[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:14] And before the message, I'd just like to say to you, probably one of the most unique ladies that I've ever known was a lady named Belda. And Belda was a drunkard when I first met her.
[0:27] A lady out of our church worked in her home as the housekeeper while she ran her business. And Belda came to see me one day very angry and said that the girl that was out of our church had stolen things from her house.
[0:43] And I said, I just don't believe that's true. She's a born-again believer. I do not believe she's stolen. And whatever she stole, I'll pay for it. And she said, you believe in her that much? I said, I believe in her that much. Give me the list.
[0:54] I'll pay for it. And she said, well, if you believe in her that much, I won't know. She was falling down drunk all the time. And she didn't end up charging that girl. She got to hear the gospel. She got saved.
[1:08] Belda used to come to me and she would say, we need to have a revival meeting here at the church. And I would say, yes, ma'am. Okay. And she'd say, so when are we going to put it on the calendar?
[1:20] I need to know when we're going to have it. And I said, well, Belda, I don't know if the people have come. She said, you preach. I'll bring the people. That's all you got to worry about. And I'm not teasing. And so Belda would say to me, I want us to have a service.
[1:33] I said, okay. I said, I just don't know if we have time to get a preacher. She said, I don't need another preacher. You would just preach. I'll fill the building up. You preach. And she would go out and bring people. She would come to me and she'd say, I need you to go with me to so-and-so's house.
[1:47] They have demons in their house. And I told him, you knew how to throw them out. And I said, okay. And so we would go over to their house and they'd say, yeah, we see the table move and we see this happen.
[1:58] And I said, really? I said, okay. Let me explain how we get rid of devils here in the house. And I said, the first thing you got to know is the Bible says in Romans 3.10 that all have sinned or that there's none righteous, no, not one.
[2:10] Romans 3.20. I go through the whole plan of salvation. They'd be sitting there and I said, now, if you'll trust Jesus, he'll take over and them demons will be gone. And they, and they got saved and baptized and started coming to church.
[2:22] Belda would go get them. It was just amazing how Belda would invite everybody to church. I remember the lady that got saved and one of those first meetings at that house, I led her to Christ that night.
[2:32] I really didn't think she got saved. She prayed. And months later, she was getting ready to get baptized because she'd been through foundations of discipleship. She'd been through discipleship and she wanted to get baptized.
[2:43] And I didn't baptize very many people because I always let the other preachers do it because it's a big thing to them to get to do that. And so, but she called and she said, she called one of the men in the church and said, I want to get baptized Sunday.
[2:55] And they said, okay, well, we'll get brother. So-and-so to baptize. He said, no, that's not the way I want it done. I want brother Austin to baptize me. And they said, well, he doesn't usually baptize. It'll probably, he'll let me baptize you.
[3:07] She said, no, that's not the way I want it done. I want him to baptize me. So they called and I said, no, you baptize me. No, you. And I said, okay, I'll baptize him. We got into baptistry and she was standing there and she looked up and she said, you saved me.
[3:20] You discipled me. And now you're baptizing me. And I said, whoa, I didn't save you. She said, I know that, but you's the one that told me. And so, you know, wouldn't it be good if you just worked at some of that?
[3:32] If they worked for her, they came to the, they came to church. Might not, might not come a lot, but they'd come. If they were her friend, if she knew them and she would invite them. And honestly, the churches in Peru were full of people that were akin to people or friends of people.
[3:47] And here's something that's happened in America. We have forgotten how to invite people that don't go to church, but you know, people that don't go to church. You have family members that don't go to church. You know, people that went to church and got burnt by church.
[4:01] I mean, they went and people were ugly to them and they tried to make the, they tried to make them live like a mature sheep when they weren't even saved yet. And they got offended and they left because they weren't born again.
[4:12] So what would happen if you just got excited about inviting them to come? And so Sunday night's just a good time for you to do that. All during this time, this is Christmas. There are two times a year when people think about going to church.
[4:25] Christmas and Easter. Christmas and Easter. And if you invited them and you were friendly to them and you worked with them, God just might bring them and he just might save them. And if he doesn't, at least you'd know you attempted to tell them about Jesus.
