Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. I normally, in
the course of the way I guess I normally
do things on Sunday morning, I usually take the book of John
first, but I wanted to do it second today. The reason for that is In the
first message we were talking about the wedding, the feast,
the eating, and in this blessed book, this blessed gospel, as
it was recorded by John, it continues to talk about what is being feasted
upon, or let's say this food is being feasted upon. 52 to 59 is where I'd like to look,
and I'll read those verses as I come to them. Again, as I come to them individually,
I'll deal with them. But I've entitled this message,
Will I Be Raised Up in Christ? I know all men are going to be
in the resurrection. There's going to be a resurrection.
All men are going to be raised. Just and the unjust. Everybody's
going to be raised. Everybody, as we said a moment
ago, everybody is going to stand before God. But the question is, will I be
raised up in Him? And this deals, this passage
of Scripture deals with that very issue. Now, the Lord Jesus
Christ has been giving some instruction. This chapter 6 is a long chapter,
and in this chapter he's been dealing and instructing some
folks that found him in Capernaum after he had fed 5,000 men plus
the women and children with five loaves and two fish. Now the scripture says when they
found him in Capernaum, he told them why. They Now, why did they
follow him? He said, verse 26, not because
you saw miracles, but because you did eat the loaves and were
filled. Now, following their teaching
of those five loaves and two fish that he had blessed, he
declared himself to be the bread of God which cometh down. He took that miracle, blessed
five little barley loaves and two little old fish, and fed
all of those folks, and then revealed to them who He was. He is the food. You ate His bread. You ate those
fish. But He set forth. He said in
verse 51, this is where we left off, 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. Jew
and Gentile, men, women, out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
tongue. the world, not just Jews. Now,
we must be reminded when we talk about eating the bread, eating
of the flesh, drinking his blood, what that means. Now, we understand. When we talk about eating, immediately
our thoughts go to our mouth. That's how we're made. We're wondrously made. And the way that food gets into
our body is through the mouth. That's the normal way. Now, the way that a believer
eats of the flesh, drinks the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
that is by faith, feasts upon his life and death, is by the
Spirit of God taking the Word of God. And we spiritually eat. There's an actual feasting, eating
the bread, drinking the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
faith, nothing physical. You know that. I mean, we talk
about the elements that we eat at the Lord's table. There's
no lie in that. It's symbolic. It's the ordinance
of the Lord's table. But we spiritually eat. It's
an inward act of the heart, the new man. By faith, we feast upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, I'll tell you why we're sitting
right now. And we're hearing the Word of
God. And you're listening. I know what you're listening
for. You're listening for exactly what these Scriptures said for
you. You're listening for the glory
of Christ. You want to hear Him honored. Tell us about Him. Tell us what you told us last
time. I know we looked at it in different
scriptures. I know that last week we were in Proverbs. The
message never changes. The message never deviates from
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our soul feasts upon Him upon
his sacrifice, upon his atonement, upon his work, upon his glory,
he said, I am the bread. Eating the flesh, drinking the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe it. That's what
it is. Believe in Christ. That's believing. Walking in the Spirit is actually
an attitude of the heart, a prepared message. Next week, or the week
after, I can't remember now. What is it to walk with God?
What is it to walk with God? What is it to walk in the Spirit?
It's to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, eating and drinking
of Him, what that does? I cannot say this enough. I need
to hear this again. Eating and drinking of Him excludes
All works are self-righteousness. There's no place you can't eat
and drink of Christ and mix your works with it. Grace is grace. Works is works. If it's of works,
there's no more grace. All of grace. It forbids eating
and drinking of Him by faith. It forbids all hope. and our
false ability to reconcile ourselves back to God. He made this statement,
I am the living bread, verse 51. I will give my flesh for
the life of Jews and Gentiles. He had already dealt with, just
in verse 37, he had already told in verse 37, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to him. Me, him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." He just told him, this is just a
continuation of this conversation. Verse 44, he just told him, no
man can, no man has the ability to come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me drawing him. I will raise him up. Well, verse
52 is where we'll start. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves. saying, how can this man give
us this flesh to eat? You that know it, you that believe,
you know what it is to sit at this feast right here. This is
what it is. It's a feast. This is what we're
doing. There's coming a time when the Lord is going to call
all of His people to Himself. And if we're alive when the Lord
comes back, we're not going to perceive those that have gone
on before us with this group right here. And I don't know,
I don't know, this may be the last time that we meet together
just exactly like this. The Lord may call one of us home
before next Sunday, before Wednesday, before tonight, before this message
is over. But I know this, if we're alive,
When He comes back, we're not going to proceed with Scott,
Arthur, Archie, Rob. We're not going to proceed then.
Those of us that have gone before us, Aaron, Spenny, they're going to meet the Lord
first. I and the faith, every one of them. Then we'll meet
Him. But I know this, He alone is the one that we want
to hear about and feast upon. We're here to eat. Tell us of
the good bread. Tell us of the bread of God.
Tell us of the bread of heaven. And he told them. And they strove
among themselves, trying to interpret spiritual things, carnal sense. The hardness of their parts was
revealed when they rejected God's sovereignty, the freeness, God's
grace, mercy. Before they continued to fight
against the gracious words of our Lord, as He uttered the solemn
arresting statement concerning eternal salvation, eternal security,
and eternal damnation, strive, if you will, against faith in
Him alone. Hang on to your self-righteous
works of false religion. But our Lord said in verse 53,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of God, and drink his blood, ye have no life in him. Except
you eat of him by faith, realizing that it is fact. grace of God,
and forsake all false hope and security, except you have no
life in you, none whatsoever. What a statement. He would die
in Calvary for the reason that he came into this world, to seek
and to save that which was lost in the false. You know exactly. This church,
I am so thankful for a faithful pastor, for this God that taught
us by the grace of God, all of us. Taught us by God's good pleasure. We know from whom He died. He
came to seek and to save all those that the Father had given
Him. Except, you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, drink His
blood, you have no life in you, None, the Son of Man. Notice that? He's the flesh of
the Son of Man. It's a man that satisfies God.
