We're going to John chapter 6,
and we're going to read from verse 22. John chapter 6, verse
22. And the previous parts of this
chapter have been the feeding of the 5,000 in the wilderness,
and then the Lord walking upon water. from the land to the ship
in which his disciples were during the midst of a storm. And then
we read in verse 22. The day following, when the people
stood on the other side of the sea, saw that there was none
other boat there save that one wherein his disciples were entered,
and that Jesus went not with his disciples into the boat,
but that his disciples were gone away alone, howbeit There came
other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did
eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks. When the people
therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples,
they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on
the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest
thou hither? Jesus answered them and said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw
the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were
filled. Labour not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God, that ye believe
on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him,
what sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee,
that what dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it is written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he that cometh down from heaven and giveth
life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto him, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth in
him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. The Jews then murmured at him
because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven.
And they said, is not this Jesus the son of Joseph whose father
and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them murmur not among yourselves no man can come to
me except the father which hath sent me draw him and i will raise
him up at the last day it is written in the prophets and they
shall Be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that
any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God. He hath
seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. 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 I will give is
my flesh, which I 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 ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man and drink his blood, ye 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. He that eateth of this bread
shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. That was a little bit of an extended
reading, but I wanted just to gather all the strands of this
little narrative together, if I could, and to present them
to you. I mentioned in our little note
yesterday that I hope to spend a few weeks considering what
are called the Seven I Am Statements of the Lord Jesus Christ, recorded
in the Epistle of John. John's gospel is an amazing record
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, most of you will know that
there are four gospels. And these are four accounts of
the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Matthew, Mark,
and Luke are often very similar in the incidents that they record
and even in the language that they use. But John is different. It is more intimate. It is more
intense. It's more personal. The Lord
Jesus was close to John. John was the disciple whom Jesus
loved. And the Lord, with the Holy Spirit,
equipped John to write this book, which perhaps no other person
could write. It records unique incidents. It gives us detail of vital teaching
that is not present in the other gospel writings. And it delivers
to the church a document of wonderful insight and value and depth from
this apostle, this preacher. And I would say that from his
profound opening words in John chapter one, verse one, to his
final comments in chapter 21 and 25, the extent and nature
of John's testimony of his beloved saviour and friend is unparalleled
and irreplaceable in our scriptures. And I encourage you just to consider
homework, to have a look at John chapter 1 verse 1 and John chapter
21 verse 25, the first and last verse of John's gospel. And tell
me if it doesn't make you enthusiastic to know what comes between. As
we begin this series of studies then on the Lord's I Am statements,
I mentioned them all yesterday, let me just briefly say them
again. He calls himself the Bread of
Life in John chapter 6. He calls himself the Light of
the World in John chapter 8. He is the Door to Salvation and
the Good Shepherd in John 10. He's the resurrection and the
life in John 11. He's the way, the truth, and
the life in John 14. He says, I am the true vine in
John chapter 15. And I would like to begin what
I have to say today by pointing out something rather obvious
that covers all of these sayings. And it's this. The Lord Jesus
is making all of these extraordinary statements about himself. Now, I guess that is very obvious. But let us just note the words
that he uses. The words themselves are amazing. I am the light of the world. I am the door to salvation. I am the good shepherd who lays
down his life for the sheep. I am the resurrection and the
life, he said to Martha as they stood before Lazarus's tomb and
the Lord prepared to bring him to life again. I am the way,
the truth and the life. I am the true vine where the
Lord's people will glean all of their fruitfulness in this
life. These are amazing statements in themselves. He says, I am
the bread of life. I am the living bread of God,
which came down from heaven. And he that eats of this bread
shall never die, but will live forever. Let us not become so familiar
with the wonders of these words that we neglect them or ignore
them. Do not lose sight of the wonderful
testimony, the powerful testimony to Christ's divinity in what
we have just read together. Simply in reading these words,
Because what prophet, what New Testament apostle, what servant
of God ever employed such language as this? I dare say that these are the
very words of eternal life. that the apostle Peter, or the
disciple Peter, attested to when the question was asked, would
they turn and go back? Where else can we go? Thou hast
the words of eternal life. It was phrases like this, it
was testimony like this, that Peter and the other disciples
understood and referred to. The disciples heard and believed
what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying here. And may we hear
and believe these phrases, these words too. Let us, in all of
our studies, in all of our learning of the Lord, in all of our experiences
in this life, never lose sight of the great I Am. May he always
be front and centre of our mind and our attention, the great
I Am, our Lord Jesus Christ, our Saviour who is God, who is
the bread of life, sent down from heaven to do his Father's
will and to die for his people. And yet, Could ever a more momentous
statement be more simply expressed? Everyone knows what bread is.
