John Chapter 6. I'd like to read
verses 52 and 53 of John Chapter 6. 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." Did you know, and some of you
were raised this way. Did you know that hundreds of
millions of people believe that this is literal? That when you take the Lord's
table, when you take what they would call communion or the sacrament
is what some call it, they say it actually literally turns into
the blood of Christ. You drink that wine and it turns
into his blood. And when you're eating that bread,
It supernaturally turns into the actual body of Jesus Christ
so that you literally, through this supernatural process called
transubstantiation, you literally eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood. Now, you can call it a fancy
name like transubstantiation or It's also called by some,
consubstantiation. That means it's only when believers
take the Lord's table that does that. It doesn't work for unbelievers,
but only believers. When they take the Lord's table,
it literally turns into the flesh and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I don't want to be crude, but what that really is, is cannibalism. It's cannibalism. And that's
all it is. Now the question is, what does
the Savior mean by this? When he says, except you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. What does the Savior mean? Verse
52, the Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How
can this man give us his flesh to eat? And I understand them
asking this question. They took this literally. They
didn't know how else to take it. He said, you're going to
have to eat my flesh and drink my blood to have life. He said,
how are we going to eat his flesh? I can understand him asking that
question. And the Lord does not reply while I was speaking metaphorically.
He doesn't say that at all. As a matter of fact, he reemphasizes
what he said. Then Jesus said, and then barely,
barely I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Now what in the world does he
mean? That's strong language, isn't
it? You've got to eat my flesh and drink my blood. That's strong
language. What does he mean? Look in verse 47. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Now look back in verse 30. of
John chapter 6. Then said they therefore unto
him, What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe?
What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. As it's written, he gave them
bread from heaven to eat. Now they're saying, now yes,
it's true. You created bread at this time. This is a remarkable
miracle. You created bread and fed 5,000
people. But what Moses did was more impressive.
He fed millions of people with bread that came down from heaven
for 40 years. Now that's what he did. How are
you going to match that? And our Lord says in verse 32,
then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. You've misunderstood this. He
says in verse 33, the bread of God. is he which cometh down
from heaven and giveth life unto the world." Now you know he's
speaking of himself. I'm the one who came down from
heaven and I give life unto the world. They were interested in
this. They said, then said to him, Lord have the Lord give
us this bread. And 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,
I want you to think about what our Lord says here. He says,
I am the bread of life. Coming to Him and believing on
Him are the same thing. And in coming to Him, you won't
hunger. And in believing on Him, you
won't be thirsty. That's what He says. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. What do you have to do to not
be hungry? You have to eat. What do you have to do to not
be thirsty? You have to drink. Eating and drinking Christ represents
faith in Christ. That's what this is all about.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now eating and drinking is what
is absolutely necessary to preserve life, isn't it? And you can think
of situations where if you were in the right climate, you could
get by without shelter. We talk about shelter being a
necessity of life. You could get by without shelter.
And there are situations where you could get by without clothing.
There are tribes and cultures and so on that walk around without
clothing, and it's not a necessity of life. But one thing you have
to have to live is eating and drinking. You cannot live without
eating and drinking. It's absolutely necessary for
life. Now, in eating and drinking,
you're taking into yourself something which exists externally. It's not part of you, but you're
taking something into yourself, and it becomes a part of you. You receive it to yourself and
it becomes part of you. It is what makes you live. You are what you eat. You've
all heard that saying. You are what you eat. What you
eat becomes what you are and what you are is what you eat
and drink. Now it is only what you eat and
drink that you can't lose. What you eat and drink literally
actually becomes a part of you, doesn't it? Now, you can have
a wad of money in your pocket, and it might be a lot of money,
but you can lose that, can't you? You can lose it. As a matter
of fact, everything you've got externally, outside of your body,
you can lose. This is the one thing you can't
lose. When you eat something, it becomes
part of you. It actually becomes part of your
body. You are what you eat. When you drink something, it
becomes part of you. Now eating is necessary. You
know, you may know the ingredients of the food. You might know all
about what it's made of and what it'll do for you if you eat,
but it'll only do you good. It'll only benefit you if what?
