All sermons preached by the webmaster may be freely copied, printed and distributed. We ask only that the site name and homepage URL be included in all copies distributed. Thankyou.
This sermon was preached on Sunday 13/01/2002 Am, by Kevin Matthews.
In our last study in John 6 we discovered that being a disciple of Jesus Christ does not necessarily mean being a person that actually exercises faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither does it necessarily mean therefore, someone that follows Him wholeheartedly. In fact a person may be a disciple of Christ and merely follow after Him for the satisfaction of some temporal pleasure or whim, however mundane their motive might be.
And it is this that we find so clearly demonstrated in this very chapter, that after witnessing the clear evidences of Divinity and Messiahship in the Lord Jesus Christ, and after having heard the declaration from the Messiah’s own lips as to how a person is to gain eternal life through the eating and drinking of the body and blood of Jesus Himself, the great majority of these disciples went about face and headed back to their former ways of life. They went not just to their former daily occupations and legitimate pursuits, but to their former sinful behaviour and practices. These people had never truly closed with the Lord Jesus Christ by faith to become the spiritual disciples of Jesus.
These mere physical and temporal followers of Jesus were still ignorant of spiritual realities because of the blindness of sin and could not understand the truth of what Jesus was teaching here, that to actually gain everlasting life a sinner must spiritually eat and drink of the body and blood of Christ, for He is the spiritual Bread of Life. They couldn’t grasp that they personally needed to do this or they would perish in their sins. To obtain salvation from sin and to gain acceptance and a right standing with God it was absolutely necessary to actually go to Christ with the eyes and ears of faith, to actually hear His message of hope and to actually look to Him in faith as the means of one’s personal salvation. Here then, in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ stood the very doorway to the Kingdom of God, a doorway through which one must past for life, yet it is a doorway through which it is impossible to pass without the Father first drawing the sinner through that door by means of the Holy Spirit.
And so because they were not drawn of the Father, this great mass of unbelieving disciples were unable to eat and drink of the life giving body and blood of Christ, finding the message of Christ to do so repulsive to their human understandings, for they were still without that spiritual understanding that was necessary to gain the spiritual sense of the teaching of Christ. Such is the blinding and damning nature of sin, that it leaves men and women without the spiritual commonsense to take hold for themselves of this freely offered solution to their sin problem.
Now picture the scene if you can, there is Jesus with this small remaining band of disciples, quite possibly the twelve only, and the great mass of former disciples moving slowly away from them and back to their sinful lives. What a tragic scene to picture, the very Saviour of sinners with whom they had moved for so long, being now abandoned by those that so desperately needed Him for acceptance with the Father, now taking up those very things that damned them to an eternal misery. Yet there they go, departing the Christ at the very moment of their greatest opportunity to gain life. What a tremendous tragedy!
Dear ones, we have no such opportunities today, whereby the Saviour of sinners stands physically in our midst as He did in that day among the Jewish masses. Yet we have the same moment of opportunity, whereby the message of the Saviour of whom sinners must eat and of whom sinners must drink, is proclaimed to all that come within the sound of a preacher declaring the gospel of Christ. But what a tragedy it still is, for the very same sort of scene is played out in our own day, when sinners having heard the very message of entrance into the Kingdom of God through the body and blood of Christ, when so many sinners having heard and perhaps even witnessed the miracles of God’s working among us, yet depart from the scene of which they have heard that life giving message, which for them has become the sound of eternal death through their rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
What a tragedy, for all they need do is exercise faith in Christ, which is a trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work for sinners, for their own personal salvation and they would indeed have eternal life. Yet not satisfied with the answer of God to their gravest plight, such sinners reject the gospel message and return to their own past sinful ways of life, ripe to inherit the whirlwind of God’s judgment, and certain it is that they will have it. What a tragedy it is for such people, so close yet so far. Rejecting the message of a free and full salvation right at the seeming moment of opportunity.
But how so for you this morning? Dear ones, how is it for you that have not departed from the scene of the proclamation of the gospel? Do you also want to leave with that growing number of people that will not hear the gospel of grace, who will not hear of acceptance with God through a gospel of blood and of being drawn through the irresistible grace of a sovereign God? This is the very question that Jesus posed to his remaining disciples that day in Capernaum, and it is the question that is posed to you this morning.
‘Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away (Jn 6:67)?’
‘All this mass of humanity has departed, by far the majority of the people that have followed after me have gone, will you also go? The opinion of men, and the great mass of peer pressure is against Me - do you really want to stay with Me in the face of such overwhelming opposition and ridicule? The religious establishment of your nation is opposed to Me and My mission, what about you? Is it time for you to go too?’
