John 6:60-71 (The Word Offends)

The Shepherd's Church

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I want to begin today by just reading a short story. I've never done this before, but I'm going to do it today, so I hope that it makes sense.

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A powerful king came to a starving little nation and established a particular restaurant to serve his hungry people.

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He created a very specific food that would be sufficient for them, that would heal them, and would build them up for service in his empire.

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And then he trained the waitstaff and other servants to care for his people and to make sure that they were served that specific food that he made them.

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And then once everything was established and all the preparations had been made, he departed to go on a long journey entrusting the waiters and the staff while he was gone.

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But while he was gone, the waitstaff grew tired of feeding the king's people. They longed to see the kingdom grow in new and exciting ways with new and exciting patrons who were offended by the king's food.

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So they began by adopting a new menu that was more palatable, a menu that was toxic to the king's people.

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And then the patrons complained because the king's establishment and his customs and his decor offended them, so the waitstaff decided to build a full -service bar with all the drinks that the patrons would enjoy and then stripper poles to keep them interested in all kinds of worldly trapping so that all of the pagans there and the surrounding towns would feel comfortable and want to come.

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And before long, vile people began flooding into the restaurant, feasting on the polluted food, doing shameful things that the king never intended, all the while the king's people were left starving.

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Just then, some of the king's beloved people spoke up to the waiters and said, Sirs, please give us that good food that the king has set aside for us.

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But the waiters refused. Instead, they said, Dear Saint, don't you know that this place is not meant for you?

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You were not made to be nourished here. You were meant to eat at home and to come here full. This establishment is for outsiders.

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We need your help. We need you to cheer as the masses feast and make everything about them and their comfort and their enjoyment.

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And maybe, just maybe, if they enjoy this place enough, then they will decide to leave their home and come and join us.

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Wouldn't that make the king so happy? But the king returned, and he wasn't happy.

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In fact, he was outraged. There he saw the deplorable menu that he did not create. He saw the restaurant that looked more like a brothel before his eyes, and he was incensed.

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He saw his dearly loved people starving and pitifully malnourished, trying to cheer and feign enthusiasm, while others, people who didn't belong to that kingdom, were fat and drunk and debauched in ways that he never envisioned.

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Upon seeing this, the king was thrown into a perfect fury. And he chased out those people who were not a part of his kingdom, and he grabbed those wicked waiters, and he hurled them into prison, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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A good story has to have weeping and gnashing of teeth, right? And once he purified that place, he put new waiters in charge who would be about his wishes.

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Now, this is a story about a king and his restaurant, but this is also a story about the American church. God has established the church to feed his people.

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And God has given them a specific food, the Word of God, that they will feast on, and it will be good for them and healthy for them.

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And God has given the church pastors who would share the Word of God with his people.

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But instead of doing that, all across this country, pastors have turned the church into a carnival, into a debased, darkened den of debauchery that looks more like the world than it does like Christ.

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And this church is everything but the Word of God is given as food. And is it any wonder why

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God's people all across this country are starving? Story after story after story

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I've heard from us. We came to this church starving because we weren't being fed the

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Word of God. My sheep, listen to my voice, and I know them and they follow me. We were made and designed to be fed and to be nourished on the

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Word of God, not tricks, not different schemes. That is the food that Christ gave us to eat, and that is what the church is for, is to feast on Christ and his

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Word. Now, if I could say anything, if I could do a PSA to America, I would say, what do you think that that great king is going to do when he returns?

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Is he going to be happy that churches have been starving his people? Is he going to congratulate them for putting them under spiritual abuse?

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Or is he going to severely punish the offenders? Now, listen, I don't say this with any sort of joy.

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I say this in agony that this is what the church looks like right now. Somebody has got to say it, and I know

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I say it a lot, but somebody's got to say it. The church in America is not healthy, it's not well, because we're feasting on everything other than Jesus Christ.

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We're eating polluted food and we wonder why we're sick. I think the church in America has lost its perspective that we were meant to feast and to dine on the

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Word of God and the Word of God alone. We were not given permission by Christ to change the menu.

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We were not given permission by Christ to decorate the venue like a bazaar, or like a carnival, or like Vanity Fair.

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We were given permission and a commission by Jesus Christ to preach and teach and revel in the Word of God, that's it.

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John 6, 27, this is a passage that we were in a couple weeks ago, says it like this. Do not work for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the

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Son of Man will give you, for on Him the Father has set His seal. Which means that there is a specific kind of food that we are supposed to feast on as Christians, and only that is going to satisfy us, and only that is going to lead to eternal life.

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That food is Christ Himself and His Word. If you remember the last passage that we dealt with,

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Jesus takes this a step further. This is John 6, 53 through 58. This was before Easter and Palm Sunday and all of that, so I'm going to read it to refresh us.

