Don’t Lose Sight of the True Object of Faith

Read

John 6:66–71 (ESV)

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” 70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” 71 He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

Opening Prayer

Setting the Stage

I want to give a further explanation from a text of last Sunday.

What Does Christ Mean that the Flesh is No Help At All?

I think it is important to understand this statement in it’s proper context…

—> According to Scripture.

If we misunderstand the biblical meaning we fall prey to asceticism or gnosticism.

A very short description of…

Asceticism says we must punish the flesh through varying means to keep the flesh in check, to keep it suppressed.

Obviously, that is a false teaching according to Paul in Colossians

A very short description of…

Gnosticism teaches that the flesh is so defiled that it can do no good and they deny the incarnation because God could never take upon flesh without being corrupted.

But, Jesus says…

It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is no help at all…

the flesh is no help at all…

But only in the manner in which they understood it.

They indeed understood the flesh, just as when cut to pieces and sold at the market…

Not as when it is quickened by the Spirit.

So, Jesus says that “the flesh is no help at all,” in the same manner as it is said that “knowledge puffs up.”

So, do we understand the Apostle as instructing us to hate knowledge?

As he would say, “By no means!”

And what does it mean that “knowledge puffs up”?

Knowledge alone, without love.

So Paul added, “but love builds up.”

So, if love is added to knowledge it will be profitable.

Not by itself, but through love.

So also here, “the flesh is no help at all,” only when alone.

Let the Spirit be added to the flesh, as love is added to knowledge, and it is helpful.

For if the flesh profited nothing, the Word would not be made flesh to dwell among us.

If through the flesh Christ has greatly profited us, does the flesh profit nothing?

So, Jesus is saying, the flesh is no help at all when the spirit is dead.

But, when the spirit is alive it becomes profitable.

So, not only does Christ clarify that He is not speaking about eating His literal, physical flesh…

By saying the flesh is no help at all…

As we looked at last Sunday.

But, Jesus is also telling us that the Spirit is what gives life.

His Spirit is what gives life.

The flesh cannot conjure up the new birth.

The flesh gets no credit in the new birth.

The flesh has no power to produce the new birth.

The Spirit of God is the author and power behind such a miraculous work as the new birth.

Now, the larger scene is concluded with this…

John 6:66 (ESV)

66 After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.

This is an extremely tragic sentence.

What does this mean?

It means this…

They withdrew themselves from his ministry.

They dropped their profession of faith in him.

They rejected him as a Saviour and Redeemer.

They turned their backs on him.

A more literal reading of this verse is…

They returned to the things that were behind:

to the world.

to their old companions.

to Satan and their own heart lusts.

They returned to their former teachers…

—> the Scribes and Pharisees

They returned to the law of works.

They returned to a seeking for righteousness by keeping the Law.

They sought, once again, the setting up of their own righteousness.

They refused to submit to the righteousness of Christ.

They refused to accept His work on their behalf.

As John states in his epistle…

1 John 2:19 (ESV)

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.

Now, upon the many false disciples leaving Christ, the scene shrinks quite a bit as…

The Audience Narrows

John 6:67 (ESV)

67 So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

This not a question from ignorance.

v.61 just stated…

John 6:61 (ESV)

61 But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this…

And v.64…

John 6:64 (ESV)

64 But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

And, many other passages that teach us the omniscience of the divine nature of Christ.

This is a question that will allow the disciples to be strengthened by the opportunity to express their heartfelt love for Christ.

Their confession of allegiance to Christ is a means to strengthen their faith.

Just as God has ordained that the gathering of the saints on the Lord’s day is a means for us to confess our faith in Christ…

And, as a result, our faith is strengthened and emboldened.

As Christian’s we leave the means of corporate worship clinging to Jesus…

With a renewed desire to cleave to Him…

To carry out His purposes in and through our loves.

There is a renewed affection to our Savior that helps us cleave to Him.

Listen to the confession that Peter makes…

John 6:68–69 (ESV)

68 Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter is confessing that the Words of Christ are to believed upon.

That they are the very words of God.

That He is the very incarnate God.

That to believe upon Christ is to believe His Word.

Peter is contrasting the disciples who abandoned Christ with the remaining disciples.

He is saying…

To find a teaching difficult is to only strengthen our resolve to understand.

—> Not to drive us to abandonment.

To impress upon us the necessity for searching the Word of God for the right understanding.

—> To trust the infallible Word of God.

—> Which is also the Words of Christ.

Peter and the Apostles had recognized their own sinfulness.

They had acknowledged their inability to please God on their own.

And, when a person, by the Spirit of God, comes to know such a truth…

Where shall you go?

Back to the Law?

Foolishness.

What can the Law do but point out your sinfulness?

The Law demands perfection, perfect obedience.

Back to religion?

Absurdity.

No matter how dressed up a work may be, it will only fall short of the glory of God...

And, as a result, deepen your condemnation.

Shall you go to the shelf of your personal achievements?

Insanity.

To look to them would be so full of pride as to do nothing but condemn.

Lord, to whom shall we go?

Is the correct response.

—> Eternal life is found in you and only in you.

As Jesus has taught...

Eternal life is obtained by the death of Christ.