[4:39] I'd like to challenge you to do that. And take your Bible, if you would, and turn with me to the book of John. I don't usually do that. Usually we just go straight to preaching. But I do believe as a church we ought to do that. Maybe I'd like to throw one other little thing in.
[4:52] You know, we have, we have what we discuss occasionally called a three-minute rule. And y'all are great at it. So just let me remind those of you that don't know. And that's after church. Don't go rushing out of the building.
[5:03] Go rushing to people you don't know. Rush around to somebody you don't know and shake their hand. I love it when I have to wait in line on you. Sometimes I go to shake hands with a new person. When I walk up to them, three of you have already beaten me there.
[5:16] That's the way it ought to be. They ought to know, man, people care. People want to shake my hand. People are interested in me. People are contacting me. So let me say to you that if God, if God brings us some visitors Sunday night, man, know them.
[5:30] Be friendly to them. Talk to them. Pray for them. And ask God to do a, do a work in their life. And then I would say to you, I don't know if anybody else is like this, but my dad was. My dad would often have to work because he worked swing shift.
[5:43] And he would, he would miss a Sunday morning or he'd miss a Sunday night. Or he would, uh, he wouldn't, he wouldn't be at a certain service. And my dad always said we'd be home. And my dad say, anybody miss me today?
[5:55] So my daddy would say, anybody miss me today? And we'd say, yeah, so-and-so ask about you. And so daddy wanted to know if they didn't know I wasn't there. He didn't like that a bit.
[6:05] He wanted to know who asked about me. Now I've, as a pastor, I've learned to be real nervous about that because my daddy wanted to know that you missed him. And other people are like, well, I don't want you knowing I wasn't there. And they're like, you're like hiding and slinking out.
[6:17] But anyway, hey, working, shaking hands with people, getting to know people and loving people. That's a part of being a strong church to help them grow in grace. We're going to talk about what are true disciples now.
[6:28] John chapter six. If you have your Bible and we'll start in verse 60 and Lord will, we'll finish the chapter. I'm reading Baptist history. It's one of my favorite things to do. I love reading Baptist history and I'm going through all this bad history and send you realize how many people have suffered for being Christians.
[6:46] I just read the biography of a guy who died in prison 11 years for preaching. And he was supposed to get out at 11 years. And right before his 11 years was up, he got out, but he went to heaven.
[6:57] People paying the price for preaching Jesus and loving Jesus. People that were true disciples. In the story in John chapter six, we start off with thousands following Jesus.
[7:11] He's turning. He's making three, five loaves and two fishes into bread to feed thousands of people. Everybody's following him. And all through the chapter, you've watched him.
[7:21] He is on purpose whittling down his own crowd. He's making his crowd smaller and smaller. After he gets to giving them the bread, he says to him, now, if you guys don't eat the bread, my flesh, you don't have anything to do with me.
[7:33] And they look at him and they say, what? And they're all upset and they're all arguing. They're all in a discussion about it. And they said, what in the world? How could that be? We know where you live. We know where you come from. We know your mama.
[7:43] We know your daddy. How can you talk to us like you came down from heaven? Where in the world did you get that? And he said, well, I'm telling you. And then they all got in a big argument. And he said, all right, y'all want to argue about it? I'll just go ahead and tell you.
[7:54] You want to eat my flesh and drink my blood. And if you don't, you don't have anything. You don't have eternal life. You're not with me and you're not saved. And so now he's down to verse 60. And they're going to say, man, this is a hard saying.
[8:06] Where in the world did this come from? How could he talk to us like that? He was popular at the first of the chapter and he's completely not popular at the end of the chapter. I want to talk to you about being true disciples.
[8:18] True disciples. Over the years, I have seen many, many, many people get saved. And I've seen that very few of them last a long time. A lot of them make a decision, pray a prayer, get excited and get emotional in a big meeting.
[8:34] But over the years, they're not there because they're not true disciples. So read with me, if you would, what the Bible says in John chapter six and verse 60. And I hope you have your ink pen with you and maybe you can mark some things down.
[8:45] Many, therefore, of his disciples, when they had heard this said, this isn't hard saying who can hear it. What in the world? This is hard. How can he say that to us?
[8:56] How can he talk like that to us? I can't believe what he's saying. Verse 61. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, does this offend you?
