Come back to John chapter 6. John chapter 6. You know, I said this morning that
it was very simple preaching, I know. But our Lord always presents
himself to us in the simplest way. You know, he realizes who
he's talking to more than we do. He says, I'm the door. You can't get any more simple
than the door. I mean, that's the door. I know what that door
is. I know what it's for. And that's why he says, I'm the
door, by me if any man enter in. Here he says, I'm the bread
of life. I know what bread's for. I had
it for lunch or dinner. I'm the water, the water of life,
the shepherd. He presents himself to us in
a manner that we can understand. You know, here's the wisdom of
God. The wisdom of God. Wisdom beyond what we can even
begin to even think of. And he talks to us in such simple
terms. And I want to learn that. I want to learn to always keep
it simple. Keep it simple so I can understand
what I'm talking about, and you can understand. And here he says,
I am the bread of life. And I know what that means. I
know when he says, I'm the bread of life, I know what he's talking
about. And I know what he's talking about because I believe he's
made it known. There's a lot of people you can
read that to, and they didn't understand it here. He said,
you know, down in these verses here, he said, except you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you, and
they were offended. They got offended, they got upset and
mad because they thought, no doubt in their minds, they thought,
he's talking about eating his flesh, what do you think we are,
cannibals? They didn't understand. He said, the words I speak to
your spirit and they're alive. He said, the flesh profits nothing.
Eating his actual flesh profits nothing, that's what I'm saying
to you. And that's what he's saying. And in John chapter 6
here, Christ is presented as the Son incarnate. We find him
here as the Son incarnate. He's spoken of as the Son of
Man. You see that in verses 27 and
53. He's spoken of as the Son of Man. And he is spoken of as
coming down from heaven and giving life to the world. Spiritual
life is what he's talking about. He gives spiritual life to those
who are out of this world. He takes him out of this world,
and he gives spiritual life to him. And we see him feeding 5,000. Now, when I was reading that,
that's 5,000 men. It's hard telling how many women
and children were there. If you ever noticed that in the
gospel, that's 5,000. They count the men, and it's
hard telling how many of the others were there. And he said
here, he's feeding 5,000, he takes a few loaves and blesses
it, and he feeds a multitude. And I tell you, there's a lesson
to be learned here. He takes these few loaves and these few
fishes, and he feeds a multitude. And here's the lesson. No matter
how small, no matter how small the thing may be that we have,
if Christ blesses it, my work can be done. What can be done
if he blesses it? You know, those disciples, they
say, well, here's a boy's lunch, you know, here's a few loaves
and a few fishes, but what's that among so many? Depends on
whose hands you put it in. It just depends on whose hands
it's in. And then we find him in verse 25, we find these people
seeking the Lord. And he reveals the reason why
they were seeking him. He reveals the real reason why
they were seeking him. And he says to them here in verse
26, you seek me not because of the miracles, but because you
did eat of the loaves and you were filled. I filled your belly. That's why you come. That's why
you follow me. You follow me for the blessing, not the blesser.
You follow me for a gain for what you get out of it, and not
him, you see. You see, a lot of people, they
want to call upon Christ for the blessing, but they don't
want him. They want healing, but they don't want him. You
see, that's why these healing services are so popular. They
want to be healed of this disease, or that disease, or this limp,
but they don't want him. It's not him they're after, it's
the healing they're after. And he says, here, you seek me
not because of the miracles, but because of what these miracles
implicate. That's not why you seek me, but
because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. He knows why
we're here. He knows exactly why every one
of us is here. He knows. And here's what he's
saying here. In other words, you didn't realize
the spiritual implication, the spiritual significance of those
miracles. If you had realized it, you'd
have fallen down at my feet and worshipped me." He said, you
didn't realize it. You'd have fell at my feet and
worshipped me. But as natural men always do, they look at the
temporal side of it, see? They saw the temporal side. They
didn't see the spiritual. They just saw some miracles done
here. Men don't realize that the miracles
that Christ performed had spiritual implications. That's what they
had. That was what they had. such as healing the spiritual
blind. When he goes out to heal a blind
man, he's demonstrating his power over blindness. He can heal spiritual
blindness, spiritual deafness. He can open our ears to hear
his word and our eyes to see him, and our understanding to
understand the gospel. They have spiritual implications,
and he said, You didn't understand that. That's not why you're following
me. That's not why you're coming
after me. No, your bellies are full. That's why you're coming
after me. That's why you're following me. Then he gives some instructions
here in verse 27. He says, labor not for the meat
that perishes. Don't labor for that meat that
perishes, but for that meat which endures unto everlasting life.
