John-6-part-3

Ram. Ram.

Sam. Sam.

Everything from reaching out of the prison.

Not in gold, silver, nothing breaking you're. The breath of life make alive before you. Make that to like you're. Rain every day will be love you make up your break the night again alive. Make the world without you.

Make that you make me forever. I wanna rain before you my shackles of the sun.

From the bed I was created to the best ranch I'm restored way to life recreating in your presence. You make us your friend. Behind you make us your presence. Night you may to pray. Open night make the light be of man.

We will worship the God of Israel. You are holy, holy. There is no one else like you. You are only holy. There is no one else like you.

As for me and my house, we'll serve you Lord. Lifting holy hands and worship.

We will not bow down to the God of man. We will worship the God of Israel.

You are holy, holy. There is no one else like you. There is no one else like you.

There is no one else.

Say whom you will, come on choose to stay home. You will serve. Do that for me and my house. We will serve you. We will serve you.

We will not bow to the God of man. We will not bow to the God who worship. God is right.

We will not bow to the God of. We will not bow to the God who worship. God is right. We sing we will not, we will not be pray god jamo adonai godo, Godo Ja I don't know.

There is no one else like you.

There is no one else like you.

We will not bow down the God of man we will worship. The God is Jesus.

There is no heaven here. My joy, my life is free. My step by step, my deep and bound to this I hope, my hope is only down to me. Oh how can be my Christ in Jesus me only and I know you have been great for my heart and he was rain you over nothing. See it now and ever.

You are will until I rejoice.

I know it only ever.

And you are in my heart, my heart is only Jesus you when the race comes in my name shall we shall in me. Cannot let you cry, cannot let you cry you father, we thank you for this day that you have given us. Lord, thank you for this fellowship and this gathering and the ability to be here to worship you today. Father, I thank you for all that you have done and given us. And Father, I pray that we will glorify you in our lives as a result of that.

I pray as we enter into this time of service now into your word that you will open our hearts and our minds to hear what the spirit has to say. To us that we can not just hear the words that are written on your pages but that we can understand them, the spiritual things that are hidden inside. And Father, I pray that as we leave here tonight we'll leave not just hearers of your word, but doers also that your name would be glorified. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

All right. So last week we did John, chapter six, verses 17 through 21. We're going to pick up again today in John, chapter six, we'll see how far we get. But we're going to pick up in verse 22 today as we continue the story of Jesus, the bread of life. Now just to kind of remind you because last week there was a bit of a break from the story.

So two weeks ago Jesus sat. He went up on the hill and sat 5000 people down and he fed them with just a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish. After that, we saw last week the disciples in that sinking ship on the sea as they saw their need for Jesus revealed and welcomed him into their boat, into their hearts. And we saw immediately the results of accepting Jesus Christ. But after that break we're going to pick up again today with the bread in that crowd who was there that we saw two weeks ago.

So we're going to pick up and we're going to read verses 22 through 29 and then we'll break it down. On the next day, the crowd that was on the other side of the sea saw that other boats were not there except one and that Jesus had not entered with his disciples into the boat but his disciples had departed alone. Other boats from Tiberius came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there nor his disciples, they themselves got into the boat and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. And when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him rabbi, when did you get here?

Jesus replied to them and said truly, truly I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were satisfied. Do not work for the food that perishes but the food that remains to eternal life which the Son of man will give to you. For God the Father has set his seal on this one. So they said to him, what shall we do that we can accomplish the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them this is the work of God that you believe in, the one whom that one sent.

I didn't have this in my list to keep going but I want to keep going real quick for two more verses it says so they said to him, then what sign will you perform so that we can see it and believe you, what will you do? Our fathers ate man in the wilderness, just as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. All right, so up until this point, there have been many following Jesus. They have been following Him for many weeks and months at this point, listening to his teach and seeing Him perform miracles. As of now, he's healed sick people.

He's cast out demons. He has given sight to the blind. He has given hearing to the deaf. He has given waves to the lame so that they can get up and walk. He has the first miracle he performed.

