This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life. No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason. And the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it.
Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose. Good evening. I could listen to Stefan keyboard like that. The whole evening. is just play a melody.
Play what? A melody, because I know it triggers something for me and everybody. You know, oh, that's turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Okay. No, I'm just saying that's what I love. I thought you were doing another one. You're the boss, buddy. You're the boss.
Think what he could do when you used all ten things. I still can't hear you. All right, guys, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening. Thank you for the men that you brought here tonight.
Thank you for those who are listening. via live stream and Lord, we love you. We need you so much. Thank you, Lord, for giving us your word. by which faith is born in us and That uh Your Heavenly Father uses as a tool to drag us to you.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we might know you and love you and have fellowship with you and know that we have eternal life. Thank you for coming down from heaven to live among us. Thank you for being the bread of life that nourishes us, our souls, and satisfies us with joy and peace. Senor and I pray. Amen.
All right, tonight's message is entitled The bread of life. We're going to be looking at John chapter 6, beginning with verse 25, and I'm going to go as far as I can. Actually, I'm going to get to about verse 50, I think. But anyway. Um Come on in, men.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome. I don't know about you, but you know what I love to do?
I love to eat. In fact, I don't I li I don't uh eat to live. I live to eat. But I eat bad. I eat cheeseburgers and french fries and pizzas and pasta and bread.
So, anyway, I was getting all this inflammation in my knees and in my joints, and I wanted to get rid of it. I'm working with a nutritionist, and don't laugh.
So he's got me on an extreme nutritional diet, which I can increase my muscle mass. Reduce my body fat, and actually lower my metabolic age. Did you know that? His name is Andy. And he's, unfortunately, this diet leaves out one of my favorite foods.
Guess what that is? Bread. I love any kind of bread, particularly when it's hot and dripping with butter. One of my favorite restaurants to go to in Raleigh is Cafe Tiramassu, which is an Italian restaurant. Who's ever eaten at Café Tiramassu?
The rest of you need to go there. I've been going to it for 40 years. It used to be called Piccolomondo, and it was off of Capitol Boulevard, but that's going back in time. But anyway, one of the things they serve there is they bring you out a hot loaf of chiabata bread. And I always ask, they bring you olive oil, but I always ask for butter.
So I just dab lobs of butter on it and dip it in olive oil, and I just love it. And do you know why I love it so much? Three reasons. It's delicious. Yeah.
It's delicious. No. Number it's satisfying. And it's life-giving. And I find it very interesting that Jesus, this is my segue, said, I am the bread of life.
And he uses this metaphor to reveal the answer to four very important questions concerning salvation. And here's the first question. What is the greatest work anyone can do to be saved?
Well, I can hear you thinking, well, Russ, I thought we didn't have to work our way into heaven.
Well, we don't, but there is one work that God requires. Let's see what it is.
Now, last week, you remember that Jesus sent the disciples. On the mountainside, he'd fed the 5,000. The crowd wanted to make him a king, and so he wanted to get the disciples out of there.
So he put them on a boat, sent them across the Sea of Galilee. Big storm comes up. He's up there praying. He sees them rowing with the oars, stranding against the waves, and he comes walking out to them. Um they're terrified.
They think he's a ghost. But once they realize Jesus, they allow him into the boat, and immediately they're at the far shore. And we pick up now with verse 24. It says, Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, They got into their boats and went to Capernaum. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, Rabbi, when did you get here?
And Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. You're looking for me not because you saw miraculous signs, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life. which the Son of Man will give you. On him, God the Father has placed his seal of approval.
Then they asked him. What must we do to do the works God requires? And Jesus answered. The work of God is this, to believe in the one he sent. You see, the problem with most of the people who were following Jesus 2,000 years ago was they had a distorted view of life.
And guess what? Nothing has changed in 2,000 years. Most people today have a very distorted view of life. The vast majority of people in the world believe that contentment and joy and peace and life can be found in the observed world. In other words, We tend to believe that things that we can see and measure will satisfy our hunger for joy and peace and contentment.
Therefore, we all have a tendency to hop on the treadmill of life in pursuit of, and follow the crowd, in pursuit of money, power, success. Pleasure, comfort, popularity, and the honor of man. Can you all think of any other reasons? That pretty much covers it. We live by what my good friend Dave Owen calls the world's motto.
Make as much as you can, can all you get. and then sit on your can. Y'all don't think that's funny? I heard this about a week ago, I cracked up. Make as much as you can.
See if I'll get it this time. Make as much as you can. Can't all you get? If it's sitter, you can. Yeah.