Now, he's not teaching works salvation here. He's not teaching
that. Not at all. No man will be saved
by his works. I don't care what he does. I
don't care what he gives himself to. He will not be saved by his
works. Works will never enter in, not
even one speck. It never will. It can never enter
in. But what our Lord is teaching us here is don't give your time
and effort in trying to obtain salvation by what you do. He
said don't labor for that which has no life in it. Don't give
your effort and time to that. This is what we spend our time
at. This is what we labor. We labor in the Word, and we
go and hear the gospel. We don't labor and spend our
life in the things of this life, in the things of this world.
And that's what he's saying here. That's not the way life is obtained.
And if you have life, it's because the Son of Man, who is God, has
given it to you. That's how it's obtained. It's
not obtained by our efforts, it's obtained by his gifts. He
says here in verse 27, "...which the Son of Man shall give unto
you, for him hath God the Father sealed." Jesus Christ is the
only one whom the Father has said, This is my beloved Son,
hear Him. Jesus Christ is the only one
that the Father has identified and accredited to this matter
of salvation. He's the only one. Whenever he
was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon his shoulder. God set his seal upon this man,
the man Christ Jesus. He didn't set his seal upon anyone
else. He did not set his seal upon a pope. He did not set his
seal upon a priest. He set his seal upon his Son,
Jesus Christ. And he said, This is the one.
This is my beloved Son. You hear him. This is that prophet.
You hear him. Then in verse 28, then said they
unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God?
Well, that sounds like natural men, doesn't it? Tell us what
we're going to do. You see, they thought there was
something else left to be done in order to please God. And they're
saying to him, You tell us what we have to do. Tell us where
we have to go or how far we have to walk or what we have to do
in order to please God. You can tell men that's what
they want. They want you to tell them something to do. They want
you to preach law. They want you to preach legalism
to them, do's and don'ts, so that they can have a guideline.
Christ is not enough of a guideline for them. So they say, here,
well, tell us what to do. Here the old, self-righteous,
legalistic spirit raises its ugly head and wants to do something
in order to please God. Wants to do something in order
to gain salvation. That's what they're saying here.
Tell us what we must do. We want to impress God. Nobody
has impressed Him but Christ. Jesus Christ is the only one
who has impressed God. He's done it. Now, I tell you,
it is really stupid even to ask such a question. It only shows
our ignorance of God. That's what it shows. It shows
what I must do to please God. All I'm doing is just demonstrating
and showing my ignorance of who God is. I don't understand who
God is, and I don't understand who I am, what I am by nature.
I don't understand it if I ask such questions. But he says in
verse 29, this is the work of God. I imagine they listened.
They thought, oh, he's going to tell us. They said, tell us
what we must do, tell us what we've got to do here for salvation
and that we might please God. He said, this is the work of
God, and I imagine they started listening. He said, this is the
work of God, that you believe on him whom he has sent. And that confused the life of
them. That just confused the daylights of them. They did not
know what he was talking about. Believe on him whom he has sent.
Here is what he requires. You want to know what God requires?
Faith in Christ. That's what he requires. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, he says, and thou shalt be saved.
That's all he says. It says in Hebrews 11, without
faith it is impossible to please God. Without faith, without believing
God, without believing the gospel, without believing on Christ,
it's impossible to even approach God. You can't approach God apart
from Christ, let alone pleasing. God requires faith in the one
whom he has sent. It's not do's, it's not do this
or do that, it's believe. It's believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved. And this, he says, and this,
he says to them, is the work of God. By grace, it says in
Ephesians, by grace are you saved through faith, and that's not
of yourself. It's the gift of God. That faith
is not of yourself. I believe the gospel. I can't
help but believe the gospel, and that's not my fault. That's
the honest truth. God enabled me to do that. He
has made it so evident that you can't help but believe. Can you
help but believe? It's like breathing. You can't try to stop breathing.
You can't stop breathing. A true, genuine believer cannot
help but believe on Christ. God makes it so evident to him.
Well, then they said to him in verse 30, he said, is to believe
on him whom he has sent. Well, they said, OK, now, if
you want us to believe on you, your son of God, show us a sign.
So he just he's just talking about
believing, and they're so depraved, the first thing out of their
mouth was, well, show us a sign. That has nothing to do with faith.