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Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink

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His blood, you have no life. He who eats My flesh and drinks

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My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day, for My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink.

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He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the

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Living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.

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This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.

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Jesus is telling us that we are to feast on Him. The Bible calls

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Jesus the Living Word, which means that, yes, we feast on Jesus, but Jesus is at the right hand of God, so He has given us

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His Word as evidence of who He is, as His words, so we feast on His Word until we meet

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Him face to face when He returns. This is the food that God has given us, and this is what Jesus is saying.

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Jesus preached this sermon in John 6. This is a sermon, and He preached it to the crowds in Capernaum, and it was a hard message.

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He didn't sugarcoat it at all. He didn't try to entertain them or make them feel comfortable. He shared the truth with them exactly as they needed to hear, even if it offended some of them and even if some of them walked away.

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He didn't tiptoe around doctrine to protect people from getting offended.

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He didn't do what we have seen done in the American church where we don't say certain things when the big givers are sitting in the sanctuary.

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He didn't do that. He shared the truth of the Word of God, and that's it. And He let the

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Word of God do what the Word of God does. Some it draws, some it repels.

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That's what Jesus did. Now, Jesus also understood that there was a dynamic at play in the crowd.

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There's a dynamic at play in every single crowd that the truth of the Word of God is shared. There's three kinds of people, and what

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I love about Jesus is that He does not preach three unique messages that are tailored to specific audiences.

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I'm going to use animal terms for a second because the Bible does. There were sheep, there were lost sheep, and there were goats in this crowd.

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Jesus doesn't preach a sermon that's going to make the goats feel better. He doesn't preach a sermon that's going to draw the lost sheep, and He doesn't preach a deep biblical sermon for the sheep who only get that maybe in a

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Sunday school class or something like that. He preaches the same message to all three groups that are standing there, and the

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Word of God does what the Word of God does to every single person who is listening. Now, the passage itself doesn't use the terms sheep, lost sheep, and goats.

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Those are biblical terms, and we know what they mean. Sheep are the ones who've been found by Christ.

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Lost sheep are His. They belong to Him. He paid for them. He bought them in eternity, but they haven't in space and time come to Him, and goats are never

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His. Goats never end up coming to Him. The Bible doesn't say that the mission of the church is to convert goats into sheep.

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It says that the mission of the church is to preach the gospel so that Jesus will find lost sheep and bring them into the pasture.

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So Jesus preached that message to all three groups, and they responded accordingly.

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The sheep, for instance. Jesus preached this hard message to them, and He knew that it would edify them, that it would build them up, and yes, it would offend them, but they would not leave

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Him. They would feast on His Word. Now, let me say something really quickly just as a matter of precedent here.

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There is no sheep in this passage yet. Jesus hasn't died. Jesus hasn't rose. Jesus hasn't sent

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His Holy Spirit. No one in this passage are Christians because that's not a thing yet until Jesus rises from the dead.

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John 6 is essentially an Old Testament passage because the new kingdom has not yet fully come.

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So Peter, James, John, all of them are lost sheep at this point. They're not true sheep yet.

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They haven't been found yet. They don't have the Holy Spirit yet. And it's evidenced by the fact that they were confused by the words that Jesus said.

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They're often confused by the words that Jesus said. And think about Peter. Jesus has to tell him,

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Get behind me, Satan, because he doesn't understand who Christ is. He doesn't know the Holy Spirit yet. But there is an audience that this passage will talk to today, and that's you and I 2 ,000 years later.

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If you are in Christ, then you are God's sheep. And this passage is going to say something to you and to I.

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So that's the first group that is listening in on this passage. We're 2 ,000 years late to the party, but we're here, we're listening, and we're going to talk about that.

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The second group, as I said, is the lost sheep. Those are people that the Spirit has not indwelled yet.

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And they are not coming to Jesus because of his great oratory skill, although I believe

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Jesus was a great preacher. He's the Son of God. I think he probably was pretty good at it. They're not coming to him because he's entertaining them or placating them.

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They are coming to him because, as we will learn, he has the words of life. And where else could they go but to Christ?

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We also know that all of God's people will come to Jesus. We've learned that. John 6 .37

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says, All that the Father gives to me will come to me, and the one who comes to me

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I will certainly not cast out. That means that if you are a Christian, you've been given to Christ.

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That means if you're not a Christian yet, but you're a part of the kingdom, and you've been given to Jesus, you will come.

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It's irresistible. He doesn't say, all that the Father gives to me may come, or all that the

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Father gives to me might come. He says, all that the Father gives to me will come. That means that if you have been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, you will eventually come to him.

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And you will come to him not because of tricks and not because of messages and not because of lights and fog machines or anything else.

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You will come to Jesus because of his word. His word is good. His word is satisfying.

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And you will love his word, listen to his word, follow his word, and obey his word. Because you were bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, and you will come.

