Let's turn back this morning
to Ruth, the book of Ruth. Our text this morning will be
verse six, but I'm going to read the first five verses as well
that we looked at last time. Ruth chapter one. Now it came to pass in the days
when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land, and
a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to sojourn in the country
of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of
the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi, and
the name of his two sons, Malon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem,
Judah. And they came into the country
of Moab and continued there And Limelech, Naomi's husband, died,
and she was left and her two sons. And they took them wives
of the women of Moab. The name of the one was Orpah,
and the name of the other Ruth. And they dwelled there about
10 years. And Mahlon and Chilion died,
also both of them. And the woman was left of her
two sons and her husband. She arose with her daughters-in-law
that she might return from the country of Moab, for she had
heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited
his people in giving them bread. Think about the first word in
our text, verse number six, then, then, after having lost her husband,
and her two sons and living in a foreign country for over 10
years. Then she heard that the Lord
had visited his people and giving them bread. Then she returned,
arose to return to her homeland. Naomi heard good news. She heard
good news. The Lord had visited his people
and giving them bread." The word gospel actually literally means
good news or glad tidings. I'm sure most everyone here has
heard of William Tyndale. William Tyndale was the man who
translated the scriptures into English. in the 1500s. He gave his life to this work,
to translate the scriptures. In fact, he told one learned
man, to whom he was speaking one day, that learned man told
him that it was better to have the laws of the Pope than to
have the laws of God. And William Tyndale told him
that if God spared his life, The plow boy in England would
know the scriptures better than that learned man. But William
Tyndall, he gave his life to translate the scriptures. I don't
know if we really appreciate, I know we don't, as much as we
should, the privilege, the blessing of having the word of God, the
word of the living God, the word of the true God, that we have
that in our hands, and that we have the ability to read God's
holy word. What a blessing. That man gave
his life. He had to leave England. He went
to the Netherlands. He was eventually found out there,
though he was hiding, and he was hanged or strangled to death,
and his body was burned when they took him down from the rope. But the point I want to make
in mentioning William Tyndale is, in translating the scriptures
into English, this is the way he saw or understood that the
term gospel, what it should really mean, what it really means, the
word gospel. He said, it signifies good, very
glad and joyful tidings. that makes a man's heart glad
and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy. The gospel, the
gospel of Jesus Christ, how it is that God saves sinners, how
it makes a man's heart glad, fills him with joy, causes him,
as he said, to sing, to dance, and to leap for joy. She heard. This was the gospel. It's a picture,
I should say, of the gospel. Naomi heard good news. And the
good news was that the Lord hath visited His people and given
them bread. The Lord hath visited His people
in giving them bread. Now I want you to turn with me
to the gospel of John chapter 6. We're going to spend the rest
of our time here in John chapter six. And beginning with verse 51,
I want to read through verse 58. 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. 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. Whoso 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 eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth 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. I have five sayings of the Lord
Jesus Christ in these verses, five sayings that I want to point
out to us this morning. The first saying is that he came
down from heaven. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven, verse 51. Naomi had heard that the Lord
had visited his people and the Lord Jesus Christ, he declares
the same here, he came down from heaven. The Lord hath visited
his people. Remember at his birth, the angel
told Joseph, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. It is by the word the eternal
word. In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word is God. We know he is
the eternal word, that is, the second person in the blessed
trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The eternal
word was made flesh. That's the way he came down from
heaven. This is what he said here in
our text. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. He came down from heaven by joining
to His person, His eternal person, the eternal Son of God, that
body that God the Holy Spirit prepared Him from the Virgin
Mary. He came down. He visited His
people. In James chapter 1 in verse 17,
the apostle said, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh
down from above, from the father of lights. He is that good gift. He is that perfect gift. And
in fact, the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9 in verse 15,
he is his unspeakable gift. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. In other words, we do not have
the ability, none of us, no man does, to rightly speak about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Him being made flesh, he is God's
unspeakable gift. Think about this, the God who
created the earth, All things were made by Him, and without
Him was not anything made that was made. That the very God who
created this world walked upon His earth. He walked here upon
His earth. He visited. That's the point
I want to make. Aren't you thankful this morning
that He visited His people? That He might give us bread. Just like the word that Naomi
heard, the Lord hath visited his people and hath given them
bread. The second saying, that's the
first saying, I hope you will follow with me now. The first
saying is, I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
The second saying in verse 53 is, except you eat this bread,