He turned the water into wine, the best wine, it said. So this crowd has been following Him, and they have seen miracle after miracle and healing after healing. They have seen the most amazing, phenomenal things that we could imagine. I mean, they have seen dead people come back to life. Isn't that amazing?

And we're talking truly dead people. People who are dead for three days and already rotting come back to life.

What a stiff necked people these mean we saw here at the end. They said, well, what sign will you show us so we can believe you? And so Jesus is now gone. He teleported. He beamed me up, Scotty, to the other side of the lake.

And these people, this crowd had following Him, they wake up the next morning and they notice Jesus isn't here, but he didn't board the boat. So they board boats as well. And they go to the other side of the sea where they find Jesus, and they ask Him, when did you get here? Look what Jesus said to him. This is what is important.

He says truly. Truly. I say to you, do not seek me because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were satisfied.

You know, Jesus, he doesn't look on the outward things. He doesn't look on the appearance. These people had the appearance of following Jesus. They followed Him town to town. They sat down and listened to Him teach.

They ate the food that he blessing it. By all appearances, they followed Him. They sought him out. But there is a difference between the appearance of being a follower of Christ and being a follower of Christ. For those of you who follow me on Facebook, if you go look at what I posted last night, it's the last thing I posted because I only post it once a year.

If you go look at what I posted last night on Facebook, you will see an example of that. I posted an example of that last night. There's a difference between the appearance and the actual thing. And even though they had the appearance, even though up till now, before Jesus said that, any one of us reading this text, we might have assumed these were disciples of Jesus, these were followers of Jesus, you would have assumed it because they're following Him everywhere. And then what does Jesus say?

Jesus says to them, look, I don't care about the outward, I don't care about what it looks like to other people, but I care about what's in your heart.

There is a difference between following Jesus for selfish motives and following Jesus because he is your Lord. What did Jesus say about them? He said you do not seek Me because you saw signs. They don't seek Him because they believe he is God or the Son of God, or the Messiah, Savior, or because he has performed many miracles. But they seek Him because he was able to take a small amount of bread and fill them to the floor.

He filled their stomachs. And their stomachs is what they were following. They were following that desire of being satisfied inside.

Now, we as Christians, we can do that same thing in the modern day, 2000 years later. It is possible for us to look at Christ as merely providing us food, merely giving us a temporal satisfaction and then dishonor Him. It's possible for us to deceive our own souls. Christ, he did not come to feed us. He didn't.

He came to save us.

This week we're going to learn that this miracle that Jesus performed feeding of the 5000 with these bread and with these loaves, it was not about feeding their stomachs, but it was about pointing them to the everlasting bread, the bread of life, which is Jesus Christ, that he is our bread of life or spiritual food. He says in verse 27 do not work for food that perishes.

Don't work for food that perishes, but the food that remains to eternal life which the Son of man will give to you. For God the Father has set his seal on this one.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talked about your heart. He talked about your heart a lot. He talked about how we pray, how we give to the poor, how we sin with our eyes and with our minds. But he also said where your treasure is, there your heart will also be. That's what he said.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. And there is a treasure that corrupts, that rust, that fades, that can be stolen. If your treasure is in that lump sum in your bank account that can be stolen, that can disappear today or tomorrow or the next day. If your treasure is in your home that can burn down or flood. We've seen hurricanes and tornadoes this year and fires all throughout this nation tear those apart.

If your treasure is in your car that can be stolen. It can be wrecked, it could be destroyed.

But if your treasure is in those things, your heart is as well. You will be seeking those things out and you will seek anything that would build that up. You might be seeking more money in your bank a better house, a better car. But all of your motive, all of your energy will go into where your heart is or your treasure is. So Jesus tells us, he says, don't store up treasure that moth and rust can corrupt, that bees can steal, that will perish.

All of those treasures, our homes, cars, our bank accounts, our fancy computers and technology, that will all perish, if not before we die, then when God comes and destroys this earth, it'll all perish. We won't have it anyways.

