John's Gospel, Chapter 6. This is the greatest message,
in my own personal opinion, that has ever been preached from the
creation of the world until this very day. And it was preached
by the Son of God Himself. He had fed the many thousands
with a few loaves and fishes, had gone across the sea, and
they came looking for Him. And the message begins here in
verse 26. We have this message written
in its entirety, and I want to read it in its entirety because
that's what I want to look at for a few minutes this afternoon.
John chapter 6 and verse 26. They came over seeking the Lord
Jesus, and he said unto them, in verse 26, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, you seek me, Not because ye saw the miracles,
but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labor
not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endeareth
unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto
you, for Him has 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 ye have seen. They said therefore unto
him, What sign showest thou then, that we may see and believe you?
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 which cometh down from heaven and gives
life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that comes to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I say 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 shall in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my 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
on 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 come 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, They shall all be taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard and learned of the Father, he cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, except 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 the bread
of life. Your fathers did eat manna in
the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except you eat the flesh of the Son
of Man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whosoever
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 eats my flesh and drinks
my blood, he dwells 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. Many there are four of his disciples,
when they had heard this, said, This is not a hard saying. Who
can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured at it, he said, Does this offend you?
What, and if you see the Son of Man, ascend up where he was
before? It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you
that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And
he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto
me, except it were given to him of my father. From that time
many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the
words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that
they are at that Christ, the Son of the living God. And he
said unto them, Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is
a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the
son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one
of the twelve." What a preacher! What a preacher! The greatest
message that was ever preached, and I know for a fact the greatest
preacher. They often call Charles Spurgeon the Prince of Preachers.
But he didn't believe that. I just read to you, the Prince
of Preachers, and it's a marvelous thing, brothers and sisters,
that the Son of God came down from heaven and He condescended
to be a preacher. No sooner had He come into this
world when He began His ministry, one of the first things out of
His mouth, God had sent me to preach the gospel. what a preacher
the Son of God is. And I want us to just look this
evening at some things concerning Him as a preacher. And I think we want to know something
about preaching. Right here is where we can learn
it from. What is it to preach? The first thing I noticed about
our Savior as a preacher, He tells us what preaching is. And
here we have it in verse 27. And here's what preaching is.
Here's what it's about. It's not about personalities.
It's not about what people think of the preacher. But it's about
the message. What is preaching? Preaching
seeks to do good to the souls of men. Above anything and everything
else, preaching is seeking to do good to the souls of men. No sooner had he begun to preach.
And what does he do in verse 27? He begins to instruct them. He corrects their thinking. He
corrects their motives. You've been seeking. You've not
been seeking meat, he said. You've been seeking meat to fill
your belly. What does he do? He corrects
their bad thinking. He corrects their bad motives.
And then he begins to labor and teach them how to think and what
to labor for. Don't labor for the meat which
perishes, but labor for that meat which endeareth unto life
everlasting. What's preaching about? It's
about instructing people. It's about helping people. It's
seeking to give men the truth and to deliver them from errors. It's laboring to do the souls
of men Good. And you know at the same time
that we take the Scriptures and preach to save people and encourage
them, you know at the same time we're preaching to lost people.
And at the same time we preach to lost people, we encourage
the Lord's people. It's seeking to do men's souls
good. And I'm telling you, if you're
sitting under a preacher and he's not concerned about your soul,
and he's not concerned about the lost, I'd be suspicious of
that man. This is not about personalities,
is it? Here was the Son of God, and while He was preaching, He
wasn't concerned as a preacher what people thought about Him
as a preacher. Did you notice that? They murmured
at Him, but did that hinder His preaching? He didn't get down
and despondent and say, Oh, my, they're just not liking how I'm
saying this. Oh, what can I say to look better to these people?
