I would like to read verses 47
to 53. John 6, verse 47, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. 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? Then Jesus said 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." Let's pray
together. Our Father, this evening as we
call upon You, We thank You for the blessing to be able to be
here. And Lord, we ask You even now, forgive us, Lord, where
we have failed, even as we started to worship in the reading of
Your Word, asking of Your blessing. Lord, how our minds have wandered. how thankful we are, not as we
ought to be, not as we shall be, but Lord, how thankful we
are that truly we have this blessed time to come together. Lord,
would You bless the Word? Would You honor Yourself? Lord,
You can bless this Word and cause our hearts to rejoice Lord, we
can't do that. Only You can bless. Speak, we
ask You for Christ's sake. Amen. Our Lord in this passage of Scripture
in the 53rd verse, He sets forth that which is absolutely necessary
for life eternal. eating His flesh and drinking
His blood. Now, I know that it's absolutely
essential, but what is He actually saying? Well, I know this. I know that
this feast, the eating of His blood I mean, the eating of his
flesh and drinking of his blood, I know that it's an intimate
feast. He said, verily, verily, I say
unto you, except ye eat the flesh and drink his blood, except you
do it, I know that no one can eat for me. Now I can understand
perfectly well the eating of regular food. I ate supper just
before we came over here. I sat down, I took a fork and
I ate it. Glenda ate and I ate, but she
didn't eat for me. I ate. I'm the only one that can actually
put it in my mouth and eat it and it do me any good. Now I
know this, that whatever this feast is, I know that it is personal. I know that He said, except, except it means unless, and it
sets forth the truth of man's condition as he is born in Adam. in this world spiritually dead
except you eat. You have no life in you. So I
know this, I start off with no life and except I eat spiritually. I know that this is a feast of
God's providing and of God's mercy. except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man." That's what he said. Unless God Almighty would send
His Son into this world. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son. Now, except ye eat the flesh
of the Son of Man. So I know that it's talking about
partaking of His humanity, the Son of Man. And except He would be made flesh,
there would be no life. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man, you have no life in you. So the only hope for
fallen man is that God be made flesh. That's just given. That's just
understandable. I know that it's a feast that
is totally by grace. Here's the requirement. This
is what he says. Except you eat the flesh and
drink His blood. But if I'm dead in trespasses
and sins, how can I do that which is required and demanded of me. Apart from Him, I can't. I can't. Now, I know this. He's not just
making a play on words. I know that. I know that He's
truthful. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life, and He's not saying something that is impossible
to do except to eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son
of Man. You have no life in you. Well, here is what I want to
know. What does that mean? Because whatever it means is
absolutely essential. Turn with me to Acts 16. Acts 16. You know, the Pharisees
questioned, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? And
they tried to make it actually a physical thing. Acts 16, verse 25, And at midnight
Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God, and the prisoners
heard them. And suddenly there was a great
earthquake, so that the foundations of the prisons were shaken, and
immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bands
were loosed, and the keeper of the prison, awaking out of his
sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword
and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoner had
been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice,
saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. Then he called
for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down
before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what
must I do? to be saved. And they said, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. What must I do? Paul, under the
inspiration of the Spirit of God, said, This is the evidence
of it. You are going to believe God.
You are going to believe Him. The Lord said, Except you eat
the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no
life in you. What's absolutely essential, those two things are
gloriously married together and shown to be one thing. Believe
in Him. Just as this mouth right here
takes food and I put it in my mouth and I chew it and I swallow
it and it's part of me, part of me, what I had for supper,
That's part of me. You can't get it back. It's already
part of me. And spiritually, this is a great
mystery. Eating the flesh and drinking
the blood of the Son of Man is not partaking of the Lord's table.
This is a symbol. But it's a symbol of what we
do spiritually. We absolutely, spiritually, mysteriously,
this is something that the world talks about. But only a believer
understands eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the
Son of Man is to believe God, is to believe Christ. Abraham
believed God. He believed Him. He believed
Him. Without faith, it's impossible.
to please God, and God Almighty must give me faith. God Almighty
must give me life. What He demands, He supplies. He does not put any demand on
me that I am left to do. Faithful is He who calleth you
who will also do it. It's not I. It's Christ in me. The hope of glory. Not by works
of righteousness that we've done. According to His mercy. That
which He demands, He supplies. And He honors. How many times have we brought
up that illustration? Not the illustration, that scripture
concerning the woman that was taken with the issue of blood.
She spent all of her money. If I could but touch the hem
of His garment, And the Lord had given her faith. He gave
her faith, faith to desire Him, faith to come, faith to want
Him, faith willing. In the day of His power, He made
her what she was, an object of His mercy and gave her faith. And by faith that He had given
her, she looked upon Him by faith. And it was hers. He gave it to
her. And she came and touched the hem of his garment. And he
told her, he said, Daughter, thy faith has made thee whole.
The object of your faith, that which he had provided. Man by nature, he's going to
have to have a new heart. He's going to have to have life.
God's people do believe. They do believe. They believe. They look. They eat spiritually,
believing Christ, believing on Him, trusting Him for His honor
and His glory and His praise and the good of His people. They
believe Him. They trust Him. And that's eating. That's eating and drinking. Except
you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you
have no life in you. As that woman at the well said
every morning, give me this bread. Give me this water. That's what
she said. If you knew who it was, you'd say, give me water.
You'd never thirst again. Only a believer understands that.
Let me ask you this. Since Almighty God has given
you a heart to believe Him, have you ever thirsted for any other?
No, you haven't. You've never looked to your works
of self-righteousness? You've never done that. Not since
He opened your eyes. Now I tell you, we struggle.
I know we do. But I'll tell you this, you see
Him and you look to Him and you trust Him. Now this evening,
we're going to actually, symbolically, we're going to eat of a little
wafer of bread and we're going to drink a little cup of wine
together. And this is what the Lord instituted for us to do,
the eating of His supper. And what we're doing is when
we eat of the bread and we drink of the cup, we do show, we remember,
we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. He has put away
the guilt of His people. Almighty God has shed His blood
in the cleansing of the guilt of His people. He's put it away.
And now, there's nothing that we lay claim to save His honor. Salvation is all of grace. So
while we eat tonight, symbolically is what we're doing. I know that
that's not the body and blood of Christ. I know it's not. It
doesn't turn into the body and blood of Christ. It's a symbol. It's a type. It's a picture. But it's that which we do by
faith in Him, in obedience to His command. As Brother Henry
told me one time, he said, there's no time that we're more or closer
to true worship than when we eat of the Lord's table. Boy,
that stuck with me. We're doing this out of His command
and obedience to His Word. I'll ask the men if they'll come
forth now. Let's eat and drink together.