Returning to John chapter 6, John chapter 6 this evening. We'll commence our reading at verse 24 of the chapter. John chapter 6, the verse number 24. Let's hear God's word. When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, They said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give you. For him hath God the Father sealed. Then said they unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said therefore unto him, What signs showest thou then, that we may see and believe thee? What doest thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Verse 41. And the Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me, not that any man has seen the Father, save he which is of God, he has seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. We'll end our reading at the end of verse 51. We'll keep the word before us open. Let's unite in prayer. Our loving Father, our gracious God, we do humbly ask thee that we might know much of the help of thy Holy Spirit in this meeting. We cast out the net, as we thought about last Sunday evening, trusting and praying that there might be a draft of fishes when it is drawn in at the end of this service. We pray therefore for the help of thy Spirit. We pray that hearts might be brought to that point of decision. and that there might be conviction of sin, something wrought within by the Spirit of God, the effectual call of the gospel heard by the unconverted. Lord, that there will be souls, precious souls, saved in this very house tonight. So answer prayer, fill me with thy spirit, grant the enabling of God the Holy Ghost in every word I say. For I offer prayer and through the Savior's precious name, amen and amen. Within this congregation of people, there are quite a number involved in the industry that we're going to be thinking about tonight. Some are involved in that industry and because they are, it requires them to rise very early in the morning, but that allows them then to finish their work a little bit earlier compared to others. that go to their work at a sensible hour of the day. There are those who are involved in the manufacturing side of the industry, others with the transportation of its finished food product, and then others that are used in the selling of its goods. While for the rest of us, we're just quite happy and content to indulge in their products over a cup of tea or coffee at home or in some overly priced coffee shop within the province. Because tonight we want to think about the baking industry. We thought much about bread as we have read through this portion of God's Word. And so we're going to think about those who are involved in such an industry tonight. Whether it's soda, wheaten, barnbrack, or simply a slice of white bread, the people of Northern Ireland love all things bread. Food historians tell us that bread is one of those staple foods that have been in the diets of most populations and civilizations since almost time began. But I would say that Northern Ireland seems to have a special relationship with bread. We love our wheaten bread. We love our sodas, our potato, and our Vita breads. Many home-bred students, excuse the pun, but many home-bred students, they go back with their suitcases, back to university on the mainland, smuggling in their suitcases loads of Wheaton and soda bread to impress their non-Northern Irish friends whom they live with in maybe some halls of residence. I was very interested to read this concerning the humble potato farrel. It is an essential, obviously, it's an essential and constituent part of any good Ulster fry. The word farrel comes from the Gaelic word far-el. It translates to mean four parts. And if you know anything about a traditional potato farrell, you'll know that it's round in shape and divided into four quadrants. That's where we get the word farrell. It's from the Gaelic word farrell. Well, the UK baking industry is worth a staggering 3.6 billion pounds per year. It's one of the largest food industries within the nation. Out of the four home nations, Northern Ireland comes out top, and this will be of no surprise to you, comes out top in the consumption of bread per person per week. The Northern Ireland person, on average per week, eats and consumes about 681 grams of bread. That's compared to the English who only eat 559 grams. Now whenever you consider that a standard loaf of bread is about 800 grams, on average that means Most people eat an average or an equivalent of a loaf of bread every week in this province. Northern Ireland people love their bread. Well, tonight in John chapter 6, we see the Saviour. And He likens Himself to be like this staple food product, that of bread. And we want to simply learn some gospel truths from this chapter, from this metaphor, by preaching a gospel message for a baker, a gospel message for a baker. Now the setting in which the Savior likens himself to bread was most fitting, because if you look back to the opening part of the chapter, you'll know that Jesus Christ feeds five thousand men plus their dependents with just five barley loaves and two small fishes verse five when jesus then lifted up his eyes and saw