This is the question that faces us also this morning, having been reduced in number to this small gathering here. The pressures of the religious establishment around about is for us to stop meeting. The pressures of those surrounding us is to reject our position and to fall in with a lesser gospel. The great mass of humanity stands opposed to the gospel that we declare and hold on to, and the pressure coming against us is for us to cast it away from us and to be done with it. A world of sinners casts scorn into our face and the difficulties of our profession rise in number everyday. What will you do today - will you also leave Jesus and depart from Him, and go and pursue an easier way, a more acceptable way?
Jesus knows the answer to this question already. He is not asking the question out of ignorance, for He knows the hearts of men and does not need to be told of what is in them (Jn 2:24,25). He knows what the true answer to this question is within us. John 6:64 tells us that He knew the state of all that were before Him that day. ‘But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him (Jn 6:64).'
Jesus knew not only from the beginning of His ministry those that were truly His, but even from well before that, from even before the foundation of the world when the elect were chosen in Him. You see this isn’t a question that tells us that Jesus didn’t know those that were His, for He knew them only to well, but it is a question that throws down the gauntlet as it were, to those that profess to know Him. It was a test for these 12 men that stuck around with Jesus that day, as it is for us today. Are you truly prepared to face the challenges, the consequences and the pressures of your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or do you also wish to follow after those that have abandoned the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ and choose some easier path?
You that remain true to the gospel and to the Christ of the Gospel, are you now prepared to remain with this gospel and with this Christ of the Gospel, or will you leave for happier and easier pastures? Will you also follow the masses that have flocked to an easy believism, and of a compromising gospel, or will you stay with the Jesus of the Bible and the gospel that He has revealed to you through His Word and by His Spirit? This is the choice that lays before you this morning - what will you do? Will you take up the challenge?
Oh, it’s a challenge brethren isn’t it? The pressures of society, and even that of the professing church are so real and strong around about us. They pree us on every side. ‘Abandon such hardness, abandon such a narrow-minded gospel and come accept with us a more broad-based gospel that appeals to the masses. Aren’t our churches so much larger than yours, aren’t they so much more successful - join with us, and leave that old, old story that’s been peddled through the ages. Ours is a fresh message for the times - come now, join us.’
What will you do friends? Will you stick with Jesus and with this gospel, or will you leave and follow after a gospel that is so widely accepted in the church and in the world today? Surely the Lord Jesus Christ has laid down to us a very clear challenge this morning. Will we pick it up?
‘Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).’
What was the response of the twelve disciples before the Lord Jesus Christ when this challenge was first laid down to them in the wake of such an overwhelming rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ and of all that He stood for? What did they do? Well Peter speaking for the twelve says, ‘no, no we won’t leave you Lord, for You are the One that has the words of everlasting life.’
Brethren, is this not the Christian response to such a challenge as this? Even if the believer doesn’t fully understand everything about the gospel, the thing that he/she is most certainly convinced of is that the Lord Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life. ‘He is the One to stay with. No matter what ease and pleasure the other options present to me, they do not have the words of life. These are to be found with Jesus and Him alone. No matter what attractions the other options present, it is Jesus that has the words of life. It is Him for me.’
There is nowhere else to go. The world offers a myriad of alleged possibilities for everlasting bliss and happiness through all the new age and mystical religions, but it is Jesus alone that has the true words of life. The church offers a variety of differing experiences and practices whereby the sinner can gain an easier crossing into eternal life, but yet these all leave the door to the Kingdom of God firmly shut against us and as an illusion that will never be realised, but in Jesus we have a Guarantee and Surety that assures success to the end. There is no life but in Jesus, and so with Him we will stay, no matter what!
All these other things offer so much and promise tremendous possibilities, yet only one way secures for us the answer to our true need, even the very Bread of Life that satisfies our spiritual need of a deliverance from the curse of sin and a way of acceptance with the Heavenly Father. He alone is the way and the truth and the life, there being no other access to the Father but by Jesus (Jn 14:6).
Will you stay with Jesus, or will you forsake this way and return to the world, to religion and to an inummerable host of other alternatives that will leave your soul wanting at that last great day of the Lord? What will you do? The challenge is laid out before you this morning, this is a moment of great testing, what will you do?
To whom shall we go brethren? Is there any other place to go? I mean do you know of another alternative that seriously comes close to that which is given so freely in the Lord Jesus Christ? There is no other, let us stay with the Lord Jesus Christ. For your own souls sake, stay with Christ!
‘And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God (Jn 6:69).’
Not only do we recognize that Jesus alone has the words of life, but we have come to put our trust in Him, knowing that He is the very way of salvation. Here in John six the Apostle Peter says that they recognized Jesus as the One who would save His people from their sins, and not only did they recognize Him as such, but they also trusted Him as such. They dared not go elsewhere for they recognized Jesus to be the very Messiah that Israel had waited so long for.