It's not about the preacher. It's about the souls of those
he preaches to. Never will you see a man labor
any more faithfully and honestly and sincerely to do the souls
of men good than the Son of God did right here. That's what we
learn. That's what we learn. I have
seen preachers get jealous. I have seen them get mad. I've
seen them get offended because somebody didn't look at them
right, somebody didn't shake their hand, or somebody spread
the rumor on them. It's not about us, is it? It's not about the
preacher. God helped us as preachers to
be like this preacher. I'm after one thing, and the
Lord said, that's your souls. I'm after one thing, and that's
to do you good. And you see that in the first
thing out of his mouth. He said, you're all wrong. Listen
to me. I'll help you. I'll correct your
thinking. And he tells them what to labor for. And if we're going
to help people as preachers and as witnesses of the Lord, if
we're going to do good to the souls of men, it's going to be
by telling them the truth. If we love men, brothers and
sisters, we're going to tell them the truth. If we're going
to help men, we've got to tell them the truth. What are we going
to tell them? Who do we get our information
from? Well, he tells us here, look at this in verse 63. Here
the Lord Jesus tells us. It is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you
They are spirit and they are life. We have an infallible source
of information to help people with. Brother Paul Mahan said
one time, he said, I think it would be good if we preachers
would just get up and read a message and sit down. It's not my opinion
that does me any good. It's not even my comments about
the truth that does people good. It's the truth. And our only
source of infallible truths is His Word. The words that I speak
unto you, their spirit and their life. You say, Bruce, what about
the Old Testament? That's His words too. David said,
The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His words were in
my mouth. Now, from Revelations all the
way back through the very first word, in the beginning was God. That's the Word of the Lord. And that's what you and I must
give to other people. Brothers and sisters, when people
ask us for advice, you know the best thing you can do for them
sometimes is quote a verse of Scripture to them. Because it'll
help them. It'll correct them. It'll stay
with them. That's what the Spirit uses. The words that I speak
unto you, they're Spirit. And they are life. One of the
most dreadful things that a man can ever do in everything. Can we do this? Preachers do
this. I've done this. I've fell into
this. It's just a sin. Just a sin. that this Bible is the Word of
God. I just take it for granted that
this Bible is the Word of God. You know, that's very dangerous
to do that. To take anything for granted that this is the
Word of God. It has some negative aspects
when we do that. Every time we open this Bible
up, when you read it home, every time you open this Bible up,
don't take it for granted this is God's Word. These are words
that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Don't take that for granted.
Remember in your heart, when you read it, when you preach
it to other people, this is the words of the living God. And when we take it for granted,
it will have a negative effect upon us. When we forget this
is God's Word, if I come here before you this evening, And
I forget what I'm doing, that this is His Word I'm saying before
you. You know what I'll start doing? I'll start worrying about
more of what you think of me. Or I'll start worrying about
my gestures or some examples that I'm going to use. But when
I come here and I tremble at this Word, And I realize that
I'm about to open this book up and give you the true sense of
it. This is God's Word. Well, I tell you what, everything
else then will take its proper place. I remember when Brother
Donnie Bell, some of you were in the old school building where
they used to meet. Remember that, the old school
building? That's where Donnie first met Henry. Brother Mahan
came down and preached for him. I remember two things Henry said
to Donnie while he was there. Henry finished his message and
Donnie got up and came to the pulpit and said, Well, I feel
like I ought to give an altar call. And Henry just stood back
up and said, Brother Donnie, my invitation was in the message. And Donnie said, I think it was
later that very evening, he said, You know, Brother Henry, we ought
to soak the gospel in our tears. And Brother Mahan said, Brother
Donnie, the gospel don't need to be soaked in anything. The
gospel will stand by itself. Don't add anything to it. Don't
add emotions. Don't add gestures. It's the
Word. The words that I speak unto you. I told Brother Clay down at the
conference that I love his preaching. And one of the things I love
about Brother Clay's preaching, he preaches to you the same way
in the pulpit as he does when he's talking to you outside the
pulpit. It doesn't bother him where he's loud or where he's
emotional. He knows there's one thing important. That's this book. Every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's it. I remember a fellow. This shows
you about the Armenians. Do you know the whole problem
with the Armenians? Do you know the whole problem with the Armenians?
Let's just be honest with you. Here's the whole problem with
the Armenians. Do you know what it is? I mean, concerning this book? They
don't believe it's God's Word. That's it. That's it. The scripture says, to this man
will I look. He that is poor and of a contrast
spirit. Boy, there's your good preacher.
