Nearly everyone was singing that.
You know, that's a song calling on the Lord, you know. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Open my
eyes. Give me to eat and live with Thee. If you prayed that
from the heart. John 6. John chapter 6. Don't worry, I'm not going to
go through every verse. And yet, if you were hungry enough,
if we were hungry enough, we'd say, oh, oh. We live on every word. That's
what our Lord said. Man doesn't live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Read
again with me verses 66 and following. After all that our blessed Lord
said, from that time, many of His disciples went back and walked
no more with Him. Where did they go back to? The
world. Their old friends, the things
they were once interested in, left for a little while to follow
Him. They went back. Now this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the greatest man, most beautiful man ever to live. You
can find no fault in him. Nobody can find any fault in
him. You can find fault in me. This is the greatest preacher
that ever preached. No one preached with more love and more compassion,
more mercy, more grace, and more truth, and more kindness, and
more glory. Nobody. Greatest preachers. No
man spake like this man, but many went back. Many. You know, if all the people have
come here and gone, we're still here, we'd have to meet at the
high school in the auditorium. We are somewhat in here. Go back,
professing Christ and go back. Verse 67, Our Lord said to his
twelve disciples, Will you also go away? And Simon Peter, bless
his heart, Simon Peter. Lord, to whom shall we go? Lord, these are words of life. My life hangs on Your Word. You
are my life. That's what Solomon Peter said.
Everything you say hangs on Your Word. I live on Your Word. I
need Your Word. I need to hear You. I need to
be with You. I need to walk with You. Don't,
like Ruth said, entreat me not to leave Thee. Your God's my
God, your people's my people. These are words of life, Simon
Peter said. I believe, we're sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. This is words of
life. Your words of life. Simon Peter has life, doesn't
he? He has life. Is that you? I hope so. I believe it's me. I hope so. This is a long chapter,
isn't it? The Lord's words, the Lord's
works began with the Lord feeding many people. And the Lord feeds
everybody. The Lord Jesus Christ feeds everybody.
You know, this building ought to be full of people thanking
God for Him feeding them. Right? It ought to be full. He fed the multitude. Many of
these followed Him again because they wanted so much more to eat.
They didn't come to Him that they might have life. They wanted
things. And He rebuked them. And then
the disciples His chosen disciples, right after that, He put them
through deep waters. Remember, were you with me? He
put them through deep waters. They are His chosen disciples.
They're with Him. They're following Him. He's their
life. Well, let's see. Let's see if
you know who I am. I'm going to put you through
deep waters. And He put them all through deep
waters. And I know to a man, they were
calling on Him, They thought, where is he? We're going to die
without him. And they rode and rode and they
realized we can't get anywhere without him. Without him we can
do nothing. If he doesn't come and save us,
we're going down. We're going under. We're going
to be overcome by these deep waters of this world. And here
he came. Here he came. Is that you? He came. He spoke to them. Fear
not. It is I. It is I. Somebody told me after that message
said that it just blessed me so that whatever it is. He said, Lord said, it is I.
That gives you peace. Whatever comes your way, whatever
you go through, whatever happens in this world, He's a doer of
it. It is I. God's people know that.
His disciples knew that. Gave them peace. And then, He rebuked Sam for
coming to Him because of the loaves and physical bread. Physical
bread. He said, You follow Me because
of what you got from Me. How about you? I've asked this
question. Somebody said to me, Real piercing question. Why'd
you come here today? How'd you come here today? Why'd you come here? You think Christ, you need to
hear cry? You need to hear His Word. You
need to worship Him. You want to worship Him. You
want to hear His Word. You want, you need, you desire,
you hunger and thirst for His Word, to hear the Word preached,
do you? You want to sing these songs.
It's what God's people are going to be doing. It's time without
end singing these songs. You know, there was a time that
as a young man I didn't know the Lord and I'd hear these songs. I remember hearing these songs
that I heard as a child and I kind of thought, ugh. I did. Ron, I did. I thought,
oh, I don't want to hear that. It pricked my conscience. It
pricked my conscience. It's why I cannot preach. Without
telling you my story. And without saying, but God.
