If you want to turn in your Bibles
to John 6, I hope you don't get tired of John 6. We could probably
spend the rest of my life here. While you're turning there, I
want to read to you a hymn. This hymn also was written a
long time ago, 1745. So most of the good music, or
good words at least, were written back then. I have to confess
that the problem with good music, or what I would say, music that
appeals to us, is that it sticks in your head. And usually it
has very bad words like, imagine all the people, you know, no
heaven above, no, you know, it's like, golly. No, let's not imagine
that at all. Anyway, this song is worth listening
to. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
Now when I was a kid, Jehovah's Witnesses would come around to
our door and we would argue with them and it was us and them and
my Arminian view of things and their cult view of things and
we didn't get anywhere. But it turns out that scripture
tells us who Jehovah is. It's not a laughing matter. In
the Old Testament, he gives his name over and over and over again
as Jehovah, but he doesn't give his name as Jehovah only or merely,
but as Jehovah with an appendix to it, such as Jehovah my shepherd,
the Lord is my shepherd, or Jehovah who sees and sees to it, Jehovah
Jireh. Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah my victory,
my banner, and we can just go down the list. Jehovah is there,
Jehovah my sanctifier, Jehovah my, the one who heals me. And
when you take all these and compile them together from the Old Testament,
you realize that, and Jehovah Tzimkidu, which means Jehovah,
our righteousness, you realize that Jehovah in the Old Testament
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And that blows my mind. that God, the Lord God, the one
who created all things, who is the sovereign over all things,
to whom all of us must give an account, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is God with us, Matthew 1,
23. And he said, I am the shepherd,
the good shepherd. And so we could go on and on
proving these things from scripture. The Lord, our righteousness,
is the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah. So he says, guide me, O thou
great Jehovah. Now we know who he's talking
about, Jehovah Jesus. Jehovah who saves us from our
sins, which means Jehovah Yeshua, which is Joshua's name, which
is Jehovah Jesus. That's a name in the Old Testament,
Jehovah Yeshua. Jehovah our salvation. So he
says, guide me, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this
barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty.
Hold me with thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more.
Open now the crystal fountain, whence the healing stream doth
flow. Let the fire and cloudy pillar lead me all my journey
through. Strong deliverer, strong deliverer,
be thou still my strength and shield. Be thou still my strength
and shield. And it goes on. I recommend this
song to you. Amazing, isn't it, how God has
given us these revelations from his word. I hope that the Lord would give
us, each of you and me, an understanding heart when it comes to this text
of scripture in John chapter 6. And I've entitled today's
message, Words and Works of Eternal Life. Words and Works of Eternal
Life. And I have some questions for
you. And these questions, I think questions are important to ask
because without questions, we sometimes just kind of drift
in our thinking, wondering, why are we talking about this? Why
are you saying that? Well, there's some questions,
important questions to be answered. And I want to get to some of
these questions so that when we look at these words and works
of eternal life, we have some reason why God has given us the
answers. And here's some questions that
come to my mind. Look at John chapter 6 and verse
68. Look at these words with me.
John chapter 6 and verse 68. Simon Peter answered him, Jesus,
Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. All right, so there's a statement. This is a statement. Peter made
it, but it's scripture. It's true. Christ has the words
of eternal life. And then look at verse 63 of
the same chapter. He says, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, that gives life and maintains life, really. It is
the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profits nothing. Your
flesh profits you nothing. The Spirit of God alone gives
life. The words that I speak to you,
they are Spirit and they are life. I read those two things to you
because the Lord Jesus Christ himself spoke them. He spoke these words. And what
he said, notice, what Jesus said in his words was about himself. Very important. Christ spoke. He spoke words. Those words are
spirit and life, and the words he spoke were about himself. He calls himself the truth. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. Everything he said was truth. He never lied. He couldn't lie. He's God. His word, he says,
is immutable, it can't change, and unfailing, it will never
fail. He said, heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my words shall never, never pass away. And he
spoke scripture when he spoke. Whatever he said was the word
of God. In fact, his name, who he is,
is called the word of God. And God has spoken by him. He
is the Christ, the anointed prophet. Moses said, a prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you. Him shall you hear. And in Isaiah
55, as we read a couple of weeks ago, God appeals to all of us
as those who waste our labor on trying to seek what is not
bread and spend our money for what doesn't satisfy. And he
says, incline your ear and come unto me. Hear and your soul shall
live. And you know the scripture that
says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So
the Lord Jesus Christ spoke words. Those words are eternal life.
