God's love has made me free from
my burden, and in my grief He will find me comfort. That's the Lord's blessings on
the service. Dear Lord, we thank you for this
blessed opportunity to gather here and open up your
Word, to worship you. We have so very many reasons
for which to come here and innumerable blessings. Lord, we ask that you would give
us a spirit of worship, though we cannot produce this in and
of ourselves. Without you, we can do nothing.
We ask that you would deliver us from those thoughts and those things
which would hinder us from entering into your word tonight, that
you would allow us for a little while to cast out every care
of this world, and that we would not sell the
birthright for a mess of pottage, and just for one hour we could
watch with you and look into your word and rejoice and enter
into the things of our God. We could eat the bread of life,
and only if you serve it to us. No man can come to this table
except the Father draw him. So we ask that you would draw
us to your table, that you prepare us a table tonight, that you
would feed us with Christ, the bread of life. Enable us to eat,
to digest these things. Have them go down and take root
and bear fruit. unto thy glory and unto our spiritual
good. We ask these things in Christ's
name, for his honor and glory are met here tonight. Amen. Turn back to John, chapter 6. If you read Acts 16, good, but
I'm not going to preach there tonight. But if you read it, that's good. We'll preach from it Wednesday
night. But I was not satisfied ever since I went home today. I just couldn't. I was just consumed with this
thing. With our text this morning, I
couldn't, just couldn't get it off my mind. I was burdened with
it all afternoon, so I thought, that we would deal with it some
more, and those of you who saw me furiously writing when you
got here, some of you men, that's what I was doing. John chapter
six, we did not carefully study some of these vital and important
words of our Lord. We rushed through this, and I
want to deal a little more in-depth with it. Look at verse thirty-five. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Now
read verses 48 and following down through verse 64. I am that
bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven. that a man may eat thereof, and
not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." The
Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man, 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. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came
down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead. But he that eateth of this bread
shall live forever." These things saith he in the synagogue, as
he taught in Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying. Who can
hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at
it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if you shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirits, they are life. But there are some of you that
believe not." Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that
believed not and who should betray him. Christ says, I am that bread
of life. He said, eat this bread and live
forever. Read verse 63 again with me.
He said, It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are Spirit, and they are life. My words are Spirit. So what
he's saying here has a spiritual meaning to it. All this talk
about bread. Bread. I am the bread. He says
the flesh profiteth nothing. In other words, man spends, and
this has a double meaning, I'll give you the practical application
first, and then the spiritual meaning, true meaning. Man spends
all his substance, all of his life, men and women, trying to
maintain this flesh, trying to keep it young, keep it healthful,
keep the vitality in it, trying to satisfy its desires, and it
cannot be satisfied. The flesh, the desires, the appetites
are insatiable. As soon as you satisfy it, it
wants something else. It's insatiable. Also, we spend
all our time trying to maintain it. in health and so forth, but
it's dying. It's decaying flesh. That which
is flesh is flesh. No matter what you do to it,
it's dying. It's dying, dead flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing except
what we get in the spirit from here. The flesh profiteth nothing. If you live to be a hundred years
old, Does anybody here want to live to be 100? I don't, personally.
But if you did, if you lived to be 100 years old, then what
would happen? You'd die. If you lived to be
200. Adam lived 970 years, didn't
he? 930 years. 930 years. Well, he lived a full
life. No, he died. He died in that 930 years. probably saying when he was 929,
he thought, boy, those last 900 years just went by like that.
Do you believe that? It's true. It's true. The flesh profiteth nothing.
What profit is there in the flesh? You live 100, live 200, live
900. Methuselah, I mean, 969 years. Profit's nothing. But chiefly, the chief meaning
of what our Lord is saying here, he says, it is the spirit that
quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Fleshly carnal reasoning,
fleshly or carnal, carnal is a biblical word for fleshly,
thinking according to the flesh. Carnal He said that in Romans
8, didn't he? The carnal mind is enmity against
God. To be carnally minded is death.
