Let's open our Bibles together
to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. John chapter 6 is set in comparison to John 5. The Lord Jesus was in Jerusalem
and was rejected by the religious leaders of that city. Now we find him in John chapter
six in Galilee and he is going to be rejected of them as well. And what we see throughout all
of scripture is that the Lord Jesus had to go to the cross
alone. and that all men by nature reject
God. Apart from the Lord doing a work
of grace in the heart and calling us to himself, we'll not be interested
in what he has to offer. In John chapter six, at verse one, We read after these things and some time had passed, we
know from the other gospel writers that at least a year has passed
between John 5 and John 6. So it's not like John doesn't
write in the same order as the other gospel writers do. But
after these things, sometime after these things, Jesus went
over the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias, and a
great multitude followed him because they saw his miracles,
which he did on them, that were diseased. Read on throughout this chapter,
we'll find that the Lord Jesus rebukes these people. for only
wanting their temporal needs met. The only way that we will
have a sincere concern for the eternal matters of our soul is
if God gives it to us. Now, men will become religious,
but just like the religious hucksters that we hear on television today,
They present their God as one who is going to improve your
life in this world. And so those who are by nature
after the flesh concern themselves only with fleshly things. And
the only concern they have for spiritual things would be as
they are able to help them have a better life. We need a God who's able to give
us eternal life. We need a God who's able to save
our souls. We need a God who's able to forgive
us of our sin. And that's a work of grace in
the heart that only he can give us. So the Lord's gonna rebuke these
people. He's gonna feed 5,000. We're
not gonna get into the miracle this morning. But he's gonna
rebuke them for just wanting their bellies full. And then
he's going to look to his disciples and say to the disciples, to
the 12, will you lead me also? Because the whole crowd left
when they realized he wasn't there as a welfare program, they
left. And he looked at his disciples,
said, you're going to go with them? And that's when Peter said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the only one that has
the words of eternal life. We've got to have life eternal.
Whatever you've ordained for us in this world is temporal. We've got to have that which
is eternal. Scripture tells us that the temporal
is that which is seen. The eternal is that which cannot
be seen only by the eye of faith and that only by God's grace.
May God be pleased to make us to be like these disciples, not
the 5,000. To say, Lord, we've got to have
you, we've got to have your word, we've got to have life. While we're on that subject,
look with, turn over just a couple of pages to verse 66. Verse 66
of the same chapter. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Now in that verse,
the word disciple is used simply as a follower, one of these crowd
that was interested in what he had to offer. But when they heard
the hard sayings they weren't interested in that. They were only interested in
that which satisfied and gratified their fleshly needs. And that's when the Lord said,
are you going to leave me also? And Peter said, Lord, we we've
got no place else to go. And one of the other Gospel writers
tells us that in this time is when the Lord said to Peter,
blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you. You didn't come to that conclusion on your own.
My father, which is in heaven, made that known unto you. Go back with me to the first
part of this chapter, if you will. And Jesus went up, verse
three, into a mountain and there he sat with his disciples and
the Passover, a feast of the Jews was nigh. This message is all about sitting
down with Christ on a mountain and having rest and being fed. This message is for those who
are tired and hungry, those who cannot find rest for
their souls in this world, and those who cannot find comfort
before God based on the merits of their works. Talk to people
all the time, oh, you know, God's gonna be pleased with what I've
done. They're gonna stand before a holy God and present to God
something that they've done for the hope of their salvation?