—> Faith in Christ…

Faith in His person and work…

—> Is the only way to lay hold of eternal life.

And, eternal life is not some ethereal, far off, not to be understood or embraced…

Too complicated or distant to be enjoyed now.

Eternal life will most certainly be enjoyed in the fullest when we are stripped of this body of death.

When we are clothed with a body that can inherit immortality.

But, dear Christians, we have been given a foretaste to enjoy in this life.

We have been given a deposit of the future to come.

We have been granted understanding that lifts us above this world of death and condemnation.

We have been given the Spirit of God that lives within every Christian…

So that we can want to do and do what God delights in.

There is a deposit within us of eternal life that not only makes us long for Jesus to come again…

But also creates a desire in us to start the enjoyment now…

As best we can and through partial, imperfect experience that we can now.

And, that is through pursuing the true life now.

The pursuit of living for the Lord.

Think about what Jesus has already taught in this discourse.

John 6:38 (ESV)

38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.

John 4:34 (ESV)

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

What do we see in this about Christ?

He is the perfect Man.

He is the God-Man.

He exemplified what it is to live out the will of God.

—> To live out a perfect righteous life.

What fueled Christ was the will of God?

Paul says…

Ephesians 5:1 (ESV)

1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

1 Corinthians 11:1 (ESV)

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Not that we can attain perfect obedience…

Or a perfect act of obedience.

However, we are called to imitate Christ.

We are told…

Ephesians 2:10 (ESV)

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

So, the Christian life can be described in part as…

Being Renewed in the Likeness of Christ

By the regenerating work of the Spirit.

We are growing in our love for the Will of God.

We are growing in our desire to understand it.

We are growing in our desire to pursuit it.

We are growing in our understanding that His will is best for us.

In our new birth we are given a heart with an active agreement with the will of God.

Thy will be done, we pray.

All that God wills, the servant of God also wills, because the will of God is the object of his desire and delight.

As Paul says in Romans 7…

What I want to do I cannot do perfectly, but the desire is there.

As Christians, we rejoice that God desires something from us…

And that God reveals to us what He wishes to have done.

This is a means of God to motivate us to perform it whole-heartedly as the Lord’s will.

Because of the life that God gives us…

In Christ’s life we see the greatest perfection.

And, our life consists in imitating Him.

That He is the author of all life and it is our spiritual service to live our life for Him as proper worship.

That Jesus is our life. Our life abides in Him as we abide in Him.

That Jesus died that we may live unto Him, not ourselves in distinction from living for Him.

That Jesus gave us His Spirit so we can pursue obedience, depending upon Him for the power to do so.

So, our rejoicing in our new life through Christ creates in us a desire:

To live for the glory of God.

To live according to the will of God.

To live by the strength of God.

To constantly be turning ourselves towards the living God.

To strive to be a living member of the body of Christ, as an active participant in the Church.

To be lively and active in our pursuit of obedience to Christ.

To be constantly reminded that our hope is in nothing other than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

On Christ the solid Rock we stand all other ground is sinking sand.

————

Look what Jesus says to Peter and the other disciples…

John 6:70 (ESV)

70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.”

Now, it seems from Christ response to Peter’s confession that it needed a little straightening out.

It seems not the confession…

But, the attitude behind it.

John 6:69 (ESV)

69 and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

There is, in the Apostle Peter’s statement, a stress on their faith.

A stress on their knowledge.

It is a seemingly fine line, but one that must be observed and properly understood.

Jesus is re-fixing their eyes.

Jesus is saying…

Don’t Forget the Object of Your Faith

It is the object of your faith that justifies.

Not the quality or quantity of faith.

Faith is the instrumental cause of our justification.

But it is not the meritorious cause of our justification.

We must not forget…

Philippians 1:29 (ESV)

29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,

Paul states it like this…

1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV)

7 For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

What makes you differ from the unbeliever?

Your intelligence?

Your decision making ability?

Your discernment?

Or the grace of God?

If by the grace of God, why do you boast as if it was conjured up from within you?!

Jesus is taking Peter’s eyes off of Peter, himself…

His accomplishments…

That were a work of God…

That God deserved the credit for…

As Peter being taught by the Father from within…

And re-aiming them on Christ.

Re-establishing in the heart of Peter and in the hearts of the disciples who is really due the credit for them realizing…

Cleaving to Christ as the holy one of God.

Realizing that the Lord Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.

That He is the dispensary of eternal life.

No one, Peter, can believe these truths unless it is granted to him by the Father.

Peter, if you boast, boast only in the Lord.

Boast Peter in this truth…

As John Flavel said...

“So in love is Christ with holiness that he will buy it with his blood for us.”

The thought that Christ would purchase for you…

Through His life, death, and resurrection…

A holy standing before God.

Place you in His kingdom in which we can pursue obedience…

Desire obedience…

Maintain peace of soul, in spite of imperfect obedience…

And, in the eyes of our Father…

Only be credited with the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ.

Is this not worthy of joy?!

Is this gospel not the greatest news?!

Is our Savior not worthy of our every effort?!

Our life of worship?!

Our pursuit of obedience?!

Oh, what a Savior we have…

Who has causes us to abide in the steadfast love of the Lord.

Closing Prayer