Go with me now to 2 Corinthians
2. 2 Corinthians 2. I was reading this book, 2 Corinthians, and this
caught my attention in chapter 2. We'll read it in just a minute,
but you have heard it said often that preaching the gospel and
hearing the gospel is a matter of life or death and death. It really is. That's what this
is going to tell us. The gospel and preaching it and
hearing it is life and death. The gospel is Christ who lived,
Christ who died. His life, his death. What does that mean? The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. It really is. Eternal life for
them that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's vital. Look at verses 14 through 16
with me. 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14. Now thanks be unto God, which
always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it maketh manifest,
or clear, reveals the savor of his knowledge, the knowledge
of Christ, by us, those who preach it in every place. For we are
unto God a sweet savor of Christ, and them that are saved, and
them that perish. To the one we are a savor of
death, unto death. To the other The savor of life
unto life. And who is sufficient for this
thing? Paul said. The matter of life and death. Who is sufficient to handle life
and death matters? Well, Paul in another place said,
our sufficiency is of God. He's the one who told us to do
this, to preach this. Now, you just heard in Ephesians
5 verse 2 says, That Christ gave himself an offering, a sacrifice
to God for sweet-smelling savor. Remember that? When I was reading
this, I started preparing it, and I thought, well, I'll just
preach that. Well, that's okay. Because this is the only message,
it really is. Christ crucified. Someone asked
a member of David Edmondson's church what he preached one Sunday
morning. And this member said, he preaches
the same message every Sunday. And that person said, really? That's awful. But there is but one message.
The whole Bible is Christ and Him crucified. If you have life,
if you've heard Christ, He that believeth on the Son hath life.
He that hath the Son hath life. This is who you want to hear
in. This is why you've come. We're gathering here. We've come
here again to hear the same thing because one thing is new. And
he that heareth and he that believeth And he that cometh to Christ
and keeps coming and never quits coming, hath life. There have been times I've preached.
Especially as a younger man that I wanted to tell my sermon. I wanted to get it said. I wanted
to make sure it's all correct. The doctrine is correct. I want
to make sure I said the right things and all that. And get
it done without falling on my face. Without failing. And after it's over, I'm satisfied
with that. Not anymore. This is life or
death. We've got some living people
in here. We've got some dead people in here. And when this gospel is preached,
if God uses it, He can give life to somebody. It's happened to
everyone who has life. It happened. That's my prayer. That's what I want. This is why
I preach Christ. He that hath the Son hath life.
He said in verse 14, God always causes us to triumph in Christ.
Triumph. Thanks be unto God which giveth
us a victory, he said, back in 1 Corinthians. A victory. When the gospel is preached,
and this is the only way that captives are delivered from bondage,
through the preaching of the gospel, what the world calls
foolishness, he takes captivity, Christ sends the Holy Spirit
to say, That boy, that girl, that man, that woman who's a
captive to this world, lay hold of them. Almighty love, arrest that man.
He belongs to me. Open his ears, open his eyes,
open his heart, her eyes, her ears to hear this gospel. Tell
her she's mine now. She no longer belongs to this
world. God of this world, she's mine.
I am her life from here on out. It's happening. It's happening. It always causes us to try. Gospel,
we read there in Isaiah 55, didn't we, John? You read it and we
read it. It never returns to void. Somebody somewhere is being
saved by this gospel. And if He doesn't give life this
morning, He sustains life. He feeds life. Somebody in this
room needs comfort. He's going to comfort somebody.
Somebody's hungry and thirsty. If you come here hungry and thirsty,
you're not going to leave empty. Somebody needs something. Poor
and needy. And if you come poor and needy,
you're not going to leave that way. His Word will not return
void. And he that heareth and believeth
and cometh to Christ and keeps coming hath life. So that's what
I'm hoping. The Lord will bring somebody
to Christ. Verse 15. We are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. A sweet
savor of Christ. We are unto God a sweet savor
of Christ. You know what God thinks of Jesus
Christ. What do you think of your children?
