Pastor Jerry Zepnick's sermon, titled 'Bread Of Life To The World,' explores the profound and challenging teachings of Jesus found in John 6:51-59, where Jesus refers to himself as the 'living bread' and speaks of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Pastor Zepnick emphasizes that these metaphors are not to be understood literally but as spiritual truths that highlight the necessity of faith in Jesus for eternal life. The sermon underscores the importance of uncompromising adherence to biblical truth, warning against the dangers of false doctrine and cultural compromise. By drawing parallels between Jesus' teachings and the challenges faced by believers today, the sermon calls for Christians to remain steadfast in their faith and to live lives fully committed to Christ. Pastor Zepnick also highlights the promised results of such faith, including eternal life and a deep, abiding relationship with Jesus, which are available to all who believe. The sermon concludes with a call to action, urging listeners to evaluate their faith and dedication to Christ, and to embrace the transformative power of the gospel.

Music Good morning. Good morning, Father. So we are in the book of John and we're continuing on in this theme of bread and the bread of life and that's John chapter 6 verses 51 through 59. And so Let's read through that and then we'll pick our way through it. I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the rest for the life of the world." The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.

He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As living Father sent me, I live because of the Father. So, he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.

These things he said in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum. Lord, we thank you this morning for your word and the power that it holds, Lord God. I pray for us to have a greater understanding, Lord God, than those that you spoke this to the first time, that our hearts might be moved onto action, that our lives would be changed, Lord God, to be one that lives on you. I just thank you for this day and for this text in Jesus' name, amen. So I think it's important for us to put ourselves where Jesus is and in the situation that he's in.

The text right here, he is, he is and ends up saying he's in a synagogue as he taught at Capernaum. So he came across the sea, he saved the 12 disciples as they were gonna drown in the boat, transported immediately over. And now he ended up in a synagogue in Copernum, where he went to. And so Jesus is trying to make the Jews understand that, and us as well, we don't wanna leave ourselves out of this picture. He's trying to make us understand too, that he has the bread of life.

And that they can't get, they themselves, they can't get past thinking on these literal terms of physical bread and flesh. And so as we transport ourselves back to this time, we have to understand that the absurdity of consuming flesh with blood in it, of drinking blood, of human flesh. This was, as far as the Jews went, this was like taboo. There's no way that you could have anything to do with this. And so their mind is still thinking on the literal sense.

And so it was forbidden by God to do these things and they knew that. And so Jesus, still, He spoke of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And they were just completely unable to rise above what they knew about the things of this life and take it into what would be a spiritual matter. And he had many followers at this time. We have to remember, He had hundreds, if not thousands upon thousands of followers at this time.

And him talking about this, he knew that that would thin it out. He knew that talking about this would thin out the followers that he had. No different than teaching and preaching sound doctrine today, and living it will thin out the crowd that you're speaking to. It's no different today than it was then. And so the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.

It's able to divide. It divides truth from false. It divides believers from unbelievers. Believers Bible commentary that I, one of the resources I go through put it this way. They did not realize that Lord Jesus was using physical things to teach spiritual truths.

So the Jews asked among themselves how this mere man could possibly give his flesh to be eaten by others. Think of it this way, a parachute opens only after you jump out of the plane. In a similar way, faith precedes sight and prepares your soul to understand, your heart to believe, and your will to obey. All your questions of how, how can this happen? All of your questions of how are answered by yielding to the authority of Christ.

As the apostle Paul did when he cried, Lord, what do you want me to do? So Jesus, he spoke in many parables as well, that people just even the apostles didn't understand a lot of what he was saying until he explained it to them. But Jesus said other things that were confusing or strange that people just did not understand. And so they couldn't understand one of the things in Matthew 19, 24. They couldn't understand a camel through the eye of a needle.

Well, it's easier for a rich man to go to heaven, it's then for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. And so, they're thinking about this. And in our modern day evangelical excuse making, we say, well, the Ivan needle, that was a gate that went into Jerusalem. And it was small, and you had to take your camel and you had to strip them down. And you had to get them down on the ground and make them kneel and crawl through this tiny, no, no.

