Our text is found in the book of Proverbs chapter 17, if you'd like to look there with. An interesting topic tonight, never spoke on by itself. But it's mentioned in scripture over 400 times, 400 times.

Proverbs 17, it's something, it's a substance that's described as a life sustaining substance. It fell from heaven to feed the Israelites, it was used in the temple, it was used in the tabernacle for sacrifice and to feed the priests. I'm talking about bread. Not just any bread, though. We've already touched on it a little bit in our call to worship. I'm talking about the original bread, the bread of life, the bread that never had a beginning and never had an end, the bread that cannot change.

You know, all man-made bread will mold eventually. Our Lord will never change. He'll never change. The bread of life, that's what I have titled this message. If the Lord be our teacher, and it would please him and his mercy and grace to give us ears to hear and eyes to see tonight, my hope when we leave here is that we will go away saying that we saw the bread of life, that we have tasted the bread of life tonight. That's my desire.

We've worshiped. Let's read our text. Now I'm going to read 15 verses. It's going to be the first 15 of Proverbs 17. And we're taking these as they're coming, sometimes at length or sometimes just a few verses. But the two verses that stuck out to me, or the Lord chose to bless to me, was number one and number 15. But I want to read all of it and then just go back and read those two.

Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife. A wise servant shall have rule over a son that causes shame and shall have part of the inheritance among the brethren. The finding pot is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tryeth the hearts. A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips, and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue. Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his master, and he that is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished. Children's children. are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers. Excellent speech becometh not a fool, much less do lying lips a prince. A gift is a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth. He that covereth a transgression seeketh love, but he that repeateth a matter separate very friends. A reproof entereth more into a wise man than a hundred stripes into a fool. An evil man seeketh only rebellion, therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him. Let a bear robbed of her whelps meet a man rather than a fool in his folly. Whoso rewardeth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. At the beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord.

Let's read verse one again. Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith than a house full of sacrifices with strife. In verse 15, he that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination to the Lord.

That word quietness in the first verse means contentment. He says, better is it with the dry morsel with contentment. He's saying that's good. Why is that? because the world sees the Lord Jesus Christ as a dry morsel. They don't see him as a morsel of succulents or a morsel that's interesting to them or a morsel to be attractive. As a matter of fact, scripture tells us in Isaiah 53, there was no beauty in him that we would desire him. What does that mean? Well, when we looked at him, he had nothing appealing to the flesh. He had no, we wouldn't have desired him just in the flesh unless God gave faith to see who he was. And that's the point.

But to us, he's more than just a morsel. He's our portion. He's the bread of life. He's everything to the believer because he's the life sustaining substance of the believer. He's what gives us life because he is life, the bread. of life.

He was the one in verse 15 that was condemned of the Jews wrongly. You remember they accused him. He was the just one being condemned wrongly. So it's our Lord right here he's talking about.

Now there's a bunch in this that we're not going to go through because some of this is just one it's one liners it's completely just one verse means one thing and the next verse means the next thing and so what the lord did is he gave me verse 1 and verse 15 to be able to parallel that together i can tell you this that what all this points to uh the mocking lips the lying tongue and the the one that speaks the truth, the one that speaks wisdom, you have the wicked and the sinner, you have the, it's all about the Lord being that morsel. That's what all of this is about.

So the question would be, who is my portion? Who is my portion?

And my hope is that it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is the bread of life. And yet no one could see who he was, no one could believe upon him. You know why that is? Because he is not palatable to the flesh. He's not palatable. He is made to be everything, though, to the Lord's people.

We're going to turn over to John chapter 6 in just a second, but we've already read today that he said, I am that bread that came down from heaven. All your fathers were doing were eating manna, but they didn't see the picture that it was Christ coming down to be what? The sum and substance of everything his people needed.

If that manna didn't fall, what would have happened to the children of Israel? And brethren, when we gather together, if that manna doesn't fall, what's going to happen to us? You say they would have died. That's what happened to us too. We'll die. We've got to have him. We've got to have him. He is the bread of life. He's the one that came down from heaven, the eternal God, robed in flesh, yet the Jews hated him. The Pharisees hated him. Some Jews believed on him, but he came to his own. John chapter one, he came to his own and his own received him not. They didn't receive him.

