Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. And this I see, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing can your sin atone, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not a good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. I love the
simplicity of that hymn. That is so simple and so clear.
All my righteousness, nothing. In other words, no place else
to go to find salvation than Christ and His shed blood. I'd like for us to read a portion
of God's Word from Revelation chapter 5 if you'd like to open
your Bibles there with me, Revelation chapter 5. And I'm going to go
ahead and introduce Gilbert. Gilbert Dawson, I met him. He
reached out to me a few years ago before COVID and then we
connected. Probably somewhere about the
beginning of COVID. I don't know if you all remember
us sending a couple of oxygen ventilators over to India during
the early time of COVID. Well, Gilbert's the one we sent
them to. Gilbert pastors a church in Hyberdad, India. Hyberdad
is a city of about 18 million people, which would make it twice
the size of New York City. He says it's just miles and miles
of concrete. And he's enjoyed the foliage
of Florida since he's been here. But Gilbert got here last Monday,
and it's been such a joy for me to be able to fellowship with
him. We've had some wonderful times
together, just rejoicing in Christ and talking about what the Lord
is doing and what he's done. The church in India watches our
services, and so when I do talk to them online, they're always
asking me, well, how is so-and-so, and how is so-and-so? Because
it's like they take note of every time we announce something. Robert,
they're always asking about you, and Jennifer, and they're praying
for you, and praying for us, and just sweet believers that
love Christ. It's just a delight. I'd say
more than that. It's a soul-warming joy to fellowship
with these brethren whom the Lord has saved and are faithful
to the gospel. So Gilbert, we're glad you're
here. Gilbert leaves tomorrow to fly to Canada to visit some
friends up there and then back to India the next week or two. He said that it was 124 degrees
in Hiberdad yesterday. They weren't able to have church.
He said that it was so hot that people were getting sick and
they don't have any air conditioning. It's difficult. All right, you have your Bibles
open to Revelation chapter 5. Gilbert, we look forward to the
message. Gilbert's going to be preaching to us from John chapter
6 this morning. But I want us to read from Revelation
5. And I saw in the right hand of
him that sat upon the throne a book written within and on
the backside sealed with seven seals. It's obviously the book
of life, and the number seven is perfection, and this book
is sealed. It cannot be read. The names
of God's people cannot be revealed, and there will be no salvation
unless there's someone who can open this book. And I saw a strong
angel. This strong angel was not able
to open the book. I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. And John says, And I wept much,
because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book,
neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto
me, weep not. Behold, look, the lion of the
tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed. He hath prevailed. He hath finished the work of
salvation. He hath accomplished all that
God required in order for God's people to be saved. He hath prevailed. to open the book, and to loose
the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the
midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst
of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God,
sent forth into all the earth." Now you understand that the book
of Revelation is written in symbolic language. I've seen people try
to portray in paintings the imagery that's given here. That is such
a mistake. That's blasphemy. The number
seven is perfection. This is Christ and he sees everything. He's got perfect knowledge, perfect
glory. And he came and took the book
out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And
when he had taken the book, The four beasts and the four and
20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them
harps and golden vials filled with odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sung a new song saying,
thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
for thou what slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood. out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation, and hath made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth." Oh, what hope. The Lord has a
people in every kindred, every tribe, every tongue, and every
people. I'm thankful for this brother from India and look forward
to hearing the message that God has given to him. You have to
listen a little carefully this morning. I was thinking when I try to
speak the language of India, there's so much English, there's
so much English accent in my Indian language that it comes
out sounding just like English. So you will rejoice in bearing
with the... Sorry, bad joke. All right. Our Heavenly Father, thank you.
Thank you for the lamb that was slain before the foundation of
the world. Thank you for his ability to
unloose the seals, open the book, and secure the salvation of your
people. Lord, we thank you for our brethren
in India. We thank you for Gilbert. We
pray your blessings upon him. We ask, Lord, that you would
speak to our hearts this morning by your spirit and through your
word. We pray it in Christ's name. Number two in your spiral, Gospel
Hymns Hymnbook number two. Let's stand together once again.
