(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Amen, so John chapter six. So we're gonna do something a little bit different tonight, and the reason we're gonna do things a little bit different is because John chapter six has several stories that are in this chapter. It's a long chapter, we've got 71 verses here. There's several stories, but they're all tied together. And Jesus actually kind of brings this together as a lesson at the end of the chapter. So I wanna just, I don't wanna lose the forest for the trees. So we're gonna preach through. I'm gonna preach through the entire chapter tonight. We're not gonna go verse by verse. I've got it broken into four parts. We're gonna preach through the entire chapter. And then in following weeks, I'll come back and we'll look at a couple of the stories individually. But I don't wanna lose the meaning of the whole chapter by going into studies on the individual miracles and the individual stories here. So what I've done is I've broken it into four parts. I've broken it into four parts. There's two miracles, then there's a cause and effect section at the end. And Jesus has a lesson with all of the things that happen here. So let's go ahead and get started for sake of time tonight. We're not gonna go verse by verse. So we're just gonna go through each of these sections. So the first section is the first miracle, which is this miracle of the feeding of the 5,000. All right, look at verse number one, where the Bible says, after these things, Jesus went over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a great multitude followed him. So this is important. This multitude is kind of with Jesus the whole time. They're kind of following him around throughout this whole chapter. It says, Jesus went up into a mountain. There he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh. When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, he saw a great company come unto him. And he said unto Philip, whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? That means from where are we gonna get bread? Then the Bible kind of explains that he knew that they weren't gonna go get bread. And Philip then goes ahead and he says 200 penny worth of bread is not sufficient for them. Saying, Philip basically says it doesn't matter if there was a bread store, cuz we only have 200 penny worth, and that's not enough to feed all these people anyway. Of course, Jesus knew that he was going to perform this miracle. In verse number nine, it says, there's a lad here which have five barley loaves and two small fishes. But what are they among so many? And Jesus said, make the men sit down, there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down in number about 5,000. Now there may have been men and women and children there, so it may have been more than 5,000 people. But then the Bible says Jesus took the loaves. When he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples. And the disciples to them that were set down and likewise with the fishes as much as they would. And when they were filled, he said unto his disciples, gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. And therefore they gathered them together and filled the 12 baskets with fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above them that had eaten. So it's this great miracle, he feeds all these people with these five loaves and these two fishes, and there's more left over than they even started with, all right? So obviously, a great miracle happens here. That's the first part of John chapter six. I'm not gonna dig any further into that because it comes up here in the next, in the third section of John chapter six. But all that to say this, he does this great miracle by feeding these people bread, okay? And that is the nature of the miracle itself. Look at part number two, what I call part number two. I'm segmenting the Bible here for you so we can understand this chapter. In verse 14, we see this next miracle that Jesus does. So what happens is, in the second part of John six, that he does this great miracle by feeding all these people. And then Jesus goes away, cuz he fears they're gonna try to make him a king, make him a ruler. They're pretty excited about this miracle that he did. So Jesus goes up into a mountain, and the disciples get in a ship or in a boat and start rolling across the Sea of Galilee, all right? It says, look at verse 14, those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, this is the 5,000, this is this company, this great group of people. It says this is of a truth that a prophet should come into the world. Now, was Jesus a prophet? No, Jesus was the son of God, he was the Messiah, all right? So these people aren't really grasping the entire gravity of the situation, let's put it that way. When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him a king, he departed again into the mountain himself alone, and when even was now come, his disciples went down under the sea. So it's interesting, they get into this boat in the dark and go across the sea. I don't know what they were thinking, maybe they had navigation lights or something, but whatever. Look at verse 17, it says now, and entered into a ship and went over the sea toward Capernaum. Now, the Sea of Galilee is, I don't know the exact dimensions of it, but it's several miles, we can just see from the next verse coming up here. It says, the sea arose in verse 18, a great wind that blew. So they had rowed about five and 20 furlongs. They see Jesus walking on the sea, drawing nigh unto the ship, and they were afraid. They rowed about five and 20 furlongs. So a furlong is about 200 meters, I suppose. And if you look at 20 furlongs, 25 furlongs or 30 furlongs, we're talking about three, four, five miles here. So they had been rowing