Back tonight again to John chapter
6. John chapter 6 and this evening
we are looking at verses 48 through 59. John chapter 6 beginning with
verse 48. I am that 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. 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. These things said he in the synagogue
as he taught in Capernaum. Title of my message this evening
is Six Truths. Six truths about the bread of
life. Here in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah
chapter 55 and verse 2, man is asked this question. Wherefore
do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which satisfeth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and
eat that which is good. and let your soul delight itself
in fatness. Men, all men by nature, we spend
our money for that which is not bread. All our religious works,
all our devotions, all the rituals that we go through, and all the
ceremonies that man has invented, cannot purchase the bread of
life. It is purchased without money
and without price. Natural men labor for that which
does not and cannot satisfy, for only the bread of life can
do that. And it is not earned, but received. It is not bought, but given. That word there in Isaiah 55
continues, incline your ear, incline your ear, give me your
ear. Listen, incline your ear and
come unto me here and your soul shall live. And I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Now I want to bring out to us
this evening from these verses six truths for us to hear about
the bread of life from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. Six
truths about the bread of life that we hear from the lips, from
the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, Christ says that the bread
of life is a person. Verse 48. Now this is what he
says. You say, well the preacher. No,
forget about the preacher. This is what the preacher, the
prophet, this is what he said. I am the bread of life. The bread of life is a person. The bread of life is not a plan. It's not a system of theology.
The bread of life is a person. I am. I am, the Lord Jesus Christ
said, I am the bread of life. Now the person who is the bread
of life, he is, I am. I am. We know that God Almighty reveals
Himself in the Scriptures under a number of names. And each one
of the names which He chooses to call Himself by tells us something
else about Him. One name that we seek in the
beginning of the Scriptures especially is Elohim, the Creator. He who created the heavens and
the earth. And then we come across the name
El Shaddai, which tells us that He is God All-Sufficient. But this name here, I Am, is
His name Jehovah. I Am the Living One and this,
the Living Eternal One, and this especially points us to the fact
that God is a God of a covenant. The God of a covenant. The bread
of life is a person. I am, the Lord Jesus Christ said,
I am the bread of life. And this person here, he identifies
himself as Jehovah. In Isaiah chapter 47 and verse
4, We read these words, as for our Redeemer, as for our Redeemer, the Lord,
that is Jehovah, is His name, the Holy One of Israel. So that's
the first thing and that's so very, very important because
so many people are mistled by Satan into believing That eternal
life, that salvation, the bread of life is in something other
than Jesus Christ. And so they go through their
exercises, they go through their programs, whatever man may invent. And the harder it is for the
flesh, the more men like it. Strange, but true, isn't it?
The more difficult you make it for the flesh, the more man loves
it. But it all ends in eternal death
because the bread of life is not in a plan, not in a ceremony,
not in any works that we can do. But the bread of life is
a person. The second thing that we hear
about the bread of life in this passage is Christ says that the
bread of life came down from heaven. Notice that in the first
part of verse 50. This, this bread of life, this
is the bread which cometh down from heaven. This person who
is the bread of life, the great I AM, Jehovah, He came down. Now we recognize That when we
say something like that, we're not talking about locomotion.
We're not talking about him moving. The bread of life came down from
heaven. Now, how did he come down from
heaven? Well, the scriptures teach us
that the Son of God, the eternal Son of God, that He was made
flesh, God the Holy Spirit, prepared him a body from the virgin, which
he took into union with himself, with his deity, the Son of God,
and thus he came down. He came down. Look with me, keep
your places here, but turn over to the letter of Hebrews chapter
10, just a moment. Hebrews chapter 10. Beginning with verse 5, the writer
says, Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, I come, and the volume of the
book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when
he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering
for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein which
are offered by the law. Now think of the law of Moses
as it was given on Mount Sinai to the nation of Israel with
the tabernacle and the priesthood of Aaron and all the sacrifices,
all the animal sacrifices. Remember there were two lambs
every day, morning and evening. There was a Passover lamb at
the Passover feast. There was a lamb on the great
two, on the great day of atonement. One sacrificed, one taken off
as a scapegoat. I mean, just offering after offering. Blood spilled, blood shed, blood
shed, blood shed. But with all of that, even though
it was commanded by God, And they were doing what God commanded
them. God never found pleasure in that. In other words, it never satisfied
the justice of God. It was not possible that the
blood of a finite animal could satisfy the infinite God. Our sin against Him. Man's sin
against God is so great, the blood of animals could never
put away that sin. It typified, it pictured, but
it pictured that one who was to come. The one whom God prepared
a body and he came into this world. Notice he said in verse
9, then said he, lo I come, thank God. The bread came down from
heaven, right? The bread of life came down from
heaven. Then he said, Lo, I come, I come
to do thy will, O God. He'd taken away the first, that
he might establish the second. He came down from heaven, God
prepared him a body, and he came down to do God's will. that which all of the animals
which were sacrificed, their blood, it was impossible for
them to do. He, by His one offering, as He
goes on to say in that chapter, Hebrews 10, by one offering,
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Here's the
third thing back in our text tonight. Christ says that eating the bread
of life delivers from death and gives eternal life. These are the words of Christ.