Thank you, Jeff, for whoever that was left in.
Now, is this what the Bible says? Slower?
Okay. Yeah, I forget you guys are a little slow here. All right, 1 John 2. Here's what the Bible says. 1 John 2, 15 through 17.
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world, the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does, comes not from the Father, but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the one who does the will of God lives forever. What is the will of God?
It is to believe in the one he sent. That's God's will. Why should we not focus on the things of this world? Because as it says in 1 Corinthians 7:13, this world in its present form is passing away. And really, it's the physical world that's passing away, but also different aspects of the world.
This word world. comes from the Greek word schema. Which refers to the ordered system of this present life with its possessions, status, and the secular systems that are under the control of the evil one. Anyone know what verse that comes from? The whole world is under control of the evil one.
1 John 5:19. Look it up. In Mark 8:34 through 37, Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, This is when the going gets tough. If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it.
But whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What listen to this now? What good Is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for a soul? Men.
Jesus is talking. about your soul. Which eternal It will last forever. You need to understand, I've said this before in here, that you're not a body with a soul. You're a soul encapsulated in a body.
Your body is going to return to dust. Your soul will live forever. Your soul is the most important aspect of your being. Your soul will live forever, either in heaven or hell.
So guard it carefully. Are you listening to me? Yeah. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 10, 28, do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both the soul and body in hell.
Your soul men. is so important that God and Satan are battling for it. There is a war in the spiritual realm taking place between the forces of good and the forces of evil over our souls. And your eternal destiny. Hangs in the balance.
Listen, when you live for the things of this world, As Jesus said, you're working for food that spoils. When your heart is focused on things. that you can see or measure You're focused on things, men, that are going to disappear. You come into the world naked, you leave naked, you can take nothing with you.
So why do we spend all of our money and all of our capital and all of our time focusing on the things here? We need to be focused on the things that we cannot see. In fact, Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18, so we fix our eyes not on what is seen. but of what is unseen. For what is seen is what?
Temporary. But what is unseen is eternal. Jesus is offering all the people that were following Him back then, and all the people today, food that endures for eternal life. But the reason. They did not believe.
It's because they didn't understand him, and the reason they didn't understand him is because they were blind. In their confusion, they asked him. What must we do to do the works God requires? See, they're thinking that they have to earn their way into salvation. What they're asking is a religious question.
You see, religion asked What must I do? And Jesus' answer is: nothing. I've already done it. That's why he said on the cross before he breathed his last breath: it is what? Finished.
He'd accomplished the work. The vast majority of people today who are members of mainline denominations or striving to be good. to be moral. to be good church attenders. But what they fail to see is that their religious striving is an attempt to earn God's favor.
love what they do. and how they act. Billy Graham said that religion It's like the vaccine. that keeps you from getting the real thing. Man-made religions are dead.
They can never give life. That's why when you go through Europe When you go through some of the big cities around the world, you come to these beautiful cathedrals, and you walk in on a Sunday morning, and you can hear your voice echo. It's empty. Because it's their orthodoxy. That's why churches in hotels, in shopping centers, in tents are booming.
Because People leave these dead churches and they find a church where they're actually hearing the Word of God preached. And it's often not in the most beautiful buildings in the city. In case you haven't noticed.
So what does Jesus say? He says the work of God is this, to believe in the one he sent. It's so simple. that a child can understand it. All one has to do is believe in.
Trust in. Religion is complicated. Have you ever thought about that? It's complicated. And people like that, particularly intellectual people, because it appeals, it tickles the intellect.
It soothes the religious mind. It soothes their moral striving, it satisfies their mind, but it never brings life. True Christianity, men, is simple. and it particularly appeals to the simple-minded. Like me.
Jesus told the woman at the well, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of living water. All you have to do. is come to the well.
And Drake. I told a friend of mine A few months ago, that I've been witnessing to in a gentle way, but as hard as I can. for over about a year. And I finally told him one day, I said, You know, I can, and it's not about me, you understand that. It's not me, it's the Holy Spirit.
But I told him, I said, I can lead you to the well. But I cannot make you drink. And he knew exactly what I was talking about. He's not willing to drink.
So this leads to the second question. Who is the bread of life and exactly what does he offer?
Well, look at verse 30.
So they asked him. What miraculous sign will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
Here's the bottom line. You can offer people the true bread of life. Until you're blue in the face. But the vast majority keep on pursuing the the bread of the world. The crowd of people who were following Jesus asked for another sign, another miracle.
