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166 Lord, thou hast drawn us after thee. Now let us run. Never tired.
What in thy love possess we not are star?
Hour by night, our sun by day number 166.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank Thee for this hymn that we have just been singing about Thy tender mercies.
That pursue us and close us in on every side. And truly we do feel that at times our father just overwhelmed by how richly we're blessed and we, we thank you for this. So we would ask for help for this further time as we have thy word open this afternoon that there would be a fresh portion for our hearts that we would continue to be fed on Christ that that finest of the wheat and just that there would be strength given for each one of us to continue on a little bit longer. So it asked for help reach 1 to pay attention to the alert and, uh, just receive the portion that that would have for us this afternoon.
We would ask these things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
In the mind of the brethren, do continue in uh, John chapter 6. There's a lot more for us in that chapter.
Well, we read through verse 40 in the first meeting. Perhaps we could read from 41 to the end. But this chapter is got a lot of connections throughout so we would not restrict comment either verse by verse or only to the portion we read. But perhaps we could read from 41 to the end.
The Gospel of John starting UH chapter 6.
Starting with verse 41.
The Jews then murmured at him, Because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose Father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent him, brought which hath sent me. Draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
It is written in the profits, and they shall be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. Not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your Father should 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 ye 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 meet 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 had sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your Father should eat manna and our dead. He that eateth up his bread shall live forever. These things said He, and the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What? And if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
It is the Spirit that quicken it. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore I said unto you, that no man can come unto me, except that were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.
00:05:19
Then said Jesus unto the 12, Will you go away? Will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe and assure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you? 12 And one of you is a devil. He spake of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he that should betray him, being one of the 12.
I might take the liberty of doing what uh, brother Porter suggested and go back a couple of verses, umm, and make a comment if I could. We had yesterday at the open meeting the the topic of eternal security. And today we have the topic of predestination or God's sovereignty in salvation. And if you go back to verse 37, it says all that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will no wise cast out for if I came down from heaven.
Not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which He has given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again. So here we have the Father giving to Christ certain ones. And if you could turn over to Ephesians chapter one for a moment.
Season chapter one and.
Starting in verse 3.
His blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us. So that's the work of God the Father and my Father. He has chosen us in Him in Christ for the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated us on the adoption of children by Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.
So it was the desire of the Father in eternity past to redeem to him a bride, a Church for for the Lord Jesus Christ.
May the Lord Jesus Christ coming down to earth as a perfect servant to do His Father's will and drawing all those as a Father umm, gave to Him. Umm so that our our when I think of eternal Security question.
God knew from the maternity past.
We are going to bring salvation and Christ came down with in perfect harmony with his Father's will went to the cross in light of redeeming those people. But we don't just have God's sovereignty here in verse four. We have the balance of man's responsibility and that is still responsible and it says this is the will of him that sent me that everyone which seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up to the last day. So the Father giveth the Son purchased and yet it is still.
This man is still responsible to believe and.
May I'd like to turn to Romans chapter 3. It's a difficult subject, the sovereignty of God and man's responsibilities like two parallel railroad tracks. They never meet in the in our human mind. We never bring those two rails together. God's sovereignty and advance umm responsibility. God can reconcile those two things, but what helps me understand it is when you look at Romans chapter 3.
And let's start in verse 10 as is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that understand that there is none that seeketh after does they're all gone out of the way. They are, uh, together become unprofitable. There is none to do with good. No, not one. The state of every man is that there's none righteous. No, not one says none that seeketh after God. They've all gone astray. That includes everyone from the beginning. So we're all responsible, uh, for action.
And if someone may think that.
Well, it seems unfair that some UMM elected for salvation and others weren't best thinking that there are people out there that actually wanna be safe that aren't safe. So I've heard this analogy before, and it's helpful for me when you think of a boat overturning upriver from Niagara Falls and there's a bunch of people floating down that river towards the brink.
And suppose God could reach out of heaven and save those people, and he called out to them.
According to Scripture, according to Romans 3, none of those men have raised their hand up for help. They may even bath the hand away. No man wants God. Everyone rejects me. But in His grace He pulls some of us out of that condition and puts us on the road to salvation. So it may be difficult to reconcile that sovereignty versus our responsibility. They have to remember that no man in their natural mind and natural state as a Sinner.