He's a man that's broken. He don't have any confidence
in his own natural abilities. He's studied, he's prepared,
but he dare not trust in his preparation. He's a broken man. He's a poor man. He's crushed
in his spirit. He says, Lord, leave me not alone. I'll look to that man. To him
that trembles at my Word. And that's the problem with the
Armenians. Do you know that? That's the problem with the Armenian
preacher. He's not afraid. He leaves out
whole portions of Scripture. You ask them sometimes. You talk
to an Armenian preacher. You take him to some large portions
of Scripture, and he's preached 30 years. Ask him if he's ever
preached from this portion of Scripture. You know what he said?
Well, no, I haven't preached on that. What about this? No,
I haven't preached on that. Where Joe and I used to go when
the Lord first saved us, one of their elders got up to read,
like Brad just read to us. He read Romans chapter 8, down
through verse 28, stopped and made a very short comment. When
he picked back up, he picked up at verse 31. He left out those he foreknew
he predestined. He left out God's eternal purpose.
Why did he do that? How could he do that? He didn't
tremble at God's Word. He wasn't afraid of God's Word. Can you imagine leaving a portion
of God's Word out deliberately? This is our authority. This is
our infallible rule. And brothers and sisters, I'm
not so concerned how I preach it. And you shouldn't be so concerned
either. Just give it as it says. Quote it as it says. Read it
as it says. It will do its work. The words
that I speak unto you. So we see these two things. First
of all, we see what preaching is. It's doing good to the souls
of men. Remember that when you talk to
people. Oh, you just want to win an argument. This got you
a bunch of stones piled up to throw. Is that our motive? To go up and tell people, boy,
let me tell you what I did with this God's act. I sure won an
argument. Is that it? No, it's doing the
souls of men good. In meekness instructing those
that oppose you. What do we have to use to do
that? This infallible Word. Every Word of God is pure. That's
the first thing. Let's notice something else here.
Let's notice how the Lord preached His Word. Notice how He preached
His Word. Boy, I tell you, preachers, they've
got a precious treasure in these earthen vessels. God has put
it there. What a treasure. He's ordained
by the foolishness of preaching to invade the kingdom of darkness. I tell you, he's shaken the devil's
kingdom to its very foundation, has he not? And he's done it
through what appears to be the weakest means, through earthen
vessels He saves a poor soul, puts this treasure of the gospel
in him, and sends him out to shake the kingdom of darkness.
It's that gospel preaching that brings light, plumbed out in
the low bottom of a sinner's heart, and delivers him from
the kingdom of darkness, and translates him into the kingdom
of God's dear Son. God does this through preaching. And Boyd Price was the best at
it. He was the best at preaching
his own Word. I want you to look at two or
three or four or five things here right quickly that he preached. And
this is one message. One message. And notice he preached
these things, every one of these things in one message. Look here in verse 37 and verse
39. Look here at what he preached.
All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me. And he said
in verse 39, as this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing. Notice the first thing he preaches
here. Election. Do you notice that? The Lord
Jesus loved this phrase, all that the Father hath given to
me. You and I have to say, all that
the Father gives to Him. But when he's preaching it, he
says, all the Father's given to me. What is election anyway? Boy,
he made it very plain, didn't he? Election is not God looking
down through time and seeing one man would do something another
man would not. One man would respond where another
would not. What did the Lord Jesus say election
is? He said it's a mask of humanity
that the Father in Heaven, my Father, has given to me to secure
their eternal salvation. That's what election is. All
that He's given to me, I'll lose nothing. That's what election
is. That's one of the things he preached. And look here in verse 38 and
39 again. Look here what he preached right on the heels of that. And
what a way to preach the perseverance of the same. We call it preservation. The Lord Jesus here calls it
preservation. We say they'll endure to the
end. They will persevere. Why will they persevere to the
end? Because they're preserved. Notice how he says it. Look here
how he preaches the perseverance of the same. I come down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will, which sent me, that of
all which ye have given me, I should lose nothing." What is that? That's security of some kind.
