find out. It wasn't a test. You know how you girls are. But I want to see if he really loves me, so I'll put him to the test. He's going to fail it because he don't think like that. Don't take it personal. Jesus is not putting these people to the test to find out anything. Jesus has put these people to the test to reveal something to everyone there, and John has recorded it in order to reveal something to everyone here. after all this has been taught and and we see that What he has to say is maybe the most offensive thing that he possibly could have uttered to these people without being openly blasphemous to Yahweh. He could not have been more offensive to these people in what he says to them. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood. Let's get down to brass tacks. That bread was an illustration of this bread, and this bread is your only hope for eternal life, and it's this bread, this body that will be crucified to pay for your sin, and it is my life, death, burial, and resurrection that you must cling to in order to see the kingdom of heaven. And he's already told Nicodemus three chapters prior to this that no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again from above, and we see that on full display here. Because there's one group that is born again from above, and there is a much larger group that is not. What we see here is the separation of a true disciple. A separation of a true disciple from a false disciple because this is the line of demarcation. Everybody can be happy with Jesus, the healer. Everyone can be happy with Jesus, the provider. Jesus, the need meter. Jesus, the God of love that loves every sinner. Everyone can be satisfied in him, but friends, a true disciple, only a true disciple. is satisfied with and ready to accept on his terms Jesus, the Savior. John said, he has written this, that we might see that Jesus is the Christ, and that by belief in his name we might be saved. And here he has presented Jesus in unmistakable, breathtaking terms that caused these people to choke on the gospel. I'll tell you the most offensive thing that you will ever hear in your life. All of you have been offended, probably been offended this week. You've probably been insulted and offended by someone somewhere. The most offensive thing that you will ever hear in your life is the gospel of Jesus Christ, because it tells you who you really are, which is the one thing that you really don't want to hear, let's be honest. Yeah, when your wife tells you you're a deadbeat and you're good for nothing, she's right. You just don't want her to be the one telling you that, right? Gospel comes and says, you are so unacceptable to God that you have no hope. You are so wretchedly unacceptable before God that he had to have his son butchered on a cross and turn his back on him, estranged himself from his only begotten son so that you could have your sin dealt with. It is so bad, there is nothing that you can do about it. Because if there was something that you could do about it, the cross was a mistake and the creator does not make mistakes. You are a sinner, irreparably separated from God. You're wicked, you're detestable, you are disgusting to him. And he has no choice but to turn his back on you in your current state and cast you into everlasting hell. That's who you are. That's what the gospel says. That's what the Savior says to the most religious people that ever walked the planet. You have people today trying to figure out who's the most religious. Is this particular sect of Protestantism more righteous and more holy than these, and who's more holy? Friends, we all need a savior. There was only one that was holy enough and sufficient enough before God. Some are willing to go halfway and say, well, yes, we need him to save us, but then it's on us to keep it. Man, you better hope that's not true. You better hope that's not true. I don't care what list of rules men can make. There's nothing that compares to God's rules. And God's rules say you can't. I sent my son to do it. You rely on him or you go your own way. That's what Jesus says here. You rely on me completely, absolutely. Not part of me, not a little bit, not the parts you like and cast out what you don't like. You take me, all of me completely right now or go your way. That's what John chapter six says. And friends, The overwhelming majority went their own way. And they said, you know what? If that's all you had to say to me, I don't need you around anymore. Crucify him. About a year. It's about a year's worth of time from John 6 to the day they stand before Pilate and say, crucify him. Quit talking and crucify him. We all want him. John remembers this day as the day where the tide turned. John and James and Peter and Andrew and the other eight, what they saw was we're the inner circle and all of these others are around and where this guy goes, we go with him and we're gonna have the seats of position. It's like you give a bunch of money to a politician and you help them campaign and when they win, you kind of expect some kickback. That's what they're expecting. James and John kind of jumped the gun and said, hey, mama, we