? At thy feet we humbly bow ? O
to God our suit disdain ? Shall we seek thee, Lord, in vain ?
Lord, on thee our souls depend In compassion now we send Fill
our hearts with thy rich praise Tune our lips to sing thy praise
In thine own appointed way Now we seek Lord, we know not how to go till
a blessing Send a message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. Adam Cherin
is going to bring special music now. In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this
solid ground Firm through the harshest drought and storm What
heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are stilled,
when strivings cease My comforter, my all in all Kept by the love
of Christ alone In Christ alone, who took on flesh, fullness of
God in man ordained. This gift of love and righteousness,
scorned by the ones He died to claim. Still on that cross my
Savior died. The wrath of God was satisfied. His people's sin on Him was laid. I live in the death of Christ
alone. There in the ground His body
lay Light of the world By darkness slain Then bursting forth In
glorious day Up from the grave He rose again And as He stands
in victory The stain of sin is washed from me For I am His and
He is mine Bought with the precious blood of Christ No guilt in life,
no fear in death This is the peace we have in Christ From
life's first cry to final breath Saints persevere as God abides No power of hell, no scheme of
man Can ever pluck me from His hand Till He returns or calls
me home I'll rest in the power of Christ alone Good morning, everybody. It's
so nice to be in your midst. Thank you once again for this
time that God has given us to worship together the freedom
that we have and that we can think about Christ together.
I bring greetings from our church in India and also would like
to thank you that during COVID you all sent the oxygenators.
Thank you so much for that. And thank you all for praying
for us. Greatly appreciate that. And we do pray for you all and
pray that our fellowship will grow stronger and stronger as
we grow in the knowledge of Christ. For this morning, I was looking
at John chapter six, if you will turn with me to John chapter
six. But as a prelude to John chapter six, You see in John
chapter five, Jesus heals an important man. He breaks the
Sabbath and he talks about himself, who he is. And when he comes
to John chapter six, people hear about all that Jesus said. They
started following him and they started following him. They started
looking at him and said, and they come chapter six, verse
one, It says, and these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee,
which is the sea of Tiberias. Verse 2, a great multitude followed
him. It says a great multitude that
followed him. Why? Because they saw his miracles,
which he did on them that were diseased. And then he moves away
from them in verse 15. When Jesus therefore perceived
that they would come and take him by force to make him a king,
he departed again into a mountain himself alone. He didn't want
to become the king. He knew that these people were
religious people. They were just following him.
for who He is not. He came to save His people. He
is the Sovereign God who created the world. He came down to save
His people and these people were not following Him, looking at
Him as this only Savior. What were they looking at Him
for? As a miracle worker. They were breaking the very first
and the second commandment of God. They perceive Christ in
their own imagination and said, this is the Christ that we want.
And this is the Christ that we want to make Him king over us. Depraved mind, fallen flesh wants to make a false Christ
king over themselves. The true Christ, they do not
want Him. Because He is sovereign, He is
Lord over all, and he is he that like pastor greg was saying his
glory he will not share with another he departed alone to
be all by himself in the mountain come to verse 22 please and the
day following when the people stood on the other side of the
sea saw that there was none other boat there save the one wherein
his disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with his
disciples into the boat, but his disciples had gone alone.
Howbeit, there came other boats from Tiberias, nigh unto the
place where they did eat bread after the Lord had given thanks.
Verse 24, when the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there,
neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum. And look at this phrase, seeking
for Jesus. There's a multitude that is following
after Jesus, a religious multitude, a multitude who want religion,
a multitude who want the flesh to be satisfied. And food is
a form of food. is something that satisfies your
flesh. And this is the food that they
were looking for. And they said, verse 25, and
when they had found him on the other side, they said unto him,
Rabbi, when comest thou hither? Teacher, when did you come hither?
