This chapter is marvelous. One
of the more powerful chapters in all of God's Word. Let's read
verses 22. I intended to deal with Christ
the bread, but there's much to be seen in a few verses at the end of these verses here.
Let's read verses 22 through 29. The day following, when the people
which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was
no other boat there save the one where unto his disciples
were entered, and they saw that Jesus went not with his disciples
into the boat, that his disciples were gone away alone without
him, albeit there came other boats from Tiberias, nine in
the place where they did eat bread, after the Lord gave a
given thanks. When the people therefore saw
that Jesus was not there, neither His disciples, they also took
shipping, came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they had
found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him,
Rabbi, when camest thou hither? And the Lord answered, 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? And Jesus answered,
said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. And we need to deal with these
verses on the sealed one. He said here
something, him hath the Father sealed. And then he said, This
is the work of God. This is the one that you may
believe on Him, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. These
people saw the disciples get in a ship without the Lord and
go across. They knew He wasn't with them.
And they took the ships and came across, and there He was. And
they asked Him, How did You get here? Our Lord did not tell them,
did He? He did not say. He could have
said, he could have told the truth, he could have said, I
walked here across the ocean, I walked on the water. The Lord
never made much over His miracles. The Lord didn't seek to prove
Himself by touting His miracles. Do you see what I've done? He didn't do that. His miracles,
the signs, the wonders proved Him. Yet, the thing that proved
Him more than anything else was what He said, His words. What He said is salvation. The miracles and all were pictures
and types and illustrations of salvation. But everyone he healed
died of something. Everyone he fed got hungry again. But these things were illustrations
of the great work that he came to do. What he said, He's going to talk a great deal
about bread, isn't he? And he said to these people,
you follow me. Some followed him because of
the miracles and the signs and the wonders. And our Lord said,
an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. But his
people seek a word from him. He said, you follow me because
you've got your bellies filled. And remember Paul said, He said,
I say weeping that most people, their God is their belly. That
most people, our Lord is saying, most people seek the blessings
and not the blesser. That's not worshipping God. That's
not thanking God. That's not rejoicing in the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's just wanting the benefits
and not the benefactor. Like a woman who pretends to
be married and all she wants out of the man is what he provides
her. Here's the difference between
God's true people and those who merely profess to be. God's true
people desire Him. While most people the world over
want what He gives them. This is what He's saying. This separates the true from
the false. This separates the saints from
hypocrites. Saints seek the Lord. They seek
the blesser, not just the blessing. And they know that good things,
while they are a blessing, so are evil things. The world doesn't
think that way. God's people do. And so when
the miracles stop, so do the followers. When the bread dries
up, so do the followers, the believers, but not God's people. After this whole thing is over
in John 6, many walk no more with Him, and our Lord turned
to His disciples, hand chosen, chosen by Him, called by Him,
born again by His Word. He turned to His disciples and
said, well, you also go away. They said, no. To whom shall
we go? To whom? Paul said, I know whom
I believe. To whom shall we go? And here's
what they said, and here's the testimony of all of God's true
people. Thou hast the words, words of
life. Yes, you're feeding us. Yes,
you're protecting us. Yes, you're doing all this for
us, providing for us. But what we hang on, what we
live on is what you tell us, what you say to us. Your words
are life. And this is what's going to keep
God's people. This is what keeps God's people.
They have to have the gospel. They have to have his word. They
have to have it. Let the whole world dry up, but
they've got to have the gospel. Lose everything. Just don't take the ark. And look at verse 27. The Lord
said, 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. Labour not for the meat that
perisheth." Go to Isaiah 55 with me. Do you remember the disciples
coming to our Lord earlier and saying to Him, they saw that
He hadn't eaten in days. Our Lord was not, He had no lust
of the flesh. He had no Lusts. Period. He didn't live for things. He lived on God. And they said,
Master, eat. He said, I have meat to eat that
you know not of. He said, my meat is to do the
will of the Father and finish the work He sent me to do. Oh,
may that be our meat. It is God's people's meat. It
is. It is. That is their heart's
desire. And our Lord said here in Isaiah
55, Ho, everyone that thirsteth. And you know our Lord in His
Sermon on the Mount said, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst
after righteousness. What's that? Christ. The Lord,
our righteousness. Ho, everyone that thirsteth.