want the right and left hand. We want to be right next to him. And then we'll lord it over all these people. John and James are still looking around at these people thinking, this is our entourage. They're down with him. That means they're down with us. And they're about to see that bubble burst. There's gonna be a separation and it's coming crunch time. It's coming the crisis moment in the heart and mind of every person that is under the sound of the Savior's voice this day in Capernaum. And when it's all said and done, he turns to 12 and he says, are you gonna stay? John sees a separation here that is unmistakable. Let's look first here in verses 59 and 60 at the audience of the Savior. In this separation, there's a separation of people and they're all part of this audience. He has an audience. Who is listening? This mass of humanity that he fed. Earlier in chapter 6, it says there were 5,000 men. That could have been 5,000 men, 4,000 women, and 10,000 children. That would have been 19,000 people. It could have been 5,000 men and 4,000 women and 50,000 children. The miracle doesn't change between 5 and 15 and 14 and 50 and whatever the number is. If they could have collected everyone in Galilee to get there that afternoon, he would have fed them too. He didn't run out. Oh, you know how it is. You show up and you remember a couple of years ago, Popeye's had this famous new chicken sandwich. Some of you, I know, no doubt have had it. And they ran out of chicken sandwiches at a Popeye's and a fight broke out in the parking lot. Somebody got shot. I've eaten Popeye's chicken a lot in my life. I never thought about shooting somebody over it. I mean, Popeye's might be the best, but they got two mamas in town and mama's fried chicken over here and over there. It's pretty good, pretty close second. It wasn't that Jesus got to the end and said, okay, 5,000's the limit, I don't have any more. No, he fed everybody there. All of these people saw what happened. All of these people have heard what has happened. All of these people are about to be impacted by the gospel from the mouth of the Savior. They are all an audience to this. Let's look at their description. We'll see their description, their disturbance, and their distress. Look at their description first, beginning in verse 59. Now, verse 59 could be attached to verse 58 very easily. It may just be that this is a transition in John's mind to kind of bring us back to where he is. He's had this discussion with the Jews and this incredibly tense Moment where he's telling them what they don't want to hear and they grumble. How can he give us his flesh to eat? Not only am I giving my flesh to eat you must eat my flesh and drink my blood because my flesh is true food My blood is true drink And if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you and you are dead in your sin And kind of to bring this back bring our minds back to to the individual relating of this John says and this is These things he said in the synagogue. This is the audience of the religious. There were some irreligious Jews in that day. They didn't go to synagogue. They didn't go to church just like we have today. Oh, you go to church, you're a very religious person. That may be the case, but for these people to have been in the synagogue, these were These were the devout. These were the people that externally had all of their ducks in a row. If anybody was pursuing the kingdom and if anybody was seeking to please God with their life, it's these people in the synagogue in Capernaum. He said it in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. These people are coming to hear him teach. They're here for him. They've heard about him. They've come to hear him. Maybe they've heard him before and they're back. And he still has this throng of interested people coming to him. We read in Matthew chapter 11 for our scripture reading this morning, Jesus addresses Capernaum. Remember? Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? To heaven? People in Capernaum thought a lot of themselves. Oh, we're going to be elevated. We're where it's at. If you want to be where true religion is on full display, this is the place to be. He says, you will not be exalted to heaven. You will descend to Hades. Why? Great question. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, uh-oh. Friends, there can't be a more notorious city in the scripture than was Sodom. People today get a little nervous, you start talking about Sodom and used to be a term when I was a kid, the Sodomites, talking about homosexuals. It was an apt term because Sodom had reached the end of the decline in Romans chapter one and all normalcy had been perverted. The perverse was normal and the normal was perverse. And the unspeakable was the everyday occurrence and God destroyed that city because of the wanton wickedness that was punctuated by the mass exercise of homosexuality. God has not changed his opinion about it either, by the way. Our culture is gravitating toward it at breakneck pace. Even here, it's coming to a home near you. I've told you, you let people in your house on that phone, you wouldn't