We were searching for you. We were searching for you. Were
they really seeking after Him? The Bible very clearly says,
no man seeks after God. No man seeks after God. The flesh
is God's hater. And yet, it shows that they were
seeking after God. They were a kind of religious
people. Religious people seek after religious
things, and they were seeking after Him. And Jesus answered
them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not
because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. Your flesh was satisfied, your
hunger was satisfied, your tongue tasted all that it needs to taste
and you felt satisfied. That is what you wanted. There's
a group that followed after him for miracles. There's a group
that followed him for the food. It's like an entertainment for
them. When they saw the miracles they could, like at least in
India, I do not know here, in India you have constantly this
gospel and healing meetings where they say, come you will be healed. And people go there just to have
an entertainment, to see how people are healed. It's all entertainment. And here were people who would
have seen all the miracles that Jesus did. Jesus really did the
miracles. Today we have charlatans and
all fake preachers. and they were really filled with
the food. But look at verse 27, that's
my focus. Labor not for the food which
perisheth, but for the food that endureth unto eternal life, or
everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For
Him has the Father sealed. They said, In verse 25, Rabbi,
where are you? We have been searching for you.
And what does Jesus say? Don't labor for food that is
going to perish. You are so satisfied with the
things that you do, and they will perish along with you. But
seek after those things. Seek after the food that will
give you eternal life, everlasting life. And it's so very clear. It's not that I am seeking. It
is the Son of Man shall give unto you. The contrast is so
clear there. Your people are seeking after
Christ. And you say, you come seeking
after me? You come the way you, you are seeking after me with
a false imagination. But remember, I am the one to
give you eternal life. I am the one who will give you
everlasting life. You cannot gain it from me. You
cannot have it the way you want to have it. You cannot purchase
it with anything. He says, which the Son of Man
shall give unto you. I like the first hymn that we
sang. It was a beautiful Trinitarian
hymn. And here you see God the Son
and God the Father working together. Jesus says, for Him, God the
Father has sealed. Whom the Father has sealed, the
Son is going to give it to Him. The Father and the Son are not
united. They are so beautifully united
together. They know each other's mind,
and they work so beautifully together. And what the Father
has sealed for the Son says, I'm going to give it to Him alone. Turn with me to Isaiah 55. Isaiah 55. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that has no money, Come,
ye, buy and eat. You come, buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Verse two. Wherefore, do you
spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for
that which satisfyeth not? Hearken diligently unto me. Eat that which is good, and let
your soul delight itself in fatness. It is the Lord speaking. He says,
you thirst? Many times we thirst without
thinking, we take a bottle of water and drink. He says, you
have no money? But what is he saying? Come buy
and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Our Savior gives His salvation
absolutely free. Whom the Father has sealed, He
is going to give it to Him absolutely free. It's not going to cost
Him anything. It's not going to cost Him anything.
You cannot add anything to what He is going to give you. Salvation
is full of God. Even the faith that He is giving
to you, which is a gift, like we heard this morning, the faith
which is a gift that comes from God does not originate from me. That faith is a perfect faith
that Christ had on the Father. That faith, God gives it to us
so that we can believe on Christ back again. What an amazing God
we have, because we can't do anything perfectly. We are so
sin-tainted. And the holy and righteous God
wants holy and righteous things and He knows our frailty, He
knows our weakness, He knows how we are formed and only unless
He gives it to us can we give it back to Him. Isn't He so gracious
and so merciful to us? Verse 2, Wherefore do you spend
money for that which is not bread? Why do you spend money on that
which is not bread? Why do you spend money that is
going to destroy you? Why do you spend money and waste
your time on religion that is going to take you to hell? People waste so much of time
and money that they think they need to do so many things. He says, why do you spend? I was telling Pastor Greg, one
of the churches in Hyderabad has a long list that they give
the members. And you have to take, how many
hours did you pray? How many chapters did you pray?
To how many people have you witnessed? How was your family life? It's all money that is spent
on vanity. on bread that is not going to
feed your soul, on bread that is going to damn you. And it's
a kind of delusion that God has sent unto religious people that
they are put into in that delusion that they can never come out
of it. A delusion that God himself has sent to those who do not
belong to him. Verse two. and your labor for
that which satisfy it not. People labor so hard, laboring in various ways in so-called
the religious system. You fast, you do so many things,
and that is not going to satisfy you. That's not going to satisfy
the sheep, remember that. A goat can be satisfied with
any other thing that is of the flesh, but for the sheep that
is not at all, will never ever satisfy his soul. And I like that next statement,
hearken diligently unto me. Who can listen to that? Who can
hear that? Who can hear when he calls? Are they not the ones whom the
Father has sealed and Christ is going to give to them when
he removes the scales from the ears and from the eyes so that
they can listen to the gospel? And they are drawn to the gospel?
