You Are What You Eat – Pt. 3

God’s people would take their
Bibles once again and turn to John Chapter 6. John Chapter 6, we have begun
to digest it and savor it really for the last several weeks. All
four of the Gospels record those early scenes. They record the
feeding of the 5,000 and All of them, to some degree, record
the walking on the water. But only John’s gospel goes forward
and records the particular dialogue, the interaction that Jesus had
with Jewish followers immediately after those two episodes. We won’t have time to read the
passage in its entirety. Essentially, you have that context
in your mind of the feeding of the 5,000, this clamoring crowd
that was suddenly and miraculously fed by Christ through miraculous
means, the blessing of a few fish and some loaves. But Jesus
had a special miracle designed to really boost and augment and
bolster the faith of his own apostles. And so he sent them,
11 of them, across the sea. And in the middle of the night,
Christ came to them. Christ came to them walking on
the water. And this was a miracle that was
providentially geared and designed just for those apostles. Well, their faith being greatly
encouraged, Not perfected, mind you, they have much to learn,
but their faith was greatly encouraged. And Jesus, meanwhile, was discovered
as being absent on the other side of the sea. And so this
great crowd of Jewish followers, who had been fed so miraculously,
chased him down to the other side of the sea. Perhaps there
were some on foot, but it reports that a great number of them went
across by boat. And when they found Jesus, they
cornered him. And it just says that they were
bewildered at how Jesus arrived there. We pick up in verse 22,
this incredible chapter, John chapter 6. The next day, the
crowd that stood on the other side of the sea saw that there
was no other small boat there except one. and that Jesus had
not entered with his disciples into the boat, but that his disciples
had gone away alone. There came other small boats
from Tiberias near to the place where they ate 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
small boats and came to Capernaum seeking Jesus. When they found
him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “‘Rabbi,
when did you get here?’ Jesus answered 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 filled. “‘Do
not work for the food which perishes, “‘but for the food which endures
to eternal life, “‘which the Son of Man will give to you.
“‘For on Him, the Father God has set His seal. Therefore they
said to him, What shall we do, so that we may work the works
of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of
God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said
to him, What then do you do for a sign, so that we may see and
believe you? What work do you perform? A man in the wilderness, as it
is written, he gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus said
to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it is not Moses who is
giving you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives
you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that
which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, I am the
bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger,
and he who believes in me will never thirst. But I said to you
that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that
the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes
to me I will certainly not pass out. For I have come down from
heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent
me. This is the will of Him who sent me, that of all that He
has given me, I lose nothing. But I raise it up on the last
day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who
beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life,
and I myself will raise Him up on the last day.” These are the
words, verses 22 all the way down through the end of the chapter,
if we haven’t even read them all, all the way down through
verse 71 that are exclusive to John’s Gospel. As I said, all
four of the gospel writers record the feeding of the 5,000. All
four of them record the walking on the water. But only John zeroes
in on this conversation. It fits his purpose. John’s was
not a general recording of the history of Christ, as some of
the gospels are, painting a very broad brush stroke. But John’s
particular purpose in writing his gospel was faith. that sinners
would come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John is presenting
before us a discourse that talks about bread over and over and
over again. The title I suggested for this
is that you are what you eat. And that we need to examine not
just the nutritional value of the bread, that we place into
the toaster, but the nutritional values, spiritually speaking,
of whatever bread it is we are invited. It’s suggested that
there were three different kinds of bread. There is the bread
of earth, that’s spoken about in verses 22 through 27. Real bread, natural bread. There is the bread of heaven,
which we talked about last Lord’s Day. And there is the bread of
life, which, God willing, we will discuss at least to begin
with this morning. Go back with me, if you would,
to the bread of the earth. The bread of the earth, what
Jesus was addressing there was this confusion about the bread
of earth. That you had this crowd of people
that had chased Jesus down, quite literally, found him, largely,
for the bread of the earth, that they wanted another meal. They
had had this miraculous meal the night before. These five
loaves suddenly, somehow, by God’s divine providence, turned
into a meal for 5,000 people with fish to boot. What Jesus
begins to rebuke is their base living, that kind of basic mundane,
simple approach to life, as if that’s all life is, is chasing
down your next meal? There was plenty of evidence
of that, as they had chased Jesus clear across the sea, and Jesus
rebukes that base living in verse 26. I say to you, you seek me
not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves
and were filled. You just want another meal. And he corrects
it so graciously, doesn’t he? Do not work for the food which
perishes. He wasn’t telling us not to get
a job, not to earn our family provisions. But work for the
food which endures to eternal life. He’s baiting them, much
like he did the woman at the well with the water, remember? He wants them to wonder what
this bread is. He wants them to wonder about
these things. He wants them to go further.
