Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to John chapter 6 and reading
for our text verses 32 and 33. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, But my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven,
for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. John 6 verse 31 and 32. The bread
of God. This account, the first verse
that we read, in verse 22, begins the day following. And then the
last verse we read, These things, verse 59, these things said he
in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. So we have the
picture when these words were spoken after the day in which
the Lord fed the multitudes. He fed their bodies. He miraculously
did that. It was a miracle, breaking the
loaves and the fishes. And it was a miracle how he came
to be. on the other side of the lake,
walking to them over the sea, not entering into the ship with
them. This was a perplexity to those
that found him on the other side. Then the Lord had a message for
them, and He began with a reproof on those that were coming, seeking
Him, not because of the miracles, but because they did eat of the
loaves and were filled. And it is particularly what I
want to emphasize this evening. It is the eating. It is not just
knowing of what is the food of the body or food for the soul,
but it's actually partaking of that. And it began with a real
way they knew what it was to eat of the bread for their bodies,
to partake of that, And the Lord said to them, labour not for
the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. For him hath God the Father sealed. And so not only were they pointed
away from bread for their bodies, but bread for their souls, not
only away from temporal bread, but for spiritual eternal bread,
and then they were needing to be taught what that bread was,
and then about the necessity of partaking of it. Now there are many, many truths
that we may know and have had set before us many times, But
the important thing is, have they been applied to us? Have they touched our lives?
Or in the matter of the bread of heaven, do we not only know
about it, but partaking of it as well? And it's very interesting
how the Lord uses their own questions, uses that which has happened
on the day before. We know that all things do work
together. Full good, and I hope we always
remember this because there'll be many times that what we go
through in the week before coming into the house of God, remembering
what the Lord is saying here, verse 59 was, these things said
he in the synagogue. A contrast from the previous
day, which was in the fields, and we had that preparation and
then coming into the house of God, and then hearing the word
and hearing the instruction. I hope you always bear that in
mind, that in God's ordering of our lives and ordering of
providence, that there will be a link between what happens before
the Lord's day, before we hear the word and hearing the word,
or sometimes the other way around, from hearing the word and what
happens afterwards. And sometimes it may be that
we've had those questions or difficulties or trials or things
that we've had to face and will have to face in the week or maybe
in the months or even years to come. We wonder how we're going
to cope with it and how we're going to get on. And the Lord
is pleased to use his word and bless the word to show us what
is the way forward and how we are to act and how we are to
walk. And those are blessed times when the Lord does that, and
answers our cries, and sometimes our half-expressed prayers, and
shows us what we did not know, and shows us the way forward.
And it is a blessed thing when that is so. The subject before
us is a vital matter, because our Lord later on, He says that,
if ye eat not my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in
you. And that is after he's opened
these things up. And what he's set before us here
is absolutely vital. Without it, there is no eternal
life. I know there are many, many truths
that we set forth in the house of God that that applies to.
But this, this is one that is a very personal, personal one. So we may ask ourselves as the
lead up here, why is it that we seek after the Lord? What is our motive and what are
we labouring for? Well, they then introduced, and
they, as the Lord had been speaking of bread and that meat that endureth
to eternal life in the first or the verse before our text,
the Jews had spoken to him concerning the fathers. Concerning Moses
and in the wilderness, our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And the Lord then bases the remainder
of his teaching on this leading question and this statement that
the Jews had made. May we often see it as well,
that the openings that the Lord gives us as answers from himself
may come from things that we mention to the Lord in prayer.