00:10:27
Whatever, look up to choose God.
All of sin, God in his grace.
Umm, pull some of it there to that condition. I also like to think that it, you know, at the in the eternal state when we if we could witness those going into health will be no one, no one there saying it's not fair. I don't deserve to be here. We all deserve to be there. The only ones that will be able to say I don't deserve to be here. But those of us in heaven, we can say we don't deserve to be here. It's only through God's grace that I'm here.
So I just wanted to add those thoughts, like for me, we had internal security yesterday and God's sovereignty and salvation. And for me, my security lies in God the Father's hands if you chose me from eternity past, and I can rest in that knowing it did Grace alone, nothing of myself.
I was thinking about what you were saying in connection with those that were in the water approaching the breaking of, uh, Niagara Falls in, you know?
God, your sovereignty will bring things into our lives. I was thinking when you were talking about that, I was thinking of Romans 10, verse 13. For those two hours shall fall upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And that's only because.
The Lord has just brought something in our lives that we have come to an end of ourselves and and we there's nothing and we know there's nothing that we can do to save ourselves is to call out to him.
Romans 312 I noticed in the Darby translation says there is none that doeth good. No, not even one, no exceptions. So apart from God working.
We're doomed.
And uh, is with respect to internal security, I believe we have in our chapter.
In verse 39, that which would indeed, uh, reinforce the thought that we are secure because it says here.
And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He has given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again.
At the last day, now to suggest that.
One can lose their salvation.
Is a reflection in a very negative way on the Lord Jesus Christ saying that He is not able to fulfill his Father's will. His Father's will is that he would lose no one, not even one.
And so are we trying to say that you can't accomplish his father's will. It's a terrible insult.
To the Lord Jesus, to the Son of God to suggest.
Anything of this nature?
No, we, we want to be careful with people that have been taught poorly and, uh, some of us were there and, uh, but.
Yeah, I've noticed in, in my experience over the years that those who hold the doctrine that you can lose your salvation, the same ones tend to hold that the Lord Jesus could have sinned, you know, and it's an interesting, I found it interesting. It always seems like the same people hold back doctrine as well. Uh, so, you know, the whole notion of a, of a free will is always just trying to elevate man to.
To God's level and we know where that comes from, or to bring God down to our level as if we can, uh, ask that question that's asking Romans 9. So I just put that out there. You, you may find the same thing. It's a subtle attack. It's a subtle attack on the character of God and on the person of Christ.
Just want to say uh.
The end of verse 37.
If your soul is troubled and.
As to the doctrines of election and God's sovereignty, remember this.
00:15:05
Nothing can ever take away from the truth of these words. He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
Just car, just go.
He won't cast you out. Nothing can take away from the preciousness of those words.
Or God's desire that all be saved and it it's just. It may be another way of putting what's already been said, but the fact that God has elected some does not prevent the rest from coming. Remember that.
I mean, we may say that we know because of man's nature that they won't come, but if you're hearing those words, you need to understand that God in no way prevents anybody from coming.
You question, well, am I elected and am I not just come?
He will not cast you out. It's one of his glories. This man receiveth sinners beautiful. The outside of the door. Whosoever will may come.
We present the gospel to man as responsible, accountable on the inside, elect before the foundation of the world. So we don't preach the, uh, predestination. I don't know who's predestinated when I take the gospel out, uh.
I I give them the message that, uh, whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely. We present the gospel to people as responsible creatures, don't we? As responsible to accept the message when they stand before God at the great white throne, Christ.
None will be able to say, but you did not elect me.
They will be there as a responsible, accountable individual.
That had the opportunity to receive Christ. I know I'm I'm putting the emphasis on the other side because I'm looking at it from the evangelical standpoint, but.
As Brothers mentioned, there's a balance there that we've got to keep.
It was set as an incentive and encouragement to the apostle Paul. When the Lord said to him, I have much people in this city. How do you think he went out the next day preaching the gospel after the Lord said to Amaya much people in this city? It was with expectation.
That the precious Word of God was going to reach those souls.
Why would anybody not want to come?
To Jesus.
You know it tells us in verse 35, I might back up just a little more here. Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger.
This is beautiful. I believe this.
