I got to hear that two weeks
ago. That was good, wasn't it? It goes right in line with what
I've always said, or what I've been saying a lot of lately,
and that is that everything, everything, everything, from
the beginning of creation till right now, has been put in place
so that you and I will be right here where we are this day doing
exactly what God would have us to do, brother, and that is worship
and praise His name. Our devotional this morning is
once again another article from Pastor Gene Harmon, and he writes,
and he titles his article, If so be ye have tasted that the
Lord is gracious. That's in 1 Peter 2.3. And Pastor
Harmon writes, Absolutely no one will desire the sincere milk
of God's Word, His Gospel in other words, if they have never
tasted that the Lord is gracious. Sorry, I saw something out of
the corner of my eye. Let me start that again, please. Absolutely
no one will desire the sincere milk of God's Word, His Gospel,
if they have never tasted that the Lord is gracious. This tasting
must be a personal experience. Others can talk to us about God's
grace in their lives, how from their own experience they have
tasted that the Lord is gracious, but until our Lord is pleased
to cause us to thirst and hunger after His righteousness. Our taste buds will only hunger
after the things of this world, after a righteousness of our
own. But when the Holy Spirit strips
us of our own filthy garments of self-righteousness, He will
give us a true hunger for the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
When our minds are enlightened to see that Christ is our righteousness,
then we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Then we will
desire the sincere milk of the word, God's gospel, that we may
grow hereby. Pastor Gene Harmon, would you
bow with me please? Heavenly Father, we We cry out this morning for you to give us that thirst. Not a single child of God can
look back on their lives without seeing that there was a time
when we all walked according to the course of this world. desiring the things of this world,
desiring things that tickle our ears, building ourselves up to
think we're something, building ourselves up to think
we have a righteousness of our own. And as we see what we once were,
as we sing in that song, once we were blind, We see, Father,
that the sight that You have given us is a gift from You.
It's not anything we've done. It's not anything we can do. The new birth, the miracle of the
new birth must come from You, Lord, and we praise You and thank
You for giving us this new birth, for giving us this faith, a faith
to believe Your Word. You say in John 3.16, Whosoever
believeth in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, shall have everlasting
life. We know, Lord, that the only
reason we believe is because You have loved us from before
the world was. And because of that love, You
sent Your Son to be our propitiation, our payment, our sacrifice, our
scapegoat, leaving us with only our praise
for You, Lord. As we go into Your Word now,
the Word of our Savior, we ask, Lord, that You would open our
eyes and our minds and our ears to the truths therein. And we
ask this in His name, the name above all names, Christ Jesus.
Amen. Turn with me once again, if you
will, to the book of Philippians, chapter 2. Once again, we're looking at
a letter that Paul wrote to the Philippians out of gratitude
for them sending financial spiritual prayers, a minister of the gospel
to him in his time of need while he was under house arrest for
preaching the gospel, the good news, the word of God. And Paul has expressed his appreciation
to these dear saints and gone on further than that to give
them encouragement. Paul, he's just like you and
I, he knew it was going to happen. He knew that the gospel would
be attacked, the good news, the sovereignty of God would be attacked
by the world. The world doesn't like a sovereign
God. I didn't want somebody ruling
over me. I was about the most rebellious
kid you can think of, and I won't embarrass myself by sharing with
you the stupidity I had as a child. But I rebelled against my parents. I'm sure none of you ever did that. I could never picture you
ever doing that. Well, maybe just a little. The world does not want a sovereign
God ruling over them. That's why free will gospels,
that's why those who preach another Jesus, a One who is waiting on
them to do something. Come down to the front and say
a prayer with me and you'll be saved. Or get into the waters
of baptism and that will save you. Or worship on Saturday and
that will save you. Or speak in tongues. Have you
ever heard that? Have you ever heard anybody do
that? I heard it once. God help me never to go into
a place that ever does that again. That is the most strangest thing
I've ever seen. There's only one way. Only one. Hear this well. You cannot get
there on your own. You must be brought. You must
be called by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. All must be taught of
God. That's God's Word. That's not
mine. That's not what I'm here to tell you. That's what our
Lord tells us. And because Paul was teaching
the very Gospel of who Jesus is, let's look again, if you would,
chapter 2 at verse 6 and 7. And while you're looking there,
let me remind you of what it said in verse 5. It said, let
this mind be in you. Let this mind that Christ has
be in you. In verses 6 and 7 of Philippians
chapter 2, we read this, who being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men. There is our Lord and Savior,
100% man and 100% God, God in the flesh. Every minister of God should
get to that very point within the first few seconds of his
message. Lord help me not to forget that
very thing. Paul was preaching that God provided
Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the elect as we saw in verse
8. And being found in a fashion as a man, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Paul was preaching that God the Father exalted His Son because
of His perfect obedience, because of His perfect sacrifice, because
of the perfect blood of God Himself. God the Father exalted His Son
to where He is this moment, sitting on His throne, working all things
out after the counsel of His own will. Look at verses 9-11,
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow of things in heaven, Well, let's not stop
there, and things in the earth, and in fact that's not the end
of it there, and things under the earth. Whatever you can think
of, our Lord rules over it all. Time! He created it for that
very fact to rule over it. And that every tongue should
confess. that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. That's what Paul preached, and
he was thrown in prison for it. Paul was exhorting the brethren
at Philippi as a whole, as a group of people. You know what the
word church means? It means congregation. It means
called out. It means a group of people that
were called out of the religions of the world and called into
the light of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That's what we are. Oh, brother,
you are so right. There is a church on every corner.