you have no life in you. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except, no exceptions, no exceptions,
except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. Now I don't see how that could
be misunderstood, do you? how the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ could, in any possible way, be misunderstood to believe
and to think, as so many people today do, that there are many
ways, there are many ways to God. There are many ways to have
eternal life. No, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is the truth, He is the truth. I am the way, the truth. And
here is the truth who is speaking. And he says, except you eat the
flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life
in you. Now, the men and women that heard
these words this day in Capernaum, they had life, physical life. They did. In fact, he had fed
them, most of them, if not all of them, the day before. He had
multiplied the bread and the fish and fed 5,000 men plus women
and children. And then he crossed over the
lake to this city of Capernaum and they followed him there the
next day. And he's speaking to them in
the synagogue. They had physical life. Sure
they did. But the life that he is speaking
about is spiritual life. It's that life that Adam lost
in the garden. God told Adam that in the day
that thou eatest thereof, of that fruit of the tree, of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt surely die. In dying thou
shalt die. Now he didn't die physically
that day. He lived hundreds of years on. But he did die spiritually that
day. And we see his communion with
God was immediately broken, was cut off. That's the reason he
tried to hide himself from God. Tried to cover himself with fig
leaves and run from the very presence of God. He had no spiritual
life. He had lost that life. And the
same is true of you and me and these men to whom the Lord was
speaking that day. And there's only one way to have
spiritual life. He said, except you eat the flesh
and drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
Doesn't matter how religious you may be, doesn't matter how
many times you're baptized, it doesn't matter how many times
you're faithful in church or anything else that men do and
hope by these things that they will have eternal life. No, the
Lord said there's only one way. These men had physical life,
but they didn't have spiritual life. Listen to what the Apostle
Paul wrote in Ephesians 4 and verse 18. He's describing men
like our Lord was speaking to. He said, having the understanding
darkened. When the scriptures speak about
the heart of man, we know it's referring to the understanding,
the will, and the affections. The understanding of every man
as we come into this world is darkened. Having the understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God. What does it
mean to be alienated? It means to be separated, doesn't
it? To be cut off from the life of
God through, he said, through the ignorance that is in them
because of the blindness of their heart. All of these descriptions
in that verse of a lost person, they have to do with spiritual,
eternal life. A man may be a genius in the
sciences. He may have PhDs in every science
you can think of, but in spiritual matters, like the nature of God,
the truth about God, the fact that God is the creator of all
things, he doesn't understand, and he cannot understand the
things of God. How many people believe in what
they call pantheism? That God is in everything. That
this pulpit is God. The piano is God. God is in everything. No, no, no. God is a personal
God. Man may believe and be very intellectual
and educated in many different things. But spiritually speaking,
a man, until he eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son
of God. He has no life. Paul said in
1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14, the natural man, that's what
we're talking about here, the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness unto him. How
many people have you could bring into this building and sit next
to you and what you rejoice in and what you love to hear, the
gospel of Jesus Christ. It means everything to you. They
would, that's foolish. I may be very learned in the
things of this world. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the spirit of God, You know the story of William
Wilberforce, the man in England who fought for the ending of
the slave trade. He was a member of Parliament. And he had a friend, William
Pitt, who became the prime minister of England. And William Wilberforce,
he loved to hear John Newton preach. that God had called and saved
the one who wrote that hymn, Amazing Grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. And William Wilberforce talked
his friend into going to hear John Newton preach. And they
came out, and Wilberforce, he was rejoicing in the truth. in
the gospel of Jesus Christ and William Pitt, it mean anything
to him. He couldn't understand why such
an educated man as his friend, William Wilberforce, why he would
ever go to hear someone like John Newton preach. It's foolishness
unto the natural man. But here's the statement, that
verse goes on that's so important, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him. Now listen, neither can he know
them, because they're spiritually discerned. Now, the apostle here,
he didn't merely say that the natural man doesn't know the
things of the Spirit of God, but apart from the grace of God,
he cannot know them. He must be born again. He must be born of the Spirit
of God. This is the reason preaching
the gospel is so important. This is the reason sending and
supporting missionaries and sending out workers that go to the mission
and the rest home. We have several here that do
that. And what a privilege it is and what a blessing and how
important it is to send the gospel out. Because our Lord said, accept. You eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the Son of Man. You have no life in you, no spiritual
life, no eternal life. The third saying, verse 54, is
that all who eat his flesh and drink his blood have eternal
life. Verse 54. Whoso eateth my flesh
and drinketh my blood hath eternal life. And I will raise him up
at the last day. And it doesn't say he may have
eternal life. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood may have eternal life. Perhaps he will have eternal
life. It doesn't say that, does it?