What do you think of your children? Your grandchildren? How dear
are they to you? They can be rotten to the core,
but you still love them. God loves His Son supremely. He made a whole universe and
a world in His honor. He loves Him. He's sweet to the
Father. And I tell you what, He's sweet
to God's people. He's sweet to the Father, and
He's sweet to the bride. The bride. You know, you love your children.
You love your grandchildren. More than your children. Deborah's smiling like, yeah,
pretty much. No, you don't. You love them
all alike, don't you? You know, that makes me think
that God loves Christ supremely. But you know, Christ said in
his prayer that the Father loves you as much as he loves me. Somebody told me, you're going
to love your grandchildren as much as you do your own children.
I said, what? Ain't no way. No way. Yes, there is a way. No way that God could love me
like he loves Christ. Yes, he does. You know why? He's
God. His love is perfect. Those he
loves are loved. They're his favorites. But he's
sweet to the Father, and he's sweet to his people. And it says
he's a sweet-smelling savor. Margaret, do you like the way
those little girls smell? Do you remember when your children
were born? Oh my, anything but Melanie smiling. Do you remember
smelling the back of their neck? Sweet. They're sinners. The Son of God had no sin. Everything about Him, just altogether
loving. Sweet. And so those who preach
Him, those who love God's Son, They are sweet to him. I've told you this story, but
maybe some of you haven't heard it. I was down visiting Brother
Don Bell. I want to preach there. And Don,
his son, just had Don's first great-grandchild. By the way,
Betty Groover's great-granddaughter is having a baby. She's going
to be a great Great-grandmother. No way you could love that one
like that. Every generation. But anyway,
I was down there visiting for his brother Donnie, and I heard
about Riley, his great-granddaughter, you know. And he kept bragging
on Riley. Oh, he loved Riley. It's like
he'd never had any children before her. And he was telling me about
Riley. So we got there and Riley was
there. She was back in another room.
And Donnie said, Riley's here. I'm going to go get her. And
he went back to get Riley and he held her. She was a cute little
thing. And he brought her out to me and he's looking at me
like, ain't she the most beautiful thing you've ever laid eyes on? I said, yeah, yes, she is. She's
gorgeous. And Donna just smiled at me like,
you can stay now. Now that may be a cute little
story, but I'm telling you, God loves those that love His Son. And anybody that doesn't love
Jesus Christ, God doesn't love them. And He's going to be done
with them someday. And those who do, Those who do
love Him in sincerity. Remember that passage we just
looked at? Grace be unto those that love
Jesus Christ in sincerity. Those who really do. Those who
do come to worship Him. Those who preach Him from the
heart in sincerity for His honor, for His glory, that other people
might know Him. They are sweet to God. Nothing
sweeter to Him. And everything that He has for
His Son, He has for them that love the Son. You're unto God
a sweet, swelling savor. Unto God. And those, all right, verse 16. Now, to the one we're a savor
of death unto death, the other a savor of life unto life. In preaching the gospel, and
again I'm preaching Christ again, and there's some that maybe don't want to hear
this again. And it's just dead doctrine or
it's just dry, just all this talk about dying. Let's not talk about dying. Let's
talk about living. I am. I am. Why avoid that which is
inevitable? Why avoid the thing you need
to think about more than anything else? But some think, let's not talk
about dying. Let's talk about living. That's why people flood
these other places. Let's just have a big old time.
Let's not talk about the world ending and dying and all that.
Let's talk about now. Let's have fun. Let's have, you
know, entertainment. Let's have food and family and
talk a little bit about Jesus and, you know, sing some songs
and go out to eat and just have a big old time and come back
next Sunday and do the same thing. They just live here and have
a merry old time. One preacher said, I preach as
one that may never preach again, as a dying man to dying men. I have stood up here several
times now and preached the last message that certain people have
ever heard. That's why Paul said, woe is
unto me if I don't preach the gospel. To somebody, it's life
or death. Somebody's going to go out into
eternity. And you need to know Christ.
