If you want to turn in your Bible
to John chapter 6, please. I've entitled today's message,
Not That, But Christ. And you'll see why here in a
second as we turn there, John chapter six. I just want to read
a couple of verses here in John six with you, beginning at verse
26. If you remember what happened
here at this time, Jesus had fed the 5,000 and then he crossed
the sea, which we looked at last week. He sent his disciples into
the ship And then he himself went up into a mountain to pray,
and the disciples were on the sea rowing against the storm.
And then he came to them on the water walking, and they were
afraid, and he spoke to them and said, it is I, be not afraid.
And then he himself arrived at the other side and the people
who were on the side where he was when he gave them bread wondered
where he was, so they got in ships eventually and they came
to that side and they found him. And this is the setting of verse
26. Let's read this at verse 26.
He says, I'm sorry, it says in verse 25, when they had found
him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi,
When camest thou hither? When did you come here? Verse
26, Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you
did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? So they wanted
to be able to get this bread and even make this bread, perhaps
for themselves and for others. Verse 29, Jesus answered and
said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom he has sent. All right, that's what I want
to look at today. And you can see in verse 27, he says, don't
labor for meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures
unto everlasting life. In other words, not that, not
that meat, but this meat, which he explains is himself. The Son
of Man shall give you this. If you look at verse 33, he says,
for the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life to the world. And then in verse 35,
Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. All right, so when we consider
these things, I'd like for you to, I want to ask you a question. And I want you to think about
this very carefully. It's a simple question. But it's
probably the most important question that we can ask. And this is
the question, I think, the answer to this question determines what
people do in this world throughout history. And so the answer to
this question, misunderstood, is what is the problem of all
of history. That's why it's so significant
here, so important. And the answer is this. What
does God require of me? What does God require of me to
accept me and to give me life? So there's the question. What's
the answer? Well, I'll give you three. I'll make it a multiple
choice. The first question, I mean, the
first answer is a complete obedience to God's law. So that's option
one, that's A. If you're taking a multiple choice
quiz, you're giving these three choices. To this question, what
does God require of me to accept me? God, what does God require
of me to accept me and to give me life? And the first option,
the first answer you might choose is a complete obedience to God's
holy law, okay? The second one is, the second
answer to the question, what does God require? What is the
basis on which God can accept me? The second option you have
to choose from is faith in Jesus Christ. And the third option
is something else. Okay, you know how multiple choice
quizzes go. They usually say A, B, and then
other. So those are the three options.
Complete obedience to God's law. God is the basis on which God
can approve of me and accept me and give me life. Is that
the answer? Complete obedience to his law?
Or is it my faith in Jesus Christ? Or is it something else? Maybe
you have another option you think of. So your answer to this question
will show you whether you believe the gospel or not. The answer
to this question will help you understand the importance of
this text of scripture today. Okay, so A, complete obedience
to God's law. B, faith in Christ. These are
the basis where possible reasons why God can accept me, what he
requires of me, and something else. Do you think God accepts
us on the basis of our complete obedience to his law? or on the
basis of our faith in Jesus Christ, or by some other way? Which of
those do you think? Now, this is something you think
already. You think this now already in your heart. But we have to
be led by scripture. We have to understand what God
has said in scripture is the answer to this question, because
this is the question of questions. Job said this, how can man be
just with God? How? How can man be just with
God? So this is the question, right?
Is it on the basis of my complete obedience to His law, or is it
on the basis of my faith in Christ, or is it something else? Maybe
you don't like those answers. You want to choose something
else. That's fine. Make your check by the quiz answer. I'll collect the answers at the
end of the service. No, I won't. No, this is something
that each one of us needs to answer in our heart. This is
something that we need to wrestle with God with. This is something
we need to know. How can I appear before God in
judgment? And on what basis can God who
is holy and has no possible change to his justice throughout all
eternity from before time to time and after time, How can
that God accept me? Is it on the basis of complete
obedience to His law? Is it on the basis of my faith
in Jesus Christ? Or is it something else? Well,
now that you've had time to think about the possible answers, don't
tell them to anyone else, but just hold them in your heart.