Negative here is the strongest negative in the Greek language. We could put it this way. I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never, never, or say never ever. Hunger, you know Jesus is enough. We sing it into him, don't we? Jesus, thou art enough, the heart and mind to fill thy patient life, to calm the soul.
Thy love this fearless spell.
And he that believeth on me shall never, never, or never ever thirst.
So this is a wonderful verse. And you know, our hearts are way too big for this world to fill them up. It doesn't work that way. And God didn't make our hearts that way. He made our hearts, I believe, so big that there's only one who can fill that heart and that's Christ, and He can fill it full to overflowing.
Is that which the world cannot do for you.
Or for me.
As much as there are many pleasures, many attractions, distractions, and I speak to myself as much as to anybody.
It's only Christ that's going to fill the heart and satisfy. He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
00:20:13
And uh.
Verse 24 it says the people.
And so the people come.
And the Lord, as we had before, strips away their pretense, wondering how we got there.
And tells them to, uh, to labor, not for the meat that perish it. Well, how can we do this? You know, they wanna know how they can do it.
And, uh, the Lord says to them that that work is really just to believe. That's all that God is looking for from them.
And then he presents himself.
The people say, well, what sign do you show?
Moses, uh, fed us with man in the wilderness. What are you gonna do? And their unbelief is coming out. And he says to them that he is the bread of God, which cometh down from heaven and giveth his life unto the world. They say, Lord evermore give us this bread. They thought he was talking about what had happened the day before.
With the low, well, we don't understand what you're saying, but if you're gonna give us spread, yeah, give us credit. Keep doing that. That's fine.
And then he goes on to say, I am the bread of life.
And it himself, it's not an actual loaf of bread, it's himself that is the bread of life. And.
That came to give his life for the world and then verse 41 it says the Jews.
Then murmured, not the people.
This scene is got two groups.
There's the people and there's the Jews, those who lived in Judea and Jerusalem, in that area, and they're the ones that begin to reason and connection with him, saying he was a bread that came down from heaven. And they murmured because they understood better than the people, the crowd, what he was saying, that he came from heaven.
That's what he was saying. I'm the bread that came down from heaven, they murmured. And they reasoned.
In a certain sense, like the people did, they just saw things on a natural plane. Well, just give us this bread. Like the woman at the well in chapter 4. Give me that water so I don't come again. She thought the Lord meant literal water. The words of grace didn't penetrate her heart. And same with the people. Lord evermore give us this bread. But the Jews perceive the saying that He came from heaven.
And they said.
We know his father and mother.
Who is this guy?
Saying he came from heaven.
But what is being brought out is the unbelief and opposition of the heart of man, and he judges by appearance, by what he thought he knew.
But he was so sadly mistaken. And so the Lord said, don't murmur.
No man can come to me.
Accept the Father, draw him outside of the work of sovereign grace, and the Father drawing to the Son. None were going to really enter into her understanding His words, and So what he's bringing out is the necessity of the sovereign grace of God.
And God's involvement in that way, if any, are going to be brought to him and understand his words and lay hold.
Upon it. Otherwise those words.
Become more and more a thing of that man opposes and sets himself against, and manifests his unbelief in a greater and greater way as we go through the chapter.
How does the father draw?
I think it's really through giving a life a capacity to know and understand his word that was never there before.
00:25:07
But also, who is the perfect manifestation of the Father? It's the Son to it. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The very one that was speaking to them was the perfect manifestation of the Father.
And so the Father is drawing them, really being manifested to them through the sun, to those that God has given life and faith to.
What rule does the Holy Spirit play in the Father drawing?
We don't read it. Spirit. In this chapter, the Father and the Son is curious to hear what the Holy Spiritual is.
The scripture does tell us in more than.
One place I can't think of the references, ones in Thessalonians, one of the letters to Thessalonians and the others I believe in Peter. At least two places where it speaks of the work of the Spirit as being sanctification. Umm.
How that plays out in our hearts or in our circumstances or both, I don't know, but it says sanctification of the Spirit came and you have the Father's foreknowledge, which would we would say is predestination and set and then sanctification of Spirit. Perhaps we could find those references. But and then to, you know, believing. So there was this work of the sanctification of the Spirit setting our hearts apart.