[9:08] Watch this. Watch. You remember how he's been getting worse? You know, some churches, they want to build a church around saying the popular thing and making everybody like them and having a smiley preacher and a happy message and never telling them they're sinners and never telling them they're going to hell and never telling them they got to put their faith in Jesus.
[9:27] They just want to give positive platitudes. Boy, Jesus is completely unlike that. He says, eat my flesh. He says, eat the bread. I am the bread. Then he says, eat my flesh and drink my blood.
[9:37] And then he says, oh, y'all think that's tough? All right. Here comes one even harder. You think that offends you? Watch what I'm about to tell you. Look at the next verse, verse 62. And what?
[9:48] And if he said that offends you, what? And if you shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before. Did you read that verse of me? Can you imagine what that?
[9:58] He looks at him. He says, oh, so y'all think that it's tough when I tell you I'm the bread of life, that you got to eat my flesh, drink my blood. You think that's really rough. He said, that offends you. How about this one?
[10:09] Here comes another one. What you going to do when you see me going up where I was before I got here to see you? I'm God. I was up there. Then I came down here and I'm going back up there.
[10:19] They're like, this is really hard, wild, crazy sayings. Read in your Bible with me if you would. In verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth.
[10:30] It's the spirit that giveth life. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. If you have an ink pen and you do this kind of thing in your Bible, you should circle the word spirit in verse 63 and then draw a little arrow down to the words.
[10:50] Because he told you what the spirit was. Would you read that verse with me? Can I get you to read it out loud with me? Would you read it out loud with me? Verse 62. Ready? It is the spirit that quickeneth.
[11:01] The flesh profit of nothing. What now? The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit. He says, yeah, I'm going to tell you something. If you want what changes you, it's what I'm saying.
[11:12] It's my word. It's the Holy Spirit. It's God doing a work in your life. Look at verse 64. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed and who should betray him.
[11:24] And he said, therefore said unto you that no man could come unto me except it were given him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
[11:34] You should circle this. Because many of his disciples went back. They were not true disciples. They quit. They turned. They walked away.
[11:46] Verse 67. Jesus said unto the 12. Y'all going to leave too? Are y'all going to leave too? By the way, that wasn't for his benefit. It wasn't for his benefit.
[11:57] He knew what was going to happen. Because he already knew who was going to betray him. Remember that. He's God. He already knows. But he's saying to them, what about you guys? Have you met up your mind that you are true disciples?
[12:08] Will you go away also? Verse 68. Simon says. Simon Peter answered him. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.
[12:20] Thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Jesus answered them.
[12:31] And I have not I chosen you 12 and want to use a devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. For it was he that should betray him being one of the 12.
[12:41] I want to talk to you about being true disciples. By the end of chapter 6, Jesus, I mean, the battle is on. In chapter 7, you're going to find out, man, they want to kill him. I mean, they've been wanting to kill him.
[12:52] But I'm telling you right now, it's fixing to start. And they're on a rampage. We're getting rid of this guy. He claims to be somebody we can't accept who he claims to be.
[13:03] And we're finding out in this little passage right here who are true disciples. Would you have a word of prayer with me? And let's look at about four or five things that you might write down. Father, deal with our hearts.
[13:13] Help us to really be who we say we are and to live it out. Help it to be real in our hearts and real in our lives that we love you and that we are saved. And that we're your disciples.
[13:24] And I'll give you praise for all that you do. In Jesus' name, amen. First thing, they're offended by the hard saying. They're offended by the hard saying.
[13:36] Now, I know that preachers have offended people with hard sayings. But the hard sayings they've offended you with are hard sayings about things that are externals, not internals.
[13:47] Things that are preferences and not really necessarily biblical things. But this right here, these are hard sayings about real solid biblical things that you have no choice about.
[14:01] Jesus is God. And you will believe him or you will go to hell. Jesus is the only way that you can be saved. He came down from the Father.
[14:11] He is the bread of life. He is the true bread. He's the living bread. You have to eat his flesh. You have to get all the way in. And by the way, he's leaving and he's going back. He said, I'm the bread of life.
[14:22] When they get upset about it, he just pushes harder. I want you to understand something. And good night, I've been doing this for 38 years. I've been in a ministry.