Now, it turns out that Jesus says here in verse 29, this is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. And
so we need to understand what is God's requirement of me and
how can I meet that? What is the basis of my acceptance
by God who is holy? The first thing I think about
when I think about God's holiness is that we naturally understand
that God is just, don't we? Whenever we see wrong in the
world, we think, man, I hope that the law gets the person
who did this crime. Don't you think that? You think,
man, someone needs to hold this person accountable for that horrible
crime that they did. That might be our reaction. And
it's a reasonable reaction, because we have a natural sense of justice,
don't we? But when it comes to our own
selves and our relationship to God, we naturally have this instinct,
this innate understanding that God is just, that He's just. In fact, we have such a keen
sense of God's justice that we naturally don't think His justice
will ever run out. but we think that maybe his mercy
towards us might run out. Isn't that the way we think?
I hope God will be merciful to me. I know he'll be just. That's
the reason I hope he'll be merciful. Isn't that the natural way we
think about things? Well. This helps us to understand
how God can accept a person, how he can approve of them, how
he can give them life. The answer to this question,
on what basis can God who is just, who can't change his justice
because that's who he is, how can he accept me? All right. Jesus said, this is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. All right,
so how can this requirement of God be met by me? How can it be met? Well, the
problem is that we have a terrible predicament. We have a terrible
predicament. Look at Romans chapter two. We
are in a terrible condition here. In Romans chapter two, I want
you to hear this text of scripture. He says in verse 13, Not the
hearers of the law are just before God. In other words, God can
approve them because they're righteous. Not the hearers. It's not those who have the law. It's not those who hear the law.
It's those, he says, but the doers of the law shall be justified. So if you just take that verse
by itself, who will be justified by God? Who will be accepted?
Who will be approved by God? According to scripture, those
who do the law of God, right? Now, the problem is, is that
he starts out in Romans chapter one, look at Romans chapter one
and verse 18, he says this, verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. So God's wrath is against all
men. All unrighteousness and ungodliness have been. If you
have any unrighteousness or any ungodliness, God's wrath is revealed
from heaven against you. And look at chapter 3. Chapter
3 and verse 19. Well, actually, let's read from
verse 10. Verse 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous. None righteous, wait a minute,
and we just read in chapter 2, verse 13, not the hearers of
the law, but the doers of the law shall be justified. And yet
there is none that's righteous. None are just. None are justified. And he goes on, he says, there's
none that understands. No one understands what's required. No one understands their condition. No one understands what God requires
in order to accept this. There's none that seek after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There is none that do with good.
No, not one. This is God's assessment of us,
you and me. God looked at you. He looked
at me. No, not good. Not righteous, not understanding,
not seeking God, you see? And then look at verse 19. Now, we know that what thing
soever the law says, it says to them who are under the law. Whatever God's law says, it says
to those under it. Here are the people who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped. In other words, everyone.
Who are under the law? Everyone. And this is what it
says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, all the world may become guilty before God. All right,
so verse 13, chapter two, verse 13, only the doers of the law
are justified before God, but there aren't any who do the law
of God. Do you see the problem? All right,
but look at the same, I turned away from it, but look at chapter
three. And notice in verse 21, well, in verse 20, he says, therefore,
because all the world is guilty and because God's law was given
in order to show them that and prove it, he says in verse 20,
therefore, by the deeds of the law, by their own personal obedience
to fulfill God's law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Now, before we read the next
verse, look at chapter eight. In chapter 8, he says in verse
3, verse 3, chapter 8, verse 3, for what the law could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh. All right. There's
nothing wrong with God's law in terms of its requirements.
It's good. God's law is holy, just, and
good. There's nothing wrong with that.
But God's law requires our perfect obedience in order that we might
be justified, in order that we might live. The soul that sinneth,
it shall die. Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 4 and
20. But in the Old Testament, in
Deuteronomy and Leviticus, it says that If we do the law of
God, only then can we live. So we have to do it in order
to be justified, in order that we might live. We haven't done
it. No one has. And God's law is not deficient
in the sense that it requires too much. That's not the problem
with God's law. The problem is with the weakness
of our sinful flesh because no one has kept God's law because
of our sinful nature, you see. So the requirements of the law
are not wrong. The requirements of the law are
good. God will justify us only if we obey the law, only if we
are doers of the law. And that is something we have
not done. That is something we cannot do.