Now I hear these psalms. They rejoice my heart. They bring
peace to my troubles. Why did you come here? And then the Lord speaks to everyone.
He speaks to the multitude. He speaks to His disciples. He
speaks to all of them. He says in verse 27, labor not.
That is, work not for these things. Meat is a substance or whatever
it is that you live for. These things perish. Labor not. Work not. Don't spend your whole
life for these things that don't endure. But give yourself labor
for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, for the Son
of Man shall give unto you. It's not something you work for. It's just given for the asking.
Him hath God the Father sealed. Our Lord says, don't spend all
your life for the things of this life, but for eternal life. Look
for eternal life. And He said in verse 63, I am
that life. I am. And He says, Him hath God sealed. Certified. Signed. Sealed. Everybody wants things
that are pure, you know, certified. Certified this, certified that,
signed, sealed, government seal on it, authority on it. Everything
in creation is a sign that Christ is. Everything in the creation
is proof. God has created it for his glory. The heavens are a tabernacle
for the sun. Show everybody's without excuse.
And everything in the Bible is a sign, is a picture that Christ
is all, that Christ is life, that he that hath the Son hath
life. There is no other life except in Christ. Everything
in this book is a sign. It's sealed. It's delivered to
you. Now throughout this book, throughout
this chapter, he talks about he that believeth on the Son. He says, He that cometh to me,
He that eateth me. Are you with me? I know I say
that a lot. My preacher did. That's where
I got that. He says, Are you with me? Why?
I'm not preaching to the air. I'm preaching to you. I want
you with me. Every one of you. I do now. I do. I want you with me. These
are words of life, okay? He says, He that believeth on
me hath life. He said, He that cometh to me,
God drew ye. He said, He that eateth me hath
life. What's that mean? I want to know. He that believeth on me, not
in me. I was, and you've heard people
say this, that I was Back when we had horses, this gal I was
buying a horse from, she knew I was a preacher and we were
talking, and she said, Oh, I believe in God. I see how everybody does. But that's not salvation. It's
to believe on Him. A lot of people believe on Him. Verse 29, They asked him, what
can we do to get to God? And he said, this is the work
of God. This is God's work. You can't work. You can't get
there. Doing anything. He said, this is God's work in
you. If God does this work in you,
by grace you say through faith, it's not of yourselves, it's
a gift of God. It's a working of his mighty power. If you,
if God does this work in you, you know what you'll do? This
is the work of God. You'll believe on Him that's
in Him. Believe on Him. It's not play
on words. It's the truth. Many believe
in Him, believe facts, believe His existence. There's some people
in this room that believe in the doctrines of grace. They believe in the depravity
of man. They believe in the unconditional
election of God. They believe in the particular
redemption of God. They believe in the irresistible
grace of God. They believe in the perseverance
of the saint. But that's not salvation. It's to believe on the Son of
God. Cast all your sins on the head
of the sacrifice. Cast all your care on Him. Have
all your hope in Him. And yes, on Him. On Him. Look at verse 35. I am the bread
of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Verse 36. He said to some, you've
seen me, but believe not. Verse 40. This is the will of
God that sent me, everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him. May he have everlasting life. And did you notice how
he kept saying, I will raise him up? I will raise him up.
Didn't he, John? Over and over again. I will raise him up. At
the last day. I will raise him up. From where? Well, he quickens us once, and
yes, has to keep quickening us. Has to keep picking us up and
raising us up. And when he comes for God's people,
in that day, Luke, he wrote in Luke, when he comes will he find
faith on the earth? Really? Anybody needs him? Calling on him like an importunate
widow? Yes he will, a few. And he said, I will raise him
up, that person in the last day. I will raise them up, those that
need me and live on me. I am truly their life. I'm going
to raise them up and they're going to be with me forever. What is it to believe on him?
Verse 47, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. This is water, right? You believe
that's water? You believe what's in this bottle
is water? You do, don't you? I need it
right now. I am thirsty. I just believed on the water.
