Having delivered Israel out of
the bondage of Egypt, Moses then led them through a vast wilderness. Millions and millions of people. I was trying to just get a picture
in my mind of 5,000 men plus the women and children as I told
you that story of him feeding the 5,000. It's hard for me to
even conjure up what 5,000 people look like all gathered together
on a hillside. What must it have been to have
seen Israel in the wilderness? Millions of people and cattle
and sheep and fully sustained all the way through that desert
wilderness by God alone. Nothing out there. Nothing out
there to eat. Just what God provided. If God's Israel will survive,
they must be given of God that which will sustain them. So God
caused a heavenly bread to appear on the ground as the dew rose
up. in its place on the ground was
this tiny, the Bible said it was like coriander
seed. And it lay there where the dew
once laid there on the ground. And they were to go out at a
certain time and gather up the manna that God provided. They were to gather a certain
amount, each family according to their eating. and to go out
each day, each one according to his eating. And this was a
divine miracle, as was the water that came forth from the smitten
rock that watered that multitude, and the parting of the sea that
allowed them to pass over, and the sweetening of the bitter
waters of Mara. But natural Israel, though they
cherished the memory of this miracle, They cherished that
memory. They'd fight you over it. This
actually happened. Oh, they'd tell you. Eyes sparkling,
and they'd tell you about it. Oh, it happened. They cherished
the memory of it, and they passed the knowledge of it from generation
to generation. Don't forget this. They'd tell
their children, don't you forget this. God did this. This was a wonderful thing, and
they rejoiced in it. And they passed it on from generation
to generation, but they never understood what it was about.
And now on this hillside, he comes along and he feeds 5,000
men, women, and children, but they didn't know what it was
all about. And so it is in our day that
men and women everywhere believe that Jesus was a real person.
You'll be hard-pressed to find anybody who don't believe that.
That Jesus Christ was a real person, that he did appear in
this world, and that his appearance was a divine miracle. Yet, like
Israel, they do not perceive what his appearance was all about.
The Lord Jesus Christ said to natural Israel and to an assembly
of professed disciples. Look here in John chapter 6 verse
48. He said, you don't come over
here because you saw the miracles and believe that God sent me
into this world. You don't believe because of
what I did that I'm the Christ. You came over here because you
ate of the loaves and got filled up. That's why you're over here. John 6, 48, he says to them,
he said, I am the bread. I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness and they're dead. Yes, God sent them bread. Yes,
they went out and gathered it up. Yes, it was a miracle. But
they ate that bread and they died. They died. The bread he said that I'm talking
about, this is a bread which cometh down from heaven that
a man may eat thereof and not die. That's what I'm preaching
to you. That's what I'm talking to you
about. I'm not talking to you about cornbread. I'm not talking
to you about biscuits. I'm talking to you about the
bread of life. You eat this bread and you don't
die. You live forever. I am the living bread. You hear what he is telling them?
Which came down from heaven, and if any man eat of this bread,
he will live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
gospel set forth in the Word of God, proclaimed by the prophets
and apostles, and preached by the church of the living God,
is the person It's the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, God's
dear Son. It's not a plan. It's not a plan. It's not a scheme. It's not a
system. It's the glorious person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's no hope in a system. There's no hope in a creed. The
hope's in Him. Peter said we have a living hope.
A living hope. Salvation is to embrace Him,
to believe on Him, to rest in Him, to look to Him, rejoice
in Him. I am the bread of life, He said. I am. The bread that came down
from heaven, the bread sent by the living Father, the bread
which appeared after His resurrection. I'm not here this morning trying
to sell you on some wild scheme to reform yourself. You know
what a reformed Christian is? I'm so tired of hearing that
it makes me want to throw up. A reformed Christian is a dead
man with a new suit. That's what he is. He's a dead
man. Somebody dies, you put a brand
new suit on him, lay him in a coffin. People don't even recognize him
because he never had that suit on before. It's a dead man with
a new suit. That's all that is. You don't need reformation, you
need regeneration. That's what you need. You don't
need fixed up, you need life. And he that hath the Son hath
life. He that hath not the Son of God,
whatever else it is he hath, he hath not life. And I'm doing
the best I can to point men and women to Christ, because if any
man be in Him, He's a new creation. He's a new creature. He's a new
creature. And there's no options, there's
no decisions. There's just one God. What are
you going to decide on? Who's God? There's just one God.