in the dark in this tempuous storm for a long time, and then they see Jesus walking on the water. Now, this is a very famous miracle. We get a lot more detail on this miracle in Matthew chapter 14 and Mark chapter 6, and we're gonna look at that in coming weeks. But all that to say this, he does this great miracle, and look at verse number 22. It says immediately, verse 21, immediately the ship was at the land where they went. So Jesus says it's I who's not afraid. We know there's a lot of other things that happened there, but he does this miracle. But look at verse 22, it says, the day following when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there, save that the one wherein his disciples were entered. And that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples were gone away alone. So they knew something was up here, because they knew that Jesus was gone, and the disciples were gone, but there was only one boat. And they knew also that Jesus didn't get in the boat with the disciples to go across. So the point I'm getting at is what the Bible, the reason the Bible is giving us this detail here, and the detail in the next couple of verses, is it's showing us that this great multitude of people knew that Jesus walked across the sea. They knew that Jesus did another miracle here. It wasn't just the disciples that knew. Look at verse 23. It says, howbeit there came other boats from Diberius, nigh unto the place where they did eat bread after the Lord had given thanks. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus. And when they found him on the other side, look at this, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? They're like, how did you get here? So they knew that something, again, miraculous has happened here. Cuz they knew he didn't leave with the disciples. There was only one boat. They took boats, went across, and there he is with his disciples. So they know again, this is the second part of John chapter six. So we see another great miracle that this same great company or this group of 5,000 has witnessed. They are seeing miraculous things from Jesus. Now part three is this. Part three is what I label, starting in verse number 26, part three is what I label is kind of the meat of the chapter, and I label it the lesson. The lesson that Jesus teaches to these people. Look at verse 26. Jesus answered them and says, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles. What miracles? The miracles of how he magically got across the sea of Galilee, and also the miracle of him feeding the 5,000. It says, labor not, it says, but, look at this, he says, but. So he says, you're not here because you saw the miraculous things that I have done. This is why he knew why they were there, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Jesus is saying, you're here because you want bread. You're here because you want me to feed you again. You say, how do I know that? Look at what Jesus says in verse 27. He says, labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the son of man shall give unto you, for him hath the God, God the Father, sealed. Then they said unto him, what shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus now, he just gives them simple salvation here. He doesn't go into, if you've ever wondered why Jesus went into this hard saying, as they call it later on in the chapter, of I am the bread of life. You must eat my flesh and drink my blood, which has confused Catholics for centuries. If you ever wonder why he gave that cryptic type of analogy of salvation, this is the answer right here. He started with simple salvation. Look at verse number 29, where he says, Jesus answered and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. There's the gospel right there in a verse. Jesus is saying, you must believe on me. God the Father has sent me. They said therefore unto him, what sign? Show us thou then, that we may see and believe thee. What dost thou work? I mean, hello? He just did these two great miracles, and now they're asking for a sign. Now look at verse 31, who brings up the bread? Who brings up the bread? Jesus brings up the bread of life analogy, and this is why you see the bumper stickers in I am the bread of life, and he brings it up to answer what these people said, look at verse 31. They said, our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. So the people say, look, it's okay to give us bread, because God gave Moses and the Israelites bread from heaven. So why don't you give us bread? So Jesus kind of chastising them saying, no, no, no, no. Up in verse 26, he's saying, you just want more bread, actual physical bread to eat. You want another free lunch. And what you need to be thinking about is believing on the son of God. You need to be thinking about getting saved, believing the gospel. He's teaching them salvation, and they're obsessed with bread. They're obsessed with the physical bread. They're like, what? And they try to convince him to give him more bread. Well, God gave Moses and the Israelites bread in the wilderness, and that was bread from heaven, as it fell from the sky. Now Jesus starts into this great analogy of the type of bread that they need. Look at verse 32, it says, verily, verily, Jesus saith unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then they say unto him, Lord, evermore, give us this bread. They're still not getting it. They still want bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth, here it is again, believeth on me shall never thirst. So what is he using? He's using the physical analogy of hunger and thirst to describe salvation. Just like he told the woman at the well, you need living water. You need the living water. But I say unto you, that you also have seen me and believe not. See, this is the problem with these