The gospels clearly show that these men didn’t understand it all at this stage, but still they knew Him to be the Lamb of God that would remove the sins of the world. ‘You Jesus, are the One in whom we place our trust, for You are the One that will save us. There is no one else that is able to do so.’
Though all were beginning to turn seemingly against, and away from Jesus and His mission, these men refused to budge from their position of faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had forsaken all else and clung to Jesus alone as the answer to their sin problem and way of acceptance with God. ‘All others may go Lord, but we will stick with you, for You have become our salvation.’
These men recognized in Jesus the very One promised in the Old Testament Scriptures as He who had been appointed by the Father to save Israel from their sins. Jesus was the set apart One, the Servant of God who had the assigned mission from the Father of delievering the elect from their sin and ushering them into the Kingdom of God. It was Jesus, God in the flesh, proven to be so by His wondrous works who was the object of these mens faith. This Jesus whom they had followed was the Messiah, very God of very God, Immanuel come to save His people from their sin. They would not leave Him.
Why is it that you will not return to your former way of life Christian? Is it not that you too have come to know and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your only means of escape from the wrath that is to come? Has He not become more precious to you than all the remedies thrown up to you by the world and by the church? Is it not true that there is nowhere else to go, nowhere else you desire to go and nowhere else you would rather be than with the Lord Jesus Christ? Has He not become your very life and salvation? Have you not come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the very Son of God, and that believing in Him you have obtained life in His Name (Jn 20:31)?
Oh yes, He is the One to whom we would cling for our very lives, and indeed our very lives do depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. There is none other good enough to pay the price of our sin. It is He alone for us, and we will not entertain another. If we have not Jesus we will perish, and so to Him we will stay close.
We have come to recognize in Jesus our very own hope of salvation, the very anchor for our souls that keeps us within the Kingdom and steady through all the tumults of our life’s experience. With Jesus we know that all is well with our souls, and so why would we go to another. All the charms of this world will never convince us to leave off our own soul’s delight, ‘for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts 4:12b).’ It is Jesus, and therefore we will cling to Him and no other.
What a wonderful answer to the Lord’s challenge was given by the Apostle Peter on behalf of the twelve, yet mark the Lord’s response to the answer of Peter.
‘Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve (Jn 6:70,71).’
Yes Jesus had heard the answer given by Peter on behalf of the twelve, yet he knew the inner reality of the situation for each one of them, and this continues to be the challenge and pressing application of this passage to us all. Even though they answered such to Jesus’ first question, and even though the twelve had been chosen by Jesus Himself to fulfil a particular temporary task, yet one was still the servant of the Devil.
You see the mere filling of a temporary office in the church, even if chosen by Christ Himself to that role, is not enough for the gaining of eternal life. Judas is a clear example of this, for though having the office of an apostle, he was yet still the servant of Satan and would eventually betray Christ to His death.
Oh professors of Christianity in this place, you may stand alongside the profession of the church and the body of believers seemingly in unity with them at this time, and you may occupy some office or role in the church, but know this, you have not fooled the Head of the Church if your profession is false. He knows who you are. He knows that you are yet the servant of Satan. He knows that you will yet betray the cause of Christ and His church by your ungodliness and wickedness.
Oh sinner there is no hiding place from the all-seeing and all-knowing God. He knows you even before the time of judgment comes. He knows you even in the midst of your deception, in the very act of hypocrisy here on earth and in the church. He sees exactly were you are at. Don’t fool yourself sinner, for if you are there, Christ’s knows you by name.
Here then is a solemn warning to all that bear the name of Christ, be you not deceived, for though you have perhaps fooled the church and your closest friends, you have not fooled Him ‘who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom (2 Tim 4:1b)’ Mark this as an absolute certainty, that you will not gain an entrance into the eternal Kingdom by your deception, for He will mark out all those that attempt to enter without the robe of righteousness and cast them into the fiery pit for all time. Your time is set, and your end is certain - now is the time to flee the wrath to come before it is too late, now is the time of opportunity.
But you Christian whose hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who will not go to another but will continually cast your lot with Jesus, your’s is the Kingdom, and as Christ said to Peter, ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven (Mt 16:17).’
Friends that are unsaved, to whom shall you go if you neglect so great a salvation as this, a salvation so freely offered in the Lord Jesus Christ - indeed there is nowhere for you to go, except to a Christless eternity and into a place of eternal punishment.
‘But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name (Jn 20:31).’ Amen.
This was the last of the sermons preached on John at Northlake's Reformed Baptist Church. The church disbanded not long after this particular sermon.
Outpost
Homepage
JOHN SERMONS
SERMONS
PAGE
TOP
10/10/2006
AN OUTPOST PRODUCTION