Perhaps before we were conscious of believing in the Lord Jesus, there was a work going on in our hearts to separate us already from things of this world and from the influence of the devil. But those references, they're in first Peter chapter one, verse 2.
The eternity from eternity to eternity in a certain sense in that verse, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.
From a past eternity through sanctification of the Spirit in time.
Born of the Spirit as we had in John three. Born of water and of the Spirit of God, using the Word of God to impart a life where there was none before.
Unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And so it's really those who are born of God that lay hold upon the finished work of Christ. They have faith from God and apprehendedly hold of it. So the Spirit's role may be in our chapter.
And verse 63 it is the spirit that should be capital S is small S in King James. It is the spirit that quicken it. The flesh profiteth nothing. And So what is being brought out in this chapter is the incapability of the flesh, man and nature to lay hold of anything.
He he, his darkness, he does not apprehend the light.
He's incapable of laying hold of anything of what God says outside of the spirit quicken. Oh mean Well, yeah. Mr. Garvey capitalizes spirit and emperor.
What was that called? Mr. Darby capitalizes. Yes. The other reference is UMM Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 13.
Here you have that God hath from the beginning chosen you. So there's God's choosing our election.
Chosen you to salvation through this is the means through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth is the result. So we it was a sanctification of the Spirit and then we believe.
The next verse two brother Ted were until he called you by our gospel. So the gospel goes out in an effectual calling.
And there's space being given and at least hold of it.
20 here goes on from eternity to eternity.
To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it's going to end.
We have uh in verse 63.
Spirit mentioned two times.
00:30:01
Now the first spirit capital S.
But I noticed Mr. Darby has lower case for the second spirit. Somebody have a thought on what is meant there?
Speaks of Hear the words that I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are life.
You might say they have a spiritual character.
Alright.
Well, there's also the fact that you have, uh.
You know the the sword comes out of the Lord's mouth and, uh.
He also says if I buy the spirit of God cast out demons. So you know the word and the spirit are one and the scripture pretty makes that pretty plain. The word is not one thing in the spirit of something out. The word of God is the spirit, and you might say it's the spirit in a form that is understandable to our intellect. But however you say it, the word of God in the Spirit of God are not separate, they're one.
The worship now is in spirit and in truth. That is the character. We don't worship now through, outward, uh, ceremonies or rituals or, uh, temples or ornaments or what have you. Now we have a divine life that loves to please God and, uh, the worship is of a spiritual character, umm.
In contrast to Judaism, which was very much of A temporal character.
But I was thinking in our chapter, we don't want to Passover, the Lord's reference here to the living bread. You know, we have a divine life, brethren. We have a, a divine nature now which we never had before. To put things in a practical, umm, context, what are we feeding upon day by day? What, uh, is our life?
All could say, for me to live is Christ.
To die is gain. Paul's whole motivation, his whole interest was in manifesting Christ in his life. Now we must partake of the living bread. We must, as has been said, we must feed upon Christ. But if our hearts are filled with the world.
If I have, the boys and girls can even understand this if I have a cup here on the table.
And it's got all sorts of rubbish in it.
And dirt and so on. How can I fill that with water?
While any boy and girl knows, get rid of all that rubbish first of all, and then you'll be able to fill the glass with water. And I'm afraid, I'm afraid in our lives sometimes there's a lot of rubbish and uh, we're not really feeding upon Christ, the living bread to sustain the new life and the new nature.
So let's bring down, bring things down to a real practical dimension here. Are we really in our practical lives, giving the Lord his rightful place, we feeding upon his word, which brings before us Christ, or are we occupied with the world? It might be, uh, the, the literary world or the musical world or the sports world or what have you.
There's just not room for Christ there.
Uh, there, there's, there's something else that is, uh, attracting us. You know, when I was young, I had a dog. You boys and girls have had a dog.
My, I had a nice dog, but boy, if he ever got a bone in his, uh, in his mouth, I could yank and pull and hit him and do whatever I wanted. He'd never give up that bone. I couldn't get that bone out of his mouth.
But if you dangle in front of his nose a nice juicy piece of meat, immediately you'll drop that bone and grab the meat. He's got something better than the bone. And isn't it so with us, brethren, that, uh.