But he says, what good is it to gain the world, but lose your soul? What good is it? We could become the richest, most powerful, respected people of men on this planet. And if we don't have Jesus, we have gained absolutely nothing. I hear people talk about their legacy, all the know, people ask, well, what kind of legacy do you want to leave?

Is that the legacy you want to leave? Or they talk about the legacy they're leaving. This is the legacy I want to leave. And I have to tell you, if your legacy that you want to leave is anything except for the name of Jesus, you have no legacy. None at all.

Sure, people might remember you for the next 20 years, 30 years, 50 years even. There's people who've left a legacy that has survived 2000, 3000 years. But when the heavens and earth pass, when God destroys it, what legacy is there? None. So Jesus tells us.

He says rather, store up your treasure in heaven. Store up your treasures in heaven. Let me tell you something about heaven. There is no moth and rust that can corrupt in heaven. There are no thieves to steal your treasure in heaven.

And any treasure in heaven will survive the wrath of God when he destroys all that we know it'll survive. So Jesus tells us, he says, do not work for food that perishes, but for the food that remains to eternal life. Now, this does not mean that we don't need our daily bread, right? We need to eat. God designed us to eat, to survive.

So we do need to eat. We do need to work daily to eat, but that is not what our purpose, our intent in our daily life is the meat that is worth working for will fulfill the characteristics of God, his purposes, it should survive or satisfy and eat the cravings of the spiritual hunger inside of our bodies. And so we should spend the energy needed to expend, to survive. But that should by no means be the majority of our energy. The majority of our energy should be for that which lasteth eternally.

In the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah warned the Jews, and this is an applicable warning to us as well. Isaiah told the Jews, he says, why do you weigh out money for what is not food, and your labor for which cannot satisfy? Listen carefully to me. Eat what is good and let your soul take pleasure in that. Eat what is good.

What is good is spiritual things. We need to give up also this disappointing business of attempting to satisfy your soul with earthly goods. We talked this Friday and I brought it up a couple of weeks ago when we did a four one one training. This world is broken, it really is. And no one wants to stay in brokenness.

And as a result we cope. And we cope with sometimes what I call sad sex, alcohol and drugs. We cope with work, with money, with education. We cope with sometimes religion is a coping mechanism. We cope with all of these things.

But these things are disappointing attempts at satisfying our soul using earthly means.

Instead labor for that which abideth unto eternal life. We cannot too eagerly seek that which is heavenly. We can't. It is impossible to be too enthusiastic, too eager, too on fire for that which is Godly. So what are these things?

These things are suitable. They're suitable to our spirit. Our spirits are eternal. Our spirits, they are everyone's spirit is eternal. The only difference is we'll spend it in eternal life with Christ or eternal death in the lake of fire.

But our spirits are eternal self. The works, the meat that we seek, it needs to be suitable to eternal soul, suitable to that which is everlasting.

Christ himself is the meat. Christ Himself is the only food that we can partake of that is eternal. Christ is the only thing, the only one that can satisfy our souls.

He tells us in verse 51 here of John, chapter six, he says I'm the living bread that came down from heaven and if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. By signifying in the way in which he died, the teaching and work of Jesus Christ are sufficient to meet the need of men, wholly sufficient to meet the need of us for eternity.

It's also seasonable. So it's suitable and it's seasonable. This meat never grows. Still Jesus Christ. He's not old news.

There's a lot of people who say, well, Christianity is outdated, or the Bible is outdated, or it's no longer applicable. No, it's seasonable and it never grows stale. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And our needs as human beings, as God's creation are the same as it was 2000 years ago. Our need is the same.

We are sinners who are perishing and we need to be saved. That has not changed. And the way in which we are saved has not changed. Before the cross, you were saved by looking forward to Jesus Christ. You were saved by believing that the Son of God would step down into creation, that he would die and raise again for you.

And after the cross, you are saved by looking back to that and believing that the Son of God came into creation and that he died on the cross and rose again so that you could be saved, it's not changed. The word of God is incorruptible, and the provision of God is incorruptible.

