I please God to bless us together
this evening as we continue our meditations in the Sermon on
the Mount and the sixth chapter of Matthew. And this evening
we'll just speak upon one short verse, and that's verse 11 in
chapter six, verse 11 in chapter six, where the Lord says, give
us this day our daily bread. I'm sure most of us are familiar
with such words as we've no doubt said them many times perhaps
in our life and the Apostle here recalls this as give us this
day our daily bread and in in the Gospel of Luke on the 11th
chapter We read that where the writer gives these words, give
us day by day, our daily bread. Really, it clearly sets forth
the continual requirement there is. The Lord will provide us
with the food that we need. And as we think upon these things,
often you know we, in our country, in our present day and age in
which we live, Well, we're thankful for the food that we do have
and as food is set before us and we give thanks to God for
it, it's good to do that. But how little perhaps there
is today in our nation amongst the Church of God of requesting
that the Lord would indeed give us day by day our daily bread. We know of course in years past
when there was a great need, great poverty, we didn't know
when the next meal was coming from and there would have been
then a very urgent prayer like this, give us this day our daily
bread and of course naturally how many answers there were to
those prayers. We can read on many occasions
when God wonderfully appeared. But now today, in the Western
world, to a large extent, there isn't that prayer, is there?
That God would indeed give us this day, our daily bread. We
know we need it, but perhaps there's a lack of prayer to this
end. And we read here that the words
are, give us. So it's a plural, it's seeking
really for not just the individual, but the Church of God, Lord would
provide the necessary food for them. And so he comes and says,
give us this day our daily bread. And again, it's our, it's a joint
situation to partake of this daily bread. And again, there's
nothing spoken of requesting very varied food or bountiful
different food, but seeking just simply that there may be that
provision of bread and it's good therefore to be satisfied with
the things that God sends and the things that God provides
for us and not to be seeking after those things which perhaps
are not needful it's very easy to set a lot of store on the
food we eat and spend a lot of time in perhaps preparing and
a lot of time in looking forward to partaking of food and yet
here we have this very simple statement which tells us give
us this day our daily bread and therefore it's a good thing if
we are able to pray for that you know Israel when they went
through the wilderness they didn't have variety did they but God
provided for them And it was to them the bread of heaven,
it was manna. And every day there was that necessary provision. And we know of course there were
those times when they rebelled and got fed up with it, but nonetheless
they had to partake of it and they had to receive that grace
to be willing to have it for those 40 years. And we need to
be reminded naturally of these things as we perhaps might sometimes
get disgruntled with the food that we have, And yet how wonderful
it is, the wonderful provision that we have today in our nation
and the facility to be able to purchase the food we have. But let us never forget then,
this prayer. It's an important prayer. It's
part of this very short prayer the Lord gave to us as he comes
and says, give us this day our daily bread. I'm sure that's
absolutely right with regard to the physical bread, the physical
food, the physical things that we need in our lives. But obviously
there is also a greater need and that need is to be a partaker
of spiritual food and we read together in that sixth chapter
of John where the Lord Jesus Christ speaks so very wonderfully
and very clearly about the great need there is that we might be
a partaker of this true bread from heaven and how he expounded
it so clearly by referring to the manor and of course he just
previously they had that wonderful feeding of the 5,000 there were
a great number of people fed and of course the people were
very satisfied with that and now they came to the Lord and
they were seeking to understand these things and so therefore
they came and they said our fathers did eat manna in the desert as
is written he gave them bread from heaven to eat well the Lord
realized what they were speaking of and what they were leading
up to but he cuts across them and he tells them very clearly,
verily, verily I say unto you, Moses gave you that bread from
heaven. But my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven." Well, we're thankful we do have natural
bread to eat, but what a blessing it is if we have a hunger after
the true bread from heaven. And Lord Jesus tells us what
that is as he expounds these words. Then said they unto him,
Lord, evermore give us this bread." They didn't understand what Jesus
was speaking about. They thought it was a physical
situation. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. What a very simple statement,
isn't it? But it's so foundational for
all of us to recognise the great truth that we need to be fed
naturally to live our life on this earth, but we also need
to be fed spiritually with that bread from heaven which is of
course none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, they couldn't understand,
of course, what it was to partake of the Lord Jesus Christ. They couldn't envisage what it
would be like to physically eat the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ
and to drink his blood. The Lord wasn't speaking in that
way. He was speaking of that need
to meditate and be fed in our souls. Our souls are spiritual
and the food, the bread of life, the bread of the Lord Jesus Christ
is spiritual. It's not something which is tangible
to our own nature. We can't actually pick it up
and eat it in that way. But what a blessing it is when
the Spirit of God comes and blesses us with real spiritual desires
after the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, they murmured, they
didn't understand what was being said. And they came and said,
is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother
we know? How is it that he saith, I came
down from heaven? Well, Jesus therefore answered
and said, murmur not among yourselves. No, we're not to murmur. No man
can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me, draw him." So we see in these statements which come
forth really following the feeding of the 5,000, the great truths
that the Lord gives to his disciples and gives to us today as we see
the need of this. No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me, draw him. I will raise him up
at the last day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God." Isn't that wonderful?
The whole Church of God will be taught of God, and the whole
Church of God will feed upon Christ. It's a wonderful consideration,
isn't it? To think that we, unworthy as
we are, sinners that we are, so undeserving, to think that
by the grace of God we will be drawn towards him and we shall
be those who partake of the flesh and the blood of the Savior.
The Lord comes and says, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. That's a great need, isn't
it? You see, we eat physical bread.
The Lord refers to the manner the Israelites ate and they were
dead, didn't sustain them, only for natural life they died. So he says, he that believeth
on me hath everlasting life, that's beyond our natural eating
of physical bread. And the Lord tells us so very
clearly, I am that bread of life. I am that bread of life. Oh,
that we might understand and it might sink into our hearts
the great blessing that Christ is. Your fathers did eat manna
in the wilderness undead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. Our
souls will live forever. Because we'll be partakers of
this heavenly food, this bread of heaven. And so the Lord Jesus
tells them again, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eats 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. when the Spirit of God shows
to us, our hearts, the great truth that the Lord Jesus Christ
gave himself for the life of the world, for the life of the
Church of God. And in giving himself, he died
upon that cross at Calvary and he shared his sin atoning blood,
and that's why really the Lord goes on to say, verily, verily,
I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink his blood, ye have no life in you. That means you and I
are spiritually dead. How needful it is then that we
come in this way and pray to God, give us this day our daily
bread. We need physical bread to live,
we need spiritual bread to live. And of course spiritual bread
is feeding upon Christ and His finished work, how that strengthens
our soul as we realise what He's done, how He left His heavenly
throne and came down into this sinful world to save unworthy
sinners and to give them the great and glorious gift of eternal
life, through his death, that Sinatonian death on the cross
at Calvary. And so the Lord says, he that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. Well, may we know something of
this indwelling of Christ within us. And to possess the indwelling
of Christ within us means that we are a partaker of this heavenly
food, this bread of heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, that
we might therefore through this be blessed with spiritual growth.
If people don't eat physically, if the child doesn't eat, physically
they won't grow. What a blessing it is if you
and I partake of this bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and grow spiritually so that we may grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Well, sure is much
to ponder on these few words. The Lord says, give us Yes, give
all of us, the whole Church of God, give us this day, our daily
bread, the need of it in a natural way and the need of it in a spiritual
way. Amen.