Certainly when I go into the schools Many of the things I
speak to the children about arise from questions that they ask. And I encourage a lot of dialogue
between, and then I can tell where they're coming from, and
it brings an interaction. And that is what the Lord does
all the time, is an interaction between himself and his hearings
and the people. And it's good when that is so. And I know in preaching, That
is not so. It's the authoritative declaration
of the Word of God. But when we're speaking of one-to-one,
our Lord teaching in this way, He has the opening and He opens
up the word beginning there. We think of when they were noticing
the beautiful stones of the temple at another occasion. And from
that, He brought the teaching that all of those one day should
be thrown down. And it's brought again the questions
from the disciples, when? When shall these things be? What
shall be the sign of them? Again, whole chapters speaking
and they flowing from that. So we have our text following
on from what they had observed. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. This is our Lord's first response
then. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. I want to look then at three main
points. Firstly, the type, the manner. Then secondly, who the type pointed
to, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's set forth before us
in these words and what follows in three different ways. And
then thirdly, the partaking of this bread, which quite a large
section from verse 50 right through to 58 is given to dealing with
not identifying what the anti-type or the true bread from heaven
is, but insisting on a partaking of it. But firstly the type,
the manna from heaven. Jews were referring back to Exodus
16 and when the manna was first given as the children of Israel
came out of Egypt they had nothing to eat in that barren and dry
wilderness and the Lord rained down that manna from heaven just
like small coriander seed, tasting like wafers of honey. It came
down, it was sandwiched between the dew and the frost and they
were able to go out and gather it. Gather it six days. On the
seventh day there was none and they were forbidden to lay it
up. If they did, it bore worms and
stank. And yet the sixth day, they could
lay it up so that they didn't have to gather on the Sabbath
day. And they ate of that manna for 40 years, right the way through
the wilderness until they started to eat of the fruits of Canaan. And then the manna stopped. It
was a miracle that was provided for them in a very practical
way. They needed it. They needed it
day by day, they lived upon it, they lived upon it, their bodies
needed it. They actually ate of that. So time as it was, it was also
that which was very vital and very real for them. Just the same as earlier on in
this chapter, the bread that they'd had for their bodies.
That was very real as well, but that had been given by a miracle
as well, directly from the hands of the Lord and multiplied before
them. But in the wilderness, that had
been given in a very miraculous way, and it was a type. It was a type as is more clearly
explained in this chapter. It was bread and it was what
they lived on. We see the type in the other
way with the water that they had from the smitten rock. Paul
says they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and that
rock was Christ. And so he points very clearly
away from the rock and away from the water and directly to our
Lord Jesus Christ. And here that type is very clearly
explained. Those believing Jews, they would
have looked past, past the river, past the waters, past the manor,
and seen what it pointed to, seen the coming Son of God. But here the Jews were being
taught it directly. Now, our Lord contradicted what
they said. They said, our fathers did eat
manna in the desert. That's true. As it is written,
he gave them bread from heaven to eat. And the Lord says to
them that it did not come as it were from heaven. It came
from the sky. It came from above. but it did
not come from heaven in the same way as what the Lord is speaking
here. The other statement that they
made is that Moses, he says, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread from heaven. Moses had no power to give it,
not even from the sky, not even to bring it forth, but God had
to do it. God brought them out of Egypt.
Yes, Moses was the chosen leader, but the Lord brought them out
with a high hand, strong hand. Moses was the instrument, but
Moses had no power in himself. The power that was given was
given of God. And we're to always remember
this. Right the way through the Word of God, the Lord has used
prophets. He's used those who've gone before. He uses ministers. He uses men, apostles, preachers. But it is the Lord that works,
the Lord that speaks to his people. It is the shepherd that they
hear his voice. Not like Samuel who thinks he's
heard Eli's voice, but it's the Lord's voice. And we need to be clear on that.
When the Lord uses means, so often we're reminded of it because
the means are imperfect and the Lord shows through his word their
deficiencies. Will he bring the Ninevites to
repentance? Yes, by Jonah. And we see Jonah angry and Jonah
wanted the Lord to reverse his blessing. Jonah running away
first. We see Peter greatly used, but
Peter denies his Lord and Master three times. And we have Moses smiting the
rock twice instead of speaking to it, forbidden to enter the
promised land. We have men seen as men, God
using them. May we always remember that.
Never be stumbled to think we can't be blessed through a minister,
through a man, because he's not perfect, because he makes mistakes,
because you see him as he really is. because the Lord uses such
that no flesh might glory in his presence. The Apostle Paul
said that they said of him that his bodily presence, it was weak,
it was contemptible. His letters, they say, are weighty
and powerful, but when he's here with us, how different he is.
It's the same word, and the Lord used that same apostle. And the
Lord used Moses. They have another beautiful time
that Moses was commanded, as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but should
have eternal life. Again, Moses was the instrument.