He wants them to come to faith. And that would become increasingly
clear. He even says that the Son of
Man prepares to offer this bread. That was another kind of bread.
He rebukes the base living and looks only for the real, natural
bread, because another kind of bread. And there was confusion
about that bread, too, the bread of heaven. The Jews immediately come to
this idea that he’s talking about bread, and he has just worked
a miracle. He must be in the same camp,
spiritually speaking, as our great predecessor Moses. And
if he really is the Messiah, he will be able to outdo Moses
in his miracles. They were caught up in religious
living. We saw that last Lord’s Day. Verse 28 says, they said
to Him, what shall we do? We want to get into the system
of works and thereby earn our salvation. And Jesus corrects
them immediately. This is the work of God that
you believe. It’s justification by faith, as Jesus declared. You want to get to heaven, place
your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him alone, no
other work, no other mountain of work will do. But in their
stubbornness, they refused to see. And they said to Him, what
do you do for a sign? As if Jesus hadn’t already done
one of the most miraculous, stupendous signs ever performed the night
before, defeating the 5,000. They didn’t know about the walking
on the water, and if they had, they would have absolutely asserted
their authority to try to make him a king. What work do you
perform? What signs do you show us? And
then they bring up the man. They basically show Jesus up
by saying that, look, what Moses did lasted 40 years. A daily
provision for 40 years. Well, with this, Jesus issues
a merciful call from that religious living, from that idea of being
locked in to God constantly being according to a contract that
if we do thus and such, God must respond accordingly. His appeal
is simple. Look at verse 32. Truly, truly,
I say to you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from
heaven, But it is my Father who gives you the true bread out
of heaven, for the bread of God is that which comes down out
of heaven and gives life to the world. What Jesus was wanting
them to understand was that, look, this man, it might have
fallen from the sky, but it wasn’t the bread of heaven. The true
bread of heaven is he who, that which comes down out of heaven.
and takes residence in the world, in human flesh. What he was doing
was bathing them all over again, pleading with them, really, to
soften their hard hearts, to look beyond base living, to look
beyond religious living, and to understand who it was who
stood before them. It’s the bread of life. It’s the bread of life. And even as Jesus introduces
the bread of life, there is confusion. There is need of explanation.
There is a rebuke of unbelief. And then there is this beautiful
appeal at the end. Let’s look at it. We begin in
verse 34. Evidence of the confusion. Let’s
look. And it fits the same pattern that he addressed with the other
forms of bread. The bread of earth, the bread
of heaven. Same kind of confusion with the
bread of life. Look at verse 34. Jesus, all
he does is introduce this idea of bread. Look at, jump back
to verse 32. Truly, truly, I say to you, it
is not Moses who has given me the bread out of heaven. It is
my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. The miracle
is that God gives us our daily bread, whether it’s man lying
all over the ground, or whether it’s the grain that slowly grows
that must be harvested processed into a powder that we call flour,
slowly mixed with water, churned and put out and baked until we
get bread, leavens or oats. It’s a miracle of God, all of
it. It’s not Moses who gave you the
bread out of heaven, it’s my heavenly father who gave you
the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that
which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
But all he has to do is say that. And now he has them at a new
level of interest. And they render a very similar
response to the Samaritan woman’s response to the living water.