It's the simplest of consumables. Everyone knows what it is. Everyone
who has been hungry knows what bread is. Everyone who was hungry
and fainted in the wilderness for lack of bread the previous
day knew what it was to be hungry and how vital food is to sustaining
life, physical life. As we read together, these words
of the Lord were spoken in the synagogue at Capernaum the day
after the Lord Jesus had fed more than 5,000 people in the
wilderness with five loaves and two small fish. The words that were spoken by
the Lord, I am the bread of life, were part of a sermon in which
the Lord gave meaning to his miracle by applying the message
spiritually. He had acted out, as it were,
the message. And now he was explaining it
and applying its power spiritually to those who gathered before
him. Not all of them believed by any
means. And we can see that in the way in which the Lord speaks
to these people. But there were those amongst
them to whom these things became the very staff of life, the very
vital bread of life to their souls. It was here in the synagogue. that the Saviour titled himself
the Bread of Life, saying, I am the Bread of Life, and then I
am the living bread which came down from heaven. The Jews found
that offensive because they knew very well what he was saying.
But he goes on, as it were, to press these disbelieving Jews
to the reality of his claims. Except ye eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. The Lord is speaking about spiritual
things. He's speaking about spiritual
life and the need for his hearers to lift their thoughts above
the mundane affairs of this life and to consider their eternal
soul. That's the call for you and me
today as well. Let us think about our eternal
soul. Let us think about our spiritual
life. Let us think about the preciousness
of our spirit. When the Lord says, labour not
for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth
unto everlasting life, he's not despising good, honest work or
telling us that we're all to become aesthetics and live up
in mountaintops and in caves No, the Lord recognises that
there is labour to be done, but he's saying put it in its proper
place. Labour rather principally for
those things that endure to everlasting life. I mentioned yesterday in
the context of this little verse that meat in our authorised version
of the Bible doesn't mean animal flesh like it is used to mean
today. It means all kinds of food. Meat that perishes is just ordinary
physical food that wastes and degrades. But the Lord is saying,
rather consider that meat which sustains to everlasting life,
spiritual food, soul food. The gospel blessings that nourish
the new creation, that feed the new man. the man who now lives
on Christ by faith, the man who now lives spiritually upon the
work that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished and sees and
understands and discerns and interprets, having learned Christ
through faith, all of the blessedness that there is in him. That is
a food which does not perish. Now the Jews did not have that
spiritual discernment and they mocked the Lord's words. They
said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? But true believers
understand the Lord's meaning. The Lord speaks to those who
have ears to hear. We have come to learn. that spiritual
food is essential for spiritual life and spiritual growth. The
analogy here to the natural is obvious. The Lord's people have
an appetite for Christ and his gospel, and we are to labour
in it and for it. We are to desire after it. We
are to be as careful to secure spiritual blessings under the
gospel and whatever means of grace the Lord provides. We are
to be as careful to secure it, them, as we would be to secure
our daily bread. as the Lord's followers in the
new man, we hunger and thirst after righteousness, the righteousness
that he alone gives. And I think there's a little
application here. Let me draw it, if I may. We
speak of resting in Christ, and rightly so, resting from all
our labour when we lay down our own works, our own self-righteousness,
our own aspirations and ambitions to do so much good that the Lord
will look favourably upon us. Once we're past that, once we're
done with that, once we realise the true source and means of
God's grace towards us, His mercy and His love, then we understand
that we are to rest in Him. But resting in him isn't easy
to do. It's not easy to do that. Not in this flesh. We are always
trying to insert a little bit of ourselves into the frame. We just do it all the time. I could say we do it naturally,
and that would be absolutely true. We just do it all the time
because of the old man in us. We don't have to labour to obtain
Christ's righteousness. It's a free gift of God's grace. We do have to labour, rather,
to keep out our own righteousness and to resist our vain imaginations
that we are better in ourselves than we are. The Christian life
is not a single commitment to follow the Lord like some free
willers or Arminian teachers would pretend. The Christian life is not a single
commitment to follow the Lord. It is an ongoing experience of
daily struggle and war. and battles, with their ups and
their downs, and sometimes there are periods of famine, sometimes
there are periods of drought, sometimes there are periods when
we don't feed on Christ as we ought to. And the emphasis of
the Savior in this passage is on life and living, spiritual
life and spiritual living. And he is showing us that there
