I please God to bless us together
as we meditate in his word this morning. Let's turn to the Gospel
of John, chapter 6, and we'll read verses 67 and 68. The Gospel
of John, chapter 6, and reading verses 67 and 68. Then Jesus
said unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life." These words of Jesus were, of
course, spoken in response to the reaction of the people to
the words that Jesus had been speaking to them. And we read from that time, many
of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. And it was because of those words
that Jesus then asked the question to his disciples, will ye also
go away? And we may ask the question,
well, why was it that these people went back and walked no more
with him? The reality was that they had
been brought up to rely on that pharisaical religion which really
consisted of a religion of what we term religion of works. And
that means that they were to do this, and by their own works,
by their own deeds, they would merit eternal life. Of course,
that never was true, and never will be true. But nonetheless,
that was the Pharisaical way of believing things. And the
Lord Jesus, therefore, In this statement, he really breaks it
down and destroys such a theory, and tells them very clearly and
very succinctly that the favour of God is given to them. It's not something that they
can work for or something they can merit, but it is indeed the
wonderful and gracious and glorious gift of God. And he explains
the need they have of therefore being blessed with a spiritual
appetite for the things of God, and to not be only looking at
those natural blessings, because the Lord Jesus spoke to them
so very clearly about himself being the bread of life. And he gives them the important
illustration of their fathers who were given natural bread
when they were in the wilderness. They were provided with manna.
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written,
he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Now that satisfied their
natural body. But Jesus was going much further
than this and was pointing out to them the need they had of
spiritual meat, spiritual food, and how they were not able to
obtain that by their own works. But it was the gift of God and
it was because of that that many of the disciples went back and
walked no more with him. And therefore that brought about
this question, will he also go away? Now, we should be concerned
ourselves therefore that we are not relying upon anything that
we have produced ourselves. We might classify that as the
works of the flesh. Well, what we need is not the
works of the flesh, although of course I'm not speaking against
doing good deeds of course and those things which are advocated
in the Word of God, but we should not rely upon them for our salvation. And we should therefore desire
to have the evidence of what the Word of God describes to
us as the fruit of the Spirit. And that is the work of God's
Spirit in our heart and the effect that that work produces. Now
the work of God in our heart will direct us to the Lord Jesus
Christ, will direct us to our need of a saviour, to show to
us that we are not able to justify ourselves are not able to give
ourselves salvation but that we need that salvation which
is indeed the gift of God. And the Lord Jesus therefore
in this long statement really to the people, the multitudes
and also to his disciples spells out so very clearly the need
there is of this spiritual food and he tells us He says, this
is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat
thereof and not die. And this means we will not die
spiritually, but we will be blessed with eternal life. And he tells
us what that is. 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." Well,
we know that the Lord Jesus Christ did come into this world and
he gave himself as a tremendous sacrifice in order to pay the
price to take away our sins. There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gates
to heaven and let us in. It's only through what the Lord
Jesus Christ did in that sin-atoning death that can save our souls
and deliver us from that eternal death, deliver us from that eternal
state in hell. And so how important it is that
we are not amongst those who go no more with him. And it's important for us to
recognise that this is not just in an outward way, because people
might say, well, I'm not going to church or chapel anymore.
There may be those who turn away from these truths in their heart.