[14:33] I've been trying to deal with people. And my natural tendency is, please don't leave. Please don't leave. What do I have to do to keep you in church? How can I be your friend? How can I be nice to you so you won't quit on God?
[14:47] And that's kind of like the Baptist preacher works. I mean, unless he's just mean. I mean, he wants to get on his knees and say, please don't leave. And Jesus said this. Oh, y'all have a hard time believing I'm the bread of life?
[14:58] Well, let me go another one harder than that. Y'all have a hard time believing that. Well, let me go another one harder than that. Because when it comes down to it, a true disciple believes in Jesus Christ with everything in him.
[15:11] A true disciple knows he doesn't cut the message. In verse 53, he said, Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.
[15:28] If that offends you, how about this? In verse 61, he says, You think that offends you? How about 62? You're fixing to see me go back up a devil. What are you guys going to say when you see me ascend up to where I was before?
[15:42] If you don't get it yet, I'm from heaven. I am God. I came from heaven and I'm going back to heaven. Now that's pretty easy.
[15:52] We can all sit here and say, We understand that. We have this idea who Jesus was. But you got to remember, they knew his mama. They knew his daddy. They knew what house he lived in.
[16:03] They'd been to his carpenter's shop. He'd fixed their coffee table before. He had fixed some other stuff in their house. He'd been working with his daddy. And all of a sudden, he's talking like that. It was tough stuff.
[16:14] By the way, in today's society, I hope you know, it's a hard saying, but I hope you understand, this isn't about community. This isn't about fellowship.
[16:25] This isn't about friendship. This is about this. Jesus is God. You are a sinner. You deserve to go to hell. Jesus loves you. Jesus came from heaven.
[16:36] Jesus died on a cross. Jesus saves you. It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Nothing else. Does that offend you? Is that a hard saying? If it is tough, take a hike.
[16:49] That's what Jesus said. He said, that's just tough. Second thing I want you to write down is, there's no value in the flesh. There's no value in the flesh.
[16:59] Verse 63. It's the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Nobody gets saved by any fleshly thing.
[17:10] We ought to get this straight. We all ought to know it. Nothing you can do pleases God. Nothing you can do pleases God.
[17:20] Now, I'm not talking about after you're saved, after you're born again, and after the Holy Spirit's working in you, yes, you can please God that way. But not one person pleases God because of how good they've been, where they've been, what they've done, how many times they've been baptized, how many times they read the Bible through, how many of whatever they've done, nothing, flesh profits nothing.
[17:39] It is God that changes us. It is God that saves us, and he wants that really clear. All salvation is the work of the Spirit. He gives life. The flesh profits nothing.
[17:50] So, by the way, it wasn't eating the bread, and it's not taking the Lord's Supper. That's very obvious proof that when they ate that piece of bread, it wasn't his body, and they drank that cup, it wasn't his blood.
[18:01] Why? Because flesh profiteth nothing. That's why baptism doesn't give you any merit, because flesh profiteth nothing. That's why when you baptize a baby, it profiteth nothing, because flesh profiteth nothing.
[18:14] Only God, only God. No preacher, no pastor can absolve you of your sin. Nobody can say it. Flesh profiteth nothing. It is the work of God. It is what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[18:27] That's what got the job done. Go with me down to verse 66, if you would. Verse 66, many of them go back. Verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
[18:44] Now, this is something you might like to jot down. I think it's very interesting. Somehow, somewhere along the way, you got the idea that you can be a Christian and not a disciple.
[18:55] Somehow, you got the idea you can be born again and live like the devil, live like you want to live, live like a lost man all week long, and still be a Christian.
[19:07] And you got that idea. And you got the idea that there's these really spiritual people and they're disciples. But I'm not one of them really spiritual people. I'm not one of them fanatics.
[19:17] But in the Bible, to be blunt and honest with you, Jesus uses the word disciple for you. And by the way, before I move on, just let me remind you that he had disciples in this story.
[19:29] And he said to them, you guys got to know I'm the living bread. I'm the true bread. I came down from heaven. You got to eat my flesh. You got to eat my flesh, which is the bread first. And then they're all like, well, that's crazy. That's way too much.
[19:40] I'm not sure I'm hanging around this guy. He's a little loony. Thinks I got to eat his flesh. That's kind of weird. Kind of weird. Think I'll check out. And then he said, you think that's weird? Drink my blood and eat my body. Eat my real body.