Young people. I've preached to young people
in here. And the Lord took. It's serious. You think I'm serious most of
the time? Well, I need to be. I need to be. This is a weighty
thing. Well, he says, he said, to the
saved he's sweet. To those that know him, he's
a saver of life to life. Life to life. All right, now
I want you to turn to John chapter 6, and we're going to stay over
here in John chapter 6, okay? John chapter 6. I remember a time when I heard
the gospel, and it was death to me. It was. I thought I would
die if I had to hear any more. I mean it. There's a few in here
who would only come on Easter because you have to please your
mother, right? I remember seeing you out at the restaurant after
service on Sunday, and as a young man, I resented it. Not now. I'm just glad. Who knows? Come for all the wrong reasons,
but this gospel is powering up. I remember it being death to
me. And now, in my wildest dreams, I never
would have believed I'd be standing up here doing it, in my wildest
dreams, anything. Christ really is my life. Brother
Nyberg kept saying, do you believe? He said, I do, I really do. Now,
I knew Todd before he was a believer. A young, radical, liberal student
at UK. Once again, let's talk about
this savour. You know, it has to do with smell
and taste. And John chapter 6 is about this. And what is the most savory thing
you can think of? I thought about that. What is
the most savory, sweet-smelling thing that you can think of that
you smell it and you just have to have it? Some of you meat-eaters
think bacon. Yeah, but bread. Isn't it? And there's a reason why Christ
called Himself the Bread of Life. And this whole chapter is about
bread. Mindy used to make bread. She
doesn't anymore, but now Sarah has taken up. Anybody had her
bread? Is it good or what? It's not only smells good when
it's cooking. Man, makes you hungry. But it
looks good. It's beautiful to look at it.
And boy, do I like it. I cut off, as soon as I get cut
off, a hunk that big. Heated up. Christ calls Himself
throughout this chapter, and we're going to stay here the
rest of the time. The bread of life. And you know how it begins,
chapter 6? It begins by Him going up into
a mountain and feed the people. Look at verse 5. John chapter
6, verse 5. Jesus lifted up His eyes, saw
a great company come unto Him. They came unto Him. What for?
Well, they want to hear Him. And then they got hungry. So
what's he going to do? You come to him. You need a word from him. He's
going to speak to you. If you're hungry, you are not
going to go away. You're not going away. You're
going to be filled. And they said, verse 5, Philip
said, where are we going to buy bread to eat? You're not going
to have to buy bread. Isaiah 55, come buy bread without
money. How can you do that? Verse 6,
I guess he said to prove then what he himself knew that he
would do. This is what I'm going to do.
Philip said, well, there's not enough money. Not enough bread,
200 penny worth of bread, 200, 300, 400 loaves is not sufficient
for this. It's not sufficient. We're going
to get bread enough sufficient. What is sufficient to fill everybody
that comes hungry? What is sufficient? What does
everybody need to hear? One thing is sufficient. One
thing is needful. One thing will meet the needs.
There were old people, young people, black, white, Jew, Gentile. They all ate the same thing.
What? Bread. What is that bread? Christ is the bread. He's sufficient. They said, where are we going
to get this? There's a lad here. Well, I started trying to preach.
I'm not going to call it preaching. When I was about 27, that's a lad, isn't it? Brother Nybert started trying
to preach to some people there at UK when he was 21. My dad
said, God have mercy on people with a 21-year-old pastor. I know what you mean by that
now. There's a lad here, he has bread.
Where'd he get that? Who gave him that bread? Pablo. About all people had back then,
the Bible was Pablo. Five books a month. Well, that's
sufficient. They had Moses and the prophets.
Well, let's go on. It says in verse 10, when Christ
said, make them sit down. There's much grass in the place. Here we sit. Again. What for? Why'd you come here? Seriously. Why'd you come here? Some here came because
somebody brought them. I'm real glad my parents made
me come. Real glad. But some came here willingly.
