It is the Holy Spirit Who Gives Life

Transcript

GR 355
3/30/1980
It is the Holy Spirit Who Gives Life
John 6:60-71
Gil Rugh

John’s Gospel chapter 6 in your Bibles, John’s Gospel and the sixth chapter. We continue to consider the discourse on the bread of life and we'll draw that to a conclusion in our study today. Where Jesus presents Himself very clearly as the One in whom life is found. The foundation of it was His feeding of the great multitude from the meager resources. Then He goes on to apply that in the spiritual sense, that He Himself is the source not of physical life primarily, although that's true, but of spiritual life, of eternal life. And we're going to zero in on two particular groups this morning. We've seen the multitude as a whole, they follow Jesus just because they have received physical nourishment. It is something of their attitude and reaction. Then in verse 41, we've looked at the Jews and that expression as John uses it always refers to the leaders in Israel, and how they have responded to the ministry of Christ and His claim to be the bread of life.

Now, in our study in this section, closing the discourse, Jesus focuses in on His disciples. And they are really divided into two groups, the word 'disciples' is the word that has broad use in the New Testament. We often use it in a narrow sense, basically it means a learner or a follower and it's used in two ways in the end of this chapter, at the end of this chapter of two groups. Those who were followers of Christ in a general sense, they had attached themselves to Him they went where He went, they listened to what He had to say, but by and large they had not yet come to believe in Him. And then at the close of this section, we'll see that inner group that we come to identify with the title 'disciple', referring to the twelve who were called also the twelve apostles.

Now you remember there has been fence among those who have listened up to this point. They have not been able to grasp the concepts that Jesus is presenting. They have been unwilling to latch on to the truths that He has offered and that is that 'You must believe in Me as the source of Life'. Presented under the analogy of partaking of food, ’You must partake of My blood' 'You must partake of My body or you can have no life’. But the issue that He has made clear is to partake of Him is to believe in Him, because just like when you partake of physical food that food is assimilated into your body, it becomes part of your body, and you become part of that food. So that when you believe in Jesus Christ, you become part of Him and He becomes part of you. You share in His life, you share in the benefits of His death, He takes up residence within you, in a permanent state.

Now when we come to verse 60, we’ll zero in on the reaction of the disciples to all of this. Now again disciples in the broad sense, not the twelve disciples, but the disciples of those, as those who have been following Him. ’’Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, ’This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, ’Does this cause you to stumble?”’ Now we’ve seen the grumbling going on earlier, back up in verse 43, Jesus had said to the Jews, the leaders; "Don’t grumble among yourselves”. The word "murmur" or "grumble", "murmur" is one of those words that is significant because of the sound, it’s sound gives it its significance in meaning. "Murmur" that almost expresses to you what’s going on. The Greek word for "grumble" is gogootso, that’s a rather ugly word. Same idea "grumbler", I like the word gogootso. That sounds like a grumbler something he would do. Well the disciples are grumbling. Now it says they note this is a difficult statement. At the end of verse 61, Jesus says "Does this cause you to stumble?" Similar idea in these two words, the idea of a difficult statement does not primarily refer to the fact that it’s hard to understand. The emphasis is rather on the fact that it’s hard to accept. A word that means to be offensive, abrasive, intolerable. To effect in verse 61 the disciples are saying ’This is an offensive statement’, ’This is an intolerable statement’. Who could listen to it, who could accept what He is saying? Now what has He said? He has said that ’I am the bread of life, it is only through Me that you can have eternal life.' 'You must believe in Me if you are to have life for eternity.' 'You must partake of Me if you are to enjoy a relationship with God forever.' Now they say, 'This is offensive', 'This is intolerable', 'That's an abrasive type of statement', it's grating on them and they are unwilling to accept it. Now what is the issue, they are disciples, they have been following after Him. So we'll see down later in the chapter they are said to have been walking with Him, now they say 'We are offended by this'.
Why? He in effect is telling them that their good works, their religious activity is not in the picture when you talk about eternal life. The only thing you can do is believe in Jesus Christ and what He has done for you and that is offensive.

