The Very Heart of True Religion

Q: What does the Bible say about the Spirit that gives life?

The Bible teaches that it is the Spirit that quickens, while the flesh profits nothing (John 6:63). In John 6:63, Jesus explicitly states, 'It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.' This highlights the idea that spiritual life comes not from physical acts or rituals but from the inner work of the Holy Spirit, which brings regeneration and true understanding of Christ's sacrifice. The outward forms of religion, devoid of the Spirit, are lifeless and ineffective.

Q: How do we know that the Holy Spirit regenerates dead sinners?

The Holy Spirit alone can give life and convince us of our need for salvation, as seen in Scripture (Ephesians 2:1). The Bible affirms that only the Holy Spirit can regenerate dead sinners, as stated in Ephesians 2:1, 'And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.' The Spirit is essential for illuminating our understanding of sin and the need for salvation, demonstrating that it is not within our own power to will ourselves into eternal life. It is God's grace through the Holy Spirit that brings about spiritual awakening and transformation.

Q: Why is the concept of the Spirit versus the flesh important for Christians?

Understanding the distinction between Spirit and flesh helps Christians appreciate the necessary inner work for true faith and life. The distinction between the Spirit and the flesh is crucial because it emphasizes that mere physical observance of religious practices, such as rituals and ceremonies, lacks spiritual life unless accompanied by a true understanding of their meaning. Outward actions, while significant in a communal sense, do not bring spiritual vitality. Christians must grasp that it is through the Spirit, not physical participation, that they enter into a relationship with Christ and experience transformative life.

Q: What does eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood mean?

Eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood symbolizes embracing His message and the significance of His sacrifice, not literally consuming His body. Christ's declaration about eating His flesh and drinking His blood is not to be taken literally, but spiritually. It signifies the necessity of internalizing the words and meanings of His sacrifice. In John 6:63, Jesus clarifies that it is the words He speaks that are spirit and life. Embracing the depth of His sacrifice and understanding what He achieved is vital for salvation. This understanding leads to genuine faith, rather than mere ritualistic adherence.