I just drank it. I needed it. I have thirst. I'm alive. I'm alive. I don't just believe in it. I've
got to have it. And every day, I thirst for it. And I live on it. Christ is the
water. Well, bread. You like bread? Anybody? I know everybody likes
lactose. Whatever it is, they're intolerant.
But I know that. Strange day. But bread, I love
it. I love it. And you know who's
going to eat bread? Really, if you're really hungry,
you'll eat bread. You'll believe on it. You believe
on it. If you're tired, if you're weary,
you need rest. That's a bench. I believe that's
a bench. That's a bench. I know if you
sit there, you'll find rest. I know that. I know that. You
know who will sit on the bench? If you're tired, you'll find
rest. So believe on the Son. Believe
on the Son. He said, He that believeth on
Me. On Me. He said, He that cometh to Me.
Look, He says this over and over again. He said to some, you will
not come unto Me that you might have life. But verse 35, He said,
in verse 35, He that cometh to Me shall never hunger. He that
believeth on me shall never thirst. Verse 37, All that the Father
giveth me shall come unto me. Verse 44, No man can come unto
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And verse 45,
He said, Every man therefore hath heard and learned of the
Father cometh to me. And He said, I give thee eternal life. They
don't ever perish. So in chapter 10, in verse 65,
he said, I say of you, no man can come unto me except it were
given him of the Father. Have you come to Christ? Do you
believe on the Son? He kept saying that. Do you believe
on the Son? All right? Have you come to Christ? What does that mean? Well, to
come to Christ is first to believe in Him and believe on Him. You hear of Christ. Faith cometh
by hearing. Belief is trust. Belief is confidence. Belief is need. Without Him I
can do nothing. Without Him I can't be saved.
Without Him I'm unrighteous. Without Him. Without Him. Without
Him. It's to believe on Him. It's to need Him. To come to
Him is to hear. He said, My sheep hear My voice,
and they come to Me. It's proof of life. It's to see,
see His glory, see yourself prone to wander in the ditch, see your
Savior. It's to call on Him, call on
Him. It's to come to Him. It's like Simon said, Life. You're life. You're my life.
My bread, my water, my meat, my food, that's what's to come
to Him. It's to need Him. It's to come to Him. It's to
come to Christ. Old Brother Scott, love that
old man. He used to say, come to Christ,
but don't move a muscle. Don't come down front. He's not
down here. He's in heaven. Come to Him. Your heart, your soul, come to
Him. I tell you, you know what I was
praying this morning? I was praying that the Lord would
give somebody hunger and thirst for Christ. Somebody doesn't
have it. Give them hunger and thirst. And cause them to come to Christ.
See, they're in need of Him. He that cometh. And then our
Lord kept saying, He that eateth me. Isn't it? And many heard him
say this, that, we don't know what you're talking about. Many say, we don't, we don't
know, we don't understand what you're talking about. Eat. What
do you mean, eat your flesh and blood? Do you? Do you? He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath life. Do you? What does it mean to
eat Him? You know, there's a saying, a
modern saying that says, eat well, laugh often, love much.
You've seen that. If you've got it on your wall,
well, I don't care what you do. But, eat. There's a religious lady
that wrote a book, maybe a better, she says, I've got a better handle
on this. Eat, pray, and love. And what they're saying by that,
eat, eat, eat, is life revolves around eating. Isn't it? The first thing they mention,
not pray, but eat. Eat, oh yes, and pray. How do
we give thanks? Do we eat first and pray? We
pray. We call on the Lord. We thank
the Lord for everything, whether He gives us another bite to eat
or not. Like that old woman sitting at the table and had a crumb
of crust of bread, an old woman that knew the Lord sitting there
at the table, nothing, just a little bit of food in her cupboard.
And she said, all this and Christ too? Edith. You know, life does revolve
around food. You know that? Human life, animal
life, animals and humans live to eat and eat to live. They
do. It's proof of life. You can't live without eating.
