Mighty, uh, what's the word I'm looking for?
Mighty, uh, big claim there in verse three.
Riches I heed not, nor man's empty praise. Tall order. It's a good thing
it was so. All right, back to John chapter
6. We're going to look at four verses
only. I say only, but we could not
deal with four more important verses than these. And I am confident that if there is a true seeker
of the truth here this morning, if there is a true seeker of
the truth here this morning, if there is one who is really,
truly interested and wants to know what salvation
is, what one must do to be saved, I really believe that person
will learn the truth now. I really do. I hope there is
someone in here. I hope I'm here for that reason. Now, the Lord, I want to make
this as simple as possible. The Lord Jesus Christ is speaking
here in these four verses, and he gives a reproof He gives an exhortation, and
he answers a question. Three things. He gives a reproof,
he gives an exhortation, and he answers a question. Here in
these four verses. Alright, let's look at the reproof.
In verse 26 of John chapter 6, Jesus answered them. Now this
is right after our Lord had walked on the ocean there to meet his disciples, and they
passed over. Well, as we read, the people
didn't see him get in a boat, and they didn't know where he
went. They saw the disciples leave, they saw the other boats
leave, and they got in boats and they traveled over. And when
they went over on the other side, he was there. And they were astounded
at this and asked him, How did you get here? When did you come
here? How did you get here? In verse 26, he answered them
and said, Verily, verily. There's that statement again
of a truth. of truth. This is so. This is so. You seek me, he said. I say unto you, you seek me not
because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the
loaves and were filled. Now, if you've been with us in
studying John, you remember that just before this, The Lord condemned
some people. He condemned some people for
following him. He condemned them for following
him because of his miracles. Are you with me? He condemned
some for following him because of his miracle. And this takes place today. Many
people are religious. I told you a story about couple
that my wife and I know, whose daughter was miraculously saved
from drowning. In other words, she actually
lost consciousness. They thought she was dead, but
she was resuscitated. And therefore, they are now very
religious. And they'll bring that up to
you, that that happened to them. And many now who believe in Jesus
because he healed them, or someone they know, or performed some
miracle for them. All right? That's not saving
faith. That is not saving faith. All right? Here he condemns some. He condemns this other group
of people. who follow him. These are following
him, not because of the miracles, but because they got their bellies
full, because he provided their needs for them. Are you with
me? In other words, like Paul said,
the Apostle Paul said this twice, their God is their belly. In
other Many are religious for gain what they can get out of
God. And that's what these fellows
were doing, these people, all right? That's what he's talking
about here. Many are religious for gain what
they can get out of God, and this is doubly true today. This is the greatest group of
people today. Many people religious for what
they can get out of God. And preachers have told people
so long that if you'll tithe, God will bless you. If you'll
go to church, God will bless you. God will, you know, bless
your family and this and that. You'll do this, you'll do that,
God will bless you. If you'll give ten dollars, he'll
give you back a hundred. Well, boy, that's a good deal. And everybody's taking them up
on it. Religions for gain. But they can get out. Many people
have had great provisions, providential
provisions supplied for them. Got a job or something miraculous
happened that they weren't expecting, so they get religion. You know
it's so, don't you? You talk to somebody like that.
I hope you're not like that. That's not saving faith, believing
that Christ will fill your checkbook. He might empty it. That's not
saving faith. It's not saving faith, believing
that Christ will heal your children. He is the healer, but that's
not saving faith. True worshipers, true seekers, true worshipers
seek and worship a person. True worshipers and seekers of
God are worshiping the person of God, not his gifts. Like a husband truly loves a
wife, not what he can get out of her, what she does for him,
but he loves her person. And if he doesn't, They're not
in love. They're not married. Merely on
paper. Is that right? That makes good
sense. Like I said, I'm trying to make
this as plain as possible. True worshippers, true God-lovers,
God-knowers, worship God because they know God, and he's worthy
to be worshipped. Not what they can get out of
it. They don't come to church because
God says so. They come because they want to
worship God. They don't give their offerings
because they're hoping to get a big return on their money. Go to the bank for that. We come
here to worship God. We give as God has blessed us,
out of gratitude from the heart. But the contrary, you see, Job
lost everything he had. Are blessings of this life indicative
of salvation? Does that mean if a person is
blessed with the goods, material goods of this life, does that
mean God is having favor on them? Does that what that means? It
might mean exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite. As a matter
of fact. Our Lord pronounced mighty woe
on the rich. He said it's harder for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle, easier for a camel to go through
the needle's eye than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of
heaven. So riches are positively detrimental
and might prove to be the curse of God on somebody. Job lost
everything he had. Does that mean he He was not
a man of great faith, or, oh no, God said there's none like
him. See, this is so contrary to what's
being preached today in health and wealth gospel. Job lost everything
he had. Does that mean he didn't have
enough faith? No, he's the only one in that bunch that did. And so they sat around a fire
one day trying to figure it out. Why, he'd lost all these things.
