 I'll begin reading at verse 60 and I'll read to verse 67 and we'll get into our study John chapter 6 verse 60 to 67. Therefore, many of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying. Who can understand it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this he said to them, does this offend you? What then if you were to see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, therefore, I have said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father, verse 66, from that time many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. I'll read verse 67, Jesus said to the 12, do you also want to go away? So in the context of this passage, let's develop the context before we go into application. Jesus is promising his hearer's spiritual life and he's been sharing with them. And as he's as he's been sharing with them, he has made some very exclusive claims. Now the claims that he's been making are intended to separate genuine disciples from casual followers. You see at this time many had begun to show an interest in him, but they weren't fully committed to him. So as he spoke, Jesus was calling people to fully surrender to him as Lord, the Lord of their lives. And he's been making it very clear that he's the only source of spiritual life. Notice verse 47 of this chapter in verse 47, he says, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me as everlasting life. Then he said in verse 53, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And went on to say whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has the eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. Well, the reaction to this was offense. They were offended. They were stumbled. They were stumbled at his words and stumbled at his claims. And so in verse 60, they are speaking amongst themselves and they say, this is a hard saying. This is a difficult saying. Who can understand it? This is a hard saying. The things that he's saying is difficult for them. Now, the word hard, when they say this is a hard saying, the word hard is translated intolerable or unacceptable. This is an offensive statement. This is difficult to accept. That's what the word hard means. The word saying is a message. So they're saying this is an unacceptable, offensive, difficult to accept message because he's saying eat up my flesh and drink of my blood. And so who can digest such doctrine as this? Who can appreciate and receive this kind of message? And so that's how they're responding to what he's been saying. And so in verse 61, it says Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this. And so he said to them, does this offend you? The word offend means to stumble you. Does this cause you to stumble? So Jesus knew exactly what's going on inside of them. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4 13, there's no creature hidden from his site. But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him, of whom to whom we must give account. So he says to them, does this offend you? Have my words caused you to stumble? What have I said that causes you such trouble? Are you stumbled because I refer to myself as the bread of life? Well, as he's speaking, he goes further in 62 verse 62. He says, well, what then? If you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before. Now, Jesus has already referred to the fact that he came from heaven to earth. He is according to verse 33 of chapter six, the bread of God. And it says he came down from heaven and gives life to the world. So when he says, what if you should see the Son of Man ascend? In other words, will not my ascension, when I ascend to heaven, will not my ascension prove beyond a doubt that I really came down from heaven? And then he says in verse 63, the spirit. It is the spirit who gives life, the flesh, prophets, nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and their life. All kingdom truth, if you take notes, you might want to note this. All kingdom truth is divinely revealed. The natural man receives not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 2.14. The natural man receiveth not them. The unspiritual man, the unregenerated man, the person who is not born again, does not receive the things of the spirit of God. The word receive in the Greek language means to welcome. So the natural man, the unspiritual man, the unregenerated man, does not receive, does not welcome the things of the spirit of God. Why? Because they are foolishness to him. The word foolishness is a word that we use. We get the word moronic, imbecilic. It makes absolutely no sense. So the natural man, the unspiritual man, does not welcome in the things of the spirit of God, for they are moronic to him. Neither can he know them, but they're spiritually discerned, Paul said. You can't know spiritual truth without the Holy Spirit enlightening your eyes to do so. And that's why you'll have friends who will say to you, I've read the Bible, it makes no sense to me. Well, of course it makes no sense to you because it wasn't written to you. It's as if you got a letter that was addressed to me and you read it, it makes no sense to you because that letter isn't for you. That's a letter that was to me. And so the Bible is written specifically for believers. So when you read the word of God, your spirit is being fed. But the natural man doesn't receive these things. Why? It's moronic to them. It's moronic to believe that if you trust a man who walked the face of the earth 2000 years ago, that you actually trust him with your eternity and believe his words, that you're actually going to go to a place called heaven. And it's moronic, it makes no sense. