May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of John, chapter six, and we'll read verses
68 and 69. The Gospel of John, chapter six,
and reading verses 68 and 69. Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God. It's wonderful really to read
the answer that Simon Peter gave to the question that Jesus had
posed to his disciples which was will ye also go away? and that was in response to the
previous verse which tells us from that time many of his disciples,
that's obviously not his 12 disciples many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. It doesn't say one or two. It says many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. And the reason for
that was that the Lord Jesus had spoken to them really a wonderful
parable using the physical position of bread, which was necessary
to live by naturally, and his flesh and blood, which was necessary
to live by spiritually. And such a parable wasn't therefore
tangible to their natural understanding. And therefore, as they did not
receive the blessing of faith to believe the great truth which
the Lord Jesus was setting before them, they went away. And now, the day and age in which
we live is no different. People today very often want
a religion, a very tangible religion, one that we can say, you can
almost grasp physically and yet the Word of God tells us so clearly
we are to walk by faith and not by sight and what a blessing
therefore if we are blessed with spiritual faith to believe the
great and glorious truth that the Lord Jesus sets before the
people. It is really a very simple illustration,
a very important illustration, because there were the children
of Israel who had been in the wilderness. And what did the
Lord do? He provided bread for them, bread
from heaven, manna. And he tells them very clearly
He says, your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are
dead. You see, naturally they lived,
naturally they died. Natural bread just kept them
alive physically. The same for us today. Natural
bread keeps us alive naturally. But natural bread will never
feed our souls, will never keep us spiritually alive. We want something far greater,
much more important than our natural food. And yet you see
how men today, women, boys and girls, all of us I suppose, are
often far more concerned about what we're going to have to eat.
naturally than what we're going to partake of spiritually. You know you, perhaps young people,
more especially today, I wonder if you're thinking, I wonder
what we've got for dinner today. I wonder what we're going to
go home to and eat. You may know. You may be looking
forward to that. and you may be thinking, well
I hope the service isn't too long so that we can get home
and have our lunch well now that may be right, you may need it
but it is far more important to have a spiritual hunger after
the things of God and that really is what Jesus is speaking here
to his disciples he goes on to say I am the living bread he
directs them very clearly to himself I am the living bread
which came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he
shall live forever and that means you and I will live eternally
in heaven with Jesus if we do eat of this spiritual food this
spiritual bread and I hope we can understand that I hope you
young people can understand that you see you and I eat natural
bread and it lasts us for a short time And then we're hungry again. And if we don't eat natural bread,
we shall die. But if we eat of this spiritual
bread, that means if we partake in a spiritual way of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that is eternal food. That is that which will last
and bring us safe into glory. And so the Lord says, and the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. And what he really means by that
is very simply this, the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life. And in giving his life, His life
was that which was approved by the Father to satisfy the requirement
to take away the sin of all his church. And that's why he says,
and the bread that I give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world. Now that's what Jesus says. And
what do we read after that? The Jews therefore strove among
themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? You see, they were looking at
it naturally. They couldn't understand, they couldn't appreciate what
the Lord Jesus Christ was really saying. And that doesn't only
apply to the Jews at that time, that applies to the whole race
of mankind. and it applies to you and me
today how we therefore need that faith to believe the great and
glorious truth that the Lord Jesus tells the disciples he
spells it out very simply like this verily verily that really
means this is an important statement you listen I say unto you, accept,
accept, that means you and I must, eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His blood. Unless we do that, ye have no
life in you. That means you and I have no
spiritual life. We are dead. We remain. a lost sinner. Sin is that which brings death. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And we all need the blessed spiritual
food to be given unto us. And it is essential that all
of us are partakers of it. And Jesus therefore spoke these
solemn words and says, Now all of us here today need the great
and wonderful gift of eternal life. and that gift of eternal life
is given to us and we truly receive it as the Lord gives it unto
us. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up on the last
day for my flesh is meat indeed, that means it's spiritual food
to meditate upon what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying
upon the cross at Calvary to take away all our sins. Well, as we come then to this
verse that the Lord Jesus spoke to Peter, said, will you also
go away? And what does Peter say? To whom,
Lord, shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Now, the words of God are food
and drink to the church of God. They are life. They are life. You come round to address it
in this way. is you and I look into our lives. We have a natural life. Do we
