May it please God to bless us
as we meditate in his word for a little while. Let's turn then
to the chapter that we read, the Gospel of John, and reading
chapter 6, and we'll read verse 27. The Gospel of John, chapter
6, and reading verse 27. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, But for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for him hath God
the Father sealed. When the Word of God speaks of
meat, it really means food. And that food can have reference
to a literal food, or also to a spiritual, we might say abstract
food. So we should recognise that truth
as we consider these words this morning. Well, these were the
blessed words of the Saviour. Of course, He'd already spoken
to them. the need they had to seek this
food. And he told them, the previous
verse, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because
ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and
were filled. We read in that chapter of that
miracle when the 5,000 people were fed, beside women and children,
and just through those five barley loaves and those two fishes.
It was an amazing miracle. And obviously the people were
filled with that food because they took up 12 baskets of the
loaves which remained. And so there was a wonderful
evidence of God's goodness to them. And there was therefore
that temptation that people were now coming and seeking to see
the Lord because of that. So Jesus very quickly tells them,
you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you
didn't eat of the loaves and were filled. And then he goes
on to speak and says, labour not, the meat or the food which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed." So what we observe very clearly here is
there is that food which perishes And there is that food which
is eternal, which endures unto everlasting life. And I'm sure
it's not difficult for us to understand the vast difference
between these two statements. And it's obvious that naturally
you and I work and we are to work and we're called to work.
And whenever we can, I know at the present time, many people
can't. But nonetheless, it doesn't alter
the truth of these words. And we're told to labour not
for the meat which perisheth. But we're not to just stop there
and then sit down and say, well, I haven't got to work, I just
carry on and I just absorb my life in the way that I want to,
to enjoy myself, in this world. No, the Lord very fittingly and
very importantly then instructs us to hear these words, but for
the meat we are to labour, for the meat which endureth unto
everlasting life. So in both cases there is labour. labour naturally for our food
that we have day by day, and for other things perhaps we work
for, for our natural lives. But we should realise that all
these things will perish. We ourselves naturally will perish,
we shall die, and our bodies will return to dust. But the
other thing is of course we have a never-dying soul which lives
forever. And that really is the crux of
this statement. We should be so much more concerned
about the condition of our never-dying soul, whether that is receiving
spiritual food, or whether we are barren, or whether we have
no spiritual food, and all our energies are concerned with the
food which perishes. as we view the world today, as
we see the great concern there is for natural food, the food
which perisheth. By comparison, there is really
little desire, little concern to partake of that spiritual
food which endureth unto everlasting life. But it may be in God's
wonderful providence that he may turn men and women and boys
and girls to realize that this is a perishing world, and that
they are perishing, and that the food that they partake of
is perishing, and that the Lord might turn their hearts to seek
unto him that they might indeed then be more concerned about
that which is spiritual. What a mercy it is if God comes
then through perhaps the situations which we find ourselves in to
direct people to look beyond the things of this natural world
in which we live. You know the Solomon, who was
a very wise man and blessed with much ability, God gave him glorious
wisdom. And in the Proverbs, we read
in the 23rd chapter, in the fourth and fifth verses, he says, labour
not to be rich. Cease from thine own wisdom. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon
that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves
wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven, and we're really
observing that in the day and age in which we live. We see
the economic situation is very dire, and we see naturally, therefore,
the riches of men and women being diluted, in some cases, of course,