Come ye to the waters. The Lord began in this Gospel
of John by meeting a woman at a well. And he said, these waters
are going to leave you thirsty. He brought her to the waters.
He that hath no money, this is water you can't buy. This is
bread you can't buy. Come ye, buy and eat. Yea, come,
buy wine and milk without money, without price. And then he asks,
Wherefore, why do you spend money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently. That means listen, hear, and
eat. Hear and eat. That which is good,
really good. Let your soul, this is what your
soul needs to eat. What I have to say, my word.
Spirit, and it's life. Let your soul delight itself
in fact. Remember in Psalm 107, I believe
it is, the Lord, the people lusted exceedingly. I've got to have
this, I've got to have that, I need this, I need that. So
He gave them their desire, but sent Leanness to their soul. They had everything that money
could buy, all the fleshly things in this world, but they had no
peace, no joy, no real life. And they're looking for it in
all the wrong places and things. And they don't satisfy. Verse
3, Isaiah 55, incline your ear, come unto me, oh my. Here and
your soul shall live. This is what we live on. This
is what we live on right here, what we're doing right now. This
is what we live on. And all of us by nature, go back to John
6. All of us, by nature, work for and labor after material
things, seeking fulfillment in them. Our Lord had the Preacher,
Solomon, the Preacher write a whole book of Ecclesiastes, that means
the Preacher, with a capital P, meaning what he has to say
is more important than anything you'll hear. And the preacher
throughout Ecclesiastes, he began it and ended by saying, vanity
of vanity, vanity of vanity, all flesh is vanity. Meaning, it won't satisfy. It won't fulfill. It won't give
you what you look for. It won't satisfy the deceitfulness
of riches. deceives you. If I can have this,
I'll be happy. No, you'll just want more. And then when you lose that,
which gave you happiness, you're sadder than you were before you
had it. He wrote this whole book of Ecclesiastes
about how he experimented with everything. And he said, there's
nothing. There's nothing in this earth
that will fulfill or give lasting happiness and joy but now. And
so our Lord says, labor for that. Provide for yourself bags that
wax not old, treasures in heaven that nobody can take from. Now, lest a young person in here
be discouraged, he wrote Ecclesiastes not to discourage us, not to
keep us from enjoying things. The Lord has given us all things
richly to enjoy. In fact, he says that there's
nothing better for you to do in this life, as far as these
things are, than to marry and have children and have a home
and enjoy. Enjoy. It's not evil. It's not
sin that God gave them. Do you not delight to give your
children things to enjoy? But now if they consume them,
then they become lust, and lust is idolatry. And it makes you
forget God. It makes you never think about
God. And he said in Ecclesiastes, in the very last, he said, remember,
enjoy these things, but always think about who gave them to
you. Fear of God. Let's hear the conclusion of
the matter. Fear God. And you need not fear anything
else. And then when you know who gave
it to you, when he takes it from you, you bless the Lord. And you know he did it for your
good. So it's not to discourage us,
but to enlighten us, to enlighten our darkness, our understanding.