have a spiritual life? Or are we spiritually dead? If we are spiritually alive,
it's because God has given us words His word those words which
are eternal life and if they are words which God has spoken
to us maybe a very simple word maybe a longer maybe a verse
maybe a phrase but what a blessing it is if we do have the evidence in
our souls that God has given us the Word of Life, His words
into our souls. Now, no one knows that apart
from you and God. It is something only known between
the individual soul and God. Peter knew the blessing of it
and was able to say, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that thou art that
Christ, the Son of the living God. It's a great blessing therefore
to have this personal evidence of the life of God in our souls,
having received the words from God to our soul, and to know
therefore that we have passed from death to life and that we
are therefore spiritually alive now then let's be clear about
this in true religion it's not the quantity but it's the quality
it's the reality it's the word of life that the Blessed Lord
speaks to our souls And if you and I are a needy sinner, if
we come to God pleading for his mercy, and again, it's only God
and you know whether that's true. Whether you have had or have
today that great need of the word of Jesus, being spoken into
your heart and if you have possessed it and if the Lord has given
it to you then you see you can come along with the Apostle Paul
and humbly say I believe because of what word the Lord has given
to me and that word is a word of eternal life it's not like
the Israelites of old they partook of that manna and are dead those
who've been partakers of spiritual life have received the word of
God they shall live forever what a great blessing it is and so
how good it is if you and I can find in our hearts and we are
encouraged to examine ourselves to see whether we are in the
faith or not don't just draw a blank and say well I don't
think so sometimes we have to examine ourselves just carefully
and see whether there is and we are not to despise the day
of small things if God has spoken words into our heart we have
great cause to rejoice and to praise God if he's given us that
heavenly food, that spiritual food, the bread of life, which
in reality is the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, he that eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. That really means that you and
I possess union with Christ. Now all of us need to possess
union with Christ. It's not something that you and
I can pass out of this life without possessing. Rural religion is
very real and rural religion is very personal. And my friends,
good as it is to go to chapel, good as it is to read the Bible,
those things in and of themselves will not save our soul. What we need is to personally
experience the wonderful favour of receiving these words of eternal
life. You see Simon Peter He knew the
need, because as Jesus said, will you also go away? Were they
also going to wander away because they couldn't grasp it in a physical
way? It wasn't tangible to their natural
understanding. It was the blessed testimony
of God-given faith to believe. And so Peter was able to answer
the Lord in this wonderful way. Answered, Lord, to whom shall
we go? No one else. No one else. No one else. You and I must come by the grace
of God to the Savior. The hymn writer has it very beautifully
when he says, I came to Jesus as I was, weary and worn and
sad. It's wonderful, isn't it, to
know that we have a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who knows
all about us. And none are too bad. None are
too far off. to come to the Saviour. None
are too far away to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know it's wonderful in the
Word of God to read of the case of Manasseh. He was a very wicked
king and if you read the account in the Kings you will come to
the conclusion that he was a wicked man and died a wicked king And
there was no hope for him. But if you read the account in
the Chronicles, you will find that there came that time in
his life, bad as he was, that he saw unto the Lord God. He prayed to the Lord God for
mercy. And the Lord was entreated of
him. The Lord heard. and answered and he received
the mercy from Almighty God so never think that you are too
bad never think there's no hope remember the gospel is for sinners
and not the righteous by that of course I mean the self-righteous
those who are satisfied with their religion they are satisfied
perhaps with their chapel going they are satisfying with just
an outward performance of religion but they don't possess the life
of God in the soul they have not partaken of this spiritual
food but what a blessing it is if you and I have partaken of
this spiritual food And if we have, it'll be because we've
been drawn to the Saviour. It's the work of God. Our God
will have the honour and glory. You won't be able to say, well
of course I did this, I decided to do this and I prayed in this
way and therefore God heard and answered me. It may be that you
prayed but it will be because God drew you to pray He caused
you to pray He directed you to pray He told
you the words to pray and what a blessing then if you have received
answers to those prayers and you can then bless God for it
as we read in the 44th verse no man can come to me, except
the Father which hath sent me draw him. And I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. Well, what a great blessing for
you and me today. If God has given us faith to
receive the great truth of the gospel and to come to the Lord
Jesus Christ as we are, as we are you don't have to dress up
you don't have to do anything you can come exactly as you are
and fall down before Almighty God we have that lovely example
don't we in the parable the Lord Jesus Christ gave of the Pharisee
and the publican and the difference was very clear the Pharisee prayed
he didn't pray to God He prayed in himself. He thought he was
praying to God, but he wasn't. He was proud of his actions. He was proud of his attitude.