To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Do you know what that's
saying? He dealt with that all the way through Romans 8, and
now he says this in verse 63. Fleshly mindedness, reasonings
of the flesh, is what the natural man is guilty of. The works of
the flesh, thoughts of the flesh, And Christ called these dead
works, because flesh is dead, it's dying, it's decaying. Dead
works, that's anything pertaining to the flesh, won't get you to
God. It won't get you to God. No matter what you do in the
flesh, it won't get you to God. God is spirit. OK? God is spirit. We're flesh. You can't worship God with the
flesh. Right? That's the reason, you see, the
world has all these trappings. They think that worship has something
to do with the flesh. The flesh profits nothing. That's
what our Lord's saying there. You understand that? When Paul
said that in Philippians 3, he said we put no confidence in
the flesh. Put no stock in it. There's nothing to it. The flesh. The flesh. This thing
is a spiritual thing. When God created Adam, he created
him from the dust of the ground, and after he created him he had
a body. He looked like a perfect man,
didn't he? The beautiful creature that God
created. But he wasn't alive until God
breathed in him. He became a living soul, and
man is dead in the flesh until God gives new birth, gives life. So this is what our Lord is principally
saying here, I believe, that the Spirit is quickening, the
Holy Spirit, but it's a little less there. He's talking about
true life is that life that's in the Spirit, not in the flesh. The flesh is dying. It's dead
and it's dying. A man is dead in sin until he's
quickened by God's Spirit. And as I said, we put no confidence
in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. And
this thing has everything to do with the Spirit. What Christ
is saying, what the Bible is saying, has everything to do
with the Spirit. OK? The Spirit. He said that
to the woman at the well. He said, The time cometh. The
time cometh. And now is. True worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit. Our Lord said a lot about this,
didn't he? He said, For the Father seeketh
such to worship him. Is there anybody worshiping him
like that? You won't find many today, will you? Like I said,
that's the reason for all this mess. That's the reason for all
this mess going on. It has everything to do with
the spirit. So Christ said, My words are spirit. And to have
a proper understanding of Scripture, you must first understand the
spiritual meaning behind what he's saying. That's where a lot
of the error comes from in the study of the Scriptures. They
get a literal or a fleshly, they have fleshly, carnal false regarding
the passage of Scripture. That's not the primary reason.
It's not the primary application. You understand me? That's important. That's important. Now, our Lord
is talking about bread. All right, and this is our subject. He's talking, he says a lot about
bread, all the way through here, bread. He talks about how he
was the bread, and how he is drink, and how we must eat him,
and drink him. Says that quite a few times,
doesn't it? You read it with me, quite a
few times, talking about bread, all right? What is he talking
about? Turn over to John chapter 12. I've given you some of these
things before, but maybe they'll be a blessing to you again. John 12, times when we partake
of the Lord's table, we consider these things. The making of bread
involves many things. Bread involves making of bread
involves death, burial, and resurrection, and then a glorification. Wondrously so, it's similar,
isn't it, to the person and work of Christ. A seed of wheat. Any of you, I don't think anybody
here has grown any wheat. At any rate, it's the same thing
as anything else. You plant it. is planted. Look at chapter 12, verse 23
and 24. Christ said, The hour has come,
the Son of Man should be glorified. His greatest glory is when he
died, when he hung on that cross, when he finished the work, when
they put him in the grave, when he bore up unto the wrath of
God for us, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, and then
they put him down in that grave and three days later came out.
That's when the Son of Man was truly glorified as never before. And now he's been given a name,
which is above every name, for this glorious work of his. Verse
24, "'Barely, barely,' I say unto you, truly, truly now, I
say unto you, except the corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit.'" Christ is this incorruptible seed which fell
into the ground and died. But he didn't suffer corruption. He didn't suffer corruption.
He suffered with our corruption. He was made sin for us, but he
died nonetheless. Christ fell into the ground but
didn't decay like we will. But he did. He said there, if
it falls not into the ground and dies, it will abide alone.
If Jesus Christ hadn't come to this earth and died, there would
be nobody with God. Just be him and God alone. Right? Nobody would get to heaven had
not Christ come to do his work. But if it died, it would bring
forth much fruit. Do you see Christ in that? If
he doesn't fall into the ground and die, if he doesn't come to
the earth and be planted and be made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and then take our sins upon him, and then go to the
cross, and then be killed and buried, and then rise again without
sin. And then nobody will be with
God. He will abide alone. God will
be alone. But Christ came, and he bore much fruit by doing this.
This corn of wheat crop. And bread is also made You plant
a seed of corn here, corn of wheat, our Lord uses. You plant
a corn of wheat into the ground, and it stays there a while, and
something happens. It begins to germinate, and eventually
a little sprout comes up, doesn't it? It grows. A root comes out
of dry ground, a little root, a tender plant, and that was
Christ, isn't it? Now, what Isaiah 53 said? He
shall grow up before God. as a root, a tender plant, a
root out of dry ground. He grew up before God. It says
he grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.
He was like that lamb that the children of Israel had to observe
for, how long was it, seven days? A week. They had to observe that
lamb for a week to make sure it was without spot and without
blemish, to be a suitable sacrifice. to offer for their sins. That's
the reason Christ grew. That's the reason Christ matured
and lived the life of a man, 33 years as a man, before God
and men, and God approved of him. God said, This is my well-beloved
son. He's without spot and without
blemish. I approve of him. This lamb will do. This lamb
will do. And even men said the same thing.
