Well, good morning to everyone. Thank you guys for leading us again this morning. I was just thinking about the hymns we sang this morning, what powerful words, lyrics we sang. The words have power to make us think about the cross of Christ, what He's done for us, to move our emotions. 

And we're going to talk really about words today in our message, and of course, the most powerful words are the words of the gospel, that Jesus died for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day, and that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. 

Well, we find ourselves at the sad conclusion of the sixth chapter of John this morning for our communion service. As we see that many of Jesus' disciples walk with Him no more, turn away from Jesus. And this is hard. This is hurtful. Jesus is sad about the fact that they have turned from the only way of salvation through faith in Him alone. 

This is a very long chapter as we've been studying it over these several months on the last Sunday of the month. The text today could easily be broken up into several messages, and I had an idea, intended to preach all of this in one message, because the text kind of hangs together as a narrative and because our communion services are a month apart, but I found as I began to study and write that this is an impossibility. 

So we're going to have a kind of a long introduction to our text in John 6 today to set the context and we'll get as far as we can. And then next week, we're going to finish with a second message just to keep the flow before we go back to the book of Galatians. 

So as we approach this text, we must remember the context of what's going on in this chapter. You'll remember this discourse really began because of the event of the feeding of the 5,000. And the crowds had followed and found Jesus on the other side the following day, and they're looking for another miracle, a little breakfast perhaps to fill their bellies. 

And Jesus begins to talk with them, not about carnal things, but about spiritual things, leaving the physical realm behind and speaking to them spiritual truth. 

I want you to notice verse 31 of John 6. We'll begin at verse 26 for context. John 6, 26 says, Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek me not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you because God the Father has set his seal on him." 

Then they said to him, "What shall we do that we may work the works of God?" And Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he sent." Therefore they said to him, "What sign will you perform then that we may see it and believe you? What work will you do? Our fathers ate the manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat." 

I want you to notice those words in verse 31, as well as back up in 27, where Jesus begins to talk about seeking the food which endures to eternal life, but it's the crowds, the people who bring up this phrase, "bread from heaven," the manna in the wilderness. And they say, Moses gave them food day in and day out for 40 years. Their question is, what will you do for us? The one meal was nice, but you're no Moses. 

So Jesus begins to use their own words, the subject they brought up, to teach them spiritual truth. And the whole context here is about food and feeding and eating. 

And the key, as we see Jesus say twice later in this chapter, is that the manna was not the true bread from heaven, because all who ate it died. They are dead. But those who come to Jesus, those who believe him, who eat the true bread, the bread of life who came down from heaven, they will never die. 

Consistently throughout the rest of this chapter, Jesus is speaking of spiritual life, spiritual truth, and using metaphor to assert the same truth he's spoken plainly. Follow with me. Look at verse 29 again, Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent." 

Verse 35, Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." 

Verse 40, "And this is the will of him who sent me that everyone who sees the son and believes in him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." 

Verse 47, "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life." 

Verse 36, "But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe." 

Verse 64, "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 would betray him." 

And verse 69, "Also we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God." 

This chapter is clearly about believing, as is the gospel of John, who uses the term believe and faith again and again and again. In fact, he says the very purpose for which he wrote this gospel is that those who read might believe and have everlasting life. 

If there's one thing that is clear in the scriptures, it is that salvation comes by faith. Over and over and over again, we see Jesus, we see the apostles, we see exhortation to the believers in the epistles to preach the gospel. And as Mark read in 2 Corinthians 5 this morning, to implore men, to persuade men, to beg men to believe. 

And the scriptures say continually that faith in Jesus is the means through which we receive eternal life. Think of a passage like Ephesians 1:13. It says, "In him you also trusted," a synonym for believing, "after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise." 

Salvation is the work of the Spirit. It is the Spirit who gives life, who seals us, who baptizes us into the body of Christ, the church, who regenerates us. But the Spirit does this when we hear the word of truth, the gospel, the message about Jesus, and hearing, we believe. 

Faith comes by hearing the words, the gospel, so we hear, we believe, then we are saved, sealed, baptized into Christ, regenerated, etc. This is the clearest truth in all the scriptures. Salvation is by God's grace and it is through faith. We will talk about this more as we work through our text, but I want you to see that this conversation, this discourse that Jesus has with these people is spiritual in nature. 

It is about believing Him for eternal life. So they bring up the bread, the manna, the bread from heaven, and then Jesus turns that phrase on them and says, all who ate the manna are dead physically. But if you eat, that is, believe the true bread from heaven, you will never die spiritually. 

And Jesus goes on to explain profound spiritual truths in the next several verses down through verse 40, and then we're going to pick it up at verse 41. Let's look at our text in John 6:41, and we'll read a few verses here. 