There was no needle gate. It is a camel and as he passes through, so you can't like run them through a blender and then push them through the eye of a needle, you have to walk through, it's impossible, okay? Someone that takes their riches and puts them above God is not going to get to heaven. And so this is the point there. And people have a hard time understanding that.

Luke 14 26 tells, if anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and his sisters, Yes, and his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. That's hard. They had to be going like, come on, I can't possibly hate my wife. What is he talking about?

Matthew 5.30, it reads, and if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And verse 29, right before this says, if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. How many people are gonna do that? So this is hard teaching and hard sayings that He's done. Matthew 5.39, He said, But I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to Him also.

That's tough, isn't it? That had to hit really hard. So all of these have us wondering why? What is that? And again, the answer is to give your life to Christ, to be in submission to Christ.

But we don't have a mind to understand His ways. Yet the most confusing thing I believe that Jesus ever said is likely today's text. Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood. And so this has been the foundation of false doctrine and religious movements altogether. But the people had no idea on the spiritual end of what he was talking about.

So he's not only proclaiming a truth about himself. He's proclaiming this truth. He's pressing down on this truth. He's not backing off. He's not saying, well, I was just kidding.

Don't worry about it. Or, You know what? What I really mean is this. No, He's not. He's pressing down on it.

And you know what we're doing? We're pressing down on it. Because it's here and it keeps not going away. We're going to keep talking about it and talk about how important it is to believe in Jesus, the Son of God, as the Bible explains Him to be, as the Bible declares Him to be, and as the Bible declares and commands those who follow him to abandon all else and follow him. And so he's pressing down on this, eating his flesh, drinking his blood, that you must, this is not an option, not it's the super Christians are taking this seriously.

And the rest of we all Christians, we're just gonna, we're gonna take it kind of with a grain of salt, or we're gonna understand it in a different way. So we are going to be walking through this passage we've been already. One thing I want to make clear is that this does not talk about the Lord's Supper. This is not speaking of communion or the Eucharist. It is not.

That was instituted by Christ the night before He died, and that is one of the things that He has commanded us to do. But to do this in remembrance of Him. And so He speaks In this context, he's speaking to non-Christians and he's encouraging them and helping them to see that life in him is all that we have. That he is talking about believing in Him and there is no other way. And so by saying this to them, He's foretelling them that a person must come to God only through Jesus Christ, only by believing in His coming, in what He is in this text prophesying His own death on the cross, and what is going to be Him ushering in the New Covenant.

And so this is pressing and this is important. He's making the bed and he's helping them to understand that he is the Christ that was foretold of in the Old Testament. He's come to the New Testament. He is alive right now. And this fusion of the Old and New Testament is about to happen.

And that is the new covenant that He will create. When He dies on the cross, the curtain gets torn from top to bottom. There is no longer a barrier between sinful man and a holy God. We have Jesus Christ. That is what He is trying to have them understand.

And so, the fact is that this is not about communion. It's about Christ. And if Christ was merely speaking about these verses about the Lord's Supper, you would have to continue to eat it in order to continue to have eternal life. This runs so counter to what Scripture teaches. What the Bible teaches on the finished work of Jesus on the cross.

He said it is finished. He died once for all. Eternal life does not depend on your works or your involvement in a ritual, period. Along with that, if it were true, then communion would be taken by someone that didn't even believe in Jesus, right? You wouldn't have to believe in Jesus.

You just have to do this ritual and you would be going to heaven by eating it. Or you could give it to everyone and then everyone would go to heaven. We'd have a universalism then, right? Wouldn't that be wonderful? We could all just partake in this ritual, anybody that would, or you could even trick people and have them eat and drink, and then they would go to heaven.

So This is not the doctrine that that's talking about. And so when we look at verses 40 and 54, it all leads to being risen on that last day. It leads to eternal life. So is to believe eating his flesh. What is, as we go a little bit deeper in here, what was Jesus talking about?

