If you turn to John 6 please,
and to verse 27. We read from John 6, 27 to 29. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for the 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. Jesus answered and said unto
them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent. And the first thing I'd say about
this verse, verse 29, and this statement of Christ unto the
Jews here, that this is the work of God that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent, is that this is the work of God, not the work
of man. It is God that brings us to believe
on him whom he has sent, even Jesus Christ. It is not man who brings us to
pass but God. And yet how vital a thing this
is that we believe on him whom he hath sent. How vital, how
vital is faith, how vital is belief on the Son of God that
we might be saved. There is no salvation without
faith. There is no salvation if we do
not believe. There is no entering of heaven
with unbelief. Though countless multitudes in
this world walk their way backwards, as it were, to that day in which
they enter eternity, and though countless multitudes deceive
themselves into thinking that either there is no God and that
when their life closes, their existence ceases to be, or if
there is a God and in fear they have to accept that perhaps there
is they cannot tell but if there is a God then surely he's a God
of love and surely I'm not so bad surely I've lived a pretty
good life and if there is a heaven that's where I'm heading and
despite a life of utter unbelief despite the fact that they've
lived throughout their ages they've lived their 10 score years and
10 perhaps they've lived their life living for self living for
pleasure living for their own gain and their own riches they've
lived without a thought of God yet they kid themselves that
if there is a God they'll be going into his heaven. We're not born believing. We're
not born with faith. If there's one thing that characterizes
the heart of the natural man, it is a natural unbelief in the
truth of God. The heart rejects the gospel. the heart rejects him whom God
has sent. And if our hearts reject him
whom he has sent, if my heart rejects him whom God has sent,
if your heart rejects him whom God has sent, if you or I remain
in utter unbelief, then there is no promise in this book There
is no promise from God. There is no promise of salvation.
There is a sure and certain judgment to come for what we have done.
as those whom God has put upon this world, as those whom God
has created and sustained throughout our lifetime, as those whom God
has fed and watered, as He fed and watered the Israelites of
old, as they journeyed from Egypt to the promised land. Here Christ
in this passage speaks to the Jews. They say that their fathers
did eat manna in the desert, and they did, and it was God
that gave it to them. and yet in unbelief the majority
perished. That's our reward if we remain
in unbelief. God judges fairly. If we live
in sin, if we live for self, if we ignore God, if we think
not of him, if we worship him not, If he's not in our minds
each and every day, if we think of our own things and not God's
things, then there is a judging and a reckoning to come. He will
say, why did you not? Why did you not come unto me? Why did you not pray unto me? Why did you not give thanks unto
me for all that I gave you freely? Did I not provide your food?
Then where was the thanks? Did I not provide your drink?
Then where was the thanks? Did I not shelter you? Did I
not watch over you? Did I not keep death and illness
from your door? When illness came did I not send
healing? Have I not prospered you throughout
your lifetime? Where was the thanks? How we can think to stand before
such a God with a life like this and with a heart of unbelief
and think that such a God will say, here's your reward, heaven,
glory to come. I do not know. And yet countless
multitudes, not just the irreligious but those even who are deceived
by that religion which is so prevalent and so foolish as to
tell sinners, dead in sins, who've never sought God, who've never
believed on his son, that heaven is theirs if they but do this
or but do that. There is that religion that buries
multitudes and says a prayer over their gravestone and deceives
their relatives that stand alongside looking at the coffin that this
one laid in the grave will be with Christ in glory. Despite
the fact that the one laid in the grave never set foot in church
never read their Bible, never sought God, mocked and scoffed
at the gospel and at his son. And yet countless are deceived
to think that all will be well in the end. Man's heart does not believe. Man is not born believing. Man
is not born with faith. Man is not born inclined to believe,
neither you nor me. Man's works and man's will stand
in stark and opposite contrast to the work of God that's expressed
in this verse. The work of God is that ye might
believe on him whom he hath sent. This is what God does. He doesn't
leave sinners in their natural state. He hasn't looked upon
this earth that's turned and rebelled against him and destroyed
it in order to start again. He hasn't said of Adam and Eve
in the garden when they disobeyed and turned against his word.