We can't find any fault in him. you'll do. He's a sufficient
sacrifice. Then that little corn of wheat
grows up to its fullness, doesn't it? In its prime of life, when
it's just full of the essence of life and fruit, that corn
plant, just full of—imagine a big, healthy stalk of corn with a
four thousand years of corn on it. That's the Lord. You never
had that many. Six, eight, I don't know how
many, that's a lot in six or eight, maybe. He's full of fruit,
full of fruit, and it's full, it's prime. Thirty-three years
he was at the height of his glory and miracles and signs and wonders
and so forth, cut down by the Father. Cut down the prime of
life. That's what you do to corn, isn't
it? When it's at full fruition, you
cut it down. Then what do you do? Then what
do you do to corn? Well, you take the husks off
of it. And then you crush it, don't
you? You crush it up. You crush it
up. And you knead it. You crush it
and you need it. There's an interesting scripture
in Isaiah 28, verse 28. It says the bread corn is bruised. The bread corn must be bruised. It will not always be bruised,
but it must be bruised one time. That's Genesis 3.15, isn't it,
you young people? Christ was bruised, wasn't he?
He was bruised by the serpent. his body was broken for us. And then that ground up corn
is kneaded and made into a paste, a flour and a paste and then
a dough and then what? It's cast into the oven. It's
cast into the oven, a fiery furnace and heated. Heated very? to a high degree
of temperature. It's heated, and that's Christ,
isn't it? Christ endured the wrath of God
on the cross. Under the fiery God who is a
consuming fire, Christ bore that fire of God, that wrath of God
against our sin. He had no sin, but he had our
sin upon him. And when God looked at Christ
on the cross, he poured out his wrath on him. fire of God's wrath
and justice and indignation against sin, the inciting sinfulness
of sin, was poured out on Christ, and he endured it all. And that's
in six hours on the cross. He endured hell. I don't believe he went to hell
after that. I believe that was hell right
there for him. And you know, when he was in
the garden, he sweat great drops of blood, didn't he? That's because
he was just thinking about how he's going to have to go through
hell. Don't ever use that statement.
Don't ever say that. Well, I sure got hell today,
or I sure went through hell, or well, I've been through hell.
Don't ever say that. No. We don't know what we're
talking about. Christ did, though, and he endured it and suffered
the equivalency of hell in six hours. Because of who he was,
he could suffer what we would have to go through for an eternity
in six hours. That would give you some idea
of what Christ went through on the cross in six hours. We can't
even fathom it, really. But in an eternity of suffering
and misery and torture of myriads of people, he suffered by himself
on the cross in six hours. So that bread is cast in the
oven. Christ was cast in the fiery
furnace of God's... I don't think it's any mere coincidence,
is it, Terry, that he was in a furnace before, wasn't it,
with his three people? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
One, like unto the Son of Man, was in the furnace with them.
Well, when he came, I was with him. He wasn't with me. I was with him. I was in Christ.
I was crucified with Christ, the wrath of God. poured out
on me in cry. I couldn't have stood it, right?
But he did in my plate. What happens after the bread
goes through that oven? Just in the right amount of time, what, two hours? How long do
you cook bread? Thirty minutes? If you cooked
it slow, could you cook it three days? At any rate, three days
later, Christ came out. That bread, after you put it
in the oven a little while later, it comes out. Oh, it's glorious
and it's golden. A golden and glorious substance
called bread. The bread of a staff of life.
And that's what Christ calls himself. And Christ came out
of that grave three days later, the true bread. Look at verse
32 here in John 6. Verse 32. Christ said, verse
32 and 33, He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses didn't
give you bread from heaven. Our Father giveth you true bread
from heaven. Now, the bread that they ate
was called manna. Manna. The word manna means,
what is it? That's what the word means. When
the children of Israel went out that first day and saw that small
white thing, like coriander seed, that was sweet to the taste and
pleasant for food. They said, well, we're going
to call it. What is it? They said, they went out and
looked at it and said, manna, manna. And in the Hebrew, that's
what it means. What is it? Manna, manna. Nothing else to call it. Remember
when the angels announced his birth to Joseph? They said to
Joseph, that holy thing, what is it? Nothing like this has
ever been seen before. Come down from God, God manifest
in the flesh. What is it? This small holy thing,
huh? That's going to be sweet to the
taste. That's going to maintain life. It's going to give life.
What is it? Manna. Christ is that manna.