They are spirit and they are life. And the words that he spoke
were from God and they were about himself. Now, if you understand
that, then maybe these questions will help you to, as you think
and hear what people say, and well-meaning people, people that
we often find that we love and admire for their ability and
what they have told us and taught us, and yet they say things that
are not correct. Here's the question. Can you
believe what Christ said and not believe Christ? Can you? Can you believe that he said,
I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger,
and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Can you believe
those words? and not come to him and not believe on him? Well,
the answer is no, because if you believe what he said, then
that means that you understand that he's the only life. He's
your life and you trust him. So can you believe scripture
and not trust Christ? Can you believe scripture? I'm
not saying can you know scripture. I told Denise, she knows this,
but when I was in college, I had a professor of history and I
took the class as I had to do to get my degree. She taught
a class on early American history and part of what she taught was
Calvinism. She knew it very well. She had read it and understood
it. We had tests and I flew through
the tests. I had straight A's in the class.
And she even read my paper because all the other poor children in
there had never heard of Calvinism and didn't know anything about
it. And I was well versed in it. But she said, I don't believe
it. And that was surprising because
she had a PhD, a philosophy, a doctorate in philosophy in
early American history. and knew and had read all of
Calvin's stuff and gave tests on what he said and believed,
but she herself did not believe it. So you can know scripture
and not believe it, but can you believe scripture and not trust
Christ? No, you cannot. Let me give you
another example. If you read documents that the
bank has published. And by reading those documents,
what the bank has said and told you about the bank, you've come
to the conclusion that the bank's documents are fair statements
of what they do, what they adhere to, their principles. And you
believe those documents are accurate and true. as much as men can
be true and trusted, you believe those documents and therefore
you place your money under the care of the bank. What have you
done? You believed the writing of the
people of the bank and you trusted them with your money, right?
So faith necessarily includes trust. You can't believe Christ
and not trust Christ. And you can't believe Christ
unless you hear his words. Now, I hope you understand that.
And his words are scripture. His words are eternal life. You can't, and let me ask you
this, can you know Christ? Can you know anything about him
without his words? Can you know Christ without scripture? I hope you say, no, absolutely
not, because there's no revelation of Christ except from scripture. And let me give you an example.
In 1 Corinthians 15, he says, I declare unto you the gospel
how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,
how that he was buried and rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. It's a statement of the gospel,
very concise, and in that statement three times he says, according
to the scriptures. So it must be really important
that God in perhaps 30 or 40 words would give us the gospel
and three times over would emphasize according to the scriptures.
So I'm making these questions, I'm asking these questions and
making these statements to help you understand that what scripture
says is what God said. And what Christ said is scripture,
and it's true, and it is the words of eternal life. We can't
know Christ apart from scripture, and we can't know Christ from
any other source than scripture. And this is another problem.