Jesus said in verse 61, "Does this cause you to stumble?". And the word there means to be "offensive". We carry it over into English, the Greek word is scondilitzo and we carry it over into English as scandalize. Does this scandalize you? Now our word has a little different emphasis, the word means to be offensive, to offend someone, to cause them to stumble. And so is this an offensive statement to you? Does this cause you to stumble? 'When I tell you that you must believe in Me and Me alone are you offended?' You know what we have here is a great multitude who have been following Him, some have been regular followers of Christ, everywhere He went and they tagged along. But, now when it narrows down and they are told that they must believe in Him for life and there is no other way to have life, they are offended. Similar to the multitudes we have in Christendom today, who have their church, who have their religion. And yet when you tell that 'Your religion will not get you to heaven, your good works will not get you to heaven, you must believe that Jesus Christ died for you or you’re going to hell.’ they are offended. They take that as an abrasive statement, 'Who are you to tell me that my religion won't get me to heaven?' Very religious, they would claim to be followers of Jesus Christ, but when it narrowed down and they're told that their religious activity is not going to get them there, they are offended. And that's the reaction that you have here. This is a difficult statement, in other words, this is hard to accept, this is offensive. How can we hear it? You know we react often to the Word like this, even as believers. When we'll grapple with something, we'll say 'Boy, this is really difficult', 'Boy, this is a hard section'.)
We had an experience with this with an area we wrestled with as Elders, here at this local church. In a section that I had worked on and worked on and worked on and I'd come and I'd say 'Boy, this is a difficult area, this is really a hard subject, you know it really is difficult.' you know what I found out after wrestling with that subject over a period of years that I wasn't finding any new material on it in the scriptures. You know what my problem was, I didn't want to accept what I realized the scripture said and I was looking for something else that might mute what the scripture was saying I finally had to come to realize, hey the hard thing about this is not to understand what the scripture says, the hard thing is to accept what the scripture says, the hard thing for me, is to submit to what the scripture is saying on this. I have really understood what this passage has been saying for years, I have been simply unwilling to accept what this scripture has been saying. And that's basically what they are saying. It's been clear, Jesus said you have to believe in Me, you must trust Me' and that's hard for me to accept.

"Does this cause you to stumble? What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending up where He was before?" 'Now if you're offended when I tell you I'm the bread of life, how are you going to respond to the ultimate, final statement, 'My ascension, that will be the evidence and proof the demonstration that life is found in Me alone.' That will be an even greater offense, because when you determine not to believe the more evidence that's presented the greater the offense. The clearer the statement the more abrasive the impact on the
one who does not want to believe. The ascension here, presupposes His crucifixion, His burial and His resurrection. The ascension occurs in Acts chapter 1 where He returns to the presence of the Father. That is the culmination of the work of Christ in securing our redemption. Now how are you going to respond to that, when that evidence is given to you? He was raised because He secured justification for us, that’s the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Then He ascends to the Father after He completed His earthly ministry. Now, how are they going to react to that, if they can't accept the fact that He’s the bread of life? What is going to be the impact of that on their lives?

Verse 63, key to this whole section, you ought to have that circled or underlined, however you mark you Bible. Maybe write beside it key. Because that unfolds the whole discourse that Jesus is given on the bread of life.
"It is the Spirit who gives life", now note that, "It is Spirit who gives life the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life." "Spirit" here is capital S it is the Holy Spirit who gives life, He is the One who imparts life to the believer. Now what He is doing is again pulling this discussion out of the realm of the physical. We are in a touchy area, touchy, touchy and some of you will be surprised at how touchy you are, by the time we’re done. What Jesus is telling them is their actions are not good enough, it is the Spirit of God who gives life. Now if it's the, Holy Spirit who gives life you've taken life out of the realm of physical things and put it in the realm of Spiritual things. So the next statement is "the flesh profits nothing" this is what has been called an emphatic double negative. All that means is it's emphatic, it has emphasis, there’s a double negative, there are two negative words here. 'Profits’ has a word for 'nothing' in the front of it and a word for 'nothing' after it. 'there is no profit in any way in the flesh', 'there is absolutely no profit of any kind in the flesh'. Now, you put that together the Spirit gives life, the Holy Spirit imparts life, that carries us into the realm of the Spirit, that’s where the Spirit functions, He’s not a physical being, He’s a spirit being, the Holy Spirit. So the flesh, what you do in the realm of the physical does nothing to bring you eternal life, is of no profit when you’re talking about eternal life. Now that statement could be no clearer, there is no profit of any kind in physical activity as far as securing eternal life. Now that's a strong statement that is an abrasive statement, because that statement was given to Jews who thought by going through certain religious activity they would be accepted by God. And now they are told that whatever they can do in the realm of the physical has absolutely no profit whatsoever as far as securing them eternal life. That’s just like telling a person today who is so faithful in their church attendance, who has been baptized and confirmed and everything else that none of that has any bearing at all on having eternal life that becomes offensive. But Jesus said it ’It’s the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing the things you do in the realm of the physical have no profit as far as securing for you eternal life. The words that I have spoken to you they are spirit and they are life.’ In other words what He has been saying, the message He has been proclaiming has to do with the realm of the Spirit and thus the realm of life. So you have the two things presented here, you have the Holy Spirit of God who imparts life. How does He do this? Well the Word of Christ is presented and the Spirit of God takes that Word and causes the person to understand and believe it and they are born again. They are cleansed from their sins and brought into a personal relationship with God. That has nothing to do with anything that I do physically. That has simply to do with hearing what Jesus Christ has said and believing it and the Spirit imparts life to the person who believes what Jesus said.