And what that really means is they stop up their ears. They don't really want to hear
the truth of God. They don't want to accept it,
and therefore they try and stop their ears so they cannot hear
the glorious truth of the everlasting gospel. Well, the Lord Jesus
is a mighty Saviour, and how thankful we are for that. But
you see, as the Lord spoke on these words, the Jews And of
course the Jews are illustrative of many people today. The Jews
therefore strove on themselves saying, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Well, in a physical way, of course
that is not possible. We are not partakers physically
of the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is in a spiritual
way and in a spiritual way as we are blessed with that believing
that Lord Jesus Christ did give his flesh, he gave his body in
order to atone for our sins. And he did give his flesh and
the Lord Jesus then speaks very clearly and again in words, difficult
for our natural minds to assimilate and these Jews, they couldn't
understand it. Many went back. And what he said
was this. He said, very, very I say unto
you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you. Well, what does that mean? Because
physically we cannot do that, but spiritually we can do it. As we meditate upon the great
blessing which we possess in the faith to believe in the death
and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now as the Lord
gives us that faith to believe and how necessary it is that
you and I are blessed like that. And so the Lord Jesus tells us,
Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And that surely should be that
which we are really concerned about, our eternal life. When we finish our natural life
on this earth and we enter into that eternal state, to have the
evidence that it is well with our soul and it is only and it
will only be well with our soul as we are spiritually partaking
of the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord goes
on to tell us, for my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me and I in him. That means there is that
uniting to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are one with the Saviour,
one with Him, in Christ. And so the Lord says, as the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that
eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread. which
came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna, and
are dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live for ever." Well, the Lord therefore really hammers
home this truth to these people by drawing the analogy of that
natural manna and the spiritual food, and what a tremendous distinction
there is. And it would be a wonderful blessing
For us today, if we appreciate and realise and understand in
our hearts the great difference between being fed to our bodies
and receiving food for our souls. The food for our bodies will
do us good while we live. The food for our souls is eternal
blessings which will be ever with us. And so how important
for us to have that realisation that we do possess the life of
God in our soul as we rejoice in what the Lord Jesus Christ
has done in giving his life in sacrifice upon that cross at
Calvary. so that we might be blessed with
the gift of feeding upon that flesh and blood of the Saviour
by faith as we meditate upon it and are thankful to know that
today we have a risen Saviour who is seated in the right hand
of God in glory. Well, many of those who heard
this When they heard this, they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can understand
it? Well, naturally, our minds cannot
really understand it, because these are spiritual blessings. But these are the vital things. We haven't come here this morning
Or at least I hope we haven't come here this morning just to
receive that which feeds our mind. I hope we've come here this morning
to receive that which feeds our soul. Now, there will be no feeding
to our soul if we are spiritually dead. A dead body doesn't want
food, does it? And my friends, a dead person
spiritually doesn't want spiritual food. There's no inclination,
there's no desire, there's no need. They're dead. But my friends, may we have the
wonderful evidence that we are born again of the Spirit because
we are hungering and thirsting after these spiritual blessings. and to realise, therefore, that
the words that Jesus spoke here so many years ago are so, so
appropriate for you and me today, so, so necessary. And our great
concern as we gather together for worship is to receive spiritual
food for our eternal souls, and that spiritual food must be centred
in and on the Lord Jesus Christ in his great work, in his finished
work, in the wonderful work which he performed, and the great sacrifice
that he made in giving his life, his flesh and his blood, so that
we might receive this wonderful gift of eternal life. Well, the Lord went on. Because these people had said,
this is a hard saying, who can hear it? The Lord knew what they
were thinking. And he knows what you and I are
thinking this morning. We're sat here in chapel, and
only God knows what you're thinking. I don't know. The person next
to you doesn't know. But God knows what you're thinking,
as God knew what these people were thinking when they said,
hey, these are hard things. And what did Jesus say? He said,
doth this offend you? Do these things offend you? Do
you not really want to hear them? You think, well, I can't understand
this, and it just seems illogical to me, and I'm not really interested,
and I'm just going to turn off. But what a blessing you see if
we possess the life of God in our soul, which therefore hungers
after spiritual food. And Jesus said, what and if ye
shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before. It is