He was proud of his religion. The other man, the publican,
the despised man, he didn't really lift up his eyes. He looked down,
hung his head, but he prayed a very real prayer. It wasn't long. It was very simple. God be merciful to me, a sinner. Very different prayers. Very
different characters. But Jesus said, I tell you, this
man, the publican, went down to his house justified. Not because of what he'd done,
but because of what Jesus had done for him. this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. So therefore
what do we conclude? We conclude this. If the Lord
Jesus has come to you and me and drawn us to him to plead
for mercy, to seek for his word to be applied
to our hearts, to be directed to the suffering Saviour, then
we have the evidence. It is His work and it's not our
work and we can then be thankful for it and we can bless God for
it and indeed go on our way rejoicing. That's good, isn't it? To have
so many wonderful examples. As we do, we have the wonderful
example of Ruth, you may remember, a lovely character. And she, of course, wasn't, you
might say, brought up in a Christian home, where she wasn't brought
up amongst the Lord's people, and she was a Moabitess, a nation
that never worshipped the true God. But in God's wonderful providence,
he calls that Naomi and her husband should go into the land of Moab,
trying to escape the famine in their own land. It didn't do
a good thing really, but God was gracious to them. And there
Ruth was married to one of their sons, and he died. Ruth's husband
died, the other husband died, and Nehemiah invited Ruth to
go back to her old country and stay there. Well Ruth didn't
do that. She said, she said, Ruth said,
entreat me not to leave thee, nor to go in the opposite way. Thy people shall be my people,
thy God my God. I despise people. What a good
thing it is, you know, when God encourages us the desire to go
with the people of God not to go in a worldly way not to go
in a way which is attractive to the flesh yes there's many
religions today which are attractive to the flesh but they don't feed
the soul they don't portray a suffering saviour they don't set forth
the need to partake of the flesh and drink the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ in a spiritual way no, they just give an outward
performance of religion but there is no true dealing with the soul
no true dealing with the heart well what a blessing it is If
perhaps, you know, we can be in like Joshua in his day, you
may remember Joshua in his day, he called out to the people who
they would serve, who they would serve. Joshua said, as for me
and my house, we will serve the Lord. What a great blessing it
is if God gives you and me grace which is unmerited favour to
serve the true God. That means to serve the suffering
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing attractive naturally. Nothing attractive naturally. We should always remember that.