As a man, the God-man is a man sitting in heaven on the throne
of God. And he is the husband of the
sheep. The one who's sitting there who
spoke to his bride. He said, You've stolen my heart,
ravished my heart. Scripture says forth, verse 54,
Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. That's
the evidence of it. You have it. And I will raise
him up at the last day. Whoso eateth, drinketh, not occasionally,
not when it's convenient, Whoever, moment by moment, eateth, drinketh,
possesses eternal life, that's the evidence right now. And I
will raise him up in the last day. I will raise him up in the
last day. In Him. I got to looking at that
statement. I will raise him up in the last
day. Do you know how many times that's Stated in the Bible, I
will raise him up in the last day. Four. Four times. And all of them in this chapter
right here. I will raise him up in the last
day. Four times. Who are they that shall be raised
up in the last day in the Lord Jesus Christ? Who are they? Verse
39 of this chapter set forth this. Here they are. Verse 39,
this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which
He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. Who are they? I'll tell you who
they are. It's all that the Father has given you. I'm telling you,
men may fight and fuss, strive against, you know, they talk
about that, well, y'all just deal in that election. Oh, the
blessed truth of electing grace. Had he not chosen some, Paul
said if there wasn't a remnant, Mitch, we'd all have been like
Sodom and Gomorrah. Fighting against election. Fighting
against the electing grace of God. Almighty God loved the order
of man, and therefore, before the foundation of the world.
He chose to show mercy to some because He would not let this
order perish. We'd all been like those under
the judgment of God. Who are they? Secondly, look
at verse 40. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. I will raise Him up at the last
day. Every one that God Almighty has given faith to believe, eyes
to see, ears to hear, everyone to see Him and believe on Him,
I'm going to raise Him up. Verse 44, no man can
come to me except the Father which hath sent me drawing. I
will raise Him up to the last day. How many are going to be
raised? The Father draws those that Almighty God makes willing
in the day of His power. All that come unto Him by the
power of Almighty God come by themselves. How did you come? He drew me. How did you know
it was Him? He gave me eyes to see, gave
me a heart to believe in. And then lastly, this verse we
just read, Whoso eateth my flesh, drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life. I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh, verse 55, is meat indeed. My blood is drink
indeed. My flesh is truly the food of
heaven. There is but one meal given from
heaven, and it's Christ. There is but one drink. It is
His blood. Whoever eats and drinks by faith. We eat physically, but I'll tell
you this, unless we eat something that's good, we're going to be
sick. Man can eat. Man can eat stuff. I'm telling you, if it's not
the flesh, Have you noticed how much our Lord emphasized the
eating of His flesh, drinking of His blood, that He was the
Bread of Heaven? Think how long we've been dealing
with this, verse after verse, taking it verse by verse by verse,
just exactly the way He spoke it. Have you noticed how much
emphasis He's put on this? He, the Scripture says, that
eats of me, Verse 56 says, He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. There's an abiding,
an intimate abiding, union. While you're listening this morning,
rejoice and feast upon the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the bread of heaven. Let me tell you what's actually
going on. You're in Him and He's in you.
There is a vital union. You say, oh, I tell you, I see
some real struggles in me. Talking about me being in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if you only knew what was
going on. The only way you know that is
because He dwells in you and filled that to you. You wouldn't
know that. No, we don't want to be so proud,
arrogant, heavy, high-minded. And we would say just like that
Pharisee, I'm glad I'm not as other men are. You know, extortioners. I like that public about that.
No? This is what a believer that's
found in Christ, and Christ is found in him. They're like that
old public, and that Pharisee didn't want to have anything
to do with. He wouldn't even lift up his eyes to heaven. In your
heart right now, you're just saying the same thing. God be
merciful to me, the sinner. Oh, I'm telling you, God Almighty,
He keeps His people. He teaches His people. He walks
with them, talks with them, and they with Him. Fellowship with
Him, verse 57, as the Living Father has sent me. And I live
by the Father. So he that eateth me, even he
shall live by me." Oh, how marvelous to behold that our Lord reveals
the intimacy that we enjoy with Him. What a pleasure that is
to hear about that. Lord, thank You that You would
tell us afresh that while we sit right now, here we are in
You. and you and us, and fellowshipping
with you, one with the other, as the Father and the Son are
one, the believer is one with the Father in Christ. They may be one with us. The
Father sent the Son into this world, and I know why the carnal
eye discerns little or nothing of His union with the Father,
or even so discerns nothing of the intimate union that the believer
has in Christ, the Scripture clearly bears out that we are
right now in Him, fellowshipping in Him, feasting in Him. Listen
to this, Galatians 2.20, Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. I now live in the flesh. I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me." Verse 58 and 59, "...and this is that bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
of the dead, he that eateth this bread shall live forever. And these things said he in the
synagogue as he taught all the blessedness that he would
reiterate what he had just revealed, what he had just promised. And
he did it, the Scripture says, in the synagogue. These people had come together
to do what they knew, according to God's Word, was the right
thing to do. where they assembled to worship
God in the way that they knew the Master was pleased to come
and teach them. So I said this morning, wouldn't
it be wonderful if Almighty God would teach us as we've assembled
ourselves today to hear of Him. I pray that the Lord might be
pleased to bless these words to our heart. Teach me, Lord
Jesus, by Your Holy Spirit, through Your Word, the feasting upon
the flesh and the drinking of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His sake, His honor, for
my eternal good. Amen.