It's not just incorruptible for time, but it's good for us for all times of the day. The word of God and Jesus Christ is beneficial or seasonable to us when we rise in the morning. He's beneficial to us in midday when we sit down to break, and also beneficial to us when we lay down to go to bed at night.

Not only is it suitable and seasonable, but it is satisfying, it endureth. Jesus says that he which cometh to me shall never hunger.

Those who have Jesus Christ, they're never looking for satisfaction anywhere else. You don't get Jesus and then lay in bed and go, man, I wish I had more. But when you get Jesus, you lay in bed and go, man, what a gift I have. I've been redeemed, I have protection, I have an eternal friend and companion, I have peace, I have a defender, I have a shield, I have a refuge, I have everything. There is no part of your spirit which lacks when you have Jesus Christ, but you are fully satisfied with him, and it's guaranteed to satisfy everyone who eats it.

It says that the Father, that God has sealed this bread. It is a guarantee that if you partake of it, you will receive the satisfaction.

So now that we know, Jesus says, he says, don't work for food that perishes, but work for that which is eternal, which remains forever. So there's an obvious question here. You might say, well, how do I work for that? How do I get the stuff that's eternal, that never ends well? Jesus says, well, they asked him that.

He says, what shall we do then that we can accomplish this work of God? Jesus answered, he says, here is the work of God that you believe in, the one whom the Father sent. That is the work of God. In the book of Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, jesus says something that kind of confuzifies people, that confuses people. He says on that day, on that judgment day, on that great day, many people will come to him and say, lord, Lord, do we not cast out demons in your name and perform works and miracles in your name and feed the poor in your name and do all of these works in your name?

And he will say to you, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you. And then he says, only those who do the work of my Father in heaven shall inherit the kingdom. Do you know how many people that confuses? They say, well, isn't the work of the Father in heaven to feed the poor, to help the needy, to cast out demons, to heal the sick.

Isn't that the will of God? And if I did that, I did the will of God, but that is not the will of God. The will of God is that you believe in the one whom he sent. And then you can do those things. You have to separate the will of God to begin a relationship and the will of God.

Within the relationship, there's an external and internal will. The external will is the will of God that saves you, and that is believing.

The Bible says that apart from faith, you can do nothing. You cannot please God. You can't do the works of God outside of faith. It's not possible.

In order to do the works of God, you must believe, you must have faith. And so there's the external will of God that saves you. And there's only one thing that saves you that you would believe in the one whom the Father sent. However, after you have a relationship with God, isn't it right to say that there's expectations within that relationship? The Bible talks about that.

Jesus says, go and sin no more. He says love your neighbor as yourself. He says to feed the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, to heal the sick. He tells us to do those things. And we know that God does not will for anyone to be hungry or to be cold.

We know that's not the will of God. The will of God is that we would be clothed, we would be fed. And so when I said earlier that the will of God is not that we go and do those things, do not get me wrong in saying that God does not will that. But that is not the will of God which saves, that's the will of God, that's an expectation that he says, you're my son, you're my child, and as my child, these are the things you should be doing.

So to clarify those works, casting out demons, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, those things are not saving works. Those things accompany, they come alongside, saving faith. That's what they do.

And it's inevitable. Jesus says if you abide in me and I abide in you, you will bear much fruit. You will bear much fruit. And what's the fruit that you will bear? It's still on the sick, casting out demons, feeding the poor, those are the fruit that you will bear.

That's the inevitable result of following Christ. So these people said in verse 29, what shall we do? What shall we do that we can do this work of God? In Matthew, on the sermon now, Jesus says that those works don't matter, only the will of God matters. So here's the will of God.

Jesus says it in verse 29. He says this is the work of God. In some versions, he says will of God. This is the will of God that you believe in, the one that the Father sent. That is it.

That is it right there that you believe in Jesus Christ, that's the will of God. In other places, it says the will of God is that no man should perish. What's? The will of God. It's that you believe so that you don't perish.

He doesn't want any of us to perish. What is the will of God? It's that you love Him so that you won't perish.