I'll tell you what Job said. You know what Job said? If he
blesses me, I'll worship him." No, that's not what Job said.
He said, though he slay me, I'll trust him. Now, there's a man
that knows God, who worships God as God. David prayed for his baby that
was sick. His wife Bathsheba had a baby
that was sick unto death, and he fasted and he moaned and he
groaned and he wept and he prayed and he prayed and he wept his
eyes out, and God killed that child. You know what David did?
He dried his eyes up, took a bath, combed his hair, went to the
house of God and says he worshiped. Paul, his last years on this
earth were his most miserable, physically speaking. He suffered,
he did nothing but suffer his last years on this earth, nothing
but suffer, and was deprived of all the material comforts
of this world. You know what he said? I want to learn to say this.
I know whom I have And I'm persuaded of something. You see, all true believers,
all true worshipers, saved people, are going to someday be with
the Lord. And you know what the theme of their song is going
to be? It's not going to be, unto him who healed my daughter. It's not going to be, unto him
who gave me a nice home. We thank him for these things.
We acknowledge his hand in all these things. But that's not
why. That's not the theme of their worship. That's not the
theme of their song. That's not the theme of their
heart. You know what it is? Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins. See, there's one great need,
and it takes a miracle to do it. And that's to put away our
sin. That's the one thing needful. That's what every true worshiper,
everyone whom God saves, that's why they come to God. Not to
fill up their checkbook, not to get a job, not to signs and
wonders, but to have their sins put away. That's it. That's the one thing needful,
and it's the greatest blessing of all. And after they get that,
after they get this miracle of miracles, they're put in the
way of their sin, peace with God, everything else just gravy. That's the biscuit, the bread. It's like the little old woman
who sat in her house, you know, and all she had was a piece of
bread. And she said, well, all of this,
and Christ too. Life's good. And our Lord says
here in verse 27, labor not for the meat which perisheth. The
word labor not, if you have a center reference, it means work not.
Simple. Don't work for things that perish. Or that is, don't spend all your
time, energy and effort striving, toiling, laboring away. That's
what labor means, to really, really strive to get something.
There's nothing in this, he said, these things are perishing. Nothing in this world is going
to last. Nothing. It's all changing. And we sing
the song in our head, change and decay in all around I see. Oh, thou who changest not. Abide in me. Our material possessions. We just built the new house not
long ago, and I'm already having to start repairing that thing.
I'm not even finished with it, Stan. Not even finished with
the house. And I'm already starting to repair
things that are broken off. It's perishing. Our health. This world is so taken up with
health, aren't we? Why? Because this is all they've
got. But I'm telling you, this body
is not you. It's not all you've got. Take
care of it. Don't abuse it. Don't abuse it. That's principles taught in Scripture.
Don't abuse your body. Take care of what the Lord has
given you. But don't be overly concerned about it. There was
a young man about my age, early 40s, who was what they call a
fitness guru. What was his name? I forget. About ten or twelve years ago,
he was a fitness guru. He'd run for miles every day.
Ten, twelve, fifteen miles a day. And was just such an advocate
of healthy eating and all that. And all those things are fine
in moderation. But he was such an advocate of
those things. You know, he died at forty or forty-one years old.