Why? Make them sit down. Not stand
the whole time. Sit. Rest. Why? I'm going to beat them. There's
people sitting right now in Kingsport. And the Lord's raised up a lad.
people sitting in Fairmont, people sitting in Lexington, people
sitting in Pikeville, people sitting all up in Dingus and
all that, they come for one thing, and the Lord is going to feed
them. He's going to feed them all the
same thing, Him, the bread of life. Verse 11, He took the loaves,
He gave planks and distributed to the disciples. So who was
it that was feeding them? It was the disciples. No, no,
no, no, no, no. No, not the disciples. It was
Christ. He had the bread. He gave them the bread. He said,
here, you take this and give it to them. And they were filled. Verse 12,
when they were filled, they took the fragments. Don't let any
of this go to waste. Don't let one crumb fall to the
ground. We're going to save it. Twelve
baskets of fragment. Because there's people that couldn't
get here, and they need here. They need me. And that one bread. So they gathered the fragment
and to feed other people. And we have these means, don't
we? Alright, look at verse 17. So
he entered into a ship. After they ate bread, They all
ate bread. The disciples now were with him.
And he put them in a ship and sent them on a journey over the
sea. And he wasn't with them. He stayed
behind. No, he's always with them. But
they didn't think he was with them. What did they do? What happened to them now? Right
after they ate this bread and got filled, and they're all about,
you know, when you eat and get filled, what do you want to do?
You come here and you eat, and then you go out to eat, and then
you go home. What do you feel like doing? Well, if you're over
50, I'm taking that. You just want to rest, don't
you? No, the Lord put them in a ship. He said, you go out on
that sea. And they ran into the storms
of life. He fed them, filled them up,
strengthened their bodies to go through this storm. And you're
no sooner going to leave this place, after you take your nap,
you go out in the world, these storms are going to hit you.
And you're going to need this breath. You're going to need
what you heard. You're going to need to hear
about Christ. Yes, you are. And they went through this storm.
And our Lord came to them and He revealed Himself to them through
that storm, He said. Alright? Now down in verse 25. Now some people came and found
him on the other side and said, Master Rabbi, how did you get
here? He said to them, you seek me not because you saw the miracle. Some did. But these people ate
the loaves. And he said, you ate the loaves
and you're filled. You're just seeking me for what you can get
out of me. Now here he quotes Isaiah 55, verse 27. Labor not
for the meat which perisheth. Whatever that may be. Anything
in this life, everything, everyone. Don't give your life to, all
your labor and all your money and all your time and all your
thoughts. An idol is something or someone that you devote all
your time to, devote all your money to, that you just adore,
that you can't live without, you get your happiness from,
security for them, any idol. It could be a person, a place,
or a thing, a job, or anything. Don't give your money to things
like that that perish. But labor for the meat which
endureth unto eternal life, verse 27, which the Son of Man shall
give you. Him, God the Father, is sealed. It's made it clear that He's
life. There's life nowhere else. And now in verse 28, some of
them said, Well, what shall we do to work the works of God?
Our Lord answered and said unto them, This is the work of God.
This is the work of God. That you believe on him whom
he hath sent. This is God's work. You don't believe. No one will
believe unless God gives you faith. Faith is not of yourself.
This is the gift of God. According to the working of His
mighty power. I quote that all the time, don't I? All the time. Why? Because it's so. Because
that gives God all the glory. It's not by free will. It's not
by your decision. Nobody in here that believes
decided to believe. I didn't. I didn't decide I'm
going to be a preacher. That's the last thing I wanted
to do. It's of the Lord. This is the
work of God, and this is what God accepts. Faith. Faith. Faith in Christ. Not our works. It's His working. You mean I don't have to do anything
to be saved? No. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you can't do that unless He makes you believe. Now they said, verse 30, show
us a sign. We need a sign, don't we? Do you need a sign? You who
believe, do you need a sign? Do you need me to talk in tongues
this morning? No, you'd rather I didn't. Do
you need to see somebody healed? We have seen people healed. We
have seen the death here in the blind city. You're looking at
one. I have seen the dead raised.