Enlighten our understanding that we might understand. Things that
are seen are temporal. Things that are not seen are
eternal. So set your affection on things
above. Our Lord said, labor not for
this meat. It goes in and it goes out just
as quickly as it came in. Nope, no matter what it is. But
now this meat, And he's going to go on to say
a great deal about bread and meat in a little bit. But look
at verse 27. So he says, labor not for the
meat which perishes, but for that meat which is Christ himself. He said, my flesh is meat indeed. My flesh is meat indeed. My blood
is drink indeed. And we'll learn, I hope we'll
learn what that means. He said, him hath God the Father
sealed. Now that really stuck out to
me. That really struck me and I thought, I dare not go past
this quickly. I need to deal with it. Him hath
God the Father sealed. What's that got to do with what
he just said? He has sealed him. Turn to Isaiah
29. We turn to Isaiah often, don't
we? We quote Isaiah often. Well, that's by design. Isaiah
is quoted more than any other prophet in the New Testament.
Our Lord quoted Isaiah. The disciples did. But Isaiah
29. Now, the word sealed means several
things. All right? The word sealed means
several things. The title of the subject is,
The Sealed One. The Sealed One. Christ said,
Him, me, have God the Father sealed. The word sealed, to seal
something means this, you put your stamp upon it, your private
seal or signet. Your private seal attesting to
this thing or this one, that this is mine, this is legal,
this is it. Then seal means to seal up as
to preserve, to secure, to seal it up, to shut it up, to close
it up. Alright? Seal also means to hide
from view. To hide from view. Alright, look
at Isaiah 29. Christ is the sealed one who
has been kept hidden before the foundation of the world. He's
called the Word, isn't He? Look at Isaiah 29, verse 10. The Lord hath poured out upon
you the spirit of deep sleep. Do you remember Isaiah 6? We
looked at that some time ago, where he told Isaiah to go and
tell the people, you hear indeed, but you don't understand. You
see, but don't perceive. He said, make their ears heavy
and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear
with their ears and understand with their heart. And he said,
Lord, how long? He said, until the end. And he
said, there'll be a remnant. There's going to be a remnant,
the Lord said. And we'll open their eyes. And we'll open the
seals. Isaiah 29, our Lord has called
the Word. The Lord, verse 10, poured a
deep sleep and closed the eyes of the prophets and the rulers
and the seers hath he covered. It's the same today. In the reading
of the book, verse 11, the vision of all is become unto you as
the words of a book that is sealed. Men deliver to one that is learned
and say, read this, I pray thee. And he said, I cannot, it is
sealed. Our Lord was walking along, and
our Lord spoke in parables, our Lord spoke Very plainly, he said, there's
nothing reed or perverse. But the learned, the Pharisees
and scribes, they didn't understand what he was saying. And yet the
little ones, the common people heard him gladly. And he says
he stopped one day and Pray to the Father. I thank Thee,
Father of heaven and earth, that You have hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, but revealed them unto me. Even so,
Father, it seemed good in Thy sight. Christ must be revealed
to you. No man knows the Father, but
the Son. Neither knoweth any man the Son but the Father, and
he to whom the Father will reveal Him. And the Son revealed Him. And the Holy Spirit revealed
Him. He turned to His disciples one day and said, You know who
I am, don't you? Yes, Lord. They are at the cross.