You know what he died from? A heart attack. I knew a man in the church I
grew up in who was a strict vegetarian for years. Strict vegetarian. He raised beef cattle, but he
was a strict vegetarian. Explain that. Well, nevertheless,
and he didn't eat anything with pesticides on it. He had natural
gardening and so forth. You know what he died of? Stomach cancer. And this is what our Lord is
saying. Don't labor for these things that are perilous. Your
health is decaying. You're going to die of something. You think, you know, this world,
you think they think they're going to live forever. They do. They do. Well, I know I am. But it ain't here, he said. And
this is why our Lord says we lay up treasures in heaven. that
none can take away from you. Spiritual health. Well, relationships
will perish. You know what relationships we
really need to nourish? That's right, Deborah. Between the ones that we're going
to be with for all eternity. Oh, love your enemy. Love everyone. do good unto them, but especially,"
Paul said. Didn't he say, do good unto all
men, but especially the household of faith? Why? Because you're
going to spend eternity with them. You'll get to like them
now. It's been a long time. But we'll
be speaking as a fool. Because we'll
be changed then. We'll all be lovely like Christ.
We'll be lovable then. Nevertheless, the principle holds
true. He says, labor, don't spend all
your time, energy, and effort for things that are a soap bubble. A soap bubble. Read on. But for that, verse 27, for that
which endureth unto everlasting life. which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, that which endureth unto everlasting life, the meat
which endureth." All right? He said, labor not for meat which
perisheth, but for that, or that meat which endureth. And this
is what he's going to carry on throughout the rest of this chapter.
Something you eat that won't perish. Something you eat that
won't perish. Meat. A little while you're going
to talk about bread. It'll never perish. What is meat?
Very simply, what is meat? All right, what is meat? Meat
is necessary food for life. Isn't it? Necessary food for
life. It has vital and needful proteins
and all that. As far as vegetarianism goes,
well, our Lord made all things on purpose. Peter was a strict,
what do you call it, porcatarian, or no, not porcatarian, vealitarian. He wouldn't eat certain things.
The Lord said, Peter, you get up and you eat whatever I have
made. Just don't pig out, so to speak,
on it, but eat it. It's good. Don't you call common
or not good or unnecessary. Enough on that. But it's necessary
food for life. Meat. Secondly, meat is satisfying
food. Now, I was a vegetarian for about
two or three years. I never could sit down at a meal
and really fill up. Never stand, never. I never felt,
after a meal, satisfied. I never did. I'll just tell you
the truth. Meat is fulfilling. Where's the
beef? You know, I say now, where's
the beef? It's fulfilling, satisfying food,
isn't it? We ate dinner over at a lady's
house the other night, and she had... I just the night before
told my wife, Honey, why don't you fix roast beef and mashed
potatoes? There's nothing better. No, she
didn't. She fixed a good meal. But we
went over there, and that lady had roast beef and mashed potatoes.
And I said, Here's the beef. There's nothing better. Is there,
Henry? You like it? Oh, boy. Nothing better. Satisfying. Fulfilling. After you eat it, a lot of it. You feel full after it. Full-filled. Thirdly, meat is . . . what is
meat? What's it come from? A dead animal. Something has been killed to
provide you with life. All right, what is this meat?
unto everlasting life. This meat. All right, look down
at chapter 6, verse 53. Our Lord says what it is. Chapter
6, verse 53 through 56. Then Jesus said unto them, Barely,
barely, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." Do you know
what he's talking about? We better, because he just said,
except you eat the flesh, the meat, the flesh of the Son of
God, you have no life in you. Now, is this important? All right, now. Many people now look
down at verse 60. Some of them heard this and they
said, verse 60. When they heard this, this isn't
hard saying. What's he talking about here?
Verse 66, from that time, many of his disciples went back and
walked no more with him. They said, we don't understand
what he's saying. What's he talking about? This
is, that's ridiculous. How can this man give us his
flesh to eat? Well, he did, and unless we do,
we're lost. So what are we doing right now?