And in verse 52, it says, this man, the Jews therefore quarreled among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? What does that imply? That that Jesus is insane, that that he's not of the right mind by saying these things? And so let's let's look at at Christ's authority after they quarreled and questioned in verse 53. He says, truly, truly, or most assuredly, I say to you.

So he didn't back down. You have what are the religious leaders of the day coming at Christ, and they're quarreling, and they're mad that He is saying these things. Now, He said some crazy things before, But now when he is saying this, they just can't tolerate it. They don't know what he is meaning. And so he says it again in 53, after they quarrel.

He says, yeah, yeah, he says, truly, truly, he says, most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. He is telling these religious leaders that they have no life in them and everyone else. So here is what we have. He didn't back down. He refused to back down.

And Jesus told him, unless you eat my flesh, drink my blood, there's no life in you. You have to, or there's no life, no spiritual life in you. So let's look closely at what Jesus is doing here. The first point that I have today is, number one, he refused to compromise truth. He refused to compromise truth to make it easier for them to believe.

And so there's a reason he did this. And they were offended by Jesus. They were offended by Jesus then, and they're offended by Jesus now. And so right now we have what is the Word of God and what He guides and tells us that we need to do. And so we step aside from that and we say, well, this eating His body and drinking His blood, that's one thing.

But we can understand that looking back now and picking through the full counsel of God's Word. It's still hard for us to grasp. But there's simpler, much simpler precepts in the Word of God. Not just the big issues like LGBTQ and marriage and etc., but it's easier for people to believe if we soften it up, right? And it's easier for us to deal with these people if we soften it up because then they don't come hard on us.

So this is something that Jesus refused to do. And if we call ourselves Christians, we need to refuse to do it as well. We need to refuse to compromise our faith as we walk, purposed to live as a Christian. Now you have to define yourself as a Christian in today's culture. Are you going to be an American Christian?

Are you going to be a Biblical, Bible-believing Christian that is a Berean that loves God's work and wants to do everything of it? That is more concerned with pleasing God than making friends down here? That's what we have to decide. We don't back down. Even after their arguments, Christ didn't back down.

He reinforced his first statement. And so in the same way, we have No compromise with false doctrine. There's many people that are going to compromise just to draw people to them, get more people in the church, or to make more friends. And so, We don't see this pattern in Scripture. We don't see it in the pillars of the faith in Hebrews 11, right?

We don't see it with them. By faith, Moses. By faith, Joseph. We don't see these guys having compromise. What about Daniel?

Should have been lion food. She dragged me shack in bed ago. They should have been ashes. They came out not even smelling like fire. See, these are the men of God that will go down in history as being not compromised.

That's what I want to be. And if I fall on the side of being judgmental or legalistic, I'd way sooner have that than be condemned by Christ for being soft and ecumenical. There's no room for it. We don't see this pattern in Scripture with Joseph, with Daniel, with Esther, with Noah, Moses. Jonathan.

Everybody forgets about Jonathan and his faithfulness to David. We don't see this pattern in life today. It's very few and far between. We honor them as we're called to do. We don't have room for compromise.

Christians don't compromise the truth in order to make it easier to believe. Sometimes it's easier to be around those people that were trying to make believe by compromising. And I think that's half of it at times. So this hostility, it'll quiet the truth at all costs. And I see it within my own family.

I see it across the board. I see it online. I see it at church at times. This hostility will stop at nothing to quiet the truth and to push an agenda across. And this manipulation and compromised faith until all bow down to the culture.

Until everybody is compromised and saying, yep, you're right, you're right, Okay, great. No! That's not okay. We don't submit to the lies. The message is to repent.

Stand on the truth. John 17, 17. Well, my truth or your truth? Whose truth do we want to talk about? His truth.

Sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. This is what loving people looks like. It doesn't look like guiding them through their problems, philosophically, to make them happy on the backside of it. And this is what truly loving people looks like.