That is the work that you should do that will give eternal bread, eternal life. Is that you know, jesus Christ.

And so what happens? What happens after you know Jesus Christ? What then? Well, then we labor for the meat, which is the labor of faith.

It must work its way into our hearts. We must walk in the fruit of the Spirit. We read about the fruits of the Spirit when we were in Galatians, I believe. Galatians five.

Galatians five, verse 22. So what do we labor for? So we believe in Jesus Christ. We are now saved.

What is the will of God? The internal will of God. I said there's an external will and an internal will. The external is before you are in his relationship that's that you believe. The internal will is you're now His Son, and as His Son, to live the life that he wants you to live, the best life you can have, there is stuff he wills that you do.

Here it is. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control.

Against such things there is no law. Now. Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires. And if we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit. We must not become conceited, provoking one another and being one another.

The internal will of God for his child are those things right there. And we must labor for those things. Those are the things that will produce in us treasures in heaven. That we love God, that we love one another, that we love our enemies, those who hate us, that we have joy. We labor for joy, that we can be happy for peace.

We labor for patience. That's something I'm working on. I've got to labor for patience. I'm not patient at all. We labor for kindness and goodness.

How about faithfulness? Is that something you got to labor for? Absolutely. We must labor for faithfulness, for gentleness and self control. Self control?

That's not something that we just have. It's not something that the moment you profess Jesus Christ, it's like all of a sudden, bam, you're in self control of yourself. We labor for it.

Jesus instructs us to labor not for that which perishes, but for that which is eternal.

As we come to a close tonight, as we end, I want to ask you tonight, what are you laboring for? What is it which you have set your heart to treasure? Do you treasure that which is here on Earth, which is perishing and corruptible and stealable, or are your treasures in Heaven? Do you seek that which produces eternal fruit? And if tonight you say, you know, my treasure, it's it's in my job or in my house or my car or in whatever earthly thing you have placed your treasure into, I want to encourage you tonight to stop working for that which perishes and work for that which is eternal.

And it can begin right now with admitting that you are a sinner, that admitting that you're broken, you're faulted, and understanding that it's okay because we're all that way and we can't do anything about it, but Jesus Christ did. It's not okay to remain here, but it's okay because it's not a hopeless and helpless situation. There's a way out of it. And that's the next part. You admit that, you admit that you're that sinner, that you're that broken person, but you believe that Jesus Christ came the word of God, god in the flesh stepped down and he died for you.

He bore that cross, the penalty for your sin, so that you could live again, so that you could be forgiven and not receive the eternal death that you deserve and then confess that your Lord and Savior.

So if you're ready to do those things, we're going to go to our closing prayer and I invite you to admit the state of your fallen nature, to believe in Jesus Christ and confess Him as your Lord, and begin the journey of taking that which is imperishable immediately after we'll partake of Communion. So as soon as the prayer is over, I'm going to head upstairs and get it and come back down. So please stick around for Communion. Let's pray. Father, I admit I admit that I am a sin, that I cannot save myself.

I admit Lord, that My ways are not Your ways, that I'm depraved and broken.

I admit that it's not okay to stay here anymore. It's not okay to remain here because I know about you, because You've provided a way to escape this hopelessness, this helplessness. And so I believe that the word of God, that Jesus Christ stepped down into his creation. And I believe that you died for me. I believe that you took my penalty upon that cross so that you rose again the third day.

And Lord Jesus, I confess you as my god, my king, my lord and savior. And today I remove my crown and submit to yours.

And I thank You, Lord Jesus, for this free, this precious gift that You've given me, and ask you now into my heart to help me seek that which is eternal and incorruptible. Father, I thank you today. I thank you for Your gifts, I thank you for Your peace, and I thank you for this eternal free that you have given us. Lord, I pray that you'll help each of us avoid. That trap of deceive our souls, of working for that which is corruptible so that we can set our hearts, our minds, our eyes upon you and you alone.

For the only thing that matters, the only thing that will survive that your name will be glorified. We pray, Lord, that your kingdom would come quickly. In Jesus'name, we pray. Amen.