And the Lord's going to say to them those most dreadful words
that we find in all of scripture, depart from me you workers of
iniquity, I never knew you. I don't wanna hear that, I don't
want you to hear that. We can't find comfort. We can't find rest
in our works. They don't, they don't, Save
our conscience. We have a burden that is too
heavy for us to bear. The weight of our sin. Our circumstances
are beyond our control. We need God to intervene. Can't find any comfort in our
law keeping. We want to honor God, we know
that God's law is holy and it's just and it's good and we want
to live a life of obedience and honor to him but we find no peace
for our soul in whatever measure of obedience the Lord might give
us in our outward behavior because the Lord's revealed to us something
about our hearts that are wicked and deceitful and Lord, you see
everything. We can't find any real peace
in religious activity. Most people do. Most people go
to church on Sunday, maybe do a few things during the week,
whatever, and they're able to rest in that. Can't find any lasting hope in
the empty promises of this world. They just don't feed our soul. All the fleshly comforts that
we enjoy give us no contentment or satisfaction. We're hungry for some spiritual
food that has substance, not the rice cakes and cotton
candy of Modern day religion, we've got to have the bread of
life. We've got to have something that feeds our soul that we know
is true and right. And that's what this is about. The Lord Jesus took his disciples,
the 12, up on a mountain and they sat down and it was the
Passover and he taught them We, by God's grace, we crave the
sincere milk of God's word. We need the water of life. We need the meat of the gospel. We need the truth. We need God's
spirit. Many will say, I don't need that. Life is good. I'm comfortable. All is well. I'm not worried
about dying. I can stand before God. I don't
have any real fear of going to hell. Surely I don't deserve
that. And then the religions of the
world speak peace, peace when there is no peace. And men by
the droves make a covenant with death and God says to them, I'll
disannul your covenant. We know that there is a God with
whom we must do. And all the empty promises of religion in
the world can't meet our need. Where can I find true rest with
God? And where can I go to be fed
with the bread of life? The Lord leads his people up
on a mountain always. Christ, how many mountains? There's dozens of them in the
Bible. We're gonna look at a few of
them. Here's where the Lord leads his children. He takes them up
to a high place and he causes them to sit down. and he gives them rest and he
feeds them. He feeds them miraculously, he
feeds them. How we hope when we come to this
place that the Lord would do that for us. That he would make
his word by the power of his spirit effectual to our hearts
and that we would leave here with rest in Christ. This is his high mountain. The
scripture calls the church, the holy mountain, Zechariah chapter
eight, verse three, set apart. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 32 says,
the Lord hath founded Zion. The poor of his people shall
gather there and trust in him. And in Isaiah chapter 25, The
gospel itself, the gospel of God's free grace in the finished
work and in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ is called
the feast in his holy mountain. The Lord Jesus said, I'm that
bread. We're gonna observe the Lord's
table and celebrate his body and his blood. And he said to
us, my body is your meat indeed. That's his perfect life of obedience
before God as our substitute before God. My blood is your
drink indeed and except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood
there's no life in you. And his shed blood satisfied
God's justice for putting away of our sin. We need a righteousness
given to us by God And that's Christ, he is our righteousness. God has made him to be all of
our wisdom and all of our righteousness and all of our sanctification
and all of our redemption. And his shed blood is the only
hope that we have for the covering of our sin. And so when we come
here, the Lord Jesus said, if I be lifted up, If I be lifted
up, how do we lift him up? We proclaim him, we declare him
from his word for who he is and what he did and God's people
come and they sit at his feet like Mary and that one thing
that's needful. You see, we feed on the gospel
through our ears. That's how we feed on the gospel.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. And
what a blessing it is when God speaks. We're not just hearing
the voice of a man, we're hearing the voice of God. And the dead shall hear his voice
and those that hear shall be raised. That's what I need, Lord. I need for you to speak to my
heart. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
two. Speaking of that mountain, Isaiah chapter two. Verse one. The word that Isaiah,
the son of Amoz saw. Not only do we eat by our ears,
we see by our ears. Everything comes to the heart
of God's people by their ears. Why is that? Why is that? Because listening
is passive and the Lord is not going to allow us to participate
in our salvation. He's gonna sit us down and the
scripture says he's gonna shut our mouths and he's gonna open
our ears. And so we just are receiving. We don't make any contribution. that we hear and we see and we
eat through our ears. The word that Isaiah the son
of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, and it shall come
to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house
shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be
exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow unto it. I was talking to a brother this
week. Nothing more important, nothing higher, nothing more
glorious going on anywhere around us than what we're doing right
here, right now. The decisions that are made in
high places cannot be compared to the things that we're doing
right now. There's no mountain higher than
this mountain. Everything else is a valley.