That’s the message, that’s what Peter said when he said ’You have been born again by the living and abiding Word of God.” James wrote, "Receive the implanted Word which is able to save your souls.” Jesus said, "My Word is Life, it’s not what you do, it’s believing what I have said.” That’s the message, Jesus Christ died for your sins, when you believe that you receive life.
You say, ’Well I was baptized.’ Yes, but the things you do in the realm of the physical have no bearing on having eternal life. ’But I was confirmed.' Yes, but what you do in the realm of the physical is of no profit in bringing eternal life. 'But I’ve attended Indian Hills for years.’ Yes, but what you do in the realm of the physical has no bearing on being a recipient of eternal life. We still grapple with that. The vast majority of mankind still believe that by doing certain things, they're going to be acceptable to God and have eternal life. Yet 2,000 years ago Jesus said, 'What you can do in the realm of the physical has no bearing of any kind on becoming a recipient of eternal life.' Now that's clear, but it's hard to accept because it's offensive. That grates against me to be told that I must believe in Him and that's it. That becomes an offensive statement and that's the way His listeners took it. They are offended by it. The problem? There are some of you who do not believe.

Verse 64, "But there are some of you who do not believe." That's the problem, there is the issue. And you note here, the cart must go before the horse so to speak. You say, 'Wait, the problem is that we don't understand, the problem is we need more evidence.' No the problem is you don't believe. Because the pattern established in scripture is you must believe the message, then you understand what God is doing. A person cannot understand until he has believed. You believe and then you understand. You say, 'Well you're asking me to take a blind leap of faith.' No, I'm not, all I'm saying is Jesus Christ died for your sins you must believe that. If you don't believe that there are no evidences, no proofs that can be offered that can change your mind. Because what do we do after we offer all of these evidences, after we offer all the proof? We come to the heart of the message- you must believe Jesus Christ died for you. When I go and speak to a group of unbelievers on a subject they ask me to come to speak on, I can speak about all the evidences in that area, all the proofs in that area, but you know what the heart of the matter is- that you are a sinner for whom Jesus Christ died, you must believe in Him as your savior. And until you do that everything else is non-understandable. You say, 'What about all the proofs?' What about them? It's by faith we understand. What happens when a person believes in Jesus Christ? The Spirit of God comes and takes up residence in the life of that person and Paul wrote to the Corinthians and says, "It's the Spirit of God who reveals to us the depths of God* so that the natural person, the person who does not have the Spirit of God residing within him cannot understand truth pertaining to God. So the problem here is you do not believe, that's why you don't understand, is what Jesus is saying.