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever because I'm a natural person not receiving the things of the spirit of God. So it takes God's Holy Spirit to convict us of sin, righteousness, and judgment. It takes the word of God being proclaimed and the Holy Spirit convicting. And that changes your life. God's word, God's word changes your life. I'm thinking about sharing something that happened just today, but I don't want to bring shame to the person who was sharing this. And I don't know if he's here right now. If you are, forgive me, I'm going to share it. It just touched my heart so much. I just want to share it. And I don't say it to shame him. Forgive me again if you're here. And I'm looking around to see if you're here. I don't know if you, and this will take a moment, but if you go into the bookstore and you look to the left side as you're entering in, we're doing some work there. Perhaps some of you may have noticed it. We're making it into a prayer meditation area. It's gorgeous. It's beautiful. We have a little fountain there. We're putting up some beautiful tile. And I've been walking in there just looking at how beautiful, because it's very comfortable. It's going to be done by this weekend, carefully. It's very beautiful. So I was there. I was talking to Jose and Sergio who was doing the work and just visiting with them for a moment this morning as I was just looking at this and all. And a young man comes walking past me. As he walks past me going to the bookstore, the bookstore isn't opening yet. It doesn't open until later on. And he walks up to the door and he begins to pull the door and I hear him mutter under his breath. Oh, man, a disappointment. And one of the guys I'm standing with speaks to him and says, I'm sorry, it's not open. He goes, oh, well, I'm standing there thinking, as he's walking away, I thought the spirit just provoked my heart in a special way. And I said, hey, hey, man. And he turns around and I said, come here. And he walks back. And the man's in his early 30s, I'd say. And so he walks back and I say to him, you wanted to get in, huh? And he goes, yeah. I said, let me see what I can do. Now, I didn't know. I didn't recognize him. I didn't know if he goes to our fellowship or not. So I said, let me see what I can do. And he says, thank you, pastor. So I guess he does go here. Because sometimes you don't know. Sometimes you don't know. So I think I can do something. So I go and I find some of my staff and I say, we have somebody who wants to get into the bookstore. It's not open right now, but let's open it up for him. Get somebody, because my employee, the one who runs it just wasn't here at that time. And he's going to open it later, but I didn't know that. So we got some people, got them together. You know, people who can open up the door and do the work and we got them to do it. And so as I come walking back and my friend who works here, Jose, speaks to me. He says, you need to hear his story. You need to hear his story. And so of course, and he says, well, I said, tell me it. He goes, he says, one of his friends are a relative came and was talking to him. He said, and I began to share with him because he's not doing well. And the Holy Spirit convicted me. He says, because I'm not doing well either. He said, and I'm telling him what to do. And God told me, you're telling him to do what you yourself are not doing. And I was convicted. He said, so I went upstairs and I sat in my room, in my room on my bed and I began to cry. He said, I began to cry. He said, pastor, I got saved here 10 years ago, but I'm not doing well with the Lord. And I've been living with a woman. He said, and my sin has caught up to me. He said, and so I was weeping and I went and spoke to my girlfriend and I said to her, we're gonna make this right before God, we're gonna get married. And he said, the reason I'm here right now is to buy a wedding ring because we're getting married on Friday. In that beautiful, and that's a Holy Spirit, that's how the Holy Spirit works. Now the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God to them. What a coincidence that you were standing there at the right time to make a difference, to open up a, no, it was God moving at that time. So there are those who will say, no, I was just a coincidence. And I say, no, it's God, it's God's Holy Spirit. And I told my wife, I said later, I said, I am so happy that the Holy Spirit that I actually didn't quench the Spirit this time. I really didn't quench the Spirit this time. Wow, because that's been something I've done in the past. But anyway, it's a Holy Spirit. It's a Holy Spirit who does the work and God's truth. His kingdom truth is revealed truth. It's not something you go to school to discover and through the natural means of reading books and writing papers and receiving lectures, it's the Holy Spirit who opens your eyes to what is true. And that's what Jesus is speaking about here. All kingdom truth is revealed. In John 14, verse 26, Jesus said the counselor, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. So he says in verse 63, the words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. You see a literal interpretation of what I'm saying will not yield spiritual insight. Nicodemus took my words literally. When I said a man must be born again, the first thing remember Nicodemus said, what? Shall I enter into my mother's womb and be born a second time? He took that in a wooden literal way. And so Jesus is saying a literal interpretation doesn't yield spiritual insights. These difficult sayings are actually intended to separate lazy listeners from hungry people. That's how it works. A lazy listener just listens and says that makes no sense to me, that didn't. But somebody who's hungry will say, there's something deeper than what I'm perceiving. What is it? And that's how it works normally. You see Jesus had just said, no one can come to me unless the Father draws him. He had said that in verse 44, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him and I'll raise him up on the last day. He had just said that. So these fair weather followers obviously are resisting the spirit. Again, these hard sayings eliminate lazy followers. Some people just are not hungry for the bread of life. They're just not hungry for it. They're satisfied with other things. They're not hungry for Jesus, the bread of life. But the Bible in Matthew 5 verse 6 says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Jeremiah said it best. He said in Jeremiah 15 verse 16, your words were found and I ate them. Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I'm called by your name, oh Lord God of hosts. Your words were found and I consumed them. Because that's where life is. You see, Jesus knew from the beginning who would not believe. He says in verse 64, there are some of you who do not believe. Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. Now, this is true whenever a crowd gathers. Some claiming to be followers of Christ, to be believers, are really not believers. You see, it's one thing to be a semi-interested part-time follower. And there are quite a number of people during the time of Christ were like that. That he had just fed so many people, he's done miracles, they wanna pursue him for those kinds of things. And as long as the circus is in town and entertainment is available, why not follow? But when his words begin to cut to the heart and decisions need to be made and choices to leave something behind and follow him, when those are beginning to be demanded of people, well that causes people to be separated from him. They don't want anything to do with these things. There are a lot of semi-interested part-time followers. And Jesus knew who did not believe. In 2 Timothy chapter two, verse 19, Paul said, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. The Lord knows those who are his. Now, Jesus knew that Judas was not embracing him. He knew that. And so in verse 65, therefore I have said to you, no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my Father. Again, we don't come to Christ unless the Father draws us to him by his spirit. It's a Lord who awakens the hunger and then supplies the bread that satisfies it. So as he's saying this, verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Think about that for just a moment. They went back to the things that they had left behind because his word repelled them. They returned not only to their ordinary lives, but they returned to their former way of thinking and living. You see, some walk away because they were temporarily excited, but the excitement fades away. I've seen that in my own life. I have seen that where people, when I first got saved, were very excited. The Jesus movement is a historic movement that is, you know, now I haven't really come to realize how long ago it really began. It's a long time ago. And so I'm a relic of that. And there were people that were so moved by it that even people like John Lennon, some of you have heard of him, John Lennon from the Beatles walked around. Someone reported how he was at least one day, they said. He was walking around saying, praise Jesus, praise the Lord. I mean, you would be surprised how many people were affected by that movement. You really would. How contemporary music was actually impacted, that songs were being written that had Christian themes. You'll be surprised at how saturated things became with this movement of the spirit and how a miracle was taking place and people were taking notice. And it wasn't through the Billy Graham organization as much as I respect and have always admired Billy Graham and all his efforts. It was a sovereign work of God as he was reaching young people by the multitudes and people's lives were being transformed. And yet there will always be the ones who are kind of like, they like to walk close by but not fully commit. And they wanna be identified with and be cool like and because people are accepting these Christians and all like they did at that time, they wanna identify with Christianity and say that they were a Jesus freak. But they're people who didn't remain because when the sayings of Christ became difficult for them, when demands were made in scripture that they needed to yield certain things in order to have certain things, many of them faded away and walked away. And so these would be disciples are being separated by the hard sayings of Jesus. And so the people begin to fade away and you have to ask yourself as Jesus was there and you have to in your mind's eye kind of picture yourself in an open field, not a lot of buildings and all that we have here, picture yourself in an open field and picture a large group of people who are listening and then Jesus making comments and then picture in your mind's eye as they turn around and they just start to walk away and they fade away and you're watching them as they're walking away from Christ. That's what's taking place. And when Jesus is standing there with his men as these people are saying, this is a hard saying who can understand it? This is tough. Drink of his blood and eat of his flesh. I won't have life in me. I wanna see another miracle. He just fed the 5,000 and I thought that if we would hook up with him that we'd have a fish fry every day and it's not happening and he's making demands and he's saying I have to fully partake in him. I don't get this at all. I don't get this. They hear what he's saying. They begin to hear what he's actually teaching and they're offended, they're stumbled. And that seems to be what is happening with these disciples. And so as this is happening, verse 67, Jesus said to the 12, do you also wanna go away? Now, I was reading that in the New Testament, Gospels, somebody estimates, and I didn't fully investigate this, that somebody estimates that Jesus, there are verses in the four Gospels combined that have Jesus asking questions. And I don't think it's true, but I'll give you the exaggerated number this person gave, like 300 questions. I don't know that there are 300 questions that Jesus asked. I do know that asking questions is a teaching technique that Christ had because when you will ask a question, the response actually reveals