They need the truth. We need to speak the truth in love. Ephesians 4, 14-16. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, children. The Spanish on my crew would say, al niños, little baby, al niños.

We are no longer children, tossed around by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ. It's about Christ. It's growing up into Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." See, God uses the truth to speak to them. Whatever their issue is, don't compromise.

Whether it's whatever movement's going on, foul language, coarse jokes, whatever is going on, that compromise is so easy. Don't accept compromise. Be kind, gracious, love other people, Show the grace that God showed you. This is true. But that doesn't mean to compromise!

Show love. Show grace. Show mercy. Be there for them. But don't compromise the truth.

To do that is not loving others. That is not loving. You might say, you know what? In all of this stuff, I just want to be left alone. And I've said that.

I just really don't want to deal with it. I just kind of want to be left alone. But you know what? We don't live in a world where you can be left alone. We're not there.

We cannot. So we either learn to fight the good fight of faith, we put on the armor of God, Ephesians 6, and we fight that good fight of faith. We run the race, or we fold, and we fail. There's no middle ground. There's not a spot where we can ride the fence in the middle.

You know what you get riding the fence? You get slivers in your backside. That's it. That is a fail. Our Savior refused to compromise and He lives in you.

Jesus refused to compromise. This is the Jesus that lives in you. How can we say that we live in Jesus or Jesus lives in us if we're compromising? This is a contradictory statement. And so, we share the truth because it's the only message that will save people from hell.

It's the only message that glorifies God in heaven. Because this nominal, manby-pamby Christian life that we live is not glorifying God at all. And in the end, there's going to be a way one way or the other. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Depart from me, I never knew you." Which is it going to be?

So verse 54, he preaches it. Life is in a crucified, risen Savior. He says, I am the bread of the world. I am the bread of the world. My flesh is the bread that I will give.

Right over their heads, right over most people's heads yet today. So This is direct prophecy of the cross. The sacrifice for our sins, atoning punishment and trusting your soul in the sacrifice of Christ, in His death. And this is something that we miss today. And we see the use of his terminology, and so often he uses over 80 times in the New Testament, the Son of Man.

And trusting your soul in the sacrifice of Christ, His death, speaks of being raised up on a last day. And the Son of Man intrigues me. It's hard to wrap our mind even around that term. Daniel 7.13 says, I was watching in the night vision, and behold, one like the Son of Man coming down with the clouds of heaven, He came to the ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him." This is Christ. This is His most used terminology, self-label that He gives.

The Son of Man. He calls Himself Son of Man. The King of the universe. He's the King of the universe. Every knee will bow, every tongue confess.

It doesn't matter if you profess Him as Lord. He is Lord. You can deny Him as Lord all you want. He is Lord. And one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

So, King of the universe, it means that what we do has no bearing, has no, I can't say has no bearing. We need to submit to Christ, we need to surrender to Christ, but we need to lay our good works aside. We have this resume that we wrote up And it's like, wow, look at everything that I got on my resume. I'm going to get this job for sure. This looks great.

You can take your resume and you can crumple it up and throw it in the garbage. It means absolutely nothing. All the good work that you do, all your rituals mean absolutely nothing. It doesn't matter how many people talk good about you, how people lift you up, it all gets set aside, and in that moment, your only hope is Christ. In that very moment, your only hope is Christ.

So these are pictures that Jesus is eternal life. I have here written on a sideline, 2 Corinthians 12, 9 through 11, And it reads, and He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities than the power of Christ, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. See, Paul is boasting in his weakness and his infirmities. In his poultry humanity, he's boasting in it. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities and in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. I've become a fool in boasting. You have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing." Who's nothing? I'm nothing. We will go to the ground.

We will turn to dust. Our name will be forgotten. And that's it. What will live? Our souls in eternity with Christ.

Why? Because we've given our hearts and our lives to Him. That's the only way. That's the only way. Verses 55, pictures that Jesus is eternal life, and in verse 57, what is it like?