And God has not called out every human being. Look how many are here this morning
to hear the truth. You mentioned Tom Sawyer in your
Bible study. I told you that your Bible study... Folks, I'm telling you, if you
weren't here for Bible study, you missed. You missed. That was a good one. Thank you, brother. He spoke
about a man who used to attend here named Tom Sawyer. Tom was
a very wise man. He had been to I believe he had
a few degrees, didn't he? Yeah, he was like a professor
or something, I think. He was your teacher. He was my
teacher. Are you serious? I did not know
that part about him. He was your teacher. Wow. So Tom... I lost track of him
all those years until I came here and he was sitting here. Wow. So in other words, Tom was
older than you are. I'm sorry about that. He mentioned
Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer was a very knowledgeable
man, a very educated man. And he came here and he heard
Pastor Gene speak the true and sovereign gospel of Jesus Christ
the Lord for the first time. And he had listened to Gene,
and he said, man, that's more sentient than I've ever made
out of scriptures. And he said, but you know what,
I'm going to put you to the test. And I don't know if I'm saying
this exactly how Pastor Jeanswood says it better, because he was
actually the one being said, too. But Tom says, I'm going
to go look. And I'm going to test. And he
did. He went out and he checked all the churches, all of them,
around this area. And not one church did he hear
what he was hearing right here at Rescue. And I'm not trying to say this
is something It's big and it's only preached right here in Rescue.
I know of a church in Marysville where it's preached. I know a
church in Danville where it's preached. I know a church in
Madisonville. God's churches are spread out
all over the place, but they're usually very, very small congregations. The Lord is not revealing His
Word to the whole world. And I share that with you this
morning to remind each and every one of us, to remind myself of
the grace of God in sharing His Word with me. Do we realize the love of God
for taking us out of that world, out of the things of the world,
and seeing His love for us magnified? That's what this church had experienced,
this group of people, these who were called out in the city of
Philippi. Paul was addressing them as a
group of people called out of this world and the world's religion
called to Christ by the holy calling. An effectual calling. An irresistible calling. When
our Lord speaks, He doesn't speak with a maybe or a might or a
possibility. He speaks with surety. Come, follow Me, is what He said
to His disciples. Come, follow Me, is what He said
to each and every one of us here today who belong to Him. We may
have not heard it in that exact word, but that's how He spoke
to our hearts. Come, follow Me. And with power,
we came and followed Him. In verse 5, He is telling them,
let that same humility that is expressed by our gracious Savior
be seen in you. Let the same attitude that was
in Christ be ours. Let Christ be our example of
humility and lowliness of mind. If our Lord thought it not wrong to be a servant to those
that He created, should we not think of ourselves to be servants
to each other? Oh, Lord help me. Help me to put the pride of John
Reeves aside and remember what I truly am before a thrice holy
God. Today we want to pick up at Philippians
chapter 2, verses 12. Would you read with me through
verse 16? Philippians chapter 2, verse
12. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye
have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much
more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and
trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Do all things
without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless and
harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke. in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life, that I may rejoice in that day
of Christ that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. Now in verse 12, what we're reading
there is, wherefore, in other words, staying with our subject
as an example of Christ, since you have heard my teachings,
is what Paul is saying, and have obeyed the exhortations of God,
whether I preach them to you in person or in letter, is what
he's speaking of. He says, work out these Christian
attitudes, these principles, which are called your salvation,
not just for the salvation of your souls, but for the deliverance
of the church from strife. We should strive for these very
things in the body of church. Folks, we're all of the same
body. Christ is our head. One of us may be an arm or a
finger. I know, I look like the toe, but
that's okay. That's alright. We're all of
the same body of Christ. We're all in Him. Part of the same. I'm so thankful that our Lord
keeps us together. Do what we must in fear and trembling
doesn't mean that we do it in the fear of men, but in the reverence
of the One who has instructed us. Unlike some, some fathers are
to be feared. My father was to be feared, especially
when I did things wrong. Go get the willow, son. That
was scary stuff. But I also had the reverence
for my father. That's what I'm talking about.