That's that's sight. They said, well, show us a sign
that we may see and believe. That's not what he said. He said
that you may believe. They said, well, we're going
to see something here, then we'll believe. How this exhibits the works of
unbelief, how impossible it is for the natural man to simply
believe. He can't do it. He cannot simply
believe. He's got to mix something in
with it. He has to put something in there with it. You know, I've
heard some of these men preach, and I've heard some of them start
saying some pretty good things, and then all of a sudden they
throw that rat poison in. It kills the whole message. You've
got to do something. You've got to do this, you've
got to... They just kill the whole thing. Only the Spirit
of God can enable a man to believe on Christ. The Lord said, Believe,
and they said, Show us a sign. Show us a sign. We have to see
something. We have to see some kind of miracle
first. Give me something that we can see or feel." Old Thomas
said, "'I, Lord, won't believe until I touch you.'" And the
Lord said, "'Thomas, come here and touch me.'" Our Lord said
this, "'Blessed are those who believe and have not seen with
these eyes. Blessed are those who believe
on me and have not looked upon me.'" You're blessed. You're blessed of God if you
believe on Christ. You're blessed of God. But men
say, if I could only feel better, if I could see a change, but
God says, believe first. God says, believe first. You
know what he's saying here? Take him at his word first. You
know, if you have to see something, if you're saying, no, I have
to see that to believe it. What you're saying is, you're
lying, and I don't believe you're telling me the truth until I
see the truth, until I see the results of it. And that's what
they're saying here. When he says, believe on Christ,
they're saying, no, you show us a sign of what they're saying.
You're lying. You're not of God. Now, you show
us something if you want us to believe. And they're calling
him a liar. That's exactly what they're doing,
calling him a liar. But God says for us to believe.
Take him at his word. And here's what they're saying.
You want us to accept you as the one sin of God? Show us a
sign. Show us your authority. That's
what they're saying. Show us your authority. Forgetting
he just fed 5,000. Forgetting the miracles that
they have seen along the way. They just threw those aside.
Now, you know, they just threw that away. Many times our Lord
gave them proof of his deity, and they didn't believe. They
didn't believe. And note what they said. Note
here what they say in verse 31. Our fathers ate manna in the
desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven. They're going to compare him
now to Moses. You see, now they're going to
take their greatest prophet, the one whom they consider one
of their greatest prophets, and they're going to compare him
to Moses. This is what they're going to
do, and what they wanted to know was, what proof do we have that
you're greater than Moses? You tell us, what proof do we
have that you're greater than Moses? It's true you fed 5,000. You
fed 5,000 over here the other day. But Moses fed the children
of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. You see what they're
saying? They're comparing now to Moses.
They said, Moses, how are you greater than Moses? You fed those
5,000, but Moses fed us for 40 years in the wilderness. But our Lord clears up the matter on who gave
them that bread. He clears up the matter on who
gave them that bread, and it wasn't Moses. You see, in verse
32, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven. You see, they're
still confused. They're going to live confused
and die confused. They said, He gave us bread from
heaven, and they were speaking about Moses. He said, Moses didn't
give you that bread. Moses didn't have that kind of
power. He was just a man like you and I. Moses was just a center
just like you and I are centers. He didn't have that kind of power.
He was just an instrument in the hand of God. Now, our problem
is we can't get past the instrument. God's the first cause. God is
the first cause of all things. We have to learn that. He's the
first cause of all things. He might use a Moses as an instrument.
God may use me preaching here to awaken somebody, but I'm not
the one who—I don't have the power to do that, and that didn't
come from me. That comes from him. He might
use the note Moses, but God is the cause. He said, my father
gave you that bread from heaven. Notice how he identifies himself
with his father, with the heavenly father. He said, Moses didn't
give you that, my father did. Boy, he's expressing his deity
here. Here's the son. If his father
gave it, then that means you're his son. That's what he's saying,
and they're looking at him and saying, no, this guy's claiming
to be equal with God, claiming to be son of God. I'll tell you this, what we have,
God has given us. And what we are, God has made
us. Paul says, I am what I am by the grace of God. If I believe
the gospel, it's by the grace of God. It's not because I'm
more intelligent or I was able to understand it better than
someone else is by the grace of God. God gave life. God gave
life. He says, but my Father gives
you the true bread from heaven. You notice how he gives the glory
to God? The scripture says, Give unto
the Lord the glory that do his name. He said, my Father gave
you that truth. He said he gives you the true
bread from heaven, which is Christ. He said, he's the one who gave
you the true bread from heaven. The manna, what he's saying here,
the manna was only a type. That's all it was. That manna,
that bread that your fathers ate in the wilderness was only
a type of the true bread which the Father has given you, and
here he is. See, he's presenting himself
to them. He's taking that type of the
manna, and he's presenting himself as the true bread from heaven.