Here's my question. How many miracles does a man have to see before he believes? It's like asking. I remember somebody asked, this is probably 40 years ago, so back then you didn't have billionaires, you had millionaires. And this was somebody, a rich oilman in Texas, might have been a guy by the name of Walter Davis, if y'all remember that name.
Someone asked him, How much money do you need? You know what he said? Just one more dollar. These people were blood. Just one more miracle.
Notice how these people keep referring back to Moses. Moses did this. Moses said that. And we believe Moses. And so Jesus responds, look at verse 32.
I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven. But it's my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Sir, they said, from now on, give us this bread. Then Jesus declared, I am the bread of life.
But as I've told you, You've seen me. And still you do not believe. What does Jesus mean when he says, I am the bread of life?
Well, first, I want you to notice that he uses his divine name. The Greek word, y'all should remember these two Greek words. I think I've got an outline. And you pronounce it ego. Amy.
Ego, ame. There are seven I am statements in the Gospels. It's always ego, ame. And ego means I am. And ame means I am.
It's the same Uh expression. That the pre-incarnate Christ used in the burning bush when he spoke to Moses. He said, I am who I am.
So, what Jesus is saying here. I am. The one who cried out to Moses from the burning bush. I am the one who sent him to stand before Pharaoh. I am the one who set 10 plagues against Egypt.
I am the one who parted the Red Sea. I am the one who gave them manna and quail while they wandered in the desert for 40 years. I am. Before Abraham was born, I am. I am the great...
I am of the Old Testament. If you figure that out, John is trying to tell us, and he began in chapter 1, that Jesus is who? God. When you see Jesus, you've seen the Father. Man, this is who Jesus is.
And this is what you must believe. I remember one time I was with a minister at a certain church that would go unnamed, and we would, I think I've told you this before, I know Neil Augustine has heard it. And I was with two of the friends and this pastor planning the funeral service for a lady who had, excuse me, a prayer vigil for a lady who had cancer. And of course, this church is so formal, they had to have a bulletin for a prayer service. Really?
You need a bulletin to break? Give me a break.
So anyway, in the bullet said, Dear God. Dear God, dear God, dear God, dear God, I said, can we say dear Jesus anywhere? I asked him that, not rudely, but I did ask him, I said, is there any way we could say, dear Jesus? You already said to me. He said, we don't pray to Jesus.
We pray to God. I didn't say it worked because I didn't want to offend my brother. I wanted to say something. Yeah. See, that minister did not really understand or believe that Jesus is God.
Jesus is our intercessor. He sits at the right hand of the Father. When we get to heaven, we're going to see one God, and his name will be what? Jesus, every new shall bow and every tongue confess. Here's the third question.
This is where it gets very interesting. How's a man saved? Is it 100% God? Or is man involved somehow?
Well, listen, let me go and tell you. I'm not going to solve this riddle tonight. Salvation is a deep mystery that cannot be fully comprehended this side of heaven.
So you have kind of two, you have two railroad tracks going through the Bible, and they never. Cross each other. They never contradict each other.
Some theologians are on one track, and they put forth that we are totally saved by God's sovereign will, and man plays no role in it. Salvation is 100% the work of God. This is the view of Calvin, who was one of the great reformers. Other theologians on the other track put forth that we're saved by God's will, but Big butt there. Man is also responsible to respond by his free will.
This is the view of a man named Arminius. Who is also one of the reformers who argued that God's election to salvation is conditional on a man having faith in Christ?
So man must decide how to respond. Let me just tell you something. This debate has been going on for several hundred years. There have been a So many volumes of commentaries written on this one subject. That you couldn't put them in this room, this church building, probably.
And we're going to be debating this until we get to heaven. And guess what? When we get to heaven, we will fully understand. And when we get to heaven, nobody's going to care who was right. Because you will be in heaven.
It's not going to matter. We will quit arguing with each other. See, here's all that matters. Keep the main thing the main thing all the time. And what's the main thing?
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
So let's see what Jesus says about salvation. Look at verse 37 and hear what he says. And you're going to see intertwined in these verses. God's sovereignty. and man's responsibility.
Just start right here in verse 37. All the Father gives me will come to me. There's God's sovereignty. And whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. There's man's response.
For I've come down from heaven not to do my will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he's given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. You got all that figured out.
Who's right? I love the way John MacArthur responds to this seeming contradiction in Scripture. Here's what he writes. I think I had this in your study guide. Here again is the incomprehensible to the human mind.
interplay between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Only those given to the Son by the will of God. By the Father, will come to him. Let me repeat that. Only those given to the Son by the Father will come to him.
