In John Chapter 6, Jesus multiplies the five barley loaves and the two fish and treads upon the sea and then He preaches a sermon and declares that He Himself is the Bread come down from heaven.
Whoever comes down from heaven is God!
The “bread of God” is Jesus!
Vain religious people fall into idolatry as they try to follow the Lord’s absolute statement in verse 53-58:
John 6:53-58
53 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.
54 Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
55 For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.
56 He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.
57 As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me.
58 This is the bread which came down from heaven — not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever."
If we absolutely must “eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood” in order to have eternal life, then how can I do that?
In my last message I said that John Chapter 6 has nothing to do with the Lord’s Supper and everything to do with the Lord’s Supper!
The reason it has nothing to do with the Lord’s Supper is because Jesus is not saying that we must somehow literally eat His flesh and drink His blood.
It is the Doctrine of Christ that we must believe!
There are two verses in John 6 that clearly show the spiritual nature of the “eating” of His flesh and the “drinking” of His blood. It is what we are to believe, the doctrine, that matters and not some empty superstitious attempt to literally “eat” His flesh and “drink” His blood.
John 6:29
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent."
John 6:63
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
There are not many points of doctrine that is either more important or more abused in the visible church than the teaching of Christ on the bread of life.
Many have made an idol out of the bread used in the communion service when they believe that the literal bread has mysteriously become the actual body of Christ.
The literalists and the sacramentalists and the sacerdotalists stumble all over John Chapter 6 as they twist the Scriptures and devise ways to literally eat Christ’s flesh and drink His blood.
They are idolaters who worship a piece of actual bread that they believe has been changed in substance into the flesh of Christ and that the wine has been turned into His blood!
Friends, the “eating” of His flesh and the “drinking” of His blood is entirely a spiritual matter.
The Lord’s Supper is a simple memorial given to the church to remember the Lord’s death until He returns in glory and in judgment.
When Jesus told them that He is the Bread of God who comes down from heaven, they still did not understand, and thought only of literal bread.
34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
This morning we will examine the answer that Jesus gives to this request for literal bread. As is usually the case Jesus does not seem to immediately answer the question but rather tells them something profound that transcends the question.
What Jesus tells them is that eternal life is completely and finally in the Father’s sovereign will. Listen to what Jesus said:
John 6:35-40
35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
That passage alone should close the mouths of all the purveyors of man’s so-called free will as the cause of salvation. But sad to say it doesn’t!
They ask for bread:
34 Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
Jesus does not give them the literal bread they asked for but Jesus declares that He is the Bread of Life.
Jesus is I AM... the One who comes down from heaven.
Jesus is either an imposter or He is God because we saw that the OT Scripture is consistent in that every instance that the One who comes down from heaven is God.
Jesus said to come to Him.
What does it mean to come to Jesus?
Coming to Him is defined as believing His word and in trusting what God has done in Christ and not adding anything that you can do such as eating actual bread while believing that the bread is His flesh.
Jesus is Spiritual Bread and Living Water for spiritual hunger and spiritual thirst. Only Jesus can satisfy the hunger and thirst of a man’s soul.
Are you hungry? Come to Jesus!
Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus!
In verse 30 they said if they had a sign they would believe.
Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?
Verse 36 refers back to verse 26.
26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
Jesus said in verse 36, you have seen Me, yet you do not believe.
What does that mean? It means that the responsibility to believe is on you!
You have seen who Jesus is and the claims He makes for Himself, then why don’t you believe Him?
Sinner, why will you die?
Repent of your sin and come to Jesus for all your righteousness!
When Jesus returns at the end of the age, what reasons will men and women give for their unbelief?
Have they not been told that they are sinners? You have been told!
Have they not been told that there is only one Savior? You have been told!
Oh sinner, why will you die? Come to Christ!
And some do come!
And those who come, how is it that they have the desire to come?
The ones that come to Christ were given to Him by the Father.
Eternal life is completely and finally in the Father’s sovereign will.
Listen to what Jesus said:
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
Verse 37 is a sermon in itself. Many sermons could be preached from this single verse because it is so full of truth.
Let me give you just five subjects that could be preached for verse 37:
1. (Sin)
Our nature is such that we won't come except.vs44
2. (Sovereignty of God) It is the Father that gives us to Christ.
3. (Substitution)We are given to Him.
4. (Sanctification) They shall come.
5. (Security / Perseverance) They don't leave.
Cf. Psalm 65:1-4 and how it parallels John 6:37.
“The gospel of God's grace.” (Don Fortner)
There is no grace but free and sovereign grace.
There is no election but eternal and unconditional election.
There is no redemption but particular and effectual redemption.
There is no salvation but by the irresistible grace and omnipotent power of God the Holy Spirit.
There is no security but by the absolute preservation of God's immutable goodness.
And any pretended gospel that does not proclaim these things is, as Paul says, "another gospel' that is damning to the souls of men.
My burden today is to give glory to God in the salvation of sinners.
To do that I want to take us back before the creation of the world, when there was only the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!
“All that the Father Gives Me”
In verses 38-40 Jesus says three times that He came to do the will of the Father. He did not come to do His own will because there is only one will of God. Jesus told the disciples in 4:34,
“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.”