let in your house through the door. All the social media, most all of any media that's conveying anything is telling us we need to relax our stance on homosexuality because they can't help how they feel. Well, then we need to relax our stance on murderers, too, because they can't help how they feel. They just got a little overworked, and that person was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I killed him. I can't help how I feel. Oh, well, that's dumb, preacher. Murder's illegal. Yeah. It's illegal because God said it's illegal. So is homosexuality. Oh, by the way, so is adultery. So is fornication. Let's not hold one up over here and ignore the others. So is pornography. Ooh, preacher, you're getting on a slippery slope. No, let's just be honest. Jesus said that city in Sodom that was so characterized by the most heinous and disgusting of sin, homosexuality, God burned it up. You can't find the ruins of Sodom. It was an illustration of God's wrath toward that that is still there. That wrath is still there towards sin. But these people would have been the farthest from, in their minds at least, they would have been the farthest of any people group on the planet. These people would have been the farthest removed from this type of wicked behavior. And he says, the most wicked city that you've ever heard of is gonna have a better time on the day of judgment than you will. Why? because of what you've seen and rejected. If the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. Jesus is in the synagogue in Capernaum, the place that had seen, this is his home base of operation. These people have seen more than anyone else. They've experienced more of Jesus than anyone else. He's teaching in the synagogue. Can you imagine Jesus teaching at the church every day of the week? Just go up there and hear straight from his mouth, hear the truth of God from God in audible form being spoken out of his mouth. Audience of the people of Capernaum in the synagogue and then the beginning of verse 60 Says many of his disciples heard this It's not just the hoi polloi. It is all of the the people it is all of the excitement that is built up That is that has brought all the people to see the spectacle But in that mass is this burgeoning number of Explicitly described disciples. They're not just hearers. They're not just interested These are those that have come and said we want to follow you. We want you to be our rabbi We want to be under your teaching. We want to be Jesus sites His disciples And the people of Capernaum in the synagogue That's their description These people have just been disturbed. Tells us here in verse 60. They say, this is a difficult statement. Some of your English translations will say, this is a hard statement. Either one is right. They're saying, wait a minute, this, this is, What did you say? Oh, I'm glad you asked. My flesh is true drink. My blood, my flesh is true food. My blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. And as the living father sent me and I live because of him, he who eats me will live because of me. They're looking around at each other and they just can't believe, what? What did he say? This includes everybody. James and John and Andrew are looking at each other and telling Peter, can you make sense of what did he just say? He says, when they heard this, my flesh is true food. I am the bread from heaven. He said, this is a difficult statement. The word means hard or unbending. You realize that that's what the gospel is? The gospel message is the most inflexible thing you will ever hear. That's why it's so offensive. It's not God sitting down and saying, hey, let's make a deal. Let's negotiate. Here's what I'm offering. You give a counteroffer. Well, here's my counteroffer. Okay, we'll settle on that. No. The gospel comes into your life and the gospel says you are not acceptable to God and it's only downhill from here. You never have been, you never will be. But God has provided what you need. If you will give your life to him, he will give his life to you. It's dangerous to tell people to ask Jesus into their heart, to invite Jesus into their life. Because Jesus is a sovereign, he goes where he wants, and it's not a matter of you're keeping him out as much as it is he's not going in. This is a hard, unbending statement. You've drawn a line that's just too harsh. There's no wiggle room here. You're right. Give you a little illustration of what this word means to tell you how much of a disturbance that this created in the minds of these people. In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus tells the parable of the talents. You remember the parable of the talents? The great man of the house went about on a journey, and he brought his slaves in, and he handed over his household possessions to them. He gave five talents to one. He gave two talents to one, and one talent to another, each according to his ability. And he left, and when he comes back, he takes a count. The one with five said, here, I've taken, I've made five more. And he says, may it be a blessing to you. Good and well done good and faithful slave. You were faithful in a few