I knew that if I needed to be taken care of, he would take
care of me too. Well, folks, that's how our Lord
is. If we need to be taken care of,
He will take care of us. He has promised it. So, has He
not? I shall never leave you, nor forsake you. Is that not
God's Word to you and I? In verse 13, this attitude of humility
and this spirit of love and unity are not of our own doing. Paul
declares it to be the doing of God. who energizes and creates
in us the desire and the ability to do His good pleasure. Oh, Lord, move my heart again. Move my heart as you see fit. He moves us to do His good pleasure. Our unity is His pleasure. In
verse 14, we read about doing all things without murmuring,
grumbling, or finding default, either with God or with the brethren.
And I found a poem that might go along this way. It says, Let
brethren all agree, and peace among them spread. Old and young,
rich and poor, are one in Christ their Head. Among the saints
on earth, let fervent love be found. Sons of our great God,
with common blessings crowned." I don't know who wrote that,
but it was good. And then in verses 14 and 15,
Paul is expressing to us a Christian unity, sincere love, humility
and care, and concerns for the needs and the welfare of others.
Just as we did with Shelby when Dawn passed away, we reached
out, Shelby, what can we do? What needs do you have that we
might ease your day with? The same thing with Sarah. Our
Lord has been gracious to provide her with all of her needs at
this time, but I'm ready I told our brother, Kevin Thacker, if
she needed a pastor to come down there, he's close there, so we're
thankful that she's thinking of him to be there. But if it
wasn't for Kevin, I would stop my time with Calvin. We'd just
cancel it and go, because that's more important. That's what people
do. That's what you do when you love
the children of God. Paul is expressing, giving encouragement
to the church to seek after the needs and the welfare of others,
all good things with accompanying salvation, whether civil, moral,
or spiritual. No matter how disagreeable it
might be to our flesh, we are to deal without murmuring against
the will of God or disputing among ourselves. Why? Why should we be that way so
that we may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, as
it says, in the sight of men, not in the sight of God? You
see, folks, in the sight of God, we are pure and clean already. God the Father looks upon us
perfectly as his son. When our Lord died on that cross,
when His blood was shed, it washed every sheep of God white as snow. There's not a blemish in them. I don't ever get tired of hearing
that, because I just walk out that door and forget about it
in two seconds, and remember what it is to be in the flesh. We are blameless before God.
In Romans 8.1 it says, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Our condemnation was laid upon
the one who has made a curse for us. Our sins, every one of
our sins from beginning to end, have been laid upon the one who
has made sin, he who knew no sin. Do you ever get tired of hearing
that? Absolutely not. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit. In Christ we are
the sons of God. Paul is saying that our attitude,
our conversation, our conduct before our brethren and the wicked
of this world should be such that they cannot charge us with
hypocrisy or insincerity. We are to be lights and examples
to those about us that they may see our good works and glorify
our Father. As it says in Matthew 5.16, Let
your light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. In short, let us speak and live
as sons of God. As we read in Romans 12, verses
1 and 2, I beseech you, Paul says to the Romans, I beseech
you therefore, brethren, I pray for you therefore, brethren,
be the mercies of God, by the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which
is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world.
Don't be like those who go out and consider God to be something
less than what He is. Remember in the reverence that
you should have for Him, God Almighty, Ruler of everything,
Creator of everything. Be not conformed to this world,
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye
may prove that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And
then in verse 16 we come to the main subject, the point that
saves a lost sinner, the point that keeps a lost sinner, the
point that sustains a lost sinner. Read with me if you could, once
again, verse 16 of chapter 2, holding forth the word of life. That will be my title this morning.
Would you turn now over to the sixth chapter of John. Paul was desirous that the gospel
would continue with the saints at Philippi. And that the gospel
would be proved by their actions. What's the greatest action you
could give? What's the greatest action that
could come from you to prove? Whosoever believeth. You see that verse in John 3.16
is very important. Unfortunately the world has taken
it and turned it upside down and made it something mean that
it doesn't mean. Whosoever shall believeth. in the Lord Jesus Christ. That
doesn't mean that you just believe that there is a Jesus. The devils
believe that there's a Jesus. They know. They know there's
a Jesus. But have you experienced it?