Verse 20 of Romans 3, Romans 3.20, Therefore by the deeds
of the law, our obedience to God's law, no flesh shall be
justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
That's the predicament. God's law is holy. It requires
obedience. Our obedience is nothing. We can't obey it. We're sinful. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, we can't be justified by our own obedience. And the law
is weak through our flesh. It can't justify us because of
our sin. Not because it requires too much,
but because we're unable to meet what it requires. Do you see
that? All right. So what are we going to do? We're
lost. We're hopeless. We're helpless.
Look at verse 21 of Romans chapter 3. Now the righteousness of God,
but now, this is a big but, isn't it? But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. All right, all have sinned, all
have come short of the glory of God being justified freely
by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What
does God require? What does He require according
to this verse? The righteousness of God. How
can we meet that? How can we produce that? We cannot. Why? Because we're sinners. Is
God's law too strict? No. God can't in justice accept
anyone unless we actually meet the requirement of His holy law. The answer to the question, on
what basis can God accept me? On what basis can God approve
of me? Romans 2.13, the doers of the law shall be justified.
But the problem is, is that I haven't done it, I can't do it because
I'm a sinner and God's law condemns me. Yes, you are a sinner. You are guilty and you cannot
by your obedience fulfill the law. What then am I going to
do? But now the righteousness of God without the law. You see,
God himself is righteous. The righteousness of God are
God's holy perfections in all of his character. He is righteous. There's no taint of sin in him.
There's no possibility for God to sin. And his righteousness
is not only who he is, but is what he has provided us. He has provided the very righteousness
that he requires of us, you see. The answer to the question is,
how can we meet the requirements of God? On what basis will God
accept and approve and give life to me? The answer is on the complete
obedience to his law, even though I can't provide it. That's the
requirement. Well, we say, well, what about
faith in Jesus? Isn't that the answer? Well, that's what we
want to talk about here. Look at verse 29 of John chapter
six. He said to them, this is the
work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. You
might think, well, see, it's on the basis of my faith in Jesus. The problem is, is this is the
false doctrine that has been the false doctrine of religion
throughout the beginning of time. That on the basis of what God
sees and finds in me, he will accept me. He will not. We're
all guilty. God requires obedience to his
law. That requirement has never changed. That requirement is an everlasting
requirement. And that's why when we were reading
that great text of scripture in Psalm 119, and Brad's comments
on it, he was spot on. If you look at that, I'm gonna
turn back to that. Psalm 119, he says, in verse
41, let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even thy salvation
according to thy word, so shall I have wherewith to answer him
that reproacheth me, for I trust in thy word. God's Word requires
our perfect obedience. We have utterly failed and we
cannot, because we're sinful, fulfill that requirement. Therefore,
God cannot justify us on the basis of what we are or who we
are or what we've done. And that's why he cries, Lord,
let your mercies come unto me, even your salvation, according
to your word, the salvation of God, according to his word, so
shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproaches me. And then
he goes on and talks about the inestimable excellency of God's
commandments. and take not the word of truth
utterly out of my mouth, for I have hoped in thy judgments,
so shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever." And yet we
say, well, I can't read that in any honesty. I can't take
those words to myself. That's what we're getting to.
That's what we're getting to. If God requires me to keep his
law in order to justify me, to accept me and prove and give
me life, And I can't do it. What hope do I have? Only one. In the righteousness of God.
The righteousness of God is God's righteousness. He requires it
and He Himself provides it. And that's what we're looking
at here. Look at verse 27 of John chapter 6. Or verse 26. Jesus answered them. They said,
how did you get here? In verse 25, they came to the
other side. When did you come here? How did
you get here? We know how he got there, don't
we? He walked across the sea. He walked across the sea. But
he didn't answer them and say, oh, well, I just, last night
I was out, you know, praying and I walked across the sea.