Yet, all who are thirsty may come. And anyone who wishes may take the free gift of the Word of life without cost. That comes from Revelation 22:17.
So at the very end of the Bible, there's an invitation like Billy Graham would give. All who will may come. MacArthur says, though they seem impossible to harmonize, there's no conflict between these truths. Two truths in the Infinite mind of God. What kind of mind do we have?
For night. We can't put our heads around this, so don't even worry about it. I believe the process of salvation involves divine sovereignty and human responsibility. And God sees no conflict of these two truths. God does His part, we must do our part.
So, what is God's part? Here it is. You ready? He gives those he has chosen to the Son. Go read Ephesians 1.4.
He chose us in the creation. He chose us before the creation of the world to be predestined, to be conformed to the likeness of his son. That's a very strong.
Sovereign statement on God's part. What is man's part? We must come to the Son by faith. God gives, we come. All those who come will be received.
No one will be turned away who truly seeks after God. Y'all believe that?
So how do we come? We look to the Son through eyes of faith. You believe in Jesus' work on the cross as payment for your sins. This simply means that you C.S. Lewis talked said it like this, you raise the white flag.
You surrender. You doubt a self. Do you begin to live for him? And those who believe have eternal life and will be raised up at the last day. And guess what?
You can never lose your salvation. In other words, once saved, always saved. And what hymn can we sing?
Well we know that's sure, surely. Blessed assurance. Jesus is mine.
So how do we know we cannot lose our salvation? Look at what Jesus says in verse 39. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me. Jesus says that no one can snatch them out of my hand. When you're in God's hand, He's got you.
Doesn't that give you comfort? That's why you can go to bed at night and have peace and joy because you have this incredible future. That no mind can comprehend. It's waiting for us the moment we die or the moment he returns. In verses 41 and 42, We see some stubborn people.
Look at what it says. At this the Jews began to grumble about him, because he had said, I am the bread that came down from heaven. How can he come from heaven if, as they said, isn't this Jesus the Son of Joseph whose father and mother we know? This is why the his brothers You know, for a while, I'm talking about Jesus' half-brothers, he had four. didn't believe for a while.
But listen. Jesus wants to make this point so clear that he repeats it five times in these verses. I came down from heaven. I came down from heaven. The true bread that came down from heaven.
Five times he says that, but they were blind to the reality of this truth. And the reason they were blind is explained in verses 43 and 44. Look at what it says. Jesus said, Stop grumbling among yourselves. Jesus answered, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.
In other words, He has not drawn you. And here we see God's sovereignty explained. in a powerful statement. No one can come to the Father.
Well, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. See, man is helpless. And we're unable to respond apart from God's sovereign call. And it's an effective call. When He calls you, you will come.
If God did not act, no one would ever come to Jesus. Romans 3:11 says, There's no one who understands no one who seeks God.
So God must seek us. He is known as the hound of heaven, who is coming after us.
So how does God draw us? Do you know how he does it? He drags us. Let me show you this word. The Greek words, in your outline, the Greek word used here for draw is helkusane.
Helkusane. That E is kind of solid. It's like an H in front of it. Helkusane. And it means to drag or to pull.
And it's the very same word that's used in Acts chapter 21, verse 30. And I find this amazing. Here's what happens in Acts 21.30. It says, The whole city was aroused, and people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they.
dragged him from the temple. That word there is Helkusang. Did you not find that amazing?
So, draw is a good word, but it's not strong enough. He literally drags us. No one can ever come to Jesus unless God, by His Spirit, drags us to Him. And here's the mystery which is beyond us. At the same time that He's dragging us, He imparts faith to us as a gift.
And when we receive this free gift of faith, In that moment, we respond and come. It's all happening. happening at the same time. God is dragging and we're responding. This is what I love about the Bible.
All throughout the Bible, God uses simple words that point to man's responsibility: words like believe. Receive. Come. Drink. Eight.
Can you understand those words? One of my favorite simple words is the word look. Isaiah 45, 22 says, Look to me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. And that's a very famous verse. because it was the verse that was used to convert a great Minister who became known as the Prince of Preachers by the name of Charles Spurgeon.
He was sitting in a church on January 6, 9, 1850, during a snowstorm. But anyway, the minister preaching that they preached from Isaiah 45, 22, which says, Look unto me and be ye saved. And you look. Down at young Charles Spurgeon, who's sitting about right where you are, 15 years old, and said, Young man, you look miserable. Look to Jesus and be saved.