You see, they looked back on that matter, and that's what
they lived on. That's what God gave them to live on. Christ
is who we live on. It's Christ that we feed on.
It's Christ who gives us life and sustains our life. And that's
why he's saying, I'm the bread of life. I'm the bread of life. He says in verse 33, For the
bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and gives life
unto the world. This is the bread of God. The
man, he said, was only a type. You've got to get past the type.
You see, they couldn't see past that. They couldn't see past
the type. They couldn't see Christ in the land slain. They couldn't
see him in the manor. They couldn't see him in the
tabernacle. They couldn't see him. That's why when he came
into his own, his owners seeed him not. They couldn't see him.
They couldn't perceive who he was. The Father's provision for
a lost and dying world was to send his only begotten Son. That's
what his provision is, to send his only begotten Son that those
who eat his flesh and drink his blood by faith may have everlasting
life, have eternal life. Christ came that we might have
life and that we might have it more abundantly, we might have
it in its fullness. And let me note a contrast here.
The fathers ate the manna in the desert, and they died. They died. Therefore, it couldn't
be the true bread. It couldn't be the true bread.
There is no life in a tithe. You know, they said here, they
said, He gave us bread from heaven, and you'll notice what our Lord
said there in verse 49. Look over in verse 49. Your fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness, and they're dead. So that's so
much for your bread that you're talking about. It didn't sustain
their life. It sustained it for a while,
and then they died. The manna was only for Israel.
Here's a second. The manna was only for Israel,
no one else, but the true bread. The true bread, he said, gives
life into the world. Now, he's not saying here that
it gives life to everyone in the world. What he's saying is
it gives life to those whom the Father has taken out of the world.
That's who it gives life to. This true bread from heaven has
come down from heaven and gives life to the world, not to the
Jew only, but also to us Gentiles. There was a time when Gentiles
were excluded. And God was dealing with Israel,
and he gave them his word and the tabernacle, all those things
according to Christ. The Gentiles were left out there to themselves
to heathenism. But God, what he's saying here
is that the bread, true bread, has come down from heaven and
let me and you in. God let us in. Have mercy on
us. Have mercy on us. Then note how
he describes the bread. He says in verse 32, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father gave you the true bread from heaven. He
speaks of himself as the true bread." Notice how he describes
it. He speaks of himself as the true
bread, which shows that it's real. It's real and it's genuine. This is not some myth. This is
not something that's being made up. This is real. Jesus Christ
is real. He's as real as I am standing
here. There is a man seated at the right hand of the Father
right now, making intercessions for us. He's as real as you are
sitting there. And then he says in verse 33,
"'For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven
and giveth life unto the world.'" He speaks of himself here as
the bread of God, which shows his divine character, his divine
nature. He's demonstrating here, he's
saying to them, and showing them his divine nature. And he says
in verse 34, Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this
bread. Because he says, I am the bread
of life in verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger, he that believes on me shall never thirst. But they
said unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And you know
what they're saying? The same thing that woman at
the well said, Lord, give me this water. She said, I don't
have to come here and draw water anymore. You know, when he talked to her
about the water of life and he'd the drinks of this water, she'd
never thirst again. She goes, well, give me that water. Give
me that water. I don't have to come here and
draw water in the heat of the day anymore." She said, well,
certainly. You know, the way Christ is preached
nowadays, you know, he loves everybody and wants to save everybody,
and he's an insurance, he's a fire escape from hell. Anybody in
their right mind would want that. Anybody in their right mind would
want that. They don't want a sovereign Lord, but they sure take the
rest of that. He was saying the same thing
that woman said. Everybody wants to go to heaven.
Everybody likes the idea of not having to work for their bread.
Everybody likes it. They like the idea of not having
to work for their bread. That's what makes the lottery
so popular. I might not have to work for my bread the rest
of my life. But their statement shows that they're still ignorant
of him. They don't know who he is. Here he is, son of God, standing
in front of them. presenting himself and telling
them plainly. I mean, as plain as it can be. I'm the bread of life. I am life. And they're ignorant of it. They
can't grasp it. And they don't want it. They don't want it. He says in verse 35 here, I am
the bread of life. The Lord places himself before
us as bread. And the reason he uses this emblem
is several reasons. First of all, bread is a necessary
food. It is a necessary food. You know,
we can do without a lot of things, but we eat bread. You just notice
down through the week how much you eat bread with everything
you eat. You might eat a lot of different other foods, but
you'll be eating bread with it. Here is the lesson. Without Christ
we shall perish. There is no spiritual life or
health apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. There is none. There
is none. Then bread is a food that is
suited to all. It's bread suited to all. You
know, if he said, I'm caviar, that wouldn't be suited to all. He says, I'm bread. I'm bread. You see, some people might not
be able to eat sweets, but all can eat bread. I've not yet.