He didn't say that, did he? Why? Because that knowledge of
Him walking on the sea was for His disciples. These men were
not His disciples. He didn't tell them, oh, I just
walked on the sea because I've overcome all of the wrath of
God in my own person for my people. That's why I've come into the
world. I've answered God's law. I've
fulfilled it, and I've satisfied His justice. And therefore, I
come to my people in the storms of every opposition to their
salvation, and I come to them, get into the ship with them,
and therefore, they get to the other side. which we talked about
last week. But here, he doesn't say that.
He says this. Verily, verily, I say to you,
you seek me, not because you saw the miracles, but because
you did eat of the loaves and were filled. It's almost like
he answers the question they didn't ask. Sometimes we try
to, you know, when I was an engineer, I realized that most of the problem
the difficulty in solving any problem was to say, what is the
problem we're trying to solve here? Because once we got that
on the table, then we had a clear understanding of what we were
going to do about it. They didn't realize the problem. They didn't
know that they had come and had received the bread that Christ
broke and the fish that he had broken given to them. They had
completely missed what that meant. And not only that, but they knew
that he got to the other side of the ship and he hadn't gotten
into a boat, so somehow he miraculously arrived at the other side of
the sea. And yet those miracles, and not
only those things, but as we saw in Matthew 14, he healed
all kinds of sicknesses. But those miracles didn't cause
them to ask the question so that they might get the answer to
that question, who is this that can do these miracles? Because
if they had asked that, then the answer would have been, this
is the very Christ. And having answered that question,
then they would have said, and how can I have life from him? But they didn't ask that. They
wanted the things of Christ, not Christ himself. And so they
came for the bread. They got the bread, and they
were happy with the bread, and they came back for more bread.
They said, how'd you get here? He said, You don't seek me because
of the miracles. You don't look beyond the miracles
and see. Whoever performed these miracles
must be sent of God, must have come down from heaven, must be
himself God. Who could walk on water? Who
can create food like that? Who could do all these things
to heal the sick except the one who is sent from heaven, the
Messiah? And since he's the king, the prophet and the priest and
the king God promised in the Old Testament, how can I have
life from him? He's the appointed one, the anointed
one through whom God would save his people. How can he save me? They didn't ask that. And so
Jesus corrects them in verse 26. Verily, verily, listen to
me. You seek me not because you saw
the miracles, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
You're seeking for food for your body. You're seeking for food
that perishes for a body that's going to perish. And then he goes on, look, verse
27, don't work, don't labor for that meat. which perishes, not
that, but this, but for the meat which endures unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give you." Christ, the one who
you should have asked about. Who are you? The Christ of God. And you didn't know that, therefore
you didn't ask Him to give you the bread of everlasting life.
You see? You see what he's saying? You
are laboring for things of Christ. You need to labor to come to
Christ. You need to come to Him. You
need to receive from Him the meat that does not perish, but
produces everlasting life. Now what is that? What is that
meat? And so they're asking the question
now. Now they're going to ask a question. They realize that they were on
the wrong footing here, so they somehow need to get back on track.
What shall we do, they said, that we might work the works
of God? Well, what you did was make this bread. How can we do
that? We want this bread. We want to
be given bread. We'd like to live here in this
life, on this earth, in this kingdom, in this nation, and
just like we are, forever. We want our hearts to keep pounding
and our lungs to keep breathing. We want to go about life. We
don't want to die. We just want to have bread for
a perishing world and a perishing life and perishing bread. No.
No. You don't need that. You see? You see what the Lord
is saying here? You live, all of us today, we're
all walking around, we're breathing, our hearts pumping, we're thinking
about things. What am I going to do after this?
Where am I going to go? What can I eat? What can I do
to have fun? How am I going to provide for
the next meal? All those questions are occupying our thoughts. No
one stops to say, apart from the grace of God, no one stops
to say, How can I please God? How can I be found approved of
God? And how can He accept me? How
can I be given life? Not just my heart pumping and
my mind thinking about things in this world, but how can I
have true life, life that's eternal? What is that anyway? What is
life? Scientists have struggled to
answer that question. What is life? They look into
a microscope at a cell, wiggling things under the microscope.