He did God's bidding and raised it up. Moses couldn't heal the
people. He couldn't institute that. The
plan was God. The Lord's purposes were brought
out and clearly shown in a gospel day. And so we have the type
and really the only real prophet in a spiritual way is we look
past past how it came, past who was used to give it, and see
the Lord's purpose, and see how it was used, and see what the
Lord intended by that, right through the wilderness to their
fathers. What that was to them, they lived
by it. So there must be that which the
people in a spiritual way, in a spiritual wilderness journey,
going to a heavenly Canaan that they must also partake of as
well. So we go then from the type to
the anti-type, or what the type pointed to. And it is from the
Lord's own lips. What a sacred thought this is.
Here is the Lord to whom the type pointed to. And the Lord
is speaking of himself. No minister can ever be like
that. We can preach Jesus, we can preach
the word here, but what a sacred thing when the Lord was speaking
of himself and setting forth before them first hand of how
he was there in the wilderness portrayed and set forth. And
those that lived then, they lived by faith the same as you and
I must live by faith. They lived upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. So our Lord sets himself forth
three particular ways. In the words of our text, he
says, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. There's one title then of our
Lord, how the Lord would have himself to be known to the people
and to us, the true bread from heaven. And this time, it is
not just from the sky, it is from heaven. And where does it
come? From the Father who is in heaven. And our Lord spoke of the glory
that He had with the Father before the world was. One of our most
precious, precious doctrines or articles of our most holy
faith, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. The
Father sent the Son and He sent Him to die. He sent Him to do
His bidding and to do His will. Wished He not that I must be
about my father's business, the Lord Jesus Christ, born of a
woman and made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. God using this man and this way
to bring him into this world and to accomplish salvation for
his people. The true bread from heaven. And
we have the picture of the eternal Son of God coming from heaven,
given by the Father and given unto the world. What a heralding it was when
our Lord was born and how the angels heralded His birth and
spoke of His birth to the shepherds in the first chapters of Luke. and how the tidings were so proclaimed
and set forth. And it is a blessed thing to
realize what was actually said. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And what was the message the
glory that was given to them good tidings of great joy which
shall be to all people and the song that was sung at the end
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward
men and is sent forth as This gift, this true bread from heaven,
comes from the Father and comes into this world. The Lord said,
I came from the Father and I go again unto my Father. But the work that was done upon
the earth, that is what later on the Lord speaks of as that
which is to be partaken by the people of God. the true bread
from heaven, not a type, nothing pointed to further, but centering
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have secondly, the bread
of God. In verse 33, for the bread of
God is he, is he. is the Lord Jesus Christ. The
bread of God is he which came down from heaven and giveth life
unto the world. The Lord Jesus Christ being spoken
of as the bread of God. Not like the manna, but that
bread that God gives, that gives for the souls of his people. using in this description of
the fulfilling of the manna exactly in the same type, like the manna
was bread. It wasn't meat, it was bread
in that sense, not flesh. And so our Lord sets himself
forth as the true bread, as the bread of God, and then lastly
as the bread of life in verse 35. And Jesus said unto them,
I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. The true bread, the bread of
God, the bread of life. Knowing the Lord met with Peter
after the Lord had risen from the dead, his charge to Peter
was, feed my lambs, Feed my sheep, feed my sheep. What was he to
feed them with? The bread, the true bread, the
bread of God and the bread of life. Then our Lord opens this
up further and he comes to our third point which is partaking
of this bread. And then the type changes, or
the illustration changes. Our Lord goes away from using
the terms as bread, and now He is speaking more particularly
of Himself and of His flesh, and making it more and more clear
what is meant that the people of God should feed upon. In verse 50 he introduces, this
is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat
thereof and not die. He's rehearsing this. It first
come down from heaven. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. So we've got all of the ingredients
firstly mentioned. the true bread, the bread of
God and the bread of life. And then he says, and the bread
that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life
of the world. This is introducing another aspect
of this, much more closely pointing to our Lord and to what he is