And they are so settled and saying, this is the truth, this is where
my soul will rest and never move from it. He says, hearken diligently,
look careful at it, look intently and eat that which is good. What is that which is good? Remember,
Christ only is good. There is no one else who is good. God is good. Christ who is God
is good. There is no one else. And anything
else apart from that will make you to perish. And let your soul delight in
its fatness. Our soul always delights in hearing
the name of Christ. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ears. It soothes his sorrows and heals
his wounds. So come back to John 6, please. And look at the response in verse
28. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do? This is what a fallen man will
ask, what must I do? This is the work of the flesh.
The flesh will say, what is my contribution? Even like yesterday
when we were talking with Sunil, he said, what is my part in it? and that we might work the works
of God. What is those things that we
need to do? Look at our Lord Jesus Christ
answering them. Verse 29, Jesus answered and
said unto them, this is the work of God. You don't need to do
anything. Neither can you do anything. But this is purely
the work of God. that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. The flesh will say, is that all? Should I not have something to
do with it? Is it just believing? Is it so
simple? I've heard so many people say,
is it just believing? Is it all? What can we bring to the finished
work of Christ? What can we add anything to Christ
who said on the cross, it is finished? Christ did not say,
I finished my part, now you need to do your part. Christ did not
say that. He says, I finished it. And God
was fully satisfied with the price that he paid for. With the death on the cross,
God was fully satisfied. And for me, just to believe on
his work, on the person and the work of Christ, is just to believe
on him, that he's done it all. Who's my greatest enemy? It's
not the world. It's myself, which opposes that. And praise God. who is sovereign,
that he subdues our minds. In the day of his power, his
people will be willing. He brings them. He breaks the
will. He draws them unto himself against
our own will. We were dead men. Verse 30. They were not happy
with his answer. Look at this crowd, they were
not happy at all. They said, they said therefore
unto him, what sign shows thou then? What more sign do you need? The very God of very God who
created this whole universe is talking to them right in front
of them. And yet they couldn't believe
him. they couldn't see him as their
only savior and redeemer. Look at what they ask, what sign
shows thou then that we may see and believe thee? Fallen men, depraved men, unregenerate men, religious men
will always look for a sign and they will follow after Him because
of the sign. They will say, okay, we believe
you because of what you did. They will not believe on all
that He has done for us because that is foolishness. Like Paul
writes in 1 Corinthians, he says, it is foolishness. The cross
is foolishness. Let me just quote that verse
for you, 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 20, verse 18, for the preaching
of the cross is to them, mark that word, that perish. To them that perish, what is
it? Foolishness. But unto us who are saved, it is the power
of God. For them who are perishing, it
is absolute foolishness. The cross is foolishness. Just
to believe on Him is foolishness. But the gospel of Christ unto
us is the power of God unto salvation. For us, whom God has shown it
forth and made us alive unto Him, it is the power of God to
save us. I cannot save myself. How can
a dead man resurrect himself? Impossible. Impossible. Come to verse 30 again, John
6, 30. They say, what does thou work? What is your work? Show us your
work. And they go back to the old Judean
a stick or mosaic religious system. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven
to eat. And I'm just diverted to think
of even Satan quotes scripture verses in Matthew 4 to Jesus
in his temptation. And here too they are quoting
scripture verses. They can, and religious people
are very good at quoting scripture verses, let me tell you. And
they quote it out of context. And like just we had Pastor Greg
telling us about 2 Corinthians 13, five, and many of those verses,
I call them the most abused verses. They misquote scriptures to you. And this is what they are doing.
But Jesus is bringing the truth to them. He is telling them.