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You will come. Jesus preached the same word to both the sheep and the lost sheep.

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To the sheep, it feeds our soul. To the lost sheep, it draws them into relationship with Christ. He also preached the same word to the goats who were here in this crowd.

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Now, the goats are another kind of unbeliever in the Bible. They're not the kind of unbeliever who's going to eventually come to Jesus.

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They're the kind of unbeliever that will never come to Jesus. It says when

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Jesus returns that he will divide up the lamb and the goats, one on his left and one on his right.

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One will enter into the kingdom and one will not. Because they're goats. They don't belong to Christ.

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But he preaches the same word to them. I find this fascinating when I was looking at this this week.

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Because how many churches, I've been to many of them, that don't preach the same word. They prioritize ministry based on what will make goats and outsiders more comfortable.

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And then sheep never get fed. Lost sheep really don't come to Christ. It's just a goat fest inside of the church.

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And that's not the way Jesus did it. Personality at play again,

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I'm sorry. Jesus preaches this message.

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He preaches a hard message. And this is a tough one. He preaches a hard message so that they will leave.

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He preaches a message so that they will abandon him. It's not by accident. He doesn't preach it and say,

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I really need to tone it back a little bit next time. He preaches it so that they will leave him.

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Let's look at verse 52. We're going to start in John 6, 52. We're going to go down to 71.

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And we're going to see why does Jesus preach this hard message to all three groups. And we're going to see why you and I can have hope in that.

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And find joy in that. And find life in that. So this is what the word says.

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Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them,

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Truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourself. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

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For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

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As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me, and he will also live because of me.

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This is the bread which came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died. He who eats this bread will live forever.

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This is the new text that we're going to be in today. Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said,

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This is a difficult statement. Who can listen to it? But Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them,

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Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?

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It is the Spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words which I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

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But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were. Again, he knew from the beginning who they were, and he still preached this message.

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For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were, who did not believe, and who it was who was going to betray him. And he was saying,

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For this reason I have said to you, No one can come to me unless it is granted to him from the

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Father. And as a result of this, many of his disciples withdrew from him and were no longer walking with him anymore.

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So Jesus said to the twelve, You want to walk away too? Do you? Simon Peter answered him,

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Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know that you are the

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Holy One of God. And Jesus answered them and said, Did I myself not choose you?

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And yet one of you is a devil. Now he meant Judas, the son of Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray

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Christ. Today I want us to see that there's a mixed audience of people here who are listening to Jesus' sermon.

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And Jesus doesn't tailor his sermon to the mixed audience. He preaches the word of God without fear and with boldness.

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Some who are there are going to cling to the word, and they're going to love the word, and they're going to follow Jesus, and they're going to preach that same word to the crowds and the whole

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Roman Empire is going to be turned upside down by those people. But yet there's some there who are going to be destined by God to be offended by Christ, and they're going to leave him, and they're going to abandon him.

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So that's what I want us to consider today. And let's begin with the goats, those who left him and those who abandoned him.

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And it says in the passage that the reason that they left him and abandoned him was because they were offended by him.

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Jesus said something that hurt them, that broke them. They're like, I don't get this. This doesn't make sense. Jesus said, unless you feast on me and unless you drink my blood, then you will not have any life in your name.

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I can understand why they might have been offended. You can imagine like a germaphobe in the first century, and they're like,

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I'm not going to do that. They didn't understand because they didn't have the Spirit of God in them, and because of that it offended their sensibilities.

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The text said, therefore many of his disciples... There was a discipleship community at this time. I don't know exactly how many, but there was the 12, then there was the 70, 72 disciples, and there was even a larger group of disciples who were following him at this point.

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And it says that many of them walked away. Now, what

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I love about this is that Jesus is going against the church growth experts. You'd think

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Jesus, being fully God, had some resources on how to grow a church. I mean, the church growth experts tell you, don't offend anyone.

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If you want to build a large following, if you want to have a big social media presence, if you want to have a filled out, packed service, then just say what people want to hear.

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That's why Joel Osteen every week tells you what you want to hear. Because he has the

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Houston Rockets arena, and he fills it out. He didn't do that, though.

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He didn't offer them sugary, watered down truths that it's going to make them smile and make them feel better about themselves and boost up their ego so that they would come back every week.

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He told them the truth of the Word of God and obliterated that sort of church growth thinking. I remember when we planted

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Shepherd's Church. I had a book on my shelf that was about how to plant a church, and I decided to look at it because I've never done it before.

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I don't know what I'm doing. So I'm like, maybe somebody else does. The vast majority of the book could have been used to start a fire.

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Honestly. It was come up with a catchy sermon title. It was come up with great graphics and artwork.

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If you don't know how to do it, then pay for it for a little while. Don't worry, someone will come. It was have a great worship set and leave people with good feelings.