Failure to see the unity of the Godhead has led to many inept sermons where Christ is represented as taking the sinner’s part against an angry God.
They preach as though God the Father determined to condemn the sinner and Jesus the Son pleads for Him not to send them to hell! This is a distortion of what Jesus came to do.
John 3:16-17
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
In a previous message I gave credit to Charles Alexander for his singular work called the “Concert of the Trinity.” I will give you a printed copy of that message if you ask me for it.
And much of this outline comes from Charles Alexander’s commentary on John Chapter 6. What Mr. Alexander wrote on John’s Gospel is too valuable not to include in any sermon on John’s Gospel.
Briefly, the so-called “Cry of Dereliction,” “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?”, is usually presented as God the Father actually forsaking God the Son as He died on the cross.
Jesus is not in anguish of soul because the Father is actually forsaking Him.
Jesus is quoting the first and the last verses of Psalm 22. When He says, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” and “It is finished!”
He is declaring that He is the suffering Messiah of Psalm 22!
There was not then and there never will be a time when the will of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not in perfect harmony.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
We are on hallowed ground here. What profound mystery reigns here!
One thing is absolutely clear:
All that the Father has given to Christ will be saved!
The false charge that divine election is a device for keeping out of heaven a multitude of souls who would otherwise choose to go there is an invention of ignorance. The object of election is not to prevent the salvation of any, but to ensure the salvation of “great multitude that no man can number.”
Here, Christ, who lives in the will of the Father, in complete possession of the Father’s mind, asserts:
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
The Bible doctrine of the election of grace is inescapable, and those who oppose it do so by reserving for the sovereign will of man that which belongs to the sovereign will of God.
Several times I have said that a preacher who cannot preach the gospel from the OT simply does not know the gospel.
There is a story in the OT that we read to our children and it is a true story.
But there is so much more to this story than a man who finds a wife.
The OT story of Isaac and Rebekah [Genesis 24] is a picture of the Gospel.
Abraham’s oldest servant, who represents the Holy Spirit, is sent to find a bride for Isaac the son and the Spirit leads him to a particular woman.
It was God’s sovereign choice!
When the servant describes Isaac to Rebekah and she is asked, “Will you go with this man?” she willingly says, “I will go.” She is attracted and drawn by the Spirit.
There is free will! No bride ever went more willingly to a husband!
But her decision to go was based on belief of what she was told.
Rebekah had to believe that there was such a man as Isaac and she wanted to go to him. Her brother wanted her to wait for ten days before going but she had to go right then. So sinner you cannot delay coming to Christ!
So when the soul says, as the impulse of divine love thrills an awakened being, “I will go,” this is free will.
Yet the willingness to go is only aroused by a prior will, a firm decree, a counsel of everlasting covenant in the mysterious counsel of the Godhead from all eternity, a decree without beginning and without end.
God never “begins” to plan or purpose anything. His counsel is as eternal as Himself and so we are told that Christ’s atoning death was “as a Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.”
The fate of the wicked is from themselves. The joy of the redeemed is by that same sovereign choice of God, which appointed to Isaac his bride.
It is a false evangelism, which makes the sinner the ultimate target of all the divine striving. Not the sinner, but Christ, is the consummation of the divine purpose; and Christ must have His bride.
You do not have to be a theologian to interpret this verse:
Acts 13:48
Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
What passes for evangelism in most Baptist churches today makes man’s so-called free will supreme. They say that God has chosen everyone and it is the sinner who makes the sovereign choice!
They have made an idol out of man’s free will just as much as they make an idol out of the bread they say has been changed into the flesh of Christ!
What does the Bible say?
John 17:1-3
1 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.
3 And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
6-7 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
9 "I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
11 Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
24 "Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
What does the Bible say?
Ephesians 1:3-6
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
What does the Bible say?
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
13 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth,
14 to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
How does Acts 13:48 sound now?
Acts 13:48
Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
How do we know who has been given to Christ? They come to Christ!
All things therefore serve the glory of God and the will of God shall always and finally prevail.
What is the promise of the coming Redeemer in Genesis and throughout the OT but the supreme example of divine predestination?
That Christ must die and that He must not die in vain but should have that for which He suffered is as certain a destiny as the life of God itself.
There is no need to fear the doctrine of God’s eternal choice, when the alternative is total human apostasy.
At the judgment none will complain that it was a decree, which excluded him from heaven, for that would be to make God the only sinner in the universe, and Satan’s plot would therein be realized.
To come to Christ is to trust Him and not to trust in your works of righteousness. To come to Christ is to believe that you are guilty of sin against a holy God and that you deserve to be in hell and to know that the blood of Jesus is the only covering for your sin!
If you come to Christ begging for mercy how do you know whether or not He will save you? Because He said He would never cast you out!
What is Christianity?
It is not believing the Bible, though Christians do believe the Bible.
It is not going to church, though Christians do faithfully go to church.
It is not morality, although Christians are moral people.
What is Christianity?
Christianity is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christianity is coming to Christ, trusting Him only, and continuing in the faith in a life that feeds on the Bread from heaven.
“All that the Father Gives Me”
John 6:35-40
35 And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
36 But I said to you that you have seen Me and yet do not believe.
37 All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Amen