things I will put you in charge of many things enter into the joy of your master the woman two talents come to say look You gave me two i've given you four back. I gained two more and he says the same thing to him You were faithful in a few i'll put you in In charge of many things enter into the joy of your master. Then he comes to the one who received the one talent One talent guy shows up. Now he gave each according to their ability. He knew this guy was competent, this guy was maybe not quite as competent, but was competent, and this guy, I just have to give him something to keep him busy, keep him out of my hair, so I gave him a talent. Maybe I'll get a tenth of a talent back in return, but I've given it to him. Here comes Mr. One Talent Guy, and he says, Master, this is a slave speaking to his master, I knew you to be a hard man. Same word. This is a difficult statement. This is a hard statement in John 6 I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed and I was afraid And I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See you have what is yours? You're a hard unflexible unbending unsympathetic Unconcerned man gathers where you did not scatter seed, you take what you want, you are the sovereign. And they say, this is a hard statement. This is a difficult statement. This is a sovereign statement. This is a non-negotiable statement. This is a difficult statement. They caught the edge of the demand of the gospel. You must come to me on my terms. Your religion needs to be left at the door. Whatever it has been, however fastidious you have been about it, whatever good it has brought into your life by your definition, you put it aside because you cannot come to me on religious terms. You come to me on my terms. And he's going to make that even more emphatic when he gets down to verse 63. When he says, your flesh profits nothing. Your flesh can't get you there. None of your religious observances. We're coming right on the heels of Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday. How many of you ran around town and saw people with the cross on their forehead and ashes? All day long, went to the grocery store about nine o'clock that night, girl in her stocking shells, got it up there, and I'm just... I wonder what they think when they see me. Look, if I got something on my forehead, tell me, because it ain't supposed to be there. This is a hard demanding thing. You're telling me that I didn't help at all? I didn't get myself partly there? Nope, you didn't. That's exactly what I'm telling you. You didn't get close. Think of the best thing you ever did? Throw it out with the dirty rags. It has no good in it. Oh, this is a hard statement. Look at their distress. That's the disturbance. When they heard this, this is a hard statement. It caused distress. Look at what they say. Who can listen to it? Who can accept this? You ever think that about the gospel? You approach people, say, man, this is just a little too hard for them. They need something a little softer. Maybe I ought to tell them that Jesus loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life. Maybe they would like that better. There's a problem there. The Bible doesn't say that. Now it does say that God has wonderful things in store for his people, but I'll tell you this, sometimes God's idea of wonderful and your fleshly idea of wonderful are not the same. They do not match up. God may consider it to be a wonderful thing for you to be stricken with an illness that lasts the rest of your life. You wouldn't ask for that, would you? This is distressing to these people. We're hearing the words coming out of your mouth, But we can't accept it. Hey, isn't this the guy that we were so excited about yesterday? Isn't this the dude that fed everybody yesterday? Let's go back to that guy. He didn't say anything. Hey, come sit down and get something to eat. We want that guy. Eat you. We don't want a dude that's going to offend us. Modern Christendom has caught on to that, and they're trying to create a Jesus that doesn't offend people. Friends, sometimes you need to be offended. Sometimes I need to be offended. Who can listen to it? You know what they're saying? We can't believe this, which is really saying we won't believe this. We're not I'm not accepting that who can listen to this what dummy is gonna believe this that's what they're saying This is so hot who's possibly gonna believe this. Hey, uh, hey rabbi You better check your message bud because this isn't flying with us You want us to stay around go back to more that giving us free food thing. That's why we're here Why were they there beginning of the chapter. Why were these people here? Oh, I'm going to wait for an answer. Verse two, they were there because of the miracles. Verse 26, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs. What did they see? They saw miracles. That's why John makes a distinction between miracles and signs here. They saw it as a miracle that was intriguing. They didn't see it as a sign pointing to him being the bread of life. You understand that the people didn't have a problem with the miracles of Jesus. They had a problem