that I will just cast you straight into hell. And he has not looked
upon this world of rebellion and evil and said it will be
cast into hell I will burn it all up and I will create a new
race. Now he has looked on in compassion. He has looked upon those who
have hated him and has set his love upon them. He has looked
upon those who have gone after their own will and he has said
that my will is that they will be with me forevermore. He has
looked upon those who are sinful and unrighteous and said I will
take these and blot away their sins and make them righteous
and cause their will to be turned that they might look unto me
and be saved. He has looked upon those who
cast scorn in his face, and said, Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do. Christ, when he was nailed upon
the tree, when he felt the pain of death coming upon him, and
when he heard the mob gathered around the cross, scorning him,
deriding him, laughing at him, That mob that had cried out,
crucify him, crucify him. That mob that said, if you're
the son of God, then call down a legion of angels that they
might deliver you. Look at the fool. Look how he
suffers. He claims to be God and yet he
dies. How they hated, how they despised. And yet he looked down upon them.
and said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. This
is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. God is a God who delights in
showing mercy. He is a God of grace. He is a
God of life. He is a God of salvation. He
is a God who sent his Son into this world of darkness, that
his Son might die, that the dead might live. He is a God who loves
those who only hated him. He is a God of grace. Man's works and man's will by
nature the opposite whereas the work of God is that you might
believe the work of man is that you should not believe the will
of man is that you should not believe both our own hearts say
I will not believe and the hearts of those around us say don't
believe don't they don't they? Man's work is to turn away from
God not to turn to God. Man's will is to reject God not
to receive God. Man's heart is to despise God
not to love God. Isn't it? Where do you hear in
the media? Where do you hear in the government? Where do you hear from the man
on the street? The great swell of opinion that
says, believe God, believe in Jesus Christ. The answer to the
world's troubles are to be found in Christ and his gospel. When
the government throws up its hands in despair at the economic
crisis that comes upon the nation, When it sees the poverty in the
world, when it sees the ruin of illness and disaster, when
it sees the violence and the wars, where does it turn for
its answers? Do you hear the government saying,
these things have come upon us because we as a people have turned
from God? let us seek unto this God that
he might reward us not according to our iniquity but that he might
have mercy upon us but that he might send help in our need but
that he might bring deliverance from the tragedy which we ourselves
have got ourselves into. Where do you hear the voice in
the government that says this? and where do you hear on the
media on the television the voice that says happiness is not to
be found in the foolishness of this world happiness is not to
be found in winning the lottery happiness is not to be found
in riches for it's not Where do you hear the voice of truth
in the media saying God's word is true and true happiness and
salvation and peace is to be found in Christ and his gospel.
Where do you find the wise men in the media and the wise men
in the government leading the nations to that which will bring
them hope. Where do you find these wise
men saying, believe in him whom God has sent? For there is hope
and there is truth, there is peace and there is salvation
and there alone We have been fools, we have gone astray and
we have led you astray. Turn unto God. You don't, do
you? You don't hear this voice amongst
them anywhere. There may be a lone one or two
in the cabinet of the government who do believe on Jesus Christ.
There may be a lone one or two who work in the media, who try
to sound a different note, who try to encourage their colleagues
to tone down the filth and the rubbish and to put out a voice
of reason amongst all the chaos. There may be the odd isolated
voice in the cabinet that says the trouble we're in is because
we as a nation have turned from God. Let us turn unto Him. But though there may be the ones
and twos, their voices drowned out by the foolish majority,
who in their foolishness, as Romans 1 tells us, who in their
supposed wisdom have become fools. For though they are fools, they
think they are wise. And yet their wisdom leads themselves
and all who follow them into everlasting ruin and death. The
wisdom of the wisest men in this world leads to a world full of
war, full of violence, full of poverty, full of hate, full of
malice. 2,000 years since Christ. Thousands of years from before
Christ. Nations rise up, nations collapse. People rise up, people are scattered. great philosophers from the ancient
days of Greece and onwards have said this is the way to utopia and yet the violence and the
chaos and the hate and the death and the illness and the poverty
are with us still. Is this simply because everyone
hasn't caught on to the wise message of these sages And when
everyone comes to see the light as each of these have done then
everything will work out well. Or is this because their message
is alive from the start? It's because the message is alive
from the start. And because the message of truth
which will bring an answer, the message of truth which does bring
life and deliverance is that we should believe on him whom
God have sent and it is the work of God and
it is the voice of God and the message of God that comes forth
and speaks in this world of darkness through a voice here and a voice
there that cries out in this wilderness believe on him whom
God have sent And all around there are these
voices that say, do not believe. Do not believe. There is the
work and there is the will of God. And there is the work and
there is the will of man. And they cannot be reconciled.