He said, Bless your blood and reveal it to you. My Father did. Look at verse 13. The Lord, forasmuch as this people
draw near with their mouth and their lips do honor me, like
that multitude in John 6, But they have removed their heart
far from me." They weren't seeking him as sinners in need of mercy
and sinners in need of salvation, but in need of blessings. Their fear toward me is taught
by the precept of men. That's no fear at all. Therefore,
behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people,
a marvelous work and a wonder. The wisdom of their wives shall
perish. That's what I just quoted. The
understanding of their prudence shall be hid, sealed. But, verse 18, in that day, the
day of salvation, the deaf shall hear the words of the book. I'm
going to open deaf ears. The eyes of the blind shall see
out of obscurity. Verse 19, the meek shall increase
their joy in the Lord. The poor among men shall rejoice
in what? Him. Him. Him. That's how you know. That's how you know that He hath
opened the seals thereof for you to look, that He hath revealed
Him to you and still kept hidden from most. Seal means a stamp or a mark
to attest your approval or ownership of. Him hath the Father sealed. When
Peter stood at Pentecost to preach that great message, he said,
you men of Israel, hear these words, a man approved of God. God hath set his seal on him. A man approved of God among you
by miracles, signs, and wonders. Then Paul wrote in Romans 1,
that glorious definition of the gospel, Romans 1, chapter 1,
verse 1 and following. And this is the gospel. Brother
Walter Rueber came here years ago, and I'll never forget, he
preached from Romans 1, 1 through 3. Paul separated unto God the
gospel of God, and Walter said, if you can't preach from this,
you can't preach. He said, if you don't know this, you don't
know the gospel. But this is the gospel. It's the gospel of
God concerning God's Son. And he went on to say in verse
3, the gospel of God concerning His Son declared to be the Son
of God with power hidden to most. Oh, they have
a form of godliness, but deny the power therein. They say things
about Jesus, but He doesn't have all power. God's people know
He does. Declared to be the Son of God
with power according to the Spirit of holiness. A virgin born. Why must Christ be born of a
virgin? That He might be without the seed of Adam. Right? We know
that. You know, most people don't believe
that. Most people don't care. Most people don't think you need
to. Our salvation depends on it. Spirit of holiness. This is the
Holy One of God. This is the Holy One of Israel.
This is the sinless Son of God. And I represented our covenant
here, declared to be the Son of God with power according to
the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. You know, there are a lot of
so-called evangelists that don't really believe He rose from the
dead. It's all sealed. But God has
put His stamp of approval on the Lord Jesus Christ, hidden
from view and yet attested to by God and revealed to His people. Seal. You know, man puts his
seal on things, but God just... Whatever man highly esteems,
God hates it. It's an abomination to God. I
love the story of Pilate. When they took his body down,
the Lord's body down from the cross, and they put it in a tomb,
and the soldiers, somebody said, the Pharisees said, he said he
would rise again. Now, we've got to do something
to keep this from spreading. So Pilate said, well, put a stone
on that, and I'll seal it. I'll put my seal on it. And make
it as fast as you can. Get your strongest men now. Let's
seal this thing up that it never come out. Him hath gotten the bottle sealed. Man seals mean nothing. Sealed means security. Sealed
means salvation. Sealed means preservation. He's the sealed one. He's attested
to by God that He is our salvation, that He is our security. We're
kept by the power of God. What's that? Christ. He said,
those whom thou hast given me, I have kept. He's the keeper. He that keepeth Israel. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And you're kept. You're sealed.
You know, you're sealed. If you're in Him, you're sealed.
Revelation Oh, I'm running out of time, but you'll like this. Revelation 7. This chapter mentions
seals. I forgot how many times. I didn't
write them all down. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen times
in eight verses. Seals. Revelation 7. Look at it. After these things, I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four
winds of the earth. The wind should not blow on the earth
or the sea or any tree. And I saw another angel ascending
from the east, having the seal, the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice
to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and
the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, that
is, don't destroy this all, We have sealed the servants. We
have sealed the servants in their foreheads. What's that? Ephesians 1 over here. And he
went on to talk about he sealed every tribe. 12,000 out of every
tribe, he sealed them. Are you wearing the seal? Are
you sealed? Huh? What's the seal in their
forehead? Idiots today. Idiots think that,
you know, we're going to see the Antichrist because he's got
three sixes on his head. That'd be a real obvious one.