people, not that they don't have enough to eat, they don't believe. Look at verse 37, and the Father giveth me, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I in no wise shall cast out. Skip down to verse number 40. He says, I can't, no, he talks about how in verse 38 and verse 39, how it's the Father that sent him, that he was sent from the Father. It's the Father's will that sent me, look at verse 40. This is the will of him that sent me, talking about God the Father, that everyone would see at the Son and believeth on him. How many times does he have to say this in this verse? May have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day. There's a nice little parallel here to Matthew chapter 7, verse 21. Let's just go ahead and turn there real quickly. Matthew chapter 7, especially for you soul winners, I will go to Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, many times with people that are Catholic. And just, it's a good set of verses in verse 21, 22, and 23 about how anybody that claims the name of Jesus is not automatically saved. Just because a lot of people believe that today. This is ecumenicalism today. Anybody that mentions Jesus in their belief system is just, they're going to heaven. But Jesus is explaining in verse 21, Matthew 7, 21, 22, and 23, that no, it's those that trust completely on Jesus, as they believe on Jesus. But look at verse 21, where it says, you should have a reference in your Bible here, if you write in your Bible, from John chapter 640 to Matthew chapter 7, verse 21, because a lot of times, or sometimes you'll have people that are Catholic bring this up. And what they'll say in verse 21, when you read this to them, where Jesus says, not everyone sayeth unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father, which is in heaven. A lot of times, you'll have a Catholic say to you, or rarely, but sometimes, you will have somebody who is Catholic or believes in works-based salvation, could be Pentecostal, anybody that believes in works-based salvation. They'll say, see, you have to do the will of the Father. See, that's faith plus works right there. And you just take them right to John 640. What is the will of the Father? That you believe on him. The will of him that sent me is that everyone would see it the Son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life. So, the will of the Father is that everyone that hears about Jesus, sees Jesus, hears the Gospel, would believe it. That's the will of the Father, all right? It's not works-based salvation, it's just that's the will of the Father. And he says it twice, he says it actually up in verse 39, too. This is the Father's will which hath sent me. So the Father's will is that all would believe on the Son. That's the Father's will, all over the New Testament. You will find that, all right? Now, look at verse 41. Back to John chapter 6 and verse number 40. So, I don't want to derail the point here, okay? I hope I'm not getting too deep, but I want you to see that Jesus does these two great miracles. And he has this big group of people following him. And they're asking him for more bread, basically. Jesus knows their hearts. He knows that they're not there because he did miraculous things. He knows that they're there because they want more bread from him. And he's saying, no, you need bread from heaven. You need the gospel. You need to be saved. That's what Jesus is saying. And he says what? Believe on me. Believe on him whom the Father hath sent. Believe on, believe on, believe on. And then he finally just, they're obsessed with bread. So he starts into this analogy of I am the bread of life. He's like, you don't need physical bread. What you need is me. I am the bread of life. I am, once you have this bread, you will never hunger, you will never thirst. He's giving them a spiritual reference to the physical thing they're obsessed with. This is why he goes into the bread of life. Now look at verse 41. The Jews are just completely not spiritual at all here. They're just like, the Jews murmured him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. So the Jews aren't even like bread. They're just like, he said he's from heaven. Said he's God. See, so I mean, don't ever give me this. They didn't know, you know, that Jesus was claiming to be God. I mean, that was the only reason that the Jews were constantly upset with Jesus. It's just because he was claiming to be God constantly. Look at verse 42. And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then he say, I came down from heaven? So that's what was offending the Jewish leaders here, was that he was claiming to be from heaven. Okay, which means he's claiming to be from God. Now look at verse 47. Skip down to verse 47, where he says, verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. We should count up how many times the gospel was in, you know, John chapter six. He's just saying you have to believe on me, believe on me, believe on me. And then he's saying, oh, for those of you that are obsessed with bread and obsessed with the miracle of just getting more bread, he's like, I am that bread of life. This is why Jesus goes into this, you know, next few verses where he just gives this bread analogy to these people that were obsessed with the miracle of him feeding them all. Look at verse 50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. So he's trying to use their words. He's saying, you know, look what he says, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Kind of showing there, forecasting that he's going to die for the sins of mankind. Then look at verse 52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They're taking him completely literally. Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. He's saying, look, verse 54, look at verse 54. Verse 54 equals, I mean, verse 54 is kind of cryptic if you just read it by yourself. If you just read it by itself and say, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. If that's all you read right there, you could go ahead and create a religion where you give people bread and say, this is actual, the body, the real actual body of Jesus. And then you could give somebody a cup of juice or wine or whatever you want to say and say, this is Jesus' actual blood. Look at verse 54. But if you read the whole chapter, you understand what Jesus is saying here. Verse number 54 equals verse number, verse number 54, where am I at here, I lost my place. It equals verse number 40. It's just a more complicated way of saying, you know, believe on me and you'll have everlasting life. But he's using the thing that they're obsessed about, this bread, saying, no, no, no, you need the bread of my body, you need to believe on me. I'm going to die for the sins of the world. My blood is going to be shed for the sins of all mankind. He's saying, you must trust on that on my flesh. What I am going to die for and what my blood is going to be shed for is exactly what Jesus is saying. Verse 40 equals verse 54. It's just a more complicated way of saying it because of what these people were obsessed about. This is why he went into this whole, I am the bread of life thing. It's not like Jesus is just trying to confuse people. He wasn't trying to, he was actually trying to get through to them and show them you're thinking of only physical things. You're thinking of only physical things that you need, you need spiritual things. Look at verse number 55. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him, as the living father hath sent me and I live by the father, so he that eateth me shall live by me. This is this. Now right here, he connects the two things. He connects verse 31 and verse 58 by saying this is the bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead. They did not have the living bread. They're dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. He's saying physical bread is not what I'm talking about. So that's what the Catholic needs to look at that. He needs to look at verse 54 and then look at verse 58. He's not talking about physical bread turning into his flesh. He is talking about this analogy of they need to stop thinking about the physical bread, the physical food, the physical drink, just like the woman at the well, and start thinking about the spiritual and how to be spiritually saved. Because if you're spiritually saved, if you eat of that spiritual bread, you will live forever. You will have everlasting life, eternal life. This is why he's saying this. Now part four. So there's the lesson. There's a lesson right there. Look at verse number 59. Part four. Thinning of the herd. All right. Now here's where we kind of come into the cause and effect part of, you know, Jesus' lesson here. He says, these things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Therefore many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is in hard seeing. Who can hear it? So even people that did believe in Jesus were having a hard time with some of the things that he was saying. Some believers here. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Where was he before? Where's he talking about the fact that he came from? Where were the Jews offended that he said he was coming from? He's talking about what are you going to be offended when I go back up to heaven? Look at verse 63. This is the point of the whole chapter in verse number 63 right here. He says, it is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, and here's what the Catholics need to hear, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. What he is saying to these people is the final lesson right here is that you are carnal. That you are thinking about are all carnally, are all carnal thoughts. Your hunger and your desires on this earth. The things that I'm speaking to you are spiritual things that I'm speaking to you. That's why you're not getting it. That's why it seems hard for you. Look at verse 64. Now there was a lot of non-believers there as well. Look what the Bible says in verse 64. It says there are some of you that believe not. So this whole thing is like the herd is thinning out here. You got some people that were actual disciples of Jesus that are now like, we can't hear this. It's too hard to hear. And they leave. There are some non-believers that are now leaving. So this is kind of part four of the last part of the chapter that I call the thinning. The thinning of the herd here. It says now 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. So we're talking about Judas, we're talking about two separate things there. Judas Iscariot would betray him and then there were some people in the group that just did not believe. So it's calling out Judas but it's calling out a bunch of people that just believed not. And Jesus is saying, what do you need to do? You need to believe on, believe on, believe on, alright? From that time, look at verse 66. Many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then Jesus said unto the twelve, will ye also go away? I'm going to come back to the last four verses at the very end of the sermon. So the cause and effect, John chapter six is a cause and effect lesson. I went through the four parts. I went through the miracle number one, miracle number two, the lesson that Jesus gives that you are carnally minded and not spiritually minded and then the thinning of the herd. But it's a cause and effect lesson. The cause is the fact that they are carnal and not. That's the cause. The cause is that these people are thinking about nothing but carnal things. They're just here for the bread. Jesus literally said you