Life given from the Father to the Son to rescue us from our sins. And then like we talked about last week, God moves in our hearts. Right? He draws. He draws us.

And He moves us. And then He gives us to Jesus. This is an amazing work that God is doing. Second point today is to recognize the promised results. For all who truly believe, recognize the promised result.

We're promised eternal life. And time and time again, in verse 54, here we have, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. You have eternal life. And not just that, and I will raise him up at the last day. There we go.

We can't afford to get this wrong, people. We can't afford to stumble over this. We can't afford to let our pride and our weak, stupid minds get in our way of submitting our hearts and our lives to Jesus Christ in this text. So we're promised eternal life. This is God's actual life, God's life inside of you.

And it lasts forever. It lasts forever. And there will be evidence of it. And all people will be resurrected. Everybody that's here, everybody that's ever been born will be resurrected.

One way or the other, either unto life or judgment. In this promise of being raised up on the last day, Christ speaks of life. This is life, everlasting. So the Father will look upon us and see us as united with His Son. We are standing in Jesus Christ.

And when God the Father looks down at us, He sees the light of His Son. That's a trade I'll make any day. My filthy, rotten, wretched sin for the righteousness in Christ. That's what God sees. His sacrifice for sin is the only sacrifice for sin.

And it talks of life. No more presence of sin. No more presence of sin. When we get to the destination, which this life again, a vapor, The thickness of a piece of paper. It's nothing here.

We get here, no more presence of sin, purpose, joy, satisfaction, meaningful time activity with others that love Jesus and long to know more of Him and worshiping God. And this will continue forever. That's what the church is supposed to be. That's what we're supposed to be, a body of believers. This is supposed to be a little slice of heaven when we come here.

This body of fellowship, this is God's church. That's what he's looking for. In verse 56, I love verse 56, it says, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. How do I deserve to abide in him or him in me? It says nothing that any of us deserve.

This is His work. This is His love for us. He abides in me and I in Him, abiding in Jesus, remaining a Christian throughout our life. There is no break. There is no stop.

This is living in Christ until the day we die. And then being resurrected with Him. Our faith becomes sight and He holds us and we hold Him. This is the resurrected life. He abides in us.

We abide in Him. This is mentioned some 250 times in the Word of God. And it's a central topic in the New Testament. It overrides everything in the New Testament. It's become the identity of true believers.

And it's shown by a life that is conformed to Christ's image. This beautiful indwelling of God in us. John 14, 23, it says, Jesus answered and said to them, if anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him. And we will come to him and make our home in Him.

Isn't that just beautiful? This is that intimacy that we too easily overlook as Christians. We walk through this life sometimes, puddle glum, and we don't see the love that He has for us or the prize that we really have. Galatians 2.20, I know I overuse this, but every time I pop it up, nobody quotes it. So I'm going to keep on using it.

I have been crucified with Christ. No longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. Isn't it wonderful when in the middle of this abiding and indwelling, you don't know where he stops and I start or I stop and he starts. It's just this all indwelling, that's the intimacy that we strive for.

And it's possible, it's very possible. We find every blessing in Christ. We're adopted into his family, and that's another concept that, I mean some of these to me are just as baffling as the text that we're preaching in today which is eating his flesh and drinking his blood. This is just as baffling to me. Ephesians 1.5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

Wow! Wow! Adoption as sons, a pleasure of His will. I have, we have a two-year-old grandson and what a pleasure to have. What a, just a joy.

But not all the time. I think if you're honest, and if you ever spent a lot of time with a two-year-old, there are times when it's just like, boy, that kid is stubborn. Must get that from his mom or something, right? And so we just don't understand the love, that adoption, that Christ adopted us as His own children. And you want to talk about the rebellion of a two-year-old?

That's nothing. We're talking about sinful, rotten, rebellious, hateful humanity that Christ died for and then brought it to Himself, adopted, cleaned up, uses. This position cannot be removed because it can't be taken away. It can't be taken away from us because it can't be taken away from Christ. And we live in Christ.