to you, to him, rather the questioner, where you're at. And very often, that's how teachers will teach. They will ask questions of people to see the responses. All the way back to when Jesus was 12 years old and he was there with his father Joseph and his mother, Mary, and he was there in the temple, both listening to and asking questions of the rabbis who were there in the temple. And the depth of the question that is asked, any parent knows this to be true, the depth of the question your child asks reveals their intelligence very often. It reveals their intelligence. If they're asking tough questions to the point where you're saying, man, that's a smart kid. That's a smart kid, you know? And so when Jesus was there causing wonder for the rabbis by asking questions of them, that was revealing something deep about him. And so when you read your Bible, Jesus very often asks questions. Who do men say that I, the son of man, am? That's a question he asks. You know, what would you have me to do for you? Is a question he asks. And you can find a lot of questions that Jesus asks in scripture. Well, right here is one of the more powerful ones. Do you also want to go away? That is a very powerful, poignant question for Jesus to ask. As he's watching these people wandering off, he turns to his boys, the ones who have been with him following with him and he looks at them and he asks them, do you want to go away? I believe that this is one of the questions that the Lord asks every disciple. So he asks the question, do you want to go away? Have I disappointed your expectations also? These people expected something from me. And they didn't get what they were expecting. Have I disappointed your expectations? Remember when John the Baptist is in prison, he's about to lose his head for preaching, that Herod was not to have had his brother, Phillip's wife. And John's about to lose his head and he sends his followers, some followers to come and speak to Jesus and they ask him a question and they say, are you the coming one or should we look for another? And then Jesus responds to that. And then he finally, he says, I fulfill these scriptures and I say, and all he says, and then he says, blessed is the one who is not offended because of me. You see that in Matthew chapter 11. Blessed is the one who is not offended, is not stumbled because of me. What are you saying? Because you can have an expectation of Jesus and he doesn't do what you want him to do and you can be stumbled by that. And you can say, my God would love me and wouldn't allow me to hurt, wouldn't allow me to go through these things, wouldn't allow the pain that I'm suffering. A loving God, a good God would not allow me to go through these. There are people who think that way and it's understandable. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we do. Like the song that we just heard a moment ago. So you can stand on a stage and tell people about how good God is. But in fact, you're wrestling. God, if you're good, why does my son remain ill? Do you get pleasure in my pain? Why? You can go there. You can, you can. And some people actually live there. That's where they live. Their idea of God is that God isn't good. And so Jesus turns and looks at his men. Do you also wanna go away? Do you? I believe that's a very powerful, powerful question to ask. I'm thoroughly convinced that each disciple one day will be asked this question. Why? Because spiritual depth does not come easily. And spiritual depth does not come without great price. I was sharing it this Sunday. You say you wanna be on fire for God, fire burns and fire consumes. Keep that in mind. You know, I'm not saying don't ask God to turn you on fire. If someone here is saying, no, it's cool with me, man. I don't wanna be on fire. I don't mind being lukewarm. Well, he'll puke you out. You don't want that either. But I do believe that spiritual depth, this is what scripture teaches. Spiritual depth doesn't come easily. And it doesn't come without great price. In Job 23, verses 10 through 12, we read, he knows the way that I take. When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps. I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips. I've treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. Total openness to God leaves you open to hurt and disappointment even with God. We love him, but it takes time and experience to grow to understand his ways. Events in our lives may very well add up to the question, do you want to go away? And God can speak to you. Have I disappointed you? Are you ready to walk away from me? In Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah said, righteous are you, oh Lord, when I plead with you, yet let me talk with you about your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? I can almost see Jeremiah as he's voicing this to God. You're righteous, I'm not saying you're not, but I do have some questions. I do want to know why these evil people get away with it. And why righteous people seem to pay a price. I don't know about you, I don't know what your journey's been like. I can say part of my journey is when my father died and when two years later, almost to the day, my wife, Marie's daddy died, we had that question. Father, my dad was a good man. My dad loved you and my dad took care of his wife, like very few men I've ever seen in my life. And he died of a heart attack. May I speak to you about your judgments? When I see people, and this is what I went through, forgive me, it sounds so harsh, you've been saying it out loud. But Lord, there are so many guys that they're cruel. You know, they don't care for their family there. And yet, they just wake up every morning and stay bad every day. Why? Why did you let my father die? Why did you allow my father-in-law to die, leaving their wives behind? The children, the grandchildren. Lord, I wanna speak to you about your judgments. Why do evil people seem to get away with it? And the