Has the Lord Jesus moved in and given you a new heart? Taken
out that old heart? That old stony heart that was
deaf, involved in this world? My title this morning is The
Word of Life. Paul's desire was that the Gospel
would go forth, the Word of God would go out, not in vain, but
in power. There is only one Word of Life,
and it is the Word of Christ and Him crucified. He is the
Word, as we read in John 1. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Folks, this
whole book is about Him. It's all about Him. In the beginning. In the beginning God created.
In the beginning was the Word and He was with God. He was God. In 1 John 5-7 it says this, For
there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And
I'm here to tell you this morning that eternal life can only be
found in one place, and that is in Christ Jesus, the Lord. Look, if you will, at verses
30-35 of John chapter 6. Some unbelieving Jews had just
followed our Lord looking for Him when they couldn't find Him.
When they finally found Him, they said, where did you go?
And our Lord said, labor not for the meat which perisheth,
but for the meat which endureth forever and ever. And He said
that right after saying that they sought Him because they
saw the miracles and did eat the loaves of bread and were
filled, and they were not seeking after Him for who He was. Then they said in verse 30, Therefore
unto him what signs showest thou then that we may see and believe
thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers
did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. And then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, now that means listen up. That means truth is
truth. Here's a truth coming at you,
you better listen to it. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. 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. This
bread that sustained God's people in the wilderness, a dry and
thirsty land, was provided from heaven. No one could deny it. Our Lord said this bread would
come and it came exactly how He said it would come. Isn't
it interesting that when our Lord does say something, He proves
it? And it happens exactly how it did. Remember the story? When
He sent the disciples into Jerusalem, He said, go in, find a man who's
carrying a pitcher of water, and He'll ask them, where shall
the master eat? And He'll take you to the upper
room, which will already be furnished. Remember that? That's exactly
how it happened, isn't it? There wasn't one single thing
left out. When our Lord speaks, oh, there's
nothing going to stop it from coming to pass. This bread was provided from
heaven, the same bread that sustained them, refreshed them each day,
just as the Living Word sustains His people this very day. How
can we get out of the things of this world? How can we shut
off what's going on around us. That
rips my heart out, folks. It really does, brother. You're
right. You can't get any truth out of
the leaders that run this country anymore. I'm starting to see
that we never got any truth out of them any time. Yet we got the truth right here
in God's Word. The Word of Life. And our Lord Jesus Christ is
Life Himself. This bread was nothing more than
a picture of our Lord sustaining providing for His people. He
didn't do it for all of those out in the wilderness. Many people
were dying in the wilderness of that day, just as there are
many people who are dying in the wilderness out there today.
Yet when our Lord brought them into His place in the wilderness,
out in the middle of a dry land, He fed them from heaven and they
knew that it was from Him. Each day we rise in the things,
we see His promises that He has made and His sovereignty in those
things, in those promises, and we see that they are made good.
We see His all-powerful ability to accomplish all that He says
He will do. We see His grace in making those
promises effectual. in making those promises effectual
to me, to you. Look now at verse 36
if you would. Our Lord goes on to say after
telling them that He is the bread of life, He says, but I said
unto you that ye also have seen Me and believe not. Let us not
forget that our Lord told some unbelieving Jews You hear me
not because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. Going on in verse 37, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. You knew I was going to
work that in his message somehow, didn't you? And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Why? Why? Because our Lord came
down from heaven in verse 38, not to do mine own will, He says,
but the will of Him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that all which He hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should rise it up again at the last day,
and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting
life, and I will raise him up the last day." It was the Father's will that
all that He gave to the Son should come unto Him, and He will lose
none. I ask you this this morning,
can anything thwart the hand of your God? Can anything keep
those for whom the Son shed his own blood from him? No. Romans 8, 38, we read this, for
I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us.
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." This
is the Word of Life that Paul so prays for these dear brothers
and sisters at Philippi. The Word of Life that God has
revealed the Word of Truth to them as He did Paul. You'll recall Paul, it was revealed
to him in such a way that he could not deny it. He was blinded.