I have. What did it? It's gospel. Gospel. Well, we don't need a sign. They
said, our fathers, verse 31, our fathers ate manna and Moses
gave them bread. He said, Moses didn't give you
that bread, verse 32, but my father gives you the true bread. Now he calls this the bread from
heaven, the true bread, verse 33. He said, the bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. The bread of God. The bread from heaven, the true
bread, the bread of God. comes down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. And he went on and called himself,
verse 35, I am the bread of life. Verse 48, he said it again, I
am the bread of life. Now let me talk a little bit
about this bread, okay? Just a few more minutes. He hadn't been here long. Not
long at all. A few more minutes, okay, about
this bread, about Christ the bread. The bread of life. Life. Spiritual life is much like physical
life. Very similar. Life begins where? In a womb. Doesn't it? You don't give yourself life.
How absurd is that? Well, you don't give yourself
spiritual life either. How absurd is that? Eternal life
is greater than physical life. It's more a miracle than physical
life. But it begins in the womb. Where is that? Darkness. It begins in the womb. What's
that? Water. Born of the Spirit and water.
That is His Word. How is life again? Seed is planted. This is deceived. The Gospel,
the Word of God is deceived. Christ is deceived. Planted in
a dead, dark heart by the water of the Word, by the Spirit of
God. Spirit in the water. Planted. Life begins when? When does life
begin? When is a fetus a fetus? Somebody said it begins in eight
days. What a miracle that is. So what
you've got in a womb is a big old heartbeat. And it all grows
around that. When life begins, spiritual life,
it pierces the heart. He takes away that stony heart.
You come in and you hear and you hear and you hear. You don't
hear a thing. You don't see His glory. You don't see your need
to cry. You're not hungry. You're not thirsty. You're not
calling. You're not crying. Get this over with, preacher.
I'm out of here. Eyes open. What did you say? You talking to me? Heart. I don't have to tell somebody
when they're saved. It'll tell on them. It'll be
real clear. You know why? I don't have to
ask anybody to get in that pool. I could convince... I could get
everybody in this pool. I could do it. I don't want to
do that. I don't want to save anybody,
because if I do, they'll be lost in the end. But what God does
is forever. And what God does, it's known.
Can you tell me you can be born again and somebody not know it?
Can a child be born and somebody not know it? Heart beats. He'll know it. There's
an inward desire. The heart is the affection. It
begins to be an inward desire, a hunger, a thirst, a need for
this Word. It was never there before. It
was never there. And now all of a sudden, look
who's back. Look who's early. Look who went
from the back row to the front row. I knew a man that used to
sit on the very back row, and he told me later on, there was
acoustic ceiling tiles at 13th Street. Acoustic ceiling tiles.
Tiles you put, Mike, you know, acoustic ceiling tiles. He said
he counted every one of them. He knew exactly how many tiles
were in that ceiling. He had no clue about one verse
of scripture. But he knew every single tile
in that ceiling on the back row. And one, before you knew it,
he and his wife sitting right there. Not counting tiles, counting
blessings. Not looking at the ceiling, looking
at Christ on the cross. not waiting for it to get over,
waiting for it to start. You don't have to convince somebody
that they're saved. Tell somebody. Everybody will
know it. You don't have to beg them to
come. They're going to come. They're going to ask you. Life begins with a heart The
heart man believeth under right, not the head. Everybody in here,
including young people, knows God's sovereign. That won't save
you. Everybody in here admits, I'm a sinner. That won't save
you. Everybody in here believes Christ died on a cross. That
won't save you. The devil believes that. What
will save you? A need. A heart, a love, a hunger,
a thirst for mercy, for grace, for pardon, for salvation in
this one place, Jesus Christ. That physical life begins with
a heartbeat, okay? What's the next thing? I'll never
forget when Hannah was born. I'll never forget that. Never. And the reason I got to experience,
men used to couldn't come anywhere near the place where they're
born, did they, Ron? They didn't let men, get out
of here, we don't need you. Modern times, you know, and I'm
glad, I'm glad it came to that, because I got to go in there
and watch the whole thing. And I know now why I was allowed
to do that, because this is such a picture of the new birth. It's such a glorious picture,
and I've brought it up a thousand times. I'll never get over it,
watching my daughter born. And there's only one thing greater
than that. When you are born. When your
daughters are born. When I was born. When that heart begins to beat,
okay? And it begins to develop and
then there's a birth that comes out. What's the next thing? What's
the next thing? How do you know they're alive? Breath. Breathe on me, breath
of God. Fill me with life anew. When
Adam was created, he was a piece of clay. He was dead. And the
Son of God came in the garden You start breathing. What's the
next thing? Crying. Whosoever shall call
on the name of the Lord. You've got these soul winners
that get everybody down front. Now repeat after me. I didn't
tell my daughter when she was born. Now repeat after me. She's
crying. She's screaming. Why? She's cold. She's naked. She's hungry. Good. What does that mean? She's alive. When she was born, she was blue
and covered all over with filth. I know. They handed her to me.