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It was all of this stuff that has nothing at all to do with the Word of God. I remember, honestly,

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I forced myself to read as much as I possibly could, and I had to throw it in the trash because I didn't even want it on my shelf anymore.

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I was in New Hampshire when I was doing this. It was right before we planted the Shepherd's Church, and I threw that book in the trash because it was garbage.

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The church is not built on our church growth schemes and metrics. It's built on the Word of Christ. We're not doing anything special here.

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We still don't know what we're doing, and neither do any of us. None of us here know what we're doing. We just show up.

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We just talk about the Bible. We just preach the truth, and we just go home, and God's blessing it.

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It's very simple when you do what Jesus did, and you just follow what Jesus said. You don't have to make things so complicated.

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Now, you may say, why did Jesus preach a sermon that he knew was going to offend them and he knew was going to send them away?

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That doesn't sound very loving. Well, why would you build a kingdom with disloyal followers?

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I mean, if you were a business owner, why would you put people on your board of directors who really didn't know who you were or didn't want to know who you were, and if you told them who you were, they'd leave?

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You wouldn't do that. If you were a president, let's say you were part of a particular party, why would you hire people in another party who would work the entire time against you?

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You wouldn't do it. So Jesus doesn't build a kingdom that way. He builds a kingdom with his people and for his followers.

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The second thing I would say is that if Jesus would have built a kingdom like this where he was constantly trying to sugarcoat things and walk on eggshells,

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Jesus' kingdom would have never gotten off the ground in Jerusalem. I mean, can you imagine people sidetracking the entire movement because Jesus was unwilling to tell them who he really was?

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And then when he raised us from the dead, they're confused. They're like, you didn't tell us this. Ultimately, Jesus wasn't interested in building this kind of kingdom because he was interested in the truth of the

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Word of God. He was interested in telling his people what God says and allowing the

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Word of God to do what God's Word does. So he preached, and they left, and for Jesus that was okay.

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And I think that that's okay for us today. I think we have to be okay. I've talked to pastors who are afraid to talk about things.

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I've preached sermons and been reprimanded because I said certain things. Like sin. How are you going to be saved if you don't know how to be forgiven for your sin?

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But yet people are afraid because they don't want to lose numbers. The same is true today.

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We have to be, all of us, courageous in how we share the Word of God. We do it on Sunday here, but we're all witnesses.

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Acts 1 .8 says, you will be my witnesses. That means you're going to share a story. You're going to share a testimony. And we cannot walk with tiptoes on eggshells out into the world and apologize for Jesus and say,

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I just want to tell you about Jesus. But if you don't want to hear it, that's okay. You know, he died for your sins, if you believe in that sort of thing.

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But if not, just be a good person and you'll get to have, no. That's not what

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Jesus would say. We have been entrusted, all of us, if you're a Christian, you've been entrusted with God's glorious gospel, and we must herald it with passion and conviction and with boldness and with joy.

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And we must do it even if people leave. Today, if I were to say, which

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I'm getting ready to say, so it's going to come true. But today, if we say that there are only two genders, the world will lose its mind.

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And they'll say, you're a transphobe or you're an LGBTQA plus phobe.

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And we laugh because it's so frustrating. And we laugh because it's so opposite of reality.

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God made two genders. It's really that clear. And if we just say that, it makes us seem like we're hateful and people will leave because they're offended by that.

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If we say that marriage is between a man and a woman in covenant marriage, and it's not about homosexuality, if we say that's a sin, if we call that what it is, it says in the

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Bible, it's a sin, it's an abomination. If we say that, then we're hateful and we're offensive.

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If we say that marriage is only to be enjoyed, or sex is only to be enjoyed in marriage, that offends.

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Now, this is one. If we say that a sexless Christian marriage is a sin, that offends.

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Because God said if we're married, then we're to give each other, and we're to be in union in that way.

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So a marriage that is not fulfilling that sort of thing, it's sin. We should call it that. That's what the

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Bible says. Porn is sin. Fornication is sin. There's so many things that are sin. Abortion, if we talk about that, it offends the world.

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If we talk about stewardship, it's what we've talked about a little bit today. If we say that every Christian was made by God to give to the kingdom of God, that offends.

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And the thing about it is that we're not even sharing opinions. We're just sharing what the

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Bible says, and it offends us. And the reason that it offends us is because the Bible is a flashlight on the sinfulness of the human heart, and it exposes the things inside of us that are dead, and the things inside of us that are broken.

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And when that happens, we recoil in shame just like Adam. We recline into our guilt just like Adam and Eve did, and then we get angry at the one who pointed it out.

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And really, it's not the person, it's the Bible. This crowd got angry with Jesus because he said, you will feast on me.

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I'm better than Moses. I'm the better bread that came down from heaven. Stop looking for a human king. Look to me.