Is that life? We see it's alive, but is it
life? No, it's not life. That's not life. That's not life. You're alive, but that's not
life. That's not life. What is life?
You see? Now we're getting to the questions
that are more difficult, aren't we? How can I completely obey
God's law? And why is it that my faith in
Christ is not the right answer? Because God can't accept something
from you, you see. The answer is wrong. Number two,
that my faith in Christ is the reason why God accepts me. No, that is not the reason. My
faith is not in the equation. It is not in the equation of
how God in all of his justice can accept me. Only one thing
can fulfill that equation, can answer, can solve that problem. What is it? Perfect, absolute
obedience to God's holy law. In other words, the righteousness
of God has to be met. God requires it. and God required
it of himself for his people, because we could not provide
it. God is not going to lower the
standard. Yeah, I know you couldn't keep the law, so I'll just take
this, you know, I believe these things, so we'll accept that
instead of keeping the law. No, no, God will not accept faith
instead of obedience. Well, I'm never going to be able
to get into heaven then. If you depend on your faith,
you're right, you won't. But if you depend on the righteousness
of God, now you're getting to the question, how can this be? The righteousness of God. Now
notice here. What we're seeing throughout
these verses of scripture that we just read is that we all have
failed and continue to fail to keep the righteousness of God.
We cannot keep the law because we're sinners. That doesn't excuse
us. That doesn't excuse us. I couldn't help it. I did this
crime, judge, and I couldn't help it. Well, you just admitted
to being guilty, and because you couldn't help it, we're going
to lock you up for good. You see? That's not going to
help you to get off. I'm a guilty sinner and I can't
help but sin, Lord, so you're going to have to accept me just
like I am because, I mean, you made me this way. It must be
your fault. You see, that's the wrong argument.
You don't want to go there. No. No, the problem is that God
requires a standard far, far too high. Nobody in this world,
listen to me carefully, no one in this world, according to what
we read, there is none righteous, no not one, no one in this world
from Adam to the last person ever born has ever or will ever
Keep the commandments of God so that we can, on that basis,
be accepted by God. No one has. No one ever will. It isn't going to happen. But
the righteousness of God, you see, that's what we need to focus
on. What is that righteousness? Here's
the thing, even though no one has met that requirement and
there's no basis on anyone's life in this world throughout
history by which God can accept any person, yet there is one
life in this world that was lived and that did fulfill the holy
character and righteousness of God. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, He's the one who came
down from heaven. He's the one who lived, He was
born perfectly, holy. He was not born of Adam, He was
sinless in His birth. And then He lived a life absolutely
in every way conforming to the Spirit in the letter of God's
holy law. And then, not only did He obey
in all of His life, in every part, But at the end of his life,
he obeyed in this. He took the sins of his people
as his own sins to bear them before God instead of them. And
he bore the outpouring of God's justice, his infinite justice
and wrath in order that he might satisfy that justice. So that
his life was a fulfillment of God's law. And even in the obedience
of his death, was the crowning obedience and his death was the
satisfaction of God's justice. That's the righteousness of God.
And that's the only way God can accept us a complete and perfect
fulfillment of God's holy law. In obedience and in sacrifice. If you read the Old Testament
from Exodus through Deuteronomy, what you find is God's law is
made up of two things. Number one, what God requires
of you for obedience, which you've utterly failed to meet. And number
two, what God requires in sacrifice for sin. That's the law. God's requirement of you for
obedience and God's requirement for the sacrifice for the sins
of His people. And it's only the sacrifice revealed
in type. And in the New Testament, God
says, and this is how that law is fulfilled. Listen, Jesus Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
see, Jesus Christ fulfilled the obedience of God's law, and Jesus
Christ fulfilled the requirements for sacrifice to God for the
sins of His people. He fulfilled the law of God,
and He did it in this way, in love, because love is the fulfilling
of God's law. He is God, He is the Son of God,
equal with the Father, and He laid aside His reputation and
stooped to the place of a servant. And He said this, I did not come
to be served, but to serve and to give my life a ransom for
many. That fulfilled God's law. And that's the only 33 years
in the history of this world that fulfilled God's law. Do
you see that? And Jesus is saying here, don't
labor for that meat which you're looking for. You're looking for
bread, for crying out loud. Don't you see that bread perishes
and if you eat it you're hungry in a few hours? You and then
you're going to perish too? And that bread just represents
everything that we pursue in this life that is not Christ. Not that, but Christ, you see. What is the meat that perishes?