There's a word here on the sovereignty of Christ, "For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him." He is sovereignly aware, now you note here, that's important because here you have the multitude, just like we have in this auditorium. All look about basically the same, sitting in the same way, same kind of seats, same kind of drowsy expression, whatever. Here's the multitude here before Christ, they've walked to the same place, they've looked and heard the same words. Externally you couldn't walk around and say 'This one's a believer, this one's not, this one's a believer, this one's not.' You couldn't tell externally, Jesus knew the heart. You see it wasn't a matter of physically following Him, it was a matter of believing in Him and Jesus knew who believed in Him. So it's just like this group here this morning, I look out here and I can't say on the basis of how we look physically who's a believer and who's not. But God knows the heart of every person here, He knows that some who are sitting here have believed in Jesus Christ and some sitting here do not believe in Jesus Christ. Because it's not a matter of physically being here, it's a matter of a Spiritual relationship brought about by faith in Jesus Christ as the One who died for your sins.

So verse 65, we'll come to the one who betrays Him in a few minutes. "And He was saying, ‘For this reason I have said to you that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father." Here is an explanation for them, so that they would understand, particularly those who do believe, what is going on, so that they might understand why some believe and some don't believe. The only ones who will believe in Him are the ones who are the recipients of a special work of God's grace. We saw this back in verse 44 of chapter 6, where God drags or draws, compels some to come to Christ. Here it's said to be 'granted' to them, it is a gift given to them to come to Him. It has been bestowed on them that they might have the privilege of coming to Christ, because apart from that gracious work of God, we stand obstinate in our unbelief. The opportunity has been presented, the message has been presented but I am offended because I am determined that God must accept me on my terms and if my religion is not good enough, if my baptism is not good enough, too bad. And you know who's playing God in that kind of system. When I tell God then I have tried to become God and obviously that's not the way the universe is run. God tells me, I don't tell Him. And He tells me the only way I'll be acceptable is if I believe in Jesus Christ. And those who believe are the recipients of that gracious work of God and we'll talk about this in detail in a couple weeks, in the doctrine of the election of God. Where He grants to some the privilege to come, He overcomes the resistance of their will, because we are stubborn, sinful beings. We hear the message of truth and yet we don't want to respond, and if we don't think that's true look at the next verse.