Now I must confess, as I begin
this message tonight, I approach it with the greatest fear and
with much trembling. I have never in thirty years preaching and studying
and reading other messages and commentaries ever had anybody
really help me on this passage of Scripture that I've read in
your presence tonight. And I feel that God has been
pleased to bless me this week with some understanding. I believe
He has been pleased to bless me with a word from His presence
and from His throne, and I get excited. Perhaps it was just
for me alone. Maybe it's for both of us, all
of us. But when God does give me some understanding and give
me a little mercy from His throne, I like to pass it on. I want
desperately to pass it on. Sometimes I am able to do it,
and sometimes I'm not able to do it. But the message tonight
is, I believe such a revelation, and it's so vital, that I'm going
to call this message, The Heart of True Religion. It is a word
that will encourage every true believer. It is a word that will
cause every true believer to rejoice. It is a word that will
separate the chaff from the wheat. The believer from the professor.
It is a word that those in Christ will immediately grasp, enter
into and understand, and those who are wrapped in tradition
or ceremony or custom or profession will go out as confused as they
were when they came in, and as baffled, and they will turn once
again to these beggarly elements because they cannot lay hold
upon that which is a mystery that has to be revealed. Now turn to John 6, 63. Now turn, let's look at it. Those
introductory remarks, I'm convinced of it. If this doesn't excite
you, if this doesn't stir you, if God enables me to preach it
like I want Him to and like I feel He gave it to me, if it doesn't
bear witness with your spirit, And if you don't go away with
some comprehension or some understanding of what Christ is talking about
here, except a man eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood, he's got no life in him. My flesh is meat indeed and my
blood is drink indeed. Now if I gave, look at verse
63, if I gave you this verse, it is the spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing, if I just gave you that verse.
And I ask you, what does the Lord say here? It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. Well, most people, and
I must confess that for years and years and years, this is
the way that I have been interpreting it and using it. I haven't realized
to this point that Christ is explaining what he's just said.
for a light from the commentaries, I've asked for light from the
preachers that preach on it. And here I come to verse 63,
and Christ is telling us what he's been saying. He's explaining
what he's been saying. It's the Spirit that quickeneth,
the flesh profiteth nothing. If I were to ask you to interpret
that, most people would say this. This is the interpretation. It
is the Holy Spirit who quickens dead sinners and gives them life. The flesh, whether it be the
sinner's flesh or the preacher's flesh or the methods of organized
religion, whatever the flesh, carnality, the natural wisdom
of man, the natural reasoning of man, the natural powers of
man, profit nothing. It's the Holy Spirit and the
Holy Spirit alone who quickens dead sinners. Now if that's what
you say, your theology would be totally correct. But your
interpretation, totally wrong. Your theology, totally correct
now. But your interpretation of that
verse, the word Spirit, look at it. It begins with a what? A capital S. It begins with a
small s. It's not the Holy Spirit at all. And we'll see this as we go on
and look at this tonight as we ask the Holy Spirit to be our
teacher. And the translators, they began that word with a small
s deliberately, on purpose, because this is not the Holy Spirit.
Now if you read in other passages where the Holy Spirit is referred
to, it's capital S-P-I-R-T, but not here. That's the Holy Spirit,
and only the Holy Spirit who can quicken a dead sinner. I
know that, you know that, the theology is correct. The flesh
profiteth nothing, the dead sinner cannot give himself life, you
have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And it's
the Holy Spirit alone who can regenerate a dead sinner. Our
Lord came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as
many as received him, to as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name, which were born not of blood, not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God, born of God. Christ said the Nicodemus, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see, he
cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Only the Holy Spirit can regenerate.
That's true. The flesh profits nothing. I
cannot give eternal life or divine life to you, and you can't give
it to me. I can't give it to my sons and
daughters. It's not by natural inheritance. It's not by blood.
It's not by the will of the flesh. A man cannot, by his own will,
will himself into life, into the kingdom of God. It's not
of him that will it, nor of him that run it, but of God that
showeth mercy. Only the Holy Spirit can convince
of sin. Our Lord said, and I will send
you another Comforter, even the Spirit of truth, and he will
convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
He will convict men of sin. That word convince is convict.