First of all we saw he said I am the bread of life. The bread
of life is in a person. Second he said the bread of life
came down from heaven. Now thirdly notice In the last
part of verse 50 and the first part of verse 51, he says that
the bread of life delivers from death and gives eternal life. The last part of verse 50, that
a man may eat thereof and not die. And the first part of verse
51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any
man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. Just as the life
that this bread gives is spiritual and eternal, so the death, the
death from which this bread delivers is also spiritual and eternal. It does not It does not exempt
us from physical death. God's children, we all recognize
that the Lord doesn't come in our lifetime, that we will die. But even this, even the death
of a believer, if you are a child of God here tonight, even your
physical death works together for your good. Just as all things,
that's what the scripture says, right? Isn't that included in
all things? For we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are the
called according to His purpose. And yes, even our physical death,
it works together for our good. The physical death of those who
eat this bread, we recognize that our death will not be a
punishment. When it comes time for us to
leave this world, it will not be a punishment, but rather it
will be for us a welcome release. A welcome release from all that
is associated with sin. A welcome release. When a child
of God dies physically, it is a promotion. It is a graduation. I've attended a few graduations
in the last couple of weeks, and how thankful we are for those
who graduate. And my friends, when a child
of God breathes his last in this world, in this body, it's a graduation. God says, come up higher. Come
up higher. Eating the bread of life gives
life. both spiritual and eternal, which
shall never die. These are the words of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall never die. He shall never die spiritually. Once he eats this bread, he is
given spiritual eternal life, and he shall never die. The body, yes, but not that spiritual
life that He gives unto us. How dishonoring to God. Think about it. How dishonoring
to God. How dishonoring to the Lord Jesus
Christ. How dishonoring to this Bread
of Life for a person to say that a man may eat and receive spiritual
life, yea, eternal life, and then die. Can anything be more God dishonoring
than to teach that? When the Lord Jesus Christ clearly,
plainly says, whosoever, if any man eat this bread, he shall
never die. In John chapter 11, remember
when he was speaking to the sister of Lazarus who had died physically,
Martha. And he told her, your brother's
going to rise. And she said, oh, I know he's
going to rise. I know he's going to rise in
the resurrection. He said, Martha, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Here's the fourth thing. Christ
says the bread of life is his flesh. Notice that in verse 51,
the last part of verse 51. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now
when we look at these words, when we hear these words, our
Lord saying, the bread that I will give is my flesh. I would imagine
most all of us, and rightly so, we think of His incarnation. We think of that first chapter
of the Gospel of John that begins, In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then we
skip down to verse 14, And the Word became flesh. The Word was made flesh. Now that's certainly true. We
think about His incarnation, Him becoming a man. But do you
notice here His words are in the future tense? The bread that I will give is
My flesh. That's future, isn't it? Sure. Then in verses 53 and 54, He
speaks of His flesh and His blood separately. except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. He speaks, no
doubt, of His incarnation, but especially of His death, of His
sacrifice, which is the culmination, I might say, of His redemption
work. Remember in Romans 5 and verse
19, Beginning with verse 12, the apostle shows how that we
all fell in Adam, that he was our representative, he was our
head. And then in verse 19, he makes
this statement. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Now Adam's act of disobedience
by which we became sinners was one act when he took that fruit
and ate. So it is by Christ's one act of
obedience, which was his entire life, I understand, but that
one act when he bowed his head and dismissed his spirit and
said, it is finished. By that one act, as the apostle
said, shall many be made righteous. It was by his flesh, he said,
my flesh is the bread, his humanity in union with his deity. God cannot bleed. God is a spirit. He cannot die. But yet there's
such a union between the eternal son and the body which was prepared
him that what is said of one may be said of the other. That's
the reason we read that he purchased his church with the blood of
God. Now God doesn't have blood, but
the God-man does. And that blood has intrinsic
value, doesn't it? Because of whose blood it is. Just like a man, a preacher friend
of mine, I heard him say one time, heard him say it more than