We are holding on to the things of this world, trying to find pleasure in them and not really partaking of that living bread. It's a daily thing. It's something, uh, that, uh, the new life is a dependent life. We have that new life, that new nature, but what are we feeding upon? It's gonna show in our lives as sure as anything. What we feed upon is going to, uh, be manifest.
00:35:28
So just a few thoughts that maybe our brother can elaborate on it.
So he's a living bred to give his life and as you say to for salvation, we need to partake of that living bread. How is it that we're going to be able to partake of it? He's going to have to give his life.
First, well, we could not partake of it. So that goes on. He's a living bread. Any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. Verse 51 The bread that I will give is my flesh.
Which I will give for the life of the world. And so through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, Hebrews chapter 10, he gave himself on that cross.
He gave his life for a forfeited life. An Angel couldn't do it.
Why he's got an angel's life.
You couldn't sacrifice a sheep, really. They could only look onto the cross because it's a sheep's life.
The only one who could give his life for your life and mine is one who has a man's life.
But what man could do that?
Everyone is a center. It would just be a sinful life offered up to God. He can't accept that one had to come down from heaven and become a man, the eternal Son of God, become a man so that he could give his life as a man for our forfeited lives, men and women in this world.
There is only One who could do that, and that was him. So to partake of the bread of Putin, that one who came down, he had to give his life. He had to go to Calvary's cross and suffer and die there. And they strove. How is this possible, that this man would give us his flesh to eat? They didn't understand what he was saying, but the Lord reinforces it. Except eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life.
In you.
But then he goes on to what Brother John was alluding to.
The first verse, verse 53, is a one time thing. We receive Christ as Savior and we appropriate the value of His death to us, His body given on the cross, and His bloodshed to wash away our sins. But now what sustains our life as we go on as believers? Who so eateth? That is a continual thing.
It's not just once.
Fuso eateth my flesh. Now it's not eat and drink, but eateth and drinketh. One is a one time act, the other is a continuation. USO eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. Those who have appropriated and believed on the Son of God come down as the bread of heaven, giving us life for the world on Calvary's cross appropriated the value of that sacrifice to themselves.
They have eternal life, and that eternal life continues to feed on Christ. That's the force of whosoever my flesh and drinketh my blood hath. Those who have eternal life continue.
To have Christ.
As the bread of heaven, offering himself the food of their souls, of that new life that they have.
The, uh, people and the Jews.
They did not rise to the thought that the Lord Jesus was expressing because they look at everything in a material way. But the Lord was bringing out spiritual truth. And you know, I think man by nature is a spiritual sluggard. You know, we place great importance on our bodies and we see that in the world today.
00:40:09
Health programs, fitness clubs, and so on.
Uh, the body.
And then very little importance on the sole and the spirit. But really the apostle, I believe in writing to the Thessalonians. His desire was that the Saints would be preserved first of all in spirit.
And then in Seoul and in body.
Now just to look at things from a material standpoint, as far as the nano is concerned, in verse 49 the Lord Jesus says your Father's did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. Well, the physical manna, it kept him alive for a while, but death did overtake them.
But.
This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. Christ is the living bread.
And when you go down to verse 58.
This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your Father's did, eat manna and are dead.
This bread should live forever, so you see the contrast between that which is spiritual and that which is material.
The material passes away, the spiritual it continues forever.
And we really, I speak to myself, need to be focused more on the spiritual perhaps than we are.
Products to spread here. Is he referring to himself in the resurrected state?
My question makes sense.
We're just thinking of the verse in, uh, Revelation, where it talks about the hidden manna.
It's chapter 2 which I believe represents Christ and resurrected state.
We're really just talking with Fred in this chapter. Is it looking forward to him in redirected state or is it him as a man on earth? I think it's as a man from the Son of God come down from heaven and taking manhood into union with himself to really become the bread of heaven. But he's a man in the glory now. And so, uh, we feed upon Christ, uh, as I said yesterday on in those three ways as the Passover, we had Christ before us as the Passover this morning.
And then the Manor in.
His pathway down here we meditate upon that perfect life of Christ, the the manna and then the old corn of the land. But it's all centered in Christ. He is the bread of life. So I would think it would take in both sides, wouldn't it? We continue to enjoy Him.
In that, in that character, don't we even now Christ our Passover which is sacrificed for us? Remember, this chapter begins with that.
Passover.