Remember that? Jesus just mentions living water,
and the lady is just all in a dither. Oh, yes, please give me that
water. And that’s what they say. Look
at verse 34. Lord, always give us this breath,
not just today, But let’s set this thing perpetually in motion. If the bread is that good, better
even than Moses could have provided, then by all means, give it to
us and give it to us forever. They’re completely unclear of what Jesus is talking
about. They see that there is some kind
of a promise here, but it’s a mysterious promise. They don’t understand
it at all. There’s something vague about
it, but they know it’s something good, they know that it’s a promise
of sorts, but they’re still testing Christ, they still don’t really
believe in Him. They know that there’s something
good, they know that they wish to have it, and what one referred
to their response was that it is nothing more than the desire
of the slothful. If you have the ability to provide
this kind of bread, then we’re going to sit back and eat that
bread and take that bread, as long as you’re willing to provide
it. Always give us this bread. They didn’t know whether there
was some miraculous kind of sustenance. They didn’t know if he was going
to do the manna thing all over again, just like Moses. Every
morning, go out, collect it up, They didn’t know, but they know
that there’s some kind of a promise here, some kind of an offer that
Christ is making. And as really they only can in
their almost utter blindness, they interpret it in this grid
of their material hopes. They’re still thinking bread,
real bread. They’re still thinking about
their daily meal. And in a sense, in a sense, we
can be patient with them. We can understand that. Even
Paul, when Paul looking back on this miracle, the miracle
of the manna, Paul referred to it as spiritual food, 1 Corinthians
10. In a sense, we can understand
a stupendous miracle like the manna was, or a stupendous miracle
like the feeding of the 5,000 was, we can understand kind of
getting locked in there, can’t we? Well, the Jews have done this on a
number of other occasions. Just keep your finger in John
6. Turn over if you would to Luke
chapter 14. There’s a fascinating parallel
episode there. And you’ll see characters in
here that, I mean, they strike us as sophomores, I’ll tell you. Luke 14, jump all the way back
to verse 12. He’s at dinner. He’s been invited
into the home of one. And it says in verse 12, he went
to say to the one who had invited him, when you give a lunch or
dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives
or your rich neighbors. We were kind of backing up, having
lived in the South, having lived in California, having lived in
the Midwest, having been born and raised and now returned to
Colorado. We were just kind of painting a picture, a generality,
admittedly, hopefully not prejudiced, but just an observation of what
life is like in different countries. In Texas or in the South, if
you go to church on a Sunday and you sit down in the church
You’re going home with someone to lunch. To their home to lunch. It just happens. And it’s notorious, or well known,
that Southern has hospitality, right? Well, in California, they’ll
talk about lunch, they’ll build it up, and they’ll meet you. at a restaurant for lunch, and
they will pick up the tab that they typically, this is a generalization,
they typically don’t have you into their home. In the Midwest,
they will talk about it, talk about it, talk about it, talk
about it, plan it, select a date, Then, when you come, it is an
all-day event. It is very rare. But when it
happens, it is a major event. In Colorado, this is a generalization. In Colorado, people will invite
people into their home, and then they will sit back and wait.
And they will suggest that it’s their turn. to have us. Everything
is based on reciprocity and color. So we break that. When you give
a luncheon for a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers
or your relatives. He wasn’t saying that it’s absolutely forbidden. But don’t get into this. I did
this, so you must respond in kind. Or I’m not going to invite
you. It’s your turn. Don’t get into that. Otherwise,
you may invite They may invite you in return, and that will
be your repayment. But when you give a reception,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. And you
will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you.
For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
And here he is giving these incredible spiritual lessons. And we all
know this guy, right? It’s similar to Peter. This wasn’t
Peter that chimed in, but somebody came up with this great idea.
Look at verse 15. When one of those who were reclining
at the table with him heard this, he said, blessed is everyone
who will eat bread in the kingdom of God. And you just can picture
the whole dinner party getting really, really quiet, right? It was an odd thing to say. It
was an incredibly odd, tiny, And Jesus seizes upon it. Look
at this. But he said to him, a man was
giving a big dinner. He invited many. At the dinner
hour, he sent away a slave. And to those who had been invited,
come. Everything is ready now. But they all alike began to make
excuses. So there’s this invitation to
the kingdom. You talk about bread and a feast.
There is this rejection of the kingdom. Watch this. They all
began to make excuses. The first one had a piece of
land. The other one had oxen to take care of. The third one
had just recently gotten married. The slave came back, verse 21,
reported this to his master. The head of the household became
angry and said to his slave, go out at once into the streets,
into the lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, the crippled,
the blind, and the lame. Do you hear what Jesus is doing?