And this is why in the Reformation they said sola scriptura, or
scripture alone. Because the Catholic Church claimed
that they were the foundation of Scripture. They decided what
was and wasn't Scripture and all the other heresy that follows
that. And all the stuff that goes with it, where people depend
on their experience as a barometer or a monitor, a measurement of
their spirituality instead of what God says, okay? Now, I'm emphatic about this,
because the Bible alone is the Word of God, and the Bible is
God's Word, Scripture, and it speaks of Christ. Jesus said
in John 5, 39, search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life, because they tell you what to do and you're trying
to do it. But they are they which testify of me, and you will not
come to me that you might have life. So the scriptures are words
of eternal life, and they testify of Christ. So it's wrong then
to say that we come to Christ. Here's a statement that a dear
brother of mine who I still hold dear, will say, we don't come
to Christ through our doctrine, we come to our doctrine through
Christ. Now, it's a very well-meaning
attempt to try to make sure that we don't trust Christ apart from
anything but what God has said and is true. that we're not just
believing what some man said. But unfortunately, it does that
at the expense of the truth. It's like tearing out the tares
and pulling up wheat at the same time. You can't do that. God's
word is the only way you can know Christ. You can't come to
Christ unless he tells you who he is. You might say, well, I
know Christ. I don't care about doctrine.
I just believe Christ. Which Christ? Which Christ? Well, let me tell you, it's the
one who blah, blah, blah. Well, how did you know that then
from scripture, you see? So it's essential. He says in
James 118, of his own will begat he us by the word of truth. And faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
believes the gospel, the gospel of your salvation. So, so essential
that we understand this. Can you believe the gospel? Can
you believe the gospel without believing scripture? No. Can
you believe scripture without believing the gospel? No. Now
it's true that scripture did reveal Christ gradually over
the course of time and according to God's goodwill. But now the
scripture has been given and it's complete. Nothing needs
to be added to it and nothing better be taken from it because
it's God's word, but it speaks of Christ. Okay, do you understand
these things? Jesus said man does not live
by bread alone, but by every word of God. 2 Timothy 3.15 says,
the scriptures are able to make thee wise unto salvation, which
is in Christ Jesus. And in 2 Timothy 1, verse 9 and
10, talking about the salvation, it says, these things, life and
immortality is brought to light through the gospel. So the gospel
is a revelation of Jesus Christ. And there is life, the words
of life. And so when we read these things
today, we're listening to the words of life. And the words
of life are about him who is life. And that's very important. So that's the first thing I wanted
to say here. Scripture is Christ's words. Christ's words give us life. But they don't give us life unless
he applies them to us. The spirit gives life. That's
what he says in verse 63. It is the spirit that gives life,
that quickeneth the flesh. Your contribution profits nothing. When we were visiting in Southern
California, we saw our newborn baby, just three weeks old or
so, two or three weeks. Just a tiny little thing, and
helpless and delicate. And then we saw our other granddaughter
to the same parents, only one year old, and she's full of life
and talks about things. And I was thinking this morning,
what is a man? What is a man? Well, I think
a man is just a boy in a larger body. who has a lot of the same
fears and some of those fears have been suppressed by his manliness. Now he's able to deal with things
with broader shoulders and more determination and more physical
strength. And he has the same kind of childish
opinions about himself that he's probably capable of doing things
now, a little more capable than he was when he was a child. And
he has desires, and he has pursuits, and yet he has these fears. He has these needs, our one-year-old
granddaughter. saw that mommy was wrapping the
little baby with a blanket and swaddling the baby. And so she
got the blanket out on the floor and she laid on it. She wanted
to be swaddled too. You know what that is? That's
a grownup in a little body because we have the same needs as a little
child. And so when we think about this,
what we see here is the Lord Jesus Christ comes to us And
we may not think about it every day, but we live by food, by
bread, by drinking. And if we stop eating and drinking,
we die. It shows that we are not the
source of life. We cannot make our life continue. We can't make it happen. But
we have been given something by God, bread, food, drink. And He has designed these things
to show us that He provides. He opens His hand and satisfies
the desire of every living thing so that we might know Him as
our God and provider. And so as men, as women too,
we grow up, we have these things and we grew up, you know, wondering
how can I be accepted? We want to be accepted. We want
to be loved. We need it. And we suffer if