Anything that is not Christ and Him crucified. That's the meat
that perishes. Only what Christ has done, only
His sacrifice will stand eternal. That is the truth, you see. Truth
doesn't change. Truth is eternal. People say,
well, you have your truth, I have my truth. There's no such thing
as a temporal truth. There's no such thing as relative
truth. There's no such thing as a personal
truth. There is the truth. And Jesus Christ and Him crucified
is the truth. So we have to have this bread,
this bread. Now, notice this. Look over at
verse 68. John 6, verse 68. Jesus asked his 12 disciples
when other disciples were leaving, he says, will you also go away?
In verse 67, and Peter said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast, notice these words,
the words, eternal life. What does Jesus have? Words of
eternal life. You see, look at verse 27 again. He says, labor not for the meat
which perishes, but for that meat which endureth to everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give you. The words of eternal
life. What does Jesus have that he
gives us? Words of Who is Jesus Christ? The Word of God. And what does the Word of God
do? The eternal uncreated Word of God. What does He do? He gives
His words. And what are His words? His words
of eternal life. Therefore, eternal life comes
through His words, right? Look at verse 62. What if you shall see the son
of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that
quickeneth, that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The
words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life. What is that Christ give to us? What does he speak? He says the
words that I speak are spirit and they are life. So his words
are life. His words are spirit and life. Our flesh profits nothing. Our
heart is beating, our lungs are working, our mind is working.
That's not life. The words that Christ give are
spirit and life. Well, what are these words? How
can these words be words of eternal life? Peter said, you have the
words of eternal life. What are these words? Tell us.
What are these words? Is it just any word? Is it just
the sound of syllables being put together? Is that what he
means? No, it's the teaching of Christ. The teaching of Christ. About what? About what? Well, look back at verse 35.
Jesus said to them, these are his words, I am the bread of
life. So his words are about what?
about himself, but not about himself in just any old way,
not describing his looks. People like to have pictures
of Jesus. There are no such things. There's no pictures of Jesus.
There's pictures, but they're not of Jesus. But he says, I am the bread of
life. In other words, his words are
revealing the truth. I'm the bread. I'm the bread. You know about eating. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 15,
thy words were found and I did eat them and they are the joy
and the rejoicing of my heart. the joy. And in Psalm 119, also
in verse 93, he says, I will never forget thy precepts, for
with them thou hast quickened me, have given me life. The precepts,
the words of God. What words? The words of Christ. The words about himself as the
bread. You see, the words of Christ that give us life are
the words about Christ, which he gave, which tell us about
his broken body and his shed blood. You see, that's the broken
bread. That's what we have to eat and
drink. He says this in this very chapter.
He says in verse Verse 51, I'm 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
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. So
it's his body, his body broken, his blood poured out. And verse
54, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. So this eating, as Jeremiah said,
I have found your words and I ate them. He didn't really eat words,
did he? No, he's saying, I heard them,
I believed them, I lived upon them. This was all of my confidence. I depend upon them, do you see? I depend upon them for my life,
just like I take food and depend upon it for satisfaction and
for life. I depend upon your words for
satisfaction, for comfort, for peace in the presence of God.
I can't live unless God give me the words of eternal life."
And what are those words? The words about Christ, and not
just Christ in general, but Christ and Him crucified, His body broken,
His blood shed. You see? Do you see? I'm the
bread of life. He's expounding to us with words
what is true. Now, I want to take you to a
couple of verses here in John 17. Look at this. This is so
essential, but it's so hard for us, because we're like the men
who chased him across the sea to get bread. We don't get it.