Only the Holy Spirit can convict you of sin. We all think we're
pretty good fellas till the Holy Spirit strips us. Man can't do
it because we can look at ourselves in the mirror of other personalities
and come out looking pretty good. The Holy Spirit has to strip
us and has to break us, humble us. The Holy Spirit has to crush
our pride and give us a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
Argument won't do it. Reasoning won't do it. Only God's
Spirit can convince me in a seat. And only the Holy Spirit can
reveal Christ. Turn to 1 Corinthians. I want
you to see this verse here. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. Listen to this. It is written,
1 Corinthians 2, 9. It is written, I have not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
which God has prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. And capital S-P-I-R-I-T, His
Spirit. For the Spirit, capital S, searcheth
all things, yea, the deep things of God. That's how you learn
anything. You don't learn it because you're smarter than I
am. You don't learn it because you're smarter than somebody
else. You learn it because the God, the Holy Ghost, taught it
to you. One day our Lord asked the disciples,
whom do you say I am? And Peter said, you're the Son
of God. And our Lord said, flesh and blood didn't reveal that
to you, but my Father which is in heaven, he revealed it to
you. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ. Now that's true,
and like I say, if I hand you that verse and said translate
or interpret this, interpret this verse, it is the Spirit
that quickens it. The flesh profiteth nothing.
If you said, it's the Holy Spirit who raises the dead, it's the
Holy Spirit who begets dead sinners, it's the Holy Spirit who convinces
men of sin, it's the Holy Spirit who reveals Christ, it's the
Holy Spirit who reveals the mysteries of the gospel. We're shut up
to a revelation from God's Spirit. Your theology would be absolutely
correct, and I don't see a thing wrong with using it. But your interpretation would
be wrong. Let's look and see what our Lord is teaching here.
Now, if you want to interpret Scripture, always employ these
methods. Find out what has been said before
and after the verse. Don't come like a crow in a cornfield
and pick up a kernel of corn, fly off with it and say, this
means this. I claim this verse of Scripture. I state my eternal
destiny on this verse of Scripture. Find out what the Lord has been
saying before and after. And then secondly, find out who
said it and to whom he said it. Just about a whole denomination
has been built upon different verses of Scripture. One in particular,
we know God, heareth not sinners. We know God, heareth not sinners.
That's the Scripture in the Bible. But who said it? An ignorant,
blind man who had just had his sight restored. Christ didn't
say that. Christ didn't say that. And yet,
around this part of the country, I've run into a lot of, I don't
know about other denominations, but a lot of Baptists who say,
one time I was holding a meeting down here in Palmyra, Kentucky,
a long, long time ago, 1949 or 50, somewhere in there, and I'd
preached and some young man came forward after the service and
said, I'd like to be saved. And I said, well, let's get down
on our knees here and ask God to save you. I said, you ask
God to save you. Well, there's a Baptist deacon
standing just beside me, and he said, a sinner can't pray.
I said, sir, he said a sinner can't pray. I said, he can't. He said, no, don't you know the
Bible says God heareth not sinner? I said, I don't know about that,
but I know a publican one time in the temple cried, Lord, be
merciful to me, a sinner. And God heard him. And I know
a thief on the cross one time said, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom, and God heard him. And if anybody
saves this boy, it's going to have to be God, so he'll just
have to ask God to save him. I said, let's pray. And after
that, he got mad and left. But they built whole denominations
on one verse. Let's find out who said it. To
whom he said it. and what he was saying. Now let's
look at this, John 6, 48, and our Lord said, I am the bread
of life. Your fathers ate manna in the
wilderness, and they're dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I'm
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." Now, the Jews, therefore, strove
among themselves, and these are religious people. These are people
who claim to be the people of God. They claim God is their
Father. These weren't rabble-rousers
and troublemakers. These were religious people.
And they claimed to believe the scriptures. And there were people
who were going about the rituals and ceremonies and all these
things of religion. They believed the miracles, they
believed the scriptures. They claimed Moses to be their
leader and father. Abraham. These weren't ignoramuses
talking. And they began to strive among
themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? These poor religionists, whose
religion rested in form and ritualism, sacrifice to ceremonies, began
to question, how can this man give us his flesh to eat and
his blood to drink? It was to them that Christ made
this statement in John 6, 63. The flesh profiteth nothing,
it's the spirit that quickeneth. What our Lord is saying here