disappearing. And so how true then these words
are, that they are labor not to be rich in the things of this
world, to cease from our own wisdom, but to earnestly desire
that God would be gracious to us and enable us to labor for
that which endureth. Endureth, not one that perishes,
but one that endures. Well now, we have to remember
that the Lord has told us here that there is labour. In all labour there is profit. And it is a labour with regard
to our spiritual situation, our spiritual life. There is the
need to read the Word of God. There is the need to read the
Bible. There is the need to pray. Both of these situations involve
labour. It doesn't just come, it involves
labour. And sometimes they're very difficult. Sometimes they're not easy. Sometimes
there are many distractions that come into our lives, which turn
us away. from reading the Word of God
and praying, and sometimes we are distracted in our reading,
and sometimes we are distracted in our prayers. And so we see
these words are so appropriate, really, there is that labour,
labour for that spiritual food which endureth unto everlasting
life. And of course, Isaiah the prophet
speaks about us spending money for that which is not bread in
the 55th chapter of Isaiah verses 2 and 3 he says wherefore do
you spend money for that which is not bread your labor for that
which satisfies not hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which
is good and let your soul Here's a relevant point. Let your soul
delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Hear, and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of David. Isaiah tells us very clearly,
we're spending our labour for that which satisfies not. Things
of time, the material things which we do have to labour for
to live in this world, but they should not be our God. We should
be more concerned as the Lord says, and these are the gracious
words of the Saviour, that we're not to labour for the meat which
perishes, but, it's a very important but, isn't it, for the meat which
endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give
unto you, for Him hath God the Father sealed. So we see then
that this blessed meat, which is given by none less than the
Son of Man, none less than the Lord Jesus Christ is that which
you and I should be laboring after, seeking after, and this
is eternal food, and this is that which endures forever. What does it mean? It really
means, as this chapter tells us, it means that we should be
found feeding upon the Lord Jesus Christ. That doesn't of course
mean physically feeding upon him, but it means spiritually
feeding, as we may consider and recollect and meditate upon all
that the Lord Jesus Christ has done, and all that the Lord Jesus
Christ means to you and me. and the great blessing that God
gives to us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see how
many people have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. My
friends, it's a great blessing if the Holy Spirit has given
us grace, his free and merited favour, to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Without it, We are lost. We need the wonderful blessing. The Lord Jesus said, by I said
unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not. See, they had, the people he
was speaking to, had physically seen the Lord Jesus. They'd seen
some of his miracles, and yet they did not believe. Now, you
and I today do not have the wonderful benefit of seeing Jesus physically. But it's a great mercy, and it's
a needful mercy, that you and I, by faith, behold the Lord
Jesus Christ as our Saviour, that one who has died upon that
cross to redeem our souls. Now if the Lord then gives us
that faith to believe, We shall desire that we may know much
about the Lord Jesus Christ and that we may feed on the Saviour
as we meditate on what He has done. We can go through this,
you think of it, the Lord Jesus Christ in His life. What a wonderful
life Jesus lived for that short time on this earth, a sinless
life. in a sinful world. He didn't
succumb to the temptations of Satan, hard as they were. No, he rebuffed the devil and
he quoted scripture to him to prove that the temptations that
the devil was bringing to him, he should not obey because it
was contrary to the Word of God. We today have the Word of God,
and in the Word of God we have the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have a wonderful example
then of all that Jesus did on this earth. He went about doing
good, day after day, tired he was, nowhere often to lay his
head, and yet he was willing to do the will of his Father.