we are not loved and we become very backward and angry and introspective
and, you know, and scary, and we lash out. We do all sorts
of things because we are not getting what we need, which is
that acceptance and love. And so as I was thinking about
various things along the scripture line, I found this article. It
was written by a man whose name is Miss Thomas Brooks. I know
you don't know him, but he lived a long time ago. But he wrote
something that another preacher, Maurice Montgomery, quoted. And
it was so good, I read it to Denise. And I wanna read this
to you because it has to do with manhood. It has to do with bread
and life. It has to do with what Christ
is saying here in John chapter six. He says, I was reading,
this is Maurice Montgomery. He says, I was reading through
the works of Thomas Brooks the other day when I came across
a short paragraph that thrilled my soul. My heart said, this
is the gospel. This is my hope. This is the
only gospel for a sinner like me. Maurice Montgomery goes on,
he says, Mr. Brooks said, in this covenant,
which Brad just read to us, in this covenant of grace, now listen,
the Lord declares, think about yourself now, you're grown up,
you were once a child, all the same needs, and yet you've kind
of shielded yourself. You don't wanna be too vulnerable,
you don't wanna be shown to be weak, so you tighten your chest,
bulk up, you don't show any weaknesses. You hold back what you truly
are to others because if they knew what you really were, they
probably wouldn't accept you. And you need that, so you put
up a facade. Anyway, he says this, the Lord
declares that he will give, that he will require no more than
he gives. The Lord declares he will require
no more than he gives. And that He will give what He
requires, and that He will accept what He gives. And what can God
say more? Isn't that the covenant? I'm
going to require nothing from you that I do not give. I will give all that I require,
and I will accept and find to be very good all that I give.
What more can a sinner want? All of it is given in this chapter. He says in John chapter 6, in
John chapter 6, in verse 33, for the bread of God, let me
read the verse before it. Jesus said to them, verily, verily,
I say to you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. He
didn't give you the manna, God did. But my Father giveth you
the true bread from heaven." What does God require? All that's
contained in what He gives. Does He require more than that?
Nothing more than what He gives could possibly be required. Because in the Lord Jesus Christ
is God Himself. The fullness of the Godhead is
in Him bodily. And we are complete in Him. And there's nothing lacking.
It's in Him. Your flesh profits nothing. What is your flesh? It's all
that you are by birth. All that you are in yourself. Where is everything that I need
then as a man? It is in Christ. It is given
to us by scripture. by the word of God, and God the
Father sent his Son from heaven to be the bread of life. He says,
for my Father giveth you the true bread, not that typical
bread. Typical meaning manna represented
something, it signified Christ who would come. But they didn't
understand it, and so they just took it and ate it physically,
and it nourished them. They felt good, it tasted good,
and they needed it, obviously, because they couldn't live without
food. But they didn't see past that. They didn't see that this
is teaching me I can't live without Christ. And I can't live without
taking Christ by faith and consuming Him to meet all of my needs. because in him is all that God
could give to me and all that God requires. It is not in me,
it is in him. What a wonderful bread this is. He says in verse 33, for the
bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life
to the world. Now, these people, These people he
was talking to, they did not believe him. Look at verse 26. Verily, verily, I say to you,
in other words, amen, amen, I am the truth, and I'm telling you,
you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you
did eat of the loaves and were filled. Now, realize that what
he's saying here is that these people, they saw him perform
miracles of healing. They saw him perform miracles
of making bread. They knew he had somehow gotten
across the sea without taking the boat. And yet, they saw that
and they understood that he did these miracles. And yet, they
did not believe him that he was sent of God that his words were
true and that in him and in his words were life. So they didn't
come to him for life. You just want the bread. And
you know what? This describes us by nature. This is what we are. We just
want food. And by that, I mean everything
that's not Christ. I want a comfortable home. I want a secure financial position. I want what I want. I don't like
taking my time to do things for other people. I want to take
my time for myself. Or even if I do, then I want
it to be noted. I want people to recognize I've
done something good. You see, it's all about me. And
in our lives, as we're growing up as children into grownups
and men, we're pursuing something. I've got something I want. I'm
going to spend some time working to get it. When I get it, then
I'll be happy, or at least a little happier. I'll keep getting things.