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. The manna that came down, they
could pick it up for five days a week. and for Sabbath they
take it once and one day it doesn't come to them. But the true bread, my father gave it to you. Verse
33, for the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven
and give it life unto the world. Go back to verse 27. You labor
for food that perisheth, But that food, we endure it unto
everlasting life, is given to us by the Father alone. And that
is in Jesus Christ, who is our living bread. Who is our manna. John 5 verse 39, Jesus says,
search the scriptures. He's telling the Pharisees, you
search the scriptures and you think in them you have eternal
life. They keep the scriptures so legalistically. They hold on to the Ten Commandments
so legalistically and say, this is what we have. We have Moses.
Our father is Abraham. And who do you think you are?
But Jesus adds this and says, those scriptures, they testify
of me. And then he says, you will not
come to me that you might have life. You will not come to me,
you hold on to this legalistic system. But search the scriptures, for
they testify of me. Search from Genesis to Revelation,
it is all of Christ. And that is the bread of life
by which we live. Apart from that, if you search
for the law, which law have I kept or which law have I missed, what
more should I do? You are not going to live, you
are going to perish. You are going to perish. Why couldn't they hear? A few
chapters later, John 10, verse 24. Then came the Jews around about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. If you are the Christ, tell us
plainly. Hasn't Christ revealing himself
consistently? And Jesus answered them, I told
you and you believe not. The works that I do in my father's
name, they bear witness of me. Verse 26. But you believe not,
because you are not my sheep, as I said unto you. You are not my sheep, as I said
unto you, and you do not believe. His sheep. will trust only in THE shepherd
that God has sent. Any other shepherd, what will
they do? They will flee. They will flee from any other
shepherd. Come to John 6 again. These people are so hardened
in their religious system. Even though Christ is speaking
to them, they cannot listen. Isn't it true that we tell so
many of the people the gospel? And they say, is that all? Is
it so simple? And they are never interested
in anything more. Look at verse 34. Then said they
unto him, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said, I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Whoever comes to him, and whom
the Father has sealed and Christ has given that eternal life to
them, They will come to him because later on he says, those who come
to me I will in no wise cast them out. And then later on he
says in verse 44, no man can come to me except the father
who has sent me, draw him and I will raise him up in the last
day. What an assurance that verse is. That he will raise us up
in the last day. That's the greatest assurance
we have. But look at what he says in verse 35. I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. I am satisfied because he has
finished it. I am absolutely satisfied. There is nothing more do I need
to contribute. There is nothing more that I
need to panic saying I missed out on something that I need
to add to what Christ has done. In other words, when you are
satisfied, what do you do? You rest. You relax. You are joyful. Isn't it? He says, he shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. My hunger and thirst is fully
satisfied in Christ alone. The sheep will always be satisfied
in that. Just turn with me to Psalm 23. That psalm is about Christ, so
every psalm is about Christ, every word is about Christ. And
Psalm 23, he says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall need something. Does
that what the scripture says? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. I shall not want. This shepherd
is Christ. And Christ alone. And he is the
living bread. And when I have that bread of
life, I shall not want. And then he says, this shepherd,
what does he do to me? He makes me to lie down in green
pastures. And He leaded me beside the still
waters. He makes me to rest in Him. He
does it for His elect. He does it for His sheep. He
is so mindful of His sheep. He does it. He says, I am your
bread. I am your food. You will not hunger. You will
not thirst. Like we heard in the morning
the second point that he says the religious the sin in me will
constantly accuse us of it cannot it cannot because he is our food he is our food verse 36 and I
said unto you You also have seen me and believe not. You have
seen me also. I'm right there in your presence.