"As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore." This is amazing, the Son of God Himself has just preached a great evangelistic sermon. He gives the invitation and everybody leaves. That's the opposite effect, humanly speaking we'd say this campaign has been a failure. I mean here He has presented the message the result being many of His disciples, I’m not talking about the Jewish leaders, many of those who had been walking with Him did not walk with Him anymore. They were offended by this. You know it amazes me that Jesus Christ the Son of God preached an offensive message. Reminds me of Paul writing to the Corinthians where he reminds us that the preaching of the cross is foolishness, it does bring offense to those who don’t believe. We are sometimes so concerned by being ladies and gentlemen about good etiquette that oh, we wouldn’t want to say anything to offend anyone. And I dare say that we would have been a little bit uncomfortable in the presence of Jesus Christ because He presents a message that is offensive. People are either drawn by it or repelled by it and we've got neutral watermelons for preachers today. Somehow we think that's wonderful, you know oh, yea he just doesn't offend anyone. Sometimes I’m offensive, sometimes it's me and sometimes it's the Word, but you know I'm always encouraged when somebody is offended by the message that's been proclaimed. Anytime you can be exposed to a nonoffensive ministry week after week, you are not being submitted to a ministry that is a ministry of the Word of God. Because the ministry of the Word of God is offensive. Those who don't want to believe it are offended by it. You know we look for nice ways to get around the offense and our properness, but you know there's no nice way to be invited into your neighbor’s home and sit down and say 'Let me share with you, you are a sinner on the way to hell unless you believe in Jesus Christ, there's no hope for you.' Say, 'Oh, boy what manners!' But that's exactly the manners Jesus Christ had. When is the last time you offended someone with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? When is the last time you presented Jesus Christ so clearly that someone was offended? My desire is not that this local church be all the accepted body in this city, my desire is that be offensive because the multitudes that are not going to believe ought to be confronted so directly with the message that we proclaim that they are offended by it. It's abrasive to the unbeliever, and I dare sometimes we are afraid to be offensive. Now, I realize we right away think of someone who in the manner they went about it was just a disaster. You say, ’Well I don’t want to be like that' I want to be careful I’m not saying, ’I don't want to be like Jesus Christ.' And so I become a timid mamby pamby, neutral what? I find Paul being very offensive, everywhere he went people hated him, and everywhere Jesus Christ went, same reaction. Everywhere we go, oh they just love us. Jesus said, "Beware when all men speak well of you." Because who do they speak well of? That's what they did to the false prophets earlier. They don't speak well of those who are proclaiming the clarity of the message that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. They don't speak well of those who are proclaiming their sinfulness and need of redemption. So I take it that the reaction here ought to be encouraging. I expect that the majority of those that I present the Gospel to are probably going to respond just like those that Jesus presented it to. I can present it no clearer than He did, usually there are flaws in my presentation I'm aware, but here is the clearest most perfect presentation of the Gospel the truth of God that you could want. And when it's presented even those who had been following Him say I can't take it I'm going home, and they didn't walk with Him anymore. It's offensive. How do you respond when you're told that your baptism won't get you to heaven that you're church membership won't get you to heaven, that your good works aren't going to get you to heaven, that you are a sinner destined to hell, and the only hope is that you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior? Do you find that offensive? Do you find it abrasive? Do you find it unacceptable? It's really a message of love. The fact of my being a sinner is settled. The fact of my being destined for hell is settled because I'm a sinner. The love in the message is I don't have to go there, I can be forgiven, I can be cleansed in Jesus Christ. So I don't mind being offensive. I know sometimes some of you come uneasy, you bring friends or relatives and you pray for me and I appreciate that and say, 'Lord, I pray that Gil will be gracious today, that he might not say anything that would offend these people today.’, and there I jump all over the Methodists. You say, ’Oh, Lord why did he do that?' Or the Presbyterians or the Baptists or the Mennonites or I don’t want to leave anybody out. But you know the thing that concerns me most is that there are some people who will come here and not be affected. I don't mind when people are offended, I think that's a good sign, something of the impact of the message must have reached them. But it's of great concern to me that some will come and hear and be unaffected, they are the most difficult to reach. Some of you our first contact was when you came to see me to tell me how offended you were, and praise God you're here today.
I realize sometimes I'm offensive just because I'm in a grouchy mood, but the Word of the cross is offensive. You need to be told that being a Presbyterian won't get you to heaven. That being a Catholic won't get you to heaven. That being a nobody won't get you to heaven. It's only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. We need to have our cage rattled, you know to cause us to think 'Wait, what's he talking about Presbyterians for, I'm a Presbyterian, why did he say that?' So you'd wake up and realize Presbyterians aren't going to heaven because they’re Presbyterians, Baptists aren't going to heaven because they're Baptists. The only ones going to heaven are those who believe in Jesus Christ, and they may be Presbyterian, they may be Baptists, they may be whatever. But they are only going to heaven if they've believed in Jesus Christ and trusting Him alone.

"As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore." Now, we come down to the intimate group, what about the twelve? Now you get the idea that the vast majority have left. He turns to the twelve. Now is this all that's left out of all that multitude? You know we started out with 5,000 men plus women and children. When He's done that sermon, He turns to the twelve and you get the idea that perhaps these are the only ones left. Because He asks them, "Are you leaving too?" there were hundreds here, you would expect that, that wouldn't be a real issue but He turns to the twelve now and says "You do not want to go away also, do you?m You see the tremendous impact of that message? It has driven everybody away, except the true believers. You know what these earlier disciples are like? They are like the seeds sown on shallow ground in Matthews Gospel and the 13th chapter.

Turn back there quickly, I want to point out a word to you. Matthew 13, in verses 5 and 6 you have the rocky places. The seed that’s sown falls on the rocky places, there's no depth in the soil. It springs up immediately but as soon as the sun comes out it scorches it and it dies, it has no root, Verse 6 says, "it has no root". Over in verses 20 and 21 "the one on whom the seed was sown on rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself" it’s a superficial emotional response to the message that is proclaimed, "and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he fall away." Or literally is caused to ’stumble', that's the word 'scandalize' the same word Jesus asked earlier in John 6. "Does this offend you?" that's the word here "Does this cause you to stumble?" "Are you like those shall ground hearers that you're offended when you hear what it really means, when the issues are really driven home?" That reveals what you really are. If you are scandalized, if you are offended, then driven away, it's just a demonstration you've never really believed.