Nothing. Not a one. You know why men don't
go back and apostatize and leave Christ and be lost at last? You
know why they don't? Because he said, I ain't going
to lose them. See, it's not just about us. The most important aspect about
a believer being saved, a believer being secured and making it to
heaven at last, you know the most important aspect of that
is the honor and glory of the Son of God. He stands responsible
for that person. I will lose nothing. We can beans, we can beets, we
can corn, and we seal it up. I remember one year, Joe and
I, the last year we canned tomatoes. Man, we put an awful bunch of
tomatoes, sealed them up, put them down in the basement. Every
last one of them came unsealed. We lost every one of them. And
Joe said, that's it for me. That's it for me. We ain't care
about it. It's a major sin. You know that'll never happen
to Christ. When the Holy Spirit seals a
believer, you know he'll never come unsealed. You know when
the Lord Jesus Christ saves a man, he'll never lose him. Not one
of them. Not one single soul. I was preaching
the free will of the Baptist. A friend of mine that I went
to high school with, graduated with, And he invited me to come
over and preach to his congregation. Some of us went over. And that's
one of the things I said to that congregation. Some of them got
up and ran out. They didn't walk out. They ran out. They wanted
to make a statement, I guess. But I said, you will not see
a child of God down in hell. If you go to hell and you find
one there, I'll tell you what, Satan's got him around the throat
and he's holding him up and says, look what I've got. I've got
the greatest trophy between the eternities. I've got one for
whom He died. I've got one that Christ lost.
Here He is. Look at Him. Wouldn't that be
a trophy? That would be a greater trophy in hell than all the saints
in heaven would be if He lost one. Christ would have to cease to
love Him. The Holy Spirit would have had to leave Him. The blood
would cease to cleanse Him. No, brothers and sisters. What
did the Son of God preach? I'll lose nothing. I'll lose
nothing. And look thoroughly in verse
44. Look at this. Look in verse 44. You talk about
man's depravity. We talk about man's depravity.
What does depravity show itself? I'll admit that it shows itself
in open and profane sins. You see men out here raping.
Little kids, like they got the guy there at Penn State, raping
kids. It shows itself in all that opium
and propane. But you know where man shows
his depravity more than any place else? And I tell you, it's at the place
where it's essential. There's something a man must
do or he'll never be saved. And you know something? He can't
not do it. He cannot do it. And what is
it? Look here in verse 44. No man
can come to Me. That's essential. If you don't
come to Me, you'll perish. If you don't believe that I'm
Me, you're going to die in your sins. And He says you cannot come to
Me. You can be circumcised. There
are certain aspects of the law you can keep, but you can't come
to Me. He cannot come to me. What if he had stopped here?
He'd have left every man without any hope. Do you know that? Because
no man is the exception to this rule. Did he not say this? No
man can. No man has the ability. No man
even has the desire to come to him. No man. Boy, I tell you
what, we can preach this to people. And they can reject us, and they
can talk about their free will and the power of their will.
How are they going to answer the Son of God when He preaches
it? What are they going to say when He stands in their face
and says, You cannot come to Me? That's depravity, is it not?
That's depravity if work really hurts, none. Come unto the Son
of God. You cannot do it. You cannot
do it. The boy right on the heels of that. I'm so thankful he said
this. Accept the Father which sent
me. Draw him. And I'll raise him
up at the last day. But notice verse 45. Here's the
fourth thing that he preached. And that's what we call a textual
calling. Having the power to gain the
ends desired. The Lord God has a desire to
save His people. And He has the power to accomplish
that desire. And what is it? To bring them
to Christ. Look what He said in verse 45. It's written in
the Prophets. They shall all be taught of God. That's what's
written in the Prophets. They shall all be taught of God. What does God teach them? Every
man, therefore, that hath heard and learned of the Father, he
comes unto Me. Everyone? Every man. Every man. You talk to some of
the Armenians and free wheelers, and they say, well, God's calling
everybody. No. No. We're talking about effectual
calling now, aren't we? I don't know who the general
call is going out to. I know what's going out to everybody.
But not like this, Glenn. This is special calling, is it
not? Every man, every woman, every
boy, every girl that my Father teaches, He comes to me. Boy, that's encouraging for me
when I preach it. Can you imagine how encouraging
it was for the Son of God? Because He knew who would come
to Him and who wouldn't. He knew who believed and who
didn't. But He knew this, everyone that my Father teaches, He's
coming. And see, that goes right back to just believing God's
Word and preaching it, and not worry about what man thinks of
me, not worry about where I'm rejected or where I'm received.