He’s saying, not only to his host, but to those who were guests
at this lunch or dinner party in this home, including the one
who had blurted out this great, grandiose idea. Jesus says, the
offer of the kingdom is there. There are those of you who are
even at this moment rejecting it, and the kingdom is going
to be reallocated. Go out into the streets and lanes,
bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame. The slave
said, Master, what you have commanded has been done, and there is still
room. The master said to the slave, go out into the highways
along the hedges, compel them to come in so that my house may
be filled. For I tell you that none of those
men who were invited shall taste my dinner.” Jesus was saying then exactly
what he’s saying in John chapter six. Turn back if you would. He’s made this gracious appeal.
He’s facing this rejection. And here they have the audacity
to almost plug their ears to his appeal and revert back again
to this bread. Now some would say, by looking
at it, that says, Lord, always give us this breath. And I think
in the context, you would have to know that that word, Lord,
it’s a sign of respect. And it certainly, in many cases,
context has to guide us as to how that should be interpreted.
It could be interpreted, Lord. That’s certainly nothing wrong
with saying, Lord, in that particular context. But it could even be
just so formal as to say, sir. I think to say that they’re sitting
at the feet of one that they know is the Savior, the Messiah,
one who is preparing to pay for their sins on the cross, and
that they are already prepared to call him Lord, that’s way,
way, way too far. It’s a title of respect, but
really nothing more. And as the rest of it comes out,
it will become very clear. Lord always give us this bread.
This bread sounds great. Give us this bread. Jesus is talking about the bread
from heaven, life-giving bread. And their only idea is this abiding
supply, this constantly repeated, ever-ending supply. There isn’t
anything in the passage that really makes us understand that
by what Jesus said, they really understand Him to be talking
about Himself being the bread, that He is the Messiah, He is
God’s gift to the world. So when it says, always give
us this bread, you almost hear even greed in that document.
Jesus had taught His disciples to pray, Give us this day our
daily bread. That’s how God wants us to live
at ease. We’re even beyond that. If you’re talking about an endless
perpetual supply, we only need to make one prayer. Give us always
this bread. I’m done. Amen. Feed me. Forever. There was plain evidence of confusion
about the nature of this bread. Jesus provides. Jesus is not
going to let them stay there in their hard-hearted coldness. And so he makes strong appeal. Look at verse 35. Jesus said
to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger,
and he who believes in me will never thirst. The Jews, these who were so interested, they had asked something of the
Lord Jesus. They knew that He was offering
something, and it sounded good, and just really in order to be
polite, okay, go ahead, if you can do this, go ahead and give
us this bread, always. But they really hadn’t, they
certainly hadn’t put things together to come to the conclusion that
he was actually saying that he was this bread. And so Jesus,
out of an abundance of mercy, looks them in the eye and tells
them plainly, I am the bread of life. I am this bread that we’ve been
discussing. And this claim that it involved was that now
he, as the Messiah, was Lord of their lives. He was the Savior
of their souls. That they would have him. Only that would elevate him beyond
what Moses had presented himself to be. Jesus is very good at that. This is just another in
a long list of those clear declarations that Christ makes throughout
this gospel. Those, I am statements. And you
have to pause at the poignancy of this moment. That Jesus pauses
and looks them in the eye and says, I am the bread of life. He would go on to tell them,
I am the light of the world. I am the door of the fold. I am the good shepherd. I am
the resurrection and the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I am the true vine, that here
He says to them plainly, I am the bread. I am the bread of
life. And from this point forward,
Jesus drops all these vague images and references, and he speaks
about himself in the first person, I and me. He’s making it absolutely
clear on his part that he is the bread of life. You know what
this is? This is the practical application
of verse 27. Just, go ahead and stand there. In 27, Jesus said, do not work
for the food which perishes, But for the food which endures
to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, for on
Him the Father God has set a seal. They didn’t put two and two together,
that He was the bread. He was standing before them,
giving Himself to them. This is the food. This is the
food that supplies life, everlasting life. This is the food, the bread
of life that is as it were, spiritual bread, and it gives to our soul
what real bread gives to our body, nourishment, sustenance. You see, we get caught up in
this idea that, you know, we place our faith once in Christ
and from then on we just ride it out to heaven. We need a daily
supply of grace, don’t we? We need a daily meal of spiritual
food, don’t we? We’ve tasted at the grace of
salvation. We’ve invited, we believe that
if we have placed our faith in Christ, that we have salvation
in full. That’s not the last meal that
we ever taste. We’ve enjoyed the grace of forgiveness,
but we need the grace of sanctification. We need the grace that allows
us to mortify whatever sin God presents. and reveals to us at
work in our life, we need a daily meal of bread, don’t we? Well, Jesus says, I am the bread
of life. He who comes to me will not hunger,
and he who believes in me will never thirst. There was much ink spilled on
these two verbs, coming and believing, side by side in a sense, and
at least in our minds, somewhat differentiated. Coming, kind
of that initial approach to Christ, believing, a settled confidence
in someone or something. Coming is the first act. Believing
is the long-term effect of that act. But there is, it’s not as
if there is not faith in that initial act of coming, right?