He was blinded for three days. Three days, and then he had to
go down and hear a man preach to him so the shingles would
fall off of his eyes. Oh, Paul had desired this so
much for the people at Philippi. This is the word of life, that
Christ died for a particular people. A chosen people according to
His grace. Scripture says it this way, ye
sons of Jacob are not consumed. In Ephesians 2.8 we read this,
for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is a gift of God. But notice what happens next
in verses 41 and 42. The Jews then murmured. They murmured at him, because
he had said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they
said, wait a minute, wait a minute. Is this not, is not this Jesus,
the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it
then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Wait a minute, John. What are you talking about this
Jesus? Isn't this the Jesus that I just heard this other guy talking
about over here? Isn't that the same Jesus? The
guy whose mother is this and father is this and he's just
a man? What are you talking about? How
can you be sitting here treating him like he's God? Because he
is. That's exactly what he is. The world knows Him not. And you and I know what that
feels like. If you're a true believer and
a child of God, you know what it was like to be in that pit
that He drug us out of. That He pulled us out of. That
He reached down with His loving hand, got a hold of us, and pulled
us up out of it. We all remember. We know what it means to hear
these words, the world knew him not. The world likes the power
that they think they have, and they like the darkness that they
walk in, and you and I once did also. These folks who ask this question
in verse 42, they ask it because they don't understand the calling.
They have not been called out of that darkness. They don't
understand the sovereign word of life. They can't understand
it because they're dead in trespasses and sin. They are spiritually
dead. There is no life in them. Folks,
this is why we continue to preach the Gospel. There may be more
out there. There is more out there. Until
the last one is called out of darkness, as you said, brother
Mike, until that one is called, we continue to preach the Gospel
of Christ and Him crucified, because that's the power to salvation
according to God's Word. That's what saved me. What saved
you? The Gospel of Christ and Him
crucified. The power of God, just do and
perform and fulfill what He says He shall do. Three words, three words, and
I'll try to make this quick. Grace, grace, and grace. Brother Steve Doyle preached
that very message one time. That was a great message. Grace,
grace, and grace. It means God used to quicken. It's the means that God uses
to quicken his elect, to give life to the dead. He called us
by His grace. Now look at verses 43 through
45 if you would. Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man, here comes
the grace. Tell me if I'm wrong here. No
man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw
him. and I will raise him up to last
day. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me."
In Matthew 16, 13, we read this. When Jesus came to the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? You go out here and ask some
of these people at these other churches, I'll bet you get a
different Jesus at every church you go to. I'll bet you that
that's what Tom Sawyer heard. A different Jesus at every single
church he went to. And not one of them matched up
to the Word of God. The Word of Life. And they, his disciples, said,
some say thou art John the Baptist. See, there's one. And some say,
Elias. See, there's another. See, I
tell you, you go out to these churches, you'll hear a different
one. And others say, Jeremiah, or maybe just one of the prophets.
We're not sure which one he is, he's just one of those. And then our Lord said unto them,
but whom say ye? Whom say ye? that I am." And Simon Peter answered
and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the
Living Word, the Word of Life. Oh, how I hope and pray that
our Lord is taking His Word and placing it on your heart, teaching
you who the Son of God truly is, and that it might be in your
heart to say, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus' answer will be this,
blessed art thou. Blessed are you. You know, I got a conversation once
with someone about blessedness. Look how blessed this person
is. They have all this stuff. They're doing all these good
things. They're so blessed. There's only one true blessing,
folks. That's Jesus Christ. Without
Him, everything else is nothing. Heaven is where Jesus Christ
is. That's our blessing. Lord, let us never, ever, ever
get so wrapped up in what we have of this world that we forget
we are blessed of God because we know the Word of Life. Blessed art thou, Simon Bargione. or flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." We'll close by
reading verses 46-69, and I'll try to keep it to just a few
comments. Our Lord goes on to say, after
saying that no man can come to Him unless the Father draw him,
after saying that all must be taught of God, He goes on to
say, not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is
of God, He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am the 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 you 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? Oh, how
they must have recoiled against that! What do you mean, eat your
flesh? They didn't understand who it
was that was standing before them. They didn't understand that what
He's talking about is we live off of Him, off of His Word,
off of the Word of Life. All the things that go on in
the world around us mean nothing when we know who it is that rules
it all. And we know that Romans 8.28
says all things, all things are for our good. And then Jesus
saith unto them in verse 53, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. Really? You have no life in you. Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day, 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. 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 the bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever." The Word of Life. Verse 59, these things said He
in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Many, many, in
verse 60, therefore of His disciples, Many of those who walked with
our Lord that very moment heard this, when they had heard
this said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew
in Himself that His disciples murmured at Him, He said to them,
does this offend you? What and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where He was before? It is the Spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that
believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who that should betray Him. And He said, therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto Me except it were given
unto him by the Father. From that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him." Verse 67, Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, remember twelve, not eleven, twelve. Will ye also
go away? Then Simon Peter answered and
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. Where are you going to go? Are
you going to go to a place that hears all about what men do?
what man can do, what men might do, or are you going to go to a place
where Christ is Lord of all? That's what I want to hear. I
want to hear about my Lord and Savior and what He's done for
me.