But to as many as did receiving, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. That's the good news. Men and women could not believe on him, could not know him, could not see him, and neither can we. And tonight, as I was praying, I literally said, Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. That is the prayer that I'm praying in my study. That's the prayer. Give you eyes to see and ears to hear. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. And my hope is that the Lord will use this vessel, earthen vessel. That's all this is, is it's a clay pot. It's a thing of dust. And if he would choose to use that, he would get all the glory for it. Somebody said, you preached a really good message recently. And I said to him, you know, the shovel doesn't brag about how good of a job it did digging in the garden. No, the gardener gets all the glory for the garden. And I said, I'm thankful the Lord delivered the shovel. I didn't, uh, the shovel didn't break. You understand what I'm saying? My hope is that he allows us to see him, see him. So turn with me to John chapter six.

And while you're turning, I need to tell us something really important that if you streamed us or streamed the services in Florida at all, you heard me talking a little bit about canning. It's the same analogy I've used here many times. I touched the cans before they were done, and I ruined it. But we're doing other things, too. I don't know if you want to call it. We have chickens now. I mean, I don't know what we are. I brought a farm. We live in a cul-de-sac, so I guess you can call us homesteaders.

What's my point? Well, my point is we're now on the verge, and we're starting to make bread. I found out some things about bread that's fascinating to me, and I hope it's fascinating to you. The ancient grains were considered a superfood. They were not only gut healthy, but everything about them aided in digestion, and they had very little gluten in them because of the way that they were made. The problem with today's bread is it's been pumped with so much gluten that everybody now has a gluten now. And really what the problem is is that a lot of people have gluten problems. It's because they changed everything. They've changed the grains. They did it for a couple of reasons. Number one, to sell more and putting all the preservatives in it and then making it more processed so it lasts longer. And so they can mass produce it. The reason they did all that is for more money, more gain. It was better for their pocket or for themselves. It didn't matter about the consumer, did it?

Well, the ancient grains had three simple ingredients, flour, water, and salt. You know what the Lord said to His disciples? He said, ye are the salt of the earth. And we heard last Sunday from Ephesians, in the book of Ephesians where He said that you might sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the word. You remember that? And what is flour but the grain that the Lord's given and yet it has to be milled. It has to be churned. That reminds me of Christ. He said He tread the wine press. He was ground by the wrath of God.

What is this? What am I saying? I'm saying all of that is Him. He's the bread of life. There was just three ingredients. So with that being said, and this is important because they've made, they've literally tampered with the new stuff so much that they've made it useless as far as health wise. It's not really good for us to eat. Now this is not a wellness session here. Don't misunderstand, I'm making a point. And the point is this, if we touch it, If we mess with it, if we add to it, we've made ourselves void of the bread of life. Do we see that? You can't add to what he is. You can't take away from what he is. You have to take him as he is. That's the point I'm trying to make. He's the ancient one. He's the bread of life. We can't do anything. Thankfully, we can't do anything to mess it up.

Men foolishly try to make him more palatable to the flesh. They try to water him down. They try to add things that you have to do to his finished work. They try to take away or bring him down from above or bring him up from the dead and or from below beneath. And it can't be done. We can't add to or take away from what he done. It is finished. It is finished. The work of his salvation is finished and the bread of life was successful in redeeming his people.

All that they accomplish, brethren, all that they accomplish by doing this is they end up with a lowercase Jesus that doesn't exist, that has no power, that he's not real. He's a figment of their imagination.

But what about us? Well, if we are made to see the bread of life, then we see him as he is. We don't see what we want in the flesh. because he's not palatable to the flesh. He's not palatable.

The verse I was gonna read in a minute is this, 1 Corinthians 2.14, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That's why, that's why.

Let's read this here together in John 3, or John chapter six again. The same verses we read before, we're gonna go a little bit farther and talk about it as we go this time.

John chapter six, verse 30. They said, therefore, unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee, what dost thou work?