If you eat it. And take it into yourself. Eating
is necessary. And eating is responding to a
felt need. Why do you eat? Because you're
hungry. Because the food tastes good.
There's two reasons you eat. The food tastes good and because
you're hungry. And nobody can eat for you. You
must eat yourself. You must eat the flesh of the
Son of Man. He must become part of you. You eat that which dwells outside
of you. You can't feed off yourself,
can you? If you have to feed off yourself,
what will you end up doing? You'll die. You must feed off that which
comes outside of you. And you eat it and it becomes
part of you. You drink it and it becomes part
of you. This represents faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now back to verse 47. He says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath
everlasting life. If you believe on me, you're
eating and drinking me and you have everlasting life. Now, when
he's talking about this, he's not talking about the Lord's
table. The Lord's table had not yet been instituted. You know
that the Lord's table was not instituted until the night before
he died, was it? What he's doing is giving us
a beautiful and simple illustration of what faith in Christ is. It's
eating him and it's drinking him. It's eating his flesh and
it's drinking his blood. He says in verse 48, I am that
bread of life. I am the bread that ye eat by
faith and have eternal life. He's bread. I am the bread of
life. Now, what happens, what has to
happen in order for bread to be fit for human consumption?
Well, it has to be ground, the wheat has to be ground into powder
and then it's put into an oven and baked and roasted and then
it's fit for human consumption. And that's what our Lord is to
us. He was ground under the wrath of God. He was baked under the
wrath of God. And now he's the best of all
bread. He is the best meal. He is the
bread of life. He says in verse 49, your fathers
did eat manna in the wilderness. And they're dead. Now they ate
that bread that came down from heaven, and I love reading about
that, that manna that came down from heaven. Can you imagine
what that must have been like? I mean, every morning they get
up and there the bread is. They're just together enough
for that one day, not two days' worth, just one day. If they
tried to gather extra, what would it do? It would breed worms and
it would stink. It just had to be bread for that
one day, which represents faith in Christ. But he said, your
fathers ate of that bread that came down from heaven, and what
happened to them? They died. It did not keep them alive. Verse 50, this is the bread which
cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not
die. You eat of this bread, me, the
one who came down from heaven, you will not die. Now, you'll
die physically. You'll die physically, but you
will not die spiritually. You won't go to hell. You will
not be condemned. You will live eternally in fellowship
with God in the bliss of heaven. Now that interests me. I want
to eat of this bread, don't you? For myself, I desperately want
to eat of this bread, whatever it means to eat the flesh of
the Son of Man and drink his blood. I want to do it, don't
you? In the next verse, he tells us
how this can be, that we can eat of this bread and not die.
He says in verse 51, 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'll give is my flesh,
which I will give for the life of the world. Now man was bread
that came down from heaven, and you still ended up dying if you
ate it, but you will not die. You will have eternal life. You will have the very life of
God in your soul if you eat of this bread. This bread will become
what you are. As what you eat becomes you. This bread, if you eat this bread
by faith, it will become what you are. And he says, the bread
that I give is my flesh, which I give for the life of the world.
It's through his death that the world has life. This is where
my life comes from. This everlasting life he's talking
about. This eternal life that makes
me live before God. That makes me one with the Lord
Jesus Christ. His flesh that He gave. It's
His death. Turn with me for a moment to
1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. Verse 1, My little children,
these things write I unto you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, And that could just as easily
be and perhaps should be translated when you sin. When you sin. It says we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. Isn't that precious?
When I sin, I think the way we naturally think, well, I need
to make things better. I need to repent and I need to be sorry
for my sin and I need to straighten this out. No. When you sin, we
already have. that advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ, the righteous. Look what it says in verse 2.