Or maybe I'll have letters after my name so people will recognize
me and have respect me. I was weak, but now I'm not.
I'm intellectual. I've got strength. You see, this
is this is called pursuing things that are not life. Or maybe we
we hear. about God, and we know we have
to give an answer to Him. And we realize that He has set
down certain requirements of us. And if we don't keep those
requirements, we fall short of life. In fact, we find ourselves
under the justice and judgment of His eternal wrath. We think,
I've got to get out of that. I've got to please God. And so
we begin to try to do what He said. We want to toe the line.
We want to do whatever religion tells us to do. And maybe that's
praying through or something like that. Maybe it's confessing
all of our sins so we can say, I've confessed those too. I've
done what you told me to do. I committed myself. I became
a missionary. I learned. I got a theological
degree. I'm the pastor of a church. I'm
a deacon in it or whatever. I'm a wife and mother. We get
these things that we have to have in order to support this
need for life and all that's contained in life and prerequisite
for life. And we find out that we're laboring
and spending our labor and our money for what is not bread. It doesn't give life. It doesn't
last. We perish in the end and we grow old and we get weak and
our strength fades and our life begins to fade. And we wonder,
wait, what's happening? What have I gotten? How can I
have life? How can I answer God? Sin brings
death. What about my sin? I've separated
myself from God. I've deprived myself of life
and I can't get it back because I can't do what God requires. And we find ourselves angry at
everybody, especially ourselves, but we won't admit it. And we're
naked in the garden and God has spoken and we're ashamed. We
don't know what to do. And then, A light from heaven
shines on the words of God about His Son. And this is what God
has done. This is what God requires. This
is all God requires and has provided. It is in His Son. This is life. Don't labor for that. Labor for
this. And they said, well then, in
verse 28, they said, what shall we do that
we might work the works of God? And Jesus said, This is the work
of God. This is what you should do. Not do, but believe. You want to work. You want to
do what you've been trying to do all your life to gain eternal
life and all these things from God you need. You can't live
without, but you can't produce what you need. You can't get
it. It has to be given, and it is
given in Christ alone through the Word of God. That's the only
way this life comes to us, is through the Word of God. God
reveals His Son. And he tells us about him and
Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe on him
whom he has sent. Not your doing. You want to work? That's not the issue. You've
already failed. You have fallen short of glorifying
God and you've fallen short of receiving any honor from God
because you have sinned against God. And so Jesus answered and said
to them, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he has sent. In verse 29, they said, therefore,
in verse 30, what sign showest thou then? If we're supposed
to believe you, you've done all these miracles, of course, but
that wasn't enough for us. Give us a sign that we may see
and believe you. It's your fault that we don't
believe. After all, you haven't done enough.
I mean, we're the center of the universe, serve us, do something. What do you work? They said in
the end of verse 30. What do you work? That's a nice
cue up, isn't it? What do I work? And then they
go on about Moses. Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. They meant Moses. And Jesus said to them, verily,
verily, I say to you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my father giveth you the true bread. It's not physical. You don't eat it with your mouth.