a great company come on to him he said on to philip Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And you all know what happens to the little boy with the five loaves, the two small fishes. He brings them to Christ and Christ uses them. Verse 13, Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves. which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. And so this setting in which Christ says, I am the bread of life, is a most fitting setting indeed, because they fully understood, they were able to grasp what Christ was trying to convey. This miracle, the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, left a lasting impression upon the minds upon the hearts of those who had been witness to it there in the wilderness. So much so that the Savior, having left that region to go to another part, is now followed by those same people, desiring that they would see a miracle just as they had seen the day before. But the God who reads all men's hearts, As he looked at those men and those women, he knew their motives for why they were there the very next day. And he speaks to them about their insincerity. And he rebukes them in the words of the verse 26, Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. There was something about the bread that Christ produced. Something appetizing. It wasn't like the bread of hangmans, or the bread of ditties, or the bread of Ormo, or the bread of Kinsmell. There was something different about this bread. Something special about it. They were desiring just to fill their bellies again. They weren't really desiring to know Christ as Savior. They weren't really desiring to know Him and own Him as Lord and as King. No, rather they only wanted to satisfy the physical. They certainly didn't want to have dealt with the spiritual. Those insightful and those convicting words by the Savior initiated a conversation now with those who sought a sign from Christ that He was the Messiah. They belittle him. They remind the Savior of what Moses did. Well, at least in their minds they thought that Moses did. Christ had fed 5,000. But what was that compared to what Moses was able to accomplish? When he led the children of Israel through the wilderness, over a million people, bread provided for them on a daily basis for 40 years. And so they belittle what Christ does here than the feeding of the 5,000. What is that compared to our father Moses? That's nothing compared to what he could do. And yet the Savior reminds them, And it wasn't Moses. No, rather, verse 32 and 33, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Hearing of this true bread from heaven, the bread that giveth life unto the world, hearing such profound statements, They make this request, verse 34, Lord, evermore, give us this bread, this living bread, this bread from heaven, Lord, give us this bread. To that and to their request, the Savior spoke the following truth statements. Verse 35, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. Verse 48, I am that bread of life. Verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. This is the first of the seven I am statements within the Gospel of John. The others being, I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. And I am the resurrection and the life. By using that compound name, I am, Christ was declaring to his heirs that I am Jehovah. I am the God of the Old Testament. I am the same God as the God that your forefathers worshipped in the wilderness and in the promised land. I am Jehovah. Now to that claim, his heirs were enraged. but it made no difference, for it could not be denied by them. Now there are a number of things that I want us to consider from this particular portion of God's Word. We're thinking about Christ being the bread of life tonight. I want you to notice in the first place God's provision of this bread. God's provision of this bread. Now note the words of the Lord Jesus Christ to his detractors in the verse 32. He says, My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. Now what that bread is, is qualified for us in the words of the following verse. Look down there to verse 33. For the bread of God is he. which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. The Savior obviously is therefore not speaking about bread made of flour and water and yeast. No, he's not speaking about physical bread because he uses a pronoun here, a personal pronoun, the personal pronoun he. to refer to the bread that he's speaking of, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven. This bread is therefore a person. But who is this person? Well, the Savior further qualifies who this person is when he states in verse 35 and the verse 48, that I am, I am the bread of life. And so we are left in no doubt that the Son of God is speaking about Himself here when He speaks about Himself being the true bread. Now I want you to notice that the Father gives the bread. The Father sends the Son. Note again, my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. It is the Father who gave to this world His only begotten Son. Now we know that. Many verses spring to our attention that remind us of the Father sending the Son into the world. So familiar are they, so over-familiarized we are with such texts that we lose the wonder of it all to think that God sends his Son His darling Son, His well-beloved Son, into this sin-cursed world, to die as a Saviour, to die as a Redeemer, in order to procure and secure eternal salvation and eternal and everlasting life for His people. Think of those tremendous words of John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that He gave. his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Romans 8, verse 32, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. That's what happened. He delivers up his Son for us all. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 1 John 4, verse 10, here in his love. Not that we love God, but he loved us. And how do we know that He loved us? Because He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. He sent His Son on a divine mission into this world. He gave His Son. It's the Father's provision for fallen humanity. He gives His Son. The hymn writer, Johnson Oatman, Jr. asked and then answered the question, was there a gift? like the Savior given. No, not one. No, not one. What a gift. What a gift so freely given. in order that we might be saved from our sin. What provision God the Father makes for fallen sinful humanity in the sending of His only begotten Son into this world. And as we think of that tonight, just thinking about that for a few moments of time before we move on, I want you to be aware, first of all, that such giving was out of necessity. The giving of the Father of his own son was out of necessity, out of necessity. You see, if ever fallen sinful man was to be reconciled to a holy God, sinners needed someone from outside the sin affected human race to accomplish such a fate. For millennia, For millennia, mankind had been trying to reach God and heaven their own way. But every attempt had failed with abject failure. I think of Cain. He tries to approach God by the labors of his own hands. He tries to find a standing before the Almighty with the works of his own hands in Genesis chapter 4. And yet what do we read to his offering? We read that God had not respect. He tries to make his own way to God. Move on a few chapters into Genesis chapter 11. Stand there and view the plain of Shinar. See them as they start to build the Tower of Babel. What's their goal? What's their plan? What's their ambition? It is that the top of it, the top of this tower might reach into heaven itself. There's man trying to make his own way to God. Man trying to get into heaven his own way. And that unfinished building project, because God scatters them among the face of the earth and among the nations, that unfinished building project there on the plain of Shinar was testament to the fact that no man, no woman can reach heaven by their own efforts. You think of the Levitical. animal sacrificial system. That system saw the butchering to death and the blood shedding of literally millions of animals. Lambs slain every day, morning and evening, bullocks, goats, pigeons, slaughterhouse for millions and millions of animals. And yet Hebrews reminds us that it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Those sacrifices were imperfect. The inspired pen writer underlines the whole ineffectiveness of the sacrificial system, the offering up of such animals. The blood of animals never could and was never intended to take away sin. It was another impossibility and so because divine justice required. God sent His Son to offer up His blood, sinless blood, perfect blood, sacrificial blood, whereby we can be reconciled to God and thank God, God to the sinner. You see, man's failure to reach God by their own self-conceited means necessitated Now listen, it necessitated that the Son of God came into the world. He only, if ever man was to be reconciled to God, if ever a sinner was to be brought into a right standing before God, it necessitated God sending a son. It was the only way. It was the only way whereby man could be reconciled to God. And so my friend, I trust tonight, you're not a Christian. God has brought you to that point of realization that all of your attempts to reach God are going to fail. I tell you, if God intended us to reach Him, to be brought into right standing before Him on the basis of our own works, our own efforts, then why did Jesus Christ come into this world? Why was He sent? If I could get to heaven my way, if you could get to heaven your way, why did he die? Why did he suffer? Why did he bleed? Why did he go through Gethsemane and Gilbatha? Why did he go through the agonies of Gilgatha? Why did he die in open shame, publicly, sharing his precious blood? Why did he die? If we could get to heaven our own way, He came on a pointless mission, if such were the case. But no, rather, this was the only way, the only way, the only way devised by an all-wise and an all-loving God. We cannot bring ourselves into that right standing. God's provision of a Redeemer was borne out of necessity. But something else, the Father's giving was out of love. Not only out of necessity, but it was out of