is this, if you could have caught the actual blood of Christ as
it dripped from the cross in a glass, the actual blood of
the Son of God, if you could have caught it in a glass and
could have drunk that blood, it would have profited you one
day, not one day. If you could have actually performed
an act of cannibalism And before or after Christ died on that
cross, actually bit into his flesh and chewed it up and swallowed
it, it would have had no spiritual value whatsoever. It would have
profited you nothing. If they had taken Christ down
from the cross and laid him in the tomb and put you on the same
cross while it was still warm with his blood and nailed you
there to die on that same cross, It would have profited you absolutely
nothing. If they had placed you in the
tomb with Christ, and you had lain there side by side with
the Son of God, it would have meant absolutely nothing. Christ is saying, even my flesh
profited nothing. Even the flesh profited nothing. It's the Spirit that gives life. You can go to Jerusalem today,
and if you could find the actual tomb of Christ, if you could
find the actual birthplace, if you could find the actual place
on which that cross stood, and go and stand there, and pray
there, and kneel there, and go through a ceremony there, it
will profit you absolutely nothing. It is not the flesh that giveth
life, it is the spirit of his broken body and shed blood that
giveth life to sinners. Look at the second part of this
statement in John 6.63. Now look at it. It is the spirit
that giveth life, quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing.
Now here's the key. The words that I speak to you,
the words that I speak to you, the word of the cross, the word
of the broken body, the word of the shed blood. Don't say,
let's go up to heaven and bring Christ down. Let's not go beneath
and bring Christ up. The word that saves is in your
mouth. It's even in your mouth. The word that I speak unto you,
the words that I speak are spirit and are life. Now here's the
key, listen to it. It is not drinking his actual blood that
saves, it's not eating his body, it's not drinking his blood,
but it's drinking in the word. It's drinking in the message,
it's drinking in the meaning of his shed blood. Somebody said you ought not call
names of denominations. But now, in order to preach,
you've got to be honest. And when we're dealing with the
Word of God and a man's eternal soul, it doesn't matter if the
president's here, or a senator, or a congressman, or a king,
or a Catholic, or a Baptist. If there's error in the Baptist
rank, let's expose it. If there's error in the Catholic
rank, let's expose it. Well, the Catholics say this,
I don't know whether these in town say this, but this is Catholicism,
this is the basis of what they believe in the mass. The preacher
takes the wafer, and he by prayer and by special powers turns that
wafer into the actual body of Christ. That's what they teach.
And he by prayer actually turns the wine, he turns that wine
into the actual blood of Christ. So that when a man comes to Mass
and eats the wafer dipped in the wine, he is eating the flesh
and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Now Dr. Carson, who was the son
of a great and famous Baptist minister who wrote a book on
baptism, one of the best, challenged Dr. Cahill, one of the Catholic
leaders. He said, I challenge you. I can
prove to you if you'll meet me in public that you cannot turn
a wafer into the body of Christ nor a wine into the blood of
Christ. If you meet me, I challenge you, and I'll give you a hundred
pounds if you succeed in doing it." And Cahill asked him, how
can you disprove it? He said, I'll tell you what I'll
do. I'll dip that wafer in poison. I'll dip that wafer in poison,
and I'll hand it to you, and I'll tell you to turn it now
into the body of Christ. And if you can turn that wafer
into the body of Christ and eat it, it won't hurt you. The body
of Christ can't hurt a man. The body of Christ gives life,
not death. But he said, I'll take that wafer
and put it in poison and you'll try to turn it in the body of
Christ and eat it and you'll die right there. That very wafer
that you claim is the body of Christ will kill you. And Cahill
said, well, I didn't say that we could eat poison. Well, he
said, I'll do this then. Bring me one of your boys, one
of your altar boys, nine or ten years old. And you pray over
that wine. And you turn that wine into the
blood of Christ, and then I'll challenge that boy to drink one
quart of it. And I'll guarantee you, he'll
leave that church drunk, intoxicated. Now, if you turn that wine into
the blood of Christ, it cannot intoxicate that boy. That boy
could drink a barrel of it, and it would not intoxicate him,
it would not harm him. The blood of Christ cannot harm
a man. The blood of Christ gives life.
Needless to say, Cahill would not meet Carson publicly on those
grounds. They cannot. And even if they
could, Christ said the flesh prophet is nothing. Not drinking
his actual blood or a symbol of his blood. It is drinking
in his word, his message, the meaning of his shed blood. A
man could drink his blood and not drink into himself the meaning
of his blood. The message of his blood. It's
not eating his flesh or a symbol of his flesh. It is eating the