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Feast on me. And that offended them, and they left. Now, I want to say this.

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Every single person in this crowd, and every single one of us gets offended by the word of God. All of us do.

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If your sin nature is no longer offended by the Bible, then you have a bigger problem than John 6, where he says, eat my flesh.

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The job of the Bible is to offend the parts of us that are offending a holy

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God. And like John MacArthur said many times, and I'm going to paraphrase because I can't remember it, he said, it's about time we were offended because we've spent our whole life offending

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God. That's what the job of the Bible is. It's to offend our sin nature so that we will repent, so that we'll return to Christ, and so that we have a relationship with him that's satisfying.

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See, the Christian takes the offense, and they pray over the offense, and they repent over the offense, and they turn from the offense, and they run joyfully into the arms of the

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Savior. Offense doesn't propel the Christian away from Christ, but it does the world. And that's one of the evidences,

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I would say, that if you're a true Christian, all of us are going to be offended by the

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Bible. But those who stay with Jesus, those who don't run from Jesus, those who don't abandon

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Jesus, those who are offended by the Word are

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Christians. Let me just say it this way. There is no such thing as a

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Christian who abandons their faith. There is false converts who thought that they were

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Christians who abandoned their faith. There are people who a church or a pastor told them that they were Christians, and they maybe abandoned their faith.

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But those who are bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, dragged to God, like it says in John 6, 44, and they do come, like it says in John 6, 27, those do not fall away, because Jesus says,

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I will lose none of them, and I will raise them up. So if you, as a

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Christian, can wrestle yourself out of the arms of God, then you have just made Jesus Christ a liar, because he said he will lose none of his people.

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So either you're a Christian who has somehow nullified the deity of Christ, and I don't think you're that powerful, or you were never a

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Christian, and you were holding on to something other than Christ. Look at what

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Jesus says to his disciples. So Jesus said to the twelve, Do you want to go away also?

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Simon Peter answered, Lord, whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Peter is admitting here that he is confused by what

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Jesus said. You can read it in his words. He's being bold, where shall we go? But he's still kind of admitting to us that he was offended.

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I think Peter is subtly admitting that it's far better to be offended by the truth than to live in error. I think

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Peter is admitting to us that it's better to be cut by the word than crushed in eternity. Peter is not telling us that he heard

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Jesus' words without difficulty. He is saying that there is nowhere else that he can go, because Christ's words have life.

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His words are dripping with life. His words are infused with life. There is nowhere else that we can go, because his words are the only living words.

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There's nowhere else that we can go. If the Bible offends you, that's a good thing.

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It is. If a sermon that is preaching the Bible offends you, that is a good thing.

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Because the wounds that God afflicts leads to healing. It's better for our flesh to be offended than for our soul to be rejected.

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It's better for us to be offended so that we can run towards Christ with repentance than to live in ignorance, right?

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David prays, search me, O God, and find any wicked way in me. David's not saying,

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I think I've made it. Examine me. See if you can find anything.

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I don't think you can. That's not what he's saying. That's not what he's saying. David murdered someone because he cheated on that guy's wife.

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I mean, David had some stuff. David is saying, I don't want this sin in me.

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I don't want this offense in me. Seek me, search me, because I'm not smart enough, spiritual enough, or wise enough or holy enough to find it on my own.

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I need you to find it in me. I need you to reveal it in me so that I can repent, so that I can turn to you, and so that I can enjoy my relationship with you more.

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David is praying a prayer that every one of us ought to pray every single day. God, find the sin in my heart.

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Find the error in me. Find the rebellion in me. Show it to me so that I can repent, because I don't see it.

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I know it's there, but I can't see it yet. Show me, God. That's what

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David's saying. Again, I think it is important and it's necessary for Christians to be offended so that we are no longer walking in offense to God, so that we can enjoy our relationship with God.

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But again, unbelievers are not like that. Instead of repenting and turning to him, they run away from him.

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This is what it says in verse 61. Jesus, conscious that his disciples grumbled at this, said to them, does this cause you to stumble?

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And then down in 64, he says, 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.

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And he was saying, for this reason, I've said it to you. Jesus knew they didn't believe, and for a purpose, he said something that would make them leave, that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him from the

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Father. And as a result, many of his disciples withdrew and were not walking with him anymore.

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Now, we ask the question, why wouldn't God just hold them? Wouldn't it have been better for them as unbelievers to hang out in Jesus' kingdom for a lifetime?

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If they were going to die and go to hell, wouldn't that be better? Is it more merciful for Jesus to force them to stay?

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Is it more gracious and kind for him to let them stay if they're never going to believe, never going to get it, never going to relish?

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I don't think so. It's gracious that God let them leave in John 6, because John 12, 13, 14, 15 are coming where Jesus is going to be murdered.