don't even care about the miracles. You're just here for the bread. These are people that are carnal and not spiritual. The same thing can happen to us and the same problem will happen with people that are not believers. People that are not believers are, you know, look, we will have people that are not believers come to church. We will have people, and I've been asked this question just a few weeks ago. I've been asked this question, like, what if somebody comes to church and they're not saved? Well, we're going to try to give them the gospel, of course, but other than that we're just going to be friendly and it's just going to work itself out. You say why? Because the carnally minded, see, a lot of people, I've seen it many times. People that I've seen it here, I've seen it at Verity, I've seen it at other Bible preaching churches that I've been to and gone to and been a member of, but here's the thing. If people just come for the bread, like, you know, an example of this would be someone that just comes here for the fellowship. They just come here because they're conservative and they come here and they see a lot of like-minded people, a lot of people that maybe we're all going to vote the same way or whatever. You know, we have all the same opinions on different things. You know, maybe we all think the same thing about, you know, some of the things going on in the country and they just want to fellowship with like-minded people and they're just, they're not safe, they're not really interested in getting saved. They're not too interested in the gospel, they're not too interested in, they're just not spiritual. But here's the thing, it's not going to work. It's just not going to work. Look, I'm not mad at people like that. I mean, they're welcome here and we're going to love them and be friendly to them, but it's just not going to work because the sayings in the Bible, they're hard to hear. They're hard to hear. And if you're carnally minded, they're really, really, really hard to hear. Sometimes they're hard to hear for even a spiritual person. But what the Bible is saying, look, it's the same with us to a degree. It's the same with us. Turn to Romans chapter 8. It's the same with us to a degree. You have to be careful that as a believer, you don't start to slip into this carnal mind. It can happen. It can happen. There was believers and the only reason I point out that there was believers and non-believers that left here in John chapter 6 is because the same thing will happen to us. The same thing will happen today with believers and non-believers. So somebody that's a non-believer that just doesn't really care about spiritual things, doesn't really care about the Bible, doesn't really care and just wants to come for just like like-minded fellowship, they're going to have a very hard time with the Bible at some point. And those things are either going to, they're either going to get saved and get spiritually minded or it's just going to be so hard to hear that they're just not going to come anymore. That's just how it works. That's just the, that's the mechanics of it. So if you wonder like, okay, you know, just don't worry about it. I mean, it's, you know, we try to give the gospel to everybody that comes here. You know, but you can't force somebody to believe. You can't just take the Bible and maybe if I just, just shove it in their face like 10 more times, they'll get saved. You know, you can't do that. It's a heart issue with that individual. But the point is the Bible's hard to hear. It's harder to hear if you're not spiritually minded. But we must be careful of this too, of becoming carnally minded. Look at Romans chapter 8. Look folks, you have to be out in the world. You men especially, you got to go out there. You got to go out there and you got to, you got to go out and you got to make a living for your family. The Bible tells you, you have to do that. You got to go out there and you got to be amongst unsaved people. You got to deal with people outside church family, outside brothers and sisters in Christ. You are going to be involved in a lot of carnal things out in the world. And you know, you say, where is the line? Well look at Romans chapter 8 in verse number 6. Look, we can become carnally minded as well. Bible says in Romans 6, Romans 8, 6, it says for to be carnally minded is death. This was the problem in John chapter 6. These people were carnally minded. This is why they didn't understand anything Jesus said. They said this is hard to hear. It says but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Which of those two do you want? Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It makes you an enemy against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So the Bible here is saying, just because you're out in the world and you have to go and do things out in the world, make a living, do all these different things, be around unsaved people, that doesn't mean you're to get carnally minded. You're not supposed to start thinking like the world. You're not supposed to be, you know, that's not the goal of those things. Those are just things that we have to do. It's the problem. So you say, where's the line? Where the line is is when you allow the carnal things to bump out the spiritual things. The carnal things are a means to the spiritual things. You go out and you support your family so you can live your life and you can support your wife, that she can raise the children in the Lord, and that you can have a living so you can all eat bread and have food and drink and clothing and those things that God provides for your family through your labor. But the goal is the spiritual. The goal, the end, is the spiritual. When the carnal things start to bump out the spiritual, this is when you are going to start