Thank you, Jerry. Great hymns, all of them. Excellent
choices. Now, we've looked at this passage
together several times. I was looking back over my notes,
old notes on these verses, and we've looked at this together
several times, just you with, just with me. And I know you've
heard other men preach from it, but I like bread. I don't think I could grow tired
of hearing of Christ the brave. Like bread. And you, I'm sure, have noticed
the theme throughout this chapter is brave. For that reason, you
remember when we started this chapter? Do you remember how
this chapter started? The feeding of the loaves and
fish, right? For that reason, I believe that
those loaves have to picture Christ. They have to.
I believe that. Because the whole thing of John
6 is bread. And that's how he began this
chapter. To feed the people with loaves. All right, now most of the people
he was talking to here did not understand what he was
saying. Like most who hear the gospel
today. I don't know, we had mostly familiar
faces this morning, but I don't know If everyone that was here
this morning knew or understood what it meant, for that matter,
tonight, I don't know. But most who hear the gospel
today don't understand. The gospel now, the gospel. And
if anyone does understand and believe, it's because God chose
them and revealed Christ to them. and gave them this faith to eat.
Like I said, it's not something you can really describe, eating. Our Lord did not really go in
depth describing what it meant to eat his flesh, did he? He
just said that. Look down at verses 64 through
70. If you know, oh blessed are you,
highly favored among men and women. You've been chosen. Look at verse 64. There's some
of you that believe not, he said, because Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And
he said, therefore, said I unto you, no man can come to me except
it were given unto him of the Father. And some left him, and
he turned to the disciples and said, will you go? Now, he's
not asking for his own information. He's proving them. But he knew
who would. Look at verse 70. He said, Have
not I chosen you twelve? The reason you don't leave is
because I chose you. The reason you know anything.
That was a poor, ignorant fisherman's stand. Tax collector and so on. The only reason they knew anything
was because Jesus Christ chose them and revealed the truth to
them. That's the only reason. He said, Have I not chosen you
twelve and one of you is a devil? He knew. He knew. So if you know
what Christ is saying here in this passage, better yet, if
you believe and you've eaten him by faith, it's because he
chose you. Now, our Lord had just told these
people, look at verse 28. Verse 28 says, the work of God. Verse 28, they asked him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? And he said
in verse 29, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. This is the work of God. This
is what God must do in us. This is what God requires of
us. It's God's work. He has to work
it in us to believe. Faith is the gift of God. And
it's the only work by us which is really not a work. Is that
clear? It's really not our work. Because
he does it in it. It's God which worketh in us
both to will and do of his good pleasure. What is his good pleasure?
Without faith, it's impossible to please God. His good pleasure
is that we believe on the Son. This is the only thing he receives
from us, accepts by faith. And that's not of our sin, to believe on him. I like the
last part of verse twenty seven is. I like Romans eleven thirty six
that deserves a message all by itself him. Him have God the
father see. Him have God the father see Jesus
Christ is the one God the Father sent forth, whom God exalted
at his right hand, whom God sealed or made the covenant head, the
surety, the Lord and Savior of sinners, the only one, the only
way whereby sinners can be saved. He's sealed. That's sealed for
all time and eternity, that Christ is the only light, way, truth,
and him hath God the Father sealed." Well, they didn't understand
that. These people that heard him, they didn't understand what
he was saying. This is the work of God that
you believe. Do you understand, Steve Park? Do you understand
that? Oh, blessed are you. Flesh and
blood didn't reveal it to you. They were trying to figure it
out by logic and all. You remember back there when
they said, how can he give us his flesh to eat? How could it? And they didn't
understand, and they contended their questions to him. And it's
like when you deal with people concerning the gospel. You run
into the same thing. When you deal with somebody concerning
the gospel, and you keep saying, now salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is in Christ. And they say, yes, but, but. And they keep asking questions,
but wait a minute now. They don't understand. It's not
salvation of the Lord, but. It's not Christ is all, but that's
just all there is to it. They don't understand. They keep
asking questions. He said, this is the work of God that you believe
on him. Yeah, well, OK, but they kept
asking questions. Verse 30. And they said, well,
what sign? All right, this is a word. He
just been talking about work, didn't he? This is the work of
God. This is what? This is the work
of God. That you believe this is the
work of God. All right, they said works. OK,
work. They got to think about works.