love. We've read the verse, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Just think, the greatness of the grace of God in that very statement. Think of it. He gives his Son to the world. This is not the world prior to the fall. This is not the perfect world that God made in six days of creation. This is not the world that God pronounced over these words, very good. That's not the world that he gave his son to. but rather he gives his son to a fallen world, a world that is blighted by sin, a world that is now scarred by sin, a world whose inhabitants think wickedly, do wickedly, sinful in their thoughts, in their words, in their deeds on a daily basis. This is a world that's going to take that one, his son, his only begotten son, and take him to a stake and whip him repeatedly so that his back would become like a ploughed field. This is the world that's going to take crude thorns and weave them into a crown and place them on his head and then cause that thorny crown to penetrate into his regal brow as they beat his head with a reed that he holds in his hand in mockery. This is a world that is going to kneel His hands and His feet to a wooden cross. This is a world that's going to lift Him high and then drop Him into the very socket of Mother Earth. This is the world that's going to mock Him and going to deride Him and blaspheme Him in His dying hours. There's no pity. There's no mercy shown by the ungodly masses. I tell you, if you would see a man dying, you wouldn't stand at his feet and mock him and scoff him and blaspheme him and call him all the names of the day. Of course you wouldn't do that. There would be pity, but not for these men. No, these men, they laugh him to scorn. If thou be the Christ, come down from the cross, save thyself, save thyself. Here's a world. that would take a spear and plunge it into his very side to cause the very outer part of the heart to burst, causing blood and water to flow out. This is an ungodly world, and this is the world, this world is the world that God sent his son to. Do you not now see the magnitude and the majesty of the grace of God? Sinner, you should. Oh, the grace of it all, that God sends His Son to such a world. I tell you, sinner, stand at the cross, marvel at the majesty of God's mercy. Stand at the foot of the tree and see how God has sent His Son into the world. Out of love, out of love for your soul, He sends His only begotten Son here in His love. Not that we loved Him, but He sent His Son to be the propitiation of the world. The love of God fully demonstrated there at the cross of Calvary, giving His Son into a world that you would not perish in your sin. Stand sinner. Sinner, I invite you to the cross. And I invite you to stand and admire God's love as it finds its full public expression and epitome at the place called Calvary. View the bleeding wounds of the Redeemer and let this cry be the cry that rises from your soul. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love to me. Stand at the cross. Stand at the place of mercy. Christ, He is the bread, the Father or God's provision of this bread. But let's move quickly on. Let's see Christ pictured in this bread. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I started to think of that. I started to think about how bread is made. I find that this metaphor of bread is most fitting when it speaks about the one around whom the gospel centers, my blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to think with me about the various processes that are required to make bread. Let me first take you to the field. Let's go into a field. Let's stand there. What are we looking at, preacher? We're looking at the golden harvest. We're looking at wheat fields as far as the eye can see. Someone has planted them. Harvest, as summer has come, swelling the grain. It's now harvest time. There it stands there, flour being the main ingredient needed to make bread, and therefore the constituent ingredient of bread comes from this very wheat within the field. What did Jesus Christ say? He said in John 12 verse 24, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. These are words concerning Jesus Christ. He says, I must die. If I am to bring forth the harvest, Harvest promised to me by the Father in the covenant of redemption. If this harvest is to be brought forth, I need to be like this corn of wheat. I need to fall into the ground. I need to die so that others will live. And that's what he did. That's what he did. By his death he secures life. Oh, the paradox of it all. someone dies to give life. It doesn't make sense logically. Of course it doesn't. But this is the gospel. This is God working out redemption's plan. Christ dies to bring forth life, everlasting, eternal life, and his death secures that life. I wonder, have you come to appreciate it? Have you come to appreciate that Christ died so that you might live. Christ died so that you might live. What a wonder. By his death, the Son of God has procured everlasting life. Have you appropriated that life? Have you accepted that life? Has that life been accredited over to you? The field, the wheat, we see Christ, the