good ones die, why? You ever ask that question? Have you ever asked the Lord to answer questions like that? I'm sure you have. If you haven't, you will. It's part of what we are. We trust a good and a righteous God. And his ways sometimes are not, they're just not our ways. His thoughts just are not our thoughts. His way of doing things is not the way that we do things. So I do, I have prayed to the Lord on more than one occasion and have asked him. And in the midst of that difficulty, you might hear the Lord speak to you and ask to you, ask you this question, do you also wanna go away? Are you ready to pack it all in and walk away? I cannot help but believe that every sincere follower of Jesus Christ will hear that question. It comes in different forms, but the question is asked, do you wanna go away? Everywhere we turn, there are people who are in incredible pain and suffering quietly. And many do not realize it. And they can turn a silent ear to them, caught up in their own world. The various experiences we have are intended to strengthen our faith and our trust in Christ. They're what cause us to know the ways of the Lord and they refine us and make us into usable vessels. Jesus was a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. And if you're gonna be like him, you will be too. I remember hearing the story of an old minister who was on his way to a conference and he stopped in a town on his way to his conference and went to church on Sunday and a young man was preaching his heart out and as he and his wife climbed in the car and were driving on to go to the conference, the wife turned to her husband and said, now that young man's a great preacher. And the old preacher, the older preacher about my age turned and said, he's a good communicator but he's not yet a good preacher. And she looked at him and she says, why do you say that? And the older man says he hasn't suffered. Years later, they were going in the same direction and stopped in the same church and went in and listened and this young man had gone through a lot of trials, a lot of pain, a lot of sorrow and a lot of loss and came out in his message. And the old man and his wife were driving away and he turns to his wife and he says, now, now, now he's a good preacher because suffering refines you. Pain helps you. It's God's megaphone to get your attention. Hard questions that he will ask sometimes seem to dovetail to this question, do you want to go away? Do you want to go back to the vomit? Do you want to go back to the mire when you were living in slime? You want to go back to that? Because there are times when that very well may be, somebody's temptation just to go back to what they used to do. You ever get so bored on a Friday night after you got saved and you think to yourself for a Saturday or whatever and you say to yourself, well, I'm just going to go and witness in the bar. They need Jesus there. Or you have somebody call you up. You haven't seen him in a long time and you're not going to church anymore. You're not reading the way you used to. You're not walking in the spirit anymore. You've given up on fellowship and somebody calls you up. An old girlfriend, maybe. Yeah, come on over and see me and you know what that invitation's all about. Or somebody says, I'm going out with the guys tonight. We're going to go somewhere, you want to go with us? You know what you're going to end up doing if you go with them and you have to make choices, don't you? You have to ask yourself, do I want to go back to what I came from? Is it better? Is it better? Some people say, at least I'm out on a Friday, at least I'm out on a Saturday. I'm not home just bored looking at other people in the house. I'm out doing something. And the enemy, the enemy, the enemy. You want to go away? Do you? Do you want to give up? Has God disappointed you? Has he not done what you asked him to do? Has he broken your heart? Have you asked yourself, how come you did this to me? How come you allowed this pain in my life? Have you done that? I have. I have. It broke me and it fashioned me to be a man of faith, trusting him because my God is always faithful and he always delivers and he's always with me and there is no one else to follow except for Jesus Christ. That's a fact because as this is going on, Simon Peter verse 68 answered him, Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. We have burned our bridges behind us. We have left everything behind. The only thing we have is you. Where else are we gonna go? On the authority of your word and the evidence of your works, we believe you are our Messiah. You are God's son. We know who you are. You revealed yourself to us. And this is the confession that brings life. John in 1 John 5 11 through 13 said it like this. He said, this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son. He who has the son has life. He who does not have the son of God does not have life. These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God. In 1970, I walked into a church called Calvary Chapel. It could have been called by any other name. Name didn't matter, but I did do something there. I experienced something there. I sensed the presence of the Lord. And as I was there as a young man, empty and lost, I looked around and I saw that the people who weren't there to be entertained, they weren't there because of his great children's ministry or friendly people. They came for Jesus because Jesus is the one who gives life. And so he said, we know who you are. We've come to believe we have clung to you. You are the Christ. You are the son of the living God. Now I want you to notice something verse 68, 69. Notice he said, we have come to believe. Jesus answered them, did I not choose you the 12 and one of you is a devil? Once again, the apostle Peter has taken a foot out of his mouth to put the other one in. That's what he does. He's very good at that. He spoke out of turn. He said, we have come to believe. And