What are you going to pick and choose? There's just one God. There's just one Christ. That's
what our Lord's telling these people. I did miracles. There were miracles of God. He said, if you don't believe
me because of what I'm telling you, believe me because of the
works that I do. You can't feed 5,000 people.
I did. I at least ought to get your
ear for a minute. If any man be in Christ, and
there's just no options, there's no decisions, there's just one
God, one Savior, one Mediator between God and me and the man
Christ Jesus. One sacrifice for sins, one gospel,
one faith, and one baptism. Everything anti-Christ is opposed
to the one Christ. and opposed to the one God, and
opposed to the one faith, and opposed to the one baptism, which is declared in the Word
of God. And what I want to do this morning is to show you in
these verses what Christ declared to these men. That what bread is in a natural
sense to you is what Christ is in a spiritual sense to believers. That's what He told them. He
took this simple bread and he said, I'm the bread. I'm the
bread. And they said, you're talking
about cannibalism. He's lost his mind. He's talking about
eating his flesh and drinking his blood. No, he said, my words are spirit
and my words are life. They're to be spiritually understood. what bread is in a natural sense
to men, Christ is in a spiritual sense to believers. Now let me
give you about six or seven things here to think about in these
verses. First of all, bread is not a
natural food. There ain't any bread trees. I've never seen one. You can't
go out here on the vine and pick bread. It doesn't grow on bushes. It doesn't grow on the ground.
It doesn't grow in trees. Bread is not a natural food. Bread is a prepared food. Isn't
it? You've got to prepare bread.
And I'll tell you this. I've done a little bit of cooking
and I'm going to tell you something. Bread is not easy to make. It'll
come out looking like a cracker if you're not careful. Bread
is not easy to make. It's a prepared food. Grain must
be gathered and separated. Wheat must be crushed to get
the flour. And then it is combined with
other ingredients. And then it is baked in a hot
oven. It has to be the right temperature. It has to be the
right amount of time and so on. You don't just throw bread in
there and go out in the yard and mow grass and come back in
and the bread is done. You have got to watch the bread. Listen to Paul as the Holy Spirit
of God inspires him to describe his Savior. He said over in Hebrews
chapter 10, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith,
Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not. Now listen, But a body hast
thou prepared me. You see that? That's prepared
food. You just can't go out and pick
a loaf of bread. You have to make it. Somebody
does. It has to be prepared. Prepared by the combining. And
only God could do it, of God and man together in one person.
Prepared. They prepared Him as the sacrifice. They prepared Him as the representative. They prepared Him to go and do
what man couldn't do for himself. He said, I come as a Savior.
I come to save men. The only way to save men is to
represent men. And He was prepared. He said, the life which I give,
this living bread which is my flesh, and the life which I give
is my flesh. The heavenly bread is of divine
combination. Only man can suffer. Only God
can satisfy. He's a man to have compassion
on the ignorant and upon them that are out of the way. A man
to experience our infirmities. Though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered. He can be touched. Oh, my soul, I tell you, God
just leaves you alone for a little bit. You are not really alone,
but He makes you think you are, just a little bit. And you begin
to hurt and begin to ache and begin to call on God. Those will
be precious words to you then. He can be touched. He can be
touched. I tell you, sometimes I can't
be touched. I'm just hard as a rock sometimes. I don't want to be. It's not
my desire to be that way, but sometimes I am. I'm not affected
by things that I ought to be affected by. But I tell you,
He can be touched. He can be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, and yet He's God. In Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him."
So this heavenly bread is of God's doing, and it is wonderful
in our eyes. It is wonderful. There is a man
in glory. That ought to inspire hope in
your hearts. If there is one man in glory, there might be
two. There might be two. There is some reason for a man
to be seated at the right hand of God. Is there not? And that
reason ought to generate hope in my soul. This heavenly bread, it's a prepared
bread. And then secondly, this bread
was given. They didn't buy it. They didn't
just go find it. It was given to them of God.