And He is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only,
but also for the sins of the whole world. Now, what does this
word propitiation mean? It's a big word. It's not a word
we normally use. What does it mean? He is the
propitiation for our sins. It means literally and appeasement. God is appeased, and that means
the reason for God's anger has been removed by the death of
Christ. When he says, I give my flesh
for the life of the world, in giving his flesh to be a propitiation
for sins, the reason for God's anger has been removed. Now,
what is the reason for God's anger? There's only one answer
to that question, isn't there? Sin. Sin. The reason for God's anger by
the death of Christ, by him giving his flesh for the life of the
world, by his perfect life and his shed blood and his resurrection,
it produced the propitiation of sins. That means that may
God give us grace to really believe what I'm getting ready to say.
His blood didn't simply make a covering for my sin. But the
sin is still there underneath it. Didn't do that at all. My sin's gone. There's no reason
for God's anger. God doesn't have a reason to
be mad at me because my sin has been taken away. I don't have
it. It's more than just covered up. It's more than disannulled.
I don't even use that word. Sin is disannulled. You've read
of like marriages being disannulled. You know, somebody got married
and it didn't work out in the first couple of weeks and oh
boy, let's just act like this didn't happen. And they disannul
it. They say, well, it's like it
never happened. Yeah, it did. Yeah, it did. It's still there.
You can't disannul it. You got married. You got married.
I don't care if it only lasts two seconds. You don't just disannul
the death of Christ. He doesn't just disannul our
sins like they're not there anymore. They're gone. There's nothing there. Now believe
that, every believer believe that before God right now. You
have no sin. There's nothing for God to be
angry with you about. There's nothing for him to be
mad at you about. There's nothing for him to be
displeased with you about. You are perfect in Christ Jesus. Your sin is propitiated. It's
God. There is nothing there. Isn't
that wonderful? I can't think of anything that rejoices my
heart more than this, and I really believe this. I believe what
I'm saying. My sin has been propitiated,
it's been washed away. No sin. No sin. There isn't anything more wonderful
than that that I know of. I mean, there isn't anything
more wonderful than that. To have your sins washed away
by the blood of Christ. Now, He is the propitiation.
for our sins, it's through His death that this world has life. That's what the Bible calls justification. Justification. If you justify,
that means you're not guilty. Not guilty. Being justified freely
by His grace, the Scripture says, through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. Now, it says He's the propitiation
for our sins, verse 2. And not for ours only, but also
for the sins of the whole world. I preached a message last week
on TV, and I made the statement, Jesus Christ did not die for
the sins of everybody. He did not die for every individual
to ever live. And he didn't. He didn't. Then I got a letter from somebody
And they quoted this verse, 1 John chapter 2, verse 2. What are
you going to do with that? Here's the propitiation for our
sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the
whole world. Well, that's not... You know, let's put it this way. If he did die for the sins of
everybody to ever live, this verse would be useless and meaningless.
I mean, of course he died for everybody, but what this is talking
about is he didn't die just for us Jews only, but also the Gentiles. Not just for the blacks, but
for the whites. Not just for the educated, but
for the uneducated. There's no class distinction. He died for all men without distinction. Now, he didn't die for all men
without exception. Now, if he died for me and I end up in hell,
what good does blood can do me? Not a bit, he wouldn't do me
a bit of good. No, he put away the sins of everybody he died
for. And my friends, that's gospel to me. It's the gospel and it's
my gospel. This is good news to me. He put
away the sins of his people. He died for all kinds of men. And talking about the death of
Christ only being for the elect, don't look at that in any way
as, well, a discouragement it's it opens the door of mercy wide
open this is the most wonderful thing that there's room for you
there's room for you this this doesn't discourage people this
encourages people there's there's a complete salvation that's in
Christ Jesus our Lord here's the propitiation for our sins
and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world
now let's go back to our text in John chapter six Verse 51, 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'll give is my flesh,
which I'll give for the life of the world. Okay, verse 52,
the Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this
man give us his flesh to eat? Now, you put yourself in their
place. Wouldn't you be asking the same question? I mean, here
this man sits there and tells me, I give my flesh for the life
of the world, and they hadn't seen the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They didn't really have any understanding of what he
was saying. All they could understand was how we can eat his flesh. That doesn't make sense. I understand
them asking this question, but our Lord does not answer them
by saying, well, you need to understand what I meant. I was
speaking in metaphor and type and illustration. No, he says
in verse 53, Then Jesus said unto them, 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 raise him up at the
last day, for my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed." Do you know what that means? Do you find that true
concerning you? When he says, my flesh is the
real food, my blood is the real drink. It's more real than this
physical food and this physical drink. It's the real thing. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. Now, what is meant by his flesh
and blood? Why this distinction? He talks about eating his flesh
and drinking his blood. Well, his flesh is his incarnation. John 1.14, that's a big word.