when he said, we have come to believe he was including Judas. So Jesus corrects him. One of you is a devil. The word devil, one of you is a slanderer. One of you is working on the side of Satan as hard as it is for you to see one of you is working against me. And all the ministry and all the fellowship you've had, all the prayer time and the laughter, the miracles, the joy that you guys have celebrated together. And let me tell you something very briefly. When you serve the Lord with others, there are so many things that you experience together. It's a good things that change your life, you know. I'm part of a council of Calvary Chapel pastors. And Joe Foch, some of you perhaps have heard of Joe. Joe Foch is pastor of Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia. And Joe Foch speaks of us, this council that we're on as a band of brothers. And he's right about that. He's right about that. We are very tight, we're very close in it. We're very supportive of one another. We love each other. And that's what Christianity is. That's what it is. It's more than just showing up. It's getting involved in lives. It's getting to know people. It's serving next to other people. It's much more than simply picking up a Bible off a shelf and coming to a study. It's more than that. It's a relational kind of thing. It's a community of believers. And you develop this kind of thing. And these men were developing that. They sat around campfires and they would speak. They would laugh. Do you think that there was no humor in their life? I'm sure you can't get all these guys together without them messing with each other. I'm sure they did. I'm sure they messed with each other. Men do that. Women don't understand men. You get men together and we like to hit each other. Even at my age, we still mess with each other and tease each other. That's what we do. And it's fun. And you sit around a campfire and you talk. And you have coffee. And you visit. And you talk about life. And it started with us from the time we were little kids. And we had a group of buddies in our neighborhood. We'd hang around with. We went to school. We had friends in school. And that's how it worked. And that's how it's worked all my life. I still have fellowship with guys I've known. One of my friends, his name's Bill. I meet with him monthly. And I've known Bill. He was in kindergarten with me. I've known him a long time. My friend Bobby. I've known Bobby. He meets with me. I've known him since I was 14. I know art. My friend Art Pacias. Art has been a friend of mine since I was 14. 55 years. I've known these guys or more. And we go out to eat. And my friend Bill's a jerk. He really is a jerk. And he will say dumb things to me. He does it all the time. He says dumb things to me. Caused me cheap and all kind. He's watching right now. Bill, you're a punk. Because he is. He's watching right now. You know it. That's true. That's friendship. We laugh. We joke. Do you think the guys were always walking around with their hands folded in front of them? You know? They would laugh with each other. They worked with each other. They would tease each other. They were men. And that's how it works. And they put up with each other. If you begin to do a study on the different men and the styles of life they had. You know, Simon the zealot was a political. He was zealous politically. And yet he was in the same band with Matthew a publican and the zealots hated publicans. When you start looking at how Jesus took these men who were so different and made them one and the thing that sealed them together was him, you begin to understand Christianity. You begin to understand Christianity. And the most popular amongst all of them, the one who was most trusted was a man named Judas. Think about that one for a moment. He was the one most qualified. He was the one who was the treasurer. He kept the money bag. You don't give money to somebody you don't trust. And he carried the money bag and he would take things out of it for himself. And they didn't even know it. And when Jesus said in the last night, he said, one of you will betray me. And they said, is it I? Is it I? Is it I? None of them could believe that it would been somebody else. They said, am I? And even Judas himself amongst them said, is it I, Lord? And Jesus gave him that look and spoke to him, indeed. That what you're doing, do it quickly. See? Do you want to go away? Are you tired? Have I disappointed you? Have I not chosen all of you? And one of you is a devil? One of you is a devil. In Psalm 41, verse 9, even my own familiar friend whom I trusted who ate my bread lifted up his heel against me. He was speaking, according to verse 71, of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. No, Peter, not every one of you received my word of life. Judas rejected it. He's envious. He's malicious. He's treasonous. He's rejected the high position that he holds. You see, out of the multitudes there were disciples. Out of the disciples, there was the 70. Out of the 70, there was the 12. Out of the 12, there was the three. Sometimes the two, sometimes just the one. He was part of this group. But Judas was not really settled as one of the 12. He wanted everything for himself. And Jesus said he's a devil. He's an enemy. He's hostile to me. And so you might think that everybody is doing solidly, Simon, that I chose you the 12. And one of you is a devil. And he spoke of Judas Iscariot, the one who would betray him. He was one of the 12. He was amongst them, but he really wasn't one of them. So this is a good warning to anybody who reads this passage. Do I look like, and act like, and seem like a real believer? Or am I somebody who's going to hear the challenge? Do you want to go away and actually go away? That's a good question that we ask ourselves. But I have confidence that no, none of us will do that. Why? Because Jesus, he has the words of life. There's no one else that can satisfy your soul like you.