words, eating the message, eating the meaning of his broken body. Do you know what it means, he
was wounded for my transgression? Do you know what it means, by
his stripes I am healed? That's what saves, that's what
gives life. It's the message. He said, the
words that I speak. the words about my broken body,
the words about my shed blood, it is drinking in my word, it
is receiving my message, who he is and what he did and why
he did it. It's not embracing the flesh
of the Son of God. Turn to Luke chapter 11. Listen
to this dear woman here. So many people Admire Luke 11,
verse 27. So many people want to embrace
the person of Christ. They want to touch Him and cling
to Him and embrace Him. And He is great and the greatest
of the greatest. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. We kiss His feet. We bow in His presence. We adore
His glory. But it's not embracing his flesh.
Listen to this woman. King Depice, verse 27, Luke 11,
as he spake this thing, a certain woman of the company lifted up
her voice and said, Blessed is the womb that bare thee. Oh,
what a great man you are. What a magnificent man. Blessed
is the womb that bare thee. Blessed are the paps which thou
hast sucked. But he said, now listen, Yea,
rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and do
it. The womb that bare me cannot
save you, but the word of God can. The pats that gave me suck
cannot give you life, but the word of God can. Even my flesh,
he said, profiteth nothing. He said, except you eat my flesh
and drink my blood, you have no life in you. They began to
punch each other and say, how can he give us his flesh to eat
and his blood to drink? Poor religionists, bound by their
forms and their rituals and their ceremonies and things they can
see and hear and feel and do. Christ said the flesh profiteth
nothing, even my flesh, if you could eat my flesh, if you could
drink my actual blood, it profiteth nothing. It's not embracing his
flesh in which he's robed, it's embracing the word about his
flesh. You see what I'm saying? It's
embracing the word about his incarnation. It's embracing the
word about his death, about his resurrection. I'll be perfectly
honest with you. If I could have lived during
the days that Christ walked this earth, or live now, I'd take
now. Absolutely. Because I'm fearful
that I might be among those who had admired his flesh, and admired
his power, and admired his miracles, admired his greatness. Talked
about that. and not been among those who
understood, who saw His glory, we beheld His glory. The glory
of His incarnation, the glory of His sacrifice, the glory of
His shed blood, the glory of His resurrection, and the meaning
of it, the life of it. You see what I'm saying? It's not holding to the cross.
I see these poor people, like that ball player got up the other
night, and he was going to bat, you know, and he went like this,
and somebody asked the priest, said, does that help him? The
priest said, yeah, if he's a good hitter, it'll help him. I see
poor people clinging to these crosses, you know, and I see
crosses in the church, and crosses on the steeple, and crosses all
over the place. It's not holding to the cross.
It's holding to the hope of the cross. It's holding to the person
of the cross. It's holding to the message of
the cross. When Paul said, we preach the cross of Christ, God
forbid that I should grow or save, and the cross of Christ,
I determined to know nothing among you, save Christ and Him
crucified. He's not talking about preaching a block of wood. He's
talking about preaching a person, a victory, a sacrifice. The mere embodiment of religion
in flesh, in form, in ceremony, even if it be the flesh and form
of the Son of God himself, will profit you nothing, if the spirit
of truth and of faith and of understanding is not yours. Now listen to this carefully.
Jesus Christ in the flesh. was the embodiment of the gospel. And it is not his flesh, but
the spirit of that gospel that gives life. In other words, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the embodiment of the gospel. He is the gospel. But
he didn't save people by going about touching them. He saved
people by dying for them. He didn't save people by giving
them actually pieces of his flesh and a drop of his blood with
magic to transform them from sinners to saints, from death
to life. They were saved by looking to
what he did, the Spirit of Christ. Now watch this. Even so, the
outward forms of religion, Bible reading, Prayer, baptism, the
Lord's table, all of these outward forms of religion are useless,
they profit nothing if the spirit of what they keep is not there.
Religious creeds and duties and ordinances without life are like
a dead body without a spirit. Suppose I go to a mother and
I say, Would you be content to have
at home in your crib a child that's dead? The child is as good as ever.
There are no legs missing. There are no arms missing. Every
part of the body is there. It looks as beautiful as it ever
was. Ah, no, said the mother, no,
I would not be content to have that dead child in the cradle.
Even though there are no parts missing, even though it's beautiful
as ever, there's a great difference. It was alive and now it's dead.
Dead. And we transfer that idea, this
is what I'm saying, the embodiment of religion. All of the creeds and rituals