was willing to do that which was for the honour and glory
of his father and to do that which was for the salvation of
the souls of all his people. So we can read the life the Lord
Jesus Christ when he was on the earth. And of course we can come
to the last period of his life, which should indeed be such a
wonderful strength and blessing to our soul, our spiritual soul. This spiritual food will produce
life within and strength within we may continue against all the
opposition which we are bound to face his sufferings you know
the lord jesus christ he suffered greatly didn't he and why did
he suffer greatly you know why to atone for our sins to take
away our sins the great uh position was that jesus came into this
world to save sinners. Now the Apostle said, of whom
I am chief. Well, it's a good thing this
morning. Although it's a beautiful Sunday morning, if the Holy Spirit
comes and convicts us that we are indeed sinners of the earth
before a holy God, and we are not righteous ourselves, we are
unrighteous, And we deserve to be cut off. We deserve to spend
eternity in hell. And that's not a very pleasant
prospect, is it? But when the Holy Spirit convicts
us of our sin, it shows to us that God is just in that conviction. And He would be just to condemn
us everlasting punishment in hell but all the glory of the
gospel is this spiritual food which endureth unto everlasting
life and this spiritual food is to be found in the lord jesus
christ in his sufferings in his sufferings and in his death his
sufferings were so tremendous Coming up, of course, to that
time at Easter, that we remember specifically the crucifixion
of the Saviour. And we remember specifically
the agony that He endured in the Garden of Gethsemane. And
all this was done in order that our souls might be saved. And that we might, therefore,
as we journey on in our life here, be blessed with this labouring
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life. These
things sometimes we may agonise over because we don't seem to
be making any progress. Almost we seem to stagnate in
the things of God. Well, the encouragement is for
us today is to labour on. He has to labour on, to pray
on, to pray on, to read on, and to read on, that Lord will indeed
reveal Himself unto us as He does not unto the world. And
He will revive us again, and He will touch our hearts, and
He will show to us the glory of this great salvation. The
glory it is to be a child of God, to be one who is born again
of the Spirit of God. And it's nothing that you and
I have done of ourselves, but it's this great and glorious
gift. But for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. Oh, you and I must receive this
gift. You know, you can't work for
it. You can't say, well, I think I've done these things and therefore
I really deserve it. Naturally, we can work for things
in this life and sometimes they're awarded to us, but not in this
case. Because you see, the reason is,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. There's nothing
good in themselves. We are totally dependent upon
the mercy of God. We are totally dependent upon
what Lord Jesus Christ has done. And we are totally dependent
upon this great and wonderful gift of everlasting life. But my friends, it is essential. It is essential, all of us, need
to receive this everlasting gift. Now this may involve a lot of
labour and prayer, perhaps long nights, perhaps long days, crying
to God that he will come. that he will reveal himself unto
us as he is not unto the world. He will show to us that he has
died upon that cross at Calvary to redeem our souls, notwithstanding
all our sin, notwithstanding how ever bad and evil we have
been. Yes, there is a glory a wonderful glory in the cross of Christ. And so to think of this this
morning, this is this spiritual food, this spiritual meat, which
endures unto everlasting life. These spiritual blessings, they
won't fade away. No, they're eternal. Natural things, natural food
passes away, perishes. It must. in our lifetime, or
when we die, or when the end of the world comes. It will all
perish. Nothing will remain. But, bless God, if you and I
have been a partaker of this spiritual meat, this spiritual
food, which will not perish because it is everlasting. And that means
exactly what it says. It is everlasting. So God has
graciously come and given us some spiritual food. And that
means some union with himself. That means some joy in our hearts
because of what Christ has done. joy because he has called us
out of darkness into that marvellous light of the gospel and he's
brought us to Calvary and he's brought us there to see him suffering
on our behalf He bore the punishment instead. Feeding on Christ is
the most precious and wonderful experience, and it is outside
really of nature. because it is that which is spiritual
and it is that which God comes and gloriously gives. What a
wonderful favour for us today to think on these things and
to realise the great truth of it, for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. you might remember in the 10th
chapter. of John. The 10th chapter of
John is a very beautiful chapter. Of course, it speaks of the heavenly
shepherd. And what a wonderful thing it
is to have a great and a glorious shepherd, a heavenly shepherd
like we do. And no doubt, you young people,
when you had the Bible study, meditated upon the heavenly shepherd. And what a blessing it is to
know that we have a heavenly shepherd. And in that chapter,
that 10th chapter of John, the Lord Jesus speaks in great and
glorious words. In the 27th verse, He says, My
sheep, those who He gives this gift of eternal life, My sheep,
hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. This is the
picture given to us in the Word of God. And I give unto them
eternal life, and they shall never perish. neither shall any
man pluck them out of my hand." You see, there is that safety
in Christ. The devil will not be able to
pluck you out of his hand. No one will be able to. What
a mercy, therefore, if we know the evidence of being one of
the sheep of Christ. And so he tells us, he said,
I give unto them this great gift of eternal life. Well, may we
receive it. May we know we received it. Because
you will recognize the work of God in your heart. Because all
things will become new. Old things will have passed away. Those things which were very
attractive, perhaps, to your nature, you realise now, are
not so attractive. They are not so attractive because
the things of Jesus have taken their place. Because now God
has blessed with this new life, this new desire, new outlook. Now, instead of just looking
for those things which perish, God enables us to labour for
those things which are everlasting. And there's a vast difference,
isn't there? A vast difference, I often say. There's no comparison
with time and eternity. And yet you would think mankind
recognises that time is more important than eternity. Well, it's the complete opposite.