It's spiritual. You eat it with your heart. It
is the Word of God. The Word of God is spiritual. And this is something we don't
get, do we? The natural man, what we are by nature, in our
unbelief, in our hostility, in our minds against God, our self-serving,
proud and arrogant and full of lust and lies and everything
else, hatred of God and hatred of others. We cannot understand God's Word. We can't receive them because
they are spiritually discerned and we're natural. The flesh
profits nothing. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It goes no farther, rises no
higher. But that which is born of the Spirit, that is life. Because it's Christ in you, He's
life. And so they said, what do you
work? Our fathers, they ate manna in
the desert. It's written, he gave them bread
from heaven. Jesus said, no, no, Moses did
not give you that bread. My father gives you the true
bread. He got he jumped over all the details of the manna
to get to the issue. Christ and him crucified. My father gives you this is the
father's work. You see, what did he do? He gave
his son. The bread, as the bread. He didn't
just give his son to talk or to stand there and look at. He
gave his son to be the bread. Verse 33, for the bread of God
is he which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
Now these men clearly didn't believe, did they? And they didn't
believe even after he spoke to them. In fact, look over at verse Verse 60, many therefore of his
disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying. It is way too hard. Who can hear
it? Jesus knew in himself that his
disciples murmured at it and he said to them, does this offend
you? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where
he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth
the word, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you,
they are spirit, they are life. But there are some of you, notice,
that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. So
there were some who didn't believe. Now he just said in verse 33,
he came down to give life to the world. But these people didn't
have life, did they? They were part of the world,
weren't they? They weren't part of the world Jesus is talking
about because he gives life to the world. But how could he give
life to the world and not include everybody? Because he is the
one who redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kindred,
tongue, people, and nation, out of the world. In other words,
the Jews thought, the Jews and no more, us four and no more.
But the truth is, no, it is not the Jews by nature, not the Jews
as a nation, but it's the people chosen by God the Father, given
to the Son, chosen by the Father in order to be His children,
and therefore given to Christ to redeem them and bring them
to God by His own precious blood. And so give them His Spirit that
they might know their adoption. They might be born of God because
Christ died for them. He removed the sin barrier and
He gave them the righteousness of God so that life was given
to them and they were qualified then to be the children of God
by the blood of Christ. Do you see that? There was a man when I was maybe
18 years old who wrote a hymn, a song. It was such a good song
that I was singing it this morning. And it's taken from Luke chapter
15, where the prodigal son, you know the story, I hope you know
that. A man had two sons. The man's younger son came of
age and he said, father, give me what's coming to me. And his
father gave him his portion. And he took whatever his father
gave him and he went out and wasted it on riotous living. And he found himself in a far
country, far away from his father. And all of his money ran out.
His so-called friends deserted him. He had nothing left, so
he sold himself to work for a pig farmer. And pig farmers are happy
being pig farmers. And so the pig farmer sent him
out to take care of the pigs, and the son couldn't eat. He thought, but he couldn't eat
the husks that the pigs ate. And while he was there, he said
in his heart, which of my father's servants have enough, don't have enough, but have plenty
to eat, and here I am. And he said, I will arise and
go to my father. And the song that I was referring
to goes this way. I will arise and go to my father
and I will say to him, father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you and I am no more worthy to be called your son. I am not worthy to be called
your son. and you know the gospel so I'll
get to the next verse of the song. Then Christ arose and went
to the father and he said unto him, their many sins are before
thee and upon me. And by my blood they are worthy
to be called your sons. Then the third verse says, with
great joy, God called across the heavens and he said unto
us, by his blood, you are worthy to be called my sons. By his
blood, you are worthy to be called my sons. You see, God the Father
gave his son to be the bread of life, the bread to his people,
the bread that gives life to the world, the world of his people,
out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. All of them
given to Christ shall have life. That's what verse 37 through
40 say. Listen to it. He said in verse 36, I said to
you that you also have seen me and believe not. And what he
says next is to address this apparent failure of God's word. But God's word didn't fail. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. There we have God's gift of his
people They were His. He chose them in Christ to be
His children, and He gave them to Christ to take away their
sins and to make them holy and without blame before Him in love.