You're not alive if you don't eat. If you don't hunger, you're
not alive or you're sick or you're going to die. And what a good
illustration that is. If someone claims to love Christ
and eat, you know, to eat, have eaten His flesh and drunk His
blood and begins to, their appetite begins to wane and they no more
need to hear this same gospel anymore, this bread of life,
something bad wrong here. Maybe they didn't have life to
begin with. Right? Right. You see somebody, their
appetite is the first sign of sickness. One of the first signs,
you begin to lose your appetite. and your flesh is ruined, and
then you die. But he that is alive hungers,
thirsts, eats, lives on. Eternal life, you see, is living
on Jesus Christ. Over in Europe, especially Italy
and France, and we were there, And life revolves around the
table. You know that? Their whole day
revolves around sitting at the table, in the evening mostly,
and eating. Everything revolves around that.
Their whole day is spent in anticipation of sitting at the table and eating
food. Are you with me? Their life is
eating. So it is with the child of God. It's just so. It's just so. Spiritual life revolves around
Christ. No, you don't order your life
around the table. I mean, you don't order the table
around your life. You order your life around the
table. The bread of life. He kept talking about the bread
of life. He said, I'm the bread. I'm the bread. The true bread.
Verse 32. I'm the true bread, verse 33.
I'm the bread of God. He said, I'm the bread from heaven,
manna. The children of Israel, when
God first sent that manna, all of them said, what is it?
And that's what they called it, manna. Boy, they went out that
first day when they saw that manna, they went out just, oh,
man, this is the most wonderful thing. Ooh, look, they're all
rejoicing and singing. Look at this manna, manna, manna.
It is wonderful. Have you tasted anything like
this? No, I haven't. It's wonderful.
Next day, ooh, there it is again, again. What? Same thing. Oh, but it's sweet. It's beautiful.
It's glorious. Oh, I love this. Forty years
later, He still said, ìAmen.î And some
of them said, ìWeíre tired of this.î Give us something else. In fact,
we want to go back to Egypt with the leeks and the onions. Slime
pit? Yeah. True bread, bread of God. Bread
is an amazing thing. Bread is an amazing thing. I
just marvel at bread, and there's no wonder the Lord used bread
as a picture of Himself, isn't it? Bread starts out with what? Seed. Corn of wheat. Seed. Corn of corn. Seed of corn. And it falls into the ground.
That's Christ crucified, buried, risen again. You can see the
corn falls in the ground. It grows up as a root out of
dry ground. It has no real form or commonness. You can't tell what it is until
it grows up mature and you say, oh, this is wonderful. Christ grew in wisdom and stature.
The fullness of God and in Him, all the fullness of God in Him,
like a stalk of corn with a thousand ears on it. Meek and lowly, hanging
its head at the corner, ready to harvest. Primarily full corn, a year of
corn, just you ever take, all have, you've taken a year of
corn off, have you ever bitten into raw corn right off the stalk? Sure you have. It just, water,
moisture, it's just life. All those seeds, soft seed, it's
seed, it's fruit, it's food, it's got to be cast in the oven,
though. Got to be ground to powder. Under a wheel, a big millstone. Cast in the oven, under the hand
of the baker, the cooker, molded into something wonderful. You're
going to wait and you're going to see what this is going to
come out by. Cast in the oven. Christ endured the fiery wrath
of God, which is going to fall on all mankind. But not on those
in Christ. Not on those who hunger and thirst
for this Burnt offering. Listen to me now. Do you need
Christ? All mankind does and doesn't
know it. Have no hunger for Him. But those
who have life understand, I need a burnt offering. And that bread is cast into the
oven. And buddy, when it comes out
of that oven, is there anything that smells like that? Is there
any food on earth that smells like bread baked coming out of
the oven? Anything? Is there anything that
smells a sweet-smelling savor? Anything on this earth like Jesus
Christ and Him crucified? Tell me. To you. Anything more
glorious? Anything more wonderful? If you're hungry, if you're alive, Tell it again, preacher. Bake
another loaf. I'm 66 years old, been eating
bread since I was born, I guess. Drinking milk, anyway. That's
Christ. He that eateth of flesh. One time, men used to bake loaf
after loaf. Sister Yvonne does now, and others,
you do too. And cornbread, Irene, cornbread,
man, oh man. Put that in milk and there ain't
nothing on this earth like that. Still eat it, still love it.