He said, now that was manna. That was bread and they ate it
and everybody that ate that bread died, didn't they? Everybody
ate man and died. Christ said, My Father giveth
you the true bread, true bread. He said, The bread of God, verse
33, the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. The bread of God is he, not a
what. How often do we say this, that
salvation is not in a what or a thing or a substance or or
a doctrine, it's in a person, right? It's a person. True bread,
the bread of God is he. He. It says he came down. The bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven. Scripture says he came forth
and proceeded from the Father. From the Father. He came down. God sent him. He's the gift of
God. He's the gift of God. And it's
a free gift. freely given. We don't earn it.
We don't earn salvation. We're not worthy of it. The children
of Israel certainly weren't worthy of that manner, were they? They'd
been complaining and murmuring. What were they worthy of? They
were worthy of death and damnation and condemnation, weren't they? John God had miraculously delivered
them from the Egyptians, brought them out with a A strong hand,
a high hand, it says, and done all those things. And the pillar of fire and the
cloud and the rock and so forth, and they still weren't satisfied. So he gave them bread. They weren't
worthy of that. And neither is mankind of this
glorious gift that God has given. Unworthy. But God gave him. God
gave him. God gave him, and he came down. He came down from God, and a
man can never receive nothing except to be given him from above.
It's by grace, isn't it? Salvation by grace. Did you notice
he said, the bread of God? The bread of God. Bread of God. I told you this morning about
my wife making bread. She makes good bread. And I would
set her bread up at any county fair, anywhere, against anybody,
even old Moll Frickert, who's been making it for years. I'm
telling you, she couldn't beat her bread. Good bread, good bread. Every loaf that comes out, I
think, honey, you've done it now. This is the best yet. It's good bread. What about God's bread? It's
something God made. He said the bread of God. Oh, you ever see God's bread,
you'll quit trying to make it. You ever see God's salvation,
God's Christ, you'll quit trying to produce your own, won't you?
You ever see God's righteousness, Christ's righteousness, you'll
quit trying to produce your own. And it made me think of God's
bread. It made me think of what Adam
must have enjoyed. Just for a second, a little by-thought
here. What Adam must have eaten in
that garden. Man, watermelon, as big as a
barn. Oh, he must have eaten something.
You remember the grapes of Eskol that the spies came out of the
land of Canaan with? It took two of them to carry
one bunch. The ones in the garden are bigger
than that. Seeds, too. Didn't need seeds. It was all ready. The man didn't
have to prepare it. He didn't have to plant a thing.
It was all ready. That's a picture, too. That's
just a little by-thought there. What about when Christ, you remember
when Christ was on the shore and his disciples were in the
boat, and he said, Sir, do you have any meat? He said, No, we've
been toiling all night and so forth. A little later he said,
Well, I don't have any. Remember that? Y'all don't have
anything to eat? No, we've been trying. I do. Coming down. John, you've eaten
a lot of fish, haven't you? You've never eaten anything like
that. What that fish must have been like that he prepared on
that shore. Huh? Think about it. The best cook
and the best fillet. Well, that's, like I say, a little
side thought there. But what about God's bread? Christ. What about it? Listen to these
things the Scripture said about him that was made. God's bread. He was made so much better than
the angels. He was made a surety of a better
covenant. He was made a glorious tabernacle. He said, "'Abide,
thou hast prepared me.'" He was made a woman, made under the
law. He was made a curse. He was made
sin for us, sin and no sin. All of these things, this is
God's bread, this is God's making, this is God's work. This is what
God made Christ to be for his people. It's a glorious work,
isn't it? A glorious work, God's Son, God's bread. He said, "'The
true bread, I am the true bread,' he said. from heaven. True bread. Look over at Isaiah 55 real quickly. Isaiah 55. I kept you a long
time this morning, and I'll try not to keep you so long tonight.
The true bread. So many people are laboring in
religion today, aren't they? They're laboring. And this is
what I started out by saying, that flesh
profit is nothing. So many labor in religion for
that which is not of God and won't please God. God won't accept
it. It won't make them acceptable
to God. They're trying their dead level best, aren't they?
Myriads of people are doing that. Many people, like Cain, they're
working real hard and they're sincere at what they're doing.
Henry, I'm sure Cain worked real hard in his garden. I know he
did. And he brought the best he had. I mean, he brought the
best fruits he had. He did. And it must have been
a nice table and all. But God wouldn't accept it. Right? God won't accept it. The only
thing God will accept is what God provides. Right? It's the only thing God will
accept, what he provides. God's lamb, God's priest. And Christ is God's bread. Look
at Isaiah 55, verses 1 and 2, "...whoe, every one that thirsteth.
Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye,
buy and eat." If you have any money, you can't buy it. It's
too expensive. If you have no money, you can
afford it. Explain that. It's spiritually understood,
isn't it? Come buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk, without
money and without price. Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies
not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself
in fatness." That which is good and true bread,
and that which God Almighty will accept, that which God Almighty
provided and that which God Almighty will accept, and that which will
only satisfy your real need. Real bread. Real bread. Soul-covering bread. Like we say about food, rib stick
and grub. This is soul-covering This is
a soul-covering redemption. This is a sin-taking-away redemption,
isn't it? Sin, soul-purifying salvation. Not a halfway thing. It's real.
It's real. It's true bread. I've got to
tell you, talking about real bread, I've got to think about
every now and then, why she does this, when she comes home with
a loaf of processed, pasteurized, bleached, starched, no fat, no
cholesterol, no taste, cardboard in a package that you pay a dollar
and a half for. I think, why did you, because
Hannah likes it, white bread, white bread. My little niece
one time ate some white bread over at somebody's house, and
her mother had been feeding them wheat bread ever since she was
a baby, and good healthy bread, you know. And she said, one time
she said to these people where she was eating this bread, she
said, this is really good, this white bread. She said, my mother
didn't know about this. She'd tell my mother about this
good white bread. That's the carnal mind of that
man, isn't it? He doesn't know what's good for
him, and he thinks it's good. There's no taste to that stuff.
Don't buy that anymore. Really, it's got holes all in
it, and you spread peanut butter and it goes right through it. Tasteless, tasteless, doesn't
feel. Some of it's so thin you'd have
to have twelve slices. Seriously, it won't fill you
up. It won't fill you up. It's like cardboard. Like I said,
I need real bread, don't you? I need true bread. I like bread
that's got chunks of grass and leaves and stuff. No, seriously. I like bread that's got nuts
and grain and husks and, you know. I guess, Steve, they just
get a handful of whatever is on the barn floor and make that
good bread. You like what? The same kind
of bread? I do. I do. Well, this old sinner needs a
real salvation. I need real answers for real
problems. Don't give me this stuff, this
light, tasteless, worthless, no good, salvation won't do me
any good. Don't give me that. I don't want that. Take it back.
I need a real salvation, don't you? I have real sin that really
needs to be taken away. I need a real Savior, don't you? So Christ is the true bread,
real bread. He's called the bread of life,
too. Look at verse 48. Verse 48, Christ said, I am that
bread of life. Verse 49 and 50, he said, Your
fathers ate man and the wilderness. They're dead. He said, This is
the bread which cometh down from heaven, and a man eat thereof,
he won't die. You know, we eat bread to sustain
life, don't we? to sustain life. We're alive,
so we eat bread, don't we? Well, this bread gives life. That's strange, isn't it? If you give this, feed this bread
to a dead man, he'll live. That's a good illustration, isn't
it, John? He can't even eat it unless somebody gives it to him,
feeds it to him, force-feeds him. This bread, we eat bread
to sustain life. This bread gives life, creates
life. It's called the bread of life.
When received by faith, And it gives life, spiritual life, makes
one alive to God. They were dead before, but after
eating of this bread, they are alive to God, real life, which
is the life of God, abundant life, spiritual life, eternal
life, he calls it, that life which will go on and on and on
and be true life, the life of God. Adam and Eve were in the garden. Our Lord said, Now of every tree
in the garden thou mayest freely eat thereof, but of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil thou mayest not eat thereof.
And the day that thou eatest thereof thou wilt surely die. He said, In dying thou shalt
die. You'll die two ways. You'll die
physically and you'll die spiritually. And the day you eat thereof,
you shall surely die." Well, you know there was another tree
in that garden, wasn't there? The tree of life. It's a mystery. That's a real
mystery there. I never heard anybody deal with
that to satisfy me. Probably never will until Christ
deals with it. Until I see that tree of life
and eat of it up there. But there was a tree of life,
and God said he removes man out of the garden lest he eat of
that tree of life and live forever. No, that can't be anybody but
Christ, can it? That can't be. Revelation, Terry
talks about that tree being there, that it's up there. There's a
tree, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.
Tree of life. And in the day that you eat thereof,
You shall live. And in living, you shall really
live. Dying, you'll die. Living, you'll
live. New spiritual life, even on this
earth. Dead in trespasses and sins,
man becomes alive unto God, but we haven't begun to live yet.
Living, and someday we'll pass from this life unto the next.
Living, we'll live. We're really going to live. That's
right in the presence of God. But those who don't eat, dying,
they die. Dying, they die. Look at verse
51. He's called the living bread,
too. There's a difference. He said,
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man
eat of this bread, he shall live forever. The bread I will give
is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. The living
bread. This bread has life in itself.