The bread of life is right before you and you do not believe. And Jesus says, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. It is not they will come
or they may come. They will definitely come to
Him because and He says, Him that cometh to Me, I will no
wise cast out. The Father is so great. He knows
whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. He will
bring them to Christ. And Christ says, I will never
cast them out. That's where my comfort is, that
he will never reject his sheep. He will take his sheep into his
fold. And we have that blessed assurance
that Christ being our food, that we rest in him and we are
fully satisfied in him. He makes us to lie down beside
the still waters. He takes us into the green pastures
and he says, I have done it all, feed on me,
feed on me. That is one reason why we need
to speak the gospel to ourselves daily. Because gospel is the
food that we need daily. And as we read God's word consistently
and constantly and look for Christ, who's my Bread of life. He is the living bread. Come,
just jump to verse 44. No man can come to me except
the Father who has sent me, draw him. Jesus says, you can't come to
me. You can't come to me by yourself. You have been searching, you
searched for me, you followed me, but really, Truly, you can
never come to me unless the Father has drawn you. And whom the Father
has drawn, I will raise him up on the last day. He is going
to present us faultless and blameless with exceeding joy before the
Father. He's not going to lose even a
single one of them. After he said, and this assurance
to whom is he giving? To his sheep. And can I take
five more minutes, brother? And then he keeps on talking,
verse 48, I am that bread of life. What happened in verse 60? many therefore of his disciples
it looked like they were his disciples who were following
him so faithfully when they heard this said this is a hard saying
who can hear it or who can understand it which is so simple for the sheep this is a hard saying turn with
me to Matthew 11 Verse 25. At that time, Matthew
11, 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, Father, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from whom, the wise
and the prudent. Religious people are wise. They can talk all great theological
issues and they think they go into the mind of God and talk
the mind of God and they can talk so many things. But he says, you have hid these
simple truths from the wise and the prudent and has revealed
them unto whom? Babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in your sight. Verse 27, all things are delivered
unto me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father,
neither knoweth any man the father except the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. And because the son has revealed,
The Father has drawn us to the Son and the Son has revealed
us about God. We know who He is and what God
has done for us through Christ Jesus. It is to the babes, to
the foolish of this world, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1,
28, 29, to the foolish of the world, the base things of this
world. Come back to John 6, verse 61. Look at what Jesus says. When
Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he
said unto them, Does this offend you? I like that question. The gospel offends. The simple
gospel offends. The simplest Simple gospel of
saying just believe on the person and the work of Christ offends
people. What people love to hear and
people who have itching ears to hear, as Paul tells the church,
writes in his letter to Ephesians, is you must do all these things.
Look at the Ten Commandments and see how you must keep them
all. Look at the commandments, but
don't look at Christ. And if you do that, you will
perish. You will perish. Because Christ is the end of
the law. And in Christ has all the law
been fulfilled and we being in Christ, God sees us just as he
looks at his beloved son who kept the law so perfectly, he
looks at us as though we have kept that law as perfectly as
his son because of Christ. God is so good to his children. Verse 64, Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were that believed not who should betray
him. Verse 66, from that time many
of his disciples, what did they do? They went back and walked
no more with him. This gospel is offensive to a
religious man. The gospel is offensive to an
unregenerated heart. The gospel is offensive to people
who look for a religious Christ. Verse 67, Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, Will you also go away? Everyone left him. The multitude
left him. And he looks at his disciples,
Do you also want to go away? Then Simon answered and said,
Answer them, Lord, to whom shall we go? The sheep will say, To
whom shall we go? We can go to no other place.
There is no other place. But to this one fold, my sheep
will hear my voice. And only to that shepherd will
the sheep come. Other voices, what will they
do? They will flee. To this, where else can we go? Thou has words of eternal life. That eternal life is the food. That eternal life is Christ. That is the bread of life that
we all have. Praise God for it. If you believe
in Christ plus something else, you will perish. If you add anything
to Christ, you will perish because that is not the food. That's
an adulterated food. That's a food mixed with poison. Christ alone. I like, thank you
brother for singing that song, that hymn, and Christ alone is
our life. We need Christ, none else. He's our bread. He's our bread
of life. Feed on him. and that will never ever perish. Praise God for that blessed bread
of life. Amen. Thank you, Gilbert. This is the
work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. I'm
so thankful for God's work. which enables us to believe.