We believe and so we come to Christ. We come and so we believe
in Christ. Both things are true. As one
said, the first word presents faith in deed as active and outward. The second presents faith in
thought as resting and inward. To come to Christ is to believe
on Him and to believe in Him is to come to Him. Both expressions
mean that act of the soul whereby, under a sense of its sins and
necessity, it applies to Christ, it lays hold of Christ, it trusts
itself to Christ, it casts itself on Christ. Coming and believing
are essentially one and the same. But look at promise. that is
communicated, you talk about a merciful savior standing in
the face of doubters who were willfully ignorant of what Christ
was, they’re playing games essentially now. I am the bread of life. He who
comes to me will not hunger. And he who believes in me will
never thirst. Jesus is making every attempt
as the Savior to draw them in or seal their faith. The believer here, it says, would
experience this immediate and continual care and satisfaction
of our spiritual needs. That doesn’t mean that we don’t
grow in grace. It doesn’t mean that we don’t
have further supply, but the supply is endless. We go to prayer. We refer to that opportunity
as the throne of grace. It is an inexhaustible supply. Everything that we could possibly
ever need is there. That’s exactly what Jesus is
talking about. He’s not saying that we won’t ever need another
earthly meal. He’s not saying that we will
never thirst in an earthly sense. He says that if we come to Christ,
our spiritual needs are absolutely and utterly and completely handled. They’re just handled. J.C. Ryle, the great godly commentator,
says that he is given to be the great supply of all the wants
of men’s souls. Did you hear that? that there
isn’t anything that you could possibly ever need, spiritually
speaking, that Christ couldn’t or hasn’t already supplied. Nothing. He is given to be the great supply
of all the wants of men’s souls. Whatever our spiritual necessity
may be, however starving, famished, weak, and desperate our condition,
there is enough in Christ Faith in Christ shall supply a man’s
soul with a peace and a satisfaction that shall never be taken. That
shall endure forever. If you come to Christ, if you
place your faith in Christ, there’s no more spiritual hunger.
There’s no more spiritual need. There’s no more spiritual thirst.
And he uses those most basic bodily desires. hunger and thirst, to speak of
that most desperate condition in man’s soul, doesn’t it? That spiritual hunger, spiritual
thirst. When we come to faith, faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we place our faith in Him, we
are joined to Him, we are one in Christ, we are literally placed
into Christ. And when we do that, our spiritual
needs, our physical needs, God takes those into account. All
of our spiritual needs are handled in Christ. No way will we ever
stand famished in need of God’s grace. No point in our future
lives will we ever feel so desperate as we did without hope, without
God, in our natural condition, we will be one day in Christ,
and thereby cared for by Him. Now you would think, I would
think, here’s the Lord Jesus. told them about this earthly
bread. He’s warned them about making
a big commotion of life about just a slice of bread. He’s warned them about this religious
activity of this spiritual bread. And we were thankful that last
Lord’s Day, we celebrated communion. And that there are people that
actually live with the mindset that by partaking in communion
they are either sustained in God’s grace or they receive God’s
grace there at the table of communion and it’s not the case. Jesus
Christ offers forth himself as the bread and even in the face
of all of that there is willful unbelief. Look at verse 36. But
I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe. They had not merely heard of
Christ, and they had not merely heard Christ preach, but they
had actually seen Christ. They had seen the Savior in human
flesh. They had seen the God-man. They
had seen the God-given Messiah. They had seen Him work miracles.