the spirit that quickeneth." It means it's the spirit that
makes alive. It's the spirit of God that makes alive. You
and I cannot make alive our own soul. It is the spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. Your old nature won't profit
from this. No, in actual fact, the result
will be that your flesh will receive that which is the opposite
of blessing, because we're told about that which is crucifying
to the flesh. We are to mortify our flesh,
we are to put to death our flesh, and we are to seek after that
which is indeed truly blessing and truly spiritual. The Gospel of Luke tells us about
the great blessing and the great benefit of being favoured with
taking up our cross and the Lord Jesus said, if any man come to
me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters ye and his own life also he cannot be
my disciple and whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after
me cannot be my disciple. That's very clear words, isn't
it? And how people ignore the Word
of God. We are, as God gives us that
grace to every day take up our cross, that which the Lord has
given us to carry, to take up our cross, to bear the cross
and come after him. What a mercy then, if we are
blessed in that way. And so the Lord says, it is a
spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
No, it will be a crucifixion of our flesh, which won't be
easy for you and me. But you know, what would it be
the effect? We would have the answer of a
good conscience. A good conscience. We won't have
a nagging conscience which keeps on knocking us and reminding
us that we aren't being a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a mercy if we have the evidence
of this Spirit making us alive and realizing that there's no
prophet to our flesh, the words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit and they are life." Now, I want you to remember that,
the words, because we'll come on to that in a moment. The words
that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. And
it's the words of God which will feed our souls, which will do
us real and eternal good. And he says, but there are some
of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believes not, and who should betray him. And
this sets very clearly before us the sovereignty of God, which
many people today hate, they turn away from, not realising
that they have no ability in themselves to save their souls,
and how dependent we are upon the great work of God in making
our souls alive. And so therefore, the Lord says,
for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not
and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given
unto him of my father. And that means you and I need
the blessed drawing power of the Holy Spirit, so that we cannot
claim any righteousness ourselves, we cannot claim any ability ourselves,
so that we cannot be proud in what we've done, and we have
to come and give all the honour and all the glory to God for
his great work in saving our souls, in redeeming us from the
wrath to come, in being so gracious to us, so merciful, what a wonderful
thing it is this morning, if the Holy Spirit shows to us that
we have the blessing of this life in our souls because he's
given it to us and therefore we are hungering, we are thirsting
after this spiritual life, we are desiring to eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of God. Such great and glorious
truths were not acceptable to many of these people, and therefore
we're told many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. And then the Lord asked this question, will he also go
away? Well, will we go away? Will we
go away? The Lord knows what's in our
heart, what's in our mind. If we plan to, well, I'm going
to go away. I'm going to leave, I'm going to do this and do that.
Jesus asked the question, will you also go away? Well, the disciples'
spokesman, Simon Peter, he gave a good answer. And he gave this
answer, Lord, to whom shall we go? Whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And the Lord does have the words
of eternal life. And it's only the Lord that has
the words of eternal life. So will you also go away? No, said Peter. Where shall we
go? There's nowhere else to go. Thou
hast the words of eternal life. You see, Peter desired to remain
with the Lord, desire to remain indeed with the disciples. And what a wonderful favour it
is for us if the Lord gives us that same desire, that same spirit
indeed to be found with the people of God, with the Church of God. Remember, no doubt you do, the
little book of Ruth. And there was a wonderful example
of the sovereign grace of God. That was Naomi, and there was
her husband Elimelech who'd left Bethlehem, they'd gone down to
the land of Moab, they shouldn't have done it nonetheless, they
did, God ordained they should, they went down there and with
their two sons Marlon and Julian and they married wives and the
three men they died and the two wives were left with Ruth the
Moabitess and as Naomi came and She spoke these words, and she
said to her daughters-in-law, turn again, my daughters. Why
will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in
my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters.
Go your way from him. Too old to have a husband. If
I should say, I hope, if I should have a husband also tonight,
should ye also bear sons? And so, having said that to her
two daughters-in-law, They lifted up their voices and wept, and
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and Ruth claimed unto her. Ruth remained. Ruth stayed. Will you also go away? Well,
what was Ruth's testimony? You see, Nehemiah said to her,
Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people and
unto her gods. Return now after thy sister-in-law. Much encouragement, wasn't there?