And they say, well, you show us a sign. What do you do? What's
your work? He just told them. What's your work? What do you
do? And they said, you know, this is so subtle. And men do it today. Our Lord
said an evil generation seeks after a sign. No sign will be
given but the sign of the prophet Jonah. You know what he meant
by that? Do you? You've got to know what
that means. He said, an evil generation seeks
after a sign, but no sign will be given but the sign of the
prophet Jonah. And then he went on to say, as
Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
even so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three
days and three nights. The gospel. It's the only sign
God gives for people to believe by. And any other sign, Henry, if
anybody believes anything else, it's a delusion sent by God,
because they didn't receive the gospel. The gospel's the only
thing. The Word is the only thing he gives to believe by. That's it. Preaching the Word. And these people were saying,
yeah, OK, what you're saying is good. That sounds good, but
we want to see something. Isn't that right? That's what
they're saying. This is the work of God that you believe. OK, that sounds good, but show
us something. Are you with me? I'm getting
dull looks. It's the same thing happening
today, you know. That preaching's all fine and everything, but
let's just do something. Do something. Dance. Do something,
you know, to heal. No, that's not it. This is it. This is what God uses, Stan.
This is the work of God. What I'm doing right now. God
hath chosen. He pleased God by the what? foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And this is the only
miracle, really, that God's people are going to see. Oh, and isn't
it a miracle? Isn't God's Word, aren't you
seeing more and more what a miracle this book is? Aren't you seeing
signs, Jeanette? Clear visions. Do you see a vision? That's what Joel was talking
about, too, over there, when he said, Joel, too, that your
young men and young women shall prophesy and see visions. Your
young men shall see visions. Visions of what? Visions of Christ. And young men like Tom Harding
and Todd Nyberg will go out and be sons of thunder, preaching
this vision. Vision of grandeur, vision of
glory, vision of Christ. Do you see that? Do you see that? Blessed are your eyes, flesh
and blood didn't reveal it to you. We got a sparse little group
here tonight. I'm thankful for everyone, So-called churches are filled
with people and there's lots going on. They're seeing a lot
happen. They're seeing a lot, but they're not seeing half of
what we're seeing. We're seeing the life of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're seeing ourselves face
to face as in a looking glass. Well, look at verse 31. They said, Now our fathers did
eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he. And they were
referring to Moses. Moses gave them bread from heaven
to eat. And our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but
my Father gave you that bread from heaven. And this is so typical. Moses did great things. Now,
if you were a man of God, Moses didn't do anything. And they
quoted the Scripture. Psalm 78 is what they're quoting.
Let's turn over there, OK? They're quoting the Scripture
to the word make flesh. Well, as it is written, he wrote
it. Think about that. That's the
reason he said he looked at those scribes and he said, You do err
not knowing the Scripture. Psalm 78 is what they were quoting,
and I went back and read the whole psalm, and it's marvelous.
Psalm 78, just several verses here, 1 through 4, look at, Give
error, O my people, to my law, to my word. Incline your ears
to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable.
I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and
known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from
their children. Show them to the generation to
come the great works of Moses." That's not what he said. The
praises of the Lord in his strength and His wonderful works that
He hath done, look down at verse 7, that they might set their
hope in God, not forget the works of God. Look down at verse 22. The Lord is speaking, because
they believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation,
though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors
of heaven, and rained down rain. He did it. rain down manna from
heaven for them to eat and giving them corn. Look at verse 13. God divided the sea and caused
them to pass through. Verse 15. He claimed the rocks
in the wilderness and gave them drink out of the tree. Moses
didn't do anything. He's just like a rake in the
hand of a, he's like a tool in the hand of God. And he doesn't boast of anything.