[19:51] You eat my body. And they're like, whoa, man, this is really going too far. What he was saying was, if you're really mine, you're all in. There's no halfway disciple.
[20:02] Somehow we have this idea that committed Christians are really unusual. I hate to tell you this, but you're either a committed Christian or you ain't. And if you're not a committed Christian, you're probably lost.
[20:14] If you're not a committed Christian, you're probably, there's no half step. Here's some interesting things you might note down. In your Bible, the word Christian is only used three times. In the New Testament, the word Christian is only used three times.
[20:28] And by the way, it was what in Antioch, the lost people called the folks following Jesus. The word believer is used or implied only four times. The word believer is used or implied only four times.
[20:41] The word disciple is used over 250 times. How about that? See, if you want to use Bible terms, if you want to use Bible terms, let's just be biblical about it.
[20:52] In the Bible, they didn't use the word Christian. Jesus never used that word. Jesus didn't use that word. If you want to be biblical about it, Jesus didn't use the word believer. Jesus used the word disciple.
[21:03] Here's what we like to do. I remember doing this when I was a kid. I remember what preacher said. They said, you know, come on down and get saved. And then later on, you make Jesus Lord. You make him savior today and you make him Lord tomorrow.
[21:14] You've heard that all your life. I think that's, I think that's crazy. I think it's wrong. I think if you're really saved, you come to him saying, I'll eat your flesh. I'll drink your blood. I know you came from heaven and I know you're going back and I'm all in.
[21:29] I'm not playing games. I mean business. Look, if you would with me to Luke 14, 25, you don't have time to look there necessarily. You can watch it on the screen here, but let me write.
[21:40] Let me say this to you. You can be a disciple and not be a true believer, but you can't be a true believer without being a disciple. You can be a disciple and not be a true believer because his disciples here went back.
[21:53] But if you are a true believer, you will be a disciple. And Luke 14, 25, Jesus turns around and there's great multitudes with him. I wish you'd mark this in your Bible.
[22:04] Now, I need you to listen to this. He wasn't talking to the 12. Cause see in your mind, there's a, there's the great multitude. And then there's a 12 and you tend to think because you're not paying attention to what the Bible says that the regular people, all they need to do is be Christians.
[22:20] All they need to do is believe. But when Jesus turned around to all that big crowd following him in verse 25, you got it right there in front of you. There went great multitudes with him and he turned and he said unto them, he's talking to a big crowd.
[22:34] He's not talking to the 12. He's not talking to the 70. He's not talking to, he's talking to great multitudes. Look at what he says in verse 26. If you would, if any man, if any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
[22:58] Most of us don't really believe that. But the funny thing is you believe that real well about your wife. How many of you would accept a wife who would come to you and get ready to get married?
[23:11] Here's Miss Catherine Rastelli. And she looks at Micah during the, during the vows and says, Now Micah, I want you to know, I love you, but I love my mama and my daddy a whole lot more.
[23:22] And I'm not leaving them. I want to be married to you, but I got to keep mama and I got to keep daddy. I got to keep children. I got a lot of other friends and I'm not wanting to walk away from everybody. Micah would have said, Excuse me?
[23:34] Micah, you know what Micah's thoughts were? She ain't no piercing no more. She's a Rastelli. His thoughts were, Hey, everybody, you know, everybody else died. There's only two of us on this planet now that matter.
[23:46] That's the way we are about marriage. Almost every one of us. I mean, I rode down the road with a guy in Mexico and we'd ride down the road. The guy was older than me and his mama would sit in the back seat of my truck and he'd sit in the front seat of my truck and we'd drive down the road and he'd hold his mama's hand while he was riding down the road.
[24:00] I always thought that was funny. I always thought I was weird. I said, Who rides down the road holding mama's hand? I mean, I just thought that was strange. I think that's funny, but I really think some of you men might want to do that.
[24:10] I don't know. But I, you know, the truth is when you get married, you want your wife to love you above everybody else. And every, is that true or not? But you want to come to Jesus like that.
[24:21] Now, Jesus, I love you, but let's be honest. You got to fit in the file. You got to fit in line. I mean, you get your spot, but my wife gets her spot and my daddy gets his spot. My mama gets her spot.