Now that's interesting because he just fed the 5,000. He just walked on the water. I don't know if they missed that or I'm not sure exactly how that went, but you go back to verse nine and you found that's what they had is the five barley loaves and two small fishes. and he just fed them.

So they went over the sea and I don't know who had, if anybody, maybe none of them follow him. Maybe this is a whole different group of people. They're in Capernaum now.

But anyways, they say it therefore unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work?

Our fathers had eat manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them manna. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

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.

Now you can understand anytime the word Moses is in scripture in this term and text, he's talking about the law there. He's saying the law didn't bring you that. No, that came by grace and truth. That came by my father, which is in heaven. That's what he's saying.

34, then said they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread.

Then he's standing right in front of them. Do you see that? Ain't that amazing?

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He just plainly said it right then, I am the bread. I am the bread of life.

He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst, but I say unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not.

Now here's the good news for the Lord's people.

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven. not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

So he didn't say everyone that seeth Jesus of Nazareth, he said, everyone that sees the sun, do we see what he's saying there?

Everyone that sees that I'm the bread of life that will come to me. The Jews then murmured. The Jews then murmured at him because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. So they'd begin talking about each other, talking to one another. And they say, is this not Joseph and Mary's son? They can't, they can't see who he is. And neither could you and I in the flesh. That's the whole point. He's not palatable to the flesh. The flesh hates God.

And we know the reason I've already read it. I'll read it again. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.

Then notice the reason that they can't believe. Verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which sent me, 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 all be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh to me.

Now, what he's doing is he's telling them plainly You don't, you've seen me and you don't believe me. I am the bread of life. And then the last thing he just got done saying was the last thing he just got done saying was, is he would lose none that the father gives to him. And now over here, he's saying, here's, here's the reason why you won't believe on me. No man come to the father, except the father, which sent me draw him.

Verse 46, 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. I am the bread of life. He told him again, I am the bread of life.

Now what's happening is they're starting to have serious doubt. Serious inability to believe what he's saying is true. It doesn't compute with the brain. Nicodemus, you must be born again. How could a man, when he is old, enter into his mother's womb a second time and be born? The Lord told him plainly, the wind bloweth where it lifts us, and you can't tell whether it comes or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit, that which is of the flesh, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

He's telling them, no, I am the bread of life, meaning I give you life. I give you life. It comes from the father according to his will and purpose. He calls you out of darkness into his light. And he gives me unto as many as were given and all that the father gave me shall come to me. That's what he's saying.

Look at verse 49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

" The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now he's talking about cannibalism. That's what they're thinking. That's our flesh's natural response.

Then Jesus saith unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you 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. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers that eat manna and are dead, he that eateth this bread shall live forever.

These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. You know what the next verse says? Many therefore of his disciples, when he had said this, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? That's a question, isn't it? He just told them who could hear it, the ones that the father had given to the son. He just told them who could hear it, the ones that the Lord gives the ability to hear.

But the most amazing part to me is we're looking at this complete 20, 20 vision hindsight right now. And can you imagine never hearing the gospel and the Lord, you know, being, being at this time and. having a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ, but you can't see him and you don't know who he is, all these words that he's saying to them, they were not mixed with faith. They were not mixed with faith.

And I remember there's a place that, I believe it was Peter, might've been Paul, I can't remember exactly, but it said, but the word did not profit them because it was not mixed with faith. Without faith we cannot hear Him and we cannot see Him because that is the only way we can hear Him and see Him is by the faith of God given to His people.

At the end of all this they said it's a hard saying who can hear it and then it says many of His disciples left and followed him no more. He turned to the 12 and said to them, are you going to leave me too? They said, where will we go? Lord, you have the words of eternal life.

There's the difference between the Lord being our living bread, our bread of life, and him just being another object or another not being God. That's how they seen him here. He told them, except you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part with me. And they couldn't get it. It was over their head. Why? Because he's talking about a spiritual matter, a spiritual matter.

Matthew 5, 6 says, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. To desire eternal life, brethren, is to desire the bread of life. To desire eternal life is to desire the bread of life. It's to desire His righteousness.