The bread which came down from where? From heaven. That's where
it came down from. Jesus Christ is the unspeakable
gift of God, and you can't merit this heavenly bread, and you
don't deserve this heavenly bread, and you cannot produce this heavenly
bread. He said in verse 57 of John chapter
6, as the living Father hath sent me, hath sent me, Jesus
Christ came into this world being sent of the Father, and grace
and truth came by Him. Jesus Christ himself is the manifestation
of the goodwill of God to save chosen sinners. Listen to this. He said, this is the will of
him which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life,
and I'll raise him up at the last day. Bread is given by God the Father
and given by the accomplishments of the Son and given by the Holy
Spirit of God through the preaching of the Gospel. And then thirdly,
bread can only be served by an experienced hand. If you're fixing
a stew or a roast or soup, I've watched my wife do this a hundred
times. I like her spaghetti sauce and
she makes spaghetti sauce and I see her over there and she
just do that in there and then she'll go get something else
and shake it in there and she'll get her little bite and then
she'll put something else in there. It comes out spaghetti
sauce. It's good. But when you're baking,
you can't do that. You got to get the little cup
out and measure it and scoop it all flat and put it in there.
It's a formula. And I tell you, if it ain't perfect,
neither is that bread. Neither is that bread. You can't
just shake stuff in there and whip it up and make bread. You've
got to measure it. You've got to do the little half
a tablespoon and half a cup and all this. It all has to be, it's
a formula when you're baking. When you're cooking stew, you
can throw stuff in it. I mean, whatever, throw it in
there. But not with bread. Bread has a formula. And when
you present this bread before men, there's a formula. There
is a formula. We are not making stew. I am not trying to make stew
this morning. I am not just throwing in anything that I think tastes
good. There is a formula. I am trying to preach to you
the Word of God as the Word is declared in this book. The Lord
Jesus Christ according as God has set Him forth in this book. Bread is an exact formula, and
so it is as the Savior has preached to men. God the Holy Spirit has
prepared this heavenly bread exactly according to the will
of God. And be careful, the Lord said
to Moses, you go out and build that tabernacle, you be careful
to build it exactly according to the pattern that I showed
you in the map. And that same thing applies to
every preacher who stands behind this pulpit. You better be careful.
You better be careful how you set forth the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul wrote to the church at Corinth and told them, he said, I delivered
unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That He was buried
and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures. He was seen of His disciples
and He was seen of over 500 brethren at one time according to the
Scriptures. How do I know Jesus Christ is
the one sacrifice for sin? Because that's what it says.
That's what it says. Well, how do I know there isn't
other ways that man can be saved? Because that's what this book
says, that none other foundation, none other name under heaven
whereby we must be saved except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So you see what I'm saying? When we're talking about bread,
we're talking about an exact... It has to be done by a skillful
hand. God has to give somebody the talent to make this bread
and set it before men. It must be carefully prepared.
It's not something you just whip up in a minute. It takes care
of itself. And then fourthly, bread must
be eaten to render its true benefits. John chapter 6, verse 53. Listen to this. Except you eat
of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have
no life in you. Some of you here this morning
can recite the recipe. You know all the doctrines. You
know the truth when you hear it. But you've never eaten the
bread. Bread has to be eaten. Has to
be eaten. Look back at verses 35 and 36
of John chapter 6. He said, 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 you
also have seen me, and believe not. It's one thing to perish for
lack of bread. It's quite another to die because
we're too stiff-necked and too stubborn to eat it. I can't imagine. I know how my
wife must feel when we had all the children at home and she
worked for hours and hours and hours to fix something and the
kids looked at it and went, I want that. Can you imagine how a holy
God must look at men when the bread of His Son is set before
Him and they push it away? No wonder old Stephen said, you
stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart and ears, you do always
resist the Holy Ghost. What is it about this heavenly
bread that keeps you from eating? Ignorance, rebellion, traditional
misunderstanding, or lack of appetite. All those Israelites
sit out there and they said, our soul loatheth this light.
