Feeding on Christ involves a personal, willing, continual, and complete engagement with the truths of His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection. Jesus' declaration in John 6:54-55 emphasizes that spiritual life is contingent upon this feeding, not on a literal consumption of His flesh and blood or participation in the Lord's Supper. The sermon explains that 'eating His flesh' refers to believing in His incarnation, and 'drinking His blood' signifies faith in His atoning death and resurrection. This spiritual nourishment is essential for eternal life and is the core message of the gospel.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.46 → restored 4.68
Beloved friends, we welcome you to the meditation of God's word. We welcome you in the precious name of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. We continue the subject commenced in our preceding message, feeding upon Christ. Our text is taken from John chapter six. We read again verses fifty four and fifty five, where we read of Jesus saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye 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.
In our previous lesson, we endeavored to eliminate any possible idea that we may have, and some do have it, that the Savior's reference to eating and drinking in this scripture has a literal meaning. Now, physically doing this is absolutely ridiculous. Physical food is for the body, we all know that, but spiritual food is for the soul. We have suggested four things regarding this spiritual eating and drinking for the need of the soul. We've stated, first of all, it has to be done personally.
My beloved friend, I cannot drink and eat spiritually for you, nor can you do it for me. You and I, we are individually responsible to do it ourselves. Second, and please regard this carefully, we have to do it willingly. God does not save the soul, whether yours or mine, contrary to our willingness. Never. He will never violate the sanctity of the human will that is given to each of us. If you and I are to be saved, we, each of us, must make our own choice.
I must make it. You must make it. And then we mentioned, third, it should be done continually. For if I come to Christ and find him as my savior, and I speak directly to my fellow believers on this point, I do not come to feed on Christ for just one time, but day by day it is my joy to know him. For if we eat physically day by day, should we not be feeding spiritually from the word of God daily? And then fourth, we said it should be done completely. By that we mean we have the complete whole word of God to feed our souls upon, so that we may realize there is so much to find and to give us about Christ, even whether it be in the past eternity, the present realm of time, and even in the eternal future.
My beloved, may I say lovingly and faithfully, you and I should, in the language of an old hymn, be able to say, when Christ is ours, oh, tell me more of Christ my Savior, on this blessed theme dwell all in all. Now we would like to consider, first of all, the Savior's introduction in his words. Notice he introduces the statement saying, verily, verily, I say unto you. It is a double verily repeated twice. You'll find in the Gospel of John twenty five double verily spoken by the Savior, meaning of a truth, of a truth. It emphasizes the truthfulness of his statement.
You can believe it, my friend, for it's God's eternal truth as spoken from the lips and from the heart of the Son of God. Now notice second thing, something we've already mentioned, we do it again. Without the soul eating and drinking and feeding upon Christ, according to verse fifty four, there can be no spiritual life. Take this in, my friend. You may possess an abundance of physical life and strength and vigor, but if you never have any food for your soul, the Lord Jesus says you don't have any spiritual life, you're dead. Is not this what the beloved Apostle Paul wrote concerning the past situation and condition of the Christians who lived in Ephesus long ago?
In Ephesians chapter two and verse one, to those believers, he wrote to say and to remind them, before they were saved, ye were dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritually dead, God would. Long ago, there was a favorite saying among a certain cult, and a false cult, if you please, in which they stated millions now living will never die. That was one of their beliefs. They had an explanation for it which wasn't scriptural. But I often thought it was more truthful if we were to say, millions now living are dead. Oh, my beloved, how many, many, many people are dead.
Godward, Christward. For whosoever does not know Christ as his or her savior, they are still dead in their sins, spiritually dead toward God. They need Christ, the bread of life for their souls. Take it in, my friend. There's something to meditate upon. But note a third fact in verse fifty four. You've got a positive side to the Savior's message here. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Our preceding verse fifty three emphasized a negative fact.
This emphasizes a positive one. And if you note carefully, both the verses very strongly and very plainly emphasize the eating of the flesh of the Son of Man and the drinking of his blood. Now we raise the question, and I'm sure it may be in your mind and heart, just exactly what does it mean to be doing this? Eating the flesh of the Son of Man, drinking his blood. Now, once again, let me repeat, no apology for the repetition. Do not apply this literally or physically. And let me also add, by the way of warning, may I say the Lord's Supper is not implied by the Savior's words in this text.
If the Lord's Supper was meant by these words, then according to verse fifty three, a person could obtain eternal life by taking those emblems of the bread and the wine in memorial for the Lord's death. But that can never be. You never can be saved by taking the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is given to those believers who are saved and who have eternal life and have received it by faith. They are the ones who are to remember the Lord and his death through whom and which they have been saved. So that to imply taking the Lord's Supper would save a person, it is contrary to all the teachings of the Word of God concerning salvation, which is by grace, through faith.
So please eliminate that suggestion, if it may be in your mind. The Lord is not speaking of the Lord's Supper. But now note specially, and we come to the text in all of its crucial meaning. Note three facts the Savior refers to in these two verses, and I point them out. First, he refers to the flesh of the Son of Man, or sometimes in one phrase he said, my flesh. Second, he refers to his blood, or he declares, my blood. Third, at the end of verse fifty four, he declares, I will raise him up at the last day. Now take these phrases.
Here are three references to the person and to the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Imperative to know and believe for your salvation and mine. And let me just put them in this prospective way. First, he speaks of his incarnation when he refers to the flesh of the Son of Man. Second, he refers to his crucifixion and death. Nothing else can be implied by the reference to his blood. Third, he refers to his resurrection when he declares, I will raise him up at the last day. These references very definitely suggest what the soul must feed upon to receive eternal life.
The truth regarding his incarnation, the truth regarding his crucifixion and death, the truth regarding his resurrection. My beloved, how could salvation ever be brought to you and to me if God's beloved and eternal Son had never come to the earth and had never taken humanity into relationship with deity at the same time? And furthermore, was it not necessary that in that body which he took, and with that body, he should die for our sins? Now let me bring before your attention to your heart, into your soul, into your mind.
Is not the gospel declared by the beloved Apostle Paul, writing in First Corinthians fifteen verses three and four when he declares and says, I declare unto you the gospel, and listen to the declaration of it. How that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scripture. Now think very clearly of these three facts for your heart and mind to feed upon, your soul and mind to feed upon. First, the incarnation of Christ, the Son of God. Second, the crucifixion and death of Christ.
Third, the resurrection of Christ. These are three essential truths of the gospel for us to know and to believe. Now, may I point out in closing, by the way of reference, if you will read the whole sixth chapter of John, from which we've taken our verses, you will find the reference to the bread from heaven spoken of, recorded nine times, which emphasizes the truth that in order for you and for me to have eternal life for our souls, the Son of God had to become and did become incarnate. He became flesh.
The Son of God was crucified for our sins, and that the Son of God was resurrected the third day. This, my friend, now please let me apply the truth of our lesson, and we shall continue with it, God willing. But this, my friend, is plenty of food for your soul as well as for mine to feed upon. If you have neglected to this moment feeding upon these truths of the incarnation of Christ, the crucifixion of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, won't you start doing it now, for you need Christ? May the words of the old hymn be yours and mine. Guide us, O thou great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land.
We are weak, but thou art mighty. Hold us with thy powerful hand. Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more. Father, bless thy word in Jesus' name for his glory. Amen.