Those are not the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, hath. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life. One preacher said, I'll tell
you what that word hath means. He's got it. She's got it. Whosoever eateth my flesh and
drinketh my blood hath eternal life. Now it behooves us at this
point to ask this question, and it is a very, very important
question. How does a person eat his flesh
and drink his blood? How do we do that? How does a
person eat his flesh and drink his blood? You know, there are
those who teach that it is by their religious ceremony, some
religious rite that they've conjured up, that they are able to turn
that wafer that they provide into the actual body of Christ
and that men eat it. They say that though the wafer
still looks like a wafer, and though it still tastes like a
wafer, and though if you sent it to a laboratory and had it
analyzed, it would still have the properties of a wafer, but
no, no, it's no longer a wafer. It's now literally the body and
blood of Jesus Christ. And you must eat it to have life. We know our Lord's language here
is what we call metaphorical. Just as when he said, I am the
door, by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved and go
in and out. When we read that, we don't think
that he's a literal door, do we? Of course not. And when he
said, except a person eat my flesh and drink my blood, we
know he's not speaking in a literal sense here. Cannibalism would
be that. And the scripture, especially
with the Jewish people, blood God warned them in his law so
much about the blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And you shall not eat meat with
the blood. I mean, they had a certain way
they had to slaughter their food, their animals, so that there
would be sure there was no blood left in the meat. Why? Because
the blood, pictures, the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood. Our Lord is speaking in a metaphorical
way. You know, one of the old Puritans,
more than one, but they used to say this, when you come up
on a hard passage, When you're reading the scripture and you
come up upon a hard passage, they said, usually the key is
right above the door. Right above the door. Now, in
our country, we put the key under the doormat, don't we? But evidently,
the habit at that time was to lock the door and put the key
up there on the door sill, up above the door. And they would
say, when you come to a passage of scripture, it may be difficult
to understand, the key is usually right above the door. And that's
certainly true here, if you look back to verse 47. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. We see that within just a few
verses and just a few minutes as our Lord spoke these words,
he interchanges the word believeth and eateth, and both express
the very same thing. Whosoever believeth on me hath
everlasting life. Whosoever eateth the flesh and
drinketh the blood of the Son of Man hath eternal life. What we must see, what we must
see in these words, eating the flesh and drinking the blood
of Christ for life, is that we do not bring anything. We receive. We don't add anything. We don't
contribute anything. We receive. We do not work for
life, but by faith, By believing in Him, we enter into His finished
work. You see the fact that He says
His flesh and His blood separating, that speaks of His death, doesn't
it? The life of the flesh is in the blood. When the blood
is taken away, there's no life. And what our Lord is talking
about is His sacrifice, His vicarious sacrifice. which simply means
that He died in the place and in the stead of everyone who
believes in Him. He took our place. He was punished
for our sins, that is, for the sins of those who believe in
Him. We don't bring anything, we receive. 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. The fourth saying is that there
is a mutual indwelling of all who eat his flesh and drink his
blood. Look in verse 56. There is a
mutual indwelling of all who eat his flesh and drink his blood. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood, now watch this, dwelleth in me, and I in him. There was a time when we were,
and you may be like this this morning, may be here lost without
Christ. There was a time when we were
dead in trespasses and sins. We were in God's world without
hope, but then by God's Grace and mercy being convinced of
our sins, we were pointed to Christ. We looked to Christ. We looked to His sacrifice. We
looked to His flesh and His blood. We believed in Him. We came to
see him like that manslayer. You know the law of the manslayer
in the Old Testament, the six cities of refuge. A man accidentally
caused the death of another man and he had to go. He had to go
to a city of refuge and he ran, no doubt. And the revenger of
blood was on his trail. And he ran until he came to that
city of refuge. And once he passed over the threshold
of that city, he was saved. And as a sinner, we see our need,
our sin, and we see Christ as the answer, as a refuge, and
we look to him. We trust in him. And he comes
to live in us. Christ in you, the Apostle Paul
said. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ lives because He lives,
we live. He is our life. He comes to live
in us. But isn't it wonderful also to
read here, dwelleth in me and I in Him. We dwell in Him like
that That man did, who entered into the refuge, the city of
refuge, we enter into Christ by faith, and he dwells in us. He lives in us. And we're sealed. We're sealed with God the Holy
Spirit. We're given the earnest of the
Spirit in our hearts. The last saying, the fifth saying,
it's really kind of a repetition, but in verse 58, He that eateth
this flesh shall live forever. Verse 58. This is that bread
which came down from heaven, that as your fathers did eat
manna, not as your fathers did eat manna and are dead, he that
eateth of this bread shall live forever. Our life in this world
will come to an end, we know that. We'll not live here forever
in this body. That'd be a curse, wouldn't it?
That'd be a curse if you couldn't die. This body wears out. And
eventually, as we read in the 12th chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes,
life becomes a burden just to lift up, just to walk up a little
step. And you can't sleep at night
and all those descriptions there. of the old man, the grinders,
the teeth are few. And you can't hear. I know we've
got all these things today to try to replace those parts that
wear out, but still, it'd be a curse, wouldn't it? To live
and live and live in this world and your body continue to age
and get sick and to begin to die, really. We're not going
to live in this world forever, but the real you, the real you. See, we're just living in a tent
now, but the real you who lives in this tent will never die. We'll live forever. And I want
you to look at one other verse, verse 32, here in John 6, and
I'll be through. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my Father, now notice this, my Father giveth you the
true bread from heaven. The true bread. No other bread
can satisfy a hungry soul. Other bread can satisfy a hungry
body, but only the true bread. satisfies a hungry soul. The scripture says, our Lord
said, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. The true bread which came down
from heaven that gives life unto the world. Once you eat this
bread, Drink from this fountain, you'll never thirst again. You'll
never hunger again. You have everything. You have
satisfaction, right? I believe it was Augustine, that
old, they call him a church father. I believe he lived in the 300s. He said that God had created
man with the capacity to know him. And until a person comes
to know God, There's a part, there's a place for that knowledge. And until a person comes to know
God, they'll never be satisfied. And I believe there's something
to that. You see people that are never
happy, never content, never satisfied, always running, always looking,
always hoping. No, he gives this true bread.
It gives life. It gives satisfaction, doesn't
it? It does. Amen. We're going to sing a hymn number
212.