We don't think about life in the way that life is. Life is
in the Lord Jesus, and that's the only place. Chapter 17, John
17. He says to his father, you have
given him, talking about himself as the him, as thou has given
him power over all flesh, everybody, I have power over everybody,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
him. Who does Jesus Christ give eternal
life to? Everyone God the Father gave
to him to give eternal life to. Verse 3. What is eternal life,
by the way? What is life? Is it something
under a microscope? Is it something I feel beating
in my chest? Is it the thoughts I have? I mean, as long as the
line in the medical building is moving up and down, is that
life? Well, that's the evidence of physical life, but that is
not life. This is life. Listen. And this is life eternal. that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." That's
life. So the words of Christ are eternal life. Thou hast the
words of eternal life. They're words about Himself,
about Himself crucified in order to give us life. And those words,
he said, are spirit and they are life. Because when he gives
them, they make us to know God. And knowing God in the way that
he's revealed in Christ is eternal life. We have life in our soul,
in our spirit. The spirit of God gives us life.
And what is the evidence of that life? How do we know we have
that life? Well, Jesus answers that question
too. In John chapter 6, he says, this is the work of God that
you believe on him whom he has sent. And in verse 35, I am the
bread of life, he that comes to me shall never hunger, he
that believes on me shall never thirst. Never thirst, never hunger,
because we've come to Christ, we've found him to be the satisfaction
and nourishment of our spiritual souls. We have found his words
to reveal him to us, and he himself is the life, knowing him. And
so that the work that he says this is the work of God, it's
not to look to ourselves for the obedience God requires. We
find none. It's not to look to our faith
as a substitute for perfect obedience, but is to look to Christ, who
is the righteousness of God, whose body broken and his blood
shed and his perfect life of obedience that fulfilled God's
law, the only life that ever did and ever will, That is my
life, and taking him by faith, like Jeremiah, his words were
found, and I did consume them, and I lived upon them, and they
were the satisfaction, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. This
is all my life. God, be merciful to me. Let your
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even your salvation according
to your word. And here with wherewith I shall
have to answer him that reproaches me. Who reproaches me? Everything
God requires of me and myself reproaches me. Satan reproaches
me. My own conscience reproaches
me. My own lifestyle reproaches me. But Lord, Be my salvation. Fulfill the righteousness of
God. Be that for me. And that's what
God says faith is. It's not believing in myself.
And it's my faith in Christ is not the basis. It's Christ in
him crucified. You see? He's the life. He's the offering God accepted.
His obedience is the one and only obedience that makes God
happy with us. And faith is looking away from
me to him. You see, that's what faith is,
is depending on him for life, not on me, on his performance,
on his life. And doing so, Jesus said, that
person eating and drinking my flesh, coming to me, believing
on me, living upon me, that person has everlasting life. They know the truth. And they
will in eternity, without any impediment, live in the full
knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. And they will enjoy eternal life. In this life, We know God in
part, and we know him only through faith in Christ. But in the life
to come, we shall know even as we are known. And what a day
that will be. Life. Jesus said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. The way to the Father, His broken
body, His shed blood, His obedient life, the truth. This is the
truth of who God is. This is the truth revealed in
the person of His Son, the brightness of His glory, and the life. eternal
life now enjoyed by faith and by the Spirit of God through
the Word of God, and then in its ultimate sense in our whole
body transformed, resurrected to be like His spiritual body
so that we might, as the songwriter in Rock of Ages said, then I'll
behold Him. dressed in His righteousness,
amazing grace, amazing grace. We are justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's
pray. Lord Jesus, we pray that your
broken body, your shed blood, would be our daily and continuous
food that we would take by faith on your word, what you said,
the words of eternal life, and we would delve into it as those
who were hungry, as those who find your words and did eat them
with all the satisfaction and joy and rejoicing spoken of by
Jeremiah. Lord, we pray that with all of
your people you would give us this grace. We would not seek
for meat that perishes, not for anything but Christ alone and
him crucified as all of our life. And you would give us the grace,
Lord, to understand by faith that all things that pertain
to life and godliness are through the knowledge of him who loved
us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. In his name
we pray, amen.