The world says, I'm content in the valley. And they don't know
that that valley is the valley of death. But men, because they
walk by sight and not by faith, and because they gratify the
needs of the flesh, oh, the valley's a place of ease. It's a place
of comfort. It's a lush meadow. God said, no. You're gonna follow
me up on a mountain. Turn with me to 1 Peter 2. 1
Peter 2. Look with me at verse 5. You also, the Lord's talking to his children. You also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. We come and
we worship. One of the mountains in the Bibles
is Mount Samaria. And the Lord met that woman at
the well. In John chapter four on Mount
Samaria. And she said to him, our father
said that we should worship God on this mountain, but you Jews
say we should worship him in Jerusalem. And the Lord Jesus
said, place you worship doesn't matter, it's the spirit in which
you worship. For God seeketh them who worship him in spirit
and in truth. So where is the spirit of God?
He's where the gospel is being preached. He's where God's people
are gathered together. That's where I am in the midst
of them. We are lively stones built up
together. The Lord... Well, we could say so much about
the woman at the well. May God, by his power and grace,
enable us to identify with her. Her life was a life of sin, shame,
and sorrow, and yet the Lord had an appointment with her.
What did he say? When the disciples wanted to
go around, no, I must needs go through some area. There's a
poor woman there, out of well in the middle of the day, and
I'm gonna save her. These spiritual sacrifices that
we're offering right now. And as we listen, we pray. As I preach, I try to pray. Lord,
bless this. Make it effectual. Lord, empower
it. Do it all on the merits of and
for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whereby, look at verse
six, whereby also it is contained in the scriptures, behold, I
lay in Zion. Zion is that hill. It's that
mountain. It's where Solomon built the
temple on Mount Zion. But even before that, it's where
Abraham took Isaac up on Mount Zion. You remember that story. Father,
here's the wood and here's the fire, but where is the lamb for
the burnt offering? And what did Abraham say to his
son Isaac? God will provide himself a sacrifice. And God provided
the Lord Jesus Christ. And God was the provision. And
Christ was provided to the father. He died in order to make himself
an offering to his father for the sins of his people. And God
saw the travail of his soul and God said, I'm satisfied. That
took place on Mount Zion. And then Solomon built a temple
there under the instructions of God. And then that temple
went into disrepair when the children were carried off into
Babylon. And later the Jews came and refurbished
it, and then Herod rebuilt it. And the temple that was standing
during the time of the Lord Jesus was sitting right there on Mount
Zion, on top of that same rock that Abraham went to offer Isaac. And in 70 AD, that temple was
destroyed so that not one stone was built upon another. And I'm
giving you all this in order to say this, What's on that spot
right now? Right now. And has been for the
last 1300 years. A Muslim mosque. The Muslim mosque
that represents all of Islam. The most works religion of the
world. Now we've got a Muslim mosque
right next to us, right on the other side of our parking lot.
And yesterday was the first day of Ramadan and I've met these
people and talked to them, sweet folks, do anything for you? But
it's a works religion. And it represents all the works
religions of the world. And God in his providence put
the dome of the rock right there in the middle of Jerusalem, right
there on that same rock as a testimony of what's happened to that mountain. And that mountain represents
all the churches and all the religions of this world that
have a works gospel. We're going to earn our way to
heaven by what we do. And only in little places like
this, scattered all over the world, God's people gather together
on the spiritual Mount Zion. That's not the holy land. This
is the holy land. That's not the place where God
promises to meet with his people. This is the place. And it goes
unknown and unrecognized by the world. Nobody knows we're here.
