Now if I will go over to John chapter six, please. John chapter six. Maybe when I think of the north, I think of Christmas. Well, there may be some snow up there if I get up far enough north. John chapter six and verse twenty-six. Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me, not because he saw the miracles, but because he did eat of the loaves and the fishes. They didn't go all around that lake to see the miracles. That's something they could look at. They wanted something that had some kind of physical sensation. But he said he went to all this trouble because he did eat of the loaves and were filled. And I think this is a verse that hinges on this chapter, or the chapter hinges on this verse. Labor not for the meat which perishes. People are going to great extreme today, laboring, putting forth lots of effort, spending their money for that which will perish. But he says, labor for that which endures unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Verse forty-eight. I am that bread of life. And now verse sixty-three. It is the spirit that crooked us. The flesh proffered us nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. For 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 said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given him of my father. From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom can we go, or shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. and we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil. He spake of Judas of Saria, the Son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him being one of the twelve. I want to speak on God autographed, his personal signature. I am. He's the great I am. To know the full meaning of this, you'd have to read the third chapter of Exodus. And God is going to send Moses unto Pharaoh. He wants his people, the people of Israel, released from the bondage of Pharaoh. And so he says, Moses, I want you to go unto Pharaoh. Moses said, Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh? God says, Certainly, I will be with thee. Moses replied, What shall I say unto Pharaoh? God says, Tell Pharaoh, I am that I am hath sent thee. And if you read it in the Bible, it's in capital letters. I am hath sent thee. That ought to be enough. That's God's order there. And along with that, I am, seven times over in chapter six of Exodus, God says, I will. He can say, I will, because I am. A man can make lots of promises and give orders if he has the authority to do it. God has all the authority. So has the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore he can make some definite, empathic promises and demands. I will. I will, because I am. If he were not God, he couldn't have talked to Moses like that, nor would have Pharaoh paid any attention. And we couldn't rely upon the words of the Lord Jesus, were it not that he also is the great I am. How wonderful to think of these I wills that God told Pharaoh to pass off. He says, I will bring you out. That's liberty. Out to the bondage of the Egyptians. And he says, I will rid you out of their bondage. There you have their deliverance. He says, I will redeem you. That's their redemption. I will take you to me for a people. There's an acceptance. And I will be your God, that knowledge and relationship. And he said, I will bring you into the land. That's their rest. And he said, I will give it to you forever. That's their inheritance. Here is God telling Moses what he's going to do. And the reason I'm going to do it is because I am able to do it. I am the Almighty. And that's a wonderful thing to realize. The great I am is the one who can say time and time again, under any circumstance, I will. I will. I will is the intention and expression of the great I am. How does this relate to our studies in John's Gospel, which have been taken up? Seven times in John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus said, I am. In chapter six, I read the verse, verse forty-eight, and only the beginning of the seven references. He says, I am the bread of life. He said, I am. There's no question about it. Your father said, each manna in the wilderness there dead. But he says, I am the bread of life, the bread which came down from heaven. He said also in chapter eight, I am the light of the world. What a claim. I am. No one can deny that fact. He says, I am the door in chapter ten. He says, I am the good shepherd in chapter ten. He says, I am the vine in chapter fifteen. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life in chapter fourteen. And in chapter fourteen, he says, I am, or sixteen, I am the resurrection and the light. Here are seven plays. I am. I am. I am. And he made another one in Galilee. Before Abraham was, I am. The scribes and Pharisees tried to question the deity of the Son of God. And he brought up the fact, Before Abraham, whom you veered? Before Abraham was, I am. I lived before Abraham. My existence didn't begin at death ahead. My human life did. As to my deity, I was with the Father in eternity past. At the very dawn of creation, when God broke the silence of eternity and called this world into existence, and threw the phantoms in the scars off his fingertips and placed them in their sockets of drool. I am. I was with him then. I am the great I am. The Lord Jesus said that. Here you have his autograph. How wonderful to know all these things about the Lord Jesus. I am. Because he is the great I am, he can say and say it, I will. a wonderful to know that fact. I am real. I am personal. I am unchangeable. I am inexhaustible. Jesus Christ could say that. No one else could say. He could use this wonderful language. I will give you rest. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. What mockery if a mere man should say that? People are seeking rest today. Where's a man who could invite the world, anyone in the world? Come on to me, and I will give you rest. You have a turbulent heart in a turbulent world. Be dressed, just dressed and pressure on every hand. I can give you rest, sweet rest. He'd be made a mockery of it, because people would come to him and he couldn't give them what they want rest. The Lord Jesus himself, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He could also say, I will in no wise cast you out. He said that in this chapter. Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise under no circumstance cast them out. And he said four times over, I will raise them up. At the last day, where is the human being today? King Pope or Pope and take it. Sutra, say, I'll raise you up at the last day. No, Jesus Christ said it, and he'll do it. He raised up his own boss. Here you have his authority. I will raise you up at the last day. Many are interested today in the loaves and the fishes, and that's why I emphasize that verse. The loaves and the fishes, the byproducts of Christianity, are very culture and country, owes its very existence to Christianity. There's no question about that. We have and enjoy values, but if Christianity were taken from us, these values would perish overnight. A lot of things are the byproducts of Christianity. We have delivered these praises because of the gospel that our pilgrim fathers brought to these shores. Many today enjoy these, but do not want the Christ of Christianity as a resident in their heart. They want the loaves, but not the Lord. They want the fishes, but not the fathers of eternity. I know. They want the loaves. They want the fishes. They want the material things, the tangible things, but they don't want the spirit. That's why the Lord says, labor not for the things which perish. They went to that great difficulty to go around the lake because he had fed them some loaves and fishes. He says, you better be thinking about something more eternal, more satisfying, more abiding. spiritual value, spiritual value. Remarkable things, the things of the Lord Jesus today, and how he can meet your every need. You fulfill every promise. You know, Moses, he knew something of seeing the good hand of God, but he doesn't know God, he doesn't know God in the way you and I can know God. David was very intimate with the Almighty, yet not once in all David's writings as he called God his Father. We today, those who are born again in the family of God, we can look up and say, My Father, we know the Father through the Son. We know something of spiritual reality, spiritual verity. Yes, a lot of things. are a byproduct of Christianity. But the true purpose of the law of the Lord Jesus coming into this world was to bring spiritual blessings. The picnic is over, he could have said to them. You had a good picnic. I took five loaves and two fishes. I fed five thousand men, flocked women and children. And you had such a good feast. When you heard out of on the other side of the lake, you went all the way around. You wanted another picnic with you. You wanted something to eat. He says a picnic's over. I want to talk to you a spiritual food. Labor not for that which perishes. Survive, brother. He said, I want you to have spiritual life. Spiritual food that will meet your hungry heart. on a marked full disease. Man shall not live, and you'll notice that verse sixty-three, and that's the verse I want you to notice. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh, coffered of nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. The Lord said to Satan when Satan tempted the masses to turn stones into bread, he says, Man shall not live by bed alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. If the word of God, men and women, need to hear today, the words that I speak unto you, they are sinners, and they are life. The words. endowed by the Holy Spirit. The words that I speak, they're privy. You can't divorce these things. He speaks of me and my words. And these words are eternal life. When he was in his hometown preaching his first sermon in Nazareth in Luke chapter four, they marveled at the gracious words that were seated out of his mouth. Oh, what words they were. And these words are authoritative. He said, I can make my word that you're listening to me if you'll only believe it and turn it into spirit of blessing. My word is pregnant with the Holy Spirit of God. That's what he wants you to believe this morning. Believe his word. He can make these things simple. Look at the Lord Jesus. He didn't use big words. Words that you have to run to a big tray to find their meaning. John, verse sixteen. He says, though God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Can you find anything more simple than that? Yet can you find anything more profound? And the text already quoted, Matthew eleven, twenty eight, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you that. You're not going to be judged for what you don't understand. You're going to be judged for what you do understand. A child can understand this language. For God so loved the world. How did he prove it? He gave his only begotten son. That who shall ever believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. If