It's not about that. Just preach the Word, and the
Father does His work. Some young kids are here. We're
concerned about our young children, aren't we? Well, you know what it's going
to take to bring them to Christ? It's going to take the Father teaching
them. God Himself has got to teach them. And this tells us
what calling is. It's making a man feel his need
of Christ. Why does he come to Christ if
he don't need Him? And that's man's problem. He
don't need Him. The Father makes him need Him. He makes us need
Him. And then we come to Him. Effectual
calling. And fearfully, if somebody's
going to say, Bruce, I know where you're going. I know where you're
going. I don't know how you're going
to get there, but I know where you're going. Well, that's where I'm going. Particular
redemption. Did Christ preach particular
redemption? You know the Lord Jesus Christ never preached that
I can find anywhere in this message or anywhere else that He gave
Himself for every man without exception. You know what He did
teach? He is going to save every soul
without exception that eats of his flesh and drinks of his blood. That's his purpose in his death. Look here at 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 will give
is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world. If
you eat this bread, you have life. But look what he says in
verse 53. 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." He didn't say, I've come to give life to everybody
without exception. I've come to give life to those
who eat of me. Those who eat of me. And the
Armenians will admit that, will they not? Does any Armenian that
you know of says a man's going to be right with God and go to
heaven except he partakes of the blood and flesh of Jesus
Christ? This is the purpose of our Lord
in His day, that everybody that eats His flesh and drinks His
blood, they have life. That's the purpose. And you know
who eats of it and drinks of it? Those that the Father draws.
He calls. Who does He call? Those that
He's given to Christ. Those He's given to Christ. Somebody
asked Charles Spurgeon one time, he says, Spurgeon, what did Christ
purpose by His death? And Spurgeon said, what's He
doing? What's He doing? What do you do? I look at you
and I can see what Christ purposed by His death. He purposed life
for you who are eating His body and drank his blood. That's the
purpose of it. That's five things that he preached. Many more things here in this
message, but that's five things he preached. And all in one message. All in one message. You and I are raticued, talked
about, called heretics. and sets and cults and everything
else because we preach what the Son of God preaches. We could
just preach one point that He preached. Very seldom we preach
all these things. We can just preach one point
and they get mad at us. What would they have done? Well,
we know what they would have done. They would have gone back
and walked on water again. Let's look at this for just a
minute. Notice how freely, and this is
looking at the other side, notice how freely he sets forth the
gospel to those he knew would never believe it. Notice this now. And this is
what we have difficulty bringing these two things together. Just
what I showed you that he was preaching, and here's the other
side. He preached to these people with
all his heart to do them good. He knew they wouldn't believe
him. I read it to you. He knew from the beginning who
would believe him and who would betray him. And he says, I preached
to you and you don't believe me. You saw me and you don't
believe me. You eat of the bread that I make,
you don't believe me. You don't believe me. But you
notice, he labored with all his heart to do them good. You know everything. Everything
with a poor lost sinner is against his salvation. Do you know that? He's his own
worst enemy. You take a lost man and he's
opposed to his own salvation. And the devil is opposed to it. The devil doesn't want a man
to be saved. He's doing everything he can to keep him from being
saved. The world is against him. That's why the world is so appealing
to a lost man. All its temporal advantages,
its toys, its fangs. You sure ain't going to give
up all this. You can't give up this. Your friends, what are
they going to think? Everything's against the salvation.
There's only one thing, brothers and sisters, that's for a poor
lost sinner, and that's this gospel. The preaching of this
gospel is the only thing in this world that's for him. The very thing that he hates,
the very thing he doesn't understand, is the only thing that's for
him. When you and I tell people the gospel, when we preach to
people and witness to people, we must set forth the gospel
freely, freely. He thinks the gospel is against
him when you begin to preach it to him. He thinks the gospel
at first is shutting him out. You go preach election to a lost
person. If God has begun to humble that
person, you know what they think? Well, there goes any hope I had.
I was telling a woman one time, a young lady about election,
that just what I preached to you, that the Lord had given
Christ to the people. And that's exactly what she said.