It says, “The Jews then complained about Him because He said, ‘I am the bread which came down from heaven.’ And they said, ‘Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that He says, ‘I have come down from heaven?’” 

Jesus therefore answered and said to them, “Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall be taught by God.' Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me." 

Not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God, he has seen the father. "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." 

The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” 

Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living father sent me, and I live because of the father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, he who eats this bread will live forever.” 

These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. And we're going to stop right there for now. I've given you five points on your outline, and we're going to see how far we get here this morning. 

First, the bread from heaven. Second, hard sayings offend. Third, the words are spirit. Fourth, apostasy in the first degree. And fifth, the words of eternal life. 

Well, first in our text, we see the bread from heaven, and we read that in verses 41 down through 51, where Jesus talks about how he is the bread. He begins explaining that the will of God is to believe him, but then this becomes a metaphor and a comparison, believing equaling eating, right? Because he says, "I'm the bread, and if you eat of this bread or believe, you will have eternal life." 

As we discussed in our introduction, the metaphor that Jesus uses here comes from the conversation he's been having with the followers who ate the loaves and the fishes. And they brought up the manna in the wilderness, quoting, "He gave them bread from heaven." Jesus is simply taking that phrase and explaining spiritual truth, that he is the true bread from heaven, which God has given for the purpose of bringing eternal life to those who believe. 

He's not speaking literally in that sense. My friends, he's not literally bread. And eating is not literal eating in this context, it is believing. Jesus often used these kinds of metaphors to teach. He said that he is the door. And entering that door, again, synonymous with believing, is the way to life. He said that he is the sheep gate. He said that he is the living water, and he who drinks this living water, that is, believes Jesus will experience regeneration, a spring of water coming up on the inside. 

Coming to him, receiving him, walking through the door, entering through the sheep gate, drinking the living water, all of these things are metaphors for believing him. And that is the case in John 6 as well, as Jesus says that he is the true bread from heaven sent by God, and anyone who will eat, feed on him, that is, believe him, will be saved. 

In verse 51, we see Jesus press the analogy as he says, “The bread that I give is my flesh, which he will give for the life of the world.” Clearly, this refers to his death. I'm going to give my body, I'm going to give my blood, I'm going to shed my blood, I'm going to die for the life of the world. So keep these things in mind as we work through some difficult words, some hard sayings in this chapter, and that's what we see next, hard sayings that offend. 

Look at verse 52, please. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead, he who eats this bread will live forever.” 

In verse 60, it says, “Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, ‘This is a hard saying. Who can understand it? Who can listen to this kind of thing?’” When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the son of man ascend where he was before?” 

Earlier in the chapter, when Jesus fed the 5,000 men, we see that their intention was to take him and make him their king. And then we see in the following verses that their concern was wholly consumed with carnal things. They wanted a Messiah who would deliver them from Rome, who would give Israel the kingdom, who would meet their physical needs, and they were not at all concerned with or thinking about spiritual things or sin or salvation. 

Now the very hard saying here that offends them so deeply so that they walk away is that he must die. He's going to give his flesh, his blood, his life for the life of the world. The reference is here to giving his flesh for the life of the world, that they must eat his flesh, drink his blood. These words are spiritual. He says that implicitly in verse 63, "The words that I speak to you are spirit and they're life." 

What we notice as we pay close attention and study John 6 is that it is the words that are the issue. It's the words that they hated. It's the words that were hard, that convicted them and manifest the need for Jesus' death, burial and resurrection to accomplish spiritual salvation. And it is the words, the teaching, the words about Jesus and who He is and why He came that cut them to the heart and caused them to walk with Him no more. 

They loved the works, they loved the miracles, the food, the healings, but they hated the words. They were hard and they offended, why? Because the true Jesus was not the Jesus they wanted. Because their perspective of Jesus was not congruous with the real Jesus who stood before them, who taught them, who preached spiritual truth to them, who would die and shed His blood, give His flesh for the life of the world. 

And it was the words, the exclusivity of Jesus and His gospel, that He is the only way, the only acceptable sacrifice to God for their sins and their guilt and their judgment. It was the words that would bring life or bring judgment, depending on whether they would hear them, be taught by them, receive them, if they would believe. But we see that they would not believe. 

And we see this again and again. They said, “These things are hard. Who can understand them?” And let's think about that for a minute. The gospel, the truth that Jesus would give His body and blood, representing His death in our place for the propitiation for our sins, that we can receive His righteousness only by faith. Is this hard to understand? 

When we look at a passage like Romans 3, where Paul says righteousness is apart from the works of the law, that no man can be justified by the works of the law. It's not the intent of the law. And he goes on to say that we can only be righteous by receiving the very righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Is that hard to understand? I think they understand. 