Well, they were bragging on Moses. And that's exactly what's going on today in religion. Let me go back to the text now. This whole, that whole psalm
there declares what God hath done, and yet These ignorant
men and women were attributing power to Moses. Now, does that ring a bell? It
hasn't changed a bit today. When men speak of salvation and
things, the things today, they mostly talk about what man's
got to do and man's work and this and that and the other.
Right? Right, Steve? Everybody you talk to at work,
what do they want to talk about? man's heart in salvation. It's a greater part than what
God has in it, according to them. But our Lord said, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, of the truth I say unto you, Moses didn't
do anything, but my Father gave you that bread from heaven. Salvation is not of man, it's
of the Lord from start to finish. He says He's the author and He's
the what? Finisher of faith. And everything, every means,
you see, God uses means. And that's what men like to talk
about. They like to talk about means. Why? There's a lot of M-E in
that, me, right? And M-A-N in that, me and man. It means, you know, that's what
they like to talk about, isn't it, Henry? Isn't that all that
people want to talk about? That reveals the state of a man's
heart. He that glorieth in the Lord,
then what's he going to talk about? He's going to talk about
the Lord, what great things the Lord has done. He that glorieth
in the flesh and in man and in me is going to talk about me. That's just so. God uses means. Yes, He uses
preaching. I got to thinking about what
I'm doing tonight, what a high calling it is and what a thing
that God uses, but the preacher's nothing. He's nothing. He's nothing. One of the brethren prayed for me
tonight, and I was so thankful, and I thought, well, if God doesn't
use the tool, if God doesn't speak, I'm an empty gong. It's like a plow or a rake or
any kind of tool in the man's hands. It's only as good as,
it's only as useful as the man using it uses it. Did I make that clear? If I'm
plowing with a plow, It's only going to do the job as well as
I know how to use that plow. It'll only go as deep as I make
it go. Right? So there, the preacher's nothing.
But God does use preaching. We don't despise small things
or small preachers. And repentance. Repentance. We've got to repent or we're
not going to be saved. Repent, our Lord says, repent. Well, where does repentance come
from? Does a man just up and change
his mind? The thief on the cross, did he just all of a sudden get
a change of heart? Well, yes, he did. That's exactly
what happened, wasn't it? But he didn't change it. That's
the point. He didn't change it. You can't
change your heart. You can't do open heart surgery
on yourself, can you? Men think they can spiritually.
Well, he had a change of heart. Well, if he had a true change
of heart, God did it. The goodness of God. Romans 2,
4, John. The goodness of God leadeth thee
to repent. What about faith? Oh, everybody
likes to brag on faith. And faith is a means. Without
faith, you're not going to please God. Faith is believing. It's trusting. It's looking to.
It's committal. So many things. Faith. A man's
got to believe. He's got to believe. God's not
going to believe for you. You've got to believe. But He's
going to give you that faith. It's not of yourself. It's a
gift of God. See, Moses didn't give you that
bread. And you didn't get that anything
else either on your own from man. But God, that's the principle
here. Look at verse 32. Now, Jesus
said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you
not that bread, but my Father giveth you the true bread, the
true bread from heaven. Now, we don't have time, but
he said here, my Father giveth you. And I went all the way through
here and other places and looked at how many times this word giveth
is used. Giveth or gave or giveth. You wouldn't believe how many
times. This is a big word all the way through this chapter
and the whole Gospel of John. Do you remember when John started
out over there in John chapter 3 where he said, A man can receive
nothing except what? Everybody likes to talk about
receiving Jesus, don't they? This is what the world likes
to talk about, how they receive the Lord as their personal Savior.
Accepted, same word, receive, accepted. They accepted Jesus,
and everybody likes to talk about that, don't they? I'll tell you
what I like to talk about. how he giveth and giveth. Grace is what that is. That's
what that is. All the way through is the thing,
how he giveth. A man can receive nothing except
to be given him from above. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me. And on and on it goes. My sheep shall never perish. give unto them eternal life.