The work and the will of man's natural heart stands in opposition. It hates Christ and it hates
his gospel. The will of man is not belief
but unbelief. It rejects God, it never chooses
God. Many who say they believe on
Jesus may say, well I chose him. I heard of Jesus, I wanted something
better in my life and I accepted him into my heart, did I not
choose? Was that not my will? If it was, it was a will which
God had changed to call upon his son. For none is born looking
unto Christ. None is born willing to believe. None is born who receives the
one whom God hath sent. The natural heart of man turns
from the gospel. The heart of man worships not
God, it worships self. We aren't born believing. We may contend, well I've believed
many things. I've always believed that there
is a God. I know many in this world tell
us today that there isn't and I know many tell us that this
world is just an accident came out of some big bang when some
gases which came from nowhere suddenly exploded. I know they
tell us these things and these explosions led on to other explosions
and worlds came out of nothing and creatures developed. And I know this is prevalent
and I hear it every day in the media in these natural history
programs they make. This is taught in the schools.
I know that but I've never really, I've never really believed that. yet you're telling me that by
nature I don't believe what I've never accepted that I've always
I've always recognized there's a God there must be I look out
upon this world I look out under the heavens and it's obvious
that this is created There might be many fools today who were
taken in by this spin of the media and of the scientists that
tell them that it came from nothing. From no creator. But I've never
bought that. I've never accepted that. I'm
not so foolish. I know there's a God. And no
one taught me to believe that there's a God. So how can you
say that man's heart doesn't believe? Well I agree. There are many
in this world who know and believe that there is a creator and that
there is a God. And from their birth, as it were,
they've grown up believing that. They have. They'd be a fool if
they didn't. And the scriptures tell us that
many will believe this. For it tells us in Romans 1 verse
20 that the invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that
are made, us, even his eternal power and Godhead. Creation witnesses
to the fact that there is a creator. The world and the universe around
us point us to His eternal power and Godhead, so that we are without
excuse. We should know that there is
a God, and many do. Heard this week of some tribes,
we often hear from time to time that there are these tribes in
Brazil, in the Amazon, in these dark forests, which have yet
to be discovered by the outside world. There are still these
tribes living in isolation. And one thing you'll always find
with these tribes, whenever they are discovered by the outside
world, whenever people do go and talk to these tribes throughout
the ages, they've always found a people that recognize that
there's a creator. They've always found a people
that know that there is a God of some sort. None of these tribes
from the existence of the world, none of these people have ever
said that there is no God. None of them have ever come up
with an idea like evolution or the Big Bang. It takes wise men
like scientists to come up with something so absurd. But natural man, aware of a spiritual
world, kept away from such foolishness,
always recognises that there's a God. So we have no excuse for
not believing that. That's what we should believe.
But that is not the belief that Christ talks of in John chapter
6. where he speaks this is the work
of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent we could and
we should believe that there is a God that there is a creator
that this world is not the end that there is life after death
all these things are so and many religions recognize it the question
is whether we believe on him whom God has sent And that is
what we don't believe by nature. That's what these tribes don't
believe. That's what many others don't
believe. There are many religions in this world. All of which have
originated throughout history. They have gradually become corruptions
really of the truth as it was in the beginning. There was one
man and one woman created at the beginning. They knew God. They had children. They knew
God. The people multiplied and multiplied,
generation after generation. Some continued to worship the
true and the living God. Some turned away from Him. As
nations turned away, they corrupted the religion they had from the
beginning, and the knowledge of the truth, and they twisted
it and they altered it. Islam, if you study it, will
have certain things in parallel with Christianity. Of course
it does. History is the same. All of these
religions will tell you of an account of a flood. It's not
because it's a common myth. It's because it's true and they
all record what happened. They all originated from the
descendants in the world after the flood. Islam recognizes that
there was a person called Jesus Christ. A great prophet. They just don't receive him and
believe on him as the one that God sent as his son. There are many brands of Christianity
today. Most of which are based on this
book. and many followers of many different
variations of Christianity, many corruptions of Christianity will
believe and say many things. Yet when it comes to believing
truly in Christ and his gospel and his message as he declares
it here throughout the rest of John chapter six, they come to the latter verses and they
say this is a hard saying who can hear it. Many therefore of his Christ's
disciples those who were with him, those who heard him, those
who believed there was a God, who believed there was a creator,
who believed that they should be right with God, those who
heard Jesus and his gospel, those who heard him say many true and
wise things, those who saw a great worth in him and his message,
those who followed him, heard what he had to say in John chapter
6, and said this is a hard saying. We can go so far, we can believe
so much, but not that. Doth this offend you, Christ
says? What, and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up
where he was before? Are you offended at this? They
were. From that time many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Why? What was so offensive in what
he had to say in this chapter? Primarily the fact that it is
the work of God that you believe on him whom he have sent. The
Jews were very religious He came here to a people who were religious.