Ruth to be and to remain in that place of Moab and to go back
there, but no, she gave this wonderful testimony, entreat
me not to leave thee, or to return for following after thee, but
whither thou goest I will go, where thou lodgest I will lodge,
thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God, where thou
diest will I die, And there will I be buried, the Lord also do
to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. Well, will you also go away? No, said Ruth, she's going to
cleave to Naomi. That was the blessing of the
Lord. And what a favour it is for us
if we desire indeed to cleave to the Church of God, the things
of God, the blessings of God. And so, as Peter responds in
this way, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And there are many other illustrations
in the Word of God to encourage us. You remember the days of
Joshua when Joshua was testing the people and he spoke to them
with regards to would they follow the Lord and he asked them the
important questions and he told them, as for me and my house,
You know, we will follow the Lord, and the people agreed that
they would. And Joshua said, you have said
today that you will indeed follow the Lord. And so, was that really
staying in that place? Will you also go away? No, they
wanted to hear the words of eternal life. Well, what a wonderful
blessing it is, you know, if we have a concern to hear the
words of Eternal life the words of truth the words of the gospel
Which is food and drink to our soul the words of God Is that
what we've come to hear this morning come to hear the great
and glorious truth of God as it may Speak to our hearts and
speak to our souls And we're filled, you know so many truths
in the Word of God that direct us to the wonderful blessing
of the words from the Saviour. In the book of Job, there's a
lot of instructions often said in the book of Job, and in the
23rd chapter he tells us, neither have I gone back from the commandment
of his lips, I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than
my necessary food." Now that's a very grand and very glorious
and very wonderful statement. And to be blessed with that same
concern and desire that Job was able to speak here. He gives
us, indeed, very similar to what the Saviour spoke. The Saviour
was speaking about the natural food, the manna, and the spiritual
food, and Job's speaking about the same here. And he says, I
have esteemed, he counted it, the words of his mouth, the words
of the Saviour, the words of God, more than my necessary food. That really puts our religion
in a very tight context, doesn't it? Most of us are pretty keen,
aren't we, on natural food, and we perhaps look forward to it. And I wonder if you and I today
are looking more forward to our dinner today than we are spiritual
food here this morning. Well, it would be a wonderful
blessing, wouldn't it, if we can acknowledge what Job says
is true, and it echoes our heart's desire, the words of his mouth. The words of the Lord Jesus. There are so many words. We have
direct quotations. In one sense we can say the whole
Word of God are the words of Jesus, but there are many direct
quotations of the Saviour himself. And are those words precious
to us? Do they attract our soul? Is our heart on fire because
of these wonderful words of the Lord Jesus Christ? to think what
the Apostle Peter was able to declare are indeed true. But
when he said, and note this, and we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Now then,
if we're desirous to truly hear the words of the Lord Jesus,
is it Because by His grace we believe, believe and are sure. What a mercy, isn't it? To have
that confidence. Often people speak about an assurance,
but the wonderful evidence and the consolation of the work of
God in our hearts is to assure our conscience of its part in
the Redeemer's blood. We don't want a religion where
there's no assurance. We don't want a religion which
always doubts the work of God. Those that honour me I will honour,
and those that despise me shall be in lightly esteemed. And we
are not to despise the work of God. We are not to despise the
words that he may have spoken to our hearts. No, but on the
other hand, we are to honour him for that which he has done,
and that which he has spoken, and not to pretend. Some people
seem to think that by pretending they don't know, it's a sign
of grace, when it's not. You see, grace is the evidence
of the work of God in our hearts, that they may know me, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. And I believe
people, the child of God, if he's actually put in a corner
and faced with the truth of God and has to come down to the very
deep and important confession as to whether we believe or whether
we do not believe. We may have to come like that
man whom the Lord Jesus spoke of when he said, Lord, I do believe,
and he said, help thou mine unbelief. What he meant by that was he
didn't want to have a heart of unbelief. He did believe, he
didn't want to have a heart of unbelief. That's a good desire,
isn't it? That you and I might be blessed
with real spiritual believing, and we believe, says Peter, and
remember he's using it here, you know, for his other brethren. We know, of course, that Judas
wasn't. And we believe and are sure that
thou art Christ, the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, confirming really
what he's spoken previously, he says, have not I chosen you
twelve? And then he says, and one of
you is a devil. Such a statement, and such the
evidence of it, is a very solemn, very solemn thing. You think
of Judas Iscariot. None of his disciples realised
that he was an unbeliever. He'd gone out. They still didn't
really realise that it was Judas who was the traitor, he was an
unbeliever. It's a very solemn thing, isn't
it, to be what we might consider described as a hypocrite in Zion,
a hypocrite in the Church of God. Somebody who pretends to
be a Christian but is not one. Well the fact is that those who
pretend do not really rejoice in the words of God. They do not really rejoice in
the glorious plan of salvation. They may act it, but there's
no movement in their hearts. There's no blessing in their
soul. There's no softness there towards the Saviour. There's
no real rejoicing in what Christ has done. There's no true believing
in the Word of God. There's no more assurance that
what Christ has done for them is an eternal blessing and they
are complete in Him. Well, what a mercy this morning
then if we rejoice indeed in these great and glorious truths.