Oh, no, that's the theme all the way through. Salvation is
a gift. Salvation is by grace. Every aspect of it. Well, the
subject at hand here is bread. And he said, My Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. True bread from heaven. So let's look at that just briefly,
OK? Just for a little bit. true bread. God's bread. He said, the bread
of God. Verse 33, look at it. Gather
yourselves now, come on. Get with me. The bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. True bread. The bread of God. Now let's look
at this. What is this true bread? What
is God's bread? Well, we looked at meat this
morning, didn't we? Looked at several things concerning
meat. Bread. What is bread? Bread is
food. It's life-giving food. Life-giving
food. Now, Christ already said that
meat was necessary, but meat that doesn't perish. He already
said that meat which endureth. And that's a promise. He is the
meat. He said that. My flesh is meat
indeed. And if you eat and drink him
by faith, you'll live forever. Well, bread is food too. It's
another form of food, bread, and it's necessary to life. And
he said this three times here in this one chapter. He said,
this bread will live forever. Live forever. What if that was
announced on the morning news tomorrow? That if you eat...
We've come up with an exotic plant that they got down in the
jungles of Peru. And if you eat it, you'll live
forever. What would happen? What would happen? It'd be hysteria
and chaos. People beating it. You know what
would happen. Well, our Lord says, if you eat
this bread, you'll live forever. Oh, yeah, that's good. Well, I say, Lord, give me this
bread. I want this bread. Bread is food, necessary for
life, yea, eternal life. Secondly, bread is made by someone. Look at it there. It says, Moses
gave you not that bread, verse 32, my father giveth you the
true bread from heaven. Bread just doesn't appear. I
know kids think it does it's just there in the store it's
there. Just like money you know they think money comes that way
don't they? I mean to think when Hannah was a little girl we went
somewhere did something we she wanted something is what it was
and we didn't we said honey we don't have any money we can't
afford she said well write a check. You've got a bunch of those,
don't you? Write one. That's what you thought, you
know, if you don't have money, just write a check. And sadly
enough, that's what we all do. And the check bounces. But that's
what the kids think. Money grows on trees. It just
comes. Maybe they think that about bread.
Well, bread just doesn't appear. But it comes from someplace. It takes a process. There's a
process involved in the making of bread. Look over at John 12.
John chapter 12. Our Lord says this. John 12. Well, he tells how it begins,
the process begins. John chapter 12. Now, when our Lord came forth as that
true bread was on Calvary's tree. And then after he'd risen, verse
23, and he said this, The hour has come, the Son of Man should
be glorified. The bread's just about done. Bendy makes that bread and puts
it in the oven I kind of hover around, you know. I just kind
of mill around the house smelling, sweet smelling, savoring. I think,
is it done yet? And then finally when it comes
out of that oven, she puts out, it's done. And this is what our
Lord is saying, it's just about done. The hour has come. The Son of
Man will be glorified. Now look, verse 24 though. Here's
the beginning of it. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except the corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, oh, it'll bring
forth much fruit. Now, this is the process of bread,
and he said this is how it starts. Death. Death. Christ said, for this hour I
came into the world to die. The world talks about his life,
and oh, what a life it was, but it would have been no good to
us if he hadn't died. You remember that old preacher?
Well, I call him a preacher. His name was Rex Humbard. You
remember him, Rex Humbard? Anybody? Glad you don't. Glad
you've forgotten him. Hope you forget other names like
Oral Roberts and Robert Shuler and all those others. Billy Graham.
Forget them. Well, there was a fellow. He
was a famous, you remember him sadly, Jeanette. He was on national TV for years
when I was a boy and a young man, and he said, got all caught
up in emotion one time preaching so-called, and he said, talking
about the crucifixion, he said, Now, if I'd have been there,
I'd have stopped them. That's how ignorant that man
was. If I'd have been there, Number one, he'd have been right
in there crying for him to be crucified. That's number one. He's ignorant of his own self.
And number two, he's ignorant of the divine, eternal purpose
of God Almighty before the foundation of the world. He's ignorant of
salvation. that if Christ didn't die on
that cross, he would remain in his sins. He'd die in his sins.