Who had a lot of knowledge of truth. They weren't completely
rejecting these things. They'd heard the law of Moses.
They recognised that there is right and wrong. They knew that
there is such a thing as sin. They didn't contend against that.
They didn't say that they were good. They knew that they were
sinful like everyone. They knew they should be good. Came to a religious people. And yet at heart, they felt that
they were the ones who would follow God because they would
follow. They said unto Christ, what shall
we do that we might work the works of God? Tell us what we
should do. You tell us what we will do and
we will do it. We'll be better than others.
We want to be saved, we want to be right, we'll do it. We
just need to know what we must do and we'll do it. Tell us what
we should do that we might work the works of God. But Christ cuts across them and
says that the work of God is that ye should believe. And it's
his work, not yours. Your will and your work is set
against him and you by nature will not come unto him and you
will not serve him and you will not believe on him. Your fathers
had manna in the desert, they walked before God, he fed them,
he preserved them, yet they did not believe. They saw the miracles
Yet they did not believe. You say unto me, they say after
this, they say unto him, what sign showest thou then that we
may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? They wanted
a great sign. Show us the miracles, Christ,
and we'll believe. Well, we know that Christ performed
many miracles, caused the water to become wine, He walked upon
the waters. He made the blind to see, the
deaf to hear, the lame to walk. He spake unto Lazarus, dead in
the grave, and Lazarus came to life. And these that spake unto
him, these disciples, many of them saw many of these things. They saw the miracles. They saw
signs. yet they turned away from him.
From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more
with him. Miracles won't make us believe. Signs and wonders won't make
us believe. There are those that claim to
be Christian who have much to say about signs and wonders. They try to validate their message
in the eyes of a sensationalized world by showing them signs and
wonders. They think that they will get
their converts if they have their healing meetings. And if they
can show a God that does wondrous things then people will believe
and follow. Yet the reality is that Christ
used no tricks. He did do miracles of an order
that these modern pretenders could never even aspire to. And
yet many saw these miracles and turned away. It's not miracle
signs and wonders that will cause you to believe. is the work of
God not ours the work of God and
the trouble is you see this work begins where we don't like it
because if we're ever to believe on the Christ that came into
this world son of God if we're ever to believe on him and know
his life then we must believe that he
died and if we believe that he died we must believe why he died because of the sins of his people. He did not die because a mob
took him and had the Romans crucify him. He did not die to be a martyr,
a figurehead, an example. He did not die to show us that
it's good to suffer. He did not die to show us this
wondrous picture, though it is But that's not why, he did not
die to show us his wondrous picture of suffering for others. He died because of sin. He died because he came to save
and the only way to save is if the sin of those whom he would
save was taken away. God sent him He was sent that
he should save his people from their sins. In order that he
should bring that people unto God, he must bring that people
unto his God as a righteous people. As a righteous people. For the
one who sent him is righteous. The one who sent him is perfect
and holy. and he cannot have one speck
or blemish of sin in his presence. If this God accepted us with
our sin if salvation was merely a forgiveness based upon a turning
of a blind eye all right then I recognize you're a sinner I
recognize you can't help yourselves Strive as you may to be good
you just get worse and worse. Never mind. just try your best
not to and we'll pretend it's not there. If that's the sort
of salvation that God had for us where he just says I will
not punish sin I'll be a sort of tolerant parent that looks
upon a child who is rebellious and pretends their rebellion
isn't there and hopes it will go away and hopes all will turn
out well in the end. If that's the sort of God that
God is, then I can tell you what sort of place his heaven would
be. It would be hell. For the cause of hell would be
in his heaven. Sin would remain. The anger,
the violence, the malice that besets this evil world would
still be there. And all there would be would
be a promise of death to come. but this is a God that promises
salvation and life to come and if so then salvation and life
must depend upon righteousness if that heaven that he promises
for his own if that bread from heaven if that life from heaven
if that water from heaven brings a people into heaven then that
heaven must be a place of righteousness. And if it's a place of righteousness,
then entrance into that heaven must depend upon righteousness.