Nobody cares. And yet the most important thing
that's happening in this world is happening right now as Christ
is being lifted up. Temple of God. The Lord Jesus
is that temple and he's meeting with us. This is where the Lord takes
his disciples, up on a mountain, Mount Zion, plenty of the holy
mountain. Behold, look at verse six again,
behold also, is contained in the scriptures. I lay in Zion,
a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him
shall not be confounded. We're not confused about what
our standing before God is. We're not preaching a yay-nay
gospel. We're not saying, well, yeah,
salvation is by grace, but you've got to do your part. We're not
saying that the Lord The Lord does his part and then you do
your part and then maybe it'll be enough. We're not confounded. Our gospel is simple. It's very
simple. Christ is all. It is finished. The Lord Jesus cried that from
a mountain, didn't he? We're looking to the Lord Jesus
alone for all the hope of our salvation. and he gets all the
glory, all the glory. And this only happens on Mount
Zion where the cornerstone has been laid and the whole church
of lively stones is built upon that cornerstone. Unto you therefore,
verse seven, which believe he is priceless. Can't put a value on him. Precious. But to them which be disobedient,
and you look up that word disobedient, it means to not believe. All unbelief is disobedience. The stone which the builders
disallowed. We don't want that stone. We'll
throw that stone away. The same is made the head of
the corner. The stone which the religionist
says we're not interested in, God makes him the head of the
corner. A stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to
them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto
also they were appointed. Lord, don't let me stumble at
your word. Word of God's simple. Yeah, I know, I hear it all the
time. People say to me, well, that's
your interpretation. or the Bible's a big book and
it's very complicated. It's a big book, but it's not
complicated. Not if you understand the key.
The Lord said to the disciples, I give unto you the key to the
kingdom of God. And that's not a gold key that
some guy in Rome is carrying around his neck. It's Christ,
he's the key. He's the key that unlocks the
mystery of the gospel. He unlocks the Bible, unlocks
the word of God. It all points back to him. The Lord takes his people upon a
mountain. You remember Mount Sinai, the
mountain of the law? and that none of the children
of Israel could even get close to that mountain, and if anyone
touched it, they died. Moses alone was allowed to go
up on the mountain. Moses was the deliverer for the
children of Israel, and he's a type of Christ. And as Moses
went up on the mountain, He pictures for us the Lord Jesus who is
himself the one who is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So when we're looking to Christ,
we're looking to him as the one who satisfied all the demands
of God's holy law for us. He's my substitute. And there is a very real spiritual
sense in which though Moses was the only physical body allowed
to go up on that mountain, all the people of Israel went with
him. We were in Christ as he was fulfilling God's law. We were in him. And God credits
to every one of his people the perfect obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what I need. Oh, how many
times have you talked to people and said, well, you know, I'm
doing my best. Your best isn't good enough. God requires absolute
perfection. He'll settle for nothing less. And it's not just in the outward
behavior that other men see. It's in thought and motive and
heart and word and deed. It's everything. God sees it
all. Oh, I've got to have. I've got
to have a substitute so the Lord Jesus takes his disciples up
on Mount Sinai even and sits them down and says I've taken the fire
out of that mountain we see it on Mount Carmel when Elijah built
that altar and put the sacrifice. And the fire of God fell from
heaven and consumed that sacrifice. And when the sacrifice was consumed,
the fire was quenched. And the fire of God fell on the
Lord Jesus as he hung on Calvary's cross. And he quenched that fire once
and for all. After Mount Carmel, you remember
what Elijah did? He ran to Mount Horeb, which
is Mount Sinai. And three times in that passage
of scripture, the Lord says to Elijah, Elijah, what are you
doing here? What are you doing here? There's
no hope for you here. Oh, how often we need to hear that.
We think we're going to Atone for our sins by doing better
and being better. We're gonna somehow make up for
what we've done. I wanna be better, I wanna do
better. But any thoughts of reconciling myself to God by what I do is
running back to Mount Horeb, it's running to Sinai. And God
says to us, what are you doing here? Run to Christ. Flee to Him. The law was given by Moses. Grace
and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. Where does the Lord give His
people rest? Where does He give them food
to eat? All these mountains. The Mount
of Transfiguration, when He took Peter, James, and John up on
that mountain. And the veil of our Lord's humanity was removed
just long enough for the radiance of his deity to shine forth such
that Peter, James, and John were forced to the ground, hiding
their faces. And the Lord spoke on that mountain
with Moses and Elijah of those things which he would accomplish
back in Jerusalem when he died. What was he gonna
accomplish? Moses, the fulfilling of the
law. Elijah, the fulfilling of all
the prophecies. So that everything in God's word
is fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus. And he takes
his disciples up on that mountain. And though foolishly they say,
oh, let's build three tabernacles. One for you and one for Moses
and one for Elijah. And when they opened their eyes,
there was none there save Jesus. Moses and Elijah weren't there
anymore. No, we don't need three tabernacles, we need one. We
need one. This is where the Lord feeds
his people. He took these disciples up on
a mountain. How oftentimes we find the Lord
Jesus taking his disciples up on the Mount of Olives. The most
memorable time was the night that he sweat drops of blood. And so began, so began the agony
that he would experience just a few hundred yards away at Mount
Calvary. And he sought for some other
way on Mount Olives. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me. He knew what was gonna happen
when he became sin. He knew that he was gonna be
separated from his father. He knew that he would experience
sin and sorrow and separation and shame like he never knew
because of our sin. Father, if there be any way this
cup can pass from me. And yet what was his conclusion?
Nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done. Here's where
he feeds his people. He feeds them on Mount Olivet. And he ascended back into his
father from that same mountain. Lord, is it time now for you
to establish your kingdom? It's not for you to know the
times of the season, but you go back into Jerusalem and the
Holy Ghost will come upon you. And here's the commission that
the Lord gives to you and me. And you will be my witnesses
in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and under the outermost parts
of the world. And you'll make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded
you. And lo, I am with you always, even into the end of the earth.
I'll never leave you." And the disciples stood there
gazing up into heaven. And angels came. Men of Galilee, why stand you
here gazing up into heaven? The same Jesus which has been
taken up from you will come again in like manner. And Zachariah
tells us that that Mount of Olivet will be split when he returns. What a glorious mountain that
was and will be. And so we live in anticipation,
watching and waiting for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the mountains of the Bible
converge on one mountain. It's called Mount Calvary, Golgotha. This is the mountain on which
the battle for God's people was fought and
won by the Lord Jesus. This is where he was suspended
between heaven and earth. There is one. One, we're alienated
from God as a result of our sin. There is one mediator between
God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. What an apt picture of
our Lord hanging between heaven and earth.
The only one able to touch God and not be destroyed and the
only one able to touch sinners and not be defiled. The mediator,
the reconciler, the sin bearer, the substitute. Here's where
the Lord Jesus feeds us. He sits us down on a mountain. And though all the religious
experts in Jerusalem had no interest in him, and though the Galileans
who only wanted material needs met had no interest in him, his
disciples did. There on Mount Calvary, he laid
down his life for his sheep. He paid the ransom for their
sin with his precious blood. He was wounded for their transgressions. He bore our griefs and carried
our sorrows. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon him and by his stripes, by his stripes, we are
healed. We're healed. He put away the
sins of his people by what he did on Mount Calvary. He was taken, the scripture says,
as a sheep to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth. Why didn't he open his mouth?
Because he was laying down his life willingly. For first of
all, he had no objections, he did it out of love for his church
and for his bride and for his people to save them. But secondly,
he couldn't open his mouth because he had no defense. He bore, God
made him who knew no sin to be made sin. He had no defense. He was bearing all the shame
and sorrow and separation for the sins of his people before
God. This was the cup that he drank
from. This is where he feeds us. The Bible says that God made
his soul an offering for sin. The Lord Jesus is not offering
himself to us to be accepted or rejected. That's foolishness. You're not running for office. You're not looking for votes.
Oh, won't you accept Jesus? No, no, no. No, it's he that
must accept us. And the only way that God will
ever accept us is to be found in Christ. This is where he feeds those
who can't find food anywhere else. None of the empty promises
of this world or this world's religion in all of its works can satisfy the hungry soul of
God's elect. The Lord has done a work of grace
in their heart and they can't be content. You go, you read
it from the Psalms. Christ is my all, I've got to
have him. And the Lord Jesus cried, with
a loud voice from Mount Calvary, it is finished. It's finished. Everything that
God requires for the salvation of his people was accomplished
in what the Lord Jesus did there. We eat of his bread and we drink
of his wine. And by God's grace, we can say,
I'm satisfied. Christ is enough. He's all, he's all. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Thank you for this time of worship. Thank you for your Holy Spirit.
Most especially, thank you for thy dear son. Lord, as we partake
in this table, might you speak hope and comfort and truth and
peace to the hearts of your people, enabling them to sit down on
a mountain and be fed by their Savior. For it's in Christ's
name we ask it. Amen. 274? 374. 374. Let's stand
together.