The bread that we eat is dead. The bread we eat is dead. Now,
there's a sense in which when bread is being made, you put
leaven in it, don't you? That's yeast, isn't it, ladies?
Leaven is yeast, and that yeast is a living substance, isn't
it? That's what makes it rise. That's a pretty picture, isn't
it? A beautiful picture. Well, Christ has leaven in it,
but not the leaven of sin. He's without that leaven, but
he has the leaven of life in him. Life. You can't kill him.
They put him in the ground, but they couldn't kill him. He rose,
didn't they? The leaven of life. In him was
life. Christ is life. Christ is God.
You can't kill God. You can't kill God. He's the
author and the essence of life. He's the living bread. Also,
this bread, Christ, the living bread, is one old writer Matthew
Henry's father said he's suitable meat. Suitable and satisfying
meat. Suitable. Christ is just what
an old sinner needs. Just, just what he needs. Have you ever sat down to a meal
and you were so hungry and you didn't know what you wanted and
somebody prepared you something and you ate it and said, that's
just what I needed. Really, that, you say, that hit the spot. And so when you come in and hear
the gospel all the time, feeling wretched and lonely and no good
and rotten and a sinful creature, that's a good, that's the, that's
the only way you're ever really going to hear the gospel. And
if you come in like the empty know in my hands, know Christ
I bring." And when you hear the gospel clearly proclaimed, Christ
set forth, you say, that hit the spot. What spot? It marks the spot, the heart. That hit me in the heart. Not
like that woman said to my pastor, you stepped on my toes today.
And he said, well, I missed. I wasn't aiming at your toes.
If you go out and say, that hit the spot, that's just what I
need. Christ is just what an old sinner
needs, and only what a sinner needs. Only a sinner will need
him, and he's only what a sinner needs. Right? Only a sinner will find any suitableness
in Jesus Christ. A self-righteous man will see
some beauty about him, something about him with which to admire,
but they get taken up with other things. John, an old sinner,
sees Christ as all, doesn't he? He sees in him hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the fullness of the God hidden
about him, all and in all. He sees Christ in all. He's all
to a sinner. He's all he needs. All his righteousness,
all his wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, all
his salvation, all he needs, all his hope, all his comfort,
all his peace in the gospel. See what I'm saying? If you ever
hear the gospel, if anybody ever hears the gospel of the beauties
and the majesties and the glories and the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, his successful, finished, complete salvation
for sinners, that's all I need. That's just all I need. Don't
put any icing on it. That's good bread. That's just
good bread. That's all I need. All I need. And you come back for more. I
told you this morning, I can keep eating and keep eating.
One of these days it's going to catch up with me. Maybe. But
I keep eating that, keep eating that. It's satisfying. It satisfies
me. We read that in Isaiah 55. Eat
that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. And I don't think anybody will
ever see the glories of having eaten it. We're going to get
into that in just a second. But it's satisfying, mate. I'll
tell you how much I like her bread. I don't mean to talk about
it. It's a good illustration. I'm glad you make bread. I've
used it many times. I'll tell you how much I like
that bread. One day I came in. I've always been wanting to do
that. I came in and she had just made like three or four loaves
of bread. And I said, I'm going to do it, I've been wanting to
do this for a long time now. He said, give me, I picked out
one of those loaves. He said, it's mine. The whole loaf. I'm serious.
Sat it down in front of me, split it across the top, poured that,
well, margarine, butter, across the, down in it, just let it
melt a little bit. Henry, I ate a whole loaf by
myself. That's all I ate. I said, don't
fix me any dinner. I'm going to eat this. But I
got sick. Just to be honest with you. You'll
never get sick of the gospel though. You're sitting out here.
You say, this is all I need right here. This is satisfying bread. It's all I want. Once you taste
it, that's all I want. I want the whole council, too.