That's his work. Faith is the work of God. I love
that passage over there in Matthew 12, where the Pharisee asked
him, show us a sign. And the Lord said, an evil and
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. Child of God, there's
a Pharisee in you, isn't there? I know there's one in me. always looking for something
other than Christ for the hope of my salvation. And the Lord
said no sign, no sign will be given except for the sign of
Jonah. The sign of Jonah. For as Jonah
spent three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so
shall the son of man in the heart of the earth. The resurrection. of the Lord Jesus Christ is the
sign. And that's where we're to look.
We're to look to Christ being raised from the dead by the Father
for all the hope of our salvation. That's God saying to you and
me, I'm pleased with him. He's done it all. I'm satisfied. Brother, that was encouraging
comfort. Thank you. Let's stand, Tom,
we're gonna sing number 53 in the hardback teminal. Okay, number
53. You wanna remain seated? Oh,
okay, stand. And we'll repeat the last phrase
in each verse. Sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. And drives away his fear. ? On which I built my shield and
hiding place ? ? My never failing treasury built ? ? With boundless
stores of praise ? ? With boundless stores of praise ? ? Jesus, my
shepherd, brother, friend ? ? My prophet, priest, and king ? ?
My Lord, my life ? Accept the praise I bring. Accept the praise I bring. Weak
is the effort of my heart, And old my poorness fought. But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. I'll praise thee as I ought. ? My love proclaim with every fleeting
breath ? And may the music of thy name refresh my soul in death
? Refresh my soul in death Please be seated. For the Lord's table, we'll sing
hymn number 17 in the spiral hymn book, number 17. ? See the table spread before you
? See the feast of bread and wine ? These are symbols of our
Savior ? Tokens of His love divine ? Bread that's broken is His
body ? Crushed beneath the ? Of our Savior's precious blood
? ? Children of our God remember ? ? How he bought your soul and
mine ? ? In remembrance of our Savior eat the bread and wine
? Jesus came, the God incarnate,
to fulfill God's holy will. On the cross he made atonement and
retrieved us from sin. Soon he comes, our King to call
us Home to glory, praise his name This hope and expectation We
rejoice to keep this feast Celebrating our redemption Till we meet on
Jesus' breast Paul wrote to the church at Corinth,
he said, I fear, lest by any means, you know there's a lot
of means that Satan has, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve in the wilderness, so your minds might be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. That's what we're always on guard of, aren't
we? Satan's tactic hasn't changed. His first temptation was, did
God say? Still saying that. And the second
was, God doesn't want you to eat the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil because he knows in the day in which you eat it,
you'll be like God. And something in every one of
us that wants to be in charge and control everything. The simplicity of the gospel,
the simplicity of Christ is seen in the Lord's table, which we
are celebrating right now. this little piece of unleavened
bread, the sinless life of the Lord Jesus Christ, who went to
Calvary's cross and bore in his body all the sins of his people
so that God made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. So the Lord says,
as often as you do this, do it in remembrance of me. Not only did righteousness have
to be established by a perfect obedience, which the Lord did,
justice had to be satisfied by a blood sacrifice that would
be pleasing to God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
had to die. And this little cup of wine reminds
us of that, that the only way that we can be justified in the
sight of God is that if the blood of Christ covers our sins, and
when it does, it covers them completely. And so we take of
this cup in remembrance of him, trusting that his blood is a
sufficient covering for all our sins. And all God's people said, amen,
amen. Charlie Belarose, come up here,
buddy. Everybody here knows that Pam
gets all the credit for this. You know that, don't you, Charlie?
We love you, buddy. Charlie graduated yesterday? Friday. Friday from high school. Charlie you've been an encouragement
to me and the brethren here. You have. He's been faithful
to attend services. Let me get in front of the microphone. sits back there on the back pew
every Sunday. I'm so thankful for you. And
we want to give to you a copy of God's Word and hope and pray
that the Lord will bless your heart with it and reveal Himself
to you by His Word. So, Charlie, we want to pray
with you, okay? Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for this Dear, dear young man and precious friend, Lord,
we pray your mercy and grace. We thank you for the encouragement
that he's been to our church. And Lord, we ask that you would
bless your word to his heart and reveal Christ in all of his
glory to his soul. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. Yeah, that's yours too. All right.
I want to say one more thing, but I want to make sure that
we're offline. This is just for your ears.