with the words of Jesus. And that's still the problem today. You want to draw a crowd? Tell people that you're having miracles and signs and wonders and they will show up in droves. They might buy a ticket to see that. But tell them we're going to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for your life and expects from you. They're not showing up for that. Look around. Now there may be people that don't come here because they don't like me. I don't blame them. But there are people that come here one time because they don't want to hear what this book has to say. Nobody goes too long or this isn't it? You can come up with excuses But when the real excuse is you just don't want to hear the words of Jesus tell us the stories about him But not the words about him don't apply it to my life Don't tell me that he's the Savior that I need because I can't get there on my own Tell me how I can do it Tell me to fill in the three-step plan that I must do because I need to have my credit I want to know what I can do. How can I get Jesus on my side? You know why they want Jesus on their side Do you know why? Because they want a God that they can control. I've invited him in because he's met my standard. I led him into my life because he'd met my standard. People go around and say, why don't you give Jesus a try and see? Bible never says that. He just didn't say, here, take this bread home and look at it for a week and analyze it. Tell me what you think about it. No. He says, you must eat my flesh and drink my blood. You must take me in with absolute acceptance, complete, total acceptance. These people say, wait, we're here for the show. We don't want to hear all of this. We don't want to hear this stuff about sin. Entertain us. There are places all around this town filled with people this morning for an hour to come and be entertained that are being entertained down the broad road to destruction. That is not to tout this place as the only whatever. I'm telling you that when you put the wrong thing first, you have pushed the gospel and the Savior out of your ministry. And the right thing first are the words about Jesus. Understand the miracles were to point people to the truth of what he said, not to distract them from it. And when they get distracted from it, on the hillside in Bethsaida and show up in Capernaum, he says, you know what? Cutesy time is over. Cuddly time is over. There's no more of this desirable gospel. You need to understand the gospel means that you need to be saved from God, not that you need some bread in your mouth that tasted better than the one the day before. It's not to satisfy your lazy carnality. It is here to save you from God, for God, and I've been sent here by God. Oh, but who can listen to this? The gospel does not offer what the natural unbelieving heart already wants. We tend to think that. I said this in Sunday school this morning because it's becoming more and more apparent to me as I get older and living in this world, trying to serve the Lord. Believers view the world through a different prism than we viewed it as unbelievers. And sometimes we forget that unbelievers don't have that prism. Why don't they see things this way? Because they're still viewing things through once-born eyes. They're still viewing the world through a dead spiritual sight. They don't, they can't, they will not see what you see. And when we decide to try to tell them about the things that matter to us, and they don't respond, well, let's try to tell it to them in ways that matter to them. The problem is what matters to them is sinful. And if Jesus comes along as one that's going to make the sinful more satisfactory, they're willing to take that Jesus. But when you bring the gospel, the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and say he cannot tolerate you the way that you are, therefore he came to make you a new person on the inside who has new desires and new wants and new expectations, they don't want that Jesus. Tell us about the one that sympathizes with us and wants to just make things easier for us. Tell us about that one. The problem is, he's not in the pages of the book that I preach from. That Jesus isn't there. The one that says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest, is the same one that said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Come and serve me, come and get into this yoke with me and pull along with me and work with me and serve with me, not come get in the wagon that I am pulling and enjoy the ride. He doesn't offer them what they expect. He doesn't offer them what he knows that they will accept and will like. He doesn't water down the message. You've seen all of the signs. Here is the message. And as you reject it, the message just gets more intense and more intense, and it comes to this point. He brings great distress and disturbance to this religious audience. That's the audience of the Savior in verses 59 and 60. Verses 61, 62, and 63 tell us of a different Jesus than the world really wants to convey. People like Christmas time and they're okay with the nativity scene in town because there's a baby Jesus in it. Oh, he's so