It simply means Christ became flesh. The Word, John 1, 14,
the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son of God, was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And what did He do in the flesh?
He kept the Law of God perfectly. He never had a sinful thought.
He never had a sinful word. He never had a sinful deed. He
never had a sinful desire. He kept the law of God absolutely
perfectly. That's what he did in the flesh. He performed the righteousness
of God. And except you eat this flesh,
and he becomes part of you, an actual reliance upon his flesh. I'm relying on his flesh, his
obedience. That perfect obedience that he
worked out, that obedience is my standing before God. That's
my righteousness before God. If you don't eat his flesh by
faith and draw your life from him, you have no life in you.
You're dead in sins. That person who has eternal life
is that one who draws his life from his flesh. Now, his blood
represents his death. Life comes through his death.
His blood is the real drink. His blood. His blood actually makes me perfectly holy before
God. And I believe that. That just blows me away to think
what His blood does for me. His flesh is the real meat. His blood is the real drink. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. Now, if you eat His flesh and
drink His blood, and that's faith in Him, you have eternal life. It doesn't say in eating His
flesh and drinking His blood, you'll get eternal life. No.
Why do you eat His flesh and drink His blood? Because you
have eternal life. Now understand this, it takes
eternal life to do what I'm talking about doing. It takes the life
of God in your soul. You have to have the life of
God. God's got to do something for
you. Now, I've said this before, but it bears repeating. What
comes first? Life or faith? You know, some
people present, if you have faith, then you'll have life. Now, wait
a minute. What comes first, life or faith? You have to have life
before you can have faith. Logically. Isn't that so? But
chronologically, and this is part of the mystery of the gospel,
chronologically, as far as time goes, they come at the precise
same time. When you believe, you have life. It's mysterious, but I like it
this way. Except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. But
what he says in verse 54, Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at that
last day." And the last day speaks of the day of judgment. You'll
be raised up and accepted and justified and perfect in Christ
Jesus. Y'all are looking at a bunch
of people right now, and you're a good looking congregation.
You're a good looking, you really are. This is a nice looking congregation,
but you ain't nothing compared to what you're going to be. You're
going to be raised up in perfect likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to raise you up at
the last day. You're going to be perfect before God. You are
perfect before God, and you're going to experience it and enter
into that at that time. He says, I'll raise you up at
the last day. Verse 55, For my flesh is meat indeed. And my
blood is drink indeed. Do you find His flesh and blood,
His righteousness and His sacrifice as the true meat and the true
drink? Is that what His flesh and blood
are to you? The true meat? What you really live off of?
Is His flesh and His blood enough to raise you up at that last
day and you really believe that? I'm not, bless God, I'm not looking
to any works of my own. I'm really not. He is my life
before God. He said, because I live, you
shall live also. I find this as life to my soul. Verse 56, he says, he that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. Now eating his flesh and drinking
his blood is faith. That's what it is. Faith. Faith
in Christ. You find your life from eating
his flesh and drinking his blood. And faith is the evidence of
union with Christ, because look what he says in verse 56. He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood. Look at this phrase.