I have not yet met a person that cannot eat bread. I've met people
that can't eat sweets, and I've met people that can eat different
types of food, but they all eat bread. You can all eat it. Bread is the food of kings and
paupers. A king will go out here and buy
a loaf of bread, and the poorest man in the world will go out
and buy him a loaf of bread, and they both sit down and enjoy
it. Both sit down and enjoy it. So it is with Christ. He meets
the need of every sinner. Every sinner. He's able to satisfy
every class of sinner, whether it be rich, poor, bond or free. He's able to satisfy and meet
the need of every one of them. Every one of them. Then bread
is a daily food. Some things we eat once in a
while. You know, I eat steak once in a while. I don't eat
it every day. It's a once in a while food, but bread is something
we eat every day. It's something we feed on every
day. Even so, Christ is a believer's food. We feed on Christ daily,
not once in a while. We feed on Christ daily. He's
our daily food. He is our sustenance. He keeps
us going. And bread is satisfying. We may
grow tired of many things. There are some foods I've grown
tired of. My wife used to make brownies
on Thursday nights, and I got so sick and tired of that after
a while, I quit making them. I just got tired of it, but I've
never gotten tired of bread. I've never grown tired of it.
Only Christ, the bread of life, can satisfy a hungry soul, day
in and day out. I've never grown tired of Christ.
I've grown tired of religion. I've grown tired of, you know,
before I ever heard the gospel, I grew tired of going to church
and people trying to beg people to the front and all that. I
grew tired of that, but I've never grown tired of Christ.
Since I've heard of Him, I keep hearing of Him, and I enjoy it
more and more and more. More of Him. Feeding on the husk
of religion does not satisfy a spiritual living man. It won't satisfy. No, it won't
satisfy. He must have the real bread from
heaven. His cry is, feed me Christ, feed me Christ. Feed and eat
Christ. Tell me more of him. Tell me
more of his righteousness and his blood. Tell me more of him.
You can't go wrong by telling me more of him. Now, let me note the process
through which bread passes before it becomes food. Do you ever
think about that? He says here, I'm the bread of life. Note the
process that bread actually goes through before it ever becomes
a food for us to eat. You know, first it grows up as
a tender branch, like a tender ear of corn. Then it grows up
and you've got the full corn in the ear. Then it's cut down
and it's taken and it's ground into powder and then it's put
into the oven and then it's baked. And after it's baked and it's
done, then it's ready. It's able to sustain us in this
physical life. Well, even so was the experience
of Christ. He was a tender plant growing up before the Lord. That's
what it says in Isaiah 53, doesn't it? He was a tender plant growing
up before the Lord. Then it says in Isaiah 53, he
was bruised for our iniquities. He was ground for our iniquities. He was bruised for them. He was
subject to the fire of God's wrath. He took my hell on Calvary. That's what he, he literally
took my hell. He took the fire of God's wrath and burned it
out. God's wrath was taken out on
him in judgment in my place, and God forbid that we should
ever get over the wonderment of what went on at Calvary. God
forbid that that should happen. The Holy One of God made a curse
for us, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and after He's able
to save unto the utmost them that come unto God by him. Now
he's the bread of life. He can come down and he says,
I'm the bread of life. Then he says in verse 35, he
that comes to me shall never hunger, and he that believes
on me shall never thirst. This is in a spiritual sense.
He's speaking here in a spiritual sense. Our Lord had previously
spoken of giving life unto the world, now he speaks of the individual. He brings this thing down now
on an individual basis. He says, he that comes to me.
We do come to Christ, and we don't do it the way this religious
world presents it in dragging people to an altar. That's not
coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is just this,
it's believing on him. When he said, believe on me,
that's coming to Christ. It's the heart going out in faith
and love to Christ and looking to him. As he said in Isaiah,
look unto me and be ye saved. That's coming to Christ. That's
coming to him. It's not walking in the aisle.
It's not repeating somebody else's prayer. It's the heart going
out after him.