cuddly and cute. He's like your favorite grandchild. Friends, he was that way about as long as you were. He's not that way anymore. He's the Lord of glory forevermore. What comes out of the Savior's mouth here, friends, can be no better described than by the English word audacity. The audacity of the Savior. Now we tend to take audacity as in a negative sense. Well, can you believe the arrogance of this guy? Can you believe that this guy would have the audacity to say something like that? There's no negative connotation in using audacity about my Savior. Because friends, there is nothing negative about my precious Savior. And the audacity that he shows here has no negative connotation. They thought it was negative. They thought it was so negative that they had him crucified not long after this. Verse 61, we see the confrontation. In this day and age, this would seem to be such an audacious thing to do. He doesn't change the message. He doesn't change the tactic. He doesn't change the tone. He doesn't change anything. He just, he just, Grits his teeth and plows forward. This is where we're going. This is the gospel If I back up from the gospel now, I have nothing more to say to you If you're a believer here today and you rejected the gospel Multiple times before the Lord brought the conviction of sin and righteousness and judgment to your heart. I Whoever it was that the Lord was sending into your life with the gospel would have given up or said, you know what? I need to change my tactic. Maybe I'll soften the message. You would never have been saved The gospel of Jesus Christ will save everyone who believes I but it only saves the way it saves. It only means what it means. It is a singular gospel. It's not a gospel for her and for him and for him and for them and it kind of changes and it morphs for each one. It meets you where you are. That's true, the gospel meets you where you are. Problem is you don't know where you are. And if you don't know where you are and someone tries to meet you there with the gospel, then maybe what you heard isn't the gospel. Gospel calls you to surrendered belief in the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ a Confrontation here in verse 61 Now by modern Tactic this would be the time to kind of back up and take a little different angle, but you know I'm really not getting what I what I expected out of this. I'm really not I'm not catching any attraction So maybe I'll back off a little bit Maybe, maybe a little too much of you is escaping into your gospel presentation. And maybe a little bit of you needs to back off. But the offense of the gospel better not back off or there's no longer any gospel. Paul said, I will have removed the offense of the cross and it will have become an empty message. Verse 61. But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling at this, said to them. Now, he's been speaking to the Jews, he's been speaking openly, and now he knows that even his disciples, this has gone from the Jews who began to argue with one another, they were grumbling at first, Jesus told them to stop grumbling, And in verse 41, they're grumbling among themselves. In verse 52, now they're arguing with one another. And here in verse 61, Jesus now turns to his disciples, because verse 60 says, many of his disciples, when they heard this. So Jesus is moving from the greater, broader audience that is already on their way out, and he turns to those that have hitched their wagon to him, so to speak, his disciples. We're in with you. We want to be disciples of this rabbi. He turns to them. Knowing in himself that they were grumbling at this this means that there was something going on that was silent behind the scenes again Jesus turns and proves that he knows what's in a man's heart. He knows what's in your heart right now He knows what you're thinking about knows what you're concerned about knows what you're dissatisfied with overly satisfied with he turns to them And he says does this cause you to stumble? Here's where the confrontation begins friends the gospel is is very confrontational and because you have to look at things differently, you have to see yourself where you really are, and you have to see the Savior where he really is and understand that there's no way for you to get there on your own. Your religion can't get you there, your good works, your good intentions, you cannot get there from here. And he turns to these people and he says, does this cause you to stumble? Does this cause you to stumble? Does this cause you to stumble? Yes, they're having trouble with it. Does this cause you to stumble? And we kind of view that in him maybe saying, well, I don't want to lose everybody. They kind of were on the way out already, but is this offensive to you? Like he's looking for some affirmation to figure out how to change what he's doing. Maybe I do need to change my tactic. Like Jesus is finally starting to wake up to the music here. That's not what's happening. Do you too have a problem with this? Is this offensive to you? And I know that by the continuation that comes in verse 62. The confrontation is met by a continuation of what he's