Boy, that leaves me in. That leaves me in. The gospel
at first seems to shut people out in their own eyes. But it's
their only hope. That's why the gospel must be
freely preached. And here's what the Lord Jesus
said. Here's what he said. I'm going to give you three examples
here of what he said. Three different verses. And here's
what the Master said. I am yours. I am yours. All that I am, all
that I've accomplished, I am yours. Now, let me show you these three verses.
Look at them in verse 27 again. Look at verse 27. See if this
ain't what he says. "...labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life." Look at this. "...which the Son of Man shall
give unto you." Did Christ give Himself to these
people? No, He didn't do it. They went
away. Somebody so bold as to say, well,
He's not talking to all of them, He's just talking to part of
them. That's not being honest and that's not being sincere.
He's talking to every one of them. The same you here in this
verse is the same you He used over there in the other verses
when they went away. What does he mean here then when
he says this? The Son of Man shall give unto
you this bread, this life. What does he mean by that? He
has to mean this. I'll give you the bread of life
on my terms. You can't have it any other way,
but you can have it on my terms. Brothers and sisters, we've got
to present the gospel to men like this. If we don't, the devil
will drive them to despair. They've got to know that Christ
is theirs on His term. What else does this mean? What
else could it mean? Look in verse 32. Look at this. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but
my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven." How in the
world are we supposed to understand that? My Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven. You who don't even believe me,
you who are never going to believe me, my Father gives you the true
bread from heaven. How are we to understand that?
Here's what J.C. Ryle said on his expository thoughts
on the gospel. Here's what he said. He said,
This is a very remarkable saying, and one of those which seems
to me to prove unanswerably that Christ is God's gift to the whole
world, that His redemption was made for all mankind, and that
His death is for all, and is offered If Mr. Ryle is saying Christ's redemption
was for all men without any distinction, you and I would agree with that. He's a propitiation for the sins
of the whole world without any distinction. Black men, yellow
men, white men, red men. But if Mr. Ryle is saying that
the death of Christ is for all men without exception, We can't
receive that, can we? We can't perceive of such a gospel,
of such a redemption that is made for all men without any
distinction, and those men perish. If it's a redemption that does
not redeem, don't call it a redemption. Well, what then does He mean
when He says, My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven?
He gives it to you. What He's simply saying is, It's
yours on My terms. It's freely offered to you on
My terms. It's yours if you'll have it
on My terms. But if you won't have it on My
terms, it's not yours. See that? It goes right back
to where we started. The Gospel shuts nobody out. We mustn't shut anybody out.
You can call it a free offer or whatever you want to call
it, but this is pretty free, isn't it? This is the opening
of the door of mercy wide open for any man, no matter who he
is, what he's done, what he is. He can have Jesus Christ, His
blood, His righteousness, all He is in His glorious person,
His redemption on Christ's terms. Boy, that's wonderful. That's
wonderful. That's a wonderful thing. People
tell us, you guys shut men out. We don't shut nobody out. And
the Lord shuts nobody out but those who shut themselves out.
I'm talking now in the preaching of the gospel. I'm not talking
about election. Of course He passed by all. But in the preaching
of the gospel, boy, the door swings wide open. You want Christ? You want Christ? You can have
Him on His terms. You can't have Him as Jesus without
the Lord. But you can have Him on His terms.
You come down at His feet and bow down to Him. You look up
at His face and sue for mercy. You believe what He tells you.
He's yours. He's yours. And here, lastly,
is in verse 50. Look what he says in verse 50.
And I love this. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven. Look at this. That a man may
eat thereof and not die. He got permission. He had permission. Lord, may I eat? Are you a man? You may eat. You may. I tell you what, can you imagine
the devil in the heart of a man? And that's his house. Boy, he's
got it secure, he thinks. I don't think the devil has any
idea who the Lord's elect are until the Lord begins to draw
them. He's not omniscient. He don't
know these things. Can you imagine he's in the heart
and the gospel begins to come to that man? And he realizes,
oh, my soul, don't you know he's fighting tooth and toenail to
keep him? Man, you can't go there. He's against you. You'll go there
and risk your life if you go to Christ. You can't go to Him.
Look how you treat Him. Look what you've done. Don't you go.