And if it depends upon righteousness, then the one whom God hath sent
came to bring in righteousness for those whom God causes to
believe on him. To bring in righteousness. He
came from heaven not to do his own will but the will of him
that sent him. We're born doing our own will.
What was the will of him that sent him? It was that he should
suffer and die for his own, that he should take their sin away,
that he might make them righteous and that they might not die.
but that all those who believe on him may have everlasting life
and he will raise them up at the last day. The will of the
father that sent him was that all which he have given me of
all which he have given me I should lose nothing but should raise
it up again at the last day the father said to his son here's
a multitude here are their names go and save them go and suffer
for their sins I will destroy their sins in you that they might
have life in you and the father's will was accomplished This is
the will of Him that sent me that everyone which seeth the
Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life and I will
raise him up at the last day. That's the Father's will that
Christ accomplished for He took away every one of their sins,
of every one that the Father gave Him. that every one of them
might believe on him and have everlasting life and that every
one of them might be risen up in him at the last day. The Jews
who heard this murmured at him. They said, he says he's the bread
that came down from heaven. We know he's a man, how can he
come down from heaven? Yet Christ declares that no,
I am God. No man has seen the Father. but
through me. No man can come to me except
the father which hath sent me draw him. And none have seen the father
except they see me. I am that bread of life. I am. Your fathers ate bread in the
wilderness and are dead. But if you eat my bread, if you
eat me, and if you drink my blood, then you shall have everlasting
life. if ye shall eat the flesh of
the son of man and drink his blood ye shall have everlasting
life this is a hard saying they say indeed it is what sort of
a mystery is this? well he does not speak literally
of course but to eat his flesh and to drink his blood is to
look under him upon that cross And to see his blood shed as
the judgment of God took away our sins, if we are his. And to drink that blood which
forgives us our sins. And to eat his flesh is to know
that in his flesh he took away our sin, that nature, that evil
heart that's in us that causes us to sin. He took it away, it
was destroyed. he blotted it out and if we eat
that flesh we have no more sin but righteousness. When we believe
on him we eat his flesh and drink his blood and in so doing we
have life evermore. A hard saying. Who can hear it? Who can hear it? None. Our flesh
rejects it, our flesh, our natural state, our natural being, the
flesh. We need the Spirit of God within
us to accept this, to receive it, to believe it. And the Spirit
of God is not within us by nature but we are dead in the flesh,
we are dead in trespasses and sins. And yet it is the work
of God that ye believe. For it is the Spirit of God,
as Christ says in verse 63, that quickeneth, that brings to life,
that quickens, that takes that which is dead and makes it live.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. When I speak, you shall live. When he comes in this message
in the gospel, when he comes unto those who are dead and unbelieving
as we by nature are dead and unbelieving when he comes like
unto us who in the flesh reject and he comes in his spirit and
declares this gospel this gospel of him and who he is and what
he's done this gospel that none can come unto him except the
father draw them This gospel that he came to do the father's
will, that he died, that he should save all those that the father
gave him. This gospel that he died and
rose again. This gospel that should you drink
his blood and eat his flesh, the bread of his flesh, that
you shall have everlasting life. This gospel, if you should believe
this, then you should have life. and he comes in the spirit of
God, and he comes in the gospel, he comes preaching the gospel,
and when he comes in power, those who hear, believe. Those who hear, believe. For it is the work of God that
ye believe on him, Jesus Christ, whom God hath sent. Many did
not believe, they went back. Christ said unto the twelve,
he said unto a few, he says unto us here, will you like the multitudes,
will you also go away, will you? Yet there was one whom God worked
upon in the heart, there was one who said otherwise, perhaps
you like him will say otherwise too, Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? Can you say that? Lord, to whom
shall I go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. We believe
and are sure. that thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. Do you believe? Are you sure? If you do, then it's because
of the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. Amen.