going to accomplish and what he is going to do at Jerusalem. This is why the Apostle Paul,
he says, are determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus
Christ and him crucified. The preaching of the cross is
to them that perish foolishness, but unto us that are saved, both
Jews and Gentiles or Greeks, is the power of God unto salvation. And so our Lord then sets forth
himself as that bread that is to be partaken. But this time
he is speaking of his flesh. God manifest in the flesh. A true man become flesh and dwelt
among us and our attention is taken away from bread and to
the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to his flesh, to his body. What is to happen to this body? The body has thou prepared me. What is to be done in it? What
is to be accomplished through the body that was given by the
Father to the Son? And this then is what our Lord
is pointing to and immediately the Jews are striving among themselves. When it is speaking of our Lord
as bread, then they say in verse 34, Lord evermore give us this
bread. They want their bread. But when
our Lord comes closer and is pointing directly to himself
and to the body, that has been given him of the Father and what
is to be done in that body, then the Jews are striving. They're
struggling over this. How? How can this man give us
his flesh to eat? Now, we didn't read to the end
of the chapter, but as our Lord, instead of backing down on this,
he more and more enforced it and insisted upon it, We read
that there were those that never, they never came to a knowledge
of what the Lord was saying. They never believed. They would
rather go away from him. They'd rather say it was a hard
saying than ever know what he was saying. May we never, never
turn away from the word because of those things that we cannot
understand or hard sayings. May we always think of this,
cause of destruction it was for them. And maybe think on the
other side, the cause of blessing it was to the Ethiopian eunuch,
the very part he couldn't understand, the Lord Jesus Christ was preached
unto him, and that sermon so blessed. He fed on that. That was life to his soul. May
also be warned as to what Peter says of the writings of Paul.
in which some things are hard to be understood, which they
that are unlearned and unstable rest or twist, as they do also
the other scriptures, to their own destruction." There are warnings
to us, there are encouragements also, like in the unit, that
those passages, those things we don't understand, to think,
well, here may be a rich blessing here. Here is something that
the Lord can reveal to us and show to us personally and take
away the mystery and take away the stumbling block and the difficulty
that we have. And so our Lord then answers
them, not by making it easier, but enforcing even more, except
ye eat the flesh, of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you." And Lord, of course, is pointing, pointing
to that time when His flesh should be broken, when His body should
be broken, when His blood should be shed, when He should offer
the sacrifice upon Calvary, of which the Jews should have been
well aware that the burnt offering and the scapegoat all of the
offerings they all pointed without the shedding of blood there is
no remission they knew what it was for the sacrifices to be
broken to the bodies of the beast to be parted and broken they
knew what it was for the blood to make atonement for the soul
and here is our lord pointing to himself this this is what
is to be partaken of personally. The Lord, though He speaks in
the way of the bread, is that He is the bread and that eating
of that bread brings life. He's never so insistent and not
letting down at all on the personal partaking of it as it is when
He comes. to his body and to his flesh. It is that which he is really
walking in. This is no type, no shadow, no
dark sayings. He is in a body and in that body
he will suffer. In that body the nails will tear
him, the thorns will go into his temples, his back will be Last with thee, last, Psalm 129,
the flowers ploughed upon my back, they pierced my hands and
my feet, Psalms 2269, they're pointing to what should be done
to the Son of God. And he's saying, his flesh partaken
of, my flesh is meat indeed, My blood is drink indeed, pointing
to the soul. If our souls live, it is on the
truths of the cross, what the Lord accomplished in his body
on the tree, what the Lord did there, that our attention is
drawn to. How kind the Lord is in this,
where many would go this way, that way, everywhere. Where is
life? Where is blessing? Where is food
for the soul? Where is that that we feed upon
spiritually, meditate, think upon, remember? It is what the
Lord accomplished at Calvary. And that's reinforced in the
ordinances of the house of God, buried with him by baptism into
death and risen again in newness of life. In the Lord's Supper,
Some might think that this is virtually saying unless you partake
of the Lord's Supper you cannot have eternal life. The Lord's
Supper is not a sacrifice, it is a remembrance service and
it is remembering what the Lord accomplished at Calvary and it
is, we might partake of that in a literal way and yet have
just no faith at all, just like the Israelites who partook of
the manna or offered their sacrifices and they never saw anything.