And that doctor, the first thing he did, he used to smack their
bottom. Now they smack their feet. Because
you can't smack babies, you know. Anyway, that doctor took the
bottom of her feet I thought, wow, that's hurt! Yes! Needs
to! You know what happened? Oh! Why? Help me! Somebody help me! She's
alive! Are you with me? Why are you hollering? Oh, I hope some guy wakes somebody
up! Look! She's crying! He's crying. He's calling. He's praying. Now repeat after me. Pray with
me. You don't have to tell anybody to pray with you. He's breathing. He's naked. He's cold. He needs
a covering. What's the next thing after crying?
Oh, they're hungry. They come out of that womb hungry. Hungry. Thirsty. Hungry and thirsty. What do they need? One thing. Milk. The sincere milk of the
Word. Look, he's reading the Bible.
You don't have to tell somebody to read the Bible. You don't
have to tell somebody to come hear the Word. If you're hungry,
if you're alive, if you're thirsty. Hungry and thirsty. Milk. You
know something about mother's milk? Colostrum. Did I say it
right? It's something in mother's milk
that babies need immediately. Why is that? It gives them these
immunities that they need. Now, what's that talking about? This is life. Keep you from getting
sick again. Keep you from dying. That's life. You'll never die again. It gives
you life. You'll never die again. I still
love milk. You know that? I still love milk.
I still drink milk. I know it's lactose intolerant.
I know that. It's because man's done it. I
know that. I know that. But you still desire
this milk, don't you? Do you still desire this milk?
When you first heard it, and God gave you a hunger and a thirst
for it, and you still desire it? Here's the thing I'm hoping
the Lord will do, is give life this morning, and I'm hoping
that someone who has life will know they have it. I've been
talking to a man who's despairing of life. A man's been texting
me, and we've been talking, and he's despairing of his soul. He's in despair. And I know he believes. I've
heard him rejoice too many times in the Gospel. But he's telling
me that I just despair of life. I don't feel like I'm a believer.
I'm just distraught because I don't think I have life. And I say,
brother, the fact that you're distraught means you do have
life. There was a time I wasn't distraught.
I didn't care. It didn't bother me. Do you cry? Are you calling on
the Lord? Do you? Did it just start up
one day? Did it, Pilate? Just one day
you weren't calling on the Lord and the next day you know after
hearing the gospel you were. You have life! Precious life! You hunger and thirst. Do you
like what you're hearing right now, sister? I do too. You're
back again. I'm serving one thing. You must
have life. You see? But I'm not... We ain't
talking about you. We're talking about Him. But
you don't know... He does. And He made these promises. Standing on the promises of Christ
my Lord. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath the... Alright, look down at this text
here. I want to go through all this. I'm running out of time.