been saying. He says, does this cause you to stumble? Does this idea of eating my flesh and drinking my blood, that I am the bread of life, that even the best of what you remember of your forebears and eating the man in heaven, they ate it and died, but what I brought for you is far better than that. I'm bringing you bread that issues to eternal life. Do not work for the food that perishes but the the food which endures to eternal life Which the son of man will give to you verse 27. This is what I am giving it to you I'm giving myself to you. I am the bread of life Does this cause you to stumble does this cause you to stumble verse 62 My friends it was right when it was said that we need some preachers that are not tripping over their skirts on the way to the pulpit. Jesus had no problem with that here. The confrontation continues and he adds to it. What if you see the son of man ascending to where he was before? They understand that he's telling them that he has come down from heaven. They're offended by that in verse 42. How does this man say he has come down from heaven? Jesus said, not only have I come down from heaven, I'm the bread that came down from heaven and you have to take me completely, absolutely as I am without negotiation. Full trust, full acceptance. Eat my flesh, drink my blood, my flesh that is going to be torn and hung on that cross, the blood that I will spill is the sacrifice that you need because your religious observances are not sufficient. In fact, your religious observances were always, ever, and only intended to point you to me. I am the bread. What if you see me ascend to where I was before? Friends, he's doubled down on what he's told him. Would this help? He's not asking that. It's not a question. He's not saying, well, well, what if I could give you more proof? He doesn't say that. Well, you're having trouble with that. Well, maybe I could do some other miracle. He's saying, what if I go back to where I came from? They've got a problem saying that this guy has come from God and calls God his father. And he's saying, you think that's offensive? What if you saw me go back to where I came from? Some of these guys are actually going to see it. Some will see it. Acts chapter one, nine and 10. They were there. Jesus went up into the clouds. You remember the ascension? They're going to see the angel said hey boy, why are you standing looking in the clouds? He's gonna come back one day. You need to get busy He told you the spirits coming. You got a job here. Don't stand there looking in the clouds He'll be back when he's ready Maybe tomorrow maybe a thousand years from now was true for them true for you You be you be found ready He's just continuing the same argument that he made. Verse 32. I say to you, Moses has not given you bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. Verse 38. I have come down from heaven. I was there before I came down. Verse 44. It's not verse 44. Verse 50, I've come down from heaven. He's just reiterating what he's been saying here. What if you saw me going back to where I was before? Then he clarifies it in verse 63. Well, we should have had another hour. We do have another hour next week. Verse 63, we see the clarification, the audacity of the Savior. This confrontation, he doesn't back up. He continues to lay down what he has said before. He doesn't flinch. It seems to be this most audacious of things, this most arrogant thing. This is what they thought of him. But friends, if he had stopped there, what hope would they have had? If he would have stopped at the first rejection, what hope would they have ever had? If the gospel, if the first time you heard it and rejected it, if that was the only chance that you got, what hope would any of us have? I don't know any, I've never met anybody that said, the first time I heard it, I'll believe it. I've never met, there may be some, I've never met them. So if hearing it clearly for the first time and rejecting it is the last opportunity, there would be, there'd be no church. There would be nobody in heaven. It'd be a really hard and compressed narrow road. Wouldn't need to be very wide for nobody. In verse 63, he clarifies some things. The spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. You know what he doesn't do here? He doesn't lead them down a track that they're already on. He doesn't say, you know, let me find a little easier way for you. Now, I'm not telling you that that's always a bad idea. What I'm telling you is you do not ever reach a point where you have dumbed the gospel down enough for people to understand. You can't do that. It's the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. There's no fleshly way to get people into a spiritual kingdom. It doesn't happen. It's impossible. But there are people in the world that figure out how to lead people that are already on a particular track. And they say, well, you know what? If they're already thinking that way, I'll tell them kind of what they're already thinking. And they'll say, well, you know, this guy must be right, because he's thinking like I think. And he has the same opinions about stuff that I have. So