I think men today understand. I think that's why they get so angry, because you're challenging religion, you're challenging self-righteousness, you're challenging their state of being, their position before God and their need for a Savior. Jesus paid the debt that you owed and satisfied God, and if you believe, you will be justified. 

Ephesians 2:8, 9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Is that hard to understand? I would submit to you that this message is excessively clear, simple, easy to understand, but it's very difficult to receive, to believe, because it offends. 

Here in our context, it offended them, caused them to stumble, why? Because it was not their plan. It was not their understanding of the Messiah, of who he would be and what he would do. The suffering Messiah was not in their plans, and so Jesus stating that he must die, must give his flesh, that this is the bread that came down from heaven, not to satisfy our temporal carnal needs or deliver us politically, but rather to save us spiritually, this message was not at all what they wanted to hear. 

And thus the sayings were hard and they caused them to stumble. Jesus knew this, so he says to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the son of man ascend to where he was before? What if you saw me go right back up to heaven from where I came? And like Stephen in Acts 7 could see Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Would you believe then?” 

And the implication is they would not believe. Not because the words are unclear, not because the evidence was not overwhelming, but because he did not meet their standards for what they wanted in a God and a Messiah and a savior. The message is offensive to anyone who has a temporal earthly carnal focus and is looking to have their needs met and their itches scratched. 

The message is hard because we are all sinners who deserve eternal death in the lake of fire. And Jesus is the only way that we can be made right with God by him taking the punishment we deserve in our place and accomplishing our salvation in his one-time death on the cross. Men don't like that. They'd like to do something. They'd like to accomplish something, feel good about themselves, earn their way, go to their church and do their thing. 

Only the one who hears the message and learns from God. You see the wonderful little tidbit in the text there. You hear and learn, lots here, lots of people here. Do you hear and learn from God who's willing to receive the words? Only he can come to life. Because my friends, it is the spirit who gives life. 

And I want you to see what Jesus says next in verse 63. He says, “The words are spirit, the words give life.” It's the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. 

Well, it'd be a bit of a conundrum here if Jesus literally meant that we are to eat his actual flesh and drink his actual blood. For one thing, drinking blood was forbidden by the law. Even at the council in Jerusalem, it was decided that the Gentile believers should refrain from such things. In addition, Jesus says immediately in verse 63, “The flesh profits nothing.” 

It's not a work that we do. It's not my way. It's not the physical and carnal concerns of men. It's not religion. It's not transubstantiation, my friends, where we actually physically eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his actual blood to propitiate or expiate our sins. That's not why we're here this morning. Have the Lord's supper. We're here to remember what he did for us, to proclaim his death until he comes. 

We're not here to eat his flesh so that we might have our sins forgiven like they're doing down the road. He's using metaphor to convey spiritual truth. The spirit gives life. When? How? Romans 10, 17. “Faith comes by hearing, hearing a message about Jesus.” What a clear statement. How does faith come? By hearing the words. 

And we saw earlier in Ephesians 1 that a man must hear the words, must hear the gospel, the message about Jesus. Then he believes and then he is saved. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name.” 

It does not say to as many as he gave the right to become children of God, these believed. It says, as many as believed these, he gave the right to become children of God. When is a man sealed by the spirit? When he believes. When is a man placed into Christ, spirit baptism into the body of Christ? When he believes. When is a man justified? When he believes. When is a man united to Jesus in his death, burial, and resurrection? When the old man is crucified with Christ and raised new, regenerated? When he believes. 

The New Testament affirms this very truth at least 150 times. Clear verses. And the issue for men, the condemnation of men is based on this very thing as well. Unbelief. They do not hear. They are not taught. They did not learn from God when they were drawn by the words. 

We're going to see this so clearly in Hebrews 6 next week. Listen to Hebrews 6. It says they were once enlightened. They had tasted the heavenly gift. They had become partakers of the Holy Spirit. They had tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. And yet they turn away from Christ in apostasy. And there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. They cannot be renewed to repentance, a full and final rejection of Christ with full knowledge. They would not believe. 

We see this fleshed out very clearly in a multitude of scriptures. I want to just look at two as we close and come to the communion table here this morning. Look at Hebrews 3 with me, please. Hebrews 3 at verse 15. “While it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who having heard rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now, with whom was he angry 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey?” 

That word obey there is also a synonym for belief. So we see that they could not enter in. Why? Because of unbelief. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Now look at verse two of chapter four. This is so key. “For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest.” 

You see, we all heard it. The gospel was preached. Romans 10, Isaiah said, did they not hear? They heard, right? We all heard it, but it didn't profit them because it wasn't mixed with faith. It did profit us because we believed. We entered the rest. Why did their corpses fall in the wilderness? Why were the Hebrews in this letter, in this congregation in danger of perishing? Because they would not believe. 