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His disciples are going to be public enemy number one. I think it's gracious that he lets them leave now before the city turns on them.

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It's gracious, I think, that Jesus lets them leave so that they can finally live in authenticity, not pretending to be something that they're not.

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I mean, think about it this way. In churches today, we call it mercy, love, and grace to preach lukewarm, watered -down truism so that we can make people believe that they're

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Christians, so that we can allow them to live in a lie. That's not loving.

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That sounds like abusive relationship patterns where you continue to manipulate someone to stay with you, and you won't let them leave.

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It's a very selfish thing to do to hold someone and refuse to tell them the truth, because if you did, they're going to leave.

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And why don't churches want people to leave? Well, they have financial constraints, they have bills, and you have pastors who want large crowds that they can preach to because it makes them feel special.

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I'm not making this up. This is an epidemic. Jesus was willing to let them leave because it's the most loving thing that he could have done for them, to let them live as who they were without pretense or without manipulation or without deceit.

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We need to stop bait and switching people into the kingdom of God. We need to stop telling people that it's a low cost and all you have to do is raise your hand.

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No, it's not. It's going to cost you everything to be in the kingdom of God. We need to start telling people that they're going to have to lay down their life for Christ.

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That's what the Bible says. We need to start telling people that Christianity is not about comfort and health and wealth and success, and if you give a little, you're going to get a lot.

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If you sow one seed, you'll get a hundred in return. We need to stop telling people this because it's lies. Christianity, following Jesus Christ is hard.

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It's hard because we're sinners and we're going to have to spend an entire lifetime repenting and turning to Christ.

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Martin Luther, one of the leaders in the Reformation, said all of life is repentance. Martin Luther even alludes to the fact that he needs to repent of his repentance because his repentance isn't good enough.

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He's not turning to Christ forcefully enough. He's not turning from his sin passionately enough. Holiness is who

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God is. Being a Christian is not easy that we are trying to live in the presence of a holy

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God as sinners who are trying to repent and honor him with our life. It's not easy, along with the fact of spiritual warfare, along with the fact that the world hates you because you're a

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Christian, along with the fact that your flesh rebels against you. All of that's not easy. None of that is about have your best life now.

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We need to tell people that they're going to lose relationships when they come to Jesus Christ and people aren't going to be happy about that.

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We're going to have to tell people that he's not going to let you live and stay the same way that you are. He wants to change you and radically transform you.

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That's honest. We need to stop telling people just come as you are. That's true.

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But we also give them the idea that Jesus wants you to stay as you are.

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Come as you are, yes. But you must walk away differently. We need to stop telling people that their entire life is going to be better.

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It's actually going to be flipped upside down. It's not like losing weight. It's not a goal that you can have in a summertime where you just add a little bit more effort to it.

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Then you trim up and you're all better and you just follow your keto plan. I haven't done that yet.

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I've heard it's great. It's the wrong plan. Keto kills. We're not here for that. It's a lifetime of denying self, loving

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Christ, turning to Him, worshiping Him, submitting to Him. And yes, it's all by grace.

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But when have we ever been told in the Bible that we are to use His grace as an excuse for a life of sin?

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Paul says, may it never be. We don't use His grace as an excuse. We live in the grace of God that He's forgiven sinners just like us.

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But we understand that the penalty for our sin has been paid. But the day -to -day living is what

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Jesus hasn't completed yet. So He took away the threat of the law so that we are no longer guilty so that we can walk every day learning how to grow in holiness and righteousness.

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Jesus says, if you love me, you will obey me. Jesus says, if you're His, you'll bear fruit. We need to tell people that a life of being a

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Christian is about bearing fruit. And if you're not bearing fruit, you're probably not a Christian yet. We need to tell people that Jesus says, on that day, many are going to come to Me and they're going to say,

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Lord, Lord, didn't we do many miracles in Your name? And didn't we serve You? Weren't we pastors? And weren't we this and weren't we that?

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And He's going to look at them and He's going to say, depart from Me. I never knew you. Narrow is the way to Jesus Christ.

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Broad is the way to destruction. Few enter into the gate. We need to tell people the truth about this and stop allowing people to live thinking that they've got something that they don't.

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That's not loving. Jesus says in Revelation 3, 16, that He vomits lukewarm faith out of His mouth.

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When do you hear sermons on that? Easy -believism is not Christianity. It's a noose around your neck.

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Because if you're not bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, then you're going to have to obey your way into the kingdom. So you're going to have to do your five simple steps this week and your ten simple steps next week and you're going to have to continue to try to obey

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Matthew 5 and Matthew 6. And gosh, if you look at someone with lust, you're an adulterer, so now you're dead.

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Try doing that. If we're not bought and paid for by Christ, it's slavery to try to tell somebody that they're a

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Christian and that they can be in the kingdom of God. That's why Jesus lovingly shared the hard truth.