Give me the whole thing, the whole council. Don't keep back
anything profitable from the priest. Well, I like Cornelius. Can you tell? All right, he said
seven times, at least seven times, at least he said it in seven
different places, eat and live. Terry was in the course of just
a few verses, he said seven times, he talked about you need to eat
this bread and live. Except you eat, read it once
here, just one time. He said in verse 50, this is the bread which came
down from heaven that a man eat thereof and not die. Barely,
barely I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, and so forth. He that
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, verse 58, he that eateth
of this bread shall live forever. And you know, I dealt real briefly
with that this morning, and I thought, I didn't There's more to it. He said it seven times, and there's
more to it there. What is meant by this eating
and drinking? Well, can you quote Matthew 5, 6, one of the Beatitudes
where he said, Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filled. So, and we touched
on that earlier, but the first thing in eating is you've got
to have a hunger in it. You've got to have a hunger to
eat. Eating is first being hungry. Christ said in a couple of verses
here in this chapter, he said, you will not come unto me that
ye might have life. Didn't he? You won't eat. Oh, I know this
well, you know, trying to get a, some of you have, you ever
have problems with your children eating growing up? Eat! I'm not hungry. I'm busy with
other things. You'll die if you don't eat, honey. You've got
to eat, right? This is what Christ said. Except you eat, you die. You'll
die. But a man won't eat. He won't
eat of Christ. He doesn't see anything in Christ. He's never eaten and he doesn't
know what it tastes like. He doesn't see anything in him that
he should desire, right? He will not come unto me, he
said, that you might have life. And then, John, he said, no man
can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me do
what? When the Father effectually says,
now, and he creates, this is what he does, John, this is the
work of the Holy Spirit, creates a hunger. creates a thirst, creates
a desire. This is the first thing I'm looking
for in somebody. I'm looking for a little glimmer
in the eyes of somebody, in the face, in the countenance of a
young person, of anybody. Of, you know, going from to. That's what I'm looking for.
Just a little, you know. Just a little. Every now and
then she'll get hungry, you know. Come in and she'll eat well.
Eat well. That's the first thing it takes,
isn't it? Hunger. He said nobody can, though, except the Father
drawing. Right? If I could, I'd create
an interest in you. If I could, I'd say, Luke, stop. Now, you believe Jesus Christ.
I mean right now. You just believe him. You believe
him? I can't do it, though, can I?
I can't make him believe Christ. Can I? If you would, parent,
you would, wouldn't you? If you could, you would, wouldn't
you? You can't do it. Who can? Only God. Only God. A man can receive nothing
except the beginning. No man can. Nobody will see their
need of Christ until the Holy Spirit creates a hunger, and
the first thing he does is create a sense of sin. This is the reason
when I say proud looks, haughty spirits and all that, brooding
looks, I think, boy, the first, what they need is to be broken. The first thing the Holy Spirit
does is create a sense of sin, give somebody a feeling of their
own unworthiness. If this is not in somebody now,
they don't need Christ. A sense of emptiness, nothing,
nobody, I have nothing, I know nothing. Somebody comes in that's
supposed to be a new believer and all that, and they know everything.
I'm sorry. They just know too much. They
just know too much. But an empty, and they see Christ's
beauty. This is the second thing the
Holy Spirit does. He creates a sense of Christ's beauty, his
sufficiency. He gives them a nose to smell
like the bread. When you're hungry, you know,
food even smells good to you, doesn't it? Christ becomes a
sweet-smelling savor. The gospel becomes a sweet-smelling
desire, and then what? After all of that, then what?
Hunger, thirst, a need, a craving, a desire, smells good, then what? What do you got to do? Eat! Nothing left to do but eat. What
is it to eat? Well, do I have to tell you that?
Well, it's the desire. But eating, very simply, is belief. Belief. Belief means to be persuaded
in your own mind, and more importantly, in your heart. You know, man's
never really persuaded of anything until he experiences it, right? You can think you know some things
in your head, so I know that, and turn around and violate what
you thought you know, what you thought you learned. You never
learn it until you experience it, right? You never learn it.
That's what's called experiencing it in the heart and in the life.
But it is to be persuaded in the head, I know, I know, I know
some things, yes. But you need to be persuaded
of a person. I know whom. A person, his person,
his work, his sufficiency and all, but to believe on the heart.
With a heart man believeth unto righteousness, the scripture
said. Not just mental agreement, although you will, but it's the
heart. You've got to come to know and
believe in your heart, in your heart. And once again, I can't,
nobody can do this. God is the surgeon. He's the only one. You can't
perform open-heart surgery on yourself, can you? No, you can't. You can't even
do it. You're not qualified to do it on your children. Only
the great physician can. Only he can. And to eat is to
believe, and to eat is also to—I mean, to believe in the heart.
To eat is also to actually partake of Jesus Christ. actually partake
of Jesus Christ, and I'm not sure I can illustrate this. Like
I said, it's just something you have to experience. But seeing
him won't do it. If I come to the table and I
say, hey, that's good-looking food, and I come to the table
and my wife says to me, yeah, it is good food. It's sufficient
to meet all your needs. You've got broccoli here. It's
got this all the vitamins in it. It's got carrots here, it's
got beta-carotene in it, and it's got all these things in
it. It's got meats, it's got protein, bread, carbohydrates
and all that. It's just what you need. Yeah, I believe that. I believe that. And it's not knowing it, either. Yeah, I know that. I read that.