We're going to learn what this means. And if there's anybody
in here who has not eaten the flesh of the Son of God, you're
going to die in your sin. And if you eat the flesh of the
Son of God, you'll live. Like I said, there are four more
important verses in Scripture. We might not get to the last
two. All right? I said meat is necessary
to live by. Necessary food to live by, isn't
it? It has everything in it. It has
protein. It has, I don't know what else. I didn't study that, but it has
many things in it. Some of you nutritionists could
tell me. Vicki or Rebecca Kinsley could
stand up and tell us many things about meat. Well, I can tell
you about Christ and His meat. Indeed, I mean necessary for
life, as in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily."
Things we need for eternal life are in him. The only thing needful
for eternal life is necessary food, wisdom. He's made unto
us, God made him a fit food for sinners. They need wisdom. Why? They're ignorant of God. They're
ignorant of themselves. They're ignorant of the Word
of God. Christ is made unto them. Wisdom. They need wisdom. They
need to know God. Well, they're not going to know
God except Christ reveal Him to them. Or they're going to
be ignorant of who God is and how He works, and they're going
to go try to get to God in every which way imaginable. But Christ
comes down and says, Now this is the way to God. And He gives
us His wisdom. He is wisdom. Righteousness. He's made unto us righteousness,
which we need to be in the presence of a thrice-holy God. Nobody's
going to be in God's presence except they're absolutely as
holy as God is. Do you know how we get that?
Except you eat Christ. You'll not be holy. We can live
all our lives trying to be holy, and we won't be holy. God won't
accept it. But if we eat the flesh of the
Son of God, he's made unto us righteous. We're made righteous. Sanctification, redemption, all
these things. Listen to me. Listen to the Scripture.
Don't listen to me. Listen to the Word of God. The just shall
live by faith. that just shall live, not by
works, but by faith." Now listen, there are many people who are
laboring and heavy laden trying to work out a righteousness,
trying to work out a life, a good life that God will accept. When
the Scripture says in Hebrews 11, verse 6, without faith it's
impossible to please God. No man, the Scripture says, is
justified by the works of the flesh, by the deeds of the law. Not one person has ever lived
on the face of the earth who did anything that God was pleased
with outside of faith in Christ. Not one thing. And many people, sincerely, this
is what Paul writes about in Romans 10, many people are sincerely
trying to make themselves pleasing to God and do what's right, do
what's written in the Scriptures, and that's fine. That's fine,
unless you think, unless they think that God is taking notice
of that and He's going to reward them accordingly. No. There's one thing God looks at
one thing God respects, one thing God accepts, and that's not of
yourself. Even that we don't produce. It's
faith in Christ. Faith. Trust. Belief. And I'm going to try
to get into there. And this is what it means to
eat. Eat. Take into your soul the Son of
God. Not believing in Jesus. Not yet. The devil believes in Jesus.
He was there to see him die on that cross. The devil believes
he rose from the grave. He was there, he saw it. The
devil sees him right now seated at his Lord. He believes his
Lord. That ain't it. He's not saved. Is that right? Martin Luther, I wish the world
of religious people were here to hear this. Martin Luther,
everybody knows Martin Luther. There are whole masses of people
that follow his name, Lutheran. Martin Luther, one day, for many
years he was living a monastic life or lived in a monastery,
He was a monk. He was never a more selfless, self-denying. He wasn't worldly in any sense,
physically, materially. He had no material possessions. He lived in a monastery and spent
all his waking hours praying and reading, yes, reading the
Word of God. And one day, after many years,
one day he was crawling on his hands and knees up some stairs. I forget where it was, but there
was blood on the stairs. It must have been over in Jerusalem. And that blood was supposed to
have been the blood of Christ on those stairs. And he was crawling
on his hands and knees, kissing each spot of blood, and crossing
himself, repenting, kissing, repenting, crawling. Surely God recognized that. If he had died right there, he
would have split hell wide open. Because he had a thought that
surely this will get me to heaven. But you know God in mercy revealed
to him salvation. At that instant, see he'd been
reading the scripture. He didn't know, he was ignorant.