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Because He didn't want people who were not a part of the kingdom to walk every single day of their life with a noose around their neck.

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It was more loving for Jesus to let them go. I think the same is true today. Jesus even compares the false converts to Judas.

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I think this is an interesting comparison. 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

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Him. John tells us that Jesus already is thinking about this whole group of people who didn't believe who were going to leave

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Him. And He is juxtaposing that with Judas who was going to betray Him and who was going to leave

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Him. I think what Jesus is doing very subtly is He's saying that Judas is a type for all false converts that have ever lived.

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Judas is the one who begins following Jesus. He's doing ministry with Jesus. He's the financial treasurer with Jesus.

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And then at some point he's offended by Christ and he walks away. He was offended by one bottle of oil.

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That's all it took. I think what Jesus is saying is look at the example of Judas. If you're following Me for yourself and not because you've been bought and paid for by Jesus Christ, you will be just like Judas.

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Maybe you'll serve Jesus. Maybe you'll give big checks to the church. Maybe you'll even be the pastor. But something is going to offend you.

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Many pastors have said that they'd left Christianity. They weren't Christians. They'd deceived themselves into believing that they were something and because of that they defected from Christ.

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I think it's loving that Jesus is sharing hard truth. I think it's loving that Jesus is speaking plainly about who

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He is. And if we did that more today, I think that the charade that we have and the carnival atmosphere that we have would heal.

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We've got to stop trying to build a movement on the back of false conversions and we have to get back to the basics of preaching the

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Word of God to God's people. That's what revival is. All throughout the history of the church, revival doesn't happen when a bunch of lost people are entertained by the church services.

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Revival happens when people are aware of the depth and the magnitude of their sin and they come to the throne of God and they repent.

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And then they cling to the Word of God and they say, these are the words of life. Where else shall we go? And when they do that, they start praying like they've never prayed before.

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And they start living like they've never lived before. And there's a bounce in their step. Not because they're happy with who they are.

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There's a bounce in their step because they know who Christ is and because they understand that rightly. They walk out into the world and they turn the world upside down.

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It's happened in New England 200 years ago. Jonathan Edwards, not far from here, preached a sermon called

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. This is not a sermon that you want to preach if you're a church growth guru.

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But yet, the people were convicted. The weight of their sin fell upon them and they turned to Christ as their only hope.

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And we know that New England was turned upside down and I know that it can be again. If we will do what

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Christ does. And let me just be clear really quickly. Jesus is not telling us to be offensive.

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He's not telling us to be the ones that people can barely stomach. The Word of God is the one that's offensive.

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We are not called in and of ourselves to be the stumbling block. That's the

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Word's job. There's plenty of churches on the other side of things like Westboro Baptist.

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And I'm not even going to mention the things that they say because it's disgusting, it's juvenile, and it's hateful and it's not from God.

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But they have made it their job to be the offense. It's not their job. It's the Word of God's job to be offense.

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We are to let the Word of God out of its cage and let it do the work. I'm going to read you what Charles Spurgeon said.

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He said, Suppose a number of persons were to take it into their heads that they had to defend a lion, the full -grown king of beasts.

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There he is in the cage and here comes all the soldiers running up to fight for him. Well, I should suggest to them, if they would not object and they would feel that it was so humbling to them, that they should instead kindly stand back, open the door, and let the lion out.

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I believe that would be the very best way of defending it, for him to care for himself. That is the best apology for the gospel.

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Let it out. We're not called to be the offense. We're called to let the

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Word of God be what it is, say it like it is, and let it do the offending because it will draw

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God's people to himself. It will propel those who are not God's people from himself. But again, as we've said, that's loving, and that's what

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Christ does. Now, we also see that's how he preached to the goats that were in the crowd.

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He also preached to the lost sheep. That's Peter. That's James. That's John. That's all of them at this point who do not yet know

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Christ. As John 6, 37 says, Everyone who

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God gives to Jesus will come. So Jesus is preaching to people who will come, who will be saved, who will be converted, which is good news for us because if you're here today and you're not yet a

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Christian, I don't know if you're a goat or a lost sheep.

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None of us know that. But Jesus doesn't preach a different message. He preaches the same message, and that message of the gospel is what draws people to Jesus Christ.

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Lost sheep are found when they hear the voice of the shepherd, not when they hear the voice of the world and not when they hear the voice of popular psychologists.

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They don't know what they're talking about anyway. We live in a world where people don't know their left hand from their right hand, and everybody does what's right in their own eyes.

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Why would you listen to that? Listen to the Word of God. Lost sheep are found when they hear the

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Word of God preached, and there's a really important reason for that, and that's because Jesus says in verse 63,

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It's the Spirit who gives life, and the flesh profits nothing. The words that I've spoken to you are spirit and life. Lost people, if they're found, they're found for one reason.