I remember my dad, cornbread is what Boaz fed Ruth. Anyway, and she fell in love
with it. That's a beautiful picture. But
I remember my dad taking cornbread, you know, he ate cornbread in
the South, and he dipped that cornbread in buttermilk. Buttermilk. It's all Christ. He put that in buttermilk, and
I thought, what in the earth? How in the world? And he acted
like, there ain't nothing on earth like this. Nothing. And I'd watch him eat that, and
I'd want to throw up. You know what's my favorite thing
on earth right now? Cornbread and milk. In a minute, I wake up, if she
makes it, I wake up in the middle of the night. That's what I'll
go for. I'm alive. I'm alive. Hunger for Christ the bread. When he said you'll never hunger
again, it doesn't mean you'll quit eating, it means you'll
never You'll never have such an insatiable hunger. You'll
never go hungry. You'll never go hungry. That's
what that means. You'll never be thirsty like
that woman at the well. She was thirsty and had been
thirsty all her life and didn't know what she was thirsty for.
And Christ told her, I'm the one you need to thirst for. And He gave her that thirst.
She never did take a drink of that well. And now she's full of Him. Is
this meeting your need? He's preaching Christ. Same old, same old. Same old
wonderful truth. Christ. Oh, my. Bread. He said in verse 47, he
said, Verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Believe
on me, they live on me. They live on me. They love me.
They love to eat. Verse 53 said, Except you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. Now in verse 55, My flesh is meat indeed. He that
liveth, verse 56, he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood
dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent
me, I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall
live by me. I told you earlier that, you
know, in Europe, life revolves around the table, coming to the
table. Well, for the child of God, life
revolves around coming to the table. It really does. Doesn't it? You know, when you're young,
young people, teenagers especially, you practically have to beg them
to come to the table. They're doing other things, right?
They're out there playing. I remember, come, come, come
to eat. Supper's ready. Supper's ready. What'll bring them to the table?
Hunger. But, all right, they come to the table and do they
eat? For the love of the food? Oh,
their bellies are empty. They've got to get their belly
full. What have they got their mind on? Can't wait to get away
from this table and go outside and play. Am I right? Do they thank the cook? Never give mama thought. All
those meals she prepared. All those meals. God has fed
us all our day. Most people don't give it a thought.
Never give it a thought. Do they talk about the food?
Do young people talk about the food? Huh? Wasn't that good? Ooh, mom, what's in that? Huh? No. Look at the hoe. Going up and gone. Let me out of here. The older you get, if you become
mature, you know what you look forward to? Sitting at the table. And you know what you're thinking
the whole time when somebody's feeding you? My mom did this
for me all those days, and I was ungrateful. This man preached all these messages
to me, and I was ungrateful. And then you love the taste of
it. And you eat it. And you think, this is the best.
Oh, this is wonderful. And you know what you do? You
loathe to leave the table. The older you get, you loathe
to leave the table. You want to sit there. What are
you going to talk about? It's food. Isn't that wonderful? That's those who love the gospel.
Some can't wait to leave, others don't want to leave. Talk about
Christ. Talk about Christ. That's life. Christ is your life. So our Lord said to Simon Peter
and the rest of them, He said, will you go away? Will you? To whom? To whom? Simon Peter had a wife. John
and James had homes. They all had homes. Maybe wives
and children. You know you never hear them
talking about them. Ever. Have you ever heard Peter
talk about his children? Did he ever talk about his wife?
John, James, did they? Talk about their house? Anything? Their boats? Did they? Was that
their conversation? What was their conversation?
Christ. Why? He's their life. He's their
life. It's like they weren't married.
It's like they didn't have any family but Him. It's true. And they all said, we won't go
away. And one of them was the devil. You know what? We all ought to
be saved. every one of them, to a man. Is it I? Oh, Lord, don't let me go away.
Don't let me go. I need you. Whosoever calls, be saved. Oh, Lord, I urge one of you young
people, or old for that matter, to call on the Lord and ask Him
this, ask Him this, Lord, say, Lord, give me a need for You. Amen.