the world didn't have any more than the word of God than those verses, twenty-five words, in that one verse, They'd have enough to save the human race. It's all in. And God will not judge you for something you don't understand in the Bible. There's a lot you don't understand. There's things I don't understand. But he'll judge you for what you do understand. The sinful gospel of the grace of God. You hear it, you reject it. How wonderful. The spirit of God crooked us. He giveth life. The entrance of thy word giveth light, he says. The entrance of his word into your heart. John five, twenty-four, how wonderful that is. Verily, verily, I say unto you, see that here is my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting light. And that word, H-A-T-H, doesn't mean hope. He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath. It's your everlasting life. And you'll not come into judgment. You'll pass from death unto life. How wonderful are these words to this? Are they want you to believe them? His words. We are a negative. We're nothing. Moses, going back to Moses again, when God told Moses to go to Pharaoh with that message, I am, has sent you. And this is what I'm going to do. Moses said that I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. I'm not eloquent. I'm nothing. True, Moses, but I'm everything. You are a negative. God says I'm positive. What God is looking for is men and women who take the place of being negative. Nothing. He says, tis the spirit that quickeneth in verse sixty-three. The flesh profiteth nothing. I don't care whether it's educated flesh. I don't care whether it's righteous flesh or unrighteous. I don't care whether it's religious flesh or irreligious. God says it's profiteth nothing. It's the spirit that quickens. the best profit of nothing. We are a negative. And it's a good thing when we realize that fact and face up to the fact we are absolutely nothing. You say, what am I to do? I'm just a negative. I'm nothing. Out there, there's somebody who's everything. He's a great, almighty, He can do all things. Then as a poor negative, somebody who's nothing, I don't know when in my life I felt so helpless. The nights or two before I got saved up in Canada, I was laying awake, and I'm going to tell you I was trembling. It dawned on me for the first time I can't save myself. I could pray for the rest of my life. I could engage in good work for the rest of my life. If I had a million dollars and gave it, that wouldn't save me. I'm absolutely dependent upon God to save me, and he doesn't save me. I'll never be saved. What can I do in a situation like that? I am nothing. Absolutely nothing. The language of someone like that should be there. Who will love me? He says, I will. Who will suffer for me? He says, I will. Who will pay my debt? He says, I will. One of the wars that Emperor Alexander fought, he was making his rounds one night. His soldiers were in their tent. His attention was drawn to a tent that was lit up with a candle. He was a little inquisitive. So he opened the tent door and saw a soldier. There he was with his head on his arm on a makeshift table in the tent, fast asleep. He had fallen the street, but he wrote a letter. And he was writing home. And in that letter, he was talking about the hardships of the war and the suffering that he was going through. But he wrote this. He says the thing that worries me the most. He says, I'm in debt. Deep debt. And who will pay my debt? And he fell asleep. And as the Emperor Alexander read that letter, the boy was so fast asleep, he wrote, I will, Emperor Alexander. What a surprise that soldier got when he awoke. Who will pay my debt? Signed, Alexander, Emperor Alexander. Speak of you. What a thrill that was. All he left was his honor, his signature. What a thrill that was to me in my heart at the age of nineteen up in Canada. When that came home to me, who will pay my debt? Who will put away my sin? And the Lord said, I will. What do you think that soldier must have done? Ah, not real. It can't be. I'm going to look him up and ask if he means them. I don't think he questioned it. The moment that he saw the signature, Emperor Alexander, will enter his heart. And if he went to see him, the Emperor he'd have fallen into the streets and hanged him. And that's all you can do. Someone who has paid your death. Who will save me? He says, I will. Who will keep me? He says, I will. If you want a text for that, here it is, then Jude, now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Jesus, I'll keep you. Some people are afraid to trust Christ. They go, I can't keep it. You don't have to keep it. If you get him, he'll keep you. He'll keep you. He says, I will never leave me nor forsake you. He says, who will keep me? He says, I will. Who will use me? He says, I'll use me. Who will take me to heaven? He said, I will. Here is the great Diane, the positive talking to a negative. And that's the wonderful thing about God's salvation. It's of the Lord. He has to do it all. Because you can't do it. When Christ was on the cross, he said it is finished. The power of his hands and the work will come. You can't add anything to the work of Christ. He finished it on the cross. How am I using this and applying it to you today what was said to Moses? Because this is what God said to Moses, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. God hasn't changed. He's still the great I am who can say I will, I will them through his Son. He's saying that very thing. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. All he'd ask me to do is fill out a signed blank check. He signed the name of the check. Now he's a bottle of check. Now you fill it up. What would you write down? Well, I want to be saved. I want everlasting life. I want my sins forgiven. I want peace with God. Just cash in heaven's bank, paid in full. His signature there. He said, he'll do it, and he'll do it. Now, there's only one thing, this check won't bounce. This is the bank of abundant life, and the manager of this bank has signed a bank check. He says, fill it up, and you'll get it. It's all yours. Think of the lepers. in Mark chapter one. He said, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make it clean. And what should the Lord say? I will be thou clean. The thief on the cross, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. The Lord says today, shall thou be with me? I will. Mark and he is in the eighteenth of Luke. He says, Lord, that I may receive my sight. The Lord says, receive my sight. I will. All we've got to do is put in our place, fill out the check, and he says, I'll pay the debt. It's yours right now. It costs us nothing to be saved, but it costs him everything. One time I was in New York many years ago. And I went up an elevator of seventy-two stories. That was quite a ride. It didn't cost me a dime. It had cost some man or corporation a huge amount of money to build that building and put that elevator there. But here I went shooting up there and said, God, I should have gone up again. God cost me a dime. Friend, it doesn't cost us a dime to be saved. But it cost the Lord Jesus Christ his life. Jesus paid the fare. It cost him much. And that's what he wants you to do this morning, is to believe that he paid your debt. He suffered in your debt. If you want to go up to heaven, it's at his expense. Although I've been preaching forty-seven years, I no more saved this morning than I was at the age of nineteen when I accepted Jesus Christ. My forty-seven-year preaching hasn't added one thing to my salvation. I was saved that night. The moment you were born into that family you remembered of. You were your parents' child that very moment you were born. Now, you may have... They would educate yourself, and you may be an executive. You may have a million dollars, but you're just still there as long. What you've learned and done and accomplished hasn't added anything to your being the child of that church. I tell you one day, when you accept Jesus Christ, you're born again, you come into his family, and nothing you can do the rest of your life. You can add to that salvation. You can bring a lot of joy and satisfaction to your parents. by the way you live and live, after you're saved, then you have an opportunity to show your appreciation to the Lord for going to the cross, taking your place in suffering, in your steps. After this discourse in verse sixty eight, the Bible says, Lord, to whom shall he go? Thou hast the word of eternal life. How wonderful are his words? During World War II, the Belgian parachutist, he dropped behind the German line. So I'd worked with the underground. He was captured and put in solitary confinement. In the next cell was a pastor. He too had been put in solitary confinement. But both of them knew the Morse code, and they found it out by tapping on the wall between the cells. So this soldier, this is what he tapped on the wall. It is hell to be alone with oneself. The pastor was a saved man. He sent the message back in the Morse Code. He said, it is heaven to be alone with one's Lord. Quite a difficult. Well, the pastor had some visitors. He did have a few privileges, and he asked one of his friends if he could somehow get a Bible to that soldier. And they did. The soldier read the Bible, and one day he sent the message in the Morse Code to the pastor, I'm saved. I've found Christ. The word of God did it. The day of his execution came. And the pastor knew this was the day the soldier was going out to be put to death. But this was the last message he passed on as he tapped on the wall to that pastor. He says, I'm going out to life and not death. That's it. When a Christian dies, he's going out to life, not death. That's what those have who have believed his word. How wonderful! To whom can we chose, says the Prophet, thou hast the word of eternal life. To depart is to depart and be with Christ, which is very far better. There are three groups, and we were individuals in his closing verses. You have backsliders, you have believers, and you have betrayers. Notice the backsliders in verse sixty-six. From that time many other disciples went back, a walk, no more with him, backsliders. They weren't even saved. I'm stood forward yet. They had been listening to his words. They had been watching his miracles and living off some of the bread and the fisheries, but they hadn't had that spiritual birth. And when he put them on the spot and put them to the test, they went back and walked no more with him. Then you'll notice verse sixty-seven. Then said, Jesus unto the twelve, will ye also go away? And how I love this next verse, Simon Peter. Simon Peter answered him, Lord, for whom shall we go, thou hast the word of eternal life. And we believe, and are sure, that thou art dead Christ, the Son of the living God. What a marvelous confession. Here's a true believer. You have the backsliding. But here you have a true believer. And this is a language that comes from the heart of a true