is a living relationship that believers have with him. There
is a spiritual union that exists individually between Christ and
his people. He lives in us and we live in
him every day, every hour. Paul tells the Galatians, Christ
liveth in me. Christ liveth in me, and the
life which I now live in the flesh, day by day in this body,
in this world, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved
me and gave himself for me. In saying that, Paul was personally
feeding upon the one who said, I am the bread of life. And this
lively union must be fed and nourished by spiritual grace
all the days of our lives. First by the sincere milk of
the word and then strong meat or solid food imparted by the
Lord as we grow in grace and a knowledge of the truth. coming
to the Lord Jesus and believing in Him, as the Lord here speaks
about, is the means and the method by which God's children are nourished
and fed. They just live by faith in Christ. And those who are justified from
sin and who are righteous in Christ live day by day in their
spiritual experience by feeding upon the Lord Jesus, by coming
to him, by believing in him, by returning to him. He is our
table in the presence of our enemies. He is our feast in the
wilderness. He is our morning and evening
provision by the ravens. or by whatever other means he
provides our spiritual sustenance. And we value and cherish every
means of grace that God has appointed for our growth and development
and maturity. Now certainly, there is a first
coming to Christ in conversion. But believers never stop coming
to Christ. We come to him every day and
we come to him every day at mealtime if we have a hunger after him. And if we're hindered and detained,
we feel empty and therefore we labour to get to the table that
he has set for us. So too there is a first believing
in Christ for salvation. But believers never stop believing. We never stop trusting. And if
it appears that we will stop trusting, Does not the Lord send
a trial or two above our strength to shake us from our sleep and
reinvigorate our dependence upon him and cause us to come again
to feed upon him? We may from time to time become
lethargic. in our Christian walk and not
be overly rigorous in coming at meal times to the Lord. But he is more careful for our
diet than we are. And he is passionate and he is
persistent to gain our attention. He will not let us go. The life of faith is a coming
to Christ day by day. Believing on him is coming regularly
and frequently as we encounter tests and trials, as we face
temptation, as we feel pride rising in our hearts, as we become
snared in sin. and as we need a view of his
cleansing blood afresh. This is how we feed on the bread
of life. This is how we eat his body. This is how we drink his blood. The Lord is referring to his
own crucifixion. He's referring, he's thinking
about his death when he tells his church, I am the living bread
which came down from heaven. If any man eat this bread, he
shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world. This is the Lord telling us,
pointing us to his cross, pointing us to his death, showing us where
we feed in his flesh and in his blood. Christ came from heaven
with a real body. He gave his physical flesh as
a ransom for sin to justify many. By his physical death in our
place as our substitute, he secured our spiritual life. I live, I
live spiritually because he carried my sins, bore my punishment,
redeemed my soul and died physically in my place. And now because
he lives, I live also. We live spiritually, we grow
spiritually by trusting in him and understanding the redeeming
value and cleansing power of his death. As I come towards the end, I
shouldn't say end there. I've got more to say here, so
it's not the end end. But as I come towards this next
part of what I have to say, I want to touch on a few of the verses
that the Lord used in this section that we read together. So let
me just press on straight into it, and I won't get mixed up. In verse 27, the Lord says, labour
for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which
the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father
sealed. Now here's what I want to point
out in this verse. I hope that the Lord's words
here caused your spiritual senses to jingle a little bit. Hear
what he says again. For him hath God the Father sealed. That little phrase there, inserted
into that verse, labour for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him hath God
the Father sealed. That little phrase. is so much
more powerful and significant than we might at first think. Because here, the Savior is describing
this great salvation which he is about to accomplish in terms
of his covenant duties. Now here we are again speaking
about this everlasting covenant. But I don't want to get away
from it. I want to speak about it. I want to think about it
often. And here it is again. For him hath God the Father sealed. In John chapter 6, Christ is
telling us that all spiritual life derives from him. He is
the bread that has come down from heaven in whom if we eat
From him, we will have everlasting life. He's not the manna in the
wilderness that Moses, according to these Jews, gave. He's not the old religion of
the natural man. He is the bread of life. He is
the staff. He is the heart. He is the essence
of all spiritual life. Nevertheless, he is embedding
that great work, that great salvation. the fact that all spiritual life
is sustained by him, that he feeds and nourishes our souls
day by day, morning and evening, that he's constant, that he's