Look at verse... Lord said, I'm the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on
me shall never thirst. Meaning you'll never have that
insatiable desire, craving for the things of this world that
will never satisfied, like that woman at the well. She kept coming
to the well and coming to the well and coming to the well every
day, day in and day out. She kept trying marriage, trying
this man, that man, none of them. The water didn't satisfy her.
The men didn't satisfy her. She couldn't get any satisfaction,
any happiness, any contentment with anybody or anything at any
time. And one day somebody was waiting
on her. And she went away. She dropped
her water pipe. She never did take a drink that
way. Dropped her water pot. She met a man. He met her. You still hunger and thirst for
Christ, but you just don't have this insatiable desire for this
world and the things of it. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. That's the election. All that
God chose, all that God gave to Christ in that covenant before
the world began shall come to Him. And Him that cometh to me,
please listen to our Lord, Him that cometh to me, I will in
no wise cast out. In another place He said, I give
unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. And remember,
life is needing Christ. Coming to cry. Believing cry.
Hungry and thirsting for cry. What does it mean to come to
cry? I've been telling you. It's to need Him. It's to come
hear Him. Come worship Him. Why am I picking
this bottle up? Well, that's silly, isn't it?
I'm thirsty. Why do you come to the water?
You come to drink. You come to bathe. Why do you
come to the table? You're hungry. Why do you come
to Christ? You need pardon. You need mercy. You're guilty. Why do you come
to the Word? Why do you come to hear from
Him? You're ignorant. You're foolish. You need some wisdom. Why do
you come to the refuge? Because you're fearful. You need
safety. You need security. Why do you
come? Why do you come? He said, All the Father given
me shall come to me. And him that cometh, what does
that mean? Keeps coming. Keeps coming. Keeps coming. Here
you are again. You have life. All the Father given me. And
he said in verse 44, No man can come to me. Except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. And now look what he said. In
verse 39, this is the will. Verse 38, I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which hath sent me. Of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing. He never has, he never
will. Okay? Every single one. He'll raise
them up again at the last day. He's coming to get them. And
this is the will of him that sent me. Every one that seeth
the Son, sees their need of Christ, sees Christ as their all, and
believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up,
or her, at the last day. I will. I will. Him that cometh, he said, I will
in no while. Here's what I won't do. I'll
never cast him out. And he that comes to Christ, keeps coming
to Christ, needs Christ, I will raise him up. When I come, I'm
bringing them out of that grave. They're coming with me. When
I come, they're coming with me. They're not leaving without me.
So, is that you? Do you need Christ? And he goes
on to talk about eating his flesh and drinking his blood after
Christ crucified him. Here we are again, but same things. Same milk. Same water of His
Word, same gospel, Christ crucified. Now go down, and I quit with
this. It says in verse 66, look at it. Verse 66, from that time many
of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. It happens. It happens. It's going to happen
again. It's going to happen again. And you never, you never, you
can't prepare for it. Somebody you don't thank, you're
going to leave. And our Lord said to the twelve,
will you also go away? What about you? What about me? Well, old Simon Peter, he couldn't
help himself. Lord, is this what you say? Verse 68. Is this your confession?
Is this your heartfelt? Verse 68. Lord, to whom shall
we go? Where? What? Who? Thou hast the words of life.
Eternal life. These are words of life to me.
And we believe and we're sure that Thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. And our Lord, I know He smiled
then. Have not I chosen you? That's why. If you can say with Simon Peter,
if you have this, if God's given you this precious gift of faith,
if God's given you this hunger and thirst after Christ, if God
has brought you here, you didn't bring yourself, you came here,
your heart beats, for Him. You cry unto Him. You call on
the Lord. You want Him. You want His mercy
and His grace. You want to hear His Word. You
need to hear the Gospel, the same Gospel, over and over again.
You love to hear it. You love to feed upon it. You
have life. God's given you this life. And
He promised, I'll never, you'll never perish. If you can say,
this is life. This is not just Sunday. This
is life. This is not just time to go to church. This is, this
is life. I live on this. Can you say that? I hope you can. Alright, let's
say, no let's not say, let's stand.