In that moment, he was saved. He was 15. He began preaching the next year, and the rest is history. And here's his theological view on salvation. Listen to what he says.
I believe the doctrine of election. Because I'm quite certain that if God had not chosen me, I would have never chosen him. And I'm sure he chose me before I was born, or else he would have never chosen me afterwards. And then when a church member asked Spurgeon how he reconciles God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, he responded. I never try to reconcile friends.
That's the way we should treat this debate. Human responsibility. God's sovereign will Arminius and Calvin are friends. and they are both in heaven. What is the main tool God uses to drag us to Jesus?
What is it? The Word of God. Look at verse 45. It is written in the prophets. They will all be taught by God.
Everyone who listens to the Father and learned from him comes to me.
So God drags us to Jesus by his word. This is why we're doing a Bible study. When you open up the Bible and you begin to read it, You're listening to God. And he's speaking to you. And faith is for is formed.
And sometimes you don't know what happened. Steve Source, wherever he is, he's a great example. He started coming to this Bible study when we were meeting at Eden Street back in like 2006, 2007. He'd been going to church, but he would have told you he was not born again. I'm not sure you can tell you which year he was born again.
Maybe he can. But all of a sudden he believed. And it happened because he kept hearing the word of God. Dave, did that sort of happen to you? Dave Clamer back there.
Dave was the sound man. He had to listen to me. Did you listen to the gospel? Did it have an impact on you? Do you know where you're going to go when you die?
Yes, sir. Great. I'll be there with you, I hope.
So what is um What is God's desire for the world? This is amazing. Look at 1 Timothy 2. It says, God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Peter 3 nonsense.
God is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish. But everyone to come to repentance.
So here's the final question. Won't be a long answer.
So if God wants all to be saved and has the power to save all, Why are we not all saved?
Well, here's the simple answer. Remember, I'm a simple man. Because the gospel message is so offensive to people. The gospel is a huge stumbling block for both Jews and Gentiles. How can a man who died on a tree 2,000 years ago have any relevance to our life today?
is the way some people look at it. And due to the stubbornness of the human heart, most people suppress the truth. They reject Jesus and the gospel. They rebel against the holy God. and they enter through the wide gate which leads to where?
to destruction. And they do this by using their own free will. And this is their choice. and they will be held accountable. Romans 1.20 says, For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.
Being understood from what has been made so that men are without what? Excuse. I can tell you this, nobody in Raleigh Will ever be able to stand before God and say, I didn't have a chance to hear the gospel. Really? This is what the Bible says, and this is what you must believe.
Now, I have to stop here. We don't have time. to go into this really complicated stuff about eat moth Drink my blood and eat my flesh. But let me just tell you what happens here. The message, see these people all thinking that they were going to get a king.
who would defeat the Romans. and make Israel a prominent nation again over the whole world. and provide them with bread and entertain them forever. But then Jesus began to teach a difficult message. You see, the narrow way It doesn't look like much fun.
Whereas if you look at many people on the wide road, they seem to be enjoying life more, making more money, taking trips. They post on Facebook and Instagram, and going to parties. The world appears to have more to offer than dying to self and taking up your cross. Would you agree with that? Being a Christian is not easy.
It's difficult. But the Cu the cost and the consequences are worth it. Let's listen to what Moses has to say. Moses had a choice. Hey.
He was raised as the son of Pharaoh, the wealthiest man in the world, and he could have enjoyed the riches of this world. But he had a choice. He could also obey God. And here's what it says about him in Hebrews 11. May we be like Moses.
By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Instead, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt. Because he was looking ahead. to his reward.
You see, he wasn't focused on what is seen. He was focused on what is unseen. What are you focused on? What am I focused on? Let's try to live our lives.
Focused on heaven, focused on Jesus, focused on the gospel. And let's take the light that we have within us and share it with as many people as we can. Because some of you will remember this. I used to say this all the time when we were eating it straight. The gospel, the kingdom of heaven is forcefully advancing.
It's like a train that's pulled in heat to the depot. And the doors have opened up. And what does Jesus say? All aboard? And that train's headed to heaven.
That's the way we want to live our lives. You with me? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this night. Thank you for your word.
I pray, Lord, that you'll protect us from this storm, protect the people that are homeless, animals, dear God. That um Don't have shelter. It just We pray, Lord, that it won't create a lot of damage and loss of life. Lord, thank you for this man. Thank you for the gospel.
Thank you for your word. Thank you that one day you're coming back. To take us to be with you, that we might live with you forever in heaven. It's in your name that I pray. Amen.
You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you. If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net.