The Lord Jesus Christ today, as I think I preached the last
time I was here, portrays a picture of Jesus as someone very attractive
naturally and yet we read don't we in Isaiah his face was more
marred than any man naturally not attractive but to those who
are given God-given faith we come to the Lord Jesus realizing
he is the only one and Simon said to whom shall we go There's
no one else. No one else. Never be sidetracked. Never go anywhere else. Never
go anywhere else. We have a Saviour who understands
us. He knows about us. He knows every
thought in our minds. That's why you and I can come
to the Saviour exactly as we are. And we can tell Him all
about us. We can tell him our fears. We
can confess our sins. He won't go around telling other
people. It's between our soul and God. What a mercy it is that we have
such a kind and gracious Savior who knows about us. He knows
what we need. He knows what will do us good. He knows what would be a comfort
to us and what is. He reveals to us, when He shows
to us through faith that He, the Blessed Saviour, died indeed
in order to redeem our sins. It is by faith the Apostle, when
he wrote to the Hebrews, spoke a lot about faith, but in an
earlier chapter of the Hebrews, in the fourth chapter, he says
this, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them
but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with
faith in them that heard it well you've all heard many sermons has the gospel been attracted
to you? been a profit to you? Has it
been a blessing to you? Because there will have been
a time in our lives when it wasn't so. When there was no benefit,
there was no profit. You may have listened to the
sermon, you may have thought that was an interesting sermon. I never thought about that before
or I never understood that before in a natural way. but the blessing
is when the Holy Spirit comes and applies the Word to our souls
and we are blessed with living faith to receive it it's then
you see as Peter said thou hast the words of eternal life it's
when the words of the Word of God come into our soul and there
are food and drink in a spiritual way which don't just fade away
don't just disappear you know when the work of God the Word
of God the Lord speaks it to our souls is engraved upon our
heart it doesn't disappear it's engraved there what a blessing
it is and so here we have for unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit
them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it for we
which have believed do enter into rest now that is a clear
sign of God's blessing when you and I receive his word that means
you and I believe his word and his word then brings rest to
our soul we may have been like the word of God describes it
a troubled sea tossed to and fro no rest no peace no calm
But when God gives His Word into our souls, it does then bring
that peace of God which passes all understanding. For we which
have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in
my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished, from the foundation of the world. And he goes on,
seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein,
and they to whom it was first preached enter not in because
of unbelief. Well, what a blessing for us
today if God grants us a believing heart. And again, it's between
your soul and God whether you have the evidence By God's grace,
I do believe in the great and glorious truth of God. I do believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. You may argue with the Word of
God, thinking that the Apostle Paul said he was chief, and you
may think, well, I'm chief. When God convicts of sin, he
doesn't do it in a half measure. He shows us what we are before
a holy God. And so Peter was able to say,
Thou hast the words of eternal life. And it's linked to it,
you see, and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the Living God. My friends, it's a great blessing
to have a positive religion. The Apostle Peter, by the grace
of God, was able to say, I am sure. Yes, he said, that thou
art Christ. We believe and are sure. and
that's my friends where you and I want to be found on this good
foundation of the Lord Jesus Christ having died for us upon
the cross at Calvary and having spoken perhaps into our hearts
words or similar words, yea I love thee the neverlasting love and therefore
with loving kindness have drawn thee it's the work of the Spirit
and you will realise it is God's work it's not what I've done it's
what God has done what a blessing it is then when the Lord comes
and applies His word Will you also go away? How are you going
to respond this morning? You're going to turn away from
the things of God? You're going to say, well, I
don't believe them because they're just too complicated. I really
can't understand them. My friends, if the Lord is working
in your heart, you will truly desire to understand the Word of God. You don't want to just pass over
it. You want the Holy Spirit to reveal
the truth of God to your soul. You want the Holy Spirit to reveal
to you that the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save
you, to save me. We all need it, my friends, in
a personal way. I can't stand before the judgment
seat in your place. You can't stand before the judgment
seat in my place. We all have to stand there individually
and therefore we all need to know personally as Simon Peter was
able to respond in this sure way He does say, Lord to whom
shall we go? No one else. Thou hast the words
of eternal life. He knew it in his heart. My friends, do we today know
it in our heart? Have we received the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ into our heart? therefore able to go on
and say and we believe and are sure that they are that Christ
the Son of the Living God it's a great blessing isn't it you
know the Lord Jesus went on to say have not I chosen you twelve
and one of you is a devil a very solemn isn't it very solemn Judas
Iscariot you see He pretended to be a believer, but he was
not. He was an unbeliever. And yet he was accepted by the
other disciples. They didn't realise he was not
one of them. It's a great word of warning,
isn't it, to the Church of God. Jesus answered, Have not I chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil? Well, my friends today,
may we each be concerned that we're not. like Judas that we're
not someone who pretends to be a believer and is not but bless
God and I mean that bless God if you and I have the evidence
in our very heart that we are a true believer because of the
words which God has spoken into our heart and we rejoice in it
And it has brought and does bring a little peace, true peace and
rest in believing. Well, Simon Peter answered, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life, and we believe and are sure. the heart, that Christ,
the Son of the Living God. Blessed revelation, may we all
know it. Amen.