corn of wheat falling into the ground, but we move from the field and we go to the mill. We go to the mill because it's at the mill some other important preparatory processes are required to take place if that wheat, that natural raw product is to be turned into the very flour that's needed for the making of the bread. I see in the first instance that the bran, that's the outer brown skin of that wheat grain, that bran is removed in order that flour, bread's key ingredient, is produced. And so what happens at the mill? That grain is beaten. That grain is crushed. That grain is bruised, that grain is broken to remove the outer skin, the bran, leaving behind just the white kernel. And I see in that, that bruising and that crushing and that breaking process. I see what Christ did for sinners. I see what the blessed Christ did for those who would crucify him. I see him in it all. Matthew 26 verse 67, it tells me that Christ was beaten. He was beaten. Then did they spit in his face. buffeted him, and others smote him with the palms of their hands. In Isaiah chapter 53 verse 5 and 10, I read that he was bruised. He was crushed for me. Yet he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and he hath put him to grief. Oh, the bruising, the buffeting, oh, the beating that Christ endured. I see it there pictured in the mill. Whenever that little kernel piece is provided, then there is the grounding of it. What does it produce? White flour. White flour. The white flour reminds me of the purity of Jesus Christ. The impeccability, the sinlessness of this Redeemer. Not only did Christ not sin, He could not sin. The Bible reminds us of his purity. 1 Peter 2, verse 22, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. or even the man who would put him to death. Pontius Pilate said, I find in him no fault at all. The sinless Savior is pictured in the white flower, the perfect man, perfect God, in one person, sinless, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, to hate, To you, he is held forth as the only Savior of men. So I asked you, honestly, I asked you to be honest. What cause in Christ have you found for you to logically reject him tonight in the gospel? What fault do you find in this man? You may say, preacher, I know this Christian. And if you knew them, and if you knew how they behaved outside this church, you would realize why I am not a Christian. But I'm not asking you about any other Christian. And I'm not asking you about this preacher tonight, because it all may be very true what you're saying. I'm asking you tonight, what fault Do you find in the perfect, sinless Son of God? I tell you, you'll find no fault in Him. No fault whatsoever. So then why not receive Him? Why not receive Him? But we move from the field and the mill right into the very bakery itself. We'll be there at the bakery that the flour and some other ingredients, water and yeast and salt, They're all combined together into a dough, placed into an oven, where the fire does its work. The door's shut. The bread is placed in, the door's shut, and the fire does its work. And in that I see what happened at the cross. because you know well that the work of redemption was accomplished in the darkness. Now from the sixth hour, Matthew tells us there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. In the darkness, Christ bears the sin of his people. In the darkness, he becomes the sacrifice for sin. He becomes both priest and victim, He offers up himself to God as a sacrifice for sin. There in the darkness of Golgotha's hillside, the Son of God becomes now sin for us, taking the punishment of those sins and paying its wages to the full, death itself, Christ in the darkness. Christ in the darkness. Secure salvation for all that will come. It was there in the darkness. The fire of God's wrath falls upon the blessed head of the Son of God. There he becomes the sacrifice, but instead of the fire consuming him, as it did all the Levitical sacrifices, all the sacrifices of the Levitical ceremonial system We're all consumed by the fire, but not this sacrifice. But rather this sacrifice, he consumes the fire, so that we shall never endure, those who trust in him, the fires of hell. And you'll notice something if you're a maker of bread at home. Whenever you put the bread in, you bring it out again, the bread bears the marks of its time in the fire. The white dough is now that brown, crusty bread. It shows and reveals that it's been in the fire. And in the glory, Christ bears the marks of his time in the fire. He bears the wounds of the cross. Revelation 5 verse 6, And I beheld, and though in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. The wounds of Calvary are still visible in the glorified body of Jesus Christ. They are wounds that are a perpetual reminder of His sufferings there. at the cross. How does the glorified get to heaven? How and what shall we say when we're found in that fair abode in the glory land? How have we come to be there? We'll point to the wounds on the land. We'll point to his wounds. That's how I've come to be here. It was through his work, the work of Calvary. Oh, that