John 6:35-40
"And Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.
But I said to you that you have seen Me; and yet do not believe.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast 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 the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day."

Message:
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life."
Our Lord places Himself before us under the figure of bread. The emblem is beautifully significant, and like all others used in Scripture calls for a prolonged and careful meditation. It is not enough to regard this as simply a beautiful and poetical phrase...it's meaning is deep and spiritual.
First, bread is a necessary food for it sustains life. It is that without which life cannot go on. But what is life? Clearly by life is meant something far more than mere physical existence. What is this new spiritual meaning of life? Real life is the new relationship with God, that relationship of trust and obedience and love in which we enter when we believe in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. And, it is a relationship made possible only through Jesus Christ. "Let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. This the stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10-13)

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WITHOUT JESUS THERE MAY BE EXISTENCE, BUT NOT LIFE. Thus, if Jesus is the essential of life, He may be described as the Bread of Life. The hunger of the human situation is ended when we know Christ and through Him know God.
The restless soul is at rest; the hungry heart is satisfied. There is no spiritual life or health apart from the Bread of God!
Bread is food that is suited to all. There are some people who cannot eat sweets; others are unable to digest meats...but bread is a food that all can partake of and receive strength. The physical body may retain its life for a time without bread, but it will be sickly, and soon sink into sickness and ultimately death. The spiritual application of this truth is that WITHOUT CHRIST WE SHALL PERISH!
Consider the process through which bread passes before it becomes food. It springs up--the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear. Then it is cut down, winnowed, and ground into flour, and finally subjected to the fiery process of the oven. Thus, and only thus, did it become fit to sustain life. Believer in Christ, such was the experiences of the Bread of God. He was bruised for our iniquities. He was subjected to the fierce fires of God's holy wrath, as He took our place in judgment. 0 how wonderful—God forbid that we should ever lose our sense of wonderment over it. The Holy One of God, was "made a curse for us." "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him." And this in order that He might be the Bread of Life to us! Let us then feed upon Him. Let us draw from His infinite fullness. Let us ever press forward unto a more intimate fellowship with Him!
In verse 33 of the chapter which we are studying, Christ had spoken of giving life to "the world"--the world of believers, the sum total of the saved. Now He speaks of the individual--"he that cometh to Me...he that believeth." A similar order is to be observed in v. 37--note the "all" is followed by "him." There is, no doubt, a shade of difference between "believing on" Christ and "coming to" Him. To "believe on" Christ is to receive God's testimony concerning His Son, and to rest on Him alone for salvation. To "Come to" Him--which is really the effect of the former--is for the heart to go out to Him in loving confidence. The two acts are carefully distinguished in Hebrews 11:6: "Without faith it is impossible

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to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is; and that He is the rewarded of them that diligently seek Him." I must know who the physician is, and believe in his ability, before I shall go to him to be cured.
HE WHO COMES TO ME SHALL NEVER HUNGER, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME SHALL NEVER THIRST. Did Jesus suggest that the Christian believer never HUNGERS or THIRSTS in the spiritual sense?
In John 4, when Jesus was talking with the woman at the well, He said: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him, will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14)
Remember, Jesus was talking to Jewish people and they often spoke of the THIRST OF THE SOUL for God; and they often spoke of quenching that thirst with LIVING WATER. Jesus was not using terms that were bound to be misunderstood; He was using terms that anyone with spiritual insight should have understood.
In the REVELATION that promise is: "To the thirsty I will give water without price from the fountain of the water of life" (Revelation 21:6) The Lamb is to lead them to springs of living waters (Revelation 7:17). The promise was that the chosen people would draw water with joy from the wells of salvation (Isaiah 12:3). The Psalmist spoke of his soul being thirsty for the living God (Psalm 42:1). God's promise was: "I will pour water on the thirsty land" (Isaiah 44:3). The summons was that every one who was thirsty should come to the waters and freely drink (Isaiah 55:1). Jeremiah's complaint was that the people had forsaken God who was the fountain of living waters and had hewed themselves out broken cisterns which could hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13). Ezekiel had had his vision of the river of life (Ezekiel 47:1-12). In the new world there would be a cleansing fountain opened (Zechariah 13:1). The waters would go forth from Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:8)
Sometimes the Rabbis identified this LIVING WATER with the wisdom of the Law; sometimes they identified it with nothing less than the Holy Spirit of God.
That is why..."On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone

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thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified."
(John 7:37-39)
All Jewish pictorial religious language was full of this idea of the thirst of the soul which could be quenched only with the LIVING WATER which was the gift of God. To the woman beside the well, Jesus went on to make a still more startling statement that he could give her living water which would banish her thirst for ever! The point is that again the woman took this literally; but in point of fact it was nothing less than a Messianic claim. In the prophetic vision of the age to come, the age of God, the promise was: "They shall not hunger or thirst" (Isaiah 49:10). It was with God and none other that the living fountain of the all-quenching water existed. "With thee is the fountain of life," the Psalmist had cried (Psalm 36:9). It is from the very throne of God that the river of life is to flow (Revelation 22:1). It is the Lord who is the fountain of living water (Jeremiah 17:13). It is in the Messianic age that the parched ground is to become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water (Isaiah 35:7).
WHEN JESUS SPOKE ABOUT BRINGING TO MEN THE WATER WHICH QUENCHES THIRST FOR EVER, HE WAS DOING NO LESS THAN STATING THAT HE WAS THE ANOINTED ONE OF GOD, THE MESSIAH, WHO THE PROPHETS HAD PROPHESIED ABOUT. He was amongst them, and if they would only believe and receive Him, their hunger and thirst for spiritual things would find their satisfaction forever!
BUT I SAID UNTO YOU, THAT YE ALSO HAVE SEEN ME, AND BELIEVE NOT" (6:36).
Even the sight of Christ in the flesh, and the beholding of His wondrous miracles, did not bring men to believe on Him! 0 the depravity of the human heart! This shows how valueless was their request: "Lord, evermore give us this bread." (v. 34). It is unspeakably solemn. They trust in Moses (9:28), they had rejoiced for a season in John the Baptist's light (5:35); they could quote the Scriptures (6:31), and yet they believed not on Christ! In the closing days of His ministry, Jesus looked upon the city of Jerusalem and lamented:
"0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets

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and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!
See! Your house is left to you desolate; for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord." (Matt. 23:37)
Unbelief has tragic and eternal consequences!
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but who ever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him." (John 3:36)
"I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am the One I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." (John 8:24)
"When He comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in Me." (John 16:8-9)
"See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God."
(Hebrews 3:12)
ALL THAT THE FATHER GIVES ME WILL COME TO ME, AND THE ONE WHO COMES TO ME I WILL BY NO MEANS CAST OUT. (v.37)
When we come to this verse, we are introduced to one of the most difficult and sublime truths of our Christian faith. The implied is that only those that the Father calls and reveals Himself to are capable of believing in Christ.
In theological language, this concept is referred to as the DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. When one looks into the theology books, this will be the definition given: "Election is an act of God before creation in which He chooses some people to be saved, not on account of any foreseen merit in them, but only because of His sovereign good pleasure."
There are several verses in Scripture which seem to affirm this concept.
Romans 8:28-30
"We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He

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called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified."
"He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace." (Ephesians 1:4-6)
In the Matthew passage (Matthew 13) Jesus teaches in parables...stories to illustrate divine truth.
And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand.
And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: "Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them.
But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; for assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it." (Matthew 13:10-17)
Jesus seems to indicate that those who listened to His teachings and rejected them were people who did not have the capacity to respond because of the judgment of God as prophesied by Isaiah.
In the prayer that Jesus prayed just before going to the cross as recorded in John 17, Jesus prayed:
"And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. I HAVE MANIFESTED YOUR NAME TO THE MEN WHOM YOU HAVE GIVEN ME OUT OF THE WORLD. THEY WERE YOURS, YOU GAVE THEM TO ME, AND THEY HAVE KEPT YOUR WORD." (John 17:5-6)

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Remember the words of our text..."All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."
And the question that Bible scholars have wrestled with for centuries is: Has the Fall so effected man that he has no innate capacity to make any spiritual decisions? Does God make all decisions for man, and thus, eliminate the free choice of man?
At the heart of the discussion is the SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD. The Westminster Confession of Faith puts it, "God, from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass." The God of the Bible is before all things, beyond all things, creates all things, upholds all things, knows all things, and can do all things...this is what we mean when we say that God is sovereign!
Perhaps the most difficult thing to understand is that God is in sovereign control of everything we choose, even our salvation. For "in Him we were chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will." (Ephesians 1:11)
Peter said of Jesus to the Jews, "This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross" (Acts 2:23). Indeed, only those who are elect will believe, for Luke wrote that "all who were appointed for eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48).
John opens his gospel with these words: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor will of man, but of God." (John 1:11-13)
Likewise, Paul affirms that "it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Romans 9:16 NKJV). He adds even more difficult words: "God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden" (Romans 9:19).
God's sovereignty over human decisions includes both those for Him and against Him. Peter, quoting from Isaiah 8:14, writes of Christ: "He is a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.

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They stumble because they disobey the message--which is also what they were destined for" (1 Peter 2:8). Likewise, God destined the "vessels of wrath" who were "prepared for destruction" (Romans 9:22 NASB) as well as the "vessels of mercy" (Romans 9:23)--each according to His will.
Whatever else may be said, God's sovereignty over the human will includes His initiating, pursuing, persuading, and saving grace without which no one would ever will to be saved. For "there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (Romans 3:11). "We love Him" only because "He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Indeed, no one comes to the Father unless he is drawn by God (John 6:44).
When talking about our response to the gospel, Scripture continually views us not as mechanistic creatures or robots, but as genuine persons, personal creatures who make willing choices to accept or reject the gospel. Jesus invites everyone, "Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28) And we read the invitation at the end of Revelation: "The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let him who hears say, "Come." And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires takes the water of life without price" (Revelation 22:17).
Not only do we make willing choices as real persons, but these choices are also real choices because they do effect the course of events in the world. They effect our own lives and they effect the lives and decisions of others. So, "He who believes in Him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." (John 3:18) Our personal decisions to believe or not believe in Christ have eternal consequences in our lives, and Scripture is quite willing to talk about our decision to believe or not believe as the factor that decides our eternal destiny.
Jesus says in our text: "And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day." "Do not marvel at this: for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice, and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." (John 5:27-28)