So back in John chapter 6, 'Do you want to go away also?' 'You don't do you?' And Peter is the spokesman, praise the Lord for Peter. "Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go?" Now there's the perception of a believer. "You ask us if we want to go away, but Lord, where would we go?" "You have the words of eternal life, we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.-' 'How could we ever go anywhere else?' Do you ever think of the futility of the search of these who have left? They want eternal life, they give themselves to the pursuit of eternal life, they're very religious in seeking out eternal life, but they have just abandoned the only One who can give them eternal life. The rest of their life has to be spent in a search that is to culminate in futility. You know it's just like if I took this Bible and put it in the lectern and then told you to find my Bible and you can look every place but in this lectern. You know what the result of that would be? You could spend all the money in the world, you could look in every nook and cranny everywhere in the world and you could never find it because you had turned from the one place where it is found. And that's what people do with Jesus Christ, they are confronted with the reality that life is in Him and they decided that they are going to continue to search for it in their religion, in their church. And they've given themselves to a search of futility, because life is found only in the person of Jesus Christ and no matter where else you go no matter where else you look, life is found only in Jesus Christ. Peter perceived that, "Lord, where would we go?" 'The issue is heaven or hell, the issue is eternal life and we would leave you? You have the words of eternal life, we know you're the Holy One of God, we have believed and know.' And I take it the order is purposeful here, as a result of believing they have come to know and understand the person and work of Jesus Christ. Not completely, but with a relative degree of maturity. So we who have come to believe, it you're a true believer in Jesus Christ you grasp the significance of this question. If someone would ask you 'Would you leave Jesus Christ to pursue Him in this religion, to pursue life in this religion?' You’d say, 'Wait, I can't leave Christ, in Him I have life, where would I go?' It never enters my mind to leave Him and search for life someplace else, there is life no place else, but in Him. The tragedy of it all, this chapter ends on a tragic note

We have narrowed it down from multiplied thousands to twelve. And even within the twelve there is one who does not believe. "Jesus answered them, ’Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve’, the emphasis on that "and yet one of you is a devil?" "One of you doesn't belong to Me, he belongs to Satan". Now He meant Judas the Son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve was going to betray Him. Jesus knew the heart of Judas from day one. Now note here, if you're talking about physical things Judas was closer to Jesus Christ on earth physically than any other people apart from the other eleven. So how many hundreds or thousands or millions of people on the earth at that time, Judas was one of the twelve closest men to Christ, physically speaking. He walked with Him more often, to more places, heard more of His discourses, was in on more of the intimate discussions than anyone outside that nucleus of twelve and yet he's a man destined for Hell. Why? Because there is no profit in physical things, there is no salvation in walking physically next to Jesus Christ, there is no salvation in hearing physically the words of Jesus Christ. Salvation is a result of faith in Jesus Christ. And Judas didn't have it so Judas was a lost man. You know amazing to me, I sit back and say, 'Judas could be so close to Jesus Christ, should hear all these messages and Judas would not believe. But not so different from people today, some people will sit in this auditorium and hear this message that Jesus Christ had proclaimed, that life is found only in Him. But you must believe in Him, you've had an opportunity that many people in the world will never have and yet amazing thing, you'll choose not to believe. You'll suffer the consequences and that's amazing to me, here it is offered as a gift, it's free. You can have eternal life, you don't have to be baptized, you don't have to be confirmed, you don't have to partake of communion, you don't have to join this church, you don't have to give any money. All you've got to do is believe that Jesus Christ died for you and people will turn around and walk away. Where are they going to go? What hope is there? Jesus has the words of eternal life, you must partake of Him, but it's free, no strings attached. You must believe in Him, that's the message. Is that the message that you’ve heard and believe? Are you trusting something else? Is that the message that you and I proclaim? Paul said to the Romans, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." And you and I ought to be a people not ashamed to be offensive with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That everywhere we go we give off the fragrance, you know. Paul says in writing to the Corinthians in II Corinthians chapter 2 that he gives off the fragrance of Jesus Christ, both among those who are being saved and among those who are in the process of perishing. And I should be concerned that this fragrance which is so pleasing to God, is offensive to someone else. As long as God is pleased with that fragrance I want to make it go out in every place, regardless of how people respond. So I proclaim Jesus Christ and God is pleased, I should be concerned that men are offended? God is pleased with me, that’s all that counts. And that Is the message I want to proclaim to you today. My goal is not to offend you, my desire is that you come to believe in Jesus Christ who died for you, and have life in Him.