And that is what He sent Christ to do. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. There won't be any failure. This
is my Father's work. Him that cometh to me Because
God the Father gave him to Christ, I will in no wise cast out. He
will preserve him, and he will give him all of the life his
Father gave that one to Christ to give to him, and he will never
cast them out. No, not for their sin. Verse
38, for I came down from heaven. The Jews asked, what work do
you do? Here's the work. I came down from heaven not to
do my own will. I didn't need to obey the law
for my own life. I came from heaven. I had life. I am the Christ of God, the man
God anointed with His Spirit to give life to His people through
His own sacrifice. I came down from heaven not to
do my known will as independent from God or as dependent for
life in obeying Him, but the will of Him that sent me, and
this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all, without
exception, which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. From the beginning
to the end, everything needed for our life was given by the
Father to Christ to do. And he did it. and he shall complete
it in consummate perfection when he calls for his people to rise
again on the last day. And they shall all rise, not
one of them will be lacking. Verse 40, and this is how we
know who was given to the Father. I mean, who was given to the
Son by the Father. 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 at the last day.
Faith in Christ is the evidence of life. Faith in Christ is the
evidence of God's electing grace. Faith in Christ is the assurance
of eternal life, now enjoyed by faith, and we will have it
in our body on the last day. The Jews then murmured at him,
because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
They said, is not this Jesus, a son of Joseph, whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he said,
I came down from heaven? Jesus answered and said to them,
murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me. How can he give us, how can he
have come from heaven? That's what they're asking. We
know who he is. No man can come to me. It's not
possible. It's not within your ability.
Except the Father, which has sent me, draw him. But doesn't
God influence everybody, and we just find faith? And if we
use that faith that we have by nature, then we're the ones given
then, and we identify ourselves as, and Christ, oh, look, surprise,
unexpectedly, here's someone who believes on me. No, no, no. Because that would make God's
will dependent upon our ability and our will and our work. And
God would be stealing credit for himself when he said salvation
is of the Lord's sins. No, it's not. It's of us. He's going to get all of the
glory. It will all be to the praise of the glory of his grace.
And we cannot come except where the Father draws us, which he
does with cords of love, I've loved you with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And I will
raise him up at the last day because the Father brought him
to me. It is written in the prophets, this is what scripture says,
and they shall be all taught of God. That's universalism.
All of God's elect are taught by God as their father. They
are his children and none of them is lost. He brings them
to Christ. They learn the lesson. Every
man, therefore, that has heard and learned of the Father comes
to me. The lesson is, go to Christ. Verse 46, not that any man has
seen the Father, it's not physical sight, save he which is of God,
he has seen the Father. Verily I say unto you, listen
to this. He that believeth on me has present
possession everlasting life. I am that bread of life. That's
what Jesus is saying here. He is so explicit and clear in
what he says. It can't be construed unless
we have a bias that favors our work or our glory in the process,
or we have this bias against the sovereign rule of the Son
of God and the Son of Man. Because sometimes we think, well,
if God is sovereign, well, that puts me at a disadvantage then,
because He's the one who decides. It's His will, not my will. Well,
that's true. He does decide. And it is true. It's His will, not my will, that
saves. And it's Christ's work, not my
work. And that makes me vulnerable and absolutely dependent upon
God who's sovereign. And that's a good thing. You
see? Because you're lost and ruined
and helpless and you can't come. But God in His mercy and for
His namesake has found a way in His power to satisfy His justice,
even to magnify His justice to the highest extent possible.