believer. Lord, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. They confess Jesus Christ as their Lord. You have the word of eternal life, and that's what I want. Then you have the betrayer. Verse seven of the Jesus answered them, have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil. He said that a year before Judas betrayed him, so Judas was never a genuine disciple. The Lord knew right along that he had a hypocrite and a crowd. And then he spake of Judas the sky, the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. So here you have a betrayer. a backslider, a believer, and a betrayer. Judas stole the Lord for thirsty pieces of silver. He got the price, but he had an awful guilty conscience, and he couldn't hold those coins, he threw them down, and went out and hanged himself. He saw the awful bargain he made. Esaul sold his birthright for a mess of potty, a passing drapery's occasion. What are you selling the Lord for this morning? The reason you're on the save means you're selling him for something. Satan and the world is bidding for your soul. The Lord Jesus is bidding for your soul. Who's going to win? In some of these big sales, especially where you see jewelry, high cost jewelry being auctioned off. That man up there and he gets a bid. Finally, there's a hesitation and then down comes the gavel. Oh! The Holy Spirit is the auctioneer this morning. The Lord Jesus has put in his price for your soul. He's made his gift. He shed his blood for you on Calvary's cross. The world's putting in its bits. Don't get saved now. You're too young. There's a lot in the world you'd like to enjoy. The glitter and glare of the world. I offer you this for a few more years. You can postpone that other thing. And the devil also is tempting you. Yeah, you're too young to get saved. You just do as I tell you to do. He's bidding for your soul, too. He knows where he's going, and he wants you to go with him. The Spirit of God is the auctioneer. When will the gals come on fall? What are you going to do with Jesus this morning? What will your answer be? When that auctioneer brings down the gals, told that I shall We never know when the Holy Spirit, and the Bible says, shall not always strive with man. You've known the Lord Jesus to be pleading with you, pleading with you, begging you, trying to get you to trust him. He's a wonderful bitter. What the world did, the devil did. And here you sit this morning. And the Spirit of God is arrayed, Jabber. Wait, you never know. When you wait too long, the Jabber will come down. Go! Out to the devil. You've lost your soul. Who are you going to give the nod to this morning? The world? The devil? Or the Lord Jesus? These others may offer you something of this like the bread and the fishing, the loaves and the fishes. The Lord says, don't labor for those things. That's for the body. I want you to give some spiritual things, those things I came into this world to give to you. I'll meet your every need. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you want Christ? Do you want them now? That's the question. What is your vote? Do you want trade? Then trust them now, before the auctioneers. Ends that hesitation. Now procrastination. You've had your chance. You missed it. You'll never return. What will you do with these? What will your answer be? Are you a backslider? Are you a true believer, or are you one that's going to betray the Lord with far less than thirty pieces of service? What you get for betraying Christ will never satisfy you, for Judas threw it away and went and hanged with God. The choice is yours. What will you do with Christ this morning? God has you to say, I'll trust you. I'll trust you now, shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of the Lord Jesus, we commend for thy holy prayer. We thank you for thy precious holy words that thou had given us. The story that it tells of a sage of love. The story that is still being told by the Holy Spirit that whose will may come. The trust of some heart or heart this morning will make the decision. He'll pass from death unto life, from being a sinner to being a child of God, from being poor to being wealthy in Christ. Bless thy word. Save some precious souls right now. We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen. Shall we sing in closing number three hundred and seventy-six. Three hundred and seventy-six. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness, into thy health. Out of my want and into thy will. Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus. I come to thee as that simple, just that simple. Come to Christ in your heart. Put your confession into your feet. I'm coming. You stand free. Out of my wondrous battle and night, She was my father, She was my father, Then through thy freedom, gladness and night, She was my father to see. Out of my sin and sin to thy death, out of my woes and sin to thy blood. Out of my sin and sin to thy death, even my God to sin. I'm leaving in a couple hours, and I'm leaving happy. But I could be more happy with somewhere to come up and tell me you got favors more. That'd be a whole lot happier than all those birthday cards I got. So I trust that someone will tell me you got favors warning, or sometime previously, and you haven't confessed it. Verse two. Out with my shameful favor and blood, Jesus I come, Jesus I come, with the glory and shame of thy God, he who thy come. How will the flower sing to thy word? How will my soul, and will thy song? How will the gospel be to thy song?