once, it's not how long Christ was on the cross, it's who was
on the cross. Who was he? Who is he? Now here's
the fifth thing. Let me take a drink first. Christ says the bread of life
must be eaten to have life. All these things I've said thus
far, but don't miss this. Christ says the bread of life
must must be eaten in order to a person having life. Notice that in verse 53. 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. This
bread of life must be eaten. When the Lord Jesus Christ uses
that word except, that means there are no exceptions. No exceptions. I remember when I was in language
school and we were studying grammar. And you know the thing about
grammar, I guess no matter which language you're studying, there's
always rules and then there are exceptions to the rules. And
those exceptions, that's what you just have to memorize. When
the Lord Jesus Christ used the word except, there are no exceptions. He told Nicodemus, except a man
be born again. And he prefixed that with, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. No exceptions. He told his disciples, except
you be converted and become as little children, you shall not
enter into the kingdom of God. No exceptions. He told the multitudes that except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. And he told those who thought
themselves better than others, except you repent. you shall
all likewise perish. And he tells these Jews this
day in the synagogue of Capernaum, except you eat the flesh of the
Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. And
his words are true to all of us here tonight. Christ says
the bread of life must be eaten. How then does one eat his flesh
and drink his blood? Well, we know not literally,
not in the Lord's Supper. You know, man has taken Christ's
words and instead of recognizing the spiritual meaning, they've
tried to make this literal. At one time, just as they started
sprinkling babies or baptizing, they call it baptism. I guess
it was immersion in the beginning. They felt like that they had
to put a baby under water for that baby to be born again, except
you're born of water and of the Spirit. You cannot see the kingdom
of God. And they did the same thing with
this. There was a time when they tried to put bread and wine in
the mouth of babies, thinking that would give them life. The Lord's Supper had not been
instituted when our Lord spoke these words. There's no reference
at all to the Lord's table. How then is it? It is by faith. It is by faith that we eat his
flesh and drink his blood to have eternal life. It does no
good to look at the bread. Think about this in the natural
setting. If you were hungry and you needed
Bread to eat, you could look at a table well spread, but you've
got to eat that bread for it to help you, for it to nourish
your body. It does no good to admire the
bread, maybe the most beautiful dinner that's ever been prepared. It may appeal to your senses
in many ways, but that's not the issue. You must eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood or we have no life in us. It is by faith that we lean upon
Him. We trust in Him. We see and believe. Yes, His body was given as that
sacrifice to put away our sins and that's all our salvation. That's all our hope tonight,
as that one sacrifice for sin forever, that God accepted that
sacrifice for me. I eat that flesh and drink that
blood. And here's the last thing, the
sixth thing. Christ says that those who eat
the bread of life, they dwell in Him and He dwells in them. Just like you take a piece of
bread and and you eat it, that bread's in you, cannot be separated
from you. There's a union with you and
Christ. Those of you who trust in the
Lord Jesus Christ, you dwell in Him, He dwells in you. Isn't
that what He says in verse 56? He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. That union, just like
the branch, he said, I'm the true vine, you are the branches. Of all the illustrations our
Lord used, it's so easy to see a branch separated from the vine. It cannot bring forth fruit.
There's no life in it. The life is in the vine. and
the life is in Christ and in union with Him, then we have
everlasting life. He said, because I live, you
also shall live. Let me close with this verse
in Ecclesiastes, if you would like to turn there with me. Ecclesiastes
chapter nine and verse seven. I may be using the verse out
of its context, but bear with me. Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and
verse 7. Go thy way, eat thy bread with
joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth
thy work. Remember that verse that says,
for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
When you eat this bread and drink this wine, this blood, now, as
the writer here says, now God accepteth thy works. They're
called good works, aren't they? But until a person has life and
faith and obedience, they're dead works, and God never accepts
them. But now, go thy way, eat thy
bread, drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God now accepteth
thy works. May the Lord bless this word
to all of us here this evening.