Who'd fall for that? Or some visible sign. The Pharisees wore their phylacteries. And people today wear, have to
wear their, you know, look at me, this is me. That doesn't
prove a thing. Besides, that's an image, a graven image. Proves
you don't really understand. The seal, Ephesians 1, I've got
to turn there myself, the seal is Christ Himself. It's the gospel
imprinted in your mind and on your heart. You believe it with
all your heart. And Ephesians 1, is there a clearer
gospel message than Ephesians 1, huh? Oh, grace unto you, the
faithful in Christ Jesus. It keeps going, saying, in Christ,
in Christ, in Christ. Kept by Him, in Him, in Him,
in Him, in Him. That is, they're sealed, they're
found in Him. All right? Now look at verse
9. He's made known unto us, these
elect, these people of God, these sealed ones. According to his
good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ. Christ is all, both which are
in heaven and on earth, even in him, in whom also we have
obtained and inherited, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will. They know whose will. It is,
that we should be, what's this all about? That we should be
received to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. How that he did it. In whom also,
after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise." Earnest. The Holy Spirit of God. This
is the seal. The gospel is the seal. An understanding
of who Christ is. He's opened the seals of the
book where we could look and see. You know, it's all about
Him, isn't it? Salvation's Him, isn't it? He
opened any book. He's opened our understanding,
hasn't He? We go to Genesis. We open the book. There He is.
Exodus. There He is. Leviticus. The people
of the world, the learned, the professors say, I don't see it.
I don't see it. It must not be in Him. He's not
one of the sealed ones. He opened the mind of God's people.
And what they're thinking of is Christ. He opened the hearts
of God's people. Who they believe, who they trust,
who they love, their desires. Christ. It's not a seal you can see on
their head. They don't wear it like something
that they want you to see, but it's there. God sees it, the
seal. And the Holy Spirit is unseen.
He seals them with this understanding that they're in Him. We know
the Son of God has come, John said, and has given us an understanding
that we might know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is
true. This is eternal life, and this
is the true God. And then our Lord says, in closing
in this book, John 6, the people said, they heard him say, labor
not. So they said, well, what can
we do? What should we do? You back there, John 6? They
heard him talk about labor, labor not. Well, they said, well, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And Jesus answered. Our Lord
said unto them, This is the work of God. How many people understand that?
You understand, isn't it? I fully-I understand this pretty
much. This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. This is the work of God. He said,
what must we do to work the works of God? He said, now this is
the work of God. Faith, he's talking about faith,
is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. Ephesians
119, it says, we believe according to the working of His mighty
power. It takes the power of God. To
work in someone, both the will and do of his good pleasure,
it takes the power of God to make somebody repent and believe
and look to Christ. You've got to be born again.
This is the work of God. And everyone that believes, like
the disciples of old, they know they believe, not because they
decided to. Nobody offered Christ to them.
Christ came and laid hold of them, like Jacob. Christ came
and revealed Himself to them. This is the work of God. You're
not going to get to heaven by working yourself there. Faith
is not a work. It's not your work. You don't
get there because you believe. You believe because Christ came
to you. Because the Spirit of God was
sent to you to apprehend you and give you this faith. It's
a work of God's miracle. It's a gift. And then he says,
this is the work of God that God accepts. This is the work
which God accepts. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's according to His mercy that
He's saved us. This is the work of God that
He accepts. Believe. Believe on the Son. You cannot work. You cannot work. By the deeds of the law, no flesh
will be justified. Who understands this? I mean,
who really understands this? Few. But the few that are sealed
know this beyond - they know this with all their heart. And
they say - I was going to have you turn to Psalm 92. David said,
Thou hast made me glad through Thy work. He said in another place, Thou
hast ordained all our works for us. It is God which worketh in
us, both through will and due of His good pleasure. Salvations
of the Lord, sealed. This is the work of God. The whole world laboring for
this. They don't know it. Laboring for that. I mean, nothing. God's people quit laboring. They've
come to Christ. He said, come unto me, all you
that labor, and I'll give you rest. And they're resting in
Christ. And they're believing and trusting Christ. And there's
millions of people all over the world in religion trying to work
their way to heaven, sincere. And our heart's desire and prayer
to God for them is that they might be saved. But it's God's
prerogative in it. It's God's will. It's God's choice. And I just thank God that you
know this. That you believe. And you know
in your head and in your heart that Christ is all. You've been sealed. You've been
sealed. Okay. Thank you.