And what a great blessing if The Lord Jesus Christ is made
precious to us so that we feed upon His life, we feed upon His
sufferings, we feed upon that which He endured for us. It's very humbling to think that
the Son of God, none less, the second person in the Trinity,
was so willing to come into this world. to leave the throne of
glory which he inhabited with his father from eternity, to
come down to this sinful world and to suffer and to bleed and
to die on our behalf in order to atone for all our sins. These things are not trivial. These things are not something
which are irrelevant. They are very, very relevant
for us today, and it is a blessing if they become more relevant
to us as we go on passing through life, that Christ becomes more
precious, precious far than all life and all its comforts are,
because, you see, they perish and they pass away, but the things
of God are eternal. Well, we should never forget
the Word of God speaks so clearly about the sufferings of Christ. We read the Gospels, we come
to the end of all those Gospels, clearly set forth is the cost
of our salvation. And we must never minimise it.
We must never think it's a little consequence. It is a great consequence. It is very important. And it
is wonderful, wonderful indeed, to think and to realise that
Almighty God, Almighty God, none less, came down in order to redeem
our souls. from all our sin. What a great
blessing it is to know this, the sufferings that he endured. He suffered on our behalf. He endured the punishment instead. Well, this is spiritual meat. But, says the Lord, labour for
that meat. which endureth unto everlasting
life. Yes, it endures. It endures. Our spiritual life will endure.
There'll be oppositions. There'll be battles. There'll
be hardships. But you see, there will be that
enduring, because we are not enduring in our own strength.
We're enduring because of what Christ has done. enduring because
he finished the work that his father gave him to do. There's
nothing left. The work is complete. It's finished
on our behalf so that by the grace of God one day we shall
be with the Saviour in glory. And so we can feed upon Christ
with regard to his sufferings upon Christ as we listen to His
words in Gethsemane, as we listen to His words on the cross, as
we listen to His words when He rose from the dead. They are
all precious words. They are all food to the soul.
They are all that which is blessed with this encompassing word,
everlasting life. Oh then, so as we think of these
things, do we rejoice in them? Are they that which we love to
meditate upon, or do we just pass it by? Do we just read it,
shut the Bible, move on to something else which is more interesting
to us, something more attractive to our nature? Well, bless God
if the things of God are more attractive to us than the things
of nature, and that we can see in them a great and glorious
glory as it sets before us the Lord Jesus Christ in his death
and in his resurrection. You know, this is food for the
soul, is it not? Because Christ has died. He rather is risen
again. He's risen again. And because
of that, our hope is built upon a risen Saviour. It's not a Saviour
who died, not a Saviour who failed, a Saviour who did the will of
His Father and laid in the grave those three days and then rose
again. a conqueror, a conqueror. And the great blessing is, and
this is food for the soul, that we shall conquer through him,
through him, not our own ability, but through him. So to be so
thankful that he has risen from the dead, and not only risen
from the dead, but has ascended into glory, Yes, he went out
of Bethany and he was taken up into heaven. And as the angel
said, this same Jesus will come again. Oh, he will come again
in all his glory at the end of time. His resurrection and his
ascension and then today his intercession. Well, is this not
food for our souls, which endureth unto everlasting life? This is
eternal life, as we think about the Lord Jesus Christ now today.