and ceremonies and forms of religion, if the life is not there, it's
dead. There's such a thing, take the
ordinance of baptism. Here it is, here's the pool,
here's the preacher, here are the people, congregation of witnesses,
here's the solemn hour, we take a person into that pool, everything,
all of the things that are needful are there. If that person does
not understand the meaning of baptism, does not comprehend
and discern what it's all about, Christ died for our sins, was
buried and rose again, We're crucified with Christ, buried
with Christ, risen to walk in newness of life. It's a dead
ordinance. You see what I'm saying? The flesh can't profit that man
that's being baptized. No way. It can't profit you,
me, it can't profit anybody. It's dead. The spirit is not
there. The life is not there. Take the
ordinance of the Lord's table. We gather here around the Lord's
table. There's the wafers, the bread, there's the wine. Here
are the people, here's the preacher, there's the deacons to serve
them. It's a dead thing if we do not discern his broken body
and his shed blood. We do not understand that our
Lord came down here in human flesh and obeyed the law and
went to the cross and died for us, died for us under the wrath
of God, under the judgment of God, died for our sins, paid
the debt. Do we spiritually understand
it? Have we spiritually embraced
it? Have we spiritually received
it? Is it real to us? If it's not,
it's a dead thing. It profits nothing. You can sit
in here the rest of the year and keep taking crackers and
bread and wine or whatever you use and just keep eating it and
eating it and you'll go out a dead person, a dead sinner. What is
the use to utter prayers if I have not the spirit of communion?
What is the use to sing if I have not the spirit of praise? What
is the use to give if I have not the spirit of generosity?
What is the use of fasting if I have not the burden to fast? I used to be, when I was in school,
we used to have these, what's called revival meetings, and
they'd make a list for prayer, you know, going to pray all night.
One fellow was supposed to get up at 11 and pray, and one get
up at 12 and pray, and one get up at 1 and pray, and one get
up at 2 and pray, They'll sign these things, you set the alarm
clock and it goes off. Oh my goodness, I got to go down
there to the church. I promised the preacher I'd pray
at 2.15. Boy, stay in bed. Stay in bed. Don't you do it. My advice to
myself and to you, if you can't pray in the Spirit, don't dishonor
God with your dead prayer. That's so. If you can't worship
in the Spirit, don't dishonor a holy God with your dead worship.
Don't bring any dead babies in the house of God. If you cannot
praise God and worship God and give in the Spirit, don't bring
dead form to a living God. That's so. Our Lord Jesus Christ said it's
the Spirit that gives life. It's the understanding of who
He is. It's the understanding of who I am. It's the understanding
of what price He paid. It's the understanding of His
sovereignty. It's not just the memorization
of some creeds. It's not just a mental agreement
to some facts. It's not just entering into a
congregation of believers. It's comprehending in my heart,
in my soul, believing in my heart that He's Lord. I believe we can get up here
and preach man's total depravity and people can go out saying,
I believe that, I believe man fell in the garden, I believe
man's totally depraved. But oh, for some people to go
forth crying, my sins are ever before me. Feeling the spirit
of it. It's not the creed, it's not
the orthodoxy, it's not the fundamentalism, it's the spirit of it. We can
come in here and talk about God's sovereignty, God's on the throne,
God's sovereign, all things work together for good to them who
are called according to His purpose. But unless some people enter
into the spirit of it, unless they can comprehend that He is
actually reigning and ruling over all things and all persons
and all providence, and can walk before Him with some comfort
and confidence and joy, God reigns. I remember old brother Mews told
me he was riding down the road with an old preacher up in South
Dakota, Josh Gravitt. He was riding an old Model T
Ford years ago, way back, John. And the old brother Josh Gravitt
always said, well, God's sovereign and we'll be thankful. That was
his big term, you know. God's sovereign and we'll be
thankful. And that old Model T, Mews said, left the road and
turned over and threw him out and threw old brother Josh grabbed
it out, and he's an old man, and something hit him right here
and broke a rib, and they found out later that rib had punctured
a lung. And that old man was lying there about half dead,
and Brother Muse went over and put a car seat under his head,
and busted his old gray hair out of his face, you know, and
looked at him and said, Josh, you all right? Well, he said,
Archie, God's sovereign, and we'll be thankful. Now that's
the spirit of it. That's what I'm talking about.
That man had learned the meaning of it. It wasn't a creed, it
wasn't a doctrine, and I'm tired of hearing men preach doctrines
in the pulpit and act like unbelievers outside. Disgusting. And to preach the satisfaction
of Christ, the glory of his crucifixion, and to have people not just say,