He read them, he wrote them. That's what monks did, they copied
the scripture. So they spent their hours. But Martin Luther's mind, a verse
of Scripture said, the just shall live by faith. He said he jumped
up. He thought somebody spoke it
out loud. He said, by faith. Not by works. Not by trying to get to God. by faith. And he'd read before,
it's faith in Christ, trusting Christ only to save you. So he jumped up. He jumped that
robe off of him. He ran outside of that dark dungeon
into the sunlight. Faith! Faith! Christ saves, not my striving. If the Son will set you free.
Free indeed. He never went back in that dungeon
again. Never kissed steps again. From
then on, by faith in his heart, he kissed the Son. Do you know what that means?
Are you doing it? Is anybody in here? Is anybody
in here like this? That just shall live by faith.
Oh, it's necessary food to live by. Faith, and that's not of
yourself until God reveals it to you. You'll not know what
faith is. Faith is an object. Faith is not looking in to see
what you've done. Faith is looking at Christ on
that cross and seeing what he's done. I can't, I can't, if it
ain't say anything else the rest of this day. Faith is not looking
in here to see, do I make it? Can I make it? Can I make it? No! But he made it. And just trusting him, you'll
make it too. Is that it? That's it. Let's close up shop
and go on. Faith, what about works? What
about it? It won't save you. It doesn't save faith plus work.
Now, faith without works is dead. Works is proof that you have
faith, but works don't save you. It's just a natural outflow of
true faith. I'm not going to get to those
two verses, Stan, sorry. We're going to deal with this
one only, these two. Fulfillment. Mead is fulfilling
food. Listen, a lot of people are religious,
and for the life of me. Well, yeah, for the life of me,
for the life that's in me, I can't see what they're getting out
of this religion today. I've tried, I've tasted it. I've
tasted it. I've listened to sermon after
sermon on TV, and I've been, I've sat in on these sermons,
and for the life in me, I can't, I don't get anything but husks,
insinuations. And every now and then, a little
brief glimpse of the gospel. It will fill me up. Meat, like I said, meat is fulfilling. Our Lord said in Matthew 5, verse
6, He said, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness. They'll be what? Filled. Now, to be done with sin is a
noble pursuit. To be done with sin is a noble
pursuit. To seek to be transformed, not
like the world. To be conformed is a worthy thing,
but a truly honest person. And I'm seeking these things. I'm trying, as much as the next
man, as much as any man anywhere, to be without sin. To not be
conformed to this where I'm trying, but the honest person will never
find satisfaction in that trying. Never find any fulfillment in
what they've done. And what they will say, a truly
honest person, a saved person, they'll say, after we've done
all that's required of us, we're still unprofitable. We still
come short of the glory of God. Far short. Because there's still so much
sin in us. Listen, I really believe that
most people are content with their righteousness. That's the reason they're not
seeking Christ's righteousness. Most people are content with
their righteousness and even pleased with it. But I tell you, true seekers
are not ever pleased with themselves for anything they've ever done,
nor ever will be. But they seek another righteousness. They seek true righteousness.
John, right? You know what I'm saying, don't
you, John? Huh? You've eaten the flesh of the
Son of God. He's been made unto you this righteousness. You've
hungered and thirsted. You've seen yourself before the
all-seeing eye of a holy God who said, I detest sinners, and
you've seen yourself as such, no matter how hard you try not
to be. You quit this, you quit that." And then he said, you
can't do it, can you? He said, no, and he points you
to Christ. He said, he can, and he'd been
for the likes of you, and you said, give him to me. And he
says, OK. And Christ is formed. You hear the gospel. This is
what the meat is, the meat of the gospel. You hear what I'm
saying right now from this book, and you say, that's what I need.