seeing problems like these people were seeing in John chapter 6. And let me tell you something, it is a risk to the believer. It is a risk to the believer that you become carnally minded. I mean, look, first of all, it's just, I see it all the time, but it's just foolish. It's just foolish to think that, well, if I just work more and I just do all these things and then I can get ahead, look folks, if God isn't in it, you're getting nowhere. Trust me, I've been that guy. If God's not in it, you're going to sit there and you're going to spin your wheels for years and years and years. You're not going to waste a little bit of time. So look, the goal can never be the carnal. The carnal is a means to the spiritual. And as soon as the carnals start bumping out the spiritual, you've got a problem on your hands. And guess what? When you start getting carnally minded, you are going to start, you know what you're going to start doing? You're going to start hearing the Bible. You're going to start hearing preaching from the Bible. And you're going to start thinking, this is a hard saying. And that's going to start creeping in on you. I mean, for the unsaved, I mean, it's a tough transition enough for the unsaved to get spiritually minded enough to want to hear the gospel, to want to have their heart in a place where they want to hear the gospel and are willing to believe it. But look, to go from salvation to spiritual minded and then get back to carnal minded again, you're going to start noticing that the things that you used to like to hear, you don't like to hear anymore. You will notice it. I mean, it's people that, you know, people that used to like preaching. They get backslidden, they get carnally minded and the sayings get hard all of a sudden. I've literally had people tell me this. Turn to Hebrews chapter 4. Look folks, the Bible is hard for a lot of people to hear. The Bible is hard for a lot of people to hear. From a pastor's perspective, it really does feel like an uphill battle at times. I'll just tell you that just from my perspective. From my perspective, I mean, I feel like I'm fighting a battle where I, you know, I can't fight in certain areas because I sit up here and I preach the Bible. I want you to receive God's word. I want you to hear whatever is preached and however hard it is preached, however hard it sounds from the Bible, I want you to receive that. I want you to take that and be like, man, you know, that was a hard saying. I've had some people come up to me after service and be like, that was a hard saying. That was hard to hear but I needed to hear it. That's somebody that's spiritually minded because the Bible is hard to hear at times but the more carnal minded you get, the more you will burr up against the word of God and the reason it feels like such an uphill battle for me is because I want you to receive what's preached. I'm not making up anything new up here. I want you to receive the Bible. I want you to hear God's word. Sometimes it may be, sometimes, you know, I talk, you know, I call them gummy bear sermons. Sometimes they're easy, right? When I'm preaching a sermon on like evil politicians or, you know, weirdo perverts or something, it's like everyone's like, yeah, those are gummy bear sermons because like those aren't hard to hear. Everybody agrees with that. Everybody knows that. It's when it hits home, it's when it hits you in the face, it gets harder and harder to hear. But here's the thing. Why is it an uphill battle for me or it seems like it's an uphill battle at times because I want you to receive God's word but I don't control what you listen to during the week. I don't control, you know, what you apply and what you allow to actually influence what you do. I don't control which part of this sermon tonight you're going to take and actually put into application in your life. I don't control that. And then you go off and I preach to you for three hours a week and then you go off and you immerse yourself in God knows what all week long. I don't control that. And then what does that do? That makes you more carnally minded and more carnally minded and more carnally minded and then the next sermon that I preach, it gets sharper and sharper for you. And I've literally had people that are backslid and tell me that preaching is getting pretty sharp. I'm like, the preaching is the same. The preaching is not what's changing. Look down to Hebrews chapter 4 and verse number 12. It's the word of God that is sharp. It is the word of God that is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's not, what could I say? Get up here and give you some motivational speech or something? No, it's the word of God that is sharp, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and to the joints and marrow. It is the serner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. I mean, there's many times that people come up to me and they will say, like, man, like that sermon, you have no idea, like, well, I need to hear that or that's, I mean, that really like, did you know? I'm like, no, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what's going on during the week. I don't know the carnal things that people get into that make them even more carnally minded when they start bumping out those spiritual things, the sayings get harder and harder and harder and sharper and sharper. I don't control that, but I stand up here and I give the same word of God and then it just cuts harder. And then you need to watch this. You need to do a check on yourself on this. If the preaching is all of a sudden just like hitting you in the face like every single sermon, it's not because I'm sitting here writing sermons for you. It's because the Holy Spirit, the word of God is the, is the, is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of