That man is plum ignorant. Christ said, for this hour I
came. What's that? To live a good life? Well, he
did. I'm glad he did, and he imputed
that righteousness to us. But that would be no good to
us unless he died and put away our sins by the sacrifice of
himself. Except the corn of wheat fall
to the ground and die. It will stand alone. He's going
to be alone. There's not going to be a man
in heaven with him. Isn't that right? He'll be the only man in heaven
by virtue of his righteousness. Right? But he died because he
was made sin for us. That's what our Lord said, a
seed planted. Seed planted? You hear the word seed anywhere
in Scripture? A woman's seed. He started this
out. He's making bread. God's making
bread in Genesis 3. He started making bread. God
said, I'm going to give you a lot of bread. And he started in the
beginning with a seed, a woman's seed. That's Christ. All right? In the fullness of time, that
seed is going to sprout forth, a sprout. It's going to take
root, and then it's going to come up a sprout. Does that ring
a bell? Isaiah 53, come forth as a root
out of dry ground, sprouts up. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made of the law. The seed was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And he grew up as a tender plant,
a root out of dry ground. and wisdom and stature. And that
little corn of wheat falls in the ground and it sprouts up
and it starts gathering strength and getting more and more green
and more and more green and reaching for the sky. And finally, one
day it bears what? Fruit. It bears fruit and grain. And you know, like one old writer
wisely said, that plant which bears the most fruit hangs its
head the lowest. Christ said, I meet him lowly. Fruit of the Spirit is gentleness,
goodness, meekness. Fruit. He had the fruit without
measure. He had the Spirit without measure. He bore all manner of fruit. That's what that ring about.
Over in Revelation it says the leaves of this tree are for the
healing of nations, and they bear all manner of fruit. All manner. He's made unto us
all manner of fruit. Right? All right, and then when
it bears fruit in time, what happens? After it's mature, bears
full fruit, what happens? What do you do? Write, cut it
down. And it's prime. You don't wait
till it begins to, you know, overripe. Do you, Henry? You
want to get it, write it. It's time. When it's sweetest,
when it's, when, if you, if you, like an ear of corn, when it's
at its fullness, it's when it's at its fullest of sap, you go
out there and you grab one of those, oh, I'm making you hungry,
aren't I? You grab one of those white ears
of whatever, silver queen or yellow, golden, delicious, and
you could just squeeze it and it just burst with juices, and
you can eat it raw. A good corn, you can eat it raw.
I love to eat it raw. Love to eat raw corn. Well, Christ
was cut down in the fullness of time, in His prime, thirty-three
and a third year. They say a man is at his fullest
vicar. Maybe not mentally, but he is physically anyway. Well,
Christ was in His thirties at In his prime, in the fullness
of time, Christ was cut down and hung up, hung on a tree,
crucified. And then you know what you do
after you cut down that ear of corn or that stalk of corn? You
pluck that fruit from it. What you do next is what? What
do you do? What do you begin to do with that grain? We're
making bread now. We're not making corn pudding
or corn on the cob. We're making bread. Now, what
do you do? What's the next thing you do? You dry it out and you
grind it. Right. You grind it. You grind
it. And you crush it. Well, Christ,
the Scripture says, was wounded for our transgressions. He was
crushed under the weight of our sin. Right? He was crushed. bruised, wounded and bruised
for our iniquity. And then after you crush up that
corn and beat it to a pulp, pulverize it, grind it to powder. And then what do you do? Then
you knead it and you make it into dough and then what do you
do? You stick it in the oven. Stick it in the oven. And God,
the Scripture says, laid on him the iniquity of us all, and he
was cast into hell. Yes, he was. He was cast into
hell, because that's exactly what Psalm 16 says. Now, I don't know. I don't think that
Christ actually went to Hades, or the actual place called hell.
I don't believe that. Hell is separation from God. That's what hell is. And I believe
in those three days, I don't believe for a minute that those
three days that he was in the tomb that he actually went to
hell. I don't believe that for a minute.