maybe this guy's right, because if he agrees with me, he's got to be right, right? Maybe. That's how cults get started. Certain guy that, and now with the internet, it's even easier because you don't have to travel to where they are. You can be part of their internet organization, their internet group. Start up the podcasts, welcome all our people in here. You'll all think like me, that's fine on talk radio. That's a problem in a religious setting. That's problem in it. That is a big problem in a particular gospel setting because the gospel is not going out to tell people what they already want to hear Jesus doesn't say well, you know what? Let me put it in terms you understand Jesus says the spirit is the one who gives life the flesh prophets nothing As we're going to see, that means that the spirit possesses it and the spirit dispenses it his own way. What he is also doing here is he is repudiating the effects of religious observances. Your religion cannot save you is what he says here. It is not the flesh that profits you anything in coming to God. We live in a very historically religious area here in Apollosus. They go through all the high church motions, they go, they kneel when they're supposed to, they stand when they're supposed to, they talk back to the priest when they're supposed to, they go and they receive, I was talking to a guy this week that said he grew up in a Methodist household and his dad never let him eat meat on Friday. I still don't understand why he did that, but that's kind of a colloquial expectation here, if that's the right way to use that word, but it's a cultural thing. But we don't want to really offend our Catholic neighbors, so we'll just not eat meat on Fridays as well. And you know, it becomes a religious observance that gains you zero before God. The flesh profits nothing. And people look back and say, well, you know, I'm probably okay. I've done pretty well. I've lived a good life. By whose definition? Good by whose definition? Because if you could live a good enough life by God's definition, then his son wasted his time, and you really have to wrestle with the cross. Why is there a cross if you can get there on your own? Because you're not all that special. If you can get there, I think I can get there. And if you and I can get there, there's a whole bunch of others that could, and Jesus wasted his time. But there is a cross, and that cross says that you can't get there on your own. Your flesh profits nothing. Paul, Romans 7, 18, what does he say? I know that within me there is no good thing that is within my flesh. Paul said that as a believer. That filthy rags, righteousness that's coming out of you that you do on your own as your idea that's not something that is in obedience to Christ, that is as much a filthy rag as anything an unbeliever ever did. Friends, the gospel means something in people's lives. The gospel is the most important thing in your life. And the gospel comes to you through the Holy Spirit of God moving through the message of Jesus Christ, the Savior. And that is what he said to these people this day. Your religious practices need to be pushed aside and you come to me on my terms. You come to God on his terms and he will save you. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner with no capacity to reach God on my own and Jesus is a Savior that can save even me. Those are his terms. Have you turned to Him? Have you believed in that Jesus? Have you put your faith and trust in Him completely? Have you taken Him in full acceptance, illustrated in the act of eating and drinking? Have you taken His righteousness that He lived in His body and His blood that He shed on your behalf on the cross? Have you taken that to be your own and have entered His kingdom, His way? If you have, you have much to rejoice over, and if you have not, why not? It's not a theory to go home and scratch your head over. It is a demand that has been laid at your feet. You must respond. The majority of these people this day responded in the wrong way, and the majority of them went to their eternal destruction because they refused the only help that God ever provided. I hope that no one in this room will do that. If you stand, we're going to pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your gospel. Thank you for your Savior that has come to save your people. Who for the majority of us in this room, he has become our Savior. I pray that he will be the Savior of all that you will allow us to influence with your gospel. I pray that you will give us a steeled spiritual backbone as we go into the world with the gospel, knowing that our Savior has set the standard for us for gospel ministry, that the message rightly divided and unleashed is the only possible option in the saving of sinners. And may you be honored in it by how it is presented and how it is responded to and the spiritual harvest that it will provide. that you'll bless your people as they go from here this day. Pray that the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, will be honored in all that is done in response to his truth, to his gospel. It's in his name that we pray. Amen.