you, the sinner, would hide in those wounds. Fly to his wounds, ye guilty ones. His love and mercy share. We cannot see you lost alone. We want you over there. And so whatever locality, whether in field, mill, or bakery, We catch glimpses of the Savior and his work for sinners. Is it then not fitting that Jesus Christ said, I am the bread of life? Because he's pictured in that very food, the bread of life. God's provision of this bread Christ pictured in this bread. Let me briefly close by speaking about man's partaking of this bread. As life imparting that bread is to a person, it can never sustain a person or a body unless it is actually eaten. A person's hunger will never be relieved unless they actually partake of the bread that is before them. Let me explain what I mean. Just suppose you were hungry. You went down Main Street tomorrow morning. You decided just to go into Main Bakery. You decided just to stand there and stare. Look at all the nice sloves of bread, all put up there by Mrs. Stewart or whoever else is there, Mrs. McCackie or whoever's there. And you decided just to look at all that lovely bread, just looking at that bread will not satisfy your hunger. Going into that shop knowing that if I bought some bread and ate that bread, would satisfy my hunger. Knowing that simply intellectually but never acting upon it will never satisfy your hunger. Just suppose you went into that shop and you started to touch the bread. I don't know if they would allow you to do it. Start to handle the bread and feel the bread but never actually take off that bread. That certainly wouldn't take away your hunger pains. Just suppose you went in and you bought some bread but you decided to give it to a friend. You eat that bread. That's not going to satisfy your hunger, is it? No. What you're going to have to do, if your hunger is ever to be relieved and your appetite is ever to be satisfied, you need to personally reach out and partake of that bread yourself. Simple, isn't it? And so is God's salvation. Just looking at the cross, just viewing the sacrifice. It's not enough. Touching and handling the things of God, they'll never save your soul. Knowing in your mind intellectually that Christ is able to save you from your sin is not enough. Just because someone else in your family has been a partaker of God's salvation does not make you a partaker of God's salvation. No, as an individual, by an act of faith, you must reach out. and partake of all that is offered to you in the gospel. Jesus Christ said in verse 51, I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. If they eat of the bread, Christ is offered to you. Oh, that you would become this night a partaker of Christ and allow him to satisfy the spiritual hunger that exists within you. Psalm 34, verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in him. Christ the bread is given by the Father out of necessity and out of love. And he's given for you. Christ is seen in the bread, the crushing, the breaking, the bruising, the dying so that he might give life But have you partaken of that bread? Have you trusted in Christ? Has your soul been satisfied with Him? Oh, that tonight you would taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, that tonight you would feast your soul on Him. The table is spread. Come, for all things are now ready. May tonight you come and receive Christ as your Savior. Let's bow our heads in prayer. I wonder tonight, have you come into this house spiritually famished? You've tried to feast your soul on the things of this world. and yet nothing is satisfied. Come to Christ. He is the bread. You'll never hunger again. You'll satisfy every desire and every need and every want within that soul of yours. Will you come? Will you come to the Savior? I ask you, will you come to Christ tonight? Will you come? Think of all that he has done for you. May you come to the Savior. If I can help, then please speak at the door. And may God, by His Spirit, draw you unto Himself even this evening. Our loving Father, our gracious God, we thank Thee for the bread that came down from heaven. What a gift given for us. We thank Thee for all that Christ accomplished in His death. We thank Thee that He died so that we might live. We pray that sinners tonight would partake of Christ so freely offered. Oh God, even this very simple illustration at the end of the message. Oh, may the sinner understand it. May they grasp it. Here I am. I stand looking at the cross. I touch the things of God week after week. I read the scriptures. I sing his praise. I understand it intellectually in some way. I've seen others partake of him, but here I am still in the hunger. of my sin. Oh, we pray tonight that the sinner will arise and come to Jesus. We thank thee for him who came to Bethlehem, the house of bread. Oh God, we pray that thou wilt cause sinners to respond to now to the gospel. May they step out for God and may they come in faith and repentance. Answer prayer and take that which has been of thee and use it to the glory of thy praise, for we offer prayer in and through our Savior's holy and precious name. Amen and amen. Thank you.