Don't you dare go. You can't go anyway. He said
you couldn't come. Can you imagine how frustrated
He is? So the Lord just opens the door wide open. And He says,
if the devil's telling you that you don't have any right to come,
that you're not welcome to come, well, listen to me. You may You
can come, not on your own ability, but you may come. You want to
come? You've got a will to come? Then
my Father's drawing you. Come on. You may come. You may. Isn't that a wonderful
gospel, brother? And he preaches all this in the
same message? That's the same message. He's
preaching elected love, effectual calling, particular redemption.
He's throwing the door wide open and telling men, don't let conscience
make you linger, nor a fitness-only dream. All the fitness he requires
to fill your need of me. You want me? Then come and walk. Oh, that's preaching, ain't it?
See what I mean? What we can learn about preaching? Spurgeon
said people used to accuse him of being inconsistent. He said, as long as I'm consistent
with Scripture, I don't care about anything else. And this
seems to be inconsistent, doesn't it? But it's not. It's not. Lastly, we'll close with this.
Preaching. Sometimes when fellows come to
me and say, I believe the Lord has called me to preach, especially
when somebody comes and says, I want a pastor. I have two thoughts,
and there are conflicting thoughts about that. One, I think, praise
God for it. If the Lord has called you to
preach, especially if the Lord has called you and put a pastor's
heart in your bosom, thank God for it. But my second thought
about that is, poor, poor man. Poor soul, you have no idea what
the Lord is ready to get you into. You going to be murmured at?
People going to complain about you? They going to leave your
ministry? They going to complain about
how deep you are, how high you are? You can't please men. You know how we know that that's
what's going to happen? It happens to the Master. They
stopped him during his preaching. You know, he didn't have it like
I've got to. Nobody stops me here and corrects
me and murmurs against me. You know, if you do it, you do
it under your breath. You don't let me know about it. But they didn't
care, boy. They murmured at him. Who does he think he is? God having to draw us to come
to him? Who does he think he is? And finally, they left him. And
never did come back. You know what I think the Lord
Jesus said? I think he said, you know, my preachers are going
to have a terrible time with people. One of the awfulest times that
you'll have as a pastor is when people come here and sit for
a while and listen to you, and they go away. They come and sit
and they go away. It's just like they take part
of you with them. They come as a family, they come as individuals,
and they sit and you preach to them, and you pour your heart
out to the Lord, then they're gone, and they never show up
again. And your heart goes with them. It's like taking the flesh
from your body. It kills you. It breaks your
heart. It's painful. And you think Jesus
Christ didn't feel this when they went back to walk with Him
no more. Oh, He felt it, brothers and
sisters. He felt it keener than anybody ever felt it before.
Because He's the Son of God in our humanity. He sincerely labored
to do them good, and they left murmuring and complaining, never
to return again. And you know what He said? I'm
going to show my preachers, I'm going to show my church, how
much I care and how much I feel their infirmities. I'm going
to expose myself to it first. Are they going to forsake my
pastors and not listen to them? Or are they going to forsake
me first? Multitudes. But you know, it's
not just men trying the preachers. But I tell you, God tries His
preachers. He tries them. You talk to preachers,
this pastor called me, and he's just a young preacher anyway,
and they called him the pastor, and he had a nervous breakdown.
He had a nervous breakdown. It wasn't the congregation's
fault. They were about like you folks.
They loved him to death. Supported him every way. But God put him on his back in
the emergency room to teach him, you preach My Word. You don't
care what men say, what men think about you. You preach My Word. A man's not worth a hill of beans.
He's not worth a bucket of mud as a preacher if God hasn't tried
him and weaned him from the praise of men, from seeking honor of
men. When God calls a preacher, He
breaks him. He makes him poor. He strips
him. And he goes to the pulpit, not
in the fear of men, but in the fear of God. And his happiest
time is when he can get along just with His God, and His Word,
and seek His face, and find approbation from God, I have called you,
and I will uphold you. You don't need the praise of
man. You don't need man's approval. You need mine, and that's all
you need. That's what makes a preacher.
That's what makes a preacher. You put him in afflictions. You
put him in temptations. It seems all the congregation
can't help him. Only God can oppose it. And then
you've got yourself a preacher. He's lost his cockiness. He's
lost his know-it-all attitude. And he's just speaking what the
Lord said. You've got yourself a preacher when you've got a
man like that. Christ the great preacher. What
a preacher.