I read that somewhere, that that's, what is it? What is eating it?
Give me some of it. Let me try it. Give it to me. I'll eat it. It's partaking of
it. It's putting it in your mouth. It's chewing it up. It's, it's,
and like I said, I can't, a person has to, it's, you don't teach
a child to eat. When a child's born, you don't
teach it to eat, really. No. It's born with a hunger in
a minute. It craves the bread. And you
really don't, you put it up there and it goes after it. Right? God's going to have to
make a man eat, isn't it? You can lead a horse to water,
and you can have a man drink. You can tell a man about Christ,
a woman, a young person. You can't make them eat. Right? Only God can. But you put the
eating of this pudding, actually partaking of it, chewing it,
hmm, it is good. It looks good. It is good. That is good. It's better than
you said it was. You didn't tell me the half of
it! No, because you've got to taste for yourself and see that
the Lord is gracious. And you take it down in your
body, and your body assimilates it, it goes in and becomes one.
That food becomes one with you, and you with it. You join to
it. It's a personal thing, you see.
This thing of eating is between you and God. Right? I can't eat
for my child, and And nobody can make you eat, so nobody can
make you believe and come to Christ. You know, I keep saying,
come to Christ, come to Christ. What is it, preacher? Come to
Him and find out. Does that make sense? No, it
doesn't. But if you've done it, it has. Right? You know what I'm saying?
Just cast all your care away. Come to me. Christ, I don't know
what it means to come, but here I come." Huh? He said, come. Lord, I don't know what it means,
but here I am. I'm coming. Jesus, I come. I
come. Well, there's something else
here, and I'll quit. Something somebody must experience.
Christ one time said, He said, I have meat to eat that you know
not of. I had meat to eat that you know
not of." They would in time. These disciples said, Lord, eat,
eat, eat. He hadn't eaten in several days,
evidently. He said, I'm eating. I don't need those husks. I'm
eating, and I'm enjoying it. He said, my meat is to do the
will of my heavenly Father. You know, that's deep. I mean,
there's something there. That's life. That's the life
of God. Something there. Well, I'll tell
you this about eating. Trust in Christ. You trust Christ,
and all I can tell you is this. If you trust Christ, you feel
yourself being an old sinner. If you trust Christ, God make
you. God gives you the gift to trust
him and believe him. You'll get instant relief. Yeah,
you will. Instant comfort, peace, and joy.
In fact, if you're famished and hungry and you feel weak, somewhat
weak, I go hours without eating sometimes during the day, and
I feel myself getting weak. My brain ceases to function.
My body is getting tired, listless. Go home, get something to eat.
And I almost feel it going in, like Popeye with spinach. I'm
serious. It's not like in the morning
with a cup of coffee and a one-hour pop is opening in there. But
eating, it's instant. That's the power of food. That's
what God has ordained. That's the power of Christ. You
trust Christ, you'll get instant relief from your guilt and your
sin. And then this is something we
keep doing. You don't just eat one time, do you? Obviously. You don't just eat one time.
And many of us eat three times. Some more. All day long, don't
you? Huh? Those who really like to
eat, keep eating. Scripture says, to whom coming?
You keep coming to this table. You keep coming. We need fresh
supplies of grain. Keep coming. to this table that
God has prepared in the midst of our enemies. You need it in
the midst of your enemies, John, don't you? You need this oasis
in the dry plain. All right, I'll quit with this,
verses 63 and following. He said, verses 63 on, he said,
It's spirit that quickeneth the flesh, prophet of nothing. The
words I speak unto you, they're spirit, they're life, but there's
some of you that believe not. It's some in here that don't
believe. Some in here don't believe. Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. He
knows. The Lord knoweth them that are
here. And he says, So he said unto them, Therefore I said unto
you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto
him of my Father. Well, that's sovereign grace
in it. That's salvation of the Lord, no doubt about it. Is there
any doubt? John, if there's only scripture
in the Bible, that would nail it down right there, wouldn't
it? He said, Therefore, I said unto you, No man can, except
the Father which hath sent me, except it were given unto him
of my Father. No man can come to Christ, nor
will, except it be given him. Very few people truly desire
Christ. Listen to this. Very few people
truly desire Christ for Christ's sake. Did you know that? It's what I was saying this morning
about trying to, about people worshiping and doing all these
things for different reasons. Very few people desire Christ
for Christ's sake. But they come for what they can
get out of it. They come because they got their bellies filled.
They come because their daughter was miraculously saved from being
drowned. Or something happened, you know,
their buddy died in a car wreck, drunk, and they get religion,
you know. All of a sudden, very few people