your heart. It's the word of God, it's not me. So you need to, saved people need to check themselves on this. I'm not preaching anything different up here. If it starts to hit you every single sermon or it starts to get sharper and sharper, you start to think, this is an hard saying, who can hear it? You start to think that way? Look, the problem is in the mirror. The problem is you. Because I've already told you that I don't sit up here and write sermons for one person. It's just that's how you feel when you get backslidden. That's how you feel. That is the Holy Spirit saying like something's wrong. Something is getting too carnal in your life. It's trying to cut, the word of God is trying to cut through the flesh in you. That's what it says. It's literally, it's literally of the joints and the marrow. The word of God is trying to cut through the carnal mind and get you back into the spiritual. It's trying to cut through the flesh that is ruling you. Turn it back to John chapter 6. So look, here's a good goal for 2024. This isn't the New Year's sermon, but here's a good goal for 2024. Let's just take a lesson from John chapter 6. A good goal, look, this is a good goal for me, this is a good goal for you, is to what? Is to get more spiritually minded and less carnally minded. That is a good goal. Check yourself. Just what are the carnal things that are, you know, ruling me? What are, are there carnal things in my life that are causing me to bump out spiritual things? What are those things and I need to fix those things? Do the carnal things that you need to do. Do the things out in the world that you're commanded from the Bible to do, but those things are not the goal. Look, the whole point of it, the spiritual is the goal. The spiritual is the whole point of it. Church life and everything that surrounds it. That's the goal. That's the goal. Soul winning, discipleship, that's the goal of the spiritual life. That's the goal. Why not be carnal minded? Because other people will suffer if you're not spiritually minded. I mean, discipleship, be more spiritually minded and disciple some people in 2024. Make a goal that you're going to go out and make some connections with people. Get some people in church and not just go out and preach the gospel to people and then just forget their names, but preach the gospel to people and then try to get them in church. Try to change their life. Try to help, you know, get them out of the carnal and into the spiritual. That is what a spiritually minded person can accomplish in 2024. It's all going to be accomplished by the spiritually minded though. Turn back to John chapter 6. Did I have you turn back there? Go back to John chapter 6. I want to show you the first, the last, the last few verses here. I hope you succeed in 2024 of becoming more spiritually minded and less carnally minded. I hope you use this lesson that Jesus gave you in John chapter 6 about recognizing, recognizing, look, we don't just get backslidden in five minutes and follow the Christian life in five minutes. It's the same, it's the same, these stupid glasses. I'm carnally minded about these glasses falling off my face, but it's the same thing with a marriage. A marriage doesn't end in five minutes. A marriage doesn't go on for 10 years, 11 years, 12 years, and in five minutes a wife does something and the husband's just like, that's it, that one thing in five minutes. It's not how it works. The same thing is with the Christian life. So many people fail in the Christian life. And look, I hate to break it to you, but you're going to see this. You're going to see this and, you know, it's depressing that people come here and they leave here. People come and people go. And look, I don't want anybody to leave. I don't want anybody to fall out of the Christian life. People always ask me what happened to so and so, what happened to so and so, what happened to so and so, and most of the time I can't say anything about any of it, but the whole thing is people get carnally minded and they don't want to be in the Christian life anymore. People that are saved. People that are saved get carnally minded, they just don't want to follow Jesus anymore. John 6, it's exactly what happened. It's just too hard. It's just too hard to handle. So when things happen and things get preached and every single time, you know, maybe you hear 9 out of 10 sermons and you're like, that was pretty good, I'm applying that, and then you hear that one and you're like, eh, I'm not applying that one. That is bad. That is going to start you backsliding and backsliding. It's going to make the next sermon harder and the next time you read the Bible harder. It's all these things where people say, no, I'm not going to do that part. No, I'm going to stop short there. It's people, I mean, I don't care what it is, the simplest things, baptism. I'm saved and I'm going to come to church, I'm just not going to get baptized, though. What in the world? You know, it's like the first thing. So if you won't do the first thing, what are the odds you're going to do the second, third, fourth and fifth things? So every single time you hit something in your Christian life that's preached or you read out of the Bible and you say, ah, I'm just not going to do that, though, that is a red flag you need to tell yourself. There's signs, folks. There's signs of being backslidden. There's signs when you just, I don't really feel like going to church anymore. Look, that's a problem. Before people stop coming to church, they feel like stopping coming to church first, right? I mean, I like coming to church. I like it. The minute you stop liking going soul-winning, there's a problem there. Look, we all get tired and maybe have one day or something where we're like, ah, you know, this seems