I believe Christ died on the cross, Be able in their hearts
to say, my sin, oh the bliss of that glorious thought, my
sin, not in part but in whole, are nailed to the cross and I
bear them no more. Praise the Lord, it welds my
soul. The flesh, prophet, is nothing. Memorize it. Become a student
of it. Become a bearer of it. But until
you become a believer of it, it profits you nothing. You can talk about his death,
you can talk about his blood, but until you become a participator
in it, it means nothing. Now let me give you this in closing.
I got this help from somebody else. Let's read verse 63 again. The flesh profiteth nothing,
it's the spirit that quickeneth. The word flesh in the scripture
has many different modifications of its one meaning. Here, the
word flesh means that which is outward. that which appeals to
the eye, that which appeals to the ear, that which appeals to
other powers of a man's bodily nature. External religion is
set forth here as the flesh. Now, you watch a TV religious
program, They've got the runways like the old burlesque theater.
They've got the beautiful robes and the fine scenery and the
moving camera and all of this that appeals to the eye. This
lovely programming that appeals to the ear. And all of this organization
that appeals to the bodily nature of man. That's outward. The word spirit here, not the
Holy Spirit. Or the word would have been capitalized,
but the word spirit here is the inward part of our faith. It's
that which the heart feels. Not that which the eye sees,
that which Christ said, blessed is he that hath, blessed are
they that have not seen and yet have believed. It's that which
the heart feels, it's that which the soul understands, it's that
which the mind perceives, it's that which the believer embraces
and feeds upon. Christ said this is what gives
life. That outward flesh cannot give
life. And if the body is dead without
the spirit, you can have all of these things. If a body doesn't
have a spirit, it's dead. It may have eyes and ears and
mouth and nose and arms and legs, but if it doesn't have a spirit,
it's a dead body. And even so, religion, with all
of its outward performances and rituals and ceremonies that appeal
to the flesh and appeal to the eye and to the ear and to the
bodily nature of man, without the spirit, They're dead. A man who is overwhelmed with
the glory of Christ does not need the glories of the flesh.
A man who is overcome with the splendor of Christ does not need
the splendor of ceremony. You mean our church is not a
holy place? That's exactly what I mean. I
mean, to the believer, every place is a holy place. You mean
we don't have any special altar to which we can come? Exactly,
that's exactly what I mean. To the believer, every rock is
an altar. We have no statues, no symbols,
no crosses, no shrines, no holy places, no such. We worship and
adore a person. A person. And the hymn writers
put it this way, Lord engrave it on my heart that thou the
one thing needful art, I could from all things parted be, but
never, never, never, Lord, from thee. Needful art thou to make
me live, needful art thou all grace to give, Needful to guide
me lest I stray, Needful to help me every day. Needful is thy
precious blood, Needful is thy correcting rod, Needful is thy
indulgent care, Needful is all prevailing prayer. Needful thy
presence, dearest Lord, Truth, peace, and comfort to afford,
Glory and praise be ever His, The one thing needful my Lord
is. Needful art thou to be my stay,
through all life's dark and stormy way, nor less in death thou wilt
needful be when I yield up my immortal soul to thee. The flesh
profiteth nothing, the Spirit liveth life. And I pray that every one of
us shall have learned from our Lord's words tonight the meaning of eating his flesh
and drinking his blood, the spirit of it, the message of it, the
word of it that we embrace. Our Father, we give thee praise,
thanksgiving for this word which thou hast brought to our hearts
tonight. We feel thou hast spoken. O Lord, that we might learn to
pray. not in word only, bringing before
thee dead sacrifices, dead words, dead worship, that
we might enjoy that blessed, sweet communion with the living
God. O Lord, that we might worship
Thee from our hearts and praise Thee from our souls, embracing
the Lord Jesus Christ in a vital living union. He is our refuge,
our strength. He is our hope. He is our life. We pray that the Holy Spirit
of the living God would take these words and make them to
be life to our hearts. for the glory of our Redeemer,
and in His name we pray. Amen.

The Very Heart of True Religion

What does the Bible say about the Spirit that gives life?

How do we know that the Holy Spirit regenerates dead sinners?

Why is the concept of the Spirit versus the flesh important for Christians?

What does eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood mean?

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The Very Heart of True Religion

What does the Bible say about the Spirit that gives life?

How do we know that the Holy Spirit regenerates dead sinners?

Why is the concept of the Spirit versus the flesh important for Christians?

What does eating Christ's flesh and drinking His blood mean?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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