There's nothing in Scripture that says that. Not at all. You
want to know what I believe about that, those three days? I believe
that fit man went somewhere with our sin. Hey John, I believe
that scapegoat went out in the wilderness somewhere to deposit
our sin behind God's back. It took three days to get there. And put them in a place where
they'll never be found again. I'm spiritually speaking, you
know that. But Christ nevertheless, on Calvary's tree in six hours,
he endured hell. He was cast into hell. And that
when he said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? That's
when he was in hell, right there. Because that's what hell is.
Forsaken by God. He was cast into hell. But, Psalm
1610 says, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. Neither will
you suffer thine holy one to see corruption. What happens
next? It goes into the oven. What happens
next? When it's time, what happens
next? It rises and comes forth. You bring it out of that oven.
You open the door of that oven, and you bring it forth, and what
do you have? Bread. Bread. And I'm getting hungry. Well,
Christ is that bread. Christ is that bread. He came
forth from the tomb as the true bread of God, the only food for
the soul, the only food that satisfies. Philip Henry, not
Matthew, Philip said, bread is substantial food. Substantial
food. I'm talking about whole wheat
bread now. Don't give me no of that Leitner
diet. I'm like Milton. Maybe Milton's
changed his tune now. He's getting pretty heavy. But
he said, I don't like anything light or dark. That's how he
said it. He says light too, like Kentucky
instead. Light or dark. Don't give me
any of that. Don't give me any of that gospel
and that preaching like that either. The whole gospel, the whole counsel
of God. That light, you ever notice how
light and dark bread has holes all in it? I remember getting
some white bread. And big holes that look like
rats have been in there. That's exactly this preaching
that goes on today. Full of holes. Full of holes. Rats have been in it. They have
been in it. I don't want hole weed. I want
a whole gospel. They talk about a full gospel.
The only gospel that's full is that which is full of Christ.
It's full of his glory and full of his person, full of his work
and empty of man. That's the whole guy. That's substantial bread. That's
what he said. Philip Henry's bread is substantial
food. This is killing me. She makes oatmeal bread. The
reason it's killing me is because she didn't make any this week.
I don't know what's wrong with this woman. There's no bread, there's no
bread at home. When I go home tonight, remember, I said, there's
not going to be any bread in there. She served us today. Hannah, what did you want? Hamburger buns, heated up. Well, let's get off of that.
At any rate, she made this bread out of oatmeal. Oatmeal bread. And I said, honey, this is it. That's it. And it's heavy. I mean it way. Oh, it's heavy. And she cooks it just like I
like bread. And it's full. I mean, every
ounce of that bread is just full of bread. Man, it's just grib,
stick and grub, I'm telling you. I said, honey, that's it. Don't
do any other bread of any other kind like this from here on out. This is it. And that's exactly
what the believer says when he hears this gospel. Right? That's exactly what he said.
This is it. Christ said, he that hungereth, he that cometh to
me. Look at it there. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger. Verse 35. And never First, once
you've found this gospel, right, Rebecca? You can't tolerate anything
else. It's all full of holes. It's
light. It don't fill you up. It's light
as air, isn't it? All this gospel is preaching
is going on, it's light as air. It's wind. It's wind, all right. I'll tell you what kind. Flatulent preaching. I'll just
say it. It's flatulent preaching is what it is. This is full preaching and a
full crying. His person and his work. Go ahead
and quote me on that. That's what I said about today's
preaching. Go ahead. I don't care. I don't care. That's
exactly what Isaiah did or Elijah did to those prophets up on that
mountain. Where's your God? He's taking a trip. That's exactly what he said,
isn't it? I'm mocking him. Well, this is true bread, and
once you've found it, once he reveals it to you and feeds it
to you, you'll never want anything else against true bread. Isn't
it, sinner? This is true. This is great for
the soul. This Christ did and what he did
is just what an old sinner need. He's hungering for righteousness
and he's found it and he doesn't want anything else. Tell me,
don't talk to me about my righteousness. It won't satisfy. It won't fill
me with joy. It just fills me with shame.