I've been trying all this time, and it's not trying, it's trusting. And you say, yes, that's what
I need. I wish there was a religious
center in here this morning who could, like Martin Luther or
something. Trying! It's not trying, it's trusting! That's it. We had a man in here,
in here. He'd been attending for a long
time. Say to me last week, he said, he said, Is believing on
Christ enough to save you? I said, Brother, that is salvation. That is salvation. See, if righteousness, listen
to the Scripture, if righteousness come by the law, Christ died
in vain. If righteousness, if I can get
to God by doing anything, then Christ doesn't need to come and
shed His blood, but it doesn't come by the law. It comes by
Him fulfilling the law for the people and shedding His blood
to cover their sins. They're not in the picture. They
don't contribute. They don't add to that. Oh, my. Righteousness is by faith in
Christ. Well, some Pharisees are out
there, but boy, an old sinner says, oh, glory, hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. Now, that
old sinner is not seeking an excuse to go out and get drunk,
or cheat on his wife, If it's not a license to sin, that's
not why he's saying glory, hallelujah. He's saying glory, hallelujah,
because Christ put away his sin. See, because no matter how well
he lives, he's still going to be a sinner. That doesn't mean he quits trying,
but he does, but all he's trying, ever put away one sin. But Christ put them all away.
He said there, and we remember our sins, we mourn our sins,
we repent of our sins the rest of our lives. We repent of our
sins, but God says, I don't remember them, not one. I'm getting filled up right now
on this. You see, you come as an empty
sinner. Empty. In my hands, no price I bring. What do you got? Why should I
save you? I can't think of one reason why you ought to save
me. And then Christ speaks up and says, I can. Amazing. And he fills you full of cry.
Have you eaten the flesh? Have you taken this gospel down
into your soul? I can't, I can't even describe
this. You just have to do it. That's what it means to eat the
flesh, the body broken, and the blood shed for you, and just
take it. This is mine. This gospel is
mine. This is just what I need. This fills me with joy, fulfilling me. And like I said,
meat is something that dies that you might live. And that's exactly what Christ
did. Exactly. Exactly. The judge shall live
by faith. Walk, talk, dress in a most biblical
manner. Do that. Yes, do that. I'm not
discouraging that. I want everybody in here, everybody
in here should walk and talk and dress in the most biblical
fashion. But don't think for one minute
ever in all your life that God is pleased with that, or taking
note of that, or will reward you accordingly." Don't think
it for a minute. That's self-righteousness, and
God hates that worse than open sin. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. He said, the harlots
and the publicans will get into heaven before a righteous man
will. He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. What's
that? Self-righteousness is being puffed up, thinking, hey, I've
done something. You've done nothing. That's why you took the blood
of God's Son. You see, it took nothing less
than God making his Son a bloody piece of meat hanging on a cruel
tree to save my everlasting soul. Nothing less. And if I say, well,
this is something that I can add to that, God says, you mean
that's not enough for you? We'll either be judged outside
of Christ based on our doings or will be judged in Christ based
on his doings. What will it be? Whose side are
you on? Where do you want to stand? For
I'll see thy God now who sees your heart, who sees every motive
and thought and intent of your heart. He knows why you did what
you did. Where do you want to stand? Standing
there judged on what you've done or thought or said, or standing
hidden. hidden in Him. I stand in Him. Huh? Hey, everybody? Anybody? Who's on the Lord's
side? Huh? That's where I want to be. Don't you understand? Huh? I
don't want to be found in my own righteousness. Like I said,
it's like those hospitals, aren't it? Oh, look good for men. How you doing? Fine. I'm doing
fine. That's a way to see through it
eventually, won't it? Our own righteousness. Oh, we
stand in hymn before God, covered, without sin, without flaw, that
even God doesn't see the sin. That's just it. That's just it. And that is it. That's all my
notes. No, it's not. I didn't get to those other two
verses. He said there, look at verse
28, he said, What shall we do to work the works of God? Verse
29, this is the work of God. What shall we do to be saved?
You don't do anything. He has to do it all for you.
If you want something to do, trust Christ. Believe Christ. Is that it? It's got to be more
than that. See, the Jew, a religious Jew,
says that's a stumbling block. Wait, wait, wait, wait. There's
got to be more than that. There ain't more than that. Christ
is all. And the Gentile says, well, it
goes deeper than that. You can't get deeper than the
blind. God's got to be more than that.
It's got to be intellectually. God doesn't know you don't anything.
You simply trust Christ. And look, a child can do that.
By God's grace, a child can do that. Have you eaten the flesh of the
Son of God and drunk his blood? Do you know what that means?
Well, go home and learn what that means. Get in the closet.
Ask the Lord to make himself meet indeed to
you.