So humbling, isn't it, to just think that Jesus today intercedes
for us as we pray to Him. Our prayers are presented to
our Father and His Father by the Saviour. Yes, he's entered
into glory through his own blood shed upon the cross at Calvary. In Old Testament times, the high
priest could only enter into that holy of holies once a year,
and not without blood. The Lord Jesus Christ could not
enter into the holy place in glory without blood, but there
he went in with his own precious blood. and therefore He presents
our prayers unto His Father in glory. Intercession! Isn't it wonderful as we can
come and pray to our God and believe, this is a great blessing,
to believe that our prayers do enter Him. See, if we don't believe,
if we doubt this, well, there's no real prayer. But if God gives
us that blessed gift of believing that our prayers do enter in,
then surely we can rejoice in this great truth and thank God. But what does it do? It's spiritual
food and labour for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life. The believer's life is one of
labouring. The believer's life is never
easy. Do you know why? The devil was standing at our
elbow, trying to turn us away from the things of God. He doesn't
want us to pray. He doesn't want us to read the
Bible. He doesn't want us to speak about the things of God.
He wants us to do the opposite. He wants us to speak about the
things which perish. Well, bless God. if you and I
are possessors of this great and glorious gift of everlasting
life, which, praise God, the devil cannot remove, he cannot
take away, because it is that which God has given to us. And so we read, which endureth,
it gives us a clue, doesn't it? Endureth unto everlasting life,
which the Son of Man shall give unto you, for Him hath God the
Father sealed." Yes, the wonder of it is God the Father has sealed. God the Father hath sealed. He's
designated and appointed the Lord Jesus Christ to be the Saviour,
to be our Redeemer of His people and has sent and authorised and
commissioned him as such wonderful truth and has made him known
and approved of him by the descent of the Spirit on him and by the
voice from heaven. You remember, a number of times
there was this voice from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. glorious evidence from heaven
a glorious evidence from his father that he was doing the
father's will and it's recorded in the word of god for our encouragement
today that these things are true these things are sealed these
things are not mythical they are those things that you and
i can rely upon And in the day and age in which we live today,
with great distress and not knowing what the future holds, to realise
the Lord God still lives and reigns. He lives omnipotently. Everything is under his control. The Lord doesn't change his mind,
doesn't change his views. He knows his divine purposes,
which are for his honour and for his glory. What a blessing
if you and I realise that as we journey on. The Lord sits
in glory and all things are occurring in accordance with his divine
purpose for his honour and glory and for the salvation of our
souls. Yes, you and I are passing through
this world. This is not our rest. This is
not our home. We're on a journey. We're on
pilgrimage. And we should expect, therefore,
to face difficulties as we journey on. But what a wonderful prospect
we have. Is this not spiritual food for
our souls to realise as the Lord Jesus Christ has given us this
great gift of eternal life? Therefore, by His grace, one
day we shall be with Him in glory, with the saints of God, eternally. Yes, and those things won't perish. They won't fade away. They are
the same as Jesus himself. The same yesterday, and today,
and forever. Well, may you and I meditate
on these great truths and bless God for them, that we are partakers
and may we all be partakers of this spiritual food. In this
chapter, which we can go on and read, it reminds the people that
the fathers, Israel of old, they ate manna in the wilderness. Did it give them eternal life?
No. They died. They died. They're
dead. God gave them manna naturally. They died. But you see, he gives
that spiritual bread from heaven, wherewith we live and never die. And that spiritual bread, that
spiritual food is centred in the Lord Jesus Christ. So may
you and I today think upon his name, meditate upon his name,
rejoice in what he's done and praise our God for his wonderful
faithfulness unto such unworthy and unfaithful children unfaithful
people, we can be thankful then that we have such a God who gives
us this glorious gift of everlasting life. Well, may the Lord be gracious
to us and enable us to not labour for that which perishes, but
indeed labour for that meat, that spiritual food, which endureth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you. May you and I be in that name,
you, given to you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Amen.