His people were made to confess, I have no righteousness in myself. He is full of truth and grace. He is life abundantly. I am just death, full of it. We're dead men walking, dead women walking. That's just what we are by nature. Lord, if you don't give me life, I won't live. You have all the power. I have no power. This is what we confess. This is, we come as mercy beggars. Lord have mercy on me, the sinner. You have to save me by your grace. Give me this bread.

Now they like the idea whenever he told them I'm the bread of life. And if you eat this, you'll never die. You'll have eternal life. They said, well, give us that bread, but it doesn't work that way. You can. They wanted that in order to live eternally. They didn't want Christ. They wanted eternal life. You can't have one without the other. If you want eternal life, it comes in one way, one way only, the Lord Jesus Christ, the bread of life.

He told his disciples, this is my body broken for you, broken for you. What was the purpose of his body being broken? that you and I would be redeemed, that you and I would be saved from our sin, that we would no longer be seen as unrighteous, but we would be bearing his righteousness. This was the very purpose of the cross, that the Lord would make his chosen people the very righteousness of God. He shed his blood and washed away every sin, every sin of those whom he was dying for. Then he was raised from the dead. Now he's seated as our successful, Sovereign, substitute surety, our intercessor, our advocate with the Father, and he's still the bread of life. That hasn't changed. That hasn't changed. He's still that. He's all that we need. All that we need.

They want to take the gospel, some men, and they want to change the gospel to be something that it's not, try to water him down, try to make him sound like a puny God, that he's not absolutely sovereign and he's not everything in salvation. And what are they doing? They're saying, well, give us that bread, but we don't believe that you're Jesus Christ. Well, give us eternal life. But what are they doing? Well, they're trying to take the grain and they're trying to strip it of its nutrients to make it have a different shelf life or make it last longer. Or they're trying to make it where they can sell more of him. Do we see that? And that was why I told us that thing to begin with. I mean, that's a parallel. and yet he'll never change. Man will try, but they'll have to fabricate something new because they can't change him.

Now let's go back to our text in Proverbs 17. I just want to read those two verses again. Better is a dry morsel and quietness therewith, or contentment, than a house full of sacrifices with strife. Verse 15, he that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. When men want to argue whether or not Christ was made sin, if an abomination to the Lord is him that condemneth the just, he was the just and the justifier. He is just and the justifier of his people, It would have been unjust for God to pour out his wrath upon his son if the Lord was not made to be sin for us. Somebody said, you don't have to explain that. I can't explain that. I just know that he was the perfect sacrifice God was satisfied with and he wasn't a sinner. But he bore our sin in his own body on the trees, made a curse for us.

He's the morsel. dry morsel. He's the stone of stumbling that the builders disallowed. They said, be away with him. Away with him. Let his blood be upon us and on our children. They didn't want him. They cast him aside. And all they see is a dry morsel. And yet God has given us the palate for this dry morsel. And it tastes sweeter than honey to the Lord's people. It tastes better than the best thing we've ever eaten, spiritually speaking. We need him because of this life-giving morsel that he is, the bread of life. He's eternal life, brethren. He's the just one that died for the ungodly. He's provided everything needed in salvation, in your salvation.

We're We have puppies at the house, and they come out. They're just like a newborn. They don't have any ability to defend themselves, protect themselves. They make little squeaky noises, but that's about it. Um, what is my point? Well, my point is, is you and I are worse than that. We're dead and trespassing and sin. And yet the Lord births us into his family. And here we have a table spread before us by his grace. This is what he did for his people. We have the bread and we have the wine, the blood of Christ. We have the most precious substances on the face that's ever been on the face of the earth. And that's our portion, brethren. That's our portion. To eat is him. We feast upon the lamb. You remember in the Old Testament, they had to eat the lamb, the sacrifice. So this is what the picture is here. If you want him, you're gonna have to take every bit of him.

Now they couldn't take that lamb and water it down. They couldn't sodden it. They had to burn it with fire. And it was all a picture of the wrath that God was gonna pour out upon his son. He has to be completely consumed, and only the Lord's people consume him. Only the Lord's people have to have him. When we pray, give us this day our daily bread, we don't just mean a loaf of bread on a shelf, we mean the Lord Jesus Christ. Give us this day Christ, our portion. And every single day, that manna keeps falling, and it's never gonna stop.