So I am securely in Him, and He is in me. You don't ever have to wonder, am I holy enough? Am I doing enough good works? Do I look good enough? No.

The question is this. Here's the question. How holy is Christ? Because He's the one that's in you. He is the one who secures your place in eternity and all spiritual blessings for you.

That's the question. You can take joy because everything that belongs to Him is yours. And so what are we going to do? Wah! Well, I want a new house.

I want a new car. Well, wouldn't that be His blessing for me? No, everything that's His is yours. Love, joy, peace. This is the fruit of the Spirit.

Patience, kindness, goodness, understanding, faithfulness, gentleness, meekness. This is what we have in Him. So we don't ever have to wonder if we're right enough or if we're doing enough. See, these blessings are forever. And they're safe.

They're secure because He's holding us in His omnipotent hand. There is no getting out. There is nobody going to attack us in a way that can take that away. We are in His hand. These blessings are yours forever.

It doesn't matter how hard times get, it doesn't matter how knuckleheaded people are, it doesn't matter how poor you are, how rich you are. These blessings are yours forever. In the middle of pain and trials, God's promise should be more dominant in your heart than what your sorrow is. So when all these things are coming and crashing down, we have Isaiah 26, three, which we sang today beautifully, right? We have rest in His true promise and stake your peace on it.

No matter what happens in this life, we have these blessings. We have these blessings. No matter what happens here, we have eternal life, we have Christ living in you, we have us living in Christ, we have the hope of the resurrection, and these are a result of believing in Christ. There's many other blessings as well. I'm not going to go down that road because I'll be here until next week.

But let these things, Let these promises and these gifts capture your heart. Let your heart wrap around these things more than the things that this life wants to distract you with. You know, there can be good things here. I'm not saying that this world is all evil. Let's sell everything we have, go sit on the rooftop and wait for them to come back while we eat our mud pies, right?

No, God gives us many good things. He gives us good friends. He gives us family. He gives us health. He gives us our jobs, money.

He gives us hobbies, but they're just for this world. That's what they're for. They're for this world And they're for the glory of God too. And so God's promises are meant to strengthen and sustain us. Giving satisfaction both in this life now, giving us peace and understanding in this life, and in the next life, in the forever.

And verse 58 says, not like the bread your fathers ate and died, Jesus said He grants life forever. This life is forever. There's no other bread can do that. This is because because He is forever. And we see that in verses 36 and 57, are these summaries.

Jesus is the bread that came down from heaven. John 1, if you remember when we started in the book of John, chapter 1 verse 2, he was in the beginning with God. And so in the beginning Christ was with God. And John 1, 14, just moving down the trail a little bit, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

And so Right here we have the word became flesh in Tehualtamonga. Jesus Christ is the word. We're told to eat his flesh and drink his blood, right? Right here, this is where our noses belong, the word of God. And this is our guideline.

And so then by His blood on the cross, Jesus offers humanity to be part of divinity. This is mind-boggling. Jesus offers humanity to be part of God's family where we'll enjoy heaven's bread forever. We will live with Jesus forever. And that's what verse 58 says.

The third point I have today is our response to that truth. How do we respond to the truth? Or it will be one way or the other as far as how we respond to that truth. Life or death? So verses 54 all the way through 58 tell us it says whosoever in verse 54 I'm gonna read it just so you believe me right?

Verse 54, whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. Whoever. It doesn't matter who you are. John 3.16, whoever, right? Whosoever.

I'm a whosoever. Everybody here is a whosoever. Whoever. Doesn't matter how rich you are, poor you are. Doesn't matter what your past looks like.

It doesn't matter what your present looks like. It doesn't matter at all. This offer is for everyone. And so as we think about our own life and what we've done or what sin we've created or done recently, He's bigger than that. This offer is for anyone and everyone.