They didn't want that manor. They didn't want it. They sat
over there and dreamed about the old flesh pots back in Egypt. Dreamed about the leeks. You
know, I've been all up and down the vegetable counter. I love
vegetables. But I've never bought a leek. I don't want one. They just don't look appetizing
to me. But to an old rebel, that's all he remembers, them old leeks
back in Egypt. My soul. Oh, that the Holy Spirit Himself
would take these pitiful attempts to set this heavenly bread before
you and just allow you a glimpse, just a glimpse of the glory of
His Son. This bread was not given to be
eaten by worms or looked at on a table or put in a memorial
in a chest. This bread is to be eaten. That's
what He said. Eat this bread. And I just, I
can't imagine, I just can't imagine how it is when God sets this
bread before us and we don't want it. Peter said this, as
newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby, if so be you tasted. Oh, I tell you, if you tasted,
it's a different story. It's a different story. Or that
God would gently cause you to taste and make you willing in
the day of His power. And then fifthly, bread when
it's eaten becomes one with our person. Think about that. It's absorbed into the body and
used to sustain life. What is the hope of glory? Christ
in you. Isn't that what that says? Christ
in you. It's God, Paul said, who worketh
in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. And Paul said,
when you receive the Word of God which you heard of us, you
received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the
Word of God which affectionately worketh also in you that believe. Bread won't do you any good unless
you eat it. We go down every now and then
down to Shreveport and there's a place down there called Panera
Bread. And you go in there and up there
on the counter they got this real fancy bread and I don't
know how they do it to score it with a knife. It's just beautiful. It's a work of art sitting up
there. Just looks so good. Just looks like you can just
take it down and start eating. And we was over there the other
day and I bought one. I didn't like it at all. I just didn't
like it at all. A lot of times, that's what we
want to do. We just want to look at it. Look
at it. Here's the sixth thing. God so designed this bread that
it can be enjoyed by all. I don't care who you are or where
you come from. I don't care what your past is. I don't care what
your denominational preference is. If God be pleased to show
you His Son, you can eat that bread, can't you? Huh? You don't
have to be a Baptist to enjoy this bread. You just have to
be a believer. Verse 51, he said, The bread that I'll give is my
flesh which I'll give for the life of the world. Boy, that
turns Calvinists upside down on it. Huh? All this is saying
is whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, they're just one saving bread.
They're just one bread. There it is. For the whole world. He don't have a bread for Baptists
and one for Catholics and one for Jews. They're just one bread. Just one bread. None other name
given under heaven whereby we must be saved. But whether you're a Jew or a
Gentile, it doesn't make any difference. And this bread is
made available to all. There's nothing in your past
to prevent you from eating this bread. Abraham was a heathen idolater.
God called him out, and he ate this bread. Scripture said Jesus Christ is
the propitiation for our sins. which the man writing this was
a Jew. And he said, and not for ours only, but also for the sins
of the whole world. There's only one way. Christ
is the way. There's only one sacrifice for
sins. Christ is the sacrifice. And
I don't care what these other things are in your life. Christ
is the only way. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And then let me give you this
and I'll quit. If you're going to eat the bread
of God, you're going to have to stoop. God rained that manna
down. He didn't let it fall on trees.
He put it on the ground. You want my bread? Stoop down
there and get it. Stoop down there and get it.
It requires a stooping. First on the part of God. on
the part of God. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and took on
him the form of a servant and being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself and become obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. The condescension of Christ is
beyond our imagination. We have no inkling of what that
is for God. to robe Himself in human flesh
and come down here and allow men that He made to spit in His
face. Creator who formed all things
being formed in the womb of a woman. He who sitteth upon the circle
of the earth lying in a manger. Old Simeon holding that baby
in his arms, he said, I've seen thy salvation. There's a great stooping on the
part of God to provide this bread, and there's a stooping of man
if he's going to eat it. God didn't cause his manner to
be up here, up high somewhere. He laid his man on the ground.
And the proud, self-righteous Pharisee will never gather this
bread. He won't do it. It's beneath him. It must be
received from the preaching of common men. Oh, we ain't going
to have that, are we? Huh? We're just not going to
have that. You will if you want God's bread. I came not with
excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the testimony
of God, not with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the spirit and power, so that your faith should
not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. What
was required of Israel to gather manna is to go where God was
pleased to provide his heavenly bread. And all you had to bring
was an empty box, just an empty container. And I tell you, if
you're going to gather his bread, you're going to go where God
lays his bread down, where the bread is. And the only thing
you can bring when you come to gather this bread is an empty
vessel. But I tell you this, on the authority
of God's Word, every man who brings an empty vessel into that
house will leave with it filled. Everybody went out in that wilderness
to gather that manna. I don't know how much manna there
was, but it was enough to fill every empty vessel there. And
they took it home. And I tell you this, it was enough
to provide them with everything they needed until it was time
to gather it again. I'm the bread, he said. I'm the
bread. And except you eat of my flesh
and drink of my blood, you have no life in you. God help us to
see that and lead us to Christ.