[24:32] And I, you know, I also have the things I like to do and, and you get in line. Jesus said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I'm going out to get shot.
[25:03] It's like you carrying the electric chair on your way. You pick up an electric chair. Somebody said, what you got electric chair for? I'm going out to die right now. I'm carrying this gun so they can shoot me and kill me.
[25:14] I got the lethal injection with me. They're going to kill me in a minute. And I'm on the well. He said, you want to follow me. You got to understand. I don't play games. You got to drink my blood, eat my flesh. You got to know I came from heaven.
[25:25] I'm going back to heaven. I'm not playing games. A guy named Aldo Asto was a part of our ministry. And he was a member of the Shining Path, which was a terrorist organization operated in Peru.
[25:37] And he said, you've never seen anything like it. When he got inducted, he said the leader of the group, Abim Al Guzman, was in the room. And he came in and he said, now I'm looking out here now. And I don't know if all of you really want to be a part of this.
[25:49] But let me explain something to you. I'm going to turn around. I'm going to count to 10. And when I turn back around, if you're still in here, it means you're in. And if you ever want out after this, we'll kill you. And he turned around and supposedly counted to 10.
[26:00] And Aldo said, not a person moved. But you knew when you got in. Hey, the Mason's got a bigger, the Mason's got a bigger pledge than you. If you ever leave our group, we'll cut you and gut you and everything else. But you get saved.
[26:10] And all you guys are like, hey, I just don't want to go to hell. I got my fire insurance ticket. True disciples say, no, I'll eat his blood. I'll eat his body. And I'll drink his blood. But chapter 33, or verse 33, in that same chapter in Luke chapter 14, verse 33, the Bible says, So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my disciple.
[26:35] You can't joke around and follow Jesus. You can't take it flippantly. I'm not talking about getting saved. But I'll just be honest with you.
[26:46] When you really, I mean, with him, you're either in or you're out. And at the end of this chapter, they all left. And he turned and he looked at his own disciples and said, are you guys leaving too?
[26:58] And Peter said, where would we go? You have the words of life. And where else could we go? And we believe and we're certain. And Jesus said, sure you are.
[27:10] I know one of you doesn't. His name's Judas. I already know he doesn't believe. Matthew chapter 10, verses 37, 38 says, you're not worthy of me if you don't love me more than everybody else.
[27:20] Go to verse 67 if you would. Are you also going to go away? That's the question in verse 67. Then said Jesus, son of the 12, will you also go away?
[27:31] And Simon Peter answered, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got the words of eternal life. You are Christ, the son of the living God. We believe it. And we're sure of it.
[27:44] We believe it. You got to understand. Rats leave a sinking ship.
[27:57] And this ship is sinking. In one chapter, we've gone from 25,000 followers to a small number of followers.
[28:10] Any way of looking at this in human standards where we were a major political party a few minutes ago. But all the donors are gone. All the followers are gone.
[28:20] Everybody's gone. And even our leader looks at us and says, are you with me? Do you understand? Do you understand?
[28:31] He wants true disciples. That's really all he has. In Spanish, we had a word for it. We used to call them believers. And simbatisantes, which meant sympathizers.
[28:45] And so we would say in the congregation, we have a lot of believers, but we have quite a few sympathizers. That means you sympathize with what we're saying and sympathize with what we're doing, but you ain't one of us yet.
[28:55] Everyone's gone back. They refuse to honor and follow Jesus. And Jesus asked the question, will you also go back? Peter says, we all believe and we're sure.
[29:08] And Jesus says, no, you're not. Judas is one of you. He doesn't call his name right there. He doesn't tell them, but they know later. That's what he was talking about. Can I just say to you real quick? There are people that when everybody else left, there were still some fakes that stayed in the group.
[29:25] When everybody else left, there were still some fakes. There was at least one fake. He looked real good. He is the treasurer. You never let anybody keep your money unless he is extremely honorable.
[29:39] You don't let somebody run the books of the church that you don't think, man, this guy is a, this guy has got a calculator and a ruler and an ink pen and a pencil.
[29:51] And buddy, he figures it all out down to the last penny. This guy, you can trust him. I mean, what do you, I mean, y'all would vote. Let's give it to one of the bus kids. Let them carry the books of the church's money.