the ever-present I am. Yet he is saying all of these
roles of redeemer, of mediator, of intercessor is squarely bound
up within the everlasting covenant of grace which is sealed by God
the Father. by that phrase, by that sealing,
the salvation of all God's elect who have been placed into Christ's
hands is certain and sure. So that even in the Lord, as
it were, standing and preaching in the synagogue about Him being
the bread of life and giving a spiritual dimension to the
miracle of the previous day is all to be gathered up in the
covenant purpose upon which Christ is now embarked. That is the
reason why the Lord Jesus Christ says here that all of those who
are in his hands have a certain and sure salvation. He says,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. Do you see the covenant applications
that the Lord is setting before the people here, setting before
us? These words of Jesus speak of his appointment to the high
office of mediator or angel of the covenant. For him hath God
the Father sealed. And within that little phrase
is contained all the covenant offices of the triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Because Christ was appointed
as the God-man mediator by God the Father. Him hath God appointed,
and then he is sealed. The Father appointed. Christ
to this unique role. The Son assumed the role of Redeemer,
Mediator, and Intercessor, appointed by the Father, assumed by the
Son, and the Holy Spirit sealed and anointed Christ for all his
works. So that here in that little phrase,
for him hath God the Father sealed, the church behold the joint actions
of the three persons of the Godhead, covenanting together in the mission
of Jesus Christ to reconcile and deliver the elect of God
from their sin, and designating Christ alone as the sole and
unique bread of life or facilitator of this great salvation. So that's
the first point that I want to draw. For him hath God the Father
sealed speaks to us of the everlasting covenant of grace that we speak
about. Here's the second one that I
want to draw your attention to. Building on that clear statement
of God's covenant purpose to save his people from their sins,
we are told this. This is the work of God, that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Now this means what it
says. It is God's work that His chosen
people come to Christ and believe in Him. We've spent much time,
have we not, speaking about coming to Christ, not just in conversion,
but day by day, of believing in Christ, not just to be saved,
but to experience our salvation day by day, but that in itself
is the work of God in us. This is the work of God that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. So that feeding on the
bread of life is God's work in us. It is the work of God that
ye believe on him whom he hath sent. It is a divine work, a
miraculous work, that a man or a woman, that you or me, believes
in Christ, comes to Christ and believes in Christ. Covenant
grace could not be more clearly stated by our Saviour than he
is declaring here in John chapter 6. Here's my third point. This covenant work, this purpose
of grace and goodness, shall not be hindered or thwarted. The Lord tells us, verse 37,
What a promise this is. What certainty is expressed in
this. What comfort is granted. We are assured. Our eternal salvation
is assured. It's a precious promise. It's
a blessed assurance. It cannot fail in a single instance. The loss of one soul, one chosen
by God, one given to Christ, one for whom he died, would dishonour
the Lord Jesus Christ forever, for all eternity. And that is
impossible. The salvation of God's elect
is founded upon a covenant which is ordered in all things and
sure, it cannot fail. Not one single individual who
comes to Christ, who believes in him, who finds him to be the
bread of life and feeds upon him shall ever perish, but have
everlasting life. And lastly, Brothers and sisters,
what else the Lord says here is this. Let this be understood. has the desire or ability in
himself to come to Christ. We cannot come, says the Lord
Jesus, so as to believe in him, except my Father which hath sent
me draw him. Now the Father's drawing is not
to the exclusion of the Son or the Spirit, because as we have
seen, this is a covenant work. All the persons of the Godhead
work together to secure the success of the covenant. Jesus said,
my Father worketh hitherto and I work. There is a combined effort
in this matter. But that divine drawing of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is a gentle work of God. He does not harm us in drawing
us. He woos us. He inclines our hearts
to Christ. He shows us how attractive he
is. And this might happen over a
long period of time. This happens in our experience
as believers. He continues to show us how attractive
Christ is. We're not caught on a hook and
reeled in on a line, fighting until we're exhausted and succumb
like some fish. We are persuaded of our need
under the gospel. We are courted by mercy. We are
won by grace. We are embraced by divine love. I consider it to be a great privilege
to be able to speak to you about these matters today. It is my
belief that elect sinners are drawn by the Father, quickened
by the Spirit, and taught by the Lord Jesus Christ under the
direction of the Gospel when it is preached. May we all so
learn more of Christ. Who is that bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die? Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us today.