They had seen Him take principled stands. They had heard him articulate
heavenly truths. He doesn’t need to take a show
of hands. He knows their hearts, remember? And he says, even though
I know that you have seen me, yet you do not believe. Now there were some who really
wrestled with who Jesus could possibly be talking about here
in this particular setting. There were one set of commentators
that said that when he says that you do not believe, he’s talking
about the entire Jewish nation, since he’s addressing to Jews
of Jerusalem. Or perhaps there was some other
group at some other time There was another view that said that
maybe John didn’t record their rejection of Christ. I think it’s much simpler than
that. Go back to verse 26. Go back to verse 26. Jesus said that, truly, truly,
I say to you, you seek me not because you saw signs, but because
you ate of the loaves and were filled. He was talking about
those people. Whether it was all 5,000 of them at that moment,
The great generalization there was that those who were dogging
his steps, following him from place to place, it was those
that he was talking to. And even though they had seen
him, witnessed him, listened to him, they would not believe. Some would say that there was
at least a degree of faith in their chasing him around the
countryside, right? They believe in him a little
bit. The only reason they were chasing
him, remember Jesus pointed out, the only reason they were chasing
him is because they ate and were filled. Jesus rebukes that kind of faith. Jesus rebukes those who sit back,
arms crossed, and demand that God do one more thing to prove
himself. Jesus rebuked even Thomas’ faith,
remember? Keeping a finger on John 6, flip
over to John 20. In John chapter 20, the apostles
are gathered. And Thomas, still holding out. Thomas is with us, isn’t he?
So many of us. Still holding out for more information. Still holding out for a greater
testimony. still holding out for proof.
But Thomas, one of the twelve, verse 24, called Dinamas, was
not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying
to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I
see his hands and the imprint of the nails, and put my finger
into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side,
I will not believe. After eight days, his disciples
were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the
doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace
be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach
here with your finger and see my hands. Reach here your hand
and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him,
my Lord and my God. You can say, well, Things are
good, right? Yes. But watch Jesus’ response. Jesus said to him, because you
have seen, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not
see, and yet believe. See the vault of the crown? It
was dogging Jesus’ steps. had just this kind of faith.
It was faith because He had done a work. Faith because He had
worked a miracle. Faith because they had been fed miraculously. But they didn’t really have faith.
Not faith in the Messiah. Not faith in the Savior who would
pay for their sins. So-called kind of faith. It wasn’t Savior faith. Jesus will take these very people
to the very core of the gospel. In verse 37 and following, we’ll
pick up there next Lord’s Day. Our merciful God, we know that we are much like
Thomas. We are much like this crowd. We know even in our unbelieving
state, there were so many demands that we placed on You, or so
we thought. We were so foolish, so hateful, so blind, so ignorant
to Your grace and goodness. Lord, we thank You that You humbled
us to the core of our being. You brought us to repentance.
When we saw Christ for who He was, we could not but believe.
Lord God, we pray for any in our midst who are willfully ignorant,
choosing instead to disbelieve, choosing instead to defer and
put off, like Thomas did, for further proof, choosing, like
this crowd, some crass and religious base way of living, that pushes
away all thought of the spiritual response and the need of repentance
and the righteousness which fits us for heaven. Lord God, for
those of us who have placed our faith in Christ, we rejoice that
we now have every spiritual need There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ. You’ve given to us not only forgiveness
and eternal life, you’ve given us your word, you’ve given us
your own Holy Spirit to dwell in us, and you’ve given us the
greatest companion It’s our Savior, the Lord Jesus. Lord, grant us the grace to stand
before men, to pray Him into men’s lives, to present Him before
others, that others may come to know this friend of sinners. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen. As we close, if you would
take your bulletins and let’s stand together and sing Across
the Lands.