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God is drawing them, and when they're found, God will indwell them with the Spirit of God. And I love that.

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Think about it this way. These words that Jesus says, Eat my flesh, drink my blood, that's confusing.

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That's hard words, even for us today. Those are spiritual words.

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So what does God do? He preaches a spiritual sermon. He sends

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His Spirit into His people to help them understand the words because those words are spirit and life.

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I find that so fascinating. Only a Christian can understand these words because only a Christian has the

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Spirit of God. He gives you the resources that you need in order to understand the message that He's given.

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He says the flesh profits nothing. So why do we rely on it? It profits nothing.

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That's zero. That's not a technical word. That means it profits nothing. So let's rely on the

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Word of God. Let's finish up. The last group of people are the sheep who are going to hear the

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Word of God. And as we've said, no one right here is saved. This is what I want to end with for you and I who 2 ,000 years later are looking at this message.

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Why does Jesus preach hard sermons? Why do we need to preach biblically faithful but yet biblically convicted sermons in church?

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And why do we need to take that biblically faithful and biblically convicted message out to the world? This is why.

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So Jesus said to the Twelve, You don't want to go away also, do you? And Simon Peter answered

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Him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have believed and have come to know the

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Holy One of God. Jesus did not preach an encouraging message to His people. He didn't preach your best life now and He didn't stand up and emote fake tears to woo you into the kingdom.

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Jesus preached offense and it was good for the people of God. And this is what I want us to really understand about us as Christians.

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Because there's some words that Jesus gives that are going to bless us and they're going to motivate us and are going to help us and those are good.

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Those words are life. Peter admits it. You have the words of life but there's other words in the Bible that are going to wound us and are going to offend us and those words are also life.

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Both. There's words in the Bible that are going to support us and hold us up in times of trouble and then there's words that are going to seemingly tear down the sin in our life and those words are life.

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There's words that are going to comfort us in our situation and there's words that are going to haunt us and keep us up at night and cause us to pray like we've never prayed before and those words are life too.

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There's some words in the Bible that are like delicious apples that taste good going down and there's some that's like a sharpened scalpel that's going to cut the cancer out of you and both of those words from God are life.

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There's some words that are like a warm hug like that snowman. What's his name? Olaf. They wrap us up in his love and then there's some words that feel like a belt from a loving parent because our sin nature is flared up again.

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Whether his word is a tissue to wipe your ears or your eyes, a rally cry when you're depressed, a balm in the desert, food when you're hungry, or whether it's a sword to attack your sin, his words are life for the people of God and with Peter, we can say,

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Lord, where else shall we go? You have the words of life. So the reason that we say the things that we say here and the reason that we talk about sin and the reason that we call it out is because we believe it's the most loving thing that we can do.

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And I would say for all of us here, the action that we can do here is to rest in the gospel that we're forgiven and that we're not justified by our obedience to Christ, but at the same time, understand that Jesus did not make you to keep you where you're at.

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He made you to grow and he made you to repent and he made you to give over the parts of you that are dead and that are broken and if you are like David and you're like,

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I have no idea what's broken in me, pray. Ask the

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Lord to reveal it to you and he will and it will be for your life because every word from God is life, whether it offends you or whether it blesses you.

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Amen? Lord, thank you that every word in your

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Bible is true. The ones that strike at our human nature and the ones that cause us to want to stand on the rooftops and shout for joy.

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Lord, I pray that if there's any offensive way in any of us here today, that Lord, by your grace, you would reveal those things to us and you would cause us to want to give them up and throw them down.

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Lord, I pray that if there's anyone here who is outside of the kingdom and who is offended by these words,

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Lord, I pray, just like you gave them the grace to be able to step away, Lord, I pray that they would feel the grace to not pretend and to not go on trying and striving for something that's not theirs.

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Lord, I know that's a hard thing to say, but Lord, I pray that that would be true and I pray that,

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Lord, that they would feel loved in that and have permission in that. Lord, for those who are still outside of the kingdom but are coming to you,

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Lord, I pray that your word would be that continued ministry that draws them into relationship with you.

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Lord, I pray that as a church, we would see lost people found because of the preaching and teaching and singing and hearing and doing of the word of God.

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Lord, I pray that we would exit the space with a tenacious commitment to the efficacy of the word, that we would declare it, that we would share it, that we would behold it, that we would witness to it.

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And Lord, I do pray, I pray, Lord, that this region that we live in would bow the knee to Jesus Christ.

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Lord, we know that that'll happen ultimately in eternity where everyone will bow, not in worship.

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Some will be made to bow. Lord, we pray that they would bow before that day, before they're made to bow, before the day that they're thrown into hell.

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Lord, we pray that, we pray that people in this region would come and that they would understand the grace and the love and the acceptance and everything that you have to give them.