They heard the gospel, all of them, but with some, this hearing was not mixed with faith. They would not believe, and therefore they were in grave danger of apostasy. 

We're gonna look at that in chapter six and 10 of Hebrews next week, but see again, the issue is faith. The issue is a willingness to believe. 

Turn over to John 3:16 with me, please. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God.” 

Believing, that is what matters. Trusting in Jesus alone. And this faith comes by hearing the words, the gospel of our salvation, the words are spirit and they are life. 

Why are men condemned? Because they have not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. They are not saved because they will not believe, just as the disciples that walked away in John 6, who committed apostasy in the first degree, rejecting Jesus to his face. After seeing all the signs, hearing all the words, knowing who he was. 

And I believe this hurt Jesus deeply, that he was saddened by the fact that they would not hear, they would not believe his words, the words of life, the bread of life. And we know this is true from other passages, Matthew 9:36, but it says, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep, having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, what's he talking about here? He says, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”

Jesus was concerned with the spiritual salvation of lost men. He was moved with compassion for them, knowing they were lost. He wept over Jerusalem and lamented as he longed to gather men under his wings, as a hen gathers her chicks. I've got a chicken right now in my barn, running around my barn, and she's got about 12 little chicks she hatched. And when something happens, a dog comes running over, I scare her or something, she puffs all out like this, and all those chickens disappear in there. She gathers them under her wings. 

Jesus longed to gather them under his wings, but what was the problem? Was it that God was not willing? Was it that Jesus was not willing? He longed to gather you. God assures us in his word that he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, that he does not desire that anyone should perish. But that all should come to the knowledge of the truth faith in Jesus. 

No, Jesus said of Israel in Matthew 23:37, “I long to have you come to me, but you are not willing.” They would not believe. This is the very thing we see again and again in our text. Jesus emphasizes that the problem is that they would not believe. 

We also will also see next week as we saw in in verses 37 to 40 that God lays the doctrine of his sovereignty and salvation right alongside the will of man in salvation with no seeming tension. Oh there's a lot of tension in our minds, a lot of tension on this issue, but not in the mind of God. 

No one can come unless the father draws him, but anyone who comes to me I will in no wise cast out. But the reason they were not saved according to a multitude of scriptures clear statements like John 3:18 is that they would not believe the words, they would not believe Jesus. They would not come to him. The message was clear, it's just not the message they wanted to hear, and their hearts were hard and they walked away. 

They turned away from Jesus with full knowledge. And they will spend eternity in the lake of fire, suffering for their sins, separated from God. They are condemned already because they would not believe Jesus. 

But this is not true for every man. In John 10, it says they picked up stones to stone Jesus, but it also says at the end of that passage many believed in him there. 

And we see that some believe. Some abide, some enter that rest. They remain with Jesus. They continue even when the words get hard. 

John 6:66, “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more.” Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” 

Believers continue. They hold fast to the words, the gospel. The gospel is not a stumbling block, an offense to those who believe, it's not hard sayings. It's the very foundation of our faith, the truth in which we rejoice and find joy and peace, and we can say it is well with my soul. 

We hold fast to the gospel, to Jesus, and we trust him to keep us to finish the work He began in us and to save us to the uttermost. We believe. 

And the words of God keep affirming our faith and building us up, encouraging and sanctifying us. Where else would we go? 

Where else would we go? You know, I remember years ago, was at Bobby's grandpa's house, and her aunt Midge was lying upstairs in a bed, and she laid up there for years waiting to die. And I went up there to see her to talk to her a little bit, and on her nightstand was a book, Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking. 

That where you want to go? Where else would we go? Jesus has the words of eternal life. And sometimes the sayings get hard. Sometimes it happens that true believers leave the church or a church because the sayings get hard. The word gets hard. I don't know about you, but I'm not sanctified yet. I'm not who I ought to be yet. So that means there's some things that need to change, and sometimes those words that show me what needs to change aren't pleasant. 

Sometimes people who profess faith walk away. That's hard. It's hard to understand. But it happens. But those who believe continue. We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. We believe that he has the words of eternal life, that he is the way, the truth, and the life. So we hold fast to him. 

Close in prayer. 

Father, we thank you, praise you for the gospel, for the clear words of life. And thank you that through hearing those words and believing Jesus, we can have eternal life. We can know that you have saved us by your power, by your grace, by your spirit. You have made effective all these great treasures of salvation in our lives. 

And what you began, you will continue. Those whom you justify, you glorify. And we place our hope in your coming, in the time when you will make us like Christ, and we will see him face to face. 

Father, we thank you for these promises. We thank you for your grace, which sustains us, and for Jesus. It's in his name we pray. Amen.