And as we go out into the world, and we talk with people that aren't born again, we say, Boy, I don't know about that guy. I don't know that I'm going to really waste my gospel tract on that guy or my time on that guy. You know why? Because somebody said that about me once. And so, I have been saved beyond my earning anything.

I don't deserve anything that I've got. This is individual and it's personal. It's not just whoever, It's not just whoever, this is personal. This is you. This means you.

A personal Savior who will save you individually, personally. One who took your punishment at the cross. He pays your sin debt to the Father and you're forgiven forever. And you gain not a good chance. Well, let's see, I'll do this, but the trade-off is that I might get eternal life, right?

No. Eternal life is guaranteed. And it's not a ritual that you can do that gets you there. It is submission of your heart and your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ only. You spend eternal life with Him in glory.

See, Christ is offering Himself to you today. He's offering himself. And the question is, will you come to him and partake of this bread of life? You can say, I've been a Christian for a long time. Just quit talking to me about this eating bread.

Right? I'll go over to Pizza Ranch after and I'll eat a lot of bread. All right? No. It doesn't matter how long you've been saved.

We need the bread of life. We need the bread of life always. Come to Him, trust in His completed work. You say, I've done that. Do it again.

Repentance is not a place that you visit when you turn your life over to Jesus. Repentance is a place that you live as a Christian. And if you do this today, and remember, I want everybody to remember this, Matthew 28, 20, be lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. This gives an infinity to our salvation. This gives a never-ending reality to what Christ offers us in this.

See, As true as this promise is for Christians, we only see that without Christ, you have no life in you. And it says that because Jesus is the only way to life eternal with God the Father. Without me, You have no life in you, He says. And John 14, 6, Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.

So to be apart from God and under Him... To be apart from God, you can say, you know what, I made peace with God. You know what, if you are not under, if you are not in and Him in, you are not. You are apart from God and under what is a wrathful condemnation. There is no neutral ground.

This is truly a horrific destiny. Many people, many churches will not talk about this because it's scary. I don't want to tell my kids that there's a hell. I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to think about it.

It's there and it's very real. Many people that I know are there eternally right now. Many people that I have pled with and I've witnessed to, please let go of your good works and grab ahold of Christ. They've rejected it, and they've shortly thereafter died. Many people that I know are in hell right now because they rejected Jesus Christ.

Not because they rejected me. Because they rejected Jesus Christ. If that's you here today, make sure you get that right. If you want to talk, I'm all ears. We can't afford to get this wrong.

We need to see humanity as it is. People are running toward the pit of hell like the hair is on fire. We need to care. Like Christ cared. Because it is and it will last forever.

Revelation 20, verses 12, 13, and 15. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works. But the things which were written in the books, by the things that were written in the books.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one according to his works. And Anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast in the lake of fire forever." There's nothing to mess around with. We can't get this wrong. The question is today, there's a sign on the back of the door there, preach every message like it's your last. This is what we need to do.

We only have so much opportunity. What's your choice going to be? Say, you know what, I've given my life to Christ when I was eight years old. Really, how you living? How's that working out?

Do you need to rededicate your life to Christ right now today? Do you need to surrender your life wholly to Him? What will your choice be today? And remember to make no choice at all. It's a no.

Just say, no, I don't want it. I don't want it. Don't need it. 1 John 5, 11 and 12, it reads, And this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son.

He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God, does not have life. If you have life, let's live it. Let's shine it up and get it moving. If you do not have life today, get life.

But the question is, which will it be for you today? Which one will it be? Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for the truths of Your Word. We thank You for not compromising, Lord God.

When it came to going to the cross to die for our sins, Lord, we thank you for not compromising when it came to preserving your word for us, Lord God. We thank you for not compromising when it came to speaking the truth. Father God, I pray that our hearts and our lives would be wrapped around you, us in you and you in us, Lord God. That our hearts and our lives would be sold unto you, holy, committed, Lord God. And that your word would wake us up, shake us Lord.

I pray in Jesus precious name today, amen. ["Praise the Lord"] you