And so it's very much being alluded to here in his flesh and his blood given to the Passover. And so we continue to enjoy that food, don't we, all the way through our pathway here as Christ, our Passover sacrifice, and also in his pathway down here, giving us strength for our pathway.
Is that you know, when they talk about keeping the feast, it's the feast of unleavened bread, which right, which represents our our pathway on till the end. Once we partake of Christ as our Passover, then we eat the feast of unleavened bread that's feasting on Christ. But it also says with that defeating unleavened bread, they were not to have leaven the whole time in their house. So it wasn't just what they ate. There wasn't to be an 11 present.
So it it speaks of a separated, uh, walk.
And, uh, while we feed on Christ, we also, uh.
Walk A separated Walk 11.
That's keeping the feast.
Yeah, that's, that's important, Ted, that that, uh, sometimes it's applied to the remembrance of the Lord.
Correctly. It's not the remember, it's not exactly the remembrance of the Lord. It's our pathway down here.
After, uh, after the Passover, I was thinking, brethren, coming to the end of the chapter here, umm.
The Lord very clearly.
Enunciates the true character of the flesh. The flesh profiteth nothing.
00:45:04
We've often heard that story. A young man came to Mr. Darby and said, Mr. Darby, you have a wonderful knowledge of the word. How can I acquire this?
Tell me.
Well, he said, learn well this truth I'm giving you the flesh profiteth nothing. And you know, it takes us a long time to learn that, but it's it's a cardinal truth. There's nothing in the flesh that can please God. Anything in your life or mine that is going to glorify the Lord. It comes from the new nature that the Lord has given us. It's not from the flesh.
It's been put aside in the work of Christ. God is not looking to improve the flesh.
It couldn't keep the law and it can only produce evil. It's corrupt in its springs. So when the Lord spoke in this way, many of the disciples went back and walked no more with him. They said, we don't like this truth. We, we thought there was something in man that could be, uh, acceptable to God, but there, there's nothing there.
But I wondered also. I suppose we've, uh, perhaps I have. Anyway, ques uh, not questioned exactly, but wondered about the Lord's reply to Simon Peter here. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. We believe in our shore that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. If I had heard that confession, I would have said Peter.
That's a lovely confession that you made. The Lord did not say that.
It might sound a little strange. Of course the Lord was perfect in his answers. Have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? He was saying to Peter. Don't get your eyes on man Peter. There's another disappointment that is coming.
There's a devil amongst us and he's going to, uh, manifest himself.
You know, brethren, we've been through some difficult times as gathered through the Lord's name. There may be further disappointments ahead of us.
God isn't making a promise that everything is going to be smooth in the future in the assemblies. And Satan hates the truth of being gathered to the name of Christ. He hates that truth. And in any way he can discredit or he can lead you, dear young people, away from the ground of the truth, and gathering you'll do. It doesn't matter what He brings into your life, if He can draw you away from the assembly and from the gathering center.
Uh, into a wider path, not being critical of that, but if you leave the Lord's table, I cannot see how you can prosper in your soul. So the Lord said to Peter, don't get your eyes on man. Keep your eyes on the Lord. There's another disappointment coming, and this could happen among the gathered Saints. We need dependence on the Lord day by day. We need to look to him. We need doorkeepers in the assembly.
Or else error will come in. Satan is active to bring in discord.
Uh, to bring in division, to bring in schism and so on. It's the work of the enemy and the pride of man. So how we need to be dependent on the Lord and to remain in the assembly gathered to the Lord's name. It's the greatest privilege on earth. And you dear young people, uh, you may look upon the fields outside the assembly and they look attractive. I know I'm.
Quite familiar with what's what's going on in evangelical Christendom?
And we can thank God for the gospel that is going on. But let me say to you, you don't need to leave the Lord's table and the ground of the truth in order to serve the Lord in the gospel or in the ministry.
I don't want to.
Ask a unlearned question. But we've had a lot before us about the Lord as the bread that's come down from heaven.
And you were appreciated what you were saying there, brother Steve, and the distinction between verse 53 and 54. There's a lot of young here. And you know, you think of little children sitting there in Sunday school and a questions asked, they can raise their hand. They have the answer.