But tell me about that righteousness Christ provided and it fills
me It just fulfills all I need. It's fulfilling. Whole bread,
a whole lot of Christ is what I need. Don't you? Well, and
this goes along, and I'll quit. This goes along with what we
were talking about in the Bible study this morning. Our Lord said, He that eateth meat is my flesh. my flesh is kneaded, he that
eateth this bread, I am the bread," he said. Eating is not something
you have to be taught to do. Eating, you see, comes naturally. It's a sign of life. You don't
have to teach a little baby to nurse, it comes out. That's exactly what it wants
to do first thing. Right? And from that day forward,
if that child is alive, it will want to eat and keep eating. And when they get big, they want
to eat more and more and more. Steve, you're alive. And so,
all of us, everybody that ain't a skinny person in here. That's
why I told them that at Fred's, and they got a big kick out of
that. I said, dude, we've all been
so blessed. I said, look, right here, there's not one skinny
person in this room. And they're not in here either,
except Charles right there. But eating, you see, is a sign
of life. Isn't it? It's just evidence
that life is there. It's a reflex action. It's an
instinctive action, and it's a consuming desire. I'm hungry
right now, talking about that bread. Literally, I am hungry.
I'm going to go home and get me something to eat. There won't
be any bread there, but I'll get me some wired chocolate ice
cream. This is the point I make. If
Christ is in you, No, but nobody's going to have
to keep telling you to eat. Isn't that right? I do exhort us. I see the appetite
wanes. That worries me. But now, the fact of the matter
is, and I need this, if Christ is in you, and you have life,
then worshiping Christ is going to come natural. the sign of
life. It's not an option. I asked Brother
John that earlier this morning. I wanted
an honest answer from him. I said, Brother John, do you
ever, Sunday morning or maybe even
Wednesday night, sit down and say, well, am I going to go worship
or not? And I thought about my own self
in this matter. Back when I used to work a secular
job and work, you know, eight, ten, twelve, sixteen hours even,
and come time to worship and the flesh was so weak and so
tired and all that. But I'm being honest with you
now. I don't recall a time where it
was an option to me. I'm just being as honest with
you as I can. I don't recall a time where it was an option
with me. Eating's not an option. You're hungry? You eat. Nobody
else can say, come on now, eat. You eat. You want to eat. Now,
there are times, and we go through bad times, and there are times
when we're tired and so forth. But you understand what I'm saying?
The principle is it's just a matter of fact. If life is in there,
you eat without even thinking about it. We've discussed this
before. It's not an option. Worship's
not an option to the child of God. You know what I'm saying,
Vicki? Worship's not an option. It's
life. Christ is life. If Christ is
life, this is what you do. You eat. You eat. Well, Christ said, if
you eat this bread, you'll never die. Never die. And you'll never
grow tired of eating it either. Can you believe that? Andrew,
can you believe that? That somebody could actually
come to go to church for forty years and not get tired of it. Fifty years and not get tired
of it. Actually, get to the point where
that's all they want to do. Can you believe that, Andrew?
Do you really believe that? It's so. It's so. This is bread for the hungry. He said, Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst. Now fill them up. Open your mouth. Fill you up. Fill you up. All right. I hope you do. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your word. Every word is full to the brim
of glorious truth, truth as it is in Christ. And we thank
you for it. Lord, forgive us, forgive this
poor preaching and forgive poor hearing and forgive us our lack
of hunger and We so we pray that you would increase our appetite,
O Lord, that you would create in us this hunger and thirst
after righteousness, that you would cause us to open our mouths
that they might be filled, that you would cause us, like our
brother Red, to seek your face, to say from the heart Thy face
will I seek, O Lord. Lord, give us this bread and
give us this hunger and give us life eternal, we pray. And
we thank You now for everything that You do for us and have done
for us, and this day especially. Bless the Word. Don't let the
fowl of the air take it away or the thorns of life choke it.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.