He dwelleth in me. And I in him. Now, there's only one way that
I can be in him and that he can actually be in me. And that's
if I'm one with him. That's what union with Christ
is, is being one with Him. I'm in Him. That means wherever
He is, I am. If He did it, I did it too. Where He goes, I go because I'm
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm in Him by representation.
He's my representative. I'm in Him by this living, vital
union that's just mysterious and glorious, but it's true.
Like the vine and the branches. The head and the body. What a
living, vital union. I'm in Him and He's in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, if you're a believer, you
believe, don't you? I don't believe for you. Your
wife, your husband doesn't believe for you. You yourself believe
and you know as sure as you look at me right now that the reason
you believe is because of Christ in you. I live, yet not I. But Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave Himself for me. Me in Christ and Christ in me. Now, the evidence of me in Christ
and Christ in me, the evidence of union with Christ, is faith. What is the evidence that Christ
really dwells in my heart? What's the evidence that I really
am in Him union exists. What is the evidence? I eat his
flesh and I drink his blood. And I'm doing it right now. And
isn't it a beautiful illustration of what faith is?
You take this food, you take it in your mouth, you eat it,
it becomes part of you, you cannot lose it. You can't lose it. The two become one. Christ in me, me in Christ, union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what's the evidence? Simple
faith in Christ. Everybody who eats his flesh
and drinks his blood has eternal life, has this union with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 57. As the living father,
has sent me and I live by the Father. I want you to think about
the complete dependence that the Lord Jesus had as a man upon
his Father. I want you to think about your
faith. Your faith is little compared
to what it ought to be. The Lord said to his disciples,
O ye of little faith. And I know it. I'm not sitting
there thinking, well, I've got big feet. No, our faith is little.
But you know, there is someone who trusted his father completely. He lived in complete dependence
upon God. He never had a thought of unbelief.
He never had a smidgen of unbelief. He lived in complete dependence
upon God. Now he says, as I live by the
Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." Just
as the Son completely depended on the Father, we completely
depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 58, this is that bread
which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers that eat
manna and are dead. He that eateth of this bread
Shall live. Forever. And we're getting ready
to take the Lord's table. And what is taught in John, Chapter
six is not really that it's not about the Lord's table, it's
about faith in Christ. But the Lord's table teaches
us something about faith in Christ, doesn't it? I mean, when we're
when we're getting ready to eat this bread. We know it's just
symbolic. We know it doesn't literally
turn into the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's what
we think about. We think about His perfect obedience and Him
being crushed under the wrath of God as the sinner's substitute.
That's what that broken bread symbolizes. Him being crushed. Him taking what I deserve. I
ought to be crushed. I ought to be. But He took my
place. His perfect life. bread crushed and that blood
we think about that when we think about the wrath he endured and
we drink that wine it represents his blood and what his blood
actually did the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us
from all sin so we're truly doing this in remembrance of him we're
thinking about The bread, he's the bread of
life, his righteousness. And we're thinking about the
drink, the wine, his blood. It actually put away my sin. Now, who is to take the Lord's
table? You know, there's a warning given
in Scripture, he that eateth or drinketh unworthily is guilty
of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's always
scared me. I don't want to. I don't want
to take the Lord's table unworthily. Who is to take the Lord's table? There's only one answer to that
question. Everybody, without exception, who really eats his
flesh and drinks his blood, who looks at his flesh and his blood
as their life before God. Every single one of these people
are to take the Lord's table. Any other restrictions? I'm not
going to give a one. I'm not going to give a one.
What about what about nothing if you believe? If you believe
the gospel, you are to partake of the Lord's table. It's a celebration. And it's something we rejoice
in. And to. You eat and drink unworthily
when you believe in salvation by works. That's what it is to
eat and drink unworthily. You're not discerning the body
and blood of Christ. But if you really believe what
he did, it's sufficient to make you perfect before God and you
rely on him. The Lord's table is for you.
Let's pray together.