And you know God's servant Jeremiah, dear old Jeremiah, what a hard
life he had, didn't he? But you know, what a blessed
revelation he had in so many ways in his spiritual life. And he tells us in the 15th chapter
of his prophecy, and he says, Oh Lord, thou knowest, and he
does. Isn't that wonderful? Remember
me and visit me That was a good prayer, wasn't it? Remember me
didn't want to be forsaken and revenge me of my persecutors
Take me not away in I long suffering know that for thy sake I have
suffered rebuke and then he says thy words were found and I did
eat them when you can't physically eat a word. Can you? But spiritually
he did, and spiritually you and I can. And so here was Jeremiah,
thy words were found and I did eat them. And what was the effect?
What did it do for Jeremiah? What did it do for us? Thy word was unto me, the joy
and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord
God of hosts." That was a humble, but it was a very true word and
a wonderful expression of the faith given him to believe these
great truths. And we see how Jeremiah, a man
who had many difficulties and many oppositions, yet here was
his faith and here we see the reality of his religion. Here
we see what was really counting, what he really needed was to
be able to enjoy this communion through the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Thy words were found and I did
eat them." You know, when the Lord sends a word and we find
it and it's so suitable to our spiritual life, how encouraging
it is. We know God has spoken. God has
applied the word. It's from Him. Will He also go
away? To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. What does Jesus say? Also in
this same gospel, he speaks very gloriously. He gives that wonderful
illustration of my sheep hearing his voice. My sheep hear his
voice. Remember the parable, he comes
down and he tells us, my sheep, And if we are God's sheep, and
how we need to be, there's something very positive. My sheep hear
my voice, hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. One thing is
clear, is it not? If by the grace of God we are
His sheep, what would be the evidence of that? Hearing His
voice. Hearing His voice. My sheep hear
my voice. And I know them. And they follow
me. They don't wander somewhere else.
They don't go somewhere else. No. They follow the Lord. They follow me. Oh, my friends,
may that be our loving concern, to be found a true sheep, having
heard his voice, to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. Well, the Lord gives to such
this great blessing of eternal life. Oh, what an evidence. What a wonderful favour. to receive
this gift of eternal life and to know that we shall never perish. Our eternal life is secure because
none of Christ's sheep are lost. None of Christ's sheep are lost.
What a mercy it is to realise such wonderful favours as that. And so, as Peter says, Thou hast
the words of eternal life. Well, may you and I be blessed
to have the favour and the blessing of these words being spoken to
our hearts. Again, the Lord Jesus speaks
about the truth of these things, and in the fifth chapter, he
says, Very, very I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." Another evidence
of the life of God in the soul. Here we have it. He that heareth
my word, And that means that the Word of God has come into
our mind and has penetrated down into our heart and had a true
and gracious and blessed effect. Very, very I say unto you, the
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. If we've heard
the words of the Son of God. If we've heard the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we know that we possess the gift of eternal
life. My friends, we're here this morning,
I hope we're here this morning, to hear the words of eternal
life. And therefore, in answer to this
question, will you also go away? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Amen.