[30:03] None of you would vote for that. You'd all be like, no, I ain't giving anything. You're going to put one there. You, you trust what goes on here because you can trust your treasurer. Well, they did too, but he was a fake.
[30:14] He was a fake. You can fake it. You can fake it. Judas looks the part. Judas talks the part. He's the treasurer. And you need to know you can look the part and talk the part, but that doesn't mean you're really born again.
[30:28] So let me just give you a couple of questions to finish up. Are you in? Are you in? I mean, all of it. A hundred percent.
[30:40] I'll drink his blood. I'll eat his flesh. I know he really is God. I'm wet. I'm ready to die. I love him.
[30:53] Are we going back? Weak faith can't handle the stress and pressure from the world, from persecution, afflictions, and problems.
[31:04] We're embarrassed about Jesus sometimes. Here's the last question. Are you a true disciple?
[31:16] I've probably told every one of you this story, but I'll just tell it again for the fun of it. In my first church, I was very young and dumb. I was 23. And I'd always been a youth director. And we were taught that in China, things were really bad.
[31:30] And so we used to have China and Russia. So we used to have church in the, and we would have underground services. And I would have all the young people come and I'd let nobody bring a Bible. And we'd only quote verses that we knew by heart.
[31:42] And we'd pray. We'd all pray real quietly. And we'd sing real quietly. I mean, we'd go, amazing grace. How sweet the sound. And the young people were always impressed by it. We'd carry a candle. And we'd light a candle in the middle of the room because we didn't want the police to know where we were.
[31:55] So now it was a pastor. And I got to make all the big decisions first time in my life. And so I got in touch with the church I'd just worked with. And I told them, I want you to get a bunch of the guys.
[32:06] And I want you to bring real guns. I want you to put bandanas over your face. I want you to cover your face. I want you to come into church. And I want you to grab me and slam me up against the wall. I want you to rough me up.
[32:17] I want you to come in with real guns. And we'll let that go on for three or four minutes. And then I'm going to preach to them about loving Jesus enough to endure persecution. Well, they came in.
[32:28] The guns were unloaded. The things were, I mean, the chambers were open. They didn't have any gun loaded. They came in. They threw me up against the wall. Never pointed a gun at anybody. Threw me up against the wall. Beat me up a little bit.
[32:38] And then the service was over. The next day, I was out visiting. And everybody told me, I ain't going back to that church. Never. I am never going back to that church.
[32:51] Because, man, you don't know if you'll get killed there. You know, that's a dumb thing for me to do. But if you were in China the other day and standing behind a pulpit and all the police came in, they weren't playing.
[33:05] Or if your name was Saeed and Tyler and you got arrested and carried to the police station. You know what most of us? Jesus? I don't even know.
[33:15] Who are you talking about? I am a Muslim. Some of us would almost take that stand, wouldn't we? Here's what he said. Are you going back to? How many of us really believe the Bible?
[33:30] Really believe Jesus is God? Really believe that Jesus died on the cross? How many of us really believe all this? I often wonder how many of us really honestly believe all we talk about.
[33:45] Because it's not a game. There is a real heaven. There is a real hell. And people are going there. A pastor's son will be buried tomorrow. He was a born-again believer, but he'll be buried tomorrow down in Decatur.
[33:58] But you know what? When he died, before the doctors ever looked at him, before the paramedics ever showed up, he was already at his final destination. Your friends will be there.
[34:11] All of us will either be in heaven or hell. This is not a game. Are you a true disciple? See, holiness isn't a problem for true disciples.
[34:23] Because if you're willing to die for Jesus, living for him is pretty easy. Let's make up our mind. Father in heaven, I love you. I praise you and I magnify you.
[34:34] I pray tonight that you might deal with hearts. And you might cause people to trust you and believe you. And surrender to you. God, help us not to be playing games. Help us to be true disciples that have really made up our mind.
[34:46] That no matter what happens or where we go, we will do the right thing. We love you that's real with us. I pray your name would be honored and glorified. God. You have been listening to Austin Gardner, pastor of Vision Baptist Church.
[35:02] For contact information, location, service times, or more audio and video recordings, log on to www.visionbaptist.com. Thank you.