by showing mercy in Christ to sinners and saving them when
they were undeserving and completely dead in sins and unable to save
themselves, unable to believe, and he did the work. So God's
sovereignty is not something to be afraid of. It's something
to embrace with a glad assurance that because it's all on Christ,
even I, this sinner, can be saved by him. and therefore come to
him and look to him for this life and depend on him like I
depend on food only more so and take of what he said and eat
it by faith consuming him as a needy sinner and he giving
virtue out of himself as fulfilled as the savior of sinners. That's
the Father's will, given him to do, and he's satisfied with
it. I am that bread of life, the
living bread. Verse 49, 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. You're thinking about life. Short,
I'm talking about everlasting life and everlasting bread. I
am the living bread, which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread," now
notice, here's a new thing he hadn't yet said to them, the
bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for
the life of the world, same world. The Jews therefore strove among
themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said to them, Verily, verily, I say to you, notice,
he reinforces their concern, except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And
that seems offensive, doesn't it? Eating his flesh, drinking
his blood. Because the truth of God is often
spoken in a way that makes it dear to the believer and objectionable
and a stumbling stone to the unbeliever. They didn't believe. He told them what is most precious
to His people. Christ in Him crucified, the
Savior of sinners, who by His death has satisfied God and answered
every requirement for my sins and fulfilled all of my obligations
in righteousness and clothed my nakedness and took away my
filth in His precious blood, and I now I trust him as my only
sin bearer in all of my righteousness and therefore my everlasting
life. He's precious indeed in these
words. But to the unbeliever, all they
see is yuck. How could he be so gross? Flesh
and blood. What kind of a weird person are
you? This is a good justification
for leaving this man. He's talking nonsense and This
is ridiculous, we've never heard this. Verse 54, whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood has eternal life and I will raise
him up at the last day. Now notice, eating and drinking
is answered in verse 47. He that believeth on me has everlasting
life here. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood, in verse 54, has eternal life. Same thing, right? I will
raise him up at the last day. Verse 55, for my flesh is meat
indeed. In fact, without his body broken
and his blood poured out in answer to God for our sins, we would
have no life. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood, notice, dwells in me and I in him. Can you get any more intimate
than that? Can you have a relation more close than that? The one
who believes Christ and Him crucified as all of His sin bearing and
righteousness, obedience in all of righteousness that God requires
from me. He is the one God required for
His people. He's the one He looks at and
says, that pleases me. And the believer says, that pleases
me because he pleases God. Don't we? This is what faith
is. And we're like, man, this is
good. I love this. This is the best
food I've ever had. You can take away all that I
pursued as a young child and as a man in my grown years and
all my fears and all my needs. And you can find all of them
met in the Lord Jesus Christ. I have perfect peace and full
rest and joy unspeakable because Christ is everything. All that
God requires of me, he himself provided in his son and did it
in his death. That's why he's reigning, because
he accomplished the work. If it offends you that Christ
in His humiliation speaks of eating His flesh and drinking
His blood in an allusion to faith in Him, how much more will it
offend you now when you see the Son of Man, whose body was broken
and blood poured out, sitting on the throne of glory and coming
in the clouds of heaven to give everlasting life to all those
who trust Him? How much more offensive will
it be to you then? That's what he's saying in verse 62. Does
this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man
ascend up where he was before? Know this, it's the Spirit of
God that gives life. Your flesh profits nothing. The
one who takes of Christ by faith dwells in Christ, and Christ
dwells in him. That's the only way we could
actually eat of him, is if he dwells in us. But we experience
this in believing Christ. We experience it because in believing
God's word, in taking of Christ by faith, we say, the Lord is
everything. He's enough, even for me, even
for me. In all my sin, He's everything. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. You sent your son, you gave your
son, then you drew your people, you taught them and they learned
the lesson, you brought them to Christ. You have highly exalted
him. And the Lord Jesus Christ came.
He came to do the will of God, and He did it. He laid His life
down, and He taught. He preached the gospel of His
own saving work, and His own saving life, and His righteousness,
and His blood, and everything that He did in order that we
might have life, and everything He now does in order that we
might continue in this life, that He would uphold our faith.
What a Savior. Truly our God is great. His majesty is great. His power,
His mercy, His justice, everything about Him we find so attractive
in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great God. What great
truth. What great words of eternal life. Lord, don't let us depart. Hold
us near. Draw us close. Feed us daily. Give what you have said from
your word. Cause us to understand it. And live upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. In his name we pray. Amen.