Now I'm not saying we bring Christ down from above, but that's a metaphor for what happened to the children of Israel. The Lord keeps his people by his power, just like Ruth kept finding handfuls of purpose by Boaz. Just like, you remember the widow that Elijah went to? And he goes up to this widow during a famine and he says to her, make me some bread and make me a cake. And she says, all that I have is just a little bit of meal and the cruise of oil. Then I'm going to be out of food. Then we're going to, me and the lad's going to eat at her son and then we're going to die. Elijah said, no, make me a cake first. You talk about faith. Talk about faith. She makes a cake for him. And until the famine was completely over every day, she went to that meal barrel and it had meal in it. And that cruise of oil never dried up.

Why? Because great is his faithfulness. He's not going to leave his people to their self. He's going to continue to allow that bread to come to us. The Lord Jesus Christ at the appointed time, he's already ordered it for eternity. It's going to happen in his appointed time. And you know what it's going to do whenever you see him and you get to taste and see no wonder David said, taste and see the Lord is good. Whenever you finally get to taste of the Lord again and see his finished work and rest one more time, that's exactly what you're doing, resting. You're satisfied with the dry morsel. You're satisfied with the dry morsel.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear. That is said this, but I'm gonna say it again. David said, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He didn't say, oh, taste Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. He didn't say, oh, taste and you determine whether the Lord's good. He said, no, see, I know he's good. Taste and see and know that the Lord is good. David already knew something about God's grace for him to say that. The Lord's sufficient for his people. The Lord's grace is sufficient in every aspect. Every aspect of salvation, every aspect of our life, every aspect of anything that's ever going to go on, the Lord is faithful. He's sufficient. He's enough, more than enough. He's the life giving manna that God sends day after day. He's the reason the barrel never fails.

Why don't we come together? We hope to see his face. There may be times, brethren, you come here and you're tired, you don't feel the best, and your mind wanders. That happens. That's happened to all of us. But the Lord has never been anything but faithful. Faithful in the message going forth. And you might not get it today, but go home and listen to it later. Maybe the Lord will give it to you then. Maybe some of y'all know what I'm talking about. Maybe you're troubled, maybe you're weary. Is that not the times the Lord usually gives you that manna? He lets you have that comfort in heart, lets you be satisfied with just him. Like everything else can be a train wreck. But if I have him as my portion, if I have the bread of life, everything's going to be all right. Everything's going to be all right.

That cruise of oil. That's the picture of the Holy Spirit. David said he anoints my head with oil, my cup runneth over. The Spirit's likened to oil in the Old Testament and the New, and the Spirit's never gonna leave his people, forsake them. He's God. Our Lord's the bread of life, the sustainer and keeper of his people, his elect. He's our only hope for eternal life. And unless he reveals it, I started out by saying this, I'm gonna say it again. Unless he reveals himself, we can't see him. Unless he says, unless he opens up our ears and he said, be thou made whole, we can't hear him. Unless he allows us to come to him, we will not come to him. Unless the father calls us to and enables us to, we will not come to him. But oh, he's faithful to do so. It's of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed. He delights in showing mercy.

hearing all that there will be two kind of people who ever may hear this message. Somebody, maybe not hear, but somebody may hear it. They might say, well that's a hard saying, who can hear it? And they leave and they never come back. Why? Maybe they leave from streaming us or something like that. Why? Because we can't hear Him or see Him unless He lets us and causes us to see He is the bread and the of life. Only God's people feast on the body and blood of Christ day after day. It's a need. Why do you go to church so much? It's a need. Why do you want to? Why don't you do this on this day or that on that day? Because I have a need that only he can supply. I've got to be here. I've got to be here. We come to his table and eat what he has provided. And you know what he's provided to us? Everything. Everything in Christ. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, justification. There's nothing you can name, grace, mercy, love, joy, peace. There's nothing you can name that's found in Christ that he has not given to his people. Why? Because he is the bread of life.

Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would take this and bless it for your glory and to our understanding. In Christ's name we pray, amen.