like work. I get it. But if you just like lose the desire for soul-winning, just lose the desire to open the Bible and preach the gospel to someone, there's a problem there. Before you quit something, you are always going to lose the desire first. And you can catch yourself on these things. You can see the carnal mind setting in. This is what I'm saying. It doesn't just happen in two minutes. Just like a marriage doesn't end in two minutes, it's years and years and years of treating each other badly. It's years and years and years against sinning against the Lord. It's years and years and years of ignoring God's word. It's the same thing. There's signs. There's things that you can see. So look, I hope you all succeed. I hope you all succeed in recognizing these signs and picking yourself back up again and just fixing it and just getting back into the mechanics of the Christian life. But know that not everyone's going to succeed. Some people left here. Some believers left here. Okay, but here's the final thought. And I went off there. Here's the final thought for you. If you let the carnal rule you and you let, and I can't tell you how many times I've had this thought, and I thank Peter for, I thank the Holy Spirit for writing the word, giving it the words to Peter and having Peter dictate it in the Bible for us. But look at verse number 68 where Jesus looks at the 12, all these people left. You know that there was a church split or whatever you want to call it. All these people left and Jesus turns to the 12 and he says, will you also go away? He says, are you going to leave too? And look what Peter says. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, I mean, say what you want about Peter, but he's thought this through. He's Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal life. I've thought this so many times to people that fall out of the Christian life. Now where are you going to go? What are you going to do now? You're still saved. You still got that Holy Spirit inside you. Where are you going to go? You know you can't, you know you can't unknow, especially when you're sealed with the Holy Spirit. You know you can't unknow the truth because the Holy Spirit's always going to be in you until your last breath on this earth, until you go to heaven. The Holy Spirit, whether you're doing right or you're doing wrong, the Holy Spirit's going to be in you. Truth, truth, truth. You're not going to find anybody. Where are you going to go? Are you going to leave church and who's going to tell you the truth? You going to go watch the news? Are they going to tell you the truth there? You going to find somebody on TV to tell you the truth? There's nobody telling the truth today. What are you going to do? I mean, these, you fall out, I hope you all succeed because you fall out of the Christian life and this is going to haunt you for the rest of your life. You're going to know, look, you can't unknow this stuff. You can't unknow the truth. You can't unknow these doctrines. You go to some lame church where they're, you know, jumping around and, you know, telling you you're awesome. You know that's not true. You're going to know. That's the thing. It'd be one thing if you could forget it all, but you can't and that's what Peter is saying here. He's like, Lord, where are we going to go? You going to leave too? He's like, Peter didn't say they weren't hard sayings. Peter didn't say that everything that Jesus says is easy. He said, where else am I going to go? There's nowhere else. It's the only place where the truth is. Where else are you going to go? Are there Bible preaching churches in, are there 50 Bible preaching churches in every city in America? No. There's like a handful in the whole country. I mean, where are you going to go to hear the truth? The truth is always going to be in your ear if you have the Holy Spirit. You can't unknow that. You just can't unknow it. No one else is going to tell you. So it's best to not fall out of it. It's best to stay spiritually minded and not let this happen to you. Like it happened to so many people in this chapter. It's such a valuable lesson. That's why I wanted to show the whole chapter, because Jesus has just given this super valuable lesson that is directly applicable to us today, and it takes so many people out of the Christian life. Look, there's a lot of carnal things out here, folks. I hope you all had a great 2023. I hope you all were super successful. I hope that the bills were paid. I hope that the rent was paid. I hope that you paid some things off. I hope that jobs are looking good for you. I hope that everything is looking good going into 2024, but if those things are pulling you out of the Christian life, if those things are taking over your spiritual life, I hope they go away for you, because they will wreck you. And once they wreck you, then to whom will you go? And that's, I think about Peter's words often. There is nowhere else to go. I want to be where the truth is. I want to be where the truth is being yelled and screamed. I want to be where people are not just politically together. I want to be with people who are spiritually with the entire Word of God, because the truth. If you go somewhere where they preach 80% of the Word of God, and they purposely leave out 20%, or they purposely leave out 5%, or they purposely leave out 1%, that is not the truth. So if you go somewhere that's pretty good, but they leave out 1%, it's not the truth. To whom will you go? Stay spiritually minded in this next year. If you've got carnal things that you think are bumping out your spiritual life, fix those things. That is a great goal for 2024. Get spiritually minded and stay that way. Watch for these red flags that Jesus brings up here. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.