00:50:14
But I wonder sometimes if as we take these things up, we know the answer, but we really don't know what we're saying. We know the answer is, oh, feet upon Christ, He's the bread that came down from heaven. But I wonder if someone could, just in a very simple way.
What does that mean? To feed upon the bread that came down from heaven?
I, I do believe I have the answer because it bothered me for many, many years and I was also under of mystical interpretation of these scriptures. And so at further far, uh, clouded my understanding. So I sought to the Lord quite deeply and strongly about this. What does it mean? I mean, this language is so, uh.
Detailed eat my flesh and drink my blood and you can just see them cringing. It's a hard saying, they said. This is just this is hard to listen to. So what was he getting at?
And I believe.
Uh, I, I, I like others, I hesitate to contradict what's been said. I think all that's been said is true. But he says, does this offend you in, in verse 61?
And then he says, what if you see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?
Well, I wonder if what he was saying was, you know, so I told you, you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, but you're gonna see me going up.
You won't be able to, will you?
If I'm talking about my physical body being eaten by you, you're not gonna have a chance.
And then he says the spirit, it's the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profits nothing. Another way to see that is that I am, I am talking about something spiritual as Steve alluded to, we're we're talking about something spiritual here. And then he says my words, they are spirit and they are light.
And then he says, But there are some of you that believe not.
In other words, there are some of you that don't eat.
I believe that what he's saying here is that the way to feed on Christ?
Is to eat his word.
That's what profits is worth the spirit. But how do you?
It's by believing. And so we have a scripture that said that the Word didn't profit them. Why? It was not mixed with faith. It didn't profit them. They didn't believe it. And so when we have the Lord's Word and it comes to our ears or we read it, if we believe it, I believe that is what eating, you know, we can bring it down right down to practice. That is what eating, feeding on Christ is.
Is to believe his word. It assimilates in a sense, in a spiritual sense. It assimilates his word when we believe it. I sometimes ask people, how did you get saved? And they say, well, we Sunday morning we take communion.
They think they're eating the blood, the blood of Jesus. They're eating the flesh of Jesus and it turned somehow mystically into a into the blood and body of Jesus and they're eating that and but if you look in verse 47, it says verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me has everlasting life. Now look at verse 54, who soweth my flesh and drinketh my blood has eternal life. So it's believing. I I like this sometimes think, think about the the flesh as being a person of the Lord Jesus.
And the blood is being referring to the work of the Lord Jesus, so believing on the person who he is and what he means to God, what he means to us, and then and the doctrine of Christ and then the drinking the blood perhaps would refer to the work, to believing in the work of what the Lord Jesus did.
Jeremiah said, Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing.
Now there's reference in the world to eating our words. I don't think Jeremiah is talking about that.
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He found the word of God, and he begins to read it.
And he begins to digest what it's saying, and as you say, it was mixed with faith, and the result is it caused joy and rejoicing in his soul. I just think it's a beautiful verse. Jeremiah 1516.
We sing #24 in the appendix.
Nothing but.
Right as unwanted.
Pride by everything crap when I'm in the past and being proud of the children. No is getting frightened by crying, but crying the crystal.
Everything was for him.
He came to prompt whatever the hell and everything from.
So no way to do all that. You're one, they cry.
Everything 2015 and 206 and five friends.
Are holding.
Something I have written in the front of my Bible here. Connection with all that's been before us.
The divine design behind all scripture is that God would make Christ great. God has not only set him in a position of greatness, but his thought is to give a right impression and apprehension of that greatness. To all who love him, give thanks.
Our God and our Father.
What can we say as we come to the close of this time together?
But to thank thee for those impressions that thou hast left upon our souls, as to the greatness of that Blessed One.
One who has come down into this scene.
Become a man.
Let's walk this scene.
Given his life in order that we might have life, that bread come down from heaven. And so we just thank thee, our God and Father, for thy grace.
Thy sovereignty that has picked us up and brought us into blessing.
We thank you, Lord Jesus, for thy love.
May be willing to.
Through the Father's will.
And go to such a cost to redeem us, to bring us to thyself.
You just give me thanks for this time we've had together our God and Father.
The consciousness of that love that is in thy heart.
Wants to impress itself upon us.
You want to be further for the remainder of our time together. Giving me thanks again, our God and Father, for that Blessed One in His worthy and precious name, Amen.