But we look past and the Lord has instituted it so that we
do remember the Lord, we do show forth his death till he come. And really the Lord's Supper
is a beautiful illustration of all what the Lord is teaching
here. Is the Lord's life and death
and broken body and shed blood the life of our soul? Is it this that we look upon
when beset with sin, when overwhelmed with the floods of iniquity,
when tempted by the devil, when tried in our souls, when we are
lean and barren and dry, what is it we look for that shall
strengthen and feed the soul and encourage the soul? But this flesh and this bread, the
natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned. And we said there
were many, they went back, they walk no more with them. But it's
a blessed thing. If we can truly say this, that
the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings and death is the life
of my soul, and that while we view him, while we see him, we
see him in our place, we see him as our surety, we see the
Lord satisfied, we see God and sinners reconciled, we see him
in our place, they shall look upon him whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him and be in bitterness for him
as a man for his firstborn. And it is a soul that in this
way dwells upon, meditates upon, thinks upon, feeds upon these
precious truths of the sufferings and death of our Lord, that in
that there is life for the soul, in that the soul is raised up
again. Our Lord testifying very clearly. As the living Father has sent
me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me. How vital that we be partakers. Verse 53, except he eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life. in you. Whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed." Something that the natural man
doesn't receive, doesn't see a beauty in, cannot work it out
at all. that you and I are dying sinners
under the condemnation of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ is
the provision for sinners. And He came into the world not
to save the righteous, but for sinners, to stand in their place,
to be their surety, and to endure the wrath of God instead of them. And it is as that is seen, and
that is viewed by a sinner, that will be the meat and drink for
that sinner. identifying, like the Old Testament
saints did, with the sacrifice. Here is an identifying of it,
in that those here that partake of it, they have a hearing ear
to this gospel, to this word, to this preaching, and may we
be helped in the ministry. The pastor at Lambethurst, he
loves to set forth the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why. Because
there is life in none other. And there is no other way of
salvation. And it is that which divides
between a real religion, a real faith, and that which is an imitation. You know, we can be taken up
with parables, interesting things, interesting truths about the
Word of God and the doctrines of God. You ought to rehearse
them all. But partaking of it, entering
into it, feeding upon it. You know the clean animals in
the Old Testament, they were those that chewed the cart. They ate. It went into them. And then they went over it again.
And the Bereans were like that. They heard the Word preached.
And then they picked up their Scriptures and they went over
it again and searched the Scriptures whether these things were so.
They had, as it were, from Paul these truths here. And then they
heard, in effect, the Lord's Sermon on the way to Emmaus.
Ought not Christ who has suffered these things and entered into
His glory in all the Old Testament? And they found that Paul's preaching
was according to God's plan in the Old Testament. And because
of that, many of them believed. And as they believed, they believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They believed He was the promised
Messiah. They believed He did come and
offer himself as a ransom. They did believe that that offering
was accepted, that the tomb was empty, that the Lord had risen
indeed, that sin had been dealt with. And in believing they had life,
life through his name, life for the dead. And the dead that live,
they'll know why they live. and I'll trace it up to the Lord
Jesus Christ, because I live, ye shall live also. As that which then comes very
personally to us to partake of, to be spiritually minded is life
and peace, to be kindly minded is death. The people here were
saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? completely
carnal, interpreting everything in the way of the flesh, in a
natural way, but in a spiritual way. A soul will know and be
able to answer that, how he could give his flesh, how he could
be the meat and drink of the people of God, their life, their
life from the dead. "'Tis He instead of me is seen
when I approach to God. "'Tis Jesus in the sinner's place. "'Tis the Lamb of God, by God
appointed, "'to take away the sin of the world.'" The Lord
Jesus Christ then is not only here directing away from the
types, and think of how much in Hebrews we have that, going
from the types, The Lord testifying, he never delighted in the blood
of bulls and of goats, not in them, only in what they pointed
to in himself. And so we have it here, the Lord
pointing away from the man, away from the time, clearly identifying
himself and then identifying how he should be, that bread
from heaven in his body that they saw and that they soon were
to be seen. hung up upon the cross, and the
blood flowing from it, and the wounds of the nails, and later
the spear as well. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven. and
give it life unto the world. Bless the Lord if ever he has
opened your eyes, open my eyes, to see what the Lord Jesus Christ
is to us and why he must needs come and suffer and bleed and
die. May we know that secret of the
Lord which is with them.